V

But as time went on Cabades became more high-handed in the
administration of the government, and introduced innovations into the
constitution, among which was a law which he promulgated providing that
Persians should have communal intercourse with their women, a measure
which by no means pleased the common people. [486 A.D.] Accordingly they
rose against him, removed him from the throne, and kept him in prison in
chains. They then chose Blases, the brother of Perozes, to be their
king, since, as has been said, no male offspring of Perozes was left,
and it is not lawful among the Persians for any man by birth a common
citizen to be set upon the throne, except in case the royal family be
totally extinct. Blases, upon receiving the royal power, gathered
together the nobles of the Persians and held a conference concerning
Cabades; for it was not the wish of the majority to put the man to
death. After the expression of many opinions on both sides there came
forward a certain man of repute among the Persians, whose name was
Gousanastades, and whose office that of "chanaranges" (which would be
the Persian term for general); his official province lay on the very
frontier of the Persian territory in a district which adjoins the land
of the Ephthalitae. Holding up his knife, the kind with which the
Persians were accustomed to trim their nails, of about the length of a
man's finger, but not one-third as wide as a finger, he said: "You see
this knife, how extremely small it is; nevertheless it is able at the
present time to accomplish a deed, which, be assured, my dear Persians,
a little later two myriads of mail-clad men could not bring to pass."
This he said hinting that, if they did not put Cabades to death, he
would straightway make trouble for the Persians. But they were
altogether unwilling to put to death a man of the royal blood, and