623-626] The Siege of Constantinople 295 before March was out. As to the precise route which he followed on his march to the Sarus there is considerable dispute,' but there is no doubt that after a hotly contested engagement on that river Heraclius forced the Persian general to beat a hasty retreat under cover of night. It seems probable that the Emperor remained for a considerable time in this district, but our sources fail us here, and we know only that he ultimately marched to Sebastia, and crossing the Halys spent the winter in that Pontic district where he had left his army at the end of the first campaign. The following year (626) is memorable for the great siege of the capital by the united hordes of Avars, Bulgars, Slavs, and Gepids, acting in concert with a Persian force, which endeavoured to co-operate with them from the Asiatic side of the strait. Sarbar's ill success on the Sarus led Chosroes, we are told, to withdraw from his command 50,000 men and to place them, together with a new army raised indiscriminately from foreigners, citizens, and slaves, under the leadership of Sahîn. Sahrbarâz, with the remainder of his army, took up his position at Chalcedon with orders to support the Khagan in his attack on Constantinople. Heraclius in turn divided his forces: part were sent to garrison the capital, part he entrusted to his brother Theodore who was to meet the "Golden Lances" of Sahîn, and the rest the Emperor himself retained. Of Theodore's campaign we know nothing save the result: with the assistance of a timely hail-storm and by the aid of the Virgin he so signally defeated Sahin that the latter died of mortification. Of the operations in Europe we are better informed. From the moment that Heraclius had left the capital on his crusade against Persia the Khagan had been making vast preparations, in the hope of capturing Constantinople. It was the menace from the Danubian provinces which had recalled Heraclius in the winter of 623, and now at last the Avar host was ready. On Sunday, 29 June, on the festival of St Peter and St Paul, the advance guard, 30,000 strong, reached the suburb of Melanthias and announced that their leader had passed within the circuit of the Long Walls. Early in the year, it seems, Bonus and Sergius had sent the patrician Athanasius as an ambassador to the Avar chief, virtually offering to buy him off at his own terms. But since the spring the walls had been strengthened, reinforcements had arrived from Heraclius, and his stirring letters had awakened in the citizens a new spirit of confidence and enthusiasm. Athanasius, who had been kept a prisoner by the Khagan, was now sent from Hadrianople to learn the price at which the capital was prepared to purchase safety. He was amazed at the change in public feeling, but volunteered to carry back the city's proud reply. On 29 July 626 the Avars and the countless forces of their subject tribesmen encamped 1 There are difficulties in accepting the emendations of the text of Theophanes proposed by J. G. C. Anderson, "The Road-System of Eastern Asia Minor," J. H. S. xvII. (1897), pp. 33–34. 296 The Slavs [595-626 before New Rome. The full story of the heroic defence cannot be related in this place, but one consideration is too important to be omitted. Had the Romans not been masters of the sea, the issue might well have been less favourable; but the small Slav boats were all sunk or overturned in the waters of the Golden Horn, while Sahrbarâz at Chalcedon was doomed to remain inactive, for Persia possessed no transports and the Roman fleet made it impossible for the besiegers to carry their allies across the straits. Thus at the very time that the barbarian attack by sea collapsed in hopeless failure, the citizens had repulsed with heavy loss the assault on the land walls which was directed mainly against that section where the depression of the Lycus valley rendered the defences most vulnerable. At length, on the eleventh day after his appearance before Constantinople, the Khagan destroyed by fire his engines of war and withdrew, vowing a speedy return with forces even more overwhelming. As the suburbs of the city and the churches of Saints Cosmas and Damian and St Nicholas went up in flames, men marked that the shrine of the Mother of God in Blachernae remained inviolate: it was but one more token of her power-her power with God, with her Son, and in the general ordering of the world. The preservation of the city was the Virgin's triumph, it was her answer to the prayers of her servants, and with an annual festival the Church celebrated the memory of the great deliverance. Bonus and Sergius had loyally responded to their Emperor's trust.1 This was indeed the furthest advance of the Avars. They had appeared in the Eastern Alps as early as 595-596, and had formally invested Thessalonica in 597; it would seem that the city was only saved through an outbreak of pestilence amongst the besiegers.2 After 604 there was no Roman army in the Danube provinces, and in the reign of Phocas and the early years of Heraclius must be placed the ravaging of Dalmatia by Avars and Slavs and the fall of Salonae and other towns. At this time fugitives from Salonae founded the city of Spalato, and those from Epidaurus the settlement which afterwards became Ragusa. A contemporary tells how the Slavs in those dark days of confusion and ravage plundered the greater part of Illyricum, all Thessaly, Epirus, Achaia, the Cyclades, and a part of Asia. In another passage the same author relates how Avars and Slavs destroyed the towns in the provinces of Pannonia, Moesia Superior, the two Dacias, Rhodope, Dardania, and Praevalis, carrying off the inhabitants into slavery. Fallmerayer's famous contention that the Greek people was virtually exterminated is certainly an exaggeration, though throughout Hellas there must have been Slav forays, and many a barbarian band 1 The date of the composition of the Hymnus Acathistus would appear, despite an enormous literature on the subject, to remain still undetermined. 2 Pestilence had also served the city well when beseiged by the Goths. For the siege, cf. W. Wroth, op. cit. 1. p. xxi. 625-627] Heraclius and the Chazars 297 must have planted itself on Greek soil. But when all is said, the remarkable fact remains that while in the Danube provinces Roman influence was submerged, Hellenism within its native territory asserted its supremacy over the Slav invader and maintained alike its natural language and character. Thus towards the close of our period amongst the chaos of peoples making good their independence of the Avar overlordship there gradually emerged certain settlements which formed the nucleus of nations yet to be. Not that Heraclius invited into the Empire Croats and Serbs from a mythical Servia and Croatia somewhere in the North-Croats and Serbs had already won by force their own ground within the Roman frontier-but rather he recognised and legalised their position as vassals of the Empire, and thus took up the proud task of educating the southern Slavs to receive civilisation and Christianity. In 626, while the capital played its part, the Emperor was making provision for striking a conclusive blow at Persia. He needed allies and reinforcements, and he once more sought them among the tribesmen of the Caucasus. It is probable that as early as the autumn of 625 he had sent a certain Andrew as envoy to the Chazars, and in 626 a force of 1000 men invaded the valley of the Kur and pillaged Iberia and Eger, so that Chosroes threatened punishment and talked of withdrawing Sahin from the West. The Chazars even took ship and visited the Emperor, when mutual vows of friendship were interchanged. In the early summer of 627 the nephew of Dzebukhan (Ziebel) ravaged Albania and parts of Atrpatakan. Later in the year (after June 627), envious of the booty thus won, the Chazar prince took the field in person with his son, and captured the strongly fortified post of Derbend. Gashak, who had been despatched by Persia to organise the defence of the north, was unable to protect the city of Partav and fled ignominiously. After these successes Dzebukhan joined the Emperor (who took ship from Trebizond 2) in the siege of Tiflis. The Chazar chieftain, irritated by a pumpkin caricature of himself which the inhabitants had displayed upon the walls, was eager for revenge and refused to abandon the investment of the city, though he agreed to give the Emperor a large force raised from his subjects when the Roman army started on the last great campaign in the autumn of 627.3 1 The chronology of this paragraph rests in part upon the view that Moses of Kagankaitukh Kal has effected some transpositions in the apparently contemporary Source which was used by him in this part of his work. * Our sources are agreed that Heraclius went to the Chazar country by ship. The departure from Trebizond is on conjecture based on Eutychius, ed. Pococke, II. p. 231. For a discussion of the authorities, cf. Gerland, B. Z. 111., pp. 341 ff. Tiflis subsequently fell: on the peace of 628 Iberia became once more Roman, and Heraclius set Adarnase I upon the throne; cf. J. Marquart, Osteuropäische und ostaziatische Streifzüge, pp. 400 ff. 298 Heraclius marches to Ctesiphon [627-628 Heraclius advanced through Sirak to the Araxes, and, crossing the river, entered the province of Ararat. He now found himself opposed by Râhzâdh, a Persian general who was probably advancing to the relief of Tiflis. But though the Chazar auxiliaries, dismayed by the approach of winter and by the attacks of the Persians, returned to their homes, the Emperor continued his march southward through Her and Zarewand west of the Lake of Urmijah and reached the province of Atrpatakan. Pressing forward, he crossed the mountain chain which divides Media from Assyria, arriving at Chnaitha 9 Oct., where he gave his men a week's rest. Râhzâdh had meanwhile reached Ganzaca and thence followed the Emperor across the mountains, suffering severely on his march from scarcity of supplies. By 1 Dec. the Emperor reached the greater Zab and, crossing the river (i.e. marching north-west), took up his position at Nineveh. Here (12 Dec.) he won a decisive victory over Râhzâdh. The Persian general himself fell, and his troops, though not completely demoralised, were in no condition to renew the struggle. On 21 Dec. the Emperor learned that the defeated Persians had effected a junction with the reinforcements, 3000 strong, sent from the capital; he continued his southern march, however, crossing the lesser Zab (28 Dec.) and spending Christmas on the estates of the wealthy superintendent of provincial taxation, Iesdem. During the festival, acting on urgent despatches from Chosroes, the Persian army crossed the Zab higher up its course, and thus interposed a barrier between Heraclius and Ctesiphon. The Emperor on his advance found the stream of the Torna (probably the N. arm of the Nahr Wán canal) undefended, while the Persians had retreated so hurriedly that they had not even destroyed the bridge. After the passage of the Torna he reached (1 Jan. 628) Beklal (? Beit-Germa), and there learnt that Chosroes had given up his position on the Berázrúd canal, had deserted Dastagerd and fled to Ctesiphon. Dastagerd was thus occupied without a struggle and three hundred Roman standards were recovered, while the troops were greeted by numbers of those who had been carried prisoners from Edessa, Alexandria, and other cities of the Empire. On 7 Jan. Heraclius advanced from Dastagerd towards Ctesiphon, and on 10 Jan. he was only twelve miles from the Nahr Wán; but the Armenians, who had been sent forward to reconnoitre, brought back word that in face of the Persian troops it was impossible to force the passage of the canal. Heraclius after the battle of Nineveh had been, it would seem, ready to make terms, but Chosroes had rejected his overtures. In an enemy's country, with Persian troops in a strong defensive position blocking his path, with his forces in all probability much reduced and with no present opportunity of raising others, knowing that Sahrbarâz was still in command of a Persian army in the West with which he could attack his rear, while the severity of winter, though delayed, was now threatening, Heraclius was compelled to retreat. Chosroes had at least been driven to inglorious 591-629] Restoration of the Holy Cross 299 flight the disgrace might well weaken his subjects' loyalty, and any such lessening of the royal prestige could only strengthen the position of the Romans; the Emperor even by his enforced withdrawal might not thereby lose the fruits of victory. By Shehrizúr he returned to Baneh, and thence over the Zagros chain to Ganzaca, where he arrived 11 March-only just in time, for snow began to fall 24 Feb. and made the mountain roads impassable. But with the spring no new campaign was necessary; on 3 April 628 an envoy from the Persian court reached Ganzaca announcing the violent death of Chosroes and the accession of his son Siroes; the latter offered to conclude peace, and this proposal Heraclius was willing to accept. On 8 April the embassy left for Ctesiphon, while on the same day the Emperor turned his face homeward and in a despatch to the capital, announcing the end of the struggle, expressed the hope that he would soon see his people again. It is uncertain what were the precise terms of the peace of 628, but they included the restoration of the Cross and the evacuation of the Empire's territory by the armies of Persia. It is probable that the Roman frontier was to follow the line agreed upon in the treaty of 591. These conditions were, it would seem, accepted by Siroes (Feb.-Sept. 628), but Sahrbarâz had never moved from Western Asia since 626 and it was doubtful whether he would comply with such terms. Thus when the Cross was once more in Roman hands, Heraclius was able to distribute portions of the Holy Wood amongst the more influential Christians of Armenia-a politic prelude to his schemes of church union- but felt it necessary to remain in the East to secure the triumph which he had so hardly won. After a winter spent at Amida, in the early spring the Emperor journeyed to Jerusalem and (23 March 629) amidst a scene of unbounded religious enthusiasm restored to the Holy City the instrument of the world's salvation. On the feast of St Lazarus (7 April) the news reached Constantinople, and Christendom celebrated a new resurrection from the power of its oppressors; a fragment of the true Cross sent from Jerusalem served but to deepen the city's exultation.1 Sahrbarâz however refused to withdraw his army from Roman soil, and in June 629 Heraclius met him at Arabissus and purchased his concurrence by a promise to support him with imperial troops in his attempt to secure the Persian throne. Sahrbarâz marched to Ctesiphon, only to perish after a month's reign, and thus the Empire was freed from the invader. In September Heraclius returned to the capital and after six years' campaigning enjoyed a well-earned sabbath of repose. It is an important moment in Roman history: the King of kings, the Empire's only rival, was humbled and Heraclius could now for the first time add 1 This chronology differs widely from that adopted by recent authors (e.g. Bolotov and Marr). |