For the moment
Heraclius had no forces with which to oppose Priscus; he was condemned
to inaction and compelled to await his opportunity.
Heraclius had no forces with which to oppose Priscus; he was condemned
to inaction and compelled to await his opportunity.
Cambridge Medieval History - v2 - Rise of the Saracens and Foundation of the Western Empire
Despite the counsels of the senate, Maurice
saw in this strange reversal of fortune a chance to terminate a war which
was draining the Empire's strength: his resolve to accede to his enemy's
request was at once a courageous and a statesmanlike action. He
furnished Chosroes with men and money, Narses took command of the
troops and John Mystakon marched from Armenia to join the army.
The two forces met at Sargana (probably Sirgan, in the plain of Ushnei1)
and in the neighbourhood of Ganzaca (Takhti-Soleiman) defeated and
put to flight Bahram, while Chosroes recovered his throne without further
resistance. The new monarch kept his promises to Rome and surrounded
himself with a Roman body-guard (591). By this interposition Maurice
had restored the Empire's frontier5 and had ended the long-drawu struggle
in the East.
In 592 therefore he could transport his army into Europe, and was able
to employ his whole military force in the Danubian provinces. Maurice
himself went with the troops as far as Anchialus, when he was recalled
by the presence of a Persian embassy in the capital. The chronology of
the next few years is confused and it is impossible to give here a detailed
account of the campaigns. Their general object was to maintain the
Danube as the frontier line against the Avars and to restrict the forays
of the Slavs. In this Priscus met with considerable success, but Peter,
Maurice's brother, who superseded him in 597, displayed hopeless
incompetency and Priscus was reappointed4. In 600 Comentiolus.
who was, it would appear, in command against his own will, entered
into communications with the Khagan in order to secure the dis-
comfiture of the Roman forces: he was, in fact, anxious to prove that
the attempt to defend the northern frontier was labour lost. He
ultimately fled headlong to the capital and only the personal inter-
ference of the Emperor stifled the inquiry into his treachery. On this
1 There seems no sufficient evidence for the theory that Bahram Cobin relied on
a legitimist claim as representing the prae-Sassanid dynasty.
2 See H. C. Rawliuson, "Memoir on the site of the Atropatenian Ecbatana,"
Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (1840), pp. 71 ff.
3 See maps by H. Hiibschmann in "Die altarmenischen Ortsnamen," Indoger-
manUche Forschungen, xvi. (1904), and in Gelzer's Oeorgius Oyprhu.
4 For the siege of Thessalonica in this year, cf. Wroth, op. cit. i. p. xri.
## p. 281 (#313) ############################################
600-602] Campaigns on the Danube Frontier 281
occasion the panic in Constantinople was such that the city guard—the
Brjfioi—were sent by Maurice to man the Long Walls1.
On the return of Comentiolus to the seat of war in the summer of 600,
Priscus, in spite of his colleague's inactivity, won a considerable victory,
but the autumn of 601 saw Peter once again in command and conducting
unsuccessful negotiations for a peace. Towards the close of 602 the
outlook was brighter, for conditions had changed in favour of Rome.
The Antae had acted as her allies, and when Apsich was sent by the
Khagan to punish this defection, numbers of the Avars themselves deserted
and joined the forces under Peter. Maurice would seem to have thought
that this was the moment to drive home the advantage which fortune
offered, for if the soldiers could support themselves at the expense of the
enemy, the harassed provincials and the overburdened exchequer might
be spared the cost of their maintenance. Orders were sent that the
troops were not to return, but should winter beyond the Danube. The
army heard the news with consternation: barbarian tribes were ranging
over the country on the further side of the river, the cavalry was worn
out with the marches of the summer, their booty would purchase them
the pleasures of civilised life. The Roman forces mutinied and, dis-
obeying their superiors, crossed the river and reached Palastolum.
Peter withdrew from the camp in despair, but meanwhile the
officers had induced their men to face the barbarians once again, and the
army had returned to Securisca (near Nikopol). Floods of rain, however,
and extreme cold renewed the discontent; eight spokesmen, among whom
was Phocas, covered the twenty miles between Peter and the camp and
demanded that the army might return home to winter quarters. The
commander-in-chief promised to give his answer on the following day:
between the rebellious determination of the troops and the imperative
despatches of his brother he could see no loophole of escape; of one
thing alone he was assured: that day would start a train of ills
for Rome. True to his promise he joined his men and to their repre-
sentatives he read the Emperor's letter. Before the tempest of opposition
which this evoked the officers fled, and on the following day, when the
soldiers had twice assembled to discuss the situation, Phocas was raised
upon a shield and declared their leader. Peter carried the news with all
speed to the capital; Maurice disguised his fears and reviewed the troops
of the demes. The Blues, on whose support he relied, numbered 900,
the Greens 1500. On the refusal of Phocas to receive the Emperor's
ambassadors, the demesmen were ordered to man the city walls.
Phocas had been chosen as champion of the army, not as emperor: the
army had refused allegiance to Maurice personally but not to his house;
1 It seems probable that in some source hostile to Maurice the treachery of
Comentiolus was transferred to the Emperor himself and to this was added the story
of the failure to ransom the prisoners. The basis of fact from which the story sprang
may perhaps be discerned in Theophylact, e. g. p. 247, 18 (edn. de Boor).
## p. 282 (#314) ############################################
282 Death of Maurice [602
accordingly the vacant throne was offered to Theodosius, the Emperors
eldest son, or, should he decline it, to his father-in-law Germanus, both
of whom were hunting at the time in the neighbourhood of the capital.
They were at once recalled to Constantinople. Germanus, realising that
he was suspected of treason, armed his followers and surrounded by a
body-guard took refuge in the Cathedral Church. He had won the
sympathies of the populace, and when the Emperor attempted to remove
him by force from St Sophia, riots broke out in the city, while the troops
of the demes deserted their posts on the walls to join in the abuse of
Emperor and patriarch. Maurice was denounced as a Marcianist and
ribald songs were shouted against him through the streets. The house
of the praetorian praefect, Constantine Lardys, was burned to the ground,
and at the dead of night, with his wife and children, accompanied by
Constantine, the Emperor, disguised as a private citizen, embarked for
Asia (22 Nov. 602). A storm carried him out of his course and he only
landed with difficulty at the shrine of Autonomus the Martyr; here an
attack of gout held him prisoner, while the praetorian praefect was
despatched with Theodosius to enlist the sympathy of Chosroes on
behalf of his benefactor. The Emperor fled, the Greens determined to
espouse the cause of Phocas and rejected the overtures of Germanus, who
now made a bid for the crown and was prepared to purchase their
support; they feared that, once his end was gained, his well-known
partiality for the Blues would reassert itself. The disappointed candidate
was driven to acknowledge his rival's claims. Phocas was invited to the
Hebdomon (Makrikeui) and thither trooped out the citizens, the senate,
and the patriarch. In the church of St John the Baptist the rude half-
barbarian centurion was crowned sovereign of the Roman Empire, and
entered the capital "in a golden shower" of royal gifts.
But the usurper could not rest while Maurice was alive. On the day
following the coronation of his wife Leontia, upon the Asian shore at
the harbour of Eutropius five sons of the fallen Emperor were slain
before their father's eyes, and then Maurice himself perished, calling upon
God and repeating many times "Just art thou, O Lord, and just is thy
judgment. " From the beach men saw the bodies floating on the waters
of the bay, while Lilius brought back to the capital the severed heads,
where they were exposed to public view.
Maurice was a realist who suffered from an obstinate prejudice in
favour of his own projects and his own nominees; he could diagnose the
ills from which the Empire suffered, but did not always choose aright the
moment for administering the remedy. He had served a stern apprentice-
ship in the eastern wars, and saw clearly that while Rome in many of
her provinces was fighting for existence, the importance of the leader of
armies outweighed that of the civil governor. In some temporary
instances Justinian had entrusted to the praefect the duties of a general,
and had thus broken through the sharp distinction between the two
## p. 283 (#315) ############################################
eoa] Character and Rule of Maurice 283
spheres drawn by the Diocletio-Constantinian reforms. Maurice however
did not follow the principle of Justinian's tentative innovations: he chose
to give to the military commander a position in the hierarchy of office
superior to that of the civil administration, conferring on the old
magistri militiim of Africa and Italy the newly coined title of exarch:
this supreme authority was to be the Emperors vicegerent against Berber
and Lombard. It was the first step towards the creation of the system
of military themes'. It was doubtless also considerations of practical
convenience and a recognition of the stubborn logic of facts which led to
Maurice's scheme of provincial redistribution. Tripolitana was separated
from Africa and joined like its neighbour Cyrenaica to the diocese of
Egypt; Sitifensis and Caesariensis were fused into the single province of
Mauretania Prima, while the fortress of Septum and the sorry remnants
of Tingitana were united with the imperial possessions in Spain and the
Balearic Isles to form the province of Mauretania II, thus solidifying under
one government the scattered Roman territories in the extreme West.
Similar motives probably determined the new arrangements (after the
treaty with Persia in 591) on the Eastern frontier. It was again Maurice
the realist who disregarded the counsels of his ministers and made full use 01
the unique opportunity which the flight of Chosroes offered to the Empire.
In Italy the incursion of the Lombards presented a problem with
which the wars on the Danube and in Asia rendered it difficult for
Maurice to cope. Frankish promises of help against the invaders were
largely illusory, even though the young West-Gothic prince Athanagild
was held in Constantinople as a pledge for the fulfilment by his Mero-
vingian kinsfolk of their obligations. It was further unfortunate that
the relations between Pope and Emperor were none of the best; many
small disagreements culminated in the dispute concerning the title
of oecumenical patriarch which John the Faster had adopted. The
contention between Gregory and Maurice has certainly been given a
factitious importance by later historians—the over-sensitive Gregory
alone seems to have regarded the question as of any vital moment and
his successors quietly acquiesced in the use of the offending word—but
the disagreement doubtless hampered the Emperor's reforms; when he
endeavoured to prevent soldiers from deserting and retiring into
monasteries, the Pope seized on the measure as a new ground of com-
plaint and raised violent protest in the name of the Church.
As general in Asia Maurice had restored the morale of the army, and
throughout his life he was always anxious to effect improvements in
military matters. He was the first Emperor to realise fully the im-
portance of Armenia as a recruiting ground5, and it may well be from
1 See Ch. xm.
* When an Emperor is at great cost transporting men from Armenia to the
Danube provinces, is the story probable that he sacrificed thousands of prisoners of
war through refusal to pay to the Khagan their ransom?
## p. 284 (#316) ############################################
284 Phocas [602-603
this fact that late tradition traced his descent from that country. It
was just in this sphere of military reform, however, that he displayed his
fatal inability to judge the time when he could safely insist on an
unpopular measure; his demand that the army should winter beyond
the Danube cost him alike throne and life. It was further an all-advised
step when Maurice in his later years (598 or 599) reverted, as Justin had
done before him, to a policy of religious persecution. By endeavouring
to force Chalcedonian orthodoxy on Mesopotamia he effected little save
the alienation of his subjects. It was left to Heraclius to follow Tiberius
in choosing the better part and endeavouring by conciliation to introduce
union amongst the warring parties. But the great blot on the reign of
Maurice is his favouritism towards incapable officials; the ability of men
like Narses and Priscus had to give place to the incompetency of Peter
and the treachery of Comentiolus. Time and again their blunders were
overlooked and new distinctions forced upon them. The fear that a
victorious general of to-day might be the successful rival of to-morrow
gave but a show of justification to this ruinous partiality.
But despite all criticisms Maurice remains a high-minded, conscien-
tious, independent, hard-working ruler, and if other proof of his
worth were lacking it is to be found in the universal hatred of his
murderer.
Other executions followed those of Maurice and his sons: Comentiolus
and Peter were slain, while Alexander dragged Theodosius from the
sanctuary of Autonomus and killed both him and the praefect Constantine.
Constantina and her three daughters were confined in a private house.
Phocas was master of the capital. But elsewhere throughout the Empire
men refused to ratify the army's choice: through Anatolia and Cilicia,
through the Roman province of Asia and in Palestine, through Illyricum
and in Thessalonica civil war was raging1: on every side the citizens
rose in rebellion against the assassin whom Pope Gregory and the
older Rome delighted to honour; even in Constantinople itself a plot
hatched by Germanus was only suppressed after a great part of the city
had been destroyed by fire. The ex-empress as a result of these disorders
was now immured with her daughters in a convent, while Philippicus and
Germanus were forced to become priests.
A persistent rumour affirmed that Theodosius was still alive; for a
time Phocas himself must have believed the report, for he put to death
his agent Alexander; furthermore Chosroes was thus furnished with a
fair-sounding pretext for an invasion of the Empire: he came as avenger
of Maurice to whom he owed his throne, and as restorer of Maurice's heir.
When in the spring of 603 Phocas despatched Lilius to the Persian court
to announce his accession, the ambassador was thrown into chains, and in
an arrogant letter Chosroes declared war on Rome. About this time1
1 Cf. H. Gelzer, Die Genesis, etc. , pp. 36 ff.
## p. 285 (#317) ############################################
603-609] Victories of Persia 285
also (603) Narses revolted, seized Edessa and appealed to Persia for
support. Germanus, now in command of the eastern army1, marched
to Edessa with orders to recover the city. In the spring of 604
Chosroes led his forces against the Empire, and while part encamped
round Dara, he himself made for Edessa to attack the Romans who
were themselves besieging Narses. As day broke the Persians fell
upon Germanus, who was defeated and eleven days later died of his
wounds in Constantina; his men fled in confusion. Chosroes, it would
appear, entered Edessa, and (according to the Armenian historian
Sebeos) Narses introduced to the Persian king a young man whom he
represented to be Theodosius; the pretender was gladly welcomed by
Chosroes, who then retired to Dara, where the Romans still resisted the
besiegers. On the news of the death of Germanus Phocas realised that
all the forces which he could raise were needed for the war in Asia. He
increased the annual payments to the Avars, and withdrew the regiments
from Thrace (605? ). Some of the troops under the command of the
eunuch Leontius were ordered to invest Edessa, though Narses soon
escaped from this city and reached Hierapolis; the rest of the army
marched against Persia, but at Arxamon, between Edessa and Nisibis,
Chosroes won a great victory and took numerous captives; about this
time, after a year and a half s siege, the walls of Dara were undermined,
the fortress captured and the inhabitants massacred. Laden with booty
the Persian monarch returned to Ctesiphon, leaving Zongoes in command
in Asia. Leontius was disgraced, and Phocas appointed his cousin Domen-
tiolus curopalates and general-in-chief. Narses was induced to surrender
on condition that no harm should be done to him; Phocas disregarded
the oath and Rome's best general was burned alive in the capital.
Meanwhile Armenia was devastated by civil war and Persian invasion:
Karin opened its gates to the pretended son of Maurice, and Chosroes
established a marzpan in Dovin. In the year after the siege of Dara (606)
Sahrbaraz and Kardarigan entered Mesopotamia and the country border-
ing on the frontier of Syria; among the towns which surrendered were
Amida and Resaina. In 607 Syria, Palestine and Phoenicia were over-
run; in 608 Kardarigan in conjunction, it seems, with Sahin marched
north-west and, while the latter occupied Cappadocia, spending a year
(608-609) in Caesarea which was evacuated by the Christians, the former
made forays into Paphlagonia and Galatia, penetrating even as far west
as Chalcedon. In fact the Roman world at this time fell into a state of
anarchy, and passions which had long smouldered burst into flame. Blues
and Greens fought out their feuds in the streets of Antioch, Jerusalem
and Alexandria, while on every side men easily persuaded themselves
that Theodosius yet lived. Even in Constantinople Germanus thought
1 Appointed to supersede Narses shortly before Maurice's death, the Emperor
being anxious to meet the objections of Persia.
## p. 286 (#318) ############################################
286 Plot and Counterplot [605-608
that he could turn to his own profit the popular belief. Our authorities
are unsatisfactory but it would seem that two distinct plots with different
aims were set on foot. There was a conspiracy among the highest court
officials headed by the praetorian praefect of the East, Theodoras:
Elpidius, governor of the imperial arsenal, was willing to supply arms,
and Phocas was to be slain in the Hippodrome. Theodoras himself
would then be proclaimed emperor. Of this plan Germanus obtained
warning, and for his part determined to anticipate the scheme by play-
ing upon the public sympathy for the house of Maurice. While nominally
championing the cause of Theodosius, he doubtless intended to secure for
himself the supreme power. Through a certain Petronia he entered into
communication with Constantina, but Petronia betrayed the secret to
Phocas. Under torture Constantina accused Germanus of complicity and
he in turn implicated others. The rival plot met with no better success.
Anastasius, who had been present at the breakfast council where the
project was discussed, repented of his treason and informed the Emperor.
On 7 June 605 Phocas wreaked his vengeance on the court officials, and
about the same time Germanus, Constantina and her three daughters met
their deaths.
Alarms and suspicions haunted the Emperor and terror goaded him
to fresh excesses. In 607, it would seem, his daughter Domentzia
was married to Priscus, the former general of Maurice, and when
the demesmen raised statues to bride and bridegroom, Phocas saw
in the act new treason and yet another attempt upon his throne. It
was in vain that the authorities pleaded that they were but following
long-established custom; it was only popular clamour that saved the
demarchs Theophanes and Pamphilus from immediate execution. Even
loyalty was proved dangerous, and anxiety for his personal safety made
of a son-in-law a secret foe. The capital was full of plague and scarcity
and executions: Comentiolus and all the remaining kindred of Maurice fell
victims to the panic fear of Phocas. The Greens themselves turned against
the Emperor, taunting him in the circus with his debauchery, and setting
on fire the public buildings. Phocas retorted by depriving them of all
political rights. He looked around for allies: at least he would win the
sympathies of the orthodox in the East, as he had from the first enjoyed
the support of Rome. Anastasius, Jacobite patriarch of Alexandria, was
expelled: Syria and Egypt, he decreed, should choose no ecclesiastical
dignitary without his authorisation. Before the common attack, Mono-
physite Antioch and Alexandria determined to sink their differences. In
608 the patriarchs met in the Syrian capital. The local authorities
interfered, but the Jacobite populace was joined by the Jews in their
resistance to the imperial troops. The orthodox patriarch was slain and
the rioters gained the day. Phocas despatched Cotton and Bonosus,
count of the East, to Antioch; with hideous cruelty their mission was
accomplished, and the Emperor's authority with difficulty re-established.
## p. 287 (#319) ############################################
608] Africa revolts under Heraclius 287
Thence Bonosus departed for Jerusalem, where the faction fights of Blues
and Greens had spread confusion throughout the city.
The tyrant was still master within the capital, but Africa was
preparing the expedition which was to cause his overthrow. In 607,
or at latest 608, Heraclius, formerly general of Maurice and now exarch,
with his viroo-Tpdrriyos Gregory, was planning rebellion. The news
reached the ears of Priscus, who had learned to fear his father-in-
law's animosity, and negotiations were opened between the Senate and
the Pentapolis: the aristocracy was ready to give its aid should a
liberator reach the capital. Obviously such a promise was of small
value, and Heraclius was forced to rely upon his own resources. But
he was at this time advanced in life, and to his son Heraclius and to
Gregory's son Nicetas was entrusted the execution of the plot. It is only
of recent years, through the discovery of the chronicle of John of Nikiou,
that we have been able to construct the history of the operations. First
Nicetas was to invade Egypt and secure Alexandria, then Heraclius
would take ship for Thessalonica, and from this harbour as his base he
would direct his attack upon Constantinople.
During the year 608, 3000 men were raised in the Pentapolis, and
these, together with Berber troops, were placed under the command
of Bonakis (a spelling which doubtless hides a Roman name) who
defeated without difficulty the imperial generals. Leontius, the
praefect of Mareotis, was on the side of Heraclius, and the governor
of Tripolis arrived with reinforcements. High officials were con-
spiring to support the rebels in Alexandria itself, when the plot was
revealed to Theodore, the imperialist patriarch. When the news reached
Phocas he forthwith ordered the praefect of Byzantium to convey fresh
troops with all speed to Alexandria and the Delta fortresses, while
Bonosus, who was contemplating a seizure of the patriarch of Jerusalem,
was summoned to leave the Holy City and to march against Nicetas.
On the latter's advance, Alexandria refused to surrender, but resist-
ance was short-lived, and the patriarch and general met their deaths.
Treasure, shipping, the island and fortress of Pharos, all fell into the
hands of Nicetas1, while Bonakis received the submission of many of the
Delta towns. At Caesarea, where Bonosus took ship, he heard of the
capture of Alexandria, and while his cavalry pursued the land route,
his fleet in two divisions sailed up the Nile by the Pelusiac channel and
by the main eastern arm of the river. At first Bonosus carried all before
him and inflicted a crushing defeat near Maniif on the generals of
Heraclius, thereby reconquering the Delta for Phocas, but he was repulsed
from Alexandria with heavy loss and suffered so severely in a fresh
advance from his base at Nikiou that he was forced to abandon Egypt
1 According to Theophanes the corn-ships of Alexandria were prevented from
reaching the capital from 608 onwards.
## p. 288 (#320) ############################################
288 Fall of Phocas [609-610
and to flee through Asia to Constantinople1. The imperialist resistance
was at an end and the new rule was established in Egypt (apparently
end of 609).
We have no certain information as to what the younger Heraclius
was doing during the year 609, but it seems not unlikely that it was at
this time that he occupied Thessalonica, for here he could draw rein-
forcements from the European malcontents. It is at least clear that,
when he finally started in 610 on his voyage to Constantinople, he
gathered supporters from the sea-side towns and from the islands on
his route. At the beginning of September, it would seem, he cast
anchor at Abydus in Mysia, where he was joined by those whom Phocas
had driven into exile. Crossing the Propontis he touched at Heraclea
and Selimbria, and at the small island of Calonymus the Church, through
the bishop of Cyzicus, blessed his enterprise. On Saturday, 3 Oct. , the
fleet, with images of the Virgin at the ships' mastheads, sailed under the
sea-walls of the capital. But in face of the secret treachery of Priscus
and the open desertion of the demesmen of the Green party the cause
of Phocas was foredoomed; Heraclius waited upon his ship until the
tyrant's own ministers dragged his enemy before him on the morning of
5 Oct. "Is it thus, wretch, that you have governed the State? " asked
Heraclius. "Will you govern it any better? '" retorted the fallen
Emperor. He was forthwith struck down, and his body dismembered
and carried through the city. Domentiolus and Leontius, the Syrian
minister of finance, shared his fate and their bodies, together with that
of Bonosus, were burned in the Ox Forum. In the afternoon of the
same day Heraclius was crowned emperor by Sergius the patriarch:
people and senate refused to listen to his plea that Priscus should be
their monarch: they would not see in their liberator merely the avenger
of Maurice, nor suffer him to return whence he came. On the same day
Heraclius married Eudocia (as his betrothed, Fabia, daughter of Rogatus
of Africa, was re-named) who became at once bride and empress. Three
days later, in the Hippodrome, the statue of Phocas was burned and with
it the standard of the Blues.
During 610 the Persians had been advancing westwards in the
direction of Syria: Callinicum and Circesium had fallen and the
Euphrates had been crossed. After his accession Heraclius sent an
embassy to Persia: Maurice was now avenged, and peace could be re-
stored between the two empires. Chosroes made no reply to the
embassy: he had proved all too conclusively Rome's weakness and
was not willing to surrender his advantage. Meanwhile Priscus was
appointed general and sent to Cappadocia to undertake the siege of
Caesarea, which was at this time in the occupation of the Persians. For
1 For further details see John of Nikiou, and for a map of the Delta cf. Butler,
The Conquest of Egypt, etc.
## p. 289 (#321) ############################################
611-613] The Struggle against Persia 289
a year the enemy resisted, but at last, in the late summer of 611, famine
drove «them to evacuate the city. They cut their way through the
Roman troops, inflicting serious loss, and retired to Armenia where they
took up winter quarters. In the same year Emesa was lost to the
Empire. In 612, on the news that the Persians were once more about
to invade Roman territory in force, Heraclius left the capital to confer
with Priscus in Caesarea. The general pleaded illness and treated the
Emperor with marked coolness and disrespect. His ambitions were
thwarted: he had gained nothing by the revolution and objected that
the Emperor's place was in Constantinople: it was no duty of his to
intermeddle personally with the conduct of the war.
For the moment
Heraclius had no forces with which to oppose Priscus; he was condemned
to inaction and compelled to await his opportunity. In the summer
Sahin led his army to Karin, and reduced Melitene to submission,
afterwards joining Sahrbaraz in the district of Dovin. The Persians
were masters of Armenia. In 611 Eudocia had given birth to a daughter
and in May 612 a son was born, but on 13 Aug. the Empress died.
In 618 the Emperor, despite the protests of the Church, married his
niece Martina. In the autumn of 612 Nicetas came to Constantinople,
doubtless to confer with Heraclius as to the methods which were to be
adopted in the government of Egypt. Priscus also made his way to
the capital to honour the arrival of the Emperor's cousin, and was
invited by Heraclius to act as sponsor at his son's christening which
took place, it would seem, on 5 Dec. 612. Here the Emperor charged
his general with treason, and forced him to enter a monastery. In
Constantinople Priscus could no longer rely on the support of an army
and resistance was impossible. Heraclius appealed to the troops then
in the capital, and was enthusiastically greeted as their future captain.
Nicetas succeeded Priscus as comes excubitorum, while the Emperor
appointed his brother Theodore curopulates; he also induced Philippicus
to leave the shelter of a religious house and once more to undertake
a military command.
In the following year (613)1 Heraclius was free to carry out his own
plan of campaign: he determined to oppose the enemy on both their
lines of attack. Philippicus was to invade Armenia, while he himself
and his brother Theodore would check the Persian advance on Syria.
The aim of Chosroes was clearly to occupy the Mediterranean coast line.
A battle took place under the walls of Antioch, and there, after their
army had been strengthened by reinforcements, the Persians succeeded
in routing the Greeks: the road was now open for the southward march,
and in this year Damascus fell. Further to the north the Roman troops
held the defiles which gave access to Cilicia: though at first victorious,
1 This chronology, which is not that adopted by recent authorities, the present
writer hopes to justify in a detailed account of the campaigns of Heraclius which
will shortly appear in the United Service Magazine.
C MED. n. VOL. II. CH. IX. 19
## p. 290 (#322) ############################################
290 The Persians capture Jerusalem [614-615
in a second engagement they were put to flight; Cilicia and Tarsus
were occupied by the enemy. Meanwhile in Armenia Philippicus had
encamped at Valarsapat, but was compelled to beat a hurried retreat
before the Persian forces. The Romans were repulsed on every side.
But the worst was not yet: with the year 614 came the overwhelming
calamity of the fall of the Holy City. Advancing from Caesarea along
the coast the Persians under Sahrbaraz arrived before Jerusalem in the
month of April. Negotiations were put an end to by the violence of
the circus factions, and the Roman relief force from Jericho, which was
summoned by Modestus, was put to flight. The Persians pressed forward
the siege, bringing up towers and rams, and finally breaching the walls on
the twenty-first day from the investment of the city (? 3 or 5 May 614).
For three days the massacre lasted, and the Jews joined the victors in
venting their spite on their hated oppressors. We hear of 57,000 killed
and 85,000 taken captive. Churches went up in flames, the patriarch
Zacharias was carried into Persia and with him, to crown the disaster,
went the Holy Cross. At the news Nicetas seems to have hastened to
Palestine with all speed, but he could do no more than rescue the holy
sponge and the holy lance, and these were despatched for safe custody
to the capital. It was true that, when once Jerusalem was in his power,
Chosroes was prepared to pursue a policy of conciliation: he deserted his
former allies and the Jews were banished from the city, while leave was
accorded to rebuild the ruined churches; but this did little to assuage
the bitterness of the fact that a Christian empire had not been able to
protect its most sacred sanctuary from the violence of the barbarian
fire-worshipper.
In 615 the Persians began afresh that occupation of Asia Minor
which had been interrupted by the evacuation of Caesarea in 611.
When Sahin marched towards Chalcedon, Philippicus invaded Persia,
but the effort to draw off the enemy's forces proved unsuccessful. Asia
Minor however was not Syria, and Sahin realised that his position
was insecure. He professed himself ready to consider terms of peace.
Heraclius sailed over to the enemy's camp and from his ship carried on
negotiations with the Persian general. Olympius, praetorian praefect,
Leontius, praefect of the city, and Anastasius, the treasurer of St Sophia,
were chosen as ambassadors, while the Senate wrote a letter to the Persian
monarch in support of the Emperors action. But as soon as Sahin had
crossed the frontier, the Roman envoys became prisoners and Chosroes
would hear no word of peace.
Thus while Syria was lost to the Empire and while Slavs were
ranging at will over the European provinces, Heraclius had to face the
overwhelming problem of raising the necessary funds to carry on the
war. Even from the scanty records which we possess of this period
we can trace the Emperor's efforts towards economy: he reduced the
number of the clergy who enjoyed office in the capital, and if any above
## p. 291 (#323) ############################################
609-eig] The Avar Surprise 291
this authorised number desired residence in Constantinople, they were to
buy the privilege from the State (612). Three years later the coins in
which the imperial largess was paid were reduced to half their value.
But in June 617 (? ) yet another disaster overtook Heraclius. The
Khagan of the Avars made overtures for peace, and Athanasius the
patrician and Kosmas the quaestor arranged a meeting between the
Emperor and the barbarian chief at Heraclea. Splendid religious rites
and a magnificent circus display were to mark the importance of the
occasion, and huge crowds had poured forth from the city gates to be
present at the festivities. But it was no longer increased money
payments that the Khagan sought: he aimed at nothing less than the
capture of Constantinople. At a sign from his whip the ambushed
troops burst forth from their hiding-places about the Long Walls.
Heraclius saw his peril: throwing off his purple, with his crown under
his arm, he fled at a gallop to the city and warned its inhabitants.
Over the plain of the Hebdomon and up to the Golden Gate surged
the Avar host: they raided the suburbs, they pillaged the church of
Saints Cosmas and Damian in the Hebdomon, they crossed the Golden
Horn and broke in pieces the holy table in the church of the Archangel.
Fugitives who escaped reported that 270,000 prisoners, men and women,
had been swept away to be settled beyond the Danube, and there was
none to stay the Khagan's march. In 618 those who were entitled at
the expense of the State to share in the public distribution of loaves
of bread were forced to make a contribution at the rate of three nomismata
to the loaf, and a few months later (Aug. 618) the public distribution
was entirely suspended. Even such a deprivation as this was felt to
be inevitable: the chronicle of events in the capital does not record
any popular outbreak.
It was probably in the spring of 619 that the next step was
taken in the Persian plan of conquest, when Sahrbaraz invaded Egypt.
He advanced by the coast road, capturing Pelusium and spreading
havoc amongst its numerous churches and monasteries. Babylon, near
Memphis, fell, and thence the Persians, supported by a strong flotilla,
followed the main western branch of the Nile past Nikiou to Alexandria
and began the siege of the Egyptian capital. All the Emperor's
measures were indeed of little avail when Armenia, Rome's recruiting
ground, was occupied by Persia, and when Sahrbaraz, encamped round
Alexandria, had cut off the supply of Egyptian grain so that the capital
suffered alike from pestilence and scarcity of food. The sole province
which appeared to offer any hope to the exhausted treasury was Africa,
and here only, it seemed, could an effective army be raised. It was with
African troops that Nicetas had won Egypt in 609: even now, with
Carthage as a base of operations, the Persians might surely be re-
pelled and Egypt regained. Thus reasoning, Heraclius prepared to set
sail from Europe (619 ? ). When his determination became known,
ch. ra. 19—2
## p. 292 (#324) ############################################
292 Peace with the Avars [619-622
Constantinople was in despair; the inhabitants refused to see themselves
deserted and the patriarch extracted an oath from the Emperor that he
would not leave his capital. The turbulence of New Rome itself seems
to have been silenced in this dark hour.
In Egypt Nicetas, despairing of the defence of Alexandria, had fled
from the city, and Persians, disguised as fisher-folk,had entered the harbour
at dawn with the other fishing-boats, cutting down any who resisted them,
and had thrown open the gates to the army of Sahrbaraz (June 619).
It did indeed seem that Chosroes was to be the master of the Roman
world. About this time too (we do not know the precise year) the
Persians, having collected a fleet1, attacked Constantinople by water: it
may well have been that this assault was timed to follow close upon the
raid of the Avar horde. But upon the sea at least the Empire asserted
its supremacy. The Persians fled, four thousand men perished with their
ships, and the enemy did not dare to renew the attempt
Heraclius realised that in order to carry war into Asia there must at
all costs be peace in Europe. He sacrificed his pride and concluded a
treaty with the Khagan (619). He raised 200,000 nomismata and sent*
as hostages to the Avars his own bastard son John or Athalarich, his
cousin Stephanus, and John the bastard son of Bonus the magister.
Sergius had forced Heraclius to swear that he would not abandon
Constantinople, and the Church now supplied the funds for the new
campaign. It agreed to lend at interest its vast wealth in plate that
the gold and silver might be minted into money; for this was no ordinary
struggle: it was a crusade to rescue from the infidel the Holy City and
the Holy Cross. Christian State and Christian Church must join hands
against a common foe. While Persian troops overran Asia, penetrating
even to Bithynia and the Black Sea, Heraclius made his preparations
and studied his plan of campaign. From Africa he had been borne to
empire under the protection of the Mother of God, and now it was
with a conviction of the religious solemnity of his mission that he
withdrew into privacy during the winter of 621 before he challenged
the might of the unbeliever. He himself, despite the criticism of his
subjects, would lead his forces in the field: in the strength of the God
of Battles he would conquer or die.
On 4 April 622 Heraclius held a public communion; on the
following day he summoned Sergius the patriarch and Bonus the magister
together with the senate, the principal officials and the entire populace
of the capital. Turning to Sergius, he said: "Into the hands of God
and of His Mother and into thine I commend this city and my son. "
After solemn prayer in the cathedral, the Emperor took the sacred image
of the Saviour and bore it from the church in his arms. The troops
1 These may have been Roman ships captured at Tarsus and other harbours
at this time occupied by Persia.
2 So modern historians: but perhaps these hostages were given in 623.
## p. 293 (#325) ############################################
622-623] Heraclius invades Persian territory 293
then embarked and in the evening of the same day, 5 April, the fleet set
sail. Despite a violent storm on 6 April the Emperor arrived in safety
at the small town of Pylae in the Bay of Nicomedia. Thence Heraclius
marched "into the region of the themes," i. e. in all probability Galatia
and perhaps Cappadocia. Here the work of concentration was carried
out: the Emperor collected the garrisons and added to their number his
new army. In his first campaign the object of Heraclius was to force
the Persian troops to withdraw from Asia Minor: he sought to pass the
enemy on the flank, to threaten his communications and to appear to
be striking at the very heart of his native country. The Persians had
occupied the mountains, hoping thus to confine the imperial troops
within the Pontic provinces during the winter, but by clever strategy
Heraclius turned their position and marched towards Armenia. Sahr-
baraz endeavoured to draw the Roman army after him by a raid on
Cilicia; but, realising that Heraclius could thus advance unopposed
through Armenia into the interior of Persia, he abandoned the project
and followed the Emperor. Heraclius at length forced a general
engagement and won a signal victory. The Persian camp was captured
and Sahrbaraz's army almost entirely destroyed. Rumours of impending
trouble with the western barbarians in Europe recalled Heraclius to the
capital, and his army went into winter quarters. The Emperor had
freed Asia Minor from the invader.
Chosroes now addressed a haughty letter to Heraclius which the
Emperor caused to be read before his ministers and the patriarch: the
despatch itself was laid before the high altar and all with tears implored
the succours of Heaven. In reply to Chosroes Heraclius offered the
Persian monarch an alternative: either let him accept conditions of
peace, or, should he refuse, the Roman army would forthwith invade his
kingdom. On 25 March 623 the Emperor left the capital, and celebrated
Easter in Nicomedia on 15 April, awaiting, it would seem, the enemy's
answer. Here, in all probability, he learned that Chosroes refused to
consider terms and treated with contempt the threat of invasion. Thus
(20 April) Heraclius set out on his invasion of Persia, marching into
Armenia with all speed by way of Caesarea, where he had ordered his
army to assemble1. Chosroes had commanded Sahrbaraz to make a raid
upon the territory of the Empire, but on the news of the sudden advance
of Heraclius he was immediately recalled, and was bidden to join his
forces to the newly raised troops under Sahin. From Caesarea Heraclius
proceeded through Karin to Dovin: the Christian capital of the province
of Ararat was stormed, and after the capture of Nachcavan he made for
Ganzaca (Takhti-Soleiman), since he heard that Chosroes was here in
person at the head of 40,000 men. On the defeat of his guards,
1 The reader is warned that this paragraph rests upon an interpretation of the
authorities which is peculiar to the present writer. This he hopes to justify in his
special study (to appear in B. Z. June 1912) on the date of the Avar surprise.
CR. IX.
## p. 294 (#326) ############################################
294 Heraclius returns to the West [623-625
however, the Persian king fled before the invaders; the city fell, while
the great temple which sheltered the fire of Usnasp was reduced to
ruins. Heraclius followed after Chosroes, and sacked many cities on his
march, but did not venture to press the pursuit: before him lay the
enemy's country and the Persian army, while his rear might at any
moment be threatened by the united advance of Sahrbaraz and Sahin.
Despite opposition, extreme cold, and scarcity of provisions he crossed
the Araxes in safety, carrying some 50,000 prisoners in his train. It
was shrewd policy which dictated their subsequent release; it created
a good impression and, as a result, there were fewer mouths to feed.
It was doubtless primarily as a recruiting ground that Heraclius sought
these Caucasian districts—the home of hardy and warlike mountaineers—
for the sorely harried provinces of Asia Minor were probably in no
condition to supply him with large contingents of troops. This is not
however the place to recount in detail the complicated story of the
operations of the winter of 623 and of the year 624. Sahin was utterly
discomfited at Tigranokert, but Heraclius was himself forced to retire
into Armenia before the army of Sahrbaraz (winter, 623). With the
spring of 624 we find Lazes, Abasges and Iberians as Roman allies,
though they subsequently deserted the Emperor when disappointed in
their expectations of spoil and plunder. Heraclius was once more unable
to penetrate into Persia, but was occupied in Armenia, marching and
countermarching between forces commanded by Sarablangas, Sahrbaraz
and Sahin. Sarablangas was slain, and late in the year Van was captured,
and Sarbar surprised in his winter quarters at Arces or Arsissa (at the
N. E. end of Lake Van). The Persian general was all but taken prisoner,
and very few of the garrison, 6000 strong, escaped destruction.
With the new year (625) Heraclius determined to return to the
West, before he once more attempted a direct attack upon Persia. We
can only conjecture the reasons which led him to take this step, but it
would seem probable that the principal inducement was a desire to assert
Roman influence in the south of Asia Minor and in the islands. The
Persians had occupied Cilicia before the capture of Jerusalem; in 623
it would appear that they had made a raid upon Rhodes, had seized the
Roman general and led off the inhabitants as prisoners, while in the
same year we are told that the Slavs had entered Crete. There is some
evidence which points to the conclusion that the Emperor was at this
time very anxious to recover the ground thus lost. There was con-
siderable doubt however as to which route should be pursued—that
through Taranda or that by way of the Taurus chain. The latter was
chosen despite its difficulty, as it was thought that provisions would be
thus more plentiful. From Van the army advanced through Martyropolis
and Amida, where the troops rested. But meanwhile Sahrbaraz, in hot
pursuit, had arrived first at the Euphrates and removed the bridge of
boats. The Emperor however crossed by a ford and reached Samosata
## p. 295 (#327) ############################################
623-626] The Siege of Constantinople 295
before March was out. As to the precise route which he followed on his
march to the Sarus there is considerable dispute1, but there is no doubt
that after a hotly contested engagement on that river Heraclius forced
the Persian general to beat a hasty retreat under cover of night. It
seems probable that the Emperor remained for a considerable time in
this district, but our sources fail us here, and we know only that he
ultimately marched to Sebastia, and crossing the Halys spent the winter
in that Pontic district where he had left his army at the end of the first
campaign.
The following year (626) is memorable for the great siege of the
capital by the united hordes of Avars, Bulgars, Slavs and Gepids, acting
in concert with a Persian force, which endeavoured to co-operate with
them from the Asiatic side of the strait. Sarbar's ill success on the
Sarus led Chosroes, we are told, to withdraw from his command 50,000
men and to place them, together with a new army raised indiscriminately
from foreigners, citizens and slaves, under the leadership of Sahin. Sahr-
baraz, with the remainder of his army, took up his position at Chalcedon
with orders to support the Khagan in his attack on Constantinople.
Heraclius in turn divided his forces: part were sent to garrison the
capital, part he entrusted to his brother Theodore who was to meet the
"Golden Lances " of Sahin, and the rest the Emperor himself retained.
Of Theodore's campaign we know nothing save the result: with the
assistance of a timely hail-storm and by the aid of the Virgin he so signally
defeated Sahin that the latter died of mortification. Of the operations
in Europe we are better informed. From the moment that Heraclius
had left the capital on his crusade against Persia the Khagan had been
making vast preparations, in the hope of capturing Constantinople. It
was the menace from the Danubian provinces which had recalled Heraclius
in the winter of 623, and now at last the Avar host was ready. On
Sunday, 29 June, on the festival of St Peter and St Paul, the advance
guard, 30,000 strong, reached the suburb of Melanthias and announced
that their leader had passed within the circuit of the Long Walls. Early
in the year, it seems, Bonus and Sergius had sent the patrician Athanasius
as an ambassador to the Avar chief, virtually offering to buy him off at
his own terms. But since the spring the walls had been strengthened,
reinforcements had arrived from Heraclius and his stirring letters had
awakened in the citizens a new spirit of confidence and enthusiasm.
Athanasius, who had been kept a prisoner by the Khagan, was now sent
from Hadrianople to learn the price at which the capital was prepared to
purchase safety. He was amazed at the change in public feeling, but
volunteered to carry back the city's proud reply. On 29 July 626 the
Avars and the countless forces of their subject tribesmen encamped
1 There are difficulties in accepting the emendations of the text of Theophanes
proposed by J. G. C. Anderson, "The Road-System of Eastern Asia Minor,"
/. H. S. xvii. (1897), pp. 33-34.
## p. 296 (#328) ############################################
296 The Slavs [595-626
before New Rome. The full story of the heroic defence cannot be related
in this place, but one consideration is too important to be omitted.
Had the Romans not been masters of the sea, the issue might well have
been less favourable; but the small Slav boats were all sunk or over-
turned in the waters of the Golden Horn, while Sahrbaraz at Chalcedon
was doomed to remain inactive, for Persia possessed no transports and
the Roman fleet made it impossible for the besiegers to carry their allies
across the straits. Thus at the very time that the barbarian attack by
sea collapsed in hopeless failure, the citizens had repulsed with heavy
loss the assault on the land walls which was directed mainly against that
section where the depression of the Lycus valley rendered the defences
most vulnerable. At length, on the eleventh day after his appearance
before Constantinople, the Khagan destroyed by fire his engines of war and
withdrew, vowing a speedy return with forces even more overwhelming.
As the suburbs of the city and the churches of Saints Cosmas and Damian
and St Nicholas went up in flames, men marked that the shrine of the
Mother of God in Blachernae remained inviolate: it was but one more
token of her power—her power with God, with her Son, and in the
general ordering of the world. The preservation of the city was the
Virgin's triumph, it was her answer to the prayers of her servants, and
with an annual festival the Church celebrated the memory of the great
deliverance. Bonus and Sergius had loyally responded to their Emperor's
trust1.
This was indeed the furthest advance of the Avars. They had
appeared in the Eastern Alps as early as 595-596, and had formally
invested Thessalonica in 597; it would seem that the city was
only saved through an outbreak of pestilence amongst the besiegers'.
After 604 there was no Roman army in the Danube provinces, and
in the reign of Phocas and the early years of Heraclius must be
placed the ravaging of Dalmatia by Avars and Slavs and the fall of
Salonae and other towns. At this time fugitives from Salonae founded
the city of Spalato, and those from Epidaurus the settlement which
afterwards became Ragusa. A contemporary tells how the Slavs in
those dark days of confusion and ravage plundered the greater part of
Illyricum, all Thessaly, Epirus, Achaia, the Cyclades and a part of
Asia. In another passage the same author relates how Avars and Slavs
destroyed the towns in the provinces of Pannonia, Moesia Superior, the
two Dacias, Rhodope, Dardania and Praevalis, carrying off" the inhabitants
into slavery. Fallmerayer's famous contention that the Greek people was
virtually exterminated is certainly an exaggeration, though throughout
Hellas there must have been Slav forays, and many a barbarian band
1 The date of the composition of the Hymnug Acathigtus would appear, despite
an enormous literature on the subject, to remain still undetermined.
2 Pestilence had also served the city well when besieged by the Goths. For the
siege, cf. W. Wroth, op. cit. t. p. xxi.
## p. 297 (#329) ############################################
625-627] Heraclius and the Chazars 297
must have planted itself on Greek soil. But when all is said, the
remarkable fact remains that while in the Danube provinces Roman
influence was submerged, Hellenism within its native territory asserted
its supremacy over the Slav invader and maintained alike its natural
language and character. Thus towards the close of our period amongst
the chaos of peoples making good their independence of the Avar over-
lordship there gradually emerged certain settlements which formed the
nucleus of nations yet to be. Not that Heraclius invited into the
Empire Croats and Serbs from a mythical Servia and Croatia somewhere
in the North—Croats and Serbs had already won by force their own
ground within the Roman frontier—but rather he recognised and
legalised their position as vassals of the Empire, and thus took up the
proud task of educating the southern Slavs to receive civilisation and
Christianity.
In 626, while the capital played its part, the Emperor was making
provision for striking a conclusive blow at Persia. He needed allies and
reinforcements, and he once more sought them among the tribesmen of the
Caucasus. It is probable that as early as the autumn of 625 he had sent
a certain Andrew as envoy to the Chazars1, and in 626 a force of 1000
men invaded the valley of the Kur and pillaged Iberia and Eger, so that
Chosroes threatened punishment and talked of withdrawing Sahin from
the West. The Chazars even took ship and visited the Emperor, when
mutual vows of friendship were interchanged. In the early summer of
627 the nephew of Dzebukhan (Ziebel) ravaged Albania and parts of
Atrpatakan.
saw in this strange reversal of fortune a chance to terminate a war which
was draining the Empire's strength: his resolve to accede to his enemy's
request was at once a courageous and a statesmanlike action. He
furnished Chosroes with men and money, Narses took command of the
troops and John Mystakon marched from Armenia to join the army.
The two forces met at Sargana (probably Sirgan, in the plain of Ushnei1)
and in the neighbourhood of Ganzaca (Takhti-Soleiman) defeated and
put to flight Bahram, while Chosroes recovered his throne without further
resistance. The new monarch kept his promises to Rome and surrounded
himself with a Roman body-guard (591). By this interposition Maurice
had restored the Empire's frontier5 and had ended the long-drawu struggle
in the East.
In 592 therefore he could transport his army into Europe, and was able
to employ his whole military force in the Danubian provinces. Maurice
himself went with the troops as far as Anchialus, when he was recalled
by the presence of a Persian embassy in the capital. The chronology of
the next few years is confused and it is impossible to give here a detailed
account of the campaigns. Their general object was to maintain the
Danube as the frontier line against the Avars and to restrict the forays
of the Slavs. In this Priscus met with considerable success, but Peter,
Maurice's brother, who superseded him in 597, displayed hopeless
incompetency and Priscus was reappointed4. In 600 Comentiolus.
who was, it would appear, in command against his own will, entered
into communications with the Khagan in order to secure the dis-
comfiture of the Roman forces: he was, in fact, anxious to prove that
the attempt to defend the northern frontier was labour lost. He
ultimately fled headlong to the capital and only the personal inter-
ference of the Emperor stifled the inquiry into his treachery. On this
1 There seems no sufficient evidence for the theory that Bahram Cobin relied on
a legitimist claim as representing the prae-Sassanid dynasty.
2 See H. C. Rawliuson, "Memoir on the site of the Atropatenian Ecbatana,"
Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (1840), pp. 71 ff.
3 See maps by H. Hiibschmann in "Die altarmenischen Ortsnamen," Indoger-
manUche Forschungen, xvi. (1904), and in Gelzer's Oeorgius Oyprhu.
4 For the siege of Thessalonica in this year, cf. Wroth, op. cit. i. p. xri.
## p. 281 (#313) ############################################
600-602] Campaigns on the Danube Frontier 281
occasion the panic in Constantinople was such that the city guard—the
Brjfioi—were sent by Maurice to man the Long Walls1.
On the return of Comentiolus to the seat of war in the summer of 600,
Priscus, in spite of his colleague's inactivity, won a considerable victory,
but the autumn of 601 saw Peter once again in command and conducting
unsuccessful negotiations for a peace. Towards the close of 602 the
outlook was brighter, for conditions had changed in favour of Rome.
The Antae had acted as her allies, and when Apsich was sent by the
Khagan to punish this defection, numbers of the Avars themselves deserted
and joined the forces under Peter. Maurice would seem to have thought
that this was the moment to drive home the advantage which fortune
offered, for if the soldiers could support themselves at the expense of the
enemy, the harassed provincials and the overburdened exchequer might
be spared the cost of their maintenance. Orders were sent that the
troops were not to return, but should winter beyond the Danube. The
army heard the news with consternation: barbarian tribes were ranging
over the country on the further side of the river, the cavalry was worn
out with the marches of the summer, their booty would purchase them
the pleasures of civilised life. The Roman forces mutinied and, dis-
obeying their superiors, crossed the river and reached Palastolum.
Peter withdrew from the camp in despair, but meanwhile the
officers had induced their men to face the barbarians once again, and the
army had returned to Securisca (near Nikopol). Floods of rain, however,
and extreme cold renewed the discontent; eight spokesmen, among whom
was Phocas, covered the twenty miles between Peter and the camp and
demanded that the army might return home to winter quarters. The
commander-in-chief promised to give his answer on the following day:
between the rebellious determination of the troops and the imperative
despatches of his brother he could see no loophole of escape; of one
thing alone he was assured: that day would start a train of ills
for Rome. True to his promise he joined his men and to their repre-
sentatives he read the Emperor's letter. Before the tempest of opposition
which this evoked the officers fled, and on the following day, when the
soldiers had twice assembled to discuss the situation, Phocas was raised
upon a shield and declared their leader. Peter carried the news with all
speed to the capital; Maurice disguised his fears and reviewed the troops
of the demes. The Blues, on whose support he relied, numbered 900,
the Greens 1500. On the refusal of Phocas to receive the Emperor's
ambassadors, the demesmen were ordered to man the city walls.
Phocas had been chosen as champion of the army, not as emperor: the
army had refused allegiance to Maurice personally but not to his house;
1 It seems probable that in some source hostile to Maurice the treachery of
Comentiolus was transferred to the Emperor himself and to this was added the story
of the failure to ransom the prisoners. The basis of fact from which the story sprang
may perhaps be discerned in Theophylact, e. g. p. 247, 18 (edn. de Boor).
## p. 282 (#314) ############################################
282 Death of Maurice [602
accordingly the vacant throne was offered to Theodosius, the Emperors
eldest son, or, should he decline it, to his father-in-law Germanus, both
of whom were hunting at the time in the neighbourhood of the capital.
They were at once recalled to Constantinople. Germanus, realising that
he was suspected of treason, armed his followers and surrounded by a
body-guard took refuge in the Cathedral Church. He had won the
sympathies of the populace, and when the Emperor attempted to remove
him by force from St Sophia, riots broke out in the city, while the troops
of the demes deserted their posts on the walls to join in the abuse of
Emperor and patriarch. Maurice was denounced as a Marcianist and
ribald songs were shouted against him through the streets. The house
of the praetorian praefect, Constantine Lardys, was burned to the ground,
and at the dead of night, with his wife and children, accompanied by
Constantine, the Emperor, disguised as a private citizen, embarked for
Asia (22 Nov. 602). A storm carried him out of his course and he only
landed with difficulty at the shrine of Autonomus the Martyr; here an
attack of gout held him prisoner, while the praetorian praefect was
despatched with Theodosius to enlist the sympathy of Chosroes on
behalf of his benefactor. The Emperor fled, the Greens determined to
espouse the cause of Phocas and rejected the overtures of Germanus, who
now made a bid for the crown and was prepared to purchase their
support; they feared that, once his end was gained, his well-known
partiality for the Blues would reassert itself. The disappointed candidate
was driven to acknowledge his rival's claims. Phocas was invited to the
Hebdomon (Makrikeui) and thither trooped out the citizens, the senate,
and the patriarch. In the church of St John the Baptist the rude half-
barbarian centurion was crowned sovereign of the Roman Empire, and
entered the capital "in a golden shower" of royal gifts.
But the usurper could not rest while Maurice was alive. On the day
following the coronation of his wife Leontia, upon the Asian shore at
the harbour of Eutropius five sons of the fallen Emperor were slain
before their father's eyes, and then Maurice himself perished, calling upon
God and repeating many times "Just art thou, O Lord, and just is thy
judgment. " From the beach men saw the bodies floating on the waters
of the bay, while Lilius brought back to the capital the severed heads,
where they were exposed to public view.
Maurice was a realist who suffered from an obstinate prejudice in
favour of his own projects and his own nominees; he could diagnose the
ills from which the Empire suffered, but did not always choose aright the
moment for administering the remedy. He had served a stern apprentice-
ship in the eastern wars, and saw clearly that while Rome in many of
her provinces was fighting for existence, the importance of the leader of
armies outweighed that of the civil governor. In some temporary
instances Justinian had entrusted to the praefect the duties of a general,
and had thus broken through the sharp distinction between the two
## p. 283 (#315) ############################################
eoa] Character and Rule of Maurice 283
spheres drawn by the Diocletio-Constantinian reforms. Maurice however
did not follow the principle of Justinian's tentative innovations: he chose
to give to the military commander a position in the hierarchy of office
superior to that of the civil administration, conferring on the old
magistri militiim of Africa and Italy the newly coined title of exarch:
this supreme authority was to be the Emperors vicegerent against Berber
and Lombard. It was the first step towards the creation of the system
of military themes'. It was doubtless also considerations of practical
convenience and a recognition of the stubborn logic of facts which led to
Maurice's scheme of provincial redistribution. Tripolitana was separated
from Africa and joined like its neighbour Cyrenaica to the diocese of
Egypt; Sitifensis and Caesariensis were fused into the single province of
Mauretania Prima, while the fortress of Septum and the sorry remnants
of Tingitana were united with the imperial possessions in Spain and the
Balearic Isles to form the province of Mauretania II, thus solidifying under
one government the scattered Roman territories in the extreme West.
Similar motives probably determined the new arrangements (after the
treaty with Persia in 591) on the Eastern frontier. It was again Maurice
the realist who disregarded the counsels of his ministers and made full use 01
the unique opportunity which the flight of Chosroes offered to the Empire.
In Italy the incursion of the Lombards presented a problem with
which the wars on the Danube and in Asia rendered it difficult for
Maurice to cope. Frankish promises of help against the invaders were
largely illusory, even though the young West-Gothic prince Athanagild
was held in Constantinople as a pledge for the fulfilment by his Mero-
vingian kinsfolk of their obligations. It was further unfortunate that
the relations between Pope and Emperor were none of the best; many
small disagreements culminated in the dispute concerning the title
of oecumenical patriarch which John the Faster had adopted. The
contention between Gregory and Maurice has certainly been given a
factitious importance by later historians—the over-sensitive Gregory
alone seems to have regarded the question as of any vital moment and
his successors quietly acquiesced in the use of the offending word—but
the disagreement doubtless hampered the Emperor's reforms; when he
endeavoured to prevent soldiers from deserting and retiring into
monasteries, the Pope seized on the measure as a new ground of com-
plaint and raised violent protest in the name of the Church.
As general in Asia Maurice had restored the morale of the army, and
throughout his life he was always anxious to effect improvements in
military matters. He was the first Emperor to realise fully the im-
portance of Armenia as a recruiting ground5, and it may well be from
1 See Ch. xm.
* When an Emperor is at great cost transporting men from Armenia to the
Danube provinces, is the story probable that he sacrificed thousands of prisoners of
war through refusal to pay to the Khagan their ransom?
## p. 284 (#316) ############################################
284 Phocas [602-603
this fact that late tradition traced his descent from that country. It
was just in this sphere of military reform, however, that he displayed his
fatal inability to judge the time when he could safely insist on an
unpopular measure; his demand that the army should winter beyond
the Danube cost him alike throne and life. It was further an all-advised
step when Maurice in his later years (598 or 599) reverted, as Justin had
done before him, to a policy of religious persecution. By endeavouring
to force Chalcedonian orthodoxy on Mesopotamia he effected little save
the alienation of his subjects. It was left to Heraclius to follow Tiberius
in choosing the better part and endeavouring by conciliation to introduce
union amongst the warring parties. But the great blot on the reign of
Maurice is his favouritism towards incapable officials; the ability of men
like Narses and Priscus had to give place to the incompetency of Peter
and the treachery of Comentiolus. Time and again their blunders were
overlooked and new distinctions forced upon them. The fear that a
victorious general of to-day might be the successful rival of to-morrow
gave but a show of justification to this ruinous partiality.
But despite all criticisms Maurice remains a high-minded, conscien-
tious, independent, hard-working ruler, and if other proof of his
worth were lacking it is to be found in the universal hatred of his
murderer.
Other executions followed those of Maurice and his sons: Comentiolus
and Peter were slain, while Alexander dragged Theodosius from the
sanctuary of Autonomus and killed both him and the praefect Constantine.
Constantina and her three daughters were confined in a private house.
Phocas was master of the capital. But elsewhere throughout the Empire
men refused to ratify the army's choice: through Anatolia and Cilicia,
through the Roman province of Asia and in Palestine, through Illyricum
and in Thessalonica civil war was raging1: on every side the citizens
rose in rebellion against the assassin whom Pope Gregory and the
older Rome delighted to honour; even in Constantinople itself a plot
hatched by Germanus was only suppressed after a great part of the city
had been destroyed by fire. The ex-empress as a result of these disorders
was now immured with her daughters in a convent, while Philippicus and
Germanus were forced to become priests.
A persistent rumour affirmed that Theodosius was still alive; for a
time Phocas himself must have believed the report, for he put to death
his agent Alexander; furthermore Chosroes was thus furnished with a
fair-sounding pretext for an invasion of the Empire: he came as avenger
of Maurice to whom he owed his throne, and as restorer of Maurice's heir.
When in the spring of 603 Phocas despatched Lilius to the Persian court
to announce his accession, the ambassador was thrown into chains, and in
an arrogant letter Chosroes declared war on Rome. About this time1
1 Cf. H. Gelzer, Die Genesis, etc. , pp. 36 ff.
## p. 285 (#317) ############################################
603-609] Victories of Persia 285
also (603) Narses revolted, seized Edessa and appealed to Persia for
support. Germanus, now in command of the eastern army1, marched
to Edessa with orders to recover the city. In the spring of 604
Chosroes led his forces against the Empire, and while part encamped
round Dara, he himself made for Edessa to attack the Romans who
were themselves besieging Narses. As day broke the Persians fell
upon Germanus, who was defeated and eleven days later died of his
wounds in Constantina; his men fled in confusion. Chosroes, it would
appear, entered Edessa, and (according to the Armenian historian
Sebeos) Narses introduced to the Persian king a young man whom he
represented to be Theodosius; the pretender was gladly welcomed by
Chosroes, who then retired to Dara, where the Romans still resisted the
besiegers. On the news of the death of Germanus Phocas realised that
all the forces which he could raise were needed for the war in Asia. He
increased the annual payments to the Avars, and withdrew the regiments
from Thrace (605? ). Some of the troops under the command of the
eunuch Leontius were ordered to invest Edessa, though Narses soon
escaped from this city and reached Hierapolis; the rest of the army
marched against Persia, but at Arxamon, between Edessa and Nisibis,
Chosroes won a great victory and took numerous captives; about this
time, after a year and a half s siege, the walls of Dara were undermined,
the fortress captured and the inhabitants massacred. Laden with booty
the Persian monarch returned to Ctesiphon, leaving Zongoes in command
in Asia. Leontius was disgraced, and Phocas appointed his cousin Domen-
tiolus curopalates and general-in-chief. Narses was induced to surrender
on condition that no harm should be done to him; Phocas disregarded
the oath and Rome's best general was burned alive in the capital.
Meanwhile Armenia was devastated by civil war and Persian invasion:
Karin opened its gates to the pretended son of Maurice, and Chosroes
established a marzpan in Dovin. In the year after the siege of Dara (606)
Sahrbaraz and Kardarigan entered Mesopotamia and the country border-
ing on the frontier of Syria; among the towns which surrendered were
Amida and Resaina. In 607 Syria, Palestine and Phoenicia were over-
run; in 608 Kardarigan in conjunction, it seems, with Sahin marched
north-west and, while the latter occupied Cappadocia, spending a year
(608-609) in Caesarea which was evacuated by the Christians, the former
made forays into Paphlagonia and Galatia, penetrating even as far west
as Chalcedon. In fact the Roman world at this time fell into a state of
anarchy, and passions which had long smouldered burst into flame. Blues
and Greens fought out their feuds in the streets of Antioch, Jerusalem
and Alexandria, while on every side men easily persuaded themselves
that Theodosius yet lived. Even in Constantinople Germanus thought
1 Appointed to supersede Narses shortly before Maurice's death, the Emperor
being anxious to meet the objections of Persia.
## p. 286 (#318) ############################################
286 Plot and Counterplot [605-608
that he could turn to his own profit the popular belief. Our authorities
are unsatisfactory but it would seem that two distinct plots with different
aims were set on foot. There was a conspiracy among the highest court
officials headed by the praetorian praefect of the East, Theodoras:
Elpidius, governor of the imperial arsenal, was willing to supply arms,
and Phocas was to be slain in the Hippodrome. Theodoras himself
would then be proclaimed emperor. Of this plan Germanus obtained
warning, and for his part determined to anticipate the scheme by play-
ing upon the public sympathy for the house of Maurice. While nominally
championing the cause of Theodosius, he doubtless intended to secure for
himself the supreme power. Through a certain Petronia he entered into
communication with Constantina, but Petronia betrayed the secret to
Phocas. Under torture Constantina accused Germanus of complicity and
he in turn implicated others. The rival plot met with no better success.
Anastasius, who had been present at the breakfast council where the
project was discussed, repented of his treason and informed the Emperor.
On 7 June 605 Phocas wreaked his vengeance on the court officials, and
about the same time Germanus, Constantina and her three daughters met
their deaths.
Alarms and suspicions haunted the Emperor and terror goaded him
to fresh excesses. In 607, it would seem, his daughter Domentzia
was married to Priscus, the former general of Maurice, and when
the demesmen raised statues to bride and bridegroom, Phocas saw
in the act new treason and yet another attempt upon his throne. It
was in vain that the authorities pleaded that they were but following
long-established custom; it was only popular clamour that saved the
demarchs Theophanes and Pamphilus from immediate execution. Even
loyalty was proved dangerous, and anxiety for his personal safety made
of a son-in-law a secret foe. The capital was full of plague and scarcity
and executions: Comentiolus and all the remaining kindred of Maurice fell
victims to the panic fear of Phocas. The Greens themselves turned against
the Emperor, taunting him in the circus with his debauchery, and setting
on fire the public buildings. Phocas retorted by depriving them of all
political rights. He looked around for allies: at least he would win the
sympathies of the orthodox in the East, as he had from the first enjoyed
the support of Rome. Anastasius, Jacobite patriarch of Alexandria, was
expelled: Syria and Egypt, he decreed, should choose no ecclesiastical
dignitary without his authorisation. Before the common attack, Mono-
physite Antioch and Alexandria determined to sink their differences. In
608 the patriarchs met in the Syrian capital. The local authorities
interfered, but the Jacobite populace was joined by the Jews in their
resistance to the imperial troops. The orthodox patriarch was slain and
the rioters gained the day. Phocas despatched Cotton and Bonosus,
count of the East, to Antioch; with hideous cruelty their mission was
accomplished, and the Emperor's authority with difficulty re-established.
## p. 287 (#319) ############################################
608] Africa revolts under Heraclius 287
Thence Bonosus departed for Jerusalem, where the faction fights of Blues
and Greens had spread confusion throughout the city.
The tyrant was still master within the capital, but Africa was
preparing the expedition which was to cause his overthrow. In 607,
or at latest 608, Heraclius, formerly general of Maurice and now exarch,
with his viroo-Tpdrriyos Gregory, was planning rebellion. The news
reached the ears of Priscus, who had learned to fear his father-in-
law's animosity, and negotiations were opened between the Senate and
the Pentapolis: the aristocracy was ready to give its aid should a
liberator reach the capital. Obviously such a promise was of small
value, and Heraclius was forced to rely upon his own resources. But
he was at this time advanced in life, and to his son Heraclius and to
Gregory's son Nicetas was entrusted the execution of the plot. It is only
of recent years, through the discovery of the chronicle of John of Nikiou,
that we have been able to construct the history of the operations. First
Nicetas was to invade Egypt and secure Alexandria, then Heraclius
would take ship for Thessalonica, and from this harbour as his base he
would direct his attack upon Constantinople.
During the year 608, 3000 men were raised in the Pentapolis, and
these, together with Berber troops, were placed under the command
of Bonakis (a spelling which doubtless hides a Roman name) who
defeated without difficulty the imperial generals. Leontius, the
praefect of Mareotis, was on the side of Heraclius, and the governor
of Tripolis arrived with reinforcements. High officials were con-
spiring to support the rebels in Alexandria itself, when the plot was
revealed to Theodore, the imperialist patriarch. When the news reached
Phocas he forthwith ordered the praefect of Byzantium to convey fresh
troops with all speed to Alexandria and the Delta fortresses, while
Bonosus, who was contemplating a seizure of the patriarch of Jerusalem,
was summoned to leave the Holy City and to march against Nicetas.
On the latter's advance, Alexandria refused to surrender, but resist-
ance was short-lived, and the patriarch and general met their deaths.
Treasure, shipping, the island and fortress of Pharos, all fell into the
hands of Nicetas1, while Bonakis received the submission of many of the
Delta towns. At Caesarea, where Bonosus took ship, he heard of the
capture of Alexandria, and while his cavalry pursued the land route,
his fleet in two divisions sailed up the Nile by the Pelusiac channel and
by the main eastern arm of the river. At first Bonosus carried all before
him and inflicted a crushing defeat near Maniif on the generals of
Heraclius, thereby reconquering the Delta for Phocas, but he was repulsed
from Alexandria with heavy loss and suffered so severely in a fresh
advance from his base at Nikiou that he was forced to abandon Egypt
1 According to Theophanes the corn-ships of Alexandria were prevented from
reaching the capital from 608 onwards.
## p. 288 (#320) ############################################
288 Fall of Phocas [609-610
and to flee through Asia to Constantinople1. The imperialist resistance
was at an end and the new rule was established in Egypt (apparently
end of 609).
We have no certain information as to what the younger Heraclius
was doing during the year 609, but it seems not unlikely that it was at
this time that he occupied Thessalonica, for here he could draw rein-
forcements from the European malcontents. It is at least clear that,
when he finally started in 610 on his voyage to Constantinople, he
gathered supporters from the sea-side towns and from the islands on
his route. At the beginning of September, it would seem, he cast
anchor at Abydus in Mysia, where he was joined by those whom Phocas
had driven into exile. Crossing the Propontis he touched at Heraclea
and Selimbria, and at the small island of Calonymus the Church, through
the bishop of Cyzicus, blessed his enterprise. On Saturday, 3 Oct. , the
fleet, with images of the Virgin at the ships' mastheads, sailed under the
sea-walls of the capital. But in face of the secret treachery of Priscus
and the open desertion of the demesmen of the Green party the cause
of Phocas was foredoomed; Heraclius waited upon his ship until the
tyrant's own ministers dragged his enemy before him on the morning of
5 Oct. "Is it thus, wretch, that you have governed the State? " asked
Heraclius. "Will you govern it any better? '" retorted the fallen
Emperor. He was forthwith struck down, and his body dismembered
and carried through the city. Domentiolus and Leontius, the Syrian
minister of finance, shared his fate and their bodies, together with that
of Bonosus, were burned in the Ox Forum. In the afternoon of the
same day Heraclius was crowned emperor by Sergius the patriarch:
people and senate refused to listen to his plea that Priscus should be
their monarch: they would not see in their liberator merely the avenger
of Maurice, nor suffer him to return whence he came. On the same day
Heraclius married Eudocia (as his betrothed, Fabia, daughter of Rogatus
of Africa, was re-named) who became at once bride and empress. Three
days later, in the Hippodrome, the statue of Phocas was burned and with
it the standard of the Blues.
During 610 the Persians had been advancing westwards in the
direction of Syria: Callinicum and Circesium had fallen and the
Euphrates had been crossed. After his accession Heraclius sent an
embassy to Persia: Maurice was now avenged, and peace could be re-
stored between the two empires. Chosroes made no reply to the
embassy: he had proved all too conclusively Rome's weakness and
was not willing to surrender his advantage. Meanwhile Priscus was
appointed general and sent to Cappadocia to undertake the siege of
Caesarea, which was at this time in the occupation of the Persians. For
1 For further details see John of Nikiou, and for a map of the Delta cf. Butler,
The Conquest of Egypt, etc.
## p. 289 (#321) ############################################
611-613] The Struggle against Persia 289
a year the enemy resisted, but at last, in the late summer of 611, famine
drove «them to evacuate the city. They cut their way through the
Roman troops, inflicting serious loss, and retired to Armenia where they
took up winter quarters. In the same year Emesa was lost to the
Empire. In 612, on the news that the Persians were once more about
to invade Roman territory in force, Heraclius left the capital to confer
with Priscus in Caesarea. The general pleaded illness and treated the
Emperor with marked coolness and disrespect. His ambitions were
thwarted: he had gained nothing by the revolution and objected that
the Emperor's place was in Constantinople: it was no duty of his to
intermeddle personally with the conduct of the war.
For the moment
Heraclius had no forces with which to oppose Priscus; he was condemned
to inaction and compelled to await his opportunity. In the summer
Sahin led his army to Karin, and reduced Melitene to submission,
afterwards joining Sahrbaraz in the district of Dovin. The Persians
were masters of Armenia. In 611 Eudocia had given birth to a daughter
and in May 612 a son was born, but on 13 Aug. the Empress died.
In 618 the Emperor, despite the protests of the Church, married his
niece Martina. In the autumn of 612 Nicetas came to Constantinople,
doubtless to confer with Heraclius as to the methods which were to be
adopted in the government of Egypt. Priscus also made his way to
the capital to honour the arrival of the Emperor's cousin, and was
invited by Heraclius to act as sponsor at his son's christening which
took place, it would seem, on 5 Dec. 612. Here the Emperor charged
his general with treason, and forced him to enter a monastery. In
Constantinople Priscus could no longer rely on the support of an army
and resistance was impossible. Heraclius appealed to the troops then
in the capital, and was enthusiastically greeted as their future captain.
Nicetas succeeded Priscus as comes excubitorum, while the Emperor
appointed his brother Theodore curopulates; he also induced Philippicus
to leave the shelter of a religious house and once more to undertake
a military command.
In the following year (613)1 Heraclius was free to carry out his own
plan of campaign: he determined to oppose the enemy on both their
lines of attack. Philippicus was to invade Armenia, while he himself
and his brother Theodore would check the Persian advance on Syria.
The aim of Chosroes was clearly to occupy the Mediterranean coast line.
A battle took place under the walls of Antioch, and there, after their
army had been strengthened by reinforcements, the Persians succeeded
in routing the Greeks: the road was now open for the southward march,
and in this year Damascus fell. Further to the north the Roman troops
held the defiles which gave access to Cilicia: though at first victorious,
1 This chronology, which is not that adopted by recent authorities, the present
writer hopes to justify in a detailed account of the campaigns of Heraclius which
will shortly appear in the United Service Magazine.
C MED. n. VOL. II. CH. IX. 19
## p. 290 (#322) ############################################
290 The Persians capture Jerusalem [614-615
in a second engagement they were put to flight; Cilicia and Tarsus
were occupied by the enemy. Meanwhile in Armenia Philippicus had
encamped at Valarsapat, but was compelled to beat a hurried retreat
before the Persian forces. The Romans were repulsed on every side.
But the worst was not yet: with the year 614 came the overwhelming
calamity of the fall of the Holy City. Advancing from Caesarea along
the coast the Persians under Sahrbaraz arrived before Jerusalem in the
month of April. Negotiations were put an end to by the violence of
the circus factions, and the Roman relief force from Jericho, which was
summoned by Modestus, was put to flight. The Persians pressed forward
the siege, bringing up towers and rams, and finally breaching the walls on
the twenty-first day from the investment of the city (? 3 or 5 May 614).
For three days the massacre lasted, and the Jews joined the victors in
venting their spite on their hated oppressors. We hear of 57,000 killed
and 85,000 taken captive. Churches went up in flames, the patriarch
Zacharias was carried into Persia and with him, to crown the disaster,
went the Holy Cross. At the news Nicetas seems to have hastened to
Palestine with all speed, but he could do no more than rescue the holy
sponge and the holy lance, and these were despatched for safe custody
to the capital. It was true that, when once Jerusalem was in his power,
Chosroes was prepared to pursue a policy of conciliation: he deserted his
former allies and the Jews were banished from the city, while leave was
accorded to rebuild the ruined churches; but this did little to assuage
the bitterness of the fact that a Christian empire had not been able to
protect its most sacred sanctuary from the violence of the barbarian
fire-worshipper.
In 615 the Persians began afresh that occupation of Asia Minor
which had been interrupted by the evacuation of Caesarea in 611.
When Sahin marched towards Chalcedon, Philippicus invaded Persia,
but the effort to draw off the enemy's forces proved unsuccessful. Asia
Minor however was not Syria, and Sahin realised that his position
was insecure. He professed himself ready to consider terms of peace.
Heraclius sailed over to the enemy's camp and from his ship carried on
negotiations with the Persian general. Olympius, praetorian praefect,
Leontius, praefect of the city, and Anastasius, the treasurer of St Sophia,
were chosen as ambassadors, while the Senate wrote a letter to the Persian
monarch in support of the Emperors action. But as soon as Sahin had
crossed the frontier, the Roman envoys became prisoners and Chosroes
would hear no word of peace.
Thus while Syria was lost to the Empire and while Slavs were
ranging at will over the European provinces, Heraclius had to face the
overwhelming problem of raising the necessary funds to carry on the
war. Even from the scanty records which we possess of this period
we can trace the Emperor's efforts towards economy: he reduced the
number of the clergy who enjoyed office in the capital, and if any above
## p. 291 (#323) ############################################
609-eig] The Avar Surprise 291
this authorised number desired residence in Constantinople, they were to
buy the privilege from the State (612). Three years later the coins in
which the imperial largess was paid were reduced to half their value.
But in June 617 (? ) yet another disaster overtook Heraclius. The
Khagan of the Avars made overtures for peace, and Athanasius the
patrician and Kosmas the quaestor arranged a meeting between the
Emperor and the barbarian chief at Heraclea. Splendid religious rites
and a magnificent circus display were to mark the importance of the
occasion, and huge crowds had poured forth from the city gates to be
present at the festivities. But it was no longer increased money
payments that the Khagan sought: he aimed at nothing less than the
capture of Constantinople. At a sign from his whip the ambushed
troops burst forth from their hiding-places about the Long Walls.
Heraclius saw his peril: throwing off his purple, with his crown under
his arm, he fled at a gallop to the city and warned its inhabitants.
Over the plain of the Hebdomon and up to the Golden Gate surged
the Avar host: they raided the suburbs, they pillaged the church of
Saints Cosmas and Damian in the Hebdomon, they crossed the Golden
Horn and broke in pieces the holy table in the church of the Archangel.
Fugitives who escaped reported that 270,000 prisoners, men and women,
had been swept away to be settled beyond the Danube, and there was
none to stay the Khagan's march. In 618 those who were entitled at
the expense of the State to share in the public distribution of loaves
of bread were forced to make a contribution at the rate of three nomismata
to the loaf, and a few months later (Aug. 618) the public distribution
was entirely suspended. Even such a deprivation as this was felt to
be inevitable: the chronicle of events in the capital does not record
any popular outbreak.
It was probably in the spring of 619 that the next step was
taken in the Persian plan of conquest, when Sahrbaraz invaded Egypt.
He advanced by the coast road, capturing Pelusium and spreading
havoc amongst its numerous churches and monasteries. Babylon, near
Memphis, fell, and thence the Persians, supported by a strong flotilla,
followed the main western branch of the Nile past Nikiou to Alexandria
and began the siege of the Egyptian capital. All the Emperor's
measures were indeed of little avail when Armenia, Rome's recruiting
ground, was occupied by Persia, and when Sahrbaraz, encamped round
Alexandria, had cut off the supply of Egyptian grain so that the capital
suffered alike from pestilence and scarcity of food. The sole province
which appeared to offer any hope to the exhausted treasury was Africa,
and here only, it seemed, could an effective army be raised. It was with
African troops that Nicetas had won Egypt in 609: even now, with
Carthage as a base of operations, the Persians might surely be re-
pelled and Egypt regained. Thus reasoning, Heraclius prepared to set
sail from Europe (619 ? ). When his determination became known,
ch. ra. 19—2
## p. 292 (#324) ############################################
292 Peace with the Avars [619-622
Constantinople was in despair; the inhabitants refused to see themselves
deserted and the patriarch extracted an oath from the Emperor that he
would not leave his capital. The turbulence of New Rome itself seems
to have been silenced in this dark hour.
In Egypt Nicetas, despairing of the defence of Alexandria, had fled
from the city, and Persians, disguised as fisher-folk,had entered the harbour
at dawn with the other fishing-boats, cutting down any who resisted them,
and had thrown open the gates to the army of Sahrbaraz (June 619).
It did indeed seem that Chosroes was to be the master of the Roman
world. About this time too (we do not know the precise year) the
Persians, having collected a fleet1, attacked Constantinople by water: it
may well have been that this assault was timed to follow close upon the
raid of the Avar horde. But upon the sea at least the Empire asserted
its supremacy. The Persians fled, four thousand men perished with their
ships, and the enemy did not dare to renew the attempt
Heraclius realised that in order to carry war into Asia there must at
all costs be peace in Europe. He sacrificed his pride and concluded a
treaty with the Khagan (619). He raised 200,000 nomismata and sent*
as hostages to the Avars his own bastard son John or Athalarich, his
cousin Stephanus, and John the bastard son of Bonus the magister.
Sergius had forced Heraclius to swear that he would not abandon
Constantinople, and the Church now supplied the funds for the new
campaign. It agreed to lend at interest its vast wealth in plate that
the gold and silver might be minted into money; for this was no ordinary
struggle: it was a crusade to rescue from the infidel the Holy City and
the Holy Cross. Christian State and Christian Church must join hands
against a common foe. While Persian troops overran Asia, penetrating
even to Bithynia and the Black Sea, Heraclius made his preparations
and studied his plan of campaign. From Africa he had been borne to
empire under the protection of the Mother of God, and now it was
with a conviction of the religious solemnity of his mission that he
withdrew into privacy during the winter of 621 before he challenged
the might of the unbeliever. He himself, despite the criticism of his
subjects, would lead his forces in the field: in the strength of the God
of Battles he would conquer or die.
On 4 April 622 Heraclius held a public communion; on the
following day he summoned Sergius the patriarch and Bonus the magister
together with the senate, the principal officials and the entire populace
of the capital. Turning to Sergius, he said: "Into the hands of God
and of His Mother and into thine I commend this city and my son. "
After solemn prayer in the cathedral, the Emperor took the sacred image
of the Saviour and bore it from the church in his arms. The troops
1 These may have been Roman ships captured at Tarsus and other harbours
at this time occupied by Persia.
2 So modern historians: but perhaps these hostages were given in 623.
## p. 293 (#325) ############################################
622-623] Heraclius invades Persian territory 293
then embarked and in the evening of the same day, 5 April, the fleet set
sail. Despite a violent storm on 6 April the Emperor arrived in safety
at the small town of Pylae in the Bay of Nicomedia. Thence Heraclius
marched "into the region of the themes," i. e. in all probability Galatia
and perhaps Cappadocia. Here the work of concentration was carried
out: the Emperor collected the garrisons and added to their number his
new army. In his first campaign the object of Heraclius was to force
the Persian troops to withdraw from Asia Minor: he sought to pass the
enemy on the flank, to threaten his communications and to appear to
be striking at the very heart of his native country. The Persians had
occupied the mountains, hoping thus to confine the imperial troops
within the Pontic provinces during the winter, but by clever strategy
Heraclius turned their position and marched towards Armenia. Sahr-
baraz endeavoured to draw the Roman army after him by a raid on
Cilicia; but, realising that Heraclius could thus advance unopposed
through Armenia into the interior of Persia, he abandoned the project
and followed the Emperor. Heraclius at length forced a general
engagement and won a signal victory. The Persian camp was captured
and Sahrbaraz's army almost entirely destroyed. Rumours of impending
trouble with the western barbarians in Europe recalled Heraclius to the
capital, and his army went into winter quarters. The Emperor had
freed Asia Minor from the invader.
Chosroes now addressed a haughty letter to Heraclius which the
Emperor caused to be read before his ministers and the patriarch: the
despatch itself was laid before the high altar and all with tears implored
the succours of Heaven. In reply to Chosroes Heraclius offered the
Persian monarch an alternative: either let him accept conditions of
peace, or, should he refuse, the Roman army would forthwith invade his
kingdom. On 25 March 623 the Emperor left the capital, and celebrated
Easter in Nicomedia on 15 April, awaiting, it would seem, the enemy's
answer. Here, in all probability, he learned that Chosroes refused to
consider terms and treated with contempt the threat of invasion. Thus
(20 April) Heraclius set out on his invasion of Persia, marching into
Armenia with all speed by way of Caesarea, where he had ordered his
army to assemble1. Chosroes had commanded Sahrbaraz to make a raid
upon the territory of the Empire, but on the news of the sudden advance
of Heraclius he was immediately recalled, and was bidden to join his
forces to the newly raised troops under Sahin. From Caesarea Heraclius
proceeded through Karin to Dovin: the Christian capital of the province
of Ararat was stormed, and after the capture of Nachcavan he made for
Ganzaca (Takhti-Soleiman), since he heard that Chosroes was here in
person at the head of 40,000 men. On the defeat of his guards,
1 The reader is warned that this paragraph rests upon an interpretation of the
authorities which is peculiar to the present writer. This he hopes to justify in his
special study (to appear in B. Z. June 1912) on the date of the Avar surprise.
CR. IX.
## p. 294 (#326) ############################################
294 Heraclius returns to the West [623-625
however, the Persian king fled before the invaders; the city fell, while
the great temple which sheltered the fire of Usnasp was reduced to
ruins. Heraclius followed after Chosroes, and sacked many cities on his
march, but did not venture to press the pursuit: before him lay the
enemy's country and the Persian army, while his rear might at any
moment be threatened by the united advance of Sahrbaraz and Sahin.
Despite opposition, extreme cold, and scarcity of provisions he crossed
the Araxes in safety, carrying some 50,000 prisoners in his train. It
was shrewd policy which dictated their subsequent release; it created
a good impression and, as a result, there were fewer mouths to feed.
It was doubtless primarily as a recruiting ground that Heraclius sought
these Caucasian districts—the home of hardy and warlike mountaineers—
for the sorely harried provinces of Asia Minor were probably in no
condition to supply him with large contingents of troops. This is not
however the place to recount in detail the complicated story of the
operations of the winter of 623 and of the year 624. Sahin was utterly
discomfited at Tigranokert, but Heraclius was himself forced to retire
into Armenia before the army of Sahrbaraz (winter, 623). With the
spring of 624 we find Lazes, Abasges and Iberians as Roman allies,
though they subsequently deserted the Emperor when disappointed in
their expectations of spoil and plunder. Heraclius was once more unable
to penetrate into Persia, but was occupied in Armenia, marching and
countermarching between forces commanded by Sarablangas, Sahrbaraz
and Sahin. Sarablangas was slain, and late in the year Van was captured,
and Sarbar surprised in his winter quarters at Arces or Arsissa (at the
N. E. end of Lake Van). The Persian general was all but taken prisoner,
and very few of the garrison, 6000 strong, escaped destruction.
With the new year (625) Heraclius determined to return to the
West, before he once more attempted a direct attack upon Persia. We
can only conjecture the reasons which led him to take this step, but it
would seem probable that the principal inducement was a desire to assert
Roman influence in the south of Asia Minor and in the islands. The
Persians had occupied Cilicia before the capture of Jerusalem; in 623
it would appear that they had made a raid upon Rhodes, had seized the
Roman general and led off the inhabitants as prisoners, while in the
same year we are told that the Slavs had entered Crete. There is some
evidence which points to the conclusion that the Emperor was at this
time very anxious to recover the ground thus lost. There was con-
siderable doubt however as to which route should be pursued—that
through Taranda or that by way of the Taurus chain. The latter was
chosen despite its difficulty, as it was thought that provisions would be
thus more plentiful. From Van the army advanced through Martyropolis
and Amida, where the troops rested. But meanwhile Sahrbaraz, in hot
pursuit, had arrived first at the Euphrates and removed the bridge of
boats. The Emperor however crossed by a ford and reached Samosata
## p. 295 (#327) ############################################
623-626] The Siege of Constantinople 295
before March was out. As to the precise route which he followed on his
march to the Sarus there is considerable dispute1, but there is no doubt
that after a hotly contested engagement on that river Heraclius forced
the Persian general to beat a hasty retreat under cover of night. It
seems probable that the Emperor remained for a considerable time in
this district, but our sources fail us here, and we know only that he
ultimately marched to Sebastia, and crossing the Halys spent the winter
in that Pontic district where he had left his army at the end of the first
campaign.
The following year (626) is memorable for the great siege of the
capital by the united hordes of Avars, Bulgars, Slavs and Gepids, acting
in concert with a Persian force, which endeavoured to co-operate with
them from the Asiatic side of the strait. Sarbar's ill success on the
Sarus led Chosroes, we are told, to withdraw from his command 50,000
men and to place them, together with a new army raised indiscriminately
from foreigners, citizens and slaves, under the leadership of Sahin. Sahr-
baraz, with the remainder of his army, took up his position at Chalcedon
with orders to support the Khagan in his attack on Constantinople.
Heraclius in turn divided his forces: part were sent to garrison the
capital, part he entrusted to his brother Theodore who was to meet the
"Golden Lances " of Sahin, and the rest the Emperor himself retained.
Of Theodore's campaign we know nothing save the result: with the
assistance of a timely hail-storm and by the aid of the Virgin he so signally
defeated Sahin that the latter died of mortification. Of the operations
in Europe we are better informed. From the moment that Heraclius
had left the capital on his crusade against Persia the Khagan had been
making vast preparations, in the hope of capturing Constantinople. It
was the menace from the Danubian provinces which had recalled Heraclius
in the winter of 623, and now at last the Avar host was ready. On
Sunday, 29 June, on the festival of St Peter and St Paul, the advance
guard, 30,000 strong, reached the suburb of Melanthias and announced
that their leader had passed within the circuit of the Long Walls. Early
in the year, it seems, Bonus and Sergius had sent the patrician Athanasius
as an ambassador to the Avar chief, virtually offering to buy him off at
his own terms. But since the spring the walls had been strengthened,
reinforcements had arrived from Heraclius and his stirring letters had
awakened in the citizens a new spirit of confidence and enthusiasm.
Athanasius, who had been kept a prisoner by the Khagan, was now sent
from Hadrianople to learn the price at which the capital was prepared to
purchase safety. He was amazed at the change in public feeling, but
volunteered to carry back the city's proud reply. On 29 July 626 the
Avars and the countless forces of their subject tribesmen encamped
1 There are difficulties in accepting the emendations of the text of Theophanes
proposed by J. G. C. Anderson, "The Road-System of Eastern Asia Minor,"
/. H. S. xvii. (1897), pp. 33-34.
## p. 296 (#328) ############################################
296 The Slavs [595-626
before New Rome. The full story of the heroic defence cannot be related
in this place, but one consideration is too important to be omitted.
Had the Romans not been masters of the sea, the issue might well have
been less favourable; but the small Slav boats were all sunk or over-
turned in the waters of the Golden Horn, while Sahrbaraz at Chalcedon
was doomed to remain inactive, for Persia possessed no transports and
the Roman fleet made it impossible for the besiegers to carry their allies
across the straits. Thus at the very time that the barbarian attack by
sea collapsed in hopeless failure, the citizens had repulsed with heavy
loss the assault on the land walls which was directed mainly against that
section where the depression of the Lycus valley rendered the defences
most vulnerable. At length, on the eleventh day after his appearance
before Constantinople, the Khagan destroyed by fire his engines of war and
withdrew, vowing a speedy return with forces even more overwhelming.
As the suburbs of the city and the churches of Saints Cosmas and Damian
and St Nicholas went up in flames, men marked that the shrine of the
Mother of God in Blachernae remained inviolate: it was but one more
token of her power—her power with God, with her Son, and in the
general ordering of the world. The preservation of the city was the
Virgin's triumph, it was her answer to the prayers of her servants, and
with an annual festival the Church celebrated the memory of the great
deliverance. Bonus and Sergius had loyally responded to their Emperor's
trust1.
This was indeed the furthest advance of the Avars. They had
appeared in the Eastern Alps as early as 595-596, and had formally
invested Thessalonica in 597; it would seem that the city was
only saved through an outbreak of pestilence amongst the besiegers'.
After 604 there was no Roman army in the Danube provinces, and
in the reign of Phocas and the early years of Heraclius must be
placed the ravaging of Dalmatia by Avars and Slavs and the fall of
Salonae and other towns. At this time fugitives from Salonae founded
the city of Spalato, and those from Epidaurus the settlement which
afterwards became Ragusa. A contemporary tells how the Slavs in
those dark days of confusion and ravage plundered the greater part of
Illyricum, all Thessaly, Epirus, Achaia, the Cyclades and a part of
Asia. In another passage the same author relates how Avars and Slavs
destroyed the towns in the provinces of Pannonia, Moesia Superior, the
two Dacias, Rhodope, Dardania and Praevalis, carrying off" the inhabitants
into slavery. Fallmerayer's famous contention that the Greek people was
virtually exterminated is certainly an exaggeration, though throughout
Hellas there must have been Slav forays, and many a barbarian band
1 The date of the composition of the Hymnug Acathigtus would appear, despite
an enormous literature on the subject, to remain still undetermined.
2 Pestilence had also served the city well when besieged by the Goths. For the
siege, cf. W. Wroth, op. cit. t. p. xxi.
## p. 297 (#329) ############################################
625-627] Heraclius and the Chazars 297
must have planted itself on Greek soil. But when all is said, the
remarkable fact remains that while in the Danube provinces Roman
influence was submerged, Hellenism within its native territory asserted
its supremacy over the Slav invader and maintained alike its natural
language and character. Thus towards the close of our period amongst
the chaos of peoples making good their independence of the Avar over-
lordship there gradually emerged certain settlements which formed the
nucleus of nations yet to be. Not that Heraclius invited into the
Empire Croats and Serbs from a mythical Servia and Croatia somewhere
in the North—Croats and Serbs had already won by force their own
ground within the Roman frontier—but rather he recognised and
legalised their position as vassals of the Empire, and thus took up the
proud task of educating the southern Slavs to receive civilisation and
Christianity.
In 626, while the capital played its part, the Emperor was making
provision for striking a conclusive blow at Persia. He needed allies and
reinforcements, and he once more sought them among the tribesmen of the
Caucasus. It is probable that as early as the autumn of 625 he had sent
a certain Andrew as envoy to the Chazars1, and in 626 a force of 1000
men invaded the valley of the Kur and pillaged Iberia and Eger, so that
Chosroes threatened punishment and talked of withdrawing Sahin from
the West. The Chazars even took ship and visited the Emperor, when
mutual vows of friendship were interchanged. In the early summer of
627 the nephew of Dzebukhan (Ziebel) ravaged Albania and parts of
Atrpatakan.
