111,) that I have been tempted to identify the son-in-law
of Phocas with the hero five times victorious over the Avars.]

[Footnote 53: According to Theophanes. Cedrenus adds, which Heraclius
bore as a banner in the first Persian expedition. See George Pisid.
Acroas L 140. The manufacture seems to have flourished; but Foggini, the
Roman editor, (p. 26,) is at a loss to determine whether this picture
was an original or a copy.]

[Footnote 54: See the tyranny of Phocas and the elevation of Heraclius,
in Chron. Paschal. p. 380--383. Theophanes, p. 242-250. Nicephorus, p.
3--7. Cedrenus, p. 404--407. Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiv. p. 80--82.]

Even after his death the republic was afflicted by the crimes of Phocas,
which armed with a pious cause the most formidable of her enemies.
According to the friendly and equal forms of the Byzantine and Persian
courts, he announced his exaltation to the throne; and his ambassador
Lilius, who had presented him with the heads of Maurice and his sons,
was the best qualified to describe the circumstances of the tragic
scene. [55] However it might be varnished by fiction or sophistry,
Chosroes turned with horror from the assassin, imprisoned the pretended
envoy, disclaimed the usurper, and declared himself the avenger of his
father and benefactor. The sentiments of grief and resentment, which
humanity would feel, and honor would dictate, promoted on this occasion
the interest of the Persian king; and his interest was powerfully
magnified by the national and religious prejudices of the Magi and
satraps. In a strain of artful adulation, which assumed the language
of freedom, they presumed to censure the excess of his gratitude and
friendship for the Greeks; a nation with whom it was dangerous to
conclude either peace or alliance; whose superstition was devoid of
truth and justice, and who must be incapable of any virtue, since they
could perpetrate the most atrocious of crimes, the impious murder of
their sovereign. [56] For the crime of an ambitious centurion, the
nation which he oppressed was chastised with the calamities of war; and
the same calamities, at the end of twenty years, were retaliated
and redoubled on the heads of the Persians. [57] The general who had
restored Chosroes to the throne still commanded in the East; and the
name of Narses was the formidable sound with which the Assyrian mothers
were accustomed to terrify their infants. It is not improbable, that a
native subject of P