XLII.

Chosroes were compelled, by mutual lassitude, to c H A P. consult the repose of their declining age. At a conference held on the frontier, each party, without expecting to gain credit, displayed the power, , the justice, and the pacific intentions, of their respective sovereigns; but necessity and interest dictated the treaty of peace, which was concluded for a term of fifty years, diligently composed in the Greek and Persian language, and attested by the seals of twelve interpreters. The liberty of commerce and religion was fixed and defined; the allies of the emperor and the great king were included in the same benefits and obligations ; and the most scrupulous precautions were provided to prevent or determine the accidental disputes that might arise on the confines of two hostile nations. After twenty years of destructive though feeble war, the limits still remained without alteration ; and Chosroes was persauded to renounce his dangerous claim to the possession or sovereignity of Colchos and its dependent states.

Rich in the accumulated treasures of the East, he extorted from the Romans an annual payment of thirty thousand pieces of gold; and the smallness of the sum revealed the disgrace of a tribute in its naked defor. mity. In a previous debate, the chariot of Sesostris, and the wheel of fortune, were applied by one of the ministers of Justinian, who observed that the reduction of Antioch, and some Syrian cities, had elevated beyond measure the vain and ambitious spirit of the Barbarian. “ You are mistaken." replied the modest Persian : "the king of kings, 22

" tha

参

СНАР.

XLII.

Conquest of

the Abyssi

nians,

A. D. 522.

the lord of mankind, looks down with contempt "on such petty acquisitions; and of the ten na

tions, vanquished by his invincible arms, he "esteems the Romans as the least formidable *." According to the Orientals, the empire of Nushirvan extended from Ferganah in Transoxiana, to Yemen or Arabia Fælix. He subdued the rebels of Hyrcania, reduced the provinces of Cabul and Zablestan on the banks of the Indus, broke the power of the Euthalites, terminated by an honourable treaty the Turkish war, and admitted the daughter of the great khan into the number of his lawful wives. Victorious and respected among the princes of Asia, he gave audience, in his palace of Madian, or Ctesiphon, to the Ambassadors of the world. Their gifts or tributes, arms, rich garments, gems, slaves, or aromatics, were humbly presented at the foot of his throne; and he condescended to accept from the king of India, ten quintals of the wood of aloes, a maid seven cubits in height, and a carpet softer than silk, the skin, as it was reported, of anextraordinary serpent †.

Justinian had been reproached for his alliance with the Ethiopians, as if he attempted to introduce a people of savage negroes into the system of civilized society. But the friends of the Roman empire, the Axumites, or Abyssinians, may

be

XLII.

be always distinguished from the original natives CHAP, of Africa *. The hand of nature has flattened the noses of the negroes, covered their heads with shaggy wool, and tinged their skin with inherent and indelible blackness. But the olive complexion of the Abyssinians, their hair, shape, and features, distinctly mark them as a colony of Arabs; and this descent is confirmed by the resemblance of language and manners, the report of an ancient emigration, and the narrow interval between the shores of the Red Sea. Christianity had raised that nation above the level of African barbarism + : their intercourse with Egypt, and the successors of Constantine f, had communicated the rudiments of the arts and sciences; their vessels traded to

the

23

* See Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. iii. p. 449. This Arab cast of features and complexion, which has continued 3400 years (Ludolph. Hist. et Comment. Æthiopic. 1. i. c. 4.) in the colony of Abyssinia, will justify the suspicion, that race, as well as climate, must have contributed to form the negroes of the adjacent and similar regions.

# The Portuguese missionaries, Alvarez (Ramusio, tom. i. fol. 204. rect. 274. vers.), Bermudes (Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. ii. 1. v. c. 7. p. 1149–1188.), Labo (Relation, &c par M. le Grand, with xv Dissertations. Paris, 1728), and Tellez, (Relations de Thevenot, part iv.), could only relate of modern Abyssinia what they had seen or invented. The erudition of Ludolphus (Hist. Æthiopica, Francofurt. 1681. Commentarius, 1691. Appendix, 1694.), in twenty-five languages, could add little concerning its ancient history. Yet the fame of Caled, or Ellisthæus, the conqueror of Yemen, is celebrate ed in national songs and legends.

I The negotiations of Justinian with the Axumites, or Æthiopians, are recorded by Procopius (Persic. I. i. c. 19, 20.) and John Malala (tom. i. p. 163-165. 193---196.). The historian of Antioch quotes the original narrative of the am. bassador Nonnosus, of which Photius (Bibliot. cod. iü.) has preserved a curious extract.

XLII

The

CHAP, the isle of Ceylon*, and seven kingdoms obeyed the Negus or supreme prince of Abyssinia. independence of the Homerites, who reigned in the rich and happy Arabia, was first violated by an Æthiopian conqueror; he drew his hereditary claim from the queen of Sheba †, and his ambition was sanctified by religious zeal. The Jews, powerful and active in exile, had seduced the mind of Dunaan, prince of the Homerites. They urged him to retaliate the persecution inflicted by the Imperial laws on their unfortunate brethren some Roman merchants were injuriously treated; and several Christians of Negra were honoured with the crown of martyrdom §. The churches of Arabia implored the protection of the Abyssinian monarch. The Negus passed the Red Sea with a fleet and army, deprived the Jewish prosylete of his kingdom and life, and extinguished a race of princes, who had ruled above two thousand

The trade of the Axumites to the coast of India and Africa, and the isle of Ceylon, is curiously represented by Cosmas Indicopieustes, (Topograph. Christian. 1. ii. p. 132. 138, 139, 140. 1. xi. p. 338, 339.).

Ludolph. Hist. et Comment. Æthiop. l. ii. c. 3.

The city of Negra, or Nag'ran, in Yemen, is surrounded with palm trees, and stands in the high-road between Saanna the capital, and Mecca, from the former ten, from the latter twenty days' journey of a caravan of camels (Abulfeda, Descript. A abiæ, p. 52.).

The martyrdom of St. Arethas prince of Negra, and his three hundred and forty companions, is embellished in the legends of Metaphrastes and Nicephorus Callistus, copied by Baronius (A. D 522, No. 22—66. A. D. 523, No. 16—29.), and refuted, with obscure diligence, by Basnage (Hist. des Juifs, tom. xii. 1. viii. c. ii. p. 333-348), who investigates the state of the Jews in Arabia and Æthiopia.

XLII.

ance with

A. D. 533.

sand years the sequestered region of myrrh and CHA P. frankincense. The conqueror immediately announced the victory of the gospel, requested an orthodox patriarch, and so warmly professed his friendship to the Roman empire, that Justinian was flattered by the hope of diverting the silk trade through the channel of Abyssinia, and of exciting the forces of Arabia against the Persian king. Nonnosus, descended from a family of Their alli ambassadors, was named by the emperor to exe- Justinian, cute this important commission. He wisely declined the shorter, but more dangerous, road through the sandy deserts of Nubia; ascended the Nile, embarked on the Red Sea, and safely landed at the African port of Adulis. From Adulis to the royal city of Axume is no more than fifty leagues, in a direct line; but the winding passes of the mountains detained the ambassador fifteen days; and as he traversed the forests, he saw, and vaguely computed, about five thousand wild elepants. The capital, according to his report, was large and populous; and the village of Axume is still conspicuous by the regal coronations, by the ruins of a Christian temple, and by sixteen or seventeen obelisks inscribed with Grecian characters *. But the Negus gave audience in the open field, seated on a lofty chariot, which was drawn by four elephants superbly caparisoned, and surrounded by

24

his