A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

IHERACLIUS. H ERAS. 405
near the junction of the Little Zab and the Tigris. religion. In spite of this insult the'emperor conThere he was attacked and routed by the emperor, descended to conclude a treaty of friendship with
in the month of December, 627, and an immense the prophet. A small town, however, on thefrontier
booty remained in the hands of the victors. A of Syria was plundered by some Arabs,. and this
few days afterwards Heraclius took Dastagerd or trifling circumstance was the signal of a general war,
Artemita, not far from Ctesiphon, which was the which Mohammed feared all theless as the Greek
favourite residence of Chosroes, and the numerous empire was exhausted through the long wars with
palaces of the king in the neighbourhood of that the Persians. The war was continued by Mohamtown were likewise taken and plundered. The med's successors, Abubekr and Omar; and before
booty was so great as to baffle description, though Heraclius died, Syria, Palaestine, and Jerusalem,
we must not believe the Arabic historians when Mesopotamia and Egypt, were annexed to the
they say that in the treasury of Dastagerd the dominion of the Khalifs. Heraclius did not comking used annually to deposit the greater part of mand his armies, as he had done with so much
the income of the empire, which amounted to two success against Chosroes, but spent his days in
hundred millions of pounds sterling, and that the pleasures and theological controversies in his palace
Greek emperor found in the treasury a thousand at Constantinople. The motives of his inactivity are
chests full of diamonds and other precious stones. unknown to us, and we are inclined to ascribe the
Chosro&s fled to Seleuceia, and thence into the in- misfortunes of the last ten years of his reign to
terior of Persia. The only army left to him was bodily sufferings and debility, the consequence of
that of Sarbar, and he sent messengers to Chalce- his numerous campaigns and of the many wounds
don to urge his immediate return. The messengers which he had received in his daring exploits, rather
were intercepted, but Heraclius ordered them to be than to some mental derangement, or to that sort
released, taking care, however, to substitute an- of character which has been given him by modern
other letter for that written by the king, in which historians, who represent him as possessing a mixit was said that the king was victorious on all ture of energy and laziness of such an extraordinary
sides, and that Sarbar might continue the siege of description as to be hardly consistent with the
Chalcedon. organisation of the human mind. So long as there
The protracted absence of Sarbar in such a is no positive evidence of the most unequivocal
critical moment was certain proof of high treason character, no man, and still less a great man,
in the eyes of the Persian king, and a confident ought to be declared either a Inadman or a fool.
officer was despatched into the camp of Chalcedon, Heraclius died on the 11 lth of March (February),
bearing an order to the second in command, direct- A. D. 641, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
ing him to kill Sarbar. The despatch fell into Heraclius, called Constantine III., whom he had
Sarbar's hands: he inserted after his name those by his first wife, Eudoxia; he left another son,
of four hundred of the principal officers, who seeing Heracleonas, by his second wife, Martina. A
their lives in danger, agreed with the proposition colossal statue of Heraclius was shown at Barletto
of their commander to conclude a separate peace in Apulia so late as the end of the fifteenth cenwith the Greeks. Deprived of his only army and tury. (Theophan. p. 250, &c., ed. Paris; Nicephor.
his best general, Chosrois was unable to oppose p. 4, &c., ed. Paris; Cedrenus, p. 407, ed. Paris;
resistance to a new attack of Heraclius upon the Ch/ronicon Alexandrinum; Zonar. vol. ii. p. 82,
heart of Persia. He fled to the East, abandoning &c., ed. Paris; Manasses, p. 75, &c.; Glycas, p.
the West to the victorious Greeks; but the loyalty 270, &c., ed. Paris.) [W. P.]
of his subjects ceased with his victories, and HERA'CLIUS II. [CONSTANTINUS III.]
Chosroes became the victim of a rebellion headed HE'RACON ('HpdcKWv), an officer in the service
by his own son, Siroes, by whom he was put to of Alexander, who, together with Cleander and
death in the month of February, A. D. 628. In the Sitalces, succeeded to the command of the army in
following month of March a peace was concluded Media, which had previously been under the orders
between Heraclius and Siroes, in consequence of of Parmenion, when the latter was put to death by
which the ancient limits of the two empires were order of Alexander, B. C. 330. In common with
restored, and the holy cross was given back to many others of the Macedonian governors, he perthe Christians. It was presented to the holy se- mitted himself many excesses during the absence
pulchre by Heraglius himself in A. D. 629. Pre- of Alexander in the remote provinces of the East:
vious to this, however, the emperor celebrated his among others he plundered a temple at Susa, noted
victories by a triumphal entrance into Constan- for its wealth, on which charge he was put to death
tinople:.the blessings of his subjects followed him by. Alexander after his return from India, B. C.
wherever he went, and his fame spread over the 325. (Arrian, Anab. vi. 27. ~~ 8, 12; Curt.
world from Europe to the remotest corners of India. x. 1.) [E. H. B.]
Ambassadors from that country, from the Frankish HERA'GORAS ('Hpa7ypas), a Greek historian
king, Dagobert, and many other eastern and west- of uncertain date. A work of his, called MeyeaplKd,
ern princes, came to Constantinople to congratulate is quoted by Eudocia (p. 440), and by the scholiast
the emperor on his having overthrown the here- on Apollonius Rhodius (i. 211), who calls him
ditary enemy of the Roman empire. Hesagoras. [E. E.]
The glory acquired by Heraclius was of short HERAS ("Hpas), a physician of Cappadocia,
duration. The provinces reconquered from the who lived after Heracleides of Tarentum (Galen,
Persians he was deprived of for ever by the Arabs. De Comnpos. Medicam. sec. Gen. v. 6, vol. xiii. p.
Our space does not allow us to give more than a 812), and before Andromachus (Galen, De Consshort sketch of the long and bloody war that gave pos. Medicare. sec. Loc. vi. 9, vol. xii. p. 989), and
a new religion and a new master to the East. therefore probably in the first century B. C. He
On his way to Jerusalem in A. D. 629, Heraclius wrote some works on pharmacy, which are very
received at Edessa an ambassador of Mohammed, frequently quoted by Galen, but of which nothing
who summoned the emperor to adopt the new but a few fragments remain. His prescriptions are
DD 3