CHA P. rus*, in Cilicia. That river, an impetuous torrent,

XLVI.

Deliver. ance of Constanti

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 †.

Instead of skirmishing on the frontier, the two monarchs who disputed the empire of the East nople from aimed their desperate strokes at the heart of their rival. The military force of Persia was wasted by A. D. 626. the marches and combats of twenty years, and

the Persians

and Avars,

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. The first army of fifty thousand men,

* 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. 1. i. p. 33, 34.).

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

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

XLVI.

men, illustrious by the ornament and title of the CHA P. 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 of his native subjects, and of the vassal tribes of Gepidæ, Russians, Bulgarians, and Sclavonians, advanced under the standard of the chagan; a month was spent in marches and negociations, 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 fignals of the European and Asiatic shores. In the mean while the magistrates R 2

of

*This number of eight myriads is specified by George of Pisidia (Bell. Abar. 219.). The poet (0-88.) clearly indicates that the old chagan lived till the reign of Heraclius, and that his son and successor was born of a foreign mother. Yet Foggini (Annotat. p. 57.) has given another interpretation to this passage.

XLVI.

CHA P. of Constantinople repeatedly strove to purchase the retreat of the chagan: but their deputies were rejected and insulted; and he suffered the patri. cians 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

66

66

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, un"less you could soar into air like birds, unless like "fishes you could dive into the waves *." 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

* 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 Rosseau, with much good taste) plus ella sera menaçante moins elle effrayera : ce ne cera qu'une fanfarronade dont Darius n'eut fait que rire (Emile, tom. iii. p. 146.). Yet I much question whether the senate and people of Constantinople laughed at this message of the chagan.

volley of stones and darts; and twelve lofty towers c H a P. of wood exalted the combatants to the height of XLVI. 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 gallies, 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 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 *.

and con

quests of

After the division of his army, Heraclius pru- Alliances dently retired to the banks of the Phasis, from whence he maintained a defensive war against the Heraclius. fifty thousand gold spears of Persia. His anxiety was relieved by the deliverance of Constantinople; R 3

his

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

XLVI.

*

CHA P. 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 hord of Chozars transported their tents from the plains of the Volga to the mountains of Georgia; Heraclius received them in the neighbourhood 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 Cæsar. 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 or son. After a sumptuous banquet, he presented Ziebel with the plate and ornaments, the guid, 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 †, condescended to flatter

The power of the Chozars prevailed in the viith, viiith, and ixth centuries They were known to the Greeks, the A abs, and, under the name of Kosa, to the Chinese themselves. De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. part in. p. 507509.

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