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 326 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. son. Obedient to the voice of superstition, the Per- XVIIl • • __^ sians prepared, without delay, the ceremony of his coronation. A royal bed, on which the queen lay in state, was exhibited in the midst of the palace ; the diadem was placed on the spot which might be sup- posed to conceal the future heir of Artaxerxes, and the prostrate satraps adored the majesty of their invisible and insensible sovereign *'. If any credit can be given to this marvellous tale, which seems however to be countenanced by the manners of the people, and by the extraordinary duration of his reign, we must ad- mire, not only the fortune, but the genius, of Sapor. In the soft sequestered education of a Persian haram, the royal youth could discover the importance of exer- cising the vigour of his mind and body ; and, by his personal merit, deserved a throne, on which he had been seated, while he was yet unconscious of the duties and temptations of absolute power. His minority was exposed to the almost inevitable calamities of domestic discord ; his capital was surprised and plundered by Thair, a powerful king of Yemen, or Arabia ; and the majesty of the royal family was degraded by the cap- tivity of a princess, the sister of the deceased king. But as soon as Sapor attained the age of manhood, the presumptuous Thair, his nation, and his country, fell beneath the first effort of the young warrior; who used his victory with so judicious a mixture of rigour and clemency, that he obtained from the fears and grati- tude of the Arabs, the title of ' Dhoulacnaf,' or protec- tor of the nation '. State of Me- The ambition of the Persian, to whom his enemies and°Arn!e- ascribe the virtues of a soldier and a statesman, was "ia. animated by the desire of revenging the disgrace of his fathers, and of wresting from the hands of the Romans '' Agathias, who lived in the sixth century, is the author of this story: 1. iv. p. 135. edit. Louvre. He derived his iuformation from some ex- tracts of the Persian Chronicles, obtained and translated by the interpreter Sergius, during his embassy at that court. The coronation of the mother of Sapor is likewise mentioned by Schikard, (Tarikh. p. 116.) and d'Herbelot, BiLliotheque Orientale, p. 763. ' D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 764.