popular rising, during which he was seized and beheaded. His military command was given to Theodore (646).[1]
The Arabs first invaded Asia Minor during the commotions of 641. In 642 a plan of Valentine for a combined attack on them was frustrated by his defeat; but Theodore and Procopius penetrated as far as Batnae, and an Armenian force occupied Amida and nearly reached Edessa before they were routed. In 643, Valentine having returned to Constantinople, the enemy again entered Asia Minor, and Arabissus capitulated to 'Umair. In 644 Mu'āwiya, amīr of Syria, took and plundered Euchaita; and in 646 after besieging Caesarea for ten days he ravaged the neighbourhood, returned, and forced it to pay tribute, afterwards vainly attacking Amorium. On this expedition he found the Cilician fortresses deserted and left garrisons in them till his return, but in 647 had them destroyed. In 649 Ḥabīb, and in 651 Busr, raided Isauria, and in 651 Sufyān also invaded Roman territory from Germanicea, while in 649 Mu'āwiya placed a fleet on the sea and plundered Constantia in Cyprus, but retreated on the approach of a Roman fleet under Cacorizus the chamberlain.
These were only plundering expeditions: but about 647 Ḥabīb occupied Melitene, Sozopetra, and Adata; and, as the war had gone against the Romans, Constans in 651 sent Procopius to treat for peace with Mu'āwiya (the Caliph Othman was ignored), and a truce was made for two years, the Emperor paying tribute and leaving Gregory, the nephew of Heraclius, as a hostage.
The truce of 651 was hardly more than nominal; for the secession of Armenia led to the Emperor's expedition to that country (652) and to the outbreak of fresh hostilities there, and after the expiration of the armistice the war was renewed on a larger scale than before. Great preparations were made by Mu'āwiya for an attack by sea and land upon Constantinople. He himself, starting from Melitene, took Ancyra and advanced to Dorylaeum (653), destroying all the fortresses on the way. Meanwhile ships were being hastily built at Alexandria, Tripolis, and other places; and in 654 a fleet under Abū'l-A'war after occupying Cyprus pillaged Cos, Crete, and Rhodes (where the famous colossus, long since fallen, was broken up and sold to a Jew). But, while the work was going on at Tripolis, two Roman brothers, Mu'āwiya's slaves, liberated the prisoners, and with their help killed the governor and his guard, burnt the ships, and escaped by sea to Roman territory. Mu'āwiya, who was probably recalled by the news of this disaster, did nothing this year beyond taking a fortress near Melitene: but the naval preparations were not given up, and in spring 655 Abū'l-A'war was sent to Phoenix in Lycia, a place celebrated for cypresses, to cut wood for shipbuilding, where he was joined by the Egyptian ships under 'Abdallāh. But the
- ↑ The details and chronology of events after the death of Heraclius are very doubtful.
