with golden helmets, delicate, all quiver-bearing, on snorting, gold-phalerad horses. So when the emperor saw it was impossible to engage with the armies of Chosroes (for they were more numerous than the sand), he planned something effective and full of shrewdness. He entrusts the city to the Maiden, child of God, and his son and the people, and he himself, setting out from there and gathering an army from land and sea, light-armed soldiers, horsemen, hoplites, shield-bearers, invades the Persian land, attacks even fortresses with strong walls, fortified, with fine towers, with solid towers, he destroys, sacks, plunders all the land under the Persians, very wisely contriving to draw away from Byzantium and to create a diversion there for the forces of Chosroes. Indeed, the beauties of the Persian cities were shorn, the fields became the expense of much-wooded fire, bitterly were enslaved those in their prime and the first-bearded, women with beautiful locks, maidens, old women, and children in arms, milk-fed infants. The sword of the Romans was bathed in blood, cattle were seized, mothers were made childless, and groaning and wailing seized the Persian land; for a winged sword of vengeance ran upon them, and a sword of wrath devoured all the cities. The arrogant king of the Persians hears these things, and learning what was happening, he departs from Byzantium. Heraclius advanced into the middle of Persia, while the Persian ruler marched backwards towards him. And when a hard-fought battle occurred between them both and the regiments horribly attacked each other, myriad dead fell on both sides, but nevertheless the Romans' side was superior. Then Persia too saw from Byzantium a reaping, two-edged sword, a flying scythe both destroying cities and sacking the fields. And again the emperor devises another clever thing; for he was an experienced-in-war, resourceful general. Falling back a little, he cut short their course, and when the Persian army along with Chosroes had outrun and passed the Roman army, he himself followed them as they fled from the rear, and clashing countless times in face-to-face battles and shattering his swords on the bones of the Persians, he did not cease pursuing and overwhelming the barbarian, until his own kinsmen and the Persian nobles and all his friends and all the phalanx-commanders and his first-sown, first-born son Siroes, disgusted with the accursed and abominable Chosroes, bind him with a strong bond like a gaping sea-monster, like a heavy-hearted lion, like a wild leopard, and they press him with hunger and finally put him to death. Therefore in a six-year course of the sun, Heraclius, having worn down the Persian and Median land, returned gloriously victorious to the capital. And these things came to pass in later years; but while Heraclius was still tarrying in Persia, and the army of the Persians was besieging in turn and gaping to swallow the blessed city, another rough, heavy-sounding, myriad-waved billow rose up against it, roaring terribly like a lion, and threatening to inundate so great a vessel. For Scythian forces joined with the Persian, and phalanxes equal to the sand of the bestial Avars, like heavy-thundering torrents rushing together with a crash, were streaming against the city as if into a valley-junction. The Persians had their camps facing them (for their forces had been poured out as far as Damalis and Chalcedon, shouting with a heavy sound), the Avars and Scythians lay in ambush near the walls, and every terror and every horror appeared before their eyes. From there Scythian-nurtured Scylla sounded terribly, from here the mouth of Charybdis was opened, and in the middle the vessel of the city was tempest-tossed, and on every side was danger and on every side was surge. And the time, as it seems, then striving contentiously to leave no other greater evil for men, also stirred up every surrounding etharchy; one might aptly say a myriad-winged locust. And indeed, having constructed seafaring vessels, the phylarchs of the savage-hearted Tauroscythians, and a numberless multitude to the

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χρυσεοπήληκας, ἁβρούς, πάντας φαρετροφόρους, μυκτηροκόμποις βρέμοντας ἵπποις χρυσοφαλάροις. ὡς οὖν ἑώρα βασιλεὺς ἀμήχανον συμμῖξαι Χοσρόου τοῖς στρατεύμασιν (ὑπὲρ γὰρ ψάμμον ἦσαν), βουλεύεταί τι δραστικὸν καὶ πλῆρες ἀγχινοίας. τῇ κόρῃ τῇ θεόπαιδι τὴν πόλιν ἐπιτρέπει καὶ τὸν υἱὸν καὶ τὸν λαόν, αὐτὸς δ' ἐντεῦθεν ἄρας καὶ συλλεξάμενος στρατὸν ἐκ γῆς ἀπὸ θαλάσσης, ψιλοὺς ἐνόπλους ἱππαστὰς ὁπλίτας σακεσφόρους, εἰς γῆν εἰσβάλλει Περσικήν, προσβάλλει καὶ φρουρίοις καρτεροτείχοις ἐρυμνοῖς εὐπύργοις στερροπύργοις, φθείρει πορθεῖ λεηλατεῖ πᾶσαν τὴν ὑπὸ Πέρσας, ἄγαν σοφῶς τεχνώμενος μεθέλκειν Βυζαντόθεν κἀντεῦθεν ἀντιπερισπᾶν Χοσρόου τὰς δυνάμεις. πόλεων γοῦν τῶν Περσικῶν ἐκείροντο τὰ κάλλη, ἀγροὶ πυρὸς ἐγίνοντο δαπάνη πολυξύλου, ἠνδραποδίζοντο πικρῶς ὑπέρακμοι πρωθῆβαι, γυναῖκες καλλιπλόκαμοι, κορίσκαι, γηραλέαι, καὶ παῖδες ὑπαγκάλιοι, γαλακτοφάγα βρέφη. ἐλούετο τοῖς αἵμασιν ἡ τῶν Ῥωμαίων σπάθη, ἡρπάζοντο βοσκήματα, μητέρες ἠτεκνοῦντο, καὶ στόνος κατελάμβανε τὴν Περσικὴν καὶ γόος· πτηνὴ γὰρ ἐκδικήσεως ἐπέτρεχε ῥομφαία, καὶ πάσας κατεβόσκετο σπάθη θυμοῦ τὰς πόλεις. ἀκούει ταῦθ' ὁ βασιλεὺς Περσῶν ὁ φρυακτίας, καὶ τὰ γινόμενα μαθὼν ἀπαίρει Βυζαντόθεν. προῆγε μὲν Ἡράκλειος εἰς μέσην τὴν Περσίδα, ὁ δὲ Περσάρχης πρὸς αὐτὸν ἤλαυνεν ὀπισθόπους. καὶ γενομένης ὑπ' ἀμφοῖν καρτερομάχου μάχης καὶ προσβαλόντων φρικωδῶς ἀλλήλοις τῶν ταγμάτων νεκροὶ μὲν ἑκατέρωθεν ἐγένοντο μυρίοι, πλὴν ὅμως καθυπέρτερα τὰ τῶν Ῥωμαίων ἦσαν. ἔβλεψε τότε καὶ Περσὶς ἐκ Βυζαντίου σπάθην θεριστικὴν ἀμφίστομον, δρεπάνην πετομένην καὶ πόλεις ἀφανίζουσαν καὶ τοὺς ἀγροὺς πορθοῦσαν. καὶ πάλιν ἄλλο συνετὸν ὁ βασιλεὺς τεχνᾶται· ἦν γὰρ ἐμπειροπόλεμος εὐμήχανος στρατάρχης. μικρὸν ὑπολειπόμενος τὸν δρόμον ὑποτέμνει, καὶ Περσικοῦ στρατεύματος σὺν ἅμα τῷ Χοσρόῃ ὑπερδραμόντος καὶ στρατὸν Ῥωμαίων παρελθόντος αὐτὸς ἐκείνοις φεύγουσιν εἵπετο κατὰ νώτου, καὶ μυριάκις συμπλακεὶς ἀντενωπίοις μάχαις καὶ τοῖς ὀστοῖς τοῖς τῶν Περσῶν τὰ ξίφη διαθρύψας τὸν βάρβαρον οὐκ ἔληγε διώκων καὶ συμπνίγων, ἕως αὐτοῦ τὸ προσγενὲς καὶ τῶν Περσῶν οἱ κρείττους καὶ πᾶν αὐτοῦ τὸ φίλιον καὶ πάντες φαλαγγάρχαι καὶ παῖς αὐτοῦ πρωτόσπορος πρωτόφυτος Σιρόεις τὸν ἐναγῆ καὶ βδελυρὸν Χοσρόην μυσαχθέντες δεσμῷ στερρῷ συσφίγγουσι πολυχανδὲς ὡς κῆτος, ὡς λέοντα βαρύθυμον, ὡς πάρδαλιν ἀγρίαν, καὶ τῷ λιμῷ πιέζουσι καὶ τέλος θανατοῦσιν. ἐν ἑξαμέτρῳ τοιγαροῦν ἡλίου περιδρόμῳ τὴν Περσικὴν καὶ Μηδικὴν Ἡράκλειος ἐκτρίψας καλλίνικος ἀνέζευξεν ἐπὶ τὴν βασιλίδα. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ἐνιαυτοῖς ἀπέβησαν ὑστέροις· ἀλλ' ἔτι διατρίβοντος ἐν Πέρσαις Ἡρακλείου, τοῦ δὲ Περσῶν στρατεύματος ἀντιπολιορκοῦντος καὶ χαίνοντος καταπιεῖν τὴν πόλιν τὴν ὀλβίαν, ἄλλος τραχὺς βαρύβρομος μυριοκύμων κλύδων ἀντεπηγέρθη, φοβερὸν βρυχόμενος ὡς λέων, καὶ κατακλύζειν ἀπειλῶν τὴν τηλικαύτην σκάφην. ταῖς Περσικαῖς γὰρ Σκυθικαὶ δυνάμεις συνδραμοῦσαι καὶ φάλαγγες ἰσόψαμμοι θηριωδῶν Ἀβάρων, ὡς χείμαρροι βαρύδουποι σὺν ψόφοις συρραγεῖσαι, καθάπερ εἰς μισγάγκειαν τὴν πόλιν ἐπερρόθουν. οἱ Πέρσαι τὰς παρεμβολὰς εἶχον ἀντενωπίους (καὶ μέχρι γὰρ ∆αμάλεως καὶ τῶν Καλχηδονίων αἱ σφῶν δυνάμεις κέχυντο βαρύθρουν λαλαγοῦσαι), Ἄβαρες πρὸς τοῖς τείχεσιν ἐφήδρευον καὶ Σκύθαι, καὶ πᾶν δεινὸν καὶ πᾶν στυγνὸν ἐφαίνετο προὐμμάτων. ἐκεῖθεν ἤχει φοβερὸν ἡ Σκυθοτρόφος Σκύλλα, ἐντεῦθεν τῆς Χαρύβδεως ἠνοίγετο τὸ στόμα, καὶ μέσον ἐχειμάζετο τῆς πόλεως τὸ σκάφος, καὶ πανταχόθεν κίνδυνος καὶ πανταχόθεν σάλος. ὁ δὲ καιρός, ὡς ἔοικε, φιλονεικῶν ὁ τότε ἄλλο μηδὲν παραλιπεῖν μεῖζον κακὸν ἀνθρώποις, καὶ πᾶσαν περιταύριον ἤγειρεν ἐθναρχίαν· ἀκρίδα μυριόπτερον εἴποι τις ἂν εὐστόχως. καὶ γάρ τοι συμπηξάμενοι θαλαττοπόρα σκάφη Ταυροσκυθῶν οἱ φύλαρχοι τῶν ἀγριοκαρδίων, καὶ πλῆθος ἀπειράριθμον τοῖς

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