Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/465

Chap, xlii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 405 of an Oriental despot, who beheld, with equal disdain, the slaves whom he had exalted and the kings whom he had humbled before the footstool of his throne. The adoration of fire was introduced into Colchos by the zeal of the Magi ; their intolerant .spirit provoked the fervour of a Christian people ; and the prejudice of nature or education was wounded by the impious practice of exposing the dead bodies of their parents, on the summit of a lofty tower, to the crows and vultures of the air. 96 Conscious of the increasing hatred, which retarded the execution of his great designs, the just Nushirvan had secretly given orders to assassinate the king of the Lazi, to transplant the people into some distant land, and to fix a faithful and warlike colony on the banks of the Phasis. The watchful jealousy of the Colchians foresaw and averted the approaching ruin. Their repentance was accepted at Constantinople by the prudence, rather than the clemency, of Justinian; and he commanded Dagisteus, with seven thousand Romans, and one thousand of the Zani, to expel the Persians from the coast of the Euxine. The siege of Petra, which the Roman general, with the aid siege of of the Lazi, immediately undertook, is one of the most remark- a.d- 548-551 able actions of the age. The city was seated on a craggy rock, which hung over the sea, and communicated by a steep and narrow path with the land. Since the approach was difficult, the attack might be deemed impossible ; the Persian conqueror had strengthened the fortifications of Justinian ; and the places least inaccessible were covered by additional bulwarks. In this important fortress, the vigilance of Chosroes had deposited a magazine of offensive and defensive arms, sufficient for five times the number, not only of the garrison, but of the besiegers themselves. The stock of flour and salt provisions was ade- quate to the consumption of five years ; the want of wine was supplied by vinegar, and [of] grain from whence a strong liquor was extracted ; and a triple aqueduct eluded the diligence, and even the suspicions, of the enemy. But the firmest defence of 98 See Herodotus (1. i. c. 140, p. 69), who speaks with diffidence, Larcher (torn, i. p. 399-401. Notes sur Herodote), Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c. 11), and Agathias (1. ii. p. 61, 62). This practice, agreeable to the Zendavesta (Hyde, de Kelig. Pers. c. 34, p. 414-421), demonstrates that the burial of the Persian kings (Xenophon. Cyropsed. 1. viii. p. 658 [o. 7]), rt yap toutov nanapioiTfpov tov rtj yfj nixQrvai, is a Greek fiction, and that their tombs could be no more than cenotaphs.