his laudable intentions were rewarded with an equestrian statue and a daughter of the emperor. It was more difficult to trust the fidelity of Crispus, whose recent services were recompensed by the command of the Cappadocian army. His arrogance soon provoked, and seemed to excuse, the ingratitude of his new sovereign. In the presence of the senate, the son-in-law of Phocas was condemned to embrace the monastic life; and the sentence was justified by the weighty observation of Heraclius that the man who had betrayed his father could never be faithful to his friend.[1]
Chosroes invades the Roman empire. A.D. 603, &c. Even after his death the republic was afflicted by the crimes of Phocas, which armed with a pious cause the most formidable of her enemies. According to the friendly and equal forms of the Byzantine and Persian courts, he announced his exaltation to the throne ; and his ambassador Lilius, who had presented him with the heads of Maurice and his sons, was the best qualified to describe the circumstances of the tragic scene.[2] However it might be varnished by fiction or sophistry, Chosroes turned with horror from the assassin, imprisoned the pretended envoy, disclaimed the usurper, and declared himself the avenger of his father and benefactor. The sentiments of grief and resentment which humanity would feel, and honour would dictate, promoted, on this occasion, the interest of the Persian king; and his interest was powerfully magnified by the national and religious prejudices of the Magi and satraps. In a strain of artful adulation, which assumed the language of freedom, they presumed to censure the excess of his gratitude and friendship for the Greeks: a nation with whom it was dangerous to conclude either peace or alliance ; whose superstition was devoid of truth and justice; and who must be incapable of any virtue, since they could perpetrate the most atrocious of crimes, the impious murder of their sovereign.[3] For the crime of an ambitious centurion, the nation which he oppressed was chastised with the
- ↑ See the tyranny of Phocas and the elevation of Heraclius, in Chron. Paschal, p. 380-383 [p. 694 sqq., ed. Bonn]; Theophanes, p. 242-250 ; Nicephorus, p. 3-7; Cedrenus, p. 404-407 [i. p. 708 sqq., ed. Bonn]; Zonaras, tom. ii. 1. xiv. p. 80-82 [c. 14, 15]. [For the race of Heraclius and Nicetas see Appendix 5.]
- ↑ Theophylact, 1. viii. c. 15. The life of Maurice was composed about the year 628 (1. viii. c. 13) by Theophylact Simocatta, ex-præfect, a native of Egypt. Photius, who gives an ample extract of the work (cod. Ixv. p. 81-100), gently reproves the affectation and allegory of the style. His preface is a dialogue between Philosophy and History; they seat themselves under a plane-tree, and the latter touches her lyre.
- ↑ Christianis nec pactum esse nee fidem nee fœdus . . . quod si ulla illis fides fuisset, regem suum non occidissent. Eutych. Annales. tom. ii. p. 211, vers, Pocock.
