ate of Three
Hundred members, the wisest and wealthiest of the citizens, a certain
control being, however, secured to the people. Artabanus had recently
modified the constitution in an aristocratic sense; and therefore
Tiridates pursued the contrary course, and established an unbridled
democracy in the place of a mixed government. He then entered Ctesiphon,
the capital, and after waiting some days for certain noblemen, who had
expressed a wish to attend his coronation but continually put off their
coming, he was crowned in the ordinary manner by the Surena of the time
being, in the sight and amid the acclamations of a vast multitude.

The pretender now regarded his work as completed, and forbore any
further efforts. The example of the Western provinces would, he assumed,
be followed by the Eastern, and the monarch approved by Mesopotamia,
Babylonia, and the capital would carry, as a matter of course, the rest
of the nation. Policy required that the general acquiescence should
not have been taken for granted. Tiridates should have made a military
progress through the East, no less than the West, and have sought out
his rival in the distant Hyrcania, and slain him, or driven him beyond
the borders. Instead of thus occupying himself, he was content to
besiege a stronghold where Artabanus had left his treasure and his
harem. This conduct was imprudent; and the imprudence cost him his
crown. That fickle temper which Artabanus had noted in his countrymen
began to work so soon as the new king was well installed in his office;
the coveted post of chief vizier could but be assigned to one, and the
selection of the fortunate individual was the disappointment of a host
of expectants; nobles absent from the coronation, whether by choice or
necessity, began to be afraid that their absence would cost them dear,
when Tiridates had time to reflect upon it and to listen to their
detractors. The thoughts of the malcontents turned towards their
dethroned monarch; and emissaries were despatched to seek him out, and
put before him the project of a restoration. He was found in Hyrcania,
in a miserable dress and plight, living on the produce of his bow. At
first he suspected the messengers, believing that their intention was to
seize him and deliver him up to Tiridates; but it was not long ere they
persuaded him that, whether their affection for himself were true or
feigned, their enmity to Tiridates was real. They had indeed no worse
charges