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: 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 honourable 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 He solicits presence of the Great King was accepted with the warmest peace. gratitude; and the prayer for pardon and peace was humbly presented by the prætorian 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. "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 has 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.

"It was

71 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 [tom. i. p. 712 sq., ed. Bonn]. The number of captives is added by Nicephorus.

72 Some original pieces, such as the speech or letter of the Roman ambassadors (p. 386-388 [ed. Par.; tom. i. p. 707-709, ed. Bonn]), likewise constitute the merit of the Paschal Chronicle, which was composed, perhaps at Alexandria, under the reign of Heraclius.

His prepara

A.D. 621.

Of the characters conspicuous in history, that of Heraclius is one of the most extraordinary and inconsistent. In the first tions for war, and the 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 Cæsar of the camp; and the honour 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. Perhaps he was awakened by the last insolent demand of the Persian conqueror; but at the moment when Heraclius assumed the spirit of an 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 favourable to those who had attained the lowest period of depression. 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 of the empire. The clergy themselves appear to have sympathised with the public distress; and the discreet patriarch of Alexan

75

74

73 Nicephorus (p. 10, 11), who brands this marriage with the names of open and adirov, 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 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? Επιθωπτάζων οὐκ ἔξον βασιλεῖ ἔφασκε κατα· λιμπάνειν βασίλεια, καὶ τοῖς πόῤῥω ἐπιχωριάζειν δυνάμεσιν.

75 Εἰ τὰς ἐπ' ἄκρον ἠρμένας εὐεξίας
Εσφαλμένας λέγουσιν οὐκ ἀπεικότως,
Κείσθω τὸ λοιπὸν ἐν κακοῖς τὰ Πέρσιδος,
̓Αντιστρόφως δε, &c.

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.

dria, 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; 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 authorised to save or surrender the city, if they should be oppressed in his absence by the superior forces of the enemy.

Persians,

The neighbouring heights of Chalcedon were covered with tents and arms; but if the new levies of Heraclius had been First experashly led to the attack, the victory of the Persians in the Heraclius sight of Constantinople might have been the last day of against the the Roman empire. As imprudent would it have been to A.D. 622. 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 harbour; 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 discern

76 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-humour of this contribution, which the church of Constantinople might still feel.

77 Theophylact Simocatta, 1. viii. c. 12 [p. 340, ed. Bonn]. 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 He changed his purple, for black, buskins, and dyed them red in the blood of the Persians (Georg. Pisid. Acroas, iii. 118, 121, 122. See the Notes of Foggini, p. 35). 79 George of Pisidia (Acroas. ii. 10, p. 8) has fixed this important point of the

80

ment was expressed in the choice of this important post. From all
sides the scattered garrisons of the maritime cities and the moun-
tains 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 semi-
circle of the Asiatic, Armenian, and Syrian provinces; and to what-
soever 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 armour, 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 hardship the emperor imposed on the
troops, he inflicted with equal severity on himself; their labour, 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 valour and the wisdom of their leader.
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 (irpa nilaro) and the Mediterranean, was closed at each end by strong
gates, impregnable to the land (ragsλbeīv ovn *v ßix), accessible by sea (Anabasis, 1. i.
[c. 4] p. 35, 36, with Hutchinson's Geographical Dissertation, p. vi.). The gates
were thirty-five parasangs, or leagues, from Tarsus (Anabasis, 1. i. [c. 4] 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 Heraclius might write to a friend in the modest words of Cicero: "Castra habu-
"imus ea ipsa quæ 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

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, and the event of the day declared to the world that the Persians were not invincible, and that an 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.

His second

A.D. 623, 624,

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 expedition, oppress for awhile the provinces, and to insult with impunity 625. 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, and recalled the armies of the

81 Foggini (Annotat. p. 31) suspects that the Persians were deceived by the paλay #nyμin of Elian (Tactic. c. 48), an intricate spiral motion of the army. He ob serves (p. 28) that the military descriptions of George of Pisidia are transcribed in the Tactics of the emperor Leo.

82 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.

83 Theophanes (p. 256) carries Heraclius swiftly (xarà Taxis) 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.

From Constantinople to Trebizond, with a fair wind, four or five days; from thence to Erzerom, five; to Erivan, twelve; to Tauris, 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 pasha, 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 fiftythree parasangs, each of 5000 paces (what paces?), between Erivan and Tauris.

85 The expedition of Heraclius into Persia is finely illustrated by M. D'Anville (Mémoires de l'Académie 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.

VOL. V.

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