ers
of Mazdak from the rest of his subjects, and with a body of his troops
cut them all in pieces. The Greek writers concur with the Persian in
this representation of Nushirvan's temperate conduct. Theophanes, p.
146. Mirkhond. p. 362. Eutychius, Ann. vol. ii. p. 179. Abulfeda, in an
unedited part, consulted by St. Martin as well as in a passage formerly
cited. Le Beau vol. viii. p. 38. Malcolm vol l p. 109.--M.]

[Footnote 44: In Persia, the prince of the waters is an officer
of state. The number of wells and subterraneous channels is much
diminished, and with it the fertility of the soil: 400 wells have been
recently lost near Tauris, and 42,000 were once reckoned in the province
of Khorasan (Chardin, tom. iii. p. 99, 100. Tavernier, tom. i. p. 416.)]

[Footnote 45: The character and government of Nushirvan is represented
some times in the words of D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. p. 680, &c.,
from Khondemir,) Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p. 179, 180,--very rich,)
Abulpharagius, (Dynast. vii. p. 94, 95,--very poor,) Tarikh Schikard,
(p. 144--150,) Texeira, (in Stevens, l. i. c. 35,) Asseman, (Bibliot
Orient. tom. iii. p. 404-410,) and the Abbe Fourmont, (Hist. de l'Acad.
des Inscriptions, tom. vii. p. 325--334,) who has translated a spurious
or genuine testament of Nushirvan.]

To the praise of justice Nushirvan united the reputation of knowledge;
and the seven Greek philosophers, who visited his court, were invited
and deceived by the strange assurance, that a disciple of Plato
was seated on the Persian throne. Did they expect, that a prince,
strenuously exercised in the toils of war and government, should
agitate, with dexterity like their own, the abstruse and profound
questions which amused the leisure of the schools of Athens? Could they
hope that the precepts of philosophy should direct the life, and control
the passions, of a despot, whose infancy had been taught to consider his
absolute and fluctuating will as the only rule of moral obligation?
[46] The studies of Chosroes were ostentatious and superficial: but his
example awakened the curiosity of an ingenious people, and the light of
science was diffused over the dominions of Persia. [47] At Gondi Sapor,
in the neighborhood of the royal city of Susa, an academy of physic was
founded, which insensibly became a liberal school of poetry, philosophy,
and rhetoric. [48] The annals of the monarchy [49] were composed; and
while recent and authentic history might affo