1837.] Arsaces, and Sopor the king of Persia. 87 



tion. The wretched inmates of this dreary habitation were by the 

 law of the land considered politically dead. Even the bare mention 

 of their names was strictly prohibited, under the pain of a similarly 

 rigorous imprisonment. Sapor owed a debt of gratitude to the 

 faithful steward of Arsaces, called Dirastamatn, who had once saved 

 the life of the former from imminent danger in the din and confu- 

 sion of a battle. " I am willing," said the Persian king, " to make 

 you a recompense for your disinterested services to me. You are, 

 therefore, at liberty to ask any reward you choose, and your request 

 shall be readily granted." Dirastamatn expressed his burning desire 

 once to see his royal master. " I have no other wish," said he, " save 

 that of being permitted to visit Arsaces, and to spend a day of mer- 

 riment with him, released from his chains." Sapor was unwilling 

 to yield to the wishes of his benefactor, but in consideration of his 

 strong claim on his generosity, allowed him to proceed to the castle 

 of oblivion, under the escort of a trusty guard, and bearing with him 

 a royal mandate sealed with the signet of the court of Persia. 



Dikastamatn, on his arrival in the castle of oblivion, burst into 

 tears and fell at the feet of Arsaces. He untied the chains of his 

 royal master, washed his head, cleaned and anointed his body with 

 odoriferous oil, invested him with costly robes, seated him on a 

 throne, placed before him rare delicacies, and standing near him on 

 his legs, acted the part of a cup-bearer. Affected by an immoderate 

 use of wine, the king of Armenia gave vent to his inward grief, and 

 began to groan from the pangs of his heart, by contrasting his former 

 grandeur and happiness with his present servitude and misery. The 

 knife, placed on the cloth, he thrust into his breast, and thus ended 

 his miserable life in despair. Dirastamatn seeing this, dislodged 

 the fatal weapon from the breast of Arsaces, and therewith put an 

 end to his own existence. 



This narrative of the condemnation and subsequent banishment of 

 Arsaces, by the machinations of magicians and astrologers, is fully 

 noticed by Procopius, in the fifth chapter of the first book of his 

 history relative to the Persian war, probably borrowed from the 

 historical work of Faustus, extant in the Armenian language. But 

 Photius, the celebrated Greek Patriarch, who wrote an abridgment 

 of the history of Procopius, considered this story as a mere piece 

 of romance or fable, and as such it will be viewed by the learned of 

 the present age. 



