Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/72

50 THE DECLINE AND FALL of princes, exaggerated the ingratitude of Bahram, the agent of the evil principle, and urged, with specious argument, that it was for the advantage of the Romans themselves to support the two monarchies which balance the world, the two great luminaries by whose salutary influence it is vivified and adorned. The anxiety of Chosroes was soon relieved by the assurance that the emperor had espoused the cause of justice and royalty ; but Maurice prudently declined the expense and delay of his use- less visit to Constantinople. In the name of his generous bene- factor, a rich diadem was presented to the fugitive prince with an inestimable gift of jewels and gold ; a powerful army was assembled on the frontiers of Syria and Armenia, under the command of the valiant and faithful Xarses ; '-* and this general, of his own nation and his own choice, was directed to pass the Tigris, and never to sheath his sword till he had restored Chosi'oes to the throne of his ancestors. The enterprise, how- ever splendid, was less arduous than it might appear. Persia had already repented of her fatal rashness, which betrayed the heir of the house of Sassan to the ambition of a rebellious subject ; and the bold refusal of the Magi to consecrate his usurpation compelled Bahram to assume the sceptre, regardless of the laws and prejudices of the nation. The palace was soon distracted with conspiracy, the city with tumult, the provinces with insurrection ; and the cruel execution of the guilty and the suspected served to irritate rather than subdue the public discontent. No sooner did the grandson of Nushirvan display his own and the Roman banners beyond tlie Tigris than he was joined, each day, by the increasing multitudes of the nobility and people ; and, as he advanced, he received from every side the grateful otFerings of the keys of his cities and the heads of his enemies. As soon as Modain was fi*eed from the presence of the usurper, the loyal inhabitants obeyed the first summons of Mebodes at the head of only two thousand horse, and Chosroes accepted the sacred and precious ornaments of the palace as the pledge of their truth and a presage of his approaching success. After the junction of the Imperial troops, which Bahram vainly ^ In this age there were three warriors of the name of A^a/ses, who have been often confounded (Pagi, Critica, torn. ii. p. 640): r. A Persarnienian, the brother of Isaac and Armatius, who, after a successful action against BeHsarius, deserted from his Persian sovereign and afterwards served in the Italian war. — 2. The eunuch who conquered Italy. — 3. The restorer of Chosroes, who is celebrated in the poem of Corippus (1. iii. 220-227) as excelsus super omnia vertice agmina . . . habitu modestus . . . morum probitate placens, virtute verendus ; fulmineus, cautus, vigilans, &c. [Compare above, vol. iv. p. 412, n. 55.]