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 people; 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 empe ror 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 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 favourite 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 honours, 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 Hyr canian mountains, to descend into the province of Media or Irak, and to carry his victorious arms as far as the royal cities of Cashin, and Ispahan, which had

(86) The river Araxes is noisy, rapid, vehement, and, with the melting of the snows, irresistible: the strongest and most massy bridges are swept away by the current; and its indignation is attested by the ruins of many arches near the old town of Zulfa. Voyages de Chardin, tom. i. p. 252.

Et Pontem indignatus Araxes. Virgil, Æneid, viii. 728.

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

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

(89) The heath of Mogan, between the Cyrus and the Araxes, is sixty parasangs in length and twenty In breadth (Olearius, p. 1023, 1024), abounding in waters and fruitful pastures (Hist. de Nader Shah, translated by Mr. Jones from a Persian MS. part ii. p. 2, 3). See the encampments of Timur (Hist. par Skerefeddin Ali, 1. v. c. 37, I. vi. c. 13,) and the coronation of Nader Shah (Hist. Persanne, p. 3-13, and the English Life by Mr. Jones, p. 64, 65).

(90) Thebarna and Ormia, near the lake Spauto, are proved to be the same city by d'Anville (Memoires de l'Academie, tom. xxviii. p. 564, 565). It is honoured as the birth-place of Zoroaster, according to the Persians (Schultens, Index Geograph. p. 48); and their tradition is fortified by M. Perron d'Anquetil Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscrip. tom. xxxi. p. 375), with some texts from his or their Zendavesta.*

(91) I cannot find, and (what is much more) M. d'Anville does not attempt to seek, the Salban, TaranAum, territory of the Huns, &c. mentioned by Theophanes (p. 260-262). Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 231, 232), an insufficient author, names Aspahan; and Casbin is most probably the city of Sapor. Ispanau is twenty four days' journey from Tauris, and Casbin half way between them. Voyages de Taver aier, tom. i. p 63-82.

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 vigour 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 valour 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 armour 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)

[A. D. 626.] 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 com. bats 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. Sabar, 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

(92) At ten parasangs from Tarsus, the army of the younger Cyrus passed the Sarus, three plethra in breadth; the Pyramus, a stadium in breadth, ran five parasangs farther to the East (Xenophon, Anabas I. i. p. 33, 34).

(93) George of Pisidia (Bell. Abaricum, 246-265, p. 49,) celebrates with truth the persevering courage of the three campaigns (тpels πepidopμs) against the Persians.

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

buildings of the Asiatic suburbs, while he impatiently awaited 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 Gepida, 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 Blachernæ 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 the partial and inadequate ransom: your wealth and your city are the only presens 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 neighbouring 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 or 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 harbour; 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 honourable alliance of the Turks. At his liberal invitation, the horde of Chozars(98) transported their tents from the plains of the

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

(96) A bird, a frog, a mouse, and five arrows, had been the present of the Scythian king to Darius (Herodot. 1. iv. c. 131, 132). Substituez une lettre à ces signes (says Rousseau, with much good taste,, plus ella sera menaçante moins elle effrayera: ce ne sera qu'une fanfarronade dont Darius n'eut fait que rire (Emilie, tom. iii. p. 146). Yet I much question whether the senate and people of Constantinople laughed at this message of the chagan.

(97) The Paschal Chronicle (p. 392-397,) gives a minute and authentic narrative of the siege and deliverance of Constantinople. Theophanes (p. 264,) adds some circumstances; and a faint light may be obtained from the smoke of George of Pisidia, who has composed a poem (de Bello Abarico, p. 4554,) to commemorate this auspicious event.

(98) The power of the Chozars, prevailed in the viith, viiith, and ixth centuries. the Greeks, the Arabs, and, under the name of Kosa, to the Chinese themselves Huns, tom. ii. part ii. 507-509.*

They were known to
De Guignes, Hist. dey

Volga to the mountains of Georgia; Heraclius received them in the neighbour hood of Teflis, and the khan with his nobles dismounted from their horses, if w may credit the Greeks, and fell prostrate on the ground, to adore the purple o the Cesar. 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 succour 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, be 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 honour 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.

[A. D. 627.] Deprived of his hirmust 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 Mosal, 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 authors of epic poetry and romance, they ascribe the victory, not to the military conduct, but to the personal valour, of their favourite hero. On this memorable day, Heraclius, on his horse Phallas, surpassed the bravest of

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

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

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

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

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 nimself; he fell like a soldier, but the sight of his head scattered grief and despair through the fainting ranks of the Persians. His armour 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 day-break 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-andtwenty hours, his vanguard occupied the bridges of the greater and the less Zab; and the cities and the palaces of Assyria were opened for the first time to the Romans. By a just gradation of magnificent scenes, they penetrated to the royal seat of Dastagerd, 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 rigour 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 Gandzaca, or Tauris, were compelled to entertain his soldiers and their horses with an hospitable reception. (104)

[A. D. 627.] 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 honour 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

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

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