Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/93

OF THE IIOMAN EMPIRE 71 a crowd of saints by the epithet of aluis-givcr ; "' and the revenues of the church, with a treasure of three hundi'ed thousand pounds, were restored to the true proprietors, the j)Oor of every country and every denomination. But Egypt itself, the only province which had been exem])t since the time of Diocletian from foreign and domestic war, was again subdued by the successors of Cyrus." Pelusium, the key of that im- of Egypt, pervious country, was surprised by the cavalry of the Persians : they passed with impunity the innumerable channels of the Delta, and explored the long valley of the Nile, from the pyramids of Memphis to the confines of ^-Ethiopia. Alexandria might have been relieved by a naval force, but the archbishop and the praefect embarked for Cyprus ; and Chosroes entered the second city of the empire, which still preserved a wealthy remnant of industry and commerce. His w-estern trophy was erected, not on the walls of Carthage,"'^ but in the neighbour- hood of Tripoli ; the Greek colonies of Cyrene were finally extirpated ; and the conqueror, treading in the footsteps of Alexander, returned in triumph through the sands of the Libyan desert. In the same campaign, another army advanced oJ.-*^»'» . _ from the Euphrates to the Thracian Bosphorus ; Chalcedon 6i6, di. surrendered after a long siege, and a Persian camp was maintained above ten years in the presence of Constantinople. The sea-coast of Pontus, the city of Ancyra, and the isle of Rhodes are enumerated among the last conquests of the Great King ; and, if Chosroes had possessed any maritime power, his "■'The life of this worthy saint is composed by Leontius [of Neapolis], a contemporary bishop ; and I find in Baronius (Annal. Eccles. a.d. 6io, No. io, &c. )and Fleury (torn. viii. p. 235-242) sufficient extracts of this edifying work. [The Greek text of this Life was first published by H. Gelzer, 1893. The Latin translation will be found in Rosweyde's 'itae I'atrum, and in Migne's Patr. Lat., vol. 73, p. 337 sqg.] "5 [The date of the conquest of Egypt is given by Theophanes as A.M. 6107, that is A.D. 615, in which year Chalcedon was also attacked. Nicephorus (p. 9, ed. de Boor) represents the attack on Chalcedon as subsequent to the conquest of Egypt and executed by the same general (Saitos). According to Tabari the keys of Alexandria were delivered to Chosroes in his 28th year, = A.u. 617-618 (p. 219). Noldeke suggests that the statements may be reconciled by assuming that the keys were not sent till a long time after the conquest. Gelzer (see next note) places the conquest of Egypt in a.d. 619.] •' The error of Baronius and many others who have carried the arms o Chosroes to Carthage instead of Chalcedon, is founded on the near resemblance of the Greek words KaXxr^Soya and Kapxv/oc" in the text of Theophanes, &c. which have been sometimes confounded by tianscribers and sometimes by critics. [There is no doubt that XaAKr)5(i^'os given by the Mss. of Theophanes is the true reading, though C. de Boor, in his edition, has introduced KapxijSoi'os from the Latin translation of Anastasius. See C. de Boor, in Hermes, 1890 (zur Chrono- graphie des Theophanes) ; H. Gelzer, in Rheinisches Museum, 1893 (Chalkedon