Chapter XLVI: Troubles In Persia.—Part III

A daughter of Phocas, his only child, was given in marriage to
the patrician Crispus, 52 and the royal images of the bride and
bridegroom were indiscreetly placed in the circus, by the side of
the emperor. The father must desire that his posterity should
inherit the fruit of his crimes, but the monarch was offended by
this premature and popular association: the tribunes of the green
faction, who accused the officious error of their sculptors, were
condemned to instant death: their lives were granted to the
prayers of the people; but Crispus might reasonably doubt,
whether a jealous usurper could forget and pardon his involuntary
competition. The green faction was alienated by the ingratitude
of Phocas and the loss of their privileges; every province of the
empire was ripe for rebellion; and Heraclius, exarch of Africa,
persisted above two years in refusing all tribute and obedience
to the centurion who disgraced the throne of Constantinople. By
the secret emissaries of Crispus and the senate, the independent
exarch was solicited to save and to govern his country; but his
ambition was chilled by age, and he resigned the dangerous
enterprise to his son Heraclius, and to Nicetas, the son of
Gregory, his friend and lieutenant. The powers of Africa were
armed by the two adventurous youths; they agreed that the one
should navigate the fleet from Carthage to Constantinople, that
the other should lead an army through Egypt and Asia, and that
the Imperial purple should be the reward of diligence and
success. A faint rumor of their undertaking was conveyed to the
ears of Phocas, and the wife and mother of the younger Heraclius
were secured as the hostages of his faith: but the treacherous
heart of Crispus extenuated the distant peril, the means of
defence were neglected or delayed, and the tyrant supinely slept
till the African navy cast anchor in the Hellespont. Their
standard was joined at Abidus by the fugitives and exiles who
thirsted for revenge; the ships of Heraclius, whose lofty masts
were adorned with the holy symbols of religion, 53 steered their
triumphant course through the Propontis; and Phocas beheld from
the windows of the palace his approaching and inevitable fate.
The green faction was tempted, by gifts and promises, to oppose a
feeble and fruitless resistance to the landing of the Africans:
but the people, and even the guards, were determined by the
well-timed defection of Crispus; and the tyrant was seized by a
private enemy, who boldly invaded the solitude of the palace.
Stripped of the diadem and purple, clothed in a vile habit, and
loaded with chains, he was transported in a small boat to the
Imperial galley of Heraclius, who reproached him with the crimes
of his abominable reign. “Wilt thou govern better?” were the last
words of the despair of Phocas. After suffering each variety of
insult and torture, his head was severed from his body, the
mangled trunk was cast into the flames, and the same treatment
was inflicted on the statues of the vain usurper, and the
seditious banner of the green faction. The voice of the clergy,
the senate, and the people, invited Heraclius to ascend the
throne which he had purified from guilt and ignominy; after some
graceful hesitation, he yielded to their entreaties. His
coronation was accompanied by that of his wife Eudoxia; and their
posterity, till the fourth generation, continued to reign over
the empire of the East. The voyage of Heraclius had been easy and
prosperous; the tedious march of Nicetas was not accomplished
before the decision of the contest: but he submitted without a
murmur to the fortune of his friend, and his laudable intentions
were rewarded with an equestrian statue, and a daughter of the
emperor. It was more difficult to trust the fidelity of Crispus,
whose recent services were recompensed by the command of the
Cappadocian army. His arrogance soon provoked, and seemed to
excuse, the ingratitude of his new sovereign. In the presence of
the senate, the son-in-law of Phocas was condemned to embrace the
monastic life; and the sentence was justified by the weighty
observation of Heraclius, that the man who had betrayed his
father could never be faithful to his friend. 54

52 (return) [ In the writers, and in the copies of those writers,
there is such hesitation between the names of Priscus and
Crispus, (Ducange, Fam Byzant. p. 111,) that I have been tempted
to identify the son-in-law of Phocas with the hero five times
victorious over the Avars.]

53 (return) [ According to Theophanes. Cedrenus adds, which
Heraclius bore as a banner in the first Persian expedition. See
George Pisid. Acroas L 140. The manufacture seems to have
flourished; but Foggini, the Roman editor, (p. 26,) is at a loss
to determine whether this picture was an original or a copy.]

54 (return) [ See the tyranny of Phocas and the elevation of
Heraclius, in Chron. Paschal. p. 380—383. Theophanes, p. 242-250.
Nicephorus, p. 3—7. Cedrenus, p. 404—407. Zonaras, tom. ii. l.
xiv. p. 80—82.]

Even after his death the republic was afflicted by the crimes of
Phocas, which armed with a pious cause the most formidable of her
enemies. According to the friendly and equal forms of the
Byzantine and Persian courts, he announced his exaltation to the
throne; and his ambassador Lilius, who had presented him with the
heads of Maurice and his sons, was the best qualified to describe
the circumstances of the tragic scene. 55 However it might be
varnished by fiction or sophistry, Chosroes turned with horror
from the assassin, imprisoned the pretended envoy, disclaimed the
usurper, and declared himself the avenger of his father and
benefactor. The sentiments of grief and resentment, which
humanity would feel, and honor would dictate, promoted on this
occasion the interest of the Persian king; and his interest was
powerfully magnified by the national and religious prejudices of
the Magi and satraps. In a strain of artful adulation, which
assumed the language of freedom, they presumed to censure the
excess of his gratitude and friendship for the Greeks; a nation
with whom it was dangerous to conclude either peace or alliance;
whose superstition was devoid of truth and justice, and who must
be incapable of any virtue, since they could perpetrate the most
atrocious of crimes, the impious murder of their sovereign. 56
For the crime of an ambitious centurion, the nation which he
oppressed was chastised with the calamities of war; and the same
calamities, at the end of twenty years, were retaliated and
redoubled on the heads of the Persians. 57 The general who had
restored Chosroes to the throne still commanded in the East; and
the name of Narses was the formidable sound with which the
Assyrian mothers were accustomed to terrify their infants. It is
not improbable, that a native subject of Persia should encourage
his master and his friend to deliver and possess the provinces of
Asia. It is still more probable, that Chosroes should animate his
troops by the assurance that the sword which they dreaded the
most would remain in its scabbard, or be drawn in their favor.
The hero could not depend on the faith of a tyrant; and the
tyrant was conscious how little he deserved the obedience of a
hero. Narses was removed from his military command; he reared an
independent standard at Hierapolis, in Syria: he was betrayed by
fallacious promises, and burnt alive in the market-place of
Constantinople. Deprived of the only chief whom they could fear
or esteem, the bands which he had led to victory were twice
broken by the cavalry, trampled by the elephants, and pierced by
the arrows of the Barbarians; and a great number of the captives
were beheaded on the field of battle by the sentence of the
victor, who might justly condemn these seditious mercenaries as
the authors or accomplices of the death of Maurice. Under the
reign of Phocas, the fortifications of Merdin, Dara, Amida, and
Edessa, were successively besieged, reduced, and destroyed, by
the Persian monarch: he passed the Euphrates, occupied the Syrian
cities, Hierapolis, Chalcis, and Berrhaea or Aleppo, and soon
encompassed the walls of Antioch with his irresistible arms. The
rapid tide of success discloses the decay of the empire, the
incapacity of Phocas, and the disaffection of his subjects; and
Chosroes provided a decent apology for their submission or
revolt, by an impostor, who attended his camp as the son of
Maurice 58 and the lawful heir of the monarchy.

55 (return) [ Theophylact, l. viii. c. 15. The life of Maurice
was composed about the year 628 (l. viii. c. 13) by Theophylact
Simocatta, ex-præfect, a native of Egypt. Photius, who gives an
ample extract of the work, (cod. lxv. p. 81—100,) gently reproves
the affectation and allegory of the style. His preface is a
dialogue between Philosophy and History; they seat themselves
under a plane-tree, and the latter touches her lyre.]

56 (return) [ Christianis nec pactum esse, nec fidem nec foedus
..... quod si ulla illis fides fuisset, regem suum non
occidissent. Eutych. Annales tom. ii. p. 211, vers. Pocock.]

57 (return) [ We must now, for some ages, take our leave of
contemporary historians, and descend, if it be a descent, from
the affectation of rhetoric to the rude simplicity of chronicles
and abridgments. Those of Theophanes (Chronograph. p. 244—279)
and Nicephorus (p. 3—16) supply a regular, but imperfect, series
of the Persian war; and for any additional facts I quote my
special authorities. Theophanes, a courtier who became a monk,
was born A.D. 748; Nicephorus patriarch of Constantinople, who
died A.D. 829, was somewhat younger: they both suffered in the
cause of images Hankius, de Scriptoribus Byzantinis, p. 200-246.]

58 (return) [ The Persian historians have been themselves
deceived: but Theophanes (p. 244) accuses Chosroes of the fraud
and falsehood; and Eutychius believes (Annal. tom. ii. p. 212)
that the son of Maurice, who was saved from the assassins, lived
and died a monk on Mount Sinai.]

The first intelligence from the East which Heraclius received, 59
was that of the loss of Antioch; but the aged metropolis, so
often overturned by earthquakes, and pillaged by the enemy, could
supply but a small and languid stream of treasure and blood. The
Persians were equally successful, and more fortunate, in the sack
of Caesarea, the capital of Cappadocia; and as they advanced
beyond the ramparts of the frontier, the boundary of ancient war,
they found a less obstinate resistance and a more plentiful
harvest. The pleasant vale of Damascus has been adorned in every
age with a royal city: her obscure felicity has hitherto escaped
the historian of the Roman empire: but Chosroes reposed his
troops in the paradise of Damascus before he ascended the hills
of Libanus, or invaded the cities of the Phœnician coast. The
conquest of Jerusalem, 60 which had been meditated by Nushirvan,
was achieved by the zeal and avarice of his grandson; the ruin of
the proudest monument of Christianity was vehemently urged by the
intolerant spirit of the Magi; and he could enlist for this holy
warfare with an army of six-and-twenty thousand Jews, whose
furious bigotry might compensate, in some degree, for the want of
valor and discipline. 6011 After the reduction of Galilee, and
the region beyond the Jordan, whose resistance appears to have
delayed the fate of the capital, Jerusalem itself was taken by
assault. The sepulchre of Christ, and the stately churches of
Helena and Constantine, were consumed, or at least damaged, by
the flames; the devout offerings of three hundred years were
rifled in one sacrilegious day; the Patriarch Zachariah, and the
true cross, were transported into Persia; and the massacre of
ninety thousand Christians is imputed to the Jews and Arabs, who
swelled the disorder of the Persian march. The fugitives of
Palestine were entertained at Alexandria by the charity of John
the Archbishop, who is distinguished among a crowd of saints by
the epithet of almsgiver: 61 and the revenues of the church, with
a treasure of three hundred thousand pounds, were restored to the
true proprietors, the poor of every country and every
denomination. But Egypt itself, the only province which had been
exempt, since the time of Diocletian, from foreign and domestic
war, was again subdued by the successors of Cyrus. Pelusium, the
key of that impervious country, was surprised by the cavalry of
the Persians: they passed, with impunity, the innumerable
channels of the Delta, and explored the long valley of the Nile,
from the pyramids of Memphis to the confines of Aethiopia.
Alexandria might have been relieved by a naval force, but the
archbishop and the præfect embarked for Cyprus; and Chosroes
entered the second city of the empire, which still preserved a
wealthy remnant of industry and commerce. His western trophy was
erected, not on the walls of Carthage, 62 but in the neighborhood
of Tripoli; the Greek colonies of Cyrene were finally extirpated;
and the conqueror, treading in the footsteps of Alexander,
returned in triumph through the sands of the Libyan desert. In
the same campaign, another army advanced from the Euphrates to
the Thracian Bosphorus; Chalcedon surrendered after a long siege,
and a Persian camp was maintained above ten years in the presence
of Constantinople. The sea-coast of Pontus, the city of Ancyra,
and the Isle of Rhodes, are enumerated among the last conquests
of the great king; and if Chosroes had possessed any maritime
power, his boundless ambition would have spread slavery and
desolation over the provinces of Europe.

59 (return) [ Eutychius dates all the losses of the empire under
the reign of Phocas; an error which saves the honor of Heraclius,
whom he brings not from Carthage, but Salonica, with a fleet
laden with vegetables for the relief of Constantinople, (Annal.
tom. ii. p. 223, 224.) The other Christians of the East,
Barhebraeus, (apud Asseman, Bibliothec. Oriental. tom. iii. p.
412, 413,) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 13—16,) Abulpharagius,
(Dynast. p. 98, 99,) are more sincere and accurate. The years of
the Persian war are disposed in the chronology of Pagi.]

60 (return) [ On the conquest of Jerusalem, an event so
interesting to the church, see the Annals of Eutychius, (tom. ii.
p. 212—223,) and the lamentations of the monk Antiochus, (apud
Baronium, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 614, No. 16—26,) whose one hundred
and twenty-nine homilies are still extant, if what no one reads
may be said to be extant.]

6011 (return) [ See Hist. of Jews, vol. iii. p. 240.—M.]

61 (return) [ The life of this worthy saint is composed by
Leontius, a contemporary bishop; and I find in Baronius (Annal.
Eccles. A.D. 610, No. 10, &c.) and Fleury (tom. viii. p. 235-242)
sufficient extracts of this edifying work.]

62 (return) [ The error of Baronius, and many others who have
carried the arms of Chosroes to Carthage instead of Chalcedon, is
founded on the near resemblance of the Greek words, in the text
of Theophanes, &c., which have been sometimes confounded by
transcribers, and sometimes by critics.]

From the long-disputed banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, the
reign of the grandson of Nushirvan was suddenly extended to the
Hellespont and the Nile, the ancient limits of the Persian
monarchy. But the provinces, which had been fashioned by the
habits of six hundred years to the virtues and vices of the Roman
government, supported with reluctance the yoke of the Barbarians.
The idea of a republic was kept alive by the institutions, or at
least by the writings, of the Greeks and Romans, and the subjects
of Heraclius had been educated to pronounce the words of liberty
and law. But it has always been the pride and policy of Oriental
princes to display the titles and attributes of their
omnipotence; to upbraid a nation of slaves with their true name
and abject condition, and to enforce, by cruel and insolent
threats, the rigor of their absolute commands. The Christians of
the East were scandalized by the worship of fire, and the impious
doctrine of the two principles: the Magi were not less intolerant
than the bishops; and the martyrdom of some native Persians, who
had deserted the religion of Zoroaster, 63 was conceived to be
the prelude of a fierce and general persecution. By the
oppressive laws of Justinian, the adversaries of the church were
made the enemies of the state; the alliance of the Jews,
Nestorians, and Jacobites, had contributed to the success of
Chosroes, and his partial favor to the sectaries provoked the
hatred and fears of the Catholic clergy. Conscious of their fear
and hatred, the Persian conqueror governed his new subjects with
an iron sceptre; and, as if he suspected the stability of his
dominion, he exhausted their wealth by exorbitant tributes and
licentious rapine despoiled or demolished the temples of the
East; and transported to his hereditary realms the gold, the
silver, the precious marbles, the arts, and the artists of the
Asiatic cities. In the obscure picture of the calamities of the
empire, 64 it is not easy to discern the figure of Chosroes
himself, to separate his actions from those of his lieutenants,
or to ascertain his personal merit in the general blaze of glory
and magnificence. He enjoyed with ostentation the fruits of
victory, and frequently retired from the hardships of war to the
luxury of the palace. But in the space of twenty-four years, he
was deterred by superstition or resentment from approaching the
gates of Ctesiphon: and his favorite residence of Artemita, or
Dastagerd, was situate beyond the Tigris, about sixty miles to
the north of the capital. 65 The adjacent pastures were covered
with flocks and herds: the paradise or park was replenished with
pheasants, peacocks, ostriches, roebucks, and wild boars, and the
noble game of lions and tigers was sometimes turned loose for the
bolder pleasures of the chase. Nine hundred and sixty elephants
were maintained for the use or splendor of the great king: his
tents and baggage were carried into the field by twelve thousand
great camels and eight thousand of a smaller size; 66 and the
royal stables were filled with six thousand mules and horses,
among whom the names of Shebdiz and Barid are renowned for their
speed or beauty. 6611 Six thousand guards successively mounted
before the palace gate; the service of the interior apartments
was performed by twelve thousand slaves, and in the number of
three thousand virgins, the fairest of Asia, some happy concubine
might console her master for the age or the indifference of Sira.

The various treasures of gold, silver, gems, silks, and
aromatics, were deposited in a hundred subterraneous vaults and
the chamber Badaverd denoted the accidental gift of the winds
which had wafted the spoils of Heraclius into one of the Syrian
harbors of his rival. The vice of flattery, and perhaps of
fiction, is not ashamed to compute the thirty thousand rich
hangings that adorned the walls; the forty thousand columns of
silver, or more probably of marble, and plated wood, that
supported the roof; and the thousand globes of gold suspended in
the dome, to imitate the motions of the planets and the
constellations of the zodiac. 67 While the Persian monarch
contemplated the wonders of his art and power, he received an
epistle from an obscure citizen of Mecca, inviting him to
acknowledge Mahomet as the apostle of God. He rejected the
invitation, and tore the epistle. “It is thus,” exclaimed the
Arabian prophet, “that God will tear the kingdom, and reject the
supplications of Chosroes.” 68 6811 Placed on the verge of the
two great empires of the East, Mahomet observed with secret joy
the progress of their mutual destruction; and in the midst of the
Persian triumphs, he ventured to foretell, that before many years
should elapse, victory should again return to the banners of the
Romans. 69

63 (return) [ The genuine acts of St. Anastasius are published in
those of the with general council, from whence Baronius (Annal.
Eccles. A.D. 614, 626, 627) and Butler (Lives of the Saints, vol.
i. p. 242—248) have taken their accounts. The holy martyr
deserted from the Persian to the Roman army, became a monk at
Jerusalem, and insulted the worship of the Magi, which was then
established at Caesarea in Palestine.]

64 (return) [ Abulpharagius, Dynast. p. 99. Elmacin, Hist.
Saracen. p. 14.]

65 (return) [ D’Anville, Mem. de l’Academie des Inscriptions,
tom. xxxii. p. 568—571.]

66 (return) [ The difference between the two races consists in
one or two humps; the dromedary has only one; the size of the
proper camel is larger; the country he comes from, Turkistan or
Bactriana; the dromedary is confined to Arabia and Africa.
Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. xi. p. 211, &c. Aristot. Hist.
Animal. tom. i. l. ii. c. 1, tom. ii. p. 185.]

6611 (return) [ The ruins of these scenes of Khoosroo’s
magnificence have been visited by Sir R. K. Porter. At the ruins
of Tokht i Bostan, he saw a gorgeous picture of a hunt,
singularly illustrative of this passage. Travels, vol. ii. p.
204. Kisra Shirene, which he afterwards examined, appears to have
been the palace of Dastagerd. Vol. ii. p. 173—175.—M.]

67 (return) [ Theophanes, Chronograph. p. 268. D’Herbelot,
Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 997. The Greeks describe the decay,
the Persians the splendor, of Dastagerd; but the former speak
from the modest witness of the eye, the latter from the vague
report of the ear.]

68 (return) [ The historians of Mahomet, Abulfeda (in Vit.
Mohammed, p. 92, 93) and Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. ii. p.
247,) date this embassy in the viith year of the Hegira, which
commences A.D. 628, May 11. Their chronology is erroneous, since
Chosroes died in the month of February of the same year, (Pagi,
Critica, tom. ii. p. 779.) The count de Boulainvilliers (Vie de
Mahomed, p. 327, 328) places this embassy about A.D. 615, soon
after the conquest of Palestine. Yet Mahomet would scarcely have
ventured so soon on so bold a step.]

6811 (return) [ Khoosroo Purveez was encamped on the banks of the
Karasoo River when he received the letter of Mahomed. He tore the
letter and threw it into the Karasoo. For this action, the
moderate author of the Zeenut-ul-Tuarikh calls him a wretch, and
rejoices in all his subsequent misfortunes. These impressions
still exist. I remarked to a Persian, when encamped near the
Karasoo, in 1800, that the banks were very high, which must make
it difficult to apply its waters to irrigation. “It once
fertilized the whole country,” said the zealous Mahomedan, “but
its channel sunk with honor from its banks, when that madman,
Khoosroo, threw our holy Prophet’s letter into its stream; which
has ever since been accursed and useless.” Malcolm’s Persia, vol.
i. p. 126—M.]

69 (return) [ See the xxxth chapter of the Koran, entitled the
Greeks. Our honest and learned translator, Sale, (p. 330, 331,)
fairly states this conjecture, guess, wager, of Mahomet; but
Boulainvilliers, (p. 329—344,) with wicked intentions, labors to
establish this evident prophecy of a future event, which must, in
his opinion, embarrass the Christian polemics.]

At the time when this prediction is said to have been delivered,
no prophecy could be more distant from its accomplishment, since
the first twelve years of Heraclius announced the approaching
dissolution of the empire. If the motives of Chosroes had been
pure and honorable, he must have ended the quarrel with the death
of Phocas, and he would have embraced, as his best ally, the
fortunate African who had so generously avenged the injuries of
his benefactor Maurice. The prosecution of the war revealed the
true character of the Barbarian; and the suppliant embassies of
Heraclius to beseech his clemency, that he would spare the
innocent, accept a tribute, and give peace to the world, were
rejected with contemptuous silence or insolent menace. Syria,
Egypt, and the provinces of Asia, were subdued by the Persian
arms, while Europe, from the confines of Istria to the long wall
of Thrace, was oppressed by the Avars, unsatiated with the blood
and rapine of the Italian war. They had coolly massacred their
male captives in the sacred field of Pannonia; the women and
children were reduced to servitude, and the noblest virgins were
abandoned to the promiscuous lust of the Barbarians. The amorous
matron who opened the gates of Friuli passed a short night in the
arms of her royal lover; the next evening, Romilda was condemned
to the embraces of twelve Avars, and the third day the Lombard
princess was impaled in the sight of the camp, while the chagan
observed with a cruel smile, that such a husband was the fit
recompense of her lewdness and perfidy. 70 By these implacable
enemies, Heraclius, on either side, was insulted and besieged:
and the Roman empire was reduced to the walls of Constantinople,
with the remnant of Greece, Italy, and Africa, and some maritime
cities, from Tyre to Trebizond, of the Asiatic coast. After the
loss of Egypt, the capital was afflicted by famine and
pestilence; and the emperor, incapable of resistance, and
hopeless of relief, had resolved to transfer his person and
government to the more secure residence of Carthage. His ships
were already laden with the treasures of the palace; but his
flight was arrested by the patriarch, who armed the powers of
religion in the defence of his country; led Heraclius to the
altar of St. Sophia, and extorted a solemn oath, that he would
live and die with the people whom God had intrusted to his care.
The chagan was encamped in the plains of Thrace; but he
dissembled his perfidious designs, and solicited an interview
with the emperor near the town of Heraclea. Their reconciliation
was celebrated with equestrian games; the senate and people, in
their gayest apparel, resorted to the festival of peace; and the
Avars beheld, with envy and desire, the spectacle of Roman
luxury. On a sudden the hippodrome was encompassed by the
Scythian cavalry, who had pressed their secret and nocturnal
march: the tremendous sound of the chagan’s whip gave the signal
of the assault, and Heraclius, wrapping his diadem round his arm,
was saved with extreme hazard, by the fleetness of his horse. So
rapid was the pursuit, that the Avars almost entered the golden
gate of Constantinople with the flying crowds: 71 but the plunder
of the suburbs rewarded their treason, and they transported
beyond the Danube two hundred and seventy thousand captives. On
the shore of Chalcedon, the emperor held a safer conference with
a more honorable foe, who, before Heraclius descended from his
galley, saluted with reverence and pity the majesty of the
purple. The friendly offer of Sain, the Persian general, to
conduct an embassy to the presence of the great king, was
accepted with the warmest gratitude, and the prayer for pardon
and peace was humbly presented by the Praetorian præfect, the
præfect of the city, and one of the first ecclesiastics of the
patriarchal church. 72 But the lieutenant of Chosroes had fatally
mistaken the intentions of his master. “It was not an embassy,”
said the tyrant of Asia, “it was the person of Heraclius, bound
in chains, that he should have brought to the foot of my throne.
I will never give peace to the emperor of Rome, till he had
abjured his crucified God, and embraced the worship of the sun.”
Sain was flayed alive, according to the inhuman practice of his
country; and the separate and rigorous confinement of the
ambassadors violated the law of nations, and the faith of an
express stipulation. Yet the experience of six years at length
persuaded the Persian monarch to renounce the conquest of
Constantinople, and to specify the annual tribute or ransom of
the Roman empire; a thousand talents of gold, a thousand talents
of silver, a thousand silk robes, a thousand horses, and a
thousand virgins. Heraclius subscribed these ignominious terms;
but the time and space which he obtained to collect such
treasures from the poverty of the East, was industriously
employed in the preparations of a bold and desperate attack.

70 (return) [Footnote 70: Paul Warnefrid, de Gestis
Langobardorum, l. iv. c. 38, 42. Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom.
v. p. 305, &c.]

71 (return) [ The Paschal Chronicle, which sometimes introduces
fragments of history into a barren list of names and dates, gives
the best account of the treason of the Avars, p. 389, 390. The
number of captives is added by Nicephorus.]

72 (return) [ Some original pieces, such as the speech or letter
of the Roman ambassadors, (p. 386—388,) likewise constitute the
merit of the Paschal Chronicle, which was composed, perhaps at
Alexandria, under the reign of Heraclius.]

Of the characters conspicuous in history, that of Heraclius is
one of the most extraordinary and inconsistent. In the first and
last years of a long reign, the emperor appears to be the slave
of sloth, of pleasure, or of superstition, the careless and
impotent spectator of the public calamities. But the languid
mists of the morning and evening are separated by the brightness
of the meridian sun; the Arcadius of the palace arose the Caesar
of the camp; and the honor of Rome and Heraclius was gloriously
retrieved by the exploits and trophies of six adventurous
campaigns. It was the duty of the Byzantine historians to have
revealed the causes of his slumber and vigilance. At this
distance we can only conjecture, that he was endowed with more
personal courage than political resolution; that he was detained
by the charms, and perhaps the arts, of his niece Martina, with
whom, after the death of Eudocia, he contracted an incestuous
marriage; 73 and that he yielded to the base advice of the
counsellors, who urged, as a fundamental law, that the life of
the emperor should never be exposed in the field. 74 Perhaps he
was awakened by the last insolent demand of the Persian
conqueror; but at the moment when Heraclius assumed the spirit of
a hero, the only hopes of the Romans were drawn from the
vicissitudes of fortune, which might threaten the proud
prosperity of Chosroes, and must be favorable to those who had
attained the lowest period of depression. 75 To provide for the
expenses of war, was the first care of the emperor; and for the
purpose of collecting the tribute, he was allowed to solicit the
benevolence of the eastern provinces. But the revenue no longer
flowed in the usual channels; the credit of an arbitrary prince
is annihilated by his power; and the courage of Heraclius was
first displayed in daring to borrow the consecrated wealth of
churches, under the solemn vow of restoring, with usury, whatever
he had been compelled to employ in the service of religion and
the empire. The clergy themselves appear to have sympathized with
the public distress; and the discreet patriarch of Alexandria,
without admitting the precedent of sacrilege, assisted his
sovereign by the miraculous or seasonable revelation of a secret
treasure. 76 Of the soldiers who had conspired with Phocas, only
two were found to have survived the stroke of time and of the
Barbarians; 77 the loss, even of these seditious veterans, was
imperfectly supplied by the new levies of Heraclius, and the gold
of the sanctuary united, in the same camp, the names, and arms,
and languages of the East and West. He would have been content
with the neutrality of the Avars; and his friendly entreaty, that
the chagan would act, not as the enemy, but as the guardian, of
the empire, was accompanied with a more persuasive donative of
two hundred thousand pieces of gold. Two days after the festival
of Easter, the emperor, exchanging his purple for the simple garb
of a penitent and warrior, 78 gave the signal of his departure.
To the faith of the people Heraclius recommended his children;
the civil and military powers were vested in the most deserving
hands, and the discretion of the patriarch and senate was
authorized to save or surrender the city, if they should be
oppressed in his absence by the superior forces of the enemy.

73 (return) [Nicephorus, (p. 10, 11,) is happy to observe, that
of two sons, its incestuous fruit, the elder was marked by
Providence with a stiff neck, the younger with the loss of
hearing.]

74 (return) [ George of Pisidia, (Acroas. i. 112—125, p. 5,) who
states the opinions, acquits the pusillanimous counsellors of any
sinister views. Would he have excused the proud and contemptuous
admonition of Crispus?]

75 (return) [ George Pisid. Acroas. i. 51, &c. p: 4. The
Orientals are not less fond of remarking this strange
vicissitude; and I remember some story of Khosrou Parviz, not
very unlike the ring of Polycrates of Samos.]

76 (return) [ Baronius gravely relates this discovery, or rather
transmutation, of barrels, not of honey, but of gold, (Annal.
Eccles. A.D. 620, No. 3, &c.) Yet the loan was arbitrary, since
it was collected by soldiers, who were ordered to leave the
patriarch of Alexandria no more than one hundred pounds of gold.
Nicephorus, (p. 11,) two hundred years afterwards, speaks with
ill humor of this contribution, which the church of
Constantinople might still feel.]

77 (return) [ Theophylact Symocatta, l. viii. c. 12. This
circumstance need not excite our surprise. The muster-roll of a
regiment, even in time of peace, is renewed in less than twenty
or twenty-five years.]

78 (return) [ He changed his purple for black, buckskins, and
dyed them red in the blood of the Persians, (Georg. Pisid.
Acroas. iii. 118, 121, 122 See the notes of Foggini, p. 35.)]

The neighboring heights of Chalcedon were covered with tents and
arms: but if the new levies of Heraclius had been rashly led to
the attack, the victory of the Persians in the sight of
Constantinople might have been the last day of the Roman empire.
As imprudent would it have been to advance into the provinces of
Asia, leaving their innumerable cavalry to intercept his convoys,
and continually to hang on the lassitude and disorder of his
rear. But the Greeks were still masters of the sea; a fleet of
galleys, transports, and store-ships, was assembled in the
harbor; the Barbarians consented to embark; a steady wind carried
them through the Hellespont the western and southern coast of
Asia Minor lay on their left hand; the spirit of their chief was
first displayed in a storm, and even the eunuchs of his train
were excited to suffer and to work by the example of their
master. He landed his troops on the confines of Syria and
Cilicia, in the Gulf of Scanderoon, where the coast suddenly
turns to the south; 79 and his discernment was expressed in the
choice of this important post. 80 From all sides, the scattered
garrisons of the maritime cities and the mountains might repair
with speed and safety to his Imperial standard. The natural
fortifications of Cilicia protected, and even concealed, the camp
of Heraclius, which was pitched near Issus, on the same ground
where Alexander had vanquished the host of Darius. The angle
which the emperor occupied was deeply indented into a vast
semicircle of the Asiatic, Armenian, and Syrian provinces; and to
whatsoever point of the circumference he should direct his
attack, it was easy for him to dissemble his own motions, and to
prevent those of the enemy. In the camp of Issus, the Roman
general reformed the sloth and disorder of the veterans, and
educated the new recruits in the knowledge and practice of
military virtue. Unfolding the miraculous image of Christ, he
urged them to revenge the holy altars which had been profaned by
the worshippers of fire; addressing them by the endearing
appellations of sons and brethren, he deplored the public and
private wrongs of the republic. The subjects of a monarch were
persuaded that they fought in the cause of freedom; and a similar
enthusiasm was communicated to the foreign mercenaries, who must
have viewed with equal indifference the interest of Rome and of
Persia. Heraclius himself, with the skill and patience of a
centurion, inculcated the lessons of the school of tactics, and
the soldiers were assiduously trained in the use of their
weapons, and the exercises and evolutions of the field. The
cavalry and infantry in light or heavy armor were divided into
two parties; the trumpets were fixed in the centre, and their
signals directed the march, the charge, the retreat or pursuit;
the direct or oblique order, the deep or extended phalanx; to
represent in fictitious combat the operations of genuine war.
Whatever hardships the emperor imposed on the troops, he
inflicted with equal severity on himself; their labor, their
diet, their sleep, were measured by the inflexible rules of
discipline; and, without despising the enemy, they were taught to
repose an implicit confidence in their own valor and the wisdom
of their leader. Cilicia was soon encompassed with the Persian
arms; but their cavalry hesitated to enter the defiles of Mount
Taurus, till they were circumvented by the evolutions of
Heraclius, who insensibly gained their rear, whilst he appeared
to present his front in order of battle. By a false motion, which
seemed to threaten Armenia, he drew them, against their wishes,
to a general action. They were tempted by the artful disorder of
his camp; but when they advanced to combat, the ground, the sun,
and the expectation of both armies, were unpropitious to the
Barbarians; the Romans successfully repeated their tactics in a
field of battle, 81 and the event of the day declared to the
world, that the Persians were not invincible, and that a hero was
invested with the purple. Strong in victory and fame, Heraclius
boldly ascended the heights of Mount Taurus, directed his march
through the plains of Cappadocia, and established his troops, for
the winter season, in safe and plentiful quarters on the banks of
the River Halys. 82 His soul was superior to the vanity of
entertaining Constantinople with an imperfect triumph; but the
presence of the emperor was indispensably required to soothe the
restless and rapacious spirit of the Avars.

79 (return) [ George of Pisidia, (Acroas. ii. 10, p. 8) has fixed
this important point of the Syrian and Cilician gates. They are
elegantly described by Xenophon, who marched through them a
thousand years before. A narrow pass of three stadia between
steep, high rocks, and the Mediterranean, was closed at each end
by strong gates, impregnable to the land, accessible by sea,
(Anabasis, l. i. p. 35, 36, with Hutchinson’s Geographical
Dissertation, p. vi.) The gates were thirty-five parasangs, or
leagues, from Tarsus, (Anabasis, l. i. p. 33, 34,) and eight or
ten from Antioch. Compare Itinerar. Wesseling, p. 580, 581.
Schultens, Index Geograph. ad calcem Vit. Saladin. p. 9. Voyage
en Turquie et en Perse, par M. Otter, tom. i. p. 78, 79.]

80 (return) [ Heraclius might write to a friend in the modest
words of Cicero: “Castra habuimus ea ipsa quae contra Darium
habuerat apud Issum Alexander, imperator haud paulo melior quam
aut tu aut ego.” Ad Atticum, v. 20. Issus, a rich and flourishing
city in the time of Xenophon, was ruined by the prosperity of
Alexandria or Scanderoon, on the other side of the bay.]

81 (return) [ Foggini (Annotat. p. 31) suspects that the Persians
were deceived by the of Aelian, (Tactic. c. 48,) an intricate
spiral motion of the army. He observes (p. 28) that the military
descriptions of George of Pisidia are transcribed in the Tactics
of the emperor Leo.]

82 (return) [ George of Pisidia, an eye-witness, (Acroas. ii.
122, &c.,) described in three acroaseis, or cantos, the first
expedition of Heraclius. The poem has been lately (1777)
published at Rome; but such vague and declamatory praise is far
from corresponding with the sanguine hopes of Pagi, D’Anville,
&c.]

Since the days of Scipio and Hannibal, no bolder enterprise has
been attempted than that which Heraclius achieved for the
deliverance of the empire. 83 He permitted the Persians to
oppress for a while the provinces, and to insult with impunity
the capital of the East; while the Roman emperor explored his
perilous way through the Black Sea, 84 and the mountains of
Armenia, penetrated into the heart of Persia, 85 and recalled the
armies of the great king to the defence of their bleeding
country. With a select band of five thousand soldiers, Heraclius
sailed from Constantinople to Trebizond; assembled his forces
which had wintered in the Pontic regions; and, from the mouth of
the Phasis to the Caspian Sea, encouraged his subjects and allies
to march with the successor of Constantine under the faithful and
victorious banner of the cross. When the legions of Lucullus and
Pompey first passed the Euphrates, they blushed at their easy
victory over the natives of Armenia. But the long experience of
war had hardened the minds and bodies of that effeminate peeple;
their zeal and bravery were approved in the service of a
declining empire; they abhorred and feared the usurpation of the
house of Sassan, and the memory of persecution envenomed their
pious hatred of the enemies of Christ. The limits of Armenia, as
it had been ceded to the emperor Maurice, extended as far as the
Araxes: the river submitted to the indignity of a bridge, 86 and
Heraclius, in the footsteps of Mark Antony, advanced towards the
city of Tauris or Gandzaca, 87 the ancient and modern capital of
one of the provinces of Media. At the head of forty thousand men,
Chosroes himself had returned from some distant expedition to
oppose the progress of the Roman arms; but he retreated on the
approach of Heraclius, declining the generous alternative of
peace or of battle. Instead of half a million of inhabitants,
which have been ascribed to Tauris under the reign of the Sophys,
the city contained no more than three thousand houses; but the
value of the royal treasures was enhanced by a tradition, that
they were the spoils of Croesus, which had been transported by
Cyrus from the citadel of Sardes. The rapid conquests of
Heraclius were suspended only by the winter season; a motive of
prudence, or superstition, 88 determined his retreat into the
province of Albania, along the shores of the Caspian; and his
tents were most probably pitched in the plains of Mogan, 89 the
favorite encampment of Oriental princes. In the course of this
successful inroad, he signalized the zeal and revenge of a
Christian emperor: at his command, the soldiers extinguished the
fire, and destroyed the temples, of the Magi; the statues of
Chosroes, who aspired to divine honors, were abandoned to the
flames; and the ruins of Thebarma or Ormia, 90 which had given
birth to Zoroaster himself, made some atonement for the injuries
of the holy sepulchre. A purer spirit of religion was shown in
the relief and deliverance of fifty thousand captives. Heraclius
was rewarded by their tears and grateful acclamations; but this
wise measure, which spread the fame of his benevolence, diffused
the murmurs of the Persians against the pride and obstinacy of
their own sovereign.

83 (return) [Footnote 83: Theophanes (p. 256) carries Heraclius
swiftly into Armenia. Nicephorus, (p. 11,) though he confounds
the two expeditions, defines the province of Lazica. Eutychius
(Annal. tom. ii. p. 231) has given the 5000 men, with the more
probable station of Trebizond.]

84 (return) [ From Constantinople to Trebizond, with a fair wind,
four or five days; from thence to Erzerom, five; to Erivan,
twelve; to Taurus, ten; in all, thirty-two. Such is the Itinerary
of Tavernier, (Voyages, tom. i. p. 12—56,) who was perfectly
conversant with the roads of Asia. Tournefort, who travelled with
a pacha, spent ten or twelve days between Trebizond and Erzerom,
(Voyage du Levant, tom. iii. lettre xviii.;) and Chardin
(Voyages, tom. i. p. 249—254) gives the more correct distance of
fifty-three parasangs, each of 5000 paces, (what paces?) between
Erivan and Tauris.]

85 (return) [ The expedition of Heraclius into Persia is finely
illustrated by M. D’Anville, (Memoires de l’Academie des
Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 559—573.) He discovers the
situation of Gandzaca, Thebarma, Dastagerd, &c., with admirable
skill and learning; but the obscure campaign of 624 he passes
over in silence.]

86 (return) [ Et pontem indignatus Araxes.—Virgil, Aeneid, viii.
728. The River Araxes is noisy, rapid, vehement, and, with the
melting of the snows, irresistible: the strongest and most massy
bridges are swept away by the current; and its indignation is
attested by the ruins of many arches near the old town of Zulfa.
Voyages de Chardin, tom. i. p. 252.]

87 (return) [ Chardin, tom. i. p. 255—259. With the Orientals,
(D’Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. p. 834,) he ascribes the
foundation of Tauris, or Tebris, to Zobeide, the wife of the
famous Khalif Haroun Alrashid; but it appears to have been more
ancient; and the names of Gandzaca, Gazaca, Gaza, are expressive
of the royal treasure. The number of 550,000 inhabitants is
reduced by Chardin from 1,100,000, the popular estimate.]

88 (return) [ He opened the gospel, and applied or interpreted
the first casual passage to the name and situation of Albania.
Theophanes, p. 258.]

89 (return) [ The heath of Mogan, between the Cyrus and the
Araxes, is sixty parasangs in length and twenty in breadth,
(Olearius, p. 1023, 1024,) abounding in waters and fruitful
pastures, (Hist. de Nadir Shah, translated by Mr. Jones from a
Persian Ms., part ii. p. 2, 3.) See the encampments of Timur,
(Hist. par Sherefeddin Ali, l. v. c. 37, l. vi. c. 13,) and the
coronation of Nadir Shah, (Hist. Persanne, p. 3—13 and the
English Life by Mr. Jones, p. 64, 65.)]

90 (return) [ Thebarma and Ormia, near the Lake Spauta, are
proved to be the same city by D’Anville, (Memoires de l’Academie,
tom. xxviii. p. 564, 565.) It is honored as the birthplace of
Zoroaster, according to the Persians, (Schultens, Index Geograph.
p. 48;) and their tradition is fortified by M. Perron d’Anquetil,
(Mem. de l’Acad. des Inscript. tom. xxxi. p. 375,) with some
texts from his, or their, Zendavesta. * Note: D’Anville (Mem. de
l’Acad. des Inscript. tom. xxxii. p. 560) labored to prove the
identity of these two cities; but according to M. St. Martin,
vol. xi. p. 97, not with perfect success. Ourmiah. called Ariema
in the ancient Pehlvi books, is considered, both by the followers
of Zoroaster and by the Mahometans, as his birthplace. It is
situated in the southern part of Aderbidjan.—M.]