full age in whose favor he
could resign, so that there was no difficulty about the succession. His
ministers seem to have thought it necessary to offer some opposition to
his project; but their resistance was feeble, perhaps because they hoped
that a young prince would be more entirely guided by their counsels.
Narses was allowed to complete his act of self-renunciation, and, after
crowning his son Hormisdas with his own hand, to spend the remainder of
his days in retirement. According to the native writers, his main object
was to contemplate death and prepare himself for it. In his youth he had
evinced some levity of character, and had been noted for his devotion to
games and to the chase; in his middle age he laid aside these pursuits,
and, applying himself actively to business, was a good administrator, as
well as a brave soldier. But at last it seemed to him that the only life
worth living was the contemplative, and that the happiness of the hunter
and the statesman must yield to that of the philosopher. It is doubtful
how long he survived his resignation of the throne, but tolerably
certain that he did not outlive his son and successor, who reigned less
than eight years.

CHAPTER VII.

_Reign of Hormisdas II. His Disposition. General Character of his Reign.
His Taste for Building. His new Court of Justice. His Marriage with a
Princess of Cabul. Story of his Son Hormisdas. Death of Hormisdas II.,
and Imprisonment of his Son Hormisdas. Interregnum. Crown assigned to
Sapor II. before his Birth. Long Reign of Sapor. First Period of his
Reign, from A.D. 309 to A.D. 337. Persia plundered by the Arabs and the
Turks. Victories of Sapor over the Arabs. Persecution of the Christians.
Escape of Hormisdas. Feelings and Conduct of Sapor._

Hormisdas II., who became king on the abdication of his father, Narses,
had, like his father, a short reign. He ascended the throne A.D. 301;
he died A.D. 309, not quite eight years later. To this period historians
assign scarcely any events. The personal appearance of Hormisdas, if we
may judge by a gem, was pleasing; [PLATE XVIII., Fig. 4.] he is
said, however, to have been of a harsh temper by nature, but to have
controlled his evil inclinations after he became king, and in fact to
have then neglected nothing that could contribute to the welfare of his
subjects. He engaged in no wars; and his reign was thus one of those
quiet and uneventful intervals which, furnishing no materia