e church of St. Sophia, tortured, and
with her three young daughters beheaded. The adherents of the massacred
family were pursued with ferocious vindictiveness; of some the eyes were
blinded, of others the tongues were torn out, or the feet and hands cut
off, some were whipped to death, others were burnt.

When the news reached Rome, Pope Gregory received it with exultation,
praying that the hands of Phocas might be strengthened against all his
enemies. As an equivalent for this subserviency, he was greeted with the
title of "Universal Bishop." The cause of his action, as well as of that
of the Patriarch of Constantinople, was doubtless the fact that Maurice
was suspected of Magrian tendencies, into which he had been lured by the
Persians. The mob of Constantinople had hooted after him in the streets,
branding him as a Marcionite, a sect which believed in the Magian
doctrine of two conflicting principles.

With very different sentiments Chosroes heard of the murder of his
friend. Phocas had sent him the heads of Maurice and his sons. The
Persian king turned from the ghastly spectacle with horror, and at once
made ready to avenge the wrongs of his benefactor by war.

THE EXPEDITION OF HERACLIUS. The Exarch of Africa, Heraclius, one of
the chief officers of the state, also received the shocking tidings with
indignation. He was determined that the imperial purple should not be
usurped by an obscure centurion of disgusting aspect. "The person of
this Phocas was diminutive and deformed; the closeness of his shaggy
eyebrows, his red hair, his beardless chin, were in keeping with his
cheek, disfigured and discolored by a formidable scar. Ignorant of
letters, of laws, and even of arms, he indulged in an ample privilege of
lust and drunkenness." At first Heraclius refused tribute and obedience
to him; then, admonished by age and infirmities, he committed the
dangerous enterprise of resistance to his son of the same name. A
prosperous voyage from Carthage soon brought the younger Heraclius in
front of Constantinople. The inconstant clergy, senate, and people of
the city joined him, the usurper was seized in his palace and beheaded.

INVASION OF CHOSROES. But the revolution that had taken place in
Constantinople did not arrest the movements of the Persian king. His
Magian priests had warned him to act independently of the Greeks,
whose superstition, they declared, was devoid of all truth and justice.
Chosroes, therefore, crosse