ZORRILLA Y MORAL him to have been the son of Pourushaspa, and to have lived under a king Vistaspa (Gushtasp, Hystaspes), who accepted and favored the gen- eral adoption of his doctrines. This king was at one time regarded as identical with the fa- ther of the first Darius, and Zoroaster was accordingly assigned to the 6th century B. C. ; but this opinion is now given up. The Per- sian traditions make Vistaspa the last of the line of Kaianian princes, ruling in Bactria; and as the Assyrian conquest of Bactria is said to have taken place 1,200 years B. 0., it has been concluded with some plausibility that Zoroaster's life must have preceded that event, perhaps by no long interval, especially as the Zoroastrian scriptures betray no acquaintance with any of the nations dwelling in or near the western parts of Iran, as the Medes, the Persians, the Assyrians, &c. In the Zend- Avesta he appears as a being of supernatural endowments, and as receiving from the su- preme divinity by personal interview, by in- quiry and reply, the truths which he is to com- municate to men. The earliest portions of the Avestan text, the Gathas, may perhaps go back in part to his own time. (See PAESEES, and ZEND-AVESTA.) ZORRILLA Y MORAL, Jose, a Spanish poet, born in Valladolid, Feb. 21, 1817. He was educated in the seminary of the nobles at Ma- drid, studied law at Toledo and Valladolid, but devoted himself exclusively to literary studies, and in the periodical entitled El artista made his first appearance in print as a poet. His father, displeased with his occupations, sent for him, and placed him under the charge of a muleteer to be brought home ; but on the way he managed to escape on a horse which he took from one of his relatives without per- mission of the owner, and with a few reals in his pocket made his way to Madrid. Here he lay concealed for some time, but on Feb. 15, 1837, at the funeral of the poet Larra, sud- denly excited a great sensation by an elegy on the dead poet which he recited at the grave. In a few months his first volume of poetry appeared, and from that time the lit- erary reputation of Zorrilla has steadily in- creased. He has published Cantos del trova- dor, coleccion de leyendas y tradiciones histo- ricas (3 vols., Madrid, 1841) ; Floras perdidas (1843) ; and Granada, which is considered his masterpiece (2 vols., Paris, 1853-'4). He has written a number of comedies, of which that entitled El zapatero y el rey is the most popu- lar. His Olras completas (2 vols., Paris, 1847; 2d ed., 3 vols., 1853) contain his biography by Ildefonso Ovejas. For some years Zorrilla lived alternately in Paris and Brussels, and then emigrated to America. ZOSDIUS, a Greek historian, flourished in the earlier part of the 5th century. He wrote a history of the Roman empire, still extant, in six books, bringing it down to A. D. 410, which is mainly an abridgment from early historians, and written in a concise and pure style. Be- ZRINYI 835 ing a pagan, Zosimus was rather severe in his strictures on the Christian emperors, but he cannot justly be accused of a deliberate mis- representation of facts or characters. The best editions are by Reitemeier (Leipsic, 1784) and Bekker (Bonn, 1837). ZOUAVES (Arab. Zwawa), a body of French infantry, deriving their name from a tribe of Kabyles in Algeria, whose fighting men have been noted throughout North Africa for gen- erations. After the occupation of Algiers in 1830, a body of these mercenary troops in the service of the dey were incorporated into the French army, with French officers, discipline, and arms. Frenchmen were also distributed among the companies as private soldiers, but the Arab dress was retained. The corps was afterward reorganized into distinct companies of Frenchmen and Arabs, and in 1837 it was divided into three battalions under Col. (after- ward Gen.) Lamoriciere. To this officer and his successor Gen. Oavaignac was due the great efficiency of the Zouaves in the many conflicts which preceded the final conquest of Algeria. Long before this time, however, the native element had been eliminated, and after 1840 the Zouaves were simply European troops uni- formed as Arabs. In the Crimean war they proved the elite of the French infantry ; and during the Italian campaign of 1859 they fully sustained their reputation. In 1852 they were reorganized into three regiments of three bat- talions each, to which in 1855 a fourth regi- ment was added. In the i-eorganization of the army under the law of March 13, 1875, the Zouaves consist of four regiments, each of four battalions, each battalion containing five com- panies, in all about 16,000 men; and three of the regiments are in the 19th army corps in Algeria. They are armed with carbines having sword bayonets, and their dress consists of a loose jacket and waistcoat of dark blue cloth, red Turkish trowsers, red fez with yellow tas- sel, green turban, sky-blue sash, yellow leather leggings, and white gaiters. The officers' uni- form is that of the French infantry officers. During the civil war in the United States a few volunteer regiments were uniformed as Zouaves and so called ; and several militia regi- ments in different states also bear the name. ZRI1VYI, Miklos, count, a Hungarian soldier, born in 1518, killed at Sziget, near the Drave, Sept. 7, 1566. When only 12 years old, Charles V. gave him a gold chain for his conduct du- ring the siege of Vienna. He afterward be- came bah of Croatia, and at the siege of Sziget with 3,000 men he resisted Solyman the Mag- nificent and Mohammed Sokolovich, his grand vizier, at the head of 65,000 men, for more than a month. After the Turks had taken the city, Zrinyi, setting it on fire, threw himself into the castle, and there maintained the de- fence, fighting day and night, and refusing to surrender though Solyman threatened to kill his son, whom he pretended to have in his power. Solyman died of rage, but Sokolovich
