XLVI. by the difficulty of the paffage, the rigour of the CHAP. 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 paffed mount Zara, before the fnow, which fell inceffantly thirty-four days, and the citizens of Gandzaca, or Tauris, were compelled to entertain his foldiers and their horfes with an hofpitable reception 10+. When the ambition of Chofroes was reduced to the defence of his hereditary kingdom, the love of glory, or even the fense of fhame, fhould have urged him to meet his rival in the field. In the battle of Nineveh, his courage might have taught the Perfians to vanquish, or he might have fallen with honour by the lance of a Roman emperor. The fucceffor of Cyrus chofe rather, at a fecure distance, to expect the event, to affemble the relics of the defeat, and to retire by measured fteps before the march of Heraclius, till he beheld with a figh the once loved manfions of Daftagerd. Both his friends and enemies were perfuaded, that it was the intention of Chofroes to bury himself under the ruins of the city and palace: and as both might have been equally adverfe to his flight, the monarch of Afia, with Sira, and three concubines, escaped through an hole in the wall nine days before the arrival of the Romans. The flow and 104 In defcribing this laft 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 preferved (p. 398402.) a very curious specimen. 9 stately Flight of A.D. 627. CHAP. ftately proceffion in which he fhewed himself to the XLVI. proftrate crowd, was changed to a rapid and fecret journey; and the first evening he lodged in the cottage of a peafant, whofe humble door would scarcely give admittance to the great king'. His fuperftition was fubdued by fear: on the third day, he entered with joy the fortifications of Ctesiphon;" yet he still doubted of his fafety till he had opposed the river Tigris to the purfuit of the Romans. The discovery of his flight agitated with terror and tumult the palace, the city, and the camp of Daftagerd: the fatraps hefitated whether they had moft to fear from their fovereign or the enemy; and the females of the haram were aftonished and pleafed by the fight of mankind, till the jealous husband of three thousand wives again confined them to a more distant castle. At his command, the army of Daftagerd retreated to a new camp: the front was covered by the Arba, and a line of two hundred elephants; the troops of the more diftant provinces fucceffively arrived, and the vileft. domeftics of the king and fatraps were enrolled for the last defence of the throne. It was ftill in the power of Chofroes to obtain a reasonable peace; and he was repeatedly preffed by the messengers of Heraclius, to spare the blood of his subjects, and to relieve an humane conqueror from the painful duty of carrying fire and fword through the fairest countries of Afia. But the pride of the Persian 105 The words of Theophanes are remarkable: lovő: Xoogong alg οικοι γεωργε μηδαμινα μείναι, ο χωρηθείς εν τητατε θυρα, ἣν ιδων ἔσχατον *Hgande¡¡bapaacs (p. 269.). Young princes who difcover a propensity to war fhould repeatedly tranferibe and translate fuch falutary texts. XLVI. had not yet funk to the level of his fortune; he CHAP. derived a momentary confidence from the retreat of the emperor; he wept with impotent rage over the ruins of his Affyrian palaces, and difregarded too long the rifing murmurs of the nation, who complained that their lives and fortunes were facrificed to the obftinacy 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 refolved to fix the tiara on the head of Merdaza, the most favoured of his fons. But the will of Chofroes was no longer revered, and Siroes, who gloried in the rank and merit of his mother Sira, had confpired with the malecontents to affert and anticipate the rights of primogeniture 10%. Twenty-two fatraps, they styled themselves patriots, were 'tempted by the wealth and honours of a new reign: to the foldiers, the heir of Chofroes 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 confpirators, that Siroes, with the enfigns of royalty, fhould appear in the camp; and if the enterprise fhould fail, his escape was contrived to the Imperial court. But the new monarch was faluted with unanimous acclamations; the flight of Chofroes He is de(yet where could he have fled ?) was rudely arrefted, eighteen fons were maffacred before his face, Feb. 25. 106 The authentic narrative of the fall of Chofroes is contained in the letter of Heraclius (Chron. Fafcal. p. 398 ) and the history of Theophanes (p. 271.). 628, and CHAP. and he was thrown into a dungeon, where he ex XLVI. and murdered by his fon Siroes, Feb. 28. pired on the fifth day. The Greeks and modern Perfians minutely defcribe how Chofroes was infulted, and famished, and tortured, by the command of an inhuman fon, who fo far furpaffed 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 Chriftian enemies, he funk without hope into a ftill deeper abyss *07 ; and it will not be denied, that tyrants of every age and fect are the best entitled to fuch infernal abodes. The glory of the house of Saffan ended with the life of Chofroes: his unnatural fon enjoyed only eight months the fruit of his crimes; and in the space of four years, the regal title was affumed by nine candidates, who difputed, with the fword or dagger, the fragments of an exhausted monarchy. Every province, and each city of Perfia, was the fcene of independence, of difcord, and of blood, and the state of anarchy prevailed about eight years longer, till the factions were filenced and united under the. common yoke of the Arabian caliphs 18. As 107 On the first rumour of the death of Chofroes, an Heracliad in two cantos was instantly published at Conftantinople by George of Pifidia (p. 97-105.). A priest and a poet might very properly exult in the damnation of the public enemy (εμπεσων εν ταρταρι v. 56.) but fuch mean revenge is unworthy of a king and a conqueror; and I am sorry to find so much black superstition (be max Χασρίης έπεσε και εππωμα τίσθη εις τα καταχθονια . . . εις το περ anaracßicov, &c.) in the letter of Heraclius: he almost applauds the parricide of Siroes as an act of piety and justice. 108 The beft Oriental accounts of this laft period of the Saffanian kings are found in Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 251-256.), who diffembles XLVI. Treaty of tween the peace be two em- &c. As foon as the mountains became' paffable, the CHAP. emperor received the welcome news of the fuccefs of the confpiracy, the death of Chofroes, and the elevation of his eldeft fon to the throne of Perfia. The authors of the revolution, eager to display their merits in the court or camp of Tauris, preceded the ambaffadors of Siroes, who delivered the letters of their mafter to his brother the emperor of the Romans 109. In the language of the ufurpers of every age, he imputes his own crimes to the Deity, and, without degrading his equal majesty, he offers to reconcile the long difcord 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 ftandards and prifoners which had fallen into the hands of the Perfians, the emperor imitated the example of Auguftus: 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 Pifidia: the fubjects and brethren of Heraclius were redeemed from perfecution, flavery, and exile; but, instead of the Roman eagles, the true wood of the holy crofs was reftored to the importunate demands of the fucceffor of ConftanThe victor was not ambitious of enlarg tine. diffembles the parricide of Siroes, d'Herbelot (Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 789.), and Affemanni (Bibliothec. Oriental. tom iii. p. 415 -420.). 109 The letter of Siroes in the Pafchal Chronicle (p. 402 ) unfortunately ends before he proceeds to bufinefs. The treaty appears in its execution in the hiftories of Theophanes and Nicephorus. ing |