de. The fall of Alexandria was followed at
once by the complete submission of the rest of Egypt. Bands of Persians
advanced up the Nile valley to the very confines of Ethiopia, and
established the authority of Chosroes over the whole country--a country
in which no Persian had set foot since it was wrested by Alexander of
Macedon from Darius Codomannus.

While this remarkable conquest was made in the southwest, in the
north-west another Persian army under another general, Saina or Shahen,
starting from Cappadocia, marched through Asia Minor to the shores of
the Thracian Bosphorus, and laid siege to the strong city of Chalcedon,
which lay upon the strait, just opposite Constantinople. Chalcedon
made a vigorous resistance; and Heraclius, anxious to save it, had an
interview with Shahen, and at his suggestion sent three of his highest
nobles as ambassadors to Chosroes, with a humble request for peace.
The overture was ineffectual. Chosroes imprisoned the ambassadors and
entreated them cruelly; threatened Shahen with death for not bringing
Heraclius in chains to the foot of his throne; and declared in reply
that he would grant no terms of peace--the empire was his, and Heraclius
must descend from his throne. Soon afterwards (A.D. 617) Chalcedon,
which was besieged through the winter, fell; and the Persians
established themselves in this important stronghold, within a mile
of Constantinople. Three years afterwards, Ancyra (Angora), which
had hitherto resisted the Persian arms, was taken; and Rhodes, though
inaccessible to an enemy who was without a naval force, submitted.

Thus the whole of the Roman possessions in Asia and Eastern Africa were
lost in the space of fifteen years. The empire of Persia was extended
from the Tigris and Euphrates to the Egean and the Nile, attaining once
more almost the same dimensions that it had reached under the first and
had kept until the third Darius. It is difficult to say how far their
newly acquired provinces wore really subdued, organized, and governed
from Ctesiphon, how far they were merely overrun, plundered, and
then left to themselves. On the one hand, we have indications of the
existence of terrible disorders and of something approaching to anarchy
in parts of the conquered territory during the time that it was held by
the Persians; on the other, we seem to see an intention to retain,
to govern, and even to beautify it. Eutychius relates that, on the
withdrawal of the Romans from