Chai. xlii] OF THE ROMAN EMIGRE 411 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, the lord of mankind, looks down with contempt on such petty acquisitions; and of the ten nations, vanquished by his invincible arms, he esteems the Eomans as the least formidable." 101 According to the Orientals the empire of Nushirvan extended from Ferganah in Transoxiana to Yemen or Arabia Felix. 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. Victori- ous and respected among the princes of Asia, he gave audience, in his palace of Madain, 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 an extraordinary serpent. 102 Justinian had been reproached for his alliance with the conquest ^Ethiopians, as if he attempted to introduce a people of savage Abyssin- negroes into the system of civilized society. But the friends 522. of the Koman empire, the Axumites, or Abyssinians, may be always distinguished from the original natives of Africa. 103 The hand of nature has flattened the noses of the negroes, covered their heads with shaggy wool, and tinged their skin with in- herent 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 101 The negotiations and treaties between Justinian and Chosroes are copiously explained by Procopius (Persic. 1. ii. c. 10, 13, 26, 27, 28. Gothic. 1. ii. c. 11, 15), Agathias (1. iv. p. 141, 142), and Menander (in excerpt. Legat. p. 132-147). Con- sult Barbeyrac, Hist, des Anoiens Traites, torn. ii. p. 154, 181-184, 193-200. [The terms of the treaty of a.d. 562 have been analysed and elucidated by Giiterbock, Byzanz. und Persien, 57 sqq.] 102 D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient, p. 680, 681, 294, 295. 103 See Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, torn. iii. p. 449. This Arab cast of features and complexion, which has continued 3400 years (Ludolph. Hist, et Comment. ^Ethiopia li 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. ians. a.d.
