His contemporary, Cabades, or Kobad, had been successful in war against the emperor Anastasius; but the reign of that prince was distracted by civil and religious troubles.

A prisoner in the hands of his subjects, an exile among the enemies of Persia, he recovered his liberty by prostituting the honor of his wife, and regained his kingdom with the dangerous and mercenary aid of the Barbarians, who had slain his father.

His nobles were suspicious that Kobad never forgave the authors of his expulsion, or even those of his restoration.

The people was deluded and inflamed by the fanaticism of Mazdak, [38] who asserted the community of women, [39] and the equality of mankind, whilst he appropriated the richest lands and most beautiful females to the use of his sectaries.

The view of these disorders, which had been fomented by his laws and example, [40] imbittered the declining age of the Persian monarch; and his fears were increased by the consciousness of his design to reverse the natural and customary order of succession, in favor of his third and most favored son, so famous under the names of Chosroes and Nushirvan.