Gibbon's The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
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131, 132.) Substituez une lettre a ces signes (says Rousseau,
with much good taste) plus elle sera menacante moins elle
effrayera; ce ne sera qu'une fanfarronade dont Darius n'eut fait
que rire, (Emile, tom. iii. p. 146.) Yet I much question whether
the senate and people of Constantinople laughed at this message
of the chagan.]
[Footnote 97: The Paschal Chronicle (p. 392 - 397) gives a minute
and authentic narrative of the siege and deliverance of
Constantinople Theophanes (p. 264) adds some circumstances; and a
faint light may be obtained from the smoke of George of Pisidia,
who has composed a poem (de Bello Abarico, p. 45 - 54) to
commemorate this auspicious event.]
After the division of his army, Heraclius prudently retired
to the banks of the Phasis, from whence he maintained a defensive
war against the fifty thousand gold spears of Persia. His
anxiety was relieved by the deliverance of Constantinople; his
hopes were confirmed by a victory of his brother Theodorus; and
to the hostile league of Chosroes with the Avars, the Roman
emperor opposed the useful and honorable alliance of the Turks.
At his liberal invitation, the horde of Chozars ^98 transported
their tents from the plains of the Volga to the mountains of
Georgia; Heraclius received them in the neighborhood of Teflis,
and the khan with his nobles dismounted from their horses, if we
may credit the Greeks, and fell prostrate on the ground, to adore
the purple of the Caesars. Such voluntary homage and important
aid were entitled to the warmest acknowledgments; and the
emperor, taking off his own diadem, placed it on the head of the
Turkish prince, whom he saluted with a tender embrace and the
appellation of son. After a sumptuous banquet, he presented
Ziebel with the plate and ornaments, the gold, the gems, and the
silk, which had been used at the Imperial table, and, with his
own hand, distributed rich jewels and ear-rings to his new
allies. In a secret interview, he produced the portrait of his
daughter Eudocia, ^99 condescended to flatter the Barbarian with
the promise of a fair and august bride; obtained an immediate
succor of forty thousand horse, and negotiated a strong diversion
of the Turkish arms on the side of the Oxus. ^100 The Persians,
in their turn, retreated with precipitation; in the camp of
Edessa, Heraclius reviewed an army of seventy thousand Romans and
strangers; and some months were successfully employed in the
recovery of the cities of Syria, Mesopotamia and Armenia, whose
fortifications had been imperfectly restored. Sarbar still
maintained the important station of Chalcedon; but the jealousy
of Chosroes, or the artifice of Heraclius, soon alienated the
mind of that powerful satrap from the service of his king and
country. A messenger was intercepted with a real or fictitious
mandate to the cadarigan, or second in command, directing him to
send, without delay, to the throne, the head of a guilty or
unfortunate general. The despatches were transmitted to Sarbar
himself; and as soon as he read the sentence of his own death, he
dexterously inserted the names of four hundred officers,
assembled a military council, and asked the cadarigan whether he
was prepared to execute the commands of their tyrant. The
Persians unanimously declared, that Chosroes had forfeited the
sceptre; a separate treaty was concluded with the government of
Constantinople; and if some considerations of honor or policy
restrained Sarbar from joining the standard of Heraclius, the
emperor was assured that he might prosecute, without
interruption, his designs of victory and peace.
[Footnote 98: The power of the Chozars prevailed in the viith,
viiith, and ixth centuries. They were known to the Greeks, the
Arabs, and under the name of Kosa, to the Chinese themselves. De
Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. part ii. p. 507 - 509.
Note: Moses of Chorene speaks of an invasion of Armenia by
the Khazars in the second century, l. ii. c. 62. M. St. Martin
suspects them to be the same with the Hunnish nation of the
Acatires or Agazzires. They are called by the Greek historians
Eastern Turks; like the Madjars and other Hunnish or Finnish
tribes, they had probably received some admixture from the
genuine Turkish races. Ibn. Hankal (Oriental Geography) says
that their language was like the Bulgarian, and considers them a
people of Finnish or Hunnish race. Klaproth, Tabl. Hist. p. 268
- 273. Abel Remusat, Rech. sur les Langues Tartares, tom. i. p.
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