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"Then say, what heroes lead the adverse host, Where they command, what dignities they boast; Say, where does Káús hold his kingly state, Where Tús, and Gúdarz, on his bidding wait; Gíw, Gust'hem, and Báhrám all known to thee, And where is mighty Rustem, where is he? Look round with care, their names and power display Or instant death shall end thy vital day."
Chosroes is said to have maintained an enormous seraglio; but of these secondary wives, none is known to us even by name, except Kurdiyeh, the sister of Bahram and widow of Bostam, whom she murdered at Chosroes's suggestion. During the earlier portion of his reign Chosroes seems to have been engaged in but few wars, and those of no great importance.
According to them, the war in this quarter, which certainly broke out in A.D. 589, was provoked by Hormisdas himself, who, immediately after his Turkish victories, sent Bahram with an army to invade Colchis and Suania, or in other words to resume the Lazic war, from which Anushirwan had desisted twenty-seven years previously.
Accordingly, the use which Bahram made of his victory was quietly to evacuate his camp, to leave the low plain region, rapidly pass the mountains, and take up his quarters in the fertile upland beyond them, the district where the Lesser Zab rises, south of Lake Urumiyeh. If he had hoped that his enemies would not pursue him, Bahram was disappointed.
Europeans find the practice difficult, and can learn it only by long habit. In Galland, Bahram has two daughters, Bostama and Cavam a. In the Bres. Edit. the daughter is "Bostan" and the slave-girl "Kawam." He despised the common miracula which in the East are of everyday occurrence and are held to be easy for any holy man. Hume does not believe in miracles because he never saw one.
According to the best authority, the instrument employed was Bostam's wife, the sister of Bahram, whom Chosroes induced to murder her husband by a promise to make her the partner of his bed. Intrigues not very dissimilar in their character had been previously employed to remove Bahram, whom the Persian monarch had not ceased to fear, notwithstanding that he was a fugitive and an exile.
In the last year of the reign of Jezdegerd, the supposed guardian of Theodosius, a bishop, who aspired to the crown of martyrdom, destroyed one of the fire-temples of Susa. His zeal and obstinacy were revenged on his brethren: the Magi excited a cruel persecution; and the intolerant zeal of Jezdegerd was imitated by his son Varanes, or Bahram, who soon afterwards ascended the throne.
And the damned witch repeated to them the story to fill them with trouble and terror, adding, "The most of them are dead, and there are but five and twenty men left." Said Bahram, "O holy man! when didst thou leave them?"
Nor less came forth the Emir Bahram, Lord of the Provinces of Sham, amid twenty thousand horse doughty of arm; and the host of Al-Islam pressed them in front and on flank and wrought them grievous harm.
He fell back on Ctesiphon; but despairing of making a successful defence, with the few troops that remained faithful to him, against the overwhelming force which Bahram had at his disposal, he resolved to evacuate the capital, to quit Persia, and to throw himself on the generosity of some one of his neighbors.
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