Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/61

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 39 CHAPTER XLVI B evolutions of Persia after the Death of Chosroes or Nushirvaii -- His Sou Hormouz, a Tijrant, is deposed — Usurpation of Bah- rain — Flisht and Restoration of Chosroes 11. — His Gratitude to the Romans — The Chagan of the Avars — Revolt of the Army against Maurice — His Death — Tyranny of Phocas — Elevation of Heraclim — The Persian War — Chosroes subdues Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor — Siege of Constanlinople by the Persians and Avars — Persian Expeditions — Victories and Triumph of Heraclius The conflict of Rome and Persia was prolonged from the death contest of of Crassus to the reign of Heraclius. An experience of seven Pe^fa*" hundred years might convince the rival nations of the impossi- bility of maintaining their conquests beyond the fatal limits of the Tigris and Euphrates. Yet the emulation of Trajan and Julian was awakened by the trophies of Alexander, and the sovereigns of Persia indulged the ambitious hope of restoring the empire of Cyrus. ^ Such extraordinary efforts of power and courage will always command the attention of posterity ; but the events by which the fate of nations is not materially changed leave a faint impression on the page of history, and the patience^ of the reader would be exhausted by the repetition of the same hostilities, undertaken without cause, prosecuted without glory, and terminated without effect. The arts of negotiation, un- known to the simple greatness of the senate and the Caesars, were assiduously cultivated by the Byzantine princes ; and the memorials of their perpetual embassies " repeat, with the same uniform prolixity, the language of falsehood and declamation, the insolence of the barbarians, and the servile temper of the tributary Greeks. Lamenting the barren superfluity of materials, ' Missis qui . . . reposcerent . . . veteres Persarum ac Macedonum terminos, seque invasurum possessa Cyro et post Alexandre, per vaniloquentiam ac minas jaciebat. Tacii. Annal. vi. 31. Such was the language of the Arsacides : I have repeatedly marked the lofty claims of the Sassanians. - See the embassies of Menander, extracted and preserved in the xth century by the order of Constantine Porphyrogeniius [cp. Appendix i].