Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

KHUSRU PARVIZ AND HERACLIUS
|cLii
527
—The craven conduct of Khusru Parviz and the sack of
his capital had shattered his prestige. Moreover the
loyalty of his nobles was undermined by his insulting
the corpse of the dead Shahin, and still more by hit
attempt to execute Shahr-Baraz. He also imprisoned
and probably put to death other unsuccessful generals.
In these circumstances everything was ripe for a
rebellion. A strong party, headed by the commander
of the Ctesiphon garrison and including many nobles,
seized the unfortunate Khusru, and confined him in the
" House of Darkness,'' where he was fed on bread and
water and insulted in a most vindictive fashion. Many
of his children, including his favourite son Merdasas,
whom he had destined to succeed him, were killed before
his
eyes, and finally he was himself put to a
lingering
death.
His Character,—No monarch looms larger in Persian
literature and art than Khusru Parviz, who was famous
alike for his power, his magnificence, his treasures, his
love for his Christianjmfe the beajatgous Shirin , and his
deep aifection for his black horse Shabdiz. No monarch
of his dynasty had such splendid successes, and, had he
possessed any capacity for administration, his empire
might have been as wide in extent as that of his Achaemenian
predecessors. On the other hand, he was
certainly
unfortunate in that his
contemporary on the throne of
the Roman empire was a soldier so brilliant as Heraclius.
Tabari, dilating on his riches and magnificence,
mentions the golden throne with its four
legs composed
of rubies also his ; ^hy thousand camels, horses, and
donkeys ; his thousand elephants ; his twelve thousand
women, his lump of malleable gold which could be used
like
clay,^ and his napkin which had only to be thrown
into the fire to be cleaned. His character was full of
contradictions, and probably deteriorated owing to his
wonderful early
successes in war, which however he owed
chiefly to his generals and not to his own leadership. In
his youth he was no coward. He was at one period
1 In the Journal Royal Asiatic Society for October 1910, p. 11 36, a reference is made
to this unique treasure.