ndson of Narses, who, after the victory
of Galerius, had humbly confessed the superiority of the Roman power.
Although Sapor was in the thirtieth year of his long reign, he was still
in the vigor of youth, as the date of his accession, by a very strange
fatality, had preceded that of his birth. The wife of Hormouz remained
pregnant at the time of her husband's death; and the uncertainty of the
sex, as well as of the event, excited the ambitious hopes of the princes
of the house of Sassan. The apprehensions of civil war were at length
removed, by the positive assurance of the Magi, that the widow of
Hormouz had conceived, and would safely produce a son. Obedient to
the voice of superstition, the Persians prepared, without delay, the
ceremony of his coronation.

A royal bed, on which the queen lay in state, was exhibited in the
midst of the palace; the diadem was placed on the spot, which might be
supposed to conceal the future heir of Artaxerxes, and the prostrate
satraps adored the majesty of their invisible and insensible sovereign.
[54] If any credit can be given to this marvellous tale, which seems,
however, to be countenanced by the manners of the people, and by
the extraordinary duration of his reign, we must admire not only the
fortune, but the genius, of Sapor. In the soft, sequestered education
of a Persian harem, the royal youth could discover the importance of
exercising the vigor of his mind and body; and, by his personal merit,
deserved a throne, on which he had been seated, while he was yet
unconscious of the duties and temptations of absolute power. His
minority was exposed to the almost inevitable calamities of domestic
discord; his capital was surprised and plundered by Thair, a powerful
king of Yemen, or Arabia; and the majesty of the royal family was
degraded by the captivity of a princess, the sister of the deceased
king. But as soon as Sapor attained the age of manhood, the presumptuous
Thair, his nation, and his country, fell beneath the first effort of the
young warrior; who used his victory with so judicious a mixture of rigor
and clemency, that he obtained from the fears and gratitude of the Arabs
the title of Dhoulacnaf, or protector of the nation. [55] [55a]

[Footnote 54: Agathias, who lived in the sixth century, is the author
of this story, (l. iv. p. 135, edit. Louvre.) He derived his information
from some extracts of the Persian Chronicles, obtained and translated
by the interpreter Sergiu