Christians is imputed to the Jews and Arabs, who swelled the disorder
of the Persian march. The fugitives of Palestine were entertained at
Alexandria by the charity of John the Archbishop, who is distinguished
among a crowd of saints by the epithet of almsgiver: [61] and the
revenues of the church, with a treasure of three hundred thousand
pounds, were restored to the true proprietors, the poor of every country
and every denomination. But Egypt itself, the only province which had
been exempt, since the time of Diocletian, from foreign and domestic
war, was again subdued by the successors of Cyrus. Pelusium, the key of
that impervious country, was surprised by the cavalry of the Persians:
they passed, with impunity, the innumerable channels of the Delta, and
explored the long valley of the Nile, from the pyramids of Memphis to
the confines of Aethiopia. Alexandria might have been relieved by a
naval force, but the archbishop and the praefect embarked for Cyprus;
and Chosroes entered the second city of the empire, which still
preserved a wealthy remnant of industry and commerce. His western trophy
was erected, not on the walls of Carthage, [62] but in the neighborhood
of Tripoli; the Greek colonies of Cyrene were finally extirpated; and
the conqueror, treading in the footsteps of Alexander, returned in
triumph through the sands of the Libyan desert. In the same campaign,
another army advanced from the Euphrates to the Thracian Bosphorus;
Chalcedon surrendered after a long siege, and a Persian camp was
maintained above ten years in the presence of Constantinople. The
sea-coast of Pontus, the city of Ancyra, and the Isle of Rhodes, are
enumerated among the last conquests of the great king; and if Chosroes
had possessed any maritime power, his boundless ambition would have
spread slavery and desolation over the provinces of Europe.

[Footnote 59: Eutychius dates all the losses of the empire under the
reign of Phocas; an error which saves the honor of Heraclius, whom
he brings not from Carthage, but Salonica, with a fleet laden with
vegetables for the relief of Constantinople, (Annal. tom. ii. p. 223,
224.) The other Christians of the East, Barhebraeus, (apud Asseman,
Bibliothec. Oriental. tom. iii. p. 412, 413,) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen.
p. 13--16,) Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 98, 99,) are more sincere and
accurate. The years of the Persian war are disposed in the chronology of
Pagi.]

[Footnote 60: On the conquest of Jerusa