secute the
war, notwithstanding the change of rulers, and endeavor to push to the
utmost the advantage which he had already obtained. He resolved on this
latter alternative. It was while the young Heraclius was still insecure
in his seat that he sent his armies into Syria, defeated the Roman
troops, and took Antioch and Apameia. Following up blow with blow, he
the next year (A.D. 612) invaded Cappadocia a second time and captured
Csesarea Mazaca. Two years later (A.D. 614) he sent his general
Shahr-Barz, into the region east of the Antilibanus, and took the
ancient and famous city of Damascus. From Damascus, in the ensuing year,
Shahr-Barz advanced against Palestine, and, summoning the Jews to his
aid, proclaimed a Holy War against the Christian misbelievers, whom
he threatened to enslave or exterminate. Twenty-six thousand of these
fanatics flocked to his standard; and having occupied the Jordan region
and Galileee, Shahr-Barz in A.D. 615 invested Jerusalem, and after a
siege of eighteen days forced his way into the town, and gave it over to
plunder and rapine. The cruel hostility of the Jews had free vent.
The churches of Helena, of Constantine, of the Holy Sepulchre, of the
Resurrection, and many others, were burnt or ruined; the greater part of
the city was destroyed; the sacred treasuries were plundered; the relics
scattered or carried off; and a massacre of the inhabitants, in which
the Jews took the chief part, raged throughout the whole city for some
days. As many as seventeen thousand or, according to another account,
ninety thousand, were slain. Thirty-five thousand were made prisoners.
Among them was the aged Patriarch, Zacharius, who was carried captive
into Persia, where he remained till his death.

The Cross found by Helena, and believed to be "the True Cross," was at
the same time transported to Ctesiphon, where it was preserved with care
and duly venerated by the Christian wife of Chosroes.

A still more important success followed. In A.D. 616 Shahr-Barz
proceeded from Palestine into Egypt, which had enjoyed a respite from
foreign war since the time of Julius Caesar, surprised Pelusium, the
key of the country, and, pressing forward across the Delta, easily made
himself master of the rich and prosperous Alexandria. John the Merciful,
who was the Patriarch, and Nicetas the Patrician, who was the governor,
had quitted the city before his arrival, and had fled to Cyprus. Hence
scarcely any resistance was ma