to a favorite minister, he established four viziers
over the four great provinces of his empire, Assyria, Media, Persia,
and Bactriana. In the choice of judges, praefects, and counsellors, he
strove to remove the mask which is always worn in the presence of kings:
he wished to substitute the natural order of talents for the accidental
distinctions of birth and fortune; he professed, in specious language,
his intention to prefer those men who carried the poor in their bosoms,
and to banish corruption from the seat of justice, as dogs were excluded
from the temples of the Magi. The code of laws of the first Artaxerxes
was revived and published as the rule of the magistrates; but the
assurance of speedy punishment was the best security of their virtue.
Their behavior was inspected by a thousand eyes, their words were
overheard by a thousand ears, the secret or public agents of the
throne; and the provinces, from the Indian to the Arabian confines,
were enlightened by the frequent visits of a sovereign, who affected
to emulate his celestial brother in his rapid and salutary career.
Education and agriculture he viewed as the two objects most deserving of
his care. In every city of Persia orphans, and the children of the poor,
were maintained and instructed at the public expense; the daughters were
given in marriage to the richest citizens of their own rank, and the
sons, according to their different talents, were employed in mechanic
trades, or promoted to more honorable service. The deserted villages
were relieved by his bounty; to the peasants and farmers who were found
incapable of cultivating their lands, he distributed cattle, seed, and
the instruments of husbandry; and the rare and inestimable treasure of
fresh water was parsimoniously managed, and skilfully dispersed over the
arid territory of Persia. [44] The prosperity of that kingdom was the
effect and evidence of his virtues; his vices are those of Oriental
despotism; but in the long competition between Chosroes and Justinian,
the advantage both of merit and fortune is almost always on the side of
the Barbarian. [45]

[Footnote 43: Procopius, Persic. l. i. c. 23. Brisson, de Regn. Pers.
p. 494. The gate of the palace of Ispahan is, or was, the fatal scene of
disgrace or death, (Chardin, Voyage en Perse, tom. iv. p. 312, 313.)]

[Footnote 4311: This is a strange term. Nushirvan employed a stratagem
similar to that of Jehu, 2 Kings, x. 18--28, to separate the follow