Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/112

90 THE DECLINE AND FALL standards, beside those which might be broken or torn, were taken from the Persians ; the greatest part of their armj^ was cut in pieces, and the victors, concealing their own loss, passed the night on the field. They acknowledged that on this occa- sion it was less ditticult to kill than to discomfit the soldiers of Chosroes ; amidst the bodies of their friends, no more than two bow-shot from the enemy, the remnant of the Persian cavalry stood firm till the seventh hour of the night ; about the eighth hour they retired to their unrifled camp, collected their baggage, and dispersed on all sides, from the want of orders rather than of resolution. The diligence of Heraclius was not less admir- able in the use of victory; by a march of forty-eight miles in four-and-twenty hours, his vanguard occupied the bridges of the [Lesserzab frreat and the lesser Zab ; and the cities and palaces of Assyria crossed Dbc . 23] were o])en for the first time to the Romans. By a just grada- tion of magnificent scenes, they penetrated to the royal seat of Dastagerd, and, though much of the treasure had been removed, and much had been expended, the remaining wealth appears to have exceeded their hopes, and even to have satiated their avarice. Whatever could not be easily transported they con- sumed with fire, that Chosroes might feel the anguish of those wounds which he had so often infiicted on the provinces of the empire ; and justice might allow tlie excuse, if the desolation had been confined to the works of regal luxury, if national hatred, military licence, and religious zeal had not wasted with equal rage the habitations and the temples of the guiltless sub- ject. The recovery of three hundred Roman standards, and the deliverance of the numerous captives of Edessa and Alex- andria, reflect a purer glory on the arms of Heraclius. From the palace of Dastagerd,^- he pursued his march within a few miles of Modain or Ctesiphon, till he was stopped, on the banks of the Ai-ba, by the difficulty of the passage, the rigour ot the season, and perhaps the fame of an impregnable caj)ital.i"'j The [Feb.-March] rctum of the emperor is marked by the modern name of the [Zarasp] city of Slicrhzour ; he fortunately passed mount Zara before the snow, which fell incessantly thirty-four days ; and the [March 11] citizcns of Gaudzaca, or Tauris, were compelled to entertain his soldiers and their horses with an hospitable reception. ^-"^ 1- [Dastagerd lay not far from Bagdad, near the present Shahraban.] ]26a [Sebaeos (c. 27, p. 105-6) ascribes the Emperor's retreat into Adharbijan to fear of being cut off by Shahrbaraz. ] 127 In describing this last expedition of Heraclius, the facts, places, and the dates of Theophanes (p. 265-271 [A.M. 6ri8]) are so accurate and authentic that he must have followeci the original letters of the emperor, of which the Paschal