chap, xlii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 381 After they had been purified with fire and incense, according to a rite still practised under the sons of Zingis, they were intro- duced to the presence of Disabul. 43 In a valley of the Golden Mountain, they found the great khan in his tent, seated in a chair with wheels, to which an horse might be occasionally harnessed. As soon as they had delivered their presents, which were received by the proper officers, they exposed, in a florid oration, the wishes of the Roman emperor, that victory might attend the arms of the Turks, that their reign might be long and prosperous, and that a strict alliance, without envy or deceit, might for ever be maintained between the two most powerful nations of the earth. The answer of Disabul corre- sponded with these friendly professions, and the ambassadors were seated by his side, at a banquet which lasted the greatest part of the day; the tent was surrounded with silk hangings, and a Tartar liquor was served on the table, which possessed at least the intoxicating qualities of wine. The entertainment of the succeeding day was more sumptuous ; the silk hangings of the second tent were embroidered in various figures ; and the royal seat, the cups, and the vases were of gold. A third pavilion was supported by columns of gilt wood ; a bed of pure and massy gold was raised on four peacocks of the same metal ; and, before the entrance of the tent, dishes, basons, and statues of solid silver, and admirable art, were ostentatiously piled in waggons, the monuments of valour rather than of industry. When Disabul led his armies against the frontiers of Persia, his Roman allies followed many days the march of the Turkish camp, nor were they dismissed until they had enjoyed their precedency over the envoy of the great king, whose loud and intemperate clamours interrupted the silence of the royal ban- quet. The power and ambition of Chosroes cemented the union of the Turks and Romans, who touched his dominions on either side ; but those distant nations, regardless of each other, consulted the dictates of interest, without recollecting the obligations of oaths and treaties. While the successor of [ad. 576J Disabul celebrated his father's obsequies, he was saluted by the ambassadors of the emperor Tiberius, who proposed an invasion 43 [Dizabul (the khan of the Western Turks) must be distinguished from the great Eastern khan, Mo-kan (553-572), who is celebrated in the Chinese sources, and must be identified with Menander'd Silzibnl. Cp. Appendix 17.]
