thus as they thought, averted all evil, they led
Zemarchus himself through the fire. Menander, in Niebuhr's Bryant. Hist.
p. 381. Compare Carpini's Travels. The princes of the race of Zingis
Khan condescended to receive the ambassadors of the king of France, at
the end of the 13th century without their submitting to this humiliating
rite. See Correspondence published by Abel Remusat, Nouv. Mem. de l'Acad
des Inscrip. vol. vii. On the embassy of Zemarchus, compare Klaproth,
Tableaux de l'Asie p. 116.--M.]

[Footnote 37: All the details of these Turkish and Roman embassies, so
curious in the history of human manners, are drawn from the extracts of
Menander, (p. 106--110, 151--154, 161-164,) in which we often regret the
want of order and connection.]

Disputes have often arisen between the sovereigns of Asia for the title
of king of the world; while the contest has proved that it could not
belong to either of the competitors. The kingdom of the Turks was
bounded by the Oxus or Gihon; and Touran was separated by that great
river from the rival monarchy of Iran, or Persia, which in a smaller
compass contained perhaps a larger measure of power and population. The
Persians, who alternately invaded and repulsed the Turks and the Romans,
were still ruled by the house of Sassan, which ascended the throne
three hundred years before the accession of Justinian. His contemporary,
Cabades, or Kobad, had been successful in war against the emperor
Anastasius; but the reign of that prince was distracted by civil and
religious troubles. A prisoner in the hands of his subjects, an exile
among the enemies of Persia, he recovered his liberty by prostituting
the honor of his wife, and regained his kingdom with the dangerous and
mercenary aid of the Barbarians, who had slain his father. His nobles
were suspicious that Kobad never forgave the authors of his expulsion,
or even those of his restoration. The people was deluded and inflamed by
the fanaticism of Mazdak, [38] who asserted the community of women, [39]
and the equality of mankind, whilst he appropriated the richest lands
and most beautiful females to the use of his sectaries. The view of
these disorders, which had been fomented by his laws and example, [40]
imbittered the declining age of the Persian monarch; and his fears were
increased by the consciousness of his design to reverse the natural and
customary order of succession, in favor of his third and most favored
son, so famous u