inian,
who observed that the reduction of Antioch, and some Syrian cities, had
elevated beyond measure the vain and ambitious spirit of the Barbarian.
"You are mistaken," replied the modest Persian: "the king of kings, the
lord of mankind, looks down with contempt on such petty acquisitions;
and of the ten nations, vanquished by his invincible arms, he esteems
the Romans as the least formidable." According to the Orientals, the
empire of Nushirvan extended from Ferganah, in Transoxiana, to Yemen or
Arabia Faelix. He subdued the rebels of Hyrcania, reduced the provinces
of Cabul and Zablestan on the banks of the Indus, broke the power of
the Euthalites, terminated by an honorable treaty the Turkish war, and
admitted the daughter of the great khan into the number of his lawful
wives. Victorious and respected among the princes of Asia, he gave
audience, in his palace of Madain, or Ctesiphon, to the ambassadors of
the world. Their gifts or tributes, arms, rich garments, gems, slaves
or aromatics, were humbly presented at the foot of his throne; and he
condescended to accept from the king of India ten quintals of the wood
of aloes, a maid seven cubits in height, and a carpet softer than silk,
the skin, as it was reported, of an extraordinary serpent.

Justinian had been reproached for his alliance with the AEthiopians, as
if he attempted to introduce a people of savage negroes into the system
of civilized society. But the friends of the Roman empire, the Axumites,
or Abyssinians, may be always distinguished from the original natives
of Africa. The hand of nature has flattened the noses of the negroes,
covered their heads with shaggy wool, and tinged their skin with
inherent and indelible blackness. But the olive complexion of the
Abyssinians, their hair, shape, and features, distinctly mark them as
a colony of Arabs; and this descent is confirmed by the resemblance of
language and manners the report of an ancient emigration, and the narrow
interval between the shores of the Red Sea. Christianity had raised
that nation above the level of African barbarism: their intercourse with
Egypt, and the successors of Constantine, had communicated the rudiments
of the arts and sciences; their vessels traded to the Isle of Ceylon,
and seven kingdoms obeyed the Negus or supreme prince of Abyssinia. The
independence of the Homerites, who reigned in the rich and happy Arabia,
was first violated by an AEthiopian conqueror: he drew his heredit