252 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, seraglio. Their military operations were impeded by • a useless train of women, eunuchs, horses, and camels; and in the midst of a successful campaign, the Persian host was often separated or destroyed by an unexpected famine^. Their ca- But the nobles of Persia, in the bosom of luxury and lentf *^^^ despotism, preserved a strong sense of personal gal- lantry and national honour. From the age of seven years they were taught to speak truth, to shoot with the bow, and to ride ; and it was universally confessed, that in the two last of these arts, they had made a more than common proficiency ^ The most distinguished youth were educated under the monarch's eye, prac- tised their exercises in the gate of his palace, and were severely trained up to the habits of temperance and obedience, in their long and laborious parties of hunt- ing. In every province, the satrap maintained a like school of military virtue. The Persian nobles (so na- tural is the idea of feudal tenures) received from the king's bounty lands and houses, on the condition of their service in war. They were ready on the first summons to mount on horseback, with a martial and splendid train of followers, and to join the numerous bodies of guards, who were carefully selected from ampng the most robust slaves, and the bravest adven- turers of Asia. These armies, both of light and of heavy cavalry, equally formidable by the impetuosity of their charge and the rapidity of their motions, threatened, as an impending cloud, the eastern pro- vinces of the declining empire of Rome™. ^ Herodian, 1. vi. p. 214; Ammlanus Marcellinus, 1. xxiii. c. 6. Some differences may be observed between the two historians, the natural effects of the changes produced by a century and a half. • The Persians are still the most skilful horsemen, and their horses the finest, in the east. ■" From Herodotus, Xenophon, Herodian, Ammianus, Chardin, etc. I have extracted such probable accounts of the Persian nobility, as seem either common to every age, or particular to that of the Sassanides.
