Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/100

 78 THE DECLINE AND FALL spired with Phocas, only two were found to have survived the stroke of time and of the barbarians ; '-''^ the loss^ even of these seditious veterans, was imperfectly supplied by the new levies of Heraclius, and the gold of the sanctuary united, in the same camp, the names, and arms, and languages of the East and West. He would have been content with the neutrality of the Avars ; and his friendly entreaty that the chagan would act not as the enemy but as the guardian of the empire was accom- panied with a more persuasive donative of two hundred thou- sand pieces of gold. Two days after the festival of Easter,''* the emperor, exchanging his purple for the simple garb of a penitent [Aprils] and warrior,-'' gave the signal of his departure. To the faith of the people Heraclius recommended his children ; the civil and military powers were vested in the most deserving hands ; and the discretion of the patriarch and senate was authorised to save or surrender the city, if they should be oppressed in his absence by the superior forces of the enemy. First expedi- The neighbouring heights of Chalcedon were covered with im« against tcuts and amis ; but, if the new levies of Heraclius had been AD. 622 ■ rashly led to the attack, the victory of the Persians in the sight of Constantinople might have been the last day of the Roman empire. As imjirudent would it have been to advance into the j)rovinces of Asia, leaving their innumerable cavalry to inter- cej)t his convoys, and continually to hang on the lassitude and disorder of his rear.^'J But the Greeks were still masters of the sea ; a fleet of galleys, transjjorts and storeships, was assembled in the harbour ; the barbarians consented to embark ; a steady wind carried them tln'ough the Hellespont ; the western and southern coast of Asia Minor lay on their left hand ; the spirit of their chief was first displayed in a storm ; and even the eunuchs of his train were excited to suffer and to work by the example of their master. He landed his troops on the confines of Syria and Cilicia, in the gulf of Scanderoon, where which the church of Constantinople might still feel. [The ecclesiastical loan illustrates the religious character of the wars of Heraclius : crusades against the Fire-worshippers who had taken captive the Holy City and the True Cross.] surprise. The muster-roll of a regiment, even in time of peace, is renewed in less than twenty or twenty-five years. "■•[On Easter Monday, April 5, .a.d. 622.] -'^ He changed his purple for black buskins, and dyed them red in the blood of the Persians (Georg. Pisid. Acroas. iii. 118, 121, 122. -See the notes of Foggini, P- 35)- "'' [But see next note.]
 * ' Theophylact Simocatta, 1. viii. c. i2. This circumstance need not excite our