Page:Constantinople by Brodribb.djvu/113

 The magnificence of the city, the splendour of the hippodrome, would have vanished at once. But another kind of greatness might have arisen for Constantinople, such a greatness as, we believe, may await her yet, when she shall become a free and independent city, the emporium of the Eastern trade.

The story of Heraclius—how, like a chivalrous knight, he met the victorious Persian, fought and defeated him; how he restored the Holy Cross to Jerusalem; how he carried the war into the enemy's own provinces, and how he returned in triumph to Constantinople—cannot here be told. He ended his reign in his capital, endeavouring to effect a hopeless task, that of recreating the national spirit by means of a common creed. And with this view he occupied the last years of his life in interminable discussions about the heresies of his time. His Ecthesis, which was designed to answer all religious difficulties and impose a creed upon all alike, only gave rise to new disputes.

Constantine III. and Heracleonas were speedily followed by Constans II., a sovereign of ability and energy. He inherited the dream of his grandfather Heraclius, and endeavoured to secure complete control over the Church. Controversy he silenced, not before it was time. Henceforth, he ordered, let no man argue on any previous theological quarrels. Were all old theological quarrels to be forgotten, it would, he probably thought, be difficult to revive new. In his reign Moawiyah commenced his preparations for the great siege of Constantinople, which he meditated continually. The capital