Sister Projects: Wikichristian | WikiMD
BelieversCafe is a large collection of christian articles with over 40,000 pages
Our sponsors:
The conflict of Rome and Persia was prolonged from the death
of Craesus to the reign of Heraclius. An experience of
seven hundred years might convince the rival nations of the
impossibility of maintaining their conquests beyond the
fatal limits of the Tigris and Euphrates. Yet the emulation
of Trajan and Julian was awakened by the trophies of
Alexander, and the sovereigns of Persia indulged the
ambitious hope of restoring the empire of Cyrus. (1) Such
extraordinary efforts of power and courage will always
command the attention of posterity; but the events by which
the fate of nations is not materially changed, leave a faint
impression on the page of history, and the patience of the
reader would be exhausted by the repetition of the same
hostilities, undertaken without cause, prosecuted without
glory, and terminated without effect. The arts of
negotiation, unknown to the simple greatness of the senate
and the Caesars, were assiduously cultivated by the
Byzantine princes; and the memorials of their perpetual
embassies (2) repeat, with the same uniform prolixity, the
language of falsehood and declamation, the insolence of the
Barbarians, and the servile temper of the tributary Greeks.
Lamenting the barren superfluity of materials, I have
studied to compress the narrative of these uninteresting
transactions: but the just Nushirvan is still applauded as
the model of Oriental kings, and the ambition of his
grandson Chosroes prepared the revolution of the East, which
was speedily accomplished by the arms and the religion of
the successors of Mahomet.
In the useless altercations, that precede and justify the
quarrels of princes, the Greeks and the Barbarians accused
each other of violating the peace which had been concluded
between the two empires about four years before the death of
Justinian. The sovereign of Persia and India aspired to
reduce under his obedience the province of Yemen or Arabia
(3) Felix; the distant land of myrrh and frankincense, which
had escaped, rather than opposed, the conquerors of the
East. After the defeat of Abrahah under the walls of Mecca,
the discord of his sons and brothers gave an easy entrance
to the Persians: they chased the strangers of Abyssinia
beyond the Red Sea; and a native prince of the ancient
Homerites was restored to the throne as the vassal or
viceroy of the great Nushirvan. (4) But the nephew of
Justinian declared his resolution to avenge the injuries of
his Christian ally the prince of Abyssinia, as they
suggested a decent pretence to discontinue the annual
tribute, which was poorly disguised by the name of pension.
The churches of Persarmenia were oppressed by the intolerant
spirit of the Magi; (A) they secretly invoked the protector
of the Christians, and, after the pious murder of their
satraps, the rebels were avowed and supported as the
brethren and subjects of the Roman emperor. The complaints
of Nushirvan were disregarded by the Byzantine court; Justin
yielded to the importunities of the Turks, who offered an
alliance against the common enemy; and the Persian monarchy
was threatened at the same instant by the united forces of
Europe, of Aethiopia, and of Scythia. At the age of
fourscore the sovereign of the East would perhaps have
chosen the peaceful enjoyment of his glory and greatness;
but as soon as war became inevitable, he took the field with
the alacrity of youth, whilst the aggressor trembled in the
palace of Constantinople. Nushirvan, or Chosroes, conducted
in person the siege of Dara; and although that important
fortress had been left destitute of troops and magazines,
the valor of the inhabitants resisted above five months the
archers, the elephants, and the military engines of the
Great King. In the mean while his general Adarman advanced
from Babylon, traversed the desert, passed the Euphrates,
insulted the suburbs of Antioch, reduced to ashes the city
of Apamea, and laid the spoils of Syria at the feet of his
master, whose perseverance in the midst of winter at length
subverted the bulwark of the East. But these losses, which
astonished the provinces and the court, produced a salutary
effect in the repentance and abdication of the emperor
Justin: a new spirit arose in the Byzantine councils; and a
truce of three years was obtained by the prudence of
Tiberius. That seasonable interval was employed in the
preparations of war; and the voice of rumor proclaimed to
the world, that from the distant countries of the Alps and
the Rhine, from Scythia, Maesia, Pannonia, Illyricum, and
Isauria, the strength of the Imperial cavalry was reenforced
with one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers. Yet the king
of Persia, without fear, or without faith, resolved to
prevent the attack of the enemy; again passed the Euphrates,
and dismissing the ambassadors of Tiberius, arrogantly
commanded them to await his arrival at Caesarea, the
metropolis of the Cappadocian provinces. The two armies
encountered each other in the battle of Melitene: (B) the
Barbarians, who darkened the air with a cloud of arrows,
prolonged their line, and extended their wings across the
plain; while the Romans, in deep and solid bodies, expected
to prevail in closer action, by the weight of their swords
and lances. A Scythian chief, who commanded their right
wing, suddenly turned the flank of the enemy, attacked their
rear-guard in the presence of Chosroes, penetrated to the
midst of the camp, pillaged the royal tent, profaned the
eternal fire, loaded a train of camels with the spoils of
Asia, cut his way through the Persian host, and returned
with songs of victory to his friends, who had consumed the
day in single combats, or ineffectual skirmishes. The
darkness of the night, and the separation of the Romans,
afforded the Persian monarch an opportunity of revenge; and
one of their camps was swept away by a rapid and impetuous
assault. But the review of his loss, and the consciousness
of his danger, determined Chosroes to a speedy retreat: he
burnt, in his passage, the vacant town of Melitene; and,
without consulting the safety of his troops, boldly swam the
Euphrates on the back of an elephant. After this
unsuccessful campaign, the want of magazines, and perhaps
some inroad of the Turks, obliged him to disband or divide
his forces; the Romans were left masters of the field, and
their general Justinian, advancing to the relief of the
Persarmenian rebels, erected his standard on the banks of
the Araxes. The great Pompey had formerly halted within
three days' march of the Caspian: (5) that inland sea was
explored, for the first time, by a hostile fleet, (6) and
seventy thousand captives were transplanted from Hyrcania to
the Isle of Cyprus. On the return of spring, Justinian
descended into the fertile plains of Assyria; the flames of
war approached the residence of Nushirvan; the indignant
monarch sunk into the grave; and his last edict restrained
his successors from exposing their person in battle against
the Romans. (C) Yet the memory of this transient affront was
lost in the glories of a long reign; and his formidable
enemies, after indulging their dream of conquest, again
solicited a short respite from the calamities of war. (7)
The throne of Chosroes Nushirvan was filled by Hormouz, or
Hormisdas, the eldest or the most favored of his sons. With
the kingdoms of Persia and India, he inherited the
reputation and example of his father, the service, in every
rank, of his wise and valiant officers, and a general system
of administration, harmonized by time and political wisdom
to promote the happiness of the prince and people. But the
royal youth enjoyed a still more valuable blessing, the
friendship of a sage who had presided over his education,
and who always preferred the honor to the interest of his
pupil, his interest to his inclination. In a dispute with
the Greek and Indian philosophers, Buzurg (8) had once
maintained, that the most grievous misfortune of life is old
age without the remembrance of virtue; and our candor will
presume that the same principle compelled him, during three
years, to direct the councils of the Persian empire. His
zeal was rewarded by the gratitude and docility of Hormouz,
who acknowledged himself more indebted to his preceptor than
to his parent: but when age and labor had impaired the
strength, and perhaps the faculties, of this prudent
counsellor, he retired from court, and abandoned the
youthful monarch to his own passions and those of his
favorites. By the fatal vicissitude of human affairs, the
same scenes were renewed at Ctesiphon, which had been
exhibited at Rome after the death of Marcus Antoninus. The
ministers of flattery and corruption, who had been banished
by his father, were recalled and cherished by the son; the
disgrace and exile of the friends of Nushirvan established
their tyranny; and virtue was driven by degrees from the
mind of Hormouz, from his palace, and from the government of
the state. The faithful agents, the eyes and ears of the
king, informed him of the progress of disorder, that the
provincial governors flew to their prey with the fierceness
of lions and eagles, and that their rapine and injustice
would teach the most loyal of his subjects to abhor the name
and authority of their sovereign. The sincerity of this
advice was punished with death; the murmurs of the cities
were despised, their tumults were quelled by military
execution: the intermediate powers between the throne and
the people were abolished; and the childish vanity of
Hormouz, who affected the daily use of the tiara, was fond
of declaring, that he alone would be the judge as well as
the master of his kingdom. In every word, and in every
action, the son of Nushirvan degenerated from the virtues of
his father. His avarice defrauded the troops; his jealous
caprice degraded the satraps; the palace, the tribunals, the
waters of the Tigris, were stained with the blood of the
innocent, and the tyrant exulted in the sufferings and
execution of thirteen thousand victims. As the excuse of
his cruelty, he sometimes condescended to observe, that the
fears of the Persians would be productive of hatred, and
that their hatred must terminate in rebellion but he forgot
that his own guilt and folly had inspired the sentiments
which he deplored, and prepared the event which he so justly
apprehended. Exasperated by long and hopeless oppression,
the provinces of Babylon, Susa, and Carmania, erected the
standard of revolt; and the princes of Arabia, India, and
Scythia, refused the customary tribute to the unworthy
successor of Nushirvan. The arms of the Romans, in slow
sieges and frequent inroads, afflicted the frontiers of
Mesopotamia and Assyria: one of their generals professed
himself the disciple of Scipio; and the soldiers were
animated by a miraculous image of Christ, whose mild aspect
should never have been displayed in the front of battle. (9)
At the same time, the eastern provinces of Persia were
invaded by the great khan, who passed the Oxus at the head
of three or four hundred thousand Turks. The imprudent
Hormouz accepted their perfidious and formidable aid; the
cities of Khorassan or Bactriana were commanded to open
their gates the march of the Barbarians towards the
mountains of Hyrcania revealed the correspondence of the
Turkish and Roman arms; and their union must have subverted
the throne of the house of Sassan.
Persia had been lost by a king; it was saved by a hero.
After his revolt, Varanes or Bahram is stigmatized by the
son of Hormouz as an ungrateful slave; the proud and
ambiguous reproach of despotism, since he was truly
descended from the ancient princes of Rei, (10) one of the
seven families whose splendid, as well as substantial,
prerogatives exalted them above the heads of the Persian
nobility. (11) At the siege of Dara, the valor of Bahram was
signalized under the eyes of Nushirvan, and both the father
and son successively promoted him to the command of armies,
the government of Media, and the superintendence of the
palace. The popular prediction which marked him as the
deliverer of Persia, might be inspired by his past victories
and extraordinary figure: the epithet Giubin (D) is
expressive of the quality of dry wood: he had the strength
and stature of a giant; and his savage countenance was
fancifully compared to that of a wild cat. While the nation
trembled, while Hormouz disguised his terror by the name of
suspicion, and his servants concealed their disloyalty under
the mask of fear, Bahram alone displayed his undaunted
courage and apparent fidelity: and as soon as he found that
no more than twelve thousand soldiers would follow him
against the enemy; he prudently declared, that to this fatal
number Heaven had reserved the honors of the triumph. (E) The
steep and narrow descent of the Pule Rudbar, (12) or
Hyrcanian rock, is the only pass through which an army can
penetrate into the territory of Rei and the plains of Media.
From the commanding heights, a band of resolute men might
overwhelm with stones and darts the myriads of the Turkish
host: their emperor and his son were transpierced with
arrows; and the fugitives were left, without counsel or
provisions, to the revenge of an injured people. The
patriotism of the Persian general was stimulated by his
affection for the city of his forefathers: in the hour of
victory, every peasant became a soldier, and every soldier a
hero; and their ardor was kindled by the gorgeous spectacle
of beds, and thrones, and tables of massy gold, the spoils
of Asia, and the luxury of the hostile camp. A prince of a
less malignant temper could not easily have forgiven his
benefactor; and the secret hatred of Hormouz was envenomed
by a malicious report, that Bahram had privately retained
the most precious fruits of his Turkish victory. But the
approach of a Roman army on the side of the Araxes compelled
the implacable tyrant to smile and to applaud; and the toils
of Bahram were rewarded with the permission of encountering
a new enemy, by their skill and discipline more formidable
than a Scythian multitude. Elated by his recent success, he
despatched a herald with a bold defiance to the camp of the
Romans, requesting them to fix a day of battle, and to
choose whether they would pass the river themselves, or
allow a free passage to the arms of the great king. The
lieutenant of the emperor Maurice preferred the safer
alternative; and this local circumstance, which would have
enhanced the victory of the Persians, rendered their defeat
more bloody and their escape more difficult. But the loss
of his subjects, and the danger of his kingdom, were
overbalanced in the mind of Hormouz by the disgrace of his
personal enemy; and no sooner had Bahram collected and
reviewed his forces, than he received from a royal messenger
the insulting gift of a distaff, a spinning-wheel, and a
complete suit of female apparel. Obedient to the will of his
sovereign he showed himself to the soldiers in this unworthy
disguise they resented his ignominy and their own; a shout
of rebellion ran through the ranks; and the general accepted
their oath of fidelity and vows of revenge. A second
messenger, who had been commanded to bring the rebel in
chains, was trampled under the feet of an elephant, and
manifestos were diligently circulated, exhorting the
Persians to assert their freedom against an odious and
contemptible tyrant. The defection was rapid and universal;
his loyal slaves were sacrificed to the public fury; the
troops deserted to the standard of Bahram; and the provinces
again saluted the deliverer of his country.
As the passes were faithfully guarded, Hormouz could only
compute the number of his enemies by the testimony of a
guilty conscience, and the daily defection of those who, in
the hour of his distress, avenged their wrongs, or forgot
their obligations. He proudly displayed the ensigns of
royalty; but the city and palace of Modain had already
escaped from the hand of the tyrant. Among the victims of
his cruelty, Bindoes, a Sassanian prince, had been cast into
a dungeon; his fetters were broken by the zeal and courage
of a brother; and he stood before the king at the head of
those trusty guards, who had been chosen as the ministers of
his confinement, and perhaps of his death. Alarmed by the
hasty intrusion and bold reproaches of the captive, Hormouz
looked round, but in vain, for advice or assistance;
discovered that his strength consisted in the obedience of
others; and patiently yielded to the single arm of Bindoes,
who dragged him from the throne to the same dungeon in which
he himself had been so lately confined. At the first
tumult, Chosroes, the eldest of the sons of Hormouz, escaped
from the city; he was persuaded to return by the pressing
and friendly invitation of Bindoes, who promised to seat him
on his father's throne, and who expected to reign under the
name of an inexperienced youth. In the just assurance, that
his accomplices could neither forgive nor hope to be
forgiven, and that every Persian might be trusted as the
judge and enemy of the tyrant, he instituted a public trial
without a precedent and without a copy in the annals of the
East. The son of Nushirvan, who had requested to plead in
his own defence, was introduced as a criminal into the full
assembly of the nobles and satraps. (13) He was heard with
decent attention as long as he expatiated on the advantages
of order and obedience, the danger of innovation, and the
inevitable discord of those who had encouraged each other to
trample on their lawful and hereditary sovereign. By a
pathetic appeal to their humanity, he extorted that pity
which is seldom refused to the fallen fortunes of a king;
and while they beheld the abject posture and squalid
appearance of the prisoner, his tears, his chains, and the
marks of ignominious stripes, it was impossible to forget
how recently they had adored the divine splendor of his
diadem and purple. But an angry murmur arose in the assembly
as soon as he presumed to vindicate his conduct, and to
applaud the victories of his reign. He defined the duties
of a king, and the Persian nobles listened with a smile of
contempt; they were fired with indignation when he dared to
vilify the character of Chosroes; and by the indiscreet
offer of resigning the sceptre to the second of his sons, he
subscribed his own condemnation, and sacrificed the life of
his own innocent favorite. The mangled bodies of the boy
and his mother were exposed to the people; the eyes of
Hormouz were pierced with a hot needle; and the punishment
of the father was succeeded by the coronation of his eldest
son. Chosroes had ascended the throne without guilt, and
his piety strove to alleviate the misery of the abdicated
monarch; from the dungeon he removed Hormouz to an apartment
of the palace, supplied with liberality the consolations of
sensual enjoyment, and patiently endured the furious sallies
of his resentment and despair. He might despise the
resentment of a blind and unpopular tyrant, but the tiara
was trembling on his head, till he could subvert the power,
or acquire the friendship, of the great Bahram, who sternly
denied the justice of a revolution, in which himself and his
soldiers, the true representatives of Persia, had never been
consulted. The offer of a general amnesty, and of the
second rank in his kingdom, was answered by an epistle from
Bahram, friend of the gods, conqueror of men, and enemy of
tyrants, the satrap of satraps, general of the Persian
armies, and a prince adorned with the title of eleven
virtues. (14) He commands Chosroes, the son of Hormouz, to
shun the example and fate of his father, to confine the
traitors who had been released from their chains, to deposit
in some holy place the diadem which he had usurped, and to
accept from his gracious benefactor the pardon of his faults
and the government of a province. The rebel might not be
proud, and the king most assuredly was not humble; but the
one was conscious of his strength, the other was sensible of
his weakness; and even the modest language of his reply
still left room for treaty and reconciliation. Chosroes led
into the field the slaves of the palace and the populace of
the capital: they beheld with terror the banners of a
veteran army; they were encompassed and surprised by the
evolutions of the general; and the satraps who had deposed
Hormouz, received the punishment of their revolt, or
expiated their first treason by a second and more criminal
act of disloyalty. The life and liberty of Chosroes were
saved, but he was reduced to the necessity of imploring aid
or refuge in some foreign land; and the implacable Bindoes,
anxious to secure an unquestionable title, hastily returned
to the palace, and ended, with a bowstring, the wretched
existence of the son of Nushirvan. (15)
While Chosroes despatched the preparations of his retreat,
he deliberated with his remaining friends, (16) whether he
should lurk in the valleys of Mount Caucasus, or fly to the
tents of the Turks, or solicit the protection of the
emperor. The long emulation of the successors of Artaxerxes
and Constantine increased his reluctance to appear as a
suppliant in a rival court; but he weighed the forces of the
Romans, and prudently considered that the neighborhood of
Syria would render his escape more easy and their succors
more effectual. Attended only by his concubines, and a
troop of thirty guards, he secretly departed from the
capital, followed the banks of the Euphrates, traversed the
desert, and halted at the distance of ten miles from
Circesium. About the third watch of the night, the Roman
praefect was informed of his approach, and he introduced the
royal stranger to the fortress at the dawn of day. From
thence the king of Persia was conducted to the more
honorable residence of Hierapolis; and Maurice dissembled
his pride, and displayed his benevolence, at the reception
of the letters and ambassadors of the grandson of Nushirvan.
They humbly represented the vicissitudes of fortune and the
common interest of princes, exaggerated the ingratitude of
Bahram, the agent of the evil principle, and urged, with
specious argument, that it was for the advantage of the
Romans themselves to support the two monarchies which
balance the world, the two great luminaries by whose
salutary influence it is vivified and adorned. The anxiety
of Chosroes was soon relieved by the assurance, that the
emperor had espoused the cause of justice and royalty; but
Maurice prudently declined the expense and delay of his
useless visit to Constantinople. In the name of his
generous benefactor, a rich diadem was presented to the
fugitive prince, with an inestimable gift of jewels and
gold; a powerful army was assembled on the frontiers of
Syria and Armenia, under the command of the valiant and
faithful Narses, (17) and this general, of his own nation,
and his own choice, was directed to pass the Tigris, and
never to sheathe his sword till he had restored Chosroes to
the throne of his ancestors. (F) The enterprise, however
splendid, was less arduous than it might appear. Persia had
already repented of her fatal rashness, which betrayed the
heir of the house of Sassan to the ambition of a rebellious
subject: and the bold refusal of the Magi to consecrate his
usurpation, compelled Bahram to assume the sceptre,
regardless of the laws and prejudices of the nation. The
palace was soon distracted with conspiracy, the city with
tumult, the provinces with insurrection; and the cruel
execution of the guilty and the suspected served to irritate
rather than subdue the public discontent. No sooner did the
grandson of Nushirvan display his own and the Roman banners
beyond the Tigris, than he was joined, each day, by the
increasing multitudes of the nobility and people; and as he
advanced, he received from every side the grateful offerings
of the keys of his cities and the heads of his enemies. As
soon as Modain was freed from the presence of the usurper,
the loyal inhabitants obeyed the first summons of Mebodes at
the head of only two thousand horse, and Chosroes accepted
the sacred and precious ornaments of the palace as the
pledge of their truth and the presage of his approaching
success. After the junction of the Imperial troops, which
Bahram vainly struggled to prevent, the contest was decided
by two battles on the banks of the Zab, and the confines of
Media. The Romans, with the faithful subjects of Persia,
amounted to sixty thousand, while the whole force of the
usurper did not exceed forty thousand men: the two generals
signalized their valor and ability; but the victory was
finally determined by the prevalence of numbers and
discipline. With the remnant of a broken army, Bahram fled
towards the eastern provinces of the Oxus: the enmity of
Persia reconciled him to the Turks; but his days were
shortened by poison, perhaps the most incurable of poisons;
the stings of remorse and despair, and the bitter
remembrance of lost glory. Yet the modern Persians still
commemorate the exploits of Bahram; and some excellent laws
have prolonged the duration of his troubled and transitory
reign. (G)
The restoration of Chosroes was celebrated with feasts and
executions; and the music of the royal banquet was often
disturbed by the groans of dying or mutilated criminals. A
general pardon might have diffused comfort and tranquillity
through a country which had been shaken by the late
revolutions; yet, before the sanguinary temper of Chosroes
is blamed, we should learn whether the Persians had not been
accustomed either to dread the rigor, or to despise the
weakness, of their sovereign. The revolt of Bahram, and the
conspiracy of the satraps, were impartially punished by the
revenge or justice of the conqueror; the merits of Bindoes
himself could not purify his hand from the guilt of royal
blood: and the son of Hormouz was desirous to assert his own
innocence, and to vindicate the sanctity of kings. During
the vigor of the Roman power, several princes were seated on
the throne of Persia by the arms and the authority of the
first Caesars. But their new subjects were soon disgusted
with the vices or virtues which they had imbibed in a
foreign land; the instability of their dominion gave birth
to a vulgar observation, that the choice of Rome was
solicited and rejected with equal ardor by the capricious
levity of Oriental slaves. But the glory of Maurice was
conspicuous in the long and fortunate reign of his son and
his ally. A band of a thousand Romans, who continued to
guard the person of Chosroes, proclaimed his confidence in
the fidelity of the strangers; his growing strength enabled
him to dismiss this unpopular aid, but he steadily professed
the same gratitude and reverence to his adopted father; and
till the death of Maurice, the peace and alliance of the two
empires were faithfully maintained. Yet the mercenary
friendship of the Roman prince had been purchased with
costly and important gifts; the strong cities of
Martyropolis and Dara (H) were restored, and the
Persarmenians became the willing subjects of an empire,
whose eastern limit was extended, beyond the example of
former times, as far as the banks of the Araxes, and the
neighborhood of the Caspian. A pious hope was indulged,
that the church as well as the state might triumph in this
revolution: but if Chosroes had sincerely listened to the
Christian bishops, the impression was erased by the zeal and
eloquence of the Magi: if he was armed with philosophic
indifference, he accommodated his belief, or rather his
professions, to the various circumstances of an exile and a
sovereign. The imaginary conversion of the king of Persia
was reduced to a local and superstitious veneration for
Sergius, (19) one of the saints of Antioch, who heard his
prayers and appeared to him in dreams; he enriched the
shrine with offerings of gold and silver, and ascribed to
this invisible patron the success of his arms, and the
pregnancy of Sira, a devout Christian and the best beloved
of his wives. (20) The beauty of Sira, or Schirin, (21) her
wit, her musical talents, are still famous in the history,
or rather in the romances, of the East: her own name is
expressive, in the Persian tongue, of sweetness and grace;
and the epithet of Parviz alludes to the charms of her royal
lover. Yet Sira never shared the passions which she
inspired, and the bliss of Chosroes was tortured by a
jealous doubt, that while he possessed her person, she had
bestowed her affections on a meaner favorite. (22)
While the majesty of the Roman name was revived in the East,
the prospect of Europe is less pleasing and less glorious.
By the departure of the Lombards, and the ruin of the
Gepidae, the balance of power was destroyed on the Danube;
and the Avars spread their permanent dominion from the foot
of the Alps to the sea-coast of the Euxine. The reign of
Baian is the brightest aera of their monarchy; their chagan,
who occupied the rustic palace of Attila, appears to have
imitated his character and policy; (23) but as the same
scenes were repeated in a smaller circle, a minute
representation of the copy would be devoid of the greatness
and novelty of the original. The pride of the second Justin,
of Tiberius, and Maurice, was humbled by a proud Barbarian,
more prompt to inflict, than exposed to suffer, the injuries
of war; and as often as Asia was threatened by the Persian
arms, Europe was oppressed by the dangerous inroads, or
costly friendship, of the Avars. When the Roman envoys
approached the presence of the chagan, they were commanded
to wait at the door of his tent, till, at the end perhaps of
ten or twelve days, he condescended to admit them. If the
substance or the style of their message was offensive to his
ear, he insulted, with real or affected fury, their own
dignity, and that of their prince; their baggage was
plundered, and their lives were only saved by the promise of
a richer present and a more respectful address. But his
sacred ambassadors enjoyed and abused an unbounded license
in the midst of Constantinople: they urged, with importunate
clamors, the increase of tribute, or the restitution of
captives and deserters: and the majesty of the empire was
almost equally degraded by a base compliance, or by the
false and fearful excuses with which they eluded such
insolent demands. The chagan had never seen an elephant;
and his curiosity was excited by the strange, and perhaps
fabulous, portrait of that wonderful animal. At his
command, one of the largest elephants of the Imperial
stables was equipped with stately caparisons, and conducted
by a numerous train to the royal village in the plains of
Hungary. He surveyed the enormous beast with surprise, with
disgust, and possibly with terror; and smiled at the vain
industry of the Romans, who, in search of such useless
rarities, could explore the limits of the land and sea. He
wished, at the expense of the emperor, to repose in a golden
bed. The wealth of Constantinople, and the skilful
diligence of her artists, were instantly devoted to the
gratification of his caprice; but when the work was
finished, he rejected with scorn a present so unworthy the
majesty of a great king. (24) These were the casual sallies
of his pride; but the avarice of the chagan was a more
steady and tractable passion: a rich and regular supply of
silk apparel, furniture, and plate, introduced the rudiments
of art and luxury among the tents of the Scythians; their
appetite was stimulated by the pepper and cinnamon of India;
(25) the annual subsidy or tribute was raised from fourscore
to one hundred and twenty thousand pieces of gold; and after
each hostile interruption, the payment of the arrears, with
exorbitant interest, was always made the first condition of
the new treaty. In the language of a Barbarian, without
guile, the prince of the Avars affected to complain of the
insincerity of the Greeks; (26) yet he was not inferior to
the most civilized nations in the refinement of
dissimulation and perfidy. As the successor of the
Lombards, the chagan asserted his claim to the important
city of Sirmium, the ancient bulwark of the Illyrian
provinces. (27) The plains of the Lower Hungary were covered
with the Avar horse and a fleet of large boats was built in
the Hercynian wood, to descend the Danube, and to transport
into the Save the materials of a bridge. But as the strong
garrison of Singidunum, which commanded the conflux of the
two rivers, might have stopped their passage and baffled his
designs, he dispelled their apprehensions by a solemn oath
that his views were not hostile to the empire. He swore by
his sword, the symbol of the god of war, that he did not, as
the enemy of Rome, construct a bridge upon the Save. "If I
violate my oath," pursued the intrepid Baian, "may I myself,
and the last of my nation, perish by the sword! May the
heavens, and fire, the deity of the heavens, fall upon our
heads! May the forests and mountains bury us in their ruins!
and the Save returning, against the laws of nature, to his
source, overwhelm us in his angry waters!" After this
barbarous imprecation, he calmly inquired, what oath was
most sacred and venerable among the Christians, what guilt
or perjury it was most dangerous to incur. The bishop of
Singidunum presented the gospel, which the chagan received
with devout reverence. "I swear," said he, "by the God who
has spoken in this holy book, that I have neither falsehood
on my tongue, nor treachery in my heart." As soon as he rose
from his knees, he accelerated the labor of the bridge, and
despatched an envoy to proclaim what he no longer wished to
conceal. "Inform the emperor," said the perfidious Baian,
"that Sirmium is invested on every side. Advise his
prudence to withdraw the citizens and their effects, and to
resign a city which it is now impossible to relieve or
defend." Without the hope of relief, the defence of Sirmium
was prolonged above three years: the walls were still
untouched; but famine was enclosed within the walls, till a
merciful capitulation allowed the escape of the naked and
hungry inhabitants. Singidunum, at the distance of fifty
miles, experienced a more cruel fate: the buildings were
razed, and the vanquished people was condemned to servitude
and exile. Yet the ruins of Sirmium are no longer visible;
the advantageous situation of Singidunum soon attracted a
new colony of Sclavonians, and the conflux of the Save and
Danube is still guarded by the fortifications of Belgrade,
or the White City, so often and so obstinately disputed by
the Christian and Turkish arms. (28) From Belgrade to the
walls of Constantinople a line may be measured of six
hundred miles: that line was marked with flames and with
blood; the horses of the Avars were alternately bathed in
the Euxine and the Adriatic; and the Roman pontiff, alarmed
by the approach of a more savage enemy, (29) was reduced to
cherish the Lombards, as the protectors of Italy. The
despair of a captive, whom his country refused to ransom,
disclosed to the Avars the invention and practice of
military engines. (30) But in the first attempts they were
rudely framed, and awkwardly managed; and the resistance of
Diocletianopolis and Beraea, of Philippopolis and
Adrianople, soon exhausted the skill and patience of the
besiegers. The warfare of Baian was that of a Tartar; yet
his mind was susceptible of a humane and generous sentiment:
he spared Anchialus, whose salutary waters had restored the
health of the best beloved of his wives; and the Romans
confessed, that their starving army was fed and dismissed by
the liberality of a foe. His empire extended over Hungary,
Poland, and Prussia, from the mouth of the Danube to that of
the Oder; (31) and his new subjects were divided and
transplanted by the jealous policy of the conqueror. (32) The
eastern regions of Germany, which had been left vacant by
the emigration of the Vandals, were replenished with
Sclavonian colonists; the same tribes are discovered in the
neighborhood of the Adriatic and of the Baltic, and with the
name of Baian himself, the Illyrian cities of Neyss and
Lissa are again found in the heart of Silesia. In the
disposition both of his troops and provinces the chagan
exposed the vassals, whose lives he disregarded, (33) to the
first assault; and the swords of the enemy were blunted
before they encountered the native valor of the Avars.
The Persian alliance restored the troops of the East to the
defence of Europe: and Maurice, who had supported ten years
the insolence of the chagan, declared his resolution to
march in person against the Barbarians. In the space of two
centuries, none of the successors of Theodosius had appeared
in the field: their lives were supinely spent in the palace
of Constantinople; and the Greeks could no longer
understand, that the name of emperor, in its primitive
sense, denoted the chief of the armies of the republic. The
martial ardor of Maurice was opposed by the grave flattery
of the senate, the timid superstition of the patriarch, and
the tears of the empress Constantina; and they all conjured
him to devolve on some meaner general the fatigues and
perils of a Scythian campaign. Deaf to their advice and
entreaty, the emperor boldly advanced (34) seven miles from
the capital; the sacred ensign of the cross was displayed in
the front; and Maurice reviewed, with conscious pride, the
arms and numbers of the veterans who had fought and
conquered beyond the Tigris. Anchialus was the last term of
his progress by sea and land; he solicited, without success,
a miraculous answer to his nocturnal prayers; his mind was
confounded by the death of a favorite horse, the encounter
of a wild boar, a storm of wind and rain, and the birth of a
monstrous child; and he forgot that the best of omens is to
unsheathe our sword in the defence of our country. (35) Under
the pretence of receiving the ambassadors of Persia, the
emperor returned to Constantinople, exchanged the thoughts
of war for those of devotion, and disappointed the public
hope by his absence and the choice of his lieutenants. The
blind partiality of fraternal love might excuse the
promotion of his brother Peter, who fled with equal disgrace
from the Barbarians, from his own soldiers and from the
inhabitants of a Roman city. That city, if we may credit the
resemblance of name and character, was the famous
Azimuntium, (36) which had alone repelled the tempest of
Attila. The example of her warlike youth was propagated to
succeeding generations; and they obtained, from the first or
the second Justin, an honorable privilege, that their valor
should be always reserved for the defence of their native
country. The brother of Maurice attempted to violate this
privilege, and to mingle a patriot band with the mercenaries
of his camp; they retired to the church, he was not awed by
the sanctity of the place; the people rose in their cause,
the gates were shut, the ramparts were manned; and the
cowardice of Peter was found equal to his arrogance and
injustice. The military fame of Commentiolus (37) is the
object of satire or comedy rather than of serious history,
since he was even deficient in the vile and vulgar
qualification of personal courage. His solemn councils,
strange evolutions, and secret orders, always supplied an
apology for flight or delay. If he marched against the
enemy, the pleasant valleys of Mount Haemus opposed an
insuperable barrier; but in his retreat, he explored, with
fearless curiosity, the most difficult and obsolete paths,
which had almost escaped the memory of the oldest native.
The only blood which he lost was drawn, in a real or
affected malady, by the lancet of a surgeon; and his health,
which felt with exquisite sensibility the approach of the
Barbarians, was uniformly restored by the repose and safety
of the winter season. A prince who could promote and
support this unworthy favorite must derive no glory from the
accidental merit of his colleague Priscus. (38) In five
successive battles, which seem to have been conducted with
skill and resolution, seventeen thousand two hundred
Barbarians were made prisoners: near sixty thousand, with
four sons of the chagan, were slain: the Roman general
surprised a peaceful district of the Gepidae, who slept
under the protection of the Avars; and his last trophies
were erected on the banks of the Danube and the Teyss.
Since the death of Trajan the arms of the empire had not
penetrated so deeply into the old Dacia: yet the success of
Priscus was transient and barren; and he was soon recalled
by the apprehension that Baian, with dauntless spirit and
recruited forces, was preparing to avenge his defeat under
the walls of Constantinople. (39)
The theory of war was not more familiar to the camps of
Caesar and Trajan, than to those of Justinian and Maurice.
(40) The iron of Tuscany or Pontus still received the keenest
temper from the skill of the Byzantine workmen. The
magazines were plentifully stored with every species of
offensive and defensive arms. In the construction and use
of ships, engines, and fortifications, the Barbarians
admired the superior ingenuity of a people whom they had so
often vanquished in the field. The science of tactics, the
order, evolutions, and stratagems of antiquity, was
transcribed and studied in the books of the Greeks and
Romans. But the solitude or degeneracy of the provinces
could no longer supply a race of men to handle those
weapons, to guard those walls, to navigate those ships, and
to reduce the theory of war into bold and successful
practice. The genius of Belisarius and Narses had been
formed without a master, and expired without a disciple
Neither honor, nor patriotism, nor generous superstition,
could animate the lifeless bodies of slaves and strangers,
who had succeeded to the honors of the legions: it was in
the camp alone that the emperor should have exercised a
despotic command; it was only in the camps that his
authority was disobeyed and insulted: he appeased and
inflamed with gold the licentiousness of the troops; but
their vices were inherent, their victories were accidental,
and their costly maintenance exhausted the substance of a
state which they were unable to defend. After a long and
pernicious indulgence, the cure of this inveterate evil was
undertaken by Maurice; but the rash attempt, which drew
destruction on his own head, tended only to aggravate the
disease. A reformer should be exempt from the suspicion of
interest, and he must possess the confidence and esteem of
those whom he proposes to reclaim. The troops of Maurice
might listen to the voice of a victorious leader; they
disdained the admonitions of statesmen and sophists; and,
when they received an edict which deducted from their pay
the price of their arms and clothing, they execrated the
avarice of a prince insensible of the dangers and fatigues
from which he had escaped. The camps both of Asia and Europe
were agitated with frequent and furious seditions; (41) the
enraged soldiers of Edessa pursued with reproaches, with
threats, with wounds, their trembling generals; they
overturned the statues of the emperor, cast stones against
the miraculous image of Christ, and either rejected the yoke
of all civil and military laws, or instituted a dangerous
model of voluntary subordination. The monarch, always
distant and often deceived, was incapable of yielding or
persisting, according to the exigence of the moment. But
the fear of a general revolt induced him too readily to
accept any act of valor, or any expression of loyalty, as an
atonement for the popular offence; the new reform was
abolished as hastily as it had been announced, and the
troops, instead of punishment and restraint, were agreeably
surprised by a gracious proclamation of immunities and
rewards. But the soldiers accepted without gratitude the
tardy and reluctant gifts of the emperor: their insolence
was elated by the discovery of his weakness and their own
strength; and their mutual hatred was inflamed beyond the
desire of forgiveness or the hope of reconciliation. The
historians of the times adopt the vulgar suspicion, that
Maurice conspired to destroy the troops whom he had labored
to reform; the misconduct and favor of Commentiolus are
imputed to this malevolent design; and every age must
condemn the inhumanity of avarice (42) of a prince, who, by
the trifling ransom of six thousand pieces of gold, might
have prevented the massacre of twelve thousand prisoners in
the hands of the chagan. In the just fervor of indignation,
an order was signified to the army of the Danube, that they
should spare the magazines of the province, and establish
their winter quarters in the hostile country of the Avars.
The measure of their grievances was full: they pronounced
Maurice unworthy to reign, expelled or slaughtered his
faithful adherents, and, under the command of Phocas, a
simple centurion, returned by hasty marches to the
neighborhood of Constantinople. After a long series of legal
succession, the military disorders of the third century were
again revived; yet such was the novelty of the enterprise,
that the insurgents were awed by their own rashness. They
hesitated to invest their favorite with the vacant purple;
and, while they rejected all treaty with Maurice himself,
they held a friendly correspondence with his son Theodosius,
and with Germanus, the father-in-law of the royal youth. So
obscure had been the former condition of Phocas, that the
emperor was ignorant of the name and character of his rival;
but as soon as he learned, that the centurion, though bold
in sedition, was timid in the face of danger, "Alas!" cried
the desponding prince, "if he is a coward, he will surely be
a murderer."
Yet if Constantinople had been firm and faithful, the
murderer might have spent his fury against the walls; and
the rebel army would have been gradually consumed or
reconciled by the prudence of the emperor. In the games of
the Circus, which he repeated with unusual pomp, Maurice
disguised, with smiles of confidence, the anxiety of his
heart, condescended to solicit the applause of the factions,
and flattered their pride by accepting from their respective
tribunes a list of nine hundred blues and fifteen hundred
greens, whom he affected to esteem as the solid pillars of
his throne Their treacherous or languid support betrayed his
weakness and hastened his fall: the green faction were the
secret accomplices of the rebels, and the blues recommended
lenity and moderation in a contest with their Roman brethren
The rigid and parsimonious virtues of Maurice had long since
alienated the hearts of his subjects: as he walked barefoot
in a religious procession, he was rudely assaulted with
stones, and his guards were compelled to present their iron
maces in the defence of his person. A fanatic monk ran
through the streets with a drawn sword, denouncing against
him the wrath and the sentence of God; and a vile plebeian,
who represented his countenance and apparel, was seated on
an ass, and pursued by the imprecations of the multitude.
(43) The emperor suspected the popularity of Germanus with
the soldiers and citizens: he feared, he threatened, but he
delayed to strike; the patrician fled to the sanctuary of
the church; the people rose in his defence, the walls were
deserted by the guards, and the lawless city was abandoned
to the flames and rapine of a nocturnal tumult. In a small
bark, the unfortunate Maurice, with his wife and nine
children, escaped to the Asiatic shore; but the violence of
the wind compelled him to land at the church of St.
Autonomus, (44) near Chalcedon, from whence he despatched
Theodosius, he eldest son, to implore the gratitude and
friendship of the Persian monarch. For himself, he refused
to fly: his body was tortured with sciatic pains, (45) his
mind was enfeebled by superstition; he patiently awaited the
event of the revolution, and addressed a fervent and public
prayer to the Almighty, that the punishment of his sins
might be inflicted in this world rather than in a future
life. After the abdication of Maurice, the two factions
disputed the choice of an emperor; but the favorite of the
blues was rejected by the jealousy of their antagonists, and
Germanus himself was hurried along by the crowds who rushed
to the palace of Hebdomon, seven miles from the city, to
adore the majesty of Phocas the centurion. A modest wish of
resigning the purple to the rank and merit of Germanus was
opposed by his resolution, more obstinate and equally
sincere; the senate and clergy obeyed his summons; and, as
soon as the patriarch was assured of his orthodox belief, he
consecrated the successful usurper in the church of St. John
the Baptist. On the third day, amidst the acclamations of a
thoughtless people, Phocas made his public entry in a
chariot drawn by four white horses: the revolt of the troops
was rewarded by a lavish donative; and the new sovereign,
after visiting the palace, beheld from his throne the games
of the hippodrome. In a dispute of precedency between the
two factions, his partial judgment inclined in favor of the
greens. "Remember that Maurice is still alive," resounded
from the opposite side; and the indiscreet clamor of the
blues admonished and stimulated the cruelty of the tyrant.
The ministers of death were despatched to Chalcedon: they
dragged the emperor from his sanctuary; and the five sons of
Maurice were successively murdered before the eyes of their
agonizing parent. At each stroke, which he felt in his
heart, he found strength to rehearse a pious ejaculation:
"Thou art just, O Lord! and thy judgments are righteous."
And such, in the last moments, was his rigid attachment to
truth and justice, that he revealed to the soldiers the
pious falsehood of a nurse who presented her own child in
the place of a royal infant. (46) The tragic scene was
finally closed by the execution of the emperor himself, in
the twentieth year of his reign, and the sixty-third of his
age. The bodies of the father and his five sons were cast
into the sea; their heads were exposed at Constantinople to
the insults or pity of the multitude; and it was not till
some signs of putrefaction had appeared, that Phocas
connived at the private burial of these venerable remains.
In that grave, the faults and errors of Maurice were kindly
interred. His fate alone was remembered; and at the end of
twenty years, in the recital of the history of Theophylact,
the mournful tale was interrupted by the tears of the
audience. (47)
Such tears must have flowed in secret, and such compassion
would have been criminal, under the reign of Phocas, who was
peaceably acknowledged in the provinces of the East and
West. The images of the emperor and his wife Leontia were
exposed in the Lateran to the veneration of the clergy and
senate of Rome, and afterwards deposited in the palace of
the Caesars, between those of Constantine and Theodosius.
As a subject and a Christian, it was the duty of Gregory to
acquiesce in the established government; but the joyful
applause with which he salutes the fortune of the assassin,
has sullied, with indelible disgrace, the character of the
saint. The successor of the apostles might have inculcated
with decent firmness the guilt of blood, and the necessity
of repentance; he is content to celebrate the deliverance of
the people and the fall of the oppressor; to rejoice that
the piety and benignity of Phocas have been raised by
Providence to the Imperial throne; to pray that his hands
may be strengthened against all his enemies; and to express
a wish, perhaps a prophecy, that, after a long and
triumphant reign, he may be transferred from a temporal to
an everlasting kingdom. (48) I have already traced the steps
of a revolution so pleasing, in Gregory's opinion, both to
heaven and earth; and Phocas does not appear less hateful in
the exercise than in the acquisition of power The pencil of
an impartial historian has delineated the portrait of a
monster: (49) his diminutive and deformed person, the
closeness of his shaggy eyebrows, his red hair, his
beardless chin, and his cheek disfigured and discolored by a
formidable scar. Ignorant of letters, of laws, and even of
arms, he indulged in the supreme rank a more ample privilege
of lust and drunkenness; and his brutal pleasures were
either injurious to his subjects or disgraceful to himself.
Without assuming the office of a prince, he renounced the
profession of a soldier; and the reign of Phocas afflicted
Europe with ignominious peace, and Asia with desolating war.
His savage temper was inflamed by passion, hardened by fear,
and exasperated by resistance of reproach. The flight of
Theodosius to the Persian court had been intercepted by a
rapid pursuit, or a deceitful message: he was beheaded at
Nice, and the last hours of the young prince were soothed by
the comforts of religion and the consciousness of innocence.
Yet his phantom disturbed the repose of the usurper: a
whisper was circulated through the East, that the son of
Maurice was still alive: the people expected their avenger,
and the widow and daughters of the late emperor would have
adopted as their son and brother the vilest of mankind. In
the massacre of the Imperial family, (50) the mercy, or
rather the discretion, of Phocas had spared these unhappy
females, and they were decently confined to a private house.
But the spirit of the empress Constantina, still mindful of
her father, her husband, and her sons, aspired to freedom
and revenge. At the dead of night, she escaped to the
sanctuary of St. Sophia; but her tears, and the gold of her
associate Germanus, were insufficient to provoke an
insurrection. Her life was forfeited to revenge, and even
to justice: but the patriarch obtained and pledged an oath
for her safety: a monastery was allotted for her prison, and
the widow of Maurice accepted and abused the lenity of his
assassin. The discovery or the suspicion of a second
conspiracy, dissolved the engagements, and rekindled the
fury, of Phocas. A matron who commanded the respect and pity
of mankind, the daughter, wife, and mother of emperors, was
tortured like the vilest malefactor, to force a confession
of her designs and associates; and the empress Constantina,
with her three innocent daughters, was beheaded at
Chalcedon, on the same ground which had been stained with
the blood of her husband and five sons. After such an
example, it would be superfluous to enumerate the names and
sufferings of meaner victims. Their condemnation was seldom
preceded by the forms of trial, and their punishment was
embittered by the refinements of cruelty: their eyes were
pierced, their tongues were torn from the root, the hands
and feet were amputated; some expired under the lash, others
in the flames; others again were transfixed with arrows; and
a simple speedy death was mercy which they could rarely
obtain. The hippodrome, the sacred asylum of the pleasures
and the liberty of the Romans, was polluted with heads and
limbs, and mangled bodies; and the companions of Phocas were
the most sensible, that neither his favor, nor their
services, could protect them from a tyrant, the worthy rival
of the Caligulas and Domitians of the first age of the
empire. (51)
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 they 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)
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.
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 Phoenician
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. (I) 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 praefect 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.
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. (J)
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) (K) 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)
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 praefect, the praefect 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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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)
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.
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, (L) 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)
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, (M) 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, (N) who gloried in the rank and merit of
his mother Sira, had conspired with the malecontents 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 (O) 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, (P)! till the
factions were silenced and united under the common yoke of
the Arabian caliphs. (108)
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)
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. (Q) 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.