flatter the Barbarian with the promise of a fair and CHA P. august bride, obtained an immediate succour of XLVI. forty thousand horse, and negociated a strong diversion of the Turkish arms on the side of the Oxus*. The Persians, in their turn, retreated with precipation; 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 main.... tained 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 fictious 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 dispatches 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 honour or policy restrained Sarbar R 4 from

1

Elmacin. (Hist. Saracen. p. 13-16.) gives some curious and probable facts: but his numbers are rather too high300,000 Romans assembled at Edessa-500,000 Persians killed at Nineveh. The abatement of a cypher is scarcely enough to restore his sanity.

XLVI.

His third

expedition,

CA P. 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 doubful of A. D. 627. the fidelity of his subjects, the greatness of Chosroes was still conspicuous in its ruins. I he 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 Ro ans 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 *: the city, and even the ruins of the city, had long since disappeared †: 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

*Ctesias (apud Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. 1. ii. p. 115. edit. Wesseling) assigns 480 stadia (perhaps only thirty two 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 af ford about 700,000 persons of all ages for the inhabitants of that ancient capital (Goguet, Origines des Loix, &c. tom. iii. part i. P. 92, 93.) which ceased to exist 600 years before Christ. The western suburb still subsisted, and is mentioned under the name of Mosul in the first age of the Arabian khaliffs.

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

cember I

not to the military conduct, but to the personal CHA P. valour, of their favourite hero. On this memo- XLVI. rable day, Heraclius, on his horse Phallas, surpassed and victo the bravest of his warriors: his lip was pierced with ries, Dea 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 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 *. in the battle of Nineveh, which was fiercely fought from day-break to the eleventh hour, twenty-eight standards, beside 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

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

CHAP. amidst the bodies of their friends, no more than XLVI. 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 greater 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, 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 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 Modian or Ctesiphon, till he was stopped, on the banks of the Arby,

by

L

by the difficulty of the passage, the rigour of the CHA P. season, and perhaps the fame of an impregnable XLVI 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 *.

Chosroes,

When the ambition of Chosroes was reduced to Flight of the defence of his hereditary kingdom, the love of A. D. 627. glory, or even the sense of shame, should have Dec. 29. 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 equally adverse to his flight, the monarch of Asia, with Sira, and three concubines, escaped through an hole in the wall nine days before the arrival of the Romans. The slow and

stately

* 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.