f Thrace, was oppressed by the
Avars, unsatiated with the blood and rapine of the Italian war. They had
coolly massacred their male captives in the sacred field of Pannonia;
the women and children were reduced to servitude, and the noblest
virgins were abandoned to the promiscuous lust of the Barbarians. The
amorous matron who opened the gates of Friuli passed a short night in
the arms of her royal lover; the next evening, Romilda was condemned to
the embraces of twelve Avars, and the third day the Lombard princess was
impaled in the sight of the camp, while the chagan observed with a cruel
smile, that such a husband was the fit recompense of her lewdness and
perfidy. [70] By these implacable enemies, Heraclius, on either side,
was insulted and besieged: and the Roman empire was reduced to the walls
of Constantinople, with the remnant of Greece, Italy, and Africa, and
some maritime cities, from Tyre to Trebizond, of the Asiatic coast.
After the loss of Egypt, the capital was afflicted by famine and
pestilence; and the emperor, incapable of resistance, and hopeless of
relief, had resolved to transfer his person and government to the more
secure residence of Carthage. His ships were already laden with the
treasures of the palace; but his flight was arrested by the patriarch,
who armed the powers of religion in the defence of his country; led
Heraclius to the altar of St. Sophia, and extorted a solemn oath, that
he would live and die with the people whom God had intrusted to his
care. The chagan was encamped in the plains of Thrace; but he dissembled
his perfidious designs, and solicited an interview with the emperor
near the town of Heraclea. Their reconciliation was celebrated with
equestrian games; the senate and people, in their gayest apparel,
resorted to the festival of peace; and the Avars beheld, with envy and
desire, the spectacle of Roman luxury. On a sudden the hippodrome was
encompassed by the Scythian cavalry, who had pressed their secret and
nocturnal march: the tremendous sound of the chagan's whip gave the
signal of the assault, and Heraclius, wrapping his diadem round his arm,
was saved with extreme hazard, by the fleetness of his horse. So rapid
was the pursuit, that the Avars almost entered the golden gate of
Constantinople with the flying crowds: [71] but the plunder of the
suburbs rewarded their treason, and they transported beyond the Danube
two hundred and seventy thousand captives. On the shore of Cha