Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/110

88 THE DECIJNE AND FALL rich jewels and earrings to his new alHes. In a secret inter- view, he produced the portKiit of his daughter Eudocia/-" con- descended to flutter the barbarian with the promise of a fair and august bride, ol)tained an immediate succour of forty thousand horse, and negotiated a strong diversion of the Turkish arms on the side of the OxusJ-^ The Persians in their turn, retreated with precipitation ; in the camp of Edessa, Herachus reviewed an army of seventy thousand Romans and strangers ; and some months were successfully employed in the recovery of the cities of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Armenia, whose fortifications had been imperfectly restored. Sarbar still maintained the im- portant station of Chalcedou ; but the jealousy of Chosroes, or the artifice of Heraclius, soon alienated the mind of that powerful satrap from the service of his king and country. A messenger was intercepted with a real or fictitious mandate to [Kardarigan] the cadarigan, or second in command, directing him to send, without delay, to the throne the head of a guilty or unfortunate general. The dispatches were transmitted to Sarbar himself; and, as soon as he read the sentence of his own death, he dexterouslv inserted the names of four hundred officers, asr- sembled a military council, and asked the cadarigan, whether he was prepared to execute the commands of their tyrant? The Persians unanimously declared that Chosroes had forfeited the sceptre ; a separate treaty was concluded with the government of Constantinople ; and, if some considerations of honour or policy restrained Sarbar from joining the standard of Heraclius, the emperor was assured that lie might prosecute, without in- terruption, his designs of victory and peace. His third Deprived of his firmest support, and doubtful of the fidelity "6*627°"' of his subjects, the greatness of Chosroes was still conspicuous in its ruins. The number of five hundred thousand may be interpreted as an Oriental metaphor, to describe the men and arms, the horses and elephants, that covered Media and Assyria against the invasion of Heraclius. Yet the Romans 120 Epiphania, or Eudocia, the only daughter of Herachus and his first wife Eudocia, was born at Constantinople on the yth of July, A.D. 6ii, baptized the 15th of August, and crowned (in the oratory of St. Stephen in the palace) the 4th of October of the same year. At this time she was about fifteen. Eudocia was afterwards sent to her Turkish husband, but the news of his death stopped her journey and prevented the consummation (Ducange, Familise Byzantin. p. 118). -1 Elmacin (Hist. Saracen, p. 13-16) gives some curious and probable facts ; but his numbers are rather too high — 300,000 Romans assembled at Edessa — 500,000 Persians killed at Ninev('h. The abatement of a cipher is scarcely enough to restore his sanity.