Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/87

 with them, and made a somewhat unenviable reputation at Constantinople by his garrulous and argumentative disposition, as well as by his usually dissolute mode of life. Having managed to attach himself to Areobindus, the ambassador elect to Persia, he arrived there in his suite, and soon captivated the ear of Chosroes by the glibness of his rhetoric and his pliability in adopting fulsomely the sentiments of the despot. He discoursed with the Magi, and flattered them by admitting that their ontology was in perfect accord with that of the deepest thinkers of the West. Chosroes avowed that he had never met with his equal, and made him the recipient of the unprecedented distinction of sharing his viands with him at the royal banquets. After Uranius returned to Constantinople the monarch opened a familiar correspondence with him, and retained him as his intellectual adviser. The glorification of this charlatan at the Persian court guides us to estimate accurately the extent of the philosophical acquirements of the Shahinshah, and indicates how far his amateur studies contributed to his mental elevation. *