_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 materials for
history, indicate thereby the happiness of a nation. We are told that he
had a strong taste for building, and could never see a crumbling edifice
without instantly setting to work to restore it. Ruined towns and
villages, so common throughout the East in all ages, ceased to be seen
in Persia while he filled the throne. An army of masons always followed
him in his frequent journeys throughout his empire, and repaired
dilapidated homesteads and cottages with as much care and diligence as
edifices of a public character. According to some writers he founded
several entirely new towns in Khuzistan or Susiana, while, according to
others, he built the important city of Hormuz, or (as it is sometimes
called) Ram-Aormuz, in the province of Kerman, which is still a
flourishing place. Other authorities ascribe this city, however, to the
first Hormisdas, the son of Sapor I. and grandson of Artaxerxes.
Among the means devised by Hormisdas II. for bettering the condition of
his people the most remarkable was his establishment of a new Court of
Justice. In the East the oppression of the weak by the powerful is
the most inveterate and universal of all evils, and the one that
well-intentioned monarchs have to be most careful in checking and
repressing. Hormisdas, in his anxiety to root out this evil, is said to
have set up a court expressly for the hearing of causes where complaint
was made by the poor of wrongs done to them by the rich. The duty of
the judges was at once to punish the oppressors, and to see that ample
reparation was made to those whom they had wronged. To increase the
authority of the court, and to secure the impartiality of its sentences,
the monarch made a point of often presiding over it himself, of hearing
the causes, and pronouncing the judgments in person. The most powerful
nobles were thus made to feel that, if they offended, they would be
likely to receive adequate punishment; and the weakest and poorest of
the people were encouraged to come forward and make complaint if they
had suffered injury.
Among his other wives, Hormisdas, we are told, married a daughter of
the king of Cabul. It was natural that, after the conquest of Seistan
by Varahran II., about A.D. 280, the Persian monarchs should establish
relations with the chieftains ruling in Afghanistan. That country seems,
from the first to the fourth century of our era, to have been under the
government of princes of Scythian descent and of considerable wealth and
power. Kadphises, Kanerki, Kenorano. Ooerki, Baraoro, had the main seat
of their empire in the region about Cabul and Jellalabad; but from this
centre they exercised an extensive sway, which at times probably reached
Candahar on the one hand, and the Punjab region on the other. Their
large gold coinage proves them to have been monarchs of great wealth,
while their use of the Greek letters and language indicates a certain
amount of civilization. The marriage of Hormisdas with a princess of
Cabul implies that the hostile relations existing under Varahran II. had
been superseded by friendly ones. Persian aggression had ceased to be
feared. The reigning Indo-Scythic monarch felt no reluctance to give his
daughter in marriage to his Western neighbor, and sent her to his court
(we are told) with a wardrobe and ornaments of the utmost magnificence
and costliness.
Hormisdas II. appears to have had a son, of the same name with himself,
who attained to manhood while his father was still reigning. This
prince, who was generally regarded, and who, of course, viewed himself,
as the heir-apparent, was no favorite with the Persian nobles, whom
he had perhaps offended by an inclination towards the literature and
civilization of the Greeks. It must have been upon previous consultation
and agreement that the entire body of the chief men resolved to vent
their spite by insulting the prince in the most open and public way at
the table of his father. The king was keeping his birthday, which was
always, in Persia, the greatest festival of the year, and so the most
public occasion possible. All the nobles of the realm were invited to
the banquet; and all came and took their several places. The prince
was absent at the first, but shortly arrived, bringing with him, as the
excuse for his late appearance, a quantity of game, the produce of the
morning’s chase. Such an entrance must have created some disturbance
and have drawn general attention; but the nobles, who were bound by
etiquette to rise from their seats, remained firmly fixed in them, and
took not the slightest notice of the prince’s arrival. This behavior was
an indignity which naturally aroused his resentment. In the heat of the
moment he exclaimed aloud that “those who had insulted him should one
day suffer for it--their fate should be the fate of Marsyas.” At first
the threat was not understood; but one chieftain, more learned than
his fellows, explained to the rest that, according to the Greek myth,
Marsyas was flayed alive. Now, flaying alive was a punishment not
unknown to the Persian law; and the nobles, fearing that the prince
really entertained the intention which he had expressed, became
thoroughly alienated from him, and made up their minds that they would
not allow him to reign. During his father’s lifetime, they could, of
course, do nothing; but they laid up the dread threat in their memory,
and patiently waited for the moment when the throne would become vacant,
and their enemy would assert his right to it.
Apparently, their patience was not very severely taxed. Hormisdas II.
died within a few years; and Prince Hormisdas, as the only son whom he
had left behind him, thought to succeed as a matter of course. But the
nobles rose in insurrection, seized his person, and threw him into a
dungeon, intending that he should remain there for the rest of his life.
They themselves took the direction of affairs, and finding that, though
King Hormisdas had left behind him no other son, yet one of his wives
was pregnant, they proclaimed the unborn infant king, and even with the
utmost ceremony proceeded to crown the embryo by suspending the royal
diadem over the womb of the mother. A real interregnum must have
followed; but it did not extend beyond a few months. The pregnant widow
of Hormisdas fortunately gave birth to a boy, and the difficulties of
the succession were thereby ended. All classes acquiesced in the rule
of the infant monarch, who received the name of Sapor--whether simply to
mark the fact that he was believed to be the late king’s son, or in the
hope that he would rival the glories of the first Sapor, is uncertain.
The reign of Sapor II. is estimated variously, at 69, 70, 71, and 72
years; but the balance of authority is in favor of seventy. He was born
in the course of the year A.D. 309, and he seems to have died in the
year after the Roman emperor Valens, or A.D. 379. He thus reigned nearly
three-quarters of a century, being contemporary with the Roman emperors,
Galerius, Constantine, Constantius and Constans, Julian, Jovian,
Valentinian I., Valens, Gratian, and Valentinian II.
This long reign is best divided into periods. The first period of it
extended from A.D. 309 to A.D. 337, or a space of twenty-eight years.
This was the time anterior to Sapor’s wars with the Romans. It included
the sixteen years of his minority and a space of twelve years during
which he waged successful wars with the Arabs. The minority of Sapor was
a period of severe trial to Persia. On every side the bordering nations
endeavored to take advantage of the weakness incident to the rule of a
minor, and attacked and ravaged the empire at their pleasure. The Arabs
were especially aggressive, and made continual raids into Babylonia,
Khuzistan, and the adjoining regions, which desolated these provinces
and carried the horrors of war into the very heart of the empire. The
tribes of Beni-Ayar and Abdul-Kais, which dwelt on the southern shores
of the Persian Gulf, took the lead in these incursions, and though not
attempting any permanent conquests, inflicted terrible sufferings on
the inhabitants of the tracts which they invaded. At the same time a
Mesopotamian. chieftain, called Tayer or Thair, made an attack upon
Otesiphon, took the city by storm, and captured a sister or aunt of the
Persian monarch. The nobles, who, during Sapor’s minority, guided the
helm of the State, were quite incompetent to make head against these
numerous enemies. For sixteen years the marauding bands had the
advantage, and Persia found herself continually weaker, more
impoverished, and less able to recover herself. The young prince is said
to have shown extraordinary discretion and intelligence. He diligently
trained himself in all manly exercises, and prepared both his mind
and body for the important duties of his station. But his tender years
forbade him as yet taking the field; and it is not unlikely that his
ministers prolonged the period of his tutelage in order to retain,
to the latest possible moment, the power whereto they had become
accustomed. At any rate, it was not till he was sixteen, a later age
than Oriental ideas require, that Sapor’s minority ceased--that he
asserted his manhood, and, placing himself at the head of his army, took
the entire direction of affairs, civil and military, into his own hands.
From this moment the fortunes of Persia began to rise. Content at first
to meet and chastise the marauding bands on his own territory, Sapor,
after a time, grew bolder, and ventured to take the offensive. Having
collected a fleet of considerable size, he placed his troops on board,
and conveyed them to the city of El-Katif, an important place on the
south coast of the Persian Gulf, where he disembarked and proceeded
to carry fire and sword through the adjacent region. Either on this
occasion, or more probably in a long series of expeditions, he ravaged
the whole district of the Hejer, gaining numerous victories over the
tribes of the Temanites, the Beni-Wa’iel, the Abdul-Kais, and others,
which had taken a leading part in the invasion of Persia. His military
genius and his valor were everywhere conspicuous; but unfortunately
these excellent qualities were unaccompanied by the humanity which has
been the crowning virtue o£ many a conqueror. Sapor, exasperated by the
sufferings of his countrymen during so many years, thought that he could
not too severely punish those who had inflicted them. He put to the
sword the greater part of every tribe that he conquered; and, when his
soldiers were weary of slaying, he made them pierce the shoulders of
their prisoners, and insert in the wound a string or thong by which to
drag them into captivity. The barbarity of the age and nation approved
these atrocities; and the monarch who had commanded them was, in
consequence, saluted as Dhoulacta, or “Lord of the Shoulders,” by
an admiring people. Cruelties almost as great, but of a different
character, were at the same time sanctioned by Sapor in regard to
one class of his own subjects--viz., those who had made profession
of Christianity. The Zoroastrian zeal of this king was great, and he
regarded it as incumbent on him to check the advance which Christianity
was now making in his territories. He issued severe edicts against the
Christians soon after attaining his majority; and when they sought
the protection of the Roman emperor, he punished their disloyalty by
imposing upon them a fresh tax, the weight of which was oppressive. When
Symeon, Archbishop of Seleucia, complained of this additional burden in
an offensive manner, Sapor retaliated by closing the Christian churches,
confiscating the ecclesiastical property, and putting the complainant
to death. Accounts of these severities reached Constantine, the Roman
emperor, who had recently embraced the new religion (which, in spite
of constant persecution, had gradually overspread the empire), and had
assumed the character of a sort of general protector of the Christians
throughout the world. He remonstrated with Sapor, but to no purpose.
Sapor had formed the resolution to renew the contest terminated
so unfavorably forty years earlier by his grandfather. He made the
emperor’s interference with Persian affairs, and encouragement of his
Christian subjects in their perversity, a ground of complaint, and began
to threaten hostilities. Some negotiations, which are not very clearly
narrated, followed. Both sides, apparently, had determined on war,
but both wished to gain time. It is uncertain what would have been the
result had Constantine lived. But the death of that monarch in the early
summer of A.D. 337, on his way to the eastern frontier, dispelled the
last chance of peace by relieving Sapor from the wholesome fear which
had hitherto restrained his ambition. The military fame of Constantine
was great, and naturally inspired respect; his power was firmly fixed,
and he was without competitor or rival. By his removal the whole face
of affairs was changed; and Sapor, who had almost brought himself to
venture on a rupture with Rome during Constantine’s life, no longer
hesitated on receiving news of his death, but at once commenced
hostilities.
It is probable that among the motives which determined the somewhat
wavering conduct of Sapor at this juncture was a reasonable fear of the
internal troubles which it seemed to be in the power of the Romans to
excite among the Persians, if from friends they became enemies. Having
tested his own military capacity in his Arab wars, and formed an army
on whose courage, endurance, and attachment he could rely, he was not
afraid of measuring his strength with that of Rome in the open field;
but he may well have dreaded the arts which the Imperial State was in
the habit of employing, to supplement her military shortcomings, in
wars with her neighbors. There was now at the court of Constantinople a
Persian refugee of such rank and importance that Constantine had, as it
were, a pretender ready made to his hand, and could reckon on creating
dissension among the Persians whenever he pleased, by simply proclaiming
himself this person’s ally and patron. Prince Hormisdas, the elder
brother of Sapor, and rightful king of Persia, had, after a long
imprisonment, contrived, by the help of his wife, to escape from his
dungeon, and had fled to the court of Constantine as early as A.D.
323. He had been received by the emperor with every mark of honor and
distinction, had been given a maintenance suited to his rank, and had
enjoyed other favors. Sapor must have felt himself deeply aggrieved by
the undue attention paid to his rival; and though he pretended to make
light of the matter, and even generously sent Hormisdas the wife to whom
his escape was due, he cannot but have been uneasy at the possession, by
the Roman emperor, of his brother’s person. In weighing the reasons for
and against war he cannot but have assigned considerable importance to
this circumstance. It did not ultimately prevent him from challenging
Rome to the combat; but it may help to account for the hesitation, the
delay, and the fluctuations of purpose, which we remark in his conduct
during the four or five years which immediately preceded the death of
Constantine.