erxes bequeathed his new
empire, and his ambitious designs against the Romans, to Sapor, a son
not unworthy of his great father; but those designs were too extensive
for the power of Persia, and served only to involve both nations in a
long series of destructive wars and reciprocal calamities.

[Footnote 54: Eutychius, tom. ii. p. 180, vers. Pocock. The great
Chosroes Noushirwan sent the code of Artaxerxes to all his satraps, as
the invariable rule of their conduct.]

[Footnote 55: D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, au mot Ardshir.
We may observe, that after an ancient period of fables, and a long
interval of darkness, the modern histories of Persia begin to assume
an air of truth with the dynasty of Sassanides. Compare Malcolm, i.
79.--M.]

The Persians, long since civilized and corrupted, were very far
from possessing the martial independence, and the intrepid hardiness,
both of mind and body, which have rendered the northern barbarians
masters of the world. The science of war, that constituted the more
rational force of Greece and Rome, as it now does of Europe, never made
any considerable progress in the East. Those disciplined evolutions
which harmonize and animate a confused multitude, were unknown to the
Persians. They were equally unskilled in the arts of constructing,
besieging, or defending regular fortifications. They trusted more to
their numbers than to their courage; more to their courage than to their
discipline. The infantry was a half-armed, spiritless crowd of peasants,
levied in haste by the allurements of plunder, and as easily dispersed
by a victory as by a defeat. The monarch and his nobles transported into
the camp the pride and luxury of the seraglio. Their military operations
were impeded by a useless train of women, eunuchs, horses, and camels;
and in the midst of a successful campaign, the Persian host was often
separated or destroyed by an unexpected famine. [56]

[Footnote 56: Herodian, l. vi. p. 214. Ammianus Marcellinus, l. xxiii.
c. 6. Some differences may be observed between the two historians, the
natural effects of the changes produced by a century and a half.]

But the nobles of Persia, in the bosom of luxury and despotism,
preserved a strong sense of personal gallantry and national honor. From
the age of seven years they were taught to speak truth, to shoot with
the bow, and to ride; and it was universally confessed, that in the two
last of these arts, they had made a more than