1811 ([return])
[ Concerning Nisibis, see St. Martin and his Armenian authorities, vol. x p. 332, and Memoires sur l’Armenie, tom. i. p. 25.—M.]
19 ([return])
[ Sergius and his companion Bacchus, who are said to have suffered in the persecution of Maximian, obtained divine honor in France, Italy, Constantinople, and the East. Their tomb at Rasaphe was famous for miracles, and that Syrian town acquired the more honorable name of Sergiopolis. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. v. p. 481—496. Butler’s Saints, vol. x. p. 155.]
20 ([return])
[ Evagrius (l. vi. c. 21) and Theophylact (l. v. c. 13, 14) have preserved the original letters of Chosroes, written in Greek, signed with his own hand, and afterwards inscribed on crosses and tables of gold, which were deposited in the church of Sergiopolis. They had been sent to the bishop of Antioch, as primate of Syria. * Note: St. Martin thinks that they were first written in Syriac, and then translated into the bad Greek in which they appear, vol. x. p. 334.—M.]
21 ([return])
[ The Greeks only describe her as a Roman by birth, a Christian by religion: but she is represented as the daughter of the emperor Maurice in the Persian and Turkish romances which celebrate the love of Khosrou for Schirin, of Schirin for Ferhad, the most beautiful youth of the East, D’Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. p. 789, 997, 998. * Note: Compare M. von Hammer’s preface to, and poem of, Schirin in which he gives an account of the various Persian poems, of which he has endeavored to extract the essence in his own work.—M.]
22 ([return])
[ The whole series of the tyranny of Hormouz, the revolt of Bahram, and the flight and restoration of Chosroes, is related by two contemporary Greeks—more concisely by Evagrius, (l. vi. c. 16, 17, 18, 19,) and most diffusely by Theophylact Simocatta, (l. iii. c. 6—18, l. iv. c. 1—16, l. v. c. 1-15:) succeeding compilers, Zonaras and Cedrenus, can only transcribe and abridge. The Christian Arabs, Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 200—208) and Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 96—98) appear to have consulted some particular memoirs. The great Persian historians of the xvth century, Mirkhond and Khondemir, are only known to me by the imperfect extracts of Schikard, (Tarikh, p. 150—155,) Texeira, or rather Stevens, (Hist. of Persia, p. 182—186,) a Turkish Ms. translated by the Abbe Fourmount, (Hist. de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. vii. p. 325—334,) and D’Herbelot, (aux mots Hormouz, p. 457—459. Bahram, p. 174. Khosrou Parviz, p. 996.) Were I perfectly satisfied of their authority, I could wish these Oriental materials had been more copious.]