Eminence of whatsoever kind roused his suspicions; and among
his victims were included, besides the noble and the great, a large
number of philosophers and men of science. His treatment of Bahram was
at once a folly and a crime--an act of black ingratitude, and a rash
step, whereof he had not counted the consequences. To his other vices
he added those of indolence and effeminacy. From the time that he became
king nothing could drag him from the soft life of the palace; in no
single instance did he take the field, either against his country's
enemies or his own. Miserable as was his end, we can scarcely deem him
worthy of our pity, since there never lived a man whose misfortunes were
more truly brought on him by his own conduct.

The coins of Hormisdas IV. are in no respect remarkable. The head seems
modelled on that of Chosroes, his father, but is younger. The field of
the coin within the border is somewhat unduly crowded with stars and
crescents. Stars and crescents also occur outside the border, replacing
the simple crescents of Chosroes, and reproducing the combined stars and
crescents of Zamasp. The legend on the obverse is _Auhramazdi afzud_,
or sometimes _Auhramazi afzun_; on the reverse are commonly found,
besides the usual fire-altar and supporters, a regnal year and a
mint-mark. The regnal years range from one to thirteen; the number of
the mint-marks is about thirty. [PLATE XXIII., Fig. 1.]

[Illustration: PLATE XXIII.]

CHAPTER XXIII.

_Accession of Chosroes II. (Eberwiz). Bahram rejects his Terms. Contest
between Chosroes and Bahram. Flight of Chosroes. Short Reign of Bahram
(Varahran VI). Campaign of A.D. 591. Recovery of the Throne by Chosroes.
Coins of Bahram._

The position of Chosroes II. on his accession was one of great
difficulty. Whether actually guilty of parricide or not, he was at any
rate suspected by the greater part of his subjects of complicity in his
father's murder. A rebel, who was the greatest Persian general of
the time, at the head of a veteran army, stood arrayed against his
authority. He had no established character to fall back upon, no merits
to plead, nothing in fact to urge on his behalf but that he was the
eldest son of his father, the legitimate representative of the ancient
line of the Sassanidae. A revolution had placed him on the throne in a
hasty and irregular manner; nor is it clear that he had ventured on the
usual formality of asking the consent of the g