Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/267

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 24S since prevailed in Europe. But the active victor, at CHAP, the head of a numerous and discipHned army, visited ^^^^' in person every province of Persia. The defeat of the boldest rebels, and the reduction of the strongest forti- fications ""j diffused tlie terror of his arms, and prepared the way for the peaceful reception of his authority. An obstinate resistance was fatal to the chiefs; but their followers were treated with lenity ^ A cheerful submission was rewarded with honours and riches ; but the prudent Artaxerxes, suffering no person except himself to assume the title of king, abolished every in- termediate power between the throne and the people. His kingdom, nearly equal in extent to modern Persia, Extent and was, on every side, bounded by the sea or by great 0° p"r^siaT rivers; by the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Araxes, the Oxus, and the Indus, by the Caspian sea, and the gulf of Persia"". That country was computed to contain, in the last century, five hundred and fifty-four cities, sixty thousand villages, and about forty millions of souls °. If we compare the administration of the house of Sassan with that of the house of Sesi, the political influence of the magian with that of the mahometan religion ; we shall probably infer, that the kingdom of ^ Eutychius (torn. i. p. 367. 371. 375.) relates the siege of the island of Mesene in the Tigris, with some circumstances not unlike the story of Nisus and Scylla. ' Agathias, ii. 164. The princes of Segestan defended their independ- ence during many years. As romances generally transport to an ancient period the events of their own time, it is not impossible, that the fabulous exploits of Rustan, prince of Segestan, may have been grafted on this real history. '" We can scarcely attribute to the Persian monarchy the sea coast of Gedrosia or Macran, which extends along the Indian ocean from cape Jask (the promontory Capella) to cape Goadel. In the time of Alexander, and probably many ages afterwards, it was thinly inhabited by a savage people of Ichthyophagi, or fishermen, who knew no arts, who acknowledged no master, and who were divided by inhospitable deserts from the rest of the world. See Arrian de Reb. Indicis. In the twelfth century, the little town of Taiz (supposed by M. d'Anville to be the Tesa of Ptolemy) was peopled and enriched by the resort of the Arabian merchants. See Geographic Nubiens, p. 58 ; and d'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 283. In the last age the whole country was divided between three princes, one mahometan and two idolaters, who maintained their independ- ence against the successes of Shaw Abbas. Voyages de Tavernier, part i. 1. V. p. 635. " Chardin, tom. iii. c. 1,2, 3. r2