the coast suddenly turns to the south; and his discernment was expressed in the choice of this important post.[1] From all sides, the scattered garrisons of the maritime cities and the mountains might repair with speed and safety to his Imperial standard. The natural fortifications of Cilicia protected, and even concealed, the camp of Heraclius,[2] which was pitched near Issus, on the same ground where Alexander had vanquished the host of Darius. The angle which the emperor occupied was deeply indented into a vast semicircle of the Asiatic, Armenian, and Syrian provinces ; and, to whatsoever point of the circumference he should direct his attack, it was easy for him to dissemble his own motions and to prevent those of the enemy. In the camp of Issus the Roman general reformed the sloth and disorder of the veterans, and educated the new recruits in the knowledge and practice of military virtue. Unfolding the miraculous image of Christ, he urged them to revenge the holy altars which had been profaned by the worshippers of fire; addressing them by the endearing appellations of sons and brethren, he deplored the public and private wrongs of the republic. The
- ↑ George of Pisidia (Acroas. ii. lo, p. 8) has fixed this important point of the Syrian and Cilician gates. They are elegantly described by Xenophon, who marched through them a thousand years before. A narrow pass of three stadia between steep high rocks (
Greek characters)) and the Mediterranean, was closed at each end by strong gates, impregnable to the land ((Greek characters)), accessible by sea (Anabasis, 1. i. , p. 35, 36, with Hutchison's Geographical Dissertation, p. vi.). The gates were thirty-five parasangs, or leagues, from Tarsus (Anabasis, 1. i p. 3,' 34 [c. 4])) and eight or ten from Antioch. (Compare Itinerar. Wesseling, p. 580, 581; Schultens. Index. Geograph. ad calcem Vit. Saladin. p. 9; Voyage en Turquie et en Perse, par M. Otter, torn. i. p. 78, 79.) [Historians have generally followed (Juercius in interpreting the (Greek characters) of George of Pisidia (=Theoph. p. 303, de Boor) as the Cilician Gates. Tafel has proved that this interpretation
is utterly wrong and that the place meant is Pylae on the southern side of the Nicomedian Bay, which Heraclius reached by sailing round the cape of Heraeum (Acroas. i. 157). See Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akad. der Wiss. ix. p. 164, 1852. From Pylae Heraclius proceeded by land (see E. Gerland, Die persischen Feldziige des Kaisers Herakleios, Byz. Ztschrift. iii. p. 346, 1894) (Greek characters) to the districts of the themes or regiments" (Eastern Phrygia and Cappadocia ?) and thence to the Armenian frontier. The Persian general Shahrbaraz hindered him from invading Persia on the Armenian side, and at the beginning of the winter Heraclius found himself surrounded in the mountains of Pontus, but he extricated himself skilfully, and was on one occasion rescued from an attack by an eclipse of the moon. The battle mentioned in the text concluded the campaign; but its site cannot be fixed. There was no fighting in Cilicia; nor does Cilicia appear in the campaign, except where Shahrbaraz retires there for a brief space, but is forced to return northward, lest Heraclius should invade Persia.]
- ↑ Heraclius might write to a friend in the modest words of Cicero: "Castra habuimus ea ipsa quæ contra Darium habuerat apud Issum Alexander, imperator haud paulo melior quam aut tu aut ego". Ad Atticum, v. 20. Issus, a rich and flourishing city in the time of Xenophon, was ruined by the prosperity of Alexandria or Scanderoon, on the other side of the bay.
