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
- ↑ This chronology differs widely from that adopted by recent authors (e.g. Bolotov and Marr).
