Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/460

436 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, on Artavasdes, whose father had saved the infancy of ' Tiridates, and whose family had been massacred for that generous action. The brother of Artavasdes ob- tained the government of a province. One of the first military dignities was conferred on the satrap Otas, a man of singular temperance and fortitude, who pre- sented to the king, his sister^ and a considerable trea- sure, both of which, in a sequestered fortress, Otas Story of i^ad preserved from violation. Among the Armenian nobles appeared an ally, whose fortunes are too re- markable to pass unnoticed. His name was Mamgo, his origin was Scythian, and the horde which acknow- ledged his authority, had encamped a very few years before on the skirts of the Chinese empire ^j which at that time extended as far as the neighbourhood of Sog- diana". Having incurred the displeasure of his master, Mamgo, with his followers, retired to the banks of the Oxus, and implored the protection of Sapor. The emperor of China claimed the fugitive, and alleged the rights of sovereignty. The Persian monarch pleaded the laws of hospitality, and with some difficulty avoided a war, by the promise that he would banish Mamgo to the uttermost parts of the west ; a punishment, as he described it, not less dreadful than death itself. Ar- menia was chosen for the place of exile ; and a large district was assigned to the Scythian horde, on which they might feed their flocks and herds, and remove their encampment from one place to another, according (1. ii. 7.) and which still subsisted in his own lime, about the middle of the fifth century. See the preface of his editors. • She was named Chosroiduchta, and had not the os patulum like other women. Hist. Armen. 1. ii. c. 79. I do not understand the expression. ™ In the Armenian History, (1. ii. 78.) as well as in the Geography, (p. 367.) China is called Zenia, or Zenastan. It is characterized by the production of silk, by the opulence of the natives, and by their love of peace, above all the other nations of the earth. " Vou-ti, the first emperor of the seventh dynasty, who then reigned in China, had political transactions with Fergana, a province of Sogdiana, and is said to have received a Roman embassy. Histoire des Huns, tom. i. p. 38. In those ages the Chinese kept a garrison at Kashgar ; and one of their generals, about the time of Trajan, marched as far as the Caspian sea. With regard to the intercourse between China and the western countries, a curious memoir of M. de Guignes may be consulted, in the Acad6miejdes Inscriptions, tom. xxxii. p. 355.