Chapter XLVI: Troubles In Persia.—Part IV

Amidst the glories of the succeeding campaign, Heraclius is
almost lost to our eyes, and to those of the Byzantine
historians. 91 From the spacious and fruitful plains of Albania,
the emperor appears to follow the chain of Hyrcanian Mountains,
to descend into the province of Media or Irak, and to carry his
victorious arms as far as the royal cities of Casbin and Ispahan,
which had never been approached by a Roman conqueror. Alarmed by
the danger of his kingdom, the powers of Chosroes were already
recalled from the Nile and the Bosphorus, and three formidable
armies surrounded, in a distant and hostile land, the camp of the
emperor. The Colchian allies prepared to desert his standard; and
the fears of the bravest veterans were expressed, rather than
concealed, by their desponding silence. “Be not terrified,” said
the intrepid Heraclius, “by the multitude of your foes. With the
aid of Heaven, one Roman may triumph over a thousand Barbarians.
But if we devote our lives for the salvation of our brethren, we
shall obtain the crown of martyrdom, and our immortal reward will
be liberally paid by God and posterity.” These magnanimous
sentiments were supported by the vigor of his actions. He
repelled the threefold attack of the Persians, improved the
divisions of their chiefs, and, by a well-concerted train of
marches, retreats, and successful actions, finally chased them
from the field into the fortified cities of Media and Assyria. In
the severity of the winter season, Sarbaraza deemed himself
secure in the walls of Salban: he was surprised by the activity
of Heraclius, who divided his troops, and performed a laborious
march in the silence of the night. The flat roofs of the houses
were defended with useless valor against the darts and torches of
the Romans: the satraps and nobles of Persia, with their wives
and children, and the flower of their martial youth, were either
slain or made prisoners. The general escaped by a precipitate
flight, but his golden armor was the prize of the conqueror; and
the soldiers of Heraclius enjoyed the wealth and repose which
they had so nobly deserved. On the return of spring, the emperor
traversed in seven days the mountains of Curdistan, and passed
without resistance the rapid stream of the Tigris. Oppressed by
the weight of their spoils and captives, the Roman army halted
under the walls of Amida; and Heraclius informed the senate of
Constantinople of his safety and success, which they had already
felt by the retreat of the besiegers. The bridges of the
Euphrates were destroyed by the Persians; but as soon as the
emperor had discovered a ford, they hastily retired to defend the
banks of the Sarus, 92 in Cilicia. That river, an impetuous
torrent, was about three hundred feet broad; the bridge was
fortified with strong turrets; and the banks were lined with
Barbarian archers. After a bloody conflict, which continued till
the evening, the Romans prevailed in the assault; and a Persian
of gigantic size was slain and thrown into the Sarus by the hand
of the emperor himself. The enemies were dispersed and dismayed;
Heraclius pursued his march to Sebaste in Cappadocia; and at the
expiration of three years, the same coast of the Euxine applauded
his return from a long and victorious expedition. 93

91 (return) [ I cannot find, and (what is much more,) M.
D’Anville does not attempt to seek, the Salban, Tarantum,
territory of the Huns, &c., mentioned by Theophanes, (p.
260-262.) Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p. 231, 232,) an
insufficient author, names Asphahan; and Casbin is most probably
the city of Sapor. Ispahan is twenty-four days’ journey from
Tauris, and Casbin half way between, them (Voyages de Tavernier,
tom. i. p. 63—82.)]

92 (return) [ At ten parasangs from Tarsus, the army of the
younger Cyrus passed the Sarus, three plethra in breadth: the
Pyramus, a stadium in breadth, ran five parasangs farther to the
east, (Xenophon, Anabas. l. i. p 33, 34.) Note: Now the
Sihan.—M.]

93 (return) [ George of Pisidia (Bell. Abaricum, 246—265, p. 49)
celebrates with truth the persevering courage of the three
campaigns against the Persians.]

Instead of skirmishing on the frontier, the two monarchs who
disputed the empire of the East aimed their desperate strokes at
the heart of their rival. The military force of Persia was wasted
by the marches and combats of twenty years, and many of the
veterans, who had survived the perils of the sword and the
climate, were still detained in the fortresses of Egypt and
Syria. But the revenge and ambition of Chosroes exhausted his
kingdom; and the new levies of subjects, strangers, and slaves,
were divided into three formidable bodies. 94 The first army of
fifty thousand men, illustrious by the ornament and title of the
golden spears, was destined to march against Heraclius; the
second was stationed to prevent his junction with the troops of
his brother Theodorus; and the third was commanded to besiege
Constantinople, and to second the operations of the chagan, with
whom the Persian king had ratified a treaty of alliance and
partition. Sarbar, the general of the third army, penetrated
through the provinces of Asia to the well-known camp of
Chalcedon, and amused himself with the destruction of the sacred
and profane buildings of the Asiatic suburbs, while he
impatiently waited the arrival of his Scythian friends on the
opposite side of the Bosphorus. On the twenty-ninth of June,
thirty thousand Barbarians, the vanguard of the Avars, forced the
long wall, and drove into the capital a promiscuous crowd of
peasants, citizens, and soldiers. Fourscore thousand 95 of his
native subjects, and of the vassal tribes of Gepidae, Russians,
Bulgarians, and Sclavonians, advanced under the standard of the
chagan; a month was spent in marches and negotiations, but the
whole city was invested on the thirty-first of July, from the
suburbs of Pera and Galata to the Blachernae and seven towers;
and the inhabitants descried with terror the flaming signals of
the European and Asiatic shores. In the mean while, the
magistrates of Constantinople repeatedly strove to purchase the
retreat of the chagan; but their deputies were rejected and
insulted; and he suffered the patricians to stand before his
throne, while the Persian envoys, in silk robes, were seated by
his side. “You see,” said the haughty Barbarian, “the proofs of
my perfect union with the great king; and his lieutenant is ready
to send into my camp a select band of three thousand warriors.
Presume no longer to tempt your master with a partial and
inadequate ransom: your wealth and your city are the only
presents worthy of my acceptance. For yourselves, I shall permit
you to depart, each with an under-garment and a shirt; and, at my
entreaty, my friend Sarbar will not refuse a passage through his
lines. Your absent prince, even now a captive or a fugitive, has
left Constantinople to its fate; nor can you escape the arms of
the Avars and Persians, unless you could soar into the air like
birds, unless like fishes you could dive into the waves.” 96
During ten successive days, the capital was assaulted by the
Avars, who had made some progress in the science of attack; they
advanced to sap or batter the wall, under the cover of the
impenetrable tortoise; their engines discharged a perpetual
volley of stones and darts; and twelve lofty towers of wood
exalted the combatants to the height of the neighboring ramparts.

But the senate and people were animated by the spirit of
Heraclius, who had detached to their relief a body of twelve
thousand cuirassiers; the powers of fire and mechanics were used
with superior art and success in the defence of Constantinople;
and the galleys, with two and three ranks of oars, commanded the
Bosphorus, and rendered the Persians the idle spectators of the
defeat of their allies. The Avars were repulsed; a fleet of
Sclavonian canoes was destroyed in the harbor; the vassals of the
chagan threatened to desert, his provisions were exhausted, and
after burning his engines, he gave the signal of a slow and
formidable retreat. The devotion of the Romans ascribed this
signal deliverance to the Virgin Mary; but the mother of Christ
would surely have condemned their inhuman murder of the Persian
envoys, who were entitled to the rights of humanity, if they were
not protected by the laws of nations. 97

94 (return) [ Petavius (Annotationes ad Nicephorum, p. 62, 63,
64) discriminates the names and actions of five Persian generals
who were successively sent against Heraclius.]

95 (return) [ This number of eight myriads is specified by George
of Pisidia, (Bell. Abar. 219.) The poet (50—88) clearly indicates
that the old chagan lived till the reign of Heraclius, and that
his son and successor was born of a foreign mother. Yet Foggini
(Annotat. p. 57) has given another interpretation to this
passage.]

96 (return) [ A bird, a frog, a mouse, and five arrows, had been
the present of the Scythian king to Darius, (Herodot. l. iv. c.
131, 132.) Substituez une lettre a ces signes (says Rousseau,
with much good taste) plus elle sera menacante moins elle
effrayera; ce ne sera qu’une fanfarronade dont Darius n’eut fait
que rire, (Emile, tom. iii. p. 146.) Yet I much question whether
the senate and people of Constantinople laughed at this message
of the chagan.]

97 (return) [ The Paschal Chronicle (p. 392—397) gives a minute
and authentic narrative of the siege and deliverance of
Constantinople Theophanes (p. 264) adds some circumstances; and a
faint light may be obtained from the smoke of George of Pisidia,
who has composed a poem (de Bello Abarico, p. 45—54) to
commemorate this auspicious event.]

After the division of his army, Heraclius prudently retired to
the banks of the Phasis, from whence he maintained a defensive
war against the fifty thousand gold spears of Persia. His anxiety
was relieved by the deliverance of Constantinople; his hopes were
confirmed by a victory of his brother Theodorus; and to the
hostile league of Chosroes with the Avars, the Roman emperor
opposed the useful and honorable alliance of the Turks. At his
liberal invitation, the horde of Chozars 98 transported their
tents from the plains of the Volga to the mountains of Georgia;
Heraclius received them in the neighborhood of Teflis, and the
khan with his nobles dismounted from their horses, if we may
credit the Greeks, and fell prostrate on the ground, to adore the
purple of the Caesars. Such voluntary homage and important aid
were entitled to the warmest acknowledgments; and the emperor,
taking off his own diadem, placed it on the head of the Turkish
prince, whom he saluted with a tender embrace and the appellation
of son. After a sumptuous banquet, he presented Ziebel with the
plate and ornaments, the gold, the gems, and the silk, which had
been used at the Imperial table, and, with his own hand,
distributed rich jewels and ear-rings to his new allies. In a
secret interview, he produced the portrait of his daughter
Eudocia, 99 condescended to flatter the Barbarian with the
promise of a fair and august bride; obtained an immediate succor
of forty thousand horse, and negotiated a strong diversion of the
Turkish arms on the side of the Oxus. 100 The Persians, in their
turn, retreated with precipitation; in the camp of Edessa,
Heraclius reviewed an army of seventy thousand Romans and
strangers; and some months were successfully employed in the
recovery of the cities of Syria, Mesopotamia and Armenia, whose
fortifications had been imperfectly restored. Sarbar still
maintained the important station of Chalcedon; but the jealousy
of Chosroes, or the artifice of Heraclius, soon alienated the
mind of that powerful satrap from the service of his king and
country. A messenger was intercepted with a real or fictitious
mandate to the cadarigan, or second in command, directing him to
send, without delay, to the throne, the head of a guilty or
unfortunate general. The despatches were transmitted to Sarbar
himself; and as soon as he read the sentence of his own death, he
dexterously inserted the names of four hundred officers,
assembled a military council, and asked the cadarigan whether he
was prepared to execute the commands of their tyrant. The
Persians unanimously declared, that Chosroes had forfeited the
sceptre; a separate treaty was concluded with the government of
Constantinople; and if some considerations of honor or policy
restrained Sarbar from joining the standard of Heraclius, the
emperor was assured that he might prosecute, without
interruption, his designs of victory and peace.

98 (return) [ The power of the Chozars prevailed in the viith,
viiith, and ixth centuries. They were known to the Greeks, the
Arabs, and under the name of Kosa, to the Chinese themselves. De
Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. part ii. p. 507—509. * Note:
Moses of Chorene speaks of an invasion of Armenia by the Khazars
in the second century, l. ii. c. 62. M. St. Martin suspects them
to be the same with the Hunnish nation of the Acatires or
Agazzires. They are called by the Greek historians Eastern Turks;
like the Madjars and other Hunnish or Finnish tribes, they had
probably received some admixture from the genuine Turkish races.
Ibn. Hankal (Oriental Geography) says that their language was
like the Bulgarian, and considers them a people of Finnish or
Hunnish race. Klaproth, Tabl. Hist. p. 268-273. Abel Remusat,
Rech. sur les Langues Tartares, tom. i. p. 315, 316. St. Martin,
vol. xi. p. 115.—M]

99 (return) [ Epiphania, or Eudocia, the only daughter of
Heraclius and his first wife Eudocia, was born at Constantinople
on the 7th of July, A.D. 611, baptized the 15th of August, and
crowned (in the oratory of St. Stephen in the palace) the 4th of
October of the same year. At this time she was about fifteen.
Eudocia was afterwards sent to her Turkish husband, but the news
of his death stopped her journey, and prevented the consummation,
(Ducange, Familiae Byzantin. p. 118.)]

100 (return) [ Elmcain (Hist. Saracen. p. 13—16) gives some
curious and probable facts; but his numbers are rather too
high—300,000 Romans assembled at Edessa—500,000 Persians killed
at Nineveh. The abatement of a cipher is scarcely enough to
restore his sanity]

Deprived of his firmest support, and doubtful of the fidelity of
his subjects, the greatness of Chosroes was still conspicuous in
its ruins. The number of five hundred thousand may be interpreted
as an Oriental metaphor, to describe the men and arms, the horses
and elephants, that covered Media and Assyria against the
invasion of Heraclius. Yet the Romans boldly advanced from the
Araxes to the Tigris, and the timid prudence of Rhazates was
content to follow them by forced marches through a desolate
country, till he received a peremptory mandate to risk the fate
of Persia in a decisive battle. Eastward of the Tigris, at the
end of the bridge of Mosul, the great Nineveh had formerly been
erected: 101 the city, and even the ruins of the city, had long
since disappeared; 102 the vacant space afforded a spacious field
for the operations of the two armies. But these operations are
neglected by the Byzantine historians, and, like the authors of
epic poetry and romance, they ascribe the victory, not to the
military conduct, but to the personal valor, of their favorite
hero. On this memorable day, Heraclius, on his horse Phallas,
surpassed the bravest of his warriors: his lip was pierced with a
spear; the steed was wounded in the thigh; but he carried his
master safe and victorious through the triple phalanx of the
Barbarians. In the heat of the action, three valiant chiefs were
successively slain by the sword and lance of the emperor: among
these was Rhazates himself; he fell like a soldier, but the sight
of his head scattered grief and despair through the fainting
ranks of the Persians. His armor of pure and massy gold, the
shield of one hundred and twenty plates, the sword and belt, the
saddle and cuirass, adorned the triumph of Heraclius; and if he
had not been faithful to Christ and his mother, the champion of
Rome might have offered the fourth opime spoils to the Jupiter of
the Capitol. 103 In the battle of Nineveh, which was fiercely
fought from daybreak to the eleventh hour, twenty-eight
standards, besides those which might be broken or torn, were
taken from the Persians; the greatest part of their army was cut
in pieces, and the victors, concealing their own loss, passed the
night on the field. They acknowledged, that on this occasion it
was less difficult to kill than to discomfit the soldiers of
Chosroes; amidst the bodies of their friends, no more than two
bow-shot from the enemy the remnant of the Persian cavalry stood
firm till the seventh hour of the night; about the eighth hour
they retired to their unrifled camp, collected their baggage, and
dispersed on all sides, from the want of orders rather than of
resolution. The diligence of Heraclius was not less admirable in
the use of victory; by a march of forty-eight miles in
four-and-twenty hours, his vanguard occupied the bridges of the
great and the lesser Zab; and the cities and palaces of Assyria
were open for the first time to the Romans. By a just gradation
of magnificent scenes, they penetrated to the royal seat of
Dastagerd, 1031 and, though much of the treasure had been
removed, and much had been expended, the remaining wealth appears
to have exceeded their hopes, and even to have satiated their
avarice. Whatever could not be easily transported, they consumed
with fire, that Chosroes might feel the anguish of those wounds
which he had so often inflicted on the provinces of the empire:
and justice might allow the excuse, if the desolation had been
confined to the works of regal luxury, if national hatred,
military license, and religious zeal, had not wasted with equal
rage the habitations and the temples of the guiltless subject.
The recovery of three hundred Roman standards, and the
deliverance of the numerous captives of Edessa and Alexandria,
reflect a purer glory on the arms of Heraclius. From the palace
of Dastagerd, he pursued his march within a few miles of Modain
or Ctesiphon, till he was stopped, on the banks of the Arba, by
the difficulty of the passage, the rigor of the season, and
perhaps the fame of an impregnable capital. The return of the
emperor is marked by the modern name of the city of Sherhzour: he
fortunately passed Mount Zara, before the snow, which fell
incessantly thirty-four days; and the citizens of Gandzca, or
Tauris, were compelled to entertain the soldiers and their horses
with a hospitable reception. 104

101 (return) [ Ctesias (apud Didor. Sicul. tom. i. l. ii. p. 115,
edit. Wesseling) assigns 480 stadia (perhaps only 32 miles) for
the circumference of Nineveh. Jonas talks of three days’ journey:
the 120,000 persons described by the prophet as incapable of
discerning their right hand from their left, may afford about
700,000 persons of all ages for the inhabitants of that ancient
capital, (Goguet, Origines des Loix, &c., tom. iii. part i. p.
92, 93,) which ceased to exist 600 years before Christ. The
western suburb still subsisted, and is mentioned under the name
of Mosul in the first age of the Arabian khalifs.]

102 (return) [ Niebuhr (Voyage en Arabie, &c., tom. ii. p. 286)
passed over Nineveh without perceiving it. He mistook for a ridge
of hills the old rampart of brick or earth. It is said to have
been 100 feet high, flanked with 1500 towers, each of the height
of 200 feet.]

103 (return) [ Rex regia arma fero (says Romulus, in the first
consecration).... bina postea (continues Livy, i. 10) inter tot
bella, opima parta sunt spolia, adeo rara ejus fortuna decoris.
If Varro (apud Pomp Festum, p. 306, edit. Dacier) could justify
his liberality in granting the opime spoils even to a common
soldier who had slain the king or general of the enemy, the honor
would have been much more cheap and common]

1031 (return) [ Macdonald Kinneir places Dastagerd at Kasr e
Shirin, the palace of Sira on the banks of the Diala between
Holwan and Kanabee. Kinnets Geograph. Mem. p. 306.—M.]

104 (return) [ In describing this last expedition of Heraclius,
the facts, the places, and the dates of Theophanes (p. 265—271)
are so accurate and authentic, that he must have followed the
original letters of the emperor, of which the Paschal Chronicle
has preserved (p. 398—402) a very curious specimen.]

When the ambition of Chosroes was reduced to the defence of his
hereditary kingdom, the love of glory, or even the sense of
shame, should have urged him to meet his rival in the field. In
the battle of Nineveh, his courage might have taught the Persians
to vanquish, or he might have fallen with honor by the lance of a
Roman emperor. The successor of Cyrus chose rather, at a secure
distance, to expect the event, to assemble the relics of the
defeat, and to retire, by measured steps, before the march of
Heraclius, till he beheld with a sigh the once loved mansions of
Dastagerd. Both his friends and enemies were persuaded, that it
was the intention of Chosroes to bury himself under the ruins of
the city and palace: and as both might have been equally adverse
to his flight, the monarch of Asia, with Sira, 1041 and three
concubines, escaped through a hole in the wall nine days before
the arrival of the Romans. The slow and stately procession in
which he showed himself to the prostrate crowd, was changed to a
rapid and secret journey; and the first evening he lodged in the
cottage of a peasant, whose humble door would scarcely give
admittance to the great king. 105 His superstition was subdued by
fear: on the third day, he entered with joy the fortifications of
Ctesiphon; yet he still doubted of his safety till he had opposed
the River Tigris to the pursuit of the Romans. The discovery of
his flight agitated with terror and tumult the palace, the city,
and the camp of Dastagerd: the satraps hesitated whether they had
most to fear from their sovereign or the enemy; and the females
of the harem were astonished and pleased by the sight of mankind,
till the jealous husband of three thousand wives again confined
them to a more distant castle. At his command, the army of
Dastagerd retreated to a new camp: the front was covered by the
Arba, and a line of two hundred elephants; the troops of the more
distant provinces successively arrived, and the vilest domestics
of the king and satraps were enrolled for the last defence of the
throne. It was still in the power of Chosroes to obtain a
reasonable peace; and he was repeatedly pressed by the messengers
of Heraclius to spare the blood of his subjects, and to relieve a
humane conqueror from the painful duty of carrying fire and sword
through the fairest countries of Asia. But the pride of the
Persian had not yet sunk to the level of his fortune; he derived
a momentary confidence from the retreat of the emperor; he wept
with impotent rage over the ruins of his Assyrian palaces, and
disregarded too long the rising murmurs of the nation, who
complained that their lives and fortunes were sacrificed to the
obstinacy of an old man. That unhappy old man was himself
tortured with the sharpest pains both of mind and body; and, in
the consciousness of his approaching end, he resolved to fix the
tiara on the head of Merdaza, the most favored of his sons. But
the will of Chosroes was no longer revered, and Siroes, 1051 who
gloried in the rank and merit of his mother Sira, had conspired
with the malcontents to assert and anticipate the rights of
primogeniture. 106 Twenty-two satraps (they styled themselves
patriots) were tempted by the wealth and honors of a new reign:
to the soldiers, the heir of Chosroes promised an increase of
pay; to the Christians, the free exercise of their religion; to
the captives, liberty and rewards; and to the nation, instant
peace and the reduction of taxes. It was determined by the
conspirators, that Siroes, with the ensigns of royalty, should
appear in the camp; and if the enterprise should fail, his escape
was contrived to the Imperial court. But the new monarch was
saluted with unanimous acclamations; the flight of Chosroes (yet
where could he have fled?) was rudely arrested, eighteen sons
were massacred 1061 before his face, and he was thrown into a
dungeon, where he expired on the fifth day. The Greeks and modern
Persians minutely describe how Chosroes was insulted, and
famished, and tortured, by the command of an inhuman son, who so
far surpassed the example of his father: but at the time of his
death, what tongue would relate the story of the parricide? what
eye could penetrate into the tower of darkness? According to the
faith and mercy of his Christian enemies, he sunk without hope
into a still deeper abyss; 107 and it will not be denied, that
tyrants of every age and sect are the best entitled to such
infernal abodes. The glory of the house of Sassan ended with the
life of Chosroes: his unnatural son enjoyed only eight months the
fruit of his crimes: and in the space of four years, the regal
title was assumed by nine candidates, who disputed, with the
sword or dagger, the fragments of an exhausted monarchy. Every
province, and each city of Persia, was the scene of independence,
of discord, and of blood; and the state of anarchy prevailed
about eight years longer, 1071 till the factions were silenced
and united under the common yoke of the Arabian caliphs. 108

1041 (return) [ The Schirin of Persian poetry. The love of Chosru
and Schirin rivals in Persian romance that of Joseph with Zuleika
the wife of Potiphar, of Solomon with the queen of Sheba, and
that of Mejnoun and Leila. The number of Persian poems on the
subject may be seen in M. von Hammer’s preface to his poem of
Schirin.—M]

105 (return) [ The words of Theophanes are remarkable. Young
princes who discover a propensity to war should repeatedly
transcribe and translate such salutary texts.]

1051 (return) [ His name was Kabad (as appears from an official
letter in the Paschal Chronicle, p. 402.) St. Martin considers
the name Siroes, Schirquieh of Schirwey, derived from the word
schir, royal. St. Martin, xi. 153.—M.]

106 (return) [ The authentic narrative of the fall of Chosroes is
contained in the letter of Heraclius (Chron. Paschal. p. 398) and
the history of Theophanes, (p. 271.)]

1061 (return) [ According to Le Beau, this massacre was
perpetrated at Mahuza in Babylonia, not in the presence of
Chosroes. The Syrian historian, Thomas of Maraga, gives Chosroes
twenty-four sons; Mirkhond, (translated by De Sacy,) fifteen; the
inedited Modjmel-alte-warikh, agreeing with Gibbon, eighteen,
with their names. Le Beau and St. Martin, xi. 146.—M.]

107 (return) [ On the first rumor of the death of Chosroes, an
Heracliad in two cantos was instantly published at Constantinople
by George of Pisidia, (p. 97—105.) A priest and a poet might very
properly exult in the damnation of the public enemy but such mean
revenge is unworthy of a king and a conqueror; and I am sorry to
find so much black superstition in the letter of Heraclius: he
almost applauds the parricide of Siroes as an act of piety and
justice. * Note: The Mahometans show no more charity towards the
memory of Chosroes or Khoosroo Purveez. All his reverses are
ascribed to the just indignation of God, upon a monarch who had
dared, with impious and accursed hands, to tear the letter of the
Holy Prophet Mahomed. Compare note, p. 231.—M.]

1071 (return) [ Yet Gibbon himself places the flight and death of
Yesdegird Ill., the last king of Persia, in 651. The famous era
of Yesdegird dates from his accession, June 16 632.—M.]

108 (return) [ The best Oriental accounts of this last period of
the Sassanian kings are found in Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p.
251—256,) who dissembles the parricide of Siroes, D’Herbelot
(Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 789,) and Assemanni, (Bibliothec.
Oriental. tom. iii. p. 415—420.)]

As soon as the mountains became passable, the emperor received
the welcome news of the success of the conspiracy, the death of
Chosroes, and the elevation of his eldest son to the throne of
Persia. The authors of the revolution, eager to display their
merits in the court or camp of Tauris, preceded the ambassadors
of Siroes, who delivered the letters of their master to his
brother the emperor of the Romans. 109 In the language of the
usurpers of every age, he imputes his own crimes to the Deity,
and, without degrading his equal majesty, he offers to reconcile
the long discord of the two nations, by a treaty of peace and
alliance more durable than brass or iron. The conditions of the
treaty were easily defined and faithfully executed. In the
recovery of the standards and prisoners which had fallen into the
hands of the Persians, the emperor imitated the example of
Augustus: their care of the national dignity was celebrated by
the poets of the times, but the decay of genius may be measured
by the distance between Horace and George of Pisidia: the
subjects and brethren of Heraclius were redeemed from
persecution, slavery, and exile; but, instead of the Roman
eagles, the true wood of the holy cross was restored to the
importunate demands of the successor of Constantine. The victor
was not ambitious of enlarging the weakness of the empire; the
son of Chosroes abandoned without regret the conquests of his
father; the Persians who evacuated the cities of Syria and Egypt
were honorably conducted to the frontier, and a war which had
wounded the vitals of the two monarchies, produced no change in
their external and relative situation. The return of Heraclius
from Tauris to Constantinople was a perpetual triumph; and after
the exploits of six glorious campaigns, he peaceably enjoyed the
Sabbath of his toils. After a long impatience, the senate, the
clergy, and the people, went forth to meet their hero, with tears
and acclamations, with olive branches and innumerable lamps; he
entered the capital in a chariot drawn by four elephants; and as
soon as the emperor could disengage himself from the tumult of
public joy, he tasted more genuine satisfaction in the embraces
of his mother and his son. 110

109 (return) [ The letter of Siroes in the Paschal Chronicle (p.
402) unfortunately ends before he proceeds to business. The
treaty appears in its execution in the histories of Theophanes
and Nicephorus. * Note: M. Mai. Script. Vet. Nova Collectio, vol.
i. P. 2, p. 223, has added some lines, but no clear sense can be
made out of the fragment.—M.]

110 (return) [ The burden of Corneille’s song, “Montrez Heraclius
au peuple qui l’attend,” is much better suited to the present
occasion. See his triumph in Theophanes (p. 272, 273) and
Nicephorus, (p. 15, 16.) The life of the mother and tenderness of
the son are attested by George of Pisidia, (Bell. Abar. 255, &c.,
p. 49.) The metaphor of the Sabbath is used somewhat profanely by
these Byzantine Christians.]

The succeeding year was illustrated by a triumph of a very
different kind, the restitution of the true cross to the holy
sepulchre. Heraclius performed in person the pilgrimage of
Jerusalem, the identity of the relic was verified by the discreet
patriarch, 111 and this august ceremony has been commemorated by
the annual festival of the exaltation of the cross. Before the
emperor presumed to tread the consecrated ground, he was
instructed to strip himself of the diadem and purple, the pomp
and vanity of the world: but in the judgment of his clergy, the
persecution of the Jews was more easily reconciled with the
precepts of the gospel. 1113 He again ascended his throne to
receive the congratulations of the ambassadors of France and
India: and the fame of Moses, Alexander, and Hercules, 112 was
eclipsed in the popular estimation, by the superior merit and
glory of the great Heraclius. Yet the deliverer of the East was
indigent and feeble. Of the Persian spoils, the most valuable
portion had been expended in the war, distributed to the
soldiers, or buried, by an unlucky tempest, in the waves of the
Euxine. The conscience of the emperor was oppressed by the
obligation of restoring the wealth of the clergy, which he had
borrowed for their own defence: a perpetual fund was required to
satisfy these inexorable creditors; the provinces, already wasted
by the arms and avarice of the Persians, were compelled to a
second payment of the same taxes; and the arrears of a simple
citizen, the treasurer of Damascus, were commuted to a fine of
one hundred thousand pieces of gold. The loss of two hundred
thousand soldiers 113 who had fallen by the sword, was of less
fatal importance than the decay of arts, agriculture, and
population, in this long and destructive war: and although a
victorious army had been formed under the standard of Heraclius,
the unnatural effort appears to have exhausted rather than
exercised their strength. While the emperor triumphed at
Constantinople or Jerusalem, an obscure town on the confines of
Syria was pillaged by the Saracens, and they cut in pieces some
troops who advanced to its relief; an ordinary and trifling
occurrence, had it not been the prelude of a mighty revolution.
These robbers were the apostles of Mahomet; their fanatic valor
had emerged from the desert; and in the last eight years of his
reign, Heraclius lost to the Arabs the same provinces which he
had rescued from the Persians.

111 (return) [ See Baronius, (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 628, No. 1-4,)
Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p. 240—248,) Nicephorus, (Brev. p.
15.) The seals of the case had never been broken; and this
preservation of the cross is ascribed (under God) to the devotion
of Queen Sira.]

1113 (return) [ If the clergy imposed upon the kneeling and
penitent emperor the persecution of the Jews, it must be
acknowledge that provocation was not wanting; for how many of
them had been eye-witnesses of, perhaps sufferers in, the
horrible atrocities committed on the capture of the city! Yet we
have no authentic account of great severities exercised by
Heraclius. The law of Hadrian was reenacted, which prohibited the
Jews from approaching within three miles of the city—a law,
which, in the present exasperated state of the Christians, might
be a measure of security of mercy, rather than of oppression.
Milman, Hist. of the Jews, iii. 242.—M.]

112 (return) [ George of Pisidia, Acroas. iii. de Expedit. contra
Persas, 415, &c., and Heracleid. Acroas. i. 65—138. I neglect the
meaner parallels of Daniel, Timotheus, &c.; Chosroes and the
chagan were of course compared to Belshazzar, Pharaoh, the old
serpent, &c.]

113 (return) [ Suidas (in Excerpt. Hist. Byzant. p. 46) gives
this number; but either the Persian must be read for the Isaurian
war, or this passage does not belong to the emperor Heraclius.]