HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Edward Gibbon, Esq. 

With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman

Vol. 5

Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks. --Part I. 

 Introduction, Worship, And Persecution Of Images. --Revolt Of Italy And Rome. --Temporal Dominion Of The Popes. --Conquest Of Italy By The Franks. --Establishment Of Images. --Character And Coronation Of Charlemagne. --Restoration And Decay Of The Roman Empire In The West. --Independence Of Italy. -- Constitution Of The Germanic Body. 

In the connection of the church and state, I have considered the formeras subservient only, and relative, to the latter; a salutary maxim, if in fact, as well as in narrative, it had ever been held sacred. TheOriental philosophy of the Gnostics, the dark abyss of predestinationand grace, and the strange transformation of the Eucharist from the signto the substance of Christ's body, [1] I have purposely abandoned to thecuriosity of speculative divines. But I have reviewed, with diligenceand pleasure, the objects of ecclesiastical history, by which thedecline and fall of the Roman empire were materially affected, thepropagation of Christianity, the constitution of the Catholic church, the ruin of Paganism, and the sects that arose from the mysteriouscontroversies concerning the Trinity and incarnation. At the headof this class, we may justly rank the worship of images, so fiercelydisputed in the eighth and ninth centuries; since a question of popularsuperstition produced the revolt of Italy, the temporal power of thepopes, and the restoration of the Roman empire in the West. 

[Footnote 1: The learned Selden has given the history oftransubstantiation in a comprehensive and pithy sentence: "This opinionis only rhetoric turned into logic, " (his Works, vol. Iii. P. 2037, inhis Table-Talk. )]

The primitive Christians were possessed with an unconquerable repugnanceto the use and abuse of images; and this aversion may be ascribed totheir descent from the Jews, and their enmity to the Greeks. The Mosaiclaw had severely proscribed all representations of the Deity; and thatprecept was firmly established in the principles and practice of thechosen people. The wit of the Christian apologists was pointed againstthe foolish idolaters, who bowed before the workmanship of their ownhands; the images of brass and marble, which, had they been endowed withsense and motion, should have started rather from the pedestal to adorethe creative powers of the artist. [2] Perhaps some recent and imperfectconverts of the Gnostic tribe might crown the statues of Christ and St. Paul with the profane honors which they paid to those of Aristotle andPythagoras; [3] but the public religion of the Catholics was uniformlysimple and spiritual; and the first notice of the use of pictures is inthe censure of the council of Illiberis, three hundred years after theChristian aera. Under the successors of Constantine, in the peace andluxury of the triumphant church, the more prudent bishops condescendedto indulge a visible superstition, for the benefit of the multitude;and, after the ruin of Paganism, they were no longer restrained by theapprehension of an odious parallel. The first introduction of a symbolicworship was in the veneration of the cross, and of relics. The saintsand martyrs, whose intercession was implored, were seated on the righthand if God; but the gracious and often supernatural favors, which, in the popular belief, were showered round their tomb, conveyed anunquestionable sanction of the devout pilgrims, who visited, andtouched, and kissed these lifeless remains, the memorials of theirmerits and sufferings. [4] But a memorial, more interesting than theskull or the sandals of a departed worthy, is the faithful copy of hisperson and features, delineated by the arts of painting or sculpture. In every age, such copies, so congenial to human feelings, have beencherished by the zeal of private friendship, or public esteem: theimages of the Roman emperors were adored with civil, and almostreligious, honors; a reverence less ostentatious, but more sincere, wasapplied to the statues of sages and patriots; and these profane virtues, these splendid sins, disappeared in the presence of the holy men, whohad died for their celestial and everlasting country. At first, theexperiment was made with caution and scruple; and the venerable pictureswere discreetly allowed to instruct the ignorant, to awaken the cold, and to gratify the prejudices of the heathen proselytes. By a slowthough inevitable progression, the honors of the original weretransferred to the copy: the devout Christian prayed before the image ofa saint; and the Pagan rites of genuflection, luminaries, and incense, again stole into the Catholic church. The scruples of reason, or piety, were silenced by the strong evidence of visions and miracles; and thepictures which speak, and move, and bleed, must be endowed with adivine energy, and may be considered as the proper objects of religiousadoration. The most audacious pencil might tremble in the rash attemptof defining, by forms and colors, the infinite Spirit, the eternalFather, who pervades and sustains the universe. [5] But thesuperstitious mind was more easily reconciled to paint and to worshipthe angels, and, above all, the Son of God, under the human shape, which, on earth, they have condescended to assume. The second person ofthe Trinity had been clothed with a real and mortal body; but that bodyhad ascended into heaven: and, had not some similitude been presentedto the eyes of his disciples, the spiritual worship of Christ mighthave been obliterated by the visible relics and representations of thesaints. A similar indulgence was requisite and propitious for the VirginMary: the place of her burial was unknown; and the assumption of hersoul and body into heaven was adopted by the credulity of the Greeks andLatins. The use, and even the worship, of images was firmly establishedbefore the end of the sixth century: they were fondly cherished by thewarm imagination of the Greeks and Asiatics: the Pantheon and Vaticanwere adorned with the emblems of a new superstition; but this semblanceof idolatry was more coldly entertained by the rude Barbarians and theArian clergy of the West. The bolder forms of sculpture, in brass ormarble, which peopled the temples of antiquity, were offensive to thefancy or conscience of the Christian Greeks: and a smooth surfaceof colors has ever been esteemed a more decent and harmless mode ofimitation. [6]

[Footnote 2: Nec intelligunt homines ineptissimi, quod si sentiresimulacra et moveri possent, adoratura hominem fuissent a quo suntexpolita. (Divin. Institut. L. Ii. C. 2. ) Lactantius is the last, aswell as the most eloquent, of the Latin apologists. Their raillery ofidols attacks not only the object, but the form and matter. ]

[Footnote 3: See Irenaeus, Epiphanius, and Augustin, (Basnage, Hist. Des Eglises Reformees, tom. Ii. P. 1313. ) This Gnostic practice hasa singular affinity with the private worship of Alexander Severus, (Lampridius, c. 29. Lardner, Heathen Testimonies, vol. Iii. P. 34. )]

[Footnote 4: See this History, vol. Ii. P. 261; vol. Ii. P. 434; vol. Iii. P. 158-163. ]

[Footnote 5: (Concilium Nicenum, ii. In Collect. Labb. Tom. Viii. P. 1025, edit. Venet. ) Il seroit peut-etre a-propos de ne point souffrird'images de la Trinite ou de la Divinite; les defenseurs les plus zelesdes images ayant condamne celles-ci, et le concile de Trente ne parlantque des images de Jesus Christ et des Saints, (Dupin, Bibliot. Eccles. Tom. Vi. P. 154. )]

[Footnote 6: This general history of images is drawn from the xxiid bookof the Hist. Des Eglises Reformees of Basnage, tom. Ii. P. 1310-1337. He was a Protestant, but of a manly spirit; and on this head theProtestants are so notoriously in the right, that they can venture tobe impartial. See the perplexity of poor Friar Pagi, Critica, tom. I. P. 42. ]

The merit and effect of a copy depends on its resemblance with theoriginal; but the primitive Christians were ignorant of the genuinefeatures of the Son of God, his mother, and his apostles: the statueof Christ at Paneas in Palestine [7] was more probably that ofsome temporal savior; the Gnostics and their profane monuments werereprobated; and the fancy of the Christian artists could only be guidedby the clandestine imitation of some heathen model. In this distress, abold and dexterous invention assured at once the likeness of the imageand the innocence of the worship. A new super structure of fable wasraised on the popular basis of a Syrian legend, on the correspondenceof Christ and Abgarus, so famous in the days of Eusebius, so reluctantlydeserted by our modern advocates. The bishop of Caesarea [8] records theepistle, [9] but he most strangely forgets the picture of Christ; [10]the perfect impression of his face on a linen, with which he gratifiedthe faith of the royal stranger who had invoked his healing power, andoffered the strong city of Edessa to protect him against the malice ofthe Jews. The ignorance of the primitive church is explained by the longimprisonment of the image in a niche of the wall, from whence, after anoblivion of five hundred years, it was released by some prudent bishop, and seasonably presented to the devotion of the times. Its first andmost glorious exploit was the deliverance of the city from the arms ofChosroes Nushirvan; and it was soon revered as a pledge of the divinepromise, that Edessa should never be taken by a foreign enemy. It istrue, indeed, that the text of Procopius ascribes the double deliveranceof Edessa to the wealth and valor of her citizens, who purchasedthe absence and repelled the assaults of the Persian monarch. He wasignorant, the profane historian, of the testimony which he is compelledto deliver in the ecclesiastical page of Evagrius, that the Palladiumwas exposed on the rampart, and that the water which had been sprinkledon the holy face, instead of quenching, added new fuel to the flamesof the besieged. After this important service, the image of Edessa waspreserved with respect and gratitude; and if the Armenians rejected thelegend, the more credulous Greeks adored the similitude, which was notthe work of any mortal pencil, but the immediate creation of the divineoriginal. The style and sentiments of a Byzantine hymn will declare howfar their worship was removed from the grossest idolatry. "How can wewith mortal eyes contemplate this image, whose celestial splendorthe host of heaven presumes not to behold? He who dwells in heaven, condescends this day to visit us by his venerable image; He who isseated on the cherubim, visits us this day by a picture, which theFather has delineated with his immaculate hand, which he has formed inan ineffable manner, and which we sanctify by adoring it with fear andlove. " Before the end of the sixth century, these images, made withouthands, (in Greek it is a single word, [11] were propagated in the campsand cities of the Eastern empire: [12] they were the objects of worship, and the instruments of miracles; and in the hour of danger or tumult, their venerable presence could revive the hope, rekindle the courage, or repress the fury, of the Roman legions. Of these pictures, the fargreater part, the transcripts of a human pencil, could only pretend toa secondary likeness and improper title: but there were some of higherdescent, who derived their resemblance from an immediate contact withthe original, endowed, for that purpose, with a miraculous and prolificvirtue. The most ambitious aspired from a filial to a fraternal relationwith the image of Edessa; and such is the veronica of Rome, or Spain, or Jerusalem, which Christ in his agony and bloody sweat applied tohis face, and delivered to a holy matron. The fruitful precedent wasspeedily transferred to the Virgin Mary, and the saints and martyrs. Inthe church of Diospolis, in Palestine, the features of the Mother of God[13] were deeply inscribed in a marble column; the East and West havebeen decorated by the pencil of St. Luke; and the Evangelist, who wasperhaps a physician, has been forced to exercise the occupation of apainter, so profane and odious in the eyes of the primitive Christians. The Olympian Jove, created by the muse of Homer and the chisel ofPhidias, might inspire a philosophic mind with momentary devotion; butthese Catholic images were faintly and flatly delineated by monkishartists in the last degeneracy of taste and genius. [14]

[Footnote 7: After removing some rubbish of miracle and inconsistency, it may be allowed, that as late as the year 300, Paneas in Palestine wasdecorated with a bronze statue, representing a grave personage wrappedin a cloak, with a grateful or suppliant female kneeling before him, and that an inscription was perhaps inscribed on the pedestal. By theChristians, this group was foolishly explained of their founder andthe poor woman whom he had cured of the bloody flux, (Euseb. Vii. 18, Philostorg. Vii. 3, &c. ) M. De Beausobre more reasonably conjecturesthe philosopher Apollonius, or the emperor Vespasian: in the lattersupposition, the female is a city, a province, or perhaps the queenBerenice, (Bibliotheque Germanique, tom. Xiii. P. 1-92. )]

[Footnote 8: Euseb. Hist. Eccles. L. I. C. 13. The learned Assemannushas brought up the collateral aid of three Syrians, St. Ephrem, JosuaStylites, and James bishop of Sarug; but I do not find any notice of theSyriac original or the archives of Edessa, (Bibliot. Orient. Tom. I. P. 318, 420, 554;) their vague belief is probably derived from the Greeks. ]

[Footnote 9: The evidence for these epistles is stated and rejected bythe candid Lardner, (Heathen Testimonies, vol. I. P. 297-309. ) Amongthe herd of bigots who are forcibly driven from this convenient, butuntenable, post, I am ashamed, with the Grabes, Caves, Tillemonts, &c. , to discover Mr. Addison, an English gentleman, (his Works, vol. I. P. 528, Baskerville's edition;) but his superficial tract on the Christianreligion owes its credit to his name, his style, and the interestedapplause of our clergy. ]

[Footnote 10: From the silence of James of Sarug, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. P. 289, 318, ) and the testimony of Evagrius, (Hist. Eccles. L. Iv. C. 27, ) I conclude that this fable was invented between the years521 and 594, most probably after the siege of Edessa in 540, (Asseman. Tom. I. P. 416. Procopius, de Bell. Persic. L. Ii. ) It is the sword andbuckler of, Gregory II. , (in Epist. I. Ad. Leon. Isaur. Concil. Tom. Viii. P. 656, 657, ) of John Damascenus, (Opera, tom. I. P. 281, edit. Lequien, ) and of the second Nicene Council, (Actio v. P. 1030. ) The mostperfect edition may be found in Cedrenus, (Compend. P. 175-178. )]

[Footnote 11: See Ducange, in Gloss. Graec. Et Lat. The subject istreated with equal learning and bigotry by the Jesuit Gretser, (Syntagmade Imaginibus non Manu factis, ad calcem Codini de Officiis, p. 289-330, ) the ass, or rather the fox, of Ingoldstadt, (see theScaligerana;) with equal reason and wit by the Protestant Beausobre, inthe ironical controversy which he has spread through many volumes of theBibliotheque Germanique, (tom. Xviii. P. 1-50, xx. P. 27-68, xxv. P. 1-36, xxvii. P. 85-118, xxviii. P. 1-33, xxxi. P. 111-148, xxxii. P. 75-107, xxxiv. P. 67-96. )]

[Footnote 12: Theophylact Simocatta (l. Ii. C. 3, p. 34, l. Iii. C. 1, p. 63) celebrates it; yet it was no more than a copy, since he adds (ofEdessa). See Pagi, tom. Ii. A. D. 588 No. 11. ]

[Footnote 13: See, in the genuine or supposed works of John Damascenus, two passages on the Virgin and St. Luke, which have not been noticed byGretser, nor consequently by Beausobre, (Opera Joh. Damascen. Tom. I. P. 618, 631. )]

[Footnote 14: "Your scandalous figures stand quite out from the canvass:they are as bad as a group of statues!" It was thus that the ignoranceand bigotry of a Greek priest applauded the pictures of Titian, which hehad ordered, and refused to accept. ]

The worship of images had stolen into the church by insensibledegrees, and each petty step was pleasing to the superstitious mind, asproductive of comfort, and innocent of sin. But in the beginning of theeighth century, in the full magnitude of the abuse, the more timorousGreeks were awakened by an apprehension, that under the mask ofChristianity, they had restored the religion of their fathers: theyheard, with grief and impatience, the name of idolaters; the incessantcharge of the Jews and Mahometans, [15] who derived from the Law and theKoran an immortal hatred to graven images and all relative worship. The servitude of the Jews might curb their zeal, and depreciate theirauthority; but the triumphant Mussulmans, who reigned at Damascus, and threatened Constantinople, cast into the scale of reproach theaccumulated weight of truth and victory. The cities of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt had been fortified with the images of Christ, his mother, andhis saints; and each city presumed on the hope or promise of miraculousdefence. In a rapid conquest of ten years, the Arabs subdued thosecities and these images; and, in their opinion, the Lord of Hostspronounced a decisive judgment between the adoration and contempt ofthese mute and inanimate idols. [1511] For a while Edessa had bravedthe Persian assaults; but the chosen city, the spouse of Christ, wasinvolved in the common ruin; and his divine resemblance became the slaveand trophy of the infidels. After a servitude of three hundred years, the Palladium was yielded to the devotion of Constantinople, for aransom of twelve thousand pounds of silver, the redemption of twohundred Mussulmans, and a perpetual truce for the territory of Edessa. [16] In this season of distress and dismay, the eloquence of the monkswas exercised in the defence of images; and they attempted to prove, that the sin and schism of the greatest part of the Orientals hadforfeited the favor, and annihilated the virtue, of these precioussymbols. But they were now opposed by the murmurs of many simple orrational Christians, who appealed to the evidence of texts, of facts, and of the primitive times, and secretly desired the reformation ofthe church. As the worship of images had never been established by anygeneral or positive law, its progress in the Eastern empire had beenretarded, or accelerated, by the differences of men and manners, thelocal degrees of refinement, and the personal characters of the bishops. The splendid devotion was fondly cherished by the levity of the capital, and the inventive genius of the Byzantine clergy; while the rude andremote districts of Asia were strangers to this innovation of sacredluxury. Many large congregations of Gnostics and Arians maintained, after their conversion, the simple worship which had preceded theirseparation; and the Armenians, the most warlike subjects of Rome, werenot reconciled, in the twelfth century, to the sight of images. [17]These various denominations of men afforded a fund of prejudice andaversion, of small account in the villages of Anatolia or Thrace, butwhich, in the fortune of a soldier, a prelate, or a eunuch, might beoften connected with the powers of the church and state. 

[Footnote 15: By Cedrenus, Zonaras, Glycas, and Manasses, the originof the Aconoclcasts is imprinted to the caliph Yezid and two Jews, who promised the empire to Leo; and the reproaches of these hostilesectaries are turned into an absurd conspiracy for restoring the purityof the Christian worship, (see Spanheim, Hist. Imag. C. 2. )]

[Footnote 1511: Yezid, ninth caliph of the race of the Ommiadae, causedall the images in Syria to be destroyed about the year 719; hence theorthodox reproaches the sectaries with following the example of theSaracens and the Jews Fragm. Mon. Johan. Jerosylym. Script. Byzant. Vol. Xvi. P. 235. Hist. Des Repub. Ital. Par M. Sismondi, vol. I. P. 126. --G. ]

[Footnote 16: See Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. P. 267, ) Abulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 201, ) and Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. P. 264, ), and thecriticisms of Pagi, (tom. Iii. A. D. 944. ) The prudent Franciscan refusesto determine whether the image of Edessa now reposes at Rome or Genoa;but its repose is inglorious, and this ancient object of worship is nolonger famous or fashionable. ]

[Footnote 17: (Nicetas, l. Ii. P. 258. ) The Armenian churches are stillcontent with the Cross, (Missions du Levant, tom. Iii. P. 148;) butsurely the superstitious Greek is unjust to the superstition of theGermans of the xiith century. ]

Of such adventurers, the most fortunate was the emperor Leo the Third, [18] who, from the mountains of Isauria, ascended the throne of theEast. He was ignorant of sacred and profane letters; but his education, his reason, perhaps his intercourse with the Jews and Arabs, hadinspired the martial peasant with a hatred of images; and it was heldto be the duty of a prince to impose on his subjects the dictates ofhis own conscience. But in the outset of an unsettled reign, during tenyears of toil and danger, Leo submitted to the meanness of hypocrisy, bowed before the idols which he despised, and satisfied the Romanpontiff with the annual professions of his orthodoxy and zeal. In thereformation of religion, his first steps were moderate and cautious:he assembled a great council of senators and bishops, and enacted, withtheir consent, that all the images should be removed from the sanctuaryand altar to a proper height in the churches where they might be visibleto the eyes, and inaccessible to the superstition, of the people. But itwas impossible on either side to check the rapid through adverse impulseof veneration and abhorrence: in their lofty position, the sacred imagesstill edified their votaries, and reproached the tyrant. He was himselfprovoked by resistance and invective; and his own party accused himof an imperfect discharge of his duty, and urged for his imitation theexample of the Jewish king, who had broken without scruple the brazenserpent of the temple. By a second edict, he proscribed the existenceas well as the use of religious pictures; the churches of Constantinopleand the provinces were cleansed from idolatry; the images of Christ, theVirgin, and the saints, were demolished, or a smooth surface of plasterwas spread over the walls of the edifice. The sect of the Iconoclastswas supported by the zeal and despotism of six emperors, and the Eastand West were involved in a noisy conflict of one hundred andtwenty years. It was the design of Leo the Isaurian to pronounce thecondemnation of images as an article of faith, and by the authority ofa general council: but the convocation of such an assembly was reservedfor his son Constantine; [19] and though it is stigmatized by triumphantbigotry as a meeting of fools and atheists, their own partial andmutilated acts betray many symptoms of reason and piety. The debates anddecrees of many provincial synods introduced the summons of the generalcouncil which met in the suburbs of Constantinople, and was composedof the respectable number of three hundred and thirty-eight bishops ofEurope and Anatolia; for the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandriawere the slaves of the caliph, and the Roman pontiff had withdrawn thechurches of Italy and the West from the communion of the Greeks. ThisByzantine synod assumed the rank and powers of the seventh generalcouncil; yet even this title was a recognition of the six precedingassemblies, which had laboriously built the structure of the Catholicfaith. After a serious deliberation of six months, the three hundred andthirty-eight bishops pronounced and subscribed a unanimous decree, thatall visible symbols of Christ, except in the Eucharist, were eitherblasphemous or heretical; that image-worship was a corruption ofChristianity and a renewal of Paganism; that all such monuments ofidolatry should be broken or erased; and that those who should refuseto deliver the objects of their private superstition, were guilty ofdisobedience to the authority of the church and of the emperor. Intheir loud and loyal acclamations, they celebrated the merits of theirtemporal redeemer; and to his zeal and justice they intrusted theexecution of their spiritual censures. At Constantinople, as in theformer councils, the will of the prince was the rule of episcopal faith;but on this occasion, I am inclined to suspect that a large majority ofthe prelates sacrificed their secret conscience to the temptations ofhope and fear. In the long night of superstition, the Christians hadwandered far away from the simplicity of the gospel: nor was it easy forthem to discern the clew, and tread back the mazes, of the labyrinth. The worship of images was inseparably blended, at least to a piousfancy, with the Cross, the Virgin, the Saints and their relics; the holyground was involved in a cloud of miracles and visions; and the nervesof the mind, curiosity and scepticism, were benumbed by the habits ofobedience and belief. Constantine himself is accused of indulginga royal license to doubt, or deny, or deride the mysteries of theCatholics, [20] but they were deeply inscribed in the public and privatecreed of his bishops; and the boldest Iconoclast might assault with asecret horror the monuments of popular devotion, which were consecratedto the honor of his celestial patrons. In the reformation of thesixteenth century, freedom and knowledge had expanded all the facultiesof man: the thirst of innovation superseded the reverence of antiquity;and the vigor of Europe could disdain those phantoms which terrified thesickly and servile weakness of the Greeks. 

[Footnote 18: Our original, but not impartial, monuments of theIconoclasts must be drawn from the Acts of the Councils, tom. Viii. And ix. Collect. Labbe, edit. Venet. And the historical writings ofTheophanes, Nicephorus, Manasses, Cedrenus, Zonoras, &c. Of the modernCatholics, Baronius, Pagi, Natalis Alexander, (Hist. Eccles. Seculumviii. And ix. , ) and Maimbourg, (Hist. Des Iconoclasts, ) have treated thesubject with learning, passion, and credulity. The Protestant laborsof Frederick Spanheim (Historia Imaginum restituta) and James Basnage(Hist. Des Eglises Reformees, tom. Ii. L. Xxiiii. P. 1339-1385) arecast into the Iconoclast scale. With this mutual aid, and oppositetendency, it is easy for us to poise the balance with philosophicindifference. * Note: Compare Schlosser, Geschichte derBilder-sturmender Kaiser, Frankfurt am-Main 1812 a book of research andimpartiality--M. ]

[Footnote 19: Some flowers of rhetoric. By Damascenus is styled (Opera, tom. I. P. 623. ) Spanheim's Apology for the Synod of Constantinople (p. 171, &c. ) is worked up with truth and ingenuity, from such materialsas he could find in the Nicene Acts, (p. 1046, &c. ) The witty John ofDamascus converts it into slaves of their belly, &c. Opera, tom. I. P. 806]

[Footnote 20: He is accused of proscribing the title of saint; stylingthe Virgin, Mother of Christ; comparing her after her delivery to anempty purse of Arianism, Nestorianism, &c. In his defence, Spanheim (c. Iv. P. 207) is somewhat embarrassed between the interest of a Protestantand the duty of an orthodox divine. ]

The scandal of an abstract heresy can be only proclaimed to the peopleby the blast of the ecclesiastical trumpet; but the most ignorant canperceive, the most torpid must feel, the profanation and downfallof their visible deities. The first hostilities of Leo were directedagainst a lofty Christ on the vestibule, and above the gate, of thepalace. A ladder had been planted for the assault, but it was furiouslyshaken by a crowd of zealots and women: they beheld, with pioustransport, the ministers of sacrilege tumbling from on high and dashedagainst the pavement: and the honors of the ancient martyrs wereprostituted to these criminals, who justly suffered for murder andrebellion. [21] The execution of the Imperial edicts was resisted byfrequent tumults in Constantinople and the provinces: the person of Leowas endangered, his officers were massacred, and the popular enthusiasmwas quelled by the strongest efforts of the civil and military power. Of the Archipelago, or Holy Sea, the numerous islands were filled withimages and monks: their votaries abjured, without scruple, the enemyof Christ, his mother, and the saints; they armed a fleet of boats andgalleys, displayed their consecrated banners, and boldly steered for theharbor of Constantinople, to place on the throne a new favorite of Godand the people. They depended on the succor of a miracle: but theirmiracles were inefficient against the Greek fire; and, after the defeatand conflagration of the fleet, the naked islands were abandoned to theclemency or justice of the conqueror. The son of Leo, in the first yearof his reign, had undertaken an expedition against the Saracens: duringhis absence, the capital, the palace, and the purple, were occupied byhis kinsman Artavasdes, the ambitious champion of the orthodox faith. The worship of images was triumphantly restored: the patriarch renouncedhis dissimulation, or dissembled his sentiments and the righteous claimsof the usurper was acknowledged, both in the new, and in ancient, Rome. Constantine flew for refuge to his paternal mountains; but he descendedat the head of the bold and affectionate Isaurians; and his finalvictory confounded the arms and predictions of the fanatics. His longreign was distracted with clamor, sedition, conspiracy, and mutualhatred, and sanguinary revenge; the persecution of images was the motiveor pretence, of his adversaries; and, if they missed a temporal diadem, they were rewarded by the Greeks with the crown of martyrdom. In everyact of open and clandestine treason, the emperor felt the unforgivingenmity of the monks, the faithful slaves of the superstition to whichthey owed their riches and influence. They prayed, they preached, theyabsolved, they inflamed, they conspired; the solitude of Palestinepoured forth a torrent of invective; and the pen of St. John Damascenus, [22] the last of the Greek fathers, devoted the tyrant's head, both inthis world and the next. [23] [2311] I am not at leisure to examine howfar the monks provoked, nor how much they have exaggerated, their realand pretended sufferings, nor how many lost their lives or limbs, theireyes or their beards, by the cruelty of the emperor. [2312] From thechastisement of individuals, he proceeded to the abolition of the order;and, as it was wealthy and useless, his resentment might be stimulatedby avarice, and justified by patriotism. The formidable name andmission of the Dragon, [24] his visitor-general, excited the terrorand abhorrence of the black nation: the religious communities weredissolved, the buildings were converted into magazines, or bar racks;the lands, movables, and cattle were confiscated; and our modernprecedents will support the charge, that much wanton or malicious havocwas exercised against the relics, and even the books of the monasteries. With the habit and profession of monks, the public and private worshipof images was rigorously proscribed; and it should seem, that a solemnabjuration of idolatry was exacted from the subjects, or at least fromthe clergy, of the Eastern empire. [25]

[Footnote 21: The holy confessor Theophanes approves the principleof their rebellion, (p. 339. ) Gregory II. (in Epist. I. Ad Imp. Leon. Concil. Tom. Viii. P. 661, 664) applauds the zeal of the Byzantine womenwho killed the Imperial officers. ]

[Footnote 22: John, or Mansur, was a noble Christian of Damascus, whoheld a considerable office in the service of the caliph. His zeal in thecause of images exposed him to the resentment and treachery of the Greekemperor; and on the suspicion of a treasonable correspondence, he wasdeprived of his right hand, which was miraculously restored by theVirgin. After this deliverance, he resigned his office, distributedhis wealth, and buried himself in the monastery of St. Sabas, betweenJerusalem and the Dead Sea. The legend is famous; but his learnededitor, Father Lequien, has a unluckily proved that St. John Damascenuswas already a monk before the Iconoclast dispute, (Opera, tom. I. Vit. St. Joan. Damascen. P. 10-13, et Notas ad loc. )]

[Footnote 23: After sending Leo to the devil, he introduces his heir, (Opera, Damascen. Tom. I. P. 625. ) If the authenticity of this piecebe suspicious, we are sure that in other works, no longer extant, Damascenus bestowed on Constantine the titles. (tom. I. P. 306. )]

[Footnote 2311: The patriarch Anastasius, an Iconoclast under Leo, animage worshipper under Artavasdes, was scourged, led through the streetson an ass, with his face to the tail; and, reinvested in his dignity, became again the obsequious minister of Constantine in his Iconoclasticpersecutions. See Schlosser p. 211. --M. ]

[Footnote 2312: Compare Schlosser, p. 228-234. --M. ]

[Footnote 24: In the narrative of this persecution from Theophanes andCedreves, Spanheim (p. 235-238) is happy to compare the Draco of Leowith the dragoons (Dracones) of Louis XIV. ; and highly solaces himselfwith the controversial pun. ]

[Footnote 25: (Damascen. Op. Tom. I. P. 625. ) This oath and subscriptionI do not remember to have seen in any modern compilation]

The patient East abjured, with reluctance, her sacred images; they werefondly cherished, and vigorously defended, by the independent zeal ofthe Italians. In ecclesiastical rank and jurisdiction, the patriarchof Constantinople and the pope of Rome were nearly equal. But the Greekprelate was a domestic slave under the eye of his master, at whosenod he alternately passed from the convent to the throne, and fromthe throne to the convent. A distant and dangerous station, amidst theBarbarians of the West, excited the spirit and freedom of the Latinbishops. 

Their popular election endeared them to the Romans: the public andprivate indigence was relieved by their ample revenue; and the weaknessor neglect of the emperors compelled them to consult, both in peace andwar, the temporal safety of the city. In the school of adversity thepriest insensibly imbibed the virtues and the ambition of a prince; thesame character was assumed, the same policy was adopted, by the Italian, the Greek, or the Syrian, who ascended the chair of St. Peter; and, after the loss of her legions and provinces, the genius and fortune ofthe popes again restored the supremacy of Rome. It is agreed, that inthe eighth century, their dominion was founded on rebellion, andthat the rebellion was produced, and justified, by the heresy of theIconoclasts; but the conduct of the second and third Gregory, in thismemorable contest, is variously interpreted by the wishes of theirfriends and enemies. The Byzantine writers unanimously declare, that, after a fruitless admonition, they pronounced the separation of theEast and West, and deprived the sacrilegious tyrant of the revenueand sovereignty of Italy. Their excommunication is still more clearlyexpressed by the Greeks, who beheld the accomplishment of the papaltriumphs; and as they are more strongly attached to their religionthan to their country, they praise, instead of blaming, the zeal andorthodoxy of these apostolical men. [26] The modern champions ofRome are eager to accept the praise and the precedent: this great andglorious example of the deposition of royal heretics is celebrated bythe cardinals Baronius and Bellarmine; [27] and if they are asked, why the same thunders were not hurled against the Neros and Julians ofantiquity, they reply, that the weakness of the primitive church was thesole cause of her patient loyalty. [28] On this occasion the effects oflove and hatred are the same; and the zealous Protestants, who seekto kindle the indignation, and to alarm the fears, of princes andmagistrates, expatiate on the insolence and treason of the two Gregoriesagainst their lawful sovereign. [29] They are defended only by themoderate Catholics, for the most part, of the Gallican church, [30] whorespect the saint, without approving the sin. These common advocates ofthe crown and the mitre circumscribe the truth of facts by the ruleof equity, Scripture, and tradition, and appeal to the evidence of theLatins, [31] and the lives [32] and epistles of the popes themselves. 

[Footnote 26: Theophanes. (Chronograph. P. 343. ) For this Gregory isstyled by Cedrenus. (p. 450. ) Zonaras specifies the thunder, (tom. Ii. L. Xv. P. 104, 105. ) It may be observed, that the Greeks are apt toconfound the times and actions of two Gregories. ]

[Footnote 27: See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 730, No. 4, 5; dignumexemplum! Bellarmin. De Romano Pontifice, l. V. C. 8: mulctavit eumparte imperii. Sigonius, de Regno Italiae, l. Iii. Opera, tom. Ii. P. 169. Yet such is the change of Italy, that Sigonius is corrected by theeditor of Milan, Philipus Argelatus, a Bolognese, and subject of thepope. ]

[Footnote 28: Quod si Christiani olim non deposuerunt Neronem autJulianum, id fuit quia deerant vires temporales Christianis, (honestBellarmine, de Rom. Pont. L. V. C. 7. ) Cardinal Perron adds adistinction more honorable to the first Christians, but not moresatisfactory to modern princes--the treason of heretics and apostates, who break their oath, belie their coin, and renounce their allegiance toChrist and his vicar, (Perroniana, p. 89. )]

[Footnote 29: Take, as a specimen, the cautious Basnage (Hist. D'Eglise, p. 1350, 1351) and the vehement Spanheim, (Hist. Imaginum, ) who, with ahundred more, tread in the footsteps of the centuriators of Magdeburgh. ]

[Footnote 30: See Launoy, (Opera, tom. V. Pars ii. Epist. Vii. 7, p. 456-474, ) Natalis Alexander, (Hist. Nov. Testamenti, secul. Viii. Dissert. I. P. 92-98, ) Pagi, (Critica, tom. Iii. P. 215, 216, ) andGiannone, (Istoria Civile Napoli, tom. I. P. 317-320, ) a disciple of theGallican school In the field of controversy I always pity the moderateparty, who stand on the open middle ground exposed to the fire of bothsides. ]

[Footnote 31: They appeal to Paul Warnefrid, or Diaconus, (de GestisLangobard. L. Vi. C. 49, p. 506, 507, in Script. Ital. Muratori, tom. I. Pars i. , ) and the nominal Anastasius, (de Vit. Pont. In Muratori, tom. Iii. Pars i. Gregorius II. P. 154. Gregorius III. P. 158. Zacharias, p. 161. Stephanus III. P. 165. ; Paulus, p. 172. Stephanus IV. P. 174. Hadrianus, p. 179. Leo III. P. 195. ) Yet I may remark, that the trueAnastasius (Hist. Eccles. P. 134, edit. Reg. ) and the Historia Miscella, (l. Xxi. P. 151, in tom. I. Script. Ital. , ) both of the ixth century, translate and approve the Greek text of Theophanes. ]

[Footnote 32: With some minute difference, the most learned critics, Lucas Holstenius, Schelestrate, Ciampini, Bianchini, Muratori, (Prolegomena ad tom. Iii. Pars i. , ) are agreed that the LiberPontificalis was composed and continued by the apostolic librariansand notaries of the viiith and ixth centuries; and that the last andsmallest part is the work of Anastasius, whose name it bears. The styleis barbarous, the narrative partial, the details are trifling--yetit must be read as a curious and authentic record of the times. Theepistles of the popes are dispersed in the volumes of Councils. ]

Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks. --Part II. 

Two original epistles, from Gregory the Second to the emperor Leo, arestill extant; [33] and if they cannot be praised as the most perfectmodels of eloquence and logic, they exhibit the portrait, or at leastthe mask, of the founder of the papal monarchy. "During ten pure andfortunate years, " says Gregory to the emperor, "we have tasted theannual comfort of your royal letters, subscribed in purple ink, withyour own hand, the sacred pledges of your attachment to the orthodoxcreed of our fathers. How deplorable is the change! how tremendousthe scandal! You now accuse the Catholics of idolatry; and, by theaccusation, you betray your own impiety and ignorance. To this ignorancewe are compelled to adapt the grossness of our style and arguments: thefirst elements of holy letters are sufficient for your confusion; andwere you to enter a grammar-school, and avow yourself the enemy of ourworship, the simple and pious children would be provoked to casttheir horn-books at your head. " After this decent salutation, the popeattempts the usual distinction between the idols of antiquity andthe Christian images. The former were the fanciful representations ofphantoms or daemons, at a time when the true God had not manifestedhis person in any visible likeness. The latter are the genuine formsof Christ, his mother, and his saints, who had approved, by a crowdof miracles, the innocence and merit of this relative worship. He mustindeed have trusted to the ignorance of Leo, since he could assert theperpetual use of images, from the apostolic age, and their venerablepresence in the six synods of the Catholic church. A more speciousargument is drawn from present possession and recent practice theharmony of the Christian world supersedes the demand of a generalcouncil; and Gregory frankly confesses, than such assemblies can onlybe useful under the reign of an orthodox prince. To the impudent andinhuman Leo, more guilty than a heretic, he recommends peace, silence, and implicit obedience to his spiritual guides of Constantinople andRome. The limits of civil and ecclesiastical powers are defined by thepontiff. To the former he appropriates the body; to the latter, thesoul: the sword of justice is in the hands of the magistrate: the moreformidable weapon of excommunication is intrusted to the clergy; and inthe exercise of their divine commission a zealous son will not spare hisoffending father: the successor of St. Peter may lawfully chastisethe kings of the earth. "You assault us, O tyrant! with a carnal andmilitary hand: unarmed and naked we can only implore the Christ, theprince of the heavenly host, that he will send unto you a devil, for thedestruction of your body and the salvation of your soul. You declare, with foolish arrogance, I will despatch my orders to Rome: I will breakin pieces the image of St. Peter; and Gregory, like his predecessorMartin, shall be transported in chains, and in exile, to the foot of theImperial throne. Would to God that I might be permitted to tread in thefootsteps of the holy Martin! but may the fate of Constans serve as awarning to the persecutors of the church! After his just condemnationby the bishops of Sicily, the tyrant was cut off, in the fullness of hissins, by a domestic servant: the saint is still adored by the nations ofScythia, among whom he ended his banishment and his life. But it is ourduty to live for the edification and support of the faithful people; norare we reduced to risk our safety on the event of a combat. Incapable asyou are of defending your Roman subjects, the maritime situation of thecity may perhaps expose it to your depredation but we can remove tothe distance of four-and-twenty stadia, to the first fortress of theLombards, and then--you may pursue the winds. Are you ignorant that thepopes are the bond of union, the mediators of peace, between the Eastand West? The eyes of the nations are fixed on our humility; and theyrevere, as a God upon earth, the apostle St. Peter, whose image youthreaten to destroy. [35] The remote and interior kingdoms of the Westpresent their homage to Christ and his vicegerent; and we now prepare tovisit one of their most powerful monarchs, who desires to receive fromour hands the sacrament of baptism. [36] The Barbarians have submittedto the yoke of the gospel, while you alone are deaf to the voice of theshepherd. These pious Barbarians are kindled into rage: they thirstto avenge the persecution of the East. Abandon your rash and fatalenterprise; reflect, tremble, and repent. If you persist, we areinnocent of the blood that will be spilt in the contest; may it fall onyour own head!"

[Footnote 33: The two epistles of Gregory II. Have been preserved in theActa of the Nicene Council, (tom. Viii. P. 651-674. ) They are without adate, which is variously fixed, by Baronius in the year 726, by Muratori(Annali d'Italia, tom. Vi. P. 120) in 729, and by Pagi in 730. Such isthe force of prejudice, that some papists have praised the good senseand moderation of these letters. ]

[Footnote 34: (Epist. I. P. 664. ) This proximity of the Lombards is hardof digestion. Camillo Pellegrini (Dissert. Iv. De Ducatu Beneventi, in the Script. Ital. Tom. V. P. 172, 173) forcibly reckons the xxivthstadia, not from Rome, but from the limits of the Roman duchy, to thefirst fortress, perhaps Sora, of the Lombards. I rather believe thatGregory, with the pedantry of the age, employs stadia for miles, withoutmuch inquiry into the genuine measure. ]

[Footnote 35: {Greek}]

[Footnote 36: (p. 665. ) The pope appears to have imposed on theignorance of the Greeks: he lived and died in the Lateran; and in histime all the kingdoms of the West had embraced Christianity. May notthis unknown Septetus have some reference to the chief of the SaxonHeptarchy, to Ina king of Wessex, who, in the pontificate of Gregory theSecond, visited Rome for the purpose, not of baptism, but of pilgrimage!(Pagi. A. , 89, No. 2. A. D. 726, No. 15. )]

The first assault of Leo against the images of Constantinople had beenwitnessed by a crowd of strangers from Italy and the West, who relatedwith grief and indignation the sacrilege of the emperor. But on thereception of his proscriptive edict, they trembled for their domesticdeities: the images of Christ and the Virgin, of the angels, martyrs, and saints, were abolished in all the churches of Italy; and a strongalternative was proposed to the Roman pontiff, the royal favor as theprice of his compliance, degradation and exile as the penalty of hisdisobedience. Neither zeal nor policy allowed him to hesitate; andthe haughty strain in which Gregory addressed the emperor displays hisconfidence in the truth of his doctrine or the powers of resistance. Without depending on prayers or miracles, he boldly armed against thepublic enemy, and his pastoral letters admonished the Italians of theirdanger and their duty. [37] At this signal, Ravenna, Venice, andthe cities of the Exarchate and Pentapolis, adhered to the cause ofreligion; their military force by sea and land consisted, for themost part, of the natives; and the spirit of patriotism and zeal wastransfused into the mercenary strangers. The Italians swore to live anddie in the defence of the pope and the holy images; the Roman people wasdevoted to their father, and even the Lombards were ambitious to sharethe merit and advantage of this holy war. The most treasonable act, but the most obvious revenge, was the destruction of the statues of Leohimself: the most effectual and pleasing measure of rebellion, was thewithholding the tribute of Italy, and depriving him of a power which hehad recently abused by the imposition of a new capitation. [38] A formof administration was preserved by the election of magistrates andgovernors; and so high was the public indignation, that the Italianswere prepared to create an orthodox emperor, and to conduct him witha fleet and army to the palace of Constantinople. In that palace, theRoman bishops, the second and third Gregory, were condemned as theauthors of the revolt, and every attempt was made, either by fraud orforce, to seize their persons, and to strike at their lives. The citywas repeatedly visited or assaulted by captains of the guards, and dukesand exarchs of high dignity or secret trust; they landed with foreigntroops, they obtained some domestic aid, and the superstition of Naplesmay blush that her fathers were attached to the cause of heresy. Butthese clandestine or open attacks were repelled by the courage andvigilance of the Romans; the Greeks were overthrown and massacred, theirleaders suffered an ignominious death, and the popes, however inclinedto mercy, refused to intercede for these guilty victims. At Ravenna, [39] the several quarters of the city had long exercised a bloody andhereditary feud; in religious controversy they found a new aliment offaction: but the votaries of images were superior in numbers or spirit, and the exarch, who attempted to stem the torrent, lost his life ina popular sedition. To punish this flagitious deed, and restore hisdominion in Italy, the emperor sent a fleet and army into the AdriaticGulf. After suffering from the winds and waves much loss and delay, the Greeks made their descent in the neighborhood of Ravenna: theythreatened to depopulate the guilty capital, and to imitate, perhaps tosurpass, the example of Justinian the Second, who had chastised aformer rebellion by the choice and execution of fifty of the principalinhabitants. The women and clergy, in sackcloth and ashes, lay prostratein prayer: the men were in arms for the defence of their country; thecommon danger had united the factions, and the event of a battle waspreferred to the slow miseries of a siege. In a hard-fought day, as thetwo armies alternately yielded and advanced, a phantom was seen, a voicewas heard, and Ravenna was victorious by the assurance of victory. Thestrangers retreated to their ships, but the populous sea-coast pouredforth a multitude of boats; the waters of the Po were so deeply infectedwith blood, that during six years the public prejudice abstainedfrom the fish of the river; and the institution of an annual feastperpetuated the worship of images, and the abhorrence of the Greektyrant. Amidst the triumph of the Catholic arms, the Roman pontiffconvened a synod of ninety-three bishops against the heresy of theIconoclasts. With their consent, he pronounced a general excommunicationagainst all who by word or deed should attack the tradition of thefathers and the images of the saints: in this sentence the emperor wastacitly involved, [40] but the vote of a last and hopeless remonstrancemay seem to imply that the anathema was yet suspended over his guiltyhead. No sooner had they confirmed their own safety, the worship ofimages, and the freedom of Rome and Italy, than the popes appear tohave relaxed of their severity, and to have spared the relics of theByzantine dominion. Their moderate councils delayed and preventedthe election of a new emperor, and they exhorted the Italians not toseparate from the body of the Roman monarchy. The exarch was permittedto reside within the walls of Ravenna, a captive rather than a master;and till the Imperial coronation of Charlemagne, the government of Romeand Italy was exercised in the name of the successors of Constantine. [41]

[Footnote 37: I shall transcribe the important and decisive passageof the Liber Pontificalis. Respiciens ergo pius vir profanam principisjussionem, jam contra Imperatorem quasi contra hostem se armavit, renuens haeresim ejus, scribens ubique se cavere Christianos, eo quodorta fuisset impietas talis. Igitur permoti omnes Pentapolenses, atqueVenetiarum exercitus contra Imperatoris jussionem restiterunt; dicentesse nunquam in ejusdem pontificis condescendere necem, sed pro ejus magisdefensione viriliter decertare, (p. 156. )]

[Footnote 38: A census, or capitation, says Anastasius, (p. 156;) amost cruel tax, unknown to the Saracens themselves, exclaims the zealousMaimbourg, (Hist. Des Iconoclastes, l. I. , ) and Theophanes, (p. 344, )who talks of Pharaoh's numbering the male children of Israel. This modeof taxation was familiar to the Saracens; and, most unluckily for thehistorians, it was imposed a few years afterwards in France by hispatron Louis XIV. ]

[Footnote 39: See the Liber Pontificalis of Agnellus, (in the ScriptoresRerum Italicarum of Muratori, tom. Ii. Pars i. , ) whose deeper shadeof barbarism marks the difference between Rome and Ravenna. Yet we areindebted to him for some curious and domestic facts--the quarters andfactions of Ravenna, (p. 154, ) the revenge of Justinian II, (p. 160, 161, ) the defeat of the Greeks, (p. 170, 171, ) &c. ]

[Footnote 40: Yet Leo was undoubtedly comprised in the si quis . .. . Imaginum sacrarum. .. . Destructor. .. . Extiterit, sit extorris a corpore D. N. Jesu Christi vel totius ecclesiae unitate. The canonists maydecide whether the guilt or the name constitutes the excommunication;and the decision is of the last importance to their safety, since, according to the oracle (Gratian, Caus. Xxiii. Q. 5, 47, apud Spanheim, Hist. Imag. P. 112) homicidas non esse qui excommunicatos trucidant. ]

[Footnote 41: Compescuit tale consilium Pontifex, sperans conversionemprincipis, (Anastas. P. 156. ) Sed ne desisterent ab amore et fide R. J. Admonebat, (p. 157. ) The popes style Leo and Constantine Copronymus, Imperatores et Domini, with the strange epithet of Piissimi. A famousMosaic of the Lateran (A. D. 798) represents Christ, who delivers thekeys to St. Peter and the banner to Constantine V. (Muratori, Annalid'Italia, tom. Vi. P. 337. )]

The liberty of Rome, which had been oppressed by the arms and arts ofAugustus, was rescued, after seven hundred and fifty years of servitude, from the persecution of Leo the Isaurian. By the Caesars, the triumphsof the consuls had been annihilated: in the decline and fall of theempire, the god Terminus, the sacred boundary, had insensibly recededfrom the ocean, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates; and Rome wasreduced to her ancient territory from Viterbo to Terracina, and fromNarni to the mouth of the Tyber. [42] When the kings were banished, the republic reposed on the firm basis which had been founded by theirwisdom and virtue. Their perpetual jurisdiction was divided betweentwo annual magistrates: the senate continued to exercise the powersof administration and counsel; and the legislative authority wasdistributed in the assemblies of the people, by a well-proportionedscale of property and service. Ignorant of the arts of luxury, theprimitive Romans had improved the science of government and war: thewill of the community was absolute: the rights of individuals weresacred: one hundred and thirty thousand citizens were armed for defenceor conquest; and a band of robbers and outlaws was moulded into a nationdeserving of freedom and ambitious of glory. [43] When the sovereigntyof the Greek emperors was extinguished, the ruins of Rome presentedthe sad image of depopulation and decay: her slavery was a habit, herliberty an accident; the effect of superstition, and the object of herown amazement and terror. The last vestige of the substance, or even theforms, of the constitution, was obliterated from the practice and memoryof the Romans; and they were devoid of knowledge, or virtue, again tobuild the fabric of a commonwealth. Their scanty remnant, the offspringof slaves and strangers, was despicable in the eyes of the victoriousBarbarians. As often as the Franks or Lombards expressed their mostbitter contempt of a foe, they called him a Roman; "and in this name, "says the bishop Liutprand, "we include whatever is base, whatever iscowardly, whatever is perfidious, the extremes of avarice and luxury, and every vice that can prostitute the dignity of human nature. " [44][441] By the necessity of their situation, the inhabitants of Romewere cast into the rough model of a republican government: they werecompelled to elect some judges in peace, and some leaders in war: thenobles assembled to deliberate, and their resolves could not be executedwithout the union and consent of the multitude. The style of the Romansenate and people was revived, [45] but the spirit was fled; andtheir new independence was disgraced by the tumultuous conflict ofvicentiousness and oppression. The want of laws could only be suppliedby the influence of religion, and their foreign and domestic counselswere moderated by the authority of the bishop. His alms, his sermons, his correspondence with the kings and prelates of the West, his recentservices, their gratitude, and oath, accustomed the Romans to considerhim as the first magistrate or prince of the city. The Christianhumility of the popes was not offended by the name of Dominus, or Lord;and their face and inscription are still apparent on the most ancientcoins. [46] Their temporal dominion is now confirmed by the reverenceof a thousand years; and their noblest title is the free choice of apeople, whom they had redeemed from slavery. 

[Footnote 42: I have traced the Roman duchy according to the maps, andthe maps according to the excellent dissertation of father Beretti, (de Chorographia Italiae Medii Aevi, sect. Xx. P. 216-232. ) Yet I mustnicely observe, that Viterbo is of Lombard foundation, (p. 211, ) andthat Terracina was usurped by the Greeks. ]

[Footnote 43: On the extent, population, &c. , of the Roman kingdom, the reader may peruse, with pleasure, the Discours Preliminaire to theRepublique Romaine of M. De Beaufort, (tom. I. , ) who will not be accusedof too much credulity for the early ages of Rome. ]

[Footnote 44: Quos (Romanos) nos, Longobardi scilicet, Saxones, Franci, Locharingi, Bajoarii, Suevi, Burgundiones, tanto dedignamur ut inimicosnostros commoti, nil aliud contumeliarum nisi Romane, dicamus: hoc solo, id est Romanorum nomine, quicquid ignobilitatis, quicquid timiditatis, quicquid avaritiae, quicquid luxuriae, quicquid mendacii, immo quicquidvitiorum est comprehendentes, (Liutprand, in Legat Script. Ital. Tom. Ii. Para i. P. 481. ) For the sins of Cato or Tully Minos might haveimposed as a fit penance the daily perusal of this barbarous passage. ]

[Footnote 441: Yet this contumelious sentence, quoted by Robertson(Charles V note 2) as well as Gibbon, was applied by the angry bishopto the Byzantine Romans, whom, indeed, he admits to be the genuinedescendants of Romulus. --M. ]

[Footnote 45: Pipino regi Francorum, omnis senatus, atque universapopuli generalitas a Deo servatae Romanae urbis. Codex Carolin. Epist. 36, in Script. Ital. Tom. Iii. Pars ii. P. 160. The names of senatus andsenator were never totally extinct, (Dissert. Chorograph. P. 216, 217;) but in the middle ages they signified little more than nobiles, optimates, &c. , (Ducange, Gloss. Latin. )]

[Footnote 46: See Muratori, Antiquit. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. Ii. Dissertat xxvii. P. 548. On one of these coins we read Hadrianus Papa(A. D. 772;) on the reverse, Vict. Ddnn. With the word Conob, whichthe Pere Joubert (Science des Medailles, tom. Ii. P. 42) explains byConstantinopoli Officina B (secunda. )]

In the quarrels of ancient Greece, the holy people of Elis enjoyed aperpetual peace, under the protection of Jupiter, and in the exerciseof the Olympic games. [47] Happy would it have been for the Romans, ifa similar privilege had guarded the patrimony of St. Peter from thecalamities of war; if the Christians, who visited the holy threshold, would have sheathed their swords in the presence of the apostle and hissuccessor. But this mystic circle could have been traced only by thewand of a legislator and a sage: this pacific system was incompatiblewith the zeal and ambition of the popes the Romans were not addicted, like the inhabitants of Elis, to the innocent and placid labors ofagriculture; and the Barbarians of Italy, though softened by theclimate, were far below the Grecian states in the institutions ofpublic and private life. A memorable example of repentance and piety wasexhibited by Liutprand, king of the Lombards. In arms, at the gate ofthe Vatican, the conqueror listened to the voice of Gregory the Second, [48] withdrew his troops, resigned his conquests, respectfully visitedthe church of St. Peter, and after performing his devotions, offeredhis sword and dagger, his cuirass and mantle, his silver cross, and hiscrown of gold, on the tomb of the apostle. But this religious fervor wasthe illusion, perhaps the artifice, of the moment; the sense of interestis strong and lasting; the love of arms and rapine was congenial to theLombards; and both the prince and people were irresistibly temptedby the disorders of Italy, the nakedness of Rome, and the unwarlikeprofession of her new chief. On the first edicts of the emperor, theydeclared themselves the champions of the holy images: Liutprand invadedthe province of Romagna, which had already assumed that distinctiveappellation; the Catholics of the Exarchate yielded without reluctanceto his civil and military power; and a foreign enemy was introduced forthe first time into the impregnable fortress of Ravenna. That city andfortress were speedily recovered by the active diligence and maritimeforces of the Venetians; and those faithful subjects obeyed theexhortation of Gregory himself, in separating the personal guilt of Leofrom the general cause of the Roman empire. [49] The Greeks wereless mindful of the service, than the Lombards of the injury: the twonations, hostile in their faith, were reconciled in a dangerous andunnatural alliance: the king and the exarch marched to the conquest ofSpoleto and Rome: the storm evaporated without effect, but the policyof Liutprand alarmed Italy with a vexatious alternative of hostility andtruce. His successor Astolphus declared himself the equal enemy of theemperor and the pope: Ravenna was subdued by force or treachery, [50]and this final conquest extinguished the series of the exarchs, who hadreigned with a subordinate power since the time of Justinian andthe ruin of the Gothic kingdom. Rome was summoned to acknowledge thevictorious Lombard as her lawful sovereign; the annual tribute of apiece of gold was fixed as the ransom of each citizen, and the sword ofdestruction was unsheathed to exact the penalty of her disobedience. TheRomans hesitated; they entreated; they complained; and the threateningBarbarians were checked by arms and negotiations, till the popes hadengaged the friendship of an ally and avenger beyond the Alps. [51]

[Footnote 47: See West's Dissertation on the Olympic Games, (Pindar. Vol. Ii. P. 32-36, edition in 12mo. , ) and the judicious reflections ofPolybius (tom. I. L. Iv. P. 466, edit Gronov. )]

[Footnote 48: The speech of Gregory to the Lombard is finely composedby Sigonius, (de Regno Italiae, l. Iii. Opera, tom. Ii. P. 173, ) whoimitates the license and the spirit of Sallust or Livy. ]

[Footnote 49: The Venetian historians, John Sagorninus, (Chron. Venet. P. 13, ) and the doge Andrew Dandolo, (Scriptores Rer. Ital. Tom. Xii. P. 135, ) have preserved this epistle of Gregory. The loss and recovery ofRavenna are mentioned by Paulus Diaconus, (de Gest. Langobard, l. Vi. C. 42, 54, in Script. Ital. Tom. I. Pars i. P. 506, 508;) but ourchronologists, Pagi, Muratori, &c. , cannot ascertain the date orcircumstances]

[Footnote 50: The option will depend on the various readings of the Mss. Of Anastasius--deceperat, or decerpserat, (Script. Ital. Tom. Iii. Parsi. P. 167. )]

[Footnote 51: The Codex Carolinus is a collection of the epistles ofthe popes to Charles Martel, (whom they style Subregulus, ) Pepin, andCharlemagne, as far as the year 791, when it was formed by the last ofthese princes. His original and authentic Ms. (Bibliothecae Cubicularis)is now in the Imperial library of Vienna, and has been published byLambecius and Muratori, (Script. Rerum Ital. Tom. Iii. Pars ii. P. 75, &c. )]

In his distress, the first [511] Gregory had implored the aid of thehero of the age, of Charles Martel, who governed the French monarchywith the humble title of mayor or duke; and who, by his signal victoryover the Saracens, had saved his country, and perhaps Europe, from theMahometan yoke. The ambassadors of the pope were received by Charleswith decent reverence; but the greatness of his occupations, and theshortness of his life, prevented his interference in the affairs ofItaly, except by a friendly and ineffectual mediation. His son Pepin, the heir of his power and virtues, assumed the office of champion ofthe Roman church; and the zeal of the French prince appears to have beenprompted by the love of glory and religion. But the danger was on thebanks of the Tyber, the succor on those of the Seine, and our sympathyis cold to the relation of distant misery. Amidst the tears of the city, Stephen the Third embraced the generous resolution of visiting in personthe courts of Lombardy and France, to deprecate the injustice of hisenemy, or to excite the pity and indignation of his friend. Aftersoothing the public despair by litanies and orations, he undertook thislaborious journey with the ambassadors of the French monarch and theGreek emperor. The king of the Lombards was inexorable; but his threatscould not silence the complaints, nor retard the speed of the Romanpontiff, who traversed the Pennine Alps, reposed in the abbey of St. Maurice, and hastened to grasp the right hand of his protector; a handwhich was never lifted in vain, either in war or friendship. Stephenwas entertained as the visible successor of the apostle; at the nextassembly, the field of March or of May, his injuries were exposed to adevout and warlike nation, and he repassed the Alps, not as a suppliant, but as a conqueror, at the head of a French army, which was led bythe king in person. The Lombards, after a weak resistance, obtained anignominious peace, and swore to restore the possessions, and to respectthe sanctity, of the Roman church. But no sooner was Astolphus deliveredfrom the presence of the French arms, than he forgot his promise andresented his disgrace. Rome was again encompassed by his arms; andStephen, apprehensive of fatiguing the zeal of his Transalpine alliesenforced his complaint and request by an eloquent letter in the name andperson of St. Peter himself. [52] The apostle assures his adopted sons, the king, the clergy, and the nobles of France, that, dead in the flesh, he is still alive in the spirit; that they now hear, and must obey, thevoice of the founder and guardian of the Roman church; that the Virgin, the angels, the saints, and the martyrs, and all the host of heaven, unanimously urge the request, and will confess the obligation; thatriches, victory, and paradise, will crown their pious enterprise, andthat eternal damnation will be the penalty of their neglect, if theysuffer his tomb, his temple, and his people, to fall into the hands ofthe perfidious Lombards. The second expedition of Pepin was not lessrapid and fortunate than the first: St. Peter was satisfied, Romewas again saved, and Astolphus was taught the lessons of justiceand sincerity by the scourge of a foreign master. After this doublechastisement, the Lombards languished about twenty years in a stateof languor and decay. But their minds were not yet humbled to theircondition; and instead of affecting the pacific virtues of the feeble, they peevishly harassed the Romans with a repetition of claims, evasions, and inroads, which they undertook without reflection, andterminated without glory. On either side, their expiring monarchy waspressed by the zeal and prudence of Pope Adrian the First, the genius, the fortune, and greatness of Charlemagne, the son of Pepin; theseheroes of the church and state were united in public and domesticfriendship, and while they trampled on the prostrate, they varnishedtheir proceedings with the fairest colors of equity and moderation. [53]The passes of the Alps, and the walls of Pavia, were the only defenceof the Lombards; the former were surprised, the latter were invested, bythe son of Pepin; and after a blockade of two years, [531] Desiderius, the last of their native princes, surrendered his sceptre and hiscapital. 

Under the dominion of a foreign king, but in the possession of theirnational laws, the Lombards became the brethren, rather than thesubjects, of the Franks; who derived their blood, and manners, andlanguage, from the same Germanic origin. [54]

[Footnote 511: Gregory I. Had been dead above a century; read GregoryIII. --M]

[Footnote 52: See this most extraordinary letter in the Codex Carolinus, epist iii. P. 92. The enemies of the popes have charged them with fraudand blasphemy; yet they surely meant to persuade rather than deceive. This introduction of the dead, or of immortals, was familiar to theancient orators, though it is executed on this occasion in the rudefashion of the age. ]

[Footnote 53: Except in the divorce of the daughter of Desiderius, whomCharlemagne repudiated sine aliquo crimine. Pope Stephen IV. Had mostfuriously opposed the alliance of a noble Frank--cum perfida, horridanec dicenda, foetentissima natione Longobardorum--to whom he imputes thefirst stain of leprosy, (Cod. Carolin. Epist. 45, p. 178, 179. )Another reason against the marriage was the existence of a firstwife, (Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. Vi. P. 232, 233, 236, 237. ) ButCharlemagne indulged himself in the freedom of polygamy or concubinage. ]

[Footnote 531: Of fifteen months. James, Life of Charlemagne, p. 187. --M. ]

[Footnote 54: See the Annali d'Italia of Muratori, tom. Vi. , and thethree first Dissertations of his Antiquitates Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. I. ]

Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks. --Part III. 

The mutual obligations of the popes and the Carlovingian family formthe important link of ancient and modern, of civil and ecclesiastical, history. In the conquest of Italy, the champions of the Roman churchobtained a favorable occasion, a specious title, the wishes of thepeople, the prayers and intrigues of the clergy. But the most essentialgifts of the popes to the Carlovingian race were the dignities ofking of France, [55] and of patrician of Rome. I. Under the sacerdotalmonarchy of St. Peter, the nations began to resume the practice ofseeking, on the banks of the Tyber, their kings, their laws, and theoracles of their fate. The Franks were perplexed between the name andsubstance of their government. All the powers of royalty were exercisedby Pepin, mayor of the palace; and nothing, except the regal title, was wanting to his ambition. His enemies were crushed by his valor;his friends were multiplied by his liberality; his father had been thesavior of Christendom; and the claims of personal merit were repeatedand ennobled in a descent of four generations. The name and image ofroyalty was still preserved in the last descendant of Clovis, the feebleChilderic; but his obsolete right could only be used as an instrumentof sedition: the nation was desirous of restoring the simplicity ofthe constitution; and Pepin, a subject and a prince, was ambitious toascertain his own rank and the fortune of his family. The mayor and thenobles were bound, by an oath of fidelity, to the royal phantom: theblood of Clovis was pure and sacred in their eyes; and their commonambassadors addressed the Roman pontiff, to dispel their scruples, orto absolve their promise. The interest of Pope Zachary, the successor ofthe two Gregories, prompted him to decide, and to decide in their favor:he pronounced that the nation might lawfully unite in the same personthe title and authority of king; and that the unfortunate Childeric, avictim of the public safety, should be degraded, shaved, and confinedin a monastery for the remainder of his days. An answer so agreeable totheir wishes was accepted by the Franks as the opinion of a casuist, thesentence of a judge, or the oracle of a prophet: the Merovingian racedisappeared from the earth; and Pepin was exalted on a buckler by thesuffrage of a free people, accustomed to obey his laws and to marchunder his standard. His coronation was twice performed, with thesanction of the popes, by their most faithful servant St. Boniface, theapostle of Germany, and by the grateful hands of Stephen the Third, who, in the monastery of St. Denys placed the diadem on the head of hisbenefactor. The royal unction of the kings of Israel was dexterouslyapplied: [56] the successor of St. Peter assumed the character of adivine ambassador: a German chieftain was transformed into the Lord'sanointed; and this Jewish rite has been diffused and maintained by thesuperstition and vanity of modern Europe. The Franks were absolved fromtheir ancient oath; but a dire anathema was thundered against themand their posterity, if they should dare to renew the same freedom ofchoice, or to elect a king, except in the holy and meritorious race ofthe Carlovingian princes. Without apprehending the future danger, theseprinces gloried in their present security: the secretary of Charlemagneaffirms, that the French sceptre was transferred by the authority ofthe popes; [57] and in their boldest enterprises, they insist, withconfidence, on this signal and successful act of temporal jurisdiction. 

[Footnote 55: Besides the common historians, three French critics, Launoy, (Opera, tom. V. Pars ii. L. Vii. Epist. 9, p. 477-487, ) Pagi, (Critica, A. D. 751, No. 1-6, A. D. 752, No. 1-10, ) and Natalis Alexander, (Hist. Novi Testamenti, dissertat, ii. P. 96-107, ) have treated thissubject of the deposition of Childeric with learning and attention, butwith a strong bias to save the independence of the crown. Yet they arehard pressed by the texts which they produce of Eginhard, Theophanes, and the old annals, Laureshamenses, Fuldenses, Loisielani]

[Footnote 56: Not absolutely for the first time. On a less conspicuoustheatre it had been used, in the vith and viith centuries, bythe provincial bishops of Britain and Spain. The royal unction ofConstantinople was borrowed from the Latins in the last age of theempire. Constantine Manasses mentions that of Charlemagne as a foreign, Jewish, incomprehensible ceremony. See Selden's Titles of Honor, in hisWorks, vol. Iii. Part i. P. 234-249. ]

[Footnote 57: See Eginhard, in Vita Caroli Magni, c. I. P. 9, &c. , c. Iii. P. 24. Childeric was deposed--jussu, the Carlovingians wereestablished--auctoritate, Pontificis Romani. Launoy, &c. , pretend thatthese strong words are susceptible of a very soft interpretation. Beit so; yet Eginhard understood the world, the court, and the Latinlanguage. ]

II. In the change of manners and language the patricians of Rome[58] were far removed from the senate of Romulus, on the palace ofConstantine, from the free nobles of the republic, or the fictitiousparents of the emperor. After the recovery of Italy and Africa by thearms of Justinian, the importance and danger of those remote provincesrequired the presence of a supreme magistrate; he was indifferentlystyled the exarch or the patrician; and these governors of Ravenna, who fill their place in the chronology of princes, extended theirjurisdiction over the Roman city. Since the revolt of Italy and the lossof the Exarchate, the distress of the Romans had exacted some sacrificeof their independence. Yet, even in this act, they exercised the rightof disposing of themselves; and the decrees of the senate and peoplesuccessively invested Charles Martel and his posterity with the honorsof patrician of Rome. The leaders of a powerful nation would havedisdained a servile title and subordinate office; but the reign of theGreek emperors was suspended; and, in the vacancy of the empire, theyderived a more glorious commission from the pope and the republic. TheRoman ambassadors presented these patricians with the keys of the shrineof St. Peter, as a pledge and symbol of sovereignty; with a holy bannerwhich it was their right and duty to unfurl in the defence of thechurch and city. [59] In the time of Charles Martel and of Pepin, theinterposition of the Lombard kingdom covered the freedom, while itthreatened the safety, of Rome; and the patriciate represented only thetitle, the service, the alliance, of these distant protectors. The powerand policy of Charlemagne annihilated an enemy, and imposed a master. In his first visit to the capital, he was received with all the honorswhich had formerly been paid to the exarch, the representative of theemperor; and these honors obtained some new decorations from the joy andgratitude of Pope Adrian the First. [60] No sooner was he informed ofthe sudden approach of the monarch, than he despatched the magistratesand nobles of Rome to meet him, with the banner, about thirty miles fromthe city. At the distance of one mile, the Flaminian way was lined withthe schools, or national communities, of Greeks, Lombards, Saxons, &c. :the Roman youth were under arms; and the children of a more tender age, with palms and olive branches in their hands, chanted the praises oftheir great deliverer. At the aspect of the holy crosses, and ensignsof the saints, he dismounted from his horse, led the procession of hisnobles to the Vatican, and, as he ascended the stairs, devoutly kissedeach step of the threshold of the apostles. In the portico, Adrianexpected him at the head of his clergy: they embraced, as friends andequals; but in their march to the altar, the king or patrician assumedthe right hand of the pope. Nor was the Frank content with these vainand empty demonstrations of respect. In the twenty-six years thatelapsed between the conquest of Lombardy and his Imperial coronation, Rome, which had been delivered by the sword, was subject, as his own, to the sceptre of Charlemagne. The people swore allegiance to his personand family: in his name money was coined, and justice was administered;and the election of the popes was examined and confirmed by hisauthority. Except an original and self-inherent claim of sovereignty, there was not any prerogative remaining, which the title of emperorcould add to the patrician of Rome. [61]

[Footnote 58: For the title and powers of patrician of Rome, seeDucange, (Gloss. Latin. Tom. V. P. 149-151, ) Pagi, (Critica, A. D. 740, No. 6-11, ) Muratori, (Annali d'Italia, tom. Vi. P. 308-329, ) and St. Marc, (Abrege Chronologique d'Italie, tom. I. P. 379-382. ) Of these theFranciscan Pagi is the most disposed to make the patrician a lieutenantof the church, rather than of the empire. ]

[Footnote 59: The papal advocates can soften the symbolic meaning of thebanner and the keys; but the style of ad regnum dimisimus, or direximus, (Codex Carolin. Epist. I. Tom. Iii. Pars ii. P. 76, ) seems to allow ofno palliation or escape. In the Ms. Of the Vienna library, they read, instead of regnum, rogum, prayer or request (see Ducange;) and theroyalty of Charles Martel is subverted by this important correction, (Catalani, in his Critical Prefaces, Annali d'Italia, tom. Xvii. P. 95-99. )]

[Footnote 60: In the authentic narrative of this reception, the LiberPontificalis observes--obviam illi ejus sanctitas dirigens venerabilescruces, id est signa; sicut mos est ad exarchum, aut patriciumsuscipiendum, sum cum ingenti honore suscipi fecit, (tom. Iii. Pars i. P. 185. )]

[Footnote 61: Paulus Diaconus, who wrote before the empire ofCharlemagne describes Rome as his subject city--vestrae civitates(ad Pompeium Festum) suis addidit sceptris, (de Metensis EcclesiaeEpiscopis. ) Some Carlovingian medals, struck at Rome, have engagedLe Blanc to write an elaborate, though partial, dissertation on theirauthority at Rome, both as patricians and emperors, (Amsterdam, 1692, in4to. )]

The gratitude of the Carlovingians was adequate to these obligations, and their names are consecrated, as the saviors and benefactors of theRoman church. Her ancient patrimony of farms and houses was transformedby their bounty into the temporal dominion of cities and provinces; andthe donation of the Exarchate was the first-fruits of the conquests ofPepin. [62] Astolphus with a sigh relinquished his prey; the keysand the hostages of the principal cities were delivered to the Frenchambassador; and, in his master's name, he presented them before the tombof St. Peter. The ample measure of the Exarchate [63] might comprise allthe provinces of Italy which had obeyed the emperor and his vicegerent;but its strict and proper limits were included in the territoriesof Ravenna, Bologna, and Ferrara: its inseparable dependency was thePentapolis, which stretched along the Adriatic from Rimini to Ancona, and advanced into the midland-country as far as the ridges of theApennine. In this transaction, the ambition and avarice of the popeshave been severely condemned. Perhaps the humility of a Christian priestshould have rejected an earthly kingdom, which it was not easy for himto govern without renouncing the virtues of his profession. Perhapsa faithful subject, or even a generous enemy, would have been lessimpatient to divide the spoils of the Barbarian; and if the emperorhad intrusted Stephen to solicit in his name the restitution of theExarchate, I will not absolve the pope from the reproach of treacheryand falsehood. But in the rigid interpretation of the laws, every onemay accept, without injury, whatever his benefactor can bestow withoutinjustice. The Greek emperor had abdicated, or forfeited, his right tothe Exarchate; and the sword of Astolphus was broken by the strongersword of the Carlovingian. It was not in the cause of the Iconoclastthat Pepin has exposed his person and army in a double expedition beyondthe Alps: he possessed, and might lawfully alienate, his conquests:and to the importunities of the Greeks he piously replied that no humanconsideration should tempt him to resume the gift which he had conferredon the Roman Pontiff for the remission of his sins, and the salvationof his soul. The splendid donation was granted in supreme and absolutedominion, and the world beheld for the first time a Christian bishopinvested with the prerogatives of a temporal prince; the choice ofmagistrates, the exercise of justice, the imposition of taxes, andthe wealth of the palace of Ravenna. In the dissolution of the Lombardkingdom, the inhabitants of the duchy of Spoleto [64] sought a refugefrom the storm, shaved their heads after the Roman fashion, declaredthemselves the servants and subjects of St. Peter, and completed, bythis voluntary surrender, the present circle of the ecclesiasticalstate. That mysterious circle was enlarged to an indefinite extent, bythe verbal or written donation of Charlemagne, [65] who, in the firsttransports of his victory, despoiled himself and the Greek emperor ofthe cities and islands which had formerly been annexed to the Exarchate. But, in the cooler moments of absence and reflection, he viewed, withan eye of jealousy and envy, the recent greatness of his ecclesiasticalally. The execution of his own and his father's promises wasrespectfully eluded: the king of the Franks and Lombards asserted theinalienable rights of the empire; and, in his life and death, Ravenna, [66] as well as Rome, was numbered in the list of his metropolitancities. The sovereignty of the Exarchate melted away in the hands of thepopes; they found in the archbishops of Ravenna a dangerous and domesticrival: [67] the nobles and people disdained the yoke of a priest; andin the disorders of the times, they could only retain the memory of anancient claim, which, in a more prosperous age, they have revived andrealized. 

[Footnote 62: Mosheim (Institution, Hist. Eccles. P. 263) weighs thisdonation with fair and deliberate prudence. The original act has neverbeen produced; but the Liber Pontificalis represents, (p. 171, ) and theCodex Carolinus supposes, this ample gift. Both are contemporary recordsand the latter is the more authentic, since it has been preserved, notin the Papal, but the Imperial, library. ]

[Footnote 63: Between the exorbitant claims, and narrow concessions, ofinterest and prejudice, from which even Muratori (Antiquitat. Tom. I. P. 63-68) is not exempt, I have been guided, in the limits of the Exarchateand Pentapolis, by the Dissertatio Chorographica Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. X. P. 160-180. ]

[Footnote 64: Spoletini deprecati sunt, ut eos in servitio B. Petrireceperet et more Romanorum tonsurari faceret, (Anastasius, p. 185. )Yet it may be a question whether they gave their own persons or theircountry. ]

[Footnote 65: The policy and donations of Charlemagne are carefullyexamined by St. Marc, (Abrege, tom. I. P. 390-408, ) who has well studiedthe Codex Carolinus. I believe, with him, that they were only verbal. The most ancient act of donation that pretends to be extant, is that ofthe emperor Lewis the Pious, (Sigonius, de Regno Italiae, l. Iv. Opera, tom. Ii. P. 267-270. ) Its authenticity, or at least its integrity, aremuch questioned, (Pagi, A. D. 817, No. 7, &c. Muratori, Annali, tom. Vi. P. 432, &c. Dissertat. Chorographica, p. 33, 34;) but I see noreasonable objection to these princes so freely disposing of what wasnot their own. ]

[Footnote 66: Charlemagne solicited and obtained from the proprietor, Hadrian I. , the mosaics of the palace of Ravenna, for the decoration ofAix-la-Chapelle, (Cod. Carolin. Epist. 67, p. 223. )]

[Footnote 67: The popes often complain of the usurpations of Leo ofRavenna, (Codex Carolin, epist. 51, 52, 53, p. 200-205. ) Sir corpus St. Andreae fratris germani St. Petri hic humasset, nequaquam nos Romanipontifices sic subjugassent, (Agnellus, Liber Pontificalis, inScriptores Rerum Ital. Tom. Ii. Pars. I. P. 107. )]

Fraud is the resource of weakness and cunning; and the strong, thoughignorant, Barbarian was often entangled in the net of sacerdotalpolicy. The Vatican and Lateran were an arsenal and manufacture, which, according to the occasion, have produced or concealed a variouscollection of false or genuine, of corrupt or suspicious, acts, as theytended to promote the interest of the Roman church. Before the endof the eighth century, some apostolic scribe, perhaps the notoriousIsidore, composed the decretals, and the donation of Constantine, thetwo magic pillars of the spiritual and temporal monarchy of the popes. This memorable donation was introduced to the world by an epistle ofAdrian the First, who exhorts Charlemagne to imitate the liberality, andrevive the name, of the great Constantine. [68] According to the legend, the first of the Christian emperors was healed of the leprosy, andpurified in the waters of baptism, by St. Silvester, the Roman bishop;and never was physician more gloriously recompensed. His royal proselytewithdrew from the seat and patrimony of St. Peter; declared hisresolution of founding a new capital in the East; and resigned tothe popes the free and perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and theprovinces of the West. [69] This fiction was productive of the mostbeneficial effects. The Greek princes were convicted of the guiltof usurpation; and the revolt of Gregory was the claim of his lawfulinheritance. The popes were delivered from their debt of gratitude; andthe nominal gifts of the Carlovingians were no more than the just andirrevocable restitution of a scanty portion of the ecclesiastical state. The sovereignty of Rome no longer depended on the choice of a ficklepeople; and the successors of St. Peter and Constantine were investedwith the purple and prerogatives of the Caesars. So deep was theignorance and credulity of the times, that the most absurd of fables wasreceived, with equal reverence, in Greece and in France, and is stillenrolled among the decrees of the canon law. [70] The emperors, and theRomans, were incapable of discerning a forgery, that subverted theirrights and freedom; and the only opposition proceeded from a Sabinemonastery, which, in the beginning of the twelfth century, disputed thetruth and validity of the donation of Constantine. [71] In the revivalof letters and liberty, this fictitious deed was transpierced by the penof Laurentius Valla, the pen of an eloquent critic and a Roman patriot. [72] His contemporaries of the fifteenth century were astonished at hissacrilegious boldness; yet such is the silent and irresistible progressof reason, that, before the end of the next age, the fable was rejectedby the contempt of historians [73] and poets, [74] and the tacit ormodest censure of the advocates of the Roman church. [75] The popesthemselves have indulged a smile at the credulity of the vulgar; [76]but a false and obsolete title still sanctifies their reign; and, by thesame fortune which has attended the decretals and the Sibylline oracles, the edifice has subsisted after the foundations have been undermined. 

[Footnote 68: Piissimo Constantino magno, per ejus largitatem S. R. Ecclesia elevata et exaltata est, et potestatem in his Hesperiaepartibus largiri olignatus est. .. . Quia ecce novus Constantinus histemporibus, &c. , (Codex Carolin. Epist. 49, in tom. Iii. Part ii. P. 195. ) Pagi (Critica, A. D. 324, No. 16) ascribes them to an impostor ofthe viiith century, who borrowed the name of St. Isidore: his humbletitle of Peccator was ignorantly, but aptly, turned into Mercator: hismerchandise was indeed profitable, and a few sheets of paper were soldfor much wealth and power. ]

[Footnote 69: Fabricius (Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Vi. P. 4-7) has enumeratedthe several editions of this Act, in Greek and Latin. The copy whichLaurentius Valla recites and refutes, appears to be taken either fromthe spurious Acts of St. Silvester or from Gratian's Decree, to which, according to him and others, it has been surreptitiously tacked. ]

[Footnote 70: In the year 1059, it was believed (was it believed?)by Pope Leo IX. Cardinal Peter Damianus, &c. Muratori places (Annalid'Italia, tom. Ix. P. 23, 24) the fictitious donations of Lewis thePious, the Othos, &c. , de Donatione Constantini. See a Dissertation ofNatalis Alexander, seculum iv. Diss. 25, p. 335-350. ]

[Footnote 71: See a large account of the controversy (A. D. 1105) whicharose from a private lawsuit, in the Chronicon Farsense, (Script. RerumItalicarum, tom. Ii. Pars ii. P. 637, &c. , ) a copious extract from thearchives of that Benedictine abbey. They were formerly accessible tocurious foreigners, (Le Blanc and Mabillon, ) and would have enriched thefirst volume of the Historia Monastica Italiae of Quirini. But they arenow imprisoned (Muratori, Scriptores R. I. Tom. Ii. Pars ii. P. 269) bythe timid policy of the court of Rome; and the future cardinal yieldedto the voice of authority and the whispers of ambition, (Quirini, Comment. Pars ii. P. 123-136. )]

[Footnote 72: I have read in the collection of Schardius (de PotestateImperiali Ecclesiastica, p. 734-780) this animated discourse, which wascomposed by the author, A. D. 1440, six years after the flight of PopeEugenius IV. It is a most vehement party pamphlet: Valla justifies andanimates the revolt of the Romans, and would even approve the use of adagger against their sacerdotal tyrant. Such a critic might expect thepersecution of the clergy; yet he made his peace, and is buried in theLateran, (Bayle, Dictionnaire Critique, Valla; Vossius, de HistoricisLatinis, p. 580. )]

[Footnote 73: See Guicciardini, a servant of the popes, in that long andvaluable digression, which has resumed its place in the last edition, correctly published from the author's Ms. And printed in four volumes inquarto, under the name of Friburgo, 1775, (Istoria d'Italia, tom. I. P. 385-395. )]

[Footnote 74: The Paladin Astolpho found it in the moon, among thethings that were lost upon earth, (Orlando Furioso, xxxiv. 80. ) Di varifiore ad un grand monte passa, Ch'ebbe gia buono odore, or puzza forte:Questo era il dono (se pero dir lece) Che Constantino al buon Silvestrofece. Yet this incomparable poem has been approved by a bull of Leo X. ]

[Footnote 75: See Baronius, A. D. 324, No. 117-123, A. D. 1191, No. 51, &c. The cardinal wishes to suppose that Rome was offered by Constantine, and refused by Silvester. The act of donation he considers strangelyenough, as a forgery of the Greeks. ]

[Footnote 76: Baronius n'en dit guerres contre; encore en a-t'il tropdit, et l'on vouloit sans moi, (Cardinal du Perron, ) qui l'empechai, censurer cette partie de son histoire. J'en devisai un jour avec lePape, et il ne me repondit autre chose "che volete? i Canonici latengono, " il le disoit en riant, (Perroniana, p. 77. )]

While the popes established in Italy their freedom and dominion, theimages, the first cause of their revolt, were restored in the Easternempire. [77] Under the reign of Constantine the Fifth, the unionof civil and ecclesiastical power had overthrown the tree, withoutextirpating the root, of superstition. The idols (for such they werenow held) were secretly cherished by the order and the sex most proneto devotion; and the fond alliance of the monks and females obtaineda final victory over the reason and authority of man. Leo the Fourthmaintained with less rigor the religion of his father and grandfather;but his wife, the fair and ambitious Irene, had imbibed the zeal of theAthenians, the heirs of the Idolatry, rather than the philosophy, oftheir ancestors. During the life of her husband, these sentimentswere inflamed by danger and dissimulation, and she could only laborto protect and promote some favorite monks whom she drew from theircaverns, and seated on the metropolitan thrones of the East. But as soonas she reigned in her own name and that of her son, Irene more seriouslyundertook the ruin of the Iconoclasts; and the first step of her futurepersecution was a general edict for liberty of conscience. 

In the restoration of the monks, a thousand images were exposed to thepublic veneration; a thousand legends were inverted of their sufferingsand miracles. By the opportunities of death or removal, the episcopalseats were judiciously filled the most eager competitors for earthlyor celestial favor anticipated and flattered the judgment of theirsovereign; and the promotion of her secretary Tarasius gave Irene thepatriarch of Constantinople, and the command of the Oriental church. But the decrees of a general council could only be repealed by asimilar assembly: [78] the Iconoclasts whom she convened were bold inpossession, and averse to debate; and the feeble voice of the bishopswas reechoed by the more formidable clamor of the soldiers and people ofConstantinople. The delay and intrigues of a year, the separation of thedisaffected troops, and the choice of Nice for a second orthodox synod, removed these obstacles; and the episcopal conscience was again, afterthe Greek fashion, in the hands of the prince. No more than eighteendays were allowed for the consummation of this important work: theIconoclasts appeared, not as judges, but as criminals or penitents:the scene was decorated by the legates of Pope Adrian and the Easternpatriarchs, [79] the decrees were framed by the president Taracius, and ratified by the acclamations and subscriptions of three hundred andfifty bishops. They unanimously pronounced, that the worship of imagesis agreeable to Scripture and reason, to the fathers and councils of thechurch: but they hesitate whether that worship be relative or direct;whether the Godhead, and the figure of Christ, be entitled to the samemode of adoration. Of this second Nicene council the acts are stillextant; a curious monument of superstition and ignorance, of falsehoodand folly. I shall only notice the judgment of the bishops on thecomparative merit of image-worship and morality. A monk had concluded atruce with the daemon of fornication, on condition of interrupting hisdaily prayers to a picture that hung in his cell. His scruples promptedhim to consult the abbot. "Rather than abstain from adoring Christ andhis Mother in their holy images, it would be better for you, " repliedthe casuist, "to enter every brothel, and visit every prostitute, in thecity. " [80] For the honor of orthodoxy, at least the orthodoxy of theRoman church, it is somewhat unfortunate, that the two princes whoconvened the two councils of Nice are both stained with the blood oftheir sons. The second of these assemblies was approved and rigorouslyexecuted by the despotism of Irene, and she refused her adversaries thetoleration which at first she had granted to her friends. During thefive succeeding reigns, a period of thirty-eight years, the contestwas maintained, with unabated rage and various success, between theworshippers and the breakers of the images; but I am not inclinedto pursue with minute diligence the repetition of the same events. Nicephorus allowed a general liberty of speech and practice; and theonly virtue of his reign is accused by the monks as the cause of histemporal and eternal perdition. Superstition and weakness formed thecharacter of Michael the First, but the saints and images were incapableof supporting their votary on the throne. In the purple, Leo the Fifthasserted the name and religion of an Armenian; and the idols, with theirseditious adherents, were condemned to a second exile. Their applausewould have sanctified the murder of an impious tyrant, but his assassinand successor, the second Michael, was tainted from his birth withthe Phrygian heresies: he attempted to mediate between the contendingparties; and the intractable spirit of the Catholics insensibly cast himinto the opposite scale. His moderation was guarded by timidity; but hisson Theophilus, alike ignorant of fear and pity, was the last and mostcruel of the Iconoclasts. The enthusiasm of the times ran stronglyagainst them; and the emperors who stemmed the torrent were exasperatedand punished by the public hatred. After the death of Theophilus, thefinal victory of the images was achieved by a second female, his widowTheodora, whom he left the guardian of the empire. Her measures werebold and decisive. The fiction of a tardy repentance absolved the fameand the soul of her deceased husband; the sentence of the Iconoclastpatriarch was commuted from the loss of his eyes to a whipping oftwo hundred lashes: the bishops trembled, the monks shouted, and thefestival of orthodoxy preserves the annual memory of the triumph of theimages. A single question yet remained, whether they are endowed withany proper and inherent sanctity; it was agitated by the Greeks ofthe eleventh century; [81] and as this opinion has the strongestrecommendation of absurdity, I am surprised that it was not moreexplicitly decided in the affirmative. In the West, Pope Adrian theFirst accepted and announced the decrees of the Nicene assembly, whichis now revered by the Catholics as the seventh in rank of the generalcouncils. Rome and Italy were docile to the voice of their father; butthe greatest part of the Latin Christians were far behind in the raceof superstition. The churches of France, Germany, England, and Spain, steered a middle course between the adoration and the destructionof images, which they admitted into their temples, not as objects ofworship, but as lively and useful memorials of faith and history. Anangry book of controversy was composed and published in the name ofCharlemagne: [82] under his authority a synod of three hundredbishops was assembled at Frankfort: [83] they blamed the fury of theIconoclasts, but they pronounced a more severe censure against thesuperstition of the Greeks, and the decrees of their pretended council, which was long despised by the Barbarians of the West. [84] Among themthe worship of images advanced with a silent and insensible progress;but a large atonement is made for their hesitation and delay, by thegross idolatry of the ages which precede the reformation, and of thecountries, both in Europe and America, which are still immersed in thegloom of superstition. 

[Footnote 77: The remaining history of images, from Irene to Theodora, is collected, for the Catholics, by Baronius and Pagi, (A. D. 780-840. )Natalis Alexander, (Hist. N. T. Seculum viii. Panoplia adversusHaereticos p. 118-178, ) and Dupin, (Bibliot. Eccles. Tom. Vi. P. 136-154;) for the Protestants, by Spanheim, (Hist. Imag. P. 305-639. )Basnage, (Hist. De l'Eglise, tom. I. P. 556-572, tom. Ii. P. 1362-1385, )and Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. Secul. Viii. Et ix. ) TheProtestants, except Mosheim, are soured with controversy; but theCatholics, except Dupin, are inflamed by the fury and superstition ofthe monks; and even Le Beau, (Hist. Du Bas Empire, ) a gentleman and ascholar, is infected by the odious contagion. ]

[Footnote 78: See the Acts, in Greek and Latin, of the second Councilof Nice, with a number of relative pieces, in the viiith volume of theCouncils, p. 645-1600. A faithful version, with some critical notes, would provoke, in different readers, a sigh or a smile. ]

[Footnote 79: The pope's legates were casual messengers, two priestswithout any special commission, and who were disavowed on their return. Some vagabond monks were persuaded by the Catholics to represent theOriental patriarchs. This curious anecdote is revealed by TheodoreStudites, (epist. I. 38, in Sirmond. Opp. Tom. V. P. 1319, ) one of thewarmest Iconoclasts of the age. ]

[Footnote 80: These visits could not be innocent since the daemon offornication, &c. Actio iv. P. 901, Actio v. P. 1081]

[Footnote 81: See an account of this controversy in the Alexius of AnnaCompena, (l. V. P. 129, ) and Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. P. 371, 372. )]

[Footnote 82: The Libri Carolini, (Spanheim, p. 443-529, ) composed inthe palace or winter quarters of Charlemagne, at Worms, A. D. 790, andsent by Engebert to Pope Hadrian I. , who answered them by a grandis etverbosa epistola, (Concil. Tom. Vii. P. 1553. ) The Carolines propose120 objections against the Nicene synod and such words as these are theflowers of their rhetoric--Dementiam. .. . Priscae Gentilitatis obsoletumerrorem . .. . Argumenta insanissima et absurdissima. .. . Derisione dignasnaenias, &c. , &c. ]

[Footnote 83: The assemblies of Charlemagne were political, as well asecclesiastical; and the three hundred members, (Nat. Alexander, sec. Viii. P. 53, ) who sat and voted at Frankfort, must include not only thebishops, but the abbots, and even the principal laymen. ]

[Footnote 84: Qui supra sanctissima patres nostri (episcopi etsacerdotes) omnimodis servitium et adorationem imaginum renuentescontempserunt, atque consentientes condemnaverunt, (Concil. Tom. Ix. P. 101, Canon. Ii. Franckfurd. ) A polemic must be hard-hearted indeed, whodoes not pity the efforts of Baronius, Pagi, Alexander, Maimbourg, &c. , to elude this unlucky sentence. ]

Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks. --Part IV. 

It was after the Nycene synod, and under the reign of the pious Irene, that the popes consummated the separation of Rome and Italy, by thetranslation of the empire to the less orthodox Charlemagne. They werecompelled to choose between the rival nations: religion was not the solemotive of their choice; and while they dissembled the failings oftheir friends, they beheld, with reluctance and suspicion, the Catholicvirtues of their foes. The difference of language and manners hadperpetuated the enmity of the two capitals; and they were alienated fromeach other by the hostile opposition of seventy years. In that schismthe Romans had tasted of freedom, and the popes of sovereignty: theirsubmission would have exposed them to the revenge of a jealous tyrant;and the revolution of Italy had betrayed the impotence, as well as thetyranny, of the Byzantine court. The Greek emperors had restored theimages, but they had not restored the Calabrian estates [85] and theIllyrian diocese, [86] which the Iconociasts had torn away from thesuccessors of St. Peter; and Pope Adrian threatens them with a sentenceof excommunication unless they speedily abjure this practical heresy. [87] The Greeks were now orthodox; but their religion might be taintedby the breath of the reigning monarch: the Franks were now contumacious;but a discerning eye might discern their approaching conversion, fromthe use, to the adoration, of images. The name of Charlemagne wasstained by the polemic acrimony of his scribes; but the conquerorhimself conformed, with the temper of a statesman, to the variouspractice of France and Italy. In his four pilgrimages or visits to theVatican, he embraced the popes in the communion of friendship andpiety; knelt before the tomb, and consequently before the image, of theapostle; and joined, without scruple, in all the prayers and processionsof the Roman liturgy. Would prudence or gratitude allow the pontiffs torenounce their benefactor? Had they a right to alienate his gift of theExarchate? Had they power to abolish his government of Rome? The titleof patrician was below the merit and greatness of Charlemagne; andit was only by reviving the Western empire that they could pay theirobligations or secure their establishment. By this decisive measure theywould finally eradicate the claims of the Greeks; from the debasementof a provincial town, the majesty of Rome would be restored: the LatinChristians would be united, under a supreme head, in their ancientmetropolis; and the conquerors of the West would receive their crownfrom the successors of St. Peter. The Roman church would acquirea zealous and respectable advocate; and, under the shadow of theCarlovingian power, the bishop might exercise, with honor and safety, the government of the city. [88]

[Footnote 85: Theophanes (p. 343) specifies those of Sicily andCalabria, which yielded an annual rent of three talents and a half ofgold, (perhaps 7000 L. Sterling. ) Liutprand more pompously enumerates thepatrimonies of the Roman church in Greece, Judaea, Persia, MesopotamiaBabylonia, Egypt, and Libya, which were detained by the injustice of theGreek emperor, (Legat. Ad Nicephorum, in Script. Rerum Italica rum, tom. Ii. Pars i. P. 481. )]

[Footnote 86: The great diocese of the Eastern Illyricum, with Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, (Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. I. P. 145: ) by the confession of the Greeks, the patriarch of Constantinoplehad detached from Rome the metropolitans of Thessalonica, AthensCorinth, Nicopolis, and Patrae, (Luc. Holsten. Geograph. Sacra, p. 22)and his spiritual conquests extended to Naples and Amalphi (IstoriaCivile di Napoli, tom. I. P. 517-524, Pagi, A. D 780, No. 11. )]

[Footnote 87: In hoc ostenditur, quia ex uno capitulo ab errorereversis, in aliis duobus, in eodem (was it the same?) permaneanterrore. .. . De diocessi S. R. E. Seu de patrimoniis iterum increpantescommonemus, ut si ea restituere noluerit hereticum eum pro hujusmodierrore perseverantia decernemus, (Epist. Hadrian. Papae ad CarolumMagnum, in Concil. Tom. Viii. P. 1598;) to which he adds a reason, mostdirectly opposite to his conduct, that he preferred the salvation ofsouls and rule of faith to the goods of this transitory world. ]

[Footnote 88: Fontanini considers the emperors as no more than theadvocates of the church, (advocatus et defensor S. R. E. See Ducange, Gloss Lat. Tom. I. P. 297. ) His antagonist Muratori reduces the popes tobe no more than the exarchs of the emperor. In the more equitable viewof Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. P. 264, 265, ) they held Rome underthe empire as the most honorable species of fief or benefice--premunturnocte caliginosa!]

Before the ruin of Paganism in Rome, the competition for a wealthybishopric had often been productive of tumult and bloodshed. The peoplewas less numerous, but the times were more savage, the prize moreimportant, and the chair of St. Peter was fiercely disputed by theleading ecclesiastics who aspired to the rank of sovereign. The reign ofAdrian the First [89] surpasses the measure of past or succeeding ages;[90] the walls of Rome, the sacred patrimony, the ruin of the Lombards, and the friendship of Charlemagne, were the trophies of his fame: hesecretly edified the throne of his successors, and displayed in a narrowspace the virtues of a great prince. His memory was revered; but in thenext election, a priest of the Lateran, Leo the Third, was preferred tothe nephew and the favorite of Adrian, whom he had promoted to the firstdignities of the church. Their acquiescence or repentance disguised, above four years, the blackest intention of revenge, till the day of aprocession, when a furious band of conspirators dispersed the unarmedmultitude, and assaulted with blows and wounds the sacred person ofthe pope. But their enterprise on his life or liberty was disappointed, perhaps by their own confusion and remorse. Leo was left for dead on theground: on his revival from the swoon, the effect of his loss of blood, he recovered his speech and sight; and this natural event was improvedto the miraculous restoration of his eyes and tongue, of which he hadbeen deprived, twice deprived, by the knife of the assassins. [91] Fromhis prison he escaped to the Vatican: the duke of Spoleto hastened tohis rescue, Charlemagne sympathized in his injury, and in his camp ofPaderborn in Westphalia accepted, or solicited, a visit from the Romanpontiff. Leo repassed the Alps with a commission of counts and bishops, the guards of his safety and the judges of his innocence; and it was notwithout reluctance, that the conqueror of the Saxons delayed till theensuing year the personal discharge of this pious office. In his fourthand last pilgrimage, he was received at Rome with the due honors of kingand patrician: Leo was permitted to purge himself by oath of the crimesimputed to his charge: his enemies were silenced, and the sacrilegiousattempt against his life was punished by the mild and insufficientpenalty of exile. On the festival of Christmas, the last year of theeighth century, Charlemagne appeared in the church of St. Peter; and, to gratify the vanity of Rome, he had exchanged the simple dress of hiscountry for the habit of a patrician. [92] After the celebration of theholy mysteries, Leo suddenly placed a precious crown on his head, [93]and the dome resounded with the acclamations of the people, "Long lifeand victory to Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by Godthe great and pacific emperor of the Romans!" The head and body ofCharlemagne were consecrated by the royal unction: after the exampleof the Caesars, he was saluted or adored by the pontiff: his coronationoath represents a promise to maintain the faith and privileges of thechurch; and the first-fruits were paid in his rich offerings to theshrine of his apostle. In his familiar conversation, the emperorprotested the ignorance of the intentions of Leo, which he would havedisappointed by his absence on that memorable day. But the preparationsof the ceremony must have disclosed the secret; and the journey ofCharlemagne reveals his knowledge and expectation: he had acknowledgedthat the Imperial title was the object of his ambition, and a Romansynod had pronounced, that it was the only adequate reward of his meritand services. [94]

[Footnote 89: His merits and hopes are summed up in an epitaph ofthirty-eight-verses, of which Charlemagne declares himself the author, (Concil. Tom. Viii. P. 520. ) Post patrem lacrymans Carolus haec carminascripsi. Tu mihi dulcis amor, te modo plango pater. .. Nomina jungo simultitulis, clarissime, nostra Adrianus, Carolus, rex ego, tuque pater. Thepoetry might be supplied by Alcuin; but the tears, the most glorioustribute, can only belong to Charlemagne. ]

[Footnote 90: Every new pope is admonished--"Sancte Pater, non videbisannos Petri, " twenty-five years. On the whole series the average isabout eight years--a short hope for an ambitious cardinal. ]

[Footnote 91: The assurance of Anastasius (tom. Iii. Pars i. P. 197, 198) is supported by the credulity of some French annalists; butEginhard, and other writers of the same age, are more natural andsincere. "Unus ei oculus paullulum est laesus, " says John the deacon ofNaples, (Vit. Episcop. Napol. In Scriptores Muratori, tom. I. Pars ii. P. 312. ) Theodolphus, a contemporary bishop of Orleans, observes withprudence (l. Iii. Carm. 3. )

 Reddita sunt? mirum est: mirum est auferre nequtsse. Est tamen in dubio, hinc mirer an inde magis. ]

[Footnote 92: Twice, at the request of Hadrian and Leo, he appeared atRome, --longa tunica et chlamyde amictus, et calceamentis quoqueRomano more formatis. Eginhard (c. Xxiii. P. 109-113) describes, likeSuetonius the simplicity of his dress, so popular in the nation, that when Charles the Bald returned to France in a foreign habit, thepatriotic dogs barked at the apostate, (Gaillard, Vie de Charlemagne, tom. Iv. P. 109. )]

[Footnote 93: See Anastasius (p. 199) and Eginhard, (c. Xxviii. P. 124-128. ) The unction is mentioned by Theophanes, (p. 399, ) the oathby Sigonius, (from the Ordo Romanus, ) and the Pope's adoration moreantiquorum principum, by the Annales Bertiniani, (Script. Murator. Tom. Ii. Pars ii. P. 505. )]

[Footnote 94: This great event of the translation or restoration ofthe empire is related and discussed by Natalis Alexander, (secul. Ix. Dissert. I. P. 390-397, ) Pagi, (tom. Iii. P. 418, ) Muratori, (Annalid'Italia, tom. Vi. P. 339-352, ) Sigonius, (de Regno Italiae, l. Iv. Opp. Tom. Ii. P. 247-251, ) Spanheim, (de ficta Translatione Imperii, )Giannone, (tom. I. P. 395-405, ) St. Marc, (Abrege Chronologique, tom. I. P. 438-450, ) Gaillard, (Hist. De Charlemagne, tom. Ii. P. 386-446. )Almost all these moderns have some religious or national bias. ]

The appellation of great has been often bestowed, and sometimesdeserved; but Charlemagne is the only prince in whose favor the titlehas been indissolubly blended with the name. That name, with theaddition of saint, is inserted in the Roman calendar; and the saint, by a rare felicity, is crowned with the praises of the historians andphilosophers of an enlightened age. [95] His real merit is doubtlessenhanced by the barbarism of the nation and the times from which heemerged: but the apparent magnitude of an object is likewise enlarged byan unequal comparison; and the ruins of Palmyra derive a casual splendorfrom the nakedness of the surrounding desert. Without injustice to hisfame, I may discern some blemishes in the sanctity and greatness of therestorer of the Western empire. Of his moral virtues, chastity isnot the most conspicuous: [96] but the public happiness could notbe materially injured by his nine wives or concubines, the variousindulgence of meaner or more transient amours, the multitude of hisbastards whom he bestowed on the church, and the long celibacy andlicentious manners of his daughters, [97] whom the father was suspectedof loving with too fond a passion. [971] I shall be scarcelypermitted to accuse the ambition of a conqueror; but in a day of equalretribution, the sons of his brother Carloman, the Merovingian princesof Aquitain, and the four thousand five hundred Saxons who were beheadedon the same spot, would have something to allege against the justice andhumanity of Charlemagne. His treatment of the vanquished Saxons [98]was an abuse of the right of conquest; his laws were not less sanguinarythan his arms, and in the discussion of his motives, whatever issubtracted from bigotry must be imputed to temper. The sedentary readeris amazed by his incessant activity of mind and body; and his subjectsand enemies were not less astonished at his sudden presence, at themoment when they believed him at the most distant extremity of theempire; neither peace nor war, nor summer nor winter, were a season ofrepose; and our fancy cannot easily reconcile the annals of his reignwith the geography of his expeditions. [981] But this activity was anational, rather than a personal, virtue; the vagrant life of a Frankwas spent in the chase, in pilgrimage, in military adventures; and thejourneys of Charlemagne were distinguished only by a more numerous trainand a more important purpose. His military renown must be tried bythe scrutiny of his troops, his enemies, and his actions. Alexanderconquered with the arms of Philip, but the two heroes who precededCharlemagne bequeathed him their name, their examples, and thecompanions of their victories. At the head of his veteran and superiorarmies, he oppressed the savage or degenerate nations, who wereincapable of confederating for their common safety: nor did he everencounter an equal antagonist in numbers, in discipline, or in arms Thescience of war has been lost and revived with the arts of peace; buthis campaigns are not illustrated by any siege or battle of singulardifficulty and success; and he might behold, with envy, the Saracentrophies of his grandfather. After the Spanish expedition, hisrear-guard was defeated in the Pyrenaean mountains; and the soldiers, whose situation was irretrievable, and whose valor was useless, mightaccuse, with their last breath, the want of skill or caution of theirgeneral. [99] I touch with reverence the laws of Charlemagne, so highlyapplauded by a respectable judge. They compose not a system, but aseries, of occasional and minute edicts, for the correction of abuses, the reformation of manners, the economy of his farms, the care of hispoultry, and even the sale of his eggs. He wished to improve the lawsand the character of the Franks; and his attempts, however feeble andimperfect, are deserving of praise: the inveterate evils of thetimes were suspended or mollified by his government; [100] but in hisinstitutions I can seldom discover the general views and the immortalspirit of a legislator, who survives himself for the benefit ofposterity. The union and stability of his empire depended on the lifeof a single man: he imitated the dangerous practice of dividing hiskingdoms among his sons; and after his numerous diets, the wholeconstitution was left to fluctuate between the disorders of anarchy anddespotism. His esteem for the piety and knowledge of the clergy temptedhim to intrust that aspiring order with temporal dominion and civiljurisdiction; and his son Lewis, when he was stripped and degradedby the bishops, might accuse, in some measure, the imprudence of hisfather. His laws enforced the imposition of tithes, because the daemonshad proclaimed in the air that the default of payment had been thecause of the last scarcity. [101] The literary merits of Charlemagneare attested by the foundation of schools, the introduction of arts, theworks which were published in his name, and his familiar connection withthe subjects and strangers whom he invited to his court to educateboth the prince and people. His own studies were tardy, laborious, and imperfect; if he spoke Latin, and understood Greek, he derived therudiments of knowledge from conversation, rather than from books;and, in his mature age, the emperor strove to acquire the practiceof writing, which every peasant now learns in his infancy. [102] Thegrammar and logic, the music and astronomy, of the times, were onlycultivated as the handmaids of superstition; but the curiosity ofthe human mind must ultimately tend to its improvement, and theencouragement of learning reflects the purest and most pleasing lustreon the character of Charlemagne. [103] The dignity of his person, [104]the length of his reign, the prosperity of his arms, the vigor of hisgovernment, and the reverence of distant nations, distinguish him fromthe royal crowd; and Europe dates a new aera from his restoration of theWestern empire. 

[Footnote 95: By Mably, (Observations sur l'Histoire de France, )Voltaire, (Histoire Generale, ) Robertson, (History of Charles V. , ) andMontesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, l. Xxxi. C. 18. ) In the year 1782, M. Gaillard published his Histoire de Charlemagne, (in 4 vols. In 12mo. , )which I have freely and profitably used. The author is a man of senseand humanity; and his work is labored with industry and elegance. But Ihave likewise examined the original monuments of the reigns of Pepin andCharlemagne, in the 5th volume of the Historians of France. ]

[Footnote 96: The vision of Weltin, composed by a monk, eleven yearsafter the death of Charlemagne, shows him in purgatory, with a vulture, who is perpetually gnawing the guilty member, while the rest of hisbody, the emblem of his virtues, is sound and perfect, (see Gaillardtom. Ii. P. 317-360. )]

[Footnote 97: The marriage of Eginhard with Imma, daughter ofCharlemagne, is, in my opinion, sufficiently refuted by the probum andsuspicio that sullied these fair damsels, without excepting his ownwife, (c. Xix. P. 98-100, cum Notis Schmincke. ) The husband must havebeen too strong for the historian. ]

[Footnote 971: This charge of incest, as Mr. Hallam justly observes, "seems to have originated in a misinterpreted passage of Eginhard. "Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. I. P. 16. --M. ]

[Footnote 98: Besides the massacres and transmigrations, the pain ofdeath was pronounced against the following crimes: 1. The refusal ofbaptism. 2. The false pretence of baptism. 3. A relapse to idolatry. 4. The murder of a priest or bishop. 5. Human sacrifices. 6. Eating meatin Lent. But every crime might be expiated by baptism or penance, (Gaillard, tom. Ii. P. 241-247;) and the Christian Saxons became thefriends and equals of the Franks, (Struv. Corpus Hist. Germanicae, p. 133. )]

[Footnote 981: M. Guizot (Cours d'Histoire Moderne, p. 270, 273) hascompiled the following statement of Charlemagne's military campaigns:--

 1. Against the Aquitanians. 

 18. " the Saxons. 

 5. " the Lombards. 

 7. " the Arabs in Spain. 

 1. " the Thuringians. 

 4. " the Avars. 

 2. " the Bretons. 

 1. " the Bavarians. 

 4. " the Slaves beyond the Elbe

 5. " the Saracens in Italy. 

 3. " the Danes. 

 2. " the Greeks. ___

 53 total. --M. ]

[Footnote 99: In this action the famous Rutland, Rolando, Orlando, was slain--cum compluribus aliis. See the truth in Eginhard, (c. 9, p. 51-56, ) and the fable in an ingenious Supplement of M. Gaillard, (tom. Iii. P. 474. ) The Spaniards are too proud of a victory, which historyascribes to the Gascons, and romance to the Saracens. * Note: Infact, it was a sudden onset of the Gascons, assisted by the Beauremountaineers, and possibly a few Navarrese. --M. ]

[Footnote 100: Yet Schmidt, from the best authorities, represents theinterior disorders and oppression of his reign, (Hist. Des Allemands, tom. Ii. P. 45-49. )]

[Footnote 101: Omnis homo ex sua proprietate legitimam decimam adecclesiam conferat. Experimento enim didicimus, in anno, quo illa validafames irrepsit, ebullire vacuas annonas a daemonibus devoratas, et vocesexprobationis auditas. Such is the decree and assertion of the greatCouncil of Frankfort, (canon xxv. Tom. Ix. P. 105. ) Both Selden (Hist. Of Tithes; Works, vol. Iii. Part ii. P. 1146) and Montesquieu (Espritdes Loix, l. Xxxi. C. 12) represent Charlemagne as the first legalauthor of tithes. Such obligations have country gentlemen to hismemory!]

[Footnote 102: Eginhard (c. 25, p. 119) clearly affirms, tentabat etscribere. .. Sed parum prospere successit labor praeposterus et seroinchoatus. The moderns have perverted and corrected this obviousmeaning, and the title of M. Gaillard's dissertation (tom. Iii. P. 247-260) betrays his partiality. * Note: This point has been contested;but Mr. Hallam and Monsieur Sismondl concur with Gibbon. See MiddleAges, iii. 330, Histoire de Francais, tom. Ii. P. 318. The sensibleobservations of the latter are quoted in the Quarterly Review, vol. Xlviii. P. 451. Fleury, I may add, quotes from Mabillon a remarkableevidence that Charlemagne "had a mark to himself like an honest, plain-dealing man. " Ibid. --M. ]

[Footnote 103: See Gaillard, tom. Iii. P. 138-176, and Schmidt, tom. Ii. P. 121-129. ]

[Footnote 104: M. Gaillard (tom. Iii. P. 372) fixes the true stature ofCharlemagne (see a Dissertation of Marquard Freher ad calcem Eginhart, p. 220, &c. ) at five feet nine inches of French, about six feet one inchand a fourth English, measure. The romance writers have increased itto eight feet, and the giant was endowed with matchless strength andappetite: at a single stroke of his good sword Joyeuse, he cut asundera horseman and his horse; at a single repast, he devoured a goose, twofowls, a quarter of mutton, &c. ]

That empire was not unworthy of its title; [105] and some of the fairestkingdoms of Europe were the patrimony or conquest of a prince, whoreigned at the same time in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Hungary. [106] I. The Roman province of Gaul had been transformed into the nameand monarchy of France; but, in the decay of the Merovingian line, itslimits were contracted by the independence of the Britons and the revoltof Aquitain. Charlemagne pursued, and confined, the Britons on theshores of the ocean; and that ferocious tribe, whose origin and languageare so different from the French, was chastised by the imposition oftribute, hostages, and peace. After a long and evasive contest, therebellion of the dukes of Aquitain was punished by the forfeiture oftheir province, their liberty, and their lives. 

Harsh and rigorous would have been such treatment of ambitiousgovernors, who had too faithfully copied the mayors of the palace. Buta recent discovery [107] has proved that these unhappy princes were thelast and lawful heirs of the blood and sceptre of Clovis, and youngerbranch, from the brother of Dagobert, of the Merovingian house. Theirancient kingdom was reduced to the duchy of Gascogne, to the countiesof Fesenzac and Armagnac, at the foot of the Pyrenees: their racewas propagated till the beginning of the sixteenth century; and aftersurviving their Carlovingian tyrants, they were reserved to feelthe injustice, or the favors, of a third dynasty. By the reunion ofAquitain, France was enlarged to its present boundaries, with theadditions of the Netherlands and Spain, as far as the Rhine. II. 

The Saracens had been expelled from France by the grandfather and fatherof Charlemagne; but they still possessed the greatest part of Spain, from the rock of Gibraltar to the Pyrenees. Amidst their civildivisions, an Arabian emir of Saragossa implored his protection in thediet of Paderborn. Charlemagne undertook the expedition, restoredthe emir, and, without distinction of faith, impartially crushed theresistance of the Christians, and rewarded the obedience and servicesof the Mahometans. In his absence he instituted the Spanish march, [108]which extended from the Pyrenees to the River Ebro: Barcelona was theresidence of the French governor: he possessed the counties of Rousillonand Catalonia; and the infant kingdoms of Navarre and Arragon weresubject to his jurisdiction. III. As king of the Lombards, and patricianof Rome, he reigned over the greatest part of Italy, [109] a tract ofa thousand miles from the Alps to the borders of Calabria. The duchy ofBeneventum, a Lombard fief, had spread, at the expense of the Greeks, over the modern kingdom of Naples. But Arrechis, the reigning duke, refused to be included in the slavery of his country; assumed theindependent title of prince; and opposed his sword to the Carlovingianmonarchy. His defence was firm, his submission was not inglorious, andthe emperor was content with an easy tribute, the demolition of hisfortresses, and the acknowledgement, on his coins, of a supreme lord. The artful flattery of his son Grimoald added the appellation of father, but he asserted his dignity with prudence, and Benventum insensiblyescaped from the French yoke. [110] IV. Charlemagne was the first whounited Germany under the same sceptre. The name of Oriental Franceis preserved in the circle of Franconia; and the people of Hesse andThuringia were recently incorporated with the victors, by the conformityof religion and government. The Alemanni, so formidable to the Romans, were the faithful vassals and confederates of the Franks; and theircountry was inscribed within the modern limits of Alsace, Swabia, andSwitzerland. The Bavarians, with a similar indulgence of their laws andmanners, were less patient of a master: the repeated treasons of Tasillojustified the abolition of their hereditary dukes; and their power wasshared among the counts, who judged and guarded that important frontier. But the north of Germany, from the Rhine and beyond the Elbe, was stillhostile and Pagan; nor was it till after a war of thirty-three yearsthat the Saxons bowed under the yoke of Christ and of Charlemagne. The idols and their votaries were extirpated: the foundation of eightbishoprics, of Munster, Osnaburgh, Paderborn, and Minden, of Bremen, Verden, Hildesheim, and Halberstadt, define, on either side of theWeser, the bounds of ancient Saxony these episcopal seats were the firstschools and cities of that savage land; and the religion and humanityof the children atoned, in some degree, for the massacre of the parents. Beyond the Elbe, the Slavi, or Sclavonians, of similar manners andvarious denominations, overspread the modern dominions of Prussia, Poland, and Bohemia, and some transient marks of obedience have temptedthe French historian to extend the empire to the Baltic and the Vistula. The conquest or conversion of those countries is of a more recent age;but the first union of Bohemia with the Germanic body may be justlyascribed to the arms of Charlemagne. V. He retaliated on the Avars, orHuns of Pannonia, the same calamities which they had inflicted on thenations. Their rings, the wooden fortifications which encircled theirdistricts and villages, were broken down by the triple effort of aFrench army, that was poured into their country by land and water, through the Carpathian mountains and along the plain of the Danube. After a bloody conflict of eight years, the loss of some French generalswas avenged by the slaughter of the most noble Huns: the relics of thenation submitted the royal residence of the chagan was left desolate andunknown; and the treasures, the rapine of two hundred and fifty years, enriched the victorious troops, or decorated the churches of Italy andGaul. [111] After the reduction of Pannonia, the empire of Charlemagnewas bounded only by the conflux of the Danube with the Teyss and theSave: the provinces of Istria, Liburnia, and Dalmatia, were an easy, though unprofitable, accession; and it was an effect of his moderation, that he left the maritime cities under the real or nominal sovereigntyof the Greeks. But these distant possessions added more to thereputation than to the power of the Latin emperor; nor did he risk anyecclesiastical foundations to reclaim the Barbarians from their vagrantlife and idolatrous worship. Some canals of communication between therivers, the Saone and the Meuse, the Rhine and the Danube, were faintlyattempted. [112] Their execution would have vivified the empire; andmore cost and labor were often wasted in the structure of a cathedral. [1121]

[Footnote 105: See the concise, but correct and original, work ofD'Anville, (Etats Formes en Europe apres la Chute de l'Empire Romainen Occident, Paris, 1771, in 4to. , ) whose map includes the empire ofCharlemagne; the different parts are illustrated, by Valesius (NotitiaGalliacum) for France, Beretti (Dissertatio Chorographica) for Italy, DeMarca (Marca Hispanica) for Spain. For the middle geography of Germany, I confess myself poor and destitute. ]

[Footnote 106: After a brief relation of his wars and conquests, (Vit. Carol. C. 5-14, ) Eginhard recapitulates, in a few words, (c. 15, ) thecountries subject to his empire. Struvius, (Corpus Hist. German. P. 118-149) was inserted in his Notes the texts of the old Chronicles. ]

[Footnote 107: On a charter granted to the monastery of Alaon (A. D. 845)by Charles the Bald, which deduces this royal pedigree. I doubt whethersome subsequent links of the ixth and xth centuries are equally firm;yet the whole is approved and defended by M. Gaillard, (tom. Ii. P. 60-81, 203-206, ) who affirms that the family of Montesquiou (notof the President de Montesquieu) is descended, in the female line, fromClotaire and Clovis--an innocent pretension!]

[Footnote 108: The governors or counts of the Spanish march revoltedfrom Charles the Simple about the year 900; and a poor pittance, the Rousillon, has been recovered in 1642 by the kings of France, (Longuerue, Description de la France, tom i. P. 220-222. ) Yet theRousillon contains 188, 900 subjects, and annually pays 2, 600, 000 livres, (Necker, Administration des Finances, tom. I. P. 278, 279;) more people, perhaps, and doubtless more money than the march of Charlemagne. ]

[Footnote 109: Schmidt, Hist. Des Allemands, tom. Ii. P. 200, &c. ]

[Footnote 110: See Giannone, tom. I. P 374, 375, and the Annals ofMuratori. ]

[Footnote 111: Quot praelia in eo gesta! quantum sanguinis effusum sit!Testatur vacua omni habitatione Pannonia, et locus in quo regia Caganifuit ita desertus, ut ne vestigium quidem humanae habitationis appareat. Tota in hoc bello Hunnorum nobilitas periit, tota gloria decidit, omnispecunia et congesti ex longo tempore thesauri direpti sunt. Eginhard, cxiii. ]

[Footnote 112: The junction of the Rhine and Danube was undertaken onlyfor the service of the Pannonian war, (Gaillard, Vie de Charlemagne, tom. Ii. P. 312-315. ) The canal, which would have been only two leaguesin length, and of which some traces are still extant in Swabia, wasinterrupted by excessive rains, military avocations, and superstitiousfears, (Schaepflin, Hist. De l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. Xviii. P. 256. Molimina fluviorum, &c. , jungendorum, p. 59-62. )]

[Footnote 1121: I should doubt this in the time of Charlemagne, even ifthe term "expended" were substituted for "wasted. "--M. ]

Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks. --Part V. 

If we retrace the outlines of this geographical picture, it will be seenthat the empire of the Franks extended, between east and west, from theEbro to the Elbe or Vistula; between the north and south, from the duchyof Beneventum to the River Eyder, the perpetual boundary of Germanyand Denmark. The personal and political importance of Charlemagnewas magnified by the distress and division of the rest of Europe. Theislands of Great Britain and Ireland were disputed by a crowd of princesof Saxon or Scottish origin: and, after the loss of Spain, the Christianand Gothic kingdom of Alphonso the Chaste was confined to the narrowrange of the Asturian mountains. These petty sovereigns revered thepower or virtue of the Carlovingian monarch, implored the honor andsupport of his alliance, and styled him their common parent, the soleand supreme emperor of the West. [113] He maintained a more equalintercourse with the caliph Harun al Rashid, [114] whose dominionstretched from Africa to India, and accepted from his ambassadors atent, a water-clock, an elephant, and the keys of the Holy Sepulchre. Itis not easy to conceive the private friendship of a Frank and an Arab, who were strangers to each other's person, and language, and religion:but their public correspondence was founded on vanity, and their remotesituation left no room for a competition of interest. Two thirds of theWestern empire of Rome were subject to Charlemagne, and the deficiencywas amply supplied by his command of the inaccessible or invinciblenations of Germany. But in the choice of his enemies, [1141] we may bereasonably surprised that he so often preferred the poverty of the northto the riches of the south. The three-and-thirty campaigns laboriouslyconsumed in the woods and morasses of Germany would have sufficed toassert the amplitude of his title by the expulsion of the Greeks fromItaly and the Saracens from Spain. The weakness of the Greeks would haveinsured an easy victory; and the holy crusade against the Saracenswould have been prompted by glory and revenge, and loudly justified byreligion and policy. Perhaps, in his expeditions beyond the Rhine andthe Elbe, he aspired to save his monarchy from the fate of the Romanempire, to disarm the enemies of civilized society, and to eradicate theseed of future emigrations. But it has been wisely observed, that, in alight of precaution, all conquest must be ineffectual, unless it couldbe universal, since the increasing circle must be involved in a largersphere of hostility. [115] The subjugation of Germany withdrew the veilwhich had so long concealed the continent or islands of Scandinaviafrom the knowledge of Europe, and awakened the torpid courage of theirbarbarous natives. The fiercest of the Saxon idolaters escaped fromthe Christian tyrant to their brethren of the North; the Ocean andMediterranean were covered with their piratical fleets; and Charlemagnebeheld with a sigh the destructive progress of the Normans, who, in lessthan seventy years, precipitated the fall of his race and monarchy. 

[Footnote 113: See Eginhard, c. 16, and Gaillard, tom. Ii. P. 361-385, who mentions, with a loose reference, the intercourse of Charlemagne andEgbert, the emperor's gift of his own sword, and the modest answer ofhis Saxon disciple. The anecdote, if genuine, would have adorned ourEnglish histories. ]

[Footnote 114: The correspondence is mentioned only in the Frenchannals, and the Orientals are ignorant of the caliph's friendship forthe Christian dog--a polite appellation, which Harun bestows on theemperor of the Greeks. ]

[Footnote 1141: Had he the choice? M. Guizot has eloquently describedthe position of Charlemagne towards the Saxons. Il y fit face par leconquete; la guerre defensive prit la forme offensive: il transporta lalutte sur le territoire des peuples qui voulaient envahir le sien: iltravailla a asservir les races etrangeres, et extirper les croyancesennemies. De la son mode de gouvernement et la fondation de son empire:la guerre offensive et la conquete voulaient cette vaste et redoutableunite. Compare observations in the Quarterly Review, vol. Xlviii. , andJames's Life of Charlemagne. --M. ]

[Footnote 115: Gaillard, tom. Ii. P. 361-365, 471-476, 492. I haveborrowed his judicious remarks on Charlemagne's plan of conquest, andthe judicious distinction of his enemies of the first and the secondenceinte, (tom. Ii. P. 184, 509, &c. )]

Had the pope and the Romans revived the primitive constitution, thetitles of emperor and Augustus were conferred on Charlemagne forthe term of his life; and his successors, on each vacancy, must haveascended the throne by a formal or tacit election. But the associationof his son Lewis the Pious asserts the independent right of monarchy andconquest, and the emperor seems on this occasion to have foreseen andprevented the latent claims of the clergy. The royal youth was commandedto take the crown from the altar, and with his own hands to place it onhis head, as a gift which he held from God, his father, and the nation. [116] The same ceremony was repeated, though with less energy, inthe subsequent associations of Lothaire and Lewis the Second: theCarlovingian sceptre was transmitted from father to son in a linealdescent of four generations; and the ambition of the popes was reducedto the empty honor of crowning and anointing these hereditary princes, who were already invested with their power and dominions. Thepious Lewis survived his brothers, and embraced the whole empireof Charlemagne; but the nations and the nobles, his bishops and hischildren, quickly discerned that this mighty mass was no longer inspiredby the same soul; and the foundations were undermined to the centre, while the external surface was yet fair and entire. After a war, orbattle, which consumed one hundred thousand Franks, the empire wasdivided by treaty between his three sons, who had violated every filialand fraternal duty. The kingdoms of Germany and France were foreverseparated; the provinces of Gaul, between the Rhone and the Alps, theMeuse and the Rhine, were assigned, with Italy, to the Imperial dignityof Lothaire. In the partition of his share, Lorraine and Arles, tworecent and transitory kingdoms, were bestowed on the younger children;and Lewis the Second, his eldest son, was content with the realm ofItaly, the proper and sufficient patrimony of a Roman emperor. On hisdeath without any male issue, the vacant throne was disputed by hisuncles and cousins, and the popes most dexterously seized the occasionof judging the claims and merits of the candidates, and of bestowing onthe most obsequious, or most liberal, the Imperial office of advocate ofthe Roman church. The dregs of the Carlovingian race no longer exhibitedany symptoms of virtue or power, and the ridiculous epithets of thebard, the stammerer, the fat, and the simple, distinguished the tame anduniform features of a crowd of kings alike deserving of oblivion. By thefailure of the collateral branches, the whole inheritance devolved toCharles the Fat, the last emperor of his family: his insanity authorizedthe desertion of Germany, Italy, and France: he was deposed in a diet, and solicited his daily bread from the rebels by whose contempt his lifeand liberty had been spared. According to the measure of their force, the governors, the bishops, and the lords, usurped the fragments ofthe falling empire; and some preference was shown to the female orillegitimate blood of Charlemagne. Of the greater part, the titleand possession were alike doubtful, and the merit was adequate to thecontracted scale of their dominions. Those who could appear with an armyat the gates of Rome were crowned emperors in the Vatican; but theirmodesty was more frequently satisfied with the appellation of kings ofItaly: and the whole term of seventy-four years may be deemed a vacancy, from the abdication of Charles the Fat to the establishment of Otho theFirst. 

[Footnote 116: Thegan, the biographer of Lewis, relates this coronation:and Baronius has honestly transcribed it, (A. D. 813, No. 13, &c. SeeGaillard, tom. Ii. P. 506, 507, 508, ) howsoever adverse to the claimsof the popes. For the series of the Carlovingians, see the historians ofFrance, Italy, and Germany; Pfeffel, Schmidt, Velly, Muratori, and evenVoltaire, whose pictures are sometimes just, and always pleasing. ]

Otho [117] was of the noble race of the dukes of Saxony; and if he trulydescended from Witikind, the adversary and proselyte of Charlemagne, the posterity of a vanquished people was exalted to reign over theirconquerors. His father, Henry the Fowler, was elected, by the suffrageof the nation, to save and institute the kingdom of Germany. Its limits[118] were enlarged on every side by his son, the first and greatest ofthe Othos. A portion of Gaul, to the west of the Rhine, along the banksof the Meuse and the Moselle, was assigned to the Germans, by whoseblood and language it has been tinged since the time of Caesar andTacitus. 

Between the Rhine, the Rhone, and the Alps, the successors of Othoacquired a vain supremacy over the broken kingdoms of Burgundy andArles. In the North, Christianity was propagated by the sword of Otho, the conqueror and apostle of the Slavic nations of the Elbe and Oder:the marches of Brandenburgh and Sleswick were fortified with Germancolonies; and the king of Denmark, the dukes of Poland and Bohemia, confessed themselves his tributary vassals. At the head of a victoriousarmy, he passed the Alps, subdued the kingdom of Italy, delivered thepope, and forever fixed the Imperial crown in the name and nation ofGermany. From that memorable aera, two maxims of public jurisprudencewere introduced by force and ratified by time. I. That the prince, whowas elected in the German diet, acquired, from that instant, the subjectkingdoms of Italy and Rome. II. But that he might not legally assume thetitles of emperor and Augustus, till he had received the crown from thehands of the Roman pontiff. [119]

[Footnote 117: He was the son of Otho, the son of Ludolph, in whosefavor the Duchy of Saxony had been instituted, A. D. 858. Ruotgerus, thebiographer of a St. Bruno, (Bibliot. Bunavianae Catalog. Tom. Iii. Vol. Ii. P. 679, ) gives a splendid character of his family. Atavorum ataviusque ad hominum memoriam omnes nobilissimi; nullus in eorum stirpeignotus, nullus degener facile reperitur, (apud Struvium, Corp. Hist. German. P. 216. ) Yet Gundling (in Henrico Aucupe) is not satisfied ofhis descent from Witikind. ]

[Footnote 118: See the treatise of Conringius, (de Finibus ImperiiGermanici, Francofurt. 1680, in 4to. : ) he rejects the extravagant andimproper scale of the Roman and Carlovingian empires, and discusses withmoderation the rights of Germany, her vassals, and her neighbors. ]

[Footnote 119: The power of custom forces me to number Conrad I. AndHenry I. , the Fowler, in the list of emperors, a title which was neverassumed by those kings of Germany. The Italians, Muratori for instance, are more scrupulous and correct, and only reckon the princes who havebeen crowned at Rome. ]

The Imperial dignity of Charlemagne was announced to the East by thealteration of his style; and instead of saluting his fathers, the Greekemperors, he presumed to adopt the more equal and familiar appellationof brother. [120] Perhaps in his connection with Irene he aspired tothe name of husband: his embassy to Constantinople spoke the language ofpeace and friendship, and might conceal a treaty of marriage withthat ambitious princess, who had renounced the most sacred duties of amother. The nature, the duration, the probable consequences of such aunion between two distant and dissonant empires, it is impossible toconjecture; but the unanimous silence of the Latins may teach us tosuspect, that the report was invented by the enemies of Irene, to chargeher with the guilt of betraying the church and state to the strangersof the West. [121] The French ambassadors were the spectators, andhad nearly been the victims, of the conspiracy of Nicephorus, and thenational hatred. Constantinople was exasperated by the treason andsacrilege of ancient Rome: a proverb, "That the Franks were good friendsand bad neighbors, " was in every one's mouth; but it was dangerous toprovoke a neighbor who might be tempted to reiterate, in the church ofSt. Sophia, the ceremony of his Imperial coronation. After a tediousjourney of circuit and delay, the ambassadors of Nicephorus found himin his camp, on the banks of the River Sala; and Charlemagne affected toconfound their vanity by displaying, in a Franconian village, the pomp, or at least the pride, of the Byzantine palace. [122] The Greeks weresuccessively led through four halls of audience: in the first they wereready to fall prostrate before a splendid personage in a chair of state, till he informed them that he was only a servant, the constable, ormaster of the horse, of the emperor. The same mistake, and the sameanswer, were repeated in the apartments of the count palatine, thesteward, and the chamberlain; and their impatience was graduallyheightened, till the doors of the presence-chamber were thrown open, and they beheld the genuine monarch, on his throne, enriched withthe foreign luxury which he despised, and encircled with the love andreverence of his victorious chiefs. A treaty of peace and alliance wasconcluded between the two empires, and the limits of the East and Westwere defined by the right of present possession. But the Greeks [123]soon forgot this humiliating equality, or remembered it only to hate theBarbarians by whom it was extorted. During the short union of virtueand power, they respectfully saluted the august Charlemagne, with theacclamations of basileus, and emperor of the Romans. As soon as thesequalities were separated in the person of his pious son, the Byzantineletters were inscribed, "To the king, or, as he styles himself, theemperor of the Franks and Lombards. " When both power and virtue wereextinct, they despoiled Lewis the Second of his hereditary title, andwith the barbarous appellation of rex or rega, degraded him among thecrowd of Latin princes. His reply [124] is expressive of his weakness:he proves, with some learning, that, both in sacred and profane history, the name of king is synonymous with the Greek word basileus: if, atConstantinople, it were assumed in a more exclusive and imperial sense, he claims from his ancestors, and from the popes, a just participationof the honors of the Roman purple. The same controversy was revivedin the reign of the Othos; and their ambassador describes, in livelycolors, the insolence of the Byzantine court. [125] The Greeks affectedto despise the poverty and ignorance of the Franks and Saxons; and intheir last decline refused to prostitute to the kings of Germany thetitle of Roman emperors. 

[Footnote 120: Invidiam tamen suscepti nominis (C. P. Imperatoribussuper hoc indignantibus) magna tulit patientia, vicitque eorumcontumaciam. .. Mittendo ad eos crebras legationes, et in epistolisfratres eos appellando. Eginhard, c. 28, p. 128. Perhaps it was on theiraccount that, like Augustus, he affected some reluctance to receive theempire. ]

[Footnote 121: Theophanes speaks of the coronation and unction ofCharles (Chronograph. P. 399, ) and of his treaty of marriage withIrene, (p. 402, ) which is unknown to the Latins. Gaillard relates histransactions with the Greek empire, (tom. Ii. P. 446-468. )]

[Footnote 122: Gaillard very properly observes, that this pageant was afarce suitable to children only; but that it was indeed represented inthe presence, and for the benefit, of children of a larger growth. ]

[Footnote 123: Compare, in the original texts collected by Pagi, (tom. Iii. A. D. 812, No. 7, A. D. 824, No. 10, &c. , ) the contrast ofCharlemagne and his son; to the former the ambassadors of Michael (whowere indeed disavowed) more suo, id est lingua Graeca laudes dixerunt, imperatorem eum et appellantes; to the latter, Vocato imperatoriFrancorum, &c. ]

[Footnote 124: See the epistle, in Paralipomena, of the anonymous writerof Salerno, (Script. Ital. Tom. Ii. Pars ii. P. 243-254, c. 93-107, )whom Baronius (A. D. 871, No. 51-71) mistook for Erchempert, when hetranscribed it in his Annals. ]

[Footnote 125: Ipse enim vos, non imperatorem, id est sua lingua, sedob indignationem, id est regem nostra vocabat, Liutprand, in Legat. InScript. Ital. Tom. Ii. Pars i. P. 479. The pope had exhorted Nicephorus, emperor of the Greeks, to make peace with Otho, the august emperor ofthe Romans--quae inscriptio secundum Graecos peccatoria et temeraria. .. Imperatorem inquiunt, universalem, Romanorum, Augustum, magnum, solum, Nicephorum, (p. 486. )]

These emperors, in the election of the popes, continued to exercise thepowers which had been assumed by the Gothic and Grecian princes; and theimportance of this prerogative increased with the temporal estateand spiritual jurisdiction of the Roman church. In the Christianaristocracy, the principal members of the clergy still formed a senateto assist the administration, and to supply the vacancy, of the bishop. Rome was divided into twenty-eight parishes, and each parish wasgoverned by a cardinal priest, or presbyter, a title which, howevercommon or modest in its origin, has aspired to emulate the purple ofkings. Their number was enlarged by the association of the seven deaconsof the most considerable hospitals, the seven palatine judges of theLateran, and some dignitaries of the church. This ecclesiastical senatewas directed by the seven cardinal-bishops of the Roman province, whowere less occupied in the suburb dioceses of Ostia, Porto, Velitrae, Tusculum, Praeneste, Tibur, and the Sabines, than by their weeklyservice in the Lateran, and their superior share in the honors andauthority of the apostolic see. On the death of the pope, these bishopsrecommended a successor to the suffrage of the college of cardinals, [126] and their choice was ratified or rejected by the applause orclamor of the Roman people. But the election was imperfect; nor couldthe pontiff be legally consecrated till the emperor, the advocate of thechurch, had graciously signified his approbation and consent. Theroyal commissioner examined, on the spot, the form and freedom ofthe proceedings; nor was it till after a previous scrutiny into thequalifications of the candidates, that he accepted an oath of fidelity, and confirmed the donations which had successively enriched thepatrimony of St. Peter. In the frequent schisms, the rival claims weresubmitted to the sentence of the emperor; and in a synod of bishops hepresumed to judge, to condemn, and to punish, the crimes of a guiltypontiff. Otho the First imposed a treaty on the senate and people, whoengaged to prefer the candidate most acceptable to his majesty: [127]his successors anticipated or prevented their choice: they bestowedthe Roman benefice, like the bishoprics of Cologne or Bamberg, on theirchancellors or preceptors; and whatever might be the merit of a Frank orSaxon, his name sufficiently attests the interposition of foreign power. These acts of prerogative were most speciously excused by the vices of apopular election. The competitor who had been excluded by the cardinalsappealed to the passions or avarice of the multitude; the Vatican andthe Lateran were stained with blood; and the most powerful senators, themarquises of Tuscany and the counts of Tusculum, held the apostolic seein a long and disgraceful servitude. The Roman pontiffs, of the ninthand tenth centuries, were insulted, imprisoned, and murdered, by theirtyrants; and such was their indigence, after the loss and usurpationof the ecclesiastical patrimonies, that they could neither supportthe state of a prince, nor exercise the charity of a priest. [128] Theinfluence of two sister prostitutes, Marozia and Theodora, was foundedon their wealth and beauty, their political and amorous intrigues: themost strenuous of their lovers were rewarded with the Roman mitre, andtheir reign [129] may have suggested to the darker ages [130] the fable[131] of a female pope. [132] The bastard son, the grandson, and thegreat-grandson of Marozia, a rare genealogy, were seated in the chairof St. Peter, and it was at the age of nineteen years that the second ofthese became the head of the Latin church. [1321] His youth and manhoodwere of a suitable complexion; and the nations of pilgrims could beartestimony to the charges that were urged against him in a Roman synod, and in the presence of Otho the Great. As John XII. Had renounced thedress and decencies of his profession, the soldier may not perhaps bedishonored by the wine which he drank, the blood that he spilt, theflames that he kindled, or the licentious pursuits of gaming andhunting. His open simony might be the consequence of distress; and hisblasphemous invocation of Jupiter and Venus, if it be true, could notpossibly be serious. But we read, with some surprise, that the worthygrandson of Marozia lived in public adultery with the matrons of Rome;that the Lateran palace was turned into a school for prostitution, andthat his rapes of virgins and widows had deterred the female pilgrimsfrom visiting the tomb of St. Peter, lest, in the devout act, theyshould be violated by his successor. [133] The Protestants have dweltwith malicious pleasure on these characters of Antichrist; but to aphilosophic eye, the vices of the clergy are far less dangerous thantheir virtues. After a long series of scandal, the apostolic see wasreformed and exalted by the austerity and zeal of Gregory VII. Thatambitious monk devoted his life to the execution of two projects. I. To fix in the college of cardinals the freedom and independence ofelection, and forever to abolish the right or usurpation of the emperorsand the Roman people. II. To bestow and resume the Western empire asa fief or benefice [134] of the church, and to extend his temporaldominion over the kings and kingdoms of the earth. After a contest offifty years, the first of these designs was accomplished by the firmsupport of the ecclesiastical order, whose liberty was connected withthat of their chief. But the second attempt, though it was crowned withsome partial and apparent success, has been vigorously resisted by thesecular power, and finally extinguished by the improvement of humanreason. 

[Footnote 126: The origin and progress of the title of cardinal may befound in Themassin, (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. I. P. 1261-1298, )Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. Vi. Dissert. Lxi. P. 159-182, ) and Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. P. 345-347, )who accurately remarks the form and changes of the election. Thecardinal-bishops so highly exalted by Peter Damianus, are sunk to alevel with the rest of the sacred college. ]

[Footnote 127: Firmiter jurantes, nunquam se papam electuros autaudinaturos, praeter consensum et electionem Othonis et filii sui. (Liutprand, l. Vi. C. 6, p. 472. ) This important concession may eithersupply or confirm the decree of the clergy and people of Rome, sofiercely rejected by Baronius, Pagi, and Muratori, (A. D. 964, ) and sowell defended and explained by St. Marc, (Abrege, tom. Ii. P. 808-816, tom. Iv. P. 1167-1185. ) Consult the historical critic, and the Annalsof Muratori, for for the election and confirmation of each pope. ]

[Footnote 128: The oppression and vices of the Roman church, in the xthcentury, are strongly painted in the history and legation of Liutprand, (see p. 440, 450, 471-476, 479, &c. ;) and it is whimsical enough toobserve Muratori tempering the invectives of Baronius against thepopes. But these popes had been chosen, not by the cardinals, but bylay-patrons. ]

[Footnote 129: The time of Pope Joan (papissa Joanna) is placed somewhatearlier than Theodora or Marozia; and the two years of her imaginaryreign are forcibly inserted between Leo IV. And Benedict III. But thecontemporary Anastasius indissolubly links the death of Leo andthe elevation of Benedict, (illico, mox, p. 247;) and the accuratechronology of Pagi, Muratori, and Leibnitz, fixes both events to theyear 857. ]

[Footnote 130: The advocates for Pope Joan produce one hundred and fiftywitnesses, or rather echoes, of the xivth, xvth, and xvith centuries. They bear testimony against themselves and the legend, by multiplyingthe proof that so curious a story must have been repeated by writersof every description to whom it was known. On those of the ixth andxth centuries, the recent event would have flashed with a double force. Would Photius have spared such a reproach? Could Liutprand have missedsuch scandal? It is scarcely worth while to discuss the various readingsof Martinus Polonus, Sigeber of Gamblours, or even Marianus Scotus;but a most palpable forgery is the passage of Pope Joan, which has beenfoisted into some Mss. And editions of the Roman Anastasius. ]

[Footnote 131: As false, it deserves that name; but I would notpronounce it incredible. Suppose a famous French chevalier of our owntimes to have been born in Italy, and educated in the church, insteadof the army: her merit or fortune might have raised her to St. Peter'schair; her amours would have been natural: her delivery in the streetsunlucky, but not improbable. ]

[Footnote 132: Till the reformation the tale was repeated and believedwithout offence: and Joan's female statue long occupied her place amongthe popes in the cathedral of Sienna, (Pagi, Critica, tom. Iii. P. 624-626. ) She has been annihilated by two learned Protestants, Blondeland Bayle, (Dictionnaire Critique, Papesse, Polonus, Blondel;) but theirbrethren were scandalized by this equitable and generous criticism. Spanheim and Lenfant attempt to save this poor engine of controversy, and even Mosheim condescends to cherish some doubt and suspicion, (p. 289. )]

[Footnote 1321: John XI. Was the son of her husband Alberic, not of herlover, Pope Sergius III. , as Muratori has distinctly proved, Ann. Adann. 911, tom. P. 268. Her grandson Octavian, otherwise called JohnXII. , was pope; but a great-grandson cannot be discovered in any ofthe succeeding popes; nor does our historian himself, in his subsequentnarration, (p. 202, ) seem to know of one. Hobhouse, Illustrations ofChilde Harold, p. 309. --M. ]

[Footnote 133: Lateranense palatium. .. Prostibulum meretricum . .. Testisomnium gentium, praeterquam Romanorum, absentia mulierum, quae sanctorumapostolorum limina orandi gratia timent visere, cum nonnullas ante diespaucos, hunc audierint conjugatas, viduas, virgines vi oppressisse, (Liutprand, Hist. L. Vi. C. 6, p. 471. See the whole affair of JohnXII. , p. 471-476. )]

[Footnote 134: A new example of the mischief of equivocation is thebeneficium (Ducange, tom. I. P. 617, &c. , ) which the pope conferred onthe emperor Frederic I. , since the Latin word may signify either a legalfief, or a simple favor, an obligation, (we want the word bienfait. )(See Schmidt, Hist. Des Allemands, tom. Iii. P. 393-408. Pfeffel, Abrege Chronologique, tom. I. P. 229, 296, 317, 324, 420, 430, 500, 505, 509, &c. )]

In the revival of the empire of empire of Rome, neither the bishop northe people could bestow on Charlemagne or Otho the provinces which werelost, as they had been won, by the chance of arms. But the Romans werefree to choose a master for themselves; and the powers which had beendelegated to the patrician, were irrevocably granted to the Frenchand Saxon emperors of the West. The broken records of the times [135]preserve some remembrance of their palace, their mint, their tribunal, their edicts, and the sword of justice, which, as late as the thirteenthcentury, was derived from Caesar to the praefect of the city. [136]Between the arts of the popes and the violence of the people, thissupremacy was crushed and annihilated. Content with the titles ofemperor and Augustus, the successors of Charlemagne neglected to assertthis local jurisdiction. In the hour of prosperity, their ambition wasdiverted by more alluring objects; and in the decay and division ofthe empire, they were oppressed by the defence of their hereditaryprovinces. Amidst the ruins of Italy, the famous Marozia invited oneof the usurpers to assume the character of her third husband; and Hugh, king of Burgundy was introduced by her faction into the mole of Hadrianor Castle of St. Angelo, which commands the principal bridge andentrance of Rome. Her son by the first marriage, Alberic, was compelledto attend at the nuptial banquet; but his reluctant and ungracefulservice was chastised with a blow by his new father. The blow wasproductive of a revolution. "Romans, " exclaimed the youth, "once youwere the masters of the world, and these Burgundians the most abject ofyour slaves. They now reign, these voracious and brutal savages, andmy injury is the commencement of your servitude. " [137] The alarum bellrang to arms in every quarter of the city: the Burgundians retreatedwith haste and shame; Marozia was imprisoned by her victorious son, andhis brother, Pope John XI. , was reduced to the exercise of his spiritualfunctions. With the title of prince, Alberic possessed above twentyyears the government of Rome; and he is said to have gratified thepopular prejudice, by restoring the office, or at least the title, of consuls and tribunes. His son and heir Octavian assumed, withthe pontificate, the name of John XII. : like his predecessor, he wasprovoked by the Lombard princes to seek a deliverer for the churchand republic; and the services of Otho were rewarded with the Imperialdignity. But the Saxon was imperious, the Romans were impatient, thefestival of the coronation was disturbed by the secret conflict ofprerogative and freedom, and Otho commanded his sword-bearer not to stirfrom his person, lest he should be assaulted and murdered at the foot ofthe altar. [138] Before he repassed the Alps, the emperor chastisedthe revolt of the people and the ingratitude of John XII. The pope wasdegraded in a synod; the praefect was mounted on an ass, whipped throughthe city, and cast into a dungeon; thirteen of the most guilty werehanged, others were mutilated or banished; and this severe process wasjustified by the ancient laws of Theodosius and Justinian. The voiceof fame has accused the second Otho of a perfidious and bloody act, themassacre of the senators, whom he had invited to his table under thefair semblance of hospitality and friendship. [139] In the minority ofhis son Otho the Third, Rome made a bold attempt to shake off the Saxonyoke, and the consul Crescentius was the Brutus of the republic. Fromthe condition of a subject and an exile, he twice rose to the commandof the city, oppressed, expelled, and created the popes, and formed aconspiracy for restoring the authority of the Greek emperors. [1391] Inthe fortress of St. Angelo, he maintained an obstinate siege, till theunfortunate consul was betrayed by a promise of safety: his body wassuspended on a gibbet, and his head was exposed on the battlements ofthe castle. By a reverse of fortune, Otho, after separating his troops, was besieged three days, without food, in his palace; and a disgracefulescape saved him from the justice or fury of the Romans. The senatorPtolemy was the leader of the people, and the widow of Crescentiusenjoyed the pleasure or the fame of revenging her husband, by a poisonwhich she administered to her Imperial lover. It was the design of Othothe Third to abandon the ruder countries of the North, to erect histhrone in Italy, and to revive the institutions of the Roman monarchy. But his successors only once in their lives appeared on the banks of theTyber, to receive their crown in the Vatican. [140] Their absence wascontemptible, their presence odious and formidable. They descendedfrom the Alps, at the head of their barbarians, who were strangers andenemies to the country; and their transient visit was a scene of tumultand bloodshed. [141] A faint remembrance of their ancestors stilltormented the Romans; and they beheld with pious indignation thesuccession of Saxons, Franks, Swabians, and Bohemians, who usurped thepurple and prerogatives of the Caesars. 

[Footnote 135: For the history of the emperors in Rome and Italy, seeSigonius, de Regno Italiae, Opp. Tom. Ii. , with the Notes of Saxius, andthe Annals of Muratori, who might refer more distinctly to the authorsof his great collection. ]

[Footnote 136: See the Dissertations of Le Blanc at the end of histreatise des Monnoyes de France, in which he produces some Roman coinsof the French emperors. ]

[Footnote 137: Romanorum aliquando servi, scilicet Burgundiones, Romanisimperent?. .. . Romanae urbis dignitas ad tantam est stultitiam ducta, ut meretricum etiam imperio pareat? (Liutprand, l. Iii. C. 12, p. 450. ) Sigonius (l. Vi. P. 400) positively affirms the renovation of theconsulship; but in the old writers Albericus is more frequently styledprinceps Romanorum. ]

[Footnote 138: Ditmar, p. 354, apud Schmidt, tom. Iii. P. 439. ]

[Footnote 139: This bloody feast is described in Leonine verse in thePantheon of Godfrey of Viterbo, (Script. Ital. Tom. Vii. P. 436, 437, )who flourished towards the end of the xiith century, (Fabricius Bibliot. Latin. Med. Et Infimi Aevi, tom. Iii. P. 69, edit. Mansi;) but hisevidence, which imposed on Sigonius, is reasonably suspected by Muratori(Annali, tom. Viii. P. 177. )]

[Footnote 1391: The Marquis Maffei's gallery contained a medal with Imp. Caes August. P. P. Crescentius. Hence Hobhouse infers that he affectedthe empire. Hobhouse, Illustrations of Childe Harold, p. 252. --M. ]

[Footnote 140: The coronation of the emperor, and some originalceremonies of the xth century are preserved in the Panegyric onBerengarius, (Script. Ital. Tom. Ii. Pars i. P. 405-414, ) illustratedby the Notes of Hadrian Valesius and Leibnitz. Sigonius has relatedthe whole process of the Roman expedition, in good Latin, but with someerrors of time and fact, (l. Vii. P. 441-446. )]

[Footnote 141: In a quarrel at the coronation of Conrad II. Muratoritakes leave to observe--doveano ben essere allora, indisciplinati, Barbari, e bestials Tedeschi. Annal. Tom. Viii. P. 368. ]

Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks. --Part VI. 

There is nothing perhaps more adverse to nature and reason than to holdin obedience remote countries and foreign nations, in opposition totheir inclination and interest. A torrent of Barbarians may pass overthe earth, but an extensive empire must be supported by a refined systemof policy and oppression; in the centre, an absolute power, prompt inaction and rich in resources; a swift and easy communication with theextreme parts; fortifications to check the first effort of rebellion;a regular administration to protect and punish; and a well-disciplinedarmy to inspire fear, without provoking discontent and despair. Fardifferent was the situation of the German Caesars, who were ambitious toenslave the kingdom of Italy. Their patrimonial estates were stretchedalong the Rhine, or scattered in the provinces; but this ample domainwas alienated by the imprudence or distress of successive princes;and their revenue, from minute and vexatious prerogative, was scarcelysufficient for the maintenance of their household. Their troops wereformed by the legal or voluntary service of their feudal vassals, whopassed the Alps with reluctance, assumed the license of rapine anddisorder, and capriciously deserted before the end of the campaign. Whole armies were swept away by the pestilential influence of theclimate: the survivors brought back the bones of their princes andnobles, [142] and the effects of their own intemperance were oftenimputed to the treachery and malice of the Italians, who rejoiced atleast in the calamities of the Barbarians. This irregular tyranny mightcontend on equal terms with the petty tyrants of Italy; nor can thepeople, or the reader, be much interested in the event of the quarrel. But in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Lombards rekindled theflame of industry and freedom; and the generous example was at lengthimitated by the republics of Tuscany. [1421] In the Italian cities amunicipal government had never been totally abolished; and their firstprivileges were granted by the favor and policy of the emperors, whowere desirous of erecting a plebeian barrier against the independence ofthe nobles. But their rapid progress, the daily extension of their powerand pretensions, were founded on the numbers and spirit of these risingcommunities. [143] Each city filled the measure of her diocese ordistrict: the jurisdiction of the counts and bishops, of the marquisesand counts, was banished from the land; and the proudest nobles werepersuaded or compelled to desert their solitary castles, and to embracethe more honorable character of freemen and magistrates. The legislativeauthority was inherent in the general assembly; but the executive powerswere intrusted to three consuls, annually chosen from the three ordersof captains, valvassors, [144] and commons, into which the republic wasdivided. Under the protection of equal law, the labors of agricultureand commerce were gradually revived; but the martial spirit of theLombards was nourished by the presence of danger; and as often as thebell was rung, or the standard [145] erected, the gates of the citypoured forth a numerous and intrepid band, whose zeal in their own causewas soon guided by the use and discipline of arms. At the foot of thesepopular ramparts, the pride of the Caesars was overthrown; and theinvincible genius of liberty prevailed over the two Frederics, thegreatest princes of the middle age; the first, superior perhaps inmilitary prowess; the second, who undoubtedly excelled in the softeraccomplishments of peace and learning. 

[Footnote 142: After boiling away the flesh. The caldrons for thatpurpose were a necessary piece of travelling furniture; and a German whowas using it for his brother, promised it to a friend, after it shouldhave been employed for himself, (Schmidt, tom. Iii. P. 423, 424. ) Thesame author observes that the whole Saxon line was extinguished inItaly, (tom. Ii. P. 440. )]

[Footnote 1421: Compare Sismondi, Histoire des Republiques Italiannes. Hallam Middle Ages. Raumer, Geschichte der Hohenstauffen. Savigny, Geschichte des Romischen Rechts, vol. Iii. P. 19 with the authorsquoted. --M. ]

[Footnote 143: Otho, bishop of Frisingen, has left an important passageon the Italian cities, (l. Ii. C. 13, in Script. Ital. Tom. Vi. P. 707-710: ) and the rise, progress, and government of these republicsare perfectly illustrated by Muratori, (Antiquitat. Ital. Medii Aevi, tom. Iv. Dissert xlv. --lii. P. 1-675. Annal. Tom. Viii. Ix. X. )]

[Footnote 144: For these titles, see Selden, (Titles of Honor, vol. Iii. Part 1 p. 488. ) Ducange, (Gloss. Latin. Tom. Ii. P. 140, tom. Vi. P. 776, ) and St. Marc, (Abrege Chronologique, tom. Ii. P. 719. )]

[Footnote 145: The Lombards invented and used the carocium, a standardplanted on a car or wagon, drawn by a team of oxen, (Ducange, tom. Ii. P. 194, 195. Muratori Antiquitat tom. Ii. Dis. Xxvi. P. 489-493. )]

Ambitious of restoring the splendor of the purple, Frederic the Firstinvaded the republics of Lombardy, with the arts of a statesman, thevalor of a soldier, and the cruelty of a tyrant. The recent discovery ofthe Pandects had renewed a science most favorable to despotism; and hisvenal advocates proclaimed the emperor the absolute master of the livesand properties of his subjects. His royal prerogatives, in a less odioussense, were acknowledged in the diet of Roncaglia; and the revenue ofItaly was fixed at thirty thousand pounds of silver, [146] which weremultiplied to an indefinite demand by the rapine of the fiscal officers. The obstinate cities were reduced by the terror or the force of hisarms: his captives were delivered to the executioner, or shot fromhis military engines; and. After the siege and surrender of Milan, the buildings of that stately capital were razed to the ground, threehundred hostages were sent into Germany, and the inhabitants weredispersed in four villages, under the yoke of the inflexible conqueror. [147] But Milan soon rose from her ashes; and the league of Lombardy wascemented by distress: their cause was espoused by Venice, PopeAlexander the Third, and the Greek emperor: the fabric of oppressionwas overturned in a day; and in the treaty of Constance, Fredericsubscribed, with some reservations, the freedom of four-and-twentycities. His grandson contended with their vigor and maturity; butFrederic the Second [148] was endowed with some personal and peculiaradvantages. His birth and education recommended him to the Italians;and in the implacable discord of the two factions, the Ghibelins wereattached to the emperor, while the Guelfs displayed the banner ofliberty and the church. The court of Rome had slumbered, when his fatherHenry the Sixth was permitted to unite with the empire the kingdoms ofNaples and Sicily; and from these hereditary realms the son derived anample and ready supply of troops and treasure. Yet Frederic the Secondwas finally oppressed by the arms of the Lombards and the thunders ofthe Vatican: his kingdom was given to a stranger, and the last of hisfamily was beheaded at Naples on a public scaffold. During sixty years, no emperor appeared in Italy, and the name was remembered only by theignominious sale of the last relics of sovereignty. 

[Footnote 146: Gunther Ligurinus, l. Viii. 584, et seq. , apud Schmidt, tom. Iii. P. 399. ]

[Footnote 147: Solus imperator faciem suam firmavit ut petram, (Burcard. De Excidio Mediolani, Script. Ital. Tom. Vi. P. 917. ) This volume ofMuratori contains the originals of the history of Frederic the First, which must be compared with due regard to the circumstances andprejudices of each German or Lombard writer. * Note: Von Raumer hastraced the fortunes of the Swabian house in one of the ablest historicalworks of modern times. He may be compared with the spirited andindependent Sismondi. --M. ]

[Footnote 148: For the history of Frederic II. And the house of Swabiaat Naples, see Giannone, Istoria Civile, tom. Ii. L. Xiv. -xix. ]

The Barbarian conquerors of the West were pleased to decorate theirchief with the title of emperor; but it was not their design to investhim with the despotism of Constantine and Justinian. The persons of theGermans were free, their conquests were their own, and theirnational character was animated by a spirit which scorned the servilejurisprudence of the new or the ancient Rome. It would have been a vainand dangerous attempt to impose a monarch on the armed freemen, whowere impatient of a magistrate; on the bold, who refused to obey; on thepowerful, who aspired to command. The empire of Charlemagne and Otho wasdistributed among the dukes of the nations or provinces, the counts ofthe smaller districts, and the margraves of the marches or frontiers, who all united the civil and military authority as it had been delegatedto the lieutenants of the first Caesars. The Roman governors, who, for the most part, were soldiers of fortune, seduced their mercenarylegions, assumed the Imperial purple, and either failed or succeeded intheir revolt, without wounding the power and unity of government. If thedukes, margraves, and counts of Germany, were less audacious intheir claims, the consequences of their success were more lasting andpernicious to the state. Instead of aiming at the supreme rank, they silently labored to establish and appropriate their provincialindependence. Their ambition was seconded by the weight of their estatesand vassals, their mutual example and support, the common interestof the subordinate nobility, the change of princes and families, theminorities of Otho the Third and Henry the Fourth, the ambition of thepopes, and the vain pursuit of the fugitive crowns of Italy and Rome. All the attributes of regal and territorial jurisdiction were graduallyusurped by the commanders of the provinces; the right of peace and war, of life and death, of coinage and taxation, of foreign alliance anddomestic economy. Whatever had been seized by violence, was ratifiedby favor or distress, was granted as the price of a doubtful vote or avoluntary service; whatever had been granted to one could not, withoutinjury, be denied to his successor or equal; and every act of local ortemporary possession was insensibly moulded into the constitution of theGermanic kingdom. In every province, the visible presence of the duke orcount was interposed between the throne and the nobles; the subjects ofthe law became the vassals of a private chief; and the standard which hereceived from his sovereign, was often raised against him in the field. The temporal power of the clergy was cherished and exalted by thesuperstition or policy of the Carlovingian and Saxon dynasties, whoblindly depended on their moderation and fidelity; and the bishoprics ofGermany were made equal in extent and privilege, superior in wealth andpopulation, to the most ample states of the military order. As longas the emperors retained the prerogative of bestowing on every vacancythese ecclesiastic and secular benefices, their cause was maintainedby the gratitude or ambition of their friends and favorites. But in thequarrel of the investitures, they were deprived of their influence overthe episcopal chapters; the freedom of election was restored, and thesovereign was reduced, by a solemn mockery, to his first prayers, therecommendation, once in his reign, to a single prebend in each church. The secular governors, instead of being recalled at the will of asuperior, could be degraded only by the sentence of their peers. In thefirst age of the monarchy, the appointment of the son to the duchyor county of his father, was solicited as a favor; it was graduallyobtained as a custom, and extorted as a right: the lineal succession wasoften extended to the collateral or female branches; the states of theempire (their popular, and at length their legal, appellation) weredivided and alienated by testament and sale; and all idea of a publictrust was lost in that of a private and perpetual inheritance. Theemperor could not even be enriched by the casualties of forfeiture andextinction: within the term of a year, he was obliged to dispose of thevacant fief; and, in the choice of the candidate, it was his duty toconsult either the general or the provincial diet. 

After the death of Frederic the Second, Germany was left a monster witha hundred heads. A crowd of princes and prelates disputed the ruins ofthe empire: the lords of innumerable castles were less prone to obey, than to imitate, their superiors; and, according to the measure of theirstrength, their incessant hostilities received the names of conquestor robbery. Such anarchy was the inevitable consequence of the laws andmanners of Europe; and the kingdoms of France and Italy were shiveredinto fragments by the violence of the same tempest. But the Italiancities and the French vassals were divided and destroyed, while theunion of the Germans has produced, under the name of an empire, agreat system of a federative republic. In the frequent and at last theperpetual institution of diets, a national spirit was kept alive, andthe powers of a common legislature are still exercised by the threebranches or colleges of the electors, the princes, and the free andImperial cities of Germany. I. Seven of the most powerful feudatorieswere permitted to assume, with a distinguished name and rank, theexclusive privilege of choosing the Roman emperor; and these electorswere the king of Bohemia, the duke of Saxony, the margrave ofBrandenburgh, the count palatine of the Rhine, and the three archbishopsof Mentz, of Treves, and of Cologne. II. The college of princes andprelates purged themselves of a promiscuous multitude: they reduced tofour representative votes the long series of independent counts, andexcluded the nobles or equestrian order, sixty thousand of whom, as inthe Polish diets, had appeared on horseback in the field of election. III. The pride of birth and dominion, of the sword and the mitre, wiselyadopted the commons as the third branch of the legislature, and, in theprogress of society, they were introduced about the same aera into thenational assemblies of France England, and Germany. 

The Hanseatic League commanded the trade and navigation of the north:the confederates of the Rhine secured the peace and intercourse of theinland country; the influence of the cities has been adequate to theirwealth and policy, and their negative still invalidates the acts of thetwo superior colleges of electors and princes. [149]

[Footnote 149: In the immense labyrinth of the jus publicum of Germany, I must either quote one writer or a thousand; and I had rather trust toone faithful guide, than transcribe, on credit, a multitude of namesand passages. That guide is M. Pfeffel, the author of the best legaland constitutional history that I know of any country, (Nouvel AbregeChronologique de l'Histoire et du Droit public Allemagne; Paris, 1776, 2 vols. In 4to. ) His learning and judgment have discerned the mostinteresting facts; his simple brevity comprises them in a narrow space. His chronological order distributes them under the proper dates; andan elaborate index collects them under their respective heads. To thiswork, in a less perfect state, Dr. Robertson was gratefully indebtedfor that masterly sketch which traces even the modern changes of theGermanic body. The Corpus Historiae Germanicae of Struvius has beenlikewise consulted, the more usefully, as that huge compilation isfortified in every page with the original texts. * Note: For the riseand progress of the Hanseatic League, consult the authoritative historyby Sartorius; Geschichte des Hanseatischen Bandes & Theile, Gottingen, 1802. New and improved edition by Lappenberg Elamburg, 1830. Theoriginal Hanseatic League comprehended Cologne and many of the greatcities in the Netherlands and on the Rhine. --M. ]

It is in the fourteenth century that we may view in the strongest lightthe state and contrast of the Roman empire of Germany, which no longerheld, except on the borders of the Rhine and Danube, a single provinceof Trajan or Constantine. Their unworthy successors were the counts ofHapsburgh, of Nassau, of Luxemburgh, and Schwartzenburgh: the emperorHenry the Seventh procured for his son the crown of Bohemia, andhis grandson Charles the Fourth was born among a people strange andbarbarous in the estimation of the Germans themselves. [150] After theexcommunication of Lewis of Bavaria, he received the gift or promiseof the vacant empire from the Roman pontiffs, who, in the exile andcaptivity of Avignon, affected the dominion of the earth. The deathof his competitors united the electoral college, and Charles wasunanimously saluted king of the Romans, and future emperor; a titlewhich, in the same age, was prostituted to the Caesars of Germany andGreece. The German emperor was no more than the elective and impotentmagistrate of an aristocracy of princes, who had not left him a villagethat he might call his own. His best prerogative was the right ofpresiding and proposing in the national senate, which was convened athis summons; and his native kingdom of Bohemia, less opulent than theadjacent city of Nuremberg, was the firmest seat of his power and therichest source of his revenue. The army with which he passed the Alpsconsisted of three hundred horse. In the cathedral of St. Ambrose, Charles was crowned with the iron crown, which tradition ascribed to theLombard monarchy; but he was admitted only with a peaceful train; thegates of the city were shut upon him; and the king of Italy was helda captive by the arms of the Visconti, whom he confirmed in thesovereignty of Milan. In the Vatican he was again crowned with thegolden crown of the empire; but, in obedience to a secret treaty, theRoman emperor immediately withdrew, without reposing a single nightwithin the walls of Rome. The eloquent Petrarch, [151] whose fancyrevived the visionary glories of the Capitol, deplores and upbraids theignominious flight of the Bohemian; and even his contemporaries couldobserve, that the sole exercise of his authority was in the lucrativesale of privileges and titles. The gold of Italy secured the electionof his son; but such was the shameful poverty of the Roman emperor, thathis person was arrested by a butcher in the streets of Worms, and wasdetained in the public inn, as a pledge or hostage for the payment ofhis expenses. 

[Footnote 150: Yet, personally, Charles IV. Must not be considered asa Barbarian. After his education at Paris, he recovered the use of theBohemian, his native, idiom; and the emperor conversed and wrote withequal facility in French, Latin, Italian, and German, (Struvius, p. 615, 616. ) Petrarch always represents him as a polite and learned prince. ]

[Footnote 151: Besides the German and Italian historians, the expeditionof Charles IV. Is painted in lively and original colors in the curiousMemoires sur la Vie de Petrarque, tom. Iii. P. 376-430, by the Abbe deSade, whose prolixity has never been blamed by any reader of taste andcuriosity. ]

From this humiliating scene, let us turn to the apparent majesty of thesame Charles in the diets of the empire. The golden bull, which fixesthe Germanic constitution, is promulgated in the style of a sovereignand legislator. A hundred princes bowed before his throne, and exaltedtheir own dignity by the voluntary honors which they yielded to theirchief or minister. At the royal banquet, the hereditary great officers, the seven electors, who in rank and title were equal to kings, performedtheir solemn and domestic service of the palace. The seals of the triplekingdom were borne in state by the archbishops of Mentz, Cologne, andTreves, the perpetual arch-chancellors of Germany, Italy, and Arles. The great marshal, on horseback, exercised his function with a silvermeasure of oats, which he emptied on the ground, and immediatelydismounted to regulate the order of the guests The great steward, thecount palatine of the Rhine, place the dishes on the table. The greatchamberlain, the margrave of Brandenburgh, presented, after the repast, the golden ewer and basin, to wash. The king of Bohemia, as greatcup-bearer, was represented by the emperor's brother, the duke ofLuxemburgh and Brabant; and the procession was closed by the greathuntsmen, who introduced a boar and a stag, with a loud chorus of hornsand hounds. [152] Nor was the supremacy of the emperor confinedto Germany alone: the hereditary monarchs of Europe confessed thepreeminence of his rank and dignity: he was the first of the Christianprinces, the temporal head of the great republic of the West: [153] tohis person the title of majesty was long appropriated; and he disputedwith the pope the sublime prerogative of creating kings and assemblingcouncils. The oracle of the civil law, the learned Bartolus, was apensioner of Charles the Fourth; and his school resounded with thedoctrine, that the Roman emperor was the rightful sovereign of theearth, from the rising to the setting sun. The contrary opinion wascondemned, not as an error, but as a heresy, since even the gospel hadpronounced, "And there went forth a decree from Caesar Augustus, thatall the world should be taxed. " [154]

[Footnote 152: See the whole ceremony in Struvius, p. 629]

[Footnote 153: The republic of Europe, with the pope and emperor at itshead, was never represented with more dignity than in the council ofConstance. See Lenfant's History of that assembly. ]

[Footnote 154: Gravina, Origines Juris Civilis, p. 108. ]

If we annihilate the interval of time and space between Augustus andCharles, strong and striking will be the contrast between the twoCaesars; the Bohemian who concealed his weakness under the mask ofostentation, and the Roman, who disguised his strength under thesemblance of modesty. At the head of his victorious legions, in hisreign over the sea and land, from the Nile and Euphrates to the AtlanticOcean, Augustus professed himself the servant of the state and the equalof his fellow-citizens. The conqueror of Rome and her provinces assumeda popular and legal form of a censor, a consul, and a tribune. His willwas the law of mankind, but in the declaration of his laws he borrowedthe voice of the senate and people; and from their decrees theirmaster accepted and renewed his temporary commission to administer therepublic. In his dress, his domestics, [155] his titles, in all theoffices of social life, Augustus maintained the character of a privateRoman; and his most artful flatterers respected the secret of hisabsolute and perpetual monarchy. 

[Footnote 155: Six thousand urns have been discovered of the slaves andfreedmen of Augustus and Livia. So minute was the division of office, that one slave was appointed to weigh the wool which was spun by theempress's maids, another for the care of her lap-dog, &c. , (CameraSepolchrale, by Bianchini. Extract of his work in the BibliothequeItalique, tom. Iv. P. 175. His Eloge, by Fontenelle, tom. Vi. P. 356. )But these servants were of the same rank, and possibly not more numerousthan those of Pollio or Lentulus. They only prove the general riches ofthe city. ]

Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants. --Part I. 

 Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants. --Birth, Character, And Doctrine Of Mahomet. --He Preaches At Mecca. -- Flies To Medina. --Propagates His Religion By The Sword. -- Voluntary Or Reluctant Submission Of The Arabs. --His Death And Successors. --The Claims And Fortunes Of All And His Descendants. 

After pursuing above six hundred years the fleeting Caesars ofConstantinople and Germany, I now descend, in the reign of Heraclius, onthe eastern borders of the Greek monarchy. While the state was exhaustedby the Persian war, and the church was distracted by the Nestorian andMonophysite sects, Mahomet, with the sword in one hand and the Koran inthe other, erected his throne on the ruins of Christianity and of Rome. The genius of the Arabian prophet, the manners of his nation, and thespirit of his religion, involve the causes of the decline and fall ofthe Eastern empire; and our eyes are curiously intent on one of the mostmemorable revolutions, which have impressed a new and lasting characteron the nations of the globe. [1]

[Footnote 1: As in this and the following chapter I shall display muchArabic learning, I must profess my total ignorance of the Orientaltongues, and my gratitude to the learned interpreters, who havetransfused their science into the Latin, French, and English languages. Their collections, versions, and histories, I shall occasionallynotice. ]

In the vacant space between Persia, Syria, Egypt, and Aethiopia, theArabian peninsula [2] may be conceived as a triangle of spacious butirregular dimensions. From the northern point of Beles [3] on theEuphrates, a line of fifteen hundred miles is terminated by the Straitsof Bebelmandel and the land of frankincense. About half this length maybe allowed for the middle breadth, from east to west, from Bassorato Suez, from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. [4] The sides of thetriangle are gradually enlarged, and the southern basis presents afront of a thousand miles to the Indian Ocean. The entire surface of thepeninsula exceeds in a fourfold proportion that of Germany or France;but the far greater part has been justly stigmatized with the epithetsof the stony and the sandy. Even the wilds of Tartary are decked, by thehand of nature, with lofty trees and luxuriant herbage; and the lonesometraveller derives a sort of comfort and society from the presence ofvegetable life. But in the dreary waste of Arabia, a boundless level ofsand is intersected by sharp and naked mountains; and the face of thedesert, without shade or shelter, is scorched by the direct and intenserays of a tropical sun. Instead of refreshing breezes, the winds, particularly from the south-west, diffuse a noxious and even deadlyvapor; the hillocks of sand which they alternately raise and scatter, are compared to the billows of the ocean, and whole caravans, wholearmies, have been lost and buried in the whirlwind. The common benefitsof water are an object of desire and contest; and such is the scarcityof wood, that some art is requisite to preserve and propagate theelement of fire. Arabia is destitute of navigable rivers, whichfertilize the soil, and convey its produce to the adjacent regions: thetorrents that fall from the hills are imbibed by the thirsty earth: therare and hardy plants, the tamarind or the acacia, that strike theirroots into the clefts of the rocks, are nourished by the dews of thenight: a scanty supply of rain is collected in cisterns and aqueducts:the wells and springs are the secret treasure of the desert; and thepilgrim of Mecca, [5] after many a dry and sultry march, is disgusted bythe taste of the waters which have rolled over a bed of sulphur or salt. Such is the general and genuine picture of the climate of Arabia. The experience of evil enhances the value of any local or partialenjoyments. A shady grove, a green pasture, a stream of fresh water, aresufficient to attract a colony of sedentary Arabs to the fortunate spotswhich can afford food and refreshment to themselves and their cattle, and which encourage their industry in the cultivation of the palmtreeand the vine. The high lands that border on the Indian Ocean aredistinguished by their superior plenty of wood and water; the air ismore temperate, the fruits are more delicious, the animals and the humanrace more numerous: the fertility of the soil invites and rewards thetoil of the husbandman; and the peculiar gifts of frankincense [6] andcoffee have attracted in different ages the merchants of the world. Ifit be compared with the rest of the peninsula, this sequestered regionmay truly deserve the appellation of the happy; and the splendidcoloring of fancy and fiction has been suggested by contrast, andcountenanced by distance. It was for this earthly paradise that Naturehad reserved her choicest favors and her most curious workmanship: theincompatible blessings of luxury and innocence were ascribed to thenatives: the soil was impregnated with gold [7] and gems, and both theland and sea were taught to exhale the odors of aromatic sweets. Thisdivision of the sandy, the stony, and the happy, so familiar to theGreeks and Latins, is unknown to the Arabians themselves; and it issingular enough, that a country, whose language and inhabitants haveever been the same, should scarcely retain a vestige of its ancientgeography. The maritime districts of Bahrein and Oman are opposite tothe realm of Persia. The kingdom of Yemen displays the limits, or atleast the situation, of Arabia Felix: the name of Neged is extended overthe inland space; and the birth of Mahomet has illustrated the provinceof Hejaz along the coast of the Red Sea. [8]

[Footnote 2: The geographers of Arabia may be divided into threeclasses: 1. The Greeks and Latins, whose progressive knowledge may betraced in Agatharcides, (de Mari Rubro, in Hudson, Geograph. Minor. Tom. I. , ) Diodorus Siculus, (tom. I. L. Ii. P. 159-167, l. Iii. P. 211-216, edit. Wesseling, ) Strabo, (l. Xvi. P. 1112-1114, from Eratosthenes, p. 1122-1132, from Artemidorus, ) Dionysius, (Periegesis, 927-969, ) Pliny, (Hist. Natur. V. 12, vi. 32, ) and Ptolemy, (Descript. Et Tabulae Urbium, in Hudson, tom. Iii. ) 2. The Arabic writers, who have treated thesubject with the zeal of patriotism or devotion: the extracts of Pocock(Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 125-128) from the Geography of the Sherifal Edrissi, render us still more dissatisfied with the version orabridgment (p. 24-27, 44-56, 108, &c. , 119, &c. ) which the Maroniteshave published under the absurd title of Geographia Nubiensis, (Paris, 1619;) but the Latin and French translators, Greaves (in Hudson, tom. Iii. ) and Galland, (Voyage de la Palestine par La Roque, p. 265-346, )have opened to us the Arabia of Abulfeda, the most copious and correctaccount of the peninsula, which may be enriched, however, from theBibliotheque Orientale of D'Herbelot, p. 120, et alibi passim. 3. The European travellers; among whom Shaw (p. 438-455) and Niebuhr(Description, 1773; Voyages, tom. I. 1776) deserve an honorabledistinction: Busching (Geographie par Berenger, tom. Viii. P. 416-510)has compiled with judgment, and D'Anville's Maps (Orbis VeteribusNotus, and 1re Partie de l'Asie) should lie before the reader, with hisGeographie Ancienne, tom. Ii. P. 208-231. * Note: Of modern travellersmay be mentioned the adventurer who called himself Ali Bey; but aboveall, the intelligent, the enterprising the accurate Burckhardt. --M. ]

[Footnote 3: Abulfed. Descript. Arabiae, p. 1. D'Anville, l'Euphrate etle Tigre, p. 19, 20. It was in this place, the paradise or garden ofa satrap, that Xenophon and the Greeks first passed the Euphrates, (Anabasis, l. I. C. 10, p. 29, edit. Wells. )]

[Footnote 4: Reland has proved, with much superfluous learning, 1. That our Red Sea (the Arabian Gulf) is no more than a part of theMare Rubrum, which was extended to the indefinite space of the IndianOcean. 

2. That the synonymous words, allude to the color of the blacks ornegroes, (Dissert Miscell. Tom. I. P. 59-117. )]

[Footnote 5: In the thirty days, or stations, between Cairo and Mecca, there are fifteen destitute of good water. See the route of the Hadjees, in Shaw's Travels, p. 477. ]

[Footnote 6: The aromatics, especially the thus, or frankincense, ofArabia, occupy the xiith book of Pliny. Our great poet (Paradise Lost, l. Iv. ) introduces, in a simile, the spicy odors that are blown by thenorth-east wind from the Sabaean coast:----Many a league, Pleased withthe grateful scent, old Ocean smiles. (Plin. Hist. Natur. Xii. 42. )]

[Footnote 7: Agatharcides affirms, that lumps of pure gold were found, from the size of an olive to that of a nut; that iron was twice, andsilver ten times, the value of gold, (de Mari Rubro, p. 60. ) These realor imaginary treasures are vanished; and no gold mines are at presentknown in Arabia, (Niebuhr, Description, p. 124. ) * Note: A brilliantpassage in the geographical poem of Dionysius Periegetes embodies thenotions of the ancients on the wealth and fertility of Yemen. Greekmythology, and the traditions of the "gorgeous east, " of India as wellas Arabia, are mingled together in indiscriminate splendor. Compare onthe southern coast of Arabia, the recent travels of Lieut. Wellsted--M. ]

[Footnote 8: Consult, peruse, and study the Specimen Hostoriae Arabum ofPocock, (Oxon. 1650, in 4to. ) The thirty pages of text and version areextracted from the Dynasties of Gregory Abulpharagius, which Pocockafterwards translated, (Oxon. 1663, in 4to. ;) the three hundred andfifty-eight notes form a classic and original work on the Arabianantiquities. ]

The measure of population is regulated by the means of subsistence;and the inhabitants of this vast peninsula might be outnumbered by thesubjects of a fertile and industrious province. Along the shores of thePersian Gulf, of the ocean, and even of the Red Sea, the Icthyophagi, [9] or fish eaters, continued to wander in quest of their precariousfood. In this primitive and abject state, which ill deserves the name ofsociety, the human brute, without arts or laws, almost without sense orlanguage, is poorly distinguished from the rest of the animal creation. Generations and ages might roll away in silent oblivion, and thehelpless savage was restrained from multiplying his race by the wantsand pursuits which confined his existence to the narrow margin of theseacoast. But in an early period of antiquity the great body of theArabs had emerged from this scene of misery; and as the naked wildernesscould not maintain a people of hunters, they rose at once to the moresecure and plentiful condition of the pastoral life. The same lifeis uniformly pursued by the roving tribes of the desert; and in theportrait of the modern Bedoweens, we may trace the features of theirancestors, [10] who, in the age of Moses or Mahomet, dwelt under similartents, and conducted their horses, and camels, and sheep, to the samesprings and the same pastures. Our toil is lessened, and our wealthis increased, by our dominion over the useful animals; and the Arabianshepherd had acquired the absolute possession of a faithful friend anda laborious slave. [11] Arabia, in the opinion of the naturalist, is thegenuine and original country of the horse; the climate most propitious, not indeed to the size, but to the spirit and swiftness, of thatgenerous animal. The merit of the Barb, the Spanish, and the Englishbreed, is derived from a mixture of Arabian blood: [12] the Bedoweenspreserve, with superstitious care, the honors and the memory of thepurest race: the males are sold at a high price, but the females areseldom alienated; and the birth of a noble foal was esteemed among thetribes, as a subject of joy and mutual congratulation. These horses areeducated in the tents, among the children of the Arabs, with atender familiarity, which trains them in the habits of gentlenessand attachment. They are accustomed only to walk and to gallop: theirsensations are not blunted by the incessant abuse of the spur and thewhip: their powers are reserved for the moments of flight and pursuit:but no sooner do they feel the touch of the hand or the stirrup, thanthey dart away with the swiftness of the wind; and if their friendbe dismounted in the rapid career, they instantly stop till he hasrecovered his seat. In the sands of Africa and Arabia, the camel is asacred and precious gift. That strong and patient beast of burden canperform, without eating or drinking, a journey of several days; and areservoir of fresh water is preserved in a large bag, a fifth stomachof the animal, whose body is imprinted with the marks of servitude: thelarger breed is capable of transporting a weight of a thousand pounds;and the dromedary, of a lighter and more active frame, outstrips thefleetest courser in the race. Alive or dead, almost every part of thecamel is serviceable to man: her milk is plentiful and nutritious: theyoung and tender flesh has the taste of veal: [13] a valuable salt isextracted from the urine: the dung supplies the deficiency of fuel;and the long hair, which falls each year and is renewed, is coarselymanufactured into the garments, the furniture, and the tents of theBedoweens. In the rainy seasons, they consume the rare and insufficientherbage of the desert: during the heats of summer and the scarcity ofwinter, they remove their encampments to the sea-coast, the hills ofYemen, or the neighborhood of the Euphrates, and have often extorted thedangerous license of visiting the banks of the Nile, and the villagesof Syria and Palestine. The life of a wandering Arab is a life ofdanger and distress; and though sometimes, by rapine or exchange, he mayappropriate the fruits of industry, a private citizen in Europe is inthe possession of more solid and pleasing luxury than the proudest emir, who marches in the field at the head of ten thousand horse. 

[Footnote 9: Arrian remarks the Icthyophagi of the coast of Hejez, (Periplus Maris Erythraei, p. 12, ) and beyond Aden, (p. 15. ) It seemsprobable that the shores of the Red Sea (in the largest sense) wereoccupied by these savages in the time, perhaps, of Cyrus; but I canhardly believe that any cannibals were left among the savages in thereign of Justinian. (Procop. De Bell. Persic. L. I. C. 19. )]

[Footnote 10: See the Specimen Historiae Arabum of Pocock, p. 2, 5, 86, &c. The journey of M. D'Arvieux, in 1664, to the camp of the emir ofMount Carmel, (Voyage de la Palestine, Amsterdam, 1718, ) exhibits apleasing and original picture of the life of the Bedoweens, which maybe illustrated from Niebuhr (Description de l'Arabie, p. 327-344) andVolney, (tom. I. P. 343-385, ) the last and most judicious of our Syriantravellers. ]

[Footnote 11: Read (it is no unpleasing task) the incomparable articlesof the Horse and the Camel, in the Natural History of M. De Buffon. ]

[Footnote 12: For the Arabian horses, see D'Arvieux (p. 159-173) andNiebuhr, (p. 142-144. ) At the end of the xiiith century, the horses ofNeged were esteemed sure-footed, those of Yemen strong and serviceable, those of Hejaz most noble. The horses of Europe, the tenth and lastclass, were generally despised as having too much body and too littlespirit, (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. P. 339: ) their strength wasrequisite to bear the weight of the knight and his armor]

[Footnote 13: Qui carnibus camelorum vesci solent odii tenaces sunt, wasthe opinion of an Arabian physician, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 88. ) Mahomethimself, who was fond of milk, prefers the cow, and does not evenmention the camel; but the diet of Mecca and Medina was already moreluxurious, (Gagnier Vie de Mahomet, tom. Iii. P. 404. )]

Yet an essential difference may be found between the hordes of Scythiaand the Arabian tribes; since many of the latter were collected intotowns, and employed in the labors of trade and agriculture. A part oftheir time and industry was still devoted to the management of theircattle: they mingled, in peace and war, with their brethren of thedesert; and the Bedoweens derived from their useful intercourse somesupply of their wants, and some rudiments of art and knowledge. Amongthe forty-two cities of Arabia, [14] enumerated by Abulfeda, the mostancient and populous were situate in the happy Yemen: the towers ofSaana, [15] and the marvellous reservoir of Merab, [16] were constructedby the kings of the Homerites; but their profane lustre was eclipsed bythe prophetic glories of Medina [17] and Mecca, [18] near the Red Sea, and at the distance from each other of two hundred and seventy miles. The last of these holy places was known to the Greeks under the nameof Macoraba; and the termination of the word is expressive of itsgreatness, which has not, indeed, in the most flourishing period, exceeded the size and populousness of Marseilles. Some latent motive, perhaps of superstition, must have impelled the founders, in the choiceof a most unpromising situation. They erected their habitations of mudor stone, in a plain about two miles long and one mile broad, at thefoot of three barren mountains: the soil is a rock; the water even ofthe holy well of Zemzem is bitter or brackish; the pastures are remotefrom the city; and grapes are transported above seventy miles from thegardens of Tayef. The fame and spirit of the Koreishites, who reigned inMecca, were conspicuous among the Arabian tribes; but their ungratefulsoil refused the labors of agriculture, and their position was favorableto the enterprises of trade. By the seaport of Gedda, at the distanceonly of forty miles, they maintained an easy correspondence withAbyssinia; and that Christian kingdom afforded the first refuge to thedisciples of Mahomet. The treasures of Africa were conveyed over thePeninsula to Gerrha or Katif, in the province of Bahrein, a city built, as it is said, of rock-salt, by the Chaldaean exiles; [19] and fromthence with the native pearls of the Persian Gulf, they were floated onrafts to the mouth of the Euphrates. Mecca is placed almost at an equaldistance, a month's journey, between Yemen on the right, and Syria onthe left hand. The former was the winter, the latter the summer, stationof her caravans; and their seasonable arrival relieved the ships ofIndia from the tedious and troublesome navigation of the Red Sea. In themarkets of Saana and Merab, in the harbors of Oman and Aden, the camelsof the Koreishites were laden with a precious cargo of aromatics; asupply of corn and manufactures was purchased in the fairs of Bostraand Damascus; the lucrative exchange diffused plenty and riches in thestreets of Mecca; and the noblest of her sons united the love of armswith the profession of merchandise. [20]

[Footnote 14: Yet Marcian of Heraclea (in Periplo, p. 16, in tom. I. Hudson, Minor. Geograph. ) reckons one hundred and sixty-four towns inArabia Felix. The size of the towns might be small--the faith of thewriter might be large. ]

[Footnote 15: It is compared by Abulfeda (in Hudson, tom. Ii. P. 54) toDamascus, and is still the residence of the Iman of Yemen, (Voyagesde Niebuhr, tom. I. P. 331-342. ) Saana is twenty-four parasangs fromDafar, (Abulfeda, p. 51, ) and sixty-eight from Aden, (p. 53. )]

[Footnote 16: Pocock, Specimen, p. 57. Geograph. Nubiensis, p. 52. Meriaba, or Merab, six miles in circumference, was destroyed by thelegions of Augustus, (Plin. Hist. Nat. Vi. 32, ) and had not revived inthe xivth century, (Abulfed. Descript. Arab. P. 58. ) * Note: See note2 to chap. I. The destruction of Meriaba by the Romans is doubtful. Thetown never recovered the inundation which took place from the burstingof a large reservoir of water--an event of great importance inthe Arabian annals, and discussed at considerable length by modernOrientalists. --M. ]

[Footnote 17: The name of city, Medina, was appropriated, to Yatreb. (the Iatrippa of the Greeks, ) the seat of the prophet. The distancesfrom Medina are reckoned by Abulfeda in stations, or days' journey of acaravan, (p. 15: ) to Bahrein, xv. ; to Bassora, xviii. ; to Cufah, xx. ;to Damascus or Palestine, xx. ; to Cairo, xxv. ; to Mecca. X. ; from Meccato Saana, (p. 52, ) or Aden, xxx. ; to Cairo, xxxi. Days, or 412 hours, (Shaw's Travels, p. 477;) which, according to the estimate of D'Anville, (Mesures Itineraires, p. 99, ) allows about twenty-five English milesfor a day's journey. From the land of frankincense (Hadramaut, in Yemen, between Aden and Cape Fartasch) to Gaza in Syria, Pliny (Hist. Nat. Xii. 32) computes lxv. Mansions of camels. These measures may assist fancyand elucidate facts. ]

[Footnote 18: Our notions of Mecca must be drawn from the Arabians, (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 368-371. Pocock, Specimen, p. 125-128. Abulfeda, p. 11-40. ) As no unbeliever is permitted to enterthe city, our travellers are silent; and the short hints of Thevenot(Voyages du Levant, part i. P. 490) are taken from the suspicious mouthof an African renegado. Some Persians counted 6000 houses, (Chardin. Tom. Iv. P. 167. ) * Note: Even in the time of Gibbon, Mecca had not beenso inaccessible to Europeans. It had been visited by Ludovico Barthema, and by one Joseph Pitts, of Exeter, who was taken prisoner by the Moors, and forcibly converted to Mahometanism. His volume is a curious, thoughplain, account of his sufferings and travels. Since that time Mecca hasbeen entered, and the ceremonies witnessed, by Dr. Seetzen, whose paperswere unfortunately lost; by the Spaniard, who called himself Ali Bey;and, lastly, by Burckhardt, whose description leaves nothing wanting tosatisfy the curiosity. --M. ]

[Footnote 19: Strabo, l. Xvi. P. 1110. See one of these salt houses nearBassora, in D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. P. 6. ]

[Footnote 20: Mirum dictu ex innumeris populis pars aequa in commerciisaut in latrociniis degit, (Plin. Hist. Nat. Vi. 32. ) See Sale's Koran, Sura. Cvi. P. 503. Pocock, Specimen, p. 2. D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. P. 361. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 5. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. I. P. 72, 120, 126, &c. ]

The perpetual independence of the Arabs has been the theme of praiseamong strangers and natives; and the arts of controversy transform thissingular event into a prophecy and a miracle, in favor of the posterityof Ismael. [21] Some exceptions, that can neither be dismissednor eluded, render this mode of reasoning as indiscreet as it issuperfluous; the kingdom of Yemen has been successively subdued by theAbyssinians, the Persians, the sultans of Egypt, [22] and the Turks;[23] the holy cities of Mecca and Medina have repeatedly bowed undera Scythian tyrant; and the Roman province of Arabia [24] embraced thepeculiar wilderness in which Ismael and his sons must have pitched theirtents in the face of their brethren. Yet these exceptions are temporaryor local; the body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the mostpowerful monarchies: the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompeyand Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia; the presentsovereign of the Turks [25] may exercise a shadow of jurisdiction, buthis pride is reduced to solicit the friendship of a people, whom it isdangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack. The obvious causes oftheir freedom are inscribed on the character and country of the Arabs. Many ages before Mahomet, [26] their intrepid valor had been severelyfelt by their neighbors in offensive and defensive war. The patientand active virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed in the habitsand discipline of a pastoral life. The care of the sheep and camels isabandoned to the women of the tribe; but the martial youth, under thebanner of the emir, is ever on horseback, and in the field, to practisethe exercise of the bow, the javelin, and the cimeter. The long memoryof their independence is the firmest pledge of its perpetuity andsucceeding generations are animated to prove their descent, and tomaintain their inheritance. Their domestic feuds are suspended on theapproach of a common enemy; and in their last hostilities against theTurks, the caravan of Mecca was attacked and pillaged by fourscorethousand of the confederates. When they advance to battle, the hope ofvictory is in the front; in the rear, the assurance of a retreat. Theirhorses and camels, who, in eight or ten days, can perform a march offour or five hundred miles, disappear before the conqueror; the secretwaters of the desert elude his search, and his victorious troopsare consumed with thirst, hunger, and fatigue, in the pursuit of aninvisible foe, who scorns his efforts, and safely reposes in the heartof the burning solitude. The arms and deserts of the Bedoweens are notonly the safeguards of their own freedom, but the barriers also of thehappy Arabia, whose inhabitants, remote from war, are enervated by theluxury of the soil and climate. The legions of Augustus melted away indisease and lassitude; [27] and it is only by a naval power that thereduction of Yemen has been successfully attempted. When Mahomet erectedhis holy standard, [28] that kingdom was a province of the Persianempire; yet seven princes of the Homerites still reigned in themountains; and the vicegerent of Chosroes was tempted to forget hisdistant country and his unfortunate master. The historians of the age ofJustinian represent the state of the independent Arabs, who were dividedby interest or affection in the long quarrel of the East: the tribe ofGassan was allowed to encamp on the Syrian territory: the princes ofHira were permitted to form a city about forty miles to the southwardof the ruins of Babylon. Their service in the field was speedy andvigorous; but their friendship was venal, their faith inconstant, theirenmity capricious: it was an easier task to excite than to disarm theseroving barbarians; and, in the familiar intercourse of war, they learnedto see, and to despise, the splendid weakness both of Rome and ofPersia. From Mecca to the Euphrates, the Arabian tribes [29] wereconfounded by the Greeks and Latins, under the general appellation ofSaracens, [30] a name which every Christian mouth has been taught topronounce with terror and abhorrence. 

[Footnote 21: A nameless doctor (Universal Hist. Vol. Xx. Octavoedition) has formally demonstrated the truth of Christianity by theindependence of the Arabs. A critic, besides the exceptions of fact, might dispute the meaning of the text (Gen. Xvi. 12, ) the extent of theapplication, and the foundation of the pedigree. * Note: See note 3 tochap. Xlvi. The atter point is probably the least contestable of thethree. --M. ]

[Footnote 22: It was subdued, A. D. 1173, by a brother of the greatSaladin, who founded a dynasty of Curds or Ayoubites, (Guignes, Hist. Des Huns, tom. I. P. 425. D'Herbelot, p. 477. )]

[Footnote 23: By the lieutenant of Soliman I. (A. D. 1538) and SelimII. , (1568. ) See Cantemir's Hist. Of the Othman Empire, p. 201, 221. Thepacha, who resided at Saana, commanded twenty-one beys; but no revenuewas ever remitted to the Porte, (Marsigli, Stato Militare dell' ImperioOttomanno, p. 124, ) and the Turks were expelled about the year 1630, (Niebuhr, p. 167, 168. )]

[Footnote 24: Of the Roman province, under the name of Arabia and thethird Palestine, the principal cities were Bostra and Petra, whichdated their aera from the year 105, when they were subdued by Palma, alieutenant of Trajan, (Dion. Cassius, l. Lxviii. ) Petra was the capitalof the Nabathaeans; whose name is derived from the eldest of the sonsof Ismael, (Gen. Xxv. 12, &c. , with the Commentaries of Jerom, Le Clerc, and Calmet. ) Justinian relinquished a palm country of ten days' journeyto the south of Aelah, (Procop. De Bell. Persic. L. I. C. 19, ) and theRomans maintained a centurion and a custom-house, (Arrian in PeriploMaris Erythraei, p. 11, in Hudson, tom. I. , ) at a place (Pagus Albus, Hawara) in the territory of Medina, (D'Anville, Memoire sur l'Egypte, p. 243. ) These real possessions, and some naval inroads of Trajan, (Peripl. P. 14, 15, ) are magnified by history and medals into the Roman conquestof Arabia. * Note: On the ruins of Petra, see the travels of Messrs. Irby and Mangles, and of Leon de Laborde. --M. ]

[Footnote 25: Niebuhr (Description de l'Arabie, p. 302, 303, 329-331)affords the most recent and authentic intelligence of the Turkish empirein Arabia. * Note: Niebuhr's, notwithstanding the multitude of latertravellers, maintains its ground, as the classical work on Arabia. --M. ]

[Footnote 26: Diodorus Siculus (tom. Ii. L. Xix. P. 390-393, edit. Wesseling) has clearly exposed the freedom of the Nabathaean Arabs, whoresisted the arms of Antigonus and his son. ]

[Footnote 27: Strabo, l. Xvi. P. 1127-1129. Plin. Hist. Natur. Vi. 32. Aelius Gallus landed near Medina, and marched near a thousand miles intothe part of Yemen between Mareb and the Ocean. The non ante devictisSabeae regibus, (Od. I. 29, ) and the intacti Arabum thesanri (Od. Iii. 24) of Horace, attest the virgin purity of Arabia. ]

[Footnote 28: See the imperfect history of Yemen in Pocock, Specimen, p. 55-66, of Hira, p. 66-74, of Gassan, p. 75-78, as far as it could beknown or preserved in the time of ignorance. * Note: Compare theHist. Yemanae, published by Johannsen at Bonn 1880 particularly thetranslator's preface. --M. ]

[Footnote 29: They are described by Menander, (Excerpt. Legation p. 149, ) Procopius, (de Bell. Persic. L. I. C. 17, 19, l. Ii. C. 10, ) and, in the most lively colors, by Ammianus Marcellinus, (l. Xiv. C. 4, ) whohad spoken of them as early as the reign of Marcus. ]

[Footnote 30: The name which, used by Ptolemy and Pliny in a moreconfined, by Ammianus and Procopius in a larger, sense, has beenderived, ridiculously, from Sarah, the wife of Abraham, obscurely fromthe village of Saraka, (Stephan. De Urbibus, ) more plausibly from theArabic words, which signify a thievish character, or Oriental situation, (Hottinger, Hist. Oriental. L. I. C. I. P. 7, 8. Pocock, Specimen, p. 33, 35. Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Iv. P. 567. ) Yet the last andmost popular of these etymologies is refuted by Ptolemy, (Arabia, p. 2, 18, in Hudson, tom. Iv. , ) who expressly remarks the western and southernposition of the Saracens, then an obscure tribe on the borders of Egypt. The appellation cannot therefore allude to any national character; and, since it was imposed by strangers, it must be found, not in the Arabic, but in a foreign language. * Note: Dr. Clarke, (Travels, vol. Ii. P. 491, ) after expressing contemptuous pity for Gibbon's ignorance, derivesthe word from Zara, Zaara, Sara, the Desert, whence Saraceni, thechildren of the Desert. De Marles adopts the derivation from Sarrik, arobber, (Hist. Des Arabes, vol. I. P. 36, S. L. Martin from Scharkioun, or Sharkun, Eastern, vol. Xi. P. 55. )--M. ]

Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants. --Part II. 

The slaves of domestic tyranny may vainly exult in their nationalindependence: but the Arab is personally free; and he enjoys, in somedegree, the benefits of society, without forfeiting the prerogativesof nature. In every tribe, superstition, or gratitude, or fortune, has exalted a particular family above the heads of their equals. Thedignities of sheick and emir invariably descend in this chosen race; butthe order of succession is loose and precarious; and the most worthy oraged of the noble kinsmen are preferred to the simple, though important, office of composing disputes by their advice, and guiding valor by theirexample. Even a female of sense and spirit has been permitted to commandthe countrymen of Zenobia. [31] The momentary junction of several tribesproduces an army: their more lasting union constitutes a nation; andthe supreme chief, the emir of emirs, whose banner is displayed at theirhead, may deserve, in the eyes of strangers, the honors of the kinglyname. 

If the Arabian princes abuse their power, they are quickly punished bythe desertion of their subjects, who had been accustomed to a mild andparental jurisdiction. Their spirit is free, their steps are unconfined, the desert is open, and the tribes and families are held together by amutual and voluntary compact. The softer natives of Yemen supportedthe pomp and majesty of a monarch; but if he could not leave his palacewithout endangering his life, [32] the active powers of government musthave been devolved on his nobles and magistrates. The cities of Meccaand Medina present, in the heart of Asia, the form, or rather thesubstance, of a commonwealth. The grandfather of Mahomet, and his linealancestors, appear in foreign and domestic transactions as the princes oftheir country; but they reigned, like Pericles at Athens, or theMedici at Florence, by the opinion of their wisdom and integrity;their influence was divided with their patrimony; and the sceptre wastransferred from the uncles of the prophet to a younger branch of thetribe of Koreish. On solemn occasions they convened the assembly ofthe people; and, since mankind must be either compelled or persuaded toobey, the use and reputation of oratory among the ancient Arabs is theclearest evidence of public freedom. [33] But their simple freedom wasof a very different cast from the nice and artificial machinery of theGreek and Roman republics, in which each member possessed an undividedshare of the civil and political rights of the community. In the moresimple state of the Arabs, the nation is free, because each of hersons disdains a base submission to the will of a master. His breast isfortified by the austere virtues of courage, patience, and sobriety; thelove of independence prompts him to exercise the habits of self-command;and the fear of dishonor guards him from the meaner apprehension ofpain, of danger, and of death. The gravity and firmness of the mind isconspicuous in his outward demeanor; his speech is low, weighty, andconcise; he is seldom provoked to laughter; his only gesture is that ofstroking his beard, the venerable symbol of manhood; and the sense ofhis own importance teaches him to accost his equals without levity, andhis superiors without awe. [34] The liberty of the Saracens survivedtheir conquests: the first caliphs indulged the bold and familiarlanguage of their subjects; they ascended the pulpit to persuade andedify the congregation; nor was it before the seat of empire wasremoved to the Tigris, that the Abbasides adopted the proud and pompousceremonial of the Persian and Byzantine courts. 

[Footnote 31: Saraceni. .. Mulieres aiunt in eos regnare, (Expositiototius Mundi, p. 3, in Hudson, tom. Iii. ) The reign of Mavia is famousin ecclesiastical story Pocock, Specimen, p. 69, 83. ]

[Footnote 32: The report of Agatharcides, (de Mari Rubro, p. 63, 64, inHudson, tom. I. ) Diodorus Siculus, (tom. I. L. Iii. C. 47, p. 215, ) andStrabo, (l. Xvi. P. 1124. ) But I much suspect that this is one ofthe popular tales, or extraordinary accidents, which the credulity oftravellers so often transforms into a fact, a custom, and a law. ]

[Footnote 33: Non gloriabantur antiquitus Arabes, nisi gladio, hospite, et eloquentia (Sephadius apud Pocock, Specimen, p. 161, 162. ) This giftof speech they shared only with the Persians; and the sententiousArabs would probably have disdained the simple and sublime logic ofDemosthenes. ]

[Footnote 34: I must remind the reader that D'Arvieux, D'Herbelot, and Niebuhr, represent, in the most lively colors, the manners andgovernment of the Arabs, which are illustrated by many incidentalpassages in the Life of Mahomet. * Note: See, likewise the curiousromance of Antar, the most vivid and authentic picture of Arabianmanners. --M. ]

In the study of nations and men, we may observe the causes that renderthem hostile or friendly to each other, that tend to narrow or enlarge, to mollify or exasperate, the social character. The separation of theArabs from the rest of mankind has accustomed them to confound the ideasof stranger and enemy; and the poverty of the land has introduced amaxim of jurisprudence, which they believe and practise to the presenthour. They pretend, that, in the division of the earth, the rich andfertile climates were assigned to the other branches of the humanfamily; and that the posterity of the outlaw Ismael might recover, byfraud or force, the portion of inheritance of which he had been unjustlydeprived. According to the remark of Pliny, the Arabian tribes areequally addicted to theft and merchandise; the caravans that traversethe desert are ransomed or pillaged; and their neighbors, since theremote times of Job and Sesostris, [35] have been the victims oftheir rapacious spirit. If a Bedoween discovers from afar a solitarytraveller, he rides furiously against him, crying, with a loud voice, "Undress thyself, thy aunt (my wife) is without a garment. " A readysubmission entitles him to mercy; resistance will provoke the aggressor, and his own blood must expiate the blood which he presumes to shed inlegitimate defence. A single robber, or a few associates, are brandedwith their genuine name; but the exploits of a numerous band assume thecharacter of lawful and honorable war. The temper of a people thus armedagainst mankind was doubly inflamed by the domestic license of rapine, murder, and revenge. In the constitution of Europe, the right of peaceand war is now confined to a small, and the actual exercise to a muchsmaller, list of respectable potentates; but each Arab, with impunityand renown, might point his javelin against the life of his countrymen. The union of the nation consisted only in a vague resemblance oflanguage and manners; and in each community, the jurisdiction ofthe magistrate was mute and impotent. Of the time of ignorance whichpreceded Mahomet, seventeen hundred battles [36] are recorded bytradition: hostility was imbittered with the rancor of civil faction;and the recital, in prose or verse, of an obsolete feud, was sufficientto rekindle the same passions among the descendants of the hostiletribes. In private life every man, at least every family, was the judgeand avenger of his own cause. The nice sensibility of honor, whichweighs the insult rather than the injury, sheds its deadly venom on thequarrels of the Arabs: the honor of their women, and of their beards, is most easily wounded; an indecent action, a contemptuous word, can beexpiated only by the blood of the offender; and such is their patientinveteracy, that they expect whole months and years the opportunity ofrevenge. A fine or compensation for murder is familiar to the Barbariansof every age: but in Arabia the kinsmen of the dead are at liberty toaccept the atonement, or to exercise with their own hands the law ofretaliation. The refined malice of the Arabs refuses even the headof the murderer, substitutes an innocent for the guilty person, andtransfers the penalty to the best and most considerable of the raceby whom they have been injured. If he falls by their hands, they areexposed, in their turn, to the danger of reprisals, the interest andprincipal of the bloody debt are accumulated: the individuals ofeither family lead a life of malice and suspicion, and fifty years maysometimes elapse before the account of vengeance be finally settled. [37] This sanguinary spirit, ignorant of pity or forgiveness, has beenmoderated, however, by the maxims of honor, which require in everyprivate encounter some decent equality of age and strength, of numbersand weapons. An annual festival of two, perhaps of four, months, wasobserved by the Arabs before the time of Mahomet, during which theirswords were religiously sheathed both in foreign and domestic hostility;and this partial truce is more strongly expressive of the habits ofanarchy and warfare. [38]

[Footnote 35: Observe the first chapter of Job, and the long wall of1500 stadia which Sesostris built from Pelusium to Heliopolis, (Diodor. Sicul. Tom. I. L. I. P. 67. ) Under the name of Hycsos, the shepherdkings, they had formerly subdued Egypt, (Marsham, Canon. Chron. P. 98-163) &c. ) * Note: This origin of the Hycsos, though probable, isby no means so certain here is some reason for supposing themScythians. --M]

[Footnote 36: Or, according to another account, 1200, (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 75: ) the two historians who wrote of theAyam al Arab, the battles of the Arabs, lived in the 9th and 10thcentury. The famous war of Dahes and Gabrah was occasioned by twohorses, lasted forty years, and ended in a proverb, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 48. )]

[Footnote 37: The modern theory and practice of the Arabs in the revengeof murder are described by Niebuhr, (Description, p. 26-31. ) The harsherfeatures of antiquity may be traced in the Koran, c. 2, p. 20, c. 17, p. 230, with Sale's Observations. ]

[Footnote 38: Procopius (de Bell. Persic. L. I. C. 16) places the twoholy months about the summer solstice. The Arabians consecrate fourmonths of the year--the first, seventh, eleventh, and twelfth; andpretend, that in a long series of ages the truce was infringed only fouror six times, (Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 147-150, and Noteson the ixth chapter of the Koran, p. 154, &c. Casiri, Bibliot. Hispano-Arabica, tom. Ii. P. 20, 21. )]

But the spirit of rapine and revenge was attempered by the milderinfluence of trade and literature. The solitary peninsula is encompassedby the most civilized nations of the ancient world; the merchant is thefriend of mankind; and the annual caravans imported the first seedsof knowledge and politeness into the cities, and even the camps of thedesert. Whatever may be the pedigree of the Arabs, their language isderived from the same original stock with the Hebrew, the Syriac, andthe Chaldaean tongues; the independence of the tribes was marked bytheir peculiar dialects; [39] but each, after their own, allowed a justpreference to the pure and perspicuous idiom of Mecca. In Arabia, aswell as in Greece, the perfection of language outstripped the refinementof manners; and her speech could diversify the fourscore names of honey, the two hundred of a serpent, the five hundred of a lion, the thousandof a sword, at a time when this copious dictionary was intrusted tothe memory of an illiterate people. The monuments of the Homeriteswere inscribed with an obsolete and mysterious character; but the Cuficletters, the groundwork of the present alphabet, were invented on thebanks of the Euphrates; and the recent invention was taught at Mecca bya stranger who settled in that city after the birth of Mahomet. Thearts of grammar, of metre, and of rhetoric, were unknown to the freeborneloquence of the Arabians; but their penetration was sharp, theirfancy luxuriant, their wit strong and sententious, [40] and their moreelaborate compositions were addressed with energy and effect to theminds of their hearers. The genius and merit of a rising poet wascelebrated by the applause of his own and the kindred tribes. A solemnbanquet was prepared, and a chorus of women, striking their tymbals, and displaying the pomp of their nuptials, sung in the presence of theirsons and husbands the felicity of their native tribe; that a championhad now appeared to vindicate their rights; that a herald had raisedhis voice to immortalize their renown. The distant or hostile tribesresorted to an annual fair, which was abolished by the fanaticism of thefirst Moslems; a national assembly that must have contributed to refineand harmonize the Barbarians. Thirty days were employed in the exchange, not only of corn and wine, but of eloquence and poetry. The prizewas disputed by the generous emulation of the bards; the victoriousperformance was deposited in the archives of princes and emirs; andwe may read in our own language, the seven original poems which wereinscribed in letters of gold, and suspended in the temple of Mecca. [41]The Arabian poets were the historians and moralists of the age; andif they sympathized with the prejudices, they inspired and crowned thevirtues, of their countrymen. The indissoluble union of generosity andvalor was the darling theme of their song; and when they pointedtheir keenest satire against a despicable race, they affirmed, in thebitterness of reproach, that the men knew not how to give, nor the womento deny. [42] The same hospitality, which was practised by Abraham, andcelebrated by Homer, is still renewed in the camps of the Arabs. Theferocious Bedoweens, the terror of the desert, embrace, without inquiryor hesitation, the stranger who dares to confide in their honor and toenter their tent. His treatment is kind and respectful: he shares thewealth, or the poverty, of his host; and, after a needful repose, heis dismissed on his way, with thanks, with blessings, and perhaps withgifts. The heart and hand are more largely expanded by the wants of abrother or a friend; but the heroic acts that could deserve the publicapplause, must have surpassed the narrow measure of discretion andexperience. A dispute had arisen, who, among the citizens of Mecca, wasentitled to the prize of generosity; and a successive application wasmade to the three who were deemed most worthy of the trial. Abdallah, the son of Abbas, had undertaken a distant journey, and his foot was inthe stirrup when he heard the voice of a suppliant, "O son of the uncleof the apostle of God, I am a traveller, and in distress!" He instantlydismounted to present the pilgrim with his camel, her rich caparison, and a purse of four thousand pieces of gold, excepting only the sword, either for its intrinsic value, or as the gift of an honored kinsman. The servant of Kais informed the second suppliant that his master wasasleep: but he immediately added, "Here is a purse of seven thousandpieces of gold, (it is all we have in the house, ) and here is an order, that will entitle you to a camel and a slave;" the master, as soon ashe awoke, praised and enfranchised his faithful steward, with a gentlereproof, that by respecting his slumbers he had stinted his bounty. The third of these heroes, the blind Arabah, at the hour of prayer, wassupporting his steps on the shoulders of two slaves. "Alas!" he replied, "my coffers are empty! but these you may sell; if you refuse, I renouncethem. " At these words, pushing away the youths, he groped along the wallwith his staff. 

The character of Hatem is the perfect model of Arabian virtue: [43] hewas brave and liberal, an eloquent poet, and a successful robber; fortycamels were roasted at his hospitable feast; and at the prayer of asuppliant enemy he restored both the captives and the spoil. The freedomof his countrymen disdained the laws of justice; they proudly indulgedthe spontaneous impulse of pity and benevolence. 

[Footnote 39: Arrian, in the second century, remarks (in Periplo MarisErythraei, p. 12) the partial or total difference of the dialects ofthe Arabs. Their language and letters are copiously treated by Pocock, (Specimen, p. 150-154, ) Casiri, (Bibliot. Hispano-Arabica, tom. I. P. 1, 83, 292, tom. Ii. P. 25, &c. , ) and Niebuhr, (Description de l'Arabie, p. 72-36) I pass slightly; I am not fond of repeating words like aparrot. ]

[Footnote 40: A familiar tale in Voltaire's Zadig (le Chien et leCheval) is related, to prove the natural sagacity of the Arabs, (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. P. 120, 121. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. I. P. 37-46: ) but D'Arvieux, or rather La Roque, (Voyage de Palestine, p. 92, ) denies the boasted superiority of the Bedoweens. The one hundredand sixty-nine sentences of Ali (translated by Ockley, London, 1718)afford a just and favorable specimen of Arabian wit. * Note: Compare theArabic proverbs translated by Burckhardt. London. 1830--M. ]

[Footnote 41: Pocock (Specimen, p. 158-161) and Casiri (Bibliot. Hispano-Arabica, tom. I. P. 48, 84, &c. , 119, tom. Ii. P. 17, &c. ) speakof the Arabian poets before Mahomet; the seven poems of the Caabahave been published in English by Sir William Jones; but his honorablemission to India has deprived us of his own notes, far more interestingthan the obscure and obsolete text. ]

[Footnote 42: Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 29, 30]

[Footnote 43: D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. P. 458. Gagnier, Vie deMahomet, tom. Iii. P. 118. Caab and Hesnus (Pocock, Specimen, p. 43, 46, 48) were likewise conspicuous for their liberality; and the latteris elegantly praised by an Arabian poet: "Videbis eum cum accesserisexultantem, ac si dares illi quod ab illo petis. " * Note: See thetranslation of the amusing Persian romance of Hatim Tai, by DuncanForbes, Esq. , among the works published by the Oriental TranslationFund. --M. ]

The religion of the Arabs, [44] as well as of the Indians, consisted inthe worship of the sun, the moon, and the fixed stars; a primitive andspecious mode of superstition. The bright luminaries of the sky displaythe visible image of a Deity: their number and distance convey to aphilosophic, or even a vulgar, eye, the idea of boundless space:the character of eternity is marked on these solid globes, that seemincapable of corruption or decay: the regularity of their motions maybe ascribed to a principle of reason or instinct; and their real, orimaginary, influence encourages the vain belief that the earth andits inhabitants are the object of their peculiar care. The science ofastronomy was cultivated at Babylon; but the school of the Arabs wasa clear firmament and a naked plain. In their nocturnal marches, theysteered by the guidance of the stars: their names, and order, and dailystation, were familiar to the curiosity and devotion of the Bedoween;and he was taught by experience to divide, in twenty-eight parts, thezodiac of the moon, and to bless the constellations who refreshed, withsalutary rains, the thirst of the desert. The reign of the heavenly orbscould not be extended beyond the visible sphere; and some metaphysicalpowers were necessary to sustain the transmigration of souls and theresurrection of bodies: a camel was left to perish on the grave, that hemight serve his master in another life; and the invocation of departedspirits implies that they were still endowed with consciousness andpower. I am ignorant, and I am careless, of the blind mythology of theBarbarians; of the local deities, of the stars, the air, and the earth, of their sex or titles, their attributes or subordination. Each tribe, each family, each independent warrior, created and changed the rites andthe object of his fantastic worship; but the nation, in every age, hasbowed to the religion, as well as to the language, of Mecca. The genuineantiquity of the Caaba ascends beyond the Christian aera; in describingthe coast of the Red Sea, the Greek historian Diodorus [45] hasremarked, between the Thamudites and the Sabaeans, a famous temple, whose superior sanctity was revered by all the Arabians; the linen orsilken veil, which is annually renewed by the Turkish emperor, was firstoffered by a pious king of the Homerites, who reigned seven hundredyears before the time of Mahomet. [46] A tent, or a cavern, mightsuffice for the worship of the savages, but an edifice of stone and clayhas been erected in its place; and the art and power of the monarchsof the East have been confined to the simplicity of the original model. [47] A spacious portico encloses the quadrangle of the Caaba; a squarechapel, twenty-four cubits long, twenty-three broad, and twenty-sevenhigh: a door and a window admit the light; the double roof is supportedby three pillars of wood; a spout (now of gold) discharges therain-water, and the well Zemzen is protected by a dome from accidentalpollution. The tribe of Koreish, by fraud and force, had acquired thecustody of the Caaba: the sacerdotal office devolved through fourlineal descents to the grandfather of Mahomet; and the family of theHashemites, from whence he sprung, was the most respectable and sacredin the eyes of their country. [48] The precincts of Mecca enjoyed therights of sanctuary; and, in the last month of each year, the city andthe temple were crowded with a long train of pilgrims, who presentedtheir vows and offerings in the house of God. The same rites which arenow accomplished by the faithful Mussulman, were invented and practisedby the superstition of the idolaters. At an awful distance they castaway their garments: seven times, with hasty steps, they encircled theCaaba, and kissed the black stone: seven times they visited and adoredthe adjacent mountains; seven times they threw stones into the valleyof Mina; and the pilgrimage was achieved, as at the present hour, by asacrifice of sheep and camels, and the burial of their hair and nailsin the consecrated ground. Each tribe either found or introduced in theCaaba their domestic worship: the temple was adorned, or defiled, withthree hundred and sixty idols of men, eagles, lions, and antelopes; andmost conspicuous was the statue of Hebal, of red agate, holding inhis hand seven arrows, without heads or feathers, the instruments andsymbols of profane divination. But this statue was a monument of Syrianarts: the devotion of the ruder ages was content with a pillar or atablet; and the rocks of the desert were hewn into gods or altars, inimitation of the black stone [49] of Mecca, which is deeply tainted withthe reproach of an idolatrous origin. From Japan to Peru, the use ofsacrifice has universally prevailed; and the votary has expressed hisgratitude, or fear, by destroying or consuming, in honor of the gods, the dearest and most precious of their gifts. The life of a man [50] isthe most precious oblation to deprecate a public calamity: the altars ofPhoenicia and Egypt, of Rome and Carthage, have been polluted with humangore: the cruel practice was long preserved among the Arabs; in thethird century, a boy was annually sacrificed by the tribe of theDumatians; [51] and a royal captive was piously slaughtered by theprince of the Saracens, the ally and soldier of the emperor Justinian. [52] A parent who drags his son to the altar, exhibits the most painfuland sublime effort of fanaticism: the deed, or the intention, wassanctified by the example of saints and heroes; and the father ofMahomet himself was devoted by a rash vow, and hardly ransomed for theequivalent of a hundred camels. In the time of ignorance, the Arabs, like the Jews and Egyptians, abstained from the taste of swine's flesh;[53] they circumcised [54] their children at the age of puberty: thesame customs, without the censure or the precept of the Koran, havebeen silently transmitted to their posterity and proselytes. It hasbeen sagaciously conjectured, that the artful legislator indulged thestubborn prejudices of his countrymen. It is more simple to believe thathe adhered to the habits and opinions of his youth, without foreseeingthat a practice congenial to the climate of Mecca might become uselessor inconvenient on the banks of the Danube or the Volga. 

[Footnote 44: Whatever can now be known of the idolatry of the ancientArabians may be found in Pocock, (Specimen, p. 89-136, 163, 164. ) Hisprofound erudition is more clearly and concisely interpreted by Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 14-24;) and Assemanni (Bibliot. Orient tom. Iv. P. 580-590) has added some valuable remarks. ]

[Footnote 45: (Diodor. Sicul. Tom. I. L. Iii. P. 211. ) The character andposition are so correctly apposite, that I am surprised how this curiouspassage should have been read without notice or application. Yet thisfamous temple had been overlooked by Agatharcides, (de Mari Rubro, p. 58, in Hudson, tom. I. , ) whom Diodorus copies in the rest of thedescription. Was the Sicilian more knowing than the Egyptian? Or was theCaaba built between the years of Rome 650 and 746, the dates of theirrespective histories? (Dodwell, in Dissert. Ad tom. I. Hudson, p. 72. Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Ii. P. 770. ) * Note: Mr. Forster(Geography of Arabia, vol. Ii. P. 118, et seq. ) has raised an objection, as I think, fatal to this hypothesis of Gibbon. The temple, situated inthe country of the Banizomeneis, was not between the Thamudites andthe Sabaeans, but higher up than the coast inhabited by the former. Mr. Forster would place it as far north as Moiiah. I am not quite satisfiedthat this will agree with the whole description of Diodorus--M. 1845. ]

[Footnote 46: Pocock, Specimen, p. 60, 61. From the death of Mahomet weascend to 68, from his birth to 129, years before the Christian aera. The veil or curtain, which is now of silk and gold, was no more than apiece of Egyptian linen, (Abulfeda, in Vit. Mohammed. C. 6, p. 14. )]

[Footnote 47: The original plan of the Caaba (which is servilely copiedin Sale, the Universal History, &c. ) was a Turkish draught, which Reland(de Religione Mohammedica, p. 113-123) has corrected and explainedfrom the best authorities. For the description and legend of the Caaba, consult Pocock, (Specimen, p. 115-122, ) the Bibliotheque Orientaleof D'Herbelot, (Caaba, Hagir, Zemzem, &c. , ) and Sale (PreliminaryDiscourse, p. 114-122. )]

[Footnote 48: Cosa, the fifth ancestor of Mahomet, must have usurped theCaaba A. D. 440; but the story is differently told by Jannabi, (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. I. P. 65-69, ) and by Abulfeda, (in Vit. Moham. C. 6, p. 13. )]

[Footnote 49: In the second century, Maximus of Tyre attributes to theArabs the worship of a stone, (Dissert. Viii. Tom. I. P. 142, edit. Reiske;) and the reproach is furiously reechoed by the Christians, (Clemens Alex. In Protreptico, p. 40. Arnobius contra Gentes, l. Vi. P. 246. ) Yet these stones were no other than of Syria and Greece, sorenowned in sacred and profane antiquity, (Euseb. Praep. Evangel. L. I. P. 37. Marsham, Canon. Chron. P. 54-56. )]

[Footnote 50: The two horrid subjects are accurately discussed bythe learned Sir John Marsham, (Canon. Chron. P. 76-78, 301-304. )Sanchoniatho derives the Phoenician sacrifices from the example ofChronus; but we are ignorant whether Chronus lived before, or after, Abraham, or indeed whether he lived at all. ]

[Footnote 51: The reproach of Porphyry; but he likewise imputes to theRoman the same barbarous custom, which, A. U. C. 657, had been finallyabolished. Dumaetha, Daumat al Gendai, is noticed by Ptolemy (Tabul. P. 37, Arabia, p. 9-29) and Abulfeda, (p. 57, ) and may be found inD'Anville's maps, in the mid-desert between Chaibar and Tadmor. ]

[Footnote 52: Prcoopius, (de Bell. Persico, l. I. C. 28, ) Evagrius, (l. Vi. C. 21, ) and Pocock, (Specimen, p. 72, 86, ) attest the humansacrifices of the Arabs in the vith century. The danger and escape ofAbdallah is a tradition rather than a fact, (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. I. P. 82-84. )]

[Footnote 53: Suillis carnibus abstinent, says Solinus, (Polyhistor. C. 33, ) who copies Pliny (l. Viii. C. 68) in the strange supposition, thathogs can not live in Arabia. The Egyptians were actuated by a naturaland superstitious horror for that unclean beast, (Marsham, Canon. P. 205. ) The old Arabians likewise practised, post coitum, the rite ofablution, (Herodot. L. I. C. 80, ) which is sanctified by the Mahometanlaw, (Reland, p. 75, &c. , Chardin, or rather the Mollah of Shah Abbas, tom. Iv. P. 71, &c. )]

[Footnote 54: The Mahometan doctors are not fond of the subject; yetthey hold circumcision necessary to salvation, and even pretend thatMahomet was miraculously born without a foreskin, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 319, 320. Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 106, 107. )]

Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants. --Part III. 

Arabia was free: the adjacent kingdoms were shaken by the storms ofconquest and tyranny, and the persecuted sects fled to the happy landwhere they might profess what they thought, and practise what theyprofessed. The religions of the Sabians and Magians, of the Jews andChristians, were disseminated from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. Ina remote period of antiquity, Sabianism was diffused over Asia by thescience of the Chaldaeans [55] and the arms of the Assyrians. Fromthe observations of two thousand years, the priests and astronomers ofBabylon [56] deduced the eternal laws of nature and providence. Theyadored the seven gods or angels, who directed the course of the sevenplanets, and shed their irresistible influence on the earth. Theattributes of the seven planets, with the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the twenty-four constellations of the northern and southernhemisphere, were represented by images and talismans; the seven days ofthe week were dedicated to their respective deities; the Sabians prayedthrice each day; and the temple of the moon at Haran was the term oftheir pilgrimage. [57] But the flexible genius of their faith was alwaysready either to teach or to learn: in the tradition of the creation, thedeluge, and the patriarchs, they held a singular agreement with theirJewish captives; they appealed to the secret books of Adam, Seth, andEnoch; and a slight infusion of the gospel has transformed the lastremnant of the Polytheists into the Christians of St. John, in theterritory of Bassora. [58] The altars of Babylon were overturned by theMagians; but the injuries of the Sabians were revenged by the sword ofAlexander; Persia groaned above five hundred years under a foreign yoke;and the purest disciples of Zoroaster escaped from the contagion ofidolatry, and breathed with their adversaries the freedom of the desert. [59] Seven hundred years before the death of Mahomet, the Jews weresettled in Arabia; and a far greater multitude was expelled from theHoly Land in the wars of Titus and Hadrian. The industrious exilesaspired to liberty and power: they erected synagogues in the cities, andcastles in the wilderness, and their Gentile converts were confoundedwith the children of Israel, whom they resembled in the outward markof circumcision. The Christian missionaries were still more active andsuccessful: the Catholics asserted their universal reign; the sectswhom they oppressed, successively retired beyond the limits of theRoman empire; the Marcionites and Manichaeans dispersed their fantasticopinions and apocryphal gospels; the churches of Yemen, and the princesof Hira and Gassan, were instructed in a purer creed by the Jacobiteand Nestorian bishops. [60] The liberty of choice was presented to thetribes: each Arab was free to elect or to compose his private religion:and the rude superstition of his house was mingled with the sublimetheology of saints and philosophers. A fundamental article of faith wasinculcated by the consent of the learned strangers; the existence of onesupreme God who is exalted above the powers of heaven and earth, but whohas often revealed himself to mankind by the ministry of his angelsand prophets, and whose grace or justice has interrupted, by seasonablemiracles, the order of nature. The most rational of the Arabsacknowledged his power, though they neglected his worship; [61] and itwas habit rather than conviction that still attached them to the relicsof idolatry. The Jews and Christians were the people of the Book; theBible was already translated into the Arabic language, [62] and thevolume of the Old Testament was accepted by the concord of theseimplacable enemies. In the story of the Hebrew patriarchs, the Arabswere pleased to discover the fathers of their nation. They applauded thebirth and promises of Ismael; revered the faith and virtue of Abraham;traced his pedigree and their own to the creation of the first man, andimbibed, with equal credulity, the prodigies of the holy text, and thedreams and traditions of the Jewish rabbis. 

[Footnote 55: Diodorus Siculus (tom. I. L. Ii. P. 142-145) has caston their religion the curious but superficial glance of a Greek. Theirastronomy would be far more valuable: they had looked through thetelescope of reason, since they could doubt whether the sun were in thenumber of the planets or of the fixed stars. ]

[Footnote 56: Simplicius, (who quotes Porphyry, ) de Coelo, l. Ii. Com. Xlvi p. 123, lin. 18, apud Marsham, Canon. Chron. P. 474, who doubtsthe fact, because it is adverse to his systems. The earliest date ofthe Chaldaean observations is the year 2234 before Christ. After theconquest of Babylon by Alexander, they were communicated at the requestof Aristotle, to the astronomer Hipparchus. What a moment in the annalsof science!]

[Footnote 57: Pocock, (Specimen, p. 138-146, ) Hottinger, (Hist. Orient. P. 162-203, ) Hyde, (de Religione Vet. Persarum, p. 124, 128, &c. , )D'Herbelot, (Sabi, p. 725, 726, ) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 14, 15, ) rather excite than gratify our curiosity; and the last of thesewriters confounds Sabianism with the primitive religion of the Arabs. ]

[Footnote 58: D'Anville (l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 130-137) willfix the position of these ambiguous Christians; Assemannus (Bibliot. Oriental. Tom. Iv. P. 607-614) may explain their tenets. But it is aslippery task to ascertain the creed of an ignorant people afraidand ashamed to disclose their secret traditions. * Note: The CodexNasiraeus, their sacred book, has been published by Norberg whoseresearches contain almost all that is known of this singular people. Buttheir origin is almost as obscure as ever: if ancient, their creedhas been so corrupted with mysticism and Mahometanism, that its nativelineaments are very indistinct. --M. ]

[Footnote 59: The Magi were fixed in the province of Bhrein, (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. Iii. P. 114, ) and mingled with the old Arabians, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 146-150. )]

[Footnote 60: The state of the Jews and Christians in Arabia isdescribed by Pocock from Sharestani, &c. , (Specimen, p. 60, 134, &c. , )Hottinger, (Hist. Orient. P. 212-238, ) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. P. 474-476, ) Basnage, (Hist. Des Juifs, tom. Vii. P. 185, tom. Viii. P. 280, ) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 22, &c. , 33, &c. )]

[Footnote 61: In their offerings, it was a maxim to defraud God for theprofit of the idol, not a more potent, but a more irritable, patron, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 108, 109. )]

[Footnote 62: Our versions now extant, whether Jewish or Christian, appear more recent than the Koran; but the existence of a priortranslation may be fairly inferred, --1. From the perpetual practice ofthe synagogue of expounding the Hebrew lesson by a paraphrase in thevulgar tongue of the country; 2. From the analogy of the Armenian, Persian, Aethiopic versions, expressly quoted by the fathers of thefifth century, who assert that the Scriptures were translated into allthe Barbaric languages, (Walton, Prolegomena ad Biblia Polyglot, p. 34, 93-97. Simon, Hist. Critique du V. Et du N. Testament, tom. I. P. 180, 181, 282-286, 293, 305, 306, tom. Iv. P. 206. )]

The base and plebeian origin of Mahomet is an unskilful calumny ofthe Christians, [63] who exalt instead of degrading the merit of theiradversary. His descent from Ismael was a national privilege or fable;but if the first steps of the pedigree [64] are dark and doubtful, hecould produce many generations of pure and genuine nobility: he sprungfrom the tribe of Koreish and the family of Hashem, the most illustriousof the Arabs, the princes of Mecca, and the hereditary guardians of theCaaba. The grandfather of Mahomet was Abdol Motalleb, the son of Hashem, a wealthy and generous citizen, who relieved the distress of famine withthe supplies of commerce. Mecca, which had been fed by the liberalityof the father, was saved by the courage of the son. The kingdom of Yemenwas subject to the Christian princes of Abyssinia; their vassal Abrahahwas provoked by an insult to avenge the honor of the cross; and the holycity was invested by a train of elephants and an army of Africans. Atreaty was proposed; and, in the first audience, the grandfather ofMahomet demanded the restitution of his cattle. "And why, " said Abrahah, "do you not rather implore my clemency in favor of your temple, which Ihave threatened to destroy?" "Because, " replied the intrepid chief, "thecattle is my own; the Caaba belongs to the gods, and they will defendtheir house from injury and sacrilege. " The want of provisions, orthe valor of the Koreish, compelled the Abyssinians to a disgracefulretreat: their discomfiture has been adorned with a miraculous flightof birds, who showered down stones on the heads of the infidels; and thedeliverance was long commemorated by the aera of the elephant. [65] Theglory of Abdol Motalleb was crowned with domestic happiness; his lifewas prolonged to the age of one hundred and ten years; and he became thefather of six daughters and thirteen sons. His best beloved Abdallahwas the most beautiful and modest of the Arabian youth; and in the firstnight, when he consummated his marriage with Amina, [651] of the noblerace of the Zahrites, two hundred virgins are said to have expired ofjealousy and despair. Mahomet, or more properly Mohammed, the only sonof Abdallah and Amina, was born at Mecca, four years after the deathof Justinian, and two months after the defeat of the Abyssinians, [66]whose victory would have introduced into the Caaba the religion of theChristians. In his early infancy, he was deprived of his father, hismother, and his grandfather; his uncles were strong and numerous; and, in the division of the inheritance, the orphan's share was reduced tofive camels and an Aethiopian maid-servant. At home and abroad, in peaceand war, Abu Taleb, the most respectable of his uncles, was the guideand guardian of his youth; in his twenty-fifth year, he entered into theservice of Cadijah, a rich and noble widow of Mecca, who soon rewardedhis fidelity with the gift of her hand and fortune. The marriagecontract, in the simple style of antiquity, recites the mutual love ofMahomet and Cadijah; describes him as the most accomplished of the tribeof Koreish; and stipulates a dowry of twelve ounces of gold and twentycamels, which was supplied by the liberality of his uncle. [67] Bythis alliance, the son of Abdallah was restored to the station ofhis ancestors; and the judicious matron was content with his domesticvirtues, till, in the fortieth year of his age, [68] he assumed thetitle of a prophet, and proclaimed the religion of the Koran. 

[Footnote 63: In eo conveniunt omnes, ut plebeio vilique genere ortum, &c, (Hottinger, Hist. Orient. P. 136. ) Yet Theophanes, the most ancientof the Greeks, and the father of many a lie, confesses that Mahomet wasof the race of Ismael, (Chronograph. P. 277. )]

[Footnote 64: Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed. C. 1, 2) and Gagnier (Vie deMahomet, p. 25-97) describe the popular and approved genealogy of theprophet. At Mecca, I would not dispute its authenticity: at Lausanne, I will venture to observe, 1. That from Ismael to Mahomet, a period of2500 years, they reckon thirty, instead of seventy five, generations: 2. That the modern Bedoweens are ignorant of their history, and carelessof their pedigree, (Voyage de D'Arvieux p. 100, 103. ) * Note: The mostorthodox Mahometans only reckon back the ancestry of the prophet fortwenty generations, to Adnan. Weil, Mohammed der Prophet, p. 1. --M. 1845. ]

[Footnote 65: The seed of this history, or fable, is contained in thecvth chapter of the Koran; and Gagnier (in Praefat. Ad Vit. Moham. P. 18, &c. ) has translated the historical narrative of Abulfeda, which maybe illustrated from D'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 12) and Pocock, (Specimen, p. 64. ) Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 48) calls it a lie ofthe coinage of Mahomet; but Sale, (Koran, p. 501-503, ) who is half aMussulman, attacks the inconsistent faith of the Doctor for believingthe miracles of the Delphic Apollo. Maracci (Alcoran, tom. I. Part ii. P. 14, tom. Ii. P. 823) ascribes the miracle to the devil, and extortsfrom the Mahometans the confession, that God would not have defendedagainst the Christians the idols of the Caaba. * Note: Dr. Weil saysthat the small-pox broke out in the army of Abrahah, but he does notgive his authority, p. 10. --M. 1845. ]

[Footnote 651: Amina, or Emina, was of Jewish birth. V. Hammer, Geschichte der Assass. P. 10. --M. ]

[Footnote 66: The safest aeras of Abulfeda, (in Vit. C. I. P. 2, ) ofAlexander, or the Greeks, 882, of Bocht Naser, or Nabonassar, 1316, equally lead us to the year 569. The old Arabian calendar is too darkand uncertain to support the Benedictines, (Art. De Verifer les Dates, p. 15, ) who, from the day of the month and week, deduce a new mode ofcalculation, and remove the birth of Mahomet to the year of Christ 570, the 10th of November. Yet this date would agree with the year 882 ofthe Greeks, which is assigned by Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. P. 5) andAbulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 101, and Errata, Pocock's version. ) While werefine our chronology, it is possible that the illiterate prophet wasignorant of his own age. * Note: The date of the birth of Mahomet is notyet fixed with precision. It is only known from Oriental authors thathe was born on a Monday, the 10th Reby 1st, the third month of theMahometan year; the year 40 or 42 of Chosroes Nushirvan, king of Persia;the year 881 of the Seleucidan aera; the year 1316 of the aera ofNabonassar. This leaves the point undecided between the years 569, 570, 571, of J. C. See the Memoir of M. Silv. De Sacy, on divers events inthe history of the Arabs before Mahomet, Mem. Acad. Des Loscript. Vol. Xlvii. P. 527, 531. St. Martin, vol. Xi. P. 59. --M. ----Dr. Weil decideson A. D. 571. Mahomet died in 632, aged 63; but the Arabs reckoned hislife by lunar years, which reduces his life nearly to 61 (p. 21. )--M. 1845]

[Footnote 67: I copy the honorable testimony of Abu Taleb to his familyand nephew. Laus Dei, qui nos a stirpe Abrahami et semine Ismaelisconstituit, et nobis regionem sacram dedit, et nos judices hominibusstatuit. Porro Mohammed filius Abdollahi nepotis mei (nepos meus) quocum ex aequo librabitur e Koraishidis quispiam cui non praeponderaturusest, bonitate et excellentia, et intellectu et gloria, et acumine etsiopum inops fuerit, (et certe opes umbra transiens sunt et depositumquod reddi debet, ) desiderio Chadijae filiae Chowailedi tenetur, etilla vicissim ipsius, quicquid autem dotis vice petieritis, ego in mesuscipiam, (Pocock, Specimen, e septima parte libri Ebn Hamduni. )]

[Footnote 68: The private life of Mahomet, from his birth to hismission, is preserved by Abulfeda, (in Vit. C. 3-7, ) and the Arabianwriters of genuine or apocryphal note, who are alleged by Hottinger, (Hist. Orient. P. 204-211) Maracci, (tom. I. P. 10-14, ) and Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. I. P. 97-134. )]

According to the tradition of his companions, Mahomet [69] wasdistinguished by the beauty of his person, an outward gift which isseldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused. Beforehe spoke, the orator engaged on his side the affections of a public orprivate audience. They applauded his commanding presence, his majesticaspect, his piercing eye, his gracious smile, his flowing beard, hiscountenance that painted every sensation of the soul, and his gesturesthat enforced each expression of the tongue. In the familiar offices oflife he scrupulously adhered to the grave and ceremonious politenessof his country: his respectful attention to the rich and powerful wasdignified by his condescension and affability to the poorest citizens ofMecca: the frankness of his manner concealed the artifice of his views;and the habits of courtesy were imputed to personal friendship oruniversal benevolence. His memory was capacious and retentive; his witeasy and social; his imagination sublime; his judgment clear, rapid, and decisive. He possessed the courage both of thought and action; and, although his designs might gradually expand with his success, the firstidea which he entertained of his divine mission bears the stamp of anoriginal and superior genius. The son of Abdallah was educated in thebosom of the noblest race, in the use of the purest dialect of Arabia;and the fluency of his speech was corrected and enhanced by the practiceof discreet and seasonable silence. With these powers of eloquence, Mahomet was an illiterate Barbarian: his youth had never been instructedin the arts of reading and writing; [70] the common ignorance exemptedhim from shame or reproach, but he was reduced to a narrow circle ofexistence, and deprived of those faithful mirrors, which reflect to ourmind the minds of sages and heroes. Yet the book of nature and of manwas open to his view; and some fancy has been indulged in the politicaland philosophical observations which are ascribed to the Arabiantraveller. [71] He compares the nations and the regions of the earth;discovers the weakness of the Persian and Roman monarchies; beholds, with pity and indignation, the degeneracy of the times; and resolvesto unite under one God and one king the invincible spirit and primitivevirtues of the Arabs. Our more accurate inquiry will suggest, that, instead of visiting the courts, the camps, the temples, of the East, thetwo journeys of Mahomet into Syria were confined to the fairs of Bostraand Damascus; that he was only thirteen years of age when he accompaniedthe caravan of his uncle; and that his duty compelled him to return assoon as he had disposed of the merchandise of Cadijah. In these hastyand superficial excursions, the eye of genius might discern some objectsinvisible to his grosser companions; some seeds of knowledge might becast upon a fruitful soil; but his ignorance of the Syriac languagemust have checked his curiosity; and I cannot perceive, in the lifeor writings of Mahomet, that his prospect was far extended beyond thelimits of the Arabian world. From every region of that solitary world, the pilgrims of Mecca were annually assembled, by the calls of devotionand commerce: in the free concourse of multitudes, a simple citizen, inhis native tongue, might study the political state and character of thetribes, the theory and practice of the Jews and Christians. Someuseful strangers might be tempted, or forced, to implore the rights ofhospitality; and the enemies of Mahomet have named the Jew, the Persian, and the Syrian monk, whom they accuse of lending their secret aid to thecomposition of the Koran. [72] Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius; and the uniformity of a workdenotes the hand of a single artist. From his earliest youth Mahometwas addicted to religious contemplation; each year, during the month ofRamadan, he withdrew from the world, and from the arms of Cadijah: inthe cave of Hera, three miles from Mecca, [73] he consulted the spiritof fraud or enthusiasm, whose abode is not in the heavens, but inthe mind of the prophet. The faith which, under the name of Islam, hepreached to his family and nation, is compounded of an eternal truth, and a necessary fiction, That there is only one God, and that Mahomet isthe apostle of God. 

[Footnote 69: Abulfeda, in Vit. C. Lxv. Lxvi. Gagnier, Vie deMahomet, tom. Iii. P. 272-289. The best traditions of the personand conversation of the prophet are derived from Ayesha, Ali, and AbuHoraira, (Gagnier, tom. Ii. P. 267. Ockley's Hist. Of the Saracens, vol. Ii. P. 149, ) surnamed the Father of a Cat, who died in the year 59 ofthe Hegira. * Note: Compare, likewise, the new Life of Mahomet (Mohammedder prophet) by Dr. Weil, (Stuttgart, 1843. ) Dr. Weil has a newtradition, that Mahomet was at one time a shepherd. This assimilationto the life of Moses, instead of giving probability to the story, as Dr. Weil suggests, makes it more suspicious. Note, p. 34. --M. 1845. ]

[Footnote 70: Those who believe that Mahomet could read or write areincapable of reading what is written with another pen, in the Suras, orchapters of the Koran, vii. Xxix. Xcvi. These texts, and the traditionof the Sonna, are admitted, without doubt, by Abulfeda, (in Vit. Vii. , )Gagnier, (Not. Ad Abulfed. P. 15, ) Pocock, (Specimen, p. 151, ) Reland, (de Religione Mohammedica, p. 236, ) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 42. ) Mr. White, almost alone, denies the ignorance, to accuse theimposture, of the prophet. His arguments are far from satisfactory. Twoshort trading journeys to the fairs of Syria were surely not sufficientto infuse a science so rare among the citizens of Mecca: it was not inthe cool, deliberate act of treaty, that Mahomet would have droppedthe mask; nor can any conclusion be drawn from the words of diseaseand delirium. The lettered youth, before he aspired to the propheticcharacter, must have often exercised, in private life, the arts ofreading and writing; and his first converts, of his own family, wouldhave been the first to detect and upbraid his scandalous hypocrisy, (White's Sermons, p. 203, 204, Notes, p. Xxxvi. --xxxviii. ) * Note:(Academ. Des Inscript. I. P. 295) has observed that the text of theseveth Sura implies that Mahomet could read, the tradition alone deniesit, and, according to Dr. Weil, (p. 46, ) there is another reading ofthe tradition, that "he could not read well. " Dr. Weil is not quite sosuccessful in explaining away Sura xxix. It means, he thinks that he hadnot read any books, from which he could have borrowed. --M. 1845. ]

[Footnote 71: The count de Boulainvilliers (Vie de Mahomet, p. 202-228)leads his Arabian pupil, like the Telemachus of Fenelon, or the Cyrus ofRamsay. His journey to the court of Persia is probably a fiction norcan I trace the origin of his exclamation, "Les Grecs sont pour tant deshommes. " The two Syrian journeys are expressed by almost all the Arabianwriters, both Mahometans and Christians, (Gagnier Abulfed. P. 10. )]

[Footnote 72: I am not at leisure to pursue the fables or conjectureswhich name the strangers accused or suspected by the infidels of Mecca, (Koran, c. 16, p. 223, c. 35, p. 297, with Sale's Remarks. Prideaux'sLife of Mahomet, p. 22-27. Gagnier, Not. Ad Abulfed. P. 11, 74. Maracci, tom. Ii. P. 400. ) Even Prideaux has observed, that thetransaction must have been secret, and that the scene lay in the heartof Arabia. ]

[Footnote 73: Abulfeda in Vit. C. 7, p. 15. Gagnier, tom. I. P. 133, 135. The situation of Mount Hera is remarked by Abulfeda (Geograph. Arabp. 4. ) Yet Mahomet had never read of the cave of Egeria, ubi nocturnaeNuma constituebat amicae, of the Idaean Mount, where Minos conversedwith Jove, &c. ]

It is the boast of the Jewish apologists, that while the learned nationsof antiquity were deluded by the fables of polytheism, their simpleancestors of Palestine preserved the knowledge and worship of the trueGod. The moral attributes of Jehovah may not easily be reconciled withthe standard of human virtue: his metaphysical qualities are darklyexpressed; but each page of the Pentateuch and the Prophets is anevidence of his power: the unity of his name is inscribed on the firsttable of the law; and his sanctuary was never defiled by any visibleimage of the invisible essence. After the ruin of the temple, thefaith of the Hebrew exiles was purified, fixed, and enlightened, by thespiritual devotion of the synagogue; and the authority of Mahomet willnot justify his perpetual reproach, that the Jews of Mecca or Medinaadored Ezra as the son of God. [74] But the children of Israel hadceased to be a people; and the religions of the world were guilty, at least in the eyes of the prophet, of giving sons, or daughters, orcompanions, to the supreme God. In the rude idolatry of the Arabs, thecrime is manifest and audacious: the Sabians are poorly excused by thepreeminence of the first planet, or intelligence, in their celestialhierarchy; and in the Magian system the conflict of the two principlesbetrays the imperfection of the conqueror. The Christians of the seventhcentury had insensibly relapsed into a semblance of Paganism: theirpublic and private vows were addressed to the relics and images thatdisgraced the temples of the East: the throne of the Almighty wasdarkened by a cloud of martyrs, and saints, and angels, the objects ofpopular veneration; and the Collyridian heretics, who flourished inthe fruitful soil of Arabia, invested the Virgin Mary with the name andhonors of a goddess. [75] The mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnationappear to contradict the principle of the divine unity. In their obvioussense, they introduce three equal deities, and transform the man Jesusinto the substance of the Son of God: [76] an orthodox commentary willsatisfy only a believing mind: intemperate curiosity and zeal had tornthe veil of the sanctuary; and each of the Oriental sects was eager toconfess that all, except themselves, deserved the reproach of idolatryand polytheism. The creed of Mahomet is free from suspicion orambiguity; and the Koran is a glorious testimony to the unity of God. The prophet of Mecca rejected the worship of idols and men, of stars andplanets, on the rational principle that whatever rises must set, thatwhatever is born must die, that whatever is corruptible must decay andperish. [77] In the Author of the universe, his rational enthusiasmconfessed and adored an infinite and eternal being, without form orplace, without issue or similitude, present to our most secret thoughts, existing by the necessity of his own nature, and deriving from himselfall moral and intellectual perfection. These sublime truths, thusannounced in the language of the prophet, [78] are firmly held by hisdisciples, and defined with metaphysical precision by the interpretersof the Koran. A philosophic theist might subscribe the popular creedof the Mahometans; [79] a creed too sublime, perhaps, for our presentfaculties. What object remains for the fancy, or even the understanding, when we have abstracted from the unknown substance all ideas of timeand space, of motion and matter, of sensation and reflection? Thefirst principle of reason and revolution was confirmed by the voice ofMahomet: his proselytes, from India to Morocco, are distinguished by thename of Unitarians; and the danger of idolatry has been prevented bythe interdiction of images. The doctrine of eternal decrees andabsolute predestination is strictly embraced by the Mahometans; and theystruggle, with the common difficulties, how to reconcile the prescienceof God with the freedom and responsibility of man; how to explainthe permission of evil under the reign of infinite power and infinitegoodness. 

[Footnote 74: Koran, c. 9, p. 153. Al Beidawi, and the othercommentators quoted by Sale, adhere to the charge; but I do notunderstand that it is colored by the most obscure or absurd tradition ofthe Talmud. ]

[Footnote 75: Hottinger, Hist. Orient. P. 225-228. The Collyridianheresy was carried from Thrace to Arabia by some women, and the name wasborrowed from the cake, which they offered to the goddess. This example, that of Beryllus bishop of Bostra, (Euseb. Hist. Eccles. L. Vi. C. 33, )and several others, may excuse the reproach, Arabia haerese haersewnferax. ]

[Footnote 76: The three gods in the Koran (c. 4, p. 81, c. 5, p. 92)are obviously directed against our Catholic mystery: but the Arabiccommentators understand them of the Father, the Son, and the VirginMary, an heretical Trinity, maintained, as it is said, by someBarbarians at the Council of Nice, (Eutych. Annal. Tom. I. P. 440. )But the existence of the Marianites is denied by the candid Beausobre, (Hist. De Manicheisme, tom. I. P. 532;) and he derives the mistake fromthe word Roxah, the Holy Ghost, which in some Oriental tongues is of thefeminine gender, and is figuratively styled the mother of Christ in theGospel of the Nazarenes. ]

[Footnote 77: This train of thought is philosophically exemplified inthe character of Abraham, who opposed in Chaldaea the first introductionof idolatry, (Koran, c. 6, p. 106. D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. P. 13. )]

[Footnote 78: See the Koran, particularly the second, (p. 30, ) thefifty-seventh, (p. 437, ) the fifty-eighth (p. 441) chapters, whichproclaim the omnipotence of the Creator. ]

[Footnote 79: The most orthodox creeds are translated by Pocock, (Specimen, p. 274, 284-292, ) Ockley, (Hist. Of the Saracens, vol. Ii. P. Lxxxii. --xcv. , ) Reland, (de Religion. Moham. L. I. P. 7-13, ) andChardin, (Voyages en Perse, tom. Iv. P. 4-28. ) The great truth, thatGod is without similitude, is foolishly criticized by Maracci, (Alcoran, tom. I. Part iii. P. 87-94, ) because he made man after his own image. ]

The God of nature has written his existence on all his works, and hislaw in the heart of man. To restore the knowledge of the one, andthe practice of the other, has been the real or pretended aim ofthe prophets of every age: the liberality of Mahomet allowed to hispredecessors the same credit which he claimed for himself; and the chainof inspiration was prolonged from the fall of Adam to the promulgationof the Koran. [80] During that period, some rays of prophetic lighthad been imparted to one hundred and twenty-four thousand of the elect, discriminated by their respective measure of virtue and grace; threehundred and thirteen apostles were sent with a special commissionto recall their country from idolatry and vice; one hundred and fourvolumes have been dictated by the Holy Spirit; and six legislators oftranscendent brightness have announced to mankind the six successiverevelations of various rites, but of one immutable religion. Theauthority and station of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Christ, andMahomet, rise in just gradation above each other; but whosoever hatesor rejects any one of the prophets is numbered with the infidels. Thewritings of the patriarchs were extant only in the apocryphal copies ofthe Greeks and Syrians: [81] the conduct of Adam had not entitled himto the gratitude or respect of his children; the seven precepts of Noahwere observed by an inferior and imperfect class of the proselytes ofthe synagogue; [82] and the memory of Abraham was obscurely revered bythe Sabians in his native land of Chaldaea: of the myriads of prophets, Moses and Christ alone lived and reigned; and the remnant of theinspired writings was comprised in the books of the Old and the NewTestament. The miraculous story of Moses is consecrated and embellishedin the Koran; [83] and the captive Jews enjoy the secret revenge ofimposing their own belief on the nations whose recent creeds theyderide. For the author of Christianity, the Mahometans are taught bythe prophet to entertain a high and mysterious reverence. [84] "Verily, Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, is the apostle of God, and his word, which he conveyed unto Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from him; honorablein this world, and in the world to come, and one of those who approachnear to the presence of God. " [85] The wonders of the genuine andapocryphal gospels [86] are profusely heaped on his head; and theLatin church has not disdained to borrow from the Koran the immaculateconception [87] of his virgin mother. Yet Jesus was a mere mortal; and, at the day of judgment, his testimony will serve to condemn both theJews, who reject him as a prophet, and the Christians, who adore him asthe Son of God. The malice of his enemies aspersed his reputation, and conspired against his life; but their intention only was guilty;a phantom or a criminal was substituted on the cross; and the innocentsaint was translated to the seventh heaven. [88] During six hundredyears the gospel was the way of truth and salvation; but the Christiansinsensibly forgot both the laws and example of their founder; andMahomet was instructed by the Gnostics to accuse the church, as well asthe synagogue, of corrupting the integrity of the sacred text. [89]The piety of Moses and of Christ rejoiced in the assurance of a futureprophet, more illustrious than themselves: the evangelical promiseof the Paraclete, or Holy Ghost, was prefigured in the name, andaccomplished in the person, of Mahomet, [90] the greatest and the lastof the apostles of God. 

[Footnote 80: Reland, de Relig. Moham. L. I. P. 17-47. Sale'sPreliminary Discourse, p. 73-76. Voyage de Chardin, tom. Iv. P. 28-37, and 37-47, for the Persian addition, "Ali is the vicar of God!" Yet theprecise number of the prophets is not an article of faith. ]

[Footnote 81: For the apocryphal books of Adam, see Fabricius, CodexPseudepigraphus V. T. P. 27-29; of Seth, p. 154-157; of Enoch, p. 160-219. But the book of Enoch is consecrated, in some measure, bythe quotation of the apostle St. Jude; and a long legendary fragment isalleged by Syncellus and Scaliger. * Note: The whole book has since beenrecovered in the Ethiopic language, --and has been edited and translatedby Archbishop Lawrence, Oxford, 1881--M. ]

[Footnote 82: The seven precepts of Noah are explained by Marsham, (Canon Chronicus, p. 154-180, ) who adopts, on this occasion, thelearning and credulity of Selden. ]

[Footnote 83: The articles of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, &c. , in theBibliotheque of D'Herbelot, are gayly bedecked with the fanciful legendsof the Mahometans, who have built on the groundwork of Scripture and theTalmud. ]

[Footnote 84: Koran, c. 7, p. 128, &c. , c. 10, p. 173, &c. D'Herbelot, p. 647, &c. ]

[Footnote 85: Koran, c. 3, p. 40, c. 4. P. 80. D'Herbelot, p. 399, &c. ]

[Footnote 86: See the Gospel of St. Thomas, or of the Infancy, inthe Codex Apocryphus N. T. Of Fabricius, who collects the varioustestimonies concerning it, (p. 128-158. ) It was published in Greek byCotelier, and in Arabic by Sike, who thinks our present copy more recentthan Mahomet. Yet his quotations agree with the original about thespeech of Christ in his cradle, his living birds of clay, &c. (Sike, c. I. P. 168, 169, c. 36, p. 198, 199, c. 46, p. 206. Cotelier, c. 2, p. 160, 161. )]

[Footnote 87: It is darkly hinted in the Koran, (c. 3, p. 39, ) and moreclearly explained by the tradition of the Sonnites, (Sale's Note, and Maracci, tom. Ii. P. 112. ) In the xiith century, the immaculateconception was condemned by St. Bernard as a presumptuous novelty, (FraPaolo, Istoria del Concilio di Trento, l. Ii. )]

[Footnote 88: See the Koran, c. 3, v. 53, and c. 4, v. 156, of Maracci'sedition. Deus est praestantissimus dolose agentium (an odd praise). .. Nec crucifixerunt eum, sed objecta est eis similitudo; an expressionthat may suit with the system of the Docetes; but the commentatorsbelieve (Maracci, tom. Ii. P. 113-115, 173. Sale, p. 42, 43, 79) thatanother man, a friend or an enemy, was crucified in the likeness ofJesus; a fable which they had read in the Gospel of St. Barnabus, and which had been started as early as the time of Irenaeus, by someEbionite heretics, (Beausobre, Hist. Du Manicheisme, tom. Ii. P. 25, Mosheim. De Reb. Christ. P. 353. )]

[Footnote 89: This charge is obscurely urged in the Koran, (c. 3, p. 45;) but neither Mahomet, nor his followers, are sufficiently versed inlanguages and criticism to give any weight or color to their suspicions. Yet the Arians and Nestorians could relate some stories, and theilliterate prophet might listen to the bold assertions of theManichaeans. See Beausobre, tom. I. P. 291-305. ]

[Footnote 90: Among the prophecies of the Old and New Testament, whichare perverted by the fraud or ignorance of the Mussulmans, they apply tothe prophet the promise of the Paraclete, or Comforter, which had beenalready usurped by the Montanists and Manichaeans, (Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. I. P. 263, &c. ;) and the easy change ofletters affords the etymology of the name of Mohammed, (Maracci, tom. I. Part i. P. 15-28. )]

Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants. --Part IV. 

The communication of ideas requires a similitude of thought andlanguage: the discourse of a philosopher would vibrate without effecton the ear of a peasant; yet how minute is the distance of theirunderstandings, if it be compared with the contact of an infinite and afinite mind, with the word of God expressed by the tongue or the pen ofa mortal! The inspiration of the Hebrew prophets, of the apostles andevangelists of Christ, might not be incompatible with the exercise oftheir reason and memory; and the diversity of their genius is stronglymarked in the style and composition of the books of the Old and NewTestament. But Mahomet was content with a character, more humble, yetmore sublime, of a simple editor; the substance of the Koran, [91]according to himself or his disciples, is uncreated and eternal;subsisting in the essence of the Deity, and inscribed with a pen oflight on the table of his everlasting decrees. A paper copy, in a volumeof silk and gems, was brought down to the lowest heaven by the angelGabriel, who, under the Jewish economy, had indeed been despatchedon the most important errands; and this trusty messenger successivelyrevealed the chapters and verses to the Arabian prophet. Instead of aperpetual and perfect measure of the divine will, the fragments of theKoran were produced at the discretion of Mahomet; each revelationis suited to the emergencies of his policy or passion; and allcontradiction is removed by the saving maxim, that any text of Scriptureis abrogated or modified by any subsequent passage. The word of God, andof the apostle, was diligently recorded by his disciples on palm-leavesand the shoulder-bones of mutton; and the pages, without order orconnection, were cast into a domestic chest, in the custody of one ofhis wives. Two years after the death of Mahomet, the sacred volume wascollected and published by his friend and successor Abubeker: the workwas revised by the caliph Othman, in the thirtieth year of the Hegira;and the various editions of the Koran assert the same miraculousprivilege of a uniform and incorruptible text. In the spirit ofenthusiasm or vanity, the prophet rests the truth of his mission on themerit of his book; audaciously challenges both men and angels to imitatethe beauties of a single page; and presumes to assert that God alonecould dictate this incomparable performance. [92] This argument is mostpowerfully addressed to a devout Arabian, whose mind is attuned to faithand rapture; whose ear is delighted by the music of sounds; and whoseignorance is incapable of comparing the productions of human genius. [93] The harmony and copiousness of style will not reach, in a version, the European infidel: he will peruse with impatience the endlessincoherent rhapsody of fable, and precept, and declamation, which seldomexcites a sentiment or an idea, which sometimes crawls in the dust, andis sometimes lost in the clouds. The divine attributes exalt the fancyof the Arabian missionary; but his loftiest strains must yield to thesublime simplicity of the book of Job, composed in a remote age, in thesame country, and in the same language. [94] If the composition of theKoran exceed the faculties of a man to what superior intelligence shouldwe ascribe the Iliad of Homer, or the Philippics of Demosthenes? In allreligions, the life of the founder supplies the silence of his writtenrevelation: the sayings of Mahomet were so many lessons of truth; hisactions so many examples of virtue; and the public and private memorialswere preserved by his wives and companions. At the end of two hundredyears, the Sonna, or oral law, was fixed and consecrated by thelabors of Al Bochari, who discriminated seven thousand two hundred andseventy-five genuine traditions, from a mass of three hundred thousandreports, of a more doubtful or spurious character. Each day the piousauthor prayed in the temple of Mecca, and performed his ablutions withthe water of Zemzem: the pages were successively deposited on the pulpitand the sepulchre of the apostle; and the work has been approved by thefour orthodox sects of the Sonnites. [95]

[Footnote 91: For the Koran, see D'Herbelot, p. 85-88. Maracci, tom. I. In Vit. Mohammed. P. 32-45. Sale, Preliminary Discourse, p. 58-70. ]

[Footnote 92: Koran, c. 17, v. 89. In Sale, p. 235, 236. In Maracci, p. 410. * Note: Compare Von Hammer Geschichte der Assassinen p. 11. -M. ]

[Footnote 93: Yet a sect of Arabians was persuaded, that it might beequalled or surpassed by a human pen, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 221, &c. ;)and Maracci (the polemic is too hard for the translator) derides therhyming affectation of the most applauded passage, (tom. I. Part ii. P. 69-75. )]

[Footnote 94: Colloquia (whether real or fabulous) in media Arabiaatque ab Arabibus habita, (Lowth, de Poesi Hebraeorum. Praelect. Xxxii. Xxxiii. Xxxiv, with his German editor, Michaelis, Epimetron iv. )Yet Michaelis (p. 671-673) has detected many Egyptian images, theelephantiasis, papyrus, Nile, crocodile, &c. The language is ambiguouslystyled Arabico-Hebraea. The resemblance of the sister dialects was muchmore visible in their childhood, than in their mature age, (Michaelis, p. 682. Schultens, in Praefat. Job. ) * Note: The age of the book of Jobis still and probably will still be disputed. Rosenmuller thus stateshis own opinion: "Certe serioribus reipublicae temporibus assignandumesse librum, suadere videtur ad Chaldaismum vergens sermo. " Yet theobservations of Kosegarten, which Rosenmuller has given in a note, andcommon reason, suggest that this Chaldaism may be the native form ofa much earlier dialect; or the Chaldaic may have adopted the poeticalarchaisms of a dialect, differing from, but not less ancient than, theHebrew. See Rosenmuller, Proleg. On Job, p. 41. The poetry appears to meto belong to a much earlier period. --M. ]

[Footnote 95: Ali Bochari died A. H. 224. See D'Herbelot, p. 208, 416, 827. Gagnier, Not. Ad Abulfed. C. 19, p. 33. ]

The mission of the ancient prophets, of Moses and of Jesus had beenconfirmed by many splendid prodigies; and Mahomet was repeatedly urged, by the inhabitants of Mecca and Medina, to produce a similar evidence ofhis divine legation; to call down from heaven the angel or the volumeof his revelation, to create a garden in the desert, or to kindle aconflagration in the unbelieving city. As often as he is pressed bythe demands of the Koreish, he involves himself in the obscure boast ofvision and prophecy, appeals to the internal proofs of his doctrine, andshields himself behind the providence of God, who refuses those signsand wonders that would depreciate the merit of faith, and aggravatethe guilt of infidelity But the modest or angry tone of his apologiesbetrays his weakness and vexation; and these passages of scandalestablished, beyond suspicion, the integrity of the Koran. [96] Thevotaries of Mahomet are more assured than himself of his miraculousgifts; and their confidence and credulity increase as they are fartherremoved from the time and place of his spiritual exploits. They believeor affirm that trees went forth to meet him; that he was saluted bystones; that water gushed from his fingers; that he fed the hungry, cured the sick, and raised the dead; that a beam groaned to him; that acamel complained to him; that a shoulder of mutton informed him of itsbeing poisoned; and that both animate and inanimate nature were equallysubject to the apostle of God. [97] His dream of a nocturnal journey isseriously described as a real and corporeal transaction. A mysteriousanimal, the Borak, conveyed him from the temple of Mecca to that ofJerusalem: with his companion Gabriel he successively ascended the sevenheavens, and received and repaid the salutations of the patriarchs, the prophets, and the angels, in their respective mansions. Beyond theseventh heaven, Mahomet alone was permitted to proceed; he passed theveil of unity, approached within two bow-shots of the throne, and felt acold that pierced him to the heart, when his shoulder was touched bythe hand of God. After this familiar, though important conversation, heagain descended to Jerusalem, remounted the Borak, returned to Mecca, and performed in the tenth part of a night the journey of many thousandyears. [98] According to another legend, the apostle confounded in anational assembly the malicious challenge of the Koreish. His resistlessword split asunder the orb of the moon: the obedient planet stooped fromher station in the sky, accomplished the seven revolutions round theCaaba, saluted Mahomet in the Arabian tongue, and, suddenly contractingher dimensions, entered at the collar, and issued forth through thesleeve, of his shirt. [99] The vulgar are amused with these marvelloustales; but the gravest of the Mussulman doctors imitate the modesty oftheir master, and indulge a latitude of faith or interpretation. [100]They might speciously allege, that in preaching the religion it wasneedless to violate the harmony of nature; that a creed unclouded withmystery may be excused from miracles; and that the sword of Mahomet wasnot less potent than the rod of Moses. 

[Footnote 96: See, more remarkably, Koran, c. 2, 6, 12, 13, 17. Prideaux(Life of Mahomet, p. 18, 19) has confounded the impostor. Maracci, witha more learned apparatus, has shown that the passages which deny hismiracles are clear and positive, (Alcoran, tom. I. Part ii. P. 7-12, )and those which seem to assert them are ambiguous and insufficient, (p. 12-22. )]

[Footnote 97: See the Specimen Hist. Arabum, the text of Abulpharagius, p. 17, the notes of Pocock, p. 187-190. D'Herbelot, BibliothequeOrientale, p. 76, 77. Voyages de Chardin, tom. Iv. P. 200-203. Maracci(Alcoran, tom. I. P. 22-64) has most laboriously collected and confutedthe miracles and prophecies of Mahomet, which, according to somewriters, amount to three thousand. ]

[Footnote 98: The nocturnal journey is circumstantially related byAbulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed, c. 19, p. 33, ) who wishes to think it avision; by Prideaux, (p. 31-40, ) who aggravates the absurdities; andby Gagnier (tom. I. P. 252-343, ) who declares, from the zealous AlJannabi, that to deny this journey, is to disbelieve the Koran. Yet theKoran without naming either heaven, or Jerusalem, or Mecca, has onlydropped a mysterious hint: Laus illi qui transtulit servum suum aboratorio Haram ad oratorium remotissimum, (Koran, c. 17, v. 1; inMaracci, tom. Ii. P. 407; for Sale's version is more licentious. ) Aslender basis for the aerial structure of tradition. ]

[Footnote 99: In the prophetic style, which uses the present or past forthe future, Mahomet had said, Appropinquavit hora, et scissa est luna, (Koran, c. 54, v. 1; in Maracci, tom. Ii. P. 688. ) This figure ofrhetoric has been converted into a fact, which is said to be attestedby the most respectable eye-witnesses, (Maracci, tom. Ii. P. 690. ) Thefestival is still celebrated by the Persians, (Chardin, tom. Iv. P. 201;) and the legend is tediously spun out by Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. I. P. 183-234, ) on the faith, as it should seem, of the credulousAl Jannabi. Yet a Mahometan doctor has arraigned the credit ofthe principal witness, (apud Pocock, Specimen, p. 187;) the bestinterpreters are content with the simple sense of the Koran. (AlBeidawi, apud Hottinger, Hist. Orient. L. Ii. P. 302;) and the silenceof Abulfeda is worthy of a prince and a philosopher. * Note: CompareHamaker Notes to Inc. Auct. Lib. De Exped. Memphides, p. 62--M. ]

[Footnote 100: Abulpharagius, in Specimen Hist. Arab. P. 17; and hisscepticism is justified in the notes of Pocock, p. 190-194, from thepurest authorities. ]

The polytheist is oppressed and distracted by the variety ofsuperstition: a thousand rites of Egyptian origin were interwovenwith the essence of the Mosaic law; and the spirit of the gospel hadevaporated in the pageantry of the church. The prophet of Mecca wastempted by prejudice, or policy, or patriotism, to sanctify the ritesof the Arabians, and the custom of visiting the holy stone of theCaaba. But the precepts of Mahomet himself inculcates a more simple andrational piety: prayer, fasting, and alms, are the religious duties of aMussulman; and he is encouraged to hope, that prayer will carry him halfway to God, fasting will bring him to the door of his palace, and almswill gain him admittance. [101] I. According to the tradition of thenocturnal journey, the apostle, in his personal conference with theDeity, was commanded to impose on his disciples the daily obligation offifty prayers. By the advice of Moses, he applied for an alleviationof this intolerable burden; the number was gradually reduced to five;without any dispensation of business or pleasure, or time or place:the devotion of the faithful is repeated at daybreak, at noon, in theafternoon, in the evening, and at the first watch of the night; and inthe present decay of religious fervor, our travellers are edified by theprofound humility and attention of the Turks and Persians. Cleanlinessis the key of prayer: the frequent lustration of the hands, the face, and the body, which was practised of old by the Arabs, is solemnlyenjoined by the Koran; and a permission is formally granted tosupply with sand the scarcity of water. The words and attitudes ofsupplication, as it is performed either sitting, or standing, orprostrate on the ground, are prescribed by custom or authority; but theprayer is poured forth in short and fervent ejaculations; the measure ofzeal is not exhausted by a tedious liturgy; and each Mussulman forhis own person is invested with the character of a priest. Among thetheists, who reject the use of images, it has been found necessaryto restrain the wanderings of the fancy, by directing the eye and thethought towards a kebla, or visible point of the horizon. The prophetwas at first inclined to gratify the Jews by the choice of Jerusalem;but he soon returned to a more natural partiality; and five times everyday the eyes of the nations at Astracan, at Fez, at Delhi, are devoutlyturned to the holy temple of Mecca. Yet every spot for the service ofGod is equally pure: the Mahometans indifferently pray in their chamberor in the street. As a distinction from the Jews and Christians, theFriday in each week is set apart for the useful institution of publicworship: the people is assembled in the mosch; and the imam, somerespectable elder, ascends the pulpit, to begin the prayer and pronouncethe sermon. But the Mahometan religion is destitute of priesthood orsacrifice; and the independent spirit of fanaticism looks down withcontempt on the ministers and the slaves of superstition. [1011]

II. The voluntary [102] penance of the ascetics, the torment and gloryof their lives, was odious to a prophet who censured in his companionsa rash vow of abstaining from flesh, and women, and sleep; and firmlydeclared, that he would suffer no monks in his religion. [103] Yethe instituted, in each year, a fast of thirty days; and strenuouslyrecommended the observance as a discipline which purifies the soul andsubdues the body, as a salutary exercise of obedience to the will ofGod and his apostle. During the month of Ramadan, from the rising to thesetting of the sun, the Mussulman abstains from eating, and drinking, and women, and baths, and perfumes; from all nourishment that canrestore his strength, from all pleasure that can gratify his senses. Inthe revolution of the lunar year, the Ramadan coincides, by turns, withthe winter cold and the summer heat; and the patient martyr, withoutassuaging his thirst with a drop of water, must expect the close ofa tedious and sultry day. The interdiction of wine, peculiar to someorders of priests or hermits, is converted by Mahomet alone into apositive and general law; [104] and a considerable portion of the globehas abjured, at his command, the use of that salutary, though dangerous, liquor. These painful restraints are, doubtless, infringed by thelibertine, and eluded by the hypocrite; but the legislator, by whom theyare enacted, cannot surely be accused of alluring his proselytes bythe indulgence of their sensual appetites. III. The charity of theMahometans descends to the animal creation; and the Koran repeatedlyinculcates, not as a merit, but as a strict and indispensable duty, therelief of the indigent and unfortunate. Mahomet, perhaps, is the onlylawgiver who has defined the precise measure of charity: the standardmay vary with the degree and nature of property, as it consists eitherin money, in corn or cattle, in fruits or merchandise; but the Mussulmandoes not accomplish the law, unless he bestows a tenth of his revenue;and if his conscience accuses him of fraud or extortion, the tenth, under the idea of restitution, is enlarged to a fifth. [105] Benevolenceis the foundation of justice, since we are forbid to injure those whomwe are bound to assist. A prophet may reveal the secrets of heaven andof futurity; but in his moral precepts he can only repeat the lessons ofour own hearts. 

[Footnote 101: The most authentic account of these precepts, pilgrimage, prayer, fasting, alms, and ablutions, is extracted from the Persian andArabian theologians by Maracci, (Prodrom. Part iv. P. 9-24, ) Reland, (in his excellent treatise de Religione Mohammedica, Utrecht, 1717, p. 67-123, ) and Chardin, (Voyages in Perse, tom. Iv. P. 47-195. ) Maraceis a partial accuser; but the jeweller, Chardin, had the eyes of aphilosopher; and Reland, a judicious student, had travelled over theEast in his closet at Utrecht. The xivth letter of Tournefort (Voyage duLevont, tom. Ii. P. 325-360, in octavo) describes what he had seen ofthe religion of the Turks. ]

[Footnote 1011: Such is Mahometanism beyond the precincts of the HolyCity. But Mahomet retained, and the Koran sanctions, (Sale's Koran, c. 5, in inlt. C. 22, vol. Ii. P. 171, 172, ) the sacrifice of sheep andcamels (probably according to the old Arabian rites) at Mecca; andthe pilgrims complete their ceremonial with sacrifices, sometimes asnumerous and costly as those of King Solomon. Compare note, vol. Iv. C. Xxiii. P. 96, and Forster's Mahometanism Unveiled, vol. I. P. 420. Thisauthor quotes the questionable authority of Benjamin of Tudela, for thesacrifice of a camel by the caliph at Bosra; but sacrifice undoubtedlyforms no part of the ordinary Mahometan ritual; nor will the sanctity ofthe caliph, as the earthly representative of the prophet, bear any closeanalogy to the priesthood of the Mosaic or Gentila religions. --M. ]

[Footnote 102: Mahomet (Sale's Koran, c. 9, p. 153) reproaches theChristians with taking their priests and monks for their lords, besidesGod. Yet Maracci (Prodromus, part iii. P. 69, 70) excuses the worship, especially of the pope, and quotes, from the Koran itself, the case ofEblis, or Satan, who was cast from heaven for refusing to adore Adam. ]

[Footnote 103: Koran, c. 5, p. 94, and Sale's note, which refers tothe authority of Jallaloddin and Al Beidawi. D'Herbelot declares, that Mahomet condemned la vie religieuse; and that the first swarms offakirs, dervises, &c. , did not appear till after the year 300 of theHegira, (Bibliot. Orient. P. 292, 718. )]

[Footnote 104: See the double prohibition, (Koran, c. 2, p. 25, c. 5, p. 94;) the one in the style of a legislator, the other in that of afanatic. The public and private motives of Mahomet are investigated byPrideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 62-64) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 124. )]

[Footnote 105: The jealousy of Maracci (Prodromus, part iv. P. 33)prompts him to enumerate the more liberal alms of the Catholics of Rome. Fifteen great hospitals are open to many thousand patients and pilgrims;fifteen hundred maidens are annually portioned; fifty-six charityschools are founded for both sexes; one hundred and twentyconfraternities relieve the wants of their brethren, &c. The benevolenceof London is still more extensive; but I am afraid that much more is tobe ascribed to the humanity, than to the religion, of the people. ]

The two articles of belief, and the four practical duties, of Islam, areguarded by rewards and punishments; and the faith of the Mussulmanis devoutly fixed on the event of the judgment and the last day. The prophet has not presumed to determine the moment of that awfulcatastrophe, though he darkly announces the signs, both in heaven andearth, which will precede the universal dissolution, when life shallbe destroyed, and the order of creation shall be confounded in theprimitive chaos. At the blast of the trumpet, new worlds will start intobeing: angels, genii, and men will arise from the dead, and the humansoul will again be united to the body. The doctrine of the resurrectionwas first entertained by the Egyptians; [106] and their mummies wereembalmed, their pyramids were constructed, to preserve the ancientmansion of the soul, during a period of three thousand years. But theattempt is partial and unavailing; and it is with a more philosophicspirit that Mahomet relies on the omnipotence of the Creator, whose wordcan reanimate the breathless clay, and collect the innumerable atoms, that no longer retain their form or substance. [107] The intermediatestate of the soul it is hard to decide; and those who most firmlybelieve her immaterial nature, are at a loss to understand how she canthink or act without the agency of the organs of sense. 

[Footnote 106: See Herodotus (l. Ii. C. 123) and our learned countrymanSir John Marsham, (Canon. Chronicus, p. 46. ) The same writer (p. 254-274) is an elaborate sketch of the infernal regions, as they werepainted by the fancy of the Egyptians and Greeks, of the poets andphilosophers of antiquity. ]

[Footnote 107: The Koran (c. 2, p. 259, &c. ; of Sale, p. 32; of Maracci, p. 97) relates an ingenious miracle, which satisfied the curiosity, andconfirmed the faith, of Abraham. ]

The reunion of the soul and body will be followed by the final judgmentof mankind; and in his copy of the Magian picture, the prophet has toofaithfully represented the forms of proceeding, and even the slowand successive operations, of an earthly tribunal. By his intolerantadversaries he is upbraided for extending, even to themselves, the hopeof salvation, for asserting the blackest heresy, that every man whobelieves in God, and accomplishes good works, may expect in the last daya favorable sentence. Such rational indifference is ill adapted to thecharacter of a fanatic; nor is it probable that a messenger from heavenshould depreciate the value and necessity of his own revelation. In theidiom of the Koran, [108] the belief of God is inseparable from thatof Mahomet: the good works are those which he has enjoined, and the twoqualifications imply the profession of Islam, to which all nations andall sects are equally invited. 

Their spiritual blindness, though excused by ignorance and crowned withvirtue, will be scourged with everlasting torments; and the tears whichMahomet shed over the tomb of his mother for whom he was forbidden topray, display a striking contrast of humanity and enthusiasm. [109]The doom of the infidels is common: the measure of their guilt andpunishment is determined by the degree of evidence which they haverejected, by the magnitude of the errors which they have entertained:the eternal mansions of the Christians, the Jews, the Sabians, theMagians, and idolaters, are sunk below each other in the abyss; and thelowest hell is reserved for the faithless hypocrites who have assumedthe mask of religion. After the greater part of mankind has beencondemned for their opinions, the true believers only will be judged bytheir actions. The good and evil of each Mussulman will be accuratelyweighed in a real or allegorical balance; and a singular mode ofcompensation will be allowed for the payment of injuries: the aggressorwill refund an equivalent of his own good actions, for the benefit ofthe person whom he has wronged; and if he should be destitute of anymoral property, the weight of his sins will be loaded with an adequateshare of the demerits of the sufferer. According as the shares of guiltor virtue shall preponderate, the sentence will be pronounced, and all, without distinction, will pass over the sharp and perilous bridge ofthe abyss; but the innocent, treading in the footsteps of Mahomet, willgloriously enter the gates of paradise, while the guilty will fall intothe first and mildest of the seven hells. The term of expiation willvary from nine hundred to seven thousand years; but the prophet hasjudiciously promised, that all his disciples, whatever may be theirsins, shall be saved, by their own faith and his intercession frometernal damnation. It is not surprising that superstition should actmost powerfully on the fears of her votaries, since the human fancy canpaint with more energy the misery than the bliss of a future life. Withthe two simple elements of darkness and fire, we create a sensationof pain, which may be aggravated to an infinite degree by the idea ofendless duration. But the same idea operates with an opposite effect onthe continuity of pleasure; and too much of our present enjoyments isobtained from the relief, or the comparison, of evil. It is naturalenough that an Arabian prophet should dwell with rapture on the groves, the fountains, and the rivers of paradise; but instead of inspiringthe blessed inhabitants with a liberal taste for harmony and science, conversation and friendship, he idly celebrates the pearls and diamonds, the robes of silk, palaces of marble, dishes of gold, rich wines, artificial dainties, numerous attendants, and the whole train of sensualand costly luxury, which becomes insipid to the owner, even in the shortperiod of this mortal life. Seventy-two Houris, or black-eyed girls, of resplendent beauty, blooming youth, virgin purity, and exquisitesensibility, will be created for the use of the meanest believer;a moment of pleasure will be prolonged to a thousand years; and hisfaculties will be increased a hundred fold, to render him worthy of hisfelicity. Notwithstanding a vulgar prejudice, the gates of heaven willbe open to both sexes; but Mahomet has not specified the male companionsof the female elect, lest he should either alarm the jealousy of theirformer husbands, or disturb their felicity, by the suspicion of aneverlasting marriage. This image of a carnal paradise has provoked theindignation, perhaps the envy, of the monks: they declaim against theimpure religion of Mahomet; and his modest apologists are driven tothe poor excuse of figures and allegories. But the sounder and moreconsistent party adhere without shame, to the literal interpretation ofthe Koran: useless would be the resurrection of the body, unless it wererestored to the possession and exercise of its worthiest faculties; andthe union of sensual and intellectual enjoyment is requisite to completethe happiness of the double animal, the perfect man. Yet the joys of theMahometan paradise will not be confined to the indulgence of luxuryand appetite; and the prophet has expressly declared that all meanerhappiness will be forgotten and despised by the saints and martyrs, whoshall be admitted to the beatitude of the divine vision. [110]

[Footnote 108: The candid Reland has demonstrated, that Mahomet damnsall unbelievers, (de Religion. Moham. P. 128-142;) that devils will notbe finally saved, (p. 196-199;) that paradise will not solely consistof corporeal delights, (p. 199-205;) and that women's souls areimmortal. (p. 205-209. )]

[Footnote 109: A Beidawi, apud Sale. Koran, c. 9, p. 164. The refusal topray for an unbelieving kindred is justified, according to Mahomet, bythe duty of a prophet, and the example of Abraham, who reprobated hisown father as an enemy of God. Yet Abraham (he adds, c. 9, v. 116. Maracci, tom. Ii. P. 317) fuit sane pius, mitis. ]

[Footnote 110: For the day of judgment, hell, paradise, &c. , consultthe Koran, (c. 2, v. 25, c. 56, 78, &c. ;) with Maracci's virulent, butlearned, refutation, (in his notes, and in the Prodromus, part iv. P. 78, 120, 122, &c. ;) D'Herbelot, (Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 368, 375;)Reland, (p. 47-61;) and Sale, (p. 76-103. ) The original ideas of theMagi are darkly and doubtfully explored by their apologist, Dr. Hyde, (Hist. Religionis Persarum, c. 33, p. 402-412, Oxon. 1760. ) In thearticle of Mahomet, Bayle has shown how indifferently wit and philosophysupply the absence of genuine information. ]

The first and most arduous conquests of Mahomet [111] were those of hiswife, his servant, his pupil, and his friend; [112] since he presentedhimself as a prophet to those who were most conversant with hisinfirmities as a man. Yet Cadijah believed the words, and cherished theglory, of her husband; the obsequious and affectionate Zeid was temptedby the prospect of freedom; the illustrious Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, embraced the sentiments of his cousin with the spirit of a youthfulhero; and the wealth, the moderation, the veracity of Abubeker confirmedthe religion of the prophet whom he was destined to succeed. Byhis persuasion, ten of the most respectable citizens of Mecca wereintroduced to the private lessons of Islam; they yielded to the voiceof reason and enthusiasm; they repeated the fundamental creed, "There isbut one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God;" and their faith, evenin this life, was rewarded with riches and honors, with the commandof armies and the government of kingdoms. Three years were silentlyemployed in the conversion of fourteen proselytes, the first-fruits ofhis mission; but in the fourth year he assumed the prophetic office, andresolving to impart to his family the light of divine truth, heprepared a banquet, a lamb, as it is said, and a bowl of milk, forthe entertainment of forty guests of the race of Hashem. "Friends andkinsmen, " said Mahomet to the assembly, "I offer you, and I alone canoffer, the most precious of gifts, the treasures of this world and ofthe world to come. God has commanded me to call you to his service. Whoamong you will support my burden? Who among you will be my companionand my vizier?" [113] No answer was returned, till the silence ofastonishment, and doubt, and contempt, was at length broken by theimpatient courage of Ali, a youth in the fourteenth year of his age. "Oprophet, I am the man: whosoever rises against thee, I will dash out histeeth, tear out his eyes, break his legs, rip up his belly. O prophet, I will be thy vizier over them. " Mahomet accepted his offer withtransport, and Abu Taled was ironically exhorted to respect the superiordignity of his son. In a more serious tone, the father of Ali advisedhis nephew to relinquish his impracticable design. 

"Spare your remonstrances, " replied the intrepid fanatic to his uncleand benefactor; "if they should place the sun on my right hand, andthe moon on my left, they should not divert me from my course. " Hepersevered ten years in the exercise of his mission; and the religionwhich has overspread the East and the West advanced with a slow andpainful progress within the walls of Mecca. Yet Mahomet enjoyed thesatisfaction of beholding the increase of his infant congregation ofUnitarians, who revered him as a prophet, and to whom he seasonablydispensed the spiritual nourishment of the Koran. The number ofproselytes may be esteemed by the absence of eighty-three men andeighteen women, who retired to Aethiopia in the seventh year of hismission; and his party was fortified by the timely conversion of hisuncle Hamza, and of the fierce and inflexible Omar, who signalizedin the cause of Islam the same zeal, which he had exerted for itsdestruction. Nor was the charity of Mahomet confined to the tribe ofKoreish, or the precincts of Mecca: on solemn festivals, in the daysof pilgrimage, he frequented the Caaba, accosted the strangers of everytribe, and urged, both in private converse and public discourse, thebelief and worship of a sole Deity. Conscious of his reason and of hisweakness, he asserted the liberty of conscience, and disclaimed the useof religious violence: [114] but he called the Arabs to repentance, andconjured them to remember the ancient idolaters of Ad and Thamud, whomthe divine justice had swept away from the face of the earth. [115]

[Footnote 111: Before I enter on the history of the prophet, it isincumbent on me to produce my evidence. The Latin, French, and Englishversions of the Koran are preceded by historical discourses, and thethree translators, Maracci, (tom. I. P. 10-32, ) Savary, (tom. I. P. 1-248, ) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 33-56, ) had accuratelystudied the language and character of their author. Two professed Livesof Mahomet have been composed by Dr. Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, seventhedition, London, 1718, in octavo) and the count de Boulainvilliers, (Viede Mahomed, Londres, 1730, in octavo: ) but the adverse wish of findingan impostor or a hero, has too often corrupted the learning of thedoctor and the ingenuity of the count. The article in D'Herbelot(Bibliot. Orient. P. 598-603) is chiefly drawn from Novairi andMirkond; but the best and most authentic of our guides is M. Gagnier, aFrenchman by birth, and professor at Oxford of the Oriental tongues. In two elaborate works, (Ismael Abulfeda de Vita et Rebus gestisMohammedis, &c. Latine vertit, Praefatione et Notis illustravit JohannesGagnier, Oxon. 1723, in folio. La Vie de Mahomet traduite et compileede l'Alcoran, des Traditions Authentiques de la Sonna et des meilleursAuteurs Arabes; Amsterdam, 1748, 3 vols. In 12mo. , ) he has interpreted, illustrated, and supplied the Arabic text of Abulfeda and Al Jannabi;the first, an enlightened prince who reigned at Hamah, in Syria, A. D. 1310-1332, (see Gagnier Praefat. Ad Abulfed. ;) the second, a credulousdoctor, who visited Mecca A. D. 1556. (D'Herbelot, p. 397. Gagnier, tom. Iii. P. 209, 210. ) These are my general vouchers, and the inquisitivereader may follow the order of time, and the division of chapters. YetI must observe that both Abulfeda and Al Jannabi are modern historians, and that they cannot appeal to any writers of the first century of theHegira. * Note: A new Life, by Dr. Weil, (Stuttgart. 1843, ) has addedsome few traditions unknown in Europe. Of Dr. Weil's Arabic scholarship, which professes to correct many errors in Gagnier, in Maracci, and inM. Von Hammer, I am no judge. But it is remarkable that he does notseem acquainted with the passage of Tabari, translated by Colonel VansKennedy, in the Bombay Transactions, (vol. Iii. , ) the earliest andmost important addition made to the traditionary Life of Mahomet. I aminclined to think Colonel Vans Kennedy's appreciation of the prophet'scharacter, which may be overlooked in a criticism on Voltaire's Mahomet, the most just which I have ever read. The work of Dr. Weil appears to memost valuable in its dissection and chronological view of the Koran. --M. 1845]

[Footnote 112: After the Greeks, Prideaux (p. 8) discloses the secretdoubts of the wife of Mahomet. As if he had been a privy counsellorof the prophet, Boulainvilliers (p. 272, &c. ) unfolds the sublime andpatriotic views of Cadijah and the first disciples. ]

[Footnote 113: Vezirus, portitor, bajulus, onus ferens; and thisplebeian name was transferred by an apt metaphor to the pillars of thestate, (Gagnier, Not. Ad Abulfed. P. 19. ) I endeavor to preserve theArabian idiom, as far as I can feel it myself in a Latin or Frenchtranslation. ]

[Footnote 114: The passages of the Koran in behalf of toleration arestrong and numerous: c. 2, v. 257, c. 16, 129, c. 17, 54, c. 45, 15, c. 50, 39, c. 88, 21, &c. , with the notes of Maracci and Sale. Thischaracter alone may generally decide the doubts of the learned, whethera chapter was revealed at Mecca or Medina. ]

[Footnote 115: See the Koran, (passim, and especially c. 7, p. 123, 124, &c. , ) and the tradition of the Arabs, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 35-37. )The caverns of the tribe of Thamud, fit for men of the ordinary stature, were shown in the midway between Medina and Damascus. (Abulfed ArabiaeDescript. P. 43, 44, ) and may be probably ascribed to the Throglodytesof the primitive world, (Michaelis, ad Lowth de Poesi Hebraeor. P. 131-134. Recherches sur les Egyptiens, tom. Ii. P. 48, &c. )]

Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants. --Part V. 

The people of Mecca were hardened in their unbelief by superstition andenvy. The elders of the city, the uncles of the prophet, affected todespise the presumption of an orphan, the reformer of his country: thepious orations of Mahomet in the Caaba were answered by the clamors ofAbu Taleb. "Citizens and pilgrims, listen not to the tempter, hearkennot to his impious novelties. Stand fast in the worship of Al Lata andAl Uzzah. " Yet the son of Abdallah was ever dear to the aged chief: andhe protected the fame and person of his nephew against the assaults ofthe Koreishites, who had long been jealous of the preeminence ofthe family of Hashem. Their malice was colored with the pretence ofreligion: in the age of Job, the crime of impiety was punished bythe Arabian magistrate; [116] and Mahomet was guilty of deserting anddenying the national deities. But so loose was the policy of Mecca, that the leaders of the Koreish, instead of accusing a criminal, were compelled to employ the measures of persuasion or violence. Theyrepeatedly addressed Abu Taleb in the style of reproach and menace. "Thy nephew reviles our religion; he accuses our wise forefathers ofignorance and folly; silence him quickly, lest he kindle tumult anddiscord in the city. If he persevere, we shall draw our swords againsthim and his adherents, and thou wilt be responsible for the blood ofthy fellow-citizens. " The weight and moderation of Abu Taleb eludedthe violence of religious faction; the most helpless or timid of thedisciples retired to Aethiopia, and the prophet withdrew himself tovarious places of strength in the town and country. As he was stillsupported by his family, the rest of the tribe of Koreish engagedthemselves to renounce all intercourse with the children of Hashem, neither to buy nor sell, neither to marry not to give in marriage, butto pursue them with implacable enmity, till they should deliver theperson of Mahomet to the justice of the gods. The decree was suspendedin the Caaba before the eyes of the nation; the messengers of theKoreish pursued the Mussulman exiles in the heart of Africa: theybesieged the prophet and his most faithful followers, interceptedtheir water, and inflamed their mutual animosity by the retaliationof injuries and insults. A doubtful truce restored the appearances ofconcord till the death of Abu Taleb abandoned Mahomet to the power ofhis enemies, at the moment when he was deprived of his domestic comfortsby the loss of his faithful and generous Cadijah. Abu Sophian, the chiefof the branch of Ommiyah, succeeded to the principality of the republicof Mecca. A zealous votary of the idols, a mortal foe of the line ofHashem, he convened an assembly of the Koreishites and their allies, to decide the fate of the apostle. His imprisonment might provoke thedespair of his enthusiasm; and the exile of an eloquent and popularfanatic would diffuse the mischief through the provinces of Arabia. Hisdeath was resolved; and they agreed that a sword from each tribe shouldbe buried in his heart, to divide the guilt of his blood, and bafflethe vengeance of the Hashemites. An angel or a spy revealed theirconspiracy; and flight was the only resource of Mahomet. [117] At thedead of night, accompanied by his friend Abubeker, he silently escapedfrom his house: the assassins watched at the door; but they weredeceived by the figure of Ali, who reposed on the bed, and was coveredwith the green vestment of the apostle. The Koreish respected the pietyof the heroic youth; but some verses of Ali, which are still extant, exhibit an interesting picture of his anxiety, his tenderness, andhis religious confidence. Three days Mahomet and his companion wereconcealed in the cave of Thor, at the distance of a league from Mecca;and in the close of each evening, they received from the son anddaughter of Abubeker a secret supply of intelligence and food. Thediligence of the Koreish explored every haunt in the neighborhood of thecity: they arrived at the entrance of the cavern; but the providentialdeceit of a spider's web and a pigeon's nest is supposed to convincethem that the place was solitary and inviolate. "We are only two, " saidthe trembling Abubeker. "There is a third, " replied the prophet; "it isGod himself. " No sooner was the pursuit abated than the two fugitivesissued from the rock, and mounted their camels: on the road to Medina, they were overtaken by the emissaries of the Koreish; they redeemedthemselves with prayers and promises from their hands. In this eventfulmoment, the lance of an Arab might have changed the history of theworld. The flight of the prophet from Mecca to Medina has fixedthe memorable aera of the Hegira, [118] which, at the end of twelvecenturies, still discriminates the lunar years of the Mahometan nations. [119]

[Footnote 116: In the time of Job, the crime of impiety was punishedby the Arabian magistrate, (c. 21, v. 26, 27, 28. ) I blush for arespectable prelate (de Poesi Hebraeorum, p. 650, 651, edit. Michaelis;and letter of a late professor in the university of Oxford, p. 15-53, )who justifies and applauds this patriarchal inquisition. ]

[Footnote 117: D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. P. 445. He quotes aparticular history of the flight of Mahomet. ]

[Footnote 118: The Hegira was instituted by Omar, the second caliph, inimitation of the aera of the martyrs of the Christians, (D'Herbelot, p. 444;) and properly commenced sixty-eight days before the flight ofMahomet, with the first of Moharren, or first day of that Arabian yearwhich coincides with Friday, July 16th, A. D. 622, (Abulfeda, Vit Moham, c. 22, 23, p. 45-50; and Greaves's edition of Ullug Beg's EpochaeArabum, &c. , c. 1, p. 8, 10, &c. ) * Note: Chronologists dispute betweenthe 15th and 16th of July. St. Martin inclines to the 8th, ch. Xi. P. 70. --M. ]

[Footnote 119: Mahomet's life, from his mission to the Hegira, maybe found in Abulfeda (p. 14-45) and Gagnier, (tom. I. P. 134-251, 342-383. ) The legend from p. 187-234 is vouched by Al Jannabi, anddisdained by Abulfeda. ]

The religion of the Koran might have perished in its cradle, had notMedina embraced with faith and reverence the holy outcasts of Mecca. Medina, or the city, known under the name of Yathreb, before it wassanctified by the throne of the prophet, was divided between the tribesof the Charegites and the Awsites, whose hereditary feud was rekindledby the slightest provocations: two colonies of Jews, who boasted asacerdotal race, were their humble allies, and without convertingthe Arabs, they introduced the taste of science and religion, whichdistinguished Medina as the city of the Book. Some of her noblestcitizens, in a pilgrimage to the Canaba, were converted by the preachingof Mahomet; on their return, they diffused the belief of God and hisprophet, and the new alliance was ratified by their deputies in twosecret and nocturnal interviews on a hill in the suburbs of Mecca. Inthe first, ten Charegites and two Awsites united in faith and love, protested, in the name of their wives, their children, and their absentbrethren, that they would forever profess the creed, and observe theprecepts, of the Koran. The second was a political association, thefirst vital spark of the empire of the Saracens. [120] Seventy-threemen and two women of Medina held a solemn conference with Mahomet, hiskinsman, and his disciples; and pledged themselves to each other by amutual oath of fidelity. They promised, in the name of the city, that ifhe should be banished, they would receive him as a confederate, obey himas a leader, and defend him to the last extremity, like their wives andchildren. "But if you are recalled by your country, " they asked witha flattering anxiety, "will you not abandon your new allies?" "Allthings, " replied Mahomet with a smile, "are now common between us yourblood is as my blood, your ruin as my ruin. We are bound to each otherby the ties of honor and interest. I am your friend, and the enemy ofyour foes. " "But if we are killed in your service, what, " exclaimedthe deputies of Medina, "will be our reward?" "Paradise, " replied theprophet. "Stretch forth thy hand. " He stretched it forth, and theyreiterated the oath of allegiance and fidelity. Their treaty wasratified by the people, who unanimously embraced the profession ofIslam; they rejoiced in the exile of the apostle, but they trembled forhis safety, and impatiently expected his arrival. After a perilous andrapid journey along the sea-coast, he halted at Koba, two miles fromthe city, and made his public entry into Medina, sixteen days after hisflight from Mecca. Five hundred of the citizens advanced to meet him;he was hailed with acclamations of loyalty and devotion; Mahomet wasmounted on a she-camel, an umbrella shaded his head, and a turban wasunfurled before him to supply the deficiency of a standard. His bravestdisciples, who had been scattered by the storm, assembled roundhis person; and the equal, though various, merit of the Moslems wasdistinguished by the names of Mohagerians and Ansars, the fugitivesof Mecca, and the auxiliaries of Medina. To eradicate the seeds ofjealousy, Mahomet judiciously coupled his principal followers with therights and obligations of brethren; and when Ali found himself without apeer, the prophet tenderly declared, that he would be the companion andbrother of the noble youth. The expedient was crowned with success; theholy fraternity was respected in peace and war, and the two parties viedwith each other in a generous emulation of courage and fidelity. Onceonly the concord was slightly ruffled by an accidental quarrel: apatriot of Medina arraigned the insolence of the strangers, but thehint of their expulsion was heard with abhorrence; and his own son mosteagerly offered to lay at the apostle's feet the head of his father. 

[Footnote 120: The triple inauguration of Mahomet is described byAbulfeda (p. 30, 33, 40, 86) and Gagnier, (tom. I. P. 342, &c. , 349, &c. , tom. Ii. P. 223 &c. )]

From his establishment at Medina, Mahomet assumed the exercise of theregal and sacerdotal office; and it was impious to appeal from a judgewhose decrees were inspired by the divine wisdom. A small portion ofground, the patrimony of two orphans, was acquired by gift or purchase;[121] on that chosen spot he built a house and a mosch, more venerablein their rude simplicity than the palaces and temples of the Assyriancaliphs. His seal of gold, or silver, was inscribed with the apostolictitle; when he prayed and preached in the weekly assembly, he leanedagainst the trunk of a palm-tree; and it was long before he indulgedhimself in the use of a chair or pulpit of rough timber. [122] After areign of six years, fifteen hundred Moslems, in arms and in the field, renewed their oath of allegiance; and their chief repeated theassurance of protection till the death of the last member, or the finaldissolution of the party. It was in the same camp that the deputy ofMecca was astonished by the attention of the faithful to the words andlooks of the prophet, by the eagerness with which they collected hisspittle, a hair that dropped on the ground, the refuse water of hislustrations, as if they participated in some degree of the propheticvirtue. "I have seen, " said he, "the Chosroes of Persia and the Caesarof Rome, but never did I behold a king among his subjects like Mahometamong his companions. " The devout fervor of enthusiasm acts with moreenergy and truth than the cold and formal servility of courts. 

[Footnote 121: Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 44) reviles the wickednessof the impostor, who despoiled two poor orphans, the sons of acarpenter; a reproach which he drew from the Disputatio contraSaracenos, composed in Arabic before the year 1130; but the honestGagnier (ad Abulfed. P. 53) has shown that they were deceived by theword Al Nagjar, which signifies, in this place, not an obscure trade, but a noble tribe of Arabs. The desolate state of the ground isdescribed by Abulfeda; and his worthy interpreter has proved, from AlBochari, the offer of a price; from Al Jannabi, the fair purchase; andfrom Ahmeq Ben Joseph, the payment of the money by the generous AbubekerOn these grounds the prophet must be honorably acquitted. ]

[Footnote 122: Al Jannabi (apud Gagnier, tom. Ii. P. 246, 324) describesthe seal and pulpit, as two venerable relics of the apostle of God; andthe portrait of his court is taken from Abulfeda, (c. 44, p. 85. )]

In the state of nature, every man has a right to defend, by force ofarms, his person and his possessions; to repel, or even to prevent, theviolence of his enemies, and to extend his hostilities to a reasonablemeasure of satisfaction and retaliation. In the free society of theArabs, the duties of subject and citizen imposed a feeble restraint; andMahomet, in the exercise of a peaceful and benevolent mission, had beendespoiled and banished by the injustice of his countrymen. The choice ofan independent people had exalted the fugitive of Mecca to the rank ofa sovereign; and he was invested with the just prerogative of formingalliances, and of waging offensive or defensive war. The imperfectionof human rights was supplied and armed by the plenitude of divine power:the prophet of Medina assumed, in his new revelations, a fiercer andmore sanguinary tone, which proves that his former moderation was theeffect of weakness: [123] the means of persuasion had been tried, theseason of forbearance was elapsed, and he was now commanded to propagatehis religion by the sword, to destroy the monuments of idolatry, and, without regarding the sanctity of days or months, to pursuethe unbelieving nations of the earth. The same bloody precepts, sorepeatedly inculcated in the Koran, are ascribed by the author to thePentateuch and the Gospel. But the mild tenor of the evangelic style mayexplain an ambiguous text, that Jesus did not bring peace on the earth, but a sword: his patient and humble virtues should not be confoundedwith the intolerant zeal of princes and bishops, who have disgracedthe name of his disciples. In the prosecution of religious war, Mahometmight appeal with more propriety to the example of Moses, of the Judges, and the kings of Israel. The military laws of the Hebrews are stillmore rigid than those of the Arabian legislator. [124] The Lord of hostsmarched in person before the Jews: if a city resisted their summons, themales, without distinction, were put to the sword: the seven nationsof Canaan were devoted to destruction; and neither repentance norconversion, could shield them from the inevitable doom, that no creaturewithin their precincts should be left alive. [1241] The fair option offriendship, or submission, or battle, was proposed to the enemies ofMahomet. If they professed the creed of Islam, they were admitted toall the temporal and spiritual benefits of his primitive disciples, and marched under the same banner to extend the religion which they hadembraced. The clemency of the prophet was decided by his interest: yethe seldom trampled on a prostrate enemy; and he seems to promise, that on the payment of a tribute, the least guilty of his unbelievingsubjects might be indulged in their worship, or at least in theirimperfect faith. In the first months of his reign he practised thelessons of holy warfare, and displayed his white banner before thegates of Medina: the martial apostle fought in person at nine battles orsieges; [125] and fifty enterprises of war were achieved in ten years byhimself or his lieutenants. The Arab continued to unite the professionsof a merchant and a robber; and his petty excursions for the defence orthe attack of a caravan insensibly prepared his troops for the conquestof Arabia. The distribution of the spoil was regulated by a divine law:[126] the whole was faithfully collected in one common mass: a fifthof the gold and silver, the prisoners and cattle, the movables andimmovables, was reserved by the prophet for pious and charitable uses;the remainder was shared in adequate portions by the soldiers who hadobtained the victory or guarded the camp: the rewards of the slaindevolved to their widows and orphans; and the increase of cavalry wasencouraged by the allotment of a double share to the horse and to theman. From all sides the roving Arabs were allured to the standard ofreligion and plunder: the apostle sanctified the license of embracingthe female captives as their wives or concubines, and the enjoyment ofwealth and beauty was a feeble type of the joys of paradise prepared forthe valiant martyrs of the faith. "The sword, " says Mahomet, "is the keyof heaven and of hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a nightspent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting or prayer:whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven: at the day of judgmenthis wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion, and odoriferous as musk;and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels andcherubim. " The intrepid souls of the Arabs were fired with enthusiasm:the picture of the invisible world was strongly painted on theirimagination; and the death which they had always despised became anobject of hope and desire. The Koran inculcates, in the most absolutesense, the tenets of fate and predestination, which would extinguishboth industry and virtue, if the actions of man were governed by hisspeculative belief. Yet their influence in every age has exalted thecourage of the Saracens and Turks. The first companions of Mahometadvanced to battle with a fearless confidence: there is no danger wherethere is no chance: they were ordained to perish in their beds; or theywere safe and invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy. [127]

[Footnote 123: The viiith and ixth chapters of the Koran are the loudestand most vehement; and Maracci (Prodromus, part iv. P. 59-64) hasinveighed with more justice than discretion against the double dealingof the impostor. ]

[Footnote 124: The xth and xxth chapters of Deuteronomy, with thepractical comments of Joshua, David, &c. , are read with more awethan satisfaction by the pious Christians of the present age. Butthe bishops, as well as the rabbis of former times, have beat thedrum-ecclesiastic with pleasure and success. (Sale's PreliminaryDiscourse, p. 142, 143. )]

[Footnote 1241: The editor's opinions on this subject may be read in theHistory of the Jews vol. I. P. 137. --M]

[Footnote 125: Abulfeda, in Vit. Moham. P. 156. The private arsenalof the apostle consisted of nine swords, three lances, seven pikes orhalf-pikes, a quiver and three bows, seven cuirasses, three shields, and two helmets, (Gagnier, tom. Iii. P. 328-334, ) with a large whitestandard, a black banner, (p. 335, ) twenty horses, (p. 322, &c. ) Two ofhis martial sayings are recorded by tradition, (Gagnier, tom. Ii. P. 88, 334. )]

[Footnote 126: The whole subject de jure belli Mohammedanorumis exhausted in a separate dissertation by the learned Reland, (Dissertationes Miscellaneae, tom. Iii. Dissertat. X. P. 3-53. )]

[Footnote 127: The doctrine of absolute predestination, on which fewreligions can reproach each other, is sternly exposed in the Koran, (c. 3, p. 52, 53, c. 4, p. 70, &c. , with the notes of Sale, and c. 17, p. 413, with those of Maracci. ) Reland (de Relig. Moham. P. 61-64) andSale (Prelim. Discourse, p. 103) represent the opinions of the doctors, and our modern travellers the confidence, the fading confidence, of theTurks]

Perhaps the Koreish would have been content with the dight of Mahomet, had they not been provoked and alarmed by the vengeance of an enemy, whocould intercept their Syrian trade as it passed and repassed throughthe territory of Medina. Abu Sophian himself, with only thirty or fortyfollowers, conducted a wealthy caravan of a thousand camels; the fortuneor dexterity of his march escaped the vigilance of Mahomet; but thechief of the Koreish was informed that the holy robbers were placed inambush to await his return. He despatched a messenger to his brethren ofMecca, and they were roused, by the fear of losing their merchandise andtheir provisions, unless they hastened to his relief with the militaryforce of the city. The sacred band of Mahomet was formed of threehundred and thirteen Moslems, of whom seventy-seven were fugitives, andthe rest auxiliaries; they mounted by turns a train of seventy camels, (the camels of Yathreb were formidable in war;) but such was the povertyof his first disciples, that only two could appear on horseback inthe field. [128] In the fertile and famous vale of Beder, [129] threestations from Medina, he was informed by his scouts of the caravan thatapproached on one side; of the Koreish, one hundred horse, eight hundredand fifty foot, who advanced on the other. After a short debate, hesacrificed the prospect of wealth to the pursuit of glory and revenge, and a slight intrenchment was formed, to cover his troops, and a streamof fresh water, that glided through the valley. "O God, " he exclaimed, as the numbers of the Koreish descended from the hills, "O God, if theseare destroyed, by whom wilt thou be worshipped on the earth?--Courage, my children; close your ranks; discharge your arrows, and the day isyour own. " At these words he placed himself, with Abubeker, on a throneor pulpit, [130] and instantly demanded the succor of Gabriel andthree thousand angels. His eye was fixed on the field of battle: theMussulmans fainted and were pressed: in that decisive moment the prophetstarted from his throne, mounted his horse, and cast a handful of sandinto the air: "Let their faces be covered with confusion. " Both armiesheard the thunder of his voice: their fancy beheld the angelic warriors:[131] the Koreish trembled and fled: seventy of the bravest were slain;and seventy captives adorned the first victory of the faithful. Thedead bodies of the Koreish were despoiled and insulted: two of the mostobnoxious prisoners were punished with death; and the ransom of theothers, four thousand drams of silver, compensated in some degree theescape of the caravan. But it was in vain that the camels of Abu Sophianexplored a new road through the desert and along the Euphrates: theywere overtaken by the diligence of the Mussulmans; and wealthy musthave been the prize, if twenty thousand drams could be set apart forthe fifth of the apostle. The resentment of the public and private lossstimulated Abu Sophian to collect a body of three thousand men, sevenhundred of whom were armed with cuirasses, and two hundred were mountedon horseback; three thousand camels attended his march; and his wifeHenda, with fifteen matrons of Mecca, incessantly sounded their timbrelsto animate the troops, and to magnify the greatness of Hobal, the mostpopular deity of the Caaba. The standard of God and Mahomet was upheldby nine hundred and fifty believers: the disproportion of numbers wasnot more alarming than in the field of Beder; and their presumption ofvictory prevailed against the divine and human sense of the apostle. The second battle was fought on Mount Ohud, six miles to the north ofMedina; [132] the Koreish advanced in the form of a crescent; and theright wing of cavalry was led by Caled, the fiercest and most successfulof the Arabian warriors. The troops of Mahomet were skilfully posted onthe declivity of the hill; and their rear was guarded by a detachment offifty archers. The weight of their charge impelled and broke the centreof the idolaters: but in the pursuit they lost the advantage of theirground: the archers deserted their station: the Mussulmans were temptedby the spoil, disobeyed their general, and disordered their ranks. Theintrepid Caled, wheeling his cavalry on their flank and rear, exclaimed, with a loud voice, that Mahomet was slain. He was indeed wounded in theface with a javelin: two of his teeth were shattered with a stone; yet, in the midst of tumult and dismay, he reproached the infidels with themurder of a prophet; and blessed the friendly hand that stanched hisblood, and conveyed him to a place of safety Seventy martyrs died forthe sins of the people; they fell, said the apostle, in pairs, eachbrother embracing his lifeless companion; [133] their bodies weremangled by the inhuman females of Mecca; and the wife of Abu Sophiantasted the entrails of Hamza, the uncle of Mahomet. They might applaudtheir superstition, and satiate their fury; but the Mussulmans soonrallied in the field, and the Koreish wanted strength or courage toundertake the siege of Medina. It was attacked the ensuing year by anarmy of ten thousand enemies; and this third expedition is variouslynamed from the nations, which marched under the banner of Abu Sophian, from the ditch which was drawn before the city, and a camp of threethousand Mussulmans. The prudence of Mahomet declined a generalengagement: the valor of Ali was signalized in single combat; andthe war was protracted twenty days, till the final separation of theconfederates. A tempest of wind, rain, and hail, overturned their tents:their private quarrels were fomented by an insidious adversary; andthe Koreish, deserted by their allies, no longer hoped to subvert thethrone, or to check the conquests, of their invincible exile. [134]

[Footnote 128: Al Jannabi (apud Gagnier, tom. Ii. P. 9) allows himseventy or eighty horse; and on two other occasions, prior to thebattle of Ohud, he enlists a body of thirty (p. 10) and of 500 (p. 66)troopers. Yet the Mussulmans, in the field of Ohud, had no more than twohorses, according to the better sense of Abulfeda, (in Vit. Moham. C. Xxxi. P. 65. ) In the Stony province, the camels were numerous; but thehorse appears to have been less numerous than in the Happy or the DesertArabia. ]

[Footnote 129: Bedder Houneene, twenty miles from Medina, and forty fromMecca, is on the high road of the caravan of Egypt; and the pilgrimsannually commemorate the prophet's victory by illuminations, rockets, &c. Shaw's Travels, p. 477. ]

[Footnote 130: The place to which Mahomet retired during the action isstyled by Gagnier (in Abulfeda, c. 27, p. 58. Vie de Mahomet, tom. Ii. P. 30, 33) Umbraculum, une loge de bois avec une porte. The same Arabicword is rendered by Reiske (Annales Moslemici Abulfedae, p. 23) bySolium, Suggestus editior; and the difference is of the utmost momentfor the honor both of the interpreter and of the hero. I am sorryto observe the pride and acrimony with which Reiske chastises hisfellow-laborer. Saepi sic vertit, ut integrae paginae nequeant nisi unalitura corrigi Arabice non satis callebat, et carebat judicio critico. J. J. Reiske, Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalisae Tabulas, p. 228, ad calceroAbulfedae Syriae Tabulae; Lipsiae, 1766, in 4to. ]

[Footnote 131: The loose expressions of the Koran (c. 3, p. 124, 125, c. 8, p. 9) allow the commentators to fluctuate between the numbers of1000, 3000, or 9000 angels; and the smallest of these might suffice forthe slaughter of seventy of the Koreish, (Maracci, Alcoran, tom. Ii. P. 131. ) Yet the same scholiasts confess that this angelic band was notvisible to any mortal eye, (Maracci, p. 297. ) They refine on the words(c. 8, 16) "not thou, but God, " &c. (D'Herbelot. Bibliot. Orientale p. 600, 601. )]

[Footnote 132: Geograph. Nubiensis, p. 47. ]

[Footnote 133: In the iiid chapter of the Koran, (p. 50-53) with Sale'snotes, the prophet alleges some poor excuses for the defeat of Ohud. *Note: Dr. Weil has added some curious circumstances, which he gives ason good traditional authority, on the rescue of Mahomet. The prophet wasattacked by Ubeijj Ibn Challaf, whom he struck on the neck with a mortalwound. This was the only time, it is added, that Mahomet personallyengaged in battle. (p. 128. )--M. 1845. ]

[Footnote 134: For the detail of the three Koreish wars, of Beder, ofOhud, and of the ditch, peruse Abulfeda, (p. 56-61, 64-69, 73-77, )Gagnier (tom. I. P. 23-45, 70-96, 120-139, ) with the proper articlesof D'Herbelot, and the abridgments of Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. P. 6, 7)and Abulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 102. )]

Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants. --Part VI. 

The choice of Jerusalem for the first kebla of prayer discovers theearly propensity of Mahomet in favor of the Jews; and happy would ithave been for their temporal interest, had they recognized, in theArabian prophet, the hope of Israel and the promised Messiah. Theirobstinacy converted his friendship into implacable hatred, with which hepursued that unfortunate people to the last moment of his life; and inthe double character of an apostle and a conqueror, his persecution wasextended to both worlds. [135] The Kainoka dwelt at Medina under theprotection of the city; he seized the occasion of an accidental tumult, and summoned them to embrace his religion, or contend with him inbattle. "Alas!" replied the trembling Jews, "we are ignorant of the useof arms, but we persevere in the faith and worship of our fathers; whywilt thou reduce us to the necessity of a just defence?" The unequalconflict was terminated in fifteen days; and it was with extremereluctance that Mahomet yielded to the importunity of his allies, andconsented to spare the lives of the captives. But their riches wereconfiscated, their arms became more effectual in the hands of theMussulmans; and a wretched colony of seven hundred exiles was driven, with their wives and children, to implore a refuge on the confinesof Syria. The Nadhirites were more guilty, since they conspired, ina friendly interview, to assassinate the prophet. He besieged theircastle, three miles from Medina; but their resolute defence obtained anhonorable capitulation; and the garrison, sounding their trumpets andbeating their drums, was permitted to depart with the honors of war. TheJews had excited and joined the war of the Koreish: no sooner had thenations retired from the ditch, than Mahomet, without laying aside hisarmor, marched on the same day to extirpate the hostile race of thechildren of Koraidha. After a resistance of twenty-five days, theysurrendered at discretion. They trusted to the intercession of their oldallies of Medina; they could not be ignorant that fanaticism obliteratesthe feelings of humanity. A venerable elder, to whose judgment theyappealed, pronounced the sentence of their death; seven hundred Jewswere dragged in chains to the market-place of the city; they descendedalive into the grave prepared for their execution and burial; and theapostle beheld with an inflexible eye the slaughter of his helplessenemies. Their sheep and camels were inherited by the Mussulmans: threehundred cuirasses, five hundred piles, a thousand lances, composed themost useful portion of the spoil. Six days' journey to the north-eastof Medina, the ancient and wealthy town of Chaibar was the seat of theJewish power in Arabia: the territory, a fertile spot in the desert, was covered with plantations and cattle, and protected by eight castles, some of which were esteemed of impregnable strength. The forces ofMahomet consisted of two hundred horse and fourteen hundred foot: inthe succession of eight regular and painful sieges they were exposed todanger, and fatigue, and hunger; and the most undaunted chiefs despairedof the event. The apostle revived their faith and courage by the exampleof Ali, on whom he bestowed the surname of the Lion of God: perhaps wemay believe that a Hebrew champion of gigantic stature was cloven to thechest by his irresistible cimeter; but we cannot praise the modesty ofromance, which represents him as tearing from its hinges the gate ofa fortress and wielding the ponderous buckler in his left hand. [136]After the reduction of the castles, the town of Chaibar submitted to theyoke. The chief of the tribe was tortured, in the presence of Mahomet, to force a confession of his hidden treasure: the industry of theshepherds and husbandmen was rewarded with a precarious toleration: theywere permitted, so long as it should please the conqueror, to improvetheir patrimony, in equal shares, for his emolument and their own. Underthe reign of Omar, the Jews of Chaibar were transported to Syria; andthe caliph alleged the injunction of his dying master; that one and thetrue religion should be professed in his native land of Arabia. [137]

[Footnote 135: The wars of Mahomet against the Jewish tribes of Kainoka, the Nadhirites, Koraidha, and Chaibar, are related by Abulfeda (p. 61, 71, 77, 87, &c. ) and Gagnier, (tom. Ii. P. 61-65, 107-112, 139-148, 268-294. )]

[Footnote 136: Abu Rafe, the servant of Mahomet, is said to affirm thathe himself, and seven other men, afterwards tried, without success, tomove the same gate from the ground, (Abulfeda, p. 90. ) Abu Rafe was aneye-witness, but who will be witness for Abu Rafe?]

[Footnote 137: The banishment of the Jews is attested by Elmacin (Hist. Saracen, p. 9) and the great Al Zabari, (Gagnier, tom. Ii. P. 285. )Yet Niebuhr (Description de l'Arabie, p. 324) believes that the Jewishreligion, and Karaite sect, are still professed by the tribe of Chaibar;and that, in the plunder of the caravans, the disciples of Moses are theconfederates of those of Mahomet. ]

Five times each day the eyes of Mahomet were turned towards Mecca, [138]and he was urged by the most sacred and powerful motives to revisit, asa conqueror, the city and the temple from whence he had been driven asan exile. The Caaba was present to his waking and sleeping fancy: anidle dream was translated into vision and prophecy; he unfurled the holybanner; and a rash promise of success too hastily dropped from the lipsof the apostle. His march from Medina to Mecca displayed the peacefuland solemn pomp of a pilgrimage: seventy camels, chosen and bedecked forsacrifice, preceded the van; the sacred territory was respected; andthe captives were dismissed without ransom to proclaim his clemency anddevotion. But no sooner did Mahomet descend into the plain, withina day's journey of the city, than he exclaimed, "They have clothedthemselves with the skins of tigers:" the numbers and resolution of theKoreish opposed his progress; and the roving Arabs of the desert mightdesert or betray a leader whom they had followed for the hopes of spoil. The intrepid fanatic sunk into a cool and cautious politician: he waivedin the treaty his title of apostle of God; concluded with the Koreishand their allies a truce of ten years; engaged to restore the fugitivesof Mecca who should embrace his religion; and stipulated only, for theensuing year, the humble privilege of entering the city as a friend, and of remaining three days to accomplish the rites of the pilgrimage. A cloud of shame and sorrow hung on the retreat of the Mussulmans, andtheir disappointment might justly accuse the failure of a prophet whohad so often appealed to the evidence of success. The faith and hope ofthe pilgrims were rekindled by the prospect of Mecca: their swordswere sheathed; [1381] seven times in the footsteps of the apostlethey encompassed the Caaba: the Koreish had retired to the hills, andMahomet, after the customary sacrifice, evacuated the city on the fourthday. The people was edified by his devotion; the hostile chiefs wereawed, or divided, or seduced; and both Kaled and Amrou, the futureconquerors of Syria and Egypt, most seasonably deserted the sinkingcause of idolatry. The power of Mahomet was increased by the submissionof the Arabian tribes; ten thousand soldiers were assembled for theconquest of Mecca; and the idolaters, the weaker party, were easilyconvicted of violating the truce. Enthusiasm and discipline impelledthe march, and preserved the secret till the blaze of ten thousand firesproclaimed to the astonished Koreish the design, the approach, and theirresistible force of the enemy. The haughty Abu Sophian presented thekeys of the city, admired the variety of arms and ensigns that passedbefore him in review; observed that the son of Abdallah had acquired amighty kingdom, and confessed, under the cimeter of Omar, that he wasthe apostle of the true God. The return of Marius and Scylla was stainedwith the blood of the Romans: the revenge of Mahomet was stimulated byreligious zeal, and his injured followers were eager to execute or toprevent the order of a massacre. Instead of indulging their passions andhis own, [139] the victorious exile forgave the guilt, and united thefactions, of Mecca. His troops, in three divisions, marched into thecity: eight-and-twenty of the inhabitants were slain by the sword ofCaled; eleven men and six women were proscribed by the sentence ofMahomet; but he blamed the cruelty of his lieutenant; and several of themost obnoxious victims were indebted for their lives to his clemency orcontempt. The chiefs of the Koreish were prostrate at his feet. "Whatmercy can you expect from the man whom you have wronged?" "We confidein the generosity of our kinsman. " "And you shall not confide in vain:begone! you are safe, you are free" The people of Mecca deserved theirpardon by the profession of Islam; and after an exile of seven years, the fugitive missionary was enthroned as the prince and prophet of hisnative country. [140] But the three hundred and sixty idols of the Caabawere ignominiously broken: the house of God was purified and adorned: asan example to future times, the apostle again fulfilled the duties of apilgrim; and a perpetual law was enacted that no unbeliever should dareto set his foot on the territory of the holy city. [141]

[Footnote 138: The successive steps of the reduction of Mecca arerelated by Abulfeda (p. 84-87, 97-100, 102-111) and Gagnier, (tom. Ii. P. 202-245, 309-322, tom. Iii. P. 1-58, ) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. P. 8, 9, 10, ) Abulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 103. )]

[Footnote 1381: This peaceful entrance into Mecca took place, accordingto the treaty the following year. Weil, p. 202--M. 1845. ]

[Footnote 139: After the conquest of Mecca, the Mahomet of Voltaireimagines and perpetuates the most horrid crimes. The poet confesses, that he is not supported by the truth of history, and can only allege, que celui qui fait la guerre a sa patrie au nom de Dieu, est capablede tout, (Oeuvres de Voltaire, tom. Xv. P. 282. ) The maxim is neithercharitable nor philosophic; and some reverence is surely due to thefame of heroes and the religion of nations. I am informed that a Turkishambassador at Paris was much scandalized at the representation of thistragedy. ]

[Footnote 140: The Mahometan doctors still dispute, whether Mecca wasreduced by force or consent, (Abulfeda, p. 107, et Gagnier ad locum;)and this verbal controversy is of as much moment as our own aboutWilliam the Conqueror. ]

[Footnote 141: In excluding the Christians from the peninsula ofArabia, the province of Hejaz, or the navigation of the Red Sea, Chardin(Voyages en Perse, tom. Iv. P. 166) and Reland (Dissertat. Miscell. Tom. Iii. P. 61) are more rigid than the Mussulmans themselves. TheChristians are received without scruple into the ports of Mocha, andeven of Gedda; and it is only the city and precincts of Mecca that areinaccessible to the profane, (Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie, p. 308, 309, Voyage en Arabie, tom. I. P. 205, 248, &c. )]

The conquest of Mecca determined the faith and obedience of the Arabiantribes; [142] who, according to the vicissitudes of fortune, had obeyed, or disregarded, the eloquence or the arms of the prophet. Indifferencefor rites and opinions still marks the character of the Bedoweens; andthey might accept, as loosely as they hold, the doctrine of the Koran. Yet an obstinate remnant still adhered to the religion and liberty oftheir ancestors, and the war of Honain derived a proper appellation fromthe idols, whom Mahomet had vowed to destroy, and whom the confederatesof Tayef had sworn to defend. [143] Four thousand Pagans advanced withsecrecy and speed to surprise the conqueror: they pitied and despisedthe supine negligence of the Koreish, but they depended on the wishes, and perhaps the aid, of a people who had so lately renounced their gods, and bowed beneath the yoke of their enemy. The banners of Medina andMecca were displayed by the prophet; a crowd of Bedoweens increasedthe strength or numbers of the army, and twelve thousand Mussulmansentertained a rash and sinful presumption of their invincible strength. They descended without precaution into the valley of Honain: the heightshad been occupied by the archers and slingers of the confederates; theirnumbers were oppressed, their discipline was confounded, their couragewas appalled, and the Koreish smiled at their impending destruction. Theprophet, on his white mule, was encompassed by the enemies: he attemptedto rush against their spears in search of a glorious death: ten of hisfaithful companions interposed their weapons and their breasts; three ofthese fell dead at his feet: "O my brethren, " he repeatedly cried, withsorrow and indignation, "I am the son of Abdallah, I am the apostle oftruth! O man, stand fast in the faith! O God, send down thy succor!" Hisuncle Abbas, who, like the heroes of Homer, excelled in the loudnessof his voice, made the valley resound with the recital of the gifts andpromises of God: the flying Moslems returned from all sides to the holystandard; and Mahomet observed with pleasure that the furnace was againrekindled: his conduct and example restored the battle, and he animatedhis victorious troops to inflict a merciless revenge on the authors oftheir shame. From the field of Honain, he marched without delay to thesiege of Tayef, sixty miles to the south-east of Mecca, a fortress ofstrength, whose fertile lands produce the fruits of Syria in the midstof the Arabian desert. A friendly tribe, instructed (I know not how)in the art of sieges, supplied him with a train of battering-rams andmilitary engines, with a body of five hundred artificers. But it was invain that he offered freedom to the slaves of Tayef; that he violatedhis own laws by the extirpation of the fruit-trees; that the ground wasopened by the miners; that the breach was assaulted by the troops. Aftera siege of twenty-days, the prophet sounded a retreat; but he retreatedwith a song of devout triumph, and affected to pray for the repentanceand safety of the unbelieving city. The spoils of this fortunateexpedition amounted to six thousand captives, twenty-four thousandcamels, forty thousand sheep, and four thousand ounces of silver: atribe who had fought at Hoinan redeemed their prisoners by the sacrificeof their idols; but Mahomet compensated the loss, by resigning to thesoldiers his fifth of the plunder, and wished, for their sake, that hepossessed as many head of cattle as there were trees in the provinceof Tehama. Instead of chastising the disaffection of the Koreish, heendeavored to cut out their tongues, (his own expression, ) and to securetheir attachment by a superior measure of liberality: Abu Sophian alonewas presented with three hundred camels and twenty ounces of silver; andMecca was sincerely converted to the profitable religion of the Koran. 

[Footnote 142: Abulfeda, p. 112-115. Gagnier, tom. Iii. P. 67-88. D'Herbelot, Mohammed. ]

[Footnote 143: The siege of Tayef, division of the spoil, &c. , arerelated by Abulfeda (p. 117-123) and Gagnier, (tom. Iii. P. 88-111. )It is Al Jannabi who mentions the engines and engineers of the tribe ofDaws. The fertile spot of Tayef was supposed to be a piece of the landof Syria detached and dropped in the general deluge]

The fugitives and auxiliaries complained, that they who had borne theburden were neglected in the season of victory "Alas!" replied theirartful leader, "suffer me to conciliate these recent enemies, thesedoubtful proselytes, by the gift of some perishable goods. To your guardI intrust my life and fortunes. You are the companions of my exile, ofmy kingdom, of my paradise. " He was followed by the deputies of Tayef, who dreaded the repetition of a siege. "Grant us, O apostle of God! atruce of three years, with the toleration of our ancient worship. ""Not a month, not an hour. " "Excuse us at least from the obligation ofprayer. " "Without prayer religion is of no avail. " They submittedin silence: their temples were demolished, and the same sentence ofdestruction was executed on all the idols of Arabia. His lieutenants, on the shores of the Red Sea, the Ocean, and the Gulf of Persia, weresaluted by the acclamations of a faithful people; and the ambassadors, who knelt before the throne of Medina, were as numerous (says theArabian proverb) as the dates that fall from the maturity of apalm-tree. The nation submitted to the God and the sceptre of Mahomet:the opprobrious name of tribute was abolished: the spontaneous orreluctant oblations of arms and tithes were applied to the service ofreligion; and one hundred and fourteen thousand Moslems accompanied thelast pilgrimage of the apostle. [144]

[Footnote 144: The last conquests and pilgrimage of Mahomet arecontained in Abulfeda, (p. 121, 133, ) Gagnier, (tom. Iii. P. 119-219, )Elmacin, (p. 10, 11, ) Abulpharagius, (p. 103. ) The ixth of the Hegirawas styled the Year of Embassies, (Gagnier, Not. Ad Abulfed. P. 121. )]

When Heraclius returned in triumph from the Persian war, he entertained, at Emesa, one of the ambassadors of Mahomet, who invited the princes andnations of the earth to the profession of Islam. On this foundation thezeal of the Arabians has supposed the secret conversion of the Christianemperor: the vanity of the Greeks has feigned a personal visit of theprince of Medina, who accepted from the royal bounty a rich domain, anda secure retreat, in the province of Syria. [145] But the friendshipof Heraclius and Mahomet was of short continuance: the new religion hadinflamed rather than assuaged the rapacious spirit of the Saracens, andthe murder of an envoy afforded a decent pretence for invading, withthree thousand soldiers, the territory of Palestine, that extends to theeastward of the Jordan. The holy banner was intrusted to Zeid; and suchwas the discipline or enthusiasm of the rising sect, that the noblestchiefs served without reluctance under the slave of the prophet. On theevent of his decease, Jaafar and Abdallah were successively substitutedto the command; and if the three should perish in the war, the troopswere authorized to elect their general. The three leaders were slainin the battle of Muta, [146] the first military action, which tried thevalor of the Moslems against a foreign enemy. Zeid fell, like a soldier, in the foremost ranks: the death of Jaafar was heroic and memorable: helost his right hand: he shifted the standard to his left: the leftwas severed from his body: he embraced the standard with his bleedingstumps, till he was transfixed to the ground with fifty honorablewounds. [1461] "Advance, " cried Abdallah, who stepped into the vacantplace, "advance with confidence: either victory or paradise is our own. "The lance of a Roman decided the alternative; but the falling standardwas rescued by Caled, the proselyte of Mecca: nine swords were broken inhis hand; and his valor withstood and repulsed the superior numbers ofthe Christians. In the nocturnal council of the camp he was chosen tocommand: his skilful evolutions of the ensuing day secured either thevictory or the retreat of the Saracens; and Caled is renowned among hisbrethren and his enemies by the glorious appellation of the Sword ofGod. In the pulpit, Mahomet described, with prophetic rapture, thecrowns of the blessed martyrs; but in private he betrayed the feelingsof human nature: he was surprised as he wept over the daughter of Zeid:"What do I see?" said the astonished votary. "You see, " replied theapostle, "a friend who is deploring the loss of his most faithfulfriend. " After the conquest of Mecca, the sovereign of Arabia affectedto prevent the hostile preparations of Heraclius; and solemnlyproclaimed war against the Romans, without attempting to disguisethe hardships and dangers of the enterprise. [147] The Moslems werediscouraged: they alleged the want of money, or horses, or provisions;the season of harvest, and the intolerable heat of the summer: "Hell ismuch hotter, " said the indignant prophet. He disdained to compeltheir service: but on his return he admonished the most guilty, by anexcommunication of fifty days. Their desertion enhanced the merit ofAbubeker, Othman, and the faithful companions who devoted their livesand fortunes; and Mahomet displayed his banner at the head of tenthousand horse and twenty thousand foot. Painful indeed was the distressof the march: lassitude and thirst were aggravated by the scorching andpestilential winds of the desert: ten men rode by turns on one camel;and they were reduced to the shameful necessity of drinking the waterfrom the belly of that useful animal. In the mid-way, ten days' journeyfrom Medina and Damascus, they reposed near the grove and fountain ofTabuc. Beyond that place Mahomet declined the prosecution of the war:he declared himself satisfied with the peaceful intentions, he was moreprobably daunted by the martial array, of the emperor of the East. Butthe active and intrepid Caled spread around the terror of his name; andthe prophet received the submission of the tribes and cities, fromthe Euphrates to Ailah, at the head of the Red Sea. To his Christiansubjects, Mahomet readily granted the security of their persons, thefreedom of their trade, the property of their goods, and the tolerationof their worship. [148] The weakness of their Arabian brethren hadrestrained them from opposing his ambition; the disciples of Jesuswere endeared to the enemy of the Jews; and it was the interest of aconqueror to propose a fair capitulation to the most powerful religionof the earth. 

[Footnote 145: Compare the bigoted Al Jannabi (apud Gagnier, tom. Ii. P. 232-255) with the no less bigoted Greeks, Theophanes, (p. 276-227, )Zonaras (tom. Ii. L. Xiv. P. 86, ) and Cedrenus, (p. 421. )]

[Footnote 146: For the battle of Muta, and its consequences, seeAbulfeda (p 100-102) and Gagnier, (tom. Ii. P. 327-343. ). ]

[Footnote 1461: To console the afflicted relatives of his kinsmanJauffer, he (Mahomet) represented that, in Paradise, in exchange forthe arms which he had lost, he had been furnished with a pair of wings, resplendent with the blushing glories of the ruby, and with which hewas become the inseparable companion of the archangal Gabriel, inhis volitations through the regions of eternal bliss. Hence, in thecatalogue of the martyrs, he has been denominated Jauffer teyaur, thewinged Jauffer. Price, Chronological Retrospect of Mohammedan History, vol. I. P. 5. -M. ]

[Footnote 147: The expedition of Tabuc is recorded by our ordinaryhistorians Abulfeda (Vit. Moham. P. 123-127) and Gagnier, (Vie deMahomet, tom. Iii. P. 147-163: ) but we have the advantage of appealingto the original evidence of the Koran, (c. 9, p. 154, 165, ) with Sale'slearned and rational notes. ]

[Footnote 148: The Diploma securitatis Ailensibus is attested by AhmedBen Joseph, and the author Libri Splendorum, (Gagnier, Not. Ad Abulfedam, p. 125;) but Abulfeda himself, as well as Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. P. 11, ) though he owns Mahomet's regard for the Christians, (p 13, ) onlymentions peace and tribute. In the year 1630, Sionita published at Paristhe text and version of Mahomet's patent in favor of the Christians;which was admitted and reprobated by the opposite taste of Salmasiusand Grotius, (Bayle, Mahomet, Rem. Aa. ) Hottinger doubts of itsauthenticity, (Hist. Orient. P. 237;) Renaudot urges the consent of theMohametans, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. P. 169;) but Mosheim (Hist. Eccles. P. 244) shows the futility of their opinion and inclines to believeit spurious. Yet Abulpharagius quotes the impostor's treaty with theNestorian patriarch, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Ii. P. 418;) butAbulpharagius was primate of the Jacobites. ]

Till the age of sixty-three years, the strength of Mahomet was equal tothe temporal and spiritual fatigues of his mission. His epileptic fits, an absurd calumny of the Greeks, would be an object of pity rather thanabhorrence; [149] but he seriously believed that he was poisoned atChaibar by the revenge of a Jewish female. [150] During four years, the health of the prophet declined; his infirmities increased; buthis mortal disease was a fever of fourteen days, which deprived himby intervals of the use of reason. As soon as he was conscious ofhis danger, he edified his brethren by the humility of his virtue orpenitence. "If there be any man, " said the apostle from the pulpit, "whom I have unjustly scourged, I submit my own back to the lash ofretaliation. Have I aspersed the reputation of a Mussulman? let himproclaim my thoughts in the face of the congregation. Has any one beendespoiled of his goods? the little that I possess shall compensate theprincipal and the interest of the debt. " "Yes, " replied a voice fromthe crowd, "I am entitled to three drams of silver. " Mahomet heard thecomplaint, satisfied the demand, and thanked his creditor for accusinghim in this world rather than at the day of judgment. He beheld withtemperate firmness the approach of death; enfranchised his slaves(seventeen men, as they are named, and eleven women;) minutely directedthe order of his funeral, and moderated the lamentations of his weepingfriends, on whom he bestowed the benediction of peace. Till the thirdday before his death, he regularly performed the function of publicprayer: the choice of Abubeker to supply his place, appeared to markthat ancient and faithful friend as his successor in the sacerdotaland regal office; but he prudently declined the risk and envy of amore explicit nomination. At a moment when his faculties were visiblyimpaired, he called for pen and ink to write, or, more properly, to dictate, a divine book, the sum and accomplishment of all hisrevelations: a dispute arose in the chamber, whether he should beallowed to supersede the authority of the Koran; and the prophet wasforced to reprove the indecent vehemence of his disciples. If theslightest credit may be afforded to the traditions of his wives andcompanions, he maintained, in the bosom of his family, and to the lastmoments of his life, the dignity [1501] of an apostle, and the faith ofan enthusiast; described the visits of Gabriel, who bade an everlastingfarewell to the earth, and expressed his lively confidence, not onlyof the mercy, but of the favor, of the Supreme Being. In a familiardiscourse he had mentioned his special prerogative, that the angel ofdeath was not allowed to take his soul till he had respectfully askedthe permission of the prophet. The request was granted; and Mahometimmediately fell into the agony of his dissolution: his head wasreclined on the lap of Ayesha, the best beloved of all his wives; hefainted with the violence of pain; recovering his spirits, he raised hiseyes towards the roof of the house, and, with a steady look, though afaltering voice, uttered the last broken, though articulate, words:"O God!. .. .. Pardon my sins. .. .. .. Yes, . .. .. . I come, . .. .. . Among myfellow-citizens on high;" and thus peaceably expired on a carpet spreadupon the floor. An expedition for the conquest of Syria was stopped bythis mournful event; the army halted at the gates of Medina; the chiefswere assembled round their dying master. The city, more especiallythe house, of the prophet, was a scene of clamorous sorrow of silentdespair: fanaticism alone could suggest a ray of hope and consolation. "How can he be dead, our witness, our intercessor, our mediator, withGod? By God he is not dead: like Moses and Jesus, he is wrapped in aholy trance, and speedily will he return to his faithful people. " Theevidence of sense was disregarded; and Omar, unsheathing his cimeter, threatened to strike off the heads of the infidels, who should dareto affirm that the prophet was no more. The tumult was appeased by theweight and moderation of Abubeker. "Is it Mahomet, " said he to Omar andthe multitude, "or the God of Mahomet, whom you worship? The God ofMahomet liveth forever; but the apostle was a mortal like ourselves, andaccording to his own prediction, he has experienced the common fate ofmortality. " He was piously interred by the hands of his nearest kinsman, on the same spot on which he expired: [151] Medina has been sanctifiedby the death and burial of Mahomet; and the innumerable pilgrims ofMecca often turn aside from the way, to bow, in voluntary devotion, [152] before the simple tomb of the prophet. [153]

[Footnote 149: The epilepsy, or falling-sickness, of Mahomet is assertedby Theophanes, Zonaras, and the rest of the Greeks; and is greedilyswallowed by the gross bigotry of Hottinger, (Hist. Orient. P. 10, 11, )Prideaux, (Life of Mahomet, p. 12, ) and Maracci, (tom. Ii. Alcoran, p. 762, 763. ) The titles (the wrapped-up, the covered) of two chapters ofthe Koran, (73, 74) can hardly be strained to such an interpretation:the silence, the ignorance of the Mahometan commentators, is moreconclusive than the most peremptory denial; and the charitable side isespoused by Ockley, (Hist. Of the Saracens, tom. I. P. 301, ) Gagnier, (ad Abulfedam, p. 9. Vie de Mahomet, tom. I. P. 118, ) and Sale, (Koran, p. 469-474. ) * Note: Dr Weil believes in the epilepsy, and adducesstrong evidence for it; and surely it may be believed, in perfectcharity; and that the prophet's visions were connected, as they appearto have been, with these fits. I have little doubt that he saw andbelieved these visions, and visions they were. Weil, p. 43. --M. 1845. ]

[Footnote 150: This poison (more ignominious since it was offered asa test of his prophetic knowledge) is frankly confessed by his zealousvotaries, Abulfeda (p. 92) and Al Jannabi, (apud Gagnier, tom. Ii. P. 286-288. )]

[Footnote 1501: Major Price, who writes with the authority of one widelyconversant with the original sources of Eastern knowledge, and in a verycandid tone, takes a very different view of the prophet's death. "Intracing the circumstances of Mahommed's illness, we look in vain forany proofs of that meek and heroic firmness which might be expected todignify and embellish the last moments of the apostle of God. On someoccasions he betrayed such want of fortitude, such marks of childishimpatience, as are in general to be found in men only of the mostordinary stamp; and such as extorted from his wife Ayesha, inparticular, the sarcastic remark, that in herself, or any of herfamily, a similar demeanor would long since have incurred his severedispleasure. * * * He said that the acuteness and violence of hissufferings were necessarily in the proportion of those honors with whichit had ever pleased the hand of Omnipotence to distinguish its peculiarfavorites. " Price, vol. I. P. 13. --M]

[Footnote 151: The Greeks and Latins have invented and propagated thevulgar and ridiculous story, that Mahomet's iron tomb is suspended inthe air at Mecca, (Laonicus Chalcondyles, de Rebus Turcicis, l. Iii. P. 66, ) by the action of equal and potent loadstones, (Dictionnaire deBayle, Mahomet, Rem. Ee. Ff. ) Without any philosophical inquiries, itmay suffice, that, 1. The prophet was not buried at Mecca; and, 2. Thathis tomb at Medina, which has been visited by millions, is placed on theground, (Reland, de Relig. Moham. L. Ii. C. 19, p. 209-211. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. Iii. P. 263-268. ) * Note: According to thetestimony of all the Eastern authors, Mahomet died on Monday the 12thReby 1st, in the year 11 of the Hegira, which answers in reality to the8th June, 632, of J. C. We find in Ockley (Hist. Of Saracens) that itwas on Monday the 6th June, 632. This is a mistake; for the 6th June ofthat year was a Saturday, not a Monday; the 8th June, therefore, was aMonday. It is easy to discover that the lunar year, in this calculationhas been confounded with the solar. St. Martin vol. Xi. P. 186. --M. ]

[Footnote 152: Al Jannabi enumerates (Vie de Mahomet, tom. Iii. P. 372-391) the multifarious duties of a pilgrim who visits the tombs ofthe prophet and his companions; and the learned casuist decides, thatthis act of devotion is nearest in obligation and merit to a divineprecept. The doctors are divided which, of Mecca or Medina, be the mostexcellent, (p. 391-394. )]

[Footnote 153: The last sickness, death, and burial of Mahomet, aredescribed by Abulfeda and Gagnier, (Vit. Moham. P. 133-142. --Viede Mahomet, tom. Iii. P. 220-271. ) The most private and interestingcircumstances were originally received from Ayesha, Ali, the sons ofAbbas, &c. ; and as they dwelt at Medina, and survived the prophet manyyears, they might repeat the pious tale to a second or third generationof pilgrims. ]

At the conclusion of the life of Mahomet, it may perhaps be expected, that I should balance his faults and virtues, that I should decidewhether the title of enthusiast or impostor more properly belongs tothat extraordinary man. Had I been intimately conversant with the son ofAbdallah, the task would still be difficult, and the success uncertain:at the distance of twelve centuries, I darkly contemplate his shadethrough a cloud of religious incense; and could I truly delineate theportrait of an hour, the fleeting resemblance would not equally applyto the solitary of Mount Hera, to the preacher of Mecca, and to theconqueror of Arabia. The author of a mighty revolution appears to havebeen endowed with a pious and contemplative disposition: so soon asmarriage had raised him above the pressure of want, he avoided thepaths of ambition and avarice; and till the age of forty he lived withinnocence, and would have died without a name. The unity of God is anidea most congenial to nature and reason; and a slight conversationwith the Jews and Christians would teach him to despise and detest theidolatry of Mecca. It was the duty of a man and a citizen to impart thedoctrine of salvation, to rescue his country from the dominion of sinand error. The energy of a mind incessantly bent on the same object, would convert a general obligation into a particular call; the warmsuggestions of the understanding or the fancy would be felt as theinspirations of Heaven; the labor of thought would expire in raptureand vision; and the inward sensation, the invisible monitor, would bedescribed with the form and attributes of an angel of God. [154] Fromenthusiasm to imposture, the step is perilous and slippery: the daemonof Socrates [155] affords a memorable instance, how a wise man maydeceive himself, how a good man may deceive others, how the consciencemay slumber in a mixed and middle state between self-illusion andvoluntary fraud. Charity may believe that the original motives ofMahomet were those of pure and genuine benevolence; but a humanmissionary is incapable of cherishing the obstinate unbelievers whoreject his claims despise his arguments, and persecute his life; hemight forgive his personal adversaries, he may lawfully hate the enemiesof God; the stern passions of pride and revenge were kindled in thebosom of Mahomet, and he sighed, like the prophet of Nineveh, for thedestruction of the rebels whom he had condemned. The injustice of Meccaand the choice of Medina, transformed the citizen into a prince, thehumble preacher into the leader of armies; but his sword was consecratedby the example of the saints; and the same God who afflicts a sinfulworld with pestilence and earthquakes, might inspire for theirconversion or chastisement the valor of his servants. In the exerciseof political government, he was compelled to abate of the stern rigor offanaticism, to comply in some measure with the prejudices and passionsof his followers, and to employ even the vices of mankind as theinstruments of their salvation. The use of fraud and perfidy, of crueltyand injustice, were often subservient to the propagation of the faith;and Mahomet commanded or approved the assassination of the Jews andidolaters who had escaped from the field of battle. By the repetitionof such acts, the character of Mahomet must have been gradually stained;and the influence of such pernicious habits would be poorly compensatedby the practice of the personal and social virtues which are necessaryto maintain the reputation of a prophet among his sectaries and friends. Of his last years, ambition was the ruling passion; and a politicianwill suspect, that he secretly smiled (the victorious impostor!) at theenthusiasm of his youth, and the credulity of his proselytes. [156] Aphilosopher will observe, that their credulity and his success wouldtend more strongly to fortify the assurance of his divine mission, that his interest and religion were inseparably connected, and thathis conscience would be soothed by the persuasion, that he alone wasabsolved by the Deity from the obligation of positive and moral laws. Ifhe retained any vestige of his native innocence, the sins of Mahomet maybe allowed as an evidence of his sincerity. In the support of truth, thearts of fraud and fiction may be deemed less criminal; and he would havestarted at the foulness of the means, had he not been satisfied of theimportance and justice of the end. Even in a conqueror or a priest, Ican surprise a word or action of unaffected humanity; and the decreeof Mahomet, that, in the sale of captives, the mothers should never beseparated from their children, may suspend, or moderate, the censure ofthe historian. [157]

[Footnote 154: The Christians, rashly enough, have assigned to Mahomet atame pigeon, that seemed to descend from heaven and whisper in his ear. As this pretended miracle is urged by Grotius, (de Veritate ReligionisChristianae, ) his Arabic translator, the learned Pocock, inquired of himthe names of his authors; and Grotius confessed, that it is unknown tothe Mahometans themselves. Lest it should provoke their indignation andlaughter, the pious lie is suppressed in the Arabic version; but it hasmaintained an edifying place in the numerous editions of the Latintext, (Pocock, Specimen, Hist. Arabum, p. 186, 187. Reland, de Religion. Moham. L. Ii. C. 39, p. 259-262. )]

[Footnote 155: (Plato, in Apolog. Socrat. C. 19, p. 121, 122, edit. Fischer. ) The familiar examples, which Socrates urges in his Dialoguewith Theages, (Platon. Opera, tom. I. P. 128, 129, edit. Hen. Stephan. )are beyond the reach of human foresight; and the divine inspiration ofthe philosopher is clearly taught in the Memorabilia of Xenophon. Theideas of the most rational Platonists are expressed by Cicero, (deDivinat. I. 54, ) and in the xivth and xvth Dissertations of Maximus ofTyre, (p. 153-172, edit. Davis. )]

[Footnote 156: In some passage of his voluminous writings, Voltairecompares the prophet, in his old age, to a fakir, "qui detache la chainede son cou pour en donner sur les oreilles a ses confreres. "]

[Footnote 157: Gagnier relates, with the same impartial pen, this humanelaw of the prophet, and the murders of Caab, and Sophian, which heprompted and approved, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. Ii. P. 69, 97, 208. )]

Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants. --Part VII. 

The good sense of Mahomet [158] despised the pomp of royalty: theapostle of God submitted to the menial offices of the family: he kindledthe fire, swept the floor, milked the ewes, and mended with his ownhands his shoes and his woollen garment. Disdaining the penance andmerit of a hermit, he observed, without effort or vanity, the abstemiousdiet of an Arab and a soldier. On solemn occasions he feasted hiscompanions with rustic and hospitable plenty; but in his domestic life, many weeks would elapse without a tire being kindled on the hearth ofthe prophet. The interdiction of wine was confirmed by his example;his hunger was appeased with a sparing allowance of barley-bread:he delighted in the taste of milk and honey; but his ordinary foodconsisted of dates and water. Perfumes and women were the two sensualenjoyments which his nature required, and his religion did not forbid;and Mahomet affirmed, that the fervor of his devotion was increased bythese innocent pleasures. The heat of the climate inflames the bloodof the Arabs; and their libidinous complexion has been noticed by thewriters of antiquity. [159] Their incontinence was regulated by thecivil and religious laws of the Koran: their incestuous alliances wereblamed; the boundless license of polygamy was reduced to four legitimatewives or concubines; their rights both of bed and of dowry wereequitably determined; the freedom of divorce was discouraged, adulterywas condemned as a capital offence; and fornication, in either sex, waspunished with a hundred stripes. [160] Such were the calm and rationalprecepts of the legislator: but in his private conduct, Mahomet indulgedthe appetites of a man, and abused the claims of a prophet. A specialrevelation dispensed him from the laws which he had imposed on hisnation: the female sex, without reserve, was abandoned to his desires;and this singular prerogative excited the envy, rather than the scandal, the veneration, rather than the envy, of the devout Mussulmans. If weremember the seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines of thewise Solomon, we shall applaud the modesty of the Arabian, who espousedno more than seventeen or fifteen wives; eleven are enumerated whooccupied at Medina their separate apartments round the house of theapostle, and enjoyed in their turns the favor of his conjugal society. What is singular enough, they were all widows, excepting only Ayesha, the daughter of Abubeker. She was doubtless a virgin, since Mahometconsummated his nuptials (such is the premature ripeness of the climate)when she was only nine years of age. The youth, the beauty, the spiritof Ayesha, gave her a superior ascendant: she was beloved and trustedby the prophet; and, after his death, the daughter of Abubeker was longrevered as the mother of the faithful. Her behavior had been ambiguousand indiscreet: in a nocturnal march she was accidentally left behind;and in the morning Ayesha returned to the camp with a man. The temper ofMahomet was inclined to jealousy; but a divine revelation assured himof her innocence: he chastised her accusers, and published a law ofdomestic peace, that no woman should be condemned unless four malewitnesses had seen her in the act of adultery. [161] In his adventureswith Zeineb, the wife of Zeid, and with Mary, an Egyptian captive, theamorous prophet forgot the interest of his reputation. At the house ofZeid, his freedman and adopted son, he beheld, in a loose undress, thebeauty of Zeineb, and burst forth into an ejaculation of devotion anddesire. The servile, or grateful, freedman understood the hint, andyielded without hesitation to the love of his benefactor. But as thefilial relation had excited some doubt and scandal, the angel Gabrieldescended from heaven to ratify the deed, to annul the adoption, andgently to reprove the apostle for distrusting the indulgence of his God. One of his wives, Hafna, the daughter of Omar, surprised him on her ownbed, in the embraces of his Egyptian captive: she promised secrecy andforgiveness, he swore that he would renounce the possession of Mary. Both parties forgot their engagements; and Gabriel again descended witha chapter of the Koran, to absolve him from his oath, and to exhort himfreely to enjoy his captives and concubines, without listening to theclamors of his wives. In a solitary retreat of thirty days, he labored, alone with Mary, to fulfil the commands of the angel. When his love andrevenge were satiated, he summoned to his presence his eleven wives, reproached their disobedience and indiscretion, and threatened them witha sentence of divorce, both in this world and in the next; a dreadfulsentence, since those who had ascended the bed of the prophet wereforever excluded from the hope of a second marriage. Perhaps theincontinence of Mahomet may be palliated by the tradition of his naturalor preternatural gifts; [162] he united the manly virtue of thirty ofthe children of Adam: and the apostle might rival the thirteenth labor[163] of the Grecian Hercules. [164] A more serious and decent excusemay be drawn from his fidelity to Cadijah. During the twenty-four yearsof their marriage, her youthful husband abstained from the right ofpolygamy, and the pride or tenderness of the venerable matron was neverinsulted by the society of a rival. After her death, he placed her inthe rank of the four perfect women, with the sister of Moses, the motherof Jesus, and Fatima, the best beloved of his daughters. "Was she notold?" said Ayesha, with the insolence of a blooming beauty; "has not Godgiven you a better in her place?" "No, by God, " said Mahomet, with aneffusion of honest gratitude, "there never can be a better! She believedin me when men despised me; she relieved my wants, when I was poor andpersecuted by the world. " [165]

[Footnote 158: For the domestic life of Mahomet, consult Gagnier, andthe corresponding chapters of Abulfeda; for his diet, (tom. Iii. P. 285-288;) his children, (p. 189, 289;) his wives, (p. 290-303;) hismarriage with Zeineb, (tom. Ii. P. 152-160;) his amour with Mary, (p. 303-309;) the false accusation of Ayesha, (p. 186-199. ) The mostoriginal evidence of the three last transactions is contained inthe xxivth, xxxiiid, and lxvith chapters of the Koran, with Sale'sCommentary. Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 80-90) and Maracci (Prodrom. Alcoran, part iv. P. 49-59) have maliciously exaggerated the frailtiesof Mahomet. ]

[Footnote 159: Incredibile est quo ardore apud eos in Venerem uterquesolvitur sexus, (Ammian. Marcellin. L. Xiv. C. 4. )]

[Footnote 160: Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p. 133-137) hasrecapitulated the laws of marriage, divorce, &c. ; and the curious readerof Selden's Uror Hebraica will recognize many Jewish ordinances. ]

[Footnote 161: In a memorable case, the Caliph Omar decided that allpresumptive evidence was of no avail; and that all the four witnessesmust have actually seen stylum in pyxide, (Abulfedae Annales Moslemici, p. 71, vers. Reiske. )]

[Footnote 162: Sibi robur ad generationem, quantum triginta viri habent, inesse jacteret: ita ut unica hora posset undecim foeminis satisfacere, ut ex Arabum libris refert Stus. Petrus Paschasius, c. 2. , (Maracci, Prodromus Alcoran, p. Iv. P. 55. See likewise Observations de Belon, l. Iii. C. 10, fol. 179, recto. ) Al Jannabi (Gagnier, tom. Iii. P. 287)records his own testimony, that he surpassed all men in conjugal vigor;and Abulfeda mentions the exclamation of Ali, who washed the body afterhis death, "O propheta, certe penis tuus coelum versus erectus est, " inVit. Mohammed, p. 140. ]

[Footnote 163: I borrow the style of a father of the church, (Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. Iii. P. 108. )]

[Footnote 164: The common and most glorious legend includes, in a singlenight the fifty victories of Hercules over the virgin daughters ofThestius, (Diodor. Sicul. Tom. I. L. Iv. P. 274. Pausanias, l. Ix. P. 763. Statius Sylv. L. I. Eleg. Iii. V. 42. ) But Athenaeus allows sevennights, (Deipnosophist, l. Xiii. P. 556, ) and Apollodorus fifty, forthis arduous achievement of Hercules, who was then no more than eighteenyears of age, (Bibliot. L. Ii. C. 4, p. 111, cum notis Heyne, part i. P. 332. )]

[Footnote 165: Abulfeda in Vit. Moham. P. 12, 13, 16, 17, cum NotisGagnier]

In the largest indulgence of polygamy, the founder of a religion andempire might aspire to multiply the chances of a numerous posterity anda lineal succession. The hopes of Mahomet were fatally disappointed. Thevirgin Ayesha, and his ten widows of mature age and approved fertility, were barren in his potent embraces. The four sons of Cadijah died intheir infancy. Mary, his Egyptian concubine, was endeared to him by thebirth of Ibrahim. At the end of fifteen months the prophet wept over hisgrave; but he sustained with firmness the raillery of his enemies, andchecked the adulation or credulity of the Moslems, by the assurance thatan eclipse of the sun was not occasioned by the death of the infant. Cadijah had likewise given him four daughters, who were married tothe most faithful of his disciples: the three eldest died before theirfather; but Fatima, who possessed his confidence and love, became thewife of her cousin Ali, and the mother of an illustrious progeny. The merit and misfortunes of Ali and his descendants will lead me toanticipate, in this place, the series of the Saracen caliphs, a titlewhich describes the commanders of the faithful as the vicars andsuccessors of the apostle of God. [166]

[Footnote 166: This outline of the Arabian history is drawn from theBibliotheque Orientale of D'Herbelot, (under the names of Aboubecre, Omar Othman, Ali, &c. ;) from the Annals of Abulfeda, Abulpharagius, andElmacin, (under the proper years of the Hegira, ) and especially fromOckley's History of the Saracens, (vol. I. P. 1-10, 115-122, 229, 249, 363-372, 378-391, and almost the whole of the second volume. ) Yet weshould weigh with caution the traditions of the hostile sects; a streamwhich becomes still more muddy as it flows farther from the source. Sir John Chardin has too faithfully copied the fables and errors of themodern Persians, (Voyages, tom. Ii. P. 235-250, &c. )]

The birth, the alliance, the character of Ali, which exalted him abovethe rest of his countrymen, might justify his claim to the vacant throneof Arabia. The son of Abu Taleb was, in his own right, the chief of thefamily of Hashem, and the hereditary prince or guardian of the city andtemple of Mecca. The light of prophecy was extinct; but the husbandof Fatima might expect the inheritance and blessing of her father:the Arabs had sometimes been patient of a female reign; and the twograndsons of the prophet had often been fondled in his lap, and shownin his pulpit as the hope of his age, and the chief of the youth ofparadise. The first of the true believers might aspire to march beforethem in this world and in the next; and if some were of a graver andmore rigid cast, the zeal and virtue of Ali were never outstripped byany recent proselyte. He united the qualifications of a poet, a soldier, and a saint: his wisdom still breathes in a collection of moral andreligious sayings; [167] and every antagonist, in the combats of thetongue or of the sword, was subdued by his eloquence and valor. From thefirst hour of his mission to the last rites of his funeral, the apostlewas never forsaken by a generous friend, whom he delighted to name hisbrother, his vicegerent, and the faithful Aaron of a second Moses. Theson of Abu Taleb was afterwards reproached for neglecting to secure hisinterest by a solemn declaration of his right, which would have silencedall competition, and sealed his succession by the decrees of Heaven. Butthe unsuspecting hero confided in himself: the jealousy of empire, and perhaps the fear of opposition, might suspend the resolutions ofMahomet; and the bed of sickness was besieged by the artful Ayesha, thedaughter of Abubeker, and the enemy of Ali. [1671]

[Footnote 167: Ockley (at the end of his second volume) has givenan English version of 169 sentences, which he ascribes, with somehesitation, to Ali, the son of Abu Taleb. His preface is colored bythe enthusiasm of a translator; yet these sentences delineate acharacteristic, though dark, picture of human life. ]

[Footnote 1671: Gibbon wrote chiefly from the Arabic or Sunnite accountof these transactions, the only sources accessible at the time when hecomposed his History. Major Price, writing from Persian authorities, affords us the advantage of comparing throughout what may be fairlyconsidered the Shiite Version. The glory of Ali is the constant burdenof their strain. He was destined, and, according to some accounts, designated, for the caliphate by the prophet; but while the others werefiercely pushing their own interests, Ali was watching the remains ofMahomet with pious fidelity. His disinterested magnanimity, on eachseparate occasion, declined the sceptre, and gave the noble example ofobedience to the appointed caliph. He is described, in retirement, on the throne, and in the field of battle, as transcendently pious, magnanimous, valiant, and humane. He lost his empire through his excessof virtue and love for the faithful his life through his confidence inGod, and submission to the decrees of fate. Compare the curious accountof this apathy in Price, chapter ii. It is to be regretted, I must add, that Major Price has contented himself with quoting the names of thePersian works which he follows, without any account of their character, age, and authority. --M. ]

The silence and death of the prophet restored the liberty of the people;and his companions convened an assembly to deliberate on the choiceof his successor. The hereditary claim and lofty spirit of Ali wereoffensive to an aristocracy of elders, desirous of bestowing andresuming the sceptre by a free and frequent election: the Koreish couldnever be reconciled to the proud preeminence of the line of Hashem; theancient discord of the tribes was rekindled, the fugitives of Mecca andthe auxiliaries of Medina asserted their respective merits; and the rashproposal of choosing two independent caliphs would have crushed in theirinfancy the religion and empire of the Saracens. The tumult was appeasedby the disinterested resolution of Omar, who, suddenly renouncing hisown pretensions, stretched forth his hand, and declared himself thefirst subject of the mild and venerable Abubeker. [1672] The urgencyof the moment, and the acquiescence of the people, might excuse thisillegal and precipitate measure; but Omar himself confessed from thepulpit, that if any Mulsulman should hereafter presume to anticipatethe suffrage of his brethren, both the elector and the elected would beworthy of death. [168] After the simple inauguration of Abubeker, hewas obeyed in Medina, Mecca, and the provinces of Arabia: the Hashemitesalone declined the oath of fidelity; and their chief, in his own house, maintained, above six months, a sullen and independent reserve; withoutlistening to the threats of Omar, who attempted to consume with fire thehabitation of the daughter of the apostle. The death of Fatima, andthe decline of his party, subdued the indignant spirit of Ali: hecondescended to salute the commander of the faithful, accepted hisexcuse of the necessity of preventing their common enemies, and wiselyrejected his courteous offer of abdicating the government of theArabians. After a reign of two years, the aged caliph was summoned bythe angel of death. In his testament, with the tacit approbation of hiscompanions, he bequeathed the sceptre to the firm and intrepid virtue ofOmar. "I have no occasion, " said the modest candidate, "for the place. ""But the place has occasion for you, " replied Abubeker; who expired witha fervent prayer, that the God of Mahomet would ratify his choice, anddirect the Mussulmans in the way of concord and obedience. The prayerwas not ineffectual, since Ali himself, in a life of privacy and prayer, professed to revere the superior worth and dignity of his rival; whocomforted him for the loss of empire, by the most flattering marks ofconfidence and esteem. In the twelfth year of his reign, Omar receiveda mortal wound from the hand of an assassin: he rejected with equalimpartiality the names of his son and of Ali, refused to load hisconscience with the sins of his successor, and devolved on six of themost respectable companions the arduous task of electing a commanderof the faithful. On this occasion, Ali was again blamed by his friends[169] for submitting his right to the judgment of men, for recognizingtheir jurisdiction by accepting a place among the six electors. He mighthave obtained their suffrage, had he deigned to promise a strict andservile conformity, not only to the Koran and tradition, but likewise tothe determinations of two seniors. [170] With these limitations, Othman, the secretary of Mahomet, accepted the government; nor was it till afterthe third caliph, twenty-four years after the death of the prophet, thatAli was invested, by the popular choice, with the regal and sacerdotaloffice. The manners of the Arabians retained their primitive simplicity, and the son of Abu Taleb despised the pomp and vanity of this world. At the hour of prayer, he repaired to the mosch of Medina, clothed in athin cotton gown, a coarse turban on his head, his slippers in one hand, and his bow in the other, instead of a walking-staff. The companions ofthe prophet, and the chiefs of the tribes, saluted their new sovereign, and gave him their right hands as a sign of fealty and allegiance. 

[Footnote 1672: Abubeker, the father of the virgin Ayesha. St. Martin, vol. XL, p. 88--M. ]

[Footnote 168: Ockley, (Hist. Of the Saracens, vol. I. P. 5, 6, ) froman Arabian Ms. , represents Ayesha as adverse to the substitution of herfather in the place of the apostle. This fact, so improbable in itself, is unnoticed by Abulfeda, Al Jannabi, and Al Bochari, the last of whomquotes the tradition of Ayesha herself, (Vit. Mohammed, p. 136 Vie deMahomet, tom. Iii. P. 236. )]

[Footnote 169: Particularly by his friend and cousin Abdallah, theson of Abbas, who died A. D. 687, with the title of grand doctor of theMoslems. In Abulfeda he recapitulates the important occasions in whichAli had neglected his salutary advice, (p. 76, vers. Reiske;) andconcludes, (p. 85, ) O princeps fidelium, absque controversia tu quidemvere fortis es, at inops boni consilii, et rerum gerendarum parumcallens. ]

[Footnote 170: I suspect that the two seniors (Abulpharagius, p. 115. Ockley, tom. I. P. 371, ) may signify not two actual counsellors, but histwo predecessors, Abubeker and Omar. ]

The mischiefs that flow from the contests of ambition are usuallyconfined to the times and countries in which they have been agitated. But the religious discord of the friends and enemies of Ali has beenrenewed in every age of the Hegira, and is still maintained in theimmortal hatred of the Persians and Turks. [171] The former, who arebranded with the appellation of Shiites or sectaries, have enrichedthe Mahometan creed with a new article of faith; and if Mahomet bethe apostle, his companion Ali is the vicar, of God. In their privateconverse, in their public worship, they bitterly execrate the threeusurpers who intercepted his indefeasible right to the dignity of Imamand Caliph; and the name of Omar expresses in their tongue the perfectaccomplishment of wickedness and impiety. [172] The Sonnites, whoare supported by the general consent and orthodox tradition of theMussulmans, entertain a more impartial, or at least a more decent, opinion. They respect the memory of Abubeker, Omar, Othman, and Ali, theholy and legitimate successors of the prophet. But they assign the lastand most humble place to the husband of Fatima, in the persuasion thatthe order of succession was determined by the decrees of sanctity. [173] An historian who balances the four caliphs with a hand unshaken bysuperstition, will calmly pronounce that their manners were alike pureand exemplary; that their zeal was fervent, and probably sincere; andthat, in the midst of riches and power, their lives were devoted tothe practice of moral and religious duties. But the public virtuesof Abubeker and Omar, the prudence of the first, the severity of thesecond, maintained the peace and prosperity of their reigns. The feebletemper and declining age of Othman were incapable of sustaining theweight of conquest and empire. He chose, and he was deceived; hetrusted, and he was betrayed: the most deserving of the faithfulbecame useless or hostile to his government, and his lavish bounty wasproductive only of ingratitude and discontent. The spirit of discordwent forth in the provinces: their deputies assembled at Medina; andthe Charegites, the desperate fanatics who disclaimed the yoke ofsubordination and reason, were confounded among the free-born Arabs, who demanded the redress of their wrongs and the punishment of theiroppressors. From Cufa, from Bassora, from Egypt, from the tribes ofthe desert, they rose in arms, encamped about a league from Medina, and despatched a haughty mandate to their sovereign, requiring him toexecute justice, or to descend from the throne. His repentance began todisarm and disperse the insurgents; but their fury was rekindled bythe arts of his enemies; and the forgery of a perfidious secretary wascontrived to blast his reputation and precipitate his fall. The caliphhad lost the only guard of his predecessors, the esteem and confidenceof the Moslems: during a siege of six weeks his water and provisionswere intercepted, and the feeble gates of the palace were protected onlyby the scruples of the more timorous rebels. Forsaken by those who hadabused his simplicity, the hopeless and venerable caliph expected theapproach of death: the brother of Ayesha marched at the head of theassassins; and Othman, with the Koran in his lap, was pierced witha multitude of wounds. [1731] A tumultuous anarchy of five days wasappeased by the inauguration of Ali: his refusal would have provoked ageneral massacre. In this painful situation he supported the becomingpride of the chief of the Hashemites; declared that he had rather servethan reign; rebuked the presumption of the strangers; and required theformal, if not the voluntary, assent of the chiefs of the nation. Hehas never been accused of prompting the assassin of Omar; though Persiaindiscreetly celebrates the festival of that holy martyr. The quarrelbetween Othman and his subjects was assuaged by the early mediation ofAli; and Hassan, the eldest of his sons, was insulted and wounded in thedefence of the caliph. Yet it is doubtful whether the father of Hassanwas strenuous and sincere in his opposition to the rebels; and it iscertain that he enjoyed the benefit of their crime. The temptation wasindeed of such magnitude as might stagger and corrupt the most obduratevirtue. The ambitious candidate no longer aspired to the barren sceptreof Arabia; the Saracens had been victorious in the East and West; andthe wealthy kingdoms of Persia, Syria, and Egypt were the patrimony ofthe commander of the faithful. 

[Footnote 171: The schism of the Persians is explained by all ourtravellers of the last century, especially in the iid and ivth volumesof their master, Chardin. Niebuhr, though of inferior merit, has theadvantage of writing so late as the year 1764, (Voyages en Arabie, &c. , tom. Ii. P. 208-233, ) since the ineffectual attempt of Nadir Shah tochange the religion of the nation, (see his Persian History translatedinto French by Sir William Jones, tom. Ii. P. 5, 6, 47, 48, 144-155. )]

[Footnote 172: Omar is the name of the devil; his murderer is a saint. When the Persians shoot with the bow, they frequently cry, "May thisarrow go to the heart of Omar!" (Voyages de Chardin, tom. Ii. P 239, 240, 259, &c. )]

[Footnote 173: This gradation of merit is distinctly marked in a creedillustrated by Reland, (de Relig. Mohamm. L. I. P. 37;) and a Sonniteargument inserted by Ockley, (Hist. Of the Saracens, tom. Ii. P. 230. )The practice of cursing the memory of Ali was abolished, after fortyyears, by the Ommiades themselves, (D'Herbelot, p. 690;) and there arefew among the Turks who presume to revile him as an infidel, (Voyages deChardin, tom. Iv. P. 46. )]

[Footnote 1731: Compare Price, p. 180. --M. ]

Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants. --Part VIII. 

A life of prayer and contemplation had not chilled the martial activityof Ali; but in a mature age, after a long experience of mankind, hestill betrayed in his conduct the rashness and indiscretion of youth. [1732] In the first days of his reign, he neglected to secure, eitherby gifts or fetters, the doubtful allegiance of Telha and Zobeir, twoof the most powerful of the Arabian chiefs. They escaped from Medina toMecca, and from thence to Bassora; erected the standard of revolt;and usurped the government of Irak, or Assyria, which they had vainlysolicited as the reward of their services. The mask of patriotism isallowed to cover the most glaring inconsistencies; and the enemies, perhaps the assassins, of Othman now demanded vengeance for his blood. They were accompanied in their flight by Ayesha, the widow of theprophet, who cherished, to the last hour of her life, an implacablehatred against the husband and the posterity of Fatima. The mostreasonable Moslems were scandalized, that the mother of the faithfulshould expose in a camp her person and character; [1733] but thesuperstitious crowd was confident that her presence would sanctify thejustice, and assure the success, of their cause. At the head of twentythousand of his loyal Arabs, and nine thousand valiant auxiliaries ofCufa, the caliph encountered and defeated the superior numbers of therebels under the walls of Bassora. [1734] Their leaders, Telha andZobeir, [1735] were slain in the first battle that stained with civilblood the arms of the Moslems. [1736] After passing through the ranks toanimate the troops, Ayesha had chosen her post amidst the dangers of thefield. In the heat of the action, seventy men, who held the bridle ofher camel, were successively killed or wounded; and the cage or litter, in which she sat, was stuck with javelins and darts like the quills of aporcupine. The venerable captive sustained with firmness the reproachesof the conqueror, and was speedily dismissed to her proper station atthe tomb of Mahomet, with the respect and tenderness that was still dueto the widow of the apostle. [1737] After this victory, which was styledthe Day of the Camel, Ali marched against a more formidable adversary;against Moawiyah, the son of Abu Sophian, who had assumed the title ofcaliph, and whose claim was supported by the forces of Syria and theinterest of the house of Ommiyah. From the passage of Thapsacus, theplain of Siffin [174] extends along the western bank of the Euphrates. On this spacious and level theatre, the two competitors waged adesultory war of one hundred and ten days. In the course of ninetyactions or skirmishes, the loss of Ali was estimated at twenty-five, that of Moawiyah at forty-five, thousand soldiers; and the list of theslain was dignified with the names of five-and-twenty veterans whohad fought at Beder under the standard of Mahomet. In this sanguinarycontest the lawful caliph displayed a superior character of valor andhumanity. [1741] His troops were strictly enjoined to await the firstonset of the enemy, to spare their flying brethren, and to respectthe bodies of the dead, and the chastity of the female captives. Hegenerously proposed to save the blood of the Moslems by a singlecombat; but his trembling rival declined the challenge as a sentence ofinevitable death. The ranks of the Syrians were broken by the charge ofa hero who was mounted on a piebald horse, and wielded with irresistibleforce his ponderous and two-edged sword. As often as he smote a rebel, he shouted the Allah Acbar, "God is victorious!" and in the tumult ofa nocturnal battle, he was heard to repeat four hundred times thattremendous exclamation. The prince of Damascus already meditated hisflight; but the certain victory was snatched from the grasp of Ali bythe disobedience and enthusiasm of his troops. Their conscience was awedby the solemn appeal to the books of the Koran which Moawiyah exposedon the foremost lances; and Ali was compelled to yield to a disgracefultruce and an insidious compromise. He retreated with sorrow andindignation to Cufa; his party was discouraged; the distant provincesof Persia, of Yemen, and of Egypt, were subdued or seduced by his craftyrival; and the stroke of fanaticism, which was aimed against the threechiefs of the nation, was fatal only to the cousin of Mahomet. In thetemple of Mecca, three Charegites or enthusiasts discoursed of thedisorders of the church and state: they soon agreed, that the deaths ofAli, of Moawiyah, and of his friend Amrou, the viceroy of Egypt, wouldrestore the peace and unity of religion. Each of the assassins chose hisvictim, poisoned his dagger, devoted his life, and secretly repairedto the scene of action. Their resolution was equally desperate: but thefirst mistook the person of Amrou, and stabbed the deputy who occupiedhis seat; the prince of Damascus was dangerously hurt by the second; thelawful caliph, in the mosch of Cufa, received a mortal wound from thehand of the third. He expired in the sixty-third year of his age, andmercifully recommended to his children, that they would despatch themurderer by a single stroke. [1742] The sepulchre of Ali [175] wasconcealed from the tyrants of the house of Ommiyah; [176] but in thefourth age of the Hegira, a tomb, a temple, a city, arose near the ruinsof Cufa. [177] Many thousands of the Shiites repose in holy ground atthe feet of the vicar of God; and the desert is vivified by the numerousand annual visits of the Persians, who esteem their devotion not lessmeritorious than the pilgrimage of Mecca. 

[Footnote 1732: Ali had determined to supersede all the lieutenants inthe different provinces. Price, p. 191. Compare, on the conduct of Telhaand Zobeir, p. 193--M. ]

[Footnote 1733: See the very curious circumstances which took placebefore and during her flight. Price, p. 196. --M. ]

[Footnote 1734: The reluctance of Ali to shed the blood of truebelievers is strikingly described by Major Price's Persian historians. Price, p. 222. --M. ]

[Footnote 1735: See (in Price) the singular adventures of Zobeir. He wasmurdered after having abandoned the army of the insurgents. Telha wasabout to do the same, when his leg was pierced with an arrow by one ofhis own party The wound was mortal. Price, p. 222. --M. ]

[Footnote 1736: According to Price, two hundred and eighty of the BenniBeianziel alone lost a right hand in this service, (p. 225. )--M]

[Footnote 1737: She was escorted by a guard of females disguised assoldiers. When she discovered this, Ayesha was as much gratified by thedelicacy of the arrangement, as she had been offended by the familiarapproach of so many men. Price, p. 229. --M. ]

[Footnote 174: The plain of Siffin is determined by D'Anville(l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 29) to be the Campus Barbaricus ofProcopius. ]

[Footnote 1741: The Shiite authors have preserved a noble instance ofAli's magnanimity. The superior generalship of Moawiyah had cut off thearmy of Ali from the Euphrates; his soldiers were perishing from wantof water. Ali sent a message to his rival to request free access to theriver, declaring that under the same circumstances he would not allowany of the faithful, though his adversaries, to perish from thirst. After some debate, Moawiyah determined to avail himself of the advantageof his situation, and to reject the demand of Ali. The soldiers of Alibecame desperate; forced their way through that part of the hostile armywhich commanded the river, and in their turn entirely cut off thetroops of Moawiyah from the water. Moawiyah was reduced to make the samesupplication to Ali. The generous caliph instantly complied; and botharmies, with their cattle enjoyed free and unmolested access to theriver. Price, vol. I. P. 268, 272--M. ]

[Footnote 1742: His son Hassan was recognized as caliph in Arabia andIrak; but voluntarily abdicated the throne, after six or seven months, in favor of Moawiyah St. Martin, vol. Xi. P 375. --M. ]

[Footnote 175: Abulfeda, a moderate Sonnite, relates the differentopinions concerning the burial of Ali, but adopts the sepulchre of Cufa, hodie fama numeroque religiose frequentantium celebratum. This number isreckoned by Niebuhr to amount annually to 2000 of the dead, and 5000 ofthe living, (tom. Ii. P. 208, 209. )]

[Footnote 176: All the tyrants of Persia, from Adhad el Dowlat (A. D. 977, D'Herbelot, p. 58, 59, 95) to Nadir Shah, (A. D. 1743, Hist. DeNadir Shah, tom. Ii. P. 155, ) have enriched the tomb of Ali with thespoils of the people. The dome is copper, with a bright and massygilding, which glitters to the sun at the distance of many a mile. ]

[Footnote 177: The city of Meshed Ali, five or six miles from the ruinsof Cufa, and one hundred and twenty to the south of Bagdad, is of thesize and form of the modern Jerusalem. Meshed Hosein, larger and morepopulous, is at the distance of thirty miles. ]

The persecutors of Mahomet usurped the inheritance of his children; andthe champions of idolatry became the supreme heads of his religion andempire. The opposition of Abu Sophian had been fierce and obstinate;his conversion was tardy and reluctant; his new faith was fortified bynecessity and interest; he served, he fought, perhaps he believed; andthe sins of the time of ignorance were expiated by the recent meritsof the family of Ommiyah. Moawiyah, the son of Abu Sophian, and of thecruel Henda, was dignified, in his early youth, with the office or titleof secretary of the prophet: the judgment of Omar intrusted him with thegovernment of Syria; and he administered that important province aboveforty years, either in a subordinate or supreme rank. Without renouncingthe fame of valor and liberality, he affected the reputation of humanityand moderation: a grateful people was attached to their benefactor;and the victorious Moslems were enriched with the spoils of Cyprus andRhodes. The sacred duty of pursuing the assassins of Othman was theengine and pretence of his ambition. The bloody shirt of the martyrwas exposed in the mosch of Damascus: the emir deplored the fate of hisinjured kinsman; and sixty thousand Syrians were engaged in his serviceby an oath of fidelity and revenge. Amrou, the conqueror of Egypt, himself an army, was the first who saluted the new monarch, anddivulged the dangerous secret, that the Arabian caliphs might be createdelsewhere than in the city of the prophet. [178] The policy ofMoawiyah eluded the valor of his rival; and, after the death of Ali, henegotiated the abdication of his son Hassan, whose mind was either aboveor below the government of the world, and who retired without asigh from the palace of Cufa to an humble cell near the tomb of hisgrandfather. The aspiring wishes of the caliph were finally crownedby the important change of an elective to an hereditary kingdom. Somemurmurs of freedom or fanaticism attested the reluctance of the Arabs, and four citizens of Medina refused the oath of fidelity; but thedesigns of Moawiyah were conducted with vigor and address; and his sonYezid, a feeble and dissolute youth, was proclaimed as the commander ofthe faithful and the successor on the apostle of God. 

[Footnote 178: I borrow, on this occasion, the strong sense andexpression of Tacitus, (Hist. I. 4: ) Evulgato imperii arcano posseimperatorem alni quam Romae fieri. ]

A familiar story is related of the benevolence of one of the sons ofAli. In serving at table, a slave had inadvertently dropped a dish ofscalding broth on his master: the heedless wretch fell prostrate, todeprecate his punishment, and repeated a verse of the Koran: "Paradiseis for those who command their anger: "--"I am not angry: "--"and forthose who pardon offences: "--"I pardon your offence: "--"and for thosewho return good for evil: "--"I give you your liberty and four hundredpieces of silver. " With an equal measure of piety, Hosein, the youngerbrother of Hassan, inherited a remnant of his father's spirit, andserved with honor against the Christians in the siege of Constantinople. The primogeniture of the line of Hashem, and the holy character ofgrandson of the apostle, had centred in his person, and he was atliberty to prosecute his claim against Yezid, the tyrant of Damascus, whose vices he despised, and whose title he had never deigned toacknowledge. A list was secretly transmitted from Cufa to Medina, of onehundred and forty thousand Moslems, who professed their attachment tohis cause, and who were eager to draw their swords so soon as he shouldappear on the banks of the Euphrates. Against the advice of his wisestfriends, he resolved to trust his person and family in the hands of aperfidious people. He traversed the desert of Arabia with a timorousretinue of women and children; but as he approached the confines ofIrak he was alarmed by the solitary or hostile face of the country, and suspected either the defection or ruin of his party. His fearswere just: Obeidollah, the governor of Cufa, had extinguished the firstsparks of an insurrection; and Hosein, in the plain of Kerbela, wasencompassed by a body of five thousand horse, who intercepted hiscommunication with the city and the river. He might still have escapedto a fortress in the desert, that had defied the power of Caesar andChosroes, and confided in the fidelity of the tribe of Tai, which wouldhave armed ten thousand warriors in his defence. 

In a conference with the chief of the enemy, he proposed the optionof three honorable conditions: that he should be allowed to return toMedina, or be stationed in a frontier garrison against the Turks, orsafely conducted to the presence of Yezid. But the commands of thecaliph, or his lieutenant, were stern and absolute; and Hosein wasinformed that he must either submit as a captive and a criminal to thecommander of the faithful, or expect the consequences of his rebellion. "Do you think, " replied he, "to terrify me with death?" And, duringthe short respite of a night, [1781] he prepared with calm and solemnresignation to encounter his fate. He checked the lamentations ofhis sister Fatima, who deplored the impending ruin of his house. "Ourtrust, " said Hosein, "is in God alone. All things, both in heaven andearth, must perish and return to their Creator. My brother, my father, my mother, were better than me, and every Mussulman has an example inthe prophet. " He pressed his friends to consult their safety by a timelyflight: they unanimously refused to desert or survive their belovedmaster: and their courage was fortified by a fervent prayer and theassurance of paradise. On the morning of the fatal day, he mounted onhorseback, with his sword in one hand and the Koran in the other: hisgenerous band of martyrs consisted only of thirty-two horse and fortyfoot; but their flanks and rear were secured by the tent-ropes, and by adeep trench which they had filled with lighted fagots, according to thepractice of the Arabs. The enemy advanced with reluctance, and one oftheir chiefs deserted, with thirty followers, to claim the partnershipof inevitable death. In every close onset, or single combat, the despairof the Fatimites was invincible; but the surrounding multitudes galledthem from a distance with a cloud of arrows, and the horses and men weresuccessively slain; a truce was allowed on both sides for the hourof prayer; and the battle at length expired by the death of the lastcompanions of Hosein. Alone, weary, and wounded, he seated himself atthe door of his tent. As he tasted a drop of water, he was pierced inthe mouth with a dart; and his son and nephew, two beautiful youths, were killed in his arms. He lifted his hands to heaven; they were fullof blood; and he uttered a funeral prayer for the living and the dead. In a transport of despair his sister issued from the tent, and adjuredthe general of the Cufians, that he would not suffer Hosein to bemurdered before his eyes: a tear trickled down his venerable beard; andthe boldest of his soldiers fell back on every side as the dying herothrew himself among them. The remorseless Shamer, a name detested by thefaithful, reproached their cowardice; and the grandson of Mahomet wasslain with three-and-thirty strokes of lances and swords. After they hadtrampled on his body, they carried his head to the castle of Cufa, andthe inhuman Obeidollah struck him on the mouth with a cane: "Alas, "exclaimed an aged Mussulman, "on these lips have I seen the lips of theapostle of God!" In a distant age and climate, the tragic scene of thedeath of Hosein will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader. [179][1791] On the annual festival of his martyrdom, in the devout pilgrimageto his sepulchre, his Persian votaries abandon their souls to thereligious frenzy of sorrow and indignation. [180]

[Footnote 1781: According to Major Price's authorities a much longertime elapsed (p. 198 &c. )--M. ]

[Footnote 179: I have abridged the interesting narrative of Ockley, (tom. Ii. P. 170-231. ) It is long and minute: but the pathetic, almostalways, consists in the detail of little circumstances. ]

[Footnote 1791: The account of Hosein's death, in the Persian TarikhTebry, is much longer; in some circumstances, more pathetic, than thatof Ockley, followed by Gibbon. His family, after his defenders were allslain, perished in succession before his eyes. They had been cut offfrom the water, and suffered all the agonies of thirst. His eldest son, Ally Akbar, after ten different assaults on the enemy, in each of whichhe slew two or three, complained bitterly of his sufferings from heatand thirst. "His father arose, and introducing his own tongue withinthe parched lips of his favorite child, thus endeavored to alleviate hissufferings by the only means of which his enemies had not yet been ableto deprive him. " Ally was slain and cut to pieces in his sight: thiswrung from him his first and only cry; then it was that his sisterZeyneb rushed from the tent. The rest, including his nephew, fell insuccession. Hosein's horse was wounded--he fell to the ground. The hourof prayer, between noon and sunset, had arrived; the Imaun began thereligious duties:--as Hosein prayed, he heard the cries of his infantchild Abdallah, only twelve months old. The child was, at his desire, placed on his bosom: as he wept over it, it was transfixed by an arrow. Hosein dragged himself to the Euphrates: as he slaked his burningthirst, his mouth was pierced by an arrow: he drank his own blood. Wounded in four-and-thirty places, he still gallantly resisted. Asoldier named Zeraiah gave the fatal wound: his head was cut off byZiliousheng. Price, p. 402, 410. --M. ]

[Footnote 180: Niebuhr the Dane (Voyages en Arabie, &c. , tom. Ii. P. 208, &c. ) is, perhaps, the only European traveller who has dared tovisit Meshed Ali and Meshed Hosein. The two sepulchres are in the handsof the Turks, who tolerate and tax the devotion of the Persian heretics. The festival of the death of Hosein is amply described by Sir JohnChardin, a traveller whom I have often praised. ]

When the sisters and children of Ali were brought in chains to thethrone of Damascus, the caliph was advised to extirpate the enmity ofa popular and hostile race, whom he had injured beyond the hope ofreconciliation. But Yezid preferred the councils of mercy; and themourning family was honorably dismissed to mingle their tears withtheir kindred at Medina. The glory of martyrdom superseded the right ofprimogeniture; and the twelve imams, [181] or pontiffs, of the Persiancreed, are Ali, Hassan, Hosein, and the lineal descendants of Hoseinto the ninth generation. Without arms, or treasures, or subjects, theysuccessively enjoyed the veneration of the people, and provoked thejealousy of the reigning caliphs: their tombs, at Mecca or Medina, onthe banks of the Euphrates, or in the province of Chorasan, are stillvisited by the devotion of their sect. Their names were often thepretence of sedition and civil war; but these royal saints despised thepomp of the world: submitted to the will of God and the injustice ofman; and devoted their innocent lives to the study and practice ofreligion. The twelfth and last of the Imams, conspicuous by the titleof Mahadi, or the Guide, surpassed the solitude and sanctity of hispredecessors. He concealed himself in a cavern near Bagdad: the time andplace of his death are unknown; and his votaries pretend that he stilllives, and will appear before the day of judgment to overthrow thetyranny of Dejal, or the Antichrist. [182] In the lapse of two or threecenturies, the posterity of Abbas, the uncle of Mahomet, had multipliedto the number of thirty-three thousand: [183] the race of Ali mightbe equally prolific: the meanest individual was above the first andgreatest of princes; and the most eminent were supposed to excel theperfection of angels. But their adverse fortune, and the wide extent ofthe Mussulman empire, allowed an ample scope for every bold and artfulimposture, who claimed affinity with the holy seed: the sceptre of theAlmohades, in Spain and Africa; of the Fatimites, in Egypt and Syria;[184] of the Sultans of Yemen; and of the Sophis of Persia; [185] hasbeen consecrated by this vague and ambiguous title. Under their reignsit might be dangerous to dispute the legitimacy of their birth; and oneof the Fatimite caliphs silenced an indiscreet question by drawinghis cimeter: "This, " said Moez, "is my pedigree; and these, " castinga handful of gold to his soldiers, --"and these are my kindred and mychildren. " In the various conditions of princes, or doctors, ornobles, or merchants, or beggars, a swarm of the genuine or fictitiousdescendants of Mahomet and Ali is honored with the appellationof sheiks, or sherifs, or emirs. In the Ottoman empire they aredistinguished by a green turban; receive a stipend from the treasury;are judged only by their chief; and, however debased by fortune orcharacter, still assert the proud preeminence of their birth. A familyof three hundred persons, the pure and orthodox branch of the caliphHassan, is preserved without taint or suspicion in the holy cities ofMecca and Medina, and still retains, after the revolutions of twelvecenturies, the custody of the temple, and the sovereignty of theirnative land. The fame and merit of Mahomet would ennoble a plebeianrace, and the ancient blood of the Koreish transcends the recent majestyof the kings of the earth. [186]

[Footnote 181: The general article of Imam, in D'Herbelot'sBibliotheque, will indicate the succession; and the lives of the twelveare given under their respective names. ]

[Footnote 182: The name of Antichrist may seem ridiculous, but theMahometans have liberally borrowed the fables of every religion, (Sale'sPreliminary Discourse, p. 80, 82. ) In the royal stable of Ispahan, twohorses were always kept saddled, one for the Mahadi himself, the otherfor his lieutenant, Jesus the son of Mary. ]

[Footnote 183: In the year of the Hegira 200, (A. D. 815. ) SeeD'Herbelot, p. 146]

[Footnote 184: D'Herbelot, p. 342. The enemies of the Fatimitesdisgraced them by a Jewish origin. Yet they accurately deduced theirgenealogy from Jaafar, the sixth Imam; and the impartial Abulfedaallows (Annal. Moslem. P. 230) that they were owned by many, qui absquecontroversia genuini sunt Alidarum, homines propaginum suae gentisexacte callentes. He quotes some lines from the celebrated Scherif orRahdi, Egone humilitatem induam in terris hostium? (I suspect him tobe an Edrissite of Sicily, ) cum in Aegypto sit Chalifa de gente Alii, quocum ego communem habeo patrem et vindicem. ]

[Footnote 185: The kings of Persia in the last century are descendedfrom Sheik Sefi, a saint of the xivth century, and through him, fromMoussa Cassem, the son of Hosein, the son of Ali, (Olearius, p. 957. Chardin, tom. Iii. P. 288. ) But I cannot trace the intermediate degreesin any genuine or fabulous pedigree. If they were truly Fatimites, theymight draw their origin from the princes of Mazanderan, who reigned inthe ixth century, (D'Herbelot, p. 96. )]

[Footnote 186: The present state of the family of Mahomet and Ali ismost accurately described by Demetrius Cantemir (Hist. Of the OthmaeEmpire, p. 94) and Niebuhr, (Description de l'Arabie, p. 9-16, 317&c. ) It is much to be lamented, that the Danish traveller was unable topurchase the chronicles of Arabia. ]

The talents of Mahomet are entitled to our applause; but his successhas, perhaps, too strongly attracted our admiration. Are we surprisedthat a multitude of proselytes should embrace the doctrine and thepassions of an eloquent fanatic? In the heresies of the church, the sameseduction has been tried and repeated from the time of the apostles tothat of the reformers. Does it seem incredible that a private citizenshould grasp the sword and the sceptre, subdue his native country, anderect a monarchy by his victorious arms? In the moving picture of thedynasties of the East, a hundred fortunate usurpers have arisen from abaser origin, surmounted more formidable obstacles, and filled a largerscope of empire and conquest. Mahomet was alike instructed to preach andto fight; and the union of these opposite qualities, while it enhancedhis merit, contributed to his success: the operation of force andpersuasion, of enthusiasm and fear, continually acted on each other, till every barrier yielded to their irresistible power. His voiceinvited the Arabs to freedom and victory, to arms and rapine, to theindulgence of their darling passions in this world and the other: therestraints which he imposed were requisite to establish the credit ofthe prophet, and to exercise the obedience of the people; and theonly objection to his success was his rational creed of the unity andperfections of God. It is not the propagation, but the permanency, of his religion, that deserves our wonder: the same pure and perfectimpression which he engraved at Mecca and Medina, is preserved, afterthe revolutions of twelve centuries, by the Indian, the African, and theTurkish proselytes of the Koran. If the Christian apostles, St. Peter orSt. Paul, could return to the Vatican, they might possibly inquire thename of the Deity who is worshipped with such mysterious rites in thatmagnificent temple: at Oxford or Geneva, they would experience lesssurprise; but it might still be incumbent on them to peruse thecatechism of the church, and to study the orthodox commentators on theirown writings and the words of their Master. But the Turkish dome of St. Sophia, with an increase of splendor and size, represents the humbletabernacle erected at Medina by the hands of Mahomet. The Mahometanshave uniformly withstood the temptation of reducing the object of theirfaith and devotion to a level with the senses and imagination of man. "Ibelieve in one God, and Mahomet the apostle of God, " is the simple andinvariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity hasnever been degraded by any visible idol; the honors of the prophet havenever transgressed the measure of human virtue; and his living preceptshave restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds ofreason and religion. The votaries of Ali have, indeed, consecratedthe memory of their hero, his wife, and his children; and some of thePersian doctors pretend that the divine essence was incarnate in theperson of the Imams; but their superstition is universally condemnedby the Sonnites; and their impiety has afforded a seasonable warningagainst the worship of saints and martyrs. The metaphysical questions onthe attributes of God, and the liberty of man, have been agitated in theschools of the Mahometans, as well as in those of the Christians; butamong the former they have never engaged the passions of the people, or disturbed the tranquillity of the state. The cause of this importantdifference may be found in the separation or union of the regaland sacerdotal characters. It was the interest of the caliphs, thesuccessors of the prophet and commanders of the faithful, to repressand discourage all religious innovations: the order, the discipline, the temporal and spiritual ambition of the clergy, are unknown to theMoslems; and the sages of the law are the guides of their conscience andthe oracles of their faith. From the Atlantic to the Ganges, the Koranis acknowledged as the fundamental code, not only of theology, butof civil and criminal jurisprudence; and the laws which regulate theactions and the property of mankind are guarded by the infallible andimmutable sanction of the will of God. This religious servitude isattended with some practical disadvantage; the illiterate legislator hadbeen often misled by his own prejudices and those of his country; andthe institutions of the Arabian desert may be ill adapted to the wealthand numbers of Ispahan and Constantinople. On these occasions, theCadhi respectfully places on his head the holy volume, and substitutes adexterous interpretation more apposite to the principles of equity, andthe manners and policy of the times. 

His beneficial or pernicious influence on the public happiness is thelast consideration in the character of Mahomet. The most bitter ormost bigoted of his Christian or Jewish foes will surely allow thathe assumed a false commission to inculcate a salutary doctrine, lessperfect only than their own. He piously supposed, as the basis of hisreligion, the truth and sanctity of their prior revolutions, the virtuesand miracles of their founders. The idols of Arabia were broken beforethe throne of God; the blood of human victims was expiated by prayer, and fasting, and alms, the laudable or innocent arts of devotion; andhis rewards and punishments of a future life were painted by the imagesmost congenial to an ignorant and carnal generation. Mahomet was, perhaps, incapable of dictating a moral and political system for theuse of his countrymen: but he breathed among the faithful a spirit ofcharity and friendship; recommended the practice of the social virtues;and checked, by his laws and precepts, the thirst of revenge, and theoppression of widows and orphans. The hostile tribes were united infaith and obedience, and the valor which had been idly spent in domesticquarrels was vigorously directed against a foreign enemy. Had theimpulse been less powerful, Arabia, free at home and formidable abroad, might have flourished under a succession of her native monarchs. Her sovereignty was lost by the extent and rapidity of conquest. Thecolonies of the nation were scattered over the East and West, and theirblood was mingled with the blood of their converts and captives. Afterthe reign of three caliphs, the throne was transported from Medina tothe valley of Damascus and the banks of the Tigris; the holy citieswere violated by impious war; Arabia was ruled by the rod of a subject, perhaps of a stranger; and the Bedoweens of the desert, awakening fromtheir dream of dominion, resumed their old and solitary independence. [187]

[Footnote 187: The writers of the Modern Universal History (vols. I. And ii. ) have compiled, in 850 folio pages, the life of Mahomet andthe annals of the caliphs. They enjoyed the advantage of reading, and sometimes correcting, the Arabic text; yet, notwithstanding theirhigh-sounding boasts, I cannot find, after the conclusion of my work, that they have afforded me much (if any) additional information. Thedull mass is not quickened by a spark of philosophy or taste; andthe compilers indulge the criticism of acrimonious bigotry againstBoulainvilliers, Sale, Gagnier, and all who have treated Mahomet withfavor, or even justice. ]

Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs. --Part I. 

 The Conquest Of Persia, Syria, Egypt, Africa, And Spain, By The Arabs Or Saracens. --Empire Of The Caliphs, Or Successors Of Mahomet. --State Of The Christians, &c. , Under Their Government. 

The revolution of Arabia had not changed the character of the Arabs: thedeath of Mahomet was the signal of independence; and the hasty structureof his power and religion tottered to its foundations. A small andfaithful band of his primitive disciples had listened to his eloquence, and shared his distress; had fled with the apostle from the persecutionof Mecca, or had received the fugitive in the walls of Medina. Theincreasing myriads, who acknowledged Mahomet as their king and prophet, had been compelled by his arms, or allured by his prosperity. Thepolytheists were confounded by the simple idea of a solitary andinvisible God; the pride of the Christians and Jews disdained theyoke of a mortal and contemporary legislator. The habits of faith andobedience were not sufficiently confirmed; and many of the new convertsregretted the venerable antiquity of the law of Moses, or the ritesand mysteries of the Catholic church; or the idols, the sacrifices, thejoyous festivals, of their Pagan ancestors. The jarring interests andhereditary feuds of the Arabian tribes had not yet coalesced in a systemof union and subordination; and the Barbarians were impatient of themildest and most salutary laws that curbed their passions, or violatedtheir customs. They submitted with reluctance to the religious preceptsof the Koran, the abstinence from wine, the fast of the Ramadan, and thedaily repetition of five prayers; and the alms and tithes, which werecollected for the treasury of Medina, could be distinguished only bya name from the payment of a perpetual and ignominious tribute. Theexample of Mahomet had excited a spirit of fanaticism or imposture, and several of his rivals presumed to imitate the conduct, and defythe authority, of the living prophet. At the head of the fugitivesand auxiliaries, the first caliph was reduced to the cities of Mecca, Medina, and Tayef; and perhaps the Koreish would have restored theidols of the Caaba, if their levity had not been checked by a seasonablereproof. "Ye men of Mecca, will ye be the last to embrace, and thefirst to abandon, the religion of Islam?" After exhorting the Moslemsto confide in the aid of God and his apostle, Abubeker resolved, by avigorous attack, to prevent the junction of the rebels. The womenand children were safely lodged in the cavities of the mountains: thewarriors, marching under eleven banners, diffused the terror of theirarms; and the appearance of a military force revived and confirmed theloyalty of the faithful. The inconstant tribes accepted, with humblerepentance, the duties of prayer, and fasting, and alms; and, aftersome examples of success and severity, the most daring apostates fellprostrate before the sword of the Lord and of Caled. In the fertileprovince of Yemanah, [1] between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Persia, in a city not inferior to Medina itself, a powerful chief (his namewas Moseilama) had assumed the character of a prophet, and the tribe ofHanifa listened to his voice. A female prophetess [1111] was attractedby his reputation; the decencies of words and actions were spurned bythese favorites of Heaven; [2] and they employed several days in mysticand amorous converse. An obscure sentence of his Koran, or book, is yetextant; [3] and in the pride of his mission, Moseilama condescended tooffer a partition of the earth. The proposal was answered by Mahometwith contempt; but the rapid progress of the impostor awakened thefears of his successor: forty thousand Moslems were assembled under thestandard of Caled; and the existence of their faith was resigned tothe event of a decisive battle. [3111] In the first action theywere repulsed by the loss of twelve hundred men; but the skill andperseverance of their general prevailed; their defeat was avenged by theslaughter of ten thousand infidels; and Moseilama himself was pierced byan Aethiopian slave with the same javelin which had mortally woundedthe uncle of Mahomet. The various rebels of Arabia without a chief ora cause, were speedily suppressed by the power and discipline ofthe rising monarchy; and the whole nation again professed, and moresteadfastly held, the religion of the Koran. The ambition of the caliphsprovided an immediate exercise for the restless spirit of the Saracens:their valor was united in the prosecution of a holy war; and theirenthusiasm was equally confirmed by opposition and victory. 

[Footnote 1: See the description of the city and country of Al Yamanah, in Abulfeda, Descript. Arabiae, p. 60, 61. In the xiiith century, therewere some ruins, and a few palms; but in the present century, the sameground is occupied by the visions and arms of a modern prophet, whosetenets are imperfectly known, (Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie, p. 296-302. )]

[Footnote 1111: This extraordinary woman was a Christian; she was atthe head of a numerous and flourishing sect; Moseilama professed torecognize her inspiration. In a personal interview he proposed theirmarriage and the union of their sects. The handsome person, theimpassioned eloquence, and the arts of Moseilama, triumphed over thevirtue of the prophetesa who was rejected with scorn by her lover, andby her notorious unchastity ost her influence with her own followers. Gibbon, with that propensity too common, especially in his latervolumes, has selected only the grosser part of this singularadventure. --M. ]

[Footnote 2: The first salutation may be transcribed, but cannot betranslated. It was thus that Moseilama said or sung:--

 Surge tandem itaque strenue permolenda; nam stratus tibi thorus est. Aut in propatulo tentorio si velis, aut in abditiore cubiculo si malis; Aut supinam te humi exporrectam fustigabo, si velis, Aut si malis manibus pedibusque nixam. Aut si velis ejus (Priapi) gemino triente aut si malis totus veniam. Imo, totus venito, O Apostole Dei, clamabat foemina. Id ipsum, dicebat Moseilama, mihi quoque suggessit Deus. 

The prophetess Segjah, after the fall of her lover, returned toidolatry; but under the reign of Moawiyah, she became a Mussulman, anddied at Bassora, (Abulfeda, Annal. Vers. Reiske, p. 63. )]

[Footnote 3: See this text, which demonstrates a God from the work ofgeneration, in Abulpharagius (Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 13, and Dynast. P. 103) and Abulfeda, (Annal. P. 63. )]

[Footnote 3111: Compare a long account of this battle in Price, p. 42. --M. ]

From the rapid conquests of the Saracens a presumption will naturallyarise, that the caliphs [311] commanded in person the armies of thefaithful, and sought the crown of martyrdom in the foremost ranks ofthe battle. The courage of Abubeker, [4] Omar, [5] and Othman, [6] hadindeed been tried in the persecution and wars of the prophet; and thepersonal assurance of paradise must have taught them to despise thepleasures and dangers of the present world. But they ascended thethrone in a venerable or mature age; and esteemed the domestic cares ofreligion and justice the most important duties of a sovereign. Except the presence of Omar at the siege of Jerusalem, their longestexpeditions were the frequent pilgrimage from Medina to Mecca; and theycalmly received the tidings of victory as they prayed or preached beforethe sepulchre of the prophet. The austere and frugal measure oftheir lives was the effect of virtue or habit, and the pride of theirsimplicity insulted the vain magnificence of the kings of the earth. When Abubeker assumed the office of caliph, he enjoined his daughterAyesha to take a strict account of his private patrimony, that it mightbe evident whether he were enriched or impoverished by the service ofthe state. He thought himself entitled to a stipend of three piecesof gold, with the sufficient maintenance of a single camel and a blackslave; but on the Friday of each week he distributed the residue of hisown and the public money, first to the most worthy, and then to the mostindigent, of the Moslems. The remains of his wealth, a coarse garment, and five pieces of gold, were delivered to his successor, who lamentedwith a modest sigh his own inability to equal such an admirable model. Yet the abstinence and humility of Omar were not inferior to the virtuesof Abubeker: his food consisted of barley bread or dates; his drink waswater; he preached in a gown that was torn or tattered in twelve places;and the Persian satrap, who paid his homage to the conqueror, found himasleep among the beggars on the steps of the mosch of Medina. Oeeconomyis the source of liberality, and the increase of the revenue enabledOmar to establish a just and perpetual reward for the past and presentservices of the faithful. Careless of his own emolument, he assigned toAbbas, the uncle of the prophet, the first and most ample allowance oftwenty-five thousand drachms or pieces of silver. Five thousand wereallotted to each of the aged warriors, the relics of the field of Beder;and the last and meanest of the companions of Mahomet was distinguishedby the annual reward of three thousand pieces. One thousand was thestipend of the veterans who had fought in the first battles against theGreeks and Persians; and the decreasing pay, as low as fifty piecesof silver, was adapted to the respective merit and seniority of thesoldiers of Omar. Under his reign, and that of his predecessor, theconquerors of the East were the trusty servants of God and the people;the mass of the public treasure was consecrated to the expenses ofpeace and war; a prudent mixture of justice and bounty maintained thediscipline of the Saracens, and they united, by a rare felicity, thedespatch and execution of despotism with the equal and frugal maxims ofa republican government. The heroic courage of Ali, [7] the consummateprudence of Moawiyah, [8] excited the emulation of their subjects; andthe talents which had been exercised in the school of civil discordwere more usefully applied to propagate the faith and dominion ofthe prophet. In the sloth and vanity of the palace of Damascus, thesucceeding princes of the house of Ommiyah were alike destitute of thequalifications of statesmen and of saints. [9] Yet the spoils of unknownnations were continually laid at the foot of their throne, and theuniform ascent of the Arabian greatness must be ascribed to the spiritof the nation rather than the abilities of their chiefs. A largededuction must be allowed for the weakness of their enemies. The birthof Mahomet was fortunately placed in the most degenerate and disorderlyperiod of the Persians, the Romans, and the Barbarians of Europe: theempires of Trajan, or even of Constantine or Charlemagne, wouldhave repelled the assault of the naked Saracens, and the torrent offanaticism might have been obscurely lost in the sands of Arabia. 

[Footnote 311: In Arabic, "successors. " V. Hammer Geschichte der Assas. P. 14--M. ]

[Footnote 4: His reign in Eutychius, tom. Ii. P. 251. Elmacin, p. 18. Abulpharagius, p. 108. Abulfeda, p. 60. D'Herbelot, p. 58. ]

[Footnote 5: His reign in Eutychius, p. 264. Elmacin, p. 24. Abulpharagius, p. 110. Abulfeda, p. 66. D'Herbelot, p. 686. ]

[Footnote 6: His reign in Eutychius, p. 323. Elmacin, p. 36. Abulpharagius, p. 115. Abulfeda, p. 75. D'Herbelot, p. 695. ]

[Footnote 7: His reign in Eutychius, p. 343. Elmacin, p. 51. Abulpharagius, p. 117. Abulfeda, p. 83. D'Herbelot, p. 89. ]

[Footnote 8: His reign in Eutychius, p. 344. Elmacin, p. 54. Abulpharagius, p. 123. Abulfeda, p. 101. D'Herbelot, p. 586. ]

[Footnote 9: Their reigns in Eutychius, tom. Ii. P. 360-395. Elmacin, p. 59-108. Abulpharagius, Dynast. Ix. P. 124-139. Abulfeda, p. 111-141. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 691, and the particulararticles of the Ommiades. ]

In the victorious days of the Roman republic, it had been the aim ofthe senate to confine their councils and legions to a single war, and completely to suppress a first enemy before they provoked thehostilities of a second. These timid maxims of policy were disdainedby the magnanimity or enthusiasm of the Arabian caliphs. With the samevigor and success they invaded the successors of Augustus and those ofArtaxerxes; and the rival monarchies at the same instant became the preyof an enemy whom they had been so long accustomed to despise. In theten years of the administration of Omar, the Saracens reduced to hisobedience thirty-six thousand cities or castles, destroyed four thousandchurches or temples of the unbelievers, and edified fourteen hundredmoschs for the exercise of the religion of Mahomet. One hundred yearsafter his flight from Mecca, the arms and the reign of his successorsextended from India to the Atlantic Ocean, over the various and distantprovinces, which may be comprised under the names of, I. Persia;II. Syria; III. Egypt; IV. Africa; and, V. Spain. Under this generaldivision, I shall proceed to unfold these memorable transactions;despatching with brevity the remote and less interesting conquests ofthe East, and reserving a fuller narrative for those domestic countrieswhich had been included within the pale of the Roman empire. Yet Imust excuse my own defects by a just complaint of the blindness andinsufficiency of my guides. The Greeks, so loquacious in controversy, have not been anxious to celebrate the triumphs of their enemies. [10]After a century of ignorance, the first annals of the Mussulmans werecollected in a great measure from the voice of tradition. [11] Amongthe numerous productions of Arabic and Persian literature, [12] ourinterpreters have selected the imperfect sketches of a more recentage. [13] The art and genius of history have ever been unknown to theAsiatics; [14] they are ignorant of the laws of criticism; and ourmonkish chronicle of the same period may be compared to their mostpopular works, which are never vivified by the spirit of philosophy andfreedom. 

The Oriental library of a Frenchman [15] would instruct the most learnedmufti of the East; and perhaps the Arabs might not find in a singlehistorian so clear and comprehensive a narrative of their own exploitsas that which will be deduced in the ensuing sheets. 

[Footnote 10: For the viith and viiith century, we have scarcely anyoriginal evidence of the Byzantine historians, except the chronicles ofTheophanes (Theophanis Confessoris Chronographia, Gr. Et Lat. Cum notisJacobi Goar. Paris, 1665, in folio) and the Abridgment of Nicephorus, (Nicephori Patriarchae C. P. Breviarium Historicum, Gr. Et Lat. Paris, 1648, in folio, ) who both lived in the beginning of the ixth century, (see Hanckius de Scriptor. Byzant. P. 200-246. ) Their contemporary, Photius, does not seem to be more opulent. After praising the style ofNicephorus, he adds, and only complains of his extreme brevity, (Phot. Bibliot. Cod. Lxvi. P. 100. ) Some additions may be gleaned from the morerecent histories of Cedrenus and Zonaras of the xiith century. ]

[Footnote 11: Tabari, or Al Tabari, a native of Taborestan, a famousImam of Bagdad, and the Livy of the Arabians, finished his generalhistory in the year of the Hegira 302, (A. D. 914. ) At the request of hisfriends, he reduced a work of 30, 000 sheets to a more reasonablesize. But his Arabic original is known only by the Persian and Turkishversions. The Saracenic history of Ebn Amid, or Elmacin, is said to bean abridgment of the great Tabari, (Ockley's Hist. Of the Saracens, vol. Ii. Preface, p. Xxxix. And list of authors, D'Herbelot, p. 866, 870, 1014. )]

[Footnote 12: Besides the list of authors framed by Prideaux, (Life ofMahomet, p. 179-189, ) Ockley, (at the end of his second volume, ) andPetit de la Croix, (Hist. De Gengiscan, p. 525-550, ) we find in theBibliotheque Orientale Tarikh, a catalogue of two or three hundredhistories or chronicles of the East, of which not more than three orfour are older than Tabari. A lively sketch of Oriental literature isgiven by Reiske, (in his Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalifae librummemorialem ad calcem Abulfedae Tabulae Syriae, Lipsiae, 1776;) but hisproject and the French version of Petit de la Croix (Hist. De Timur Bec, tom. I. Preface, p. Xlv. ) have fallen to the ground. ]

[Footnote 13: The particular historians and geographers will beoccasionally introduced. The four following titles represent the Annalswhich have guided me in this general narrative. 1. Annales Eutychii, Patriarchoe Alexandrini, ab Edwardo Pocockio, Oxon. 1656, 2 vols. In4to. A pompous edition of an indifferent author, translated by Pocockto gratify the Presbyterian prejudices of his friend Selden. 2. HistoriaSaracenica Georgii Elmacini, opera et studio Thomae Erpenii, in 4to. , Lugd. Batavorum, 1625. He is said to have hastily translated a corruptMs. , and his version is often deficient in style and sense. 3. Historiacompendiosa Dynastiarum a Gregorio Abulpharagio, interprete EdwardoPocockio, in 4to. , Oxon. 1663. More useful for the literary than thecivil history of the East. 4. Abulfedoe Annales Moslemici ad Ann. Hegiroe ccccvi. A Jo. Jac. Reiske, in 4to. , Lipsioe, 1754. The best ofour chronicles, both for the original and version, yet how far below thename of Abulfeda! We know that he wrote at Hamah in the xivth century. The three former were Christians of the xth, xiith, and xiiithcenturies; the two first, natives of Egypt; a Melchite patriarch, and aJacobite scribe. ]

[Footnote 14: M. D. Guignes (Hist. Des Huns, tom. I. Pref. P. Xix. Xx. )has characterized, with truth and knowledge, the two sorts of Arabianhistorians--the dry annalist, and the tumid and flowery orator. ]

[Footnote 15: Bibliotheque Orientale, par M. D'Herbelot, in folio, Paris, 1697. For the character of the respectable author, consult hisfriend Thevenot, (Voyages du Levant, part i. Chap. 1. ) His work is anagreeable miscellany, which must gratify every taste; but I never candigest the alphabetical order; and I find him more satisfactory in thePersian than the Arabic history. The recent supplement from the papersof Mm. Visdelou, and Galland, (in folio, La Haye, 1779, ) is of adifferent cast, a medley of tales, proverbs, and Chinese antiquities. ]

I. In the first year of the first caliph, his lieutenant Caled, theSword of God, and the scourge of the infidels, advanced to the banks ofthe Euphrates, and reduced the cities of Anbar and Hira. Westward of theruins of Babylon, a tribe of sedentary Arabs had fixed themselves on theverge of the desert; and Hira was the seat of a race of kings who hadembraced the Christian religion, and reigned above six hundred yearsunder the shadow of the throne of Persia. [16] The last of the Mondars[1611] was defeated and slain by Caled; his son was sent a captive toMedina; his nobles bowed before the successor of the prophet; the peoplewas tempted by the example and success of their countrymen; and thecaliph accepted as the first-fruits of foreign conquest an annualtribute of seventy thousand pieces of gold. The conquerors, and eventheir historians, were astonished by the dawn of their future greatness:"In the same year, " says Elmacin, "Caled fought many signal battles: animmense multitude of the infidels was slaughtered; and spoils infiniteand innumerable were acquired by the victorious Moslems. " [17] But theinvincible Caled was soon transferred to the Syrian war: the invasionof the Persian frontier was conducted by less active or less prudentcommanders: the Saracens were repulsed with loss in the passage ofthe Euphrates; and, though they chastised the insolent pursuit of theMagians, their remaining forces still hovered in the desert of Babylon. [1711]

[Footnote 16: Pocock will explain the chronology, (Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 66-74, ) and D'Anville the geography, (l'Euphrate, et leTigre, p. 125, ) of the dynasty of the Almondars. The English scholarunderstood more Arabic than the mufti of Aleppo, (Ockley, vol. Ii. P. 34: ) the French geographer is equally at home in every age and everyclimate of the world. ]

[Footnote 1611: Eichhorn and Silvestre de Sacy have written on theobscure history of the Mondars. --M. ]

[Footnote 17: Fecit et Chaled plurima in hoc anno praelia, in quibusvicerunt Muslimi, et infidelium immensa multitudine occisa spoliainfinita et innumera sunt nacti, (Hist. Saracenica, p. 20. ) TheChristian annalist slides into the national and compendious term ofinfidels, and I often adopt (I hope without scandal) this characteristicmode of expression. ]

[Footnote 1711: Compare throughout Malcolm, vol. Ii. P. 136. --M. ]

The indignation and fears of the Persians suspended for a moment theirintestine divisions. By the unanimous sentence of the priests andnobles, their queen Arzema was deposed; the sixth of the transientusurpers, who had arisen and vanished in three or four years since thedeath of Chosroes, and the retreat of Heraclius. Her tiara was placedon the head of Yezdegerd, the grandson of Chosroes; and the same aera, which coincides with an astronomical period, [18] has recorded the fallof the Sassanian dynasty and the religion of Zoroaster. [19] The youthand inexperience of the prince (he was only fifteen years of age)declined a perilous encounter: the royal standard was delivered into thehands of his general Rustam; and a remnant of thirty thousand regulartroops was swelled in truth, or in opinion, to one hundred and twentythousand subjects, or allies, of the great king. The Moslems, whosenumbers were reenforced from twelve to thirty thousand, had pitchedtheir camp in the plains of Cadesia: [20] and their line, though itconsisted of fewer men, could produce more soldiers, than the unwieldyhost of the infidels. I shall here observe, what I must often repeat, that the charge of the Arabs was not, like that of the Greeks andRomans, the effort of a firm and compact infantry: their military forcewas chiefly formed of cavalry and archers; and the engagement, whichwas often interrupted and often renewed by single combats and flyingskirmishes, might be protracted without any decisive event to thecontinuance of several days. The periods of the battle of Cadesiawere distinguished by their peculiar appellations. The first, fromthe well-timed appearance of six thousand of the Syrian brethren, wasdenominated the day of succor. The day of concussion might expressthe disorder of one, or perhaps of both, of the contending armies. Thethird, a nocturnal tumult, received the whimsical name of the nightof barking, from the discordant clamors, which were compared tothe inarticulate sounds of the fiercest animals. The morning of thesucceeding day [2011] determined the fate of Persia; and a seasonablewhirlwind drove a cloud of dust against the faces of the unbelievers. The clangor of arms was reechoed to the tent of Rustam, who, farunlike the ancient hero of his name, was gently reclining in a cool andtranquil shade, amidst the baggage of his camp, and the train of mulesthat were laden with gold and silver. On the sound of danger he startedfrom his couch; but his flight was overtaken by a valiant Arab, whocaught him by the foot, struck off his head, hoisted it on a lance, andinstantly returning to the field of battle, carried slaughter and dismayamong the thickest ranks of the Persians. The Saracens confess a lossof seven thousand five hundred men; [2012] and the battle of Cadesia isjustly described by the epithets of obstinate and atrocious. [21] Thestandard of the monarchy was overthrown and captured in the field--aleathern apron of a blacksmith, who in ancient times had arisen thedeliverer of Persia; but this badge of heroic poverty was disguised, and almost concealed, by a profusion of precious gems. [22] After thisvictory, the wealthy province of Irak, or Assyria, submitted tothe caliph, and his conquests were firmly established by the speedyfoundation of Bassora, [23] a place which ever commands the trade andnavigation of the Persians. As the distance of fourscore miles fromthe Gulf, the Euphrates and Tigris unite in a broad and direct current, which is aptly styled the river of the Arabs. In the midway, between thejunction and the mouth of these famous streams, the new settlement wasplanted on the western bank: the first colony was composed of eighthundred Moslems; but the influence of the situation soon reared aflourishing and populous capital. The air, though excessively hot, ispure and healthy: the meadows are filled with palm-trees and cattle; andone of the adjacent valleys has been celebrated among the four paradisesor gardens of Asia. Under the first caliphs the jurisdiction of thisArabian colony extended over the southern provinces of Persia: the cityhas been sanctified by the tombs of the companions and martyrs; and thevessels of Europe still frequent the port of Bassora, as a convenientstation and passage of the Indian trade. 

[Footnote 18: A cycle of 120 years, the end of which an intercalarymonth of 30 days supplied the use of our Bissextile, and restored theintegrity of the solar year. In a great revolution of 1440 years thisintercalation was successively removed from the first to the twelfthmonth; but Hyde and Freret are involved in a profound controversy, whether the twelve, or only eight of these changes were accomplishedbefore the aera of Yezdegerd, which is unanimously fixed to the 16thof June, A. D. 632. How laboriously does the curious spirit of Europeexplore the darkest and most distant antiquities! (Hyde de ReligionePersarum, c. 14-18, p. 181-211. Freret in the Mem. De l'Academie desInscriptions, tom. Xvi. P. 233-267. )]

[Footnote 19: Nine days after the death of Mahomet (7th June, A. D. 632)we find the aera of Yezdegerd, (16th June, A. D. 632, ) and his accessioncannot be postponed beyond the end of the first year. His predecessorscould not therefore resist the arms of the caliph Omar; and theseunquestionable dates overthrow the thoughtless chronology ofAbulpharagius. See Ockley's Hist. Of the Saracens, vol. I. P. 130. *Note: The Rezont Uzzuffa (Price, p. 105) has a strange account of anembassy to Yezdegerd. The Oriental historians take great delight inthese embassies, which give them an opportunity of displaying theirAsiatic eloquence--M. ]

[Footnote 20: Cadesia, says the Nubian geographer, (p. 121, ) is inmargine solitudinis, 61 leagues from Bagdad, and two stations from Cufa. Otter (Voyage, tom. I. P. 163) reckons 15 leagues, and observes, thatthe place is supplied with dates and water. ]

[Footnote 2011: The day of cormorants, or according to another readingthe day of reinforcements. It was the night which was called the nightof snarling. Price, p. 114. --M. ]

[Footnote 2012: According to Malcolm's authorities, only three thousand;but he adds "This is the report of Mahomedan historians, who have agreat disposition of the wonderful, in relating the first actions of thefaithful" Vol. I. P. 39. --M. ]

[Footnote 21: Atrox, contumax, plus semel renovatum, are the well-chosenexpressions of the translator of Abulfeda, (Reiske, p. 69. )]

[Footnote 22: D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 297, 348. ]

[Footnote 23: The reader may satisfy himself on the subject of Bassoraby consulting the following writers: Geograph, Nubiens. P. 121. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 192. D'Anville, l'Euphrate etle Tigre, p. 130, 133, 145. Raynal, Hist. Philosophique des deuxIndes, tom. Ii. P. 92-100. Voyages di Pietro della Valle, tom. Iv. P. 370-391. De Tavernier, tom. I. P. 240-247. De Thevenot, tom. Ii. P. 545-584. D Otter, tom. Ii. P. 45-78. De Niebuhr, tom. Ii. P. 172-199. ]

Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs. --Part II. 

After the defeat of Cadesia, a country intersected by rivers and canalsmight have opposed an insuperable barrier to the victorious cavalry; andthe walls of Ctesiphon or Madayn, which had resisted the battering-ramsof the Romans, would not have yielded to the darts of the Saracens. Butthe flying Persians were overcome by the belief, that the last dayof their religion and empire was at hand; the strongest posts wereabandoned by treachery or cowardice; and the king, with a part of hisfamily and treasures, escaped to Holwan at the foot of the Median hills. 

In the third month after the battle, Said, the lieutenant of Omar, passed the Tigris without opposition; the capital was taken by assault;and the disorderly resistance of the people gave a keener edge to thesabres of the Moslems, who shouted with religious transport, "This isthe white palace of Chosroes; this is the promise of the apostle ofGod!" The naked robbers of the desert were suddenly enriched beyond themeasure of their hope or knowledge. Each chamber revealed a new treasuresecreted with art, or ostentatiously displayed; the gold and silver, thevarious wardrobes and precious furniture, surpassed (says Abulfeda) theestimate of fancy or numbers; and another historian defines the untoldand almost infinite mass, by the fabulous computation of three thousandsof thousands of thousands of pieces of gold. [24] Some minute thoughcurious facts represent the contrast of riches and ignorance. From theremote islands of the Indian Ocean a large provision of camphire [25]had been imported, which is employed with a mixture of wax to illuminatethe palaces of the East. Strangers to the name and properties of thatodoriferous gum, the Saracens, mistaking it for salt, mingled thecamphire in their bread, and were astonished at the bitterness of thetaste. One of the apartments of the palace was decorated with a carpetof silk, sixty cubits in length, and as many in breadth: a paradise orgarden was depictured on the ground: the flowers, fruits, and shrubs, were imitated by the figures of the gold embroidery, and the colors ofthe precious stones; and the ample square was encircled by a variegatedand verdant border. [251] The Arabian general persuaded his soldiersto relinquish their claim, in the reasonable hope that the eyes of thecaliph would be delighted with the splendid workmanship of nature andindustry. Regardless of the merit of art, and the pomp of royalty, therigid Omar divided the prize among his brethren of Medina: the picturewas destroyed; but such was the intrinsic value of the materials, thatthe share of Ali alone was sold for twenty thousand drams. A mule thatcarried away the tiara and cuirass, the belt and bracelets of Chosroes, was overtaken by the pursuers; the gorgeous trophy was presented tothe commander of the faithful; and the gravest of the companionscondescended to smile when they beheld the white beard, the hairy arms, and uncouth figure of the veteran, who was invested with the spoils ofthe Great King. [26] The sack of Ctesiphon was followed by its desertionand gradual decay. The Saracens disliked the air and situation ofthe place, and Omar was advised by his general to remove the seat ofgovernment to the western side of the Euphrates. In every age, thefoundation and ruin of the Assyrian cities has been easy and rapid: thecountry is destitute of stone and timber; and the most solid structures[27] are composed of bricks baked in the sun, and joined by a cementof the native bitumen. The name of Cufa [28] describes a habitation ofreeds and earth; but the importance of the new capital was supportedby the numbers, wealth, and spirit, of a colony of veterans; and theirlicentiousness was indulged by the wisest caliphs, who were apprehensiveof provoking the revolt of a hundred thousand swords: "Ye men of Cufa, "said Ali, who solicited their aid, "you have been always conspicuous byyour valor. You conquered the Persian king, and scattered his forces, till you had taken possession of his inheritance. " This mighty conquestwas achieved by the battles of Jalula and Nehavend. After the loss ofthe former, Yezdegerd fled from Holwan, and concealed his shame anddespair in the mountains of Farsistan, from whence Cyrus had descendedwith his equal and valiant companions. The courage of the nationsurvived that of the monarch: among the hills to the south of Ecbatanaor Hamadan, one hundred and fifty thousand Persians made a third andfinal stand for their religion and country; and the decisive battle ofNehavend was styled by the Arabs the victory of victories. If it be truethat the flying general of the Persians was stopped and overtaken in acrowd of mules and camels laden with honey, the incident, however slightand singular, will denote the luxurious impediments of an Oriental army. [29]

[Footnote 24: Mente vix potest numerove comprehendi quanta spolianostris cesserint. Abulfeda, p. 69. Yet I still suspect, that theextravagant numbers of Elmacin may be the error, not of the text, but ofthe version. The best translators from the Greek, for instance, I findto be very poor arithmeticians. * Note: Ockley (Hist. Of Saracens, vol. I. P. 230) translates in the same manner three thousand million ofducats. See Forster's Mahometanism Unveiled, vol. Ii. P. 462; whomakes this innocent doubt of Gibbon, in which, is to the amount ofthe plunder, I venture to concur, a grave charge of inaccuracy anddisrespect to the memory of Erpenius. The Persian authorities ofPrice (p. 122) make the booty worth three hundred and thirty millionssterling!--M]

[Footnote 25: The camphire-tree grows in China and Japan; but manyhundred weight of those meaner sorts are exchanged for a single pound ofthe more precious gum of Borneo and Sumatra, (Raynal, Hist. Philosoph. Tom. I. P. 362-365. Dictionnaire d'Hist. Naturelle par Bomare Miller'sGardener's Dictionary. ) These may be the islands of the first climatefrom whence the Arabians imported their camphire (Geograph. Nub. P. 34, 35. D'Herbelot, p. 232. )]

[Footnote 251: Compare Price, p. 122. --M. ]

[Footnote 26: See Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. I. P. 376, 377. I maycredit the fact, without believing the prophecy. ]

[Footnote 27: The most considerable ruins of Assyria are the tower ofBelus, at Babylon, and the hall of Chosroes, at Ctesiphon: they havebeen visited by that vain and curious traveller Pietro della Valle, (tom. I. P. 713-718, 731-735. ) * Note: The best modern account is thatof Claudius Rich Esq. Two Memoirs of Babylon. London, 1818. --M. ]

[Footnote 28: Consult the article of Coufah in the Bibliotheque ofD'Herbelot ( p. 277, 278, ) and the second volume of Ockley's History, particularly p. 40 and 153. ]

[Footnote 29: See the article of Nehavend, in D'Herbelot, p. 667, 668;and Voyages en Turquie et en Perse, par Otter, tom. I. 191. * Note:Malcolm vol. I. P. 141. --M. ]

The geography of Persia is darkly delineated by the Greeks and Latins;but the most illustrious of her cities appear to be more ancient thanthe invasion of the Arabs. By the reduction of Hamadan and Ispahan, ofCaswin, Tauris, and Rei, they gradually approached the shores of theCaspian Sea: and the orators of Mecca might applaud the success andspirit of the faithful, who had already lost sight of the northernbear, and had almost transcended the bounds of the habitable world. [30]Again, turning towards the West and the Roman empire, they repassedthe Tigris over the bridge of Mosul, and, in the captive provincesof Armenia and Mesopotamia, embraced their victorious brethren of theSyrian army. From the palace of Madayn their Eastern progress was notless rapid or extensive. They advanced along the Tigris and the Gulf;penetrated through the passes of the mountains into the valley ofEstachar or Persepolis, and profaned the last sanctuary of the Magianempire. The grandson of Chosroes was nearly surprised among the fallingcolumns and mutilated figures; a sad emblem of the past and presentfortune of Persia: [31] he fled with accelerated haste over the desertof Kirman, implored the aid of the warlike Segestans, and sought anhumble refuge on the verge of the Turkish and Chinese power. But avictorious army is insensible of fatigue: the Arabs divided their forcesin the pursuit of a timorous enemy; and the caliph Othman promised thegovernment of Chorasan to the first general who should enter thatlarge and populous country, the kingdom of the ancient Bactrians. Thecondition was accepted; the prize was deserved; the standard of Mahometwas planted on the walls of Herat, Merou, and Balch; and the successfulleader neither halted nor reposed till his foaming cavalry had tastedthe waters of the Oxus. In the public anarchy, the independent governorsof the cities and castles obtained their separate capitulations: theterms were granted or imposed by the esteem, the prudence, or thecompassion, of the victors; and a simple profession of faith establishedthe distinction between a brother and a slave. After a noble defence, Harmozan, the prince or satrap of Ahwaz and Susa, was compelled tosurrender his person and his state to the discretion of the caliph;and their interview exhibits a portrait of the Arabian manners. In thepresence, and by the command, of Omar, the gay Barbarian was despoiledof his silken robes embroidered with gold, and of his tiara bedeckedwith rubies and emeralds: "Are you now sensible, " said the conqueror tohis naked captive--"are you now sensible of the judgment of God, andof the different rewards of infidelity and obedience?" "Alas!" repliedHarmozan, "I feel them too deeply. In the days of our common ignorance, we fought with the weapons of the flesh, and my nation was superior. Godwas then neuter: since he has espoused your quarrel, you have subvertedour kingdom and religion. " Oppressed by this painful dialogue, the Persian complained of intolerable thirst, but discovered someapprehension lest he should be killed whilst he was drinking a cup ofwater. "Be of good courage, " said the caliph; "your life is safe tillyou have drunk this water:" the crafty satrap accepted the assurance, and instantly dashed the vase against the ground. Omar would haveavenged the deceit, but his companions represented the sanctity of anoath; and the speedy conversion of Harmozan entitled him not only to afree pardon, but even to a stipend of two thousand pieces of gold. The administration of Persia was regulated by an actual survey of thepeople, the cattle, and the fruits of the earth; [32] and this monument, which attests the vigilance of the caliphs, might have instructed thephilosophers of every age. [33]

[Footnote 30: It is in such a style of ignorance and wonder that theAthenian orator describes the Arctic conquests of Alexander, whonever advanced beyond the shores of the Caspian. Aeschines contraCtesiphontem, tom. Iii. P. 554, edit. Graec. Orator. Reiske. Thismemorable cause was pleaded at Athens, Olymp. Cxii. 3, (before Christ330, ) in the autumn, (Taylor, praefat. P. 370, &c. , ) about a year afterthe battle of Arbela; and Alexander, in the pursuit of Darius, wasmarching towards Hyrcania and Bactriana. ]

[Footnote 31: We are indebted for this curious particular to theDynasties of Abulpharagius, p. 116; but it is needless to prove theidentity of Estachar and Persepolis, (D'Herbelot, p. 327;) and stillmore needless to copy the drawings and descriptions of Sir John Chardin, or Corneillo le Bruyn. ]

[Footnote 32: After the conquest of Persia, Theophanes adds, (Chronograph p. 283. )]

[Footnote 33: Amidst our meagre relations, I must regret that D'Herbelothas not found and used a Persian translation of Tabari, enriched, as hesays, with many extracts from the native historians of the Ghebers orMagi, (Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 1014. )]

The flight of Yezdegerd had carried him beyond the Oxus, and as faras the Jaxartes, two rivers [34] of ancient and modern renown, whichdescend from the mountains of India towards the Caspian Sea. He washospitably entertained by Takhan, prince of Fargana, [35] a fertileprovince on the Jaxartes: the king of Samarcand, with the Turkish tribesof Sogdiana and Scythia, were moved by the lamentations and promises ofthe fallen monarch; and he solicited, by a suppliant embassy, the moresolid and powerful friendship of the emperor of China. [36] The virtuousTaitsong, [37] the first of the dynasty of the Tang may be justlycompared with the Antonines of Rome: his people enjoyed the blessingsof prosperity and peace; and his dominion was acknowledged by forty-fourhordes of the Barbarians of Tartary. His last garrisons of Cashgar andKhoten maintained a frequent intercourse with their neighbors of theJaxartes and Oxus; a recent colony of Persians had introduced into Chinathe astronomy of the Magi; and Taitsong might be alarmed by the rapidprogress and dangerous vicinity of the Arabs. The influence, and perhapsthe supplies, of China revived the hopes of Yezdegerd and the zealof the worshippers of fire; and he returned with an army of Turks toconquer the inheritance of his fathers. The fortunate Moslems, withoutunsheathing their swords, were the spectators of his ruin and death. The grandson of Chosroes was betrayed by his servant, insulted by theseditious inhabitants of Merou, and oppressed, defeated, and pursued byhis Barbarian allies. He reached the banks of a river, and offered hisrings and bracelets for an instant passage in a miller's boat. Ignorantor insensible of royal distress, the rustic replied, that four drams ofsilver were the daily profit of his mill, and that he would not suspendhis work unless the loss were repaid. In this moment of hesitation anddelay, the last of the Sassanian kings was overtaken and slaughtered bythe Turkish cavalry, in the nineteenth year of his unhappy reign. [38][3811] His son Firuz, an humble client of the Chinese emperor, acceptedthe station of captain of his guards; and the Magian worship was longpreserved by a colony of loyal exiles in the province of Bucharia. [3812] His grandson inherited the regal name; but after a faint andfruitless enterprise, he returned to China, and ended his days in thepalace of Sigan. The male line of the Sassanides was extinct; but thefemale captives, the daughters of Persia, were given to the conquerorsin servitude, or marriage; and the race of the caliphs and imams wasennobled by the blood of their royal mothers. [39]

[Footnote 34: The most authentic accounts of the two rivers, the Sihon(Jaxartes) and the Gihon, (Oxus, ) may be found in Sherif al Edrisi(Geograph. Nubiens. P. 138, ) Abulfeda, (Descript. Chorasan. In Hudson, tom. Iii. P. 23, ) Abulghazi Khan, who reigned on their banks, (Hist. Genealogique des Tatars, p. 32, 57, 766, ) and the Turkish Geographer, a MS. In the king of France's library, (Examen Critique des Historiensd'Alexandre, p. 194-360. )]

[Footnote 35: The territory of Fergana is described by Abulfeda, p. 76, 77. ]

[Footnote 36: Eo redegit angustiarum eundem regem exsulem, ut Turciciregis, et Sogdiani, et Sinensis, auxilia missis literis imploraret, (Abulfed. Annal. P. 74) The connection of the Persian and Chinesehistory is illustrated by Freret (Mem. De l'Academie, tom. Xvi. P. 245-255) and De Guignes, (Hist. Des Huns, tom. I. P. 54-59, ) and forthe geography of the borders, tom. Ii. P. 1-43. ]

[Footnote 37: Hist. Sinica, p. 41-46, in the iiid part of the RelationsCurieuses of Thevenot. ]

[Footnote 38: I have endeavored to harmonize the various narrativesof Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. P. 37, ) Abulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 116, )Abulfeda, (Annal. P. 74, 79, ) and D'Herbelot, (p. 485. ) The end ofYezdegerd, was not only unfortunate but obscure. ]

[Footnote 3811: The account of Yezdegerd's death in the Habeib 'usseyrand Rouzut uzzuffa (Price, p. 162) is much more probable. On the demandof the few dhirems, he offered to the miller his sword, and royalgirdle, of inesturable value. This awoke the cupidity of the miller, whomurdered him, and threw the body into the stream. --M. ]

[Footnote 3812: Firouz died leaving a son called Ni-ni-cha by theChinese, probably Narses. Yezdegerd had two sons, Firouz and Bahram St. Martin, vol. Xi. P. 318. --M. ]

[Footnote 39: The two daughters of Yezdegerd married Hassan, the son ofAli, and Mohammed, the son of Abubeker; and the first of these was thefather of a numerous progeny. The daughter of Phirouz became the wifeof the caliph Walid, and their son Yezid derived his genuine or fabulousdescent from the Chosroes of Persia, the Caesars of Rome, and theChagans of the Turks or Avars, (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orientale, p. 96, 487. )]

After the fall of the Persian kingdom, the River Oxus divided theterritories of the Saracens and of the Turks. This narrow boundary wassoon overleaped by the spirit of the Arabs; the governors of Chorasanextended their successive inroads; and one of their triumphs was adornedwith the buskin of a Turkish queen, which she dropped in her precipitateflight beyond the hills of Bochara. [40] But the final conquest ofTransoxiana, [41] as well as of Spain, was reserved for the gloriousreign of the inactive Walid; and the name of Catibah, the camel driver, declares the origin and merit of his successful lieutenant. While one ofhis colleagues displayed the first Mahometan banner on the banks ofthe Indus, the spacious regions between the Oxus, the Jaxartes, and theCaspian Sea, were reduced by the arms of Catibah to the obedience of theprophet and of the caliph. [42] A tribute of two millions of pieces ofgold was imposed on the infidels; their idols were burnt or broken; theMussulman chief pronounced a sermon in the new mosch of Carizme; afterseveral battles, the Turkish hordes were driven back to the desert; andthe emperors of China solicited the friendship of the victorious Arabs. To their industry, the prosperity of the province, the Sogdiana of theancients, may in a great measure be ascribed; but the advantages of thesoil and climate had been understood and cultivated since the reignof the Macedonian kings. Before the invasion of the Saracens, Carizme, Bochara, and Samarcand were rich and populous under the yoke of theshepherds of the north. [4211] These cities were surrounded with adouble wall; and the exterior fortification, of a larger circumference, enclosed the fields and gardens of the adjacent district. The mutualwants of India and Europe were supplied by the diligence of the Sogdianmerchants; and the inestimable art of transforming linen into paper hasbeen diffused from the manufacture of Samarcand over the western world. [43]

[Footnote 40: It was valued at 2000 pieces of gold, and was the prize ofObeidollah, the son of Ziyad, a name afterwards infamous by the murderof Hosein, (Ockley's History of the Saracens, vol. Ii. P. 142, 143, ) Hisbrother Salem was accompanied by his wife, the first Arabian woman (A. D. 680) who passed the Oxus: she borrowed, or rather stole, the crown andjewels of the princess of the Sogdians, (p. 231, 232. )]

[Footnote 41: A part of Abulfeda's geography is translated by Greaves, inserted in Hudson's collection of the minor geographers, (tom. Iii. , )and entitled Descriptio Chorasmiae et Mawaralnahroe, id est, regionumextra fluvium, Oxum, p. 80. The name of Transoxiana, softer in sound, equivalent in sense, is aptly used by Petit de la Croix, (Hist. DeGengiscan, &c. , ) and some modern Orientalists, but they are mistaken inascribing it to the writers of antiquity. ]

[Footnote 42: The conquests of Catibah are faintly marked by Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. P. 84, ) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. Catbah, SamarcandValid. , ) and De Guignes, (Hist. Des Huns, tom. I. P. 58, 59. )]

[Footnote 4211: The manuscripts Arabian and Persian writers in the royallibrary contain very circumstantial details on the contest between thePersians and Arabians. M. St. Martin declined this addition to the workof Le Beau, as extending to too great a length. St. Martin vol. Xi. P. 320. --M. ]

[Footnote 43: A curious description of Samarcand is inserted in theBibliotheca Arabico-Hispana, tom. I. P. 208, &c. The librarian Casiri(tom. Ii. 9) relates, from credible testimony, that paper was firstimported from China to Samarcand, A. H. 30, and invented, or ratherintroduced, at Mecca, A. H. 88. The Escurial library contains paper Mss. As old as the ivth or vth century of the Hegira. ]

II. No sooner had Abubeker restored the unity of faith and government, than he despatched a circular letter to the Arabian tribes. "In the nameof the most merciful God, to the rest of the true believers. Health andhappiness, and the mercy and blessing of God, be upon you. I praise themost high God, and I pray for his prophet Mahomet. This is to acquaintyou, that I intend to send the true believers into Syria [44] to takeit out of the hands of the infidels. And I would have you know, thatthe fighting for religion is an act of obedience to God. " His messengersreturned with the tidings of pious and martial ardor which they hadkindled in every province; and the camp of Medina was successivelyfilled with the intrepid bands of the Saracens, who panted for action, complained of the heat of the season and the scarcity of provisions, and accused with impatient murmurs the delays of the caliph. As soon astheir numbers were complete, Abubeker ascended the hill, reviewed themen, the horses, and the arms, and poured forth a fervent prayer for thesuccess of their undertaking. In person, and on foot, he accompanied thefirst day's march; and when the blushing leaders attempted to dismount, the caliph removed their scruples by a declaration, that those whorode, and those who walked, in the service of religion, were equallymeritorious. His instructions [45] to the chiefs of the Syrian army wereinspired by the warlike fanaticism which advances to seize, and affectsto despise, the objects of earthly ambition. "Remember, " said thesuccessor of the prophet, "that you are always in the presence of God, on the verge of death, in the assurance of judgment, and the hope ofparadise. Avoid injustice and oppression; consult with your brethren, and study to preserve the love and confidence of your troops. Whenyou fight the battles of the Lord, acquit yourselves like men, withoutturning your backs; but let not your victory be stained with the bloodof women or children. Destroy no palm-trees, nor burn any fields ofcorn. Cut down no fruit-trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only suchas you kill to eat. When you make any covenant or article, stand to it, and be as good as your word. As you go on, you will find some religiouspersons who live retired in monasteries, and propose to themselves toserve God that way: let them alone, and neither kill them nor destroytheir monasteries: [46] And you will find another sort of people, thatbelong to the synagogue of Satan, who have shaven crowns; [47] be sureyou cleave their skulls, and give them no quarter till they either turnMahometans or pay tribute. " All profane or frivolous conversation, all dangerous recollection of ancient quarrels, was severely prohibitedamong the Arabs: in the tumult of a camp, the exercises of religionwere assiduously practised; and the intervals of action were employed inprayer, meditation, and the study of the Koran. The abuse, or even theuse, of wine was chastised by fourscore strokes on the soles of thefeet, and in the fervor of their primitive zeal, many secret sinnersrevealed their fault, and solicited their punishment. After somehesitation, the command of the Syrian army was delegated to Abu Obeidah, one of the fugitives of Mecca, and companions of Mahomet; whose zeal anddevotion was assuaged, without being abated, by the singular mildnessand benevolence of his temper. But in all the emergencies of war, thesoldiers demanded the superior genius of Caled; and whoever might bethe choice of the prince, the Sword of God was both in fact and fame theforemost leader of the Saracens. He obeyed without reluctance; [4711] hewas consulted without jealousy; and such was the spirit of the man, orrather of the times, that Caled professed his readiness to serve underthe banner of the faith, though it were in the hands of a child or anenemy. Glory, and riches, and dominion, were indeed promised to thevictorious Mussulman; but he was carefully instructed, that if the goodsof this life were his only incitement, they likewise would be his onlyreward. 

[Footnote 44: A separate history of the conquest of Syria has beencomposed by Al Wakidi, cadi of Bagdad, who was born A. D. 748, and diedA. D. 822; he likewise wrote the conquest of Egypt, of Diarbekir, &c. Above the meagre and recent chronicles of the Arabians, Al Wakidi hasthe double merit of antiquity and copiousness. His tales and traditionsafford an artless picture of the men and the times. Yet his narrativeis too often defective, trifling, and improbable. Till something bettershall be found, his learned and spiritual interpreter (Ockley, inhis History of the Saracens, vol. I. P. 21-342) will not deservethe petulant animadversion of Reiske, (Prodidagmata ad Magji ChalifaeTabulas, p. 236. ) I am sorry to think that the labors of Ockley wereconsummated in a jail, (see his two prefaces to the 1st A. D. 1708, tothe 2d, 1718, with the list of authors at the end. ) * Note: M. Hamakerhas clearly shown that neither of these works can be inscribed to AlWakidi: they are not older than the end of the xith century orlater than the middle of the xivth. Praefat. In Inc. Auct. LIb. DeExpugnatione Memphidis, c. Ix. X. --M. ]

[Footnote 45: The instructions, &c. , of the Syrian war are describedby Al Wakidi and Ockley, tom. I. P. 22-27, &c. In the sequel it isnecessary to contract, and needless to quote, their circumstantialnarrative. My obligations to others shall be noticed. ]

[Footnote 46: Notwithstanding this precept, M. Pauw (Recherches sur lesEgyptiens, tom. Ii. P. 192, edit. Lausanne) represents the Bedoweensas the implacable enemies of the Christian monks. For my own part, Iam more inclined to suspect the avarice of the Arabian robbers, and theprejudices of the German philosopher. * Note: Several modern travellers(Mr. Fazakerley, in Walpole's Travels in the East, vol. Xi. 371) givevery amusing accounts of the terms on which the monks of Mount Sinailive with the neighboring Bedoweens. Such, probably, was theirrelative state in older times, wherever the Arab retained his Bedoweenhabits. --M. ]

[Footnote 47: Even in the seventh century, the monks were generallylaymen: 'hey wore their hair long and dishevelled, and shaved theirheads when they were ordained priests. The circular tonsure was sacredand mysterious; it was the crown of thorns; but it was likewise a royaldiadem, and every priest was a king, &c. , (Thomassin, Discipline del'Eglise, tom. I. P. 721-758, especially p. 737, 738. )]

[Footnote 4711: Compare Price, p. 90. --M. ]

Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs. --Part III. 

Another expedition of the conquerors of Damascus will equally displaytheir avidity and their contempt for the riches of the present world. They were informed that the produce and manufactures of the country wereannually collected in the fair of Abyla, [64] about thirty miles fromthe city; that the cell of a devout hermit was visited at the sametime by a multitude of pilgrims; and that the festival of trade andsuperstition would be ennobled by the nuptials of the daughter of thegovernor of Tripoli. Abdallah, the son of Jaafar, a glorious and holymartyr, undertook, with a banner of five hundred horse, the pious andprofitable commission of despoiling the infidels. As he approached thefair of Abyla, he was astonished by the report of this mighty concourseof Jews and Christians, Greeks, and Armenians, of natives of Syria andof strangers of Egypt, to the number of ten thousand, besides a guard offive thousand horse that attended the person of the bride. The Saracenspaused: "For my own part, " said Abdallah, "I dare not go back: our foesare many, our danger is great, but our reward is splendid and secure, either in this life or in the life to come. Let every man, accordingto his inclination, advance or retire. " Not a Mussulman deserted hisstandard. "Lead the way, " said Abdallah to his Christian guide, "and youshall see what the companions of the prophet can perform. " They chargedin five squadrons; but after the first advantage of the surprise, they were encompassed and almost overwhelmed by the multitude of theirenemies; and their valiant band is fancifully compared to a white spotin the skin of a black camel. [65] About the hour of sunset, when theirweapons dropped from their hands, when they panted on the verge ofeternity, they discovered an approaching cloud of dust; they heard thewelcome sound of the tecbir, [66] and they soon perceived the standardof Caled, who flew to their relief with the utmost speed of his cavalry. The Christians were broken by his attack, and slaughtered in theirflight, as far as the river of Tripoli. They left behind them thevarious riches of the fair; the merchandises that were exposed for sale, the money that was brought for purchase, the gay decorations ofthe nuptials, and the governor's daughter, with forty of her femaleattendants. 

The fruits, provisions, and furniture, the money, plate, and jewels, were diligently laden on the backs of horses, asses, and mules; and theholy robbers returned in triumph to Damascus. The hermit, after a shortand angry controversy with Caled, declined the crown of martyrdom, andwas left alive in the solitary scene of blood and devastation. 

[Footnote 64: Dair Abil Kodos. After retrenching the last word, theepithet, holy, I discover the Abila of Lysanias between Damascus andHeliopolis: the name (Abil signifies a vineyard) concurs with thesituation to justify my conjecture, (Reland, Palestin. Tom. I. P 317, tom. Ii. P. 526, 527. )]

[Footnote 65: I am bolder than Mr. Ockley, (vol. I. P. 164, ) who daresnot insert this figurative expression in the text, though he observes ina marginal note, that the Arabians often borrow their similes from thatuseful and familiar animal. The reindeer may be equally famous in thesongs of the Laplanders. ]

[Footnote 66: We hear the tecbir; so the Arabs call Their shout ofonset, when with loud appeal They challenge heaven, as if demandingconquest. This word, so formidable in their holy wars, is a verb active, (says Ockley in his index, ) of the second conjugation, from Kabbara, which signifies saying Alla Acbar, God is most mighty!]

Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs. --Part IV. 

Syria, [67] one of the countries that have been improved by the mostearly cultivation, is not unworthy of the preference. [68] The heat ofthe climate is tempered by the vicinity of the sea and mountains, by theplenty of wood and water; and the produce of a fertile soil affords thesubsistence, and encourages the propagation, of men and animals. Fromthe age of David to that of Heraclius, the country was overspreadwith ancient and flourishing cities: the inhabitants were numerous andwealthy; and, after the slow ravage of despotism and superstition, afterthe recent calamities of the Persian war, Syria could still attractand reward the rapacious tribes of the desert. A plain, of ten days'journey, from Damascus to Aleppo and Antioch, is watered, on the westernside, by the winding course of the Orontes. The hills of Libanus andAnti-Libanus are planted from north to south, between the Orontes andthe Mediterranean; and the epithet of hollow (Coelesyria) was applied toa long and fruitful valley, which is confined in the same direction, by the two ridges of snowy mountains. [69] Among the cities, which areenumerated by Greek and Oriental names in the geography and conquestof Syria, we may distinguish Emesa or Hems, Heliopolis or Baalbec, theformer as the metropolis of the plain, the latter as the capital of thevalley. Under the last of the Caesars, they were strong and populous;the turrets glittered from afar: an ample space was covered with publicand private buildings; and the citizens were illustrious by theirspirit, or at least by their pride; by their riches, or at least bytheir luxury. In the days of Paganism, both Emesa and Heliopolis wereaddicted to the worship of Baal, or the sun; but the decline of theirsuperstition and splendor has been marked by a singular variety offortune. Not a vestige remains of the temple of Emesa, which wasequalled in poetic style to the summits of Mount Libanus, [70] whilethe ruins of Baalbec, invisible to the writers of antiquity, excite thecuriosity and wonder of the European traveller. [71] The measure of thetemple is two hundred feet in length, and one hundred in breadth: thefront is adorned with a double portico of eight columns; fourteen may becounted on either side; and each column, forty-five feet in height, iscomposed of three massy blocks of stone or marble. The proportionsand ornaments of the Corinthian order express the architecture of theGreeks: but as Baalbec has never been the seat of a monarch, we are ata loss to conceive how the expense of these magnificent structures couldbe supplied by private or municipal liberality. [72] From the conquestof Damascus the Saracens proceeded to Heliopolis and Emesa: but Ishall decline the repetition of the sallies and combats which have beenalready shown on a larger scale. In the prosecution of the war, theirpolicy was not less effectual than their sword. By short and separatetruces they dissolved the union of the enemy; accustomed the Syriansto compare their friendship with their enmity; familiarized the ideaof their language, religion, and manners; and exhausted, by clandestinepurchase, the magazines and arsenals of the cities which they returnedto besiege. They aggravated the ransom of the more wealthy, or the moreobstinate; and Chalcis alone was taxed at five thousand ounces of gold, five thousand ounces of silver, two thousand robes of silk, and as manyfigs and olives as would load five thousand asses. But the terms oftruce or capitulation were faithfully observed; and the lieutenantof the caliph, who had promised not to enter the walls of the captiveBaalbec, remained tranquil and immovable in his tent till the jarringfactions solicited the interposition of a foreign master. The conquestof the plain and valley of Syria was achieved in less than two years. Yet the commander of the faithful reproved the slowness of theirprogress; and the Saracens, bewailing their fault with tears of rage andrepentance, called aloud on their chiefs to lead them forth to fight thebattles of the Lord. In a recent action, under the walls of Emesa, an Arabian youth, the cousin of Caled, was heard aloud to exclaim, "Methinks I see the black-eyed girls looking upon me; one of whom, should she appear in this world, all mankind would die for love of her. And I see in the hand of one of them a handkerchief of green silk, anda cap of precious stones, and she beckons me, and calls out, Come hitherquickly, for I love thee. " With these words, charging the Christians, hemade havoc wherever he went, till, observed at length by the governor ofHems, he was struck through with a javelin. 

[Footnote 67: In the Geography of Abulfeda, the description of Syria, his native country, is the most interesting and authentic portion. Itwas published in Arabic and Latin, Lipsiae, 1766, in quarto, with thelearned notes of Kochler and Reiske, and some extracts of geography andnatural history from Ibn Ol Wardii. Among the modern travels, Pocock'sDescription of the East (of Syria and Mesopotamia, vol. Ii. P. 88-209)is a work of superior learning and dignity; but the author too oftenconfounds what he had seen and what he had read. ]

[Footnote 68: The praises of Dionysius are just and lively. Syria, (inPeriegesi, v. 902, in tom. Iv. Geograph. Minor. Hudson. ) In anotherplace he styles the country differently, (v. 898. ) This poeticalgeographer lived in the age of Augustus, and his description of theworld is illustrated by the Greek commentary of Eustathius, who paid thesame compliment to Homer and Dionysius, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. L. Iv. C. 2, tom. Iii. P. 21, &c. )]

[Footnote 69: The topography of the Libanus and Anti-Libanus isexcellently described by the learning and sense of Reland, (Palestin. Tom. I. P. 311-326)]

[Footnote 70:

 --Emesae fastigia celsa renident. Nam diffusa solo latus explicat; ac subit auras Turribus in coelum nitentibus: incola claris Cor studiis acuit. .. Denique flammicomo devoti pectora soli Vitam agitant. Libanus frondosa cacumina turget. Et tamen his certant celsi fastigia templi. 

These verses of the Latin version of Rufus Avienus are wanting in theGreek original of Dionysius; and since they are likewise unnoticed byEustathius, I must, with Fabricius, (Bibliot. Latin. Tom. Iii. P. 153, edit. Ernesti, ) and against Salmasius, (ad Vopiscum, p. 366, 367, inHist. August. , ) ascribed them to the fancy, rather than the Mss. , ofAvienus. ]

[Footnote 71: I am much better satisfied with Maundrell's slight octavo, (Journey, p. 134-139), than with the pompous folio of Dr. Pocock, (Description of the East, vol. Ii. P. 106-113;) but every precedingaccount is eclipsed by the magnificent description and drawings of Mm. Dawkins and Wood, who have transported into England the ruins of Pamyraand Baalbec. ]

[Footnote 72: The Orientals explain the prodigy by a never-failingexpedient. The edifices of Baalbec were constructed by the fairies orthe genii, (Hist. De Timour Bec, tom. Iii. L. V. C. 23, p. 311, 312. Voyage d'Otter, tom. I. P. 83. ) With less absurdity, but with equalignorance, Abulfeda and Ibn Chaukel ascribe them to the Sabaeans orAadites Non sunt in omni Syria aedificia magnificentiora his, (TabulaSyria p. 108. )]

It was incumbent on the Saracens to exert the full powers of their valorand enthusiasm against the forces of the emperor, who was taught, byrepeated losses, that the rovers of the desert had undertaken, and wouldspeedily achieve, a regular and permanent conquest. From the provincesof Europe and Asia, fourscore thousand soldiers were transported by seaand land to Antioch and Caesarea: the light troops of the army consistedof sixty thousand Christian Arabs of the tribe of Gassan. Under thebanner of Jabalah, the last of their princes, they marched in thevan; and it was a maxim of the Greeks, that for the purpose of cuttingdiamond, a diamond was the most effectual. Heraclius withheld his personfrom the dangers of the field; but his presumption, or perhaps hisdespondency, suggested a peremptory order, that the fate of the provinceand the war should be decided by a single battle. The Syrians wereattached to the standard of Rome and of the cross: but the noble, thecitizen, the peasant, were exasperated by the injustice and cruelty ofa licentious host, who oppressed them as subjects, and despised themas strangers and aliens. [73] A report of these mighty preparations wasconveyed to the Saracens in their camp of Emesa, and the chiefs, thoughresolved to fight, assembled a council: the faith of Abu Obeidah wouldhave expected on the same spot the glory of martyrdom; the wisdomof Caled advised an honorable retreat to the skirts of Palestine andArabia, where they might await the succors of their friends, and theattack of the unbelievers. A speedy messenger soon returned from thethrone of Medina, with the blessings of Omar and Ali, the prayers of thewidows of the prophet, and a reenforcement of eight thousand Moslems. Intheir way they overturned a detachment of Greeks, and when theyjoined at Yermuk the camp of their brethren, they found the pleasingintelligence, that Caled had already defeated and scattered theChristian Arabs of the tribe of Gassan. In the neighborhood of Bosra, the springs of Mount Hermon descend in a torrent to the plain ofDecapolis, or ten cities; and the Hieromax, a name which has beencorrupted to Yermuk, is lost, after a short course, in the Lake ofTiberias. [74] The banks of this obscure stream were illustrated by along and bloody encounter. [7411] On this momentous occasion, the publicvoice, and the modesty of Abu Obeidah, restored the command to the mostdeserving of the Moslems. Caled assumed his station in the front, hiscolleague was posted in the rear, that the disorder of the fugitivemight be checked by his venerable aspect, and the sight of the yellowbanner which Mahomet had displayed before the walls of Chaibar. The lastline was occupied by the sister of Derar, with the Arabian women who hadenlisted in this holy war, who were accustomed to wield the bow andthe lance, and who in a moment of captivity had defended, againstthe uncircumcised ravishers, their chastity and religion. [75] Theexhortation of the generals was brief and forcible: "Paradise is beforeyou, the devil and hell-fire in your rear. " Yet such was the weightof the Roman cavalry, that the right wing of the Arabs was broken andseparated from the main body. Thrice did they retreat in disorder, andthrice were they driven back to the charge by the reproaches and blowsof the women. In the intervals of action, Abu Obeidah visited the tentsof his brethren, prolonged their repose by repeating at once the prayersof two different hours, bound up their wounds with his own hands, andadministered the comfortable reflection, that the infidels partook oftheir sufferings without partaking of their reward. Four thousand andthirty of the Moslems were buried in the field of battle; and the skillof the Armenian archers enabled seven hundred to boast that they hadlost an eye in that meritorious service. The veterans of the Syrian waracknowledged that it was the hardest and most doubtful of the days whichthey had seen. But it was likewise the most decisive: many thousandsof the Greeks and Syrians fell by the swords of the Arabs; many wereslaughtered, after the defeat, in the woods and mountains; many, bymistaking the ford, were drowned in the waters of the Yermuk; andhowever the loss may be magnified, [76] the Christian writers confessand bewail the bloody punishment of their sins. [77] Manuel, the Romangeneral, was either killed at Damascus, or took refuge in the monasteryof Mount Sinai. An exile in the Byzantine court, Jabalah lamented themanners of Arabia, and his unlucky preference of the Christian cause. [78] He had once inclined to the profession of Islam; but in thepilgrimage of Mecca, Jabalah was provoked to strike one of his brethren, and fled with amazement from the stern and equal justice of the caliphThese victorious Saracens enjoyed at Damascus a month of pleasure andrepose: the spoil was divided by the discretion of Abu Obeidah: an equalshare was allotted to a soldier and to his horse, and a double portionwas reserved for the noble coursers of the Arabian breed. 

[Footnote 73: I have read somewhere in Tacitus, or Grotius, Subjectoshabent tanquam suos, viles tanquam alienos. Some Greek officers ravishedthe wife, and murdered the child, of their Syrian landlord; and Manuelsmiled at his undutiful complaint. ]

[Footnote 74: See Reland, Palestin. Tom. I. P. 272, 283, tom. Ii. P. 773, 775. This learned professor was equal to the task of describingthe Holy Land, since he was alike conversant with Greek and Latin, withHebrew and Arabian literature. The Yermuk, or Hieromax, is noticed byCellarius (Geograph. Antiq. Tom. Ii. P. 392) and D'Anville, (GeographieAncienne, tom. Ii. P. 185. ) The Arabs, and even Abulfeda himself, do notseem to recognize the scene of their victory. ]

[Footnote 7411: Compare Price, p. 79. The army of the Romans is swollerto 400, 000 men of which 70, 000 perished. --M. ]

[Footnote 75: These women were of the tribe of the Hamyarites, whoderived their origin from the ancient Amalekites. Their females wereaccustomed to ride on horseback, and to fight like the Amazons of old, (Ockley, vol. I. P. 67. )]

[Footnote 76: We killed of them, says Abu Obeidah to the caliph, onehundred and fifty thousand, and made prisoners forty thousand, (Ockleyvol. I. P. 241. ) As I cannot doubt his veracity, nor believe hiscomputation, I must suspect that the Arabic historians indulgethemselves in the practice of comparing speeches and letters for theirheroes. ]

[Footnote 77: After deploring the sins of the Christians, Theophanes, adds, (Chronograph. P. 276, ) does he mean Aiznadin? His account is briefand obscure, but he accuses the numbers of the enemy, the adverse wind, and the cloud of dust. (Chronograph. P. 280. )]

[Footnote 78: See Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. P. 70, 71, ) who transcribesthe poetical complaint of Jabalah himself, and some panegyrical strainsof an Arabian poet, to whom the chief of Gassan sent from Constantinoplea gift of five hundred pieces of gold by the hands of the ambassador ofOmar. ]

After the battle of Yermuk, the Roman army no longer appeared in thefield; and the Saracens might securely choose, among the fortified townsof Syria, the first object of their attack. They consulted the caliphwhether they should march to Caesarea or Jerusalem; and the advice ofAli determined the immediate siege of the latter. To a profane eye, Jerusalem was the first or second capital of Palestine; but after Meccaand Medina, it was revered and visited by the devout Moslems, as thetemple of the Holy Land which had been sanctified by the revelation ofMoses, of Jesus, and of Mahomet himself. The son of Abu Sophian wassent with five thousand Arabs to try the first experiment of surpriseor treaty; but on the eleventh day, the town was invested by the wholeforce of Abu Obeidah. He addressed the customary summons to the chiefcommanders and people of Aelia. [79]

[Footnote 79: In the name of the city, the profane prevailed over thesacred Jerusalem was known to the devout Christians, (Euseb. De MartyrPalest. C xi. ;) but the legal and popular appellation of Aelia (thecolony of Aelius Hadrianus) has passed from the Romans to the Arabs. (Reland, Palestin. Tom. I. P. 207, tom. Ii. P. 835. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, Cods, p. 269, Ilia, p. 420. ) The epithet of AlCods, the Holy, is used as the proper name of Jerusalem. ]

"Health and happiness to every one that follows the right way! Werequire of you to testify that there is but one God, and that Mahomet ishis apostle. If you refuse this, consent to pay tribute, and be under usforthwith. Otherwise I shall bring men against you who love death betterthan you do the drinking of wine or eating hog's flesh. Nor will I everstir from you, if it please God, till I have destroyed those that fightfor you, and made slaves of your children. " But the city was defendedon every side by deep valleys and steep ascents; since the invasion ofSyria, the walls and towers had been anxiously restored; the bravest ofthe fugitives of Yermuk had stopped in the nearest place of refuge; andin the defence of the sepulchre of Christ, the natives and strangersmight feel some sparks of the enthusiasm, which so fiercely glowed inthe bosoms of the Saracens. The siege of Jerusalem lasted four months;not a day was lost without some action of sally or assault; the militaryengines incessantly played from the ramparts; and the inclemency ofthe winter was still more painful and destructive to the Arabs. TheChristians yielded at length to the perseverance of the besiegers. The patriarch Sophronius appeared on the walls, and by the voice ofan interpreter demanded a conference. [7911] After a vain attempt todissuade the lieutenant of the caliph from his impious enterprise, heproposed, in the name of the people, a fair capitulation, with thisextraordinary clause, that the articles of security should be ratifiedby the authority and presence of Omar himself. The question was debatedin the council of Medina; the sanctity of the place, and the adviceof Ali, persuaded the caliph to gratify the wishes of his soldiers andenemies; and the simplicity of his journey is more illustrious than theroyal pageants of vanity and oppression. The conqueror of Persia andSyria was mounted on a red camel, which carried, besides his person, a bag of corn, a bag of dates, a wooden dish, and a leathern bottle ofwater. Wherever he halted, the company, without distinction, was invitedto partake of his homely fare, and the repast was consecrated by theprayer and exhortation of the commander of the faithful. [80] Butin this expedition or pilgrimage, his power was exercised in theadministration of justice: he reformed the licentious polygamy ofthe Arabs, relieved the tributaries from extortion and cruelty, andchastised the luxury of the Saracens, by despoiling them of their richsilks, and dragging them on their faces in the dirt. When he camewithin sight of Jerusalem, the caliph cried with a loud voice, "God isvictorious. O Lord, give us an easy conquest!" and, pitching his tentof coarse hair, calmly seated himself on the ground. After signingthe capitulation, he entered the city without fear or precaution; andcourteously discoursed with the patriarch concerning its religiousantiquities. [81] Sophronius bowed before his new master, and secretlymuttered, in the words of Daniel, "The abomination of desolation is inthe holy place. " [82] At the hour of prayer they stood together inthe church of the resurrection; but the caliph refused to perform hisdevotions, and contented himself with praying on the steps of the churchof Constantine. To the patriarch he disclosed his prudent and honorablemotive. "Had I yielded, " said Omar, "to your request, the Moslems of afuture age would have infringed the treaty under color of imitatingmy example. " By his command the ground of the temple of Solomon wasprepared for the foundation of a mosch; [83] and, during a residenceof ten days, he regulated the present and future state of his Syrianconquests. Medina might be jealous, lest the caliph should bedetained by the sanctity of Jerusalem or the beauty of Damascus; herapprehensions were dispelled by his prompt and voluntary return to thetomb of the apostle. [84]

[Footnote 7911: See the explanation of this in Price, with the prophecywhich was hereby fulfilled, p 85. --M]

[Footnote 80: The singular journey and equipage of Omar are described(besides Ockley, vol. I. P. 250) by Murtadi, (Merveilles de l'Egypte, p. 200-202. )]

[Footnote 81: The Arabs boast of an old prophecy preserved at Jerusalem, and describing the name, the religion, and the person of Omar, thefuture conqueror. By such arts the Jews are said to have soothed thepride of their foreign masters, Cyrus and Alexander, (Joseph. Ant. Jud. L. Xi c. 1, 8, p. 447, 579-582. )]

[Footnote 82: Theophan. Chronograph. P. 281. This prediction, which hadalready served for Antiochus and the Romans, was again refitted forthe present occasion, by the economy of Sophronius, one of the deepesttheologians of the Monothelite controversy. ]

[Footnote 83: According to the accurate survey of D'Anville, (Dissertation sun l'ancienne Jerusalem, p. 42-54, ) the mosch of Omar, enlarged and embellished by succeeding caliphs, covered the ground ofthe ancient temple, (says Phocas, ) a length of 215, a breadth of 172, toises. The Nubian geographer declares, that this magnificent structurewas second only in size and beauty to the great mosch of Cordova, (p. 113, ) whose present state Mr. Swinburne has so elegantly represented, (Travels into Spain, p. 296-302. )]

[Footnote 84: Of the many Arabic tarikhs or chronicles of Jerusalem, (D'Herbelot, p. 867, ) Ockley found one among the Pocock Mss. Of Oxford, (vol. I. P. 257, ) which he has used to supply the defective narrative ofAl Wakidi. ]

To achieve what yet remained of the Syrian war the caliph had formed twoseparate armies; a chosen detachment, under Amrou and Yezid, was left inthe camp of Palestine; while the larger division, under the standardof Abu Obeidah and Caled, marched away to the north against Antiochand Aleppo. The latter of these, the Beraea of the Greeks, was notyet illustrious as the capital of a province or a kingdom; and theinhabitants, by anticipating their submission and pleading theirpoverty, obtained a moderate composition for their lives and religion. But the castle of Aleppo, [85] distinct from the city, stood erect ona lofty artificial mound the sides were sharpened to a precipice, andfaced with free-stone; and the breadth of the ditch might be filled withwater from the neighboring springs. After the loss of three thousandmen, the garrison was still equal to the defence; and Youkinna, theirvaliant and hereditary chief, had murdered his brother, a holy monk, for daring to pronounce the name of peace. In a siege of four or fivemonths, the hardest of the Syrian war, great numbers of the Saracenswere killed and wounded: their removal to the distance of a mile couldnot seduce the vigilance of Youkinna; nor could the Christians beterrified by the execution of three hundred captives, whom they beheadedbefore the castle wall. The silence, and at length the complaints, of Abu Obeidah informed the caliph that their hope and patience wereconsumed at the foot of this impregnable fortress. "I am variouslyaffected, " replied Omar, "by the difference of your success; but Icharge you by no means to raise the siege of the castle. Your retreatwould diminish the reputation of our arms, and encourage the infidelsto fall upon you on all sides. Remain before Aleppo till God shalldetermine the event, and forage with your horse round the adjacentcountry. " The exhortation of the commander of the faithful was fortifiedby a supply of volunteers from all the tribes of Arabia, who arrived inthe camp on horses or camels. Among these was Dames, of a servile birth, but of gigantic size and intrepid resolution. The forty-seventh day ofhis service he proposed, with only thirty men, to make an attempt on thecastle. The experience and testimony of Caled recommended his offer; andAbu Obeidah admonished his brethren not to despise the baser originof Dames, since he himself, could he relinquish the public care, wouldcheerfully serve under the banner of the slave. His design was coveredby the appearance of a retreat; and the camp of the Saracens was pitchedabout a league from Aleppo. The thirty adventurers lay in ambush at thefoot of the hill; and Dames at length succeeded in his inquiries, thoughhe was provoked by the ignorance of his Greek captives. "God curse thesedogs, " said the illiterate Arab; "what a strange barbarous language theyspeak!" At the darkest hour of the night, he scaled the most accessibleheight, which he had diligently surveyed, a place where the stoneswere less entire, or the slope less perpendicular, or the guard lessvigilant. Seven of the stoutest Saracens mounted on each other'sshoulders, and the weight of the column was sustained on the broad andsinewy back of the gigantic slave. The foremost in this painful ascentcould grasp and climb the lowest part of the battlements; they silentlystabbed and cast down the sentinels; and the thirty brethren, repeatinga pious ejaculation, "O apostle of God, help and deliver us!" weresuccessively drawn up by the long folds of their turbans. With boldand cautious footsteps, Dames explored the palace of the governor, whocelebrated, in riotous merriment, the festival of his deliverance. Fromthence, returning to his companions, he assaulted on the inside theentrance of the castle. They overpowered the guard, unbolted the gate, let down the drawbridge, and defended the narrow pass, till the arrivalof Caled, with the dawn of day, relieved their danger and assuredtheir conquest. Youkinna, a formidable foe, became an active and usefulproselyte; and the general of the Saracens expressed his regard for themost humble merit, by detaining the army at Aleppo till Dames was curedof his honorable wounds. The capital of Syria was still covered by thecastle of Aazaz and the iron bridge of the Orontes. After the loss ofthose important posts, and the defeat of the last of the Roman armies, the luxury of Antioch [86] trembled and obeyed. Her safety was ransomedwith three hundred thousand pieces of gold; but the throne of thesuccessors of Alexander, the seat of the Roman government of the East, which had been decorated by Caesar with the titles of free, andholy, and inviolate was degraded under the yoke of the caliphs to thesecondary rank of a provincial town. [87]

[Footnote 85: The Persian historian of Timur (tom. Iii. L. V. C. 21, p. 300) describes the castle of Aleppo as founded on a rock one hundredcubits in height; a proof, says the French translator, that he had nevervisited the place. It is now in the midst of the city, of no strengthwith a single gate; the circuit is about 500 or 600 paces, and theditch half full of stagnant water, (Voyages de Tavernier, tom. I. P. 149 Pocock, vol. Ii. Part i. P. 150. ) The fortresses of the East arecontemptible to a European eye. ]

[Footnote 86: The date of the conquest of Antioch by the Arabs is ofsome importance. By comparing the years of the world in the chronographyof Theophanes with the years of the Hegira in the history of Elmacin, weshall determine, that it was taken between January 23d and September 1stof the year of Christ 638, (Pagi, Critica, in Baron. Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 812, 813. ) Al Wakidi (Ockley, vol. I. P. 314) assigns that event toTuesday, August 21st, an inconsistent date; since Easter fell thatyear on April 5th, the 21st of August must have been a Friday, (see theTables of the Art de Verifier les Dates. )]

[Footnote 87: His bounteous edict, which tempted the grateful city toassume the victory of Pharsalia for a perpetual aera, is given. JohnMalala, in Chron. P. 91, edit. Venet. We may distinguish his authenticinformation of domestic facts from his gross ignorance of generalhistory. ]

In the life of Heraclius, the glories of the Persian war are clouded oneither hand by the disgrace and weakness of his more early and his laterdays. When the successors of Mahomet unsheathed the sword of war andreligion, he was astonished at the boundless prospect of toil anddanger; his nature was indolent, nor could the infirm and frigid age ofthe emperor be kindled to a second effort. The sense of shame, and theimportunities of the Syrians, prevented the hasty departure from thescene of action; but the hero was no more; and the loss of Damascus andJerusalem, the bloody fields of Aiznadin and Yermuk, may be imputed insome degree to the absence or misconduct of the sovereign. Instead ofdefending the sepulchre of Christ, he involved the church and state in ametaphysical controversy for the unity of his will; and while Heracliuscrowned the offspring of his second nuptials, he was tamely strippedof the most valuable part of their inheritance. In the cathedral ofAntioch, in the presence of the bishops, at the foot of the crucifix, he bewailed the sins of the prince and people; but his confessioninstructed the world, that it was vain, and perhaps impious, to resistthe judgment of God. The Saracens were invincible in fact, since theywere invincible in opinion; and the desertion of Youkinna, his falserepentance and repeated perfidy, might justify the suspicion ofthe emperor, that he was encompassed by traitors and apostates, whoconspired to betray his person and their country to the enemies ofChrist. In the hour of adversity, his superstition was agitated bythe omens and dreams of a falling crown; and after bidding an eternalfarewell to Syria, he secretly embarked with a few attendants, andabsolved the faith of his subjects. [88] Constantine, his eldest son, had been stationed with forty thousand men at Caesarea, the civilmetropolis of the three provinces of Palestine. But his private interestrecalled him to the Byzantine court; and, after the flight of hisfather, he felt himself an unequal champion to the united force of thecaliph. His vanguard was boldly attacked by three hundred Arabs anda thousand black slaves, who, in the depth of winter, had climbedthe snowy mountains of Libanus, and who were speedily followed by thevictorious squadrons of Caled himself. From the north and south thetroops of Antioch and Jerusalem advanced along the sea-shore till theirbanners were joined under the walls of the Phoenician cities: Tripoliand Tyre were betrayed; and a fleet of fifty transports, which enteredwithout distrust the captive harbors, brought a seasonable supply ofarms and provisions to the camp of the Saracens. Their labors wereterminated by the unexpected surrender of Caesarea: the Roman prince hadembarked in the night; [89] and the defenceless citizens solicited theirpardon with an offering of two hundred thousand pieces of gold. The remainder of the province, Ramlah, Ptolemais or Acre, Sichem orNeapolis, Gaza, Ascalon, Berytus, Sidon, Gabala, Laodicea, Apamea, Hierapolis, no longer presumed to dispute the will of the conqueror; andSyria bowed under the sceptre of the caliphs seven hundred years afterPompey had despoiled the last of the Macedonian kings. [90]

[Footnote 88: See Ockley, (vol. I. P. 308, 312, ) who laughs at thecredulity of his author. When Heraclius bade farewell to Syria, ValeSyria et ultimum vale, he prophesied that the Romans should neverreenter the province till the birth of an inauspicious child, the futurescourge of the empire. Abulfeda, p. 68. I am perfectly ignorant of themystic sense, or nonsense, of this prediction. ]

[Footnote 89: In the loose and obscure chronology of the times, I amguided by an authentic record, (in the book of ceremonies of ConstantinePorphyrogenitus, ) which certifies that, June 4, A. D. 638, the emperorcrowned his younger son Heraclius, in the presence of his eldest, Constantine, and in the palace of Constantinople; that January 1, A. D. 639, the royal procession visited the great church, and on the 4th ofthe same month, the hippodrome. ]

[Footnote 90: Sixty-five years before Christ, Syria Pontusque monumentasunt Cn. Pompeii virtutis, (Vell. Patercul. Ii. 38, ) rather of hisfortune and power: he adjudged Syria to be a Roman province, and thelast of the Seleucides were incapable of drawing a sword in the defenceof their patrimony (see the original texts collected by Usher, Annal. P. 420)]

Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs. --Part V. 

The sieges and battles of six campaigns had consumed many thousandsof the Moslems. They died with the reputation and the cheerfulness ofmartyrs; and the simplicity of their faith may be expressed in the wordsof an Arabian youth, when he embraced, for the last time, his sister andmother: "It is not, " said he, "the delicacies of Syria, or the fadingdelights of this world, that have prompted me to devote my life in thecause of religion. But I seek the favor of God and his apostle; and Ihave heard, from one of the companions of the prophet, that the spiritsof the martyrs will be lodged in the crops of green birds, who shalltaste the fruits, and drink of the rivers, of paradise. Farewell, weshall meet again among the groves and fountains which God has providedfor his elect. " The faithful captives might exercise a passive and morearduous resolution; and a cousin of Mahomet is celebrated for refusing, after an abstinence of three days, the wine and pork, the onlynourishment that was allowed by the malice of the infidels. The frailtyof some weaker brethren exasperated the implacable spirit of fanaticism;and the father of Amer deplored, in pathetic strains, the apostasyand damnation of a son, who had renounced the promises of God, and theintercession of the prophet, to occupy, with the priests and deacons, the lowest mansions of hell. The more fortunate Arabs, who survived thewar and persevered in the faith, were restrained by their abstemiousleader from the abuse of prosperity. After a refreshment of three days, Abu Obeidah withdrew his troops from the pernicious contagion of theluxury of Antioch, and assured the caliph that their religion and virtuecould only be preserved by the hard discipline of poverty and labor. Butthe virtue of Omar, however rigorous to himself, was kind and liberalto his brethren. After a just tribute of praise and thanksgiving, hedropped a tear of compassion; and sitting down on the ground, wrotean answer, in which he mildly censured the severity of his lieutenant:"God, " said the successor of the prophet, "has not forbidden the use ofthe good things of this worl to faithful men, and such as have performedgood works. Therefore you ought to have given them leave to restthemselves, and partake freely of those good things which the countryaffordeth. If any of the Saracens have no family in Arabia, they maymarry in Syria; and whosoever of them wants any female slaves, he maypurchase as many as he hath occasion for. " The conquerors preparedto use, or to abuse, this gracious permission; but the year of theirtriumph was marked by a mortality of men and cattle; and twenty-fivethousand Saracens were snatched away from the possession of Syria. The death of Abu Obeidah might be lamented by the Christians; but hisbrethren recollected that he was one of the ten elect whom the prophethad named as the heirs of paradise. [91] Caled survived his brethrenabout three years: and the tomb of the Sword of God is shown in theneighborhood of Emesa. His valor, which founded in Arabia and Syriathe empire of the caliphs, was fortified by the opinion of a specialprovidence; and as long as he wore a cap, which had been blessedby Mahomet, he deemed himself invulnerable amidst the darts of theinfidels. [9111]

[Footnote 91: Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem. P. 73. Mahomet could artfullyvary the praises of his disciples. Of Omar he was accustomed to say, that if a prophet could arise after himself, it would be Omar; and thatin a general calamity, Omar would be accepted by the divine justice, (Ockley, vol. I. P. 221. )]

[Footnote 9111: Khaled, according to the Rouzont Uzzuffa, (Price, p. 90, ) after having been deprived of his ample share of the plunder ofSyria by the jealousy of Omar, died, possessed only of his horse, hisarms, and a single slave. Yet Omar was obliged to acknowledge to hislamenting parent. That never mother had produced a son like Khaled. --M. ]

The place of the first conquerors was supplied by a new generation oftheir children and countrymen: Syria became the seat and support ofthe house of Ommiyah; and the revenue, the soldiers, the ships of thatpowerful kingdom were consecrated to enlarge on every side the empire ofthe caliphs. But the Saracens despise a superfluity of fame; and theirhistorians scarcely condescend to mention the subordinate conquestswhich are lost in the splendor and rapidity of their victorious career. 

To the north of Syria, they passed Mount Taurus, and reduced to theirobedience the province of Cilicia, with its capital Tarsus, the ancientmonument of the Assyrian kings. Beyond a second ridge of the samemountains, they spread the flame of war, rather than the light ofreligion, as far as the shores of the Euxine, and the neighborhood ofConstantinople. To the east they advanced to the banks and sources ofthe Euphrates and Tigris: [92] the long disputed barrier of Rome andPersia was forever confounded the walls of Edessa and Amida, of Dara andNisibis, which had resisted the arms and engines of Sapor or Nushirvan, were levelled in the dust; and the holy city of Abgarus might vainlyproduce the epistle or the image of Christ to an unbelieving conqueror. To the west the Syrian kingdom is bounded by the sea: and the ruin ofAradus, a small island or peninsula on the coast, was postponed duringten years. But the hills of Libanus abounded in timber; the trade ofPhoenicia was populous in mariners; and a fleet of seventeen hundredbarks was equipped and manned by the natives of the desert. The Imperialnavy of the Romans fled before them from the Pamphylian rocks to theHellespont; but the spirit of the emperor, a grandson of Heraclius, hadbeen subdued before the combat by a dream and a pun. [93] The Saracensrode masters of the sea; and the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes, and theCyclades, were successively exposed to their rapacious visits. Threehundred years before the Christian aera, the memorable though fruitlesssiege of Rhodes [94] by Demetrius had furnished that maritime republicwith the materials and the subject of a trophy. A gigantic statueof Apollo, or the sun, seventy cubits in height, was erected at theentrance of the harbor, a monument of the freedom and the arts ofGreece. After standing fifty-six years, the colossus of Rhodes wasoverthrown by an earthquake; but the massy trunk, and huge fragments, lay scattered eight centuries on the ground, and are often describedas one of the wonders of the ancient world. They were collected by thediligence of the Saracens, and sold to a Jewish merchant of Edessa, whois said to have laden nine hundred camels with the weight of the brassmetal; an enormous weight, though we should include the hundredcolossal figures, [95] and the three thousand statues, which adorned theprosperity of the city of the sun. 

[Footnote 92: Al Wakidi had likewise written a history of the conquestof Diarbekir, or Mesopotamia, (Ockley, at the end of the iid vol. , )which our interpreters do not appear to have seen. The Chronicle ofDionysius of Telmar, the Jacobite patriarch, records the taking ofEdessa A. D. 637, and of Dara A. D. 641, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Ii. P. 103;) and the attentive may glean some doubtful information fromthe Chronography of Theophanes, (p. 285-287. ) Most of the towns ofMesopotamia yielded by surrender, (Abulpharag. P. 112. ) * Note: It hasbeen published in Arabic by M. Ewald St. Martin, vol. Xi p 248; but itsauthenticity is doubted. --M. ]

[Footnote 93: He dreamt that he was at Thessalonica, a harmless andunmeaning vision; but his soothsayer, or his cowardice, understoodthe sure omen of a defeat concealed in that inauspicious word, Give toanother the victory, (Theoph. P. 286. Zonaras, tom. Ii. L. Xiv. P. 88. )]

[Footnote 94: Every passage and every fact that relates to the isle, thecity, and the colossus of Rhodes, are compiled in the laborious treatiseof Meursius, who has bestowed the same diligence on the two largerislands of the Crete and Cyprus. See, in the iiid vol. Of his works, theRhodus of Meursius, (l. I. C. 15, p. 715-719. ) The Byzantine writers, Theophanes and Constantine, have ignorantly prolonged the term to 1360years, and ridiculously divide the weight among 30, 000 camels. ]

[Footnote 95: Centum colossi alium nobilitaturi locum, says Pliny, withhis usual spirit. Hist. Natur. Xxxiv. 18. ]

II. The conquest of Egypt may be explained by the character of thevictorious Saracen, one of the first of his nation, in an age when themeanest of the brethren was exalted above his nature by the spirit ofenthusiasm. The birth of Amrou was at once base and illustrious; hismother, a notorious prostitute, was unable to decide among five of theKoreish; but the proof of resemblance adjudged the child to Aasi, the oldest of her lovers. [96] The youth of Amrou was impelled by thepassions and prejudices of his kindred: his poetic genius was exercisedin satirical verses against the person and doctrine of Mahomet; hisdexterity was employed by the reigning faction to pursue the religiousexiles who had taken refuge in the court of the Aethiopian king. [97]Yet he returned from this embassy a secret proselyte; his reason or hisinterest determined him to renounce the worship of idols; he escapedfrom Mecca with his friend Caled; and the prophet of Medina enjoyed atthe same moment the satisfaction of embracing the two firmest championsof his cause. The impatience of Amrou to lead the armies of the faithfulwas checked by the reproof of Omar, who advised him not to seekpower and dominion, since he who is a subject to-day, may be a princeto-morrow. Yet his merit was not overlooked by the two first successorsof Mahomet; they were indebted to his arms for the conquest ofPalestine; and in all the battles and sieges of Syria, he united withthe temper of a chief the valor of an adventurous soldier. In a visitto Medina, the caliph expressed a wish to survey the sword which had cutdown so many Christian warriors; the son of Aasi unsheathed a short andordinary cimeter; and as he perceived the surprise of Omar, "Alas, " saidthe modest Saracen, "the sword itself, without the arm of its master, isneither sharper nor more weighty than the sword of Pharezdak the poet. "[98] After the conquest of Egypt, he was recalled by the jealousy ofthe caliph Othman; but in the subsequent troubles, the ambition of asoldier, a statesman, and an orator, emerged from a private station. His powerful support, both in council and in the field, established thethrone of the Ommiades; the administration and revenue of Egypt wererestored by the gratitude of Moawiyah to a faithful friend who hadraised himself above the rank of a subject; and Amrou ended his days inthe palace and city which he had founded on the banks of the Nile. Hisdying speech to his children is celebrated by the Arabians as a modelof eloquence and wisdom: he deplored the errors of his youth but if thepenitent was still infected by the vanity of a poet, he might exaggeratethe venom and mischief of his impious compositions. [99]

[Footnote 96: We learn this anecdote from a spirited old woman, whoreviled to their faces, the caliph and his friend. She was encouragedby the silence of Amrou and the liberality of Moawiyah, (Abulfeda, AnnalMoslem. P. 111. )]

[Footnote 97: Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. Ii. P. 46, &c. , who quotesthe Abyssinian history, or romance of Abdel Balcides. Yet the fact ofthe embassy and ambassador may be allowed. ]

[Footnote 98: This saying is preserved by Pocock, (Not. Ad CarmenTograi, p 184, ) and justly applauded by Mr. Harris, (PhilosophicalArrangements, p. 850. )]

[Footnote 99: For the life and character of Amrou, see Ockley (Hist. Ofthe Saracens, vol. I. P. 28, 63, 94, 328, 342, 344, and to the end ofthe volume; vol. Ii. P. 51, 55, 57, 74, 110-112, 162) and Otter, (Mem. De l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. Xxi. P. 131, 132. ) The readersof Tacitus may aptly compare Vespasian and Mucianus with Moawiyah andAmrou. Yet the resemblance is still more in the situation, than in thecharacters, of the men. ]

From his camp in Palestine, Amrou had surprised or anticipated thecaliph's leave for the invasion of Egypt. [100] The magnanimous Omartrusted in his God and his sword, which had shaken the thrones ofChosroes and Caesar: but when he compared the slender force of theMoslems with the greatness of the enterprise, he condemned his ownrashness, and listened to his timid companions. The pride and thegreatness of Pharaoh were familiar to the readers of the Koran; and atenfold repetition of prodigies had been scarcely sufficient to effect, not the victory, but the flight, of six hundred thousand of thechildren of Israel: the cities of Egypt were many and populous; theirarchitecture was strong and solid; the Nile, with its numerous branches, was alone an insuperable barrier; and the granary of the Imperial citywould be obstinately defended by the Roman powers. In this perplexity, the commander of the faithful resigned himself to the decision ofchance, or, in his opinion, of Providence. At the head of only fourthousand Arabs, the intrepid Amrou had marched away from his station ofGaza when he was overtaken by the messenger of Omar. "If you are stillin Syria, " said the ambiguous mandate, "retreat without delay; but if, at the receipt of this epistle, you have already reached the frontiersof Egypt, advance with confidence, and depend on the succor of God andof your brethren. " The experience, perhaps the secret intelligence, of Amrou had taught him to suspect the mutability of courts; and hecontinued his march till his tents were unquestionably pitched onEgyptian ground. He there assembled his officers, broke the seal, perused the epistle, gravely inquired the name and situation of theplace, and declared his ready obedience to the commands of the caliph. After a siege of thirty days, he took possession of Farmah or Pelusium;and that key of Egypt, as it has been justly named, unlocked theentrance of the country as far as the ruins of Heliopolis and theneighborhood of the modern Cairo. 

[Footnote 100: Al Wakidi had likewise composed a separate history ofthe conquest of Egypt, which Mr. Ockley could never procure; and his owninquiries (vol. I. 344-362) have added very little to the original textof Eutychius, (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 296-323, vers. Pocock, ) the Melchitepatriarch of Alexandria, who lived three hundred years after therevolution. ]

On the Western side of the Nile, at a small distance to the east of thePyramids, at a small distance to the south of the Delta, Memphis, onehundred and fifty furlongs in circumference, displayed the magnificenceof ancient kings. Under the reign of the Ptolemies and Caesars, theseat of government was removed to the sea-coast; the ancient capitalwas eclipsed by the arts and opulence of Alexandria; the palaces, andat length the temples, were reduced to a desolate and ruinous condition:yet, in the age of Augustus, and even in that of Constantine, Memphiswas still numbered among the greatest and most populous of theprovincial cities. [101] The banks of the Nile, in this place of thebreadth of three thousand feet, were united by two bridges of sixty andof thirty boats, connected in the middle stream by the small island ofRouda, which was covered with gardens and habitations. [102] The easternextremity of the bridge was terminated by the town of Babylon and thecamp of a Roman legion, which protected the passage of the river and thesecond capital of Egypt. This important fortress, which might fairly bedescribed as a part of Memphis or Misrah, was invested by the arms ofthe lieutenant of Omar: a reenforcement of four thousand Saracens soonarrived in his camp; and the military engines, which battered the walls, may be imputed to the art and labor of his Syrian allies. Yet the siegewas protracted to seven months; and the rash invaders were encompassedand threatened by the inundation of the Nile. [103] Their last assaultwas bold and successful: they passed the ditch, which had been fortifiedwith iron spikes, applied their scaling ladders, entered the fortresswith the shout of "God is victorious!" and drove the remnant of theGreeks to their boats and the Isle of Rouda. The spot was afterwardsrecommended to the conqueror by the easy communication with the gulf andthe peninsula of Arabia; the remains of Memphis were deserted; the tentsof the Arabs were converted into permanent habitations; and the firstmosch was blessed by the presence of fourscore companions of Mahomet. [104] A new city arose in their camp, on the eastward bank of the Nile;and the contiguous quarters of Babylon and Fostat are confounded intheir present decay by the appellation of old Misrah, or Cairo, ofwhich they form an extensive suburb. But the name of Cairo, the town ofvictory, more strictly belongs to the modern capital, which was foundedin the tenth century by the Fatimite caliphs. [105] It has graduallyreceded from the river; but the continuity of buildings may be tracedby an attentive eye from the monuments of Sesostris to those of Saladin. [106]

[Footnote 101: Strabo, an accurate and attentive spectator, observesof Heliopolis, (Geograph. L. Xvii. P. 1158;) but of Memphis he notices, however, the mixture of inhabitants, and the ruin of the palaces. In theproper Egypt, Ammianus enumerates Memphis among the four cities, maximisurbibus quibus provincia nitet, (xxii. 16;) and the name of Memphisappears with distinction in the Roman Itinerary and episcopal lists. ]

[Footnote 102: These rare and curious facts, the breadth (2946 feet)and the bridge of the Nile, are only to be found in the Danish travellerand the Nubian geographer, (p. 98. )]

[Footnote 103: From the month of April, the Nile begins imperceptibly torise; the swell becomes strong and visible in the moon after the summersolstice, (Plin. Hist. Nat. V. 10, ) and is usually proclaimed at Cairoon St. Peter's day, (June 29. ) A register of thirty successive yearsmarks the greatest height of the waters between July 25 and August18, (Maillet, Description de l'Egypte, lettre xi. P. 67, &c. Pocock'sDescription of the East, vol. I. P. 200. Shaw's Travels, p. 383. )]

[Footnote 104: Murtadi, Merveilles de l'Egypte, 243, 259. He expatiateson the subject with the zeal and minuteness of a citizen and a bigot, and his local traditions have a strong air of truth and accuracy. ]

[Footnote 105: D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 233. ]

[Footnote 106: The position of New and of Old Cairo is well known, andhas been often described. Two writers, who were intimately acquaintedwith ancient and modern Egypt, have fixed, after a learned inquiry, the city of Memphis at Gizeh, directly opposite the Old Cairo, (Sicard, Nouveaux Memoires des Missions du Levant, tom. Vi. P. 5, 6. Shaw'sObservations and Travels, p. 296-304. ) Yet we may not disregard theauthority or the arguments of Pocock, (vol. I. P. 25-41, ) Niebuhr, (Voyage, tom. I. P. 77-106, ) and above all, of D'Anville, (Descriptionde l'Egypte, p. 111, 112, 130-149, ) who have removed Memphis towards thevillage of Mohannah, some miles farther to the south. In their heat, thedisputants have forgot that the ample space of a metropolis covers andannihilates the far greater part of the controversy. ]

Yet the Arabs, after a glorious and profitable enterprise, must haveretreated to the desert, had they not found a powerful alliance in theheart of the country. The rapid conquest of Alexander was assisted bythe superstition and revolt of the natives: they abhorred their Persianoppressors, the disciples of the Magi, who had burnt the temples ofEgypt, and feasted with sacrilegious appetite on the flesh of the godApis. [107] After a period of ten centuries, the same revolution wasrenewed by a similar cause; and in the support of an incomprehensiblecreed, the zeal of the Coptic Christians was equally ardent. Ihave already explained the origin and progress of the Monophysitecontroversy, and the persecution of the emperors, which converted a sectinto a nation, and alienated Egypt from their religion and government. The Saracens were received as the deliverers of the Jacobite church;and a secret and effectual treaty was opened during the siege of Memphisbetween a victorious army and a people of slaves. A rich and nobleEgyptian, of the name of Mokawkas, had dissembled his faith to obtainthe administration of his province: in the disorders of the Persianwar he aspired to independence: the embassy of Mahomet ranked him amongprinces; but he declined, with rich gifts and ambiguous compliments, theproposal of a new religion. [108] The abuse of his trust exposed him tothe resentment of Heraclius: his submission was delayed by arrogance andfear; and his conscience was prompted by interest to throw himself onthe favor of the nation and the support of the Saracens. In his firstconference with Amrou, he heard without indignation the usual option ofthe Koran, the tribute, or the sword. "The Greeks, " replied Mokawkas, "are determined to abide the determination of the sword; but with theGreeks I desire no communion, either in this world or in the next, andI abjure forever the Byzantine tyrant, his synod of Chalcedon, and hisMelchite slaves. For myself and my brethren, we are resolved to liveand die in the profession of the gospel and unity of Christ. It isimpossible for us to embrace the revelations of your prophet; but we aredesirous of peace, and cheerfully submit to pay tribute and obedience tohis temporal successors. " The tribute was ascertained at two pieces ofgold for the head of every Christian; but old men, monks, women, andchildren, of both sexes, under sixteen years of age, were exemptedfrom this personal assessment: the Copts above and below Memphis sworeallegiance to the caliph, and promised a hospitable entertainment ofthree days to every Mussulman who should travel through their country. By this charter of security, the ecclesiastical and civil tyranny of theMelchites was destroyed: [109] the anathemas of St. Cyril were thunderedfrom every pulpit; and the sacred edifices, with the patrimony of thechurch, were restored to the national communion of the Jacobites, whoenjoyed without moderation the moment of triumph and revenge. At thepressing summons of Amrou, their patriarch Benjamin emerged from hisdesert; and after the first interview, the courteous Arab affected todeclare that he had never conversed with a Christian priest of moreinnocent manners and a more venerable aspect. [110] In the march fromMemphis to Alexandria, the lieutenant of Omar intrusted his safety tothe zeal and gratitude of the Egyptians: the roads and bridges werediligently repaired; and in every step of his progress, he could dependon a constant supply of provisions and intelligence. The Greeks ofEgypt, whose numbers could scarcely equal a tenth of the natives, wereoverwhelmed by the universal defection: they had ever been hated, theywere no longer feared: the magistrate fled from his tribunal, the bishopfrom his altar; and the distant garrisons were surprised or starved bythe surrounding multitudes. Had not the Nile afforded a safe and readyconveyance to the sea, not an individual could have escaped, who bybirth, or language, or office, or religion, was connected with theirodious name. 

[Footnote 107: See Herodotus, l. Iii. C. 27, 28, 29. Aelian, Hist. Var. L. Iv. C. 8. Suidas in, tom. Ii. P. 774. Diodor. Sicul. Tom. Ii. L. Xvii. P. 197, edit. Wesseling. Says the last of these historians. ]

[Footnote 108: Mokawkas sent the prophet two Coptic damsels, with twomaids and one eunuch, an alabaster vase, an ingot of pure gold, oil, honey, and the finest white linen of Egypt, with a horse, a mule, andan ass, distinguished by their respective qualifications. The embassyof Mahomet was despatched from Medina in the seventh year of the Hegira, (A. D. 628. ) See Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. Ii. P. 255, 256, 303, )from Al Jannabi. ]

[Footnote 109: The praefecture of Egypt, and the conduct of the war, had been trusted by Heraclius to the patriarch Cyrus, (Theophan. P. 280, 281. ) "In Spain, " said James II. , "do you not consult your priests?""We do, " replied the Catholic ambassador, "and our affairs succeedaccordingly. " I know not how to relate the plans of Cyrus, of payingtribute without impairing the revenue, and of converting Omar by hismarriage with the Emperor's daughter, (Nicephor. Breviar. P. 17, 18. )]

[Footnote 110: See the life of Benjamin, in Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. P. 156-172, ) who has enriched the conquest of Egypt withsome facts from the Arabic text of Severus the Jacobite historian]

By the retreat of the Greeks from the provinces of Upper Egypt, aconsiderable force was collected in the Island of Delta; the naturaland artificial channels of the Nile afforded a succession of strong anddefensible posts; and the road to Alexandria was laboriously cleared bythe victory of the Saracens in two-and-twenty days of general or partialcombat. In their annals of conquest, the siege of Alexandria [111] isperhaps the most arduous and important enterprise. The first tradingcity in the world was abundantly replenished with the means ofsubsistence and defence. Her numerous inhabitants fought for the dearestof human rights, religion and property; and the enmity of the nativesseemed to exclude them from the common benefit of peace and toleration. The sea was continually open; and if Heraclius had been awake to thepublic distress, fresh armies of Romans and Barbarians might have beenpoured into the harbor to save the second capital of the empire. Acircumference of ten miles would have scattered the forces of theGreeks, and favored the stratagems of an active enemy; but the two sidesof an oblong square were covered by the sea and the Lake Maraeotis, andeach of the narrow ends exposed a front of no more than ten furlongs. The efforts of the Arabs were not inadequate to the difficulty of theattempt and the value of the prize. From the throne of Medina, the eyesof Omar were fixed on the camp and city: his voice excited to arms theArabian tribes and the veterans of Syria; and the merit of a holy warwas recommended by the peculiar fame and fertility of Egypt. Anxiousfor the ruin or expulsion of their tyrants, the faithful natives devotedtheir labors to the service of Amrou: some sparks of martial spirit wereperhaps rekindled by the example of their allies; and the sanguinehopes of Mokawkas had fixed his sepulchre in the church of St. John ofAlexandria. Eutychius the patriarch observes, that the Saracens foughtwith the courage of lions: they repulsed the frequent and almost dailysallies of the besieged, and soon assaulted in their turn the walls andtowers of the city. In every attack, the sword, the banner of Amrou, glittered in the van of the Moslems. On a memorable day, he was betrayedby his imprudent valor: his followers who had entered the citadelwere driven back; and the general, with a friend and slave, remained aprisoner in the hands of the Christians. When Amrou was conducted beforethe praefect, he remembered his dignity, and forgot his situation: alofty demeanor, and resolute language, revealed the lieutenant of thecaliph, and the battle-axe of a soldier was already raised to strike offthe head of the audacious captive. His life was saved by the readinessof his slave, who instantly gave his master a blow on the face, andcommanded him, with an angry tone, to be silent in the presence of hissuperiors. The credulous Greek was deceived: he listened to the offerof a treaty, and his prisoners were dismissed in the hope of a morerespectable embassy, till the joyful acclamations of the camp announcedthe return of their general, and insulted the folly of the infidels. At length, after a siege of fourteen months, [112] and the loss ofthree-and-twenty thousand men, the Saracens prevailed: the Greeksembarked their dispirited and diminished numbers, and the standardof Mahomet was planted on the walls of the capital of Egypt. "I havetaken, " said Amrou to the caliph, "the great city of the West. It isimpossible for me to enumerate the variety of its riches and beauty; andI shall content myself with observing, that it contains four thousandpalaces, four thousand baths, four hundred theatres or places ofamusement, twelve thousand shops for the sale of vegetable food, andforty thousand tributary Jews. The town has been subdued by force ofarms, without treaty or capitulation, and the Moslems are impatient toseize the fruits of their victory. " [113] The commander of the faithfulrejected with firmness the idea of pillage, and directed his lieutenantto reserve the wealth and revenue of Alexandria for the public serviceand the propagation of the faith: the inhabitants were numbered; atribute was imposed, the zeal and resentment of the Jacobites werecurbed, and the Melchites who submitted to the Arabian yoke wereindulged in the obscure but tranquil exercise of their worship. Theintelligence of this disgraceful and calamitous event afflicted thedeclining health of the emperor; and Heraclius died of a dropsy aboutseven weeks after the loss of Alexandria. [114] Under the minorityof his grandson, the clamors of a people, deprived of their dailysustenance, compelled the Byzantine court to undertake the recoveryof the capital of Egypt. In the space of four years, the harbor andfortifications of Alexandria were twice occupied by a fleet and army ofRomans. They were twice expelled by the valor of Amrou, who was recalledby the domestic peril from the distant wars of Tripoli and Nubia. Butthe facility of the attempt, the repetition of the insult, and theobstinacy of the resistance, provoked him to swear, that if a thirdtime he drove the infidels into the sea, he would render Alexandria asaccessible on all sides as the house of a prostitute. Faithful to hispromise, he dismantled several parts of the walls and towers; but thepeople was spared in the chastisement of the city, and the mosch ofMercy was erected on the spot where the victorious general had stoppedthe fury of his troops. 

[Footnote 111: The local description of Alexandria is perfectlyascertained by the master hand of the first of geographers, (D'Anville, Memoire sur l'Egypte, p. 52-63;) but we may borrow the eyes of themodern travellers, more especially of Thevenot, (Voyage au Levant, parti. P. 381-395, ) Pocock, (vol. I. P. 2-13, ) and Niebuhr, (Voyage enArabie, tom. I. P. 34-43. ) Of the two modern rivals, Savary and Volmey, the one may amuse, the other will instruct. ]

[Footnote 112: Both Eutychius (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 319) and Elmacin(Hist. Saracen. P. 28) concur in fixing the taking of Alexandria toFriday of the new moon of Moharram of the twentieth year of the Hegira, (December 22, A. D. 640. ) In reckoning backwards fourteen months spentbefore Alexandria, seven months before Babylon, &c. , Amrou might haveinvaded Egypt about the end of the year 638; but we are assured that heentered the country the 12th of Bayni, 6th of June, (Murtadi, Merveillesde l'Egypte, p. 164. Severus, apud Renaudot, p. 162. ) The Saracen, andafterwards Lewis IX. Of France, halted at Pelusium, or Damietta, duringthe season of the inundation of the Nile. ]

[Footnote 113: Eutych. Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 316, 319. ]

[Footnote 114: Notwithstanding some inconsistencies of Theophanes andCedrenus, the accuracy of Pagi (Critica, tom. Ii. P. 824) has extractedfrom Nicephorus and the Chronicon Orientale the true date of the deathof Heraclius, February 11th, A. D. 641, fifty days after the lossof Alexandria. A fourth of that time was sufficient to convey theintelligence. ]

Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs. --Part VI. 

I should deceive the expectation of the reader, if I passed in silencethe fate of the Alexandrian library, as it is described by the learnedAbulpharagius. The spirit of Amrou was more curious and liberal thanthat of his brethren, and in his leisure hours, the Arabian chief waspleased with the conversation of John, the last disciple of Ammonius, and who derived the surname of Philoponus from his laborious studies ofgrammar and philosophy. [115] Emboldened by this familiar intercourse, Philoponus presumed to solicit a gift, inestimable in his opinion, contemptible in that of the Barbarians--the royal library, which alone, among the spoils of Alexandria, had not been appropriated by the visitand the seal of the conqueror. 

Amrou was inclined to gratify the wish of the grammarian, but his rigidintegrity refused to alienate the minutest object without the consentof the caliph; and the well-known answer of Omar was inspired by theignorance of a fanatic. "If these writings of the Greeks agree withthe book of God, they are useless, and need not be preserved: if theydisagree, they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed. " The sentencewas executed with blind obedience: the volumes of paper or parchmentwere distributed to the four thousand baths of the city; and such wastheir incredible multitude, that six months were barely sufficientfor the consumption of this precious fuel. Since the Dynasties ofAbulpharagius [116] have been given to the world in a Latin version, the tale has been repeatedly transcribed; and every scholar, with piousindignation, has deplored the irreparable shipwreck of the learning, the arts, and the genius, of antiquity. For my own part, I am stronglytempted to deny both the fact and the consequences. [1161] The fact isindeed marvellous. "Read and wonder!" says the historian himself: andthe solitary report of a stranger who wrote at the end of six hundredyears on the confines of Media, is overbalanced by the silence of twoannalist of a more early date, both Christians, both natives of Egypt, and the most ancient of whom, the patriarch Eutychius, has amplydescribed the conquest of Alexandria. [117] The rigid sentence of Omaris repugnant to the sound and orthodox precept of the Mahometan casuiststhey expressly declare, that the religious books of the Jews andChristians, which are acquired by the right of war, should neverbe committed to the flames; and that the works of profane science, historians or poets, physicians or philosophers, may be lawfully appliedto the use of the faithful. [118] A more destructive zeal may perhaps beattributed to the first successors of Mahomet; yet in this instance, the conflagration would have speedily expired in the deficiency ofmaterials. I should not recapitulate the disasters of the Alexandrianlibrary, the involuntary flame that was kindled by Caesar in his owndefence, [119] or the mischievous bigotry of the Christians, who studiedto destroy the monuments of idolatry. [120] But if we gradually descendfrom the age of the Antonines to that of Theodosius, we shall learn froma chain of contemporary witnesses, that the royal palace and the templeof Serapis no longer contained the four, or the seven, hundred thousandvolumes, which had been assembled by the curiosity and magnificence ofthe Ptolemies. [121] Perhaps the church and seat of the patriarchs mightbe enriched with a repository of books; but if the ponderous mass ofArian and Monophysite controversy were indeed consumed in the publicbaths, [122] a philosopher may allow, with a smile, that it wasultimately devoted to the benefit of mankind. I sincerely regret themore valuable libraries which have been involved in the ruin of theRoman empire; but when I seriously compute the lapse of ages, the wasteof ignorance, and the calamities of war, our treasures, rather than ourlosses, are the objects of my surprise. Many curious and interestingfacts are buried in oblivion: the three great historians of Rome havebeen transmitted to our hands in a mutilated state, and we are deprivedof many pleasing compositions of the lyric, iambic, and dramatic poetryof the Greeks. Yet we should gratefully remember, that the mischances oftime and accident have spared the classic works to which the suffrageof antiquity [123] had adjudged the first place of genius and glory:the teachers of ancient knowledge, who are still extant, had perused andcompared the writings of their predecessors; [124] nor can it fairlybe presumed that any important truth, any useful discovery in art ornature, has been snatched away from the curiosity of modern ages. 

[Footnote 115: Many treatises of this lover of labor are still extant, but for readers of the present age, the printed and unpublished arenearly in the same predicament. Moses and Aristotle are the chiefobjects of his verbose commentaries, one of which is dated as early asMay 10th, A. D. 617, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Ix. P. 458-468. ) Amodern, (John Le Clerc, ) who sometimes assumed the same name was equalto old Philoponus in diligence, and far superior in good sense and realknowledge. ]

[Footnote 116: Abulpharag. Dynast. P. 114, vers. Pocock. Audi quidfactum sit et mirare. It would be endless to enumerate the modernswho have wondered and believed, but I may distinguish with honor therational scepticism of Renaudot, (Hist. Alex. Patriarch, p. 170: )historia. .. Habet aliquid ut Arabibus familiare est. ]

[Footnote 1161: Since this period several new Mahometan authoritieshave been adduced to support the authority of Abulpharagius. That of, I. Abdollatiph by Professor White: II. Of Makrizi; I have seen a Ms. Extract from this writer: III. Of Ibn Chaledun: and after them HadschiChalfa. See Von Hammer, Geschichte der Assassinen, p. 17. Reinhard, in aGerman Dissertation, printed at Gottingen, 1792, and St. Croix, (MagasinEncyclop. Tom. Iv. P. 433, ) have examined the question. Among Orientalscholars, Professor White, M. St. Martin, Von Hammer. And Silv. De Sacy, consider the fact of the burning the library, by the command of Omar, beyond question. Compare St. Martin's note. Vol. Xi. P. 296. A Mahometanwriter brings a similar charge against the Crusaders. The libraryof Tripoli is said to have contained the incredible number of threemillions of volumes. On the capture of the city, Count Bertram of St. Giles, entering the first room, which contained nothing but the Koran, ordered the whole to be burnt, as the works of the false prophet ofArabia. See Wilken. Gesch der Kreux zuge, vol. Ii. P. 211. --M. ]

[Footnote 117: This curious anecdote will be vainly sought in the annalsof Eutychius, and the Saracenic history of Elmacin. The silence ofAbulfeda, Murtadi, and a crowd of Moslems, is less conclusive from theirignorance of Christian literature. ]

[Footnote 118: See Reland, de Jure Militari Mohammedanorum, in his iiidvolume of Dissertations, p. 37. The reason for not burning the religiousbooks of the Jews or Christians, is derived from the respect that is dueto the name of God. ]

[Footnote 119: Consult the collections of Frensheim (Supplement. Livian, c. 12, 43) and Usher, (Anal. P. 469. ) Livy himself had styled theAlexandrian library, elegantiae regum curaeque egregium opus; a liberalencomium, for which he is pertly criticized by the narrow stoicism ofSeneca, (De Tranquillitate Animi, c. 9, ) whose wisdom, on this occasion, deviates into nonsense. ]

[Footnote 120: See this History, vol. Iii. P. 146. ]

[Footnote 121: Aulus Gellius, (Noctes Atticae, vi. 17, ) AmmianusMarcellinua, (xxii. 16, ) and Orosius, (l. Vi. C. 15. ) They all speak inthe past tense, and the words of Ammianus are remarkably strong: fueruntBibliothecae innumerabiles; et loquitum monumentorum veterum concinensfides, &c. ]

[Footnote 122: Renaudot answers for versions of the Bible, Hexapla, Catenoe Patrum, Commentaries, &c. , (p. 170. ) Our Alexandrian Ms. , if itcame from Egypt, and not from Constantinople or Mount Athos, (Wetstein, Prolegom. Ad N. T. P. 8, &c. , ) might possibly be among them. ]

[Footnote 123: I have often perused with pleasure a chapter ofQuintilian, (Institut. Orator. X. I. , ) in which that judicious criticenumerates and appreciates the series of Greek and Latin classics. ]

[Footnote 124: Such as Galen, Pliny, Aristotle, &c. On this subjectWotton (Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning, p. 85-95) argues, with solid sense, against the lively exotic fancies of Sir WilliamTemple. The contempt of the Greeks for Barbaric science would scarcelyadmit the Indian or Aethiopic books into the library of Alexandria;nor is it proved that philosophy has sustained any real loss from theirexclusion. ]

In the administration of Egypt, [125] Amrou balanced the demands ofjustice and policy; the interest of the people of the law, who weredefended by God; and of the people of the alliance, who were protectedby man. In the recent tumult of conquest and deliverance, the tongueof the Copts and the sword of the Arabs were most adverse to thetranquillity of the province. To the former, Amrou declared, thatfaction and falsehood would be doubly chastised; by the punishment ofthe accusers, whom he should detest as his personal enemies, and by thepromotion of their innocent brethren, whom their envy had labored toinjure and supplant. He excited the latter by the motives of religionand honor to sustain the dignity of their character, to endearthemselves by a modest and temperate conduct to God and the caliph, to spare and protect a people who had trusted to their faith, and tocontent themselves with the legitimate and splendid rewards of theirvictory. In the management of the revenue, he disapproved the simple butoppressive mode of a capitation, and preferred with reason a proportionof taxes deducted on every branch from the clear profits of agricultureand commerce. A third part of the tribute was appropriated to the annualrepairs of the dikes and canals, so essential to the public welfare. Under his administration, the fertility of Egypt supplied the dearth ofArabia; and a string of camels, laden with corn and provisions, coveredalmost without an interval the long road from Memphis to Medina. [126]But the genius of Amrou soon renewed the maritime communication whichhad been attempted or achieved by the Pharaohs the Ptolemies, or theCaesars; and a canal, at least eighty miles in length, was opened fromthe Nile to the Red Sea. [1261] This inland navigation, which would havejoined the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, was soon discontinued asuseless and dangerous: the throne was removed from Medina to Damascus, and the Grecian fleets might have explored a passage to the holy citiesof Arabia. [127]

[Footnote 125: This curious and authentic intelligence of Murtadi(p. 284-289) has not been discovered either by Mr. Ockley, or by theself-sufficient compilers of the Modern Universal History. ]

[Footnote 126: Eutychius, Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 320. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. P. 35. ]

[Footnote 1261: Many learned men have doubted the existence of acommunication by water between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean bythe Nile. Yet the fact is positively asserted by the ancients. DiodorusSiculus (l. I. P. 33) speaks of it in the most distinct manner asexisting in his time. So, also, Strabo, (l. Xvii. P. 805. ) Pliny (vol. Vi. P. 29) says that the canal which united the two seas was navigable, (alveus navigabilis. ) The indications furnished by Ptolemy and by theArabic historian, Makrisi, show that works were executed under thereign of Hadrian to repair the canal and extend the navigation; it thenreceived the name of the River of Trajan Lucian, (in his Pseudomantis, p. 44, ) says that he went by water from Alexandria to Clysma, on theRed Sea. Testimonies of the 6th and of the 8th century show thatthe communication was not interrupted at that time. See the Frenchtranslation of Strabo, vol. V. P. 382. St. Martin vol. Xi. P. 299. --M. ]

[Footnote 127: On these obscure canals, the reader may try to satisfyhimself from D'Anville, (Mem. Sur l'Egypte, p. 108-110, 124, 132, ) anda learned thesis, maintained and printed at Strasburg in the year 1770, (Jungendorum marium fluviorumque molimina, p. 39-47, 68-70. ) Eventhe supine Turks have agitated the old project of joining the two seas. (Memoires du Baron de Tott, tom. Iv. )]

Of his new conquest, the caliph Omar had an imperfect knowledge fromthe voice of fame and the legends of the Koran. He requested that hislieutenant would place before his eyes the realm of Pharaoh and theAmalekites; and the answer of Amrou exhibits a lively and not unfaithfulpicture of that singular country. [128] "O commander of the faithful, Egypt is a compound of black earth and green plants, between apulverized mountain and a red sand. The distance from Syene to the seais a month's journey for a horseman. Along the valley descends a river, on which the blessing of the Most High reposes both in the evening andmorning, and which rises and falls with the revolutions of the sun andmoon. When the annual dispensation of Providence unlocks the springsand fountains that nourish the earth, the Nile rolls his swelling andsounding waters through the realm of Egypt: the fields are overspreadby the salutary flood; and the villages communicate with each otherin their painted barks. The retreat of the inundation deposits afertilizing mud for the reception of the various seeds: the crowdsof husbandmen who blacken the land may be compared to a swarm ofindustrious ants; and their native indolence is quickened by the lashof the task-master, and the promise of the flowers and fruits of aplentiful increase. Their hope is seldom deceived; but the riches whichthey extract from the wheat, the barley, and the rice, the legumes, the fruit-trees, and the cattle, are unequally shared between thosewho labor and those who possess. According to the vicissitudes ofthe seasons, the face of the country is adorned with a silver wave, averdant emerald, and the deep yellow of a golden harvest. " [129] Yetthis beneficial order is sometimes interrupted; and the long delay andsudden swell of the river in the first year of the conquest might affordsome color to an edifying fable. It is said, that the annual sacrificeof a virgin [130] had been interdicted by the piety of Omar; and thatthe Nile lay sullen and inactive in his shallow bed, till the mandateof the caliph was cast into the obedient stream, which rose in a singlenight to the height of sixteen cubits. The admiration of the Arabs fortheir new conquest encouraged the license of their romantic spirit. Wemay read, in the gravest authors, that Egypt was crowded with twentythousand cities or villages: [131] that, exclusive of the Greeks andArabs, the Copts alone were found, on the assessment, six millions oftributary subjects, [132] or twenty millions of either sex, and of everyage: that three hundred millions of gold or silver were annually paid tothe treasury of the caliphs. [133] Our reason must be startled by theseextravagant assertions; and they will become more palpable, if we assumethe compass and measure the extent of habitable ground: a valley fromthe tropic to Memphis seldom broader than twelve miles, and the triangleof the Delta, a flat surface of two thousand one hundred square leagues, compose a twelfth part of the magnitude of France. [134] A more accurateresearch will justify a more reasonable estimate. The three hundredmillions, created by the error of a scribe, are reduced to the decentrevenue of four millions three hundred thousand pieces of gold, of whichnine hundred thousand were consumed by the pay of the soldiers. [135]Two authentic lists, of the present and of the twelfth century, arecircumscribed within the respectable number of two thousand sevenhundred villages and towns. [136] After a long residence at Cairo, aFrench consul has ventured to assign about four millions of Mahometans, Christians, and Jews, for the ample, though not incredible, scope of thepopulation of Egypt. [137]

[Footnote 128: A small volume, des Merveilles, &c. , de l'Egypte, composed in the xiiith century by Murtadi of Cairo, and translatedfrom an Arabic Ms. Of Cardinal Mazarin, was published by Pierre Vatier, Paris, 1666. The antiquities of Egypt are wild and legendary; but thewriter deserves credit and esteem for his account of the conquest andgeography of his native country, (see the correspondence of Amrou andOmar, p. 279-289. )]

[Footnote 129: In a twenty years' residence at Cairo, the consul Maillethad contemplated that varying scene, the Nile, (lettre ii. Particularlyp. 70, 75;) the fertility of the land, (lettre ix. ) From a collegeat Cambridge, the poetic eye of Gray had seen the same objects with akeener glance:--

 What wonder in the sultry climes that spread, Where Nile, redundant o'er his summer bed, From his broad bosom life and verdure flings, And broods o'er Egypt with his watery wings:

 If with adventurous oar, and ready sail, The dusky people drive before the gale:

 Or on frail floats to neighboring cities ride. 

 That rise and glitter o'er the ambient tide. 

 (Mason's Works and Memoirs of Gray, p. 199, 200. )]

[Footnote 130: Murtadi, p. 164-167. The reader will not easily credita human sacrifice under the Christian emperors, or a miracle of thesuccessors of Mahomet. ]

[Footnote 131: Maillet, Description de l'Egypte, p. 22. He mentions thisnumber as the common opinion; and adds, that the generality of thesevillages contain two or three thousand persons, and that many of themare more populous than our large cities. ]

[Footnote 132: Eutych. Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 308, 311. The twenty millionsare computed from the following data: one twelfth of mankind abovesixty, one third below sixteen, the proportion of men to women asseventeen or sixteen, (Recherches sur la Population de la France, p. 71, 72. ) The president Goguet (Origine des Arts, &c. , tom. Iii. P. 26, &c. )Bestows twenty-seven millions on ancient Egypt, because the seventeenhundred companions of Sesostris were born on the same day. ]

[Footnote 133: Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. P. 218; and this gross lump isswallowed without scruple by D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. P. 1031, ) Ar. Buthnot, (Tables of Ancient Coins, p. 262, ) and De Guignes, (Hist. DesHuns, tom. Iii. P. 135. ) They might allege the not less extravagantliberality of Appian in favor of the Ptolemies (in praefat. ) of seventyfour myriads, 740, 000 talents, an annual income of 185, or near 300millions of pounds sterling, according as we reckon by the Egyptian orthe Alexandrian talent, (Bernard, de Ponderibus Antiq. P. 186. )]

[Footnote 134: See the measurement of D'Anville, (Mem. Sur l'Egypte, p. 23, &c. ) After some peevish cavils, M. Pauw (Recherches sur lesEgyptiens, tom. I. P. 118-121) can only enlarge his reckoning to 2250square leagues. ]

[Footnote 135: Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexand. P. 334, who callsthe common reading or version of Elmacin, error librarii. His ownemendation, of 4, 300, 000 pieces, in the ixth century, maintains aprobable medium between the 3, 000, 000 which the Arabs acquired by theconquest of Egypt, (idem, p. 168. ) and the 2, 400, 000 which the sultan ofConstantinople levied in the last century, (Pietro della Valle, tom. I. P. 352 Thevenot, part i. P. 824. ) Pauw (Recherches, tom. Ii. P. 365-373) gradually raises the revenue of the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and the Caesars, from six to fifteen millions of German crowns. ]

[Footnote 136: The list of Schultens (Index Geograph. Ad calcem Vit. Saladin. P. 5) contains 2396 places; that of D'Anville, (Mem. Surl'Egypte, p. 29, ) from the divan of Cairo, enumerates 2696. ]

[Footnote 137: See Maillet, (Description de l'Egypte, p. 28, ) who seemsto argue with candor and judgment. I am much better satisfied with theobservations than with the reading of the French consul. He was ignorantof Greek and Latin literature, and his fancy is too much delightedwith the fictions of the Arabs. Their best knowledge is collected byAbulfeda, (Descript. Aegypt. Arab. Et Lat. A Joh. David Michaelis, Gottingae, in 4to. , 1776;) and in two recent voyages into Egypt, weare amused by Savary, and instructed by Volney. I wish the latter couldtravel over the globe. ]

IV. The conquest of Africa, from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean, [138]was first attempted by the arms of the caliph Othman. 

The pious design was approved by the companions of Mahomet and thechiefs of the tribes; and twenty thousand Arabs marched from Medina, with the gifts and the blessing of the commander of the faithful. They were joined in the camp of Memphis by twenty thousand of theircountrymen; and the conduct of the war was intrusted to Abdallah, [139]the son of Said and the foster-brother of the caliph, who had latelysupplanted the conqueror and lieutenant of Egypt. Yet the favor of theprince, and the merit of his favorite, could not obliterate the guilt ofhis apostasy. The early conversion of Abdallah, and his skilful pen, hadrecommended him to the important office of transcribing the sheets ofthe Koran: he betrayed his trust, corrupted the text, derided the errorswhich he had made, and fled to Mecca to escape the justice, and exposethe ignorance, of the apostle. After the conquest of Mecca, he fellprostrate at the feet of Mahomet; his tears, and the entreaties ofOthman, extorted a reluctant pardon; out the prophet declared that hehad so long hesitated, to allow time for some zealous disciple to avengehis injury in the blood of the apostate. With apparent fidelity andeffective merit, he served the religion which it was no longer hisinterest to desert: his birth and talents gave him an honorable rankamong the Koreish; and, in a nation of cavalry, Abdallah was renowned asthe boldest and most dexterous horseman of Arabia. At the head of fortythousand Moslems, he advanced from Egypt into the unknown countries ofthe West. The sands of Barca might be impervious to a Roman legion butthe Arabs were attended by their faithful camels; and the natives ofthe desert beheld without terror the familiar aspect of the soil andclimate. After a painful march, they pitched their tents before thewalls of Tripoli, [140] a maritime city in which the name, the wealth, and the inhabitants of the province had gradually centred, and which nowmaintains the third rank among the states of Barbary. A reenforcementof Greeks was surprised and cut in pieces on the sea-shore; but thefortifications of Tripoli resisted the first assaults; and the Saracenswere tempted by the approach of the praefect Gregory [141] to relinquishthe labors of the siege for the perils and the hopes of a decisiveaction. If his standard was followed by one hundred and twenty thousandmen, the regular bands of the empire must have been lost in the nakedand disorderly crowd of Africans and Moors, who formed the strength, orrather the numbers, of his host. He rejected with indignation the optionof the Koran or the tribute; and during several days the two armies werefiercely engaged from the dawn of light to the hour of noon, whentheir fatigue and the excessive heat compelled them to seek shelter andrefreshment in their respective camps. The daughter of Gregory, a maidof incomparable beauty and spirit, is said to have fought by his side:from her earliest youth she was trained to mount on horseback, to drawthe bow, and to wield the cimeter; and the richness of her arms andapparel were conspicuous in the foremost ranks of the battle. Her hand, with a hundred thousand pieces of gold, was offered for the head of theArabian general, and the youths of Africa were excited by the prospectof the glorious prize. At the pressing solicitation of his brethren, Abdallah withdrew his person from the field; but the Saracens werediscouraged by the retreat of their leader, and the repetition of theseequal or unsuccessful conflicts. 

[Footnote 138: My conquest of Africa is drawn from two Frenchinterpreters of Arabic literature, Cardonne (Hist. De l'Afrique et del'Espagne sous la Domination des Arabes, tom. I. P. 8-55) and Otter, (Hist. De l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. Xxi. P. 111-125, and 136. )They derive their principal information from Novairi, who composed, A. D. 1331 an Encyclopaedia in more than twenty volumes. The five generalparts successively treat of, 1. Physics; 2. Man; 3. Animals; 4. Plants;and, 5. History; and the African affairs are discussed in the vithchapter of the vth section of this last part, (Reiske, Prodidagmata adHagji Chalifae Tabulas, p. 232-234. ) Among the older historians who arequoted by Navairi we may distinguish the original narrative of a soldierwho led the van of the Moslems. ]

[Footnote 139: See the history of Abdallah, in Abulfeda (Vit. Mohammed. P. 108) and Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. Iii. 45-48. )]

[Footnote 140: The province and city of Tripoli are described by LeoAfricanus (in Navigatione et Viaggi di Ramusio, tom. I. Venetia, 1550, fol. 76, verso) and Marmol, (Description de l'Afrique, tom. Ii. P. 562. )The first of these writers was a Moor, a scholar, and a traveller, whocomposed or translated his African geography in a state of captivityat Rome, where he had assumed the name and religion of Pope Leo X. Ina similar captivity among the Moors, the Spaniard Marmol, a soldierof Charles V. , compiled his Description of Africa, translated byD'Ablancourt into French, (Paris, 1667, 3 vols. In 4to. ) Marmol had readand seen, but he is destitute of the curious and extensive observationwhich abounds in the original work of Leo the African. ]

[Footnote 141: Theophanes, who mentions the defeat, rather than thedeath, of Gregory. He brands the praefect with the name: he had probablyassumed the purple, (Chronograph. P. 285. )]

A noble Arabian, who afterwards became the adversary of Ali, and thefather of a caliph, had signalized his valor in Egypt, and Zobeir[142] was the first who planted the scaling-ladder against the wallsof Babylon. In the African war he was detached from the standard ofAbdallah. On the news of the battle, Zobeir, with twelve companions, cuthis way through the camp of the Greeks, and pressed forwards, withouttasting either food or repose, to partake of the dangers of hisbrethren. He cast his eyes round the field: "Where, " said he, "is ourgeneral?" "In his tent. " "Is the tent a station for the general of theMoslems?" Abdallah represented with a blush the importance of his ownlife, and the temptation that was held forth by the Roman praefect. "Retort, " said Zobeir, "on the infidels their ungenerous attempt. Proclaim through the ranks that the head of Gregory shall be repaid withhis captive daughter, and the equal sum of one hundred thousand piecesof gold. " To the courage and discretion of Zobeir the lieutenant of thecaliph intrusted the execution of his own stratagem, which inclined thelong-disputed balance in favor of the Saracens. Supplying by activityand artifice the deficiency of numbers, a part of their forces layconcealed in their tents, while the remainder prolonged an irregularskirmish with the enemy till the sun was high in the heavens. On bothsides they retired with fainting steps: their horses were unbridled, their armor was laid aside, and the hostile nations prepared, or seemedto prepare, for the refreshment of the evening, and the encounter of theensuing day. On a sudden the charge was sounded; the Arabian camp pouredforth a swarm of fresh and intrepid warriors; and the long line ofthe Greeks and Africans was surprised, assaulted, overturned, by newsquadrons of the faithful, who, to the eye of fanaticism, might appearas a band of angels descending from the sky. The praefect himself wasslain by the hand of Zobeir: his daughter, who sought revenge and death, was surrounded and made prisoner; and the fugitives involved in theirdisaster the town of Sufetula, to which they escaped from the sabres andlances of the Arabs. Sufetula was built one hundred and fifty milesto the south of Carthage: a gentle declivity is watered by a runningstream, and shaded by a grove of juniper-trees; and, in the ruins ofa triumpha arch, a portico, and three temples of the Corinthian order, curiosity may yet admire the magnificence of the Romans. [143] After thefall of this opulent city, the provincials and Barbarians implored onall sides the mercy of the conqueror. His vanity or his zeal might beflattered by offers of tribute or professions of faith: but his losses, his fatigues, and the progress of an epidemical disease, preventeda solid establishment; and the Saracens, after a campaign of fifteenmonths, retreated to the confines of Egypt, with the captives and thewealth of their African expedition. The caliph's fifth was granted toa favorite, on the nominal payment of five hundred thousand piecesof gold; [144] but the state was doubly injured by this fallacioustransaction, if each foot-soldier had shared one thousand, and eachhorseman three thousand, pieces, in the real division of the plunder. The author of the death of Gregory was expected to have claimed the mostprecious reward of the victory: from his silence it might be presumedthat he had fallen in the battle, till the tears and exclamations ofthe praefect's daughter at the sight of Zobeir revealed the valor andmodesty of that gallant soldier. The unfortunate virgin was offered, and almost rejected as a slave, by her father's murderer, who coollydeclared that his sword was consecrated to the service of religion; andthat he labored for a recompense far above the charms of mortal beauty, or the riches of this transitory life. A reward congenial to his temperwas the honorable commission of announcing to the caliph Othman thesuccess of his arms. The companions the chiefs, and the people, wereassembled in the mosch of Medina, to hear the interesting narrative ofZobeir; and as the orator forgot nothing except the merit of his owncounsels and actions, the name of Abdallah was joined by the Arabianswith the heroic names of Caled and Amrou. [145]

[Footnote 142: See in Ockley (Hist. Of the Saracens, vol. Ii. P. 45) thedeath of Zobeir, which was honored with the tears of Ali, against whomhe had rebelled. His valor at the siege of Babylon, if indeed it be thesame person, is mentioned by Eutychius, (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 308)]

[Footnote 143: Shaw's Travels, p. 118, 119. ]

[Footnote 144: Mimica emptio, says Abulfeda, erat haec, et mira donatio;quandoquidem Othman, ejus nomine nummos ex aerario prius ablatos aerariopraestabat, (Annal. Moslem. P. 78. ) Elmacin (in his cloudy version, p. 39) seems to report the same job. When the Arabs be sieged the palace ofOthman, it stood high in their catalogue of grievances. `]

[Footnote 145: Theophan. Chronograph. P. 235 edit. Paris. His chronologyis loose and inaccurate. ]

[A. D. 665-689. ] The western conquests of the Saracens were suspendednear twenty years, till their dissensions were composed by theestablishment of the house of Ommiyah; and the caliph Moawiyah wasinvited by the cries of the Africans themselves. The successors ofHeraclius had been informed of the tribute which they had been compelledto stipulate with the Arabs; but instead of being moved to pity andrelieve their distress, they imposed, as an equivalent or a fine, asecond tribute of a similar amount. The ears of the zantine ministerswere shut against the complaints of their poverty and ruin theirdespair was reduced to prefer the dominion of a single master; and theextortions of the patriarch of Carthage, who was invested with civil andmilitary power, provoked the sectaries, and even the Catholics, of theRoman province to abjure the religion as well as the authority oftheir tyrants. The first lieutenant of Moawiyah acquired a just renown, subdued an important city, defeated an army of thirty thousand Greeks, swept away fourscore thousand captives, and enriched with their spoilsthe bold adventurers of Syria and Egypt. [146] But the title of conquerorof Africa is more justly due to his successor Akbah. He marched fromDamascus at the head of ten thousand of the bravest Arabs; and thegenuine force of the Moslems was enlarged by the doubtful aid andconversion of many thousand Barbarians. It would be difficult, nor isit necessary, to trace the accurate line of the progress of Akbah. Theinterior regions have been peopled by the Orientals with fictitiousarmies and imaginary citadels. In the warlike province of Zab orNumidia, fourscore thousand of the natives might assemble in arms; butthe number of three hundred and sixty towns is incompatible with theignorance or decay of husbandry;[147] and a circumference of threeleagues will not be justified by the ruins of Erbe or Lambesa, theancient metropolis of that inland country. As we approach the seacoast, the well-known titles of Bugia, [148] and Tangier[149] define the morecertain limits of the Saracen victories. A remnant of trade stilladheres to the commodious harbour of Bugia, which, in a more prosperousage, is said to have contained about twenty thousand houses; and theplenty of iron which is dug from the adjacent mountains might havesupplied a braver people with the instruments of defence. The remoteposition and venerable antiquity of Tingi, or Tangier, have beendecorated by the Greek and Arabian fables; but the figurativeexpressions of the latter, that the walls were constructed of brass, andthat the roofs were covered with gold and silver, may be interpreted asthe emblems of strength and opulence. 

[Footnote 146: Theophanes (in Chronograph. P. 293. ) inserts the vaguerumours that might reach Constantinople, of the western conquests of theArabs; and I learn from Paul Warnefrid, deacon of Aquileia (de GestisLangobard. 1. V. C. 13), that at this time they sent a fleet fromAlexandria into the Sicilian and African seas. ]

[Footnote 147: See Novairi (apud Otter, p. 118), Leo Africanus (fol. 81, verso), who reckoned only cinque citta e infinite casal, Marmol(Description de l'Afrique, tom. Iii. P. 33, ) and Shaw (Travels, p. 57, 65-68)]

[Footnote 148: Leo African. Fol. 58, verso, 59, recto. Marmol, tom. Ii. P. 415. Shaw, p. 43]

[Footnote 149: Leo African. Fol. 52. Marmol, tom. Ii. P. 228. ]

The province of Mauritania Tingitana, [150] which assumed the name of thecapital had been imperfectly discovered and settled by the Romans; thefive colonies were confined to a narrow pale, and the more southernparts were seldom explored except by the agents of luxury, who searchedthe forests for ivory and the citron wood, [151] and the shores of theocean for the purple shellfish. The fearless Akbah plunged into theheart of the country, traversed the wilderness in which his successorserected the splendid capitals of Fez and Morocco, [152] and at lengthpenetrated to the verge of the Atlantic and the great desert. The riverSuz descends from the western sides of mount Atlas, fertilizes, like theNile, the adjacent soil, and falls into the sea at a moderate distancefrom the Canary, or adjacent islands. Its banks were inhabited by thelast of the Moors, a race of savages, without laws, or discipline, orreligion: they were astonished by the strange and irresistible terrorsof the Oriental arms; and as they possessed neither gold nor silver, therichest spoil was the beauty of the female captives, some of whom wereafterward sold for a thousand pieces of gold. The career, though notthe zeal, of Akbah was checked by the prospect of a boundless ocean. He spurred his horse into the waves, and raising his eyes to heaven, exclaimed with the tone of a fanatic: "Great God! if my course were notstopped by this sea, I would still go on, to the unknown kingdoms of theWest, preaching the unity of thy holy name, and putting to the sword therebellious nations who worship another gods than thee. " [153] Yet thisMahometan Alexander, who sighed for new worlds, was unable to preservehis recent conquests. By the universal defection of the Greeks andAfricans he was recalled from the shores of the Atlantic, and thesurrounding multitudes left him only the resource of an honourabledeath. The last scene was dignified by an example of national virtue. Anambitious chief, who had disputed the command and failed in the attempt, was led about as a prisoner in the camp of the Arabian general. Theinsurgents had trusted to his discontent and revenge; he disdained theiroffers and revealed their designs. In the hour of danger, the gratefulAkbah unlocked his fetters, and advised him to retire; he chose to dieunder the banner of his rival. Embracing as friends and martyrs, theyunsheathed their scimeters, broke their scabbards, and maintained anobstinate combat, till they fell by each other's side on the last oftheir slaughtered countrymen. The third general or governor of Africa, Zuheir, avenged and encountered the fate of his predecessor. Hevanquished the natives in many battles; he was overthrown by a powerfularmy, which Constantinople had sent to the relief of Carthage. 

[Footnote 150: Regio ignobilis, et vix quicquam illustre sortita, parvisoppidis habitatur, parva flumina emittit, solo quam viris meleor etsegnitie gentis obscura. Pomponius Mela, i. 5, iii. 10. Mela deservesthe more credit, since his own Phoenician ancestors had migrated fromTingitana to Spain (see, in ii. 6, a passage of that geographer socruelly tortured by Salmasius, Isaac Vossius, and the most virulent ofcritics, James Gronovius). He lived at the time of the final reductionof that country by the emperor Claudius: yet almost thirty yearsafterward, Pliny (Hist. Nat. V. I. ) complains of his authors, to lazyto inquire, too proud to confess their ignorance of that wild and remoteprovince. ]

[Footnote 151: The foolish fashion of this citron wood prevailed at Romeamong the men, as much as the taste for pearls among the women. A roundboard or table, four or five feet in diameter, sold for the price ofan estate (latefundii taxatione), eight, ten, or twelve thousand poundssterling (Plin. Hist. Natur. Xiii. 29). I conceive that I must notconfound the tree citrus, with that of the fruit citrum. But I am notbotanist enough to define the former (it is like the wild cypress) bythe vulgar or Linnaean name; nor will I decide whether the citrum be theorange or the lemon. Salmasius appears to exhaust the subject, buthe too often involves himself in the web of his disorderly erudition. (Flinian. Exercitat. Tom. Ii. P 666, &c. )]

[Footnote 152: Leo African. Fol. 16, verso. Marmol, tom. Ii. P. 28. Thisprovince, the first scene of the exploits and greatness of the cherifsis often mentioned in the curious history of that dynasty at the end ofthe third volume of Marmol, Description de l'Afrique. The third vol. OfThe Recherches Historiques sur les Maures (lately published at Paris)illustrates the history and geography of the kingdoms of Fez andMorocco. ]

[Footnote 153: Otter (p. 119, ) has given the strong tone of fanaticismto this exclamation, which Cardonne (p. 37, ) has softened to a piouswish of preaching the Koran. Yet they had both the same text of Novairibefore their eyes. ]

[A. D. 670-675. ] It had been the frequent practice of the Moorish tribesto join the invaders, to share the plunder, to profess the faith, and torevolt in their savage state of independence and idolatry, on the firstretreat or misfortune of the Moslems. The prudence of Akbah had proposedto found an Arabian colony in the heart of Africa; a citadel that mightcurb the levity of the Barbarians, a place of refuge to secure, againstthe accidents of war, the wealth and the families of the Saracens. Withthis view, and under the modest title of the station of a caravan, heplanted this colony in the fiftieth year of the Hegira. In its presentdecay, Cairoan[154] still holds the second rank in the kingdom of Tunis, from which it is distant about fifty miles to the south;[155] its inlandsituation, twelve miles westward of the sea, has protected the city fromthe Greek and Sicilian fleets. When the wild beasts and serpents wereextirpated, when the forest, or rather wilderness, was cleared, thevestiges of a Roman town were discovered in a sandy plain: the vegetablefood of Cairoan is brought from afar; and the scarcity of springsconstrains the inhabitants to collect in cisterns and reservoirs aprecarious supply of rain water. These obstacles were subdued by theindustry of Akbah; he traced a circumference of three thousand and sixhundred paces, which he encompassed with a brick wall; in the spaceof five years, the governor's palace was surrounded with a sufficientnumber of private habitations; a spacious mosque was supported by fivehundred columns of granite, porphyry, and Numidian marble; and Cairoanbecame the seat of learning as well as of empire. But these were theglories of a later age; the new colony was shaken by the successivedefeats of Akbah and Zuheir, and the western expeditions were againinterrupted by the civil discord of the Arabian monarchy. The son of thevaliant Zobeir maintained a war of twelve years, a siege of seven monthsagainst the house of Ommiyah. Abdallah was said to unite the fiercenessof the lion with the subtlety of the fox; but if he inherited thecourage, he was devoid of the generosity, of his father. [156]

[A. D. 692-698. ] The return of domestic peace allowed the caliphAbdalmalek to resume the conquest of Africa; the standard was deliveredto Hassan governor of Egypt, and the revenue of that kingdom, with anarmy of forty thousand men, was consecrated to the important service. Inthe vicissitudes of war, the interior provinces had been alternately wonand lost by the Saracens. But the seacoast still remained in the handsof the Greeks; the predecessors of Hassan had respected the nameand fortifications of Carthage; and the number of its defenders wasrecruited by the fugitives of Cabes and Tripoli. The arms of Hassan werebolder and more fortunate: he reduced and pillaged the metropolis ofAfrica; and the mention of scaling-ladders may justify the suspicion, that he anticipated, by a sudden assault, the more tedious operations ofa regular siege. But the joy of the conquerors was soon disturbed by theappearance of the Christian succours. The praefect and patrician John, ageneral of experience and renown, embarked at Constantinople the forcesof the Eastern empire;[157] they were joined by the ships and soldiersof Sicily, and a powerful reinforcement of Goths[158] was obtained fromthe fears and religion of the Spanish monarch. 

[Footnote 154: The foundation of Cairoan is mentioned by Ockley (Hist. Of the Saracens, vol. Ii. P. 129, 130); and the situation, mosque, &c. Of the city are described by Leo Africanus (fol. 75), Marmol (tom. Ii. P. 532), and Shaw (p. 115). ]

[Footnote 155: A portentous, though frequent mistake, has been theconfounding, from a slight similitude of name, the Cyrene of the Greeks, and the Cairoan of the Arabs, two cities which are separated by aninterval of a thousand miles along the seacoast. The great Thuanus hasnot escaped this fault, the less excusable as it is connected with aformal and elaborate description of Africa (Historiar. L. Vii. C. 2, intom. I. P. 240, edit. Buckley). ]

[Footnote 156: Besides the Arabic Chronicles of Abulfeda, Elmacin, andAbulpharagius, under the lxxiiid year of the Hegira, we may consultnd'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient. P. 7, ) and Ockley (Hist. Of the Saracens, vol. Ii. P. 339-349). The latter has given the last and patheticdialogue between Abdallah and his mother; but he has forgot a physicaleffect of her grief for his death, the return, at the age of ninety, andfatal consequences of her menses. ]

[Footnote 157: The patriarch of Constantinople, with Theophanes(Chronograph. P. 309, ) have slightly mentioned this last attempt forthe relief or Africa. Pagi (Critica, tom. Iii. P. 129. 141, ) has nicelyascertained the chronology by a strict comparison of the Arabic andByzantine historians, who often disagree both in time and fact. Seelikewise a note of Otter (p. 121). ]

[Footnote 158: Dove s'erano ridotti i nobili Romani e i Gotti; andafterward, i Romani suggirono e i Gotti lasciarono Carthagine. (LeoAfrican. For. 72, recto) I know not from what Arabic writer the Africanderived his Goths; but the fact, though new, is so interesting and soprobable, that I will accept it on the slightest authority. ]

The weight of the confederate navy broke the chain that guarded theentrance of the harbour; the Arabs retired to Cairoan, or Tripoli; theChristians landed; the citizens hailed the ensign of the cross, andthe winter was idly wasted in the dream of victory or deliverance. ButAfrica was irrecoverably lost: the zeal and resentment of the commanderof the faithful[159] prepared in the ensuing spring a more numerousarmament by sea and land; and the patrician in his turn was compelledto evacuate the post and fortifications of Carthage. A second battlewas fought in the neighbourhood of Utica; and the Greeks and Goths wereagain defeated; and their timely embarkation saved them from the swordof Hassan, who had invested the slight and insufficient rampart of theircamp. Whatever yet remained of Carthage was delivered to the flames, andthe colony of Dido[160] and Cesar lay desolate above two hundred years, till a part, perhaps a twentieth, of the old circumference was repeopledby the first of the Fatimite caliphs. In the beginning of the sixteenthcentury, the second capital of the West was represented by a mosque, acollege without students, twenty-five or thirty shops, and the hutsof five hundred peasants, who, in their abject poverty, displayed thearrogance of the Punic senators. Even that paltry village was swept awayby the Spaniards whom Charles the Fifth had stationed in the fortress ofthe Goletta. The ruins of Carthage have perished; and the place might beunknown if some broken arches of an aqueduct did not guide the footstepsof the inquisitive traveller. [161]

[A. D. 698-709. ] The Greeks were expelled, but the Arabians were notyet masters of the country. In the interior provinces the Moors orBerbers, [162] so feeble under the first Cesars, so formidable to theByzantine princes, maintained a disorderly resistance to the religionand power of the successors of Mahomet. Under the standard of theirqueen Cahina, the independent tribes acquired some degree of union anddiscipline; and as the Moors respected in their females the character ofa prophetess, they attacked the invaders with an enthusiasm similar totheir own. The veteran bands of Hassan were inadequate to the defenceof Africa: the conquests of an age were lost in a single day; and theArabian chief, overwhelmed by the torrent, retired to the confines ofEgypt, and expected, five years, the promised succours of the caliph. After the retreat of the Saracens, the victorious prophetess assembledthe Moorish chiefs, and recommended a measure of strange and savagepolicy. "Our cities, " said she, "and the gold and silver which theycontain, perpetually attract the arms of the Arabs. These vile metalsare not the objects of OUR ambition; we content ourselves with thesimple productions of the earth. Let us destroy these cities; let usbury in their ruins those pernicious treasures; and when the avarice ofour foes shall be destitute of temptation, perhaps they will cease todisturb the tranquillity of a warlike people. " The proposal was acceptedwith unanimous applause. From Tangier to Tripoli the buildings, or atleast the fortifications, were demolished, the fruit-trees were cutdown, the means of subsistence were extirpated, a fertile and populousgarden was changed into a desert, and the historians of a morerecent period could discern the frequent traces of the prosperity anddevastation of their ancestors. 

[Footnote 159: This commander is styled by Nicephorus, -------- a vaguethough not improper definition of the caliph. Theophanes introduces thestrange appellation of ----------, which his interpreter Goar explainsby Vizir Azem. They may approach the truth, in assigning the activepart to the minister, rather than the prince; but they forget that theOmmiades had only a kaleb, or secretary, and that the office ofVizir was not revived or instituted till the 132d year of the Hegira(d'Herbelot, 912). ]

[Footnote 160: According to Solinus (1. 27, p. 36, edit. Salmas), theCarthage of Dido stood either 677 or 737 years; a various reading, which proceeds from the difference of MSS. Or editions (Salmas, Plinian. Exercit tom i. P. 228) The former of these accounts, which gives 823years before Christ, is more consistent with the well-weighed testimonyof Velleius Paterculus: but the latter is preferred by our chronologists(Marsham, Canon. Chron. P. 398, ) as more agreeable to the Hebrew andSyrian annals. ]

[Footnote 161: Leo African. Fo1. 71, verso; 72, recto. Marmol, tom. Ii. P. 445-447. Shaw, p. 80. ]

[Footnote 162: The history of the word Barbar may be classed under fourperiods, 1. In the time of Homer, when the Greeks and Asiatics mightprobably use a common idiom, the imitative sound of Barbar was appliedto the ruder tribes, whose pronunciation was most harsh, whose grammarwas most defective. 2. From the time, at least, of Herodotus, it wasextended to all the nations who were strangers to the language andmanners of the Greeks. 3. In the age, of Plautus, the Romans submittedto the insult (Pompeius Festus, l. Ii. P. 48, edit. Dacier), and freelygave themselves the name of Barbarians. They insensibly claimed anexemption for Italy, and her subject provinces; and at length removedthe disgraceful appellation to the savage or hostile nations beyondthe pale of the empire. 4. In every sense, it was due to the Moors; thefamiliar word was borrowed from the Latin Provincials by the Arabianconquerors, and has justly settled as a local denomination (Barbary)along the northern coast of Africa. ]

Such is the tale of the modern Arabians. Yet I strongly suspect thattheir ignorance of antiquity, the love of the marvellous, and thefashion of extolling the philosophy of Barbarians, has induced them todescribe, as one voluntary act, the calamities of three hundred yearssince the first fury of the Donatists and Vandals. In the progressof the revolt, Cahina had most probably contributed her share ofdestruction; and the alarm of universal ruin might terrify and alienatethe cities that had reluctantly yielded to her unworthy yoke. Theyno longer hoped, perhaps they no longer wished, the return of theirByzantine sovereigns: their present servitude was not alleviated by thebenefits of order and justice; and the most zealous Catholic must preferthe imperfect truths of the Koran to the blind and rude idolatry of theMoors. The general of the Saracens was again received as the saviour ofthe province; the friends of civil society conspired against the savagesof the land; and the royal prophetess was slain in the first battlewhich overturned the baseless fabric of her superstition and empire. The same spirit revived under the successor of Hassan; it was finallyquelled by the activity of Musa and his two sons; but the number of therebels may be presumed from that of three hundred thousand captives;sixty thousand of whom, the caliph's fifth, were sold for the profitof thee public treasury. Thirty thousand of the Barbarian youth wereenlisted in the troops; and the pious labours of Musa to inculcate theknowledge and practice of the Koran, accustomed the Africans to obey theapostle of God and the commander of the faithful. In their climate andgovernment, their diet and habitation, the wandering Moors resembled theBedoweens of the desert. With the religion, they were proud to adoptthe language, name, and origin of Arabs: the blood of the strangers andnatives was insensibly mingled; and from the Euphrates to the Atlanticthe same nation might seem to be diffused over the sandy plains ofAsia and Africa. Yet I will not deny that fifty thousand tents of pureArabians might be transported over the Nile, and scattered through theLybian desert: and I am not ignorant that five of the Moorish tribesstill retain their barbarous idiom, with the appellation and characterof white Africans. [163]

[A. D. 709. ] V. In the progress of conquest from the north and south, the Goths and the Saracens encountered each other on the confines ofEurope and Africa. In the opinion of the latter, the difference ofreligion is a reasonable ground of enmity and warfare. [164] As early asthe time of Othman[165] their piratical squadrons had ravaged the coastof Andalusia;[166] nor had they forgotten the relief of Carthage by theGothic succours. In that age, as well as in the present, the kings ofSpain were possessed of the fortress of Ceuta; one of the columns ofHercules, which is divided by a narrow strait from the opposite pillaror point of Europe. A small portion of Mauritania was still wanting tothe African conquest; but Musa, in the pride of victory, was repulsedfrom the walls of Ceuta, by the vigilance and courage of count Julian, the general of the Goths. From his disappointment and perplexity, Musa was relieved by an unexpected message of the Christian chief, who offered his place, his person, and his sword, to the successors ofMahomet, and solicited the disgraceful honour of introducing their armsinto the heart of Spain. [167]

[Footnote 163: The first book of Leo Africanus, and the observationsof Dr. Shaw (p. 220. 223. 227. 247, &c. ) will throw some light on theroving tribes of Barbary, of Arabian or Moorish descent. But Shawhad seen these savages with distant terror; and Leo, a captive in theVatican, appears to have lost more of his Arabic, than he could acquireof Greek or Roman, learning. Many of his gross mistakes might bedetected in the first period of the Mahometan history. ]

[Footnote 164: In a conference with a prince of the Greeks, Amrouobserved that their religion was different; upon which score it waslawful for brothers to quarrel. Ockley's History of the Saracens, vol. I. P. 328. ]

[Footnote 165: Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem. P 78, vers. Reiske. ]

[Footnote 166: The name of Andalusia is applied by the Arabs not only tothe modern province, but to the whole peninsula of Spain (Geograph. Nub. P. 151, d'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. P. 114, 115). The etymology hasbeen most improbably deduced from Vandalusia, country of the Vandals. (d'Anville Etats de l'Europe, p. 146, 147, &c. ) But the Handalusia ofCasiri, which signifies, in Arabic, the region of the evening, of theWest, in a word, the Hesperia of the Greeks, is perfectly apposite. (Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. Ii. P. 327, &c. )]

[Footnote 167: The fall and resurrection of the Gothic monarchy arerelated by Mariana (tom. L. P. 238-260, l. Vi. C. 19-26, l. Vii. C. 1, 2). That historian has infused into his noble work (Historic de RebusHispaniae, libri xxx. Hagae Comitum 1733, in four volumes, folio, withthe continuation of Miniana), the style and spirit of a Roman classic;and after the twelfth century, his knowledge and judgment may be safelytrusted. But the Jesuit is not exempt from the prejudices of his order;he adopts and adorns, like his rival Buchanan, the most absurd of thenational legends; he is too careless of criticism and chronology, andsupplies, from a lively fancy, the chasms of historical evidence. Thesechasms are large and frequent; Roderic archbishop of Toledo, the fatherof the Spanish history, lived five hundred years after the conquestof the Arabs; and the more early accounts are comprised in some meagrelines of the blind chronicles of Isidore of Badajoz (Pacensis, ) andof Alphonso III. King of Leon, which I have seen only in the Annals ofPagi. ]

If we inquire into the cause of this treachery, the Spaniards willrepeat the popular story of his daughter Cava;[168] of a virgin who wasseduced, or ravished, by her sovereign; of a father who sacrificed hisreligion and country to the thirst of revenge. The passions of princeshave often been licentious and destructive; but this well-known tale, romantic in itself, is indifferently supported by external evidence; andthe history of Spain will suggest some motives of interest and policymore congenial to the breast of a veteran statesman. [169] After thedecease or deposition of Witiza, his two sons were supplanted by theambition of Roderic, a noble Goth, whose father, the duke or governor ofa province, had fallen a victim to the preceding tyranny. The monarchywas still elective; but the sons of Witiza, educated on the steps of thethrone, were impatient of a private station. Their resentment was themore dangerous, as it was varnished with the dissimulation of courts:their followers were excited by the remembrance of favours and thepromise of a revolution: and their uncle Oppas, archbishop of Toledoand Seville, was the first person in the church, and the second in thestate. It is probable that Julian was involved in the disgrace of theunsuccessful faction, that he had little to hope and much to fear fromthe new reign; and that the imprudent king could not forget or forgivethe injuries which Roderic and his family had sustained. The merit andinfluence of the count rendered him a useful or formidable subject:his estates were ample, his followers bold and numerous, and it was toofatally shown that, by his Andalusian and Mauritanian commands, he heldin his hands the keys of the Spanish monarchy. Too feeble, however, tomeet his sovereign in arms, he sought the aid of a foreign power; andhis rash invitation of the Moors and Arabs produced the calamities ofeight hundred years. In his epistles, or in a personal interview, herevealed the wealth and nakedness of his country; the weakness of anunpopular prince; the degeneracy of an effeminate people. The Goths wereno longer the victorious Barbarians, who had humbled the pride of Rome, despoiled the queen of nations, and penetrated from the Danube to theAtlantic ocean. Secluded from the world by the Pyrenean mountains, thesuccessors of Alaric had slumbered in a long peace: the walls of thecity were mouldered into dust: the youth had abandoned the exercise ofarms; and the presumption of their ancient renown would expose them ina field of battle to the first assault of the invaders. The ambitiousSaracen was fired by the ease and importance of the attempt; butthe execution was delayed till he had consulted the commander of thefaithful; and his messenger returned with the permission of Walid toannex the unknown kingdoms of the West to the religion and throne of thecaliphs. In his residence of Tangier, Musa, with secrecy and caution, continued his correspondence and hastened his preparations. But theremorse of the conspirators was soothed by the fallacious assurance thathe should content himself with the glory and spoil, without aspiringto establish the Moslems beyond the sea that separates Africa fromEurope. [170]

[Footnote 168: Le viol (says Voltaire) est aussi difficile a fairequ'a prouver. Des Eveques se seroient ils lignes pour une fille? (Hist. Generale, c. Xxvi. ) His argument is not logically conclusive. ]

[Footnote 169: In the story of Cava, Mariana (I. Vi. C. 21, p. 241, 242, ) seems to vie with the Lucretia of Livy. Like the ancients, heseldom quotes; and the oldest testimony of Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 713, No. 19), that of Lucus Tudensis, a Gallician deacon of thethirteenth century, only says, Cava quam pro concubina utebatur. ]

[Footnote 170: The Orientals, Elmacin, Abulpharagins, Abolfeda, passover the conquest of Spain in silence, or with a single word. The textof Novairi, and the other Arabian writers, is represented, thoughwith some foreign alloy, by M. De Cardonne (Hist. De l'Afrique et del'Espagne sous la Domination des Arabes, Paris, 1765, 3 vols. 12mo. Tom. I. P. 55-114), and more concisely by M. De Guignes (Hist. Des Hune. Tom. I. P. 347-350). The librarian of the Escurial has not satisfiedmy hopes: yet he appears to have searched with diligence his brokenmaterials; and the history of the conquest is illustrated by somevaluable fragments of the genuine Razis (who wrote at. Corduba, A. H. 300), of Ben Hazil, &c. See Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. Ii. P. 32. 105, 106. 182. 252. 315-332. On this occasion, the industry of Pagi hasbeen aided by the Arabic learning of his friend the Abbe de Longuerue, and to their joint labours I am deeply indebted. ]

[A. D. 710. ] Before Musa would trust an army of the faithful to thetraitors and infidels of a foreign land, he made a less dangerous trialof their strength and veracity. One hundred Arabs and four hundredAfricans, passed over, in four vessels, from Tangier or Ceuta; the placeof their descent on the opposite shore of the strait, is marked by thename of Tarif their chief; and the date of this memorable event[171] isfixed to the month of Ramandan, of the ninety-first year of the Hegira, to the month of July, seven hundred and forty-eight years from theSpanish era of Cesar, [172] seven hundred and ten after the birth ofChrist. From their first station, they marched eighteen miles througha hilly country to the castle and town of Julian;[173] on which (it isstill called Algezire) they bestowed the name of the Green Island, from a verdant cape that advances into the sea. Their hospitableentertainment, the Christians who joined their standard, their inroadinto a fertile and unguarded province, the richness of their spoiland the safety of their return, announced to their brethren the mostfavourable omens of victory. In the ensuing spring, five thousandveterans and volunteers were embarked under the command of Tarik, adauntless and skilful soldier, who surpassed the expectation of hischief; and the necessary transports were provided by the industry oftheir too faithful ally. The Saracens landed[174] at the pillar or pointof Europe; the corrupt and familiar appellation of Gibraltar (Gebel elTarik) describes the mountain of Tarik; and the intrenchments of hiscamp were the first outline of those fortifications, which, in thehands of our countrymen, have resisted the art and power of the houseof Bourbon. The adjacent governors informed the court of Toledo of thedescent and progress of the Arabs; and the defeat of his lieutenantEdeco, who had been commanded to seize and bind the presumptuousstrangers, admonished Roderic of the magnitude of the danger. At theroyal summons, the dukes and counts, the bishops and nobles of theGothic monarchy assembled at the head of their followers; and the titleof king of the Romans, which is employed by an Arabic historian, maybe excused by the close affinity of language, religion, and manners, between the nations of Spain. His army consisted of ninety or a hundredthousand men: a formidable power, if their fidelity and discipline hadbeen adequate to their numbers. The troops of Tarik had been augmentedto twelve thousand Saracens; but the Christian malecontents wereattracted by the influence of Julian, and a crowd of Africansmost greedily tasted the temporal blessings of the Koran. In theneighbourhood of Cadiz, the town of Xeres[175] has been illustrated bythe encounter which determined the fate of the kingdom; the stream ofthe Guadalete, which falls into the bay, divided the two camps, andmarked the advancing and retreating skirmishes of three successive andbloody days. 

[Footnote 171: A mistake of Roderic of Toledo, in comparing the lunaryears of the Hegira with the Julian years of the Era, has determinedBaronius, Mariana, and the crowd of Spanish historians, to place thefirst invasion in the year 713, and the battle of Xeres in November, 714. This anachronism of three years has been detected by the morecorrect industry of modern chronologists, above all, of Pagi (Critics, tom. Iii. P. 164. 171-174), who have restored the genuine state of therevolution. At the present time, an Arabian scholar, like Cardonne, whoadopts the ancient error (tom. I. P. 75), is inexcusably ignorant orcareless. ]

[Footnote 172: The Era of Cesar, which in Spain was in legal and popularuse till the xivth century, begins thirty-eight years before the birthof Christ. I would refer the origin to the general peace by sea andland, which confirmed the power and partition of the triumvirs. (Dion. Cassius, l. Xlviii. P. 547. 553. Appian de Bell. Civil. L. V. P. 1034, edit. Fol. ) Spain was a province of Cesar Octavian; and Tarragona, whichraised the first temple to Augustus (Tacit Annal. I. 78), might borrowfrom the orientals this mode of flattery. ]

[Footnote 173: The road, the country, the old castle of count Julian, and the superstitious belief of the Spaniards of hidden treasures, &c. Are described by Pere Labat (Voyages en Espagne et en Italie, tom i. P. 207-217), with his usual pleasantry. ]

[Footnote 174: The Nubian geographer (p. 154, ) explains the topographyof the war; but it is highly incredible that the lieutenant of Musashould execute the desperate and useless measure of burning his ships. ]

[Footnote 175: Xeres (the Roman colony of Asta Regia) is only twoleagues from Cadiz. In the xvith century It was a granary of corn;and the wine of Xeres is familiar to the nations of Europe (Lud. NoniiHispania, c. 13, p. 54-56, a work of correct and concise knowledge;d'Anville, Etats de l'Europe &c p 154). ]

On the fourth day, the two armies joined a more serious and decisiveissue; but Alaric would have blushed at the sight of his unworthysuccessor, sustaining on his head a diadem of pearls, encumbered with aflowing robe of gold and silken embroidery, and reclining on a litter, or car of ivory, drawn by two white mules. Notwithstanding the valour ofthe Saracens, they fainted under the weight of multitudes, and the plainof Xeres was overspread with sixteen thousand of their dead bodies. "Mybrethren, " said Tarik to his surviving companions, "the enemy is beforeyou, the sea is behind; whither would ye fly? Follow your general I amresolved either to lose my life, or to trample on the prostrate king ofthe Romans. " Besides the resource of despair, he confided in the secretcorrespondence and nocturnal interviews of count Julian, with the sonsand the brother of Witiza. The two princes and the archbishop of Toledooccupied the most important post; their well-timed defection broke theranks of the Christians; each warrior was prompted by fear or suspicionto consult his personal safety; and the remains of the Gothic army werescattered or destroyed to the flight and pursuit of the three followingdays. Amidst the general disorder, Roderic started from his car, andmounted Orelia, the fleetest of his Horses; but he escaped from asoldier's death to perish more ignobly in the waters of the Boetis orGuadalquiver. His diadem, his robes, and his courser, were found on thebank; but as the body of the Gothic prince was lost in the waves, thepride and ignorance of the caliph must have been gratified with somemeaner head, which was exposed in triumph before the palace of Damascus. "And such, " continues a valiant historian of the Arabs, "is the fate ofthose kings who withdraw themselves from a field of battle. " [176]

[A. D. 711. ] Count Julian had plunged so deep into guilt and infamy, that his only hope was in the ruin of his country. After the battleof Xeres he recommended the most effectual measures to the victoriousSaracens. "The king of the Goths is slain; their princes are fledbefore you, the army is routed, the nation is astonished. Secure withsufficient detachments the cities of Boetica; but in person and withoutdelay, march to the royal city of Toledo, and allow not the distractedChristians either time or tranquillity for the election of a newmonarch. " Tarik listened to his advice. A Roman captive and proselyte, who had been enfranchised by the caliph himself, assaulted Cordova withseven hundred horse: he swam the river, surprised the town, and drovethe Christians into the great church, where they defended themselvesabove three months. Another detachment reduced the seacoast of Boetica, which in the last period of the Moorish power has comprised in a narrowspace the populous kingdom of Grenada. The march of Tarik from theBoetis to the Tagus, [177] was directed through the Sierra Morena, thatseparates Andalusia and Castille, till he appeared in arms under thewalls of Toledo. [178] The most zealous of the Catholics had escaped withthe relics of their saints; and if the gates were shut, it was onlytill the victor had subscribed a fair and reasonable capitulation. The voluntary exiles were allowed to depart with their effects; sevenchurches were appropriated to the Christian worship; the archbishop andhis clergy were at liberty to exercise their functions, the monks topractise or neglect their penance; and the Goths and Romans were left inall civil or criminal cases to the subordinate jurisdiction of theirown laws and magistrates. But if the justice of Tarik protected theChristians, his gratitude and policy rewarded the Jews, to whosesecret or open aid he was indebted for his most important acquisitions. Persecuted by the kings and synods of Spain, who had often pressed thealternative of banishment or baptism, that outcast nation embraced themoment of revenge: the comparison of their past and present state wasthe pledge of their fidelity; and the alliance between the disciples ofMoses and those of Mahomet, was maintained till the final era of theircommon expulsion. 

[Footnote 176: Id sane infortunii regibus pedem ex acie referentibussaepe contingit. Den Hazil of Grenada, in Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana. Tom. Ii. P. 337. Some credulous Spaniards believe that king Roderic, orRodrigo, escaped to a hermit's cell; and others, that he was cast aliveinto a tub full of serpents, from whence he exclaimed with a lamentablevoice, "they devour the part with which I have so grievously sinned. "(Don Quixote, part ii. L. Iii. C. 1. )]

[Footnote 177: The direct road from Corduba to Toledo was measured byMr. Swinburne's mules in 72 1/2 hours: but a larger computation must beadopted for the slow and devious marches of an army. The Arabs traversedthe province of La Mancha, which the pen of Cervantes has transformedinto classic ground to the reader of every nation. ]

[Footnote 178: The antiquities of Toledo, Urbs Parva in the Punicwars, Urbs Regia in the sixth century, are briefly described by Nonius(Hispania, c. 59, p. 181-136). He borrows from Roderic the fatalepalatium of Moorish portraits; but modestly insinuates, that it was nomore than a Roman amphitheatre. ]

From the royal seat of Toledo, the Arabian leader spread his conqueststo the north, over the modern realms of Castille and Leon; but it isheedless to enumerate the cities that yielded on his approach, or againto describe the table of emerald, [179] transported from the East by theRomans, acquired by the Goths among the spoils of Rome, and presented bythe Arabs to the throne of Damascus. Beyond the Asturian mountains, themaritime town of Gijon was the term[180] of the lieutenant of Musa, whohad performed with the speed of a traveller, his victorious march ofseven hundred miles, from the rock of Gibraltar to the bay of Biscay. The failure of land compelled him to retreat: and he was recalled toToledo, to excuse his presumption of subduing a kingdom in the absenceof his general. Spain, which in a more savage and disorderly state, hadresisted, two hundred years, the arms of the Romans, was overrun ina few months by those of the Saracens; and such was the eagerness ofsubmission and treaty, that the governor of Cordova is recorded as theonly chief who fell, without conditions, a prisoner into their hands. The cause of the Goths had been irrevocably judged in the field ofXeres; and in the national dismay, each part of the monarchy declineda contest with the antagonist who had vanquished the united strength ofthe whole. [181] That strength had been wasted by two successive seasonsof famine and pestilence; and the governors, who were impatient tosurrender, might exaggerate the difficulty of collecting the provisionsof a siege. To disarm the Christians, superstition likewise contributedher terrors: and the subtle Arab encouraged the report of dreams, omens, and prophecies, and of the portraits of the destined conquerors ofSpain, that were discovered on the breaking open an apartment of theroyal palace. Yet a spark of the vital flame was still alive; someinvincible fugitives preferred a life of poverty and freedom in theAsturian valleys; the hardy mountaineers repulsed the slaves of thecaliph; and the sword of Pelagius has been transformed into the sceptreof the Catholic kings. [182]

[Footnote 179: In the Historia Arabum (c. 9, p. 17, ad calcem Elmacin), Roderic of Toledo describes the emerald tables, and inserts the name ofMedinat Ahneyda in Arabic words and letters. He appears to be conversantwith the Mahometan writers; but I cannot agree with M. De Guignes (Hist. Des Huns, tom. I. P. 350) that he had read and transcribed Novairi;because he was dead a hundred years before Novairi composed hishistory. This mistake is founded on a still grosser error. M. De Guignesconfounds the governed historian Roderic Ximines, archbishop of Toledo, in the xiiith century, with cardinal Ximines, who governed Spain inthe beginning of the xvith, and was the subject, not the author, ofhistorical compositions. ]

[Footnote 180: Tarik might have inscribed on the last rock, the boastof Regnard and his companions in their Lapland journey, "Hic tandemstetimus, nobis ubi defuit orbis. "]

[Footnote 181: Such was the argument of the traitor Oppas, and everychief to whom it was addressed did not answer with the spirit ofPelagius; Omnis Hispania dudum sub uno regimine Gothorum, omnisexercitus Hispaniae in uno congregatus Ismaelitarum non valuit sustinereimpetum. Chron. Alphonsi Regis, apud Pagi, tom. Iii. P. 177. ]

[Footnote 182: The revival of tire Gothic kingdom in the Asturias isdistinctly though concisely noticed by d'Anville (Etats de l'Europe, p. 159)]

Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs. --Part VII. 

On the intelligence of this rapid success, the applause of Musadegenerated into envy; and he began, not to complain, but to fear, thatTarik would leave him nothing to subdue. At the head of ten thousandArabs and eight thousand Africans, he passed over in person fromMauritania to Spain: the first of his companions were the noblest ofthe Koreish; his eldest son was left in the command of Africa; thethree younger brethren were of an age and spirit to second the boldestenterprises of their father. At his landing in Algezire, he wasrespectfully entertained by Count Julian, who stifled his inwardremorse, and testified, both in words and actions, that the victory ofthe Arabs had not impaired his attachment to their cause. Some enemiesyet remained for the sword of Musa. The tardy repentance of the Gothshad compared their own numbers and those of the invaders; the citiesfrom which the march of Tarik had declined considered themselves asimpregnable; and the bravest patriots defended the fortifications ofSeville and Merida. They were successively besieged and reduced by thelabor of Musa, who transported his camp from the Boetis to the Anas, from the Guadalquivir to the Guadiana. When he beheld the works of Romanmagnificence, the bridge, the aqueducts, the triumphal arches, and thetheatre, of the ancient metropolis of Lusitania, "I should imagine, "said he to his four companions, "that the human race must have unitedtheir art and power in the foundation of this city: happy is the manwho shall become its master!" He aspired to that happiness, but theEmeritans sustained on this occasion the honor of their descent fromthe veteran legionaries of Augustus [183] Disdaining the confinementof their walls, they gave battle to the Arabs on the plain; but anambuscade rising from the shelter of a quarry, or a ruin, chastisedtheir indiscretion, and intercepted their return. 

The wooden turrets of assault were rolled forwards to the foot of therampart; but the defence of Merida was obstinate and long; and thecastle of the martyrs was a perpetual testimony of the losses of theMoslems. The constancy of the besieged was at length subdued by famineand despair; and the prudent victor disguised his impatience under thenames of clemency and esteem. The alternative of exile or tribute wasallowed; the churches were divided between the two religions; and thewealth of those who had fallen in the siege, or retired to Gallicia, wasconfiscated as the reward of the faithful. In the midway between Meridaand Toledo, the lieutenant of Musa saluted the vicegerent of thecaliph, and conducted him to the palace of the Gothic kings. Theirfirst interview was cold and formal: a rigid account was exacted of thetreasures of Spain: the character of Tarik was exposed to suspicionand obloquy; and the hero was imprisoned, reviled, and ignominiouslyscourged by the hand, or the command, of Musa. Yet so strict was thediscipline, so pure the zeal, or so tame the spirit, of the primitiveMoslems, that, after this public indignity, Tarik could serve andbe trusted in the reduction of the Tarragonest province. A mosch waserected at Saragossa, by the liberality of the Koreish: the port ofBarcelona was opened to the vessels of Syria; and the Goths were pursuedbeyond the Pyrenaean mountains into their Gallic province of Septimaniaor Languedoc. [184] In the church of St. Mary at Carcassone, Musa found, but it is improbable that he left, seven equestrian statues of massysilver; and from his term or column of Narbonne, he returned on hisfootsteps to the Gallician and Lusitanian shores of the ocean. Duringthe absence of the father, his son Abdelaziz chastised the insurgentsof Seville, and reduced, from Malaga to Valentia, the sea-coast ofthe Mediterranean: his original treaty with the discreet and valiantTheodemir [185] will represent the manners and policy of the times. "Theconditions of peace agreed and sworn between Abdelaziz, the son of Musa, the son of Nassir, and Theodemir prince of the Goths. In the name ofthe most merciful God, Abdelaziz makes peace on these conditions: thatTheodemir shall not be disturbed in his principality; nor any injury beoffered to the life or property, the wives and children, the religionand temples, of the Christians: that Theodemir shall freely deliverhis seven [1851] cities, Orihuela, Valentola, Alicanti Mola, Vacasora, Bigerra, (now Bejar, ) Ora, (or Opta, ) and Lorca: that he shall notassist or entertain the enemies of the caliph, but shall faithfullycommunicate his knowledge of their hostile designs: that himself, andeach of the Gothic nobles, shall annually pay one piece of gold, fourmeasures of wheat, as many of barley, with a certain proportion ofhoney, oil, and vinegar; and that each of their vassals shall be taxedat one moiety of the said imposition. Given the fourth of Regeb, in theyear of the Hegira ninety-four, and subscribed with the names of fourMussulman witnesses. " [186] Theodemir and his subjects were treated withuncommon lenity; but the rate of tribute appears to have fluctuatedfrom a tenth to a fifth, according to the submission or obstinacy ofthe Christians. [187] In this revolution, many partial calamities wereinflicted by the carnal or religious passions of the enthusiasts: somechurches were profaned by the new worship: some relics or images wereconfounded with idols: the rebels were put to the sword; and onetown (an obscure place between Cordova and Seville) was razed to itsfoundations. Yet if we compare the invasion of Spain by the Goths, orits recovery by the kings of Castile and Arragon, we must applaud themoderation and discipline of the Arabian conquerors. 

[Footnote 183: The honorable relics of the Cantabrian war (Dion Cassius, l. Liii p. 720) were planted in this metropolis of Lusitania, perhaps ofSpain, (submittit cui tota suos Hispania fasces. ) Nonius (Hispania, c. 31, p. 106-110) enumerates the ancient structures, but concludes witha sigh: Urbs haec olim nobilissima ad magnam incolarum infrequentiamdelapsa est, et praeter priscae claritatis ruinas nihil ostendit. ]

[Footnote 184: Both the interpreters of Novairi, De Guignes (Hist. DesHuns, tom. I. P. 349) and Cardonne, (Hist. De l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, tom. I. P. 93, 94, 104, 135, ) lead Musa into the Narbonnese Gaul. But Ifind no mention of this enterprise, either in Roderic of Toledo, or theMss. Of the Escurial, and the invasion of the Saracens is postponed bya French chronicle till the ixth year after the conquest of Spain, A. D. 721, (Pagi, Critica, tom. Iii. P. 177, 195. Historians of France, tom. Iii. ) I much question whether Musa ever passed the Pyrenees. ]

[Footnote 185: Four hundred years after Theodemir, his territories ofMurcia and Carthagena retain in the Nubian geographer Edrisi (p, 154, 161) the name of Tadmir, (D'Anville, Etats de l'Europe, p. 156. Pagi, tom. Iii. P. 174. ) In the present decay of Spanish agriculture, Mr. Swinburne (Travels into Spain, p. 119) surveyed with pleasure thedelicious valley from Murcia to Orihuela, four leagues and a half of thefinest corn pulse, lucerne, oranges, &c. ]

[Footnote 1851: Gibbon has made eight cities: in Conde's translationBigera does not appear. --M. ]

[Footnote 186: See the treaty in Arabic and Latin, in the BibliothecaArabico-Hispana, tom. Ii. P. 105, 106. It is signed the 4th of the monthof Regeb, A. H. 94, the 5th of April, A. D. 713; a date which seems toprolong the resistance of Theodemir, and the government of Musa. ]

[Footnote 187: From the history of Sandoval, p. 87. Fleury (Hist. Eccles. Tom. Ix. P. 261) has given the substance of another treatyconcluded A Ae. C. 782, A. D. 734, between an Arabian chief and the Gothsand Romans, of the territory of Conimbra in Portugal. The tax of thechurches is fixed at twenty-five pounds of gold; of the monasteries, fifty; of the cathedrals, one hundred; the Christians are judged bytheir count, but in capital cases he must consult the alcaide. Thechurch doors must be shut, and they must respect the name of Mahomet. I have not the original before me; it would confirm or destroy a darksuspicion, that the piece has been forged to introduce the immunity of aneighboring convent. ]

The exploits of Musa were performed in the evening of life, though heaffected to disguise his age by coloring with a red powder the whitenessof his beard. But in the love of action and glory, his breast wasstill fired with the ardor of youth; and the possession of Spain wasconsidered only as the first step to the monarchy of Europe. Witha powerful armament by sea and land, he was preparing to repass thePyrenees, to extinguish in Gaul and Italy the declining kingdoms of theFranks and Lombards, and to preach the unity of God on the altar of theVatican. From thence, subduing the Barbarians of Germany, he proposedto follow the course of the Danube from its source to the Euxine Sea, to overthrow the Greek or Roman empire of Constantinople, and returningfrom Europe to Asia, to unite his new acquisitions with Antioch andthe provinces of Syria. [188] But his vast enterprise, perhaps ofeasy execution, must have seemed extravagant to vulgar minds; and thevisionary conqueror was soon reminded of his dependence and servitude. The friends of Tarik had effectually stated his services and wrongs:at the court of Damascus, the proceedings of Musa were blamed, hisintentions were suspected, and his delay in complying with the firstinvitation was chastised by a harsher and more peremptory summons. Anintrepid messenger of the caliph entered his camp at Lugo in Gallicia, and in the presence of the Saracens and Christians arrested the bridleof his horse. His own loyalty, or that of his troops, inculcated theduty of obedience: and his disgrace was alleviated by the recall of hisrival, and the permission of investing with his two governments his twosons, Abdallah and Abdelaziz. His long triumph from Ceuta to Damascusdisplayed the spoils of Africa and the treasures of Spain: four hundredGothic nobles, with gold coronets and girdles, were distinguished in histrain; and the number of male and female captives, selected for theirbirth or beauty, was computed at eighteen, or even at thirty, thousandpersons. As soon as he reached Tiberias in Palestine, he was apprisedof the sickness and danger of the caliph, by a private message fromSoliman, his brother and presumptive heir; who wished to reserve for hisown reign the spectacle of victory. 

Had Walid recovered, the delay of Musa would have been criminal: hepursued his march, and found an enemy on the throne. In his trial beforea partial judge against a popular antagonist, he was convicted of vanityand falsehood; and a fine of two hundred thousand pieces of goldeither exhausted his poverty or proved his rapaciousness. The unworthytreatment of Tarik was revenged by a similar indignity; and the veterancommander, after a public whipping, stood a whole day in the sun beforethe palace gate, till he obtained a decent exile, under the pious nameof a pilgrimage to Mecca. The resentment of the caliph might have beensatiated with the ruin of Musa; but his fears demanded the extirpationof a potent and injured family. A sentence of death was intimated withsecrecy and speed to the trusty servants of the throne both in Africaand Spain; and the forms, if not the substance, of justice weresuperseded in this bloody execution. In the mosch or palace of Cordova, Abdelaziz was slain by the swords of the conspirators; they accusedtheir governor of claiming the honors of royalty; and his scandalousmarriage with Egilona, the widow of Roderic, offended the prejudicesboth of the Christians and Moslems. By a refinement of cruelty, thehead of the son was presented to the father, with an insultingquestion, whether he acknowledged the features of the rebel? "I know hisfeatures, " he exclaimed with indignation: "I assert his innocence; andI imprecate the same, a juster fate, against the authors of his death. "The age and despair of Musa raised him above the power of kings; and heexpired at Mecca of the anguish of a broken heart. His rival was morefavorably treated: his services were forgiven; and Tarik was permittedto mingle with the crowd of slaves. [189] I am ignorant whether CountJulian was rewarded with the death which he deserved indeed, though notfrom the hands of the Saracens; but the tale of their ingratitude to thesons of Witiza is disproved by the most unquestionable evidence. The tworoyal youths were reinstated in the private patrimony of their father;but on the decease of Eba, the elder, his daughter was unjustlydespoiled of her portion by the violence of her uncle Sigebut. TheGothic maid pleaded her cause before the caliph Hashem, and obtained therestitution of her inheritance; but she was given in marriage to a nobleArabian, and their two sons, Isaac and Ibrahim, were received in Spainwith the consideration that was due to their origin and riches. 

[Footnote 188: This design, which is attested by several Arabianhistorians, (Cardonne, tom. I. P. 95, 96, ) may be compared with that ofMithridates, to march from the Crimaea to Rome; or with that of Caesar, to conquer the East, and return home by the North; and all three areperhaps surpassed by the real and successful enterprise of Hannibal. ]

[Footnote 189: I much regret our loss, or my ignorance, of two Arabicworks of the viiith century, a Life of Musa, and a poem on the exploitsof Tarik. Of these authentic pieces, the former was composed by agrandson of Musa, who had escaped from the massacre of his kindred; thelatter, by the vizier of the first Abdalrahman, caliph of Spain, who might have conversed with some of the veterans of the conqueror, (Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. Ii. P. 36, 139. )]

A province is assimilated to the victorious state by the introduction ofstrangers and the imitative spirit of the natives; and Spain, which hadbeen successively tinctured with Punic, and Roman, and Gothic blood, imbibed, in a few generations, the name and manners of the Arabs. Thefirst conquerors, and the twenty successive lieutenants of the caliphs, were attended by a numerous train of civil and military followers, whopreferred a distant fortune to a narrow home: the private and publicinterest was promoted by the establishment of faithful colonies; and thecities of Spain were proud to commemorate the tribe or country of theirEastern progenitors. The victorious though motley bands of Tarikand Musa asserted, by the name of Spaniards, their original claimof conquest; yet they allowed their brethren of Egypt to share theirestablishments of Murcia and Lisbon. The royal legion of Damascus wasplanted at Cordova; that of Emesa at Seville; that of Kinnisrin orChalcis at Jaen; that of Palestine at Algezire and Medina Sidonia. Thenatives of Yemen and Persia were scattered round Toledo and the inlandcountry, and the fertile seats of Grenada were bestowed on ten thousandhorsemen of Syria and Irak, the children of the purest and most noble ofthe Arabian tribes. [190] A spirit of emulation, sometimes beneficial, more frequently dangerous, was nourished by these hereditary factions. Ten years after the conquest, a map of the province was presented tothe caliph: the seas, the rivers, and the harbors, the inhabitants andcities, the climate, the soil, and the mineral productions of the earth. [191] In the space of two centuries, the gifts of nature were improvedby the agriculture, [192] the manufactures, and the commerce, ofan industrious people; and the effects of their diligence have beenmagnified by the idleness of their fancy. The first of the Ommiades whoreigned in Spain solicited the support of the Christians; and inhis edict of peace and protection, he contents himself with a modestimposition of ten thousand ounces of gold, ten thousand pounds ofsilver, ten thousand horses, as many mules, one thousand cuirasses, withan equal number of helmets and lances. [193] The most powerful of hissuccessors derived from the same kingdom the annual tribute of twelvemillions and forty-five thousand dinars or pieces of gold, about sixmillions of sterling money; [194] a sum which, in the tenth century, most probably surpassed the united revenues of the Christians monarchs. His royal seat of Cordova contained six hundred moschs, nine hundredbaths, and two hundred thousand houses; he gave laws to eighty citiesof the first, to three hundred of the second and third order; and thefertile banks of the Guadalquivir were adorned with twelve thousandvillages and hamlets. The Arabs might exaggerate the truth, but theycreated and they describe the most prosperous aera of the riches, thecultivation, and the populousness of Spain. [195]

[Footnote 190: Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. Ii. P. 32, 252. The formerof these quotations is taken from a Biographia Hispanica, by an Arabianof Valentia, (see the copious Extracts of Casiri, tom. Ii. P. 30-121;)and the latter from a general Chronology of the Caliphs, and of theAfrican and Spanish Dynasties, with a particular History of thekingdom of Grenada, of which Casiri has given almost an entire version, (Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. Ii. P. 177-319. ) The author, EbnKhateb, a native of Grenada, and a contemporary of Novairi and Abulfeda, (born A. D. 1313, died A. D. 1374, ) was an historian, geographer, physician, poet, &c. , (tom. Ii. P. 71, 72. )]

[Footnote 191: Cardonne, Hist. De l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, tom. I. P. 116, 117. ]

[Footnote 192: A copious treatise of husbandry, by an Arabian ofSeville, in the xiith century, is in the Escurial library, and Casirihad some thoughts of translating it. He gives a list of the authorsquoted, Arabs as well as Greeks, Latins, &c. ; but it is much if theAndalusian saw these strangers through the medium of his countrymanColumella, (Casiri, Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. I. P. 323-338. )]

[Footnote 193: Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. Ii. P. 104. Casiritranslates the original testimony of the historian Rasis, as it isalleged in the Arabic Biographia Hispanica, pars ix. But I ammost exceedingly surprised at the address, Principibus caeterisqueChristianis, Hispanis suis Castellae. The name of Castellae was unknownin the viiith century; the kingdom was not erected till the year 1022, a hundred years after the time of Rasis, (Bibliot. Tom. Ii. P. 330, ) andthe appellation was always expressive, not of a tributary province, butof a line of castles independent of the Moorish yoke, (D'Anville, Etatsde l'Europe, p. 166-170. ) Had Casiri been a critic, he would havecleared a difficulty, perhaps of his own making. ]

[Footnote 194: Cardonne, tom. I. P. 337, 338. He computes the revenue at130, 000, 000 of French livres. The entire picture of peace and prosperityrelieves the bloody uniformity of the Moorish annals. ]

[Footnote 195: I am happy enough to possess a splendid and interestingwork which has only been distributed in presents by the court of MadridBibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis, opera et studio MichaelisCasiri, Syro Maronitoe. Matriti, in folio, tomus prior, 1760, tomusposterior, 1770. The execution of this work does honor to the Spanishpress; the Mss. , to the number of MDCCCLI. , are judiciously classed bythe editor, and his copious extracts throw some light on the Mahometanliterature and history of Spain. These relics are now secure, but thetask has been supinely delayed, till, in the year 1671, a fire consumedthe greatest part of the Escurial library, rich in the spoils of Grenadaand Morocco. * Note: Compare the valuable work of Conde, Historia de laDominacion de las Arabes en Espana. Madrid, 1820. --M. ]

The wars of the Moslems were sanctified by the prophet; but among thevarious precepts and examples of his life, the caliphs selected thelessons of toleration that might tend to disarm the resistance of theunbelievers. Arabia was the temple and patrimony of the God of Mahomet;but he beheld with less jealousy and affection the nations of the earth. The polytheists and idolaters, who were ignorant of his name, might belawfully extirpated by his votaries; [196] but a wise policy suppliedthe obligation of justice; and after some acts of intolerant zeal, theMahometan conquerors of Hindostan have spared the pagods of that devoutand populous country. The disciples of Abraham, of Moses, and of Jesus, were solemnly invited to accept the more perfect revelation of Mahomet;but if they preferred the payment of a moderate tribute, they wereentitled to the freedom of conscience and religious worship. [197] In afield of battle the forfeit lives of the prisoners were redeemed by theprofession of Islam; the females were bound to embrace the religion oftheir masters, and a race of sincere proselytes was gradually multipliedby the education of the infant captives. But the millions of Africanand Asiatic converts, who swelled the native band of the faithful Arabs, must have been allured, rather than constrained, to declare their beliefin one God and the apostle of God. By the repetition of a sentence andthe loss of a foreskin, the subject or the slave, the captive orthe criminal, arose in a moment the free and equal companion of thevictorious Moslems. Every sin was expiated, every engagement wasdissolved: the vow of celibacy was superseded by the indulgence ofnature; the active spirits who slept in the cloister were awakened bythe trumpet of the Saracens; and in the convulsion of the world, everymember of a new society ascended to the natural level of his capacityand courage. The minds of the multitude were tempted by the invisible aswell as temporal blessings of the Arabian prophet; and charity willhope that many of his proselytes entertained a serious conviction ofthe truth and sanctity of his revelation. In the eyes of an inquisitivepolytheist, it must appear worthy of the human and the divine nature. More pure than the system of Zoroaster, more liberal than the law ofMoses, the religion of Mahomet might seem less inconsistent with reasonthan the creed of mystery and superstition, which, in the seventhcentury, disgraced the simplicity of the gospel. 

[Footnote 196: The Harbii, as they are styled, qui tolerari nequeunt, are, 1. Those who, besides God, worship the sun, moon, or idols. 2. Atheists, Utrique, quamdiu princeps aliquis inter Mohammedanos superest, oppugnari debent donec religionem amplectantur, nec requies iisconcedenda est, nec pretium acceptandum pro obtinenda conscientiaelibertate, (Reland, Dissertat. X. De Jure Militari Mohammedan. Tom. Iii. P. 14;) a rigid theory!]

[Footnote 197: The distinction between a proscribed and a toleratedsect, between the Harbii and the people of the Book, the believers insome divine revelation, is correctly defined in the conversation of thecaliph Al Mamum with the idolaters or Sabaeans of Charrae, (Hottinger, Hist. Orient. P. 107, 108. )]

In the extensive provinces of Persia and Africa, the national religionhas been eradicated by the Mahometan faith. The ambiguous theologyof the Magi stood alone among the sects of the East; but the profanewritings of Zoroaster [198] might, under the reverend name of Abraham, be dexterously connected with the chain of divine revelation. Their evilprinciple, the daemon Ahriman, might be represented as the rival, or asthe creature, of the God of light. The temples of Persia were devoid ofimages; but the worship of the sun and of fire might be stigmatized as agross and criminal idolatry. [199] The milder sentiment was consecratedby the practice of Mahomet [200] and the prudence of the caliphs; theMagians or Ghebers were ranked with the Jews and Christians among thepeople of the written law; [201] and as late as the third century of theHegira, the city of Herat will afford a lively contrast of private zealand public toleration. [202] Under the payment of an annual tribute, theMahometan law secured to the Ghebers of Herat their civil and religiousliberties: but the recent and humble mosch was overshadowed by theantique splendor of the adjoining temple of fire. A fanatic Imandeplored, in his sermons, the scandalous neighborhood, and accused theweakness or indifference of the faithful. Excited by his voice, thepeople assembled in tumult; the two houses of prayer were consumedby the flames, but the vacant ground was immediately occupied by thefoundations of a new mosch. The injured Magi appealed to the sovereignof Chorasan; he promised justice and relief; when, behold! four thousandcitizens of Herat, of a grave character and mature age, unanimouslyswore that the idolatrous fane had never existed; the inquisition wassilenced and their conscience was satisfied (says the historian Mirchond[203] with this holy and meritorious perjury. [204] But the greatestpart of the temples of Persia were ruined by the insensible and generaldesertion of their votaries. 

It was insensible, since it is not accompanied with any memorial of timeor place, of persecution or resistance. It was general, since the wholerealm, from Shiraz to Samarcand, imbibed the faith of the Koran; and thepreservation of the native tongue reveals the descent of the Mahometansof Persia. [205] In the mountains and deserts, an obstinate race ofunbelievers adhered to the superstition of their fathers; and a fainttradition of the Magian theology is kept alive in the province ofKirman, along the banks of the Indus, among the exiles of Surat, and inthe colony which, in the last century, was planted by Shaw Abbas atthe gates of Ispahan. The chief pontiff has retired to Mount Elbourz, eighteen leagues from the city of Yezd: the perpetual fire (if itcontinues to burn) is inaccessible to the profane; but his residence isthe school, the oracle, and the pilgrimage of the Ghebers, whose hardand uniform features attest the unmingled purity of their blood. Underthe jurisdiction of their elders, eighty thousand families maintain aninnocent and industrious life: their subsistence is derived from somecurious manufactures and mechanic trades; and they cultivate the earthwith the fervor of a religious duty. Their ignorance withstood thedespotism of Shaw Abbas, who demanded with threats and tortures theprophetic books of Zoroaster; and this obscure remnant of the Magians isspared by the moderation or contempt of their present sovereigns. [206]

[Footnote 198: The Zend or Pazend, the bible of the Ghebers, is reckonedby themselves, or at least by the Mahometans, among the ten books whichAbraham received from heaven; and their religion is honorably styledthe religion of Abraham, (D'Herblot, Bibliot. Orient. P. 701; Hyde, deReligione veterum Persarum, c, iii. P. 27, 28, &c. ) I much fear that wedo not possess any pure and free description of the system of Zoroaster. [1981] Dr. Prideaux (Connection, vol. I. P. 300, octavo) adopts theopinion, that he had been the slave and scholar of some Jewish prophetin the captivity of Babylon. Perhaps the Persians, who have been themasters of the Jews, would assert the honor, a poor honor, of beingtheir masters. ]

[Footnote 1981: Whatever the real age of the Zendavesta, published byAnquetil du Perron, whether of the time of Ardeschir Babeghan, accordingto Mr. Erskine, or of much higher antiquity, it may be considered, Iconceive, both a "pure and a free, " though imperfect, description ofZoroastrianism; particularly with the illustrations of the originaltranslator, and of the German Kleuker--M. ]

[Footnote 199: The Arabian Nights, a faithful and amusing picture of theOriental world, represent in the most odious colors of the Magians, orworshippers of fire, to whom they attribute the annual sacrifice of aMussulman. The religion of Zoroaster has not the least affinity withthat of the Hindoos, yet they are often confounded by the Mahometans;and the sword of Timour was sharpened by this mistake, (Hist. De TimourBec, par Cherefeddin Ali Yezdi, l. V. )]

[Footnote 200: Vie de Mahomet, par Gagnier, (tom. Iii. P. 114, 115. )]

[Footnote 201: Hae tres sectae, Judaei, Christiani, et qui interPersas Magorum institutis addicti sunt, populi libri dicuntur, (Reland, Dissertat. Tom. Iii. P. 15. ) The caliph Al Mamun confirms this honorabledistinction in favor of the three sects, with the vague and equivocalreligion of the Sabaeans, under which the ancient polytheists of Charraewere allowed to shelter their idolatrous worship, (Hottinger, Hist. Orient p. 167, 168. )]

[Footnote 202: This singular story is related by D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. P 448, 449, ) on the faith of Khondemir, and by Mirchond himself, (Hist priorum Regum Persarum, &c. , p. 9, 10, not. P. 88, 89. )]

[Footnote 203: Mirchond, (Mohammed Emir Khoondah Shah, ) a native ofHerat, composed in the Persian language a general history of the East, from the creation to the year of the Hegira 875, (A. D. 1471. ) In theyear 904 (A. D. 1498) the historian obtained the command of a princelylibrary, and his applauded work, in seven or twelve parts, wasabbreviated in three volumes by his son Khondemir, A. H. 927, A. D. 1520. The two writers, most accurately distinguished by Petit de la Croix, (Hist. De Genghizcan, p. 537, 538, 544, 545, ) are loosely confounded byD'Herbelot, (p. 358, 410, 994, 995: ) but his numerous extracts, underthe improper name of Khondemir, belong to the father rather than theson. The historian of Genghizcan refers to a Ms. Of Mirchond, whichhe received from the hands of his friend D'Herbelot himself. A curiousfragment (the Taherian and Soffarian Dynasties) has been latelypublished in Persic and Latin, (Viennae, 1782, in 4to. , cum notisBernard de Jenisch;) and the editor allows us to hope for a continuationof Mirchond. ]

[Footnote 204: Quo testimonio boni se quidpiam praestitisse opinabantur. Yet Mirchond must have condemned their zeal, since he approved the legaltoleration of the Magi, cui (the fire temple) peracto singulis anniscensu uti sacra Mohammedis lege cautum, ab omnibus molestiis ac oneribuslibero esse licuit. ]

[Footnote 205: The last Magian of name and power appears to be Mardavigethe Dilemite, who, in the beginning of the 10th century, reigned inthe northern provinces of Persia, near the Caspian Sea, (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. P. 355. ) But his soldiers and successors, the Bowideseither professed or embraced the Mahometan faith; and under theirdynasty (A. D. 933-1020) I should say the fall of the religion ofZoroaster. ]

[Footnote 206: The present state of the Ghebers in Persia is taken fromSir John Chardin, not indeed the most learned, but the most judiciousand inquisitive of our modern travellers, (Voyages en Perse, tom. Ii. P. 109, 179-187, in 4to. ) His brethren, Pietro della Valle, Olearius, Thevenot, Tavernier, &c. , whom I have fruitlessly searched, had neithereyes nor attention for this interesting people. ]

The Northern coast of Africa is the only land in which the light ofthe gospel, after a long and perfect establishment, has been totallyextinguished. The arts, which had been taught by Carthage and Rome, wereinvolved in a cloud of ignorance; the doctrine of Cyprian and Augustinwas no longer studied. Five hundred episcopal churches were overturnedby the hostile fury of the Donatists, the Vandals, and the Moors. The zeal and numbers of the clergy declined; and the people, withoutdiscipline, or knowledge, or hope, submissively sunk under the yokeof the Arabian prophet Within fifty years after the expulsion of theGreeks, a lieutenant of Africa informed the caliph that the tribute ofthe infidels was abolished by their conversion; [207] and, though hesought to disguise his fraud and rebellion, his specious pretence wasdrawn from the rapid and extensive progress of the Mahometan faith. Inthe next age, an extraordinary mission of five bishops was detached fromAlexandria to Cairoan. They were ordained by the Jacobite patriarchto cherish and revive the dying embers of Christianity: [208] but theinterposition of a foreign prelate, a stranger to the Latins, an enemyto the Catholics, supposes the decay and dissolution of the Africanhierarchy. It was no longer the time when the successor of St. Cyprian, at the head of a numerous synod, could maintain an equal contestwith the ambition of the Roman pontiff. In the eleventh century, theunfortunate priest who was seated on the ruins of Carthage implored thearms and the protection of the Vatican; and he bitterly complains thathis naked body had been scourged by the Saracens, and that his authoritywas disputed by the four suffragans, the tottering pillars of histhrone. Two epistles of Gregory the Seventh [209] are destined to soothethe distress of the Catholics and the pride of a Moorish prince. Thepope assures the sultan that they both worship the same God, and mayhope to meet in the bosom of Abraham; but the complaint that threebishops could no longer be found to consecrate a brother, announces thespeedy and inevitable ruin of the episcopal order. The Christiansof Africa and Spain had long since submitted to the practice ofcircumcision and the legal abstinence from wine and pork; and thename of Mozarabes [210] (adoptive Arabs) was applied to their civil orreligious conformity. [211] About the middle of the twelfth century, theworship of Christ and the succession of pastors were abolished alongthe coast of Barbary, and in the kingdoms of Cordova and Seville, ofValencia and Grenada. [212] The throne of the Almohades, or Unitarians, was founded on the blindest fanaticism, and their extraordinary rigormight be provoked or justified by the recent victories and intolerantzeal of the princes of Sicily and Castille, of Arragon and Portugal. The faith of the Mozarabes was occasionally revived by the papalmissionaries; and, on the landing of Charles the Fifth, some familiesof Latin Christians were encouraged to rear their heads at Tunis andAlgiers. But the seed of the gospel was quickly eradicated, and thelong province from Tripoli to the Atlantic has lost all memory of thelanguage and religion of Rome. [213]

[Footnote 207: The letter of Abdoulrahman, governor or tyrant of Africa, to the caliph Aboul Abbas, the first of the Abbassides, is dated A. H. 132 Cardonne, (Hist. De l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, tom. I. P. 168. )]

[Footnote 208: Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 66. Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. P. 287, 288. ]

[Footnote 209: Among the Epistles of the Popes, see Leo IX. Epist. 3;Gregor. VII. L. I. Epist. 22, 23, l. Iii. Epist. 19, 20, 21; and thecriticisms of Pagi, (tom. Iv. A. D. 1053, No. 14, A. D. 1073, No. 13, ) whoinvestigates the name and family of the Moorish prince, with whom theproudest of the Roman pontiffs so politely corresponds. ]

[Footnote 210: Mozarabes, or Mostarabes, adscititii, as it isinterpreted in Latin, (Pocock, Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 39, 40. Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. Ii. P. 18. ) The Mozarabic liturgy, theancient ritual of the church of Toledo, has been attacked by the popes, and exposed to the doubtful trials of the sword and of fire, (Marian. Hist. Hispan. Tom. I. L. Ix. C. 18, p. 378. ) It was, or rather it is, inthe Latin tongue; yet in the xith century it was found necessary (A. Ae. C. 1687, A. D. 1039) to transcribe an Arabic version of the canons of thecouncils of Spain, (Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. Tom. I. P. 547, ) for the use ofthe bishops and clergy in the Moorish kingdoms. ]

[Footnote 211: About the middle of the xth century, the clergy ofCordova was reproached with this criminal compliance, by the intrepidenvoy of the Emperor Otho I. , (Vit. Johan. Gorz, in Secul. Benedict. V. No. 115, apud Fleury, Hist. Eccles. Tom. Xii. P. 91. )]

[Footnote 212: Pagi, Critica, tom. Iv. A. D. 1149, No. 8, 9. He justlyobserves, that when Seville, &c. , were retaken by Ferdinand of Castille, no Christians, except captives, were found in the place; and that theMozarabic churches of Africa and Spain, described by James a Vitriaco, A. D. 1218, (Hist. Hierosol. C. 80, p. 1095, in Gest. Dei per Francos, )are copied from some older book. I shall add, that the date of theHegira 677 (A. D. 1278) must apply to the copy, not the composition, ofa treatise of a jurisprudence, which states the civil rights of theChristians of Cordova, (Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. Tom. I. P. 471;) and thatthe Jews were the only dissenters whom Abul Waled, king of Grenada, (A. D. 1313, ) could either discountenance or tolerate, (tom. Ii. P. 288. )]

[Footnote 213: Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. P. 288. Leo Africanuswould have flattered his Roman masters, could he have discovered anylatent relics of the Christianity of Africa. ]

After the revolution of eleven centuries, the Jews and Christians of theTurkish empire enjoy the liberty of conscience which was granted by theArabian caliphs. During the first age of the conquest, they suspectedthe loyalty of the Catholics, whose name of Melchites betrayed theirsecret attachment to the Greek emperor, while the Nestorians andJacobites, his inveterate enemies, approved themselves the sincere andvoluntary friends of the Mahometan government. [214] Yet this partialjealousy was healed by time and submission; the churches of Egyptwere shared with the Catholics; [215] and all the Oriental sects wereincluded in the common benefits of toleration. The rank, the immunities, the domestic jurisdiction of the patriarchs, the bishops, and theclergy, were protected by the civil magistrate: the learning ofindividuals recommended them to the employments of secretaries andphysicians: they were enriched by the lucrative collection of therevenue; and their merit was sometimes raised to the command of citiesand provinces. A caliph of the house of Abbas was heard to declarethat the Christians were most worthy of trust in the administration ofPersia. "The Moslems, " said he, "will abuse their present fortune; theMagians regret their fallen greatness; and the Jews are impatient fortheir approaching deliverance. " [216] But the slaves of despotism areexposed to the alternatives of favor and disgrace. The captive churchesof the East have been afflicted in every age by the avarice or bigotryof their rulers; and the ordinary and legal restraints must be offensiveto the pride, or the zeal, of the Christians. [217] About two hundredyears after Mahomet, they were separated from their fellow-subjects by aturban or girdle of a less honorable color; instead of horses or mules. They were condemned to ride on asses, in the attitude of women. Theirpublic and private building were measured by a diminutive standard; inthe streets or the baths it is their duty to give way or bow down beforethe meanest of the people; and their testimony is rejected, if it maytend to the prejudice of a true believer. The pomp of processions, thesound of bells or of psalmody, is interdicted in their worship; adecent reverence for the national faith is imposed on their sermonsand conversations; and the sacrilegious attempt to enter a mosch, or toseduce a Mussulman, will not be suffered to escape with impunity. In atime, however, of tranquillity and justice, the Christians have neverbeen compelled to renounce the Gospel, or to embrace the Koran; but thepunishment of death is inflicted upon the apostates who have professedand deserted the law of Mahomet. The martyrs of Cordova provoked thesentence of the cadhi, by the public confession of their inconstancy, or their passionate invectives against the person and religion of theprophet. [218]

[Footnote 214: Absit (said the Catholic to the vizier of Bagdad) ut pariloco habeas Nestorianos, quorum praeter Arabas nullus alius rex est, etGraecos quorum reges amovendo Arabibus bello non desistunt, &c. See inthe Collections of Assemannus (Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Iv. P. 94-101) thestate of the Nestorians under the caliphs. That of the Jacobites is moreconcisely exposed in the Preliminary Dissertation of the second volumeof Assemannus. ]

[Footnote 215: Eutych. Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 384, 387, 388. Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. P. 205, 206, 257, 332. A taint of the Monotheliteheresy might render the first of these Greek patriarchs less loyal tothe emperors and less obnoxious to the Arabs. ]

[Footnote 216: Motadhed, who reigned from A. D. 892 to 902. The Magiansstill held their name and rank among the religions of the empire, (Assemanni, Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Iv. P. 97. )]

[Footnote 217: Reland explains the general restraints of the Mahometanpolicy and jurisprudence, (Dissertat. Tom. Iii. P. 16-20. ) Theoppressive edicts of the caliph Motawakkel, (A. D. 847-861, ) which arestill in force, are noticed by Eutychius, (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 448, ) andD'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. P. 640. ) A persecution of the caliph OmarII. Is related, and most probably magnified, by the Greek Theophanes(Chron p. 334. )]

[Footnote 218: The martyrs of Cordova (A. D. 850, &c. ) are commemoratedand justified by St. Eulogius, who at length fell a victim himself. Asynod, convened by the caliph, ambiguously censured their rashness. Themoderate Fleury cannot reconcile their conduct with the discipline ofantiquity, toutefois l'autorite de l'eglise, &c. (Fleury, Hist. Eccles. Tom. X. P. 415-522, particularly p. 451, 508, 509. ) Their authenticacts throw a strong, though transient, light on the Spanish church inthe ixth century. ]

At the end of the first century of the Hegira, the caliphs were the mostpotent and absolute monarchs of the globe. Their prerogative was notcircumscribed, either in right or in fact, by the power of the nobles, the freedom of the commons, the privileges of the church, the votes ofa senate, or the memory of a free constitution. The authority of thecompanions of Mahomet expired with their lives; and the chiefs or emirsof the Arabian tribes left behind, in the desert, the spirit of equalityand independence. The regal and sacerdotal characters were united in thesuccessors of Mahomet; and if the Koran was the rule of their actions, they were the supreme judges and interpreters of that divine book. Theyreigned by the right of conquest over the nations of the East, to whomthe name of liberty was unknown, and who were accustomed to applaud intheir tyrants the acts of violence and severity that were exercised attheir own expense. Under the last of the Ommiades, the Arabian empireextended two hundred days' journey from east to west, from the confinesof Tartary and India to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. And if weretrench the sleeve of the robe, as it is styled by their writers, thelong and narrow province of Africa, the solid and compact dominion fromFargana to Aden, from Tarsus to Surat, will spread on every side tothe measure of four or five months of the march of a caravan. [219]We should vainly seek the indissoluble union and easy obedience thatpervaded the government of Augustus and the Antonines; but the progressof the Mahometan religion diffused over this ample space a generalresemblance of manners and opinions. The language and laws of the Koranwere studied with equal devotion at Samarcand and Seville: the Moorand the Indian embraced as countrymen and brothers in the pilgrimage ofMecca; and the Arabian language was adopted as the popular idiom in allthe provinces to the westward of the Tigris. [220]

[Footnote 219: See the article Eslamiah, (as we say Christendom, ) in theBibliotheque Orientale, (p. 325. ) This chart of the Mahometan world issuited by the author, Ebn Alwardi, to the year of the Hegira 385 (A. D. 995. ) Since that time, the losses in Spain have been overbalanced by theconquests in India, Tartary, and the European Turkey. ]

[Footnote 220: The Arabic of the Koran is taught as a dead language inthe college of Mecca. By the Danish traveller, this ancient idiom iscompared to the Latin; the vulgar tongue of Hejaz and Yemen to theItalian; and the Arabian dialects of Syria, Egypt, Africa, &c. , to theProvencal, Spanish, and Portuguese, (Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie, p. 74, &c. )]

Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs. --Part I. 

 The Two Sieges Of Constantinople By The Arabs. --Their Invasion Of France, And Defeat By Charles Martel. --Civil War Of The Ommiades And Abbassides. --Learning Of The Arabs. -- Luxury Of The Caliphs. --Naval Enterprises On Crete, Sicily, And Rome. --Decay And Division Of The Empire Of The Caliphs. --Defeats And Victories Of The Greek Emperors. 

When the Arabs first issued from the desert, they must have beensurprised at the ease and rapidity of their own success. But when theyadvanced in the career of victory to the banks of the Indus and thesummit of the Pyrenees; when they had repeatedly tried the edge of theircimeters and the energy of their faith, they might be equally astonishedthat any nation could resist their invincible arms; that any boundaryshould confine the dominion of the successor of the prophet. Theconfidence of soldiers and fanatics may indeed be excused, since thecalm historian of the present hour, who strives to follow the rapidcourse of the Saracens, must study to explain by what means the churchand state were saved from this impending, and, as it should seem, fromthis inevitable, danger. The deserts of Scythia and Sarmatia might beguarded by their extent, their climate, their poverty, and the courageof the northern shepherds; China was remote and inaccessible; butthe greatest part of the temperate zone was subject to the Mahometanconquerors, the Greeks were exhausted by the calamities of war and theloss of their fairest provinces, and the Barbarians of Europe mightjustly tremble at the precipitate fall of the Gothic monarchy. In thisinquiry I shall unfold the events that rescued our ancestors of Britain, and our neighbors of Gaul, from the civil and religious yoke of theKoran; that protected the majesty of Rome, and delayed the servitudeof Constantinople; that invigorated the defence of the Christians, andscattered among their enemies the seeds of division and decay. 

Forty-six years after the flight of Mahomet from Mecca, his disciplesappeared in arms under the walls of Constantinople. [1] They wereanimated by a genuine or fictitious saying of the prophet, that, tothe first army which besieged the city of the Caesars, their sins wereforgiven: the long series of Roman triumphs would be meritoriouslytransferred to the conquerors of New Rome; and the wealth of nations wasdeposited in this well-chosen seat of royalty and commerce. No soonerhad the caliph Moawiyah suppressed his rivals and established histhrone, than he aspired to expiate the guilt of civil blood, by thesuccess and glory of this holy expedition; [2] his preparations by seaand land were adequate to the importance of the object; his standard wasintrusted to Sophian, a veteran warrior, but the troops were encouragedby the example and presence of Yezid, the son and presumptive heir ofthe commander of the faithful. The Greeks had little to hope, nor hadtheir enemies any reason of fear, from the courage and vigilance of thereigning emperor, who disgraced the name of Constantine, and imitatedonly the inglorious years of his grandfather Heraclius. Without delayor opposition, the naval forces of the Saracens passed through theunguarded channel of the Hellespont, which even now, under the feebleand disorderly government of the Turks, is maintained as the naturalbulwark of the capital. [3] The Arabian fleet cast anchor, and thetroops were disembarked near the palace of Hebdomon, seven miles fromthe city. During many days, from the dawn of light to the evening, the line of assault was extended from the golden gate to the easternpromontory and the foremost warriors were impelled by the weight andeffort of the succeeding columns. But the besiegers had formed aninsufficient estimate of the strength and resources of Constantinople. The solid and lofty walls were guarded by numbers and discipline: thespirit of the Romans was rekindled by the last danger of their religionand empire: the fugitives from the conquered provinces more successfullyrenewed the defence of Damascus and Alexandria; and the Saracens weredismayed by the strange and prodigious effects of artificial fire. This firm and effectual resistance diverted their arms to the more easyattempt of plundering the European and Asiatic coasts of the Propontis;and, after keeping the sea from the month of April to that of September, on the approach of winter they retreated fourscore miles from thecapital, to the Isle of Cyzicus, in which they had established theirmagazine of spoil and provisions. So patient was their perseverance, or so languid were their operations, that they repeated in the sixfollowing summers the same attack and retreat, with a gradual abatementof hope and vigor, till the mischances of shipwreck and disease, ofthe sword and of fire, compelled them to relinquish the fruitlessenterprise. They might bewail the loss, or commemorate the martyrdom, of thirty thousand Moslems, who fell in the siege of Constantinople;and the solemn funeral of Abu Ayub, or Job, excited the curiosity of theChristians themselves. 

That venerable Arab, one of the last of the companions of Mahomet, wasnumbered among the ansars, or auxiliaries, of Medina, who sheltered thehead of the flying prophet. In his youth he fought, at Beder andOhud, under the holy standard: in his mature age he was the friendand follower of Ali; and the last remnant of his strength and lifewas consumed in a distant and dangerous war against the enemies of theKoran. His memory was revered; but the place of his burial was neglectedand unknown, during a period of seven hundred and eighty years, till theconquest of Constantinople by Mahomet the Second. A seasonable vision(for such are the manufacture of every religion) revealed the holy spotat the foot of the walls and the bottom of the harbor; and the mosch ofAyub has been deservedly chosen for the simple and martial inaugurationof the Turkish sultans. [4]

[Footnote 1: Theophanes places the seven years of the siege ofConstantinople in the year of our Christian aera, 673 (of theAlexandrian 665, Sept. 1, ) and the peace of the Saracens, four yearsafterwards; a glaring inconsistency! which Petavius, Goar, and Pagi, (Critica, tom. Iv. P. 63, 64, ) have struggled to remove. Of theArabians, the Hegira 52 (A. D. 672, January 8) is assigned by Elmacin, the year 48 (A. D. 688, Feb. 20) by Abulfeda, whose testimony I esteemthe most convenient and credible. ]

[Footnote 2: For this first siege of Constantinople, see Nicephorus, (Breviar. P. 21, 22;) Theophanes, (Chronograph. P. 294;) Cedrenus, (Compend. P. 437;) Zonaras, (Hist. Tom. Ii. L. Xiv. P. 89;) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. P. 56, 57;) Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. P. 107, 108, vers. Reiske;) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. Constantinah;) Ockley's Historyof the Saracens, vol. Ii. P. 127, 128. ]

[Footnote 3: The state and defence of the Dardanelles is exposed in theMemoirs of the Baron de Tott, (tom. Iii. P. 39-97, ) who was sent tofortify them against the Russians. From a principal actor, I should haveexpected more accurate details; but he seems to write for the amusement, rather than the instruction, of his reader. Perhaps, on the approachof the enemy, the minister of Constantine was occupied, like that ofMustapha, in finding two Canary birds who should sing precisely the samenote. ]

[Footnote 4: Demetrius Cantemir's Hist. Of the Othman Empire, p. 105, 106. Rycaut's State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 10, 11. Voyages ofThevenot, part i. P. 189. The Christians, who suppose that the martyrAbu Ayub is vulgarly confounded with the patriarch Job, betray their ownignorance rather than that of the Turks. ]

The event of the siege revived, both in the East and West, thereputation of the Roman arms, and cast a momentary shade over theglories of the Saracens. The Greek ambassador was favorably received atDamascus, a general council of the emirs or Koreish: a peace, ortruce, of thirty years was ratified between the two empires; and thestipulation of an annual tribute, fifty horses of a noble breed, fiftyslaves, and three thousand pieces of gold, degraded the majesty ofthe commander of the faithful. [5] The aged caliph was desirous ofpossessing his dominions, and ending his days in tranquillity andrepose: while the Moors and Indians trembled at his name, his palace andcity of Damascus was insulted by the Mardaites, or Maronites, of MountLibanus, the firmest barrier of the empire, till they were disarmedand transplanted by the suspicious policy of the Greeks. [6] After therevolt of Arabia and Persia, the house of Ommiyah was reduced to thekingdoms of Syria and Egypt: their distress and fear enforced theircompliance with the pressing demands of the Christians; and the tributewas increased to a slave, a horse, and a thousand pieces of gold, foreach of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the solar year. Butas soon as the empire was again united by the arms and policy ofAbdalmalek, he disclaimed a badge of servitude not less injurious tohis conscience than to his pride; he discontinued the payment of thetribute; and the resentment of the Greeks was disabled from actionby the mad tyranny of the second Justinian, the just rebellion of hissubjects, and the frequent change of his antagonists and successors. Till the reign of Abdalmalek, the Saracens had been content with thefree possession of the Persian and Roman treasures, in the coins ofChosroes and Caesar. By the command of that caliph, a national mint wasestablished, both for silver and gold, and the inscription of the Dinar, though it might be censured by some timorous casuists, proclaimed theunity of the God of Mahomet. [8] Under the reign of the caliph Walid, the Greek language and characters were excluded from the accounts of thepublic revenue. [9] If this change was productive of the invention orfamiliar use of our present numerals, the Arabic or Indian ciphers, asthey are commonly styled, a regulation of office has promoted the mostimportant discoveries of arithmetic, algebra, and the mathematicalsciences. [10]

[Footnote 5: Theophanes, though a Greek, deserves credit for thesetributes, (Chronograph. P. 295, 296, 300, 301, ) which are confirmed, with some variation, by the Arabic History of Abulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 128, vers. Pocock. )]

[Footnote 6: The censure of Theophanes is just and pointed, (Chronograph. P. 302, 303. ) The series of these events may be tracedin the Annals of Theophanes, and in the Abridgment of the patriarchNicephorus, p. 22, 24. ]

[Footnote 7: These domestic revolutions are related in a clear andnatural style, in the second volume of Ockley's History of the Saracens, p. 253-370. Besides our printed authors, he draws his materials fromthe Arabic Mss. Of Oxford, which he would have more deeply searched hadhe been confined to the Bodleian library instead of the city jail a fatehow unworthy of the man and of his country!]

[Footnote 8: Elmacin, who dates the first coinage A. H. 76, A. D. 695, five or six years later than the Greek historians, has compared theweight of the best or common gold dinar to the drachm or dirhem ofEgypt, (p. 77, ) which may be equal to two pennies (48 grains) of ourTroy weight, (Hooper's Inquiry into Ancient Measures, p. 24-36, ) andequivalent to eight shillings of our sterling money. From the sameElmacin and the Arabian physicians, some dinars as high as two dirhems, as low as half a dirhem, may be deduced. The piece of silver was thedirhem, both in value and weight; but an old, though fair coin, struckat Waset, A. H. 88, and preserved in the Bodleian library, wants fourgrains of the Cairo standard, (see the Modern Universal History, tom. I. P. 548 of the French translation. ) * Note: Up to this time the Arabs hadused the Roman or the Persian coins or had minted others which resembledthem. Nevertheless, it has been admitted of late years, that theArabians, before this epoch, had caused coin to be minted, on which, preserving the Roman or the Persian dies, they added Arabian names orinscriptions. Some of these exist in different collections. We learnfrom Makrizi, an Arabian author of great learning and judgment, that inthe year 18 of the Hegira, under the caliphate of Omar, the Arabs hadcoined money of this description. The same author informs us that thecaliph Abdalmalek caused coins to be struck representing himself with asword by his side. These types, so contrary to the notions of the Arabs, were disapproved by the most influential persons of the time, and thecaliph substituted for them, after the year 76 of the Hegira, theMahometan coins with which we are acquainted. Consult, on the questionof Arabic numismatics, the works of Adler, of Fraehn, of Castiglione, and of Marsden, who have treated at length this interesting point ofhistoric antiquities. See, also, in the Journal Asiatique, tom. Ii. P. 257, et seq. , a paper of M. Silvestre de Sacy, entitled Des Monnaies desKhalifes avant l'An 75 de l'Hegire. See, also the translation of aGerman paper on the Arabic medals of the Chosroes, by M. Fraehn. In thesame Journal Asiatique tom. Iv. P. 331-347. St. Martin, vol. Xii. P. 19, --M. ]

[Footnote 9: Theophan. Chronograph. P. 314. This defect, if it reallyexisted, must have stimulated the ingenuity of the Arabs to invent orborrow. ]

[Footnote 10: According to a new, though probable, notion, maintained byM de Villoison, (Anecdota Graeca, tom. Ii. P. 152-157, ) our ciphers arenot of Indian or Arabic invention. They were used by the Greek and Latinarithmeticians long before the age of Boethius. After the extinction ofscience in the West, they were adopted by the Arabic versions from theoriginal Mss. , and restored to the Latins about the xith century. *Note: Compare, on the Introduction of the Arabic numerals, Hallam'sIntroduction to the Literature of Europe, p. 150, note, and the authorsquoted therein. --M. ]

Whilst the caliph Walid sat idle on the throne of Damascus, whilst hislieutenants achieved the conquest of Transoxiana and Spain, a third armyof Saracens overspread the provinces of Asia Minor, and approached theborders of the Byzantine capital. But the attempt and disgrace ofthe second siege was reserved for his brother Soliman, whose ambitionappears to have been quickened by a more active and martial spirit. Inthe revolutions of the Greek empire, after the tyrant Justinian had beenpunished and avenged, an humble secretary, Anastasius or Artemius, waspromoted by chance or merit to the vacant purple. He was alarmed bythe sound of war; and his ambassador returned from Damascus with thetremendous news, that the Saracens were preparing an armament by sea andland, such as would transcend the experience of the past, or the beliefof the present age. The precautions of Anastasius were not unworthy ofhis station, or of the impending danger. He issued a peremptory mandate, that all persons who were not provided with the means of subsistence fora three years' siege should evacuate the city: the public granariesand arsenals were abundantly replenished; the walls were restored andstrengthened; and the engines for casting stones, or darts, or fire, were stationed along the ramparts, or in the brigantines of war, ofwhich an additional number was hastily constructed. To prevent is safer, as well as more honorable, than to repel, an attack; and a design wasmeditated, above the usual spirit of the Greeks, of burning the navalstores of the enemy, the cypress timber that had been hewn in MountLibanus, and was piled along the sea-shore of Phoenicia, for the serviceof the Egyptian fleet. This generous enterprise was defeated by thecowardice or treachery of the troops, who, in the new language of theempire, were styled of the Obsequian Theme. [11] They murdered theirchief, deserted their standard in the Isle of Rhodes, dispersedthemselves over the adjacent continent, and deserved pardon or reward byinvesting with the purple a simple officer of the revenue. The name ofTheodosius might recommend him to the senate and people; but, after somemonths, he sunk into a cloister, and resigned, to the firmer hand ofLeo the Isaurian, the urgent defence of the capital and empire. The mostformidable of the Saracens, Moslemah, the brother of the caliph, wasadvancing at the head of one hundred and twenty thousand Arabs andPersians, the greater part mounted on horses or camels; and thesuccessful sieges of Tyana, Amorium, and Pergamus, were of sufficientduration to exercise their skill and to elevate their hopes. At thewell-known passage of Abydus, on the Hellespont, the Mahometan armswere transported, for the first time, [1111] from Asia to Europe. Fromthence, wheeling round the Thracian cities of the Propontis, Moslemahinvested Constantinople on the land side, surrounded his camp with aditch and rampart, prepared and planted his engines of assault, anddeclared, by words and actions, a patient resolution of expecting thereturn of seed-time and harvest, should the obstinacy of the besiegedprove equal to his own. [1112] The Greeks would gladly have ransomedtheir religion and empire, by a fine or assessment of a piece of goldon the head of each inhabitant of the city; but the liberal offer wasrejected with disdain, and the presumption of Moslemah was exalted bythe speedy approach and invincible force of the natives of Egypt andSyria. They are said to have amounted to eighteen hundred ships: thenumber betrays their inconsiderable size; and of the twenty stout andcapacious vessels, whose magnitude impeded their progress, each wasmanned with no more than one hundred heavy-armed soldiers. This hugearmada proceeded on a smooth sea, and with a gentle gale, towards themouth of the Bosphorus; the surface of the strait was overshadowed, inthe language of the Greeks, with a moving forest, and the same fatalnight had been fixed by the Saracen chief for a general assault by seaand land. To allure the confidence of the enemy, the emperor had thrownaside the chain that usually guarded the entrance of the harbor; butwhile they hesitated whether they should seize the opportunity, orapprehend the snare, the ministers of destruction were at hand. Thefire-ships of the Greeks were launched against them; the Arabs, theirarms, and vessels, were involved in the same flames; the disorderlyfugitives were dashed against each other or overwhelmed in the waves;and I no longer find a vestige of the fleet, that had threatened toextirpate the Roman name. A still more fatal and irreparable loss wasthat of the caliph Soliman, who died of an indigestion, [12] in his campnear Kinnisrin or Chalcis in Syria, as he was preparing to lead againstConstantinople the remaining forces of the East. The brother of Moslemahwas succeeded by a kinsman and an enemy; and the throne of an activeand able prince was degraded by the useless and pernicious virtues ofa bigot. [1211] While he started and satisfied the scruples of a blindconscience, the siege was continued through the winter by the neglect, rather than by the resolution of the caliph Omar. [13] The winter proveduncommonly rigorous: above a hundred days the ground was covered withdeep snow, and the natives of the sultry climes of Egypt and Arabia laytorpid and almost lifeless in their frozen camp. They revived on thereturn of spring; a second effort had been made in their favor; andtheir distress was relieved by the arrival of two numerous fleets, ladenwith corn, and arms, and soldiers; the first from Alexandria, of fourhundred transports and galleys; the second of three hundred and sixtyvessels from the ports of Africa. But the Greek fires were againkindled; and if the destruction was less complete, it was owing to theexperience which had taught the Moslems to remain at a safe distance, orto the perfidy of the Egyptian mariners, who deserted with their shipsto the emperor of the Christians. The trade and navigation of thecapital were restored; and the produce of the fisheries supplied thewants, and even the luxury, of the inhabitants. But the calamities offamine and disease were soon felt by the troops of Moslemah, and as theformer was miserably assuaged, so the latter was dreadfully propagated, by the pernicious nutriment which hunger compelled them to extract fromthe most unclean or unnatural food. The spirit of conquest, and even ofenthusiasm, was extinct: the Saracens could no longer struggle, beyondtheir lines, either single or in small parties, without exposingthemselves to the merciless retaliation of the Thracian peasants. 

An army of Bulgarians was attracted from the Danube by the gifts andpromises of Leo; and these savage auxiliaries made some atonement forthe evils which they had inflicted on the empire, by the defeat andslaughter of twenty-two thousand Asiatics. A report was dexterouslyscattered, that the Franks, the unknown nations of the Latin world, werearming by sea and land in the defence of the Christian cause, and theirformidable aid was expected with far different sensations in the campand city. At length, after a siege of thirteen months, [14] the hopelessMoslemah received from the caliph the welcome permission of retreat. [1411] The march of the Arabian cavalry over the Hellespont and throughthe provinces of Asia, was executed without delay or molestation; but anarmy of their brethren had been cut in pieces on the side of Bithynia, and the remains of the fleet were so repeatedly damaged by tempest andfire, that only five galleys entered the port of Alexandria to relatethe tale of their various and almost incredible disasters. [15]

[Footnote 11: In the division of the Themes, or provinces describedby Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Thematibus, l. I. P. 9, 10, ) theObsequium, a Latin appellation of the army and palace, was the fourth inthe public order. Nice was the metropolis, and its jurisdiction extendedfrom the Hellespont over the adjacent parts of Bithynia and Phrygia, (see the two maps prefixed by Delisle to the Imperium Orientale ofBanduri. )]

[Footnote 1111: Compare page 274. It is singular that Gibbon shouldthus contradict himself in a few pages. By his own account this was thesecond time. --M. ]

[Footnote 1112: The account of this siege in the Tarikh Tebry is a veryunfavorable specimen of Asiatic history, full of absurd fables, andwritten with total ignorance of the circumstances of time and place. Price, vol. I. P. 498--M. ]

[Footnote 12: The caliph had emptied two baskets of eggs and of figs, which he swallowed alternately, and the repast was concluded with marrowand sugar. In one of his pilgrimages to Mecca, Soliman ate, at a singlemeal, seventy pomegranates, a kid, six fowls, and a huge quantity ofthe grapes of Tayef. If the bill of fare be correct, we must admire theappetite, rather than the luxury, of the sovereign of Asia, (Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem. P. 126. ) * Note: The Tarikh Tebry ascribes the deathof Soliman to a pleurisy. The same gross gluttony in which Solimanindulged, though not fatal to the life, interfered with the militaryduties, of his brother Moslemah. Price, vol. I. P. 511. --M. ]

[Footnote 1211: Major Price's estimate of Omar's character is much morefavorable. Among a race of sanguinary tyrants, Omar was just and humane. His virtues as well as his bigotry were active. --M. ]

[Footnote 13: See the article of Omar Ben Abdalaziz, in the BibliothequeOrientale, (p. 689, 690, ) praeferens, says Elmacin, (p. 91, ) religionemsuam rebus suis mundanis. He was so desirous of being with God, thathe would not have anointed his ear (his own saying) to obtain a perfectcure of his last malady. The caliph had only one shirt, and in an age ofluxury, his annual expense was no more than two drachms, (Abulpharagius, p. 131. ) Haud diu gavisus eo principe fuit urbis Muslemus, (Abulfeda, p. 127. )]

[Footnote 14: Both Nicephorus and Theophanes agree that the siege ofConstantinople was raised the 15th of August, (A. D. 718;) but as theformer, our best witness, affirms that it continued thirteen months, thelatter must be mistaken in supposing that it began on the same dayof the preceding year. I do not find that Pagi has remarked thisinconsistency. ]

[Footnote 1411: The Tarikh Tebry embellishes the retreat of Moslemahwith some extraordinary and incredible circumstances. Price, p. 514. --M. ]

[Footnote 15: In the second siege of Constantinople, I have followedNicephorus, (Brev. P. 33-36, ) Theophanes, (Chronograph, p. 324-334, )Cedrenus, (Compend. P. 449-452, ) Zonaras, (tom. Ii. P. 98-102, )Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 88, ) Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. P. 126, ) andAbulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 130, ) the most satisfactory of the Arabs. ]

In the two sieges, the deliverance of Constantinople may be chieflyascribed to the novelty, the terrors, and the real efficacy of theGreek fire. [16] The important secret of compounding and directing thisartificial flame was imparted by Callinicus, a native of Heliopolisin Syria, who deserted from the service of the caliph to that of theemperor. [17] The skill of a chemist and engineer was equivalent to thesuccor of fleets and armies; and this discovery or improvement of themilitary art was fortunately reserved for the distressful period, whenthe degenerate Romans of the East were incapable of contending with thewarlike enthusiasm and youthful vigor of the Saracens. The historian whopresumes to analyze this extraordinary composition should suspecthis own ignorance and that of his Byzantine guides, so prone to themarvellous, so careless, and, in this instance, so jealous of the truth. From their obscure, and perhaps fallacious, hints it should seem thatthe principal ingredient of the Greek fire was the naphtha, [18] orliquid bitumen, a light, tenacious, and inflammable oil, [19] whichsprings from the earth, and catches fire as soon as it comes in contactwith the air. The naphtha was mingled, I know not by what methods or inwhat proportions, with sulphur and with the pitch that is extracted fromevergreen firs. [20] From this mixture, which produced a thick smoke anda loud explosion, proceeded a fierce and obstinate flame, which not onlyrose in perpendicular ascent, but likewise burnt with equal vehemencein descent or lateral progress; instead of being extinguished, it wasnourished and quickened by the element of water; and sand, urine, or vinegar, were the only remedies that could damp the fury of thispowerful agent, which was justly denominated by the Greeks the liquid, or the maritime, fire. For the annoyance of the enemy, it was employedwith equal effect, by sea and land, in battles or in sieges. It waseither poured from the rampart in large boilers, or launched in red-hotballs of stone and iron, or darted in arrows and javelins, twistedround with flax and tow, which had deeply imbibed the inflammable oil;sometimes it was deposited in fire-ships, the victims and instruments ofa more ample revenge, and was most commonly blown through long tubes ofcopper which were planted on the prow of a galley, and fancifully shapedinto the mouths of savage monsters, that seemed to vomit a streamof liquid and consuming fire. This important art was preserved atConstantinople, as the palladium of the state: the galleys and artillerymight occasionally be lent to the allies of Rome; but the compositionof the Greek fire was concealed with the most jealous scruple, and theterror of the enemies was increased and prolonged by their ignorance andsurprise. In the treaties of the administration of the empire, the royalauthor [21] suggests the answers and excuses that might best elude theindiscreet curiosity and importunate demands of the Barbarians. Theyshould be told that the mystery of the Greek fire had been revealed byan angel to the first and greatest of the Constantines, with a sacredinjunction, that this gift of Heaven, this peculiar blessing of theRomans, should never be communicated to any foreign nation; that theprince and the subject were alike bound to religious silence under thetemporal and spiritual penalties of treason and sacrilege; and that theimpious attempt would provoke the sudden and supernatural vengeanceof the God of the Christians. By these precautions, the secret wasconfined, above four hundred years, to the Romans of the East; and atthe end of the eleventh century, the Pisans, to whom every sea andevery art were familiar, suffered the effects, without understanding thecomposition, of the Greek fire. It was at length either discovered orstolen by the Mahometans; and, in the holy wars of Syria and Egypt, theyretorted an invention, contrived against themselves, on the heads ofthe Christians. A knight, who despised the swords and lances of theSaracens, relates, with heartfelt sincerity, his own fears, and thoseof his companions, at the sight and sound of the mischievous enginethat discharged a torrent of the Greek fire, the feu Gregeois, as it isstyled by the more early of the French writers. It came flying throughthe air, says Joinville, [22] like a winged long-tailed dragon, aboutthe thickness of a hogshead, with the report of thunder and the velocityof lightning; and the darkness of the night was dispelled by this deadlyillumination. The use of the Greek, or, as it might now be called, ofthe Saracen fire, was continued to the middle of the fourteenth century, [23] when the scientific or casual compound of nitre, sulphur, andcharcoal, effected a new revolution in the art of war and the history ofmankind. [24]

[Footnote 16: Our sure and indefatigable guide in the middle ages andByzantine history, Charles du Fresne du Cange, has treated in severalplaces of the Greek fire, and his collections leave few gleaningsbehind. See particularly Glossar. Med. Et Infim. Graecitat. P. 1275, subvoce. Glossar. Med. Et Infim. Latinitat. Ignis Groecus. Observations surVillehardouin, p. 305, 306. Observations sur Joinville, p. 71, 72. ]

[Footnote 17: Theophanes styles him, (p. 295. ) Cedrenus (p. 437) bringsthis artist from (the ruins of) Heliopolis in Egypt; and chemistry wasindeed the peculiar science of the Egyptians. ]

[Footnote 18: The naphtha, the oleum incendiarium of the history ofJerusalem, (Gest. Dei per Francos, p. 1167, ) the Oriental fountain ofJames de Vitry, (l. Iii. C. 84, ) is introduced on slight evidence andstrong probability. Cinanmus (l. Vi. P. 165) calls the Greek fire: andthe naphtha is known to abound between the Tigris and the Caspian Sea. According to Pliny, (Hist. Natur. Ii. 109, ) it was subservient to therevenge of Medea, and in either etymology, (Procop. De Bell. Gothic. L. Iv. C. 11, ) may fairly signify this liquid bitumen. * Note: It isremarkable that the Syrian historian Michel gives the name of naphthato the newly-invented Greek fire, which seems to indicate that thissubstance formed the base of the destructive compound. St. Martin, tom. Xi. P. 420. --M. ]

[Footnote 19: On the different sorts of oils and bitumens, see Dr. Watson's (the present bishop of Llandaff's) Chemical Essays, vol. Iii. Essay i. , a classic book, the best adapted to infuse the taste andknowledge of chemistry. The less perfect ideas of the ancients may befound in Strabo (Geograph. L. Xvi. P. 1078) and Pliny, (Hist. Natur. Ii. 108, 109. ) Huic (Naphthae) magna cognatio est ignium, transiliuntqueprotinus in eam undecunque visam. Of our travellers I am best pleasedwith Otter, (tom. I. P. 153, 158. )]

[Footnote 20: Anna Comnena has partly drawn aside the curtain. (Alexiad. L. Xiii. P. 383. ) Elsewhere (l. Xi. P. 336) she mentions the property ofburning. Leo, in the xixth chapter of his Tactics, (Opera Meursii, tom. Vi. P. 843, edit. Lami, Florent. 1745, ) speaks of the new invention. These are genuine and Imperial testimonies. ]

[Footnote 21: Constantin. Porphyrogenit. De Administrat. Imperii, c. Xiii. P. 64, 65. ]

[Footnote 22: Histoire de St. Louis, p. 39. Paris, 1668, p. 44. Paris, de l'Imprimerie Royale, 1761. The former of these editions is preciousfor the observations of Ducange; the latter for the pure and originaltext of Joinville. We must have recourse to that text to discover, thatthe feu Gregeois was shot with a pile or javelin, from an engine thatacted like a sling. ]

[Footnote 23: The vanity, or envy, of shaking the established propertyof Fame, has tempted some moderns to carry gunpowder above the xivth, (see Sir William Temple, Dutens, &c. , ) and the Greek fire above theviith century, (see the Saluste du President des Brosses, tom. Ii. P. 381. ) But their evidence, which precedes the vulgar aera of theinvention, is seldom clear or satisfactory, and subsequent writersmay be suspected of fraud or credulity. In the earliest sieges, somecombustibles of oil and sulphur have been used, and the Greek fire hassome affinities with gunpowder both in its nature and effects: for theantiquity of the first, a passage of Procopius, (de Bell. Goth. L. Iv. C. 11, ) for that of the second, some facts in the Arabic history ofSpain, (A. D. 1249, 1312, 1332. Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. Tom. Ii. P. 6, 7, 8, ) are the most difficult to elude. ]

[Footnote 24: That extraordinary man, Friar Bacon, reveals two of theingredients, saltpetre and sulphur, and conceals the third in a sentenceof mysterious gibberish, as if he dreaded the consequences of his owndiscovery, (Biog. Brit. Vol. I. P. 430, new edition. )]

Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs. --Part II. 

Constantinople and the Greek fire might exclude the Arabs from theeastern entrance of Europe; but in the West, on the side of thePyrenees, the provinces of Gaul were threatened and invaded by theconquerors of Spain. [25] The decline of the French monarchy invited theattack of these insatiate fanatics. The descendants of Clovis hadlost the inheritance of his martial and ferocious spirit; and theirmisfortune or demerit has affixed the epithet of lazy to the last kingsof the Merovingian race. [26] They ascended the throne without power, and sunk into the grave without a name. A country palace, in theneighborhood of Compiegne [27] was allotted for their residence orprison: but each year, in the month of March or May, they were conductedin a wagon drawn by oxen to the assembly of the Franks, to give audienceto foreign ambassadors, and to ratify the acts of the mayor of thepalace. That domestic officer was become the minister of the nation andthe master of the prince. A public employment was converted into thepatrimony of a private family: the elder Pepin left a king of matureyears under the guardianship of his own widow and her child; and thesefeeble regents were forcibly dispossessed by the most active of hisbastards. A government, half savage and half corrupt, was almostdissolved; and the tributary dukes, and provincial counts, and theterritorial lords, were tempted to despise the weakness of the monarch, and to imitate the ambition of the mayor. Among these independentchiefs, one of the boldest and most successful was Eudes, duke ofAquitain, who in the southern provinces of Gaul usurped the authority, and even the title of king. The Goths, the Gascons, and the Franks, assembled under the standard of this Christian hero: he repelled thefirst invasion of the Saracens; and Zama, lieutenant of the caliph, losthis army and his life under the walls of Thoulouse. The ambition of hissuccessors was stimulated by revenge; they repassed the Pyrenees withthe means and the resolution of conquest. The advantageous situationwhich had recommended Narbonne [28] as the first Roman colony, wasagain chosen by the Moslems: they claimed the province of Septimania orLanguedoc as a just dependence of the Spanish monarchy: the vineyardsof Gascony and the city of Bourdeaux were possessed by the sovereign ofDamascus and Samarcand; and the south of France, from the mouth ofthe Garonne to that of the Rhone, assumed the manners and religion ofArabia. 

[Footnote 25: For the invasion of France and the defeat of the Arabs byCharles Martel, see the Historia Arabum (c. 11, 12, 13, 14) of RodericXimenes, archbishop of Toledo, who had before him the Christianchronicle of Isidore Pacensis, and the Mahometan history of Novairi. The Moslems are silent or concise in the account of their losses; but MCardonne (tom. I. P. 129, 130, 131) has given a pure and simple accountof all that he could collect from Ibn Halikan, Hidjazi, and an anonymouswriter. The texts of the chronicles of France, and lives of saints, areinserted in the Collection of Bouquet, (tom. Iii. , ) and the Annalsof Pagi, who (tom. Iii. Under the proper years) has restored thechronology, which is anticipated six years in the Annals of Baronius. The Dictionary of Bayle (Abderame and Munuza) has more merit for livelyreflection than original research. ]

[Footnote 26: Eginhart, de Vita Caroli Magni, c. Ii. P. 13-78, edit. Schmink, Utrecht, 1711. Some modern critics accuse the minister ofCharlemagne of exaggerating the weakness of the Merovingians; but thegeneral outline is just, and the French reader will forever repeat thebeautiful lines of Boileau's Lutrin. ]

[Footnote 27: Mamaccae, on the Oyse, between Compiegne and Noyon, whichEginhart calls perparvi reditus villam, (see the notes, and the map ofancient France for Dom. Bouquet's Collection. ) Compendium, or Compiegne, was a palace of more dignity, (Hadrian. Valesii Notitia Galliarum, p. 152, ) and that laughing philosopher, the Abbe Galliani, (Dialogues surle Commerce des Bleds, ) may truly affirm, that it was the residence ofthe rois tres Chretiens en tres chevelus. ]

[Footnote 28: Even before that colony, A. U. C. 630, (Velleius Patercul. I. 15, ) In the time of Polybius, (Hist. L. Iii. P. 265, edit. Gronov. )Narbonne was a Celtic town of the first eminence, and one of the mostnorthern places of the known world, (D'Anville, Notice de l'AncienneGaule, p. 473. )]

But these narrow limits were scorned by the spirit of Abdalraman, orAbderame, who had been restored by the caliph Hashem to the wishes ofthe soldiers and people of Spain. That veteran and daring commanderadjudged to the obedience of the prophet whatever yet remained of Franceor of Europe; and prepared to execute the sentence, at the head of aformidable host, in the full confidence of surmounting all oppositioneither of nature or of man. His first care was to suppress a domesticrebel, who commanded the most important passes of the Pyrenees: Manuza, a Moorish chief, had accepted the alliance of the duke of Aquitain;and Eudes, from a motive of private or public interest, devoted hisbeauteous daughter to the embraces of the African misbeliever. But thestrongest fortresses of Cerdagne were invested by a superior force; therebel was overtaken and slain in the mountains; and his widow was senta captive to Damascus, to gratify the desires, or more probably thevanity, of the commander of the faithful. From the Pyrenees, Abderameproceeded without delay to the passage of the Rhone and the siege ofArles. 

An army of Christians attempted the relief of the city: the tombs oftheir leaders were yet visible in the thirteenth century; and manythousands of their dead bodies were carried down the rapid stream intothe Mediterranean Sea. The arms of Abderame were not less successfulon the side of the ocean. He passed without opposition the Garonne andDordogne, which unite their waters in the Gulf of Bourdeaux; but hefound, beyond those rivers, the camp of the intrepid Eudes, who hadformed a second army and sustained a second defeat, so fatal to theChristians, that, according to their sad confession, God alone couldreckon the number of the slain. The victorious Saracen overran theprovinces of Aquitain, whose Gallic names are disguised, rather thanlost, in the modern appellations of Perigord, Saintonge, and Poitou: hisstandards were planted on the walls, or at least before the gates, of Tours and of Sens; and his detachments overspread the kingdom ofBurgundy as far as the well-known cities of Lyons and Besancon. Thememory of these devastations (for Abderame did not spare the country orthe people) was long preserved by tradition; and the invasion of Franceby the Moors or Mahometans affords the groundwork of those fables, which have been so wildly disfigured in the romances of chivalry, andso elegantly adorned by the Italian muse. In the decline of society andart, the deserted cities could supply a slender booty to the Saracens;their richest spoil was found in the churches and monasteries, whichthey stripped of their ornaments and delivered to the flames: and thetutelar saints, both Hilary of Poitiers and Martin of Tours, forgottheir miraculous powers in the defence of their own sepulchres. [29] Avictorious line of march had been prolonged above a thousand miles fromthe rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire; the repetition of anequal space would have carried the Saracens to the confines of Polandand the Highlands of Scotland; the Rhine is not more impassable thanthe Nile or Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without anaval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation ofthe Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpitsmight demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of therevelation of Mahomet. [30]

[Footnote 29: With regard to the sanctuary of St. Martin of Tours, Roderic Ximenes accuses the Saracens of the deed. Turonis civitatem, ecclesiam et palatia vastatione et incendio simili diruit et consumpsit. The continuator of Fredegarius imputes to them no more than theintention. Ad domum beatissimi Martini evertendam destinant. At Carolus, &c. The French annalist was more jealous of the honor of the saint. ]

[Footnote 30: Yet I sincerely doubt whether the Oxford mosch would haveproduced a volume of controversy so elegant and ingenious as the sermonslately preached by Mr. White, the Arabic professor, at Mr. Bampton'slecture. His observations on the character and religion of Mahometare always adapted to his argument, and generally founded in truth andreason. He sustains the part of a lively and eloquent advocate; andsometimes rises to the merit of an historian and philosopher. ]

From such calamities was Christendom delivered by the genius and fortuneof one man. Charles, the illegitimate son of the elder Pepin, wascontent with the titles of mayor or duke of the Franks; but he deservedto become the father of a line of kings. In a laborious administrationof twenty-four years, he restored and supported the dignity of thethrone, and the rebels of Germany and Gaul were successively crushed bythe activity of a warrior, who, in the same campaign, could displayhis banner on the Elbe, the Rhone, and the shores of the ocean. Inthe public danger he was summoned by the voice of his country; and hisrival, the duke of Aquitain, was reduced to appear among the fugitivesand suppliants. "Alas!" exclaimed the Franks, "what a misfortune! whatan indignity! We have long heard of the name and conquests of theArabs: we were apprehensive of their attack from the East; they havenow conquered Spain, and invade our country on the side of the West. Yettheir numbers, and (since they have no buckler) their arms, are inferiorto our own. " "If you follow my advice, " replied the prudent mayor ofthe palace, "you will not interrupt their march, nor precipitate yourattack. They are like a torrent, which it is dangerous to stem in itscareer. The thirst of riches, and the consciousness of success, redoubletheir valor, and valor is of more avail than arms or numbers. Be patienttill they have loaded themselves with the encumbrance of wealth. Thepossession of wealth will divide their councils and assure yourvictory. " This subtile policy is perhaps a refinement of the Arabianwriters; and the situation of Charles will suggest a more narrow andselfish motive of procrastination--the secret desire of humbling thepride and wasting the provinces of the rebel duke of Aquitain. It is yetmore probable, that the delays of Charles were inevitable and reluctant. A standing army was unknown under the first and second race; more thanhalf the kingdom was now in the hands of the Saracens: according totheir respective situation, the Franks of Neustria and Austrasia were toconscious or too careless of the impending danger; and the voluntaryaids of the Gepidae and Germans were separated by a long interval fromthe standard of the Christian general. No sooner had he collected hisforces, than he sought and found the enemy in the centre of France, between Tours and Poitiers. His well-conducted march was covered with arange of hills, and Abderame appears to have been surprised by hisunexpected presence. The nations of Asia, Africa, and Europe, advancedwith equal ardor to an encounter which would change the history of theworld. In the six first days of desultory combat, the horsemen andarchers of the East maintained their advantage: but in the closer onsetof the seventh day, the Orientals were oppressed by the strength andstature of the Germans, who, with stout hearts and iron hands, [31]asserted the civil and religious freedom of their posterity. The epithetof Martel. The Hammer, which has been added to the name of Charles, isexpressive of his weighty and irresistible strokes: the valor of Eudeswas excited by resentment and emulation; and their companions, in theeye of history, are the true Peers and Paladins of French chivalry. After a bloody field, in which Abderame was slain, the Saracens, in theclose of the evening, retired to their camp. In the disorder and despairof the night, the various tribes of Yemen and Damascus, of Africa andSpain, were provoked to turn their arms against each other: the remainsof their host were suddenly dissolved, and each emir consulted hissafety by a hasty and separate retreat. At the dawn of the day, thestillness of a hostile camp was suspected by the victorious Christians:on the report of their spies, they ventured to explore the riches of thevacant tents; but if we except some celebrated relics, a small portionof the spoil was restored to the innocent and lawful owners. The joyfultidings were soon diffused over the Catholic world, and the monks ofItaly could affirm and believe that three hundred and fifty, or threehundred and seventy-five, thousand of the Mahometans had been crushed bythe hammer of Charles, [32] while no more than fifteen hundredChristians were slain in the field of Tours. But this incredible tale issufficiently disproved by the caution of the French general, whoapprehended the snares and accidents of a pursuit, and dismissed hisGerman allies to their native forests. 

The inactivity of a conqueror betrays the loss of strength and blood, and the most cruel execution is inflicted, not in the ranks of battle, but on the backs of a flying enemy. Yet the victory of the Franks wascomplete and final; Aquitain was recovered by the arms of Eudes; theArabs never resumed the conquest of Gaul, and they were soon drivenbeyond the Pyrenees by Charles Martel and his valiant race. [33] Itmight have been expected that the savior of Christendom would have beencanonized, or at least applauded, by the gratitude of the clergy, whoare indebted to his sword for their present existence. But in thepublic distress, the mayor of the palace had been compelled to applythe riches, or at least the revenues, of the bishops and abbots, tothe relief of the state and the reward of the soldiers. His merits wereforgotten, his sacrilege alone was remembered, and, in an epistle toa Carlovingian prince, a Gallic synod presumes to declare that hisancestor was damned; that on the opening of his tomb, the spectatorswere affrighted by a smell of fire and the aspect of a horrid dragon;and that a saint of the times was indulged with a pleasant vision of thesoul and body of Charles Martel, burning, to all eternity, in the abyssof hell. [34]

[Footnote 31: Gens Austriae membrorum pre-eminentia valida, et gensGermana corde et corpore praestantissima, quasi in ictu oculi, manuferrea, et pectore arduo, Arabes extinxerunt, (Roderic. Toletan. C. Xiv. )]

[Footnote 32: These numbers are stated by Paul Warnefrid, the deaconof Aquileia, (de Gestis Langobard. L. Vi. P. 921, edit. Grot. , ) andAnastasius, the librarian of the Roman church, (in Vit. GregoriiII. , ) who tells a miraculous story of three consecrated sponges, whichrendered invulnerable the French soldiers, among whom they had beenshared It should seem, that in his letters to the pope, Eudes usurpedthe honor of the victory, from which he is chastised by the Frenchannalists, who, with equal falsehood, accuse him of inviting theSaracens. ]

[Footnote 33: Narbonne, and the rest of Septimania, was recovered byPepin the son of Charles Martel, A. D. 755, (Pagi, Critica, tom. Iii. P. 300. ) Thirty-seven years afterwards, it was pillaged by a sudden inroadof the Arabs, who employed the captives in the construction of the moschof Cordova, (De Guignes, Hist. Des Huns, tom. I. P. 354. )]

[Footnote 34: This pastoral letter, addressed to Lewis the Germanic, thegrandson of Charlemagne, and most probably composed by the pen of theartful Hincmar, is dated in the year 858, and signed by the bishops ofthe provinces of Rheims and Rouen, (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 741. Fleury, Hist. Eccles. Tom. X. P. 514-516. ) Yet Baronius himself, andthe French critics, reject with contempt this episcopal fiction. ]

The loss of an army, or a province, in the Western world, was lesspainful to the court of Damascus, than the rise and progress of adomestic competitor. Except among the Syrians, the caliphs of the houseof Ommiyah had never been the objects of the public favor. The life ofMahomet recorded their perseverance in idolatry and rebellion: theirconversion had been reluctant, their elevation irregular and factious, and their throne was cemented with the most holy and noble blood ofArabia. The best of their race, the pious Omar, was dissatisfied withhis own title: their personal virtues were insufficient to justify adeparture from the order of succession; and the eyes and wishes of thefaithful were turned towards the line of Hashem, and the kindred ofthe apostle of God. Of these the Fatimites were either rash orpusillanimous; but the descendants of Abbas cherished, with courageand discretion, the hopes of their rising fortunes. From an obscureresidence in Syria, they secretly despatched their agents andmissionaries, who preached in the Eastern provinces their hereditaryindefeasible right; and Mohammed, the son of Ali, the son of Abdallah, the son of Abbas, the uncle of the prophet, gave audience to thedeputies of Chorasan, and accepted their free gift of four hundredthousand pieces of gold. After the death of Mohammed, the oath ofallegiance was administered in the name of his son Ibrahim to a numerousband of votaries, who expected only a signal and a leader; and thegovernor of Chorasan continued to deplore his fruitless admonitions andthe deadly slumber of the caliphs of Damascus, till he himself, withall his adherents, was driven from the city and palace of Meru, by therebellious arms of Abu Moslem. [35] That maker of kings, the author, ashe is named, of the call of the Abbassides, was at length rewarded forhis presumption of merit with the usual gratitude of courts. A mean, perhaps a foreign, extraction could not repress the aspiring energy ofAbu Moslem. Jealous of his wives, liberal of his wealth, prodigal ofhis own blood and of that of others, he could boast with pleasure, andpossibly with truth, that he had destroyed six hundred thousand of hisenemies; and such was the intrepid gravity of his mind and countenance, that he was never seen to smile except on a day of battle. In thevisible separation of parties, the green was consecrated to theFatimites; the Ommiades were distinguished by the white; and the black, as the most adverse, was naturally adopted by the Abbassides. Theirturbans and garments were stained with that gloomy color: two blackstandards, on pike staves nine cubits long, were borne aloft in the vanof Abu Moslem; and their allegorical names of the night and the shadowobscurely represented the indissoluble union and perpetual successionof the line of Hashem. From the Indus to the Euphrates, the East wasconvulsed by the quarrel of the white and the black factions: theAbbassides were most frequently victorious; but their public successwas clouded by the personal misfortune of their chief. The courtof Damascus, awakening from a long slumber, resolved to prevent thepilgrimage of Mecca, which Ibrahim had undertaken with a splendidretinue, to recommend himself at once to the favor of the prophet and ofthe people. A detachment of cavalry intercepted his march and arrestedhis person; and the unhappy Ibrahim, snatched away from the promise ofuntasted royalty, expired in iron fetters in the dungeons of Haran. Histwo younger brothers, Saffah [3511] and Almansor, eluded the search ofthe tyrant, and lay concealed at Cufa, till the zeal of the people andthe approach of his Eastern friends allowed them to expose their personsto the impatient public. On Friday, in the dress of a caliph, in thecolors of the sect, Saffah proceeded with religious and military pompto the mosch: ascending the pulpit, he prayed and preached as the lawfulsuccessor of Mahomet; and after his departure, his kinsmen bound awilling people by an oath of fidelity. But it was on the banks of theZab, and not in the mosch of Cufa, that this important controversy wasdetermined. Every advantage appeared to be on the side of the whitefaction: the authority of established government; an army of a hundredand twenty thousand soldiers, against a sixth part of that number; andthe presence and merit of the caliph Mervan, the fourteenth and lastof the house of Ommiyah. Before his accession to the throne, he haddeserved, by his Georgian warfare, the honorable epithet of the ass ofMesopotamia; [36] and he might have been ranked amongst the greatestprinces, had not, says Abulfeda, the eternal order decreed that momentfor the ruin of his family; a decree against which all human fortitudeand prudence must struggle in vain. The orders of Mervan were mistaken, or disobeyed: the return of his horse, from which he had dismounted ona necessary occasion, impressed the belief of his death; and theenthusiasm of the black squadrons was ably conducted by Abdallah, theuncle of his competitor. After an irretrievab defeat, the caliph escapedto Mosul; but the colors of the Abbassides were displayed from therampart; he suddenly repassed the Tigris, cast a melancholy look on hispalace of Haran, crossed the Euphrates, abandoned the fortifications ofDamascus, and, without halting in Palestine, pitched his last and fatalcamp at Busir, on the banks of the Nile. [37] His speed was urged bythe incessant diligence of Abdallah, who in every step of the pursuitacquired strength and reputation: the remains of the white faction werefinally vanquished in Egypt; and the lance, which terminated the lifeand anxiety of Mervan, was not less welcome perhaps to the unfortunatethan to the victorious chief. The merciless inquisition of the conqueroreradicated the most distant branches of the hostile race: their boneswere scattered, their memory was accursed, and the martyrdom of Hosseinwas abundantly revenged on the posterity of his tyrants. Fourscore ofthe Ommiades, who had yielded to the faith or clemency of their foes, were invited to a banquet at Damascus. The laws of hospitality wereviolated by a promiscuous massacre: the board was spread over theirfallen bodies; and the festivity of the guests was enlivened by themusic of their dying groans. By the event of the civil war, the dynastyof the Abbassides was firmly established; but the Christians onlycould triumph in the mutual hatred and common loss of the disciples ofMahomet. [38]

[Footnote 35: The steed and the saddle which had carried any of hiswives were instantly killed or burnt, lest they should afterwards bemounted by a male. Twelve hundred mules or camels were required for hiskitchen furniture; and the daily consumption amounted to three thousandcakes, a hundred sheep, besides oxen, poultry, &c. , (Abul pharagius, Hist. Dynast. P. 140. )]

[Footnote 3511: He is called Abdullah or Abul Abbas in the Tarikh Tebry. Price vol. I. P. 600. Saffah or Saffauh (the Sanguinary) was a namewhich be required after his bloody reign, (vol. Ii. P. 1. )--M. ]

[Footnote 36: Al Hemar. He had been governor of Mesopotamia, and theArabic proverb praises the courage of that warlike breed of asseswho never fly from an enemy. The surname of Mervan may justify thecomparison of Homer, (Iliad, A. 557, &c. , ) and both will silencethe moderns, who consider the ass as a stupid and ignoble emblem, (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. P. 558. )]

[Footnote 37: Four several places, all in Egypt, bore the name of Busir, or Busiris, so famous in Greek fable. The first, where Mervan was slainwas to the west of the Nile, in the province of Fium, or Arsinoe;the second in the Delta, in the Sebennytic nome; the third near thepyramids; the fourth, which was destroyed by Dioclesian, (see above, vol. Ii. P. 130, ) in the Thebais. I shall here transcribe a note of thelearned and orthodox Michaelis: Videntur in pluribus Aegypti superiorisurbibus Busiri Coptoque arma sumpsisse Christiani, libertatemque dereligione sentiendi defendisse, sed succubuisse quo in bello Coptus etBusiris diruta, et circa Esnam magna strages edita. Bellum narrant sedcausam belli ignorant scriptores Byzantini, alioqui Coptum et Busirimnon rebellasse dicturi, sed causam Christianorum suscepturi, (Not. 211, p. 100. ) For the geography of the four Busirs, see Abulfeda, (Descript. Aegypt. P. 9, vers. Michaelis, Gottingae, 1776, in 4to. , ) Michaelis, (Not. 122-127, p. 58-63, ) and D'Anville, (Memoire sua l'Egypte, p. 85, 147, 205. )]

[Footnote 38: See Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. P. 136-145, ) Eutychius, (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 392, vers. Pocock, ) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. P. 109-121, ) Abulpharagius, (Hist. Dynast. P. 134-140, ) Roderic ofToledo, (Hist. Arabum, c. Xviii. P. 33, ) Theophanes, (Chronograph. P. 356, 357, who speaks of the Abbassides) and the Bibliotheque ofD'Herbelot, in the articles Ommiades, Abbassides, Moervan, Ibrahim, Saffah, Abou Moslem. ]

Yet the thousands who were swept away by the sword of war mighthave been speedily retrieved in the succeeding generation, if theconsequences of the revolution had not tended to dissolve the powerand unity of the empire of the Saracens. In the proscription of theOmmiades, a royal youth of the name of Abdalrahman alone escaped therage of his enemies, who hunted the wandering exile from the banksof the Euphrates to the valleys of Mount Atlas. His presence in theneighborhood of Spain revived the zeal of the white faction. The nameand cause of the Abbassides had been first vindicated by the Persians:the West had been pure from civil arms; and the servants of theabdicated family still held, by a precarious tenure, the inheritanceof their lands and the offices of government. Strongly prompted bygratitude, indignation, and fear, they invited the grandson of thecaliph Hashem to ascend the throne of his ancestors; and, in hisdesperate condition, the extremes of rashness and prudence were almostthe same. The acclamations of the people saluted his landing on thecoast of Andalusia: and, after a successful struggle, Abdalrahmanestablished the throne of Cordova, and was the father of the Ommiades ofSpain, who reigned above two hundred and fifty years from the Atlanticto the Pyrenees. [39] He slew in battle a lieutenant of the Abbassides, who had invaded his dominions with a fleet and army: the head of Ala, insalt and camphire, was suspended by a daring messenger before the palaceof Mecca; and the caliph Almansor rejoiced in his safety, that he wasremoved by seas and lands from such a formidable adversary. Their mutualdesigns or declarations of offensive war evaporated without effect;but instead of opening a door to the conquest of Europe, Spain wasdissevered from the trunk of the monarchy, engaged in perpetualhostility with the East, and inclined to peace and friendship with theChristian sovereigns of Constantinople and France. The example of theOmmiades was imitated by the real or fictitious progeny of Ali, theEdrissites of Mauritania, and the more powerful fatimites of Africa andEgypt. In the tenth century, the chair of Mahomet was disputed by threecaliphs or commanders of the faithful, who reigned at Bagdad, Cairoan, and Cordova, excommunicating each other, and agreed only in a principleof discord, that a sectary is more odious and criminal than anunbeliever. [40]

[Footnote 39: For the revolution of Spain, consult Roderic of Toledo, (c. Xviii. P. 34, &c. , ) the Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana, (tom. Ii. P. 30, 198, ) and Cardonne, (Hist. De l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, tom. I. P. 180-197, 205, 272, 323, &c. )]

[Footnote 40: I shall not stop to refute the strange errors and fanciesof Sir William Temple (his Works, vol. Iii. P. 371-374, octavo edition)and Voltaire (Histoire Generale, c. Xxviii. Tom. Ii. P. 124, 125, edition de Lausanne) concerning the division of the Saracen empire. Themistakes of Voltaire proceeded from the want of knowledge or reflection;but Sir William was deceived by a Spanish impostor, who has framed anapocryphal history of the conquest of Spain by the Arabs. ]

Mecca was the patrimony of the line of Hashem, yet the Abbassides werenever tempted to reside either in the birthplace or the city of theprophet. Damascus was disgraced by the choice, and polluted with theblood, of the Ommiades; and, after some hesitation, Almansor, thebrother and successor of Saffah, laid the foundations of Bagdad, [41]the Imperial seat of his posterity during a reign of five hundred years. [42] The chosen spot is on the eastern bank of the Tigris, about fifteenmiles above the ruins of Modain: the double wall was of a circularform; and such was the rapid increase of a capital, now dwindled to aprovincial town, that the funeral of a popular saint might be attendedby eight hundred thousand men and sixty thousand women of Bagdad and theadjacent villages. In this city of peace, [43] amidst the riches of theEast, the Abbassides soon disdained the abstinence and frugality of thefirst caliphs, and aspired to emulate the magnificence of the Persiankings. After his wars and buildings, Almansor left behind him in goldand silver about thirty millions sterling: [44] and this treasure wasexhausted in a few years by the vices or virtues of his children. Hisson Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millionsof dinars of gold. A pious and charitable motive may sanctify thefoundation of cisterns and caravanseras, which he distributed along ameasured road of seven hundred miles; but his train of camels, ladenwith snow, could serve only to astonish the natives of Arabia, and torefresh the fruits and liquors of the royal banquet. [45] The courtierswould surely praise the liberality of his grandson Almamon, who gaveaway four fifths of the income of a province, a sum of two millions fourhundred thousand gold dinars, before he drew his foot from the stirrup. At the nuptials of the same prince, a thousand pearls of the largestsize were showered on the head of the bride, [46] and a lottery of landsand houses displayed the capricious bounty of fortune. The glories ofthe court were brightened, rather than impaired, in the decline of theempire, and a Greek ambassador might admire, or pity, the magnificenceof the feeble Moctader. "The caliph's whole army, " says the historianAbulfeda, "both horse and foot, was under arms, which together madea body of one hundred and sixty thousand men. His state officers, the favorite slaves, stood near him in splendid apparel, their beltsglittering with gold and gems. Near them were seven thousand eunuchs, four thousand of them white, the remainder black. The porters ordoor-keepers were in number seven hundred. Barges and boats, with themost superb decorations, were seen swimming upon the Tigris. Nor was thepalace itself less splendid, in which were hung up thirty-eight thousandpieces of tapestry, twelve thousand five hundred of which were ofsilk embroidered with gold. The carpets on the floor were twenty-twothousand. A hundred lions were brought out, with a keeper to each lion. [47] Among the other spectacles of rare and stupendous luxury was a treeof gold and silver spreading into eighteen large branches, on which, andon the lesser boughs, sat a variety of birds made of the same preciousmetals, as well as the leaves of the tree. While the machinery affectedspontaneous motions, the several birds warbled their natural harmony. Through this scene of magnificence, the Greek ambassador was led bythe vizier to the foot of the caliph's throne. " [48] In the West, theOmmiades of Spain supported, with equal pomp, the title of commanderof the faithful. Three miles from Cordova, in honor of his favoritesultana, the third and greatest of the Abdalrahmans constructed thecity, palace, and gardens of Zehra. Twenty-five years, and above threemillions sterling, were employed by the founder: his liberal tasteinvited the artists of Constantinople, the most skilful sculptors andarchitects of the age; and the buildings were sustained or adorned bytwelve hundred columns of Spanish and African, of Greek and Italianmarble. The hall of audience was incrusted with gold and pearls, anda great basin in the centre was surrounded with the curious and costlyfigures of birds and quadrupeds. In a lofty pavilion of the gardens, oneof these basins and fountains, so delightful in a sultry climate, was replenished not with water, but with the purest quicksilver. Theseraglio of Abdalrahman, his wives, concubines, and black eunuchs, amounted to six thousand three hundred persons: and he was attended tothe field by a guard of twelve thousand horse, whose belts and cimeterswere studded with gold. [49]

[Footnote 41: The geographer D'Anville, (l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 121-123, ) and the Orientalist D'Herbelot, (Bibliotheque, p. 167, 168, )may suffice for the knowledge of Bagdad. Our travellers, Pietrodella Valle, (tom. I. P. 688-698, ) Tavernier, (tom. I. P. 230-238, )Thevenot, (part ii. P. 209-212, ) Otter, (tom. I. P. 162-168, ) andNiebuhr, (Voyage en Arabie, tom. Ii. P. 239-271, ) have seen only itsdecay; and the Nubian geographer, (p. 204, ) and the travelling Jew, Benjamin of Tuleda (Itinerarium, p. 112-123, a Const. L'Empereur, apudElzevir, 1633, ) are the only writers of my acquaintance, who have knownBagdad under the reign of the Abbassides. ]

[Footnote 42: The foundations of Bagdad were laid A. H. 145, A. D. 762. Mostasem, the last of the Abbassides, was taken and put to death by theTartars, A. H. 656, A. D. 1258, the 20th of February. ]

[Footnote 43: Medinat al Salem, Dar al Salem. Urbs pacis, or, as it ismore neatly compounded by the Byzantine writers, (Irenopolis. ) There issome dispute concerning the etymology of Bagdad, but the first syllableis allowed to signify a garden in the Persian tongue; the garden ofDad, a Christian hermit, whose cell had been the only habitation on thespot. ]

[Footnote 44: Reliquit in aerario sexcenties millies mille stateres. Etquater et vicies millies mille aureos aureos. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. P. 126. I have reckoned the gold pieces at eight shillings, and theproportion to the silver as twelve to one. But I will never answer forthe numbers of Erpenius; and the Latins are scarcely above the savagesin the language of arithmetic. ]

[Footnote 45: D'Herbelot, p. 530. Abulfeda, p. 154. Nivem Meccamapportavit, rem ibi aut nunquam aut rarissime visam. ]

[Footnote 46: Abulfeda (p. 184, 189) describes the splendor andliberality of Almamon. Milton has alluded to this Oriental custom:--

 Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand, Showers on her kings Barbaric pearls and gold. 

I have used the modern word lottery to express the word of the Romanemperors, which entitled to some prize the person who caught them, asthey were thrown among the crowd. ]

[Footnote 47: When Bell of Antermony (Travels, vol. I. P. 99)accompanied the Russian ambassador to the audience of the unfortunateShah Hussein of Persia, two lions were introduced, to denote the powerof the king over the fiercest animals. ]

[Footnote 48: Abulfeda, p. 237. D'Herbelot, p. 590. This embassy wasreceived at Bagdad, A. H. 305, A. D. 917. In the passage of Abulfeda, Ihave used, with some variations, the English translation of the learnedand amiable Mr. Harris of Salisbury, (Philological Enquiries p. 363, 364. )]

[Footnote 49: Cardonne, Histoire de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, tom. I. P. 330-336. A just idea of the taste and architecture of the Arabiansof Spain may be conceived from the description and plates of theAlhambra of Grenada, (Swinburne's Travels, p. 171-188. )]

Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs. --Part III. 

In a private condition, our desires are perpetually repressed by povertyand subordination; but the lives and labors of millions are devoted tothe service of a despotic prince, whose laws are blindly obeyed, andwhose wishes are instantly gratified. Our imagination is dazzled by thesplendid picture; and whatever may be the cool dictates of reason, thereare few among us who would obstinately refuse a trial of the comfortsand the cares of royalty. It may therefore be of some use to borrowthe experience of the same Abdalrahman, whose magnificence has perhapsexcited our admiration and envy, and to transcribe an authentic memorialwhich was found in the closet of the deceased caliph. "I have nowreigned above fifty years in victory or peace; beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthlyblessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness whichhave fallen to my lot: they amount to Fourteen:--O man! place not thyconfidence in this present world!" [50] The luxury of the caliphs, souseless to their private happiness, relaxed the nerves, and terminatedthe progress, of the Arabian empire. Temporal and spiritual conquest hadbeen the sole occupation of the first successors of Mahomet; and aftersupplying themselves with the necessaries of life, the whole revenuewas scrupulously devoted to that salutary work. The Abbassides wereimpoverished by the multitude of their wants, and their contempt ofoeconomy. Instead of pursuing the great object of ambition, theirleisure, their affections, the powers of their mind, were diverted bypomp and pleasure: the rewards of valor were embezzled by women andeunuchs, and the royal camp was encumbered by the luxury of the palace. A similar temper was diffused among the subjects of the caliph. Theirstern enthusiasm was softened by time and prosperity. They sought richesin the occupations of industry, fame in the pursuits of literature, andhappiness in the tranquillity of domestic life. War was no longer thepassion of the Saracens; and the increase of pay, the repetition ofdonatives, were insufficient to allure the posterity of those voluntarychampions who had crowded to the standard of Abubeker and Omar for thehopes of spoil and of paradise. 

[Footnote 50: Cardonne, tom. I. P. 329, 330. This confession, thecomplaints of Solomon of the vanity of this world, (read Prior's verbosebut eloquent poem, ) and the happy ten days of the emperor Seghed, (Rambler, No. 204, 205, ) will be triumphantly quoted by the detractorsof human life. Their expectations are commonly immoderate, theirestimates are seldom impartial. If I may speak of myself, (the onlyperson of whom I can speak with certainty, ) my happy hours have farexceeded, and far exceed, the scanty numbers of the caliph of Spain; andI shall not scruple to add, that many of them are due to the pleasinglabor of the present composition. ]

Under the reign of the Ommiades, the studies of the Moslems wereconfined to the interpretation of the Koran, and the eloquence andpoetry of their native tongue. A people continually exposed to thedangers of the field must esteem the healing powers of medicine, orrather of surgery; but the starving physicians of Arabia murmured acomplaint that exercise and temperance deprived them of the greatestpart of their practice. [51] After their civil and domestic wars, thesubjects of the Abbassides, awakening from this mental lethargy, foundleisure and felt curiosity for the acquisition of profane science. Thisspirit was first encouraged by the caliph Almansor, who, besides hisknowledge of the Mahometan law, had applied himself with success tothe study of astronomy. But when the sceptre devolved to Almamon, theseventh of the Abbassides, he completed the designs of his grandfather, and invited the muses from their ancient seats. His ambassadors atConstantinople, his agents in Armenia, Syria, and Egypt, collected thevolumes of Grecian science at his command they were translated by themost skilful interpreters into the Arabic language: his subjects wereexhorted assiduously to peruse these instructive writings; andthe successor of Mahomet assisted with pleasure and modesty at theassemblies and disputations of the learned. "He was not ignorant, " saysAbulpharagius, "that they are the elect of God, his best and most usefulservants, whose lives are devoted to the improvement of their rationalfaculties. The mean ambition of the Chinese or the Turks may glory inthe industry of their hands or the indulgence of their brutal appetites. Yet these dexterous artists must view, with hopeless emulation, thehexagons and pyramids of the cells of a beehive: [52] thesefortitudinous heroes are awed by the superior fierceness of the lionsand tigers; and in their amorous enjoyments they are much inferior tothe vigor of the grossest and most sordid quadrupeds. The teachers ofwisdom are the true luminaries and legislators of a world, which, without their aid, would again sink in ignorance and barbarism. " [53]The zeal and curiosity of Almamon were imitated by succeeding princes ofthe line of Abbas: their rivals, the Fatimites of Africa and theOmmiades of Spain, were the patrons of the learned, as well as thecommanders of the faithful; the same royal prerogative was claimed bytheir independent emirs of the provinces; and their emulation diffusedthe taste and the rewards of science from Samarcand and Bochara to Fezand Cordova. The vizier of a sultan consecrated a sum of two hundredthousand pieces of gold to the foundation of a college at Bagdad, whichhe endowed with an annual revenue of fifteen thousand dinars. The fruitsof instruction were communicated, perhaps at different times, to sixthousand disciples of every degree, from the son of the noble to that ofthe mechanic: a sufficient allowance was provided for the indigentscholars; and the merit or industry of the professors was repaid withadequate stipends. In every city the productions of Arabic literaturewere copied and collected by the curiosity of the studious and thevanity of the rich. A private doctor refused the invitation of thesultan of Bochara, because the carriage of his books would have requiredfour hundred camels. The royal library of the Fatimites consisted of onehundred thousand manuscripts, elegantly transcribed and splendidlybound, which were lent, without jealousy or avarice, to the students ofCairo. Yet this collection must appear moderate, if we can believe thatthe Ommiades of Spain had formed a library of six hundred thousandvolumes, forty-four of which were employed in the mere catalogue. Theircapital, Cordova, with the adjacent towns of Malaga, Almeria, andMurcia, had given birth to more than three hundred writers, and aboveseventy public libraries were opened in the cities of the Andalusiankingdom. The age of Arabian learning continued about five hundred years, till the great eruption of the Moguls, and was coeval with the darkestand most slothful period of European annals; but since the sun ofscience has arisen in the West, it should seem that the Oriental studieshave languished and declined. [54]

[Footnote 51: The Guliston (p. 29) relates the conversation of Mahometand a physician, (Epistol. Renaudot. In Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. Tom. I. P. 814. ) The prophet himself was skilled in the art of medicine; andGagnier (Vie de Mahomet, tom. Iii. P. 394-405) has given an extract ofthe aphorisms which are extant under his name. ]

[Footnote 52: See their curious architecture in Reaumur (Hist. DesInsectes, tom. V. Memoire viii. ) These hexagons are closed by a pyramid;the angles of the three sides of a similar pyramid, such as wouldaccomplish the given end with the smallest quantity possible ofmaterials, were determined by a mathematician, at 109] degrees 26minutes for the larger, 70 degrees 34 minutes for the smaller. Theactual measure is 109 degrees 28 minutes, 70 degrees 32 minutes. Yetthis perfect harmony raises the work at the expense of the artist hebees are not masters of transcendent geometry. ]

[Footnote 53: Saed Ebn Ahmed, cadhi of Toledo, who died A. H. 462, A. D. 069, has furnished Abulpharagius (Dynast. P. 160) with this curiouspassage, as well as with the text of Pocock's Specimen Historiae Arabum. A number of literary anecdotes of philosophers, physicians, &c. , whohave flourished under each caliph, form the principal merit of theDynasties of Abulpharagius. ]

[Footnote 54: These literary anecdotes are borrowed from the BibliothecaArabico-Hispana, (tom. Ii. P. 38, 71, 201, 202, ) Leo Africanus, (deArab. Medicis et Philosophis, in Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Xiii. P. 259-293, particularly p. 274, ) and Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. P. 274, 275, 536, 537, ) besides the chronological remarks ofAbulpharagius. ]

In the libraries of the Arabians, as in those of Europe, the far greaterpart of the innumerable volumes were possessed only of local value orimaginary merit. [55] The shelves were crowded with orators and poets, whose style was adapted to the taste and manners of their countrymen;with general and partial histories, which each revolving generationsupplied with a new harvest of persons and events; with codes andcommentaries of jurisprudence, which derived their authority from thelaw of the prophet; with the interpreters of the Koran, and orthodoxtradition; and with the whole theological tribe, polemics, mystics, scholastics, and moralists, the first or the last of writers, accordingto the different estimates of sceptics or believers. The works ofspeculation or science may be reduced to the four classes of philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and physic. The sages of Greece were translatedand illustrated in the Arabic language, and some treatises, now lostin the original, have been recovered in the versions of the East, [56]which possessed and studied the writings of Aristotle and Plato, ofEuclid and Apollonius, of Ptolemy, Hippocrates, and Galen. [57] Amongthe ideal systems which have varied with the fashion of the times, theArabians adopted the philosophy of the Stagirite, alike intelligibleor alike obscure for the readers of every age. Plato wrote for theAthenians, and his allegorical genius is too closely blended with thelanguage and religion of Greece. After the fall of that religion, the Peripatetics, emerging from their obscurity, prevailed in thecontroversies of the Oriental sects, and their founder was longafterwards restored by the Mahometans of Spain to the Latin schools. [58] The physics, both of the Academy and the Lycaeum, as they arebuilt, not on observation, but on argument, have retarded the progressof real knowledge. The metaphysics of infinite, or finite, spirit, havetoo often been enlisted in the service of superstition. But the humanfaculties are fortified by the art and practice of dialectics; the tenpredicaments of Aristotle collect and methodize our ideas, [59] and hissyllogism is the keenest weapon of dispute. It was dexterously wieldedin the schools of the Saracens, but as it is more effectual for thedetection of error than for the investigation of truth, it is notsurprising that new generations of masters and disciples should stillrevolve in the same circle of logical argument. The mathematics aredistinguished by a peculiar privilege, that, in the course of ages, theymay always advance, and can never recede. But the ancient geometry, if Iam not misinformed, was resumed in the same state by the Italians ofthe fifteenth century; and whatever may be the origin of the name, thescience of algebra is ascribed to the Grecian Diophantus by the modesttestimony of the Arabs themselves. [60] They cultivated with moresuccess the sublime science of astronomy, which elevates the mind ofman to disdain his diminutive planet and momentary existence. The costlyinstruments of observation were supplied by the caliph Almamon, and theland of the Chaldaeans still afforded the same spacious level, the sameunclouded horizon. In the plains of Sinaar, and a second time in thoseof Cufa, his mathematicians accurately measured a degree of the greatcircle of the earth, and determined at twenty-four thousand miles theentire circumference of our globe. [61] From the reign of the Abbassidesto that of the grandchildren of Tamerlane, the stars, without the aidof glasses, were diligently observed; and the astronomical tables ofBagdad, Spain, and Samarcand, [62] correct some minute errors, withoutdaring to renounce the hypothesis of Ptolemy, without advancing a steptowards the discovery of the solar system. In the Eastern courts, thetruths of science could be recommended only by ignorance and folly, and the astronomer would have been disregarded, had he not debased hiswisdom or honesty by the vain predictions of astrology. [63] But in thescience of medicine, the Arabians have been deservedly applauded. Thenames of Mesua and Geber, of Razis and Avicenna, are ranked withthe Grecian masters; in the city of Bagdad, eight hundred and sixtyphysicians were licensed to exercise their lucrative profession: [64]in Spain, the life of the Catholic princes was intrusted to the skillof the Saracens, [65] and the school of Salerno, their legitimateoffspring, revived in Italy and Europe the precepts of the healing art. [66] The success of each professor must have been influenced by personaland accidental causes; but we may form a less fanciful estimate of theirgeneral knowledge of anatomy, [67] botany, [68] and chemistry, [69] thethreefold basis of their theory and practice. A superstitious reverencefor the dead confined both the Greeks and the Arabians to the dissectionof apes and quadrupeds; the more solid and visible parts were knownin the time of Galen, and the finer scrutiny of the human frame wasreserved for the microscope and the injections of modern artists. Botanyis an active science, and the discoveries of the torrid zone mightenrich the herbal of Dioscorides with two thousand plants. Sometraditionary knowledge might be secreted in the temples and monasteriesof Egypt; much useful experience had been acquired in the practice ofarts and manufactures; but the science of chemistry owes its origin andimprovement to the industry of the Saracens. They first inventedand named the alembic for the purposes of distillation, analyzed thesubstances of the three kingdoms of nature, tried the distinction andaffinities of alcalis and acids, and converted the poisonous mineralsinto soft and salutary medicines. But the most eager search of Arabianchemistry was the transmutation of metals, and the elixir of immortalhealth: the reason and the fortunes of thousands were evaporated inthe crucibles of alchemy, and the consummation of the great work waspromoted by the worthy aid of mystery, fable, and superstition. 

[Footnote 55: The Arabic catalogue of the Escurial will give a just ideaof the proportion of the classes. In the library of Cairo, the Mss ofastronomy and medicine amounted to 6500, with two fair globes, the oneof brass, the other of silver, (Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. Tom. I. P. 417. )]

[Footnote 56: As, for instance, the fifth, sixth, and seventh books (theeighth is still wanting) of the Conic Sections of Apollonius Pergaeus, which were printed from the Florence Ms. 1661, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Ii. P. 559. ) Yet the fifth book had been previously restored by themathematical divination of Viviani, (see his Eloge in Fontenelle, tom. V. P. 59, &c. )]

[Footnote 57: The merit of these Arabic versions is freely discussedby Renaudot, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. Tom. I. P. 812-816, ) and piouslydefended by Casiri, (Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. I. P. 238-240. )Most of the versions of Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, &c. , areascribed to Honain, a physician of the Nestorian sect, who flourishedat Bagdad in the court of the caliphs, and died A. D. 876. He was at thehead of a school or manufacture of translations, and the works of hissons and disciples were published under his name. See Abulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 88, 115, 171-174, and apud Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Ii. P. 438, ) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 456, ) Asseman. (Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Iii. P. 164, ) and Casiri, (Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. I. P. 238, &c. 251, 286-290, 302, 304, &c. )]

[Footnote 58: See Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. P. 181, 214, 236, 257, 315, 388, 396, 438, &c. ]

[Footnote 59: The most elegant commentary on the Categories orPredicaments of Aristotle may be found in the Philosophical Arrangementsof Mr. James Harris, (London, 1775, in octavo, ) who labored to revivethe studies of Grecian literature and philosophy. ]

[Footnote 60: Abulpharagius, Dynast. P. 81, 222. Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. Tom. I. P. 370, 371. In quem (says the primate of the Jacobites) siimmiserit selector, oceanum hoc in genere (algebrae) inveniet. The timeof Diophantus of Alexandria is unknown; but his six books are stillextant, and have been illustrated by the Greek Planudes and theFrenchman Meziriac, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Iv. P. 12-15. )]

[Footnote 61: Abulfeda (Annal. Moslem. P. 210, 211, vers. Reiske)describes this operation according to Ibn Challecan, and the besthistorians. This degree most accurately contains 200, 000 royal orHashemite cubits which Arabia had derived from the sacred and legalpractice both of Palestine and Egypt. This ancient cubit is repeated400 times in each basis of the great pyramid, and seems to indicate theprimitive and universal measures of the East. See the Metrologie of thelaborions. M. Paucton, p. 101-195. ]

[Footnote 62: See the Astronomical Tables of Ulugh Begh, with thepreface of Dr. Hyde in the first volume of his Syntagma Dissertationum, Oxon. 1767. ]

[Footnote 63: The truth of astrology was allowed by Albumazar, andthe best of the Arabian astronomers, who drew their most certainpredictions, not from Venus and Mercury, but from Jupiter and the sun, (Abulpharag. Dynast. P. 161-163. ) For the state and science of thePersian astronomers, see Chardin, (Voyages en Perse, tom. Iii. P. 162-203. )]

[Footnote 64: Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. I. P. 438. The originalrelates a pleasant tale of an ignorant, but harmless, practitioner. ]

[Footnote 65: In the year 956, Sancho the Fat, king of Leon, was curedby the physicians of Cordova, (Mariana, l. Viii. C. 7, tom. I. P. 318. )]

[Footnote 66: The school of Salerno, and the introduction of theArabian sciences into Italy, are discussed with learning and judgmentby Muratori (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. Iii. P. 932-940) andGiannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. Ii. P. 119-127. )]

[Footnote 67: See a good view of the progress of anatomy in Wotton, (Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning, p. 208-256. ) His reputationhas been unworthily depreciated by the wits in the controversy of Boyleand Bentley. ]

[Footnote 68: Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. I. P. 275. Al Beithar, ofMalaga, their greatest botanist, had travelled into Africa, Persia, andIndia. ]

[Footnote 69: Dr. Watson, (Elements of Chemistry, vol. I. P. 17, &c. )allows the original merit of the Arabians. Yet he quotes the modestconfession of the famous Geber of the ixth century, (D'Herbelot, p. 387, ) that he had drawn most of his science, perhaps the transmutationof metals, from the ancient sages. Whatever might be the origin orextent of their knowledge, the arts of chemistry and alchemy appear tohave been known in Egypt at least three hundred years before Mahomet, (Wotton's Reflections, p. 121-133. Pauw, Recherches sur les Egyptienset les Chinois, tom. I. P. 376-429. ) * Note: Mr. Whewell (Hist. OfInductive Sciences, vol. I. P. 336) rejects the claim of the Arabians asinventors of the science of chemistry. "The formation and realizationof the notions of analysis and affinity were important steps in chemicalscience; which, as I shall hereafter endeavor to show it remained forthe chemists of Europe to make at a much later period. "--M. ]

But the Moslems deprived themselves of the principal benefits of afamiliar intercourse with Greece and Rome, the knowledge of antiquity, the purity of taste, and the freedom of thought. Confident in the richesof their native tongue, the Arabians disdained the study of anyforeign idiom. The Greek interpreters were chosen among their Christiansubjects; they formed their translations, sometimes on the originaltext, more frequently perhaps on a Syriac version; and in the crowd ofastronomers and physicians, there is no example of a poet, an orator, oreven an historian, being taught to speak the language of the Saracens. [70] The mythology of Homer would have provoked the abhorrence of thosestern fanatics: they possessed in lazy ignorance the colonies of theMacedonians, and the provinces of Carthage and Rome: the heroes ofPlutarch and Livy were buried in oblivion; and the history of the worldbefore Mahomet was reduced to a short legend of the patriarchs, theprophets, and the Persian kings. Our education in the Greek and Latinschools may have fixed in our minds a standard of exclusive taste; andI am not forward to condemn the literature and judgment of nations, ofwhose language I am ignorant. Yet I know that the classics have muchto teach, and I believe that the Orientals have much to learn; thetemperate dignity of style, the graceful proportions of art, the formsof visible and intellectual beauty, the just delineation of characterand passion, the rhetoric of narrative and argument, the regular fabricof epic and dramatic poetry. [71] The influence of truth and reasonis of a less ambiguous complexion. The philosophers of Athens and Romeenjoyed the blessings, and asserted the rights, of civil and religiousfreedom. Their moral and political writings might have graduallyunlocked the fetters of Eastern despotism, diffused a liberal spirit ofinquiry and toleration, and encouraged the Arabian sages to suspectthat their caliph was a tyrant, and their prophet an impostor. [72] Theinstinct of superstition was alarmed by the introduction even of theabstract sciences; and the more rigid doctors of the law condemnedthe rash and pernicious curiosity of Almamon. [73] To the thirst ofmartyrdom, the vision of paradise, and the belief of predestination, wemust ascribe the invincible enthusiasm of the prince and people. And thesword of the Saracens became less formidable when their youth was drawnaway from the camp to the college, when the armies of the faithfulpresumed to read and to reflect. Yet the foolish vanity of the Greekswas jealous of their studies, and reluctantly imparted the sacred fireto the Barbarians of the East. [74]

[Footnote 70: Abulpharagius (Dynast. P. 26, 148) mentions a Syriacversion of Homer's two poems, by Theophilus, a Christian Maronite ofMount Libanus, who professed astronomy at Roha or Edessa towards the endof the viiith century. His work would be a literary curiosity. Ihave read somewhere, but I do not believe, that Plutarch's Lives weretranslated into Turkish for the use of Mahomet the Second. ]

[Footnote 71: I have perused, with much pleasure, Sir William Jones'sLatin Commentary on Asiatic Poetry, (London, 1774, in octavo, ) whichwas composed in the youth of that wonderful linguist. At present, inthe maturity of his taste and judgment, he would perhaps abate ofthe fervent, and even partial, praise which he has bestowed on theOrientals. ]

[Footnote 72: Among the Arabian philosophers, Averroes has beenaccused of despising the religions of the Jews, the Christians, and theMahometans, (see his article in Bayle's Dictionary. ) Each of thesesects would agree, that in two instances out of three, his contempt wasreasonable. ]

[Footnote 73: D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque, Orientale, p. 546. ]

[Footnote 74: Cedrenus, p. 548, who relates how manfully the emperorrefused a mathematician to the instances and offers of the caliphAlmamon. This absurd scruple is expressed almost in the same words bythe continuator of Theophanes, (Scriptores post Theophanem, p. 118. )]

In the bloody conflict of the Ommiades and Abbassides, the Greeks hadstolen the opportunity of avenging their wrongs and enlarging theirlimits. But a severe retribution was exacted by Mohadi, the third caliphof the new dynasty, who seized, in his turn, the favorable opportunity, while a woman and a child, Irene and Constantine, were seated on theByzantine throne. An army of ninety-five thousand Persians and Arabswas sent from the Tigris to the Thracian Bosphorus, under the command ofHarun, [75] or Aaron, the second son of the commander of the faithful. His encampment on the opposite heights of Chrysopolis, or Scutari, informed Irene, in her palace of Constantinople, of the loss of hertroops and provinces. With the consent or connivance of their sovereign, her ministers subscribed an ignominious peace; and the exchange of someroyal gifts could not disguise the annual tribute of seventy thousanddinars of gold, which was imposed on the Roman empire. The Saracens hadtoo rashly advanced into the midst of a distant and hostile land: theirretreat was solicited by the promise of faithful guides and plentifulmarkets; and not a Greek had courage to whisper, that their weary forcesmight be surrounded and destroyed in their necessary passage betweena slippery mountain and the River Sangarius. Five years after thisexpedition, Harun ascended the throne of his father and his elderbrother; the most powerful and vigorous monarch of his race, illustriousin the West, as the ally of Charlemagne, and familiar to the mostchildish readers, as the perpetual hero of the Arabian tales. His titleto the name of Al Rashid (the Just) is sullied by the extirpation of thegenerous, perhaps the innocent, Barmecides; yet he could listen to thecomplaint of a poor widow who had been pillaged by his troops, and whodared, in a passage of the Koran, to threaten the inattentive despotwith the judgment of God and posterity. His court was adorned withluxury and science; but, in a reign of three-and-twenty years, Harunrepeatedly visited his provinces from Chorasan to Egypt; nine timeshe performed the pilgrimage of Mecca; eight times he invaded theterritories of the Romans; and as often as they declined the payment ofthe tribute, they were taught to feel that a month of depredation wasmore costly than a year of submission. But when the unnatural motherof Constantine was deposed and banished, her successor, Nicephorus, resolved to obliterate this badge of servitude and disgrace. The epistleof the emperor to the caliph was pointed with an allusion to the gameof chess, which had already spread from Persia to Greece. "The queen (hespoke of Irene) considered you as a rook, and herself as a pawn. Thatpusillanimous female submitted to pay a tribute, the double of which sheought to have exacted from the Barbarians. Restore therefore the fruitsof your injustice, or abide the determination of the sword. " At thesewords the ambassadors cast a bundle of swords before the foot of thethrone. The caliph smiled at the menace, and drawing his cimeter, samsamah, a weapon of historic or fabulous renown, he cut asunder thefeeble arms of the Greeks, without turning the edge, or endangering thetemper, of his blade. He then dictated an epistle of tremendous brevity:"In the name of the most merciful God, Harun al Rashid, commander of thefaithful, to Nicephorus, the Roman dog. I have read thy letter, O thouson of an unbelieving mother. Thou shalt not hear, thou shalt behold, myreply. " It was written in characters of blood and fire on the plains ofPhrygia; and the warlike celerity of the Arabs could only be checked bythe arts of deceit and the show of repentance. 

The triumphant caliph retired, after the fatigues of the campaign, tohis favorite palace of Racca on the Euphrates: [76] but the distanceof five hundred miles, and the inclemency of the season, encouraged hisadversary to violate the peace. Nicephorus was astonished by the boldand rapid march of the commander of the faithful, who repassed, in thedepth of winter, the snows of Mount Taurus: his stratagems of policy andwar were exhausted; and the perfidious Greek escaped with three woundsfrom a field of battle overspread with forty thousand of his subjects. Yet the emperor was ashamed of submission, and the caliph was resolvedon victory. One hundred and thirty-five thousand regular soldiersreceived pay, and were inscribed in the military roll; and above threehundred thousand persons of every denomination marched under the blackstandard of the Abbassides. They swept the surface of Asia Minor farbeyond Tyana and Ancyra, and invested the Pontic Heraclea, [77] oncea flourishing state, now a paltry town; at that time capable ofsustaining, in her antique walls, a month's siege against the forces ofthe East. The ruin was complete, the spoil was ample; but if Harun hadbeen conversant with Grecian story, he would have regretted the statueof Hercules, whose attributes, the club, the bow, the quiver, and thelion's hide, were sculptured in massy gold. The progress of desolationby sea and land, from the Euxine to the Isle of Cyprus, compelled theemperor Nicephorus to retract his haughty defiance. In the new treaty, the ruins of Heraclea were left forever as a lesson and a trophy; andthe coin of the tribute was marked with the image and superscriptionof Harun and his three sons. [78] Yet this plurality of lords mightcontribute to remove the dishonor of the Roman name. After the death oftheir father, the heirs of the caliph were involved in civil discord, and the conqueror, the liberal Almamon, was sufficiently engaged in therestoration of domestic peace and the introduction of foreign science. 

[Footnote 75: See the reign and character of Harun Al Rashid, in theBibliotheque Orientale, p. 431-433, under his proper title; and in therelative articles to which M. D'Herbelot refers. That learned collectorhas shown much taste in stripping the Oriental chronicles of theirinstructive and amusing anecdotes. ]

[Footnote 76: For the situation of Racca, the old Nicephorium, consultD'Anville, (l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 24-27. ) The Arabian Nightsrepresent Harun al Rashid as almost stationary in Bagdad. He respectedthe royal seat of the Abbassides: but the vices of the inhabitants haddriven him from the city, (Abulfed. Annal. P. 167. )]

[Footnote 77: M. De Tournefort, in his coasting voyage fromConstantinople to Trebizond, passed a night at Heraclea or Eregri. Hiseye surveyed the present state, his reading collected the antiquities, of the city (Voyage du Levant, tom. Iii. Lettre xvi. P. 23-35. ) We havea separate history of Heraclea in the fragments of Memnon, which arepreserved by Photius. ]

[Footnote 78: The wars of Harun al Rashid against the Roman empire arerelated by Theophanes, (p. 384, 385, 391, 396, 407, 408. ) Zonaras, (tom. Iii. L. Xv. P. 115, 124, ) Cedrenus, (p. 477, 478, ) Eutycaius, (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 407, ) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. P. 136, 151, 152, )Abulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 147, 151, ) and Abulfeda, (p. 156, 166-168. )]

Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs. --Part IV. 

Under the reign of Almamon at Bagdad, of Michael the Stammerer atConstantinople, the islands of Crete [79] and Sicily were subdued by theArabs. The former of these conquests is disdained by their own writers, who were ignorant of the fame of Jupiter and Minos, but it has not beenoverlooked by the Byzantine historians, who now begin to cast a clearerlight on the affairs of their own times. [80] A band of Andalusianvolunteers, discontented with the climate or government of Spain, explored the adventures of the sea; but as they sailed in no more thanten or twenty galleys, their warfare must be branded with the name ofpiracy. As the subjects and sectaries of the white party, they mightlawfully invade the dominions of the black caliphs. A rebellious factionintroduced them into Alexandria; [81] they cut in pieces both friendsand foes, pillaged the churches and the moschs, sold above six thousandChristian captives, and maintained their station in the capital ofEgypt, till they were oppressed by the forces and the presence ofAlmamon himself. From the mouth of the Nile to the Hellespont, theislands and sea-coasts both of the Greeks and Moslems were exposed totheir depredations; they saw, they envied, they tasted the fertility ofCrete, and soon returned with forty galleys to a more serious attack. The Andalusians wandered over the land fearless and unmolested; but whenthey descended with their plunder to the sea-shore, their vessels werein flames, and their chief, Abu Caab, confessed himself the author ofthe mischief. Their clamors accused his madness or treachery. "Of whatdo you complain?" replied the crafty emir. "I have brought you to a landflowing with milk and honey. Here is your true country; repose from yourtoils, and forget the barren place of your nativity. " "And our wives andchildren?" "Your beauteous captives will supply the place of yourwives, and in their embraces you will soon become the fathers of a newprogeny. " The first habitation was their camp, with a ditch and rampart, in the Bay of Suda; but an apostate monk led them to a more desirableposition in the eastern parts; and the name of Candax, their fortressand colony, has been extended to the whole island, under the corruptand modern appellation of Candia. The hundred cities of the age ofMinos were diminished to thirty; and of these, only one, most probablyCydonia, had courage to retain the substance of freedom and theprofession of Christianity. The Saracens of Crete soon repaired the lossof their navy; and the timbers of Mount Ida were launched into themain. During a hostile period of one hundred and thirty-eight years, the princes of Constantinople attacked these licentious corsairs withfruitless curses and ineffectual arms. 

[Footnote 79: The authors from whom I have learned the most of theancient and modern state of Crete, are Belon, (Observations, &c. , c. 3-20, Paris, 1555, ) Tournefort, (Voyage du Levant, tom. I. Lettre ii. Et iii. , ) and Meursius, (Creta, in his works, tom. Iii. P. 343-544. )Although Crete is styled by Homer, by Dionysius, I cannot conceivethat mountainous island to surpass, or even to equal, in fertility thegreater part of Spain. ]

[Footnote 80: The most authentic and circumstantial intelligence isobtained from the four books of the Continuation of Theophanes, compiledby the pen or the command of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, with the Lifeof his father Basil, the Macedonian, (Scriptores post Theophanem, p. 1-162, a Francisc. Combefis, Paris, 1685. ) The loss of Crete and Sicilyis related, l. Ii. P. 46-52. To these we may add the secondary evidenceof Joseph Genesius, (l. Ii. P. 21, Venet. 1733, ) George Cedrenus, (Compend. P. 506-508, ) and John Scylitzes Curopalata, (apud Baron. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 827, No. 24, &c. ) But the modern Greeks are suchnotorious plagiaries, that I should only quote a plurality of names. ]

[Footnote 81: Renaudot (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. P. 251-256, 268-270) haddescribed the ravages of the Andalusian Arabs in Egypt, but has forgotto connect them with the conquest of Crete. ]

The loss of Sicily [82] was occasioned by an act of superstitious rigor. An amorous youth, who had stolen a nun from her cloister, was sentencedby the emperor to the amputation of his tongue. Euphemius appealed tothe reason and policy of the Saracens of Africa; and soon returned withthe Imperial purple, a fleet of one hundred ships, and an army of sevenhundred horse and ten thousand foot. They landed at Mazara near theruins of the ancient Selinus; but after some partial victories, Syracuse[83] was delivered by the Greeks, the apostate was slain before herwalls, and his African friends were reduced to the necessity of feedingon the flesh of their own horses. In their turn they were relieved by apowerful reenforcement of their brethren of Andalusia; the largest andwestern part of the island was gradually reduced, and the commodiousharbor of Palermo was chosen for the seat of the naval and militarypower of the Saracens. Syracuse preserved about fifty years the faithwhich she had sworn to Christ and to Caesar. In the last and fatalsiege, her citizens displayed some remnant of the spirit which hadformerly resisted the powers of Athens and Carthage. They stood abovetwenty days against the battering-rams and catapultoe, the mines andtortoises of the besiegers; and the place might have been relieved, if the mariners of the Imperial fleet had not been detained atConstantinople in building a church to the Virgin Mary. The deaconTheodosius, with the bishop and clergy, was dragged in chains from thealtar to Palermo, cast into a subterraneous dungeon, and exposed tothe hourly peril of death or apostasy. His pathetic, and not inelegant, complaint may be read as the epitaph of his country. [84] From the Romanconquest to this final calamity, Syracuse, now dwindled to the primitiveIsle of Ortygea, had insensibly declined. Yet the relics were stillprecious; the plate of the cathedral weighed five thousand pounds ofsilver; the entire spoil was computed at one million of pieces of gold, (about four hundred thousand pounds sterling, ) and the captives mustoutnumber the seventeen thousand Christians, who were transported fromthe sack of Tauromenium into African servitude. In Sicily, the religionand language of the Greeks were eradicated; and such was the docility ofthe rising generation, that fifteen thousand boys were circumcised andclothed on the same day with the son of the Fatimite caliph. The Arabiansquadrons issued from the harbors of Palermo, Biserta, and Tunis; ahundred and fifty towns of Calabria and Campania were attacked andpillaged; nor could the suburbs of Rome be defended by the name of theCaesars and apostles. Had the Mahometans been united, Italy must havefallen an easy and glorious accession to the empire of the prophet. But the caliphs of Bagdad had lost their authority in the West; theAglabites and Fatimites usurped the provinces of Africa, their emirs ofSicily aspired to independence; and the design of conquest and dominionwas degraded to a repetition of predatory inroads. [85]

[Footnote 82: Theophanes, l. Ii. P. 51. This history of the loss ofSicily is no longer extant. Muratori (Annali d' Italia, tom. Vii. P. 719, 721, &c. ) has added some circumstances from the Italianchronicles. ]

[Footnote 83: The splendid and interesting tragedy of Tancrede wouldadapt itself much better to this epoch, than to the date (A. D. 1005)which Voltaire himself has chosen. But I must gently reproach the poetfor infusing into the Greek subjects the spirit of modern knights andancient republicans. ]

[Footnote 84: The narrative or lamentation of Theodosius is transcribedand illustrated by Pagi, (Critica, tom. Iii. P. 719, &c. ) ConstantinePorphyrogenitus (in Vit. Basil, c. 69, 70, p. 190-192) mentions theloss of Syracuse and the triumph of the demons. ]

[Footnote 85: The extracts from the Arabic histories of Sicily are givenin Abulfeda, (Annal' Moslem. P. 271-273, ) and in the first volume ofMuratori's Scriptores Rerum Italicarum. M. De Guignes (Hist. Des Huns, tom. I. P. 363, 364) has added some important facts. ]

In the sufferings of prostrate Italy, the name of Rome awakens a solemnand mournful recollection. A fleet of Saracens from the African coastpresumed to enter the mouth of the Tyber, and to approach a city whicheven yet, in her fallen state, was revered as the metropolis of theChristian world. The gates and ramparts were guarded by a tremblingpeople; but the tombs and temples of St. Peter and St. Paul were leftexposed in the suburbs of the Vatican and of the Ostian way. Theirinvisible sanctity had protected them against the Goths, the Vandals, and the Lombards; but the Arabs disdained both the gospel and thelegend; and their rapacious spirit was approved and animated by theprecepts of the Koran. The Christian idols were stripped of their costlyofferings; a silver altar was torn away from the shrine of St. Peter;and if the bodies or the buildings were left entire, their deliverancemust be imputed to the haste, rather than the scruples, of the Saracens. In their course along the Appian way, they pillaged Fundi and besiegedGayeta; but they had turned aside from the walls of Rome, and by theirdivisions, the Capitol was saved from the yoke of the prophet of Mecca. The same danger still impended on the heads of the Roman people; andtheir domestic force was unequal to the assault of an African emir. Theyclaimed the protection of their Latin sovereign; but the Carlovingianstandard was overthrown by a detachment of the Barbarians: theymeditated the restoration of the Greek emperors; but the attempt wastreasonable, and the succor remote and precarious. [86] Their distressappeared to receive some aggravation from the death of their spiritualand temporal chief; but the pressing emergency superseded the formsand intrigues of an election; and the unanimous choice of Pope Leo theFourth [87] was the safety of the church and city. This pontiff was borna Roman; the courage of the first ages of the republic glowed in hisbreast; and, amidst the ruins of his country, he stood erect, like oneof the firm and lofty columns that rear their heads above the fragmentsof the Roman forum. The first days of his reign were consecrated to thepurification and removal of relics, to prayers and processions, and toall the solemn offices of religion, which served at least to heal theimagination, and restore the hopes, of the multitude. The public defencehad been long neglected, not from the presumption of peace, but from thedistress and poverty of the times. As far as the scantiness of his meansand the shortness of his leisure would allow, the ancient walls wererepaired by the command of Leo; fifteen towers, in the most accessiblestations, were built or renewed; two of these commanded on either sideof the Tyber; and an iron chain was drawn across the stream to impedethe ascent of a hostile navy. The Romans were assured of a short respiteby the welcome news, that the siege of Gayeta had been raised, and thata part of the enemy, with their sacrilegious plunder, had perished inthe waves. 

[Footnote 86: One of the most eminent Romans (Gratianus, magistermilitum et Romani palatii superista) was accused of declaring, QuiaFranci nihil nobis boni faciunt, neque adjutorium praebent, sed magisquae nostra sunt violenter tollunt. Quare non advocamus Graecos, et cumeis foedus pacis componentes, Francorum regem et gentem de nostro regnoet dominatione expellimus? Anastasius in Leone IV. P. 199. ]

[Footnote 87: Voltaire (Hist. Generale, tom. Ii. C. 38, p. 124) appearsto be remarkably struck with the character of Pope Leo IV. I haveborrowed his general expression, but the sight of the forum hasfurnished me with a more distinct and lively image. ]

But the storm, which had been delayed, soon burst upon them withredoubled violence. The Aglabite, [88] who reigned in Africa, hadinherited from his father a treasure and an army: a fleet of Arabs andMoors, after a short refreshment in the harbors of Sardinia, cast anchorbefore the mouth of the Tyber, sixteen miles from the city: and theirdiscipline and numbers appeared to threaten, not a transient inroad, buta serious design of conquest and dominion. But the vigilance of Leo hadformed an alliance with the vassals of the Greek empire, the freeand maritime states of Gayeta, Naples, and Amalfi; and in the hour ofdanger, their galleys appeared in the port of Ostia under the commandof Caesarius, the son of the Neapolitan duke, a noble and valiantyouth, who had already vanquished the fleets of the Saracens. With hisprincipal companions, Caesarius was invited to the Lateran palace, andthe dexterous pontiff affected to inquire their errand, and to acceptwith joy and surprise their providential succor. The city bands, inarms, attended their father to Ostia, where he reviewed and blessed hisgenerous deliverers. They kissed his feet, received the communion withmartial devotion, and listened to the prayer of Leo, that the same Godwho had supported St. Peter and St. Paul on the waves of the sea, wouldstrengthen the hands of his champions against the adversaries of hisholy name. After a similar prayer, and with equal resolution, theMoslems advanced to the attack of the Christian galleys, which preservedtheir advantageous station along the coast. The victory inclined to theside of the allies, when it was less gloriously decided in their favorby a sudden tempest, which confounded the skill and courage of thestoutest mariners. The Christians were sheltered in a friendly harbor, while the Africans were scattered and dashed in pieces among the rocksand islands of a hostile shore. Those who escaped from shipwreckand hunger neither found, nor deserved, mercy at the hands of theirimplacable pursuers. The sword and the gibbet reduced the dangerousmultitude of captives; and the remainder was more usefully employed, to restore the sacred edifices which they had attempted to subvert. The pontiff, at the head of the citizens and allies, paid his gratefuldevotion at the shrines of the apostles; and, among the spoils of thisnaval victory, thirteen Arabian bows of pure and massy silver weresuspended round the altar of the fishermen of Galilee. The reign of Leothe Fourth was employed in the defence and ornament of the Roman state. The churches were renewed and embellished: near four thousand poundsof silver were consecrated to repair the losses of St. Peter; andhis sanctuary was decorated with a plate of gold of the weight of twohundred and sixteen pounds, embossed with the portraits of the popeand emperor, and encircled with a string of pearls. Yet this vainmagnificence reflects less glory on the character of Leo than thepaternal care with which he rebuilt the walls of Horta and Ameria;and transported the wandering inhabitants of Centumcellae to his newfoundation of Leopolis, twelve miles from the sea-shore. [89] By hisliberality, a colony of Corsicans, with their wives and children, wasplanted in the station of Porto, at the mouth of the Tyber: the fallingcity was restored for their use, the fields and vineyards were dividedamong the new settlers: their first efforts were assisted by a gift ofhorses and cattle; and the hardy exiles, who breathed revenge againstthe Saracens, swore to live and die under the standard of St. Peter. Thenations of the West and North who visited the threshold of the apostleshad gradually formed the large and populous suburb of the Vatican, andtheir various habitations were distinguished, in the language of thetimes, as the schools of the Greeks and Goths, of the Lombards andSaxons. But this venerable spot was still open to sacrilegious insult:the design of enclosing it with walls and towers exhausted all thatauthority could command, or charity would supply: and the pious laborof four years was animated in every season, and at every hour, by thepresence of the indefatigable pontiff. The love of fame, a generous butworldly passion, may be detected in the name of the Leonine city, whichhe bestowed on the Vatican; yet the pride of the dedication was temperedwith Christian penance and humility. The boundary was trod by the bishopand his clergy, barefoot, in sackcloth and ashes; the songs of triumphwere modulated to psalms and litanies; the walls were besprinkled withholy water; and the ceremony was concluded with a prayer, that, underthe guardian care of the apostles and the angelic host, both the old andthe new Rome might ever be preserved pure, prosperous, and impregnable. [90]

[Footnote 88: De Guignes, Hist. Generale des Huns, tom. I. P. 363, 364. Cardonne, Hist. De l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, sous la Dominationdes Arabs, tom. Ii. P. 24, 25. I observe, and cannot reconcile, thedifference of these writers in the succession of the Aglabites. ]

[Footnote 89: Beretti (Chorographia Italiae Medii Evi, p. 106, 108)has illustrated Centumcellae, Leopolis, Civitas Leonina, and the otherplaces of the Roman duchy. ]

[Footnote 90: The Arabs and the Greeks are alike silent concerning theinvasion of Rome by the Africans. The Latin chronicles do not affordmuch instruction, (see the Annals of Baronius and Pagi. ) Our authenticand contemporary guide for the popes of the ixth century is Anastasius, librarian of the Roman church. His Life of Leo IV, contains twenty-fourpages, (p. 175-199, edit. Paris;) and if a great part consist ofsuperstitious trifles, we must blame or command his hero, who was muchoftener in a church than in a camp. ]

The emperor Theophilus, son of Michael the Stammerer, was one of themost active and high-spirited princes who reigned at Constantinopleduring the middle age. In offensive or defensive war, he marched inperson five times against the Saracens, formidable in his attack, esteemed by the enemy in his losses and defeats. In the last of theseexpeditions he penetrated into Syria, and besieged the obscure town ofSozopetra; the casual birthplace of the caliph Motassem, whose fatherHarun was attended in peace or war by the most favored of his wives andconcubines. The revolt of a Persian impostor employed at that moment thearms of the Saracen, and he could only intercede in favor of a place forwhich he felt and acknowledged some degree of filial affection. Thesesolicitations determined the emperor to wound his pride in so sensible apart. Sozopetra was levelled with the ground, the Syrian prisoners weremarked or mutilated with ignominious cruelty, and a thousand femalecaptives were forced away from the adjacent territory. Among these amatron of the house of Abbas invoked, in an agony of despair, the nameof Motassem; and the insults of the Greeks engaged the honor of herkinsman to avenge his indignity, and to answer her appeal. Under thereign of the two elder brothers, the inheritance of the youngesthad been confined to Anatolia, Armenia, Georgia, and Circassia; thisfrontier station had exercised his military talents; and among hisaccidental claims to the name of Octonary, [91] the most meritorious arethe eight battles which he gained or fought against the enemies of theKoran. In this personal quarrel, the troops of Irak, Syria, and Egypt, were recruited from the tribes of Arabia and the Turkish hordes; hiscavalry might be numerous, though we should deduct some myriads from thehundred and thirty thousand horses of the royal stables; and the expenseof the armament was computed at four millions sterling, or one hundredthousand pounds of gold. From Tarsus, the place of assembly, the Saracens advanced in three divisions along the high road ofConstantinople: Motassem himself commanded the centre, and the vanguardwas given to his son Abbas, who, in the trial of the first adventures, might succeed with the more glory, or fail with the least reproach. Inthe revenge of his injury, the caliph prepared to retaliate a similaraffront. The father of Theophilus was a native of Amorium [92] inPhrygia: the original seat of the Imperial house had been adorned withprivileges and monuments; and, whatever might be the indifference of thepeople, Constantinople itself was scarcely of more value in the eyes ofthe sovereign and his court. The name of Amorium was inscribed on theshields of the Saracens; and their three armies were again unitedunder the walls of the devoted city. It had been proposed by the wisestcounsellors, to evacuate Amorium, to remove the inhabitants, and toabandon the empty structures to the vain resentment of the Barbarians. The emperor embraced the more generous resolution of defending, in asiege and battle, the country of his ancestors. When the armies drewnear, the front of the Mahometan line appeared to a Roman eye moreclosely planted with spears and javelins; but the event of the actionwas not glorious on either side to the national troops. The Arabs werebroken, but it was by the swords of thirty thousand Persians, who hadobtained service and settlement in the Byzantine empire. The Greekswere repulsed and vanquished, but it was by the arrows of the Turkishcavalry; and had not their bowstrings been damped and relaxed by theevening rain, very few of the Christians could have escaped with theemperor from the field of battle. They breathed at Dorylaeum, atthe distance of three days; and Theophilus, reviewing his tremblingsquadrons, forgave the common flight both of the prince and people. After this discovery of his weakness, he vainly hoped to deprecatethe fate of Amorium: the inexorable caliph rejected with contempt hisprayers and promises; and detained the Roman ambassadors to be thewitnesses of his great revenge. They had nearly been the witnesses ofhis shame. The vigorous assaults of fifty-five days were encountered bya faithful governor, a veteran garrison, and a desperate people; andthe Saracens must have raised the siege, if a domestic traitor had notpointed to the weakest part of the wall, a place which was decoratedwith the statues of a lion and a bull. The vow of Motassem wasaccomplished with unrelenting rigor: tired, rather than satiated, with destruction, he returned to his new palace of Samara, in theneighborhood of Bagdad, while the unfortunate [93] Theophilus imploredthe tardy and doubtful aid of his Western rival the emperor of theFranks. Yet in the siege of Amorium about seventy thousand Moslemshad perished: their loss had been revenged by the slaughter of thirtythousand Christians, and the sufferings of an equal number of captives, who were treated as the most atrocious criminals. Mutual necessity couldsometimes extort the exchange or ransom of prisoners: [94] but in thenational and religious conflict of the two empires, peace was withoutconfidence, and war without mercy. Quarter was seldom given in thefield; those who escaped the edge of the sword were condemned tohopeless servitude, or exquisite torture; and a Catholic emperorrelates, with visible satisfaction, the execution of the Saracens ofCrete, who were flayed alive, or plunged into caldrons of boiling oil. [95] To a point of honor Motassem had sacrificed a flourishing city, twohundred thousand lives, and the property of millions. The same caliphdescended from his horse, and dirtied his robe, to relieve the distressof a decrepit old man, who, with his laden ass, had tumbled into aditch. On which of these actions did he reflect with the most pleasure, when he was summoned by the angel of death? [96]

[Footnote 91: The same number was applied to the following circumstancein the life of Motassem: he was the eight of the Abbassides; he reignedeight years, eight months, and eight days; left eight sons, eightdaughters, eight thousand slaves, eight millions of gold. ]

[Footnote 92: Amorium is seldom mentioned by the old geographers, andto tally forgotten in the Roman Itineraries. After the vith century, it became an episcopal see, and at length the metropolis of the newGalatia, (Carol. Scto. Paulo, Geograph. Sacra, p. 234. ) The city roseagain from its ruins, if we should read Ammeria, not Anguria, in thetext of the Nubian geographer. (p. 236. )]

[Footnote 93: In the East he was styled, (Continuator Theophan. L. Iii. P. 84;) but such was the ignorance of the West, that his ambassadors, in public discourse, might boldly narrate, de victoriis, quas adversusexteras bellando gentes coelitus fuerat assecutus, (Annalist. Bertinian. Apud Pagi, tom. Iii. P. 720. )]

[Footnote 94: Abulpharagius (Dynast. P. 167, 168) relates one of thesesingular transactions on the bridge of the River Lamus in Cilicia, thelimit of the two empires, and one day's journey westward of Tarsus, (D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. Ii. P. 91. ) Four thousand fourhundred and sixty Moslems, eight hundred women and children, one hundredconfederates, were exchanged for an equal number of Greeks. They passedeach other in the middle of the bridge, and when they reached theirrespective friends, they shouted Allah Acbar, and Kyrie Eleison. Many ofthe prisoners of Amorium were probably among them, but in the same year, (A. H. 231, ) the most illustrious of them, the forty two martyrs, werebeheaded by the caliph's order. ]

[Footnote 95: Constantin. Porphyrogenitus, in Vit. Basil. C. 61, p. 186. These Saracens were indeed treated with peculiar severity as pirates andrenegadoes. ]

[Footnote 96: For Theophilus, Motassem, and the Amorian war, see theContinuator of Theophanes, (l. Iii. P. 77-84, ) Genesius (l. Iii. P. 24-34. ) Cedrenus, (p. 528-532, ) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 180, )Abulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 165, 166, ) Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. P. 191, )D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 639, 640. )]

With Motassem, the eighth of the Abbassides, the glory of his family andnation expired. When the Arabian conquerors had spread themselves overthe East, and were mingled with the servile crowds of Persia, Syria, and Egypt, they insensibly lost the freeborn and martial virtues of thedesert. The courage of the South is the artificial fruit of disciplineand prejudice; the active power of enthusiasm had decayed, and themercenary forces of the caliphs were recruited in those climates of theNorth, of which valor is the hardy and spontaneous production. Of theTurks [97] who dwelt beyond the Oxus and Jaxartes, the robust youths, either taken in war or purchased in trade, were educated in theexercises of the field, and the profession of the Mahometan faith. TheTurkish guards stood in arms round the throne of their benefactor, and their chiefs usurped the dominion of the palace and the provinces. Motassem, the first author of this dangerous example, introducedinto the capital above fifty thousand Turks: their licentious conductprovoked the public indignation, and the quarrels of the soldiers andpeople induced the caliph to retire from Bagdad, and establish hisown residence and the camp of his Barbarian favorites at Samara onthe Tigris, about twelve leagues above the city of Peace. [98] His sonMotawakkel was a jealous and cruel tyrant: odious to his subjects, hecast himself on the fidelity of the strangers, and these strangers, ambitious and apprehensive, were tempted by the rich promise of arevolution. At the instigation, or at least in the cause of his son, they burst into his apartment at the hour of supper, and the caliphwas cut into seven pieces by the same swords which he had recentlydistributed among the guards of his life and throne. To this throne, yetstreaming with a father's blood, Montasser was triumphantly led; but ina reign of six months, he found only the pangs of a guilty conscience. If he wept at the sight of an old tapestry which represented the crimeand punishment of the son of Chosroes, if his days were abridged bygrief and remorse, we may allow some pity to a parricide, who exclaimed, in the bitterness of death, that he had lost both this world and theworld to come. After this act of treason, the ensigns of royalty, thegarment and walking-staff of Mahomet, were given and torn away by theforeign mercenaries, who in four years created, deposed, and murdered, three commanders of the faithful. As often as the Turks were inflamedby fear, or rage, or avarice, these caliphs were dragged by thefeet, exposed naked to the scorching sun, beaten with iron clubs, andcompelled to purchase, by the abdication of their dignity, a shortreprieve of inevitable fate. [99] At length, however, the fury of thetempest was spent or diverted: the Abbassides returned to the lessturbulent residence of Bagdad; the insolence of the Turks was curbedwith a firmer and more skilful hand, and their numbers were dividedand destroyed in foreign warfare. But the nations of the East had beentaught to trample on the successors of the prophet; and the blessingsof domestic peace were obtained by the relaxation of strength anddiscipline. So uniform are the mischiefs of military despotism, that Iseem to repeat the story of the praetorians of Rome. [100]

[Footnote 97: M. De Guignes, who sometimes leaps, and sometimesstumbles, in the gulf between Chinese and Mahometan story, thinks hecan see, that these Turks are the Hoei-ke, alias the Kao-tche, orhigh-wagons; that they were divided into fifteen hordes, from China andSiberia to the dominions of the caliphs and Samanides, &c. , (Hist. DesHuns, tom. Iii. P. 1-33, 124-131. )]

[Footnote 98: He changed the old name of Sumera, or Samara, into thefanciful title of Sermen-rai, that which gives pleasure at first sight, (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 808. D'Anville, l'Euphrate et leTigre p. 97, 98. )]

[Footnote 99: Take a specimen, the death of the caliph Motaz: Correptumpedibus pertrahunt, et sudibus probe permulcant, et spoliatum lacerisvestibus in sole collocant, prae cujus acerrimo aestu pedes alternosattollebat et demittebat. Adstantium aliquis misero colaphos continuoingerebat, quos ille objectis manibus avertere studebat. .. .. Quo factotraditus tortori fuit, totoque triduo cibo potuque prohibitus. .. .. Suffocatus, &c. (Abulfeda, p. 206. ) Of the caliph Mohtadi, he says, services ipsi perpetuis ictibus contundebant, testiculosque pedibusconculcabant, (p. 208. )]

[Footnote 100: See under the reigns of Motassem, Motawakkel, Montasser, Mostain, Motaz, Mohtadi, and Motamed, in the Bibliotheque of D'Herbelot, and the now familiar Annals of Elmacin, Abulpharagius, and Abulfeda. ]

While the flame of enthusiasm was damped by the business, the pleasure, and the knowledge, of the age, it burnt with concentrated heat in thebreasts of the chosen few, the congenial spirits, who were ambitious ofreigning either in this world or in the next. How carefully soever thebook of prophecy had been sealed by the apostle of Mecca, the wishes, and (if we may profane the word) even the reason, of fanaticism mightbelieve that, after the successive missions of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet, the same God, in the fulness of time, wouldreveal a still more perfect and permanent law. In the two hundred andseventy-seventh year of the Hegira, and in the neighborhood of Cufa, an Arabian preacher, of the name of Carmath, assumed the lofty andincomprehensible style of the Guide, the Director, the Demonstration, the Word, the Holy Ghost, the Camel, the Herald of the Messiah, who hadconversed with him in a human shape, and the representative of Mohammedthe son of Ali, of St. John the Baptist, and of the angel Gabriel. Inhis mystic volume, the precepts of the Koran were refined to a morespiritual sense: he relaxed the duties of ablution, fasting, andpilgrimage; allowed the indiscriminate use of wine and forbidden food;and nourished the fervor of his disciples by the daily repetition offifty prayers. The idleness and ferment of the rustic crowd awakened theattention of the magistrates of Cufa; a timid persecution assistedthe progress of the new sect; and the name of the prophet became morerevered after his person had been withdrawn from the world. His twelveapostles dispersed themselves among the Bedoweens, "a race of men, " saysAbulfeda, "equally devoid of reason and of religion;" and the successof their preaching seemed to threaten Arabia with a new revolution. TheCarmathians were ripe for rebellion, since they disclaimed the titleof the house of Abbas, and abhorred the worldly pomp of the caliphs ofBagdad. They were susceptible of discipline, since they vowed a blindand absolute submission to their Imam, who was called to the propheticoffice by the voice of God and the people. Instead of the legal tithes, he claimed the fifth of their substance and spoil; the most flagitioussins were no more than the type of disobedience; and the brethren wereunited and concealed by an oath of secrecy. After a bloody conflict, they prevailed in the province of Bahrein, along the Persian Gulf:far and wide, the tribes of the desert were subject to the sceptre, or rather to the sword of Abu Said and his son Abu Taher; and theserebellious imams could muster in the field a hundred and seven thousandfanatics. The mercenaries of the caliph were dismayed at the approachof an enemy who neither asked nor accepted quarter; and the differencebetween, them in fortitude and patience, is expressive of the changewhich three centuries of prosperity had effected in the character of theArabians. Such troops were discomfited in every action; the cities ofRacca and Baalbec, of Cufa and Bassora, were taken and pillaged; Bagdadwas filled with consternation; and the caliph trembled behind the veilsof his palace. In a daring inroad beyond the Tigris, Abu Taher advancedto the gates of the capital with no more than five hundred horse. Bythe special order of Moctader, the bridges had been broken down, and theperson or head of the rebel was expected every hour by the commander ofthe faithful. His lieutenant, from a motive of fear or pity, apprisedAbu Taher of his danger, and recommended a speedy escape. "Your master, "said the intrepid Carmathian to the messenger, "is at the head of thirtythousand soldiers: three such men as these are wanting in his host:" atthe same instant, turning to three of his companions, he commanded thefirst to plunge a dagger into his breast, the second to leap into theTigris, and the third to cast himself headlong down a precipice. Theyobeyed without a murmur. 

"Relate, " continued the imam, "what you have seen: before the eveningyour general shall be chained among my dogs. " Before the evening, thecamp was surprised, and the menace was executed. The rapine of theCarmathians was sanctified by their aversion to the worship of Mecca:they robbed a caravan of pilgrims, and twenty thousand devout Moslemswere abandoned on the burning sands to a death of hunger and thirst. Another year they suffered the pilgrims to proceed without interruption;but, in the festival of devotion, Abu Taher stormed the holy city, andtrampled on the most venerable relics of the Mahometan faith. Thirtythousand citizens and strangers were put to the sword; the sacredprecincts were polluted by the burial of three thousand dead bodies; thewell of Zemzem overflowed with blood; the golden spout was forcedfrom its place; the veil of the Caaba was divided among these impioussectaries; and the black stone, the first monument of the nation, wasborne away in triumph to their capital. After this deed of sacrilegeand cruelty, they continued to infest the confines of Irak, Syria, andEgypt: but the vital principle of enthusiasm had withered at the root. Their scruples, or their avarice, again opened the pilgrimage of Mecca, and restored the black stone of the Caaba; and it is needless to inquireinto what factions they were broken, or by whose swords they werefinally extirpated. The sect of the Carmathians may be considered asthe second visible cause of the decline and fall of the empire of thecaliphs. [101]

[Footnote 101: For the sect of the Carmathians, consult Elmacin, (Hist. Sara cen, p. 219, 224, 229, 231, 238, 241, 243, ) Abulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 179-182, ) Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. P. 218, 219, &c. , 245, 265, 274. ) and D'Herbelot, (Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 256-258, 635. ) I findsome inconsistencies of theology and chronology, which it would not beeasy nor of much importance to reconcile. * Note: Compare Von Hammer, Geschichte der Assassinen, p. 44, &c. --M. ]

Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs. --Part V. 

The third and most obvious cause was the weight and magnitude of theempire itself. The caliph Almamon might proudly assert, that itwas easier for him to rule the East and the West, than to manage achess-board of two feet square: [102] yet I suspect that in both thosegames he was guilty of many fatal mistakes; and I perceive, that in thedistant provinces the authority of the first and most powerful of theAbbassides was already impaired. The analogy of despotism invests therepresentative with the full majesty of the prince; the division andbalance of powers might relax the habits of obedience, might encouragethe passive subject to inquire into the origin and administration ofcivil government. He who is born in the purple is seldom worthy toreign; but the elevation of a private man, of a peasant, perhaps, ora slave, affords a strong presumption of his courage and capacity. The viceroy of a remote kingdom aspires to secure the property andinheritance of his precarious trust; the nations must rejoice in thepresence of their sovereign; and the command of armies and treasuresare at once the object and the instrument of his ambition. A change wasscarcely visible as long as the lieutenants of the caliph were contentwith their vicarious title; while they solicited for themselves or theirsons a renewal of the Imperial grant, and still maintained on the coinand in the public prayers the name and prerogative of the commander ofthe faithful. But in the long and hereditary exercise of power, theyassumed the pride and attributes of royalty; the alternative of peaceor war, of reward or punishment, depended solely on their will; and therevenues of their government were reserved for local services orprivate magnificence. Instead of a regular supply of men and money, thesuccessors of the prophet were flattered with the ostentatious gift ofan elephant, or a cast of hawks, a suit of silk hangings, or some poundsof musk and amber. [103]

[Footnote 102: Hyde, Syntagma Dissertat. Tom. Ii. P. 57, in Hist. Shahiludii. ]

[Footnote 103: The dynasties of the Arabian empire may be studied in theAnnals of Elmacin, Abulpharagius, and Abulfeda, under the proper years, in the dictionary of D'Herbelot, under the proper names. The tables ofM. De Guignes (Hist. Des Huns, tom. I. ) exhibit a general chronologyof the East, interspersed with some historical anecdotes; but hisattachment to national blood has sometimes confounded the order of timeand place. ]

After the revolt of Spain from the temporal and spiritual supremacy ofthe Abbassides, the first symptoms of disobedience broke forth in theprovince of Africa. Ibrahim, the son of Aglab, the lieutenant of thevigilant and rigid Harun, bequeathed to the dynasty of the Aglabitesthe inheritance of his name and power. The indolence or policy of thecaliphs dissembled the injury and loss, and pursued only with poison thefounder of the Edrisites, [104] who erected the kingdom and city of Fezon the shores of the Western ocean. [105] In the East, the first dynastywas that of the Taherites; [106] the posterity of the valiant Taher, who, in the civil wars of the sons of Harun, had served with too muchzeal and success the cause of Almamon, the younger brother. He wassent into honorable exile, to command on the banks of the Oxus; and theindependence of his successors, who reigned in Chorasan till the fourthgeneration, was palliated by their modest and respectful demeanor, thehappiness of their subjects and the security of their frontier. Theywere supplanted by one of those adventures so frequent in the annalsof the East, who left his trade of a brazier (from whence the name ofSoffarides) for the profession of a robber. In a nocturnal visit to thetreasure of the prince of Sistan, Jacob, the son of Leith, stumbled overa lump of salt, which he unwarily tasted with his tongue. Salt, amongthe Orientals, is the symbol of hospitality, and the pious robberimmediately retired without spoil or damage. The discovery of thishonorable behavior recommended Jacob to pardon and trust; he led an armyat first for his benefactor, at last for himself, subdued Persia, andthreatened the residence of the Abbassides. On his march towards Bagdad, the conqueror was arrested by a fever. He gave audience in bed to theambassador of the caliph; and beside him on a table were exposed a nakedcimeter, a crust of brown bread, and a bunch of onions. "If I die, "said he, "your master is delivered from his fears. If I live, thismust determine between us. If I am vanquished, I can return withoutreluctance to the homely fare of my youth. " From the height where hestood, the descent would not have been so soft or harmless: a timelydeath secured his own repose and that of the caliph, who paid with themost lavish concessions the retreat of his brother Amrou to the palacesof Shiraz and Ispahan. The Abbassides were too feeble to contend, tooproud to forgive: they invited the powerful dynasty of the Samanides, who passed the Oxus with ten thousand horse so poor, that their stirrupswere of wood: so brave, that they vanquished the Soffarian army, eighttimes more numerous than their own. The captive Amrou was sent inchains, a grateful offering to the court of Bagdad; and as the victorwas content with the inheritance of Transoxiana and Chorasan, the realmsof Persia returned for a while to the allegiance of the caliphs. Theprovinces of Syria and Egypt were twice dismembered by their Turkishslaves of the race of Toulon and Ilkshid. [107] These Barbarians, inreligion and manners the countrymen of Mahomet, emerged from the bloodyfactions of the palace to a provincial command and an independentthrone: their names became famous and formidable in their time; but thefounders of these two potent dynasties confessed, either in words oractions, the vanity of ambition. The first on his death-bed implored themercy of God to a sinner, ignorant of the limits of his own power:the second, in the midst of four hundred thousand soldiers and eightthousand slaves, concealed from every human eye the chamber where heattempted to sleep. Their sons were educated in the vices of kings;and both Egypt and Syria were recovered and possessed by the Abbassidesduring an interval of thirty years. In the decline of their empire, Mesopotamia, with the important cities of Mosul and Aleppo, was occupiedby the Arabian princes of the tribe of Hamadan. The poets of their courtcould repeat without a blush, that nature had formed their countenancesfor beauty, their tongues for eloquence, and their hands for liberalityand valor: but the genuine tale of the elevation and reign of theHamadanites exhibits a scene of treachery, murder, and parricide. 

At the same fatal period, the Persian kingdom was again usurped bythe dynasty of the Bowides, by the sword of three brothers, who, undervarious names, were styled the support and columns of the state, andwho, from the Caspian Sea to the ocean, would suffer no tyrants butthemselves. Under their reign, the language and genius of Persiarevived, and the Arabs, three hundred and four years after the death ofMahomet, were deprived of the sceptre of the East. 

[Footnote 104: The Aglabites and Edrisites are the professed subject ofM. De Cardonne, (Hist. De l'Afrique et de l'Espagne sous la Dominationdes Arabes, tom. Ii. P. 1-63. )]

[Footnote 105: To escape the reproach of error, I must criticize theinaccuracies of M. De Guignes (tom. I. P. 359) concerning the Edrisites. 1. The dynasty and city of Fez could not be founded in the year of theHegira 173, since the founder was a posthumous child of a descendant ofAli, who fled from Mecca in the year 168. 2. This founder, Edris, theson of Edris, instead of living to the improbable age of 120 years, A. H. 313, died A. H. 214, in the prime of manhood. 3. The dynasty ended A. H. 307, twenty-three years sooner than it is fixed by the historian ofthe Huns. See the accurate Annals of Abulfeda p. 158, 159, 185, 238. ]

[Footnote 106: The dynasties of the Taherites and Soffarides, with therise of that of the Samanines, are described in the original history andLatin version of Mirchond: yet the most interesting facts had alreadybeen drained by the diligence of M. D'Herbelot. ]

[Footnote 107: M. De Guignes (Hist. Des Huns, tom. Iii. P. 124-154) hasexhausted the Toulunides and Ikshidites of Egypt, and thrown some lighton the Carmathians and Hamadanites. ]

Rahadi, the twentieth of the Abbassides, and the thirty-ninth of thesuccessors of Mahomet, was the last who deserved the title of commanderof the faithful; [108] the last (says Abulfeda) who spoke to the people, or conversed with the learned; the last who, in the expense of hishousehold, represented the wealth and magnificence of the ancientcaliphs. After him, the lords of the Eastern world were reduced to themost abject misery, and exposed to the blows and insults of a servilecondition. The revolt of the provinces circumscribed their dominionswithin the walls of Bagdad: but that capital still contained aninnumerable multitude, vain of their past fortune, discontented withtheir present state, and oppressed by the demands of a treasury whichhad formerly been replenished by the spoil and tribute of nations. Theiridleness was exercised by faction and controversy. Under the mask ofpiety, the rigid followers of Hanbal [109] invaded the pleasures ofdomestic life, burst into the houses of plebeians and princes, the wine, broke the instruments, beat the musicians, and dishonored, with infamoussuspicions, the associates of every handsome youth. In each profession, which allowed room for two persons, the one was a votary, the other anantagonist, of Ali; and the Abbassides were awakened by the clamorousgrief of the sectaries, who denied their title, and cursed theirprogenitors. A turbulent people could only be repressed by a militaryforce; but who could satisfy the avarice or assert the discipline of themercenaries themselves? The African and the Turkish guards drew theirswords against each other, and the chief commanders, the emirs al Omra, [110] imprisoned or deposed their sovereigns, and violated the sanctuaryof the mosch and harem. If the caliphs escaped to the camp or court ofany neighboring prince, their deliverance was a change of servitude, till they were prompted by despair to invite the Bowides, the sultans ofPersia, who silenced the factions of Bagdad by their irresistible arms. The civil and military powers were assumed by Moezaldowlat, the secondof the three brothers, and a stipend of sixty thousand pounds sterlingwas assigned by his generosity for the private expense of the commanderof the faithful. But on the fortieth day, at the audience of theambassadors of Chorasan, and in the presence of a trembling multitude, the caliph was dragged from his throne to a dungeon, by the commandof the stranger, and the rude hands of his Dilamites. His palace waspillaged, his eyes were put out, and the mean ambition of the Abbassidesaspired to the vacant station of danger and disgrace. In the schoolof adversity, the luxurious caliphs resumed the grave and abstemiousvirtues of the primitive times. Despoiled of their armor and silkenrobes, they fasted, they prayed, they studied the Koran and thetradition of the Sonnites: they performed, with zeal and knowledge, the functions of their ecclesiastical character. The respect of nationsstill waited on the successors of the apostle, the oracles of the lawand conscience of the faithful; and the weakness or division of theirtyrants sometimes restored the Abbassides to the sovereignty ofBagdad. But their misfortunes had been imbittered by the triumph ofthe Fatimites, the real or spurious progeny of Ali. Arising from theextremity of Africa, these successful rivals extinguished, in Egypt andSyria, both the spiritual and temporal authority of the Abbassides; andthe monarch of the Nile insulted the humble pontiff on the banks of theTigris. 

[Footnote 108: Hic est ultimus chalifah qui multum atque saepius proconcione peroraret. .. . Fuit etiam ultimus qui otium cum eruditis etfacetis hominibus fallere hilariterque agere soleret. Ultimus tandemchalifarum cui sumtus, stipendia, reditus, et thesauri, culinae, caeteraque omnis aulica pompa priorum chalifarum ad instar comparatafuerint. Videbimus enim paullo post quam indignis et servilibiusludibriis exagitati, quam ad humilem fortunam altimumque contemptumabjecti fuerint hi quondam potentissimi totius terrarum Orientaliumorbis domini. Abulfed. Annal. Moslem. P. 261. I have given this passageas the manner and tone of Abulfeda, but the cast of Latin eloquencebelongs more properly to Reiske. The Arabian historian (p. 255, 257, 261-269, 283, &c. ) has supplied me with the most interesting facts ofthis paragraph. ]

[Footnote 109: Their master, on a similar occasion, showed himself of amore indulgent and tolerating spirit. Ahmed Ebn Hanbal, the head of oneof the four orthodox sects, was born at Bagdad A. H. 164, and died thereA. H. 241. He fought and suffered in the dispute concerning the creationof the Koran. ]

[Footnote 110: The office of vizier was superseded by the emir al Omra, Imperator Imperatorum, a title first instituted by Radhi, and whichmerged at length in the Bowides and Seljukides: vectigalibus, ettributis, et curiis per omnes regiones praefecit, jussitque in omnibussuggestis nominis ejus in concionibus mentionem fieri, (Abulpharagius, Dynart. P 199. ) It is likewise mentioned by Elmacin, (p. 254, 255. )]

In the declining age of the caliphs, in the century which elapsed afterthe war of Theophilus and Motassem, the hostile transactions of the twonations were confined to some inroads by sea and land, the fruits oftheir close vicinity and indelible hatred. But when the Eastern worldwas convulsed and broken, the Greeks were roused from their lethargyby the hopes of conquest and revenge. The Byzantine empire, since theaccession of the Basilian race, had reposed in peace and dignity; andthey might encounter with their entire strength the front of some pettyemir, whose rear was assaulted and threatened by his national foes ofthe Mahometan faith. The lofty titles of the morning star, and thedeath of the Saracens, [111] were applied in the public acclamations toNicephorus Phocas, a prince as renowned in the camp, as he was unpopularin the city. In the subordinate station of great domestic, or generalof the East, he reduced the Island of Crete, and extirpated the nestof pirates who had so long defied, with impunity, the majesty of theempire. [112] His military genius was displayed in the conduct andsuccess of the enterprise, which had so often failed with loss anddishonor. The Saracens were confounded by the landing of his troops onsafe and level bridges, which he cast from the vessels to the shore. Seven months were consumed in the siege of Candia; the despair of thenative Cretans was stimulated by the frequent aid of their brethren ofAfrica and Spain; and after the massy wall and double ditch had beenstormed by the Greeks a hopeless conflict was still maintained in thestreets and houses of the city. [1121] The whole island was subdued inthe capital, and a submissive people accepted, without resistance, the baptism of the conqueror. [113] Constantinople applauded thelong-forgotten pomp of a triumph; but the Imperial diadem was thesole reward that could repay the services, or satisfy the ambition, ofNicephorus. 

[Footnote 111: Liutprand, whose choleric temper was imbittered by hisuneasy situation, suggests the names of reproach and contempt moreapplicable to Nicephorus than the vain titles of the Greeks, Ecce venitstella matutina, surgit Eous, reverberat obtutu solis radios, pallidaSaracenorum mors, Nicephorus. ]

[Footnote 112: Notwithstanding the insinuation of Zonaras, &c. , (tom. Ii. L. Xvi. P. 197, ) it is an undoubted fact, that Crete was completelyand finally subdued by Nicephorus Phocas, (Pagi, Critica, tom. Iii. P. 873-875. Meursius, Creta, l. Iii. C. 7, tom. Iii. P. 464, 465. )]

[Footnote 1121: The Acroases of Theodorus, de expugnatione Cretae, miserable iambics, relate the whole campaign. Whoever would fairlyestimate the merit of the poetic deacon, may read the description of theslinging a jackass into the famishing city. The poet is in a transportat the wit of the general, and revels in the luxury of antithesis. Theodori Acroases, lib. Iii. 172, in Niebuhr's Byzant. Hist. --M. ]

[Footnote 113: A Greek Life of St. Nicon the Armenian was found in theSforza library, and translated into Latin by the Jesuit Sirmond, for theuse of Cardinal Baronius. This contemporary legend casts a ray oflight on Crete and Peloponnesus in the 10th century. He found thenewly-recovered island, foedis detestandae Agarenorum superstitionisvestigiis adhuc plenam ac refertam. .. . But the victorious missionary, perhaps with some carnal aid, ad baptismum omnes veraeque fideidisciplinam pepulit. Ecclesiis per totam insulam aedificatis, &c. , (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 961. )]

After the death of the younger Romanus, the fourth in lineal descent ofthe Basilian race, his widow Theophania successively married NicephorusPhocas and his assassin John Zimisces, the two heroes of the age. Theyreigned as the guardians and colleagues of her infant sons; and thetwelve years of their military command form the most splendid period ofthe Byzantine annals. The subjects and confederates, whom they led towar, appeared, at least in the eyes of an enemy, two hundred thousandstrong; and of these about thirty thousand were armed with cuirasses:[114] a train of four thousand mules attended their march; and theirevening camp was regularly fortified with an enclosure of iron spikes. A series of bloody and undecisive combats is nothing more than ananticipation of what would have been effected in a few years by thecourse of nature; but I shall briefly prosecute the conquests of thetwo emperors from the hills of Cappadocia to the desert of Bagdad. Thesieges of Mopsuestia and Tarsus, in Cilicia, first exercised the skilland perseverance of their troops, on whom, at this moment, I shall nothesitate to bestow the name of Romans. In the double city of Mopsuestia, which is divided by the River Sarus, two hundred thousand Moslemswere predestined to death or slavery, [115] a surprising degree ofpopulation, which must at least include the inhabitants of the dependentdistricts. They were surrounded and taken by assault; but Tarsus wasreduced by the slow progress of famine; and no sooner had the Saracensyielded on honorable terms than they were mortified by the distant andunprofitable view of the naval succors of Egypt. They were dismissedwith a safe-conduct to the confines of Syria: a part of the oldChristians had quietly lived under their dominion; and the vacanthabitations were replenished by a new colony. But the mosch wasconverted into a stable; the pulpit was delivered to the flames; manyrich crosses of gold and gems, the spoils of Asiatic churches, weremade a grateful offering to the piety or avarice of the emperor; and hetransported the gates of Mopsuestia and Tarsus, which were fixed in thewalls of Constantinople, an eternal monument of his victory. After theyhad forced and secured the narrow passes of Mount Amanus, the two Romanprinces repeatedly carried their arms into the heart of Syria. Yet, instead of assaulting the walls of Antioch, the humanity or superstitionof Nicephorus appeared to respect the ancient metropolis of the East: hecontented himself with drawing round the city a line of circumvallation;left a stationary army; and instructed his lieutenant to expect, withoutimpatience, the return of spring. But in the depth of winter, in a darkand rainy night, an adventurous subaltern, with three hundred soldiers, approached the rampart, applied his scaling-ladders, occupied twoadjacent towers, stood firm against the pressure of multitudes, andbravely maintained his post till he was relieved by the tardy, thougheffectual, support of his reluctant chief. The first tumult of slaughterand rapine subsided; the reign of Caesar and of Christ was restored; andthe efforts of a hundred thousand Saracens, of the armies of Syria andthe fleets of Africa, were consumed without effect before the walls ofAntioch. The royal city of Aleppo was subject to Seifeddowlat, ofthe dynasty of Hamadan, who clouded his past glory by the precipitateretreat which abandoned his kingdom and capital to the Roman invaders. In his stately palace, that stood without the walls of Aleppo, theyjoyfully seized a well-furnished magazine of arms, a stable of fourteenhundred mules, and three hundred bags of silver and gold. But the wallsof the city withstood the strokes of their battering-rams: and thebesiegers pitched their tents on the neighboring mountain of Jaushan. Their retreat exasperated the quarrel of the townsmen and mercenaries;the guard of the gates and ramparts was deserted; and while theyfuriously charged each other in the market-place, they were surprisedand destroyed by the sword of a common enemy. The male sex wasexterminated by the sword; ten thousand youths were led into captivity;the weight of the precious spoil exceeded the strength and number ofthe beasts of burden; the superfluous remainder was burnt; and, aftera licentious possession of ten days, the Romans marched away from thenaked and bleeding city. In their Syrian inroads they commanded thehusbandmen to cultivate their lands, that they themselves, in theensuing season, might reap the benefit; more than a hundred cities werereduced to obedience; and eighteen pulpits of the principal moschs werecommitted to the flames to expiate the sacrilege of the disciples ofMahomet. The classic names of Hierapolis, Apamea, and Emesa, revive fora moment in the list of conquest: the emperor Zimisces encamped in theparadise of Damascus, and accepted the ransom of a submissive people;and the torrent was only stopped by the impregnable fortress ofTripoli, on the sea-coast of Phoenicia. Since the days of Heraclius, theEuphrates, below the passage of Mount Taurus, had been impervious, andalmost invisible, to the Greeks. 

The river yielded a free passage to the victorious Zimisces; and thehistorian may imitate the speed with which he overran the once famouscities of Samosata, Edessa, Martyropolis, Amida, [116] and Nisibis, theancient limit of the empire in the neighborhood of the Tigris. Hisardor was quickened by the desire of grasping the virgin treasures ofEcbatana, [117] a well-known name, under which the Byzantine writerhas concealed the capital of the Abbassides. The consternation of thefugitives had already diffused the terror of his name; but the fanciedriches of Bagdad had already been dissipated by the avarice andprodigality of domestic tyrants. The prayers of the people, and thestern demands of the lieutenant of the Bowides, required the caliph toprovide for the defence of the city. The helpless Mothi replied, thathis arms, his revenues, and his provinces, had been torn from his hands, and that he was ready to abdicate a dignity which he was unable tosupport. The emir was inexorable; the furniture of the palace was sold;and the paltry price of forty thousand pieces of gold was instantlyconsumed in private luxury. But the apprehensions of Bagdad wererelieved by the retreat of the Greeks: thirst and hunger guarded thedesert of Mesopotamia; and the emperor, satiated with glory, and ladenwith Oriental spoils, returned to Constantinople, and displayed, in histriumph, the silk, the aromatics, and three hundred myriads of gold andsilver. Yet the powers of the East had been bent, not broken, by thistransient hurricane. After the departure of the Greeks, the fugitiveprinces returned to their capitals; the subjects disclaimed theirinvoluntary oaths of allegiance; the Moslems again purified theirtemples, and overturned the idols of the saints and martyrs; theNestorians and Jacobites preferred a Saracen to an orthodox master; andthe numbers and spirit of the Melchites were inadequate to the supportof the church and state. 

Of these extensive conquests, Antioch, with the cities of Cilicia andthe Isle of Cyprus, was alone restored, a permanent and useful accessionto the Roman empire. [118]

[Footnote 114: Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. P. 278, 279. Liutprand wasdisposed to depreciate the Greek power, yet he owns that Nicephorus ledagainst Assyria an army of eighty thousand men. ]

[Footnote 115: Ducenta fere millia hominum numerabat urbs (Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem. P. 231) of Mopsuestia, or Masifa, Mampsysta, Mansista, Mamista, as it is corruptly, or perhaps more correctly, styled in themiddle ages, (Wesseling, Itinerar. P. 580. ) Yet I cannot credit thisextreme populousness a few years after the testimony of the emperor Leo, (Tactica, c. Xviii. In Meursii Oper. Tom. Vi. P. 817. )]

[Footnote 116: The text of Leo the deacon, in the corrupt names ofEmeta and Myctarsim, reveals the cities of Amida and Martyropolis, (Miafarekin. See Abulfeda, Geograph. P. 245, vers. Reiske. ) Of the former, Leo observes, urbus munita et illustris; of the latter, clara atqueconspicua opibusque et pecore, reliquis ejus provinciis urbibus atqueoppidis longe praestans. ]

[Footnote 117: Ut et Ecbatana pergeret Agarenorumque regiameverteret. .. . Aiunt enim urbium quae usquam sunt ac toto orbe existuntfelicissimam esse auroque ditissimam, (Leo Diacon. Apud Pagium, tom. Iv. P. 34. ) This splendid description suits only with Bagdad, and cannotpossibly apply either to Hamadan, the true Ecbatana, (D'Anville, Geog. Ancienne, tom. Ii. P. 237, ) or Tauris, which has been commonly mistakenfor that city. The name of Ecbatana, in the same indefinite sense, istransferred by a more classic authority (Cicero pro Lego Manilia, c. 4)to the royal seat of Mithridates, king of Pontus. ]

[Footnote 118: See the Annals of Elmacin, Abulpharagius, and Abulfeda, from A. H. 351 to A. H. 361; and the reigns of Nicephorus Phocas andJohn Zimisces, in the Chronicles of Zonaras (tom. Ii. L. Xvi. P. 199--l. Xvii. 215) and Cedrenus, (Compend. P. 649-684. ) Their manifold defectsare partly supplied by the Ms. History of Leo the deacon, which Pagiobtained from the Benedictines, and has inserted almost entire, in aLatin version, (Critica, tom. Iii. P. 873, tom. Iv. 37. ) * Note: Thewhole original work of Leo the Deacon has been published by Hase, andis inserted in the new edition of the Byzantine historians. M Lassenhas added to the Arabian authorities of this period some extracts fromKemaleddin's account of the treaty for the surrender of Aleppo. --M. ]

Chapter LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire. --Part I. 

 Fate Of The Eastern Empire In The Tenth Century. --Extent And Division. --Wealth And Revenue. --Palace Of Constantinople. -- Titles And Offices. --Pride And Power Of The Emperors. -- Tactics Of The Greeks, Arabs, And Franks. --Loss Of The Latin Tongue. --Studies And Solitude Of The Greeks. 

A ray of historic light seems to beam from the darkness of the tenthcentury. We open with curiosity and respect the royal volumes ofConstantine Porphyrogenitus, [1] which he composed at a mature age forthe instruction of his son, and which promise to unfold the state of theeastern empire, both in peace and war, both at home and abroad. In thefirst of these works he minutely describes the pompous ceremonies of thechurch and palace of Constantinople, according to his own practice, andthat of his predecessors. [2] In the second, he attempts an accuratesurvey of the provinces, the themes, as they were then denominated, bothof Europe and Asia. [3] The system of Roman tactics, the discipline andorder of the troops, and the military operations by land and sea, areexplained in the third of these didactic collections, which may beascribed to Constantine or his father Leo. [4] In the fourth, of theadministration of the empire, he reveals the secrets of the Byzantinepolicy, in friendly or hostile intercourse with the nations of theearth. The literary labors of the age, the practical systems of law, agriculture, and history, might redound to the benefit of the subjectand the honor of the Macedonian princes. The sixty books of theBasilics, [5] the code and pandects of civil jurisprudence, weregradually framed in the three first reigns of that prosperous dynasty. The art of agriculture had amused the leisure, and exercised the pens, of the best and wisest of the ancients; and their chosen precepts arecomprised in the twenty books of the Geoponics [6] of Constantine. Athis command, the historical examples of vice and virtue were methodizedin fifty-three books, [7] and every citizen might apply, to hiscontemporaries or himself, the lesson or the warning of past times. Fromthe august character of a legislator, the sovereign of the Eastdescends to the more humble office of a teacher and a scribe; and if hissuccessors and subjects were regardless of his paternal cares, we mayinherit and enjoy the everlasting legacy. 

[Footnote 1: The epithet of Porphyrogenitus, born in the purple, iselegantly defined by Claudian:--

 Ardua privatos nescit fortuna Penates; Et regnum cum luce dedit. Cognata potestas Excepit Tyrio venerabile pignus in ostro. 

And Ducange, in his Greek and Latin Glossaries, produces many passagesexpressive of the same idea. ]

[Footnote 2: A splendid Ms. Of Constantine, de Caeremoniis Aulae etEcclesiae Byzantinae, wandered from Constantinople to Buda, Frankfort, and Leipsic, where it was published in a splendid edition by Leich andReiske, (A. D. 1751, in folio, ) with such lavish praise as editors neverfail to bestow on the worthy or worthless object of their toil. ]

[Footnote 3: See, in the first volume of Banduri's Imperium Orientale, Constantinus de Thematibus, p. 1-24, de Administrando Imperio, p. 45-127, edit. Venet. The text of the old edition of Meursius iscorrected from a Ms. Of the royal library of Paris, which Isaac Casaubonhad formerly seen, (Epist. Ad Polybium, p. 10, ) and the sense isillustrated by two maps of William Deslisle, the prince of geographerstill the appearance of the greater D'Anville. ]

[Footnote 4: The Tactics of Leo and Constantine are published with theaid of some new Mss. In the great edition of the works of Meursius, by the learned John Lami, (tom. Vi. P. 531-920, 1211-1417, Florent. 1745, ) yet the text is still corrupt and mutilated, the version is stillobscure and faulty. The Imperial library of Vienna would afford somevaluable materials to a new editor, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Vi. P. 369, 370. )]

[Footnote 5: On the subject of the Basilics, Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Xii. P. 425-514, ) and Heineccius, (Hist. Juris Romani, p. 396-399, ) and Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. I. P. 450-458, ) as historical civilians, may be usefully consulted: xli. Books of this Greek code have been published, with a Latin version, byCharles Annibal Frabrottus, (Paris, 1647, ) in seven tomes in folio;iv. Other books have been since discovered, and are inserted in GerardMeerman's Novus Thesaurus Juris Civ. Et Canon. Tom. V. Of the wholework, the sixty books, John Leunclavius has printed, (Basil, 1575, )an eclogue or synopsis. The cxiii. Novels, or new laws, of Leo, may befound in the Corpus Juris Civilis. ]

[Footnote 6: I have used the last and best edition of the Geoponics, (by Nicolas Niclas, Leipsic, 1781, 2 vols. In octavo. ) I read in thepreface, that the same emperor restored the long-forgotten systemsof rhetoric and philosophy; and his two books of Hippiatrica, orHorse-physic, were published at Paris, 1530, in folio, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Vi. P. 493-500. )]

[Footnote 7: Of these LIII. Books, or titles, only two have beenpreserved and printed, de Legationibus (by Fulvius Ursinus, Antwerp, 1582, and Daniel Hoeschelius, August. Vindel. 1603) and de Virtutibus etVitiis, (by Henry Valesius, or de Valois, Paris, 1634. )]

A closer survey will indeed reduce the value of the gift, and thegratitude of posterity: in the possession of these Imperial treasures wemay still deplore our poverty and ignorance; and the fading gloriesof their authors will be obliterated by indifference or contempt. TheBasilics will sink to a broken copy, a partial and mutilated version, inthe Greek language, of the laws of Justinian; but the sense of theold civilians is often superseded by the influence of bigotry: and theabsolute prohibition of divorce, concubinage, and interest for money, enslaves the freedom of trade and the happiness of private life. In thehistorical book, a subject of Constantine might admire the inimitablevirtues of Greece and Rome: he might learn to what a pitch of energyand elevation the human character had formerly aspired. But a contraryeffect must have been produced by a new edition of the lives of thesaints, which the great logothete, or chancellor of the empire, wasdirected to prepare; and the dark fund of superstition was enriched bythe fabulous and florid legends of Simon the Metaphrast. [8] The meritsand miracles of the whole calendar are of less account in the eyes of asage, than the toil of a single husbandman, who multiplies the giftsof the Creator, and supplies the food of his brethren. Yet the royalauthors of the Geoponics were more seriously employed in expounding theprecepts of the destroying art, which had been taught since the days ofXenophon, [9] as the art of heroes and kings. But the Tactics of Leo andConstantine are mingled with the baser alloy of the age in which theylived. It was destitute of original genius; they implicitly transcribethe rules and maxims which had been confirmed by victories. It wasunskilled in the propriety of style and method; they blindly confoundthe most distant and discordant institutions, the phalanx of Spartaand that of Macedon, the legions of Cato and Trajan, of Augustus andTheodosius. Even the use, or at least the importance, of these militaryrudiments may be fairly questioned: their general theory is dictatedby reason; but the merit, as well as difficulty, consists in theapplication. The discipline of a soldier is formed by exercise ratherthan by study: the talents of a commander are appropriated to thosecalm, though rapid, minds, which nature produces to decide the fate ofarmies and nations: the former is the habit of a life, the latter theglance of a moment; and the battles won by lessons of tactics may benumbered with the epic poems created from the rules of criticism. The book of ceremonies is a recital, tedious yet imperfect, of thedespicable pageantry which had infected the church and state since thegradual decay of the purity of the one and the power of the other. A review of the themes or provinces might promise such authentic anduseful information, as the curiosity of government only can obtain, instead of traditionary fables on the origin of the cities, andmalicious epigrams on the vices of their inhabitants. [10] Suchinformation the historian would have been pleased to record; nor shouldhis silence be condemned if the most interesting objects, the populationof the capital and provinces, the amount of the taxes and revenues, the numbers of subjects and strangers who served under the Imperialstandard, have been unnoticed by Leo the philosopher, and his sonConstantine. His treatise of the public administration is stained withthe same blemishes; yet it is discriminated by peculiar merit; theantiquities of the nations may be doubtful or fabulous; but thegeography and manners of the Barbaric world are delineated with curiousaccuracy. Of these nations, the Franks alone were qualified to observein their turn, and to describe, the metropolis of the East. Theambassador of the great Otho, a bishop of Cremona, has painted the stateof Constantinople about the middle of the tenth century: his styleis glowing, his narrative lively, his observation keen; and even theprejudices and passions of Liutprand are stamped with an originalcharacter of freedom and genius. [11] From this scanty fund of foreignand domestic materials, I shall investigate the form and substance ofthe Byzantine empire; the provinces and wealth, the civil government andmilitary force, the character and literature, of the Greeks in a periodof six hundred years, from the reign of Heraclius to his successfulinvasion of the Franks or Latins. 

[Footnote 8: The life and writings of Simon Metaphrastes are describedby Hankius, (de Scriptoribus Byzant. P. 418-460. ) This biographerof the saints indulged himself in a loose paraphrase of the sense ornonsense of more ancient acts. His Greek rhetoric is again paraphrasedin the Latin version of Surius, and scarcely a thread can be now visibleof the original texture. ]

[Footnote 9: According to the first book of the Cyropaedia, professorsof tactics, a small part of the science of war, were already institutedin Persia, by which Greece must be understood. A good edition of all theScriptores Tactici would be a task not unworthy of a scholar. Hisindustry might discover some new Mss. , and his learning might illustratethe military history of the ancients. But this scholar should belikewise a soldier; and alas! Quintus Icilius is no more. * Note: M. Guichardt, author of Memoires Militaires sur les Grecs et sur lesRomains. See Gibbon's Extraits Raisonnees de mes Lectures, Misc. Worksvol. V. P. 219. --M]

[Footnote 10: After observing that the demerit of the Cappadociansrose in proportion to their rank and riches, he inserts a more pointedepigram, which is ascribed to Demodocus. The sting is precisely the samewith the French epigram against Freron: Un serpent mordit JeanFreron--Eh bien? Le serpent en mourut. But as the Paris wits are seldomread in the Anthology, I should be curious to learn, through whatchannel it was conveyed for their imitation, (Constantin. Porphyrogen. De Themat. C. Ii. Brunck Analect. Graec. Tom. Ii. P. 56. BrodaeiAnthologia, l. Ii. P. 244. )]

[Footnote 11: The Legatio Liutprandi Episcopi Cremonensis ad NicephorumPhocam is inserted in Muratori, Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. Ii. Pars i. ]

After the final division between the sons of Theodosius, the swarmsof Barbarians from Scythia and Germany over-spread the provinces andextinguished the empire of ancient Rome. The weakness of Constantinoplewas concealed by extent of dominion: her limits were inviolate, or atleast entire; and the kingdom of Justinian was enlarged by the splendidacquisition of Africa and Italy. But the possession of these newconquests was transient and precarious; and almost a moiety of theEastern empire was torn away by the arms of the Saracens. Syria andEgypt were oppressed by the Arabian caliphs; and, after the reduction ofAfrica, their lieutenants invaded and subdued the Roman province whichhad been changed into the Gothic monarchy of Spain. The islands of theMediterranean were not inaccessible to their naval powers; and it wasfrom their extreme stations, the harbors of Crete and the fortresses ofCilicia, that the faithful or rebel emirs insulted the majesty of thethrone and capital. The remaining provinces, under the obedience ofthe emperors, were cast into a new mould; and the jurisdiction ofthe presidents, the consulars, and the counts were superseded by theinstitution of the themes, [12] or military governments, which prevailedunder the successors of Heraclius, and are described by the pen of theroyal author. Of the twenty-nine themes, twelve in Europe and seventeenin Asia, the origin is obscure, the etymology doubtful or capricious:the limits were arbitrary and fluctuating; but some particular names, that sound the most strangely to our ear, were derived from thecharacter and attributes of the troops that were maintained at theexpense, and for the guard, of the respective divisions. The vanity ofthe Greek princes most eagerly grasped the shadow of conquest and thememory of lost dominion. A new Mesopotamia was created on the westernside of the Euphrates: the appellation and praetor of Sicily weretransferred to a narrow slip of Calabria; and a fragment of the duchy ofBeneventum was promoted to the style and title of the theme of Lombardy. In the decline of the Arabian empire, the successors of Constantinemight indulge their pride in more solid advantages. The victories ofNicephorus, John Zimisces, and Basil the Second, revived the fame, andenlarged the boundaries, of the Roman name: the province of Cilicia, themetropolis of Antioch, the islands of Crete and Cyprus, were restored tothe allegiance of Christ and Caesar: one third of Italy was annexed tothe throne of Constantinople: the kingdom of Bulgaria was destroyed; andthe last sovereigns of the Macedonian dynasty extended their sway fromthe sources of the Tigris to the neighborhood of Rome. In the eleventhcentury, the prospect was again clouded by new enemies and newmisfortunes: the relics of Italy were swept away by the Normanadventures; and almost all the Asiatic branches were dissevered from theRoman trunk by the Turkish conquerors. After these losses, theemperors of the Comnenian family continued to reign from the Danubeto Peloponnesus, and from Belgrade to Nice, Trebizond, and the windingstream of the Meander. The spacious provinces of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, were obedient to their sceptre; the possession of Cyprus, Rhodes, and Crete, was accompanied by the fifty islands of the Aegean orHoly Sea; [13] and the remnant of their empire transcends the measure ofthe largest of the European kingdoms. 

[Footnote 12: See Constantine de Thematibus, in Banduri, tom. I. P. 1-30. It is used by Maurice (Strata gem. L. Ii. C. 2) for a legion, from whence the name was easily transferred to its post or province, (Ducange, Gloss. Graec. Tom. I. P. 487-488. ) Some etymologies areattempted for the Opiscian, Optimatian, Thracesian, themes. ]

[Footnote 13: It is styled by the modern Greeks, from which the corruptnames of Archipelago, l'Archipel, and the Arches, have been transformedby geographers and seamen, (D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. I. P. 281. Analyse de la Carte de la Greece, p. 60. ) The numbers of monksor caloyers in all the islands and the adjacent mountain of Athos, (Observations de Belon, fol. 32, verso, ) monte santo, might justify theepithet of holy, a slight alteration from the original, imposed by theDorians, who, in their dialect, gave the figurative name of goats, tothe bounding waves, (Vossius, apud Cellarium, Geograph. Antiq. Tom. I. P. 829. )]

The same princes might assert, with dignity and truth, that of all themonarchs of Christendom they possessed the greatest city, [14] the mostample revenue, the most flourishing and populous state. With the declineand fall of the empire, the cities of the West had decayed and fallen;nor could the ruins of Rome, or the mud walls, wooden hovels, and narrowprecincts of Paris and London, prepare the Latin stranger to contemplatethe situation and extent of Constantinople, her stately palacesand churches, and the arts and luxury of an innumerable people. Hertreasures might attract, but her virgin strength had repelled, and stillpromised to repel, the audacious invasion of the Persian and Bulgarian, the Arab and the Russian. The provinces were less fortunate andimpregnable; and few districts, few cities, could be discovered whichhad not been violated by some fierce Barbarian, impatient to despoil, because he was hopeless to possess. From the age of Justinian theEastern empire was sinking below its former level; the powers ofdestruction were more active than those of improvement; and thecalamities of war were imbittered by the more permanent evils ofcivil and ecclesiastical tyranny. The captive who had escaped from theBarbarians was often stripped and imprisoned by the ministers of hissovereign: the Greek superstition relaxed the mind by prayer, andemaciated the body by fasting; and the multitude of convents andfestivals diverted many hands and many days from the temporal serviceof mankind. Yet the subjects of the Byzantine empire were still the mostdexterous and diligent of nations; their country was blessed by naturewith every advantage of soil, climate, and situation; and, in thesupport and restoration of the arts, their patient and peaceful temperwas more useful than the warlike spirit and feudal anarchy of Europe. The provinces that still adhered to the empire were repeopled andenriched by the misfortunes of those which were irrecoverably lost. From the yoke of the caliphs, the Catholics of Syria, Egypt, and Africaretired to the allegiance of their prince, to the society of theirbrethren: the movable wealth, which eludes the search of oppression, accompanied and alleviated their exile, and Constantinople receivedinto her bosom the fugitive trade of Alexandria and Tyre. The chiefsof Armenia and Scythia, who fled from hostile or religious persecution, were hospitably entertained: their followers were encouraged to buildnew cities and to cultivate waste lands; and many spots, both in Europeand Asia, preserved the name, the manners, or at least the memory, ofthese national colonies. Even the tribes of Barbarians, who had seatedthemselves in arms on the territory of the empire, were graduallyreclaimed to the laws of the church and state; and as long as they wereseparated from the Greeks, their posterity supplied a race of faithfuland obedient soldiers. Did we possess sufficient materials to surveythe twenty-nine themes of the Byzantine monarchy, our curiosity mightbe satisfied with a chosen example: it is fortunate enough that theclearest light should be thrown on the most interesting province, and the name of Peloponnesus will awaken the attention of the classicreader. 

[Footnote 14: According to the Jewish traveller who had visited Europeand Asia, Constantinople was equalled only by Bagdad, the great city ofthe Ismaelites, (Voyage de Benjamin de Tudele, par Baratier, tom. L. C. V. P. 46. )]

As early as the eighth century, in the troubled reign of theIconoclasts, Greece, and even Peloponnesus, [15] were overrun by someSclavonian bands who outstripped the royal standard of Bulgaria. Thestrangers of old, Cadmus, and Danaus, and Pelops, had planted in thatfruitful soil the seeds of policy and learning; but the savages of thenorth eradicated what yet remained of their sickly and withered roots. In this irruption, the country and the inhabitants were transformed; theGrecian blood was contaminated; and the proudest nobles of Peloponnesuswere branded with the names of foreigners and slaves. By the diligenceof succeeding princes, the land was in some measure purified from theBarbarians; and the humble remnant was bound by an oath of obedience, tribute, and military service, which they often renewed and oftenviolated. The siege of Patras was formed by a singular concurrence ofthe Sclavonians of Peloponnesus and the Saracens of Africa. In theirlast distress, a pious fiction of the approach of the praetor ofCorinth revived the courage of the citizens. Their sally was bold andsuccessful; the strangers embarked, the rebels submitted, and the gloryof the day was ascribed to a phantom or a stranger, who fought in theforemost ranks under the character of St. Andrew the Apostle. The shrinewhich contained his relics was decorated with the trophies of victory, and the captive race was forever devoted to the service and vassalageof the metropolitan church of Patras. By the revolt of two Sclavoniantribes, in the neighborhood of Helos and Lacedaemon, the peace of thepeninsula was often disturbed. They sometimes insulted the weakness, andsometimes resisted the oppression, of the Byzantine government, till atlength the approach of their hostile brethren extorted a golden bullto define the rites and obligations of the Ezzerites and Milengi, whoseannual tribute was defined at twelve hundred pieces of gold. Fromthese strangers the Imperial geographer has accurately distinguished adomestic, and perhaps original, race, who, in some degree, might derivetheir blood from the much-injured Helots. The liberality of the Romans, and especially of Augustus, had enfranchised the maritime cities fromthe dominion of Sparta; and the continuance of the same benefit ennobledthem with the title of Eleuthero, or Free-Laconians. [16] In the timeof Constantine Porphyrogenitus, they had acquired the name of Mainotes, under which they dishonor the claim of liberty by the inhuman pillage ofall that is shipwrecked on their rocky shores. Their territory, barrenof corn, but fruitful of olives, extended to the Cape of Malea: theyaccepted a chief or prince from the Byzantine praetor, and a lighttribute of four hundred pieces of gold was the badge of their immunity, rather than of their dependence. The freemen of Laconia assumed thecharacter of Romans, and long adhered to the religion of the Greeks. By the zeal of the emperor Basil, they were baptized in the faith ofChrist: but the altars of Venus and Neptune had been crowned by theserustic votaries five hundred years after they were proscribed in theRoman world. In the theme of Peloponnesus, [17] forty cities were stillnumbered, and the declining state of Sparta, Argos, and Corinth, may besuspended in the tenth century, at an equal distance, perhaps, betweentheir antique splendor and their present desolation. The duty ofmilitary service, either in person or by substitute, was imposed on thelands or benefices of the province; a sum of five pieces of gold wasassessed on each of the substantial tenants; and the same capitation wasshared among several heads of inferior value. On the proclamation ofan Italian war, the Peloponnesians excused themselves by a voluntaryoblation of one hundred pounds of gold, (four thousand pounds sterling, )and a thousand horses with their arms and trappings. The churchesand monasteries furnished their contingent; a sacrilegious profit wasextorted from the sale of ecclesiastical honors; and the indigent bishopof Leucadia [18] was made responsible for a pension of one hundredpieces of gold. [19]

[Footnote 15: Says Constantine, (Thematibus, l. Ii. C. Vi. P. 25, ) ina style as barbarous as the idea, which he confirms, as usual, by afoolish epigram. The epitomizer of Strabo likewise observes, (l. Vii. P. 98, edit. Hudson. Edit. Casaub. 1251;) a passage which leads Dodwella weary dance (Geograph, Minor. Tom. Ii. Dissert. Vi. P. 170-191) toenumerate the inroads of the Sclavi, and to fix the date (A. D. 980) ofthis petty geographer. ]

[Footnote 16: Strabon. Geograph. L. Viii. P. 562. Pausanius, Graec. Descriptio, l. C 21, p. 264, 265. Pliny, Hist. Natur. L. Iv. C. 8. ]

[Footnote 17: Constantin. De Administrando Imperio, l. Ii. C. 50, 51, 52. ]

[Footnote 18: The rock of Leucate was the southern promontory of hisisland and diocese. Had he been the exclusive guardian of the Lover'sLeap so well known to the readers of Ovid (Epist. Sappho) and theSpectator, he might have been the richest prelate of the Greek church. ]

[Footnote 19: Leucatensis mihi juravit episcopus, quotannis ecclesiamsuam debere Nicephoro aureos centum persolvere, similiter et ceterasplus minusve secundum vires suos, (Liutprand in Legat. P. 489. )]

But the wealth of the province, and the trust of the revenue, werefounded on the fair and plentiful produce of trade and manufacturers;and some symptoms of liberal policy may be traced in a law which exemptsfrom all personal taxes the mariners of Peloponnesus, and the workmenin parchment and purple. This denomination may be fairly applied orextended to the manufacturers of linen, woollen, and more especially ofsilk: the two former of which had flourished in Greece since the daysof Homer; and the last was introduced perhaps as early as the reignof Justinian. These arts, which were exercised at Corinth, Thebes, and Argos, afforded food and occupation to a numerous people: themen, women, and children were distributed according to their age andstrength; and, if many of these were domestic slaves, their masters, whodirected the work and enjoyed the profit, were of a free and honorablecondition. The gifts which a rich and generous matron of Peloponnesuspresented to the emperor Basil, her adopted son, were doubtlessfabricated in the Grecian looms. Danielis bestowed a carpet of finewool, of a pattern which imitated the spots of a peacock's tail, of amagnitude to overspread the floor of a new church, erected in the triplename of Christ, of Michael the archangel, and of the prophet Elijah. She gave six hundred pieces of silk and linen, of various use anddenomination: the silk was painted with the Tyrian dye, and adorned bythe labors of the needle; and the linen was so exquisitely fine, thatan entire piece might be rolled in the hollow of a cane. [20] Inhis description of the Greek manufactures, an historian of Sicilydiscriminates their price, according to the weight and quality of thesilk, the closeness of the texture, the beauty of the colors, and thetaste and materials of the embroidery. A single, or even a double ortreble thread was thought sufficient for ordinary sale; but the unionof six threads composed a piece of stronger and more costly workmanship. Among the colors, he celebrates, with affectation of eloquence, thefiery blaze of the scarlet, and the softer lustre of the green. Theembroidery was raised either in silk or gold: the more simple ornamentof stripes or circles was surpassed by the nicer imitation of flowers:the vestments that were fabricated for the palace or the altar oftenglittered with precious stones; and the figures were delineated instrings of Oriental pearls. [21] Till the twelfth century, Greece alone, of all the countries of Christendom, was possessed of the insect whois taught by nature, and of the workmen who are instructed by art, to prepare this elegant luxury. But the secret had been stolen by thedexterity and diligence of the Arabs: the caliphs of the East and Westscorned to borrow from the unbelievers their furniture and apparel;and two cities of Spain, Almeria and Lisbon, were famous for themanufacture, the use, and, perhaps, the exportation, of silk. It wasfirst introduced into Sicily by the Normans; and this emigration oftrade distinguishes the victory of Roger from the uniform and fruitlesshostilities of every age. After the sack of Corinth, Athens, and Thebes, his lieutenant embarked with a captive train of weavers and artificersof both sexes, a trophy glorious to their master, and disgraceful to theGreek emperor. [22] The king of Sicily was not insensible of the valueof the present; and, in the restitution of the prisoners, he exceptedonly the male and female manufacturers of Thebes and Corinth, who labor, says the Byzantine historian, under a barbarous lord, like the oldEretrians in the service of Darius. [23] A stately edifice, in thepalace of Palermo, was erected for the use of this industrious colony;[24] and the art was propagated by their children and disciples tosatisfy the increasing demand of the western world. The decay of thelooms of Sicily may be ascribed to the troubles of the island, and thecompetition of the Italian cities. In the year thirteen hundred andfourteen, Lucca alone, among her sister republics, enjoyed the lucrativemonopoly. [25] A domestic revolution dispersed the manufacturers toFlorence, Bologna, Venice, Milan, and even the countries beyond theAlps; and thirteen years after this event the statutes of Modena enjointhe planting of mulberry-trees, and regulate the duties on raw silk. [26] The northern climates are less propitious to the education of thesilkworm; but the industry of France and England [27] is supplied andenriched by the productions of Italy and China. 

[Footnote 20: See Constantine, (in Vit. Basil. C. 74, 75, 76, p. 195, 197, in Script. Post Theophanem, ) who allows himself to use manytechnical or barbarous words: barbarous, says he. Ducange labors onsome: but he was not a weaver. ]

[Footnote 21: The manufactures of Palermo, as they are described by HugoFalcandus, (Hist. Sicula in proem. In Muratori Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. V. P. 256, ) is a copy of those of Greece. Without transcribinghis declamatory sentences, which I have softened in the text, I shallobserve, that in this passage the strange word exarentasmata is veryproperly changed for exanthemata by Carisius, the first editor Falcanduslived about the year 1190. ]

[Footnote 22: Inde ad interiora Graeciae progressi, Corinthum, Thebas, Athenas, antiqua nobilitate celebres, expugnant; et, maxima ibidempraeda direpta, opifices etiam, qui sericos pannos texere solent, ob ignominiam Imperatoris illius, suique principis gloriam, captivosdeducunt. Quos Rogerius, in Palermo Siciliae, metropoli collocans, artemtexendi suos edocere praecepit; et exhinc praedicta ars illa, prius aGraecis tantum inter Christianos habita, Romanis patere coepit ingeniis, (Otho Frisingen. De Gestis Frederici I. L. I. C. 33, in Muratori Script. Ital. Tom. Vi. P. 668. ) This exception allows the bishop to celebrateLisbon and Almeria in sericorum pannorum opificio praenobilissimae, (inChron. Apud Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. Ix. P. 415. )]

[Footnote 23: Nicetas in Manuel, l. Ii. C. 8. P. 65. He describes theseGreeks as skilled. ]

[Footnote 24: Hugo Falcandus styles them nobiles officinas. The Arabshad not introduced silk, though they had planted canes and made sugar inthe plain of Palermo. ]

[Footnote 25: See the Life of Castruccio Casticani, not by Machiavel, but by his more authentic biographer Nicholas Tegrimi. Muratori, who hasinserted it in the xith volume of his Scriptores, quotes this curiouspassage in his Italian Antiquities, (tom. I. Dissert. Xxv. P. 378. )]

[Footnote 26: From the Ms. Statutes, as they are quoted by Muratori inhis Italian Antiquities, (tom. Ii. Dissert. Xxv. P. 46-48. )]

[Footnote 27: The broad silk manufacture was established in England inthe year 1620, (Anderson's Chronological Deduction, vol. Ii. P. 4: )but it is to the revocation of the edict of Nantes that we owe theSpitalfields colony. ]

Chapter LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire. --Part II. 

I must repeat the complaint that the vague and scanty memorials of thetimes will not afford any just estimate of the taxes, the revenue, andthe resources of the Greek empire. From every province of Europe andAsia the rivulets of gold and silver discharged into the Imperialreservoir a copious and perennial stream. The separation of the branchesfrom the trunk increased the relative magnitude of Constantinople; andthe maxims of despotism contracted the state to the capital, the capitalto the palace, and the palace to the royal person. A Jewish traveller, who visited the East in the twelfth century, is lost in his admirationof the Byzantine riches. "It is here, " says Benjamin of Tudela, "inthe queen of cities, that the tributes of the Greek empire are annuallydeposited and the lofty towers are filled with precious magazines ofsilk, purple, and gold. It is said, that Constantinople pays each dayto her sovereign twenty thousand pieces of gold; which are levied on theshops, taverns, and markets, on the merchants of Persia and Egypt, ofRussia and Hungary, of Italy and Spain, who frequent the capital bysea and land. " [28] In all pecuniary matters, the authority of a Jewis doubtless respectable; but as the three hundred and sixty-five dayswould produce a yearly income exceeding seven millions sterling, Iam tempted to retrench at least the numerous festivals of the Greekcalendar. The mass of treasure that was saved by Theodora and Basilthe Second will suggest a splendid, though indefinite, idea of theirsupplies and resources. The mother of Michael, before she retired to acloister, attempted to check or expose the prodigality of her ungratefulson, by a free and faithful account of the wealth which he inherited;one hundred and nine thousand pounds of gold, and three hundred thousandof silver, the fruits of her own economy and that of her deceasedhusband. [29] The avarice of Basil is not less renowned than his valorand fortune: his victorious armies were paid and rewarded withoutbreaking into the mass of two hundred thousand pounds of gold, (abouteight millions sterling, ) which he had buried in the subterraneousvaults of the palace. [30] Such accumulation of treasure is rejected bythe theory and practice of modern policy; and we are more apt to computethe national riches by the use and abuse of the public credit. Yet themaxims of antiquity are still embraced by a monarch formidable to hisenemies; by a republic respectable to her allies; and both have attainedtheir respective ends of military power and domestic tranquillity. 

[Footnote 28: Voyage de Benjamin de Tudele, tom. I. C. 5, p. 44-52. TheHebrew text has been translated into French by that marvellous childBaratier, who has added a volume of crude learning. The errors andfictions of the Jewish rabbi are not a sufficient ground to deny thereality of his travels. * Note: I am inclined, with Buegnot (LesJuifs d'Occident, part iii. P. 101 et seqq. ) and Jost (Geschichteder Israeliter, vol. Vi. Anhang. P. 376) to consider this work a merecompilation, and to doubt the reality of the travels. --M. ]

[Footnote 29: See the continuator of Theophanes, (l. Iv. P. 107, )Cedremis, (p. 544, ) and Zonaras, (tom. Ii. L. Xvi. P. 157. )]

[Footnote 30: Zonaras, (tom. Ii. L. Xvii. P. 225, ) instead of pounds, uses the more classic appellation of talents, which, in a literalsense and strict computation, would multiply sixty fold the treasure ofBasil. ]

Whatever might be consumed for the present wants, or reserved for thefuture use, of the state, the first and most sacred demand was for thepomp and pleasure of the emperor, and his discretion only could definethe measure of his private expense. The princes of Constantinople werefar removed from the simplicity of nature; yet, with the revolvingseasons, they were led by taste or fashion to withdraw to a purer air, from the smoke and tumult of the capital. They enjoyed, or affected toenjoy, the rustic festival of the vintage: their leisure was amused bythe exercise of the chase and the calmer occupation of fishing, and inthe summer heats, they were shaded from the sun, and refreshed by thecooling breezes from the sea. The coasts and islands of Asia and Europewere covered with their magnificent villas; but, instead of the modestart which secretly strives to hide itself and to decorate the scenery ofnature, the marble structure of their gardens served only to exposethe riches of the lord, and the labors of the architect. The successivecasualties of inheritance and forfeiture had rendered the sovereignproprietor of many stately houses in the city and suburbs, of whichtwelve were appropriated to the ministers of state; but the greatpalace, [31] the centre of the Imperial residence, was fixed duringeleven centuries to the same position, between the hippodrome, thecathedral of St. Sophia, and the gardens, which descended by many aterrace to the shores of the Propontis. The primitive edifice of thefirst Constantine was a copy, or rival, of ancient Rome; the gradualimprovements of his successors aspired to emulate the wonders of the oldworld, [32] and in the tenth century, the Byzantine palace excited theadmiration, at least of the Latins, by an unquestionable preeminence ofstrength, size, and magnificence. [33] But the toil and treasure of somany ages had produced a vast and irregular pile: each separate buildingwas marked with the character of the times and of the founder; and thewant of space might excuse the reigning monarch, who demolished, perhapswith secret satisfaction, the works of his predecessors. The economyof the emperor Theophilus allowed a more free and ample scope for hisdomestic luxury and splendor. A favorite ambassador, who had astonishedthe Abbassides themselves by his pride and liberality, presented on hisreturn the model of a palace, which the caliph of Bagdad had recentlyconstructed on the banks of the Tigris. The model was instantly copiedand surpassed: the new buildings of Theophilus [34] were accompaniedwith gardens, and with five churches, one of which was conspicuous forsize and beauty: it was crowned with three domes, the roof of gilt brassreposed on columns of Italian marble, and the walls were incrusted withmarbles of various colors. In the face of the church, a semicircularportico, of the figure and name of the Greek sigma, was supported byfifteen columns of Phrygian marble, and the subterraneous vaults were ofa similar construction. The square before the sigma was decorated witha fountain, and the margin of the basin was lined and encompassed withplates of silver. In the beginning of each season, the basin, insteadof water, was replenished with the most exquisite fruits, which wereabandoned to the populace for the entertainment of the prince. Heenjoyed this tumultuous spectacle from a throne resplendent with goldand gems, which was raised by a marble staircase to the height of alofty terrace. Below the throne were seated the officers of his guards, the magistrates, the chiefs of the factions of the circus; the inferiorsteps were occupied by the people, and the place below was covered withtroops of dancers, singers, and pantomimes. The square was surroundedby the hall of justice, the arsenal, and the various offices ofbusiness and pleasure; and the purple chamber was named from the annualdistribution of robes of scarlet and purple by the hand of the empressherself. The long series of the apartments was adapted to the seasons, and decorated with marble and porphyry, with painting, sculpture, andmosaics, with a profusion of gold, silver, and precious stones. Hisfanciful magnificence employed the skill and patience of such artistsas the times could afford: but the taste of Athens would have despisedtheir frivolous and costly labors; a golden tree, with its leaves andbranches, which sheltered a multitude of birds warbling their artificialnotes, and two lions of massy gold, and of natural size, who looked androared like their brethren of the forest. The successors of Theophilus, of the Basilian and Comnenian dynasties, were not less ambitious ofleaving some memorial of their residence; and the portion of the palacemost splendid and august was dignified with the title of the goldentriclinium. [35] With becoming modesty, the rich and noble Greeksaspired to imitate their sovereign, and when they passed through thestreets on horseback, in their robes of silk and embroidery, they weremistaken by the children for kings. [36] A matron of Peloponnesus, [37] who had cherished the infant fortunes of Basil the Macedonian, wasexcited by tenderness or vanity to visit the greatness of her adoptedson. In a journey of five hundred miles from Patras to Constantinople, her age or indolence declined the fatigue of a horse or carriage: thesoft litter or bed of Danielis was transported on the shoulders of tenrobust slaves; and as they were relieved at easy distances, a band ofthree hundred were selected for the performance of this service. Shewas entertained in the Byzantine palace with filial reverence, and thehonors of a queen; and whatever might be the origin of her wealth, hergifts were not unworthy of the regal dignity. I have already describedthe fine and curious manufactures of Peloponnesus, of linen, silk, andwoollen; but the most acceptable of her presents consisted in threehundred beautiful youths, of whom one hundred were eunuchs; [38] "forshe was not ignorant, " says the historian, "that the air of the palaceis more congenial to such insects, than a shepherd's dairy to the fliesof the summer. " During her lifetime, she bestowed the greater part ofher estates in Peloponnesus, and her testament instituted Leo, theson of Basil, her universal heir. After the payment of the legacies, fourscore villas or farms were added to the Imperial domain; and threethousand slaves of Danielis were enfranchised by their new lord, andtransplanted as a colony to the Italian coast. From this example ofa private matron, we may estimate the wealth and magnificence of theemperors. Yet our enjoyments are confined by a narrow circle; and, whatsoever may be its value, the luxury of life is possessed with moreinnocence and safety by the master of his own, than by the steward ofthe public, fortune. 

[Footnote 31: For a copious and minute description of the Imperialpalace, see the Constantinop. Christiana (l. Ii. C. 4, p. 113-123) ofDucange, the Tillemont of the middle ages. Never has laborious Germanyproduced two antiquarians more laborious and accurate than these twonatives of lively France. ]

[Footnote 32: The Byzantine palace surpasses the Capitol, the palaceof Pergamus, the Rufinian wood, the temple of Adrian at Cyzicus, thepyramids, the Pharus, &c. , according to an epigram (Antholog. Graec. L. Iv. P. 488, 489. Brodaei, apud Wechel) ascribed to Julian, ex-praefectof Egypt. Seventy-one of his epigrams, some lively, are collected inBrunck, (Analect. Graec. Tom. Ii. P. 493-510; but this is wanting. ]

[Footnote 33: Constantinopolitanum Palatium non pulchritudine solum, verum stiam fortitudine, omnibus quas unquam videram munitionibuspraestat, (Liutprand, Hist. L. V. C. 9, p. 465. )]

[Footnote 34: See the anonymous continuator of Theophanes, (p. 59, 61, 86, ) whom I have followed in the neat and concise abstract of Le Beau, (Hint. Du Bas Empire, tom. Xiv. P. 436, 438. )]

[Footnote 35: In aureo triclinio quae praestantior est parspotentissimus (the usurper Romanus) degens caeteras partes (filiis)distribuerat, (Liutprand. Hist. L. V. C. 9, p. 469. ) For this lastsignification of Triclinium see Ducange (Gloss. Graec. Et Observationssur Joinville, p. 240) and Reiske, (ad Constantinum de Ceremoniis, p. 7. )]

[Footnote 36: In equis vecti (says Benjamin of Tudela) regum filiisvidentur persimiles. I prefer the Latin version of Constantinel'Empereur (p. 46) to the French of Baratier, (tom. I. P. 49. )]

[Footnote 37: See the account of her journey, munificence, andtestament, in the life of Basil, by his grandson Constantine, (p. 74, 75, 76, p. 195-197. )]

[Footnote 38: Carsamatium. Graeci vocant, amputatis virilibus et virga, puerum eunuchum quos Verdunenses mercatores obinmensum lucrum faceresolent et in Hispaniam ducere, (Liutprand, l. Vi. C. 3, p. 470. )--Thelast abomination of the abominable slave-trade! Yet I am surprisedto find, in the xth century, such active speculations of commerce inLorraine. ]

In an absolute government, which levels the distinctions of noble andplebeian birth, the sovereign is the sole fountain of honor; and therank, both in the palace and the empire, depends on the titles andoffices which are bestowed and resumed by his arbitrary will. Above athousand years, from Vespasian to Alexius Comnenus, [39] the Caesarwas the second person, or at least the second degree, after the supremetitle of Augustus was more freely communicated to the sons and brothersof the reigning monarch. To elude without violating his promise toa powerful associate, the husband of his sister, and, without givinghimself an equal, to reward the piety of his brother Isaac, the craftyAlexius interposed a new and supereminent dignity. The happy flexibilityof the Greek tongue allowed him to compound the names of Augustus andEmperor (Sebastos and Autocrator, ) and the union produces the sonoroustitle of Sebastocrator. He was exalted above the Caesar on the firststep of the throne: the public acclamations repeated his name; and hewas only distinguished from the sovereign by some peculiar ornamentsof the head and feet. The emperor alone could assume the purple or redbuskins, and the close diadem or tiara, which imitated the fashion ofthe Persian kings. [40] It was a high pyramidal cap of cloth or silk, almost concealed by a profusion of pearls and jewels: the crown wasformed by a horizontal circle and two arches of gold: at the summit, the point of their intersection, was placed a globe or cross, and twostrings or lappets of pearl depended on either cheek. Instead of red, the buskins of the Sebastocrator and Caesar were green; and ontheir open coronets or crowns, the precious gems were more sparinglydistributed. Beside and below the Caesar the fancy of Alexiuscreated the Panhypersebastos and the Protosebastos, whose sound andsignification will satisfy a Grecian ear. They imply a superiority anda priority above the simple name of Augustus; and this sacred andprimitive title of the Roman prince was degraded to the kinsmen andservants of the Byzantine court. The daughter of Alexius applauds, withfond complacency, this artful gradation of hopes and honors; but thescience of words is accessible to the meanest capacity; and this vaindictionary was easily enriched by the pride of his successors. To theirfavorite sons or brothers, they imparted the more lofty appellationof Lord or Despot, which was illustrated with new ornaments, andprerogatives, and placed immediately after the person of the emperorhimself. The five titles of, 1. Despot; 2. Sebastocrator; 3. Caesar; 4. Panhypersebastos; and, 5. Protosebastos; were usually confined to theprinces of his blood: they were the emanations of his majesty; but asthey exercised no regular functions, their existence was useless, andtheir authority precarious. 

[Footnote 39: See the Alexiad (l. Iii. P. 78, 79) of Anna Comnena, who, except in filial piety, may be compared to Mademoiselle de Montpensier. In her awful reverence for titles and forms, she styles her father, theinventor of this royal art. ]

[Footnote 40: See Reiske, and Ceremoniale, p. 14, 15. Ducange has givena learned dissertation on the crowns of Constantinople, Rome, France, &c. , (sur Joinville, xxv. P. 289-303;) but of his thirty-four models, none exactly tally with Anne's description. ]

But in every monarchy the substantial powers of government must bedivided and exercised by the ministers of the palace and treasury, thefleet and army. The titles alone can differ; and in the revolution ofages, the counts and praefects, the praetor and quaestor, insensiblydescended, while their servants rose above their heads to the firsthonors of the state. 1. In a monarchy, which refers every object to theperson of the prince, the care and ceremonies of the palace form themost respectable department. The Curopalata, [41] so illustrious in theage of Justinian, was supplanted by the Protovestiare, whose primitivefunctions were limited to the custody of the wardrobe. From thence hisjurisdiction was extended over the numerous menials of pomp and luxury;and he presided with his silver wand at the public and private audience. 2. In the ancient system of Constantine, the name of Logothete, oraccountant, was applied to the receivers of the finances: the principalofficers were distinguished as the Logothetes of the domain, ofthe posts, the army, the private and public treasure; and the greatLogothete, the supreme guardian of the laws and revenues, is comparedwith the chancellor of the Latin monarchies. [42] His discerningeye pervaded the civil administration; and he was assisted, in duesubordination, by the eparch or praefect of the city, the firstsecretary, and the keepers of the privy seal, the archives, and the redor purple ink which was reserved for the sacred signature of the emperoralone. [43] The introductor and interpreter of foreign ambassadorswere the great Chiauss [44] and the Dragoman, [45] two names of Turkishorigin, and which are still familiar to the Sublime Porte. 3. From thehumble style and service of guards, the Domestics insensibly rose tothe station of generals; the military themes of the East and West, thelegions of Europe and Asia, were often divided, till the great Domesticwas finally invested with the universal and absolute command of the landforces. The Protostrator, in his original functions, was the assistantof the emperor when he mounted on horseback: he gradually became thelieutenant of the great Domestic in the field; and his jurisdictionextended over the stables, the cavalry, and the royal train of huntingand hawking. The Stratopedarch was the great judge of the camp: theProtospathaire commanded the guards; the Constable, [46] the greatAeteriarch, and the Acolyth, were the separate chiefs of the Franks, theBarbarians, and the Varangi, or English, the mercenary strangers, who, a the decay of the national spirit, formed the nerve of the Byzantinearmies. 4. The naval powers were under the command of the great Duke;in his absence they obeyed the great Drungaire of the fleet; and, inhis place, the Emir, or Admiral, a name of Saracen extraction, [47] butwhich has been naturalized in all the modern languages of Europe. Ofthese officers, and of many more whom it would be useless to enumerate, the civil and military hierarchy was framed. Their honors andemoluments, their dress and titles, their mutual salutations andrespective preeminence, were balanced with more exquisite labor thanwould have fixed the constitution of a free people; and the code wasalmost perfect when this baseless fabric, the monument of pride andservitude, was forever buried in the ruins of the empire. [48]

[Footnote 41: Par exstans curis, solo diademate dispar, Ordine pro rerumvocitatus Cura-Palati, says the African Corippus, (de Laudibus Justini, l. I. 136, ) and in the same century (the vith) Cassiodorus representshim, who, virga aurea decoratus, inter numerosa obsequia primusante pedes regis incederet (Variar. Vii. 5. ) But this great officer, (unknown, ) exercising no function, was cast down by the modern Greeks tothe xvth rank, (Codin. C. 5, p. 65. )]

[Footnote 42: Nicetas (in Manuel, l. Vii. C. 1) defines him. Yet theepithet was added by the elder Andronicus, (Ducange, tom. I. P. 822, 823. )]

[Footnote 43: From Leo I. (A. D. 470) the Imperial ink, which is stillvisible on some original acts, was a mixture of vermilion and cinnabar, or purple. The emperor's guardians, who shared in this prerogative, always marked in green ink the indiction and the month. See theDictionnaire Diplomatique, (tom. I. P. 511-513) a valuable abridgment. ]

[Footnote 44: The sultan sent to Alexius, (Anna Comnena, l. Vi. P. 170. Ducange ad loc. ;) and Pachymer often speaks, (l. Vii. C. 1, l. Xii. C. 30, l. Xiii. C. 22. ) The Chiaoush basha is now at the head of 700officers, (Rycaut's Ottoman Empire, p. 349, octavo edition. )]

[Footnote 45: Tagerman is the Arabic name of an interpreter, (D'Herbelot, p. 854, 855;), says Codinus, (c. V. No. 70, p. 67. )See Villehardouin, (No. 96, ) Bus, (Epist. Iv. P. 338, ) and Ducange, (Observations sur Villehardouin, and Gloss. Graec. Et Latin)]

[Footnote 46: A corruption from the Latin Comes stabuli, or the FrenchConnetable. In a military sense, it was used by the Greeks in theeleventh century, at least as early as in France. ]

[Footnote 47: It was directly borrowed from the Normans. In thexiith century, Giannone reckons the admiral of Sicily among the greatofficers. ]

[Footnote 48: This sketch of honors and offices is drawn from GeorgeCordinus Curopalata, who survived the taking of Constantinople by theTurks: his elaborate, though trifling, work (de Officiis Ecclesiae etAulae C. P. ) has been illustrated by the notes of Goar, and the threebooks of Gretser, a learned Jesuit. ]

Chapter LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire. --Part III. 

The most lofty titles, and the most humble postures, which devotion hasapplied to the Supreme Being, have been prostituted by flattery and fearto creatures of the same nature with ourselves. The mode of adoration, [49] of falling prostrate on the ground, and kissing the feet of theemperor, was borrowed by Diocletian from Persian servitude; but itwas continued and aggravated till the last age of the Greek monarchy. Excepting only on Sundays, when it was waived, from a motive ofreligious pride, this humiliating reverence was exacted from all whoentered the royal presence, from the princes invested with the diademand purple, and from the ambassadors who represented their independentsovereigns, the caliphs of Asia, Egypt, or Spain, the kings of Franceand Italy, and the Latin emperors of ancient Rome. In his transactionsof business, Liutprand, bishop of Cremona, [50] asserted the free spiritof a Frank and the dignity of his master Otho. Yet his sincerity cannotdisguise the abasement of his first audience. When he approached thethrone, the birds of the golden tree began to warble their notes, whichwere accompanied by the roarings of the two lions of gold. With his twocompanions Liutprand was compelled to bow and to fall prostrate; andthrice to touch the ground with his forehead. He arose, but in the shortinterval, the throne had been hoisted from the floor to the ceiling, the Imperial figure appeared in new and more gorgeous apparel, and theinterview was concluded in haughty and majestic silence. In this honestand curious narrative, the Bishop of Cremona represents the ceremoniesof the Byzantine court, which are still practised in the Sublime Porte, and which were preserved in the last age by the dukes of Muscovyor Russia. After a long journey by sea and land, from Venice toConstantinople, the ambassador halted at the golden gate, till he wasconducted by the formal officers to the hospitable palace prepared forhis reception; but this palace was a prison, and his jealous keepersprohibited all social intercourse either with strangers or natives. At his first audience, he offered the gifts of his master, slaves, andgolden vases, and costly armor. The ostentatious payment of the officersand troops displayed before his eyes the riches of the empire: he wasentertained at a royal banquet, [51] in which the ambassadors of thenations were marshalled by the esteem or contempt of the Greeks: fromhis own table, the emperor, as the most signal favor, sent the plateswhich he had tasted; and his favorites were dismissed with a robeof honor. [52] In the morning and evening of each day, his civil andmilitary servants attended their duty in the palace; their labors wererepaid by the sight, perhaps by the smile, of their lord; his commandswere signified by a nod or a sign: but all earthly greatness stoodsilent and submissive in his presence. In his regular or extraordinaryprocessions through the capital, he unveiled his person to the publicview: the rites of policy were connected with those of religion, and hisvisits to the principal churches were regulated by the festivals of theGreek calendar. On the eve of these processions, the gracious or devoutintention of the monarch was proclaimed by the heralds. The streets werecleared and purified; the pavement was strewed with flowers; the mostprecious furniture, the gold and silver plate, and silken hangings, were displayed from the windows and balconies, and a severe disciplinerestrained and silenced the tumult of the populace. The march was openedby the military officers at the head of their troops: they were followedin long order by the magistrates and ministers of the civil government:the person of the emperor was guarded by his eunuchs and domestics, andat the church door he was solemnly received by the patriarch andhis clergy. The task of applause was not abandoned to the rude andspontaneous voices of the crowd. The most convenient stations wereoccupied by the bands of the blue and green factions of the circus; andtheir furious conflicts, which had shaken the capital, were insensiblysunk to an emulation of servitude. From either side they echoed inresponsive melody the praises of the emperor; their poets and musiciansdirected the choir, and long life [53] and victory were the burden ofevery song. The same acclamations were performed at the audience, thebanquet, and the church; and as an evidence of boundless sway, they wererepeated in the Latin, [54] Gothic, Persian, French, and even Englishlanguage, [55] by the mercenaries who sustained the real or fictitiouscharacter of those nations. By the pen of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, this science of form and flattery has been reduced into a pompous andtrifling volume, [56] which the vanity of succeeding times might enrichwith an ample supplement. Yet the calmer reflection of a princewould surely suggest that the same acclamations were applied to everycharacter and every reign: and if he had risen from a private rank, hemight remember, that his own voice had been the loudest and most eagerin applause, at the very moment when he envied the fortune, or conspiredagainst the life, of his predecessor. [57]

[Footnote 49: The respectful salutation of carrying the hand to themouth, ad os, is the root of the Latin word adoro, adorare. See ourlearned Selden, (vol. Iii. P. 143-145, 942, ) in his Titles of Honor. Itseems, from the 1st book of Herodotus, to be of Persian origin. ]

[Footnote 50: The two embassies of Liutprand to Constantinople, all thathe saw or suffered in the Greek capital, are pleasantly describedby himself (Hist. L. Vi. C. 1-4, p. 469-471. Legatio ad NicephorumPhocam, p. 479-489. )]

[Footnote 51: Among the amusements of the feast, a boy balanced, on hisforehead, a pike, or pole, twenty-four feet long, with a cross bar oftwo cubits a little below the top. Two boys, naked, though cinctured, (campestrati, ) together, and singly, climbed, stood, played, descended, &c. , ita me stupidum reddidit: utrum mirabilius nescio, (p. 470. ) Atanother repast a homily of Chrysostom on the Acts of the Apostles wasread elata voce non Latine, (p. 483. )]

[Footnote 52: Gala is not improbably derived from Cala, or Caloat, inArabic a robe of honor, (Reiske, Not. In Ceremon. P. 84. )]

[Footnote 53: It is explained, (Codin, c. 7. Ducange, Gloss. Graec. Tom. I. P. 1199. )]

[Footnote 54: (Ceremon. C. 75, p. 215. ) The want of the Latin 'V'obliged the Greeks to employ their 'beta'; nor do they regard quantity. Till he recollected the true language, these strange sentences mightpuzzle a professor. ]

[Footnote 55: (Codin. P. 90. ) I wish he had preserved the words, howevercorrupt, of their English acclamation. ]

[Footnote 56: For all these ceremonies, see the professed work ofConstantine Porphyrogenitus with the notes, or rather dissertations, of his German editors, Leich and Reiske. For the rank of standingcourtiers, p. 80, not. 23, 62; for the adoration, except on Sundays, p. 95, 240, not. 131; the processions, p. 2, &c. , not. P. 3, &c. ;the acclamations passim not. 25 &c. ; the factions and Hippodrome, p. 177-214, not. 9, 93, &c. ; the Gothic games, p. 221, not. 111; vintage, p. 217, not 109: much more information is scattered over the work. ]

[Footnote 57: Et privato Othoni et nuper eadem dicenti nota adulatio, (Tacit. Hist. 1, 85. )]

The princes of the North, of the nations, says Constantine, withoutfaith or fame, were ambitious of mingling their blood with the blood ofthe Caesars, by their marriage with a royal virgin, or by the nuptialsof their daughters with a Roman prince. [58] The aged monarch, in hisinstructions to his son, reveals the secret maxims of policy and pride;and suggests the most decent reasons for refusing these insolent andunreasonable demands. Every animal, says the discreet emperor, isprompted by the distinction of language, religion, and manners. A justregard to the purity of descent preserves the harmony of public andprivate life; but the mixture of foreign blood is the fruitful source ofdisorder and discord. Such had ever been the opinion and practice of thesage Romans: their jurisprudence proscribed the marriage of a citizenand a stranger: in the days of freedom and virtue, a senator would havescorned to match his daughter with a king: the glory of Mark Antony wassullied by an Egyptian wife: [59] and the emperor Titus was compelled, by popular censure, to dismiss with reluctance the reluctant Berenice. [60] This perpetual interdict was ratified by the fabulous sanction ofthe great Constantine. The ambassadors of the nations, more especiallyof the unbelieving nations, were solemnly admonished, that such strangealliances had been condemned by the founder of the church and city. The irrevocable law was inscribed on the altar of St. Sophia; and theimpious prince who should stain the majesty of the purple was excludedfrom the civil and ecclesiastical communion of the Romans. If theambassadors were instructed by any false brethren in the Byzantinehistory, they might produce three memorable examples of the violationof this imaginary law: the marriage of Leo, or rather of his fatherConstantine the Fourth, with the daughter of the king of the Chozars, the nuptials of the granddaughter of Romanus with a Bulgarian prince, and the union of Bertha of France or Italy with young Romanus, theson of Constantine Porphyrogenitus himself. To these objections threeanswers were prepared, which solved the difficulty and established thelaw. I. 

The deed and the guilt of Constantine Copronymus were acknowledged. The Isaurian heretic, who sullied the baptismal font, and declared waragainst the holy images, had indeed embraced a Barbarian wife. By thisimpious alliance he accomplished the measure of his crimes, and wasdevoted to the just censure of the church and of posterity. II. Romanuscould not be alleged as a legitimate emperor; he was a plebeian usurper, ignorant of the laws, and regardless of the honor, of the monarchy. Hisson Christopher, the father of the bride, was the third in rank inthe college of princes, at once the subject and the accomplice of arebellious parent. The Bulgarians were sincere and devout Christians;and the safety of the empire, with the redemption of many thousandcaptives, depended on this preposterous alliance. Yet no considerationcould dispense from the law of Constantine: the clergy, the senate, andthe people, disapproved the conduct of Romanus; and he was reproached, both in his life and death, as the author of the public disgrace. III. For the marriage of his own son with the daughter of Hugo, kingof Italy, a more honorable defence is contrived by the wisePorphyrogenitus. Constantine, the great and holy, esteemed the fidelityand valor of the Franks; [61] and his prophetic spirit beheld the visionof their future greatness. They alone were excepted from the generalprohibition: Hugo, king of France, was the lineal descendant ofCharlemagne; [62] and his daughter Bertha inherited the prerogatives ofher family and nation. The voice of truth and malice insensibly betrayedthe fraud or error of the Imperial court. The patrimonial estate of Hugowas reduced from the monarchy of France to the simple county of Arles;though it was not denied, that, in the confusion of the times, he hadusurped the sovereignty of Provence, and invaded the kingdom of Italy. His father was a private noble; and if Bertha derived her female descentfrom the Carlovingian line, every step was polluted with illegitimacyor vice. The grandmother of Hugo was the famous Valdrada, the concubine, rather than the wife, of the second Lothair; whose adultery, divorce, and second nuptials, had provoked against him the thunders ofthe Vatican. His mother, as she was styled, the great Bertha, wassuccessively the wife of the count of Arles and of the marquis ofTuscany: France and Italy were scandalized by her gallantries; and, tillthe age of threescore, her lovers, of every degree, were the zealousservants of her ambition. The example of maternal incontinence wascopied by the king of Italy; and the three favorite concubines of Hugowere decorated with the classic names of Venus, Juno, and Semele. [63]The daughter of Venus was granted to the solicitations of the Byzantinecourt: her name of Bertha was changed to that of Eudoxia; and she waswedded, or rather betrothed, to young Romanus, the future heir ofthe empire of the East. The consummation of this foreign alliance wassuspended by the tender age of the two parties; and, at the end of fiveyears, the union was dissolved by the death of the virgin spouse. Thesecond wife of the emperor Romanus was a maiden of plebeian, but ofRoman, birth; and their two daughters, Theophano and Anne, were givenin marriage to the princes of the earth. The eldest was bestowed, as thepledge of peace, on the eldest son of the great Otho, who had solicitedthis alliance with arms and embassies. It might legally be questionedhow far a Saxon was entitled to the privilege of the French nation;but every scruple was silenced by the fame and piety of a hero who hadrestored the empire of the West. After the death of her father-in-lawand husband, Theophano governed Rome, Italy, and Germany, during theminority of her son, the third Otho; and the Latins have praised thevirtues of an empress, who sacrificed to a superior duty the remembranceof her country. [64] In the nuptials of her sister Anne, every prejudicewas lost, and every consideration of dignity was superseded, bythe stronger argument of necessity and fear. A Pagan of the North, Wolodomir, great prince of Russia, aspired to a daughter of the Romanpurple; and his claim was enforced by the threats of war, the promise ofconversion, and the offer of a powerful succor against a domestic rebel. A victim of her religion and country, the Grecian princess was tornfrom the palace of her fathers, and condemned to a savage reign, and ahopeless exile on the banks of the Borysthenes, or in the neighborhoodof the Polar circle. [65] Yet the marriage of Anne was fortunate andfruitful: the daughter of her grandson Joroslaus was recommended by herImperial descent; and the king of France, Henry I. , sought a wife on thelast borders of Europe and Christendom. [66]

[Footnote 58: The xiiith chapter, de Administratione Imperii, may beexplained and rectified by the Familiae Byzantinae of Ducange. ]

[Footnote 59: Sequiturque nefas Aegyptia conjux, (Virgil, Aeneid, viii. 688. ) Yet this Egyptian wife was the daughter of a long line of kings. Quid te mutavit (says Antony in a private letter to Augustus) an quodreginam ineo? Uxor mea est, (Sueton. In August. C. 69. ) Yet I muchquestion (for I cannot stay to inquire) whether the triumvir ever daredto celebrate his marriage either with Roman or Egyptian rites. ]

[Footnote 60: Berenicem invitus invitam dimisit, (Suetonius in Tito, c. 7. ) Have I observed elsewhere, that this Jewish beauty was at thistime above fifty years of age? The judicious Racine has most discreetlysuppressed both her age and her country. ]

[Footnote 61: Constantine was made to praise the the Franks, with whomhe claimed a private and public alliance. The French writers (IsaacCasaubon in Dedicat. Polybii) are highly delighted with thesecompliments. ]

[Footnote 62: Constantine Porphyrogenitus (de Administrat. Imp. C. 36) exhibits a pedigree and life of the illustrious King Hugo. A morecorrect idea may be formed from the Criticism of Pagi, the Annals ofMuratori, and the Abridgment of St. Marc, A. D. 925-946. ]

[Footnote 63: After the mention of the three goddesses, Luitprand verynaturally adds, et quoniam non rex solus iis abutebatur, earum natiex incertis patribus originera ducunt, (Hist. L. Iv. C. 6: ) forthe marriage of the younger Bertha, see Hist. L. V. C. 5; for theincontinence of the elder, dulcis exercipio Hymenaei, l. Ii. C. 15; forthe virtues and vices of Hugo, l. Iii. C. 5. Yet it must not be forgot, that the bishop of Cremona was a lover of scandal. ]

[Footnote 64: Licet illa Imperatrix Graeca sibi et aliis fuisset satisutilis, et optima, &c. , is the preamble of an inimical writer, apudPagi, tom. Iv. A. D. 989, No. 3. Her marriage and principal actions maybe found in Muratori, Pagi, and St. Marc, under the proper years. ]

[Footnote 65: Cedrenus, tom. Ii. P. 699. Zonaras, tom. I. P. 221. Elmacin, Hist. Saracenica, l. Iii. C. 6. Nestor apud Levesque, tom. Ii. P. 112 Pagi, Critica, A. D. 987, No. 6: a singular concourse! Wolodomirand Anne are ranked among the saints of the Russian church. Yet we knowhis vices, and are ignorant of her virtues. ]

[Footnote 66: Henricus primus duxit uxorem Scythicam, Russam, filiamregis Jeroslai. An embassy of bishops was sent into Russia, and thefather gratanter filiam cum multis donis misit. This event happened inthe year 1051. See the passages of the original chronicles in Bouquet'sHistorians of France, (tom. Xi. P. 29, 159, 161, 319, 384, 481. )Voltaire might wonder at this alliance; but he should not have ownedhis ignorance of the country, religion, &c. , of Jeroslaus--a name soconspicuous in the Russian annals. ]

In the Byzantine palace, the emperor was the first slave of theceremonies which he imposed, of the rigid forms which regulated eachword and gesture, besieged him in the palace, and violated the leisureof his rural solitude. But the lives and fortunes of millions hung onhis arbitrary will; and the firmest minds, superior to the allurementsof pomp and luxury, may be seduced by the more active pleasure ofcommanding their equals. The legislative and executive powers werecentred in the person of the monarch, and the last remains of theauthority of the senate were finally eradicated by Leo the philosopher. [67] A lethargy of servitude had benumbed the minds of the Greeks: inthe wildest tumults of rebellion they never aspired to the idea of afree constitution; and the private character of the prince was the onlysource and measure of their public happiness. Superstition rivettedtheir chains; in the church of St. Sophia he was solemnly crowned bythe patriarch; at the foot of the altar, they pledged their passive andunconditional obedience to his government and family. On his side heengaged to abstain as much as possible from the capital punishments ofdeath and mutilation; his orthodox creed was subscribed with his ownhand, and he promised to obey the decrees of the seven synods, and thecanons of the holy church. [68] But the assurance of mercy was loose andindefinite: he swore, not to his people, but to an invisible judge; andexcept in the inexpiable guilt of heresy, the ministers of heaven werealways prepared to preach the indefeasible right, and to absolve thevenial transgressions, of their sovereign. The Greek ecclesiastics werethemselves the subjects of the civil magistrate: at the nod of a tyrant, the bishops were created, or transferred, or deposed, or punished withan ignominious death: whatever might be their wealth or influence, theycould never succeed like the Latin clergy in the establishment of anindependent republic; and the patriarch of Constantinople condemned, what he secretly envied, the temporal greatness of his Roman brother. Yet the exercise of boundless despotism is happily checked by the lawsof nature and necessity. In proportion to his wisdom and virtue, themaster of an empire is confined to the path of his sacred and laboriousduty. In proportion to his vice and folly, he drops the sceptre tooweighty for his hands; and the motions of the royal image are ruled bythe imperceptible thread of some minister or favorite, who undertakesfor his private interest to exercise the task of the public oppression. In some fatal moment, the most absolute monarch may dread the reasonor the caprice of a nation of slaves; and experience has proved, thatwhatever is gained in the extent, is lost in the safety and solidity, ofregal power. 

[Footnote 67: A constitution of Leo the Philosopher (lxxviii. ) nesenatus consulta amplius fiant, speaks the language of naked despotism. ]

[Footnote 68: Codinus (de Officiis, c. Xvii. P. 120, 121) gives an ideaof this oath so strong to the church, so weak to the people. ]

Whatever titles a despot may assume, whatever claims he may assert, itis on the sword that he must ultimately depend to guard him against hisforeign and domestic enemies. From the age of Charlemagne to that of theCrusades, the world (for I overlook the remote monarchy of China) wasoccupied and disputed by the three great empires or nations of theGreeks, the Saracens, and the Franks. Their military strength may beascertained by a comparison of their courage, their arts and riches, andtheir obedience to a supreme head, who might call into action all theenergies of the state. The Greeks, far inferior to their rivals in thefirst, were superior to the Franks, and at least equal to the Saracens, in the second and third of these warlike qualifications. 

The wealth of the Greeks enabled them to purchase the service of thepoorer nations, and to maintain a naval power for the protection oftheir coasts and the annoyance of their enemies. [69] A commerce ofmutual benefit exchanged the gold of Constantinople for the bloodof Sclavonians and Turks, the Bulgarians and Russians: their valorcontributed to the victories of Nicephorus and Zimisces; and if ahostile people pressed too closely on the frontier, they were recalledto the defence of their country, and the desire of peace, by thewell-managed attack of a more distant tribe. [70] The command of theMediterranean, from the mouth of the Tanais to the columns ofHercules, was always claimed, and often possessed, by the successors ofConstantine. Their capital was filled with naval stores and dexterousartificers: the situation of Greece and Asia, the long coasts, deepgulfs, and numerous islands, accustomed their subjects to the exerciseof navigation; and the trade of Venice and Amalfi supplied a nursery ofseamen to the Imperial fleet. [71] Since the time of the Peloponnesianand Punic wars, the sphere of action had not been enlarged; and thescience of naval architecture appears to have declined. The art ofconstructing those stupendous machines which displayed three, or six, or ten, ranges of oars, rising above, or falling behind, each other, was unknown to the ship-builders of Constantinople, as well as to themechanicians of modern days. [72] The Dromones, [73] or light galleys ofthe Byzantine empire, were content with two tier of oars; each tier wascomposed of five-and-twenty benches; and two rowers were seated on eachbench, who plied their oars on either side of the vessel. To these wemust add the captain or centurion, who, in time of action, stood erectwith his armor-bearer on the poop, two steersmen at the helm, and twoofficers at the prow, the one to manage the anchor, the other to pointand play against the enemy the tube of liquid fire. The whole crew, asin the infancy of the art, performed the double service of mariners andsoldiers; they were provided with defensive and offensive arms, withbows and arrows, which they used from the upper deck, with long pikes, which they pushed through the portholes of the lower tier. Sometimes, indeed, the ships of war were of a larger and more solid construction;and the labors of combat and navigation were more regularly dividedbetween seventy soldiers and two hundred and thirty mariners. But forthe most part they were of the light and manageable size; and asthe Cape of Malea in Peloponnesus was still clothed with its ancientterrors, an Imperial fleet was transported five miles over land acrossthe Isthmus of Corinth. [74] The principles of maritime tactics had notundergone any change since the time of Thucydides: a squadron of galleysstill advanced in a crescent, charged to the front, and strove to impeltheir sharp beaks against the feeble sides of their antagonists. Amachine for casting stones and darts was built of strong timbers, in themidst of the deck; and the operation of boarding was effected by a cranethat hoisted baskets of armed men. The language of signals, so clear andcopious in the naval grammar of the moderns, was imperfectly expressedby the various positions and colors of a commanding flag. In thedarkness of the night, the same orders to chase, to attack, to halt, toretreat, to break, to form, were conveyed by the lights of the leadinggalley. By land, the fire-signals were repeated from one mountain toanother; a chain of eight stations commanded a space of five hundredmiles; and Constantinople in a few hours was apprised of the hostilemotions of the Saracens of Tarsus. [75] Some estimate may be formed ofthe power of the Greek emperors, by the curious and minute detail of thearmament which was prepared for the reduction of Crete. A fleet of onehundred and twelve galleys, and seventy-five vessels of the Pamphylianstyle, was equipped in the capital, the islands of the Aegean Sea, andthe seaports of Asia, Macedonia, and Greece. It carried thirty-fourthousand mariners, seven thousand three hundred and forty soldiers, seven hundred Russians, and five thousand and eighty-seven Mardaites, whose fathers had been transplanted from the mountains of Libanus. Theirpay, most probably of a month, was computed at thirty-four centenariesof gold, about one hundred and thirty-six thousand pounds sterling. Ourfancy is bewildered by the endless recapitulation of arms and engines, of clothes and linen, of bread for the men and forage for the horses, and of stores and utensils of every description, inadequate to theconquest of a petty island, but amply sufficient for the establishmentof a flourishing colony. [76]

[Footnote 69: If we listen to the threats of Nicephorus to theambassador of Otho, Nec est in mari domino tuo classium numerus. Navigantium fortitudo mihi soli inest, qui eum classibus aggrediar, bello maritimas ejus civitates demoliar; et quae fluminibus sunt vicinaredigam in favillam. (Liutprand in Legat. Ad Nicephorum Phocam, inMuratori Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. Ii. Pars i. P. 481. ) Heobserves in another place, qui caeteris praestant Venetici sunt etAmalphitani. ]

[Footnote 70: Nec ipsa capiet eum (the emperor Otho) in qua ortus estpauper et pellicea Saxonia: pecunia qua pollemus omnes nationes supereum invitabimus: et quasi Keramicum confringemus, (Liutprand in Legat. P. 487. ) The two books, de Administrando Imperio, perpetually inculcatethe same policy. ]

[Footnote 71: The xixth chapter of the Tactics of Leo, (Meurs. Opera, tom. Vi. P. 825-848, ) which is given more correct from a manuscriptof Gudius, by the laborious Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Vi. P. 372-379, ) relates to the Naumachia, or naval war. ]

[Footnote 72: Even of fifteen and sixteen rows of oars, in the navyof Demetrius Poliorcetes. These were for real use: the forty rows ofPtolemy Philadelphus were applied to a floating palace, whose tonnage, according to Dr. Arbuthnot, (Tables of Ancient Coins, &c. , p. 231-236, )is compared as 4 1/2 to 1 with an English 100 gun ship. ]

[Footnote 73: The Dromones of Leo, &c. , are so clearly described withtwo tier of oars, that I must censure the version of Meursius andFabricius, who pervert the sense by a blind attachment to the classicappellation of Triremes. The Byzantine historians are sometimes guiltyof the same inaccuracy. ]

[Footnote 74: Constantin. Porphyrogen. In Vit. Basil. C. Lxi. P. 185. He calmly praises the stratagem; but the sailing round Peloponnesus isdescribed by his terrified fancy as a circumnavigation of a thousandmiles. ]

[Footnote 75: The continuator of Theophanes (l. Iv. P. 122, 123) namesthe successive stations, the castle of Lulum near Tarsus, Mount ArgaeusIsamus, Aegilus, the hill of Mamas, Cyrisus, Mocilus, the hill ofAuxentius, the sun-dial of the Pharus of the great palace. He affirmsthat the news were transmitted in an indivisible moment of time. Miserable amplification, which, by saying too much, says nothing. Howmuch more forcible and instructive would have been the definition ofthree, or six, or twelve hours!]

[Footnote 76: See the Ceremoniale of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, l. Ii. C. 44, p. 176-192. A critical reader will discern some inconsistenciesin different parts of this account; but they are not more obscure ormore stubborn than the establishment and effectives, the present and fitfor duty, the rank and file and the private, of a modern return, whichretain in proper hands the knowledge of these profitable mysteries. ]

The invention of the Greek fire did not, like that of gun powder, produce a total revolution in the art of war. To these liquidcombustibles the city and empire of Constantine owed their deliverance;and they were employed in sieges and sea-fights with terrible effect. But they were either less improved, or less susceptible of improvement:the engines of antiquity, the catapultae, balistae, and battering-rams, were still of most frequent and powerful use in the attack and defenceof fortifications; nor was the decision of battles reduced to the quickand heavy fire of a line of infantry, whom it were fruitless to protectwith armor against a similar fire of their enemies. Steel and iron werestill the common instruments of destruction and safety; and the helmets, cuirasses, and shields, of the tenth century did not, either in formor substance, essentially differ from those which had covered thecompanions of Alexander or Achilles. [77] But instead of accustoming themodern Greeks, like the legionaries of old, to the constant and easy useof this salutary weight, their armor was laid aside in light chariots, which followed the march, till, on the approach of an enemy, theyresumed with haste and reluctance the unusual encumbrance. Theiroffensive weapons consisted of swords, battle-axes, and spears; but theMacedonian pike was shortened a fourth of its length, and reduced to themore convenient measure of twelve cubits or feet. The sharpness of theScythian and Arabian arrows had been severely felt; and the emperorslament the decay of archery as a cause of the public misfortunes, andrecommend, as an advice and a command, that the military youth, till theage of forty, should assiduously practise the exercise of the bow. [78]The bands, or regiments, were usually three hundred strong; and, as amedium between the extremes of four and sixteen, the foot soldiers ofLeo and Constantine were formed eight deep; but the cavalry charged infour ranks, from the reasonable consideration, that the weight of thefront could not be increased by any pressure of the hindmost horses. If the ranks of the infantry or cavalry were sometimes doubled, thiscautious array betrayed a secret distrust of the courage of the troops, whose numbers might swell the appearance of the line, but of whom onlya chosen band would dare to encounter the spears and swords of theBarbarians. The order of battle must have varied according to theground, the object, and the adversary; but their ordinary disposition, in two lines and a reserve, presented a succession of hopes andresources most agreeable to the temper as well as the judgment of theGreeks. [79] In case of a repulse, the first line fell back into theintervals of the second; and the reserve, breaking into two divisions, wheeled round the flanks to improve the victory or cover the retreat. Whatever authority could enact was accomplished, at least in theory, by the camps and marches, the exercises and evolutions, the edicts andbooks, of the Byzantine monarch. [80] Whatever art could produce fromthe forge, the loom, or the laboratory, was abundantly supplied by theriches of the prince, and the industry of his numerous workmen. Butneither authority nor art could frame the most important machine, thesoldier himself; and if the ceremonies of Constantine always suppose thesafe and triumphal return of the emperor, [81] his tactics seldom soarabove the means of escaping a defeat, and procrastinating the war. [82]Notwithstanding some transient success, the Greeks were sunk in theirown esteem and that of their neighbors. A cold hand and a loquacioustongue was the vulgar description of the nation: the author of thetactics was besieged in his capital; and the last of the Barbarians, whotrembled at the name of the Saracens, or Franks, could proudly exhibitthe medals of gold and silver which they had extorted from the feeblesovereign of Constantinople. What spirit their government and characterdenied, might have been inspired in some degree by the influence ofreligion; but the religion of the Greeks could only teach them to sufferand to yield. The emperor Nicephorus, who restored for a moment thediscipline and glory of the Roman name, was desirous of bestowing thehonors of martyrdom on the Christians who lost their lives in a holywar against the infidels. But this political law was defeated by theopposition of the patriarch, the bishops, and the principal senators;and they strenuously urged the canons of St. Basil, that all who werepolluted by the bloody trade of a soldier should be separated, duringthree years, from the communion of the faithful. [83]

[Footnote 77: See the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters, and, inthe Tactics of Leo, with the corresponding passages in those ofConstantine. ]

[Footnote 78: (Leo, Tactic. P. 581 Constantin. P 1216. ) Yet such werenot the maxims of the Greeks and Romans, who despised the loose anddistant practice of archery. ]

[Footnote 79: Compare the passages of the Tactics, p. 669 and 721, andthe xiith with the xviiith chapter. ]

[Footnote 80: In the preface to his Tactics, Leo very freely deploresthe loss of discipline and the calamities of the times, and repeats, without scruple, (Proem. P. 537, ) the reproaches, nor does it appearthat the same censures were less deserved in the next generation by thedisciples of Constantine. ]

[Footnote 81: See in the Ceremonial (l. Ii. C. 19, p. 353) the form ofthe emperor's trampling on the necks of the captive Saracens, whilethe singers chanted, "Thou hast made my enemies my footstool!" and thepeople shouted forty times the kyrie eleison. ]

[Footnote 82: Leo observes (Tactic. P. 668) that a fair open battleagainst any nation whatsoever: the words are strong, and the remark istrue: yet if such had been the opinion of the old Romans, Leo had neverreigned on the shores of the Thracian Bosphorus. ]

[Footnote 83: Zonaras (tom. Ii. L. Xvi. P. 202, 203) and Cedrenus, (Compend p. 668, ) who relate the design of Nicephorus, mostunfortunately apply the epithet to the opposition of the patriarch. ]

These scruples of the Greeks have been compared with the tears ofthe primitive Moslems when they were held back from battle; and thiscontrast of base superstition and high-spirited enthusiasm, unfolds toa philosophic eye the history of the rival nations. The subjects of thelast caliphs [84] had undoubtedly degenerated from the zeal and faith ofthe companions of the prophet. Yet their martial creed still representedthe Deity as the author of war: [85] the vital though latent spark offanaticism still glowed in the heart of their religion, and amongthe Saracens, who dwelt on the Christian borders, it was frequentlyrekindled to a lively and active flame. Their regular force was formedof the valiant slaves who had been educated to guard the person andaccompany the standard of their lord: but the Mussulman people of Syriaand Cilicia, of Africa and Spain, was awakened by the trumpet whichproclaimed a holy war against the infidels. The rich were ambitious ofdeath or victory in the cause of God; the poor were allured by the hopesof plunder; and the old, the infirm, and the women, assumed their shareof meritorious service by sending their substitutes, with arms andhorses, into the field. These offensive and defensive arms were similarin strength and temper to those of the Romans, whom they far excelledin the management of the horse and the bow: the massy silver of theirbelts, their bridles, and their swords, displayed the magnificence of aprosperous nation; and except some black archers of the South, the Arabsdisdained the naked bravery of their ancestors. Instead of wagons, theywere attended by a long train of camels, mules, and asses: the multitudeof these animals, whom they bedecked with flags and streamers, appearedto swell the pomp and magnitude of their host; and the horses of theenemy were often disordered by the uncouth figure and odious smell ofthe camels of the East. Invincible by their patience of thirst and heat, their spirits were frozen by a winter's cold, and the consciousness oftheir propensity to sleep exacted the most rigorous precautions againstthe surprises of the night. Their order of battle was a long square oftwo deep and solid lines; the first of archers, the second of cavalry. In their engagements by sea and land, they sustained with patientfirmness the fury of the attack, and seldom advanced to the charge tillthey could discern and oppress the lassitude of their foes. But ifthey were repulsed and broken, they knew not how to rally or renew thecombat; and their dismay was heightened by the superstitious prejudice, that God had declared himself on the side of their enemies. The declineand fall of the caliphs countenanced this fearful opinion; nor werethere wanting, among the Mahometans and Christians, some obscureprophecies [86] which prognosticated their alternate defeats. The unityof the Arabian empire was dissolved, but the independent fragments wereequal to populous and powerful kingdoms; and in their naval and militaryarmaments, an emir of Aleppo or Tunis might command no despicable fundof skill, and industry, and treasure. In their transactions of peace andwar with the Saracens, the princes of Constantinople too often felt thatthese Barbarians had nothing barbarous in their discipline; and thatif they were destitute of original genius, they had been endowed witha quick spirit of curiosity and imitation. The model was indeed moreperfect than the copy; their ships, and engines, and fortifications, were of a less skilful construction; and they confess, without shame, that the same God who has given a tongue to the Arabians, had morenicely fashioned the hands of the Chinese, and the heads of the Greeks. [87]

[Footnote 84: The xviith chapter of the tactics of the different nationsis the most historical and useful of the whole collection of Leo. Themanners and arms of the Saracens (Tactic. P. 809-817, and a fragmentfrom the Medicean Ms. In the preface of the vith volume of Meursius) theRoman emperor was too frequently called upon to study. ]

[Footnote 85: Leon. Tactic. P. 809. ]

[Footnote 86: Liutprand (p. 484, 485) relates and interprets the oraclesof the Greeks and Saracens, in which, after the fashion of prophecy, the past is clear and historical, the future is dark, enigmatical, anderroneous. From this boundary of light and shade an impartial critic maycommonly determine the date of the composition. ]

[Footnote 87: The sense of this distinction is expressed byAbulpharagius (Dynast. P. 2, 62, 101;) but I cannot recollect thepassage in which it is conveyed by this lively apothegm. ]

Chapter LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire. --Part IV. 

A name of some German tribes between the Rhine and the Weser had spreadits victorious influence over the greatest part of Gaul, Germany, andItaly; and the common appellation of Franks [88] was applied by theGreeks and Arabians to the Christians of the Latin church, the nationsof the West, who stretched beyond their knowledge to the shores of theAtlantic Ocean. The vast body had been inspired and united by thesoul of Charlemagne; but the division and degeneracy of his race soonannihilated the Imperial power, which would have rivalled the Caesarsof Byzantium, and revenged the indignities of the Christian name. Theenemies no longer feared, nor could the subjects any longer trust, theapplication of a public revenue, the labors of trade and manufacturesin the military service, the mutual aid of provinces and armies, andthe naval squadrons which were regularly stationed from the mouth of theElbe to that of the Tyber. In the beginning of the tenth century, thefamily of Charlemagne had almost disappeared; his monarchy was brokeninto many hostile and independent states; the regal title was assumedby the most ambitious chiefs; their revolt was imitated in a longsubordination of anarchy and discord, and the nobles of every provincedisobeyed their sovereign, oppressed their vassals, and exercisedperpetual hostilities against their equals and neighbors. Their privatewars, which overturned the fabric of government, fomented the martialspirit of the nation. In the system of modern Europe, the power of thesword is possessed, at least in fact, by five or six mighty potentates;their operations are conducted on a distant frontier, by an order of menwho devote their lives to the study and practice of the military art:the rest of the country and community enjoys in the midst of war thetranquillity of peace, and is only made sensible of the change by theaggravation or decrease of the public taxes. In the disorders of thetenth and eleventh centuries, every peasant was a soldier, and everyvillage a fortification; each wood or valley was a scene of murderand rapine; and the lords of each castle were compelled to assume thecharacter of princes and warriors. To their own courage and policy theyboldly trusted for the safety of their family, the protection of theirlands, and the revenge of their injuries; and, like the conquerors of alarger size, they were too apt to transgress the privilege of defensivewar. The powers of the mind and body were hardened by the presence ofdanger and necessity of resolution: the same spirit refused to deserta friend and to forgive an enemy; and, instead of sleeping under theguardian care of a magistrate, they proudly disdained the authority ofthe laws. In the days of feudal anarchy, the instruments of agricultureand art were converted into the weapons of bloodshed: the peacefuloccupations of civil and ecclesiastical society were abolished orcorrupted; and the bishop who exchanged his mitre for a helmet, was moreforcibly urged by the manners of the times than by the obligation of histenure. [89]

[Footnote 88: Ex Francis, quo nomine tam Latinos quam Teutonescomprehendit, ludum habuit, (Liutprand in Legat ad Imp. Nicephorum, p. 483, 484. ) This extension of the name may be confirmed from Constantine(de Administrando Imperio, l. 2, c. 27, 28) and Eutychius, (Annal. Tom. I. P. 55, 56, ) who both lived before the Crusades. The testimonies ofAbulpharagius (Dynast. P. 69) and Abulfeda (Praefat. Ad Geograph. ) aremore recent]

[Footnote 89: On this subject of ecclesiastical and beneficiarydiscipline, Father Thomassin, (tom. Iii. L. I. C. 40, 45, 46, 47) maybe usefully consulted. A general law of Charlemagne exempted the bishopsfrom personal service; but the opposite practice, which prevailed fromthe ixth to the xvth century, is countenanced by the example or silenceof saints and doctors. .. . You justify your cowardice by the holy canons, says Ratherius of Verona; the canons likewise forbid you to whore, andyet--]

The love of freedom and of arms was felt, with conscious pride, by theFranks themselves, and is observed by the Greeks with some degree ofamazement and terror. "The Franks, " says the emperor Constantine, "arebold and valiant to the verge of temerity; and their dauntless spirit issupported by the contempt of danger and death. In the field and in closeonset, they press to the front, and rush headlong against the enemy, without deigning to compute either his numbers or their own. Their ranksare formed by the firm connections of consanguinity and friendship; andtheir martial deeds are prompted by the desire of saving or revengingtheir dearest companions. In their eyes, a retreat is a shameful flight;and flight is indelible infamy. " [90] A nation endowed with suchhigh and intrepid spirit, must have been secure of victory if theseadvantages had not been counter-balanced by many weighty defects. Thedecay of their naval power left the Greeks and Saracens in possessionof the sea, for every purpose of annoyance and supply. In the agewhich preceded the institution of knighthood, the Franks were rudeand unskilful in the service of cavalry; [91] and in all perilousemergencies, their warriors were so conscious of their ignorance, thatthey chose to dismount from their horses and fight on foot. Unpractisedin the use of pikes, or of missile weapons, they were encumbered bythe length of their swords, the weight of their armor, the magnitude oftheir shields, and, if I may repeat the satire of the meagre Greeks, bytheir unwieldy intemperance. Their independent spirit disdained theyoke of subordination, and abandoned the standard of their chief, ifhe attempted to keep the field beyond the term of their stipulationor service. On all sides they were open to the snares of an enemy lessbrave but more artful than themselves. They might be bribed, for theBarbarians were venal; or surprised in the night, for they neglected theprecautions of a close encampment or vigilant sentinels. The fatigues ofa summer's campaign exhausted their strength and patience, and they sunkin despair if their voracious appetite was disappointed of a plentifulsupply of wine and of food. This general character of the Franks wasmarked with some national and local shades, which I should ascribe toaccident rather than to climate, but which were visible both to nativesand to foreigners. An ambassador of the great Otho declared, in thepalace of Constantinople, that the Saxons could dispute with swordsbetter than with pens, and that they preferred inevitable death to thedishonor of turning their backs to an enemy. [92] It was the glory ofthe nobles of France, that, in their humble dwellings, war and rapinewere the only pleasure, the sole occupation, of their lives. Theyaffected to deride the palaces, the banquets, the polished manner of theItalians, who in the estimate of the Greeks themselves had degeneratedfrom the liberty and valor of the ancient Lombards. [93]

[Footnote 90: In the xviiith chapter of his Tactics, the emperor Leohas fairly stated the military vices and virtues of the Franks(whom Meursius ridiculously translates by Galli) and the Lombardsor Langobards. See likewise the xxvith Dissertation of Muratori deAntiquitatibus Italiae Medii Aevi. ]

[Footnote 91: Domini tui milites (says the proud Nicephorus) equitandiignari pedestris pugnae sunt inscii: scutorum magnitudo, loricarumgravitudo, ensium longitudo galearumque pondus neutra parte pugnarecossinit; ac subridens, impedit, inquit, et eos gastrimargia, hoc estventris ingluvies, &c. Liutprand in Legat. P. 480 481]

[Footnote 92: In Saxonia certe scio. .. . Decentius ensibus pugnare quamcalanis, et prius mortem obire quam hostibus terga dare, (Liutprand, p482. )]

[Footnote 93: Leonis Tactica, c. 18, p. 805. The emperor Leo died A. D. 911: an historical poem, which ends in 916, and appears to have beencomposed in 910, by a native of Venetia, discriminates in these versesthe manners of Italy and France:

 --Quid inertia bello

 Pectora (Ubertus ait) duris praetenditis armis, O Itali? Potius vobis sacra pocula cordi;

 Saepius et stomachum nitidis laxare saginis

 Elatasque domos rutilo fulcire metallo. 

 Non eadem Gallos similis vel cura remordet:

 Vicinas quibus est studium devincere terras, Depressumque larem spoliis hinc inde coactis

 Sustentare--

(Anonym. Carmen Panegyricum de Laudibus Berengarii Augusti, l. N. InMuratori Script. Rerum Italic. Tom. Ii. Pars i. P. 393. )]

By the well-known edict of Caracalla, his subjects, from Britain toEgypt, were entitled to the name and privileges of Romans, and theirnational sovereign might fix his occasional or permanent residence inany province of their common country. In the division of the East andWest, an ideal unity was scrupulously observed, and in their titles, laws, and statutes, the successors of Arcadius and Honorius announcedthemselves as the inseparable colleagues of the same office, as thejoint sovereigns of the Roman world and city, which were bounded by thesame limits. After the fall of the Western monarchy, the majesty of thepurple resided solely in the princes of Constantinople; and of these, Justinian was the first who, after a divorce of sixty years, regainedthe dominion of ancient Rome, and asserted, by the right of conquest, the august title of Emperor of the Romans. [94] A motive of vanity ordiscontent solicited one of his successors, Constans the Second, toabandon the Thracian Bosphorus, and to restore the pristine honors ofthe Tyber: an extravagant project, (exclaims the malicious Byzantine, )as if he had despoiled a beautiful and blooming virgin, to enrich, orrather to expose, the deformity of a wrinkled and decrepit matron. [95] But the sword of the Lombards opposed his settlement in Italy: heentered Rome not as a conqueror, but as a fugitive, and, after a visitof twelve days, he pillaged, and forever deserted, the ancient capitalof the world. [96] The final revolt and separation of Italy wasaccomplished about two centuries after the conquests of Justinian, andfrom his reign we may date the gradual oblivion of the Latin tongue. That legislator had composed his Institutes, his Code, and his Pandects, in a language which he celebrates as the proper and public style ofthe Roman government, the consecrated idiom of the palace and senate ofConstantinople, of the campus and tribunals of the East. [97] But thisforeign dialect was unknown to the people and soldiers of the Asiaticprovinces, it was imperfectly understood by the greater part of theinterpreters of the laws and the ministers of the state. After a shortconflict, nature and habit prevailed over the obsolete institutionsof human power: for the general benefit of his subjects, Justinianpromulgated his novels in the two languages: the several parts of hisvoluminous jurisprudence were successively translated; [98] the originalwas forgotten, the version was studied, and the Greek, whose intrinsicmerit deserved indeed the preference, obtained a legal, as well aspopular establishment in the Byzantine monarchy. The birth and residenceof succeeding princes estranged them from the Roman idiom: Tiberius bythe Arabs, [99] and Maurice by the Italians, [100] are distinguishedas the first of the Greek Caesars, as the founders of a new dynastyand empire: the silent revolution was accomplished before the death ofHeraclius; and the ruins of the Latin speech were darkly preserved inthe terms of jurisprudence and the acclamations of the palace. Afterthe restoration of the Western empire by Charlemagne and the Othos, thenames of Franks and Latins acquired an equal signification and extent;and these haughty Barbarians asserted, with some justice, their superiorclaim to the language and dominion of Rome. They insulted the alienof the East who had renounced the dress and idiom of Romans; and theirreasonable practice will justify the frequent appellation of Greeks. [101] But this contemptuous appellation was indignantly rejected by theprince and people to whom it was applied. Whatsoever changes had beenintroduced by the lapse of ages, they alleged a lineal and unbrokensuccession from Augustus and Constantine; and, in the lowest period ofdegeneracy and decay, the name of Romans adhered to the last fragmentsof the empire of Constantinople. [102]

[Footnote 94: Justinian, says the historian Agathias, (l. V. P. 157, ). Yet the specific title of Emperor of the Romans was not usedat Constantinople, till it had been claimed by the French and Germanemperors of old Rome. ]

[Footnote 95: Constantine Manasses reprobates this design in hisbarbarous verse, and it is confirmed by Theophanes, Zonaras, Cedrenus, and the Historia Miscella: voluit in urbem Romam Imperium transferre, (l. Xix. P. 157 in tom. I. Pars i. Of the Scriptores Rer. Ital. OfMuratori. )]

[Footnote 96: Paul. Diacon. L. V. C. 11, p. 480. Anastasius in VitisPontificum, in Muratori's Collection, tom. Iii. Pars i. P. 141. ]

[Footnote 97: Consult the preface of Ducange, (ad Gloss, Graec. MediiAevi) and the Novels of Justinian, (vii. Lxvi. )]

[Footnote 98: (Matth. Blastares, Hist. Juris, apud Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Xii. P. 369. ) The Code and Pandects (the latter byThalelaeus) were translated in the time of Justinian, (p. 358, 366. )Theophilus one of the original triumvirs, has left an elegant, thoughdiffuse, paraphrase of the Institutes. On the other hand, Julian, antecessor of Constantinople, (A. D. 570, ) cxx. Novellas Graecas elegantiLatinitate donavit (Heineccius, Hist. J. R. P. 396) for the use of Italyand Africa. ]

[Footnote 99: Abulpharagius assigns the viith Dynasty to the Franksor Romans, the viiith to the Greeks, the ixth to the Arabs. A temporeAugusti Caesaris donec imperaret Tiberius Caesar spatio circiter annorum600 fuerunt Imperatores C. P. Patricii, et praecipua pars exercitusRomani: extra quod, conciliarii, scribae et populus, omnes Graecifuerunt: deinde regnum etiam Graecanicum factum est, (p. 96, vers. Pocock. ) The Christian and ecclesiastical studies of Abulpharagius gavehim some advantage over the more ignorant Moslems. ]

[Footnote 100: Primus ex Graecorum genere in Imperio confirmatus est; oraccording to another Ms. Of Paulus Diaconus, (l. Iii. C. 15, p. 443, ) inOrasorum Imperio. ]

[Footnote 101: Quia linguam, mores, vestesque mutastis, putavitSanctissimus Papa. (an audacious irony, ) ita vos (vobis) displicereRomanorum nomen. His nuncios, rogabant Nicephorum Imperatorem Graecorum, ut cum Othone Imperatore Romanorum amicitiam faceret, (Liutprand inLegatione, p. 486. ) * Note: Sicut et vestem. These words follow in thetext of Liutprand, (apud Murat. Script. Ital. Tom. Ii. P. 486, to whichGibbon refers. ) But with some inaccuracy or confusion, which rarelyoccurs in Gibbon's references, the rest of the quotation, which as itstands is unintelligible, does not appear--M. ]

[Footnote 102: By Laonicus Chalcocondyles, who survived the last siegeof Constantinople, the account is thus stated, (l. I. P. 3. ) Constantinetransplanted his Latins of Italy to a Greek city of Thrace: they adoptedthe language and manners of the natives, who were confounded withthem under the name of Romans. The kings of Constantinople, says thehistorian. ]

While the government of the East was transacted in Latin, the Greek wasthe language of literature and philosophy; nor could the masters ofthis rich and perfect idiom be tempted to envy the borrowed learning andimitative taste of their Roman disciples. After the fall of Paganism, the loss of Syria and Egypt, and the extinction of the schools ofAlexandria and Athens, the studies of the Greeks insensibly retiredto some regular monasteries, and above all, to the royal college ofConstantinople, which was burnt in the reign of Leo the Isaurian. [103]In the pompous style of the age, the president of that foundation wasnamed the Sun of Science: his twelve associates, the professors in thedifferent arts and faculties, were the twelve signs of the zodiac; alibrary of thirty-six thousand five hundred volumes was open to theirinquiries; and they could show an ancient manuscript of Homer, on a rollof parchment one hundred and twenty feet in length, the intestines, asit was fabled, of a prodigious serpent. [104] But the seventh and eightcenturies were a period of discord and darkness: the library was burnt, the college was abolished, the Iconoclasts are represented as thefoes of antiquity; and a savage ignorance and contempt of letters hasdisgraced the princes of the Heraclean and Isaurian dynasties. [105]

[Footnote 103: See Ducange, (C. P. Christiana, l. Ii. P. 150, 151, ) whocollects the testimonies, not of Theophanes, but at least of Zonaras, (tom. Ii. L. Xv. P. 104, ) Cedrenus, (p. 454, ) Michael Glycas, (p. 281, )Constantine Manasses, (p. 87. ) After refuting the absurd charge againstthe emperor, Spanheim, (Hist. Imaginum, p. 99-111, ) like a trueadvocate, proceeds to doubt or deny the reality of the fire, and almostof the library. ]

[Footnote 104: According to Malchus, (apud Zonar. L. Xiv. P. 53, ) thisHomer was burnt in the time of Basiliscus. The Ms. Might be renewed--Buton a serpent's skin? Most strange and incredible!]

[Footnote 105: The words of Zonaras, and of Cedrenus, are strong words, perhaps not ill suited to those reigns. ]

In the ninth century we trace the first dawnings of the restorationof science. [106] After the fanaticism of the Arabs had subsided, thecaliphs aspired to conquer the arts, rather than the provinces, of theempire: their liberal curiosity rekindled the emulation of the Greeks, brushed away the dust from their ancient libraries, and taught them toknow and reward the philosophers, whose labors had been hitherto repaidby the pleasure of study and the pursuit of truth. The Caesar Bardas, the uncle of Michael the Third, was the generous protector of letters, a title which alone has preserved his memory and excused his ambition. Aparticle of the treasures of his nephew was sometimes diverted fromthe indulgence of vice and folly; a school was opened in the palaceof Magnaura; and the presence of Bardas excited the emulation of themasters and students. At their head was the philosopher Leo, archbishopof Thessalonica: his profound skill in astronomy and the mathematicswas admired by the strangers of the East; and this occult sciencewas magnified by vulgar credulity, which modestly supposes that allknowledge superior to its own must be the effect of inspirationor magic. At the pressing entreaty of the Caesar, his friend, thecelebrated Photius, [107] renounced the freedom of a secular andstudious life, ascended the patriarchal throne, and was alternatelyexcommunicated and absolved by the synods of the East and West. By theconfession even of priestly hatred, no art or science, except poetry, was foreign to this universal scholar, who was deep in thought, indefatigable in reading, and eloquent in diction. Whilst he exercisedthe office of protospathaire or captain of the guards, Photius was sentambassador to the caliph of Bagdad. [108] The tedious hours of exile, perhaps of confinement, were beguiled by the hasty composition of hisLibrary, a living monument of erudition and criticism. Two hundred andfourscore writers, historians, orators, philosophers, theologians, arereviewed without any regular method: he abridges their narrative ordoctrine, appreciates their style and character, and judges even thefathers of the church with a discreet freedom, which often breaksthrough the superstition of the times. The emperor Basil, who lamentedthe defects of his own education, intrusted to the care of Photius hisson and successor, Leo the philosopher; and the reign of that prince andof his son Constantine Porphyrogenitus forms one of the most prosperousaeras of the Byzantine literature. By their munificence the treasuresof antiquity were deposited in the Imperial library; by their pens, or those of their associates, they were imparted in such extractsand abridgments as might amuse the curiosity, without oppressing theindolence, of the public. Besides the Basilics, or code of laws, thearts of husbandry and war, of feeding or destroying the human species, were propagated with equal diligence; and the history of Greece and Romewas digested into fifty-three heads or titles, of which two only (ofembassies, and of virtues and vices) have escaped the injuries of time. In every station, the reader might contemplate the image of the pastworld, apply the lesson or warning of each page, and learn to admire, perhaps to imitate, the examples of a brighter period. I shall notexpatiate on the works of the Byzantine Greeks, who, by the assiduousstudy of the ancients, have deserved, in some measure, the remembranceand gratitude of the moderns. The scholars of the present age may stillenjoy the benefit of the philosophical commonplace book of Stobaeus, thegrammatical and historical lexicon of Suidas, the Chiliads of Tzetzes, which comprise six hundred narratives in twelve thousand verses, and thecommentaries on Homer of Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, who, from his horn of plenty, has poured the names and authorities of fourhundred writers. From these originals, and from the numerous tribeof scholiasts and critics, [109] some estimate may be formed of theliterary wealth of the twelfth century: Constantinople was enlightenedby the genius of Homer and Demosthenes, of Aristotle and Plato: andin the enjoyment or neglect of our present riches, we must envy thegeneration that could still peruse the history of Theopompus, theorations of Hyperides, the comedies of Menander, [110] and the odes ofAlcaeus and Sappho. The frequent labor of illustration attests not onlythe existence, but the popularity, of the Grecian classics: the generalknowledge of the age may be deduced from the example of two learnedfemales, the empress Eudocia, and the princess Anna Comnena, whocultivated, in the purple, the arts of rhetoric and philosophy. [111]The vulgar dialect of the city was gross and barbarous: a more correctand elaborate style distinguished the discourse, or at least thecompositions, of the church and palace, which sometimes affected to copythe purity of the Attic models. 

[Footnote 106: See Zonaras (l. Xvi. P. 160, 161) and Cedrenus, (p. 549, 550. ) Like Friar Bacon, the philosopher Leo has been transformed byignorance into a conjurer; yet not so undeservedly, if he be the authorof the oracles more commonly ascribed to the emperor of the same name. The physics of Leo in Ms. Are in the library of Vienna, (Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Vi. P 366, tom. Xii. P. 781. ) Qui serant!]

[Footnote 107: The ecclesiastical and literary character of Photius iscopiously discussed by Hanckius (de Scriptoribus Byzant. P. 269, 396)and Fabricius. ]

[Footnote 108: It can only mean Bagdad, the seat of the caliphs and therelation of his embassy might have been curious and instructive. But howdid he procure his books? A library so numerous could neither be foundat Bagdad, nor transported with his baggage, nor preserved in hismemory. Yet the last, however incredible, seems to be affirmed byPhotius himself. Camusat (Hist. Critique des Journaux, p. 87-94) givesa good account of the Myriobiblon. ]

[Footnote 109: Of these modern Greeks, see the respective articles inthe Bibliotheca Graeca of Fabricius--a laborious work, yet susceptibleof a better method and many improvements; of Eustathius, (tom. I. P. 289-292, 306-329, ) of the Pselli, (a diatribe of Leo Allatius, adcalcem tom. V. , of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, tom. Vi. P. 486-509)of John Stobaeus, (tom. Viii. , 665-728, ) of Suidas, (tom. Ix. P. 620-827, ) John Tzetzes, (tom. Xii. P. 245-273. ) Mr. Harris, in hisPhilological Arrangements, opus senile, has given a sketch of thisByzantine learning, (p. 287-300. )]

[Footnote 110: From the obscure and hearsay evidence, Gerard Vossius (dePoetis Graecis, c. 6) and Le Clerc (Bibliotheque Choisie, tom. Xix. P. 285) mention a commentary of Michael Psellus on twenty-four playsof Menander, still extant in Ms. At Constantinople. Yet such classicstudies seem incompatible with the gravity or dulness of a schoolman, who pored over the categories, (de Psellis, p. 42;) and Michael hasprobably been confounded with Homerus Sellius, who wrote arguments tothe comedies of Menander. In the xth century, Suidas quotes fifty plays, but he often transcribes the old scholiast of Aristophanes. ]

[Footnote 111: Anna Comnena may boast of her Greek style, and Zonarasher contemporary, but not her flatterer, may add with truth. Theprincess was conversant with the artful dialogues of Plato; and hadstudied quadrivium of astrology, geometry, arithmetic, and music, (seehe preface to the Alexiad, with Ducange's notes)]

In our modern education, the painful though necessary attainment of twolanguages, which are no longer living, may consume the time and dampthe ardor of the youthful student. The poets and orators were longimprisoned in the barbarous dialects of our Western ancestors, devoidof harmony or grace; and their genius, without precept or example, wasabandoned to the rule and native powers of their judgment and fancy. Butthe Greeks of Constantinople, after purging away the impurities of theirvulgar speech, acquired the free use of their ancient language, the mosthappy composition of human art, and a familiar knowledge of the sublimemasters who had pleased or instructed the first of nations. But theseadvantages only tend to aggravate the reproach and shame of a degeneratepeople. They held in their lifeless hands the riches of their fathers, without inheriting the spirit which had created and improved that sacredpatrimony: they read, they praised, they compiled, but their languidsouls seemed alike incapable of thought and action. In the revolution often centuries, not a single discovery was made to exalt the dignity orpromote the happiness of mankind. Not a single idea has been addedto the speculative systems of antiquity, and a succession of patientdisciples became in their turn the dogmatic teachers of the nextservile generation. Not a single composition of history, philosophy, orliterature, has been saved from oblivion by the intrinsic beauties ofstyle or sentiment, of original fancy, or even of successful imitation. In prose, the least offensive of the Byzantine writers are absolved fromcensure by their naked and unpresuming simplicity: but the orators, mosteloquent [112] in their own conceit, are the farthest removed from themodels whom they affect to emulate. In every page our taste and reasonare wounded by the choice of gigantic and obsolete words, a stiff andintricate phraseology, the discord of images, the childish play of falseor unseasonable ornament, and the painful attempt to elevate themselves, to astonish the reader, and to involve a trivial meaning in the smokeof obscurity and exaggeration. Their prose is soaring to the viciousaffectation of poetry: their poetry is sinking below the flatness andinsipidity of prose. The tragic, epic, and lyric muses, were silent andinglorious: the bards of Constantinople seldom rose above a riddle orepigram, a panegyric or tale; they forgot even the rules of prosody; andwith the melody of Homer yet sounding in their ears, they confoundall measure of feet and syllables in the impotent strains which havereceived the name of political or city verses. [113] The minds of theGreek were bound in the fetters of a base and imperious superstitionwhich extends her dominion round the circle of profane science. Theirunderstandings were bewildered in metaphysical controversy: in thebelief of visions and miracles, they had lost all principles of moralevidence, and their taste was vitiates by the homilies of the monks, an absurd medley of declamation and Scripture. Even these contemptiblestudies were no longer dignified by the abuse of superior talents: theleaders of the Greek church were humbly content to admire and copy theoracles of antiquity, nor did the schools of pulpit produce any rivalsof the fame of Athanasius and Chrysostom. [114]

[Footnote 112: To censure the Byzantine taste. Ducange (Praefat. Gloss. Graec. P. 17) strings the authorities of Aulus Gellius, Jerom, PetroniusGeorge Hamartolus, Longinus; who give at once the precept and theexample. ]

[Footnote 113: The versus politici, those common prostitutes, as, fromtheir easiness, they are styled by Leo Allatius, usually consist offifteen syllables. They are used by Constantine Manasses, John Tzetzes, &c. (Ducange, Gloss. Latin. Tom. Iii. P. I. P. 345, 346, edit. Basil, 1762. )]

[Footnote 114: As St. Bernard of the Latin, so St. John Damascenus inthe viiith century is revered as the last father of the Greek, church. ]

In all the pursuits of active and speculative life, the emulation ofstates and individuals is the most powerful spring of the efforts andimprovements of mankind. The cities of ancient Greece were cast in thehappy mixture of union and independence, which is repeated on a largerscale, but in a looser form, by the nations of modern Europe; the unionof language, religion, and manners, which renders them the spectatorsand judges of each other's merit; [115] the independence of governmentand interest, which asserts their separate freedom, and excites themto strive for preeminence in the career of glory. The situation of theRomans was less favorable; yet in the early ages of the republic, whichfixed the national character, a similar emulation was kindled among thestates of Latium and Italy; and in the arts and sciences, they aspiredto equal or surpass their Grecian masters. The empire of the Caesarsundoubtedly checked the activity and progress of the human mind; itsmagnitude might indeed allow some scope for domestic competition; butwhen it was gradually reduced, at first to the East and at last toGreece and Constantinople, the Byzantine subjects were degraded to anabject and languid temper, the natural effect of their solitary andinsulated state. From the North they were oppressed by nameless tribesof Barbarians, to whom they scarcely imparted the appellation ofmen. The language and religion of the more polished Arabs were aninsurmountable bar to all social intercourse. The conquerors of Europewere their brethren in the Christian faith; but the speech of the Franksor Latins was unknown, their manners were rude, and they were rarelyconnected, in peace or war, with the successors of Heraclius. Alone inthe universe, the self-satisfied pride of the Greeks was not disturbedby the comparison of foreign merit; and it is no wonder if they faintedin the race, since they had neither competitors to urge their speed, nor judges to crown their victory. The nations of Europe and Asiawere mingled by the expeditions to the Holy Land; and it is under theComnenian dynasty that a faint emulation of knowledge and militaryvirtue was rekindled in the Byzantine empire. [Footnote 115: Hume'sEssays, vol. I. P. 125]

Chapter LIV: Origin And Doctrine Of The Paulicians. --Part I. 

 Origin And Doctrine Of The Paulicians. --Their Persecution By The Greek Emperors. --Revolt In Armenia &c. --Transplantation Into Thrace. --Propagation In The West. --The Seeds, Character, And Consequences Of The Reformation. 

In the profession of Christianity, the variety of national charactersmay be clearly distinguished. The natives of Syria and Egypt abandonedtheir lives to lazy and contemplative devotion: Rome again aspired tothe dominion of the world; and the wit of the lively and loquaciousGreeks was consumed in the disputes of metaphysical theology. Theincomprehensible mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation, insteadof commanding their silent submission, were agitated in vehement andsubtile controversies, which enlarged their faith at the expense, perhaps, of their charity and reason. From the council of Nice tothe end of the seventh century, the peace and unity of the church wasinvaded by these spiritual wars; and so deeply did they affect thedecline and fall of the empire, that the historian has too often beencompelled to attend the synods, to explore the creeds, and to enumeratethe sects, of this busy period of ecclesiastical annals. From thebeginning of the eighth century to the last ages of the Byzantineempire, the sound of controversy was seldom heard: curiosity wasexhausted, zeal was fatigued, and, in the decrees of six councils, thearticles of the Catholic faith had been irrevocably defined. The spiritof dispute, however vain and pernicious, requires some energy andexercise of the mental faculties; and the prostrate Greeks were contentto fast, to pray, and to believe in blind obedience to the patriarchand his clergy. During a long dream of superstition, the Virgin andthe Saints, their visions and miracles, their relics and images, werepreached by the monks, and worshipped by the people; and the appellationof people might be extended, without injustice, to the first ranksof civil society. At an unseasonable moment, the Isaurian emperorsattempted somewhat rudely to awaken their subjects: under theirinfluence reason might obtain some proselytes, a far greater number wasswayed by interest or fear; but the Eastern world embraced or deploredtheir visible deities, and the restoration of images was celebratedas the feast of orthodoxy. In this passive and unanimous state theecclesiastical rulers were relieved from the toil, or deprived of thepleasure, of persecution. The Pagans had disappeared; the Jews weresilent and obscure; the disputes with the Latins were rare and remotehostilities against a national enemy; and the sects of Egypt and Syriaenjoyed a free toleration under the shadow of the Arabian caliphs. Aboutthe middle of the seventh century, a branch of Manichaeans was selectedas the victims of spiritual tyranny; their patience was at lengthexasperated to despair and rebellion; and their exile has scattered overthe West the seeds of reformation. These important events will justifysome inquiry into the doctrine and story of the Paulicians; [1] and, asthey cannot plead for themselves, our candid criticism will magnifythe good, and abate or suspect the evil, that is reported by theiradversaries. 

[Footnote 1: The errors and virtues of the Paulicians are weighed, with his usual judgment and candor, by the learned Mosheim, (Hist. Ecclesiast. Seculum ix. P. 311, &c. ) He draws his original intelligencefrom Photius (contra Manichaeos, l. I. ) and Peter Siculus, (Hist. Manichaeorum. ) The first of these accounts has not fallen into myhands; the second, which Mosheim prefers, I have read in a Latin versioninserted in the Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum, (tom. Xvi. P. 754-764, ) fromthe edition of the Jesuit Raderus, (Ingolstadii, 1604, in 4to. ) * Note:Compare Hallam's Middle Ages, p. 461-471. Mr. Hallam justly observesthat this chapter "appears to be accurate as well as luminous, and is atleast far superior to any modern work on the subject. "--M. ]

The Gnostics, who had distracted the infancy, were oppressed bythe greatness and authority, of the church. Instead of emulating orsurpassing the wealth, learning, and numbers of the Catholics, theirobscure remnant was driven from the capitals of the East and West, and confined to the villages and mountains along the borders of theEuphrates. Some vestige of the Marcionites may be detected in the fifthcentury; [2] but the numerous sects were finally lost in the odious nameof the Manichaeans; and these heretics, who presumed to reconcile thedoctrines of Zoroaster and Christ, were pursued by the two religionswith equal and unrelenting hatred. Under the grandson of Heraclius, inthe neighborhood of Samosata, more famous for the birth of Lucian thanfor the title of a Syrian kingdom, a reformer arose, esteemed by thePaulicians as the chosen messenger of truth. In his humble dwelling ofMananalis, Constantine entertained a deacon, who returned from Syriancaptivity, and received the inestimable gift of the New Testament, whichwas already concealed from the vulgar by the prudence of the Greek, andperhaps of the Gnostic, clergy. [3] These books became the measure ofhis studies and the rule of his faith; and the Catholics, who disputehis interpretation, acknowledge that his text was genuine and sincere. But he attached himself with peculiar devotion to the writings andcharacter of St. Paul: the name of the Paulicians is derived by theirenemies from some unknown and domestic teacher; but I am confidentthat they gloried in their affinity to the apostle of the Gentiles. His disciples, Titus, Timothy, Sylvanus, Tychicus, were represented byConstantine and his fellow-laborers: the names of the apostolic churcheswere applied to the congregations which they assembled in Armenia andCappadocia; and this innocent allegory revived the example and memoryof the first ages. In the Gospel, and the Epistles of St. Paul, hisfaithful follower investigated the Creed of primitive Christianity;and, whatever might be the success, a Protestant reader will applaudthe spirit, of the inquiry. But if the Scriptures of the Paulicians werepure, they were not perfect. Their founders rejected the two Epistles ofSt. Peter, [4] the apostle of the circumcision, whose dispute with theirfavorite for the observance of the law could not easily be forgiven. [5]They agreed with their Gnostic brethren in the universal contempt forthe Old Testament, the books of Moses and the prophets, which have beenconsecrated by the decrees of the Catholic church. With equal boldness, and doubtless with more reason, Constantine, the new Sylvanus, disclaimed the visions, which, in so many bulky and splendid volumes, had been published by the Oriental sects; [6] the fabulous productionsof the Hebrew patriarchs and the sages of the East; the spuriousgospels, epistles, and acts, which in the first age had overwhelmed theorthodox code; the theology of Manes, and the authors of the kindredheresies; and the thirty generations, or aeons, which had been createdby the fruitful fancy of Valentine. The Paulicians sincerely condemnedthe memory and opinions of the Manichaean sect, and complained of theinjustice which impressed that invidious name on the simple votaries ofSt. Paul and of Christ. 

[Footnote 2: In the time of Theodoret, the diocese of Cyrrhus, in Syria, contained eight hundred villages. Of these, two were inhabited by Ariansand Eunomians, and eight by Marcionites, whom the laborious bishopreconciled to the Catholic church, (Dupin, Bibliot. Ecclesiastique, tom. Iv. P. 81, 82. )]

[Footnote 3: Nobis profanis ista (sacra Evangelia) legere non licet sedsacerdotibus duntaxat, was the first scruple of a Catholic when he wasadvised to read the Bible, (Petr. Sicul. P. 761. )]

[Footnote 4: In rejecting the second Epistle of St. Peter, thePaulicians are justified by some of the most respectable of the ancientsand moderns, (see Wetstein ad loc. , Simon, Hist. Critique du NouveauTestament, c. 17. ) They likewise overlooked the Apocalypse, (Petr. Sicul. P. 756;) but as such neglect is not imputed as a crime, theGreeks of the ixth century must have been careless of the credit andhonor of the Revelations. ]

[Footnote 5: This contention, which has not escaped the malice ofPorphyry, supposes some error and passion in one or both of theapostles. By Chrysostom, Jerome, and Erasmus, it is represented as asham quarrel a pious fraud, for the benefit of the Gentiles and thecorrection of the Jews, (Middleton's Works, vol. Ii. P. 1-20. )]

[Footnote 6: Those who are curious of this heterodox library, mayconsult the researches of Beausobre, (Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. I. P. 305-437. ) Even in Africa, St. Austin could describe theManichaean books, tam multi, tam grandes, tam pretiosi codices, (contraFaust. Xiii. 14;) but he adds, without pity, Incendite omnes illasmembranas: and his advice had been rigorously followed. ]

Of the ecclesiastical chain, many links had been broken by the Paulicianreformers; and their liberty was enlarged, as they reduced the number ofmasters, at whose voice profane reason must bow to mystery and miracle. The early separation of the Gnostics had preceded the establishment ofthe Catholic worship; and against the gradual innovations of disciplineand doctrine they were as strongly guarded by habit and aversion, as bythe silence of St. Paul and the evangelists. The objects which had beentransformed by the magic of superstition, appeared to the eyes of thePaulicians in their genuine and naked colors. An image made withouthands was the common workmanship of a mortal artist, to whose skillalone the wood and canvas must be indebted for their merit or value. Themiraculous relics were a heap of bones and ashes, destitute of life orvirtue, or of any relation, perhaps, with the person to whom they wereascribed. The true and vivifying cross was a piece of sound or rottentimber, the body and blood of Christ, a loaf of bread and a cup of wine, the gifts of nature and the symbols of grace. The mother of God wasdegraded from her celestial honors and immaculate virginity; and thesaints and angels were no longer solicited to exercise the laboriousoffice of meditation in heaven, and ministry upon earth. In thepractice, or at least in the theory, of the sacraments, the Paulicianswere inclined to abolish all visible objects of worship, and the wordsof the gospel were, in their judgment, the baptism and communion of thefaithful. They indulged a convenient latitude for the interpretation ofScripture: and as often as they were pressed by the literal sense, theycould escape to the intricate mazes of figure and allegory. Their utmostdiligence must have been employed to dissolve the connection between theOld and the New Testament; since they adored the latter as the oraclesof God, and abhorred the former as the fabulous and absurd invention ofmen or daemons. We cannot be surprised, that they should have foundin the Gospel the orthodox mystery of the Trinity: but, instead ofconfessing the human nature and substantial sufferings of Christ, theyamused their fancy with a celestial body that passed through the virginlike water through a pipe; with a fantastic crucifixion, that eluded thevain and important malice of the Jews. A creed thus simple and spiritualwas not adapted to the genius of the times; [7] and the rationalChristian, who might have been contented with the light yoke andeasy burden of Jesus and his apostles, was justly offended, that thePaulicians should dare to violate the unity of God, the first article ofnatural and revealed religion. Their belief and their trust was in theFather, of Christ, of the human soul, and of the invisible world. 

But they likewise held the eternity of matter; a stubborn and rebellioussubstance, the origin of a second principle of an active being, who hascreated this visible world, and exercises his temporal reign till thefinal consummation of death and sin. [8] The appearances of moraland physical evil had established the two principles in the ancientphilosophy and religion of the East; from whence this doctrine wastransfused to the various swarms of the Gnostics. A thousand shades maybe devised in the nature and character of Ahriman, from a rival god toa subordinate daemon, from passion and frailty to pure and perfectmalevolence: but, in spite of our efforts, the goodness, and the power, of Ormusd are placed at the opposite extremities of the line; and everystep that approaches the one must recede in equal proportion from theother. [9]

[Footnote 7: The six capital errors of the Paulicians are defined byPeter (p. 756, ) with much prejudice and passion. ]

[Footnote 8: Primum illorum axioma est, duo rerum esse principia; Deummalum et Deum bonum, aliumque hujus mundi conditorem et princi pem, etalium futuri aevi, (Petr. Sicul. 765. )]

[Footnote 9: Two learned critics, Beausobre (Hist. Critique duManicheisme, l. I. Iv. V. Vi. ) and Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. Andde Rebus Christianis ante Constantinum, sec. I. Ii. Iii. , ) have laboredto explore and discriminate the various systems of the Gnostics on thesubject of the two principles. ]

The apostolic labors of Constantine Sylvanus soon multiplied the numberof his disciples, the secret recompense of spiritual ambition. Theremnant of the Gnostic sects, and especially the Manichaeans of Armenia, were united under his standard; many Catholics were converted or seducedby his arguments; and he preached with success in the regions of Pontus[10] and Cappadocia, which had long since imbibed the religion ofZoroaster. The Paulician teachers were distinguished only by theirScriptural names, by the modest title of Fellow-pilgrims, by theausterity of their lives, their zeal or knowledge, and the credit ofsome extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit. But they were incapableof desiring, or at least of obtaining, the wealth and honors of theCatholic prelacy; such anti-Christian pride they bitterly censured; andeven the rank of elders or presbyters was condemned as an institution ofthe Jewish synagogue. The new sect was loosely spread over the provincesof Asia Minor to the westward of the Euphrates; six of their principalcongregations represented the churches to which St. Paul had addressedhis epistles; and their founder chose his residence in the neighborhoodof Colonia, [11] in the same district of Pontus which had beencelebrated by the altars of Bellona [12] and the miracles of Gregory. [13] After a mission of twenty-seven years, Sylvanus, who had retiredfrom the tolerating government of the Arabs, fell a sacrifice to Romanpersecution. The laws of the pious emperors, which seldom touched thelives of less odious heretics, proscribed without mercy or disguise thetenets, the books, and the persons of the Montanists and Manichaeans:the books were delivered to the flames; and all who should presume tosecrete such writings, or to profess such opinions, were devoted to anignominious death. [14] A Greek minister, armed with legal and militarypowers, appeared at Colonia to strike the shepherd, and to reclaim, ifpossible, the lost sheep. By a refinement of cruelty, Simeon placed theunfortunate Sylvanus before a line of his disciples, who were commanded, as the price of their pardon and the proof of their repentance, tomassacre their spiritual father. They turned aside from the impiousoffice; the stones dropped from their filial hands, and of the wholenumber, only one executioner could be found, a new David, as he isstyled by the Catholics, who boldly overthrew the giant of heresy. This apostate (Justin was his name) again deceived and betrayed hisunsuspecting brethren, and a new conformity to the acts of St. Paul maybe found in the conversion of Simeon: like the apostle, he embraced thedoctrine which he had been sent to persecute, renounced his honors andfortunes, and required among the Paulicians the fame of a missionary anda martyr. They were not ambitious of martyrdom, [15] but in a calamitousperiod of one hundred and fifty years, their patience sustainedwhatever zeal could inflict; and power was insufficient to eradicate theobstinate vegetation of fanaticism and reason. From the blood andashes of the first victims, a succession of teachers and congregationsrepeatedly arose: amidst their foreign hostilities, they found leisurefor domestic quarrels: they preached, they disputed, they suffered;and the virtues, the apparent virtues, of Sergius, in a pilgrimageof thirty-three years, are reluctantly confessed by the orthodoxhistorians. [16] The native cruelty of Justinian the Second wasstimulated by a pious cause; and he vainly hoped to extinguish, in asingle conflagration, the name and memory of the Paulicians. By theirprimitive simplicity, their abhorrence of popular superstition, the Iconoclast princes might have been reconciled to some erroneousdoctrines; but they themselves were exposed to the calumnies of themonks, and they chose to be the tyrants, lest they should be accusedas the accomplices, of the Manichaeans. Such a reproach has sullied theclemency of Nicephorus, who relaxed in their favor the severity ofthe penal statutes, nor will his character sustain the honor of amore liberal motive. The feeble Michael the First, the rigid Leo theArmenian, were foremost in the race of persecution; but the prizemust doubtless be adjudged to the sanguinary devotion of Theodora, whorestored the images to the Oriental church. Her inquisitors exploredthe cities and mountains of the Lesser Asia, and the flatterers ofthe empress have affirmed that, in a short reign, one hundred thousandPaulicians were extirpated by the sword, the gibbet, or the flames. Herguilt or merit has perhaps been stretched beyond the measure of truth:but if the account be allowed, it must be presumed that many simpleIconoclasts were punished under a more odious name; and that some whowere driven from the church, unwillingly took refuge in the bosom ofheresy. 

[Footnote 10: The countries between the Euphrates and the Halys werepossessed above 350 years by the Medes (Herodot. L. I. C. 103) andPersians; and the kings of Pontus were of the royal race of theAchaemenides, (Sallust. Fragment. L. Iii. With the French supplement andnotes of the president de Brosses. )]

[Footnote 11: Most probably founded by Pompey after the conquest ofPontus. This Colonia, on the Lycus, above Neo-Caesarea, is named bythe Turks Coulei-hisar, or Chonac, a populous town in a strong country, (D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. Ii. P. 34. Tournefort, Voyage duLevant, tom. Iii. Lettre xxi. P. 293. )]

[Footnote 12: The temple of Bellona, at Comana in Pontus was a powerfuland wealthy foundation, and the high priest was respected as the secondperson in the kingdom. As the sacerdotal office had been occupied byhis mother's family, Strabo (l. Xii. P. 809, 835, 836, 837) dwells withpeculiar complacency on the temple, the worship, and festival, which wastwice celebrated every year. But the Bellona of Pontus had the featuresand character of the goddess, not of war, but of love. ]

[Footnote 13: Gregory, bishop of Neo-Caesarea, (A. D. 240-265, ) surnamedThaumaturgus, or the Wonder-worker. An hundred years afterwards, thehistory or romance of his life was composed by Gregory of Nyssa, hisnamesake and countryman, the brother of the great St. Basil. ]

[Footnote 14: Hoc caeterum ad sua egregia facinora, divini atqueorthodoxi Imperatores addiderunt, ut Manichaeos Montanosque capitalipuniri sententia juberent, eorumque libros, quocunque in locoinventi essent, flammis tradi; quod siquis uspiam eosdem occultassedeprehenderetur, hunc eundem mortis poenae addici, ejusque bona infiscum inferri, (Petr. Sicul. P. 759. ) What more could bigotry andpersecution desire?]

[Footnote 15: It should seem, that the Paulicians allowed themselvessome latitude of equivocation and mental reservation; till the Catholicsdiscovered the pressing questions, which reduced them to the alternativeof apostasy or martyrdom, (Petr. Sicul. P. 760. )]

[Footnote 16: The persecution is told by Petrus Siculus (p. 579-763)with satisfaction and pleasantry. Justus justa persolvit. See likewiseCedrenus, (p. 432-435. )]

The most furious and desperate of rebels are the sectaries of a religionlong persecuted, and at length provoked. In a holy cause they are nolonger susceptible of fear or remorse: the justice of their arms hardensthem against the feelings of humanity; and they revenge their fathers'wrongs on the children of their tyrants. Such have been the Hussites ofBohemia and the Calvinists of France, and such, in the ninth century, were the Paulicians of Armenia and the adjacent provinces. [17] Theywere first awakened to the massacre of a governor and bishop, whoexercised the Imperial mandate of converting or destroying the heretics;and the deepest recesses of Mount Argaeus protected their independenceand revenge. A more dangerous and consuming flame was kindled by thepersecution of Theodora, and the revolt of Carbeas, a valiant Paulician, who commanded the guards of the general of the East. His father had beenimpaled by the Catholic inquisitors; and religion, or at least nature, might justify his desertion and revenge. Five thousand of his brethrenwere united by the same motives; they renounced the allegiance ofanti-Christian Rome; a Saracen emir introduced Carbeas to the caliph;and the commander of the faithful extended his sceptre to the implacableenemy of the Greeks. In the mountains between Siwas and Trebizond hefounded or fortified the city of Tephrice, [18] which is still occupiedby a fierce or licentious people, and the neighboring hills were coveredwith the Paulician fugitives, who now reconciled the use of the Bibleand the sword. During more than thirty years, Asia was afflicted by thecalamities of foreign and domestic war; in their hostile inroads, the disciples of St. Paul were joined with those of Mahomet; andthe peaceful Christians, the aged parent and tender virgin, who weredelivered into barbarous servitude, might justly accuse the intolerantspirit of their sovereign. So urgent was the mischief, so intolerablethe shame, that even the dissolute Michael, the son of Theodora, wascompelled to march in person against the Paulicians: he was defeatedunder the walls of Samosata; and the Roman emperor fled before theheretics whom his mother had condemned to the flames. The Saracensfought under the same banners, but the victory was ascribed to Carbeas;and the captive generals, with more than a hundred tribunes, were eitherreleased by his avarice, or tortured by his fanaticism. The valor andambition of Chrysocheir, [19] his successor, embraced a wider circleof rapine and revenge. In alliance with his faithful Moslems, he boldlypenetrated into the heart of Asia; the troops of the frontier andthe palace were repeatedly overthrown; the edicts of persecution wereanswered by the pillage of Nice and Nicomedia, of Ancyra and Ephesus;nor could the apostle St. John protect from violation his city andsepulchre. The cathedral of Ephesus was turned into a stable for mulesand horses; and the Paulicians vied with the Saracens in their contemptand abhorrence of images and relics. It is not unpleasing to observethe triumph of rebellion over the same despotism which had disdainedthe prayers of an injured people. The emperor Basil, the Macedonian, was reduced to sue for peace, to offer a ransom for the captives, andto request, in the language of moderation and charity, that Chrysocheirwould spare his fellow-Christians, and content himself with a royaldonative of gold and silver and silk garments. "If the emperor, " repliedthe insolent fanatic, "be desirous of peace, let him abdicate the East, and reign without molestation in the West. If he refuse, the servantsof the Lord will precipitate him from the throne. " The reluctant Basilsuspended the treaty, accepted the defiance, and led his army into theland of heresy, which he wasted with fire and sword. The open countryof the Paulicians was exposed to the same calamities which they hadinflicted; but when he had explored the strength of Tephrice, themultitude of the Barbarians, and the ample magazines of arms andprovisions, he desisted with a sigh from the hopeless siege. On hisreturn to Constantinople, he labored, by the foundation of convents andchurches, to secure the aid of his celestial patrons, of Michael thearchangel and the prophet Elijah; and it was his daily prayer that hemight live to transpierce, with three arrows, the head of his impiousadversary. Beyond his expectations, the wish was accomplished: after asuccessful inroad, Chrysocheir was surprised and slain in his retreat;and the rebel's head was triumphantly presented at the foot of thethrone. On the reception of this welcome trophy, Basil instantly calledfor his bow, discharged three arrows with unerring aim, and accepted theapplause of the court, who hailed the victory of the royal archer. WithChrysocheir, the glory of the Paulicians faded and withered: [20] on thesecond expedition of the emperor, the impregnable Tephrice, was desertedby the heretics, who sued for mercy or escaped to the borders. The citywas ruined, but the spirit of independence survived in the mountains:the Paulicians defended, above a century, their religion and liberty, infested the Roman limits, and maintained their perpetual alliance withthe enemies of the empire and the gospel. 

[Footnote 17: Petrus Siculus, (p. 763, 764, ) the continuator ofTheophanes, (l. Iv. C. 4, p. 103, 104, ) Cedrenus, (p. 541, 542, 545, )and Zonaras, (tom. Ii. L. Xvi. P. 156, ) describe the revolt and exploitsof Carbeas and his Paulicians. ]

[Footnote 18: Otter (Voyage en Turquie et en Perse, tom. Ii. ) isprobably the only Frank who has visited the independent Barbarians ofTephrice now Divrigni, from whom he fortunately escaped in the train ofa Turkish officer. ]

[Footnote 19: In the history of Chrysocheir, Genesius (Chron. P. 67-70, edit. Venet. ) has exposed the nakedness of the empire. ConstantinePorphyrogenitus (in Vit. Basil. C. 37-43, p. 166-171) has displayedthe glory of his grandfather. Cedrenus (p. 570-573) is without theirpassions or their knowledge. ]

[Footnote 20: How elegant is the Greek tongue, even in the mouth ofCedrenus!]

Chapter LIV: Origin And Doctrine Of The Paulicians. --Part II. 

About the middle of the eight century, Constantine, surnamed Copronymusby the worshippers of images, had made an expedition into Armenia, andfound, in the cities of Melitene and Theodosiopolis, a great numberof Paulicians, his kindred heretics. As a favor, or punishment, hetransplanted them from the banks of the Euphrates to Constantinopleand Thrace; and by this emigration their doctrine was introduced anddiffused in Europe. [21] If the sectaries of the metropolis were soonmingled with the promiscuous mass, those of the country struck a deeproot in a foreign soil. The Paulicians of Thrace resisted the stormsof persecution, maintained a secret correspondence with their Armenianbrethren, and gave aid and comfort to their preachers, who solicited, not without success, the infant faith of the Bulgarians. [22] In thetenth century, they were restored and multiplied by a more powerfulcolony, which John Zimisces [23] transported from the Chalybian hillsto the valleys of Mount Haemus. The Oriental clergy who would havepreferred the destruction, impatiently sighed for the absence, of theManichaeans: the warlike emperor had felt and esteemed their valor:their attachment to the Saracens was pregnant with mischief; but, onthe side of the Danube, against the Barbarians of Scythia, their servicemight be useful, and their loss would be desirable. Their exile in adistant land was softened by a free toleration: the Paulicians held thecity of Philippopolis and the keys of Thrace; the Catholics were theirsubjects; the Jacobite emigrants their associates: they occupied aline of villages and castles in Macedonia and Epirus; and many nativeBulgarians were associated to the communion of arms and heresy. As longas they were awed by power and treated with moderation, their voluntarybands were distinguished in the armies of the empire; and the courage ofthese dogs, ever greedy of war, ever thirsty of human blood, is noticedwith astonishment, and almost with reproach, by the pusillanimousGreeks. The same spirit rendered them arrogant and contumacious: theywere easily provoked by caprice or injury; and their privileges wereoften violated by the faithless bigotry of the government and clergy. In the midst of the Norman war, two thousand five hundred Manichaeansdeserted the standard of Alexius Comnenus, [24] and retired to theirnative homes. He dissembled till the moment of revenge; invited thechiefs to a friendly conference; and punished the innocent and guiltyby imprisonment, confiscation, and baptism. In an interval of peace, theemperor undertook the pious office of reconciling them to the churchand state: his winter quarters were fixed at Philippopolis; and thethirteenth apostle, as he is styled by his pious daughter, consumedwhole days and nights in theological controversy. His arguments werefortified, their obstinacy was melted, by the honors and rewards whichhe bestowed on the most eminent proselytes; and a new city, surroundedwith gardens, enriched with immunities, and dignified with his own name, was founded by Alexius for the residence of his vulgar converts. Theimportant station of Philippopolis was wrested from their hands; thecontumacious leaders were secured in a dungeon, or banished from theircountry; and their lives were spared by the prudence, rather than themercy, of an emperor, at whose command a poor and solitary heretic wasburnt alive before the church of St. Sophia. [25] But the proud hope oferadicating the prejudices of a nation was speedily overturned by theinvincible zeal of the Paulicians, who ceased to dissemble or refused toobey. After the departure and death of Alexius, they soon resumed theircivil and religious laws. In the beginning of the thirteenth century, their pope or primate (a manifest corruption) resided on the confines ofBulgaria, Croatia, and Dalmatia, and governed, by his vicars, thefilial congregations of Italy and France. [26] From that aera, a minutescrutiny might prolong and perpetuate the chain of tradition. At the endof the last age, the sect or colony still inhabited the valleys of MountHaemus, where their ignorance and poverty were more frequentlytormented by the Greek clergy than by the Turkish government. The modernPaulicians have lost all memory of their origin; and their religionis disgraced by the worship of the cross, and the practice of bloodysacrifice, which some captives have imported from the wilds of Tartary. [27]

[Footnote 21: Copronymus transported his heretics; and thus saysCedrenus, (p. 463, ) who has copied the annals of Theophanes. ]

[Footnote 22: Petrus Siculus, who resided nine months at Tephrice(A. D. 870) for the ransom of captives, (p. 764, ) was informed oftheir intended mission, and addressed his preservative, the HistoriaManichaeorum to the new archbishop of the Bulgarians, (p. 754. )]

[Footnote 23: The colony of Paulicians and Jacobites transplanted byJohn Zimisces (A. D. 970) from Armenia to Thrace, is mentioned by Zonaras(tom. Ii. L. Xvii. P. 209) and Anna Comnena, (Alexiad, l. Xiv. P. 450, &c. )]

[Footnote 24: The Alexiad of Anna Comnena (l. V. P. 131, l. Vi. P. 154, 155, l. Xiv. P. 450-457, with the Annotations of Ducange) recordsthe transactions of her apostolic father with the Manichaeans, whoseabominable heresy she was desirous of refuting. ]

[Footnote 25: Basil, a monk, and the author of the Bogomiles, a sect ofGnostics, who soon vanished, (Anna Comnena, Alexiad, l. Xv. P. 486-494Mosheim, Hist. Ecclesiastica, p. 420. )]

[Footnote 26: Matt. Paris, Hist. Major, p. 267. This passage ofour English historian is alleged by Ducange in an excellent note onVillehardouin (No. 208, ) who found the Paulicians at Philippopolis thefriends of the Bulgarians. ]

[Footnote 27: See Marsigli, Stato Militare dell' Imperio Ottomano, p. 24. ]

In the West, the first teachers of the Manichaean theology had beenrepulsed by the people, or suppressed by the prince. The favor andsuccess of the Paulicians in the eleventh and twelfth centuries must beimputed to the strong, though secret, discontent which armed the mostpious Christians against the church of Rome. Her avarice was oppressive, her despotism odious; less degenerate perhaps than the Greeks in theworship of saints and images, her innovations were more rapid andscandalous: she had rigorously defined and imposed the doctrine oftransubstantiation: the lives of the Latin clergy were more corrupt, andthe Eastern bishops might pass for the successors of the apostles, ifthey were compared with the lordly prelates, who wielded by turnsthe crosier, the sceptre, and the sword. Three different roads mightintroduce the Paulicians into the heart of Europe. After the conversionof Hungary, the pilgrims who visited Jerusalem might safely follow thecourse of the Danube: in their journey and return they passed throughPhilippopolis; and the sectaries, disguising their name and heresy, might accompany the French or German caravans to their respectivecountries. The trade and dominion of Venice pervaded the coast of theAdriatic, and the hospitable republic opened her bosom to foreigners ofevery climate and religion. Under the Byzantine standard, the Paulicianswere often transported to the Greek provinces of Italy and Sicily: inpeace and war, they freely conversed with strangers and natives, andtheir opinions were silently propagated in Rome, Milan, and the kingdomsbeyond the Alps. [28] It was soon discovered, that many thousandCatholics of every rank, and of either sex, had embraced the Manichaeanheresy; and the flames which consumed twelve canons of Orleans was thefirst act and signal of persecution. The Bulgarians, [29] a name soinnocent in its origin, so odious in its application, spread theirbranches over the face of Europe. United in common hatred of idolatryand Rome, they were connected by a form of episcopal and presbyteriangovernment; their various sects were discriminated by some fainteror darker shades of theology; but they generally agreed in the twoprinciples, the contempt of the Old Testament and the denial of thebody of Christ, either on the cross or in the eucharist. A confession ofsimple worship and blameless manners is extorted from their enemies;and so high was their standard of perfection, that the increasingcongregations were divided into two classes of disciples, of thosewho practised, and of those who aspired. It was in the country of theAlbigeois, [30] in the southern provinces of France, that the Paulicianswere most deeply implanted; and the same vicissitudes of martyrdom andrevenge which had been displayed in the neighborhood of the Euphrates, were repeated in the thirteenth century on the banks of the Rhone. Thelaws of the Eastern emperors were revived by Frederic the Second. Theinsurgents of Tephrice were represented by the barons and cities ofLanguedoc: Pope Innocent III. Surpassed the sanguinary fame of Theodora. It was in cruelty alone that her soldiers could equal the heroes ofthe Crusades, and the cruelty of her priests was far excelled by thefounders of the Inquisition; [31] an office more adapted to confirm, than to refute, the belief of an evil principle. The visible assembliesof the Paulicians, or Albigeois, were extirpated by fire and sword;and the bleeding remnant escaped by flight, concealment, or Catholicconformity. But the invincible spirit which they had kindled still livedand breathed in the Western world. In the state, in the church, and evenin the cloister, a latent succession was preserved of the disciples ofSt. Paul; who protested against the tyranny of Rome, embraced the Bibleas the rule of faith, and purified their creed from all the visions ofthe Gnostic theology. [3111] The struggles of Wickliff in England, of Huss in Bohemia, were premature and ineffectual; but the names ofZuinglius, Luther, and Calvin, are pronounced with gratitude as thedeliverers of nations. 

[Footnote 28: The introduction of the Paulicians into Italy and Franceis amply discussed by Muratori (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. V. Dissert. Lx. P. 81-152) and Mosheim, (p. 379-382, 419-422. ) Yet bothhave overlooked a curious passage of William the Apulian, who clearlydescribes them in a battle between the Greeks and Normans, A. D. 1040, (in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. Tom. V. P. 256:)

 Cum Graecis aderant quidam, quos pessimus error

 Fecerat amentes, et ab ipso nomen habebant. 

But he is so ignorant of their doctrine as to make them a kind ofSabellians or Patripassians. ]

[Footnote 29: Bulgari, Boulgres, Bougres, a national appellation, has been applied by the French as a term of reproach to usurers andunnatural sinners. The Paterini, or Patelini, has been made to signifya smooth and flattering hypocrite, such as l'Avocat Patelin of thatoriginal and pleasant farce, (Ducange, Gloss. Latinitat. Medii et InfimiAevi. ) The Manichaeans were likewise named Cathari or the pure, bycorruption. Gazari, &c. ]

[Footnote 30: Of the laws, crusade, and persecution against theAlbigeois, a just, though general, idea is expressed by Mosheim, (p. 477-481. ) The detail may be found in the ecclesiastical historians, ancient and modern, Catholics and Protestants; and amongst these Fleuryis the most impartial and moderate. ]

[Footnote 31: The Acts (Liber Sententiarum) of the Inquisitionof Tholouse (A. D. 1307-1323) have been published by Limborch, (Amstelodami, 1692, ) with a previous History of the Inquisition ingeneral. They deserved a more learned and critical editor. As we mustnot calumniate even Satan, or the Holy Office, I will observe, that of alist of criminals which fills nineteen folio pages, only fifteen men andfour women were delivered to the secular arm. ]

[Footnote 3111: The popularity of "Milner's History of the Church"with some readers, may make it proper to observe, that his attempt toexculpate the Paulicians from the charge of Gnosticism or Manicheismis in direct defiance, if not in ignorance, of all the originalauthorities. Gibbon himself, it appears, was not acquainted with thework of Photius, "Contra Manicheos Repullulantes, " the first book ofwhich was edited by Montfaucon, Bibliotheca Coisliniana, pars ii. P. 349, 375, the whole by Wolf, in his Anecdota Graeca. Hamburg 1722. Compare a very sensible tract. Letter to Rev. S. R. Maitland, by J G. Dowling, M. A. London, 1835. --M. ]

A philosopher, who calculates the degree of their merit and the value oftheir reformation, will prudently ask from what articles of faith, aboveor against our reason, they have enfranchised the Christians; for suchenfranchisement is doubtless a benefit so far as it may be compatiblewith truth and piety. After a fair discussion, we shall rather besurprised by the timidity, than scandalized by the freedom, of our firstreformers. [32] With the Jews, they adopted the belief and defence ofall the Hebrew Scriptures, with all their prodigies, from the garden ofEden to the visions of the prophet Daniel; and they were bound, like theCatholics, to justify against the Jews the abolition of a divine law. In the great mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation the reformers wereseverely orthodox: they freely adopted the theology of the four, or thesix first councils; and with the Athanasian creed, they pronouncedthe eternal damnation of all who did not believe the Catholic faith. Transubstantiation, the invisible change of the bread and wine into thebody and blood of Christ, is a tenet that may defy the power of argumentand pleasantry; but instead of consulting the evidence of their senses, of their sight, their feeling, and their taste, the first Protestantswere entangled in their own scruples, and awed by the words of Jesusin the institution of the sacrament. Luther maintained a corporeal, andCalvin a real, presence of Christ in the eucharist; and the opinionof Zuinglius, that it is no more than a spiritual communion, a simplememorial, has slowly prevailed in the reformed churches. [33] But theloss of one mystery was amply compensated by the stupendous doctrines oforiginal sin, redemption, faith, grace, and predestination, which havebeen strained from the epistles of St. Paul. These subtile questions hadmost assuredly been prepared by the fathers and schoolmen; but the finalimprovement and popular use may be attributed to the first reformers, who enforced them as the absolute and essential terms of salvation. Hitherto the weight of supernatural belief inclines against theProtestants; and many a sober Christian would rather admit that a waferis God, than that God is a cruel and capricious tyrant. 

[Footnote 32: The opinions and proceedings of the reformers are exposedin the second part of the general history of Mosheim; but the balance, which he has held with so clear an eye, and so steady a hand, begins toincline in favor of his Lutheran brethren. ]

[Footnote 33: Under Edward VI. Our reformation was more bold andperfect, but in the fundamental articles of the church of England, a strong and explicit declaration against the real presence wasobliterated in the original copy, to please the people or the Lutherans, or Queen Elizabeth, (Burnet's History of the Reformation, vol. Ii. P. 82, 128, 302. )]

Yet the services of Luther and his rivals are solid and important; andthe philosopher must own his obligations to these fearless enthusiasts. [34] I. By their hands the lofty fabric of superstition, from the abuseof indulgences to the intercesson of the Virgin, has been levelledwith the ground. Myriads of both sexes of the monastic profession wererestored to the liberty and labors of social life. A hierarchy of saintsand angels, of imperfect and subordinate deities, were stripped of theirtemporal power, and reduced to the enjoyment of celestial happiness;their images and relics were banished from the church; and the credulityof the people was no longer nourished with the daily repetition ofmiracles and visions. The imitation of Paganism was supplied by a pureand spiritual worship of prayer and thanksgiving, the most worthyof man, the least unworthy of the Deity. It only remains to observe, whether such sublime simplicity be consistent with popular devotion;whether the vulgar, in the absence of all visible objects, will notbe inflamed by enthusiasm, or insensibly subside in languor andindifference. II. The chain of authority was broken, which restrainsthe bigot from thinking as he pleases, and the slave from speaking as hethinks: the popes, fathers, and councils, were no longer the supremeand infallible judges of the world; and each Christian was taughtto acknowledge no law but the Scriptures, no interpreter but his ownconscience. This freedom, however, was the consequence, rather thanthe design, of the Reformation. The patriot reformers were ambitious ofsucceeding the tyrants whom they had dethroned. They imposed with equalrigor their creeds and confessions; they asserted the right of themagistrate to punish heretics with death. The pious or personalanimosity of Calvin proscribed in Servetus [35] the guilt of his ownrebellion; [36] and the flames of Smithfield, in which he was afterwardsconsumed, had been kindled for the Anabaptists by the zeal of Cranmer. [37] The nature of the tiger wa s the same, but he was graduallydeprived of his teeth and fangs. A spiritual and temporal kingdom waspossessed by the Roman pontiff; the Protestant doctors were subjectsof an humble rank, without revenue or jurisdiction. His decrees wereconsecrated by the antiquity of the Catholic church: their argumentsand disputes were submitted to the people; and their appeal to privatejudgment was accepted beyond their wishes, by curiosity and enthusiasm. Since the days of Luther and Calvin, a secret reformation has beensilently working in the bosom of the reformed churches; many weeds ofprejudice were eradicated; and the disciples of Erasmus [38] diffuseda spirit of freedom and moderation. The liberty of conscience hasbeen claimed as a common benefit, an inalienable right: [39] the freegovernments of Holland [40] and England [41] introduced the practice oftoleration; and the narrow allowance of the laws has been enlarged bythe prudence and humanity of the times. In the exercise, the mind hasunderstood the limits of its powers, and the words and shadows thatmight amuse the child can no longer satisfy his manly reason. Thevolumes of controversy are overspread with cobwebs: the doctrine of aProtestant church is far removed from the knowledge or belief of itsprivate members; and the forms of orthodoxy, the articles of faith, are subscribed with a sigh, or a smile, by the modern clergy. Yet thefriends of Christianity are alarmed at the boundless impulse of inquiryand scepticism. The predictions of the Catholics are accomplished: theweb of mystery is unravelled by the Arminians, Arians, and Socinians, whose number must not be computed from their separate congregations; andthe pillars of Revelation are shaken by those men who preserve the namewithout the substance of religion, who indulge the license without thetemper of philosophy. [42] [4211]

[Footnote 34: "Had it not been for such men as Luther and myself, "said the fanatic Whiston to Halley the philosopher, "you would now bekneeling before an image of St. Winifred. "]

[Footnote 35: The article of Servet in the Dictionnaire Critique ofChauffepie is the best account which I have seen of this shamefultransaction. See likewise the Abbe d'Artigny, Nouveaux Memoiresd'Histoire, &c. , tom. Ii. P. 55-154. ]

[Footnote 36: I am more deeply scandalized at the single execution ofServetus, than at the hecatombs which have blazed in the Auto de Fes ofSpain and Portugal. 1. The zeal of Calvin seems to have been envenomedby personal malice, and perhaps envy. He accused his adversary beforetheir common enemies, the judges of Vienna, and betrayed, for hisdestruction, the sacred trust of a private correspondence. 2. The deedof cruelty was not varnished by the pretence of danger to the church orstate. In his passage through Geneva, Servetus was a harmless stranger, who neither preached, nor printed, nor made proselytes. 3. A Catholicinquisition yields the same obedience which he requires, but Calvinviolated the golden rule of doing as he would be done by; a rule which Iread in a moral treatise of Isocrates (in Nicocle, tom. I. P. 93, edit. Battie) four hundred years before the publication of the Gospel. * Note:Gibbon has not accurately rendered the sense of this passage, which doesnot contain the maxim of charity Do unto others as you would they shoulddo unto you, but simply the maxim of justice, Do not to others the whichwould offend you if they should do it to you. --G. ]

[Footnote 37: See Burnet, vol. Ii. P. 84-86. The sense and humanity ofthe young king were oppressed by the authority of the primate. ]

[Footnote 38: Erasmus may be considered as the father of rationaltheology. After a slumber of a hundred years, it was revived by theArminians of Holland, Grotius, Limborch, and Le Clerc; in England byChillingworth, the latitudinarians of Cambridge, (Burnet, Hist. Of OwnTimes, vol. I. P. 261-268, octavo edition. ) Tillotson, Clarke, Hoadley, &c. ]

[Footnote 39: I am sorry to observe, that the three writers of thelast age, by whom the rights of toleration have been so nobly defended, Bayle, Leibnitz, and Locke, are all laymen and philosophers. ]

[Footnote 40: See the excellent chapter of Sir William Temple on theReligion of the United Provinces. I am not satisfied with Grotius, (deRebus Belgicis, Annal. L. I. P. 13, 14, edit. In 12mo. , ) who approvesthe Imperial laws of persecution, and only condemns the bloody tribunalof the inquisition. ]

[Footnote 41: Sir William Blackstone (Commentaries, vol. Iv. P. 53, 54) explains the law of England as it was fixed at the Revolution. Theexceptions of Papists, and of those who deny the Trinity, would stillhave a tolerable scope for persecution if the national spirit were notmore effectual than a hundred statutes. ]

[Footnote 42: I shall recommend to public animadversion two passages inDr. Priestley, which betray the ultimate tendency of his opinions. Atthe first of these (Hist. Of the Corruptions of Christianity, vol. I. P. 275, 276) the priest, at the second (vol. Ii. P. 484) the magistrate, may tremble!]

[Footnote 4211: There is something ludicrous, if it were not offensive, in Gibbon holding up to "public animadversion" the opinions of anybeliever in Christianity, however imperfect his creed. The observationswhich the whole of this passage on the effects of the reformation, in which much truth and justice is mingled with much prejudice, wouldsuggest, could not possibly be compressed into a note; and would indeedembrace the whole religious and irreligious history of the time whichhas elapsed since Gibbon wrote. --M. ]

Chapter LV: The Bulgarians, The Hungarians And The Russians. --Part I. 

 The Bulgarians. --Origin, Migrations, And Settlement Of The Hungarians. --Their Inroads In The East And West. --The Monarchy Of Russia. --Geography And Trade. --Wars Of The Russians Against The Greek Empire. --Conversion Of The Barbarians. 

Under the reign of Constantine the grandson of Heraclius, the ancientbarrier of the Danube, so often violated and so often restored, wasirretrievably swept away by a new deluge of Barbarians. Their progresswas favored by the caliphs, their unknown and accidental auxiliaries:the Roman legions were occupied in Asia; and after the loss of Syria, Egypt, and Africa, the Caesars were twice reduced to the danger anddisgrace of defending their capital against the Saracens. If, in theaccount of this interesting people, I have deviated from the strict andoriginal line of my undertaking, the merit of the subject will hide mytransgression, or solicit my excuse. In the East, in the West, in war, in religion, in science, in their prosperity, and in their decay, theArabians press themselves on our curiosity: the first overthrow of thechurch and empire of the Greeks may be imputed to their arms; and thedisciples of Mahomet still hold the civil and religious sceptre of theOriental world. But the same labor would be unworthily bestowed on theswarms of savages, who, between the seventh and the twelfth century, descended from the plains of Scythia, in transient inroad or perpetualemigration. [1] Their names are uncouth, their origins doubtful, theiractions obscure, their superstition was blind, their valor brutal, andthe uniformity of their public and private lives was neither softenedby innocence nor refined by policy. The majesty of the Byzantine thronerepelled and survived their disorderly attacks; the greater part ofthese Barbarians has disappeared without leaving any memorial of theirexistence, and the despicable remnant continues, and may long continue, to groan under the dominion of a foreign tyrant. From the antiquitiesof, I. Bulgarians, II. Hungarians, and, III. Russians, I shall contentmyself with selecting such facts as yet deserve to be remembered. Theconquests of the, IV. Normans, and the monarchy of the, V. Turks, willnaturally terminate in the memorable Crusades to the Holy Land, and thedouble fall of the city and empire of Constantine. 

[Footnote 1: All the passages of the Byzantine history which relate tothe Barbarians are compiled, methodized, and transcribed, in a Latinversion, by the laborious John Gotthelf Stritter, in his "MemoriaePopulorum, ad Danubium, Pontum Euxinum, Paludem Maeotidem, Caucasum, Mare Caspium, et inde Magis ad Septemtriones incolentium. " Petropoli, 1771-1779; in four tomes, or six volumes, in 4to. But the fashion hasnot enhanced the price of these raw materials. ]

I. In his march to Italy, Theodoric [2] the Ostrogoth had trampled onthe arms of the Bulgarians. After this defeat, the name and the nationare lost during a century and a half; and it may be suspected that thesame or a similar appellation was revived by strange colonies from theBorysthenes, the Tanais, or the Volga. A king of the ancient Bulgaria, bequeathed to his five sons a last lesson of moderation and concord. It was received as youth has ever received the counsels of age andexperience: the five princes buried their father; divided his subjectsand cattle; forgot his advice; separated from each other; and wanderedin quest of fortune till we find the most adventurous in the heart ofItaly, under the protection of the exarch of Ravenna. [4] But the streamof emigration was directed or impelled towards the capital. The modernBulgaria, along the southern banks of the Danube, was stamped withthe name and image which it has retained to the present hour: the newconquerors successively acquired, by war or treaty, the Roman provincesof Dardania, Thessaly, and the two Epirus; [5] the ecclesiasticalsupremacy was translated from the native city of Justinian; and, intheir prosperous age, the obscure town of Lychnidus, or Achrida, was honored with the throne of a king and a patriarch. [6] Theunquestionable evidence of language attests the descent of theBulgarians from the original stock of the Sclavonian, or more properlySlavonian, race; [7] and the kindred bands of Servians, Bosnians, Rascians, Croatians, Walachians, [8] &c. , followed either the standardor the example of the leading tribe. From the Euxine to the Adriatic, inthe state of captives, or subjects, or allies, or enemies, of the Greekempire, they overspread the land; and the national appellation of theslaves [9] has been degraded by chance or malice from the significationof glory to that of servitude. [10] Among these colonies, theChrobatians, [11] or Croats, who now attend the motions of an Austrianarmy, are the descendants of a mighty people, the conquerors andsovereigns of Dalmatia. The maritime cities, and of these the infantrepublic of Ragusa, implored the aid and instructions of the Byzantinecourt: they were advised by the magnanimous Basil to reserve a smallacknowledgment of their fidelity to the Roman empire, and to appease, by an annual tribute, the wrath of these irresistible Barbarians. Thekingdom of Crotia was shared by eleven Zoupans, or feudatory lords;and their united forces were numbered at sixty thousand horse andone hundred thousand foot. A long sea-coast, indented with capaciousharbors, covered with a string of islands, and almost in sight of theItalian shores, disposed both the natives and strangers to the practiceof navigation. The boats or brigantines of the Croats were constructedafter the fashion of the old Liburnians: one hundred and eighty vesselsmay excite the idea of a respectable navy; but our seamen will smile atthe allowance of ten, or twenty, or forty, men for each of these shipsof war. They were gradually converted to the more honorable service ofcommerce; yet the Sclavonian pirates were still frequent and dangerous;and it was not before the close of the tenth century that the freedomand sovereignty of the Gulf were effectually vindicated by the Venetianrepublic. [12] The ancestors of these Dalmatian kings were equallyremoved from the use and abuse of navigation: they dwelt in the WhiteCroatia, in the inland regions of Silesia and Little Poland, thirtydays' journey, according to the Greek computation, from the sea ofdarkness. 

[Footnote 2: Hist. Vol. Iv. P. 11. ]

[Footnote 3: Theophanes, p. 296-299. Anastasius, p. 113. Nicephorus, C. P. P. 22, 23. Theophanes places the old Bulgaria on the banks of theAtell or Volga; but he deprives himself of all geographical credit bydischarging that river into the Euxine Sea. ]

[Footnote 4: Paul. Diacon. De Gestis Langobard. L. V. C. 29, p. 881, 882. The apparent difference between the Lombard historian and theabove-mentioned Greeks, is easily reconciled by Camillo Pellegrino (deDucatu Beneventano, dissert. Vii. In the Scriptores Rerum Ital. (tom. V. P. 186, 187) and Beretti, (Chorograph. Italiae Medii Aevi, p. 273, &c. This Bulgarian colony was planted in a vacant district of Samnium, andlearned the Latin, without forgetting their native language. ]

[Footnote 5: These provinces of the Greek idiom and empire are assignedto the Bulgarian kingdom in the dispute of ecclesiastical jurisdictionbetween the patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople, (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 869, No. 75. )]

[Footnote 6: The situation and royalty of Lychnidus, or Achrida, areclearly expressed in Cedrenus, (p. 713. ) The removal of an archbishop orpatriarch from Justinianea prima to Lychnidus, and at length to Ternovo, has produced some perplexity in the ideas or language of the Greeks, (Nicephorus Gregoras, l. Ii. C. 2, p. 14, 15. Thomassin, Discipline del'Eglise, tom. I. L. I. C. 19, 23;) and a Frenchman (D'Anville) is moreaccurately skilled in the geography of their own country, (Hist. Del'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. Xxxi. )]

[Footnote 7: Chalcocondyles, a competent judge, affirms the identity ofthe language of the Dalmatians, Bosnians, Servians, Bulgarians, Poles, (de Rebus Turcicis, l. X. P. 283, ) and elsewhere of the Bohemians, (l. Ii. P. 38. ) The same author has marked the separate idiom of theHungarians. * Note: The Slavonian languages are no doubt Indo-European, though an original branch of that great family, comprehending thevarious dialects named by Gibbon and others. Shafarik, t. 33. --M. 1845. ]

[Footnote 8: See the work of John Christopher de Jordan, de OriginibusSclavicis, Vindobonae, 1745, in four parts, or two volumes in folio. Hiscollections and researches are useful to elucidate the antiquities ofBohemia and the adjacent countries; but his plan is narrow, his stylebarbarous, his criticism shallow, and the Aulic counsellor is not freefrom the prejudices of a Bohemian. * Note: We have at length a profoundand satisfactory work on the Slavonian races. Shafarik, SlawischeAlterthumer. B. 2, Leipzig, 1843. --M. 1845. ]

[Footnote 9: Jordan subscribes to the well-known and probable derivationfrom Slava, laus, gloria, a word of familiar use in the differentdialects and parts of speech, and which forms the termination of themost illustrious names, (de Originibus Sclavicis, pars. I. P. 40, pars. Iv. P. 101, 102)]

[Footnote 10: This conversion of a national into an appellative nameappears to have arisen in the viiith century, in the Oriental France, where the princes and bishops were rich in Sclavonian captives, not ofthe Bohemian, (exclaims Jordan, ) but of Sorabian race. From thence theword was extended to the general use, to the modern languages, and evento the style of the last Byzantines, (see the Greek and Latin Glossariesand Ducange. ) The confusion of the Servians with the Latin Servi, wasstill more fortunate and familiar, (Constant. Porphyr. De Administrando, Imperio, c. 32, p. 99. )]

[Footnote 11: The emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, most accuratefor his own times, most fabulous for preceding ages, describes theSclavonians of Dalmatia, (c. 29-36. )]

[Footnote 12: See the anonymous Chronicle of the xith century, ascribedto John Sagorninus, (p. 94-102, ) and that composed in the xivth by theDoge Andrew Dandolo, (Script. Rerum. Ital. Tom. Xii. P. 227-230, ) thetwo oldest monuments of the history of Venice. ]

The glory of the Bulgarians [13] was confined to a narrow scope both oftime and place. In the ninth and tenth centuries, they reigned to thesouth of the Danube; but the more powerful nations that had followedtheir emigration repelled all return to the north and all progress tothe west. Yet in the obscure catalogue of their exploits, they mightboast an honor which had hitherto been appropriated to the Goths: thatof slaying in battle one of the successors of Augustus and Constantine. The emperor Nicephorus had lost his fame in the Arabian, he lost hislife in the Sclavonian, war. In his first operations he advanced withboldness and success into the centre of Bulgaria, and burnt the royalcourt, which was probably no more than an edifice and village of timber. But while he searched the spoil and refused all offers of treaty, hisenemies collected their spirits and their forces: the passes of retreatwere insuperably barred; and the trembling Nicephorus was heard toexclaim, "Alas, alas! unless we could assume the wings of birds, wecannot hope to escape. " Two days he waited his fate in the inactivity ofdespair; but, on the morning of the third, the Bulgarians surprised thecamp, and the Roman prince, with the great officers of the empire, were slaughtered in their tents. The body of Valens had been savedfrom insult; but the head of Nicephorus was exposed on a spear, andhis skull, enchased with gold, was often replenished in the feastsof victory. The Greeks bewailed the dishonor of the throne; but theyacknowledged the just punishment of avarice and cruelty. This savage cupwas deeply tinctured with the manners of the Scythian wilderness; butthey were softened before the end of the same century by a peacefulintercourse with the Greeks, the possession of a cultivated region, andthe introduction of the Christian worship. The nobles of Bulgaria wereeducated in the schools and palace of Constantinople; and Simeon, [14]a youth of the royal line, was instructed in the rhetoric of Demosthenesand the logic of Aristotle. He relinquished the profession of a monk forthat of a king and warrior; and in his reign of more than forty years, Bulgaria assumed a rank among the civilized powers of the earth. TheGreeks, whom he repeatedly attacked, derived a faint consolation fromindulging themselves in the reproaches of perfidy and sacrilege. Theypurchased the aid of the Pagan Turks; but Simeon, in a second battle, redeemed the loss of the first, at a time when it was esteemed avictory to elude the arms of that formidable nation. The Servianswere overthrown, made captive and dispersed; and those who visitedthe country before their restoration could discover no more thanfifty vagrants, without women or children, who extorted a precarioussubsistence from the chase. On classic ground, on the banks of Achelous, the greeks were defeated; their horn was broken by the strength of theBarbaric Hercules. [15] He formed the siege of Constantinople; and, ina personal conference with the emperor, Simeon imposed the conditions ofpeace. They met with the most jealous precautions: the royal gallerywas drawn close to an artificial and well-fortified platform; and themajesty of the purple was emulated by the pomp of the Bulgarian. "Areyou a Christian?" said the humble Romanus: "it is your duty to abstainfrom the blood of your fellow-Christians. Has the thirst of richesseduced you from the blessings of peace? Sheathe your sword, openyour hand, and I will satiate the utmost measure of your desires. " Thereconciliation was sealed by a domestic alliance; the freedom of tradewas granted or restored; the first honors of the court were secured tothe friends of Bulgaria, above the ambassadors of enemies or strangers;[16] and her princes were dignified with the high and invidious title ofBasileus, or emperor. But this friendship was soon disturbed: after thedeath of Simeon, the nations were again in arms; his feeble successorswere divided and extinguished; and, in the beginning of the eleventhcentury, the second Basil, who was born in the purple, deserved theappellation of conqueror of the Bulgarians. His avarice was in somemeasure gratified by a treasure of four hundred thousand poundssterling, (ten thousand pounds' weight of gold, ) which he found inthe palace of Lychnidus. His cruelty inflicted a cool and exquisitevengeance on fifteen thousand captives who had been guilty of thedefence of their country. They were deprived of sight; but to one ofeach hundred a single eye was left, that he might conduct his blindcentury to the presence of their king. Their king is said to haveexpired of grief and horror; the nation was awed by this terribleexample; the Bulgarians were swept away from their settlements, andcircumscribed within a narrow province; the surviving chiefs bequeathedto their children the advice of patience and the duty of revenge. 

[Footnote 13: The first kingdom of the Bulgarians may be found, underthe proper dates, in the Annals of Cedrenus and Zonaras. The Byzantinematerials are collected by Stritter, (Memoriae Populorum, tom. Ii. Parsii. P. 441-647;) and the series of their kings is disposed and settledby Ducange, (Fam. Byzant. P. 305-318. ]

[Footnote 14: Simeonem semi-Graecum esse aiebant, eo quod a pueritiaByzantii Demosthenis rhetoricam et Aristotelis syllogismos didicerat, (Liutprand, l. Iii. C. 8. ) He says in another place, Simeon, fortisbella tor, Bulgariae praeerat; Christianus, sed vicinis Graecis valdeinimicus, (l. I. C. 2. )]

[Footnote 15:--Rigidum fera dextera cornu Dum tenet, infregit, truncaquea fronte revellit. Ovid (Metamorph. Ix. 1-100) has boldly painted thecombat of the river god and the hero; the native and the stranger. ]

[Footnote 16: The ambassador of Otho was provoked by the Greek excuses, cum Christophori filiam Petrus Bulgarorum Vasileus conjugem duceret, Symphona, id est consonantia scripto juramento firmata sunt, ut omniumgentium Apostolis, id est nunciis, penes nos Bulgarorum Apostolipraeponantur, honorentur, diligantur, (Liutprand in Legatione, p. 482. )See the Ceremoniale of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, tom. I. P. 82, tom. Ii. P. 429, 430, 434, 435, 443, 444, 446, 447, with the annotations ofReiske. ]

II. When the black swarm of Hungarians first hung over Europe, abovenine hundred years after the Christian aera, they were mistaken by fearand superstition for the Gog and Magog of the Scriptures, the signsand forerunners of the end of the world. [17] Since the introductionof letters, they have explored their own antiquities with a strong andlaudable impulse of patriotic curiosity. [18] Their rational criticismcan no longer be amused with a vain pedigree of Attila and the Huns; butthey complain that their primitive records have perished in the Tartarwar; that the truth or fiction of their rustic songs is long sinceforgotten; and that the fragments of a rude chronicle [19] must bepainfully reconciled with the contemporary though foreign intelligenceof the imperial geographer. [20] Magiar is the national and orientaldenomination of the Hungarians; but, among the tribes of Scythia, theyare distinguished by the Greeks under the proper and peculiar name ofTurks, as the descendants of that mighty people who had conqueredand reigned from China to the Volga. The Pannonian colony preserved acorrespondence of trade and amity with the eastern Turks on the confinesof Persia and after a separation of three hundred and fifty years, themissionaries of the king of Hungary discovered and visited their ancientcountry near the banks of the Volga. They were hospitably entertainedby a people of Pagans and Savages who still bore the name of Hungarians;conversed in their native tongue, recollected a tradition of theirlong-lost brethren, and listened with amazement to the marvellous taleof their new kingdom and religion. The zeal of conversion was animatedby the interest of consanguinity; and one of the greatest oftheir princes had formed the generous, though fruitless, design ofreplenishing the solitude of Pannonia by this domestic colony from theheart of Tartary. [21] From this primitive country they were driven tothe West by the tide of war and emigration, by the weight of the moredistant tribes, who at the same time were fugitives and conquerors. [2111] Reason or fortune directed their course towards the frontiers ofthe Roman empire: they halted in the usual stations along the banks ofthe great rivers; and in the territories of Moscow, Kiow, and Moldavia, some vestiges have been discovered of their temporary residence. Inthis long and various peregrination, they could not always escape thedominion of the stronger; and the purity of their blood was improved orsullied by the mixture of a foreign race: from a motive of compulsion, or choice, several tribes of the Chazars were associated to the standardof their ancient vassals; introduced the use of a second language; andobtained by their superior renown the most honorable place in the frontof battle. The military force of the Turks and their allies marched inseven equal and artificial divisions; each division was formed of thirtythousand eight hundred and fifty-seven warriors, and the proportion ofwomen, children, and servants, supposes and requires at least a millionof emigrants. Their public counsels were directed by seven vayvods, or hereditary chiefs; but the experience of discord and weaknessrecommended the more simple and vigorous administration of a singleperson. The sceptre, which had been declined by the modest Lebedias, was granted to the birth or merit of Almus and his son Arpad, and theauthority of the supreme khan of the Chazars confirmed the engagement ofthe prince and people; of the people to obey his commands, of the princeto consult their happiness and glory. 

[Footnote 17: A bishop of Wurtzburgh submitted his opinion to areverend abbot; but he more gravely decided, that Gog and Magog were thespiritual persecutors of the church; since Gog signifies the root, the pride of the Heresiarchs, and Magog what comes from the root, thepropagation of their sects. Yet these men once commanded the respect ofmankind, (Fleury, Hist. Eccles. Tom. Xi. P. 594, &c. )]

[Footnote 18: The two national authors, from whom I have derived themos assistance, are George Pray (Dissertationes and Annales veterum Hungarorum, &c. , Vindobonae, 1775, in folio) and Stephen Katona, (Hist. Critica Ducum et Regum Hungariae Stirpis Arpadianae, Paestini, 1778-1781, 5 vols. In octavo. ) The first embraces a large andoften conjectural space; the latter, by his learning, judgment, andperspicuity, deserves the name of a critical historian. * Note: CompareEngel Geschichte des Ungrischen Reichs und seiner Neben lander, Halle, 1797, and Mailath, Geschichte der Magyaren, Wien, 1828. In an appendixto the latter work will be found a brief abstract of the speculations(for it is difficult to consider them more) which have been advanced bythe learned, on the origin of the Magyar and Hungarian names. Comparevol. Vi. P. 35, note. --M. ]

[Footnote 19: The author of this Chronicle is styled the notary of KingBela. Katona has assigned him to the xiith century, and defends hischaracter against the hypercriticism of Pray. This rude annalist musthave transcribed some historical records, since he could affirmwith dignity, rejectis falsis fabulis rusticorum, et garrulo cantujoculatorum. In the xvth century, these fables were collectedby Thurotzius, and embellished by the Italian Bonfinius. See thePreliminary Discourse in the Hist. Critica Ducum, p. 7-33. ]

[Footnote 20: See Constantine de Administrando Imperio, c. 3, 4, 13, 38-42, Katona has nicely fixed the composition of this work to theyears 949, 950, 951, (p. 4-7. ) The critical historian (p. 34-107)endeavors to prove the existence, and to relate the actions, of a firstduke Almus the father of Arpad, who is tacitly rejected by Constantine. ]

[Footnote 21: Pray (Dissert. P. 37-39, &c. ) produces and illustratesthe original passages of the Hungarian missionaries, Bonfinius andAeneas Sylvius. ]

[Footnote 2111: In the deserts to the south-east of Astrakhan have beenfound the ruins of a city named Madchar, which proves the residence ofthe Hungarians or Magiar in those regions. Precis de la Geog. Univ. ParMalte Brun, vol. I. P. 353. --G. ----This is contested by Klaproth inhis Travels, c. Xxi. Madschar, (he states) in old Tartar, means"stone building. " This was a Tartar city mentioned by the Mahometanwriters. --M. ]

With this narrative we might be reasonably content, if the penetrationof modern learning had not opened a new and larger prospect of theantiquities of nations. The Hungarian language stands alone, and as itwere insulated, among the Sclavonian dialects; but it bears a close andclear affinity to the idioms of the Fennic race, [22] of an obsolete andsavage race, which formerly occupied the northern regions of Asia andEurope. [2211] The genuine appellation of Ugri or Igours is found onthe western confines of China; [23] their migration to the banks of theIrtish is attested by Tartar evidence; [24] a similar name and languageare detected in the southern parts of Siberia; [25] and the remains ofthe Fennic tribes are widely, though thinly scattered from the sourcesof the Oby to the shores of Lapland. [26] The consanguinity of theHungarians and Laplanders would display the powerful energy of climateon the children of a common parent; the lively contrast between the boldadventurers who are intoxicated with the wines of the Danube, and thewretched fugitives who are immersed beneath the snows of the polarcircle. 

Arms and freedom have ever been the ruling, though too often theunsuccessful, passion of the Hungarians, who are endowed by naturewith a vigorous constitution of soul and body. [27] Extreme cold hasdiminished the stature and congealed the faculties of the Laplanders;and the arctic tribes, alone among the sons of men, are ignorant of war, and unconscious of human blood; a happy ignorance, if reason and virtuewere the guardians of their peace! [28]

[Footnote 22: Fischer in the Quaestiones Petropolitanae, de OrigineUngrorum, and Pray, Dissertat. I. Ii. Iii. &c. , have drawn up severalcomparative tables of the Hungarian with the Fennic dialects. Theaffinity is indeed striking, but the lists are short; the words arepurposely chosen; and I read in the learned Bayer, (Comment. Academ. Petropol. Tom. X. P. 374, ) that although the Hungarian has adopted manyFennic words, (innumeras voces, ) it essentially differs toto genio etnatura. ]

[Footnote 2211: The connection between the Magyar language and that ofthe Finns is now almost generally admitted. Klaproth, Asia Polyglotta, p. 188, &c. Malte Bran, tom. Vi. P. 723, &c. --M. ]

[Footnote 23: In the religion of Turfan, which is clearly and minutelydescribed by the Chinese Geographers, (Gaubil, Hist. Du Grand Gengiscan, 13; De Guignes, Hist. Des Huns, tom. Ii. P. 31, &c. )]

[Footnote 24: Hist. Genealogique des Tartars, par Abulghazi Bahadur Khanpartie ii. P. 90-98. ]

[Footnote 25: In their journey to Pekin, both Isbrand Ives (Harris'sCollection of Voyages and Travels, vol. Ii. P. 920, 921) and Bell(Travels, vol. I p. 174) found the Vogulitz in the neighborhood ofTobolsky. By the tortures of the etymological art, Ugur and Vogul arereduced to the same name; the circumjacent mountains really bear theappellation of Ugrian; and of all the Fennic dialects, the Vogulian isthe nearest to the Hungarian, (Fischer, Dissert. I. P. 20-30. Pray. Dissert. Ii. P. 31-34. )]

[Footnote 26: The eight tribes of the Fennic race are described in thecurious work of M. Leveque, (Hist. Des Peuples soumis a la Domination dela Russie, tom. Ii. P. 361-561. )]

[Footnote 27: This picture of the Hungarians and Bulgarians is chieflydrawn from the Tactics of Leo, p. 796-801, and the Latin Annals, whichare alleged by Baronius, Pagi, and Muratori, A. D. 889, &c. ]

[Footnote 28: Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. V. P. 6, in 12mo. GustavusAdolphus attempted, without success, to form a regiment of Laplanders. Grotius says of these arctic tribes, arma arcus et pharetra, sedadversus feras, (Annal. L. Iv. P. 236;) and attempts, after the mannerof Tacitus, to varnish with philosophy their brutal ignorance. ]

Chapter LV: The Bulgarians, The Hungarians And The Russians. --Part II. 

It is the observation of the Imperial author of the Tactics, [29] thatall the Scythian hordes resembled each other in their pastoral andmilitary life, that they all practised the same means of subsistence, and employed the same instruments of destruction. But he adds, thatthe two nations of Bulgarians and Hungarians were superior to theirbrethren, and similar to each other in the improvements, however rude, of their discipline and government: their visible likeness determinesLeo to confound his friends and enemies in one common description; andthe picture may be heightened by some strokes from their contemporariesof the tenth century. Except the merit and fame of military prowess, all that is valued by mankind appeared vile and contemptible to theseBarbarians, whose native fierceness was stimulated by the consciousnessof numbers and freedom. The tents of the Hungarians were of leather, their garments of fur; they shaved their hair, and scarified theirfaces: in speech they were slow, in action prompt, in treaty perfidious;and they shared the common reproach of Barbarians, too ignorant toconceive the importance of truth, too proud to deny or palliate thebreach of their most solemn engagements. Their simplicity has beenpraised; yet they abstained only from the luxury they had never known;whatever they saw they coveted; their desires were insatiate, and theirsole industry was the hand of violence and rapine. By the definition ofa pastoral nation, I have recalled a long description of the economy, the warfare, and the government that prevail in that state of society;I may add, that to fishing, as well as to the chase, the Hungarianswere indebted for a part of their subsistence; and since they seldomcultivated the ground, they must, at least in their new settlements, have sometimes practised a slight and unskilful husbandry. In theiremigrations, perhaps in their expeditions, the host was accompaniedby thousands of sheep and oxen which increased the cloud of formidabledust, and afforded a constant and wholesale supply of milk and animalfood. A plentiful command of forage was the first care of the general, and if the flocks and herds were secure of their pastures, the hardywarrior was alike insensible of danger and fatigue. The confusion of menand cattle that overspread the country exposed their camp to a nocturnalsurprise, had not a still wider circuit been occupied by their lightcavalry, perpetually in motion to discover and delay the approach of theenemy. After some experience of the Roman tactics, they adopted theuse of the sword and spear, the helmet of the soldier, and the ironbreastplate of his steed: but their native and deadly weapon was theTartar bow: from the earliest infancy their children and servants wereexercised in the double science of archery and horsemanship; their armwas strong; their aim was sure; and in the most rapid career, they weretaught to throw themselves backwards, and to shoot a volley of arrowsinto the air. In open combat, in secret ambush, in flight, or pursuit, they were equally formidable; an appearance of order was maintainedin the foremost ranks, but their charge was driven forwards by theimpatient pressure of succeeding crowds. They pursued, headlong andrash, with loosened reins and horrific outcries; but, if they fled, withreal or dissembled fear, the ardor of a pursuing foe was checked andchastised by the same habits of irregular speed and sudden evolution. In the abuse of victory, they astonished Europe, yet smarting from thewounds of the Saracen and the Dane: mercy they rarely asked, and morerarely bestowed: both sexes were accused is equally inaccessible topity, and their appetite for raw flesh might countenance the populartale, that they drank the blood, and feasted on the hearts of the slain. Yet the Hungarians were not devoid of those principles of justice andhumanity, which nature has implanted in every bosom. The license ofpublic and private injuries was restrained by laws and punishments; andin the security of an open camp, theft is the most tempting andmost dangerous offence. Among the Barbarians there were many, whosespontaneous virtue supplied their laws and corrected their manners, whoperformed the duties, and sympathized with the affections, of sociallife. 

[Footnote 29: Leo has observed, that the government of the Turks wasmonarchical, and that their punishments were rigorous, (Tactic. P. 896)Rhegino (in Chron. A. D. 889) mentions theft as a capital crime, and hisjurisprudence is confirmed by the original code of St. Stephen, (A. D. 1016. ) If a slave were guilty, he was chastised, for the first time, with the loss of his nose, or a fine of five heifers; for the second, with the loss of his ears, or a similar fine; for the third, with death;which the freeman did not incur till the fourth offence, as his firstpenalty was the loss of liberty, (Katona, Hist. Regum Hungar tom. I. P. 231, 232. )]

After a long pilgrimage of flight or victory, the Turkish hordesapproached the common limits of the French and Byzantine empires. Theirfirst conquests and final settlements extended on either side of theDanube above Vienna, below Belgrade, and beyond the measure of the Romanprovince of Pannonia, or the modern kingdom of Hungary. [30] That ampleand fertile land was loosely occupied by the Moravians, a Sclavonianname and tribe, which were driven by the invaders into the compass of anarrow province. Charlemagne had stretched a vague and nominal empireas far as the edge of Transylvania; but, after the failure of hislegitimate line, the dukes of Moravia forgot their obedience and tributeto the monarchs of Oriental France. The bastard Arnulph was provoked toinvite the arms of the Turks: they rushed through the real or figurativewall, which his indiscretion had thrown open; and the king of Germanyhas been justly reproached as a traitor to the civil and ecclesiasticalsociety of the Christians. During the life of Arnulph, the Hungarianswere checked by gratitude or fear; but in the infancy of his son Lewisthey discovered and invaded Bavaria; and such was their Scythian speed, that in a single day a circuit of fifty miles was stripped and consumed. In the battle of Augsburgh the Christians maintained their advantagetill the seventh hour of the day, they were deceived and vanquished bythe flying stratagems of the Turkish cavalry. The conflagration spreadover the provinces of Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia; and the Hungarians[31] promoted the reign of anarchy, by forcing the stoutest barons todiscipline their vassals and fortify their castles. The origin of walledtowns is ascribed to this calamitous period; nor could any distance besecure against an enemy, who, almost at the same instant, laid in ashesthe Helvetian monastery of St. Gall, and the city of Bremen, on theshores of the northern ocean. Above thirty years the Germanic empire, or kingdom, was subject to the ignominy of tribute; and resistance wasdisarmed by the menace, the serious and effectual menace of dragging thewomen and children into captivity, and of slaughtering the males abovethe age of ten years. I have neither power nor inclination to follow theHungarians beyond the Rhine; but I must observe with surprise, thatthe southern provinces of France were blasted by the tempest, and thatSpain, behind her Pyrenees, was astonished at the approach of theseformidable strangers. [32] The vicinity of Italy had tempted their earlyinroads; but from their camp on the Brenta, they beheld with some terrorthe apparent strength and populousness of the new discovered country. They requested leave to retire; their request was proudly rejected bythe Italian king; and the lives of twenty thousand Christians paid theforfeit of his obstinacy and rashness. Among the cities of the West, theroyal Pavia was conspicuous in fame and splendor; and the preeminenceof Rome itself was only derived from the relics of the apostles. TheHungarians appeared; Pavia was in flames; forty-three churches wereconsumed; and, after the massacre of the people, they spared about twohundred wretches who had gathered some bushels of gold and silver (avague exaggeration) from the smoking ruins of their country. In theseannual excursions from the Alps to the neighborhood of Rome and Capua, the churches, that yet escaped, resounded with a fearful litany: "O, save and deliver us from the arrows of the Hungarians!" But the saintswere deaf or inexorable; and the torrent rolled forwards, till it wasstopped by the extreme land of Calabria. [33] A composition was offeredand accepted for the head of each Italian subject; and ten bushelsof silver were poured forth in the Turkish camp. But falsehood is thenatural antagonist of violence; and the robbers were defrauded both inthe numbers of the assessment and the standard of the metal. On the sideof the East, the Hungarians were opposed in doubtful conflict by theequal arms of the Bulgarians, whose faith forbade an alliance with thePagans, and whose situation formed the barrier of the Byzantine empire. The barrier was overturned; the emperor of Constantinople beheld thewaving banners of the Turks; and one of their boldest warriors presumedto strike a battle-axe into the golden gate. The arts and treasuresof the Greeks diverted the assault; but the Hungarians might boast, intheir retreat, that they had imposed a tribute on the spirit of Bulgariaand the majesty of the Caesars. [34] The remote and rapid operations ofthe same campaign appear to magnify the power and numbers of the Turks;but their courage is most deserving of praise, since a light troop ofthree or four hundred horse would often attempt and execute the mostdaring inroads to the gates of Thessalonica and Constantinople. At thisdisastrous aera of the ninth and tenth centuries, Europe was afflictedby a triple scourge from the North, the East, and the South: the Norman, the Hungarian, and the Saracen, sometimes trod the same ground ofdesolation; and these savage foes might have been compared by Homerto the two lions growling over the carcass of a mangled stag. [35][Footnote 30: See Katona, Hist. Ducum Hungar. P. 321-352. ]

[Footnote 31: Hungarorum gens, cujus omnes fere nationes expertaesaevitium &c. , is the preface of Liutprand, (l. I. C. 2, ) who frequentlyexpatiated on the calamities of his own times. See l. I. C. 5, l. Ii. C. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7; l. Iii. C. 1, &c. , l. V. C. 8, 15, in Legat. P. 485. His colors are glaring but his chronology must be rectified by Pagi andMuratori. ]

[Footnote 32: The three bloody reigns of Arpad, Zoltan, and Toxus, arecritically illustrated by Katona, (Hist. Ducum, &c. P. 107-499. ) Hisdiligence has searched both natives and foreigners; yet to the deeds ofmischief, or glory, I have been able to add the destruction of Bremen, (Adam Bremensis, i. 43. )]

[Footnote 33: Muratori has considered with patriotic care the danger andresources of Modena. The citizens besought St. Geminianus, their patron, to avert, by his intercession, the rabies, flagellum, &c. Nunc terogamus, licet servi pessimi, Ab Ungerorum nos defendas jaculis. Thebishop erected walls for the public defence, not contra dominos serenos, (Antiquitat. Ital. Med. Aevi, tom. I. Dissertat. I. P. 21, 22, ) and thesong of the nightly watch is not without elegance or use, (tom. Iii. Dis. Xl. P. 709. ) The Italian annalist has accurately traced the seriesof their inroads, (Annali d' Italia, tom. Vii. P. 365, 367, 398, 401, 437, 440, tom. Viii. P. 19, 41, 52, &c. )]

[Footnote 34: Both the Hungarian and Russian annals suppose, that theybesieged, or attacked, or insulted Constantinople, (Pray, dissertat. X. P. 239. Katona, Hist. Ducum, p. 354-360;) and the fact is almostconfessed by the Byzantine historians, (Leo Grammaticus, p. 506. Cedrenus, tom. Ii. P. 629: ) yet, however glorious to the nation, it isdenied or doubted by the critical historian, and even by the notary ofBela. Their scepticism is meritorious; they could not safely transcribeor believe the rusticorum fabulas: but Katona might have given dueattention to the evidence of Liutprand, Bulgarorum gentem atque daecorumtributariam fecerant, (Hist. L. Ii. C. 4, p. 435. )]

[Footnote 35:--Iliad, xvi. 756. ]

The deliverance of Germany and Christendom was achieved by the Saxonprinces, Henry the Fowler and Otho the Great, who, in two memorablebattles, forever broke the power of the Hungarians. [36] The valiantHenry was roused from a bed of sickness by the invasion of his country;but his mind was vigorous and his prudence successful. "My companions, "said he, on the morning of the combat, "maintain your ranks, receive onyour bucklers the first arrows of the Pagans, and prevent their seconddischarge by the equal and rapid career of your lances. " They obeyedand conquered: and the historical picture of the castle of Merseburghexpressed the features, or at least the character, of Henry, who, inan age of ignorance, intrusted to the finer arts the perpetuity of hisname. [37] At the end of twenty years, the children of the Turks who hadfallen by his sword invaded the empire of his son; and their force isdefined, in the lowest estimate, at one hundred thousand horse. They were invited by domestic faction; the gates of Germany weretreacherously unlocked; and they spread, far beyond the Rhine and theMeuse, into the heart of Flanders. But the vigor and prudence of Othodispelled the conspiracy; the princes were made sensible thatunless they were true to each other, their religion and country wereirrecoverably lost; and the national powers were reviewed in the plainsof Augsburgh. They marched and fought in eight legions, according tothe division of provinces and tribes; the first, second, and third, werecomposed of Bavarians; the fourth, of Franconians; the fifth, of Saxons, under the immediate command of the monarch; the sixth and seventhconsisted of Swabians; and the eighth legion, of a thousand Bohemians, closed the rear of the host. The resources of discipline and valor werefortified by the arts of superstition, which, on this occasion, maydeserve the epithets of generous and salutary. The soldiers werepurified with a fast; the camp was blessed with the relics of saintsand martyrs; and the Christian hero girded on his side the sword ofConstantine, grasped the invincible spear of Charlemagne, and wavedthe banner of St. Maurice, the praefect of the Thebaean legion. But hisfirmest confidence was placed in the holy lance, [38] whose point wasfashioned of the nails of the cross, and which his father had extortedfrom the king of Burgundy, by the threats of war, and the gift of aprovince. The Hungarians were expected in the front; they secretlypassed the Lech, a river of Bavaria that falls into the Danube; turnedthe rear of the Christian army; plundered the baggage, and disorderedthe legion of Bohemia and Swabia. The battle was restored by theFranconians, whose duke, the valiant Conrad, was pierced with an arrowas he rested from his fatigues: the Saxons fought under the eyes oftheir king; and his victory surpassed, in merit and importance, thetriumphs of the last two hundred years. The loss of the Hungarians wasstill greater in the flight than in the action; they were encompassed bythe rivers of Bavaria; and their past cruelties excluded them fromthe hope of mercy. Three captive princes were hanged at Ratisbon, themultitude of prisoners was slain or mutilated, and the fugitives, whopresumed to appear in the face of their country, were condemned toeverlasting poverty and disgrace. [39] Yet the spirit of the nation washumbled, and the most accessible passes of Hungary were fortified witha ditch and rampart. Adversity suggested the counsels of moderation andpeace: the robbers of the West acquiesced in a sedentary life; and thenext generation was taught, by a discerning prince, that far more mightbe gained by multiplying and exchanging the produce of a fruitful soil. The native race, the Turkish or Fennic blood, was mingled with newcolonies of Scythian or Sclavonian origin; [40] many thousands of robustand industrious captives had been imported from all the countries ofEurope; [41] and after the marriage of Geisa with a Bavarian princess, he bestowed honors and estates on the nobles of Germany. [42] The son ofGeisa was invested with the regal title, and the house of Arpadreigned three hundred years in the kingdom of Hungary. But the freebornBarbarians were not dazzled by the lustre of the diadem, and the peopleasserted their indefeasible right of choosing, deposing, and punishingthe hereditary servant of the state. 

[Footnote 36: They are amply and critically discussed by Katona, (Hist. Dacum, p. 360-368, 427-470. ) Liutprand (l. Ii. C. 8, 9) is the bestevidence for the former, and Witichind (Annal. Saxon. L. Iii. ) of thelatter; but the critical historian will not even overlook the horn of awarrior, which is said to be preserved at Jaz-berid. ]

[Footnote 37: Hunc vero triumphum, tam laude quam memoria dignum, adMeresburgum rex in superiori coenaculo domus per Zeus, id est, picturam, notari praecepit, adeo ut rem veram potius quam verisimilem videas: ahigh encomium, (Liutprand, l. Ii. C. 9. ) Another palace in Germanyhad been painted with holy subjects by the order of Charlemagne; andMuratori may justly affirm, nulla saecula fuere in quibus pictoresdesiderati fuerint, (Antiquitat. Ital. Medii Aevi, tom. Ii. Dissert. Xxiv. P. 360, 361. ) Our domestic claims to antiquity of ignorance andoriginal imperfection (Mr. Walpole's lively words) are of a much morerecent date, (Anecdotes of Painting, vol. I. P. 2, &c. )]

[Footnote 38: See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 929, No. 2-5. The lanceof Christ is taken from the best evidence, Liutprand, (l. Iv. C. 12, )Sigebert, and the Acts of St. Gerard: but the other military relicsdepend on the faith of the Gesta Anglorum post Bedam, l. Ii. C. 8. ]

[Footnote 39: Katona, Hist. Ducum Hungariae, p. 500, &c. ]

[Footnote 40: Among these colonies we may distinguish, 1. The Chazars, or Cabari, who joined the Hungarians on their march, (Constant. DeAdmin. Imp. C. 39, 40, p. 108, 109. ) 2. The Jazyges, Moravians, andSiculi, whom they found in the land; the last were perhaps a remnant ofthe Huns of Attila, and were intrusted with the guard of the borders. 3. The Russians, who, like the Swiss in France, imparted a general nameto the royal porters. 4. The Bulgarians, whose chiefs (A. D. 956)were invited, cum magna multitudine Hismahelitarum. Had any of thoseSclavonians embraced the Mahometan religion? 5. The Bisseni and Cumans, a mixed multitude of Patzinacites, Uzi, Chazars, &c. , who had spreadto the Lower Danube. The last colony of 40, 000 Cumans, A. D. 1239, wasreceived and converted by the kings of Hungary, who derived from thattribe a new regal appellation, (Pray, Dissert. Vi. Vii. P. 109-173. Katona, Hist. Ducum, p. 95-99, 259-264, 476, 479-483, &c. )]

[Footnote 41: Christiani autem, quorum pars major populi est, qui exomni parte mundi illuc tracti sunt captivi, &c. Such was the languageof Piligrinus, the first missionary who entered Hungary, A. D. 973. Parsmajor is strong. Hist. Ducum, p. 517. ]

[Footnote 42: The fideles Teutonici of Geisa are authenticated in oldcharters: and Katona, with his usual industry, has made a fair estimateof these colonies, which had been so loosely magnified by the ItalianRanzanus, (Hist. Critic. Ducum. P, 667-681. )]

III. The name of Russians [43] was first divulged, in the ninth century, by an embassy of Theophilus, emperor of the East, to the emperor of theWest, Lewis, the son of Charlemagne. The Greeks were accompanied by theenvoys of the great duke, or chagan, or czar, of the Russians. In theirjourney to Constantinople, they had traversed many hostile nations;and they hoped to escape the dangers of their return, by requestingthe French monarch to transport them by sea to their native country. Acloser examination detected their origin: they were the brethren ofthe Swedes and Normans, whose name was already odious and formidable inFrance; and it might justly be apprehended, that these Russian strangerswere not the messengers of peace, but the emissaries of war. They weredetained, while the Greeks were dismissed; and Lewis expected a moresatisfactory account, that he might obey the laws of hospitalityor prudence, according to the interest of both empires. [44] ThisScandinavian origin of the people, or at least the princes, of Russia, may be confirmed and illustrated by the national annals [45] andthe general history of the North. The Normans, who had so long beenconcealed by a veil of impenetrable darkness, suddenly burst forth inthe spirit of naval and military enterprise. The vast, and, as it issaid, the populous regions of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, were crowdedwith independent chieftains and desperate adventurers, who sighed in thelaziness of peace, and smiled in the agonies of death. Piracy was theexercise, the trade, the glory, and the virtue, of the Scandinavianyouth. Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow limits, they startedfrom the banquet, grasped their arms, sounded their horn, ascendedtheir vessels, and explored every coast that promised either spoil orsettlement. The Baltic was the first scene of their naval achievementsthey visited the eastern shores, the silent residence of Fennic andSclavonic tribes, and the primitive Russians of the Lake Ladoga paida tribute, the skins of white squirrels, to these strangers, whom theysaluted with the title of Varangians [46] or Corsairs. Their superiorityin arms, discipline, and renown, commanded the fear and reverence of thenatives. In their wars against the more inland savages, the Varangianscondescended to serve as friends and auxiliaries, and gradually, bychoice or conquest, obtained the dominion of a people whom they werequalified to protect. Their tyranny was expelled, their valor was againrecalled, till at length Ruric, a Scandinavian chief, became the fatherof a dynasty which reigned above seven hundred years. His brothersextended his influence: the example of service and usurpation wasimitated by his companions in the southern provinces of Russia; andtheir establishments, by the usual methods of war and assassination, were cemented into the fabric of a powerful monarchy. 

[Footnote 43: Among the Greeks, this national appellation has a singularform, as an undeclinable word, of which many fanciful etymologies havebeen suggested. I have perused, with pleasure and profit, a dissertationde Origine Russorum (Comment. Academ. Petropolitanae, tom. Viii. P. 388-436) by Theophilus Sigefrid Bayer, a learned German, who spenthis life and labors in the service of Russia. A geographical tract ofD'Anville, de l'Empire de Russie, son Origine, et ses Accroissemens, (Paris, 1772, in 12mo. , ) has likewise been of use. * Note: The laterantiquarians of Russia and Germany appear to aquiesce in the authorityof the monk Nestor, the earliest annalist of Russia, who derives theRussians, or Vareques, from Scandinavia. The names of the first foundersof the Russian monarchy are Scandinavian or Norman. Their language(according to Const. Porphyrog. De Administrat. Imper. C. 9) differedessentially from the Sclavonian. The author of the Annals of St. Bertin, who first names the Russians (Rhos) in the year 839 of his Annals, assigns them Sweden for their country. So Liutprand calls the Russiansthe same people as the Normans. The Fins, Laplanders, and Esthonians, call the Swedes, to the present day, Roots, Rootsi, Ruotzi, Rootslaue. See Thunman, Untersuchungen uber der Geschichte des EstlichenEuropaischen Volker, p. 374. Gatterer, Comm. Societ. Regbcient. Gotting. Xiii. P. 126. Schlozer, in his Nestor. Koch. Revolut. De 'Europe, vol. I. P. 60. Malte-Brun, Geograph. Vol. Vi. P. 378. --M. ]

[Footnote 44: See the entire passage (dignum, says Bayer, ut aureis intabulis rigatur) in the Annales Bertiniani Francorum, (in Script. Ital. Muratori, tom. Ii. Pars i. P. 525, ) A. D. 839, twenty-two years beforethe aera of Ruric. In the xth century, Liutprand (Hist. L. V. C. 6)speaks of the Russians and Normans as the same Aquilonares homines of ared complexion. ]

[Footnote 45: My knowledge of these annals is drawn from M. Leveque, Histoire de Russie. Nestor, the first and best of these ancientannalists, was a monk of Kiow, who died in the beginning of the xiithcentury; but his Chronicle was obscure, till it was published atPetersburgh, 1767, in 4to. Leveque, Hist. De Russie, tom. I. P. Xvi. Coxe's Travels, vol. Ii. P. 184. * Note: The late M. Schlozer hastranslated and added a commentary to the Annals of Nestor; and hiswork is the mine from which henceforth the history of the North must bedrawn. --G. ]

[Footnote 46: Theophil. Sig. Bayer de Varagis, (for the name isdifferently spelt, ) in Comment. Academ. Petropolitanae, tom. Iv. P. 275-311. ]

As long as the descendants of Ruric were considered as aliens andconquerors, they ruled by the sword of the Varangians, distributedestates and subjects to their faithful captains, and supplied theirnumbers with fresh streams of adventurers from the Baltic coast. [47]But when the Scandinavian chiefs had struck a deep and permanent rootinto the soil, they mingled with the Russians in blood, religion, and language, and the first Waladimir had the merit of delivering hiscountry from these foreign mercenaries. They had seated him on thethrone; his riches were insufficient to satisfy their demands; butthey listened to his pleasing advice, that they should seek, not amore grateful, but a more wealthy, master; that they should embark forGreece, where, instead of the skins of squirrels, silk and gold wouldbe the recompense of their service. At the same time, the Russian princeadmonished his Byzantine ally to disperse and employ, to recompense andrestrain, these impetuous children of the North. Contemporary writershave recorded the introduction, name, and character, of the Varangians:each day they rose in confidence and esteem; the whole body wasassembled at Constantinople to perform the duty of guards; and theirstrength was recruited by a numerous band of their countrymen from theIsland of Thule. On this occasion, the vague appellation of Thule isapplied to England; and the new Varangians were a colony of Englishand Danes who fled from the yoke of the Norman conqueror. The habits ofpilgrimage and piracy had approximated the countries of the earth; theseexiles were entertained in the Byzantine court; and they preserved, tillthe last age of the empire, the inheritance of spotless loyalty, and theuse of the Danish or English tongue. With their broad and double-edgedbattle-axes on their shoulders, they attended the Greek emperor to thetemple, the senate, and the hippodrome; he slept and feasted under theirtrusty guard; and the keys of the palace, the treasury, and the capital, were held by the firm and faithful hands of the Varangians. [48]

[Footnote 47: Yet, as late as the year 1018, Kiow and Russia were stillguarded ex fugitivorum servorum robore, confluentium et maxime Danorum. Bayer, who quotes (p. 292) the Chronicle of Dithmar of Merseburgh, observes, that it was unusual for the Germans to enlist in a foreignservice. ]

[Footnote 48: Ducange has collected from the original authors the stateand history of the Varangi at Constantinople, (Glossar. Med. Et InfimaeGraecitatis, sub voce. Med. Et Infimae Latinitatis, sub voce Vagri. Not. Ad Alexiad. Annae Comnenae, p. 256, 257, 258. Notes sur Villehardouin, p. 296-299. ) See likewise the annotations of Reiske to the CeremonialeAulae Byzant. Of Constantine, tom. Ii. P. 149, 150. Saxo Grammaticusaffirms that they spoke Danish; but Codinus maintains them till thefifteenth century in the use of their native English. ]

In the tenth century, the geography of Scythia was extended far beyondthe limits of ancient knowledge; and the monarchy of the Russiansobtains a vast and conspicuous place in the map of Constantine. [49]The sons of Ruric were masters of the spacious province of Wolodomir, or Moscow; and, if they were confined on that side by the hordes of theEast, their western frontier in those early days was enlarged to theBaltic Sea and the country of the Prussians. Their northern reignascended above the sixtieth degree of latitude over the Hyperboreanregions, which fancy had peopled with monsters, or clouded with eternaldarkness. To the south they followed the course of the Borysthenes, and approached with that river the neighborhood of the Euxine Sea. Thetribes that dwelt, or wandered, in this ample circuit were obedient tothe same conqueror, and insensibly blended into the same nation. Thelanguage of Russia is a dialect of the Sclavonian; but in the tenthcentury, these two modes of speech were different from each other; and, as the Sclavonian prevailed in the South, it may be presumed that theoriginal Russians of the North, the primitive subjects of the Varangianchief, were a portion of the Fennic race. With the emigration, union, ordissolution, of the wandering tribes, the loose and indefinite pictureof the Scythian desert has continually shifted. But the most ancientmap of Russia affords some places which still retain their name andposition; and the two capitals, Novogorod [50] and Kiow, [51] are coevalwith the first age of the monarchy. Novogorod had not yet deservedthe epithet of great, nor the alliance of the Hanseatic League, whichdiffused the streams of opulence and the principles of freedom. Kiowcould not yet boast of three hundred churches, an innumerable people, and a degree of greatness and splendor which was compared withConstantinople by those who had never seen the residence of the Caesars. In their origin, the two cities were no more than camps or fairs, themost convenient stations in which the Barbarians might assemble for theoccasional business of war or trade. Yet even these assemblies announcesome progress in the arts of society; a new breed of cattle was importedfrom the southern provinces; and the spirit of commercial enterprisepervaded the sea and land, from the Baltic to the Euxine, from the mouthof the Oder to the port of Constantinople. In the days of idolatry andbarbarism, the Sclavonic city of Julin was frequented and enrichedby the Normans, who had prudently secured a free mart of purchaseand exchange. [52] From this harbor, at the entrance of the Oder, thecorsair, or merchant, sailed in forty-three days to the eastern shoresof the Baltic, the most distant nations were intermingled, and theholy groves of Curland are said to have been decorated with Grecian andSpanish gold. [53] Between the sea and Novogorod an easy intercoursewas discovered; in the summer, through a gulf, a lake, and a navigableriver; in the winter season, over the hard and level surface ofboundless snows. From the neighborhood of that city, the Russiansdescended the streams that fall into the Borysthenes; their canoes, of asingle tree, were laden with slaves of every age, furs of every species, the spoil of their beehives, and the hides of their cattle; and thewhole produce of the North was collected and discharged in the magazinesof Kiow. The month of June was the ordinary season of the departure ofthe fleet: the timber of the canoes was framed into the oars and benchesof more solid and capacious boats; and they proceeded without obstacledown the Borysthenes, as far as the seven or thirteen ridges of rocks, which traverse the bed, and precipitate the waters, of the river. Atthe more shallow falls it was sufficient to lighten the vessels; but thedeeper cataracts were impassable; and the mariners, who dragged theirvessels and their slaves six miles over land, were exposed in thistoilsome journey to the robbers of the desert. [54] At the first islandbelow the falls, the Russians celebrated the festival of their escape:at a second, near the mouth of the river, they repaired their shatteredvessels for the longer and more perilous voyage of the Black Sea. Ifthey steered along the coast, the Danube was accessible; with a fairwind they could reach in thirty-six or forty hours the opposite shoresof Anatolia; and Constantinople admitted the annual visit of thestrangers of the North. They returned at the stated season with a richcargo of corn, wine, and oil, the manufactures of Greece, and the spicesof India. Some of their countrymen resided in the capital andprovinces; and the national treaties protected the persons, effects, andprivileges, of the Russian merchant. [55]

[Footnote 49: The original record of the geography and trade of Russiais produced by the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Administrat. Imperii, c. 2, p. 55, 56, c. 9, p. 59-61, c. 13, p. 63-67, c. 37, p. 106, c. 42, p. 112, 113, ) and illustrated by the diligence of Bayer, (deGeographia Russiae vicinarumque Regionum circiter A. C. 948, in Comment. Academ. Petropol. Tom. Ix. P. 367-422, tom. X. P. 371-421, ) with theaid of the chronicles and traditions of Russia, Scandinavia, &c. ]

[Footnote 50: The haughty proverb, "Who can resist God and the greatNovogorod?" is applied by M. Leveque (Hist. De Russie, tom. I. P. 60)even to the times that preceded the reign of Ruric. In the course ofhis history he frequently celebrates this republic, which was suppressedA. D. 1475, (tom. Ii. P. 252-266. ) That accurate traveller Adam Oleariusdescribes (in 1635) the remains of Novogorod, and the route by sea andland of the Holstein ambassadors, tom. I. P. 123-129. ]

[Footnote 51: In hac magna civitate, quae est caput regni, plustrecentae ecclesiae habentur et nundinae octo, populi etiam ignota manus(Eggehardus ad A. D. 1018, apud Bayer, tom. Ix. P. 412. ) He likewisequotes (tom. X. P. 397) the words of the Saxon annalist, Cujus (Russioe)metropolis est Chive, aemula sceptri Constantinopolitani, quae estclarissimum decus Graeciae. The fame of Kiow, especially in the xithcentury, had reached the German and Arabian geographers. ]

[Footnote 52: In Odorae ostio qua Scythicas alluit paludes, nobilissimacivitas Julinum, celeberrimam, Barbaris et Graecis qui sunt in circuitu, praestans stationem, est sane maxima omnium quas Europa clauditcivitatum, (Adam Bremensis, Hist. Eccles. P. 19;) a strange exaggerationeven in the xith century. The trade of the Baltic, and the HanseaticLeague, are carefully treated in Anderson's Historical Deduction ofCommerce; at least, in our language, I am not acquainted with any bookso satisfactory. * Note: The book of authority is the "Geschichte desHanseatischen Bundes, " by George Sartorius, Gottingen, 1803, or ratherthe later edition of that work by M. Lappenberg, 2 vols. 4to. , Hamburgh, 1830. --M. 1845. ]

[Footnote 53: According to Adam of Bremen, (de Situ Daniae, p. 58, ) theold Curland extended eight days' journey along the coast; and by PeterTeutoburgicus, (p. 68, A. D. 1326, ) Memel is defined as the commonfrontier of Russia, Curland, and Prussia. Aurum ibi plurimum, (saysAdam, ) divinis auguribus atque necromanticis omnes domus sunt plenae. .. . A toto orbe ibi responsa petuntur, maxime ab Hispanis (forsan Zupanis, id est regulis Lettoviae) et Graecis. The name of Greeks was applied tothe Russians even before their conversion; an imperfect conversion, ifthey still consulted the wizards of Curland, (Bayer, tom. X. P. 378, 402, &c. Grotius, Prolegomen. Ad Hist. Goth. P. 99. )]

[Footnote 54: Constantine only reckons seven cataracts, of which hegives the Russian and Sclavonic names; but thirteen are enumerated bythe Sieur de Beauplan, a French engineer, who had surveyed thecourse and navigation of the Dnieper, or Borysthenes, (Description del'Ukraine, Rouen, 1660, a thin quarto;) but the map is unluckily wantingin my copy. ]

[Footnote 55: Nestor, apud Leveque, Hist. De Russie, tom. I. P. 78-80. From the Dnieper, or Borysthenes, the Russians went to Black Bulgaria, Chazaria, and Syria. To Syria, how? where? when? The alterationis slight; the position of Suania, between Chazaria and Lazica, isperfectly suitable; and the name was still used in the xith century, (Cedren. Tom. Ii. P. 770. )]

Chapter LV: The Bulgarians, The Hungarians And The Russians. --Part III. 

But the same communication which had been opened for the benefit, wassoon abused for the injury, of mankind. In a period of one hundred andninety years, the Russians made four attempts to plunder the treasuresof Constantinople: the event was various, but the motive, the means, andthe object, were the same in these naval expeditions. [56] The Russiantraders had seen the magnificence, and tasted the luxury of the city ofthe Caesars. A marvellous tale, and a scanty supply, excited the desiresof their savage countrymen: they envied the gifts of nature which theirclimate denied; they coveted the works of art, which they were too lazyto imitate and too indigent to purchase; the Varangian princes unfurledthe banners of piratical adventure, and their bravest soldiers weredrawn from the nations that dwelt in the northern isles of the ocean. [57] The image of their naval armaments was revived in the last century, in the fleets of the Cossacks, which issued from the Borysthenes, tonavigate the same seas for a similar purpose. [58] The Greek appellationof monoxyla, or single canoes, might justly be applied to the bottom oftheir vessels. It was scooped out of the long stem of a beech or willow, but the slight and narrow foundation was raised and continued on eitherside with planks, till it attained the length of sixty, and the heightof about twelve, feet. These boats were built without a deck, but withtwo rudders and a mast; to move with sails and oars; and to contain fromforty to seventy men, with their arms, and provisions of fresh waterand salt fish. The first trial of the Russians was made with two hundredboats; but when the national force was exerted, they might arm againstConstantinople a thousand or twelve hundred vessels. Their fleet was notmuch inferior to the royal navy of Agamemnon, but it was magnified inthe eyes of fear to ten or fifteen times the real proportion of itsstrength and numbers. Had the Greek emperors been endowed with foresightto discern, and vigor to prevent, perhaps they might have sealed with amaritime force the mouth of the Borysthenes. Their indolence abandonedthe coast of Anatolia to the calamities of a piratical war, which, afteran interval of six hundred years, again infested the Euxine; but aslong as the capital was respected, the sufferings of a distant provinceescaped the notice both of the prince and the historian. The storm whichhad swept along from the Phasis and Trebizond, at length burst onthe Bosphorus of Thrace; a strait of fifteen miles, in which the rudevessels of the Russians might have been stopped and destroyed by a moreskilful adversary. In their first enterprise [59] under the princesof Kiow, they passed without opposition, and occupied the port ofConstantinople in the absence of the emperor Michael, the son ofTheophilus. Through a crowd of perils, he landed at the palace-stairs, and immediately repaired to a church of the Virgin Mary. [60] By theadvice of the patriarch, her garment, a precious relic, was drawn fromthe sanctuary and dipped in the sea; and a seasonable tempest, whichdetermined the retreat of the Russians, was devoutly ascribed to themother of God. [61] The silence of the Greeks may inspire some doubt ofthe truth, or at least of the importance, of the second attempt by Oleg, the guardian of the sons of Ruric. [62] A strong barrier of arms andfortifications defended the Bosphorus: they were eluded by the usualexpedient of drawing the boats over the isthmus; and this simpleoperation is described in the national chronicles, as if the Russianfleet had sailed over dry land with a brisk and favorable gale. Theleader of the third armament, Igor, the son of Ruric, had chosen amoment of weakness and decay, when the naval powers of the empirewere employed against the Saracens. But if courage be not wanting, theinstruments of defence are seldom deficient. Fifteen broken and decayedgalleys were boldly launched against the enemy; but instead of thesingle tube of Greek fire usually planted on the prow, the sidesand stern of each vessel were abundantly supplied with that liquidcombustible. The engineers were dexterous; the weather was propitious;many thousand Russians, who chose rather to be drowned than burnt, leaped into the sea; and those who escaped to the Thracian shore wereinhumanly slaughtered by the peasants and soldiers. Yet one third of thecanoes escaped into shallow water; and the next spring Igor was againprepared to retrieve his disgrace and claim his revenge. [63] Aftera long peace, Jaroslaus, the great grandson of Igor, resumed the sameproject of a naval invasion. A fleet, under the command of his son, wasrepulsed at the entrance of the Bosphorus by the same artificialflames. But in the rashness of pursuit, the vanguard of the Greekswas encompassed by an irresistible multitude of boats and men; theirprovision of fire was probably exhausted; and twenty-four galleys wereeither taken, sunk, or destroyed. [64]

[Footnote 56: The wars of the Russians and Greeks in the ixth, xth, andxith centuries, are related in the Byzantine annals, especially thoseof Zonaras and Cedrenus; and all their testimonies are collected in theRussica of Stritter, tom. Ii. Pars ii. P. 939-1044. ]

[Footnote 57: Cedrenus in Compend. P. 758]

[Footnote 58: See Beauplan, (Description de l'Ukraine, p. 54-61: )his descriptions are lively, his plans accurate, and except thecircumstances of fire-arms, we may read old Russians for modernCosacks. ]

[Footnote 59: It is to be lamented, that Bayer has only given aDissertation de Russorum prima Expeditione Constantinopolitana, (Comment. Academ. Petropol. Tom. Vi. P. 265-391. ) After disentanglingsome chronological intricacies, he fixes it in the years 864 or 865, a date which might have smoothed some doubts and difficulties in thebeginning of M. Leveque's history. ]

[Footnote 60: When Photius wrote his encyclic epistle on the conversionof the Russians, the miracle was not yet sufficiently ripe. ]

[Footnote 61: Leo Grammaticus, p. 463, 464. Constantini Continuatorin Script. Post Theophanem, p. 121, 122. Symeon Logothet. P. 445, 446. Georg. Monach. P. 535, 536. Cedrenus, tom. Ii. P. 551. Zonaras, tom. Ii. P. 162. ]

[Footnote 62: See Nestor and Nicon, in Leveque's Hist. De Russie, tom. I. P. 74-80. Katona (Hist. Ducum, p. 75-79) uses his advantage todisprove this Russian victory, which would cloud the siege of Kiow bythe Hungarians. ]

[Footnote 63: Leo Grammaticus, p. 506, 507. Incert. Contin. P. 263, 264Symeon Logothet. P. 490, 491. Georg. Monach. P. 588, 589. Cedren tom. Ii. P. 629. Zonaras, tom. Ii. P. 190, 191, and Liutprand, l. V. C. 6, who writes from the narratives of his father-in-law, then ambassador atConstantinople, and corrects the vain exaggeration of the Greeks. ]

[Footnote 64: I can only appeal to Cedrenus (tom. Ii. P. 758, 759) andZonaras, (tom. Ii. P. 253, 254;) but they grow more weighty and credibleas they draw near to their own times. ]

Yet the threats or calamities of a Russian war were more frequentlydiverted by treaty than by arms. In these naval hostilities, everydisadvantage was on the side of the Greeks; their savage enemy affordedno mercy: his poverty promised no spoil; his impenetrable retreatdeprived the conqueror of the hopes of revenge; and the pride orweakness of empire indulged an opinion, that no honor could be gainedor lost in the intercourse with Barbarians. At first their demands werehigh and inadmissible, three pounds of gold for each soldier or marinerof the fleet: the Russian youth adhered to the design of conquest andglory; but the counsels of moderation were recommended by the hoarysages. "Be content, " they said, "with the liberal offers of Caesar; itis not far better to obtain without a combat the possession of gold, silver, silks, and all the objects of our desires? Are we sure ofvictory? Can we conclude a treaty with the sea? We do not tread on theland; we float on the abyss of water, and a common death hangs over ourheads. " [65] The memory of these Arctic fleets that seemed to descendfrom the polar circle left deep impression of terror on the Imperialcity. By the vulgar of every rank, it was asserted and believed, that anequestrian statue in the square of Taurus was secretly inscribed with aprophecy, how the Russians, in the last days, should become masters ofConstantinople. [66] In our own time, a Russian armament, instead ofsailing from the Borysthenes, has circumnavigated the continent ofEurope; and the Turkish capital has been threatened by a squadron ofstrong and lofty ships of war, each of which, with its naval scienceand thundering artillery, could have sunk or scattered a hundred canoes, such as those of their ancestors. Perhaps the present generation may yetbehold the accomplishment of the prediction, of a rare prediction, ofwhich the style is unambiguous and the date unquestionable. 

[Footnote 65: Nestor, apud Leveque, Hist. De Russie, tom. I. P. 87. ]

[Footnote 66: This brazen statue, which had been brought from Antioch, and was melted down by the Latins, was supposed to represent eitherJoshua or Bellerophon, an odd dilemma. See Nicetas Choniates, (p. 413, 414, ) Codinus, (de Originibus C. P. P. 24, ) and the anonymous writer deAntiquitat. C. P. (Banduri, Imp. Orient. Tom. I. P. 17, 18, ) who livedabout the year 1100. They witness the belief of the prophecy the rest isimmaterial. ]

By land the Russians were less formidable than by sea; and as theyfought for the most part on foot, their irregular legions must oftenhave been broken and overthrown by the cavalry of the Scythian hordes. Yet their growing towns, however slight and imperfect, presented ashelter to the subject, and a barrier to the enemy: the monarchy ofKiow, till a fatal partition, assumed the dominion of the North; andthe nations from the Volga to the Danube were subdued or repelled by thearms of Swatoslaus, [67] the son of Igor, the son of Oleg, the son ofRuric. The vigor of his mind and body was fortified by the hardships ofa military and savage life. Wrapped in a bear-skin, Swatoslaus usuallyslept on the ground, his head reclining on a saddle; his diet was coarseand frugal, and, like the heroes of Homer, [68] his meat (it was oftenhorse-flesh) was broiled or roasted on the coals. The exercise of wargave stability and discipline to his army; and it may be presumed, thatno soldier was permitted to transcend the luxury of his chief. By anembassy from Nicephorus, the Greek emperor, he was moved to undertakethe conquest of Bulgaria; and a gift of fifteen hundred pounds of goldwas laid at his feet to defray the expense, or reward the toils, of theexpedition. An army of sixty thousand men was assembled and embarked;they sailed from the Borysthenes to the Danube; their landing waseffected on the Maesian shore; and, after a sharp encounter, the swordsof the Russians prevailed against the arrows of the Bulgarian horse. Thevanquished king sunk into the grave; his children were made captive; andhis dominions, as far as Mount Haemus, were subdued or ravaged by thenorthern invaders. But instead of relinquishing his prey, and performinghis engagements, the Varangian prince was more disposed to advance thanto retire; and, had his ambition been crowned with success, the seatof empire in that early period might have been transferred to a moretemperate and fruitful climate. Swatoslaus enjoyed and acknowledged theadvantages of his new position, in which he could unite, by exchange orrapine, the various productions of the earth. By an easy navigationhe might draw from Russia the native commodities of furs, wax, andhydromed: Hungary supplied him with a breed of horses and the spoilsof the West; and Greece abounded with gold, silver, and the foreignluxuries, which his poverty had affected to disdain. The bands ofPatzinacites, Chozars, and Turks, repaired to the standard of victory;and the ambassador of Nicephorus betrayed his trust, assumed the purple, and promised to share with his new allies the treasures of the Easternworld. From the banks of the Danube the Russian prince pursued his marchas far as Adrianople; a formal summons to evacuate the Roman provincewas dismissed with contempt; and Swatoslaus fiercely replied, thatConstantinople might soon expect the presence of an enemy and a master. 

[Footnote 67: The life of Swatoslaus, or Sviatoslaf, or Sphendosthlabus, is extracted from the Russian Chronicles by M. Levesque, (Hist. DeRussie, tom. I. P. 94-107. )]

[Footnote 68: This resemblance may be clearly seen in the ninth book ofthe Iliad, (205-221, ) in the minute detail of the cookery of Achilles. By such a picture, a modern epic poet would disgrace his work, anddisgust his reader; but the Greek verses are harmonious--a dead languagecan seldom appear low or familiar; and at the distance of two thousandseven hundred years, we are amused with the primitive manners ofantiquity. ]

Nicephorus could no longer expel the mischief which he had introduced;but his throne and wife were inherited by John Zimisces, [69] who, in adiminutive body, possessed the spirit and abilities of a hero. Thefirst victory of his lieutenants deprived the Russians of their foreignallies, twenty thousand of whom were either destroyed by the sword, or provoked to revolt, or tempted to desert. Thrace was delivered, butseventy thousand Barbarians were still in arms; and the legions that hadbeen recalled from the new conquests of Syria, prepared, with the returnof the spring, to march under the banners of a warlike prince, whodeclared himself the friend and avenger of the injured Bulgaria. Thepasses of Mount Haemus had been left unguarded; they were instantlyoccupied; the Roman vanguard was formed of the immortals, (a proudimitation of the Persian style;) the emperor led the main body of tenthousand five hundred foot; and the rest of his forces followed in slowand cautious array, with the baggage and military engines. The firstexploit of Zimisces was the reduction of Marcianopolis, or Peristhlaba, [70] in two days; the trumpets sounded; the walls were scaled; eightthousand five hundred Russians were put to the sword; and the sons ofthe Bulgarian king were rescued from an ignominious prison, and investedwith a nominal diadem. After these repeated losses, Swatoslaus retiredto the strong post of Drista, on the banks of the Danube, and waspursued by an enemy who alternately employed the arms of celerity anddelay. The Byzantine galleys ascended the river, the legions completeda line of circumvallation; and the Russian prince was encompassed, assaulted, and famished, in the fortifications of the camp and city. Many deeds of valor were performed; several desperate sallies wereattempted; nor was it till after a siege of sixty-five days thatSwatoslaus yielded to his adverse fortune. The liberal terms which heobtained announce the prudence of the victor, who respected the valor, and apprehended the despair, of an unconquered mind. The great duke ofRussia bound himself, by solemn imprecations, to relinquish all hostiledesigns; a safe passage was opened for his return; the liberty of tradeand navigation was restored; a measure of corn was distributed to eachof his soldiers; and the allowance of twenty-two thousand measuresattests the loss and the remnant of the Barbarians. After a painfulvoyage, they again reached the mouth of the Borysthenes; but theirprovisions were exhausted; the season was unfavorable; they passedthe winter on the ice; and, before they could prosecute their march, Swatoslaus was surprised and oppressed by the neighboring tribes withwhom the Greeks entertained a perpetual and useful correspondence. [71] Far different was the return of Zimisces, who was received in hiscapital like Camillus or Marius, the saviors of ancient Rome. But themerit of the victory was attributed by the pious emperor to the motherof God; and the image of the Virgin Mary, with the divine infant in herarms, was placed on a triumphal car, adorned with the spoils of war, and the ensigns of Bulgarian royalty. Zimisces made his public entry onhorseback; the diadem on his head, a crown of laurel in his hand; andConstantinople was astonished to applaud the martial virtues of hersovereign. [72]

[Footnote 69: This singular epithet is derived from the Armenianlanguage. As I profess myself equally ignorant of these words, I maybe indulged in the question in the play, "Pray, which of you is theinterpreter?" From the context, they seem to signify Adolescentulus, (Leo Diacon l. Iv. Ms. Apud Ducange, Glossar. Graec. P. 1570. ) * Note:Cerbied. The learned Armenian, gives another derivation. There is a citycalled Tschemisch-gaizag, which means a bright or purple sandal, such aswomen wear in the East. He was called Tschemisch-ghigh, (for so his nameis written in Armenian, from this city, his native place. ) Hase. Note toLeo Diac. P. 454, in Niebuhr's Byzant. Hist. --M. ]

[Footnote 70: In the Sclavonic tongue, the name of Peristhlaba impliedthe great or illustrious city, says Anna Comnena, (Alexiad, l. Vii. P. 194. ) From its position between Mount Haemus and the Lower Danube, itappears to fill the ground, or at least the station, of Marcianopolis. The situation of Durostolus, or Dristra, is well known and conspicuous, (Comment. Academ. Petropol. Tom. Ix. P. 415, 416. D'Anville, GeographieAncienne, tom. I. P. 307, 311. )]

[Footnote 71: The political management of the Greeks, more especiallywith the Patzinacites, is explained in the seven first chapters, deAdministratione Imperii. ]

[Footnote 72: In the narrative of this war, Leo the Deacon (apud Pagi, Critica, tom. Iv. A. D. 968-973) is more authentic and circumstantialthan Cedrenus (tom. Ii. P. 660-683) and Zonaras, (tom. Ii. P. 205-214. ) These declaimers have multiplied to 308, 000 and 330, 000 men, those Russian forces, of which the contemporary had given a moderate andconsistent account. ]

Photius of Constantinople, a patriarch, whose ambition was equal to hiscuriosity, congratulates himself and the Greek church on the conversionof the Russians. [73] Those fierce and bloody Barbarians had beenpersuaded, by the voice of reason and religion, to acknowledge Jesus fortheir God, the Christian missionaries for their teachers, and the Romansfor their friends and brethren. His triumph was transient and premature. In the various fortune of their piratical adventures, some Russianchiefs might allow themselves to be sprinkled with the waters ofbaptism; and a Greek bishop, with the name of metropolitan, mightadminister the sacraments in the church of Kiow, to a congregation ofslaves and natives. But the seed of the gospel was sown on a barrensoil: many were the apostates, the converts were few; and the baptismof Olga may be fixed as the aera of Russian Christianity. [74] A female, perhaps of the basest origin, who could revenge the death, and assumethe sceptre, of her husband Igor, must have been endowed with thoseactive virtues which command the fear and obedience of Barbarians. Ina moment of foreign and domestic peace, she sailed from Kiow toConstantinople; and the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus hasdescribed, with minute diligence, the ceremonial of her reception in hiscapital and palace. The steps, the titles, the salutations, the banquet, the presents, were exquisitely adjusted to gratify the vanity of thestranger, with due reverence to the superior majesty of the purple. [75] In the sacrament of baptism, she received the venerable name of theempress Helena; and her conversion might be preceded or followed by heruncle, two interpreters, sixteen damsels of a higher, and eighteen ofa lower rank, twenty-two domestics or ministers, and forty-four Russianmerchants, who composed the retinue of the great princess Olga. Afterher return to Kiow and Novogorod, she firmly persisted in her newreligion; but her labors in the propagation of the gospel were notcrowned with success; and both her family and nation adhered withobstinacy or indifference to the gods of their fathers. Her sonSwatoslaus was apprehensive of the scorn and ridicule of his companions;and her grandson Wolodomir devoted his youthful zeal to multiply anddecorate the monuments of ancient worship. The savage deities of theNorth were still propitiated with human sacrifices: in the choice ofthe victim, a citizen was preferred to a stranger, a Christian to anidolater; and the father, who defended his son from the sacerdotalknife, was involved in the same doom by the rage of a fanatic tumult. Yet the lessons and example of the pious Olga had made a deep, thoughsecret, impression in the minds of the prince and people: the Greekmissionaries continued to preach, to dispute, and to baptize: and theambassadors or merchants of Russia compared the idolatry of the woodswith the elegant superstition of Constantinople. They had gazed withadmiration on the dome of St. Sophia: the lively pictures of saintsand martyrs, the riches of the altar, the number and vestments of thepriests, the pomp and order of the ceremonies; they were edified by thealternate succession of devout silence and harmonious song; nor was itdifficult to persuade them, that a choir of angels descended each dayfrom heaven to join in the devotion of the Christians. [76] But theconversion of Wolodomir was determined, or hastened, by his desire of aRoman bride. At the same time, and in the city of Cherson, the rites ofbaptism and marriage were celebrated by the Christian pontiff: the cityhe restored to the emperor Basil, the brother of his spouse; but thebrazen gates were transported, as it is said, to Novogorod, and erectedbefore the first church as a trophy of his victory and faith. [77] Athis despotic command, Peround, the god of thunder, whom he had so longadored, was dragged through the streets of Kiow; and twelve sturdyBarbarians battered with clubs the misshapen image, which wasindignantly cast into the waters of the Borysthenes. The edict ofWolodomir had proclaimed, that all who should refuse the rites ofbaptism would be treated as the enemies of God and their prince; and therivers were instantly filled with many thousands of obedient Russians, who acquiesced in the truth and excellence of a doctrine which had beenembraced by the great duke and his boyars. In the next generation, therelics of Paganism were finally extirpated; but as the two brothersof Wolodomir had died without baptism, their bones were taken from thegrave, and sanctified by an irregular and posthumous sacrament. 

[Footnote 73: Phot. Epistol. Ii. No. 35, p. 58, edit. Montacut. It wasunworthy of the learning of the editor to mistake the Russian nation, for a war-cry of the Bulgarians, nor did it become the enlightenedpatriarch to accuse the Sclavonian idolaters. They were neither Greeksnor Atheists. ]

[Footnote 74: M. Levesque has extracted, from old chronicles and modernresearches, the most satisfactory account of the religion of the Slavi, and the conversion of Russia, (Hist. De Russie, tom. I. P. 35-54, 59, 92, 92, 113-121, 124-129, 148, 149, &c. )]

[Footnote 75: See the Ceremoniale Aulae Byzant. Tom. Ii. C. 15, p. 343-345: the style of Olga, or Elga. For the chief of Barbarians theGreeks whimsically borrowed the title of an Athenian magistrate, with afemale termination, which would have astonished the ear of Demosthenes. ]

[Footnote 76: See an anonymous fragment published by Banduri, (ImperiumOrientale, tom. Ii. P. 112, 113, de Conversione Russorum. )]

[Footnote 77: Cherson, or Corsun, is mentioned by Herberstein (apud Pagitom. Iv. P. 56) as the place of Wolodomir's baptism and marriage; andboth the tradition and the gates are still preserved at Novogorod. Yetan observing traveller transports the brazen gates from Magdeburgh inGermany, (Coxe's Travels into Russia, &c. , vol. I. P. 452;) and quotesan inscription, which seems to justify his opinion. The modern readermust not confound this old Cherson of the Tauric or Crimaean peninsula, with a new city of the same name, which has arisen near the mouth of theBorysthenes, and was lately honored by the memorable interview of theempress of Russia with the emperor of the West. ]

In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries of the Christian aera, the reign of the gospel and of the church was extended over Bulgaria, Hungary, Bohemia, Saxony, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, and Russia. [78] The triumphs of apostolic zeal were repeated in the iron age ofChristianity; and the northern and eastern regions of Europe submittedto a religion, more different in theory than in practice, from theworship of their native idols. A laudable ambition excited themonks both of Germany and Greece, to visit the tents and huts of theBarbarians: poverty, hardships, and dangers, were the lot of the firstmissionaries; their courage was active and patient; their motive pureand meritorious; their present reward consisted in the testimony oftheir conscience and the respect of a grateful people; but the fruitfulharvest of their toils was inherited and enjoyed by the proud andwealthy prelates of succeeding times. The first conversions were freeand spontaneous: a holy life and an eloquent tongue were the only armsof the missionaries; but the domestic fables of the Pagans were silencedby the miracles and visions of the strangers; and the favorable temperof the chiefs was accelerated by the dictates of vanity and interest. The leaders of nations, who were saluted with the titles of kings andsaints, [79] held it lawful and pious to impose the Catholic faith ontheir subjects and neighbors; the coast of the Baltic, from Holstein tothe Gulf of Finland, was invaded under the standard of the cross; andthe reign of idolatry was closed by the conversion of Lithuania in thefourteenth century. Yet truth and candor must acknowledge, that theconversion of the North imparted many temporal benefits both to the oldand the new Christians. The rage of war, inherent to the human species, could not be healed by the evangelic precepts of charity and peace; andthe ambition of Catholic princes has renewed in every age the calamitiesof hostile contention. But the admission of the Barbarians into thepale of civil and ecclesiastical society delivered Europe from thedepredations, by sea and land, of the Normans, the Hungarians, andthe Russians, who learned to spare their brethren and cultivate theirpossessions. [80] The establishment of law and order was promoted bythe influence of the clergy; and the rudiments of art and science wereintroduced into the savage countries of the globe. The liberal pietyof the Russian princes engaged in their service the most skilful of theGreeks, to decorate the cities and instruct the inhabitants: the domeand the paintings of St. Sophia were rudely copied in the churches ofKiow and Novogorod: the writings of the fathers were translated intothe Sclavonic idiom; and three hundred noble youths were invited orcompelled to attend the lessons of the college of Jaroslaus. It shouldappear that Russia might have derived an early and rapid improvementfrom her peculiar connection with the church and state ofConstantinople, which at that age so justly despised the ignorance ofthe Latins. But the Byzantine nation was servile, solitary, and vergingto a hasty decline: after the fall of Kiow, the navigation of theBorysthenes was forgotten; the great princes of Wolodomir and Moscowwere separated from the sea and Christendom; and the divided monarchywas oppressed by the ignominy and blindness of Tartar servitude. [81]The Sclavonic and Scandinavian kingdoms, which had been converted bythe Latin missionaries, were exposed, it is true, to the spiritualjurisdiction and temporal claims of the popes; [82] but they were unitedin language and religious worship, with each other, and with Rome;they imbibed the free and generous spirit of the European republic, and gradually shared the light of knowledge which arose on the westernworld. 

[Footnote 78: Consult the Latin text, or English version, of Mosheim'sexcellent History of the Church, under the first head or section of eachof these centuries. ]

[Footnote 79: In the year 1000, the ambassadors of St. Stephen receivedfrom Pope Silvester the title of King of Hungary, with a diadem of Greekworkmanship. It had been designed for the duke of Poland: but the Poles, by their own confession, were yet too barbarous to deserve an angelicaland apostolical crown. (Katona, Hist. Critic Regum Stirpis Arpadianae, tom. I. P. 1-20. )]

[Footnote 80: Listen to the exultations of Adam of Bremen, (A. D. 1080, )of which the substance is agreeable to truth: Ecce illa ferocissimaDanorum, &c. , natio. .. .. Jamdudum novit in Dei laudibus Alleluiaresonare. .. .. Ecce populus ille piraticus . .. .. Suis nunc finibuscontentus est. Ecce patria horribilis semper inaccessa propter cultumidolorum. .. Praedicatores veritatis ubique certatim admittit, &c. , &c. , (de Situ Daniae, &c. , p. 40, 41, edit. Elzevir; a curious and originalprospect of the north of Europe, and the introduction of Christianity. )]

[Footnote 81: The great princes removed in 1156 from Kiow, which wasruined by the Tartars in 1240. Moscow became the seat of empire in thexivth century. See the 1st and 2d volumes of Levesque's History, and Mr. Coxe's Travels into the North, tom. I. P. 241, &c. ]

[Footnote 82: The ambassadors of St. Stephen had used the reverentialexpressions of regnum oblatum, debitam obedientiam, &c. , which were mostrigorously interpreted by Gregory VII. ; and the Hungarian Catholics aredistressed between the sanctity of the pope and the independence of thecrown, (Katona, Hist. Critica, tom. I. P. 20-25, tom. Ii. P. 304, 346, 360, &c. )]

Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans. --Part I. 

 The Saracens, Franks, And Greeks, In Italy. --First Adventures And Settlement Of The Normans. --Character And Conquest Of Robert Guiscard, Duke Of Apulia--Deliverance Of Sicily By His Brother Roger. --Victories Of Robert Over The Emperors Of The East And West. --Roger, King Of Sicily, Invades Africa And Greece. --The Emperor Manuel Comnenus. -- Wars Of The Greeks And Normans. --Extinction Of The Normans. 

The three great nations of the world, the Greeks, the Saracens, and theFranks, encountered each other on the theatre of Italy. [1] The southernprovinces, which now compose the kingdom of Naples, were subject, forthe most part, to the Lombard dukes and princes of Beneventum; [2]so powerful in war, that they checked for a moment the genius ofCharlemagne; so liberal in peace, that they maintained in their capitalan academy of thirty-two philosophers and grammarians. The division ofthis flourishing state produced the rival principalities of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua; and the thoughtless ambition or revenge ofthe competitors invited the Saracens to the ruin of their commoninheritance. During a calamitous period of two hundred years, Italy wasexposed to a repetition of wounds, which the invaders were not capableof healing by the union and tranquility of a perfect conquest. Theirfrequent and almost annual squadrons issued from the port of Palermo, and were entertained with too much indulgence by the Christians ofNaples: the more formidable fleets were prepared on the African coast;and even the Arabs of Andalusia were sometimes tempted to assist oroppose the Moslems of an adverse sect. In the revolution of humanevents, a new ambuscade was concealed in the Caudine Forks, the fieldsof Cannae were bedewed a second time with the blood of the Africans, andthe sovereign of Rome again attacked or defended the walls of Capua andTarentum. A colony of Saracens had been planted at Bari, which commandsthe entrance of the Adriatic Gulf; and their impartial depredationsprovoked the resentment, and conciliated the union of the two emperors. An offensive alliance was concluded between Basil the Macedonian, thefirst of his race, and Lewis the great-grandson of Charlemagne; [3] andeach party supplied the deficiencies of his associate. It would havebeen imprudent in the Byzantine monarch to transport his stationarytroops of Asia to an Italian campaign; and the Latin arms would havebeen insufficient if his superior navy had not occupied the mouth of theGulf. The fortress of Bari was invested by the infantry of the Franks, and by the cavalry and galleys of the Greeks; and, after a defence offour years, the Arabian emir submitted to the clemency of Lewis, whocommanded in person the operations of the siege. This important conquesthad been achieved by the concord of the East and West; but their recentamity was soon imbittered by the mutual complaints of jealousy andpride. The Greeks assumed as their own the merit of the conquest andthe pomp of the triumph; extolled the greatness of their powers, and affected to deride the intemperance and sloth of the handful ofBarbarians who appeared under the banners of the Carlovingian prince. His reply is expressed with the eloquence of indignation and truth: "Weconfess the magnitude of your preparation, " says the great-grandson ofCharlemagne. "Your armies were indeed as numerous as a cloud of summerlocusts, who darken the day, flap their wings, and, after a shortflight, tumble weary and breathless to the ground. Like them, ye sunkafter a feeble effort; ye were vanquished by your own cowardice; andwithdrew from the scene of action to injure and despoil our Christiansubjects of the Sclavonian coast. We were few in number, and why werewe few? Because, after a tedious expectation of your arrival, I haddismissed my host, and retained only a chosen band of warriors tocontinue the blockade of the city. If they indulged their hospitablefeasts in the face of danger and death, did these feasts abate the vigorof their enterprise? Is it by your fasting that the walls of Bari havebeen overturned? Did not these valiant Franks, diminished as they wereby languor and fatigue, intercept and vanish the three most powerfulemirs of the Saracens? and did not their defeat precipitate the fallof the city? Bari is now fallen; Tarentum trembles; Calabria will bedelivered; and, if we command the sea, the Island of Sicily may berescued from the hands of the infidels. My brother, " accelerate (aname most offensive to the vanity of the Greek, ) "accelerate your navalsuccors, respect your allies, and distrust your flatterers. " [4]

[Footnote 1: For the general history of Italy in the ixth and xthcenturies, I may properly refer to the vth, vith, and viith books ofSigonius de Regno Italiae, (in the second volume of his works, Milan, 1732;) the Annals of Baronius, with the criticism of Pagi; the viith andviiith books of the Istoria Civile del Regno di Napoli of Giannone; theviith and viiith volumes (the octavo edition) of the Annali d' Italiaof Muratori, and the 2d volume of the Abrege Chronologique of M. De St. Marc, a work which, under a superficial title, contains much genuinelearning and industry. But my long-accustomed reader will give me creditfor saying, that I myself have ascended to the fountain head, as oftenas such ascent could be either profitable or possible; and that I havediligently turned over the originals in the first volumes of Muratori'sgreat collection of the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum. ]

[Footnote 2: Camillo Pellegrino, a learned Capuan of the last century, has illustrated the history of the duchy of Beneventum, in his two booksHistoria Principum Longobardorum, in the Scriptores of Muratori tom. Ii. Pars i. P. 221-345, and tom. V. P 159-245. ]

[Footnote 3: See Constantin. Porphyrogen. De Thematibus, l. Ii. C xi. InVit Basil. C. 55, p. 181. ]

[Footnote 4: The oriental epistle of the emperor Lewis II. To theemperor Basil, a curious record of the age, was first published byBaronius, (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 871, No. 51-71, ) from the Vatican Ms. Of Erchempert, or rather of the anonymous historian of Salerno. ] Theselofty hopes were soon extinguished by the death of Lewis, and the decayof the Carlovingian house; and whoever might deserve the honor, theGreek emperors, Basil, and his son Leo, secured the advantage, of thereduction of Bari The Italians of Apulia and Calabria were persuaded orcompelled to acknowledge their supremacy, and an ideal line from MountGarganus to the Bay of Salerno, leaves the far greater part of thekingdom of Naples under the dominion of the Eastern empire. Beyond thatline, the dukes or republics of Amalfi [5] and Naples, who had neverforfeited their voluntary allegiance, rejoiced in the neighborhood oftheir lawful sovereign; and Amalfi was enriched by supplying Europewith the produce and manufactures of Asia. But the Lombard princesof Benevento, Salerno, and Capua, [6] were reluctantly torn from thecommunion of the Latin world, and too often violated their oaths ofservitude and tribute. The city of Bari rose to dignity and wealth, asthe metropolis of the new theme or province of Lombardy: the title ofpatrician, and afterwards the singular name of Catapan, [7] was assignedto the supreme governor; and the policy both of the church and state wasmodelled in exact subordination to the throne of Constantinople. As longas the sceptre was disputed by the princes of Italy, their efforts werefeeble and adverse; and the Greeks resisted or eluded the forces ofGermany, which descended from the Alps under the Imperial standard ofthe Othos. The first and greatest of those Saxon princes was compelledto relinquish the siege of Bari: the second, after the loss of hisstoutest bishops and barons, escaped with honor from the bloody field ofCrotona. On that day the scale of war was turned against the Franks bythe valor of the Saracens. [8] These corsairs had indeed been drivenby the Byzantine fleets from the fortresses and coasts of Italy; but asense of interest was more prevalent than superstition or resentment, and the caliph of Egypt had transported forty thousand Moslems to theaid of his Christian ally. The successors of Basil amused themselveswith the belief, that the conquest of Lombardy had been achieved, andwas still preserved by the justice of their laws, the virtues of theirministers, and the gratitude of a people whom they had rescued fromanarchy and oppression. A series of rebellions might dart a ray of truthinto the palace of Constantinople; and the illusions of flattery weredispelled by the easy and rapid success of the Norman adventurers. 

[Footnote 5: See an excellent Dissertation de Republica Amalphitana, in the Appendix (p. 1-42) of Henry Brencman's Historia Pandectarum, (Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1722, in 4to. )]

[Footnote 6: Your master, says Nicephorus, has given aid and protectionprinminibus Capuano et Beneventano, servis meis, quos oppugnaredispono. .. . Nova (potius nota) res est quod eorum patres et avi nostroImperio tributa dederunt, (Liutprand, in Legat. P. 484. ) Salerno is notmentioned, yet the prince changed his party about the same time, andCamillo Pellegrino (Script. Rer. Ital. Tom. Ii. Pars i. P. 285) hasnicely discerned this change in the style of the anonymous Chronicle. On the rational ground of history and language, Liutprand (p. 480) hadasserted the Latin claim to Apulia and Calabria. ]

[Footnote 7: See the Greek and Latin Glossaries of Ducange (catapanus, )and his notes on the Alexias, (p. 275. ) Against the contemporary notion, which derives it from juxta omne, he treats it as a corruption of theLatin capitaneus. Yet M. De St. Marc has accurately observed (AbregeChronologique, tom. Ii. P. 924) that in this age the capitanei were notcaptains, but only nobles of the first rank, the great valvassors ofItaly. ]

[Footnote 8: (the Lombards), (Leon. Tactic. C. Xv. P. 741. ) The littleChronicle of Beneventum (tom. Ii. Pars i. P. 280) gives a far differentcharacter of the Greeks during the five years (A. D. 891-896) that Leowas master of the city. ]

The revolution of human affairs had produced in Apulia and Calabria amelancholy contrast between the age of Pythagoras and the tenth centuryof the Christian aera. At the former period, the coast of Great Greece(as it was then styled) was planted with free and opulent cities: thesecities were peopled with soldiers, artists, and philosophers; and themilitary strength of Tarentum; Sybaris, or Crotona, was not inferior tothat of a powerful kingdom. At the second aera, these once flourishingprovinces were clouded with ignorance impoverished by tyranny, anddepopulated by Barbarian war nor can we severely accuse the exaggerationof a contemporary, that a fair and ample district was reduced to thesame desolation which had covered the earth after the general deluge. [9] Among the hostilities of the Arabs, the Franks, and the Greeks, inthe southern Italy, I shall select two or three anecdotes expressiveof their national manners. 1. It was the amusement of the Saracens toprofane, as well as to pillage, the monasteries and churches. Atthe siege of Salerno, a Mussulman chief spread his couch on thecommunion-table, and on that altar sacrificed each night the virginityof a Christian nun. As he wrestled with a reluctant maid, a beam in theroof was accidentally or dexterously thrown down on his head; and thedeath of the lustful emir was imputed to the wrath of Christ, which wasat length awakened to the defence of his faithful spouse. [10] 2. TheSaracens besieged the cities of Beneventum and Capua: after a vainappeal to the successors of Charlemagne, the Lombards implored theclemency and aid of the Greek emperor. [11] A fearless citizen droppedfrom the walls, passed the intrenchments, accomplished his commission, and fell into the hands of the Barbarians as he was returning with thewelcome news. They commanded him to assist their enterprise, and deceivehis countrymen, with the assurance that wealth and honors should be thereward of his falsehood, and that his sincerity would be punished withimmediate death. He affected to yield, but as soon as he was conductedwithin hearing of the Christians on the rampart, "Friends and brethren, "he cried with a loud voice, "be bold and patient, maintain the city;your sovereign is informed of your distress, and your deliverers areat hand. I know my doom, and commit my wife and children to yourgratitude. " The rage of the Arabs confirmed his evidence; and theself-devoted patriot was transpierced with a hundred spears. He deservesto live in the memory of the virtuous, but the repetition of the samestory in ancient and modern times, may sprinkle some doubts on thereality of this generous deed. [12] 3. The recital of a third incidentmay provoke a smile amidst the horrors of war. Theobald, marquis ofCamerino and Spoleto, [13] supported the rebels of Beneventum; and hiswanton cruelty was not incompatible in that age with the character of ahero. His captives of the Greek nation or party were castrated withoutmercy, and the outrage was aggravated by a cruel jest, that he wishedto present the emperor with a supply of eunuchs, the most preciousornaments of the Byzantine court. The garrison of a castle had beendefeated in a sally, and the prisoners were sentenced to the customaryoperation. But the sacrifice was disturbed by the intrusion of a franticfemale, who, with bleeding cheeks dishevelled hair, and importunateclamors, compelled the marquis to listen to her complaint. "Is it thus, "she cried, "ye magnanimous heroes, that ye wage war against women, against women who have never injured ye, and whose only arms are thedistaff and the loom?" Theobald denied the charge, and protested that, since the Amazons, he had never heard of a female war. "And how, " shefuriously exclaimed, "can you attack us more directly, how can you woundus in a more vital part, than by robbing our husbands of what we mostdearly cherish, the source of our joys, and the hope of our posterity?The plunder of our flocks and herds I have endured without a murmur, butthis fatal injury, this irreparable loss, subdues my patience, and callsaloud on the justice of heaven and earth. " A general laugh applauded hereloquence; the savage Franks, inaccessible to pity, were moved byher ridiculous, yet rational despair; and with the deliverance of thecaptives, she obtained the restitution of her effects. As she returnedin triumph to the castle, she was overtaken by a messenger, to inquire, in the name of Theobald, what punishment should be inflicted on herhusband, were he again taken in arms. "Should such, " she answeredwithout hesitation, "be his guilt and misfortune, he has eyes, and anose, and hands, and feet. These are his own, and these he may deserveto forfeit by his personal offences. But let my lord be pleased to sparewhat his little handmaid presumes to claim as her peculiar and lawfulproperty. " [14]

[Footnote 9: Calabriam adeunt, eamque inter se divisam reperientesfunditus depopulati sunt, (or depopularunt, ) ita ut deserta sit velut indiluvio. Such is the text of Herempert, or Erchempert, according to thetwo editions of Carraccioli (Rer. Italic. Script. Tom. V. P. 23) andof Camillo Pellegrino, (tom. Ii. Pars i. P. 246. ) Both were extremelyscarce, when they were reprinted by Muratori. ]

[Footnote 10: Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 874, No. 2) has drawn thisstory from a Ms. Of Erchempert, who died at Capua only fifteen yearsafter the event. But the cardinal was deceived by a false title, andwe can only quote the anonymous Chronicle of Salerno, (Paralipomena, c. 110, ) composed towards the end of the xth century, and published in thesecond volume of Muratori's Collection. See the Dissertations of CamilloPellegrino, tom. Ii. Pars i. P. 231-281, &c. ]

[Footnote 11: Constantine Porphyrogenitus (in Vit. Basil. C. 58, p. 183)is the original author of this story. He places it under the reigns ofBasil and Lewis II. ; yet the reduction of Beneventum by the Greeks isdated A. D. 891, after the decease of both of those princes. ]

[Footnote 12: In the year 663, the same tragedy is described by Paul theDeacon, (de Gestis Langobard. L. V. C. 7, 8, p. 870, 871, edit. Grot. , )under the walls of the same city of Beneventum. But the actors aredifferent, and the guilt is imputed to the Greeks themselves, which inthe Byzantine edition is applied to the Saracens. In the late war inGermany, M. D'Assas, a French officer of the regiment of Auvergne, issaid to have devoted himself in a similar manner. His behavior is themore heroic, as mere silence was required by the enemy who had made himprisoner, (Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV. C. 33, tom. Ix. P. 172. )]

[Footnote 13: Theobald, who is styled Heros by Liutprand, was properlyduke of Spoleto and marquis of Camerino, from the year 926 to 935. Thetitle and office of marquis (commander of the march or frontier) wasintroduced into Italy by the French emperors, (Abrege Chronologique, tom. Ii. P. 545-732 &c. )]

[Footnote 14: Liutprand, Hist. L. Iv. C. Iv. In the Rerum Italic. Script. Tom. I. Pars i. P. 453, 454. Should the licentiousness of thetale be questioned, I may exclaim, with poor Sterne, that it is hardif I may not transcribe with caution what a bishop could write withoutscruple What if I had translated, ut viris certetis testiculos amputare, in quibus nostri corporis refocillatio, &c. ?]

The establishment of the Normans in the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily[15] is an event most romantic in its origin, and in its consequencesmost important both to Italy and the Eastern empire. The brokenprovinces of the Greeks, Lombards, and Saracens, were exposed to everyinvader, and every sea and land were invaded by the adventurous spiritof the Scandinavian pirates. After a long indulgence of rapine andslaughter, a fair and ample territory was accepted, occupied, and named, by the Normans of France: they renounced their gods for the God of theChristians; [16] and the dukes of Normandy acknowledged themselvesthe vassals of the successors of Charlemagne and Capet. The savagefierceness which they had brought from the snowy mountains of Norway wasrefined, without being corrupted, in a warmer climate; the companionsof Rollo insensibly mingled with the natives; they imbibed the manners, language, [17] and gallantry, of the French nation; and in amartial age, the Normans might claim the palm of valor and gloriousachievements. Of the fashionable superstitions, they embraced with ardorthe pilgrimages of Rome, Italy, and the Holy Land. [171] In this activedevotion, the minds and bodies were invigorated by exercise: danger wasthe incentive, novelty the recompense; and the prospect of the world wasdecorated by wonder, credulity, and ambitious hope. They confederatedfor their mutual defence; and the robbers of the Alps, who had beenallured by the garb of a pilgrim, were often chastised by the arm of awarrior. In one of these pious visits to the cavern of Mount Garganusin Apulia, which had been sanctified by the apparition of the archangelMichael, [18] they were accosted by a stranger in the Greek habit, butwho soon revealed himself as a rebel, a fugitive, and a mortal foe ofthe Greek empire. His name was Melo; a noble citizen of Bari, who, afteran unsuccessful revolt, was compelled to seek new allies and avengersof his country. The bold appearance of the Normans revived his hopesand solicited his confidence: they listened to the complaints, andstill more to the promises, of the patriot. The assurance of wealthdemonstrated the justice of his cause; and they viewed, as theinheritance of the brave, the fruitful land which was oppressed byeffeminate tyrants. On their return to Normandy, they kindled a spark ofenterprise, and a small but intrepid band was freely associated for thedeliverance of Apulia. They passed the Alps by separate roads, and inthe disguise of pilgrims; but in the neighborhood of Rome they weresaluted by the chief of Bari, who supplied the more indigent with armsand horses, and instantly led them to the field of action. In the firstconflict, their valor prevailed; but in the second engagement theywere overwhelmed by the numbers and military engines of the Greeks, and indignantly retreated with their faces to the enemy. [1811] Theunfortunate Melo ended his life a suppliant at the court of Germany: hisNorman followers, excluded from their native and their promised land, wandered among the hills and valleys of Italy, and earned their dailysubsistence by the sword. To that formidable sword the princes of Capua, Beneventum, Salerno, and Naples, alternately appealed in their domesticquarrels; the superior spirit and discipline of the Normans gave victoryto the side which they espoused; and their cautious policy observedthe balance of power, lest the preponderance of any rival state shouldrender their aid less important, and their service less profitable. Their first asylum was a strong camp in the depth of the marshes ofCampania: but they were soon endowed by the liberality of the duke ofNaples with a more plentiful and permanent seat. Eight miles from hisresidence, as a bulwark against Capua, the town of Aversa was builtand fortified for their use; and they enjoyed as their own the corn andfruits, the meadows and groves, of that fertile district. The report oftheir success attracted every year new swarms of pilgrims and soldiers:the poor were urged by necessity; the rich were excited by hope; andthe brave and active spirits of Normandy were impatient of ease andambitious of renown. The independent standard of Aversa afforded shelterand encouragement to the outlaws of the province, to every fugitive whohad escaped from the injustice or justice of his superiors; and theseforeign associates were quickly assimilated in manners and language tothe Gallic colony. The first leader of the Normans was Count Rainulf;and, in the origin of society, preeminence of rank is the reward and theproof of superior merit. [19] [1911]

[Footnote 15: The original monuments of the Normans in Italy arecollected in the vth volume of Muratori; and among these we maydistinguish the poems of William Appulus (p. 245-278) and the historyof Galfridus (Jeffrey) Malaterra, (p. 537-607. ) Both were natives ofFrance, but they wrote on the spot, in the age of the first conquerors(before A. D. 1100, ) and with the spirit of freemen. It is needless torecapitulate the compilers and critics of Italian history, Sigonius, Baronius, Pagi, Giannone, Muratori, St. Marc, &c. , whom I have alwaysconsulted, and never copied. * Note: M. Goutier d'Arc has discovereda translation of the Chronicle of Aime, monk of Mont Cassino, acontemporary of the first Norman invaders of Italy. He has made use ofit in his Histoire des Conquetes des Normands, and added a summary ofits contents. This work was quoted by later writers, but was supposed tohave been entirely lost. --M. ]

[Footnote 16: Some of the first converts were baptized ten or twelvetimes, for the sake of the white garment usually given at this ceremony. At the funeral of Rollo, the gifts to monasteries for the repose of hissoul were accompanied by a sacrifice of one hundred captives. But in ageneration or two, the national change was pure and general. ]

[Footnote 17: The Danish language was still spoken by the Normansof Bayeux on the sea-coast, at a time (A. D. 940) when it was alreadyforgotten at Rouen, in the court and capital. Quem (Richard I. )confestim pater Baiocas mittens Botoni militiae suae principi nutriendumtradidit, ut, ibi lingua eruditus Danica, suis exterisque hominibussciret aperte dare responsa, (Wilhelm. Gemeticensis de DucibusNormannis, l. Iii. C. 8, p. 623, edit. Camden. ) Of the vernacular andfavorite idiom of William the Conqueror, (A. D. 1035, ) Selden (Opera, tom. Ii. P. 1640-1656) has given a specimen, obsolete and obscure evento antiquarians and lawyers. ]

[Footnote 1711: A band of Normans returning from the Holy Land hadrescued the city of Salerno from the attack of a numerous fleet ofSaracens. Gainar, the Lombard prince of Salerno wished to retain them inhis service and take them into his pay. They answered, "We fight for ourreligion, and not for money. " Gaimar entreated them to send someNorman knights to his court. This seems to have been the origin of theconnection of the Normans with Italy. See Histoire des Conquetes desNormands par Goutier d'Arc, l. I. C. I. , Paris, 1830. --M. ]

[Footnote 18: See Leandro Alberti (Descrizione d'Italia, p. 250) andBaronius, (A. D. 493, No. 43. ) If the archangel inherited the templeand oracle, perhaps the cavern, of old Calchas the soothsayer, (Strab. Geograph l. Vi. P. 435, 436, ) the Catholics (on this occasion) havesurpassed the Greeks in the elegance of their superstition. ]

[Footnote 1811: Nine out of ten perished in the field. Chronique d'Aime, tom. I. P. 21 quoted by M Goutier d'Arc, p. 42. --M. ]

[Footnote 19: See the first book of William Appulus. His words areapplicable to every swarm of Barbarians and freebooters:--

 Si vicinorum quis pernitiosus ad illos

 Confugiebat eum gratanter suscipiebant:

 Moribus et lingua quoscumque venire videbant

 Informant propria; gens efficiatur ut una. 

 And elsewhere, of the native adventurers of Normandy:--

 Pars parat, exiguae vel opes aderant quia nullae:

 Pars, quia de magnis majora subire volebant. ]

[Footnote 1911: This account is not accurate. After the retreat of theemperor Henry II. The Normans, united under the command of Rainulf, hadtaken possession of Aversa, then a small castle in the duchy of Naples. They had been masters of it a few years when Pandulf IV. , prince ofCapua, found means to take Naples by surprise. Sergius, master ofthe soldiers, and head of the republic, with the principal citizens, abandoned a city in which he could not behold, without horror, theestablishment of a foreign dominion he retired to Aversa; and when, withthe assistance of the Greeks and that of the citizens faithful to theircountry, he had collected money enough to satisfy the rapacity of theNorman adventurers, he advanced at their head to attack the garrison ofthe prince of Capua, defeated it, and reentered Naples. It was then thathe confirmed the Normans in the possession of Aversa and its territory, which he raised into a count's fief, and granted the investiture toRainulf. Hist. Des Rep. Ital. Tom. I. P. 267]

Since the conquest of Sicily by the Arabs, the Grecian emperors had beenanxious to regain that valuable possession; but their efforts, howeverstrenuous, had been opposed by the distance and the sea. Their costlyarmaments, after a gleam of success, added new pages of calamity anddisgrace to the Byzantine annals: twenty thousand of their best troopswere lost in a single expedition; and the victorious Moslems derided thepolicy of a nation which intrusted eunuchs not only with the custody oftheir women, but with the command of their men [20] After a reign oftwo hundred years, the Saracens were ruined by their divisions. [21]The emir disclaimed the authority of the king of Tunis; the people roseagainst the emir; the cities were usurped by the chiefs; each meanerrebel was independent in his village or castle; and the weaker of tworival brothers implored the friendship of the Christians. In everyservice of danger the Normans were prompt and useful; and five hundredknights, or warriors on horseback, were enrolled by Arduin, the agentand interpreter of the Greeks, under the standard of Maniaces, governorof Lombardy. Before their landing, the brothers were reconciled; theunion of Sicily and Africa was restored; and the island was guarded tothe water's edge. The Normans led the van and the Arabs of Messina feltthe valor of an untried foe. In a second action the emir of Syracuse wasunhorsed and transpierced by the iron arm of William of Hauteville. In athird engagement, his intrepid companions discomfited the host of sixtythousand Saracens, and left the Greeks no more than the labor of thepursuit: a splendid victory; but of which the pen of the historian maydivide the merit with the lance of the Normans. It is, however, true, that they essentially promoted the success of Maniaces, who reducedthirteen cities, and the greater part of Sicily, under the obedienceof the emperor. But his military fame was sullied by ingratitudeand tyranny. In the division of the spoils, the deserts of his braveauxiliaries were forgotten; and neither their avarice nor their pridecould brook this injurious treatment. They complained by the mouth oftheir interpreter: their complaint was disregarded; their interpreterwas scourged; the sufferings were his; the insult and resentmentbelonged to those whose sentiments he had delivered. Yet they dissembledtill they had obtained, or stolen, a safe passage to the Italiancontinent: their brethren of Aversa sympathized in their indignation, and the province of Apulia was invaded as the forfeit of the debt. [22]Above twenty years after the first emigration, the Normans took thefield with no more than seven hundred horse and five hundred foot; andafter the recall of the Byzantine legions [23] from the Sicilian war, their numbers are magnified to the amount of threescore thousand men. Their herald proposed the option of battle or retreat; "of battle, " wasthe unanimous cry of the Normans; and one of their stoutest warriors, with a stroke of his fist, felled to the ground the horse of the Greekmessenger. He was dismissed with a fresh horse; the insult was concealedfrom the Imperial troops; but in two successive battles they were morefatally instructed of the prowess of their adversaries. In the plains ofCannae, the Asiatics fled before the adventurers of France; the duke ofLombardy was made prisoner; the Apulians acquiesced in a new dominion;and the four places of Bari, Otranto, Brundusium, and Tarentum, werealone saved in the shipwreck of the Grecian fortunes. From this aera wemay date the establishment of the Norman power, which soon eclipsed theinfant colony of Aversa. Twelve counts [24] were chosen by the popularsuffrage; and age, birth, and merit, were the motives of their choice. The tributes of their peculiar districts were appropriated to their use;and each count erected a fortress in the midst of his lands, and atthe head of his vassals. In the centre of the province, the commonhabitation of Melphi was reserved as the metropolis and citadel ofthe republic; a house and separate quarter was allotted to each of thetwelve counts: and the national concerns were regulated by this militarysenate. The first of his peers, their president and general, wasentitled count of Apulia; and this dignity was conferred on Williamof the iron arm, who, in the language of the age, is styled a lion inbattle, a lamb in society, and an angel in council. [25] The mannersof his countrymen are fairly delineated by a contemporary and nationalhistorian. [26] "The Normans, " says Malaterra, "are a cunning andrevengeful people; eloquence and dissimulation appear to be theirhereditary qualities: they can stoop to flatter; but unless they arecurbed by the restraint of law, they indulge the licentiousnessof nature and passion. Their princes affect the praises of popularmunificence; the people observe the medium, or rather blond theextremes, of avarice and prodigality; and in their eager thirst ofwealth and dominion, they despise whatever they possess, and hopewhatever they desire. Arms and horses, the luxury of dress, theexercises of hunting and hawking [27] are the delight of the Normans;but, on pressing occasions, they can endure with incredible patiencethe inclemency of every climate, and the toil and absence of a militarylife. " [28]

[Footnote 20: Liutprand, in Legatione, p. 485. Pagi has illustrated thisevent from the Ms. History of the deacon Leo, (tom. Iv. A. D. 965, No. 17-19. )]

[Footnote 21: See the Arabian Chronicle of Sicily, apud Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. Tom. I. P. 253. ]

[Footnote 22: Jeffrey Malaterra, who relates the Sicilian war, andthe conquest of Apulia, (l. I. C. 7, 8, 9, 19. ) The same events aredescribed by Cedrenus (tom. Ii. P. 741-743, 755, 756) and Zonaras, (tom. Ii. P. 237, 238;) and the Greeks are so hardened to disgrace, thattheir narratives are impartial enough. ]

[Footnote 23: Lydia: consult Constantine de Thematibus, i. 3, 4, withDelisle's map. ]

[Footnote 24: Omnes conveniunt; et bis sex nobiliores, Quos genus et gravitas morum decorabat et aetas, Elegere duces. Provectis ad comitatum

 His alii parent. Comitatus nomen honoris

 Quo donantur erat. Hi totas undique terras

 Divisere sibi, ni sors inimica repugnet;

 Singula proponunt loca quae contingere sorte

 Cuique duci debent, et quaeque tributa locorum. 

 And after speaking of Melphi, William Appulus adds, Pro numero comitum bis sex statuere plateas, Atque domus comitum totidem fabricantur in urbe. Leo Ostiensis (l. Ii. C. 67) enumerates the divisions of the Apulian cities, which it isneedless to repeat. ]

[Footnote 25: Gulielm. Appulus, l. Ii. C 12, according to the referenceof Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. Ii. P. 31, ) which I cannotverify in the original. The Apulian praises indeed his validas vires, probitas animi, and vivida virtus; and declares that, had he lived, nopoet could have equalled his merits, (l. I. P. 258, l. Ii. P. 259. )He was bewailed by the Normans, quippe qui tanti consilii virum, (saysMalaterra, l. I. C. 12, p. 552, ) tam armis strenuum, tam sibi munificum, affabilem, morigeratum, ulterius se habere diffidebant. ]

[Footnote 26: The gens astutissima, injuriarum ultrix. .. . Adularisciens. .. . Eloquentiis inserviens, of Malaterra, (l. I. C. 3, p. 550, )are expressive of the popular and proverbial character of the Normans. ]

[Footnote 27: The hunting and hawking more properly belong to thedescendants of the Norwegian sailors; though they might import fromNorway and Iceland the finest casts of falcons. ]

[Footnote 28: We may compare this portrait with that of William ofMalmsbury, (de Gestis Anglorum, l. Iii. P. 101, 102, ) who appreciates, like a philosophic historian, the vices and virtues of the Saxons andNormans. England was assuredly a gainer by the conquest. ]

Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans. --Part II. 

The Normans of Apulia were seated on the verge of the two empires; and, according to the policy of the hour, they accepted the investiture oftheir lands, from the sovereigns of Germany or Constantinople. Butthe firmest title of these adventurers was the right of conquest: theyneither loved nor trusted; they were neither trusted nor beloved: thecontempt of the princes was mixed with fear, and the fear of the nativeswas mingled with hatred and resentment. Every object of desire, ahorse, a woman, a garden, tempted and gratified the rapaciousness of thestrangers; [29] and the avarice of their chiefs was only colored bythe more specious names of ambition and glory. The twelve counts weresometimes joined in the league of injustice: in their domestic quarrelsthey disputed the spoils of the people: the virtues of William wereburied in his grave; and Drogo, his brother and successor, was betterqualified to lead the valor, than to restrain the violence, of hispeers. Under the reign of Constantine Monomachus, the policy, ratherthan benevolence, of the Byzantine court, attempted to relieve Italyfrom this adherent mischief, more grievous than a flight of Barbarians;[30] and Argyrus, the son of Melo, was invested for this purpose withthe most lofty titles [31] and the most ample commission. The memoryof his father might recommend him to the Normans; and he had alreadyengaged their voluntary service to quell the revolt of Maniaces, and toavenge their own and the public injury. It was the design of Constantineto transplant the warlike colony from the Italian provinces to thePersian war; and the son of Melo distributed among the chiefs the goldand manufactures of Greece, as the first-fruits of the Imperial bounty. But his arts were baffled by the sense and spirit of the conquerors ofApulia: his gifts, or at least his proposals, were rejected; and theyunanimously refused to relinquish their possessions and their hopes forthe distant prospect of Asiatic fortune. After the means of persuasionhad failed, Argyrus resolved to compel or to destroy: the Latin powerswere solicited against the common enemy; and an offensive alliance wasformed of the pope and the two emperors of the East and West. The throneof St. Peter was occupied by Leo the Ninth, a simple saint, [32] of atemper most apt to deceive himself and the world, and whose venerablecharacter would consecrate with the name of piety the measures leastcompatible with the practice of religion. His humanity was affected bythe complaints, perhaps the calumnies, of an injured people: the impiousNormans had interrupted the payment of tithes; and the temporal swordmight be lawfully unsheathed against the sacrilegious robbers, who weredeaf to the censures of the church. As a German of noble birth and royalkindred, Leo had free access to the court and confidence of the emperorHenry the Third; and in search of arms and allies, his ardent zealtransported him from Apulia to Saxony, from the Elbe to the Tyber. During these hostile preparations, Argyrus indulged himself in the useof secret and guilty weapons: a crowd of Normans became the victimsof public or private revenge; and the valiant Drogo was murdered in achurch. But his spirit survived in his brother Humphrey, the third countof Apulia. The assassins were chastised; and the son of Melo, overthrownand wounded, was driven from the field, to hide his shame behind thewalls of Bari, and to await the tardy succor of his allies. 

[Footnote 29: The biographer of St. Leo IX. Pours his holy venom on theNormans. Videns indisciplinatam et alienam gentem Normannorum, crudeliet inaudita rabie, et plusquam Pagana impietate, adversus ecclesias Deiinsurgere, passim Christianos trucidare, &c. , (Wibert, c. 6. ) The honestApulian (l. Ii. P. 259) says calmly of their accuser, Veris commiscensfallacia. ]

[Footnote 30: The policy of the Greeks, revolt of Maniaces, &c. , must becollected from Cedrenus, (tom. Ii. P. 757, 758, ) William Appulus, (l. I. P 257, 258, l. Ii. P. 259, ) and the two Chronicles of Bari, by LupusProtospata, (Muratori, Script. Ital. Tom. V. P. 42, 43, 44, ) and ananonymous writer, (Antiquitat, Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. I. P 31-35. )This last is a fragment of some value. ]

[Footnote 31: Argyrus received, says the anonymous Chronicle of Bari, Imperial letters, Foederatus et Patriciatus, et Catapani et Vestatus. In his Annals, Muratori (tom. Viii. P. 426) very properly reads, orinterprets, Sevestatus, the title of Sebastos or Augustus. But in hisAntiquities, he was taught by Ducange to make it a palatine office, master of the wardrobe. ]

[Footnote 32: A Life of St. Leo IX. , deeply tinged with the passions andprejudices of the age, has been composed by Wibert, printed atParis, 1615, in octavo, and since inserted in the Collections of theBollandists, of Mabillon, and of Muratori. The public and privatehistory of that pope is diligently treated by M. De St. Marc. (Abrege, tom. Ii. P. 140-210, and p. 25-95, second column. )]

But the power of Constantine was distracted by a Turkish war; the mindof Henry was feeble and irresolute; and the pope, instead of repassingthe Alps with a German army, was accompanied only by a guard of sevenhundred Swabians and some volunteers of Lorraine. In his long progressfrom Mantua to Beneventum, a vile and promiscuous multitude of Italianswas enlisted under the holy standard: [33] the priest and the robberslept in the same tent; the pikes and crosses were intermingled in thefront; and the martial saint repeated the lessons of his youth in theorder of march, of encampment, and of combat. The Normans of Apuliacould muster in the field no more than three thousand horse, with ahandful of infantry: the defection of the natives intercepted theirprovisions and retreat; and their spirit, incapable of fear, was chilledfor a moment by superstitious awe. On the hostile approach of Leo, theyknelt without disgrace or reluctance before their spiritual father. But the pope was inexorable; his lofty Germans affected to deride thediminutive stature of their adversaries; and the Normans were informedthat death or exile was their only alternative. Flight they disdained, and, as many of them had been three days without tasting food, theyembraced the assurance of a more easy and honorable death. They climbedthe hill of Civitella, descended into the plain, and charged in threedivisions the army of the pope. On the left, and in the centre, Richardcount of Aversa, and Robert the famous Guiscard, attacked, broke, routed, and pursued the Italian multitudes, who fought withoutdiscipline, and fled without shame. A harder trial was reserved forthe valor of Count Humphrey, who led the cavalry of the right wing. TheGermans [34] have been described as unskillful in the management of thehorse and the lance, but on foot they formed a strong and impenetrablephalanx; and neither man, nor steed, nor armor, could resist the weightof their long and two-handed swords. After a severe conflict, they wereencompassed by the squadrons returning from the pursuit; and died in theranks with the esteem of their foes, and the satisfaction of revenge. The gates of Civitella were shut against the flying pope, and he wasovertaken by the pious conquerors, who kissed his feet, to implore hisblessing and the absolution of their sinful victory. The soldiers beheldin their enemy and captive the vicar of Christ; and, though we maysuppose the policy of the chiefs, it is probable that they were infectedby the popular superstition. In the calm of retirement, the well-meaningpope deplored the effusion of Christian blood, which must be imputed tohis account: he felt, that he had been the author of sin and scandal;and as his undertaking had failed, the indecency of his militarycharacter was universally condemned. [35] With these dispositions, helistened to the offers of a beneficial treaty; deserted an alliancewhich he had preached as the cause of God; and ratified the pastand future conquests of the Normans. By whatever hands they had beenusurped, the provinces of Apulia and Calabria were a part of thedonation of Constantine and the patrimony of St. Peter: the grantand the acceptance confirmed the mutual claims of the pontiff and theadventurers. They promised to support each other with spiritual andtemporal arms; a tribute or quitrent of twelve pence was afterwardsstipulated for every ploughland; and since this memorable transaction, the kingdom of Naples has remained above seven hundred years a fief ofthe Holy See. [36]

[Footnote 33: See the expedition of Leo XI. Against the Normans. SeeWilliam Appulus (l. Ii. P. 259-261) and Jeffrey Malaterra (l. I. C. 13, 14, 15, p. 253. ) They are impartial, as the national is counterbalancedby the clerical prejudice]

[Footnote 34:

 Teutonici, quia caesaries et forma decoros

 Fecerat egregie proceri corporis illos

 Corpora derident Normannica quae breviora

 Esse videbantur. 

The verses of the Apulian are commonly in this strain, though he heatshimself a little in the battle. Two of his similes from hawking andsorcery are descriptive of manners. ]

[Footnote 35: Several respectable censures or complaints are produced byM. De St. Marc, (tom. Ii. P. 200-204. ) As Peter Damianus, the oracleof the times, has denied the popes the right of making war, the hermit(lugens eremi incola) is arraigned by the cardinal, and Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 1053, No. 10-17) most strenuously asserts the two swords ofSt. Peter. ]

[Footnote 36: The origin and nature of the papal investitures are ablydiscussed by Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. Ii. P. 37-49, 57-66, ) as a lawyer and antiquarian. Yet he vainly strives to reconcilethe duties of patriot and Catholic, adopts an empty distinction of"Ecclesia Romana non dedit, sed accepit, " and shrinks from an honest butdangerous confession of the truth. ]

The pedigree of Robert of Guiscard [37] is variously deduced from thepeasants and the dukes of Normandy: from the peasants, by the pride andignorance of a Grecian princess; [38] from the dukes, by the ignoranceand flattery of the Italian subjects. [39] His genuine descent may beascribed to the second or middle order of private nobility. [40]He sprang from a race of valvassors or bannerets, of the diocese ofCoutances, in the Lower Normandy: the castle of Hauteville was theirhonorable seat: his father Tancred was conspicuous in the court and armyof the duke; and his military service was furnished by ten soldiers orknights. Two marriages, of a rank not unworthy of his own, made himthe father of twelve sons, who were educated at home by the impartialtenderness of his second wife. But a narrow patrimony was insufficientfor this numerous and daring progeny; they saw around the neighborhoodthe mischiefs of poverty and discord, and resolved to seek in foreignwars a more glorious inheritance. Two only remained to perpetuatethe race, and cherish their father's age: their ten brothers, as theysuccessfully attained the vigor of manhood, departed from the castle, passed the Alps, and joined the Apulian camp of the Normans. The elderwere prompted by native spirit; their success encouraged their youngerbrethren, and the three first in seniority, William, Drogo, andHumphrey, deserved to be the chiefs of their nation and the founders ofthe new republic. Robert was the eldest of the seven sons of the secondmarriage; and even the reluctant praise of his foes has endowed him withthe heroic qualities of a soldier and a statesman. His lofty staturesurpassed the tallest of his army: his limbs were cast in the trueproportion of strength and gracefulness; and to the decline of life, hemaintained the patient vigor of health and the commanding dignity of hisform. His complexion was ruddy, his shoulders were broad, his hair andbeard were long and of a flaxen color, his eyes sparkled with fire, andhis voice, like that of Achilles, could impress obedience and terroramidst the tumult of battle. In the ruder ages of chivalry, suchqualifications are not below the notice of the poet or historians: theymay observe that Robert, at once, and with equal dexterity, could wieldin the right hand his sword, his lance in the left; that in the battleof Civitella he was thrice unhorsed; and that in the close of thatmemorable day he was adjudged to have borne away the prize of valor fromthe warriors of the two armies. [41] His boundless ambition was foundedon the consciousness of superior worth: in the pursuit of greatness, hewas never arrested by the scruples of justice, and seldom moved by thefeelings of humanity: though not insensible of fame, the choice of openor clandestine means was determined only by his present advantage. Thesurname of Guiscard [42] was applied to this master of political wisdom, which is too often confounded with the practice of dissimulation anddeceit; and Robert is praised by the Apulian poet for excelling thecunning of Ulysses and the eloquence of Cicero. Yet these arts weredisguised by an appearance of military frankness: in his highestfortune, he was accessible and courteous to his fellow-soldiers; andwhile he indulged the prejudices of his new subjects, he affected inhis dress and manners to maintain the ancient fashion of his country. Hegrasped with a rapacious, that he might distribute with a liberal, hand:his primitive indigence had taught the habits of frugality; the gain ofa merchant was not below his attention; and his prisoners were torturedwith slow and unfeeling cruelty, to force a discovery of their secrettreasure. According to the Greeks, he departed from Normandy with onlyfive followers on horseback and thirty on foot; yet even this allowanceappears too bountiful: the sixth son of Tancred of Hauteville passedthe Alps as a pilgrim; and his first military band was levied amongthe adventurers of Italy. His brothers and countrymen had divided thefertile lands of Apulia; but they guarded their shares with the jealousyof avarice; the aspiring youth was driven forwards to the mountains ofCalabria, and in his first exploits against the Greeks and the natives, it is not easy to discriminate the hero from the robber. To surprisea castle or a convent, to ensnare a wealthy citizen, to plunder theadjacent villages for necessary food, were the obscure labors whichformed and exercised the powers of his mind and body. The volunteers ofNormandy adhered to his standard; and, under his command, the peasantsof Calabria assumed the name and character of Normans. 

[Footnote 37: The birth, character, and first actions of RobertGuiscard, may be found in Jeffrey Malaterra, (l. I. C. 3, 4, 11, 16, 17, 18, 38, 39, 40, ) William Appulus, (l. Ii. P. 260-262, ) WilliamGemeticensis, or of Jumieges, (l. Xi. C. 30, p. 663, 664, edit. Camden, )and Anna Comnena, (Alexiad, l. I. P. 23-27, l. Vi. P. 165, 166, ) withthe annotations of Ducange, (Not. In Alexiad, p. 230-232, 320, ) whohas swept all the French and Latin Chronicles for supplementalintelligence. ]

[Footnote 38: (a Greek corruption), and elsewhere, (l. Iv. P. 84, ). Anna Comnena was born in the purple; yet her father was no more than aprivate though illustrious subject, who raised himself to the empire. ]

[Footnote 39: Giannone, (tom. Ii. P. 2) forgets all his originalauthors, and rests this princely descent on the credit of Inveges, an Augustine monk of Palermo in the last century. They continue thesuccession of dukes from Rollo to William II. The Bastard or Conqueror, whom they hold (communemente si tiene) to be the father of Tancred ofHauteville; a most strange and stupendous blunder! The sons of Tancredfought in Apulia, before William II. Was three years old, (A. D. 1037. )]

[Footnote 40: The judgment of Ducange is just and moderate: Certehumilis fuit ac tenuis Roberti familia, si ducalem et regium spectemusapicem, ad quem postea pervenit; quae honesta tamen et praeter nobiliumvulgarium statum et conditionem illustris habita est, "quae nec humireperet nec altum quid tumeret. " (Wilhem. Malmsbur. De Gestis Anglorum, l. Iii. P. 107. Not. Ad Alexiad. P. 230. )]

[Footnote 41: I shall quote with pleasure some of the best lines of theApulian, (l. Ii. P. 270. )

 Pugnat utraque manu, nec lancea cassa, nec ensis

 Cassus erat, quocunque manu deducere vellet. 

 Ter dejectus equo, ter viribus ipse resumptis

 Major in arma redit: stimulos furor ipse ministrat. 

 Ut Leo cum frendens, &c. 

 - -- -- -- -- -- -

 Nullus in hoc bello sicuti post bella probatum est

 Victor vel victus, tam magnos edidit ictus. ]

[Footnote 42: The Norman writers and editors most conversant with theirown idiom interpret Guiscard or Wiscard, by Callidus, a cunning man. Theroot (wise) is familiar to our ear; and in the old word Wiseacre, Ican discern something of a similar sense and termination. It is no badtranslation of the surname and character of Robert. ]

As the genius of Robert expanded with his fortune, he awakened thejealousy of his elder brother, by whom, in a transient quarrel, his lifewas threatened and his liberty restrained. After the death of Humphrey, the tender age of his sons excluded them from the command; they werereduced to a private estate, by the ambition of their guardian anduncle; and Guiscard was exalted on a buckler, and saluted count ofApulia and general of the republic. With an increase of authority and offorce, he resumed the conquest of Calabria, and soon aspired to a rankthat should raise him forever above the heads of his equals. 

By some acts of rapine or sacrilege, he had incurred a papalexcommunication; but Nicholas the Second was easily persuaded that thedivisions of friends could terminate only in their mutual prejudice;that the Normans were the faithful champions of the Holy See; and itwas safer to trust the alliance of a prince than the caprice of anaristocracy. A synod of one hundred bishops was convened at Melphi; andthe count interrupted an important enterprise to guard the person andexecute the decrees of the Roman pontiff. His gratitude and policyconferred on Robert and his posterity the ducal title, [43] with theinvestiture of Apulia, Calabria, and all the lands, both in Italy andSicily, which his sword could rescue from the schismatic Greeks and theunbelieving Saracens. [44] This apostolic sanction might justify hisarms; but the obedience of a free and victorious people could not betransferred without their consent; and Guiscard dissembled his elevationtill the ensuing campaign had been illustrated by the conquest ofConsenza and Reggio. In the hour of triumph, he assembled his troops, and solicited the Normans to confirm by their suffrage the judgment ofthe vicar of Christ: the soldiers hailed with joyful acclamations theirvaliant duke; and the counts, his former equals, pronounced the oathof fidelity with hollow smiles and secret indignation. After thisinauguration, Robert styled himself, "By the grace of God and St. Peter, duke of Apulia, Calabria, and hereafter of Sicily;" and it was the laborof twenty years to deserve and realize these lofty appellations. Suchsardy progress, in a narrow space, may seem unworthy of the abilitiesof the chief and the spirit of the nation; but the Normans were few innumber; their resources were scanty; their service was voluntary andprecarious. The bravest designs of the duke were sometimes opposed bythe free voice of his parliament of barons: the twelve counts of popularelection conspired against his authority; and against their perfidiousuncle, the sons of Humphrey demanded justice and revenge. By his policyand vigor, Guiscard discovered their plots, suppressed their rebellions, and punished the guilty with death or exile: but in these domesticfeuds, his years, and the national strength, were unprofitably consumed. After the defeat of his foreign enemies, the Greeks, Lombards, andSaracens, their broken forces retreated to the strong and populouscities of the sea-coast. They excelled in the arts of fortification anddefence; the Normans were accustomed to serve on horseback in the field, and their rude attempts could only succeed by the efforts of perseveringcourage. The resistance of Salerno was maintained above eight months;the siege or blockade of Bari lasted near four years. In these actionsthe Norman duke was the foremost in every danger; in every fatigue thelast and most patient. As he pressed the citadel of Salerno, a hugestone from the rampart shattered one of his military engines; and bya splinter he was wounded in the breast. Before the gates of Bari, helodged in a miserable hut or barrack, composed of dry branches, andthatched with straw; a perilous station, on all sides open to theinclemency of the winter and the spears of the enemy. [45]

[Footnote 43: The acquisition of the ducal title by Robert Guiscard isa nice and obscure business. With the good advice of Giannone, Muratori, and St. Marc, I have endeavored to form a consistent and probablenarrative. ]

[Footnote 44: Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 1059, No. 69) has publishedthe original act. He professes to have copied it from the Liber Censuum, a Vatican Ms. Yet a Liber Censuum of the xiith century has been printedby Muratori, (Antiquit. Medii Aevi, tom. V. P. 851-908;) and the namesof Vatican and Cardinal awaken the suspicions of a Protestant, and evenof a philosopher. ]

[Footnote 45: Read the life of Guiscard in the second and third books ofthe Apulian, the first and second books of Malaterra. ]

The Italian conquests of Robert correspond with the limits of thepresent kingdom of Naples; and the countries united by his arms havenot been dissevered by the revolutions of seven hundred years. [46]The monarchy has been composed of the Greek provinces of Calabria andApulia, of the Lombard principality of Salerno, the republic ofAmalphi, and the inland dependencies of the large and ancient duchy ofBeneventum. Three districts only were exempted from the common lawof subjection; the first forever, the two last till the middle of thesucceeding century. The city and immediate territory of Benevento hadbeen transferred, by gift or exchange, from the German emperor to theRoman pontiff; and although this holy land was sometimes invaded, thename of St. Peter was finally more potent than the sword of the Normans. Their first colony of Aversa subdued and held the state of Capua; andher princes were reduced to beg their bread before the palace of theirfathers. The dukes of Naples, the present metropolis, maintained thepopular freedom, under the shadow of the Byzantine empire. Among the newacquisitions of Guiscard, the science of Salerno, [47] and the trade ofAmalphi, [48] may detain for a moment the curiosity of the reader. I. Ofthe learned faculties, jurisprudence implies the previous establishmentof laws and property; and theology may perhaps be superseded by the fulllight of religion and reason. But the savage and the sage must alikeimplore the assistance of physic; and, if our diseases are inflamed byluxury, the mischiefs of blows and wounds would be more frequent inthe ruder ages of society. The treasures of Grecian medicine had beencommunicated to the Arabian colonies of Africa, Spain, and Sicily;and in the intercourse of peace and war, a spark of knowledge had beenkindled and cherished at Salerno, an illustrious city, in which the menwere honest and the women beautiful. [49] A school, the first thatarose in the darkness of Europe, was consecrated to the healing art:the conscience of monks and bishops was reconciled to that salutary andlucrative profession; and a crowd of patients, of the most eminent rank, and most distant climates, invited or visited the physicians of Salerno. They were protected by the Norman conquerors; and Guiscard, though bredin arms, could discern the merit and value of a philosopher. After apilgrimage of thirty-nine years, Constantine, an African Christian, returned from Bagdad, a master of the language and learning of theArabians; and Salerno was enriched by the practice, the lessons, and thewritings of the pupil of Avicenna. The school of medicine has long sleptin the name of a university; but her precepts are abridged in a stringof aphorisms, bound together in the Leonine verses, or Latin rhymes, ofthe twelfth century. [50] II. Seven miles to the west of Salerno, andthirty to the south of Naples, the obscure town of Amalphi displayed thepower and rewards of industry. The land, however fertile, was of narrowextent; but the sea was accessible and open: the inhabitants firstassumed the office of supplying the western world with the manufacturesand productions of the East; and this useful traffic was the sourceof their opulence and freedom. The government was popular, under theadministration of a duke and the supremacy of the Greek emperor. Fiftythousand citizens were numbered in the walls of Amalphi; nor was anycity more abundantly provided with gold, silver, and the objects ofprecious luxury. The mariners who swarmed in her port, excelled in thetheory and practice of navigation and astronomy: and the discovery ofthe compass, which has opened the globe, is owing to their ingenuity orgood fortune. Their trade was extended to the coasts, or at least tothe commodities, of Africa, Arabia, and India: and their settlementsin Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, acquired theprivileges of independent colonies. [51] After three hundred years ofprosperity, Amalphi was oppressed by the arms of the Normans, andsacked by the jealousy of Pisa; but the poverty of one thousand [5111]fisherman is yet dignified by the remains of an arsenal, a cathedral, and the palaces of royal merchants. 

[Footnote 46: The conquests of Robert Guiscard and Roger I. , theexemption of Benevento and the xii provinces of the kingdom, are fairlyexposed by Giannone in the second volume of his Istoria Civile, l. Ix. X. Xi and l. Xvii. P. 460-470. This modern division was not establishedbefore the time of Frederic II. ]

[Footnote 47: Giannone, (tom. Ii. P. 119-127, ) Muratori, (Antiquitat. Medii Aevi, tom. Iii. Dissert. Xliv. P. 935, 936, ) and Tiraboschi, (Istoria della Letteratura Italiana, ) have given an historical accountof these physicians; their medical knowledge and practice must be leftto our physicians. ]

[Footnote 48: At the end of the Historia Pandectarum of HenryBrenckmann, (Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1722, in 4to. , ) the indefatigableauthor has inserted two dissertations, de Republica Amalphitana, andde Amalphi a Pisanis direpta, which are built on the testimonies ofone hundred and forty writers. Yet he has forgotten two most importantpassages of the embassy of Liutprand, (A. D. 939, ) which compare thetrade and navigation of Amalphi with that of Venice. ]

[Footnote 49: Urbs Latii non est hac delitiosior urbe, Frugibus, arboribus, vinoque redundat; et unde

 Non tibi poma, nuces, non pulchra palatia desunt, Non species muliebris abest probitasque virorum. 

 --Gulielmus Appulus, l. Iii. P. 367]

[Footnote 50: Muratori carries their antiquity above the year (1066)of the death of Edward the Confessor, the rex Anglorum to whom they areaddressed. Nor is this date affected by the opinion, or rather mistake, of Pasquier (Recherches de la France, l. Vii. C. 2) and Ducange, (Glossar. Latin. ) The practice of rhyming, as early as the viithcentury, was borrowed from the languages of the North and East, (Muratori, Antiquitat. Tom. Iii. Dissert. Xl. P. 686-708. )]

[Footnote 51: The description of Amalphi, by William the Apulian, (l. Iii. P. 267, ) contains much truth and some poetry, and the third linemay be applied to the sailor's compass:--

 Nulla magis locuples argento, vestibus, auro

 Partibus innumeris: hac plurimus urbe moratur

 Nauta maris Caelique vias aperire peritus. 

 Huc et Alexandri diversa feruntur ab urbe

 Regis, et Antiochi. Gens haec freta plurima transit. 

 His Arabes, Indi, Siculi nascuntur et Afri. 

 Haec gens est totum proore nobilitata per orbem, Et mercando forens, et amans mercata referre. ]

[Footnote 5111: Amalfi had only one thousand inhabitants at thecommencement of the 18th century, when it was visited by Brenckmann, (Brenckmann de Rep. Amalph. Diss. I. C. 23. ) At present it has six oreight thousand Hist. Des Rep. Tom. I. P. 304. --G. ]

Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans. --Part III. 

Roger, the twelfth and last of the sons of Tancred, had been longdetained in Normandy by his own and his father' age. He accepted thewelcome summons; hastened to the Apulian camp; and deserved at first theesteem, and afterwards the envy, of his elder brother. Their valor andambition were equal; but the youth, the beauty, the elegant manners, of Roger engaged the disinterested love of the soldiers and people. So scanty was his allowance for himself and forty followers, that hedescended from conquest to robbery, and from robbery to domestic theft;and so loose were the notions of property, that, by his own historian, at his special command, he is accused of stealing horses from a stableat Melphi. [52] His spirit emerged from poverty and disgrace: from thesebase practices he rose to the merit and glory of a holy war; and theinvasion of Sicily was seconded by the zeal and policy of his brotherGuiscard. After the retreat of the Greeks, the idolaters, a mostaudacious reproach of the Catholics, had retrieved their losses andpossessions; but the deliverance of the island, so vainly undertaken bythe forces of the Eastern empire, was achieved by a small and privateband of adventurers. [53] In the first attempt, Roger braved, in an openboat, the real and fabulous dangers of Scylla and Charybdis; landed withonly sixty soldiers on a hostile shore; drove the Saracens to the gatesof Messina and safely returned with the spoils of the adjacent country. In the fortress of Trani, his active and patient courage were equallyconspicuous. In his old age he related with pleasure, that, by thedistress of the siege, himself, and the countess his wife, had beenreduced to a single cloak or mantle, which they wore alternately; thatin a sally his horse had been slain, and he was dragged away by theSaracens; but that he owed his rescue to his good sword, and hadretreated with his saddle on his back, lest the meanest trophy mightbe left in the hands of the miscreants. In the siege of Trani, threehundred Normans withstood and repulsed the forces of the island. In thefield of Ceramio, fifty thousand horse and foot were overthrown by onehundred and thirty-six Christian soldiers, without reckoning St. George, who fought on horseback in the foremost ranks. The captive banners, withfour camels, were reserved for the successor of St. Peter; and had thesebarbaric spoils been exposed, not in the Vatican, but in the Capitol, they might have revived the memory of the Punic triumphs. Theseinsufficient numbers of the Normans most probably denote their knights, the soldiers of honorable and equestrian rank, each of whom was attendedby five or six followers in the field; [54] yet, with the aid of thisinterpretation, and after every fair allowance on the side of valor, arms, and reputation, the discomfiture of so many myriads will reducethe prudent reader to the alternative of a miracle or a fable. The Arabsof Sicily derived a frequent and powerful succor from their countrymenof Africa: in the siege of Palermo, the Norman cavalry was assisted bythe galleys of Pisa; and, in the hour of action, the envy of the twobrothers was sublimed to a generous and invincible emulation. After awar of thirty years, [55] Roger, with the title of great count, obtained the sovereignty of the largest and most fruitful island of theMediterranean; and his administration displays a liberal and enlightenedmind, above the limits of his age and education. The Moslems weremaintained in the free enjoyment of their religion and property: [56] aphilosopher and physician of Mazara, of the race of Mahomet, haranguedthe conqueror, and was invited to court; his geography of the sevenclimates was translated into Latin; and Roger, after a diligent perusal, preferred the work of the Arabian to the writings of the GrecianPtolemy. [57] A remnant of Christian natives had promoted the success ofthe Normans: they were rewarded by the triumph of the cross. The islandwas restored to the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff; new bishopswere planted in the principal cities; and the clergy was satisfied bya liberal endowment of churches and monasteries. Yet the Catholic heroasserted the rights of the civil magistrate. Instead of resigning theinvestiture of benefices, he dexterously applied to his own profit thepapal claims: the supremacy of the crown was secured and enlarged, bythe singular bull, which declares the princes of Sicily hereditary andperpetual legates of the Holy See. [58]

[Footnote 52: Latrocinio armigerorum suorum in multis sustentabatur, quod quidem ad ejus ignominiam non dicimus; sed ipso ita praecipienteadhuc viliora et reprehensibiliora dicturi sumus ut pluribus patescat, quam laboriose et cum quanta angustia a profunda paupertate ad summumculmen divitiarum vel honoris attigerit. Such is the preface ofMalaterra (l. I. C. 25) to the horse-stealing. From the moment (l. I. C. 19) that he has mentioned his patron Roger, the elder brother sinks intothe second character. Something similar in Velleius Paterculus may beobserved of Augustus and Tiberius. ]

[Footnote 53: Duo sibi proficua deputans animae scilicet et corporis siterran: Idolis deditam ad cultum divinum revocaret, (Galfrid Malaterra, l. Ii. C. 1. ) The conquest of Sicily is related in the three lastbooks, and he himself has given an accurate summary of the chapters, (p. 544-546. )]

[Footnote 54: See the word Milites in the Latin Glossary of Ducange. ]

[Footnote 55: Of odd particulars, I learn from Malaterra, that theArabs had introduced into Sicily the use of camels (l. I. C. 33) and ofcarrier-pigeons, (c. 42;) and that the bite of the tarantula provokes awindy disposition, quae per anum inhoneste crepitando emergit; a symptommost ridiculously felt by the whole Norman army in their camp nearPalermo, (c. 36. ) I shall add an etymology not unworthy of the xithcentury: Messana is divided from Messis, the place from whence theharvests of the isle were sent in tribute to Rome, (l. Ii. C. 1. )]

[Footnote 56: See the capitulation of Palermo in Malaterra, l. Ii. C. 45, and Giannone, who remarks the general toleration of the Saracens, (tom ii. P. 72. )]

[Footnote 57: John Leo Afer, de Medicis et Philosophus Arabibus, c. 14, apud Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Xiii. P. 278, 279. This philosopher isnamed Esseriph Essachalli, and he died in Africa, A. H. 516, A. D. 1122. Yet this story bears a strange resemblance to the Sherif al Edrissi, whopresented his book (Geographia Nubiensis, see preface p. 88, 90, 170) toRoger, king of Sicily, A. H. 541, A. D. 1153, (D'Herbelot, BibliothequeOrientale, p. 786. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 188. Petit de laCroix, Hist. De Gengiscan, p. 535, 536. Casiri, Bibliot. Arab. Hispan. Tom. Ii. P. 9-13;) and I am afraid of some mistake. ]

[Footnote 58: Malaterra remarks the foundation of the bishoprics, (l. Iv. C. 7, ) and produces the original of the bull, (l. Iv. C. 29. )Giannone gives a rational idea of this privilege, and the tribunal ofthe monarchy of Sicily, (tom. Ii. P. 95-102;) and St. Marc (Abrege, tom. Iii. P. 217-301, 1st column) labors the case with the diligence ofa Sicilian lawyer. ]

To Robert Guiscard, the conquest of Sicily was more glorious thanbeneficial: the possession of Apulia and Calabria was inadequate to hisambition; and he resolved to embrace or create the first occasion ofinvading, perhaps of subduing, the Roman empire of the East. [59] Fromhis first wife, the partner of his humble fortune, he had been divorcedunder the pretence of consanguinity; and her son Bohemond was destinedto imitate, rather than to succeed, his illustrious father. The secondwife of Guiscard was the daughter of the princes of Salerno; theLombards acquiesced in the lineal succession of their son Roger; theirfive daughters were given in honorable nuptials, [60] and one of themwas betrothed, in a tender age, to Constantine, a beautiful youth, the son and heir of the emperor Michael. [61] But the throne ofConstantinople was shaken by a revolution: the Imperial family of Ducaswas confined to the palace or the cloister; and Robert deplored, andresented, the disgrace of his daughter and the expulsion of his ally. A Greek, who styled himself the father of Constantine, soon appearedat Salerno, and related the adventures of his fall and flight. Thatunfortunate friend was acknowledged by the duke, and adorned with thepomp and titles of Imperial dignity: in his triumphal progress throughApulia and Calabria, Michael [62] was saluted with the tears andacclamations of the people; and Pope Gregory the Seventh exhorted thebishops to preach, and the Catholics to fight, in the pious work of hisrestoration. His conversations with Robert were frequent and familiar;and their mutual promises were justified by the valor of the Normans andthe treasures of the East. Yet this Michael, by the confession of theGreeks and Latins, was a pageant and an impostor; a monk who had fledfrom his convent, or a domestic who had served in the palace. The fraudhad been contrived by the subtle Guiscard; and he trusted, that afterthis pretender had given a decent color to his arms, he would sink, atthe nod of the conqueror, into his primitive obscurity. But victory wasthe only argument that could determine the belief of the Greeks; andthe ardor of the Latins was much inferior to their credulity: the Normanveterans wished to enjoy the harvest of their toils, and the unwarlikeItalians trembled at the known and unknown dangers of a transmarineexpedition. In his new levies, Robert exerted the influence of gifts andpromises, the terrors of civil and ecclesiastical authority; and someacts of violence might justify the reproach, that age and infancywere pressed without distinction into the service of their unrelentingprince. After two years' incessant preparations the land and navalforces were assembled at Otranto, at the heel, or extreme promontory, ofItaly; and Robert was accompanied by his wife, who fought by hisside, his son Bohemond, and the representative of the emperor Michael. Thirteen hundred knights [63] of Norman race or discipline, formedthe sinews of the army, which might be swelled to thirty thousand [64]followers of every denomination. The men, the horses, the arms, theengines, the wooden towers, covered with raw hides, were embarked onboard one hundred and fifty vessels: the transports had been built inthe ports of Italy, and the galleys were supplied by the alliance of therepublic of Ragusa. 

[Footnote 59: In the first expedition of Robert against the Greeks, I follow Anna Comnena, (the ist, iiid, ivth, and vth books of theAlexiad, ) William Appulus, (l. Ivth and vth, p. 270-275, ) and JeffreyMalaterra, (l. Iii. C. 13, 14, 24-29, 39. ) Their information iscontemporary and authentic, but none of them were eye-witnesses of thewar. ]

[Footnote 60: One of them was married to Hugh, the son of Azzo, or Axo, a marquis of Lombardy, rich, powerful, and noble, (Gulielm. Appul. L. Iii. P. 267, ) in the xith century, and whose ancestors in the xth andixth are explored by the critical industry of Leibnitz and Muratori. From the two elder sons of the marquis Azzo are derived the illustriouslines of Brunswick and Este. See Muratori, Antichita Estense. ]

[Footnote 61: Anna Comnena, somewhat too wantonly, praises and bewailsthat handsome boy, who, after the rupture of his barbaric nuptials, (l. I. P. 23, ) was betrothed as her husband. (p. 27. ) Elsewhere shedescribes the red and white of his skin, his hawk's eyes, &c. , l. Iii. P. 71. ]

[Footnote 62: Anna Comnena, l. I. P. 28, 29. Gulielm. Appul. L. Iv p. 271. Galfrid Malaterra, l. Iii. C. 13, p. 579, 580. Malaterra is morecautious in his style; but the Apulian is bold and positive. --Mentitusse Michaelem Venerata Danais quidam seductor ad illum. As Gregory VIIhad believed, Baronius almost alone, recognizes the emperor Michael. (A. D. No. 44. )]

[Footnote 63: Ipse armatae militiae non plusquam MCCC milites secumhabuisse, ab eis qui eidem negotio interfuerunt attestatur, (Malaterra, l. Iii. C. 24, p. 583. ) These are the same whom the Apulian (l. Iv. P. 273) styles the equestris gens ducis, equites de gente ducis. ]

[Footnote 64: Anna Comnena (Alexias, l. I. P. 37;) and her accounttallies with the number and lading of the ships. Ivit in Dyrrachium cumxv. Millibus hominum, says the Chronicon Breve Normannicum, (Muratori, Scriptores, tom. V. P. 278. ) I have endeavored to reconcile thesereckonings. ]

At the mouth of the Adriatic Gulf, the shores of Italy and Epirusincline towards each other. The space between Brundusium and Durazzo, the Roman passage, is no more than one hundred miles; [65] at the laststation of Otranto, it is contracted to fifty; [66] and this narrowdistance had suggested to Pyrrhus and Pompey the sublime or extravagantidea of a bridge. Before the general embarkation, the Norman dukedespatched Bohemond with fifteen galleys to seize or threaten the Isleof Corfu, to survey the opposite coast, and to secure a harbor in theneighborhood of Vallona for the landing of the troops. They passedand landed without perceiving an enemy; and this successful experimentdisplayed the neglect and decay of the naval power of the Greeks. Theislands of Epirus and the maritime towns were subdued by the arms or thename of Robert, who led his fleet and army from Corfu (I use the modernappellation) to the siege of Durazzo. That city, the western key of theempire, was guarded by ancient renown, and recent fortifications, byGeorge Palaeologus, a patrician, victorious in the Oriental wars, and anumerous garrison of Albanians and Macedonians, who, in every age, have maintained the character of soldiers. In the prosecution of hisenterprise, the courage of Guiscard was assailed by every form of dangerand mischance. In the most propitious season of the year, as his fleetpassed along the coast, a storm of wind and snow unexpectedly arose:the Adriatic was swelled by the raging blast of the south, and a newshipwreck confirmed the old infamy of the Acroceraunian rocks. [67] Thesails, the masts, and the oars, were shattered or torn away; the seaand shore were covered with the fragments of vessels, with arms and deadbodies; and the greatest part of the provisions were either drowned ordamaged. The ducal galley was laboriously rescued from the waves, andRobert halted seven days on the adjacent cape, to collect the relics ofhis loss, and revive the drooping spirits of his soldiers. The Normanswere no longer the bold and experienced mariners who had explored theocean from Greenland to Mount Atlas, and who smiled at the petty dangersof the Mediterranean. They had wept during the tempest; they werealarmed by the hostile approach of the Venetians, who had been solicitedby the prayers and promises of the Byzantine court. The first day'saction was not disadvantageous to Bohemond, a beardless youth, [68]who led the naval powers of his father. All night the galleys of therepublic lay on their anchors in the form of a crescent; and the victoryof the second day was decided by the dexterity of their evolutions, thestation of their archers, the weight of their javelins, and the borrowedaid of the Greek fire. The Apulian and Ragusian vessels fled to theshore, several were cut from their cables, and dragged away by theconqueror; and a sally from the town carried slaughter and dismay to thetents of the Norman duke. A seasonable relief was poured into Durazzo, and as soon as the besiegers had lost the command of the sea, theislands and maritime towns withdrew from the camp the supply of tributeand provision. That camp was soon afflicted with a pestilential disease;five hundred knights perished by an inglorious death; and the list ofburials (if all could obtain a decent burial) amounted to ten thousandpersons. Under these calamities, the mind of Guiscard alone was firm andinvincible; and while he collected new forces from Apulia and Sicily, hebattered, or scaled, or sapped, the walls of Durazzo. But his industryand valor were encountered by equal valor and more perfect industry. Amovable turret, of a size and capacity to contain five hundred soldiers, had been rolled forwards to the foot of the rampart: but the descent ofthe door or drawbridge was checked by an enormous beam, and the woodenstructure was constantly consumed by artificial flames. 

[Footnote 65: The Itinerary of Jerusalem (p. 609, edit. Wesseling) givesa true and reasonable space of a thousand stadia or one hundred mileswhich is strangely doubled by Strabo (l. Vi. P. 433) and Pliny, (Hist. Natur. Iii. 16. )]

[Footnote 66: Pliny (Hist. Nat. Iii. 6, 16) allows quinquaginta milliafor this brevissimus cursus, and agrees with the real distance fromOtranto to La Vallona, or Aulon, (D'Anville, Analyse de sa Carte desCotes de la Grece, &c. , p. 3-6. ) Hermolaus Barbarus, who substitutescentum. (Harduin, Not. Lxvi. In Plin. L. Iii. , ) might have beencorrected by every Venetian pilot who had sailed out of the gulf. ]

[Footnote 67: Infames scopulos Acroceraunia, Horat. Carm. I. 3. Thepraecipitem Africum decertantem Aquilonibus, et rabiem Noti and themonstra natantia of the Adriatic, are somewhat enlarged; but Horacetrembling for the life of Virgil, is an interesting moment in thehistory of poetry and friendship. ]

[Footnote 68: (Alexias, l. Iv. P. 106. ) Yet the Normans shaved, and theVenetians wore, their beards: they must have derided the no beard ofBohemond; a harsh interpretation. (Duncanga ad Alexiad. P. 283. )]

While the Roman empire was attacked by the Turks in the East, east, andthe Normans in the West, the aged successor of Michael surrendered thesceptre to the hands of Alexius, an illustrious captain, and the founderof the Comnenian dynasty. The princess Anne, his daughter and historian, observes, in her affected style, that even Hercules was unequal to adouble combat; and, on this principle, she approves a hasty peace withthe Turks, which allowed her father to undertake in person the relief ofDurazzo. On his accession, Alexius found the camp without soldiers, andthe treasury without money; yet such were the vigor and activity of hismeasures, that in six months he assembled an army of seventy thousandmen, [69] and performed a march of five hundred miles. His troops werelevied in Europe and Asia, from Peloponnesus to the Black Sea; hismajesty was displayed in the silver arms and rich trappings of thecompanies of Horse-guards; and the emperor was attended by a train ofnobles and princes, some of whom, in rapid succession, had been clothedwith the purple, and were indulged by the lenity of the times in alife of affluence and dignity. Their youthful ardor might animate themultitude; but their love of pleasure and contempt of subordination werepregnant with disorder and mischief; and their importunate clamors forspeedy and decisive action disconcerted the prudence of Alexius, whomight have surrounded and starved the besieging army. The enumeration ofprovinces recalls a sad comparison of the past and present limits of theRoman world: the raw levies were drawn together in haste and terror;and the garrisons of Anatolia, or Asia Minor, had been purchased by theevacuation of the cities which were immediately occupied by theTurks. The strength of the Greek army consisted in the Varangians, theScandinavian guards, whose numbers were recently augmented by a colonyof exiles and volunteers from the British Island of Thule. Under theyoke of the Norman conqueror, the Danes and English were oppressedand united; a band of adventurous youths resolved to desert a landof slavery; the sea was open to their escape; and, in their longpilgrimage, they visited every coast that afforded any hope of libertyand revenge. They were entertained in the service of the Greek emperor;and their first station was in a new city on the Asiatic shore: butAlexius soon recalled them to the defence of his person and palace; andbequeathed to his successors the inheritance of their faith and valor. [70] The name of a Norman invader revived the memory of their wrongs:they marched with alacrity against the national foe, and pantedto regain in Epirus the glory which they had lost in the battle ofHastings. The Varangians were supported by some companies of Franks orLatins; and the rebels, who had fled to Constantinople from the tyrannyof Guiscard, were eager to signalize their zeal and gratify theirrevenge. In this emergency, the emperor had not disdained the impureaid of the Paulicians or Manichaeans of Thrace and Bulgaria; and theseheretics united with the patience of martyrdom the spirit and disciplineof active valor. [71] The treaty with the sultan had procured a supplyof some thousand Turks; and the arrows of the Scythian horse wereopposed to the lances of the Norman cavalry. On the report and distantprospect of these formidable numbers, Robert assembled a council of hisprincipal officers. "You behold, " said he, "your danger: it is urgentand inevitable. The hills are covered with arms and standards; and theemperor of the Greeks is accustomed to wars and triumphs. Obedience andunion are our only safety; and I am ready to yield the command to a moreworthy leader. " The vote and acclamation even of his secret enemies, assured him, in that perilous moment, of their esteem and confidence;and the duke thus continued: "Let us trust in the rewards of victory, and deprive cowardice of the means of escape. Let us burn our vesselsand our baggage, and give battle on this spot, as if it were theplace of our nativity and our burial. " The resolution was unanimouslyapproved; and, without confining himself to his lines, Guiscard awaitedin battle-array the nearer approach of the enemy. His rear was coveredby a small river; his right wing extended to the sea; his left to thehills: nor was he conscious, perhaps, that on the same ground Caesar andPompey had formerly disputed the empire of the world. [72]

[Footnote 69: Muratori (Annali d' Italia, tom. Ix. P. 136, 137)observes, that some authors (Petrus Diacon. Chron. Casinen. L. Iii. C. 49) compose the Greek army of 170, 000 men, but that the hundred maybe struck off, and that Malaterra reckons only 70, 000; a slightinattention. The passage to which he alludes is in the Chronicle ofLupus Protospata, (Script. Ital. Tom. V. P. 45. ) Malaterra (l. Iv. C. 27) speaks in high, but indefinite terms of the emperor, cumcopiisinnumerabilbus: like the Apulian poet, (l. Iv. P. 272:)--More locustarum montes et pianna teguntur. ]

[Footnote 70: See William of Malmsbury, de Gestis Anglorum, l. Ii. P. 92. Alexius fidem Anglorum suspiciens praecipuis familiaritatibus suiseos applicabat, amorem eorum filio transcribens. Odericus Vitalis (Hist. Eccles. L. Iv. P. 508, l. Vii. P. 641) relates their emigration fromEngland, and their service in Greece. ]

[Footnote 71: See the Apulian, (l. I. P. 256. ) The character and thestory of these Manichaeans has been the subject of the livth chapter. ]

[Footnote 72: See the simple and masterly narrative of Caesar himself, (Comment. De Bell. Civil. Iii. 41-75. ) It is a pity that QuintusIcilius (M. Guichard) did not live to analyze these operations, as hehas done the campaigns of Africa and Spain. ]

Against the advice of his wisest captains, Alexius resolved to riskthe event of a general action, and exhorted the garrison of Durazzo toassist their own deliverance by a well-timed sally from the town. Hemarched in two columns to surprise the Normans before daybreak on twodifferent sides: his light cavalry was scattered over the plain; thearchers formed the second line; and the Varangians claimed the honors ofthe vanguard. In the first onset, the battle-axes of the strangers madea deep and bloody impression on the army of Guiscard, which wasnow reduced to fifteen thousand men. The Lombards and Calabriansignominiously turned their backs; they fled towards the river and thesea; but the bridge had been broken down to check the sally of thegarrison, and the coast was lined with the Venetian galleys, who playedtheir engines among the disorderly throng. On the verge of ruin, theywere saved by the spirit and conduct of their chiefs. Gaita, the wife ofRobert, is painted by the Greeks as a warlike Amazon, a second Pallas;less skilful in arts, but not less terrible in arms, than the Atheniangoddess: [73] though wounded by an arrow, she stood her ground, andstrove, by her exhortation and example, to rally the flying troops. [74]Her female voice was seconded by the more powerful voice and arm ofthe Norman duke, as calm in action as he was magnanimous in council:"Whither, " he cried aloud, "whither do ye fly? Your enemy is implacable;and death is less grievous than servitude. " The moment was decisive: asthe Varangians advanced before the line, they discovered the nakednessof their flanks: the main battle of the duke, of eight hundred knights, stood firm and entire; they couched their lances, and the Greeks deplorethe furious and irresistible shock of the French cavalry. [75] Alexiuswas not deficient in the duties of a soldier or a general; but he nosooner beheld the slaughter of the Varangians, and the flight of theTurks, than he despised his subjects, and despaired of his fortune. Theprincess Anne, who drops a tear on this melancholy event, is reducedto praise the strength and swiftness of her father's horse, and hisvigorous struggle when he was almost overthrown by the stroke of alance, which had shivered the Imperial helmet. His desperate valor brokethrough a squadron of Franks who opposed his flight; and after wanderingtwo days and as many nights in the mountains, he found some repose, of body, though not of mind, in the walls of Lychnidus. The victoriousRobert reproached the tardy and feeble pursuit which had suffered theescape of so illustrious a prize: but he consoled his disappointment bythe trophies and standards of the field, the wealth and luxury of theByzantine camp, and the glory of defeating an army five times morenumerous than his own. A multitude of Italians had been the victimsof their own fears; but only thirty of his knights were slain inthis memorable day. In the Roman host, the loss of Greeks, Turks, andEnglish, amounted to five or six thousand: [76] the plain of Durazzo wasstained with noble and royal blood; and the end of the impostor Michaelwas more honorable than his life. 

[Footnote 73: It is very properly translated by the President Cousin, (Hist. De Constantinople, tom. Iv. P. 131, in 12mo. , ) qui combattoitcomme une Pallas, quoiqu'elle ne fut pas aussi savante que celled'Athenes. The Grecian goddess was composed of two discordantcharacters, of Neith, the workwoman of Sais in Egypt, and of a virginAmazon of the Tritonian lake in Libya, (Banier, Mythologie, tom. Iv. P. 1-31, in 12mo. )]

[Footnote 74: Anna Comnena (l. Iv. P. 116) admires, with some degree ofterror, her masculine virtues. They were more familiar to the Latins andthough the Apulian (l. Iv. P. 273) mentions her presence and her wound, he represents her as far less intrepid. 

 Uxor in hoc bello Roberti forte sagitta

 Quadam laesa fuit: quo vulnere territa nullam. 

 Dum sperabat opem, se poene subegerat hosti. 

The last is an unlucky word for a female prisoner. ]

[Footnote 75: (Anna, l. V. P. 133;) and elsewhere, (p. 140. ) Thepedantry of the princess in the choice of classic appellationsencouraged Ducange to apply to his countrymen the characters of theancient Gauls. ]

[Footnote 76: Lupus Protospata (tom. Iii. P. 45) says 6000: William theApulian more than 5000, (l. Iv. P. 273. ) Their modesty is singular andlaudable: they might with so little trouble have slain two or threemyriads of schismatics and infidels!]

It is more than probable that Guiscard was not afflicted by the loss ofa costly pageant, which had merited only the contempt and derision ofthe Greeks. After their defeat, they still persevered in the defenceof Durazzo; and a Venetian commander supplied the place of GeorgePalaeologus, who had been imprudently called away from his station. The tents of the besiegers were converted into barracks, to sustain theinclemency of the winter; and in answer to the defiance of the garrison, Robert insinuated, that his patience was at least equal to theirobstinacy. [77] Perhaps he already trusted to his secret correspondencewith a Venetian noble, who sold the city for a rich and honorablemarriage. At the dead of night, several rope-ladders were dropped fromthe walls; the light Calabrians ascended in silence; and the Greeks wereawakened by the name and trumpets of the conqueror. Yet they defendedthe streets three days against an enemy already master of the rampart;and near seven months elapsed between the first investment and the finalsurrender of the place. From Durazzo, the Norman duke advanced into theheart of Epirus or Albania; traversed the first mountains of Thessaly;surprised three hundred English in the city of Castoria; approachedThessalonica; and made Constantinople tremble. A more pressing dutysuspended the prosecution of his ambitious designs. By shipwreck, pestilence, and the sword, his army was reduced to a third of theoriginal numbers; and instead of being recruited from Italy, he wasinformed, by plaintive epistles, of the mischiefs and dangers which hadbeen produced by his absence: the revolt of the cities and barons ofApulia; the distress of the pope; and the approach or invasion of Henryking of Germany. Highly presuming that his person was sufficient for thepublic safety, he repassed the sea in a single brigantine, and left theremains of the army under the command of his son and the Norman counts, exhorting Bohemond to respect the freedom of his peers, and the countsto obey the authority of their leader. The son of Guiscard trod in thefootsteps of his father; and the two destroyers are compared, by theGreeks, to the caterpillar and the locust, the last of whom devourswhatever has escaped the teeth of the former. [78] After winning twobattles against the emperor, he descended into the plain of Thessaly, and besieged Larissa, the fabulous realm of Achilles, [79] whichcontained the treasure and magazines of the Byzantine camp. Yet a justpraise must not be refused to the fortitude and prudence of Alexius, whobravely struggled with the calamities of the times. In the povertyof the state, he presumed to borrow the superfluous ornaments of thechurches: the desertion of the Manichaeans was supplied by some tribesof Moldavia: a reenforcement of seven thousand Turks replaced andrevenged the loss of their brethren; and the Greek soldiers wereexercised to ride, to draw the bow, and to the daily practice ofambuscades and evolutions. Alexius had been taught by experience, thatthe formidable cavalry of the Franks on foot was unfit for action, andalmost incapable of motion; [80] his archers were directed to aim theirarrows at the horse rather than the man; and a variety of spikes andsnares were scattered over the ground on which he might expect anattack. In the neighborhood of Larissa the events of war were protractedand balanced. The courage of Bohemond was always conspicuous, and oftensuccessful; but his camp was pillaged by a stratagem of the Greeks; thecity was impregnable; and the venal or discontented counts desertedhis standard, betrayed their trusts, and enlisted in the service of theemperor. Alexius returned to Constantinople with the advantage, ratherthan the honor, of victory. After evacuating the conquests which hecould no longer defend, the son of Guiscard embarked for Italy, andwas embraced by a father who esteemed his merit, and sympathized in hismisfortune. 

[Footnote 77: The Romans had changed the inauspicious name of Epidamnusto Dyrrachium, (Plin. Iii. 26;) and the vulgar corruption of Duracium(see Malaterra) bore some affinity to hardness. One of Robert's nameswas Durand, a durando: poor wit! (Alberic. Monach. In Chron. ApudMuratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. Ix. P. 137. )]

[Footnote 78: (Anna, l. I. P. 35. ) By these similes, so different fromthose of Homer she wishes to inspire contempt as well as horror forthe little noxious animal, a conqueror. Most unfortunately, the commonsense, or common nonsense, of mankind, resists her laudable design. ]

[Footnote 79: Prodiit hac auctor Trojanae cladis Achilles. Thesupposition of the Apulian (l. V. P. 275) may be excused by the moreclassic poetry of Virgil, (Aeneid. Ii. 197, ) Larissaeus Achilles, but itis not justified by the geography of Homer. ]

[Footnote 80: The items which encumbered the knights on foot, have beenignorantly translated spurs, (Anna Comnena, Alexias, l. V. P. 140. )Ducange has explained the true sense by a ridiculous and inconvenientfashion, which lasted from the xith to the xvth century. These peaks, inthe form of a scorpion, were sometimes two feet and fastened to the kneewith a silver chain. ]

Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans. --Part IV. 

Of the Latin princes, the allies of Alexius and enemies of Robert, themost prompt and powerful was Henry the Third or Fourth, king of Germanyand Italy, and future emperor of the West. The epistle of the Greekmonarch [81] to his brother is filled with the warmest professions offriendship, and the most lively desire of strengthening their allianceby every public and private tie. He congratulates Henry on his successin a just and pious war; and complains that the prosperity of his ownempire is disturbed by the audacious enterprises of the Norman Robert. The lists of his presents expresses the manners of the age--a radiatedcrown of gold, a cross set with pearls to hang on the breast, a case ofrelics, with the names and titles of the saints, a vase of crystal, avase of sardonyx, some balm, most probably of Mecca, and one hundredpieces of purple. To these he added a more solid present, of one hundredand forty-four thousand Byzantines of gold, with a further assurance oftwo hundred and sixteen thousand, so soon as Henry should have enteredin arms the Apulian territories, and confirmed by an oath the leagueagainst the common enemy. The German, [82] who was already in Lombardyat the head of an army and a faction, accepted these liberal offers, and marched towards the south: his speed was checked by the sound of thebattle of Durazzo; but the influence of his arms, or name, in the hastyreturn of Robert, was a full equivalent for the Grecian bribe. Henry wasthe severe adversary of the Normans, the allies and vassals of Gregorythe Seventh, his implacable foe. The long quarrel of the throne andmitre had been recently kindled by the zeal and ambition of that haughtypriest: [83] the king and the pope had degraded each other; and each hadseated a rival on the temporal or spiritual throne of his antagonist. After the defeat and death of his Swabian rebel, Henry descended intoItaly, to assume the Imperial crown, and to drive from the Vatican thetyrant of the church. [84] But the Roman people adhered to the causeof Gregory: their resolution was fortified by supplies of men and moneyfrom Apulia; and the city was thrice ineffectually besieged by theking of Germany. In the fourth year he corrupted, as it is said, withByzantine gold, the nobles of Rome, whose estates and castles had beenruined by the war. The gates, the bridges, and fifty hostages, weredelivered into his hands: the anti-pope, Clement the Third, wasconsecrated in the Lateran: the grateful pontiff crowned his protectorin the Vatican; and the emperor Henry fixed his residence in theCapitol, as the lawful successor of Augustus and Charlemagne. The ruinsof the Septizonium were still defended by the nephew of Gregory: thepope himself was invested in the castle of St. Angelo; and his last hopewas in the courage and fidelity of his Norman vassal. Their friendshiphad been interrupted by some reciprocal injuries and complaints; but, on this pressing occasion, Guiscard was urged by the obligation of hisoath, by his interest, more potent than oaths, by the love of fame, andhis enmity to the two emperors. Unfurling the holy banner, he resolvedto fly to the relief of the prince of the apostles: the most numerous ofhis armies, six thousand horse, and thirty thousand foot, was instantlyassembled; and his march from Salerno to Rome was animated by the publicapplause and the promise of the divine favor. Henry, invinciblein sixty-six battles, trembled at his approach; recollected someindispensable affairs that required his presence in Lombardy; exhortedthe Romans to persevere in their allegiance; and hastily retreated threedays before the entrance of the Normans. In less than three years, theson of Tancred of Hauteville enjoyed the glory of delivering the pope, and of compelling the two emperors, of the East and West, to fly beforehis victorious arms. [85] But the triumph of Robert was clouded by thecalamities of Rome. By the aid of the friends of Gregory, the walls hadbeen perforated or scaled; but the Imperial faction was still powerfuland active; on the third day, the people rose in a furious tumult; anda hasty word of the conqueror, in his defence or revenge, was the signalof fire and pillage. [86] The Saracens of Sicily, the subjects of Roger, and auxiliaries of his brother, embraced this fair occasion of riflingand profaning the holy city of the Christians: many thousands of thecitizens, in the sight, and by the allies, of their spiritual fatherwere exposed to violation, captivity, or death; and a spacious quarterof the city, from the Lateran to the Coliseum, was consumed by theflames, and devoted to perpetual solitude. [87] From a city, where hewas now hated, and might be no longer feared, Gregory retired to endhis days in the palace of Salerno. The artful pontiff might flatter thevanity of Guiscard with the hope of a Roman or Imperial crown; but thisdangerous measure, which would have inflamed the ambition of the Norman, must forever have alienated the most faithful princes of Germany. 

[Footnote 81: The epistle itself (Alexias, l. Iii. P. 93, 94, 95) welldeserves to be read. There is one expression which Ducange does notunderstand. I have endeavored to grope out a tolerable meaning: Thefirst word is a golden crown; the second is explained by Simon Portius, (in Lexico Graeco-Barbar. , ) by a flash of lightning. ]

[Footnote 82: For these general events I must refer to the generalhistorians Sigonius, Baronius, Muratori, Mosheim, St. Marc, &c. ]

[Footnote 83: The lives of Gregory VII. Are either legends orinvectives, (St. Marc, Abrege, tom. Iii. P. 235, &c. ;) and hismiraculous or magical performances are alike incredible to a modernreader. He will, as usual, find some instruction in Le Clerc, (Viede Hildebrand, Bibliot, ancienne et moderne, tom. Viii. , ) and muchamusement in Bayle, (Dictionnaire Critique, Gregoire VII. ) That pope wasundoubtedly a great man, a second Athanasius, in a more fortunate age ofthe church. May I presume to add, that the portrait of Athanasius is oneof the passages of my history (vol. Ii. P. 332, &c. ) with which I amthe least dissatisfied? * Note: There is a fair life of Gregory VII. By Voigt, (Weimar. 1815, ) which has been translated into French. M. Villemain, it is understood, has devoted much time to the study of thisremarkable character, to whom his eloquence may do justice. Thereis much valuable information on the subject in the accurate work ofStenzel, Geschichte Deutschlands unter den Frankischen Kaisern--theHistory of Germany under the Emperors of the Franconian Race. --M. ]

[Footnote 84: Anna, with the rancor of a Greek schismatic, calls him (l. I. P. 32, ) a pope, or priest, worthy to be spit upon and accuses him ofscourging, shaving, and perhaps of castrating the ambassadors of Henry, (p. 31, 33. ) But this outrage is improbable and doubtful, (see thesensible preface of Cousin. )]

[Footnote 85:

 Sic uno tempore victi

 Sunt terrae Domini duo: rex Alemannicus iste, Imperii rector Romani maximus ille. 

 Alter ad arma ruens armis superatur; et alter

 Nominis auditi sola formidine cessit. 

It is singular enough, that the Apulian, a Latin, should distinguish theGreek as the ruler of the Roman empire, (l. Iv. P. 274. )]

[Footnote 86: The narrative of Malaterra (l. Iii. C. 37, p. 587, 588) isauthentic, circumstantial, and fair. Dux ignem exclamans urbe incensa, &c. The Apulian softens the mischief, (inde quibusdam aedibus exustis, )which is again exaggerated in some partial chronicles, (Muratori, Annali, tom. Ix. P. 147. )]

[Footnote 87: After mentioning this devastation, the Jesuit Donatus(de Roma veteri et nova, l. Iv. C. 8, p. 489) prettily adds, Durarethodieque in Coelio monte, interque ipsum et capitolium, miserabilisfacies prostrates urbis, nisi in hortorum vinetorumque amoenitatemRoma resurrexisset, ut perpetua viriditate contegeret vulnera et ruinassuas. ]

The deliverer and scourge of Rome might have indulged himself in aseason of repose; but in the same year of the flight of the Germanemperor, the indefatigable Robert resumed the design of his easternconquests. The zeal or gratitude of Gregory had promised to his valorthe kingdoms of Greece and Asia; [88] his troops were assembled inarms, flushed with success, and eager for action. Their numbers, in thelanguage of Homer, are compared by Anna to a swarm of bees; [89] yet theutmost and moderate limits of the powers of Guiscard have been alreadydefined; they were contained on this second occasion in one hundredand twenty vessels; and as the season was far advanced, the harbor ofBrundusium [90] was preferred to the open road of Otranto. Alexius, apprehensive of a second attack, had assiduously labored to restore thenaval forces of the empire; and obtained from the republic of Venice animportant succor of thirty-six transports, fourteen galleys, andnine galiots or ships of extra-ordinary strength and magnitude. Theirservices were liberally paid by the license or monopoly of trade, aprofitable gift of many shops and houses in the port of Constantinople, and a tribute to St. Mark, the more acceptable, as it was the produceof a tax on their rivals at Amalphi. By the union of the Greeks andVenetians, the Adriatic was covered with a hostile fleet; but theirown neglect, or the vigilance of Robert, the change of a wind, or theshelter of a mist, opened a free passage; and the Norman troops weresafely disembarked on the coast of Epirus. With twenty strong andwell-appointed galleys, their intrepid duke immediately sought theenemy, and though more accustomed to fight on horseback, he trusted hisown life, and the lives of his brother and two sons, to the event of anaval combat. The dominion of the sea was disputed in three engagements, in sight of the Isle of Corfu: in the two former, the skill and numbersof the allies were superior; but in the third, the Normans obtained afinal and complete victory. [91] The light brigantines of the Greekswere scattered in ignominious flight: the nine castles of the Venetiansmaintained a more obstinate conflict; seven were sunk, two were taken;two thousand five hundred captives implored in vain the mercy of thevictor; and the daughter of Alexius deplores the loss of thirteenthousand of his subjects or allies. The want of experience had beensupplied by the genius of Guiscard; and each evening, when he hadsounded a retreat, he calmly explored the causes of his repulse, andinvented new methods how to remedy his own defects, and to baffle theadvantages of the enemy. The winter season suspended his progress: withthe return of spring he again aspired to the conquest of Constantinople;but, instead of traversing the hills of Epirus, he turned his armsagainst Greece and the islands, where the spoils would repay the labor, and where the land and sea forces might pursue their joint operationswith vigor and effect. But, in the Isle of Cephalonia, his projectswere fatally blasted by an epidemical disease: Robert himself, in theseventieth year of his age, expired in his tent; and a suspicion ofpoison was imputed, by public rumor, to his wife, or to the Greekemperor. [92] This premature death might allow a boundless scope for theimagination of his future exploits; and the event sufficiently declares, that the Norman greatness was founded on his life. [93] Without theappearance of an enemy, a victorious army dispersed or retreated indisorder and consternation; and Alexius, who had trembled for hisempire, rejoiced in his deliverance. The galley which transported theremains of Guiscard was ship-wrecked on the Italian shore; but theduke's body was recovered from the sea, and deposited in the sepulchreof Venusia, [94] a place more illustrious for the birth of Horace [95]than for the burial of the Norman heroes. Roger, his second son andsuccessor, immediately sunk to the humble station of a duke of Apulia:the esteem or partiality of his father left the valiant Bohemond to theinheritance of his sword. 

The national tranquillity was disturbed by his claims, till the firstcrusade against the infidels of the East opened a more splendid field ofglory and conquest. [96]

[Footnote 88: The royalty of Robert, either promised or bestowed by thepope, (Anna, l. I. P. 32, ) is sufficiently confirmed by the Apulian, (l. Iv. P. 270. ) --Romani regni sibi promisisse coronam Papa ferebatur. Nor can I understand why Gretser, and the other papal advocates, shouldbe displeased with this new instance of apostolic jurisdiction. ]

[Footnote 89: See Homer, Iliad, B. (I hate this pedantic mode ofquotation by letters of the Greek alphabet) 87, &c. His bees are theimage of a disorderly crowd: their discipline and public works seem tobe the ideas of a later age, (Virgil. Aeneid. L. I. )]

[Footnote 90: Gulielm. Appulus, l. V. P. 276. ) The admirable port ofBrundusium was double; the outward harbor was a gulf covered by anisland, and narrowing by degrees, till it communicated by a small gulletwith the inner harbor, which embraced the city on both sides. Caesar andnature have labored for its ruin; and against such agents what are thefeeble efforts of the Neapolitan government? (Swinburne's Travels in theTwo Sicilies, vol. I. P. 384-390. ]

[Footnote 91: William of Apulia (l. V. P. 276) describes the victory ofthe Normans, and forgets the two previous defeats, which are diligentlyrecorded by Anna Comnena, (l. Vi. P. 159, 160, 161. ) In her turn, sheinvents or magnifies a fourth action, to give the Venetians revenge andrewards. Their own feelings were far different, since they deposed theirdoge, propter excidium stoli, (Dandulus in Chron in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. Xii. P. 249. )]

[Footnote 92: The most authentic writers, William of Apulia. (l. V. 277, ) Jeffrey Malaterra, (l. Iii. C. 41, p. 589, ) and Romuald ofSalerno, (Chron. In Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. Tom. Vii. , ) areignorant of this crime, so apparent to our countrymen William ofMalmsbury (l. Iii. P. 107) and Roger de Hoveden, (p. 710, in Script. Post Bedam) and the latter can tell, how the just Alexius married, crowned, and burnt alive, his female accomplice. The English historianis indeed so blind, that he ranks Robert Guiscard, or Wiscard, among theknights of Henry I, who ascended the throne fifteen years after the dukeof Apulia's death. ]

[Footnote 93: The joyful Anna Comnena scatters some flowers over thegrave of an enemy, (Alexiad, l. V. P. 162-166;) and his best praiseis the esteem and envy of William the Conqueror, the sovereign of hisfamily Graecia (says Malaterra) hostibus recedentibus libera laetaquievit: Apulia tota sive Calabria turbatur. ]

[Footnote 94: Urbs Venusina nitet tantis decorata sepulchris, is oneof the last lines of the Apulian's poems, (l. V. P. 278. ) William ofMalmsbury (l. Iii. P. 107) inserts an epitaph on Guiscard, which is notworth transcribing. ]

[Footnote 95: Yet Horace had few obligations to Venusia; he was carriedto Rome in his childhood, (Serm. I. 6;) and his repeated allusions tothe doubtful limit of Apulia and Lucania (Carm. Iii. 4, Serm. Ii. I) areunworthy of his age and genius. ]

[Footnote 96: See Giannone (tom. Ii. P. 88-93) and the historians ofthe fire crusade. ]

Of human life, the most glorious or humble prospects are alike andsoon bounded by the sepulchre. The male line of Robert Guiscard wasextinguished, both in Apulia and at Antioch, in the second generation;but his younger brother became the father of a line of kings; and theson of the great count was endowed with the name, the conquests, and thespirit, of the first Roger. [97] The heir of that Norman adventurer wasborn in Sicily; and, at the age of only four years, he succeeded tothe sovereignty of the island, a lot which reason might envy, could sheindulge for a moment the visionary, though virtuous wish of dominion. Had Roger been content with his fruitful patrimony, a happy and gratefulpeople might have blessed their benefactor; and if a wise administrationcould have restored the prosperous times of the Greek colonies, [98] theopulence and power of Sicily alone might have equalled the widestscope that could be acquired and desolated by the sword of war. But theambition of the great count was ignorant of these noble pursuits; itwas gratified by the vulgar means of violence and artifice. He sought toobtain the undivided possession of Palermo, of which one moiety had beenceded to the elder branch; struggled to enlarge his Calabrian limitsbeyond the measure of former treaties; and impatiently watched thedeclining health of his cousin William of Apulia, the grandson ofRobert. On the first intelligence of his premature death, Roger sailedfrom Palermo with seven galleys, cast anchor in the Bay of Salerno, received, after ten days' negotiation, an oath of fidelity from theNorman capital, commanded the submission of the barons, and extorted alegal investiture from the reluctant popes, who could not long endureeither the friendship or enmity of a powerful vassal. The sacred spotof Benevento was respectfully spared, as the patrimony of St. Peter;but the reduction of Capua and Naples completed the design of his uncleGuiscard; and the sole inheritance of the Norman conquests was possessedby the victorious Roger. A conscious superiority of power and meritprompted him to disdain the titles of duke and of count; and the Isle ofSicily, with a third perhaps of the continent of Italy, might form thebasis of a kingdom [99] which would only yield to the monarchies ofFrance and England. The chiefs of the nation who attended his coronationat Palermo might doubtless pronounce under what name he should reignover them; but the example of a Greek tyrant or a Saracen emir wasinsufficient to justify his regal character; and the nine kings of theLatin world [100] might disclaim their new associate, unless he wereconsecrated by the authority of the supreme pontiff. The pride ofAnacletus was pleased to confer a title, which the pride of the Normanhad stooped to solicit; [101] but his own legitimacy was attacked by theadverse election of Innocent the Second; and while Anacletus sat inthe Vatican, the successful fugitive was acknowledged by the nations ofEurope. The infant monarchy of Roger was shaken, and almost overthrown, by the unlucky choice of an ecclesiastical patron; and the sword ofLothaire the Second of Germany, the excommunications of Innocent, thefleets of Pisa, and the zeal of St. Bernard, were united for the ruin ofthe Sicilian robber. After a gallant resistance, the Norman prince wasdriven from the continent of Italy: a new duke of Apulia was invested bythe pope and the emperor, each of whom held one end of the gonfanon, or flagstaff, as a token that they asserted their right, and suspendedtheir quarrel. But such jealous friendship was of short and precariousduration: the German armies soon vanished in disease and desertion:[102] the Apulian duke, with all his adherents, was exterminated by aconqueror who seldom forgave either the dead or the living; like hispredecessor Leo the Ninth, the feeble though haughty pontiff becamethe captive and friend of the Normans; and their reconciliation wascelebrated by the eloquence of Bernard, who now revered the title andvirtues of the king of Sicily. 

[Footnote 97: The reign of Roger, and the Norman kings of Sicily, fills books of the Istoria Civile of Giannone, (tom. Ii. L. Xi. -xiv. P. 136-340, ) and is spread over the ixth and xth volumes of the ItalianAnnals of Muratori. In the Bibliotheque Italique (tom. I. P. 175-122, )I find a useful abstract of Capacelatro, a modern Neapolitan, who hascomposed, in two volumes, the history of his country from Roger FredericII. Inclusive. ]

[Footnote 98: According to the testimony of Philistus and Diodorus, thetyrant Dionysius of Syracuse could maintain a standing force of 10, 000horse, 100, 000 foot, and 400 galleys. Compare Hume, (Essays, vol. I. P. 268, 435, ) and his adversary Wallace, (Numbers of Mankind, p. 306, 307. )The ruins of Agrigentum are the theme of every traveller, D'Orville, Reidesel, Swinburne, &c. ]

[Footnote 99: A contemporary historian of the acts of Roger from theyear 1127 to 1135, founds his title on merit and power, the consentof the barons, and the ancient royalty of Sicily and Palermo, withoutintroducing Pope Anacletus, (Alexand. Coenobii Telesini Abbatis de Rebusgestis Regis Rogerii, lib. Iv. In Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. Tom. V. P. 607-645)]

[Footnote 100: The kings of France, England, Scotland, Castille, Arragon, Navarre, Sweden, Denmark, and Hungary. The three first weremore ancient than Charlemagne; the three next were created by theirsword; the three last by their baptism; and of these the king of Hungaryalone was honored or debased by a papal crown. ]

[Footnote 101: Fazellus, and a crowd of Sicilians, had imagined a moreearly and independent coronation, (A. D. 1130, May 1, ) which Giannoneunwillingly rejects, (tom. Ii. P. 137-144. ) This fiction is disprovedby the silence of contemporaries; nor can it be restored by a spuriouscharacter of Messina, (Muratori, Annali d' Italia, tom. Ix. P. 340. Pagi, Critica, tom. Iv. P. 467, 468. )]

[Footnote 102: Roger corrupted the second person of Lothaire's army, whosounded, or rather cried, a retreat; for the Germans (says Cinnamus, l. Iii. C. I. P. 51) are ignorant of the use of trumpets. Most ignoranthimself! * Note: Cinnamus says nothing of their ignorance. --M]

As a penance for his impious war against the successor of St. Peter, that monarch might have promised to display the banner of the cross, and he accomplished with ardor a vow so propitious to his interest andrevenge. The recent injuries of Sicily might provoke a just retaliationon the heads of the Saracens: the Normans, whose blood had been mingledwith so many subject streams, were encouraged to remember and emulatethe naval trophies of their fathers, and in the maturity of theirstrength they contended with the decline of an African power. When theFatimite caliph departed for the conquest of Egypt, he rewarded the realmerit and apparent fidelity of his servant Joseph with a gift of hisroyal mantle, and forty Arabian horses, his palace with its sumptuousfurniture, and the government of the kingdoms of Tunis and Algiers. TheZeirides, [103] the descendants of Joseph, forgot their allegiance andgratitude to a distant benefactor, grasped and abused the fruits ofprosperity; and after running the little course of an Oriental dynasty, were now fainting in their own weakness. On the side of the land, theywere pressed by the Almohades, the fanatic princes of Morocco, whilethe sea-coast was open to the enterprises of the Greeks and Franks, who, before the close of the eleventh century, had extorted a ransom of twohundred thousand pieces of gold. By the first arms of Roger, the islandor rock of Malta, which has been since ennobled by a military andreligious colony, was inseparably annexed to the crown of Sicily. Tripoli, [104] a strong and maritime city, was the next object of hisattack; and the slaughter of the males, the captivity of the females, might be justified by the frequent practice of the Moslems themselves. The capital of the Zeirides was named Africa from the country, andMahadia [105] from the Arabian founder: it is strongly built on a neckof land, but the imperfection of the harbor is not compensated by thefertility of the adjacent plain. Mahadia was besieged by George theSicilian admiral, with a fleet of one hundred and fifty galleys, amplyprovided with men and the instruments of mischief: the sovereign hadfled, the Moorish governor refused to capitulate, declined the last andirresistible assault, and secretly escaping with the Moslem inhabitantsabandoned the place and its treasures to the rapacious Franks. Insuccessive expeditions, the king of Sicily or his lieutenants reducedthe cities of Tunis, Safax, Capsia, Bona, and a long tract of thesea-coast; [106] the fortresses were garrisoned, the country wastributary, and a boast that it held Africa in subjection might beinscribed with some flattery on the sword of Roger. [107] After hisdeath, that sword was broken; and these transmarine possessionswere neglected, evacuated, or lost, under the troubled reign of hissuccessor. [108] The triumphs of Scipio and Belisarius have proved, thatthe African continent is neither inaccessible nor invincible; yet thegreat princes and powers of Christendom have repeatedly failed in theirarmaments against the Moors, who may still glory in the easy conquestand long servitude of Spain. 

[Footnote 103: See De Guignes, Hist. Generate des Huns, tom. I. P. 369-373 and Cardonne, Hist. De l'Afrique, &c. , sous la Dominationdes Arabes tom. Ii. P. 70-144. Their common original appears to beNovairi. ]

[Footnote 104: Tripoli (says the Nubian geographer, or more properlythe Sherif al Edrisi) urbs fortis, saxeo muro vallata, sita prope littusmaris Hanc expugnavit Rogerius, qui mulieribus captivis ductis, virospere mit. ]

[Footnote 105: See the geography of Leo Africanus, (in Ramusio tom. I. Fol. 74 verso. Fol. 75, recto, ) and Shaw's Travels, (p. 110, ) the viithbook of Thuanus, and the xith of the Abbe de Vertot. The possession anddefence of the place was offered by Charles V. And wisely declined bythe knights of Malta. ]

[Footnote 106: Pagi has accurately marked the African conquests of Rogerand his criticism was supplied by his friend the Abbe de Longuerue withsome Arabic memorials, (A. D. 1147, No. 26, 27, A. D. 1148, No. 16, A. D. 1153, No. 16. )]

[Footnote 107: Appulus et Calaber, Siculus mihi servit et Afer. Aproud inscription, which denotes, that the Norman conquerors were stilldiscriminated from their Christian and Moslem subjects. ]

[Footnote 108: Hugo Falcandus (Hist. Sicula, in Muratori, Script. Tom. Vii. P. 270, 271) ascribes these losses to the neglect or treachery ofthe admiral Majo. ]

Since the decease of Robert Guiscard, the Normans had relinquished, above sixty years, their hostile designs against the empire of the East. The policy of Roger solicited a public and private union with the Greekprinces, whose alliance would dignify his regal character: he demandedin marriage a daughter of the Comnenian family, and the first steps ofthe treaty seemed to promise a favorable event. But the contemptuoustreatment of his ambassadors exasperated the vanity of the new monarch;and the insolence of the Byzantine court was expiated, according to thelaws of nations, by the sufferings of a guiltless people. [109] With thefleet of seventy galleys, George, the admiral of Sicily, appeared beforeCorfu; and both the island and city were delivered into his hands by thedisaffected inhabitants, who had yet to learn that a siege is stillmore calamitous than a tribute. In this invasion, of some moment in theannals of commerce, the Normans spread themselves by sea, and overthe provinces of Greece; and the venerable age of Athens, Thebes, andCorinth, was violated by rapine and cruelty. Of the wrongs of Athens, no memorial remains. The ancient walls, which encompassed, withoutguarding, the opulence of Thebes, were scaled by the Latin Christians;but their sole use of the gospel was to sanctify an oath, that thelawful owners had not secreted any relic of their inheritance orindustry. On the approach of the Normans, the lower town of Corinthwas evacuated; the Greeks retired to the citadel, which was seated on alofty eminence, abundantly watered by the classic fountain of Pirene;an impregnable fortress, if the want of courage could be balanced by anyadvantages of art or nature. As soon as the besiegers had surmounted thelabor (their sole labor) of climbing the hill, their general, fromthe commanding eminence, admired his own victory, and testified hisgratitude to Heaven, by tearing from the altar the precious image ofTheodore, the tutelary saint. The silk weavers of both sexes, whomGeorge transported to Sicily, composed the most valuable part of thespoil; and in comparing the skilful industry of the mechanic with thesloth and cowardice of the soldier, he was heard to exclaim that thedistaff and loom were the only weapons which the Greeks were capable ofusing. The progress of this naval armament was marked by two conspicuousevents, the rescue of the king of France, and the insult of theByzantine capital. In his return by sea from an unfortunate crusade, Louis the Seventh was intercepted by the Greeks, who basely violated thelaws of honor and religion. The fortunate encounter of the Normanfleet delivered the royal captive; and after a free and honorableentertainment in the court of Sicily, Louis continued his journey toRome and Paris. [110] In the absence of the emperor, Constantinople andthe Hellespont were left without defence and without the suspicionof danger. The clergy and people (for the soldiers had followedthe standard of Manuel) were astonished and dismayed at the hostileappearance of a line of galleys, which boldly cast anchor in the frontof the Imperial city. The forces of the Sicilian admiral were inadequateto the siege or assault of an immense and populous metropolis; butGeorge enjoyed the glory of humbling the Greek arrogance, and of markingthe path of conquest to the navies of the West. He landed some soldiersto rifle the fruits of the royal gardens, and pointed with silver, ormost probably with fire, the arrows which he discharged against thepalace of the Caesars. [111] This playful outrage of the pirates ofSicily, who had surprised an unguarded moment, Manuel affected todespise, while his martial spirit, and the forces of the empire, wereawakened to revenge. The Archipelago and Ionian Sea were covered withhis squadrons and those of Venice; but I know not by what favorableallowance of transports, victuallers, and pinnaces, our reason, oreven our fancy, can be reconciled to the stupendous account of fifteenhundred vessels, which is proposed by a Byzantine historian. Theseoperations were directed with prudence and energy: in his homewardvoyage George lost nineteen of his galleys, which were separated andtaken: after an obstinate defence, Corfu implored the clemency of herlawful sovereign; nor could a ship, a soldier, of the Norman prince, befound, unless as a captive, within the limits of the Eastern empire. Theprosperity and the health of Roger were already in a declining state:while he listened in his palace of Palermo to the messengers of victoryor defeat, the invincible Manuel, the foremost in every assault, wascelebrated by the Greeks and Latins as the Alexander or the Hercules ofthe age. 

[Footnote 109: The silence of the Sicilian historians, who end too soon, or begin too late, must be supplied by Otho of Frisingen, a German, (deGestis Frederici I. L. I. C. 33, in Muratori, Script. Tom. Vi. P. 668, )the Venetian Andrew Dandulus, (Id. Tom. Xii. P. 282, 283) and the Greekwriters Cinnamus (l. Iii. C. 2-5) and Nicetas, (in Manuel. L. Iii. C. 1-6. )]

[Footnote 110: To this imperfect capture and speedy rescue I applyCinnamus, l. Ii. C. 19, p. 49. Muratori, on tolerable evidence, (Annalid'Italia, tom. Ix. P. 420, 421, ) laughs at the delicacy of the French, who maintain, marisque nullo impediente periculo ad regnum propriumreversum esse; yet I observe that their advocate, Ducange, is lesspositive as the commentator on Cinnamus, than as the editor ofJoinville. ]

[Footnote 111: In palatium regium sagittas igneas injecit, saysDandulus; but Nicetas (l. Ii. C. 8, p. 66) transforms them, and adds, that Manuel styled this insult. These arrows, by the compiler, Vincentde Beauvais, are again transmuted into gold. ]

Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans. --Part V. 

A prince of such a temper could not be satisfied with having repelledthe insolence of a Barbarian. It was the right and duty, it might bethe interest and glory, of Manuel to restore the ancient majesty of theempire, to recover the provinces of Italy and Sicily, and to chastisethis pretended king, the grandson of a Norman vassal. [112] The nativesof Calabria were still attached to the Greek language and worship, whichhad been inexorably proscribed by the Latin clergy: after the loss ofher dukes, Apulia was chained as a servile appendage to the crown ofSicily; the founder of the monarchy had ruled by the sword; and hisdeath had abated the fear, without healing the discontent, of hissubjects: the feudal government was always pregnant with the seeds ofrebellion; and a nephew of Roger himself invited the enemies of hisfamily and nation. The majesty of the purple, and a series of Hungarianand Turkish wars, prevented Manuel from embarking his person in theItalian expedition. To the brave and noble Palaeologus, his lieutenant, the Greek monarch intrusted a fleet and army: the siege of Bari was hisfirst exploit; and, in every operation, gold as well as steel was theinstrument of victory. Salerno, and some places along the westerncoast, maintained their fidelity to the Norman king; but he lost intwo campaigns the greater part of his continental possessions; and themodest emperor, disdaining all flattery and falsehood, was contentwith the reduction of three hundred cities or villages of Apulia andCalabria, whose names and titles were inscribed on all the walls ofthe palace. The prejudices of the Latins were gratified by a genuine orfictitious donation under the seal of the German Caesars; [113] butthe successor of Constantine soon renounced this ignominious pretence, claimed the indefeasible dominion of Italy, and professed his design ofchasing the Barbarians beyond the Alps. By the artful speeches, liberalgifts, and unbounded promises, of their Eastern ally, the free citieswere encouraged to persevere in their generous struggle against thedespotism of Frederic Barbarossa: the walls of Milan were rebuilt by thecontributions of Manuel; and he poured, says the historian, a riverof gold into the bosom of Ancona, whose attachment to the Greeks wasfortified by the jealous enmity of the Venetians. [114] The situationand trade of Ancona rendered it an important garrison in the heartof Italy: it was twice besieged by the arms of Frederic; the imperialforces were twice repulsed by the spirit of freedom; that spirit wasanimated by the ambassador of Constantinople; and the most intrepidpatriots, the most faithful servants, were rewarded by the wealth andhonors of the Byzantine court. [115] The pride of Manuel disdained andrejected a Barbarian colleague; his ambition was excited by the hope ofstripping the purple from the German usurpers, and of establishing, in the West, as in the East, his lawful title of sole emperor of theRomans. With this view, he solicited the alliance of the people and thebishop of Rome. Several of the nobles embraced the cause of the Greekmonarch; the splendid nuptials of his niece with Odo Frangipani securedthe support of that powerful family, [116] and his royal standard orimage was entertained with due reverence in the ancient metropolis. [117] During the quarrel between Frederic and Alexander the Third, thepope twice received in the Vatican the ambassadors of Constantinople. They flattered his piety by the long-promised union of the two churches, tempted the avarice of his venal court, and exhorted the Roman pontiffto seize the just provocation, the favorable moment, to humblethe savage insolence of the Alemanni and to acknowledge the truerepresentative of Constantine and Augustus. [118]

[Footnote 112: For the invasion of Italy, which is almost overlooked byNicetas see the more polite history of Cinnamus, (l. Iv. C. 1-15, p. 78-101, ) who introduces a diffuse narrative by a lofty profession, iii. 5. ]

[Footnote 113: The Latin, Otho, (de Gestis Frederici I. L. Ii. C. 30, p. 734, ) attests the forgery; the Greek, Cinnamus, (l. Iv. C. 1, p. 78, ) claims a promise of restitution from Conrad and Frederic. An act offraud is always credible when it is told of the Greeks. ]

[Footnote 114: Quod Ancontiani Graecum imperium nimis diligerent . .. Veneti speciali odio Anconam oderunt. The cause of love, perhaps ofenvy, were the beneficia, flumen aureum of the emperor; and the Latinnarrative is confirmed by Cinnamus, (l. Iv. C. 14, p. 98. )]

[Footnote 115: Muratori mentions the two sieges of Ancona; the first, in 1167, against Frederic I. In person (Annali, tom. X. P. 39, &c. ;) thesecond, in 1173, against his lieutenant Christian, archbishop of Mentz, a man unworthy of his name and office, (p. 76, &c. ) It is of the secondsiege that we possess an original narrative, which he has published inhis great collection, (tom. Vi. P. 921-946. )]

[Footnote 116: We derive this anecdote from an anonymous chronicle ofFossa Nova, published by Muratori, (Script. Ital. Tom. Vii. P. 874. )]

[Footnote 117: Cinnamus (l. Iv. C. 14, p. 99) is susceptible of thisdouble sense. A standard is more Latin, an image more Greek. ]

[Footnote 118: Nihilominus quoque petebat, ut quia occasio justa ettempos opportunum et acceptabile se obtulerant, Romani corona imperii asancto apostolo sibi redderetur; quoniam non ad Frederici Alemanni, sed ad suum jus asseruit pertinere, (Vit. Alexandri III. A Cardinal. Arragoniae, in Script. Rerum Ital. Tom. Iii. Par. I. P. 458. ) His secondembassy was accompanied cum immensa multitudine pecuniarum. ]

But these Italian conquests, this universal reign, soon escaped from thehand of the Greek emperor. His first demands were eluded by theprudence of Alexander the Third, who paused on this deep and momentousrevolution; [119] nor could the pope be seduced by a personal dispute torenounce the perpetual inheritance of the Latin name. After the reunionwith Frederic, he spoke a more peremptory language, confirmed theacts of his predecessors, excommunicated the adherents of Manuel, and pronounced the final separation of the churches, or at least theempires, of Constantinople and Rome. [120] The free cities of Lombardyno longer remembered their foreign benefactor, and without preservingthe friendship of Ancona, he soon incurred the enmity of Venice. [121]By his own avarice, or the complaints of his subjects, the Greek emperorwas provoked to arrest the persons, and confiscate the effects, of theVenetian merchants. This violation of the public faith exasperated afree and commercial people: one hundred galleys were launched and armedin as many days; they swept the coasts of Dalmatia and Greece: but aftersome mutual wounds, the war was terminated by an agreement, ingloriousto the empire, insufficient for the republic; and a complete vengeanceof these and of fresh injuries was reserved for the succeedinggeneration. The lieutenant of Manuel had informed his sovereign that hewas strong enough to quell any domestic revolt of Apulia and Calabria;but that his forces were inadequate to resist the impending attackof the king of Sicily. His prophecy was soon verified: the death ofPalaeologus devolved the command on several chiefs, alike eminent inrank, alike defective in military talents; the Greeks were oppressedby land and sea; and a captive remnant that escaped the swords of theNormans and Saracens, abjured all future hostility against the person ordominions of their conqueror. [122] Yet the king of Sicily esteemed thecourage and constancy of Manuel, who had landed a second army on theItalian shore; he respectfully addressed the new Justinian; solicited apeace or truce of thirty years, accepted as a gift the regal title; andacknowledged himself the military vassal of the Roman empire. [123]The Byzantine Caesars acquiesced in this shadow of dominion, withoutexpecting, perhaps without desiring, the service of a Norman army; andthe truce of thirty years was not disturbed by any hostilities betweenSicily and Constantinople. About the end of that period, the throne ofManuel was usurped by an inhuman tyrant, who had deserved the abhorrenceof his country and mankind: the sword of William the Second, thegrandson of Roger, was drawn by a fugitive of the Comnenian race; andthe subjects of Andronicus might salute the strangers as friends, since they detested their sovereign as the worst of enemies. The Latinhistorians [124] expatiate on the rapid progress of the four countswho invaded Romania with a fleet and army, and reduced many castles andcities to the obedience of the king of Sicily. The Greeks [125] accuseand magnify the wanton and sacrilegious cruelties that were perpetratedin the sack of Thessalonica, the second city of the empire. The formerdeplore the fate of those invincible but unsuspecting warriors who weredestroyed by the arts of a vanquished foe. The latter applaud, in songsof triumph, the repeated victories of their countrymen on the Sea ofMarmora or Propontis, on the banks of the Strymon, and under the wallsof Durazzo. A revolution which punished the crimes of Andronicus, had united against the Franks the zeal and courage of the successfulinsurgents: ten thousand were slain in battle, and Isaac Angelus, thenew emperor, might indulge his vanity or vengeance in the treatment offour thousand captives. Such was the event of the last contest betweenthe Greeks and Normans: before the expiration of twenty years, the rivalnations were lost or degraded in foreign servitude; and the successorsof Constantine did not long survive to insult the fall of the Sicilianmonarchy. 

[Footnote 119: Nimis alta et perplexa sunt, (Vit. Alexandri III. P. 460, 461, ) says the cautious pope. ]

[Footnote 120: (Cinnamus, l. Iv. C. 14, p. 99. )]

[Footnote 121: In his vith book, Cinnamus describes the Venetian war, which Nicetas has not thought worthy of his attention. The Italianaccounts, which do not satisfy our curiosity, are reported by theannalist Muratori, under the years 1171, &c. ]

[Footnote 122: This victory is mentioned by Romuald of Salerno, (inMuratori, Script. Ital. Tom. Vii. P. 198. ) It is whimsical enough, thatin the praise of the king of Sicily, Cinnamus (l. Iv. C. 13, p. 97, 98)is much warmer and copious than Falcandus, (p. 268, 270. ) But the Greekis fond of description, and the Latin historian is not fond of Williamthe Bad. ]

[Footnote 123: For the epistle of William I. See Cinnamus (l. Iv. C. 15, p. 101, 102) and Nicetas, (l. Ii. C. 8. ) It is difficult to affirm, whether these Greeks deceived themselves, or the public, in theseflattering portraits of the grandeur of the empire. ]

[Footnote 124: I can only quote, of original evidence, the poorchronicles of Sicard of Cremona, (p. 603, ) and of Fossa Nova, (p. 875, )as they are published in the viith tome of Muratori's historians. The king of Sicily sent his troops contra nequitiam Andronici. .. . Adacquirendum imperium C. P. They were. .. . Decepti captique, by Isaac. ]

[Footnote 125: By the failure of Cinnamus to Nicetas (in Andronico, l. . C. 7, 8, 9, l. Ii. C. 1, in Isaac Angelo, l. I. C. 1-4, ) who nowbecomes a respectable contemporary. As he survived the emperor and theempire, he is above flattery; but the fall of Constantinople exasperatedhis prejudices against the Latins. For the honor of learning I shallobserve that Homer's great commentator, Eustathias archbishop ofThessalonica, refused to desert his flock. ]

The sceptre of Roger successively devolved to his son and grandson:they might be confounded under the name of William: they are stronglydiscriminated by the epithets of the bad and the good; but theseepithets, which appear to describe the perfection of vice and virtue, cannot strictly be applied to either of the Norman princes. When he wasroused to arms by danger and shame, the first William did not degeneratefrom the valor of his race; but his temper was slothful; his mannerswere dissolute; his passions headstrong and mischievous; and the monarchis responsible, not only for his personal vices, but for those of Majo, the great admiral, who abused the confidence, and conspired against thelife, of his benefactor. From the Arabian conquest, Sicily had imbibed adeep tincture of Oriental manners; the despotism, the pomp, and even theharem, of a sultan; and a Christian people was oppressed and insultedby the ascendant of the eunuchs, who openly professed, or secretlycherished, the religion of Mahomet. An eloquent historian of the times[126] has delineated the misfortunes of his country: [127] the ambitionand fall of the ungrateful Majo; the revolt and punishment of hisassassins; the imprisonment and deliverance of the king himself; theprivate feuds that arose from the public confusion; and the variousforms of calamity and discord which afflicted Palermo, the island, andthe continent, during the reign of William the First, and the minorityof his son. The youth, innocence, and beauty of William the Second, [128] endeared him to the nation: the factions were reconciled; thelaws were revived; and from the manhood to the premature death of thatamiable prince, Sicily enjoyed a short season of peace, justice, andhappiness, whose value was enhanced by the remembrance of the pastand the dread of futurity. The legitimate male posterity of Tancredof Hauteville was extinct in the person of the second William; but hisaunt, the daughter of Roger, had married the most powerful prince of theage; and Henry the Sixth, the son of Frederic Barbarossa, descended fromthe Alps to claim the Imperial crown and the inheritance of his wife. Against the unanimous wish of a free people, this inheritance could onlybe acquired by arms; and I am pleased to transcribe the style and senseof the historian Falcandus, who writes at the moment, and on the spot, with the feelings of a patriot, and the prophetic eye of a statesman. "Constantia, the daughter of Sicily, nursed from her cradle in thepleasures and plenty, and educated in the arts and manners, of thisfortunate isle, departed long since to enrich the Barbarians with ourtreasures, and now returns, with her savage allies, to contaminate thebeauties of her venerable parent. Already I behold the swarms of angryBarbarians: our opulent cities, the places flourishing in a long peace, are shaken with fear, desolated by slaughter, consumed by rapine, andpolluted by intemperance and lust. I see the massacre or captivityof our citizens, the rapes of our virgins and matrons. [129] In thisextremity (he interrogates a friend) how must the Sicilians act? Bythe unanimous election of a king of valor and experience, Sicilyand Calabria might yet be preserved; [130] for in the levity ofthe Apulians, ever eager for new revolutions, I can repose neitherconfidence nor hope. [131] Should Calabria be lost, the lofty towers, the numerous youth, and the naval strength, of Messina, [132] mightguard the passage against a foreign invader. If the savage Germanscoalesce with the pirates of Messina; if they destroy with fire thefruitful region, so often wasted by the fires of Mount Aetna, [133] whatresource will be left for the interior parts of the island, these noblecities which should never be violated by the hostile footsteps of aBarbarian? [134] Catana has again been overwhelmed by an earthquake: theancient virtue of Syracuse expires in poverty and solitude; [135] butPalermo is still crowned with a diadem, and her triple walls enclose theactive multitudes of Christians and Saracens. If the two nations, under one king, can unite for their common safety, they may rush onthe Barbarians with invincible arms. But if the Saracens, fatigued bya repetition of injuries, should now retire and rebel; if they shouldoccupy the castles of the mountains and sea-coast, the unfortunateChristians, exposed to a double attack, and placed as it were betweenthe hammer and the anvil, must resign themselves to hopeless andinevitable servitude. " [136] We must not forget, that a priest hereprefers his country to his religion; and that the Moslems, whosealliance he seeks, were still numerous and powerful in the state ofSicily. 

[Footnote 126: The Historia Sicula of Hugo Falcandus, which properlyextends from 1154 to 1169, is inserted in the viiith volume ofMuratori's Collection, (tom. Vii. P. 259-344, ) and preceded by aeloquent preface or epistle, (p. 251-258, de Calamitatibus Siciliae. )Falcandus has been styled the Tacitus of Sicily; and, after a just, butimmense, abatement, from the ist to the xiith century, from a senator toa monk, I would not strip him of his title: his narrative is rapid andperspicuous, his style bold and elegant, his observation keen; he hadstudied mankind, and feels like a man. I can only regret the narrow andbarren field on which his labors have been cast. ]

[Footnote 127: The laborious Benedictines (l'Art de verifier les Dates, p. 896) are of opinion, that the true name of Falcandus is Fulcandus, orFoucault. According to them, Hugues Foucalt, a Frenchman by birth, and at length abbot of St. Denys, had followed into Sicily his patronStephen de la Perche, uncle to the mother of William II. , archbishop ofPalermo, and great chancellor of the kingdom. Yet Falcandus has all thefeelings of a Sicilian; and the title of Alumnus (which he bestows onhimself) appears to indicate that he was born, or at least educated, inthe island. ]

[Footnote 128: Falcand. P. 303. Richard de St. Germano begins hishistory from the death and praises of William II. After some unmeaningepithets, he thus continues: Legis et justitiae cultus tempore suovigebat in regno; sua erat quilibet sorte contentus; (were theymortals?) abique pax, ubique securitas, nec latronum metuebat viatorinsidias, nec maris nauta offendicula piratarum, (Script. Rerum Ital. Tom. Vii p 939. )]

[Footnote 129: Constantia, primis a cunabulis in deliciarun tuarumaffluentia diutius educata, tuisque institutis, doctrinus et moribusinformata, tandem opibus tuis Barbaros delatura discessit: et nunccum imgentibus copiis revertitur, ut pulcherrima nutricis ornamentabarbarica foeditate contaminet . .. . Intuari mihi jam videor turbulentasbar barorum acies. .. . Civitates opulentas et loca diuturna paceflorentia, metu concutere, caede vastare, rapinis atterere, et foedareluxuria hinc cives aut gladiis intercepti, aut servitute depressi, virgines constupratae, matronae, &c. ]

[Footnote 130: Certe si regem non dubiae virtutis elegerint, nec aSaracenis Christiani dissentiant, poterit rex creatus rebus licet quasidesperatis et perditis subvenire, et incursus hostium, si prudenteregerit, propulsare. ]

[Footnote 131: In Apulis, qui, semper novitate gaudentes, novarum rerumstudiis aguntur, nihil arbitror spei aut fiduciae reponendum. ]

[Footnote 132: Si civium tuorum virtutem et audaciam attendas, . .. . Muriorum etiam ambitum densis turribus circumseptum. ]

[Footnote 133: Cum erudelitate piratica Theutonum confligat atrocitas, et inter aucbustos lapides, et Aethnae flagrant's incendia, &c. ]

[Footnote 134: Eam partem, quam nobilissimarum civitatum fulgorillustrat, quae et toti regno singulari meruit privilegio praeminere, nefarium esset. .. . Vel barbarorum ingressu pollui. I wish to transcribehis florid, but curious, description, of the palace, city, and luxuriantplain of Palermo. ]

[Footnote 135: Vires non suppetunt, et conatus tuos tam inopia civium, quam paucitas bellatorum elidunt. ]

[Footnote 136: The Normans and Sicilians appear to be confounded. ]

The hopes, or at least the wishes, of Falcandus were at first gratifiedby the free and unanimous election of Tancred, the grandson of the firstking, whose birth was illegitimate, but whose civil and military virtuesshone without a blemish. During four years, the term of his life andreign, he stood in arms on the farthest verge of the Apulian frontier, against the powers of Germany; and the restitution of a royal captive, of Constantia herself, without injury or ransom, may appear to surpassthe most liberal measure of policy or reason. After his decease, thekingdom of his widow and infant son fell without a struggle; and Henrypursued his victorious march from Capua to Palermo. The politicalbalance of Italy was destroyed by his success; and if the pope and thefree cities had consulted their obvious and real interest, they wouldhave combined the powers of earth and heaven to prevent the dangerousunion of the German empire with the kingdom of Sicily. But the subtlepolicy, for which the Vatican has so often been praised or arraigned, was on this occasion blind and inactive; and if it were true thatCelestine the Third had kicked away the Imperial crown from the headof the prostrate Henry, [137] such an act of impotent pride could serveonly to cancel an obligation and provoke an enemy. The Genoese, whoenjoyed a beneficial trade and establishment in Sicily, listened to thepromise of his boundless gratitude and speedy departure: [138] theirfleet commanded the straits of Messina, and opened the harbor ofPalermo; and the first act of his government was to abolish theprivileges, and to seize the property, of these imprudent allies. Thelast hope of Falcandus was defeated by the discord of the Christians andMahometans: they fought in the capital; several thousands of the latterwere slain; but their surviving brethren fortified the mountains, anddisturbed above thirty years the peace of the island. By the policy ofFrederic the Second, sixty thousand Saracens were transplanted to Nocerain Apulia. In their wars against the Roman church, the emperor andhis son Mainfroy were strengthened and disgraced by the service of theenemies of Christ; and this national colony maintained their religionand manners in the heart of Italy, till they were extirpated, at theend of the thirteenth century, by the zeal and revenge of the house ofAnjou. [139] All the calamities which the prophetic orator had deploredwere surpassed by the cruelty and avarice of the German conqueror. Heviolated the royal sepulchres, [1391] and explored the secret treasuresof the palace, Palermo, and the whole kingdom: the pearls and jewels, however precious, might be easily removed; but one hundred and sixtyhorses were laden with the gold and silver of Sicily. [140] The youngking, his mother and sisters, and the nobles of both sexes, wereseparately confined in the fortresses of the Alps; and, on the slightestrumor of rebellion, the captives were deprived of life, of theireyes, or of the hope of posterity. Constantia herself was touched withsympathy for the miseries of her country; and the heiress of the Normanline might struggle to check her despotic husband, and to save thepatrimony of her new-born son, of an emperor so famous in the next ageunder the name of Frederic the Second. Ten years after this revolution, the French monarchs annexed to their crown the duchy of Normandy: thesceptre of her ancient dukes had been transmitted, by a granddaughter ofWilliam the Conqueror, to the house of Plantagenet; and the adventurousNormans, who had raised so many trophies in France, England, andIreland, in Apulia, Sicily, and the East, were lost, either in victoryor servitude, among the vanquished nations. 

[Footnote 137: The testimony of an Englishman, of Roger de Hoveden, (p. 689, ) will lightly weigh against the silence of German and Italianhistory, (Muratori, Annali d' Italia, tom. X. P. 156. ) The priestsand pilgrims, who returned from Rome, exalted, by every tale, theomnipotence of the holy father. ]

[Footnote 138: Ego enim in eo cum Teutonicis manere non debeo, (Caffari, Annal. Genuenses, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom vi. P. 367, 368. )]

[Footnote 139: For the Saracens of Sicily and Nocera, see the Annals ofMuratori, (tom. X. P. 149, and A. D. 1223, 1247, ) Giannone, (tom ii. P. 385, ) and of the originals, in Muratori's Collection, Richard de St. Germano, (tom. Vii. P. 996, ) Matteo Spinelli de Giovenazzo, (tom. Vii. P. 1064, ) Nicholas de Jamsilla, (tom. X. P. 494, ) and Matreo Villani, (tom. Xiv l. Vii. P. 103. ) The last of these insinuates that, inreducing the Saracens of Nocera, Charles II. Of Anjou employed ratherartifice than violence. ]

[Footnote 1391: It is remarkable that at the same time the tombs of theRoman emperors, even of Constantine himself, were violated and ransackedby their degenerate successor Alexius Comnenus, in order to enable himto pay the "German" tribute exacted by the menaces of the emperor Henry. See the end of the first book of the Life of Alexius, in Nicetas, p. 632, edit. --M. ]

[Footnote 140: Muratori quotes a passage from Arnold of Lubec, (l. Iv. C. 20:) Reperit thesauros absconditos, et omnem lapidum pretiosorum etgemmarum gloriam, ita ut oneratis 160 somariis, gloriose ad terram suamredierit. Roger de Hoveden, who mentions the violation of the royaltombs and corpses, computes the spoil of Salerno at 200, 000 ounces ofgold, (p. 746. ) On these occasions, I am almost tempted to exclaimwith the listening maid in La Fontaine, "Je voudrois bien avoir ce quimanque. "]

Chapter LVII: The Turks. --Part I. 

 The Turks Of The House Of Seljuk. --Their Revolt Against Mahmud Conqueror Of Hindostan. --Togrul Subdues Persia, And Protects The Caliphs. --Defeat And Captivity Of The Emperor Romanus Diogenes By Alp Arslan. --Power And Magnificence Of Malek Shah. --Conquest Of Asia Minor And Syria. --State And Oppression Of Jerusalem. --Pilgrimages To The Holy Sepulchre. 

From the Isle of Sicily, the reader must transport himself beyond theCaspian Sea, to the original seat of the Turks or Turkmans, against whomthe first crusade was principally directed. Their Scythian empire of thesixth century was long since dissolved; but the name was still famousamong the Greeks and Orientals; and the fragments of the nation, eacha powerful and independent people, were scattered over the desert fromChina to the Oxus and the Danube: the colony of Hungarians was admittedinto the republic of Europe, and the thrones of Asia were occupied byslaves and soldiers of Turkish extraction. While Apulia and Sicilywere subdued by the Norman lance, a swarm of these northern shepherdsoverspread the kingdoms of Persia; their princes of the race of Seljukerected a splendid and solid empire from Samarcand to the confines ofGreece and Egypt; and the Turks have maintained their dominion in AsiaMinor, till the victorious crescent has been planted on the dome of St. Sophia. 

One of the greatest of the Turkish princes was Mahmood or Mahmud, [1]the Gaznevide, who reigned in the eastern provinces of Persia, onethousand years after the birth of Christ. His father Sebectagi was theslave of the slave of the slave of the commander of the faithful. But inthis descent of servitude, the first degree was merely titular, since itwas filled by the sovereign of Transoxiana and Chorasan, who still paida nominal allegiance to the caliph of Bagdad. The second rank was thatof a minister of state, a lieutenant of the Samanides, [2] who broke, by his revolt, the bonds of political slavery. But the third step was astate of real and domestic servitude in the family of that rebel; fromwhich Sebectagi, by his courage and dexterity, ascended to the supremecommand of the city and provinces of Gazna, [3] as the son-in-law andsuccessor of his grateful master. 

The falling dynasty of the Samanides was at first protected, and at lastoverthrown, by their servants; and, in the public disorders, the fortuneof Mahmud continually increased. From him the title of Sultan [4] wasfirst invented; and his kingdom was enlarged from Transoxiana to theneighborhood of Ispahan, from the shores of the Caspian to the mouth ofthe Indus. But the principal source of his fame and riches was the holywar which he waged against the Gentoos of Hindostan. In this foreignnarrative I may not consume a page; and a volume would scarcely sufficeto recapitulate the battles and sieges of his twelve expeditions. Neverwas the Mussulman hero dismayed by the inclemency of the seasons, theheight of the mountains, the breadth of the rivers, the barrenness ofthe desert, the multitudes of the enemy, or the formidable array oftheir elephants of war. [5] The sultan of Gazna surpassed the limitsof the conquests of Alexander: after a march of three months, over thehills of Cashmir and Thibet, he reached the famous city of Kinnoge, [6]on the Upper Ganges; and, in a naval combat on one of the branches ofthe Indus, he fought and vanquished four thousand boats of the natives. Delhi, Lahor, and Multan, were compelled to open their gates: thefertile kingdom of Guzarat attracted his ambition and tempted his stay;and his avarice indulged the fruitless project of discovering the goldenand aromatic isles of the Southern Ocean. On the payment of a tribute, the rajahs preserved their dominions; the people, their lives andfortunes; but to the religion of Hindostan the zealous Mussulman wascruel and inexorable: many hundred temples, or pagodas, were levelledwith the ground; many thousand idols were demolished; and the servantsof the prophet were stimulated and rewarded by the precious materialsof which they were composed. The pagoda of Sumnat was situate on thepromontory of Guzarat, in the neighborhood of Diu, one of the lastremaining possessions of the Portuguese. [7] It was endowed with therevenue of two thousand villages; two thousand Brahmins were consecratedto the service of the Deity, whom they washed each morning and eveningin water from the distant Ganges: the subordinate ministers consisted ofthree hundred musicians, three hundred barbers, and five hundred dancinggirls, conspicuous for their birth or beauty. Three sides of the templewere protected by the ocean, the narrow isthmus was fortified by anatural or artificial precipice; and the city and adjacent countrywere peopled by a nation of fanatics. They confessed the sins and thepunishment of Kinnoge and Delhi; but if the impious stranger shouldpresume to approach their holy precincts, he would surely be overwhelmedby a blast of the divine vengeance. By this challenge, the faith ofMahmud was animated to a personal trial of the strength of this Indiandeity. Fifty thousand of his worshippers were pierced by the spear ofthe Moslems; the walls were scaled; the sanctuary was profaned; and theconqueror aimed a blow of his iron mace at the head of the idol. Thetrembling Brahmins are said to have offered ten millions [711] sterlingfor his ransom; and it was urged by the wisest counsellors, that thedestruction of a stone image would not change the hearts of the Gentoos;and that such a sum might be dedicated to the relief of the truebelievers. "Your reasons, " replied the sultan, "are specious and strong;but never in the eyes of posterity shall Mahmud appear as a merchantof idols. " [712] He repeated his blows, and a treasure of pearls andrubies, concealed in the belly of the statue, explained in some degreethe devout prodigality of the Brahmins. The fragments of the idol weredistributed to Gazna, Mecca, and Medina. Bagdad listened to the edifyingtale; and Mahmud was saluted by the caliph with the title of guardian ofthe fortune and faith of Mahomet. 

[Footnote 1: I am indebted for his character and history to D'Herbelot, (Bibliotheque Orientale, Mahmud, p. 533-537, ) M. De Guignes, (Histoiredes Huns, tom. Iii. P. 155-173, ) and our countryman Colonel AlexanderDow, (vol. I. P. 23-83. ) In the two first volumes of his History ofHindostan, he styles himself the translator of the Persian Ferishta; butin his florid text, it is not easy to distinguish the version and theoriginal. * Note: The European reader now possesses a more accurateversion of Ferishta, that of Col. Briggs. Of Col. Dow's work, Col. Briggs observes, "that the author's name will be handed down toposterity as one of the earliest and most indefatigable of our Orientalscholars. Instead of confining himself, however, to mere translation, he has filled his work with his own observations, which have been soembodied in the text that Gibbon declares it impossible to distinguishthe translator from the original author. " Preface p. Vii. --M. ]

[Footnote 2: The dynasty of the Samanides continued 125 years, A. D. 847-999, under ten princes. See their succession and ruin, in theTables of M. De Guignes, (Hist. Des Huns, tom. I. P. 404-406. ) Theywere followed by the Gaznevides, A. D. 999-1183, (see tom. I. P. 239, 240. ) His divisions of nations often disturbs the series of time andplace. ]

[Footnote 3: Gaznah hortos non habet: est emporium et domiciliummercaturae Indicae. Abulfedae Geograph. Reiske, tab. Xxiii. P. 349. D'Herbelot, p. 364. It has not been visited by any modern traveller. ]

[Footnote 4: By the ambassador of the caliph of Bagdad, who employed anArabian or Chaldaic word that signifies lord and master, (D'Herbelot, p. 825. ) It is interpreted by the Byzantine writers of the eleventhcentury; and the name (Soldanus) is familiarly employed in the Greekand Latin languages, after it had passed from the Gaznevides to theSeljukides, and other emirs of Asia and Egypt. Ducange (Dissertationxvi. Sur Joinville, p. 238-240. Gloss. Graec. Et Latin. ) labors to findthe title of Sultan in the ancient kingdom of Persia: but his proofs aremere shadows; a proper name in the Themes of Constantine, (ii. 11, ) ananticipation of Zonaras, &c. , and a medal of Kai Khosrou, not (as hebelieves) the Sassanide of the vith, but the Seljukide of Iconium of thexiiith century, (De Guignes, Hist. Des Huns, tom. I. P. 246. )]

[Footnote 5: Ferishta (apud Dow, Hist. Of Hindostan, vol. I. P. 49)mentions the report of a gun in the Indian army. But as I am slow inbelieving this premature (A. D. 1008) use of artillery, I must desire toscrutinize first the text, and then the authority of Ferishta, wholived in the Mogul court in the last century. * Note: This passage isdifferently written in the various manuscripts I have seen; and in somethe word tope (gun) has been written for nupth, (naphtha, and toofung)(musket) for khudung, (arrow. ) But no Persian or Arabic history speaksof gunpowder before the time usually assigned for its invention, (A. D. 1317;) long after which, it was first applied to the purposes of war. Briggs's Ferishta, vol. I. P. 47, note. --M. ]

[Footnote 6: Kinnouge, or Canouge, (the old Palimbothra) is marked inlatitude 27 Degrees 3 Minutes, longitude 80 Degrees 13 Minutes. SeeD'Anville, (Antiquite de l'Inde, p. 60-62, ) corrected by the localknowledge of Major Rennel (in his excellent Memoir on his Map ofHindostan, p. 37-43: ) 300] jewellers, 30, 000 shops for the arreca nut, 60, 000 bands of musicians, &c. (Abulfed. Geograph. Tab. Xv. P. 274. Dow, vol. I. P. 16, ) will allow an ample deduction. * Note: Mr. Wilson (HinduDrama, vol. Iii. P. 12) and Schlegel (Indische Bibliothek, vol. Ii. P. 394) concur in identifying Palimbothra with the Patalipara of theIndians; the Patna of the moderns. --M. ]

[Footnote 7: The idolaters of Europe, says Ferishta, (Dow, vol. I. P. 66. ) Consult Abulfeda, (p. 272, ) and Rennel's Map of Hindostan. ]

[Footnote 711: Ferishta says, some "crores of gold. " Dow says, in a noteat the bottom of the page, "ten millions, " which is the explanation ofthe word "crore. " Mr. Gibbon says rashly that the sum offered by theBrahmins was ten millions sterling. Note to Mill's India, vol. Ii. P. 222. Col. Briggs's translation is "a quantity of gold. " The treasurefound in the temple, "perhaps in the image, " according to Major Price'sauthorities, was twenty millions of dinars of gold, above nine millionssterling; but this was a hundred-fold the ransom offered by theBrahmins. Price, vol. Ii. P. 290. --M. ]

[Footnote 712: Rather than the idol broker, he chose to be called Mahmudthe idol breaker. Price, vol. Ii. P. 289--M]

From the paths of blood (and such is the history of nations) I cannotrefuse to turn aside to gather some flowers of science or virtue. The name of Mahmud the Gaznevide is still venerable in the East: hissubjects enjoyed the blessings of prosperity and peace; his viceswere concealed by the veil of religion; and two familiar examples willtestify his justice and magnanimity. 

I. As he sat in the Divan, an unhappy subject bowed before the throne toaccuse the insolence of a Turkish soldier who had driven him from hishouse and bed. "Suspend your clamors, " said Mahmud; "inform me of hisnext visit, and ourself in person will judge and punish the offender. "The sultan followed his guide, invested the house with his guards, andextinguishing the torches, pronounced the death of the criminal, who hadbeen seized in the act of rapine and adultery. After the execution ofhis sentence, the lights were rekindled, Mahmud fell prostrate inprayer, and rising from the ground, demanded some homely fare, which hedevoured with the voraciousness of hunger. The poor man, whose injury hehad avenged, was unable to suppress his astonishment and curiosity; andthe courteous monarch condescended to explain the motives of thissingular behavior. "I had reason to suspect that none, except one of mysons, could dare to perpetrate such an outrage; and I extinguished thelights, that my justice might be blind and inexorable. My prayer was athanksgiving on the discovery of the offender; and so painful was myanxiety, that I had passed three days without food since the firstmoment of your complaint. "

II. The sultan of Gazna had declared war against the dynasty of theBowides, the sovereigns of the western Persia: he was disarmed by anepistle of the sultana mother, and delayed his invasion till the manhoodof her son. [8] "During the life of my husband, " said the artful regent, "I was ever apprehensive of your ambition: he was a prince and a soldierworthy of your arms. He is now no more his sceptre has passed to a womanand a child, and you dare not attack their infancy and weakness. Howinglorious would be your conquest, how shameful your defeat! and yet theevent of war is in the hand of the Almighty. " Avarice was the onlydefect that tarnished the illustrious character of Mahmud; and never hasthat passion been more richly satiated. [811] The Orientals exceed themeasure of credibility in the account of millions of gold and silver, such as the avidity of man has never accumulated; in the magnitude ofpearls, diamonds, and rubies, such as have never been produced by theworkmanship of nature. [9] Yet the soil of Hindostan is impregnated withprecious minerals: her trade, in every age, has attracted the gold andsilver of the world; and her virgin spoils were rifled by the first ofthe Mahometan conquerors. His behavior, in the last days of his life, evinces the vanity of these possessions, so laboriously won, sodangerously held, and so inevitably lost. He surveyed the vast andvarious chambers of the treasury of Gazna, burst into tears, and againclosed the doors, without bestowing any portion of the wealth which hecould no longer hope to preserve. The following day he reviewed thestate of his military force; one hundred thousand foot, fifty-fivethousand horse, and thirteen hundred elephants of battle. [10] He againwept the instability of human greatness; and his grief was imbittered bythe hostile progress of the Turkmans, whom he had introduced into theheart of his Persian kingdom. 

[Footnote 8: D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 527. Yet theseletters apothegms, &c. , are rarely the language of the heart, or themotives of public action. ]

[Footnote 811: Compare Price, vol. Ii. P. 295. --M]

[Footnote 9: For instance, a ruby of four hundred and fifty miskals, (Dow, vol. I. P. 53, ) or six pounds three ounces: the largest in thetreasury of Delhi weighed seventeen miskals, (Voyages de Tavernier, partie ii. P. 280. ) It is true, that in the East all colored stones arecalied rubies, (p. 355, ) and that Tavernier saw three larger and moreprecious among the jewels de notre grand roi, le plus puissant et plusmagnifique de tous les rois de la terre, (p. 376. )]

[Footnote 10: Dow, vol. I. P. 65. The sovereign of Kinoge is said tohave possessed 2500 elephants, (Abulfed. Geograph. Tab. Xv. P. 274. )From these Indian stories, the reader may correct a note in my firstvolume, (p. 245;) or from that note he may correct these stories. ]

In the modern depopulation of Asia, the regular operation of governmentand agriculture is confined to the neighborhood of cities; and thedistant country is abandoned to the pastoral tribes of Arabs, Curds, andTurkmans. [11] Of the last-mentioned people, two considerable branchesextend on either side of the Caspian Sea: the western colony can musterforty thousand soldiers; the eastern, less obvious to the traveller, but more strong and populous, has increased to the number of one hundredthousand families. In the midst of civilized nations, they preserve themanners of the Scythian desert, remove their encampments with a changeof seasons, and feed their cattle among the ruins of palaces andtemples. Their flocks and herds are their only riches; their tents, either black or white, according to the color of the banner, are coveredwith felt, and of a circular form; their winter apparel is a sheep-skin;a robe of cloth or cotton their summer garment: the features of themen are harsh and ferocious; the countenance of their women is softand pleasing. Their wandering life maintains the spirit and exerciseof arms; they fight on horseback; and their courage is displayed infrequent contests with each other and with their neighbors. For thelicense of pasture they pay a slight tribute to the sovereign of theland; but the domestic jurisdiction is in the hands of the chiefs andelders. The first emigration of the Eastern Turkmans, the most ancientof the race, may be ascribed to the tenth century of the Christianaera. [12] In the decline of the caliphs, and the weakness of theirlieutenants, the barrier of the Jaxartes was often violated; in eachinvasion, after the victory or retreat of their countrymen, somewandering tribe, embracing the Mahometan faith, obtained a freeencampment in the spacious plains and pleasant climate of Transoxianaand Carizme. The Turkish slaves who aspired to the throne encouragedthese emigrations which recruited their armies, awed their subjectsand rivals, and protected the frontier against the wilder natives ofTurkestan; and this policy was abused by Mahmud the Gaznevide beyond theexample of former times. He was admonished of his error by the chief ofthe race of Seljuk, who dwelt in the territory of Bochara. The sultanhad inquired what supply of men he could furnish for military service. "If you send, " replied Ismael, "one of these arrows into our camp, fifty thousand of your servants will mount on horseback. "--"And ifthat number, " continued Mahmud, "should not be sufficient?"--"Send thissecond arrow to the horde of Balik, and you will find fifty thousandmore. "--"But, " said the Gaznevide, dissembling his anxiety, "if I shouldstand in need of the whole force of your kindred tribes?"--"Despatch mybow, " was the last reply of Ismael, "and as it is circulated around, thesummons will be obeyed by two hundred thousand horse. " The apprehensionof such formidable friendship induced Mahmud to transport the mostobnoxious tribes into the heart of Chorasan, where they would beseparated from their brethren of the River Oxus, and enclosed on allsides by the walls of obedient cities. But the face of the country wasan object of temptation rather than terror; and the vigor of governmentwas relaxed by the absence and death of the sultan of Gazna. Theshepherds were converted into robbers; the bands of robbers werecollected into an army of conquerors: as far as Ispahan and the Tigris, Persia was afflicted by their predatory inroads; and the Turkmans werenot ashamed or afraid to measure their courage and numbers with theproudest sovereigns of Asia. Massoud, the son and successor of Mahmud, had too long neglected the advice of his wisest Omrahs. "Your enemies, "they repeatedly urged, "were in their origin a swarm of ants; they arenow little snakes; and, unless they be instantly crushed, they willacquire the venom and magnitude of serpents. " After some alternativesof truce and hostility, after the repulse or partial success of hislieutenants, the sultan marched in person against the Turkmans, whoattacked him on all sides with barbarous shouts and irregular onset. "Massoud, " says the Persian historian, [13] "plunged singly to opposethe torrent of gleaming arms, exhibiting such acts of gigantic force andvalor as never king had before displayed. A few of his friends, rousedby his words and actions, and that innate honor which inspires thebrave, seconded their lord so well, that wheresoever he turned his fatalsword, the enemies were mowed down, or retreated before him. But now, when victory seemed to blow on his standard, misfortune was activebehind it; for when he looked round, be beheld almost his whole army, excepting that body he commanded in person, devouring the paths offlight. " The Gaznevide was abandoned by the cowardice or treachery ofsome generals of Turkish race; and this memorable day of Zendecan [14]founded in Persia the dynasty of the shepherd kings. [15]

[Footnote 11: See a just and natural picture of these pastoral manners, in the history of William archbishop of Tyre, (l. I. C. Vii. In theGesta Dei per Francos, p. 633, 634, ) and a valuable note by the editorof the Histoire Genealogique des Tatars, p. 535-538. ]

[Footnote 12: The first emigration of the Turkmans, and doubtful originof the Seljukians, may be traced in the laborious History of the Huns, by M. De Guignes, (tom. I. Tables Chronologiques, l. V. Tom. Iii. L. Vii. Ix. X. ) and the Bibliotheque Orientale, of D'Herbelot, (p. 799-802, 897-901, ) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. P. 321-333, ) andAbulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 221, 222. )]

[Footnote 13: Dow, Hist. Of Hindostan, vol. I. P. 89, 95-98. I havecopied this passage as a specimen of the Persian manner; but I suspectthat, by some odd fatality, the style of Ferishta has been improved bythat of Ossian. * Note: Gibbon's conjecture was well founded. Comparethe more sober and genuine version of Col. Briggs, vol. I. P. 110. -M. ]

[Footnote 14: The Zendekan of D'Herbelot, (p. 1028, ) the Dindaka of Dow(vol. I. P. 97, ) is probably the Dandanekan of Abulfeda, (Geograph. P. 345, Reiske, ) a small town of Chorasan, two days' journey from Maru, andrenowned through the East for the production and manufacture of cotton. ]

[Footnote 15: The Byzantine historians (Cedrenus, tom. Ii. P. 766, 766, Zonaras tom. Ii. P. 255, Nicephorus Bryennius, p. 21) have confounded, in this revolution, the truth of time and place, of names and persons, of causes and events. The ignorance and errors of these Greeks (whichI shall not stop to unravel) may inspire some distrust of the story ofCyaxares and Cyrus, as it is told by their most eloquent predecessor. ]

The victorious Turkmans immediately proceeded to the election of a king;and, if the probable tale of a Latin historian [16] deserves any credit, they determined by lot the choice of their new master. A number ofarrows were successively inscribed with the name of a tribe, a family, and a candidate; they were drawn from the bundle by the hand of a child;and the important prize was obtained by Togrul Beg, the son of Michaelthe son of Seljuk, whose surname was immortalized in the greatness ofhis posterity. The sultan Mahmud, who valued himself on his skill innational genealogy, professed his ignorance of the family of Seljuk;yet the father of that race appears to have been a chief of power andrenown. [17] For a daring intrusion into the harem of his prince. Seljukwas banished from Turkestan: with a numerous tribe of his friendsand vassals, he passed the Jaxartes, encamped in the neighborhood ofSamarcand, embraced the religion of Mahomet, and acquired the crown ofmartyrdom in a war against the infidels. His age, of a hundred and sevenyears, surpassed the life of his son, and Seljuk adopted the care ofhis two grandsons, Togrul and Jaafar; the eldest of whom, at the age offorty-five, was invested with the title of Sultan, in the royal city ofNishabur. The blind determination of chance was justified by the virtuesof the successful candidate. It would be superfluous to praise the valorof a Turk; and the ambition of Togrul [18] was equal to his valor. Byhis arms, the Gasnevides were expelled from the eastern kingdoms ofPersia, and gradually driven to the banks of the Indus, in search of asofter and more wealthy conquest. In the West he annihilated the dynastyof the Bowides; and the sceptre of Irak passed from the Persian to theTurkish nation. The princes who had felt, or who feared, the Seljukianarrows, bowed their heads in the dust; by the conquest of Aderbijan, orMedia, he approached the Roman confines; and the shepherd presumed todespatch an ambassador, or herald, to demand the tribute and obedienceof the emperor of Constantinople. [19] In his own dominions, Togrulwas the father of his soldiers and people; by a firm and equaladministration, Persia was relieved from the evils of anarchy; andthe same hands which had been imbrued in blood became the guardiansof justice and the public peace. The more rustic, perhaps the wisest, portion of the Turkmans [20] continued to dwell in the tents of theirancestors; and, from the Oxus to the Euphrates, these military colonieswere protected and propagated by their native princes. But the Turks ofthe court and city were refined by business and softened by pleasure:they imitated the dress, language, and manners of Persia; and the royalpalaces of Nishabur and Rei displayed the order and magnificence of agreat monarchy. The most deserving of the Arabians and Persians werepromoted to the honors of the state; and the whole body of the Turkishnation embraced, with fervor and sincerity, the religion of Mahomet. Thenorthern swarms of Barbarians, who overspread both Europe and Asia, havebeen irreconcilably separated by the consequences of a similar conduct. Among the Moslems, as among the Christians, their vague and localtraditions have yielded to the reason and authority of the prevailingsystem, to the fame of antiquity, and the consent of nations. Butthe triumph of the Koran is more pure and meritorious, as it was notassisted by any visible splendor of worship which might allure thePagans by some resemblance of idolatry. The first of the Seljukiansultans was conspicuous by his zeal and faith: each day he repeated thefive prayers which are enjoined to the true believers; of each week, thetwo first days were consecrated by an extraordinary fast; and inevery city a mosch was completed, before Togrul presumed to lay thefoundations of a palace. [21]

[Footnote 16: Willerm. Tyr. L. I. C. 7, p. 633. The divination by arrowsis ancient and famous in the East. ]

[Footnote 17: D'Herbelot, p. 801. Yet after the fortune of hisposterity, Seljuk became the thirty-fourth in lineal descent from thegreat Afrasiab, emperor of Touran, (p. 800. ) The Tartar pedigree of thehouse of Zingis gave a different cast to flattery and fable; and thehistorian Mirkhond derives the Seljukides from Alankavah, the virginmother, (p. 801, col. 2. ) If they be the same as the Zalzuts ofAbulghazi Bahadur Kahn, (Hist. Genealogique, p. 148, ) we quote intheir favor the most weighty evidence of a Tartar prince himself, thedescendant of Zingis, Alankavah, or Alancu, and Oguz Khan. ]

[Footnote 18: By a slight corruption, Togrul Beg is the Tangroli-pixof the Greeks. His reign and character are faithfully exhibited byD'Herbelot (Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 1027, 1028) and De Guignes, (Hist. Des Huns, tom. Iii. P. 189-201. )]

[Footnote 19: Cedrenus, tom. Ii. P. 774, 775. Zonaras, tom. Ii. P. 257. With their usual knowledge of Oriental affairs, they describe theambassador as a sherif, who, like the syncellus of the patriarch, wasthe vicar and successor of the caliph. ]

[Footnote 20: From William of Tyre I have borrowed this distinction ofTurks and Turkmans, which at least is popular and convenient. The namesare the same, and the addition of man is of the same import in thePersic and Teutonic idioms. Few critics will adopt the etymology ofJames de Vitry, (Hist. Hierosol. L. I. C. 11 p. 1061, ) of Turcomani, quesi Turci et Comani, a mixed people. ]

[Footnote 21: Hist. Generale des Huns, tom. Iii. P. 165, 166, 167. M. DeGognes Abulmahasen, an historian of Egypt. ]

With the belief of the Koran, the son of Seljuk imbibed a livelyreverence for the successor of the prophet. But that sublime characterwas still disputed by the caliphs of Bagdad and Egypt, and each of therivals was solicitous to prove his title in the judgment of the strong, though illiterate Barbarians. Mahmud the Gaznevide had declared himselfin favor of the line of Abbas; and had treated with indignity therobe of honor which was presented by the Fatimite ambassador. Yetthe ungrateful Hashemite had changed with the change of fortune; heapplauded the victory of Zendecan, and named the Seljukian sultanhis temporal vicegerent over the Moslem world. As Togrul executed andenlarged this important trust, he was called to the deliverance of thecaliph Cayem, and obeyed the holy summons, which gave a new kingdom tohis arms. [22] In the palace of Bagdad, the commander of the faithfulstill slumbered, a venerable phantom. His servant or master, the princeof the Bowides, could no longer protect him from the insolence of meanertyrants; and the Euphrates and Tigris were oppressed by the revolt ofthe Turkish and Arabian emirs. The presence of a conqueror was imploredas a blessing; and the transient mischiefs of fire and sword wereexcused as the sharp but salutary remedies which alone could restore thehealth of the republic. At the head of an irresistible force, the sultanof Persia marched from Hamadan: the proud were crushed, the prostratewere spared; the prince of the Bowides disappeared; the heads of themost obstinate rebels were laid at the feet of Togrul; and he inflicteda lesson of obedience on the people of Mosul and Bagdad. After thechastisement of the guilty, and the restoration of peace, the royalshepherd accepted the reward of his labors; and a solemn comedyrepresented the triumph of religious prejudice over Barbarian power. [23] The Turkish sultan embarked on the Tigris, landed at the gate ofRacca, and made his public entry on horseback. At the palace-gate herespectfully dismounted, and walked on foot, preceded by his emirswithout arms. The caliph was seated behind his black veil: the blackgarment of the Abbassides was cast over his shoulders, and he held inhis hand the staff of the apostle of God. The conqueror of the Eastkissed the ground, stood some time in a modest posture, and was ledtowards the throne by the vizier and interpreter. After Togrul hadseated himself on another throne, his commission was publicly read, which declared him the temporal lieutenant of the vicar of the prophet. He was successively invested with seven robes of honor, and presentedwith seven slaves, the natives of the seven climates of the Arabianempire. His mystic veil was perfumed with musk; two crowns [231] wereplaced on his head; two cimeters were girded to his side, as the symbolsof a double reign over the East and West. After this inauguration, thesultan was prevented from prostrating himself a second time; but hetwice kissed the hand of the commander of the faithful, and his titleswere proclaimed by the voice of heralds and the applause of the Moslems. In a second visit to Bagdad, the Seljukian prince again rescued thecaliph from his enemies and devoutly, on foot, led the bridle of hismule from the prison to the palace. Their alliance was cemented by themarriage of Togrul's sister with the successor of the prophet. Withoutreluctance he had introduced a Turkish virgin into his harem; but Cayemproudly refused his daughter to the sultan, disdained to mingle theblood of the Hashemites with the blood of a Scythian shepherd; andprotracted the negotiation many months, till the gradual diminution ofhis revenue admonished him that he was still in the hands of a master. The royal nuptials were followed by the death of Togrul himself; [24]as he left no children, his nephew Alp Arslan succeeded to the titleand prerogatives of sultan; and his name, after that of the caliph, waspronounced in the public prayers of the Moslems. Yet in this revolution, the Abbassides acquired a larger measure of liberty and power. On thethrone of Asia, the Turkish monarchs were less jealous of the domesticadministration of Bagdad; and the commanders of the faithful wererelieved from the ignominious vexations to which they had been exposedby the presence and poverty of the Persian dynasty. 

[Footnote 22: Consult the Bibliotheque Orientale, in the articles ofthe Abbassides, Caher, and Caiem, and the Annals of Elmacin andAbulpharagius. ]

[Footnote 23: For this curious ceremony, I am indebted to M. De Guignes(tom. Iii. P. 197, 198, ) and that learned author is obliged to Bondari, who composed in Arabic the history of the Seljukides, tom. V. P. 365) Iam ignorant of his age, country, and character. ]

[Footnote 231: According to Von Hammer, "crowns" are incorrect. Theyare unknown as a symbol of royalty in the East. V. Hammer, OsmanischeGeschischte, vol. I. P. 567. --M. ]

[Footnote 24: Eodem anno (A. H. 455) obiit princeps Togrulbecus . .. . Rexfuit clemens, prudens, et peritus regnandi, cujus terror corda mortaliuminvaserat, ita ut obedirent ei reges atque ad ipsum scriberent. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. P. 342, vers. Erpenii. * Note: He died, being 75years old. V. Hammer. --M. ]

Chapter LVII: The Turks. --Part II. 

Since the fall of the caliphs, the discord and degeneracy of theSaracens respected the Asiatic provinces of Rome; which, by thevictories of Nicephorus, Zimisces, and Basil, had been extended as faras Antioch and the eastern boundaries of Armenia. 

Twenty-five years after the death of Basil, his successors were suddenlyassaulted by an unknown race of Barbarians, who united the Scythianvalor with the fanaticism of new proselytes, and the art and riches ofa powerful monarchy. [25] The myriads of Turkish horse overspread afrontier of six hundred miles from Tauris to Arzeroum, and the blood ofone hundred and thirty thousand Christians was a grateful sacrifice tothe Arabian prophet. Yet the arms of Togrul did not make any deep orlasting impression on the Greek empire. The torrent rolled away from theopen country; the sultan retired without glory or success from the siegeof an Armenian city; the obscure hostilities were continued or suspendedwith a vicissitude of events; and the bravery of the Macedonian legionsrenewed the fame of the conqueror of Asia. [26] The name of Alp Arslan, the valiant lion, is expressive of the popular idea of the perfection ofman; and the successor of Togrul displayed the fierceness and generosityof the royal animal. He passed the Euphrates at the head of the Turkishcavalry, and entered Caesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, to whichhe had been attracted by the fame and wealth of the temple of St. Basil. The solid structure resisted the destroyer: but he carried away thedoors of the shrine incrusted with gold and pearls, and profaned therelics of the tutelar saint, whose mortal frailties were now coveredby the venerable rust of antiquity. The final conquest of Armenia andGeorgia was achieved by Alp Arslan. In Armenia, the title of akingdom, and the spirit of a nation, were annihilated: the artificialfortifications were yielded by the mercenaries of Constantinople; bystrangers without faith, veterans without pay or arms, and recruitswithout experience or discipline. The loss of this important frontierwas the news of a day; and the Catholics were neither surprised nordispleased, that a people so deeply infected with the Nestorian andEutychian errors had been delivered by Christ and his mother into thehands of the infidels. [27] The woods and valleys of Mount Caucasus weremore strenuously defended by the native Georgians [28] or Iberians; butthe Turkish sultan and his son Malek were indefatigable in this holywar: their captives were compelled to promise a spiritual, as well astemporal, obedience; and, instead of their collars and bracelets, aniron horseshoe, a badge of ignominy, was imposed on the infidels whostill adhered to the worship of their fathers. The change, however, wasnot sincere or universal; and, through ages of servitude, the Georgianshave maintained the succession of their princes and bishops. But a raceof men, whom nature has cast in her most perfect mould, is degraded bypoverty, ignorance, and vice; their profession, and still more theirpractice, of Christianity is an empty name; and if they have emergedfrom heresy, it is only because they are too illiterate to remember ametaphysical creed. [29]

[Footnote 25: For these wars of the Turks and Romans, see in general theByzantine histories of Zonaras and Cedrenus, Scylitzes the continuatorof Cedrenus, and Nicephorus Bryennius Caesar. The two first of thesewere monks, the two latter statesmen; yet such were the Greeks, thatthe difference of style and character is scarcely discernible. For theOrientals, I draw as usuul on the wealth of D'Herbelot (see titles ofthe first Seljukides) and the accuracy of De Guignes, (Hist. Des Huns, tom. Iii. L. X. )]

[Footnote 26: Cedrenus, tom. Ii. P. 791. The credulity of the vulgar isalways probable; and the Turks had learned from the Arabs the history orlegend of Escander Dulcarnein, (D'Herbelot, p. 213 &c. )]

[Footnote 27: (Scylitzes, ad calcem Cedreni, tom. Ii. P. 834, whoseambiguous construction shall not tempt me to suspect that he confoundedthe Nestorian and Monophysite heresies, ) He familiarly talks of thequalities, as I should apprehend, very foreign to the perfect Being;but his bigotry is forced to confess that they were soon afterwardsdischarged on the orthodox Romans. ]

[Footnote 28: Had the name of Georgians been known to the Greeks, (Stritter, Memoriae Byzant. Tom. Iv. Iberica, ) I should derive it fromtheir agriculture, (l. Iv. C. 18, p. 289, edit. Wesseling. ) But itappears only since the crusades, among the Latins (Jac. A Vitriaco, Hist. Hierosol. C. 79, p. 1095) and Orientals, (D'Herbelot, p. 407, ) andwas devoutly borrowed from St. George of Cappadocia. ]

[Footnote 29: Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. P. 632. See, in Chardin'sTravels, (tom. I. P. 171-174, ) the manners and religion of thishandsome but worthless nation. See the pedigree of their princes fromAdam to the present century, in the tables of M. De Guignes, (tom. I. P. 433-438. )]

The false or genuine magnanimity of Mahmud the Gaznevide was notimitated by Alp Arslan; and he attacked without scruple the Greekempress Eudocia and her children. His alarming progress compelled herto give herself and her sceptre to the hand of a soldier; and RomanusDiogenes was invested with the Imperial purple. His patriotism, andperhaps his pride, urged him from Constantinople within two months afterhis accession; and the next campaign he most scandalously took the fieldduring the holy festival of Easter. In the palace, Diogenes was no morethan the husband of Eudocia: in the camp, he was the emperor of theRomans, and he sustained that character with feeble resources andinvincible courage. By his spirit and success the soldiers were taughtto act, the subjects to hope, and the enemies to fear. The Turkshad penetrated into the heart of Phrygia; but the sultan himself hadresigned to his emirs the prosecution of the war; and their numerousdetachments were scattered over Asia in the security of conquest. Ladenwith spoil, and careless of discipline, they were separately surprisedand defeated by the Greeks: the activity of the emperor seemed tomultiply his presence: and while they heard of his expedition toAntioch, the enemy felt his sword on the hills of Trebizond. In threelaborious campaigns, the Turks were driven beyond the Euphrates; inthe fourth and last, Romanus undertook the deliverance of Armenia. Thedesolation of the land obliged him to transport a supply of two months'provisions; and he marched forwards to the siege of Malazkerd, [30] animportant fortress in the midway between the modern cities of Arzeroumand Van. His army amounted, at the least, to one hundred thousandmen. The troops of Constantinople were reenforced by the disorderlymultitudes of Phrygia and Cappadocia; but the real strength was composedof the subjects and allies of Europe, the legions of Macedonia, and thesquadrons of Bulgaria; the Uzi, a Moldavian horde, who were themselvesof the Turkish race; [31] and, above all, the mercenary and adventurousbands of French and Normans. Their lances were commanded by the valiantUrsel of Baliol, the kinsman or father of the Scottish kings, [32] andwere allowed to excel in the exercise of arms, or, according to theGreek style, in the practice of the Pyrrhic dance. 

[Footnote 30: This city is mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (deAdministrat. Imperii, l. Ii. C. 44, p. 119, ) and the Byzantines of thexith century, under the name of Mantzikierte, and by some is confoundedwith Theodosiopolis; but Delisle, in his notes and maps, has veryproperly fixed the situation. Abulfeda (Geograph. Tab. Xviii. P. 310)describes Malasgerd as a small town, built with black stone, suppliedwith water, without trees, &c. ]

[Footnote 31: The Uzi of the Greeks (Stritter, Memor. Byzant. Tom. Iii. P. 923-948) are the Gozz of the Orientals, (Hist. Des Huns, tom. Ii. P. 522, tom. Iii. P. 133, &c. ) They appear on the Danube and the Volga, andArmenia, Syria, and Chorasan, and the name seems to have been extendedto the whole Turkman race. ]

[Footnote 32: Urselius (the Russelius of Zonaras) is distinguished byJeffrey Malaterra (l. I. C. 33) among the Norman conquerors of Sicily, and with the surname of Baliol: and our own historians will tell howthe Baliols came from Normandy to Durham, built Bernard's castle on theTees, married an heiress of Scotland, &c. Ducange (Not. Ad Nicephor. Bryennium, l. Ii. No. 4) has labored the subject in honor of thepresident de Bailleul, whose father had exchanged the sword for thegown. ]

On the report of this bold invasion, which threatened his hereditarydominions, Alp Arslan flew to the scene of action at the head of fortythousand horse. [33] His rapid and skilful evolutions distressed anddismayed the superior numbers of the Greeks; and in the defeat ofBasilacius, one of their principal generals, he displayed the firstexample of his valor and clemency. The imprudence of the emperor hadseparated his forces after the reduction of Malazkerd. It was in vainthat he attempted to recall the mercenary Franks: they refused to obeyhis summons; he disdained to await their return: the desertion of theUzi filled his mind with anxiety and suspicion; and against the mostsalutary advice he rushed forwards to speedy and decisive action. Had helistened to the fair proposals of the sultan, Romanus might have secureda retreat, perhaps a peace; but in these overtures he supposed the fearor weakness of the enemy, and his answer was conceived in the toneof insult and defiance. "If the Barbarian wishes for peace, let himevacuate the ground which he occupies for the encampment of the Romans, and surrender his city and palace of Rei as a pledge of his sincerity. "Alp Arslan smiled at the vanity of the demand, but he wept the death ofso many faithful Moslems; and, after a devout prayer, proclaimed a freepermission to all who were desirous of retiring from the field. With hisown hands he tied up his horse's tail, exchanged his bow and arrows fora mace and cimeter, clothed himself in a white garment, perfumed hisbody with musk, and declared that if he were vanquished, that spotshould be the place of his burial. [34] The sultan himself had affectedto cast away his missile weapons: but his hopes of victory were placedin the arrows of the Turkish cavalry, whose squadrons were looselydistributed in the form of a crescent. Instead of the successive linesand reserves of the Grecian tactics, Romulus led his army in a singleand solid phalanx, and pressed with vigor and impatience the artful andyielding resistance of the Barbarians. In this desultory and fruitlesscombat he spent the greater part of a summer's day, till prudence andfatigue compelled him to return to his camp. But a retreat is alwaysperilous in the face of an active foe; and no sooner had the standardbeen turned to the rear than the phalanx was broken by the basecowardice, or the baser jealousy, of Andronicus, a rival prince, whodisgraced his birth and the purple of the Caesars. [35] The Turkishsquadrons poured a cloud of arrows on this moment of confusion andlassitude; and the horns of their formidable crescent were closed in therear of the Greeks. In the destruction of the army and pillage ofthe camp, it would be needless to mention the number of the slain orcaptives. The Byzantine writers deplore the loss of an inestimablepearl: they forgot to mention, that in this fatal day the Asiaticprovinces of Rome were irretrievably sacrificed. 

[Footnote 33: Elmacin (p. 343, 344) assigns this probable number, whichis reduced by Abulpharagius to 15, 000, (p. 227, ) and by D'Herbelot (p. 102) to 12, 000 horse. But the same Elmacin gives 300, 000 met to theemperor, of whom Abulpharagius says, Cum centum hominum millibus, multisque equis et magna pompa instructus. The Greeks abstain from anydefinition of numbers. ]

[Footnote 34: The Byzantine writers do not speak so distinctly of thepresence of the sultan: he committed his forces to a eunuch, had retiredto a distance, &c. Is it ignorance, or jealousy, or truth?]

[Footnote 35: He was the son of Caesar John Ducas, brother of theemperor Constantine, (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. P. 165. ) NicephorusBryennius applauds his virtues and extenuates his faults, (l. I. P. 30, 38. L. Ii. P. 53. ) Yet he owns his enmity to Romanus. Scylitzes speaksmore explicitly of his treason. ]

As long as a hope survived, Romanus attempted to rally and save therelics of his army. When the centre, the Imperial station, was leftnaked on all sides, and encompassed by the victorious Turks, he still, with desperate courage, maintained the fight till the close of day, atthe head of the brave and faithful subjects who adhered to his standard. They fell around him; his horse was slain; the emperor was wounded;yet he stood alone and intrepid, till he was oppressed and bound by thestrength of multitudes. The glory of this illustrious prize was disputedby a slave and a soldier; a slave who had seen him on the throne ofConstantinople, and a soldier whose extreme deformity had been excusedon the promise of some signal service. 

Despoiled of his arms, his jewels, and his purple, Romanus spent adreary and perilous night on the field of battle, amidst a disorderlycrowd of the meaner Barbarians. In the morning the royal captive waspresented to Alp Arslan, who doubted of his fortune, till the identityof the person was ascertained by the report of his ambassadors, and bythe more pathetic evidence of Basilacius, who embraced with tearsthe feet of his unhappy sovereign. The successor of Constantine, in aplebeian habit, was led into the Turkish divan, and commanded to kissthe ground before the lord of Asia. He reluctantly obeyed; and AlpArslan, starting from his throne, is said to have planted his foot onthe neck of the Roman emperor. [36] But the fact is doubtful; and if, inthis moment of insolence, the sultan complied with the national custom, the rest of his conduct has extorted the praise of his bigoted foes, andmay afford a lesson to the most civilized ages. He instantly raised theroyal captive from the ground; and thrice clasping his hand with tendersympathy, assured him, that his life and dignity should be inviolatein the hands of a prince who had learned to respect the majesty of hisequals and the vicissitudes of fortune. From the divan, Romanus wasconducted to an adjacent tent, where he was served with pomp andreverence by the officers of the sultan, who, twice each day, seatedhim in the place of honor at his own table. In a free and familiarconversation of eight days, not a word, not a look, of insult escapedfrom the conqueror; but he severely censured the unworthy subjects whohad deserted their valiant prince in the hour of danger, and gentlyadmonished his antagonist of some errors which he had committed in themanagement of the war. In the preliminaries of negotiation, AlpArslan asked him what treatment he expected to receive, and the calmindifference of the emperor displays the freedom of his mind. "If youare cruel, " said he, "you will take my life; if you listen to pride, youwill drag me at your chariot-wheels; if you consult your interest, you will accept a ransom, and restore me to my country. " "And what, "continued the sultan, "would have been your own behavior, had fortunesmiled on your arms?" The reply of the Greek betrays a sentiment, whichprudence, and even gratitude, should have taught him to suppress. "Had Ivanquished, " he fiercely said, "I would have inflicted on thy body manya stripe. " The Turkish conqueror smiled at the insolence of his captiveobserved that the Christian law inculcated the love of enemies andforgiveness of injuries; and nobly declared, that he would not imitatean example which he condemned. After mature deliberation, Alp Arslandictated the terms of liberty and peace, a ransom of a million, [361] anannual tribute of three hundred and sixty thousand pieces of gold, [37] the marriage of the royal children, and the deliverance of allthe Moslems, who were in the power of the Greeks. Romanus, with a sigh, subscribed this treaty, so disgraceful to the majesty of the empire; hewas immediately invested with a Turkish robe of honor; his nobles andpatricians were restored to their sovereign; and the sultan, aftera courteous embrace, dismissed him with rich presents and a militaryguard. No sooner did he reach the confines of the empire, than he wasinformed that the palace and provinces had disclaimed their allegianceto a captive: a sum of two hundred thousand pieces was painfullycollected; and the fallen monarch transmitted this part of his ransom, with a sad confession of his impotence and disgrace. The generosity, orperhaps the ambition, of the sultan, prepared to espouse the cause ofhis ally; but his designs were prevented by the defeat, imprisonment, and death, of Romanus Diogenes. [38]

[Footnote 36: This circumstance, which we read and doubt in Scylitzesand Constantine Manasses, is more prudently omitted by Nicephorus andZonaras. ]

[Footnote 361: Elmacin gives 1, 500, 000. Wilken, Geschichte derKreuz-zuge, vol. L. P. 10. --M. ]

[Footnote 37: The ransom and tribute are attested by reason andthe Orientals. The other Greeks are modestly silent; but NicephorusBryennius dares to affirm, that the terms were bad and that the emperorwould have preferred death to a shameful treaty. ]

[Footnote 38: The defeat and captivity of Romanus Diogenes may be foundin John Scylitzes ad calcem Cedreni, tom. Ii. P. 835-843. Zonaras, tom. Ii. P. 281-284. Nicephorus Bryennius, l. I. P. 25-32. Glycas, p. 325-327. Constantine Manasses, p. 134. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. P. 343344. Abulpharag. Dynast. P. 227. D'Herbelot, p. 102, 103. D Guignes, tom. Iii. P. 207-211. Besides my old acquaintance Elmacin andAbulpharagius, the historian of the Huns has consulted Abulfeda, and hisepitomizer Benschounah, a Chronicle of the Caliphs, by Abulmahasen ofEgypt, and Novairi of Africa. ]

In the treaty of peace, it does not appear that Alp Arslan extorted anyprovince or city from the captive emperor; and his revenge was satisfiedwith the trophies of his victory, and the spoils of Anatolia, fromAntioch to the Black Sea. The fairest part of Asia was subject to hislaws: twelve hundred princes, or the sons of princes, stood before histhrone; and two hundred thousand soldiers marched under his banners. The sultan disdained to pursue the fugitive Greeks; but he meditated themore glorious conquest of Turkestan, the original seat of the houseof Seljuk. He moved from Bagdad to the banks of the Oxus; a bridge wasthrown over the river; and twenty days were consumed in the passageof his troops. But the progress of the great king was retarded by thegovernor of Berzem; and Joseph the Carizmian presumed to defend hisfortress against the powers of the East. When he was produced a captivein the royal tent, the sultan, instead of praising his valor, severelyreproached his obstinate folly: and the insolent replies of the rebelprovoked a sentence, that he should be fastened to four stakes, andleft to expire in that painful situation. At this command, the desperateCarizmian, drawing a dagger, rushed headlong towards the throne: theguards raised their battle-axes; their zeal was checked by Alp Arslan, the most skilful archer of the age: he drew his bow, but his footslipped, the arrow glanced aside, and he received in his breast thedagger of Joseph, who was instantly cut in pieces. 

The wound was mortal; and the Turkish prince bequeathed a dyingadmonition to the pride of kings. "In my youth, " said Alp Arslan, "Iwas advised by a sage to humble myself before God; to distrust myown strength; and never to despise the most contemptible foe. I haveneglected these lessons; and my neglect has been deservedly punished. Yesterday, as from an eminence I beheld the numbers, the discipline, andthe spirit, of my armies, the earth seemed to tremble under my feet; andI said in my heart, Surely thou art the king of the world, the greatestand most invincible of warriors. These armies are no longer mine; and, in the confidence of my personal strength, I now fall by the hand ofan assassin. " [39] Alp Arslan possessed the virtues of a Turk and aMussulman; his voice and stature commanded the reverence of mankind; hisface was shaded with long whiskers; and his ample turban was fashionedin the shape of a crown. The remains of the sultan were deposited in thetomb of the Seljukian dynasty; and the passenger might read and meditatethis useful inscription: [40] "O ye who have seen the glory of AlpArslan exalted to the heavens, repair to Maru, and you will behold itburied in the dust. " The annihilation of the inscription, and the tombitself, more forcibly proclaims the instability of human greatness. 

[Footnote 39: This interesting death is told by D'Herbelot, (p. 103, 104, ) and M. De Guignes, (tom. Iii. P. 212, 213. ) from their Orientalwriters; but neither of them have transfused the spirit of Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen p. 344, 345. )]

[Footnote 40: A critic of high renown, (the late Dr. Johnson, ) who hasseverely scrutinized the epitaphs of Pope, might cavil in this sublimeinscription at the words "repair to Maru, " since the reader must alreadybe at Maru before he could peruse the inscription. ]

During the life of Alp Arslan, his eldest son had been acknowledged asthe future sultan of the Turks. On his father's death the inheritancewas disputed by an uncle, a cousin, and a brother: they drew theircimeters, and assembled their followers; and the triple victory of MalekShah [41] established his own reputation and the right of primogeniture. In every age, and more especially in Asia, the thirst of power hasinspired the same passions, and occasioned the same disorders; but, from the long series of civil war, it would not be easy to extract asentiment more pure and magnanimous than is contained in the saying ofthe Turkish prince. On the eve of the battle, he performed his devotionsat Thous, before the tomb of the Imam Riza. As the sultan rose from theground, he asked his vizier Nizam, who had knelt beside him, what hadbeen the object of his secret petition: "That your arms may be crownedwith victory, " was the prudent, and most probably the sincere, answer ofthe minister. "For my part, " replied the generous Malek, "I imploredthe Lord of Hosts that he would take from me my life and crown, ifmy brother be more worthy than myself to reign over the Moslems. " Thefavorable judgment of heaven was ratified by the caliph; and forthe first time, the sacred title of Commander of the Faithful wascommunicated to a Barbarian. But this Barbarian, by his personal merit, and the extent of his empire, was the greatest prince of his age. After the settlement of Persia and Syria, he marched at the head ofinnumerable armies to achieve the conquest of Turkestan, which had beenundertaken by his father. In his passage of the Oxus, the boatmen, whohad been employed in transporting some troops, complained, that theirpayment was assigned on the revenues of Antioch. The sultan frowned atthis preposterous choice; but he miled at the artful flattery of hisvizier. "It was not to postpone their reward, that I selected thoseremote places, but to leave a memorial to posterity, that, under yourreign, Antioch and the Oxus were subject to the same sovereign. " Butthis description of his limits was unjust and parsimonious: beyond theOxus, he reduced to his obedience the cities of Bochara, Carizme, andSamarcand, and crushed each rebellious slave, or independent savage, whodared to resist. Malek passed the Sihon or Jaxartes, the last boundaryof Persian civilization: the hordes of Turkestan yielded to hissupremacy: his name was inserted on the coins, and in the prayers ofCashgar, a Tartar kingdom on the extreme borders of China. From theChinese frontier, he stretched his immediate jurisdiction or feudatorysway to the west and south, as far as the mountains of Georgia, theneighborhood of Constantinople, the holy city of Jerusalem, and thespicy groves of Arabia Felix. Instead of resigning himself to the luxuryof his harem, the shepherd king, both in peace and war, was in actionand in the field. By the perpetual motion of the royal camp, eachprovince was successively blessed with his presence; and he is said tohave perambulated twelve times the wide extent of his dominions, which surpassed the Asiatic reign of Cyrus and the caliphs. Of theseexpeditions, the most pious and splendid was the pilgrimage of Mecca:the freedom and safety of the caravans were protected by his arms; thecitizens and pilgrims were enriched by the profusion of his alms; andthe desert was cheered by the places of relief and refreshment, whichhe instituted for the use of his brethren. Hunting was the pleasure, andeven the passion, of the sultan, and his train consisted of forty-seventhousand horses; but after the massacre of a Turkish chase, for eachpiece of game, he bestowed a piece of gold on the poor, a slightatonement, at the expense of the people, for the cost and mischief ofthe amusement of kings. In the peaceful prosperity of his reign, thecities of Asia were adorned with palaces and hospitals with moschs andcolleges; few departed from his Divan without reward, and none withoutjustice. The language and literature of Persia revived under the houseof Seljuk; [42] and if Malek emulated the liberality of a Turk lesspotent than himself, [43] his palace might resound with the songs of ahundred poets. The sultan bestowed a more serious and learned careon the reformation of the calendar, which was effected by a generalassembly of the astronomers of the East. By a law of the prophet, theMoslems are confined to the irregular course of the lunar months; inPersia, since the age of Zoroaster, the revolution of the sun has beenknown and celebrated as an annual festival; [44] but after the fall ofthe Magian empire, the intercalation had been neglected; the fractionsof minutes and hours were multiplied into days; and the date of thesprings was removed from the sign of Aries to that of Pisces. The reignof Malek was illustrated by the Gelalaean aera; and all errors, eitherpast or future, were corrected by a computation of time, which surpassesthe Julian, and approaches the accuracy of the Gregorian, style. [45]

[Footnote 41: The Bibliotheque Orientale has given the text of the reignof Malek, (p. 542, 543, 544, 654, 655;) and the Histoire Generale desHuns (tom. Iii. P. 214-224) has added the usual measure of repetitionemendation, and supplement. Without those two learned Frenchmen I shouldbe blind indeed in the Eastern world. ]

[Footnote 42: See an excellent discourse at the end of Sir WilliamJones's History of Nadir Shah, and the articles of the poets, Amak, Anvari, Raschidi, &c. , in the Bibliotheque Orientale. ]

[Footnote 43: His name was Kheder Khan. Four bags were placed roundhis sopha, and as he listened to the song, he cast handfuls of gold andsilver to the poets, (D'Herbelot, p. 107. ) All this may be true; but Ido not understand how he could reign in Transoxiana in the time of MalekShah, and much less how Kheder could surpass him in power and pomp. Isuspect that the beginning, not the end, of the xith century is the trueaera of his reign. ]

[Footnote 44: See Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. Ii. P. 235. ]

[Footnote 45: The Gelalaean aera (Gelaleddin, Glory of the Faith, wasone of the names or titles of Malek Shah) is fixed to the xvth of March, A. H. 471, A. D. 1079. Dr. Hyde has produced the original testimoniesof the Persians and Arabians, (de Religione veterum Persarum, c. 16 p. 200-211. )]

In a period when Europe was plunged in the deepest barbarism, the lightand splendor of Asia may be ascribed to the docility rather than theknowledge of the Turkish conquerors. An ample share of their wisdom andvirtue is due to a Persian vizier, who ruled the empire under the reignsof Alp Arslan and his son. Nizam, one of the most illustrious ministersof the East, was honored by the caliph as an oracle of religion andscience; he was trusted by the sultan as the faithful vicegerent of hispower and justice. After an administration of thirty years, the fameof the vizier, his wealth, and even his services, were transformed intocrimes. He was overthrown by the insidious arts of a woman and a rival;and his fall was hastened by a rash declaration, that his cap andink-horn, the badges of his office, were connected by the divine decreewith the throne and diadem of the sultan. At the age of ninety-threeyears, the venerable statesman was dismissed by his master, accused byhis enemies, and murdered by a fanatic: [451] the last words of Nizamattested his innocence, and the remainder of Malek's life was short andinglorious. From Ispahan, the scene of this disgraceful transaction, thesultan moved to Bagdad, with the design of transplanting the caliph, and of fixing his own residence in the capital of the Moslem world. Thefeeble successor of Mahomet obtained a respite of ten days; and beforethe expiration of the term, the Barbarian was summoned by the angel ofdeath. His ambassadors at Constantinople had asked in marriage a Romanprincess; but the proposal was decently eluded; and the daughterof Alexius, who might herself have been the victim, expresses herabhorrence of his unnatural conjunction. [46] The daughter of the sultanwas bestowed on the caliph Moctadi, with the imperious condition, that, renouncing the society of his wives and concubines, he should foreverconfine himself to this honorable alliance. 

[Footnote 451: He was the first great victim of his enemy, Hassan Sabek, founder of the Assassins. Von Hammer, Geschichte der Assassinen, p. 95. --M. ]

[Footnote 46: She speaks of this Persian royalty. Anna Comnena was onlynine years old at the end of the reign of Malek Shah, (A. D. 1092, ) andwhen she speaks of his assassination, she confounds the sultan with thevizier, (Alexias, l. Vi. P. 177, 178. )]

Chapter LVII: The Turks. --Part III. 

The greatness and unity of the Turkish empire expired in the person ofMalek Shah. His vacant throne was disputed by his brother and hisfour sons; [461] and, after a series of civil wars, the treaty whichreconciled the surviving candidates confirmed a lasting separation inthe Persian dynasty, the eldest and principal branch of the house ofSeljuk. The three younger dynasties were those of Kerman, of Syria, andof Roum: the first of these commanded an extensive, though obscure, [47]dominion on the shores of the Indian Ocean: [48] the second expelledthe Arabian princes of Aleppo and Damascus; and the third, our peculiarcare, invaded the Roman provinces of Asia Minor. The generous policyof Malek contributed to their elevation: he allowed the princes ofhis blood, even those whom he had vanquished in the field, to seeknew kingdoms worthy of their ambition; nor was he displeased that theyshould draw away the more ardent spirits, who might have disturbed thetranquillity of his reign. As the supreme head of his family and nation, the great sultan of Persia commanded the obedience and tribute of hisroyal brethren: the thrones of Kerman and Nice, of Aleppo and Damascus;the Atabeks, and emirs of Syria and Mesopotamia, erected their standardsunder the shadow of his sceptre: [49] and the hordes of Turkmansoverspread the plains of the Western Asia. 

After the death of Malek, the bands of union and subordination wererelaxed and finally dissolved: the indulgence of the house of Seljukinvested their slaves with the inheritance of kingdoms; and, in theOriental style, a crowd of princes arose from the dust of their feet. [50]

[Footnote 461: See Von Hammer, Osmanische Geschichte, vol. I. P. 16. TheSeljukian dominions were for a time reunited in the person of Sandjar, one of the sons of Malek Shah, who ruled "from Kashgar to Antioch, fromthe Caspian to the Straits of Babelmandel. "--M. ]

[Footnote 47: So obscure, that the industry of M. De Guignes could onlycopy (tom. I. P. 244, tom. Iii. Part i. P. 269, &c. ) the history, orrather list, of the Seljukides of Kerman, in Bibliotheque Orientale. They were extinguished before the end of the xiith century. ]

[Footnote 48: Tavernier, perhaps the only traveller who has visitedKerman, describes the capital as a great ruinous village, twenty-fivedays' journey from Ispahan, and twenty-seven from Ormus, in the midst ofa fertile country, (Voyages en Turquie et en Perse, p. 107, 110. )]

[Footnote 49: It appears from Anna Comnena, that the Turks of Asia Minorobeyed the signet and chiauss of the great sultan, (Alexias, l. Vi. P. 170;) and that the two sons of Soliman were detained in his court, (p. 180. )]

[Footnote 50: This expression is quoted by Petit de la Croix (Vie deGestis p. 160) from some poet, most probably a Persian. ]

A prince of the royal line, Cutulmish, [501] the son of Izrail, theson of Seljuk, had fallen in a battle against Alp Arslan and the humanevictor had dropped a tear over his grave. His five sons, strong in arms, ambitious of power, and eager for revenge, unsheathed their cimetersagainst the son of Alp Arslan. The two armies expected the signal whenthe caliph, forgetful of the majesty which secluded him from vulgareyes, interposed his venerable mediation. "Instead of shedding the bloodof your brethren, your brethren both in descent and faith, unite yourforces in a holy war against the Greeks, the enemies of God and hisapostle. " They listened to his voice; the sultan embraced his rebelliouskinsmen; and the eldest, the valiant Soliman, accepted the royalstandard, which gave him the free conquest and hereditary command of theprovinces of the Roman empire, from Arzeroum to Constantinople, and theunknown regions of the West. [51] Accompanied by his four brothers, he passed the Euphrates; the Turkish camp was soon seated in theneighborhood of Kutaieh in Phrygia; and his flying cavalry laid wastethe country as far as the Hellespont and the Black Sea. Since thedecline of the empire, the peninsula of Asia Minor had been exposed tothe transient, though destructive, inroads of the Persians and Saracens;but the fruits of a lasting conquest were reserved for the Turkishsultan; and his arms were introduced by the Greeks, who aspired to reignon the ruins of their country. Since the captivity of Romanus, six yearsthe feeble son of Eudocia had trembled under the weight of the Imperialcrown, till the provinces of the East and West were lost in the samemonth by a double rebellion: of either chief Nicephorus was the commonname; but the surnames of Bryennius and Botoniates distinguish theEuropean and Asiatic candidates. Their reasons, or rather theirpromises, were weighed in the Divan; and, after some hesitation, Solimandeclared himself in favor of Botoniates, opened a free passage to histroops in their march from Antioch to Nice, and joined the banner of theCrescent to that of the Cross. After his ally had ascended the throne ofConstantinople, the sultan was hospitably entertained in the suburb ofChrysopolis or Scutari; and a body of two thousand Turks was transportedinto Europe, to whose dexterity and courage the new emperor was indebtedfor the defeat and captivity of his rival, Bryennius. But the conquestof Europe was dearly purchased by the sacrifice of Asia: Constantinoplewas deprived of the obedience and revenue of the provinces beyond theBosphorus and Hellespont; and the regular progress of the Turks, whofortified the passes of the rivers and mountains, left not a hope oftheir retreat or expulsion. Another candidate implored the aid of thesultan: Melissenus, in his purple robes and red buskins, attended themotions of the Turkish camp; and the desponding cities were tempted bythe summons of a Roman prince, who immediately surrendered them into thehands of the Barbarians. These acquisitions were confirmed by a treatyof peace with the emperor Alexius: his fear of Robert compelled him toseek the friendship of Soliman; and it was not till after the sultan'sdeath that he extended as far as Nicomedia, about sixty miles fromConstantinople, the eastern boundary of the Roman world. Trebizondalone, defended on either side by the sea and mountains, preserved atthe extremity of the Euxine the ancient character of a Greek colony, andthe future destiny of a Christian empire. 

[Footnote 501: Wilken considers Cutulmish not a Turkish name. GeschichtKreuz-zuge, vol. I. P. 9. --M. ]

[Footnote 51: On the conquest of Asia Minor, M. De Guignes has derivedno assistance from the Turkish or Arabian writers, who produce a nakedlist of the Seljukides of Roum. The Greeks are unwilling to expose theirshame, and we must extort some hints from Scylitzes, (p. 860, 863, )Nicephorus Bryennius, (p. 88, 91, 92, &c. , 103, 104, ) and Anna Comnena(Alexias, p. 91, 92, &c. , 163, &c. )]

Since the first conquests of the caliphs, the establishment of the Turksin Anatolia or Asia Minor was the most deplorable loss which the churchand empire had sustained. By the propagation of the Moslem faith, Soliman deserved the name of Gazi, a holy champion; and his newkingdoms, of the Romans, or of Roum, was added to the tables ofOriental geography. It is described as extending from the Euphrates toConstantinople, from the Black Sea to the confines of Syria; pregnantwith mines of silver and iron, of alum and copper, fruitful in corn andwine, and productive of cattle and excellent horses. [52] The wealth ofLydia, the arts of the Greeks, the splendor of the Augustan age, existedonly in books and ruins, which were equally obscure in the eyes of theScythian conquerors. Yet, in the present decay, Anatolia still containssome wealthy and populous cities; and, under the Byzantine empire, theywere far more flourishing in numbers, size, and opulence. By the choiceof the sultan, Nice, the metropolis of Bithynia, was preferred forhis palace and fortress: the seat of the Seljukian dynasty of Roumwas planted one hundred miles from Constantinople; and the divinity ofChrist was denied and derided in the same temple in which it had beenpronounced by the first general synod of the Catholics. The unityof God, and the mission of Mahomet, were preached in the moschs; theArabian learning was taught in the schools; the Cadhis judged accordingto the law of the Koran; the Turkish manners and language prevailedin the cities; and Turkman camps were scattered over the plains andmountains of Anatolia. On the hard conditions of tribute and servitude, the Greek Christians might enjoy the exercise of their religion; buttheir most holy churches were profaned; their priests and bishops wereinsulted; [53] they were compelled to suffer the triumph of the Pagans, and the apostasy of their brethren; many thousand children were markedby the knife of circumcision; and many thousand captives were devotedto the service or the pleasures of their masters. [54] After the lossof Asia, Antioch still maintained her primitive allegiance to Christ andCaesar; but the solitary province was separated from all Roman aid, and surrounded on all sides by the Mahometan powers. The despair ofPhilaretus the governor prepared the sacrifice of his religion andloyalty, had not his guilt been prevented by his son, who hastened tothe Nicene palace, and offered to deliver this valuable prize into thehands of Soliman. The ambitious sultan mounted on horseback, and intwelve nights (for he reposed in the day) performed a march of sixhundred miles. Antioch was oppressed by the speed and secrecy ofhis enterprise; and the dependent cities, as far as Laodicea and theconfines of Aleppo, [55] obeyed the example of the metropolis. FromLaodicea to the Thracian Bosphorus, or arm of St. George, the conquestsand reign of Soliman extended thirty days' journey in length, and inbreadth about ten or fifteen, between the rocks of Lycia and the BlackSea. [56] The Turkish ignorance of navigation protected, for a while, the inglorious safety of the emperor; but no sooner had a fleet of twohundred ships been constructed by the hands of the captive Greeks, thanAlexius trembled behind the walls of his capital. His plaintive epistleswere dispersed over Europe, to excite the compassion of the Latins, and to paint the danger, the weakness, and the riches of the city ofConstantine. [57]

[Footnote 52: Such is the description of Roum by Haiton the Armenian, whose Tartar history may be found in the collections of Ramusio andBergeron, (see Abulfeda, Geograph. Climat. Xvii. P. 301-305. )]

[Footnote 53: Dicit eos quendam abusione Sodomitica intervertisseepiscopum, (Guibert. Abbat. Hist. Hierosol. L. I. P. 468. ) It is oddenough, that we should find a parallel passage of the same people in thepresent age. "Il n'est point d'horreur que ces Turcs n'ayent commis, et semblables aux soldats effrenes, qui dans le sac d'une ville, noncontens de disposer de tout a leur gre pretendent encore aux succesles moins desirables. Quelque Sipahis ont porte leurs attentats sur lapersonne du vieux rabbi de la synagogue, et celle de l'Archeveque Grec. "(Memoires du Baron de Tott, tom. Ii. P. 193. )]

[Footnote 54: The emperor, or abbot describe the scenes of a Turkishcamp as if they had been present. Matres correptae in conspectu filiarummultipliciter repetitis diversorum coitibus vexabantur; (is that thetrue reading?) cum filiae assistentes carmina praecinere saltandocogerentur. Mox eadem passio ad filias, &c. ]

[Footnote 55: See Antioch, and the death of Soliman, in Anna Comnena, (Alexius, l. Vi. P. 168, 169, ) with the notes of Ducange. ]

[Footnote 56: William of Tyre (l. I. C. 9, 10, p. 635) gives the mostauthentic and deplorable account of these Turkish conquests. ]

[Footnote 57: In his epistle to the count of Flanders, Alexius seems tofall too low beneath his character and dignity; yet it is approved byDucange, (Not. Ad Alexiad. P. 335, &c. , ) and paraphrased by the AbbotGuibert, a contemporary historian. The Greek text no longer exists;and each translator and scribe might say with Guibert, (p. 475, ) verbisvestita meis, a privilege of most indefinite latitude. ]

But the most interesting conquest of the Seljukian Turks was that ofJerusalem, [58] which soon became the theatre of nations. In theircapitulation with Omar, the inhabitants had stipulated the assuranceof their religion and property; but the articles were interpreted by amaster against whom it was dangerous to dispute; and in the four hundredyears of the reign of the caliphs, the political climate of Jerusalemwas exposed to the vicissitudes of storm and sunshine. [59] By theincrease of proselytes and population, the Mahometans might excuse theusurpation of three fourths of the city: but a peculiar quarter wasresolved for the patriarch with his clergy and people; a tribute of twopieces of gold was the price of protection; and the sepulchre of Christ, with the church of the Resurrection, was still left in the hands of hisvotaries. Of these votaries, the most numerous and respectable portionwere strangers to Jerusalem: the pilgrimages to the Holy Land had beenstimulated, rather than suppressed, by the conquest of the Arabs; andthe enthusiasm which had always prompted these perilous journeys, wasnourished by the congenial passions of grief and indignation. A crowd ofpilgrims from the East and West continued to visit the holy sepulchre, and the adjacent sanctuaries, more especially at the festival of Easter;and the Greeks and Latins, the Nestorians and Jacobites, the Copts andAbyssinians, the Armenians and Georgians, maintained the chapels, theclergy, and the poor of their respective communions. The harmony ofprayer in so many various tongues, the worship of so many nations inthe common temple of their religion, might have afforded a spectacleof edification and peace; but the zeal of the Christian sects wasimbittered by hatred and revenge; and in the kingdom of a sufferingMessiah, who had pardoned his enemies, they aspired to command andpersecute their spiritual brethren. The preeminence was asserted by thespirit and numbers of the Franks; and the greatness of Charlemagne [60]protected both the Latin pilgrims and the Catholics of the East. Thepoverty of Carthage, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, was relieved by the almsof that pious emperor; and many monasteries of Palestine were foundedor restored by his liberal devotion. Harun Alrashid, the greatest ofthe Abbassides, esteemed in his Christian brother a similar supremacyof genius and power: their friendship was cemented by a frequentintercourse of gifts and embassies; and the caliph, without resigningthe substantial dominion, presented the emperor with the keys of theholy sepulchre, and perhaps of the city of Jerusalem. In the decline ofthe Carlovingian monarchy, the republic of Amalphi promoted the interestof trade and religion in the East. Her vessels transported the Latinpilgrims to the coasts of Egypt and Palestine, and deserved, by theiruseful imports, the favor and alliance of the Fatimite caliphs: [61] anannual fair was instituted on Mount Calvary: and the Italian merchantsfounded the convent and hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, the cradle ofthe monastic and military order, which has since reigned in the isles ofRhodes and of Malta. Had the Christian pilgrims been content to reverethe tomb of a prophet, the disciples of Mahomet, instead of blaming, would have imitated, their piety: but these rigid Unitarians werescandalized by a worship which represents the birth, death, andresurrection, of a God; the Catholic images were branded with the nameof idols; and the Moslems smiled with indignation [62] at the miraculousflame which was kindled on the eve of Easter in the holy sepulchre. [63]This pious fraud, first devised in the ninth century, [64] was devoutlycherished by the Latin crusaders, and is annually repeated by theclergy of the Greek, Armenian, and Coptic sects, [65] who impose onthe credulous spectators [66] for their own benefit, and that of theirtyrants. In every age, a principle of toleration has been fortified bya sense of interest: and the revenue of the prince and his emir wasincreased each year, by the expense and tribute of so many thousandstrangers. 

[Footnote 58: Our best fund for the history of Jerusalem from Heracliusto the crusades is contained in two large and original passages ofWilliam archbishop of Tyre, (l. I. C. 1-10, l. Xviii. C. 5, 6, )the principal author of the Gesta Dei per Francos. M. De Guignes hascomposed a very learned Memoire sur le Commerce des Francois dans le deLevant avant les Croisades, &c. (Mem. De l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. Xxxvii. P. 467-500. )]

[Footnote 59: Secundum Dominorum dispositionem plerumque lucida plerumque nubila recepit intervalla, et aegrotantium more temporum praesentiumgravabatur aut respirabat qualitate, (l. I. C. 3, p. 630. ) The latinityof William of Tyre is by no means contemptible: but in his account of490 years, from the loss to the recovery of Jerusalem, precedes the trueaccount by 30 years. ]

[Footnote 60: For the transactions of Charlemagne with the Holy Land, see Eginhard, (de Vita Caroli Magni, c. 16, p. 79-82, ) ConstantinePorphyrogenitus, (de Administratione Imperii, l. Ii. C. 26, p. 80, ) andPagi, (Critica, tom. Iii. A. D. 800, No. 13, 14, 15. )]

[Footnote 61: The caliph granted his privileges, Amalphitanis virisamicis et utilium introductoribus, (Gesta Dei, p. 934. ) The trade ofVenice to Egypt and Palestine cannot produce so old a title, unlesswe adopt the laughable translation of a Frenchman, who mistook thetwo factions of the circus (Veneti et Prasini) for the Venetians andParisians. ]

[Footnote 62: An Arabic chronicle of Jerusalem (apud Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. Tom. I. P. 268, tom. Iv. P. 368) attests the unbelief of thecaliph and the historian; yet Cantacuzene presumes to appeal to theMahometans themselves for the truth of this perpetual miracle. ]

[Footnote 63: In his Dissertations on Ecclesiastical History, thelearned Mosheim has separately discussed this pretended miracle, (tom. Ii. P. 214-306, ) de lumine sancti sepulchri. ]

[Footnote 64: William of Malmsbury (l. Iv. C. 2, p. 209) quotes theItinerary of the monk Bernard, an eye-witness, who visited JerusalemA. D. 870. The miracle is confirmed by another pilgrim some years older;and Mosheim ascribes the invention to the Franks, soon after the deceaseof Charlemagne. ]

[Footnote 65: Our travellers, Sandys, (p. 134, ) Thevenot, (p. 621-627, )Maundrell, (p. 94, 95, ) &c. , describes this extravagant farce. TheCatholics are puzzled to decide when the miracle ended and the trickbegan. ]

[Footnote 66: The Orientals themselves confess the fraud, and pleadnecessity and edification, (Memoires du Chevalier D'Arvieux, tom. Ii. P. 140. Joseph Abudacni, Hist. Copt. C. 20;) but I will not attempt, withMosheim, to explain the mode. Our travellers have failed with the bloodof St. Januarius at Naples. ]

The revolution which transferred the sceptre from the Abbassides tothe Fatimites was a benefit, rather than an injury, to the Holy Land. A sovereign resident in Egypt was more sensible of the importance ofChristian trade; and the emirs of Palestine were less remote from thejustice and power of the throne. But the third of these Fatimite caliphswas the famous Hakem, [67] a frantic youth, who was delivered by hisimpiety and despotism from the fear either of God or man; and whosereign was a wild mixture of vice and folly. Regardless of themost ancient customs of Egypt, he imposed on the women an absoluteconfinement; the restraint excited the clamors of both sexes; theirclamors provoked his fury; a part of Old Cairo was delivered to theflames and the guards and citizens were engaged many days in a bloodyconflict. At first the caliph declared himself a zealous Mussulman, thefounder or benefactor of moschs and colleges: twelve hundred and ninetycopies of the Koran were transcribed at his expense in letters of gold;and his edict extirpated the vineyards of the Upper Egypt. But hisvanity was soon flattered by the hope of introducing a new religion;he aspired above the fame of a prophet, and styled himself the visibleimage of the Most High God, who, after nine apparitions on earth, was atlength manifest in his royal person. At the name of Hakem, the lord ofthe living and the dead, every knee was bent in religious adoration:his mysteries were performed on a mountain near Cairo: sixteen thousandconverts had signed his profession of faith; and at the present hour, afree and warlike people, the Druses of Mount Libanus, are persuadedof the life and divinity of a madman and tyrant. [68] In his divinecharacter, Hakem hated the Jews and Christians, as the servants of hisrivals; while some remains of prejudice or prudence still pleaded infavor of the law of Mahomet. Both in Egypt and Palestine, his crueland wanton persecution made some martyrs and many apostles: the commonrights and special privileges of the sectaries were equally disregarded;and a general interdict was laid on the devotion of strangersand natives. The temple of the Christian world, the church of theResurrection, was demolished to its foundations; the luminous prodigy ofEaster was interrupted, and much profane labor was exhausted to destroythe cave in the rock which properly constitutes the holy sepulchre. Atthe report of this sacrilege, the nations of Europe were astonished andafflicted: but instead of arming in the defence of the Holy Land, theycontented themselves with burning, or banishing, the Jews, as the secretadvisers of the impious Barbarian. [69] Yet the calamities of Jerusalemwere in some measure alleviated by the inconstancy or repentance ofHakem himself; and the royal mandate was sealed for the restitution ofthe churches, when the tyrant was assassinated by the emissaries ofhis sister. The succeeding caliphs resumed the maxims of religion andpolicy: a free toleration was again granted; with the pious aid of theemperor of Constantinople, the holy sepulchre arose from its ruins;and, after a short abstinence, the pilgrims returned with an increaseof appetite to the spiritual feast. [70] In the sea-voyage of Palestine, the dangers were frequent, and the opportunities rare: but theconversion of Hungary opened a safe communication between Germany andGreece. The charity of St. Stephen, the apostle of his kingdom, relievedand conducted his itinerant brethren; [71] and from Belgrade to Antioch, they traversed fifteen hundred miles of a Christian empire. Among theFranks, the zeal of pilgrimage prevailed beyond the example of formertimes: and the roads were covered with multitudes of either sex, and ofevery rank, who professed their contempt of life, so soon as they shouldhave kissed the tomb of their Redeemer. Princes and prelates abandonedthe care of their dominions; and the numbers of these pious caravanswere a prelude to the armies which marched in the ensuing age under thebanner of the cross. About thirty years before the first crusade, the arch bishop of Mentz, with the bishops of Utrecht, Bamberg, andRatisbon, undertook this laborious journey from the Rhine to the Jordan;and the multitude of their followers amounted to seven thousand persons. At Constantinople, they were hospitably entertained by the emperor; butthe ostentation of their wealth provoked the assault of the wild Arabs:they drew their swords with scrupulous reluctance, and sustainedsiege in the village of Capernaum, till they were rescued by the venalprotection of the Fatimite emir. After visiting the holy places, theyembarked for Italy, but only a remnant of two thousand arrived in safetyin their native land. 

Ingulphus, a secretary of William the Conqueror, was a companion of thispilgrimage: he observes that they sailed from Normandy, thirty stoutand well-appointed horsemen; but that they repassed the Alps, twentymiserable palmers, with the staff in their hand, and the wallet at theirback. [72]

[Footnote 67: See D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 411, ) Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. P. 390, 397, 400, 401, ) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. P. 321-323, ) and Marei, (p. 384-386, ) an historian of Egypt, translatedby Reiske from Arabic into German, and verbally interpreted to me by afriend. ]

[Footnote 68: The religion of the Druses is concealed by their ignoranceand hypocrisy. Their secret doctrines are confined to the electwho profess a contemplative life; and the vulgar Druses, the mostindifferent of men, occasionally conform to the worship of theMahometans and Christians of their neighborhood. The little that is, ordeserves to be, known, may be seen in the industrious Niebuhr, (Voyages, tom. Ii. P. 354-357, ) and the second volume of the recent andinstructive Travels of M. De Volney. * Note: The religion of the Druseshas, within the present year, been fully developed from their ownwritings, which have long lain neglected in the libraries of Paris andOxford, in the "Expose de la Religion des Druses, by M. Silvestre deSacy. " Deux tomes, Paris, 1838. The learned author has prefixed a lifeof Hakem Biamr-Allah, which enables us to correct several errors in theaccount of Gibbon. These errors chiefly arose from his want of knowledgeor of attention to the chronology of Hakem's life. Hakem succeeded tothe throne of Egypt in the year of the Hegira 386. He did not assumehis divinity till 408. His life was indeed "a wild mixture of vice andfolly, " to which may be added, of the most sanguinary cruelty. Duringhis reign, 18, 000 persons were victims of his ferocity. Yet such is thegod, observes M. De Sacy, whom the Druses have worshipped for 800 years!(See p. Ccccxxix. ) All his wildest and most extravagant actions wereinterpreted by his followers as having a mystic and allegoric meaning, alluding to the destruction of other religions and the propagationof his own. It does not seem to have been the "vanity" of Hakem whichinduced him to introduce a new religion. The curious point in the newfaith is that Hamza, the son of Ali, the real founder of the Unitarianreligion, (such is its boastful title, ) was content to take a secondarypart. While Hakem was God, the one Supreme, the Imam Hamza was hisIntelligence. It was not in his "divine character" that Hakem "hatedthe Jews and Christians, " but in that of a Mahometan bigot, which hedisplayed in the earlier years of his reign. His barbarous persecution, and the burning of the church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem, belongentirely to that period; and his assumption of divinity was followedby an edict of toleration to Jews and Christians. The Mahometans, whosereligion he then treated with hostility and contempt, being far the mostnumerous, were his most dangerous enemies, and therefore the objects ofhis most inveterate hatred. It is another singular fact, that thereligion of Hakem was by no means confined to Egypt and Syria. M. DeSacy quotes a letter addressed to the chief of the sect in India; andthere is likewise a letter to the Byzantine emperor Constantine, son ofArmanous, (Romanus, ) and the clergy of the empire. (Constantine VIII. , M. De Sacy supposes, but this is irreconcilable with chronology; it mustmean Constantine XI. , Monomachus. ) The assassination of Hakem is, ofcourse, disbelieved by his sectaries. M. De Sacy seems to consider thefact obscure and doubtful. According to his followers he disappeared, but is hereafter to return. At his return the resurrection is to takeplace; the triumph of Unitarianism, and the final discomfiture of allother religions. The temple of Mecca is especially devoted todestruction. It is remarkable that one of the signs of this finalconsummation, and of the reappearance of Hakem, is that Christianityshall be gaining a manifest predominance over Mahometanism. As for thereligion of the Druses, I cannot agree with Gibbon that it does not"deserve" to be better known; and am grateful to M. De Sacy, notwithstanding the prolixity and occasional repetition in his two largevolumes, for the full examination of the most extraordinary religiousaberration which ever extensively affected the mind of man. The worshipof a mad tyrant is the basis of a subtle metaphysical creed, and of asevere, and even ascetic, morality. --M. ]

[Footnote 69: See Glaber, l. Iii. C. 7, and the Annals of Baronius andPagi, A. D. 1009. ]

[Footnote 70: Per idem tempus ex universo orbe tam innumerabilismultitudo coepit confluere ad sepulchrum Salvatoris Hierosolymis, quantum nullus hominum prius sperare poterat. Ordo inferioris plebis. .. . Mediocres. .. . Reges et comites. .. .. Praesules . .. .. Mulieres multaenobilis cum pauperioribus. .. . Pluribus enim erat mentis desideriummori priusquam ad propria reverterentur, (Glaber, l. Iv. C. 6, Bouquet. Historians of France, tom. X. P. 50. ) * Note: Compare the first chap. OfWilken, Geschichte der Kreuz-zuge. --M. ]

[Footnote 71: Glaber, l. Iii. C. 1. Katona (Hist. Critic. RegumHungariae, tom. I. P. 304-311) examines whether St. Stephen founded amonastery at Jerusalem. ]

[Footnote 72: Baronius (A. D. 1064, No. 43-56) has transcribed thegreater part of the original narratives of Ingulphus, Marianus, andLambertus. ]

After the defeat of the Romans, the tranquillity of the Fatimite caliphswas invaded by the Turks. [73] One of the lieutenants of Malek Shah, Atsiz the Carizmian, marched into Syria at the head of a powerful army, and reduced Damascus by famine and the sword. Hems, and the other citiesof the province, acknowledged the caliph of Bagdad and the sultan ofPersia; and the victorious emir advanced without resistance to the banksof the Nile: the Fatimite was preparing to fly into the heart ofAfrica; but the negroes of his guard and the inhabitants of Cairo madea desperate sally, and repulsed the Turk from the confines of Egypt. Inhis retreat he indulged the license of slaughter and rapine: the judgeand notaries of Jerusalem were invited to his camp; and their executionwas followed by the massacre of three thousand citizens. The cruelty orthe defeat of Atsiz was soon punished by the sultan Toucush, the brotherof Malek Shah, who, with a higher title and more formidable powers, asserted the dominion of Syria and Palestine. The house of Seljukreigned about twenty years in Jerusalem; [74] but the hereditary commandof the holy city and territory was intrusted or abandoned to the emirOrtok, the chief of a tribe of Turkmans, whose children, after theirexpulsion from Palestine, formed two dynasties on the borders ofArmenia and Assyria. [75] The Oriental Christians and the Latin pilgrimsdeplored a revolution, which, instead of the regular government and oldalliance of the caliphs, imposed on their necks the iron yoke of thestrangers of the North. [76] In his court and camp the great sultan hadadopted in some degree the arts and manners of Persia; but the bodyof the Turkish nation, and more especially the pastoral tribes, stillbreathed the fierceness of the desert. From Nice to Jerusalem, the western countries of Asia were a scene of foreign and domestichostility; and the shepherds of Palestine, who held a precarious sway ona doubtful frontier, had neither leisure nor capacity to await the slowprofits of commercial and religious freedom. The pilgrims, who, throughinnumerable perils, had reached the gates of Jerusalem, were thevictims of private rapine or public oppression, and often sunk under thepressure of famine and disease, before they were permitted to salute theholy sepulchre. A spirit of native barbarism, or recent zeal, promptedthe Turkmans to insult the clergy of every sect: the patriarch wasdragged by the hair along the pavement, and cast into a dungeon, toextort a ransom from the sympathy of his flock; and the divine worshipin the church of the Resurrection was often disturbed by the savagerudeness of its masters. The pathetic tale excited the millions of theWest to march under the standard of the cross to the relief of the HolyLand; and yet how trifling is the sum of these accumulated evils, ifcompared with the single act of the sacrilege of Hakem, which had beenso patiently endured by the Latin Christians! A slighter provocationinflamed the more irascible temper of their descendants: a new spirithad arisen of religious chivalry and papal dominion; a nerve was touchedof exquisite feeling; and the sensation vibrated to the heart of Europe. 

[Footnote 73: See Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. P. 349, 350) andAbulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 237, vers. Pocock. ) M. De Guignes (Hist. DesHuns, tom iii. Part i. P. 215, 216) adds the testimonies, or rather thenames, of Abulfeda and Novairi. ]

[Footnote 74: From the expedition of Isar Atsiz, (A. H. 469, A. D. 1076, )to the expulsion of the Ortokides, (A. D. 1096. ) Yet William of Tyre (l. I. C. 6, p. 633) asserts, that Jerusalem was thirty-eight years in thehands of the Turks; and an Arabic chronicle, quoted by Pagi, (tom. Iv. P. 202) supposes that the city was reduced by a Carizmian general tothe obedience of the caliph of Bagdad, A. H. 463, A. D. 1070. These earlydates are not very compatible with the general history of Asia; and I amsure, that as late as A. D. 1064, the regnum Babylonicum (of Cairo) stillprevailed in Palestine, (Baronius, A. D. 1064, No. 56. )]

[Footnote 75: De Guignes, Hist. Des Huns, tom. I. P. 249-252. ]

[Footnote 76: Willierm. Tyr. L. I. C. 8, p. 634, who strives hard tomagnify the Christian grievances. The Turks exacted an aureus from eachpilgrim! The caphar of the Franks now is fourteen dollars: and Europedoes not complain of this voluntary tax. ]

Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade. --Part I. 

Origin And Numbers Of The First Crusade. --Characters Of The LatinPrinces. --Their March To Constantinople. --Policy Of The GreekEmperor Alexius. --Conquest Of Nice, Antioch, And Jerusalem, By TheFranks. --Deliverance Of The Holy Sepulchre. -- Godfrey Of Bouillon, FirstKing Of Jerusalem. --Institutions Of The French Or Latin Kingdom. 

About twenty years after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Turks, theholy sepulchre was visited by a hermit of the name of Peter, a nativeof Amiens, in the province of Picardy [1] in France. His resentmentand sympathy were excited by his own injuries and the oppression of theChristian name; he mingled his tears with those of the patriarch, andearnestly inquired, if no hopes of relief could be entertained from theGreek emperors of the East. The patriarch exposed the vices and weaknessof the successors of Constantine. "I will rouse, " exclaimed the hermit, "the martial nations of Europe in your cause;" and Europe was obedientto the call of the hermit. The astonished patriarch dismissed him withepistles of credit and complaint; and no sooner did he land at Bari, than Peter hastened to kiss the feet of the Roman pontiff. His staturewas small, his appearance contemptible; but his eye was keen and lively;and he possessed that vehemence of speech, which seldom fails to impartthe persuasion of the soul. [2] He was born of a gentleman's family, (for we must now adopt a modern idiom, ) and his military service wasunder the neighboring counts of Boulogne, the heroes of the firstcrusade. But he soon relinquished the sword and the world; and if itbe true, that his wife, however noble, was aged and ugly, he mightwithdraw, with the less reluctance, from her bed to a convent, and atlength to a hermitage. [211] In this austere solitude, his body wasemaciated, his fancy was inflamed; whatever he wished, he believed;whatever he believed, he saw in dreams and revelations. From Jerusalemthe pilgrim returned an accomplished fanatic; but as he excelled in thepopular madness of the times, Pope Urban the Second received him asa prophet, applauded his glorious design, promised to support it in ageneral council, and encouraged him to proclaim the deliverance of theHoly Land. Invigorated by the approbation of the pontiff, his zealousmissionary traversed. With speed and success, the provinces of Italy andFrance. His diet was abstemious, his prayers long and fervent, and thealms which he received with one hand, he distributed with the other: hishead was bare, his feet naked, his meagre body was wrapped in a coarsegarment; he bore and displayed a weighty crucifix; and the ass on whichhe rode was sanctified, in the public eye, by the service of the man ofGod. He preached to innumerable crowds in the churches, the streets, andthe highways: the hermit entered with equal confidence the palace andthe cottage; and the people (for all was people) was impetuously movedby his call to repentance and arms. When he painted the sufferingsof the natives and pilgrims of Palestine, every heart was melted tocompassion; every breast glowed with indignation, when he challenged thewarriors of the age to defend their brethren, and rescue their Savior:his ignorance of art and language was compensated by sighs, and tears, and ejaculations; and Peter supplied the deficiency of reason by loudand frequent appeals to Christ and his mother, to the saints and angelsof paradise, with whom he had personally conversed. [212] The mostperfect orator of Athens might have envied the success of his eloquence;the rustic enthusiast inspired the passions which he felt, andChristendom expected with impatience the counsels and decrees of thesupreme pontiff. 

[Footnote 1: Whimsical enough is the origin of the name of Picards, andfrom thence of Picardie, which does not date later than A. D. 1200. Itwas an academical joke, an epithet first applied to the quarrelsomehumor of those students, in the University of Paris, who came from thefrontier of France and Flanders, (Valesii Notitia Galliarum, p. 447, Longuerue. Description de la France, p. 54. )]

[Footnote 2: William of Tyre (l. I. C. 11, p. 637, 638) thus describesthe hermit: Pusillus, persona contemptibilis, vivacis ingenii, et oculumhabeas perspicacem gratumque, et sponte fluens ei non deerat eloquium. See Albert Aquensis, p. 185. Guibert, p. 482. Anna Comnena in Alex isd, l. X. P. 284, &c. , with Ducarge's Notes, p. 349. ]

[Footnote 211: Wilken considers this as doubtful, (vol. I. P. 47. )--M. ]

[Footnote 212: He had seen the Savior in a vision: a letter had fallenfrom heaven Wilken, (vol. I. P. 49. )--M. ]

The magnanimous spirit of Gregory the Seventh had already embraced thedesign of arming Europe against Asia; the ardor of his zeal and ambitionstill breathes in his epistles: from either side of the Alps, fiftythousand Catholics had enlisted under the banner of St. Peter; [3] andhis successor reveals his intention of marching at their head againstthe impious sectaries of Mahomet. But the glory or reproach ofexecuting, though not in person, this holy enterprise, was reserved forUrban the Second, [4] the most faithful of his disciples. He undertookthe conquest of the East, whilst the larger portion of Rome waspossessed and fortified by his rival Guibert of Ravenna, who contendedwith Urban for the name and honors of the pontificate. He attempted tounite the powers of the West, at a time when the princes wereseparated from the church, and the people from their princes, by theexcommunication which himself and his predecessors had thunderedagainst the emperor and the king of France. Philip the First, of France, supported with patience the censures which he had provoked by hisscandalous life and adulterous marriage. Henry the Fourth, of Germany, asserted the right of investitures, the prerogative of confirming hisbishops by the delivery of the ring and crosier. But the emperor'sparty was crushed in Italy by the arms of the Normans and the CountessMathilda; and the long quarrel had been recently envenomed by the revoltof his son Conrad and the shame of his wife, [5] who, in the synods ofConstance and Placentia, confessed the manifold prostitutions to whichshe had been exposed by a husband regardless of her honor and his own. [6] So popular was the cause of Urban, so weighty was his influence, that the council which he summoned at Placentia [7] was composed of twohundred bishops of Italy, France, Burgandy, Swabia, and Bavaria. Fourthousand of the clergy, and thirty thousand of the laity, attended thisimportant meeting; and, as the most spacious cathedral would have beeninadequate to the multitude, the session of seven days was held ina plain adjacent to the city. The ambassadors of the Greek emperor, Alexius Comnenus, were introduced to plead the distress of theirsovereign, and the danger of Constantinople, which was divided only bya narrow sea from the victorious Turks, the common enemies of theChristian name. In their suppliant address they flattered the pride ofthe Latin princes; and, appealing at once to their policy and religion, exhorted them to repel the Barbarians on the confines of Asia, ratherthan to expect them in the heart of Europe. At the sad tale of themisery and perils of their Eastern brethren, the assembly burst intotears; the most eager champions declared their readiness to march; andthe Greek ambassadors were dismissed with the assurance of a speedy andpowerful succor. The relief of Constantinople was included in thelarger and most distant project of the deliverance of Jerusalem; but theprudent Urban adjourned the final decision to a second synod, which heproposed to celebrate in some city of France in the autumn of the sameyear. The short delay would propagate the flame of enthusiasm; andhis firmest hope was in a nation of soldiers [8] still proud ofthe preeminence of their name, and ambitious to emulate their heroCharlemagne, [9] who, in the popular romance of Turpin, [10] hadachieved the conquest of the Holy Land. A latent motive of affection orvanity might influence the choice of Urban: he was himself a native ofFrance, a monk of Clugny, and the first of his countrymen who ascendedthe throne of St. Peter. The pope had illustrated his family andprovince; nor is there perhaps a more exquisite gratification than torevisit, in a conspicuous dignity, the humble and laborious scenes ofour youth. 

[Footnote 3: Ultra quinquaginta millia, si me possunt in expeditione produce et pontifice habere, armata manu volunt in inimicos Dei insurgereet ad sepulchrum Domini ipso ducente pervenire, (Gregor. Vii. Epist. Ii. 31, in tom. Xii. 322, concil. )]

[Footnote 4: See the original lives of Urban II. By Pandulphus Pisanusand Bernardus Guido, in Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. Tom. Iii. Pars i. P. 352, 353. ]

[Footnote 5: She is known by the different names of Praxes, Eupraecia, Eufrasia, and Adelais; and was the daughter of a Russian prince, and thewidow of a margrave of Brandenburgh. (Struv. Corpus Hist. Germanicae, p. 340. )]

[Footnote 6: Henricus odio eam coepit habere: ideo incarceravit eam, et concessit ut plerique vim ei inferrent; immo filium hortans ut eamsubagitaret, (Dodechin, Continuat. Marian. Scot. Apud Baron. A. D. 1093, No. 4. ) In the synod of Constance, she is described by Bertholdus, reruminspector: quae se tantas et tam inauditas fornicationum spur citias, eta tantis passam fuisse conquesta est, &c. ; and again at Placentia: satismisericorditer suscepit, eo quod ipsam tantas spurcitias pertulisse procerto cognoverit papa cum sancta synodo. Apud Baron. A. D. 1093, No. 4, 1094, No. 3. A rare subject for the infallible decision of a pope andcouncil. These abominations are repugnant to every principle of humannature, which is not altered by a dispute about rings and crosiers. Yetit should seem, that the wretched woman was tempted by the priests torelate or subscribe some infamous stories of herself and her husband. ]

[Footnote 7: See the narrative and acts of the synod of Placentia, Concil. Tom. Xii. P. 821, &c. ]

[Footnote 8: Guibert, himself a Frenchman, praises the piety and valorof the French nation, the author and example of the crusades: Gensnobilis, prudens, bellicosa, dapsilis et nitida . .. . Quos enim Britones, Anglos, Ligures, si bonis eos moribus videamus, non illico Francoshomines appellemus? (p. 478. ) He owns, however, that the vivacity of theFrench degenerates into petulance among foreigners, (p. 488. ) and vainloquaciousness, (p. 502. )]

[Footnote 9: Per viam quam jamdudum Carolus Magnus mirificus rexFrancorum aptari fecit usque C. P. , (Gesta Francorum, p. 1. Robert. Monach. Hist. Hieros. L. I. P. 33, &c. )]

[Footnote 10: John Tilpinus, or Turpinus, was archbishop of Rheims, A. D. 773. After the year 1000, this romance was composed in his name, bya monk of the borders of France and Spain; and such was the idea ofecclesiastical merit, that he describes himself as a fighting anddrinking priest! Yet the book of lies was pronounced authentic by PopeCalixtus II. , (A. D. 1122, ) and is respectfully quoted by the abbotSuger, in the great Chronicles of St. Denys, (Fabric Bibliot. LatinMedii Aevi, edit. Mansi, tom. Iv. P. 161. )]

It may occasion some surprise that the Roman pontiff should erect, inthe heart of France, the tribunal from whence he hurled his anathemasagainst the king; but our surprise will vanish so soon as we form a justestimate of a king of France of the eleventh century. [11] Philip theFirst was the great-grandson of Hugh Capet, the founder of the presentrace, who, in the decline of Charlemagne's posterity, added the regaltitle to his patrimonial estates of Paris and Orleans. In this narrowcompass, he was possessed of wealth and jurisdiction; but in the restof France, Hugh and his first descendants were no more than the feudallords of about sixty dukes and counts, of independent and hereditarypower, [12] who disdained the control of laws and legal assemblies, andwhose disregard of their sovereign was revenged by the disobedience oftheir inferior vassals. At Clermont, in the territories of the countof Auvergne, [13] the pope might brave with impunity the resentmentof Philip; and the council which he convened in that city was not lessnumerous or respectable than the synod of Placentia. [14] Besides hiscourt and council of Roman cardinals, he was supported by thirteenarchbishops and two hundred and twenty-five bishops: the number ofmitred prelates was computed at four hundred; and the fathers of thechurch were blessed by the saints and enlightened by the doctors of theage. From the adjacent kingdoms, a martial train of lords and knights ofpower and renown attended the council, [15] in high expectation of itsresolves; and such was the ardor of zeal and curiosity, that the citywas filled, and many thousands, in the month of November, erected theirtents or huts in the open field. A session of eight days produced someuseful or edifying canons for the reformation of manners; a severecensure was pronounced against the license of private war; the Truce ofGod [16] was confirmed, a suspension of hostilities during four daysof the week; women and priests were placed under the safeguard of thechurch; and a protection of three years was extended to husbandmenand merchants, the defenceless victims of military rapine. But a law, however venerable be the sanction, cannot suddenly transform the temperof the times; and the benevolent efforts of Urban deserve the lesspraise, since he labored to appease some domestic quarrels that he mightspread the flames of war from the Atlantic to the Euphrates. From thesynod of Placentia, the rumor of his great design had gone forth amongthe nations: the clergy on their return had preached in every diocesethe merit and glory of the deliverance of the Holy Land; and when thepope ascended a lofty scaffold in the market-place of Clermont, hiseloquence was addressed to a well-prepared and impatient audience. His topics were obvious, his exhortation was vehement, his successinevitable. The orator was interrupted by the shout of thousands, whowith one voice, and in their rustic idiom, exclaimed aloud, "God willsit, God wills it. " [17] "It is indeed the will of God, " replied thepope; "and let this memorable word, the inspiration surely of theHoly Spirit, be forever adopted as your cry of battle, to animate thedevotion and courage of the champions of Christ. His cross is the symbolof your salvation; wear it, a red, a bloody cross, as an external mark, on your breasts or shoulders, as a pledge of your sacred and irrevocableengagement. " The proposal was joyfully accepted; great numbers, both ofthe clergy and laity, impressed on their garments the sign of the cross, [18] and solicited the pope to march at their head. This dangerous honorwas declined by the more prudent successor of Gregory, who allegedthe schism of the church, and the duties of his pastoral office, recommending to the faithful, who were disqualified by sex orprofession, by age or infirmity, to aid, with their prayers and alms, the personal service of their robust brethren. The name and powersof his legate he devolved on Adhemar bishop of Puy, the first who hadreceived the cross at his hands. The foremost of the temporal chiefs wasRaymond count of Thoulouse, whose ambassadors in the council excused theabsence, and pledged the honor, of their master. After the confessionand absolution of their sins, the champions of the cross were dismissedwith a superfluous admonition to invite their countrymen and friends;and their departure for the Holy Land was fixed to the festival of theAssumption, the fifteenth of August, of the ensuing year. [19]

[Footnote 11: See Etat de la France, by the Count de Boulainvilliers, tom. I. P. 180-182, and the second volume of the Observations surl'Histoire de France, by the Abbe de Mably. ]

[Footnote 12: In the provinces to the south of the Loire, the firstCapetians were scarcely allowed a feudal supremacy. On all sides, Normandy, Bretagne, Aquitain, Burgundy, Lorraine, and Flanders, contracted the same and limits of the proper France. See Hadrian Vales. Notitia Galliarum]

[Footnote 13: These counts, a younger branch of the dukes of Aquitain, were at length despoiled of the greatest part of their country by PhilipAugustus. The bishops of Clermont gradually became princes of the city. Melanges, tires d'une grand Bibliotheque, tom. Xxxvi. P. 288, &c. ]

[Footnote 14: See the Acts of the council of Clermont, Concil. Tom. Xii. P. 829, &c. ]

[Footnote 15: Confluxerunt ad concilium e multis regionibus, viripotentes et honorati, innumeri quamvis cingulo laicalis militiaesuperbi, (Baldric, an eye-witness, p. 86-88. Robert. Monach. P. 31, 32. Will. Tyr. I. 14, 15, p. 639-641. Guibert, p. 478-480. Fulcher. Carnot. P. 382. )]

[Footnote 16: The Truce of God (Treva, or Treuga Dei) was first inventedin Aquitain, A. D. 1032; blamed by some bishops as an occasion ofperjury, and rejected by the Normans as contrary to their privileges(Ducange, Gloss Latin. Tom. Vi. P. 682-685. )]

[Footnote 17: Deus vult, Deus vult! was the pure acclamation ofthe clergy who understood Latin, (Robert. Mon. L. I. P. 32. ) By theilliterate laity, who spoke the Provincial or Limousin idiom, it wascorrupted to Deus lo volt, or Diex el volt. See Chron. Casinense, l. Iv. C. 11, p. 497, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. Tom. Iv. , and Ducange, (Dissertat xi. P. 207, sur Joinville, and Gloss. Latin. Tom. Ii. P. 690, ) who, in his preface, produces a very difficult specimen of thedialect of Rovergue, A. D. 1100, very near, both in time and place, tothe council of Clermont, (p. 15, 16. )]

[Footnote 18: Most commonly on their shoulders, in gold, or silk, orcloth sewed on their garments. In the first crusade, all were red, inthe third, the French alone preserved that color, while green crosseswere adopted by the Flemings, and white by the English, (Ducange, tom. Ii. P. 651. ) Yet in England, the red ever appears the favorite, and asif were, the national, color of our military ensigns and uniforms. ]

[Footnote 19: Bongarsius, who has published the original writers of thecrusades, adopts, with much complacency, the fanatic title of Guibertus, Gesta Dei per Francos; though some critics propose to read Gesta Diaboliper Francos, (Hanoviae, 1611, two vols. In folio. ) I shall brieflyenumerate, as they stand in this collection, the authors whom I haveused for the first crusade. 

 I. Gesta Francorum. 

 II. Robertus Monachus. 

 III. Baldricus. 

 IV. Raimundus de Agiles. 

 V. Albertus Aquensis VI. Fulcherius Carnotensis. 

 VII. Guibertus. 

 VIII. Willielmus Tyriensis. Muratori has given us, IX. Radulphus Cadomensis de Gestis Tancredi, (Script. Rer. Ital. Tom. V. P. 285-333, )

 X. Bernardus Thesaurarius de Acquisitione Terrae Sanctae, (tom. Vii. P. 664-848. )

The last of these was unknown to a late French historian, who has givena large and critical list of the writers of the crusades, (Esprit desCroisades, tom. I. P. 13-141, ) and most of whose judgments my ownexperience will allow me to ratify. It was late before I could obtain asight of the French historians collected by Duchesne. I. Petri TudebodiSacerdotis Sivracensis Historia de Hierosolymitano Itinere, (tom. Iv. P. 773-815, ) has been transfused into the first anonymous writer ofBongarsius. II. The Metrical History of the first Crusade, in vii. Books, (p. 890-912, ) is of small value or account. * Note: Severalnew documents, particularly from the East, have been collected bythe industry of the modern historians of the crusades, M. Michaud andWilken. --M. ]

So familiar, and as it were so natural to man, is the practice ofviolence, that our indulgence allows the slightest provocation, the mostdisputable right, as a sufficient ground of national hostility. But thename and nature of a holy war demands a more rigorous scrutiny; norcan we hastily believe, that the servants of the Prince of Peace wouldunsheathe the sword of destruction, unless the motive were pure, thequarrel legitimate, and the necessity inevitable. The policy of anaction may be determined from the tardy lessons of experience; but, before we act, our conscience should be satisfied of the justice andpropriety of our enterprise. In the age of the crusades, the Christians, both of the East and West, were persuaded of their lawfulness and merit;their arguments are clouded by the perpetual abuse of Scripture andrhetoric; but they seem to insist on the right of natural and religiousdefence, their peculiar title to the Holy Land, and the impiety of theirPagan and Mahometan foes. [20]

I. The right of a just defence may fairly include our civil andspiritual allies: it depends on the existence of danger; and that dangermust be estimated by the twofold consideration of the malice, andthe power, of our enemies. A pernicious tenet has been imputed to theMahometans, the duty of extirpating all other religions by the sword. This charge of ignorance and bigotry is refuted by the Koran, by thehistory of the Mussulman conquerors, and by their public and legaltoleration of the Christian worship. But it cannot be denied, that theOriental churches are depressed under their iron yoke; that, in peaceand war, they assert a divine and indefeasible claim of universalempire; and that, in their orthodox creed, the unbelieving nations arecontinually threatened with the loss of religion or liberty. In theeleventh century, the victorious arms of the Turks presented a realand urgent apprehension of these losses. They had subdued, in lessthan thirty years, the kingdoms of Asia, as far as Jerusalem and theHellespont; and the Greek empire tottered on the verge of destruction. Besides an honest sympathy for their brethren, the Latins had a rightand interest in the support of Constantinople, the most importantbarrier of the West; and the privilege of defence must reach to prevent, as well as to repel, an impending assault. But this salutary purposemight have been accomplished by a moderate succor; and our calmerreason must disclaim the innumerable hosts, and remote operations, whichoverwhelmed Asia and depopulated Europe. [2011]

[Footnote 20: If the reader will turn to the first scene of the FirstPart of Henry the Fourth, he will see in the text of Shakespeare thenatural feelings of enthusiasm; and in the notes of Dr. Johnson theworkings of a bigoted, though vigorous mind, greedy of every pretence tohate and persecute those who dissent from his creed. ]

[Footnote 2011: The manner in which the war was conducted surely haslittle relation to the abstract question of the justice or injustice ofthe war. The most just and necessary war may be conducted with themost prodigal waste of human life, and the wildest fanaticism; themost unjust with the coolest moderation and consummate generalship. Thequestion is, whether the liberties and religion of Europe were in dangerfrom the aggressions of Mahometanism? If so, it is difficult tolimit the right, though it may be proper to question the wisdom, ofoverwhelming the enemy with the armed population of a whole continent, and repelling, if possible, the invading conqueror into his nativedeserts. The crusades are monuments of human folly! but to which ofthe more regular wars civilized. Europe, waged for personal ambition ornational jealousy, will our calmer reason appeal as monuments either ofhuman justice or human wisdom?--M. ]

II. Palestine could add nothing to the strength or safety of the Latins;and fanaticism alone could pretend to justify the conquest of thatdistant and narrow province. The Christians affirmed that theirinalienable title to the promised land had been sealed by the bloodof their divine Savior; it was their right and duty to rescue theirinheritance from the unjust possessors, who profaned his sepulchre, andoppressed the pilgrimage of his disciples. Vainly would it be allegedthat the preeminence of Jerusalem, and the sanctity of Palestine, havebeen abolished with the Mosaic law; that the God of the Christians isnot a local deity, and that the recovery of Bethlem or Calvary, hiscradle or his tomb, will not atone for the violation of the moralprecepts of the gospel. Such arguments glance aside from the leadenshield of superstition; and the religious mind will not easilyrelinquish its hold on the sacred ground of mystery and miracle. 

III. But the holy wars which have been waged in every climate of theglobe, from Egypt to Livonia, and from Peru to Hindostan, require thesupport of some more general and flexible tenet. It has been oftensupposed, and sometimes affirmed, that a difference of religion is aworthy cause of hostility; that obstinate unbelievers may be slainor subdued by the champions of the cross; and that grace is the solefountain of dominion as well as of mercy. [2012] Above four hundredyears before the first crusade, the eastern and western provinces ofthe Roman empire had been acquired about the same time, and in the samemanner, by the Barbarians of Germany and Arabia. Time and treaties hadlegitimated the conquest of the Christian Franks; but in the eyes oftheir subjects and neighbors, the Mahometan princes were still tyrantsand usurpers, who, by the arms of war or rebellion, might be lawfullydriven from their unlawful possession. [21]

[Footnote 2012: "God, " says the abbot Guibert, "invented the crusades asa new way for the laity to atone for their sins and to merit salvation. "This extraordinary and characteristic passage must be given entire. "Deus nostro tempore praelia sancta instituit, ut ordo equestris etvulgus oberrans qui vetustae Paganitatis exemplo in mutuas versabaturcaedes, novum reperirent salutis promerendae genus, ut nec fundituselecta, ut fieri assolet, monastica conversatione, seu religiosaqualibet professione saeculum relinquere congerentur; sed sub consuetalicentia et habitu ex suo ipsorum officio Dei aliquantenus gratiamconsequerentur. " Guib. Abbas, p. 371. See Wilken, vol. I. P. 63. --M. ]

[Footnote 21: The vith Discourse of Fleury on Ecclesiastical History(p. 223-261) contains an accurate and rational view of the causes andeffects of the crusades. ]

As the manners of the Christians were relaxed, their discipline ofpenance [22] was enforced; and with the multiplication of sins, theremedies were multiplied. In the primitive church, a voluntary andopen confession prepared the work of atonement. In the middle ages, thebishops and priests interrogated the criminal; compelled him to accountfor his thoughts, words, and actions; and prescribed the terms ofhis reconciliation with God. But as this discretionary power mightalternately be abused by indulgence and tyranny, a rule of disciplinewas framed, to inform and regulate the spiritual judges. This mode oflegislation was invented by the Greeks; their penitentials [23] weretranslated, or imitated, in the Latin church; and, in the time ofCharlemagne, the clergy of every diocese were provided with a code, which they prudently concealed from the knowledge of the vulgar. In thisdangerous estimate of crimes and punishments, each case was supposed, each difference was remarked, by the experience or penetration ofthe monks; some sins are enumerated which innocence could not havesuspected, and others which reason cannot believe; and the more ordinaryoffences of fornication and adultery, of perjury and sacrilege, ofrapine and murder, were expiated by a penance, which, according to thevarious circumstances, was prolonged from forty days to seven years. During this term of mortification, the patient was healed, the criminalwas absolved, by a salutary regimen of fasts and prayers: the disorderof his dress was expressive of grief and remorse; and he humblyabstained from all the business and pleasure of social life. But therigid execution of these laws would have depopulated the palace, thecamp, and the city; the Barbarians of the West believed and trembled;but nature often rebelled against principle; and the magistrate laboredwithout effect to enforce the jurisdiction of the priest. A literalaccomplishment of penance was indeed impracticable: the guilt ofadultery was multiplied by daily repetition; that of homicide mightinvolve the massacre of a whole people; each act was separatelynumbered; and, in those times of anarchy and vice, a modest sinner mighteasily incur a debt of three hundred years. His insolvency was relievedby a commutation, or indulgence: a year of penance was appreciated attwenty-six solidi [24] of silver, about four pounds sterling, for therich; at three solidi, or nine shillings, for the indigent: and thesealms were soon appropriated to the use of the church, which derived, from the redemption of sins, an inexhaustible source of opulence anddominion. A debt of three hundred years, or twelve hundred pounds, was enough to impoverish a plentiful fortune; the scarcity of goldand silver was supplied by the alienation of land; and the princelydonations of Pepin and Charlemagne are expressly given for the remedyof their soul. It is a maxim of the civil law, that whosoever cannot paywith his purse, must pay with his body; and the practice of flagellationwas adopted by the monks, a cheap, though painful equivalent. By afantastic arithmetic, a year of penance was taxed at three thousandlashes; [25] and such was the skill and patience of a famous hermit, St. Dominic of the iron Cuirass, [26] that in six days he could dischargean entire century, by a whipping of three hundred thousand stripes. His example was followed by many penitents of both sexes; and, as avicarious sacrifice was accepted, a sturdy disciplinarian might expiateon his own back the sins of his benefactors. [27] These compensationsof the purse and the person introduced, in the eleventh century, a morehonorable mode of satisfaction. The merit of military service againstthe Saracens of Africa and Spain had been allowed by the predecessorsof Urban the Second. In the council of Clermont, that pope proclaimeda plenary indulgence to those who should enlist under the banner of thecross; the absolution of all their sins, and a full receipt for all thatmight be due of canonical penance. [28] The cold philosophy of moderntimes is incapable of feeling the impression that was made on a sinfuland fanatic world. At the voice of their pastor, the robber, theincendiary, the homicide, arose by thousands to redeem their souls, by repeating on the infidels the same deeds which they had exercisedagainst their Christian brethren; and the terms of atonement wereeagerly embraced by offenders of every rank and denomination. None werepure; none were exempt from the guilt and penalty of sin; and those whowere the least amenable to the justice of God and the church were thebest entitled to the temporal and eternal recompense of their piouscourage. If they fell, the spirit of the Latin clergy did not hesitateto adorn their tomb with the crown of martyrdom; [29] and should theysurvive, they could expect without impatience the delay and increase oftheir heavenly reward. They offered their blood to the Son of God, whohad laid down his life for their salvation: they took up the cross, andentered with confidence into the way of the Lord. His providence wouldwatch over their safety; perhaps his visible and miraculous power wouldsmooth the difficulties of their holy enterprise. The cloud and pillarof Jehovah had marched before the Israelites into the promised land. Might not the Christians more reasonably hope that the rivers would openfor their passage; that the walls of their strongest cities would fallat the sound of their trumpets; and that the sun would be arrested inhis mid career, to allow them time for the destruction of the infidels?

[Footnote 22: The penance, indulgences, &c. , of the middle ages areamply discussed by Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. V. Dissert. Lxviii. P. 709-768, ) and by M. Chais, (Lettres sur les Jubileset les Indulgences, tom. Ii. Lettres 21 & 22, p. 478-556, ) with thisdifference, that the abuses of superstition are mildly, perhaps faintly, exposed by the learned Italian, and peevishly magnified by the Dutchminister. ]

[Footnote 23: Schmidt (Histoire des Allemands, tom. Ii. P. 211-220, 452-462) gives an abstract of the Penitential of Rhegino in the ninth, and of Burchard in the tenth, century. In one year, five-and-thirtymurders were perpetrated at Worms. ]

[Footnote 24: Till the xiith century, we may support the clear accountof xii. Denarii, or pence, to the solidus, or shilling; and xx. Solidito the pound weight of silver, about the pound sterling. Our money isdiminished to a third, and the French to a fiftieth, of this primitivestandard. ]

[Footnote 25: Each century of lashes was sanctified with a recital of apsalm, and the whole Psalter, with the accompaniment of 15, 000 stripes, was equivalent to five years. ]

[Footnote 26: The Life and Achievements of St. Dominic Loricatus wascomposed by his friend and admirer, Peter Damianus. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. Tom. Xiii. P. 96-104. Baronius, A. D. 1056, No. 7, who observes, from Damianus, how fashionable, even among ladies of quality, (sublimisgeneris, ) this expiation (purgatorii genus) was grown. ]

[Footnote 27: At a quarter, or even half a rial a lash, Sancho Panzawas a cheaper, and possibly not a more dishonest, workman. I remember inPere Labat (Voyages en Italie, tom. Vii. P. 16-29) a very lively pictureof the dexterity of one of these artists. ]

[Footnote 28: Quicunque pro sola devotione, non pro honoris vel pecuniaeadoptione, ad liberandam ecclesiam Dei Jerusalem profectus fuerit, iterillud pro omni poenitentia reputetur. Canon. Concil. Claromont. Ii. P. 829. Guibert styles it novum salutis genus, (p. 471, ) and is almostphilosophical on the subject. * Note: See note, page 546. --M. ]

[Footnote 29: Such at least was the belief of the crusaders, and such isthe uniform style of the historians, (Esprit des Croisades, tom. Iii. P. 477;) but the prayer for the repose of their souls is inconsistent inorthodox theology with the merits of martyrdom. ]

Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade. --Part II. 

Of the chiefs and soldiers who marched to the holy sepulchre, I willdare to affirm, that all were prompted by the spirit of enthusiasm; thebelief of merit, the hope of reward, and the assurance of divine aid. But I am equally persuaded, that in many it was not the sole, that insome it was not the leading, principle of action. The use and abuse ofreligion are feeble to stem, they are strong and irresistible toimpel, the stream of national manners. Against the private wars of theBarbarians, their bloody tournaments, licentious love, and judicialduels, the popes and synods might ineffectually thunder. It is a moreeasy task to provoke the metaphysical disputes of the Greeks, to driveinto the cloister the victims of anarchy or despotism, to sanctify thepatience of slaves and cowards, or to assume the merit of the humanityand benevolence of modern Christians. War and exercise were the reigningpassions of the Franks or Latins; they were enjoined, as a penance, togratify those passions, to visit distant lands, and to draw their swordsagainst the nation of the East. Their victory, or even their attempt, would immortalize the names of the intrepid heroes of the cross; and thepurest piety could not be insensible to the most splendid prospect ofmilitary glory. In the petty quarrels of Europe, they shed the blood oftheir friends and countrymen, for the acquisition perhaps of a castleor a village. They could march with alacrity against the distant andhostile nations who were devoted to their arms; their fancy alreadygrasped the golden sceptres of Asia; and the conquest of Apulia andSicily by the Normans might exalt to royalty the hopes of the mostprivate adventurer. Christendom, in her rudest state, must have yieldedto the climate and cultivation of the Mahometan countries; and theirnatural and artificial wealth had been magnified by the tales ofpilgrims, and the gifts of an imperfect commerce. The vulgar, both thegreat and small, were taught to believe every wonder, of lands flowingwith milk and honey, of mines and treasures, of gold and diamonds, ofpalaces of marble and jasper, and of odoriferous groves of cinnamon andfrankincense. In this earthly paradise, each warrior depended onhis sword to carve a plenteous and honorable establishment, whichhe measured only by the extent of his wishes. [30] Their vassals andsoldiers trusted their fortunes to God and their master: the spoils ofa Turkish emir might enrich the meanest follower of the camp; andthe flavor of the wines, the beauty of the Grecian women, [31] weretemptations more adapted to the nature, than to the profession, of thechampions of the cross. The love of freedom was a powerful incitement tothe multitudes who were oppressed by feudal or ecclesiastical tyranny. Under this holy sign, the peasants and burghers, who were attachedto the servitude of the glebe, might escape from a haughty lord, andtransplant themselves and their families to a land of liberty. The monkmight release himself from the discipline of his convent: the debtormight suspend the accumulation of usury, and the pursuit of hiscreditors; and outlaws and malefactors of every cast might continue tobrave the laws and elude the punishment of their crimes. [32]

[Footnote 30: The same hopes were displayed in the letters of theadventurers ad animandos qui in Francia residerant. Hugh de Reitestecould boast, that his share amounted to one abbey and ten castles, ofthe yearly value of 1500 marks, and that he should acquire a hundredcastles by the conquest of Aleppo, (Guibert, p. 554, 555. )]

[Footnote 31: In his genuine or fictitious letter to the count ofFlanders, Alexius mingles with the danger of the church, and the relicsof saints, the auri et argenti amor, and pulcherrimarum foeminarumvoluptas, (p. 476;) as if, says the indignant Guibert, the Greek womenwere handsomer than those of France. ]

[Footnote 32: See the privileges of the Crucesignati, freedom from debt, usury injury, secular justice, &c. The pope was their perpetual guardian(Ducange, tom. Ii. P. 651, 652. )]

These motives were potent and numerous: when we have singly computedtheir weight on the mind of each individual, we must add the infiniteseries, the multiplying powers, of example and fashion. The firstproselytes became the warmest and most effectual missionaries of thecross: among their friends and countrymen they preached the duty, themerit, and the recompense, of their holy vow; and the most reluctanthearers were insensibly drawn within the whirlpool of persuasion andauthority. The martial youths were fired by the reproach or suspicionof cowardice; the opportunity of visiting with an army the sepulchre ofChrist was embraced by the old and infirm, by women and children, whoconsulted rather their zeal than their strength; and those who in theevening had derided the folly of their companions, were the most eager, the ensuing day, to tread in their footsteps. The ignorance, whichmagnified the hopes, diminished the perils, of the enterprise. Since theTurkish conquest, the paths of pilgrimage were obliterated; the chiefsthemselves had an imperfect notion of the length of the way and thestate of their enemies; and such was the stupidity of the people, that, at the sight of the first city or castle beyond the limits of theirknowledge, they were ready to ask whether that was not the Jerusalem, the term and object of their labors. Yet the more prudent of thecrusaders, who were not sure that they should be fed from heaven witha shower of quails or manna, provided themselves with those preciousmetals, which, in every country, are the representatives of everycommodity. To defray, according to their rank, the expenses of theroad, princes alienated their provinces, nobles their lands and castles, peasants their cattle and the instruments of husbandry. The value ofproperty was depreciated by the eager competition of multitudes; whilethe price of arms and horses was raised to an exorbitant height by thewants and impatience of the buyers. [33] Those who remained at home, with sense and money, were enriched by the epidemical disease: thesovereigns acquired at a cheap rate the domains of their vassals; andthe ecclesiastical purchasers completed the payment by the assurance oftheir prayers. The cross, which was commonly sewed on the garment, incloth or silk, was inscribed by some zealots on their skin: a hot iron, or indelible liquor, was applied to perpetuate the mark; and a craftymonk, who showed the miraculous impression on his breast was repaid withthe popular veneration and the richest benefices of Palestine. [34]

[Footnote 33: Guibert (p. 481) paints in lively colors this generalemotion. He was one of the few contemporaries who had genius enough tofeel the astonishing scenes that were passing before their eyes. Eratitaque videre miraculum, caro omnes emere, atque vili vendere, &c. ]

[Footnote 34: Some instances of these stigmata are given in the Espritdes Croisades, (tom. Iii. P. 169 &c. , ) from authors whom I have notseen]

The fifteenth of August had been fixed in the council of Clermontfor the departure of the pilgrims; but the day was anticipated by thethoughtless and needy crowd of plebeians, and I shall briefly despatchthe calamities which they inflicted and suffered, before I enter onthe more serious and successful enterprise of the chiefs. Early in thespring, from the confines of France and Lorraine, above sixty thousandof the populace of both sexes flocked round the first missionary of thecrusade, and pressed him with clamorous importunity to lead them to theholy sepulchre. The hermit, assuming the character, without the talentsor authority, of a general, impelled or obeyed the forward impulse ofhis votaries along the banks of the Rhine and Danube. Their wants andnumbers soon compelled them to separate, and his lieutenant, Walterthe Penniless, a valiant though needy soldier, conducted a van guard ofpilgrims, whose condition may be determined from the proportion of eighthorsemen to fifteen thousand foot. The example and footsteps of Peterwere closely pursued by another fanatic, the monk Godescal, whosesermons had swept away fifteen or twenty thousand peasants from thevillages of Germany. Their rear was again pressed by a herd of twohundred thousand, the most stupid and savage refuse of the people, whomingled with their devotion a brutal license of rapine, prostitution, and drunkenness. Some counts and gentlemen, at the head of threethousand horse, attended the motions of the multitude to partake inthe spoil; but their genuine leaders (may we credit such folly?) werea goose and a goat, who were carried in the front, and to whom theseworthy Christians ascribed an infusion of the divine spirit. [35]Of these, and of other bands of enthusiasts, the first and most easywarfare was against the Jews, the murderers of the Son of God. Inthe trading cities of the Moselle and the Rhine, their colonies werenumerous and rich; and they enjoyed, under the protection of the emperorand the bishops, the free exercise of their religion. [36] At Verdun, Treves, Mentz, Spires, Worms, many thousands of that unhappy peoplewere pillaged and massacred: [37] nor had they felt a more bloody strokesince the persecution of Hadrian. A remnant was saved by the firmness oftheir bishops, who accepted a feigned and transient conversion; but themore obstinate Jews opposed their fanaticism to the fanaticism of theChristians, barricadoed their houses, and precipitating themselves, their families, and their wealth, into the rivers or the flames, disappointed the malice, or at least the avarice, of their implacablefoes. 

[Footnote 35: Fuit et aliud scelus detestabile in hac congregationepedestris populi stulti et vesanae levitatis, anserem quendam divinospiritu asserebant afflatum, et capellam non minus eodem repletam, ethas sibi duces secundae viae fecerant, &c. , (Albert. Aquensis, l. I. C. 31, p. 196. ) Had these peasants founded an empire, they might haveintroduced, as in Egypt, the worship of animals, which their philosophicdescend ants would have glossed over with some specious and subtileallegory. * Note: A singular "allegoric" explanation of this strangefact has recently been broached: it is connected with the charge ofidolatry and Eastern heretical opinions subsequently made againstthe Templars. "We have no doubt that they were Manichee or Gnosticstandards. " (The author says the animals themselves were carried beforethe army. --M. ) "The goose, in Egyptian symbols, as every Egyptianscholar knows, meant 'divine Son, ' or 'Son of God. ' The goat meantTyphon, or Devil. Thus we have the Manichee opposing principles of goodand evil, as standards, at the head of the ignorant mob of crusadinginvaders. Can any one doubt that a large portion of this host must havebeen infected with the Manichee or Gnostic idolatry?" Account of theTemple Church by R. W. Billings, p. 5 London. 1838. This is, at allevents, a curious coincidence, especially considered in connection withthe extensive dissemination of the Paulician opinions among the commonpeople of Europe. At any rate, in so inexplicable a matter, we areinclined to catch at any explanation, however wild or subtile. --M. ]

[Footnote 36: Benjamin of Tudela describes the state of his Jewishbrethren from Cologne along the Rhine: they were rich, generous, learned, hospitable, and lived in the eager hope of the Messiah, (Voyage, tom. I. P. 243-245, par Baratier. ) In seventy years (he wroteabout A. D. 1170) they had recovered from these massacres. ]

[Footnote 37: These massacres and depredations on the Jews, whichwere renewed at each crusade, are coolly related. It is true, that St. Bernard (epist. 363, tom. I. P. 329) admonishes the Oriental Franks, nonsunt persequendi Judaei, non sunt trucidandi. The contrary doctrine hadbeen preached by a rival monk. * Note: This is an unjust sarcasm againstSt. Bernard. He stood above all rivalry of this kind See note 31, c. Lx. --M]

Between the frontiers of Austria and the seat of the Byzan tinemonarchy, the crusaders were compelled to traverse as interval of sixhundred miles; the wild and desolate countries of Hungary [38] andBulgaria. The soil is fruitful, and intersected with rivers; but itwas then covered with morasses and forests, which spread to a boundlessextent, whenever man has ceased to exercise his dominion over the earth. Both nations had imbibed the rudiments of Christianity; the Hungarianswere ruled by their native princes; the Bulgarians by a lieutenant ofthe Greek emperor; but, on the slightest provocation, their ferociousnature was rekindled, and ample provocation was afforded by thedisorders of the first pilgrims Agriculture must have been unskilfuland languid among a people, whose cities were built of reeds and timber, which were deserted in the summer season for the tents of hunters andshepherds. A scanty supply of provisions was rudely demanded, forciblyseized, and greedily consumed; and on the first quarrel, the crusadersgave a loose to indignation and revenge. But their ignorance of thecountry, of war, and of discipline, exposed them to every snare. TheGreek praefect of Bulgaria commanded a regular force; [381] at thetrumpet of the Hungarian king, the eighth or the tenth of his martialsubjects bent their bows and mounted on horseback; their policy wasinsidious, and their retaliation on these pious robbers was unrelentingand bloody. [39] About a third of the naked fugitives (and the hermitPeter was of the number) escaped to the Thracian mountains; andthe emperor, who respected the pilgrimage and succor of the Latins, conducted them by secure and easy journeys to Constantinople, andadvised them to await the arrival of their brethren. For a while theyremembered their faults and losses; but no sooner were they revived bythe hospitable entertainment, than their venom was again inflamed; theystung their benefactor, and neither gardens, nor palaces, nor churches, were safe from their depredations. For his own safety, Alexius alluredthem to pass over to the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus; but their blindimpetuosity soon urged them to desert the station which he had assigned, and to rush headlong against the Turks, who occupied the road toJerusalem. The hermit, conscious of his shame, had withdrawn from thecamp to Constantinople; and his lieutenant, Walter the Penniless, whowas worthy of a better command, attempted without success to introducesome order and prudence among the herd of savages. They separated inquest of prey, and themselves fell an easy prey to the arts of thesultan. By a rumor that their foremost companions were rioting in thespoils of his capital, Soliman [391] tempted the main body to descendinto the plain of Nice: they were overwhelmed by the Turkish arrows; anda pyramid of bones [40] informed their companions of the place of theirdefeat. Of the first crusaders, three hundred thousand had alreadyperished, before a single city was rescued from the infidels, beforetheir graver and more noble brethren had completed the preparations oftheir enterprise. [41]

[Footnote 38: See the contemporary description of Hungary in Otho ofFrisin gen, l. Ii. C. 31, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. Vi. P. 665 666. ]

[Footnote 381: The narrative of the first march is very incorrect. Thefirst party moved under Walter de Pexego and Walter the Penniless: theypassed safe through Hungary, the kingdom of Kalmeny, and were attackedin Bulgaria. Peter followed with 40, 000 men; passed through Hungary;but seeing the clothes of sixteen crusaders, who had been empaled on thewalls of Semlin. He attacked and stormed the city. He then marched toNissa, where, at first, he was hospitably received: but an accidentalquar rel taking place, he suffered a great defeat. Wilken, vol. I. P. 84-86--M. ]

[Footnote 39: The old Hungarians, without excepting Turotzius, are illinformed of the first crusade, which they involve in a single passage. Katona, like ourselves, can only quote the writers of France; but hecompares with local science the ancient and modern geography. Anteportam Cyperon, is Sopron or Poson; Mallevilla, Zemlin; FluviusMaroe, Savus; Lintax, Leith; Mesebroch, or Merseburg, Ouar, or Moson;Tollenburg, Pragg, (de Regibus Hungariae, tom. Iii. P. 19-53. )]

[Footnote 391: Soliman had been killed in 1085, in a battle againstToutoneh, brother of Malek Schah, between Appelo and Antioch. It wasnot Soliman, therefore, but his son David, surnamed Kilidje Arslan, the "Sword of the Lion, " who reigned in Nice. Almost all the occidentalauthors have fallen into this mistake, which was detected by M. Michaud, Hist. Des Crois. 4th edit. And Extraits des Aut. Arab. Rel. AuxCroisades, par M. Reinaud Paris, 1829, p. 3. His kingdom extended fromthe Orontes to the Euphra tes, and as far as the Bosphorus. KilidjeArslan must uniformly be substituted for Soliman. Brosset note on LeBeau, tom. Xv. P. 311. --M. ]

[Footnote 40: Anna Comnena (Alexias, l. X. P. 287) describes this as amountain. In the siege of Nice, such were used by the Franks themselvesas the materials of a wall. ]

[Footnote 41: See table on following page. ]

"To save time and space, I shall represent, in a short table, theparticular references to the great events of the first crusade. "

 [See Table 1. : Events Of The First Crusade]

None of the great sovereigns of Europe embarked their persons in thefirst crusade. The emperor Henry the Fourth was not disposed to obeythe summons of the pope: Philip the First of France was occupied by hispleasures; William Rufus of England by a recent conquest; the kin`gs ofSpain were engaged in a domestic war against the Moors; and the northernmonarchs of Scotland, Denmark, [42] Sweden, and Poland, were yetstrangers to the passions and interests of the South. The religiousardor was more strongly felt by the princes of the second order, whoheld an important place in the feudal system. Their situation willnaturally cast under four distinct heads the review of their names andcharacters; but I may escape some needless repetition, by observing atonce, that courage and the exercise of arms are the common attribute ofthese Christian adventurers. I. The first rank both in war and councilis justly due to Godfrey of Bouillon; and happy would it have been forthe crusaders, if they had trusted themselves to the sole conduct ofthat accomplished hero, a worthy representative of Charlemagne, fromwhom he was descended in the female line. His father was of the noblerace of the counts of Boulogne: Brabant, the lower province of Lorraine, [43] was the inheritance of his mother; and by the emperor's bounty hewas himself invested with that ducal title, which has been improperlytransferred to his lordship of Bouillon in the Ardennes. [44] In theservice of Henry the Fourth, he bore the great standard of the empire, and pierced with his lance the breast of Rodolph, the rebel king:Godfrey was the first who ascended the walls of Rome; and his sickness, his vow, perhaps his remorse for bearing arms against the pope, confirmed an early resolution of visiting the holy sepulchre, not asa pilgrim, but a deliverer. His valor was matured by prudence andmoderation; his piety, though blind, was sincere; and, in the tumultof a camp, he practised the real and fictitious virtues of a convent. Superior to the private factions of the chiefs, he reserved his enmityfor the enemies of Christ; and though he gained a kingdom by theattempt, his pure and disinterested zeal was acknowledged by his rivals. Godfrey of Bouillon [45] was accompanied by his two brothers, by Eustacethe elder, who had succeeded to the county of Boulogne, and by theyounger, Baldwin, a character of more ambiguous virtue. The duke ofLorraine, was alike celebrated on either side of the Rhine: from hisbirth and education, he was equally conversant with the French andTeutonic languages: the barons of France, Germany, and Lorraine, assembled their vassals; and the confederate force that marched underhis banner was composed of fourscore thousand foot and about tenthousand horse. II. In the parliament that was held at Paris, in theking's presence, about two months after the council of Clermont, Hugh, count of Vermandois, was the most conspicuous of the princes who assumedthe cross. But the appellation of the Great was applied, not so much tohis merit or possessions, (though neither were contemptible, ) as to theroyal birth of the brother of the king of France. [46] Robert, dukeof Normandy, was the eldest son of William the Conqueror; but on hisfather's death he was deprived of the kingdom of England, by his ownindolence and the activity of his brother Rufus. The worth of Robert wasdegraded by an excessive levity and easiness of temper: his cheerfulnessseduced him to the indulgence of pleasure; his profuse liberalityimpoverished the prince and people; his indiscriminate clemencymultiplied the number of offenders; and the amiable qualities ofa private man became the essential defects of a sovereign. For thetrifling sum of ten thousand marks, he mortgaged Normandy during hisabsence to the English usurper; [47] but his engagement and behavior inthe holy war announced in Robert a reformation of manners, and restoredhim in some degree to the public esteem. Another Robert was count ofFlanders, a royal province, which, in this century, gave three queens tothe thrones of France, England, and Denmark: he was surnamed theSword and Lance of the Christians; but in the exploits of a soldier hesometimes forgot the duties of a general. Stephen, count of Chartres, ofBlois, and of Troyes, was one of the richest princes of the age; andthe number of his castles has been compared to the three hundred andsixty-five days of the year. His mind was improved by literature; and, in the council of the chiefs, the eloquent Stephen [48] was chosen todischarge the office of their president. These four were the principalleaders of the French, the Normans, and the pilgrims of the Britishisles: but the list of the barons who were possessed of three or fourtowns would exceed, says a contemporary, the catalogue of the Trojanwar. [49] III. In the south of France, the command was assumed byAdhemar bishop of Puy, the pope egate, and by Raymond count of St. Giles and Thoulouse who added the prouder titles of duke of Narbonneand marquis of Provence. The former was a respectable prelate, alikequalified for this world and the next. The latter was a veteran warrior, who had fought against the Saracens of Spain, and who consecratedhis declining age, not only to the deliverance, but to the perpetualservice, of the holy sepulchre. His experience and riches gave him astrong ascendant in the Christian camp, whose distress he was oftenable, and sometimes willing, to relieve. But it was easier for him toextort the praise of the Infidels, than to preserve the love of hissubjects and associates. His eminent qualities were clouded by a temperhaughty, envious, and obstinate; and, though he resigned an amplepatrimony for the cause of God, his piety, in the public opinion, wasnot exempt from avarice and ambition. [50] A mercantile, rather thana martial, spirit prevailed among his provincials, [51] a common name, which included the natives of Auvergne and Languedoc, [52] the vassalsof the kingdom of Burgundy or Arles. From the adjacent frontier of Spainhe drew a band of hardy adventurers; as he marched through Lombardy, a crowd of Italians flocked to his standard, and his united forceconsisted of one hundred thousand horse and foot. If Raymond was thefirst to enlist and the last to depart, the delay may be excused by thegreatness of his preparation and the promise of an everlasting farewell. IV. The name of Bohemond, the son of Robert Guiscard, was already famousby his double victory over the Greek emperor; but his father's will hadreduced him to the principality of Tarentum, and the remembrance of hisEastern trophies, till he was awakened by the rumor and passage of theFrench pilgrims. It is in the person of this Norman chief that wemay seek for the coolest policy and ambition, with a small allay ofreligious fanaticism. His conduct may justify a belief that he hadsecretly directed the design of the pope, which he affected to secondwith astonishment and zeal: at the siege of Amalphi, his example anddiscourse inflamed the passions of a confederate army; he instantly torehis garment to supply crosses for the numerous candidates, and preparedto visit Constantinople and Asia at the head of ten thousand horse andtwenty thousand foot. Several princes of the Norman race accompaniedthis veteran general; and his cousin Tancred [53] was the partner, rather than the servant, of the war. 

In the accomplished character of Tancred we discover all the virtues ofa perfect knight, [54] the true spirit of chivalry, which inspired thegenerous sentiments and social offices of man far better than the basephilosophy, or the baser religion, of the times. 

[Footnote 42: The author of the Esprit des Croisades has doubted, andmight have disbelieved, the crusade and tragic death of Prince Sueno, with 1500 or 15, 000 Danes, who was cut off by Sultan Soliman inCappadocia, but who still lives in the poem of Tasso, (tom. Iv. P. 111-115. )]

[Footnote 43: The fragments of the kingdoms of Lotharingia, or Lorraine, were broken into the two duchies of the Moselle and of the Meuse: thefirst has preserved its name, which in the latter has been changed intothat of Brabant, (Vales. Notit. Gall. P. 283-288. )]

[Footnote 44: See, in the Description of France, by the Abbe deLonguerue, the articles of Boulogne, part i. P. 54; Brabant, part ii. P. 47, 48; Bouillon, p. 134. On his departure, Godfrey sold or pawnedBouillon to the church for 1300 marks. ]

[Footnote 45: See the family character of Godfrey, in William of Tyre, l. Ix. C. 5-8; his previous design in Guibert, (p. 485;) his sicknessand vow in Bernard. Thesaur. , (c 78. )]

[Footnote 46: Anna Comnena supposes, that Hugh was proud of his nobilityriches, and power, (l. X. P. 288: ) the two last articles appear moreequivocal; but an item, which seven hundred years ago was famous in thepalace of Constantinople, attests the ancient dignity of the Capetianfamily of France. ]

[Footnote 47: Will. Gemeticensis, l. Vii. C. 7, p. 672, 673, in Camden. Normani cis. He pawned the duchy for one hundredth part of the presentyearly revenue. Ten thousand marks may be equal to five hundred thousandlivres, and Normandy annually yields fifty-seven millions to the king, (Necker, Administration des Finances, tom. I. P. 287. )]

[Footnote 48: His original letter to his wife is inserted in theSpicilegium of Dom. Luc. D'Acheri, tom. Iv. And quoted in the Esprit desCroisades tom. I. P. 63. ]

[Footnote 49: Unius enim duum, trium seu quatuor oppidorum dominos quisnumeret? quorum tanta fuit copia, ut non vix totidem Trojana obsidiocoegisse putetur. (Ever the lively and interesting Guibert, p. 486. )]

[Footnote 50: It is singular enough, that Raymond of St. Giles, a secondcharacter in the genuine history of the crusades, should shine as thefirst of heroes in the writings of the Greeks (Anna Comnen. Alexiad, l. X xi. ) and the Arabians, (Longueruana, p. 129. )]

[Footnote 51: Omnes de Burgundia, et Alvernia, et Vasconia, et Gothi, (of Languedoc, ) provinciales appellabantur, caeteri vero Francigenaeet hoc in exercitu; inter hostes autem Franci dicebantur. Raymond desAgiles, p. 144. ]

[Footnote 52: The town of his birth, or first appanage, was consecratedto St Aegidius, whose name, as early as the first crusade, was corruptedby the French into St. Gilles, or St. Giles. It is situate in the IowenLanguedoc, between Nismes and the Rhone, and still boasts a collegiatechurch of the foundation of Raymond, (Melanges tires d'une GrandeBibliotheque, tom. Xxxvii. P 51. )]

[Footnote 53: The mother of Tancred was Emma, sister of the great RobertGuiscard; his father, the Marquis Odo the Good. It is singular enough, that the family and country of so illustrious a person should beunknown; but Muratori reasonably conjectures that he was an Italian, andperhaps of the race of the marquises of Montferrat in Piedmont, (Script. Tom. V. P. 281, 282. )]

[Footnote 54: To gratify the childish vanity of the house of Este. Tassohas inserted in his poem, and in the first crusade, a fabulous hero, the brave and amorous Rinaldo, (x. 75, xvii. 66-94. ) He might borrow hisname from a Rinaldo, with the Aquila bianca Estense, who vanquished, as the standard-bearer of the Roman church, the emperor Frederic I. , (Storia Imperiale di Ricobaldo, in Muratori Script. Ital. Tom. Ix. P. 360. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, iii. 30. ) But, 1. The distance of sixtyyears between the youth of the two Rinaldos destroys their identity. 2. The Storia Imperiale is a forgery of the Conte Boyardo, at the end ofthe xvth century, (Muratori, p. 281-289. ) 3. This Rinaldo, and hisexploits, are not less chimerical than the hero of Tasso, (Muratori, Antichita Estense, tom. I. P. 350. )]

Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade. --Part III. 

Between the age of Charlemagne and that of the crusades, a revolutionhad taken place among the Spaniards, the Normans, and the French, which was gradually extended to the rest of Europe. The service of theinfantry was degraded to the plebeians; the cavalry formed the strengthof the armies, and the honorable name of miles, or soldier, was confinedto the gentlemen [55] who served on horseback, and were invested withthe character of knighthood. The dukes and counts, who had usurpedthe rights of sovereignty, divided the provinces among their faithfulbarons: the barons distributed among their vassals the fiefs orbenefices of their jurisdiction; and these military tenants, the peersof each other and of their lord, composed the noble or equestrianorder, which disdained to conceive the peasant or burgher as of the samespecies with themselves. The dignity of their birth was preserved bypure and equal alliances; their sons alone, who could produce fourquarters or lines of ancestry without spot or reproach, might legallypretend to the honor of knighthood; but a valiant plebeian was sometimesenriched and ennobled by the sword, and became the father of a new race. A single knight could impart, according to his judgment, the characterwhich he received; and the warlike sovereigns of Europe derived moreglory from this personal distinction than from the lustre of theirdiadem. This ceremony, of which some traces may be found in Tacitus andthe woods of Germany, [56] was in its origin simple and profane; thecandidate, after some previous trial, was invested with the sword andspurs; and his cheek or shoulder was touched with a slight blow, as anemblem of the last affront which it was lawful for him to endure. Butsuperstition mingled in every public and private action of life: inthe holy wars, it sanctified the profession of arms; and the order ofchivalry was assimilated in its rights and privileges to the sacredorders of priesthood. The bath and white garment of the novice werean indecent copy of the regeneration of baptism: his sword, which heoffered on the altar, was blessed by the ministers of religion: hissolemn reception was preceded by fasts and vigils; and he was createda knight in the name of God, of St. George, and of St. Michael thearchangel. He swore to accomplish the duties of his profession;and education, example, and the public opinion, were the inviolableguardians of his oath. As the champion of God and the ladies, (I blushto unite such discordant names, ) he devoted himself to speak the truth;to maintain the right; to protect the distressed; to practise courtesy, a virtue less familiar to the ancients; to pursue the infidels; todespise the allurements of ease and safety; and to vindicate in everyperilous adventure the honor of his character. The abuse of the samespirit provoked the illiterate knight to disdain the arts of industryand peace; to esteem himself the sole judge and avenger of his owninjuries; and proudly to neglect the laws of civil society and militarydiscipline. Yet the benefits of this institution, to refine the temperof Barbarians, and to infuse some principles of faith, justice, andhumanity, were strongly felt, and have been often observed. The asperityof national prejudice was softened; and the community of religion andarms spread a similar color and generous emulation over the face ofChristendom. Abroad in enterprise and pilgrimage, at home in martialexercise, the warriors of every country were perpetually associated; andimpartial taste must prefer a Gothic tournament to the Olympic games ofclassic antiquity. [57] Instead of the naked spectacles which corruptedthe manners of the Greeks, and banished from the stadium the virginsand matrons, the pompous decoration of the lists was crowned with thepresence of chaste and high-born beauty, from whose hands the conquerorreceived the prize of his dexterity and courage. The skill and strengththat were exerted in wrestling and boxing bear a distant and doubtfulrelation to the merit of a soldier; but the tournaments, as they wereinvented in France, and eagerly adopted both in the East and West, presented a lively image of the business of the field. The singlecombats, the general skirmish, the defence of a pass, or castle, wererehearsed as in actual service; and the contest, both in real and mimicwar, was decided by the superior management of the horse and lance. Thelance was the proper and peculiar weapon of the knight: his horse wasof a large and heavy breed; but this charger, till he was roused by theapproaching danger, was usually led by an attendant, and he quietly rodea pad or palfrey of a more easy pace. His helmet and sword, his greavesand buckler, it would be superfluous to describe; but I may remark, that, at the period of the crusades, the armor was less ponderous thanin later times; and that, instead of a massy cuirass, his breast wasdefended by a hauberk or coat of mail. When their long lances were fixedin the rest, the warriors furiously spurred their horses against thefoe; and the light cavalry of the Turks and Arabs could seldom standagainst the direct and impetuous weight of their charge. Each knight wasattended to the field by his faithful squire, a youth of equal birth andsimilar hopes; he was followed by his archers and men at arms, and four, or five, or six soldiers were computed as the furniture of a completelance. In the expeditions to the neighboring kingdoms or the Holy Land, the duties of the feudal tenure no longer subsisted; the voluntaryservice of the knights and their followers were either prompted by zealor attachment, or purchased with rewards and promises; and the numbersof each squadron were measured by the power, the wealth, and the fame, of each independent chieftain. They were distinguished by his banner, his armorial coat, and his cry of war; and the most ancient familiesof Europe must seek in these achievements the origin and proof oftheir nobility. In this rapid portrait of chivalry I have been urged toanticipate on the story of the crusades, at once an effect and a cause, of this memorable institution. [58]

[Footnote 55: Of the words gentilis, gentilhomme, gentleman, twoetymologies are produced: 1. From the Barbarians of the fifth century, the soldiers, and at length the conquerors of the Roman empire, who werevain of their foreign nobility; and 2. From the sense of the civilians, who consider gentilis as synonymous with ingenuus. Selden inclines tothe first but the latter is more pure, as well as probable. ]

[Footnote 56: Framea scutoque juvenem ornant. Tacitus, Germania. C. 13. ]

[Footnote 57: The athletic exercises, particularly the caestus andpancratium, were condemned by Lycurgus, Philopoemen, and Galen, alawgiver, a general, and a physician. Against their authority andreasons, the reader may weigh the apology of Lucian, in the character ofSolon. See West on the Olympic Games, in his Pindar, vol. Ii. P. 86-96243-248]

[Footnote 58: On the curious subjects of knighthood, knights-service, nobility, arms, cry of war, banners, and tournaments, an ample fund ofinformation may be sought in Selden, (Opera, tom. Iii. Part i. Titlesof Honor, part ii. C. 1, 3, 5, 8, ) Ducange, (Gloss. Latin. Tom. Iv. P. 398-412, &c. , ) Dissertations sur Joinville, (i. Vi. --xii. P. 127-142, p. 161-222, ) and M. De St. Palaye, (Memoires sur la Chevalerie. )]

Such were the troops, and such the leaders, who assumed the cross forthe deliverance of the holy sepulchre. As soon as they were relieved bythe absence of the plebeian multitude, they encouraged each other, by interviews and messages, to accomplish their vow, and hasten theirdeparture. Their wives and sisters were desirous of partaking the dangerand merit of the pilgrimage: their portable treasures were conveyed inbars of silver and gold; and the princes and barons were attended bytheir equipage of hounds and hawks to amuse their leisure and to supplytheir table. The difficulty of procuring subsistence for so many myriadsof men and horses engaged them to separate their forces: their choiceor situation determined the road; and it was agreed to meet inthe neighborhood of Constantinople, and from thence to begin theiroperations against the Turks. From the banks of the Meuse and theMoselle, Godfrey of Bouillon followed the direct way of Germany, Hungary, and Bulgaria; and, as long as he exercised the sole commandevery step afforded some proof of his prudence and virtue. On theconfines of Hungary he was stopped three weeks by a Christian people, to whom the name, or at least the abuse, of the cross was justly odious. The Hungarians still smarted with the wounds which they had receivedfrom the first pilgrims: in their turn they had abused the right ofdefence and retaliation; and they had reason to apprehend a severerevenge from a hero of the same nation, and who was engaged in the samecause. But, after weighing the motives and the events, the virtuousduke was content to pity the crimes and misfortunes of his worthlessbrethren; and his twelve deputies, the messengers of peace, requested inhis name a free passage and an equal market. To remove their suspicions, Godfrey trusted himself, and afterwards his brother, to the faith ofCarloman, [581] king of Hungary, who treated them with a simple buthospitable entertainment: the treaty was sanctified by their commongospel; and a proclamation, under pain of death, restrained theanimosity and license of the Latin soldiers. From Austria to Belgrade, they traversed the plains of Hungary, without enduring or offering aninjury; and the proximity of Carloman, who hovered on their flanks withhis numerous cavalry, was a precaution not less useful for their safetythan for his own. They reached the banks of the Save; and no sooner hadthey passed the river, than the king of Hungary restored the hostages, and saluted their departure with the fairest wishes for the success oftheir enterprise. With the same conduct and discipline, Godfreypervaded the woods of Bulgaria and the frontiers of Thrace; and mightcongratulate himself that he had almost reached the first term of hispilgrimage, without drawing his sword against a Christian adversary. After an easy and pleasant journey through Lombardy, from Turin toAquileia, Raymond and his provincials marched forty days throughthe savage country of Dalmatia [59] and Sclavonia. The weather was aperpetual fog; the land was mountainous and desolate; the natives wereeither fugitive or hostile: loose in their religion and government, theyrefused to furnish provisions or guides; murdered the stragglers; andexercised by night and day the vigilance of the count, who derivedmore security from the punishment of some captive robbers than from hisinterview and treaty with the prince of Scodra. [60] His march betweenDurazzo and Constantinople was harassed, without being stopped, bythe peasants and soldiers of the Greek emperor; and the same faint andambiguous hostility was prepared for the remaining chiefs, who passedthe Adriatic from the coast of Italy. Bohemond had arms and vessels, and foresight and discipline; and his name was not forgotten in theprovinces of Epirus and Thessaly. Whatever obstacles he encountered weresurmounted by his military conduct and the valor of Tancred; and if theNorman prince affected to spare the Greeks, he gorged his soldierswith the full plunder of an heretical castle. [61] The nobles of Francepressed forwards with the vain and thoughtless ardor of which theirnation has been sometimes accused. From the Alps to Apulia the march ofHugh the Great, of the two Roberts, and of Stephen of Chartres, througha wealthy country, and amidst the applauding Catholics, was a devout ortriumphant progress: they kissed the feet of the Roman pontiff; and thegolden standard of St. Peter was delivered to the brother of the Frenchmonarch. [62] But in this visit of piety and pleasure, they neglectedto secure the season, and the means of their embarkation: the winter wasinsensibly lost: their troops were scattered and corrupted in the townsof Italy. They separately accomplished their passage, regardlessof safety or dignity; and within nine months from the feast of theAssumption, the day appointed by Urban, all the Latin princes hadreached Constantinople. But the count of Vermandois was produced asa captive; his foremost vessels were scattered by a tempest; and hisperson, against the law of nations, was detained by the lieutenants ofAlexius. Yet the arrival of Hugh had been announced by four-and-twentyknights in golden armor, who commanded the emperor to revere the generalof the Latin Christians, the brother of the king of kings. [63] [631]

[Footnote 581: Carloman (or Calmany) demanded the brother of Godfrey ashostage but Count Baldwin refused the humiliating submission. Godfreyshamed him into this sacrifice for the common good by offering tosurrender himself Wilken, vol. I. P. 104. --M. ]

[Footnote 59: The Familiae Dalmaticae of Ducange are meagre andimperfect; the national historians are recent and fabulous, the Greeksremote and careless. In the year 1104 Coloman reduced the maritinecountry as far as Trau and Saloma, (Katona, Hist. Crit. Tom. Iii. P. 195-207. )]

[Footnote 60: Scodras appears in Livy as the capital and fortress ofGentius, king of the Illyrians, arx munitissima, afterwards a Romancolony, (Cellarius, tom. I. P. 393, 394. ) It is now called Iscodar, orScutari, (D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. I. P. 164. ) The sanjiak(now a pacha) of Scutari, or Schendeire, was the viiith under theBeglerbeg of Romania, and furnished 600 soldiers on a revenue of 78, 787rix dollars, (Marsigli, Stato Militare del Imperio Ottomano, p. 128. )]

[Footnote 61: In Pelagonia castrum haereticum. .. .. Spoliatum cum suishabi tatoribus igne combussere. Nec id eis injuria contigit: quiaillorum detestabilis sermo et cancer serpebat, jamque circumjacentesregiones suo pravo dogmate foedaverat, (Robert. Mon. P. 36, 37. ) Aftercooly relating the fact, the Archbishop Baldric adds, as a praise, Omnessiquidem illi viatores, Judeos, haereticos, Saracenos aequaliter habentexosos; quos omnes appellant inimicos Dei, (p. 92. )]

[Footnote 62: (Alexiad. L. X. P. 288. )]

[Footnote 63: This Oriental pomp is extravagant in a count ofVermandois; but the patriot Ducange repeats with much complacency (Not. Ad Alexiad. P. 352, 353. Dissert. Xxvii. Sur Joinville, p. 315) thepassages of Matthew Paris (A. D. 1254) and Froissard, (vol. Iv. P. 201, )which style the king of France rex regum, and chef de tous les roisChretiens. ]

[Footnote 631: Hugh was taken at Durazzo, and sent by land toConstantinople Wilken--M. ]

In some oriental tale I have read the fable of a shepherd, who wasruined by the accomplishment of his own wishes: he had prayed for water;the Ganges was turned into his grounds, and his flock and cottage wereswept away by the inundation. Such was the fortune, or at least theapprehension of the Greek emperor Alexius Comnenus, whose name hasalready appeared in this history, and whose conduct is so differentlyrepresented by his daughter Anne, [64] and by the Latin writers. [65]In the council of Placentia, his ambassadors had solicited a moderatesuccor, perhaps of ten thousand soldiers, but he was astonished bythe approach of so many potent chiefs and fanatic nations. The emperorfluctuated between hope and fear, between timidity and courage; butin the crooked policy which he mistook for wisdom, I cannot believe, Icannot discern, that he maliciously conspired against the life or honorof the French heroes. The promiscuous multitudes of Peter the Hermitwere savage beasts, alike destitute of humanity and reason: nor was itpossible for Alexius to prevent or deplore their destruction. Thetroops of Godfrey and his peers were less contemptible, but not lesssuspicious, to the Greek emperor. Their motives might be pure and pious:but he was equally alarmed by his knowledge of the ambitious Bohemond, [651] and his ignorance of the Transalpine chiefs: the courage of theFrench was blind and headstrong; they might be tempted by the luxury andwealth of Greece, and elated by the view and opinion of theirinvincible strength: and Jerusalem might be forgotten in the prospect ofConstantinople. After a long march and painful abstinence, the troops ofGodfrey encamped in the plains of Thrace; they heard with indignation, that their brother, the count of Vermandois, was imprisoned by theGreeks; and their reluctant duke was compelled to indulge them in somefreedom of retaliation and rapine. They were appeased by the submissionof Alexius: he promised to supply their camp; and as they refused, inthe midst of winter, to pass the Bosphorus, their quarters were assignedamong the gardens and palaces on the shores of that narrow sea. But anincurable jealousy still rankled in the minds of the two nations, whodespised each other as slaves and Barbarians. Ignorance is the ground ofsuspicion, and suspicion was inflamed into daily provocations: prejudiceis blind, hunger is deaf; and Alexius is accused of a design to starveor assault the Latins in a dangerous post, on all sides encompassed withthe waters. [66] Godfrey sounded his trumpets, burst the net, overspreadthe plain, and insulted the suburbs; but the gates of Constantinoplewere strongly fortified; the ramparts were lined with archers; and, after a doubtful conflict, both parties listened to the voice of peaceand religion. The gifts and promises of the emperor insensibly soothedthe fierce spirit of the western strangers; as a Christian warrior, herekindled their zeal for the prosecution of their holy enterprise, whichhe engaged to second with his troops and treasures. On the return ofspring, Godfrey was persuaded to occupy a pleasant and plentiful camp inAsia; and no sooner had he passed the Bosphorus, than the Greek vesselswere suddenly recalled to the opposite shore. The same policy wasrepeated with the succeeding chiefs, who were swayed by the example, andweakened by the departure, of their foremost companions. By his skilland diligence, Alexius prevented the union of any two of the confederatearmies at the same moment under the walls of Constantinople; and beforethe feast of the Pentecost not a Latin pilgrim was left on the coast ofEurope. 

[Footnote 64: Anna Comnena was born the 1st of December, A. D. 1083, indiction vii. , (Alexiad. L. Vi. P. 166, 167. ) At thirteen, the time ofthe first crusade, she was nubile, and perhaps married to the youngerNicephorus Bryennius, whom she fondly styles, (l. X. P. 295, 296. ) Somemoderns have imagined, that her enmity to Bohemond was the fruit ofdisappointed love. In the transactions of Constantinople and Nice, herpartial accounts (Alex. L. X. Xi. P. 283-317) may be opposed to thepartiality of the Latins, but in their subsequent exploits she is briefand ignorant. ]

[Footnote 65: In their views of the character and conduct of Alexius, Maimbourg has favored the Catholic Franks, and Voltaire has beenpartial to the schismatic Greeks. The prejudice of a philosopher is lessexcusable than that of a Jesuit. ]

[Footnote 651: Wilken quotes a remarkable passage of William ofMalmsbury as to the secret motives of Urban and of Bohemond in urgingthe crusade. Illud repositius propositum non ita vulgabatur, quodBoemundi consilio, pene totam Europam in Asiaticam expeditionem moveret, ut in tanto tumultu omnium provinciarum facile obaeratis auxiliaribus, et Urbanus Romam et Boemundus Illyricum et Macedoniam pervaderent. Nameas terras et quidquid praeterea a Dyrrachio usque ad Thessalonicamprotenditur, Guiscardus pater, super Alexium acquisierat; ideirco illasBoemundus suo juri competere clamitabat: inops haereditatis Apuliae, quam genitor Rogerio, minori filio delegaverat. Wilken, vol. Ii. P. 313. --M]

[Footnote 66: Between the Black Sea, the Bosphorus, and the RiverBarbyses, which is deep in summer, and runs fifteen miles through a flatmeadow. Its communication with Europe and Constantinople is by thestone bridge of the Blachernoe, which in successive ages was restored byJustinian and Basil, (Gyllius de Bosphoro Thracio, l. Ii. C. 3. DucangeO. P. Christiana, l. V. C. 2, p, 179. )]

The same arms which threatened Europe might deliver Asia, and repel theTurks from the neighboring shores of the Bosphorus and Hellespont. Thefair provinces from Nice to Antioch were the recent patrimony of theRoman emperor; and his ancient and perpetual claim still embraced thekingdoms of Syria and Egypt. In his enthusiasm, Alexius indulged, oraffected, the ambitious hope of leading his new allies to subvertthe thrones of the East; but the calmer dictates of reason and temperdissuaded him from exposing his royal person to the faith of unknownand lawless Barbarians. His prudence, or his pride, was content withextorting from the French princes an oath of homage and fidelity, and asolemn promise, that they

would either restore, or hold, their Asiatic conquests as the humble andloyal vassals of the Roman empire. Their independent spirit was fired atthe mention of this foreign and voluntary servitude: they successivelyyielded to the dexterous application of gifts and flattery; and thefirst proselytes became the most eloquent and effectual missionaries tomultiply the companions of their shame. The pride of Hugh of Vermandoiswas soothed by the honors of his captivity; and in the brother of theFrench king, the example of submission was prevalent and weighty. In themind of Godfrey of Bouillon every human consideration was subordinate tothe glory of God and the success of the crusade. He had firmly resistedthe temptations of Bohemond and Raymond, who urged the attack andconquest of Constantinople. Alexius esteemed his virtues, deservedlynamed him the champion of the empire, and dignified his homage with thefilial name and the rights of adoption. [67] The hateful Bohemond wasreceived as a true and ancient ally; and if the emperor reminded himof former hostilities, it was only to praise the valor that he haddisplayed, and the glory that he had acquired, in the fields of Durazzoand Larissa. The son of Guiscard was lodged and entertained, and servedwith Imperial pomp: one day, as he passed through the gallery of thepalace, a door was carelessly left open to expose a pile of gold andsilver, of silk and gems, of curious and costly furniture, that washeaped, in seeming disorder, from the floor to the roof of the chamber. "What conquests, " exclaimed the ambitious miser, "might not be achievedby the possession of such a treasure!"--"It is your own, " replied aGreek attendant, who watched the motions of his soul; and Bohemond, after some hesitation, condescended to accept this magnificentpresent. The Norman was flattered by the assurance of an independentprincipality; and Alexius eluded, rather than denied, his daringdemand of the office of great domestic, or general of the East. The twoRoberts, the son of the conqueror of England, and the kinsmen of threequeens, [68] bowed in their turn before the Byzantine throne. A privateletter of Stephen of Chartres attests his admiration of the emperor, themost excellent and liberal of men, who taught him to believe that he wasa favorite, and promised to educate and establish his youngest son. In his southern province, the count of St. Giles and Thoulouse faintlyrecognized the supremacy of the king of France, a prince of a foreignnation and language. At the head of a hundred thousand men, he declaredthat he was the soldier and servant of Christ alone, and that the Greekmight be satisfied with an equal treaty of alliance and friendship. Hisobstinate resistance enhanced the value and the price of his submission;and he shone, says the princess Anne, among the Barbarians, as the sunamidst the stars of heaven. His disgust of the noise and insolenceof the French, his suspicions of the designs of Bohemond, the emperorimparted to his faithful Raymond; and that aged statesman might clearlydiscern, that however false in friendship, he was sincere in his enmity. [69] The spirit of chivalry was last subdued in the person of Tancred;and none could deem themselves dishonored by the imitation of thatgallant knight. He disdained the gold and flattery of the Greek monarch;assaulted in his presence an insolent patrician; escaped to Asia in thehabit of a private soldier; and yielded with a sigh to the authorityof Bohemond, and the interest of the Christian cause. The best andmost ostensible reason was the impossibility of passing the sea andaccomplishing their vow, without the license and the vessels ofAlexius; but they cherished a secret hope, that as soon as they trodthe continent of Asia, their swords would obliterate their shame, anddissolve the engagement, which on his side might not be very faithfullyperformed. The ceremony of their homage was grateful to a people whohad long since considered pride as the substitute of power. High on histhrone, the emperor sat mute and immovable: his majesty was adored bythe Latin princes; and they submitted to kiss either his feet or hisknees, an indignity which their own writers are ashamed to confess andunable to deny. [70]

[Footnote 67: There are two sorts of adoption, the one by arms, theother by introducing the son between the shirt and skin of his father. Ducange isur Joinville, (Diss. Xxii. P. 270) supposes Godfrey's adoptionto have been of the latter sort. ]

[Footnote 68: After his return, Robert of Flanders became the man of theking of England, for a pension of four hundred marks. See the first actin Rymer's Foedera. ]

[Footnote 69: Sensit vetus regnandi, falsos in amore, odia non fingere. Tacit. Vi. 44. ]

[Footnote 70: The proud historians of the crusades slide and stumbleover this humiliating step. Yet, since the heroes knelt to salute theemperor, as he sat motionless on his throne, it is clear that they musthave kissed either his feet or knees. It is only singular, that Annashould not have amply supplied the silence or ambiguity of the Latins. The abasement of their princes would have added a fine chapter to theCeremoniale Aulae Byzantinae. ]

Private or public interest suppressed the murmurs of the dukes andcounts; but a French baron (he is supposed to be Robert of Paris [71]presumed to ascend the throne, and to place himself by the side ofAlexius. The sage reproof of Baldwin provoked him to exclaim, in hisbarbarous idiom, "Who is this rustic, that keeps his seat, while so manyvaliant captains are standing round him?" The emperor maintained hissilence, dissembled his indignation, and questioned his interpreterconcerning the meaning of the words, which he partly suspected from theuniversal language of gesture and countenance. Before the departureof the pilgrims, he endeavored to learn the name and condition of theaudacious baron. "I am a Frenchman, " replied Robert, "of the purest andmost ancient nobility of my country. All that I know is, that there is achurch in my neighborhood, [72] the resort of those who are desirousof approving their valor in single combat. Till an enemy appears, they address their prayers to God and his saints. That church I havefrequently visited. But never have I found an antagonist who dared toaccept my defiance. " Alexius dismissed the challenger with some prudentadvice for his conduct in the Turkish warfare; and history repeats withpleasure this lively example of the manners of his age and country. 

[Footnote 71: He called himself (see Alexias, l. X. P. 301. ) What atitle of noblesse of the eleventh century, if any one could now provehis inheritance! Anna relates, with visible pleasure, that the swellingBarbarian, was killed, or wounded, after fighting in the front in thebattle of Dorylaeum, (l. Xi. P. 317. ) This circumstance may justify thesuspicion of Ducange, (Not. P. 362, ) that he was no other than Robertof Paris, of the district most peculiarly styled the Duchy or Island ofFrance, (L'Isle de France. )]

[Footnote 72: With the same penetration, Ducange discovers his church tobe that of St. Drausus, or Drosin, of Soissons, quem duello dimicaturisolent invocare: pugiles qui ad memoriam ejus (his tomb) pernoctantinvictos reddit, ut et de Burgundia et Italia tali necessitateconfugiatur ad eum. Joan. Sariberiensis, epist. 139. ]

The conquest of Asia was undertaken and achieved by Alexander, withthirty-five thousand Macedonians and Greeks; [73] and his best hope wasin the strength and discipline of his phalanx of infantry. The principalforce of the crusaders consisted in their cavalry; and when that forcewas mustered in the plains of Bithynia, the knights and their martialattendants on horseback amounted to one hundred thousand fighting men, completely armed with the helmet and coat of mail. The value of thesesoldiers deserved a strict and authentic account; and the flower ofEuropean chivalry might furnish, in a first effort, this formidable bodyof heavy horse. A part of the infantry might be enrolled for the serviceof scouts, pioneers, and archers; but the promiscuous crowd were lost intheir own disorder; and we depend not on the eyes and knowledge, buton the belief and fancy, of a chaplain of Count Baldwin, [74] in theestimate of six hundred thousand pilgrims able to bear arms, besides thepriests and monks, the women and children of the Latin camp. The readerstarts; and before he is recovered from his surprise, I shall add, onthe same testimony, that if all who took the cross had accomplishedtheir vow, above six millions would have migrated from Europe toAsia. Under this oppression of faith, I derive some relief from a moresagacious and thinking writer, [75] who, after the same review of thecavalry, accuses the credulity of the priest of Chartres, and evendoubts whether the Cisalpine regions (in the geography of a Frenchman)were sufficient to produce and pour forth such incredible multitudes. The coolest scepticism will remember, that of these religious volunteersgreat numbers never beheld Constantinople and Nice. Of enthusiasm theinfluence is irregular and transient: many were detained at home byreason or cowardice, by poverty or weakness; and many were repulsed bythe obstacles of the way, the more insuperable as they were unforeseen, to these ignorant fanatics. The savage countries of Hungary and Bulgariawere whitened with their bones: their vanguard was cut in pieces by theTurkish sultan; and the loss of the first adventure, by the sword, orclimate, or fatigue, has already been stated at three hundred thousandmen. Yet the myriads that survived, that marched, that pressed forwardson the holy pilgrimage, were a subject of astonishment to themselvesand to the Greeks. The copious energy of her language sinks under theefforts of the princess Anne: [76] the images of locusts, of leaves andflowers, of the sands of the sea, or the stars of heaven, imperfectlyrepresent what she had seen and heard; and the daughter of Alexiusexclaims, that Europe was loosened from its foundations, and hurledagainst Asia. The ancient hosts of Darius and Xerxes labor under thesame doubt of a vague and indefinite magnitude; but I am inclined tobelieve, that a larger number has never been contained within the linesof a single camp, than at the siege of Nice, the first operation of theLatin princes. Their motives, their characters, and their arms, havebeen already displayed. Of their troops the most numerous portionwere natives of France: the Low Countries, the banks of the Rhine, andApulia, sent a powerful reenforcement: some bands of adventurers weredrawn from Spain, Lombardy, and England; [77] and from the distant bogsand mountains of Ireland or Scotland [78] issued some naked and savagefanatics, ferocious at home but unwarlike abroad. Had not superstitioncondemned the sacrilegious prudence of depriving the poorest or weakestChristian of the merit of the pilgrimage, the useless crowd, with mouthsbut without hands, might have been stationed in the Greek empire, tilltheir companions had opened and secured the way of the Lord. A smallremnant of the pilgrims, who passed the Bosphorus, was permitted tovisit the holy sepulchre. Their northern constitution was scorched bythe rays, and infected by the vapors, of a Syrian sun. They consumed, with heedless prodigality, their stores of water and provision: theirnumbers exhausted the inland country: the sea was remote, the Greekswere unfriendly, and the Christians of every sect fled before thevoracious and cruel rapine of their brethren. In the dire necessity offamine, they sometimes roasted and devoured the flesh of their infantor adult captives. Among the Turks and Saracens, the idolaters of Europewere rendered more odious by the name and reputation of Cannibals; thespies, who introduced themselves into the kitchen of Bohemond, wereshown several human bodies turning on the spit: and the artful Normanencouraged a report, which increased at the same time the abhorrence andthe terror of the infidels. [79]

[Footnote 73: There is some diversity on the numbers of his army; butno authority can be compared with that of Ptolemy, who states it at fivethousand horse and thirty thousand foot, (see Usher's Annales, p 152. )]

[Footnote 74: Fulcher. Carnotensis, p. 387. He enumerates nineteennations of different names and languages, (p. 389;) but I do not clearlyapprehend his difference between the Franci and Galli, Itali and Apuli. Elsewhere (p. 385) he contemptuously brands the deserters. ]

[Footnote 75: Guibert, p. 556. Yet even his gentle opposition implies animmense multitude. By Urban II. , in the fervor of his zeal, it is onlyrated at 300, 000 pilgrims, (epist. Xvi. Concil. Tom. Xii. P. 731. )]

[Footnote 76: Alexias, l. X. P. 283, 305. Her fastidious delicacycomplains of their strange and inarticulate names; and indeed thereis scarcely one that she has not contrived to disfigure with the proudignorance so dear and familiar to a polished people. I shall select onlyone example, Sangeles, for the count of St. Giles. ]

[Footnote 77: William of Malmsbury (who wrote about the year 1130) hasinserted in his history (l. Iv. P. 130-154) a narrative of the firstcrusade: but I wish that, instead of listening to the tenue murmur whichhad passed the British ocean, (p. 143, ) he had confined himself to thenumbers, families, and adventures of his countrymen. I find in Dugdale, that an English Norman, Stephen earl of Albemarle and Holdernesse, ledthe rear-guard with Duke Robert, at the battle of Antioch, (Baronage, part i. P. 61. )]

[Footnote 78: Videres Scotorum apud se ferocium alias imbellium cuneos, (Guibert, p. 471;) the crus intectum and hispida chlamys, may suit theHighlanders; but the finibus uliginosis may rather apply to the Irishbogs. William of Malmsbury expressly mentions the Welsh and Scots, &c. , (l. Iv. P. 133, ) who quitted, the former venatiorem, the latterfamiliaritatem pulicum. ]

[Footnote 79: This cannibal hunger, sometimes real, more frequentlyan artifice or a lie, may be found in Anna Comnena, (Alexias, l. X. P. 288, ) Guibert, (p. 546, ) Radulph. Cadom. , (c. 97. ) The stratagem isrelated by the author of the Gesta Francorum, the monk Robert Baldric, and Raymond des Agiles, in the siege and famine of Antioch. ]

Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade. --Part IV. 

I have expiated with pleasure on the first steps of the crusaders, asthey paint the manners and character of Europe: but I shall abridge thetedious and uniform narrative of their blind achievements, which wereperformed by strength and are described by ignorance. From their firststation in the neighborhood of Nicomedia, they advanced in successivedivisions; passed the contracted limit of the Greek empire; opened aroad through the hills, and commenced, by the siege of his capital, their pious warfare against the Turkish sultan. His kingdom of Roumextended from the Hellespont to the confines of Syria, and barred thepilgrimage of Jerusalem, his name was Kilidge-Arslan, or Soliman, [80] of the race of Seljuk, and son of the first conqueror; and in thedefence of a land which the Turks considered as their own, he deservedthe praise of his enemies, by whom alone he is known to posterity. Yielding to the first impulse of the torrent, he deposited his familyand treasure in Nice; retired to the mountains with fifty thousandhorse; and twice descended to assault the camps or quarters of theChristian besiegers, which formed an imperfect circle of above sixmiles. The lofty and solid walls of Nice were covered by a deep ditch, and flanked by three hundred and seventy towers; and on the verge ofChristendom, the Moslems were trained in arms, and inflamed by religion. Before this city, the French princes occupied their stations, andprosecuted their attacks without correspondence or subordination:emulation prompted their valor; but their valor was sullied by cruelty, and their emulation degenerated into envy and civil discord. In thesiege of Nice, the arts and engines of antiquity were employed by theLatins; the mine and the battering-ram, the tortoise, and the belfrey ormovable turret, artificial fire, and the catapult and balist, the sling, and the crossbow for the casting of stones and darts. [81] In the spaceof seven weeks much labor and blood were expended, and some progress, especially by Count Raymond, was made on the side of the besiegers. Butthe Turks could protract their resistance and secure their escape, aslong as they were masters of the Lake [82] Ascanius, which stretchesseveral miles to the westward of the city. The means of conquest weresupplied by the prudence and industry of Alexius; a great number ofboats was transported on sledges from the sea to the lake; they werefilled with the most dexterous of his archers; the flight of the sultanawas intercepted; Nice was invested by land and water; and a Greekemissary persuaded the inhabitants to accept his master's protection, and to save themselves, by a timely surrender, from the rage of thesavages of Europe. In the moment of victory, or at least of hope, thecrusaders, thirsting for blood and plunder, were awed by the Imperialbanner that streamed from the citadel; [821] and Alexius guarded withjealous vigilance this important conquest. The murmurs of the chiefswere stifled by honor or interest; and after a halt of nine days, theydirected their march towards Phrygia under the guidance of a Greekgeneral, whom they suspected of a secret connivance with the sultan. The consort and the principal servants of Soliman had been honorablyrestored without ransom; and the emperor's generosity to the miscreants[83] was interpreted as treason to the Christian cause. 

[Footnote 80: His Mussulman appellation of Soliman is used by theLatins, and his character is highly embellished by Tasso. His Turkishname of Kilidge-Arslan (A. H. 485-500, A. D. 1192-1206. See De Guignes'sTables, tom. I. P. 245) is employed by the Orientals, and with somecorruption by the Greeks; but little more than his name can be found inthe Mahometan writers, who are dry and sulky on the subject of the firstcrusade, (De Guignes, tom. Iii. P. Ii. P. 10-30. ) * Note: See note, page 556. Soliman and Kilidge-Arslan were father and son--M. ]

[Footnote 81: On the fortifications, engines, and sieges of the middleages, see Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae, tom. Ii. Dissert. Xxvi. P. 452-524. ) The belfredus, from whence our belfrey, was the movable towerof the ancients, (Ducange, tom. I. P. 608. )]

[Footnote 82: I cannot forbear remarking the resemblance between thesiege and lake of Nice, with the operations of Hernan Cortez beforeMexico. See Dr. Robertson, History of America, l. V. ]

[Footnote 821: See Anna Comnena. --M. ]

[Footnote 83: Mecreant, a word invented by the French crusaders, andconfined in that language to its primitive sense. It should seem, thatthe zeal of our ancestors boiled higher, and that they branded everyunbeliever as a rascal. A similar prejudice still lurks in the minds ofmany who think themselves Christians. ]

Soliman was rather provoked than dismayed by the loss of his capital:he admonished his subjects and allies of this strange invasion of theWestern Barbarians; the Turkish emirs obeyed the call of loyalty orreligion; the Turkman hordes encamped round his standard; and his wholeforce is loosely stated by the Christians at two hundred, or even threehundred and sixty thousand horse. Yet he patiently waited till they hadleft behind them the sea and the Greek frontier; and hovering on theflanks, observed their careless and confident progress in two columnsbeyond the view of each other. Some miles before they could reachDorylaeum in Phrygia, the left, and least numerous, division wassurprised, and attacked, and almost oppressed, by the Turkish cavalry. [84] The heat of the weather, the clouds of arrows, and the barbarousonset, overwhelmed the crusaders; they lost their order and confidence, and the fainting fight was sustained by the personal valor, rather thanby the military conduct, of Bohemond, Tancred, and Robert of Normandy. They were revived by the welcome banners of Duke Godfrey, who flew totheir succor, with the count of Vermandois, and sixty thousand horse;and was followed by Raymond of Tholouse, the bishop of Puy, and theremainder of the sacred army. Without a moment's pause, they formedin new order, and advanced to a second battle. They were received withequal resolution; and, in their common disdain for the unwarlike peopleof Greece and Asia, it was confessed on both sides, that the Turksand the Franks were the only nations entitled to the appellation ofsoldiers. [85] Their encounter was varied, and balanced by the contrastof arms and discipline; of the direct charge, and wheeling evolutions;of the couched lance, and the brandished javelin; of a weightybroadsword, and a crooked sabre; of cumbrous armor, and thin flowingrobes; and of the long Tartar bow, and the arbalist or crossbow, adeadly weapon, yet unknown to the Orientals. [86] As long as the horseswere fresh, and the quivers full, Soliman maintained the advantageof the day; and four thousand Christians were pierced by the Turkisharrows. In the evening, swiftness yielded to strength: on either side, the numbers were equal or at least as great as any ground could hold, orany generals could manage; but in turning the hills, the last divisionof Raymond and his provincials was led, perhaps without design on therear of an exhausted enemy; and the long contest was determined. Besidesa nameless and unaccounted multitude, three thousand Pagan knights wereslain in the battle and pursuit; the camp of Soliman was pillaged; andin the variety of precious spoil, the curiosity of the Latins was amusedwith foreign arms and apparel, and the new aspect of dromedaries andcamels. The importance of the victory was proved by the hasty retreatof the sultan: reserving ten thousand guards of the relics of his army, Soliman evacuated the kingdom of Roum, and hastened to implore the aid, and kindle the resentment, of his Eastern brethren. In a march of fivehundred miles, the crusaders traversed the Lesser Asia, through a wastedland and deserted towns, without finding either a friend or an enemy. The geographer [87] may trace the position of Dorylaeum, Antioch ofPisidia, Iconium, Archelais, and Germanicia, and may compare thoseclassic appellations with the modern names of Eskishehr the old city, Akshehr the white city, Cogni, Erekli, and Marash. As the pilgrimspassed over a desert, where a draught of water is exchanged for silver, they were tormented by intolerable thirst; and on the banks of the firstrivulet, their haste and intemperance were still more pernicious tothe disorderly throng. They climbed with toil and danger the steep andslippery sides of Mount Taurus; many of the soldiers cast away theirarms to secure their footsteps; and had not terror preceded their van, the long and trembling file might have been driven down the precipice bya handful of resolute enemies. Two of their most respectable chiefs, the duke of Lorraine and the count of Tholouse, were carried in litters:Raymond was raised, as it is said by miracle, from a hopeless malady;and Godfrey had been torn by a bear, as he pursued that rough andperilous chase in the mountains of Pisidia. 

[Footnote 84: Baronius has produced a very doubtful letter to hisbrother Roger, (A. D. 1098, No. 15. ) The enemies consisted of Medes, Persians, Chaldeans: be it so. The first attack was cum nostroincommodo; true and tender. But why Godfrey of Bouillon and Hughbrothers! Tancred is styled filius; of whom? Certainly not of Roger, norof Bohemond. ]

[Footnote 85: Verumtamen dicunt se esse de Francorum generatione; etquia nullus homo naturaliter debet esse miles nisi Franci et Turci, (Gesta Francorum, p. 7. ) The same community of blood and valor isattested by Archbishop Baldric, (p. 99. )]

[Footnote 86: Balista, Balestra, Arbalestre. See Muratori, Antiq. Tom. Ii. P. 517-524. Ducange, Gloss. Latin. Tom. I. P. 531, 532. In thetime of Anna Comnena, this weapon, which she describes under the nameof izangra, was unknown in the East, (l. X. P. 291. ) By a humaneinconsistency, the pope strove to prohibit it in Christian wars. ]

[Footnote 87: The curious reader may compare the classic learning ofCellarius and the geographical science of D'Anville. William of Tyre isthe only historian of the crusades who has any knowledge of antiquity;and M. Otter trod almost in the footsteps of the Franks fromConstantinople to Antioch, (Voyage en Turquie et en Perse, tom. I. P. 35-88. ) * Note: The journey of Col. Macdonald Kinneir in Asia Minorthrows considerable light on the geography of this march of thecrusaders. --M. ]

To improve the general consternation, the cousin of Bohemond andthe brother of Godfrey were detached from the main army with theirrespective squadrons of five, and of seven, hundred knights. Theyoverran in a rapid career the hills and sea-coast of Cilicia, from Cognito the Syrian gates: the Norman standard was first planted on the wallsof Tarsus and Malmistra; but the proud injustice of Baldwin at lengthprovoked the patient and generous Italian; and they turned theirconsecrated swords against each other in a private and profane quarrel. Honor was the motive, and fame the reward, of Tancred; but fortunesmiled on the more selfish enterprise of his rival. [88] He was calledto the assistance of a Greek or Armenian tyrant, who had been sufferedunder the Turkish yoke to reign over the Christians of Edessa. Baldwinaccepted the character of his son and champion: but no sooner was heintroduced into the city, than he inflamed the people to the massacreof his father, occupied the throne and treasure, extended his conquestsover the hills of Armenia and the plain of Mesopotamia, and founded thefirst principality of the Franks or Latins, which subsisted fifty-fouryears beyond the Euphrates. [89]

[Footnote 88: This detached conquest of Edessa is best representedby Fulcherius Carnotensis, or of Chartres, (in the collections ofBongarsius Duchesne, and Martenne, ) the valiant chaplain of CountBaldwin (Esprit des Croisades, tom. I. P. 13, 14. ) In the disputesof that prince with Tancred, his partiality is encountered by thepartiality of Radulphus Cadomensis, the soldier and historian of thegallant marquis. ]

[Footnote 89: See de Guignes, Hist. Des Huns, tom. I. P. 456. ]

Before the Franks could enter Syria, the summer, and even the autumn, were completely wasted: the siege of Antioch, or the separation andrepose of the army during the winter season, was strongly debated intheir council: the love of arms and the holy sepulchre urged them toadvance; and reason perhaps was on the side of resolution, since everyhour of delay abates the fame and force of the invader, and multipliesthe resources of defensive war. The capital of Syria was protected bythe River Orontes; and the iron bridge, [891] of nine arches, derivesits name from the massy gates of the two towers which are constructed ateither end. They were opened by the sword of the duke of Normandy: hisvictory gave entrance to three hundred thousand crusaders, an accountwhich may allow some scope for losses and desertion, but which clearlydetects much exaggeration in the review of Nice. In the description ofAntioch, [90] it is not easy to define a middle term between her ancientmagnificence, under the successors of Alexander and Augustus, and themodern aspect of Turkish desolation. The Tetrapolis, or four cities, ifthey retained their name and position, must have left a large vacuity ina circumference of twelve miles; and that measure, as well as the numberof four hundred towers, are not perfectly consistent with the fivegates, so often mentioned in the history of the siege. Yet Antioch musthave still flourished as a great and populous capital. At the head ofthe Turkish emirs, Baghisian, a veteran chief, commanded in the place:his garrison was composed of six or seven thousand horse, and fifteenor twenty thousand foot: one hundred thousand Moslems are said to havefallen by the sword; and their numbers were probably inferior to theGreeks, Armenians, and Syrians, who had been no more than fourteenyears the slaves of the house of Seljuk. From the remains of a solid andstately wall, it appears to have arisen to the height of threescore feetin the valleys; and wherever less art and labor had been applied, theground was supposed to be defended by the river, the morass, and themountains. Notwithstanding these fortifications, the city had beenrepeatedly taken by the Persians, the Arabs, the Greeks, and the Turks;so large a circuit must have yielded many pervious points of attack; andin a siege that was formed about the middle of October, the vigor ofthe execution could alone justify the boldness of the attempt. Whateverstrength and valor could perform in the field was abundantly dischargedby the champions of the cross: in the frequent occasions of sallies, of forage, of the attack and defence of convoys, they were oftenvictorious; and we can only complain, that their exploits are sometimesenlarged beyond the scale of probability and truth. The sword of Godfrey[91] divided a Turk from the shoulder to the haunch; and one half of theinfidel fell to the ground, while the other was transported by his horseto the city gate. As Robert of Normandy rode against his antagonist, "Idevote thy head, " he piously exclaimed, "to the daemons of hell;" andthat head was instantly cloven to the breast by the resistless stroke ofhis descending falchion. But the reality or the report of such giganticprowess [92] must have taught the Moslems to keep within their walls:and against those walls of earth or stone, the sword and the lance wereunavailing weapons. In the slow and successive labors of a siege, thecrusaders were supine and ignorant, without skill to contrive, or moneyto purchase, or industry to use, the artificial engines and implementsof assault. In the conquest of Nice, they had been powerfully assistedby the wealth and knowledge of the Greek emperor: his absence was poorlysupplied by some Genoese and Pisan vessels, that were attracted byreligion or trade to the coast of Syria: the stores were scanty, thereturn precarious, and the communication difficult and dangerous. Indolence or weakness had prevented the Franks from investing the entirecircuit; and the perpetual freedom of two gates relieved the wants andrecruited the garrison of the city. At the end of seven months, afterthe ruin of their cavalry, and an enormous loss by famine, desertionand fatigue, the progress of the crusaders was imperceptible, and theirsuccess remote, if the Latin Ulysses, the artful and ambitious Bohemond, had not employed the arms of cunning and deceit. The Christians ofAntioch were numerous and discontented: Phirouz, a Syrian renegado, hadacquired the favor of the emir and the command of three towers; and themerit of his repentance disguised to the Latins, and perhaps to himself, the foul design of perfidy and treason. A secret correspondence, fortheir mutual interest, was soon established between Phirouz and theprince of Tarento; and Bohemond declared in the council of the chiefs, that he could deliver the city into their hands. [921] But he claimedthe sovereignty of Antioch as the reward of his service; and theproposal which had been rejected by the envy, was at length extortedfrom the distress, of his equals. The nocturnal surprise was executedby the French and Norman princes, who ascended in person thescaling-ladders that were thrown from the walls: their new proselyte, after the murder of his too scrupulous brother, embraced and introducedthe servants of Christ; the army rushed through the gates; and theMoslems soon found, that although mercy was hopeless, resistance wasimpotent. 

But the citadel still refused to surrender; and the victims themselveswere speedily encompassed and besieged by the innumerable forces ofKerboga, prince of Mosul, who, with twenty-eight Turkish emirs, advancedto the deliverance of Antioch. Five-and-twenty days the Christians spenton the verge of destruction; and the proud lieutenant of the caliph andthe sultan left them only the choice of servitude or death. [93] In thisextremity they collected the relics of their strength, sallied from thetown, and in a single memorable day, annihilated or dispersed the hostof Turks and Arabians, which they might safely report to have consistedof six hundred thousand men. [94] Their supernatural allies I shallproceed to consider: the human causes of the victory of Antioch were thefearless despair of the Franks; and the surprise, the discord, perhapsthe errors, of their unskilful and presumptuous adversaries. The battleis described with as much disorder as it was fought; but we may observethe tent of Kerboga, a movable and spacious palace, enriched with theluxury of Asia, and capable of holding above two thousand persons; wemay distinguish his three thousand guards, who were cased, the horse aswell as the men, in complete steel. 

[Footnote 891: This bridge was over the Ifrin, not the Orontes, at adistance of three leagues from Antioch. See Wilken, vol. I. P. 172. --M. ]

[Footnote 90: For Antioch, see Pocock, (Description of the East, vol. Ii. P. I. P. 188-193, ) Otter, (Voyage en Turquie, &c. , tom. I. P. 81, &c. , ) the Turkish geographer, (in Otter's notes, ) the Index Geographicusof Schultens, (ad calcem Bohadin. Vit. Saladin. , ) and Abulfeda, (TabulaSyriae, p. 115, 116, vers. Reiske. )]

[Footnote 91: Ensem elevat, eumque a sinistra parte scapularum, tantavirtute intorsit, ut quod pectus medium disjunxit spinam et vitaliainterrupit; et sic lubricus ensis super crus dextrum integer exivit:sicque caput integrum cum dextra parte corporis immersit gurgite, partemque quae equo praesidebat remisit civitati, (Robert. Mon. P. 50. )Cujus ense trajectus, Turcus duo factus est Turci: ut inferior alter inurbem equitaret, alter arcitenens in flumine nataret, (Radulph. Cadom. C. 53, p. 304. ) Yet he justifies the deed by the stupendis viribusof Godfrey; and William of Tyre covers it by obstupuit populus factinovitate . .. . Mirabilis, (l. V. C. 6, p. 701. ) Yet it must not haveappeared incredible to the knights of that age. ]

[Footnote 92: See the exploits of Robert, Raymond, and the modestTancred who imposed silence on his squire, (Randulph. Cadom. C. 53. )]

[Footnote 921: See the interesting extract from Kemaleddin's History ofAleppo in Wilken, preface to vol. Ii. P. 36. Phirouz, or Azzerrad, thebreastplate maker, had been pillaged and put to the torture by BagiSejan, the prince of Antioch. --M. ]

[Footnote 93: After mentioning the distress and humble petition of theFranks, Abulpharagius adds the haughty reply of Codbuka, or Kerboga, "Non evasuri estis nisi per gladium, " (Dynast. P. 242. )]

[Footnote 94: In describing the host of Kerboga, most of the Latinhistorians, the author of the Gesta, (p. 17, ) Robert Monachus, (p. 56, )Baldric, (p. 111, ) Fulcherius Carnotensis, (p. 392, ) Guibert, (p. 512, )William of Tyre, (l. Vi. C. 3, p. 714, ) Bernard Thesaurarius, (c. 39, p. 695, ) are content with the vague expressions of infinita multitudo, immensum agmen, innumerae copiae or gentes, which correspond with AnnaComnena, (Alexias, l. Xi. P. 318-320. ) The numbers of the Turks arefixed by Albert Aquensis at 200, 000, (l. Iv. C. 10, p. 242, ) and byRadulphus Cadomensis at 400, 000 horse, (c. 72, p. 309. )]

In the eventful period of the siege and defence of Antioch, thecrusaders were alternately exalted by victory or sunk in despair; eitherswelled with plenty or emaciated with hunger. A speculative reasonermight suppose, that their faith had a strong and serious influence ontheir practice; and that the soldiers of the cross, the deliverers ofthe holy sepulchre, prepared themselves by a sober and virtuous lifefor the daily contemplation of martyrdom. Experience blows away thischaritable illusion; and seldom does the history of profane war displaysuch scenes of intemperance and prostitution as were exhibited underthe walls of Antioch. The grove of Daphne no longer flourished; but theSyrian air was still impregnated with the same vices; the Christianswere seduced by every temptation [95] that nature either prompts orreprobates; the authority of the chiefs was despised; and sermons andedicts were alike fruitless against those scandalous disorders, not lesspernicious to military discipline, than repugnant to evangelic purity. In the first days of the siege and the possession of Antioch, the Franksconsumed with wanton and thoughtless prodigality the frugal subsistenceof weeks and months: the desolate country no longer yielded a supply;and from that country they were at length excluded by the arms of thebesieging Turks. Disease, the faithful companion of want, was envenomedby the rains of the winter, the summer heats, unwholesome food, and theclose imprisonment of multitudes. The pictures of famine and pestilenceare always the same, and always disgustful; and our imagination maysuggest the nature of their sufferings and their resources. The remainsof treasure or spoil were eagerly lavished in the purchase of the vilestnourishment; and dreadful must have been the calamities of the poor, since, after paying three marks of silver for a goat and fifteen for alean camel, [96] the count of Flanders was reduced to beg a dinner, andDuke Godfrey to borrow a horse. Sixty thousand horse had been reviewedin the camp: before the end of the siege they were diminished to twothousand, and scarcely two hundred fit for service could be mustered onthe day of battle. Weakness of body and terror of mind extinguishedthe ardent enthusiasm of the pilgrims; and every motive of honor andreligion was subdued by the desire of life. [97] Among the chiefs, threeheroes may be found without fear or reproach: Godfrey of Bouillon wassupported by his magnanimous piety; Bohemond by ambition and interest;and Tancred declared, in the true spirit of chivalry, that as long ashe was at the head of forty knights, he would never relinquish theenterprise of Palestine. But the count of Tholouse and Provence wassuspected of a voluntary indisposition; the duke of Normandy wasrecalled from the sea-shore by the censures of the church: Hugh theGreat, though he led the vanguard of the battle, embraced an ambiguousopportunity of returning to France and Stephen, count of Chartres, basely deserted the standard which he bore, and the council in whichhe presided. The soldiers were discouraged by the flight of William, viscount of Melun, surnamed the Carpenter, from the weighty strokes ofhis axe; and the saints were scandalized by the fall [971] of Peter theHermit, who, after arming Europe against Asia, attempted to escape fromthe penance of a necessary fast. Of the multitude of recreant warriors, the names (says an historian) are blotted from the book of life; and theopprobrious epithet of the rope-dancers was applied to the deserterswho dropped in the night from the walls of Antioch. The emperor Alexius, [98] who seemed to advance to the succor of the Latins, was dismayed bythe assurance of their hopeless condition. They expected their fate insilent despair; oaths and punishments were tried without effect; and torouse the soldiers to the defence of the walls, it was found necessaryto set fire to their quarters. 

[Footnote 95: See the tragic and scandalous fate of an archdeacon ofroyal birth, who was slain by the Turks as he reposed in an orchard, playing at dice with a Syrian concubine. ]

[Footnote 96: The value of an ox rose from five solidi, (fifteenshillings, ) at Christmas to two marks, (four pounds, ) and afterwardsmuch higher; a kid or lamb, from one shilling to eighteen of our presentmoney: in the second famine, a loaf of bread, or the head of an animal, sold for a piece of gold. More examples might be produced; but it is theordinary, not the extraordinary, prices, that deserve the notice of thephilosopher. ]

[Footnote 97: Alli multi, quorum nomina non tenemus; quia, deleta delibro vitae, praesenti operi non sunt inserenda, (Will. Tyr. L. Vi. C. 5, p. 715. ) Guibert (p. 518, 523) attempts to excuse Hugh the Great, andeven Stephen of Chartres. ]

[Footnote 971: Peter fell during the siege: he went afterwards on anembassy to Kerboga Wilken. Vol. I. P. 217. --M. ]

[Footnote 98: See the progress of the crusade, the retreat of Alexius, the victory of Antioch, and the conquest of Jerusalem, in the Alexiad, l. Xi. P. 317-327. Anna was so prone to exaggeration, that shemagnifies the exploits of the Latins. ]

For their salvation and victory, they were indebted to the samefanaticism which had led them to the brink of ruin. In such a cause, andin such an army, visions, prophecies, and miracles, were frequent andfamiliar. In the distress of Antioch, they were repeated with unusualenergy and success: St. Ambrose had assured a pious ecclesiastic, thattwo years of trial must precede the season of deliverance and grace; thedeserters were stopped by the presence and reproaches of Christ himself;the dead had promised to arise and combat with their brethren; theVirgin had obtained the pardon of their sins; and their confidence wasrevived by a visible sign, the seasonable and splendid discovery ofthe Holy Lance. The policy of their chiefs has on this occasion beenadmired, and might surely be excused; but a pious baud is seldomproduced by the cool conspiracy of many persons; and a voluntaryimpostor might depend on the support of the wise and the credulity ofthe people. Of the diocese of Marseilles, there was a priest of lowcunning and loose manners, and his name was Peter Bartholemy. Hepresented himself at the door of the council-chamber, to disclose anapparition of St. Andrew, which had been thrice reiterated in his sleepwith a dreadful menace, if he presumed to suppress the commands ofHeaven. "At Antioch, " said the apostle, "in the church of my brotherSt. Peter, near the high altar, is concealed the steel head of the lancethat pierced the side of our Redeemer. In three days that instrumentof eternal, and now of temporal, salvation, will be manifested to hisdisciples. Search, and ye shall find: bear it aloft in battle; and thatmystic weapon shall penetrate the souls of the miscreants. " Thepope's legate, the bishop of Puy, affected to listen with coldness anddistrust; but the revelation was eagerly accepted by Count Raymond, whomhis faithful subject, in the name of the apostle, had chosen for theguardian of the holy lance. The experiment was resolved; and on thethird day after a due preparation of prayer and fasting, the priestof Marseilles introduced twelve trusty spectators, among whom were thecount and his chaplain; and the church doors were barred against theimpetuous multitude. The ground was opened in the appointed place; butthe workmen, who relieved each other, dug to the depth of twelve feetwithout discovering the object of their search. In the evening, whenCount Raymond had withdrawn to his post, and the weary assistants beganto murmur, Bartholemy, in his shirt, and without his shoes, boldlydescended into the pit; the darkness of the hour and of the placeenabled him to secrete and deposit the head of a Saracen lance; and thefirst sound, the first gleam, of the steel was saluted with a devoutrapture. The holy lance was drawn from its recess, wrapped in a veilof silk and gold, and exposed to the veneration of the crusaders; theiranxious suspense burst forth in a general shout of joy and hope, andthe desponding troops were again inflamed with the enthusiasm of valor. Whatever had been the arts, and whatever might be the sentiments of thechiefs, they skilfully improved this fortunate revolution by every aidthat discipline and devotion could afford. The soldiers were dismissedto their quarters with an injunction to fortify their minds and bodiesfor the approaching conflict, freely to bestow their last pittance onthemselves and their horses, and to expect with the dawn of day thesignal of victory. On the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, the gatesof Antioch were thrown open: a martial psalm, "Let the Lord arise, andlet his enemies be scattered!" was chanted by a procession of priestsand monks; the battle array was marshalled in twelve divisions, in honorof the twelve apostles; and the holy lance, in the absence of Raymond, was intrusted to the hands of his chaplain. The influence of his relicor trophy, was felt by the servants, and perhaps by the enemies, ofChrist; [99] and its potent energy was heightened by an accident, astratagem, or a rumor, of a miraculous complexion. Three knights, inwhite garments and resplendent arms, either issued, or seemed to issue, from the hills: the voice of Adhemar, the pope's legate, proclaimed themas the martyrs St. George, St. Theodore, and St. Maurice: the tumult ofbattle allowed no time for doubt or scrutiny; and the welcome apparitiondazzled the eyes or the imagination of a fanatic army. [991] In theseason of danger and triumph, the revelation of Bartholemy of Marseilleswas unanimously asserted; but as soon as the temporary service wasaccomplished, the personal dignity and liberal arms which the count ofTholouse derived from the custody of the holy lance, provoked the envy, and awakened the reason, of his rivals. A Norman clerk presumed to sift, with a philosophic spirit, the truth of the legend, the circumstances ofthe discovery, and the character of the prophet; and the pious Bohemondascribed their deliverance to the merits and intercession of Christalone. For a while, the Provincials defended their national palladiumwith clamors and arms and new visions condemned to death and hell theprofane sceptics who presumed to scrutinize the truth and merit of thediscovery. The prevalence of incredulity compelled the author to submithis life and veracity to the judgment of God. A pile of dry fagots, fourfeet high and fourteen long, was erected in the midst of the camp; theflames burnt fiercely to the elevation of thirty cubits; and a narrowpath of twelve inches was left for the perilous trial. The unfortunatepriest of Marseilles traversed the fire with dexterity and speed; butthe thighs and belly were scorched by the intense heat; he expired thenext day; [992] and the logic of believing minds will pay some regard tohis dying protestations of innocence and truth. Some efforts were madeby the Provincials to substitute a cross, a ring, or a tabernacle, in the place of the holy lance, which soon vanished in contempt andoblivion. [100] Yet the revelation of Antioch is gravely asserted bysucceeding historians: and such is the progress of credulity, thatmiracles most doubtful on the spot, and at the moment, will be receivedwith implicit faith at a convenient distance of time and space. 

[Footnote 99: The Mahometan Aboulmahasen (apud De Guignes, tom. Ii. P. Ii. P. 95) is more correct in his account of the holy lance than theChristians, Anna Comnena and Abulpharagius: the Greek princess confoundsit with the nail of the cross, (l. Xi. P. 326;) the Jacobite primate, with St. Peter's staff, (p. 242. )]

[Footnote 991: The real cause of this victory appears to have been thefeud in Kerboga's army Wilken, vol. Ii. P. 40. --M. ]

[Footnote 992: The twelfth day after. He was much injured, and hisflesh torn off, from the ardor of pious congratulation with which hewas assailed by those who witnessed his escape, unhurt, as it was firstsupposed. Wilken vol. I p. 263--M. ]

[Footnote 100: The two antagonists who express the most intimateknowledge and the strongest conviction of the miracle, and of the fraud, are Raymond des Agiles, and Radulphus Cadomensis, the one attachedto the count of Tholouse, the other to the Norman prince. FulcheriusCarnotensis presumes to say, Audite fraudem et non fraudem! andafterwards, Invenit lanceam, fallaciter occultatam forsitan. The rest ofthe herd are loud and strenuous. ]

The prudence or fortune of the Franks had delayed their invasion tillthe decline of the Turkish empire. [101] Under the manly government ofthe three first sultans, the kingdoms of Asia were united in peace andjustice; and the innumerable armies which they led in person were equalin courage, and superior in discipline, to the Barbarians of the West. But at the time of the crusade, the inheritance of Malek Shaw wasdisputed by his four sons; their private ambition was insensible ofthe public danger; and, in the vicissitudes of their fortune, theroyal vassals were ignorant, or regardless, of the true object of theirallegiance. The twenty-eight emirs who marched with the standard orKerboga were his rivals or enemies: their hasty levies were drawn fromthe towns and tents of Mesopotamia and Syria; and the Turkish veteranswere employed or consumed in the civil wars beyond the Tigris. Thecaliph of Egypt embraced this opportunity of weakness and discordto recover his ancient possessions; and his sultan Aphdal besiegedJerusalem and Tyre, expelled the children of Ortok, and restored inPalestine the civil and ecclesiastical authority of the Fatimites. [102]They heard with astonishment of the vast armies of Christians that hadpassed from Europe to Asia, and rejoiced in the sieges and battleswhich broke the power of the Turks, the adversaries of their sect andmonarchy. But the same Christians were the enemies of the prophet; andfrom the overthrow of Nice and Antioch, the motive of their enterprise, which was gradually understood, would urge them forwards to the banks ofthe Jordan, or perhaps of the Nile. 

An intercourse of epistles and embassies, which rose and fell with theevents of war, was maintained between the throne of Cairo and the campof the Latins; and their adverse pride was the result of ignorance andenthusiasm. The ministers of Egypt declared in a haughty, or insinuatedin a milder, tone, that their sovereign, the true and lawful commanderof the faithful, had rescued Jerusalem from the Turkish yoke; and thatthe pilgrims, if they would divide their numbers, and lay aside theirarms, should find a safe and hospitable reception at the sepulchreof Jesus. In the belief of their lost condition, the caliph Mostalidespised their arms and imprisoned their deputies: the conquest andvictory of Antioch prompted him to solicit those formidable championswith gifts of horses and silk robes, of vases, and purses of gold andsilver; and in his estimate of their merit or power, the first place wasassigned to Bohemond, and the second to Godfrey. In either fortune, theanswer of the crusaders was firm and uniform: they disdained to inquireinto the private claims or possessions of the followers of Mahomet;whatsoever was his name or nation, the usurper of Jerusalem wastheir enemy; and instead of prescribing the mode and terms of theirpilgrimage, it was only by a timely surrender of the city and province, their sacred right, that he could deserve their alliance, or deprecatetheir impending and irresistible attack. [103]

[Footnote 101: See M. De Guignes, tom. Ii. P. Ii. P. 223, &c. ; and thearticles of Barkidrok, Mohammed, Sangiar, in D'Herbelot. ]

[Footnote 102: The emir, or sultan, Aphdal, recovered Jerusalem andTyre, A. H. 489, (Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. P. 478. DeGuignes, tom. I. P. 249, from Abulfeda and Ben Schounah. ) Jerusalemante adventum vestrum recuperavimus, Turcos ejecimus, say the Fatimiteambassadors]

[Footnote 103: See the transactions between the caliph of Egypt and thecrusaders in William of Tyre (l. Iv. C. 24, l. Vi. C. 19) and AlbertAquensis, (l. Iii. C. 59, ) who are more sensible of their importancethan the contemporary writers. ]

Yet this attack, when they were within the view and reach of theirglorious prize, was suspended above ten months after the defeat ofKerboga. The zeal and courage of the crusaders were chilled in themoment of victory; and instead of marching to improve the consternation, they hastily dispersed to enjoy the luxury, of Syria. The causes of thisstrange delay may be found in the want of strength and subordination. Inthe painful and various service of Antioch, the cavalry was annihilated;many thousands of every rank had been lost by famine, sickness, anddesertion: the same abuse of plenty had been productive of a thirdfamine; and the alternative of intemperance and distress had generateda pestilence, which swept away above fifty thousand of the pilgrims. Fewwere able to command, and none were willing to obey; the domestic feuds, which had been stifled by common fear, were again renewed in acts, or atleast in sentiments, of hostility; the fortune of Baldwin and Bohemondexcited the envy of their companions; the bravest knights were enlistedfor the defence of their new principalities; and Count Raymond exhaustedhis troops and treasures in an idle expedition into the heart of Syria. [1031] The winter was consumed in discord and disorder; a sense of honorand religion was rekindled in the spring; and the private soldiers, lesssusceptible of ambition and jealousy, awakened with angry clamors theindolence of their chiefs. In the month of May, the relics of thismighty host proceeded from Antioch to Laodicea: about forty thousandLatins, of whom no more than fifteen hundred horse, and twenty thousandfoot, were capable of immediate service. Their easy march was continuedbetween Mount Libanus and the sea-shore: their wants were liberallysupplied by the coasting traders of Genoa and Pisa; and they drewlarge contributions from the emirs of Tripoli, Tyre, Sidon, Acre, andCaesarea, who granted a free passage, and promised to follow the exampleof Jerusalem. From Caesarea they advanced into the midland country;their clerks recognized the sacred geography of Lydda, Ramla, Emmaus, and Bethlem, [1032] and as soon as they descried the holy city, thecrusaders forgot their toils and claimed their reward. [104]

[Footnote 1031: This is not quite correct: he took Marra on his road. His excursions were partly to obtain provisions for the army and fodderfor the horses Wilken, vol. I. P. 226. --M. ]

[Footnote 1032: Scarcely of Bethlehem, to the south of Jerusalem. -- M. ]

[Footnote 104: The greatest part of the march of the Franks is traced, and most accurately traced, in Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo toJerusalem, (p. 11-67;) un des meilleurs morceaux, sans contredit qu'onait dans ce genre, (D'Anville, Memoire sur Jerusalem, p. 27. )]

Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade. --Part V. 

Jerusalem has derived some reputation from the number and importance ofher memorable sieges. It was not till after a long and obstinate contestthat Babylon and Rome could prevail against the obstinacy of the people, the craggy ground that might supersede the necessity of fortifications, and the walls and towers that would have fortified the most accessibleplain. [105] These obstacles were diminished in the age of the crusades. The bulwarks had been completely destroyed and imperfectly restored: theJews, their nation, and worship, were forever banished; but nature isless changeable than man, and the site of Jerusalem, though somewhatsoftened and somewhat removed, was still strong against the assaultsof an enemy. By the experience of a recent siege, and a three years'possession, the Saracens of Egypt had been taught to discern, and insome degree to remedy, the defects of a place, which religion as wellas honor forbade them to resign. Aladin, or Iftikhar, the caliph'slieutenant, was intrusted with the defence: his policy strove torestrain the native Christians by the dread of their own ruin andthat of the holy sepulchre; to animate the Moslems by the assurance oftemporal and eternal rewards. His garrison is said to have consistedof forty thousand Turks and Arabians; and if he could muster twentythousand of the inhabitants, it must be confessed that the besieged weremore numerous than the besieging army. [106] Had the diminished strengthand numbers of the Latins allowed them to grasp the whole circumferenceof four thousand yards, (about two English miles and a half, [107] towhat useful purpose should they have descended into the valley of BenHinnom and torrent of Cedron, [108] or approach the precipices of thesouth and east, from whence they had nothing either to hope or fear?Their siege was more reasonably directed against the northern andwestern sides of the city. Godfrey of Bouillon erected his standard onthe first swell of Mount Calvary: to the left, as far as St. Stephen'sgate, the line of attack was continued by Tancred and the two Roberts;and Count Raymond established his quarters from the citadel to the footof Mount Sion, which was no longer included within the precincts of thecity. On the fifth day, the crusaders made a general assault, in thefanatic hope of battering down the walls without engines, and of scalingthem without ladders. By the dint of brutal force, they burst the firstbarrier; but they were driven back with shame and slaughter to the camp:the influence of vision and prophecy was deadened by the too frequentabuse of those pious stratagems; and time and labor were found to bethe only means of victory. The time of the siege was indeed fulfilledin forty days, but they were forty days of calamity and anguish. Arepetition of the old complaint of famine may be imputed in some degreeto the voracious or disorderly appetite of the Franks; but the stonysoil of Jerusalem is almost destitute of water; the scanty springs andhasty torrents were dry in the summer season; nor was the thirst of thebesiegers relieved, as in the city, by the artificial supply of cisternsand aqueducts. The circumjacent country is equally destitute of treesfor the uses of shade or building, but some large beams were discoveredin a cave by the crusaders: a wood near Sichem, the enchanted grove ofTasso, [109] was cut down: the necessary timber was transported to thecamp by the vigor and dexterity of Tancred; and the engines were framedby some Genoese artists, who had fortunately landed in the harbor ofJaffa. Two movable turrets were constructed at the expense, and in thestations, of the duke of Lorraine and the count of Tholouse, and rolledforwards with devout labor, not to the most accessible, but to the mostneglected, parts of the fortification. Raymond's Tower was reduced toashes by the fire of the besieged, but his colleague was more vigilantand successful; [1091] the enemies were driven by his archers from therampart; the draw-bridge was let down; and on a Friday, at three in theafternoon, the day and hour of the passion, Godfrey of Bouillon stoodvictorious on the walls of Jerusalem. His example was followed on everyside by the emulation of valor; and about four hundred and sixty yearsafter the conquest of Omar, the holy city was rescued from the Mahometanyoke. In the pillage of public and private wealth, the adventurers hadagreed to respect the exclusive property of the first occupant; and thespoils of the great mosque, seventy lamps and massy vases of goldand silver, rewarded the diligence, and displayed the generosity, ofTancred. A bloody sacrifice was offered by his mistaken votaries to theGod of the Christians: resistance might provoke but neither age nor sexcould mollify, their implacable rage: they indulged themselves threedays in a promiscuous massacre; [110] and the infection of the deadbodies produced an epidemical disease. After seventy thousand Moslemshad been put to the sword, and the harmless Jews had been burnt intheir synagogue, they could still reserve a multitude of captives, whominterest or lassitude persuaded them to spare. Of these savage heroes ofthe cross, Tancred alone betrayed some sentiments of compassion; yetwe may praise the more selfish lenity of Raymond, who granted acapitulation and safe-conduct to the garrison of the citadel. [111]The holy sepulchre was now free; and the bloody victors prepared toaccomplish their vow. Bareheaded and barefoot, with contrite hearts, andin an humble posture, they ascended the hill of Calvary, amidst the loudanthems of the clergy; kissed the stone which had covered the Savior ofthe world; and bedewed with tears of joy and penitence the monument oftheir redemption. This union of the fiercest and most tender passionshas been variously considered by two philosophers; by the one, [112] aseasy and natural; by the other, [113] as absurd and incredible. Perhapsit is too rigorously applied to the same persons and the same hour; theexample of the virtuous Godfrey awakened the piety of his companions;while they cleansed their bodies, they purified their minds; nor shallI believe that the most ardent in slaughter and rapine were the foremostin the procession to the holy sepulchre. 

[Footnote 105: See the masterly description of Tacitus, (Hist. V. 11, 12, 13, ) who supposes that the Jewish lawgivers had provided for aperpetual state of hostility against the rest of mankind. * Note: Thisis an exaggerated inference from the words of Tacitus, who speaks ofthe founders of the city, not the lawgivers. Praeviderant conditores, ex diversitate morum, crebra bella; inde cuncta quamvis adversus loagumobsidium. --M. ]

[Footnote 106: The lively scepticism of Voltaire is balanced with senseand erudition by the French author of the Esprit des Croisades, (tom. Iv. P. 386-388, ) who observes, that, according to the Arabians, theinhabitants of Jerusalem must have exceeded 200, 000; that in the siegeof Titus, Josephus collects 1, 300, 000 Jews; that they are stated byTacitus himself at 600, 000; and that the largest defalcation, that hisaccepimus can justify, will still leave them more numerous than theRoman army. ]

[Footnote 107: Maundrell, who diligently perambulated the walls, founda circuit of 4630 paces, or 4167 English yards, (p. 109, 110: ) from anauthentic plan, D'Anville concludes a measure nearly similar, of 1960French toises, (p. 23-29, ) in his scarce and valuable tract. For thetopography of Jerusalem, see Reland, (Palestina, tom. Ii. P. 832-860. )]

[Footnote 108: Jerusalem was possessed only of the torrent of Kedron, dry in summer, and of the little spring or brook of Siloe, (Reland, tom. I. P. 294, 300. ) Both strangers and natives complain of the wantof water, which, in time of war, was studiously aggravated. Within thecity, Tacitus mentions a perennial fountain, an aqueduct and cisternsfor rain water. The aqueduct was conveyed from the rivulet Tekos orEtham, which is likewise mentioned by Bohadin, (in Vit. Saludio p. 238. )]

[Footnote 109: Gierusalomme Liberata, canto xiii. It is pleasant enoughto observe how Tasso has copied and embellished the minutest details ofthe siege. ]

[Footnote 1091: This does not appear by Wilken's account, (p. 294. ) Theyfought in vair the whole of the Thursday. --M. ]

[Footnote 110: Besides the Latins, who are not ashamed of the massacre, see Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. P. 363, ) Abulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 243, )and M. De Guignes, tom. Ii. P. Ii. P. 99, from Aboulmahasen. ]

[Footnote 111: The old tower Psephina, in the middle ages Neblosa, wasnamed Castellum Pisanum, from the patriarch Daimbert. It is still thecitadel, the residence of the Turkish aga, and commands a prospect ofthe Dead Sea, Judea, and Arabia, (D'Anville, p. 19-23. ) It was likewisecalled the Tower of David. ]

[Footnote 112: Hume, in his History of England, vol. I. P. 311, 312, octavo edition. ]

[Footnote 113: Voltaire, in his Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, tom ii. C. 54, p 345, 346]

Eight days after this memorable event, which Pope Urban did not live tohear, the Latin chiefs proceeded to the election of a king, to guardand govern their conquests in Palestine. Hugh the Great, and Stephen ofChartres, had retired with some loss of reputation, which they stroveto regain by a second crusade and an honorable death. Baldwin wasestablished at Edessa, and Bohemond at Antioch; and two Roberts, theduke of Normandy [114] and the count of Flanders, preferred their fairinheritance in the West to a doubtful competition or a barren sceptre. The jealousy and ambition of Raymond were condemned by his ownfollowers, and the free, the just, the unanimous voice of the armyproclaimed Godfrey of Bouillon the first and most worthy of thechampions of Christendom. His magnanimity accepted a trust as full ofdanger as of glory; but in a city where his Savior had been crowned withthorns, the devout pilgrim rejected the name and ensigns of royalty;and the founder of the kingdom of Jerusalem contented himself with themodest title of Defender and Baron of the Holy Sepulchre. His governmentof a single year, [115] too short for the public happiness, wasinterrupted in the first fortnight by a summons to the field, by theapproach of the vizier or sultan of Egypt, who had been too slow toprevent, but who was impatient to avenge, the loss of Jerusalem. Histotal overthrow in the battle of Ascalon sealed the establishment of theLatins in Syria, and signalized the valor of the French princes who inthis action bade a long farewell to the holy wars. 

Some glory might be derived from the prodigious inequality of numbers, though I shall not count the myriads of horse and foot [1151] on theside of the Fatimites; but, except three thousand Ethiopians or Blacks, who were armed with flails or scourges of iron, the Barbarians ofthe South fled on the first onset, and afforded a pleasing comparisonbetween the active valor of the Turks and the sloth and effeminacy ofthe natives of Egypt. After suspending before the holy sepulchre thesword and standard of the sultan, the new king (he deserves the title)embraced his departing companions, and could retain only with thegallant Tancred three hundred knights, and two thousand foot-soldiersfor the defence of Palestine. His sovereignty was soon attacked by a newenemy, the only one against whom Godfrey was a coward. Adhemar, bishopof Puy, who excelled both in council and action, had been swept away inthe last plague at Antioch: the remaining ecclesiastics preserved onlythe pride and avarice of their character; and their seditious clamorshad required that the choice of a bishop should precede that of a king. The revenue and jurisdiction of the lawful patriarch were usurped by theLatin clergy: the exclusion of the Greeks and Syrians was justifiedby the reproach of heresy or schism; [116] and, under the iron yokeof their deliverers, the Oriental Christians regretted the toleratinggovernment of the Arabian caliphs. Daimbert, archbishop of Pisa, hadlong been trained in the secret policy of Rome: he brought a fleetat his countrymen to the succor of the Holy Land, and was installed, without a competitor, the spiritual and temporal head of the church. [1161] The new patriarch [117] immediately grasped the sceptre which hadbeen acquired by the toil and blood of the victorious pilgrims; and bothGodfrey and Bohemond submitted to receive at his hands the investitureof their feudal possessions. Nor was this sufficient; Daimbert claimedthe immediate property of Jerusalem and Jaffa; instead of a firm andgenerous refusal, the hero negotiated with the priest; a quarter ofeither city was ceded to the church; and the modest bishop was satisfiedwith an eventual reversion of the rest, on the death of Godfrey withoutchildren, or on the future acquisition of a new seat at Cairo orDamascus. 

[Footnote 114: The English ascribe to Robert of Normandy, and theProvincials to Raymond of Tholouse, the glory of refusing the crown; butthe honest voice of tradition has preserved the memory of the ambitionand revenge (Villehardouin, No. 136) of the count of St. Giles. He diedat the siege of Tripoli, which was possessed by his descendants. ]

[Footnote 115: See the election, the battle of Ascalon, &c. , in Williamof Tyre l. Ix. C. 1-12, and in the conclusion of the Latin historiansof the first crusade. ]

[Footnote 1151: 20, 000 Franks, 300, 000 Mussulmen, according to Wilken, (vol. Ii. P. 9)--M. ]

[Footnote 116: Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. P. 479. ]

[Footnote 1161: Arnulf was first chosen, but illegitimately, anddegraded. He was ever after the secret enemy of Daimbert or Dagobert. Wilken, vol. I. P. 306, vol. Ii. P. 52. --M]

[Footnote 117: See the claims of the patriarch Daimbert, in William ofTyre (l. Ix. C. 15-18, x. 4, 7, 9, ) who asserts with marvellous candorthe independence of the conquerors and kings of Jerusalem. ]

Without this indulgence, the conqueror would have almost been strippedof his infant kingdom, which consisted only of Jerusalem and Jaffa, withabout twenty villages and towns of the adjacent country. [118] Withinthis narrow verge, the Mahometans were still lodged in some impregnablecastles: and the husbandman, the trader, and the pilgrim, were exposedto daily and domestic hostility. By the arms of Godfrey himself, and ofthe two Baldwins, his brother and cousin, who succeeded to the throne, the Latins breathed with more ease and safety; and at length theyequalled, in the extent of their dominions, though not in the millionsof their subjects, the ancient princes of Judah and Israel. [119] Afterthe reduction of the maritime cities of Laodicea, Tripoli, Tyre, andAscalon, [120] which were powerfully assisted by the fleets of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, and even of Flanders and Norway, [121] the range ofsea-coast from Scanderoon to the borders of Egypt was possessed by theChristian pilgrims. If the prince of Antioch disclaimed his supremacy, the counts of Edessa and Tripoli owned themselves the vassals of theking of Jerusalem: the Latins reigned beyond the Euphrates; and the fourcities of Hems, Hamah, Damascus, and Aleppo, were the only relics of theMahometan conquests in Syria. [122] The laws and language, the mannersand titles, of the French nation and Latin church, were introduced intothese transmarine colonies. According to the feudal jurisprudence, theprincipal states and subordinate baronies descended in the line of maleand female succession: [123] but the children of the first conquerors, [124] a motley and degenerate race, were dissolved by the luxury of theclimate; the arrival of new crusaders from Europe was a doubtfulhope and a casual event. The service of the feudal tenures [125] wasperformed by six hundred and sixty-six knights, who might expect the aidof two hundred more under the banner of the count of Tripoli; andeach knight was attended to the field by four squires or archers onhorseback. [126] Five thousand and seventy sergeants, most probablyfoot-soldiers, were supplied by the churches and cities; and the wholelegal militia of the kingdom could not exceed eleven thousand men, aslender defence against the surrounding myriads of Saracens and Turks. [127] But the firmest bulwark of Jerusalem was founded on the knights ofthe Hospital of St. John, [128] and of the temple of Solomon; [129]on the strange association of a monastic and military life, whichfanaticism might suggest, but which policy must approve. The flower ofthe nobility of Europe aspired to wear the cross, and to profess thevows, of these respectable orders; their spirit and discipline wereimmortal; and the speedy donation of twenty-eight thousand farms, ormanors, [130] enabled them to support a regular force of cavalry andinfantry for the defence of Palestine. The austerity of the convent soonevaporated in the exercise of arms; the world was scandalized by thepride, avarice, and corruption of these Christian soldiers; their claimsof immunity and jurisdiction disturbed the harmony of the church andstate; and the public peace was endangered by their jealous emulation. But in their most dissolute period, the knights of their hospital andtemple maintained their fearless and fanatic character: they neglectedto live, but they were prepared to die, in the service of Christ; andthe spirit of chivalry, the parent and offspring of the crusades, hasbeen transplanted by this institution from the holy sepulchre to theIsle of Malta. [131]

[Footnote 118: Willerm. Tyr. L. X. 19. The Historia Hierosolimitana ofJacobus a Vitriaco (l. I. C. 21-50) and the Secreta Fidelium Crucis ofMarinus Sanutus (l. Iii. P. 1) describe the state and conquests of theLatin kingdom of Jerusalem. ]

[Footnote 119: An actual muster, not including the tribes of Levi andBenjamin, gave David an army of 1, 300, 000 or 1, 574, 000 fighting men;which, with the addition of women, children, and slaves, may imply apopulation of thirteen millions, in a country sixty leagues in length, and thirty broad. The honest and rational Le Clerc (Comment on 2d Samuelxxiv. And 1st Chronicles, xxi. ) aestuat angusto in limite, and muttershis suspicion of a false transcript; a dangerous suspicion! * Note:David determined to take a census of his vast dominions, which extendedfrom Lebanon to the frontiers of Egypt, from the Euphrates to theMediterranean. The numbers (in 2 Sam. Xxiv. 9, and 1 Chron. Xxi. 5)differ; but the lowest gives 800, 000 men fit to bear arms in Israel, 500, 000 in Judah. Hist. Of Jews, vol. I. P. 248. Gibbon has taken thehighest census in his estimate of the population, and confined thedominions of David to Jordandic Palestine. --M. ]

[Footnote 120: These sieges are related, each in its proper place, inthe great history of William of Tyre, from the ixth to the xviiith book, and more briefly told by Bernardus Thesaurarius, (de Acquisitione TerraeSanctae, c. 89-98, p. 732-740. ) Some domestic facts are celebrated inthe Chronicles of Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, in the vith, ixth, and xiithtomes of Muratori. ]

[Footnote 121: Quidam populus de insulis occidentis egressus, et maximede ea parte quae Norvegia dicitur. William of Tyre (l. Xi. C. 14, p. 804) marks their course per Britannicum Mare et Calpen to the siege ofSidon. ]

[Footnote 122: Benelathir, apud De Guignes, Hist. Des Huns, tom. Ii. Part ii. P. 150, 151, A. D. 1127. He must speak of the inland country. ]

[Footnote 123: Sanut very sensibly descants on the mischiefs of femalesuccession, in a land hostibus circumdata, ubi cuncta virilia etvirtuosa esse deberent. Yet, at the summons, and with the approbation, of her feudal lord, a noble damsel was obliged to choose a husband andchampion, (Assises de Jerusalem, c. 242, &c. ) See in M. De Guignes (tom. I. P. 441-471) the accurate and useful tables of these dynasties, whichare chiefly drawn from the Lignages d'Outremer. ]

[Footnote 124: They were called by derision Poullains, Pallani, andtheir name is never pronounced without contempt, (Ducange, Gloss. Latin. Tom. V. P. 535; and Observations sur Joinville, p. 84, 85; Jacob. AVitriaco Hist. Hierosol. I. C. 67, 72; and Sanut, l. Iii. P. Viii. C. 2, p. 182. ) Illustrium virorum, qui ad Terrae Sanctae. .. . Liberationemin ipsa manserunt, degeneres filii. .. . In deliciis enutriti, molles eteffoe minati, &c. ]

[Footnote 125: This authentic detail is extracted from the Assises deJerusalem (c. 324, 326-331. ) Sanut (l. Iii. P. Viii. C. 1, p. 174)reckons only 518 knights, and 5775 followers. ]

[Footnote 126: The sum total, and the division, ascertain the serviceof the three great baronies at 100 knights each; and the text of theAssises, which extends the number to 500, can only be justified by thissupposition. ]

[Footnote 127: Yet on great emergencies (says Sanut) the barons broughta voluntary aid; decentem comitivam militum juxta statum suum. ]

[Footnote 128: William of Tyre (l. Xviii. C. 3, 4, 5) relates theignoble origin and early insolence of the Hospitallers, who soondeserted their humble patron, St. John the Eleemosynary, for the moreaugust character of St. John the Baptist, (see the ineffectual strugglesof Pagi, Critica, A. D 1099, No. 14-18. ) They assumed the profession ofarms about the year 1120; the Hospital was mater; the Temple filia; theTeutonic order was founded A. D. 1190, at the siege of Acre, (MosheimInstitut p. 389, 390. )]

[Footnote 129: See St. Bernard de Laude Novae Militiae Templi, composedA. D. 1132-1136, in Opp. Tom. I. P. Ii. P. 547-563, edit. Mabillon, Venet. 1750. Such an encomium, which is thrown away on the deadTemplars, would be highly valued by the historians of Malta. ]

[Footnote 130: Matthew Paris, Hist. Major, p. 544. He assigns to theHospitallers 19, 000, to the Templars 9, 000 maneria, word of much higherimport (as Ducange has rightly observed) in the English than in theFrench idiom. Manor is a lordship, manoir a dwelling. ]

[Footnote 131: In the three first books of the Histoire de Chevaliers deMalthe par l'Abbe de Vertot, the reader may amuse himself with a fair, and sometimes flattering, picture of the order, while it was employedfor the defence of Palestine. The subsequent books pursue theiremigration to Rhodes and Malta. ]

The spirit of freedom, which pervades the feudal institutions, was feltin its strongest energy by the volunteers of the cross, who elected fortheir chief the most deserving of his peers. Amidst the slaves of Asia, unconscious of the lesson or example, a model of political liberty wasintroduced; and the laws of the French kingdom are derived from thepurest source of equality and justice. Of such laws, the first andindispensable condition is the assent of those whose obedience theyrequire, and for whose benefit they are designed. No sooner had Godfreyof Bouillon accepted the office of supreme magistrate, than he solicitedthe public and private advice of the Latin pilgrims, who were the bestskilled in the statutes and customs of Europe. From these materials, with the counsel and approbation of the patriarch and barons, of theclergy and laity, Godfrey composed the Assise of Jerusalem, [132] aprecious monument of feudal jurisprudence. The new code, attested bythe seals of the king, the patriarch, and the viscount of Jerusalem, was deposited in the holy sepulchre, enriched with the improvements ofsucceeding times, and respectfully consulted as often as any doubtfulquestion arose in the tribunals of Palestine. With the kingdom and cityall was lost: [133] the fragments of the written law were preserved byjealous tradition [134] and variable practice till the middle of thethirteenth century: the code was restored by the pen of John d'Ibelin, count of Jaffa, one of the principal feudatories; [135] and the finalrevision was accomplished in the year thirteen hundred and sixty-nine, for the use of the Latin kingdom of Cyprus. [136]

[Footnote 132: The Assises de Jerusalem, in old law French, were printedwith Beaumanoir's Coutumes de Beauvoisis, (Bourges and Paris, 1690, infolio, ) and illustrated by Gaspard Thaumas de la Thaumassiere, with acomment and glossary. An Italian version had been published in 1534, atVenice, for the use of the kingdom of Cyprus. * Note: See Wilken, vol. I. P. 17, &c. , --M. ]

[Footnote 133: A la terre perdue, tout fut perdu, is the vigorousexpression of the Assise, (c. 281. ) Yet Jerusalem capitulated withSaladin; the queen and the principal Christians departed in peace; anda code so precious and so portable could not provoke the avarice of theconquerors. I have sometimes suspected the existence of this originalcopy of the Holy Sepulchre, which might be invented to sanctify andauthenticate the traditionary customs of the French in Palestine. ]

[Footnote 134: A noble lawyer, Raoul de Tabarie, denied the prayer ofKing Amauri, (A. D. 1195-1205, ) that he would commit his knowledged towriting, and frankly declared, que de ce qu'il savoit ne feroit-il janul borjois son pareill, ne null sage homme lettre, (c. 281. )]

[Footnote 135: The compiler of this work, Jean d'Ibelin, was count ofJaffa and Ascalon, lord of Baruth (Berytus) and Rames, and died A. D. 1266, (Sanut, l. Iii. P. Ii. C. 5, 8. ) The family of Ibelin, whichdescended from a younger brother of a count of Chartres in France, longflourished in Palestine and Cyprus, (see the Lignages de deca Mer, ord'Outremer, c. 6, at the end of the Assises de Jerusalem, an originalbook, which records the pedigrees of the French adventurers. )]

[Footnote 136: By sixteen commissioners chosen in the states of theisland: the work was finished the 3d of November, 1369, sealed with fourseals and deposited in the cathedral of Nicosia, (see the preface to theAssises. )]

The justice and freedom of the constitution were maintained by twotribunals of unequal dignity, which were instituted by Godfrey ofBouillon after the conquest of Jerusalem. The king, in person, presidedin the upper court, the court of the barons. Of these the four mostconspicuous were the prince of Galilee, the lord of Sidon and Caesarea, and the counts of Jaffa and Tripoli, who, perhaps with the constable andmarshal, [137] were in a special manner the compeers and judges ofeach other. But all the nobles, who held their lands immediately ofthe crown, were entitled and bound to attend the king's court; and eachbaron exercised a similar jurisdiction on the subordinate assemblies ofhis own feudatories. The connection of lord and vassal was honorableand voluntary: reverence was due to the benefactor, protection to thedependant; but they mutually pledged their faith to each other; and theobligation on either side might be suspended by neglect or dissolvedby injury. The cognizance of marriages and testaments was blended withreligion, and usurped by the clergy: but the civil and criminal causesof the nobles, the inheritance and tenure of their fiefs, formed theproper occupation of the supreme court. Each member was the judge andguardian both of public and private rights. It was his duty to assertwith his tongue and sword the lawful claims of the lord; but if anunjust superior presumed to violate the freedom or property of a vassal, the confederate peers stood forth to maintain his quarrel by word anddeed. They boldly affirmed his innocence and his wrongs; demanded therestitution of his liberty or his lands; suspended, after a fruitlessdemand, their own service; rescued their brother from prison; andemployed every weapon in his defence, without offering direct violenceto the person of their lord, which was ever sacred in their eyes. [138]In their pleadings, replies, and rejoinders, the advocates of the courtwere subtle and copious; but the use of argument and evidence was oftensuperseded by judicial combat; and the Assise of Jerusalem admits inmany cases this barbarous institution, which has been slowly abolishedby the laws and manners of Europe. 

[Footnote 137: The cautious John D'Ibelin argues, rather than affirms, that Tripoli is the fourth barony, and expresses some doubt concerningthe right or pretension of the constable and marshal, (c. 323. )]

[Footnote 138: Entre seignor et homme ne n'a que la foi;. .. . Mais tantque l'homme doit a son seignor reverence en toutes choses, (c. 206. )Tous les hommes dudit royaume sont par ladite Assise tenus les uns asautres. .. . Et en celle maniere que le seignor mette main ou face mettreau cors ou au fie d'aucun d'yaus sans esgard et sans connoissans decourt, que tous les autres doivent venir devant le seignor, &c. , (212. )The form of their remonstrances is conceived with the noble simplicityof freedom. ]

The trial by battle was established in all criminal cases whichaffected the life, or limb, or honor, of any person; and in all civiltransactions, of or above the value of one mark of silver. It appearsthat in criminal cases the combat was the privilege of the accuser, who, except in a charge of treason, avenged his personal injury, or the deathof those persons whom he had a right to represent; but wherever, fromthe nature of the charge, testimony could be obtained, it was necessaryfor him to produce witnesses of the fact. In civil cases, the combat wasnot allowed as the means of establishing the claim of the demandant;but he was obliged to produce witnesses who had, or assumed to have, knowledge of the fact. The combat was then the privilege of thedefendant; because he charged the witness with an attempt by perjury totake away his right. He came therefore to be in the same situation asthe appellant in criminal cases. It was not then as a mode of proof thatthe combat was received, nor as making negative evidence, (accordingto the supposition of Montesquieu; [139] but in every case the right tooffer battle was founded on the right to pursue by arms the redress ofan injury; and the judicial combat was fought on the same principle, andwith the same spirit, as a private duel. Champions were only allowed towomen, and to men maimed or past the age of sixty. The consequence of adefeat was death to the person accused, or to the champion or witness, as well as to the accuser himself: but in civil cases, the demandantwas punished with infamy and the loss of his suit, while his witness andchampion suffered ignominious death. In many cases it was in the optionof the judge to award or to refuse the combat: but two are specified, in which it was the inevitable result of the challenge; if a faithfulvassal gave the lie to his compeer, who unjustly claimed any portion oftheir lord's demesnes; or if an unsuccessful suitor presumed to impeachthe judgment and veracity of the court. He might impeach them, but theterms were severe and perilous: in the same day he successively foughtall the members of the tribunal, even those who had been absent; asingle defeat was followed by death and infamy; and where none couldhope for victory, it is highly probable that none would adventure thetrial. In the Assise of Jerusalem, the legal subtlety of the countof Jaffa is more laudably employed to elude, than to facilitate, thejudicial combat, which he derives from a principle of honor rather thanof superstition. [140]

[Footnote 139: See l'Esprit des Loix, l. Xxviii. In the forty yearssince its publication, no work has been more read and criticized; andthe spirit of inquiry which it has excited is not the least of ourobligations to the author. ]

[Footnote 140: For the intelligence of this obscure and obsoletejurisprudence (c. 80-111) I am deeply indebted to the friendship of alearned lord, who, with an accurate and discerning eye, has surveyed thephilosophic history of law. By his studies, posterity might beenriched: the merit of the orator and the judge can be felt only by hiscontemporaries. ]

Among the causes which enfranchised the plebeians from the yoke offeudal tyranny, the institution of cities and corporations is one ofthe most powerful; and if those of Palestine are coeval with the firstcrusade, they may be ranked with the most ancient of the Latin world. Many of the pilgrims had escaped from their lords under the banner ofthe cross; and it was the policy of the French princes to tempt theirstay by the assurance of the rights and privileges of freemen. It isexpressly declared in the Assise of Jerusalem, that after instituting, for his knights and barons, the court of peers, in which he presidedhimself, Godfrey of Bouillon established a second tribunal, in whichhis person was represented by his viscount. The jurisdiction of thisinferior court extended over the burgesses of the kingdom; and it wascomposed of a select number of the most discreet and worthy citizens, who were sworn to judge, according to the laws of the actions andfortunes of their equals. [141] In the conquest and settlement of newcities, the example of Jerusalem was imitated by the kings and theirgreat vassals; and above thirty similar corporations were founded beforethe loss of the Holy Land. Another class of subjects, the Syrians, [142]or Oriental Christians, were oppressed by the zeal of the clergy, andprotected by the toleration of the state. Godfrey listened to theirreasonable prayer, that they might be judged by their own national laws. A third court was instituted for their use, of limited and domesticjurisdiction: the sworn members were Syrians, in blood, language, andreligion; but the office of the president (in Arabic, of the rais) wassometimes exercised by the viscount of the city. At an immeasurabledistance below the nobles, the burgesses, and the strangers, theAssise of Jerusalem condescends to mention the villains and slaves, thepeasants of the land and the captives of war, who were almost equallyconsidered as the objects of property. The relief or protection of theseunhappy men was not esteemed worthy of the care of the legislator;but he diligently provides for the recovery, though not indeed for thepunishment, of the fugitives. Like hounds, or hawks, who had strayedfrom the lawful owner, they might be lost and claimed: the slave andfalcon were of the same value; but three slaves, or twelve oxen, wereaccumulated to equal the price of the war-horse; and a sum of threehundred pieces of gold was fixed, in the age of chivalry, as theequivalent of the more noble animal. [143]

[Footnote 141: Louis le Gros, who is considered as the father of thisinstitution in France, did not begin his reign till nine years (A. D. 1108) after Godfrey of Bouillon, (Assises, c. 2, 324. ) For its originand effects, see the judicious remarks of Dr. Robertson, (History ofCharles V. Vol. I. P. 30-36, 251-265, quarto edition. )]

[Footnote 142: Every reader conversant with the historians of thecrusades will understand by the peuple des Suriens, the OrientalChristians, Melchites, Jacobites, or Nestorians, who had all adopted theuse of the Arabic language, (vol. Iv. P. 593. )]

[Footnote 143: See the Assises de Jerusalem, (310, 311, 312. ) These lawswere enacted as late as the year 1350, in the kingdom of Cyprus. Inthe same century, in the reign of Edward I. , I understand, from a latepublication, (of his Book of Account, ) that the price of a war-horse wasnot less exorbitant in England. ]