rk with such troops as
he could collect, and carry the war into the enemy's country. The one
advantage which he had over his adversary was his possession of an ample
navy, and consequent command of the sea and power to strike his blows
unexpectedly in different quarters. On making known his intention,
it was not opposed, either by the people or by the Patriarch. He was
allowed to coin the treasures of the various churches into money, to
collect stores, enroll troops, and, on the Easter Monday of A.D. 622, to
set forth on his expedition.

His fleet was steered southward, and, though forced to contend
with adverse gales, made a speedy and successful voyage through the
Propontis, the Hellespont, the Egean, and the Cilician Strait, to the
Gulf of Issus, in the angle between Asia Minor and Syria. The position
was well chosen, as one where attack was difficult, where numbers would
give little advantage, and where consequently a small but resolute force
might easily maintain itself against a greatly superior enemy. At the
same time it was a post from which an advance might conveniently be
made in several directions, and which menaced almost equally Asia Minor,
Syria, and Armenia. Moreover, the level tract between the mountains and
the sea was broad enough for the manoeuvres of such an army as Heraclius
commanded, and allowed him to train his soldiers by exercises and sham
fights to a familiarity with the sights and sounds and movements of a
battle. He conjectured, rightly enough, that he would not long be left
unmolested by the enemy. Shahr-Barz, the conqueror of Jerusalem and
Egypt, was very soon sent against him; and, after various movements,
which it is impossible to follow, a battle was fought between the two
armies in the mountain country towards the Armenian frontier, in which
the hero of a hundred fights was defeated and the Romans, for the first
time since the death of Maurice, obtained a victory. After this, on the
approach of winter, Heraclius, accompanied probably by a portion of his
army, returned by sea to Constantinople.

The next year the attack was made in a different quarter. Having
concluded alliances with the Khan of the Khazars and some other chiefs
of inferior power, Heraclius in the month of March embarked with 5000
men, and proceeded from Constantinople by way of the Black Sea first
to Trebizond, and then to Mingrelia or Lazica. There he obtained
contingents from his allies, which, added to the forces c