OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

23

liiauded to extirpate the remains of the pro- chap.

scribed colony. In the short interval, the Cher-..'

sonites had returned to their city, and wereprepared to die in arms ; the khan of the Cho-zars had renounced the cause of his odiousbrother; the exiles of every province were as-sembled in Tauris ; and Bandanes, under thename of Philippicus , was invested with thepurple. The imperial troops, unwilling andunable to perpetuate the revenge of Justinian ,escaped his displeasure by abjuring his allegi-ance ; the fleet, under their new sovereign,steered back a more auspicious course to theharbours of Sinope and Constantinople ; andevery tongue was prompt to pronounce, everyhand to execute, the death of the tyrant. Des-titute of friends, he was deserted by his barba-rian guards ; and the stroke of the assassin waspraised as an act of patriotism and Roman vir-tue. Ilis son Tiberius had taken refuge in achurch ; his aged grandmother guarded thedoor; and the innocent youth, suspendinground his neck the most formidable relics, em-braced with one hand the altar, w'ith the otherthe wood of the true cross. But the popularfury that dares to trample on superstition, isdeaf to the cries of humanity ; and the race ofIleraclius was extinguished after a reign of onehundred years.

Between the fall of the Heraclian and the rise

ofthelsauriandynastv.ashortintervalofsixyears cm,

is divided into three reigns. Bardanes, or Philip- bccem. *picus, was hailed at Constantinople as an hero ber -whohad delivered his country from a tyrant; and