markable beauty, of great personal courage, and of a noble and
princely liberality. According to them, "he only desired wealth that he
might use it for good and great purposes."

CHAPTER V.

Short Reign of Hormisdas I. His dealings with Manes. Accession of
Varahran I. He puts Manes to Death. Persecutes the Manichaeans and the
Christians. His Relations with Zenobia. He is threatened by Aurelian.
His Death. Reign of Varahran II. His Tyrannical Conduct. His Conquest
of Seistan, and War with India. His war with the Roman Emperors Cams and
Diocletian. His Loss of Armenia. His Death. Short Reign of Varahran III.

[Illustration: CHAPTER-5]

The first and second kings of the Neo-Persian Empire were men of mark
and renown. Their successors for several generations were, comparatively
speaking, feeble and insignificant. The first burst of vigor and
freshness which commonly attends the advent to power of a new race in
the East, or the recovery of its former position by an old one, had
passed away, and was succeeded, as so often happens, by reaction and
exhaustion, the monarchs becoming luxurious and inert, while the people
willingly acquiesced in a policy of which the principle was "Rest and be
thankful." It helped to keep matters in this quiescent state, that the
kings who ruled during this period had, in almost every instance, short
reigns, four monarchs coming to the throne and dying within the space
of a little more than twenty-one years. The first of these four was
Hormisdates, Hormisdas, or Hormuz, the son of Sapor, who succeeded his
father in A.D. 271. His reign lasted no more than a year and ten days,
and was distinguished by only a single event of any importance. Mani,
who had fled from Sapor, ventured to return to Persia on the accession
of his son, and was received with respect and favor. Whether Hormisdas
was inclined to accept his religious teaching or no, we are not told;
but at any rate he treated him kindly, allowed him to propagate his
doctrines, and even assigned him as his residence a castle named
Arabion. From this place Mani proceeded to spread his views among the
Christians of Mesopotamia, and in a short time succeeded in founding
the sect which, under the name of Manichaeans or Manichaes, gave so much
trouble to the Church for several centuries. Hormisdas, who, according
to some founded the city of Ram-Hormuz in Eastern Persia, died in
A.D.272, and was succeeded by his son or brother, Vararanes