ships were assembled
in the Persian Gulf; a certain number of Persian troops were embarked on
board them; and the flotilla proceeded, under the conduct of Saif, first
to the mouth of the Gulf, and then along the southern coast of Arabia
to Aden. Encouraged by their presence, the Plomerites rose against their
foreign oppressors; a war followed, of which the particulars have been
disfigured by romance; but the result is undoubted--the Abyssinian
strangers were driven from the soil of Arabia; the native race recovered
its supremacy; and Saif, the descendant of the old Homerite kings, was
established, as the vassal or viceroy of Chosroes, on the throne of his
ancestors. This arrangement, however, was not lasting. Saif, after a
short reign, was murdered by his body-guard; and Chosroes then conferred
the government of Yemen upon a Persian officer, who seems to have borne
the usual title of Marzpan, and to have been in no way distinguished
above other rulers of provinces. Thus the Homerites in the end gained
nothing by their revolt but a change of masters. They may, however, have
regarded the change as one worth making, since it gave them the mild
sway of a tolerant heathen in lieu of the persecuting rule of Christian
bigots.

According to some writers, Chosroes also, in his later years, sent an
expedition by sea against some portion of Hindustan, and received a
cession of territory from an Indian monarch. But the country of the
monarch is too remote for belief, and the ceded provinces seem to have
belonged to Persia previously. It is therefore, perhaps, most probable
that friendly intercourse has been exaggerated into conquest, and the
reception of presents from an Indian potentate metamorphosed into the
gain of territory. Some authorities do not assign to Chosroes any Indian
dominion; and it is at least doubtful whether he made any expedition in
this direction.

A war, however, appears certainly to have occupied Chosroes about
this period on his north-eastern frontier. The Turks had recently been
advancing in strength and drawing nearer to the confines of Persia. They
had extended their dominion over the great Ephthalite kingdom, partly by
force of arms, partly through the treachery of Katulphus, an Ephthalite
chieftain; they had received the submission of the Sogdians, and
probably of other tribes of the Transoxianian region, previously held in
subjection by the Ephthalites; and they aspired to be acknowledged as a
great