Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/96

74 THE DECLINE AND FALL the Persian monarch contemplated the wonders of his art and power, he received an epistle from an obscure citizen of Mecca, inviting him to acknowledge Mahomet as the apostle of God. He rejected the invitation, and tore the epistle. " It is thus," exclaimed the Arabian prophet, " that God will tear the kingdom, and reject the supplications, of Chosroes." ^'•^ Placed on the verge of the two great empires of the East, Mahomet observed Mith secret joy the j)rogress of their mutual destruc- tion ; and, in the midst of the Persian triumphs, he ventured to foretell that, before many years should elapse, victory would again return to tiie banners of the Romans. ^^ Distress of At the time when this prediction is said to have been delivered, HeracllDS. i i i i r i i AD. 010-622 no prophecy could be more distant irom its accomplishment, since the first twelve years of Heraclius announced the approach- ing dissolution of the empire. If the motives of Chosroes had been pure and honourable, he must have ended the quarrel with the death of Phocas, and he would have embraced, as his best ally, the fortunate African who had so generously avenged the injuries of his benefactor Maurice. The prosecution of the war revealed the true character of the barbarian ; and the suppliant embassies of Heraclius to beseech his clemency, that he would spare the innocent, accept a tribute, and give peace to the world, were rejected with contemptuous silence or insolent menace. Syria, Egypt, and the ])rovinces of Asia were subdued by the Persian arms, while Europe, from the confines of Istria to the long wall of Thrace, was oppressed by the Avars, unsa- tiated with the blood and rapine of the Italian war. They had coolly massacred their male captives in the sacred field of Pan- nonia ; the women and children were reduced to servitude ; and the noblest virgins were abandoned to the promiscuous lust of the barbarians. The amorous matron who opened the gates of Friuli passed a short night in the arms of her royal lover ; the next evening, Romilda was condemned to the embraces of twelve s^The historians of Mahomet, Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed, p. 92, 93) and Gagnier (Vie de Mahomet, torn. ii. p. 247), date this embassy in the viith year of the Hegira, which commences a.d. 628, May 11. Their chronology is en-oneous, since Chosroes died in the month of February of the same year (Pagi, Critica, torn. ii. p. 779). [The embassy may have been despatched before the death of Chosroes was known ; but it must have been received by Siroes.] The count de Boulain- viUiers (Vie de Mahomed, p. 327, 328) places this embassy about A.D. 615, soon after the conquest of Palestine. Vet ^lahomet would scarcely have ventured so soon on so bold a step. S'lSee the xxxth chapter of the Koran, intitled the Greeks. Our honest and learned translator Sale (p. 330, 331) fairly states this conjecture, guess, wager, of Mahomet ; but Boulainvilliers (p. 329-344), with wicked intentions, labours to establish this evident prophecy of a future event, which must, in his opinion, embarrass the Christian polemics.