Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/317

611-613] 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 Sahîn led his army to Karin, and reduced Melitene to submission, afterwards joining Sahrbarâz 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 613 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 curopalates; 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) 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,