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, crossed the Euphrates;
his army was received with transport by the Syrian sectaries,
insurrections in his favor everywhere breaking out. In
succession, Antioch, Caesarea, Damascus fell; Jerusalem itself
was taken by storm; the sepulchre of Christ, the churches of
Constantine and of Helena were given to the flames; the Savior's
cross was sent as a trophy to Persia; the churches were rifled of
their riches; the sacred relics, collected by superstition, were
dispersed. Egypt was invaded, conquered, and annexed to the
Persian Empire; the Patriarch of Alexandria escaped by flight to
Cyprus; the African coast to Tripoli was seized. On the north,
Asia Minor was subdued, and for ten years the Persian forces
encamped on the shores of the Bosporus, in front of
Constantinople.

In his extremity Heraclius begged for peace. "I will never give
peace to the Emperor of Rome," replied the proud Persian, "till
he has abjured his crucified God, and embraced the worship of the
sun." After a long delay terms were, however, secured, and the
Roman Empire was ransomed at the price of "a thousand talents of
gold, a thousand talents of silver, a thousand silk robes, a
thousand horses, and a thousand virgins."

But Heraclius submitted only for a moment. He found means not