Constantinople was in despair; the inhabitants refused to see themselves deserted and the patriarch extracted an oath from the Emperor that he would not leave his capital. The turbulence of New Rome itself seems to have been silenced in this dark hour.
In Egypt Nicetas, despairing of the defence of Alexandria, had fled from the city, and Persians, disguised as fisher-folk, had entered the harbour at dawn with the other fishing-boats, cutting down any who resisted them, and had thrown open the gates to the army of Sahrbarâz (June 619). It did indeed seem that Chosroes was to be the master of the Roman world. About this time too (we do not know the precise year) the Persians, having collected a fleet,[1] attacked Constantinople by water: it may well have been that this assault was timed to follow close upon the raid of the Avar horde. But upon the sea at least the Empire asserted its supremacy. The Persians fled, four thousand men perished with their ships, and the enemy did not dare to renew the attempt.
Heraclius realised that in order to carry war into Asia there must at all costs be peace in Europe. He sacrificed his pride and concluded a treaty with the Khagan (619). He raised 200,000 nomismata and sent[2] as hostages to the Avars his own bastard son John or Athalarich, his cousin Stephanus, and John the bastard son of Bonus the magister, Sergius had forced Heraclius to swear that he would not abandon Constantinople, and the Church now supplied the funds for the new campaign. It agreed to lend at interest its vast wealth in plate that the gold and silver might be minted into money; for this was no ordinary struggle: it was a crusade to rescue from the infidel the Holy City and the Holy Cross. Christian State and Christian Church must join hands against a common foe. While Persian troops overran Asia, penetrating even to Bithynia and the Black Sea, Heraclius made his preparations and studied his plan of campaign. From Africa he had been borne to empire under the protection of the Mother of God, and now it was with a conviction of the religious solemnity of his mission that he withdrew into privacy during the winter of 621 before he challenged the might of the unbeliever. He himself, despite the criticism of his subjects, would lead his forces in the field: in the strength of the God of Battles he would conquer or die.
On 4 April 622 Heraclius held a public communion; on the following day he summoned Sergius the patriarch and Bonus the magister, together with the senate, the principal officials and the entire populace of the capital. Turning to Sergius, he said: "Into the hands of God and of His Mother and into thine I commend this city and my son." After solemn prayer in the cathedral, the Emperor took the sacred image of the Saviour and bore it from the church in his arms. The troops
