Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/102

80 THE DECLINE AND FALL subjects of a monarch were persuaded that they fought in the cause of freedom ; and a similar enthusiasin was communicated to the foreign mercenaries, who must have viewed with equal indifference the interest of Rome and of Persia. Heraclius him- self, with the skill and patience of a centurion, inculcated the lessons of the school of tactics, and the soldiers were assiduously trained in the use of their weapons and the exercises and evolu- tions of the field. The cavalry and infantry in light or heavy armour were divided into two parties ; the trumpets were fixed in the centre, and their signals directed the march, the charge, the retreat, or pursuit ; the direct or oblique order, the deep or extended phalanx ; to represent in fictitious combat the opera- tions of genuine war. Whatever hardship the emperor imposed on the troops, he inflicted with equal severity on himself; their labour, their diet, their sleep were measured by the inflexible rules of discipline ; and, without despising the enemy, they were taught to repose an implicit confidence in their own valour and the wisdom of their leader. Cilicia was soon encompassed with the Persian arms ; but their cavalry hesitated to enter the defiles of mount Taurus, till they were circumvented by the evolutions of Heraclius, who insensibly gained their rear, whilst he appeared to present his front in order of battle. By a false motion, which seemed to threaten Armenia, he drew them against their wishes to a general action. They were tempted by the artful disorder of his camp ; but, when they advanced to combat, the ground, the sun, and the expectation of both armies, were unpropitious to the barbarians ; the Romans suc- cessfully repeated their tactics in a field of battle ; ^^ and the event of the day declared to the world that the Persians were not invincible and that an hero was invested with the purple. Strong in victory and fame, Heraclius boldly ascended the heights of mount Taurus, directed his march through the plains of Cappadocia, and established his trcops for the winter season in safe and plentiful quarters on the banks of the river Halys.^"** His soul was superior to the vanity of entertaining Constanti- [A.D. 623] nople with an imperfect triumph ; but the presence of the 99 Foggini (Annotat. p. 31) suspects that the persons were deceived by the (JjaAayf 7re7rA.T)yn€V7) of ^Uan (Tactic. c. 48), an intricate spiral motion of the army. He ob- serves (p. 28) that the military descriptions of George of Pisidia are transcribed in the Tactics of the emperor Leo. 1"" George of Pisidia, an eye-witness (Acroas. li. 122, &c. ), described in three acroaseis or cantos, the first expedition of Heraclius. The poem has been lately (1777)1 published ^' Rome; but such vague and declamatory praise is far from corresponding with the sanguine hopes of Pagi, D'Anville, i&c.