Victorious by the help of Rome, Chosroes began his second reign amid the scarcely disguised hostility of his subjects.  So greatly did he mistrust their sentiments towards him that he begged and obtained of Maurice the support of a Roman bodyguard, to whom he committed the custody of his person.  To the odium always attaching in the minds of a spirited people to the ruler whose yoke is imposed upon them by a foreign power, he added further the stain of a crime which is happily rare at all times, and of which (according to the general belief of his subjects) no Persian monarch had ever previously been guilty.  It was in vain that he protested his innocence:  the popular belief held him an accomplice in his father’s murder, and branded the young prince with the horrible name of “parricide.”

It was no doubt mainly in the hope of purging himself from this imputation that, after putting to death the subordinate instruments by whom his father’s life had been actually taken, he went on to institute proceedings against the chief contrivers of the outrage—­the two uncles who had ordered, and probably witnessed, the execution.  So long as the success of his arms was doubtful, he had been happy to avail himself of their support, and to employ their talents in the struggle against his enemies.  At one moment in his flight he had owed his life to the self-devotion of Bindoes; and both the brothers had merited well of him by the efforts which they had made to bring Armenia over to his cause, and to levy a powerful army for him in that region.  But to clear his own character it was necessary that he should forget the ties both of blood and gratitude, that he should sink the kinsman in the sovereign, and the debtor in the stern avenger of blood.  Accordingly, he seized Bindoes, who resided at the court, and had him drowned in the Tigris.  To Bostam, whom he had appointed governor of Rei and Khorassan, he sent an order of recall, and would undoubtedly have executed him, had he obeyed; but Bostam, suspecting his intentions, deemed it the wisest course to revolt, and proclaim himself independent monarch of the north country.  Here he established himself in authority for some time, and is even said to have enlarged his territory at the expense of some of the border chieftains; but the vengeance of his nephew pursued him unrelentingly, and ere long accomplished his destruction.  According to the best authority, the instrument employed was Bostam’s wife, the sister of Bahram, whom Chosroes induced to murder her husband by a promise to make her the partner of his bed.

Intrigues not very dissimilar in their character had been previously employed to remove Bahram, whom the Persian monarch had not ceased to fear, notwithstanding that he was a fugitive and an exile.  The Khan of the Turks had received him with honor on the occasion of his flight, and, according to some authors, had given him his daughter in marriage.  Chosroes lived in dread of the day when the great general might reappear in Persia, at the head of the Turkish hordes, and challenge him to renew the lately-terminated contest.