pline
were unknown; and the independent leaders, who were invested with equal
power, disputed with each other the preeminence of vice and corruption.
The Persians followed, without a murmur, the commands of a single chief,
who implicitly obeyed the instructions of their supreme lord. Their
general was distinguished among the heroes of the East by his wisdom in
council, and his valor in the field. The advanced age of Mermeroes, and
the lameness of both his feet, could not diminish the activity of his
mind, or even of his body; and, whilst he was carried in a litter in the
front of battle, he inspired terror to the enemy, and a just confidence
to the troops, who, under his banners, were always successful. After
his death, the command devolved to Nacoragan, a proud satrap, who, in
a conference with the Imperial chiefs, had presumed to declare that he
disposed of victory as absolutely as of the ring on his finger. Such
presumption was the natural cause and forerunner of a shameful defeat.
The Romans had been gradually repulsed to the edge of the sea-shore;
and their last camp, on the ruins of the Grecian colony of Phasis, was
defended on all sides by strong intrenchments, the river, the Euxine,
and a fleet of galleys. Despair united their counsels and invigorated
their arms: they withstood the assault of the Persians and the flight
of Nacoragan preceded or followed the slaughter of ten thousand of his
bravest soldiers. He escaped from the Romans to fall into the hands
of an unforgiving master who severely chastised the error of his own
choice: the unfortunate general was flayed alive, and his skin, stuffed
into the human form, was exposed on a mountain; a dreadful warning to
those who might hereafter be intrusted with the fame and fortune
of Persia. Yet the prudence of Chosroes insensibly relinquished the
prosecution of the Colchian war, in the just persuasion, that it is
impossible to reduce, or, at least, to hold a distant country against
the wishes and efforts of its inhabitants. The fidelity of Gubazes
sustained the most rigorous trials. He patiently endured the hardships
of a savage life, and rejected with disdain, the specious temptations
of the Persian court. The king of the Lazi had been educated in the
Christian religion; his mother was the daughter of a senator; during his
youth he had served ten years a silentiary of the Byzantine palace, and
the arrears of an unpaid salary were a motive of attachment as well as
o