Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/94

72 THE DECLINE AND FALL boundless ambition would have spread slavery and desolation over the provinces of Europe. His reign and From the long-disputcd banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, the reign of the grandson of Nushirvan was suddenly extended to the Hellespont and the Nile, the ancient limits of the Persian monarchy. But the provinces, which had been fashioned by the habits of six hundred years to the virtues and vices of the Roman government, supported with reluctance the yoke of the barbarians. The idea of a republic was kept alive by the institutions, or at least by the writings, of the Greeks and Romans, and the subjects of Heraclius had been educated to pronounce the words of liberty and law. But it has always been the pride and policy of Oriental princes to display the titles and attributes of their omnipotence ; to upbraid a nation of slaves with their true name and abject condition ; and to en- force, by cruel and insolent threats, the rigour of their absolute commands. The Christians of the East were scandalized by the worship of fire and the impious doctrine of the two principles ; the Magi were not less intolerant than the bishops ; and the martyrdom of some native Persians, who had deserted the religion of Zoroaster,"" was conceived to be the prelude of a fierce and general persecution. By the oppressive laws of Justinian, the adversaries of the church were made the enemies of the state ; the alliance of the Jews, Nestorians, and Jacobites had contributed to the success of Chosroes, and his partial favour to the sectaries provoked the hatred and fears of the Catholic clei'gy. Conscious of their fear and hatred, the Persian con- queror governed his new subjects with an iron sceptre ; and, as if he suspected the stability of his dominion, he exhausted their wealth by exorbitant tributes and licentious rapine, de- spoiled or demolished the temples of the East, and transported to his hereditary realms the gold, the silver, the precious marbles, the arts, and the artists of the Asiatic cities. In the obscure picture of the calamities of the empire,'* it is not easy to discern the figure of Chosroes himself, to separate his actions from those of his lieutenants, or to ascertain his personal merit Oder Karchedon ? p. i6i), a paper which discusses the chronologj^ of these Persian conquests. ] "•"^ The genuine acts of St. Anastasius are pubhshed in those of the viith general council, from whence Baronius (Annal. Eccles. .'.D. 614, 626, 627) and Butler (Lives of the Saints, vol. i. p. 242-248) have taken their accounts. The holy martyr deserted from the Persian to the Roman army, became a monk at Jerusalem, and insulted the worship of the Magi, which was then established at Caesarea in Palestine. [For the Acta of St. Anastasius see Appendi.x i.] '^Abulpharagius, Dynast, p. 99. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen, p. 14.