Kobad had, in fact, been seized with paralysis on the 8th of September, and after an illness which lasted only five days, had expired.  Before dying, he had communicated to his chief minister, Mebodes, his earnest desire that Chosroes should succeed him upon the throne, and, acting under the advice of Mebodes, had formally left the crown to him by a will duly executed.  He is said by a contemporary to have been eighty-two years old at his death, an age very seldom attained by an Oriental monarch.  His long life was more than usually eventful, and he cannot be denied the praise of activity, perseverance, fertility of resource, and general military capacity.  But he was cruel and fickle; he disgraced his ministers and his generals on insufficient grounds; he allowed himself, from considerations of policy, to smother his religious convictions; and he risked subjecting Persia to the horrors of a civil war, in order to gratify a favoritism which, however justified by the event, seems to have rested on no worthy motive.  Chosroes was preferred on account of his beauty, and because he was the son of Kobad’s best-loved wife, rather than for any good qualities; and inherited the kingdom, not so much because he had shown any capacity to govern as because he was his father’s darling.

The coins of Kobad are, as might be expected from the length of his reign, very numerous.  In their general appearance they resemble those of Zamasp, but do not exhibit quite so many stars and crescents.  The legend on the obverse is either “Kavdt” or “Kavdt” afzui, i.e.  “Kobad,” or “May Kobad be increased.”  The reverse shows the regnal year, which ranges from eleven to forty-three, together with a mint-mark.  The mint-marks, which are nearly forty in number, comprise almost all those of Perozes, together with about thirteen others. [PLATE XXII.  Fig. 2.]

CHAPTER XX.

Accession of Chosroes I. (Anushirwari).  Conspiracy to dethrone him crushed.  General Severity of his Government.  He concludes Peace with Rome, A.D. 533.  Terms of the Peace.  Causes Which led to its Rupture.  First Roman War of Chosroes, A.D. 540-544.  Second Roman War, A.D. 549-557.  Eastern Wars.  Conquest of Arabia Felix.  Supposed Campaign in India.  War with the Turks.  Revolt of Persarmenia.  Third Roman War, A.D. 572-579.  Death of Chosroes.

The accession of Chosroes was not altogether undisputed, Kaoses, the eldest of the sons of Kobad, regarding himself as entitled to the crown by right of birth, assumed the insignia of royalty on the death of his father, and claimed to be acknowledged as monarch.  But Mebodes, the Grand Vizier, interposed with the assertion of a constitutional axiom, that no one had the right of taking the Persian crown until it was assigned to him by the assembly of the nobles.  Kaoses, who thought he might count on the goodwill of the nobles, acquiesced; and the assembly being