was slain, and the spirit of the nation was forever
broken. The authority of Artaxerxes was solemnly acknowledged in a great
assembly held at Balch in Khorasan. Two younger branches of the royal
house of Arsaces were confounded among the prostrate satraps. A third,
more mindful of ancient grandeur than of present necessity, attempted
to retire, with a numerous train of vessels, towards their kinsman, the
king of Armenia; but this little army of deserters was intercepted,
and cut off, by the vigilance of the conqueror, who boldly assumed the
double diadem, and the title of King of Kings, which had been enjoyed
by his predecessor. But these pompous titles, instead of gratifying the
vanity of the Persian, served only to admonish him of his duty, and to
inflame in his soul and should the ambition of restoring in their full
splendor, the religion and empire of Cyrus.

I. During the long servitude of Persia under the Macedonian and the
Parthian yoke, the nations of Europe and Asia had mutually adopted and
corrupted each other's superstitions. The Arsacides, indeed, practised
the worship of the Magi; but they disgraced and polluted it with a
various mixture of foreign idolatry. * The memory of Zoroaster, the
ancient prophet and philosopher of the Persians, was still revered
in the East; but the obsolete and mysterious language, in which the
Zendavesta was composed, opened a field of dispute to seventy sects,
who variously explained the fundamental doctrines of their religion, and
were all indifferently derided by a crowd of infidels, who rejected the
divine mission and miracles of the prophet. To suppress the idolaters,
reunite the schismatics, and confute the unbelievers, by the infallible
decision of a general council, the pious Artaxerxes summoned the Magi
from all parts of his dominions. These priests, who had so long sighed
in contempt and obscurity obeyed the welcome summons; and, on the
appointed day, appeared, to the number of about eighty thousand. But as
the debates of so tumultuous an assembly could not have been directed by
the authority of reason, or influenced by the art of policy, the Persian
synod was reduced, by successive operations, to forty thousand, to four
thousand, to four hundred, to forty, and at last to seven Magi, the
most respected for their learning and piety. One of these, Erdaviraph,
a young but holy prelate, received from the hands of his brethren three
cups of soporiferous wine. He drank them of