death of Chosroes, an Heracliad
in two cantos was instantly published at Constantinople by George of
Pisidia, (p. 97--105.) A priest and a poet might very properly exult in
the damnation of the public enemy but such mean revenge is unworthy of a
king and a conqueror; and I am sorry to find so much black superstition
in the letter of Heraclius: he almost applauds the parricide of Siroes
as an act of piety and justice. * Note: The Mahometans show no more
charity towards the memory of Chosroes or Khoosroo Purveez. All his
reverses are ascribed to the just indignation of God, upon a monarch who
had dared, with impious and accursed hands, to tear the letter of the
Holy Prophet Mahomed. Compare note, p. 231.--M.]

[Footnote 1071: Yet Gibbon himself places the flight and death of
Yesdegird Ill., the last king of Persia, in 651. The famous era of
Yesdegird dates from his accession, June 16 632.--M.]

[Footnote 108: The best Oriental accounts of this last period of the
Sassanian kings are found in Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p. 251--256,)
who dissembles the parricide of Siroes, D'Herbelot (Bibliotheque
Orientale, p. 789,) and Assemanni, (Bibliothec. Oriental. tom. iii. p.
415--420.)]

As soon as the mountains became passable, the emperor received the
welcome news of the success of the conspiracy, the death of Chosroes,
and the elevation of his eldest son to the throne of Persia. The authors
of the revolution, eager to display their merits in the court or camp of
Tauris, preceded the ambassadors of Siroes, who delivered the letters
of their master to his brother the emperor of the Romans. [109] In the
language of the usurpers of every age, he imputes his own crimes to the
Deity, and, without degrading his equal majesty, he offers to reconcile
the long discord of the two nations, by a treaty of peace and alliance
more durable than brass or iron. The conditions of the treaty were
easily defined and faithfully executed. In the recovery of the standards
and prisoners which had fallen into the hands of the Persians, the
emperor imitated the example of Augustus: their care of the national
dignity was celebrated by the poets of the times, but the decay of
genius may be measured by the distance between Horace and George of
Pisidia: the subjects and brethren of Heraclius were redeemed from
persecution, slavery, and exile; but, instead of the Roman eagles, the
true wood of the holy cross was restored to the importunate demands of
the s