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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
+ Volume 5
+
+Author: Edward Gibbon
+
+Commentator: H. H. Milman
+
+Release Date: November, 1996 [eBook #735]
+[Most recently updated: March 7, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: David Reed and David Widger
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE ***
+
+
+
+
+ HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
+
+ Edward Gibbon, Esq.
+
+ With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman
+
+ Vol. 5
+
+ 1788 (Written), 1845 (Revised)
+
+ CONTENTS
+
+ 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.
+
+ Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks.—Part II.
+
+ Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks.—Part III.
+
+ Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks.—Part IV.
+
+ Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks.—Part V.
+
+ Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks.—Part VI.
+
+ 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 Ali And His Descendants.
+
+ Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.—Part II.
+
+ Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.—Part
+ III.
+
+ Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.—Part IV.
+
+ Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.—Part V.
+
+ Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.—Part VI.
+
+ Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.—Part
+ VII.
+
+ Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.—Part
+ VIII.
+
+ 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.
+
+ Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs.—Part II.
+
+ Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs.—Part III.
+
+ Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs.—Part IV.
+
+ Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs.—Part V.
+
+ Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs.—Part VI.
+
+ Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs.—Part VII.
+
+ 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.
+
+ Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs.—Part II.
+
+ Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs.—Part III.
+
+ Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs.—Part IV.
+
+ Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs.—Part V.
+
+ 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.
+
+ Chapter LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire.—Part II.
+
+ Chapter LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire.—Part III.
+
+ Chapter LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire.—Part IV.
+
+ 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.
+
+ Chapter LIV: Origin And Doctrine Of The Paulicians.—Part II.
+
+ 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.
+
+ Chapter LV: The Bulgarians, The Hungarians And The
+ Russians.—Part II.
+
+ Chapter LV: The Bulgarians, The Hungarians And The
+ Russians.—Part III.
+
+ 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.
+
+ Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans.—Part
+ II.
+
+ Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans.—Part
+ III.
+
+ Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans.—Part
+ IV.
+
+ Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans.—Part V.
+
+ 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.
+
+ Chapter LVII: The Turks.—Part II.
+
+ Chapter LVII: The Turks.—Part III.
+
+ Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.—Part I.
+
+ Origin And Numbers Of The First Crusade.—Characters Of The Latin
+ Princes.—Their March To Constantinople.—Policy Of The Greek
+ Emperor Alexius.—Conquest Of Nice, Antioch, And Jerusalem, By The
+ Franks.—Deliverance Of The Holy Sepulchre.— Godfrey Of Bouillon,
+ First King Of Jerusalem.—Institutions Of The French Or Latin
+ Kingdom.
+
+ Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.—Part II.
+
+ Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.—Part III.
+
+ Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.—Part IV.
+
+ Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.—Part V.
+
+
+
+
+ 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
+ former as subservient only, and relative, to the latter; a
+ salutary maxim, if in fact, as well as in narrative, it had ever
+ been held sacred. The Oriental philosophy of the Gnostics, the
+ dark abyss of predestination and grace, and the strange
+ transformation of the Eucharist from the sign to the substance of
+ Christ’s body, 1 I have purposely abandoned to the curiosity of
+ speculative divines. But I have reviewed, with diligence and
+ pleasure, the objects of ecclesiastical history, by which the
+ decline and fall of the Roman empire were materially affected,
+ the propagation of Christianity, the constitution of the Catholic
+ church, the ruin of Paganism, and the sects that arose from the
+ mysterious controversies concerning the Trinity and incarnation.
+ At the head of this class, we may justly rank the worship of
+ images, so fiercely disputed in the eighth and ninth centuries;
+ since a question of popular superstition produced the revolt of
+ Italy, the temporal power of the popes, and the restoration of
+ the Roman empire in the West.
+
+ 1 (return) [ The learned Selden has given the history of
+ transubstantiation in a comprehensive and pithy sentence: “This
+ opinion is only rhetoric turned into logic,” (his Works, vol.
+ iii. p. 2037, in his Table-Talk.)]
+
+ The primitive Christians were possessed with an unconquerable
+ repugnance to the use and abuse of images; and this aversion may
+ be ascribed to their descent from the Jews, and their enmity to
+ the Greeks. The Mosaic law had severely proscribed all
+ representations of the Deity; and that precept was firmly
+ established in the principles and practice of the chosen people.
+ The wit of the Christian apologists was pointed against the
+ foolish idolaters, who bowed before the workmanship of their own
+ hands; the images of brass and marble, which, had they been
+ endowed with sense and motion, should have started rather from
+ the pedestal to adore the creative powers of the artist. 2
+ Perhaps some recent and imperfect converts of the Gnostic tribe
+ might crown the statues of Christ and St. Paul with the profane
+ honors which they paid to those of Aristotle and Pythagoras; 3
+ but the public religion of the Catholics was uniformly simple and
+ spiritual; and the first notice of the use of pictures is in the
+ censure of the council of Illiberis, three hundred years after
+ the Christian aera. Under the successors of Constantine, in the
+ peace and luxury of the triumphant church, the more prudent
+ bishops condescended to indulge a visible superstition, for the
+ benefit of the multitude; and, after the ruin of Paganism, they
+ were no longer restrained by the apprehension of an odious
+ parallel. The first introduction of a symbolic worship was in the
+ veneration of the cross, and of relics. The saints and martyrs,
+ whose intercession was implored, were seated on the right hand of
+ God; but the gracious and often supernatural favors, which, in
+ the popular belief, were showered round their tomb, conveyed an
+ unquestionable sanction of the devout pilgrims, who visited, and
+ touched, and kissed these lifeless remains, the memorials of
+ their merits and sufferings. 4 But a memorial, more interesting
+ than the skull or the sandals of a departed worthy, is the
+ faithful copy of his person and features, delineated by the arts
+ of painting or sculpture. In every age, such copies, so congenial
+ to human feelings, have been cherished by the zeal of private
+ friendship, or public esteem: the images of the Roman emperors
+ were adored with civil, and almost religious, honors; a reverence
+ less ostentatious, but more sincere, was applied to the statues
+ of sages and patriots; and these profane virtues, these splendid
+ sins, disappeared in the presence of the holy men, who had died
+ for their celestial and everlasting country. At first, the
+ experiment was made with caution and scruple; and the venerable
+ pictures were discreetly allowed to instruct the ignorant, to
+ awaken the cold, and to gratify the prejudices of the heathen
+ proselytes. By a slow though inevitable progression, the honors
+ of the original were transferred to the copy: the devout
+ Christian prayed before the image of a 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 the pictures
+ which speak, and move, and bleed, must be endowed with a divine
+ energy, and may be considered as the proper objects of religious
+ adoration. The most audacious pencil might tremble in the rash
+ attempt of defining, by forms and colors, the infinite Spirit,
+ the eternal Father, who pervades and sustains the universe. 5 But
+ the superstitious mind was more easily reconciled to paint and to
+ worship the angels, and, above all, the Son of God, under the
+ human shape, which, on earth, they have condescended to assume.
+ The second person of the Trinity had been clothed with a real and
+ mortal body; but that body had ascended into heaven: and, had not
+ some similitude been presented to the eyes of his disciples, the
+ spiritual worship of Christ might have been obliterated by the
+ visible relics and representations of the saints. A similar
+ indulgence was requisite and propitious for the Virgin Mary: the
+ place of her burial was unknown; and the assumption of her soul
+ and body into heaven was adopted by the credulity of the Greeks
+ and Latins. The use, and even the worship, of images was firmly
+ established before the end of the sixth century: they were fondly
+ cherished by the warm imagination of the Greeks and Asiatics: the
+ Pantheon and Vatican were adorned with the emblems of a new
+ superstition; but this semblance of idolatry was more coldly
+ entertained by the rude Barbarians and the Arian clergy of the
+ West. The bolder forms of sculpture, in brass or marble, which
+ peopled the temples of antiquity, were offensive to the fancy or
+ conscience of the Christian Greeks: and a smooth surface of
+ colors has ever been esteemed a more decent and harmless mode of
+ imitation. 6
+
+ 2 (return) [ Nec intelligunt homines ineptissimi, quod si sentire
+ simulacra et moveri possent, adoratura hominem fuissent a quo
+ sunt expolita. (Divin. Institut. l. ii. c. 2.) Lactantius is the
+ last, as well as the most eloquent, of the Latin apologists.
+ Their raillery of idols attacks not only the object, but the form
+ and matter.]
+
+ 3 (return) [ See Irenaeus, Epiphanius, and Augustin, (Basnage,
+ Hist. des Eglises Reformees, tom. ii. p. 1313.) This Gnostic
+ practice has a singular affinity with the private worship of
+ Alexander Severus, (Lampridius, c. 29. Lardner, Heathen
+ Testimonies, vol. iii. p. 34.)]
+
+ 4 (return) [ See this History, vol. ii. p. 261; vol. ii. p. 434;
+ vol. iii. p. 158-163.]
+
+ 5 (return) [ (Concilium Nicenum, ii. in Collect. Labb. tom. viii.
+ p. 1025, edit. Venet.) Il seroit peut-etre a-propos de ne point
+ souffrir d’images de la Trinite ou de la Divinite; les defenseurs
+ les plus zeles des images ayant condamne celles-ci, et le concile
+ de Trente ne parlant que des images de Jesus Christ et des
+ Saints, (Dupin, Bibliot. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 154.)]
+
+ 6 (return) [ This general history of images is drawn from the
+ xxiid book of 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 the Protestants are so notoriously in the right,
+ that they can venture to be 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
+ the original; but the primitive Christians were ignorant of the
+ genuine features of the Son of God, his mother, and his apostles:
+ the statue of Christ at Paneas in Palestine 7 was more probably
+ that of some temporal savior; the Gnostics and their profane
+ monuments were reprobated; and the fancy of the Christian artists
+ could only be guided by the clandestine imitation of some heathen
+ model. In this distress, a bold and dexterous invention assured
+ at once the likeness of the image and the innocence of the
+ worship. A new super structure of fable was raised on the popular
+ basis of a Syrian legend, on the correspondence of Christ and
+ Abgarus, so famous in the days of Eusebius, so reluctantly
+ deserted by our modern advocates. The bishop of Caesarea 8
+ records the epistle, 9 but he most strangely forgets the picture
+ of Christ; 10 the perfect impression of his face on a linen, with
+ which he gratified the faith of the royal stranger who had
+ invoked his healing power, and offered the strong city of Edessa
+ to protect him against the malice of the Jews. The ignorance of
+ the primitive church is explained by the long imprisonment of the
+ image in a niche of the wall, from whence, after an oblivion of
+ five hundred years, it was released by some prudent bishop, and
+ seasonably presented to the devotion of the times. Its first and
+ most glorious exploit was the deliverance of the city from the
+ arms of Chosroes Nushirvan; and it was soon revered as a pledge
+ of the divine promise, that Edessa should never be taken by a
+ foreign enemy. It is true, indeed, that the text of Procopius
+ ascribes the double deliverance of Edessa to the wealth and valor
+ of her citizens, who purchased the absence and repelled the
+ assaults of the Persian monarch. He was ignorant, the profane
+ historian, of the testimony which he is compelled to deliver in
+ the ecclesiastical page of Evagrius, that the Palladium was
+ exposed on the rampart, and that the water which had been
+ sprinkled on the holy face, instead of quenching, added new fuel
+ to the flames of the besieged. After this important service, the
+ image of Edessa was preserved with respect and gratitude; and if
+ the Armenians rejected the legend, the more credulous Greeks
+ adored the similitude, which was not the work of any mortal
+ pencil, but the immediate creation of the divine original. The
+ style and sentiments of a Byzantine hymn will declare how far
+ their worship was removed from the grossest idolatry. “How can we
+ with mortal eyes contemplate this image, whose celestial splendor
+ the host of heaven presumes not to behold? He who dwells in
+ heaven, condescends this day to visit us by his venerable image;
+ He who is seated on the cherubim, visits us this day by a
+ picture, which the Father has delineated with his immaculate
+ hand, which he has formed in an ineffable manner, and which we
+ sanctify by adoring it with fear and love.” Before the end of the
+ sixth century, these images, made without hands, (in Greek it is
+ a single word, 11 were propagated in the camps and 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 far greater part, the transcripts of a human
+ pencil, could only pretend to a secondary likeness and improper
+ title: but there were some of higher descent, who derived their
+ resemblance from an immediate contact with the original, endowed,
+ for that purpose, with a miraculous and prolific virtue. The most
+ ambitious aspired from a filial to a fraternal relation with the
+ image of Edessa; and such is the veronica of Rome, or Spain, or
+ Jerusalem, which Christ in his agony and bloody sweat applied to
+ his face, and delivered to a holy matron. The fruitful precedent
+ was speedily transferred to the Virgin Mary, and the saints and
+ martyrs. In the church of Diospolis, in Palestine, the features
+ of the Mother of God 13 were deeply inscribed in a marble column;
+ the East and West have been decorated by the pencil of St. Luke;
+ and the Evangelist, who was perhaps a physician, has been forced
+ to exercise the occupation of a painter, so profane and odious in
+ the eyes of the primitive Christians. The Olympian Jove, created
+ by the muse of Homer and the chisel of Phidias, might inspire a
+ philosophic mind with momentary devotion; but these Catholic
+ images were faintly and flatly delineated by monkish artists in
+ the last degeneracy of taste and genius. 14
+
+ 7 (return) [ After removing some rubbish of miracle and
+ inconsistency, it may be allowed, that as late as the year 300,
+ Paneas in Palestine was decorated with a bronze statue,
+ representing a grave personage wrapped in a cloak, with a
+ grateful or suppliant female kneeling before him, and that an
+ inscription was perhaps inscribed on the pedestal. By the
+ Christians, this group was foolishly explained of their founder
+ and the poor woman whom he had cured of the bloody flux, (Euseb.
+ vii. 18, Philostorg. vii. 3, &c.) M. de Beausobre more reasonably
+ conjectures the philosopher Apollonius, or the emperor Vespasian:
+ in the latter supposition, the female is a city, a province, or
+ perhaps the queen Berenice, (Bibliotheque Germanique, tom. xiii.
+ p. 1-92.)]
+
+ 8 (return) [ Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. i. c. 13. The learned
+ Assemannus has brought up the collateral aid of three Syrians,
+ St. Ephrem, Josua Stylites, and James bishop of Sarug; but I do
+ not find any notice of the Syriac original or the archives of
+ Edessa, (Bibliot. Orient. tom. i. p. 318, 420, 554;) their vague
+ belief is probably derived from the Greeks.]
+
+ 9 (return) [ The evidence for these epistles is stated and
+ rejected by the candid Lardner, (Heathen Testimonies, vol. i. p.
+ 297-309.) Among the herd of bigots who are forcibly driven from
+ this convenient, but untenable, 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 Christian religion
+ owes its credit to his name, his style, and the interested
+ applause of our clergy.]
+
+ 10 (return) [ 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 years 521 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 and buckler 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 most
+ perfect edition may be found in Cedrenus, (Compend. p. 175-178.)]
+
+ 11 (return) [ See Ducange, in Gloss. Graec. et Lat. The subject
+ is treated with equal learning and bigotry by the Jesuit Gretser,
+ (Syntagma de Imaginibus non Manu factis, ad calcem Codini de
+ Officiis, p. 289-330,) the ass, or rather the fox, of
+ Ingoldstadt, (see the Scaligerana;) with equal reason and wit by
+ the Protestant Beausobre, in the ironical controversy which he
+ has spread through many volumes of the Bibliotheque 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.)]
+
+ 12 (return) [ 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 (of Edessa). See Pagi, tom. ii. A.D. 588 No. 11.]
+
+ 13 (return) [ See, in the genuine or supposed works of John
+ Damascenus, two passages on the Virgin and St. Luke, which have
+ not been noticed by Gretser, nor consequently by Beausobre,
+ (Opera Joh. Damascen. tom. i. p. 618, 631.)]
+
+ 14 (return) [ “Your scandalous figures stand quite out from the
+ canvass: they are as bad as a group of statues!” It was thus that
+ the ignorance and bigotry of a Greek priest applauded the
+ pictures of Titian, which he had ordered, and refused to accept.]
+
+ The worship of images had stolen into the church by insensible
+ degrees, and each petty step was pleasing to the superstitious
+ mind, as productive of comfort, and innocent of sin. But in the
+ beginning of the eighth century, in the full magnitude of the
+ abuse, the more timorous Greeks were awakened by an apprehension,
+ that under the mask of Christianity, they had restored the
+ religion of their fathers: they heard, with grief and impatience,
+ the name of idolaters; the incessant charge of the Jews and
+ Mahometans, 15 who derived from the Law and the Koran an immortal
+ hatred to graven images and all relative worship. The servitude
+ of the Jews might curb their zeal, and depreciate their
+ authority; but the triumphant Mussulmans, who reigned at
+ Damascus, and threatened Constantinople, cast into the scale of
+ reproach the accumulated weight of truth and victory. The cities
+ of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt had been fortified with the images
+ of Christ, his mother, and his saints; and each city presumed on
+ the hope or promise of miraculous defence. In a rapid conquest of
+ ten years, the Arabs subdued those cities and these images; and,
+ in their opinion, the Lord of Hosts pronounced a decisive
+ judgment between the adoration and contempt of these mute and
+ inanimate idols. 1511 For a while Edessa had braved the Persian
+ assaults; but the chosen city, the spouse of Christ, was involved
+ in the common ruin; and his divine resemblance became the slave
+ and trophy of the infidels. After a servitude of three hundred
+ years, the Palladium was yielded to the devotion of
+ Constantinople, for a ransom of twelve thousand pounds of silver,
+ the redemption of two hundred Mussulmans, and a perpetual truce
+ for the territory of Edessa. 16 In this season of distress and
+ dismay, the eloquence of the monks was exercised in the defence
+ of images; and they attempted to prove, that the sin and schism
+ of the greatest part of the Orientals had forfeited the favor,
+ and annihilated the virtue, of these precious symbols. But they
+ were now opposed by the murmurs of many simple or rational
+ Christians, who appealed to the evidence of texts, of facts, and
+ of the primitive times, and secretly desired the reformation of
+ the church. As the worship of images had never been established
+ by any general or positive law, its progress in the Eastern
+ empire had been retarded, or accelerated, by the differences of
+ men and manners, the local 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 and remote
+ districts of Asia were strangers to this innovation of sacred
+ luxury. Many large congregations of Gnostics and Arians
+ maintained, after their conversion, the simple worship which had
+ preceded their separation; and the Armenians, the most warlike
+ subjects of Rome, were not reconciled, in the twelfth century, to
+ the sight of images. 17 These various denominations of men
+ afforded a fund of prejudice and aversion, of small account in
+ the villages of Anatolia or Thrace, but which, in the fortune of
+ a soldier, a prelate, or a eunuch, might be often connected with
+ the powers of the church and state.
+
+ 15 (return) [ By Cedrenus, Zonaras, Glycas, and Manasses, the
+ origin of the Aconoclcasts is imprinted to the caliph Yezid and
+ two Jews, who promised the empire to Leo; and the reproaches of
+ these hostile sectaries are turned into an absurd conspiracy for
+ restoring the purity of the Christian worship, (see Spanheim,
+ Hist. Imag. c. 2.)]
+
+ 1511 (return) [ Yezid, ninth caliph of the race of the Ommiadae,
+ caused all the images in Syria to be destroyed about the year
+ 719; hence the orthodox reproaches the sectaries with following
+ the example of the Saracens 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.]
+
+ 16 (return) [ See Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 267,)
+ Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 201,) and Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. p.
+ 264,), and the criticisms of Pagi, (tom. iii. A.D. 944.) The
+ prudent Franciscan refuses to determine whether the image of
+ Edessa now reposes at Rome or Genoa; but its repose is
+ inglorious, and this ancient object of worship is no longer
+ famous or fashionable.]
+
+ 17 (return) [ (Nicetas, l. ii. p. 258.) The Armenian churches are
+ still content with the Cross, (Missions du Levant, tom. iii. p.
+ 148;) but surely the superstitious Greek is unjust to the
+ superstition of the Germans 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 the East. He was ignorant of sacred and profane letters; but
+ his education, his reason, perhaps his intercourse with the Jews
+ and Arabs, had inspired the martial peasant with a hatred of
+ images; and it was held to be the duty of a prince to impose on
+ his subjects the dictates of his own conscience. But in the
+ outset of an unsettled reign, during ten years of toil and
+ danger, Leo submitted to the meanness of hypocrisy, bowed before
+ the idols which he despised, and satisfied the Roman pontiff with
+ the annual professions of his orthodoxy and zeal. In the
+ reformation of religion, his first steps were moderate and
+ cautious: he assembled a great council of senators and bishops,
+ and enacted, with their consent, that all the images should be
+ removed from the sanctuary and altar to a proper height in the
+ churches where they might be visible to the eyes, and
+ inaccessible to the superstition, of the people. But it was
+ impossible on either side to check the rapid through adverse
+ impulse of veneration and abhorrence: in their lofty position,
+ the sacred images still edified their votaries, and reproached
+ the tyrant. He was himself provoked by resistance and invective;
+ and his own party accused him of an imperfect discharge of his
+ duty, and urged for his imitation the example of the Jewish king,
+ who had broken without scruple the brazen serpent of the temple.
+ By a second edict, he proscribed the existence as well as the use
+ of religious pictures; the churches of Constantinople and the
+ provinces were cleansed from idolatry; the images of Christ, the
+ Virgin, and the saints, were demolished, or a smooth surface of
+ plaster was spread over the walls of the edifice. The sect of the
+ Iconoclasts was supported by the zeal and despotism of six
+ emperors, and the East and West were involved in a noisy conflict
+ of one hundred and twenty years. It was the design of Leo the
+ Isaurian to pronounce the condemnation of images as an article of
+ faith, and by the authority of a general council: but the
+ convocation of such an assembly was reserved for his son
+ Constantine; 19 and though it is stigmatized by triumphant
+ bigotry as a meeting of fools and atheists, their own partial and
+ mutilated acts betray many symptoms of reason and piety. The
+ debates and decrees of many provincial synods introduced the
+ summons of the general council which met in the suburbs of
+ Constantinople, and was composed of the respectable number of
+ three hundred and thirty-eight bishops of Europe and Anatolia;
+ for the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria were the slaves of
+ the caliph, and the Roman pontiff had withdrawn the churches of
+ Italy and the West from the communion of the Greeks. This
+ Byzantine synod assumed the rank and powers of the seventh
+ general council; yet even this title was a recognition of the six
+ preceding assemblies, which had laboriously built the structure
+ of the Catholic faith. After a serious deliberation of six
+ months, the three hundred and thirty-eight bishops pronounced and
+ subscribed a unanimous decree, that all visible symbols of
+ Christ, except in the Eucharist, were either blasphemous or
+ heretical; that image-worship was a corruption of Christianity
+ and a renewal of Paganism; that all such monuments of idolatry
+ should be broken or erased; and that those who should refuse to
+ deliver the objects of their private superstition, were guilty of
+ disobedience to the authority of the church and of the emperor.
+ In their loud and loyal acclamations, they celebrated the merits
+ of their temporal redeemer; and to his zeal and justice they
+ intrusted the execution of their spiritual censures. At
+ Constantinople, as in the former 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 of the prelates
+ sacrificed their secret conscience to the temptations of hope and
+ fear. In the long night of superstition, the Christians had
+ wandered far away from the simplicity of the gospel: nor was it
+ easy for them to discern the clew, and tread back the mazes, of
+ the labyrinth. The worship of images was inseparably blended, at
+ least to a pious fancy, with the Cross, the Virgin, the Saints
+ and their relics; the holy ground was involved in a cloud of
+ miracles and visions; and the nerves of the mind, curiosity and
+ scepticism, were benumbed by the habits of obedience and belief.
+ Constantine himself is accused of indulging a royal license to
+ doubt, or deny, or deride the mysteries of the Catholics, 20 but
+ they were deeply inscribed in the public and private creed of his
+ bishops; and the boldest Iconoclast might assault with a secret
+ horror the monuments of popular devotion, which were consecrated
+ to the honor of his celestial patrons. In the reformation of the
+ sixteenth century, freedom and knowledge had expanded all the
+ faculties of man: the thirst of innovation superseded the
+ reverence of antiquity; and the vigor of Europe could disdain
+ those phantoms which terrified the sickly and servile weakness of
+ the Greeks.
+
+ 18 (return) [ Our original, but not impartial, monuments of the
+ Iconoclasts must be drawn from the Acts of the Councils, tom.
+ viii. and ix. Collect. Labbe, edit. Venet. and the historical
+ writings of Theophanes, Nicephorus, Manasses, Cedrenus, Zonoras,
+ &c. Of the modern Catholics, Baronius, Pagi, Natalis Alexander,
+ (Hist. Eccles. Seculum viii. and ix.,) and Maimbourg, (Hist. des
+ Iconoclasts,) have treated the subject with learning, passion,
+ and credulity. The Protestant labors of Frederick Spanheim
+ (Historia Imaginum restituta) and James Basnage (Hist. des
+ Eglises Reformees, tom. ii. l. xxiiii. p. 1339-1385) are cast
+ into the Iconoclast scale. With this mutual aid, and opposite
+ tendency, it is easy for us to poise the balance with philosophic
+ indifference. * Note: Compare Schlosser, Geschichte der
+ Bilder-sturmender Kaiser, Frankfurt am-Main 1812 a book of
+ research and impartiality—M.]
+
+ 19 (return) [ 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 materials as he could find in the Nicene
+ Acts, (p. 1046, &c.) The witty John of Damascus converts it into
+ slaves of their belly, &c. Opera, tom. i. p. 806]
+
+ 20 (return) [ He is accused of proscribing the title of saint;
+ styling the Virgin, Mother of Christ; comparing her after her
+ delivery to an empty purse of Arianism, Nestorianism, &c. In his
+ defence, Spanheim (c. iv. p. 207) is somewhat embarrassed between
+ the interest of a Protestant and the duty of an orthodox divine.]
+
+ The scandal of an abstract heresy can be only proclaimed to the
+ people by the blast of the ecclesiastical trumpet; but the most
+ ignorant can perceive, the most torpid must feel, the profanation
+ and downfall of their visible deities. The first hostilities of
+ Leo were directed against a lofty Christ on the vestibule, and
+ above the gate, of the palace. A ladder had been planted for the
+ assault, but it was furiously shaken by a crowd of zealots and
+ women: they beheld, with pious transport, the ministers of
+ sacrilege tumbling from on high and dashed against the pavement:
+ and the honors of the ancient martyrs were prostituted to these
+ criminals, who justly suffered for murder and rebellion. 21 The
+ execution of the Imperial edicts was resisted by frequent tumults
+ in Constantinople and the provinces: the person of Leo was
+ endangered, his officers were massacred, and the popular
+ enthusiasm was quelled by the strongest efforts of the civil and
+ military power. Of the Archipelago, or Holy Sea, the numerous
+ islands were filled with images and monks: their votaries
+ abjured, without scruple, the enemy of Christ, his mother, and
+ the saints; they armed a fleet of boats and galleys, displayed
+ their consecrated banners, and boldly steered for the harbor of
+ Constantinople, to place on the throne a new favorite of God and
+ the people. They depended on the succor of a miracle: but their
+ miracles were inefficient against the Greek fire; and, after the
+ defeat and conflagration of the fleet, the naked islands were
+ abandoned to the clemency or justice of the conqueror. The son of
+ Leo, in the first year of his reign, had undertaken an expedition
+ against the Saracens: during his absence, the capital, the
+ palace, and the purple, were occupied by his kinsman Artavasdes,
+ the ambitious champion of the orthodox faith. The worship of
+ images was triumphantly restored: the patriarch renounced his
+ dissimulation, or dissembled his sentiments and the righteous
+ claims of the usurper was acknowledged, both in the new, and in
+ ancient, Rome. Constantine flew for refuge to his paternal
+ mountains; but he descended at the head of the bold and
+ affectionate Isaurians; and his final victory confounded the arms
+ and predictions of the fanatics. His long reign was distracted
+ with clamor, sedition, conspiracy, and mutual hatred, and
+ sanguinary revenge; the persecution of images was the motive or
+ pretence, of his adversaries; and, if they missed a temporal
+ diadem, they were rewarded by the Greeks with the crown of
+ martyrdom. In every act of open and clandestine treason, the
+ emperor felt the unforgiving enmity of the monks, the faithful
+ slaves of the superstition to which they owed their riches and
+ influence. They prayed, they preached, they absolved, they
+ inflamed, they conspired; the solitude of Palestine poured 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 in
+ this world and the next. 23 2311 I am not at leisure to examine
+ how far the monks provoked, nor how much they have exaggerated,
+ their real and pretended sufferings, nor how many lost their
+ lives or limbs, their eyes or their beards, by the cruelty of the
+ emperor. 2312 From the chastisement of individuals, he proceeded
+ to the abolition of the order; and, as it was wealthy and
+ useless, his resentment might be stimulated by avarice, and
+ justified by patriotism. The formidable name and mission of the
+ Dragon, 24 his visitor-general, excited the terror and abhorrence
+ of the black nation: the religious communities were dissolved,
+ the buildings were converted into magazines, or barracks; the
+ lands, movables, and cattle were confiscated; and our modern
+ precedents will support the charge, that much wanton or malicious
+ havoc was exercised against the relics, and even the books of the
+ monasteries. With the habit and profession of monks, the public
+ and private worship of images was rigorously proscribed; and it
+ should seem, that a solemn abjuration of idolatry was exacted
+ from the subjects, or at least from the clergy, of the Eastern
+ empire. 25
+
+ 21 (return) [ The holy confessor Theophanes approves the
+ principle of their rebellion, (p. 339.) Gregory II. (in Epist. i.
+ ad Imp. Leon. Concil. tom. viii. p. 661, 664) applauds the zeal
+ of the Byzantine women who killed the Imperial officers.]
+
+ 22 (return) [ John, or Mansur, was a noble Christian of Damascus,
+ who held a considerable office in the service of the caliph. His
+ zeal in the cause of images exposed him to the resentment and
+ treachery of the Greek emperor; and on the suspicion of a
+ treasonable correspondence, he was deprived of his right hand,
+ which was miraculously restored by the Virgin. After this
+ deliverance, he resigned his office, distributed his wealth, and
+ buried himself in the monastery of St. Sabas, between Jerusalem
+ and the Dead Sea. The legend is famous; but his learned editor,
+ Father Lequien, has a unluckily proved that St. John Damascenus
+ was already a monk before the Iconoclast dispute, (Opera, tom. i.
+ Vit. St. Joan. Damascen. p. 10-13, et Notas ad loc.)]
+
+ 23 (return) [ After sending Leo to the devil, he introduces his
+ heir, (Opera, Damascen. tom. i. p. 625.) If the authenticity of
+ this piece be suspicious, we are sure that in other works, no
+ longer extant, Damascenus bestowed on Constantine the titles.
+ (tom. i. p. 306.)]
+
+ 2311 (return) [ The patriarch Anastasius, an Iconoclast under
+ Leo, an image worshipper under Artavasdes, was scourged, led
+ through the streets on an ass, with his face to the tail; and,
+ reinvested in his dignity, became again the obsequious minister
+ of Constantine in his Iconoclastic persecutions. See Schlosser p.
+ 211.—M.]
+
+ 2312 (return) [ Compare Schlosser, p. 228-234.—M.]
+
+ 24 (return) [ In the narrative of this persecution from
+ Theophanes and Cedreves, Spanheim (p. 235-238) is happy to
+ compare the Draco of Leo with the dragoons (Dracones) of Louis
+ XIV.; and highly solaces himself with the controversial pun.]
+
+ 25 (return) [ (Damascen. Op. tom. i. p. 625.) This oath and
+ subscription I do not remember to have seen in any modern
+ compilation]
+
+ The patient East abjured, with reluctance, her sacred images;
+ they were fondly cherished, and vigorously defended, by the
+ independent zeal of the Italians. In ecclesiastical rank and
+ jurisdiction, the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope of
+ Rome were nearly equal. But the Greek prelate was a domestic
+ slave under the eye of his master, at whose nod he alternately
+ passed from the convent to the throne, and from the throne to the
+ convent. A distant and dangerous station, amidst the Barbarians
+ of the West, excited the spirit and freedom of the Latin bishops.
+
+ Their popular election endeared them to the Romans: the public
+ and private indigence was relieved by their ample revenue; and
+ the weakness or neglect of the emperors compelled them to
+ consult, both in peace and war, the temporal safety of the city.
+ In the school of adversity the priest insensibly imbibed the
+ virtues and the ambition of a prince; the same 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 of
+ the popes again restored the supremacy of Rome. It is agreed,
+ that in the eighth century, their dominion was founded on
+ rebellion, and that the rebellion was produced, and justified, by
+ the heresy of the Iconoclasts; but the conduct of the second and
+ third Gregory, in this memorable contest, is variously
+ interpreted by the wishes of their friends and enemies. The
+ Byzantine writers unanimously declare, that, after a fruitless
+ admonition, they pronounced the separation of the East and West,
+ and deprived the sacrilegious tyrant of the revenue and
+ sovereignty of Italy. Their excommunication is still more clearly
+ expressed by the Greeks, who beheld the accomplishment of the
+ papal triumphs; and as they are more strongly attached to their
+ religion than to their country, they praise, instead of blaming,
+ the zeal and orthodoxy of these apostolical men. 26 The modern
+ champions of Rome are eager to accept the praise and the
+ precedent: this great and glorious example of the deposition of
+ royal heretics is celebrated by the cardinals Baronius and
+ Bellarmine; 27 and if they are asked, why the same thunders were
+ not hurled against the Neros and Julians of antiquity, they
+ reply, that the weakness of the primitive church was the sole
+ cause of her patient loyalty. 28 On this occasion the effects of
+ love and hatred are the same; and the zealous Protestants, who
+ seek to kindle the indignation, and to alarm the fears, of
+ princes and magistrates, expatiate on the insolence and treason
+ of the two Gregories against their lawful sovereign. 29 They are
+ defended only by the moderate Catholics, for the most part, of
+ the Gallican church, 30 who respect the saint, without approving
+ the sin. These common advocates of the crown and the mitre
+ circumscribe the truth of facts by the rule of equity, Scripture,
+ and tradition, and appeal to the evidence of the Latins, 31 and
+ the lives 32 and epistles of the popes; themselves.
+
+ 26 (return) [ Theophanes. (Chronograph. p. 343.) For this Gregory
+ is styled by Cedrenus. (p. 450.) Zonaras specifies the thunder,
+ (tom. ii. l. xv. p. 104, 105.) It may be observed, that the
+ Greeks are apt to confound the times and actions of two
+ Gregories.]
+
+ 27 (return) [ See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 730, No. 4, 5;
+ dignum exemplum! Bellarmin. de Romano Pontifice, l. v. c. 8:
+ mulctavit eum parte imperii. Sigonius, de Regno Italiae, l. iii.
+ Opera, tom. ii. p. 169. Yet such is the change of Italy, that
+ Sigonius is corrected by the editor of Milan, Philipus Argelatus,
+ a Bolognese, and subject of the pope.]
+
+ 28 (return) [ Quod si Christiani olim non deposuerunt Neronem aut
+ Julianum, id fuit quia deerant vires temporales Christianis,
+ (honest Bellarmine, de Rom. Pont. l. v. c. 7.) Cardinal Perron
+ adds a distinction more honorable to the first Christians, but
+ not more satisfactory to modern princes—the treason of heretics
+ and apostates, who break their oath, belie their coin, and
+ renounce their allegiance to Christ and his vicar, (Perroniana,
+ p. 89.)]
+
+ 29 (return) [ Take, as a specimen, the cautious Basnage (Hist.
+ d’Eglise, p. 1350, 1351) and the vehement Spanheim, (Hist.
+ Imaginum,) who, with a hundred more, tread in the footsteps of
+ the centuriators of Magdeburgh.]
+
+ 30 (return) [ 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,) and Giannone, (Istoria Civile Napoli, tom. i. p. 317-320,)
+ a disciple of the Gallican school In the field of controversy I
+ always pity the moderate party, who stand on the open middle
+ ground exposed to the fire of both sides.]
+
+ 31 (return) [ They appeal to Paul Warnefrid, or Diaconus, (de
+ Gestis Langobard. 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 true Anastasius (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.]
+
+ 32 (return) [ With some minute difference, the most learned
+ critics, Lucas Holstenius, Schelestrate, Ciampini, Bianchini,
+ Muratori, (Prolegomena ad tom. iii. pars i.,) are agreed that the
+ Liber Pontificalis was composed and continued by the apostolic
+ librarians and notaries of the viiith and ixth centuries; and
+ that the last and smallest part is the work of Anastasius, whose
+ name it bears. The style is barbarous, the narrative partial, the
+ details are trifling—yet it must be read as a curious and
+ authentic record of the times. The epistles 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, are still extant; 33 and if they cannot be praised as the
+ most perfect models of eloquence and logic, they exhibit the
+ portrait, or at least the mask, of the founder of the papal
+ monarchy. “During ten pure and fortunate years,” says Gregory to
+ the emperor, “we have tasted the annual comfort of your royal
+ letters, subscribed in purple ink, with your own hand, the sacred
+ pledges of your attachment to the orthodox creed of our fathers.
+ How deplorable is the change! how tremendous the scandal! You now
+ accuse the Catholics of idolatry; and, by the accusation, you
+ betray your own impiety and ignorance. To this ignorance we are
+ compelled to adapt the grossness of our style and arguments: the
+ first elements of holy letters are sufficient for your confusion;
+ and were you to enter a grammar-school, and avow yourself the
+ enemy of our worship, the simple and pious children would be
+ provoked to cast their horn-books at your head.” After this
+ decent salutation, the pope attempts the usual distinction
+ between the idols of antiquity and the Christian images. The
+ former were the fanciful representations of phantoms or daemons,
+ at a time when the true God had not manifested his person in any
+ visible likeness. The latter are the genuine forms of Christ, his
+ mother, and his saints, who had approved, by a crowd of miracles,
+ the innocence and merit of this relative worship. He must indeed
+ have trusted to the ignorance of Leo, since he could assert the
+ perpetual use of images, from the apostolic age, and their
+ venerable presence in the six synods of the Catholic church. A
+ more specious argument is drawn from present possession and
+ recent practice the harmony of the Christian world supersedes the
+ demand of a general council; and Gregory frankly confesses, than
+ such assemblies can only be useful under the reign of an orthodox
+ prince. To the impudent and inhuman Leo, more guilty than a
+ heretic, he recommends peace, silence, and implicit obedience to
+ his spiritual guides of Constantinople and Rome. The limits of
+ civil and ecclesiastical powers are defined by the pontiff. To
+ the former he appropriates the body; to the latter, the soul: the
+ sword of justice is in the hands of the magistrate: the more
+ formidable weapon of excommunication is intrusted to the clergy;
+ and in the exercise of their divine commission a zealous son will
+ not spare his offending father: the successor of St. Peter may
+ lawfully chastise the kings of the earth. “You assault us, O
+ tyrant! with a carnal and military hand: unarmed and naked we can
+ only implore the Christ, the prince of the heavenly host, that he
+ will send unto you a devil, for the destruction of your body and
+ the salvation of your soul. You declare, with foolish arrogance,
+ I will despatch my orders to Rome: I will break in pieces the
+ image of St. Peter; and Gregory, like his predecessor Martin,
+ shall be transported in chains, and in exile, to the foot of the
+ Imperial throne. Would to God that I might be permitted to tread
+ in the footsteps of the holy Martin! but may the fate of Constans
+ serve as a warning to the persecutors of the church! After his
+ just condemnation by the bishops of Sicily, the tyrant was cut
+ off, in the fullness of his sins, by a domestic servant: the
+ saint is still adored by the nations of Scythia, among whom he
+ ended his banishment and his life. But it is our duty to live for
+ the edification and support of the faithful people; nor are we
+ reduced to risk our safety on the event of a combat. Incapable as
+ you are of defending your Roman subjects, the maritime situation
+ of the city may perhaps expose it to your depredation but we can
+ remove to the distance of four-and-twenty stadia, to the first
+ fortress of the Lombards, and then—you may pursue the winds. 34
+ Are you ignorant that the popes are the bond of union, the
+ mediators of peace, between the East and West? The eyes of the
+ nations are fixed on our humility; and they revere, as a God upon
+ earth, the apostle St. Peter, whose image you threaten to
+ destroy. 35 The remote and interior kingdoms of the West present
+ their homage to Christ and his vicegerent; and we now prepare to
+ visit one of their most powerful monarchs, who desires to receive
+ from our hands the sacrament of baptism. 36 The Barbarians have
+ submitted to the yoke of the gospel, while you alone are deaf to
+ the voice of the shepherd. These pious Barbarians are kindled
+ into rage: they thirst to avenge the persecution of the East.
+ Abandon your rash and fatal enterprise; reflect, tremble, and
+ repent. If you persist, we are innocent of the blood that will be
+ spilt in the contest; may it fall on your own head!”
+
+ 33 (return) [ The two epistles of Gregory II. have been preserved
+ in the Acta of the Nicene Council, (tom. viii. p. 651-674.) They
+ are without a date, 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 is the force of prejudice, that some
+ papists have praised the good sense and moderation of these
+ letters.]
+
+ 34 (return) [ (Epist. i. p. 664.) This proximity of the Lombards
+ is hard of digestion. Camillo Pellegrini (Dissert. iv. de Ducatu
+ Beneventi, in the Script. Ital. tom. v. p. 172, 173) forcibly
+ reckons the xxivth stadia, not from Rome, but from the limits of
+ the Roman duchy, to the first fortress, perhaps Sora, of the
+ Lombards. I rather believe that Gregory, with the pedantry of the
+ age, employs stadia for miles, without much inquiry into the
+ genuine measure.]
+
+ 35 (return) [ {Greek}]
+
+ 36 (return) [ (p. 665.) The pope appears to have imposed on the
+ ignorance of the Greeks: he lived and died in the Lateran; and in
+ his time all the kingdoms of the West had embraced Christianity.
+ May not this unknown Septetus have some reference to the chief of
+ the Saxon Heptarchy, to Ina king of Wessex, who, in the
+ pontificate of Gregory the Second, 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
+ been witnessed by a crowd of strangers from Italy and the West,
+ who related with grief and indignation the sacrilege of the
+ emperor. But on the reception of his proscriptive edict, they
+ trembled for their domestic deities: the images of Christ and the
+ Virgin, of the angels, martyrs, and saints, were abolished in all
+ the churches of Italy; and a strong alternative was proposed to
+ the Roman pontiff, the royal favor as the price of his
+ compliance, degradation and exile as the penalty of his
+ disobedience. Neither zeal nor policy allowed him to hesitate;
+ and the haughty strain in which Gregory addressed the emperor
+ displays his confidence in the truth of his doctrine or the
+ powers of resistance. Without depending on prayers or miracles,
+ he boldly armed against the public enemy, and his pastoral
+ letters admonished the Italians of their danger and their duty.
+ 37 At this signal, Ravenna, Venice, and the cities of the
+ Exarchate and Pentapolis, adhered to the cause of religion; their
+ military force by sea and land consisted, for the most part, of
+ the natives; and the spirit of patriotism and zeal was transfused
+ into the mercenary strangers. The Italians swore to live and die
+ in the defence of the pope and the holy images; the Roman people
+ was devoted to their father, and even the Lombards were ambitious
+ to share the merit and advantage of this holy war. The most
+ treasonable act, but the most obvious revenge, was the
+ destruction of the statues of Leo himself: the most effectual and
+ pleasing measure of rebellion, was the withholding the tribute of
+ Italy, and depriving him of a power which he had recently abused
+ by the imposition of a new capitation. 38 A form of
+ administration was preserved by the election of magistrates and
+ governors; and so high was the public indignation, that the
+ Italians were prepared to create an orthodox emperor, and to
+ conduct him with a fleet and army to the palace of
+ Constantinople. In that palace, the Roman bishops, the second and
+ third Gregory, were condemned as the authors of the revolt, and
+ every attempt was made, either by fraud or force, to seize their
+ persons, and to strike at their lives. The city was repeatedly
+ visited or assaulted by captains of the guards, and dukes and
+ exarchs of high dignity or secret trust; they landed with foreign
+ troops, they obtained some domestic aid, and the superstition of
+ Naples may blush that her fathers were attached to the cause of
+ heresy. But these clandestine or open attacks were repelled by
+ the courage and vigilance of the Romans; the Greeks were
+ overthrown and massacred, their leaders suffered an ignominious
+ death, and the popes, however inclined to mercy, refused to
+ intercede for these guilty victims. At Ravenna, 39 the several
+ quarters of the city had long exercised a bloody and hereditary
+ feud; in religious controversy they found a new aliment of
+ faction: but the votaries of images were superior in numbers or
+ spirit, and the exarch, who attempted to stem the torrent, lost
+ his life in a popular sedition. To punish this flagitious deed,
+ and restore his dominion in Italy, the emperor sent a fleet and
+ army into the Adriatic Gulf. After suffering from the winds and
+ waves much loss and delay, the Greeks made their descent in the
+ neighborhood of Ravenna: they threatened to depopulate the guilty
+ capital, and to imitate, perhaps to surpass, the example of
+ Justinian the Second, who had chastised a former rebellion by the
+ choice and execution of fifty of the principal inhabitants. The
+ women and clergy, in sackcloth and ashes, lay prostrate in
+ prayer: the men were in arms for the defence of their country;
+ the common danger had united the factions, and the event of a
+ battle was preferred to the slow miseries of a siege. In a
+ hard-fought day, as the two armies alternately yielded and
+ advanced, a phantom was seen, a voice was heard, and Ravenna was
+ victorious by the assurance of victory. The strangers retreated
+ to their ships, but the populous sea-coast poured forth a
+ multitude of boats; the waters of the Po were so deeply infected
+ with blood, that during six years the public prejudice abstained
+ from the fish of the river; and the institution of an annual
+ feast perpetuated the worship of images, and the abhorrence of
+ the Greek tyrant. Amidst the triumph of the Catholic arms, the
+ Roman pontiff convened a synod of ninety-three bishops against
+ the heresy of the Iconoclasts. With their consent, he pronounced
+ a general excommunication against all who by word or deed should
+ attack the tradition of the fathers and the images of the saints:
+ in this sentence the emperor was tacitly involved, 40 but the
+ vote of a last and hopeless remonstrance may seem to imply that
+ the anathema was yet suspended over his guilty head. No sooner
+ had they confirmed their own safety, the worship of images, and
+ the freedom of Rome and Italy, than the popes appear to have
+ relaxed of their severity, and to have spared the relics of the
+ Byzantine dominion. Their moderate councils delayed and prevented
+ the election of a new emperor, and they exhorted the Italians not
+ to separate from the body of the Roman monarchy. The exarch was
+ permitted to reside within the walls of Ravenna, a captive rather
+ than a master; and till the Imperial coronation of Charlemagne,
+ the government of Rome and Italy was exercised in the name of the
+ successors of Constantine. 41
+
+ 37 (return) [ I shall transcribe the important and decisive
+ passage of the Liber Pontificalis. Respiciens ergo pius vir
+ profanam principis jussionem, jam contra Imperatorem quasi contra
+ hostem se armavit, renuens haeresim ejus, scribens ubique se
+ cavere Christianos, eo quod orta fuisset impietas talis. Igitur
+ permoti omnes Pentapolenses, atque Venetiarum exercitus contra
+ Imperatoris jussionem restiterunt; dicentes se nunquam in ejusdem
+ pontificis condescendere necem, sed pro ejus magis defensione
+ viriliter decertare, (p. 156.)]
+
+ 38 (return) [ A census, or capitation, says Anastasius, (p. 156;)
+ a most cruel tax, unknown to the Saracens themselves, exclaims
+ the zealous Maimbourg, (Hist. des Iconoclastes, l. i.,) and
+ Theophanes, (p. 344,) who talks of Pharaoh’s numbering the male
+ children of Israel. This mode of taxation was familiar to the
+ Saracens; and, most unluckily for the historians, it was imposed
+ a few years afterwards in France by his patron Louis XIV.]
+
+ 39 (return) [ See the Liber Pontificalis of Agnellus, (in the
+ Scriptores Rerum Italicarum of Muratori, tom. ii. pars i.,) whose
+ deeper shade of barbarism marks the difference between Rome and
+ Ravenna. Yet we are indebted to him for some curious and domestic
+ facts—the quarters and factions of Ravenna, (p. 154,) the revenge
+ of Justinian II, (p. 160, 161,) the defeat of the Greeks, (p.
+ 170, 171,) &c.]
+
+ 40 (return) [ Yet Leo was undoubtedly comprised in the si quis
+ .... imaginum sacrarum.... destructor.... extiterit, sit extorris
+ a cor pore D. N. Jesu Christi vel totius ecclesiae unitate. The
+ canonists may decide 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.]
+
+ 41 (return) [ Compescuit tale consilium Pontifex, sperans
+ conversionem principis, (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 famous Mosaic of the Lateran (A.D. 798)
+ represents Christ, who delivers the keys to St. Peter and the
+ banner to Constantine V. (Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom. vi. p.
+ 337.)]
+
+ The liberty of Rome, which had been oppressed by the arms and
+ arts of Augustus, was rescued, after seven hundred and fifty
+ years of servitude, from the persecution of Leo the Isaurian. By
+ the Caesars, the triumphs of the consuls had been annihilated: in
+ the decline and fall of the empire, the god Terminus, the sacred
+ boundary, had insensibly receded from the ocean, the Rhine, the
+ Danube, and the Euphrates; and Rome was reduced to her ancient
+ territory from Viterbo to Terracina, and from Narni to the mouth
+ of the Tyber. 42 When the kings were banished, the republic
+ reposed on the firm basis which had been founded by their wisdom
+ and virtue. Their perpetual jurisdiction was divided between two
+ annual magistrates: the senate continued to exercise the powers
+ of administration and counsel; and the legislative authority was
+ distributed in the assemblies of the people, by a
+ well-proportioned scale of property and service. Ignorant of the
+ arts of luxury, the primitive Romans had improved the science of
+ government and war: the will of the community was absolute: the
+ rights of individuals were sacred: one hundred and thirty
+ thousand citizens were armed for defence or conquest; and a band
+ of robbers and outlaws was moulded into a nation deserving of
+ freedom and ambitious of glory. 43 When the sovereignty of the
+ Greek emperors was extinguished, the ruins of Rome presented the
+ sad image of depopulation and decay: her slavery was a habit, her
+ liberty an accident; the effect of superstition, and the object
+ of her own amazement and terror. The last vestige of the
+ substance, or even the forms, of the constitution, was
+ obliterated from the practice and memory of the Romans; and they
+ were devoid of knowledge, or virtue, again to build the fabric of
+ a commonwealth. Their scanty remnant, the offspring of slaves and
+ strangers, was despicable in the eyes of the victorious
+ Barbarians. As often as the Franks or Lombards expressed their
+ most bitter contempt of a foe, they called him a Roman; “and in
+ this name,” says the bishop Liutprand, “we include whatever is
+ base, whatever is cowardly, 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 Rome were cast into the rough model
+ of a republican government: they were compelled to elect some
+ judges in peace, and some leaders in war: the nobles assembled to
+ deliberate, and their resolves could not be executed without the
+ union and consent of the multitude. The style of the Roman senate
+ and people was revived, 45 but the spirit was fled; and their new
+ independence was disgraced by the tumultuous conflict of
+ vicentiousness and oppression. The want of laws could only be
+ supplied by the influence of religion, and their foreign and
+ domestic counsels were moderated by the authority of the bishop.
+ His alms, his sermons, his correspondence with the kings and
+ prelates of the West, his recent services, their gratitude, and
+ oath, accustomed the Romans to consider him as the first
+ magistrate or prince of the city. The Christian humility of the
+ popes was not offended by the name of Dominus, or Lord; and their
+ face and inscription are still apparent on the most ancient
+ coins. 46 Their temporal dominion is now confirmed by the
+ reverence of a thousand years; and their noblest title is the
+ free choice of a people, whom they had redeemed from slavery.
+
+ 42 (return) [ I have traced the Roman duchy according to the
+ maps, and the maps according to the excellent dissertation of
+ father Beretti, (de Chorographia Italiae Medii Aevi, sect. xx. p.
+ 216-232.) Yet I must nicely observe, that Viterbo is of Lombard
+ foundation, (p. 211,) and that Terracina was usurped by the
+ Greeks.]
+
+ 43 (return) [ On the extent, population, &c., of the Roman
+ kingdom, the reader may peruse, with pleasure, the Discours
+ Preliminaire to the Republique Romaine of M. de Beaufort, (tom.
+ i.,) who will not be accused of too much credulity for the early
+ ages of Rome.]
+
+ 44 (return) [ Quos (Romanos) nos, Longobardi scilicet, Saxones,
+ Franci, Locharingi, Bajoarii, Suevi, Burgundiones, tanto
+ dedignamur ut inimicos nostros commoti, nil aliud contumeliarum
+ nisi Romane, dicamus: hoc solo, id est Romanorum nomine, quicquid
+ ignobilitatis, quicquid timiditatis, quicquid avaritiae, quicquid
+ luxuriae, quicquid mendacii, immo quicquid vitiorum est
+ comprehendentes, (Liutprand, in Legat Script. Ital. tom. ii. para
+ i. p. 481.) For the sins of Cato or Tully Minos might have
+ imposed as a fit penance the daily perusal of this barbarous
+ passage.]
+
+ 441 (return) [ Yet this contumelious sentence, quoted by
+ Robertson (Charles V note 2) as well as Gibbon, was applied by
+ the angry bishop to the Byzantine Romans, whom, indeed, he admits
+ to be the genuine descendants of Romulus.—M.]
+
+ 45 (return) [ Pipino regi Francorum, omnis senatus, atque
+ universa populi generalitas a Deo servatae Romanae urbis. Codex
+ Carolin. epist. 36, in Script. Ital. tom. iii. pars ii. p. 160.
+ The names of senatus and senator 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.)]
+
+ 46 (return) [ 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, which the Pere Joubert (Science des Medailles, tom.
+ ii. p. 42) explains by Constantinopoli Officina B (secunda.)]
+
+ In the quarrels of ancient Greece, the holy people of Elis
+ enjoyed a perpetual peace, under the protection of Jupiter, and
+ in the exercise of the Olympic games. 47 Happy would it have been
+ for the Romans, if a similar privilege had guarded the patrimony
+ of St. Peter from the calamities of war; if the Christians, who
+ visited the holy threshold, would have sheathed their swords in
+ the presence of the apostle and his successor. But this mystic
+ circle could have been traced only by the wand of a legislator
+ and a sage: this pacific system was incompatible with the zeal
+ and ambition of the popes; the Romans were not addicted, like the
+ inhabitants of Elis, to the innocent and placid labors of
+ agriculture; and the Barbarians of Italy, though softened by the
+ climate, were far below the Grecian states in the institutions of
+ public and private life. A memorable example of repentance and
+ piety was exhibited by Liutprand, king of the Lombards. In arms,
+ at the gate of the Vatican, the conqueror listened to the voice
+ of Gregory the Second, 48 withdrew his troops, resigned his
+ conquests, respectfully visited the church of St. Peter, and
+ after performing his devotions, offered his sword and dagger, his
+ cuirass and mantle, his silver cross, and his crown of gold, on
+ the tomb of the apostle. But this religious fervor was the
+ illusion, perhaps the artifice, of the moment; the sense of
+ interest is strong and lasting; the love of arms and rapine was
+ congenial to the Lombards; and both the prince and people were
+ irresistibly tempted by the disorders of Italy, the nakedness of
+ Rome, and the unwarlike profession of her new chief. On the first
+ edicts of the emperor, they declared themselves the champions of
+ the holy images: Liutprand invaded the province of Romagna, which
+ had already assumed that distinctive appellation; the Catholics
+ of the Exarchate yielded without reluctance to his civil and
+ military power; and a foreign enemy was introduced for the first
+ time into the impregnable fortress of Ravenna. That city and
+ fortress were speedily recovered by the active diligence and
+ maritime forces of the Venetians; and those faithful subjects
+ obeyed the exhortation of Gregory himself, in separating the
+ personal guilt of Leo from the general cause of the Roman empire.
+ 49 The Greeks were less mindful of the service, than the Lombards
+ of the injury: the two nations, hostile in their faith, were
+ reconciled in a dangerous and unnatural alliance: the king and
+ the exarch marched to the conquest of Spoleto and Rome: the storm
+ evaporated without effect, but the policy of Liutprand alarmed
+ Italy with a vexatious alternative of hostility and truce. His
+ successor Astolphus declared himself the equal enemy of the
+ emperor and the pope: Ravenna was subdued by force or treachery,
+ 50 and this final conquest extinguished the series of the
+ exarchs, who had reigned with a subordinate power since the time
+ of Justinian and the ruin of the Gothic kingdom. Rome was
+ summoned to acknowledge the victorious Lombard as her lawful
+ sovereign; the annual tribute of a piece of gold was fixed as the
+ ransom of each citizen, and the sword of destruction was
+ unsheathed to exact the penalty of her disobedience. The Romans
+ hesitated; they entreated; they complained; and the threatening
+ Barbarians were checked by arms and negotiations, till the popes
+ had engaged the friendship of an ally and avenger beyond the
+ Alps. 51
+
+ 47 (return) [ See West’s Dissertation on the Olympic Games,
+ (Pindar. vol. ii. p. 32-36, edition in 12mo.,) and the judicious
+ reflections of Polybius (tom. i. l. iv. p. 466, edit Gronov.)]
+
+ 48 (return) [ The speech of Gregory to the Lombard is finely
+ composed by Sigonius, (de Regno Italiae, l. iii. Opera, tom. ii.
+ p. 173,) who imitates the license and the spirit of Sallust or
+ Livy.]
+
+ 49 (return) [ 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 of Ravenna are mentioned by Paulus
+ Diaconus, (de Gest. Langobard, l. vi. c. 42, 54, in Script. Ital.
+ tom. i. pars i. p. 506, 508;) but our chronologists, Pagi,
+ Muratori, &c., cannot ascertain the date or circumstances]
+
+ 50 (return) [ The option will depend on the various readings of
+ the Mss. of Anastasius—deceperat, or decerpserat, (Script. Ital.
+ tom. iii. pars i. p. 167.)]
+
+ 51 (return) [ The Codex Carolinus is a collection of the epistles
+ of the popes to Charles Martel, (whom they style Subregulus,)
+ Pepin, and Charlemagne, as far as the year 791, when it was
+ formed by the last of these princes. His original and authentic
+ Ms. (Bibliothecae Cubicularis) is now in the Imperial library of
+ Vienna, and has been published by Lambecius and Muratori,
+ (Script. Rerum Ital. tom. iii. pars ii. p. 75, &c.)]
+
+ In his distress, the first 511 Gregory had implored the aid of
+ the hero of the age, of Charles Martel, who governed the French
+ monarchy with the humble title of mayor or duke; and who, by his
+ signal victory over the Saracens, had saved his country, and
+ perhaps Europe, from the Mahometan yoke. The ambassadors of the
+ pope were received by Charles with decent reverence; but the
+ greatness of his occupations, and the shortness of his life,
+ prevented his interference in the affairs of Italy, except by a
+ friendly and ineffectual mediation. His son Pepin, the heir of
+ his power and virtues, assumed the office of champion of the
+ Roman church; and the zeal of the French prince appears to have
+ been prompted by the love of glory and religion. But the danger
+ was on the banks of the Tyber, the succor on those of the Seine,
+ and our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.
+ Amidst the tears of the city, Stephen the Third embraced the
+ generous resolution of visiting in person the courts of Lombardy
+ and France, to deprecate the injustice of his enemy, or to excite
+ the pity and indignation of his friend. After soothing the public
+ despair by litanies and orations, he undertook this laborious
+ journey with the ambassadors of the French monarch and the Greek
+ emperor. The king of the Lombards was inexorable; but his threats
+ could not silence the complaints, nor retard the speed of the
+ Roman pontiff, who traversed the Pennine Alps, reposed in the
+ abbey of St. Maurice, and hastened to grasp the right hand of his
+ protector; a hand which was never lifted in vain, either in war
+ or friendship. Stephen was entertained as the visible successor
+ of the apostle; at the next assembly, the field of March or of
+ May, his injuries were exposed to a devout 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 by the king in
+ person. The Lombards, after a weak resistance, obtained an
+ ignominious peace, and swore to restore the possessions, and to
+ respect the sanctity, of the Roman church. But no sooner was
+ Astolphus delivered from the presence of the French arms, than he
+ forgot his promise and resented his disgrace. Rome was again
+ encompassed by his arms; and Stephen, apprehensive of fatiguing
+ the zeal of his Transalpine allies enforced his complaint and
+ request by an eloquent letter in the name and person 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, the
+ voice 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; that riches, victory, and paradise, will crown their
+ pious enterprise, and that eternal damnation will be the penalty
+ of their neglect, if they suffer his tomb, his temple, and his
+ people, to fall into the hands of the perfidious Lombards. The
+ second expedition of Pepin was not less rapid and fortunate than
+ the first: St. Peter was satisfied, Rome was again saved, and
+ Astolphus was taught the lessons of justice and sincerity by the
+ scourge of a foreign master. After this double chastisement, the
+ Lombards languished about twenty years in a state of languor and
+ decay. But their minds were not yet humbled to their condition;
+ 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,
+ and terminated without glory. On either side, their expiring
+ monarchy was pressed by the zeal and prudence of Pope Adrian the
+ First, the genius, the fortune, and greatness of Charlemagne, the
+ son of Pepin; these heroes of the church and state were united in
+ public and domestic friendship, and while they trampled on the
+ prostrate, they varnished their proceedings with the fairest
+ colors of equity and moderation. 53 The passes of the Alps, and
+ the walls of Pavia, were the only defence of the Lombards; the
+ former were surprised, the latter were invested, by the son of
+ Pepin; and after a blockade of two years, 531 Desiderius, the
+ last of their native princes, surrendered his sceptre and his
+ capital.
+
+ Under the dominion of a foreign king, but in the possession of
+ their national laws, the Lombards became the brethren, rather
+ than the subjects, of the Franks; who derived their blood, and
+ manners, and language, from the same Germanic origin. 54
+
+ 511 (return) [ Gregory I. had been dead above a century; read
+ Gregory III.—M]
+
+ 52 (return) [ See this most extraordinary letter in the Codex
+ Carolinus, epist iii. p. 92. The enemies of the popes have
+ charged them with fraud and blasphemy; yet they surely meant to
+ persuade rather than deceive. This introduction of the dead, or
+ of immortals, was familiar to the ancient orators, though it is
+ executed on this occasion in the rude fashion of the age.]
+
+ 53 (return) [ Except in the divorce of the daughter of
+ Desiderius, whom Charlemagne repudiated sine aliquo crimine. Pope
+ Stephen IV. had most furiously opposed the alliance of a noble
+ Frank—cum perfida, horrida nec dicenda, foetentissima natione
+ Longobardorum—to whom he imputes the first stain of leprosy,
+ (Cod. Carolin. epist. 45, p. 178, 179.) Another reason against
+ the marriage was the existence of a first wife, (Muratori, Annali
+ d’Italia, tom. vi. p. 232, 233, 236, 237.) But Charlemagne
+ indulged himself in the freedom of polygamy or concubinage.]
+
+ 531 (return) [ Of fifteen months. James, Life of Charlemagne, p.
+ 187.—M.]
+
+ 54 (return) [ See the Annali d’Italia of Muratori, tom. vi., and
+ the three 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
+ form the important link of ancient and modern, of civil and
+ ecclesiastical, history. In the conquest of Italy, the champions
+ of the Roman church obtained a favorable occasion, a specious
+ title, the wishes of the people, the prayers and intrigues of the
+ clergy. But the most essential gifts of the popes to the
+ Carlovingian race were the dignities of king of France, 55 and of
+ patrician of Rome. I. Under the sacerdotal monarchy of St. Peter,
+ the nations began to resume the practice of seeking, on the banks
+ of the Tyber, their kings, their laws, and the oracles of their
+ fate. The Franks were perplexed between the name and substance of
+ their government. All the powers of royalty were exercised by
+ 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 the savior of Christendom; and the claims of personal
+ merit were repeated and ennobled in a descent of four
+ generations. The name and image of royalty was still preserved in
+ the last descendant of Clovis, the feeble Childeric; but his
+ obsolete right could only be used as an instrument of sedition:
+ the nation was desirous of restoring the simplicity of the
+ constitution; and Pepin, a subject and a prince, was ambitious to
+ ascertain his own rank and the fortune of his family. The mayor
+ and the nobles were bound, by an oath of fidelity, to the royal
+ phantom: the blood of Clovis was pure and sacred in their eyes;
+ and their common ambassadors addressed the Roman pontiff, to
+ dispel their scruples, or to absolve their promise. The interest
+ of Pope Zachary, the successor of the two Gregories, prompted him
+ to decide, and to decide in their favor: he pronounced that the
+ nation might lawfully unite in the same person the title and
+ authority of king; and that the unfortunate Childeric, a victim
+ of the public safety, should be degraded, shaved, and confined in
+ a monastery for the remainder of his days. An answer so agreeable
+ to their wishes was accepted by the Franks as the opinion of a
+ casuist, the sentence of a judge, or the oracle of a prophet: the
+ Merovingian race disappeared from the earth; and Pepin was
+ exalted on a buckler by the suffrage of a free people, accustomed
+ to obey his laws and to march under his standard. His coronation
+ was twice performed, with the sanction of the popes, by their
+ most faithful servant St. Boniface, the apostle 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 his benefactor. The
+ royal unction of the kings of Israel was dexterously applied: 56
+ the successor of St. Peter assumed the character of a divine
+ ambassador: a German chieftain was transformed into the Lord’s
+ anointed; and this Jewish rite has been diffused and maintained
+ by the superstition and vanity of modern Europe. The Franks were
+ absolved from their ancient oath; but a dire anathema was
+ thundered against them and their posterity, if they should dare
+ to renew the same freedom of choice, or to elect a king, except
+ in the holy and meritorious race of the Carlovingian princes.
+ Without apprehending the future danger, these princes gloried in
+ their present security: the secretary of Charlemagne affirms,
+ that the French sceptre was transferred by the authority of the
+ popes; 57 and in their boldest enterprises, they insist, with
+ confidence, on this signal and successful act of temporal
+ jurisdiction.
+
+ 55 (return) [ 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 this subject of the deposition of Childeric
+ with learning and attention, but with a strong bias to save the
+ independence of the crown. Yet they are hard pressed by the texts
+ which they produce of Eginhard, Theophanes, and the old annals,
+ Laureshamenses, Fuldenses, Loisielani]
+
+ 56 (return) [ Not absolutely for the first time. On a less
+ conspicuous theatre it had been used, in the vith and viith
+ centuries, by the provincial bishops of Britain and Spain. The
+ royal unction of Constantinople was borrowed from the Latins in
+ the last age of the empire. Constantine Manasses mentions that of
+ Charlemagne as a foreign, Jewish, incomprehensible ceremony. See
+ Selden’s Titles of Honor, in his Works, vol. iii. part i. p.
+ 234-249.]
+
+ 57 (return) [ See Eginhard, in Vita Caroli Magni, c. i. p. 9,
+ &c., c. iii. p. 24. Childeric was deposed—jussu, the
+ Carlovingians were established—auctoritate, Pontificis Romani.
+ Launoy, &c., pretend that these strong words are susceptible of a
+ very soft interpretation. Be it so; yet Eginhard understood the
+ world, the court, and the Latin language.]
+
+ II. In the change of manners and language the patricians of Rome
+ 58 were far removed from the senate of Romulus, or the palace of
+ Constantine, from the free nobles of the republic, or the
+ fictitious parents of the emperor. After the recovery of Italy
+ and Africa by the arms of Justinian, the importance and danger of
+ those remote provinces required the presence of a supreme
+ magistrate; he was indifferently styled the exarch or the
+ patrician; and these governors of Ravenna, who fill their place
+ in the chronology of princes, extended their jurisdiction over
+ the Roman city. Since the revolt of Italy and the loss of the
+ Exarchate, the distress of the Romans had exacted some sacrifice
+ of their independence. Yet, even in this act, they exercised the
+ right of disposing of themselves; and the decrees of the senate
+ and people successively invested Charles Martel and his posterity
+ with the honors of patrician of Rome. The leaders of a powerful
+ nation would have disdained a servile title and subordinate
+ office; but the reign of the Greek emperors was suspended; and,
+ in the vacancy of the empire, they derived a more glorious
+ commission from the pope and the republic. The Roman ambassadors
+ presented these patricians with the keys of the shrine of St.
+ Peter, as a pledge and symbol of sovereignty; with a holy banner
+ which it was their right and duty to unfurl in the defence of the
+ church and city. 59 In the time of Charles Martel and of Pepin,
+ the interposition of the Lombard kingdom covered the freedom,
+ while it threatened the safety, of Rome; and the patriciate
+ represented only the title, the service, the alliance, of these
+ distant protectors. The power and policy of Charlemagne
+ annihilated an enemy, and imposed a master. In his first visit to
+ the capital, he was received with all the honors which had
+ formerly been paid to the exarch, the representative of the
+ emperor; and these honors obtained some new decorations from the
+ joy and gratitude of Pope Adrian the First. 60 No sooner was he
+ informed of the sudden approach of the monarch, than he
+ despatched the magistrates and nobles of Rome to meet him, with
+ the banner, about thirty miles from the city. At the distance of
+ one mile, the Flaminian way was lined with the 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
+ of their great deliverer. At the aspect of the holy crosses, and
+ ensigns of the saints, he dismounted from his horse, led the
+ procession of his nobles to the Vatican, and, as he ascended the
+ stairs, devoutly kissed each step of the threshold of the
+ apostles. In the portico, Adrian expected him at the head of his
+ clergy: they embraced, as friends and equals; but in their march
+ to the altar, the king or patrician assumed the right hand of the
+ pope. Nor was the Frank content with these vain and empty
+ demonstrations of respect. In the twenty-six years that elapsed
+ 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 person and family: in his name money was coined, and
+ justice was administered; and the election of the popes was
+ examined and confirmed by his authority. Except an original and
+ self-inherent claim of sovereignty, there was not any prerogative
+ remaining, which the title of emperor could add to the patrician
+ of Rome. 61
+
+ 58 (return) [ For the title and powers of patrician of Rome, see
+ Ducange, (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 the Franciscan Pagi is the most disposed to
+ make the patrician a lieutenant of the church, rather than of the
+ empire.]
+
+ 59 (return) [ The papal advocates can soften the symbolic meaning
+ of the banner 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 of no palliation or escape. In the Ms. of the
+ Vienna library, they read, instead of regnum, rogum, prayer or
+ request (see Ducange;) and the royalty of Charles Martel is
+ subverted by this important correction, (Catalani, in his
+ Critical Prefaces, Annali d’Italia, tom. xvii. p. 95-99.)]
+
+ 60 (return) [ In the authentic narrative of this reception, the
+ Liber Pontificalis observes—obviam illi ejus sanctitas dirigens
+ venerabiles cruces, id est signa; sicut mos est ad exarchum, aut
+ patricium suscipiendum, sum cum ingenti honore suscipi fecit,
+ (tom. iii. pars i. p. 185.)]
+
+ 61 (return) [ Paulus Diaconus, who wrote before the empire of
+ Charlemagne describes Rome as his subject city—vestrae civitates
+ (ad Pompeium Festum) suis addidit sceptris, (de Metensis
+ Ecclesiae Episcopis.) Some Carlovingian medals, struck at Rome,
+ have engaged Le Blanc to write an elaborate, though partial,
+ dissertation on their authority at Rome, both as patricians and
+ emperors, (Amsterdam, 1692, in 4to.)]
+
+ The gratitude of the Carlovingians was adequate to these
+ obligations, and their names are consecrated, as the saviors and
+ benefactors of the Roman church. Her ancient patrimony of farms
+ and houses was transformed by their bounty into the temporal
+ dominion of cities and provinces; and the donation of the
+ Exarchate was the first-fruits of the conquests of Pepin. 62
+ Astolphus with a sigh relinquished his prey; the keys and the
+ hostages of the principal cities were delivered to the French
+ ambassador; and, in his master’s name, he presented them before
+ the tomb of St. Peter. The ample measure of the Exarchate 63
+ might comprise all the provinces of Italy which had obeyed the
+ emperor and his vicegerent; but its strict and proper limits were
+ included in the territories of Ravenna, Bologna, and Ferrara: its
+ inseparable dependency was the Pentapolis, which stretched along
+ the Adriatic from Rimini to Ancona, and advanced into the
+ midland-country as far as the ridges of the Apennine. In this
+ transaction, the ambition and avarice of the popes have been
+ severely condemned. Perhaps the humility of a Christian priest
+ should have rejected an earthly kingdom, which it was not easy
+ for him to govern without renouncing the virtues of his
+ profession. Perhaps a faithful subject, or even a generous enemy,
+ would have been less impatient to divide the spoils of the
+ Barbarian; and if the emperor had intrusted Stephen to solicit in
+ his name the restitution of the Exarchate, I will not absolve the
+ pope from the reproach of treachery and falsehood. But in the
+ rigid interpretation of the laws, every one may accept, without
+ injury, whatever his benefactor can bestow without injustice. The
+ Greek emperor had abdicated, or forfeited, his right to the
+ Exarchate; and the sword of Astolphus was broken by the stronger
+ sword of the Carlovingian. It was not in the cause of the
+ Iconoclast that Pepin has exposed his person and army in a double
+ expedition beyond the Alps: he possessed, and might lawfully
+ alienate, his conquests: and to the importunities of the Greeks
+ he piously replied that no human consideration should tempt him
+ to resume the gift which he had conferred on the Roman Pontiff
+ for the remission of his sins, and the salvation of his soul. The
+ splendid donation was granted in supreme and absolute dominion,
+ and the world beheld for the first time a Christian bishop
+ invested with the prerogatives of a temporal prince; the choice
+ of magistrates, the exercise of justice, the imposition of taxes,
+ and the wealth of the palace of Ravenna. In the dissolution of
+ the Lombard kingdom, the inhabitants of the duchy of Spoleto 64
+ sought a refuge from the storm, shaved their heads after the
+ Roman fashion, declared themselves the servants and subjects of
+ St. Peter, and completed, by this voluntary surrender, the
+ present circle of the ecclesiastical state. That mysterious
+ circle was enlarged to an indefinite extent, by the verbal or
+ written donation of Charlemagne, 65 who, in the first transports
+ of his victory, despoiled himself and the Greek emperor of the
+ cities and islands which had formerly been annexed to the
+ Exarchate. But, in the cooler moments of absence and reflection,
+ he viewed, with an eye of jealousy and envy, the recent greatness
+ of his ecclesiastical ally. The execution of his own and his
+ father’s promises was respectfully eluded: the king of the Franks
+ and Lombards asserted the inalienable rights of the empire; and,
+ in his life and death, Ravenna, 66 as well as Rome, was numbered
+ in the list of his metropolitan cities. The sovereignty of the
+ Exarchate melted away in the hands of the popes; they found in
+ the archbishops of Ravenna a dangerous and domestic rival: 67 the
+ nobles and people disdained the yoke of a priest; and in the
+ disorders of the times, they could only retain the memory of an
+ ancient claim, which, in a more prosperous age, they have revived
+ and realized.
+
+ 62 (return) [ Mosheim (Institution, Hist. Eccles. p. 263) weighs
+ this donation with fair and deliberate prudence. The original act
+ has never been produced; but the Liber Pontificalis represents,
+ (p. 171,) and the Codex Carolinus supposes, this ample gift. Both
+ are contemporary records and the latter is the more authentic,
+ since it has been preserved, not in the Papal, but the Imperial,
+ library.]
+
+ 63 (return) [ Between the exorbitant claims, and narrow
+ concessions, of interest and prejudice, from which even Muratori
+ (Antiquitat. tom. i. p. 63-68) is not exempt, I have been guided,
+ in the limits of the Exarchate and Pentapolis, by the Dissertatio
+ Chorographica Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. x. p. 160-180.]
+
+ 64 (return) [ Spoletini deprecati sunt, ut eos in servitio B.
+ Petri receperet et more Romanorum tonsurari faceret, (Anastasius,
+ p. 185.) Yet it may be a question whether they gave their own
+ persons or their country.]
+
+ 65 (return) [ The policy and donations of Charlemagne are
+ carefully examined by St. Marc, (Abrege, tom. i. p. 390-408,) who
+ has well studied the Codex Carolinus. I believe, with him, that
+ they were only verbal. The most ancient act of donation that
+ pretends to be extant, is that of the emperor Lewis the Pious,
+ (Sigonius, de Regno Italiae, l. iv. Opera, tom. ii. p. 267-270.)
+ Its authenticity, or at least its integrity, are much questioned,
+ (Pagi, A.D. 817, No. 7, &c. Muratori, Annali, tom. vi. p. 432,
+ &c. Dissertat. Chorographica, p. 33, 34;) but I see no reasonable
+ objection to these princes so freely disposing of what was not
+ their own.]
+
+ 66 (return) [ Charlemagne solicited and obtained from the
+ proprietor, Hadrian I., the mosaics of the palace of Ravenna, for
+ the decoration of Aix-la-Chapelle, (Cod. Carolin. epist. 67, p.
+ 223.)]
+
+ 67 (return) [ The popes often complain of the usurpations of Leo
+ of Ravenna, (Codex Carolin, epist. 51, 52, 53, p. 200-205.) Sir
+ corpus St. Andreae fratris germani St. Petri hic humasset,
+ nequaquam nos Romani pontifices sic subjugassent, (Agnellus,
+ Liber Pontificalis, in Scriptores Rerum Ital. tom. ii. pars. i.
+ p. 107.)]
+
+ Fraud is the resource of weakness and cunning; and the strong,
+ though ignorant, Barbarian was often entangled in the net of
+ sacerdotal policy. The Vatican and Lateran were an arsenal and
+ manufacture, which, according to the occasion, have produced or
+ concealed a various collection of false or genuine, of corrupt or
+ suspicious, acts, as they tended to promote the interest of the
+ Roman church. Before the end of the eighth century, some
+ apostolic scribe, perhaps the notorious Isidore, composed the
+ decretals, and the donation of Constantine, the two magic pillars
+ of the spiritual and temporal monarchy of the popes. This
+ memorable donation was introduced to the world by an epistle of
+ Adrian the First, who exhorts Charlemagne to imitate the
+ liberality, and revive the name, of the great Constantine. 68
+ According to the legend, the first of the Christian emperors was
+ healed of the leprosy, and purified in the waters of baptism, by
+ St. Silvester, the Roman bishop; and never was physician more
+ gloriously recompensed. His royal proselyte withdrew from the
+ seat and patrimony of St. Peter; declared his resolution of
+ founding a new capital in the East; and resigned to the popes;
+ the free and perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the
+ provinces of the West. 69 This fiction was productive of the most
+ beneficial effects. The Greek princes were convicted of the guilt
+ of usurpation; and the revolt of Gregory was the claim of his
+ lawful inheritance. The popes were delivered from their debt of
+ gratitude; and the nominal gifts of the Carlovingians were no
+ more than the just and irrevocable restitution of a scanty
+ portion of the ecclesiastical state. The sovereignty of Rome no
+ longer depended on the choice of a fickle people; and the
+ successors of St. Peter and Constantine were invested with the
+ purple and prerogatives of the Caesars. So deep was the ignorance
+ and credulity of the times, that the most absurd of fables was
+ received, with equal reverence, in Greece and in France, and is
+ still enrolled among the decrees of the canon law. 70 The
+ emperors, and the Romans, were incapable of discerning a forgery,
+ that subverted their rights and freedom; and the only opposition
+ proceeded from a Sabine monastery, which, in the beginning of the
+ twelfth century, disputed the truth and validity of the donation
+ of Constantine. 71 In the revival of letters and liberty, this
+ fictitious deed was transpierced by the pen of Laurentius Valla,
+ the pen of an eloquent critic and a Roman patriot. 72 His
+ contemporaries of the fifteenth century were astonished at his
+ sacrilegious boldness; yet such is the silent and irresistible
+ progress of reason, that, before the end of the next age, the
+ fable was rejected by the contempt of historians 73 and poets, 74
+ and the tacit or modest censure of the advocates of the Roman
+ church. 75 The popes themselves have indulged a smile at the
+ credulity of the vulgar; 76 but a false and obsolete title still
+ sanctifies their reign; and, by the same fortune which has
+ attended the decretals and the Sibylline oracles, the edifice has
+ subsisted after the foundations have been undermined.
+
+ 68 (return) [ Piissimo Constantino magno, per ejus largitatem S.
+ R. Ecclesia elevata et exaltata est, et potestatem in his
+ Hesperiae partibus largiri olignatus est.... Quia ecce novus
+ Constantinus his temporibus, &c., (Codex Carolin. epist. 49, in
+ tom. iii. part ii. p. 195.) Pagi (Critica, A.D. 324, No. 16)
+ ascribes them to an impostor of the viiith century, who borrowed
+ the name of St. Isidore: his humble title of Peccator was
+ ignorantly, but aptly, turned into Mercator: his merchandise was
+ indeed profitable, and a few sheets of paper were sold for much
+ wealth and power.]
+
+ 69 (return) [ Fabricius (Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 4-7) has
+ enumerated the several editions of this Act, in Greek and Latin.
+ The copy which Laurentius Valla recites and refutes, appears to
+ be taken either from the spurious Acts of St. Silvester or from
+ Gratian’s Decree, to which, according to him and others, it has
+ been surreptitiously tacked.]
+
+ 70 (return) [ In the year 1059, it was believed (was it
+ believed?) by Pope Leo IX. Cardinal Peter Damianus, &c. Muratori
+ places (Annali d’Italia, tom. ix. p. 23, 24) the fictitious
+ donations of Lewis the Pious, the Othos, &c., de Donatione
+ Constantini. See a Dissertation of Natalis Alexander, seculum iv.
+ diss. 25, p. 335-350.]
+
+ 71 (return) [ See a large account of the controversy (A.D. 1105)
+ which arose from a private lawsuit, in the Chronicon Farsense,
+ (Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. ii. pars ii. p. 637, &c.,) a
+ copious extract from the archives of that Benedictine abbey. They
+ were formerly accessible to curious foreigners, (Le Blanc and
+ Mabillon,) and would have enriched the first volume of the
+ Historia Monastica Italiae of Quirini. But they are now
+ imprisoned (Muratori, Scriptores R. I. tom. ii. pars ii. p. 269)
+ by the timid policy of the court of Rome; and the future cardinal
+ yielded to the voice of authority and the whispers of ambition,
+ (Quirini, Comment. pars ii. p. 123-136.)]
+
+ 72 (return) [ I have read in the collection of Schardius (de
+ Potestate Imperiali Ecclesiastica, p. 734-780) this animated
+ discourse, which was composed by the author, A.D. 1440, six years
+ after the flight of Pope Eugenius IV. It is a most vehement party
+ pamphlet: Valla justifies and animates the revolt of the Romans,
+ and would even approve the use of a dagger against their
+ sacerdotal tyrant. Such a critic might expect the persecution of
+ the clergy; yet he made his peace, and is buried in the Lateran,
+ (Bayle, Dictionnaire Critique, Valla; Vossius, de Historicis
+ Latinis, p. 580.)]
+
+ 73 (return) [ See Guicciardini, a servant of the popes, in that
+ long and valuable digression, which has resumed its place in the
+ last edition, correctly published from the author’s Ms. and
+ printed in four volumes in quarto, under the name of Friburgo,
+ 1775, (Istoria d’Italia, tom. i. p. 385-395.)]
+
+ 74 (return) [ The Paladin Astolpho found it in the moon, among
+ the things that were lost upon earth, (Orlando Furioso, xxxiv.
+ 80.) Di vari fiore 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 Silvestro fece. Yet this incomparable poem
+ has been approved by a bull of Leo X.]
+
+ 75 (return) [ 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 strangely enough, as a forgery of the Greeks.]
+
+ 76 (return) [ Baronius n’en dit guerres contre; encore en a-t’il
+ trop dit, et l’on vouloit sans moi, (Cardinal du Perron,) qui
+ l’empechai, censurer cette partie de son histoire. J’en devisai
+ un jour avec le Pape, et il ne me repondit autre chose “che
+ volete? i Canonici la tengono,” il le disoit en riant,
+ (Perroniana, p. 77.)]
+
+ While the popes established in Italy their freedom and dominion,
+ the images, the first cause of their revolt, were restored in the
+ Eastern empire. 77 Under the reign of Constantine the Fifth, the
+ union of civil and ecclesiastical power had overthrown the tree,
+ without extirpating the root, of superstition. The idols (for
+ such they were now held) were secretly cherished by the order and
+ the sex most prone to devotion; and the fond alliance of the
+ monks and females obtained a final victory over the reason and
+ authority of man. Leo the Fourth maintained with less rigor the
+ religion of his father and grandfather; but his wife, the fair
+ and ambitious Irene, had imbibed the zeal of the Athenians, the
+ heirs of the Idolatry, rather than the philosophy, of their
+ ancestors. During the life of her husband, these sentiments were
+ inflamed by danger and dissimulation, and she could only labor to
+ protect and promote some favorite monks whom she drew from their
+ caverns, and seated on the metropolitan thrones of the East. But
+ as soon as she reigned in her own name and that of her son, Irene
+ more seriously undertook the ruin of the Iconoclasts; and the
+ first step of her future persecution was a general edict for
+ liberty of conscience.
+
+ In the restoration of the monks, a thousand images were exposed
+ to the public veneration; a thousand legends were inverted of
+ their sufferings and miracles. By the opportunities of death or
+ removal, the episcopal seats were judiciously filled; the most
+ eager competitors for earthly or celestial favor anticipated and
+ flattered the judgment of their sovereign; and the promotion of
+ her secretary Tarasius gave Irene the patriarch of
+ Constantinople, and the command of the Oriental church. But the
+ decrees of a general council could only be repealed by a similar
+ assembly: 78 the Iconoclasts whom she convened were bold in
+ possession, and averse to debate; and the feeble voice of the
+ bishops was reechoed by the more formidable clamor of the
+ soldiers and people of Constantinople. The delay and intrigues of
+ a year, the separation of the disaffected troops, and the choice
+ of Nice for a second orthodox synod, removed these obstacles; and
+ the episcopal conscience was again, after the Greek fashion, in
+ the hands of the prince. No more than eighteen days were allowed
+ for the consummation of this important work: the Iconoclasts
+ appeared, not as judges, but as criminals or penitents: the scene
+ was decorated by the legates of Pope Adrian and the Eastern
+ patriarchs, 79 the decrees were framed by the president Taracius,
+ and ratified by the acclamations and subscriptions of three
+ hundred and fifty bishops. They unanimously pronounced, that the
+ worship of images is agreeable to Scripture and reason, to the
+ fathers and councils of the church: but they hesitate whether
+ that worship be relative or direct; whether the Godhead, and the
+ figure of Christ, be entitled to the same mode of adoration. Of
+ this second Nicene council the acts are still extant; a curious
+ monument of superstition and ignorance, of falsehood and folly. I
+ shall only notice the judgment of the bishops on the comparative
+ merit of image-worship and morality. A monk had concluded a truce
+ with the daemon of fornication, on condition of interrupting his
+ daily prayers to a picture that hung in his cell. His scruples
+ prompted him to consult the abbot. “Rather than abstain from
+ adoring Christ and his Mother in their holy images, it would be
+ better for you,” replied the casuist, “to enter every brothel,
+ and visit every prostitute, in the city.” 80 For the honor of
+ orthodoxy, at least the orthodoxy of the Roman church, it is
+ somewhat unfortunate, that the two princes who convened the two
+ councils of Nice are both stained with the blood of their sons.
+ The second of these assemblies was approved and rigorously
+ executed by the despotism of Irene, and she refused her
+ adversaries the toleration which at first she had granted to her
+ friends. During the five succeeding reigns, a period of
+ thirty-eight years, the contest was maintained, with unabated
+ rage and various success, between the worshippers and the
+ breakers of the images; but I am not inclined to pursue with
+ minute diligence the repetition of the same events. Nicephorus
+ allowed a general liberty of speech and practice; and the only
+ virtue of his reign is accused by the monks as the cause of his
+ temporal and eternal perdition. Superstition and weakness formed
+ the character of Michael the First, but the saints and images
+ were incapable of supporting their votary on the throne. In the
+ purple, Leo the Fifth asserted the name and religion of an
+ Armenian; and the idols, with their seditious adherents, were
+ condemned to a second exile. Their applause would have sanctified
+ the murder of an impious tyrant, but his assassin and successor,
+ the second Michael, was tainted from his birth with the Phrygian
+ heresies: he attempted to mediate between the contending parties;
+ and the intractable spirit of the Catholics insensibly cast him
+ into the opposite scale. His moderation was guarded by timidity;
+ but his son Theophilus, alike ignorant of fear and pity, was the
+ last and most cruel of the Iconoclasts. The enthusiasm of the
+ times ran strongly against them; and the emperors who stemmed the
+ torrent were exasperated and punished by the public hatred. After
+ the death of Theophilus, the final victory of the images was
+ achieved by a second female, his widow Theodora, whom he left the
+ guardian of the empire. Her measures were bold and decisive. The
+ fiction of a tardy repentance absolved the fame and the soul of
+ her deceased husband; the sentence of the Iconoclast patriarch
+ was commuted from the loss of his eyes to a whipping of two
+ hundred lashes: the bishops trembled, the monks shouted, and the
+ festival of orthodoxy preserves the annual memory of the triumph
+ of the images. A single question yet remained, whether they are
+ endowed with any proper and inherent sanctity; it was agitated by
+ the Greeks of the eleventh century; 81 and as this opinion has
+ the strongest recommendation of absurdity, I am surprised that it
+ was not more explicitly decided in the affirmative. In the West,
+ Pope Adrian the First accepted and announced the decrees of the
+ Nicene assembly, which is now revered by the Catholics as the
+ seventh in rank of the general councils. Rome and Italy were
+ docile to the voice of their father; but the greatest part of the
+ Latin Christians were far behind in the race of superstition. The
+ churches of France, Germany, England, and Spain, steered a middle
+ course between the adoration and the destruction of images, which
+ they admitted into their temples, not as objects of worship, but
+ as lively and useful memorials of faith and history. An angry
+ book of controversy was composed and published in the name of
+ Charlemagne: 82 under his authority a synod of three hundred
+ bishops was assembled at Frankfort: 83 they blamed the fury of
+ the Iconoclasts, but they pronounced a more severe censure
+ against the superstition of the Greeks, and the decrees of their
+ pretended council, which was long despised by the Barbarians of
+ the West. 84 Among them the worship of images advanced with a
+ silent and insensible progress; but a large atonement is made for
+ their hesitation and delay, by the gross idolatry of the ages
+ which precede the reformation, and of the countries, both in
+ Europe and America, which are still immersed in the gloom of
+ superstition.
+
+ 77 (return) [ 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 adversus Haereticos 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.) The Protestants, except Mosheim, are
+ soured with controversy; but the Catholics, except Dupin, are
+ inflamed by the fury and superstition of the monks; and even Le
+ Beau, (Hist. du Bas Empire,) a gentleman and a scholar, is
+ infected by the odious contagion.]
+
+ 78 (return) [ See the Acts, in Greek and Latin, of the second
+ Council of Nice, with a number of relative pieces, in the viiith
+ volume of the Councils, p. 645-1600. A faithful version, with
+ some critical notes, would provoke, in different readers, a sigh
+ or a smile.]
+
+ 79 (return) [ The pope’s legates were casual messengers, two
+ priests without any special commission, and who were disavowed on
+ their return. Some vagabond monks were persuaded by the Catholics
+ to represent the Oriental patriarchs. This curious anecdote is
+ revealed by Theodore Studites, (epist. i. 38, in Sirmond. Opp.
+ tom. v. p. 1319,) one of the warmest Iconoclasts of the age.]
+
+ 80 (return) [ These visits could not be innocent since the daemon
+ of fornication, &c. Actio iv. p. 901, Actio v. p. 1081]
+
+ 81 (return) [ See an account of this controversy in the Alexius
+ of Anna Compena, (l. v. p. 129,) and Mosheim, (Institut. Hist.
+ Eccles. p. 371, 372.)]
+
+ 82 (return) [ The Libri Carolini, (Spanheim, p. 443-529,)
+ composed in the palace or winter quarters of Charlemagne, at
+ Worms, A.D. 790, and sent by Engebert to Pope Hadrian I., who
+ answered them by a grandis et verbosa epistola, (Concil. tom.
+ vii. p. 1553.) The Carolines propose 120 objections against the
+ Nicene synod and such words as these are the flowers of their
+ rhetoric—Dementiam.... priscae Gentilitatis obsoletum errorem
+ .... argumenta insanissima et absurdissima.... derisione dignas
+ naenias, &c., &c.]
+
+ 83 (return) [ The assemblies of Charlemagne were political, as
+ well as ecclesiastical; and the three hundred members, (Nat.
+ Alexander, sec. viii. p. 53,) who sat and voted at Frankfort,
+ must include not only the bishops, but the abbots, and even the
+ principal laymen.]
+
+ 84 (return) [ Qui supra sanctissima patres nostri (episcopi et
+ sacerdotes) omnimodis servitium et adorationem imaginum renuentes
+ contempserunt, atque consentientes condemnaverunt, (Concil. tom.
+ ix. p. 101, Canon. ii. Franckfurd.) A polemic must be
+ hard-hearted indeed, who does 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 the translation of the empire to the less orthodox
+ Charlemagne. They were compelled to choose between the rival
+ nations: religion was not the sole motive of their choice; and
+ while they dissembled the failings of their friends, they beheld,
+ with reluctance and suspicion, the Catholic virtues of their
+ foes. The difference of language and manners had perpetuated the
+ enmity of the two capitals; and they were alienated from each
+ other by the hostile opposition of seventy years. In that schism
+ the Romans had tasted of freedom, and the popes of sovereignty:
+ their submission would have exposed them to the revenge of a
+ jealous tyrant; and the revolution of Italy had betrayed the
+ impotence, as well as the tyranny, of the Byzantine court. The
+ Greek emperors had restored the images, but they had not restored
+ the Calabrian estates 85 and the Illyrian diocese, 86 which the
+ Iconociasts had torn away from the successors of St. Peter; and
+ Pope Adrian threatens them with a sentence of excommunication
+ unless they speedily abjure this practical heresy. 87 The Greeks
+ were now orthodox; but their religion might be tainted by the
+ breath of the reigning monarch: the Franks were now contumacious;
+ but a discerning eye might discern their approaching conversion,
+ from the use, to the adoration, of images. The name of
+ Charlemagne was stained by the polemic acrimony of his scribes;
+ but the conqueror himself conformed, with the temper of a
+ statesman, to the various practice of France and Italy. In his
+ four pilgrimages or visits to the Vatican, he embraced the popes
+ in the communion of friendship and piety; knelt before the tomb,
+ and consequently before the image, of the apostle; and joined,
+ without scruple, in all the prayers and processions of the Roman
+ liturgy. Would prudence or gratitude allow the pontiffs to
+ renounce their benefactor? Had they a right to alienate his gift
+ of the Exarchate? Had they power to abolish his government of
+ Rome? The title of patrician was below the merit and greatness of
+ Charlemagne; and it was only by reviving the Western empire that
+ they could pay their obligations or secure their establishment.
+ By this decisive measure they would finally eradicate the claims
+ of the Greeks; from the debasement of a provincial town, the
+ majesty of Rome would be restored: the Latin Christians would be
+ united, under a supreme head, in their ancient metropolis; and
+ the conquerors of the West would receive their crown from the
+ successors of St. Peter. The Roman church would acquire a zealous
+ and respectable advocate; and, under the shadow of the
+ Carlovingian power, the bishop might exercise, with honor and
+ safety, the government of the city. 88
+
+ 85 (return) [ Theophanes (p. 343) specifies those of Sicily and
+ Calabria, which yielded an annual rent of three talents and a
+ half of gold, (perhaps 7000 L. sterling.) Liutprand more
+ pompously enumerates the patrimonies of the Roman church in
+ Greece, Judaea, Persia, Mesopotamia Babylonia, Egypt, and Libya,
+ which were detained by the injustice of the Greek emperor,
+ (Legat. ad Nicephorum, in Script. Rerum Italica rum, tom. ii.
+ pars i. p. 481.)]
+
+ 86 (return) [ 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 Constantinople had detached from Rome the metropolitans of
+ Thessalonica, Athens Corinth, Nicopolis, and Patrae, (Luc.
+ Holsten. Geograph. Sacra, p. 22) and his spiritual conquests
+ extended to Naples and Amalphi (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. i.
+ p. 517-524, Pagi, A. D 780, No. 11.)]
+
+ 87 (return) [ In hoc ostenditur, quia ex uno capitulo ab errore
+ reversis, in aliis duobus, in eodem (was it the same?) permaneant
+ errore.... de diocessi S. R. E. seu de patrimoniis iterum
+ increpantes commonemus, ut si ea restituere noluerit hereticum
+ eum pro hujusmodi errore perseverantia decernemus, (Epist.
+ Hadrian. Papae ad Carolum Magnum, in Concil. tom. viii. p. 1598;)
+ to which he adds a reason, most directly opposite to his conduct,
+ that he preferred the salvation of souls and rule of faith to the
+ goods of this transitory world.]
+
+ 88 (return) [ Fontanini considers the emperors as no more than
+ the advocates of the church, (advocatus et defensor S. R. E. See
+ Ducange, Gloss Lat. tom. i. p. 297.) His antagonist Muratori
+ reduces the popes to be no more than the exarchs of the emperor.
+ In the more equitable view of Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles.
+ p. 264, 265,) they held Rome under the empire as the most
+ honorable species of fief or benefice—premuntur nocte
+ caliginosa!]
+
+ Before the ruin of Paganism in Rome, the competition for a
+ wealthy bishopric had often been productive of tumult and
+ bloodshed. The people was less numerous, but the times were more
+ savage, the prize more important, and the chair of St. Peter was
+ fiercely disputed by the leading ecclesiastics who aspired to the
+ rank of sovereign. The reign of Adrian 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: he secretly edified
+ the throne of his successors, and displayed in a narrow space the
+ virtues of a great prince. His memory was revered; but in the
+ next election, a priest of the Lateran, Leo the Third, was
+ preferred to the nephew and the favorite of Adrian, whom he had
+ promoted to the first dignities of the church. Their acquiescence
+ or repentance disguised, above four years, the blackest intention
+ of revenge, till the day of a procession, when a furious band of
+ conspirators dispersed the unarmed multitude, and assaulted with
+ blows and wounds the sacred person of the pope. But their
+ enterprise on his life or liberty was disappointed, perhaps by
+ their own confusion and remorse. Leo was left for dead on the
+ ground: on his revival from the swoon, the effect of his loss of
+ blood, he recovered his speech and sight; and this natural event
+ was improved to the miraculous restoration of his eyes and
+ tongue, of which he had been deprived, twice deprived, by the
+ knife of the assassins. 91 From his prison he escaped to the
+ Vatican: the duke of Spoleto hastened to his rescue, Charlemagne
+ sympathized in his injury, and in his camp of Paderborn in
+ Westphalia accepted, or solicited, a visit from the Roman
+ pontiff. 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 not without reluctance, that the conqueror
+ of the Saxons delayed till the ensuing year the personal
+ discharge of this pious office. In his fourth and last
+ pilgrimage, he was received at Rome with the due honors of king
+ and patrician: Leo was permitted to purge himself by oath of the
+ crimes imputed to his charge: his enemies were silenced, and the
+ sacrilegious attempt against his life was punished by the mild
+ and insufficient penalty of exile. On the festival of Christmas,
+ the last year of the eighth century, Charlemagne appeared in the
+ church of St. Peter; and, to gratify the vanity of Rome, he had
+ exchanged the simple dress of his country for the habit of a
+ patrician. 92 After the celebration of the holy mysteries, Leo
+ suddenly placed a precious crown on his head, 93 and the dome
+ resounded with the acclamations of the people, “Long life and
+ victory to Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by God the
+ great and pacific emperor of the Romans!” The head and body of
+ Charlemagne were consecrated by the royal unction: after the
+ example of the Caesars, he was saluted or adored by the pontiff:
+ his coronation oath represents a promise to maintain the faith
+ and privileges of the church; and the first-fruits were paid in
+ his rich offerings to the shrine of his apostle. In his familiar
+ conversation, the emperor protested the ignorance of the
+ intentions of Leo, which he would have disappointed by his
+ absence on that memorable day. But the preparations of the
+ ceremony must have disclosed the secret; and the journey of
+ Charlemagne reveals his knowledge and expectation: he had
+ acknowledged that the Imperial title was the object of his
+ ambition, and a Roman synod had pronounced, that it was the only
+ adequate reward of his merit and services. 94
+
+ 89 (return) [ His merits and hopes are summed up in an epitaph of
+ thirty-eight-verses, of which Charlemagne declares himself the
+ author, (Concil. tom. viii. p. 520.) Post patrem lacrymans
+ Carolus haec carmina scripsi. Tu mihi dulcis amor, te modo plango
+ pater... Nomina jungo simul titulis, clarissime, nostra Adrianus,
+ Carolus, rex ego, tuque pater. The poetry might be supplied by
+ Alcuin; but the tears, the most glorious tribute, can only belong
+ to Charlemagne.]
+
+ 90 (return) [ Every new pope is admonished—“Sancte Pater, non
+ videbis annos Petri,” twenty-five years. On the whole series the
+ average is about eight years—a short hope for an ambitious
+ cardinal.]
+
+ 91 (return) [ The assurance of Anastasius (tom. iii. pars i. p.
+ 197, 198) is supported by the credulity of some French annalists;
+ but Eginhard, and other writers of the same age, are more natural
+ and sincere. “Unus ei oculus paullulum est laesus,” says John the
+ deacon of Naples, (Vit. Episcop. Napol. in Scriptores Muratori,
+ tom. i. pars ii. p. 312.) Theodolphus, a contemporary bishop of
+ Orleans, observes with prudence (l. iii. carm. 3.) Reddita sunt?
+ mirum est: mirum est auferre nequtsse. Est tamen in dubio, hinc
+ mirer an inde magis.]
+
+ 92 (return) [ Twice, at the request of Hadrian and Leo, he
+ appeared at Rome,—longa tunica et chlamyde amictus, et
+ calceamentis quoque Romano more formatis. Eginhard (c. xxiii. p.
+ 109-113) describes, like Suetonius the simplicity of his dress,
+ so popular in the nation, that when Charles the Bald returned to
+ France in a foreign habit, the patriotic dogs barked at the
+ apostate, (Gaillard, Vie de Charlemagne, tom. iv. p. 109.)]
+
+ 93 (return) [ See Anastasius (p. 199) and Eginhard, (c.xxviii. p.
+ 124-128.) The unction is mentioned by Theophanes, (p. 399,) the
+ oath by Sigonius, (from the Ordo Romanus,) and the Pope’s
+ adoration more antiquorum principum, by the Annales Bertiniani,
+ (Script. Murator. tom. ii. pars ii. p. 505.)]
+
+ 94 (return) [ This great event of the translation or restoration
+ of the empire is related and discussed by Natalis Alexander,
+ (secul. ix. dissert. i. p. 390-397,) Pagi, (tom. iii. p. 418,)
+ Muratori, (Annali d’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 sometimes
+ deserved; but Charlemagne is the only prince in whose favor the
+ title has been indissolubly blended with the name. That name,
+ with the addition of saint, is inserted in the Roman calendar;
+ and the saint, by a rare felicity, is crowned with the praises of
+ the historians and philosophers of an enlightened age. 95 His
+ real merit is doubtless enhanced by the barbarism of the nation
+ and the times from which he emerged: but the apparent magnitude
+ of an object is likewise enlarged by an unequal comparison; and
+ the ruins of Palmyra derive a casual splendor from the nakedness
+ of the surrounding desert. Without injustice to his fame, I may
+ discern some blemishes in the sanctity and greatness of the
+ restorer of the Western empire. Of his moral virtues, chastity is
+ not the most conspicuous: 96 but the public happiness could not
+ be materially injured by his nine wives or concubines, the
+ various indulgence of meaner or more transient amours, the
+ multitude of his bastards whom he bestowed on the church, and the
+ long celibacy and licentious manners of his daughters, 97 whom
+ the father was suspected of loving with too fond a passion. 971 I
+ shall be scarcely permitted to accuse the ambition of a
+ conqueror; but in a day of equal retribution, the sons of his
+ brother Carloman, the Merovingian princes of Aquitain, and the
+ four thousand five hundred Saxons who were beheaded on the same
+ spot, would have something to allege against the justice and
+ humanity of Charlemagne. His treatment of the vanquished Saxons
+ 98 was an abuse of the right of conquest; his laws were not less
+ sanguinary than his arms, and in the discussion of his motives,
+ whatever is subtracted from bigotry must be imputed to temper.
+ The sedentary reader is amazed by his incessant activity of mind
+ and body; and his subjects and enemies were not less astonished
+ at his sudden presence, at the moment when they believed him at
+ the most distant extremity of the empire; neither peace nor war,
+ nor summer nor winter, were a season of repose; and our fancy
+ cannot easily reconcile the annals of his reign with the
+ geography of his expeditions. 981 But this activity was a
+ national, rather than a personal, virtue; the vagrant life of a
+ Frank was spent in the chase, in pilgrimage, in military
+ adventures; and the journeys of Charlemagne were distinguished
+ only by a more numerous train and a more important purpose. His
+ military renown must be tried by the scrutiny of his troops, his
+ enemies, and his actions. Alexander conquered with the arms of
+ Philip, but the two heroes who preceded Charlemagne bequeathed
+ him their name, their examples, and the companions of their
+ victories. At the head of his veteran and superior armies, he
+ oppressed the savage or degenerate nations, who were incapable of
+ confederating for their common safety: nor did he ever encounter
+ an equal antagonist in numbers, in discipline, or in arms The
+ science of war has been lost and revived with the arts of peace;
+ but his campaigns are not illustrated by any siege or battle of
+ singular difficulty and success; and he might behold, with envy,
+ the Saracen trophies of his grandfather. After the Spanish
+ expedition, his rear-guard was defeated in the Pyrenaean
+ mountains; and the soldiers, whose situation was irretrievable,
+ and whose valor was useless, might accuse, with their last
+ breath, the want of skill or caution of their general. 99 I touch
+ with reverence the laws of Charlemagne, so highly applauded by a
+ respectable judge. They compose not a system, but a series, of
+ occasional and minute edicts, for the correction of abuses, the
+ reformation of manners, the economy of his farms, the care of his
+ poultry, and even the sale of his eggs. He wished to improve the
+ laws and the character of the Franks; and his attempts, however
+ feeble and imperfect, are deserving of praise: the inveterate
+ evils of the times were suspended or mollified by his government;
+ 100 but in his institutions I can seldom discover the general
+ views and the immortal spirit of a legislator, who survives
+ himself for the benefit of posterity. The union and stability of
+ his empire depended on the life of a single man: he imitated the
+ dangerous practice of dividing his kingdoms among his sons; and
+ after his numerous diets, the whole constitution was left to
+ fluctuate between the disorders of anarchy and despotism. His
+ esteem for the piety and knowledge of the clergy tempted him to
+ intrust that aspiring order with temporal dominion and civil
+ jurisdiction; and his son Lewis, when he was stripped and
+ degraded by the bishops, might accuse, in some measure, the
+ imprudence of his father. His laws enforced the imposition of
+ tithes, because the daemons had proclaimed in the air that the
+ default of payment had been the cause of the last scarcity. 101
+ The literary merits of Charlemagne are attested by the foundation
+ of schools, the introduction of arts, the works which were
+ published in his name, and his familiar connection with the
+ subjects and strangers whom he invited to his court to educate
+ both the prince and people. His own studies were tardy,
+ laborious, and imperfect; if he spoke Latin, and understood
+ Greek, he derived the rudiments of knowledge from conversation,
+ rather than from books; and, in his mature age, the emperor
+ strove to acquire the practice of writing, which every peasant
+ now learns in his infancy. 102 The grammar and logic, the music
+ and astronomy, of the times, were only cultivated as the
+ handmaids of superstition; but the curiosity of the human mind
+ must ultimately tend to its improvement, and the encouragement of
+ learning reflects the purest and most pleasing lustre on the
+ character of Charlemagne. 103 The dignity of his person, 104 the
+ length of his reign, the prosperity of his arms, the vigor of his
+ government, and the reverence of distant nations, distinguish him
+ from the royal crowd; and Europe dates a new aera from his
+ restoration of the Western empire.
+
+ 95 (return) [ By Mably, (Observations sur l’Histoire de France,)
+ Voltaire, (Histoire Generale,) Robertson, (History of Charles
+ V.,) and Montesquieu, (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 sense and humanity; and his work is labored
+ with industry and elegance. But I have likewise examined the
+ original monuments of the reigns of Pepin and Charlemagne, in the
+ 5th volume of the Historians of France.]
+
+ 96 (return) [ The vision of Weltin, composed by a monk, eleven
+ years after the death of Charlemagne, shows him in purgatory,
+ with a vulture, who is perpetually gnawing the guilty member,
+ while the rest of his body, the emblem of his virtues, is sound
+ and perfect, (see Gaillard tom. ii. p. 317-360.)]
+
+ 97 (return) [ The marriage of Eginhard with Imma, daughter of
+ Charlemagne, is, in my opinion, sufficiently refuted by the
+ probum and suspicio that sullied these fair damsels, without
+ excepting his own wife, (c. xix. p. 98-100, cum Notis Schmincke.)
+ The husband must have been too strong for the historian.]
+
+ 971 (return) [ 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.]
+
+ 98 (return) [ Besides the massacres and transmigrations, the pain
+ of death was pronounced against the following crimes: 1. The
+ refusal of baptism. 2. The false pretence of baptism. 3. A
+ relapse to idolatry. 4. The murder of a priest or bishop. 5.
+ Human sacrifices. 6. Eating meat in Lent. But every crime might
+ be expiated by baptism or penance, (Gaillard, tom. ii. p.
+ 241-247;) and the Christian Saxons became the friends and equals
+ of the Franks, (Struv. Corpus Hist. Germanicae, p.133.)]
+
+ 981 (return) [ M. Guizot (Cours d’Histoire Moderne, p. 270, 273)
+ has compiled 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.]
+
+ 99 (return) [ 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 history ascribes to the Gascons,
+ and romance to the Saracens. * Note: In fact, it was a sudden
+ onset of the Gascons, assisted by the Beaure mountaineers, and
+ possibly a few Navarrese.—M.]
+
+ 100 (return) [ Yet Schmidt, from the best authorities, represents
+ the interior disorders and oppression of his reign, (Hist. des
+ Allemands, tom. ii. p. 45-49.)]
+
+ 101 (return) [ Omnis homo ex sua proprietate legitimam decimam ad
+ ecclesiam conferat. Experimento enim didicimus, in anno, quo illa
+ valida fames irrepsit, ebullire vacuas annonas a daemonibus
+ devoratas, et voces exprobationis auditas. Such is the decree and
+ assertion of the great Council of Frankfort, (canon xxv. tom. ix.
+ p. 105.) Both Selden (Hist. of Tithes; Works, vol. iii. part ii.
+ p. 1146) and Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, l. xxxi. c. 12)
+ represent Charlemagne as the first legal author of tithes. Such
+ obligations have country gentlemen to his memory!]
+
+ 102 (return) [ Eginhard (c. 25, p. 119) clearly affirms, tentabat
+ et scribere... sed parum prospere successit labor praeposterus et
+ sero inchoatus. The moderns have perverted and corrected this
+ obvious meaning, 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 Middle Ages, iii. 330, Histoire de Francais,
+ tom. ii. p. 318. The sensible observations of the latter are
+ quoted in the Quarterly Review, vol. xlviii. p. 451. Fleury, I
+ may add, quotes from Mabillon a remarkable evidence that
+ Charlemagne “had a mark to himself like an honest, plain-dealing
+ man.” Ibid.—M.]
+
+ 103 (return) [ See Gaillard, tom. iii. p. 138-176, and Schmidt,
+ tom. ii. p. 121-129.]
+
+ 104 (return) [ M. Gaillard (tom. iii. p. 372) fixes the true
+ stature of Charlemagne (see a Dissertation of Marquard Freher ad
+ calcem Eginhart, p. 220, &c.) at five feet nine inches of French,
+ about six feet one inch and a fourth English, measure. The
+ romance writers have increased it to eight feet, and the giant
+ was endowed with matchless strength and appetite: at a single
+ stroke of his good sword Joyeuse, he cut asunder a horseman and
+ his horse; at a single repast, he devoured a goose, two fowls, a
+ quarter of mutton, &c.]
+
+ That empire was not unworthy of its title; 105 and some of the
+ fairest kingdoms of Europe were the patrimony or conquest of a
+ prince, who reigned at the same time in France, Spain, Italy,
+ Germany, and Hungary. 106 I. The Roman province of Gaul had been
+ transformed into the name and monarchy of France; but, in the
+ decay of the Merovingian line, its limits were contracted by the
+ independence of the Britons and the revolt of Aquitain.
+ Charlemagne pursued, and confined, the Britons on the shores of
+ the ocean; and that ferocious tribe, whose origin and language
+ are so different from the French, was chastised by the imposition
+ of tribute, hostages, and peace. After a long and evasive
+ contest, the rebellion of the dukes of Aquitain was punished by
+ the forfeiture of their province, their liberty, and their lives.
+
+ Harsh and rigorous would have been such treatment of ambitious
+ governors, who had too faithfully copied the mayors of the
+ palace. But a recent discovery 107 has proved that these unhappy
+ princes were the last and lawful heirs of the blood and sceptre
+ of Clovis, and younger branch, from the brother of Dagobert, of
+ the Merovingian house. Their ancient kingdom was reduced to the
+ duchy of Gascogne, to the counties of Fesenzac and Armagnac, at
+ the foot of the Pyrenees: their race was propagated till the
+ beginning of the sixteenth century; and after surviving their
+ Carlovingian tyrants, they were reserved to feel the injustice,
+ or the favors, of a third dynasty. By the reunion of Aquitain,
+ France was enlarged to its present boundaries, with the additions
+ of the Netherlands and Spain, as far as the Rhine. II.
+
+ The Saracens had been expelled from France by the grandfather and
+ father of Charlemagne; but they still possessed the greatest part
+ of Spain, from the rock of Gibraltar to the Pyrenees. Amidst
+ their civil divisions, an Arabian emir of Saragossa implored his
+ protection in the diet of Paderborn. Charlemagne undertook the
+ expedition, restored the emir, and, without distinction of faith,
+ impartially crushed the resistance of the Christians, and
+ rewarded the obedience and services of the Mahometans. In his
+ absence he instituted the Spanish march, 108 which extended from
+ the Pyrenees to the River Ebro: Barcelona was the residence of
+ the French governor: he possessed the counties of Rousillon and
+ Catalonia; and the infant kingdoms of Navarre and Arragon were
+ subject to his jurisdiction. III. As king of the Lombards, and
+ patrician of Rome, he reigned over the greatest part of Italy,
+ 109 a tract of a thousand miles from the Alps to the borders of
+ Calabria. The duchy of Beneventum, 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 the independent title of prince;
+ and opposed his sword to the Carlovingian monarchy. His defence
+ was firm, his submission was not inglorious, and the emperor was
+ content with an easy tribute, the demolition of his fortresses,
+ 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
+ insensibly escaped from the French yoke. 110 IV. Charlemagne was
+ the first who united Germany under the same sceptre. The name of
+ Oriental France is preserved in the circle of Franconia; and the
+ people of Hesse and Thuringia were recently incorporated with the
+ victors, by the conformity of religion and government. The
+ Alemanni, so formidable to the Romans, were the faithful vassals
+ and confederates of the Franks; and their country was inscribed
+ within the modern limits of Alsace, Swabia, and Switzerland. The
+ Bavarians, with a similar indulgence of their laws and manners,
+ were less patient of a master: the repeated treasons of Tasillo
+ justified the abolition of their hereditary dukes; and their
+ power was shared among the counts, who judged and guarded that
+ important frontier. But the north of Germany, from the Rhine and
+ beyond the Elbe, was still hostile and Pagan; nor was it till
+ after a war of thirty-three years that the Saxons bowed under the
+ yoke of Christ and of Charlemagne. The idols and their votaries
+ were extirpated: the foundation of eight bishoprics, of Munster,
+ Osnaburgh, Paderborn, and Minden, of Bremen, Verden, Hildesheim,
+ and Halberstadt, define, on either side of the Weser, the bounds
+ of ancient Saxony these episcopal seats were the first schools
+ and cities of that savage land; and the religion and humanity of
+ the children atoned, in some degree, for the massacre of the
+ parents. Beyond the Elbe, the Slavi, or Sclavonians, of similar
+ manners and various denominations, overspread the modern
+ dominions of Prussia, Poland, and Bohemia, and some transient
+ marks of obedience have tempted the 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 justly
+ ascribed to the arms of Charlemagne. V. He retaliated on the
+ Avars, or Huns of Pannonia, the same calamities which they had
+ inflicted on the nations. Their rings, the wooden fortifications
+ which encircled their districts and villages, were broken down by
+ the triple effort of a French 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 generals was avenged by the
+ slaughter of the most noble Huns: the relics of the nation
+ submitted the royal residence of the chagan was left desolate and
+ unknown; and the treasures, the rapine of two hundred and fifty
+ years, enriched the victorious troops, or decorated the churches
+ of Italy and Gaul. 111 After the reduction of Pannonia, the
+ empire of Charlemagne was bounded only by the conflux of the
+ Danube with the Teyss and the Save: 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 sovereignty of the
+ Greeks. But these distant possessions added more to the
+ reputation than to the power of the Latin emperor; nor did he
+ risk any ecclesiastical foundations to reclaim the Barbarians
+ from their vagrant life and idolatrous worship. Some canals of
+ communication between the rivers, the Saone and the Meuse, the
+ Rhine and the Danube, were faintly attempted. 112 Their execution
+ would have vivified the empire; and more cost and labor were
+ often wasted in the structure of a cathedral. 1121
+
+ 105 (return) [ See the concise, but correct and original, work of
+ D’Anville, (Etats Formes en Europe apres la Chute de l’Empire
+ Romain en Occident, Paris, 1771, in 4to.,) whose map includes the
+ empire of Charlemagne; the different parts are illustrated, by
+ Valesius (Notitia Galliacum) for France, Beretti (Dissertatio
+ Chorographica) for Italy, De Marca (Marca Hispanica) for Spain.
+ For the middle geography of Germany, I confess myself poor and
+ destitute.]
+
+ 106 (return) [ After a brief relation of his wars and conquests,
+ (Vit. Carol. c. 5-14,) Eginhard recapitulates, in a few words,
+ (c. 15,) the countries subject to his empire. Struvius, (Corpus
+ Hist. German. p. 118-149) was inserted in his Notes the texts of
+ the old Chronicles.]
+
+ 107 (return) [ On a charter granted to the monastery of Alaon
+ (A.D. 845) by Charles the Bald, which deduces this royal
+ pedigree. I doubt whether some 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 (not of the President de
+ Montesquieu) is descended, in the female line, from Clotaire and
+ Clovis—an innocent pretension!]
+
+ 108 (return) [ The governors or counts of the Spanish march
+ revolted from 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 the Rousillon 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.]
+
+ 109 (return) [ Schmidt, Hist. des Allemands, tom. ii. p. 200,
+ &c.]
+
+ 110 (return) [ See Giannone, tom. i. p 374, 375, and the Annals
+ of Muratori.]
+
+ 111 (return) [ Quot praelia in eo gesta! quantum sanguinis
+ effusum sit! Testatur vacua omni habitatione Pannonia, et locus
+ in quo regia Cagani fuit ita desertus, ut ne vestigium quidem
+ humanae habitationis appareat. Tota in hoc bello Hunnorum
+ nobilitas periit, tota gloria decidit, omnis pecunia et congesti
+ ex longo tempore thesauri direpti sunt. Eginhard, cxiii.]
+
+ 112 (return) [ The junction of the Rhine and Danube was
+ undertaken only for the service of the Pannonian war, (Gaillard,
+ Vie de Charlemagne, tom. ii. p. 312-315.) The canal, which would
+ have been only two leagues in length, and of which some traces
+ are still extant in Swabia, was interrupted by excessive rains,
+ military avocations, and superstitious fears, (Schaepflin, Hist.
+ de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xviii. p. 256. Molimina
+ fluviorum, &c., jungendorum, p. 59-62.)]
+
+ 1121 (return) [ I should doubt this in the time of Charlemagne,
+ even if the 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 seen that the empire of the Franks extended, between east and
+ west, from the Ebro to the Elbe or Vistula; between the north and
+ south, from the duchy of Beneventum to the River Eyder, the
+ perpetual boundary of Germany and Denmark. The personal and
+ political importance of Charlemagne was magnified by the distress
+ and division of the rest of Europe. The islands of Great Britain
+ and Ireland were disputed by a crowd of princes of Saxon or
+ Scottish origin: and, after the loss of Spain, the Christian and
+ Gothic kingdom of Alphonso the Chaste was confined to the narrow
+ range of the Asturian mountains. These petty sovereigns revered
+ the power or virtue of the Carlovingian monarch, implored the
+ honor and support of his alliance, and styled him their common
+ parent, the sole and supreme emperor of the West. 113 He
+ maintained a more equal intercourse with the caliph Harun al
+ Rashid, 114 whose dominion stretched from Africa to India, and
+ accepted from his ambassadors a tent, a water-clock, an elephant,
+ and the keys of the Holy Sepulchre. It is 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 remote
+ situation left no room for a competition of interest. Two thirds
+ of the Western empire of Rome were subject to Charlemagne, and
+ the deficiency was amply supplied by his command of the
+ inaccessible or invincible nations of Germany. But in the choice
+ of his enemies, 1141 we may be reasonably surprised that he so
+ often preferred the poverty of the north to the riches of the
+ south. The three-and-thirty campaigns laboriously consumed in the
+ woods and morasses of Germany would have sufficed to assert the
+ amplitude of his title by the expulsion of the Greeks from Italy
+ and the Saracens from Spain. The weakness of the Greeks would
+ have insured an easy victory; and the holy crusade against the
+ Saracens would have been prompted by glory and revenge, and
+ loudly justified by religion and policy. Perhaps, in his
+ expeditions beyond the Rhine and the Elbe, he aspired to save his
+ monarchy from the fate of the Roman empire, to disarm the enemies
+ of civilized society, and to eradicate the seed of future
+ emigrations. But it has been wisely observed, that, in a light of
+ precaution, all conquest must be ineffectual, unless it could be
+ universal, since the increasing circle must be involved in a
+ larger sphere of hostility. 115 The subjugation of Germany
+ withdrew the veil which had so long concealed the continent or
+ islands of Scandinavia from the knowledge of Europe, and awakened
+ the torpid courage of their barbarous natives. The fiercest of
+ the Saxon idolaters escaped from the Christian tyrant to their
+ brethren of the North; the Ocean and Mediterranean were covered
+ with their piratical fleets; and Charlemagne beheld with a sigh
+ the destructive progress of the Normans, who, in less than
+ seventy years, precipitated the fall of his race and monarchy.
+
+ 113 (return) [ See Eginhard, c. 16, and Gaillard, tom. ii. p.
+ 361-385, who mentions, with a loose reference, the intercourse of
+ Charlemagne and Egbert, the emperor’s gift of his own sword, and
+ the modest answer of his Saxon disciple. The anecdote, if
+ genuine, would have adorned our English histories.]
+
+ 114 (return) [ The correspondence is mentioned only in the French
+ annals, and the Orientals are ignorant of the caliph’s friendship
+ for the Christian dog—a polite appellation, which Harun bestows
+ on the emperor of the Greeks.]
+
+ 1141 (return) [ Had he the choice? M. Guizot has eloquently
+ described the position of Charlemagne towards the Saxons. Il y
+ fit face par le conquete; la guerre defensive prit la forme
+ offensive: il transporta la lutte sur le territoire des peuples
+ qui voulaient envahir le sien: il travailla a asservir les races
+ etrangeres, et extirper les croyances ennemies. De la son mode de
+ gouvernement et la fondation de son empire: la guerre offensive
+ et la conquete voulaient cette vaste et redoutable unite. Compare
+ observations in the Quarterly Review, vol. xlviii., and James’s
+ Life of Charlemagne.—M.]
+
+ 115 (return) [ Gaillard, tom. ii. p. 361-365, 471-476, 492. I
+ have borrowed his judicious remarks on Charlemagne’s plan of
+ conquest, and the judicious distinction of his enemies of the
+ first and the second enceinte, (tom. ii. p. 184, 509, &c.)]
+
+ Had the pope and the Romans revived the primitive constitution,
+ the titles of emperor and Augustus were conferred on Charlemagne
+ for the term of his life; and his successors, on each vacancy,
+ must have ascended the throne by a formal or tacit election. But
+ the association of his son Lewis the Pious asserts the
+ independent right of monarchy and conquest, and the emperor seems
+ on this occasion to have foreseen and prevented the latent claims
+ of the clergy. The royal youth was commanded to take the crown
+ from the altar, and with his own hands to place it on his head,
+ as a gift which he held from God, his father, and the nation. 116
+ The same ceremony was repeated, though with less energy, in the
+ subsequent associations of Lothaire and Lewis the Second: the
+ Carlovingian sceptre was transmitted from father to son in a
+ lineal descent of four generations; and the ambition of the popes
+ was reduced to the empty honor of crowning and anointing these
+ hereditary princes, who were already invested with their power
+ and dominions. The pious Lewis survived his brothers, and
+ embraced the whole empire of Charlemagne; but the nations and the
+ nobles, his bishops and his children, quickly discerned that this
+ mighty mass was no longer inspired by the same soul; and the
+ foundations were undermined to the centre, while the external
+ surface was yet fair and entire. After a war, or battle, which
+ consumed one hundred thousand Franks, the empire was divided by
+ treaty between his three sons, who had violated every filial and
+ fraternal duty. The kingdoms of Germany and France were forever
+ separated; the provinces of Gaul, between the Rhone and the Alps,
+ the Meuse and the Rhine, were assigned, with Italy, to the
+ Imperial dignity of Lothaire. In the partition of his share,
+ Lorraine and Arles, two recent and transitory kingdoms, were
+ bestowed on the younger children; and Lewis the Second, his
+ eldest son, was content with the realm of Italy, the proper and
+ sufficient patrimony of a Roman emperor. On his death without any
+ male issue, the vacant throne was disputed by his uncles and
+ cousins, and the popes most dexterously seized the occasion of
+ judging the claims and merits of the candidates, and of bestowing
+ on the most obsequious, or most liberal, the Imperial office of
+ advocate of the Roman church. The dregs of the Carlovingian race
+ no longer exhibited any symptoms of virtue or power, and the
+ ridiculous epithets of the bard, the stammerer, the fat, and the
+ simple, distinguished the tame and uniform features of a crowd of
+ kings alike deserving of oblivion. By the failure of the
+ collateral branches, the whole inheritance devolved to Charles
+ the Fat, the last emperor of his family: his insanity authorized
+ the desertion of Germany, Italy, and France: he was deposed in a
+ diet, and solicited his daily bread from the rebels by whose
+ contempt his life and liberty had been spared. According to the
+ measure of their force, the governors, the bishops, and the
+ lords, usurped the fragments of the falling empire; and some
+ preference was shown to the female or illegitimate blood of
+ Charlemagne. Of the greater part, the title and possession were
+ alike doubtful, and the merit was adequate to the contracted
+ scale of their dominions. Those who could appear with an army at
+ the gates of Rome were crowned emperors in the Vatican; but their
+ modesty was more frequently satisfied with the appellation of
+ kings of Italy: 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 the First.
+
+ 116 (return) [ Thegan, the biographer of Lewis, relates this
+ coronation: and Baronius has honestly transcribed it, (A.D. 813,
+ No. 13, &c. See Gaillard, tom. ii. p. 506, 507, 508,) howsoever
+ adverse to the claims of the popes. For the series of the
+ Carlovingians, see the historians of France, Italy, and Germany;
+ Pfeffel, Schmidt, Velly, Muratori, and even Voltaire, whose
+ pictures are sometimes just, and always pleasing.]
+
+ Otho 117 was of the noble race of the dukes of Saxony; and if he
+ truly descended from Witikind, the adversary and proselyte of
+ Charlemagne, the posterity of a vanquished people was exalted to
+ reign over their conquerors. His father, Henry the Fowler, was
+ elected, by the suffrage of 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 of the Othos. A portion of Gaul,
+ to the west of the Rhine, along the banks of the Meuse and the
+ Moselle, was assigned to the Germans, by whose blood and language
+ it has been tinged since the time of Caesar and Tacitus.
+
+ Between the Rhine, the Rhone, and the Alps, the successors of
+ Otho acquired a vain supremacy over the broken kingdoms of
+ Burgundy and Arles. 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 German colonies; and the king of
+ Denmark, the dukes of Poland and Bohemia, confessed themselves
+ his tributary vassals. At the head of a victorious army, he
+ passed the Alps, subdued the kingdom of Italy, delivered the
+ pope, and forever fixed the Imperial crown in the name and nation
+ of Germany. From that memorable aera, two maxims of public
+ jurisprudence were introduced by force and ratified by time. I.
+ That the prince, who was elected in the German diet, acquired,
+ from that instant, the subject kingdoms of Italy and Rome. II.
+ But that he might not legally assume the titles of emperor and
+ Augustus, till he had received the crown from the hands of the
+ Roman pontiff. 119
+
+ 117 (return) [ He was the son of Otho, the son of Ludolph, in
+ whose favor the Duchy of Saxony had been instituted, A.D. 858.
+ Ruotgerus, the biographer of a St. Bruno, (Bibliot. Bunavianae
+ Catalog. tom. iii. vol. ii. p. 679,) gives a splendid character
+ of his family. Atavorum atavi usque ad hominum memoriam omnes
+ nobilissimi; nullus in eorum stirpe ignotus, nullus degener
+ facile reperitur, (apud Struvium, Corp. Hist. German. p. 216.)
+ Yet Gundling (in Henrico Aucupe) is not satisfied of his descent
+ from Witikind.]
+
+ 118 (return) [ See the treatise of Conringius, (de Finibus
+ Imperii Germanici, Francofurt. 1680, in 4to.: ) he rejects the
+ extravagant and improper scale of the Roman and Carlovingian
+ empires, and discusses with moderation the rights of Germany, her
+ vassals, and her neighbors.]
+
+ 119 (return) [ The power of custom forces me to number Conrad I.
+ and Henry I., the Fowler, in the list of emperors, a title which
+ was never assumed by those kings of Germany. The Italians,
+ Muratori for instance, are more scrupulous and correct, and only
+ reckon the princes who have been crowned at Rome.]
+
+ The Imperial dignity of Charlemagne was announced to the East by
+ the alteration of his style; and instead of saluting his fathers,
+ the Greek emperors, he presumed to adopt the more equal and
+ familiar appellation of brother. 120 Perhaps in his connection
+ with Irene he aspired to the name of husband: his embassy to
+ Constantinople spoke the language of peace and friendship, and
+ might conceal a treaty of marriage with that ambitious princess,
+ who had renounced the most sacred duties of a mother. The nature,
+ the duration, the probable consequences of such a union between
+ two distant and dissonant empires, it is impossible to
+ conjecture; but the unanimous silence of the Latins may teach us
+ to suspect, that the report was invented by the enemies of Irene,
+ to charge her with the guilt of betraying the church and state to
+ the strangers of the West. 121 The French ambassadors were the
+ spectators, and had nearly been the victims, of the conspiracy of
+ Nicephorus, and the national hatred. Constantinople was
+ exasperated by the treason and sacrilege of ancient Rome: a
+ proverb, “That the Franks were good friends and bad neighbors,”
+ was in every one’s mouth; but it was dangerous to provoke a
+ neighbor who might be tempted to reiterate, in the church of St.
+ Sophia, the ceremony of his Imperial coronation. After a tedious
+ journey of circuit and delay, the ambassadors of Nicephorus found
+ him in his camp, on the banks of the River Sala; and Charlemagne
+ affected to confound their vanity by displaying, in a Franconian
+ village, the pomp, or at least the pride, of the Byzantine
+ palace. 122 The Greeks were successively led through four halls
+ of audience: in the first they were ready to fall prostrate
+ before a splendid personage in a chair of state, till he informed
+ them that he was only a servant, the constable, or master of the
+ horse, of the emperor. The same mistake, and the same answer,
+ were repeated in the apartments of the count palatine, the
+ steward, and the chamberlain; and their impatience was gradually
+ heightened, till the doors of the presence-chamber were thrown
+ open, and they beheld the genuine monarch, on his throne,
+ enriched with the foreign luxury which he despised, and encircled
+ with the love and reverence of his victorious chiefs. A treaty of
+ peace and alliance was concluded between the two empires, and the
+ limits of the East and West were defined by the right of present
+ possession. But the Greeks 123 soon forgot this humiliating
+ equality, or remembered it only to hate the Barbarians by whom it
+ was extorted. During the short union of virtue and power, they
+ respectfully saluted the august Charlemagne, with the
+ acclamations of basileus, and emperor of the Romans. As soon as
+ these qualities were separated in the person of his pious son,
+ the Byzantine letters were inscribed, “To the king, or, as he
+ styles himself, the emperor of the Franks and Lombards.” When
+ both power and virtue were extinct, they despoiled Lewis the
+ Second of his hereditary title, and with the barbarous
+ appellation of rex or rega, degraded him among the crowd 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, at
+ Constantinople, it were assumed in a more exclusive and imperial
+ sense, he claims from his ancestors, and from the popes, a just
+ participation of the honors of the Roman purple. The same
+ controversy was revived in the reign of the Othos; and their
+ ambassador describes, in lively colors, the insolence of the
+ Byzantine court. 125 The Greeks affected to despise the poverty
+ and ignorance of the Franks and Saxons; and in their last decline
+ refused to prostitute to the kings of Germany the title of Roman
+ emperors.
+
+ 120 (return) [ Invidiam tamen suscepti nominis (C. P.
+ imperatoribus super hoc indignantibus) magna tulit patientia,
+ vicitque eorum contumaciam... mittendo ad eos crebras legationes,
+ et in epistolis fratres eos appellando. Eginhard, c. 28, p. 128.
+ Perhaps it was on their account that, like Augustus, he affected
+ some reluctance to receive the empire.]
+
+ 121 (return) [ Theophanes speaks of the coronation and unction of
+ Charles (Chronograph. p. 399,) and of his treaty of marriage with
+ Irene, (p. 402,) which is unknown to the Latins. Gaillard relates
+ his transactions with the Greek empire, (tom. ii. p. 446-468.)]
+
+ 122 (return) [ Gaillard very properly observes, that this pageant
+ was a farce suitable to children only; but that it was indeed
+ represented in the presence, and for the benefit, of children of
+ a larger growth.]
+
+ 123 (return) [ Compare, in the original texts collected by Pagi,
+ (tom. iii. A.D. 812, No. 7, A.D. 824, No. 10, &c.,) the contrast
+ of Charlemagne and his son; to the former the ambassadors of
+ Michael (who were indeed disavowed) more suo, id est lingua
+ Graeca laudes dixerunt, imperatorem eum et appellantes; to the
+ latter, Vocato imperatori Francorum, &c.]
+
+ 124 (return) [ See the epistle, in Paralipomena, of the anonymous
+ writer of 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 he transcribed it in his Annals.]
+
+ 125 (return) [ Ipse enim vos, non imperatorem, id est sua lingua,
+ sed ob indignationem, id est regem nostra vocabat, Liutprand, in
+ Legat. in Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 479. The pope had
+ exhorted Nicephorus, emperor of the Greeks, to make peace with
+ Otho, the august emperor of the 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 the powers which had been assumed by the Gothic and
+ Grecian princes; and the importance of this prerogative increased
+ with the temporal estate and spiritual jurisdiction of the Roman
+ church. In the Christian aristocracy, the principal members of
+ the clergy still formed a senate to assist the administration,
+ and to supply the vacancy, of the bishop. Rome was divided into
+ twenty-eight parishes, and each parish was governed by a cardinal
+ priest, or presbyter, a title which, however common or modest in
+ its origin, has aspired to emulate the purple of kings. Their
+ number was enlarged by the association of the seven deacons of
+ the most considerable hospitals, the seven palatine judges of the
+ Lateran, and some dignitaries of the church. This ecclesiastical
+ senate was directed by the seven cardinal-bishops of the Roman
+ province, who were less occupied in the suburb dioceses of Ostia,
+ Porto, Velitrae, Tusculum, Praeneste, Tibur, and the Sabines,
+ than by their weekly service in the Lateran, and their superior
+ share in the honors and authority of the apostolic see. On the
+ death of the pope, these bishops recommended a successor to the
+ suffrage of the college of cardinals, 126 and their choice was
+ ratified or rejected by the applause or clamor of the Roman
+ people. But the election was imperfect; nor could the pontiff be
+ legally consecrated till the emperor, the advocate of the church,
+ had graciously signified his approbation and consent. The royal
+ commissioner examined, on the spot, the form and freedom of the
+ proceedings; nor was it till after a previous scrutiny into the
+ qualifications of the candidates, that he accepted an oath of
+ fidelity, and confirmed the donations which had successively
+ enriched the patrimony of St. Peter. In the frequent schisms, the
+ rival claims were submitted to the sentence of the emperor; and
+ in a synod of bishops he presumed to judge, to condemn, and to
+ punish, the crimes of a guilty pontiff. Otho the First imposed a
+ treaty on the senate and people, who engaged to prefer the
+ candidate most acceptable to his majesty: 127 his successors
+ anticipated or prevented their choice: they bestowed the Roman
+ benefice, like the bishoprics of Cologne or Bamberg, on their
+ chancellors or preceptors; and whatever might be the merit of a
+ Frank or Saxon, his name sufficiently attests the interposition
+ of foreign power. These acts of prerogative were most speciously
+ excused by the vices of a popular election. The competitor who
+ had been excluded by the cardinals appealed to the passions or
+ avarice of the multitude; the Vatican and the Lateran were
+ stained with blood; and the most powerful senators, the marquises
+ of Tuscany and the counts of Tusculum, held the apostolic see in
+ a long and disgraceful servitude. The Roman pontiffs, of the
+ ninth and tenth centuries, were insulted, imprisoned, and
+ murdered, by their tyrants; and such was their indigence, after
+ the loss and usurpation of the ecclesiastical patrimonies, that
+ they could neither support the state of a prince, nor exercise
+ the charity of a priest. 128 The influence of two sister
+ prostitutes, Marozia and Theodora, was founded on their wealth
+ and beauty, their political and amorous intrigues: the most
+ strenuous of their lovers were rewarded with the Roman mitre, and
+ their reign 129 may have suggested to the darker ages 130 the
+ fable 131 of a female pope. 132 The bastard son, the grandson,
+ and the great-grandson of Marozia, a rare genealogy, were seated
+ in the chair of St. Peter, and it was at the age of nineteen
+ years that the second of these became the head of the Latin
+ church. 1321 His youth and manhood were of a suitable complexion;
+ and the nations of pilgrims could bear testimony 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 the dress and
+ decencies of his profession, the soldier may not perhaps be
+ dishonored by the wine which he drank, the blood that he spilt,
+ the flames that he kindled, or the licentious pursuits of gaming
+ and hunting. His open simony might be the consequence of
+ distress; and his blasphemous invocation of Jupiter and Venus, if
+ it be true, could not possibly be serious. But we read, with some
+ surprise, that the worthy grandson of Marozia lived in public
+ adultery with the matrons of Rome; that the Lateran palace was
+ turned into a school for prostitution, and that his rapes of
+ virgins and widows had deterred the female pilgrims from visiting
+ the tomb of St. Peter, lest, in the devout act, they should be
+ violated by his successor. 133 The Protestants have dwelt with
+ malicious pleasure on these characters of Antichrist; but to a
+ philosophic eye, the vices of the clergy are far less dangerous
+ than their virtues. After a long series of scandal, the apostolic
+ see was reformed and exalted by the austerity and zeal of Gregory
+ VII. That ambitious monk devoted his life to the execution of two
+ projects. I. To fix in the college of cardinals the freedom and
+ independence of election, and forever to abolish the right or
+ usurpation of the emperors and the Roman people. II. To bestow
+ and resume the Western empire as a fief or benefice 134 of the
+ church, and to extend his temporal dominion over the kings and
+ kingdoms of the earth. After a contest of fifty years, the first
+ of these designs was accomplished by the firm support of the
+ ecclesiastical order, whose liberty was connected with that of
+ their chief. But the second attempt, though it was crowned with
+ some partial and apparent success, has been vigorously resisted
+ by the secular power, and finally extinguished by the improvement
+ of human reason.
+
+ 126 (return) [ The origin and progress of the title of cardinal
+ may be found 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. The cardinal-bishops so highly exalted by Peter
+ Damianus, are sunk to a level with the rest of the sacred
+ college.]
+
+ 127 (return) [ Firmiter jurantes, nunquam se papam electuros aut
+ audinaturos, praeter consensum et electionem Othonis et filii
+ sui. (Liutprand, l. vi. c. 6, p. 472.) This important concession
+ may either supply or confirm the decree of the clergy and people
+ of Rome, so fiercely rejected by Baronius, Pagi, and Muratori,
+ (A.D. 964,) and so well defended and explained by St. Marc,
+ (Abrege, tom. ii. p. 808-816, tom. iv. p. 1167-1185.) Consult the
+ historical critic, and the Annals of Muratori, for for the
+ election and confirmation of each pope.]
+
+ 128 (return) [ The oppression and vices of the Roman church, in
+ the xth century, are strongly painted in the history and legation
+ of Liutprand, (see p. 440, 450, 471-476, 479, &c.;) and it is
+ whimsical enough to observe Muratori tempering the invectives of
+ Baronius against the popes. But these popes had been chosen, not
+ by the cardinals, but by lay-patrons.]
+
+ 129 (return) [ The time of Pope Joan (papissa Joanna) is placed
+ somewhat earlier than Theodora or Marozia; and the two years of
+ her imaginary reign are forcibly inserted between Leo IV. and
+ Benedict III. But the contemporary Anastasius indissolubly links
+ the death of Leo and the elevation of Benedict, (illico, mox, p.
+ 247;) and the accurate chronology of Pagi, Muratori, and
+ Leibnitz, fixes both events to the year 857.]
+
+ 130 (return) [ The advocates for Pope Joan produce one hundred
+ and fifty witnesses, or rather echoes, of the xivth, xvth, and
+ xvith centuries. They bear testimony against themselves and the
+ legend, by multiplying the proof that so curious a story must
+ have been repeated by writers of every description to whom it was
+ known. On those of the ixth and xth centuries, the recent event
+ would have flashed with a double force. Would Photius have spared
+ such a reproach? Could Liutprand have missed such scandal? It is
+ scarcely worth while to discuss the various readings of Martinus
+ Polonus, Sigeber of Gamblours, or even Marianus Scotus; but a
+ most palpable forgery is the passage of Pope Joan, which has been
+ foisted into some Mss. and editions of the Roman Anastasius.]
+
+ 131 (return) [ As false, it deserves that name; but I would not
+ pronounce it incredible. Suppose a famous French chevalier of our
+ own times to have been born in Italy, and educated in the church,
+ instead of the army: her merit or fortune might have raised her
+ to St. Peter’s chair; her amours would have been natural: her
+ delivery in the streets unlucky, but not improbable.]
+
+ 132 (return) [ Till the reformation the tale was repeated and
+ believed without offence: and Joan’s female statue long occupied
+ her place among the popes in the cathedral of Sienna, (Pagi,
+ Critica, tom. iii. p. 624-626.) She has been annihilated by two
+ learned Protestants, Blondel and Bayle, (Dictionnaire Critique,
+ Papesse, Polonus, Blondel;) but their brethren 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.)]
+
+ 1321 (return) [ John XI. was the son of her husband Alberic, not
+ of her lover, Pope Sergius III., as Muratori has distinctly
+ proved, Ann. ad ann. 911, tom. p. 268. Her grandson Octavian,
+ otherwise called John XII., was pope; but a great-grandson cannot
+ be discovered in any of the succeeding popes; nor does our
+ historian himself, in his subsequent narration, (p. 202,) seem to
+ know of one. Hobhouse, Illustrations of Childe Harold, p.
+ 309.—M.]
+
+ 133 (return) [ Lateranense palatium... prostibulum meretricum ...
+ Testis omnium gentium, praeterquam Romanorum, absentia mulierum,
+ quae sanctorum apostolorum limina orandi gratia timent visere,
+ cum nonnullas ante dies paucos, hunc audierint conjugatas,
+ viduas, virgines vi oppressisse, (Liutprand, Hist. l. vi. c. 6,
+ p. 471. See the whole affair of John XII., p. 471-476.)]
+
+ 134 (return) [ A new example of the mischief of equivocation is
+ the beneficium (Ducange, tom. i. p. 617, &c.,) which the pope
+ conferred on the emperor Frederic I., since the Latin word may
+ signify either a legal fief, 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 nor the people could bestow on Charlemagne or Otho the
+ provinces which were lost, as they had been won, by the chance of
+ arms. But the Romans were free to choose a master for themselves;
+ and the powers which had been delegated to the patrician, were
+ irrevocably granted to the French and 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 thirteenth century, was
+ derived from Caesar to the praefect of the city. 136 Between the
+ arts of the popes and the violence of the people, this supremacy
+ was crushed and annihilated. Content with the titles of emperor
+ and Augustus, the successors of Charlemagne neglected to assert
+ this local jurisdiction. In the hour of prosperity, their
+ ambition was diverted by more alluring objects; and in the decay
+ and division of the empire, they were oppressed by the defence of
+ their hereditary provinces. Amidst the ruins of Italy, the famous
+ Marozia invited one of the usurpers to assume the character of
+ her third husband; and Hugh, king of Burgundy was introduced by
+ her faction into the mole of Hadrian or Castle of St. Angelo,
+ which commands the principal bridge and entrance of Rome. Her son
+ by the first marriage, Alberic, was compelled to attend at the
+ nuptial banquet; but his reluctant and ungraceful service was
+ chastised with a blow by his new father. The blow was productive
+ of a revolution. “Romans,” exclaimed the youth, “once you were
+ the masters of the world, and these Burgundians the most abject
+ of your slaves. They now reign, these voracious and brutal
+ savages, and my injury is the commencement of your servitude.”
+ 137 The alarum bell rang to arms in every quarter of the city:
+ the Burgundians retreated with haste and shame; Marozia was
+ imprisoned by her victorious son, and his brother, Pope John XI.,
+ was reduced to the exercise of his spiritual functions. With the
+ title of prince, Alberic possessed above twenty years the
+ government of Rome; and he is said to have gratified the popular
+ prejudice, by restoring the office, or at least the title, of
+ consuls and tribunes. His son and heir Octavian assumed, with the
+ pontificate, the name of John XII.: like his predecessor, he was
+ provoked by the Lombard princes to seek a deliverer for the
+ church and republic; and the services of Otho were rewarded with
+ the Imperial dignity. But the Saxon was imperious, the Romans
+ were impatient, the festival of the coronation was disturbed by
+ the secret conflict of prerogative and freedom, and Otho
+ commanded his sword-bearer not to stir from his person, lest he
+ should be assaulted and murdered at the foot of the altar. 138
+ Before he repassed the Alps, the emperor chastised the revolt of
+ the people and the ingratitude of John XII. The pope was degraded
+ in a synod; the praefect was mounted on an ass, whipped through
+ the city, and cast into a dungeon; thirteen of the most guilty
+ were hanged, others were mutilated or banished; and this severe
+ process was justified by the ancient laws of Theodosius and
+ Justinian. The voice of fame has accused the second Otho of a
+ perfidious and bloody act, the massacre of the senators, whom he
+ had invited to his table under the fair semblance of hospitality
+ and friendship. 139 In the minority of his son Otho the Third,
+ Rome made a bold attempt to shake off the Saxon yoke, and the
+ consul Crescentius was the Brutus of the republic. From the
+ condition of a subject and an exile, he twice rose to the command
+ of the city, oppressed, expelled, and created the popes, and
+ formed a conspiracy for restoring the authority of the Greek
+ emperors. 1391 In the fortress of St. Angelo, he maintained an
+ obstinate siege, till the unfortunate consul was betrayed by a
+ promise of safety: his body was suspended on a gibbet, and his
+ head was exposed on the battlements of the castle. By a reverse
+ of fortune, Otho, after separating his troops, was besieged three
+ days, without food, in his palace; and a disgraceful escape saved
+ him from the justice or fury of the Romans. The senator Ptolemy
+ was the leader of the people, and the widow of Crescentius
+ enjoyed the pleasure or the fame of revenging her husband, by a
+ poison which she administered to her Imperial lover. It was the
+ design of Otho the Third to abandon the ruder countries of the
+ North, to erect his throne in Italy, and to revive the
+ institutions of the Roman monarchy. But his successors only once
+ in their lives appeared on the banks of the Tyber, to receive
+ their crown in the Vatican. 140 Their absence was contemptible,
+ their presence odious and formidable. They descended from the
+ Alps, at the head of their barbarians, who were strangers and
+ enemies to the country; and their transient visit was a scene of
+ tumult and bloodshed. 141 A faint remembrance of their ancestors
+ still tormented the Romans; and they beheld with pious
+ indignation the succession of Saxons, Franks, Swabians, and
+ Bohemians, who usurped the purple and prerogatives of the
+ Caesars.
+
+ 135 (return) [ For the history of the emperors in Rome and Italy,
+ see Sigonius, de Regno Italiae, Opp. tom. ii., with the Notes of
+ Saxius, and the Annals of Muratori, who might refer more
+ distinctly to the authors of his great collection.]
+
+ 136 (return) [ See the Dissertations of Le Blanc at the end of
+ his treatise des Monnoyes de France, in which he produces some
+ Roman coins of the French emperors.]
+
+ 137 (return) [ Romanorum aliquando servi, scilicet Burgundiones,
+ Romanis imperent?.... 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 the consulship; but in the old writers
+ Albericus is more frequently styled princeps Romanorum.]
+
+ 138 (return) [ Ditmar, p. 354, apud Schmidt, tom. iii. p. 439.]
+
+ 139 (return) [ This bloody feast is described in Leonine verse in
+ the Pantheon 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 his evidence, which imposed on Sigonius, is
+ reasonably suspected by Muratori (Annali, tom. viii. p. 177.)]
+
+ 1391 (return) [ The Marquis Maffei’s gallery contained a medal
+ with Imp. Caes August. P. P. Crescentius. Hence Hobhouse infers
+ that he affected the empire. Hobhouse, Illustrations of Childe
+ Harold, p. 252.—M.]
+
+ 140 (return) [ The coronation of the emperor, and some original
+ ceremonies of the xth century are preserved in the Panegyric on
+ Berengarius, (Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 405-414,)
+ illustrated by the Notes of Hadrian Valesius and Leibnitz.
+ Sigonius has related the whole process of the Roman expedition,
+ in good Latin, but with some errors of time and fact, (l. vii. p.
+ 441-446.)]
+
+ 141 (return) [ In a quarrel at the coronation of Conrad II.
+ Muratori takes 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 hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations, in
+ opposition to their inclination and interest. A torrent of
+ Barbarians may pass over the earth, but an extensive empire must
+ be supported by a refined system of policy and oppression; in the
+ centre, an absolute power, prompt in action and rich in
+ resources; a swift and easy communication with the extreme parts;
+ fortifications to check the first effort of rebellion; a regular
+ administration to protect and punish; and a well-disciplined army
+ to inspire fear, without provoking discontent and despair. Far
+ different was the situation of the German Caesars, who were
+ ambitious to enslave the kingdom of Italy. Their patrimonial
+ estates were stretched along the Rhine, or scattered in the
+ provinces; but this ample domain was alienated by the imprudence
+ or distress of successive princes; and their revenue, from minute
+ and vexatious prerogative, was scarcely sufficient for the
+ maintenance of their household. Their troops were formed by the
+ legal or voluntary service of their feudal vassals, who passed
+ the Alps with reluctance, assumed the license of rapine and
+ disorder, and capriciously deserted before the end of the
+ campaign. Whole armies were swept away by the pestilential
+ influence of the climate: the survivors brought back the bones of
+ their princes and nobles, 142 and the effects of their own
+ intemperance were often imputed to the treachery and malice of
+ the Italians, who rejoiced at least in the calamities of the
+ Barbarians. This irregular tyranny might contend on equal terms
+ with the petty tyrants of Italy; nor can the people, or the
+ reader, be much interested in the event of the quarrel. But in
+ the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Lombards rekindled the
+ flame of industry and freedom; and the generous example was at
+ length imitated by the republics of Tuscany. 1421 In the Italian
+ cities a municipal government had never been totally abolished;
+ and their first privileges were granted by the favor and policy
+ of the emperors, who were desirous of erecting a plebeian barrier
+ against the independence of the nobles. But their rapid progress,
+ the daily extension of their power and pretensions, were founded
+ on the numbers and spirit of these rising communities. 143 Each
+ city filled the measure of her diocese or district: the
+ jurisdiction of the counts and bishops, of the marquises and
+ counts, was banished from the land; and the proudest nobles were
+ persuaded or compelled to desert their solitary castles, and to
+ embrace the more honorable character of freemen and magistrates.
+ The legislative authority was inherent in the general assembly;
+ but the executive powers were intrusted to three consuls,
+ annually chosen from the three orders of captains, valvassors,
+ 144 and commons, into which the republic was divided. Under the
+ protection of equal law, the labors of agriculture and commerce
+ were gradually revived; but the martial spirit of the Lombards
+ was nourished by the presence of danger; and as often as the bell
+ was rung, or the standard 145 erected, the gates of the city
+ poured forth a numerous and intrepid band, whose zeal in their
+ own cause was soon guided by the use and discipline of arms. At
+ the foot of these popular ramparts, the pride of the Caesars was
+ overthrown; and the invincible genius of liberty prevailed over
+ the two Frederics, the greatest princes of the middle age; the
+ first, superior perhaps in military prowess; the second, who
+ undoubtedly excelled in the softer accomplishments of peace and
+ learning.
+
+ 142 (return) [ After boiling away the flesh. The caldrons for
+ that purpose were a necessary piece of travelling furniture; and
+ a German who was using it for his brother, promised it to a
+ friend, after it should have been employed for himself, (Schmidt,
+ tom. iii. p. 423, 424.) The same author observes that the whole
+ Saxon line was extinguished in Italy, (tom. ii. p. 440.)]
+
+ 1421 (return) [ Compare Sismondi, Histoire des Republiques
+ Italiannes. Hallam Middle Ages. Raumer, Geschichte der
+ Hohenstauffen. Savigny, Geschichte des Romischen Rechts, vol.
+ iii. p. 19 with the authors quoted.—M.]
+
+ 143 (return) [ Otho, bishop of Frisingen, has left an important
+ passage on the Italian cities, (l. ii. c. 13, in Script. Ital.
+ tom. vi. p. 707-710: ) and the rise, progress, and government of
+ these republics are perfectly illustrated by Muratori,
+ (Antiquitat. Ital. Medii Aevi, tom. iv. dissert xlv.—lii. p.
+ 1-675. Annal. tom. viii. ix. x.)]
+
+ 144 (return) [ 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.)]
+
+ 145 (return) [ The Lombards invented and used the carocium, a
+ standard planted 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
+ First invaded the republics of Lombardy, with the arts of a
+ statesman, the valor of a soldier, and the cruelty of a tyrant.
+ The recent discovery of the Pandects had renewed a science most
+ favorable to despotism; and his venal advocates proclaimed the
+ emperor the absolute master of the lives and properties of his
+ subjects. His royal prerogatives, in a less odious sense, were
+ acknowledged in the diet of Roncaglia; and the revenue of Italy
+ was fixed at thirty thousand pounds of silver, 146 which were
+ multiplied to an indefinite demand by the rapine of the fiscal
+ officers. The obstinate cities were reduced by the terror or the
+ force of his arms: his captives were delivered to the
+ executioner, or shot from his military engines; and. after the
+ siege and surrender of Milan, the buildings of that stately
+ capital were razed to the ground, three hundred hostages were
+ sent into Germany, and the inhabitants were dispersed in four
+ villages, under the yoke of the inflexible conqueror. 147 But
+ Milan soon rose from her ashes; and the league of Lombardy was
+ cemented by distress: their cause was espoused by Venice, Pope
+ Alexander the Third, and the Greek emperor: the fabric of
+ oppression was overturned in a day; and in the treaty of
+ Constance, Frederic subscribed, with some reservations, the
+ freedom of four-and-twenty cities. His grandson contended with
+ their vigor and maturity; but Frederic the Second 148 was endowed
+ with some personal and peculiar advantages. His birth and
+ education recommended him to the Italians; and in the implacable
+ discord of the two factions, the Ghibelins were attached to the
+ emperor, while the Guelfs displayed the banner of liberty and the
+ church. The court of Rome had slumbered, when his father Henry
+ the Sixth was permitted to unite with the empire the kingdoms of
+ Naples and Sicily; and from these hereditary realms the son
+ derived an ample and ready supply of troops and treasure. Yet
+ Frederic the Second was finally oppressed by the arms of the
+ Lombards and the thunders of the Vatican: his kingdom was given
+ to a stranger, and the last of his family was beheaded at Naples
+ on a public scaffold. During sixty years, no emperor appeared in
+ Italy, and the name was remembered only by the ignominious sale
+ of the last relics of sovereignty.
+
+ 146 (return) [ Gunther Ligurinus, l. viii. 584, et seq., apud
+ Schmidt, tom. iii. p. 399.]
+
+ 147 (return) [ Solus imperator faciem suam firmavit ut petram,
+ (Burcard. de Excidio Mediolani, Script. Ital. tom. vi. p. 917.)
+ This volume of Muratori contains the originals of the history of
+ Frederic the First, which must be compared with due regard to the
+ circumstances and prejudices of each German or Lombard writer. *
+ Note: Von Raumer has traced the fortunes of the Swabian house in
+ one of the ablest historical works of modern times. He may be
+ compared with the spirited and independent Sismondi.—M.]
+
+ 148 (return) [ For the history of Frederic II. and the house of
+ Swabia at Naples, see Giannone, Istoria Civile, tom. ii. l. xiv.
+ -xix.]
+
+ The Barbarian conquerors of the West were pleased to decorate
+ their chief with the title of emperor; but it was not their
+ design to invest him with the despotism of Constantine and
+ Justinian. The persons of the Germans were free, their conquests
+ were their own, and their national character was animated by a
+ spirit which scorned the servile jurisprudence of the new or the
+ ancient Rome. It would have been a vain and dangerous attempt to
+ impose a monarch on the armed freemen, who were impatient of a
+ magistrate; on the bold, who refused to obey; on the powerful,
+ who aspired to command. The empire of Charlemagne and Otho was
+ distributed among the dukes of the nations or provinces, the
+ counts of the smaller districts, and the margraves of the marches
+ or frontiers, who all united the civil and military authority as
+ it had been delegated to the lieutenants of the first Caesars.
+ The Roman governors, who, for the most part, were soldiers of
+ fortune, seduced their mercenary legions, assumed the Imperial
+ purple, and either failed or succeeded in their revolt, without
+ wounding the power and unity of government. If the dukes,
+ margraves, and counts of Germany, were less audacious in their
+ claims, the consequences of their success were more lasting and
+ pernicious to the state. Instead of aiming at the supreme rank,
+ they silently labored to establish and appropriate their
+ provincial independence. Their ambition was seconded by the
+ weight of their estates and vassals, their mutual example and
+ support, the common interest of the subordinate nobility, the
+ change of princes and families, the minorities of Otho the Third
+ and Henry the Fourth, the ambition of the popes, and the vain
+ pursuit of the fugitive crowns of Italy and Rome. All the
+ attributes of regal and territorial jurisdiction were gradually
+ usurped by the commanders of the provinces; the right of peace
+ and war, of life and death, of coinage and taxation, of foreign
+ alliance and domestic economy. Whatever had been seized by
+ violence, was ratified by favor or distress, was granted as the
+ price of a doubtful vote or a voluntary service; whatever had
+ been granted to one could not, without injury, be denied to his
+ successor or equal; and every act of local or temporary
+ possession was insensibly moulded into the constitution of the
+ Germanic kingdom. In every province, the visible presence of the
+ duke or count was interposed between the throne and the nobles;
+ the subjects of the law became the vassals of a private chief;
+ and the standard which he received from his sovereign, was often
+ raised against him in the field. The temporal power of the clergy
+ was cherished and exalted by the superstition or policy of the
+ Carlovingian and Saxon dynasties, who blindly depended on their
+ moderation and fidelity; and the bishoprics of Germany were made
+ equal in extent and privilege, superior in wealth and population,
+ to the most ample states of the military order. As long as the
+ emperors retained the prerogative of bestowing on every vacancy
+ these ecclesiastic and secular benefices, their cause was
+ maintained by the gratitude or ambition of their friends and
+ favorites. But in the quarrel of the investitures, they were
+ deprived of their influence over the episcopal chapters; the
+ freedom of election was restored, and the sovereign was reduced,
+ by a solemn mockery, to his first prayers, the recommendation,
+ once in his reign, to a single prebend in each church. The
+ secular governors, instead of being recalled at the will of a
+ superior, could be degraded only by the sentence of their peers.
+ In the first age of the monarchy, the appointment of the son to
+ the duchy or county of his father, was solicited as a favor; it
+ was gradually obtained as a custom, and extorted as a right: the
+ lineal succession was often extended to the collateral or female
+ branches; the states of the empire (their popular, and at length
+ their legal, appellation) were divided and alienated by testament
+ and sale; and all idea of a public trust was lost in that of a
+ private and perpetual inheritance. The emperor could not even be
+ enriched by the casualties of forfeiture and extinction: within
+ the term of a year, he was obliged to dispose of the vacant fief;
+ and, in the choice of the candidate, it was his duty to consult
+ either the general or the provincial diet.
+
+ After the death of Frederic the Second, Germany was left a
+ monster with a hundred heads. A crowd of princes and prelates
+ disputed the ruins of the empire: the lords of innumerable
+ castles were less prone to obey, than to imitate, their
+ superiors; and, according to the measure of their strength, their
+ incessant hostilities received the names of conquest or robbery.
+ Such anarchy was the inevitable consequence of the laws and
+ manners of Europe; and the kingdoms of France and Italy were
+ shivered into fragments by the violence of the same tempest. But
+ the Italian cities and the French vassals were divided and
+ destroyed, while the union of the Germans has produced, under the
+ name of an empire, a great system of a federative republic. In
+ the frequent and at last the perpetual institution of diets, a
+ national spirit was kept alive, and the powers of a common
+ legislature are still exercised by the three branches or colleges
+ of the electors, the princes, and the free and Imperial cities of
+ Germany. I. Seven of the most powerful feudatories were permitted
+ to assume, with a distinguished name and rank, the exclusive
+ privilege of choosing the Roman emperor; and these electors were
+ the king of Bohemia, the duke of Saxony, the margrave of
+ Brandenburgh, the count palatine of the Rhine, and the three
+ archbishops of Mentz, of Treves, and of Cologne. II. The college
+ of princes and prelates purged themselves of a promiscuous
+ multitude: they reduced to four representative votes the long
+ series of independent counts, and excluded the nobles or
+ equestrian order, sixty thousand of whom, as in the Polish diets,
+ had appeared on horseback in the field of election. III. The
+ pride of birth and dominion, of the sword and the mitre, wisely
+ adopted the commons as the third branch of the legislature, and,
+ in the progress of society, they were introduced about the same
+ aera into the national 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 the inland country; the influence of the cities
+ has been adequate to their wealth and policy, and their negative
+ still invalidates the acts of the two superior colleges of
+ electors and princes. 149
+
+ 149 (return) [ In the immense labyrinth of the jus publicum of
+ Germany, I must either quote one writer or a thousand; and I had
+ rather trust to one faithful guide, than transcribe, on credit, a
+ multitude of names and passages. That guide is M. Pfeffel, the
+ author of the best legal and constitutional history that I know
+ of any country, (Nouvel Abrege Chronologique de l’Histoire et du
+ Droit public Allemagne; Paris, 1776, 2 vols. in 4to.) His
+ learning and judgment have discerned the most interesting facts;
+ his simple brevity comprises them in a narrow space. His
+ chronological order distributes them under the proper dates; and
+ an elaborate index collects them under their respective heads. To
+ this work, in a less perfect state, Dr. Robertson was gratefully
+ indebted for that masterly sketch which traces even the modern
+ changes of the Germanic body. The Corpus Historiae Germanicae of
+ Struvius has been likewise consulted, the more usefully, as that
+ huge compilation is fortified in every page with the original
+ texts. * Note: For the rise and progress of the Hanseatic League,
+ consult the authoritative history by Sartorius; Geschichte des
+ Hanseatischen Bandes & Theile, Gottingen, 1802. New and improved
+ edition by Lappenberg Elamburg, 1830. The original Hanseatic
+ League comprehended Cologne and many of the great cities in the
+ Netherlands and on the Rhine.—M.]
+
+ It is in the fourteenth century that we may view in the strongest
+ light the state and contrast of the Roman empire of Germany,
+ which no longer held, except on the borders of the Rhine and
+ Danube, a single province of Trajan or Constantine. Their
+ unworthy successors were the counts of Hapsburgh, of Nassau, of
+ Luxemburgh, and Schwartzenburgh: the emperor Henry the Seventh
+ procured for his son the crown of Bohemia, and his grandson
+ Charles the Fourth was born among a people strange and barbarous
+ in the estimation of the Germans themselves. 150 After the
+ excommunication of Lewis of Bavaria, he received the gift or
+ promise of the vacant empire from the Roman pontiffs, who, in the
+ exile and captivity of Avignon, affected the dominion of the
+ earth. The death of his competitors united the electoral college,
+ and Charles was unanimously saluted king of the Romans, and
+ future emperor; a title which, in the same age, was prostituted
+ to the Caesars of Germany and Greece. The German emperor was no
+ more than the elective and impotent magistrate of an aristocracy
+ of princes, who had not left him a village that he might call his
+ own. His best prerogative was the right of presiding and
+ proposing in the national senate, which was convened at his
+ summons; and his native kingdom of Bohemia, less opulent than the
+ adjacent city of Nuremberg, was the firmest seat of his power and
+ the richest source of his revenue. The army with which he passed
+ the Alps consisted of three hundred horse. In the cathedral of
+ St. Ambrose, Charles was crowned with the iron crown, which
+ tradition ascribed to the Lombard monarchy; but he was admitted
+ only with a peaceful train; the gates of the city were shut upon
+ him; and the king of Italy was held a captive by the arms of the
+ Visconti, whom he confirmed in the sovereignty of Milan. In the
+ Vatican he was again crowned with the golden crown of the empire;
+ but, in obedience to a secret treaty, the Roman emperor
+ immediately withdrew, without reposing a single night within the
+ walls of Rome. The eloquent Petrarch, 151 whose fancy revived the
+ visionary glories of the Capitol, deplores and upbraids the
+ ignominious flight of the Bohemian; and even his contemporaries
+ could observe, that the sole exercise of his authority was in the
+ lucrative sale of privileges and titles. The gold of Italy
+ secured the election of his son; but such was the shameful
+ poverty of the Roman emperor, that his person was arrested by a
+ butcher in the streets of Worms, and was detained in the public
+ inn, as a pledge or hostage for the payment of his expenses.
+
+ 150 (return) [ Yet, personally, Charles IV. must not be
+ considered as a Barbarian. After his education at Paris, he
+ recovered the use of the Bohemian, his native, idiom; and the
+ emperor conversed and wrote with equal facility in French, Latin,
+ Italian, and German, (Struvius, p. 615, 616.) Petrarch always
+ represents him as a polite and learned prince.]
+
+ 151 (return) [ Besides the German and Italian historians, the
+ expedition of Charles IV. is painted in lively and original
+ colors in the curious Memoires sur la Vie de Petrarque, tom. iii.
+ p. 376-430, by the Abbe de Sade, whose prolixity has never been
+ blamed by any reader of taste and curiosity.]
+
+ From this humiliating scene, let us turn to the apparent majesty
+ of the same Charles in the diets of the empire. The golden bull,
+ which fixes the Germanic constitution, is promulgated in the
+ style of a sovereign and legislator. A hundred princes bowed
+ before his throne, and exalted their own dignity by the voluntary
+ honors which they yielded to their chief or minister. At the
+ royal banquet, the hereditary great officers, the seven electors,
+ who in rank and title were equal to kings, performed their solemn
+ and domestic service of the palace. The seals of the triple
+ kingdom were borne in state by the archbishops of Mentz, Cologne,
+ and Treves, the perpetual arch-chancellors of Germany, Italy, and
+ Arles. The great marshal, on horseback, exercised his function
+ with a silver measure of oats, which he emptied on the ground,
+ and immediately dismounted to regulate the order of the guests.
+ The great steward, the count palatine of the Rhine, place the
+ dishes on the table. The great chamberlain, the margrave of
+ Brandenburgh, presented, after the repast, the golden ewer and
+ basin, to wash. The king of Bohemia, as great cup-bearer, was
+ represented by the emperor’s brother, the duke of Luxemburgh and
+ Brabant; and the procession was closed by the great huntsmen, who
+ introduced a boar and a stag, with a loud chorus of horns and
+ hounds. 152 Nor was the supremacy of the emperor confined to
+ Germany alone: the hereditary monarchs of Europe confessed the
+ preeminence of his rank and dignity: he was the first of the
+ Christian princes, the temporal head of the great republic of the
+ West: 153 to his person the title of majesty was long
+ appropriated; and he disputed with the pope the sublime
+ prerogative of creating kings and assembling councils. The oracle
+ of the civil law, the learned Bartolus, was a pensioner of
+ Charles the Fourth; and his school resounded with the doctrine,
+ that the Roman emperor was the rightful sovereign of the earth,
+ from the rising to the setting sun. The contrary opinion was
+ condemned, not as an error, but as a heresy, since even the
+ gospel had pronounced, “And there went forth a decree from Caesar
+ Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.” 154
+
+ 152 (return) [ See the whole ceremony in Struvius, p. 629]
+
+ 153 (return) [ The republic of Europe, with the pope and emperor
+ at its head, was never represented with more dignity than in the
+ council of Constance. See Lenfant’s History of that assembly.]
+
+ 154 (return) [ Gravina, Origines Juris Civilis, p. 108.]
+
+ If we annihilate the interval of time and space between Augustus
+ and Charles, strong and striking will be the contrast between the
+ two Caesars; the Bohemian who concealed his weakness under the
+ mask of ostentation, and the Roman, who disguised his strength
+ under the semblance of modesty. At the head of his victorious
+ legions, in his reign over the sea and land, from the Nile and
+ Euphrates to the Atlantic Ocean, Augustus professed himself the
+ servant of the state and the equal of his fellow-citizens. The
+ conqueror of Rome and her provinces assumed a popular and legal
+ form of a censor, a consul, and a tribune. His will was the law
+ of mankind, but in the declaration of his laws he borrowed the
+ voice of the senate and people; and from their decrees their
+ master accepted and renewed his temporary commission to
+ administer the republic. In his dress, his domestics, 155 his
+ titles, in all the offices of social life, Augustus maintained
+ the character of a private Roman; and his most artful flatterers
+ respected the secret of his absolute and perpetual monarchy.
+
+ 155 (return) [ Six thousand urns have been discovered of the
+ slaves and freedmen of Augustus and Livia. So minute was the
+ division of office, that one slave was appointed to weigh the
+ wool which was spun by the empress’s maids, another for the care
+ of her lap-dog, &c., (Camera Sepolchrale, by Bianchini. Extract
+ of his work in the Bibliotheque Italique, tom. iv. p. 175. His
+ Eloge, by Fontenelle, tom. vi. p. 356.) But these servants were
+ of the same rank, and possibly not more numerous than those of
+ Pollio or Lentulus. They only prove the general riches of the
+ 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 Ali And His Descendants.
+
+ After pursuing above six hundred years the fleeting Caesars of
+ Constantinople and Germany, I now descend, in the reign of
+ Heraclius, on the eastern borders of the Greek monarchy. While
+ the state was exhausted by the Persian war, and the church was
+ distracted by the Nestorian and Monophysite sects, Mahomet, with
+ the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, erected his
+ throne on the ruins of Christianity and of Rome. The genius of
+ the Arabian prophet, the manners of his nation, and the spirit of
+ his religion, involve the causes of the decline and fall of the
+ Eastern empire; and our eyes are curiously intent on one of the
+ most memorable revolutions, which have impressed a new and
+ lasting character on the nations of the globe. 1
+
+ 1 (return) [ As in this and the following chapter I shall display
+ much Arabic learning, I must profess my total ignorance of the
+ Oriental tongues, and my gratitude to the learned interpreters,
+ who have transfused their science into the Latin, French, and
+ English languages. Their collections, versions, and histories, I
+ shall occasionally notice.]
+
+ In the vacant space between Persia, Syria, Egypt, and Aethiopia,
+ the Arabian peninsula 2 may be conceived as a triangle of
+ spacious but irregular dimensions. From the northern point of
+ Beles 3 on the Euphrates, a line of fifteen hundred miles is
+ terminated by the Straits of Bebelmandel and the land of
+ frankincense. About half this length may be allowed for the
+ middle breadth, from east to west, from Bassora to Suez, from the
+ Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. 4 The sides of the triangle are
+ gradually enlarged, and the southern basis presents a front of a
+ thousand miles to the Indian Ocean. The entire surface of the
+ peninsula exceeds in a fourfold proportion that of Germany or
+ France; but the far greater part has been justly stigmatized with
+ the epithets of the stony and the sandy. Even the wilds of
+ Tartary are decked, by the hand of nature, with lofty trees and
+ luxuriant herbage; and the lonesome traveller derives a sort of
+ comfort and society from the presence of vegetable life. But in
+ the dreary waste of Arabia, a boundless level of sand is
+ intersected by sharp and naked mountains; and the face of the
+ desert, without shade or shelter, is scorched by the direct and
+ intense rays of a tropical sun. Instead of refreshing breezes,
+ the winds, particularly from the south-west, diffuse a noxious
+ and even deadly vapor; the hillocks of sand which they
+ alternately raise and scatter, are compared to the billows of the
+ ocean, and whole caravans, whole armies, have been lost and
+ buried in the whirlwind. The common benefits of water are an
+ object of desire and contest; and such is the scarcity of wood,
+ that some art is requisite to preserve and propagate the element
+ of fire. Arabia is destitute of navigable rivers, which fertilize
+ the soil, and convey its produce to the adjacent regions: the
+ torrents that fall from the hills are imbibed by the thirsty
+ earth: the rare and hardy plants, the tamarind or the acacia,
+ that strike their roots into the clefts of the rocks, are
+ nourished by the dews of the night: a scanty supply of rain is
+ collected in cisterns and aqueducts: the wells and springs are
+ the secret treasure of the desert; and the pilgrim of Mecca, 5
+ after many a dry and sultry march, is disgusted by the 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 partial
+ enjoyments. A shady grove, a green pasture, a stream of fresh
+ water, are sufficient to attract a colony of sedentary Arabs to
+ the fortunate spots which can afford food and refreshment to
+ themselves and their cattle, and which encourage their industry
+ in the cultivation of the palmtree and the vine. The high lands
+ that border on the Indian Ocean are distinguished by their
+ superior plenty of wood and water; the air is more temperate, the
+ fruits are more delicious, the animals and the human race more
+ numerous: the fertility of the soil invites and rewards the toil
+ of the husbandman; and the peculiar gifts of frankincense 6 and
+ coffee have attracted in different ages the merchants of the
+ world. If it be compared with the rest of the peninsula, this
+ sequestered region may truly deserve the appellation of the
+ happy; and the splendid coloring of fancy and fiction has been
+ suggested by contrast, and countenanced by distance. It was for
+ this earthly paradise that Nature had reserved her choicest
+ favors and her most curious workmanship: the incompatible
+ blessings of luxury and innocence were ascribed to the natives:
+ the soil was impregnated with gold 7 and gems, and both the land
+ and sea were taught to exhale the odors of aromatic sweets. This
+ division of the sandy, the stony, and the happy, so familiar to
+ the Greeks and Latins, is unknown to the Arabians themselves; and
+ it is singular enough, that a country, whose language and
+ inhabitants have ever been the same, should scarcely retain a
+ vestige of its ancient geography. The maritime districts of
+ Bahrein and Oman are opposite to the realm of Persia. The kingdom
+ of Yemen displays the limits, or at least the situation, of
+ Arabia Felix: the name of Neged is extended over the inland
+ space; and the birth of Mahomet has illustrated the province of
+ Hejaz along the coast of the Red Sea. 8
+
+ 2 (return) [ The geographers of Arabia may be divided into three
+ classes: 1. The Greeks and Latins, whose progressive knowledge
+ may be traced 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 the subject with
+ the zeal of patriotism or devotion: the extracts of Pocock
+ (Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 125-128) from the Geography of the
+ Sherif al Edrissi, render us still more dissatisfied with the
+ version or abridgment (p. 24-27, 44-56, 108, &c., 119, &c.) which
+ the Maronites have 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 correct account of the
+ peninsula, which may be enriched, however, from the Bibliotheque
+ 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 honorable
+ distinction: Busching (Geographie par Berenger, tom. viii. p.
+ 416-510) has compiled with judgment, and D’Anville’s Maps (Orbis
+ Veteribus Notus, and 1re Partie de l’Asie) should lie before the
+ reader, with his Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 208-231. *
+ Note: Of modern travellers may be mentioned the adventurer who
+ called himself Ali Bey; but above all, the intelligent, the
+ enterprising the accurate Burckhardt.—M.]
+
+ 3 (return) [ Abulfed. Descript. Arabiae, p. 1. D’Anville,
+ l’Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 19, 20. It was in this place, the
+ paradise or garden of a satrap, that Xenophon and the Greeks
+ first passed the Euphrates, (Anabasis, l. i. c. 10, p. 29, edit.
+ Wells.)]
+
+ 4 (return) [ Reland has proved, with much superfluous learning,
+
+ 1. That our Red Sea (the Arabian Gulf) is no more than a part of
+ the Mare Rubrum, which was extended to the indefinite space of
+ the Indian Ocean.
+
+ 2. That the synonymous words, allude to the color of the blacks
+ or negroes, (Dissert Miscell. tom. i. p. 59-117.)]
+
+ 5 (return) [ 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.]
+
+ 6 (return) [ The aromatics, especially the thus, or frankincense,
+ of Arabia, occupy the xiith book of Pliny. Our great poet
+ (Paradise Lost, l. iv.) introduces, in a simile, the spicy odors
+ that are blown by the north-east wind from the Sabaean
+ coast:——Many a league, Pleased with the grateful scent, old Ocean
+ smiles. (Plin. Hist. Natur. xii. 42.)]
+
+ 7 (return) [ Agatharcides affirms, that lumps of pure gold were
+ found, from the size of an olive to that of a nut; that iron was
+ twice, and silver ten times, the value of gold, (de Mari Rubro,
+ p. 60.) These real or imaginary treasures are vanished; and no
+ gold mines are at present known in Arabia, (Niebuhr, Description,
+ p. 124.) * Note: A brilliant passage in the geographical poem of
+ Dionysius Periegetes embodies the notions of the ancients on the
+ wealth and fertility of Yemen. Greek mythology, and the
+ traditions of the “gorgeous east,” of India as well as Arabia,
+ are mingled together in indiscriminate splendor. Compare on the
+ southern coast of Arabia, the recent travels of Lieut.
+ Wellsted—M.]
+
+ 8 (return) [ Consult, peruse, and study the Specimen Hostoriae
+ Arabum of Pocock, (Oxon. 1650, in 4to.) The thirty pages of text
+ and version are extracted from the Dynasties of Gregory
+ Abulpharagius, which Pocock afterwards translated, (Oxon. 1663,
+ in 4to.;) the three hundred and fifty-eight notes form a classic
+ and original work on the Arabian antiquities.]
+
+ The measure of population is regulated by the means of
+ subsistence; and the inhabitants of this vast peninsula might be
+ outnumbered by the subjects of a fertile and industrious
+ province. Along the shores of the Persian Gulf, of the ocean, and
+ even of the Red Sea, the Icthyophagi, 9 or fish eaters, continued
+ to wander in quest of their precarious food. In this primitive
+ and abject state, which ill deserves the name of society, the
+ human brute, without arts or laws, almost without sense or
+ language, is poorly distinguished from the rest of the animal
+ creation. Generations and ages might roll away in silent
+ oblivion, and the helpless savage was restrained from multiplying
+ his race by the wants and pursuits which confined his existence
+ to the narrow margin of the seacoast. But in an early period of
+ antiquity the great body of the Arabs had emerged from this scene
+ of misery; and as the naked wilderness could not maintain a
+ people of hunters, they rose at once to the more secure and
+ plentiful condition of the pastoral life. The same life is
+ uniformly pursued by the roving tribes of the desert; and in the
+ portrait of the modern Bedoweens, we may trace the features of
+ their ancestors, 10 who, in the age of Moses or Mahomet, dwelt
+ under similar tents, and conducted their horses, and camels, and
+ sheep, to the same springs and the same pastures. Our toil is
+ lessened, and our wealth is increased, by our dominion over the
+ useful animals; and the Arabian shepherd had acquired the
+ absolute possession of a faithful friend and a laborious slave.
+ 11 Arabia, in the opinion of the naturalist, is the genuine and
+ original country of the horse; the climate most propitious, not
+ indeed to the size, but to the spirit and swiftness, of that
+ generous animal. The merit of the Barb, the Spanish, and the
+ English breed, is derived from a mixture of Arabian blood: 12 the
+ Bedoweens preserve, with superstitious care, the honors and the
+ memory of the purest race: the males are sold at a high price,
+ but the females are seldom alienated; and the birth of a noble
+ foal was esteemed among the tribes, as a subject of joy and
+ mutual congratulation. These horses are educated in the tents,
+ among the children of the Arabs, with a tender familiarity, which
+ trains them in the habits of gentleness and attachment. They are
+ accustomed only to walk and to gallop: their sensations are not
+ blunted by the incessant abuse of the spur and the whip: 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, than
+ they dart away with the swiftness of the wind; and if their
+ friend be dismounted in the rapid career, they instantly stop
+ till he has recovered his seat. In the sands of Africa and
+ Arabia, the camel is a sacred and precious gift. That strong and
+ patient beast of burden can perform, without eating or drinking,
+ a journey of several days; and a reservoir of fresh water is
+ preserved in a large bag, a fifth stomach of the animal, whose
+ body is imprinted with the marks of servitude: the larger breed
+ is capable of transporting a weight of a thousand pounds; and the
+ dromedary, of a lighter and more active frame, outstrips the
+ fleetest courser in the race. Alive or dead, almost every part of
+ the camel is serviceable to man: her milk is plentiful and
+ nutritious: the young and tender flesh has the taste of veal: 13
+ a valuable salt is extracted from the urine: the dung supplies
+ the deficiency of fuel; and the long hair, which falls each year
+ and is renewed, is coarsely manufactured into the garments, the
+ furniture, and the tents of the Bedoweens. In the rainy seasons,
+ they consume the rare and insufficient herbage of the desert:
+ during the heats of summer and the scarcity of winter, they
+ remove their encampments to the sea-coast, the hills of Yemen, or
+ the neighborhood of the Euphrates, and have often extorted the
+ dangerous license of visiting the banks of the Nile, and the
+ villages of Syria and Palestine. The life of a wandering Arab is
+ a life of danger and distress; and though sometimes, by rapine or
+ exchange, he may appropriate the fruits of industry, a private
+ citizen in Europe is in the possession of more solid and pleasing
+ luxury than the proudest emir, who marches in the field at the
+ head of ten thousand horse.
+
+ 9 (return) [ Arrian remarks the Icthyophagi of the coast of
+ Hejez, (Periplus Maris Erythraei, p. 12,) and beyond Aden, (p.
+ 15.) It seems probable that the shores of the Red Sea (in the
+ largest sense) were occupied by these savages in the time,
+ perhaps, of Cyrus; but I can hardly believe that any cannibals
+ were left among the savages in the reign of Justinian. (Procop.
+ de Bell. Persic. l. i. c. 19.)]
+
+ 10 (return) [ 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 of Mount Carmel, (Voyage de la Palestine, Amsterdam,
+ 1718,) exhibits a pleasing and original picture of the life of
+ the Bedoweens, which may be illustrated from Niebuhr (Description
+ de l’Arabie, p. 327-344) and Volney, (tom. i. p. 343-385,) the
+ last and most judicious of our Syrian travellers.]
+
+ 11 (return) [ Read (it is no unpleasing task) the incomparable
+ articles of the Horse and the Camel, in the Natural History of M.
+ de Buffon.]
+
+ 12 (return) [ For the Arabian horses, see D’Arvieux (p. 159-173)
+ and Niebuhr, (p. 142-144.) At the end of the xiiith century, the
+ horses of Neged were esteemed sure-footed, those of Yemen strong
+ and serviceable, those of Hejaz most noble. The horses of Europe,
+ the tenth and last class, were generally despised as having too
+ much body and too little spirit, (D’Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p.
+ 339: ) their strength was requisite to bear the weight of the
+ knight and his armor]
+
+ 13 (return) [ Qui carnibus camelorum vesci solent odii tenaces
+ sunt, was the opinion of an Arabian physician, (Pocock, Specimen,
+ p. 88.) Mahomet himself, who was fond of milk, prefers the cow,
+ and does not even mention the camel; but the diet of Mecca and
+ Medina was already more luxurious, (Gagnier Vie de Mahomet, tom.
+ iii. p. 404.)]
+
+ Yet an essential difference may be found between the hordes of
+ Scythia and the Arabian tribes; since many of the latter were
+ collected into towns, and employed in the labors of trade and
+ agriculture. A part of their time and industry was still devoted
+ to the management of their cattle: they mingled, in peace and
+ war, with their brethren of the desert; and the Bedoweens derived
+ from their useful intercourse some supply of their wants, and
+ some rudiments of art and knowledge. Among the forty-two cities
+ of Arabia, 14 enumerated by Abulfeda, the most ancient and
+ populous were situate in the happy Yemen: the towers of Saana, 15
+ and the marvellous reservoir of Merab, 16 were constructed by the
+ kings of the Homerites; but their profane lustre was eclipsed by
+ the 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 name of Macoraba; and the termination of the
+ word is expressive of its greatness, 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 choice of a most unpromising
+ situation. They erected their habitations of mud or stone, in a
+ plain about two miles long and one mile broad, at the foot of
+ three barren mountains: the soil is a rock; the water even of the
+ holy well of Zemzem is bitter or brackish; the pastures are
+ remote from the city; and grapes are transported above seventy
+ miles from the gardens of Tayef. The fame and spirit of the
+ Koreishites, who reigned in Mecca, were conspicuous among the
+ Arabian tribes; but their ungrateful soil refused the labors of
+ agriculture, and their position was favorable to the enterprises
+ of trade. By the seaport of Gedda, at the distance only of forty
+ miles, they maintained an easy correspondence with Abyssinia; and
+ that Christian kingdom afforded the first refuge to the disciples
+ of Mahomet. The treasures of Africa were conveyed over the
+ Peninsula 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 from thence with the native pearls of the Persian Gulf, they
+ were floated on rafts to the mouth of the Euphrates. Mecca is
+ placed almost at an equal distance, a month’s journey, between
+ Yemen on the right, and Syria on the left hand. The former was
+ the winter, the latter the summer, station of her caravans; and
+ their seasonable arrival relieved the ships of India from the
+ tedious and troublesome navigation of the Red Sea. In the markets
+ of Saana and Merab, in the harbors of Oman and Aden, the camels
+ of the Koreishites were laden with a precious cargo of aromatics;
+ a supply of corn and manufactures was purchased in the fairs of
+ Bostra and Damascus; the lucrative exchange diffused plenty and
+ riches in the streets of Mecca; and the noblest of her sons
+ united the love of arms with the profession of merchandise. 20
+
+ 14 (return) [ Yet Marcian of Heraclea (in Periplo, p. 16, in tom.
+ i. Hudson, Minor. Geograph.) reckons one hundred and sixty-four
+ towns in Arabia Felix. The size of the towns might be small—the
+ faith of the writer might be large.]
+
+ 15 (return) [ It is compared by Abulfeda (in Hudson, tom. ii. p.
+ 54) to Damascus, and is still the residence of the Imam of Yemen,
+ (Voyages de Niebuhr, tom. i. p. 331-342.) Saana is twenty-four
+ parasangs from Dafar, (Abulfeda, p. 51,) and sixty-eight from
+ Aden, (p. 53.)]
+
+ 16 (return) [ Pocock, Specimen, p. 57. Geograph. Nubiensis, p.
+ 52. Meriaba, or Merab, six miles in circumference, was destroyed
+ by the legions of Augustus, (Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 32,) and had
+ not revived in the xivth century, (Abulfed. Descript. Arab. p.
+ 58.) * Note: See note 2 to chap. i. The destruction of Meriaba by
+ the Romans is doubtful. The town never recovered the inundation
+ which took place from the bursting of a large reservoir of
+ water—an event of great importance in the Arabian annals, and
+ discussed at considerable length by modern Orientalists.—M.]
+
+ 17 (return) [ The name of city, Medina, was appropriated, to
+ Yatreb. (the Iatrippa of the Greeks,) the seat of the prophet.
+ The distances from Medina are reckoned by Abulfeda in stations,
+ or days’ journey of a caravan, (p. 15: ) to Bahrein, xv.; to
+ Bassora, xviii.; to Cufah, xx.; to Damascus or Palestine, xx.; to
+ Cairo, xxv.; to Mecca. x.; from Mecca to 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 miles for 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 fancy and elucidate facts.]
+
+ 18 (return) [ 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 enter the city, our travellers are
+ silent; and the short hints of Thevenot (Voyages du Levant, part
+ i. p. 490) are taken from the suspicious mouth of an African
+ renegado. Some Persians counted 6000 houses, (Chardin. tom. iv.
+ p. 167.) * Note: Even in the time of Gibbon, Mecca had not been
+ so 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, though plain, account of his sufferings
+ and travels. Since that time Mecca has been entered, and the
+ ceremonies witnessed, by Dr. Seetzen, whose papers were
+ unfortunately lost; by the Spaniard, who called himself Ali Bey;
+ and, lastly, by Burckhardt, whose description leaves nothing
+ wanting to satisfy the curiosity.—M.]
+
+ 19 (return) [ Strabo, l. xvi. p. 1110. See one of these salt
+ houses near Bassora, in D’Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 6.]
+
+ 20 (return) [ Mirum dictu ex innumeris populis pars aequa in
+ commerciis aut 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
+ praise among strangers and natives; and the arts of controversy
+ transform this singular event into a prophecy and a miracle, in
+ favor of the posterity of Ismael. 21 Some exceptions, that can
+ neither be dismissed nor eluded, render this mode of reasoning as
+ indiscreet as it is superfluous; the kingdom of Yemen has been
+ successively subdued by the Abyssinians, the Persians, the
+ sultans of Egypt, 22 and the Turks; 23 the holy cities of Mecca
+ and Medina have repeatedly bowed under a Scythian tyrant; and the
+ Roman province of Arabia 24 embraced the peculiar wilderness in
+ which Ismael and his sons must have pitched their tents in the
+ face of their brethren. Yet these exceptions are temporary or
+ local; the body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the most
+ powerful monarchies: the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey
+ and Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia; the
+ present sovereign of the Turks 25 may exercise a shadow of
+ jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the friendship
+ of a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to
+ attack. The obvious causes of their freedom are inscribed on the
+ character and country of the Arabs. Many ages before Mahomet, 26
+ their intrepid valor had been severely felt by their neighbors in
+ offensive and defensive war. The patient and active virtues of a
+ soldier are insensibly nursed in the habits and discipline of a
+ pastoral life. The care of the sheep and camels is abandoned to
+ the women of the tribe; but the martial youth, under the banner
+ of the emir, is ever on horseback, and in the field, to practise
+ the exercise of the bow, the javelin, and the cimeter. The long
+ memory of their independence is the firmest pledge of its
+ perpetuity and succeeding generations are animated to prove their
+ descent, and to maintain their inheritance. Their domestic feuds
+ are suspended on the approach of a common enemy; and in their
+ last hostilities against the Turks, the caravan of Mecca was
+ attacked and pillaged by fourscore thousand of the confederates.
+ When they advance to battle, the hope of victory is in the front;
+ in the rear, the assurance of a retreat. Their horses and camels,
+ who, in eight or ten days, can perform a march of four or five
+ hundred miles, disappear before the conqueror; the secret waters
+ of the desert elude his search, and his victorious troops are
+ consumed with thirst, hunger, and fatigue, in the pursuit of an
+ invisible foe, who scorns his efforts, and safely reposes in the
+ heart of the burning solitude. The arms and deserts of the
+ Bedoweens are not only the safeguards of their own freedom, but
+ the barriers also of the happy Arabia, whose inhabitants, remote
+ from war, are enervated by the luxury of the soil and climate.
+ The legions of Augustus melted away in disease and lassitude; 27
+ and it is only by a naval power that the reduction of Yemen has
+ been successfully attempted. When Mahomet erected his holy
+ standard, 28 that kingdom was a province of the Persian empire;
+ yet seven princes of the Homerites still reigned in the
+ mountains; and the vicegerent of Chosroes was tempted to forget
+ his distant country and his unfortunate master. The historians of
+ the age of Justinian represent the state of the independent
+ Arabs, who were divided by interest or affection in the long
+ quarrel of the East: the tribe of Gassan was allowed to encamp on
+ the Syrian territory: the princes of Hira were permitted to form
+ a city about forty miles to the southward of the ruins of
+ Babylon. Their service in the field was speedy and vigorous; but
+ their friendship was venal, their faith inconstant, their enmity
+ capricious: it was an easier task to excite than to disarm these
+ roving barbarians; and, in the familiar intercourse of war, they
+ learned to see, and to despise, the splendid weakness both of
+ Rome and of Persia. From Mecca to the Euphrates, the Arabian
+ tribes 29 were confounded by the Greeks and Latins, under the
+ general appellation of Saracens, 30 a name which every Christian
+ mouth has been taught to pronounce with terror and abhorrence.
+
+ 21 (return) [ A nameless doctor (Universal Hist. vol. xx. octavo
+ edition) has formally demonstrated the truth of Christianity by
+ the independence of the Arabs. A critic, besides the exceptions
+ of fact, might dispute the meaning of the text (Gen. xvi. 12,)
+ the extent of the application, and the foundation of the
+ pedigree. * Note: See note 3 to chap. xlvi. The atter point is
+ probably the least contestable of the three.—M.]
+
+ 22 (return) [ It was subdued, A.D. 1173, by a brother of the
+ great Saladin, who founded a dynasty of Curds or Ayoubites,
+ (Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 425. D’Herbelot, p. 477.)]
+
+ 23 (return) [ By the lieutenant of Soliman I. (A.D. 1538) and
+ Selim II., (1568.) See Cantemir’s Hist. of the Othman Empire, p.
+ 201, 221. The pacha, who resided at Saana, commanded twenty-one
+ beys; but no revenue was ever remitted to the Porte, (Marsigli,
+ Stato Militare dell’ Imperio Ottomanno, p. 124,) and the Turks
+ were expelled about the year 1630, (Niebuhr, p. 167, 168.)]
+
+ 24 (return) [ Of the Roman province, under the name of Arabia and
+ the third Palestine, the principal cities were Bostra and Petra,
+ which dated their aera from the year 105, when they were subdued
+ by Palma, a lieutenant of Trajan, (Dion. Cassius, l. lxviii.)
+ Petra was the capital of the Nabathaeans; whose name is derived
+ from the eldest of the sons of Ismael, (Gen. xxv. 12, &c., with
+ the Commentaries of Jerom, Le Clerc, and Calmet.) Justinian
+ relinquished a palm country of ten days’ journey to the south of
+ Aelah, (Procop. de Bell. Persic. l. i. c. 19,) and the Romans
+ maintained a centurion and a custom-house, (Arrian in Periplo
+ Maris 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 conquest of Arabia. * Note: On the
+ ruins of Petra, see the travels of Messrs. Irby and Mangles, and
+ of Leon de Laborde.—M.]
+
+ 25 (return) [ Niebuhr (Description de l’Arabie, p. 302, 303,
+ 329-331) affords the most recent and authentic intelligence of
+ the Turkish empire in Arabia. * Note: Niebuhr’s, notwithstanding
+ the multitude of later travellers, maintains its ground, as the
+ classical work on Arabia.—M.]
+
+ 26 (return) [ Diodorus Siculus (tom. ii. l. xix. p. 390-393,
+ edit. Wesseling) has clearly exposed the freedom of the
+ Nabathaean Arabs, who resisted the arms of Antigonus and his
+ son.]
+
+ 27 (return) [ Strabo, l. xvi. p. 1127-1129. Plin. Hist. Natur.
+ vi. 32. Aelius Gallus landed near Medina, and marched near a
+ thousand miles into the part of Yemen between Mareb and the
+ Ocean. The non ante devictis Sabeae regibus, (Od. i. 29,) and the
+ intacti Arabum thesanri (Od. iii. 24) of Horace, attest the
+ virgin purity of Arabia.]
+
+ 28 (return) [ 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 be known or preserved in the time of ignorance. *
+ Note: Compare the Hist. Yemanae, published by Johannsen at Bonn
+ 1880 particularly the translator’s preface.—M.]
+
+ 29 (return) [ 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,) who had spoken of them as early as the reign of
+ Marcus.]
+
+ 30 (return) [ The name which, used by Ptolemy and Pliny in a more
+ confined, by Ammianus and Procopius in a larger, sense, has been
+ derived, ridiculously, from Sarah, the wife of Abraham, obscurely
+ from the village of Saraka, (Stephan. de Urbibus,) more plausibly
+ from the Arabic 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 and most popular of these etymologies
+ is refuted by Ptolemy, (Arabia, p. 2, 18, in Hudson, tom. iv.,)
+ who expressly remarks the western and southern position 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, derives the word from Zara, Zaara, Sara,
+ the Desert, whence Saraceni, the children of the Desert. De
+ Marles adopts the derivation from Sarrik, a robber, (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 national
+ independence: but the Arab is personally free; and he enjoys, in
+ some degree, the benefits of society, without forfeiting the
+ prerogatives of nature. In every tribe, superstition, or
+ gratitude, or fortune, has exalted a particular family above the
+ heads of their equals. The dignities of sheick and emir
+ invariably descend in this chosen race; but the order of
+ succession is loose and precarious; and the most worthy or aged
+ of the noble kinsmen are preferred to the simple, though
+ important, office of composing disputes by their advice, and
+ guiding valor by their example. Even a female of sense and spirit
+ has been permitted to command the countrymen of Zenobia. 31 The
+ momentary junction of several tribes produces an army: their more
+ lasting union constitutes a nation; and the supreme chief, the
+ emir of emirs, whose banner is displayed at their head, may
+ deserve, in the eyes of strangers, the honors of the kingly name.
+
+ If the Arabian princes abuse their power, they are quickly
+ punished by the desertion of their subjects, who had been
+ accustomed to a mild and parental jurisdiction. Their spirit is
+ free, their steps are unconfined, the desert is open, and the
+ tribes and families are held together by a mutual and voluntary
+ compact. The softer natives of Yemen supported the pomp and
+ majesty of a monarch; but if he could not leave his palace
+ without endangering his life, 32 the active powers of government
+ must have been devolved on his nobles and magistrates. The cities
+ of Mecca and Medina present, in the heart of Asia, the form, or
+ rather the substance, of a commonwealth. The grandfather of
+ Mahomet, and his lineal ancestors, appear in foreign and domestic
+ transactions as the princes of their country; but they reigned,
+ like Pericles at Athens, or the Medici at Florence, by the
+ opinion of their wisdom and integrity; their influence was
+ divided with their patrimony; and the sceptre was transferred
+ from the uncles of the prophet to a younger branch of the tribe
+ of Koreish. On solemn occasions they convened the assembly of the
+ people; and, since mankind must be either compelled or persuaded
+ to obey, the use and reputation of oratory among the ancient
+ Arabs is the clearest evidence of public freedom. 33 But their
+ simple freedom was of a very different cast from the nice and
+ artificial machinery of the Greek and Roman republics, in which
+ each member possessed an undivided share of the civil and
+ political rights of the community. In the more simple state of
+ the Arabs, the nation is free, because each of her sons disdains
+ a base submission to the will of a master. His breast is
+ fortified by the austere virtues of courage, patience, and
+ sobriety; the love of independence prompts him to exercise the
+ habits of self-command; and the fear of dishonor guards him from
+ the meaner apprehension of pain, of danger, and of death. The
+ gravity and firmness of the mind is conspicuous in his outward
+ demeanor; his speech is low, weighty, and concise; he is seldom
+ provoked to laughter; his only gesture is that of stroking his
+ beard, the venerable symbol of manhood; and the sense of his own
+ importance teaches him to accost his equals without levity, and
+ his superiors without awe. 34 The liberty of the Saracens
+ survived their conquests: the first caliphs indulged the bold and
+ familiar language of their subjects; they ascended the pulpit to
+ persuade and edify the congregation; nor was it before the seat
+ of empire was removed to the Tigris, that the Abbasides adopted
+ the proud and pompous ceremonial of the Persian and Byzantine
+ courts.
+
+ 31 (return) [ Saraceni... mulieres aiunt in eos regnare,
+ (Expositio totius Mundi, p. 3, in Hudson, tom. iii.) The reign of
+ Mavia is famous in ecclesiastical story Pocock, Specimen, p. 69,
+ 83.]
+
+ 32 (return) [ The report of Agatharcides, (de Mari Rubro, p. 63,
+ 64, in Hudson, tom. i.) Diodorus Siculus, (tom. i. l. iii. c. 47,
+ p. 215,) and Strabo, (l. xvi. p. 1124.) But I much suspect that
+ this is one of the popular tales, or extraordinary accidents,
+ which the credulity of travellers so often transforms into a
+ fact, a custom, and a law.]
+
+ 33 (return) [ Non gloriabantur antiquitus Arabes, nisi gladio,
+ hospite, et eloquentia (Sephadius apud Pocock, Specimen, p. 161,
+ 162.) This gift of speech they shared only with the Persians; and
+ the sententious Arabs would probably have disdained the simple
+ and sublime logic of Demosthenes.]
+
+ 34 (return) [ I must remind the reader that D’Arvieux,
+ D’Herbelot, and Niebuhr, represent, in the most lively colors,
+ the manners and government of the Arabs, which are illustrated by
+ many incidental passages in the Life of Mahomet. * Note: See,
+ likewise the curious romance of Antar, the most vivid and
+ authentic picture of Arabian manners.—M.]
+
+ In the study of nations and men, we may observe the causes that
+ render them hostile or friendly to each other, that tend to
+ narrow or enlarge, to mollify or exasperate, the social
+ character. The separation of the Arabs from the rest of mankind
+ has accustomed them to confound the ideas of stranger and enemy;
+ and the poverty of the land has introduced a maxim of
+ jurisprudence, which they believe and practise to the present
+ hour. They pretend, that, in the division of the earth, the rich
+ and fertile climates were assigned to the other branches of the
+ human family; and that the posterity of the outlaw Ismael might
+ recover, by fraud or force, the portion of inheritance of which
+ he had been unjustly deprived. According to the remark of Pliny,
+ the Arabian tribes are equally addicted to theft and merchandise;
+ the caravans that traverse the desert are ransomed or pillaged;
+ and their neighbors, since the remote times of Job and Sesostris,
+ 35 have been the victims of their rapacious spirit. If a Bedoween
+ discovers from afar a solitary traveller, he rides furiously
+ against him, crying, with a loud voice, “Undress thyself, thy
+ aunt (my wife) is without a garment.” A ready submission entitles
+ him to mercy; resistance will provoke the aggressor, and his own
+ blood must expiate the blood which he presumes to shed in
+ legitimate defence. A single robber, or a few associates, are
+ branded with their genuine name; but the exploits of a numerous
+ band assume the character of lawful and honorable war. The temper
+ of a people thus armed against mankind was doubly inflamed by the
+ domestic license of rapine, murder, and revenge. In the
+ constitution of Europe, the right of peace and war is now
+ confined to a small, and the actual exercise to a much smaller,
+ list of respectable potentates; but each Arab, with impunity and
+ renown, might point his javelin against the life of his
+ countrymen. The union of the nation consisted only in a vague
+ resemblance of language and manners; and in each community, the
+ jurisdiction of the magistrate was mute and impotent. Of the time
+ of ignorance which preceded Mahomet, seventeen hundred battles 36
+ are recorded by tradition: hostility was imbittered with the
+ rancor of civil faction; and the recital, in prose or verse, of
+ an obsolete feud, was sufficient to rekindle the same passions
+ among the descendants of the hostile tribes. In private life
+ every man, at least every family, was the judge and avenger of
+ his own cause. The nice sensibility of honor, which weighs the
+ insult rather than the injury, sheds its deadly venom on the
+ quarrels of the Arabs: the honor of their women, and of their
+ beards, is most easily wounded; an indecent action, a
+ contemptuous word, can be expiated only by the blood of the
+ offender; and such is their patient inveteracy, that they expect
+ whole months and years the opportunity of revenge. A fine or
+ compensation for murder is familiar to the Barbarians of every
+ age: but in Arabia the kinsmen of the dead are at liberty to
+ accept the atonement, or to exercise with their own hands the law
+ of retaliation. The refined malice of the Arabs refuses even the
+ head of the murderer, substitutes an innocent for the guilty
+ person, and transfers the penalty to the best and most
+ considerable of the race by whom they have been injured. If he
+ falls by their hands, they are exposed, in their turn, to the
+ danger of reprisals, the interest and principal of the bloody
+ debt are accumulated: the individuals of either family lead a
+ life of malice and suspicion, and fifty years may sometimes
+ elapse before the account of vengeance be finally settled. 37
+ This sanguinary spirit, ignorant of pity or forgiveness, has been
+ moderated, however, by the maxims of honor, which require in
+ every private encounter some decent equality of age and strength,
+ of numbers and weapons. An annual festival of two, perhaps of
+ four, months, was observed by the Arabs before the time of
+ Mahomet, during which their swords were religiously sheathed both
+ in foreign and domestic hostility; and this partial truce is more
+ strongly expressive of the habits of anarchy and warfare. 38
+
+ 35 (return) [ Observe the first chapter of Job, and the long wall
+ of 1500 stadia which Sesostris built from Pelusium to Heliopolis,
+ (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. l. i. p. 67.) Under the name of Hycsos,
+ the shepherd kings, they had formerly subdued Egypt, (Marsham,
+ Canon. Chron. p. 98-163) &c.) * Note: This origin of the Hycsos,
+ though probable, is by no means so certain here is some reason
+ for supposing them Scythians.—M]
+
+ 36 (return) [ Or, according to another account, 1200,
+ (D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 75: ) the two historians
+ who wrote of the Ayam al Arab, the battles of the Arabs, lived in
+ the 9th and 10th century. The famous war of Dahes and Gabrah was
+ occasioned by two horses, lasted forty years, and ended in a
+ proverb, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 48.)]
+
+ 37 (return) [ The modern theory and practice of the Arabs in the
+ revenge of murder are described by Niebuhr, (Description, p.
+ 26-31.) The harsher features of antiquity may be traced in the
+ Koran, c. 2, p. 20, c. 17, p. 230, with Sale’s Observations.]
+
+ 38 (return) [ Procopius (de Bell. Persic. l. i. c. 16) places the
+ two holy months about the summer solstice. The Arabians
+ consecrate four months of the year—the first, seventh, eleventh,
+ and twelfth; and pretend, that in a long series of ages the truce
+ was infringed only four or six times, (Sale’s Preliminary
+ Discourse, p. 147-150, and Notes on 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 milder
+ influence of trade and literature. The solitary peninsula is
+ encompassed by the most civilized nations of the ancient world;
+ the merchant is the friend of mankind; and the annual caravans
+ imported the first seeds of knowledge and politeness into the
+ cities, and even the camps of the desert. Whatever may be the
+ pedigree of the Arabs, their language is derived from the same
+ original stock with the Hebrew, the Syriac, and the Chaldaean
+ tongues; the independence of the tribes was marked by their
+ peculiar dialects; 39 but each, after their own, allowed a just
+ preference to the pure and perspicuous idiom of Mecca. In Arabia,
+ as well as in Greece, the perfection of language outstripped the
+ refinement of manners; and her speech could diversify the
+ fourscore names of honey, the two hundred of a serpent, the five
+ hundred of a lion, the thousand of a sword, at a time when this
+ copious dictionary was intrusted to the memory of an illiterate
+ people. The monuments of the Homerites were inscribed with an
+ obsolete and mysterious character; but the Cufic letters, the
+ groundwork of the present alphabet, were invented on the banks of
+ the Euphrates; and the recent invention was taught at Mecca by a
+ stranger who settled in that city after the birth of Mahomet. The
+ arts of grammar, of metre, and of rhetoric, were unknown to the
+ freeborn eloquence of the Arabians; but their penetration was
+ sharp, their fancy luxuriant, their wit strong and sententious,
+ 40 and their more elaborate compositions were addressed with
+ energy and effect to the minds of their hearers. The genius and
+ merit of a rising poet was celebrated by the applause of his own
+ and the kindred tribes. A solemn banquet was prepared, and a
+ chorus of women, striking their tymbals, and displaying the pomp
+ of their nuptials, sung in the presence of their sons and
+ husbands the felicity of their native tribe; that a champion had
+ now appeared to vindicate their rights; that a herald had raised
+ his voice to immortalize their renown. The distant or hostile
+ tribes resorted to an annual fair, which was abolished by the
+ fanaticism of the first Moslems; a national assembly that must
+ have contributed to refine and harmonize the Barbarians. Thirty
+ days were employed in the exchange, not only of corn and wine,
+ but of eloquence and poetry. The prize was disputed by the
+ generous emulation of the bards; the victorious performance was
+ deposited in the archives of princes and emirs; and we may read
+ in our own language, the seven original poems which were
+ inscribed in letters of gold, and suspended in the temple of
+ Mecca. 41 The Arabian poets were the historians and moralists of
+ the age; and if they sympathized with the prejudices, they
+ inspired and crowned the virtues, of their countrymen. The
+ indissoluble union of generosity and valor was the darling theme
+ of their song; and when they pointed their keenest satire against
+ a despicable race, they affirmed, in the bitterness of reproach,
+ that the men knew not how to give, nor the women to deny. 42 The
+ same hospitality, which was practised by Abraham, and celebrated
+ by Homer, is still renewed in the camps of the Arabs. The
+ ferocious Bedoweens, the terror of the desert, embrace, without
+ inquiry or hesitation, the stranger who dares to confide in their
+ honor and to enter their tent. His treatment is kind and
+ respectful: he shares the wealth, or the poverty, of his host;
+ and, after a needful repose, he is dismissed on his way, with
+ thanks, with blessings, and perhaps with gifts. The heart and
+ hand are more largely expanded by the wants of a brother or a
+ friend; but the heroic acts that could deserve the public
+ applause, must have surpassed the narrow measure of discretion
+ and experience. A dispute had arisen, who, among the citizens of
+ Mecca, was entitled to the prize of generosity; and a successive
+ application was made 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 in the stirrup when he heard the voice
+ of a suppliant, “O son of the uncle of the apostle of God, I am a
+ traveller, and in distress!” He instantly dismounted 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
+ was asleep: but he immediately added, “Here is a purse of seven
+ thousand pieces 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 as he awoke, praised and enfranchised his
+ faithful steward, with a gentle reproof, that by respecting his
+ slumbers he had stinted his bounty. The third of these heroes,
+ the blind Arabah, at the hour of prayer, was supporting his steps
+ on the shoulders of two slaves. “Alas!” he replied, “my coffers
+ are empty! but these you may sell; if you refuse, I renounce
+ them.” At these words, pushing away the youths, he groped along
+ the wall with his staff.
+
+ The character of Hatem is the perfect model of Arabian virtue: 43
+ he was brave and liberal, an eloquent poet, and a successful
+ robber; forty camels were roasted at his hospitable feast; and at
+ the prayer of a suppliant enemy he restored both the captives and
+ the spoil. The freedom of his countrymen disdained the laws of
+ justice; they proudly indulged the spontaneous impulse of pity
+ and benevolence.
+
+ 39 (return) [ Arrian, in the second century, remarks (in Periplo
+ Maris Erythraei, p. 12) the partial or total difference of the
+ dialects of the 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 a parrot.]
+
+ 40 (return) [ A familiar tale in Voltaire’s Zadig (le Chien et le
+ Cheval) 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 hundred and sixty-nine sentences of Ali
+ (translated by Ockley, London, 1718) afford a just and favorable
+ specimen of Arabian wit. * Note: Compare the Arabic proverbs
+ translated by Burckhardt. London. 1830—M.]
+
+ 41 (return) [ Pocock (Specimen, p. 158-161) and Casiri (Bibliot.
+ Hispano-Arabica, tom. i. p. 48, 84, &c., 119, tom. ii. p. 17,
+ &c.) speak of the Arabian poets before Mahomet; the seven poems
+ of the Caaba have been published in English by Sir William Jones;
+ but his honorable mission to India has deprived us of his own
+ notes, far more interesting than the obscure and obsolete text.]
+
+ 42 (return) [ Sale’s Preliminary Discourse, p. 29, 30]
+
+ 43 (return) [ D’Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 458. Gagnier, Vie
+ de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 118. Caab and Hesnus (Pocock, Specimen,
+ p. 43, 46, 48) were likewise conspicuous for their liberality;
+ and the latter is elegantly praised by an Arabian poet: “Videbis
+ eum cum accesseris exultantem, ac si dares illi quod ab illo
+ petis.” * Note: See the translation of the amusing Persian
+ romance of Hatim Tai, by Duncan Forbes, Esq., among the works
+ published by the Oriental Translation Fund.—M.]
+
+ The religion of the Arabs, 44 as well as of the Indians,
+ consisted in the worship of the sun, the moon, and the fixed
+ stars; a primitive and specious mode of superstition. The bright
+ luminaries of the sky display the visible image of a Deity: their
+ number and distance convey to a philosophic, or even a vulgar,
+ eye, the idea of boundless space: the character of eternity is
+ marked on these solid globes, that seem incapable of corruption
+ or decay: the regularity of their motions may be ascribed to a
+ principle of reason or instinct; and their real, or imaginary,
+ influence encourages the vain belief that the earth and its
+ inhabitants are the object of their peculiar care. The science of
+ astronomy was cultivated at Babylon; but the school of the Arabs
+ was a clear firmament and a naked plain. In their nocturnal
+ marches, they steered by the guidance of the stars: their names,
+ and order, and daily station, were familiar to the curiosity and
+ devotion of the Bedoween; and he was taught by experience to
+ divide, in twenty-eight parts, the zodiac of the moon, and to
+ bless the constellations who refreshed, with salutary rains, the
+ thirst of the desert. The reign of the heavenly orbs could not be
+ extended beyond the visible sphere; and some metaphysical powers
+ were necessary to sustain the transmigration of souls and the
+ resurrection of bodies: a camel was left to perish on the grave,
+ that he might serve his master in another life; and the
+ invocation of departed spirits implies that they were still
+ endowed with consciousness and power. I am ignorant, and I am
+ careless, of the blind mythology of the Barbarians; 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
+ and the object of his fantastic worship; but the nation, in every
+ age, has bowed to the religion, as well as to the language, of
+ Mecca. The genuine antiquity of the Caaba ascends beyond the
+ Christian aera; in describing the coast of the Red Sea, the Greek
+ historian Diodorus 45 has remarked, between the Thamudites and
+ the Sabaeans, a famous temple, whose superior sanctity was
+ revered by all the Arabians; the linen or silken veil, which is
+ annually renewed by the Turkish emperor, was first offered by a
+ pious king of the Homerites, who reigned seven hundred years
+ before the time of Mahomet. 46 A tent, or a cavern, might suffice
+ for the worship of the savages, but an edifice of stone and clay
+ has been erected in its place; and the art and power of the
+ monarchs of the East have been confined to the simplicity of the
+ original model. 47 A spacious portico encloses the quadrangle of
+ the Caaba; a square chapel, twenty-four cubits long, twenty-three
+ broad, and twenty-seven high: a door and a window admit the
+ light; the double roof is supported by three pillars of wood; a
+ spout (now of gold) discharges the rain-water, and the well
+ Zemzen is protected by a dome from accidental pollution. The
+ tribe of Koreish, by fraud and force, had acquired the custody of
+ the Caaba: the sacerdotal office devolved through four lineal
+ descents to the grandfather of Mahomet; and the family of the
+ Hashemites, from whence he sprung, was the most respectable and
+ sacred in the eyes of their country. 48 The precincts of Mecca
+ enjoyed the rights of sanctuary; and, in the last month of each
+ year, the city and the temple were crowded with a long train of
+ pilgrims, who presented their vows and offerings in the house of
+ God. The same rites which are now accomplished by the faithful
+ Mussulman, were invented and practised by the superstition of the
+ idolaters. At an awful distance they cast away their garments:
+ seven times, with hasty steps, they encircled the Caaba, and
+ kissed the black stone: seven times they visited and adored the
+ adjacent mountains; seven times they threw stones into the valley
+ of Mina; and the pilgrimage was achieved, as at the present hour,
+ by a sacrifice of sheep and camels, and the burial of their hair
+ and nails in the consecrated ground. Each tribe either found or
+ introduced in the Caaba their domestic worship: the temple was
+ adorned, or defiled, with three hundred and sixty idols of men,
+ eagles, lions, and antelopes; and most conspicuous was the statue
+ of Hebal, of red agate, holding in his hand seven arrows, without
+ heads or feathers, the instruments and symbols of profane
+ divination. But this statue was a monument of Syrian arts: the
+ devotion of the ruder ages was content with a pillar or a tablet;
+ and the rocks of the desert were hewn into gods or altars, in
+ imitation of the black stone 49 of Mecca, which is deeply tainted
+ with the reproach of an idolatrous origin. From Japan to Peru,
+ the use of sacrifice has universally prevailed; and the votary
+ has expressed his gratitude, 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 is the most precious oblation to
+ deprecate a public calamity: the altars of Phoenicia and Egypt,
+ of Rome and Carthage, have been polluted with human gore: the
+ cruel practice was long preserved among the Arabs; in the third
+ century, a boy was annually sacrificed by the tribe of the
+ Dumatians; 51 and a royal captive was piously slaughtered by the
+ prince of the Saracens, the ally and soldier of the emperor
+ Justinian. 52 A parent who drags his son to the altar, exhibits
+ the most painful and sublime effort of fanaticism: the deed, or
+ the intention, was sanctified by the example of saints and
+ heroes; and the father of Mahomet himself was devoted by a rash
+ vow, and hardly ransomed for the equivalent 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: the same customs, without
+ the censure or the precept of the Koran, have been silently
+ transmitted to their posterity and proselytes. It has been
+ sagaciously conjectured, that the artful legislator indulged the
+ stubborn prejudices of his countrymen. It is more simple to
+ believe that he adhered to the habits and opinions of his youth,
+ without foreseeing that a practice congenial to the climate of
+ Mecca might become useless or inconvenient on the banks of the
+ Danube or the Volga.
+
+ 44 (return) [ Whatever can now be known of the idolatry of the
+ ancient Arabians may be found in Pocock, (Specimen, p. 89-136,
+ 163, 164.) His profound 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.]
+
+ 45 (return) [ (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. l. iii. p. 211.) The
+ character and position are so correctly apposite, that I am
+ surprised how this curious passage should have been read without
+ notice or application. Yet this famous temple had been overlooked
+ by Agatharcides, (de Mari Rubro, p. 58, in Hudson, tom. i.,) whom
+ Diodorus copies in the rest of the description. Was the Sicilian
+ more knowing than the Egyptian? Or was the Caaba built between
+ the years of Rome 650 and 746, the dates of their respective
+ 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 in the country of the Banizomeneis, was not
+ between the Thamudites and the 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 satisfied that this will agree
+ with the whole description of Diodorus—M. 1845.]
+
+ 46 (return) [ Pocock, Specimen, p. 60, 61. From the death of
+ Mahomet we ascend 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 a piece of Egyptian linen, (Abulfeda, in
+ Vit. Mohammed. c. 6, p. 14.)]
+
+ 47 (return) [ The original plan of the Caaba (which is servilely
+ copied in Sale, the Universal History, &c.) was a Turkish
+ draught, which Reland (de Religione Mohammedica, p. 113-123) has
+ corrected and explained from the best authorities. For the
+ description and legend of the Caaba, consult Pocock, (Specimen,
+ p. 115-122,) the Bibliotheque Orientale of D’Herbelot, (Caaba,
+ Hagir, Zemzem, &c.,) and Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p.
+ 114-122.)]
+
+ 48 (return) [ Cosa, the fifth ancestor of Mahomet, must have
+ usurped the Caaba 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.)]
+
+ 49 (return) [ In the second century, Maximus of Tyre attributes
+ to the Arabs 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, so renowned in sacred and profane antiquity,
+ (Euseb. Praep. Evangel. l. i. p. 37. Marsham, Canon. Chron. p.
+ 54-56.)]
+
+ 50 (return) [ The two horrid subjects are accurately discussed by
+ the learned Sir John Marsham, (Canon. Chron. p. 76-78, 301-304.)
+ Sanchoniatho derives the Phoenician sacrifices from the example
+ of Chronus; but we are ignorant whether Chronus lived before, or
+ after, Abraham, or indeed whether he lived at all.]
+
+ 51 (return) [ The reproach of Porphyry; but he likewise imputes
+ to the Roman the same barbarous custom, which, A. U. C. 657, had
+ been finally abolished. Dumaetha, Daumat al Gendai, is noticed by
+ Ptolemy (Tabul. p. 37, Arabia, p. 9-29) and Abulfeda, (p. 57,)
+ and may be found in D’Anville’s maps, in the mid-desert between
+ Chaibar and Tadmor.]
+
+ 52 (return) [ Prcoopius, (de Bell. Persico, l. i. c. 28,)
+ Evagrius, (l. vi. c. 21,) and Pocock, (Specimen, p. 72, 86,)
+ attest the human sacrifices of the Arabs in the vith century. The
+ danger and escape of Abdallah is a tradition rather than a fact,
+ (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 82-84.)]
+
+ 53 (return) [ Suillis carnibus abstinent, says Solinus,
+ (Polyhistor. c. 33,) who copies Pliny (l. viii. c. 68) in the
+ strange supposition, that hogs can not live in Arabia. The
+ Egyptians were actuated by a natural and superstitious horror for
+ that unclean beast, (Marsham, Canon. p. 205.) The old Arabians
+ likewise practised, post coitum, the rite of ablution, (Herodot.
+ l. i. c. 80,) which is sanctified by the Mahometan law, (Reland,
+ p. 75, &c., Chardin, or rather the Mollah of Shah Abbas, tom. iv.
+ p. 71, &c.)]
+
+ 54 (return) [ The Mahometan doctors are not fond of the subject;
+ yet they hold circumcision necessary to salvation, and even
+ pretend that Mahomet 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
+ of conquest and tyranny, and the persecuted sects fled to the
+ happy land where they might profess what they thought, and
+ practise what they professed. The religions of the Sabians and
+ Magians, of the Jews and Christians, were disseminated from the
+ Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. In a remote period of antiquity,
+ Sabianism was diffused over Asia by the science of the Chaldaeans
+ 55 and the arms of the Assyrians. From the observations of two
+ thousand years, the priests and astronomers of Babylon 56 deduced
+ the eternal laws of nature and providence. They adored the seven
+ gods or angels, who directed the course of the seven planets, and
+ shed their irresistible influence on the earth. The attributes of
+ the seven planets, with the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the
+ twenty-four constellations of the northern and southern
+ hemisphere, were represented by images and talismans; the seven
+ days of the week were dedicated to their respective deities; the
+ Sabians prayed thrice each day; and the temple of the moon at
+ Haran was the term of their pilgrimage. 57 But the flexible
+ genius of their faith was always ready either to teach or to
+ learn: in the tradition of the creation, the deluge, and the
+ patriarchs, they held a singular agreement with their Jewish
+ captives; they appealed to the secret books of Adam, Seth, and
+ Enoch; and a slight infusion of the gospel has transformed the
+ last remnant of the Polytheists into the Christians of St. John,
+ in the territory of Bassora. 58 The altars of Babylon were
+ overturned by the Magians; but the injuries of the Sabians were
+ revenged by the sword of Alexander; Persia groaned above five
+ hundred years under a foreign yoke; and the purest disciples of
+ Zoroaster escaped from the contagion of idolatry, and breathed
+ with their adversaries the freedom of the desert. 59 Seven
+ hundred years before the death of Mahomet, the Jews were settled
+ in Arabia; and a far greater multitude was expelled from the Holy
+ Land in the wars of Titus and Hadrian. The industrious exiles
+ aspired to liberty and power: they erected synagogues in the
+ cities, and castles in the wilderness, and their Gentile converts
+ were confounded with the children of Israel, whom they resembled
+ in the outward mark of circumcision. The Christian missionaries
+ were still more active and successful: the Catholics asserted
+ their universal reign; the sects whom they oppressed,
+ successively retired beyond the limits of the Roman empire; the
+ Marcionites and Manichaeans dispersed their fantastic opinions
+ and apocryphal gospels; the churches of Yemen, and the princes of
+ Hira and Gassan, were instructed in a purer creed by the Jacobite
+ and Nestorian bishops. 60 The liberty of choice was presented to
+ the tribes: each Arab was free to elect or to compose his private
+ religion: and the rude superstition of his house was mingled with
+ the sublime theology of saints and philosophers. A fundamental
+ article of faith was inculcated by the consent of the learned
+ strangers; the existence of one supreme God who is exalted above
+ the powers of heaven and earth, but who has often revealed
+ himself to mankind by the ministry of his angels and prophets,
+ and whose grace or justice has interrupted, by seasonable
+ miracles, the order of nature. The most rational of the Arabs
+ acknowledged his power, though they neglected his worship; 61 and
+ it was habit rather than conviction that still attached them to
+ the relics of idolatry. The Jews and Christians were the people
+ of the Book; the Bible was already translated into the Arabic
+ language, 62 and the volume of the Old Testament was accepted by
+ the concord of these implacable enemies. In the story of the
+ Hebrew patriarchs, the Arabs were pleased to discover the fathers
+ of their nation. They applauded the birth and promises of Ismael;
+ revered the faith and virtue of Abraham; traced his pedigree and
+ their own to the creation of the first man, and imbibed, with
+ equal credulity, the prodigies of the holy text, and the dreams
+ and traditions of the Jewish rabbis.
+
+ 55 (return) [ Diodorus Siculus (tom. i. l. ii. p. 142-145) has
+ cast on their religion the curious but superficial glance of a
+ Greek. Their astronomy would be far more valuable: they had
+ looked through the telescope of reason, since they could doubt
+ whether the sun were in the number of the planets or of the fixed
+ stars.]
+
+ 56 (return) [ Simplicius, (who quotes Porphyry,) de Coelo, l. ii.
+ com. xlvi p. 123, lin. 18, apud Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 474,
+ who doubts the fact, because it is adverse to his systems. The
+ earliest date of the Chaldaean observations is the year 2234
+ before Christ. After the conquest of Babylon by Alexander, they
+ were communicated at the request of Aristotle, to the astronomer
+ Hipparchus. What a moment in the annals of science!]
+
+ 57 (return) [ 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 these writers confounds Sabianism
+ with the primitive religion of the Arabs.]
+
+ 58 (return) [ D’Anville (l’Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 130-137) will
+ fix the position of these ambiguous Christians; Assemannus
+ (Bibliot. Oriental. tom. iv. p. 607-614) may explain their
+ tenets. But it is a slippery task to ascertain the creed of an
+ ignorant people afraid and ashamed to disclose their secret
+ traditions. * Note: The Codex Nasiraeus, their sacred book, has
+ been published by Norberg whose researches contain almost all
+ that is known of this singular people. But their origin is almost
+ as obscure as ever: if ancient, their creed has been so corrupted
+ with mysticism and Mahometanism, that its native lineaments are
+ very indistinct.—M.]
+
+ 59 (return) [ 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.)]
+
+ 60 (return) [ The state of the Jews and Christians in Arabia is
+ described 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.)]
+
+ 61 (return) [ In their offerings, it was a maxim to defraud God
+ for the profit of the idol, not a more potent, but a more
+ irritable, patron, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 108, 109.)]
+
+ 62 (return) [ Our versions now extant, whether Jewish or
+ Christian, appear more recent than the Koran; but the existence
+ of a prior translation may be fairly inferred,—1. From the
+ perpetual practice of the synagogue of expounding the Hebrew
+ lesson by a paraphrase in the vulgar tongue of the country; 2.
+ From the analogy of the Armenian, Persian, Aethiopic versions,
+ expressly quoted by the fathers of the fifth century, who assert
+ that the Scriptures were translated into all the 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
+ of the Christians, 63 who exalt instead of degrading the merit of
+ their adversary. His descent from Ismael was a national privilege
+ or fable; but if the first steps of the pedigree 64 are dark and
+ doubtful, he could produce many generations of pure and genuine
+ nobility: he sprung from the tribe of Koreish and the family of
+ Hashem, the most illustrious of the Arabs, the princes of Mecca,
+ and the hereditary guardians of the Caaba. The grandfather of
+ Mahomet was Abdol Motalleb, the son of Hashem, a wealthy and
+ generous citizen, who relieved the distress of famine with the
+ supplies of commerce. Mecca, which had been fed by the liberality
+ of the father, was saved by the courage of the son. The kingdom
+ of Yemen was subject to the Christian princes of Abyssinia; their
+ vassal Abrahah was provoked by an insult to avenge the honor of
+ the cross; and the holy city was invested by a train of elephants
+ and an army of Africans. A treaty was proposed; and, in the first
+ audience, the grandfather of Mahomet demanded the restitution of
+ his cattle. “And why,” said Abrahah, “do you not rather implore
+ my clemency in favor of your temple, which I have threatened to
+ destroy?” “Because,” replied the intrepid chief, “the cattle is
+ my own; the Caaba belongs to the gods, and they will defend their
+ house from injury and sacrilege.” The want of provisions, or the
+ valor of the Koreish, compelled the Abyssinians to a disgraceful
+ retreat: their discomfiture has been adorned with a miraculous
+ flight of birds, who showered down stones on the heads of the
+ infidels; and the deliverance was long commemorated by the aera
+ of the elephant. 65 The glory of Abdol Motalleb was crowned with
+ domestic happiness; his life was prolonged to the age of one
+ hundred and ten years; and he became the father of six daughters
+ and thirteen sons. His best beloved Abdallah was the most
+ beautiful and modest of the Arabian youth; and in the first
+ night, when he consummated his marriage with Amina, 651 of the
+ noble race of the Zahrites, two hundred virgins are said to have
+ expired of jealousy and despair. Mahomet, or more properly
+ Mohammed, the only son of Abdallah and Amina, was born at Mecca,
+ four years after the death of Justinian, and two months after the
+ defeat of the Abyssinians, 66 whose victory would have introduced
+ into the Caaba the religion of the Christians. In his early
+ infancy, he was deprived of his father, his mother, and his
+ grandfather; his uncles were strong and numerous; and, in the
+ division of the inheritance, the orphan’s share was reduced to
+ five camels and an Aethiopian maid-servant. At home and abroad,
+ in peace and war, Abu Taleb, the most respectable of his uncles,
+ was the guide and guardian of his youth; in his twenty-fifth
+ year, he entered into the service of Cadijah, a rich and noble
+ widow of Mecca, who soon rewarded his fidelity with the gift of
+ her hand and fortune. The marriage contract, in the simple style
+ of antiquity, recites the mutual love of Mahomet and Cadijah;
+ describes him as the most accomplished of the tribe of Koreish;
+ and stipulates a dowry of twelve ounces of gold and twenty
+ camels, which was supplied by the liberality of his uncle. 67 By
+ this alliance, the son of Abdallah was restored to the station of
+ his ancestors; and the judicious matron was content with his
+ domestic virtues, till, in the fortieth year of his age, 68 he
+ assumed the title of a prophet, and proclaimed the religion of
+ the Koran.
+
+ 63 (return) [ In eo conveniunt omnes, ut plebeio vilique genere
+ ortum, &c, (Hottinger, Hist. Orient. p. 136.) Yet Theophanes, the
+ most ancient of the Greeks, and the father of many a lie,
+ confesses that Mahomet was of the race of Ismael, (Chronograph.
+ p. 277.)]
+
+ 64 (return) [ Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed. c. 1, 2) and Gagnier
+ (Vie de Mahomet, p. 25-97) describe the popular and approved
+ genealogy of the prophet. At Mecca, I would not dispute its
+ authenticity: at Lausanne, I will venture to observe, 1. That
+ from Ismael to Mahomet, a period of 2500 years, they reckon
+ thirty, instead of seventy five, generations: 2. That the modern
+ Bedoweens are ignorant of their history, and careless of their
+ pedigree, (Voyage de D’Arvieux p. 100, 103.) * Note: The most
+ orthodox Mahometans only reckon back the ancestry of the prophet
+ for twenty generations, to Adnan. Weil, Mohammed der Prophet, p.
+ 1.—M. 1845.]
+
+ 65 (return) [ The seed of this history, or fable, is contained in
+ the cvth chapter of the Koran; and Gagnier (in Praefat. ad Vit.
+ Moham. p. 18, &c.) has translated the historical narrative of
+ Abulfeda, which may be illustrated from D’Herbelot (Bibliot.
+ Orientale, p. 12) and Pocock, (Specimen, p. 64.) Prideaux (Life
+ of Mahomet, p. 48) calls it a lie of the coinage of Mahomet; but
+ Sale, (Koran, p. 501-503,) who is half a Mussulman, attacks the
+ inconsistent faith of the Doctor for believing the miracles of
+ the Delphic Apollo. Maracci (Alcoran, tom. i. part ii. p. 14,
+ tom. ii. p. 823) ascribes the miracle to the devil, and extorts
+ from the Mahometans the confession, that God would not have
+ defended against the Christians the idols of the Caaba. * Note:
+ Dr. Weil says that the small-pox broke out in the army of
+ Abrahah, but he does not give his authority, p. 10.—M. 1845.]
+
+ 651 (return) [ Amina, or Emina, was of Jewish birth. V. Hammer,
+ Geschichte der Assass. p. 10.—M.]
+
+ 66 (return) [ The safest aeras of Abulfeda, (in Vit. c. i. p. 2,)
+ of Alexander, or the Greeks, 882, of Bocht Naser, or Nabonassar,
+ 1316, equally lead us to the year 569. The old Arabian calendar
+ is too dark and 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 of calculation, 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 of the Greeks, which is
+ assigned by Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 5) and Abulpharagius,
+ (Dynast. p. 101, and Errata, Pocock’s version.) While we refine
+ our chronology, it is possible that the illiterate prophet was
+ ignorant of his own age. * Note: The date of the birth of Mahomet
+ is not yet fixed with precision. It is only known from Oriental
+ authors that he was born on a Monday, the 10th Reby 1st, the
+ third month of the Mahometan 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 of Nabonassar. 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 in the history of
+ the Arabs before Mahomet, Mem. Acad. des Loscript. vol. xlvii. p.
+ 527, 531. St. Martin, vol. xi. p. 59.—M. ——Dr. Weil decides on
+ A.D. 571. Mahomet died in 632, aged 63; but the Arabs reckoned
+ his life by lunar years, which reduces his life nearly to 61 (p.
+ 21.)—M. 1845]
+
+ 67 (return) [ I copy the honorable testimony of Abu Taleb to his
+ family and nephew. Laus Dei, qui nos a stirpe Abrahami et semine
+ Ismaelis constituit, et nobis regionem sacram dedit, et nos
+ judices hominibus statuit. Porro Mohammed filius Abdollahi
+ nepotis mei (nepos meus) quo cum ex aequo librabitur e
+ Koraishidis quispiam cui non praeponderaturus est, bonitate et
+ excellentia, et intellectu et gloria, et acumine etsi opum inops
+ fuerit, (et certe opes umbra transiens sunt et depositum quod
+ reddi debet,) desiderio Chadijae filiae Chowailedi tenetur, et
+ illa vicissim ipsius, quicquid autem dotis vice petieritis, ego
+ in me suscipiam, (Pocock, Specimen, e septima parte libri Ebn
+ Hamduni.)]
+
+ 68 (return) [ The private life of Mahomet, from his birth to his
+ mission, is preserved by Abulfeda, (in Vit. c. 3-7,) and the
+ Arabian writers 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 was
+ distinguished by the beauty of his person, an outward gift which
+ is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.
+ Before he spoke, the orator engaged on his side the affections of
+ a public or private audience. They applauded his commanding
+ presence, his majestic aspect, his piercing eye, his gracious
+ smile, his flowing beard, his countenance that painted every
+ sensation of the soul, and his gestures that enforced each
+ expression of the tongue. In the familiar offices of life he
+ scrupulously adhered to the grave and ceremonious politeness of
+ his country: his respectful attention to the rich and powerful
+ was dignified by his condescension and affability to the poorest
+ citizens of Mecca: the frankness of his manner concealed the
+ artifice of his views; and the habits of courtesy were imputed to
+ personal friendship or universal benevolence. His memory was
+ capacious and retentive; his wit easy 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 first idea which he
+ entertained of his divine mission bears the stamp of an original
+ and superior genius. The son of Abdallah was educated in the
+ bosom 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 practice of discreet and seasonable silence. With these
+ powers of eloquence, Mahomet was an illiterate Barbarian: his
+ youth had never been instructed in the arts of reading and
+ writing; 70 the common ignorance exempted him from shame or
+ reproach, but he was reduced to a narrow circle of existence, and
+ deprived of those faithful mirrors, which reflect to our mind the
+ minds of sages and heroes. Yet the book of nature and of man was
+ open to his view; and some fancy has been indulged in the
+ political and philosophical observations which are ascribed to
+ the Arabian traveller. 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 resolves to unite under one God and one king the
+ invincible spirit and primitive virtues of the Arabs. Our more
+ accurate inquiry will suggest, that, instead of visiting the
+ courts, the camps, the temples, of the East, the two journeys of
+ Mahomet into Syria were confined to the fairs of Bostra and
+ Damascus; that he was only thirteen years of age when he
+ accompanied the caravan of his uncle; and that his duty compelled
+ him to return as soon as he had disposed of the merchandise of
+ Cadijah. In these hasty and superficial excursions, the eye of
+ genius might discern some objects invisible to his grosser
+ companions; some seeds of knowledge might be cast upon a fruitful
+ soil; but his ignorance of the Syriac language must have checked
+ his curiosity; and I cannot perceive, in the life or writings of
+ Mahomet, that his prospect was far extended beyond the limits of
+ the Arabian world. From every region of that solitary world, the
+ pilgrims of Mecca were annually assembled, by the calls of
+ devotion and commerce: in the free concourse of multitudes, a
+ simple citizen, in his native tongue, might study the political
+ state and character of the tribes, the theory and practice of the
+ Jews and Christians. Some useful strangers might be tempted, or
+ forced, to implore the rights of hospitality; and the enemies of
+ Mahomet have named the Jew, the Persian, and the Syrian monk,
+ whom they accuse of lending their secret aid to the composition
+ of the Koran. 72 Conversation enriches the understanding, but
+ solitude is the school of genius; and the uniformity of a work
+ denotes the hand of a single artist. From his earliest youth
+ Mahomet was addicted to religious contemplation; each year,
+ during the month of Ramadan, he withdrew from the world, and from
+ the arms of Cadijah: in the cave of Hera, three miles from Mecca,
+ 73 he consulted the spirit of fraud or enthusiasm, whose abode is
+ not in the heavens, but in the mind of the prophet. The faith
+ which, under the name of Islam, he preached to his family and
+ nation, is compounded of an eternal truth, and a necessary
+ fiction, That there is only one God, and that Mahomet is the
+ apostle of God.
+
+ 69 (return) [ Abulfeda, in Vit. c. lxv. lxvi. Gagnier, Vie de
+ Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 272-289. The best traditions of the person
+ and conversation of the prophet are derived from Ayesha, Ali, and
+ Abu Horaira, (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 of the Hegira. * Note: Compare, likewise, the
+ new Life of Mahomet (Mohammed der prophet) by Dr. Weil,
+ (Stuttgart, 1843.) Dr. Weil has a new tradition, that Mahomet was
+ at one time a shepherd. This assimilation to the life of Moses,
+ instead of giving probability to the story, as Dr. Weil suggests,
+ makes it more suspicious. Note, p. 34.—M. 1845.]
+
+ 70 (return) [ Those who believe that Mahomet could read or write
+ are incapable of reading what is written with another pen, in the
+ Suras, or chapters of the Koran, vii. xxix. xcvi. These texts,
+ and the tradition of 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 the imposture, of the
+ prophet. His arguments are far from satisfactory. Two short
+ trading journeys to the fairs of Syria were surely not sufficient
+ to infuse a science so rare among the citizens of Mecca: it was
+ not in the cool, deliberate act of treaty, that Mahomet would
+ have dropped the mask; nor can any conclusion be drawn from the
+ words of disease and delirium. The lettered youth, before he
+ aspired to the prophetic character, must have often exercised, in
+ private life, the arts of reading and writing; and his first
+ converts, of his own family, would have 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 the seveth Sura implies
+ that Mahomet could read, the tradition alone denies it, and,
+ according to Dr. Weil, (p. 46,) there is another reading of the
+ tradition, that “he could not read well.” Dr. Weil is not quite
+ so successful in explaining away Sura xxix. It means, he thinks
+ that he had not read any books, from which he could have
+ borrowed.—M. 1845.]
+
+ 71 (return) [ The count de Boulainvilliers (Vie de Mahomet, p.
+ 202-228) leads his Arabian pupil, like the Telemachus of Fenelon,
+ or the Cyrus of Ramsay. His journey to the court of Persia is
+ probably a fiction nor can I trace the origin of his exclamation,
+ “Les Grecs sont pour tant des hommes.” The two Syrian journeys
+ are expressed by almost all the Arabian writers, both Mahometans
+ and Christians, (Gagnier Abulfed. p. 10.)]
+
+ 72 (return) [ I am not at leisure to pursue the fables or
+ conjectures which 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’s Life of Mahomet, p. 22-27. Gagnier,
+ Not. ad Abulfed. p. 11, 74. Maracci, tom. ii. p. 400.) Even
+ Prideaux has observed, that the transaction must have been
+ secret, and that the scene lay in the heart of Arabia.]
+
+ 73 (return) [ Abulfeda in Vit. c. 7, p. 15. Gagnier, tom. i. p.
+ 133, 135. The situation of Mount Hera is remarked by Abulfeda
+ (Geograph. Arab p. 4.) Yet Mahomet had never read of the cave of
+ Egeria, ubi nocturnae Numa constituebat amicae, of the Idaean
+ Mount, where Minos conversed with Jove, &c.]
+
+ It is the boast of the Jewish apologists, that while the learned
+ nations of antiquity were deluded by the fables of polytheism,
+ their simple ancestors of Palestine preserved the knowledge and
+ worship of the true God. The moral attributes of Jehovah may not
+ easily be reconciled with the standard of human virtue: his
+ metaphysical qualities are darkly expressed; but each page of the
+ Pentateuch and the Prophets is an evidence of his power: the
+ unity of his name is inscribed on the first table of the law; and
+ his sanctuary was never defiled by any visible image of the
+ invisible essence. After the ruin of the temple, the faith of the
+ Hebrew exiles was purified, fixed, and enlightened, by the
+ spiritual devotion of the synagogue; and the authority of Mahomet
+ will not justify his perpetual reproach, that the Jews of Mecca
+ or Medina adored Ezra as the son of God. 74 But the children of
+ Israel had ceased 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, or companions, to the supreme God. In the rude
+ idolatry of the Arabs, the crime is manifest and audacious: the
+ Sabians are poorly excused by the preeminence of the first
+ planet, or intelligence, in their celestial hierarchy; and in the
+ Magian system the conflict of the two principles betrays the
+ imperfection of the conqueror. The Christians of the seventh
+ century had insensibly relapsed into a semblance of Paganism:
+ their public and private vows were addressed to the relics and
+ images that disgraced the temples of the East: the throne of the
+ Almighty was darkened by a cloud of martyrs, and saints, and
+ angels, the objects of popular veneration; and the Collyridian
+ heretics, who flourished in the fruitful soil of Arabia, invested
+ the Virgin Mary with the name and honors of a goddess. 75 The
+ mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation appear to contradict the
+ principle of the divine unity. In their obvious sense, they
+ introduce three equal deities, and transform the man Jesus into
+ the substance of the Son of God: 76 an orthodox commentary will
+ satisfy only a believing mind: intemperate curiosity and zeal had
+ torn the veil of the sanctuary; and each of the Oriental sects
+ was eager to confess that all, except themselves, deserved the
+ reproach of idolatry and polytheism. The creed of Mahomet is free
+ from suspicion or ambiguity; 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 and planets, on the rational
+ principle that whatever rises must set, that whatever is born
+ must die, that whatever is corruptible must decay and perish. 77
+ In the Author of the universe, his rational enthusiasm confessed
+ and adored an infinite and eternal being, without form or place,
+ without issue or similitude, present to our most secret thoughts,
+ existing by the necessity of his own nature, and deriving from
+ himself all moral and intellectual perfection. These sublime
+ truths, thus announced in the language of the prophet, 78 are
+ firmly held by his disciples, and defined with metaphysical
+ precision by the interpreters of the Koran. A philosophic theist
+ might subscribe the popular creed of the Mahometans; 79 a creed
+ too sublime, perhaps, for our present faculties. What object
+ remains for the fancy, or even the understanding, when we have
+ abstracted from the unknown substance all ideas of time and
+ space, of motion and matter, of sensation and reflection? The
+ first principle of reason and revolution was confirmed by the
+ voice of Mahomet: his proselytes, from India to Morocco, are
+ distinguished by the name of Unitarians; and the danger of
+ idolatry has been prevented by the interdiction of images. The
+ doctrine of eternal decrees and absolute predestination is
+ strictly embraced by the Mahometans; and they struggle, with the
+ common difficulties, how to reconcile the prescience of God with
+ the freedom and responsibility of man; how to explain the
+ permission of evil under the reign of infinite power and infinite
+ goodness.
+
+ 74 (return) [ Koran, c. 9, p. 153. Al Beidawi, and the other
+ commentators quoted by Sale, adhere to the charge; but I do not
+ understand that it is colored by the most obscure or absurd
+ tradition of the Talmud.]
+
+ 75 (return) [ Hottinger, Hist. Orient. p. 225-228. The
+ Collyridian heresy was carried from Thrace to Arabia by some
+ women, and the name was borrowed 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 haersewn ferax.]
+
+ 76 (return) [ The three gods in the Koran (c. 4, p. 81, c. 5, p.
+ 92) are obviously directed against our Catholic mystery: but the
+ Arabic commentators understand them of the Father, the Son, and
+ the Virgin Mary, an heretical Trinity, maintained, as it is said,
+ by some Barbarians 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 from the word Roxah, the Holy Ghost, which in
+ some Oriental tongues is of the feminine gender, and is
+ figuratively styled the mother of Christ in the Gospel of the
+ Nazarenes.]
+
+ 77 (return) [ This train of thought is philosophically
+ exemplified in the character of Abraham, who opposed in Chaldaea
+ the first introduction of idolatry, (Koran, c. 6, p. 106.
+ D’Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 13.)]
+
+ 78 (return) [ See the Koran, particularly the second, (p. 30,)
+ the fifty-seventh, (p. 437,) the fifty-eighth (p. 441) chapters,
+ which proclaim the omnipotence of the Creator.]
+
+ 79 (return) [ 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,) and Chardin, (Voyages en Perse, tom. iv. p. 4-28.) The
+ great truth, that God 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
+ his law in the heart of man. To restore the knowledge of the one,
+ and the practice of the other, has been the real or pretended aim
+ of the prophets of every age: the liberality of Mahomet allowed
+ to his predecessors the same credit which he claimed for himself;
+ and the chain of inspiration was prolonged from the fall of Adam
+ to the promulgation of the Koran. 80 During that period, some
+ rays of prophetic light had been imparted to one hundred and
+ twenty-four thousand of the elect, discriminated by their
+ respective measure of virtue and grace; three hundred and
+ thirteen apostles were sent with a special commission to recall
+ their country from idolatry and vice; one hundred and four
+ volumes have been dictated by the Holy Spirit; and six
+ legislators of transcendent brightness have announced to mankind
+ the six successive revelations of various rites, but of one
+ immutable religion. The authority and station of Adam, Noah,
+ Abraham, Moses, Christ, and Mahomet, rise in just gradation above
+ each other; but whosoever hates or rejects any one of the
+ prophets is numbered with the infidels. The writings of the
+ patriarchs were extant only in the apocryphal copies of the
+ Greeks and Syrians: 81 the conduct of Adam had not entitled him
+ to the gratitude or respect of his children; the seven precepts
+ of Noah were observed by an inferior and imperfect class of the
+ proselytes of the synagogue; 82 and the memory of Abraham was
+ obscurely revered by the Sabians in his native land of Chaldaea:
+ of the myriads of prophets, Moses and Christ alone lived and
+ reigned; and the remnant of the inspired writings was comprised
+ in the books of the Old and the New Testament. The miraculous
+ story of Moses is consecrated and embellished in the Koran; 83
+ and the captive Jews enjoy the secret revenge of imposing their
+ own belief on the nations whose recent creeds they deride. For
+ the author of Christianity, the Mahometans are taught by the
+ 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; honorable in this world, and in the world to come, and one
+ of those who approach near to the presence of God.” 85 The
+ wonders of the genuine and apocryphal gospels 86 are profusely
+ heaped on his head; and the Latin church has not disdained to
+ borrow from the Koran the immaculate conception 87 of his virgin
+ mother. Yet Jesus was a mere mortal; and, at the day of judgment,
+ his testimony will serve to condemn both the Jews, who reject him
+ as a prophet, and the Christians, who adore him as the 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
+ innocent saint was translated to the seventh heaven. 88 During
+ six hundred years the gospel was the way of truth and salvation;
+ but the Christians insensibly forgot both the laws and example of
+ their founder; and Mahomet was instructed by the Gnostics to
+ accuse the church, as well as the synagogue, of corrupting the
+ integrity of the sacred text. 89 The piety of Moses and of Christ
+ rejoiced in the assurance of a future prophet, more illustrious
+ than themselves: the evangelical promise of the Paraclete, or
+ Holy Ghost, was prefigured in the name, and accomplished in the
+ person, of Mahomet, 90 the greatest and the last of the apostles
+ of God.
+
+ 80 (return) [ Reland, de Relig. Moham. l. i. p. 17-47. Sale’s
+ Preliminary 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 the precise number of the prophets is not an article of
+ faith.]
+
+ 81 (return) [ For the apocryphal books of Adam, see Fabricius,
+ Codex Pseudepigraphus 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, by the quotation of the apostle St. Jude; and a long
+ legendary fragment is alleged by Syncellus and Scaliger. * Note:
+ The whole book has since been recovered in the Ethiopic
+ language,—and has been edited and translated by Archbishop
+ Lawrence, Oxford, 1881—M.]
+
+ 82 (return) [ The seven precepts of Noah are explained by
+ Marsham, (Canon Chronicus, p. 154-180,) who adopts, on this
+ occasion, the learning and credulity of Selden.]
+
+ 83 (return) [ The articles of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, &c., in
+ the Bibliotheque of D’Herbelot, are gayly bedecked with the
+ fanciful legends of the Mahometans, who have built on the
+ groundwork of Scripture and the Talmud.]
+
+ 84 (return) [ Koran, c. 7, p. 128, &c., c. 10, p. 173, &c.
+ D’Herbelot, p. 647, &c.]
+
+ 85 (return) [ Koran, c. 3, p. 40, c. 4. p. 80. D’Herbelot, p.
+ 399, &c.]
+
+ 86 (return) [ See the Gospel of St. Thomas, or of the Infancy, in
+ the Codex Apocryphus N. T. of Fabricius, who collects the various
+ testimonies concerning it, (p. 128-158.) It was published in
+ Greek by Cotelier, and in Arabic by Sike, who thinks our present
+ copy more recent than Mahomet. Yet his quotations agree with the
+ original about the speech 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.)]
+
+ 87 (return) [ It is darkly hinted in the Koran, (c. 3, p. 39,)
+ and more clearly explained by the tradition of the Sonnites,
+ (Sale’s Note, and Maracci, tom. ii. p. 112.) In the xiith
+ century, the immaculate conception was condemned by St. Bernard
+ as a presumptuous novelty, (Fra Paolo, Istoria del Concilio di
+ Trento, l. ii.)]
+
+ 88 (return) [ See the Koran, c. 3, v. 53, and c. 4, v. 156, of
+ Maracci’s edition. Deus est praestantissimus dolose agentium (an
+ odd praise)... nec crucifixerunt eum, sed objecta est eis
+ similitudo; an expression that may suit with the system of the
+ Docetes; but the commentators believe (Maracci, tom. ii. p.
+ 113-115, 173. Sale, p. 42, 43, 79) that another man, a friend or
+ an enemy, was crucified in the likeness of Jesus; 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 some Ebionite
+ heretics, (Beausobre, Hist. du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 25,
+ Mosheim. de Reb. Christ. p. 353.)]
+
+ 89 (return) [ This charge is obscurely urged in the Koran, (c. 3,
+ p. 45;) but neither Mahomet, nor his followers, are sufficiently
+ versed in languages and criticism to give any weight or color to
+ their suspicions. Yet the Arians and Nestorians could relate some
+ stories, and the illiterate prophet might listen to the bold
+ assertions of the Manichaeans. See Beausobre, tom. i. p.
+ 291-305.]
+
+ 90 (return) [ Among the prophecies of the Old and New Testament,
+ which are perverted by the fraud or ignorance of the Mussulmans,
+ they apply to the prophet the promise of the Paraclete, or
+ Comforter, which had been already usurped by the Montanists and
+ Manichaeans, (Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. i.
+ p. 263, &c.;) and the easy change of letters 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 and
+ language: the discourse of a philosopher would vibrate without
+ effect on the ear of a peasant; yet how minute is the distance of
+ their understandings, if it be compared with the contact of an
+ infinite and a finite mind, with the word of God expressed by the
+ tongue or the pen of a mortal! The inspiration of the Hebrew
+ prophets, of the apostles and evangelists of Christ, might not be
+ incompatible with the exercise of their reason and memory; and
+ the diversity of their genius is strongly marked in the style and
+ composition of the books of the Old and New Testament. But
+ Mahomet was content with a character, more humble, yet more
+ 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
+ of light on the table of his everlasting decrees. A paper copy,
+ in a volume of silk and gems, was brought down to the lowest
+ heaven by the angel Gabriel, who, under the Jewish economy, had
+ indeed been despatched on the most important errands; and this
+ trusty messenger successively revealed the chapters and verses to
+ the Arabian prophet. Instead of a perpetual and perfect measure
+ of the divine will, the fragments of the Koran were produced at
+ the discretion of Mahomet; each revelation is suited to the
+ emergencies of his policy or passion; and all contradiction is
+ removed by the saving maxim, that any text of Scripture is
+ abrogated or modified by any subsequent passage. The word of God,
+ and of the apostle, was diligently recorded by his disciples on
+ palm-leaves and the shoulder-bones of mutton; and the pages,
+ without order or connection, were cast into a domestic chest, in
+ the custody of one of his wives. Two years after the death of
+ Mahomet, the sacred volume was collected and published by his
+ friend and successor Abubeker: the work was revised by the caliph
+ Othman, in the thirtieth year of the Hegira; and the various
+ editions of the Koran assert the same miraculous privilege of a
+ uniform and incorruptible text. In the spirit of enthusiasm or
+ vanity, the prophet rests the truth of his mission on the merit
+ of his book; audaciously challenges both men and angels to
+ imitate the beauties of a single page; and presumes to assert
+ that God alone could dictate this incomparable performance. 92
+ This argument is most powerfully addressed to a devout Arabian,
+ whose mind is attuned to faith and rapture; whose ear is
+ delighted by the music of sounds; and whose ignorance 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 endless
+ incoherent rhapsody of fable, and precept, and declamation, which
+ seldom excites a sentiment or an idea, which sometimes crawls in
+ the dust, and is sometimes lost in the clouds. The divine
+ attributes exalt the fancy of the Arabian missionary; but his
+ loftiest strains must yield to the sublime simplicity of the book
+ of Job, composed in a remote age, in the same country, and in the
+ same language. 94 If the composition of the Koran exceed the
+ faculties of a man to what superior intelligence should we
+ ascribe the Iliad of Homer, or the Philippics of Demosthenes? In
+ all religions, the life of the founder supplies the silence of
+ his written revelation: the sayings of Mahomet were so many
+ lessons of truth; his actions so many examples of virtue; and the
+ public and private memorials were preserved by his wives and
+ companions. At the end of two hundred years, the Sonna, or oral
+ law, was fixed and consecrated by the labors of Al Bochari, who
+ discriminated seven thousand two hundred and seventy-five genuine
+ traditions, from a mass of three hundred thousand reports, of a
+ more doubtful or spurious character. Each day the pious author
+ prayed in the temple of Mecca, and performed his ablutions with
+ the water of Zemzem: the pages were successively deposited on the
+ pulpit and the sepulchre of the apostle; and the work has been
+ approved by the four orthodox sects of the Sonnites. 95
+
+ 91 (return) [ For the Koran, see D’Herbelot, p. 85-88. Maracci,
+ tom. i. in Vit. Mohammed. p. 32-45. Sale, Preliminary Discourse,
+ p. 58-70.]
+
+ 92 (return) [ Koran, c. 17, v. 89. In Sale, p. 235, 236. In
+ Maracci, p. 410. * Note: Compare Von Hammer Geschichte der
+ Assassinen p. 11.-M.]
+
+ 93 (return) [ Yet a sect of Arabians was persuaded, that it might
+ be equalled or surpassed by a human pen, (Pocock, Specimen, p.
+ 221, &c.;) and Maracci (the polemic is too hard for the
+ translator) derides the rhyming affectation of the most applauded
+ passage, (tom. i. part ii. p. 69-75.)]
+
+ 94 (return) [ Colloquia (whether real or fabulous) in media
+ Arabia atque 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, the elephantiasis, papyrus, Nile,
+ crocodile, &c. The language is ambiguously styled
+ Arabico-Hebraea. The resemblance of the sister dialects was much
+ more visible in their childhood, than in their mature age,
+ (Michaelis, p. 682. Schultens, in Praefat. Job.) * Note: The age
+ of the book of Job is still and probably will still be disputed.
+ Rosenmuller thus states his own opinion: “Certe serioribus
+ reipublicae temporibus assignandum esse librum, suadere videtur
+ ad Chaldaismum vergens sermo.” Yet the observations of
+ Kosegarten, which Rosenmuller has given in a note, and common
+ reason, suggest that this Chaldaism may be the native form of a
+ much earlier dialect; or the Chaldaic may have adopted the
+ poetical archaisms of a dialect, differing from, but not less
+ ancient than, the Hebrew. See Rosenmuller, Proleg. on Job, p. 41.
+ The poetry appears to me to belong to a much earlier period.—M.]
+
+ 95 (return) [ 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
+ been confirmed by many splendid prodigies; and Mahomet was
+ repeatedly urged, by the inhabitants of Mecca and Medina, to
+ produce a similar evidence of his divine legation; to call down
+ from heaven the angel or the volume of his revelation, to create
+ a garden in the desert, or to kindle a conflagration in the
+ unbelieving city. As often as he is pressed by the demands of the
+ Koreish, he involves himself in the obscure boast of vision and
+ prophecy, appeals to the internal proofs of his doctrine, and
+ shields himself behind the providence of God, who refuses those
+ signs and wonders that would depreciate the merit of faith, and
+ aggravate the guilt of infidelity But the modest or angry tone of
+ his apologies betrays his weakness and vexation; and these
+ passages of scandal established, beyond suspicion, the integrity
+ of the Koran. 96 The votaries of Mahomet are more assured than
+ himself of his miraculous gifts; and their confidence and
+ credulity increase as they are farther removed from the time and
+ place of his spiritual exploits. They believe or affirm that
+ trees went forth to meet him; that he was saluted by stones; 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 a
+ camel complained to him; that a shoulder of mutton informed him
+ of its being poisoned; and that both animate and inanimate nature
+ were equally subject to the apostle of God. 97 His dream of a
+ nocturnal journey is seriously described as a real and corporeal
+ transaction. A mysterious animal, the Borak, conveyed him from
+ the temple of Mecca to that of Jerusalem: with his companion
+ Gabriel he successively ascended the seven heavens, and received
+ and repaid the salutations of the patriarchs, the prophets, and
+ the angels, in their respective mansions. Beyond the seventh
+ heaven, Mahomet alone was permitted to proceed; he passed the
+ veil of unity, approached within two bow-shots of the throne, and
+ felt a cold that pierced him to the heart, when his shoulder was
+ touched by the hand of God. After this familiar, though important
+ conversation, he again descended to Jerusalem, remounted the
+ Borak, returned to Mecca, and performed in the tenth part of a
+ night the journey of many thousand years. 98 According to another
+ legend, the apostle confounded in a national assembly the
+ malicious challenge of the Koreish. His resistless word split
+ asunder the orb of the moon: the obedient planet stooped from her
+ station in the sky, accomplished the seven revolutions round the
+ Caaba, saluted Mahomet in the Arabian tongue, and, suddenly
+ contracting her dimensions, entered at the collar, and issued
+ forth through the sleeve, of his shirt. 99 The vulgar are amused
+ with these marvellous tales; but the gravest of the Mussulman
+ doctors imitate the modesty of their master, and indulge a
+ latitude of faith or interpretation. 100 They might speciously
+ allege, that in preaching the religion it was needless to violate
+ the harmony of nature; that a creed unclouded with mystery may be
+ excused from miracles; and that the sword of Mahomet was not less
+ potent than the rod of Moses.
+
+ 96 (return) [ See, more remarkably, Koran, c. 2, 6, 12, 13, 17.
+ Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 18, 19) has confounded the
+ impostor. Maracci, with a more learned apparatus, has shown that
+ the passages which deny his miracles 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.)]
+
+ 97 (return) [ See the Specimen Hist. Arabum, the text of
+ Abulpharagius, p. 17, the notes of Pocock, p. 187-190.
+ D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 76, 77. Voyages de
+ Chardin, tom. iv. p. 200-203. Maracci (Alcoran, tom. i. p. 22-64)
+ has most laboriously collected and confuted the miracles and
+ prophecies of Mahomet, which, according to some writers, amount
+ to three thousand.]
+
+ 98 (return) [ The nocturnal journey is circumstantially related
+ by Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed, c. 19, p. 33,) who wishes to think
+ it a vision; by Prideaux, (p. 31-40,) who aggravates the
+ absurdities; and by Gagnier (tom. i. p. 252-343,) who declares,
+ from the zealous Al Jannabi, that to deny this journey, is to
+ disbelieve the Koran. Yet the Koran without naming either heaven,
+ or Jerusalem, or Mecca, has only dropped a mysterious hint: Laus
+ illi qui transtulit servum suum ab oratorio Haram ad oratorium
+ remotissimum, (Koran, c. 17, v. 1; in Maracci, tom. ii. p. 407;
+ for Sale’s version is more licentious.) A slender basis for the
+ aerial structure of tradition.]
+
+ 99 (return) [ In the prophetic style, which uses the present or
+ past for the future, Mahomet had said, Appropinquavit hora, et
+ scissa est luna, (Koran, c. 54, v. 1; in Maracci, tom. ii. p.
+ 688.) This figure of rhetoric has been converted into a fact,
+ which is said to be attested by the most respectable
+ eye-witnesses, (Maracci, tom. ii. p. 690.) The festival 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 credulous Al
+ Jannabi. Yet a Mahometan doctor has arraigned the credit of the
+ principal witness, (apud Pocock, Specimen, p. 187;) the best
+ interpreters are content with the simple sense of the Koran. (Al
+ Beidawi, apud Hottinger, Hist. Orient. l. ii. p. 302;) and the
+ silence of Abulfeda is worthy of a prince and a philosopher. *
+ Note: Compare Hamaker Notes to Inc. Auct. Lib. de Exped.
+ Memphides, p. 62—M.]
+
+ 100 (return) [ Abulpharagius, in Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 17; and
+ his scepticism is justified in the notes of Pocock, p. 190-194,
+ from the purest authorities.]
+
+ The polytheist is oppressed and distracted by the variety of
+ superstition: a thousand rites of Egyptian origin were interwoven
+ with the essence of the Mosaic law; and the spirit of the gospel
+ had evaporated in the pageantry of the church. The prophet of
+ Mecca was tempted by prejudice, or policy, or patriotism, to
+ sanctify the rites of the Arabians, and the custom of visiting
+ the holy stone of the Caaba. But the precepts of Mahomet himself
+ inculcates a more simple and rational piety: prayer, fasting, and
+ alms, are the religious duties of a Mussulman; and he is
+ encouraged to hope, that prayer will carry him half way to God,
+ fasting will bring him to the door of his palace, and alms will
+ gain him admittance. 101 I. According to the tradition of the
+ nocturnal journey, the apostle, in his personal conference with
+ the Deity, was commanded to impose on his disciples the daily
+ obligation of fifty prayers. By the advice of Moses, he applied
+ for an alleviation of 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 the afternoon, in the evening,
+ and at the first watch of the night; and in the present decay of
+ religious fervor, our travellers are edified by the profound
+ humility and attention of the Turks and Persians. Cleanliness is
+ the key of prayer: the frequent lustration of the hands, the
+ face, and the body, which was practised of old by the Arabs, is
+ solemnly enjoined by the Koran; and a permission is formally
+ granted to supply with sand the scarcity of water. The words and
+ attitudes of supplication, as it is performed either sitting, or
+ standing, or prostrate on the ground, are prescribed by custom or
+ authority; but the prayer is poured forth in short and fervent
+ ejaculations; the measure of zeal is not exhausted by a tedious
+ liturgy; and each Mussulman for his own person is invested with
+ the character of a priest. Among the theists, who reject the use
+ of images, it has been found necessary to restrain the wanderings
+ of the fancy, by directing the eye and the thought towards a
+ kebla, or visible point of the horizon. The prophet was at first
+ inclined to gratify the Jews by the choice of Jerusalem; but he
+ soon returned to a more natural partiality; and five times every
+ day the eyes of the nations at Astracan, at Fez, at Delhi, are
+ devoutly turned to the holy temple of Mecca. Yet every spot for
+ the service of God is equally pure: the Mahometans indifferently
+ pray in their chamber or in the street. As a distinction from the
+ Jews and Christians, the Friday in each week is set apart for the
+ useful institution of public worship: the people is assembled in
+ the mosch; and the imam, some respectable elder, ascends the
+ pulpit, to begin the prayer and pronounce the sermon. But the
+ Mahometan religion is destitute of priesthood or sacrifice; and
+ the independent spirit of fanaticism looks down with contempt on
+ the ministers and the slaves of superstition. 1011
+
+ II. The voluntary 102 penance of the ascetics, the torment and
+ glory of their lives, was odious to a prophet who censured in his
+ companions a rash vow of abstaining from flesh, and women, and
+ sleep; and firmly declared, that he would suffer no monks in his
+ religion. 103 Yet he instituted, in each year, a fast of thirty
+ days; and strenuously recommended the observance as a discipline
+ which purifies the soul and subdues the body, as a salutary
+ exercise of obedience to the will of God and his apostle. During
+ the month of Ramadan, from the rising to the setting of the sun,
+ the Mussulman abstains from eating, and drinking, and women, and
+ baths, and perfumes; from all nourishment that can restore his
+ strength, from all pleasure that can gratify his senses. In the
+ revolution of the lunar year, the Ramadan coincides, by turns,
+ with the winter cold and the summer heat; and the patient martyr,
+ without assuaging his thirst with a drop of water, must expect
+ the close of a tedious and sultry day. The interdiction of wine,
+ peculiar to some orders of priests or hermits, is converted by
+ Mahomet alone into a positive and general law; 104 and a
+ considerable portion of the globe has abjured, at his command,
+ the use of that salutary, though dangerous, liquor. These painful
+ restraints are, doubtless, infringed by the libertine, and eluded
+ by the hypocrite; but the legislator, by whom they are enacted,
+ cannot surely be accused of alluring his proselytes by the
+ indulgence of their sensual appetites. III. The charity of the
+ Mahometans descends to the animal creation; and the Koran
+ repeatedly inculcates, not as a merit, but as a strict and
+ indispensable duty, the relief of the indigent and unfortunate.
+ Mahomet, perhaps, is the only lawgiver who has defined the
+ precise measure of charity: the standard may vary with the degree
+ and nature of property, as it consists either in money, in corn
+ or cattle, in fruits or merchandise; but the Mussulman does 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
+ Benevolence is the foundation of justice, since we are forbid to
+ injure those whom we are bound to assist. A prophet may reveal
+ the secrets of heaven and of futurity; but in his moral precepts
+ he can only repeat the lessons of our own hearts.
+
+ 101 (return) [ The most authentic account of these precepts,
+ pilgrimage, prayer, fasting, alms, and ablutions, is extracted
+ from the Persian and Arabian 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.) Marace is a partial
+ accuser; but the jeweller, Chardin, had the eyes of a
+ philosopher; and Reland, a judicious student, had travelled over
+ the East in his closet at Utrecht. The xivth letter of Tournefort
+ (Voyage du Levont, tom. ii. p. 325-360, in octavo) describes what
+ he had seen of the religion of the Turks.]
+
+ 1011 (return) [ Such is Mahometanism beyond the precincts of the
+ Holy City. 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 and camels (probably according to the old Arabian rites)
+ at Mecca; and the pilgrims complete their ceremonial with
+ sacrifices, sometimes as numerous and costly as those of King
+ Solomon. Compare note, vol. iv. c. xxiii. p. 96, and Forster’s
+ Mahometanism Unveiled, vol. i. p. 420. This author quotes the
+ questionable authority of Benjamin of Tudela, for the sacrifice
+ of a camel by the caliph at Bosra; but sacrifice undoubtedly
+ forms no part of the ordinary Mahometan ritual; nor will the
+ sanctity of the caliph, as the earthly representative of the
+ prophet, bear any close analogy to the priesthood of the Mosaic
+ or Gentila religions.—M.]
+
+ 102 (return) [ Mahomet (Sale’s Koran, c. 9, p. 153) reproaches
+ the Christians with taking their priests and monks for their
+ lords, besides God. Yet Maracci (Prodromus, part iii. p. 69, 70)
+ excuses the worship, especially of the pope, and quotes, from the
+ Koran itself, the case of Eblis, or Satan, who was cast from
+ heaven for refusing to adore Adam.]
+
+ 103 (return) [ Koran, c. 5, p. 94, and Sale’s note, which refers
+ to the authority of Jallaloddin and Al Beidawi. D’Herbelot
+ declares, that Mahomet condemned la vie religieuse; and that the
+ first swarms of fakirs, dervises, &c., did not appear till after
+ the year 300 of the Hegira, (Bibliot. Orient. p. 292, 718.)]
+
+ 104 (return) [ 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 a fanatic. The public and private motives of Mahomet are
+ investigated by Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 62-64) and Sale,
+ (Preliminary Discourse, p. 124.)]
+
+ 105 (return) [ 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 charity schools are founded for
+ both sexes; one hundred and twenty confraternities relieve the
+ wants of their brethren, &c. The benevolence of London is still
+ more extensive; but I am afraid that much more is to be ascribed
+ to the humanity, than to the religion, of the people.]
+
+ The two articles of belief, and the four practical duties, of
+ Islam, are guarded by rewards and punishments; and the faith of
+ the Mussulman is devoutly fixed on the event of the judgment and
+ the last day. The prophet has not presumed to determine the
+ moment of that awful catastrophe, though he darkly announces the
+ signs, both in heaven and earth, which will precede the universal
+ dissolution, when life shall be destroyed, and the order of
+ creation shall be confounded in the primitive chaos. At the blast
+ of the trumpet, new worlds will start into being: angels, genii,
+ and men will arise from the dead, and the human soul will again
+ be united to the body. The doctrine of the resurrection was first
+ entertained by the Egyptians; 106 and their mummies were
+ embalmed, their pyramids were constructed, to preserve the
+ ancient mansion of the soul, during a period of three thousand
+ years. But the attempt is partial and unavailing; and it is with
+ a more philosophic spirit that Mahomet relies on the omnipotence
+ of the Creator, whose word can reanimate the breathless clay, and
+ collect the innumerable atoms, that no longer retain their form
+ or substance. 107 The intermediate state of the soul it is hard
+ to decide; and those who most firmly believe her immaterial
+ nature, are at a loss to understand how she can think or act
+ without the agency of the organs of sense.
+
+ 106 (return) [ See Herodotus (l. ii. c. 123) and our learned
+ countryman Sir John Marsham, (Canon. Chronicus, p. 46.) The same
+ writer (p. 254-274) is an elaborate sketch of the infernal
+ regions, as they were painted by the fancy of the Egyptians and
+ Greeks, of the poets and philosophers of antiquity.]
+
+ 107 (return) [ The Koran (c. 2, p. 259, &c.; of Sale, p. 32; of
+ Maracci, p. 97) relates an ingenious miracle, which satisfied the
+ curiosity, and confirmed the faith, of Abraham.]
+
+ The reunion of the soul and body will be followed by the final
+ judgment of mankind; and in his copy of the Magian picture, the
+ prophet has too faithfully represented the forms of proceeding,
+ and even the slow and successive operations, of an earthly
+ tribunal. By his intolerant adversaries he is upbraided for
+ extending, even to themselves, the hope of salvation, for
+ asserting the blackest heresy, that every man who believes in
+ God, and accomplishes good works, may expect in the last day a
+ favorable sentence. Such rational indifference is ill adapted to
+ the character of a fanatic; nor is it probable that a messenger
+ from heaven should depreciate the value and necessity of his own
+ revelation. In the idiom of the Koran, 108 the belief of God is
+ inseparable from that of Mahomet: the good works are those which
+ he has enjoined, and the two qualifications imply the profession
+ of Islam, to which all nations and all sects are equally invited.
+
+ Their spiritual blindness, though excused by ignorance and
+ crowned with virtue, will be scourged with everlasting torments;
+ and the tears which Mahomet shed over the tomb of his mother for
+ whom he was forbidden to pray, display a striking contrast of
+ humanity and enthusiasm. 109 The doom of the infidels is common:
+ the measure of their guilt and punishment is determined by the
+ degree of evidence which they have rejected, by the magnitude of
+ the errors which they have entertained: the eternal mansions of
+ the Christians, the Jews, the Sabians, the Magians, and
+ idolaters, are sunk below each other in the abyss; and the lowest
+ hell is reserved for the faithless hypocrites who have assumed
+ the mask of religion. After the greater part of mankind has been
+ condemned for their opinions, the true believers only will be
+ judged by their actions. The good and evil of each Mussulman will
+ be accurately weighed in a real or allegorical balance; and a
+ singular mode of compensation will be allowed for the payment of
+ injuries: the aggressor will refund an equivalent of his own good
+ actions, for the benefit of the person whom he has wronged; and
+ if he should be destitute of any moral property, the weight of
+ his sins will be loaded with an adequate share of the demerits of
+ the sufferer. According as the shares of guilt or virtue shall
+ preponderate, the sentence will be pronounced, and all, without
+ distinction, will pass over the sharp and perilous bridge of the
+ abyss; but the innocent, treading in the footsteps of Mahomet,
+ will gloriously enter the gates of paradise, while the guilty
+ will fall into the first and mildest of the seven hells. The term
+ of expiation will vary from nine hundred to seven thousand years;
+ but the prophet has judiciously promised, that all his disciples,
+ whatever may be their sins, shall be saved, by their own faith
+ and his intercession from eternal damnation. It is not surprising
+ that superstition should act most powerfully on the fears of her
+ votaries, since the human fancy can paint with more energy the
+ misery than the bliss of a future life. With the two simple
+ elements of darkness and fire, we create a sensation of pain,
+ which may be aggravated to an infinite degree by the idea of
+ endless duration. But the same idea operates with an opposite
+ effect on the continuity of pleasure; and too much of our present
+ enjoyments is obtained from the relief, or the comparison, of
+ evil. It is natural enough that an Arabian prophet should dwell
+ with rapture on the groves, the fountains, and the rivers of
+ paradise; but instead of inspiring the 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
+ sensual and costly luxury, which becomes insipid to the owner,
+ even in the short period of this mortal life. Seventy-two Houris,
+ or black-eyed girls, of resplendent beauty, blooming youth,
+ virgin purity, and exquisite sensibility, will be created for the
+ use of the meanest believer; a moment of pleasure will be
+ prolonged to a thousand years; and his faculties will be
+ increased a hundred fold, to render him worthy of his felicity.
+ Notwithstanding a vulgar prejudice, the gates of heaven will be
+ open to both sexes; but Mahomet has not specified the male
+ companions of the female elect, lest he should either alarm the
+ jealousy of their former husbands, or disturb their felicity, by
+ the suspicion of an everlasting marriage. This image of a carnal
+ paradise has provoked the indignation, perhaps the envy, of the
+ monks: they declaim against the impure religion of Mahomet; and
+ his modest apologists are driven to the poor excuse of figures
+ and allegories. But the sounder and more consistent party adhere
+ without shame, to the literal interpretation of the Koran:
+ useless would be the resurrection of the body, unless it were
+ restored to the possession and exercise of its worthiest
+ faculties; and the union of sensual and intellectual enjoyment is
+ requisite to complete the happiness of the double animal, the
+ perfect man. Yet the joys of the Mahometan paradise will not be
+ confined to the indulgence of luxury and appetite; and the
+ prophet has expressly declared that all meaner happiness will be
+ forgotten and despised by the saints and martyrs, who shall be
+ admitted to the beatitude of the divine vision. 110
+
+ 108 (return) [ The candid Reland has demonstrated, that Mahomet
+ damns all unbelievers, (de Religion. Moham. p. 128-142;) that
+ devils will not be finally saved, (p. 196-199;) that paradise
+ will not solely consist of corporeal delights, (p. 199-205;) and
+ that women’s souls are immortal. (p. 205-209.)]
+
+ 109 (return) [ A Beidawi, apud Sale. Koran, c. 9, p. 164. The
+ refusal to pray for an unbelieving kindred is justified,
+ according to Mahomet, by the duty of a prophet, and the example
+ of Abraham, who reprobated his own father as an enemy of God. Yet
+ Abraham (he adds, c. 9, v. 116. Maracci, tom. ii. p. 317) fuit
+ sane pius, mitis.]
+
+ 110 (return) [ For the day of judgment, hell, paradise, &c.,
+ consult the Koran, (c. 2, v. 25, c. 56, 78, &c.;) with Maracci’s
+ virulent, but learned, 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 the Magi are darkly and
+ doubtfully explored by their apologist, Dr. Hyde, (Hist.
+ Religionis Persarum, c. 33, p. 402-412, Oxon. 1760.) In the
+ article of Mahomet, Bayle has shown how indifferently wit and
+ philosophy supply the absence of genuine information.]
+
+ The first and most arduous conquests of Mahomet 111 were those of
+ his wife, his servant, his pupil, and his friend; 112 since he
+ presented himself as a prophet to those who were most conversant
+ with his infirmities as a man. Yet Cadijah believed the words,
+ and cherished the glory, of her husband; the obsequious and
+ affectionate Zeid was tempted by the prospect of freedom; the
+ illustrious Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, embraced the sentiments of
+ his cousin with the spirit of a youthful hero; and the wealth,
+ the moderation, the veracity of Abubeker confirmed the religion
+ of the prophet whom he was destined to succeed. By his
+ persuasion, ten of the most respectable citizens of Mecca were
+ introduced to the private lessons of Islam; they yielded to the
+ voice of reason and enthusiasm; they repeated the fundamental
+ creed, “There is but one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God;”
+ and their faith, even in this life, was rewarded with riches and
+ honors, with the command of armies and the government of
+ kingdoms. Three years were silently employed in the conversion of
+ fourteen proselytes, the first-fruits of his mission; but in the
+ fourth year he assumed the prophetic office, and resolving to
+ impart to his family the light of divine truth, he prepared a
+ banquet, a lamb, as it is said, and a bowl of milk, for the
+ entertainment of forty guests of the race of Hashem. “Friends and
+ kinsmen,” said Mahomet to the assembly, “I offer you, and I alone
+ can offer, the most precious of gifts, the treasures of this
+ world and of the world to come. God has commanded me to call you
+ to his service. Who among you will support my burden? Who among
+ you will be my companion and my vizier?” 113 No answer was
+ returned, till the silence of astonishment, and doubt, and
+ contempt, was at length broken by the impatient courage of Ali, a
+ youth in the fourteenth year of his age. “O prophet, I am the
+ man: whosoever rises against thee, I will dash out his teeth,
+ tear out his eyes, break his legs, rip up his belly. O prophet, I
+ will be thy vizier over them.” Mahomet accepted his offer with
+ transport, and Abu Taled was ironically exhorted to respect the
+ superior dignity of his son. In a more serious tone, the father
+ of Ali advised his nephew to relinquish his impracticable design.
+
+ “Spare your remonstrances,” replied the intrepid fanatic to his
+ uncle and benefactor; “if they should place the sun on my right
+ hand, and the moon on my left, they should not divert me from my
+ course.” He persevered ten years in the exercise of his mission;
+ and the religion which has overspread the East and the West
+ advanced with a slow and painful progress within the walls of
+ Mecca. Yet Mahomet enjoyed the satisfaction of beholding the
+ increase of his infant congregation of Unitarians, who revered
+ him as a prophet, and to whom he seasonably dispensed the
+ spiritual nourishment of the Koran. The number of proselytes may
+ be esteemed by the absence of eighty-three men and eighteen
+ women, who retired to Aethiopia in the seventh year of his
+ mission; and his party was fortified by the timely conversion of
+ his uncle Hamza, and of the fierce and inflexible Omar, who
+ signalized in the cause of Islam the same zeal, which he had
+ exerted for its destruction. Nor was the charity of Mahomet
+ confined to the tribe of Koreish, or the precincts of Mecca: on
+ solemn festivals, in the days of pilgrimage, he frequented the
+ Caaba, accosted the strangers of every tribe, and urged, both in
+ private converse and public discourse, the belief and worship of
+ a sole Deity. Conscious of his reason and of his weakness, he
+ asserted the liberty of conscience, and disclaimed the use of
+ religious violence: 114 but he called the Arabs to repentance,
+ and conjured them to remember the ancient idolaters of Ad and
+ Thamud, whom the divine justice had swept away from the face of
+ the earth. 115
+
+ 111 (return) [ Before I enter on the history of the prophet, it
+ is incumbent on me to produce my evidence. The Latin, French, and
+ English versions of the Koran are preceded by historical
+ discourses, and the three translators, Maracci, (tom. i. p.
+ 10-32,) Savary, (tom. i. p. 1-248,) and Sale, (Preliminary
+ Discourse, p. 33-56,) had accurately studied the language and
+ character of their author. Two professed Lives of Mahomet have
+ been composed by Dr. Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, seventh edition,
+ London, 1718, in octavo) and the count de Boulainvilliers, (Vie
+ de Mahomed, Londres, 1730, in octavo: ) but the adverse wish of
+ finding an impostor or a hero, has too often corrupted the
+ learning of the doctor and the ingenuity of the count. The
+ article in D’Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient. p. 598-603) is chiefly
+ drawn from Novairi and Mirkond; but the best and most authentic
+ of our guides is M. Gagnier, a Frenchman by birth, and professor
+ at Oxford of the Oriental tongues. In two elaborate works,
+ (Ismael Abulfeda de Vita et Rebus gestis Mohammedis, &c. Latine
+ vertit, Praefatione et Notis illustravit Johannes Gagnier, Oxon.
+ 1723, in folio. La Vie de Mahomet traduite et compilee de
+ l’Alcoran, des Traditions Authentiques de la Sonna et des
+ meilleurs Auteurs 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 credulous doctor, who visited Mecca
+ A.D. 1556. (D’Herbelot, p. 397. Gagnier, tom. iii. p. 209, 210.)
+ These are my general vouchers, and the inquisitive reader may
+ follow the order of time, and the division of chapters. Yet I
+ must observe that both Abulfeda and Al Jannabi are modern
+ historians, and that they cannot appeal to any writers of the
+ first century of the Hegira. * Note: A new Life, by Dr. Weil,
+ (Stuttgart. 1843,) has added some few traditions unknown in
+ Europe. Of Dr. Weil’s Arabic scholarship, which professes to
+ correct many errors in Gagnier, in Maracci, and in M. von Hammer,
+ I am no judge. But it is remarkable that he does not seem
+ acquainted with the passage of Tabari, translated by Colonel Vans
+ Kennedy, in the Bombay Transactions, (vol. iii.,) the earliest
+ and most important addition made to the traditionary Life of
+ Mahomet. I am inclined to think Colonel Vans Kennedy’s
+ appreciation of the prophet’s character, 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 me most valuable in
+ its dissection and chronological view of the Koran.—M. 1845]
+
+ 112 (return) [ After the Greeks, Prideaux (p. 8) discloses the
+ secret doubts of the wife of Mahomet. As if he had been a privy
+ counsellor of the prophet, Boulainvilliers (p. 272, &c.) unfolds
+ the sublime and patriotic views of Cadijah and the first
+ disciples.]
+
+ 113 (return) [ Vezirus, portitor, bajulus, onus ferens; and this
+ plebeian name was transferred by an apt metaphor to the pillars
+ of the state, (Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. p. 19.) I endeavor to
+ preserve the Arabian idiom, as far as I can feel it myself in a
+ Latin or French translation.]
+
+ 114 (return) [ The passages of the Koran in behalf of toleration
+ are strong 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. This character alone may generally decide the doubts of the
+ learned, whether a chapter was revealed at Mecca or Medina.]
+
+ 115 (return) [ 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 Arabiae Descript. p. 43, 44,) and
+ may be probably ascribed to the Throglodytes of 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 and envy. The elders of the city, the uncles of the
+ prophet, affected to despise the presumption of an orphan, the
+ reformer of his country: the pious orations of Mahomet in the
+ Caaba were answered by the clamors of Abu Taleb. “Citizens and
+ pilgrims, listen not to the tempter, hearken not to his impious
+ novelties. Stand fast in the worship of Al Lata and Al Uzzah.”
+ Yet the son of Abdallah was ever dear to the aged chief: and he
+ protected the fame and person of his nephew against the assaults
+ of the Koreishites, who had long been jealous of the preeminence
+ of the family of Hashem. Their malice was colored with the
+ pretence of religion: in the age of Job, the crime of impiety was
+ punished by the Arabian magistrate; 116 and Mahomet was guilty of
+ deserting and denying 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. They repeatedly addressed Abu Taleb in
+ the style of reproach and menace. “Thy nephew reviles our
+ religion; he accuses our wise forefathers of ignorance and folly;
+ silence him quickly, lest he kindle tumult and discord in the
+ city. If he persevere, we shall draw our swords against him and
+ his adherents, and thou wilt be responsible for the blood of thy
+ fellow-citizens.” The weight and moderation of Abu Taleb eluded
+ the violence of religious faction; the most helpless or timid of
+ the disciples retired to Aethiopia, and the prophet withdrew
+ himself to various places of strength in the town and country. As
+ he was still supported by his family, the rest of the tribe of
+ Koreish engaged themselves to renounce all intercourse with the
+ children of Hashem, neither to buy nor sell, neither to marry not
+ to give in marriage, but to pursue them with implacable enmity,
+ till they should deliver the person of Mahomet to the justice of
+ the gods. The decree was suspended in the Caaba before the eyes
+ of the nation; the messengers of the Koreish pursued the
+ Mussulman exiles in the heart of Africa: they besieged the
+ prophet and his most faithful followers, intercepted their water,
+ and inflamed their mutual animosity by the retaliation of
+ injuries and insults. A doubtful truce restored the appearances
+ of concord till the death of Abu Taleb abandoned Mahomet to the
+ power of his enemies, at the moment when he was deprived of his
+ domestic comforts by the loss of his faithful and generous
+ Cadijah. Abu Sophian, the chief of the branch of Ommiyah,
+ succeeded to the principality of the republic of Mecca. A zealous
+ votary of the idols, a mortal foe of the line of Hashem, he
+ convened an assembly of the Koreishites and their allies, to
+ decide the fate of the apostle. His imprisonment might provoke
+ the despair of his enthusiasm; and the exile of an eloquent and
+ popular fanatic would diffuse the mischief through the provinces
+ of Arabia. His death was resolved; and they agreed that a sword
+ from each tribe should be buried in his heart, to divide the
+ guilt of his blood, and baffle the vengeance of the Hashemites.
+ An angel or a spy revealed their conspiracy; and flight was the
+ only resource of Mahomet. 117 At the dead of night, accompanied
+ by his friend Abubeker, he silently escaped from his house: the
+ assassins watched at the door; but they were deceived by the
+ figure of Ali, who reposed on the bed, and was covered with the
+ green vestment of the apostle. The Koreish respected the piety of
+ the heroic youth; but some verses of Ali, which are still extant,
+ exhibit an interesting picture of his anxiety, his tenderness,
+ and his religious confidence. Three days Mahomet and his
+ companion were concealed 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 and daughter of Abubeker a secret supply of
+ intelligence and food. The diligence of the Koreish explored
+ every haunt in the neighborhood of the city: they arrived at the
+ entrance of the cavern; but the providential deceit of a spider’s
+ web and a pigeon’s nest is supposed to convince them that the
+ place was solitary and inviolate. “We are only two,” said the
+ trembling Abubeker. “There is a third,” replied the prophet; “it
+ is God himself.” No sooner was the pursuit abated than the two
+ fugitives issued from the rock, and mounted their camels: on the
+ road to Medina, they were overtaken by the emissaries of the
+ Koreish; they redeemed themselves with prayers and promises from
+ their hands. In this eventful moment, the lance of an Arab might
+ have changed the history of the world. The flight of the prophet
+ from Mecca to Medina has fixed the memorable aera of the Hegira,
+ 118 which, at the end of twelve centuries, still discriminates
+ the lunar years of the Mahometan nations. 119
+
+ 116 (return) [ In the time of Job, the crime of impiety was
+ punished by the Arabian magistrate, (c. 21, v. 26, 27, 28.) I
+ blush for a respectable 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.]
+
+ 117 (return) [ D’Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 445. He quotes a
+ particular history of the flight of Mahomet.]
+
+ 118 (return) [ The Hegira was instituted by Omar, the second
+ caliph, in imitation of the aera of the martyrs of the
+ Christians, (D’Herbelot, p. 444;) and properly commenced
+ sixty-eight days before the flight of Mahomet, with the first of
+ Moharren, or first day of that Arabian year which 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 Epochae Arabum, &c.,
+ c. 1, p. 8, 10, &c.) * Note: Chronologists dispute between the
+ 15th and 16th of July. St. Martin inclines to the 8th, ch. xi. p.
+ 70.—M.]
+
+ 119 (return) [ Mahomet’s life, from his mission to the Hegira,
+ may be 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, and disdained by Abulfeda.]
+
+ The religion of the Koran might have perished in its cradle, had
+ not Medina embraced with faith and reverence the holy outcasts of
+ Mecca. Medina, or the city, known under the name of Yathreb,
+ before it was sanctified by the throne of the prophet, was
+ divided between the tribes of the Charegites and the Awsites,
+ whose hereditary feud was rekindled by the slightest
+ provocations: two colonies of Jews, who boasted a sacerdotal
+ race, were their humble allies, and without converting the Arabs,
+ they introduced the taste of science and religion, which
+ distinguished Medina as the city of the Book. Some of her noblest
+ citizens, in a pilgrimage to the Canaba, were converted by the
+ preaching of Mahomet; on their return, they diffused the belief
+ of God and his prophet, and the new alliance was ratified by
+ their deputies in two secret and nocturnal interviews on a hill
+ in the suburbs of Mecca. In the first, ten Charegites and two
+ Awsites united in faith and love, protested, in the name of their
+ wives, their children, and their absent brethren, that they would
+ forever profess the creed, and observe the precepts, of the
+ Koran. The second was a political association, the first vital
+ spark of the empire of the Saracens. 120 Seventy-three men and
+ two women of Medina held a solemn conference with Mahomet, his
+ kinsman, and his disciples; and pledged themselves to each other
+ by a mutual oath of fidelity. They promised, in the name of the
+ city, that if he should be banished, they would receive him as a
+ confederate, obey him as a leader, and defend him to the last
+ extremity, like their wives and children. “But if you are
+ recalled by your country,” they asked with a flattering anxiety,
+ “will you not abandon your new allies?” “All things,” replied
+ Mahomet with a smile, “are now common between us; your blood is
+ as my blood, your ruin as my ruin. We are bound to each other by
+ the ties of honor and interest. I am your friend, and the enemy
+ of your foes.” “But if we are killed in your service, what,”
+ exclaimed the deputies of Medina, “will be our reward?”
+ “Paradise,” replied the prophet. “Stretch forth thy hand.” He
+ stretched it forth, and they reiterated the oath of allegiance
+ and fidelity. Their treaty was ratified by the people, who
+ unanimously embraced the profession of Islam; they rejoiced in
+ the exile of the apostle, but they trembled for his safety, and
+ impatiently expected his arrival. After a perilous and rapid
+ journey along the sea-coast, he halted at Koba, two miles from
+ the city, and made his public entry into Medina, sixteen days
+ after his flight from Mecca. Five hundred of the citizens
+ advanced to meet him; he was hailed with acclamations of loyalty
+ and devotion; Mahomet was mounted on a she-camel, an umbrella
+ shaded his head, and a turban was unfurled before him to supply
+ the deficiency of a standard. His bravest disciples, who had been
+ scattered by the storm, assembled round his person; and the
+ equal, though various, merit of the Moslems was distinguished by
+ the names of Mohagerians and Ansars, the fugitives of Mecca, and
+ the auxiliaries of Medina. To eradicate the seeds of jealousy,
+ Mahomet judiciously coupled his principal followers with the
+ rights and obligations of brethren; and when Ali found himself
+ without a peer, the prophet tenderly declared, that he would be
+ the companion and brother of the noble youth. The expedient was
+ crowned with success; the holy fraternity was respected in peace
+ and war, and the two parties vied with each other in a generous
+ emulation of courage and fidelity. Once only the concord was
+ slightly ruffled by an accidental quarrel: a patriot of Medina
+ arraigned the insolence of the strangers, but the hint of their
+ expulsion was heard with abhorrence; and his own son most eagerly
+ offered to lay at the apostle’s feet the head of his father.
+
+ 120 (return) [ The triple inauguration of Mahomet is described by
+ Abulfeda (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
+ the regal and sacerdotal office; and it was impious to appeal
+ from a judge whose decrees were inspired by the divine wisdom. A
+ small portion of ground, the patrimony of two orphans, was
+ acquired by gift or purchase; 121 on that chosen spot he built a
+ house and a mosch, more venerable in their rude simplicity than
+ the palaces and temples of the Assyrian caliphs. His seal of
+ gold, or silver, was inscribed with the apostolic title; when he
+ prayed and preached in the weekly assembly, he leaned against the
+ trunk of a palm-tree; and it was long before he indulged himself
+ in the use of a chair or pulpit of rough timber. 122 After a
+ reign of six years, fifteen hundred Moslems, in arms and in the
+ field, renewed their oath of allegiance; and their chief repeated
+ the assurance of protection till the death of the last member, or
+ the final dissolution of the party. It was in the same camp that
+ the deputy of Mecca was astonished by the attention of the
+ faithful to the words and looks of the prophet, by the eagerness
+ with which they collected his spittle, a hair that dropped on the
+ ground, the refuse water of his lustrations, as if they
+ participated in some degree of the prophetic virtue. “I have
+ seen,” said he, “the Chosroes of Persia and the Caesar of Rome,
+ but never did I behold a king among his subjects like Mahomet
+ among his companions.” The devout fervor of enthusiasm acts with
+ more energy and truth than the cold and formal servility of
+ courts.
+
+ 121 (return) [ Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 44) reviles the
+ wickedness of the impostor, who despoiled two poor orphans, the
+ sons of a carpenter; a reproach which he drew from the Disputatio
+ contra Saracenos, composed in Arabic before the year 1130; but
+ the honest Gagnier (ad Abulfed. p. 53) has shown that they were
+ deceived by the word Al Nagjar, which signifies, in this place,
+ not an obscure trade, but a noble tribe of Arabs. The desolate
+ state of the ground is described by Abulfeda; and his worthy
+ interpreter has proved, from Al Bochari, the offer of a price;
+ from Al Jannabi, the fair purchase; and from Ahmeq Ben Joseph,
+ the payment of the money by the generous Abubeker On these
+ grounds the prophet must be honorably acquitted.]
+
+ 122 (return) [ Al Jannabi (apud Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 246, 324)
+ describes the seal and pulpit, as two venerable relics of the
+ apostle of God; and the 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
+ of arms, his person and his possessions; to repel, or even to
+ prevent, the violence of his enemies, and to extend his
+ hostilities to a reasonable measure of satisfaction and
+ retaliation. In the free society of the Arabs, the duties of
+ subject and citizen imposed a feeble restraint; and Mahomet, in
+ the exercise of a peaceful and benevolent mission, had been
+ despoiled and banished by the injustice of his countrymen. The
+ choice of an independent people had exalted the fugitive of Mecca
+ to the rank of a sovereign; and he was invested with the just
+ prerogative of forming alliances, and of waging offensive or
+ defensive war. The imperfection of human rights was supplied and
+ armed by the plenitude of divine power: the prophet of Medina
+ assumed, in his new revelations, a fiercer and more sanguinary
+ tone, which proves that his former moderation was the effect of
+ weakness: 123 the means of persuasion had been tried, the season
+ of forbearance was elapsed, and he was now commanded to propagate
+ his religion by the sword, to destroy the monuments of idolatry,
+ and, without regarding the sanctity of days or months, to pursue
+ the unbelieving nations of the earth. The same bloody precepts,
+ so repeatedly inculcated in the Koran, are ascribed by the author
+ to the Pentateuch and the Gospel. But the mild tenor of the
+ evangelic style may explain an ambiguous text, that Jesus did not
+ bring peace on the earth, but a sword: his patient and humble
+ virtues should not be confounded with the intolerant zeal of
+ princes and bishops, who have disgraced the name of his
+ disciples. In the prosecution of religious war, Mahomet might
+ appeal with more propriety to the example of Moses, of the
+ Judges, and the kings of Israel. The military laws of the Hebrews
+ are still more rigid than those of the Arabian legislator. 124
+ The Lord of hosts marched in person before the Jews: if a city
+ resisted their summons, the males, without distinction, were put
+ to the sword: the seven nations of Canaan were devoted to
+ destruction; and neither repentance nor conversion, could shield
+ them from the inevitable doom, that no creature within their
+ precincts should be left alive. 1241 The fair option of
+ friendship, or submission, or battle, was proposed to the enemies
+ of Mahomet. If they professed the creed of Islam, they were
+ admitted to all the temporal and spiritual benefits of his
+ primitive disciples, and marched under the same banner to extend
+ the religion which they had embraced. The clemency of the prophet
+ was decided by his interest: yet he seldom trampled on a
+ prostrate enemy; and he seems to promise, that on the payment of
+ a tribute, the least guilty of his unbelieving subjects might be
+ indulged in their worship, or at least in their imperfect faith.
+ In the first months of his reign he practised the lessons of holy
+ warfare, and displayed his white banner before the gates of
+ Medina: the martial apostle fought in person at nine battles or
+ sieges; 125 and fifty enterprises of war were achieved in ten
+ years by himself or his lieutenants. The Arab continued to unite
+ the professions of a merchant and a robber; and his petty
+ excursions for the defence or the attack of a caravan insensibly
+ prepared his troops for the conquest of Arabia. The distribution
+ of the spoil was regulated by a divine law: 126 the whole was
+ faithfully collected in one common mass: a fifth of the gold and
+ silver, the prisoners and cattle, the movables and immovables,
+ was reserved by the prophet for pious and charitable uses; the
+ remainder was shared in adequate portions by the soldiers who had
+ obtained the victory or guarded the camp: the rewards of the
+ slain devolved to their widows and orphans; and the increase of
+ cavalry was encouraged by the allotment of a double share to the
+ horse and to the man. From all sides the roving Arabs were
+ allured to the standard of religion and plunder: the apostle
+ sanctified the license of embracing the female captives as their
+ wives or concubines, and the enjoyment of wealth and beauty was a
+ feeble type of the joys of paradise prepared for the valiant
+ martyrs of the faith. “The sword,” says Mahomet, “is the key of
+ heaven and of hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a
+ night spent 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 judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion,
+ and odoriferous as musk; and the loss of his limbs shall be
+ supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim.” The intrepid souls
+ of the Arabs were fired with enthusiasm: the picture of the
+ invisible world was strongly painted on their imagination; and
+ the death which they had always despised became an object of hope
+ and desire. The Koran inculcates, in the most absolute sense, the
+ tenets of fate and predestination, which would extinguish both
+ industry and virtue, if the actions of man were governed by his
+ speculative belief. Yet their influence in every age has exalted
+ the courage of the Saracens and Turks. The first companions of
+ Mahomet advanced to battle with a fearless confidence: there is
+ no danger where there is no chance: they were ordained to perish
+ in their beds; or they were safe and invulnerable amidst the
+ darts of the enemy. 127
+
+ 123 (return) [ The viiith and ixth chapters of the Koran are the
+ loudest and most vehement; and Maracci (Prodromus, part iv. p.
+ 59-64) has inveighed with more justice than discretion against
+ the double dealing of the impostor.]
+
+ 124 (return) [ The xth and xxth chapters of Deuteronomy, with the
+ practical comments of Joshua, David, &c., are read with more awe
+ than satisfaction by the pious Christians of the present age. But
+ the bishops, as well as the rabbis of former times, have beat the
+ drum-ecclesiastic with pleasure and success. (Sale’s Preliminary
+ Discourse, p. 142, 143.)]
+
+ 1241 (return) [ The editor’s opinions on this subject may be read
+ in the History of the Jews vol. i. p. 137.—M]
+
+ 125 (return) [ Abulfeda, in Vit. Moham. p. 156. The private
+ arsenal of the apostle consisted of nine swords, three lances,
+ seven pikes or half-pikes, a quiver and three bows, seven
+ cuirasses, three shields, and two helmets, (Gagnier, tom. iii. p.
+ 328-334,) with a large white standard, a black banner, (p. 335,)
+ twenty horses, (p. 322, &c.) Two of his martial sayings are
+ recorded by tradition, (Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 88, 334.)]
+
+ 126 (return) [ The whole subject de jure belli Mohammedanorum is
+ exhausted in a separate dissertation by the learned Reland,
+ (Dissertationes Miscellaneae, tom. iii. Dissertat. x. p. 3-53.)]
+
+ 127 (return) [ The doctrine of absolute predestination, on which
+ few religions 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) and Sale (Prelim. Discourse, p. 103)
+ represent the opinions of the doctors, and our modern travellers
+ the confidence, the fading confidence, of the Turks]
+
+ 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, who could intercept their Syrian trade as it passed
+ and repassed through the territory of Medina. Abu Sophian
+ himself, with only thirty or forty followers, conducted a wealthy
+ caravan of a thousand camels; the fortune or dexterity of his
+ march escaped the vigilance of Mahomet; but the chief of the
+ Koreish was informed that the holy robbers were placed in ambush
+ to await his return. He despatched a messenger to his brethren of
+ Mecca, and they were roused, by the fear of losing their
+ merchandise and their provisions, unless they hastened to his
+ relief with the military force of the city. The sacred band of
+ Mahomet was formed of three hundred and thirteen Moslems, of whom
+ seventy-seven were fugitives, and the rest auxiliaries; they
+ mounted by turns a train of seventy camels, (the camels of
+ Yathreb were formidable in war;) but such was the poverty of his
+ first disciples, that only two could appear on horseback in the
+ field. 128 In the fertile and famous vale of Beder, 129 three
+ stations from Medina, he was informed by his scouts of the
+ caravan that approached on one side; of the Koreish, one hundred
+ horse, eight hundred and fifty foot, who advanced on the other.
+ After a short debate, he sacrificed the prospect of wealth to the
+ pursuit of glory and revenge, and a slight intrenchment was
+ formed, to cover his troops, and a stream of fresh water, that
+ glided through the valley. “O God,” he exclaimed, as the numbers
+ of the Koreish descended from the hills, “O God, if these are
+ destroyed, by whom wilt thou be worshipped on the earth?—Courage,
+ my children; close your ranks; discharge your arrows, and the day
+ is your own.” At these words he placed himself, with Abubeker, on
+ a throne or pulpit, 130 and instantly demanded the succor of
+ Gabriel and three thousand angels. His eye was fixed on the field
+ of battle: the Mussulmans fainted and were pressed: in that
+ decisive moment the prophet started from his throne, mounted his
+ horse, and cast a handful of sand into the air: “Let their faces
+ be covered with confusion.” Both armies heard 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. The dead
+ bodies of the Koreish were despoiled and insulted: two of the
+ most obnoxious prisoners were punished with death; and the ransom
+ of the others, four thousand drams of silver, compensated in some
+ degree the escape of the caravan. But it was in vain that the
+ camels of Abu Sophian explored a new road through the desert and
+ along the Euphrates: they were overtaken by the diligence of the
+ Mussulmans; and wealthy must have been the prize, if twenty
+ thousand drams could be set apart for the fifth of the apostle.
+ The resentment of the public and private loss stimulated Abu
+ Sophian to collect a body of three thousand men, seven hundred of
+ whom were armed with cuirasses, and two hundred were mounted on
+ horseback; three thousand camels attended his march; and his wife
+ Henda, with fifteen matrons of Mecca, incessantly sounded their
+ timbrels to animate the troops, and to magnify the greatness of
+ Hobal, the most popular deity of the Caaba. The standard of God
+ and Mahomet was upheld by nine hundred and fifty believers: the
+ disproportion of numbers was not more alarming than in the field
+ of Beder; and their presumption of victory prevailed against the
+ divine and human sense of the apostle. The second battle was
+ fought on Mount Ohud, six miles to the north of Medina; 132 the
+ Koreish advanced in the form of a crescent; and the right wing of
+ cavalry was led by Caled, the fiercest and most successful of the
+ Arabian warriors. The troops of Mahomet were skilfully posted on
+ the declivity of the hill; and their rear was guarded by a
+ detachment of fifty archers. The weight of their charge impelled
+ and broke the centre of the idolaters: but in the pursuit they
+ lost the advantage of their ground: the archers deserted their
+ station: the Mussulmans were tempted by the spoil, disobeyed
+ their general, and disordered their ranks. The intrepid Caled,
+ wheeling his cavalry on their flank and rear, exclaimed, with a
+ loud voice, that Mahomet was slain. He was indeed wounded in the
+ face 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 the murder of a prophet; and blessed the friendly
+ hand that stanched his blood, and conveyed him to a place of
+ safety. Seventy martyrs died for the sins of the people; they
+ fell, said the apostle, in pairs, each brother embracing his
+ lifeless companion; 133 their bodies were mangled by the inhuman
+ females of Mecca; and the wife of Abu Sophian tasted the entrails
+ of Hamza, the uncle of Mahomet. They might applaud their
+ superstition, and satiate their fury; but the Mussulmans soon
+ rallied in the field, and the Koreish wanted strength or courage
+ to undertake the siege of Medina. It was attacked the ensuing
+ year by an army of ten thousand enemies; and this third
+ expedition is variously named from the nations, which marched
+ under the banner of Abu Sophian, from the ditch which was drawn
+ before the city, and a camp of three thousand Mussulmans. The
+ prudence of Mahomet declined a general engagement: the valor of
+ Ali was signalized in single combat; and the war was protracted
+ twenty days, till the final separation of the confederates. A
+ tempest of wind, rain, and hail, overturned their tents: their
+ private quarrels were fomented by an insidious adversary; and the
+ Koreish, deserted by their allies, no longer hoped to subvert the
+ throne, or to check the conquests, of their invincible exile. 134
+
+ 128 (return) [ Al Jannabi (apud Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 9) allows
+ him seventy or eighty horse; and on two other occasions, prior to
+ the battle 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 two horses, according to the better sense of
+ Abulfeda, (in Vit. Moham. c. xxxi. p. 65.) In the Stony province,
+ the camels were numerous; but the horse appears to have been less
+ numerous than in the Happy or the Desert Arabia.]
+
+ 129 (return) [ Bedder Houneene, twenty miles from Medina, and
+ forty from Mecca, is on the high road of the caravan of Egypt;
+ and the pilgrims annually commemorate the prophet’s victory by
+ illuminations, rockets, &c. Shaw’s Travels, p. 477.]
+
+ 130 (return) [ The place to which Mahomet retired during the
+ action is styled 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 Arabic word is rendered by Reiske (Annales
+ Moslemici Abulfedae, p. 23) by Solium, Suggestus editior; and the
+ difference is of the utmost moment for the honor both of the
+ interpreter and of the hero. I am sorry to observe the pride and
+ acrimony with which Reiske chastises his fellow-laborer. Saepi
+ sic vertit, ut integrae paginae nequeant nisi una litura corrigi
+ Arabice non satis callebat, et carebat judicio critico. J. J.
+ Reiske, Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalisae Tabulas, p. 228, ad
+ calcero Abulfedae Syriae Tabulae; Lipsiae, 1766, in 4to.]
+
+ 131 (return) [ The loose expressions of the Koran (c. 3, p. 124,
+ 125, c. 8, p. 9) allow the commentators to fluctuate between the
+ numbers of 1000, 3000, or 9000 angels; and the smallest of these
+ might suffice for the slaughter of seventy of the Koreish,
+ (Maracci, Alcoran, tom. ii. p. 131.) Yet the same scholiasts
+ confess that this angelic band was not visible 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.)]
+
+ 132 (return) [ Geograph. Nubiensis, p. 47.]
+
+ 133 (return) [ In the iiid chapter of the Koran, (p. 50-53) with
+ Sale’s notes, the prophet alleges some poor excuses for the
+ defeat of Ohud. * Note: Dr. Weil has added some curious
+ circumstances, which he gives as on good traditional authority,
+ on the rescue of Mahomet. The prophet was attacked by Ubeijj Ibn
+ Challaf, whom he struck on the neck with a mortal wound. This was
+ the only time, it is added, that Mahomet personally engaged in
+ battle. (p. 128.)—M. 1845.]
+
+ 134 (return) [ For the detail of the three Koreish wars, of
+ Beder, of Ohud, 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 articles of 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
+ the early propensity of Mahomet in favor of the Jews; and happy
+ would it have been for their temporal interest, had they
+ recognized, in the Arabian prophet, the hope of Israel and the
+ promised Messiah. Their obstinacy converted his friendship into
+ implacable hatred, with which he pursued that unfortunate people
+ to the last moment of his life; and in the double character of an
+ apostle and a conqueror, his persecution was extended to both
+ worlds. 135 The Kainoka dwelt at Medina under the protection of
+ the city; he seized the occasion of an accidental tumult, and
+ summoned them to embrace his religion, or contend with him in
+ battle. “Alas!” replied the trembling Jews, “we are ignorant of
+ the use of arms, but we persevere in the faith and worship of our
+ fathers; why wilt thou reduce us to the necessity of a just
+ defence?” The unequal conflict was terminated in fifteen days;
+ and it was with extreme reluctance that Mahomet yielded to the
+ importunity of his allies, and consented to spare the lives of
+ the captives. But their riches were confiscated, their arms
+ became more effectual in the hands of the Mussulmans; and a
+ wretched colony of seven hundred exiles was driven, with their
+ wives and children, to implore a refuge on the confines of Syria.
+ The Nadhirites were more guilty, since they conspired, in a
+ friendly interview, to assassinate the prophet. He besieged their
+ castle, three miles from Medina; but their resolute defence
+ obtained an honorable capitulation; and the garrison, sounding
+ their trumpets and beating their drums, was permitted to depart
+ with the honors of war. The Jews had excited and joined the war
+ of the Koreish: no sooner had the nations retired from the ditch,
+ than Mahomet, without laying aside his armor, marched on the same
+ day to extirpate the hostile race of the children of Koraidha.
+ After a resistance of twenty-five days, they surrendered at
+ discretion. They trusted to the intercession of their old allies
+ of Medina; they could not be ignorant that fanaticism obliterates
+ the feelings of humanity. A venerable elder, to whose judgment
+ they appealed, pronounced the sentence of their death; seven
+ hundred Jews were dragged in chains to the market-place of the
+ city; they descended alive into the grave prepared for their
+ execution and burial; and the apostle beheld with an inflexible
+ eye the slaughter of his helpless enemies. Their sheep and camels
+ were inherited by the Mussulmans: three hundred cuirasses, five
+ hundred pikes, a thousand lances, composed the most useful
+ portion of the spoil. Six days’ journey to the north-east of
+ Medina, the ancient and wealthy town of Chaibar was the seat of
+ the Jewish 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 of Mahomet consisted of two hundred horse
+ and fourteen hundred foot: in the succession of eight regular and
+ painful sieges they were exposed to danger, and fatigue, and
+ hunger; and the most undaunted chiefs despaired of the event. The
+ apostle revived their faith and courage by the example of Ali, on
+ whom he bestowed the surname of the Lion of God: perhaps we may
+ believe that a Hebrew champion of gigantic stature was cloven to
+ the chest by his irresistible cimeter; but we cannot praise the
+ modesty of romance, which represents him as tearing from its
+ hinges the gate of a fortress and wielding the ponderous buckler
+ in his left hand. 136 After the reduction of the castles, the
+ town of Chaibar submitted to the yoke. The chief of the tribe was
+ tortured, in the presence of Mahomet, to force a confession of
+ his hidden treasure: the industry of the shepherds and husbandmen
+ was rewarded with a precarious toleration: they were permitted,
+ so long as it should please the conqueror, to improve their
+ patrimony, in equal shares, for his emolument and their own.
+ Under the reign of Omar, the Jews of Chaibar were transported to
+ Syria; and the caliph alleged the injunction of his dying master;
+ that one and the true religion should be professed in his native
+ land of Arabia. 137
+
+ 135 (return) [ 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.)]
+
+ 136 (return) [ Abu Rafe, the servant of Mahomet, is said to
+ affirm that he himself, and seven other men, afterwards tried,
+ without success, to move the same gate from the ground,
+ (Abulfeda, p. 90.) Abu Rafe was an eye-witness, but who will be
+ witness for Abu Rafe?]
+
+ 137 (return) [ 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 Jewish religion, and Karaite sect, are still professed
+ by the tribe of Chaibar; and that, in the plunder of the
+ caravans, the disciples of Moses are the confederates 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, as a conqueror, the city and the temple from
+ whence he had been driven as an exile. The Caaba was present to
+ his waking and sleeping fancy: an idle dream was translated into
+ vision and prophecy; he unfurled the holy banner; and a rash
+ promise of success too hastily dropped from the lips of the
+ apostle. His march from Medina to Mecca displayed the peaceful
+ and solemn pomp of a pilgrimage: seventy camels, chosen and
+ bedecked for sacrifice, preceded the van; the sacred territory
+ was respected; and the captives were dismissed without ransom to
+ proclaim his clemency and devotion. But no sooner did Mahomet
+ descend into the plain, within a day’s journey of the city, than
+ he exclaimed, “They have clothed themselves with the skins of
+ tigers:” the numbers and resolution of the Koreish opposed his
+ progress; and the roving Arabs of the desert might desert or
+ betray a leader whom they had followed for the hopes of spoil.
+ The intrepid fanatic sunk into a cool and cautious politician: he
+ waived in the treaty his title of apostle of God; concluded with
+ the Koreish and their allies a truce of ten years; engaged to
+ restore the fugitives of Mecca who should embrace his religion;
+ and stipulated only, for the ensuing 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, and their
+ disappointment might justly accuse the failure of a prophet who
+ had so often appealed to the evidence of success. The faith and
+ hope of the pilgrims were rekindled by the prospect of Mecca:
+ their swords were sheathed; 1381 seven times in the footsteps of
+ the apostle they encompassed the Caaba: the Koreish had retired
+ to the hills, and Mahomet, after the customary sacrifice,
+ evacuated the city on the fourth day. The people was edified by
+ his devotion; the hostile chiefs were awed, or divided, or
+ seduced; and both Kaled and Amrou, the future conquerors of Syria
+ and Egypt, most seasonably deserted the sinking cause of
+ idolatry. The power of Mahomet was increased by the submission of
+ the Arabian tribes; ten thousand soldiers were assembled for the
+ conquest of Mecca; and the idolaters, the weaker party, were
+ easily convicted of violating the truce. Enthusiasm and
+ discipline impelled the march, and preserved the secret till the
+ blaze of ten thousand fires proclaimed to the astonished Koreish
+ the design, the approach, and the irresistible force of the
+ enemy. The haughty Abu Sophian presented the keys of the city,
+ admired the variety of arms and ensigns that passed before him in
+ review; observed that the son of Abdallah had acquired a mighty
+ kingdom, and confessed, under the cimeter of Omar, that he was
+ the apostle of the true God. The return of Marius and Scylla was
+ stained with the blood of the Romans: the revenge of Mahomet was
+ stimulated by religious zeal, and his injured followers were
+ eager to execute or to prevent the order of a massacre. Instead
+ of indulging their passions and his own, 139 the victorious exile
+ forgave the guilt, and united the factions, of Mecca. His troops,
+ in three divisions, marched into the city: eight-and-twenty of
+ the inhabitants were slain by the sword of Caled; eleven men and
+ six women were proscribed by the sentence of Mahomet; but he
+ blamed the cruelty of his lieutenant; and several of the most
+ obnoxious victims were indebted for their lives to his clemency
+ or contempt. The chiefs of the Koreish were prostrate at his
+ feet. “What mercy can you expect from the man whom you have
+ wronged?” “We confide in the generosity of our kinsman.” “And you
+ shall not confide in vain: begone! you are safe, you are free”
+ The people of Mecca deserved their pardon by the profession of
+ Islam; and after an exile of seven years, the fugitive missionary
+ was enthroned as the prince and prophet of his native country.
+ 140 But the three hundred and sixty idols of the Caaba were
+ ignominiously broken: the house of God was purified and adorned:
+ as an example to future times, the apostle again fulfilled the
+ duties of a pilgrim; and a perpetual law was enacted that no
+ unbeliever should dare to set his foot on the territory of the
+ holy city. 141
+
+ 138 (return) [ The successive steps of the reduction of Mecca are
+ related 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.)]
+
+ 1381 (return) [ This peaceful entrance into Mecca took place,
+ according to the treaty the following year. Weil, p. 202—M.
+ 1845.]
+
+ 139 (return) [ After the conquest of Mecca, the Mahomet of
+ Voltaire imagines 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 capable de tout, (Oeuvres de Voltaire, tom. xv.
+ p. 282.) The maxim is neither charitable nor philosophic; and
+ some reverence is surely due to the fame of heroes and the
+ religion of nations. I am informed that a Turkish ambassador at
+ Paris was much scandalized at the representation of this
+ tragedy.]
+
+ 140 (return) [ The Mahometan doctors still dispute, whether Mecca
+ was reduced by force or consent, (Abulfeda, p. 107, et Gagnier ad
+ locum;) and this verbal controversy is of as much moment as our
+ own about William the Conqueror.]
+
+ 141 (return) [ In excluding the Christians from the peninsula of
+ Arabia, 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. The Christians are received without
+ scruple into the ports of Mocha, and even of Gedda; and it is
+ only the city and precincts of Mecca that are inaccessible 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
+ Arabian tribes; 142 who, according to the vicissitudes of
+ fortune, had obeyed, or disregarded, the eloquence or the arms of
+ the prophet. Indifference for rites and opinions still marks the
+ character of the Bedoweens; and they might accept, as loosely as
+ they hold, the doctrine of the Koran. Yet an obstinate remnant
+ still adhered to the religion and liberty of their ancestors, and
+ the war of Honain derived a proper appellation from the idols,
+ whom Mahomet had vowed to destroy, and whom the confederates of
+ Tayef had sworn to defend. 143 Four thousand Pagans advanced with
+ secrecy and speed to surprise the conqueror: they pitied and
+ despised the 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 and Mecca were displayed by the prophet; a
+ crowd of Bedoweens increased the strength or numbers of the army,
+ and twelve thousand Mussulmans entertained a rash and sinful
+ presumption of their invincible strength. They descended without
+ precaution into the valley of Honain: the heights had been
+ occupied by the archers and slingers of the confederates; their
+ numbers were oppressed, their discipline was confounded, their
+ courage was appalled, and the Koreish smiled at their impending
+ destruction. The prophet, on his white mule, was encompassed by
+ the enemies: he attempted to rush against their spears in search
+ of a glorious death: ten of his faithful companions interposed
+ their weapons and their breasts; three of these fell dead at his
+ feet: “O my brethren,” he repeatedly cried, with sorrow and
+ indignation, “I am the son of Abdallah, I am the apostle of
+ truth! O man, stand fast in the faith! O God, send down thy
+ succor!” His uncle Abbas, who, like the heroes of Homer, excelled
+ in the loudness of his voice, made the valley resound with the
+ recital of the gifts and promises of God: the flying Moslems
+ returned from all sides to the holy standard; and Mahomet
+ observed with pleasure that the furnace was again rekindled: his
+ conduct and example restored the battle, and he animated his
+ victorious troops to inflict a merciless revenge on the authors
+ of their shame. From the field of Honain, he marched without
+ delay to the siege of Tayef, sixty miles to the south-east of
+ Mecca, a fortress of strength, whose fertile lands produce the
+ fruits of Syria in the midst of the Arabian desert. A friendly
+ tribe, instructed (I know not how) in the art of sieges, supplied
+ him with a train of battering-rams and military engines, with a
+ body of five hundred artificers. But it was in vain that he
+ offered freedom to the slaves of Tayef; that he violated his own
+ laws by the extirpation of the fruit-trees; that the ground was
+ opened by the miners; that the breach was assaulted by the
+ troops. After a siege of twenty-days, the prophet sounded a
+ retreat; but he retreated with a song of devout triumph, and
+ affected to pray for the repentance and safety of the unbelieving
+ city. The spoils of this fortunate expedition amounted to six
+ thousand captives, twenty-four thousand camels, forty thousand
+ sheep, and four thousand ounces of silver: a tribe who had fought
+ at Hoinan redeemed their prisoners by the sacrifice of their
+ idols; but Mahomet compensated the loss, by resigning to the
+ soldiers his fifth of the plunder, and wished, for their sake,
+ that he possessed as many head of cattle as there were trees in
+ the province of Tehama. Instead of chastising the disaffection of
+ the Koreish, he endeavored to cut out their tongues, (his own
+ expression,) and to secure their attachment by a superior measure
+ of liberality: Abu Sophian alone was presented with three hundred
+ camels and twenty ounces of silver; and Mecca was sincerely
+ converted to the profitable religion of the Koran.
+
+ 142 (return) [ Abulfeda, p. 112-115. Gagnier, tom. iii. p. 67-88.
+ D’Herbelot, Mohammed.]
+
+ 143 (return) [ The siege of Tayef, division of the spoil, &c.,
+ are related 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 of Daws. The fertile spot of Tayef was supposed to
+ be a piece of the land of Syria detached and dropped in the
+ general deluge]
+
+ The fugitives and auxiliaries complained, that they who had borne
+ the burden were neglected in the season of victory “Alas!”
+ replied their artful leader, “suffer me to conciliate these
+ recent enemies, these doubtful proselytes, by the gift of some
+ perishable goods. To your guard I intrust my life and fortunes.
+ You are the companions of my exile, of my 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! a truce
+ of three years, with the toleration of our ancient worship.” “Not
+ a month, not an hour.” “Excuse us at least from the obligation of
+ prayer.” “Without prayer religion is of no avail.” They submitted
+ in silence: their temples were demolished, and the same sentence
+ of destruction was executed on all the idols of Arabia. His
+ lieutenants, on the shores of the Red Sea, the Ocean, and the
+ Gulf of Persia, were saluted by the acclamations of a faithful
+ people; and the ambassadors, who knelt before the throne of
+ Medina, were as numerous (says the Arabian proverb) as the dates
+ that fall from the maturity of a palm-tree. The nation submitted
+ to the God and the sceptre of Mahomet: the opprobrious name of
+ tribute was abolished: the spontaneous or reluctant oblations of
+ arms and tithes were applied to the service of religion; and one
+ hundred and fourteen thousand Moslems accompanied the last
+ pilgrimage of the apostle. 144
+
+ 144 (return) [ The last conquests and pilgrimage of Mahomet are
+ contained in Abulfeda, (p. 121, 133,) Gagnier, (tom. iii. p.
+ 119-219,) Elmacin, (p. 10, 11,) Abulpharagius, (p. 103.) The ixth
+ of the Hegira was 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 and nations of the earth to the profession of
+ Islam. On this foundation the zeal of the Arabians has supposed
+ the secret conversion of the Christian emperor: the vanity of the
+ Greeks has feigned a personal visit of the prince of Medina, who
+ accepted from the royal bounty a rich domain, and a secure
+ retreat, in the province of Syria. 145 But the friendship of
+ Heraclius and Mahomet was of short continuance: the new religion
+ had inflamed rather than assuaged the rapacious spirit of the
+ Saracens, and the murder of an envoy afforded a decent pretence
+ for invading, with three thousand soldiers, the territory of
+ Palestine, that extends to the eastward of the Jordan. The holy
+ banner was intrusted to Zeid; and such was the discipline or
+ enthusiasm of the rising sect, that the noblest chiefs served
+ without reluctance under the slave of the prophet. On the event
+ of his decease, Jaafar and Abdallah were successively substituted
+ to the command; and if the three should perish in the war, the
+ troops were authorized to elect their general. The three leaders
+ were slain in the battle of Muta, 146 the first military action,
+ which tried the valor of the Moslems against a foreign enemy.
+ Zeid fell, like a soldier, in the foremost ranks: the death of
+ Jaafar was heroic and memorable: he lost his right hand: he
+ shifted the standard to his left: the left was severed from his
+ body: he embraced the standard with his bleeding stumps, till he
+ was transfixed to the ground with fifty honorable wounds. 1461
+ “Advance,” cried Abdallah, who stepped into the vacant place,
+ “advance with confidence: either victory or paradise is our own.”
+ The lance of a Roman decided the alternative; but the falling
+ standard was rescued by Caled, the proselyte of Mecca: nine
+ swords were broken in his hand; and his valor withstood and
+ repulsed the superior numbers of the Christians. In the nocturnal
+ council of the camp he was chosen to command: his skilful
+ evolutions of the ensuing day secured either the victory or the
+ retreat of the Saracens; and Caled is renowned among his brethren
+ and his enemies by the glorious appellation of the Sword of God.
+ In the pulpit, Mahomet described, with prophetic rapture, the
+ crowns of the blessed martyrs; but in private he betrayed the
+ feelings of human nature: he was surprised as he wept over the
+ daughter of Zeid: “What do I see?” said the astonished votary.
+ “You see,” replied the apostle, “a friend who is deploring the
+ loss of his most faithful friend.” After the conquest of Mecca,
+ the sovereign of Arabia affected to prevent the hostile
+ preparations of Heraclius; and solemnly proclaimed war against
+ the Romans, without attempting to disguise the hardships and
+ dangers of the enterprise. 147 The Moslems were discouraged: they
+ alleged the want of money, or horses, or provisions; the season
+ of harvest, and the intolerable heat of the summer: “Hell is much
+ hotter,” said the indignant prophet. He disdained to compel their
+ service: but on his return he admonished the most guilty, by an
+ excommunication of fifty days. Their desertion enhanced the merit
+ of Abubeker, Othman, and the faithful companions who devoted
+ their lives and fortunes; and Mahomet displayed his banner at the
+ head of ten thousand horse and twenty thousand foot. Painful
+ indeed was the distress of the march: lassitude and thirst were
+ aggravated by the scorching and pestilential winds of the desert:
+ ten men rode by turns on one camel; and they were reduced to the
+ shameful necessity of drinking the water from the belly of that
+ useful animal. In the mid-way, ten days’ journey from Medina and
+ Damascus, they reposed near the grove and fountain of Tabuc.
+ Beyond that place Mahomet declined the prosecution of the war: he
+ declared himself satisfied with the peaceful intentions, he was
+ more probably daunted by the martial array, of the emperor of the
+ East. But the active and intrepid Caled spread around the terror
+ of his name; and the prophet received the submission of the
+ tribes and cities, from the Euphrates to Ailah, at the head of
+ the Red Sea. To his Christian subjects, Mahomet readily granted
+ the security of their persons, the freedom of their trade, the
+ property of their goods, and the toleration of their worship. 148
+ The weakness of their Arabian brethren had restrained them from
+ opposing his ambition; the disciples of Jesus were endeared to
+ the enemy of the Jews; and it was the interest of a conqueror to
+ propose a fair capitulation to the most powerful religion of the
+ earth.
+
+ 145 (return) [ 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.)]
+
+ 146 (return) [ For the battle of Muta, and its consequences, see
+ Abulfeda (p 100-102) and Gagnier, (tom. ii. p. 327-343.).]
+
+ 1461 (return) [ To console the afflicted relatives of his kinsman
+ Jauffer, he (Mahomet) represented that, in Paradise, in exchange
+ for the 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 he was become the inseparable companion of the
+ archangal Gabriel, in his volitations through the regions of
+ eternal bliss. Hence, in the catalogue of the martyrs, he has
+ been denominated Jauffer teyaur, the winged Jauffer. Price,
+ Chronological Retrospect of Mohammedan History, vol. i. p. 5.-M.]
+
+ 147 (return) [ The expedition of Tabuc is recorded by our
+ ordinary historians Abulfeda (Vit. Moham. p. 123-127) and
+ Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 147-163: ) but we have the
+ advantage of appealing to the original evidence of the Koran, (c.
+ 9, p. 154, 165,) with Sale’s learned and rational notes.]
+
+ 148 (return) [ The Diploma securitatis Ailensibus is attested by
+ Ahmed Ben Joseph, and the author Libri Splendorum, (Gagnier, Not.
+ ad Abulfe dam, p. 125;) but Abulfeda himself, as well as Elmacin,
+ (Hist. Saracen. p. 11,) though he owns Mahomet’s regard for the
+ Christians, (p 13,) only mentions peace and tribute. In the year
+ 1630, Sionita published at Paris the text and version of
+ Mahomet’s patent in favor of the Christians; which was admitted
+ and reprobated by the opposite taste of Salmasius and Grotius,
+ (Bayle, Mahomet, Rem. Aa.) Hottinger doubts of its authenticity,
+ (Hist. Orient. p. 237;) Renaudot urges the consent of the
+ Mohametans, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 169;) but Mosheim (Hist.
+ Eccles. p. 244) shows the futility of their opinion and inclines
+ to believe it spurious. Yet Abulpharagius quotes the impostor’s
+ treaty with the Nestorian patriarch, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient.
+ tom. ii. p. 418;) but Abulpharagius was primate of the
+ Jacobites.]
+
+ Till the age of sixty-three years, the strength of Mahomet was
+ equal to the temporal and spiritual fatigues of his mission. His
+ epileptic fits, an absurd calumny of the Greeks, would be an
+ object of pity rather than abhorrence; 149 but he seriously
+ believed that he was poisoned at Chaibar by the revenge of a
+ Jewish female. 150 During four years, the health of the prophet
+ declined; his infirmities increased; but his mortal disease was a
+ fever of fourteen days, which deprived him by intervals of the
+ use of reason. As soon as he was conscious of his danger, he
+ edified his brethren by the humility of his virtue or penitence.
+ “If there be any man,” said the apostle from the pulpit, “whom I
+ have unjustly scourged, I submit my own back to the lash of
+ retaliation. Have I aspersed the reputation of a Mussulman? let
+ him proclaim my thoughts in the face of the congregation. Has any
+ one been despoiled of his goods? the little that I possess shall
+ compensate the principal and the interest of the debt.” “Yes,”
+ replied a voice from the crowd, “I am entitled to three drams of
+ silver.” Mahomet heard the complaint, satisfied the demand, and
+ thanked his creditor for accusing him in this world rather than
+ at the day of judgment. He beheld with temperate firmness the
+ approach of death; enfranchised his slaves (seventeen men, as
+ they are named, and eleven women;) minutely directed the order of
+ his funeral, and moderated the lamentations of his weeping
+ friends, on whom he bestowed the benediction of peace. Till the
+ third day before his death, he regularly performed the function
+ of public prayer: the choice of Abubeker to supply his place,
+ appeared to mark that ancient and faithful friend as his
+ successor in the sacerdotal and regal office; but he prudently
+ declined the risk and envy of a more explicit nomination. At a
+ moment when his faculties were visibly impaired, he called for
+ pen and ink to write, or, more properly, to dictate, a divine
+ book, the sum and accomplishment of all his revelations: a
+ dispute arose in the chamber, whether he should be allowed to
+ supersede the authority of the Koran; and the prophet was forced
+ to reprove the indecent vehemence of his disciples. If the
+ slightest credit may be afforded to the traditions of his wives
+ and companions, he maintained, in the bosom of his family, and to
+ the last moments of his life, the dignity 1501 of an apostle, and
+ the faith of an enthusiast; described the visits of Gabriel, who
+ bade an everlasting farewell to the earth, and expressed his
+ lively confidence, not only of the mercy, but of the favor, of
+ the Supreme Being. In a familiar discourse he had mentioned his
+ special prerogative, that the angel of death was not allowed to
+ take his soul till he had respectfully asked the permission of
+ the prophet. The request was granted; and Mahomet immediately
+ fell into the agony of his dissolution: his head was reclined on
+ the lap of Ayesha, the best beloved of all his wives; he fainted
+ with the violence of pain; recovering his spirits, he raised his
+ eyes towards the roof of the house, and, with a steady look,
+ though a faltering voice, uttered the last broken, though
+ articulate, words: “O God!..... pardon my sins....... Yes, ......
+ I come,...... among my fellow-citizens on high;” and thus
+ peaceably expired on a carpet spread upon the floor. An
+ expedition for the conquest of Syria was stopped by this mournful
+ event; the army halted at the gates of Medina; the chiefs were
+ assembled round their dying master. The city, more especially the
+ house, of the prophet, was a scene of clamorous sorrow of silent
+ despair: fanaticism alone could suggest a ray of hope and
+ consolation. “How can he be dead, our witness, our intercessor,
+ our mediator, with God? By God he is not dead: like Moses and
+ Jesus, he is wrapped in a holy trance, and speedily will he
+ return to his faithful people.” The evidence of sense was
+ disregarded; and Omar, unsheathing his cimeter, threatened to
+ strike off the heads of the infidels, who should dare to affirm
+ that the prophet was no more. The tumult was appeased by the
+ weight and moderation of Abubeker. “Is it Mahomet,” said he to
+ Omar and the multitude, “or the God of Mahomet, whom you worship?
+ The God of Mahomet liveth forever; but the apostle was a mortal
+ like ourselves, and according to his own prediction, he has
+ experienced the common fate of mortality.” He was piously
+ interred by the hands of his nearest kinsman, on the same spot on
+ which he expired: 151 Medina has been sanctified by the death and
+ burial of Mahomet; and the innumerable pilgrims of Mecca often
+ turn aside from the way, to bow, in voluntary devotion, 152
+ before the simple tomb of the prophet. 153
+
+ 149 (return) [ The epilepsy, or falling-sickness, of Mahomet is
+ asserted by Theophanes, Zonaras, and the rest of the Greeks; and
+ is greedily swallowed 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 of the Koran, (73, 74)
+ can hardly be strained to such an interpretation: the silence,
+ the ignorance of the Mahometan commentators, is more conclusive
+ than the most peremptory denial; and the charitable side is
+ espoused 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 adduces strong evidence for it; and surely it may
+ be believed, in perfect charity; and that the prophet’s visions
+ were connected, as they appear to have been, with these fits. I
+ have little doubt that he saw and believed these visions, and
+ visions they were. Weil, p. 43.—M. 1845.]
+
+ 150 (return) [ This poison (more ignominious since it was offered
+ as a test of his prophetic knowledge) is frankly confessed by his
+ zealous votaries, Abulfeda (p. 92) and Al Jannabi, (apud Gagnier,
+ tom. ii. p. 286-288.)]
+
+ 1501 (return) [ Major Price, who writes with the authority of one
+ widely conversant with the original sources of Eastern knowledge,
+ and in a very candid tone, takes a very different view of the
+ prophet’s death. “In tracing the circumstances of Mahommed’s
+ illness, we look in vain for any proofs of that meek and heroic
+ firmness which might be expected to dignify and embellish the
+ last moments of the apostle of God. On some occasions he betrayed
+ such want of fortitude, such marks of childish impatience, as are
+ in general to be found in men only of the most ordinary stamp;
+ and such as extorted from his wife Ayesha, in particular, the
+ sarcastic remark, that in herself, or any of her family, a
+ similar demeanor would long since have incurred his severe
+ displeasure. * * * He said that the acuteness and violence of his
+ sufferings were necessarily in the proportion of those honors
+ with which it had ever pleased the hand of Omnipotence to
+ distinguish its peculiar favorites.” Price, vol. i. p. 13.—M]
+
+ 151 (return) [ The Greeks and Latins have invented and propagated
+ the vulgar and ridiculous story, that Mahomet’s iron tomb is
+ suspended in the air at Mecca, (Laonicus Chalcondyles, de Rebus
+ Turcicis, l. iii. p. 66,) by the action of equal and potent
+ loadstones, (Dictionnaire de Bayle, Mahomet, Rem. Ee. Ff.)
+ Without any philosophical inquiries, it may suffice, that, 1. The
+ prophet was not buried at Mecca; and, 2. That his tomb at Medina,
+ which has been visited by millions, is placed on the ground,
+ (Reland, de Relig. Moham. l. ii. c. 19, p. 209-211. Gagnier, Vie
+ de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 263-268.) * Note: According to the
+ testimony of all the Eastern authors, Mahomet died on Monday the
+ 12th Reby 1st, in the year 11 of the Hegira, which answers in
+ reality to the 8th June, 632, of J. C. We find in Ockley (Hist.
+ of Saracens) that it was on Monday the 6th June, 632. This is a
+ mistake; for the 6th June of that year was a Saturday, not a
+ Monday; the 8th June, therefore, was a Monday. It is easy to
+ discover that the lunar year, in this calculation has been
+ confounded with the solar. St. Martin vol. xi. p. 186.—M.]
+
+ 152 (return) [ Al Jannabi enumerates (Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii.
+ p. 372-391) the multifarious duties of a pilgrim who visits the
+ tombs of the prophet and his companions; and the learned casuist
+ decides, that this act of devotion is nearest in obligation and
+ merit to a divine precept. The doctors are divided which, of
+ Mecca or Medina, be the most excellent, (p. 391-394.)]
+
+ 153 (return) [ The last sickness, death, and burial of Mahomet,
+ are described by Abulfeda and Gagnier, (Vit. Moham. p. 133-142.
+ —Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 220-271.) The most private and
+ interesting circumstances were originally received from Ayesha,
+ Ali, the sons of Abbas, &c.; and as they dwelt at Medina, and
+ survived the prophet many years, they might repeat the pious tale
+ to a second or third generation of 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 decide whether the title of enthusiast or impostor more
+ properly belongs to that extraordinary man. Had I been intimately
+ conversant with the son of Abdallah, the task would still be
+ difficult, and the success uncertain: at the distance of twelve
+ centuries, I darkly contemplate his shade through a cloud of
+ religious incense; and could I truly delineate the portrait of an
+ hour, the fleeting resemblance would not equally apply to the
+ solitary of Mount Hera, to the preacher of Mecca, and to the
+ conqueror of Arabia. The author of a mighty revolution appears to
+ have been endowed with a pious and contemplative disposition: so
+ soon as marriage had raised him above the pressure of want, he
+ avoided the paths of ambition and avarice; and till the age of
+ forty he lived with innocence, and would have died without a
+ name. The unity of God is an idea most congenial to nature and
+ reason; and a slight conversation with the Jews and Christians
+ would teach him to despise and detest the idolatry of Mecca. It
+ was the duty of a man and a citizen to impart the doctrine of
+ salvation, to rescue his country from the dominion of sin and
+ error. The energy of a mind incessantly bent on the same object,
+ would convert a general obligation into a particular call; the
+ warm suggestions of the understanding or the fancy would be felt
+ as the inspirations of Heaven; the labor of thought would expire
+ in rapture and vision; and the inward sensation, the invisible
+ monitor, would be described with the form and attributes of an
+ angel of God. 154 From enthusiasm to imposture, the step is
+ perilous and slippery: the daemon of Socrates 155 affords a
+ memorable instance, how a wise man may deceive himself, how a
+ good man may deceive others, how the conscience may slumber in a
+ mixed and middle state between self-illusion and voluntary fraud.
+ Charity may believe that the original motives of Mahomet were
+ those of pure and genuine benevolence; but a human missionary is
+ incapable of cherishing the obstinate unbelievers who reject his
+ claims despise his arguments, and persecute his life; he might
+ forgive his personal adversaries, he may lawfully hate the
+ enemies of God; the stern passions of pride and revenge were
+ kindled in the bosom of Mahomet, and he sighed, like the prophet
+ of Nineveh, for the destruction of the rebels whom he had
+ condemned. The injustice of Mecca and the choice of Medina,
+ transformed the citizen into a prince, the humble preacher into
+ the leader of armies; but his sword was consecrated by the
+ example of the saints; and the same God who afflicts a sinful
+ world with pestilence and earthquakes, might inspire for their
+ conversion or chastisement the valor of his servants. In the
+ exercise of political government, he was compelled to abate of
+ the stern rigor of fanaticism, to comply in some measure with the
+ prejudices and passions of his followers, and to employ even the
+ vices of mankind as the instruments of their salvation. The use
+ of fraud and perfidy, of cruelty and injustice, were often
+ subservient to the propagation of the faith; and Mahomet
+ commanded or approved the assassination of the Jews and idolaters
+ who had escaped from the field of battle. By the repetition of
+ such acts, the character of Mahomet must have been gradually
+ stained; and the influence of such pernicious habits would be
+ poorly compensated by the practice of the personal and social
+ virtues which are necessary to maintain the reputation of a
+ prophet among his sectaries and friends. Of his last years,
+ ambition was the ruling passion; and a politician will suspect,
+ that he secretly smiled (the victorious impostor!) at the
+ enthusiasm of his youth, and the credulity of his proselytes. 156
+ A philosopher will observe, that their credulity and his success
+ would tend more strongly to fortify the assurance of his divine
+ mission, that his interest and religion were inseparably
+ connected, and that his conscience would be soothed by the
+ persuasion, that he alone was absolved by the Deity from the
+ obligation of positive and moral laws. If he retained any vestige
+ of his native innocence, the sins of Mahomet may be allowed as an
+ evidence of his sincerity. In the support of truth, the arts of
+ fraud and fiction may be deemed less criminal; and he would have
+ started at the foulness of the means, had he not been satisfied
+ of the importance and justice of the end. Even in a conqueror or
+ a priest, I can surprise a word or action of unaffected humanity;
+ and the decree of Mahomet, that, in the sale of captives, the
+ mothers should never be separated from their children, may
+ suspend, or moderate, the censure of the historian. 157
+
+ 154 (return) [ The Christians, rashly enough, have assigned to
+ Mahomet a tame pigeon, that seemed to descend from heaven and
+ whisper in his ear. As this pretended miracle is urged by
+ Grotius, (de Veritate Religionis Christianae,) his Arabic
+ translator, the learned Pocock, inquired of him the names of his
+ authors; and Grotius confessed, that it is unknown to the
+ Mahometans themselves. Lest it should provoke their indignation
+ and laughter, the pious lie is suppressed in the Arabic version;
+ but it has maintained an edifying place in the numerous editions
+ of the Latin text, (Pocock, Specimen, Hist. Arabum, p. 186, 187.
+ Reland, de Religion. Moham. l. ii. c. 39, p. 259-262.)]
+
+ 155 (return) [ (Plato, in Apolog. Socrat. c. 19, p. 121, 122,
+ edit. Fischer.) The familiar examples, which Socrates urges in
+ his Dialogue with Theages, (Platon. Opera, tom. i. p. 128, 129,
+ edit. Hen. Stephan.) are beyond the reach of human foresight; and
+ the divine inspiration of the philosopher is clearly taught in
+ the Memorabilia of Xenophon. The ideas of the most rational
+ Platonists are expressed by Cicero, (de Divinat. i. 54,) and in
+ the xivth and xvth Dissertations of Maximus of Tyre, (p. 153-172,
+ edit. Davis.)]
+
+ 156 (return) [ In some passage of his voluminous writings,
+ Voltaire compares the prophet, in his old age, to a fakir, “qui
+ detache la chaine de son cou pour en donner sur les oreilles a
+ ses confreres.”]
+
+ 157 (return) [ Gagnier relates, with the same impartial pen, this
+ humane law of the prophet, and the murders of Caab, and Sophian,
+ which he prompted 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: the
+ apostle of God submitted to the menial offices of the family: he
+ kindled the fire, swept the floor, milked the ewes, and mended
+ with his own hands his shoes and his woollen garment. Disdaining
+ the penance and merit of a hermit, he observed, without effort or
+ vanity, the abstemious diet of an Arab and a soldier. On solemn
+ occasions he feasted his companions with rustic and hospitable
+ plenty; but in his domestic life, many weeks would elapse without
+ a fire being kindled on the hearth of the 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 food consisted
+ of dates and water. Perfumes and women were the two sensual
+ enjoyments which his nature required, and his religion did not
+ forbid; and Mahomet affirmed, that the fervor of his devotion was
+ increased by these innocent pleasures. The heat of the climate
+ inflames the blood of the Arabs; and their libidinous complexion
+ has been noticed by the writers of antiquity. 159 Their
+ incontinence was regulated by the civil and religious laws of the
+ Koran: their incestuous alliances were blamed; the boundless
+ license of polygamy was reduced to four legitimate wives or
+ concubines; their rights both of bed and of dowry were equitably
+ determined; the freedom of divorce was discouraged, adultery was
+ condemned as a capital offence; and fornication, in either sex,
+ was punished with a hundred stripes. 160 Such were the calm and
+ rational precepts of the legislator: but in his private conduct,
+ Mahomet indulged the appetites of a man, and abused the claims of
+ a prophet. A special revelation dispensed him from the laws which
+ he had imposed on his nation: 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 we remember the seven
+ hundred wives and three hundred concubines of the wise Solomon,
+ we shall applaud the modesty of the Arabian, who espoused no more
+ than seventeen or fifteen wives; eleven are enumerated who
+ occupied at Medina their separate apartments round the house of
+ the apostle, 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 Mahomet consummated his nuptials (such is the
+ premature ripeness of the climate) when she was only nine years
+ of age. The youth, the beauty, the spirit of Ayesha, gave her a
+ superior ascendant: she was beloved and trusted by the prophet;
+ and, after his death, the daughter of Abubeker was long revered
+ as the mother of the faithful. Her behavior had been ambiguous
+ and indiscreet: in a nocturnal march she was accidentally left
+ behind; and in the morning Ayesha returned to the camp with a
+ man. The temper of Mahomet was inclined to jealousy; but a divine
+ revelation assured him of her innocence: he chastised her
+ accusers, and published a law of domestic peace, that no woman
+ should be condemned unless four male witnesses had seen her in
+ the act of adultery. 161 In his adventures with Zeineb, the wife
+ of Zeid, and with Mary, an Egyptian captive, the amorous prophet
+ forgot the interest of his reputation. At the house of Zeid, his
+ freedman and adopted son, he beheld, in a loose undress, the
+ beauty of Zeineb, and burst forth into an ejaculation of devotion
+ and desire. The servile, or grateful, freedman understood the
+ hint, and yielded without hesitation to the love of his
+ benefactor. But as the filial relation had excited some doubt and
+ scandal, the angel Gabriel descended from heaven to ratify the
+ deed, to annul the adoption, and gently to reprove the apostle
+ for distrusting the indulgence of his God. One of his wives,
+ Hafna, the daughter of Omar, surprised him on her own bed, in the
+ embraces of his Egyptian captive: she promised secrecy and
+ forgiveness, he swore that he would renounce the possession of
+ Mary. Both parties forgot their engagements; and Gabriel again
+ descended with a chapter of the Koran, to absolve him from his
+ oath, and to exhort him freely to enjoy his captives and
+ concubines, without listening to the clamors 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 and revenge were
+ satiated, he summoned to his presence his eleven wives,
+ reproached their disobedience and indiscretion, and threatened
+ them with a sentence of divorce, both in this world and in the
+ next; a dreadful sentence, since those who had ascended the bed
+ of the prophet were forever excluded from the hope of a second
+ marriage. Perhaps the incontinence of Mahomet may be palliated by
+ the tradition of his natural or preternatural gifts; 162 he
+ united the manly virtue of thirty of the children of Adam: and
+ the apostle might rival the thirteenth labor 163 of the Grecian
+ Hercules. 164 A more serious and decent excuse may be drawn from
+ his fidelity to Cadijah. During the twenty-four years of their
+ marriage, her youthful husband abstained from the right of
+ polygamy, and the pride or tenderness of the venerable matron was
+ never insulted by the society of a rival. After her death, he
+ placed her in the rank of the four perfect women, with the sister
+ of Moses, the mother of Jesus, and Fatima, the best beloved of
+ his daughters. “Was she not old?” said Ayesha, with the insolence
+ of a blooming beauty; “has not God given you a better in her
+ place?” “No, by God,” said Mahomet, with an effusion of honest
+ gratitude, “there never can be a better! She believed in me when
+ men despised me; she relieved my wants, when I was poor and
+ persecuted by the world.” 165
+
+ 158 (return) [ For the domestic life of Mahomet, consult Gagnier,
+ and the corresponding chapters of Abulfeda; for his diet, (tom.
+ iii. p. 285-288;) his children, (p. 189, 289;) his wives, (p.
+ 290-303;) his marriage with Zeineb, (tom. ii. p. 152-160;) his
+ amour with Mary, (p. 303-309;) the false accusation of Ayesha,
+ (p. 186-199.) The most original evidence of the three last
+ transactions is contained in the xxivth, xxxiiid, and lxvith
+ chapters of the Koran, with Sale’s Commentary. Prideaux (Life of
+ Mahomet, p. 80-90) and Maracci (Prodrom. Alcoran, part iv. p.
+ 49-59) have maliciously exaggerated the frailties of Mahomet.]
+
+ 159 (return) [ Incredibile est quo ardore apud eos in Venerem
+ uterque solvitur sexus, (Ammian. Marcellin. l. xiv. c. 4.)]
+
+ 160 (return) [ Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p. 133-137) has
+ recapitulated the laws of marriage, divorce, &c.; and the curious
+ reader of Selden’s Uror Hebraica will recognize many Jewish
+ ordinances.]
+
+ 161 (return) [ In a memorable case, the Caliph Omar decided that
+ all presumptive evidence was of no avail; and that all the four
+ witnesses must have actually seen stylum in pyxide, (Abulfedae
+ Annales Moslemici, p. 71, vers. Reiske.)]
+
+ 162 (return) [ 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 after his
+ death, “O propheta, certe penis tuus coelum versus erectus est,”
+ in Vit. Mohammed, p. 140.]
+
+ 163 (return) [ I borrow the style of a father of the church,
+ (Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 108.)]
+
+ 164 (return) [ The common and most glorious legend includes, in a
+ single night the fifty victories of Hercules over the virgin
+ daughters of Thestius, (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. l. iv. p. 274.
+ Pausanias, l. ix. p. 763. Statius Sylv. l. i. eleg. iii. v. 42.)
+ But Athenaeus allows seven nights, (Deipnosophist, l. xiii. p.
+ 556,) and Apollodorus fifty, for this arduous achievement of
+ Hercules, who was then no more than eighteen years of age,
+ (Bibliot. l. ii. c. 4, p. 111, cum notis Heyne, part i. p. 332.)]
+
+ 165 (return) [ Abulfeda in Vit. Moham. p. 12, 13, 16, 17, cum
+ Notis Gagnier]
+
+ In the largest indulgence of polygamy, the founder of a religion
+ and empire might aspire to multiply the chances of a numerous
+ posterity and a lineal succession. The hopes of Mahomet were
+ fatally disappointed. The virgin Ayesha, and his ten widows of
+ mature age and approved fertility, were barren in his potent
+ embraces. The four sons of Cadijah died in their infancy. Mary,
+ his Egyptian concubine, was endeared to him by the birth of
+ Ibrahim. At the end of fifteen months the prophet wept over his
+ grave; but he sustained with firmness the raillery of his
+ enemies, and checked the adulation or credulity of the Moslems,
+ by the assurance that an eclipse of the sun was not occasioned by
+ the death of the infant. Cadijah had likewise given him four
+ daughters, who were married to the most faithful of his
+ disciples: the three eldest died before their father; but Fatima,
+ who possessed his confidence and love, became the wife of her
+ cousin Ali, and the mother of an illustrious progeny. The merit
+ and misfortunes of Ali and his descendants will lead me to
+ anticipate, in this place, the series of the Saracen caliphs, a
+ title which describes the commanders of the faithful as the
+ vicars and successors of the apostle of God. 166
+
+ 166 (return) [ This outline of the Arabian history is drawn from
+ the Bibliotheque Orientale of D’Herbelot, (under the names of
+ Aboubecre, Omar Othman, Ali, &c.;) from the Annals of Abulfeda,
+ Abulpharagius, and Elmacin, (under the proper years of the
+ Hegira,) and especially from Ockley’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 we should weigh with caution
+ the traditions of the hostile sects; a stream which becomes still
+ more muddy as it flows farther from the source. Sir John Chardin
+ has too faithfully copied the fables and errors of the modern
+ Persians, (Voyages, tom. ii. p. 235-250, &c.)]
+
+ The birth, the alliance, the character of Ali, which exalted him
+ above the rest of his countrymen, might justify his claim to the
+ vacant throne of Arabia. The son of Abu Taleb was, in his own
+ right, the chief of the family of Hashem, and the hereditary
+ prince or guardian of the city and temple of Mecca. The light of
+ prophecy was extinct; but the husband of Fatima might expect the
+ inheritance and blessing of her father: the Arabs had sometimes
+ been patient of a female reign; and the two grandsons of the
+ prophet had often been fondled in his lap, and shown in his
+ pulpit as the hope of his age, and the chief of the youth of
+ paradise. The first of the true believers might aspire to march
+ before them in this world and in the next; and if some were of a
+ graver and more rigid cast, the zeal and virtue of Ali were never
+ outstripped by any recent proselyte. He united the qualifications
+ of a poet, a soldier, and a saint: his wisdom still breathes in a
+ collection of moral and religious sayings; 167 and every
+ antagonist, in the combats of the tongue or of the sword, was
+ subdued by his eloquence and valor. From the first hour of his
+ mission to the last rites of his funeral, the apostle was never
+ forsaken by a generous friend, whom he delighted to name his
+ brother, his vicegerent, and the faithful Aaron of a second
+ Moses. The son of Abu Taleb was afterwards reproached for
+ neglecting to secure his interest by a solemn declaration of his
+ right, which would have silenced all competition, and sealed his
+ succession by the decrees of Heaven. But the unsuspecting hero
+ confided in himself: the jealousy of empire, and perhaps the fear
+ of opposition, might suspend the resolutions of Mahomet; and the
+ bed of sickness was besieged by the artful Ayesha, the daughter
+ of Abubeker, and the enemy of Ali. 1671
+
+ 167 (return) [ Ockley (at the end of his second volume) has given
+ an English version of 169 sentences, which he ascribes, with some
+ hesitation, to Ali, the son of Abu Taleb. His preface is colored
+ by the enthusiasm of a translator; yet these sentences delineate
+ a characteristic, though dark, picture of human life.]
+
+ 1671 (return) [ Gibbon wrote chiefly from the Arabic or Sunnite
+ account of these transactions, the only sources accessible at the
+ time when he composed his History. Major Price, writing from
+ Persian authorities, affords us the advantage of comparing
+ throughout what may be fairly considered the Shiite Version. The
+ glory of Ali is the constant burden of their strain. He was
+ destined, and, according to some accounts, designated, for the
+ caliphate by the prophet; but while the others were fiercely
+ pushing their own interests, Ali was watching the remains of
+ Mahomet with pious fidelity. His disinterested magnanimity, on
+ each separate occasion, declined the sceptre, and gave the noble
+ example of obedience 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 excess of virtue and love for the faithful
+ his life through his confidence in God, and submission to the
+ decrees of fate. Compare the curious account of 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 the Persian
+ 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 choice of his successor. The hereditary claim and lofty
+ spirit of Ali were offensive to an aristocracy of elders,
+ desirous of bestowing and resuming the sceptre by a free and
+ frequent election: the Koreish could never be reconciled to the
+ proud preeminence of the line of Hashem; the ancient discord of
+ the tribes was rekindled, the fugitives of Mecca and the
+ auxiliaries of Medina asserted their respective merits; and the
+ rash proposal of choosing two independent caliphs would have
+ crushed in their infancy the religion and empire of the Saracens.
+ The tumult was appeased by the disinterested resolution of Omar,
+ who, suddenly renouncing his own pretensions, stretched forth his
+ hand, and declared himself the first subject of the mild and
+ venerable Abubeker. 1672 The urgency of the moment, and the
+ acquiescence of the people, might excuse this illegal and
+ precipitate measure; but Omar himself confessed from the pulpit,
+ that if any Mulsulman should hereafter presume to anticipate the
+ suffrage of his brethren, both the elector and the elected would
+ be worthy of death. 168 After the simple inauguration of
+ Abubeker, he was obeyed in Medina, Mecca, and the provinces of
+ Arabia: the Hashemites alone declined the oath of fidelity; and
+ their chief, in his own house, maintained, above six months, a
+ sullen and independent reserve; without listening to the threats
+ of Omar, who attempted to consume with fire the habitation of the
+ daughter of the apostle. The death of Fatima, and the decline of
+ his party, subdued the indignant spirit of Ali: he condescended
+ to salute the commander of the faithful, accepted his excuse of
+ the necessity of preventing their common enemies, and wisely
+ rejected his courteous offer of abdicating the government of the
+ Arabians. After a reign of two years, the aged caliph was
+ summoned by the angel of death. In his testament, with the tacit
+ approbation of his companions, he bequeathed the sceptre to the
+ firm and intrepid virtue of Omar. “I have no occasion,” said the
+ modest candidate, “for the place.” “But the place has occasion
+ for you,” replied Abubeker; who expired with a fervent prayer,
+ that the God of Mahomet would ratify his choice, and direct the
+ Mussulmans in the way of concord and obedience. The prayer was
+ not ineffectual, since Ali himself, in a life of privacy and
+ prayer, professed to revere the superior worth and dignity of his
+ rival; who comforted him for the loss of empire, by the most
+ flattering marks of confidence and esteem. In the twelfth year of
+ his reign, Omar received a mortal wound from the hand of an
+ assassin: he rejected with equal impartiality the names of his
+ son and of Ali, refused to load his conscience with the sins of
+ his successor, and devolved on six of the most respectable
+ companions the arduous task of electing a commander of the
+ faithful. On this occasion, Ali was again blamed by his friends
+ 169 for submitting his right to the judgment of men, for
+ recognizing their jurisdiction by accepting a place among the six
+ electors. He might have obtained their suffrage, had he deigned
+ to promise a strict and servile conformity, not only to the Koran
+ and tradition, but likewise to the determinations of two seniors.
+ 170 With these limitations, Othman, the secretary of Mahomet,
+ accepted the government; nor was it till after the third caliph,
+ twenty-four years after the death of the prophet, that Ali was
+ invested, by the popular choice, with the regal and sacerdotal
+ office. 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 a thin 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 of the prophet, and the chiefs
+ of the tribes, saluted their new sovereign, and gave him their
+ right hands as a sign of fealty and allegiance.
+
+ 1672 (return) [ Abubeker, the father of the virgin Ayesha. St.
+ Martin, vol. XL, p. 88—M.]
+
+ 168 (return) [ Ockley, (Hist. of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 5, 6,)
+ from an Arabian Ms., represents Ayesha as adverse to the
+ substitution of her father in the place of the apostle. This
+ fact, so improbable in itself, is unnoticed by Abulfeda, Al
+ Jannabi, and Al Bochari, the last of whom quotes the tradition of
+ Ayesha herself, (Vit. Mohammed, p. 136 Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii.
+ p. 236.)]
+
+ 169 (return) [ Particularly by his friend and cousin Abdallah,
+ the son of Abbas, who died A.D. 687, with the title of grand
+ doctor of the Moslems. In Abulfeda he recapitulates the important
+ occasions in which Ali had neglected his salutary advice, (p. 76,
+ vers. Reiske;) and concludes, (p. 85,) O princeps fidelium,
+ absque controversia tu quidem vere fortis es, at inops boni
+ consilii, et rerum gerendarum parum callens.]
+
+ 170 (return) [ I suspect that the two seniors (Abulpharagius, p.
+ 115. Ockley, tom. i. p. 371,) may signify not two actual
+ counsellors, but his two predecessors, Abubeker and Omar.]
+
+ The mischiefs that flow from the contests of ambition are usually
+ confined to the times and countries in which they have been
+ agitated. But the religious discord of the friends and enemies of
+ Ali has been renewed in every age of the Hegira, and is still
+ maintained in the immortal hatred of the Persians and Turks. 171
+ The former, who are branded with the appellation of Shiites or
+ sectaries, have enriched the Mahometan creed with a new article
+ of faith; and if Mahomet be the apostle, his companion Ali is the
+ vicar, of God. In their private converse, in their public
+ worship, they bitterly execrate the three usurpers who
+ intercepted his indefeasible right to the dignity of Imam and
+ Caliph; and the name of Omar expresses in their tongue the
+ perfect accomplishment of wickedness and impiety. 172 The
+ Sonnites, who are supported by the general consent and orthodox
+ tradition of the Mussulmans, entertain a more impartial, or at
+ least a more decent, opinion. They respect the memory of
+ Abubeker, Omar, Othman, and Ali, the holy and legitimate
+ successors of the prophet. But they assign the last and most
+ humble place to the husband of Fatima, in the persuasion that the
+ order of succession was determined by the decrees of sanctity.
+ 173 An historian who balances the four caliphs with a hand
+ unshaken by superstition, will calmly pronounce that their
+ manners were alike pure and exemplary; that their zeal was
+ fervent, and probably sincere; and that, in the midst of riches
+ and power, their lives were devoted to the practice of moral and
+ religious duties. But the public virtues of Abubeker and Omar,
+ the prudence of the first, the severity of the second, maintained
+ the peace and prosperity of their reigns. The feeble temper and
+ declining age of Othman were incapable of sustaining the weight
+ of conquest and empire. He chose, and he was deceived; he
+ trusted, and he was betrayed: the most deserving of the faithful
+ became useless or hostile to his government, and his lavish
+ bounty was productive only of ingratitude and discontent. The
+ spirit of discord went forth in the provinces: their deputies
+ assembled at Medina; and the Charegites, the desperate fanatics
+ who disclaimed the yoke of subordination and reason, were
+ confounded among the free-born Arabs, who demanded the redress of
+ their wrongs and the punishment of their oppressors. From Cufa,
+ from Bassora, from Egypt, from the tribes of the desert, they
+ rose in arms, encamped about a league from Medina, and despatched
+ a haughty mandate to their sovereign, requiring him to execute
+ justice, or to descend from the throne. His repentance began to
+ disarm and disperse the insurgents; but their fury was rekindled
+ by the arts of his enemies; and the forgery of a perfidious
+ secretary was contrived to blast his reputation and precipitate
+ his fall. The caliph had lost the only guard of his predecessors,
+ the esteem and confidence of the Moslems: during a siege of six
+ weeks his water and provisions were intercepted, and the feeble
+ gates of the palace were protected only by the scruples of the
+ more timorous rebels. Forsaken by those who had abused his
+ simplicity, the hopeless and venerable caliph expected the
+ approach of death: the brother of Ayesha marched at the head of
+ the assassins; and Othman, with the Koran in his lap, was pierced
+ with a multitude of wounds. 1731 A tumultuous anarchy of five
+ days was appeased by the inauguration of Ali: his refusal would
+ have provoked a general massacre. In this painful situation he
+ supported the becoming pride of the chief of the Hashemites;
+ declared that he had rather serve than reign; rebuked the
+ presumption of the strangers; and required the formal, if not the
+ voluntary, assent of the chiefs of the nation. He has never been
+ accused of prompting the assassin of Omar; though Persia
+ indiscreetly celebrates the festival of that holy martyr. The
+ quarrel between Othman and his subjects was assuaged by the early
+ mediation of Ali; and Hassan, the eldest of his sons, was
+ insulted and wounded in the defence of the caliph. Yet it is
+ doubtful whether the father of Hassan was strenuous and sincere
+ in his opposition to the rebels; and it is certain that he
+ enjoyed the benefit of their crime. The temptation was indeed of
+ such magnitude as might stagger and corrupt the most obdurate
+ virtue. The ambitious candidate no longer aspired to the barren
+ sceptre of Arabia; the Saracens had been victorious in the East
+ and West; and the wealthy kingdoms of Persia, Syria, and Egypt
+ were the patrimony of the commander of the faithful.
+
+ 171 (return) [ The schism of the Persians is explained by all our
+ travellers of the last century, especially in the iid and ivth
+ volumes of their master, Chardin. Niebuhr, though of inferior
+ merit, has the advantage of writing so late as the year 1764,
+ (Voyages en Arabie, &c., tom. ii. p. 208-233,) since the
+ ineffectual attempt of Nadir Shah to change the religion of the
+ nation, (see his Persian History translated into French by Sir
+ William Jones, tom. ii. p. 5, 6, 47, 48, 144-155.)]
+
+ 172 (return) [ Omar is the name of the devil; his murderer is a
+ saint. When the Persians shoot with the bow, they frequently cry,
+ “May this arrow go to the heart of Omar!” (Voyages de Chardin,
+ tom. ii. p 239, 240, 259, &c.)]
+
+ 173 (return) [ This gradation of merit is distinctly marked in a
+ creed illustrated by Reland, (de Relig. Mohamm. l. i. p. 37;) and
+ a Sonnite argument inserted by Ockley, (Hist. of the Saracens,
+ tom. ii. p. 230.) The practice of cursing the memory of Ali was
+ abolished, after forty years, by the Ommiades themselves,
+ (D’Herbelot, p. 690;) and there are few among the Turks who
+ presume to revile him as an infidel, (Voyages de Chardin, tom.
+ iv. p. 46.)]
+
+ 1731 (return) [ 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
+ activity of Ali; but in a mature age, after a long experience of
+ mankind, he still betrayed in his conduct the rashness and
+ indiscretion of youth. 1732 In the first days of his reign, he
+ neglected to secure, either by gifts or fetters, the doubtful
+ allegiance of Telha and Zobeir, two of the most powerful of the
+ Arabian chiefs. They escaped from Medina to Mecca, and from
+ thence to Bassora; erected the standard of revolt; and usurped
+ the government of Irak, or Assyria, which they had vainly
+ solicited as the reward of their services. The mask of patriotism
+ is allowed 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 the prophet, who cherished, to the last hour of her
+ life, an implacable hatred against the husband and the posterity
+ of Fatima. The most reasonable Moslems were scandalized, that the
+ mother of the faithful should expose in a camp her person and
+ character; 1733 but the superstitious crowd was confident that
+ her presence would sanctify the justice, and assure the success,
+ of their cause. At the head of twenty thousand of his loyal
+ Arabs, and nine thousand valiant auxiliaries of Cufa, the caliph
+ encountered and defeated the superior numbers of the rebels under
+ the walls of Bassora. 1734 Their leaders, Telha and Zobeir, 1735
+ were slain in the first battle that stained with civil blood the
+ arms of the Moslems. 1736 After passing through the ranks to
+ animate the troops, Ayesha had chosen her post amidst the dangers
+ of the field. In the heat of the action, seventy men, who held
+ the bridle of her 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 a porcupine. The venerable captive
+ sustained with firmness the reproaches of the conqueror, and was
+ speedily dismissed to her proper station at the tomb of Mahomet,
+ with the respect and tenderness that was still due to the widow
+ of the apostle. 1737 After this victory, which was styled the Day
+ of the Camel, Ali marched against a more formidable adversary;
+ against Moawiyah, the son of Abu Sophian, who had assumed the
+ title of caliph, and whose claim was supported by the forces of
+ Syria and the interest of the house of Ommiyah. From the passage
+ of Thapsacus, the plain of Siffin 174 extends along the western
+ bank of the Euphrates. On this spacious and level theatre, the
+ two competitors waged a desultory war of one hundred and ten
+ days. In the course of ninety actions or skirmishes, the loss of
+ Ali was estimated at twenty-five, that of Moawiyah at forty-five,
+ thousand soldiers; and the list of the slain was dignified with
+ the names of five-and-twenty veterans who had fought at Beder
+ under the standard of Mahomet. In this sanguinary contest the
+ lawful caliph displayed a superior character of valor and
+ humanity. 1741 His troops were strictly enjoined to await the
+ first onset of the enemy, to spare their flying brethren, and to
+ respect the bodies of the dead, and the chastity of the female
+ captives. He generously proposed to save the blood of the Moslems
+ by a single combat; but his trembling rival declined the
+ challenge as a sentence of inevitable death. The ranks of the
+ Syrians were broken by the charge of a hero who was mounted on a
+ piebald horse, and wielded with irresistible force 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 of a
+ nocturnal battle, he was heard to repeat four hundred times that
+ tremendous exclamation. The prince of Damascus already meditated
+ his flight; but the certain victory was snatched from the grasp
+ of Ali by the disobedience and enthusiasm of his troops. Their
+ conscience was awed by the solemn appeal to the books of the
+ Koran which Moawiyah exposed on the foremost lances; and Ali was
+ compelled to yield to a disgraceful truce and an insidious
+ compromise. He retreated with sorrow and indignation to Cufa; his
+ party was discouraged; the distant provinces of Persia, of Yemen,
+ and of Egypt, were subdued or seduced by his crafty rival; and
+ the stroke of fanaticism, which was aimed against the three
+ chiefs of the nation, was fatal only to the cousin of Mahomet. In
+ the temple of Mecca, three Charegites or enthusiasts discoursed
+ of the disorders of the church and state: they soon agreed, that
+ the deaths of Ali, of Moawiyah, and of his friend Amrou, the
+ viceroy of Egypt, would restore the peace and unity of religion.
+ Each of the assassins chose his victim, poisoned his dagger,
+ devoted his life, and secretly repaired to the scene of action.
+ Their resolution was equally desperate: but the first mistook the
+ person of Amrou, and stabbed the deputy who occupied his seat;
+ the prince of Damascus was dangerously hurt by the second; the
+ lawful caliph, in the mosch of Cufa, received a mortal wound from
+ the hand of the third. He expired in the sixty-third year of his
+ age, and mercifully recommended to his children, that they would
+ despatch the murderer by a single stroke. 1742 The sepulchre of
+ Ali 175 was concealed from the tyrants of the house of Ommiyah;
+ 176 but in the fourth age of the Hegira, a tomb, a temple, a
+ city, arose near the ruins of Cufa. 177 Many thousands of the
+ Shiites repose in holy ground at the feet of the vicar of God;
+ and the desert is vivified by the numerous and annual visits of
+ the Persians, who esteem their devotion not less meritorious than
+ the pilgrimage of Mecca.
+
+ 1732 (return) [ Ali had determined to supersede all the
+ lieutenants in the different provinces. Price, p. 191. Compare,
+ on the conduct of Telha and Zobeir, p. 193—M.]
+
+ 1733 (return) [ See the very curious circumstances which took
+ place before and during her flight. Price, p. 196.—M.]
+
+ 1734 (return) [ The reluctance of Ali to shed the blood of true
+ believers is strikingly described by Major Price’s Persian
+ historians. Price, p. 222.—M.]
+
+ 1735 (return) [ See (in Price) the singular adventures of Zobeir.
+ He was murdered after having abandoned the army of the
+ insurgents. Telha was about to do the same, when his leg was
+ pierced with an arrow by one of his own party The wound was
+ mortal. Price, p. 222.—M.]
+
+ 1736 (return) [ According to Price, two hundred and eighty of the
+ Benni Beianziel alone lost a right hand in this service, (p.
+ 225.)—M]
+
+ 1737 (return) [ She was escorted by a guard of females disguised
+ as soldiers. When she discovered this, Ayesha was as much
+ gratified by the delicacy of the arrangement, as she had been
+ offended by the familiar approach of so many men. Price, p.
+ 229.—M.]
+
+ 174 (return) [ The plain of Siffin is determined by D’Anville
+ (l’Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 29) to be the Campus Barbaricus of
+ Procopius.]
+
+ 1741 (return) [ The Shiite authors have preserved a noble
+ instance of Ali’s magnanimity. The superior generalship of
+ Moawiyah had cut off the army of Ali from the Euphrates; his
+ soldiers were perishing from want of water. Ali sent a message to
+ his rival to request free access to the river, declaring that
+ under the same circumstances he would not allow any of the
+ faithful, though his adversaries, to perish from thirst. After
+ some debate, Moawiyah determined to avail himself of the
+ advantage of his situation, and to reject the demand of Ali. The
+ soldiers of Ali became desperate; forced their way through that
+ part of the hostile army which commanded the river, and in their
+ turn entirely cut off the troops of Moawiyah from the water.
+ Moawiyah was reduced to make the same supplication to Ali. The
+ generous caliph instantly complied; and both armies, with their
+ cattle enjoyed free and unmolested access to the river. Price,
+ vol. i. p. 268, 272—M.]
+
+ 1742 (return) [ His son Hassan was recognized as caliph in Arabia
+ and Irak; but voluntarily abdicated the throne, after six or
+ seven months, in favor of Moawiyah St. Martin, vol. xi. p
+ 375.—M.]
+
+ 175 (return) [ Abulfeda, a moderate Sonnite, relates the
+ different opinions concerning the burial of Ali, but adopts the
+ sepulchre of Cufa, hodie fama numeroque religiose frequentantium
+ celebratum. This number is reckoned by Niebuhr to amount annually
+ to 2000 of the dead, and 5000 of the living, (tom. ii. p. 208,
+ 209.)]
+
+ 176 (return) [ 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. de Nadir Shah, tom. ii. p. 155,) have enriched the tomb of
+ Ali with the spoils of the people. The dome is copper, with a
+ bright and massy gilding, which glitters to the sun at the
+ distance of many a mile.]
+
+ 177 (return) [ The city of Meshed Ali, five or six miles from the
+ ruins of Cufa, and one hundred and twenty to the south of Bagdad,
+ is of the size and form of the modern Jerusalem. Meshed Hosein,
+ larger and more populous, is at the distance of thirty miles.]
+
+ The persecutors of Mahomet usurped the inheritance of his
+ children; and the champions of idolatry became the supreme heads
+ of his religion and empire. The opposition of Abu Sophian had
+ been fierce and obstinate; his conversion was tardy and
+ reluctant; his new faith was fortified by necessity and interest;
+ he served, he fought, perhaps he believed; and the sins of the
+ time of ignorance were expiated by the recent merits of the
+ family of Ommiyah. Moawiyah, the son of Abu Sophian, and of the
+ cruel Henda, was dignified, in his early youth, with the office
+ or title of secretary of the prophet: the judgment of Omar
+ intrusted him with the government of Syria; and he administered
+ that important province above forty years, either in a
+ subordinate or supreme rank. Without renouncing the fame of valor
+ and liberality, he affected the reputation of humanity and
+ moderation: a grateful people was attached to their benefactor;
+ and the victorious Moslems were enriched with the spoils of
+ Cyprus and Rhodes. The sacred duty of pursuing the assassins of
+ Othman was the engine and pretence of his ambition. The bloody
+ shirt of the martyr was exposed in the mosch of Damascus: the
+ emir deplored the fate of his injured kinsman; and sixty thousand
+ Syrians were engaged in his service by an oath of fidelity and
+ revenge. Amrou, the conqueror of Egypt, himself an army, was the
+ first who saluted the new monarch, and divulged the dangerous
+ secret, that the Arabian caliphs might be created elsewhere than
+ in the city of the prophet. 178 The policy of Moawiyah eluded the
+ valor of his rival; and, after the death of Ali, he negotiated
+ the abdication of his son Hassan, whose mind was either above or
+ below the government of the world, and who retired without a sigh
+ from the palace of Cufa to an humble cell near the tomb of his
+ grandfather. The aspiring wishes of the caliph were finally
+ crowned by the important change of an elective to an hereditary
+ kingdom. Some murmurs of freedom or fanaticism attested the
+ reluctance of the Arabs, and four citizens of Medina refused the
+ oath of fidelity; but the designs of Moawiyah were conducted with
+ vigor and address; and his son Yezid, a feeble and dissolute
+ youth, was proclaimed as the commander of the faithful and the
+ successor of the apostle of God.
+
+ 178 (return) [ I borrow, on this occasion, the strong sense and
+ expression of Tacitus, (Hist. i. 4: ) Evulgato imperii arcano
+ posse imperatorem alni quam Romae fieri.]
+
+ A familiar story is related of the benevolence of one of the sons
+ of Ali. In serving at table, a slave had inadvertently dropped a
+ dish of scalding broth on his master: the heedless wretch fell
+ prostrate, to deprecate his punishment, and repeated a verse of
+ the Koran: “Paradise is for those who command their anger: “—“I
+ am not angry: “—“and for those who pardon offences: “—“I pardon
+ your offence: “—“and for those who return good for evil: “—”I
+ give you your liberty and four hundred pieces of silver.” With an
+ equal measure of piety, Hosein, the younger brother of Hassan,
+ inherited a remnant of his father’s spirit, and served with honor
+ against the Christians in the siege of Constantinople. The
+ primogeniture of the line of Hashem, and the holy character of
+ grandson of the apostle, had centred in his person, and he was at
+ liberty to prosecute his claim against Yezid, the tyrant of
+ Damascus, whose vices he despised, and whose title he had never
+ deigned to acknowledge. A list was secretly transmitted from Cufa
+ to Medina, of one hundred and forty thousand Moslems, who
+ professed their attachment to his cause, and who were eager to
+ draw their swords so soon as he should appear on the banks of the
+ Euphrates. Against the advice of his wisest friends, he resolved
+ to trust his person and family in the hands of a perfidious
+ people. He traversed the desert of Arabia with a timorous retinue
+ of women and children; but as he approached the confines of Irak
+ he was alarmed by the solitary or hostile face of the country,
+ and suspected either the defection or ruin of his party. His
+ fears were just: Obeidollah, the governor of Cufa, had
+ extinguished the first sparks of an insurrection; and Hosein, in
+ the plain of Kerbela, was encompassed by a body of five thousand
+ horse, who intercepted his communication with the city and the
+ river. He might still have escaped to a fortress in the desert,
+ that had defied the power of Caesar and Chosroes, and confided in
+ the fidelity of the tribe of Tai, which would have armed ten
+ thousand warriors in his defence.
+
+ In a conference with the chief of the enemy, he proposed the
+ option of three honorable conditions: that he should be allowed
+ to return to Medina, or be stationed in a frontier garrison
+ against the Turks, or safely conducted to the presence of Yezid.
+ But the commands of the caliph, or his lieutenant, were stern and
+ absolute; and Hosein was informed that he must either submit as a
+ captive and a criminal to the commander of the faithful, or
+ expect the consequences of his rebellion. “Do you think,” replied
+ he, “to terrify me with death?” And, during the short respite of
+ a night, 1781 he prepared with calm and solemn resignation to
+ encounter his fate. He checked the lamentations of his sister
+ Fatima, who deplored the impending ruin of his house. “Our
+ trust,” said Hosein, “is in God alone. All things, both in heaven
+ and earth, must perish and return to their Creator. My brother,
+ my father, my mother, were better than me, and every Mussulman
+ has an example in the prophet.” He pressed his friends to consult
+ their safety by a timely flight: they unanimously refused to
+ desert or survive their beloved master: and their courage was
+ fortified by a fervent prayer and the assurance of paradise. On
+ the morning of the fatal day, he mounted on horseback, with his
+ sword in one hand and the Koran in the other: his generous band
+ of martyrs consisted only of thirty-two horse and forty foot; but
+ their flanks and rear were secured by the tent-ropes, and by a
+ deep trench which they had filled with lighted fagots, according
+ to the practice of the Arabs. The enemy advanced with reluctance,
+ and one of their chiefs deserted, with thirty followers, to claim
+ the partnership of inevitable death. In every close onset, or
+ single combat, the despair of the Fatimites was invincible; but
+ the surrounding multitudes galled them from a distance with a
+ cloud of arrows, and the horses and men were successively slain;
+ a truce was allowed on both sides for the hour of prayer; and the
+ battle at length expired by the death of the last companions of
+ Hosein. Alone, weary, and wounded, he seated himself at the door
+ of his tent. As he tasted a drop of water, he was pierced in the
+ 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
+ full of 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 adjured the general of the Cufians, that he would not
+ suffer Hosein to be murdered before his eyes: a tear trickled
+ down his venerable beard; and the boldest of his soldiers fell
+ back on every side as the dying hero threw himself among them.
+ The remorseless Shamer, a name detested by the faithful,
+ reproached their cowardice; and the grandson of Mahomet was slain
+ with three-and-thirty strokes of lances and swords. After they
+ had trampled on his body, they carried his head to the castle of
+ Cufa, and the inhuman Obeidollah struck him on the mouth with a
+ cane: “Alas,” exclaimed an aged Mussulman, “on these lips have I
+ seen the lips of the apostle of God!” In a distant age and
+ climate, the tragic scene of the death of Hosein will awaken the
+ sympathy of the coldest reader. 179 1791 On the annual festival
+ of his martyrdom, in the devout pilgrimage to his sepulchre, his
+ Persian votaries abandon their souls to the religious frenzy of
+ sorrow and indignation. 180
+
+ 1781 (return) [ According to Major Price’s authorities a much
+ longer time elapsed (p. 198 &c.)—M.]
+
+ 179 (return) [ I have abridged the interesting narrative of
+ Ockley, (tom. ii. p. 170-231.) It is long and minute: but the
+ pathetic, almost always, consists in the detail of little
+ circumstances.]
+
+ 1791 (return) [ The account of Hosein’s death, in the Persian
+ Tarikh Tebry, is much longer; in some circumstances, more
+ pathetic, than that of Ockley, followed by Gibbon. His family,
+ after his defenders were all slain, perished in succession before
+ his eyes. They had been cut off from the water, and suffered all
+ the agonies of thirst. His eldest son, Ally Akbar, after ten
+ different assaults on the enemy, in each of which he slew two or
+ three, complained bitterly of his sufferings from heat and
+ thirst. “His father arose, and introducing his own tongue within
+ the parched lips of his favorite child, thus endeavored to
+ alleviate his sufferings by the only means of which his enemies
+ had not yet been able to deprive him.” Ally was slain and cut to
+ pieces in his sight: this wrung from him his first and only cry;
+ then it was that his sister Zeyneb rushed from the tent. The
+ rest, including his nephew, fell in succession. Hosein’s horse
+ was wounded—he fell to the ground. The hour of prayer, between
+ noon and sunset, had arrived; the Imaun began the religious
+ duties:—as Hosein prayed, he heard the cries of his infant child
+ 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
+ burning thirst, his mouth was pierced by an arrow: he drank his
+ own blood. Wounded in four-and-thirty places, he still gallantly
+ resisted. A soldier named Zeraiah gave the fatal wound: his head
+ was cut off by Ziliousheng. Price, p. 402, 410.—M.]
+
+ 180 (return) [ Niebuhr the Dane (Voyages en Arabie, &c., tom. ii.
+ p. 208, &c.) is, perhaps, the only European traveller who has
+ dared to visit Meshed Ali and Meshed Hosein. The two sepulchres
+ are in the hands of the Turks, who tolerate and tax the devotion
+ of the Persian heretics. The festival of the death of Hosein is
+ amply described by Sir John Chardin, a traveller whom I have
+ often praised.]
+
+ When the sisters and children of Ali were brought in chains to
+ the throne of Damascus, the caliph was advised to extirpate the
+ enmity of a popular and hostile race, whom he had injured beyond
+ the hope of reconciliation. But Yezid preferred the councils of
+ mercy; and the mourning family was honorably dismissed to mingle
+ their tears with their kindred at Medina. The glory of martyrdom
+ superseded the right of primogeniture; and the twelve imams, 181
+ or pontiffs, of the Persian creed, are Ali, Hassan, Hosein, and
+ the lineal descendants of Hosein to the ninth generation. Without
+ arms, or treasures, or subjects, they successively enjoyed the
+ veneration of the people, and provoked the jealousy of the
+ reigning caliphs: their tombs, at Mecca or Medina, on the banks
+ of the Euphrates, or in the province of Chorasan, are still
+ visited by the devotion of their sect. Their names were often the
+ pretence of sedition and civil war; but these royal saints
+ despised the pomp of the world: submitted to the will of God and
+ the injustice of man; and devoted their innocent lives to the
+ study and practice of religion. The twelfth and last of the
+ Imams, conspicuous by the title of Mahadi, or the Guide,
+ surpassed the solitude and sanctity of his predecessors. He
+ concealed himself in a cavern near Bagdad: the time and place of
+ his death are unknown; and his votaries pretend that he still
+ lives, and will appear before the day of judgment to overthrow
+ the tyranny of Dejal, or the Antichrist. 182 In the lapse of two
+ or three centuries, the posterity of Abbas, the uncle of Mahomet,
+ had multiplied to the number of thirty-three thousand: 183 the
+ race of Ali might be equally prolific: the meanest individual was
+ above the first and greatest of princes; and the most eminent
+ were supposed to excel the perfection of angels. But their
+ adverse fortune, and the wide extent of the Mussulman empire,
+ allowed an ample scope for every bold and artful imposture, who
+ claimed affinity with the holy seed: the sceptre of the
+ Almohades, in Spain and Africa; of the Fatimites, in Egypt and
+ Syria; 184 of the Sultans of Yemen; and of the Sophis of Persia;
+ 185 has been consecrated by this vague and ambiguous title. Under
+ their reigns it might be dangerous to dispute the legitimacy of
+ their birth; and one of the Fatimite caliphs silenced an
+ indiscreet question by drawing his cimeter: “This,” said Moez,
+ “is my pedigree; and these,” casting a handful of gold to his
+ soldiers,—“and these are my kindred and my children.” In the
+ various conditions of princes, or doctors, or nobles, or
+ merchants, or beggars, a swarm of the genuine or fictitious
+ descendants of Mahomet and Ali is honored with the appellation of
+ sheiks, or sherifs, or emirs. In the Ottoman empire they are
+ distinguished by a green turban; receive a stipend from the
+ treasury; are judged only by their chief; and, however debased by
+ fortune or character, still assert the proud preeminence of their
+ birth. A family of three hundred persons, the pure and orthodox
+ branch of the caliph Hassan, is preserved without taint or
+ suspicion in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and still
+ retains, after the revolutions of twelve centuries, the custody
+ of the temple, and the sovereignty of their native land. The fame
+ and merit of Mahomet would ennoble a plebeian race, and the
+ ancient blood of the Koreish transcends the recent majesty of the
+ kings of the earth. 186
+
+ 181 (return) [ The general article of Imam, in D’Herbelot’s
+ Bibliotheque, will indicate the succession; and the lives of the
+ twelve are given under their respective names.]
+
+ 182 (return) [ The name of Antichrist may seem ridiculous, but
+ the Mahometans have liberally borrowed the fables of every
+ religion, (Sale’s Preliminary Discourse, p. 80, 82.) In the royal
+ stable of Ispahan, two horses were always kept saddled, one for
+ the Mahadi himself, the other for his lieutenant, Jesus the son
+ of Mary.]
+
+ 183 (return) [ In the year of the Hegira 200, (A.D. 815.) See
+ D’Herbelot, p. 146]
+
+ 184 (return) [ D’Herbelot, p. 342. The enemies of the Fatimites
+ disgraced them by a Jewish origin. Yet they accurately deduced
+ their genealogy from Jaafar, the sixth Imam; and the impartial
+ Abulfeda allows (Annal. Moslem. p. 230) that they were owned by
+ many, qui absque controversia genuini sunt Alidarum, homines
+ propaginum suae gentis exacte callentes. He quotes some lines
+ from the celebrated Scherif or Rahdi, Egone humilitatem induam in
+ terris hostium? (I suspect him to be an Edrissite of Sicily,) cum
+ in Aegypto sit Chalifa de gente Alii, quocum ego communem habeo
+ patrem et vindicem.]
+
+ 185 (return) [ The kings of Persia in the last century are
+ descended from Sheik Sefi, a saint of the xivth century, and
+ through him, from Moussa Cassem, the son of Hosein, the son of
+ Ali, (Olearius, p. 957. Chardin, tom. iii. p. 288.) But I cannot
+ trace the intermediate degrees in any genuine or fabulous
+ pedigree. If they were truly Fatimites, they might draw their
+ origin from the princes of Mazanderan, who reigned in the ixth
+ century, (D’Herbelot, p. 96.)]
+
+ 186 (return) [ The present state of the family of Mahomet and Ali
+ is most accurately described by Demetrius Cantemir (Hist. of the
+ Othmae Empire, 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 to purchase the chronicles of Arabia.]
+
+ The talents of Mahomet are entitled to our applause; but his
+ success has, perhaps, too strongly attracted our admiration. Are
+ we surprised that a multitude of proselytes should embrace the
+ doctrine and the passions of an eloquent fanatic? In the heresies
+ of the church, the same seduction has been tried and repeated
+ from the time of the apostles to that of the reformers. Does it
+ seem incredible that a private citizen should grasp the sword and
+ the sceptre, subdue his native country, and erect a monarchy by
+ his victorious arms? In the moving picture of the dynasties of
+ the East, a hundred fortunate usurpers have arisen from a baser
+ origin, surmounted more formidable obstacles, and filled a larger
+ scope of empire and conquest. Mahomet was alike instructed to
+ preach and to fight; and the union of these opposite qualities,
+ while it enhanced his merit, contributed to his success: the
+ operation of force and persuasion, of enthusiasm and fear,
+ continually acted on each other, till every barrier yielded to
+ their irresistible power. His voice invited the Arabs to freedom
+ and victory, to arms and rapine, to the indulgence of their
+ darling passions in this world and the other: the restraints
+ which he imposed were requisite to establish the credit of the
+ prophet, and to exercise the obedience of the people; and the
+ only objection to his success was his rational creed of the unity
+ and perfections of God. It is not the propagation, but the
+ permanency, of his religion, that deserves our wonder: the same
+ pure and perfect impression which he engraved at Mecca and
+ Medina, is preserved, after the revolutions of twelve centuries,
+ by the Indian, the African, and the Turkish proselytes of the
+ Koran. If the Christian apostles, St. Peter or St. Paul, could
+ return to the Vatican, they might possibly inquire the name of
+ the Deity who is worshipped with such mysterious rites in that
+ magnificent temple: at Oxford or Geneva, they would experience
+ less surprise; but it might still be incumbent on them to peruse
+ the catechism of the church, and to study the orthodox
+ commentators on their own writings and the words of their Master.
+ But the Turkish dome of St. Sophia, with an increase of splendor
+ and size, represents the humble tabernacle erected at Medina by
+ the hands of Mahomet. The Mahometans have uniformly withstood the
+ temptation of reducing the object of their faith and devotion to
+ a level with the senses and imagination of man. “I believe in one
+ God, and Mahomet the apostle of God,” is the simple and
+ invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the
+ Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honors of
+ the prophet have never transgressed the measure of human virtue;
+ and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his
+ disciples within the bounds of reason and religion. The votaries
+ of Ali have, indeed, consecrated the memory of their hero, his
+ wife, and his children; and some of the Persian doctors pretend
+ that the divine essence was incarnate in the person of the Imams;
+ but their superstition is universally condemned by the Sonnites;
+ and their impiety has afforded a seasonable warning against the
+ worship of saints and martyrs. The metaphysical questions on the
+ attributes of God, and the liberty of man, have been agitated in
+ the schools of the Mahometans, as well as in those of the
+ Christians; but among the former they have never engaged the
+ passions of the people, or disturbed the tranquillity of the
+ state. The cause of this important difference may be found in the
+ separation or union of the regal and sacerdotal characters. It
+ was the interest of the caliphs, the successors of the prophet
+ and commanders of the faithful, to repress and discourage all
+ religious innovations: the order, the discipline, the temporal
+ and spiritual ambition of the clergy, are unknown to the Moslems;
+ and the sages of the law are the guides of their conscience and
+ the oracles of their faith. From the Atlantic to the Ganges, the
+ Koran is acknowledged as the fundamental code, not only of
+ theology, but of civil and criminal jurisprudence; and the laws
+ which regulate the actions and the property of mankind are
+ guarded by the infallible and immutable sanction of the will of
+ God. This religious servitude is attended with some practical
+ disadvantage; the illiterate legislator had been often misled by
+ his own prejudices and those of his country; and the institutions
+ of the Arabian desert may be ill adapted to the wealth and
+ numbers of Ispahan and Constantinople. On these occasions, the
+ Cadhi respectfully places on his head the holy volume, and
+ substitutes a dexterous interpretation more apposite to the
+ principles of equity, and the manners and policy of the times.
+
+ His beneficial or pernicious influence on the public happiness is
+ the last consideration in the character of Mahomet. The most
+ bitter or most bigoted of his Christian or Jewish foes will
+ surely allow that he assumed a false commission to inculcate a
+ salutary doctrine, less perfect only than their own. He piously
+ supposed, as the basis of his religion, the truth and sanctity of
+ their prior revolutions, the virtues and miracles of their
+ founders. The idols of Arabia were broken before the throne of
+ God; the blood of human victims was expiated by prayer, and
+ fasting, and alms, the laudable or innocent arts of devotion; and
+ his rewards and punishments of a future life were painted by the
+ images most congenial to an ignorant and carnal generation.
+ Mahomet was, perhaps, incapable of dictating a moral and
+ political system for the use of his countrymen: but he breathed
+ among the faithful a spirit of charity and friendship;
+ recommended the practice of the social virtues; and checked, by
+ his laws and precepts, the thirst of revenge, and the oppression
+ of widows and orphans. The hostile tribes were united in faith
+ and obedience, and the valor which had been idly spent in
+ domestic quarrels was vigorously directed against a foreign
+ enemy. Had the impulse 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. The colonies of the nation were
+ scattered over the East and West, and their blood was mingled
+ with the blood of their converts and captives. After the reign of
+ three caliphs, the throne was transported from Medina to the
+ valley of Damascus and the banks of the Tigris; the holy cities
+ were violated by impious war; Arabia was ruled by the rod of a
+ subject, perhaps of a stranger; and the Bedoweens of the desert,
+ awakening from their dream of dominion, resumed their old and
+ solitary independence. 187
+
+ 187 (return) [ The writers of the Modern Universal History (vols.
+ i. and ii.) have compiled, in 850 folio pages, the life of
+ Mahomet and the annals of the caliphs. They enjoyed the advantage
+ of reading, and sometimes correcting, the Arabic text; yet,
+ notwithstanding their high-sounding boasts, I cannot find, after
+ the conclusion of my work, that they have afforded me much (if
+ any) additional information. The dull mass is not quickened by a
+ spark of philosophy or taste; and the compilers indulge the
+ criticism of acrimonious bigotry against Boulainvilliers, Sale,
+ Gagnier, and all who have treated Mahomet with favor, 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: the death of Mahomet was the signal of independence; and
+ the hasty structure of his power and religion tottered to its
+ foundations. A small and faithful band of his primitive disciples
+ had listened to his eloquence, and shared his distress; had fled
+ with the apostle from the persecution of Mecca, or had received
+ the fugitive in the walls of Medina. The increasing myriads, who
+ acknowledged Mahomet as their king and prophet, had been
+ compelled by his arms, or allured by his prosperity. The
+ polytheists were confounded by the simple idea of a solitary and
+ invisible God; the pride of the Christians and Jews disdained the
+ yoke of a mortal and contemporary legislator. The habits of faith
+ and obedience were not sufficiently confirmed; and many of the
+ new converts regretted the venerable antiquity of the law of
+ Moses, or the rites and mysteries of the Catholic church; or the
+ idols, the sacrifices, the joyous festivals, of their Pagan
+ ancestors. The jarring interests and hereditary feuds of the
+ Arabian tribes had not yet coalesced in a system of union and
+ subordination; and the Barbarians were impatient of the mildest
+ and most salutary laws that curbed their passions, or violated
+ their customs. They submitted with reluctance to the religious
+ precepts of the Koran, the abstinence from wine, the fast of the
+ Ramadan, and the daily repetition of five prayers; and the alms
+ and tithes, which were collected for the treasury of Medina,
+ could be distinguished only by a name from the payment of a
+ perpetual and ignominious tribute. The example of Mahomet had
+ excited a spirit of fanaticism or imposture, and several of his
+ rivals presumed to imitate the conduct, and defy the authority,
+ of the living prophet. At the head of the fugitives and
+ auxiliaries, the first caliph was reduced to the cities of Mecca,
+ Medina, and Tayef; and perhaps the Koreish would have restored
+ the idols of the Caaba, if their levity had not been checked by a
+ seasonable reproof. “Ye men of Mecca, will ye be the last to
+ embrace, and the first to abandon, the religion of Islam?” After
+ exhorting the Moslems to confide in the aid of God and his
+ apostle, Abubeker resolved, by a vigorous attack, to prevent the
+ junction of the rebels. The women and children were safely lodged
+ in the cavities of the mountains: the warriors, marching under
+ eleven banners, diffused the terror of their arms; and the
+ appearance of a military force revived and confirmed the loyalty
+ of the faithful. The inconstant tribes accepted, with humble
+ repentance, the duties of prayer, and fasting, and alms; and,
+ after some examples of success and severity, the most daring
+ apostates fell prostrate before the sword of the Lord and of
+ Caled. In the fertile province of Yemanah, 1 between the Red Sea
+ and the Gulf of Persia, in a city not inferior to Medina itself,
+ a powerful chief (his name was Moseilama) had assumed the
+ character of a prophet, and the tribe of Hanifa listened to his
+ voice. A female prophetess 1111 was attracted by his reputation;
+ the decencies of words and actions were spurned by these
+ favorites of Heaven; 2 and they employed several days in mystic
+ and amorous converse. An obscure sentence of his Koran, or book,
+ is yet extant; 3 and in the pride of his mission, Moseilama
+ condescended to offer a partition of the earth. The proposal was
+ answered by Mahomet with contempt; but the rapid progress of the
+ impostor awakened the fears of his successor: forty thousand
+ Moslems were assembled under the standard of Caled; and the
+ existence of their faith was resigned to the event of a decisive
+ battle. 3111 In the first action they were repulsed by the loss
+ of twelve hundred men; but the skill and perseverance of their
+ general prevailed; their defeat was avenged by the slaughter of
+ ten thousand infidels; and Moseilama himself was pierced by an
+ Aethiopian slave with the same javelin which had mortally wounded
+ the uncle of Mahomet. The various rebels of Arabia without a
+ chief or a cause, were speedily suppressed by the power and
+ discipline of the rising monarchy; and the whole nation again
+ professed, and more steadfastly held, the religion of the Koran.
+ The ambition of the caliphs provided an immediate exercise for
+ the restless spirit of the Saracens: their valor was united in
+ the prosecution of a holy war; and their enthusiasm was equally
+ confirmed by opposition and victory.
+
+ 1 (return) [ See the description of the city and country of Al
+ Yamanah, in Abulfeda, Descript. Arabiae, p. 60, 61. In the xiiith
+ century, there were some ruins, and a few palms; but in the
+ present century, the same ground is occupied by the visions and
+ arms of a modern prophet, whose tenets are imperfectly known,
+ (Niebuhr, Description de l’Arabie, p. 296-302.)]
+
+ 1111 (return) [ This extraordinary woman was a Christian; she was
+ at the head of a numerous and flourishing sect; Moseilama
+ professed to recognize her inspiration. In a personal interview
+ he proposed their marriage and the union of their sects. The
+ handsome person, the impassioned eloquence, and the arts of
+ Moseilama, triumphed over the virtue of the prophetesa who was
+ rejected with scorn by her lover, and by her notorious unchastity
+ ost her influence with her own followers. Gibbon, with that
+ propensity too common, especially in his later volumes, has
+ selected only the grosser part of this singular adventure.—M.]
+
+ 2 (return) [ The first salutation may be transcribed, but cannot
+ be translated. 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 to
+ idolatry; but under the reign of Moawiyah, she became a
+ Mussulman, and died at Bassora, (Abulfeda, Annal. vers. Reiske,
+ p. 63.)]
+
+ 3 (return) [ See this text, which demonstrates a God from the
+ work of generation, in Abulpharagius (Specimen Hist. Arabum, p.
+ 13, and Dynast. p. 103) and Abulfeda, (Annal. p. 63.)]
+
+ 3111 (return) [ Compare a long account of this battle in Price,
+ p. 42.—M.]
+
+ From the rapid conquests of the Saracens a presumption will
+ naturally arise, that the caliphs 311 commanded in person the
+ armies of the faithful, and sought the crown of martyrdom in the
+ foremost ranks of the battle. The courage of Abubeker, 4 Omar, 5
+ and Othman, 6 had indeed been tried in the persecution and wars
+ of the prophet; and the personal assurance of paradise must have
+ taught them to despise the pleasures and dangers of the present
+ world. But they ascended the throne in a venerable or mature age;
+ and esteemed the domestic cares of religion and justice the most
+ important duties of a sovereign. Except the presence of Omar at
+ the siege of Jerusalem, their longest expeditions were the
+ frequent pilgrimage from Medina to Mecca; and they calmly
+ received the tidings of victory as they prayed or preached before
+ the sepulchre of the prophet. The austere and frugal measure of
+ their lives was the effect of virtue or habit, and the pride of
+ their simplicity insulted the vain magnificence of the kings of
+ the earth. When Abubeker assumed the office of caliph, he
+ enjoined his daughter Ayesha to take a strict account of his
+ private patrimony, that it might be evident whether he were
+ enriched or impoverished by the service of the state. He thought
+ himself entitled to a stipend of three pieces of gold, with the
+ sufficient maintenance of a single camel and a black slave; but
+ on the Friday of each week he distributed the residue of his own
+ and the public money, first to the most worthy, and then to the
+ most indigent, of the Moslems. The remains of his wealth, a
+ coarse garment, and five pieces of gold, were delivered to his
+ successor, who lamented with a modest sigh his own inability to
+ equal such an admirable model. Yet the abstinence and humility of
+ Omar were not inferior to the virtues of Abubeker: his food
+ consisted of barley bread or dates; his drink was water; 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 him asleep among the beggars on the steps of the mosch of
+ Medina. Oeeconomy is the source of liberality, and the increase
+ of the revenue enabled Omar to establish a just and perpetual
+ reward for the past and present services of the faithful.
+ Careless of his own emolument, he assigned to Abbas, the uncle of
+ the prophet, the first and most ample allowance of twenty-five
+ thousand drachms or pieces of silver. Five thousand were allotted
+ to each of the aged warriors, the relics of the field of Beder;
+ and the last and meanest of the companions of Mahomet was
+ distinguished by the annual reward of three thousand pieces. One
+ thousand was the stipend of the veterans who had fought in the
+ first battles against the Greeks and Persians; and the decreasing
+ pay, as low as fifty pieces of silver, was adapted to the
+ respective merit and seniority of the soldiers of Omar. Under his
+ reign, and that of his predecessor, the conquerors of the East
+ were the trusty servants of God and the people; the mass of the
+ public treasure was consecrated to the expenses of peace and war;
+ a prudent mixture of justice and bounty maintained the discipline
+ of the Saracens, and they united, by a rare felicity, the
+ despatch and execution of despotism with the equal and frugal
+ maxims of a republican government. The heroic courage of Ali, 7
+ the consummate prudence of Moawiyah, 8 excited the emulation of
+ their subjects; and the talents which had been exercised in the
+ school of civil discord were more usefully applied to propagate
+ the faith and dominion of the prophet. In the sloth and vanity of
+ the palace of Damascus, the succeeding princes of the house of
+ Ommiyah were alike destitute of the qualifications of statesmen
+ and of saints. 9 Yet the spoils of unknown nations were
+ continually laid at the foot of their throne, and the uniform
+ ascent of the Arabian greatness must be ascribed to the spirit of
+ the nation rather than the abilities of their chiefs. A large
+ deduction must be allowed for the weakness of their enemies. The
+ birth of Mahomet was fortunately placed in the most degenerate
+ and disorderly period of the Persians, the Romans, and the
+ Barbarians of Europe: the empires of Trajan, or even of
+ Constantine or Charlemagne, would have repelled the assault of
+ the naked Saracens, and the torrent of fanaticism might have been
+ obscurely lost in the sands of Arabia.
+
+ 311 (return) [ In Arabic, “successors.” V. Hammer Geschichte der
+ Assas. p. 14—M.]
+
+ 4 (return) [ His reign in Eutychius, tom. ii. p. 251. Elmacin, p.
+ 18. Abulpharagius, p. 108. Abulfeda, p. 60. D’Herbelot, p. 58.]
+
+ 5 (return) [ His reign in Eutychius, p. 264. Elmacin, p. 24.
+ Abulpharagius, p. 110. Abulfeda, p. 66. D’Herbelot, p. 686.]
+
+ 6 (return) [ His reign in Eutychius, p. 323. Elmacin, p. 36.
+ Abulpharagius, p. 115. Abulfeda, p. 75. D’Herbelot, p. 695.]
+
+ 7 (return) [ His reign in Eutychius, p. 343. Elmacin, p. 51.
+ Abulpharagius, p. 117. Abulfeda, p. 83. D’Herbelot, p. 89.]
+
+ 8 (return) [ His reign in Eutychius, p. 344. Elmacin, p. 54.
+ Abulpharagius, p. 123. Abulfeda, p. 101. D’Herbelot, p. 586.]
+
+ 9 (return) [ 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 particular articles of the Ommiades.]
+
+ In the victorious days of the Roman republic, it had been the aim
+ of the senate to confine their councils and legions to a single
+ war, and completely to suppress a first enemy before they
+ provoked the hostilities of a second. These timid maxims of
+ policy were disdained by the magnanimity or enthusiasm of the
+ Arabian caliphs. With the same vigor and success they invaded the
+ successors of Augustus and those of Artaxerxes; and the rival
+ monarchies at the same instant became the prey of an enemy whom
+ they had been so long accustomed to despise. In the ten years of
+ the administration of Omar, the Saracens reduced to his obedience
+ thirty-six thousand cities or castles, destroyed four thousand
+ churches or temples of the unbelievers, and edified fourteen
+ hundred moschs for the exercise of the religion of Mahomet. One
+ hundred years after his flight from Mecca, the arms and the reign
+ of his successors extended from India to the Atlantic Ocean, over
+ the various and distant provinces, which may be comprised under
+ the names of, I. Persia; II. Syria; III. Egypt; IV. Africa; and,
+ V. Spain. Under this general division, I shall proceed to unfold
+ these memorable transactions; despatching with brevity the remote
+ and less interesting conquests of the East, and reserving a
+ fuller narrative for those domestic countries which had been
+ included within the pale of the Roman empire. Yet I must excuse
+ my own defects by a just complaint of the blindness and
+ insufficiency 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 were collected in a great measure from the
+ voice of tradition. 11 Among the numerous productions of Arabic
+ and Persian literature, 12 our interpreters have selected the
+ imperfect sketches of a more recent age. 13 The art and genius of
+ history have ever been unknown to the Asiatics; 14 they are
+ ignorant of the laws of criticism; and our monkish chronicle of
+ the same period may be compared to their most popular works,
+ which are never vivified by the spirit of philosophy and freedom.
+
+ The Oriental library of a Frenchman 15 would instruct the most
+ learned mufti of the East; and perhaps the Arabs might not find
+ in a single historian so clear and comprehensive a narrative of
+ their own exploits as that which will be deduced in the ensuing
+ sheets.
+
+ 10 (return) [ For the viith and viiith century, we have scarcely
+ any original evidence of the Byzantine historians, except the
+ chronicles of Theophanes (Theophanis Confessoris Chronographia,
+ Gr. et Lat. cum notis Jacobi 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 of Nicephorus, he
+ adds, and only complains of his extreme brevity, (Phot. Bibliot.
+ Cod. lxvi. p. 100.) Some additions may be gleaned from the more
+ recent histories of Cedrenus and Zonaras of the xiith century.]
+
+ 11 (return) [ Tabari, or Al Tabari, a native of Taborestan, a
+ famous Imam of Bagdad, and the Livy of the Arabians, finished his
+ general history in the year of the Hegira 302, (A.D. 914.) At the
+ request of his friends, he reduced a work of 30,000 sheets to a
+ more reasonable size. But his Arabic original is known only by
+ the Persian and Turkish versions. The Saracenic history of Ebn
+ Amid, or Elmacin, is said to be an 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.)]
+
+ 12 (return) [ Besides the list of authors framed by Prideaux,
+ (Life of Mahomet, p. 179-189,) Ockley, (at the end of his second
+ volume,) and Petit de la Croix, (Hist. de Gengiscan, p. 525-550,)
+ we find in the Bibliotheque Orientale Tarikh, a catalogue of two
+ or three hundred histories or chronicles of the East, of which
+ not more than three or four are older than Tabari. A lively
+ sketch of Oriental literature is given by Reiske, (in his
+ Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalifae librum memorialem ad calcem
+ Abulfedae Tabulae Syriae, Lipsiae, 1776;) but his project and the
+ French version of Petit de la Croix (Hist. de Timur Bec, tom. i.
+ preface, p. xlv.) have fallen to the ground.]
+
+ 13 (return) [ The particular historians and geographers will be
+ occasionally introduced. The four following titles represent the
+ Annals which have guided me in this general narrative. 1. Annales
+ Eutychii, Patriarchoe Alexandrini, ab Edwardo Pocockio, Oxon.
+ 1656, 2 vols. in 4to. A pompous edition of an indifferent author,
+ translated by Pocock to gratify the Presbyterian prejudices of
+ his friend Selden. 2. Historia Saracenica Georgii Elmacini, opera
+ et studio Thomae Erpenii, in 4to., Lugd. Batavorum, 1625. He is
+ said to have hastily translated a corrupt Ms., and his version is
+ often deficient in style and sense. 3. Historia compendiosa
+ Dynastiarum a Gregorio Abulpharagio, interprete Edwardo Pocockio,
+ in 4to., Oxon. 1663. More useful for the literary than the civil
+ history of the East. 4. Abulfedoe Annales Moslemici ad Ann.
+ Hegiroe ccccvi. a Jo. Jac. Reiske, in 4to., Lipsioe, 1754. The
+ best of our chronicles, both for the original and version, yet
+ how far below the name of Abulfeda! We know that he wrote at
+ Hamah in the xivth century. The three former were Christians of
+ the xth, xiith, and xiiith centuries; the two first, natives of
+ Egypt; a Melchite patriarch, and a Jacobite scribe.]
+
+ 14 (return) [ M. D. Guignes (Hist. des Huns, tom. i. pref. p.
+ xix. xx.) has characterized, with truth and knowledge, the two
+ sorts of Arabian historians—the dry annalist, and the tumid and
+ flowery orator.]
+
+ 15 (return) [ Bibliotheque Orientale, par M. D’Herbelot, in
+ folio, Paris, 1697. For the character of the respectable author,
+ consult his friend Thevenot, (Voyages du Levant, part i. chap.
+ 1.) His work is an agreeable miscellany, which must gratify every
+ taste; but I never can digest the alphabetical order; and I find
+ him more satisfactory in the Persian than the Arabic history. The
+ recent supplement from the papers of Mm. Visdelou, and Galland,
+ (in folio, La Haye, 1779,) is of a different cast, a medley of
+ tales, proverbs, and Chinese antiquities.]
+
+ I. In the first year of the first caliph, his lieutenant Caled,
+ the Sword of God, and the scourge of the infidels, advanced to
+ the banks of the Euphrates, and reduced the cities of Anbar and
+ Hira. Westward of the ruins of Babylon, a tribe of sedentary
+ Arabs had fixed themselves on the verge of the desert; and Hira
+ was the seat of a race of kings who had embraced the Christian
+ religion, and reigned above six hundred years under 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 to
+ Medina; his nobles bowed before the successor of the prophet; the
+ people was tempted by the example and success of their
+ countrymen; and the caliph accepted as the first-fruits of
+ foreign conquest an annual tribute of seventy thousand pieces of
+ gold. The conquerors, and even their historians, were astonished
+ by the dawn of their future greatness: “In the same year,” says
+ Elmacin, “Caled fought many signal battles: an immense multitude
+ of the infidels was slaughtered; and spoils infinite and
+ innumerable were acquired by the victorious Moslems.” 17 But the
+ invincible Caled was soon transferred to the Syrian war: the
+ invasion of the Persian frontier was conducted by less active or
+ less prudent commanders: the Saracens were repulsed with loss in
+ the passage of the Euphrates; and, though they chastised the
+ insolent pursuit of the Magians, their remaining forces still
+ hovered in the desert of Babylon. 1711
+
+ 16 (return) [ Pocock will explain the chronology, (Specimen Hist.
+ Arabum, p. 66-74,) and D’Anville the geography, (l’Euphrate, et
+ le Tigre, p. 125,) of the dynasty of the Almondars. The English
+ scholar understood more Arabic than the mufti of Aleppo, (Ockley,
+ vol. ii. p. 34: ) the French geographer is equally at home in
+ every age and every climate of the world.]
+
+ 1611 (return) [ Eichhorn and Silvestre de Sacy have written on
+ the obscure history of the Mondars.—M.]
+
+ 17 (return) [ Fecit et Chaled plurima in hoc anno praelia, in
+ quibus vicerunt Muslimi, et infidelium immensa multitudine occisa
+ spolia infinita et innumera sunt nacti, (Hist. Saracenica, p.
+ 20.) The Christian annalist slides into the national and
+ compendious term of infidels, and I often adopt (I hope without
+ scandal) this characteristic mode of expression.]
+
+ 1711 (return) [ Compare throughout Malcolm, vol. ii. p. 136.—M.]
+
+ The indignation and fears of the Persians suspended for a moment
+ their intestine divisions. By the unanimous sentence of the
+ priests and nobles, their queen Arzema was deposed; the sixth of
+ the transient usurpers, who had arisen and vanished in three or
+ four years since the death of Chosroes, and the retreat of
+ Heraclius. Her tiara was placed on the head of Yezdegerd, the
+ grandson of Chosroes; and the same aera, which coincides with an
+ astronomical period, 18 has recorded the fall of the Sassanian
+ dynasty and the religion of Zoroaster. 19 The youth and
+ inexperience of the prince (he was only fifteen years of age)
+ declined a perilous encounter: the royal standard was delivered
+ into the hands of his general Rustam; and a remnant of thirty
+ thousand regular troops was swelled in truth, or in opinion, to
+ one hundred and twenty thousand subjects, or allies, of the great
+ king. The Moslems, whose numbers were reenforced from twelve to
+ thirty thousand, had pitched their camp in the plains of Cadesia:
+ 20 and their line, though it consisted of fewer men, could
+ produce more soldiers, than the unwieldy host 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 and Romans, the effort
+ of a firm and compact infantry: their military force was chiefly
+ formed of cavalry and archers; and the engagement, which was
+ often interrupted and often renewed by single combats and flying
+ skirmishes, might be protracted without any decisive event to the
+ continuance of several days. The periods of the battle of Cadesia
+ were distinguished by their peculiar appellations. The first,
+ from the well-timed appearance of six thousand of the Syrian
+ brethren, was denominated the day of succor. The day of
+ concussion might express the disorder of one, or perhaps of both,
+ of the contending armies. The third, a nocturnal tumult, received
+ the whimsical name of the night of barking, from the discordant
+ clamors, which were compared to the inarticulate sounds of the
+ fiercest animals. The morning of the succeeding day 2011
+ determined the fate of Persia; and a seasonable whirlwind drove a
+ cloud of dust against the faces of the unbelievers. The clangor
+ of arms was reechoed to the tent of Rustam, who, far unlike the
+ ancient hero of his name, was gently reclining in a cool and
+ tranquil shade, amidst the baggage of his camp, and the train of
+ mules that were laden with gold and silver. On the sound of
+ danger he started from his couch; but his flight was overtaken by
+ a valiant Arab, who caught him by the foot, struck off his head,
+ hoisted it on a lance, and instantly returning to the field of
+ battle, carried slaughter and dismay among the thickest ranks of
+ the Persians. The Saracens confess a loss of seven thousand five
+ hundred men; 2012 and the battle of Cadesia is justly described
+ by the epithets of obstinate and atrocious. 21 The standard of
+ the monarchy was overthrown and captured in the field—a leathern
+ apron of a blacksmith, who in ancient times had arisen the
+ deliverer of Persia; but this badge of heroic poverty was
+ disguised, and almost concealed, by a profusion of precious gems.
+ 22 After this victory, the wealthy province of Irak, or Assyria,
+ submitted to the caliph, and his conquests were firmly
+ established by the speedy foundation of Bassora, 23 a place which
+ ever commands the trade and navigation of the Persians. As the
+ distance of fourscore miles from the 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 the junction and
+ the mouth of these famous streams, the new settlement was planted
+ on the western bank: the first colony was composed of eight
+ hundred Moslems; but the influence of the situation soon reared a
+ flourishing and populous capital. The air, though excessively
+ hot, is pure and healthy: the meadows are filled with palm-trees
+ and cattle; and one of the adjacent valleys has been celebrated
+ among the four paradises or gardens of Asia. Under the first
+ caliphs the jurisdiction of this Arabian colony extended over the
+ southern provinces of Persia: the city has been sanctified by the
+ tombs of the companions and martyrs; and the vessels of Europe
+ still frequent the port of Bassora, as a convenient station and
+ passage of the Indian trade.
+
+ 18 (return) [ A cycle of 120 years, the end of which an
+ intercalary month of 30 days supplied the use of our Bissextile,
+ and restored the integrity of the solar year. In a great
+ revolution of 1440 years this intercalation was successively
+ removed from the first to the twelfth month; but Hyde and Freret
+ are involved in a profound controversy, whether the twelve, or
+ only eight of these changes were accomplished before the aera of
+ Yezdegerd, which is unanimously fixed to the 16th of June, A.D.
+ 632. How laboriously does the curious spirit of Europe explore
+ the darkest and most distant antiquities! (Hyde de Religione
+ Persarum, c. 14-18, p. 181-211. Freret in the Mem. de l’Academie
+ des Inscriptions, tom. xvi. p. 233-267.)]
+
+ 19 (return) [ 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 accession cannot be postponed beyond the end of the first
+ year. His predecessors could not therefore resist the arms of the
+ caliph Omar; and these unquestionable dates overthrow the
+ thoughtless chronology of Abulpharagius. See Ockley’s Hist. of
+ the Saracens, vol. i. p. 130. * Note: The Rezont Uzzuffa (Price,
+ p. 105) has a strange account of an embassy to Yezdegerd. The
+ Oriental historians take great delight in these embassies, which
+ give them an opportunity of displaying their Asiatic
+ eloquence—M.]
+
+ 20 (return) [ Cadesia, says the Nubian geographer, (p. 121,) is
+ in margine solitudinis, 61 leagues from Bagdad, and two stations
+ from Cufa. Otter (Voyage, tom. i. p. 163) reckons 15 leagues, and
+ observes, that the place is supplied with dates and water.]
+
+ 2011 (return) [ The day of cormorants, or according to another
+ reading the day of reinforcements. It was the night which was
+ called the night of snarling. Price, p. 114.—M.]
+
+ 2012 (return) [ According to Malcolm’s authorities, only three
+ thousand; but he adds “This is the report of Mahomedan
+ historians, who have a great disposition of the wonderful, in
+ relating the first actions of the faithful” Vol. i. p. 39.—M.]
+
+ 21 (return) [ Atrox, contumax, plus semel renovatum, are the
+ well-chosen expressions of the translator of Abulfeda, (Reiske,
+ p. 69.)]
+
+ 22 (return) [ D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 297, 348.]
+
+ 23 (return) [ The reader may satisfy himself on the subject of
+ Bassora by consulting the following writers: Geograph, Nubiens.
+ p. 121. D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 192. D’Anville,
+ l’Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 130, 133, 145. Raynal, Hist.
+ Philosophique des deux Indes, 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
+ canals might have opposed an insuperable barrier to the
+ victorious cavalry; and the walls of Ctesiphon or Madayn, which
+ had resisted the battering-rams of the Romans, would not have
+ yielded to the darts of the Saracens. But the flying Persians
+ were overcome by the belief, that the last day of their religion
+ and empire was at hand; the strongest posts were abandoned by
+ treachery or cowardice; and the king, with a part of his family
+ 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 the sabres of the Moslems, who shouted with
+ religious transport, “This is the white palace of Chosroes; this
+ is the promise of the apostle of God!” The naked robbers of the
+ desert were suddenly enriched beyond the measure of their hope or
+ knowledge. Each chamber revealed a new treasure secreted with
+ art, or ostentatiously displayed; the gold and silver, the
+ various wardrobes and precious furniture, surpassed (says
+ Abulfeda) the estimate of fancy or numbers; and another historian
+ defines the untold and almost infinite mass, by the fabulous
+ computation of three thousands of thousands of thousands of
+ pieces of gold. 24 Some minute though curious facts represent the
+ contrast of riches and ignorance. From the remote islands of the
+ Indian Ocean a large provision of camphire 25 had been imported,
+ which is employed with a mixture of wax to illuminate the palaces
+ of the East. Strangers to the name and properties of that
+ odoriferous gum, the Saracens, mistaking it for salt, mingled the
+ camphire in their bread, and were astonished at the bitterness of
+ the taste. One of the apartments of the palace was decorated with
+ a carpet of silk, sixty cubits in length, and as many in breadth:
+ a paradise or garden was depictured on the ground: the flowers,
+ fruits, and shrubs, were imitated by the figures of the gold
+ embroidery, and the colors of the precious stones; and the ample
+ square was encircled by a variegated and verdant border. 251 The
+ Arabian general persuaded his soldiers to relinquish their claim,
+ in the reasonable hope that the eyes of the caliph would be
+ delighted with the splendid workmanship of nature and industry.
+ Regardless of the merit of art, and the pomp of royalty, the
+ rigid Omar divided the prize among his brethren of Medina: the
+ picture was destroyed; but such was the intrinsic value of the
+ materials, that the share of Ali alone was sold for twenty
+ thousand drams. A mule that carried away the tiara and cuirass,
+ the belt and bracelets of Chosroes, was overtaken by the
+ pursuers; the gorgeous trophy was presented to the commander of
+ the faithful; and the gravest of the companions condescended to
+ smile when they beheld the white beard, the hairy arms, and
+ uncouth figure of the veteran, who was invested with the spoils
+ of the Great King. 26 The sack of Ctesiphon was followed by its
+ desertion and gradual decay. The Saracens disliked the air and
+ situation of the place, and Omar was advised by his general to
+ remove the seat of government to the western side of the
+ Euphrates. In every age, the foundation and ruin of the Assyrian
+ cities has been easy and rapid: the country is destitute of stone
+ and timber; and the most solid structures 27 are composed of
+ bricks baked in the sun, and joined by a cement of the native
+ bitumen. The name of Cufa 28 describes a habitation of reeds and
+ earth; but the importance of the new capital was supported by the
+ numbers, wealth, and spirit, of a colony of veterans; and their
+ licentiousness was indulged by the wisest caliphs, who were
+ apprehensive of provoking the revolt of a hundred thousand
+ swords: “Ye men of Cufa,” said Ali, who solicited their aid, “you
+ have been always conspicuous by your valor. You conquered the
+ Persian king, and scattered his forces, till you had taken
+ possession of his inheritance.” This mighty conquest was achieved
+ by the battles of Jalula and Nehavend. After the loss of the
+ former, Yezdegerd fled from Holwan, and concealed his shame and
+ despair in the mountains of Farsistan, from whence Cyrus had
+ descended with his equal and valiant companions. The courage of
+ the nation survived that of the monarch: among the hills to the
+ south of Ecbatana or Hamadan, one hundred and fifty thousand
+ Persians made a third and final stand for their religion and
+ country; and the decisive battle of Nehavend was styled by the
+ Arabs the victory of victories. If it be true that the flying
+ general of the Persians was stopped and overtaken in a crowd of
+ mules and camels laden with honey, the incident, however slight
+ and singular, will denote the luxurious impediments of an
+ Oriental army. 29
+
+ 24 (return) [ Mente vix potest numerove comprehendi quanta spolia
+ nostris cesserint. Abulfeda, p. 69. Yet I still suspect, that the
+ extravagant numbers of Elmacin may be the error, not of the text,
+ but of the version. The best translators from the Greek, for
+ instance, I find to be very poor arithmeticians. * Note: Ockley
+ (Hist. of Saracens, vol. i. p. 230) translates in the same manner
+ three thousand million of ducats. See Forster’s Mahometanism
+ Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 462; who makes this innocent doubt of
+ Gibbon, in which, is to the amount of the plunder, I venture to
+ concur, a grave charge of inaccuracy and disrespect to the memory
+ of Erpenius. The Persian authorities of Price (p. 122) make the
+ booty worth three hundred and thirty millions sterling!—M]
+
+ 25 (return) [ The camphire-tree grows in China and Japan; but
+ many hundred weight of those meaner sorts are exchanged for a
+ single pound of the more precious gum of Borneo and Sumatra,
+ (Raynal, Hist. Philosoph. tom. i. p. 362-365. Dictionnaire
+ d’Hist. Naturelle par Bomare Miller’s Gardener’s Dictionary.)
+ These may be the islands of the first climate from whence the
+ Arabians imported their camphire (Geograph. Nub. p. 34, 35.
+ D’Herbelot, p. 232.)]
+
+ 251 (return) [ Compare Price, p. 122.—M.]
+
+ 26 (return) [ See Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 376, 377. I
+ may credit the fact, without believing the prophecy.]
+
+ 27 (return) [ The most considerable ruins of Assyria are the
+ tower of Belus, at Babylon, and the hall of Chosroes, at
+ Ctesiphon: they have been visited by that vain and curious
+ traveller Pietro della Valle, (tom. i. p. 713-718, 731-735.) *
+ Note: The best modern account is that of Claudius Rich Esq. Two
+ Memoirs of Babylon. London, 1818.—M.]
+
+ 28 (return) [ Consult the article of Coufah in the Bibliotheque
+ of D’Herbelot ( p. 277, 278,) and the second volume of Ockley’s
+ History, particularly p. 40 and 153.]
+
+ 29 (return) [ 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 than the invasion of the Arabs. By the reduction of
+ Hamadan and Ispahan, of Caswin, Tauris, and Rei, they gradually
+ approached the shores of the Caspian Sea: and the orators of
+ Mecca might applaud the success and spirit of the faithful, who
+ had already lost sight of the northern bear, and had almost
+ transcended the bounds of the habitable world. 30 Again, turning
+ towards the West and the Roman empire, they repassed the Tigris
+ over the bridge of Mosul, and, in the captive provinces of
+ Armenia and Mesopotamia, embraced their victorious brethren of
+ the Syrian army. From the palace of Madayn their Eastern progress
+ was not less rapid or extensive. They advanced along the Tigris
+ and the Gulf; penetrated through the passes of the mountains into
+ the valley of Estachar or Persepolis, and profaned the last
+ sanctuary of the Magian empire. The grandson of Chosroes was
+ nearly surprised among the falling columns and mutilated figures;
+ a sad emblem of the past and present fortune of Persia: 31 he
+ fled with accelerated haste over the desert of Kirman, implored
+ the aid of the warlike Segestans, and sought an humble refuge on
+ the verge of the Turkish and Chinese power. But a victorious army
+ is insensible of fatigue: the Arabs divided their forces in the
+ pursuit of a timorous enemy; and the caliph Othman promised the
+ government of Chorasan to the first general who should enter that
+ large and populous country, the kingdom of the ancient Bactrians.
+ The condition was accepted; the prize was deserved; the standard
+ of Mahomet was planted on the walls of Herat, Merou, and Balch;
+ and the successful leader neither halted nor reposed till his
+ foaming cavalry had tasted the waters of the Oxus. In the public
+ anarchy, the independent governors of the cities and castles
+ obtained their separate capitulations: the terms were granted or
+ imposed by the esteem, the prudence, or the compassion, of the
+ victors; and a simple profession of faith established the
+ distinction between a brother and a slave. After a noble defence,
+ Harmozan, the prince or satrap of Ahwaz and Susa, was compelled
+ to surrender his person and his state to the discretion of the
+ caliph; and their interview exhibits a portrait of the Arabian
+ manners. In the presence, and by the command, of Omar, the gay
+ Barbarian was despoiled of his silken robes embroidered with
+ gold, and of his tiara bedecked with rubies and emeralds: “Are
+ you now sensible,” said the conqueror to his naked captive—“are
+ you now sensible of the judgment of God, and of the different
+ rewards of infidelity and obedience?” “Alas!” replied Harmozan,
+ “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.
+ God was then neuter: since he has espoused your quarrel, you have
+ subverted our kingdom and religion.” Oppressed by this painful
+ dialogue, the Persian complained of intolerable thirst, but
+ discovered some apprehension lest he should be killed whilst he
+ was drinking a cup of water. “Be of good courage,” said the
+ caliph; “your life is safe till you have drunk this water:” the
+ crafty satrap accepted the assurance, and instantly dashed the
+ vase against the ground. Omar would have avenged the deceit, but
+ his companions represented the sanctity of an oath; and the
+ speedy conversion of Harmozan entitled him not only to a free
+ pardon, but even to a stipend of two thousand pieces of gold. The
+ administration of Persia was regulated by an actual survey of the
+ people, the cattle, and the fruits of the earth; 32 and this
+ monument, which attests the vigilance of the caliphs, might have
+ instructed the philosophers of every age. 33
+
+ 30 (return) [ It is in such a style of ignorance and wonder that
+ the Athenian orator describes the Arctic conquests of Alexander,
+ who never advanced beyond the shores of the Caspian. Aeschines
+ contra Ctesiphontem, tom. iii. p. 554, edit. Graec. Orator.
+ Reiske. This memorable cause was pleaded at Athens, Olymp. cxii.
+ 3, (before Christ 330,) in the autumn, (Taylor, praefat. p. 370,
+ &c.,) about a year after the battle of Arbela; and Alexander, in
+ the pursuit of Darius, was marching towards Hyrcania and
+ Bactriana.]
+
+ 31 (return) [ We are indebted for this curious particular to the
+ Dynasties of Abulpharagius, p. 116; but it is needless to prove
+ the identity of Estachar and Persepolis, (D’Herbelot, p. 327;)
+ and still more needless to copy the drawings and descriptions of
+ Sir John Chardin, or Corneillo le Bruyn.]
+
+ 32 (return) [ After the conquest of Persia, Theophanes adds,
+ (Chronograph p. 283.)]
+
+ 33 (return) [ Amidst our meagre relations, I must regret that
+ D’Herbelot has not found and used a Persian translation of
+ Tabari, enriched, as he says, with many extracts from the native
+ historians of the Ghebers or Magi, (Bibliotheque Orientale, p.
+ 1014.)]
+
+ The flight of Yezdegerd had carried him beyond the Oxus, and as
+ far as the Jaxartes, two rivers 34 of ancient and modern renown,
+ which descend from the mountains of India towards the Caspian
+ Sea. He was hospitably entertained by Takhan, prince of Fargana,
+ 35 a fertile province on the Jaxartes: the king of Samarcand,
+ with the Turkish tribes of Sogdiana and Scythia, were moved by
+ the lamentations and promises of the fallen monarch; and he
+ solicited, by a suppliant embassy, the more solid and powerful
+ friendship of the emperor of China. 36 The virtuous Taitsong, 37
+ the first of the dynasty of the Tang may be justly compared with
+ the Antonines of Rome: his people enjoyed the blessings of
+ prosperity and peace; and his dominion was acknowledged by
+ forty-four hordes of the Barbarians of Tartary. His last
+ garrisons of Cashgar and Khoten maintained a frequent intercourse
+ with their neighbors of the Jaxartes and Oxus; a recent colony of
+ Persians had introduced into China the astronomy of the Magi; and
+ Taitsong might be alarmed by the rapid progress and dangerous
+ vicinity of the Arabs. The influence, and perhaps the supplies,
+ of China revived the hopes of Yezdegerd and the zeal of the
+ worshippers of fire; and he returned with an army of Turks to
+ conquer the inheritance of his fathers. The fortunate Moslems,
+ without unsheathing their swords, were the spectators of his ruin
+ and death. The grandson of Chosroes was betrayed by his servant,
+ insulted by the seditious inhabitants of Merou, and oppressed,
+ defeated, and pursued by his Barbarian allies. He reached the
+ banks of a river, and offered his rings and bracelets for an
+ instant passage in a miller’s boat. Ignorant or insensible of
+ royal distress, the rustic replied, that four drams of silver
+ were the daily profit of his mill, and that he would not suspend
+ his work unless the loss were repaid. In this moment of
+ hesitation and delay, the last of the Sassanian kings was
+ overtaken and slaughtered by the Turkish cavalry, in the
+ nineteenth year of his unhappy reign. 38 3811 His son Firuz, an
+ humble client of the Chinese emperor, accepted the station of
+ captain of his guards; and the Magian worship was long preserved
+ by a colony of loyal exiles in the province of Bucharia. 3812 His
+ grandson inherited the regal name; but after a faint and
+ fruitless enterprise, he returned to China, and ended his days in
+ the palace of Sigan. The male line of the Sassanides was extinct;
+ but the female captives, the daughters of Persia, were given to
+ the conquerors in servitude, or marriage; and the race of the
+ caliphs and imams was ennobled by the blood of their royal
+ mothers. 39
+
+ 34 (return) [ 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 Historiens d’Alexandre, p.
+ 194-360.)]
+
+ 35 (return) [ The territory of Fergana is described by Abulfeda,
+ p. 76, 77.]
+
+ 36 (return) [ Eo redegit angustiarum eundem regem exsulem, ut
+ Turcici regis, et Sogdiani, et Sinensis, auxilia missis literis
+ imploraret, (Abulfed. Annal. p. 74) The connection of the Persian
+ and Chinese history 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 for the geography of the borders, tom. ii. p. 1-43.]
+
+ 37 (return) [ Hist. Sinica, p. 41-46, in the iiid part of the
+ Relations Curieuses of Thevenot.]
+
+ 38 (return) [ I have endeavored to harmonize the various
+ narratives of Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 37,) Abulpharagius,
+ (Dynast. p. 116,) Abulfeda, (Annal. p. 74, 79,) and D’Herbelot,
+ (p. 485.) The end of Yezdegerd, was not only unfortunate but
+ obscure.]
+
+ 3811 (return) [ The account of Yezdegerd’s death in the Habeib
+ ‘usseyr and Rouzut uzzuffa (Price, p. 162) is much more probable.
+ On the demand of the few dhirems, he offered to the miller his
+ sword, and royal girdle, of inesturable value. This awoke the
+ cupidity of the miller, who murdered him, and threw the body into
+ the stream.—M.]
+
+ 3812 (return) [ Firouz died leaving a son called Ni-ni-cha by the
+ Chinese, probably Narses. Yezdegerd had two sons, Firouz and
+ Bahram St. Martin, vol. xi. p. 318.—M.]
+
+ 39 (return) [ The two daughters of Yezdegerd married Hassan, the
+ son of Ali, and Mohammed, the son of Abubeker; and the first of
+ these was the father of a numerous progeny. The daughter of
+ Phirouz became the wife of the caliph Walid, and their son Yezid
+ derived his genuine or fabulous descent from the Chosroes of
+ Persia, the Caesars of Rome, and the Chagans of the Turks or
+ Avars, (D’Herbelot, Bibliot. Orientale, p. 96, 487.)]
+
+ After the fall of the Persian kingdom, the River Oxus divided the
+ territories of the Saracens and of the Turks. This narrow
+ boundary was soon overleaped by the spirit of the Arabs; the
+ governors of Chorasan extended their successive inroads; and one
+ of their triumphs was adorned with the buskin of a Turkish queen,
+ which she dropped in her precipitate flight beyond the hills of
+ Bochara. 40 But the final conquest of Transoxiana, 41 as well as
+ of Spain, was reserved for the glorious reign of the inactive
+ Walid; and the name of Catibah, the camel driver, declares the
+ origin and merit of his successful lieutenant. While one of his
+ colleagues displayed the first Mahometan banner on the banks of
+ the Indus, the spacious regions between the Oxus, the Jaxartes,
+ and the Caspian Sea, were reduced by the arms of Catibah to the
+ obedience of the prophet and of the caliph. 42 A tribute of two
+ millions of pieces of gold was imposed on the infidels; their
+ idols were burnt or broken; the Mussulman chief pronounced a
+ sermon in the new mosch of Carizme; after several battles, the
+ Turkish hordes were driven back to the desert; and the emperors
+ of China solicited the friendship of the victorious Arabs. To
+ their industry, the prosperity of the province, the Sogdiana of
+ the ancients, may in a great measure be ascribed; but the
+ advantages of the soil and climate had been understood and
+ cultivated since the reign of the Macedonian kings. Before the
+ invasion of the Saracens, Carizme, Bochara, and Samarcand were
+ rich and populous under the yoke of the shepherds of the north.
+ 4211 These cities were surrounded with a double wall; and the
+ exterior fortification, of a larger circumference, enclosed the
+ fields and gardens of the adjacent district. The mutual wants of
+ India and Europe were supplied by the diligence of the Sogdian
+ merchants; and the inestimable art of transforming linen into
+ paper has been diffused from the manufacture of Samarcand over
+ the western world. 43
+
+ 40 (return) [ It was valued at 2000 pieces of gold, and was the
+ prize of Obeidollah, the son of Ziyad, a name afterwards infamous
+ by the murder of Hosein, (Ockley’s History of the Saracens, vol.
+ ii. p. 142, 143,) His brother Salem was accompanied by his wife,
+ the first Arabian woman (A.D. 680) who passed the Oxus: she
+ borrowed, or rather stole, the crown and jewels of the princess
+ of the Sogdians, (p. 231, 232.)]
+
+ 41 (return) [ 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, regionum extra fluvium, Oxum, p. 80. The
+ name of Transoxiana, softer in sound, equivalent in sense, is
+ aptly used by Petit de la Croix, (Hist. de Gengiscan, &c.,) and
+ some modern Orientalists, but they are mistaken in ascribing it
+ to the writers of antiquity.]
+
+ 42 (return) [ The conquests of Catibah are faintly marked by
+ Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 84,) D’Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient.
+ Catbah, Samarcand Valid.,) and De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom.
+ i. p. 58, 59.)]
+
+ 4211 (return) [ The manuscripts Arabian and Persian writers in
+ the royal library contain very circumstantial details on the
+ contest between the Persians and Arabians. M. St. Martin declined
+ this addition to the work of Le Beau, as extending to too great a
+ length. St. Martin vol. xi. p. 320.—M.]
+
+ 43 (return) [ A curious description of Samarcand is inserted in
+ the Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana, tom. i. p. 208, &c. The
+ librarian Casiri (tom. ii. 9) relates, from credible testimony,
+ that paper was first imported from China to Samarcand, A. H. 30,
+ and invented, or rather introduced, 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 name of the most merciful God, to the rest of the
+ true believers. Health and happiness, and the mercy and blessing
+ of God, be upon you. I praise the most high God, and I pray for
+ his prophet Mahomet. This is to acquaint you, that I intend to
+ send the true believers into Syria 44 to take it out of the hands
+ of the infidels. And I would have you know, that the fighting for
+ religion is an act of obedience to God.” His messengers returned
+ with the tidings of pious and martial ardor which they had
+ kindled in every province; and the camp of Medina was
+ successively filled 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 as their numbers were complete,
+ Abubeker ascended the hill, reviewed the men, the horses, and the
+ arms, and poured forth a fervent prayer for the success of their
+ undertaking. In person, and on foot, he accompanied the first
+ day’s march; and when the blushing leaders attempted to dismount,
+ the caliph removed their scruples by a declaration, that those
+ who rode, and those who walked, in the service of religion, were
+ equally meritorious. His instructions 45 to the chiefs of the
+ Syrian army were inspired by the warlike fanaticism which
+ advances to seize, and affects to despise, the objects of earthly
+ ambition. “Remember,” said the successor 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 of paradise. Avoid
+ injustice and oppression; consult with your brethren, and study
+ to preserve the love and confidence of your troops. When you
+ fight the battles of the Lord, acquit yourselves like men,
+ without turning your backs; but let not your victory be stained
+ with the blood of women or children. Destroy no palm-trees, nor
+ burn any fields of corn. Cut down no fruit-trees, nor do any
+ mischief to cattle, only such as 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 religious persons who live
+ retired in monasteries, and propose to themselves to serve God
+ that way: let them alone, and neither kill them nor destroy their
+ monasteries: 46 And you will find another sort of people, that
+ belong to the synagogue of Satan, who have shaven crowns; 47 be
+ sure you cleave their skulls, and give them no quarter till they
+ either turn Mahometans or pay tribute.” All profane or frivolous
+ conversation, all dangerous recollection of ancient quarrels, was
+ severely prohibited among the Arabs: in the tumult of a camp, the
+ exercises of religion were assiduously practised; and the
+ intervals of action were employed in prayer, meditation, and the
+ study of the Koran. The abuse, or even the use, of wine was
+ chastised by fourscore strokes on the soles of the feet, and in
+ the fervor of their primitive zeal, many secret sinners revealed
+ their fault, and solicited their punishment. After some
+ hesitation, the command of the Syrian army was delegated to Abu
+ Obeidah, one of the fugitives of Mecca, and companions of
+ Mahomet; whose zeal and devotion was assuaged, without being
+ abated, by the singular mildness and benevolence of his temper.
+ But in all the emergencies of war, the soldiers demanded the
+ superior genius of Caled; and whoever might be the choice of the
+ prince, the Sword of God was both in fact and fame the foremost
+ leader of the Saracens. He obeyed without reluctance; 4711 he was
+ consulted without jealousy; and such was the spirit of the man,
+ or rather of the times, that Caled professed his readiness to
+ serve under the banner of the faith, though it were in the hands
+ of a child or an enemy. Glory, and riches, and dominion, were
+ indeed promised to the victorious Mussulman; but he was carefully
+ instructed, that if the goods of this life were his only
+ incitement, they likewise would be his only reward.
+
+ 44 (return) [ A separate history of the conquest of Syria has
+ been composed by Al Wakidi, cadi of Bagdad, who was born A.D.
+ 748, and died A.D. 822; he likewise wrote the conquest of Egypt,
+ of Diarbekir, &c. Above the meagre and recent chronicles of the
+ Arabians, Al Wakidi has the double merit of antiquity and
+ copiousness. His tales and traditions afford an artless picture
+ of the men and the times. Yet his narrative is too often
+ defective, trifling, and improbable. Till something better shall
+ be found, his learned and spiritual interpreter (Ockley, in his
+ History of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 21-342) will not deserve the
+ petulant animadversion of Reiske, (Prodidagmata ad Magji Chalifae
+ Tabulas, p. 236.) I am sorry to think that the labors of Ockley
+ were consummated in a jail, (see his two prefaces to the 1st A.D.
+ 1708, to the 2d, 1718, with the list of authors at the end.) *
+ Note: M. Hamaker has clearly shown that neither of these works
+ can be inscribed to Al Wakidi: they are not older than the end of
+ the xith century or later than the middle of the xivth. Praefat.
+ in Inc. Auct. LIb. de Expugnatione Memphidis, c. ix. x.—M.]
+
+ 45 (return) [ The instructions, &c., of the Syrian war are
+ described by Al Wakidi and Ockley, tom. i. p. 22-27, &c. In the
+ sequel it is necessary to contract, and needless to quote, their
+ circumstantial narrative. My obligations to others shall be
+ noticed.]
+
+ 46 (return) [ Notwithstanding this precept, M. Pauw (Recherches
+ sur les Egyptiens, tom. ii. p. 192, edit. Lausanne) represents
+ the Bedoweens as the implacable enemies of the Christian monks.
+ For my own part, I am more inclined to suspect the avarice of the
+ Arabian robbers, and the prejudices of the German philosopher. *
+ Note: Several modern travellers (Mr. Fazakerley, in Walpole’s
+ Travels in the East, vol. xi. 371) give very amusing accounts of
+ the terms on which the monks of Mount Sinai live with the
+ neighboring Bedoweens. Such, probably, was their relative state
+ in older times, wherever the Arab retained his Bedoween
+ habits.—M.]
+
+ 47 (return) [ Even in the seventh century, the monks were
+ generally laymen: They wore their hair long and dishevelled, and
+ shaved their heads when they were ordained priests. The circular
+ tonsure was sacred and mysterious; it was the crown of thorns;
+ but it was likewise a royal diadem, and every priest was a king,
+ &c., (Thomassin, Discipline de l’Eglise, tom. i. p. 721-758,
+ especially p. 737, 738.)]
+
+ 4711 (return) [ Compare Price, p. 90.—M.]
+
+
+
+
+ Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs.—Part III.
+
+ One of the fifteen provinces of Syria, the cultivated lands to
+ the eastward of the Jordan, had been decorated by Roman vanity
+ with the name of _Arabia_; and the first arms of the Saracens
+ were justified by the semblance of a national right. The country
+ was enriched by the various benefits of trade; by the vigilance
+ of the emperors it was covered with a line of forts; and the
+ populous cities of Gerasa, Philadelphia, and Bosra, were secure,
+ at least from a surprise, by the solid structure of their walls.
+ The last of these cities was the eighteenth station from Medina:
+ the road was familiar to the caravans of Hejaz and Irak, who
+ annually visited this plenteous market of the province and the
+ desert: the perpetual jealousy of the Arabs had trained the
+ inhabitants to arms; and twelve thousand horse could sally from
+ the gates of Bosra, an appellation which signifies, in the Syriac
+ language, a strong tower of defence. Encouraged by their first
+ success against the open towns and flying parties of the borders,
+ a detachment of four thousand Moslems presumed to summon and
+ attack the fortress of Bosra. They were oppressed by the numbers
+ of the Syrians; they were saved by the presence of Caled, with
+ fifteen hundred horse: he blamed the enterprise, restored the
+ battle, and rescued his friend, the venerable Serjabil, who had
+ vainly invoked the unity of God and the promises of the apostle.
+ After a short repose, the Moslems performed their ablutions with
+ sand instead of water; and the morning prayer was recited by
+ Caled before they mounted on horseback. Confident in their
+ strength, the people of Bosra threw open their gates, drew their
+ forces into the plain, and swore to die in the defence of their
+ religion. But a religion of peace was incapable of withstanding
+ the fanatic cry of “Fight, fight! Paradise, paradise!” that
+ reechoed in the ranks of the Saracens; and the uproar of the
+ town, the ringing of bells, and the exclamations of the priests
+ and monks increased the dismay and disorder of the Christians.
+ With the loss of two hundred and thirty men, the Arabs remained
+ masters of the field; and the ramparts of Bosra, in expectation
+ of human or divine aid, were crowded with holy crosses and
+ consecrated banners. The governor Romanus had recommended an
+ early submission: despised by the people, and degraded from his
+ office, he still retained the desire and opportunity of revenge.
+ In a nocturnal interview, he informed the enemy of a
+ subterraneous passage from his house under the wall of the city;
+ the son of the caliph, with a hundred volunteers, were committed
+ to the faith of this new ally, and their successful intrepidity
+ gave an easy entrance to their companions. After Caled had
+ imposed the terms of servitude and tribute, the apostate or
+ convert avowed in the assembly of the people his meritorious
+ treason: “I renounce your society,” said Romanus, “both in this
+ world and the world to come. And I deny him that was crucified,
+ and whosoever worships him. And I choose God for my Lord, Islam
+ for my faith, Mecca for my temple, the Moslems for my brethren,
+ and Mahomet for my prophet; who was sent to lead us into the
+ right way, and to exalt the true religion in spite of those who
+ join partners with God.”
+
+ The conquest of Bosra, four days’ journey from Damascus,
+ encouraged the Arabs to besiege the ancient capital of Syria. At
+ some distance from the walls, they encamped among the groves and
+ fountains of that delicious territory, and the usual option of
+ the Mahometan faith, of tribute or of war, was proposed to the
+ resolute citizens, who had been lately strengthened by a
+ reenforcement of five thousand Greeks. In the decline, as in the
+ infancy, of the military art, a hostile defiance was frequently
+ offered and accepted by the generals themselves: many a lance was
+ shivered in the plain of Damascus, and the personal prowess of
+ Caled was signalized in the first sally of the besieged. After an
+ obstinate combat, he had overthrown and made prisoner one of the
+ Christian leaders, a stout and worthy antagonist. He instantly
+ mounted a fresh horse, the gift of the governor of Palmyra, and
+ pushed forwards to the front of the battle. “Repose yourself for
+ a moment,” said his friend Derar, “and permit me to supply your
+ place: you are fatigued with fighting with this dog.” “O Dear!”
+ replied the indefatigable Saracen, “we shall rest in the world to
+ come. He that labors to-day shall rest to-morrow.” With the same
+ unabated ardor, Caled answered, encountered, and vanquished a
+ second champion; and the heads of his two captives who refused to
+ abandon their religion were indignantly hurled into the midst of
+ the city. The event of some general and partial actions reduced
+ the Damascenes to a closer defence: but a messenger, whom they
+ dropped from the walls, returned with the promise of speedy and
+ powerful succor, and their tumultuous joy conveyed the
+ intelligence to the camp of the Arabs. After some debate, it was
+ resolved by the generals to raise, or rather to suspend, the
+ siege of Damascus, till they had given battle to the forces of
+ the emperor. In the retreat, Caled would have chosen the more
+ perilous station of the rear-guard; he modestly yielded to the
+ wishes of Abu Obeidah. But in the hour of danger he flew to the
+ rescue of his companion, who was rudely pressed by a sally of six
+ thousand horse and ten thousand foot, and few among the
+ Christians could relate at Damascus the circumstances of their
+ defeat. The importance of the contest required the junction of
+ the Saracens, who were dispersed on the frontiers of Syria and
+ Palestine; and I shall transcribe one of the circular mandates
+ which was addressed to Amrou, the future conqueror of Egypt. “In
+ the name of the most merciful God: from Caled to Amrou, health
+ and happiness. Know that thy brethren the Moslems design to march
+ to Aiznadin, where there is an army of seventy thousand Greeks,
+ who purpose to come against us, _that they may extinguish the
+ light of God with their mouths; but God preserveth his light in
+ spite of the infidels_. As soon therefore as this letter of mine
+ shall be delivered to thy hands, come with those that are with
+ thee to Aiznadin, where thou shalt find us if it please the most
+ high God.” The summons was cheerfully obeyed, and the forty-five
+ thousand Moslems, who met on the same day, on the same spot
+ ascribed to the blessing of Providence the effects of their
+ activity and zeal.
+
+ About four years after the triumph of the Persian war, the repose
+ of Heraclius and the empire was again disturbed by a new enemy,
+ the power of whose religion was more strongly felt, than it was
+ clearly understood, by the Christians of the East. In his palace
+ of Constantinople or Antioch, he was awakened by the invasion of
+ Syria, the loss of Bosra, and the danger of Damascus. An army of
+ seventy thousand veterans, or new levies, was assembled at Hems
+ or Emesa, under the command of his general Werdan: and these
+ troops consisting chiefly of cavalry, might be indifferently
+ styled either Syrians, or Greeks, or Romans: _Syrians_, from the
+ place of their birth or warfare; _Greeks_ from the religion and
+ language of their sovereign; and _Romans_, from the proud
+ appellation which was still profaned by the successors of
+ Constantine. On the plain of Aiznadin, as Werdan rode on a white
+ mule decorated with gold chains, and surrounded with ensigns and
+ standards, he was surprised by the near approach of a fierce and
+ naked warrior, who had undertaken to view the state of the enemy.
+ The adventurous valor of Derar was inspired, and has perhaps been
+ adorned, by the enthusiasm of his age and country. The hatred of
+ the Christians, the love of spoil, and the contempt of danger,
+ were the ruling passions of the audacious Saracen; and the
+ prospect of instant death could never shake his religious
+ confidence, or ruffle the calmness of his resolution, or even
+ suspend the frank and martial pleasantry of his humor. In the
+ most hopeless enterprises, he was bold, and prudent, and
+ fortunate: after innumerable hazards, after being thrice a
+ prisoner in the hands of the infidels, he still survived to
+ relate the achievements, and to enjoy the rewards, of the Syrian
+ conquest. On this occasion, his single lance maintained a flying
+ fight against thirty Romans, who were detached by Werdan; and,
+ after killing or unhorsing seventeen of their number, Derar
+ returned in safety to his applauding brethren. When his rashness
+ was mildly censured by the general, he excused himself with the
+ simplicity of a soldier. “Nay,” said Derar, “I did not begin
+ first: but they came out to take me, and I was afraid that God
+ should see me turn my back: and indeed I fought in good earnest,
+ and without doubt God assisted me against them; and had I not
+ been apprehensive of disobeying your orders, I should not have
+ come away as I did; and I perceive already that they will fall
+ into our hands.” In the presence of both armies, a venerable
+ Greek advanced from the ranks with a liberal offer of peace; and
+ the departure of the Saracens would have been purchased by a gift
+ to each soldier, of a turban, a robe, and a piece of gold; ten
+ robes and a hundred pieces to their leader; one hundred robes and
+ a thousand pieces to the caliph. A smile of indignation expressed
+ the refusal of Caled. “Ye Christian dogs, you know your option;
+ the Koran, the tribute, or the sword. We are a people whose
+ delight is in war, rather than in peace: and we despise your
+ pitiful alms, since we shall be speedily masters of your wealth,
+ your families, and your persons.” Notwithstanding this apparent
+ disdain, he was deeply conscious of the public danger: those who
+ had been in Persia, and had seen the armies of Chosroes confessed
+ that they never beheld a more formidable array. From the
+ superiority of the enemy, the artful Saracen derived a fresh
+ incentive of courage: “You see before you,” said he, “the united
+ force of the Romans; you cannot hope to escape, but you may
+ conquer Syria in a single day. The event depends on your
+ discipline and patience. Reserve yourselves till the evening. It
+ was in the evening that the Prophet was accustomed to vanquish.”
+ During two successive engagements, his temperate firmness
+ sustained the darts of the enemy, and the murmurs of his troops.
+ At length, when the spirits and quivers of the adverse line were
+ almost exhausted, Caled gave the signal of onset and victory. The
+ remains of the Imperial army fled to Antioch, or Cæsarea, or
+ Damascus; and the death of four hundred and seventy Moslems was
+ compensated by the opinion that they had sent to hell above fifty
+ thousand of the infidels. The spoil was inestimable; many banners
+ and crosses of gold and silver, precious stones, silver and gold
+ chains, and innumerable suits of the richest armor and apparel.
+ The general distribution was postponed till Damascus should be
+ taken; but the seasonable supply of arms became the instrument of
+ new victories. The glorious intelligence was transmitted to the
+ throne of the caliph; and the Arabian tribes, the coldest or most
+ hostile to the prophet’s mission, were eager and importunate to
+ share the harvest of Syria.
+
+ The sad tidings were carried to Damascus by the speed of grief
+ and terror; and the inhabitants beheld from their walls the
+ return of the heroes of Aiznadin. Amrou led the van at the head
+ of nine thousand horse: the bands of the Saracens succeeded each
+ other in formidable review; and the rear was closed by Caled in
+ person, with the standard of the black eagle. To the activity of
+ Derar he intrusted the commission of patrolling round the city
+ with two thousand horse, of scouring the plain, and of
+ intercepting all succor or intelligence. The rest of the Arabian
+ chiefs were fixed in their respective stations before the seven
+ gates of Damascus; and the siege was renewed with fresh vigor and
+ confidence. The art, the labor, the military engines, of the
+ Greeks and Romans are seldom to be found in the simple, though
+ successful, operations of the Saracens: it was sufficient for
+ them to invest a city with arms, rather than with trenches; to
+ repel the allies of the besieged; to attempt a stratagem or an
+ assault; or to expect the progress of famine and discontent.
+ Damascus would have acquiesced in the trial of Aiznadin, as a
+ final and peremptory sentence between the emperor and the caliph;
+ her courage was rekindled by the example and authority of Thomas,
+ a noble Greek, illustrious in a private condition by the alliance
+ of Heraclius. The tumult and illumination of the night proclaimed
+ the design of the morning sally; and the Christian hero, who
+ affected to despise the enthusiasm of the Arabs, employed the
+ resource of a similar superstition. At the principal gate, in the
+ sight of both armies, a lofty crucifix was erected; the bishop,
+ with his clergy, accompanied the march, and laid the volume of
+ the New Testament before the image of Jesus; and the contending
+ parties were scandalized or edified by a prayer that the Son of
+ God would defend his servants and vindicate his truth. The battle
+ raged with incessant fury; and the dexterity of Thomas, an
+ incomparable archer, was fatal to the boldest Saracens, till
+ their death was revenged by a female heroine. The wife of Aban,
+ who had followed him to the holy war, embraced her expiring
+ husband. “Happy,” said she, “happy art thou, my dear: thou art
+ gone to thy Lord, who first joined us together, and then parted
+ us asunder. I will revenge thy death, and endeavor to the utmost
+ of my power to come to the place where thou art, because I love
+ thee. Henceforth shall no man ever touch me more, for I have
+ dedicated myself to the service of God.” Without a groan, without
+ a tear, she washed the corpse of her husband, and buried him with
+ the usual rites. Then grasping the manly weapons, which in her
+ native land she was accustomed to wield, the intrepid widow of
+ Aban sought the place where his murderer fought in the thickest
+ of the battle. Her first arrow pierced the hand of his
+ standard-bearer; her second wounded Thomas in the eye; and the
+ fainting Christians no longer beheld their ensign or their
+ leader. Yet the generous champion of Damascus refused to withdraw
+ to his palace: his wound was dressed on the rampart; the fight
+ was continued till the evening; and the Syrians rested on their
+ arms. In the silence of the night, the signal was given by a
+ stroke on the great bell; the gates were thrown open, and each
+ gate discharged an impetuous column on the sleeping camp of the
+ Saracens. Caled was the first in arms: at the head of four
+ hundred horse he flew to the post of danger, and the tears
+ trickled down his iron cheeks, as he uttered a fervent
+ ejaculation; “O God, who never sleepest, look upon they servants,
+ and do not deliver them into the hands of their enemies.” The
+ valor and victory of Thomas were arrested by the presence of the
+ _Sword of God_; with the knowledge of the peril, the Moslems
+ recovered their ranks, and charged the assailants in the flank
+ and rear. After the loss of thousands, the Christian general
+ retreated with a sigh of despair, and the pursuit of the Saracens
+ was checked by the military engines of the rampart.
+
+ After a siege of seventy days, the patience, and perhaps the
+ provisions, of the Damascenes were exhausted; and the bravest of
+ their chiefs submitted to the hard dictates of necessity. In the
+ occurrences of peace and war, they had been taught to dread the
+ fierceness of Caled, and to revere the mild virtues of Abu
+ Obeidah. At the hour of midnight, one hundred chosen deputies of
+ the clergy and people were introduced to the tent of that
+ venerable commander. He received and dismissed them with
+ courtesy. They returned with a written agreement, on the faith of
+ a companion of Mahomet, that all hostilities should cease; that
+ the voluntary emigrants might depart in safety, with as much as
+ they could carry away of their effects; and that the tributary
+ subjects of the caliph should enjoy their lands and houses, with
+ the use and possession of seven churches. On these terms, the
+ most respectable hostages, and the gate nearest to his camp, were
+ delivered into his hands: his soldiers imitated the moderation of
+ their chief; and he enjoyed the submissive gratitude of a people
+ whom he had rescued from destruction. But the success of the
+ treaty had relaxed their vigilance, and in the same moment the
+ opposite quarter of the city was betrayed and taken by assault. A
+ party of a hundred Arabs had opened the eastern gate to a more
+ inexorable foe. “No quarter,” cried the rapacious and sanguinary
+ Caled, “no quarter to the enemies of the Lord:” his trumpets
+ sounded, and a torrent of Christian blood was poured down the
+ streets of Damascus. When he reached the church of St. Mary, he
+ was astonished and provoked by the peaceful aspect of his
+ companions; their swords were in the scabbard, and they were
+ surrounded by a multitude of priests and monks. Abu Obeidah
+ saluted the general: “God,” said he, “has delivered the city into
+ my hands by way of surrender, and has saved the believers the
+ trouble of fighting.” “And am I not,” replied the indignant
+ Caled, “am I not the lieutenant of the commander of the faithful?
+ Have I not taken the city by storm? The unbelievers shall perish
+ by the sword. Fall on.” The hungry and cruel Arabs would have
+ obeyed the welcome command; and Damascus was lost, if the
+ benevolence of Abu Obeidah had not been supported by a decent and
+ dignified firmness. Throwing himself between the trembling
+ citizens and the most eager of the Barbarians, he adjured them,
+ by the holy name of God, to respect his promise, to suspend their
+ fury, and to wait the determination of their chiefs. The chiefs
+ retired into the church of St. Mary; and after a vehement debate,
+ Caled submitted in some measure to the reason and authority of
+ his colleague; who urged the sanctity of a covenant, the
+ advantage as well as the honor which the Moslems would derive
+ from the punctual performance of their word, and the obstinate
+ resistance which they must encounter from the distrust and
+ despair of the rest of the Syrian cities. It was agreed that the
+ sword should be sheathed, that the part of Damascus which had
+ surrendered to Abu Obeidah, should be immediately entitled to the
+ benefit of his capitulation, and that the final decision should
+ be referred to the justice and wisdom of the caliph. A large
+ majority of the people accepted the terms of toleration and
+ tribute; and Damascus is still peopled by twenty thousand
+ Christians. But the valiant Thomas, and the free-born patriots
+ who had fought under his banner, embraced the alternative of
+ poverty and exile. In the adjacent meadow, a numerous encampment
+ was formed of priests and laymen, of soldiers and citizens, of
+ women and children: they collected, with haste and terror, their
+ most precious movables; and abandoned, with loud lamentations, or
+ silent anguish, their native homes, and the pleasant banks of the
+ Pharpar. The inflexible soul of Caled was not touched by the
+ spectacle of their distress: he disputed with the Damascenes the
+ property of a magazine of corn; endeavored to exclude the
+ garrison from the benefit of the treaty; consented, with
+ reluctance, that each of the fugitives should arm himself with a
+ sword, or a lance, or a bow; and sternly declared, that, after a
+ respite of three days, they might be pursued and treated as the
+ enemies of the Moslems.
+
+ The passion of a Syrian youth completed the ruin of the exiles of
+ Damascus. A nobleman of the city, of the name of Jonas, was
+ betrothed to a wealthy maiden; but her parents delayed the
+ consummation of his nuptials, and their daughter was persuaded to
+ escape with the man whom she had chosen. They corrupted the
+ nightly watchmen of the gate Keisan; the lover, who led the way,
+ was encompassed by a squadron of Arabs; but his exclamation in
+ the Greek tongue, “The bird is taken,” admonished his mistress to
+ hasten her return. In the presence of Caled, and of death, the
+ unfortunate Jonas professed his belief in one God and his apostle
+ Mahomet; and continued, till the season of his martyrdom, to
+ discharge the duties of a brave and sincere Mussulman. When the
+ city was taken, he flew to the monastery, where Eudocia had taken
+ refuge; but the lover was forgotten; the apostate was scorned;
+ she preferred her religion to her country; and the justice of
+ Caled, though deaf to mercy, refused to detain by force a male or
+ female inhabitant of Damascus. Four days was the general confined
+ to the city by the obligation of the treaty, and the urgent cares
+ of his new conquest. His appetite for blood and rapine would have
+ been extinguished by the hopeless computation of time and
+ distance; but he listened to the importunities of Jonas, who
+ assured him that the weary fugitives might yet be overtaken. At
+ the head of four thousand horse, in the disguise of Christian
+ Arabs, Caled undertook the pursuit. They halted only for the
+ moments of prayer; and their guide had a perfect knowledge of the
+ country. For a long way the footsteps of the Damascenes were
+ plain and conspicuous: they vanished on a sudden; but the
+ Saracens were comforted by the assurance that the caravan had
+ turned aside into the mountains, and must speedily fall into
+ their hands. In traversing the ridges of the Libanus, they
+ endured intolerable hardships, and the sinking spirits of the
+ veteran fanatics were supported and cheered by the unconquerable
+ ardor of a lover. From a peasant of the country, they were
+ informed that the emperor had sent orders to the colony of exiles
+ to pursue without delay the road of the sea-coast, and of
+ Constantinople, apprehensive, perhaps, that the soldiers and
+ people of Antioch might be discouraged by the sight and the story
+ of their sufferings. The Saracens were conducted through the
+ territories of Gabala and Laodicea, at a cautious distance from
+ the walls of the cities; the rain was incessant, the night was
+ dark, a single mountain separated them from the Roman army; and
+ Caled, ever anxious for the safety of his brethren, whispered an
+ ominous dream in the ear of his companion. With the dawn of day,
+ the prospect again cleared, and they saw before them, in a
+ pleasant valley, the tents of Damascus. After a short interval of
+ repose and prayer, Caled divided his cavalry into four squadrons,
+ committing the first to his faithful Derar, and reserving the
+ last for himself. They successively rushed on the promiscuous
+ multitude, insufficiently provided with arms, and already
+ vanquished by sorrow and fatigue. Except a captive, who was
+ pardoned and dismissed, the Arabs enjoyed the satisfaction of
+ believing that not a Christian of either sex escaped the edge of
+ their cimeters. The gold and silver of Damascus was scattered
+ over the camp, and a royal wardrobe of three hundred load of silk
+ might clothe an army of naked Barbarians. In the tumult of the
+ battle, Jonas sought and found the object of his pursuit: but her
+ resentment was inflamed by the last act of his perfidy; and as
+ Eudocia struggled in his hateful embraces, she struck a dagger to
+ her heart. Another female, the widow of Thomas, and the real or
+ supposed daughter of Heraclius, was spared and released without a
+ ransom; but the generosity of Caled was the effect of his
+ contempt; and the haughty Saracen insulted, by a message of
+ defiance, the throne of the Cæsars. Caled had penetrated above a
+ hundred and fifty miles into the heart of the Roman province: he
+ returned to Damascus with the same secrecy and speed On the
+ accession of Omar, the _Sword of God_ was removed from the
+ command; but the caliph, who blamed the rashness, was compelled
+ to applaud the vigor and conduct, of the enterprise.
+
+ Another expedition of the conquerors of Damascus will equally
+ display their avidity and their contempt for the riches of the
+ present world. They were informed that the produce and
+ manufactures of the country were annually collected in the fair
+ of Abyla, 64 about thirty miles from the city; that the cell of a
+ devout hermit was visited at the same time by a multitude of
+ pilgrims; and that the festival of trade and superstition would
+ be ennobled by the nuptials of the daughter of the governor of
+ Tripoli. Abdallah, the son of Jaafar, a glorious and holy martyr,
+ undertook, with a banner of five hundred horse, the pious and
+ profitable commission of despoiling the infidels. As he
+ approached the fair of Abyla, he was astonished by the report of
+ this mighty concourse of Jews and Christians, Greeks, and
+ Armenians, of natives of Syria and of strangers of Egypt, to the
+ number of ten thousand, besides a guard of five thousand horse
+ that attended the person of the bride. The Saracens paused: “For
+ my own part,” said Abdallah, “I dare not go back: our foes are
+ 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,
+ according to his inclination, advance or retire.” Not a Mussulman
+ deserted his standard. “Lead the way,” said Abdallah to his
+ Christian guide, “and you shall see what the companions of the
+ prophet can perform.” They charged in five squadrons; but after
+ the first advantage of the surprise, they were encompassed and
+ almost overwhelmed by the multitude of their enemies; and their
+ valiant band is fancifully compared to a white spot in the skin
+ of a black camel. 65 About the hour of sunset, when their weapons
+ dropped from their hands, when they panted on the verge of
+ eternity, they discovered an approaching cloud of dust; they
+ heard the welcome sound of the tecbir, 66 and they soon perceived
+ the standard of Caled, who flew to their relief with the utmost
+ speed of his cavalry. The Christians were broken by his attack,
+ and slaughtered in their flight, as far as the river of Tripoli.
+ They left behind them the various riches of the fair; the
+ merchandises that were exposed for sale, the money that was
+ brought for purchase, the gay decorations of the nuptials, and
+ the governor’s daughter, with forty of her female attendants.
+
+ The fruits, provisions, and furniture, the money, plate, and
+ jewels, were diligently laden on the backs of horses, asses, and
+ mules; and the holy robbers returned in triumph to Damascus. The
+ hermit, after a short and angry controversy with Caled, declined
+ the crown of martyrdom, and was left alive in the solitary scene
+ of blood and devastation.
+
+ 64 (return) [ Dair Abil Kodos. After retrenching the last word,
+ the epithet, holy, I discover the Abila of Lysanias between
+ Damascus and Heliopolis: the name (Abil signifies a vineyard)
+ concurs with the situation to justify my conjecture, (Reland,
+ Palestin. tom. i. p 317, tom. ii. p. 526, 527.)]
+
+ 65 (return) [ I am bolder than Mr. Ockley, (vol. i. p. 164,) who
+ dares not insert this figurative expression in the text, though
+ he observes in a marginal note, that the Arabians often borrow
+ their similes from that useful and familiar animal. The reindeer
+ may be equally famous in the songs of the Laplanders.]
+
+ 66 (return) [ We hear the tecbir; so the Arabs call Their shout
+ of onset, when with loud appeal They challenge heaven, as if
+ demanding conquest. 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
+ most early cultivation, is not unworthy of the preference. 68 The
+ heat of the climate is tempered by the vicinity of the sea and
+ mountains, by the plenty of wood and water; and the produce of a
+ fertile soil affords the subsistence, and encourages the
+ propagation, of men and animals. From the age of David to that of
+ Heraclius, the country was overspread with ancient and
+ flourishing cities: the inhabitants were numerous and wealthy;
+ and, after the slow ravage of despotism and superstition, after
+ the recent calamities of the Persian war, Syria could still
+ attract and reward the rapacious tribes of the desert. A plain,
+ of ten days’ journey, from Damascus to Aleppo and Antioch, is
+ watered, on the western side, by the winding course of the
+ Orontes. The hills of Libanus and Anti-Libanus are planted from
+ north to south, between the Orontes and the Mediterranean; and
+ the epithet of hollow (Coelesyria) was applied to a long and
+ fruitful valley, which is confined in the same direction, by the
+ two ridges of snowy mountains. 69 Among the cities, which are
+ enumerated by Greek and Oriental names in the geography and
+ conquest of Syria, we may distinguish Emesa or Hems, Heliopolis
+ or Baalbec, the former as the metropolis of the plain, the latter
+ as the capital of the valley. Under the last of the Caesars, they
+ were strong and populous; the turrets glittered from afar: an
+ ample space was covered with public and private buildings; and
+ the citizens were illustrious by their spirit, or at least by
+ their pride; by their riches, or at least by their luxury. In the
+ days of Paganism, both Emesa and Heliopolis were addicted to the
+ worship of Baal, or the sun; but the decline of their
+ superstition and splendor has been marked by a singular variety
+ of fortune. Not a vestige remains of the temple of Emesa, which
+ was equalled in poetic style to the summits of Mount Libanus, 70
+ while the ruins of Baalbec, invisible to the writers of
+ antiquity, excite the curiosity and wonder of the European
+ traveller. 71 The measure of the temple is two hundred feet in
+ length, and one hundred in breadth: the front is adorned with a
+ double portico of eight columns; fourteen may be counted on
+ either side; and each column, forty-five feet in height, is
+ composed of three massy blocks of stone or marble. The
+ proportions and ornaments of the Corinthian order express the
+ architecture of the Greeks: but as Baalbec has never been the
+ seat of a monarch, we are at a loss to conceive how the expense
+ of these magnificent structures could be supplied by private or
+ municipal liberality. 72 From the conquest of Damascus the
+ Saracens proceeded to Heliopolis and Emesa: but I shall decline
+ the repetition of the sallies and combats which have been already
+ shown on a larger scale. In the prosecution of the war, their
+ policy was not less effectual than their sword. By short and
+ separate truces they dissolved the union of the enemy; accustomed
+ the Syrians to compare their friendship with their enmity;
+ familiarized the idea of their language, religion, and manners;
+ and exhausted, by clandestine purchase, the magazines and
+ arsenals of the cities which they returned to besiege. They
+ aggravated the ransom of the more wealthy, or the more obstinate;
+ and Chalcis alone was taxed at five thousand ounces of gold, five
+ thousand ounces of silver, two thousand robes of silk, and as
+ many figs and olives as would load five thousand asses. But the
+ terms of truce or capitulation were faithfully observed; and the
+ lieutenant of the caliph, who had promised not to enter the walls
+ of the captive Baalbec, remained tranquil and immovable in his
+ tent till the jarring factions solicited the interposition of a
+ foreign master. The conquest of the plain and valley of Syria was
+ achieved in less than two years. Yet the commander of the
+ faithful reproved the slowness of their progress; and the
+ Saracens, bewailing their fault with tears of rage and
+ repentance, called aloud on their chiefs to lead them forth to
+ fight the battles 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, and a cap of precious
+ stones, and she beckons me, and calls out, Come hither quickly,
+ for I love thee.” With these words, charging the Christians, he
+ made havoc wherever he went, till, observed at length by the
+ governor of Hems, he was struck through with a javelin.
+
+ 67 (return) [ In the Geography of Abulfeda, the description of
+ Syria, his native country, is the most interesting and authentic
+ portion. It was published in Arabic and Latin, Lipsiae, 1766, in
+ quarto, with the learned notes of Kochler and Reiske, and some
+ extracts of geography and natural history from Ibn Ol Wardii.
+ Among the modern travels, Pocock’s Description of the East (of
+ Syria and Mesopotamia, vol. ii. p. 88-209) is a work of superior
+ learning and dignity; but the author too often confounds what he
+ had seen and what he had read.]
+
+ 68 (return) [ The praises of Dionysius are just and lively.
+ Syria, (in Periegesi, v. 902, in tom. iv. Geograph. Minor.
+ Hudson.) In another place he styles the country differently, (v.
+ 898.) This poetical geographer lived in the age of Augustus, and
+ his description of the world is illustrated by the Greek
+ commentary of Eustathius, who paid the same compliment to Homer
+ and Dionysius, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. l. iv. c. 2, tom. iii. p.
+ 21, &c.)]
+
+ 69 (return) [ The topography of the Libanus and Anti-Libanus is
+ excellently described by the learning and sense of Reland,
+ (Palestin. tom. i. p. 311-326)]
+
+ 70 (return) [
+
+ —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
+ the Greek original of Dionysius; and since they are likewise
+ unnoticed by Eustathius, I must, with Fabricius, (Bibliot. Latin.
+ tom. iii. p. 153, edit. Ernesti,) and against Salmasius, (ad
+ Vopiscum, p. 366, 367, in Hist. August.,) ascribed them to the
+ fancy, rather than the Mss., of Avienus.]
+
+ 71 (return) [ 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
+ preceding account is eclipsed by the magnificent description and
+ drawings of Mm. Dawkins and Wood, who have transported into
+ England the ruins of Pamyra and Baalbec.]
+
+ 72 (return) [ The Orientals explain the prodigy by a
+ never-failing expedient. The edifices of Baalbec were constructed
+ by the fairies or the 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 equal ignorance, Abulfeda and Ibn Chaukel
+ ascribe them to the Sabaeans or Aadites Non sunt in omni Syria
+ aedificia magnificentiora his, (Tabula Syria p. 108.)]
+
+ It was incumbent on the Saracens to exert the full powers of
+ their valor and enthusiasm against the forces of the emperor, who
+ was taught, by repeated losses, that the rovers of the desert had
+ undertaken, and would speedily achieve, a regular and permanent
+ conquest. From the provinces of Europe and Asia, fourscore
+ thousand soldiers were transported by sea and land to Antioch and
+ Caesarea: the light troops of the army consisted of sixty
+ thousand Christian Arabs of the tribe of Gassan. Under the banner
+ of Jabalah, the last of their princes, they marched in the van;
+ and it was a maxim of the Greeks, that for the purpose of cutting
+ diamond, a diamond was the most effectual. Heraclius withheld his
+ person from the dangers of the field; but his presumption, or
+ perhaps his despondency, suggested a peremptory order, that the
+ fate of the province and the war should be decided by a single
+ battle. The Syrians were attached to the standard of Rome and of
+ the cross: but the noble, the citizen, the peasant, were
+ exasperated by the injustice and cruelty of a licentious host,
+ who oppressed them as subjects, and despised them as strangers
+ and aliens. 73 A report of these mighty preparations was conveyed
+ to the Saracens in their camp of Emesa, and the chiefs, though
+ resolved to fight, assembled a council: the faith of Abu Obeidah
+ would have expected on the same spot the glory of martyrdom; the
+ wisdom of Caled advised an honorable retreat to the skirts of
+ Palestine and Arabia, where they might await the succors of their
+ friends, and the attack of the unbelievers. A speedy messenger
+ soon returned from the throne of Medina, with the blessings of
+ Omar and Ali, the prayers of the widows of the prophet, and a
+ reenforcement of eight thousand Moslems. In their way they
+ overturned a detachment of Greeks, and when they joined at Yermuk
+ the camp of their brethren, they found the pleasing intelligence,
+ that Caled had already defeated and scattered the Christian Arabs
+ of the tribe of Gassan. In the neighborhood of Bosra, the springs
+ of Mount Hermon descend in a torrent to the plain of Decapolis,
+ or ten cities; and the Hieromax, a name which has been corrupted
+ to Yermuk, is lost, after a short course, in the Lake of
+ Tiberias. 74 The banks of this obscure stream were illustrated by
+ a long and bloody encounter. 7411 On this momentous occasion, the
+ public voice, and the modesty of Abu Obeidah, restored the
+ command to the most deserving of the Moslems. Caled assumed his
+ station in the front, his colleague was posted in the rear, that
+ the disorder of the fugitive might be checked by his venerable
+ aspect, and the sight of the yellow banner which Mahomet had
+ displayed before the walls of Chaibar. The last line was occupied
+ by the sister of Derar, with the Arabian women who had enlisted
+ in this holy war, who were accustomed to wield the bow and the
+ lance, and who in a moment of captivity had defended, against the
+ uncircumcised ravishers, their chastity and religion. 75 The
+ exhortation of the generals was brief and forcible: “Paradise is
+ before you, the devil and hell-fire in your rear.” Yet such was
+ the weight of the Roman cavalry, that the right wing of the Arabs
+ was broken and separated from the main body. Thrice did they
+ retreat in disorder, and thrice were they driven back to the
+ charge by the reproaches and blows of the women. In the intervals
+ of action, Abu Obeidah visited the tents of his brethren,
+ prolonged their repose by repeating at once the prayers of two
+ different hours, bound up their wounds with his own hands, and
+ administered the comfortable reflection, that the infidels
+ partook of their sufferings without partaking of their reward.
+ Four thousand and thirty of the Moslems were buried in the field
+ of battle; and the skill of the Armenian archers enabled seven
+ hundred to boast that they had lost an eye in that meritorious
+ service. The veterans of the Syrian war acknowledged that it was
+ the hardest and most doubtful of the days which they had seen.
+ But it was likewise the most decisive: many thousands of the
+ Greeks and Syrians fell by the swords of the Arabs; many were
+ slaughtered, after the defeat, in the woods and mountains; many,
+ by mistaking the ford, were drowned in the waters of the Yermuk;
+ and however the loss may be magnified, 76 the Christian writers
+ confess and bewail the bloody punishment of their sins. 77
+ Manuel, the Roman general, was either killed at Damascus, or took
+ refuge in the monastery of Mount Sinai. An exile in the Byzantine
+ court, Jabalah lamented the manners of Arabia, and his unlucky
+ preference of the Christian cause. 78 He had once inclined to the
+ profession of Islam; but in the pilgrimage of Mecca, Jabalah was
+ provoked to strike one of his brethren, and fled with amazement
+ from the stern and equal justice of the caliph. These victorious
+ Saracens enjoyed at Damascus a month of pleasure and repose: the
+ spoil was divided by the discretion of Abu Obeidah: an equal
+ share was allotted to a soldier and to his horse, and a double
+ portion was reserved for the noble coursers of the Arabian breed.
+
+ 73 (return) [ I have read somewhere in Tacitus, or Grotius,
+ Subjectos habent tanquam suos, viles tanquam alienos. Some Greek
+ officers ravished the wife, and murdered the child, of their
+ Syrian landlord; and Manuel smiled at his undutiful complaint.]
+
+ 74 (return) [ See Reland, Palestin. tom. i. p. 272, 283, tom. ii.
+ p. 773, 775. This learned professor was equal to the task of
+ describing the Holy Land, since he was alike conversant with
+ Greek and Latin, with Hebrew and Arabian literature. The Yermuk,
+ or Hieromax, is noticed by Cellarius (Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii.
+ p. 392) and D’Anville, (Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 185.)
+ The Arabs, and even Abulfeda himself, do not seem to recognize
+ the scene of their victory.]
+
+ 7411 (return) [ Compare Price, p. 79. The army of the Romans is
+ swoller to 400,000 men of which 70,000 perished.—M.]
+
+ 75 (return) [ These women were of the tribe of the Hamyarites,
+ who derived their origin from the ancient Amalekites. Their
+ females were accustomed to ride on horseback, and to fight like
+ the Amazons of old, (Ockley, vol. i. p. 67.)]
+
+ 76 (return) [ We killed of them, says Abu Obeidah to the caliph,
+ one hundred and fifty thousand, and made prisoners forty
+ thousand, (Ockley vol. i. p. 241.) As I cannot doubt his
+ veracity, nor believe his computation, I must suspect that the
+ Arabic historians indulge themselves in the practice of comparing
+ speeches and letters for their heroes.]
+
+ 77 (return) [ After deploring the sins of the Christians,
+ Theophanes, adds, (Chronograph. p. 276,) does he mean Aiznadin?
+ His account is brief and obscure, but he accuses the numbers of
+ the enemy, the adverse wind, and the cloud of dust. (Chronograph.
+ p. 280.)]
+
+ 78 (return) [ See Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. p. 70, 71,) who
+ transcribes the poetical complaint of Jabalah himself, and some
+ panegyrical strains of an Arabian poet, to whom the chief of
+ Gassan sent from Constantinople a gift of five hundred pieces of
+ gold by the hands of the ambassador of Omar.]
+
+ After the battle of Yermuk, the Roman army no longer appeared in
+ the field; and the Saracens might securely choose, among the
+ fortified towns of Syria, the first object of their attack. They
+ consulted the caliph whether they should march to Caesarea or
+ Jerusalem; and the advice of Ali determined the immediate siege
+ of the latter. To a profane eye, Jerusalem was the first or
+ second capital of Palestine; but after Mecca and Medina, it was
+ revered and visited by the devout Moslems, as the temple of the
+ Holy Land which had been sanctified by the revelation of Moses,
+ of Jesus, and of Mahomet himself. The son of Abu Sophian was sent
+ with five thousand Arabs to try the first experiment of surprise
+ or treaty; but on the eleventh day, the town was invested by the
+ whole force of Abu Obeidah. He addressed the customary summons to
+ the chief commanders and people of Aelia. 79
+
+ 79 (return) [ In the name of the city, the profane prevailed over
+ the sacred Jerusalem was known to the devout Christians, (Euseb.
+ de Martyr Palest. c xi.;) but the legal and popular appellation
+ of Aelia (the colony 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 Al Cods, the Holy, is used as the proper
+ name of Jerusalem.]
+
+ “Health and happiness to every one that follows the right way! We
+ require of you to testify that there is but one God, and that
+ Mahomet is his apostle. If you refuse this, consent to pay
+ tribute, and be under us forthwith. Otherwise I shall bring men
+ against you who love death better than you do the drinking of
+ wine or eating hog’s flesh. Nor will I ever stir from you, if it
+ please God, till I have destroyed those that fight for you, and
+ made slaves of your children.” But the city was defended on every
+ side by deep valleys and steep ascents; since the invasion of
+ Syria, the walls and towers had been anxiously restored; the
+ bravest of the fugitives of Yermuk had stopped in the nearest
+ place of refuge; and in the defence of the sepulchre of Christ,
+ the natives and strangers might feel some sparks of the
+ enthusiasm, which so fiercely glowed in the bosoms of the
+ Saracens. The siege of Jerusalem lasted four months; not a day
+ was lost without some action of sally or assault; the military
+ engines incessantly played from the ramparts; and the inclemency
+ of the winter was still more painful and destructive to the
+ Arabs. The Christians yielded at length to the perseverance of
+ the besiegers. The patriarch Sophronius appeared on the walls,
+ and by the voice of an interpreter demanded a conference. 7911
+ After a vain attempt to dissuade the lieutenant of the caliph
+ from his impious enterprise, he proposed, in the name of the
+ people, a fair capitulation, with this extraordinary clause, that
+ the articles of security should be ratified by the authority and
+ presence of Omar himself. The question was debated in the council
+ of Medina; the sanctity of the place, and the advice of Ali,
+ persuaded the caliph to gratify the wishes of his soldiers and
+ enemies; and the simplicity of his journey is more illustrious
+ than the royal pageants of vanity and oppression. The conqueror
+ of Persia and Syria 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 of water. Wherever he halted, the company,
+ without distinction, was invited to partake of his homely fare,
+ and the repast was consecrated by the prayer and exhortation of
+ the commander of the faithful. 80 But in this expedition or
+ pilgrimage, his power was exercised in the administration of
+ justice: he reformed the licentious polygamy of the Arabs,
+ relieved the tributaries from extortion and cruelty, and
+ chastised the luxury of the Saracens, by despoiling them of their
+ rich silks, and dragging them on their faces in the dirt. When he
+ came within sight of Jerusalem, the caliph cried with a loud
+ voice, “God is victorious. O Lord, give us an easy conquest!”
+ and, pitching his tent of coarse hair, calmly seated himself on
+ the ground. After signing the capitulation, he entered the city
+ without fear or precaution; and courteously discoursed with the
+ patriarch concerning its religious antiquities. 81 Sophronius
+ bowed before his new master, and secretly muttered, in the words
+ of Daniel, “The abomination of desolation is in the holy place.”
+ 82 At the hour of prayer they stood together in the church of the
+ resurrection; but the caliph refused to perform his devotions,
+ and contented himself with praying on the steps of the church of
+ Constantine. To the patriarch he disclosed his prudent and
+ honorable motive. “Had I yielded,” said Omar, “to your request,
+ the Moslems of a future age would have infringed the treaty under
+ color of imitating my example.” By his command the ground of the
+ temple of Solomon was prepared for the foundation of a mosch; 83
+ and, during a residence of ten days, he regulated the present and
+ future state of his Syrian conquests. Medina might be jealous,
+ lest the caliph should be detained by the sanctity of Jerusalem
+ or the beauty of Damascus; her apprehensions were dispelled by
+ his prompt and voluntary return to the tomb of the apostle. 84
+
+ 7911 (return) [ See the explanation of this in Price, with the
+ prophecy which was hereby fulfilled, p 85.—M]
+
+ 80 (return) [ The singular journey and equipage of Omar are
+ described (besides Ockley, vol. i. p. 250) by Murtadi,
+ (Merveilles de l’Egypte, p. 200-202.)]
+
+ 81 (return) [ The Arabs boast of an old prophecy preserved at
+ Jerusalem, and describing the name, the religion, and the person
+ of Omar, the future conqueror. By such arts the Jews are said to
+ have soothed the pride of their foreign masters, Cyrus and
+ Alexander, (Joseph. Ant. Jud. l. xi c. 1, 8, p. 447, 579-582.)]
+
+ 82 (return) [ Theophan. Chronograph. p. 281. This prediction,
+ which had already served for Antiochus and the Romans, was again
+ refitted for the present occasion, by the economy of Sophronius,
+ one of the deepest theologians of the Monothelite controversy.]
+
+ 83 (return) [ 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 of the ancient temple, (says Phocas,) a length of 215, a
+ breadth of 172, toises. The Nubian geographer declares, that this
+ magnificent structure was 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.)]
+
+ 84 (return) [ 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 of Al Wakidi.]
+
+ To achieve what yet remained of the Syrian war the caliph had
+ formed two separate armies; a chosen detachment, under Amrou and
+ Yezid, was left in the camp of Palestine; while the larger
+ division, under the standard of Abu Obeidah and Caled, marched
+ away to the north against Antioch and Aleppo. The latter of
+ these, the Beraea of the Greeks, was not yet illustrious as the
+ capital of a province or a kingdom; and the inhabitants, by
+ anticipating their submission and pleading their poverty,
+ obtained a moderate composition for their lives and religion. But
+ the castle of Aleppo, 85 distinct from the city, stood erect on a
+ lofty artificial mound; the sides were sharpened to a precipice,
+ and faced with free-stone; and the breadth of the ditch might be
+ filled with water from the neighboring springs. After the loss of
+ three thousand men, the garrison was still equal to the defence;
+ and Youkinna, their valiant and hereditary chief, had murdered
+ his brother, a holy monk, for daring to pronounce the name of
+ peace. In a siege of four or five months, the hardest of the
+ Syrian war, great numbers of the Saracens were killed and
+ wounded: their removal to the distance of a mile could not seduce
+ the vigilance of Youkinna; nor could the Christians be terrified
+ by the execution of three hundred captives, whom they beheaded
+ before the castle wall. The silence, and at length the
+ complaints, of Abu Obeidah informed the caliph that their hope
+ and patience were consumed at the foot of this impregnable
+ fortress. “I am variously affected,” replied Omar, “by the
+ difference of your success; but I charge you by no means to raise
+ the siege of the castle. Your retreat would diminish the
+ reputation of our arms, and encourage the infidels to fall upon
+ you on all sides. Remain before Aleppo till God shall determine
+ the event, and forage with your horse round the adjacent
+ country.” The exhortation of the commander of the faithful was
+ fortified by a supply of volunteers from all the tribes of
+ Arabia, who arrived in the camp on horses or camels. Among these
+ was Dames, of a servile birth, but of gigantic size and intrepid
+ resolution. The forty-seventh day of his service he proposed,
+ with only thirty men, to make an attempt on the castle. The
+ experience and testimony of Caled recommended his offer; and Abu
+ Obeidah admonished his brethren not to despise the baser origin
+ of Dames, since he himself, could he relinquish the public care,
+ would cheerfully serve under the banner of the slave. His design
+ was covered by the appearance of a retreat; and the camp of the
+ Saracens was pitched about a league from Aleppo. The thirty
+ adventurers lay in ambush at the foot of the hill; and Dames at
+ length succeeded in his inquiries, though he was provoked by the
+ ignorance of his Greek captives. “God curse these dogs,” said the
+ illiterate Arab; “what a strange barbarous language they speak!”
+ At the darkest hour of the night, he scaled the most accessible
+ height, which he had diligently surveyed, a place where the
+ stones were less entire, or the slope less perpendicular, or the
+ guard less vigilant. Seven of the stoutest Saracens mounted on
+ each other’s shoulders, and the weight of the column was
+ sustained on the broad and sinewy back of the gigantic slave. The
+ foremost in this painful ascent could grasp and climb the lowest
+ part of the battlements; they silently stabbed and cast down the
+ sentinels; and the thirty brethren, repeating a pious
+ ejaculation, “O apostle of God, help and deliver us!” were
+ successively drawn up by the long folds of their turbans. With
+ bold and cautious footsteps, Dames explored the palace of the
+ governor, who celebrated, in riotous merriment, the festival of
+ his deliverance. From thence, returning to his companions, he
+ assaulted on the inside the entrance of the castle. They
+ overpowered the guard, unbolted the gate, let down the
+ drawbridge, and defended the narrow pass, till the arrival of
+ Caled, with the dawn of day, relieved their danger and assured
+ their conquest. Youkinna, a formidable foe, became an active and
+ useful proselyte; and the general of the Saracens expressed his
+ regard for the most humble merit, by detaining the army at Aleppo
+ till Dames was cured of his honorable wounds. The capital of
+ Syria was still covered by the castle of Aazaz and the iron
+ bridge of the Orontes. After the loss of those important posts,
+ and the defeat of the last of the Roman armies, the luxury of
+ Antioch 86 trembled and obeyed. Her safety was ransomed with
+ three hundred thousand pieces of gold; but the throne of the
+ successors of Alexander, the seat of the Roman government of the
+ East, which had been decorated by Caesar with the titles of free,
+ and holy, and inviolate was degraded under the yoke of the
+ caliphs to the secondary rank of a provincial town. 87
+
+ 85 (return) [ The Persian historian of Timur (tom. iii. l. v. c.
+ 21, p. 300) describes the castle of Aleppo as founded on a rock
+ one hundred cubits in height; a proof, says the French
+ translator, that he had never visited the place. It is now in the
+ midst of the city, of no strength with a single gate; the circuit
+ is about 500 or 600 paces, and the ditch half full of stagnant
+ water, (Voyages de Tavernier, tom. i. p. 149 Pocock, vol. ii.
+ part i. p. 150.) The fortresses of the East are contemptible to a
+ European eye.]
+
+ 86 (return) [ The date of the conquest of Antioch by the Arabs is
+ of some importance. By comparing the years of the world in the
+ chronography of Theophanes with the years of the Hegira in the
+ history of Elmacin, we shall determine, that it was taken between
+ January 23d and September 1st of 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 to Tuesday, August
+ 21st, an inconsistent date; since Easter fell that year on April
+ 5th, the 21st of August must have been a Friday, (see the Tables
+ of the Art de Verifier les Dates.)]
+
+ 87 (return) [ His bounteous edict, which tempted the grateful
+ city to assume the victory of Pharsalia for a perpetual aera, is
+ given. John Malala, in Chron. p. 91, edit. Venet. We may
+ distinguish his authentic information of domestic facts from his
+ gross ignorance of general history.]
+
+ In the life of Heraclius, the glories of the Persian war are
+ clouded on either hand by the disgrace and weakness of his more
+ early and his later days. When the successors of Mahomet
+ unsheathed the sword of war and religion, he was astonished at
+ the boundless prospect of toil and danger; his nature was
+ indolent, nor could the infirm and frigid age of the emperor be
+ kindled to a second effort. The sense of shame, and the
+ importunities of the Syrians, prevented the hasty departure from
+ the scene of action; but the hero was no more; and the loss of
+ Damascus and Jerusalem, the bloody fields of Aiznadin and Yermuk,
+ may be imputed in some degree to the absence or misconduct of the
+ sovereign. Instead of defending the sepulchre of Christ, he
+ involved the church and state in a metaphysical controversy for
+ the unity of his will; and while Heraclius crowned the offspring
+ of his second nuptials, he was tamely stripped of the most
+ valuable part of their inheritance. In the cathedral of Antioch,
+ in the presence of the bishops, at the foot of the crucifix, he
+ bewailed the sins of the prince and people; but his confession
+ instructed the world, that it was vain, and perhaps impious, to
+ resist the judgment of God. The Saracens were invincible in fact,
+ since they were invincible in opinion; and the desertion of
+ Youkinna, his false repentance and repeated perfidy, might
+ justify the suspicion of the emperor, that he was encompassed by
+ traitors and apostates, who conspired to betray his person and
+ their country to the enemies of Christ. In the hour of adversity,
+ his superstition was agitated by the omens and dreams of a
+ falling crown; and after bidding an eternal farewell to Syria, he
+ secretly embarked with a few attendants, and absolved the faith
+ of his subjects. 88 Constantine, his eldest son, had been
+ stationed with forty thousand men at Caesarea, the civil
+ metropolis of the three provinces of Palestine. But his private
+ interest recalled him to the Byzantine court; and, after the
+ flight of his father, he felt himself an unequal champion to the
+ united force of the caliph. His vanguard was boldly attacked by
+ three hundred Arabs and a thousand black slaves, who, in the
+ depth of winter, had climbed the snowy mountains of Libanus, and
+ who were speedily followed by the victorious squadrons of Caled
+ himself. From the north and south the troops of Antioch and
+ Jerusalem advanced along the sea-shore till their banners were
+ joined under the walls of the Phoenician cities: Tripoli and Tyre
+ were betrayed; and a fleet of fifty transports, which entered
+ without distrust the captive harbors, brought a seasonable supply
+ of arms and provisions to the camp of the Saracens. Their labors
+ were terminated by the unexpected surrender of Caesarea: the
+ Roman prince had embarked in the night; 89 and the defenceless
+ citizens solicited their pardon with an offering of two hundred
+ thousand pieces of gold. The remainder of the province, Ramlah,
+ Ptolemais or Acre, Sichem or Neapolis, Gaza, Ascalon, Berytus,
+ Sidon, Gabala, Laodicea, Apamea, Hierapolis, no longer presumed
+ to dispute the will of the conqueror; and Syria bowed under the
+ sceptre of the caliphs seven hundred years after Pompey had
+ despoiled the last of the Macedonian kings. 90
+
+ 88 (return) [ See Ockley, (vol. i. p. 308, 312,) who laughs at
+ the credulity of his author. When Heraclius bade farewell to
+ Syria, Vale Syria et ultimum vale, he prophesied that the Romans
+ should never reenter the province till the birth of an
+ inauspicious child, the future scourge of the empire. Abulfeda,
+ p. 68. I am perfectly ignorant of the mystic sense, or nonsense,
+ of this prediction.]
+
+ 89 (return) [ In the loose and obscure chronology of the times, I
+ am guided by an authentic record, (in the book of ceremonies of
+ Constantine Porphyrogenitus,) which certifies that, June 4, A.D.
+ 638, the emperor crowned 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 of the same month, the
+ hippodrome.]
+
+ 90 (return) [ Sixty-five years before Christ, Syria Pontusque
+ monumenta sunt Cn. Pompeii virtutis, (Vell. Patercul. ii. 38,)
+ rather of his fortune and power: he adjudged Syria to be a Roman
+ province, and the last of the Seleucides were incapable of
+ drawing a sword in the defence of 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
+ thousands of the Moslems. They died with the reputation and the
+ cheerfulness of martyrs; and the simplicity of their faith may be
+ expressed in the words of an Arabian youth, when he embraced, for
+ the last time, his sister and mother: “It is not,” said he, “the
+ delicacies of Syria, or the fading delights of this world, that
+ have prompted me to devote my life in the cause of religion. But
+ I seek the favor of God and his apostle; and I have heard, from
+ one of the companions of the prophet, that the spirits of the
+ martyrs will be lodged in the crops of green birds, who shall
+ taste the fruits, and drink of the rivers, of paradise. Farewell,
+ we shall meet again among the groves and fountains which God has
+ provided for his elect.” The faithful captives might exercise a
+ passive and more arduous resolution; and a cousin of Mahomet is
+ celebrated for refusing, after an abstinence of three days, the
+ wine and pork, the only nourishment that was allowed by the
+ malice of the infidels. The frailty of some weaker brethren
+ exasperated the implacable spirit of fanaticism; and the father
+ of Amer deplored, in pathetic strains, the apostasy and damnation
+ of a son, who had renounced the promises of God, and the
+ intercession of the prophet, to occupy, with the priests and
+ deacons, the lowest mansions of hell. The more fortunate Arabs,
+ who survived the war and persevered in the faith, were restrained
+ by their abstemious leader from the abuse of prosperity. After a
+ refreshment of three days, Abu Obeidah withdrew his troops from
+ the pernicious contagion of the luxury of Antioch, and assured
+ the caliph that their religion and virtue could only be preserved
+ by the hard discipline of poverty and labor. But the virtue of
+ Omar, however rigorous to himself, was kind and liberal to his
+ brethren. After a just tribute of praise and thanksgiving, he
+ dropped a tear of compassion; and sitting down on the ground,
+ wrote an answer, in which he mildly censured the severity of his
+ lieutenant: “God,” said the successor of the prophet, “has not
+ forbidden the use of the good things of this worl to faithful
+ men, and such as have performed good works. Therefore you ought
+ to have given them leave to rest themselves, and partake freely
+ of those good things which the country affordeth. If any of the
+ Saracens have no family in Arabia, they may marry in Syria; and
+ whosoever of them wants any female slaves, he may purchase as
+ many as he hath occasion for.” The conquerors prepared to use, or
+ to abuse, this gracious permission; but the year of their triumph
+ was marked by a mortality of men and cattle; and twenty-five
+ thousand Saracens were snatched away from the possession of
+ Syria. The death of Abu Obeidah might be lamented by the
+ Christians; but his brethren recollected that he was one of the
+ ten elect whom the prophet had named as the heirs of paradise. 91
+ Caled survived his brethren about three years: and the tomb of
+ the Sword of God is shown in the neighborhood of Emesa. His
+ valor, which founded in Arabia and Syria the empire of the
+ caliphs, was fortified by the opinion of a special providence;
+ and as long as he wore a cap, which had been blessed by Mahomet,
+ he deemed himself invulnerable amidst the darts of the infidels.
+ 9111
+
+ 91 (return) [ Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem. p. 73. Mahomet could
+ artfully vary 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 that in a general calamity, Omar would be
+ accepted by the divine justice, (Ockley, vol. i. p. 221.)]
+
+ 9111 (return) [ Khaled, according to the Rouzont Uzzuffa, (Price,
+ p. 90,) after having been deprived of his ample share of the
+ plunder of Syria by the jealousy of Omar, died, possessed only of
+ his horse, his arms, and a single slave. Yet Omar was obliged to
+ acknowledge to his lamenting parent. that never mother had
+ produced a son like Khaled.—M.]
+
+ The place of the first conquerors was supplied by a new
+ generation of their children and countrymen: Syria became the
+ seat and support of the house of Ommiyah; and the revenue, the
+ soldiers, the ships of that powerful kingdom were consecrated to
+ enlarge on every side the empire of the caliphs. But the Saracens
+ despise a superfluity of fame; and their historians scarcely
+ condescend to mention the subordinate conquests which are lost in
+ the splendor and rapidity of their victorious career.
+
+ To the north of Syria, they passed Mount Taurus, and reduced to
+ their obedience the province of Cilicia, with its capital Tarsus,
+ the ancient monument of the Assyrian kings. Beyond a second ridge
+ of the same mountains, they spread the flame of war, rather than
+ the light of religion, as far as the shores of the Euxine, and
+ the neighborhood of Constantinople. To the east they advanced to
+ the banks and sources of the Euphrates and Tigris: 92 the long
+ disputed barrier of Rome and Persia was forever confounded; the
+ walls of Edessa and Amida, of Dara and Nisibis, which had
+ resisted the arms and engines of Sapor or Nushirvan, were
+ levelled in the dust; and the holy city of Abgarus might vainly
+ produce 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 of Aradus, a small island or peninsula on the coast,
+ was postponed during ten years. But the hills of Libanus abounded
+ in timber; the trade of Phoenicia was populous in mariners; and a
+ fleet of seventeen hundred barks was equipped and manned by the
+ natives of the desert. The Imperial navy of the Romans fled
+ before them from the Pamphylian rocks to the Hellespont; but the
+ spirit of the emperor, a grandson of Heraclius, had been subdued
+ before the combat by a dream and a pun. 93 The Saracens rode
+ masters of the sea; and the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes, and the
+ Cyclades, were successively exposed to their rapacious visits.
+ Three hundred years before the Christian aera, the memorable
+ though fruitless siege of Rhodes 94 by Demetrius had furnished
+ that maritime republic with the materials and the subject of a
+ trophy. A gigantic statue of Apollo, or the sun, seventy cubits
+ in height, was erected at the entrance of the harbor, a monument
+ of the freedom and the arts of Greece. After standing fifty-six
+ years, the colossus of Rhodes was overthrown by an earthquake;
+ but the massy trunk, and huge fragments, lay scattered eight
+ centuries on the ground, and are often described as one of the
+ wonders of the ancient world. They were collected by the
+ diligence of the Saracens, and sold to a Jewish merchant of
+ Edessa, who is said to have laden nine hundred camels with the
+ weight of the brass metal; an enormous weight, though we should
+ include the hundred colossal figures, 95 and the three thousand
+ statues, which adorned the prosperity of the city of the sun.
+
+ 92 (return) [ Al Wakidi had likewise written a history of the
+ conquest of Diarbekir, or Mesopotamia, (Ockley, at the end of the
+ iid vol.,) which our interpreters do not appear to have seen. The
+ Chronicle of Dionysius of Telmar, the Jacobite patriarch, records
+ the taking of Edessa A.D. 637, and of Dara A.D. 641, (Asseman.
+ Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii. p. 103;) and the attentive may glean
+ some doubtful information from the Chronography of Theophanes,
+ (p. 285-287.) Most of the towns of Mesopotamia yielded by
+ surrender, (Abulpharag. p. 112.) * Note: It has been published in
+ Arabic by M. Ewald St. Martin, vol. xi p 248; but its
+ authenticity is doubted.—M.]
+
+ 93 (return) [ He dreamt that he was at Thessalonica, a harmless
+ and unmeaning vision; but his soothsayer, or his cowardice,
+ understood the sure omen of a defeat concealed in that
+ inauspicious word, Give to another the victory, (Theoph. p. 286.
+ Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiv. p. 88.)]
+
+ 94 (return) [ Every passage and every fact that relates to the
+ isle, the city, and the colossus of Rhodes, are compiled in the
+ laborious treatise of Meursius, who has bestowed the same
+ diligence on the two larger islands of the Crete and Cyprus. See,
+ in the iiid vol. of his works, the Rhodus of Meursius, (l. i. c.
+ 15, p. 715-719.) The Byzantine writers, Theophanes and
+ Constantine, have ignorantly prolonged the term to 1360 years,
+ and ridiculously divide the weight among 30,000 camels.]
+
+ 95 (return) [ Centum colossi alium nobilitaturi locum, says
+ Pliny, with his usual spirit. Hist. Natur. xxxiv. 18.]
+
+ III. The conquest of Egypt may be explained by the character of
+ the victorious Saracen, one of the first of his nation, in an age
+ when the meanest of the brethren was exalted above his nature by
+ the spirit of enthusiasm. The birth of Amrou was at once base and
+ illustrious; his mother, a notorious prostitute, was unable to
+ decide among five of the Koreish; but the proof of resemblance
+ adjudged the child to Aasi, the oldest of her lovers. 96 The
+ youth of Amrou was impelled by the passions and prejudices of his
+ kindred: his poetic genius was exercised in satirical verses
+ against the person and doctrine of Mahomet; his dexterity was
+ employed by the reigning faction to pursue the religious exiles
+ who had taken refuge in the court of the Aethiopian king. 97 Yet
+ he returned from this embassy a secret proselyte; his reason or
+ his interest determined him to renounce the worship of idols; he
+ escaped from Mecca with his friend Caled; and the prophet of
+ Medina enjoyed at the same moment the satisfaction of embracing
+ the two firmest champions of his cause. The impatience of Amrou
+ to lead the armies of the faithful was checked by the reproof of
+ Omar, who advised him not to seek power and dominion, since he
+ who is a subject to-day, may be a prince to-morrow. Yet his merit
+ was not overlooked by the two first successors of Mahomet; they
+ were indebted to his arms for the conquest of Palestine; and in
+ all the battles and sieges of Syria, he united with the temper of
+ a chief the valor of an adventurous soldier. In a visit to
+ Medina, the caliph expressed a wish to survey the sword which had
+ cut down so many Christian warriors; the son of Aasi unsheathed a
+ short and ordinary cimeter; and as he perceived the surprise of
+ Omar, “Alas,” said the modest Saracen, “the sword itself, without
+ the arm of its master, is neither sharper nor more weighty than
+ the sword of Pharezdak the poet.” 98 After the conquest of Egypt,
+ he was recalled by the jealousy of the caliph Othman; but in the
+ subsequent troubles, the ambition of a soldier, a statesman, and
+ an orator, emerged from a private station. His powerful support,
+ both in council and in the field, established the throne of the
+ Ommiades; the administration and revenue of Egypt were restored
+ by the gratitude of Moawiyah to a faithful friend who had raised
+ himself above the rank of a subject; and Amrou ended his days in
+ the palace and city which he had founded on the banks of the
+ Nile. His dying speech to his children is celebrated by the
+ Arabians as a model of eloquence and wisdom: he deplored the
+ errors of his youth but if the penitent was still infected by the
+ vanity of a poet, he might exaggerate the venom and mischief of
+ his impious compositions. 99
+
+ 96 (return) [ We learn this anecdote from a spirited old woman,
+ who reviled to their faces, the caliph and his friend. She was
+ encouraged by the silence of Amrou and the liberality of
+ Moawiyah, (Abulfeda, Annal Moslem. p. 111.)]
+
+ 97 (return) [ Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. ii. p. 46, &c., who
+ quotes the Abyssinian history, or romance of Abdel Balcides. Yet
+ the fact of the embassy and ambassador may be allowed.]
+
+ 98 (return) [ This saying is preserved by Pocock, (Not. ad Carmen
+ Tograi, p 184,) and justly applauded by Mr. Harris,
+ (Philosophical Arrangements, p. 850.)]
+
+ 99 (return) [ For the life and character of Amrou, see Ockley
+ (Hist. of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 28, 63, 94, 328, 342, 344, and
+ to the end of the 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 readers of Tacitus may aptly compare Vespasian
+ and Mucianus with Moawiyah and Amrou. Yet the resemblance is
+ still more in the situation, than in the characters, of the men.]
+
+ From his camp in Palestine, Amrou had surprised or anticipated
+ the caliph’s leave for the invasion of Egypt. 100 The magnanimous
+ Omar trusted in his God and his sword, which had shaken the
+ thrones of Chosroes and Caesar: but when he compared the slender
+ force of the Moslems with the greatness of the enterprise, he
+ condemned his own rashness, and listened to his timid companions.
+ The pride and the greatness of Pharaoh were familiar to the
+ readers of the Koran; and a tenfold repetition of prodigies had
+ been scarcely sufficient to effect, not the victory, but the
+ flight, of six hundred thousand of the children of Israel: the
+ cities of Egypt were many and populous; their architecture was
+ strong and solid; the Nile, with its numerous branches, was alone
+ an insuperable barrier; and the granary of the Imperial city
+ would be obstinately defended by the Roman powers. In this
+ perplexity, the commander of the faithful resigned himself to the
+ decision of chance, or, in his opinion, of Providence. At the
+ head of only four thousand Arabs, the intrepid Amrou had marched
+ away from his station of Gaza when he was overtaken by the
+ messenger of Omar. “If you are still in Syria,” said the
+ ambiguous mandate, “retreat without delay; but if, at the receipt
+ of this epistle, you have already reached the frontiers of Egypt,
+ advance with confidence, and depend on the succor of God and of
+ your brethren.” The experience, perhaps the secret intelligence,
+ of Amrou had taught him to suspect the mutability of courts; and
+ he continued his march till his tents were unquestionably pitched
+ on Egyptian ground. He there assembled his officers, broke the
+ seal, perused the epistle, gravely inquired the name and
+ situation of the place, 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 the entrance of the country as
+ far as the ruins of Heliopolis and the neighborhood of the modern
+ Cairo.
+
+ 100 (return) [ Al Wakidi had likewise composed a separate history
+ of the conquest of Egypt, which Mr. Ockley could never procure;
+ and his own inquiries (vol. i. 344-362) have added very little to
+ the original text of Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p. 296-323,
+ vers. Pocock,) the Melchite patriarch of Alexandria, who lived
+ three hundred years after the revolution.]
+
+ On the Western side of the Nile, at a small distance to the east
+ of the Pyramids, at a small distance to the south of the Delta,
+ Memphis, one hundred and fifty furlongs in circumference,
+ displayed the magnificence of ancient kings. Under the reign of
+ the Ptolemies and Caesars, the seat of government was removed to
+ the sea-coast; the ancient capital was eclipsed by the arts and
+ opulence of Alexandria; the palaces, and at length the temples,
+ were reduced to a desolate and ruinous condition: yet, in the age
+ of Augustus, and even in that of Constantine, Memphis was still
+ numbered among the greatest and most populous of the provincial
+ cities. 101 The banks of the Nile, in this place of the breadth
+ of three thousand feet, were united by two bridges of sixty and
+ of thirty boats, connected in the middle stream by the small
+ island of Rouda, which was covered with gardens and habitations.
+ 102 The eastern extremity of the bridge was terminated by the
+ town of Babylon and the camp of a Roman legion, which protected
+ the passage of the river and the second capital of Egypt. This
+ important fortress, which might fairly be described as a part of
+ Memphis or Misrah, was invested by the arms of the lieutenant of
+ Omar: a reenforcement of four thousand Saracens soon arrived 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
+ siege was protracted to seven months; and the rash invaders were
+ encompassed and threatened by the inundation of the Nile. 103
+ Their last assault was bold and successful: they passed the
+ ditch, which had been fortified with iron spikes, applied their
+ scaling ladders, entered the fortress with the shout of “God is
+ victorious!” and drove the remnant of the Greeks to their boats
+ and the Isle of Rouda. The spot was afterwards recommended to the
+ conqueror by the easy communication with the gulf and the
+ peninsula of Arabia; the remains of Memphis were deserted; the
+ tents of the Arabs were converted into permanent habitations; and
+ the first mosch 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 in their present decay by the
+ appellation of old Misrah, or Cairo, of which they form an
+ extensive suburb. But the name of Cairo, the town of victory,
+ more strictly belongs to the modern capital, which was founded in
+ the tenth century by the Fatimite caliphs. 105 It has gradually
+ receded from the river; but the continuity of buildings may be
+ traced by an attentive eye from the monuments of Sesostris to
+ those of Saladin. 106
+
+ 101 (return) [ Strabo, an accurate and attentive spectator,
+ observes of Heliopolis, (Geograph. l. xvii. p. 1158;) but of
+ Memphis he notices, however, the mixture of inhabitants, and the
+ ruin of the palaces. In the proper Egypt, Ammianus enumerates
+ Memphis among the four cities, maximis urbibus quibus provincia
+ nitet, (xxii. 16;) and the name of Memphis appears with
+ distinction in the Roman Itinerary and episcopal lists.]
+
+ 102 (return) [ These rare and curious facts, the breadth (2946
+ feet) and the bridge of the Nile, are only to be found in the
+ Danish traveller and the Nubian geographer, (p. 98.)]
+
+ 103 (return) [ From the month of April, the Nile begins
+ imperceptibly to rise; the swell becomes strong and visible in
+ the moon after the summer solstice, (Plin. Hist. Nat. v. 10,) and
+ is usually proclaimed at Cairo on St. Peter’s day, (June 29.) A
+ register of thirty successive years marks the greatest height of
+ the waters between July 25 and August 18, (Maillet, Description
+ de l’Egypte, lettre xi. p. 67, &c. Pocock’s Description of the
+ East, vol. i. p. 200. Shaw’s Travels, p. 383.)]
+
+ 104 (return) [ Murtadi, Merveilles de l’Egypte, 243, 259. He
+ expatiates on 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.]
+
+ 105 (return) [ D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 233.]
+
+ 106 (return) [ The position of New and of Old Cairo is well
+ known, and has been often described. Two writers, who were
+ intimately acquainted with 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’s Observations and Travels, p.
+ 296-304.) Yet we may not disregard the authority or the arguments
+ of Pocock, (vol. i. p. 25-41,) Niebuhr, (Voyage, tom. i. p.
+ 77-106,) and above all, of D’Anville, (Description de l’Egypte,
+ p. 111, 112, 130-149,) who have removed Memphis towards the
+ village of Mohannah, some miles farther to the south. In their
+ heat, the disputants have forgot that the ample space of a
+ metropolis covers and annihilates the far greater part of the
+ controversy.]
+
+ Yet the Arabs, after a glorious and profitable enterprise, must
+ have retreated to the desert, had they not found a powerful
+ alliance in the heart of the country. The rapid conquest of
+ Alexander was assisted by the superstition and revolt of the
+ natives: they abhorred their Persian oppressors, the disciples of
+ the Magi, who had burnt the temples of Egypt, and feasted with
+ sacrilegious appetite on the flesh of the god Apis. 107 After a
+ period of ten centuries, the same revolution was renewed by a
+ similar cause; and in the support of an incomprehensible creed,
+ the zeal of the Coptic Christians was equally ardent. I have
+ already explained the origin and progress of the Monophysite
+ controversy, and the persecution of the emperors, which converted
+ a sect into 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 Memphis between a victorious army and a
+ people of slaves. A rich and noble Egyptian, of the name of
+ Mokawkas, had dissembled his faith to obtain the administration
+ of his province: in the disorders of the Persian war he aspired
+ to independence: the embassy of Mahomet ranked him among princes;
+ but he declined, with rich gifts and ambiguous compliments, the
+ proposal of a new religion. 108 The abuse of his trust exposed
+ him to the resentment of Heraclius: his submission was delayed by
+ arrogance and fear; and his conscience was prompted by interest
+ to throw himself on the favor of the nation and the support of
+ the Saracens. In his first conference with Amrou, he heard
+ without indignation the usual option of the Koran, the tribute,
+ or the sword. “The Greeks,” replied Mokawkas, “are determined to
+ abide the determination of the sword; but with the Greeks I
+ desire no communion, either in this world or in the next, and I
+ abjure forever the Byzantine tyrant, his synod of Chalcedon, and
+ his Melchite slaves. For myself and my brethren, we are resolved
+ to live and die in the profession of the gospel and unity of
+ Christ. It is impossible for us to embrace the revelations of
+ your prophet; but we are desirous of peace, and cheerfully submit
+ to pay tribute and obedience to his temporal successors.” The
+ tribute was ascertained at two pieces of gold for the head of
+ every Christian; but old men, monks, women, and children, of both
+ sexes, under sixteen years of age, were exempted from this
+ personal assessment: the Copts above and below Memphis swore
+ allegiance to the caliph, and promised a hospitable entertainment
+ of three days to every Mussulman who should travel through their
+ country. By this charter of security, the ecclesiastical and
+ civil tyranny of the Melchites was destroyed: 109 the anathemas
+ of St. Cyril were thundered from every pulpit; and the sacred
+ edifices, with the patrimony of the church, were restored to the
+ national communion of the Jacobites, who enjoyed without
+ moderation the moment of triumph and revenge. At the pressing
+ summons of Amrou, their patriarch Benjamin emerged from his
+ desert; and after the first interview, the courteous Arab
+ affected to declare that he had never conversed with a Christian
+ priest of more innocent manners and a more venerable aspect. 110
+ In the march from Memphis to Alexandria, the lieutenant of Omar
+ intrusted his safety to the zeal and gratitude of the Egyptians:
+ the roads and bridges were diligently repaired; and in every step
+ of his progress, he could depend on a constant supply of
+ provisions and intelligence. The Greeks of Egypt, whose numbers
+ could scarcely equal a tenth of the natives, were overwhelmed by
+ the universal defection: they had ever been hated, they were no
+ longer feared: the magistrate fled from his tribunal, the bishop
+ from his altar; and the distant garrisons were surprised or
+ starved by the surrounding multitudes. Had not the Nile afforded
+ a safe and ready conveyance to the sea, not an individual could
+ have escaped, who by birth, or language, or office, or religion,
+ was connected with their odious name.
+
+ 107 (return) [ 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.]
+
+ 108 (return) [ Mokawkas sent the prophet two Coptic damsels, with
+ two maids 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, and an ass, distinguished by their respective
+ qualifications. The embassy of 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.]
+
+ 109 (return) [ 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 succeed accordingly.” I know not how to relate
+ the plans of Cyrus, of paying tribute without impairing the
+ revenue, and of converting Omar by his marriage with the
+ Emperor’s daughter, (Nicephor. Breviar. p. 17, 18.)]
+
+ 110 (return) [ See the life of Benjamin, in Renaudot, (Hist.
+ Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 156-172,) who has enriched the conquest
+ of Egypt with some facts from the Arabic text of Severus the
+ Jacobite historian]
+
+ By the retreat of the Greeks from the provinces of Upper Egypt, a
+ considerable force was collected in the Island of Delta; the
+ natural and artificial channels of the Nile afforded a succession
+ of strong and defensible posts; and the road to Alexandria was
+ laboriously cleared by the victory of the Saracens in
+ two-and-twenty days of general or partial combat. In their annals
+ of conquest, the siege of Alexandria 111 is perhaps the most
+ arduous and important enterprise. The first trading city in the
+ world was abundantly replenished with the means of subsistence
+ and defence. Her numerous inhabitants fought for the dearest of
+ human rights, religion and property; and the enmity of the
+ natives seemed to exclude them from the common benefit of peace
+ and toleration. The sea was continually open; and if Heraclius
+ had been awake to the public distress, fresh armies of Romans and
+ Barbarians might have been poured into the harbor to save the
+ second capital of the empire. A circumference of ten miles would
+ have scattered the forces of the Greeks, and favored the
+ stratagems of an active enemy; but the two sides of an oblong
+ square were covered by the sea and the Lake Maraeotis, and each
+ 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
+ the attempt and the value of the prize. From the throne of
+ Medina, the eyes of Omar were fixed on the camp and city: his
+ voice excited to arms the Arabian tribes and the veterans of
+ Syria; and the merit of a holy war was recommended by the
+ peculiar fame and fertility of Egypt. Anxious for the ruin or
+ expulsion of their tyrants, the faithful natives devoted their
+ labors to the service of Amrou: some sparks of martial spirit
+ were perhaps rekindled by the example of their allies; and the
+ sanguine hopes of Mokawkas had fixed his sepulchre in the church
+ of St. John of Alexandria. Eutychius the patriarch observes, that
+ the Saracens fought with the courage of lions: they repulsed the
+ frequent and almost daily sallies of the besieged, and soon
+ assaulted in their turn the walls and towers 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 betrayed by his
+ imprudent valor: his followers who had entered the citadel were
+ driven back; and the general, with a friend and slave, remained a
+ prisoner in the hands of the Christians. When Amrou was conducted
+ before the praefect, he remembered his dignity, and forgot his
+ situation: a lofty demeanor, and resolute language, revealed the
+ lieutenant of the caliph, and the battle-axe of a soldier was
+ already raised to strike off the head of the audacious captive.
+ His life was saved by the readiness of his slave, who instantly
+ gave his master a blow on the face, and commanded him, with an
+ angry tone, to be silent in the presence of his superiors. The
+ credulous Greek was deceived: he listened to the offer of a
+ treaty, and his prisoners were dismissed in the hope of a more
+ respectable embassy, till the joyful acclamations of the camp
+ announced the return of their general, and insulted the folly of
+ the infidels. At length, after a siege of fourteen months, 112
+ and the loss of three-and-twenty thousand men, the Saracens
+ prevailed: the Greeks embarked their dispirited and diminished
+ numbers, and the standard of Mahomet was planted on the walls of
+ the capital of Egypt. “I have taken,” said Amrou to the caliph,
+ “the great city of the West. It is impossible for me to enumerate
+ the variety of its riches and beauty; and I shall content myself
+ with observing, that it contains four thousand palaces, four
+ thousand baths, four hundred theatres or places of amusement,
+ twelve thousand shops for the sale of vegetable food, and forty
+ thousand tributary Jews. The town has been subdued by force of
+ arms, without treaty or capitulation, and the Moslems are
+ impatient to seize the fruits of their victory.” 113 The
+ commander of the faithful rejected with firmness the idea of
+ pillage, and directed his lieutenant to reserve the wealth and
+ revenue of Alexandria for the public service and the propagation
+ of the faith: the inhabitants were numbered; a tribute was
+ imposed, the zeal and resentment of the Jacobites were curbed,
+ and the Melchites who submitted to the Arabian yoke were indulged
+ in the obscure but tranquil exercise of their worship. The
+ intelligence of this disgraceful and calamitous event afflicted
+ the declining health of the emperor; and Heraclius died of a
+ dropsy about seven weeks after the loss of Alexandria. 114 Under
+ the minority of his grandson, the clamors of a people, deprived
+ of their daily sustenance, compelled the Byzantine court to
+ undertake the recovery of the capital of Egypt. In the space of
+ four years, the harbor and fortifications of Alexandria were
+ twice occupied by a fleet and army of Romans. They were twice
+ expelled by the valor of Amrou, who was recalled by the domestic
+ peril from the distant wars of Tripoli and Nubia. But the
+ facility of the attempt, the repetition of the insult, and the
+ obstinacy of the resistance, provoked him to swear, that if a
+ third time he drove the infidels into the sea, he would render
+ Alexandria as accessible on all sides as the house of a
+ prostitute. Faithful to his promise, he dismantled several parts
+ of the walls and towers; but the people was spared in the
+ chastisement of the city, and the mosch of Mercy was erected on
+ the spot where the victorious general had stopped the fury of his
+ troops.
+
+ 111 (return) [ The local description of Alexandria is perfectly
+ ascertained 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 the modern travellers, more especially of Thevenot,
+ (Voyage au Levant, part i. p. 381-395,) Pocock, (vol. i. p.
+ 2-13,) and Niebuhr, (Voyage en Arabie, tom. i. p. 34-43.) Of the
+ two modern rivals, Savary and Volmey, the one may amuse, the
+ other will instruct.]
+
+ 112 (return) [ Both Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 319) and
+ Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 28) concur in fixing the taking of
+ Alexandria to Friday of the new moon of Moharram of the twentieth
+ year of the Hegira, (December 22, A.D. 640.) In reckoning
+ backwards fourteen months spent before Alexandria, seven months
+ before Babylon, &c., Amrou might have invaded Egypt about the end
+ of the year 638; but we are assured that he entered the country
+ the 12th of Bayni, 6th of June, (Murtadi, Merveilles de l’Egypte,
+ p. 164. Severus, apud Renaudot, p. 162.) The Saracen, and
+ afterwards Lewis IX. of France, halted at Pelusium, or Damietta,
+ during the season of the inundation of the Nile.]
+
+ 113 (return) [ Eutych. Annal. tom. ii. p. 316, 319.]
+
+ 114 (return) [ Notwithstanding some inconsistencies of Theophanes
+ and Cedrenus, the accuracy of Pagi (Critica, tom. ii. p. 824) has
+ extracted from Nicephorus and the Chronicon Orientale the true
+ date of the death of Heraclius, February 11th, A.D. 641, fifty
+ days after the loss of Alexandria. A fourth of that time was
+ sufficient to convey the intelligence.]
+
+
+
+
+ Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs.—Part VI.
+
+ I should deceive the expectation of the reader, if I passed in
+ silence the fate of the Alexandrian library, as it is described
+ by the learned Abulpharagius. The spirit of Amrou was more
+ curious and liberal than that of his brethren, and in his leisure
+ hours, the Arabian chief was pleased with the conversation of
+ John, the last disciple of Ammonius, and who derived the surname
+ of Philoponus from his laborious studies of grammar 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 visit and the seal of the conqueror.
+
+ Amrou was inclined to gratify the wish of the grammarian, but his
+ rigid integrity refused to alienate the minutest object without
+ the consent of the caliph; and the well-known answer of Omar was
+ inspired by the ignorance of a fanatic. “If these writings of the
+ Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless, and need not
+ be preserved: if they disagree, they are pernicious, and ought to
+ be destroyed.” The sentence was executed with blind obedience:
+ the volumes of paper or parchment were distributed to the four
+ thousand baths of the city; and such was their incredible
+ multitude, that six months were barely sufficient for the
+ consumption of this precious fuel. Since the Dynasties of
+ Abulpharagius 116 have been given to the world in a Latin
+ version, the tale has been repeatedly transcribed; and every
+ scholar, with pious indignation, has deplored the irreparable
+ shipwreck of the learning, the arts, and the genius, of
+ antiquity. For my own part, I am strongly tempted to deny both
+ the fact and the consequences. 1161 The fact is indeed
+ marvellous. “Read and wonder!” says the historian himself: and
+ the solitary report of a stranger who wrote at the end of six
+ hundred years on the confines of Media, is overbalanced by the
+ silence of two annalist of a more early date, both Christians,
+ both natives of Egypt, and the most ancient of whom, the
+ patriarch Eutychius, has amply described the conquest of
+ Alexandria. 117 The rigid sentence of Omar is repugnant to the
+ sound and orthodox precept of the Mahometan casuists they
+ expressly declare, that the religious books of the Jews and
+ Christians, which are acquired by the right of war, should never
+ be committed to the flames; and that the works of profane
+ science, historians or poets, physicians or philosophers, may be
+ lawfully applied to the use of the faithful. 118 A more
+ destructive zeal may perhaps be attributed to the first
+ successors of Mahomet; yet in this instance, the conflagration
+ would have speedily expired in the deficiency of materials. I
+ should not recapitulate the disasters of the Alexandrian library,
+ the involuntary flame that was kindled by Caesar in his own
+ defence, 119 or the mischievous bigotry of the Christians, who
+ studied to destroy the monuments of idolatry. 120 But if we
+ gradually descend from the age of the Antonines to that of
+ Theodosius, we shall learn from a chain of contemporary
+ witnesses, that the royal palace and the temple of Serapis no
+ longer contained the four, or the seven, hundred thousand
+ volumes, which had been assembled by the curiosity and
+ magnificence of the Ptolemies. 121 Perhaps the church and seat of
+ the patriarchs might be enriched with a repository of books; but
+ if the ponderous mass of Arian and Monophysite controversy were
+ indeed consumed in the public baths, 122 a philosopher may allow,
+ with a smile, that it was ultimately devoted to the benefit of
+ mankind. I sincerely regret the more valuable libraries which
+ have been involved in the ruin of the Roman empire; but when I
+ seriously compute the lapse of ages, the waste of ignorance, and
+ the calamities of war, our treasures, rather than our losses, are
+ the objects of my surprise. Many curious and interesting facts
+ are buried in oblivion: the three great historians of Rome have
+ been transmitted to our hands in a mutilated state, and we are
+ deprived of many pleasing compositions of the lyric, iambic, and
+ dramatic poetry of the Greeks. Yet we should gratefully remember,
+ that the mischances of time and accident have spared the classic
+ works to which the suffrage of antiquity 123 had adjudged the
+ first place of genius and glory: the teachers of ancient
+ knowledge, who are still extant, had perused and compared the
+ writings of their predecessors; 124 nor can it fairly be presumed
+ that any important truth, any useful discovery in art or nature,
+ has been snatched away from the curiosity of modern ages.
+
+ 115 (return) [ Many treatises of this lover of labor are still
+ extant, but for readers of the present age, the printed and
+ unpublished are nearly in the same predicament. Moses and
+ Aristotle are the chief objects of his verbose commentaries, one
+ of which is dated as early as May 10th, A.D. 617, (Fabric.
+ Bibliot. Graec. tom. ix. p. 458-468.) A modern, (John Le Clerc,)
+ who sometimes assumed the same name was equal to old Philoponus
+ in diligence, and far superior in good sense and real knowledge.]
+
+ 116 (return) [ Abulpharag. Dynast. p. 114, vers. Pocock. Audi
+ quid factum sit et mirare. It would be endless to enumerate the
+ moderns who have wondered and believed, but I may distinguish
+ with honor the rational scepticism of Renaudot, (Hist. Alex.
+ Patriarch, p. 170: ) historia... habet aliquid ut Arabibus
+ familiare est.]
+
+ 1161 (return) [ Since this period several new Mahometan
+ authorities have 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 Hadschi Chalfa. See Von Hammer,
+ Geschichte der Assassinen, p. 17. Reinhard, in a German
+ Dissertation, printed at Gottingen, 1792, and St. Croix, (Magasin
+ Encyclop. tom. iv. p. 433,) have examined the question. Among
+ Oriental scholars, 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 Mahometan writer brings a similar charge
+ against the Crusaders. The library of Tripoli is said to have
+ contained the incredible number of three millions 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 of Arabia.
+ See Wilken. Gesch der Kreux zuge, vol. ii. p. 211.—M.]
+
+ 117 (return) [ This curious anecdote will be vainly sought in the
+ annals of Eutychius, and the Saracenic history of Elmacin. The
+ silence of Abulfeda, Murtadi, and a crowd of Moslems, is less
+ conclusive from their ignorance of Christian literature.]
+
+ 118 (return) [ See Reland, de Jure Militari Mohammedanorum, in
+ his iiid volume of Dissertations, p. 37. The reason for not
+ burning the religious books of the Jews or Christians, is derived
+ from the respect that is due to the name of God.]
+
+ 119 (return) [ Consult the collections of Frensheim (Supplement.
+ Livian, c. 12, 43) and Usher, (Anal. p. 469.) Livy himself had
+ styled the Alexandrian library, elegantiae regum curaeque
+ egregium opus; a liberal encomium, for which he is pertly
+ criticized by the narrow stoicism of Seneca, (De Tranquillitate
+ Animi, c. 9,) whose wisdom, on this occasion, deviates into
+ nonsense.]
+
+ 120 (return) [ See this History, vol. iii. p. 146.]
+
+ 121 (return) [ Aulus Gellius, (Noctes Atticae, vi. 17,) Ammianus
+ Marcellinua, (xxii. 16,) and Orosius, (l. vi. c. 15.) They all
+ speak in the past tense, and the words of Ammianus are remarkably
+ strong: fuerunt Bibliothecae innumerabiles; et loquitum
+ monumentorum veterum concinens fides, &c.]
+
+ 122 (return) [ Renaudot answers for versions of the Bible,
+ Hexapla, Catenoe Patrum, Commentaries, &c., (p. 170.) Our
+ Alexandrian Ms., if it came from Egypt, and not from
+ Constantinople or Mount Athos, (Wetstein, Prolegom. ad N. T. p.
+ 8, &c.,) might possibly be among them.]
+
+ 123 (return) [ I have often perused with pleasure a chapter of
+ Quintilian, (Institut. Orator. x. i.,) in which that judicious
+ critic enumerates and appreciates the series of Greek and Latin
+ classics.]
+
+ 124 (return) [ Such as Galen, Pliny, Aristotle, &c. On this
+ subject Wotton (Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning, p.
+ 85-95) argues, with solid sense, against the lively exotic
+ fancies of Sir William Temple. The contempt of the Greeks for
+ Barbaric science would scarcely admit the Indian or Aethiopic
+ books into the library of Alexandria; nor is it proved that
+ philosophy has sustained any real loss from their exclusion.]
+
+ In the administration of Egypt, 125 Amrou balanced the demands of
+ justice and policy; the interest of the people of the law, who
+ were defended by God; and of the people of the alliance, who were
+ protected by man. In the recent tumult of conquest and
+ deliverance, the tongue of the Copts and the sword of the Arabs
+ were most adverse to the tranquillity of the province. To the
+ former, Amrou declared, that faction and falsehood would be
+ doubly chastised; by the punishment of the accusers, whom he
+ should detest as his personal enemies, and by the promotion of
+ their innocent brethren, whom their envy had labored to injure
+ and supplant. He excited the latter by the motives of religion
+ and honor to sustain the dignity of their character, to endear
+ themselves by a modest and temperate conduct to God and the
+ caliph, to spare and protect a people who had trusted to their
+ faith, and to content themselves with the legitimate and splendid
+ rewards of their victory. In the management of the revenue, he
+ disapproved the simple but oppressive mode of a capitation, and
+ preferred with reason a proportion of taxes deducted on every
+ branch from the clear profits of agriculture and commerce. A
+ third part of the tribute was appropriated to the annual repairs
+ of the dikes and canals, so essential to the public welfare.
+ Under his administration, the fertility of Egypt supplied the
+ dearth of Arabia; and a string of camels, laden with corn and
+ provisions, covered almost without an interval the long road from
+ Memphis to Medina. 126 But the genius of Amrou soon renewed the
+ maritime communication which had been attempted or achieved by
+ the Pharaohs the Ptolemies, or the Caesars; and a canal, at least
+ eighty miles in length, was opened from the Nile to the Red Sea.
+ 1261 This inland navigation, which would have joined the
+ Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, was soon discontinued as
+ useless and dangerous: the throne was removed from Medina to
+ Damascus, and the Grecian fleets might have explored a passage to
+ the holy cities of Arabia. 127
+
+ 125 (return) [ This curious and authentic intelligence of Murtadi
+ (p. 284-289) has not been discovered either by Mr. Ockley, or by
+ the self-sufficient compilers of the Modern Universal History.]
+
+ 126 (return) [ Eutychius, Annal. tom. ii. p. 320. Elmacin, Hist.
+ Saracen. p. 35.]
+
+ 1261 (return) [ Many learned men have doubted the existence of a
+ communication by water between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean
+ by the Nile. Yet the fact is positively asserted by the ancients.
+ Diodorus Siculus (l. i. p. 33) speaks of it in the most distinct
+ manner as existing 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 the Arabic historian, Makrisi, show
+ that works were executed under the reign of Hadrian to repair the
+ canal and extend the navigation; it then received the name of the
+ River of Trajan Lucian, (in his Pseudomantis, p. 44,) says that
+ he went by water from Alexandria to Clysma, on the Red Sea.
+ Testimonies of the 6th and of the 8th century show that the
+ communication was not interrupted at that time. See the French
+ translation of Strabo, vol. v. p. 382. St. Martin vol. xi. p.
+ 299.—M.]
+
+ 127 (return) [ On these obscure canals, the reader may try to
+ satisfy himself from D’Anville, (Mem. sur l’Egypte, p. 108-110,
+ 124, 132,) and a learned thesis, maintained and printed at
+ Strasburg in the year 1770, (Jungendorum marium fluviorumque
+ molimina, p. 39-47, 68-70.) Even the 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
+ from the voice of fame and the legends of the Koran. He requested
+ that his lieutenant would place before his eyes the realm of
+ Pharaoh and the Amalekites; and the answer of Amrou exhibits a
+ lively and not unfaithful picture of that singular country. 128
+ “O commander of the faithful, Egypt is a compound of black earth
+ and green plants, between a pulverized mountain and a red sand.
+ The distance from Syene to the sea is 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 and
+ morning, and which rises and falls with the revolutions of the
+ sun and moon. When the annual dispensation of Providence unlocks
+ the springs and fountains that nourish the earth, the Nile rolls
+ his swelling and sounding waters through the realm of Egypt: the
+ fields are overspread by the salutary flood; and the villages
+ communicate with each other in their painted barks. The retreat
+ of the inundation deposits a fertilizing mud for the reception of
+ the various seeds: the crowds of husbandmen who blacken the land
+ may be compared to a swarm of industrious ants; and their native
+ indolence is quickened by the lash of the task-master, and the
+ promise of the flowers and fruits of a plentiful increase. Their
+ hope is seldom deceived; but the riches which they extract from
+ the wheat, the barley, and the rice, the legumes, the
+ fruit-trees, and the cattle, are unequally shared between those
+ who labor and those who possess. According to the vicissitudes of
+ the seasons, the face of the country is adorned with a silver
+ wave, a verdant emerald, and the deep yellow of a golden
+ harvest.” 129 Yet this beneficial order is sometimes interrupted;
+ and the long delay and sudden swell of the river in the first
+ year of the conquest might afford some color to an edifying
+ fable. It is said, that the annual sacrifice of a virgin 130 had
+ been interdicted by the piety of Omar; and that the Nile lay
+ sullen and inactive in his shallow bed, till the mandate of the
+ caliph was cast into the obedient stream, which rose in a single
+ night to the height of sixteen cubits. The admiration of the
+ Arabs for their new conquest encouraged the license of their
+ romantic spirit. We may read, in the gravest authors, that Egypt
+ was crowded with twenty thousand cities or villages: 131 that,
+ exclusive of the Greeks and Arabs, the Copts alone were found, on
+ the assessment, six millions of tributary subjects, 132 or twenty
+ millions of either sex, and of every age: that three hundred
+ millions of gold or silver were annually paid to the treasury of
+ the caliphs. 133 Our reason must be startled by these extravagant
+ assertions; and they will become more palpable, if we assume the
+ compass and measure the extent of habitable ground: a valley from
+ the tropic to Memphis seldom broader than twelve miles, and the
+ triangle of the Delta, a flat surface of two thousand one hundred
+ square leagues, compose a twelfth part of the magnitude of
+ France. 134 A more accurate research will justify a more
+ reasonable estimate. The three hundred millions, created by the
+ error of a scribe, are reduced to the decent revenue of four
+ millions three hundred thousand pieces of gold, of which nine
+ hundred thousand were consumed by the pay of the soldiers. 135
+ Two authentic lists, of the present and of the twelfth century,
+ are circumscribed within the respectable number of two thousand
+ seven hundred villages and towns. 136 After a long residence at
+ Cairo, a French consul has ventured to assign about four millions
+ of Mahometans, Christians, and Jews, for the ample, though not
+ incredible, scope of the population of Egypt. 137
+
+ 128 (return) [ A small volume, des Merveilles, &c., de l’Egypte,
+ composed in the xiiith century by Murtadi of Cairo, and
+ translated from an Arabic Ms. of Cardinal Mazarin, was published
+ by Pierre Vatier, Paris, 1666. The antiquities of Egypt are wild
+ and legendary; but the writer deserves credit and esteem for his
+ account of the conquest and geography of his native country, (see
+ the correspondence of Amrou and Omar, p. 279-289.)]
+
+ 129 (return) [ In a twenty years’ residence at Cairo, the consul
+ Maillet had contemplated that varying scene, the Nile, (lettre
+ ii. particularly p. 70, 75;) the fertility of the land, (lettre
+ ix.) From a college at Cambridge, the poetic eye of Gray had seen
+ the same objects with a keener 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.)]
+
+ 130 (return) [ Murtadi, p. 164-167. The reader will not easily
+ credit a human sacrifice under the Christian emperors, or a
+ miracle of the successors of Mahomet.]
+
+ 131 (return) [ Maillet, Description de l’Egypte, p. 22. He
+ mentions this number as the common opinion; and adds, that the
+ generality of these villages contain two or three thousand
+ persons, and that many of them are more populous than our large
+ cities.]
+
+ 132 (return) [ Eutych. Annal. tom. ii. p. 308, 311. The twenty
+ millions are computed from the following data: one twelfth of
+ mankind above sixty, one third below sixteen, the proportion of
+ men to women as seventeen 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 seventeen
+ hundred companions of Sesostris were born on the same day.]
+
+ 133 (return) [ Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 218; and this gross
+ lump is swallowed without scruple by D’Herbelot, (Bibliot.
+ Orient. p. 1031,) Ar. buthnot, (Tables of Ancient Coins, p. 262,)
+ and De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 135.) They might
+ allege the not less extravagant liberality of Appian in favor of
+ the Ptolemies (in praefat.) of seventy four myriads, 740,000
+ talents, an annual income of 185, or near 300 millions of pounds
+ sterling, according as we reckon by the Egyptian or the
+ Alexandrian talent, (Bernard, de Ponderibus Antiq. p. 186.)]
+
+ 134 (return) [ See the measurement of D’Anville, (Mem. sur
+ l’Egypte, p. 23, &c.) After some peevish cavils, M. Pauw
+ (Recherches sur les Egyptiens, tom. i. p. 118-121) can only
+ enlarge his reckoning to 2250 square leagues.]
+
+ 135 (return) [ Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexand. p. 334, who
+ calls the common reading or version of Elmacin, error librarii.
+ His own emendation, of 4,300,000 pieces, in the ixth century,
+ maintains a probable medium between the 3,000,000 which the Arabs
+ acquired by the conquest of Egypt, (idem, p. 168.) and the
+ 2,400,000 which the sultan of Constantinople 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.]
+
+ 136 (return) [ The list of Schultens (Index Geograph. ad calcem
+ Vit. Saladin. p. 5) contains 2396 places; that of D’Anville,
+ (Mem. sur l’Egypte, p. 29,) from the divan of Cairo, enumerates
+ 2696.]
+
+ 137 (return) [ See Maillet, (Description de l’Egypte, p. 28,) who
+ seems to argue with candor and judgment. I am much better
+ satisfied with the observations than with the reading of the
+ French consul. He was ignorant of Greek and Latin literature, and
+ his fancy is too much delighted with the fictions of the Arabs.
+ Their best knowledge is collected by Abulfeda, (Descript. Aegypt.
+ Arab. et Lat. a Joh. David Michaelis, Gottingae, in 4to., 1776;)
+ and in two recent voyages into Egypt, we are amused by Savary,
+ and instructed by Volney. I wish the latter could travel 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
+ the chiefs 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 their countrymen; and the conduct of the war was
+ intrusted to Abdallah, 139 the son of Said and the foster-brother
+ of the caliph, who had lately supplanted the conqueror and
+ lieutenant of Egypt. Yet the favor of the prince, and the merit
+ of his favorite, could not obliterate the guilt of his apostasy.
+ The early conversion of Abdallah, and his skilful pen, had
+ recommended him to the important office of transcribing the
+ sheets of the Koran: he betrayed his trust, corrupted the text,
+ derided the errors which he had made, and fled to Mecca to escape
+ the justice, and expose the ignorance, of the apostle. After the
+ conquest of Mecca, he fell prostrate at the feet of Mahomet; his
+ tears, and the entreaties of Othman, extorted a reluctant pardon;
+ but the prophet declared that he had so long hesitated, to allow
+ time for some zealous disciple to avenge his injury in the blood
+ of the apostate. With apparent fidelity and effective merit, he
+ served the religion which it was no longer his interest to
+ desert: his birth and talents gave him an honorable rank among
+ the Koreish; and, in a nation of cavalry, Abdallah was renowned
+ as the boldest and most dexterous horseman of Arabia. At the head
+ of forty thousand Moslems, he advanced from Egypt into the
+ unknown countries of the West. The sands of Barca might be
+ impervious to a Roman legion but the Arabs were attended by their
+ faithful camels; and the natives of the desert beheld without
+ terror the familiar aspect of the soil and climate. After a
+ painful march, they pitched their tents before the walls of
+ Tripoli, 140 a maritime city in which the name, the wealth, and
+ the inhabitants of the province had gradually centred, and which
+ now maintains the third rank among the states of Barbary. A
+ reenforcement of Greeks was surprised and cut in pieces on the
+ sea-shore; but the fortifications of Tripoli resisted the first
+ assaults; and the Saracens were tempted by the approach of the
+ praefect Gregory 141 to relinquish the labors of the siege for
+ the perils and the hopes of a decisive action. If his standard
+ was followed by one hundred and twenty thousand men, the regular
+ bands of the empire must have been lost in the naked and
+ disorderly crowd of Africans and Moors, who formed the strength,
+ or rather the numbers, of his host. He rejected with indignation
+ the option of the Koran or the tribute; and during several days
+ the two armies were fiercely engaged from the dawn of light to
+ the hour of noon, when their fatigue and the excessive heat
+ compelled them to seek shelter and refreshment in their
+ respective camps. The daughter of Gregory, a maid of incomparable
+ beauty and spirit, is said to have fought by his side: from her
+ earliest youth she was trained to mount on horseback, to draw the
+ bow, and to wield the cimeter; and the richness of her arms and
+ apparel were conspicuous in the foremost ranks of the battle. Her
+ hand, with a hundred thousand pieces of gold, was offered for the
+ head of the Arabian general, and the youths of Africa were
+ excited by the prospect of the glorious prize. At the pressing
+ solicitation of his brethren, Abdallah withdrew his person from
+ the field; but the Saracens were discouraged by the retreat of
+ their leader, and the repetition of these equal or unsuccessful
+ conflicts.
+
+ 138 (return) [ My conquest of Africa is drawn from two French
+ interpreters of Arabic literature, Cardonne (Hist. de l’Afrique
+ et de l’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 general parts successively treat of, 1.
+ Physics; 2. Man; 3. Animals; 4. Plants; and, 5. History; and the
+ African affairs are discussed in the vith chapter of the vth
+ section of this last part, (Reiske, Prodidagmata ad Hagji
+ Chalifae Tabulas, p. 232-234.) Among the older historians who are
+ quoted by Navairi we may distinguish the original narrative of a
+ soldier who led the van of the Moslems.]
+
+ 139 (return) [ See the history of Abdallah, in Abulfeda (Vit.
+ Mohammed. p. 108) and Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii.
+ 45-48.)]
+
+ 140 (return) [ The province and city of Tripoli are described by
+ Leo Africanus (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, who composed or translated his
+ African geography in a state of captivity at Rome, where he had
+ assumed the name and religion of Pope Leo X. In a similar
+ captivity among the Moors, the Spaniard Marmol, a soldier of
+ Charles V., compiled his Description of Africa, translated by
+ D’Ablancourt into French, (Paris, 1667, 3 vols. in 4to.) Marmol
+ had read and seen, but he is destitute of the curious and
+ extensive observation which abounds in the original work of Leo
+ the African.]
+
+ 141 (return) [ Theophanes, who mentions the defeat, rather than
+ the death, of Gregory. He brands the praefect with the name: he
+ had probably assumed the purple, (Chronograph. p. 285.)]
+
+ A noble Arabian, who afterwards became the adversary of Ali, and
+ the father of a caliph, had signalized his valor in Egypt, and
+ Zobeir 142 was the first who planted the scaling-ladder against
+ the walls of Babylon. In the African war he was detached from the
+ standard of Abdallah. On the news of the battle, Zobeir, with
+ twelve companions, cut his way through the camp of the Greeks,
+ and pressed forwards, without tasting either food or repose, to
+ partake of the dangers of his brethren. He cast his eyes round
+ the field: “Where,” said he, “is our general?” “In his tent.” “Is
+ the tent a station for the general of the Moslems?” Abdallah
+ represented with a blush the importance of his own life, 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 with
+ his captive daughter, and the equal sum of one hundred thousand
+ pieces of gold.” To the courage and discretion of Zobeir the
+ lieutenant of the caliph intrusted the execution of his own
+ stratagem, which inclined the long-disputed balance in favor of
+ the Saracens. Supplying by activity and artifice the deficiency
+ of numbers, a part of their forces lay concealed in their tents,
+ while the remainder prolonged an irregular skirmish with the
+ enemy till the sun was high in the heavens. On both sides they
+ retired with fainting steps: their horses were unbridled, their
+ armor was laid aside, and the hostile nations prepared, or seemed
+ to prepare, for the refreshment of the evening, and the encounter
+ of the ensuing day. On a sudden the charge was sounded; the
+ Arabian camp poured forth a swarm of fresh and intrepid warriors;
+ and the long line of the Greeks and Africans was surprised,
+ assaulted, overturned, by new squadrons of the faithful, who, to
+ the eye of fanaticism, might appear as a band of angels
+ descending from the sky. The praefect himself was slain by the
+ hand of Zobeir: his daughter, who sought revenge and death, was
+ surrounded and made prisoner; and the fugitives involved in their
+ disaster the town of Sufetula, to which they escaped from the
+ sabres and lances of the Arabs. Sufetula was built one hundred
+ and fifty miles to the south of Carthage: a gentle declivity is
+ watered by a running stream, and shaded by a grove of
+ juniper-trees; and, in the ruins of a triumpha arch, a portico,
+ and three temples of the Corinthian order, curiosity may yet
+ admire the magnificence of the Romans. 143 After the fall of this
+ opulent city, the provincials and Barbarians implored on all
+ sides the mercy of the conqueror. His vanity or his zeal might be
+ flattered by offers of tribute or professions of faith: but his
+ losses, his fatigues, and the progress of an epidemical disease,
+ prevented a solid establishment; and the Saracens, after a
+ campaign of fifteen months, retreated to the confines of Egypt,
+ with the captives and the wealth of their African expedition. The
+ caliph’s fifth was granted to a favorite, on the nominal payment
+ of five hundred thousand pieces of gold; 144 but the state was
+ doubly injured by this fallacious transaction, if each
+ foot-soldier had shared one thousand, and each horseman three
+ thousand, pieces, in the real division of the plunder. The author
+ of the death of Gregory was expected to have claimed the most
+ precious reward of the victory: from his silence it might be
+ presumed that he had fallen in the battle, till the tears and
+ exclamations of the praefect’s daughter at the sight of Zobeir
+ revealed the valor and modesty of that gallant soldier. The
+ unfortunate virgin was offered, and almost rejected as a slave,
+ by her father’s murderer, who coolly declared that his sword was
+ consecrated to the service of religion; and that he labored for a
+ recompense far above the charms of mortal beauty, or the riches
+ of this transitory life. A reward congenial to his temper was the
+ honorable commission of announcing to the caliph Othman the
+ success of his arms. The companions the chiefs, and the people,
+ were assembled in the mosch of Medina, to hear the interesting
+ narrative of Zobeir; and as the orator forgot nothing except the
+ merit of his own counsels and actions, the name of Abdallah was
+ joined by the Arabians with the heroic names of Caled and Amrou.
+ 145
+
+ 142 (return) [ See in Ockley (Hist. of the Saracens, vol. ii. p.
+ 45) the death of Zobeir, which was honored with the tears of Ali,
+ against whom he had rebelled. His valor at the siege of Babylon,
+ if indeed it be the same person, is mentioned by Eutychius,
+ (Annal. tom. ii. p. 308)]
+
+ 143 (return) [ Shaw’s Travels, p. 118, 119.]
+
+ 144 (return) [ Mimica emptio, says Abulfeda, erat haec, et mira
+ donatio; quandoquidem Othman, ejus nomine nummos ex aerario prius
+ ablatos aerario praestabat, (Annal. Moslem. p. 78.) Elmacin (in
+ his cloudy version, p. 39) seems to report the same job. When the
+ Arabs be sieged the palace of Othman, it stood high in their
+ catalogue of grievances.`]
+
+ 145 (return) [ Theophan. Chronograph. p. 235 edit. Paris. His
+ chronology is loose and inaccurate.]
+
+ [A. D. 665-689.] The western conquests of the Saracens were
+ suspended near twenty years, till their dissensions were composed
+ by the establishment of the house of Ommiyah; and the caliph
+ Moawiyah was invited by the cries of the Africans themselves. The
+ successors of Heraclius had been informed of the tribute which
+ they had been compelled to stipulate with the Arabs; but instead
+ of being moved to pity and relieve their distress, they imposed,
+ as an equivalent or a fine, a second tribute of a similar amount.
+ The ears of the zantine ministers were shut against the
+ complaints of their poverty and ruin their despair was reduced to
+ prefer the dominion of a single master; and the extortions of the
+ patriarch of Carthage, who was invested with civil and military
+ power, provoked the sectaries, and even the Catholics, of the
+ Roman province to abjure the religion as well as the authority of
+ their 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 spoils the bold adventurers of Syria and
+ Egypt.146 But the title of conqueror of Africa is more justly due
+ to his successor Akbah. He marched from Damascus at the head of
+ ten thousand of the bravest Arabs; and the genuine force of the
+ Moslems was enlarged by the doubtful aid and conversion of many
+ thousand Barbarians. It would be difficult, nor is it necessary,
+ to trace the accurate line of the progress of Akbah. The interior
+ regions have been peopled by the Orientals with fictitious armies
+ and imaginary citadels. In the warlike province of Zab or
+ Numidia, fourscore thousand of the natives might assemble in
+ arms; but the number of three hundred and sixty towns is
+ incompatible with the ignorance or decay of husbandry;147 and a
+ circumference of three leagues will not be justified by the ruins
+ of Erbe or Lambesa, the ancient metropolis of that inland
+ country. As we approach the seacoast, the well-known titles of
+ Bugia,148 and Tangier149 define the more certain limits of the
+ Saracen victories. A remnant of trade still adheres to the
+ commodious harbour of Bugia, which, in a more prosperous age, is
+ said to have contained about twenty thousand houses; and the
+ plenty of iron which is dug from the adjacent mountains might
+ have supplied a braver people with the instruments of defence.
+ The remote position and venerable antiquity of Tingi, or Tangier,
+ have been decorated by the Greek and Arabian fables; but the
+ figurative expressions of the latter, that the walls were
+ constructed of brass, and that the roofs were covered with gold
+ and silver, may be interpreted as the emblems of strength and
+ opulence.
+
+ 146 (return) [ Theophanes (in Chronograph. p. 293.) inserts the
+ vague rumours that might reach Constantinople, of the western
+ conquests of the Arabs; and I learn from Paul Warnefrid, deacon
+ of Aquileia (de Gestis Langobard. 1. v. c. 13), that at this time
+ they sent a fleet from Alexandria into the Sicilian and African
+ seas.]
+
+ 147 (return) [ 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)]
+
+ 148 (return) [ Leo African. fol. 58, verso, 59, recto. Marmol,
+ tom. ii. p. 415. Shaw, p. 43]
+
+ 149 (return) [ Leo African. fol. 52. Marmol, tom. ii. p. 228.]
+
+ The province of Mauritania Tingitana,150 which assumed the name
+ of the capital had been imperfectly discovered and settled by the
+ Romans; the five colonies were confined to a narrow pale, and the
+ more southern parts were seldom explored except by the agents of
+ luxury, who searched the forests for ivory and the citron
+ wood,151 and the shores of the ocean for the purple shellfish.
+ The fearless Akbah plunged into the heart of the country,
+ traversed the wilderness in which his successors erected the
+ splendid capitals of Fez and Morocco,152 and at length penetrated
+ to the verge of the Atlantic and the great desert. The river Suz
+ descends from the western sides of mount Atlas, fertilizes, like
+ the Nile, the adjacent soil, and falls into the sea at a moderate
+ distance from the Canary, or adjacent islands. Its banks were
+ inhabited by the last of the Moors, a race of savages, without
+ laws, or discipline, or religion: they were astonished by the
+ strange and irresistible terrors of the Oriental arms; and as
+ they possessed neither gold nor silver, the richest spoil was the
+ beauty of the female captives, some of whom were afterward sold
+ for a thousand pieces of gold. The career, though not the 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 not stopped by this sea, I would still go on, to the unknown
+ kingdoms of the West, preaching the unity of thy holy name, and
+ putting to the sword the rebellious nations who worship another
+ gods than thee.” 153 Yet this Mahometan Alexander, who sighed for
+ new worlds, was unable to preserve his recent conquests. By the
+ universal defection of the Greeks and Africans he was recalled
+ from the shores of the Atlantic, and the surrounding multitudes
+ left him only the resource of an honourable death. The last scene
+ was dignified by an example of national virtue. An ambitious
+ chief, who had disputed the command and failed in the attempt,
+ was led about as a prisoner in the camp of the Arabian general.
+ The insurgents had trusted to his discontent and revenge; he
+ disdained their offers and revealed their designs. In the hour of
+ danger, the grateful Akbah unlocked his fetters, and advised him
+ to retire; he chose to die under the banner of his rival.
+ Embracing as friends and martyrs, they unsheathed their
+ scimeters, broke their scabbards, and maintained an obstinate
+ combat, till they fell by each other’s side on the last of their
+ slaughtered countrymen. The third general or governor of Africa,
+ Zuheir, avenged and encountered the fate of his predecessor. He
+ vanquished the natives in many battles; he was overthrown by a
+ powerful army, which Constantinople had sent to the relief of
+ Carthage.
+
+ 150 (return) [ Regio ignobilis, et vix quicquam illustre sortita,
+ parvis oppidis habitatur, parva flumina emittit, solo quam viris
+ meleor et segnitie gentis obscura. Pomponius Mela, i. 5, iii. 10.
+ Mela deserves the more credit, since his own Phoenician ancestors
+ had migrated from Tingitana to Spain (see, in ii. 6, a passage of
+ that geographer so cruelly tortured by Salmasius, Isaac Vossius,
+ and the most virulent of critics, James Gronovius). He lived at
+ the time of the final reduction of that country by the emperor
+ Claudius: yet almost thirty years afterward, Pliny (Hist. Nat. v.
+ i.) complains of his authors, to lazy to inquire, too proud to
+ confess their ignorance of that wild and remote province.]
+
+ 151 (return) [ The foolish fashion of this citron wood prevailed
+ at Rome among the men, as much as the taste for pearls among the
+ women. A round board or table, four or five feet in diameter,
+ sold for the price of an estate (latefundii taxatione), eight,
+ ten, or twelve thousand pounds sterling (Plin. Hist. Natur. xiii.
+ 29). I conceive that I must not confound the tree citrus, with
+ that of the fruit citrum. But I am not botanist enough to define
+ the former (it is like the wild cypress) by the vulgar or
+ Linnaean name; nor will I decide whether the citrum be the orange
+ or the lemon. Salmasius appears to exhaust the subject, but he
+ too often involves himself in the web of his disorderly
+ erudition. (Flinian. Exercitat. tom. ii. p 666, &c.)]
+
+ 152 (return) [ Leo African. fol. 16, verso. Marmol, tom. ii. p.
+ 28. This province, the first scene of the exploits and greatness
+ of the cherifs is often mentioned in the curious history of that
+ dynasty at the end of the third volume of Marmol, Description de
+ l’Afrique. The third vol. of The Recherches Historiques sur les
+ Maures (lately published at Paris) illustrates the history and
+ geography of the kingdoms of Fez and Morocco.]
+
+ 153 (return) [ Otter (p. 119,) has given the strong tone of
+ fanaticism to this exclamation, which Cardonne (p. 37,) has
+ softened to a pious wish of preaching the Koran. Yet they had
+ both the same text of Novairi before their eyes.]
+
+ [A. D. 670-675.] It had been the frequent practice of the Moorish
+ tribes to join the invaders, to share the plunder, to profess the
+ faith, and to revolt in their savage state of independence and
+ idolatry, on the first retreat or misfortune of the Moslems. The
+ prudence of Akbah had proposed to found an Arabian colony in the
+ heart of Africa; a citadel that might curb the levity of the
+ Barbarians, a place of refuge to secure, against the accidents of
+ war, the wealth and the families of the Saracens. With this view,
+ and under the modest title of the station of a caravan, he
+ planted this colony in the fiftieth year of the Hegira. In its
+ present decay, Cairoan154 still holds the second rank in the
+ kingdom of Tunis, from which it is distant about fifty miles to
+ the south;155 its inland situation, twelve miles westward of the
+ sea, has protected the city from the Greek and Sicilian fleets.
+ When the wild beasts and serpents were extirpated, when the
+ forest, or rather wilderness, was cleared, the vestiges of a
+ Roman town were discovered in a sandy plain: the vegetable food
+ of Cairoan is brought from afar; and the scarcity of springs
+ constrains the inhabitants to collect in cisterns and reservoirs
+ a precarious supply of rain water. These obstacles were subdued
+ by the industry of Akbah; he traced a circumference of three
+ thousand and six hundred paces, which he encompassed with a brick
+ wall; in the space of five years, the governor’s palace was
+ surrounded with a sufficient number of private habitations; a
+ spacious mosque was supported by five hundred columns of granite,
+ porphyry, and Numidian marble; and Cairoan became the seat of
+ learning as well as of empire. But these were the glories of a
+ later age; the new colony was shaken by the successive defeats of
+ Akbah and Zuheir, and the western expeditions were again
+ interrupted by the civil discord of the Arabian monarchy. The son
+ of the valiant Zobeir maintained a war of twelve years, a siege
+ of seven months against the house of Ommiyah. Abdallah was said
+ to unite the fierceness of the lion with the subtlety of the fox;
+ but if he inherited the courage, he was devoid of the generosity,
+ of his father.156
+
+ [A. D. 692-698.] The return of domestic peace allowed the caliph
+ Abdalmalek to resume the conquest of Africa; the standard was
+ delivered to Hassan governor of Egypt, and the revenue of that
+ kingdom, with an army of forty thousand men, was consecrated to
+ the important service. In the vicissitudes of war, the interior
+ provinces had been alternately won and lost by the Saracens. But
+ the seacoast still remained in the hands of the Greeks; the
+ predecessors of Hassan had respected the name and fortifications
+ of Carthage; and the number of its defenders was recruited by the
+ fugitives of Cabes and Tripoli. The arms of Hassan were bolder
+ and more fortunate: he reduced and pillaged the metropolis of
+ Africa; and the mention of scaling-ladders may justify the
+ suspicion, that he anticipated, by a sudden assault, the more
+ tedious operations of a regular siege. But the joy of the
+ conquerors was soon disturbed by the appearance of the Christian
+ succours. The praefect and patrician John, a general of
+ experience and renown, embarked at Constantinople the forces of
+ the Eastern empire;157 they were joined by the ships and soldiers
+ of Sicily, and a powerful reinforcement of Goths158 was obtained
+ from the fears and religion of the Spanish monarch.
+
+ 154 (return) [ 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).]
+
+ 155 (return) [ A portentous, though frequent mistake, has been
+ the confounding, from a slight similitude of name, the Cyrene of
+ the Greeks, and the Cairoan of the Arabs, two cities which are
+ separated by an interval of a thousand miles along the seacoast.
+ The great Thuanus has not escaped this fault, the less excusable
+ as it is connected with a formal and elaborate description of
+ Africa (Historiar. l. vii. c. 2, in tom. i. p. 240, edit.
+ Buckley).]
+
+ 156 (return) [ Besides the Arabic Chronicles of Abulfeda,
+ Elmacin, and Abulpharagius, under the lxxiiid year of the Hegira,
+ we may consult nd’Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient. p. 7,) and Ockley
+ (Hist. of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. 339-349). The latter has
+ given the last and pathetic dialogue between Abdallah and his
+ mother; but he has forgot a physical effect of her grief for his
+ death, the return, at the age of ninety, and fatal consequences
+ of her menses.]
+
+ 157 (return) [ The patriarch of Constantinople, with Theophanes
+ (Chronograph. p. 309,) have slightly mentioned this last attempt
+ for the relief or Africa. Pagi (Critica, tom. iii. p. 129. 141,)
+ has nicely ascertained the chronology by a strict comparison of
+ the Arabic and Byzantine historians, who often disagree both in
+ time and fact. See likewise a note of Otter (p. 121).]
+
+ 158 (return) [ Dove s’erano ridotti i nobili Romani e i Gotti;
+ and afterward, i Romani suggirono e i Gotti lasciarono
+ Carthagine. (Leo African. for. 72, recto) I know not from what
+ Arabic writer the African derived his Goths; but the fact, though
+ new, is so interesting and so probable, that I will accept it on
+ the slightest authority.]
+
+ The weight of the confederate navy broke the chain that guarded
+ the entrance of the harbour; the Arabs retired to Cairoan, or
+ Tripoli; the Christians landed; the citizens hailed the ensign of
+ the cross, and the winter was idly wasted in the dream of victory
+ or deliverance. But Africa was irrecoverably lost: the zeal and
+ resentment of the commander of the faithful159 prepared in the
+ ensuing spring a more numerous armament by sea and land; and the
+ patrician in his turn was compelled to evacuate the post and
+ fortifications of Carthage. A second battle was fought in the
+ neighbourhood of Utica; and the Greeks and Goths were again
+ defeated; and their timely embarkation saved them from the sword
+ of Hassan, who had invested the slight and insufficient rampart
+ of their camp. Whatever yet remained of Carthage was delivered to
+ the flames, and the colony of Dido160 and Cesar lay desolate
+ above two hundred years, till a part, perhaps a twentieth, of the
+ old circumference was repeopled by the first of the Fatimite
+ caliphs. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the second
+ capital of the West was represented by a mosque, a college
+ without students, twenty-five or thirty shops, and the huts of
+ five hundred peasants, who, in their abject poverty, displayed
+ the arrogance of the Punic senators. Even that paltry village was
+ swept away by the Spaniards whom Charles the Fifth had stationed
+ in the fortress of the Goletta. The ruins of Carthage have
+ perished; and the place might be unknown if some broken arches of
+ an aqueduct did not guide the footsteps of the inquisitive
+ traveller.161
+
+ [A. D. 698-709.] The Greeks were expelled, but the Arabians were
+ not yet masters of the country. In the interior provinces the
+ Moors or Berbers,162 so feeble under the first Cesars, so
+ formidable to the Byzantine princes, maintained a disorderly
+ resistance to the religion and power of the successors of
+ Mahomet. Under the standard of their queen Cahina, the
+ independent tribes acquired some degree of union and discipline;
+ and as the Moors respected in their females the character of a
+ prophetess, they attacked the invaders with an enthusiasm similar
+ to their own. The veteran bands of Hassan were inadequate to the
+ defence of Africa: the conquests of an age were lost in a single
+ day; and the Arabian chief, overwhelmed by the torrent, retired
+ to the confines of Egypt, and expected, five years, the promised
+ succours of the caliph. After the retreat of the Saracens, the
+ victorious prophetess assembled the Moorish chiefs, and
+ recommended a measure of strange and savage policy. “Our cities,”
+ said she, “and the gold and silver which they contain,
+ perpetually attract the arms of the Arabs. These vile metals are
+ not the objects of OUR ambition; we content ourselves with the
+ simple productions of the earth. Let us destroy these cities; let
+ us bury in their ruins those pernicious treasures; and when the
+ avarice of our foes shall be destitute of temptation, perhaps
+ they will cease to disturb the tranquillity of a warlike people.”
+ The proposal was accepted with unanimous applause. From Tangier
+ to Tripoli the buildings, or at least the fortifications, were
+ demolished, the fruit-trees were cut down, the means of
+ subsistence were extirpated, a fertile and populous garden was
+ changed into a desert, and the historians of a more recent period
+ could discern the frequent traces of the prosperity and
+ devastation of their ancestors.
+
+ 159 (return) [ This commander is styled by Nicephorus, ———— a
+ vague though not improper definition of the caliph. Theophanes
+ introduces the strange appellation of —————, which his
+ interpreter Goar explains by Vizir Azem. They may approach the
+ truth, in assigning the active part to the minister, rather than
+ the prince; but they forget that the Ommiades had only a kaleb,
+ or secretary, and that the office of Vizir was not revived or
+ instituted till the 132d year of the Hegira (d’Herbelot, 912).]
+
+ 160 (return) [ According to Solinus (1.27, p. 36, edit. Salmas),
+ the Carthage 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 823 years before Christ, is more consistent
+ with the well-weighed testimony of Velleius Paterculus: but the
+ latter is preferred by our chronologists (Marsham, Canon. Chron.
+ p. 398,) as more agreeable to the Hebrew and Syrian annals.]
+
+ 161 (return) [ Leo African. fo1. 71, verso; 72, recto. Marmol,
+ tom. ii. p.445-447. Shaw, p.80.]
+
+ 162 (return) [ The history of the word Barbar may be classed
+ under four periods, 1. In the time of Homer, when the Greeks and
+ Asiatics might probably use a common idiom, the imitative sound
+ of Barbar was applied to the ruder tribes, whose pronunciation
+ was most harsh, whose grammar was most defective. 2. From the
+ time, at least, of Herodotus, it was extended to all the nations
+ who were strangers to the language and manners of the Greeks. 3.
+ In the age, of Plautus, the Romans submitted to the insult
+ (Pompeius Festus, l. ii. p. 48, edit. Dacier), and freely gave
+ themselves the name of Barbarians. They insensibly claimed an
+ exemption for Italy, and her subject provinces; and at length
+ removed the disgraceful appellation to the savage or hostile
+ nations beyond the pale of the empire. 4. In every sense, it was
+ due to the Moors; the familiar word was borrowed from the Latin
+ Provincials by the Arabian conquerors, 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
+ that their ignorance of antiquity, the love of the marvellous,
+ and the fashion of extolling the philosophy of Barbarians, has
+ induced them to describe, as one voluntary act, the calamities of
+ three hundred years since the first fury of the Donatists and
+ Vandals. In the progress of the revolt, Cahina had most probably
+ contributed her share of destruction; and the alarm of universal
+ ruin might terrify and alienate the cities that had reluctantly
+ yielded to her unworthy yoke. They no longer hoped, perhaps they
+ no longer wished, the return of their Byzantine sovereigns: their
+ present servitude was not alleviated by the benefits of order and
+ justice; and the most zealous Catholic must prefer the imperfect
+ truths of the Koran to the blind and rude idolatry of the Moors.
+ The general of the Saracens was again received as the saviour of
+ the province; the friends of civil society conspired against the
+ savages of the land; and the royal prophetess was slain in the
+ first battle which overturned the baseless fabric of her
+ superstition and empire. The same spirit revived under the
+ successor of Hassan; it was finally quelled by the activity of
+ Musa and his two sons; but the number of the rebels may be
+ presumed from that of three hundred thousand captives; sixty
+ thousand of whom, the caliph’s fifth, were sold for the profit of
+ thee public treasury. Thirty thousand of the Barbarian youth were
+ enlisted in the troops; and the pious labours of Musa to
+ inculcate the knowledge and practice of the Koran, accustomed the
+ Africans to obey the apostle of God and the commander of the
+ faithful. In their climate and government, their diet and
+ habitation, the wandering Moors resembled the Bedoweens of the
+ desert. With the religion, they were proud to adopt the language,
+ name, and origin of Arabs: the blood of the strangers and natives
+ was insensibly mingled; and from the Euphrates to the Atlantic
+ the same nation might seem to be diffused over the sandy plains
+ of Asia and Africa. Yet I will not deny that fifty thousand tents
+ of pure Arabians might be transported over the Nile, and
+ scattered through the Lybian desert: and I am not ignorant that
+ five of the Moorish tribes still retain their barbarous idiom,
+ with the appellation and character of 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 of Europe and Africa. In the opinion of the latter, the
+ difference of religion is a reasonable ground of enmity and
+ warfare.164 As early as the time of Othman165 their piratical
+ squadrons had ravaged the coast of Andalusia;166 nor had they
+ forgotten the relief of Carthage by the Gothic succours. In that
+ age, as well as in the present, the kings of Spain were possessed
+ of the fortress of Ceuta; one of the columns of Hercules, which
+ is divided by a narrow strait from the opposite pillar or point
+ of Europe. A small portion of Mauritania was still wanting to the
+ African conquest; but Musa, in the pride of victory, was repulsed
+ from 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 of Mahomet, and solicited the
+ disgraceful honour of introducing their arms into the heart of
+ Spain.167
+
+ 163 (return) [ The first book of Leo Africanus, and the
+ observations of Dr. Shaw (p. 220. 223. 227. 247, &c.) will throw
+ some light on the roving tribes of Barbary, of Arabian or Moorish
+ descent. But Shaw had seen these savages with distant terror; and
+ Leo, a captive in the Vatican, appears to have lost more of his
+ Arabic, than he could acquire of Greek or Roman, learning. Many
+ of his gross mistakes might be detected in the first period of
+ the Mahometan history.]
+
+ 164 (return) [ In a conference with a prince of the Greeks, Amrou
+ observed that their religion was different; upon which score it
+ was lawful for brothers to quarrel. Ockley’s History of the
+ Saracens, vol. i. p. 328.]
+
+ 165 (return) [ Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem. p 78, vers. Reiske.]
+
+ 166 (return) [ The name of Andalusia is applied by the Arabs not
+ only to the modern province, but to the whole peninsula of Spain
+ (Geograph. Nub. p. 151, d’Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 114,
+ 115). The etymology has been most improbably deduced from
+ Vandalusia, country of the Vandals. (d’Anville Etats de l’Europe,
+ p. 146, 147, &c.) But the Handalusia of Casiri, which signifies,
+ in Arabic, the region of the evening, of the West, in a word, the
+ Hesperia of the Greeks, is perfectly apposite. (Bibliot.
+ Arabico-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 327, &c.)]
+
+ 167 (return) [ The fall and resurrection of the Gothic monarchy
+ are related 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 Rebus Hispaniae, libri xxx. Hagae Comitum 1733, in
+ four volumes, folio, with the continuation of Miniana), the style
+ and spirit of a Roman classic; and after the twelfth century, his
+ knowledge and judgment may be safely trusted. But the Jesuit is
+ not exempt from the prejudices of his order; he adopts and
+ adorns, like his rival Buchanan, the most absurd of the national
+ legends; he is too careless of criticism and chronology, and
+ supplies, from a lively fancy, the chasms of historical evidence.
+ These chasms are large and frequent; Roderic archbishop of
+ Toledo, the father of the Spanish history, lived five hundred
+ years after the conquest of the Arabs; and the more early
+ accounts are comprised in some meagre lines of the blind
+ chronicles of Isidore of Badajoz (Pacensis,) and of Alphonso III.
+ king of Leon, which I have seen only in the Annals of Pagi.]
+
+ If we inquire into the cause of this treachery, the Spaniards
+ will repeat the popular story of his daughter Cava;168 of a
+ virgin who was seduced, or ravished, by her sovereign; of a
+ father who sacrificed his religion and country to the thirst of
+ revenge. The passions of princes have often been licentious and
+ destructive; but this well-known tale, romantic in itself, is
+ indifferently supported by external evidence; and the history of
+ Spain will suggest some motives of interest and policy more
+ congenial to the breast of a veteran statesman.169 After the
+ decease or deposition of Witiza, his two sons were supplanted by
+ the ambition of Roderic, a noble Goth, whose father, the duke or
+ governor of a province, had fallen a victim to the preceding
+ tyranny. The monarchy was still elective; but the sons of Witiza,
+ educated on the steps of the throne, were impatient of a private
+ station. Their resentment was the more dangerous, as it was
+ varnished with the dissimulation of courts: their followers were
+ excited by the remembrance of favours and the promise of a
+ revolution: and their uncle Oppas, archbishop of Toledo and
+ Seville, was the first person in the church, and the second in
+ the state. It is probable that Julian was involved in the
+ disgrace of the unsuccessful faction, that he had little to hope
+ and much to fear from the new reign; and that the imprudent king
+ could not forget or forgive the injuries which Roderic and his
+ family had sustained. The merit and influence of the count
+ rendered him a useful or formidable subject: his estates were
+ ample, his followers bold and numerous, and it was too fatally
+ shown that, by his Andalusian and Mauritanian commands, he held
+ in his hands the keys of the Spanish monarchy. Too feeble,
+ however, to meet his sovereign in arms, he sought the aid of a
+ foreign power; and his rash invitation of the Moors and Arabs
+ produced the calamities of eight hundred years. In his epistles,
+ or in a personal interview, he revealed the wealth and nakedness
+ of his country; the weakness of an unpopular prince; the
+ degeneracy of an effeminate people. The Goths were no longer the
+ victorious Barbarians, who had humbled the pride of Rome,
+ despoiled the queen of nations, and penetrated from the Danube to
+ the Atlantic ocean. Secluded from the world by the Pyrenean
+ mountains, the successors of Alaric had slumbered in a long
+ peace: the walls of the city were mouldered into dust: the youth
+ had abandoned the exercise of arms; and the presumption of their
+ ancient renown would expose them in a field of battle to the
+ first assault of the invaders. The ambitious Saracen was fired by
+ the ease and importance of the attempt; but the execution was
+ delayed till he had consulted the commander of the faithful; and
+ his messenger returned with the permission of Walid to annex the
+ unknown kingdoms of the West to the religion and throne of the
+ caliphs. In his residence of Tangier, Musa, with secrecy and
+ caution, continued his correspondence and hastened his
+ preparations. But the remorse of the conspirators was soothed by
+ the fallacious assurance that he should content himself with the
+ glory and spoil, without aspiring to establish the Moslems beyond
+ the sea that separates Africa from Europe.170
+
+ 168 (return) [ Le viol (says Voltaire) est aussi difficile a
+ faire qu’a prouver. Des Eveques se seroient ils lignes pour une
+ fille? (Hist. Generale, c. xxvi.) His argument is not logically
+ conclusive.]
+
+ 169 (return) [ In the story of Cava, Mariana (I. vi. c. 21, p.
+ 241, 242,) seems to vie with the Lucretia of Livy. Like the
+ ancients, he seldom quotes; and the oldest testimony of Baronius
+ (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 713, No. 19), that of Lucus Tudensis, a
+ Gallician deacon of the thirteenth century, only says, Cava quam
+ pro concubina utebatur.]
+
+ 170 (return) [ The Orientals, Elmacin, Abulpharagins, Abolfeda,
+ pass over the conquest of Spain in silence, or with a single
+ word. The text of Novairi, and the other Arabian writers, is
+ represented, though with some foreign alloy, by M. de Cardonne
+ (Hist. de l’Afrique et de l’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 satisfied my hopes: yet he
+ appears to have searched with diligence his broken materials; and
+ the history of the conquest is illustrated by some valuable
+ 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 has been 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
+ the traitors and infidels of a foreign land, he made a less
+ dangerous trial of their strength and veracity. One hundred Arabs
+ and four hundred Africans, passed over, in four vessels, from
+ Tangier or Ceuta; the place of their descent on the opposite
+ shore of the strait, is marked by the name of Tarif their chief;
+ and the date of this memorable event171 is fixed 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 the Spanish era of
+ Cesar,172 seven hundred and ten after the birth of Christ. From
+ their first station, they marched eighteen miles through a hilly
+ country to the castle and town of Julian;173 on which (it is
+ still called Algezire) they bestowed the name of the Green
+ Island, from a verdant cape that advances into the sea. Their
+ hospitable entertainment, the Christians who joined their
+ standard, their inroad into a fertile and unguarded province, the
+ richness of their spoil and the safety of their return, announced
+ to their brethren the most favourable omens of victory. In the
+ ensuing spring, five thousand veterans and volunteers were
+ embarked under the command of Tarik, a dauntless and skilful
+ soldier, who surpassed the expectation of his chief; and the
+ necessary transports were provided by the industry of their too
+ faithful ally. The Saracens landed174 at the pillar or point of
+ Europe; the corrupt and familiar appellation of Gibraltar (Gebel
+ el Tarik) describes the mountain of Tarik; and the intrenchments
+ of his camp were the first outline of those fortifications,
+ which, in the hands of our countrymen, have resisted the art and
+ power of the house of Bourbon. The adjacent governors informed
+ the court of Toledo of the descent and progress of the Arabs; and
+ the defeat of his lieutenant Edeco, who had been commanded to
+ seize and bind the presumptuous strangers, admonished Roderic of
+ the magnitude of the danger. At the royal summons, the dukes and
+ counts, the bishops and nobles of the Gothic monarchy assembled
+ at the head of their followers; and the title of king of the
+ Romans, which is employed by an Arabic historian, may be excused
+ by the close affinity of language, religion, and manners, between
+ the nations of Spain. His army consisted of ninety or a hundred
+ thousand men: a formidable power, if their fidelity and
+ discipline had been adequate to their numbers. The troops of
+ Tarik had been augmented to twelve thousand Saracens; but the
+ Christian malcontents were attracted by the influence of Julian,
+ and a crowd of Africans most greedily tasted the temporal
+ blessings of the Koran. In the neighbourhood of Cadiz, the town
+ of Xeres175 has been illustrated by the encounter which
+ determined the fate of the kingdom; the stream of the Guadalete,
+ which falls into the bay, divided the two camps, and marked the
+ advancing and retreating skirmishes of three successive and
+ bloody days.
+
+ 171 (return) [ A mistake of Roderic of Toledo, in comparing the
+ lunar years of the Hegira with the Julian years of the Era, has
+ determined Baronius, Mariana, and the crowd of Spanish
+ historians, to place the first invasion in the year 713, and the
+ battle of Xeres in November, 714. This anachronism of three years
+ has been detected by the more correct industry of modern
+ chronologists, above all, of Pagi (Critics, tom. iii. p. 164.
+ 171-174), who have restored the genuine state of the revolution.
+ At the present time, an Arabian scholar, like Cardonne, who
+ adopts the ancient error (tom. i. p. 75), is inexcusably ignorant
+ or careless.]
+
+ 172 (return) [ The Era of Cesar, which in Spain was in legal and
+ popular use till the xivth century, begins thirty-eight years
+ before the birth of Christ. I would refer the origin to the
+ general peace by sea and land, 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, which raised the
+ first temple to Augustus (Tacit Annal. i. 78), might borrow from
+ the orientals this mode of flattery.]
+
+ 173 (return) [ 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.]
+
+ 174 (return) [ The Nubian geographer (p. 154,) explains the
+ topography of the war; but it is highly incredible that the
+ lieutenant of Musa should execute the desperate and useless
+ measure of burning his ships.]
+
+ 175 (return) [ Xeres (the Roman colony of Asta Regia) is only two
+ leagues 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. Nonii Hispania, 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
+ decisive issue; but Alaric would have blushed at the sight of his
+ unworthy successor, sustaining on his head a diadem of pearls,
+ encumbered with a flowing robe of gold and silken embroidery, and
+ reclining on a litter, or car of ivory, drawn by two white mules.
+ Notwithstanding the valour of the Saracens, they fainted under
+ the weight of multitudes, and the plain of Xeres was overspread
+ with sixteen thousand of their dead bodies. “My brethren,” said
+ Tarik to his surviving companions, “the enemy is before you, the
+ sea is behind; whither would ye fly? Follow your general I am
+ resolved either to lose my life, or to trample on the prostrate
+ king of the Romans.” Besides the resource of despair, he confided
+ in the secret correspondence and nocturnal interviews of count
+ Julian, with the sons and the brother of Witiza. The two princes
+ and the archbishop of Toledo occupied the most important post;
+ their well-timed defection broke the ranks of the Christians;
+ each warrior was prompted by fear or suspicion to consult his
+ personal safety; and the remains of the Gothic army were
+ scattered or destroyed to the flight and pursuit of the three
+ following days. Amidst the general disorder, Roderic started from
+ his car, and mounted Orelia, the fleetest of his Horses; but he
+ escaped from a soldier’s death to perish more ignobly in the
+ waters of the Boetis or Guadalquiver. His diadem, his robes, and
+ his courser, were found on the bank; but as the body of the
+ Gothic prince was lost in the waves, the pride and ignorance of
+ the caliph must have been gratified with some meaner head, which
+ was exposed in triumph before the palace of Damascus. “And such,”
+ continues a valiant historian of the Arabs, “is the fate of those
+ 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 battle of Xeres he recommended the most effectual measures to
+ the victorious Saracens. “The king of the Goths is slain; their
+ princes are fled before you, the army is routed, the nation is
+ astonished. Secure with sufficient detachments the cities of
+ Boetica; but in person and without delay, march to the royal city
+ of Toledo, and allow not the distracted Christians either time or
+ tranquillity for the election of a new monarch.” Tarik listened
+ to his advice. A Roman captive and proselyte, who had been
+ enfranchised by the caliph himself, assaulted Cordova with seven
+ hundred horse: he swam the river, surprised the town, and drove
+ the Christians into the great church, where they defended
+ themselves above three months. Another detachment reduced the
+ seacoast of Boetica, which in the last period of the Moorish
+ power has comprised in a narrow space the populous kingdom of
+ Grenada. The march of Tarik from the Boetis to the Tagus,177 was
+ directed through the Sierra Morena, that separates Andalusia and
+ Castille, till he appeared in arms under the walls of Toledo.178
+ The most zealous of the Catholics had escaped with the relics of
+ their saints; and if the gates were shut, it was only till the
+ victor had subscribed a fair and reasonable capitulation. The
+ voluntary exiles were allowed to depart with their effects; seven
+ churches were appropriated to the Christian worship; the
+ archbishop and his clergy were at liberty to exercise their
+ functions, the monks to practise or neglect their penance; and
+ the Goths and Romans were left in all civil or criminal cases to
+ the subordinate jurisdiction of their own laws and magistrates.
+ But if the justice of Tarik protected the Christians, his
+ gratitude and policy rewarded the Jews, to whose secret or open
+ aid he was indebted for his most important acquisitions.
+ Persecuted by the kings and synods of Spain, who had often
+ pressed the alternative of banishment or baptism, that outcast
+ nation embraced the moment of revenge: the comparison of their
+ past and present state was the pledge of their fidelity; and the
+ alliance between the disciples of Moses and those of Mahomet, was
+ maintained till the final era of their common expulsion.
+
+ 176 (return) [ Id sane infortunii regibus pedem ex acie
+ referentibus saepe contingit. Den Hazil of Grenada, in Bibliot.
+ Arabico-Hispana. tom. ii. p. 337. Some credulous Spaniards
+ believe that king Roderic, or Rodrigo, escaped to a hermit’s
+ cell; and others, that he was cast alive into a tub full of
+ serpents, from whence he exclaimed with a lamentable voice, “they
+ devour the part with which I have so grievously sinned.” (Don
+ Quixote, part ii. l. iii. c. 1.)]
+
+ 177 (return) [ The direct road from Corduba to Toledo was
+ measured by Mr. Swinburne’s mules in 72 1/2 hours: but a larger
+ computation must be adopted for the slow and devious marches of
+ an army. The Arabs traversed the province of La Mancha, which the
+ pen of Cervantes has transformed into classic ground to the
+ reader of every nation.]
+
+ 178 (return) [ The antiquities of Toledo, Urbs Parva in the Punic
+ wars, Urbs Regia in the sixth century, are briefly described by
+ Nonius (Hispania, c. 59, p. 181-136). He borrows from Roderic the
+ fatale palatium of Moorish portraits; but modestly insinuates,
+ that it was no more than a Roman amphitheatre.]
+
+ From the royal seat of Toledo, the Arabian leader spread his
+ conquests to the north, over the modern realms of Castille and
+ Leon; but it is heedless to enumerate the cities that yielded on
+ his approach, or again to describe the table of emerald,179
+ transported from the East by the Romans, acquired by the Goths
+ among the spoils of Rome, and presented by the Arabs to the
+ throne of Damascus. Beyond the Asturian mountains, the maritime
+ town of Gijon was the term180 of the lieutenant of Musa, who had
+ performed with the speed of a traveller, his victorious march of
+ seven hundred miles, from the rock of Gibraltar to the bay of
+ Biscay. The failure of land compelled him to retreat: and he was
+ recalled to Toledo, to excuse his presumption of subduing a
+ kingdom in the absence of his general. Spain, which in a more
+ savage and disorderly state, had resisted, two hundred years, the
+ arms of the Romans, was overrun in a few months by those of the
+ Saracens; and such was the eagerness of submission and treaty,
+ that the governor of Cordova is recorded as the only chief who
+ fell, without conditions, a prisoner into their hands. The cause
+ of the Goths had been irrevocably judged in the field of Xeres;
+ and in the national dismay, each part of the monarchy declined a
+ contest with the antagonist who had vanquished the united
+ strength of the whole.181 That strength had been wasted by two
+ successive seasons of famine and pestilence; and the governors,
+ who were impatient to surrender, might exaggerate the difficulty
+ of collecting the provisions of a siege. To disarm the
+ Christians, superstition likewise contributed her terrors: and
+ the subtle Arab encouraged the report of dreams, omens, and
+ prophecies, and of the portraits of the destined conquerors of
+ Spain, that were discovered on the breaking open an apartment of
+ the royal palace. Yet a spark of the vital flame was still alive;
+ some invincible fugitives preferred a life of poverty and freedom
+ in the Asturian valleys; the hardy mountaineers repulsed the
+ slaves of the caliph; and the sword of Pelagius has been
+ transformed into the sceptre of the Catholic kings.182
+
+ 179 (return) [ In the Historia Arabum (c. 9, p. 17, ad calcem
+ Elmacin), Roderic of Toledo describes the emerald tables, and
+ inserts the name of Medinat Ahneyda in Arabic words and letters.
+ He appears to be conversant with 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 his history. This mistake
+ is founded on a still grosser error. M. de Guignes confounds the
+ governed historian Roderic Ximines, archbishop of Toledo, in the
+ xiiith century, with cardinal Ximines, who governed Spain in the
+ beginning of the xvith, and was the subject, not the author, of
+ historical compositions.]
+
+ 180 (return) [ Tarik might have inscribed on the last rock, the
+ boast of Regnard and his companions in their Lapland journey,
+ “Hic tandem stetimus, nobis ubi defuit orbis.”]
+
+ 181 (return) [ Such was the argument of the traitor Oppas, and
+ every chief to whom it was addressed did not answer with the
+ spirit of Pelagius; Omnis Hispania dudum sub uno regimine
+ Gothorum, omnis exercitus Hispaniae in uno congregatus
+ Ismaelitarum non valuit sustinere impetum. Chron. Alphonsi Regis,
+ apud Pagi, tom. iii. p. 177.]
+
+ 182 (return) [ The revival of tire Gothic kingdom in the Asturias
+ is distinctly 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 Musa
+ degenerated into envy; and he began, not to complain, but to
+ fear, that Tarik would leave him nothing to subdue. At the head
+ of ten thousand Arabs and eight thousand Africans, he passed over
+ in person from Mauritania to Spain: the first of his companions
+ were the noblest of the Koreish; his eldest son was left in the
+ command of Africa; the three younger brethren were of an age and
+ spirit to second the boldest enterprises of their father. At his
+ landing in Algezire, he was respectfully entertained by Count
+ Julian, who stifled his inward remorse, and testified, both in
+ words and actions, that the victory of the Arabs had not impaired
+ his attachment to their cause. Some enemies yet remained for the
+ sword of Musa. The tardy repentance of the Goths had compared
+ their own numbers and those of the invaders; the cities from
+ which the march of Tarik had declined considered themselves as
+ impregnable; and the bravest patriots defended the fortifications
+ of Seville and Merida. They were successively besieged and
+ reduced by the labor of Musa, who transported his camp from the
+ Boetis to the Anas, from the Guadalquivir to the Guadiana. When
+ he beheld the works of Roman magnificence, the bridge, the
+ aqueducts, the triumphal arches, and the theatre, of the ancient
+ metropolis of Lusitania, “I should imagine,” said he to his four
+ companions, “that the human race must have united their art and
+ power in the foundation of this city: happy is the man who shall
+ become its master!” He aspired to that happiness, but the
+ Emeritans sustained on this occasion the honor of their descent
+ from the veteran legionaries of Augustus 183 Disdaining the
+ confinement of their walls, they gave battle to the Arabs on the
+ plain; but an ambuscade rising from the shelter of a quarry, or a
+ ruin, chastised their indiscretion, and intercepted their return.
+
+ The wooden turrets of assault were rolled forwards to the foot of
+ the rampart; but the defence of Merida was obstinate and long;
+ and the castle of the martyrs was a perpetual testimony of the
+ losses of the Moslems. The constancy of the besieged was at
+ length subdued by famine and despair; and the prudent victor
+ disguised his impatience under the names of clemency and esteem.
+ The alternative of exile or tribute was allowed; the churches
+ were divided between the two religions; and the wealth of those
+ who had fallen in the siege, or retired to Gallicia, was
+ confiscated as the reward of the faithful. In the midway between
+ Merida and Toledo, the lieutenant of Musa saluted the vicegerent
+ of the caliph, and conducted him to the palace of the Gothic
+ kings. Their first interview was cold and formal: a rigid account
+ was exacted of the treasures of Spain: the character of Tarik was
+ exposed to suspicion and obloquy; and the hero was imprisoned,
+ reviled, and ignominiously scourged by the hand, or the command,
+ of Musa. Yet so strict was the discipline, so pure the zeal, or
+ so tame the spirit, of the primitive Moslems, that, after this
+ public indignity, Tarik could serve and be trusted in the
+ reduction of the Tarragonest province. A mosch was erected at
+ Saragossa, by the liberality of the Koreish: the port of
+ Barcelona was opened to the vessels of Syria; and the Goths were
+ pursued beyond the Pyrenaean mountains into their Gallic province
+ of Septimania or Languedoc. 184 In the church of St. Mary at
+ Carcassone, Musa found, but it is improbable that he left, seven
+ equestrian statues of massy silver; and from his term or column
+ of Narbonne, he returned on his footsteps to the Gallician and
+ Lusitanian shores of the ocean. During the absence of the father,
+ his son Abdelaziz chastised the insurgents of Seville, and
+ reduced, from Malaga to Valentia, the sea-coast of the
+ Mediterranean: his original treaty with the discreet and valiant
+ Theodemir 185 will represent the manners and policy of the times.
+ “The conditions of peace agreed and sworn between Abdelaziz, the
+ son of Musa, the son of Nassir, and Theodemir prince of the
+ Goths. In the name of the most merciful God, Abdelaziz makes
+ peace on these conditions: that Theodemir shall not be disturbed
+ in his principality; nor any injury be offered to the life or
+ property, the wives and children, the religion and temples, of
+ the Christians: that Theodemir shall freely deliver his seven
+ 1851 cities, Orihuela, Valentola, Alicanti Mola, Vacasora,
+ Bigerra, (now Bejar,) Ora, (or Opta,) and Lorca: that he shall
+ not assist or entertain the enemies of the caliph, but shall
+ faithfully communicate his knowledge of their hostile designs:
+ that himself, and each of the Gothic nobles, shall annually pay
+ one piece of gold, four measures of wheat, as many of barley,
+ with a certain proportion of honey, oil, and vinegar; and that
+ each of their vassals shall be taxed at one moiety of the said
+ imposition. Given the fourth of Regeb, in the year of the Hegira
+ ninety-four, and subscribed with the names of four Mussulman
+ witnesses.” 186 Theodemir and his subjects were treated with
+ uncommon lenity; but the rate of tribute appears to have
+ fluctuated from a tenth to a fifth, according to the submission
+ or obstinacy of the Christians. 187 In this revolution, many
+ partial calamities were inflicted by the carnal or religious
+ passions of the enthusiasts: some churches were profaned by the
+ new worship: some relics or images were confounded with idols:
+ the rebels were put to the sword; and one town (an obscure place
+ between Cordova and Seville) was razed to its foundations. Yet if
+ we compare the invasion of Spain by the Goths, or its recovery by
+ the kings of Castile and Arragon, we must applaud the moderation
+ and discipline of the Arabian conquerors.
+
+ 183 (return) [ The honorable relics of the Cantabrian war (Dion
+ Cassius, l. liii p. 720) were planted in this metropolis of
+ Lusitania, perhaps of Spain, (submittit cui tota suos Hispania
+ fasces.) Nonius (Hispania, c. 31, p. 106-110) enumerates the
+ ancient structures, but concludes with a sigh: Urbs haec olim
+ nobilissima ad magnam incolarum infrequentiam delapsa est, et
+ praeter priscae claritatis ruinas nihil ostendit.]
+
+ 184 (return) [ Both the interpreters of Novairi, De Guignes
+ (Hist. des Huns, 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 I find no mention of this
+ enterprise, either in Roderic of Toledo, or the Mss. of the
+ Escurial, and the invasion of the Saracens is postponed by a
+ 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.]
+
+ 185 (return) [ Four hundred years after Theodemir, his
+ territories of Murcia 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 the delicious valley from
+ Murcia to Orihuela, four leagues and a half of the finest corn
+ pulse, lucerne, oranges, &c.]
+
+ 1851 (return) [ Gibbon has made eight cities: in Conde’s
+ translation Bigera does not appear.—M.]
+
+ 186 (return) [ See the treaty in Arabic and Latin, in the
+ Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 105, 106. It is signed
+ the 4th of the month of Regeb, A. H. 94, the 5th of April, A.D.
+ 713; a date which seems to prolong the resistance of Theodemir,
+ and the government of Musa.]
+
+ 187 (return) [ From the history of Sandoval, p. 87. Fleury (Hist.
+ Eccles. tom. ix. p. 261) has given the substance of another
+ treaty concluded A Ae. C. 782, A.D. 734, between an Arabian chief
+ and the Goths and Romans, of the territory of Conimbra in
+ Portugal. The tax of the churches is fixed at twenty-five pounds
+ of gold; of the monasteries, fifty; of the cathedrals, one
+ hundred; the Christians are judged by their count, but in capital
+ cases he must consult the alcaide. The church 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 dark suspicion,
+ that the piece has been forged to introduce the immunity of a
+ neighboring convent.]
+
+ The exploits of Musa were performed in the evening of life,
+ though he affected to disguise his age by coloring with a red
+ powder the whiteness of his beard. But in the love of action and
+ glory, his breast was still fired with the ardor of youth; and
+ the possession of Spain was considered only as the first step to
+ the monarchy of Europe. With a powerful armament by sea and land,
+ he was preparing to repass the Pyrenees, to extinguish in Gaul
+ and Italy the declining kingdoms of the Franks and Lombards, and
+ to preach the unity of God on the altar of the Vatican. From
+ thence, subduing the Barbarians of Germany, he proposed to follow
+ the course of the Danube from its source to the Euxine Sea, to
+ overthrow the Greek or Roman empire of Constantinople, and
+ returning from Europe to Asia, to unite his new acquisitions with
+ Antioch and the provinces of Syria. 188 But his vast enterprise,
+ perhaps of easy execution, must have seemed extravagant to vulgar
+ minds; and the visionary 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, his intentions were suspected,
+ and his delay in complying with the first invitation was
+ chastised by a harsher and more peremptory summons. An intrepid
+ messenger of the caliph entered his camp at Lugo in Gallicia, and
+ in the presence of the Saracens and Christians arrested the
+ bridle of his horse. His own loyalty, or that of his troops,
+ inculcated the duty of obedience: and his disgrace was alleviated
+ by the recall of his rival, and the permission of investing with
+ his two governments his two sons, Abdallah and Abdelaziz. His
+ long triumph from Ceuta to Damascus displayed the spoils of
+ Africa and the treasures of Spain: four hundred Gothic nobles,
+ with gold coronets and girdles, were distinguished in his train;
+ and the number of male and female captives, selected for their
+ birth or beauty, was computed at eighteen, or even at thirty,
+ thousand persons. As soon as he reached Tiberias in Palestine, he
+ was apprised of the sickness and danger of the caliph, by a
+ private message from Soliman, his brother and presumptive heir;
+ who wished to reserve for his own reign the spectacle of victory.
+
+ Had Walid recovered, the delay of Musa would have been criminal:
+ he pursued his march, and found an enemy on the throne. In his
+ trial before a partial judge against a popular antagonist, he was
+ convicted of vanity and falsehood; and a fine of two hundred
+ thousand pieces of gold either exhausted his poverty or proved
+ his rapaciousness. The unworthy treatment of Tarik was revenged
+ by a similar indignity; and the veteran commander, after a public
+ whipping, stood a whole day in the sun before the palace gate,
+ till he obtained a decent exile, under the pious name of a
+ pilgrimage to Mecca. The resentment of the caliph might have been
+ satiated with the ruin of Musa; but his fears demanded the
+ extirpation of a potent and injured family. A sentence of death
+ was intimated with secrecy and speed to the trusty servants of
+ the throne both in Africa and Spain; and the forms, if not the
+ substance, of justice were superseded in this bloody execution.
+ In the mosch or palace of Cordova, Abdelaziz was slain by the
+ swords of the conspirators; they accused their governor of
+ claiming the honors of royalty; and his scandalous marriage with
+ Egilona, the widow of Roderic, offended the prejudices both of
+ the Christians and Moslems. By a refinement of cruelty, the head
+ of the son was presented to the father, with an insulting
+ question, whether he acknowledged the features of the rebel? “I
+ know his features,” he exclaimed with indignation: “I assert his
+ innocence; and I 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 he expired at Mecca of the anguish
+ of a broken heart. His rival was more favorably treated: his
+ services were forgiven; and Tarik was permitted to mingle with
+ the crowd of slaves. 189 I am ignorant whether Count Julian was
+ rewarded with the death which he deserved indeed, though not from
+ the hands of the Saracens; but the tale of their ingratitude to
+ the sons of Witiza is disproved by the most unquestionable
+ evidence. The two royal youths were reinstated in the private
+ patrimony of their father; but on the decease of Eba, the elder,
+ his daughter was unjustly despoiled of her portion by the
+ violence of her uncle Sigebut. The Gothic maid pleaded her cause
+ before the caliph Hashem, and obtained the restitution of her
+ inheritance; but she was given in marriage to a noble Arabian,
+ and their two sons, Isaac and Ibrahim, were received in Spain
+ with the consideration that was due to their origin and riches.
+
+ 188 (return) [ This design, which is attested by several Arabian
+ historians, (Cardonne, tom. i. p. 95, 96,) may be compared with
+ that of Mithridates, 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 are perhaps surpassed by the real and
+ successful enterprise of Hannibal.]
+
+ 189 (return) [ I much regret our loss, or my ignorance, of two
+ Arabic works of the viiith century, a Life of Musa, and a poem on
+ the exploits of Tarik. Of these authentic pieces, the former was
+ composed by a grandson of Musa, who had escaped from the massacre
+ of his kindred; the latter, 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 of strangers and the imitative spirit of the
+ natives; and Spain, which had been successively tinctured with
+ Punic, and Roman, and Gothic blood, imbibed, in a few
+ generations, the name and manners of the Arabs. The first
+ conquerors, and the twenty successive lieutenants of the caliphs,
+ were attended by a numerous train of civil and military
+ followers, who preferred a distant fortune to a narrow home: the
+ private and public interest was promoted by the establishment of
+ faithful colonies; and the cities of Spain were proud to
+ commemorate the tribe or country of their Eastern progenitors.
+ The victorious though motley bands of Tarik and Musa asserted, by
+ the name of Spaniards, their original claim of conquest; yet they
+ allowed their brethren of Egypt to share their establishments of
+ Murcia and Lisbon. The royal legion of Damascus was planted at
+ Cordova; that of Emesa at Seville; that of Kinnisrin or Chalcis
+ at Jaen; that of Palestine at Algezire and Medina Sidonia. The
+ natives of Yemen and Persia were scattered round Toledo and the
+ inland country, and the fertile seats of Grenada were bestowed on
+ ten thousand horsemen of Syria and Irak, the children of the
+ purest and most noble of the 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 to the caliph: the
+ seas, the rivers, and the harbors, the inhabitants and cities,
+ the climate, the soil, and the mineral productions of the earth.
+ 191 In the space of two centuries, the gifts of nature were
+ improved by the agriculture, 192 the manufactures, and the
+ commerce, of an industrious people; and the effects of their
+ diligence have been magnified by the idleness of their fancy. The
+ first of the Ommiades who reigned in Spain solicited the support
+ of the Christians; and in his edict of peace and protection, he
+ contents himself with a modest imposition of ten thousand ounces
+ of gold, ten thousand pounds of silver, ten thousand horses, as
+ many mules, one thousand cuirasses, with an equal number of
+ helmets and lances. 193 The most powerful of his successors
+ derived from the same kingdom the annual tribute of twelve
+ millions and forty-five thousand dinars or pieces of gold, about
+ six millions 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 hundred baths, and two hundred thousand
+ houses; he gave laws to eighty cities of the first, to three
+ hundred of the second and third order; and the fertile banks of
+ the Guadalquivir were adorned with twelve thousand villages and
+ hamlets. The Arabs might exaggerate the truth, but they created
+ and they describe the most prosperous aera of the riches, the
+ cultivation, and the populousness of Spain. 195
+
+ 190 (return) [ Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. ii. p. 32, 252. The
+ former of these quotations is taken from a Biographia Hispanica,
+ by an Arabian of Valentia, (see the copious Extracts of Casiri,
+ tom. ii. p. 30-121;) and the latter from a general Chronology of
+ the Caliphs, and of the African and Spanish Dynasties, with a
+ particular History of the kingdom of Grenada, of which Casiri has
+ given almost an entire version, (Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom.
+ ii. p. 177-319.) The author, Ebn Khateb, 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.)]
+
+ 191 (return) [ Cardonne, Hist. de l’Afrique et de l’Espagne, tom.
+ i. p. 116, 117.]
+
+ 192 (return) [ A copious treatise of husbandry, by an Arabian of
+ Seville, in the xiith century, is in the Escurial library, and
+ Casiri had some thoughts of translating it. He gives a list of
+ the authors quoted, Arabs as well as Greeks, Latins, &c.; but it
+ is much if the Andalusian saw these strangers through the medium
+ of his countryman Columella, (Casiri, Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana,
+ tom. i. p. 323-338.)]
+
+ 193 (return) [ Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 104. Casiri
+ translates the original testimony of the historian Rasis, as it
+ is alleged in the Arabic Biographia Hispanica, pars ix. But I am
+ most exceedingly surprised at the address, Principibus
+ caeterisque Christianis, Hispanis suis Castellae. The name of
+ Castellae was unknown in 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,) and the appellation was always
+ expressive, not of a tributary province, but of a line of castles
+ independent of the Moorish yoke, (D’Anville, Etats de l’Europe,
+ p. 166-170.) Had Casiri been a critic, he would have cleared a
+ difficulty, perhaps of his own making.]
+
+ 194 (return) [ Cardonne, tom. i. p. 337, 338. He computes the
+ revenue at 130,000,000 of French livres. The entire picture of
+ peace and prosperity relieves the bloody uniformity of the
+ Moorish annals.]
+
+ 195 (return) [ I am happy enough to possess a splendid and
+ interesting work which has only been distributed in presents by
+ the court of Madrid Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis,
+ opera et studio Michaelis Casiri, Syro Maronitoe. Matriti, in
+ folio, tomus prior, 1760, tomus posterior, 1770. The execution of
+ this work does honor to the Spanish press; the Mss., to the
+ number of MDCCCLI., are judiciously classed by the editor, and
+ his copious extracts throw some light on the Mahometan literature
+ and history of Spain. These relics are now secure, but the task
+ has been supinely delayed, till, in the year 1671, a fire
+ consumed the greatest part of the Escurial library, rich in the
+ spoils of Grenada and Morocco. * Note: Compare the valuable work
+ of Conde, Historia de la Dominacion de las Arabes en Espana.
+ Madrid, 1820.—M.]
+
+ The wars of the Moslems were sanctified by the prophet; but among
+ the various precepts and examples of his life, the caliphs
+ selected the lessons of toleration that might tend to disarm the
+ resistance of the unbelievers. 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 be lawfully
+ extirpated by his votaries; 196 but a wise policy supplied the
+ obligation of justice; and after some acts of intolerant zeal,
+ the Mahometan conquerors of Hindostan have spared the pagodas of
+ that devout and 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 were entitled to the freedom of
+ conscience and religious worship. 197 In a field of battle the
+ forfeit lives of the prisoners were redeemed by the profession of
+ Islam; the females were bound to embrace the religion of their
+ masters, and a race of sincere proselytes was gradually
+ multiplied by the education of the infant captives. But the
+ millions of African and Asiatic converts, who swelled the native
+ band of the faithful Arabs, must have been allured, rather than
+ constrained, to declare their belief in one God and the apostle
+ of God. By the repetition of a sentence and the loss of a
+ foreskin, the subject or the slave, the captive or the criminal,
+ arose in a moment the free and equal companion of the victorious
+ Moslems. Every sin was expiated, every engagement was dissolved:
+ the vow of celibacy was superseded by the indulgence of nature;
+ the active spirits who slept in the cloister were awakened by the
+ trumpet of the Saracens; and in the convulsion of the world,
+ every member of a new society ascended to the natural level of
+ his capacity and courage. The minds of the multitude were tempted
+ by the invisible as well as temporal blessings of the Arabian
+ prophet; and charity will hope that many of his proselytes
+ entertained a serious conviction of the truth and sanctity of his
+ revelation. In the eyes of an inquisitive polytheist, it must
+ appear worthy of the human and the divine nature. More pure than
+ the system of Zoroaster, more liberal than the law of Moses, the
+ religion of Mahomet might seem less inconsistent with reason than
+ the creed of mystery and superstition, which, in the seventh
+ century, disgraced the simplicity of the gospel.
+
+ 196 (return) [ 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 iis concedenda est, nec pretium
+ acceptandum pro obtinenda conscientiae libertate, (Reland,
+ Dissertat. x. de Jure Militari Mohammedan. tom. iii. p. 14;) a
+ rigid theory!]
+
+ 197 (return) [ The distinction between a proscribed and a
+ tolerated sect, between the Harbii and the people of the Book,
+ the believers in some divine revelation, is correctly defined in
+ the conversation of the caliph 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
+ religion has been eradicated by the Mahometan faith. The
+ ambiguous theology of the Magi stood alone among the sects of the
+ East; but the profane writings of Zoroaster 198 might, under the
+ reverend name of Abraham, be dexterously connected with the chain
+ of divine revelation. Their evil principle, the daemon Ahriman,
+ might be represented as the rival, or as the creature, of the God
+ of light. The temples of Persia were devoid of images; but the
+ worship of the sun and of fire might be stigmatized as a gross
+ and criminal idolatry. 199 The milder sentiment was consecrated
+ by the practice of Mahomet 200 and the prudence of the caliphs;
+ the Magians or Ghebers were ranked with the Jews and Christians
+ among the people of the written law; 201 and as late as the third
+ century of the Hegira, the city of Herat will afford a lively
+ contrast of private zeal and public toleration. 202 Under the
+ payment of an annual tribute, the Mahometan law secured to the
+ Ghebers of Herat their civil and religious liberties: but the
+ recent and humble mosch was overshadowed by the antique splendor
+ of the adjoining temple of fire. A fanatic Imam deplored, in his
+ sermons, the scandalous neighborhood, and accused the weakness or
+ indifference of the faithful. Excited by his voice, the people
+ assembled in tumult; the two houses of prayer were consumed by
+ the flames, but the vacant ground was immediately occupied by the
+ foundations of a new mosch. The injured Magi appealed to the
+ sovereign of Chorasan; he promised justice and relief; when,
+ behold! four thousand citizens of Herat, of a grave character and
+ mature age, unanimously swore that the idolatrous fane had never
+ existed; the inquisition was silenced and their conscience was
+ satisfied (says the historian Mirchond 203 with this holy and
+ meritorious perjury. 204 But the greatest part of the temples of
+ Persia were ruined by the insensible and general desertion of
+ their votaries.
+
+ It was insensible, since it is not accompanied with any memorial
+ of time or place, of persecution or resistance. It was general,
+ since the whole realm, from Shiraz to Samarcand, imbibed the
+ faith of the Koran; and the preservation of the native tongue
+ reveals the descent of the Mahometans of Persia. 205 In the
+ mountains and deserts, an obstinate race of unbelievers adhered
+ to the superstition of their fathers; and a faint tradition of
+ the Magian theology is kept alive in the province of Kirman,
+ along the banks of the Indus, among the exiles of Surat, and in
+ the colony which, in the last century, was planted by Shaw Abbas
+ at the gates of Ispahan. The chief pontiff has retired to Mount
+ Elbourz, eighteen leagues from the city of Yezd: the perpetual
+ fire (if it continues to burn) is inaccessible to the profane;
+ but his residence is the school, the oracle, and the pilgrimage
+ of the Ghebers, whose hard and uniform features attest the
+ unmingled purity of their blood. Under the jurisdiction of their
+ elders, eighty thousand families maintain an innocent and
+ industrious life: their subsistence is derived from some curious
+ manufactures and mechanic trades; and they cultivate the earth
+ with the fervor of a religious duty. Their ignorance withstood
+ the despotism of Shaw Abbas, who demanded with threats and
+ tortures the prophetic books of Zoroaster; and this obscure
+ remnant of the Magians is spared by the moderation or contempt of
+ their present sovereigns. 206
+
+ 198 (return) [ The Zend or Pazend, the bible of the Ghebers, is
+ reckoned by themselves, or at least by the Mahometans, among the
+ ten books which Abraham received from heaven; and their religion
+ is honorably styled the religion of Abraham, (D’Herblot, Bibliot.
+ Orient. p. 701; Hyde, de Religione veterum Persarum, c, iii. p.
+ 27, 28, &c.) I much fear that we do not possess any pure and free
+ description of the system of Zoroaster. 1981 Dr. Prideaux
+ (Connection, vol. i. p. 300, octavo) adopts the opinion, that he
+ had been the slave and scholar of some Jewish prophet in the
+ captivity of Babylon. Perhaps the Persians, who have been the
+ masters of the Jews, would assert the honor, a poor honor, of
+ being their masters.]
+
+ 1981 (return) [ Whatever the real age of the Zendavesta,
+ published by Anquetil du Perron, whether of the time of Ardeschir
+ Babeghan, according to Mr. Erskine, or of much higher antiquity,
+ it may be considered, I conceive, both a “pure and a free,”
+ though imperfect, description of Zoroastrianism; particularly
+ with the illustrations of the original translator, and of the
+ German Kleuker—M.]
+
+ 199 (return) [ The Arabian Nights, a faithful and amusing picture
+ of the Oriental world, represent in the most odious colors of the
+ Magians, or worshippers of fire, to whom they attribute the
+ annual sacrifice of a Mussulman. The religion of Zoroaster has
+ not the least affinity with that of the Hindoos, yet they are
+ often confounded by the Mahometans; and the sword of Timour was
+ sharpened by this mistake, (Hist. de Timour Bec, par Cherefeddin
+ Ali Yezdi, l. v.)]
+
+ 200 (return) [ Vie de Mahomet, par Gagnier, (tom. iii. p. 114,
+ 115.)]
+
+ 201 (return) [ Hae tres sectae, Judaei, Christiani, et qui inter
+ Persas Magorum institutis addicti sunt, populi libri dicuntur,
+ (Reland, Dissertat. tom. iii. p. 15.) The caliph Al Mamun
+ confirms this honorable distinction in favor of the three sects,
+ with the vague and equivocal religion of the Sabaeans, under
+ which the ancient polytheists of Charrae were allowed to shelter
+ their idolatrous worship, (Hottinger, Hist. Orient p. 167, 168.)]
+
+ 202 (return) [ 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.)]
+
+ 203 (return) [ Mirchond, (Mohammed Emir Khoondah Shah,) a native
+ of Herat, 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 the year 904 (A.D. 1498) the historian obtained the
+ command of a princely library, and his applauded work, in seven
+ or twelve parts, was abbreviated 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 by D’Herbelot, (p. 358,
+ 410, 994, 995: ) but his numerous extracts, under the improper
+ name of Khondemir, belong to the father rather than the son. The
+ historian of Genghizcan refers to a Ms. of Mirchond, which he
+ received from the hands of his friend D’Herbelot himself. A
+ curious fragment (the Taherian and Soffarian Dynasties) has been
+ lately published in Persic and Latin, (Viennae, 1782, in 4to.,
+ cum notis Bernard de Jenisch;) and the editor allows us to hope
+ for a continuation of Mirchond.]
+
+ 204 (return) [ Quo testimonio boni se quidpiam praestitisse
+ opinabantur. Yet Mirchond must have condemned their zeal, since
+ he approved the legal toleration of the Magi, cui (the fire
+ temple) peracto singulis annis censu uti sacra Mohammedis lege
+ cautum, ab omnibus molestiis ac oneribus libero esse licuit.]
+
+ 205 (return) [ The last Magian of name and power appears to be
+ Mardavige the Dilemite, who, in the beginning of the 10th
+ century, reigned in the northern provinces of Persia, near the
+ Caspian Sea, (D’Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 355.) But his
+ soldiers and successors, the Bowides either professed or embraced
+ the Mahometan faith; and under their dynasty (A.D. 933-1020) I
+ should say the fall of the religion of Zoroaster.]
+
+ 206 (return) [ The present state of the Ghebers in Persia is
+ taken from Sir John Chardin, not indeed the most learned, but the
+ most judicious and 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 neither eyes nor attention for this
+ interesting people.]
+
+ The Northern coast of Africa is the only land in which the light
+ of the gospel, after a long and perfect establishment, has been
+ totally extinguished. The arts, which had been taught by Carthage
+ and Rome, were involved in a cloud of ignorance; the doctrine of
+ Cyprian and Augustin was no longer studied. Five hundred
+ episcopal churches were overturned by the hostile fury of the
+ Donatists, the Vandals, and the Moors. The zeal and numbers of
+ the clergy declined; and the people, without discipline, or
+ knowledge, or hope, submissively sunk under the yoke of the
+ Arabian prophet. Within fifty years after the expulsion of the
+ Greeks, a lieutenant of Africa informed the caliph that the
+ tribute of the infidels was abolished by their conversion; 207
+ and, though he sought to disguise his fraud and rebellion, his
+ specious pretence was drawn from the rapid and extensive progress
+ of the Mahometan faith. In the next age, an extraordinary mission
+ of five bishops was detached from Alexandria to Cairoan. They
+ were ordained by the Jacobite patriarch to cherish and revive the
+ dying embers of Christianity: 208 but the interposition of a
+ foreign prelate, a stranger to the Latins, an enemy to the
+ Catholics, supposes the decay and dissolution of the African
+ hierarchy. It was no longer the time when the successor of St.
+ Cyprian, at the head of a numerous synod, could maintain an equal
+ contest with the ambition of the Roman pontiff. In the eleventh
+ century, the unfortunate priest who was seated on the ruins of
+ Carthage implored the arms and the protection of the Vatican; and
+ he bitterly complains that his naked body had been scourged by
+ the Saracens, and that his authority was disputed by the four
+ suffragans, the tottering pillars of his throne. Two epistles of
+ Gregory the Seventh 209 are destined to soothe the distress of
+ the Catholics and the pride of a Moorish prince. The pope assures
+ the sultan that they both worship the same God, and may hope to
+ meet in the bosom of Abraham; but the complaint that three
+ bishops could no longer be found to consecrate a brother,
+ announces the speedy and inevitable ruin of the episcopal order.
+ The Christians of Africa and Spain had long since submitted to
+ the practice of circumcision and the legal abstinence from wine
+ and pork; and the name of Mozarabes 210 (adoptive Arabs) was
+ applied to their civil or religious conformity. 211 About the
+ middle of the twelfth century, the worship of Christ and the
+ succession of pastors were abolished along the coast of Barbary,
+ and in the kingdoms of Cordova and Seville, of Valencia and
+ Grenada. 212 The throne of the Almohades, or Unitarians, was
+ founded on the blindest fanaticism, and their extraordinary rigor
+ might be provoked or justified by the recent victories and
+ intolerant zeal of the princes of Sicily and Castille, of Arragon
+ and Portugal. The faith of the Mozarabes was occasionally revived
+ by the papal missionaries; and, on the landing of Charles the
+ Fifth, some families of Latin Christians were encouraged to rear
+ their heads at Tunis and Algiers. But the seed of the gospel was
+ quickly eradicated, and the long province from Tripoli to the
+ Atlantic has lost all memory of the language and religion of
+ Rome. 213
+
+ 207 (return) [ 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.)]
+
+ 208 (return) [ Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 66. Renaudot, Hist.
+ Patriarch. Alex. p. 287, 288.]
+
+ 209 (return) [ 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 the criticisms of Pagi, (tom. iv. A.D. 1053, No. 14,
+ A.D. 1073, No. 13,) who investigates the name and family of the
+ Moorish prince, with whom the proudest of the Roman pontiffs so
+ politely corresponds.]
+
+ 210 (return) [ Mozarabes, or Mostarabes, adscititii, as it is
+ interpreted in Latin, (Pocock, Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 39, 40.
+ Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 18.) The Mozarabic liturgy,
+ the ancient 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, in the 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 the councils of
+ Spain, (Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. tom. i. p. 547,) for the use of the
+ bishops and clergy in the Moorish kingdoms.]
+
+ 211 (return) [ About the middle of the xth century, the clergy of
+ Cordova was reproached with this criminal compliance, by the
+ intrepid envoy of the Emperor Otho I., (Vit. Johan. Gorz, in
+ Secul. Benedict. V. No. 115, apud Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xii.
+ p. 91.)]
+
+ 212 (return) [ Pagi, Critica, tom. iv. A.D. 1149, No. 8, 9. He
+ justly observes, that when Seville, &c., were retaken by
+ Ferdinand of Castille, no Christians, except captives, were found
+ in the place; and that the Mozarabic 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 the Hegira 677 (A.D.
+ 1278) must apply to the copy, not the composition, of a treatise
+ of a jurisprudence, which states the civil rights of the
+ Christians of Cordova, (Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. tom. i. p. 471;) and
+ that the Jews were the only dissenters whom Abul Waled, king of
+ Grenada, (A.D. 1313,) could either discountenance or tolerate,
+ (tom. ii. p. 288.)]
+
+ 213 (return) [ Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 288. Leo
+ Africanus would have flattered his Roman masters, could he have
+ discovered any latent relics of the Christianity of Africa.]
+
+ After the revolution of eleven centuries, the Jews and Christians
+ of the Turkish empire enjoy the liberty of conscience which was
+ granted by the Arabian caliphs. During the first age of the
+ conquest, they suspected the loyalty of the Catholics, whose name
+ of Melchites betrayed their secret attachment to the Greek
+ emperor, while the Nestorians and Jacobites, his inveterate
+ enemies, approved themselves the sincere and voluntary friends of
+ the Mahometan government. 214 Yet this partial jealousy was
+ healed by time and submission; the churches of Egypt were shared
+ with the Catholics; 215 and all the Oriental sects were included
+ in the common benefits of toleration. The rank, the immunities,
+ the domestic jurisdiction of the patriarchs, the bishops, and the
+ clergy, were protected by the civil magistrate: the learning of
+ individuals recommended them to the employments of secretaries
+ and physicians: they were enriched by the lucrative collection of
+ the revenue; and their merit was sometimes raised to the command
+ of cities and provinces. A caliph of the house of Abbas was heard
+ to declare that the Christians were most worthy of trust in the
+ administration of Persia. “The Moslems,” said he, “will abuse
+ their present fortune; the Magians regret their fallen greatness;
+ and the Jews are impatient for their approaching deliverance.”
+ 216 But the slaves of despotism are exposed to the alternatives
+ of favor and disgrace. The captive churches of the East have been
+ afflicted in every age by the avarice or bigotry of their rulers;
+ and the ordinary and legal restraints must be offensive to the
+ pride, or the zeal, of the Christians. 217 About two hundred
+ years after Mahomet, they were separated from their
+ fellow-subjects by a turban or girdle of a less honorable color;
+ instead of horses or mules. they were condemned to ride on asses,
+ in the attitude of women. Their public and private building were
+ measured by a diminutive standard; in the streets or the baths it
+ is their duty to give way or bow down before the meanest of the
+ people; and their testimony is rejected, if it may tend to the
+ prejudice of a true believer. The pomp of processions, the sound
+ of bells or of psalmody, is interdicted in their worship; a
+ decent reverence for the national faith is imposed on their
+ sermons and conversations; and the sacrilegious attempt to enter
+ a mosch, or to seduce a Mussulman, will not be suffered to escape
+ with impunity. In a time, however, of tranquillity and justice,
+ the Christians have never been compelled to renounce the Gospel,
+ or to embrace the Koran; but the punishment of death is inflicted
+ upon the apostates who have professed and deserted the law of
+ Mahomet. The martyrs of Cordova provoked the sentence of the
+ cadhi, by the public confession of their inconstancy, or their
+ passionate invectives against the person and religion of the
+ prophet. 218
+
+ 214 (return) [ Absit (said the Catholic to the vizier of Bagdad)
+ ut pari loco habeas Nestorianos, quorum praeter Arabas nullus
+ alius rex est, et Graecos quorum reges amovendo Arabibus bello
+ non desistunt, &c. See in the Collections of Assemannus (Bibliot.
+ Orient. tom. iv. p. 94-101) the state of the Nestorians under the
+ caliphs. That of the Jacobites is more concisely exposed in the
+ Preliminary Dissertation of the second volume of Assemannus.]
+
+ 215 (return) [ Eutych. Annal. tom. ii. p. 384, 387, 388.
+ Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 205, 206, 257, 332. A taint
+ of the Monothelite heresy might render the first of these Greek
+ patriarchs less loyal to the emperors and less obnoxious to the
+ Arabs.]
+
+ 216 (return) [ Motadhed, who reigned from A.D. 892 to 902. The
+ Magians still held their name and rank among the religions of the
+ empire, (Assemanni, Bibliot. Orient. tom. iv. p. 97.)]
+
+ 217 (return) [ Reland explains the general restraints of the
+ Mahometan policy and jurisprudence, (Dissertat. tom. iii. p.
+ 16-20.) The oppressive edicts of the caliph Motawakkel, (A.D.
+ 847-861,) which are still in force, are noticed by Eutychius,
+ (Annal. tom. ii. p. 448,) and D’Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. p.
+ 640.) A persecution of the caliph Omar II. is related, and most
+ probably magnified, by the Greek Theophanes (Chron p. 334.)]
+
+ 218 (return) [ The martyrs of Cordova (A.D. 850, &c.) are
+ commemorated and justified by St. Eulogius, who at length fell a
+ victim himself. A synod, convened by the caliph, ambiguously
+ censured their rashness. The moderate Fleury cannot reconcile
+ their conduct with the discipline of antiquity, toutefois
+ l’autorite de l’eglise, &c. (Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. x. p.
+ 415-522, particularly p. 451, 508, 509.) Their authentic acts
+ throw a strong, though transient, light on the Spanish church in
+ the ixth century.]
+
+ At the end of the first century of the Hegira, the caliphs were
+ the most potent and absolute monarchs of the globe. Their
+ prerogative was not circumscribed, either in right or in fact, by
+ the power of the nobles, the freedom of the commons, the
+ privileges of the church, the votes of a senate, or the memory of
+ a free constitution. The authority of the companions of Mahomet
+ expired with their lives; and the chiefs or emirs of the Arabian
+ tribes left behind, in the desert, the spirit of equality and
+ independence. The regal and sacerdotal characters were united in
+ the successors of Mahomet; and if the Koran was the rule of their
+ actions, they were the supreme judges and interpreters of that
+ divine book. They reigned by the right of conquest over the
+ nations of the East, to whom the name of liberty was unknown, and
+ who were accustomed to applaud in their tyrants the acts of
+ violence and severity that were exercised at their own expense.
+ Under the last of the Ommiades, the Arabian empire extended two
+ hundred days’ journey from east to west, from the confines of
+ Tartary and India to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. And if we
+ retrench the sleeve of the robe, as it is styled by their
+ writers, the long and narrow province of Africa, the solid and
+ compact dominion from Fargana to Aden, from Tarsus to Surat, will
+ spread on every side to the measure of four or five months of the
+ march of a caravan. 219 We should vainly seek the indissoluble
+ union and easy obedience that pervaded the government of Augustus
+ and the Antonines; but the progress of the Mahometan religion
+ diffused over this ample space a general resemblance of manners
+ and opinions. The language and laws of the Koran were studied
+ with equal devotion at Samarcand and Seville: the Moor and the
+ Indian embraced as countrymen and brothers in the pilgrimage of
+ Mecca; and the Arabian language was adopted as the popular idiom
+ in all the provinces to the westward of the Tigris. 220
+
+ 219 (return) [ See the article Eslamiah, (as we say Christendom,)
+ in the Bibliotheque Orientale, (p. 325.) This chart of the
+ Mahometan world is suited 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 the conquests in India, Tartary,
+ and the European Turkey.]
+
+ 220 (return) [ The Arabic of the Koran is taught as a dead
+ language in the college of Mecca. By the Danish traveller, this
+ ancient idiom is compared to the Latin; the vulgar tongue of
+ Hejaz and Yemen to the Italian; and the Arabian dialects of
+ Syria, Egypt, Africa, &c., to the Provencal, 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 been
+ surprised at the ease and rapidity of their own success. But when
+ they advanced in the career of victory to the banks of the Indus
+ and the summit of the Pyrenees; when they had repeatedly tried
+ the edge of their cimeters and the energy of their faith, they
+ might be equally astonished that any nation could resist their
+ invincible arms; that any boundary should confine the dominion of
+ the successor of the prophet. The confidence of soldiers and
+ fanatics may indeed be excused, since the calm historian of the
+ present hour, who strives to follow the rapid course of the
+ Saracens, must study to explain by what means the church and
+ state were saved from this impending, and, as it should seem,
+ from this inevitable, danger. The deserts of Scythia and Sarmatia
+ might be guarded by their extent, their climate, their poverty,
+ and the courage of the northern shepherds; China was remote and
+ inaccessible; but the greatest part of the temperate zone was
+ subject to the Mahometan conquerors, the Greeks were exhausted by
+ the calamities of war and the loss of their fairest provinces,
+ and the Barbarians of Europe might justly tremble at the
+ precipitate fall of the Gothic monarchy. In this inquiry I shall
+ unfold the events that rescued our ancestors of Britain, and our
+ neighbors of Gaul, from the civil and religious yoke of the
+ Koran; that protected the majesty of Rome, and delayed the
+ servitude of Constantinople; that invigorated the defence of the
+ Christians, and scattered among their enemies the seeds of
+ division and decay.
+
+ Forty-six years after the flight of Mahomet from Mecca, his
+ disciples appeared in arms under the walls of Constantinople. 1
+ They were animated by a genuine or fictitious saying of the
+ prophet, that, to the first army which besieged the city of the
+ Caesars, their sins were forgiven: the long series of Roman
+ triumphs would be meritoriously transferred to the conquerors of
+ New Rome; and the wealth of nations was deposited in this
+ well-chosen seat of royalty and commerce. No sooner had the
+ caliph Moawiyah suppressed his rivals and established his throne,
+ than he aspired to expiate the guilt of civil blood, by the
+ success and glory of this holy expedition; 2 his preparations by
+ sea and land were adequate to the importance of the object; his
+ standard was intrusted to Sophian, a veteran warrior, but the
+ troops were encouraged by the example and presence of Yezid, the
+ son and presumptive heir of the commander of the faithful. The
+ Greeks had little to hope, nor had their enemies any reason of
+ fear, from the courage and vigilance of the reigning emperor, who
+ disgraced the name of Constantine, and imitated only the
+ inglorious years of his grandfather Heraclius. Without delay or
+ opposition, the naval forces of the Saracens passed through the
+ unguarded channel of the Hellespont, which even now, under the
+ feeble and disorderly government of the Turks, is maintained as
+ the natural bulwark of the capital. 3 The Arabian fleet cast
+ anchor, and the troops were disembarked near the palace of
+ Hebdomon, seven miles from the city. During many days, from the
+ dawn of light to the evening, the line of assault was extended
+ from the golden gate to the eastern promontory and the foremost
+ warriors were impelled by the weight and effort of the succeeding
+ columns. But the besiegers had formed an insufficient estimate of
+ the strength and resources of Constantinople. The solid and lofty
+ walls were guarded by numbers and discipline: the spirit of the
+ Romans was rekindled by the last danger of their religion and
+ empire: the fugitives from the conquered provinces more
+ successfully renewed the defence of Damascus and Alexandria; and
+ the Saracens were dismayed by the strange and prodigious effects
+ of artificial fire. This firm and effectual resistance diverted
+ their arms to the more easy attempt 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 the capital, to the
+ Isle of Cyzicus, in which they had established their magazine of
+ spoil and provisions. So patient was their perseverance, or so
+ languid were their operations, that they repeated in the six
+ following summers the same attack and retreat, with a gradual
+ abatement of hope and vigor, till the mischances of shipwreck and
+ disease, of the sword and of fire, compelled them to relinquish
+ the fruitless enterprise. 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 the Christians themselves.
+
+ That venerable Arab, one of the last of the companions of
+ Mahomet, was numbered among the ansars, or auxiliaries, of
+ Medina, who sheltered the head of the flying prophet. In his
+ youth he fought, at Beder and Ohud, under the holy standard: in
+ his mature age he was the friend and follower of Ali; and the
+ last remnant of his strength and life was consumed in a distant
+ and dangerous war against the enemies of the Koran. His memory
+ was revered; but the place of his burial was neglected and
+ unknown, during a period of seven hundred and eighty years, till
+ the conquest of Constantinople by Mahomet the Second. A
+ seasonable vision (for such are the manufacture of every
+ religion) revealed the holy spot at the foot of the walls and the
+ bottom of the harbor; and the mosch of Ayub has been deservedly
+ chosen for the simple and martial inauguration of the Turkish
+ sultans. 4
+
+ 1 (return) [ Theophanes places the seven years of the siege of
+ Constantinople in the year of our Christian aera, 673 (of the
+ Alexandrian 665, Sept. 1,) and the peace of the Saracens, four
+ years afterwards; a glaring inconsistency! which Petavius, Goar,
+ and Pagi, (Critica, tom. iv. p. 63, 64,) have struggled to
+ remove. Of the Arabians, 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 esteem the most convenient and credible.]
+
+ 2 (return) [ 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 History of the Saracens, vol. ii.
+ p. 127, 128.]
+
+ 3 (return) [ The state and defence of the Dardanelles is exposed
+ in the Memoirs of the Baron de Tott, (tom. iii. p. 39-97,) who
+ was sent to fortify them against the Russians. From a principal
+ actor, I should have expected more accurate details; but he seems
+ to write for the amusement, rather than the instruction, of his
+ reader. Perhaps, on the approach of the enemy, the minister of
+ Constantine was occupied, like that of Mustapha, in finding two
+ Canary birds who should sing precisely the same note.]
+
+ 4 (return) [ Demetrius Cantemir’s Hist. of the Othman Empire, p.
+ 105, 106. Rycaut’s State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 10, 11.
+ Voyages of Thevenot, part i. p. 189. The Christians, who suppose
+ that the martyr Abu Ayub is vulgarly confounded with the
+ patriarch Job, betray their own ignorance rather than that of the
+ Turks.]
+
+ The event of the siege revived, both in the East and West, the
+ reputation of the Roman arms, and cast a momentary shade over the
+ glories of the Saracens. The Greek ambassador was favorably
+ received at Damascus, a general council of the emirs or Koreish:
+ a peace, or truce, of thirty years was ratified between the two
+ empires; and the stipulation of an annual tribute, fifty horses
+ of a noble breed, fifty slaves, and three thousand pieces of
+ gold, degraded the majesty of the commander of the faithful. 5
+ The aged caliph was desirous of possessing his dominions, and
+ ending his days in tranquillity and repose: while the Moors and
+ Indians trembled at his name, his palace and city of Damascus was
+ insulted by the Mardaites, or Maronites, of Mount Libanus, the
+ firmest barrier of the empire, till they were disarmed and
+ transplanted by the suspicious policy of the Greeks. 6 After the
+ revolt of Arabia and Persia, the house of Ommiyah was reduced to
+ the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt: their distress and fear enforced
+ their compliance with the pressing demands of the Christians; and
+ the tribute was increased to a slave, a horse, and a thousand
+ pieces of gold, for each of the three hundred and sixty-five days
+ of the solar year. But as soon as the empire was again united by
+ the arms and policy of Abdalmalek, he disclaimed a badge of
+ servitude not less injurious to his conscience than to his pride;
+ he discontinued the payment of the tribute; and the resentment of
+ the Greeks was disabled from action by the mad tyranny of the
+ second Justinian, the just rebellion of his subjects, and the
+ frequent change of his antagonists and successors. 7 Till the
+ reign of Abdalmalek, the Saracens had been content with the free
+ possession of the Persian and Roman treasures, in the coins of
+ Chosroes and Caesar. By the command of that caliph, a national
+ mint was established, both for silver and gold, and the
+ inscription of the Dinar, though it might be censured by some
+ timorous casuists, proclaimed the unity of the God of Mahomet. 8
+ Under the reign of the caliph Walid, the Greek language and
+ characters were excluded from the accounts of the public revenue.
+ 9 If this change was productive of the invention or familiar use
+ of our present numerals, the Arabic or Indian ciphers, as they
+ are commonly styled, a regulation of office has promoted the most
+ important discoveries of arithmetic, algebra, and the
+ mathematical sciences. 10
+
+ 5 (return) [ Theophanes, though a Greek, deserves credit for
+ these tributes, (Chronograph. p. 295, 296, 300, 301,) which are
+ confirmed, with some variation, by the Arabic History of
+ Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 128, vers. Pocock.)]
+
+ 6 (return) [ The censure of Theophanes is just and pointed,
+ (Chronograph. p. 302, 303.) The series of these events may be
+ traced in the Annals of Theophanes, and in the Abridgment of the
+ patriarch Nicephorus, p. 22, 24.]
+
+ 7 (return) [ These domestic revolutions are related in a clear
+ and natural style, in the second volume of Ockley’s History of
+ the Saracens, p. 253-370. Besides our printed authors, he draws
+ his materials from the Arabic Mss. of Oxford, which he would have
+ more deeply searched had he been confined to the Bodleian library
+ instead of the city jail a fate how unworthy of the man and of
+ his country!]
+
+ 8 (return) [ Elmacin, who dates the first coinage A. H. 76, A.D.
+ 695, five or six years later than the Greek historians, has
+ compared the weight of the best or common gold dinar to the
+ drachm or dirhem of Egypt, (p. 77,) which may be equal to two
+ pennies (48 grains) of our Troy weight, (Hooper’s Inquiry into
+ Ancient Measures, p. 24-36,) and equivalent to eight shillings of
+ our sterling money. From the same Elmacin 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 the dirhem, both
+ in value and weight; but an old, though fair coin, struck at
+ Waset, A. H. 88, and preserved in the Bodleian library, wants
+ four grains of the Cairo standard, (see the Modern Universal
+ History, tom. i. p. 548 of the French translation.) * Note: Up to
+ this time the Arabs had used the Roman or the Persian coins or
+ had minted others which resembled them. Nevertheless, it has been
+ admitted of late years, that the Arabians, before this epoch, had
+ caused coin to be minted, on which, preserving the Roman or the
+ Persian dies, they added Arabian names or inscriptions. Some of
+ these exist in different collections. We learn from Makrizi, an
+ Arabian author of great learning and judgment, that in the year
+ 18 of the Hegira, under the caliphate of Omar, the Arabs had
+ coined money of this description. The same author informs us that
+ the caliph Abdalmalek caused coins to be struck representing
+ himself with a sword by his side. These types, so contrary to the
+ notions of the Arabs, were disapproved by the most influential
+ persons of the time, and the caliph substituted for them, after
+ the year 76 of the Hegira, the Mahometan coins with which we are
+ acquainted. Consult, on the question of Arabic numismatics, the
+ works of Adler, of Fraehn, of Castiglione, and of Marsden, who
+ have treated at length this interesting point of historic
+ antiquities. See, also, in the Journal Asiatique, tom. ii. p.
+ 257, et seq., a paper of M. Silvestre de Sacy, entitled Des
+ Monnaies des Khalifes avant l’An 75 de l’Hegire. See, also the
+ translation of a German paper on the Arabic medals of the
+ Chosroes, by M. Fraehn. in the same Journal Asiatique tom. iv. p.
+ 331-347. St. Martin, vol. xii. p. 19, —M.]
+
+ 9 (return) [ Theophan. Chronograph. p. 314. This defect, if it
+ really existed, must have stimulated the ingenuity of the Arabs
+ to invent or borrow.]
+
+ 10 (return) [ According to a new, though probable, notion,
+ maintained by M de Villoison, (Anecdota Graeca, tom. ii. p.
+ 152-157,) our ciphers are not of Indian or Arabic invention. They
+ were used by the Greek and Latin arithmeticians long before the
+ age of Boethius. After the extinction of science in the West,
+ they were adopted by the Arabic versions from the original Mss.,
+ and restored to the Latins about the xith century. * Note:
+ Compare, on the Introduction of the Arabic numerals, Hallam’s
+ Introduction to the Literature of Europe, p. 150, note, and the
+ authors quoted therein.—M.]
+
+ Whilst the caliph Walid sat idle on the throne of Damascus,
+ whilst his lieutenants achieved the conquest of Transoxiana and
+ Spain, a third army of Saracens overspread the provinces of Asia
+ Minor, and approached the borders of the Byzantine capital. But
+ the attempt and disgrace of the second siege was reserved for his
+ brother Soliman, whose ambition appears to have been quickened by
+ a more active and martial spirit. In the revolutions of the Greek
+ empire, after the tyrant Justinian had been punished and avenged,
+ an humble secretary, Anastasius or Artemius, was promoted by
+ chance or merit to the vacant purple. He was alarmed by the sound
+ of war; and his ambassador returned from Damascus with the
+ tremendous news, that the Saracens were preparing an armament by
+ sea and land, such as would transcend the experience of the past,
+ or the belief of the present age. The precautions of Anastasius
+ were not unworthy of his station, or of the impending danger. He
+ issued a peremptory mandate, that all persons who were not
+ provided with the means of subsistence for a three years’ siege
+ should evacuate the city: the public granaries and arsenals were
+ abundantly replenished; the walls were restored and strengthened;
+ and the engines for casting stones, or darts, or fire, were
+ stationed along the ramparts, or in the brigantines of war, of
+ which an additional number was hastily constructed. To prevent is
+ safer, as well as more honorable, than to repel, an attack; and a
+ design was meditated, above the usual spirit of the Greeks, of
+ burning the naval stores of the enemy, the cypress timber that
+ had been hewn in Mount Libanus, and was piled along the sea-shore
+ of Phoenicia, for the service of the Egyptian fleet. This
+ generous enterprise was defeated by the cowardice or treachery of
+ the troops, who, in the new language of the empire, were styled
+ of the Obsequian Theme. 11 They murdered their chief, deserted
+ their standard in the Isle of Rhodes, dispersed themselves over
+ the adjacent continent, and deserved pardon or reward by
+ investing with the purple a simple officer of the revenue. The
+ name of Theodosius might recommend him to the senate and people;
+ but, after some months, he sunk into a cloister, and resigned, to
+ the firmer hand of Leo the Isaurian, the urgent defence of the
+ capital and empire. The most formidable of the Saracens,
+ Moslemah, the brother of the caliph, was advancing at the head of
+ one hundred and twenty thousand Arabs and Persians, the greater
+ part mounted on horses or camels; and the successful sieges of
+ Tyana, Amorium, and Pergamus, were of sufficient duration to
+ exercise their skill and to elevate their hopes. At the
+ well-known passage of Abydus, on the Hellespont, the Mahometan
+ arms were transported, for the first time, 1111 from Asia to
+ Europe. From thence, wheeling round the Thracian cities of the
+ Propontis, Moslemah invested Constantinople on the land side,
+ surrounded his camp with a ditch and rampart, prepared and
+ planted his engines of assault, and declared, by words and
+ actions, a patient resolution of expecting the return of
+ seed-time and harvest, should the obstinacy of the besieged prove
+ equal to his own. 1112 The Greeks would gladly have ransomed
+ their religion and empire, by a fine or assessment of a piece of
+ gold on the head of each inhabitant of the city; but the liberal
+ offer was rejected with disdain, and the presumption of Moslemah
+ was exalted by the speedy approach and invincible force of the
+ natives of Egypt and Syria. They are said to have amounted to
+ eighteen hundred ships: the number betrays their inconsiderable
+ size; and of the twenty stout and capacious vessels, whose
+ magnitude impeded their progress, each was manned with no more
+ than one hundred heavy-armed soldiers. This huge armada proceeded
+ on a smooth sea, and with a gentle gale, towards the mouth of the
+ Bosphorus; the surface of the strait was overshadowed, in the
+ language of the Greeks, with a moving forest, and the same fatal
+ night had been fixed by the Saracen chief for a general assault
+ by sea and land. To allure the confidence of the enemy, the
+ emperor had thrown aside the chain that usually guarded the
+ entrance of the harbor; but while they hesitated whether they
+ should seize the opportunity, or apprehend the snare, the
+ ministers of destruction were at hand. The fire-ships of the
+ Greeks were launched against them; the Arabs, their arms, and
+ vessels, were involved in the same flames; the disorderly
+ fugitives were dashed against each other or overwhelmed in the
+ waves; and I no longer find a vestige of the fleet, that had
+ threatened to extirpate the Roman name. A still more fatal and
+ irreparable loss was that of the caliph Soliman, who died of an
+ indigestion, 12 in his camp near Kinnisrin or Chalcis in Syria,
+ as he was preparing to lead against Constantinople the remaining
+ forces of the East. The brother of Moslemah was succeeded by a
+ kinsman and an enemy; and the throne of an active and able prince
+ was degraded by the useless and pernicious virtues of a bigot.
+ 1211 While he started and satisfied the scruples of a blind
+ conscience, the siege was continued through the winter by the
+ neglect, rather than by the resolution of the caliph Omar. 13 The
+ winter proved uncommonly rigorous: above a hundred days the
+ ground was covered with deep snow, and the natives of the sultry
+ climes of Egypt and Arabia lay torpid and almost lifeless in
+ their frozen camp. They revived on the return of spring; a second
+ effort had been made in their favor; and their distress was
+ relieved by the arrival of two numerous fleets, laden with corn,
+ and arms, and soldiers; the first from Alexandria, of four
+ hundred transports and galleys; the second of three hundred and
+ sixty vessels from the ports of Africa. But the Greek fires were
+ again kindled; and if the destruction was less complete, it was
+ owing to the experience which had taught the Moslems to remain at
+ a safe distance, or to the perfidy of the Egyptian mariners, who
+ deserted with their ships to the emperor of the Christians. The
+ trade and navigation of the capital were restored; and the
+ produce of the fisheries supplied the wants, and even the luxury,
+ of the inhabitants. But the calamities of famine and disease were
+ soon felt by the troops of Moslemah, and as the former was
+ miserably assuaged, so the latter was dreadfully propagated, by
+ the pernicious nutriment which hunger compelled them to extract
+ from the most unclean or unnatural food. The spirit of conquest,
+ and even of enthusiasm, was extinct: the Saracens could no longer
+ struggle, beyond their lines, either single or in small parties,
+ without exposing themselves to the merciless retaliation of the
+ Thracian peasants.
+
+ An army of Bulgarians was attracted from the Danube by the gifts
+ and promises of Leo; and these savage auxiliaries made some
+ atonement for the evils which they had inflicted on the empire,
+ by the defeat and slaughter of twenty-two thousand Asiatics. A
+ report was dexterously scattered, that the Franks, the unknown
+ nations of the Latin world, were arming by sea and land in the
+ defence of the Christian cause, and their formidable aid was
+ expected with far different sensations in the camp and city. At
+ length, after a siege of thirteen months, 14 the hopeless
+ Moslemah received from the caliph the welcome permission of
+ retreat. 1411 The march of the Arabian cavalry over the
+ Hellespont and through the provinces of Asia, was executed
+ without delay or molestation; but an army 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 and fire, that
+ only five galleys entered the port of Alexandria to relate the
+ tale of their various and almost incredible disasters. 15
+
+ 11 (return) [ In the division of the Themes, or provinces
+ described by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Thematibus, l. i.
+ p. 9, 10,) the Obsequium, a Latin appellation of the army and
+ palace, was the fourth in the public order. Nice was the
+ metropolis, and its jurisdiction extended from the Hellespont
+ over the adjacent parts of Bithynia and Phrygia, (see the two
+ maps prefixed by Delisle to the Imperium Orientale of Banduri.)]
+
+ 1111 (return) [ Compare page 274. It is singular that Gibbon
+ should thus contradict himself in a few pages. By his own account
+ this was the second time.—M.]
+
+ 1112 (return) [ The account of this siege in the Tarikh Tebry is
+ a very unfavorable specimen of Asiatic history, full of absurd
+ fables, and written with total ignorance of the circumstances of
+ time and place. Price, vol. i. p. 498—M.]
+
+ 12 (return) [ The caliph had emptied two baskets of eggs and of
+ figs, which he swallowed alternately, and the repast was
+ concluded with marrow and sugar. In one of his pilgrimages to
+ Mecca, Soliman ate, at a single meal, seventy pomegranates, a
+ kid, six fowls, and a huge quantity of the grapes of Tayef. If
+ the bill of fare be correct, we must admire the appetite, rather
+ than the luxury, of the sovereign of Asia, (Abulfeda, Annal.
+ Moslem. p. 126.) * Note: The Tarikh Tebry ascribes the death of
+ Soliman to a pleurisy. The same gross gluttony in which Soliman
+ indulged, though not fatal to the life, interfered with the
+ military duties, of his brother Moslemah. Price, vol. i. p.
+ 511.—M.]
+
+ 1211 (return) [ Major Price’s estimate of Omar’s character is
+ much more favorable. Among a race of sanguinary tyrants, Omar was
+ just and humane. His virtues as well as his bigotry were
+ active.—M.]
+
+ 13 (return) [ See the article of Omar Ben Abdalaziz, in the
+ Bibliotheque Orientale, (p. 689, 690,) praeferens, says Elmacin,
+ (p. 91,) religionem suam rebus suis mundanis. He was so desirous
+ of being with God, that he would not have anointed his ear (his
+ own saying) to obtain a perfect cure of his last malady. The
+ caliph had only one shirt, and in an age of luxury, his annual
+ expense was no more than two drachms, (Abulpharagius, p. 131.)
+ Haud diu gavisus eo principe fuit urbis Muslemus, (Abulfeda, p.
+ 127.)]
+
+ 14 (return) [ Both Nicephorus and Theophanes agree that the siege
+ of Constantinople was raised the 15th of August, (A.D. 718;) but
+ as the former, our best witness, affirms that it continued
+ thirteen months, the latter must be mistaken in supposing that it
+ began on the same day of the preceding year. I do not find that
+ Pagi has remarked this inconsistency.]
+
+ 1411 (return) [ The Tarikh Tebry embellishes the retreat of
+ Moslemah with some extraordinary and incredible circumstances.
+ Price, p. 514.—M.]
+
+ 15 (return) [ In the second siege of Constantinople, I have
+ followed Nicephorus, (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,) and Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 130,) the most
+ satisfactory of the Arabs.]
+
+ In the two sieges, the deliverance of Constantinople may be
+ chiefly ascribed to the novelty, the terrors, and the real
+ efficacy of the Greek fire. 16 The important secret of
+ compounding and directing this artificial flame was imparted by
+ Callinicus, a native of Heliopolis in Syria, who deserted from
+ the service of the caliph to that of the emperor. 17 The skill of
+ a chemist and engineer was equivalent to the succor of fleets and
+ armies; and this discovery or improvement of the military art was
+ fortunately reserved for the distressful period, when the
+ degenerate Romans of the East were incapable of contending with
+ the warlike enthusiasm and youthful vigor of the Saracens. The
+ historian who presumes to analyze this extraordinary composition
+ should suspect his own ignorance and that of his Byzantine
+ guides, so prone to the marvellous, so careless, and, in this
+ instance, so jealous of the truth. From their obscure, and
+ perhaps fallacious, hints it should seem that the principal
+ ingredient of the Greek fire was the naphtha, 18 or liquid
+ bitumen, a light, tenacious, and inflammable oil, 19 which
+ springs from the earth, and catches fire as soon as it comes in
+ contact with the air. The naphtha was mingled, I know not by what
+ methods or in what proportions, with sulphur and with the pitch
+ that is extracted from evergreen firs. 20 From this mixture,
+ which produced a thick smoke and a loud explosion, proceeded a
+ fierce and obstinate flame, which not only rose in perpendicular
+ ascent, but likewise burnt with equal vehemence in descent or
+ lateral progress; instead of being extinguished, it was nourished
+ and quickened by the element of water; and sand, urine, or
+ vinegar, were the only remedies that could damp the fury of this
+ powerful agent, which was justly denominated by the Greeks the
+ liquid, or the maritime, fire. For the annoyance of the enemy, it
+ was employed with equal effect, by sea and land, in battles or in
+ sieges. It was either poured from the rampart in large boilers,
+ or launched in red-hot balls of stone and iron, or darted in
+ arrows and javelins, twisted round with flax and tow, which had
+ deeply imbibed the inflammable oil; sometimes it was deposited in
+ fire-ships, the victims and instruments of a more ample revenge,
+ and was most commonly blown through long tubes of copper which
+ were planted on the prow of a galley, and fancifully shaped into
+ the mouths of savage monsters, that seemed to vomit a stream of
+ liquid and consuming fire. This important art was preserved at
+ Constantinople, as the palladium of the state: the galleys and
+ artillery might occasionally be lent to the allies of Rome; but
+ the composition of the Greek fire was concealed with the most
+ jealous scruple, and the terror of the enemies was increased and
+ prolonged by their ignorance and surprise. In the treaties of the
+ administration of the empire, the royal author 21 suggests the
+ answers and excuses that might best elude the indiscreet
+ curiosity and importunate demands of the Barbarians. They should
+ be told that the mystery of the Greek fire had been revealed by
+ an angel to the first and greatest of the Constantines, with a
+ sacred injunction, that this gift of Heaven, this peculiar
+ blessing of the Romans, should never be communicated to any
+ foreign nation; that the prince and the subject were alike bound
+ to religious silence under the temporal and spiritual penalties
+ of treason and sacrilege; and that the impious attempt would
+ provoke the sudden and supernatural vengeance of the God of the
+ Christians. By these precautions, the secret was confined, above
+ four hundred years, to the Romans of the East; and at the end of
+ the eleventh century, the Pisans, to whom every sea and every art
+ were familiar, suffered the effects, without understanding the
+ composition, of the Greek fire. It was at length either
+ discovered or stolen by the Mahometans; and, in the holy wars of
+ Syria and Egypt, they retorted an invention, contrived against
+ themselves, on the heads of the Christians. A knight, who
+ despised the swords and lances of the Saracens, relates, with
+ heartfelt sincerity, his own fears, and those of his companions,
+ at the sight and sound of the mischievous engine that discharged
+ a torrent of the Greek fire, the feu Gregeois, as it is styled by
+ the more early of the French writers. It came flying through the
+ air, says Joinville, 22 like a winged long-tailed dragon, about
+ the thickness of a hogshead, with the report of thunder and the
+ velocity of lightning; and the darkness of the night was
+ dispelled by this deadly illumination. The use of the Greek, or,
+ as it might now be called, of the Saracen fire, was continued to
+ the middle of the fourteenth century, 23 when the scientific or
+ casual compound of nitre, sulphur, and charcoal, effected a new
+ revolution in the art of war and the history of mankind. 24
+
+ 16 (return) [ Our sure and indefatigable guide in the middle ages
+ and Byzantine history, Charles du Fresne du Cange, has treated in
+ several places of the Greek fire, and his collections leave few
+ gleanings behind. See particularly Glossar. Med. et Infim.
+ Graecitat. p. 1275, sub voce. Glossar. Med. et Infim. Latinitat.
+ Ignis Groecus. Observations sur Villehardouin, p. 305, 306.
+ Observations sur Joinville, p. 71, 72.]
+
+ 17 (return) [ Theophanes styles him, (p. 295.) Cedrenus (p. 437)
+ brings this artist from (the ruins of) Heliopolis in Egypt; and
+ chemistry was indeed the peculiar science of the Egyptians.]
+
+ 18 (return) [ The naphtha, the oleum incendiarium of the history
+ of Jerusalem, (Gest. Dei per Francos, p. 1167,) the Oriental
+ fountain of James de Vitry, (l. iii. c. 84,) is introduced on
+ slight evidence and strong probability. Cinanmus (l. vi. p. 165)
+ calls the Greek fire: and the naphtha is known to abound between
+ the Tigris and the Caspian Sea. According to Pliny, (Hist. Natur.
+ ii. 109,) it was subservient to the revenge of Medea, and in
+ either etymology, (Procop. de Bell. Gothic. l. iv. c. 11,) may
+ fairly signify this liquid bitumen. * Note: It is remarkable that
+ the Syrian historian Michel gives the name of naphtha to the
+ newly-invented Greek fire, which seems to indicate that this
+ substance formed the base of the destructive compound. St.
+ Martin, tom. xi. p. 420.—M.]
+
+ 19 (return) [ 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 and knowledge of chemistry. The less perfect ideas of
+ the ancients may be found in Strabo (Geograph. l. xvi. p. 1078)
+ and Pliny, (Hist. Natur. ii. 108, 109.) Huic (Naphthae) magna
+ cognatio est ignium, transiliuntque protinus in eam undecunque
+ visam. Of our travellers I am best pleased with Otter, (tom. i.
+ p. 153, 158.)]
+
+ 20 (return) [ Anna Comnena has partly drawn aside the curtain.
+ (Alexiad. l. xiii. p. 383.) Elsewhere (l. xi. p. 336) she
+ mentions the property of burning. 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.]
+
+ 21 (return) [ Constantin. Porphyrogenit. de Administrat. Imperii,
+ c. xiii. p. 64, 65.]
+
+ 22 (return) [ Histoire de St. Louis, p. 39. Paris, 1668, p. 44.
+ Paris, de l’Imprimerie Royale, 1761. The former of these editions
+ is precious for the observations of Ducange; the latter for the
+ pure and original text of Joinville. We must have recourse to
+ that text to discover, that the feu Gregeois was shot with a pile
+ or javelin, from an engine that acted like a sling.]
+
+ 23 (return) [ The vanity, or envy, of shaking the established
+ property of Fame, has tempted some moderns to carry gunpowder
+ above the xivth, (see Sir William Temple, Dutens, &c.,) and the
+ Greek fire above the viith century, (see the Saluste du President
+ des Brosses, tom. ii. p. 381.) But their evidence, which precedes
+ the vulgar aera of the invention, is seldom clear or
+ satisfactory, and subsequent writers may be suspected of fraud or
+ credulity. In the earliest sieges, some combustibles of oil and
+ sulphur have been used, and the Greek fire has some affinities
+ with gunpowder both in its nature and effects: for the antiquity
+ 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 of
+ Spain, (A.D. 1249, 1312, 1332. Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. tom. ii. p.
+ 6, 7, 8,) are the most difficult to elude.]
+
+ 24 (return) [ That extraordinary man, Friar Bacon, reveals two of
+ the ingredients, saltpetre and sulphur, and conceals the third in
+ a sentence of mysterious gibberish, as if he dreaded the
+ consequences of his own discovery, (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
+ the eastern entrance of Europe; but in the West, on the side of
+ the Pyrenees, the provinces of Gaul were threatened and invaded
+ by the conquerors of Spain. 25 The decline of the French monarchy
+ invited the attack of these insatiate fanatics. The descendants
+ of Clovis had lost the inheritance of his martial and ferocious
+ spirit; and their misfortune or demerit has affixed the epithet
+ of lazy to the last kings of the Merovingian race. 26 They
+ ascended the throne without power, and sunk into the grave
+ without a name. A country palace, in the neighborhood of
+ Compiegne 27 was allotted for their residence or prison: but each
+ year, in the month of March or May, they were conducted in a
+ wagon drawn by oxen to the assembly of the Franks, to give
+ audience to foreign ambassadors, and to ratify the acts of the
+ mayor of the palace. That domestic officer was become the
+ minister of the nation and the master of the prince. A public
+ employment was converted into the patrimony of a private family:
+ the elder Pepin left a king of mature years under the
+ guardianship of his own widow and her child; and these feeble
+ regents were forcibly dispossessed by the most active of his
+ bastards. A government, half savage and half corrupt, was almost
+ dissolved; and the tributary dukes, and provincial counts, and
+ the territorial lords, were tempted to despise the weakness of
+ the monarch, and to imitate the ambition of the mayor. Among
+ these independent chiefs, one of the boldest and most successful
+ was Eudes, duke of Aquitain, 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 the first invasion of the
+ Saracens; and Zama, lieutenant of the caliph, lost his army and
+ his life under the walls of Thoulouse. The ambition of his
+ successors was stimulated by revenge; they repassed the Pyrenees
+ with the means and the resolution of conquest. The advantageous
+ situation which had recommended Narbonne 28 as the first Roman
+ colony, was again chosen by the Moslems: they claimed the
+ province of Septimania or Languedoc as a just dependence of the
+ Spanish monarchy: the vineyards of Gascony and the city of
+ Bourdeaux were possessed by the sovereign of Damascus and
+ Samarcand; and the south of France, from the mouth of the Garonne
+ to that of the Rhone, assumed the manners and religion of Arabia.
+
+ 25 (return) [ For the invasion of France and the defeat of the
+ Arabs by Charles Martel, see the Historia Arabum (c. 11, 12, 13,
+ 14) of Roderic Ximenes, archbishop of Toledo, who had before him
+ the Christian chronicle of Isidore Pacensis, and the Mahometan
+ history of Novairi. The Moslems are silent or concise in the
+ account of their losses; but M Cardonne (tom. i. p. 129, 130,
+ 131) has given a pure and simple account of all that he could
+ collect from Ibn Halikan, Hidjazi, and an anonymous writer. The
+ texts of the chronicles of France, and lives of saints, are
+ inserted in the Collection of Bouquet, (tom. iii.,) and the
+ Annals of Pagi, who (tom. iii. under the proper years) has
+ restored the chronology, which is anticipated six years in the
+ Annals of Baronius. The Dictionary of Bayle (Abderame and Munuza)
+ has more merit for lively reflection than original research.]
+
+ 26 (return) [ Eginhart, de Vita Caroli Magni, c. ii. p. 13-78,
+ edit. Schmink, Utrecht, 1711. Some modern critics accuse the
+ minister of Charlemagne of exaggerating the weakness of the
+ Merovingians; but the general outline is just, and the French
+ reader will forever repeat the beautiful lines of Boileau’s
+ Lutrin.]
+
+ 27 (return) [ Mamaccae, on the Oyse, between Compiegne and Noyon,
+ which Eginhart calls perparvi reditus villam, (see the notes, and
+ the map of ancient 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 sur le Commerce des
+ Bleds,) may truly affirm, that it was the residence of the rois
+ tres Chretiens en tres chevelus.]
+
+ 28 (return) [ 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 most northern places of the known world,
+ (D’Anville, Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, p. 473.)]
+
+ But these narrow limits were scorned by the spirit of Abdalraman,
+ or Abderame, who had been restored by the caliph Hashem to the
+ wishes of the soldiers and people of Spain. That veteran and
+ daring commander adjudged to the obedience of the prophet
+ whatever yet remained of France or of Europe; and prepared to
+ execute the sentence, at the head of a formidable host, in the
+ full confidence of surmounting all opposition either of nature or
+ of man. His first care was to suppress a domestic rebel, 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
+ his beauteous daughter to the embraces of the African
+ misbeliever. But the strongest fortresses of Cerdagne were
+ invested by a superior force; the rebel was overtaken and slain
+ in the mountains; and his widow was sent a captive to Damascus,
+ to gratify the desires, or more probably the vanity, of the
+ commander of the faithful. From the Pyrenees, Abderame proceeded
+ without delay to the passage of the Rhone and the siege of Arles.
+
+ An army of Christians attempted the relief of the city: the tombs
+ of their leaders were yet visible in the thirteenth century; and
+ many thousands of their dead bodies were carried down the rapid
+ stream into the Mediterranean Sea. The arms of Abderame were not
+ less successful on the side of the ocean. He passed without
+ opposition the Garonne and Dordogne, which unite their waters in
+ the Gulf of Bourdeaux; but he found, beyond those rivers, the
+ camp of the intrepid Eudes, who had formed a second army and
+ sustained a second defeat, so fatal to the Christians, that,
+ according to their sad confession, God alone could reckon the
+ number of the slain. The victorious Saracen overran the provinces
+ of Aquitain, whose Gallic names are disguised, rather than lost,
+ in the modern appellations of Perigord, Saintonge, and Poitou:
+ his standards were planted on the walls, or at least before the
+ gates, of Tours and of Sens; and his detachments overspread the
+ kingdom of Burgundy as far as the well-known cities of Lyons and
+ Besançon. The memory of these devastations (for Abderame did not
+ spare the country or the people) was long preserved by tradition;
+ and the invasion of France by the Moors or Mahometans affords the
+ groundwork of those fables, which have been so wildly disfigured
+ in the romances of chivalry, and so elegantly adorned by the
+ Italian muse. In the decline of society and art, the deserted
+ cities could supply a slender booty to the Saracens; their
+ richest spoil was found in the churches and monasteries, which
+ they stripped of their ornaments and delivered to the flames: and
+ the tutelar saints, both Hilary of Poitiers and Martin of Tours,
+ forgot their miraculous powers in the defence of their own
+ sepulchres. 29 A victorious line of march had been prolonged
+ above a thousand miles from the rock of Gibraltar to the banks of
+ the Loire; the repetition of an equal space would have carried
+ the Saracens to the confines of Poland and the Highlands of
+ Scotland; the Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or
+ Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a
+ naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the
+ interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of
+ Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people
+ the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet. 30
+
+ 29 (return) [ 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 the intention. Ad domum beatissimi Martini
+ evertendam destinant. At Carolus, &c. The French annalist was
+ more jealous of the honor of the saint.]
+
+ 30 (return) [ Yet I sincerely doubt whether the Oxford mosch
+ would have produced a volume of controversy so elegant and
+ ingenious as the sermons lately preached by Mr. White, the Arabic
+ professor, at Mr. Bampton’s lecture. His observations on the
+ character and religion of Mahomet are always adapted to his
+ argument, and generally founded in truth and reason. He sustains
+ the part of a lively and eloquent advocate; and sometimes rises
+ to the merit of an historian and philosopher.]
+
+ From such calamities was Christendom delivered by the genius and
+ fortune of one man. Charles, the illegitimate son of the elder
+ Pepin, was content with the titles of mayor or duke of the
+ Franks; but he deserved to become the father of a line of kings.
+ In a laborious administration of twenty-four years, he restored
+ and supported the dignity of the throne, and the rebels of
+ Germany and Gaul were successively crushed by the activity of a
+ warrior, who, in the same campaign, could display his banner on
+ the Elbe, the Rhone, and the shores of the ocean. In the public
+ danger he was summoned by the voice of his country; and his
+ rival, the duke of Aquitain, was reduced to appear among the
+ fugitives and suppliants. “Alas!” exclaimed the Franks, “what a
+ misfortune! what an indignity! We have long heard of the name and
+ conquests of the Arabs: we were apprehensive of their attack from
+ the East; they have now conquered Spain, and invade our country
+ on the side of the West. Yet their numbers, and (since they have
+ no buckler) their arms, are inferior to our own.” “If you follow
+ my advice,” replied the prudent mayor of the palace, “you will
+ not interrupt their march, nor precipitate your attack. They are
+ like a torrent, which it is dangerous to stem in its career. The
+ thirst of riches, and the consciousness of success, redouble
+ their valor, and valor is of more avail than arms or numbers. Be
+ patient till they have loaded themselves with the encumbrance of
+ wealth. The possession of wealth will divide their councils and
+ assure your victory.” This subtile policy is perhaps a refinement
+ of the Arabian writers; and the situation of Charles will suggest
+ a more narrow and selfish motive of procrastination—the secret
+ desire of humbling the pride and wasting the provinces of the
+ rebel duke of Aquitain. It is yet more probable, that the delays
+ of Charles were inevitable and reluctant. A standing army was
+ unknown under the first and second race; more than half the
+ kingdom was now in the hands of the Saracens: according to their
+ respective situation, the Franks of Neustria and Austrasia were
+ to conscious or too careless of the impending danger; and the
+ voluntary aids of the Gepidae and Germans were separated by a
+ long interval from the standard of the Christian general. No
+ sooner had he collected his forces, than he sought and found the
+ enemy in the centre of France, between Tours and Poitiers. His
+ well-conducted march was covered with a range of hills, and
+ Abderame appears to have been surprised by his unexpected
+ presence. The nations of Asia, Africa, and Europe, advanced with
+ equal ardor to an encounter which would change the history of the
+ world. In the six first days of desultory combat, the horsemen
+ and archers of the East maintained their advantage: but in the
+ closer onset of the seventh day, the Orientals were oppressed by
+ the strength and stature of the Germans, who, with stout hearts
+ and iron hands, 31 asserted the civil and religious freedom of
+ their posterity. The epithet of Martel, the Hammer, which has
+ been added to the name of Charles, is expressive of his weighty
+ and irresistible strokes: the valor of Eudes was excited by
+ resentment and emulation; and their companions, in the eye of
+ history, are the true Peers and Paladins of French chivalry.
+ After a bloody field, in which Abderame was slain, the Saracens,
+ in the close of the evening, retired to their camp. In the
+ disorder and despair of the night, the various tribes of Yemen
+ and Damascus, of Africa and Spain, were provoked to turn their
+ arms against each other: the remains of their host were suddenly
+ dissolved, and each emir consulted his safety by a hasty and
+ separate retreat. At the dawn of the day, the stillness of a
+ hostile camp was suspected by the victorious Christians: on the
+ report of their spies, they ventured to explore the riches of the
+ vacant tents; but if we except some celebrated relics, a small
+ portion of the spoil was restored to the innocent and lawful
+ owners. The joyful tidings were soon diffused over the Catholic
+ world, and the monks of Italy could affirm and believe that three
+ hundred and fifty, or three hundred and seventy-five, thousand of
+ the Mahometans had been crushed by the hammer of Charles, 32
+ while no more than fifteen hundred Christians were slain in the
+ field of Tours. But this incredible tale is sufficiently
+ disproved by the caution of the French general, who apprehended
+ the snares and accidents of a pursuit, and dismissed his German
+ 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 was complete and final; Aquitain was
+ recovered by the arms of Eudes; the Arabs never resumed the
+ conquest of Gaul, and they were soon driven beyond the Pyrenees
+ by Charles Martel and his valiant race. 33 It might have been
+ expected that the savior of Christendom would have been
+ canonized, or at least applauded, by the gratitude of the clergy,
+ who are indebted to his sword for their present existence. But in
+ the public distress, the mayor of the palace had been compelled
+ to apply the riches, or at least the revenues, of the bishops and
+ abbots, to the relief of the state and the reward of the
+ soldiers. His merits were forgotten, his sacrilege alone was
+ remembered, and, in an epistle to a Carlovingian prince, a Gallic
+ synod presumes to declare that his ancestor was damned; that on
+ the opening of his tomb, the spectators were 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 the soul and
+ body of Charles Martel, burning, to all eternity, in the abyss of
+ hell. 34
+
+ 31 (return) [ Gens Austriae membrorum pre-eminentia valida, et
+ gens Germana corde et corpore praestantissima, quasi in ictu
+ oculi, manu ferrea, et pectore arduo, Arabes extinxerunt,
+ (Roderic. Toletan. c. xiv.)]
+
+ 32 (return) [ These numbers are stated by Paul Warnefrid, the
+ deacon of Aquileia, (de Gestis Langobard. l. vi. p. 921, edit.
+ Grot.,) and Anastasius, the librarian of the Roman church, (in
+ Vit. Gregorii II.,) who tells a miraculous story of three
+ consecrated sponges, which rendered invulnerable the French
+ soldiers, among whom they had been shared It should seem, that in
+ his letters to the pope, Eudes usurped the honor of the victory,
+ from which he is chastised by the French annalists, who, with
+ equal falsehood, accuse him of inviting the Saracens.]
+
+ 33 (return) [ Narbonne, and the rest of Septimania, was recovered
+ by Pepin the son of Charles Martel, A.D. 755, (Pagi, Critica,
+ tom. iii. p. 300.) Thirty-seven years afterwards, it was pillaged
+ by a sudden inroad of the Arabs, who employed the captives in the
+ construction of the mosch of Cordova, (De Guignes, Hist. des
+ Huns, tom. i. p. 354.)]
+
+ 34 (return) [ This pastoral letter, addressed to Lewis the
+ Germanic, the grandson of Charlemagne, and most probably composed
+ by the pen of the artful Hincmar, is dated in the year 858, and
+ signed by the bishops of the provinces of Rheims and Rouen,
+ (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 741. Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. x.
+ p. 514-516.) Yet Baronius himself, and the French critics, reject
+ with contempt this episcopal fiction.]
+
+ The loss of an army, or a province, in the Western world, was
+ less painful to the court of Damascus, than the rise and progress
+ of a domestic competitor. Except among the Syrians, the caliphs
+ of the house of Ommiyah had never been the objects of the public
+ favor. The life of Mahomet recorded their perseverance in
+ idolatry and rebellion: their conversion had been reluctant,
+ their elevation irregular and factious, and their throne was
+ cemented with the most holy and noble blood of Arabia. The best
+ of their race, the pious Omar, was dissatisfied with his own
+ title: their personal virtues were insufficient to justify a
+ departure from the order of succession; and the eyes and wishes
+ of the faithful were turned towards the line of Hashem, and the
+ kindred of the apostle of God. Of these the Fatimites were either
+ rash or pusillanimous; but the descendants of Abbas cherished,
+ with courage and discretion, the hopes of their rising fortunes.
+ From an obscure residence in Syria, they secretly despatched
+ their agents and missionaries, who preached in the Eastern
+ provinces their hereditary indefeasible right; and Mohammed, the
+ son of Ali, the son of Abdallah, the son of Abbas, the uncle of
+ the prophet, gave audience to the deputies of Chorasan, and
+ accepted their free gift of four hundred thousand pieces of gold.
+ After the death of Mohammed, the oath of allegiance was
+ administered in the name of his son Ibrahim to a numerous band of
+ votaries, who expected only a signal and a leader; and the
+ governor of Chorasan continued to deplore his fruitless
+ admonitions and the deadly slumber of the caliphs of Damascus,
+ till he himself, with all his adherents, was driven from the city
+ and palace of Meru, by the rebellious arms of Abu Moslem. 35 That
+ maker of kings, the author, as he is named, of the call of the
+ Abbassides, was at length rewarded for his presumption of merit
+ with the usual gratitude of courts. A mean, perhaps a foreign,
+ extraction could not repress the aspiring energy of Abu Moslem.
+ Jealous of his wives, liberal of his wealth, prodigal of his own
+ blood and of that of others, he could boast with pleasure, and
+ possibly with truth, that he had destroyed six hundred thousand
+ of his enemies; 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 the visible separation of parties, the green was
+ consecrated to the Fatimites; the Ommiades were distinguished by
+ the white; and the black, as the most adverse, was naturally
+ adopted by the Abbassides. Their turbans and garments were
+ stained with that gloomy color: two black standards, on pike
+ staves nine cubits long, were borne aloft in the van of Abu
+ Moslem; and their allegorical names of the night and the shadow
+ obscurely represented the indissoluble union and perpetual
+ succession of the line of Hashem. From the Indus to the
+ Euphrates, the East was convulsed by the quarrel of the white and
+ the black factions: the Abbassides were most frequently
+ victorious; but their public success was clouded by the personal
+ misfortune of their chief. The court of Damascus, awakening from
+ a long slumber, resolved to prevent the pilgrimage of Mecca,
+ which Ibrahim had undertaken with a splendid retinue, to
+ recommend himself at once to the favor of the prophet and of the
+ people. A detachment of cavalry intercepted his march and
+ arrested his person; and the unhappy Ibrahim, snatched away from
+ the promise of untasted royalty, expired in iron fetters in the
+ dungeons of Haran. His two younger brothers, Saffah 3511 and
+ Almansor, eluded the search of the tyrant, and lay concealed at
+ Cufa, till the zeal of the people and the approach of his Eastern
+ friends allowed them to expose their persons to the impatient
+ public. On Friday, in the dress of a caliph, in the colors of the
+ sect, Saffah proceeded with religious and military pomp to the
+ mosch: ascending the pulpit, he prayed and preached as the lawful
+ successor of Mahomet; and after his departure, his kinsmen bound
+ a willing people by an oath of fidelity. But it was on the banks
+ of the Zab, and not in the mosch of Cufa, that this important
+ controversy was determined. Every advantage appeared to be on the
+ side of the white faction: the authority of established
+ government; an army of a hundred and twenty thousand soldiers,
+ against a sixth part of that number; and the presence and merit
+ of the caliph Mervan, the fourteenth and last of the house of
+ Ommiyah. Before his accession to the throne, he had deserved, by
+ his Georgian warfare, the honorable epithet of the ass of
+ Mesopotamia; 36 and he might have been ranked amongst the
+ greatest princes, had not, says Abulfeda, the eternal order
+ decreed that moment for the ruin of his family; a decree against
+ which all human fortitude and prudence must struggle in vain. The
+ orders of Mervan were mistaken, or disobeyed: the return of his
+ horse, from which he had dismounted on a necessary occasion,
+ impressed the belief of his death; and the enthusiasm of the
+ black squadrons was ably conducted by Abdallah, the uncle of his
+ competitor. After an irretrievab defeat, the caliph escaped to
+ Mosul; but the colors of the Abbassides were displayed from the
+ rampart; he suddenly repassed the Tigris, cast a melancholy look
+ on his palace of Haran, crossed the Euphrates, abandoned the
+ fortifications of Damascus, and, without halting in Palestine,
+ pitched his last and fatal camp at Busir, on the banks of the
+ Nile. 37 His speed was urged by the incessant diligence of
+ Abdallah, who in every step of the pursuit acquired strength and
+ reputation: the remains of the white faction were finally
+ vanquished in Egypt; and the lance, which terminated the life and
+ anxiety of Mervan, was not less welcome perhaps to the
+ unfortunate than to the victorious chief. The merciless
+ inquisition of the conqueror eradicated the most distant branches
+ of the hostile race: their bones were scattered, their memory was
+ accursed, and the martyrdom of Hossein was abundantly revenged on
+ the posterity of his tyrants. Fourscore of the Ommiades, who had
+ yielded to the faith or clemency of their foes, were invited to a
+ banquet at Damascus. The laws of hospitality were violated by a
+ promiscuous massacre: the board was spread over their fallen
+ bodies; and the festivity of the guests was enlivened by the
+ music of their dying groans. By the event of the civil war, the
+ dynasty of the Abbassides was firmly established; but the
+ Christians only could triumph in the mutual hatred and common
+ loss of the disciples of Mahomet. 38
+
+ 35 (return) [ The steed and the saddle which had carried any of
+ his wives were instantly killed or burnt, lest they should
+ afterwards be mounted by a male. Twelve hundred mules or camels
+ were required for his kitchen furniture; and the daily
+ consumption amounted to three thousand cakes, a hundred sheep,
+ besides oxen, poultry, &c., (Abul pharagius, Hist. Dynast. p.
+ 140.)]
+
+ 3511 (return) [ He is called Abdullah or Abul Abbas in the Tarikh
+ Tebry. Price vol. i. p. 600. Saffah or Saffauh (the Sanguinary)
+ was a name which be required after his bloody reign, (vol. ii. p.
+ 1.)—M.]
+
+ 36 (return) [ Al Hemar. He had been governor of Mesopotamia, and
+ the Arabic proverb praises the courage of that warlike breed of
+ asses who never fly from an enemy. The surname of Mervan may
+ justify the comparison of Homer, (Iliad, A. 557, &c.,) and both
+ will silence the moderns, who consider the ass as a stupid and
+ ignoble emblem, (D’Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 558.)]
+
+ 37 (return) [ Four several places, all in Egypt, bore the name of
+ Busir, or Busiris, so famous in Greek fable. The first, where
+ Mervan was slain was 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 the pyramids; the fourth, which was
+ destroyed by Dioclesian, (see above, vol. ii. p. 130,) in the
+ Thebais. I shall here transcribe a note of the learned and
+ orthodox Michaelis: Videntur in pluribus Aegypti superioris
+ urbibus Busiri Coptoque arma sumpsisse Christiani, libertatemque
+ de religione sentiendi defendisse, sed succubuisse quo in bello
+ Coptus et Busiris diruta, et circa Esnam magna strages edita.
+ Bellum narrant sed causam belli ignorant scriptores Byzantini,
+ alioqui Coptum et Busirim non 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.)]
+
+ 38 (return) [ 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 of Toledo, (Hist. Arabum, c. xviii. p. 33,)
+ Theophanes, (Chronograph. p. 356, 357, who speaks of the
+ Abbassides) and the Bibliotheque of D’Herbelot, in the articles
+ Ommiades, Abbassides, Moervan, Ibrahim, Saffah, Abou Moslem.]
+
+ Yet the thousands who were swept away by the sword of war might
+ have been speedily retrieved in the succeeding generation, if the
+ consequences of the revolution had not tended to dissolve the
+ power and unity of the empire of the Saracens. In the
+ proscription of the Ommiades, a royal youth of the name of
+ Abdalrahman alone escaped the rage of his enemies, who hunted the
+ wandering exile from the banks of the Euphrates to the valleys of
+ Mount Atlas. His presence in the neighborhood of Spain revived
+ the zeal of the white faction. The name and cause of the
+ Abbassides had been first vindicated by the Persians: the West
+ had been pure from civil arms; and the servants of the abdicated
+ family still held, by a precarious tenure, the inheritance of
+ their lands and the offices of government. Strongly prompted by
+ gratitude, indignation, and fear, they invited the grandson of
+ the caliph Hashem to ascend the throne of his ancestors; and, in
+ his desperate condition, the extremes of rashness and prudence
+ were almost the same. The acclamations of the people saluted his
+ landing on the coast of Andalusia: and, after a successful
+ struggle, Abdalrahman established the throne of Cordova, and was
+ the father of the Ommiades of Spain, who reigned above two
+ hundred and fifty years from the Atlantic to 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, in salt and
+ camphire, was suspended by a daring messenger before the palace
+ of Mecca; and the caliph Almansor rejoiced in his safety, that he
+ was removed by seas and lands from such a formidable adversary.
+ Their mutual designs or declarations of offensive war evaporated
+ without effect; but instead of opening a door to the conquest of
+ Europe, Spain was dissevered from the trunk of the monarchy,
+ engaged in perpetual hostility with the East, and inclined to
+ peace and friendship with the Christian sovereigns of
+ Constantinople and France. The example of the Ommiades was
+ imitated by the real or fictitious progeny of Ali, the Edrissites
+ of Mauritania, and the more powerful fatimites of Africa and
+ Egypt. In the tenth century, the chair of Mahomet was disputed by
+ three caliphs or commanders of the faithful, who reigned at
+ Bagdad, Cairoan, and Cordova, excommunicating each other, and
+ agreed only in a principle of discord, that a sectary is more
+ odious and criminal than an unbeliever. 40
+
+ 39 (return) [ 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.)]
+
+ 40 (return) [ I shall not stop to refute the strange errors and
+ fancies of 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. The mistakes of Voltaire proceeded from the
+ want of knowledge or reflection; but Sir William was deceived by
+ a Spanish impostor, who has framed an apocryphal history of the
+ conquest of Spain by the Arabs.]
+
+ Mecca was the patrimony of the line of Hashem, yet the Abbassides
+ were never tempted to reside either in the birthplace or the city
+ of the prophet. Damascus was disgraced by the choice, and
+ polluted with the blood, of the Ommiades; and, after some
+ hesitation, Almansor, the brother 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 fifteen miles above the
+ ruins of Modain: the double wall was of a circular form; and such
+ was the rapid increase of a capital, now dwindled to a provincial
+ town, that the funeral of a popular saint might be attended by
+ eight hundred thousand men and sixty thousand women of Bagdad and
+ the adjacent villages. In this city of peace, 43 amidst the
+ riches of the East, the Abbassides soon disdained the abstinence
+ and frugality of the first caliphs, and aspired to emulate the
+ magnificence of the Persian kings. After his wars and buildings,
+ Almansor left behind him in gold and silver about thirty millions
+ sterling: 44 and this treasure was exhausted in a few years by
+ the vices or virtues of his children. His son Mahadi, in a single
+ pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of dinars of gold. A
+ pious and charitable motive may sanctify the foundation of
+ cisterns and caravanseras, which he distributed along a measured
+ road of seven hundred miles; but his train of camels, laden with
+ snow, could serve only to astonish the natives of Arabia, and to
+ refresh the fruits and liquors of the royal banquet. 45 The
+ courtiers would surely praise the liberality of his grandson
+ Almamon, who gave away four fifths of the income of a province, a
+ sum of two millions four hundred thousand gold dinars, before he
+ drew his foot from the stirrup. At the nuptials of the same
+ prince, a thousand pearls of the largest size were showered on
+ the head of the bride, 46 and a lottery of lands and houses
+ displayed the capricious bounty of fortune. The glories of the
+ court were brightened, rather than impaired, in the decline of
+ the empire, and a Greek ambassador might admire, or pity, the
+ magnificence of the feeble Moctader. “The caliph’s whole army,”
+ says the historian Abulfeda, “both horse and foot, was under
+ arms, which together made a body of one hundred and sixty
+ thousand men. His state officers, the favorite slaves, stood near
+ him in splendid apparel, their belts glittering with gold and
+ gems. Near them were seven thousand eunuchs, four thousand of
+ them white, the remainder black. The porters or door-keepers were
+ in number seven hundred. Barges and boats, with the most superb
+ decorations, were seen swimming upon the Tigris. Nor was the
+ palace itself less splendid, in which were hung up thirty-eight
+ thousand pieces of tapestry, twelve thousand five hundred of
+ which were of silk embroidered with gold. The carpets on the
+ floor were twenty-two thousand. A hundred lions were brought out,
+ with a keeper to each lion. 47 Among the other spectacles of rare
+ and stupendous luxury was a tree of gold and silver spreading
+ into eighteen large branches, on which, and on the lesser boughs,
+ sat a variety of birds made of the same precious metals, as well
+ as the leaves of the tree. While the machinery affected
+ spontaneous motions, the several birds warbled their natural
+ harmony. Through this scene of magnificence, the Greek ambassador
+ was led by the vizier to the foot of the caliph’s throne.” 48 In
+ the West, the Ommiades of Spain supported, with equal pomp, the
+ title of commander of the faithful. Three miles from Cordova, in
+ honor of his favorite sultana, the third and greatest of the
+ Abdalrahmans constructed the city, palace, and gardens of Zehra.
+ Twenty-five years, and above three millions sterling, were
+ employed by the founder: his liberal taste invited the artists of
+ Constantinople, the most skilful sculptors and architects of the
+ age; and the buildings were sustained or adorned by twelve
+ hundred columns of Spanish and African, of Greek and Italian
+ marble. The hall of audience was incrusted with gold and pearls,
+ and a great basin in the centre was surrounded with the curious
+ and costly figures of birds and quadrupeds. In a lofty pavilion
+ of the gardens, one of these basins and fountains, so delightful
+ in a sultry climate, was replenished not with water, but with the
+ purest quicksilver. The seraglio of Abdalrahman, his wives,
+ concubines, and black eunuchs, amounted to six thousand three
+ hundred persons: and he was attended to the field by a guard of
+ twelve thousand horse, whose belts and cimeters were studded with
+ gold. 49
+
+ 41 (return) [ 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, Pietro della Valle, (tom. i. p. 688-698,) Tavernier,
+ (tom. i. p. 230-238,) Thevenot, (part ii. p. 209-212,) Otter,
+ (tom. i. p. 162-168,) and Niebuhr, (Voyage en Arabie, tom. ii. p.
+ 239-271,) have seen only its decay; and the Nubian geographer,
+ (p. 204,) and the travelling Jew, Benjamin of Tuleda
+ (Itinerarium, p. 112-123, a Const. l’Empereur, apud Elzevir,
+ 1633,) are the only writers of my acquaintance, who have known
+ Bagdad under the reign of the Abbassides.]
+
+ 42 (return) [ 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 the Tartars, A. H. 656, A.D. 1258, the 20th of
+ February.]
+
+ 43 (return) [ Medinat al Salem, Dar al Salem. Urbs pacis, or, as
+ it is more neatly compounded by the Byzantine writers,
+ (Irenopolis.) There is some dispute concerning the etymology of
+ Bagdad, but the first syllable is allowed to signify a garden in
+ the Persian tongue; the garden of Dad, a Christian hermit, whose
+ cell had been the only habitation on the spot.]
+
+ 44 (return) [ Reliquit in aerario sexcenties millies mille
+ stateres. et quater et vicies millies mille aureos aureos.
+ Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 126. I have reckoned the gold pieces
+ at eight shillings, and the proportion to the silver as twelve to
+ one. But I will never answer for the numbers of Erpenius; and the
+ Latins are scarcely above the savages in the language of
+ arithmetic.]
+
+ 45 (return) [ D’Herbelot, p. 530. Abulfeda, p. 154. Nivem Meccam
+ apportavit, rem ibi aut nunquam aut rarissime visam.]
+
+ 46 (return) [ Abulfeda (p. 184, 189) describes the splendor and
+ liberality 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
+ Roman emperors, which entitled to some prize the person who
+ caught them, as they were thrown among the crowd.]
+
+ 47 (return) [ When Bell of Antermony (Travels, vol. i. p. 99)
+ accompanied the Russian ambassador to the audience of the
+ unfortunate Shah Hussein of Persia, two lions were introduced, to
+ denote the power of the king over the fiercest animals.]
+
+ 48 (return) [ Abulfeda, p. 237. D’Herbelot, p. 590. This embassy
+ was received at Bagdad, A. H. 305, A.D. 917. In the passage of
+ Abulfeda, I have used, with some variations, the English
+ translation of the learned and amiable Mr. Harris of Salisbury,
+ (Philological Enquiries p. 363, 364.)]
+
+ 49 (return) [ Cardonne, Histoire de l’Afrique et de l’Espagne,
+ tom. i. p. 330-336. A just idea of the taste and architecture of
+ the Arabians of Spain may be conceived from the description and
+ plates of the Alhambra 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
+ poverty and subordination; but the lives and labors of millions
+ are devoted to the service of a despotic prince, whose laws are
+ blindly obeyed, and whose wishes are instantly gratified. Our
+ imagination is dazzled by the splendid picture; and whatever may
+ be the cool dictates of reason, there are few among us who would
+ obstinately refuse a trial of the comforts and the cares of
+ royalty. It may therefore be of some use to borrow the experience
+ of the same Abdalrahman, whose magnificence has perhaps excited
+ our admiration and envy, and to transcribe an authentic memorial
+ which was found in the closet of the deceased caliph. “I have now
+ reigned 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 earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my
+ felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days
+ of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot: they
+ amount to Fourteen:—O man! place not thy confidence in this
+ present world!” 50 The luxury of the caliphs, so useless to their
+ private happiness, relaxed the nerves, and terminated the
+ progress, of the Arabian empire. Temporal and spiritual conquest
+ had been the sole occupation of the first successors of Mahomet;
+ and after supplying themselves with the necessaries of life, the
+ whole revenue was scrupulously devoted to that salutary work. The
+ Abbassides were impoverished by the multitude of their wants, and
+ their contempt of oeconomy. Instead of pursuing the great object
+ of ambition, their leisure, their affections, the powers of their
+ mind, were diverted by pomp and pleasure: the rewards of valor
+ were embezzled by women and eunuchs, and the royal camp was
+ encumbered by the luxury of the palace. A similar temper was
+ diffused among the subjects of the caliph. Their stern enthusiasm
+ was softened by time and prosperity. they sought riches in the
+ occupations of industry, fame in the pursuits of literature, and
+ happiness in the tranquillity of domestic life. War was no longer
+ the passion of the Saracens; and the increase of pay, the
+ repetition of donatives, were insufficient to allure the
+ posterity of those voluntary champions who had crowded to the
+ standard of Abubeker and Omar for the hopes of spoil and of
+ paradise.
+
+ 50 (return) [ Cardonne, tom. i. p. 329, 330. This confession, the
+ complaints of Solomon of the vanity of this world, (read Prior’s
+ verbose but eloquent poem,) and the happy ten days of the emperor
+ Seghed, (Rambler, No. 204, 205,) will be triumphantly quoted by
+ the detractors of human life. Their expectations are commonly
+ immoderate, their estimates are seldom impartial. If I may speak
+ of myself, (the only person of whom I can speak with certainty,)
+ my happy hours have far exceeded, and far exceed, the scanty
+ numbers of the caliph of Spain; and I shall not scruple to add,
+ that many of them are due to the pleasing labor of the present
+ composition.]
+
+ Under the reign of the Ommiades, the studies of the Moslems were
+ confined to the interpretation of the Koran, and the eloquence
+ and poetry of their native tongue. A people continually exposed
+ to the dangers of the field must esteem the healing powers of
+ medicine, or rather of surgery; but the starving physicians of
+ Arabia murmured a complaint that exercise and temperance deprived
+ them of the greatest part of their practice. 51 After their civil
+ and domestic wars, the subjects of the Abbassides, awakening from
+ this mental lethargy, found leisure and felt curiosity for the
+ acquisition of profane science. This spirit was first encouraged
+ by the caliph Almansor, who, besides his knowledge of the
+ Mahometan law, had applied himself with success to the study of
+ astronomy. But when the sceptre devolved to Almamon, the seventh
+ of the Abbassides, he completed the designs of his grandfather,
+ and invited the muses from their ancient seats. His ambassadors
+ at Constantinople, his agents in Armenia, Syria, and Egypt,
+ collected the volumes of Grecian science; at his command they
+ were translated by the most skilful interpreters into the Arabic
+ language: his subjects were exhorted assiduously to peruse these
+ instructive writings; and the successor of Mahomet assisted with
+ pleasure and modesty at the assemblies and disputations of the
+ learned. “He was not ignorant,” says Abulpharagius, “that they
+ are the elect of God, his best and most useful servants, whose
+ lives are devoted to the improvement of their rational faculties.
+ The mean ambition of the Chinese or the Turks may glory in the
+ industry of their hands or the indulgence of their brutal
+ appetites. Yet these dexterous artists must view, with hopeless
+ emulation, the hexagons and pyramids of the cells of a beehive:
+ 52 these fortitudinous heroes are awed by the superior fierceness
+ of the lions and tigers; and in their amorous enjoyments they are
+ much inferior to the vigor of the grossest and most sordid
+ quadrupeds. The teachers of wisdom 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 of the line of Abbas:
+ their rivals, the Fatimites of Africa and the Ommiades of Spain,
+ were the patrons of the learned, as well as the commanders of the
+ faithful; the same royal prerogative was claimed by their
+ independent emirs of the provinces; and their emulation diffused
+ the taste and the rewards of science from Samarcand and Bochara
+ to Fez and Cordova. The vizier of a sultan consecrated a sum of
+ two hundred thousand pieces of gold to the foundation of a
+ college at Bagdad, which he endowed with an annual revenue of
+ fifteen thousand dinars. The fruits of instruction were
+ communicated, perhaps at different times, to six thousand
+ disciples of every degree, from the son of the noble to that of
+ the mechanic: a sufficient allowance was provided for the
+ indigent scholars; and the merit or industry of the professors
+ was repaid with adequate stipends. In every city the productions
+ of Arabic literature were copied and collected by the curiosity
+ of the studious and the vanity of the rich. A private doctor
+ refused the invitation of the sultan of Bochara, because the
+ carriage of his books would have required four hundred camels.
+ The royal library of the Fatimites consisted of one hundred
+ thousand manuscripts, elegantly transcribed and splendidly bound,
+ which were lent, without jealousy or avarice, to the students of
+ Cairo. Yet this collection must appear moderate, if we can
+ believe that the Ommiades of Spain had formed a library of six
+ hundred thousand volumes, forty-four of which were employed in
+ the mere catalogue. Their capital, Cordova, with the adjacent
+ towns of Malaga, Almeria, and Murcia, had given birth to more
+ than three hundred writers, and above seventy public libraries
+ were opened in the cities of the Andalusian kingdom. The age of
+ Arabian learning continued about five hundred years, till the
+ great eruption of the Moguls, and was coeval with the darkest and
+ most slothful period of European annals; but since the sun of
+ science has arisen in the West, it should seem that the Oriental
+ studies have languished and declined. 54
+
+ 51 (return) [ The Guliston (p. 29) relates the conversation of
+ Mahomet and a physician, (Epistol. Renaudot. in Fabricius,
+ Bibliot. Graec. tom. i. p. 814.) The prophet himself was skilled
+ in the art of medicine; and Gagnier (Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p.
+ 394-405) has given an extract of the aphorisms which are extant
+ under his name.]
+
+ 52 (return) [ See their curious architecture in Reaumur (Hist.
+ des Insectes, tom. v. Memoire viii.) These hexagons are closed by
+ a pyramid; the angles of the three sides of a similar pyramid,
+ such as would accomplish the given end with the smallest quantity
+ possible of materials, were determined by a mathematician, at
+ 109] degrees 26 minutes for the larger, 70 degrees 34 minutes for
+ the smaller. The actual measure is 109 degrees 28 minutes, 70
+ degrees 32 minutes. Yet this perfect harmony raises the work at
+ the expense of the artist he bees are not masters of transcendent
+ geometry.]
+
+ 53 (return) [ Saed Ebn Ahmed, cadhi of Toledo, who died A. H.
+ 462, A.D. 069, has furnished Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 160) with
+ this curious passage, as well as with the text of Pocock’s
+ Specimen Historiae Arabum. A number of literary anecdotes of
+ philosophers, physicians, &c., who have flourished under each
+ caliph, form the principal merit of the Dynasties of
+ Abulpharagius.]
+
+ 54 (return) [ These literary anecdotes are borrowed from the
+ Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana, (tom. ii. p. 38, 71, 201, 202,) Leo
+ Africanus, (de Arab. 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 of Abulpharagius.]
+
+ In the libraries of the Arabians, as in those of Europe, the far
+ greater part of the innumerable volumes were possessed only of
+ local value or imaginary 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 generation supplied with a new harvest of
+ persons and events; with codes and commentaries of jurisprudence,
+ which derived their authority from the law of the prophet; with
+ the interpreters of the Koran, and orthodox tradition; and with
+ the whole theological tribe, polemics, mystics, scholastics, and
+ moralists, the first or the last of writers, according to the
+ different estimates of sceptics or believers. The works of
+ speculation or science may be reduced to the four classes of
+ philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and physic. The sages of
+ Greece were translated and illustrated in the Arabic language,
+ and some treatises, now lost in the original, have been recovered
+ in the versions of the East, 56 which possessed and studied the
+ writings of Aristotle and Plato, of Euclid and Apollonius, of
+ Ptolemy, Hippocrates, and Galen. 57 Among the ideal systems which
+ have varied with the fashion of the times, the Arabians adopted
+ the philosophy of the Stagirite, alike intelligible or alike
+ obscure for the readers of every age. Plato wrote for the
+ Athenians, and his allegorical genius is too closely blended with
+ the language and religion of Greece. After the fall of that
+ religion, the Peripatetics, emerging from their obscurity,
+ prevailed in the controversies of the Oriental sects, and their
+ founder was long afterwards restored by the Mahometans of Spain
+ to the Latin schools. 58 The physics, both of the Academy and the
+ Lycaeum, as they are built, not on observation, but on argument,
+ have retarded the progress of real knowledge. The metaphysics of
+ infinite, or finite, spirit, have too often been enlisted in the
+ service of superstition. But the human faculties are fortified by
+ the art and practice of dialectics; the ten predicaments of
+ Aristotle collect and methodize our ideas, 59 and his syllogism
+ is the keenest weapon of dispute. It was dexterously wielded in
+ the schools of the Saracens, but as it is more effectual for the
+ detection of error than for the investigation of truth, it is not
+ surprising that new generations of masters and disciples should
+ still revolve in the same circle of logical argument. The
+ mathematics are distinguished by a peculiar privilege, that, in
+ the course of ages, they may always advance, and can never
+ recede. But the ancient geometry, if I am not misinformed, was
+ resumed in the same state by the Italians of the fifteenth
+ century; and whatever may be the origin of the name, the science
+ of algebra is ascribed to the Grecian Diophantus by the modest
+ testimony of the Arabs themselves. 60 They cultivated with more
+ success the sublime science of astronomy, which elevates the mind
+ of man to disdain his diminutive planet and momentary existence.
+ The costly instruments of observation were supplied by the caliph
+ Almamon, and the land of the Chaldaeans still afforded the same
+ spacious level, the same unclouded horizon. In the plains of
+ Sinaar, and a second time in those of Cufa, his mathematicians
+ accurately measured a degree of the great circle of the earth,
+ and determined at twenty-four thousand miles the entire
+ circumference of our globe. 61 From the reign of the Abbassides
+ to that of the grandchildren of Tamerlane, the stars, without the
+ aid of glasses, were diligently observed; and the astronomical
+ tables of Bagdad, Spain, and Samarcand, 62 correct some minute
+ errors, without daring to renounce the hypothesis of Ptolemy,
+ without advancing a step towards the discovery of the solar
+ system. In the Eastern courts, the truths of science could be
+ recommended only by ignorance and folly, and the astronomer would
+ have been disregarded, had he not debased his wisdom or honesty
+ by the vain predictions of astrology. 63 But in the science of
+ medicine, the Arabians have been deservedly applauded. The names
+ of Mesua and Geber, of Razis and Avicenna, are ranked with the
+ Grecian masters; in the city of Bagdad, eight hundred and sixty
+ physicians were licensed to exercise their lucrative profession:
+ 64 in Spain, the life of the Catholic princes was intrusted to
+ the skill of the Saracens, 65 and the school of Salerno, their
+ legitimate offspring, revived in Italy and Europe the precepts of
+ the healing art. 66 The success of each professor must have been
+ influenced by personal and accidental causes; but we may form a
+ less fanciful estimate of their general knowledge of anatomy, 67
+ botany, 68 and chemistry, 69 the threefold basis of their theory
+ and practice. A superstitious reverence for the dead confined
+ both the Greeks and the Arabians to the dissection of apes and
+ quadrupeds; the more solid and visible parts were known in the
+ time of Galen, and the finer scrutiny of the human frame was
+ reserved for the microscope and the injections of modern artists.
+ Botany is an active science, and the discoveries of the torrid
+ zone might enrich the herbal of Dioscorides with two thousand
+ plants. Some traditionary knowledge might be secreted in the
+ temples and monasteries of Egypt; much useful experience had been
+ acquired in the practice of arts and manufactures; but the
+ science of chemistry owes its origin and improvement to the
+ industry of the Saracens. They first invented and named the
+ alembic for the purposes of distillation, analyzed the substances
+ of the three kingdoms of nature, tried the distinction and
+ affinities of alcalis and acids, and converted the poisonous
+ minerals into soft and salutary medicines. But the most eager
+ search of Arabian chemistry was the transmutation of metals, and
+ the elixir of immortal health: the reason and the fortunes of
+ thousands were evaporated in the crucibles of alchemy, and the
+ consummation of the great work was promoted by the worthy aid of
+ mystery, fable, and superstition.
+
+ 55 (return) [ The Arabic catalogue of the Escurial will give a
+ just idea of the proportion of the classes. In the library of
+ Cairo, the Mss of astronomy and medicine amounted to 6500, with
+ two fair globes, the one of brass, the other of silver, (Bibliot.
+ Arab. Hisp. tom. i. p. 417.)]
+
+ 56 (return) [ As, for instance, the fifth, sixth, and seventh
+ books (the eighth 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 the mathematical divination
+ of Viviani, (see his Eloge in Fontenelle, tom. v. p. 59, &c.)]
+
+ 57 (return) [ The merit of these Arabic versions is freely
+ discussed by Renaudot, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. i. p.
+ 812-816,) and piously defended by Casiri, (Bibliot. Arab.
+ Hispana, tom. i. p. 238-240.) Most of the versions of Plato,
+ Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, &c., are ascribed to Honain, a
+ physician of the Nestorian sect, who flourished at Bagdad in the
+ court of the caliphs, and died A.D. 876. He was at the head of a
+ school or manufacture of translations, and the works of his sons
+ 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.)]
+
+ 58 (return) [ See Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 181, 214,
+ 236, 257, 315, 388, 396, 438, &c.]
+
+ 59 (return) [ The most elegant commentary on the Categories or
+ Predicaments of Aristotle may be found in the Philosophical
+ Arrangements of Mr. James Harris, (London, 1775, in octavo,) who
+ labored to revive the studies of Grecian literature and
+ philosophy.]
+
+ 60 (return) [ Abulpharagius, Dynast. p. 81, 222. Bibliot. Arab.
+ Hisp. tom. i. p. 370, 371. In quem (says the primate of the
+ Jacobites) si immiserit selector, oceanum hoc in genere
+ (algebrae) inveniet. The time of Diophantus of Alexandria is
+ unknown; but his six books are still extant, and have been
+ illustrated by the Greek Planudes and the Frenchman Meziriac,
+ (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. iv. p. 12-15.)]
+
+ 61 (return) [ Abulfeda (Annal. Moslem. p. 210, 211, vers. Reiske)
+ describes this operation according to Ibn Challecan, and the best
+ historians. This degree most accurately contains 200,000 royal or
+ Hashemite cubits which Arabia had derived from the sacred and
+ legal practice both of Palestine and Egypt. This ancient cubit is
+ repeated 400 times in each basis of the great pyramid, and seems
+ to indicate the primitive and universal measures of the East. See
+ the Metrologie of the laborions. M. Paucton, p. 101-195.]
+
+ 62 (return) [ See the Astronomical Tables of Ulugh Begh, with the
+ preface of Dr. Hyde in the first volume of his Syntagma
+ Dissertationum, Oxon. 1767.]
+
+ 63 (return) [ The truth of astrology was allowed by Albumazar,
+ and the best of the Arabian astronomers, who drew their most
+ certain predictions, not from Venus and Mercury, but from Jupiter
+ and the sun, (Abulpharag. Dynast. p. 161-163.) For the state and
+ science of the Persian astronomers, see Chardin, (Voyages en
+ Perse, tom. iii. p. 162-203.)]
+
+ 64 (return) [ Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. i. p. 438. The
+ original relates a pleasant tale of an ignorant, but harmless,
+ practitioner.]
+
+ 65 (return) [ In the year 956, Sancho the Fat, king of Leon, was
+ cured by the physicians of Cordova, (Mariana, l. viii. c. 7, tom.
+ i. p. 318.)]
+
+ 66 (return) [ The school of Salerno, and the introduction of the
+ Arabian sciences into Italy, are discussed with learning and
+ judgment by Muratori (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. iii.
+ p. 932-940) and Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. ii. p.
+ 119-127.)]
+
+ 67 (return) [ See a good view of the progress of anatomy in
+ Wotton, (Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning, p. 208-256.)
+ His reputation has been unworthily depreciated by the wits in the
+ controversy of Boyle and Bentley.]
+
+ 68 (return) [ Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. i. p. 275. Al Beithar,
+ of Malaga, their greatest botanist, had travelled into Africa,
+ Persia, and India.]
+
+ 69 (return) [ Dr. Watson, (Elements of Chemistry, vol. i. p. 17,
+ &c.) allows the original merit of the Arabians. Yet he quotes the
+ modest confession of the famous Geber of the ixth century,
+ (D’Herbelot, p. 387,) that he had drawn most of his science,
+ perhaps the transmutation of metals, from the ancient sages.
+ Whatever might be the origin or extent of their knowledge, the
+ arts of chemistry and alchemy appear to have been known in Egypt
+ at least three hundred years before Mahomet, (Wotton’s
+ Reflections, p. 121-133. Pauw, Recherches sur les Egyptiens et
+ les Chinois, tom. i. p. 376-429.) * Note: Mr. Whewell (Hist. of
+ Inductive Sciences, vol. i. p. 336) rejects the claim of the
+ Arabians as inventors of the science of chemistry. “The formation
+ and realization of the notions of analysis and affinity were
+ important steps in chemical science; which, as I shall hereafter
+ endeavor to show it remained for the chemists of Europe to make
+ at a much later period.”—M.]
+
+ But the Moslems deprived themselves of the principal benefits of
+ a familiar intercourse with Greece and Rome, the knowledge of
+ antiquity, the purity of taste, and the freedom of thought.
+ Confident in the riches of their native tongue, the Arabians
+ disdained the study of any foreign idiom. The Greek interpreters
+ were chosen among their Christian subjects; they formed their
+ translations, sometimes on the original text, more frequently
+ perhaps on a Syriac version; and in the crowd of astronomers and
+ physicians, there is no example of a poet, an orator, or even an
+ historian, being taught to speak the language of the Saracens. 70
+ The mythology of Homer would have provoked the abhorrence of
+ those stern fanatics: they possessed in lazy ignorance the
+ colonies of the Macedonians, and the provinces of Carthage and
+ Rome: the heroes of Plutarch and Livy were buried in oblivion;
+ and the history of the world before Mahomet was reduced to a
+ short legend of the patriarchs, the prophets, and the Persian
+ kings. Our education in the Greek and Latin schools may have
+ fixed in our minds a standard of exclusive taste; and I am not
+ forward to condemn the literature and judgment of nations, of
+ whose language I am ignorant. Yet I know that the classics have
+ much to teach, and I believe that the Orientals have much to
+ learn; the temperate dignity of style, the graceful proportions
+ of art, the forms of visible and intellectual beauty, the just
+ delineation of character and passion, the rhetoric of narrative
+ and argument, the regular fabric of epic and dramatic poetry. 71
+ The influence of truth and reason is of a less ambiguous
+ complexion. The philosophers of Athens and Rome enjoyed the
+ blessings, and asserted the rights, of civil and religious
+ freedom. Their moral and political writings might have gradually
+ unlocked the fetters of Eastern despotism, diffused a liberal
+ spirit of inquiry and toleration, and encouraged the Arabian
+ sages to suspect that their caliph was a tyrant, and their
+ prophet an impostor. 72 The instinct of superstition was alarmed
+ by the introduction even of the abstract sciences; and the more
+ rigid doctors of the law condemned the rash and pernicious
+ curiosity of Almamon. 73 To the thirst of martyrdom, the vision
+ of paradise, and the belief of predestination, we must ascribe
+ the invincible enthusiasm of the prince and people. And the sword
+ of the Saracens became less formidable when their youth was drawn
+ away from the camp to the college, when the armies of the
+ faithful presumed to read and to reflect. Yet the foolish vanity
+ of the Greeks was jealous of their studies, and reluctantly
+ imparted the sacred fire to the Barbarians of the East. 74
+
+ 70 (return) [ Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 26, 148) mentions a
+ Syriac version of Homer’s two poems, by Theophilus, a Christian
+ Maronite of Mount Libanus, who professed astronomy at Roha or
+ Edessa towards the end of the viiith century. His work would be a
+ literary curiosity. I have read somewhere, but I do not believe,
+ that Plutarch’s Lives were translated into Turkish for the use of
+ Mahomet the Second.]
+
+ 71 (return) [ I have perused, with much pleasure, Sir William
+ Jones’s Latin Commentary on Asiatic Poetry, (London, 1774, in
+ octavo,) which was composed in the youth of that wonderful
+ linguist. At present, in the maturity of his taste and judgment,
+ he would perhaps abate of the fervent, and even partial, praise
+ which he has bestowed on the Orientals.]
+
+ 72 (return) [ Among the Arabian philosophers, Averroes has been
+ accused of despising the religions of the Jews, the Christians,
+ and the Mahometans, (see his article in Bayle’s Dictionary.) Each
+ of these sects would agree, that in two instances out of three,
+ his contempt was reasonable.]
+
+ 73 (return) [ D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque, Orientale, p. 546.]
+
+ 74 (return) [ Cedrenus, p. 548, who relates how manfully the
+ emperor refused a mathematician to the instances and offers of
+ the caliph Almamon. This absurd scruple is expressed almost in
+ the same words by the continuator of Theophanes, (Scriptores post
+ Theophanem, p. 118.)]
+
+ In the bloody conflict of the Ommiades and Abbassides, the Greeks
+ had stolen the opportunity of avenging their wrongs and enlarging
+ their limits. But a severe retribution was exacted by Mohadi, the
+ third caliph of the new dynasty, who seized, in his turn, the
+ favorable opportunity, while a woman and a child, Irene and
+ Constantine, were seated on the Byzantine throne. An army of
+ ninety-five thousand Persians and Arabs was sent from the Tigris
+ to the Thracian Bosphorus, under the command of Harun, 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
+ her troops and provinces. With the consent or connivance of their
+ sovereign, her ministers subscribed an ignominious peace; and the
+ exchange of some royal gifts could not disguise the annual
+ tribute of seventy thousand dinars of gold, which was imposed on
+ the Roman empire. The Saracens had too rashly advanced into the
+ midst of a distant and hostile land: their retreat was solicited
+ by the promise of faithful guides and plentiful markets; and not
+ a Greek had courage to whisper, that their weary forces might be
+ surrounded and destroyed in their necessary passage between a
+ slippery mountain and the River Sangarius. Five years after this
+ expedition, Harun ascended the throne of his father and his elder
+ brother; the most powerful and vigorous monarch of his race,
+ illustrious in the West, as the ally of Charlemagne, and familiar
+ to the most childish readers, as the perpetual hero of the
+ Arabian tales. His title to the name of Al Rashid (the Just) is
+ sullied by the extirpation of the generous, perhaps the innocent,
+ Barmecides; yet he could listen to the complaint of a poor widow
+ who had been pillaged by his troops, and who dared, in a passage
+ of the Koran, to threaten the inattentive despot with the
+ judgment of God and posterity. His court was adorned with luxury
+ and science; but, in a reign of three-and-twenty years, Harun
+ repeatedly visited his provinces from Chorasan to Egypt; nine
+ times he performed the pilgrimage of Mecca; eight times he
+ invaded the territories of the Romans; and as often as they
+ declined the payment of the tribute, they were taught to feel
+ that a month of depredation was more costly than a year of
+ submission. But when the unnatural mother of Constantine was
+ deposed and banished, her successor, Nicephorus, resolved to
+ obliterate this badge of servitude and disgrace. The epistle of
+ the emperor to the caliph was pointed with an allusion to the
+ game of chess, which had already spread from Persia to Greece.
+ “The queen (he spoke of Irene) considered you as a rook, and
+ herself as a pawn. That pusillanimous female submitted to pay a
+ tribute, the double of which she ought to have exacted from the
+ Barbarians. Restore therefore the fruits of your injustice, or
+ abide the determination of the sword.” At these words the
+ ambassadors cast a bundle of swords before the foot of the
+ throne. The caliph smiled at the menace, and drawing his cimeter,
+ samsamah, a weapon of historic or fabulous renown, he cut asunder
+ the feeble arms of the Greeks, without turning the edge, or
+ endangering the temper, of his blade. He then dictated an epistle
+ of tremendous brevity: “In the name of the most merciful God,
+ Harun al Rashid, commander of the faithful, to Nicephorus, the
+ Roman dog. I have read thy letter, O thou son of an unbelieving
+ mother. Thou shalt not hear, thou shalt behold, my reply.” It was
+ written in characters of blood and fire on the plains of Phrygia;
+ and the warlike celerity of the Arabs could only be checked by
+ the arts of deceit and the show of repentance.
+
+ The triumphant caliph retired, after the fatigues of the
+ campaign, to his favorite palace of Racca on the Euphrates: 76
+ but the distance of five hundred miles, and the inclemency of the
+ season, encouraged his adversary to violate the peace. Nicephorus
+ was astonished by the bold and rapid march of the commander of
+ the faithful, who repassed, in the depth of winter, the snows of
+ Mount Taurus: his stratagems of policy and war were exhausted;
+ and the perfidious Greek escaped with three wounds from a field
+ of battle overspread with forty thousand of his subjects. Yet the
+ emperor was ashamed of submission, and the caliph was resolved on
+ victory. One hundred and thirty-five thousand regular soldiers
+ received pay, and were inscribed in the military roll; and above
+ three hundred thousand persons of every denomination marched
+ under the black standard of the Abbassides. They swept the
+ surface of Asia Minor far beyond Tyana and Ancyra, and invested
+ the Pontic Heraclea, 77 once a flourishing state, now a paltry
+ town; at that time capable of sustaining, in her antique walls, a
+ month’s siege against the forces of the East. The ruin was
+ complete, the spoil was ample; but if Harun had been conversant
+ with Grecian story, he would have regretted the statue of
+ Hercules, whose attributes, the club, the bow, the quiver, and
+ the lion’s hide, were sculptured in massy gold. The progress of
+ desolation by sea and land, from the Euxine to the Isle of
+ Cyprus, compelled the emperor Nicephorus to retract his haughty
+ defiance. In the new treaty, the ruins of Heraclea were left
+ forever as a lesson and a trophy; and the coin of the tribute was
+ marked with the image and superscription of Harun and his three
+ sons. 78 Yet this plurality of lords might contribute to remove
+ the dishonor of the Roman name. After the death of their father,
+ the heirs of the caliph were involved in civil discord, and the
+ conqueror, the liberal Almamon, was sufficiently engaged in the
+ restoration of domestic peace and the introduction of foreign
+ science.
+
+ 75 (return) [ See the reign and character of Harun Al Rashid, in
+ the Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 431-433, under his proper title;
+ and in the relative articles to which M. D’Herbelot refers. That
+ learned collector has shown much taste in stripping the Oriental
+ chronicles of their instructive and amusing anecdotes.]
+
+ 76 (return) [ For the situation of Racca, the old Nicephorium,
+ consult D’Anville, (l’Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 24-27.) The
+ Arabian Nights represent Harun al Rashid as almost stationary in
+ Bagdad. He respected the royal seat of the Abbassides: but the
+ vices of the inhabitants had driven him from the city, (Abulfed.
+ Annal. p. 167.)]
+
+ 77 (return) [ M. de Tournefort, in his coasting voyage from
+ Constantinople to Trebizond, passed a night at Heraclea or
+ Eregri. His eye surveyed the present state, his reading collected
+ the antiquities, of the city (Voyage du Levant, tom. iii. lettre
+ xvi. p. 23-35.) We have a separate history of Heraclea in the
+ fragments of Memnon, which are preserved by Photius.]
+
+ 78 (return) [ The wars of Harun al Rashid against the Roman
+ empire are related 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 at
+ Constantinople, the islands of Crete 79 and Sicily were subdued
+ by the Arabs. 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 been overlooked by the Byzantine historians, who
+ now begin to cast a clearer light on the affairs of their own
+ times. 80 A band of Andalusian volunteers, discontented with the
+ climate or government of Spain, explored the adventures of the
+ sea; but as they sailed in no more than ten or twenty galleys,
+ their warfare must be branded with the name of piracy. As the
+ subjects and sectaries of the white party, they might lawfully
+ invade the dominions of the black caliphs. A rebellious faction
+ introduced them into Alexandria; 81 they cut in pieces both
+ friends and foes, pillaged the churches and the moschs, sold
+ above six thousand Christian captives, and maintained their
+ station in the capital of Egypt, till they were oppressed by the
+ forces and the presence of Almamon himself. From the mouth of the
+ Nile to the Hellespont, the islands and sea-coasts both of the
+ Greeks and Moslems were exposed to their depredations; they saw,
+ they envied, they tasted the fertility of Crete, and soon
+ returned with forty galleys to a more serious attack. The
+ Andalusians wandered over the land fearless and unmolested; but
+ when they descended with their plunder to the sea-shore, their
+ vessels were in flames, and their chief, Abu Caab, confessed
+ himself the author of the mischief. Their clamors accused his
+ madness or treachery. “Of what do you complain?” replied the
+ crafty emir. “I have brought you to a land flowing with milk and
+ honey. Here is your true country; repose from your toils, and
+ forget the barren place of your nativity.” “And our wives and
+ children?” “Your beauteous captives will supply the place of your
+ wives, and in their embraces you will soon become the fathers of
+ a new progeny.” 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 desirable position in the eastern parts; and the name of
+ Candax, their fortress and colony, has been extended to the whole
+ island, under the corrupt and modern appellation of Candia. The
+ hundred cities of the age of Minos were diminished to thirty; and
+ of these, only one, most probably Cydonia, had courage to retain
+ the substance of freedom and the profession of Christianity. The
+ Saracens of Crete soon repaired the loss of their navy; and the
+ timbers of Mount Ida were launched into the main. During a
+ hostile period of one hundred and thirty-eight years, the princes
+ of Constantinople attacked these licentious corsairs with
+ fruitless curses and ineffectual arms.
+
+ 79 (return) [ The authors from whom I have learned the most of
+ the ancient 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 conceive that mountainous island to surpass,
+ or even to equal, in fertility the greater part of Spain.]
+
+ 80 (return) [ The most authentic and circumstantial intelligence
+ is obtained from the four books of the Continuation of
+ Theophanes, compiled by the pen or the command of Constantine
+ Porphyrogenitus, with the Life of his father Basil, the
+ Macedonian, (Scriptores post Theophanem, p. 1-162, a Francisc.
+ Combefis, Paris, 1685.) The loss of Crete and Sicily is related,
+ l. ii. p. 46-52. To these we may add the secondary evidence of
+ 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 such notorious plagiaries, that I should only quote a
+ plurality of names.]
+
+ 81 (return) [ Renaudot (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 251-256,
+ 268-270) had described the ravages of the Andalusian Arabs in
+ Egypt, but has forgot to 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 sentenced by the emperor to the amputation of his tongue.
+ Euphemius appealed to the reason and policy of the Saracens of
+ Africa; and soon returned with the Imperial purple, a fleet of
+ one hundred ships, and an army of seven hundred horse and ten
+ thousand foot. They landed at Mazara near the ruins of the
+ ancient Selinus; but after some partial victories, Syracuse 83
+ was delivered by the Greeks, the apostate was slain before her
+ walls, and his African friends were reduced to the necessity of
+ feeding on the flesh of their own horses. In their turn they were
+ relieved by a powerful reenforcement of their brethren of
+ Andalusia; the largest and western part of the island was
+ gradually reduced, and the commodious harbor of Palermo was
+ chosen for the seat of the naval and military power of the
+ Saracens. Syracuse preserved about fifty years the faith which
+ she had sworn to Christ and to Caesar. In the last and fatal
+ siege, her citizens displayed some remnant of the spirit which
+ had formerly resisted the powers of Athens and Carthage. They
+ stood above twenty days against the battering-rams and
+ catapultoe, the mines and tortoises of the besiegers; and the
+ place might have been relieved, if the mariners of the Imperial
+ fleet had not been detained at Constantinople in building a
+ church to the Virgin Mary. The deacon Theodosius, with the bishop
+ and clergy, was dragged in chains from the altar to Palermo, cast
+ into a subterraneous dungeon, and exposed to the hourly peril of
+ death or apostasy. His pathetic, and not inelegant, complaint may
+ be read as the epitaph of his country. 84 From the Roman conquest
+ to this final calamity, Syracuse, now dwindled to the primitive
+ Isle of Ortygea, had insensibly declined. Yet the relics were
+ still precious; the plate of the cathedral weighed five thousand
+ pounds of silver; the entire spoil was computed at one million of
+ pieces of gold, (about four hundred thousand pounds sterling,)
+ and the captives must outnumber the seventeen thousand
+ Christians, who were transported from the sack of Tauromenium
+ into African servitude. In Sicily, the religion and language of
+ the Greeks were eradicated; and such was the docility of the
+ rising generation, that fifteen thousand boys were circumcised
+ and clothed on the same day with the son of the Fatimite caliph.
+ The Arabian squadrons issued from the harbors of Palermo,
+ Biserta, and Tunis; a hundred and fifty towns of Calabria and
+ Campania were attacked and pillaged; nor could the suburbs of
+ Rome be defended by the name of the Caesars and apostles. Had the
+ Mahometans been united, Italy must have fallen an easy and
+ glorious accession to the empire of the prophet. But the caliphs
+ of Bagdad had lost their authority in the West; the Aglabites and
+ Fatimites usurped the provinces of Africa, their emirs of Sicily
+ aspired to independence; and the design of conquest and dominion
+ was degraded to a repetition of predatory inroads. 85
+
+ 82 (return) [ Theophanes, l. ii. p. 51. This history of the loss
+ of Sicily is no longer extant. Muratori (Annali d’ Italia, tom.
+ vii. p. 719, 721, &c.) has added some circumstances from the
+ Italian chronicles.]
+
+ 83 (return) [ The splendid and interesting tragedy of Tancrede
+ would adapt itself much better to this epoch, than to the date
+ (A.D. 1005) which Voltaire himself has chosen. But I must gently
+ reproach the poet for infusing into the Greek subjects the spirit
+ of modern knights and ancient republicans.]
+
+ 84 (return) [ The narrative or lamentation of Theodosius is
+ transcribed and illustrated by Pagi, (Critica, tom. iii. p. 719,
+ &c.) Constantine Porphyrogenitus (in Vit. Basil, c. 69, 70, p.
+ 190-192) mentions the loss of Syracuse and the triumph of the
+ demons.]
+
+ 85 (return) [ The extracts from the Arabic histories of Sicily
+ are given in Abulfeda, (Annal’ Moslem. p. 271-273,) and in the
+ first volume of Muratori’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
+ solemn and mournful recollection. A fleet of Saracens from the
+ African coast presumed to enter the mouth of the Tyber, and to
+ approach a city which even yet, in her fallen state, was revered
+ as the metropolis of the Christian world. The gates and ramparts
+ were guarded by a trembling people; but the tombs and temples of
+ St. Peter and St. Paul were left exposed in the suburbs of the
+ Vatican and of the Ostian way. Their invisible sanctity had
+ protected them against the Goths, the Vandals, and the Lombards;
+ but the Arabs disdained both the gospel and the legend; and their
+ rapacious spirit was approved and animated by the precepts of the
+ Koran. The Christian idols were stripped of their costly
+ offerings; a silver altar was torn away from the shrine of St.
+ Peter; and if the bodies or the buildings were left entire, their
+ deliverance must be imputed to the haste, rather than the
+ scruples, of the Saracens. In their course along the Appian way,
+ they pillaged Fundi and besieged Gayeta; but they had turned
+ aside from the walls of Rome, and by their divisions, the Capitol
+ was saved from the yoke of the prophet of Mecca. The same danger
+ still impended on the heads of the Roman people; and their
+ domestic force was unequal to the assault of an African emir.
+ They claimed the protection of their Latin sovereign; but the
+ Carlovingian standard was overthrown by a detachment of the
+ Barbarians: they meditated the restoration of the Greek emperors;
+ but the attempt was treasonable, and the succor remote and
+ precarious. 86 Their distress appeared to receive some
+ aggravation from the death of their spiritual and temporal chief;
+ but the pressing emergency superseded the forms and intrigues of
+ an election; and the unanimous choice of Pope Leo the Fourth 87
+ was the safety of the church and city. This pontiff was born a
+ Roman; the courage of the first ages of the republic glowed in
+ his breast; and, amidst the ruins of his country, he stood erect,
+ like one of the firm and lofty columns that rear their heads
+ above the fragments of the Roman forum. The first days of his
+ reign were consecrated to the purification and removal of relics,
+ to prayers and processions, and to all the solemn offices of
+ religion, which served at least to heal the imagination, and
+ restore the hopes, of the multitude. The public defence had been
+ long neglected, not from the presumption of peace, but from the
+ distress and poverty of the times. As far as the scantiness of
+ his means and the shortness of his leisure would allow, the
+ ancient walls were repaired by the command of Leo; fifteen
+ towers, in the most accessible stations, were built or renewed;
+ two of these commanded on either side of the Tyber; and an iron
+ chain was drawn across the stream to impede the ascent of a
+ hostile navy. The Romans were assured of a short respite by the
+ welcome news, that the siege of Gayeta had been raised, and that
+ a part of the enemy, with their sacrilegious plunder, had
+ perished in the waves.
+
+ 86 (return) [ One of the most eminent Romans (Gratianus, magister
+ militum et Romani palatii superista) was accused of declaring,
+ Quia Franci nihil nobis boni faciunt, neque adjutorium praebent,
+ sed magis quae nostra sunt violenter tollunt. Quare non advocamus
+ Graecos, et cum eis foedus pacis componentes, Francorum regem et
+ gentem de nostro regno et dominatione expellimus? Anastasius in
+ Leone IV. p. 199.]
+
+ 87 (return) [ Voltaire (Hist. Generale, tom. ii. c. 38, p. 124)
+ appears to be remarkably struck with the character of Pope Leo
+ IV. I have borrowed his general expression, but the sight of the
+ forum has furnished me with a more distinct and lively image.]
+
+ But the storm, which had been delayed, soon burst upon them with
+ redoubled violence. The Aglabite, 88 who reigned in Africa, had
+ inherited from his father a treasure and an army: a fleet of
+ Arabs and Moors, after a short refreshment in the harbors of
+ Sardinia, cast anchor before the mouth of the Tyber, sixteen
+ miles from the city: and their discipline and numbers appeared to
+ threaten, not a transient inroad, but a serious design of
+ conquest and dominion. But the vigilance of Leo had formed an
+ alliance with the vassals of the Greek empire, the free and
+ maritime states of Gayeta, Naples, and Amalfi; and in the hour of
+ danger, their galleys appeared in the port of Ostia under the
+ command of Caesarius, the son of the Neapolitan duke, a noble and
+ valiant youth, who had already vanquished the fleets of the
+ Saracens. With his principal companions, Caesarius was invited to
+ the Lateran palace, and the dexterous pontiff affected to inquire
+ their errand, and to accept with joy and surprise their
+ providential succor. The city bands, in arms, attended their
+ father to Ostia, where he reviewed and blessed his generous
+ deliverers. They kissed his feet, received the communion with
+ martial devotion, and listened to the prayer of Leo, that the
+ same God who had supported St. Peter and St. Paul on the waves of
+ the sea, would strengthen the hands of his champions against the
+ adversaries of his holy name. After a similar prayer, and with
+ equal resolution, the Moslems advanced to the attack of the
+ Christian galleys, which preserved their advantageous station
+ along the coast. The victory inclined to the side of the allies,
+ when it was less gloriously decided in their favor by a sudden
+ tempest, which confounded the skill and courage of the stoutest
+ mariners. The Christians were sheltered in a friendly harbor,
+ while the Africans were scattered and dashed in pieces among the
+ rocks and islands of a hostile shore. Those who escaped from
+ shipwreck and hunger neither found, nor deserved, mercy at the
+ hands of their implacable pursuers. The sword and the gibbet
+ reduced the dangerous multitude 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 grateful devotion at the shrines of
+ the apostles; and, among the spoils of this naval victory,
+ thirteen Arabian bows of pure and massy silver were suspended
+ round the altar of the fishermen of Galilee. The reign of Leo the
+ Fourth was employed in the defence and ornament of the Roman
+ state. The churches were renewed and embellished: near four
+ thousand pounds of silver were consecrated to repair the losses
+ of St. Peter; and his sanctuary was decorated with a plate of
+ gold of the weight of two hundred and sixteen pounds, embossed
+ with the portraits of the pope and emperor, and encircled with a
+ string of pearls. Yet this vain magnificence reflects less glory
+ on the character of Leo than the paternal care with which he
+ rebuilt the walls of Horta and Ameria; and transported the
+ wandering inhabitants of Centumcellae to his new foundation of
+ Leopolis, twelve miles from the sea-shore. 89 By his liberality,
+ a colony of Corsicans, with their wives and children, was planted
+ in the station of Porto, at the mouth of the Tyber: the falling
+ city was restored for their use, the fields and vineyards were
+ divided among the new settlers: their first efforts were assisted
+ by a gift of horses and cattle; and the hardy exiles, who
+ breathed revenge against the Saracens, swore to live and die
+ under the standard of St. Peter. The nations of the West and
+ North who visited the threshold of the apostles had gradually
+ formed the large and populous suburb of the Vatican, and their
+ various habitations were distinguished, in the language of the
+ times, as the schools of the Greeks and Goths, of the Lombards
+ and Saxons. But this venerable spot was still open to
+ sacrilegious insult: the design of enclosing it with walls and
+ towers exhausted all that authority could command, or charity
+ would supply: and the pious labor of four years was animated in
+ every season, and at every hour, by the presence of the
+ indefatigable pontiff. The love of fame, a generous but worldly
+ passion, may be detected in the name of the Leonine city, which
+ he bestowed on the Vatican; yet the pride of the dedication was
+ tempered with Christian penance and humility. The boundary was
+ trod by the bishop and his clergy, barefoot, in sackcloth and
+ ashes; the songs of triumph were modulated to psalms and
+ litanies; the walls were besprinkled with holy water; and the
+ ceremony was concluded with a prayer, that, under the guardian
+ care of the apostles and the angelic host, both the old and the
+ new Rome might ever be preserved pure, prosperous, and
+ impregnable. 90
+
+ 88 (return) [ De Guignes, Hist. Generale des Huns, tom. i. p.
+ 363, 364. Cardonne, Hist. de l’Afrique et de l’Espagne, sous la
+ Domination des Arabs, tom. ii. p. 24, 25. I observe, and cannot
+ reconcile, the difference of these writers in the succession of
+ the Aglabites.]
+
+ 89 (return) [ Beretti (Chorographia Italiae Medii Evi, p. 106,
+ 108) has illustrated Centumcellae, Leopolis, Civitas Leonina, and
+ the other places of the Roman duchy.]
+
+ 90 (return) [ The Arabs and the Greeks are alike silent
+ concerning the invasion of Rome by the Africans. The Latin
+ chronicles do not afford much instruction, (see the Annals of
+ Baronius and Pagi.) Our authentic and contemporary guide for the
+ popes of the ixth century is Anastasius, librarian of the Roman
+ church. His Life of Leo IV, contains twenty-four pages, (p.
+ 175-199, edit. Paris;) and if a great part consist of
+ superstitious trifles, we must blame or command his hero, who was
+ much oftener in a church than in a camp.]
+
+ The emperor Theophilus, son of Michael the Stammerer, was one of
+ the most active and high-spirited princes who reigned at
+ Constantinople during the middle age. In offensive or defensive
+ war, he marched in person five times against the Saracens,
+ formidable in his attack, esteemed by the enemy in his losses and
+ defeats. In the last of these expeditions he penetrated into
+ Syria, and besieged the obscure town of Sozopetra; the casual
+ birthplace of the caliph Motassem, whose father Harun was
+ attended in peace or war by the most favored of his wives and
+ concubines. The revolt of a Persian impostor employed at that
+ moment the arms of the Saracen, and he could only intercede in
+ favor of a place for which he felt and acknowledged some degree
+ of filial affection. These solicitations determined the emperor
+ to wound his pride in so sensible a part. Sozopetra was levelled
+ with the ground, the Syrian prisoners were marked or mutilated
+ with ignominious cruelty, and a thousand female captives were
+ forced away from the adjacent territory. Among these a matron of
+ the house of Abbas invoked, in an agony of despair, the name of
+ Motassem; and the insults of the Greeks engaged the honor of her
+ kinsman to avenge his indignity, and to answer her appeal. Under
+ the reign of the two elder brothers, the inheritance of the
+ youngest had been confined to Anatolia, Armenia, Georgia, and
+ Circassia; this frontier station had exercised his military
+ talents; and among his accidental claims to the name of Octonary,
+ 91 the most meritorious are the eight battles which he gained or
+ fought against the enemies of the Koran. In this personal
+ quarrel, the troops of Irak, Syria, and Egypt, were recruited
+ from the tribes of Arabia and the Turkish hordes; his cavalry
+ might be numerous, though we should deduct some myriads from the
+ hundred and thirty thousand horses of the royal stables; and the
+ expense of the armament was computed at four millions sterling,
+ or one hundred thousand pounds of gold. From Tarsus, the place of
+ assembly, the Saracens advanced in three divisions along the high
+ road of Constantinople: Motassem himself commanded the centre,
+ and the vanguard was 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. In the revenge of his injury, the caliph
+ prepared to retaliate a similar affront. The father of Theophilus
+ was a native of Amorium 92 in Phrygia: the original seat of the
+ Imperial house had been adorned with privileges and monuments;
+ and, whatever might be the indifference of the people,
+ Constantinople itself was scarcely of more value in the eyes of
+ the sovereign and his court. The name of Amorium was inscribed on
+ the shields of the Saracens; and their three armies were again
+ united under the walls of the devoted city. It had been proposed
+ by the wisest counsellors, to evacuate Amorium, to remove the
+ inhabitants, and to abandon the empty structures to the vain
+ resentment of the Barbarians. The emperor embraced the more
+ generous resolution of defending, in a siege and battle, the
+ country of his ancestors. When the armies drew near, the front of
+ the Mahometan line appeared to a Roman eye more closely planted
+ with spears and javelins; but the event of the action was not
+ glorious on either side to the national troops. The Arabs were
+ broken, but it was by the swords of thirty thousand Persians, who
+ had obtained service and settlement in the Byzantine empire. The
+ Greeks were repulsed and vanquished, but it was by the arrows of
+ the Turkish cavalry; and had not their bowstrings been damped and
+ relaxed by the evening rain, very few of the Christians could
+ have escaped with the emperor from the field of battle. They
+ breathed at Dorylaeum, at the distance of three days; and
+ Theophilus, reviewing his trembling squadrons, forgave the common
+ flight both of the prince and people. After this discovery of his
+ weakness, he vainly hoped to deprecate the fate of Amorium: the
+ inexorable caliph rejected with contempt his prayers and
+ promises; and detained the Roman ambassadors to be the witnesses
+ of his great revenge. They had nearly been the witnesses of his
+ shame. The vigorous assaults of fifty-five days were encountered
+ by a faithful governor, a veteran garrison, and a desperate
+ people; and the Saracens must have raised the siege, if a
+ domestic traitor had not pointed to the weakest part of the wall,
+ a place which was decorated with the statues of a lion and a
+ bull. The vow of Motassem was accomplished with unrelenting
+ rigor: tired, rather than satiated, with destruction, he returned
+ to his new palace of Samara, in the neighborhood of Bagdad, while
+ the unfortunate 93 Theophilus implored the tardy and doubtful aid
+ of his Western rival the emperor of the Franks. Yet in the siege
+ of Amorium about seventy thousand Moslems had perished: their
+ loss had been revenged by the slaughter of thirty thousand
+ Christians, and the sufferings of an equal number of captives,
+ who were treated as the most atrocious criminals. Mutual
+ necessity could sometimes extort the exchange or ransom of
+ prisoners: 94 but in the national and religious conflict of the
+ two empires, peace was without confidence, and war without mercy.
+ Quarter was seldom given in the field; those who escaped the edge
+ of the sword were condemned to hopeless servitude, or exquisite
+ torture; and a Catholic emperor relates, with visible
+ satisfaction, the execution of the Saracens of Crete, who were
+ flayed alive, or plunged into caldrons of boiling oil. 95 To a
+ point of honor Motassem had sacrificed a flourishing city, two
+ hundred thousand lives, and the property of millions. The same
+ caliph descended from his horse, and dirtied his robe, to relieve
+ the distress of a decrepit old man, who, with his laden ass, had
+ tumbled into a ditch. On which of these actions did he reflect
+ with the most pleasure, when he was summoned by the angel of
+ death? 96
+
+ 91 (return) [ The same number was applied to the following
+ circumstance in the life of Motassem: he was the eight of the
+ Abbassides; he reigned eight years, eight months, and eight days;
+ left eight sons, eight daughters, eight thousand slaves, eight
+ millions of gold.]
+
+ 92 (return) [ Amorium is seldom mentioned by the old geographers,
+ and to tally forgotten in the Roman Itineraries. After the vith
+ century, it became an episcopal see, and at length the metropolis
+ of the new Galatia, (Carol. Scto. Paulo, Geograph. Sacra, p.
+ 234.) The city rose again from its ruins, if we should read
+ Ammeria, not Anguria, in the text of the Nubian geographer. (p.
+ 236.)]
+
+ 93 (return) [ 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 adversus exteras bellando gentes coelitus fuerat
+ assecutus, (Annalist. Bertinian. apud Pagi, tom. iii. p. 720.)]
+
+ 94 (return) [ Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 167, 168) relates one of
+ these singular transactions on the bridge of the River Lamus in
+ Cilicia, the limit of the two empires, and one day’s journey
+ westward of Tarsus, (D’Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p.
+ 91.) Four thousand four hundred and sixty Moslems, eight hundred
+ women and children, one hundred confederates, were exchanged for
+ an equal number of Greeks. They passed each other in the middle
+ of the bridge, and when they reached their respective friends,
+ they shouted Allah Acbar, and Kyrie Eleison. Many of the
+ prisoners of Amorium were probably among them, but in the same
+ year, (A. H. 231,) the most illustrious of them, the forty two
+ martyrs, were beheaded by the caliph’s order.]
+
+ 95 (return) [ Constantin. Porphyrogenitus, in Vit. Basil. c. 61,
+ p. 186. These Saracens were indeed treated with peculiar severity
+ as pirates and renegadoes.]
+
+ 96 (return) [ For Theophilus, Motassem, and the Amorian war, see
+ the Continuator 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 and nation expired. When the Arabian conquerors had spread
+ themselves over the East, and were mingled with the servile
+ crowds of Persia, Syria, and Egypt, they insensibly lost the
+ freeborn and martial virtues of the desert. The courage of the
+ South is the artificial fruit of discipline and prejudice; the
+ active power of enthusiasm had decayed, and the mercenary forces
+ of the caliphs were recruited in those climates of the North, of
+ which valor is the hardy and spontaneous production. Of the Turks
+ 97 who dwelt beyond the Oxus and Jaxartes, the robust youths,
+ either taken in war or purchased in trade, were educated in the
+ exercises of the field, and the profession of the Mahometan
+ faith. The Turkish 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, introduced into the capital above fifty thousand Turks:
+ their licentious conduct provoked the public indignation, and the
+ quarrels of the soldiers and people induced the caliph to retire
+ from Bagdad, and establish his own residence and the camp of his
+ Barbarian favorites at Samara on the Tigris, about twelve leagues
+ above the city of Peace. 98 His son Motawakkel was a jealous and
+ cruel tyrant: odious to his subjects, he cast himself on the
+ fidelity of the strangers, and these strangers, ambitious and
+ apprehensive, were tempted by the rich promise of a revolution.
+ At the instigation, or at least in the cause of his son, they
+ burst into his apartment at the hour of supper, and the caliph
+ was cut into seven pieces by the same swords which he had
+ recently distributed among the guards of his life and throne. To
+ this throne, yet streaming with a father’s blood, Montasser was
+ triumphantly led; but in a 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 crime and punishment of the son of
+ Chosroes, if his days were abridged by grief 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 the world to come.
+ After this act of treason, the ensigns of royalty, the garment
+ and walking-staff of Mahomet, were given and torn away by the
+ foreign mercenaries, who in four years created, deposed, and
+ murdered, three commanders of the faithful. As often as the Turks
+ were inflamed by fear, or rage, or avarice, these caliphs were
+ dragged by the feet, exposed naked to the scorching sun, beaten
+ with iron clubs, and compelled to purchase, by the abdication of
+ their dignity, a short reprieve of inevitable fate. 99 At length,
+ however, the fury of the tempest was spent or diverted: the
+ Abbassides returned to the less turbulent residence of Bagdad;
+ the insolence of the Turks was curbed with a firmer and more
+ skilful hand, and their numbers were divided and destroyed in
+ foreign warfare. But the nations of the East had been taught to
+ trample on the successors of the prophet; and the blessings of
+ domestic peace were obtained by the relaxation of strength and
+ discipline. So uniform are the mischiefs of military despotism,
+ that I seem to repeat the story of the praetorians of Rome. 100
+
+ 97 (return) [ M. de Guignes, who sometimes leaps, and sometimes
+ stumbles, in the gulf between Chinese and Mahometan story, thinks
+ he can see, that these Turks are the Hoei-ke, alias the Kao-tche,
+ or high-wagons; that they were divided into fifteen hordes, from
+ China and Siberia to the dominions of the caliphs and Samanides,
+ &c., (Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 1-33, 124-131.)]
+
+ 98 (return) [ He changed the old name of Sumera, or Samara, into
+ the fanciful title of Sermen-rai, that which gives pleasure at
+ first sight, (D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 808.
+ D’Anville, l’Euphrate et le Tigre p. 97, 98.)]
+
+ 99 (return) [ Take a specimen, the death of the caliph Motaz:
+ Correptum pedibus pertrahunt, et sudibus probe permulcant, et
+ spoliatum laceris vestibus in sole collocant, prae cujus acerrimo
+ aestu pedes alternos attollebat et demittebat. Adstantium aliquis
+ misero colaphos continuo ingerebat, quos ille objectis manibus
+ avertere studebat..... Quo facto traditus tortori fuit, totoque
+ triduo cibo potuque prohibitus..... Suffocatus, &c. (Abulfeda, p.
+ 206.) Of the caliph Mohtadi, he says, services ipsi perpetuis
+ ictibus contundebant, testiculosque pedibus conculcabant, (p.
+ 208.)]
+
+ 100 (return) [ 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 the breasts of the chosen few, the congenial
+ spirits, who were ambitious of reigning either in this world or
+ in the next. How carefully soever the book of prophecy had been
+ sealed by the apostle of Mecca, the wishes, and (if we may
+ profane the word) even the reason, of fanaticism might believe
+ that, after the successive missions of Adam, Noah, Abraham,
+ Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet, the same God, in the fulness of time,
+ would reveal a still more perfect and permanent law. In the two
+ hundred and seventy-seventh year of the Hegira, and in the
+ neighborhood of Cufa, an Arabian preacher, of the name of
+ Carmath, assumed the lofty and incomprehensible style of the
+ Guide, the Director, the Demonstration, the Word, the Holy Ghost,
+ the Camel, the Herald of the Messiah, who had conversed with him
+ in a human shape, and the representative of Mohammed the son of
+ Ali, of St. John the Baptist, and of the angel Gabriel. In his
+ mystic volume, the precepts of the Koran were refined to a more
+ spiritual sense: he relaxed the duties of ablution, fasting, and
+ pilgrimage; allowed the indiscriminate use of wine and forbidden
+ food; and nourished the fervor of his disciples by the daily
+ repetition of fifty prayers. The idleness and ferment of the
+ rustic crowd awakened the attention of the magistrates of Cufa; a
+ timid persecution assisted the progress of the new sect; and the
+ name of the prophet became more revered after his person had been
+ withdrawn from the world. His twelve apostles dispersed
+ themselves among the Bedoweens, “a race of men,” says Abulfeda,
+ “equally devoid of reason and of religion;” and the success of
+ their preaching seemed to threaten Arabia with a new revolution.
+ The Carmathians were ripe for rebellion, since they disclaimed
+ the title of the house of Abbas, and abhorred the worldly pomp of
+ the caliphs of Bagdad. They were susceptible of discipline, since
+ they vowed a blind and absolute submission to their Imam, who was
+ called to the prophetic office by the voice of God and the
+ people. Instead of the legal tithes, he claimed the fifth of
+ their substance and spoil; the most flagitious sins were no more
+ than the type of disobedience; and the brethren were united 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
+ these rebellious imams could muster in the field a hundred and
+ seven thousand fanatics. The mercenaries of the caliph were
+ dismayed at the approach of an enemy who neither asked nor
+ accepted quarter; and the difference between, them in fortitude
+ and patience, is expressive of the change which three centuries
+ of prosperity had effected in the character of the Arabians. Such
+ troops were discomfited in every action; the cities of Racca and
+ Baalbec, of Cufa and Bassora, were taken and pillaged; Bagdad was
+ filled with consternation; and the caliph trembled behind the
+ veils of his palace. In a daring inroad beyond the Tigris, Abu
+ Taher advanced to the gates of the capital with no more than five
+ hundred horse. By the special order of Moctader, the bridges had
+ been broken down, and the person or head of the rebel was
+ expected every hour by the commander of the faithful. His
+ lieutenant, from a motive of fear or pity, apprised Abu Taher of
+ his danger, and recommended a speedy escape. “Your master,” said
+ the intrepid Carmathian to the messenger, “is at the head of
+ thirty thousand soldiers: three such men as these are wanting in
+ his host:” at the same instant, turning to three of his
+ companions, he commanded the first to plunge a dagger into his
+ breast, the second to leap into the Tigris, and the third to cast
+ himself headlong down a precipice. They obeyed without a murmur.
+
+ “Relate,” continued the imam, “what you have seen: before the
+ evening your general shall be chained among my dogs.” Before the
+ evening, the camp was surprised, and the menace was executed. The
+ rapine of the Carmathians was sanctified by their aversion to the
+ worship of Mecca: they robbed a caravan of pilgrims, and twenty
+ thousand devout Moslems were 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, and trampled on the
+ most venerable relics of the Mahometan faith. Thirty thousand
+ citizens and strangers were put to the sword; the sacred
+ precincts were polluted by the burial of three thousand dead
+ bodies; the well of Zemzem overflowed with blood; the golden
+ spout was forced from its place; the veil of the Caaba was
+ divided among these impious sectaries; and the black stone, the
+ first monument of the nation, was borne away in triumph to their
+ capital. After this deed of sacrilege and cruelty, they continued
+ to infest the confines of Irak, Syria, and Egypt: 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
+ inquire into what factions they were broken, or by whose swords
+ they were finally extirpated. The sect of the Carmathians may be
+ considered as the second visible cause of the decline and fall of
+ the empire of the caliphs. 101
+
+ 101 (return) [ 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 find some inconsistencies of
+ theology and chronology, which it would not be easy 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
+ the empire itself. The caliph Almamon might proudly assert, that
+ it was easier for him to rule the East and the West, than to
+ manage a chess-board of two feet square: 102 yet I suspect that
+ in both those games he was guilty of many fatal mistakes; and I
+ perceive, that in the distant provinces the authority of the
+ first and most powerful of the Abbassides was already impaired.
+ The analogy of despotism invests the representative with the full
+ majesty of the prince; the division and balance of powers might
+ relax the habits of obedience, might encourage the passive
+ subject to inquire into the origin and administration of civil
+ government. He who is born in the purple is seldom worthy to
+ reign; but the elevation of a private man, of a peasant, perhaps,
+ or a slave, affords a strong presumption of his courage and
+ capacity. The viceroy of a remote kingdom aspires to secure the
+ property and inheritance of his precarious trust; the nations
+ must rejoice in the presence of their sovereign; and the command
+ of armies and treasures are at once the object and the instrument
+ of his ambition. A change was scarcely visible as long as the
+ lieutenants of the caliph were content with their vicarious
+ title; while they solicited for themselves or their sons a
+ renewal of the Imperial grant, and still maintained on the coin
+ and in the public prayers the name and prerogative of the
+ commander of the faithful. But in the long and hereditary
+ exercise of power, they assumed the pride and attributes of
+ royalty; the alternative of peace or war, of reward or
+ punishment, depended solely on their will; and the revenues of
+ their government were reserved for local services or private
+ magnificence. Instead of a regular supply of men and money, the
+ successors of the prophet were flattered with the ostentatious
+ gift of an elephant, or a cast of hawks, a suit of silk hangings,
+ or some pounds of musk and amber. 103
+
+ 102 (return) [ Hyde, Syntagma Dissertat. tom. ii. p. 57, in Hist.
+ Shahiludii.]
+
+ 103 (return) [ The dynasties of the Arabian empire may be studied
+ in the Annals of Elmacin, Abulpharagius, and Abulfeda, under the
+ proper years, in the dictionary of D’Herbelot, under the proper
+ names. The tables of M. de Guignes (Hist. des Huns, tom. i.)
+ exhibit a general chronology of the East, interspersed with some
+ historical anecdotes; but his attachment to national blood has
+ sometimes confounded the order of time and place.]
+
+ After the revolt of Spain from the temporal and spiritual
+ supremacy of the Abbassides, the first symptoms of disobedience
+ broke forth in the province of Africa. Ibrahim, the son of Aglab,
+ the lieutenant of the vigilant and rigid Harun, bequeathed to the
+ dynasty of the Aglabites the inheritance of his name and power.
+ The indolence or policy of the caliphs dissembled the injury and
+ loss, and pursued only with poison the founder of the Edrisites,
+ 104 who erected the kingdom and city of Fez on the shores of the
+ Western ocean. 105 In the East, the first dynasty was 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 much zeal
+ and success the cause of Almamon, the younger brother. He was
+ sent into honorable exile, to command on the banks of the Oxus;
+ and the independence of his successors, who reigned in Chorasan
+ till the fourth generation, was palliated by their modest and
+ respectful demeanor, the happiness of their subjects and the
+ security of their frontier. They were supplanted by one of those
+ adventures so frequent in the annals of the East, who left his
+ trade of a brazier (from whence the name of Soffarides) for the
+ profession of a robber. In a nocturnal visit to the treasure of
+ the prince of Sistan, Jacob, the son of Leith, stumbled over a
+ lump of salt, which he unwarily tasted with his tongue. Salt,
+ among the Orientals, is the symbol of hospitality, and the pious
+ robber immediately retired without spoil or damage. The discovery
+ of this honorable behavior recommended Jacob to pardon and trust;
+ he led an army at first for his benefactor, at last for himself,
+ subdued Persia, and threatened the residence of the Abbassides.
+ On his march towards Bagdad, the conqueror was arrested by a
+ fever. He gave audience in bed to the ambassador of the caliph;
+ and beside him on a table were exposed a naked cimeter, 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, this must
+ determine between us. If I am vanquished, I can return without
+ reluctance to the homely fare of my youth.” From the height where
+ he stood, the descent would not have been so soft or harmless: a
+ timely death secured his own repose and that of the caliph, who
+ paid with the most lavish concessions the retreat of his brother
+ Amrou to the palaces of Shiraz and Ispahan. The Abbassides were
+ too feeble to contend, too proud to forgive: they invited the
+ powerful dynasty of the Samanides, who passed the Oxus with ten
+ thousand horse so poor, that their stirrups were of wood: so
+ brave, that they vanquished the Soffarian army, eight times more
+ numerous than their own. The captive Amrou was sent in chains, a
+ grateful offering to the court of Bagdad; and as the victor was
+ content with the inheritance of Transoxiana and Chorasan, the
+ realms of Persia returned for a while to the allegiance of the
+ caliphs. The provinces of Syria and Egypt were twice dismembered
+ by their Turkish slaves of the race of Toulon and Ilkshid. 107
+ These Barbarians, in religion and manners the countrymen of
+ Mahomet, emerged from the bloody factions of the palace to a
+ provincial command and an independent throne: their names became
+ famous and formidable in their time; but the founders of these
+ two potent dynasties confessed, either in words or actions, the
+ vanity of ambition. The first on his death-bed implored the mercy
+ of God to a sinner, ignorant of the limits of his own power: the
+ second, in the midst of four hundred thousand soldiers and eight
+ thousand slaves, concealed from every human eye the chamber where
+ he attempted to sleep. Their sons were educated in the vices of
+ kings; and both Egypt and Syria were recovered and possessed by
+ the Abbassides during an interval of thirty years. In the decline
+ of their empire, Mesopotamia, with the important cities of Mosul
+ and Aleppo, was occupied by the Arabian princes of the tribe of
+ Hamadan. The poets of their court could repeat without a blush,
+ that nature had formed their countenances for beauty, their
+ tongues for eloquence, and their hands for liberality and valor:
+ but the genuine tale of the elevation and reign of the
+ Hamadanites exhibits a scene of treachery, murder, and parricide.
+
+ At the same fatal period, the Persian kingdom was again usurped
+ by the dynasty of the Bowides, by the sword of three brothers,
+ who, under various names, were styled the support and columns of
+ the state, and who, from the Caspian Sea to the ocean, would
+ suffer no tyrants but themselves. Under their reign, the language
+ and genius of Persia revived, and the Arabs, three hundred and
+ four years after the death of Mahomet, were deprived of the
+ sceptre of the East.
+
+ 104 (return) [ The Aglabites and Edrisites are the professed
+ subject of M. de Cardonne, (Hist. de l’Afrique et de l’Espagne
+ sous la Domination des Arabes, tom. ii. p. 1-63.)]
+
+ 105 (return) [ To escape the reproach of error, I must criticize
+ the inaccuracies 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 the Hegira 173, since the founder was a posthumous
+ child of a descendant of Ali, who fled from Mecca in the year
+ 168. 2. This founder, Edris, the son 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 of
+ the Huns. See the accurate Annals of Abulfeda p. 158, 159, 185,
+ 238.]
+
+ 106 (return) [ The dynasties of the Taherites and Soffarides,
+ with the rise of that of the Samanines, are described in the
+ original history and Latin version of Mirchond: yet the most
+ interesting facts had already been drained by the diligence of M.
+ D’Herbelot.]
+
+ 107 (return) [ M. de Guignes (Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p.
+ 124-154) has exhausted the Toulunides and Ikshidites of Egypt,
+ and thrown some light on the Carmathians and Hamadanites.]
+
+ Rahadi, the twentieth of the Abbassides, and the thirty-ninth of
+ the successors of Mahomet, was the last who deserved the title of
+ commander of the faithful; 108 the last (says Abulfeda) who spoke
+ to the people, or conversed with the learned; the last who, in
+ the expense of his household, represented the wealth and
+ magnificence of the ancient caliphs. After him, the lords of the
+ Eastern world were reduced to the most abject misery, and exposed
+ to the blows and insults of a servile condition. The revolt of
+ the provinces circumscribed their dominions within the walls of
+ Bagdad: but that capital still contained an innumerable
+ multitude, vain of their past fortune, discontented with their
+ present state, and oppressed by the demands of a treasury which
+ had formerly been replenished by the spoil and tribute of
+ nations. Their idleness was exercised by faction and controversy.
+ Under the mask of piety, the rigid followers of Hanbal 109
+ invaded the pleasures of domestic life, burst into the houses of
+ plebeians and princes, the wine, broke the instruments, beat the
+ musicians, and dishonored, with infamous suspicions, the
+ associates of every handsome youth. In each profession, which
+ allowed room for two persons, the one was a votary, the other an
+ antagonist, of Ali; and the Abbassides were awakened by the
+ clamorous grief of the sectaries, who denied their title, and
+ cursed their progenitors. A turbulent people could only be
+ repressed by a military force; but who could satisfy the avarice
+ or assert the discipline of the mercenaries themselves? The
+ African and the Turkish guards drew their swords against each
+ other, and the chief commanders, the emirs al Omra, 110
+ imprisoned or deposed their sovereigns, and violated the
+ sanctuary of the mosch and harem. If the caliphs escaped to the
+ camp or court of any neighboring prince, their deliverance was a
+ change of servitude, till they were prompted by despair to invite
+ the Bowides, the sultans of Persia, who silenced the factions of
+ Bagdad by their irresistible arms. The civil and military powers
+ were assumed by Moezaldowlat, the second of the three brothers,
+ and a stipend of sixty thousand pounds sterling was assigned by
+ his generosity for the private expense of the commander of the
+ faithful. But on the fortieth day, at the audience of the
+ ambassadors of Chorasan, and in the presence of a trembling
+ multitude, the caliph was dragged from his throne to a dungeon,
+ by the command of the stranger, and the rude hands of his
+ Dilamites. His palace was pillaged, his eyes were put out, and
+ the mean ambition of the Abbassides aspired to the vacant station
+ of danger and disgrace. In the school of adversity, the luxurious
+ caliphs resumed the grave and abstemious virtues of the primitive
+ times. Despoiled of their armor and silken robes, they fasted,
+ they prayed, they studied the Koran and the tradition of the
+ Sonnites: they performed, with zeal and knowledge, the functions
+ of their ecclesiastical character. The respect of nations still
+ waited on the successors of the apostle, the oracles of the law
+ and conscience of the faithful; and the weakness or division of
+ their tyrants sometimes restored the Abbassides to the
+ sovereignty of Bagdad. But their misfortunes had been imbittered
+ by the triumph of the Fatimites, the real or spurious progeny of
+ Ali. Arising from the extremity of Africa, these successful
+ rivals extinguished, in Egypt and Syria, both the spiritual and
+ temporal authority of the Abbassides; and the monarch of the Nile
+ insulted the humble pontiff on the banks of the Tigris.
+
+ 108 (return) [ Hic est ultimus chalifah qui multum atque saepius
+ pro concione peroraret.... Fuit etiam ultimus qui otium cum
+ eruditis et facetis hominibus fallere hilariterque agere soleret.
+ Ultimus tandem chalifarum cui sumtus, stipendia, reditus, et
+ thesauri, culinae, caeteraque omnis aulica pompa priorum
+ chalifarum ad instar comparata fuerint. Videbimus enim paullo
+ post quam indignis et servilibius ludibriis exagitati, quam ad
+ humilem fortunam altimumque contemptum abjecti fuerint hi quondam
+ potentissimi totius terrarum Orientalium orbis domini. Abulfed.
+ Annal. Moslem. p. 261. I have given this passage as the manner
+ and tone of Abulfeda, but the cast of Latin eloquence belongs
+ more properly to Reiske. The Arabian historian (p. 255, 257,
+ 261-269, 283, &c.) has supplied me with the most interesting
+ facts of this paragraph.]
+
+ 109 (return) [ Their master, on a similar occasion, showed
+ himself of a more indulgent and tolerating spirit. Ahmed Ebn
+ Hanbal, the head of one of the four orthodox sects, was born at
+ Bagdad A. H. 164, and died there A. H. 241. He fought and
+ suffered in the dispute concerning the creation of the Koran.]
+
+ 110 (return) [ The office of vizier was superseded by the emir al
+ Omra, Imperator Imperatorum, a title first instituted by Radhi,
+ and which merged at length in the Bowides and Seljukides:
+ vectigalibus, et tributis, et curiis per omnes regiones
+ praefecit, jussitque in omnibus suggestis 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
+ after the war of Theophilus and Motassem, the hostile
+ transactions of the two nations were confined to some inroads by
+ sea and land, the fruits of their close vicinity and indelible
+ hatred. But when the Eastern world was convulsed and broken, the
+ Greeks were roused from their lethargy by the hopes of conquest
+ and revenge. The Byzantine empire, since the accession of the
+ Basilian race, had reposed in peace and dignity; and they might
+ encounter with their entire strength the front of some petty
+ emir, whose rear was assaulted and threatened by his national
+ foes of the Mahometan faith. The lofty titles of the morning
+ star, and the death of the Saracens, 111 were applied in the
+ public acclamations to Nicephorus Phocas, a prince as renowned in
+ the camp, as he was unpopular in the city. In the subordinate
+ station of great domestic, or general of the East, he reduced the
+ Island of Crete, and extirpated the nest of pirates who had so
+ long defied, with impunity, the majesty of the empire. 112 His
+ military genius was displayed in the conduct and success of the
+ enterprise, which had so often failed with loss and dishonor. The
+ Saracens were confounded by the landing of his troops on safe and
+ level bridges, which he cast from the vessels to the shore. Seven
+ months were consumed in the siege of Candia; the despair of the
+ native Cretans was stimulated by the frequent aid of their
+ brethren of Africa and Spain; and after the massy wall and double
+ ditch had been stormed by the Greeks a hopeless conflict was
+ still maintained in the streets and houses of the city. 1121 The
+ whole island was subdued in the capital, and a submissive people
+ accepted, without resistance, the baptism of the conqueror. 113
+ Constantinople applauded the long-forgotten pomp of a triumph;
+ but the Imperial diadem was the sole reward that could repay the
+ services, or satisfy the ambition, of Nicephorus.
+
+ 111 (return) [ Liutprand, whose choleric temper was imbittered by
+ his uneasy situation, suggests the names of reproach and contempt
+ more applicable to Nicephorus than the vain titles of the Greeks,
+ Ecce venit stella matutina, surgit Eous, reverberat obtutu solis
+ radios, pallida Saracenorum mors, Nicephorus.]
+
+ 112 (return) [ Notwithstanding the insinuation of Zonaras, &c.,
+ (tom. ii. l. xvi. p. 197,) it is an undoubted fact, that Crete
+ was completely and finally subdued by Nicephorus Phocas, (Pagi,
+ Critica, tom. iii. p. 873-875. Meursius, Creta, l. iii. c. 7,
+ tom. iii. p. 464, 465.)]
+
+ 1121 (return) [ The Acroases of Theodorus, de expugnatione
+ Cretae, miserable iambics, relate the whole campaign. Whoever
+ would fairly estimate the merit of the poetic deacon, may read
+ the description of the slinging a jackass into the famishing
+ city. The poet is in a transport at the wit of the general, and
+ revels in the luxury of antithesis. Theodori Acroases, lib. iii.
+ 172, in Niebuhr’s Byzant. Hist.—M.]
+
+ 113 (return) [ A Greek Life of St. Nicon the Armenian was found
+ in the Sforza library, and translated into Latin by the Jesuit
+ Sirmond, for the use of Cardinal Baronius. This contemporary
+ legend casts a ray of light on Crete and Peloponnesus in the 10th
+ century. He found the newly-recovered island, foedis detestandae
+ Agarenorum superstitionis vestigiis adhuc plenam ac refertam....
+ but the victorious missionary, perhaps with some carnal aid, ad
+ baptismum omnes veraeque fidei disciplinam pepulit. Ecclesiis per
+ totam insulam aedificatis, &c., (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 961.)]
+
+ After the death of the younger Romanus, the fourth in lineal
+ descent of the Basilian race, his widow Theophania successively
+ married Nicephorus Phocas and his assassin John Zimisces, the two
+ heroes of the age. They reigned as the guardians and colleagues
+ of her infant sons; and the twelve years of their military
+ command form the most splendid period of the Byzantine annals.
+ The subjects and confederates, whom they led to war, appeared, at
+ least in the eyes of an enemy, two hundred thousand strong; and
+ of these about thirty thousand were armed with cuirasses: 114 a
+ train of four thousand mules attended their march; and their
+ evening camp was regularly fortified with an enclosure of iron
+ spikes. A series of bloody and undecisive combats is nothing more
+ than an anticipation of what would have been effected in a few
+ years by the course of nature; but I shall briefly prosecute the
+ conquests of the two emperors from the hills of Cappadocia to the
+ desert of Bagdad. The sieges of Mopsuestia and Tarsus, in
+ Cilicia, first exercised the skill and perseverance of their
+ troops, on whom, at this moment, I shall not hesitate to bestow
+ the name of Romans. In the double city of Mopsuestia, which is
+ divided by the River Sarus, two hundred thousand Moslems were
+ predestined to death or slavery, 115 a surprising degree of
+ population, which must at least include the inhabitants of the
+ dependent districts. They were surrounded and taken by assault;
+ but Tarsus was reduced by the slow progress of famine; and no
+ sooner had the Saracens yielded on honorable terms than they were
+ mortified by the distant and unprofitable view of the naval
+ succors of Egypt. They were dismissed with a safe-conduct to the
+ confines of Syria: a part of the old Christians had quietly lived
+ under their dominion; and the vacant habitations were replenished
+ by a new colony. But the mosch was converted into a stable; the
+ pulpit was delivered to the flames; many rich crosses of gold and
+ gems, the spoils of Asiatic churches, were made a grateful
+ offering to the piety or avarice of the emperor; and he
+ transported the gates of Mopsuestia and Tarsus, which were fixed
+ in the walls of Constantinople, an eternal monument of his
+ victory. After they had forced and secured the narrow passes of
+ Mount Amanus, the two Roman princes repeatedly carried their arms
+ into the heart of Syria. Yet, instead of assaulting the walls of
+ Antioch, the humanity or superstition of Nicephorus appeared to
+ respect the ancient metropolis of the East: he contented himself
+ with drawing round the city a line of circumvallation; left a
+ stationary army; and instructed his lieutenant to expect, without
+ impatience, the return of spring. But in the depth of winter, in
+ a dark and rainy night, an adventurous subaltern, with three
+ hundred soldiers, approached the rampart, applied his
+ scaling-ladders, occupied two adjacent towers, stood firm against
+ the pressure of multitudes, and bravely maintained his post till
+ he was relieved by the tardy, though effectual, support of his
+ reluctant chief. The first tumult of slaughter and rapine
+ subsided; the reign of Caesar and of Christ was restored; and the
+ efforts of a hundred thousand Saracens, of the armies of Syria
+ and the fleets of Africa, were consumed without effect before the
+ walls of Antioch. The royal city of Aleppo was subject to
+ Seifeddowlat, of the dynasty of Hamadan, who clouded his past
+ glory by the precipitate retreat which abandoned his kingdom and
+ capital to the Roman invaders. In his stately palace, that stood
+ without the walls of Aleppo, they joyfully seized a
+ well-furnished magazine of arms, a stable of fourteen hundred
+ mules, and three hundred bags of silver and gold. But the walls
+ of the city withstood the strokes of their battering-rams: and
+ the besiegers 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 they furiously charged each other in the
+ market-place, they were surprised and destroyed by the sword of a
+ common enemy. The male sex was exterminated by the sword; ten
+ thousand youths were led into captivity; the weight of the
+ precious spoil exceeded the strength and number of the beasts of
+ burden; the superfluous remainder was burnt; and, after a
+ licentious possession of ten days, the Romans marched away from
+ the naked and bleeding city. In their Syrian inroads they
+ commanded the husbandmen to cultivate their lands, that they
+ themselves, in the ensuing season, might reap the benefit; more
+ than a hundred cities were reduced to obedience; and eighteen
+ pulpits of the principal moschs were committed to the flames to
+ expiate the sacrilege of the disciples of Mahomet. The classic
+ names of Hierapolis, Apamea, and Emesa, revive for a moment in
+ the list of conquest: the emperor Zimisces encamped in the
+ paradise of Damascus, and accepted the ransom of a submissive
+ people; and the torrent was only stopped by the impregnable
+ fortress of Tripoli, on the sea-coast of Phoenicia. Since the
+ days of Heraclius, the Euphrates, below the passage of Mount
+ Taurus, had been impervious, and almost invisible, to the Greeks.
+
+ The river yielded a free passage to the victorious Zimisces; and
+ the historian may imitate the speed with which he overran the
+ once famous cities of Samosata, Edessa, Martyropolis, Amida, 116
+ and Nisibis, the ancient limit of the empire in the neighborhood
+ of the Tigris. His ardor was quickened by the desire of grasping
+ the virgin treasures of Ecbatana, 117 a well-known name, under
+ which the Byzantine writer has concealed the capital of the
+ Abbassides. The consternation of the fugitives had already
+ diffused the terror of his name; but the fancied riches of Bagdad
+ had already been dissipated by the avarice and prodigality of
+ domestic tyrants. The prayers of the people, and the stern
+ demands of the lieutenant of the Bowides, required the caliph to
+ provide for the defence of the city. The helpless Mothi replied,
+ that his 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 to support. The emir was inexorable; the furniture
+ of the palace was sold; and the paltry price of forty thousand
+ pieces of gold was instantly consumed in private luxury. But the
+ apprehensions of Bagdad were relieved by the retreat of the
+ Greeks: thirst and hunger guarded the desert of Mesopotamia; and
+ the emperor, satiated with glory, and laden with Oriental spoils,
+ returned to Constantinople, and displayed, in his triumph, the
+ silk, the aromatics, and three hundred myriads of gold and
+ silver. Yet the powers of the East had been bent, not broken, by
+ this transient hurricane. After the departure of the Greeks, the
+ fugitive princes returned to their capitals; the subjects
+ disclaimed their involuntary oaths of allegiance; the Moslems
+ again purified their temples, and overturned the idols of the
+ saints and martyrs; the Nestorians and Jacobites preferred a
+ Saracen to an orthodox master; and the numbers and spirit of the
+ Melchites were inadequate to the support of the church and state.
+
+ Of these extensive conquests, Antioch, with the cities of Cilicia
+ and the Isle of Cyprus, was alone restored, a permanent and
+ useful accession to the Roman empire. 118
+
+ 114 (return) [ Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 278, 279. Liutprand was
+ disposed to depreciate the Greek power, yet he owns that
+ Nicephorus led against Assyria an army of eighty thousand men.]
+
+ 115 (return) [ 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 the middle ages, (Wesseling, Itinerar. p.
+ 580.) Yet I cannot credit this extreme populousness a few years
+ after the testimony of the emperor Leo, (Tactica, c. xviii. in
+ Meursii Oper. tom. vi. p. 817.)]
+
+ 116 (return) [ The text of Leo the deacon, in the corrupt names
+ of Emeta and Myctarsim, reveals the cities of Amida and
+ Martyropolis, (Mia farekin. See Abulfeda, Geograph. p. 245, vers.
+ Reiske.) Of the former, Leo observes, urbus munita et illustris;
+ of the latter, clara atque conspicua opibusque et pecore,
+ reliquis ejus provinciis urbibus atque oppidis longe praestans.]
+
+ 117 (return) [ Ut et Ecbatana pergeret Agarenorumque regiam
+ everteret.... aiunt enim urbium quae usquam sunt ac toto orbe
+ existunt felicissimam esse auroque ditissimam, (Leo Diacon. apud
+ Pagium, tom. iv. p. 34.) This splendid description suits only
+ with Bagdad, and cannot possibly apply either to Hamadan, the
+ true Ecbatana, (D’Anville, Geog. Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 237,) or
+ Tauris, which has been commonly mistaken for that city. The name
+ of Ecbatana, in the same indefinite sense, is transferred by a
+ more classic authority (Cicero pro Lego Manilia, c. 4) to the
+ royal seat of Mithridates, king of Pontus.]
+
+ 118 (return) [ See the Annals of Elmacin, Abulpharagius, and
+ Abulfeda, from A. H. 351 to A. H. 361; and the reigns of
+ Nicephorus Phocas and John Zimisces, in the Chronicles of Zonaras
+ (tom. ii. l. xvi. p. 199—l. xvii. 215) and Cedrenus, (Compend. p.
+ 649-684.) Their manifold defects are partly supplied by the Ms.
+ history of Leo the deacon, which Pagi obtained from the
+ Benedictines, and has inserted almost entire, in a Latin version,
+ (Critica, tom. iii. p. 873, tom. iv. 37.) * Note: The whole
+ original work of Leo the Deacon has been published by Hase, and
+ is inserted in the new edition of the Byzantine historians. M
+ Lassen has added to the Arabian authorities of this period some
+ extracts from Kemaleddin’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
+ tenth century. We open with curiosity and respect the royal
+ volumes of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 1 which he composed at a
+ mature age for the instruction of his son, and which promise to
+ unfold the state of the eastern empire, both in peace and war,
+ both at home and abroad. In the first of these works he minutely
+ describes the pompous ceremonies of the church and palace of
+ Constantinople, according to his own practice, and that of his
+ predecessors. 2 In the second, he attempts an accurate survey of
+ the provinces, the themes, as they were then denominated, both of
+ Europe and Asia. 3 The system of Roman tactics, the discipline
+ and order of the troops, and the military operations by land and
+ sea, are explained in the third of these didactic collections,
+ which may be ascribed to Constantine or his father Leo. 4 In the
+ fourth, of the administration of the empire, he reveals the
+ secrets of the Byzantine policy, in friendly or hostile
+ intercourse with the nations of the earth. The literary labors of
+ the age, the practical systems of law, agriculture, and history,
+ might redound to the benefit of the subject and the honor of the
+ Macedonian princes. The sixty books of the Basilics, 5 the code
+ and pandects of civil jurisprudence, were gradually 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
+ are comprised in the twenty books of the Geoponics 6 of
+ Constantine. At his command, the historical examples of vice and
+ virtue were methodized in fifty-three books, 7 and every citizen
+ might apply, to his contemporaries or himself, the lesson or the
+ warning of past times. From the august character of a legislator,
+ the sovereign of the East descends to the more humble office of a
+ teacher and a scribe; and if his successors and subjects were
+ regardless of his paternal cares, we may inherit and enjoy the
+ everlasting legacy.
+
+ 1 (return) [ The epithet of Porphyrogenitus, born in the purple,
+ is elegantly 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
+ passages expressive of the same idea.]
+
+ 2 (return) [ A splendid Ms. of Constantine, de Caeremoniis Aulae
+ et Ecclesiae Byzantinae, wandered from Constantinople to Buda,
+ Frankfort, and Leipsic, where it was published in a splendid
+ edition by Leich and Reiske, (A.D. 1751, in folio,) with such
+ lavish praise as editors never fail to bestow on the worthy or
+ worthless object of their toil.]
+
+ 3 (return) [ 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 is corrected from a Ms. of the royal library of Paris,
+ which Isaac Casaubon had formerly seen, (Epist. ad Polybium, p.
+ 10,) and the sense is illustrated by two maps of William
+ Deslisle, the prince of geographers till the appearance of the
+ greater D’Anville.]
+
+ 4 (return) [ The Tactics of Leo and Constantine are published
+ with the aid 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 still obscure and faulty. The Imperial
+ library of Vienna would afford some valuable materials to a new
+ editor, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 369, 370.)]
+
+ 5 (return) [ 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, by Charles Annibal Frabrottus, (Paris,
+ 1647,) in seven tomes in folio; iv. other books have been since
+ discovered, and are inserted in Gerard Meerman’s Novus Thesaurus
+ Juris Civ. et Canon. tom. v. Of the whole work, the sixty books,
+ John Leunclavius has printed, (Basil, 1575,) an eclogue or
+ synopsis. The cxiii. novels, or new laws, of Leo, may be found in
+ the Corpus Juris Civilis.]
+
+ 6 (return) [ I have used the last and best edition of the
+ Geoponics, (by Nicolas Niclas, Leipsic, 1781, 2 vols. in octavo.)
+ I read in the preface, that the same emperor restored the
+ long-forgotten systems of rhetoric and philosophy; and his two
+ books of Hippiatrica, or Horse-physic, were published at Paris,
+ 1530, in folio, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 493-500.)]
+
+ 7 (return) [ Of these LIII. books, or titles, only two have been
+ preserved and printed, de Legationibus (by Fulvius Ursinus,
+ Antwerp, 1582, and Daniel Hoeschelius, August. Vindel. 1603) and
+ de Virtutibus et Vitiis, (by Henry Valesius, or de Valois, Paris,
+ 1634.)]
+
+ A closer survey will indeed reduce the value of the gift, and the
+ gratitude of posterity: in the possession of these Imperial
+ treasures we may still deplore our poverty and ignorance; and the
+ fading glories of their authors will be obliterated by
+ indifference or contempt. The Basilics will sink to a broken
+ copy, a partial and mutilated version, in the Greek language, of
+ the laws of Justinian; but the sense of the old civilians is
+ often superseded by the influence of bigotry: and the absolute
+ prohibition of divorce, concubinage, and interest for money,
+ enslaves the freedom of trade and the happiness of private life.
+ In the historical book, a subject of Constantine might admire the
+ inimitable virtues of Greece and Rome: he might learn to what a
+ pitch of energy and elevation the human character had formerly
+ aspired. But a contrary effect must have been produced by a new
+ edition of the lives of the saints, which the great logothete, or
+ chancellor of the empire, was directed to prepare; and the dark
+ fund of superstition was enriched by the fabulous and florid
+ legends of Simon the Metaphrast. 8 The merits and miracles of the
+ whole calendar are of less account in the eyes of a sage, than
+ the toil of a single husbandman, who multiplies the gifts of the
+ Creator, and supplies the food of his brethren. Yet the royal
+ authors of the Geoponics were more seriously employed in
+ expounding the precepts of the destroying art, which had been
+ taught since the days of Xenophon, 9 as the art of heroes and
+ kings. But the Tactics of Leo and Constantine are mingled with
+ the baser alloy of the age in which they lived. It was destitute
+ of original genius; they implicitly transcribe the rules and
+ maxims which had been confirmed by victories. It was unskilled in
+ the propriety of style and method; they blindly confound the most
+ distant and discordant institutions, the phalanx of Sparta and
+ that of Macedon, the legions of Cato and Trajan, of Augustus and
+ Theodosius. Even the use, or at least the importance, of these
+ military rudiments may be fairly questioned: their general theory
+ is dictated by reason; but the merit, as well as difficulty,
+ consists in the application. The discipline of a soldier is
+ formed by exercise rather than by study: the talents of a
+ commander are appropriated to those calm, though rapid, minds,
+ which nature produces to decide the fate of armies and nations:
+ the former is the habit of a life, the latter the glance of a
+ moment; and the battles won by lessons of tactics may be numbered
+ with the epic poems created from the rules of criticism. The book
+ of ceremonies is a recital, tedious yet imperfect, of the
+ despicable pageantry which had infected the church and state
+ since the gradual decay of the purity of the one and the power of
+ the other. A review of the themes or provinces might promise such
+ authentic and useful information, as the curiosity of government
+ only can obtain, instead of traditionary fables on the origin of
+ the cities, and malicious epigrams on the vices of their
+ inhabitants. 10 Such information the historian would have been
+ pleased to record; nor should his silence be condemned if the
+ most interesting objects, the population of the capital and
+ provinces, the amount of the taxes and revenues, the numbers of
+ subjects and strangers who served under the Imperial standard,
+ have been unnoticed by Leo the philosopher, and his son
+ Constantine. His treatise of the public administration is stained
+ with the same blemishes; yet it is discriminated by peculiar
+ merit; the antiquities of the nations may be doubtful or
+ fabulous; but the geography and manners of the Barbaric world are
+ delineated with curious accuracy. Of these nations, the Franks
+ alone were qualified to observe in their turn, and to describe,
+ the metropolis of the East. The ambassador of the great Otho, a
+ bishop of Cremona, has painted the state of Constantinople about
+ the middle of the tenth century: his style is glowing, his
+ narrative lively, his observation keen; and even the prejudices
+ and passions of Liutprand are stamped with an original character
+ of freedom and genius. 11 From this scanty fund of foreign and
+ domestic materials, I shall investigate the form and substance of
+ the Byzantine empire; the provinces and wealth, the civil
+ government and military force, the character and literature, of
+ the Greeks in a period of six hundred years, from the reign of
+ Heraclius to his successful invasion of the Franks or Latins.
+
+ 8 (return) [ The life and writings of Simon Metaphrastes are
+ described by Hankius, (de Scriptoribus Byzant. p. 418-460.) This
+ biographer of the saints indulged himself in a loose paraphrase
+ of the sense or nonsense of more ancient acts. His Greek rhetoric
+ is again paraphrased in the Latin version of Surius, and scarcely
+ a thread can be now visible of the original texture.]
+
+ 9 (return) [ According to the first book of the Cyropaedia,
+ professors of tactics, a small part of the science of war, were
+ already instituted in Persia, by which Greece must be understood.
+ A good edition of all the Scriptores Tactici would be a task not
+ unworthy of a scholar. His industry might discover some new Mss.,
+ and his learning might illustrate the military history of the
+ ancients. But this scholar should be likewise a soldier; and
+ alas! Quintus Icilius is no more. * Note: M. Guichardt, author of
+ Memoires Militaires sur les Grecs et sur les Romains. See
+ Gibbon’s Extraits Raisonnees de mes Lectures, Misc. Works vol. v.
+ p. 219.—M]
+
+ 10 (return) [ After observing that the demerit of the
+ Cappadocians rose in proportion to their rank and riches, he
+ inserts a more pointed epigram, which is ascribed to Demodocus.
+ The sting is precisely the same with the French epigram against
+ Freron: Un serpent mordit Jean Freron—Eh bien? Le serpent en
+ mourut. But as the Paris wits are seldom read in the Anthology, I
+ should be curious to learn, through what channel it was conveyed
+ for their imitation, (Constantin. Porphyrogen. de Themat. c. ii.
+ Brunck Analect. Graec. tom. ii. p. 56. Brodaei Anthologia, l. ii.
+ p. 244.)]
+
+ 11 (return) [ The Legatio Liutprandi Episcopi Cremonensis ad
+ Nicephorum Phocam is inserted in Muratori, Scriptores Rerum
+ Italicarum, tom. ii. pars i.]
+
+ After the final division between the sons of Theodosius, the
+ swarms of Barbarians from Scythia and Germany over-spread the
+ provinces and extinguished the empire of ancient Rome. The
+ weakness of Constantinople was concealed by extent of dominion:
+ her limits were inviolate, or at least entire; and the kingdom of
+ Justinian was enlarged by the splendid acquisition of Africa and
+ Italy. But the possession of these new conquests was transient
+ and precarious; and almost a moiety of the Eastern empire was
+ torn away by the arms of the Saracens. Syria and Egypt were
+ oppressed by the Arabian caliphs; and, after the reduction of
+ Africa, their lieutenants invaded and subdued the Roman province
+ which had been changed into the Gothic monarchy of Spain. The
+ islands of the Mediterranean were not inaccessible to their naval
+ powers; and it was from their extreme stations, the harbors of
+ Crete and the fortresses of Cilicia, that the faithful or rebel
+ emirs insulted the majesty of the throne and capital. The
+ remaining provinces, under the obedience of the emperors, were
+ cast into a new mould; and the jurisdiction of the presidents,
+ the consulars, and the counts were superseded by the institution
+ of the themes, 12 or military governments, which prevailed under
+ the successors of Heraclius, and are described by the pen of the
+ royal author. Of the twenty-nine themes, twelve in Europe and
+ seventeen in 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 the character and attributes of the troops that
+ were maintained at the expense, and for the guard, of the
+ respective divisions. The vanity of the Greek princes most
+ eagerly grasped the shadow of conquest and the memory of lost
+ dominion. A new Mesopotamia was created on the western side of
+ the Euphrates: the appellation and praetor of Sicily were
+ transferred to a narrow slip of Calabria; and a fragment of the
+ duchy of Beneventum was promoted to the style and title of the
+ theme of Lombardy. In the decline of the Arabian empire, the
+ successors of Constantine might indulge their pride in more solid
+ advantages. The victories of Nicephorus, John Zimisces, and Basil
+ the Second, revived the fame, and enlarged the boundaries, of the
+ Roman name: the province of Cilicia, the metropolis of Antioch,
+ the islands of Crete and Cyprus, were restored to the allegiance
+ of Christ and Caesar: one third of Italy was annexed to the
+ throne of Constantinople: the kingdom of Bulgaria was destroyed;
+ and the last sovereigns of the Macedonian dynasty extended their
+ sway from the sources of the Tigris to the neighborhood of Rome.
+ In the eleventh century, the prospect was again clouded by new
+ enemies and new misfortunes: the relics of Italy were swept away
+ by the Norman adventures; and almost all the Asiatic branches
+ were dissevered from the Roman trunk by the Turkish conquerors.
+ After these losses, the emperors of the Comnenian family
+ continued to reign from the Danube to Peloponnesus, and from
+ Belgrade to Nice, Trebizond, and the winding stream 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 or
+ Holy Sea; 13 and the remnant of their empire transcends the
+ measure of the largest of the European kingdoms.
+
+ 12 (return) [ 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 are attempted for the Opiscian, Optimatian,
+ Thracesian, themes.]
+
+ 13 (return) [ It is styled by the modern Greeks, from which the
+ corrupt names of Archipelago, l’Archipel, and the Arches, have
+ been transformed by geographers and seamen, (D’Anville,
+ Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 281. Analyse de la Carte de la
+ Greece, p. 60.) The numbers of monks or caloyers in all the
+ islands and the adjacent mountain of Athos, (Observations de
+ Belon, fol. 32, verso,) monte santo, might justify the epithet of
+ holy, a slight alteration from the original, imposed by the
+ Dorians, who, in their dialect, gave the figurative name of
+ goats, to the bounding waves, (Vossius, apud Cellarium, Geograph.
+ Antiq. tom. i. p. 829.)]
+
+ The same princes might assert, with dignity and truth, that of
+ all the monarchs of Christendom they possessed the greatest city,
+ 14 the most ample revenue, the most flourishing and populous
+ state. With the decline and 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 narrow precincts of Paris and
+ London, prepare the Latin stranger to contemplate the situation
+ and extent of Constantinople, her stately palaces and churches,
+ and the arts and luxury of an innumerable people. Her treasures
+ might attract, but her virgin strength had repelled, and still
+ promised to repel, the audacious invasion of the Persian and
+ Bulgarian, the Arab and the Russian. The provinces were less
+ fortunate and impregnable; and few districts, few cities, could
+ be discovered which had not been violated by some fierce
+ Barbarian, impatient to despoil, because he was hopeless to
+ possess. From the age of Justinian the Eastern empire was sinking
+ below its former level; the powers of destruction were more
+ active than those of improvement; and the calamities of war were
+ imbittered by the more permanent evils of civil and
+ ecclesiastical tyranny. The captive who had escaped from the
+ Barbarians was often stripped and imprisoned by the ministers of
+ his sovereign: the Greek superstition relaxed the mind by prayer,
+ and emaciated the body by fasting; and the multitude of convents
+ and festivals diverted many hands and many days from the temporal
+ service of mankind. Yet the subjects of the Byzantine empire were
+ still the most dexterous and diligent of nations; their country
+ was blessed by nature with every advantage of soil, climate, and
+ situation; and, in the support and restoration of the arts, their
+ patient and peaceful temper was more useful than the warlike
+ spirit and feudal anarchy of Europe. The provinces that still
+ adhered to the empire were repeopled and enriched by the
+ misfortunes of those which were irrecoverably lost. From the yoke
+ of the caliphs, the Catholics of Syria, Egypt, and Africa retired
+ to the allegiance of their prince, to the society of their
+ brethren: the movable wealth, which eludes the search of
+ oppression, accompanied and alleviated their exile, and
+ Constantinople received into her bosom the fugitive trade of
+ Alexandria and Tyre. The chiefs of Armenia and Scythia, who fled
+ from hostile or religious persecution, were hospitably
+ entertained: their followers were encouraged to build new cities
+ and to cultivate waste lands; and many spots, both in Europe and
+ Asia, preserved the name, the manners, or at least the memory, of
+ these national colonies. Even the tribes of Barbarians, who had
+ seated themselves in arms on the territory of the empire, were
+ gradually reclaimed to the laws of the church and state; and as
+ long as they were separated from the Greeks, their posterity
+ supplied a race of faithful and obedient soldiers. Did we possess
+ sufficient materials to survey the twenty-nine themes of the
+ Byzantine monarchy, our curiosity might be satisfied with a
+ chosen example: it is fortunate enough that the clearest light
+ should be thrown on the most interesting province, and the name
+ of Peloponnesus will awaken the attention of the classic reader.
+
+ 14 (return) [ According to the Jewish traveller who had visited
+ Europe and Asia, Constantinople was equalled only by Bagdad, the
+ great city of the 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 the
+ Iconoclasts, Greece, and even Peloponnesus, 15 were overrun by
+ some Sclavonian bands who outstripped the royal standard of
+ Bulgaria. The strangers of old, Cadmus, and Danaus, and Pelops,
+ had planted in that fruitful soil the seeds of policy and
+ learning; but the savages of the north eradicated what yet
+ remained of their sickly and withered roots. In this irruption,
+ the country and the inhabitants were transformed; the Grecian
+ blood was contaminated; and the proudest nobles of Peloponnesus
+ were branded with the names of foreigners and slaves. By the
+ diligence of succeeding princes, the land was in some measure
+ purified from the Barbarians; and the humble remnant was bound by
+ an oath of obedience, tribute, and military service, which they
+ often renewed and often violated. The siege of Patras was formed
+ by a singular concurrence of the Sclavonians of Peloponnesus and
+ the Saracens of Africa. In their last distress, a pious fiction
+ of the approach of the praetor of Corinth revived the courage of
+ the citizens. Their sally was bold and successful; the strangers
+ embarked, the rebels submitted, and the glory of the day was
+ ascribed to a phantom or a stranger, who fought in the foremost
+ ranks under the character of St. Andrew the Apostle. The shrine
+ which contained his relics was decorated with the trophies of
+ victory, and the captive race was forever devoted to the service
+ and vassalage of the metropolitan church of Patras. By the revolt
+ of two Sclavonian tribes, in the neighborhood of Helos and
+ Lacedaemon, the peace of the peninsula was often disturbed. They
+ sometimes insulted the weakness, and sometimes resisted the
+ oppression, of the Byzantine government, till at length the
+ approach of their hostile brethren extorted a golden bull to
+ define the rites and obligations of the Ezzerites and Milengi,
+ whose annual tribute was defined at twelve hundred pieces of
+ gold. From these strangers the Imperial geographer has accurately
+ distinguished a domestic, and perhaps original, race, who, in
+ some degree, might derive their blood from the much-injured
+ Helots. The liberality of the Romans, and especially of Augustus,
+ had enfranchised the maritime cities from the dominion of Sparta;
+ and the continuance of the same benefit ennobled them with the
+ title of Eleuthero, or Free-Laconians. 16 In the time of
+ Constantine Porphyrogenitus, they had acquired the name of
+ Mainotes, under which they dishonor the claim of liberty by the
+ inhuman pillage of all that is shipwrecked on their rocky shores.
+ Their territory, barren of corn, but fruitful of olives, extended
+ to the Cape of Malea: they accepted a chief or prince from the
+ Byzantine praetor, and a light tribute of four hundred pieces of
+ gold was the badge of their immunity, rather than of their
+ dependence. The freemen of Laconia assumed the character of
+ Romans, and long adhered to the religion of the Greeks. By the
+ zeal of the emperor Basil, they were baptized in the faith of
+ Christ: but the altars of Venus and Neptune had been crowned by
+ these rustic votaries five hundred years after they were
+ proscribed in the Roman world. In the theme of Peloponnesus, 17
+ forty cities were still numbered, and the declining state of
+ Sparta, Argos, and Corinth, may be suspended in the tenth
+ century, at an equal distance, perhaps, between their antique
+ splendor and their present desolation. The duty of military
+ service, either in person or by substitute, was imposed on the
+ lands or benefices of the province; a sum of five pieces of gold
+ was assessed on each of the substantial tenants; and the same
+ capitation was shared among several heads of inferior value. On
+ the proclamation of an Italian war, the Peloponnesians excused
+ themselves by a voluntary oblation of one hundred pounds of gold,
+ (four thousand pounds sterling,) and a thousand horses with their
+ arms and trappings. The churches and monasteries furnished their
+ contingent; a sacrilegious profit was extorted from the sale of
+ ecclesiastical honors; and the indigent bishop of Leucadia 18 was
+ made responsible for a pension of one hundred pieces of gold. 19
+
+ 15 (return) [ Says Constantine, (Thematibus, l. ii. c. vi. p.
+ 25,) in a style as barbarous as the idea, which he confirms, as
+ usual, by a foolish epigram. The epitomizer of Strabo likewise
+ observes, (l. vii. p. 98, edit. Hudson. edit. Casaub. 1251;) a
+ passage which leads Dodwell a weary dance (Geograph, Minor. tom.
+ ii. dissert. vi. p. 170-191) to enumerate the inroads of the
+ Sclavi, and to fix the date (A.D. 980) of this petty geographer.]
+
+ 16 (return) [ Strabon. Geograph. l. viii. p. 562. Pausanius,
+ Graec. Descriptio, l. c 21, p. 264, 265. Pliny, Hist. Natur. l.
+ iv. c. 8.]
+
+ 17 (return) [ Constantin. de Administrando Imperio, l. ii. c. 50,
+ 51, 52.]
+
+ 18 (return) [ The rock of Leucate was the southern promontory of
+ his island and diocese. Had he been the exclusive guardian of the
+ Lover’s Leap so well known to the readers of Ovid (Epist. Sappho)
+ and the Spectator, he might have been the richest prelate of the
+ Greek church.]
+
+ 19 (return) [ Leucatensis mihi juravit episcopus, quotannis
+ ecclesiam suam debere Nicephoro aureos centum persolvere,
+ similiter et ceteras plus minusve secundum vires suos, (Liutprand
+ in Legat. p. 489.)]
+
+ But the wealth of the province, and the trust of the revenue,
+ were founded on the fair and plentiful produce of trade and
+ manufacturers; and some symptoms of liberal policy may be traced
+ in a law which exempts from all personal taxes the mariners of
+ Peloponnesus, and the workmen in parchment and purple. This
+ denomination may be fairly applied or extended to the
+ manufacturers of linen, woollen, and more especially of silk: the
+ two former of which had flourished in Greece since the days of
+ Homer; and the last was introduced perhaps as early as the reign
+ of Justinian. These arts, which were exercised at Corinth,
+ Thebes, and Argos, afforded food and occupation to a numerous
+ people: the men, women, and children were distributed according
+ to their age and strength; and, if many of these were domestic
+ slaves, their masters, who directed the work and enjoyed the
+ profit, were of a free and honorable condition. The gifts which a
+ rich and generous matron of Peloponnesus presented to the emperor
+ Basil, her adopted son, were doubtless fabricated in the Grecian
+ looms. Danielis bestowed a carpet of fine wool, of a pattern
+ which imitated the spots of a peacock’s tail, of a magnitude to
+ overspread the floor of a new church, erected in the triple name
+ of Christ, of Michael the archangel, and of the prophet Elijah.
+ She gave six hundred pieces of silk and linen, of various use and
+ denomination: the silk was painted with the Tyrian dye, and
+ adorned by the labors of the needle; and the linen was so
+ exquisitely fine, that an entire piece might be rolled in the
+ hollow of a cane. 20 In his description of the Greek
+ manufactures, an historian of Sicily discriminates their price,
+ according to the weight and quality of the silk, the closeness of
+ the texture, the beauty of the colors, and the taste and
+ materials of the embroidery. A single, or even a double or treble
+ thread was thought sufficient for ordinary sale; but the union of
+ six threads composed a piece of stronger and more costly
+ workmanship. Among the colors, he celebrates, with affectation of
+ eloquence, the fiery blaze of the scarlet, and the softer lustre
+ of the green. The embroidery was raised either in silk or gold:
+ the more simple ornament of stripes or circles was surpassed by
+ the nicer imitation of flowers: the vestments that were
+ fabricated for the palace or the altar often glittered with
+ precious stones; and the figures were delineated in strings of
+ Oriental pearls. 21 Till the twelfth century, Greece alone, of
+ all the countries of Christendom, was possessed of the insect who
+ is taught by nature, and of the workmen who are instructed by
+ art, to prepare this elegant luxury. But the secret had been
+ stolen by the dexterity and diligence of the Arabs: the caliphs
+ of the East and West scorned to borrow from the unbelievers their
+ furniture and apparel; and two cities of Spain, Almeria and
+ Lisbon, were famous for the manufacture, the use, and, perhaps,
+ the exportation, of silk. It was first introduced into Sicily by
+ the Normans; and this emigration of trade distinguishes the
+ victory of Roger from the uniform and fruitless hostilities of
+ every age. After the sack of Corinth, Athens, and Thebes, his
+ lieutenant embarked with a captive train of weavers and
+ artificers of both sexes, a trophy glorious to their master, and
+ disgraceful to the Greek emperor. 22 The king of Sicily was not
+ insensible of the value of the present; and, in the restitution
+ of the prisoners, he excepted only the male and female
+ manufacturers of Thebes and Corinth, who labor, says the
+ Byzantine historian, under a barbarous lord, like the old
+ Eretrians in the service of Darius. 23 A stately edifice, in the
+ palace of Palermo, was erected for the use of this industrious
+ colony; 24 and the art was propagated by their children and
+ disciples to satisfy the increasing demand of the western world.
+ The decay of the looms of Sicily may be ascribed to the troubles
+ of the island, and the competition of the Italian cities. In the
+ year thirteen hundred and fourteen, Lucca alone, among her sister
+ republics, enjoyed the lucrative monopoly. 25 A domestic
+ revolution dispersed the manufacturers to Florence, Bologna,
+ Venice, Milan, and even the countries beyond the Alps; and
+ thirteen years after this event the statutes of Modena enjoin the
+ planting of mulberry-trees, and regulate the duties on raw silk.
+ 26 The northern climates are less propitious to the education of
+ the silkworm; but the industry of France and England 27 is
+ supplied and enriched by the productions of Italy and China.
+
+ 20 (return) [ See Constantine, (in Vit. Basil. c. 74, 75, 76, p.
+ 195, 197, in Script. post Theophanem,) who allows himself to use
+ many technical or barbarous words: barbarous, says he. Ducange
+ labors on some: but he was not a weaver.]
+
+ 21 (return) [ The manufactures of Palermo, as they are described
+ by Hugo Falcandus, (Hist. Sicula in proem. in Muratori Script.
+ Rerum Italicarum, tom. v. p. 256,) is a copy of those of Greece.
+ Without transcribing his declamatory sentences, which I have
+ softened in the text, I shall observe, that in this passage the
+ strange word exarentasmata is very properly changed for
+ exanthemata by Carisius, the first editor Falcandus lived about
+ the year 1190.]
+
+ 22 (return) [ Inde ad interiora Graeciae progressi, Corinthum,
+ Thebas, Athenas, antiqua nobilitate celebres, expugnant; et,
+ maxima ibidem praeda direpta, opifices etiam, qui sericos pannos
+ texere solent, ob ignominiam Imperatoris illius, suique principis
+ gloriam, captivos deducunt. Quos Rogerius, in Palermo Siciliae,
+ metropoli collocans, artem texendi suos edocere praecepit; et
+ exhinc praedicta ars illa, prius a Graecis 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 celebrate Lisbon and Almeria in sericorum pannorum opificio
+ praenobilissimae, (in Chron. apud Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom.
+ ix. p. 415.)]
+
+ 23 (return) [ Nicetas in Manuel, l. ii. c. 8. p. 65. He describes
+ these Greeks as skilled.]
+
+ 24 (return) [ Hugo Falcandus styles them nobiles officinas. The
+ Arabs had not introduced silk, though they had planted canes and
+ made sugar in the plain of Palermo.]
+
+ 25 (return) [ See the Life of Castruccio Casticani, not by
+ Machiavel, but by his more authentic biographer Nicholas Tegrimi.
+ Muratori, who has inserted it in the xith volume of his
+ Scriptores, quotes this curious passage in his Italian
+ Antiquities, (tom. i. dissert. xxv. p. 378.)]
+
+ 26 (return) [ From the Ms. statutes, as they are quoted by
+ Muratori in his Italian Antiquities, (tom. ii. dissert. xxv. p.
+ 46-48.)]
+
+ 27 (return) [ The broad silk manufacture was established in
+ England in the year 1620, (Anderson’s Chronological Deduction,
+ vol. ii. p. 4: ) but it is to the revocation of the edict of
+ Nantes that we owe the Spitalfields colony.]
+
+
+
+
+ Chapter LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire.—Part II.
+
+ I must repeat the complaint that the vague and scanty memorials
+ of the times will not afford any just estimate of the taxes, the
+ revenue, and the resources of the Greek empire. From every
+ province of Europe and Asia the rivulets of gold and silver
+ discharged into the Imperial reservoir a copious and perennial
+ stream. The separation of the branches from the trunk increased
+ the relative magnitude of Constantinople; and the maxims of
+ despotism contracted the state to the capital, the capital to the
+ palace, and the palace to the royal person. A Jewish traveller,
+ who visited the East in the twelfth century, is lost in his
+ admiration of the Byzantine riches. “It is here,” says Benjamin
+ of Tudela, “in the queen of cities, that the tributes of the
+ Greek empire are annually deposited and the lofty towers are
+ filled with precious magazines of silk, purple, and gold. It is
+ said, that Constantinople pays each day to her sovereign twenty
+ thousand pieces of gold; which are levied on the shops, taverns,
+ and markets, on the merchants of Persia and Egypt, of Russia and
+ Hungary, of Italy and Spain, who frequent the capital by sea and
+ land.” 28 In all pecuniary matters, the authority of a Jew is
+ doubtless respectable; but as the three hundred and sixty-five
+ days would produce a yearly income exceeding seven millions
+ sterling, I am tempted to retrench at least the numerous
+ festivals of the Greek calendar. The mass of treasure that was
+ saved by Theodora and Basil the Second will suggest a splendid,
+ though indefinite, idea of their supplies and resources. The
+ mother of Michael, before she retired to a cloister, attempted to
+ check or expose the prodigality of her ungrateful son, by a free
+ and faithful account of the wealth which he inherited; one
+ hundred and nine thousand pounds of gold, and three hundred
+ thousand of silver, the fruits of her own economy and that of her
+ deceased husband. 29 The avarice of Basil is not less renowned
+ than his valor and fortune: his victorious armies were paid and
+ rewarded without breaking into the mass of two hundred thousand
+ pounds of gold, (about eight millions sterling,) which he had
+ buried in the subterraneous vaults of the palace. 30 Such
+ accumulation of treasure is rejected by the theory and practice
+ of modern policy; and we are more apt to compute the national
+ riches by the use and abuse of the public credit. Yet the maxims
+ of antiquity are still embraced by a monarch formidable to his
+ enemies; by a republic respectable to her allies; and both have
+ attained their respective ends of military power and domestic
+ tranquillity.
+
+ 28 (return) [ Voyage de Benjamin de Tudele, tom. i. c. 5, p.
+ 44-52. The Hebrew text has been translated into French by that
+ marvellous child Baratier, who has added a volume of crude
+ learning. The errors and fictions of the Jewish rabbi are not a
+ sufficient ground to deny the reality of his travels. * Note: I
+ am inclined, with Buegnot (Les Juifs d’Occident, part iii. p. 101
+ et seqq.) and Jost (Geschichte der Israeliter, vol. vi. anhang.
+ p. 376) to consider this work a mere compilation, and to doubt
+ the reality of the travels.—M.]
+
+ 29 (return) [ See the continuator of Theophanes, (l. iv. p. 107,)
+ Cedremis, (p. 544,) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xvi. p. 157.)]
+
+ 30 (return) [ Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xvii. p. 225,) instead of
+ pounds, uses the more classic appellation of talents, which, in a
+ literal sense and strict computation, would multiply sixty fold
+ the treasure of Basil.]
+
+ Whatever might be consumed for the present wants, or reserved for
+ the future use, of the state, the first and most sacred demand
+ was for the pomp and pleasure of the emperor, and his discretion
+ only could define the measure of his private expense. The princes
+ of Constantinople were far removed from the simplicity of nature;
+ yet, with the revolving seasons, 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 to enjoy, the rustic
+ festival of the vintage: their leisure was amused by the exercise
+ of the chase and the calmer occupation of fishing, and in the
+ summer heats, they were shaded from the sun, and refreshed by the
+ cooling breezes from the sea. The coasts and islands of Asia and
+ Europe were covered with their magnificent villas; but, instead
+ of the modest art which secretly strives to hide itself and to
+ decorate the scenery of nature, the marble structure of their
+ gardens served only to expose the riches of the lord, and the
+ labors of the architect. The successive casualties of inheritance
+ and forfeiture had rendered the sovereign proprietor of many
+ stately houses in the city and suburbs, of which twelve were
+ appropriated to the ministers of state; but the great palace, 31
+ the centre of the Imperial residence, was fixed during eleven
+ centuries to the same position, between the hippodrome, the
+ cathedral of St. Sophia, and the gardens, which descended by many
+ a terrace to the shores of the Propontis. The primitive edifice
+ of the first Constantine was a copy, or rival, of ancient Rome;
+ the gradual improvements of his successors aspired to emulate the
+ wonders of the old world, 32 and in the tenth century, the
+ Byzantine palace excited the admiration, at least of the Latins,
+ by an unquestionable preeminence of strength, size, and
+ magnificence. 33 But the toil and treasure of so many ages had
+ produced a vast and irregular pile: each separate building was
+ marked with the character of the times and of the founder; and
+ the want of space might excuse the reigning monarch, who
+ demolished, perhaps with secret satisfaction, the works of his
+ predecessors. The economy of the emperor Theophilus allowed a
+ more free and ample scope for his domestic luxury and splendor. A
+ favorite ambassador, who had astonished the Abbassides themselves
+ by his pride and liberality, presented on his return the model of
+ a palace, which the caliph of Bagdad had recently constructed on
+ the banks of the Tigris. The model was instantly copied and
+ surpassed: the new buildings of Theophilus 34 were accompanied
+ with gardens, and with five churches, one of which was
+ conspicuous for size and beauty: it was crowned with three domes,
+ the roof of gilt brass reposed on columns of Italian marble, and
+ the walls were incrusted with marbles of various colors. In the
+ face of the church, a semicircular portico, of the figure and
+ name of the Greek sigma, was supported by fifteen columns of
+ Phrygian marble, and the subterraneous vaults were of a similar
+ construction. The square before the sigma was decorated with a
+ fountain, and the margin of the basin was lined and encompassed
+ with plates of silver. In the beginning of each season, the
+ basin, instead of water, was replenished with the most exquisite
+ fruits, which were abandoned to the populace for the
+ entertainment of the prince. He enjoyed this tumultuous spectacle
+ from a throne resplendent with gold and gems, which was raised by
+ a marble staircase to the height of a lofty terrace. Below the
+ throne were seated the officers of his guards, the magistrates,
+ the chiefs of the factions of the circus; the inferior steps were
+ occupied by the people, and the place below was covered with
+ troops of dancers, singers, and pantomimes. The square was
+ surrounded by the hall of justice, the arsenal, and the various
+ offices of business and pleasure; and the purple chamber was
+ named from the annual distribution of robes of scarlet and purple
+ by the hand of the empress herself. The long series of the
+ apartments was adapted to the seasons, and decorated with marble
+ and porphyry, with painting, sculpture, and mosaics, with a
+ profusion of gold, silver, and precious stones. His fanciful
+ magnificence employed the skill and patience of such artists as
+ the times could afford: but the taste of Athens would have
+ despised their frivolous and costly labors; a golden tree, with
+ its leaves and branches, which sheltered a multitude of birds
+ warbling their artificial notes, and two lions of massy gold, and
+ of natural size, who looked and roared like their brethren of the
+ forest. The successors of Theophilus, of the Basilian and
+ Comnenian dynasties, were not less ambitious of leaving some
+ memorial of their residence; and the portion of the palace most
+ splendid and august was dignified with the title of the golden
+ triclinium. 35 With becoming modesty, the rich and noble Greeks
+ aspired to imitate their sovereign, and when they passed through
+ the streets on horseback, in their robes of silk and embroidery,
+ they were mistaken by the children for kings. 36 A matron of
+ Peloponnesus, 37 who had cherished the infant fortunes of Basil
+ the Macedonian, was excited by tenderness or vanity to visit the
+ greatness of her adopted son. In a journey of five hundred miles
+ from Patras to Constantinople, her age or indolence declined the
+ fatigue of a horse or carriage: the soft litter or bed of
+ Danielis was transported on the shoulders of ten robust slaves;
+ and as they were relieved at easy distances, a band of three
+ hundred were selected for the performance of this service. She
+ was entertained in the Byzantine palace with filial reverence,
+ and the honors of a queen; and whatever might be the origin of
+ her wealth, her gifts were not unworthy of the regal dignity. I
+ have already described the fine and curious manufactures of
+ Peloponnesus, of linen, silk, and woollen; but the most
+ acceptable of her presents consisted in three hundred beautiful
+ youths, of whom one hundred were eunuchs; 38 “for she was not
+ ignorant,” says the historian, “that the air of the palace is
+ more congenial to such insects, than a shepherd’s dairy to the
+ flies of the summer.” During her lifetime, she bestowed the
+ greater part of her estates in Peloponnesus, and her testament
+ instituted Leo, the son of Basil, her universal heir. After the
+ payment of the legacies, fourscore villas or farms were added to
+ the Imperial domain; and three thousand slaves of Danielis were
+ enfranchised by their new lord, and transplanted as a colony to
+ the Italian coast. From this example of a private matron, we may
+ estimate the wealth and magnificence of the emperors. Yet our
+ enjoyments are confined by a narrow circle; and, whatsoever may
+ be its value, the luxury of life is possessed with more innocence
+ and safety by the master of his own, than by the steward of the
+ public, fortune.
+
+ 31 (return) [ For a copious and minute description of the
+ Imperial palace, see the Constantinop. Christiana (l. ii. c. 4,
+ p. 113-123) of Ducange, the Tillemont of the middle ages. Never
+ has laborious Germany produced two antiquarians more laborious
+ and accurate than these two natives of lively France.]
+
+ 32 (return) [ The Byzantine palace surpasses the Capitol, the
+ palace of Pergamus, the Rufinian wood, the temple of Adrian at
+ Cyzicus, the pyramids, the Pharus, &c., according to an epigram
+ (Antholog. Graec. l. iv. p. 488, 489. Brodaei, apud Wechel)
+ ascribed to Julian, ex-praefect of Egypt. Seventy-one of his
+ epigrams, some lively, are collected in Brunck, (Analect. Graec.
+ tom. ii. p. 493-510; but this is wanting.]
+
+ 33 (return) [ Constantinopolitanum Palatium non pulchritudine
+ solum, verum stiam fortitudine, omnibus quas unquam videram
+ munitionibus praestat, (Liutprand, Hist. l. v. c. 9, p. 465.)]
+
+ 34 (return) [ 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.)]
+
+ 35 (return) [ In aureo triclinio quae praestantior est pars
+ potentissimus (the usurper Romanus) degens caeteras partes
+ (filiis) distribuerat, (Liutprand. Hist. l. v. c. 9, p. 469.) For
+ this last signification of Triclinium see Ducange (Gloss. Graec.
+ et Observations sur Joinville, p. 240) and Reiske, (ad
+ Constantinum de Ceremoniis, p. 7.)]
+
+ 36 (return) [ In equis vecti (says Benjamin of Tudela) regum
+ filiis videntur persimiles. I prefer the Latin version of
+ Constantine l’Empereur (p. 46) to the French of Baratier, (tom.
+ i. p. 49.)]
+
+ 37 (return) [ See the account of her journey, munificence, and
+ testament, in the life of Basil, by his grandson Constantine, (p.
+ 74, 75, 76, p. 195-197.)]
+
+ 38 (return) [ Carsamatium. Graeci vocant, amputatis virilibus et
+ virga, puerum eunuchum quos Verdunenses mercatores obinmensum
+ lucrum facere solent et in Hispaniam ducere, (Liutprand, l. vi.
+ c. 3, p. 470.)—The last abomination of the abominable
+ slave-trade! Yet I am surprised to find, in the xth century, such
+ active speculations of commerce in Lorraine.]
+
+ In an absolute government, which levels the distinctions of noble
+ and plebeian birth, the sovereign is the sole fountain of honor;
+ and the rank, both in the palace and the empire, depends on the
+ titles and offices which are bestowed and resumed by his
+ arbitrary will. Above a thousand years, from Vespasian to Alexius
+ Comnenus, 39 the Caesar was the second person, or at least the
+ second degree, after the supreme title of Augustus was more
+ freely communicated to the sons and brothers of the reigning
+ monarch. To elude without violating his promise to a powerful
+ associate, the husband of his sister, and, without giving himself
+ an equal, to reward the piety of his brother Isaac, the crafty
+ Alexius interposed a new and supereminent dignity. The happy
+ flexibility of the Greek tongue allowed him to compound the names
+ of Augustus and Emperor (Sebastos and Autocrator,) and the union
+ produces the sonorous title of Sebastocrator. He was exalted
+ above the Caesar on the first step of the throne: the public
+ acclamations repeated his name; and he was only distinguished
+ from the sovereign by some peculiar ornaments of the head and
+ feet. The emperor alone could assume the purple or red buskins,
+ and the close diadem or tiara, which imitated the fashion of the
+ Persian kings. 40 It was a high pyramidal cap of cloth or silk,
+ almost concealed by a profusion of pearls and jewels: the crown
+ was formed by a horizontal circle and two arches of gold: at the
+ summit, the point of their intersection, was placed a globe or
+ cross, and two strings or lappets of pearl depended on either
+ cheek. Instead of red, the buskins of the Sebastocrator and
+ Caesar were green; and on their open coronets or crowns, the
+ precious gems were more sparingly distributed. Beside and below
+ the Caesar the fancy of Alexius created the Panhypersebastos and
+ the Protosebastos, whose sound and signification will satisfy a
+ Grecian ear. They imply a superiority and a priority above the
+ simple name of Augustus; and this sacred and primitive title of
+ the Roman prince was degraded to the kinsmen and servants of the
+ Byzantine court. The daughter of Alexius applauds, with fond
+ complacency, this artful gradation of hopes and honors; but the
+ science of words is accessible to the meanest capacity; and this
+ vain dictionary was easily enriched by the pride of his
+ successors. To their favorite sons or brothers, they imparted the
+ more lofty appellation of Lord or Despot, which was illustrated
+ with new ornaments, and prerogatives, and placed immediately
+ after the person of the emperor himself. The five titles of, 1.
+ Despot; 2. Sebastocrator; 3. Caesar; 4. Panhypersebastos; and, 5.
+ Protosebastos; were usually confined to the princes of his blood:
+ they were the emanations of his majesty; but as they exercised no
+ regular functions, their existence was useless, and their
+ authority precarious.
+
+ 39 (return) [ 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, the inventor of this royal
+ art.]
+
+ 40 (return) [ See Reiske, and Ceremoniale, p. 14, 15. Ducange has
+ given a 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
+ be divided and exercised by the ministers of the palace and
+ treasury, the fleet and army. The titles alone can differ; and in
+ the revolution of ages, the counts and praefects, the praetor and
+ quaestor, insensibly descended, while their servants rose above
+ their heads to the first honors of the state. 1. In a monarchy,
+ which refers every object to the person of the prince, the care
+ and ceremonies of the palace form the most respectable
+ department. The Curopalata, 41 so illustrious in the age of
+ Justinian, was supplanted by the Protovestiare, whose primitive
+ functions were limited to the custody of the wardrobe. From
+ thence his jurisdiction 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, or accountant, was applied to
+ the receivers of the finances: the principal officers were
+ distinguished as the Logothetes of the domain, of the posts, the
+ army, the private and public treasure; and the great Logothete,
+ the supreme guardian of the laws and revenues, is compared with
+ the chancellor of the Latin monarchies. 42 His discerning eye
+ pervaded the civil administration; and he was assisted, in due
+ subordination, by the eparch or praefect of the city, the first
+ secretary, and the keepers of the privy seal, the archives, and
+ the red or purple ink which was reserved for the sacred signature
+ of the emperor alone. 43 The introductor and interpreter of
+ foreign ambassadors were the great Chiauss 44 and the Dragoman,
+ 45 two names of Turkish origin, and which are still familiar to
+ the Sublime Porte. 3. From the humble style and service of
+ guards, the Domestics insensibly rose to the station of generals;
+ the military themes of the East and West, the legions of Europe
+ and Asia, were often divided, till the great Domestic was finally
+ invested with the universal and absolute command of the land
+ forces. The Protostrator, in his original functions, was the
+ assistant of the emperor when he mounted on horseback: he
+ gradually became the lieutenant of the great Domestic in the
+ field; and his jurisdiction extended over the stables, the
+ cavalry, and the royal train of hunting and hawking. The
+ Stratopedarch was the great judge of the camp: the Protospathaire
+ commanded the guards; the Constable, 46 the great Aeteriarch, and
+ the Acolyth, were the separate chiefs of the Franks, the
+ Barbarians, and the Varangi, or English, the mercenary strangers,
+ who, at the decay of the national spirit, formed the nerve of the
+ Byzantine armies. 4. The naval powers were under the command of
+ the great Duke; in his absence they obeyed the great Drungaire of
+ the fleet; and, in his place, the Emir, or Admiral, a name of
+ Saracen extraction, 47 but which has been naturalized in all the
+ modern languages of Europe. Of these officers, and of many more
+ whom it would be useless to enumerate, the civil and military
+ hierarchy was framed. Their honors and emoluments, their dress
+ and titles, their mutual salutations and respective preeminence,
+ were balanced with more exquisite labor than would have fixed the
+ constitution of a free people; and the code was almost perfect
+ when this baseless fabric, the monument of pride and servitude,
+ was forever buried in the ruins of the empire. 48
+
+ 41 (return) [ Par exstans curis, solo diademate dispar, Ordine
+ pro rerum vocitatus Cura-Palati, says the African Corippus, (de
+ Laudibus Justini, l. i. 136,) and in the same century (the vith)
+ Cassiodorus represents him, who, virga aurea decoratus, inter
+ numerosa obsequia primus ante pedes regis incederet (Variar. vii.
+ 5.) But this great officer, (unknown,) exercising no function,
+ was cast down by the modern Greeks to the xvth rank, (Codin. c.
+ 5, p. 65.)]
+
+ 42 (return) [ Nicetas (in Manuel, l. vii. c. 1) defines him. Yet
+ the epithet was added by the elder Andronicus, (Ducange, tom. i.
+ p. 822, 823.)]
+
+ 43 (return) [ From Leo I. (A.D. 470) the Imperial ink, which is
+ still visible 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 the Dictionnaire Diplomatique, (tom. i. p.
+ 511-513) a valuable abridgment.]
+
+ 44 (return) [ 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 700 officers, (Rycaut’s Ottoman Empire, p. 349,
+ octavo edition.)]
+
+ 45 (return) [ 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)]
+
+ 46 (return) [ A corruption from the Latin Comes stabuli, or the
+ French Connetable. In a military sense, it was used by the Greeks
+ in the eleventh century, at least as early as in France.]
+
+ 47 (return) [ It was directly borrowed from the Normans. In the
+ xiith century, Giannone reckons the admiral of Sicily among the
+ great officers.]
+
+ 48 (return) [ This sketch of honors and offices is drawn from
+ George Cordinus Curopalata, who survived the taking of
+ Constantinople by the Turks: his elaborate, though trifling, work
+ (de Officiis Ecclesiae et Aulae C. P.) has been illustrated by
+ the notes of Goar, and the three books 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 has applied to the Supreme Being, have been prostituted
+ by flattery and fear to creatures of the same nature with
+ ourselves. The mode of adoration, 49 of falling prostrate on the
+ ground, and kissing the feet of the emperor, was borrowed by
+ Diocletian from Persian servitude; but it was continued and
+ aggravated till the last age of the Greek monarchy. Excepting
+ only on Sundays, when it was waived, from a motive of religious
+ pride, this humiliating reverence was exacted from all who
+ entered the royal presence, from the princes invested with the
+ diadem and purple, and from the ambassadors who represented their
+ independent sovereigns, the caliphs of Asia, Egypt, or Spain, the
+ kings of France and Italy, and the Latin emperors of ancient
+ Rome. In his transactions of business, Liutprand, bishop of
+ Cremona, 50 asserted the free spirit of a Frank and the dignity
+ of his master Otho. Yet his sincerity cannot disguise the
+ abasement of his first audience. When he approached the throne,
+ the birds of the golden tree began to warble their notes, which
+ were accompanied by the roarings of the two lions of gold. With
+ his two companions Liutprand was compelled to bow and to fall
+ prostrate; and thrice to touch the ground with his forehead. He
+ arose, but in the short interval, the throne had been hoisted
+ from the floor to the ceiling, the Imperial figure appeared in
+ new and more gorgeous apparel, and the interview was concluded in
+ haughty and majestic silence. In this honest and curious
+ narrative, the Bishop of Cremona represents the ceremonies of the
+ Byzantine court, which are still practised in the Sublime Porte,
+ and which were preserved in the last age by the dukes of Muscovy
+ or Russia. After a long journey by sea and land, from Venice to
+ Constantinople, the ambassador halted at the golden gate, till he
+ was conducted by the formal officers to the hospitable palace
+ prepared for his reception; but this palace was a prison, and his
+ jealous keepers prohibited all social intercourse either with
+ strangers or natives. At his first audience, he offered the gifts
+ of his master, slaves, and golden vases, and costly armor. The
+ ostentatious payment of the officers and troops displayed before
+ his eyes the riches of the empire: he was entertained at a royal
+ banquet, 51 in which the ambassadors of the nations were
+ marshalled by the esteem or contempt of the Greeks: from his own
+ table, the emperor, as the most signal favor, sent the plates
+ which he had tasted; and his favorites were dismissed with a robe
+ of honor. 52 In the morning and evening of each day, his civil
+ and military servants attended their duty in the palace; their
+ labors were repaid by the sight, perhaps by the smile, of their
+ lord; his commands were signified by a nod or a sign: but all
+ earthly greatness stood silent and submissive in his presence. In
+ his regular or extraordinary processions through the capital, he
+ unveiled his person to the public view: the rites of policy were
+ connected with those of religion, and his visits to the principal
+ churches were regulated by the festivals of the Greek calendar.
+ On the eve of these processions, the gracious or devout intention
+ of the monarch was proclaimed by the heralds. The streets were
+ cleared and purified; the pavement was strewed with flowers; the
+ most precious furniture, the gold and silver plate, and silken
+ hangings, were displayed from the windows and balconies, and a
+ severe discipline restrained and silenced the tumult of the
+ populace. The march was opened by the military officers at the
+ head of their troops: they were followed in long order by the
+ magistrates and ministers of the civil government: the person of
+ the emperor was guarded by his eunuchs and domestics, and at the
+ church door he was solemnly received by the patriarch and his
+ clergy. The task of applause was not abandoned to the rude and
+ spontaneous voices of the crowd. The most convenient stations
+ were occupied by the bands of the blue and green factions of the
+ circus; and their furious conflicts, which had shaken the
+ capital, were insensibly sunk to an emulation of servitude. From
+ either side they echoed in responsive melody the praises of the
+ emperor; their poets and musicians directed the choir, and long
+ life 53 and victory were the burden of every song. The same
+ acclamations were performed at the audience, the banquet, and the
+ church; and as an evidence of boundless sway, they were repeated
+ in the Latin, 54 Gothic, Persian, French, and even English
+ language, 55 by the mercenaries who sustained the real or
+ fictitious character of those nations. By the pen of Constantine
+ Porphyrogenitus, this science of form and flattery has been
+ reduced into a pompous and trifling volume, 56 which the vanity
+ of succeeding times might enrich with an ample supplement. Yet
+ the calmer reflection of a prince would surely suggest that the
+ same acclamations were applied to every character and every
+ reign: and if he had risen from a private rank, he might
+ remember, that his own voice had been the loudest and most eager
+ in applause, at the very moment when he envied the fortune, or
+ conspired against the life, of his predecessor. 57
+
+ 49 (return) [ The respectful salutation of carrying the hand to
+ the mouth, ad os, is the root of the Latin word adoro, adorare.
+ See our learned Selden, (vol. iii. p. 143-145, 942,) in his
+ Titles of Honor. It seems, from the 1st book of Herodotus, to be
+ of Persian origin.]
+
+ 50 (return) [ The two embassies of Liutprand to Constantinople,
+ all that he saw or suffered in the Greek capital, are pleasantly
+ described by himself (Hist. l. vi. c. 1-4, p. 469-471. Legatio ad
+ Nicephorum Phocam, p. 479-489.)]
+
+ 51 (return) [ Among the amusements of the feast, a boy balanced,
+ on his forehead, a pike, or pole, twenty-four feet long, with a
+ cross bar of two 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.) At another repast a homily of
+ Chrysostom on the Acts of the Apostles was read elata voce non
+ Latine, (p. 483.)]
+
+ 52 (return) [ Gala is not improbably derived from Cala, or
+ Caloat, in Arabic a robe of honor, (Reiske, Not. in Ceremon. p.
+ 84.)]
+
+ 53 (return) [ It is explained, (Codin, c. 7. Ducange, Gloss.
+ Graec. tom. i. p. 1199.)]
+
+ 54 (return) [ (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 might puzzle a professor.]
+
+ 55 (return) [ (Codin.p. 90.) I wish he had preserved the words,
+ however corrupt, of their English acclamation.]
+
+ 56 (return) [ For all these ceremonies, see the professed work of
+ Constantine Porphyrogenitus with the notes, or rather
+ dissertations, of his German editors, Leich and Reiske. For the
+ rank of standing courtiers, 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.]
+
+ 57 (return) [ Et privato Othoni et nuper eadem dicenti nota
+ adulatio, (Tacit. Hist. 1,85.)]
+
+ The princes of the North, of the nations, says Constantine,
+ without faith or fame, were ambitious of mingling their blood
+ with the blood of the Caesars, by their marriage with a royal
+ virgin, or by the nuptials of their daughters with a Roman
+ prince. 58 The aged monarch, in his instructions to his son,
+ reveals the secret maxims of policy and pride; and suggests the
+ most decent reasons for refusing these insolent and unreasonable
+ demands. Every animal, says the discreet emperor, is prompted by
+ the distinction of language, religion, and manners. A just regard
+ to the purity of descent preserves the harmony of public and
+ private life; but the mixture of foreign blood is the fruitful
+ source of disorder and discord. Such had ever been the opinion
+ and practice of the sage Romans: their jurisprudence proscribed
+ the marriage of a citizen and a stranger: in the days of freedom
+ and virtue, a senator would have scorned to match his daughter
+ with a king: the glory of Mark Antony was sullied 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 of the
+ great Constantine. The ambassadors of the nations, more
+ especially of the unbelieving nations, were solemnly admonished,
+ that such strange alliances had been condemned by the founder of
+ the church and city. The irrevocable law was inscribed on the
+ altar of St. Sophia; and the impious prince who should stain the
+ majesty of the purple was excluded from the civil and
+ ecclesiastical communion of the Romans. If the ambassadors were
+ instructed by any false brethren in the Byzantine history, they
+ might produce three memorable examples of the violation of this
+ imaginary law: the marriage of Leo, or rather of his father
+ Constantine 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, the son of Constantine Porphyrogenitus himself. To
+ these objections three answers were prepared, which solved the
+ difficulty and established the law. I.
+
+ The deed and the guilt of Constantine Copronymus were
+ acknowledged. The Isaurian heretic, who sullied the baptismal
+ font, and declared war against the holy images, had indeed
+ embraced a Barbarian wife. By this impious alliance he
+ accomplished the measure of his crimes, and was devoted to the
+ just censure of the church and of posterity. II. Romanus could
+ not be alleged as a legitimate emperor; he was a plebeian
+ usurper, ignorant of the laws, and regardless of the honor, of
+ the monarchy. His son Christopher, the father of the bride, was
+ the third in rank in the college of princes, at once the subject
+ and the accomplice of a rebellious parent. The Bulgarians were
+ sincere and devout Christians; and the safety of the empire, with
+ the redemption of many thousand captives, depended on this
+ preposterous alliance. Yet no consideration could dispense from
+ the law of Constantine: the clergy, the senate, and the 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, king
+ of Italy, a more honorable defence is contrived by the wise
+ Porphyrogenitus. Constantine, the great and holy, esteemed the
+ fidelity and valor of the Franks; 61 and his prophetic spirit
+ beheld the vision of their future greatness. They alone were
+ excepted from the general prohibition: Hugo, king of France, was
+ the lineal descendant of Charlemagne; 62 and his daughter Bertha
+ inherited the prerogatives of her family and nation. The voice of
+ truth and malice insensibly betrayed the fraud or error of the
+ Imperial court. The patrimonial estate of Hugo was 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 had
+ usurped the sovereignty of Provence, and invaded the kingdom of
+ Italy. His father was a private noble; and if Bertha derived her
+ female descent from the Carlovingian line, every step was
+ polluted with illegitimacy or 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 of the Vatican. His mother, as
+ she was styled, the great Bertha, was successively the wife of
+ the count of Arles and of the marquis of Tuscany: France and
+ Italy were scandalized by her gallantries; and, till the age of
+ threescore, her lovers, of every degree, were the zealous
+ servants of her ambition. The example of maternal incontinence
+ was copied by the king of Italy; and the three favorite
+ concubines of Hugo were decorated with the classic names of
+ Venus, Juno, and Semele. 63 The daughter of Venus was granted to
+ the solicitations of the Byzantine court: her name of Bertha was
+ changed to that of Eudoxia; and she was wedded, or rather
+ betrothed, to young Romanus, the future heir of the empire of the
+ East. The consummation of this foreign alliance was suspended by
+ the tender age of the two parties; and, at the end of five years,
+ the union was dissolved by the death of the virgin spouse. The
+ second wife of the emperor Romanus was a maiden of plebeian, but
+ of Roman, birth; and their two daughters, Theophano and Anne,
+ were given in marriage to the princes of the earth. The eldest
+ was bestowed, as the pledge of peace, on the eldest son of the
+ great Otho, who had solicited this alliance with arms and
+ embassies. It might legally be questioned how 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 had restored the
+ empire of the West. After the death of her father-in-law and
+ husband, Theophano governed Rome, Italy, and Germany, during the
+ minority of her son, the third Otho; and the Latins have praised
+ the virtues of an empress, who sacrificed to a superior duty the
+ remembrance of her country. 64 In the nuptials of her sister
+ Anne, every prejudice was lost, and every consideration of
+ dignity was superseded, by the stronger argument of necessity and
+ fear. A Pagan of the North, Wolodomir, great prince of Russia,
+ aspired to a daughter of the Roman purple; and his claim was
+ enforced by the threats of war, the promise of conversion, and
+ the offer of a powerful succor against a domestic rebel. A victim
+ of her religion and country, the Grecian princess was torn from
+ the palace of her fathers, and condemned to a savage reign, and a
+ hopeless exile on the banks of the Borysthenes, or in the
+ neighborhood of the Polar circle. 65 Yet the marriage of Anne was
+ fortunate and fruitful: the daughter of her grandson Joroslaus
+ was recommended by her Imperial descent; and the king of France,
+ Henry I., sought a wife on the last borders of Europe and
+ Christendom. 66
+
+ 58 (return) [ The xiiith chapter, de Administratione Imperii, may
+ be explained and rectified by the Familiae Byzantinae of
+ Ducange.]
+
+ 59 (return) [ 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 quod reginam ineo? Uxor mea est, (Sueton. in
+ August. c. 69.) Yet I much question (for I cannot stay to
+ inquire) whether the triumvir ever dared to celebrate his
+ marriage either with Roman or Egyptian rites.]
+
+ 60 (return) [ Berenicem invitus invitam dimisit, (Suetonius in
+ Tito, c. 7.) Have I observed elsewhere, that this Jewish beauty
+ was at this time above fifty years of age? The judicious Racine
+ has most discreetly suppressed both her age and her country.]
+
+ 61 (return) [ Constantine was made to praise the the Franks, with
+ whom he claimed a private and public alliance. The French writers
+ (Isaac Casaubon in Dedicat. Polybii) are highly delighted with
+ these compliments.]
+
+ 62 (return) [ Constantine Porphyrogenitus (de Administrat. Imp.
+ c. 36) exhibits a pedigree and life of the illustrious King Hugo.
+ A more correct idea may be formed from the Criticism of Pagi, the
+ Annals of Muratori, and the Abridgment of St. Marc, A.D.
+ 925-946.]
+
+ 63 (return) [ After the mention of the three goddesses, Luitprand
+ very naturally adds, et quoniam non rex solus iis abutebatur,
+ earum nati ex incertis patribus originera ducunt, (Hist. l. iv.
+ c. 6: ) for the marriage of the younger Bertha, see Hist. l. v.
+ c. 5; for the incontinence of the elder, dulcis exercipio
+ Hymenaei, l. ii. c. 15; for the 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.]
+
+ 64 (return) [ Licet illa Imperatrix Graeca sibi et aliis fuisset
+ satis utilis, et optima, &c., is the preamble of an inimical
+ writer, apud Pagi, tom. iv. A.D. 989, No. 3. Her marriage and
+ principal actions may be found in Muratori, Pagi, and St. Marc,
+ under the proper years.]
+
+ 65 (return) [ 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! Wolodomir and Anne are ranked among the saints of the
+ Russian church. Yet we know his vices, and are ignorant of her
+ virtues.]
+
+ 66 (return) [ Henricus primus duxit uxorem Scythicam, Russam,
+ filiam regis Jeroslai. An embassy of bishops was sent into
+ Russia, and the father gratanter filiam cum multis donis misit.
+ This event happened in the year 1051. See the passages of the
+ original chronicles in Bouquet’s Historians of France, (tom. xi.
+ p. 29, 159, 161, 319, 384, 481.) Voltaire might wonder at this
+ alliance; but he should not have owned his ignorance of the
+ country, religion, &c., of Jeroslaus—a name so conspicuous in the
+ Russian annals.]
+
+ In the Byzantine palace, the emperor was the first slave of the
+ ceremonies which he imposed, of the rigid forms which regulated
+ each word and gesture, besieged him in the palace, and violated
+ the leisure of his rural solitude. But the lives and fortunes of
+ millions hung on his arbitrary will; and the firmest minds,
+ superior to the allurements of pomp and luxury, may be seduced by
+ the more active pleasure of commanding their equals. The
+ legislative and executive powers were centred in the person of
+ the monarch, and the last remains of the authority of the senate
+ were finally eradicated by Leo the philosopher. 67 A lethargy of
+ servitude had benumbed the minds of the Greeks: in the wildest
+ tumults of rebellion they never aspired to the idea of a free
+ constitution; and the private character of the prince was the
+ only source and measure of their public happiness. Superstition
+ rivetted their chains; in the church of St. Sophia he was
+ solemnly crowned by the patriarch; at the foot of the altar, they
+ pledged their passive and unconditional obedience to his
+ government and family. On his side he engaged to abstain as much
+ as possible from the capital punishments of death and mutilation;
+ his orthodox creed was subscribed with his own hand, and he
+ promised to obey the decrees of the seven synods, and the canons
+ of the holy church. 68 But the assurance of mercy was loose and
+ indefinite: he swore, not to his people, but to an invisible
+ judge; and except in the inexpiable guilt of heresy, the
+ ministers of heaven were always prepared to preach the
+ indefeasible right, and to absolve the venial transgressions, of
+ their sovereign. The Greek ecclesiastics were themselves the
+ subjects of the civil magistrate: at the nod of a tyrant, the
+ bishops were created, or transferred, or deposed, or punished
+ with an ignominious death: whatever might be their wealth or
+ influence, they could never succeed like the Latin clergy in the
+ establishment of an independent 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 laws of nature and necessity.
+ In proportion to his wisdom and virtue, the master of an empire
+ is confined to the path of his sacred and laborious duty. In
+ proportion to his vice and folly, he drops the sceptre too
+ weighty for his hands; and the motions of the royal image are
+ ruled by the imperceptible thread of some minister or favorite,
+ who undertakes for his private interest to exercise the task of
+ the public oppression. In some fatal moment, the most absolute
+ monarch may dread the reason or the caprice of a nation of
+ slaves; and experience has proved, that whatever is gained in the
+ extent, is lost in the safety and solidity, of regal power.
+
+ 67 (return) [ A constitution of Leo the Philosopher (lxxviii.) ne
+ senatus consulta amplius fiant, speaks the language of naked
+ despotism.]
+
+ 68 (return) [ Codinus (de Officiis, c. xvii. p. 120, 121) gives
+ an idea of this oath so strong to the church, so weak to the
+ people.]
+
+ Whatever titles a despot may assume, whatever claims he may
+ assert, it is on the sword that he must ultimately depend to
+ guard him against his foreign and domestic enemies. From the age
+ of Charlemagne to that of the Crusades, the world (for I overlook
+ the remote monarchy of China) was occupied and disputed by the
+ three great empires or nations of the Greeks, the Saracens, and
+ the Franks. Their military strength may be ascertained by a
+ comparison of their courage, their arts and riches, and their
+ obedience to a supreme head, who might call into action all the
+ energies of the state. The Greeks, far inferior to their rivals
+ in the first, 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
+ the poorer nations, and to maintain a naval power for the
+ protection of their coasts and the annoyance of their enemies. 69
+ A commerce of mutual benefit exchanged the gold of Constantinople
+ for the blood of Sclavonians and Turks, the Bulgarians and
+ Russians: their valor contributed to the victories of Nicephorus
+ and Zimisces; and if a hostile people pressed too closely on the
+ frontier, they were recalled to the defence of their country, and
+ the desire of peace, by the well-managed attack of a more distant
+ tribe. 70 The command of the Mediterranean, from the mouth of the
+ Tanais to the columns of Hercules, was always claimed, and often
+ possessed, by the successors of Constantine. Their capital was
+ filled with naval stores and dexterous artificers: the situation
+ of Greece and Asia, the long coasts, deep gulfs, and numerous
+ islands, accustomed their subjects to the exercise of navigation;
+ and the trade of Venice and Amalfi supplied a nursery of seamen
+ to the Imperial fleet. 71 Since the time of the Peloponnesian and
+ Punic wars, the sphere of action had not been enlarged; and the
+ science of naval architecture appears to have declined. The art
+ of constructing 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 the mechanicians of modern days. 72 The Dromones,
+ 73 or light galleys of the Byzantine empire, were content with
+ two tier of oars; each tier was composed of five-and-twenty
+ benches; and two rowers were seated on each bench, who plied
+ their oars on either side of the vessel. To these we must add the
+ captain or centurion, who, in time of action, stood erect with
+ his armor-bearer on the poop, two steersmen at the helm, and two
+ officers at the prow, the one to manage the anchor, the other to
+ point and play against the enemy the tube of liquid fire. The
+ whole crew, as in the infancy of the art, performed the double
+ service of mariners and soldiers; they were provided with
+ defensive and offensive arms, with bows 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 divided
+ between seventy soldiers and two hundred and thirty mariners. But
+ for the most part they were of the light and manageable size; and
+ as the Cape of Malea in Peloponnesus was still clothed with its
+ ancient terrors, an Imperial fleet was transported five miles
+ over land across the Isthmus of Corinth. 74 The principles of
+ maritime tactics had not undergone any change since the time of
+ Thucydides: a squadron of galleys still advanced in a crescent,
+ charged to the front, and strove to impel their sharp beaks
+ against the feeble sides of their antagonists. A machine for
+ casting stones and darts was built of strong timbers, in the
+ midst of the deck; and the operation of boarding was effected by
+ a crane that hoisted baskets of armed men. The language of
+ signals, so clear and copious in the naval grammar of the
+ moderns, was imperfectly expressed by the various positions and
+ colors of a commanding flag. In the darkness of the night, the
+ same orders to chase, to attack, to halt, to retreat, to break,
+ to form, were conveyed by the lights of the leading galley. By
+ land, the fire-signals were repeated from one mountain to
+ another; a chain of eight stations commanded a space of five
+ hundred miles; and Constantinople in a few hours was apprised of
+ the hostile motions of the Saracens of Tarsus. 75 Some estimate
+ may be formed of the power of the Greek emperors, by the curious
+ and minute detail of the armament which was prepared for the
+ reduction of Crete. A fleet of one hundred and twelve galleys,
+ and seventy-five vessels of the Pamphylian style, was equipped in
+ the capital, the islands of the Aegean Sea, and the seaports of
+ Asia, Macedonia, and Greece. It carried thirty-four thousand
+ 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. Their pay, most probably of a month, was computed at
+ thirty-four centenaries of gold, about one hundred and thirty-six
+ thousand pounds sterling. Our fancy 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 the conquest of a
+ petty island, but amply sufficient for the establishment of a
+ flourishing colony. 76
+
+ 69 (return) [ If we listen to the threats of Nicephorus to the
+ ambassador 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 vicina redigam in favillam. (Liutprand in Legat.
+ ad Nicephorum Phocam, in Muratori Scriptores Rerum Italicarum,
+ tom. ii. pars i. p. 481.) He observes in another place, qui
+ caeteris praestant Venetici sunt et Amalphitani.]
+
+ 70 (return) [ Nec ipsa capiet eum (the emperor Otho) in qua ortus
+ est pauper et pellicea Saxonia: pecunia qua pollemus omnes
+ nationes super eum invitabimus: et quasi Keramicum confringemus,
+ (Liutprand in Legat. p. 487.) The two books, de Administrando
+ Imperio, perpetually inculcate the same policy.]
+
+ 71 (return) [ The xixth chapter of the Tactics of Leo, (Meurs.
+ Opera, tom. vi. p. 825-848,) which is given more correct from a
+ manuscript of Gudius, by the laborious Fabricius, (Bibliot.
+ Graec. tom. vi. p. 372-379,) relates to the Naumachia, or naval
+ war.]
+
+ 72 (return) [ Even of fifteen and sixteen rows of oars, in the
+ navy of Demetrius Poliorcetes. These were for real use: the forty
+ rows of Ptolemy 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.]
+
+ 73 (return) [ The Dromones of Leo, &c., are so clearly described
+ with two tier of oars, that I must censure the version of
+ Meursius and Fabricius, who pervert the sense by a blind
+ attachment to the classic appellation of Triremes. The Byzantine
+ historians are sometimes guilty of the same inaccuracy.]
+
+ 74 (return) [ Constantin. Porphyrogen. in Vit. Basil. c. lxi. p.
+ 185. He calmly praises the stratagem; but the sailing round
+ Peloponnesus is described by his terrified fancy as a
+ circumnavigation of a thousand miles.]
+
+ 75 (return) [ The continuator of Theophanes (l. iv. p. 122, 123)
+ names the successive stations, the castle of Lulum near Tarsus,
+ Mount Argaeus Isamus, Aegilus, the hill of Mamas, Cyrisus,
+ Mocilus, the hill of Auxentius, the sun-dial of the Pharus of the
+ great palace. He affirms that the news were transmitted in an
+ indivisible moment of time. Miserable amplification, which, by
+ saying too much, says nothing. How much more forcible and
+ instructive would have been the definition of three, or six, or
+ twelve hours!]
+
+ 76 (return) [ See the Ceremoniale of Constantine Porphyrogenitus,
+ l. ii. c. 44, p. 176-192. A critical reader will discern some
+ inconsistencies in different parts of this account; but they are
+ not more obscure or more stubborn than the establishment and
+ effectives, the present and fit for duty, the rank and file and
+ the private, of a modern return, which retain 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 liquid
+ combustibles 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 defence of
+ fortifications; nor was the decision of battles reduced to the
+ quick and heavy fire of a line of infantry, whom it were
+ fruitless to protect with armor against a similar fire of their
+ enemies. Steel and iron were still the common instruments of
+ destruction and safety; and the helmets, cuirasses, and shields,
+ of the tenth century did not, either in form or substance,
+ essentially differ from those which had covered the companions of
+ Alexander or Achilles. 77 But instead of accustoming the modern
+ Greeks, like the legionaries of old, to the constant and easy use
+ of this salutary weight, their armor was laid aside in light
+ chariots, which followed the march, till, on the approach of an
+ enemy, they resumed with haste and reluctance the unusual
+ encumbrance. Their offensive weapons consisted of swords,
+ battle-axes, and spears; but the Macedonian pike was shortened a
+ fourth of its length, and reduced to the more convenient measure
+ of twelve cubits or feet. The sharpness of the Scythian and
+ Arabian arrows had been severely felt; and the emperors lament
+ the decay of archery as a cause of the public misfortunes, and
+ recommend, as an advice and a command, that the military youth,
+ till the age of forty, should assiduously practise the exercise
+ of the bow. 78 The bands, or regiments, were usually three
+ hundred strong; and, as a medium between the extremes of four and
+ sixteen, the foot soldiers of Leo and Constantine were formed
+ eight deep; but the cavalry charged in four ranks, from the
+ reasonable consideration, that the weight of the front could not
+ be increased by any pressure of the hindmost horses. If the ranks
+ of the infantry or cavalry were sometimes doubled, this cautious
+ array betrayed a secret distrust of the courage of the troops,
+ whose numbers might swell the appearance of the line, but of whom
+ only a chosen band would dare to encounter the spears and swords
+ of the Barbarians. The order of battle must have varied according
+ to the ground, the object, and the adversary; but their ordinary
+ disposition, in two lines and a reserve, presented a succession
+ of hopes and resources most agreeable to the temper as well as
+ the judgment of the Greeks. 79 In case of a repulse, the first
+ line fell back into the intervals 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 and books, of the
+ Byzantine monarch. 80 Whatever art could produce from the forge,
+ the loom, or the laboratory, was abundantly supplied by the
+ riches of the prince, and the industry of his numerous workmen.
+ But neither authority nor art could frame the most important
+ machine, the soldier himself; and if the ceremonies of
+ Constantine always suppose the safe and triumphal return of the
+ emperor, 81 his tactics seldom soar above the means of escaping a
+ defeat, and procrastinating the war. 82 Notwithstanding some
+ transient success, the Greeks were sunk in their own esteem and
+ that of their neighbors. A cold hand and a loquacious tongue was
+ the vulgar description of the nation: the author of the tactics
+ was besieged in his capital; and the last of the Barbarians, who
+ trembled at the name of the Saracens, or Franks, could proudly
+ exhibit the medals of gold and silver which they had extorted
+ from the feeble sovereign of Constantinople. What spirit their
+ government and character denied, might have been inspired in some
+ degree by the influence of religion; but the religion of the
+ Greeks could only teach them to suffer and to yield. The emperor
+ Nicephorus, who restored for a moment the discipline and glory of
+ the Roman name, was desirous of bestowing the honors of martyrdom
+ on the Christians who lost their lives in a holy war against the
+ infidels. But this political law was defeated by the opposition
+ of the patriarch, the bishops, and the principal senators; and
+ they strenuously urged the canons of St. Basil, that all who were
+ polluted by the bloody trade of a soldier should be separated,
+ during three years, from the communion of the faithful. 83
+
+ 77 (return) [ See the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters, and, in
+ the Tactics of Leo, with the corresponding passages in those of
+ Constantine.]
+
+ 78 (return) [ (Leo, Tactic. p. 581 Constantin. p 1216.) Yet such
+ were not the maxims of the Greeks and Romans, who despised the
+ loose and distant practice of archery.]
+
+ 79 (return) [ Compare the passages of the Tactics, p. 669 and
+ 721, and the xiith with the xviiith chapter.]
+
+ 80 (return) [ In the preface to his Tactics, Leo very freely
+ deplores the loss of discipline and the calamities of the times,
+ and repeats, without scruple, (Proem. p. 537,) the reproaches,
+ nor does it appear that the same censures were less deserved in
+ the next generation by the disciples of Constantine.]
+
+ 81 (return) [ See in the Ceremonial (l. ii. c. 19, p. 353) the
+ form of the emperor’s trampling on the necks of the captive
+ Saracens, while the singers chanted, “Thou hast made my enemies
+ my footstool!” and the people shouted forty times the kyrie
+ eleison.]
+
+ 82 (return) [ Leo observes (Tactic. p. 668) that a fair open
+ battle against any nation whatsoever: the words are strong, and
+ the remark is true: yet if such had been the opinion of the old
+ Romans, Leo had never reigned on the shores of the Thracian
+ Bosphorus.]
+
+ 83 (return) [ Zonaras (tom. ii. l. xvi. p. 202, 203) and
+ Cedrenus, (Compend p. 668,) who relate the design of Nicephorus,
+ most unfortunately apply the epithet to the opposition of the
+ patriarch.]
+
+ These scruples of the Greeks have been compared with the tears of
+ the primitive Moslems when they were held back from battle; and
+ this contrast of base superstition and high-spirited enthusiasm,
+ unfolds to a philosophic eye the history of the rival nations.
+ The subjects of the last caliphs 84 had undoubtedly degenerated
+ from the zeal and faith of the companions of the prophet. Yet
+ their martial creed still represented the Deity as the author of
+ war: 85 the vital though latent spark of fanaticism still glowed
+ in the heart of their religion, and among the Saracens, who dwelt
+ on the Christian borders, it was frequently rekindled to a lively
+ and active flame. Their regular force was formed of the valiant
+ slaves who had been educated to guard the person and accompany
+ the standard of their lord: but the Mussulman people of Syria and
+ Cilicia, of Africa and Spain, was awakened by the trumpet which
+ proclaimed a holy war against the infidels. The rich were
+ ambitious of death or victory in the cause of God; the poor were
+ allured by the hopes of plunder; and the old, the infirm, and the
+ women, assumed their share of meritorious service by sending
+ their substitutes, with arms and horses, into the field. These
+ offensive and defensive arms were similar in strength and temper
+ to those of the Romans, whom they far excelled in the management
+ of the horse and the bow: the massy silver of their belts, their
+ bridles, and their swords, displayed the magnificence of a
+ prosperous nation; and except some black archers of the South,
+ the Arabs disdained the naked bravery of their ancestors. Instead
+ of wagons, they were attended by a long train of camels, mules,
+ and asses: the multitude of these animals, whom they bedecked
+ with flags and streamers, appeared to swell the pomp and
+ magnitude of their host; and the horses of the enemy were often
+ disordered by the uncouth figure and odious smell of the camels
+ of the East. Invincible by their patience of thirst and heat,
+ their spirits were frozen by a winter’s cold, and the
+ consciousness of their propensity to sleep exacted the most
+ rigorous precautions against the surprises of the night. Their
+ order of battle was a long square of two deep and solid lines;
+ the first of archers, the second of cavalry. In their engagements
+ by sea and land, they sustained with patient firmness the fury of
+ the attack, and seldom advanced to the charge till they could
+ discern and oppress the lassitude of their foes. But if they were
+ repulsed and broken, they knew not how to rally or renew the
+ combat; and their dismay was heightened by the superstitious
+ prejudice, that God had declared himself on the side of their
+ enemies. The decline and fall of the caliphs countenanced this
+ fearful opinion; nor were there wanting, among the Mahometans and
+ Christians, some obscure prophecies 86 which prognosticated their
+ alternate defeats. The unity of the Arabian empire was dissolved,
+ but the independent fragments were equal to populous and powerful
+ kingdoms; and in their naval and military armaments, an emir of
+ Aleppo or Tunis might command no despicable fund of skill, and
+ industry, and treasure. In their transactions of peace and war
+ with the Saracens, the princes of Constantinople too often felt
+ that these Barbarians had nothing barbarous in their discipline;
+ and that if they were destitute of original genius, they had been
+ endowed with a quick spirit of curiosity and imitation. The model
+ was indeed more perfect 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 more nicely fashioned the hands of the
+ Chinese, and the heads of the Greeks. 87
+
+ 84 (return) [ The xviith chapter of the tactics of the different
+ nations is the most historical and useful of the whole collection
+ of Leo. The manners and arms of the Saracens (Tactic. p. 809-817,
+ and a fragment from the Medicean Ms. in the preface of the vith
+ volume of Meursius) the Roman emperor was too frequently called
+ upon to study.]
+
+ 85 (return) [ Leon. Tactic. p. 809.]
+
+ 86 (return) [ Liutprand (p. 484, 485) relates and interprets the
+ oracles of the Greeks and Saracens, in which, after the fashion
+ of prophecy, the past is clear and historical, the future is
+ dark, enigmatical, and erroneous. From this boundary of light and
+ shade an impartial critic may commonly determine the date of the
+ composition.]
+
+ 87 (return) [ The sense of this distinction is expressed by
+ Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 2, 62, 101;) but I cannot recollect the
+ passage 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
+ spread its victorious influence over the greatest part of Gaul,
+ Germany, and Italy; and the common appellation of Franks 88 was
+ applied by the Greeks and Arabians to the Christians of the Latin
+ church, the nations of the West, who stretched beyond their
+ knowledge to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. The vast body had
+ been inspired and united by the soul of Charlemagne; but the
+ division and degeneracy of his race soon annihilated the Imperial
+ power, which would have rivalled the Caesars of Byzantium, and
+ revenged the indignities of the Christian name. The enemies no
+ longer feared, nor could the subjects any longer trust, the
+ application of a public revenue, the labors of trade and
+ manufactures in the military service, the mutual aid of provinces
+ and armies, and the naval squadrons which were regularly
+ stationed from the mouth of the Elbe to that of the Tyber. In the
+ beginning of the tenth century, the family of Charlemagne had
+ almost disappeared; his monarchy was broken into many hostile and
+ independent states; the regal title was assumed by the most
+ ambitious chiefs; their revolt was imitated in a long
+ subordination of anarchy and discord, and the nobles of every
+ province disobeyed their sovereign, oppressed their vassals, and
+ exercised perpetual hostilities against their equals and
+ neighbors. Their private wars, which overturned the fabric of
+ government, fomented the martial spirit of the nation. In the
+ system of modern Europe, the power of the sword is possessed, at
+ least in fact, by five or six mighty potentates; their operations
+ are conducted on a distant frontier, by an order of men who
+ 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
+ the tranquillity of peace, and is only made sensible of the
+ change by the aggravation or decrease of the public taxes. In the
+ disorders of the tenth and eleventh centuries, every peasant was
+ a soldier, and every village a fortification; each wood or valley
+ was a scene of murder and rapine; and the lords of each castle
+ were compelled to assume the character of princes and warriors.
+ To their own courage and policy they boldly trusted for the
+ safety of their family, the protection of their lands, and the
+ revenge of their injuries; and, like the conquerors of a larger
+ size, they were too apt to transgress the privilege of defensive
+ war. The powers of the mind and body were hardened by the
+ presence of danger and necessity of resolution: the same spirit
+ refused to desert a friend and to forgive an enemy; and, instead
+ of sleeping under the guardian care of a magistrate, they proudly
+ disdained the authority of the laws. In the days of feudal
+ anarchy, the instruments of agriculture and art were converted
+ into the weapons of bloodshed: the peaceful occupations of civil
+ and ecclesiastical society were abolished or corrupted; and the
+ bishop who exchanged his mitre for a helmet, was more forcibly
+ urged by the manners of the times than by the obligation of his
+ tenure. 89
+
+ 88 (return) [ Ex Francis, quo nomine tam Latinos quam Teutones
+ comprehendit, 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 of Abulpharagius (Dynast. p.
+ 69) and Abulfeda (Praefat. ad Geograph.) are more recent]
+
+ 89 (return) [ On this subject of ecclesiastical and beneficiary
+ discipline, Father Thomassin, (tom. iii. l. i. c. 40, 45, 46, 47)
+ may be usefully consulted. A general law of Charlemagne exempted
+ the bishops from personal service; but the opposite practice,
+ which prevailed from the ixth to the xvth century, is
+ countenanced by the example or silence of saints and doctors....
+ You justify your cowardice by the holy canons, says Ratherius of
+ Verona; the canons likewise forbid you to whore, and yet—]
+
+ The love of freedom and of arms was felt, with conscious pride,
+ by the Franks themselves, and is observed by the Greeks with some
+ degree of amazement and terror. “The Franks,” says the emperor
+ Constantine, “are bold and valiant to the verge of temerity; and
+ their dauntless spirit is supported by the contempt of danger and
+ death. In the field and in close onset, they press to the front,
+ and rush headlong against the enemy, without deigning to compute
+ either his numbers or their own. Their ranks are formed by the
+ firm connections of consanguinity and friendship; and their
+ martial deeds are prompted by the desire of saving or revenging
+ their dearest companions. In their eyes, a retreat is a shameful
+ flight; and flight is indelible infamy.” 90 A nation endowed with
+ such high and intrepid spirit, must have been secure of victory
+ if these advantages had not been counter-balanced by many weighty
+ defects. The decay of their naval power left the Greeks and
+ Saracens in possession of the sea, for every purpose of annoyance
+ and supply. In the age which preceded the institution of
+ knighthood, the Franks were rude and unskilful in the service of
+ cavalry; 91 and in all perilous emergencies, their warriors were
+ so conscious of their ignorance, that they chose to dismount from
+ their horses and fight on foot. Unpractised in the use of pikes,
+ or of missile weapons, they were encumbered by the length of
+ their swords, the weight of their armor, the magnitude of their
+ shields, and, if I may repeat the satire of the meagre Greeks, by
+ their unwieldy intemperance. Their independent spirit disdained
+ the yoke of subordination, and abandoned the standard of their
+ chief, if he attempted to keep the field beyond the term of their
+ stipulation or service. On all sides they were open to the snares
+ of an enemy less brave but more artful than themselves. They
+ might be bribed, for the Barbarians were venal; or surprised in
+ the night, for they neglected the precautions of a close
+ encampment or vigilant sentinels. The fatigues of a summer’s
+ campaign exhausted their strength and patience, and they sunk in
+ despair if their voracious appetite was disappointed of a
+ plentiful supply of wine and of food. This general character of
+ the Franks was marked with some national and local shades, which
+ I should ascribe to accident rather than to climate, but which
+ were visible both to natives and to foreigners. An ambassador of
+ the great Otho declared, in the palace of Constantinople, that
+ the Saxons could dispute with swords better than with pens, and
+ that they preferred inevitable death to the dishonor of turning
+ their backs to an enemy. 92 It was the glory of the nobles of
+ France, that, in their humble dwellings, war and rapine were the
+ only pleasure, the sole occupation, of their lives. They affected
+ to deride the palaces, the banquets, the polished manner of the
+ Italians, who in the estimate of the Greeks themselves had
+ degenerated from the liberty and valor of the ancient Lombards.
+ 93
+
+ 90 (return) [ In the xviiith chapter of his Tactics, the emperor
+ Leo has fairly stated the military vices and virtues of the
+ Franks (whom Meursius ridiculously translates by Galli) and the
+ Lombards or Langobards. See likewise the xxvith Dissertation of
+ Muratori de Antiquitatibus Italiae Medii Aevi.]
+
+ 91 (return) [ Domini tui milites (says the proud Nicephorus)
+ equitandi ignari pedestris pugnae sunt inscii: scutorum
+ magnitudo, loricarum gravitudo, ensium longitudo galearumque
+ pondus neutra parte pugnare cossinit; ac subridens, impedit,
+ inquit, et eos gastrimargia, hoc est ventris ingluvies, &c.
+ Liutprand in Legat. p. 480 481]
+
+ 92 (return) [ In Saxonia certe scio.... decentius ensibus pugnare
+ quam calanis, et prius mortem obire quam hostibus terga dare,
+ (Liutprand, p 482.)]
+
+ 93 (return) [ Leonis Tactica, c. 18, p. 805. The emperor Leo died
+ A.D. 911: an historical poem, which ends in 916, and appears to
+ have been composed in 910, by a native of Venetia, discriminates
+ in these verses the 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.
+ in Muratori Script. Rerum Italic. tom. ii. pars i. p. 393.)]
+
+ By the well-known edict of Caracalla, his subjects, from Britain
+ to Egypt, were entitled to the name and privileges of Romans, and
+ their national sovereign might fix his occasional or permanent
+ residence in any province of their common country. In the
+ division of the East and West, an ideal unity was scrupulously
+ observed, and in their titles, laws, and statutes, the successors
+ of Arcadius and Honorius announced themselves as the inseparable
+ colleagues of the same office, as the joint sovereigns of the
+ Roman world and city, which were bounded by the same limits.
+ After the fall of the Western monarchy, the majesty of the purple
+ resided solely in the princes of Constantinople; and of these,
+ Justinian was the first who, after a divorce of sixty years,
+ regained the dominion of ancient Rome, and asserted, by the right
+ of conquest, the august title of Emperor of the Romans. 94 A
+ motive of vanity or discontent solicited one of his successors,
+ Constans the Second, to abandon the Thracian Bosphorus, and to
+ restore the pristine honors of the Tyber: an extravagant project,
+ (exclaims the malicious Byzantine,) as if he had despoiled a
+ beautiful and blooming virgin, to enrich, or rather to expose,
+ the deformity of a wrinkled and decrepit matron. 95 But the sword
+ of the Lombards opposed his settlement in Italy: he entered Rome
+ not as a conqueror, but as a fugitive, and, after a visit of
+ twelve days, he pillaged, and forever deserted, the ancient
+ capital of the world. 96 The final revolt and separation of Italy
+ was accomplished about two centuries after the conquests of
+ Justinian, and from 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 of the Roman government, the
+ consecrated idiom of the palace and senate of Constantinople, of
+ the campus and tribunals of the East. 97 But this foreign dialect
+ was unknown to the people and soldiers of the Asiatic provinces,
+ it was imperfectly understood by the greater part of the
+ interpreters of the laws and the ministers of the state. After a
+ short conflict, nature and habit prevailed over the obsolete
+ institutions of human power: for the general benefit of his
+ subjects, Justinian promulgated his novels in the two languages:
+ the several parts of his voluminous jurisprudence were
+ successively translated; 98 the original was forgotten, the
+ version was studied, and the Greek, whose intrinsic merit
+ deserved indeed the preference, obtained a legal, as well as
+ popular establishment in the Byzantine monarchy. The birth and
+ residence of succeeding princes estranged them from the Roman
+ idiom: Tiberius by the Arabs, 99 and Maurice by the Italians, 100
+ are distinguished as the first of the Greek Caesars, as the
+ founders of a new dynasty and empire: the silent revolution was
+ accomplished before the death of Heraclius; and the ruins of the
+ Latin speech were darkly preserved in the terms of jurisprudence
+ and the acclamations of the palace. After the restoration of the
+ Western empire by Charlemagne and the Othos, the names of Franks
+ and Latins acquired an equal signification and extent; and these
+ haughty Barbarians asserted, with some justice, their superior
+ claim to the language and dominion of Rome. They insulted the
+ alien of the East who had renounced the dress and idiom of
+ Romans; and their reasonable practice will justify the frequent
+ appellation of Greeks. 101 But this contemptuous appellation was
+ indignantly rejected by the prince and people to whom it was
+ applied. Whatsoever changes had been introduced by the lapse of
+ ages, they alleged a lineal and unbroken succession from Augustus
+ and Constantine; and, in the lowest period of degeneracy and
+ decay, the name of Romans adhered to the last fragments of the
+ empire of Constantinople. 102
+
+ 94 (return) [ Justinian, says the historian Agathias, (l. v. p.
+ 157,). Yet the specific title of Emperor of the Romans was not
+ used at Constantinople, till it had been claimed by the French
+ and German emperors of old Rome.]
+
+ 95 (return) [ Constantine Manasses reprobates this design in his
+ barbarous 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. of Muratori.)]
+
+ 96 (return) [ Paul. Diacon. l. v. c. 11, p. 480. Anastasius in
+ Vitis Pontificum, in Muratori’s Collection, tom. iii. pars i. p.
+ 141.]
+
+ 97 (return) [ Consult the preface of Ducange, (ad Gloss, Graec.
+ Medii Aevi) and the Novels of Justinian, (vii. lxvi.)]
+
+ 98 (return) [ (Matth. Blastares, Hist. Juris, apud Fabric.
+ Bibliot. Graec. tom. xii. p. 369.) The Code and Pandects (the
+ latter by Thalelaeus) were translated in the time of Justinian,
+ (p. 358, 366.) Theophilus one of the original triumvirs, has left
+ an elegant, though diffuse, paraphrase of the Institutes. On the
+ other hand, Julian, antecessor of Constantinople, (A.D. 570,)
+ cxx. Novellas Graecas eleganti Latinitate donavit (Heineccius,
+ Hist. J. R. p. 396) for the use of Italy and Africa.]
+
+ 99 (return) [ Abulpharagius assigns the viith Dynasty to the
+ Franks or Romans, the viiith to the Greeks, the ixth to the
+ Arabs. A tempore Augusti Caesaris donec imperaret Tiberius Caesar
+ spatio circiter annorum 600 fuerunt Imperatores C. P. Patricii,
+ et praecipua pars exercitus Romani: extra quod, conciliarii,
+ scribae et populus, omnes Graeci fuerunt: deinde regnum etiam
+ Graecanicum factum est, (p. 96, vers. Pocock.) The Christian and
+ ecclesiastical studies of Abulpharagius gave him some advantage
+ over the more ignorant Moslems.]
+
+ 100 (return) [ Primus ex Graecorum genere in Imperio confirmatus
+ est; or according to another Ms. of Paulus Diaconus, (l. iii. c.
+ 15, p. 443,) in Orasorum Imperio.]
+
+ 101 (return) [ Quia linguam, mores, vestesque mutastis, putavit
+ Sanctissimus Papa. (an audacious irony,) ita vos (vobis)
+ displicere Romanorum nomen. His nuncios, rogabant Nicephorum
+ Imperatorem Graecorum, ut cum Othone Imperatore Romanorum
+ amicitiam faceret, (Liutprand in Legatione, p. 486.) * Note:
+ Sicut et vestem. These words follow in the text of Liutprand,
+ (apud Murat. Script. Ital. tom. ii. p. 486, to which Gibbon
+ refers.) But with some inaccuracy or confusion, which rarely
+ occurs in Gibbon’s references, the rest of the quotation, which
+ as it stands is unintelligible, does not appear—M.]
+
+ 102 (return) [ By Laonicus Chalcocondyles, who survived the last
+ siege of Constantinople, the account is thus stated, (l. i. p.
+ 3.) Constantine transplanted his Latins of Italy to a Greek city
+ of Thrace: they adopted the language and manners of the natives,
+ who were confounded with them under the name of Romans. The kings
+ of Constantinople, says the historian.]
+
+ While the government of the East was transacted in Latin, the
+ Greek was the language of literature and philosophy; nor could
+ the masters of this rich and perfect idiom be tempted to envy the
+ borrowed learning and imitative taste of their Roman disciples.
+ After the fall of Paganism, the loss of Syria and Egypt, and the
+ extinction of the schools of Alexandria and Athens, the studies
+ of the Greeks insensibly retired to some regular monasteries, and
+ above all, to the royal college of Constantinople, which was
+ burnt in the reign of Leo the Isaurian. 103 In the pompous style
+ of the age, the president of that foundation was named the Sun of
+ Science: his twelve associates, the professors in the different
+ arts and faculties, were the twelve signs of the zodiac; a
+ library of thirty-six thousand five hundred volumes was open to
+ their inquiries; and they could show an ancient manuscript of
+ Homer, on a roll of parchment one hundred and twenty feet in
+ length, the intestines, as it was fabled, of a prodigious
+ serpent. 104 But the seventh and eight centuries were a period of
+ discord and darkness: the library was burnt, the college was
+ abolished, the Iconoclasts are represented as the foes of
+ antiquity; and a savage ignorance and contempt of letters has
+ disgraced the princes of the Heraclean and Isaurian dynasties.
+ 105
+
+ 103 (return) [ See Ducange, (C. P. Christiana, l. ii. p. 150,
+ 151,) who collects 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 against the emperor, Spanheim, (Hist.
+ Imaginum, p. 99-111,) like a true advocate, proceeds to doubt or
+ deny the reality of the fire, and almost of the library.]
+
+ 104 (return) [ According to Malchus, (apud Zonar. l. xiv. p. 53,)
+ this Homer was burnt in the time of Basiliscus. The Ms. might be
+ renewed—But on a serpent’s skin? Most strange and incredible!]
+
+ 105 (return) [ 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
+ restoration of science. 106 After the fanaticism of the Arabs had
+ subsided, the caliphs aspired to conquer the arts, rather than
+ the provinces, of the empire: their liberal curiosity rekindled
+ the emulation of the Greeks, brushed away the dust from their
+ ancient libraries, and taught them to know and reward the
+ philosophers, whose labors had been hitherto repaid by 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. A particle of the treasures of his nephew was
+ sometimes diverted from the indulgence of vice and folly; a
+ school was opened in the palace of Magnaura; and the presence of
+ Bardas excited the emulation of the masters and students. At
+ their head was the philosopher Leo, archbishop of Thessalonica:
+ his profound skill in astronomy and the mathematics was admired
+ by the strangers of the East; and this occult science was
+ magnified by vulgar credulity, which modestly supposes that all
+ knowledge superior to its own must be the effect of inspiration
+ or magic. At the pressing entreaty of the Caesar, his friend, the
+ celebrated Photius, 107 renounced the freedom of a secular and
+ studious life, ascended the patriarchal throne, and was
+ alternately excommunicated and absolved by the synods of the East
+ and West. By the confession 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 exercised the office of protospathaire or
+ captain of the guards, Photius was sent ambassador to the caliph
+ of Bagdad. 108 The tedious hours of exile, perhaps of
+ confinement, were beguiled by the hasty composition of his
+ Library, a living monument of erudition and criticism. Two
+ hundred and fourscore writers, historians, orators, philosophers,
+ theologians, are reviewed without any regular method: he abridges
+ their narrative or doctrine, appreciates their style and
+ character, and judges even the fathers of the church with a
+ discreet freedom, which often breaks through the superstition of
+ the times. The emperor Basil, who lamented the defects of his own
+ education, intrusted to the care of Photius his son and
+ successor, Leo the philosopher; and the reign of that prince and
+ of his son Constantine Porphyrogenitus forms one of the most
+ prosperous aeras of the Byzantine literature. By their
+ munificence the treasures of antiquity were deposited in the
+ Imperial library; by their pens, or those of their associates,
+ they were imparted in such extracts and abridgments as might
+ amuse the curiosity, without oppressing the indolence, of the
+ public. Besides the Basilics, or code of laws, the arts of
+ husbandry and war, of feeding or destroying the human species,
+ were propagated with equal diligence; and the history of Greece
+ and Rome was digested into fifty-three heads or titles, of which
+ two only (of embassies, and of virtues and vices) have escaped
+ the injuries of time. In every station, the reader might
+ contemplate the image of the past world, apply the lesson or
+ warning of each page, and learn to admire, perhaps to imitate,
+ the examples of a brighter period. I shall not expatiate on the
+ works of the Byzantine Greeks, who, by the assiduous study of the
+ ancients, have deserved, in some measure, the remembrance and
+ gratitude of the moderns. The scholars of the present age may
+ still enjoy the benefit of the philosophical commonplace book of
+ Stobaeus, the grammatical and historical lexicon of Suidas, the
+ Chiliads of Tzetzes, which comprise six hundred narratives in
+ twelve thousand verses, and the commentaries on Homer of
+ Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, who, from his horn of
+ plenty, has poured the names and authorities of four hundred
+ writers. From these originals, and from the numerous tribe of
+ scholiasts and critics, 109 some estimate may be formed of the
+ literary wealth of the twelfth century: Constantinople was
+ enlightened by the genius of Homer and Demosthenes, of Aristotle
+ and Plato: and in the enjoyment or neglect of our present riches,
+ we must envy the generation that could still peruse the history
+ of Theopompus, the orations of Hyperides, the comedies of
+ Menander, 110 and the odes of Alcaeus and Sappho. The frequent
+ labor of illustration attests not only the existence, but the
+ popularity, of the Grecian classics: the general knowledge of the
+ age may be deduced from the example of two learned females, the
+ empress Eudocia, and the princess Anna Comnena, who cultivated,
+ in the purple, the arts of rhetoric and philosophy. 111 The
+ vulgar dialect of the city was gross and barbarous: a more
+ correct and elaborate style distinguished the discourse, or at
+ least the compositions, of the church and palace, which sometimes
+ affected to copy the purity of the Attic models.
+
+ 106 (return) [ See Zonaras (l. xvi. p. 160, 161) and Cedrenus,
+ (p. 549, 550.) Like Friar Bacon, the philosopher Leo has been
+ transformed by ignorance into a conjurer; yet not so
+ undeservedly, if he be the author of 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!]
+
+ 107 (return) [ The ecclesiastical and literary character of
+ Photius is copiously discussed by Hanckius (de Scriptoribus
+ Byzant. p. 269, 396) and Fabricius.]
+
+ 108 (return) [ It can only mean Bagdad, the seat of the caliphs
+ and the relation of his embassy might have been curious and
+ instructive. But how did he procure his books? A library so
+ numerous could neither be found at Bagdad, nor transported with
+ his baggage, nor preserved in his memory. Yet the last, however
+ incredible, seems to be affirmed by Photius himself. Camusat
+ (Hist. Critique des Journaux, p. 87-94) gives a good account of
+ the Myriobiblon.]
+
+ 109 (return) [ Of these modern Greeks, see the respective
+ articles in the Bibliotheca Graeca of Fabricius—a laborious work,
+ yet susceptible of a better method and many improvements; of
+ Eustathius, (tom. i. p. 289-292, 306-329,) of the Pselli, (a
+ diatribe of Leo Allatius, ad calcem 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 his Philological
+ Arrangements, opus senile, has given a sketch of this Byzantine
+ learning, (p. 287-300.)]
+
+ 110 (return) [ From the obscure and hearsay evidence, Gerard
+ Vossius (de Poetis Graecis, c. 6) and Le Clerc (Bibliotheque
+ Choisie, tom. xix. p. 285) mention a commentary of Michael
+ Psellus on twenty-four plays of Menander, still extant in Ms. at
+ Constantinople. Yet such classic studies seem incompatible with
+ the gravity or dulness of a schoolman, who pored over the
+ categories, (de Psellis, p. 42;) and Michael has probably been
+ confounded with Homerus Sellius, who wrote arguments to the
+ comedies of Menander. In the xth century, Suidas quotes fifty
+ plays, but he often transcribes the old scholiast of
+ Aristophanes.]
+
+ 111 (return) [ Anna Comnena may boast of her Greek style, and
+ Zonaras her contemporary, but not her flatterer, may add with
+ truth. The princess was conversant with the artful dialogues of
+ Plato; and had studied quadrivium of astrology, geometry,
+ arithmetic, and music, (see he preface to the Alexiad, with
+ Ducange’s notes)]
+
+ In our modern education, the painful though necessary attainment
+ of two languages, which are no longer living, may consume the
+ time and damp the ardor of the youthful student. The poets and
+ orators were long imprisoned in the barbarous dialects of our
+ Western ancestors, devoid of harmony or grace; and their genius,
+ without precept or example, was abandoned to the rule and native
+ powers of their judgment and fancy. But the Greeks of
+ Constantinople, after purging away the impurities of their vulgar
+ speech, acquired the free use of their ancient language, the most
+ happy composition of human art, and a familiar knowledge of the
+ sublime masters who had pleased or instructed the first of
+ nations. But these advantages only tend to aggravate the reproach
+ and shame of a degenerate people. They held in their lifeless
+ hands the riches of their fathers, without inheriting the spirit
+ which had created and improved that sacred patrimony: they read,
+ they praised, they compiled, but their languid souls seemed alike
+ incapable of thought and action. In the revolution of ten
+ centuries, not a single discovery was made to exalt the dignity
+ or promote the happiness of mankind. Not a single idea has been
+ added to the speculative systems of antiquity, and a succession
+ of patient disciples became in their turn the dogmatic teachers
+ of the next servile generation. Not a single composition of
+ history, philosophy, or literature, has been saved from oblivion
+ by the intrinsic beauties of style or sentiment, of original
+ fancy, or even of successful imitation. In prose, the least
+ offensive of the Byzantine writers are absolved from censure by
+ their naked and unpresuming simplicity: but the orators, most
+ eloquent 112 in their own conceit, are the farthest removed from
+ the models whom they affect to emulate. In every page our taste
+ and reason are wounded by the choice of gigantic and obsolete
+ words, a stiff and intricate phraseology, the discord of images,
+ the childish play of false or unseasonable ornament, and the
+ painful attempt to elevate themselves, to astonish the reader,
+ and to involve a trivial meaning in the smoke of obscurity and
+ exaggeration. Their prose is soaring to the vicious affectation
+ of poetry: their poetry is sinking below the flatness and
+ insipidity of prose. The tragic, epic, and lyric muses, were
+ silent and inglorious: the bards of Constantinople seldom rose
+ above a riddle or epigram, a panegyric or tale; they forgot even
+ the rules of prosody; and with the melody of Homer yet sounding
+ in their ears, they confound all measure of feet and syllables in
+ the impotent strains which have received the name of political or
+ city verses. 113 The minds of the Greek were bound in the fetters
+ of a base and imperious superstition which extends her dominion
+ round the circle of profane science. Their understandings were
+ bewildered in metaphysical controversy: in the belief of visions
+ and miracles, they had lost all principles of moral evidence, and
+ their taste was vitiated by the homilies of the monks, an absurd
+ medley of declamation and Scripture. Even these contemptible
+ studies were no longer dignified by the abuse of superior
+ talents: the leaders of the Greek church were humbly content to
+ admire and copy the oracles of antiquity, nor did the schools of
+ pulpit produce any rivals of the fame of Athanasius and
+ Chrysostom. 114
+
+ 112 (return) [ To censure the Byzantine taste. Ducange (Praefat.
+ Gloss. Graec. p. 17) strings the authorities of Aulus Gellius,
+ Jerom, Petronius George Hamartolus, Longinus; who give at once
+ the precept and the example.]
+
+ 113 (return) [ The versus politici, those common prostitutes, as,
+ from their easiness, they are styled by Leo Allatius, usually
+ consist of fifteen syllables. They are used by Constantine
+ Manasses, John Tzetzes, &c. (Ducange, Gloss. Latin. tom. iii. p.
+ i. p. 345, 346, edit. Basil, 1762.)]
+
+ 114 (return) [ As St. Bernard of the Latin, so St. John
+ Damascenus in the viiith century is revered as the last father of
+ the Greek, church.]
+
+ In all the pursuits of active and speculative life, the emulation
+ of states and individuals is the most powerful spring of the
+ efforts and improvements of mankind. The cities of ancient Greece
+ were cast in the happy mixture of union and independence, which
+ is repeated on a larger scale, but in a looser form, by the
+ nations of modern Europe; the union of language, religion, and
+ manners, which renders them the spectators and judges of each
+ other’s merit; 115 the independence of government and interest,
+ which asserts their separate freedom, and excites them to strive
+ for preeminence in the career of glory. The situation of the
+ Romans was less favorable; yet in the early ages of the republic,
+ which fixed the national character, a similar emulation was
+ kindled among the states of Latium and Italy; and in the arts and
+ sciences, they aspired to equal or surpass their Grecian masters.
+ The empire of the Caesars undoubtedly checked the activity and
+ progress of the human mind; its magnitude might indeed allow some
+ scope for domestic competition; but when it was gradually
+ reduced, at first to the East and at last to Greece and
+ Constantinople, the Byzantine subjects were degraded to an abject
+ and languid temper, the natural effect of their solitary and
+ insulated state. From the North they were oppressed by nameless
+ tribes of Barbarians, to whom they scarcely imparted the
+ appellation of men. The language and religion of the more
+ polished Arabs were an insurmountable bar to all social
+ intercourse. The conquerors of Europe were their brethren in the
+ Christian faith; but the speech of the Franks or Latins was
+ unknown, their manners were rude, and they were rarely connected,
+ in peace or war, with the successors of Heraclius. Alone in the
+ universe, the self-satisfied pride of the Greeks was not
+ disturbed by the comparison of foreign merit; and it is no wonder
+ if they fainted in the race, since they had neither competitors
+ to urge their speed, nor judges to crown their victory. The
+ nations of Europe and Asia were mingled by the expeditions to the
+ Holy Land; and it is under the Comnenian dynasty that a faint
+ emulation of knowledge and military virtue was rekindled in the
+ Byzantine empire.
+
+ 115 (return) [Hume’s Essays, 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
+ characters may be clearly distinguished. The natives of Syria and
+ Egypt abandoned their lives to lazy and contemplative devotion:
+ Rome again aspired to the dominion of the world; and the wit of
+ the lively and loquacious Greeks was consumed in the disputes of
+ metaphysical theology. The incomprehensible mysteries of the
+ Trinity and Incarnation, instead of commanding their silent
+ submission, were agitated in vehement and subtile controversies,
+ which enlarged their faith at the expense, perhaps, of their
+ charity and reason. From the council of Nice to the end of the
+ seventh century, the peace and unity of the church was invaded by
+ these spiritual wars; and so deeply did they affect the decline
+ and fall of the empire, that the historian has too often been
+ compelled to attend the synods, to explore the creeds, and to
+ enumerate the sects, of this busy period of ecclesiastical
+ annals. From the beginning of the eighth century to the last ages
+ of the Byzantine empire, the sound of controversy was seldom
+ heard: curiosity was exhausted, zeal was fatigued, and, in the
+ decrees of six councils, the articles of the Catholic faith had
+ been irrevocably defined. The spirit of dispute, however vain and
+ pernicious, requires some energy and exercise of the mental
+ faculties; and the prostrate Greeks were content to fast, to
+ pray, and to believe in blind obedience to the patriarch and his
+ clergy. During a long dream of superstition, the Virgin and the
+ Saints, their visions and miracles, their relics and images, were
+ preached by the monks, and worshipped by the people; and the
+ appellation of people might be extended, without injustice, to
+ the first ranks of civil society. At an unseasonable moment, the
+ Isaurian emperors attempted somewhat rudely to awaken their
+ subjects: under their influence reason might obtain some
+ proselytes, a far greater number was swayed by interest or fear;
+ but the Eastern world embraced or deplored their visible deities,
+ and the restoration of images was celebrated as the feast of
+ orthodoxy. In this passive and unanimous state the ecclesiastical
+ rulers were relieved from the toil, or deprived of the pleasure,
+ of persecution. The Pagans had disappeared; the Jews were silent
+ and obscure; the disputes with the Latins were rare and remote
+ hostilities against a national enemy; and the sects of Egypt and
+ Syria enjoyed a free toleration under the shadow of the Arabian
+ caliphs. About the middle of the seventh century, a branch of
+ Manichaeans was selected as the victims of spiritual tyranny;
+ their patience was at length exasperated to despair and
+ rebellion; and their exile has scattered over the West the seeds
+ of reformation. These important events will justify some inquiry
+ into the doctrine and story of the Paulicians; 1 and, as they
+ cannot plead for themselves, our candid criticism will magnify
+ the good, and abate or suspect the evil, that is reported by
+ their adversaries.
+
+ 1 (return) [ 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 intelligence from Photius (contra Manichaeos, l. i.) and
+ Peter Siculus, (Hist. Manichaeorum.) The first of these accounts
+ has not fallen into my hands; the second, which Mosheim prefers,
+ I have read in a Latin version inserted in the Maxima Bibliotheca
+ Patrum, (tom. xvi. p. 754-764,) from the edition of the Jesuit
+ Raderus, (Ingolstadii, 1604, in 4to.) * Note: Compare Hallam’s
+ Middle Ages, p. 461-471. Mr. Hallam justly observes that this
+ chapter “appears to be accurate as well as luminous, and is at
+ least far superior to any modern work on the subject.”—M.]
+
+ The Gnostics, who had distracted the infancy, were oppressed by
+ the greatness and authority, of the church. Instead of emulating
+ or surpassing the wealth, learning, and numbers of the Catholics,
+ their obscure remnant was driven from the capitals of the East
+ and West, and confined to the villages and mountains along the
+ borders of the Euphrates. Some vestige of the Marcionites may be
+ detected in the fifth century; 2 but the numerous sects were
+ finally lost in the odious name of the Manichaeans; and these
+ heretics, who presumed to reconcile the doctrines of Zoroaster
+ and Christ, were pursued by the two religions with equal and
+ unrelenting hatred. Under the grandson of Heraclius, in the
+ neighborhood of Samosata, more famous for the birth of Lucian
+ than for the title of a Syrian kingdom, a reformer arose,
+ esteemed by the Paulicians as the chosen messenger of truth. In
+ his humble dwelling of Mananalis, Constantine entertained a
+ deacon, who returned from Syrian captivity, and received the
+ inestimable gift of the New Testament, which was already
+ concealed from the vulgar by the prudence of the Greek, and
+ perhaps of the Gnostic, clergy. 3 These books became the measure
+ of his studies and the rule of his faith; and the Catholics, who
+ dispute his interpretation, acknowledge that his text was genuine
+ and sincere. But he attached himself with peculiar devotion to
+ the writings and character of St. Paul: the name of the
+ Paulicians is derived by their enemies from some unknown and
+ domestic teacher; but I am confident that they gloried in their
+ affinity to the apostle of the Gentiles. His disciples, Titus,
+ Timothy, Sylvanus, Tychicus, were represented by Constantine and
+ his fellow-laborers: the names of the apostolic churches were
+ applied to the congregations which they assembled in Armenia and
+ Cappadocia; and this innocent allegory revived the example and
+ memory of the first ages. In the Gospel, and the Epistles of St.
+ Paul, his faithful follower investigated the Creed of primitive
+ Christianity; and, whatever might be the success, a Protestant
+ reader will applaud the spirit, of the inquiry. But if the
+ Scriptures of the Paulicians were pure, they were not perfect.
+ Their founders rejected the two Epistles of St. Peter, 4 the
+ apostle of the circumcision, whose dispute with their favorite
+ for the observance of the law could not easily be forgiven. 5
+ They agreed with their Gnostic brethren in the universal contempt
+ for the Old Testament, the books of Moses and the prophets, which
+ have been consecrated 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 productions of the Hebrew patriarchs and the sages of
+ the East; the spurious gospels, epistles, and acts, which in the
+ first age had overwhelmed the orthodox code; the theology of
+ Manes, and the authors of the kindred heresies; and the thirty
+ generations, or aeons, which had been created by the fruitful
+ fancy of Valentine. The Paulicians sincerely condemned the memory
+ and opinions of the Manichaean sect, and complained of the
+ injustice which impressed that invidious name on the simple
+ votaries of St. Paul and of Christ.
+
+ 2 (return) [ In the time of Theodoret, the diocese of Cyrrhus, in
+ Syria, contained eight hundred villages. Of these, two were
+ inhabited by Arians and Eunomians, and eight by Marcionites, whom
+ the laborious bishop reconciled to the Catholic church, (Dupin,
+ Bibliot. Ecclesiastique, tom. iv. p. 81, 82.)]
+
+ 3 (return) [ Nobis profanis ista (sacra Evangelia) legere non
+ licet sed sacerdotibus duntaxat, was the first scruple of a
+ Catholic when he was advised to read the Bible, (Petr. Sicul. p.
+ 761.)]
+
+ 4 (return) [ In rejecting the second Epistle of St. Peter, the
+ Paulicians are justified by some of the most respectable of the
+ ancients and moderns, (see Wetstein ad loc., Simon, Hist.
+ Critique du Nouveau Testament, c. 17.) They likewise overlooked
+ the Apocalypse, (Petr. Sicul. p. 756;) but as such neglect is not
+ imputed as a crime, the Greeks of the ixth century must have been
+ careless of the credit and honor of the Revelations.]
+
+ 5 (return) [ This contention, which has not escaped the malice of
+ Porphyry, supposes some error and passion in one or both of the
+ apostles. By Chrysostom, Jerome, and Erasmus, it is represented
+ as a sham quarrel a pious fraud, for the benefit of the Gentiles
+ and the correction of the Jews, (Middleton’s Works, vol. ii. p.
+ 1-20.)]
+
+ 6 (return) [ Those who are curious of this heterodox library, may
+ consult the researches of Beausobre, (Hist. Critique du
+ Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 305-437.) Even in Africa, St. Austin
+ could describe the Manichaean books, tam multi, tam grandes, tam
+ pretiosi codices, (contra Faust. xiii. 14;) but he adds, without
+ pity, Incendite omnes illas membranas: and his advice had been
+ rigorously followed.]
+
+ Of the ecclesiastical chain, many links had been broken by the
+ Paulician reformers; and their liberty was enlarged, as they
+ reduced the number of masters, at whose voice profane reason must
+ bow to mystery and miracle. The early separation of the Gnostics
+ had preceded the establishment of the Catholic worship; and
+ against the gradual innovations of discipline and doctrine they
+ were as strongly guarded by habit and aversion, as by the silence
+ of St. Paul and the evangelists. The objects which had been
+ transformed by the magic of superstition, appeared to the eyes of
+ the Paulicians in their genuine and naked colors. An image made
+ without hands was the common workmanship of a mortal artist, to
+ whose skill alone the wood and canvas must be indebted for their
+ merit or value. The miraculous relics were a heap of bones and
+ ashes, destitute of life or virtue, or of any relation, perhaps,
+ with the person to whom they were ascribed. The true and
+ vivifying cross was a piece of sound or rotten timber, 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 was
+ degraded from her celestial honors and immaculate virginity; and
+ the saints and angels were no longer solicited to exercise the
+ laborious office of mediation in heaven, and ministry upon earth.
+ In the practice, or at least in the theory, of the sacraments,
+ the Paulicians were inclined to abolish all visible objects of
+ worship, and the words of the gospel were, in their judgment, the
+ baptism and communion of the faithful. They indulged a convenient
+ latitude for the interpretation of Scripture: and as often as
+ they were pressed by the literal sense, they could escape to the
+ intricate mazes of figure and allegory. Their utmost diligence
+ must have been employed to dissolve the connection between the
+ Old and the New Testament; since they adored the latter as the
+ oracles of God, and abhorred the former as the fabulous and
+ absurd invention of men or daemons. We cannot be surprised, that
+ they should have found in the Gospel the orthodox mystery of the
+ Trinity: but, instead of confessing the human nature and
+ substantial sufferings of Christ, they amused their fancy with a
+ celestial body that passed through the virgin like water through
+ a pipe; with a fantastic crucifixion, that eluded the vain and
+ important malice of the Jews. A creed thus simple and spiritual
+ was not adapted to the genius of the times; 7 and the rational
+ Christian, who might have been contented with the light yoke and
+ easy burden of Jesus and his apostles, was justly offended, that
+ the Paulicians should dare to violate the unity of God, the first
+ article of natural and revealed religion. Their belief and their
+ trust was in the Father, of Christ, of the human soul, and of the
+ invisible world.
+
+ But they likewise held the eternity of matter; a stubborn and
+ rebellious substance, the origin of a second principle of an
+ active being, who has created this visible world, and exercises
+ his temporal reign till the final consummation of death and sin.
+ 8 The appearances of moral and physical evil had established the
+ two principles in the ancient philosophy and religion of the
+ East; from whence this doctrine was transfused to the various
+ swarms of the Gnostics. A thousand shades may be devised in the
+ nature and character of Ahriman, from a rival god to a
+ subordinate daemon, from passion and frailty to pure and perfect
+ malevolence: but, in spite of our efforts, the goodness, and the
+ power, of Ormusd are placed at the opposite extremities of the
+ line; and every step that approaches the one must recede in equal
+ proportion from the other. 9
+
+ 7 (return) [ The six capital errors of the Paulicians are defined
+ by Peter (p. 756,) with much prejudice and passion.]
+
+ 8 (return) [ Primum illorum axioma est, duo rerum esse principia;
+ Deum malum et Deum bonum, aliumque hujus mundi conditorem et
+ princi pem, et alium futuri aevi, (Petr. Sicul. 765.)]
+
+ 9 (return) [ Two learned critics, Beausobre (Hist. Critique du
+ Manicheisme, l. i. iv. v. vi.) and Mosheim, (Institut. Hist.
+ Eccles. and de Rebus Christianis ante Constantinum, sec. i. ii.
+ iii.,) have labored to explore and discriminate the various
+ systems of the Gnostics on the subject of the two principles.]
+
+ The apostolic labors of Constantine Sylvanus soon multiplied the
+ number of his disciples, the secret recompense of spiritual
+ ambition. The remnant of the Gnostic sects, and especially the
+ Manichaeans of Armenia, were united under his standard; many
+ Catholics were converted or seduced by his arguments; and he
+ preached with success in the regions of Pontus 10 and Cappadocia,
+ which had long since imbibed the religion of Zoroaster. The
+ Paulician teachers were distinguished only by their Scriptural
+ names, by the modest title of Fellow-pilgrims, by the austerity
+ of their lives, their zeal or knowledge, and the credit of some
+ extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit. But they were incapable
+ of desiring, or at least of obtaining, the wealth and honors of
+ the Catholic prelacy; such anti-Christian pride they bitterly
+ censured; and even the rank of elders or presbyters was condemned
+ as an institution of the Jewish synagogue. The new sect was
+ loosely spread over the provinces of Asia Minor to the westward
+ of the Euphrates; six of their principal congregations
+ represented the churches to which St. Paul had addressed his
+ epistles; and their founder chose his residence in the
+ neighborhood of Colonia, 11 in the same district of Pontus which
+ had been celebrated by the altars of Bellona 12 and the miracles
+ of Gregory. 13 After a mission of twenty-seven years, Sylvanus,
+ who had retired from the tolerating government of the Arabs, fell
+ a sacrifice to Roman persecution. The laws of the pious emperors,
+ which seldom touched the lives of less odious heretics,
+ proscribed without mercy or disguise the tenets, the books, and
+ the persons of the Montanists and Manichaeans: the books were
+ delivered to the flames; and all who should presume to secrete
+ such writings, or to profess such opinions, were devoted to an
+ ignominious death. 14 A Greek minister, armed with legal and
+ military powers, appeared at Colonia to strike the shepherd, and
+ to reclaim, if possible, the lost sheep. By a refinement of
+ cruelty, Simeon placed the unfortunate Sylvanus before a line of
+ his disciples, who were commanded, as the price of their pardon
+ and the proof of their repentance, to massacre their spiritual
+ father. They turned aside from the impious office; the stones
+ dropped from their filial hands, and of the whole number, only
+ one executioner could be found, a new David, as he is styled by
+ the Catholics, who boldly overthrew the giant of heresy. This
+ apostate (Justin was his name) again deceived and betrayed his
+ unsuspecting brethren, and a new conformity to the acts of St.
+ Paul may be found in the conversion of Simeon: like the apostle,
+ he embraced the doctrine which he had been sent to persecute,
+ renounced his honors and fortunes, and required among the
+ Paulicians the fame of a missionary and a martyr. They were not
+ ambitious of martyrdom, 15 but in a calamitous period of one
+ hundred and fifty years, their patience sustained whatever zeal
+ could inflict; and power was insufficient to eradicate the
+ obstinate vegetation of fanaticism and reason. From the blood and
+ ashes of the first victims, a succession of teachers and
+ congregations repeatedly arose: amidst their foreign hostilities,
+ they found leisure for domestic quarrels: they preached, they
+ disputed, they suffered; and the virtues, the apparent virtues,
+ of Sergius, in a pilgrimage of thirty-three years, are
+ reluctantly confessed by the orthodox historians. 16 The native
+ cruelty of Justinian the Second was stimulated by a pious cause;
+ and he vainly hoped to extinguish, in a single conflagration, the
+ name and memory of the Paulicians. By their primitive simplicity,
+ their abhorrence of popular superstition, the Iconoclast princes
+ might have been reconciled to some erroneous doctrines; but they
+ themselves were exposed to the calumnies of the monks, and they
+ chose to be the tyrants, lest they should be accused as the
+ accomplices, of the Manichaeans. Such a reproach has sullied the
+ clemency of Nicephorus, who relaxed in their favor the severity
+ of the penal statutes, nor will his character sustain the honor
+ of a more liberal motive. The feeble Michael the First, the rigid
+ Leo the Armenian, were foremost in the race of persecution; but
+ the prize must doubtless be adjudged to the sanguinary devotion
+ of Theodora, who restored the images to the Oriental church. Her
+ inquisitors explored the cities and mountains of the Lesser Asia,
+ and the flatterers of the empress have affirmed that, in a short
+ reign, one hundred thousand Paulicians were extirpated by the
+ sword, the gibbet, or the flames. Her guilt or merit has perhaps
+ been stretched beyond the measure of truth: but if the account be
+ allowed, it must be presumed that many simple Iconoclasts were
+ punished under a more odious name; and that some who were driven
+ from the church, unwillingly took refuge in the bosom of heresy.
+
+ 10 (return) [ The countries between the Euphrates and the Halys
+ were possessed above 350 years by the Medes (Herodot. l. i. c.
+ 103) and Persians; and the kings of Pontus were of the royal race
+ of the Achaemenides, (Sallust. Fragment. l. iii. with the French
+ supplement and notes of the president de Brosses.)]
+
+ 11 (return) [ Most probably founded by Pompey after the conquest
+ of Pontus. This Colonia, on the Lycus, above Neo-Caesarea, is
+ named by the Turks Coulei-hisar, or Chonac, a populous town in a
+ strong country, (D’Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 34.
+ Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, tom. iii. lettre xxi. p. 293.)]
+
+ 12 (return) [ The temple of Bellona, at Comana in Pontus was a
+ powerful and wealthy foundation, and the high priest was
+ respected as the second person in the kingdom. As the sacerdotal
+ office had been occupied by his mother’s family, Strabo (l. xii.
+ p. 809, 835, 836, 837) dwells with peculiar complacency on the
+ temple, the worship, and festival, which was twice celebrated
+ every year. But the Bellona of Pontus had the features and
+ character of the goddess, not of war, but of love.]
+
+ 13 (return) [ Gregory, bishop of Neo-Caesarea, (A.D. 240-265,)
+ surnamed Thaumaturgus, or the Wonder-worker. An hundred years
+ afterwards, the history or romance of his life was composed by
+ Gregory of Nyssa, his namesake and countryman, the brother of the
+ great St. Basil.]
+
+ 14 (return) [ Hoc caeterum ad sua egregia facinora, divini atque
+ orthodoxi Imperatores addiderunt, ut Manichaeos Montanosque
+ capitali puniri sententia juberent, eorumque libros, quocunque in
+ loco inventi essent, flammis tradi; quod siquis uspiam eosdem
+ occultasse deprehenderetur, hunc eundem mortis poenae addici,
+ ejusque bona in fiscum inferri, (Petr. Sicul. p. 759.) What more
+ could bigotry and persecution desire?]
+
+ 15 (return) [ It should seem, that the Paulicians allowed
+ themselves some latitude of equivocation and mental reservation;
+ till the Catholics discovered the pressing questions, which
+ reduced them to the alternative of apostasy or martyrdom, (Petr.
+ Sicul. p. 760.)]
+
+ 16 (return) [ The persecution is told by Petrus Siculus (p.
+ 579-763) with satisfaction and pleasantry. Justus justa
+ persolvit. See likewise Cedrenus, (p. 432-435.)]
+
+ The most furious and desperate of rebels are the sectaries of a
+ religion long persecuted, and at length provoked. In a holy cause
+ they are no longer susceptible of fear or remorse: the justice of
+ their arms hardens them against the feelings of humanity; and
+ they revenge their fathers’ wrongs on the children of their
+ tyrants. Such have been the Hussites of Bohemia and the
+ Calvinists of France, and such, in the ninth century, were the
+ Paulicians of Armenia and the adjacent provinces. 17 They were
+ first awakened to the massacre of a governor and bishop, who
+ exercised the Imperial mandate of converting or destroying the
+ heretics; and the deepest recesses of Mount Argaeus protected
+ their independence and revenge. A more dangerous and consuming
+ flame was kindled by the persecution of Theodora, and the revolt
+ of Carbeas, a valiant Paulician, who commanded the guards of the
+ general of the East. His father had been impaled by the Catholic
+ inquisitors; and religion, or at least nature, might justify his
+ desertion and revenge. Five thousand of his brethren were united
+ by the same motives; they renounced the allegiance of
+ anti-Christian Rome; a Saracen emir introduced Carbeas to the
+ caliph; and the commander of the faithful extended his sceptre to
+ the implacable enemy of the Greeks. In the mountains between
+ Siwas and Trebizond he founded or fortified the city of Tephrice,
+ 18 which is still occupied by a fierce or licentious people, and
+ the neighboring hills were covered with the Paulician fugitives,
+ who now reconciled the use of the Bible and the sword. During
+ more than thirty years, Asia was afflicted by the calamities of
+ foreign and domestic war; in their hostile inroads, the disciples
+ of St. Paul were joined with those of Mahomet; and the peaceful
+ Christians, the aged parent and tender virgin, who were delivered
+ into barbarous servitude, might justly accuse the intolerant
+ spirit of their sovereign. So urgent was the mischief, so
+ intolerable the shame, that even the dissolute Michael, the son
+ of Theodora, was compelled to march in person against the
+ Paulicians: he was defeated under the walls of Samosata; and the
+ Roman emperor fled before the heretics whom his mother had
+ condemned to the flames. The Saracens fought under the same
+ banners, but the victory was ascribed to Carbeas; and the captive
+ generals, with more than a hundred tribunes, were either released
+ by his avarice, or tortured by his fanaticism. The valor and
+ ambition of Chrysocheir, 19 his successor, embraced a wider
+ circle of rapine and revenge. In alliance with his faithful
+ Moslems, he boldly penetrated into the heart of Asia; the troops
+ of the frontier and the palace were repeatedly overthrown; the
+ edicts of persecution were answered by the pillage of Nice and
+ Nicomedia, of Ancyra and Ephesus; nor could the apostle St. John
+ protect from violation his city and sepulchre. The cathedral of
+ Ephesus was turned into a stable for mules and horses; and the
+ Paulicians vied with the Saracens in their contempt and
+ abhorrence of images and relics. It is not unpleasing to observe
+ the triumph of rebellion over the same despotism which had
+ disdained the prayers of an injured people. The emperor Basil,
+ the Macedonian, was reduced to sue for peace, to offer a ransom
+ for the captives, and to request, in the language of moderation
+ and charity, that Chrysocheir would spare his fellow-Christians,
+ and content himself with a royal donative of gold and silver and
+ silk garments. “If the emperor,” replied the insolent fanatic,
+ “be desirous of peace, let him abdicate the East, and reign
+ without molestation in the West. If he refuse, the servants of
+ the Lord will precipitate him from the throne.” The reluctant
+ Basil suspended the treaty, accepted the defiance, and led his
+ army into the land of heresy, which he wasted with fire and
+ sword. The open country of the Paulicians was exposed to the same
+ calamities which they had inflicted; but when he had explored the
+ strength of Tephrice, the multitude of the Barbarians, and the
+ ample magazines of arms and provisions, he desisted with a sigh
+ from the hopeless siege. On his return to Constantinople, he
+ labored, by the foundation of convents and churches, to secure
+ the aid of his celestial patrons, of Michael the archangel and
+ the prophet Elijah; and it was his daily prayer that he might
+ live to transpierce, with three arrows, the head of his impious
+ adversary. Beyond his expectations, the wish was accomplished:
+ after a successful inroad, Chrysocheir was surprised and slain in
+ his retreat; and the rebel’s head was triumphantly presented at
+ the foot of the throne. On the reception of this welcome trophy,
+ Basil instantly called for his bow, discharged three arrows with
+ unerring aim, and accepted the applause of the court, who hailed
+ the victory of the royal archer. With Chrysocheir, the glory of
+ the Paulicians faded and withered: 20 on the second expedition of
+ the emperor, the impregnable Tephrice, was deserted by the
+ heretics, who sued for mercy or escaped to the borders. The city
+ was 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 with the enemies of the empire and the
+ gospel.
+
+ 17 (return) [ Petrus Siculus, (p. 763, 764,) the continuator of
+ Theophanes, (l. iv. c. 4, p. 103, 104,) Cedrenus, (p. 541, 542,
+ 545,) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xvi. p. 156,) describe the revolt
+ and exploits of Carbeas and his Paulicians.]
+
+ 18 (return) [ Otter (Voyage en Turquie et en Perse, tom. ii.) is
+ probably the only Frank who has visited the independent
+ Barbarians of Tephrice now Divrigni, from whom he fortunately
+ escaped in the train of a Turkish officer.]
+
+ 19 (return) [ In the history of Chrysocheir, Genesius (Chron. p.
+ 67-70, edit. Venet.) has exposed the nakedness of the empire.
+ Constantine Porphyrogenitus (in Vit. Basil. c. 37-43, p. 166-171)
+ has displayed the glory of his grandfather. Cedrenus (p. 570-573)
+ is without their passions or their knowledge.]
+
+ 20 (return) [ How elegant is the Greek tongue, even in the mouth
+ of Cedrenus!]
+
+
+
+
+ Chapter LIV: Origin And Doctrine Of The Paulicians.—Part II.
+
+ About the middle of the eight century, Constantine, surnamed
+ Copronymus by the worshippers of images, had made an expedition
+ into Armenia, and found, in the cities of Melitene and
+ Theodosiopolis, a great number of Paulicians, his kindred
+ heretics. As a favor, or punishment, he transplanted them from
+ the banks of the Euphrates to Constantinople and Thrace; and by
+ this emigration their doctrine was introduced and diffused in
+ Europe. 21 If the sectaries of the metropolis were soon mingled
+ with the promiscuous mass, those of the country struck a deep
+ root in a foreign soil. The Paulicians of Thrace resisted the
+ storms of persecution, maintained a secret correspondence with
+ their Armenian brethren, and gave aid and comfort to their
+ preachers, who solicited, not without success, the infant faith
+ of the Bulgarians. 22 In the tenth century, they were restored
+ and multiplied by a more powerful colony, which John Zimisces 23
+ transported from the Chalybian hills to the valleys of Mount
+ Haemus. The Oriental clergy who would have preferred the
+ destruction, impatiently sighed for the absence, of the
+ Manichaeans: the warlike emperor had felt and esteemed their
+ valor: their attachment to the Saracens was pregnant with
+ mischief; but, on the side of the Danube, against the Barbarians
+ of Scythia, their service might be useful, and their loss would
+ be desirable. Their exile in a distant land was softened by a
+ free toleration: the Paulicians held the city of Philippopolis
+ and the keys of Thrace; the Catholics were their subjects; the
+ Jacobite emigrants their associates: they occupied a line of
+ villages and castles in Macedonia and Epirus; and many native
+ Bulgarians were associated to the communion of arms and heresy.
+ As long as they were awed by power and treated with moderation,
+ their voluntary bands were distinguished in the armies of the
+ empire; and the courage of these dogs, ever greedy of war, ever
+ thirsty of human blood, is noticed with astonishment, and almost
+ with reproach, by the pusillanimous Greeks. The same spirit
+ rendered them arrogant and contumacious: they were easily
+ provoked by caprice or injury; and their privileges were often
+ violated by the faithless bigotry of the government and clergy.
+ In the midst of the Norman war, two thousand five hundred
+ Manichaeans deserted the standard of Alexius Comnenus, 24 and
+ retired to their native homes. He dissembled till the moment of
+ revenge; invited the chiefs to a friendly conference; and
+ punished the innocent and guilty by imprisonment, confiscation,
+ and baptism. In an interval of peace, the emperor undertook the
+ pious office of reconciling them to the church and state: his
+ winter quarters were fixed at Philippopolis; and the thirteenth
+ apostle, as he is styled by his pious daughter, consumed whole
+ days and nights in theological controversy. His arguments were
+ fortified, their obstinacy was melted, by the honors and rewards
+ which he bestowed on the most eminent proselytes; and a new city,
+ surrounded with gardens, enriched with immunities, and dignified
+ with his own name, was founded by Alexius for the residence of
+ his vulgar converts. The important station of Philippopolis was
+ wrested from their hands; the contumacious leaders were secured
+ in a dungeon, or banished from their country; and their lives
+ were spared by the prudence, rather than the mercy, of an
+ emperor, at whose command a poor and solitary heretic was burnt
+ alive before the church of St. Sophia. 25 But the proud hope of
+ eradicating the prejudices of a nation was speedily overturned by
+ the invincible zeal of the Paulicians, who ceased to dissemble or
+ refused to obey. After the departure and death of Alexius, they
+ soon resumed their civil and religious laws. In the beginning of
+ the thirteenth century, their pope or primate (a manifest
+ corruption) resided on the confines of Bulgaria, Croatia, and
+ Dalmatia, and governed, by his vicars, the filial congregations
+ of Italy and France. 26 From that aera, a minute scrutiny might
+ prolong and perpetuate the chain of tradition. At the end of the
+ last age, the sect or colony still inhabited the valleys of Mount
+ Haemus, where their ignorance and poverty were more frequently
+ tormented by the Greek clergy than by the Turkish government. The
+ modern Paulicians have lost all memory of their origin; and their
+ religion is disgraced by the worship of the cross, and the
+ practice of bloody sacrifice, which some captives have imported
+ from the wilds of Tartary. 27
+
+ 21 (return) [ Copronymus transported his heretics; and thus says
+ Cedrenus, (p. 463,) who has copied the annals of Theophanes.]
+
+ 22 (return) [ Petrus Siculus, who resided nine months at Tephrice
+ (A.D. 870) for the ransom of captives, (p. 764,) was informed of
+ their intended mission, and addressed his preservative, the
+ Historia Manichaeorum to the new archbishop of the Bulgarians,
+ (p. 754.)]
+
+ 23 (return) [ The colony of Paulicians and Jacobites transplanted
+ by John 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.)]
+
+ 24 (return) [ The Alexiad of Anna Comnena (l. v. p. 131, l. vi.
+ p. 154, 155, l. xiv. p. 450-457, with the Annotations of Ducange)
+ records the transactions of her apostolic father with the
+ Manichaeans, whose abominable heresy she was desirous of
+ refuting.]
+
+ 25 (return) [ Basil, a monk, and the author of the Bogomiles, a
+ sect of Gnostics, who soon vanished, (Anna Comnena, Alexiad, l.
+ xv. p. 486-494 Mosheim, Hist. Ecclesiastica, p. 420.)]
+
+ 26 (return) [ Matt. Paris, Hist. Major, p. 267. This passage of
+ our English historian is alleged by Ducange in an excellent note
+ on Villehardouin (No. 208,) who found the Paulicians at
+ Philippopolis the friends of the Bulgarians.]
+
+ 27 (return) [ See Marsigli, Stato Militare dell’ Imperio
+ Ottomano, p. 24.]
+
+ In the West, the first teachers of the Manichaean theology had
+ been repulsed by the people, or suppressed by the prince. The
+ favor and success of the Paulicians in the eleventh and twelfth
+ centuries must be imputed to the strong, though secret,
+ discontent which armed the most pious Christians against the
+ church of Rome. Her avarice was oppressive, her despotism odious;
+ less degenerate perhaps than the Greeks in the worship of saints
+ and images, her innovations were more rapid and scandalous: she
+ had rigorously defined and imposed the doctrine of
+ transubstantiation: the lives of the Latin clergy were more
+ corrupt, and the Eastern bishops might pass for the successors of
+ the apostles, if they were compared with the lordly prelates, who
+ wielded by turns the crosier, the sceptre, and the sword. Three
+ different roads might introduce the Paulicians into the heart of
+ Europe. After the conversion of Hungary, the pilgrims who visited
+ Jerusalem might safely follow the course of the Danube: in their
+ journey and return they passed through Philippopolis; and the
+ sectaries, disguising their name and heresy, might accompany the
+ French or German caravans to their respective countries. The
+ trade and dominion of Venice pervaded the coast of the Adriatic,
+ and the hospitable republic opened her bosom to foreigners of
+ every climate and religion. Under the Byzantine standard, the
+ Paulicians were often transported to the Greek provinces of Italy
+ and Sicily: in peace and war, they freely conversed with
+ strangers and natives, and their opinions were silently
+ propagated in Rome, Milan, and the kingdoms beyond the Alps. 28
+ It was soon discovered, that many thousand Catholics of every
+ rank, and of either sex, had embraced the Manichaean heresy; and
+ the flames which consumed twelve canons of Orleans was the first
+ act and signal of persecution. The Bulgarians, 29 a name so
+ innocent in its origin, so odious in its application, spread
+ their branches over the face of Europe. United in common hatred
+ of idolatry and Rome, they were connected by a form of episcopal
+ and presbyterian government; their various sects were
+ discriminated by some fainter or darker shades of theology; but
+ they generally agreed in the two principles, the contempt of the
+ Old Testament and the denial of the body of Christ, either on the
+ cross or in the eucharist. A confession of simple worship and
+ blameless manners is extorted from their enemies; and so high was
+ their standard of perfection, that the increasing congregations
+ were divided into two classes of disciples, of those who
+ practised, and of those who aspired. It was in the country of the
+ Albigeois, 30 in the southern provinces of France, that the
+ Paulicians were most deeply implanted; and the same vicissitudes
+ of martyrdom and revenge which had been displayed in the
+ neighborhood of the Euphrates, were repeated in the thirteenth
+ century on the banks of the Rhone. The laws of the Eastern
+ emperors were revived by Frederic the Second. The insurgents of
+ Tephrice were represented by the barons and cities of Languedoc:
+ Pope Innocent III. surpassed the sanguinary fame of Theodora. It
+ was in cruelty alone that her soldiers could equal the heroes of
+ the Crusades, and the cruelty of her priests was far excelled by
+ the founders of the Inquisition; 31 an office more adapted to
+ confirm, than to refute, the belief of an evil principle. The
+ visible assemblies of the Paulicians, or Albigeois, were
+ extirpated by fire and sword; and the bleeding remnant escaped by
+ flight, concealment, or Catholic conformity. But the invincible
+ spirit which they had kindled still lived and breathed in the
+ Western world. In the state, in the church, and even in the
+ cloister, a latent succession was preserved of the disciples of
+ St. Paul; who protested against the tyranny of Rome, embraced the
+ Bible as the rule of faith, and purified their creed from all the
+ visions of the Gnostic theology. 3111 The struggles of Wickliff
+ in England, of Huss in Bohemia, were premature and ineffectual;
+ but the names of Zuinglius, Luther, and Calvin, are pronounced
+ with gratitude as the deliverers of nations.
+
+ 28 (return) [ The introduction of the Paulicians into Italy and
+ France is amply discussed by Muratori (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii
+ Aevi, tom. v. dissert. lx. p. 81-152) and Mosheim, (p. 379-382,
+ 419-422.) Yet both have overlooked a curious passage of William
+ the Apulian, who clearly describes 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 of
+ Sabellians or Patripassians.]
+
+ 29 (return) [ Bulgari, Boulgres, Bougres, a national appellation,
+ has been applied by the French as a term of reproach to usurers
+ and unnatural sinners. The Paterini, or Patelini, has been made
+ to signify a smooth and flattering hypocrite, such as l’Avocat
+ Patelin of that original and pleasant farce, (Ducange, Gloss.
+ Latinitat. Medii et Infimi Aevi.) The Manichaeans were likewise
+ named Cathari or the pure, by corruption. Gazari, &c.]
+
+ 30 (return) [ Of the laws, crusade, and persecution against the
+ Albigeois, 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 Fleury is the most impartial and moderate.]
+
+ 31 (return) [ The Acts (Liber Sententiarum) of the Inquisition of
+ Tholouse (A.D. 1307-1323) have been published by Limborch,
+ (Amstelodami, 1692,) with a previous History of the Inquisition
+ in general. They deserved a more learned and critical editor. As
+ we must not calumniate even Satan, or the Holy Office, I will
+ observe, that of a list of criminals which fills nineteen folio
+ pages, only fifteen men and four women were delivered to the
+ secular arm.]
+
+ 3111 (return) [ The popularity of “Milner’s History of the
+ Church” with some readers, may make it proper to observe, that
+ his attempt to exculpate the Paulicians from the charge of
+ Gnosticism or Manicheism is in direct defiance, if not in
+ ignorance, of all the original authorities. Gibbon himself, it
+ appears, was not acquainted with the work of Photius, “Contra
+ Manicheos Repullulantes,” the first book of which 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 of their reformation, will prudently ask from what articles
+ of faith, above or against our reason, they have enfranchised the
+ Christians; for such enfranchisement is doubtless a benefit so
+ far as it may be compatible with truth and piety. After a fair
+ discussion, we shall rather be surprised by the timidity, than
+ scandalized by the freedom, of our first reformers. 32 With the
+ Jews, they adopted the belief and defence of all the Hebrew
+ Scriptures, with all their prodigies, from the garden of Eden to
+ the visions of the prophet Daniel; and they were bound, like the
+ Catholics, to justify against the Jews the abolition of a divine
+ law. In the great mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation the
+ reformers were severely orthodox: they freely adopted the
+ theology of the four, or the six first councils; and with the
+ Athanasian creed, they pronounced the eternal damnation of all
+ who did not believe the Catholic faith. Transubstantiation, the
+ invisible change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of
+ Christ, is a tenet that may defy the power of argument and
+ pleasantry; but instead of consulting the evidence of their
+ senses, of their sight, their feeling, and their taste, the first
+ Protestants were entangled in their own scruples, and awed by the
+ words of Jesus in the institution of the sacrament. Luther
+ maintained a corporeal, and Calvin a real, presence of Christ in
+ the eucharist; and the opinion of Zuinglius, that it is no more
+ than a spiritual communion, a simple memorial, has slowly
+ prevailed in the reformed churches. 33 But the loss of one
+ mystery was amply compensated by the stupendous doctrines of
+ original sin, redemption, faith, grace, and predestination, which
+ have been strained from the epistles of St. Paul. These subtile
+ questions had most assuredly been prepared by the fathers and
+ schoolmen; but the final improvement 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 the Protestants; and many a
+ sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer is God, than that
+ God is a cruel and capricious tyrant.
+
+ 32 (return) [ The opinions and proceedings of the reformers are
+ exposed in 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 to incline in favor of his Lutheran
+ brethren.]
+
+ 33 (return) [ Under Edward VI. our reformation was more bold and
+ perfect, but in the fundamental articles of the church of
+ England, a strong and explicit declaration against the real
+ presence was obliterated 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; and the philosopher must own his obligations to these
+ fearless enthusiasts. 34 I. By their hands the lofty fabric of
+ superstition, from the abuse of indulgences to the intercesson of
+ the Virgin, has been levelled with the ground. Myriads of both
+ sexes of the monastic profession were restored to the liberty and
+ labors of social life. A hierarchy of saints and angels, of
+ imperfect and subordinate deities, were stripped of their
+ temporal power, and reduced to the enjoyment of celestial
+ happiness; their images and relics were banished from the church;
+ and the credulity of the people was no longer nourished with the
+ daily repetition of miracles and visions. The imitation of
+ Paganism was supplied by a pure and spiritual worship of prayer
+ and thanksgiving, the most worthy of 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 not be
+ inflamed by enthusiasm, or insensibly subside in languor and
+ indifference. II. The chain of authority was broken, which
+ restrains the bigot from thinking as he pleases, and the slave
+ from speaking as he thinks: the popes, fathers, and councils,
+ were no longer the supreme and infallible judges of the world;
+ and each Christian was taught to acknowledge no law but the
+ Scriptures, no interpreter but his own conscience. This freedom,
+ however, was the consequence, rather than the design, of the
+ Reformation. The patriot reformers were ambitious of succeeding
+ the tyrants whom they had dethroned. They imposed with equal
+ rigor their creeds and confessions; they asserted the right of
+ the magistrate to punish heretics with death. The pious or
+ personal animosity of Calvin proscribed in Servetus 35 the guilt
+ of his own rebellion; 36 and the flames of Smithfield, in which
+ he was afterwards consumed, had been kindled for the Anabaptists
+ by the zeal of Cranmer. 37 The nature of the tiger wa s the same,
+ but he was gradually deprived of his teeth and fangs. A spiritual
+ and temporal kingdom was possessed by the Roman pontiff; the
+ Protestant doctors were subjects of an humble rank, without
+ revenue or jurisdiction. His decrees were consecrated by the
+ antiquity of the Catholic church: their arguments and disputes
+ were submitted to the people; and their appeal to private
+ judgment was accepted beyond their wishes, by curiosity and
+ enthusiasm. Since the days of Luther and Calvin, a secret
+ reformation has been silently working in the bosom of the
+ reformed churches; many weeds of prejudice were eradicated; and
+ the disciples of Erasmus 38 diffused a spirit of freedom and
+ moderation. The liberty of conscience has been claimed as a
+ common benefit, an inalienable right: 39 the free governments of
+ Holland 40 and England 41 introduced the practice of toleration;
+ and the narrow allowance of the laws has been enlarged by the
+ prudence and humanity of the times. In the exercise, the mind has
+ understood the limits of its powers, and the words and shadows
+ that might amuse the child can no longer satisfy his manly
+ reason. The volumes of controversy are overspread with cobwebs:
+ the doctrine of a Protestant church is far removed from the
+ knowledge or belief of its private members; and the forms of
+ orthodoxy, the articles of faith, are subscribed with a sigh, or
+ a smile, by the modern clergy. Yet the friends of Christianity
+ are alarmed at the boundless impulse of inquiry and scepticism.
+ The predictions of the Catholics are accomplished: the web of
+ mystery is unravelled by the Arminians, Arians, and Socinians,
+ whose number must not be computed from their separate
+ congregations; and the pillars of Revelation are shaken by those
+ men who preserve the name without the substance of religion, who
+ indulge the license without the temper of philosophy. 42 4211
+
+ 34 (return) [ “Had it not been for such men as Luther and
+ myself,” said the fanatic Whiston to Halley the philosopher, “you
+ would now be kneeling before an image of St. Winifred.”]
+
+ 35 (return) [ The article of Servet in the Dictionnaire Critique
+ of Chauffepie is the best account which I have seen of this
+ shameful transaction. See likewise the Abbe d’Artigny, Nouveaux
+ Memoires d’Histoire, &c., tom. ii. p. 55-154.]
+
+ 36 (return) [ I am more deeply scandalized at the single
+ execution of Servetus, than at the hecatombs which have blazed in
+ the Auto de Fes of Spain and Portugal. 1. The zeal of Calvin
+ seems to have been envenomed by personal malice, and perhaps
+ envy. He accused his adversary before their common enemies, the
+ judges of Vienna, and betrayed, for his destruction, the sacred
+ trust of a private correspondence. 2. The deed of cruelty was not
+ varnished by the pretence of danger to the church or state. In
+ his passage through Geneva, Servetus was a harmless stranger, who
+ neither preached, nor printed, nor made proselytes. 3. A Catholic
+ inquisition yields the same obedience which he requires, but
+ Calvin violated the golden rule of doing as he would be done by;
+ a rule which I read 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 does not contain the
+ maxim of charity Do unto others as you would they should do unto
+ you, but simply the maxim of justice, Do not to others the which
+ would offend you if they should do it to you.—G.]
+
+ 37 (return) [ See Burnet, vol. ii. p. 84-86. The sense and
+ humanity of the young king were oppressed by the authority of the
+ primate.]
+
+ 38 (return) [ Erasmus may be considered as the father of rational
+ theology. After a slumber of a hundred years, it was revived by
+ the Arminians of Holland, Grotius, Limborch, and Le Clerc; in
+ England by Chillingworth, the latitudinarians of Cambridge,
+ (Burnet, Hist. of Own Times, vol. i. p. 261-268, octavo edition.)
+ Tillotson, Clarke, Hoadley, &c.]
+
+ 39 (return) [ I am sorry to observe, that the three writers of
+ the last age, by whom the rights of toleration have been so nobly
+ defended, Bayle, Leibnitz, and Locke, are all laymen and
+ philosophers.]
+
+ 40 (return) [ See the excellent chapter of Sir William Temple on
+ the Religion of the United Provinces. I am not satisfied with
+ Grotius, (de Rebus Belgicis, Annal. l. i. p. 13, 14, edit. in
+ 12mo.,) who approves the Imperial laws of persecution, and only
+ condemns the bloody tribunal of the inquisition.]
+
+ 41 (return) [ Sir William Blackstone (Commentaries, vol. iv. p.
+ 53, 54) explains the law of England as it was fixed at the
+ Revolution. The exceptions of Papists, and of those who deny the
+ Trinity, would still have a tolerable scope for persecution if
+ the national spirit were not more effectual than a hundred
+ statutes.]
+
+ 42 (return) [ I shall recommend to public animadversion two
+ passages in Dr. Priestley, which betray the ultimate tendency of
+ his opinions. At the 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!]
+
+ 4211 (return) [ There is something ludicrous, if it were not
+ offensive, in Gibbon holding up to “public animadversion” the
+ opinions of any believer in Christianity, however imperfect his
+ creed. The observations which the whole of this passage on the
+ effects of the reformation, in which much truth and justice is
+ mingled with much prejudice, would suggest, could not possibly be
+ compressed into a note; and would indeed embrace the whole
+ religious and irreligious history of the time which has 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
+ ancient barrier of the Danube, so often violated and so often
+ restored, was irretrievably swept away by a new deluge of
+ Barbarians. Their progress was 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 and disgrace of
+ defending their capital against the Saracens. If, in the account
+ of this interesting people, I have deviated from the strict and
+ original line of my undertaking, the merit of the subject will
+ hide my transgression, or solicit my excuse. In the East, in the
+ West, in war, in religion, in science, in their prosperity, and
+ in their decay, the Arabians press themselves on our curiosity:
+ the first overthrow of the church and empire of the Greeks may be
+ imputed to their arms; and the disciples of Mahomet still hold
+ the civil and religious sceptre of the Oriental world. But the
+ same labor would be unworthily bestowed on the swarms of savages,
+ who, between the seventh and the twelfth century, descended from
+ the plains of Scythia, in transient inroad or perpetual
+ emigration. 1 Their names are uncouth, their origins doubtful,
+ their actions obscure, their superstition was blind, their valor
+ brutal, and the uniformity of their public and private lives was
+ neither softened by innocence nor refined by policy. The majesty
+ of the Byzantine throne repelled and survived their disorderly
+ attacks; the greater part of these Barbarians has disappeared
+ without leaving any memorial of their existence, and the
+ despicable remnant continues, and may long continue, to groan
+ under the dominion of a foreign tyrant. From the antiquities of,
+ I. Bulgarians, II. Hungarians, and, III. Russians, I shall
+ content myself with selecting such facts as yet deserve to be
+ remembered. The conquests of the, IV. Normans, and the monarchy
+ of the, V. Turks, will naturally terminate in the memorable
+ Crusades to the Holy Land, and the double fall of the city and
+ empire of Constantine.
+
+ 1 (return) [ All the passages of the Byzantine history which
+ relate to the Barbarians are compiled, methodized, and
+ transcribed, in a Latin version, by the laborious John Gotthelf
+ Stritter, in his “Memoriae Populorum, 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 has not enhanced
+ the price of these raw materials.]
+
+ I. In his march to Italy, Theodoric 2 the Ostrogoth had trampled
+ on the arms of the Bulgarians. After this defeat, the name and
+ the nation are lost during a century and a half; and it may be
+ suspected that the same or a similar appellation was revived by
+ strange colonies from the Borysthenes, the Tanais, or the Volga.
+ A king of the ancient Bulgaria, 3 bequeathed to his five sons a
+ last lesson of moderation and concord. It was received as youth
+ has ever received the counsels of age and experience: the five
+ princes buried their father; divided his subjects and cattle;
+ forgot his advice; separated from each other; and wandered in
+ quest of fortune till we find the most adventurous in the heart
+ of Italy, under the protection of the exarch of Ravenna. 4 But
+ the stream of emigration was directed or impelled towards the
+ capital. The modern Bulgaria, along the southern banks of the
+ Danube, was stamped with the name and image which it has retained
+ to the present hour: the new conquerors successively acquired, by
+ war or treaty, the Roman provinces of Dardania, Thessaly, and the
+ two Epirus; 5 the ecclesiastical supremacy was translated from
+ the native city of Justinian; and, in their prosperous age, the
+ obscure town of Lychnidus, or Achrida, was honored with the
+ throne of a king and a patriarch. 6 The unquestionable evidence
+ of language attests the descent of the Bulgarians from the
+ original stock of the Sclavonian, or more properly Slavonian,
+ race; 7 and the kindred bands of Servians, Bosnians, Rascians,
+ Croatians, Walachians, 8 &c., followed either the standard or the
+ example of the leading tribe. From the Euxine to the Adriatic, in
+ the state of captives, or subjects, or allies, or enemies, of the
+ Greek empire, they overspread the land; and the national
+ appellation of the slaves 9 has been degraded by chance or malice
+ from the signification of glory to that of servitude. 10 Among
+ these colonies, the Chrobatians, 11 or Croats, who now attend the
+ motions of an Austrian army, are the descendants of a mighty
+ people, the conquerors and sovereigns of Dalmatia. The maritime
+ cities, and of these the infant republic of Ragusa, implored the
+ aid and instructions of the Byzantine court: they were advised by
+ the magnanimous Basil to reserve a small acknowledgment of their
+ fidelity to the Roman empire, and to appease, by an annual
+ tribute, the wrath of these irresistible Barbarians. The kingdom
+ of Crotia was shared by eleven Zoupans, or feudatory lords; and
+ their united forces were numbered at sixty thousand horse and one
+ hundred thousand foot. A long sea-coast, indented with capacious
+ harbors, covered with a string of islands, and almost in sight of
+ the Italian shores, disposed both the natives and strangers to
+ the practice of navigation. The boats or brigantines of the
+ Croats were constructed after the fashion of the old Liburnians:
+ one hundred and eighty vessels may excite the idea of a
+ respectable navy; but our seamen will smile at the allowance of
+ ten, or twenty, or forty, men for each of these ships of war.
+ They were gradually converted to the more honorable service of
+ commerce; yet the Sclavonian pirates were still frequent and
+ dangerous; and it was not before the close of the tenth century
+ that the freedom and sovereignty of the Gulf were effectually
+ vindicated by the Venetian republic. 12 The ancestors of these
+ Dalmatian kings were equally removed from the use and abuse of
+ navigation: they dwelt in the White Croatia, in the inland
+ regions of Silesia and Little Poland, thirty days’ journey,
+ according to the Greek computation, from the sea of darkness.
+
+ 2 (return) [ Hist. vol. iv. p. 11.]
+
+ 3 (return) [ Theophanes, p. 296-299. Anastasius, p. 113.
+ Nicephorus, C. P. p. 22, 23. Theophanes places the old Bulgaria
+ on the banks of the Atell or Volga; but he deprives himself of
+ all geographical credit by discharging that river into the Euxine
+ Sea.]
+
+ 4 (return) [ Paul. Diacon. de Gestis Langobard. l. v. c. 29, p.
+ 881, 882. The apparent difference between the Lombard historian
+ and the above-mentioned Greeks, is easily reconciled by Camillo
+ Pellegrino (de Ducatu 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, and learned
+ the Latin, without forgetting their native language.]
+
+ 5 (return) [ These provinces of the Greek idiom and empire are
+ assigned to the Bulgarian kingdom in the dispute of
+ ecclesiastical jurisdiction between the patriarchs of Rome and
+ Constantinople, (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 869, No. 75.)]
+
+ 6 (return) [ The situation and royalty of Lychnidus, or Achrida,
+ are clearly expressed in Cedrenus, (p. 713.) The removal of an
+ archbishop or patriarch 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 de l’Eglise, tom. i. l. i. c. 19,
+ 23;) and a Frenchman (D’Anville) is more accurately skilled in
+ the geography of their own country, (Hist. de l’Academie des
+ Inscriptions, tom. xxxi.)]
+
+ 7 (return) [ Chalcocondyles, a competent judge, affirms the
+ identity of the 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 the Hungarians. * Note: The
+ Slavonian languages are no doubt Indo-European, though an
+ original branch of that great family, comprehending the various
+ dialects named by Gibbon and others. Shafarik, t. 33.—M. 1845.]
+
+ 8 (return) [ See the work of John Christopher de Jordan, de
+ Originibus Sclavicis, Vindobonae, 1745, in four parts, or two
+ volumes in folio. His collections and researches are useful to
+ elucidate the antiquities of Bohemia and the adjacent countries;
+ but his plan is narrow, his style barbarous, his criticism
+ shallow, and the Aulic counsellor is not free from the prejudices
+ of a Bohemian. * Note: We have at length a profound and
+ satisfactory work on the Slavonian races. Shafarik, Slawische
+ Alterthumer. B. 2, Leipzig, 1843.—M. 1845.]
+
+ 9 (return) [ Jordan subscribes to the well-known and probable
+ derivation from Slava, laus, gloria, a word of familiar use in
+ the different dialects and parts of speech, and which forms the
+ termination of the most illustrious names, (de Originibus
+ Sclavicis, pars. i. p. 40, pars. iv. p. 101, 102)]
+
+ 10 (return) [ This conversion of a national into an appellative
+ name appears to have arisen in the viiith century, in the
+ Oriental France, where the princes and bishops were rich in
+ Sclavonian captives, not of the Bohemian, (exclaims Jordan,) but
+ of Sorabian race. From thence the word was extended to the
+ general use, to the modern languages, and even to the style of
+ the last Byzantines, (see the Greek and Latin Glossaries and
+ Ducange.) The confusion of the Servians with the Latin Servi, was
+ still more fortunate and familiar, (Constant. Porphyr. de
+ Administrando, Imperio, c. 32, p. 99.)]
+
+ 11 (return) [ The emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, most
+ accurate for his own times, most fabulous for preceding ages,
+ describes the Sclavonians of Dalmatia, (c. 29-36.)]
+
+ 12 (return) [ See the anonymous Chronicle of the xith century,
+ ascribed to John Sagorninus, (p. 94-102,) and that composed in
+ the xivth by the Doge Andrew Dandolo, (Script. Rerum. Ital. tom.
+ xii. p. 227-230,) the two oldest monuments of the history of
+ Venice.]
+
+ The glory of the Bulgarians 13 was confined to a narrow scope
+ both of time and place. In the ninth and tenth centuries, they
+ reigned to the south of the Danube; but the more powerful nations
+ that had followed their emigration repelled all return to the
+ north and all progress to the west. Yet in the obscure catalogue
+ of their exploits, they might boast an honor which had hitherto
+ been appropriated to the Goths: that of slaying in battle one of
+ the successors of Augustus and Constantine. The emperor
+ Nicephorus had lost his fame in the Arabian, he lost his life in
+ the Sclavonian, war. In his first operations he advanced with
+ boldness and success into the centre of Bulgaria, and burnt the
+ royal court, which was probably no more than an edifice and
+ village of timber. But while he searched the spoil and refused
+ all offers of treaty, his enemies collected their spirits and
+ their forces: the passes of retreat were insuperably barred; and
+ the trembling Nicephorus was heard to exclaim, “Alas, alas!
+ unless we could assume the wings of birds, we cannot hope to
+ escape.” Two days he waited his fate in the inactivity of
+ despair; but, on the morning of the third, the Bulgarians
+ surprised the camp, and the Roman prince, with the great officers
+ of the empire, were slaughtered in their tents. The body of
+ Valens had been saved from insult; but the head of Nicephorus was
+ exposed on a spear, and his skull, enchased with gold, was often
+ replenished in the feasts of victory. The Greeks bewailed the
+ dishonor of the throne; but they acknowledged the just punishment
+ of avarice and cruelty. This savage cup was deeply tinctured with
+ the manners of the Scythian wilderness; but they were softened
+ before the end of the same century by a peaceful intercourse with
+ the Greeks, the possession of a cultivated region, and the
+ introduction of the Christian worship. The nobles of Bulgaria
+ were educated in the schools and palace of Constantinople; and
+ Simeon, 14 a youth of the royal line, was instructed in the
+ rhetoric of Demosthenes and the logic of Aristotle. He
+ relinquished the profession of a monk for that 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. The
+ Greeks, whom he repeatedly attacked, derived a faint consolation
+ from indulging themselves in the reproaches of perfidy and
+ sacrilege. They purchased 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 a victory to elude the arms of that
+ formidable nation. The Servians were overthrown, made captive and
+ dispersed; and those who visited the country before their
+ restoration could discover no more than fifty vagrants, without
+ women or children, who extorted a precarious subsistence from the
+ chase. On classic ground, on the banks of Achelous, the greeks
+ were defeated; their horn was broken by the strength of the
+ Barbaric Hercules. 15 He formed the siege of Constantinople; and,
+ in a personal conference with the emperor, Simeon imposed the
+ conditions of peace. They met with the most jealous precautions:
+ the royal gallery was drawn close to an artificial and
+ well-fortified platform; and the majesty of the purple was
+ emulated by the pomp of the Bulgarian. “Are you a Christian?”
+ said the humble Romanus: “it is your duty to abstain from the
+ blood of your fellow-Christians. Has the thirst of riches seduced
+ you from the blessings of peace? Sheathe your sword, open your
+ hand, and I will satiate the utmost measure of your desires.” The
+ reconciliation was sealed by a domestic alliance; the freedom of
+ trade was granted or restored; the first honors of the court were
+ secured to the friends of Bulgaria, above the ambassadors of
+ enemies or strangers; 16 and her princes were dignified with the
+ high and invidious title of Basileus, or emperor. But this
+ friendship was soon disturbed: after the death of Simeon, the
+ nations were again in arms; his feeble successors were divided
+ and extinguished; and, in the beginning of the eleventh century,
+ the second Basil, who was born in the purple, deserved the
+ appellation of conqueror of the Bulgarians. His avarice was in
+ some measure gratified by a treasure of four hundred thousand
+ pounds sterling, (ten thousand pounds’ weight of gold,) which he
+ found in the palace of Lychnidus. His cruelty inflicted a cool
+ and exquisite vengeance on fifteen thousand captives who had been
+ guilty of the defence of their country. They were deprived of
+ sight; but to one of each hundred a single eye was left, that he
+ might conduct his blind century to the presence of their king.
+ Their king is said to have expired of grief and horror; the
+ nation was awed by this terrible example; the Bulgarians were
+ swept away from their settlements, and circumscribed within a
+ narrow province; the surviving chiefs bequeathed to their
+ children the advice of patience and the duty of revenge.
+
+ 13 (return) [ The first kingdom of the Bulgarians may be found,
+ under the proper dates, in the Annals of Cedrenus and Zonaras.
+ The Byzantine materials are collected by Stritter, (Memoriae
+ Populorum, tom. ii. pars ii. p. 441-647;) and the series of their
+ kings is disposed and settled by Ducange, (Fam. Byzant. p.
+ 305-318.]
+
+ 14 (return) [ Simeonem semi-Graecum esse aiebant, eo quod a
+ pueritia Byzantii Demosthenis rhetoricam et Aristotelis
+ syllogismos didicerat, (Liutprand, l. iii. c. 8.) He says in
+ another place, Simeon, fortis bella tor, Bulgariae praeerat;
+ Christianus, sed vicinis Graecis valde inimicus, (l. i. c. 2.)]
+
+ 15 (return) [—Rigidum fera dextera cornu Dum tenet, infregit,
+ truncaque a fronte revellit. Ovid (Metamorph. ix. 1-100) has
+ boldly painted the combat of the river god and the hero; the
+ native and the stranger.]
+
+ 16 (return) [ 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 omnium gentium Apostolis, id est nunciis, penes
+ nos Bulgarorum Apostoli praeponantur, 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 of Reiske.]
+
+ II. When the black swarm of Hungarians first hung over Europe,
+ above nine hundred years after the Christian aera, they were
+ mistaken by fear and superstition for the Gog and Magog of the
+ Scriptures, the signs and forerunners of the end of the world. 17
+ Since the introduction of letters, they have explored their own
+ antiquities with a strong and laudable impulse of patriotic
+ curiosity. 18 Their rational criticism can no longer be amused
+ with a vain pedigree of Attila and the Huns; but they complain
+ that their primitive records have perished in the Tartar war;
+ that the truth or fiction of their rustic songs is long since
+ forgotten; and that the fragments of a rude chronicle 19 must be
+ painfully reconciled with the contemporary though foreign
+ intelligence of the imperial geographer. 20 Magiar is the
+ national and oriental denomination of the Hungarians; but, among
+ the tribes of Scythia, they are distinguished by the Greeks under
+ the proper and peculiar name of Turks, as the descendants of that
+ mighty people who had conquered and reigned from China to the
+ Volga. The Pannonian colony preserved a correspondence of trade
+ and amity with the eastern Turks on the confines of Persia and
+ after a separation of three hundred and fifty years, the
+ missionaries of the king of Hungary discovered and visited their
+ ancient country near the banks of the Volga. They were hospitably
+ entertained by a people of Pagans and Savages who still bore the
+ name of Hungarians; conversed in their native tongue, recollected
+ a tradition of their long-lost brethren, and listened with
+ amazement to the marvellous tale of their new kingdom and
+ religion. The zeal of conversion was animated by the interest of
+ consanguinity; and one of the greatest of their princes had
+ formed the generous, though fruitless, design of replenishing the
+ solitude of Pannonia by this domestic colony from the heart of
+ Tartary. 21 From this primitive country they were driven to the
+ West by the tide of war and emigration, by the weight of the more
+ distant tribes, who at the same time were fugitives and
+ conquerors. 2111 Reason or fortune directed their course towards
+ the frontiers of the Roman empire: they halted in the usual
+ stations along the banks of the great rivers; and in the
+ territories of Moscow, Kiow, and Moldavia, some vestiges have
+ been discovered of their temporary residence. In this long and
+ various peregrination, they could not always escape the dominion
+ of the stronger; and the purity of their blood was improved or
+ sullied by the mixture of a foreign race: from a motive of
+ compulsion, or choice, several tribes of the Chazars were
+ associated to the standard of their ancient vassals; introduced
+ the use of a second language; and obtained by their superior
+ renown the most honorable place in the front of battle. The
+ military force of the Turks and their allies marched in seven
+ equal and artificial divisions; each division was formed of
+ thirty thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven warriors, and the
+ proportion of women, children, and servants, supposes and
+ requires at least a million of emigrants. Their public counsels
+ were directed by seven vayvods, or hereditary chiefs; but the
+ experience of discord and weakness recommended the more simple
+ and vigorous administration of a single person. The sceptre,
+ which had been declined by the modest Lebedias, was granted to
+ the birth or merit of Almus and his son Arpad, and the authority
+ of the supreme khan of the Chazars confirmed the engagement of
+ the prince and people; of the people to obey his commands, of the
+ prince to consult their happiness and glory.
+
+ 17 (return) [ A bishop of Wurtzburgh submitted his opinion to a
+ reverend abbot; but he more gravely decided, that Gog and Magog
+ were the spiritual persecutors of the church; since Gog signifies
+ the root, the pride of the Heresiarchs, and Magog what comes from
+ the root, the propagation of their sects. Yet these men once
+ commanded the respect of mankind, (Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xi.
+ p. 594, &c.)]
+
+ 18 (return) [ The two national authors, from whom I have derived
+ the mos assistance, are George Pray (Dissertationes and Annales
+ veterum Hun garorum, &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 and often conjectural space; the latter, by his
+ learning, judgment, and perspicuity, deserves the name of a
+ critical historian. * Note: Compare Engel Geschichte des
+ Ungrischen Reichs und seiner Neben lander, Halle, 1797, and
+ Mailath, Geschichte der Magyaren, Wien, 1828. In an appendix to
+ the latter work will be found a brief abstract of the
+ speculations (for it is difficult to consider them more) which
+ have been advanced by the learned, on the origin of the Magyar
+ and Hungarian names. Compare vol. vi. p. 35, note.—M.]
+
+ 19 (return) [ The author of this Chronicle is styled the notary
+ of King Bela. Katona has assigned him to the xiith century, and
+ defends his character against the hypercriticism of Pray. This
+ rude annalist must have transcribed some historical records,
+ since he could affirm with dignity, rejectis falsis fabulis
+ rusticorum, et garrulo cantu joculatorum. In the xvth century,
+ these fables were collected by Thurotzius, and embellished by the
+ Italian Bonfinius. See the Preliminary Discourse in the Hist.
+ Critica Ducum, p. 7-33.]
+
+ 20 (return) [ See Constantine de Administrando Imperio, c. 3, 4,
+ 13, 38-42, Katona has nicely fixed the composition of this work
+ to the years 949, 950, 951, (p. 4-7.) The critical historian (p.
+ 34-107) endeavors to prove the existence, and to relate the
+ actions, of a first duke Almus the father of Arpad, who is
+ tacitly rejected by Constantine.]
+
+ 21 (return) [ Pray (Dissert. p. 37-39, &c.) produces and
+ illustrates the original passages of the Hungarian missionaries,
+ Bonfinius and Aeneas Sylvius.]
+
+ 2111 (return) [ In the deserts to the south-east of Astrakhan
+ have been found the ruins of a city named Madchar, which proves
+ the residence of the Hungarians or Magiar in those regions.
+ Precis de la Geog. Univ. par Malte Brun, vol. i. p. 353.—G.——This
+ is contested by Klaproth in his Travels, c. xxi. Madschar, (he
+ states) in old Tartar, means “stone building.” This was a Tartar
+ city mentioned by the Mahometan writers.—M.]
+
+ With this narrative we might be reasonably content, if the
+ penetration of modern learning had not opened a new and larger
+ prospect of the antiquities of nations. The Hungarian language
+ stands alone, and as it were insulated, among the Sclavonian
+ dialects; but it bears a close and clear affinity to the idioms
+ of the Fennic race, 22 of an obsolete and savage race, which
+ formerly occupied the northern regions of Asia and Europe. 2211
+ The genuine appellation of Ugri or Igours is found on the western
+ confines of China; 23 their migration to the banks of the Irtish
+ is attested by Tartar evidence; 24 a similar name and language
+ are detected in the southern parts of Siberia; 25 and the remains
+ of the Fennic tribes are widely, though thinly scattered from the
+ sources of the Oby to the shores of Lapland. 26 The consanguinity
+ of the Hungarians and Laplanders would display the powerful
+ energy of climate on the children of a common parent; the lively
+ contrast between the bold adventurers who are intoxicated with
+ the wines of the Danube, and the wretched fugitives who are
+ immersed beneath the snows of the polar circle.
+
+ Arms and freedom have ever been the ruling, though too often the
+ unsuccessful, passion of the Hungarians, who are endowed by
+ nature with a vigorous constitution of soul and body. 27 Extreme
+ cold has diminished 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 virtue were the guardians of their
+ peace! 28
+
+ 22 (return) [ Fischer in the Quaestiones Petropolitanae, de
+ Origine Ungrorum, and Pray, Dissertat. i. ii. iii. &c., have
+ drawn up several comparative tables of the Hungarian with the
+ Fennic dialects. The affinity is indeed striking, but the lists
+ are short; the words are purposely chosen; and I read in the
+ learned Bayer, (Comment. Academ. Petropol. tom. x. p. 374,) that
+ although the Hungarian has adopted many Fennic words, (innumeras
+ voces,) it essentially differs toto genio et natura.]
+
+ 2211 (return) [ The connection between the Magyar language and
+ that of the Finns is now almost generally admitted. Klaproth,
+ Asia Polyglotta, p. 188, &c. Malte Bran, tom. vi. p. 723, &c.—M.]
+
+ 23 (return) [ In the religion of Turfan, which is clearly and
+ minutely described by the Chinese Geographers, (Gaubil, Hist. du
+ Grand Gengiscan, 13; De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 31,
+ &c.)]
+
+ 24 (return) [ Hist. Genealogique des Tartars, par Abulghazi
+ Bahadur Khan partie ii. p. 90-98.]
+
+ 25 (return) [ In their journey to Pekin, both Isbrand Ives
+ (Harris’s Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. ii. p. 920,
+ 921) and Bell (Travels, vol. i p. 174) found the Vogulitz in the
+ neighborhood of Tobolsky. By the tortures of the etymological
+ art, Ugur and Vogul are reduced to the same name; the
+ circumjacent mountains really bear the appellation of Ugrian; and
+ of all the Fennic dialects, the Vogulian is the nearest to the
+ Hungarian, (Fischer, Dissert. i. p. 20-30. Pray. Dissert. ii. p.
+ 31-34.)]
+
+ 26 (return) [ The eight tribes of the Fennic race are described
+ in the curious work of M. Leveque, (Hist. des Peuples soumis a la
+ Domination de la Russie, tom. ii. p. 361-561.)]
+
+ 27 (return) [ This picture of the Hungarians and Bulgarians is
+ chiefly drawn from the Tactics of Leo, p. 796-801, and the Latin
+ Annals, which are alleged by Baronius, Pagi, and Muratori, A.D.
+ 889, &c.]
+
+ 28 (return) [ Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. v. p. 6, in 12mo.
+ Gustavus Adolphus attempted, without success, to form a regiment
+ of Laplanders. Grotius says of these arctic tribes, arma arcus et
+ pharetra, sed adversus feras, (Annal. l. iv. p. 236;) and
+ attempts, after the manner of 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
+ that all the Scythian hordes resembled each other in their
+ pastoral and military life, that they all practised the same
+ means of subsistence, and employed the same instruments of
+ destruction. But he adds, that the two nations of Bulgarians and
+ Hungarians were superior to their brethren, and similar to each
+ other in the improvements, however rude, of their discipline and
+ government: their visible likeness determines Leo to confound his
+ friends and enemies in one common description; and the picture
+ may be heightened by some strokes from their contemporaries of
+ the tenth century. Except the merit and fame of military prowess,
+ all that is valued by mankind appeared vile and contemptible to
+ these Barbarians, whose native fierceness was stimulated by the
+ consciousness of numbers and freedom. The tents of the Hungarians
+ were of leather, their garments of fur; they shaved their hair,
+ and scarified their faces: in speech they were slow, in action
+ prompt, in treaty perfidious; and they shared the common reproach
+ of Barbarians, too ignorant to conceive the importance of truth,
+ too proud to deny or palliate the breach of their most solemn
+ engagements. Their simplicity has been praised; yet they
+ abstained only from the luxury they had never known; whatever
+ they saw they coveted; their desires were insatiate, and their
+ sole industry was the hand of violence and rapine. By the
+ definition of a 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 Hungarians were indebted for a part of
+ their subsistence; and since they seldom cultivated the ground,
+ they must, at least in their new settlements, have sometimes
+ practised a slight and unskilful husbandry. In their emigrations,
+ perhaps in their expeditions, the host was accompanied by
+ thousands of sheep and oxen which increased the cloud of
+ formidable dust, and afforded a constant and wholesale supply of
+ milk and animal food. A plentiful command of forage was the first
+ care of the general, and if the flocks and herds were secure of
+ their pastures, the hardy warrior was alike insensible of danger
+ and fatigue. The confusion of men and cattle that overspread the
+ country exposed their camp to a nocturnal surprise, had not a
+ still wider circuit been occupied by their light cavalry,
+ perpetually in motion to discover and delay the approach of the
+ enemy. After some experience of the Roman tactics, they adopted
+ the use of the sword and spear, the helmet of the soldier, and
+ the iron breastplate of his steed: but their native and deadly
+ weapon was the Tartar bow: from the earliest infancy their
+ children and servants were exercised in the double science of
+ archery and horsemanship; their arm was strong; their aim was
+ sure; and in the most rapid career, they were taught to throw
+ themselves backwards, and to shoot a volley of arrows into the
+ air. In open combat, in secret ambush, in flight, or pursuit,
+ they were equally formidable; an appearance of order was
+ maintained in the foremost ranks, but their charge was driven
+ forwards by the impatient pressure of succeeding crowds. They
+ pursued, headlong and rash, with loosened reins and horrific
+ outcries; but, if they fled, with real or dissembled fear, the
+ ardor of a pursuing foe was checked and chastised by the same
+ habits of irregular speed and sudden evolution. In the abuse of
+ victory, they astonished Europe, yet smarting from the wounds of
+ the Saracen and the Dane: mercy they rarely asked, and more
+ rarely bestowed: both sexes if accused is equally inaccessible to
+ pity, and their appetite for raw flesh might countenance the
+ popular tale, that they drank the blood, and feasted on the
+ hearts of the slain. Yet the Hungarians were not devoid of those
+ principles of justice and humanity, which nature has implanted in
+ every bosom. The license of public and private injuries was
+ restrained by laws and punishments; and in the security of an
+ open camp, theft is the most tempting and most dangerous offence.
+ Among the Barbarians there were many, whose spontaneous virtue
+ supplied their laws and corrected their manners, who performed
+ the duties, and sympathized with the affections, of social life.
+
+ 29 (return) [ Leo has observed, that the government of the Turks
+ was monarchical, and that their punishments were rigorous,
+ (Tactic. p. 896) Rhegino (in Chron. A.D. 889) mentions theft as a
+ capital crime, and his jurisprudence 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 first penalty was
+ the loss of liberty, (Katona, Hist. Regum Hungar tom. i. p. 231,
+ 232.)]
+
+ After a long pilgrimage of flight or victory, the Turkish hordes
+ approached the common limits of the French and Byzantine empires.
+ Their first conquests and final settlements extended on either
+ side of the Danube above Vienna, below Belgrade, and beyond the
+ measure of the Roman province of Pannonia, or the modern kingdom
+ of Hungary. 30 That ample and fertile land was loosely occupied
+ by the Moravians, a Sclavonian name and tribe, which were driven
+ by the invaders into the compass of a narrow province.
+ Charlemagne had stretched a vague and nominal empire as far as
+ the edge of Transylvania; but, after the failure of his
+ legitimate line, the dukes of Moravia forgot their obedience and
+ tribute to the monarchs of Oriental France. The bastard Arnulph
+ was provoked to invite the arms of the Turks: they rushed through
+ the real or figurative wall, which his indiscretion had thrown
+ open; and the king of Germany has been justly reproached as a
+ traitor to the civil and ecclesiastical society of the
+ Christians. During the life of Arnulph, the Hungarians were
+ checked by gratitude or fear; but in the infancy of his son Lewis
+ they 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 advantage till the seventh hour of the day, they
+ were deceived and vanquished by the flying stratagems of the
+ Turkish cavalry. The conflagration spread over the provinces of
+ Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia; and the Hungarians 31 promoted
+ the reign of anarchy, by forcing the stoutest barons to
+ discipline their vassals and fortify their castles. The origin of
+ walled towns is ascribed to this calamitous period; nor could any
+ distance be secure against an enemy, who, almost at the same
+ instant, laid in ashes the Helvetian monastery of St. Gall, and
+ the city of Bremen, on the shores of the northern ocean. Above
+ thirty years the Germanic empire, or kingdom, was subject to the
+ ignominy of tribute; and resistance was disarmed by the menace,
+ the serious and effectual menace of dragging the women and
+ children into captivity, and of slaughtering the males above the
+ age of ten years. I have neither power nor inclination to follow
+ the Hungarians beyond the Rhine; but I must observe with
+ surprise, that the southern provinces of France were blasted by
+ the tempest, and that Spain, behind her Pyrenees, was astonished
+ at the approach of these formidable strangers. 32 The vicinity of
+ Italy had tempted their early inroads; but from their camp on the
+ Brenta, they beheld with some terror the apparent strength and
+ populousness of the new discovered country. They requested leave
+ to retire; their request was proudly rejected by the Italian
+ king; and the lives of twenty thousand Christians paid the
+ forfeit of his obstinacy and rashness. Among the cities of the
+ West, the royal Pavia was conspicuous in fame and splendor; and
+ the preeminence of Rome itself was only derived from the relics
+ of the apostles. The Hungarians appeared; Pavia was in flames;
+ forty-three churches were consumed; and, after the massacre of
+ the people, they spared about two hundred wretches who had
+ gathered some bushels of gold and silver (a vague exaggeration)
+ from the smoking ruins of their country. In these annual
+ 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 saints were deaf or inexorable; and the torrent rolled
+ forwards, till it was stopped by the extreme land of Calabria. 33
+ A composition was offered and accepted for the head of each
+ Italian subject; and ten bushels of silver were poured forth in
+ the Turkish camp. But falsehood is the natural antagonist of
+ violence; and the robbers were defrauded both in the numbers of
+ the assessment and the standard of the metal. On the side of the
+ East, the Hungarians were opposed in doubtful conflict by the
+ equal arms of the Bulgarians, whose faith forbade an alliance
+ with the Pagans, and whose situation formed the barrier of the
+ Byzantine empire. The barrier was overturned; the emperor of
+ Constantinople beheld the waving banners of the Turks; and one of
+ their boldest warriors presumed to strike a battle-axe into the
+ golden gate. The arts and treasures of the Greeks diverted the
+ assault; but the Hungarians might boast, in their retreat, that
+ they had imposed a tribute on the spirit of Bulgaria and the
+ majesty of the Caesars. 34 The remote and rapid operations of the
+ same campaign appear to magnify the power and numbers of the
+ Turks; but their courage is most deserving of praise, since a
+ light troop of three or four hundred horse would often attempt
+ and execute the most daring inroads to the gates of Thessalonica
+ and Constantinople. At this disastrous aera of the ninth and
+ tenth centuries, Europe was afflicted by a triple scourge from
+ the North, the East, and the South: the Norman, the Hungarian,
+ and the Saracen, sometimes trod the same ground of desolation;
+ and these savage foes might have been compared by Homer to the
+ two lions growling over the carcass of a mangled stag. 35
+
+ 30 (return) [ See Katona, Hist. Ducum Hungar. p. 321-352.]
+
+ 31 (return) [ Hungarorum gens, cujus omnes fere nationes expertae
+ saevitium &c., is the preface of Liutprand, (l. i. c. 2,) who
+ frequently expatiated 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 and Muratori.]
+
+ 32 (return) [ The three bloody reigns of Arpad, Zoltan, and
+ Toxus, are critically illustrated by Katona, (Hist. Ducum, &c. p.
+ 107-499.) His diligence has searched both natives and foreigners;
+ yet to the deeds of mischief, or glory, I have been able to add
+ the destruction of Bremen, (Adam Bremensis, i. 43.)]
+
+ 33 (return) [ Muratori has considered with patriotic care the
+ danger and resources of Modena. The citizens besought St.
+ Geminianus, their patron, to avert, by his intercession, the
+ rabies, flagellum, &c. Nunc te rogamus, licet servi pessimi, Ab
+ Ungerorum nos defendas jaculis.The bishop erected walls for the
+ public defence, not contra dominos serenos, (Antiquitat. Ital.
+ Med. Aevi, tom. i. dissertat. i. p. 21, 22,) and the song of the
+ nightly watch is not without elegance or use, (tom. iii. dis. xl.
+ p. 709.) The Italian annalist has accurately traced the series of
+ their inroads, (Annali d’ Italia, tom. vii. p. 365, 367, 398,
+ 401, 437, 440, tom. viii. p. 19, 41, 52, &c.)]
+
+ 34 (return) [ Both the Hungarian and Russian annals suppose, that
+ they besieged, or attacked, or insulted Constantinople, (Pray,
+ dissertat. x. p. 239. Katona, Hist. Ducum, p. 354-360;) and the
+ fact is almost confessed by the Byzantine historians, (Leo
+ Grammaticus, p. 506. Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 629: ) yet, however
+ glorious to the nation, it is denied or doubted by the critical
+ historian, and even by the notary of Bela. Their scepticism is
+ meritorious; they could not safely transcribe or believe the
+ rusticorum fabulas: but Katona might have given due attention to
+ the evidence of Liutprand, Bulgarorum gentem atque daecorum
+ tributariam fecerant, (Hist. l. ii. c. 4, p. 435.)]
+
+ 35 (return) [—Iliad, xvi. 756.]
+
+ The deliverance of Germany and Christendom was achieved by the
+ Saxon princes, Henry the Fowler and Otho the Great, who, in two
+ memorable battles, forever broke the power of the Hungarians. 36
+ The valiant Henry 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 on your bucklers the
+ first arrows of the Pagans, and prevent their second discharge by
+ the equal and rapid career of your lances.” They obeyed and
+ conquered: and the historical picture of the castle of Merseburgh
+ expressed the features, or at least the character, of Henry, who,
+ in an age of ignorance, intrusted to the finer arts the
+ perpetuity of his name. 37 At the end of twenty years, the
+ children of the Turks who had fallen by his sword invaded the
+ empire of his son; and their force is defined, in the lowest
+ estimate, at one hundred thousand horse. They were invited by
+ domestic faction; the gates of Germany were treacherously
+ unlocked; and they spread, far beyond the Rhine and the Meuse,
+ into the heart of Flanders. But the vigor and prudence of Otho
+ dispelled the conspiracy; the princes were made sensible that
+ unless they were true to each other, their religion and country
+ were irrecoverably lost; and the national powers were reviewed in
+ the plains of Augsburgh. They marched and fought in eight
+ legions, according to the division of provinces and tribes; the
+ first, second, and third, were composed of Bavarians; the fourth,
+ of Franconians; the fifth, of Saxons, under the immediate command
+ of the monarch; the sixth and seventh consisted of Swabians; and
+ the eighth legion, of a thousand Bohemians, closed the rear of
+ the host. The resources of discipline and valor were fortified by
+ the arts of superstition, which, on this occasion, may deserve
+ the epithets of generous and salutary. The soldiers were purified
+ with a fast; the camp was blessed with the relics of saints and
+ martyrs; and the Christian hero girded on his side the sword of
+ Constantine, grasped the invincible spear of Charlemagne, and
+ waved the banner of St. Maurice, the praefect of the Thebaean
+ legion. But his firmest confidence was placed in the holy lance,
+ 38 whose point was fashioned of the nails of the cross, and which
+ his father had extorted from the king of Burgundy, by the threats
+ of war, and the gift of a province. The Hungarians were expected
+ in the front; they secretly passed the Lech, a river of Bavaria
+ that falls into the Danube; turned the rear of the Christian
+ army; plundered the baggage, and disordered the legion of Bohemia
+ and Swabia. The battle was restored by the Franconians, whose
+ duke, the valiant Conrad, was pierced with an arrow as he rested
+ from his fatigues: the Saxons fought under the eyes of their
+ king; and his victory surpassed, in merit and importance, the
+ triumphs of the last two hundred years. The loss of the
+ Hungarians was still greater in the flight than in the action;
+ they were encompassed by the rivers of Bavaria; and their past
+ cruelties excluded them from the hope of mercy. Three captive
+ princes were hanged at Ratisbon, the multitude of prisoners was
+ slain or mutilated, and the fugitives, who presumed to appear in
+ the face of their country, were condemned to everlasting poverty
+ and disgrace. 39 Yet the spirit of the nation was humbled, and
+ the most accessible passes of Hungary were fortified with a ditch
+ and rampart. Adversity suggested the counsels of moderation and
+ peace: the robbers of the West acquiesced in a sedentary life;
+ and the next generation was taught, by a discerning prince, that
+ far more might be gained by multiplying and exchanging the
+ produce of a fruitful soil. The native race, the Turkish or
+ Fennic blood, was mingled with new colonies of Scythian or
+ Sclavonian origin; 40 many thousands of robust and industrious
+ captives had been imported from all the countries of Europe; 41
+ and after the marriage of Geisa with a Bavarian princess, he
+ bestowed honors and estates on the nobles of Germany. 42 The son
+ of Geisa was invested with the regal title, and the house of
+ Arpad reigned three hundred years in the kingdom of Hungary. But
+ the freeborn Barbarians were not dazzled by the lustre of the
+ diadem, and the people asserted their indefeasible right of
+ choosing, deposing, and punishing the hereditary servant of the
+ state.
+
+ 36 (return) [ They are amply and critically discussed by Katona,
+ (Hist. Dacum, p. 360-368, 427-470.) Liutprand (l. ii. c. 8, 9) is
+ the best evidence for the former, and Witichind (Annal. Saxon. l.
+ iii.) of the latter; but the critical historian will not even
+ overlook the horn of a warrior, which is said to be preserved at
+ Jaz-berid.]
+
+ 37 (return) [ Hunc vero triumphum, tam laude quam memoria dignum,
+ ad Meresburgum rex in superiori coenaculo domus per Zeus, id est,
+ picturam, notari praecepit, adeo ut rem veram potius quam
+ verisimilem videas: a high encomium, (Liutprand, l. ii. c. 9.)
+ Another palace in Germany had been painted with holy subjects by
+ the order of Charlemagne; and Muratori may justly affirm, nulla
+ saecula fuere in quibus pictores desiderati fuerint, (Antiquitat.
+ Ital. Medii Aevi, tom. ii. dissert. xxiv. p. 360, 361.) Our
+ domestic claims to antiquity of ignorance and original
+ imperfection (Mr. Walpole’s lively words) are of a much more
+ recent date, (Anecdotes of Painting, vol. i. p. 2, &c.)]
+
+ 38 (return) [ See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 929, No. 2-5. The
+ lance of Christ is taken from the best evidence, Liutprand, (l.
+ iv. c. 12,) Sigebert, and the Acts of St. Gerard: but the other
+ military relics depend on the faith of the Gesta Anglorum post
+ Bedam, l. ii. c. 8.]
+
+ 39 (return) [ Katona, Hist. Ducum Hungariae, p. 500, &c.]
+
+ 40 (return) [ Among these colonies we may distinguish, 1. The
+ Chazars, or Cabari, who joined the Hungarians on their march,
+ (Constant. de Admin. Imp. c. 39, 40, p. 108, 109.) 2. The
+ Jazyges, Moravians, and Siculi, whom they found in the land; the
+ last were perhaps a remnant of the Huns of Attila, and were
+ intrusted with the guard of the borders. 3. The Russians, who,
+ like the Swiss in France, imparted a general name to the royal
+ porters. 4. The Bulgarians, whose chiefs (A.D. 956) were invited,
+ cum magna multitudine Hismahelitarum. Had any of those
+ Sclavonians embraced the Mahometan religion? 5. The Bisseni and
+ Cumans, a mixed multitude of Patzinacites, Uzi, Chazars, &c., who
+ had spread to the Lower Danube. The last colony of 40,000 Cumans,
+ A.D. 1239, was received and converted by the kings of Hungary,
+ who derived from that tribe a new regal appellation, (Pray,
+ Dissert. vi. vii. p. 109-173. Katona, Hist. Ducum, p. 95-99,
+ 259-264, 476, 479-483, &c.)]
+
+ 41 (return) [ Christiani autem, quorum pars major populi est, qui
+ ex omni parte mundi illuc tracti sunt captivi, &c. Such was the
+ language of Piligrinus, the first missionary who entered Hungary,
+ A.D. 973. Pars major is strong. Hist. Ducum, p. 517.]
+
+ 42 (return) [ The fideles Teutonici of Geisa are authenticated in
+ old charters: and Katona, with his usual industry, has made a
+ fair estimate of these colonies, which had been so loosely
+ magnified by the Italian Ranzanus, (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 the West, Lewis, the son of Charlemagne. The Greeks
+ were accompanied by the envoys of the great duke, or chagan, or
+ czar, of the Russians. In their journey to Constantinople, they
+ had traversed many hostile nations; and they hoped to escape the
+ dangers of their return, by requesting the French monarch to
+ transport them by sea to their native country. A closer
+ examination detected their origin: they were the brethren of the
+ Swedes and Normans, whose name was already odious and formidable
+ in France; and it might justly be apprehended, that these Russian
+ strangers were not the messengers of peace, but the emissaries of
+ war. They were detained, while the Greeks were dismissed; and
+ Lewis expected a more satisfactory account, that he might obey
+ the laws of hospitality or prudence, according to the interest of
+ both empires. 44 This Scandinavian origin of the people, or at
+ least the princes, of Russia, may be confirmed and illustrated by
+ the national annals 45 and the general history of the North. The
+ Normans, who had so long been concealed by a veil of impenetrable
+ darkness, suddenly burst forth in the spirit of naval and
+ military enterprise. The vast, and, as it is said, the populous
+ regions of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, were crowded with
+ independent chieftains and desperate adventurers, who sighed in
+ the laziness of peace, and smiled in the agonies of death. Piracy
+ was the exercise, the trade, the glory, and the virtue, of the
+ Scandinavian youth. Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow
+ limits, they started from the banquet, grasped their arms,
+ sounded their horn, ascended their vessels, and explored every
+ coast that promised either spoil or settlement. The Baltic was
+ the first scene of their naval achievements they visited the
+ eastern shores, the silent residence of Fennic and Sclavonic
+ tribes, and the primitive Russians of the Lake Ladoga paid a
+ tribute, the skins of white squirrels, to these strangers, whom
+ they saluted with the title of Varangians 46 or Corsairs. Their
+ superiority in arms, discipline, and renown, commanded the fear
+ and reverence of the natives. In their wars against the more
+ inland savages, the Varangians condescended to serve as friends
+ and auxiliaries, and gradually, by choice or conquest, obtained
+ the dominion of a people whom they were qualified to protect.
+ Their tyranny was expelled, their valor was again recalled, till
+ at length Ruric, a Scandinavian chief, became the father of a
+ dynasty which reigned above seven hundred years. His brothers
+ extended his influence: the example of service and usurpation was
+ imitated by his companions in the southern provinces of Russia;
+ and their establishments, by the usual methods of war and
+ assassination, were cemented into the fabric of a powerful
+ monarchy.
+
+ 43 (return) [ Among the Greeks, this national appellation has a
+ singular form, as an undeclinable word, of which many fanciful
+ etymologies have been suggested. I have perused, with pleasure
+ and profit, a dissertation de Origine Russorum (Comment. Academ.
+ Petropolitanae, tom. viii. p. 388-436) by Theophilus Sigefrid
+ Bayer, a learned German, who spent his life and labors in the
+ service of Russia. A geographical tract of D’Anville, de l’Empire
+ de Russie, son Origine, et ses Accroissemens, (Paris, 1772, in
+ 12mo.,) has likewise been of use. * Note: The later antiquarians
+ of Russia and Germany appear to aquiesce in the authority of the
+ monk Nestor, the earliest annalist of Russia, who derives the
+ Russians, or Vareques, from Scandinavia. The names of the first
+ founders of the Russian monarchy are Scandinavian or Norman.
+ Their language (according to Const. Porphyrog. de Administrat.
+ Imper. c. 9) differed essentially 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 Russians the 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 Estlichen
+ Europaischen 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.]
+
+ 44 (return) [ See the entire passage (dignum, says Bayer, ut
+ aureis in tabulis rigatur) in the Annales Bertiniani Francorum,
+ (in Script. Ital. Muratori, tom. ii. pars i. p. 525,) A.D. 839,
+ twenty-two years before the 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 a red complexion.]
+
+ 45 (return) [ My knowledge of these annals is drawn from M.
+ Leveque, Histoire de Russie. Nestor, the first and best of these
+ ancient annalists, was a monk of Kiow, who died in the beginning
+ of the xiith century; but his Chronicle was obscure, till it was
+ published at Petersburgh, 1767, in 4to. Leveque, Hist. de Russie,
+ tom. i. p. xvi. Coxe’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 184. * Note: The late
+ M. Schlozer has translated and added a commentary to the Annals
+ of Nestor; and his work is the mine from which henceforth the
+ history of the North must be drawn.—G.]
+
+ 46 (return) [ Theophil. Sig. Bayer de Varagis, (for the name is
+ differently spelt,) in Comment. Academ. Petropolitanae, tom. iv.
+ p. 275-311.]
+
+ As long as the descendants of Ruric were considered as aliens and
+ conquerors, they ruled by the sword of the Varangians,
+ distributed estates and subjects to their faithful captains, and
+ supplied their numbers with fresh streams of adventurers from the
+ Baltic coast. 47 But when the Scandinavian chiefs had struck a
+ deep and permanent root into the soil, they mingled with the
+ Russians in blood, religion, and language, and the first
+ Waladimir had the merit of delivering his country from these
+ foreign mercenaries. They had seated him on the throne; his
+ riches were insufficient to satisfy their demands; but they
+ listened to his pleasing advice, that they should seek, not a
+ more grateful, but a more wealthy, master; that they should
+ embark for Greece, where, instead of the skins of squirrels, silk
+ and gold would be the recompense of their service. At the same
+ time, the Russian prince admonished his Byzantine ally to
+ disperse and employ, to recompense and restrain, these impetuous
+ children of the North. Contemporary writers have recorded the
+ introduction, name, and character, of the Varangians: each day
+ they rose in confidence and esteem; the whole body was assembled
+ at Constantinople to perform the duty of guards; and their
+ strength was recruited by a numerous band of their countrymen
+ from the Island of Thule. On this occasion, the vague appellation
+ of Thule is applied to England; and the new Varangians were a
+ colony of English and Danes who fled from the yoke of the Norman
+ conqueror. The habits of pilgrimage and piracy had approximated
+ the countries of the earth; these exiles were entertained in the
+ Byzantine court; and they preserved, till the last age of the
+ empire, the inheritance of spotless loyalty, and the use of the
+ Danish or English tongue. With their broad and double-edged
+ battle-axes on their shoulders, they attended the Greek emperor
+ to the temple, the senate, and the hippodrome; he slept and
+ feasted under their trusty guard; and the keys of the palace, the
+ treasury, and the capital, were held by the firm and faithful
+ hands of the Varangians. 48
+
+ 47 (return) [ Yet, as late as the year 1018, Kiow and Russia were
+ still guarded 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 foreign service.]
+
+ 48 (return) [ Ducange has collected from the original authors the
+ state and history of the Varangi at Constantinople, (Glossar.
+ Med. et Infimae Graecitatis, 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 Ceremoniale Aulae Byzant. of
+ Constantine, tom. ii. p. 149, 150. Saxo Grammaticus affirms that
+ they spoke Danish; but Codinus maintains them till the fifteenth
+ century in the use of their native English.]
+
+ In the tenth century, the geography of Scythia was extended far
+ beyond the limits of ancient knowledge; and the monarchy of the
+ Russians obtains 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 the East, their western frontier in
+ those early days was enlarged to the Baltic Sea and the country
+ of the Prussians. Their northern reign ascended above the
+ sixtieth degree of latitude over the Hyperborean regions, which
+ fancy had peopled with monsters, or clouded with eternal
+ darkness. To the south they followed the course of the
+ Borysthenes, and approached with that river the neighborhood of
+ the Euxine Sea. The tribes that dwelt, or wandered, in this ample
+ circuit were obedient to the same conqueror, and insensibly
+ blended into the same nation. The language of Russia is a dialect
+ of the Sclavonian; but in the tenth century, these two modes of
+ speech were different from each other; and, as the Sclavonian
+ prevailed in the South, it may be presumed that the original
+ Russians of the North, the primitive subjects of the Varangian
+ chief, were a portion of the Fennic race. With the emigration,
+ union, or dissolution, of the wandering tribes, the loose and
+ indefinite picture of the Scythian desert has continually
+ shifted. But the most ancient map of Russia affords some places
+ which still retain their name and position; and the two capitals,
+ Novogorod 50 and Kiow, 51 are coeval with the first age of the
+ monarchy. Novogorod had not yet deserved the epithet of great,
+ nor the alliance of the Hanseatic League, which diffused the
+ streams of opulence and the principles of freedom. Kiow could not
+ yet boast of three hundred churches, an innumerable people, and a
+ degree of greatness and splendor which was compared with
+ Constantinople by those who had never seen the residence of the
+ Caesars. In their origin, the two cities were no more than camps
+ or fairs, the most convenient stations in which the Barbarians
+ might assemble for the occasional business of war or trade. Yet
+ even these assemblies announce some progress in the arts of
+ society; a new breed of cattle was imported from the southern
+ provinces; and the spirit of commercial enterprise pervaded the
+ sea and land, from the Baltic to the Euxine, from the mouth of
+ the Oder to the port of Constantinople. In the days of idolatry
+ and barbarism, the Sclavonic city of Julin was frequented and
+ enriched by the Normans, who had prudently secured a free mart of
+ purchase and exchange. 52 From this harbor, at the entrance of
+ the Oder, the corsair, or merchant, sailed in forty-three days to
+ the eastern shores of the Baltic, the most distant nations were
+ intermingled, and the holy groves of Curland are said to have
+ been decorated with Grecian and Spanish gold. 53 Between the sea
+ and Novogorod an easy intercourse was discovered; in the summer,
+ through a gulf, a lake, and a navigable river; in the winter
+ season, over the hard and level surface of boundless snows. From
+ the neighborhood of that city, the Russians descended the streams
+ that fall into the Borysthenes; their canoes, of a single tree,
+ were laden with slaves of every age, furs of every species, the
+ spoil of their beehives, and the hides of their cattle; and the
+ whole produce of the North was collected and discharged in the
+ magazines of Kiow. The month of June was the ordinary season of
+ the departure of the fleet: the timber of the canoes was framed
+ into the oars and benches of more solid and capacious boats; and
+ they proceeded without obstacle down the Borysthenes, as far as
+ the seven or thirteen ridges of rocks, which traverse the bed,
+ and precipitate the waters, of the river. At the more shallow
+ falls it was sufficient to lighten the vessels; but the deeper
+ cataracts were impassable; and the mariners, who dragged their
+ vessels and their slaves six miles over land, were exposed in
+ this toilsome journey to the robbers of the desert. 54 At the
+ first island below the falls, the Russians celebrated the
+ festival of their escape: at a second, near the mouth of the
+ river, they repaired their shattered vessels for the longer and
+ more perilous voyage of the Black Sea. If they steered along the
+ coast, the Danube was accessible; with a fair wind they could
+ reach in thirty-six or forty hours the opposite shores of
+ Anatolia; and Constantinople admitted the annual visit of the
+ strangers of the North. They returned at the stated season with a
+ rich cargo of corn, wine, and oil, the manufactures of Greece,
+ and the spices of India. Some of their countrymen resided in the
+ capital and provinces; and the national treaties protected the
+ persons, effects, and privileges, of the Russian merchant. 55
+
+ 49 (return) [ The original record of the geography and trade of
+ Russia is 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, (de Geographia Russiae vicinarumque
+ Regionum circiter A. C. 948, in Comment. Academ. Petropol. tom.
+ ix. p. 367-422, tom. x. p. 371-421,) with the aid of the
+ chronicles and traditions of Russia, Scandinavia, &c.]
+
+ 50 (return) [ The haughty proverb, “Who can resist God and the
+ great Novogorod?” 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 of his history he frequently celebrates this republic,
+ which was suppressed A.D. 1475, (tom. ii. p. 252-266.) That
+ accurate traveller Adam Olearius describes (in 1635) the remains
+ of Novogorod, and the route by sea and land of the Holstein
+ ambassadors, tom. i. p. 123-129.]
+
+ 51 (return) [ In hac magna civitate, quae est caput regni, plus
+ trecentae ecclesiae habentur et nundinae octo, populi etiam
+ ignota manus (Eggehardus ad A.D. 1018, apud Bayer, tom. ix. p.
+ 412.) He likewise quotes (tom. x. p. 397) the words of the Saxon
+ annalist, Cujus (Russioe) metropolis est Chive, aemula sceptri
+ Constantinopolitani, quae est clarissimum decus Graeciae. The
+ fame of Kiow, especially in the xith century, had reached the
+ German and Arabian geographers.]
+
+ 52 (return) [ In Odorae ostio qua Scythicas alluit paludes,
+ nobilissima civitas Julinum, celeberrimam, Barbaris et Graecis
+ qui sunt in circuitu, praestans stationem, est sane maxima omnium
+ quas Europa claudit civitatum, (Adam Bremensis, Hist. Eccles. p.
+ 19;) a strange exaggeration even in the xith century. The trade
+ of the Baltic, and the Hanseatic League, are carefully treated in
+ Anderson’s Historical Deduction of Commerce; at least, in our
+ language, I am not acquainted with any book so satisfactory. *
+ Note: The book of authority is the “Geschichte des Hanseatischen
+ Bundes,” by George Sartorius, Gottingen, 1803, or rather the
+ later edition of that work by M. Lappenberg, 2 vols. 4to.,
+ Hamburgh, 1830.—M. 1845.]
+
+ 53 (return) [ According to Adam of Bremen, (de Situ Daniae, p.
+ 58,) the old Curland extended eight days’ journey along the
+ coast; and by Peter Teutoburgicus, (p. 68, A.D. 1326,) Memel is
+ defined as the common frontier of Russia, Curland, and Prussia.
+ Aurum ibi plurimum, (says Adam,) 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 to
+ the Russians even before their conversion; an imperfect
+ conversion, if they still consulted the wizards of Curland,
+ (Bayer, tom. x. p. 378, 402, &c. Grotius, Prolegomen. ad Hist.
+ Goth. p. 99.)]
+
+ 54 (return) [ Constantine only reckons seven cataracts, of which
+ he gives the Russian and Sclavonic names; but thirteen are
+ enumerated by the Sieur de Beauplan, a French engineer, who had
+ surveyed the course and navigation of the Dnieper, or
+ Borysthenes, (Description de l’Ukraine, Rouen, 1660, a thin
+ quarto;) but the map is unluckily wanting in my copy.]
+
+ 55 (return) [ 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 alteration is slight; the position of Suania, between
+ Chazaria and Lazica, is perfectly 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,
+ was soon abused for the injury, of mankind. In a period of one
+ hundred and ninety years, the Russians made four attempts to
+ plunder the treasures of Constantinople: the event was various,
+ but the motive, the means, and the object, were the same in these
+ naval expeditions. 56 The Russian traders had seen the
+ magnificence, and tasted the luxury of the city of the Caesars. A
+ marvellous tale, and a scanty supply, excited the desires of
+ their savage countrymen: they envied the gifts of nature which
+ their climate denied; they coveted the works of art, which they
+ were too lazy to imitate and too indigent to purchase; the
+ Varangian princes unfurled the banners of piratical adventure,
+ and their bravest soldiers were drawn 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, to navigate the same
+ seas for a similar purpose. 58 The Greek appellation of monoxyla,
+ or single canoes, might justly be applied to the bottom of their
+ 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 either side with planks, till it attained the length
+ of sixty, and the height of about twelve, feet. These boats were
+ built without a deck, but with two rudders and a mast; to move
+ with sails and oars; and to contain from forty to seventy men,
+ with their arms, and provisions of fresh water and salt fish. The
+ first trial of the Russians was made with two hundred boats; but
+ when the national force was exerted, they might arm against
+ Constantinople a thousand or twelve hundred vessels. Their fleet
+ was not much inferior to the royal navy of Agamemnon, but it was
+ magnified in the eyes of fear to ten or fifteen times the real
+ proportion of its strength and numbers. Had the Greek emperors
+ been endowed with foresight to discern, and vigor to prevent,
+ perhaps they might have sealed with a maritime force the mouth of
+ the Borysthenes. Their indolence abandoned the coast of Anatolia
+ to the calamities of a piratical war, which, after an interval of
+ six hundred years, again infested the Euxine; but as long as the
+ capital was respected, the sufferings of a distant province
+ escaped the notice both of the prince and the historian. The
+ storm which had swept along from the Phasis and Trebizond, at
+ length burst on the Bosphorus of Thrace; a strait of fifteen
+ miles, in which the rude vessels of the Russians might have been
+ stopped and destroyed by a more skilful adversary. In their first
+ enterprise 59 under the princes of Kiow, they passed without
+ opposition, and occupied the port of Constantinople in the
+ absence of the emperor Michael, the son of Theophilus. Through a
+ crowd of perils, he landed at the palace-stairs, and immediately
+ repaired to a church of the Virgin Mary. 60 By the advice of the
+ patriarch, her garment, a precious relic, was drawn from the
+ sanctuary and dipped in the sea; and a seasonable tempest, which
+ determined the retreat of the Russians, was devoutly ascribed to
+ the mother of God. 61 The silence of the Greeks may inspire some
+ doubt of the 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 and fortifications defended the Bosphorus: they
+ were eluded by the usual expedient of drawing the boats over the
+ isthmus; and this simple operation is described in the national
+ chronicles, as if the Russian fleet had sailed over dry land with
+ a brisk and favorable gale. The leader of the third armament,
+ Igor, the son of Ruric, had chosen a moment of weakness and
+ decay, when the naval powers of the empire were employed against
+ the Saracens. But if courage be not wanting, the instruments of
+ defence are seldom deficient. Fifteen broken and decayed galleys
+ were boldly launched against the enemy; but instead of the single
+ tube of Greek fire usually planted on the prow, the sides and
+ stern of each vessel were abundantly supplied with that liquid
+ combustible. 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 were inhumanly slaughtered by the peasants and
+ soldiers. Yet one third of the canoes escaped into shallow water;
+ and the next spring Igor was again prepared to retrieve his
+ disgrace and claim his revenge. 63 After a long peace, Jaroslaus,
+ the great grandson of Igor, resumed the same project of a naval
+ invasion. A fleet, under the command of his son, was repulsed at
+ the entrance of the Bosphorus by the same artificial flames. But
+ in the rashness of pursuit, the vanguard of the Greeks was
+ encompassed by an irresistible multitude of boats and men; their
+ provision of fire was probably exhausted; and twenty-four galleys
+ were either taken, sunk, or destroyed. 64
+
+ 56 (return) [ The wars of the Russians and Greeks in the ixth,
+ xth, and xith centuries, are related in the Byzantine annals,
+ especially those of Zonaras and Cedrenus; and all their
+ testimonies are collected in the Russica of Stritter, tom. ii.
+ pars ii. p. 939-1044.]
+
+ 57 (return) [ Cedrenus in Compend. p. 758]
+
+ 58 (return) [ See Beauplan, (Description de l’Ukraine, p. 54-61:
+ ) his descriptions are lively, his plans accurate, and except the
+ circumstances of fire-arms, we may read old Russians for modern
+ Cosacks.]
+
+ 59 (return) [ It is to be lamented, that Bayer has only given a
+ Dissertation de Russorum prima Expeditione Constantinopolitana,
+ (Comment. Academ. Petropol. tom. vi. p. 265-391.) After
+ disentangling some chronological intricacies, he fixes it in the
+ years 864 or 865, a date which might have smoothed some doubts
+ and difficulties in the beginning of M. Leveque’s history.]
+
+ 60 (return) [ When Photius wrote his encyclic epistle on the
+ conversion of the Russians, the miracle was not yet sufficiently
+ ripe.]
+
+ 61 (return) [ Leo Grammaticus, p. 463, 464. Constantini
+ Continuator in 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.]
+
+ 62 (return) [ See Nestor and Nicon, in Leveque’s Hist. de Russie,
+ tom. i. p. 74-80. Katona (Hist. Ducum, p. 75-79) uses his
+ advantage to disprove this Russian victory, which would cloud the
+ siege of Kiow by the Hungarians.]
+
+ 63 (return) [ Leo Grammaticus, p. 506, 507. Incert. Contin. p.
+ 263, 264 Symeon 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 at Constantinople, and corrects
+ the vain exaggeration of the Greeks.]
+
+ 64 (return) [ I can only appeal to Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 758,
+ 759) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. p. 253, 254;) but they grow more
+ weighty and credible as they draw near to their own times.]
+
+ Yet the threats or calamities of a Russian war were more
+ frequently diverted by treaty than by arms. In these naval
+ hostilities, every disadvantage was on the side of the Greeks;
+ their savage enemy afforded no mercy: his poverty promised no
+ spoil; his impenetrable retreat deprived the conqueror of the
+ hopes of revenge; and the pride or weakness of empire indulged an
+ opinion, that no honor could be gained or lost in the intercourse
+ with Barbarians. At first their demands were high and
+ inadmissible, three pounds of gold for each soldier or mariner of
+ the fleet: the Russian youth adhered to the design of conquest
+ and glory; but the counsels of moderation were recommended by the
+ hoary sages. “Be content,” they said, “with the liberal offers of
+ Caesar; is it not far better to obtain without a combat the
+ possession of gold, silver, silks, and all the objects of our
+ desires? Are we sure of victory? Can we conclude a treaty with
+ the sea? We do not tread on the land; we float on the abyss of
+ water, and a common death hangs over our heads.” 65 The memory of
+ these Arctic fleets that seemed to descend from the polar circle
+ left deep impression of terror on the Imperial city. By the
+ vulgar of every rank, it was asserted and believed, that an
+ equestrian statue in the square of Taurus was secretly inscribed
+ with a prophecy, how the Russians, in the last days, should
+ become masters of Constantinople. 66 In our own time, a Russian
+ armament, instead of sailing from the Borysthenes, has
+ circumnavigated the continent of Europe; and the Turkish capital
+ has been threatened by a squadron of strong and lofty ships of
+ war, each of which, with its naval science and thundering
+ artillery, could have sunk or scattered a hundred canoes, such as
+ those of their ancestors. Perhaps the present generation may yet
+ behold the accomplishment of the prediction, of a rare
+ prediction, of which the style is unambiguous and the date
+ unquestionable.
+
+ 65 (return) [ Nestor, apud Leveque, Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p.
+ 87.]
+
+ 66 (return) [ This brazen statue, which had been brought from
+ Antioch, and was melted down by the Latins, was supposed to
+ represent either Joshua or Bellerophon, an odd dilemma. See
+ Nicetas Choniates, (p. 413, 414,) Codinus, (de Originibus C. P.
+ p. 24,) and the anonymous writer de Antiquitat. C. P. (Banduri,
+ Imp. Orient. tom. i. p. 17, 18,) who lived about the year 1100.
+ They witness the belief of the prophecy the rest is immaterial.]
+
+ By land the Russians were less formidable than by sea; and as
+ they fought for the most part on foot, their irregular legions
+ must often have been broken and overthrown by the cavalry of the
+ Scythian hordes. Yet their growing towns, however slight and
+ imperfect, presented a shelter to the subject, and a barrier to
+ the enemy: the monarchy of Kiow, till a fatal partition, assumed
+ the dominion of the North; and the nations from the Volga to the
+ Danube were subdued or repelled by the arms of Swatoslaus, 67 the
+ son of Igor, the son of Oleg, the son of Ruric. The vigor of his
+ mind and body was fortified by the hardships of a military and
+ savage life. Wrapped in a bear-skin, Swatoslaus usually slept on
+ the ground, his head reclining on a saddle; his diet was coarse
+ and frugal, and, like the heroes of Homer, 68 his meat (it was
+ often horse-flesh) was broiled or roasted on the coals. The
+ exercise of war gave stability and discipline to his army; and it
+ may be presumed, that no soldier was permitted to transcend the
+ luxury of his chief. By an embassy from Nicephorus, the Greek
+ emperor, he was moved to undertake the conquest of Bulgaria; and
+ a gift of fifteen hundred pounds of gold was laid at his feet to
+ defray the expense, or reward the toils, of the expedition. An
+ army of sixty thousand men was assembled and embarked; they
+ sailed from the Borysthenes to the Danube; their landing was
+ effected on the Maesian shore; and, after a sharp encounter, the
+ swords of the Russians prevailed against the arrows of the
+ Bulgarian horse. The vanquished king sunk into the grave; his
+ children were made captive; and his dominions, as far as Mount
+ Haemus, were subdued or ravaged by the northern invaders. But
+ instead of relinquishing his prey, and performing his
+ engagements, the Varangian prince was more disposed to advance
+ than to retire; and, had his ambition been crowned with success,
+ the seat of empire in that early period might have been
+ transferred to a more temperate and fruitful climate. Swatoslaus
+ enjoyed and acknowledged the advantages of his new position, in
+ which he could unite, by exchange or rapine, the various
+ productions of the earth. By an easy navigation he might draw
+ from Russia the native commodities of furs, wax, and hydromed:
+ Hungary supplied him with a breed of horses and the spoils of the
+ West; and Greece abounded with gold, silver, and the foreign
+ luxuries, which his poverty had affected to disdain. The bands of
+ Patzinacites, 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 Eastern world. From the banks of the Danube the
+ Russian prince pursued his march as far as Adrianople; a formal
+ summons to evacuate the Roman province was dismissed with
+ contempt; and Swatoslaus fiercely replied, that Constantinople
+ might soon expect the presence of an enemy and a master.
+
+ 67 (return) [ The life of Swatoslaus, or Sviatoslaf, or
+ Sphendosthlabus, is extracted from the Russian Chronicles by M.
+ Levesque, (Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p. 94-107.)]
+
+ 68 (return) [ This resemblance may be clearly seen in the ninth
+ book of the Iliad, (205-221,) in the minute detail of the cookery
+ of Achilles. By such a picture, a modern epic poet would disgrace
+ his work, and disgust his reader; but the Greek verses are
+ harmonious—a dead language can seldom appear low or familiar; and
+ at the distance of two thousand seven hundred years, we are
+ amused with the primitive manners of antiquity.]
+
+ Nicephorus could no longer expel the mischief which he had
+ introduced; but his throne and wife were inherited by John
+ Zimisces, 69 who, in a diminutive body, possessed the spirit and
+ abilities of a hero. The first victory of his lieutenants
+ deprived the Russians of their foreign allies, twenty thousand of
+ whom were either destroyed by the sword, or provoked to revolt,
+ or tempted to desert. Thrace was delivered, but seventy thousand
+ Barbarians were still in arms; and the legions that had been
+ recalled from the new conquests of Syria, prepared, with the
+ return of the spring, to march under the banners of a warlike
+ prince, who declared himself the friend and avenger of the
+ injured Bulgaria. The passes of Mount Haemus had been left
+ unguarded; they were instantly occupied; the Roman vanguard was
+ formed of the immortals, (a proud imitation of the Persian
+ style;) the emperor led the main body of ten thousand five
+ hundred foot; and the rest of his forces followed in slow and
+ cautious array, with the baggage and military engines. The first
+ exploit of Zimisces was the reduction of Marcianopolis, or
+ Peristhlaba, 70 in two days; the trumpets sounded; the walls were
+ scaled; eight thousand five hundred Russians were put to the
+ sword; and the sons of the Bulgarian king were rescued from an
+ ignominious prison, and invested with a nominal diadem. After
+ these repeated losses, Swatoslaus retired to the strong post of
+ Drista, on the banks of the Danube, and was pursued by an enemy
+ who alternately employed the arms of celerity and delay. The
+ Byzantine galleys ascended the river, the legions completed a
+ 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 were attempted; nor was it till after a siege of
+ sixty-five days that Swatoslaus yielded to his adverse fortune.
+ The liberal terms which he obtained announce the prudence of the
+ victor, who respected the valor, and apprehended the despair, of
+ an unconquered mind. The great duke of Russia bound himself, by
+ solemn imprecations, to relinquish all hostile designs; a safe
+ passage was opened for his return; the liberty of trade and
+ navigation was restored; a measure of corn was distributed to
+ each of his soldiers; and the allowance of twenty-two thousand
+ measures attests the loss and the remnant of the Barbarians.
+ After a painful voyage, they again reached the mouth of the
+ Borysthenes; but their provisions were exhausted; the season was
+ unfavorable; they passed the winter on the ice; and, before they
+ could prosecute their march, Swatoslaus was surprised and
+ oppressed by the neighboring tribes with whom the Greeks
+ entertained a perpetual and useful correspondence. 71 Far
+ different was the return of Zimisces, who was received in his
+ capital like Camillus or Marius, the saviors of ancient Rome. But
+ the merit of the victory was attributed by the pious emperor to
+ the mother of God; and the image of the Virgin Mary, with the
+ divine infant in her arms, was placed on a triumphal car, adorned
+ with the spoils of war, and the ensigns of Bulgarian royalty.
+ Zimisces made his public entry on horseback; the diadem on his
+ head, a crown of laurel in his hand; and Constantinople was
+ astonished to applaud the martial virtues of her sovereign. 72
+
+ 69 (return) [ This singular epithet is derived from the Armenian
+ language. As I profess myself equally ignorant of these words, I
+ may be indulged in the question in the play, “Pray, which of you
+ is the interpreter?” 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 city called Tschemisch-gaizag,
+ which means a bright or purple sandal, such as women wear in the
+ East. He was called Tschemisch-ghigh, (for so his name is written
+ in Armenian, from this city, his native place.) Hase. Note to Leo
+ Diac. p. 454, in Niebuhr’s Byzant. Hist.—M.]
+
+ 70 (return) [ In the Sclavonic tongue, the name of Peristhlaba
+ implied the great or illustrious city, says Anna Comnena,
+ (Alexiad, l. vii. p. 194.) From its position between Mount Haemus
+ and the Lower Danube, it appears 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, Geographie Ancienne,
+ tom. i. p. 307, 311.)]
+
+ 71 (return) [ The political management of the Greeks, more
+ especially with the Patzinacites, is explained in the seven first
+ chapters, de Administratione Imperii.]
+
+ 72 (return) [ In the narrative of this war, Leo the Deacon (apud
+ Pagi, Critica, tom. iv. A.D. 968-973) is more authentic and
+ circumstantial than 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 and consistent account.]
+
+ Photius of Constantinople, a patriarch, whose ambition was equal
+ to his curiosity, congratulates himself and the Greek church on
+ the conversion of the Russians. 73 Those fierce and bloody
+ Barbarians had been persuaded, by the voice of reason and
+ religion, to acknowledge Jesus for their God, the Christian
+ missionaries for their teachers, and the Romans for their friends
+ and brethren. His triumph was transient and premature. In the
+ various fortune of their piratical adventures, some Russian
+ chiefs might allow themselves to be sprinkled with the waters of
+ baptism; and a Greek bishop, with the name of metropolitan, might
+ administer the sacraments in the church of Kiow, to a
+ congregation of slaves and natives. But the seed of the gospel
+ was sown on a barren soil: many were the apostates, the converts
+ were few; and the baptism of Olga may be fixed as the aera of
+ Russian Christianity. 74 A female, perhaps of the basest origin,
+ who could revenge the death, and assume the sceptre, of her
+ husband Igor, must have been endowed with those active virtues
+ which command the fear and obedience of Barbarians. In a moment
+ of foreign and domestic peace, she sailed from Kiow to
+ Constantinople; and the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus has
+ described, with minute diligence, the ceremonial of her reception
+ in his capital and palace. The steps, the titles, the
+ salutations, the banquet, the presents, were exquisitely adjusted
+ to gratify the vanity of the stranger, with due reverence to the
+ superior majesty of the purple. 75 In the sacrament of baptism,
+ she received the venerable name of the empress Helena; and her
+ conversion might be preceded or followed by her uncle, two
+ interpreters, sixteen damsels of a higher, and eighteen of a
+ lower rank, twenty-two domestics or ministers, and forty-four
+ Russian merchants, who composed the retinue of the great princess
+ Olga. After her return to Kiow and Novogorod, she firmly
+ persisted in her new religion; but her labors in the propagation
+ of the gospel were not crowned with success; and both her family
+ and nation adhered with obstinacy or indifference to the gods of
+ their fathers. Her son Swatoslaus was apprehensive of the scorn
+ and ridicule of his companions; and her grandson Wolodomir
+ devoted his youthful zeal to multiply and decorate the monuments
+ of ancient worship. The savage deities of the North were still
+ propitiated with human sacrifices: in the choice of the victim, a
+ citizen was preferred to a stranger, a Christian to an idolater;
+ and the father, who defended his son from the sacerdotal knife,
+ 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,
+ though secret, impression in the minds of the prince and people:
+ the Greek missionaries continued to preach, to dispute, and to
+ baptize: and the ambassadors or merchants of Russia compared the
+ idolatry of the woods with the elegant superstition of
+ Constantinople. They had gazed with admiration on the dome of St.
+ Sophia: the lively pictures of saints and martyrs, the riches of
+ the altar, the number and vestments of the priests, the pomp and
+ order of the ceremonies; they were edified by the alternate
+ succession of devout silence and harmonious song; nor was it
+ difficult to persuade them, that a choir of angels descended each
+ day from heaven to join in the devotion of the Christians. 76 But
+ the conversion of Wolodomir was determined, or hastened, by his
+ desire of a Roman bride. At the same time, and in the city of
+ Cherson, the rites of baptism and marriage were celebrated by the
+ Christian pontiff: the city he restored to the emperor Basil, the
+ brother of his spouse; but the brazen gates were transported, as
+ it is said, to Novogorod, and erected before the first church as
+ a trophy of his victory and faith. 77 At his despotic command,
+ Peround, the god of thunder, whom he had so long adored, was
+ dragged through the streets of Kiow; and twelve sturdy Barbarians
+ battered with clubs the misshapen image, which was indignantly
+ cast into the waters of the Borysthenes. The edict of Wolodomir
+ had proclaimed, that all who should refuse the rites of baptism
+ would be treated as the enemies of God and their prince; and the
+ rivers were instantly filled with many thousands of obedient
+ Russians, who acquiesced in the truth and excellence of a
+ doctrine which had been embraced by the great duke and his
+ boyars. In the next generation, the relics of Paganism were
+ finally extirpated; but as the two brothers of Wolodomir had died
+ without baptism, their bones were taken from the grave, and
+ sanctified by an irregular and posthumous sacrament.
+
+ 73 (return) [ Phot. Epistol. ii. No. 35, p. 58, edit. Montacut.
+ It was unworthy of the learning of the editor to mistake the
+ Russian nation, for a war-cry of the Bulgarians, nor did it
+ become the enlightened patriarch to accuse the Sclavonian
+ idolaters. They were neither Greeks nor Atheists.]
+
+ 74 (return) [ M. Levesque has extracted, from old chronicles and
+ modern researches, 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.)]
+
+ 75 (return) [ See the Ceremoniale Aulae Byzant. tom. ii. c. 15,
+ p. 343-345: the style of Olga, or Elga. For the chief of
+ Barbarians the Greeks whimsically borrowed the title of an
+ Athenian magistrate, with a female termination, which would have
+ astonished the ear of Demosthenes.]
+
+ 76 (return) [ See an anonymous fragment published by Banduri,
+ (Imperium Orientale, tom. ii. p. 112, 113, de Conversione
+ Russorum.)]
+
+ 77 (return) [ Cherson, or Corsun, is mentioned by Herberstein
+ (apud Pagi tom. iv. p. 56) as the place of Wolodomir’s baptism
+ and marriage; and both the tradition and the gates are still
+ preserved at Novogorod. Yet an observing traveller transports the
+ brazen gates from Magdeburgh in Germany, (Coxe’s Travels into
+ Russia, &c., vol. i. p. 452;) and quotes an inscription, which
+ seems to justify his opinion. The modern reader must 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 the
+ Borysthenes, and was lately honored by the memorable interview of
+ the empress 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 of Christianity; and the northern and
+ eastern regions of Europe submitted to a religion, more different
+ in theory than in practice, from the worship of their native
+ idols. A laudable ambition excited the monks both of Germany and
+ Greece, to visit the tents and huts of the Barbarians: poverty,
+ hardships, and dangers, were the lot of the first missionaries;
+ their courage was active and patient; their motive pure and
+ meritorious; their present reward consisted in the testimony of
+ their conscience and the respect of a grateful people; but the
+ fruitful harvest of their toils was inherited and enjoyed by the
+ proud and wealthy prelates of succeeding times. The first
+ conversions were free and spontaneous: a holy life and an
+ eloquent tongue were the only arms of the missionaries; but the
+ domestic fables of the Pagans were silenced by the miracles and
+ visions of the strangers; and the favorable temper of the chiefs
+ was accelerated by the dictates of vanity and interest. The
+ leaders of nations, who were saluted with the titles of kings and
+ saints, 79 held it lawful and pious to impose the Catholic faith
+ on their subjects and neighbors; the coast of the Baltic, from
+ Holstein to the Gulf of Finland, was invaded under the standard
+ of the cross; and the reign of idolatry was closed by the
+ conversion of Lithuania in the fourteenth century. Yet truth and
+ candor must acknowledge, that the conversion of the North
+ imparted many temporal benefits both to the old and the new
+ Christians. The rage of war, inherent to the human species, could
+ not be healed by the evangelic precepts of charity and peace; and
+ the ambition of Catholic princes has renewed in every age the
+ calamities of hostile contention. But the admission of the
+ Barbarians into the pale of civil and ecclesiastical society
+ delivered Europe from the depredations, by sea and land, of the
+ Normans, the Hungarians, and the Russians, who learned to spare
+ their brethren and cultivate their possessions. 80 The
+ establishment of law and order was promoted by the influence of
+ the clergy; and the rudiments of art and science were introduced
+ into the savage countries of the globe. The liberal piety of the
+ Russian princes engaged in their service the most skilful of the
+ Greeks, to decorate the cities and instruct the inhabitants: the
+ dome and the paintings of St. Sophia were rudely copied in the
+ churches of Kiow and Novogorod: the writings of the fathers were
+ translated into the Sclavonic idiom; and three hundred noble
+ youths were invited or compelled to attend the lessons of the
+ college of Jaroslaus. It should appear that Russia might have
+ derived an early and rapid improvement from her peculiar
+ connection with the church and state of Constantinople, which at
+ that age so justly despised the ignorance of the Latins. But the
+ Byzantine nation was servile, solitary, and verging to a hasty
+ decline: after the fall of Kiow, the navigation of the
+ Borysthenes was forgotten; the great princes of Wolodomir and
+ Moscow were separated from the sea and Christendom; and the
+ divided monarchy was oppressed by the ignominy and blindness of
+ Tartar servitude. 81 The Sclavonic and Scandinavian kingdoms,
+ which had been converted by the Latin missionaries, were exposed,
+ it is true, to the spiritual jurisdiction and temporal claims of
+ the popes; 82 but they were united in 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 western world.
+
+ 78 (return) [ Consult the Latin text, or English version, of
+ Mosheim’s excellent History of the Church, under the first head
+ or section of each of these centuries.]
+
+ 79 (return) [ In the year 1000, the ambassadors of St. Stephen
+ received from Pope Silvester the title of King of Hungary, with a
+ diadem of Greek workmanship. It had been designed for the duke of
+ Poland: but the Poles, by their own confession, were yet too
+ barbarous to deserve an angelical and apostolical crown. (Katona,
+ Hist. Critic Regum Stirpis Arpadianae, tom. i. p. 1-20.)]
+
+ 80 (return) [ Listen to the exultations of Adam of Bremen, (A.D.
+ 1080,) of which the substance is agreeable to truth: Ecce illa
+ ferocissima Danorum, &c., natio..... jamdudum novit in Dei
+ laudibus Alleluia resonare..... Ecce populus ille piraticus .....
+ suis nunc finibus contentus est. Ecce patria horribilis semper
+ inaccessa propter cultum idolorum... praedicatores veritatis
+ ubique certatim admittit, &c., &c., (de Situ Daniae, &c., p. 40,
+ 41, edit. Elzevir; a curious and original prospect of the north
+ of Europe, and the introduction of Christianity.)]
+
+ 81 (return) [ The great princes removed in 1156 from Kiow, which
+ was ruined by the Tartars in 1240. Moscow became the seat of
+ empire in the xivth century. See the 1st and 2d volumes of
+ Levesque’s History, and Mr. Coxe’s Travels into the North, tom.
+ i. p. 241, &c.]
+
+ 82 (return) [ The ambassadors of St. Stephen had used the
+ reverential expressions of regnum oblatum, debitam obedientiam,
+ &c., which were most rigorously interpreted by Gregory VII.; and
+ the Hungarian Catholics are distressed between the sanctity of
+ the pope and the independence of the crown, (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 the Franks, encountered each other on the theatre of Italy. 1
+ The southern provinces, which now compose the kingdom of Naples,
+ were subject, for the most part, to the Lombard dukes and princes
+ of Beneventum; 2 so powerful in war, that they checked for a
+ moment the genius of Charlemagne; so liberal in peace, that they
+ maintained in their capital an academy of thirty-two philosophers
+ and grammarians. The division of this flourishing state produced
+ the rival principalities of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua; and
+ the thoughtless ambition or revenge of the competitors invited
+ the Saracens to the ruin of their common inheritance. During a
+ calamitous period of two hundred years, Italy was exposed to a
+ repetition of wounds, which the invaders were not capable of
+ healing by the union and tranquility of a perfect conquest. Their
+ frequent and almost annual squadrons issued from the port of
+ Palermo, and were entertained with too much indulgence by the
+ Christians of Naples: the more formidable fleets were prepared on
+ the African coast; and even the Arabs of Andalusia were sometimes
+ tempted to assist or oppose the Moslems of an adverse sect. In
+ the revolution of human events, a new ambuscade was concealed in
+ the Caudine Forks, the fields of Cannae were bedewed a second
+ time with the blood of the Africans, and the sovereign of Rome
+ again attacked or defended the walls of Capua and Tarentum. A
+ colony of Saracens had been planted at Bari, which commands the
+ entrance of the Adriatic Gulf; and their impartial depredations
+ provoked the resentment, and conciliated the union of the two
+ emperors. An offensive alliance was concluded between Basil the
+ Macedonian, the first of his race, and Lewis the great-grandson
+ of Charlemagne; 3 and each party supplied the deficiencies of his
+ associate. It would have been imprudent in the Byzantine monarch
+ to transport his stationary troops of Asia to an Italian
+ campaign; and the Latin arms would have been insufficient if his
+ superior navy had not occupied the mouth of the Gulf. 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 of
+ four years, the Arabian emir submitted to the clemency of Lewis,
+ who commanded in person the operations of the siege. This
+ important conquest had been achieved by the concord of the East
+ and West; but their recent amity was soon imbittered by the
+ mutual complaints of jealousy and pride. The Greeks assumed as
+ their own the merit of the conquest and the pomp of the triumph;
+ extolled the greatness of their powers, and affected to deride
+ the intemperance and sloth of the handful of Barbarians who
+ appeared under the banners of the Carlovingian prince. His reply
+ is expressed with the eloquence of indignation and truth: “We
+ confess the magnitude of your preparation,” says the
+ great-grandson of Charlemagne. “Your armies were indeed as
+ numerous as a cloud of summer locusts, who darken the day, flap
+ their wings, and, after a short flight, tumble weary and
+ breathless to the ground. Like them, ye sunk after a feeble
+ effort; ye were vanquished by your own cowardice; and withdrew
+ from the scene of action to injure and despoil our Christian
+ subjects of the Sclavonian coast. We were few in number, and why
+ were we few? Because, after a tedious expectation of your
+ arrival, I had dismissed my host, and retained only a chosen band
+ of warriors to continue the blockade of the city. If they
+ indulged their hospitable feasts in the face of danger and death,
+ did these feasts abate the vigor of their enterprise? Is it by
+ your fasting that the walls of Bari have been overturned? Did not
+ these valiant Franks, diminished as they were by languor and
+ fatigue, intercept and vanish the three most powerful emirs of
+ the Saracens? and did not their defeat precipitate the fall of
+ the city? Bari is now fallen; Tarentum trembles; Calabria will be
+ delivered; and, if we command the sea, the Island of Sicily may
+ be rescued from the hands of the infidels. My brother,”
+ accelerate (a name most offensive to the vanity of the Greek,)
+ “accelerate your naval succors, respect your allies, and distrust
+ your flatterers.” 4
+
+ 1 (return) [ For the general history of Italy in the ixth and xth
+ centuries, I may properly refer to the vth, vith, and viith books
+ of Sigonius de Regno Italiae, (in the second volume of his works,
+ Milan, 1732;) the Annals of Baronius, with the criticism of Pagi;
+ the viith and viiith books of the Istoria Civile del Regno di
+ Napoli of Giannone; the viith and viiith volumes (the octavo
+ edition) of the Annali d’ Italia of Muratori, and the 2d volume
+ of the Abrege Chronologique of M. de St. Marc, a work which,
+ under a superficial title, contains much genuine learning and
+ industry. But my long-accustomed reader will give me credit for
+ saying, that I myself have ascended to the fountain head, as
+ often as such ascent could be either profitable or possible; and
+ that I have diligently turned over the originals in the first
+ volumes of Muratori’s great collection of the Scriptores Rerum
+ Italicarum.]
+
+ 2 (return) [ Camillo Pellegrino, a learned Capuan of the last
+ century, has illustrated the history of the duchy of Beneventum,
+ in his two books Historia Principum Longobardorum, in the
+ Scriptores of Muratori tom. ii. pars i. p. 221-345, and tom. v. p
+ 159-245.]
+
+ 3 (return) [ See Constantin. Porphyrogen. de Thematibus, l. ii. c
+ xi. in Vit Basil. c. 55, p. 181.]
+
+ 4 (return) [ The oriental epistle of the emperor Lewis II. to the
+ emperor Basil, a curious record of the age, was first published
+ by Baronius, (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 871, No. 51-71,) from the
+ Vatican Ms. of Erchempert, or rather of the anonymous historian
+ of Salerno.] These lofty hopes were soon extinguished by the
+ death of Lewis, and the decay of the Carlovingian house; and
+ whoever might deserve the honor, the Greek emperors, Basil, and
+ his son Leo, secured the advantage, of the reduction of Bari. The
+ Italians of Apulia and Calabria were persuaded or compelled to
+ acknowledge their supremacy, and an ideal line from Mount
+ Garganus to the Bay of Salerno, leaves the far greater part of
+ the kingdom of Naples under the dominion of the Eastern empire.
+ Beyond that line, the dukes or republics of Amalfi 5 and Naples,
+ who had never forfeited their voluntary allegiance, rejoiced in
+ the neighborhood of their lawful sovereign; and Amalfi was
+ enriched by supplying Europe with the produce and manufactures of
+ Asia. But the Lombard princes of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua, 6
+ were reluctantly torn from the communion of the Latin world, and
+ too often violated their oaths of servitude and tribute. The city
+ of Bari rose to dignity and wealth, as the metropolis of the new
+ theme or province of Lombardy: the title of patrician, and
+ afterwards the singular name of Catapan, 7 was assigned to the
+ supreme governor; and the policy both of the church and state was
+ modelled in exact subordination to the throne of Constantinople.
+ As long as the sceptre was disputed by the princes of Italy,
+ their efforts were feeble and adverse; and the Greeks resisted or
+ eluded the forces of Germany, which descended from the Alps under
+ the Imperial standard of the Othos. The first and greatest of
+ those Saxon princes was compelled to relinquish the siege of
+ Bari: the second, after the loss of his stoutest bishops and
+ barons, escaped with honor from the bloody field of Crotona. On
+ that day the scale of war was turned against the Franks by the
+ valor of the Saracens. 8 These corsairs had indeed been driven by
+ the Byzantine fleets from the fortresses and coasts of Italy; but
+ a sense of interest was more prevalent than superstition or
+ resentment, and the caliph of Egypt had transported forty
+ thousand Moslems to the aid of his Christian ally. The successors
+ of Basil amused themselves with the belief, that the conquest of
+ Lombardy had been achieved, and was still preserved by the
+ justice of their laws, the virtues of their ministers, and the
+ gratitude of a people whom they had rescued from anarchy and
+ oppression. A series of rebellions might dart a ray of truth into
+ the palace of Constantinople; and the illusions of flattery were
+ dispelled by the easy and rapid success of the Norman
+ adventurers.
+
+ 5 (return) [ 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.)]
+
+ 6 (return) [ Your master, says Nicephorus, has given aid and
+ protection prinminibus Capuano et Beneventano, servis meis, quos
+ oppugnare dispono.... Nova (potius nota) res est quod eorum
+ patres et avi nostro Imperio tributa dederunt, (Liutprand, in
+ Legat. p. 484.) Salerno is not mentioned, yet the prince changed
+ his party about the same time, and Camillo Pellegrino (Script.
+ Rer. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 285) has nicely discerned this
+ change in the style of the anonymous Chronicle. On the rational
+ ground of history and language, Liutprand (p. 480) had asserted
+ the Latin claim to Apulia and Calabria.]
+
+ 7 (return) [ 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 the Latin capitaneus. Yet M. de St. Marc
+ has accurately observed (Abrege Chronologique, tom. ii. p. 924)
+ that in this age the capitanei were not captains, but only nobles
+ of the first rank, the great valvassors of Italy.]
+
+ 8 (return) [ (the Lombards), (Leon. Tactic. c. xv. p. 741.) The
+ little Chronicle of Beneventum (tom. ii. pars i. p. 280) gives a
+ far different character of the Greeks during the five years (A.D.
+ 891-896) that Leo was master of the city.]
+
+ The revolution of human affairs had produced in Apulia and
+ Calabria a melancholy contrast between the age of Pythagoras and
+ the tenth century of the Christian aera. At the former period,
+ the coast of Great Greece (as it was then styled) was planted
+ with free and opulent cities: these cities were peopled with
+ soldiers, artists, and philosophers; and the military strength of
+ Tarentum; Sybaris, or Crotona, was not inferior to that of a
+ powerful kingdom. At the second aera, these once flourishing
+ provinces were clouded with ignorance impoverished by tyranny,
+ and depopulated by Barbarian war; nor can we severely accuse the
+ exaggeration of a contemporary, that a fair and ample district
+ was reduced to the same desolation which had covered the earth
+ after the general deluge. 9 Among the hostilities of the Arabs,
+ the Franks, and the Greeks, in the southern Italy, I shall select
+ two or three anecdotes expressive of their national manners. 1.
+ It was the amusement of the Saracens to profane, as well as to
+ pillage, the monasteries and churches. At the siege of Salerno, a
+ Mussulman chief spread his couch on the communion-table, and on
+ that altar sacrificed each night the virginity of a Christian
+ nun. As he wrestled with a reluctant maid, a beam in the roof was
+ accidentally or dexterously thrown down on his head; and the
+ death of the lustful emir was imputed to the wrath of Christ,
+ which was at length awakened to the defence of his faithful
+ spouse. 10 2. The Saracens besieged the cities of Beneventum and
+ Capua: after a vain appeal to the successors of Charlemagne, the
+ Lombards implored the clemency and aid of the Greek emperor. 11 A
+ fearless citizen dropped from the walls, passed the
+ intrenchments, accomplished his commission, and fell into the
+ hands of the Barbarians as he was returning with the welcome
+ news. They commanded him to assist their enterprise, and deceive
+ his countrymen, with the assurance that wealth and honors should
+ be the reward of his falsehood, and that his sincerity would be
+ punished with immediate death. He affected to yield, but as soon
+ as he was conducted within 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 are at hand. I know my
+ doom, and commit my wife and children to your gratitude.” The
+ rage of the Arabs confirmed his evidence; and the self-devoted
+ patriot was transpierced with a hundred spears. He deserves to
+ live in the memory of the virtuous, but the repetition of the
+ same story in ancient and modern times, may sprinkle some doubts
+ on the reality of this generous deed. 12 3. The recital of a
+ third incident may provoke a smile amidst the horrors of war.
+ Theobald, marquis of Camerino and Spoleto, 13 supported the
+ rebels of Beneventum; and his wanton cruelty was not incompatible
+ in that age with the character of a hero. His captives of the
+ Greek nation or party were castrated without mercy, and the
+ outrage was aggravated by a cruel jest, that he wished to present
+ the emperor with a supply of eunuchs, the most precious ornaments
+ of the Byzantine court. The garrison of a castle had been
+ defeated in a sally, and the prisoners were sentenced to the
+ customary operation. But the sacrifice was disturbed by the
+ intrusion of a frantic female, who, with bleeding cheeks
+ dishevelled hair, and importunate clamors, 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 the distaff
+ and the loom?” Theobald denied the charge, and protested that,
+ since the Amazons, he had never heard of a female war. “And how,”
+ she furiously exclaimed, “can you attack us more directly, how
+ can you wound us in a more vital part, than by robbing our
+ husbands of what we most dearly 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, but this fatal injury,
+ this irreparable loss, subdues my patience, and calls aloud on
+ the justice of heaven and earth.” A general laugh applauded her
+ eloquence; the savage Franks, inaccessible to pity, were moved by
+ her ridiculous, yet rational despair; and with the deliverance of
+ the captives, she obtained the restitution of her effects. As she
+ returned in triumph to the castle, she was overtaken by a
+ messenger, to inquire, in the name of Theobald, what punishment
+ should be inflicted on her husband, were he again taken in arms.
+ “Should such,” she answered without hesitation, “be his guilt and
+ misfortune, he has eyes, and a nose, and hands, and feet. These
+ are his own, and these he may deserve to forfeit by his personal
+ offences. But let my lord be pleased to spare what his little
+ handmaid presumes to claim as her peculiar and lawful property.”
+ 14
+
+ 9 (return) [ Calabriam adeunt, eamque inter se divisam
+ reperientes funditus depopulati sunt, (or depopularunt,) ita ut
+ deserta sit velut in diluvio. Such is the text of Herempert, or
+ Erchempert, according to the two editions of Carraccioli (Rer.
+ Italic. Script. tom. v. p. 23) and of Camillo Pellegrino, (tom.
+ ii. pars i. p. 246.) Both were extremely scarce, when they were
+ reprinted by Muratori.]
+
+ 10 (return) [ Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 874, No. 2) has drawn
+ this story from a Ms. of Erchempert, who died at Capua only
+ fifteen years after the event. But the cardinal was deceived by a
+ false title, and we can only quote the anonymous Chronicle of
+ Salerno, (Paralipomena, c. 110,) composed towards the end of the
+ xth century, and published in the second volume of Muratori’s
+ Collection. See the Dissertations of Camillo Pellegrino, tom. ii.
+ pars i. p. 231-281, &c.]
+
+ 11 (return) [ Constantine Porphyrogenitus (in Vit. Basil. c. 58,
+ p. 183) is the original author of this story. He places it under
+ the reigns of Basil and Lewis II.; yet the reduction of
+ Beneventum by the Greeks is dated A.D. 891, after the decease of
+ both of those princes.]
+
+ 12 (return) [ In the year 663, the same tragedy is described by
+ Paul the Deacon, (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 are different, and the guilt is
+ imputed to the Greeks themselves, which in the Byzantine edition
+ is applied to the Saracens. In the late war in Germany, M.
+ D’Assas, a French officer of the regiment of Auvergne, is said to
+ have devoted himself in a similar manner. His behavior is the
+ more heroic, as mere silence was required by the enemy who had
+ made him prisoner, (Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV. c. 33, tom. ix.
+ p. 172.)]
+
+ 13 (return) [ Theobald, who is styled Heros by Liutprand, was
+ properly duke of Spoleto and marquis of Camerino, from the year
+ 926 to 935. The title and office of marquis (commander of the
+ march or frontier) was introduced into Italy by the French
+ emperors, (Abrege Chronologique, tom. ii. p. 545-732 &c.)]
+
+ 14 (return) [ Liutprand, Hist. l. iv. c. iv. in the Rerum Italic.
+ Script. tom. i. pars i. p. 453, 454. Should the licentiousness of
+ the tale be questioned, I may exclaim, with poor Sterne, that it
+ is hard if I may not transcribe with caution what a bishop could
+ write without scruple 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
+ consequences most important both to Italy and the Eastern empire.
+ The broken provinces of the Greeks, Lombards, and Saracens, were
+ exposed to every invader, and every sea and land were invaded by
+ the adventurous spirit of the Scandinavian pirates. After a long
+ indulgence of rapine and slaughter, a fair and ample territory
+ was accepted, occupied, and named, by the Normans of France: they
+ renounced their gods for the God of the Christians; 16 and the
+ dukes of Normandy acknowledged themselves the vassals of the
+ successors of Charlemagne and Capet. The savage fierceness which
+ they had brought from the snowy mountains of Norway was refined,
+ without being corrupted, in a warmer climate; the companions of
+ Rollo insensibly mingled with the natives; they imbibed the
+ manners, language, 17 and gallantry, of the French nation; and in
+ a martial age, the Normans might claim the palm of valor and
+ glorious achievements. Of the fashionable superstitions, they
+ embraced with ardor the pilgrimages of Rome, Italy, and the Holy
+ Land. 171 In this active devotion, the minds and bodies were
+ invigorated by exercise: danger was the incentive, novelty the
+ recompense; and the prospect of the world was decorated by
+ wonder, credulity, and ambitious hope. They confederated for
+ their mutual defence; and the robbers of the Alps, who had been
+ allured by the garb of a pilgrim, were often chastised by the arm
+ of a warrior. In one of these pious visits to the cavern of Mount
+ Garganus in Apulia, which had been sanctified by the apparition
+ of the archangel Michael, 18 they were accosted by a stranger in
+ the Greek habit, but who soon revealed himself as a rebel, a
+ fugitive, and a mortal foe of the Greek empire. His name was
+ Melo; a noble citizen of Bari, who, after an unsuccessful revolt,
+ was compelled to seek new allies and avengers of his country. The
+ bold appearance of the Normans revived his hopes and solicited
+ his confidence: they listened to the complaints, and still more
+ to the promises, of the patriot. The assurance of wealth
+ demonstrated the justice of his cause; and they viewed, as the
+ inheritance of the brave, the fruitful land which was oppressed
+ by effeminate tyrants. On their return to Normandy, they kindled
+ a spark of enterprise, and a small but intrepid band was freely
+ associated for the deliverance of Apulia. They passed the Alps by
+ separate roads, and in the disguise of pilgrims; but in the
+ neighborhood of Rome they were saluted by the chief of Bari, who
+ supplied the more indigent with arms and horses, and instantly
+ led them to the field of action. In the first conflict, their
+ valor prevailed; but in the second engagement they were
+ overwhelmed by the numbers and military engines of the Greeks,
+ and indignantly retreated with their faces to the enemy. 1811 The
+ unfortunate Melo ended his life a suppliant at the court of
+ Germany: his Norman followers, excluded from their native and
+ their promised land, wandered among the hills and valleys of
+ Italy, and earned their daily subsistence by the sword. To that
+ formidable sword the princes of Capua, Beneventum, Salerno, and
+ Naples, alternately appealed in their domestic quarrels; the
+ superior spirit and discipline of the Normans gave victory to the
+ side which they espoused; and their cautious policy observed the
+ balance of power, lest the preponderance of any rival state
+ should render their aid less important, and their service less
+ profitable. Their first asylum was a strong camp in the depth of
+ the marshes of Campania: but they were soon endowed by the
+ liberality of the duke of Naples with a more plentiful and
+ permanent seat. Eight miles from his residence, as a bulwark
+ against Capua, the town of Aversa was built and fortified for
+ their use; and they enjoyed as their own the corn and fruits, the
+ meadows and groves, of that fertile district. The report of their
+ success attracted every year new swarms of pilgrims and soldiers:
+ the poor were urged by necessity; the rich were excited by hope;
+ and the brave and active spirits of Normandy were impatient of
+ ease and ambitious of renown. The independent standard of Aversa
+ afforded shelter and encouragement to the outlaws of the
+ province, to every fugitive who had escaped from the injustice or
+ justice of his superiors; and these foreign associates were
+ quickly assimilated in manners and language to the Gallic colony.
+ The first leader of the Normans was Count Rainulf; and, in the
+ origin of society, preeminence of rank is the reward and the
+ proof of superior merit. 19 1911
+
+ 15 (return) [ The original monuments of the Normans in Italy are
+ collected in the vth volume of Muratori; and among these we may
+ distinguish the poems of William Appulus (p. 245-278) and the
+ history of Galfridus (Jeffrey) Malaterra, (p. 537-607.) Both were
+ natives of France, 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 to recapitulate the compilers and critics
+ of Italian history, Sigonius, Baronius, Pagi, Giannone, Muratori,
+ St. Marc, &c., whom I have always consulted, and never copied. *
+ Note: M. Goutier d’Arc has discovered a translation of the
+ Chronicle of Aime, monk of Mont Cassino, a contemporary of the
+ first Norman invaders of Italy. He has made use of it in his
+ Histoire des Conquetes des Normands, and added a summary of its
+ contents. This work was quoted by later writers, but was supposed
+ to have been entirely lost.—M.]
+
+ 16 (return) [ Some of the first converts were baptized ten or
+ twelve times, 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 his soul were accompanied by a sacrifice of one
+ hundred captives. But in a generation or two, the national change
+ was pure and general.]
+
+ 17 (return) [ The Danish language was still spoken by the Normans
+ of Bayeux on the sea-coast, at a time (A.D. 940) when it was
+ already forgotten at Rouen, in the court and capital. Quem
+ (Richard I.) confestim pater Baiocas mittens Botoni militiae suae
+ principi nutriendum tradidit, ut, ibi lingua eruditus Danica,
+ suis exterisque hominibus sciret aperte dare responsa, (Wilhelm.
+ Gemeticensis de Ducibus Normannis, l. iii. c. 8, p. 623, edit.
+ Camden.) Of the vernacular and favorite idiom of William the
+ Conqueror, (A.D. 1035,) Selden (Opera, tom. ii. p. 1640-1656) has
+ given a specimen, obsolete and obscure even to antiquarians and
+ lawyers.]
+
+ 171 (return) [ A band of Normans returning from the Holy Land had
+ rescued the city of Salerno from the attack of a numerous fleet
+ of Saracens. Gainar, the Lombard prince of Salerno wished to
+ retain them in his service and take them into his pay. They
+ answered, “We fight for our religion, and not for money.” Gaimar
+ entreated them to send some Norman knights to his court. This
+ seems to have been the origin of the connection of the Normans
+ with Italy. See Histoire des Conquetes des Normands par Goutier
+ d’Arc, l. i. c. i., Paris, 1830.—M.]
+
+ 18 (return) [ See Leandro Alberti (Descrizione d’Italia, p. 250)
+ and Baronius, (A.D. 493, No. 43.) If the archangel inherited the
+ temple and oracle, perhaps the cavern, of old Calchas the
+ soothsayer, (Strab. Geograph l. vi. p. 435, 436,) the Catholics
+ (on this occasion) have surpassed the Greeks in the elegance of
+ their superstition.]
+
+ 1811 (return) [ Nine out of ten perished in the field. Chronique
+ d’Aime, tom. i. p. 21 quoted by M Goutier d’Arc, p. 42.—M.]
+
+ 19 (return) [ See the first book of William Appulus. His words
+ are applicable 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.]
+
+ 1911 (return) [ This account is not accurate. After the retreat
+ of the emperor Henry II. the Normans, united under the command of
+ Rainulf, had taken 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 of Capua, found means to take Naples by
+ surprise. Sergius, master of the soldiers, and head of the
+ republic, with the principal citizens, abandoned a city in which
+ he could not behold, without horror, the establishment of a
+ foreign dominion he retired to Aversa; and when, with the
+ assistance of the Greeks and that of the citizens faithful to
+ their country, he had collected money enough to satisfy the
+ rapacity of the Norman adventurers, he advanced at their head to
+ attack the garrison of the prince of Capua, defeated it, and
+ reentered Naples. It was then that he confirmed the Normans in
+ the possession of Aversa and its territory, which he raised into
+ a count’s fief, and granted the investiture to Rainulf. Hist. des
+ Rep. Ital. tom. i. p. 267]
+
+ Since the conquest of Sicily by the Arabs, the Grecian emperors
+ had been anxious to regain that valuable possession; but their
+ efforts, however strenuous, had been opposed by the distance and
+ the sea. Their costly armaments, after a gleam of success, added
+ new pages of calamity and disgrace to the Byzantine annals:
+ twenty thousand of their best troops were lost in a single
+ expedition; and the victorious Moslems derided the policy of a
+ nation which intrusted eunuchs not only with the custody of their
+ women, but with the command of their men 20 After a reign of two
+ hundred years, the Saracens were ruined by their divisions. 21
+ The emir disclaimed the authority of the king of Tunis; the
+ people rose against the emir; the cities were usurped by the
+ chiefs; each meaner rebel was independent in his village or
+ castle; and the weaker of two rival brothers implored the
+ friendship of the Christians. In every service of danger the
+ Normans were prompt and useful; and five hundred knights, or
+ warriors on horseback, were enrolled by Arduin, the agent and
+ interpreter of the Greeks, under the standard of Maniaces,
+ governor of Lombardy. Before their landing, the brothers were
+ reconciled; the union of Sicily and Africa was restored; and the
+ island was guarded to the water’s edge. The Normans led the van
+ and the Arabs of Messina felt the valor of an untried foe. In a
+ second action the emir of Syracuse was unhorsed and transpierced
+ by the iron arm of William of Hauteville. In a third engagement,
+ his intrepid companions discomfited the host of sixty thousand
+ Saracens, and left the Greeks no more than the labor of the
+ pursuit: a splendid victory; but of which the pen of the
+ historian may divide the merit with the lance of the Normans. It
+ is, however, true, that they essentially promoted the success of
+ Maniaces, who reduced thirteen cities, and the greater part of
+ Sicily, under the obedience of the emperor. But his military fame
+ was sullied by ingratitude and tyranny. In the division of the
+ spoils, the deserts of his brave auxiliaries were forgotten; and
+ neither their avarice nor their pride could brook this injurious
+ treatment. They complained by the mouth of their interpreter:
+ their complaint was disregarded; their interpreter was scourged;
+ the sufferings were his; the insult and resentment belonged to
+ those whose sentiments he had delivered. Yet they dissembled till
+ they had obtained, or stolen, a safe passage to the Italian
+ continent: 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 the field with no more than seven
+ hundred horse and five hundred foot; and after 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,” was the
+ 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
+ Greek messenger. He was dismissed with a fresh horse; the insult
+ was concealed from the Imperial troops; but in two successive
+ battles they were more fatally instructed of the prowess of their
+ adversaries. In the plains of Cannae, the Asiatics fled before
+ the adventurers of France; the duke of Lombardy was made
+ prisoner; the Apulians acquiesced in a new dominion; and the four
+ places of Bari, Otranto, Brundusium, and Tarentum, were alone
+ saved in the shipwreck of the Grecian fortunes. From this aera we
+ may date the establishment of the Norman power, which soon
+ eclipsed the infant colony of Aversa. Twelve counts 24 were
+ chosen by the popular suffrage; 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 at the head of his
+ vassals. In the centre of the province, the common habitation of
+ Melphi was reserved as the metropolis and citadel of the
+ republic; a house and separate quarter was allotted to each of
+ the twelve counts: and the national concerns were regulated by
+ this military senate. The first of his peers, their president and
+ general, was entitled count of Apulia; and this dignity was
+ conferred on William of the iron arm, who, in the language of the
+ age, is styled a lion in battle, a lamb in society, and an angel
+ in council. 25 The manners of his countrymen are fairly
+ delineated by a contemporary and national historian. 26 “The
+ Normans,” says Malaterra, “are a cunning and revengeful people;
+ eloquence and dissimulation appear to be their hereditary
+ qualities: they can stoop to flatter; but unless they are curbed
+ by the restraint of law, they indulge the licentiousness of
+ nature and passion. Their princes affect the praises of popular
+ munificence; the people observe the medium, or rather blond the
+ extremes, of avarice and prodigality; and in their eager thirst
+ of wealth and dominion, they despise whatever they possess, and
+ hope whatever they desire. Arms and horses, the luxury of dress,
+ the exercises of hunting and hawking 27 are the delight of the
+ Normans; but, on pressing occasions, they can endure with
+ incredible patience the inclemency of every climate, and the toil
+ and absence of a military life.” 28
+
+ 20 (return) [ Liutprand, in Legatione, p. 485. Pagi has
+ illustrated this event from the Ms. history of the deacon Leo,
+ (tom. iv. A.D. 965, No. 17-19.)]
+
+ 21 (return) [ See the Arabian Chronicle of Sicily, apud Muratori,
+ Script. Rerum Ital. tom. i. p. 253.]
+
+ 22 (return) [ Jeffrey Malaterra, who relates the Sicilian war,
+ and the conquest of Apulia, (l. i. c. 7, 8, 9, 19.) The same
+ events are described by Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 741-743, 755, 756)
+ and Zonaras, (tom. ii. p. 237, 238;) and the Greeks are so
+ hardened to disgrace, that their narratives are impartial
+ enough.]
+
+ 23 (return) [ Lydia: consult Constantine de Thematibus, i. 3, 4,
+ with Delisle’s map.]
+
+ 24 (return) [ 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 is needless to repeat.]
+
+ 25 (return) [ Gulielm. Appulus, l. ii. c 12, according to the
+ reference of Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. ii. p.
+ 31,) which I cannot verify in the original. The Apulian praises
+ indeed his validas vires, probitas animi, and vivida virtus; and
+ declares that, had he lived, no poet could have equalled his
+ merits, (l. i. p. 258, l. ii. p. 259.) He was bewailed by the
+ Normans, quippe qui tanti consilii virum, (says Malaterra, l. i.
+ c. 12, p. 552,) tam armis strenuum, tam sibi munificum,
+ affabilem, morigeratum, ulterius se habere diffidebant.]
+
+ 26 (return) [ The gens astutissima, injuriarum ultrix.... adulari
+ sciens.... eloquentiis inserviens, of Malaterra, (l. i. c. 3, p.
+ 550,) are expressive of the popular and proverbial character of
+ the Normans.]
+
+ 27 (return) [ The hunting and hawking more properly belong to the
+ descendants of the Norwegian sailors; though they might import
+ from Norway and Iceland the finest casts of falcons.]
+
+ 28 (return) [ We may compare this portrait with that of William
+ of Malmsbury, (de Gestis Anglorum, l. iii. p. 101, 102,) who
+ appreciates, like a philosophic historian, the vices and virtues
+ of the Saxons and Normans. 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 of their lands, from the sovereigns of Germany or
+ Constantinople. But the firmest title of these adventurers was
+ the right of conquest: they neither loved nor trusted; they were
+ neither trusted nor beloved: the contempt of the princes was
+ mixed with fear, and the fear of the natives was mingled with
+ hatred and resentment. Every object of desire, a horse, a woman,
+ a garden, tempted and gratified the rapaciousness of the
+ strangers; 29 and the avarice of their chiefs was only colored by
+ the more specious names of ambition and glory. The twelve counts
+ were sometimes joined in the league of injustice: in their
+ domestic quarrels they disputed the spoils of the people: the
+ virtues of William were buried in his grave; and Drogo, his
+ brother and successor, was better qualified to lead the valor,
+ than to restrain the violence, of his peers. Under the reign of
+ Constantine Monomachus, the policy, rather than benevolence, of
+ the Byzantine court, attempted to relieve Italy from this
+ adherent mischief, more grievous than a flight of Barbarians; 30
+ and Argyrus, the son of Melo, was invested for this purpose with
+ the most lofty titles 31 and the most ample commission. The
+ memory of his father might recommend him to the Normans; and he
+ had already engaged their voluntary service to quell the revolt
+ of Maniaces, and to avenge their own and the public injury. It
+ was the design of Constantine to transplant the warlike colony
+ from the Italian provinces to the Persian war; and the son of
+ Melo distributed among the chiefs the gold and manufactures of
+ Greece, as the first-fruits of the Imperial bounty. But his arts
+ were baffled by the sense and spirit of the conquerors of Apulia:
+ his gifts, or at least his proposals, were rejected; and they
+ unanimously refused to relinquish their possessions and their
+ hopes for the distant prospect of Asiatic fortune. After the
+ means of persuasion had failed, Argyrus resolved to compel or to
+ destroy: the Latin powers were solicited against the common
+ enemy; and an offensive alliance was formed of the pope and the
+ two emperors of the East and West. The throne of St. Peter was
+ occupied by Leo the Ninth, a simple saint, 32 of a temper most
+ apt to deceive himself and the world, and whose venerable
+ character would consecrate with the name of piety the measures
+ least compatible with the practice of religion. His humanity was
+ affected by the complaints, perhaps the calumnies, of an injured
+ people: the impious Normans had interrupted the payment of
+ tithes; and the temporal sword might be lawfully unsheathed
+ against the sacrilegious robbers, who were deaf to the censures
+ of the church. As a German of noble birth and royal kindred, Leo
+ had free access to the court and confidence of the emperor Henry
+ the Third; and in search of arms and allies, his ardent zeal
+ transported him from Apulia to Saxony, from the Elbe to the
+ Tyber. During these hostile preparations, Argyrus indulged
+ himself in the use of secret and guilty weapons: a crowd of
+ Normans became the victims of public or private revenge; and the
+ valiant Drogo was murdered in a church. But his spirit survived
+ in his brother Humphrey, the third count of Apulia. The assassins
+ were chastised; and the son of Melo, overthrown and wounded, was
+ driven from the field, to hide his shame behind the walls of
+ Bari, and to await the tardy succor of his allies.
+
+ 29 (return) [ The biographer of St. Leo IX. pours his holy venom
+ on the Normans. Videns indisciplinatam et alienam gentem
+ Normannorum, crudeli et inaudita rabie, et plusquam Pagana
+ impietate, adversus ecclesias Dei insurgere, passim Christianos
+ trucidare, &c., (Wibert, c. 6.) The honest Apulian (l. ii. p.
+ 259) says calmly of their accuser, Veris commiscens fallacia.]
+
+ 30 (return) [ The policy of the Greeks, revolt of Maniaces, &c.,
+ must be collected 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 Lupus Protospata, (Muratori, Script. Ital.
+ tom. v. p. 42, 43, 44,) and an anonymous writer, (Antiquitat,
+ Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. i. p 31-35.) This last is a fragment of
+ some value.]
+
+ 31 (return) [ 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, or interprets, Sevestatus, the title of Sebastos
+ or Augustus. But in his Antiquities, he was taught by Ducange to
+ make it a palatine office, master of the wardrobe.]
+
+ 32 (return) [ A Life of St. Leo IX., deeply tinged with the
+ passions and prejudices of the age, has been composed by Wibert,
+ printed at Paris, 1615, in octavo, and since inserted in the
+ Collections of the Bollandists, of Mabillon, and of Muratori. The
+ public and private history 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
+ mind of Henry was feeble and irresolute; and the pope, instead of
+ repassing the Alps with a German army, was accompanied only by a
+ guard of seven hundred Swabians and some volunteers of Lorraine.
+ In his long progress from Mantua to Beneventum, a vile and
+ promiscuous multitude of Italians was enlisted under the holy
+ standard: 33 the priest and the robber slept in the same tent;
+ the pikes and crosses were intermingled in the front; and the
+ martial saint repeated the lessons of his youth in the order of
+ march, of encampment, and of combat. The Normans of Apulia could
+ muster in the field no more than three thousand horse, with a
+ handful of infantry: the defection of the natives intercepted
+ their provisions and retreat; and their spirit, incapable of
+ fear, was chilled for a moment by superstitious awe. On the
+ hostile approach of Leo, they knelt without disgrace or
+ reluctance before their spiritual father. But the pope was
+ inexorable; his lofty Germans affected to deride the diminutive
+ stature of their adversaries; and the Normans were informed that
+ death or exile was their only alternative. Flight they disdained,
+ and, as many of them had been three days without tasting food,
+ they embraced the assurance of a more easy and honorable death.
+ They climbed the hill of Civitella, descended into the plain, and
+ charged in three divisions the army of the pope. On the left, and
+ in the centre, Richard count of Aversa, and Robert the famous
+ Guiscard, attacked, broke, routed, and pursued the Italian
+ multitudes, who fought without discipline, and fled without
+ shame. A harder trial was reserved for the valor of Count
+ Humphrey, who led the cavalry of the right wing. The Germans 34
+ have been described as unskillful in the management of the horse
+ and the lance, but on foot they formed a strong and impenetrable
+ phalanx; and neither man, nor steed, nor armor, could resist the
+ weight of their long and two-handed swords. After a severe
+ conflict, they were encompassed by the squadrons returning from
+ the pursuit; and died in the ranks with the esteem of their foes,
+ and the satisfaction of revenge. The gates of Civitella were shut
+ against the flying pope, and he was overtaken by the pious
+ conquerors, who kissed his feet, to implore his blessing and the
+ absolution of their sinful victory. The soldiers beheld in their
+ enemy and captive the vicar of Christ; and, though we may suppose
+ the policy of the chiefs, it is probable that they were infected
+ by the popular superstition. In the calm of retirement, the
+ well-meaning pope deplored the effusion of Christian blood, which
+ must be imputed to his account: he felt, that he had been the
+ author of sin and scandal; and as his undertaking had failed, the
+ indecency of his military character was universally condemned. 35
+ With these dispositions, he listened to the offers of a
+ beneficial treaty; deserted an alliance which he had preached as
+ the cause of God; and ratified the past and future conquests of
+ the Normans. By whatever hands they had been usurped, the
+ provinces of Apulia and Calabria were a part of the donation of
+ Constantine and the patrimony of St. Peter: the grant and the
+ acceptance confirmed the mutual claims of the pontiff and the
+ adventurers. They promised to support each other with spiritual
+ and temporal arms; a tribute or quitrent of twelve pence was
+ afterwards stipulated for every ploughland; and since this
+ memorable transaction, the kingdom of Naples has remained above
+ seven hundred years a fief of the Holy See. 36
+
+ 33 (return) [ See the expedition of Leo XI. against the Normans.
+ See William Appulus (l. ii. p. 259-261) and Jeffrey Malaterra (l.
+ i. c. 13, 14, 15, p. 253.) They are impartial, as the national is
+ counterbalanced by the clerical prejudice]
+
+ 34 (return) [ 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
+ heats himself a little in the battle. Two of his similes from
+ hawking and sorcery are descriptive of manners.]
+
+ 35 (return) [ Several respectable censures or complaints are
+ produced by M. de St. Marc, (tom. ii. p. 200-204.) As Peter
+ Damianus, the oracle of 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 of St. Peter.]
+
+ 36 (return) [ The origin and nature of the papal investitures are
+ ably discussed by Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. ii.
+ p. 37-49, 57-66,) as a lawyer and antiquarian. Yet he vainly
+ strives to reconcile the duties of patriot and Catholic, adopts
+ an empty distinction of “Ecclesia Romana non dedit, sed accepit,”
+ and shrinks from an honest but dangerous confession of the
+ truth.]
+
+ The pedigree of Robert of Guiscard 37 is variously deduced from
+ the peasants and the dukes of Normandy: from the peasants, by the
+ pride and ignorance of a Grecian princess; 38 from the dukes, by
+ the ignorance and flattery of the Italian subjects. 39 His
+ genuine descent may be ascribed to the second or middle order of
+ private nobility. 40 He sprang from a race of valvassors or
+ bannerets, of the diocese of Coutances, in the Lower Normandy:
+ the castle of Hauteville was their honorable seat: his father
+ Tancred was conspicuous in the court and army of the duke; and
+ his military service was furnished by ten soldiers or knights.
+ Two marriages, of a rank not unworthy of his own, made him the
+ father of twelve sons, who were educated at home by the impartial
+ tenderness of his second wife. But a narrow patrimony was
+ insufficient for this numerous and daring progeny; they saw
+ around the neighborhood the mischiefs of poverty and discord, and
+ resolved to seek in foreign wars a more glorious inheritance. Two
+ only remained to perpetuate the race, and cherish their father’s
+ age: their ten brothers, as they successfully attained the vigor
+ of manhood, departed from the castle, passed the Alps, and joined
+ the Apulian camp of the Normans. The elder were prompted by
+ native spirit; their success encouraged their younger brethren,
+ and the three first in seniority, William, Drogo, and Humphrey,
+ deserved to be the chiefs of their nation and the founders of the
+ new republic. Robert was the eldest of the seven sons of the
+ second marriage; and even the reluctant praise of his foes has
+ endowed him with the heroic qualities of a soldier and a
+ statesman. His lofty stature surpassed the tallest of his army:
+ his limbs were cast in the true proportion of strength and
+ gracefulness; and to the decline of life, he maintained the
+ patient vigor of health and the commanding dignity of his form.
+ His complexion was ruddy, his shoulders were broad, his hair and
+ beard were long and of a flaxen color, his eyes sparkled with
+ fire, and his voice, like that of Achilles, could impress
+ obedience and terror amidst the tumult of battle. In the ruder
+ ages of chivalry, such qualifications are not below the notice of
+ the poet or historians: they may observe that Robert, at once,
+ and with equal dexterity, could wield in the right hand his
+ sword, his lance in the left; that in the battle of Civitella he
+ was thrice unhorsed; and that in the close of that memorable day
+ he was adjudged to have borne away the prize of valor from the
+ warriors of the two armies. 41 His boundless ambition was founded
+ on the consciousness of superior worth: in the pursuit of
+ greatness, he was never arrested by the scruples of justice, and
+ seldom moved by the feelings of humanity: though not insensible
+ of fame, the choice of open or clandestine means was determined
+ only by his present advantage. The surname of Guiscard 42 was
+ applied to this master of political wisdom, which is too often
+ confounded with the practice of dissimulation and deceit; and
+ Robert is praised by the Apulian poet for excelling the cunning
+ of Ulysses and the eloquence of Cicero. Yet these arts were
+ disguised by an appearance of military frankness: in his highest
+ fortune, he was accessible and courteous to his fellow-soldiers;
+ and while he indulged the prejudices of his new subjects, he
+ affected in his dress and manners to maintain the ancient fashion
+ of his country. He grasped with a rapacious, that he might
+ distribute with a liberal, hand: his primitive indigence had
+ taught the habits of frugality; the gain of a merchant was not
+ below his attention; and his prisoners were tortured with slow
+ and unfeeling cruelty, to force a discovery of their secret
+ treasure. According to the Greeks, he departed from Normandy with
+ only five followers on horseback and thirty on foot; yet even
+ this allowance appears too bountiful: the sixth son of Tancred of
+ Hauteville passed the Alps as a pilgrim; and his first military
+ band was levied among the adventurers of Italy. His brothers and
+ countrymen had divided the fertile lands of Apulia; but they
+ guarded their shares with the jealousy of avarice; the aspiring
+ youth was driven forwards to the mountains of Calabria, and in
+ his first exploits against the Greeks and the natives, it is not
+ easy to discriminate the hero from the robber. To surprise a
+ castle or a convent, to ensnare a wealthy citizen, to plunder the
+ adjacent villages for necessary food, were the obscure labors
+ which formed and exercised the powers of his mind and body. The
+ volunteers of Normandy adhered to his standard; and, under his
+ command, the peasants of Calabria assumed the name and character
+ of Normans.
+
+ 37 (return) [ The birth, character, and first actions of Robert
+ Guiscard, 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,)
+ William Gemeticensis, 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,) with the annotations of Ducange, (Not. in Alexiad,
+ p. 230-232, 320,) who has swept all the French and Latin
+ Chronicles for supplemental intelligence.]
+
+ 38 (return) [ (a Greek corruption), and elsewhere, (l. iv. p.
+ 84,). Anna Comnena was born in the purple; yet her father was no
+ more than a private though illustrious subject, who raised
+ himself to the empire.]
+
+ 39 (return) [ Giannone, (tom. ii. p. 2) forgets all his original
+ authors, and rests this princely descent on the credit of
+ Inveges, an Augustine monk of Palermo in the last century. They
+ continue the succession of dukes from Rollo to William II. the
+ Bastard or Conqueror, whom they hold (communemente si tiene) to
+ be the father of Tancred of Hauteville; a most strange and
+ stupendous blunder! The sons of Tancred fought in Apulia, before
+ William II. was three years old, (A.D. 1037.)]
+
+ 40 (return) [ The judgment of Ducange is just and moderate: Certe
+ humilis fuit ac tenuis Roberti familia, si ducalem et regium
+ spectemus apicem, ad quem postea pervenit; quae honesta tamen et
+ praeter nobilium vulgarium statum et conditionem illustris habita
+ est, “quae nec humi reperet nec altum quid tumeret.” (Wilhem.
+ Malmsbur. de Gestis Anglorum, l. iii. p. 107. Not. ad Alexiad. p.
+ 230.)]
+
+ 41 (return) [ I shall quote with pleasure some of the best lines
+ of the Apulian, (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.]
+
+ 42 (return) [ The Norman writers and editors most conversant with
+ their own idiom interpret Guiscard or Wiscard, by Callidus, a
+ cunning man. The root (wise) is familiar to our ear; and in the
+ old word Wiseacre, I can discern something of a similar sense and
+ termination. It is no bad translation of the surname and
+ character of Robert.]
+
+ As the genius of Robert expanded with his fortune, he awakened
+ the jealousy of his elder brother, by whom, in a transient
+ quarrel, his life was threatened and his liberty restrained.
+ After the death of Humphrey, the tender age of his sons excluded
+ them from the command; they were reduced to a private estate, by
+ the ambition of their guardian and uncle; and Guiscard was
+ exalted on a buckler, and saluted count of Apulia and general of
+ the republic. With an increase of authority and of force, he
+ resumed the conquest of Calabria, and soon aspired to a rank that
+ should raise him forever above the heads of his equals.
+
+ By some acts of rapine or sacrilege, he had incurred a papal
+ excommunication; but Nicholas the Second was easily persuaded
+ that the divisions of friends could terminate only in their
+ mutual prejudice; that the Normans were the faithful champions of
+ the Holy See; and it was safer to trust the alliance of a prince
+ than the caprice of an aristocracy. A synod of one hundred
+ bishops was convened at Melphi; and the count interrupted an
+ important enterprise to guard the person and execute the decrees
+ of the Roman pontiff. His gratitude and policy conferred on
+ Robert and his posterity the ducal title, 43 with the investiture
+ of Apulia, Calabria, and all the lands, both in Italy and Sicily,
+ which his sword could rescue from the schismatic Greeks and the
+ unbelieving Saracens. 44 This apostolic sanction might justify
+ his arms; but the obedience of a free and victorious people could
+ not be transferred without their consent; and Guiscard dissembled
+ his elevation till the ensuing campaign had been illustrated by
+ the conquest of Consenza and Reggio. In the hour of triumph, he
+ assembled his troops, and solicited the Normans to confirm by
+ their suffrage the judgment of the vicar of Christ: the soldiers
+ hailed with joyful acclamations their valiant duke; and the
+ counts, his former equals, pronounced the oath of fidelity with
+ hollow smiles and secret indignation. After this inauguration,
+ Robert styled himself, “By the grace of God and St. Peter, duke
+ of Apulia, Calabria, and hereafter of Sicily;” and it was the
+ labor of twenty years to deserve and realize these lofty
+ appellations. Such sardy progress, in a narrow space, may seem
+ unworthy of the abilities of the chief and the spirit of the
+ nation; but the Normans were few in number; their resources were
+ scanty; their service was voluntary and precarious. The bravest
+ designs of the duke were sometimes opposed by the free voice of
+ his parliament of barons: the twelve counts of popular election
+ conspired against his authority; and against their perfidious
+ uncle, the sons of Humphrey demanded justice and revenge. By his
+ policy and vigor, Guiscard discovered their plots, suppressed
+ their rebellions, and punished the guilty with death or exile:
+ but in these domestic feuds, his years, and the national
+ strength, were unprofitably consumed. After the defeat of his
+ foreign enemies, the Greeks, Lombards, and Saracens, their broken
+ forces retreated to the strong and populous cities of the
+ sea-coast. They excelled in the arts of fortification and
+ defence; the Normans were accustomed to serve on horseback in the
+ field, and their rude attempts could only succeed by the efforts
+ of persevering courage. The resistance of Salerno was maintained
+ above eight months; the siege or blockade of Bari lasted near
+ four years. In these actions the Norman duke was the foremost in
+ every danger; in every fatigue the last and most patient. As he
+ pressed the citadel of Salerno, a huge stone from the rampart
+ shattered one of his military engines; and by a splinter he was
+ wounded in the breast. Before the gates of Bari, he lodged in a
+ miserable hut or barrack, composed of dry branches, and thatched
+ with straw; a perilous station, on all sides open to the
+ inclemency of the winter and the spears of the enemy. 45
+
+ 43 (return) [ The acquisition of the ducal title by Robert
+ Guiscard is a nice and obscure business. With the good advice of
+ Giannone, Muratori, and St. Marc, I have endeavored to form a
+ consistent and probable narrative.]
+
+ 44 (return) [ Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 1059, No. 69) has
+ published the 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 printed by Muratori, (Antiquit. Medii Aevi, tom.
+ v. p. 851-908;) and the names of Vatican and Cardinal awaken the
+ suspicions of a Protestant, and even of a philosopher.]
+
+ 45 (return) [ Read the life of Guiscard in the second and third
+ books of the Apulian, the first and second books of Malaterra.]
+
+ The Italian conquests of Robert correspond with the limits of the
+ present kingdom of Naples; and the countries united by his arms
+ have not been dissevered by the revolutions of seven hundred
+ years. 46 The monarchy has been composed of the Greek provinces
+ of Calabria and Apulia, of the Lombard principality of Salerno,
+ the republic of Amalphi, and the inland dependencies of the large
+ and ancient duchy of Beneventum. Three districts only were
+ exempted from the common law of subjection; the first forever,
+ the two last till the middle of the succeeding century. The city
+ and immediate territory of Benevento had been transferred, by
+ gift or exchange, from the German emperor to the Roman pontiff;
+ and although this holy land was sometimes invaded, the name 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;
+ and her princes were reduced to beg their bread before the palace
+ of their fathers. The dukes of Naples, the present metropolis,
+ maintained the popular freedom, under the shadow of the Byzantine
+ empire. Among the new acquisitions of Guiscard, the science of
+ Salerno, 47 and the trade of Amalphi, 48 may detain for a moment
+ the curiosity of the reader. I. Of the learned faculties,
+ jurisprudence implies the previous establishment of laws and
+ property; and theology may perhaps be superseded by the full
+ light of religion and reason. But the savage and the sage must
+ alike implore the assistance of physic; and, if our diseases are
+ inflamed by luxury, the mischiefs of blows and wounds would be
+ more frequent in the ruder ages of society. The treasures of
+ Grecian medicine had been communicated to the Arabian colonies of
+ Africa, Spain, and Sicily; and in the intercourse of peace and
+ war, a spark of knowledge had been kindled and cherished at
+ Salerno, an illustrious city, in which the men were honest and
+ the women beautiful. 49 A school, the first that arose in the
+ darkness of Europe, was consecrated to the healing art: the
+ conscience of monks and bishops was reconciled to that salutary
+ and lucrative 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 bred in arms, could discern the
+ merit and value of a philosopher. After a pilgrimage of
+ thirty-nine years, Constantine, an African Christian, returned
+ from Bagdad, a master of the language and learning of the
+ Arabians; and Salerno was enriched by the practice, the lessons,
+ and the writings of the pupil of Avicenna. The school of medicine
+ has long slept in the name of a university; but her precepts are
+ abridged in a string of aphorisms, bound together in the Leonine
+ verses, or Latin rhymes, of the twelfth century. 50 II. Seven
+ miles to the west of Salerno, and thirty to the south of Naples,
+ the obscure town of Amalphi displayed the power and rewards of
+ industry. The land, however fertile, was of narrow extent; but
+ the sea was accessible and open: the inhabitants first assumed
+ the office of supplying the western world with the manufactures
+ and productions of the East; and this useful traffic was the
+ source of their opulence and freedom. The government was popular,
+ under the administration of a duke and the supremacy of the Greek
+ emperor. Fifty thousand citizens were numbered in the walls of
+ Amalphi; nor was any city more abundantly provided with gold,
+ silver, and the objects of precious luxury. The mariners who
+ swarmed in her port, excelled in the theory and practice of
+ navigation and astronomy: and the discovery of the compass, which
+ has opened the globe, is owing to their ingenuity or good
+ fortune. Their trade was extended to the coasts, or at least to
+ the commodities, of Africa, Arabia, and India: and their
+ settlements in Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and
+ Alexandria, acquired the privileges of independent colonies. 51
+ After three hundred years of prosperity, Amalphi was oppressed by
+ the arms of the Normans, and sacked 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.
+
+ 46 (return) [ The conquests of Robert Guiscard and Roger I., the
+ exemption of Benevento and the xii provinces of the kingdom, are
+ fairly exposed 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 established before the time of Frederic II.]
+
+ 47 (return) [ 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 account of these physicians; their medical
+ knowledge and practice must be left to our physicians.]
+
+ 48 (return) [ At the end of the Historia Pandectarum of Henry
+ Brenckmann, (Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1722, in 4to.,) the
+ indefatigable author has inserted two dissertations, de Republica
+ Amalphitana, and de Amalphi a Pisanis direpta, which are built on
+ the testimonies of one hundred and forty writers. Yet he has
+ forgotten two most important passages of the embassy of
+ Liutprand, (A.D. 939,) which compare the trade and navigation of
+ Amalphi with that of Venice.]
+
+ 49 (return) [ 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]
+
+ 50 (return) [ Muratori carries their antiquity above the year
+ (1066) of the death of Edward the Confessor, the rex Anglorum to
+ whom they are addressed. 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 viith century, was borrowed from the
+ languages of the North and East, (Muratori, Antiquitat. tom. iii.
+ dissert. xl. p. 686-708.)]
+
+ 51 (return) [ The description of Amalphi, by William the Apulian,
+ (l. iii. p. 267,) contains much truth and some poetry, and the
+ third line may 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.]
+
+ 5111 (return) [ Amalfi had only one thousand inhabitants at the
+ commencement of the 18th century, when it was visited by
+ Brenckmann, (Brenckmann de Rep. Amalph. Diss. i. c. 23.) At
+ present it has six or eight 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 long
+ detained in Normandy by his own and his father’s age. He accepted
+ the welcome summons; hastened to the Apulian camp; and deserved
+ at first the esteem, and afterwards the envy, of his elder
+ brother. Their valor and ambition 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 he descended 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 stable
+ at Melphi. 52 His spirit emerged from poverty and disgrace: from
+ these base practices he rose to the merit and glory of a holy
+ war; and the invasion of Sicily was seconded by the zeal and
+ policy of his brother Guiscard. After the retreat of the Greeks,
+ the idolaters, a most audacious reproach of the Catholics, had
+ retrieved their losses and possessions; but the deliverance of
+ the island, so vainly undertaken by the forces of the Eastern
+ empire, was achieved by a small and private band of adventurers.
+ 53 In the first attempt, Roger braved, in an open boat, the real
+ and fabulous dangers of Scylla and Charybdis; landed with only
+ sixty soldiers on a hostile shore; drove the Saracens to the
+ gates of Messina and safely returned with the spoils of the
+ adjacent country. In the fortress of Trani, his active and
+ patient courage were equally conspicuous. In his old age he
+ related with pleasure, that, by the distress of the siege,
+ himself, and the countess his wife, had been reduced to a single
+ cloak or mantle, which they wore alternately; that in a sally his
+ horse had been slain, and he was dragged away by the Saracens;
+ but that he owed his rescue to his good sword, and had retreated
+ with his saddle on his back, lest the meanest trophy might be
+ left in the hands of the miscreants. In the siege of Trani, three
+ hundred Normans withstood and repulsed the forces of the island.
+ In the field of Ceramio, fifty thousand horse and foot were
+ overthrown by one hundred and thirty-six Christian soldiers,
+ without reckoning St. George, who fought on horseback in the
+ foremost ranks. The captive banners, with four camels, were
+ reserved for the successor of St. Peter; and had these barbaric
+ spoils been exposed, not in the Vatican, but in the Capitol, they
+ might have revived the memory of the Punic triumphs. These
+ insufficient numbers of the Normans most probably denote their
+ knights, the soldiers of honorable and equestrian rank, each of
+ whom was attended by five or six followers in the field; 54 yet,
+ with the aid of this interpretation, and after every fair
+ allowance on the side of valor, arms, and reputation, the
+ discomfiture of so many myriads will reduce the prudent reader to
+ the alternative of a miracle or a fable. The Arabs of Sicily
+ derived a frequent and powerful succor from their countrymen of
+ Africa: in the siege of Palermo, the Norman cavalry was assisted
+ by the galleys of Pisa; and, in the hour of action, the envy of
+ the two brothers was sublimed to a generous and invincible
+ emulation. After a war of thirty years, 55 Roger, with the title
+ of great count, obtained the sovereignty of the largest and most
+ fruitful island of the Mediterranean; and his administration
+ displays a liberal and enlightened mind, above the limits of his
+ age and education. The Moslems were maintained in the free
+ enjoyment of their religion and property: 56 a philosopher and
+ physician of Mazara, of the race of Mahomet, harangued the
+ conqueror, and was invited to court; his geography of the seven
+ climates was translated into Latin; and Roger, after a diligent
+ perusal, preferred the work of the Arabian to the writings of the
+ Grecian Ptolemy. 57 A remnant of Christian natives had promoted
+ the success of the Normans: they were rewarded by the triumph of
+ the cross. The island was restored to the jurisdiction of the
+ Roman pontiff; new bishops were planted in the principal cities;
+ and the clergy was satisfied by a liberal endowment of churches
+ and monasteries. Yet the Catholic hero asserted the rights of the
+ civil magistrate. Instead of resigning the investiture of
+ benefices, he dexterously applied to his own profit the papal
+ claims: the supremacy of the crown was secured and enlarged, by
+ the singular bull, which declares the princes of Sicily
+ hereditary and perpetual legates of the Holy See. 58
+
+ 52 (return) [ Latrocinio armigerorum suorum in multis
+ sustentabatur, quod quidem ad ejus ignominiam non dicimus; sed
+ ipso ita praecipiente adhuc viliora et reprehensibiliora dicturi
+ sumus ut pluribus patescat, quam laboriose et cum quanta angustia
+ a profunda paupertate ad summum culmen divitiarum vel honoris
+ attigerit. Such is the preface of Malaterra (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 into the
+ second character. Something similar in Velleius Paterculus may be
+ observed of Augustus and Tiberius.]
+
+ 53 (return) [ Duo sibi proficua deputans animae scilicet et
+ corporis si terran: Idolis deditam ad cultum divinum revocaret,
+ (Galfrid Malaterra, l. ii. c. 1.) The conquest of Sicily is
+ related in the three last books, and he himself has given an
+ accurate summary of the chapters, (p. 544-546.)]
+
+ 54 (return) [ See the word Milites in the Latin Glossary of
+ Ducange.]
+
+ 55 (return) [ Of odd particulars, I learn from Malaterra, that
+ the Arabs had introduced into Sicily the use of camels (l. i. c.
+ 33) and of carrier-pigeons, (c. 42;) and that the bite of the
+ tarantula provokes a windy disposition, quae per anum inhoneste
+ crepitando emergit; a symptom most ridiculously felt by the whole
+ Norman army in their camp near Palermo, (c. 36.) I shall add an
+ etymology not unworthy of the xith century: Messana is divided
+ from Messis, the place from whence the harvests of the isle were
+ sent in tribute to Rome, (l. ii. c. 1.)]
+
+ 56 (return) [ 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.)]
+
+ 57 (return) [ John Leo Afer, de Medicis et Philosophus Arabibus,
+ c. 14, apud Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. xiii. p. 278, 279. This
+ philosopher is named 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, who presented his book (Geographia
+ Nubiensis, see preface p. 88, 90, 170) to Roger, king of Sicily,
+ A. H. 541, A.D. 1153, (D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p.
+ 786. Prideaux’s Life of Mahomet, p. 188. Petit de la Croix, Hist.
+ de Gengiscan, p. 535, 536. Casiri, Bibliot. Arab. Hispan. tom.
+ ii. p. 9-13;) and I am afraid of some mistake.]
+
+ 58 (return) [ 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 of the 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 of a Sicilian lawyer.]
+
+ To Robert Guiscard, the conquest of Sicily was more glorious than
+ beneficial: the possession of Apulia and Calabria was inadequate
+ to his ambition; and he resolved to embrace or create the first
+ occasion of invading, perhaps of subduing, the Roman empire of
+ the East. 59 From his first wife, the partner of his humble
+ fortune, he had been divorced under the pretence of
+ consanguinity; and her son Bohemond was destined to imitate,
+ rather than to succeed, his illustrious father. The second wife
+ of Guiscard was the daughter of the princes of Salerno; the
+ Lombards acquiesced in the lineal succession of their son Roger;
+ their five daughters were given in honorable nuptials, 60 and one
+ of them was betrothed, in a tender age, to Constantine, a
+ beautiful youth, the son and heir of the emperor Michael. 61 But
+ the throne of Constantinople was shaken by a revolution: the
+ Imperial family of Ducas was confined to the palace or the
+ cloister; and Robert deplored, and resented, the disgrace of his
+ daughter and the expulsion of his ally. A Greek, who styled
+ himself the father of Constantine, soon appeared at Salerno, and
+ related the adventures of his fall and flight. That unfortunate
+ friend was acknowledged by the duke, and adorned with the pomp
+ and titles of Imperial dignity: in his triumphal progress through
+ Apulia and Calabria, Michael 62 was saluted with the tears and
+ acclamations of the people; and Pope Gregory the Seventh exhorted
+ the bishops to preach, and the Catholics to fight, in the pious
+ work of his restoration. His conversations with Robert were
+ frequent and familiar; and their mutual promises were justified
+ by the valor of the Normans and the treasures of the East. Yet
+ this Michael, by the confession of the Greeks and Latins, was a
+ pageant and an impostor; a monk who had fled from his convent, or
+ a domestic who had served in the palace. The fraud had been
+ contrived by the subtle Guiscard; and he trusted, that after this
+ pretender had given a decent color to his arms, he would sink, at
+ the nod of the conqueror, into his primitive obscurity. But
+ victory was the only argument that could determine the belief of
+ the Greeks; and the ardor of the Latins was much inferior to
+ their credulity: the Norman veterans wished to enjoy the harvest
+ of their toils, and the unwarlike Italians trembled at the known
+ and unknown dangers of a transmarine expedition. In his new
+ levies, Robert exerted the influence of gifts and promises, the
+ terrors of civil and ecclesiastical authority; and some acts of
+ violence might justify the reproach, that age and infancy were
+ pressed without distinction into the service of their unrelenting
+ prince. After two years’ incessant preparations the land and
+ naval forces were assembled at Otranto, at the heel, or extreme
+ promontory, of Italy; and Robert was accompanied by his wife, who
+ fought by his side, his son Bohemond, and the representative of
+ the emperor Michael. Thirteen hundred knights 63 of Norman race
+ or discipline, formed the sinews of the army, which might be
+ swelled to thirty thousand 64 followers of every denomination.
+ The men, the horses, the arms, the engines, the wooden towers,
+ covered with raw hides, were embarked on board one hundred and
+ fifty vessels: the transports had been built in the ports of
+ Italy, and the galleys were supplied by the alliance of the
+ republic of Ragusa.
+
+ 59 (return) [ In the first expedition of Robert against the
+ Greeks, I follow Anna Comnena, (the ist, iiid, ivth, and vth
+ books of the Alexiad,) William Appulus, (l. ivth and vth, p.
+ 270-275,) and Jeffrey Malaterra, (l. iii. c. 13, 14, 24-29, 39.)
+ Their information is contemporary and authentic, but none of them
+ were eye-witnesses of the war.]
+
+ 60 (return) [ 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 and ixth are explored by the critical
+ industry of Leibnitz and Muratori. From the two elder sons of the
+ marquis Azzo are derived the illustrious lines of Brunswick and
+ Este. See Muratori, Antichita Estense.]
+
+ 61 (return) [ Anna Comnena, somewhat too wantonly, praises and
+ bewails that handsome boy, who, after the rupture of his barbaric
+ nuptials, (l. i. p. 23,) was betrothed as her husband. (p. 27.)
+ Elsewhere she describes the red and white of his skin, his hawk’s
+ eyes, &c., l. iii. p. 71.]
+
+ 62 (return) [ Anna Comnena, l. i. p. 28, 29. Gulielm. Appul. l.
+ iv p. 271. Galfrid Malaterra, l. iii. c. 13, p. 579, 580.
+ Malaterra is more cautious in his style; but the Apulian is bold
+ and positive.—Mentitus se Michaelem Venerata Danais quidam
+ seductor ad illum. As Gregory VII had believed, Baronius almost
+ alone, recognizes the emperor Michael. (A.D. No. 44.)]
+
+ 63 (return) [ Ipse armatae militiae non plusquam MCCC milites
+ secum habuisse, 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.]
+
+ 64 (return) [ Anna Comnena (Alexias, l. i. p. 37;) and her
+ account tallies with the number and lading of the ships. Ivit in
+ Dyrrachium cum xv. millibus hominum, says the Chronicon Breve
+ Normannicum, (Muratori, Scriptores, tom. v. p. 278.) I have
+ endeavored to reconcile these reckonings.]
+
+ At the mouth of the Adriatic Gulf, the shores of Italy and Epirus
+ incline towards each other. The space between Brundusium and
+ Durazzo, the Roman passage, is no more than one hundred miles; 65
+ at the last station of Otranto, it is contracted to fifty; 66 and
+ this narrow distance had suggested to Pyrrhus and Pompey the
+ sublime or extravagant idea of a bridge. Before the general
+ embarkation, the Norman duke despatched Bohemond with fifteen
+ galleys to seize or threaten the Isle of Corfu, to survey the
+ opposite coast, and to secure a harbor in the neighborhood of
+ Vallona for the landing of the troops. They passed and landed
+ without perceiving an enemy; and this successful experiment
+ displayed the neglect and decay of the naval power of the Greeks.
+ The islands of Epirus and the maritime towns were subdued by the
+ arms or the name of Robert, who led his fleet and army from Corfu
+ (I use the modern appellation) to the siege of Durazzo. That
+ city, the western key of the empire, was guarded by ancient
+ renown, and recent fortifications, by George Palaeologus, a
+ patrician, victorious in the Oriental wars, and a numerous
+ garrison of Albanians and Macedonians, who, in every age, have
+ maintained the character of soldiers. In the prosecution of his
+ enterprise, the courage of Guiscard was assailed by every form of
+ danger and mischance. In the most propitious season of the year,
+ as his fleet passed along the coast, a storm of wind and snow
+ unexpectedly arose: the Adriatic was swelled by the raging blast
+ of the south, and a new shipwreck confirmed the old infamy of the
+ Acroceraunian rocks. 67 The sails, the masts, and the oars, were
+ shattered or torn away; the sea and shore were covered with the
+ fragments of vessels, with arms and dead bodies; and the greatest
+ part of the provisions were either drowned or damaged. The ducal
+ galley was laboriously rescued from the waves, and Robert halted
+ seven days on the adjacent cape, to collect the relics of his
+ loss, and revive the drooping spirits of his soldiers. The
+ Normans were no longer the bold and experienced mariners who had
+ explored the ocean from Greenland to Mount Atlas, and who smiled
+ at the petty dangers of the Mediterranean. They had wept during
+ the tempest; they were alarmed by the hostile approach of the
+ Venetians, who had been solicited by the prayers and promises of
+ the Byzantine court. The first day’s action was not
+ disadvantageous to Bohemond, a beardless youth, 68 who led the
+ naval powers of his father. All night the galleys of the republic
+ lay on their anchors in the form of a crescent; and the victory
+ of the second day was decided by the dexterity of their
+ evolutions, the station of their archers, the weight of their
+ javelins, and the borrowed aid of the Greek fire. The Apulian and
+ Ragusian vessels fled to the shore, several were cut from their
+ cables, and dragged away by the conqueror; and a sally from the
+ town carried slaughter and dismay to the tents of the Norman
+ duke. A seasonable relief was poured into Durazzo, and as soon as
+ the besiegers had lost the command of the sea, the islands and
+ maritime towns withdrew from the camp the supply of tribute and
+ provision. That camp was soon afflicted with a pestilential
+ disease; five hundred knights perished by an inglorious death;
+ and the list of burials (if all could obtain a decent burial)
+ amounted to ten thousand persons. Under these calamities, the
+ mind of Guiscard alone was firm and invincible; and while he
+ collected new forces from Apulia and Sicily, he battered, or
+ scaled, or sapped, the walls of Durazzo. But his industry and
+ valor were encountered by equal valor and more perfect industry.
+ A movable turret, of a size and capacity to contain five hundred
+ soldiers, had been rolled forwards to the foot of the rampart:
+ but the descent of the door or drawbridge was checked by an
+ enormous beam, and the wooden structure was constantly consumed
+ by artificial flames.
+
+ 65 (return) [ The Itinerary of Jerusalem (p. 609, edit.
+ Wesseling) gives a true and reasonable space of a thousand stadia
+ or one hundred miles which is strangely doubled by Strabo (l. vi.
+ p. 433) and Pliny, (Hist. Natur. iii. 16.)]
+
+ 66 (return) [ Pliny (Hist. Nat. iii. 6, 16) allows quinquaginta
+ millia for this brevissimus cursus, and agrees with the real
+ distance from Otranto to La Vallona, or Aulon, (D’Anville,
+ Analyse de sa Carte des Cotes de la Grece, &c., p. 3-6.)
+ Hermolaus Barbarus, who substitutes centum. (Harduin, Not. lxvi.
+ in Plin. l. iii.,) might have been corrected by every Venetian
+ pilot who had sailed out of the gulf.]
+
+ 67 (return) [ Infames scopulos Acroceraunia, Horat. carm. i. 3.
+ The praecipitem Africum decertantem Aquilonibus, et rabiem Noti
+ and the monstra natantia of the Adriatic, are somewhat enlarged;
+ but Horace trembling for the life of Virgil, is an interesting
+ moment in the history of poetry and friendship.]
+
+ 68 (return) [ (Alexias, l. iv. p. 106.) Yet the Normans shaved,
+ and the Venetians wore, their beards: they must have derided the
+ no beard of Bohemond; a harsh interpretation. (Duncanga ad
+ Alexiad. p. 283.)]
+
+ While the Roman empire was attacked by the Turks in the East,
+ east, and the Normans in the West, the aged successor of Michael
+ surrendered the sceptre to the hands of Alexius, an illustrious
+ captain, and the founder of the Comnenian dynasty. The princess
+ Anne, his daughter and historian, observes, in her affected
+ style, that even Hercules was unequal to a double combat; and, on
+ this principle, she approves a hasty peace with the Turks, which
+ allowed her father to undertake in person the relief of Durazzo.
+ On his accession, Alexius found the camp without soldiers, and
+ the treasury without money; yet such were the vigor and activity
+ of his measures, that in six months he assembled an army of
+ seventy thousand men, 69 and performed a march of five hundred
+ miles. His troops were levied in Europe and Asia, from
+ Peloponnesus to the Black Sea; his majesty was displayed in the
+ silver arms and rich trappings of the companies of Horse-guards;
+ and the emperor was attended by a train of nobles and princes,
+ some of whom, in rapid succession, had been clothed with the
+ purple, and were indulged by the lenity of the times in a life of
+ affluence and dignity. Their youthful ardor might animate the
+ multitude; but their love of pleasure and contempt of
+ subordination were pregnant with disorder and mischief; and their
+ importunate clamors for speedy and decisive action disconcerted
+ the prudence of Alexius, who might have surrounded and starved
+ the besieging army. The enumeration of provinces recalls a sad
+ comparison of the past and present limits of the Roman world: the
+ raw levies were drawn together in haste and terror; and the
+ garrisons of Anatolia, or Asia Minor, had been purchased by the
+ evacuation of the cities which were immediately occupied by the
+ Turks. The strength of the Greek army consisted in the
+ Varangians, the Scandinavian guards, whose numbers were recently
+ augmented by a colony of exiles and volunteers from the British
+ Island of Thule. Under the yoke of the Norman conqueror, the
+ Danes and English were oppressed and united; a band of
+ adventurous youths resolved to desert a land of slavery; the sea
+ was open to their escape; and, in their long pilgrimage, they
+ visited every coast that afforded any hope of liberty and
+ revenge. They were entertained in the service of the Greek
+ emperor; and their first station was in a new city on the Asiatic
+ shore: but Alexius soon recalled them to the defence of his
+ person and palace; and bequeathed 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 panted to regain in Epirus
+ the glory which they had lost in the battle of Hastings. The
+ Varangians were supported by some companies of Franks or Latins;
+ and the rebels, who had fled to Constantinople from the tyranny
+ of Guiscard, were eager to signalize their zeal and gratify their
+ revenge. In this emergency, the emperor had not disdained the
+ impure aid of the Paulicians or Manichaeans of Thrace and
+ Bulgaria; and these heretics united with the patience of
+ martyrdom the spirit and discipline of active valor. 71 The
+ treaty with the sultan had procured a supply of some thousand
+ Turks; and the arrows of the Scythian horse were opposed to the
+ lances of the Norman cavalry. On the report and distant prospect
+ of these formidable numbers, Robert assembled a council of his
+ principal officers. “You behold,” said he, “your danger: it is
+ urgent and inevitable. The hills are covered with arms and
+ standards; and the emperor of the Greeks is accustomed to wars
+ and triumphs. Obedience and union are our only safety; and I am
+ ready to yield the command to a more worthy 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 vessels
+ and our baggage, and give battle on this spot, as if it were the
+ place of our nativity and our burial.” The resolution was
+ unanimously approved; and, without confining himself to his
+ lines, Guiscard awaited in battle-array the nearer approach of
+ the enemy. His rear was covered by a small river; his right wing
+ extended to the sea; his left to the hills: nor was he conscious,
+ perhaps, that on the same ground Caesar and Pompey had formerly
+ disputed the empire of the world. 72
+
+ 69 (return) [ 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 may be struck off, and that Malaterra reckons only
+ 70,000; a slight inattention. The passage to which he alludes is
+ in the Chronicle of Lupus Protospata, (Script. Ital. tom. v. p.
+ 45.) Malaterra (l. iv. c. 27) speaks in high, but indefinite
+ terms of the emperor, cum copiisinnumerabilbus: like the Apulian
+ poet, (l. iv. p. 272:) —More locustarum montes et pianna
+ teguntur.]
+
+ 70 (return) [ See William of Malmsbury, de Gestis Anglorum, l.
+ ii. p. 92. Alexius fidem Anglorum suspiciens praecipuis
+ familiaritatibus suis eos applicabat, amorem eorum filio
+ transcribens. Odericus Vitalis (Hist. Eccles. l. iv. p. 508, l.
+ vii. p. 641) relates their emigration from England, and their
+ service in Greece.]
+
+ 71 (return) [ See the Apulian, (l. i. p. 256.) The character and
+ the story of these Manichaeans has been the subject of the livth
+ chapter.]
+
+ 72 (return) [ See the simple and masterly narrative of Caesar
+ himself, (Comment. de Bell. Civil. iii. 41-75.) It is a pity that
+ Quintus Icilius (M. Guichard) did not live to analyze these
+ operations, as he has done the campaigns of Africa and Spain.]
+
+ Against the advice of his wisest captains, Alexius resolved to
+ risk the event of a general action, and exhorted the garrison of
+ Durazzo to assist their own deliverance by a well-timed sally
+ from the town. He marched in two columns to surprise the Normans
+ before daybreak on two different sides: his light cavalry was
+ scattered over the plain; the archers formed the second line; and
+ the Varangians claimed the honors of the vanguard. In the first
+ onset, the battle-axes of the strangers made a deep and bloody
+ impression on the army of Guiscard, which was now reduced to
+ fifteen thousand men. The Lombards and Calabrians ignominiously
+ turned their backs; they fled towards the river and the sea; but
+ the bridge had been broken down to check the sally of the
+ garrison, and the coast was lined with the Venetian galleys, who
+ played their engines among the disorderly throng. On the verge of
+ ruin, they were saved by the spirit and conduct of their chiefs.
+ Gaita, the wife of Robert, is painted by the Greeks as a warlike
+ Amazon, a second Pallas; less skilful in arts, but not less
+ terrible in arms, than the Athenian goddess: 73 though wounded by
+ an arrow, she stood her ground, and strove, by her exhortation
+ and example, to rally the flying troops. 74 Her female voice was
+ seconded by the more powerful voice and arm of the 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:
+ as the Varangians advanced before the line, they discovered the
+ nakedness of their flanks: the main battle of the duke, of eight
+ hundred knights, stood firm and entire; they couched their
+ lances, and the Greeks bore the furious and irresistible shock of
+ the French cavalry. 75 Alexius was not deficient in the duties of
+ a soldier or a general; but he no sooner beheld the slaughter of
+ the Varangians, and the flight of the Turks, than he despised his
+ subjects, and despaired of his fortune. The princess Anne, who
+ drops a tear on this melancholy event, is reduced to praise the
+ strength and swiftness of her father’s horse, and his vigorous
+ struggle when he was almost overthrown by the stroke of a lance,
+ which had shivered the Imperial helmet. His desperate valor broke
+ through a squadron of Franks who opposed his flight; and after
+ wandering two days and as many nights in the mountains, he found
+ some repose, of body, though not of mind, in the walls of
+ Lychnidus. The victorious Robert reproached the tardy and feeble
+ pursuit which had suffered the escape of so illustrious a prize:
+ but he consoled his disappointment by the trophies and standards
+ of the field, the wealth and luxury of the Byzantine camp, and
+ the glory of defeating an army five times more numerous than his
+ own. A multitude of Italians had been the victims of their own
+ fears; but only thirty of his knights were slain in this
+ memorable day. In the Roman host, the loss of Greeks, Turks, and
+ English, amounted to five or six thousand: 76 the plain of
+ Durazzo was stained with noble and royal blood; and the end of
+ the impostor Michael was more honorable than his life.
+
+ 73 (return) [ It is very properly translated by the President
+ Cousin, (Hist. de Constantinople, tom. iv. p. 131, in 12mo.,) qui
+ combattoit comme une Pallas, quoiqu’elle ne fut pas aussi savante
+ que celle d’Athenes. The Grecian goddess was composed of two
+ discordant characters, of Neith, the workwoman of Sais in Egypt,
+ and of a virgin Amazon of the Tritonian lake in Libya, (Banier,
+ Mythologie, tom. iv. p. 1-31, in 12mo.)]
+
+ 74 (return) [ Anna Comnena (l. iv. p. 116) admires, with some
+ degree of terror, her masculine virtues. They were more familiar
+ to the Latins and though 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.]
+
+ 75 (return) [ (Anna, l. v. p. 133;) and elsewhere, (p. 140.) The
+ pedantry of the princess in the choice of classic appellations
+ encouraged Ducange to apply to his countrymen the characters of
+ the ancient Gauls.]
+
+ 76 (return) [ Lupus Protospata (tom. iii. p. 45) says 6000:
+ William the Apulian more than 5000, (l. iv. p. 273.) Their
+ modesty is singular and laudable: they might with so little
+ trouble have slain two or three myriads of schismatics and
+ infidels!]
+
+ It is more than probable that Guiscard was not afflicted by the
+ loss of a costly pageant, which had merited only the contempt and
+ derision of the Greeks. After their defeat, they still persevered
+ in the defence of Durazzo; and a Venetian commander supplied the
+ place of George Palaeologus, who had been imprudently called away
+ from his station. The tents of the besiegers were converted into
+ barracks, to sustain the inclemency of the winter; and in answer
+ to the defiance of the garrison, Robert insinuated, that his
+ patience was at least equal to their obstinacy. 77 Perhaps he
+ already trusted to his secret correspondence with a Venetian
+ noble, who sold the city for a rich and honorable marriage. At
+ the dead of night, several rope-ladders were dropped from the
+ walls; the light Calabrians ascended in silence; and the Greeks
+ were awakened by the name and trumpets of the conqueror. Yet they
+ defended the streets three days against an enemy already master
+ of the rampart; and near seven months elapsed between the first
+ investment and the final surrender of the place. From Durazzo,
+ the Norman duke advanced into the heart of Epirus or Albania;
+ traversed the first mountains of Thessaly; surprised three
+ hundred English in the city of Castoria; approached Thessalonica;
+ and made Constantinople tremble. A more pressing duty suspended
+ the prosecution of his ambitious designs. By shipwreck,
+ pestilence, and the sword, his army was reduced to a third of the
+ original numbers; and instead of being recruited from Italy, he
+ was informed, by plaintive epistles, of the mischiefs and dangers
+ which had been produced by his absence: the revolt of the cities
+ and barons of Apulia; the distress of the pope; and the approach
+ or invasion of Henry king of Germany. Highly presuming that his
+ person was sufficient for the public safety, he repassed the sea
+ in a single brigantine, and left the remains of the army under
+ the command of his son and the Norman counts, exhorting Bohemond
+ to respect the freedom of his peers, and the counts to obey the
+ authority of their leader. The son of Guiscard trod in the
+ footsteps of his father; and the two destroyers are compared, by
+ the Greeks, to the caterpillar and the locust, the last of whom
+ devours whatever has escaped the teeth of the former. 78 After
+ winning two battles against the emperor, he descended into the
+ plain of Thessaly, and besieged Larissa, the fabulous realm of
+ Achilles, 79 which contained the treasure and magazines of the
+ Byzantine camp. Yet a just praise must not be refused to the
+ fortitude and prudence of Alexius, who bravely struggled with the
+ calamities of the times. In the poverty of the state, he presumed
+ to borrow the superfluous ornaments of the churches: the
+ desertion of the Manichaeans was supplied by some tribes of
+ Moldavia: a reenforcement of seven thousand Turks replaced and
+ revenged the loss of their brethren; and the Greek soldiers were
+ exercised to ride, to draw the bow, and to the daily practice of
+ ambuscades and evolutions. Alexius had been taught by experience,
+ that the formidable cavalry of the Franks on foot was unfit for
+ action, and almost incapable of motion; 80 his archers were
+ directed to aim their arrows at the horse rather than the man;
+ and a variety of spikes and snares were scattered over the ground
+ on which he might expect an attack. In the neighborhood of
+ Larissa the events of war were protracted and balanced. The
+ courage of Bohemond was always conspicuous, and often successful;
+ but his camp was pillaged by a stratagem of the Greeks; the city
+ was impregnable; and the venal or discontented counts deserted
+ his standard, betrayed their trusts, and enlisted in the service
+ of the emperor. Alexius returned to Constantinople with the
+ advantage, rather than the honor, of victory. After evacuating
+ the conquests which he could no longer defend, the son of
+ Guiscard embarked for Italy, and was embraced by a father who
+ esteemed his merit, and sympathized in his misfortune.
+
+ 77 (return) [ The Romans had changed the inauspicious name of
+ Epidamnus to Dyrrachium, (Plin. iii. 26;) and the vulgar
+ corruption of Duracium (see Malaterra) bore some affinity to
+ hardness. One of Robert’s names was Durand, a durando: poor wit!
+ (Alberic. Monach. in Chron. apud Muratori, Annali d’Italia, tom.
+ ix. p. 137.)]
+
+ 78 (return) [ (Anna, l. i. p. 35.) By these similes, so different
+ from those of Homer she wishes to inspire contempt as well as
+ horror for the little noxious animal, a conqueror. Most
+ unfortunately, the common sense, or common nonsense, of mankind,
+ resists her laudable design.]
+
+ 79 (return) [ Prodiit hac auctor Trojanae cladis Achilles. The
+ supposition of the Apulian (l. v. p. 275) may be excused by the
+ more classic poetry of Virgil, (Aeneid. ii. 197,) Larissaeus
+ Achilles, but it is not justified by the geography of Homer.]
+
+ 80 (return) [ The items which encumbered the knights on foot,
+ have been ignorantly translated spurs, (Anna Comnena, Alexias, l.
+ v. p. 140.) Ducange has explained the true sense by a ridiculous
+ and inconvenient fashion, which lasted from the xith to the xvth
+ century. These peaks, in the form of a scorpion, were sometimes
+ two feet and fastened to the knee with 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, the most prompt and powerful was Henry the Third or
+ Fourth, king of Germany and Italy, and future emperor of the
+ West. The epistle of the Greek monarch 81 to his brother is
+ filled with the warmest professions of friendship, and the most
+ lively desire of strengthening their alliance by every public and
+ private tie. He congratulates Henry on his success in a just and
+ pious war; and complains that the prosperity of his own empire is
+ disturbed by the audacious enterprises of the Norman Robert. The
+ lists of his presents expresses the manners of the age—a radiated
+ crown of gold, a cross set with pearls to hang on the breast, a
+ case of relics, with the names and titles of the saints, a vase
+ of crystal, a vase of sardonyx, some balm, most probably of
+ Mecca, and one hundred pieces of purple. To these he added a more
+ solid present, of one hundred and forty-four thousand Byzantines
+ of gold, with a further assurance of two hundred and sixteen
+ thousand, so soon as Henry should have entered in arms the
+ Apulian territories, and confirmed by an oath the league against
+ the common enemy. The German, 82 who was already in Lombardy at
+ 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 the battle of Durazzo; but the influence of his arms, or name,
+ in the hasty return of Robert, was a full equivalent for the
+ Grecian bribe. Henry was the severe adversary of the Normans, the
+ allies and vassals of Gregory the Seventh, his implacable foe.
+ The long quarrel of the throne and mitre had been recently
+ kindled by the zeal and ambition of that haughty priest: 83 the
+ king and the pope had degraded each other; and each had seated a
+ rival on the temporal or spiritual throne of his antagonist.
+ After the defeat and death of his Swabian rebel, Henry descended
+ into Italy, to assume the Imperial crown, and to drive from the
+ Vatican the tyrant of the church. 84 But the Roman people adhered
+ to the cause of Gregory: their resolution was fortified by
+ supplies of men and money from Apulia; and the city was thrice
+ ineffectually besieged by the king of Germany. In the fourth year
+ he corrupted, as it is said, with Byzantine gold, the nobles of
+ Rome, whose estates and castles had been ruined by the war. The
+ gates, the bridges, and fifty hostages, were delivered into his
+ hands: the anti-pope, Clement the Third, was consecrated in the
+ Lateran: the grateful pontiff crowned his protector in the
+ Vatican; and the emperor Henry fixed his residence in the
+ Capitol, as the lawful successor of Augustus and Charlemagne. The
+ ruins of the Septizonium were still defended by the nephew of
+ Gregory: the pope himself was invested in the castle of St.
+ Angelo; and his last hope was in the courage and fidelity of his
+ Norman vassal. Their friendship had been interrupted by some
+ reciprocal injuries and complaints; but, on this pressing
+ occasion, Guiscard was urged by the obligation of his oath, by
+ his interest, more potent than oaths, by the love of fame, and
+ his enmity to the two emperors. Unfurling the holy banner, he
+ resolved to fly to the relief of the prince of the apostles: the
+ most numerous of his armies, six thousand horse, and thirty
+ thousand foot, was instantly assembled; and his march from
+ Salerno to Rome was animated by the public applause and the
+ promise of the divine favor. Henry, invincible in sixty-six
+ battles, trembled at his approach; recollected some indispensable
+ affairs that required his presence in Lombardy; exhorted the
+ Romans to persevere in their allegiance; and hastily retreated
+ three days before the entrance of the Normans. In less than three
+ years, the son of Tancred of Hauteville enjoyed the glory of
+ delivering the pope, and of compelling the two emperors, of the
+ East and West, to fly before his victorious arms. 85 But the
+ triumph of Robert was clouded by the calamities of Rome. By the
+ aid of the friends of Gregory, the walls had been perforated or
+ scaled; but the Imperial faction was still powerful and active;
+ on the third day, the people rose in a furious tumult; and a
+ hasty word of the conqueror, in his defence or revenge, was the
+ signal of fire and pillage. 86 The Saracens of Sicily, the
+ subjects of Roger, and auxiliaries of his brother, embraced this
+ fair occasion of rifling and profaning the holy city of the
+ Christians: many thousands of the citizens, in the sight, and by
+ the allies, of their spiritual father were exposed to violation,
+ captivity, or death; and a spacious quarter of the city, from the
+ Lateran to the Coliseum, was consumed by the flames, and devoted
+ to perpetual solitude. 87 From a city, where he was now hated,
+ and might be no longer feared, Gregory retired to end his days in
+ the palace of Salerno. The artful pontiff might flatter the
+ vanity of Guiscard with the hope of a Roman or Imperial crown;
+ but this dangerous measure, which would have inflamed the
+ ambition of the Norman, must forever have alienated the most
+ faithful princes of Germany.
+
+ 81 (return) [ The epistle itself (Alexias, l. iii. p. 93, 94, 95)
+ well deserves to be read. There is one expression which Ducange
+ does not understand. I have endeavored to grope out a tolerable
+ meaning: The first word is a golden crown; the second is
+ explained by Simon Portius, (in Lexico Graeco-Barbar.,) by a
+ flash of lightning.]
+
+ 82 (return) [ For these general events I must refer to the
+ general historians Sigonius, Baronius, Muratori, Mosheim, St.
+ Marc, &c.]
+
+ 83 (return) [ The lives of Gregory VII. are either legends or
+ invectives, (St. Marc, Abrege, tom. iii. p. 235, &c.;) and his
+ miraculous or magical performances are alike incredible to a
+ modern reader. He will, as usual, find some instruction in Le
+ Clerc, (Vie de Hildebrand, Bibliot, ancienne et moderne, tom.
+ viii.,) and much amusement in Bayle, (Dictionnaire Critique,
+ Gregoire VII.) That pope was undoubtedly a great man, a second
+ Athanasius, in a more fortunate age of the church. May I presume
+ to add, that the portrait of Athanasius is one of the passages of
+ my history (vol. ii. p. 332, &c.) with which I am the 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 this remarkable character, to whom his eloquence may do
+ justice. There is much valuable information on the subject in the
+ accurate work of Stenzel, Geschichte Deutschlands unter den
+ Frankischen Kaisern—the History of Germany under the Emperors of
+ the Franconian Race.—M.]
+
+ 84 (return) [ 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 of scourging, shaving, and perhaps of castrating the
+ ambassadors of Henry, (p. 31, 33.) But this outrage is improbable
+ and doubtful, (see the sensible preface of Cousin.)]
+
+ 85 (return) [
+
+ 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 the Greek as the ruler of the Roman empire, (l. iv.
+ p. 274.)]
+
+ 86 (return) [ The narrative of Malaterra (l. iii. c. 37, p. 587,
+ 588) is authentic, 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.)]
+
+ 87 (return) [ After mentioning this devastation, the Jesuit
+ Donatus (de Roma veteri et nova, l. iv. c. 8, p. 489) prettily
+ adds, Duraret hodieque in Coelio monte, interque ipsum et
+ capitolium, miserabilis facies prostrates urbis, nisi in hortorum
+ vinetorumque amoenitatem Roma resurrexisset, ut perpetua
+ viriditate contegeret vulnera et ruinas suas.]
+
+ The deliverer and scourge of Rome might have indulged himself in
+ a season of repose; but in the same year of the flight of the
+ German emperor, the indefatigable Robert resumed the design of
+ his eastern conquests. The zeal or gratitude of Gregory had
+ promised to his valor the kingdoms of Greece and Asia; 88 his
+ troops were assembled in arms, flushed with success, and eager
+ for action. Their numbers, in the language of Homer, are compared
+ by Anna to a swarm of bees; 89 yet the utmost and moderate limits
+ of the powers of Guiscard have been already defined; they were
+ contained on this second occasion in one hundred and twenty
+ vessels; and as the season was far advanced, the harbor of
+ Brundusium 90 was preferred to the open road of Otranto. Alexius,
+ apprehensive of a second attack, had assiduously labored to
+ restore the naval forces of the empire; and obtained from the
+ republic of Venice an important succor of thirty-six transports,
+ fourteen galleys, and nine galiots or ships of extra-ordinary
+ strength and magnitude. Their services were liberally paid by the
+ license or monopoly of trade, a profitable gift of many shops and
+ houses in the port of Constantinople, and a tribute to St. Mark,
+ the more acceptable, as it was the produce of a tax on their
+ rivals at Amalphi. By the union of the Greeks and Venetians, the
+ Adriatic was covered with a hostile fleet; but their own neglect,
+ or the vigilance of Robert, the change of a wind, or the shelter
+ of a mist, opened a free passage; and the Norman troops were
+ safely disembarked on the coast of Epirus. With twenty strong and
+ well-appointed galleys, their intrepid duke immediately sought
+ the enemy, and though more accustomed to fight on horseback, he
+ trusted his own life, and the lives of his brother and two sons,
+ to the event of a naval 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 numbers of the allies were
+ superior; but in the third, the Normans obtained a final and
+ complete victory. 91 The light brigantines of the Greeks were
+ scattered in ignominious flight: the nine castles of the
+ Venetians maintained a more obstinate conflict; seven were sunk,
+ two were taken; two thousand five hundred captives implored in
+ vain the mercy of the victor; and the daughter of Alexius
+ deplores the loss of thirteen thousand of his subjects or allies.
+ The want of experience had been supplied by the genius of
+ Guiscard; and each evening, when he had sounded a retreat, he
+ calmly explored the causes of his repulse, and invented new
+ methods how to remedy his own defects, and to baffle the
+ advantages of the enemy. The winter season suspended his
+ progress: with the return of spring he again aspired to the
+ conquest of Constantinople; but, instead of traversing the hills
+ of Epirus, he turned his arms against Greece and the islands,
+ where the spoils would repay the labor, and where the land and
+ sea forces might pursue their joint operations with vigor and
+ effect. But, in the Isle of Cephalonia, his projects were fatally
+ blasted by an epidemical disease: Robert himself, in the
+ seventieth year of his age, expired in his tent; and a suspicion
+ of poison was imputed, by public rumor, to his wife, or to the
+ Greek emperor. 92 This premature death might allow a boundless
+ scope for the imagination of his future exploits; and the event
+ sufficiently declares, that the Norman greatness was founded on
+ his life. 93 Without the appearance of an enemy, a victorious
+ army dispersed or retreated in disorder and consternation; and
+ Alexius, who had trembled for his empire, rejoiced in his
+ deliverance. The galley which transported the remains of Guiscard
+ was ship-wrecked on the Italian shore; but the duke’s body was
+ recovered from the sea, and deposited in the sepulchre of
+ Venusia, 94 a place more illustrious for the birth of Horace 95
+ than for the burial of the Norman heroes. Roger, his second son
+ and successor, immediately sunk to the humble station of a duke
+ of Apulia: the esteem or partiality of his father left the
+ valiant Bohemond to the inheritance of his sword.
+
+ The national tranquillity was disturbed by his claims, till the
+ first crusade against the infidels of the East opened a more
+ splendid field of glory and conquest. 96
+
+ 88 (return) [ The royalty of Robert, either promised or bestowed
+ by the pope, (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, should be displeased with this new
+ instance of apostolic jurisdiction.]
+
+ 89 (return) [ See Homer, Iliad, B. (I hate this pedantic mode of
+ quotation by letters of the Greek alphabet) 87, &c. His bees are
+ the image of a disorderly crowd: their discipline and public
+ works seem to be the ideas of a later age, (Virgil. Aeneid. l.
+ i.)]
+
+ 90 (return) [ Gulielm. Appulus, l. v. p. 276.) The admirable port
+ of Brundusium was double; the outward harbor was a gulf covered
+ by an island, and narrowing by degrees, till it communicated by a
+ small gullet with the inner harbor, which embraced the city on
+ both sides. Caesar and nature have labored for its ruin; and
+ against such agents what are the feeble efforts of the Neapolitan
+ government? (Swinburne’s Travels in the Two Sicilies, vol. i. p.
+ 384-390.]
+
+ 91 (return) [ William of Apulia (l. v. p. 276) describes the
+ victory of the Normans, and forgets the two previous defeats,
+ which are diligently recorded by Anna Comnena, (l. vi. p. 159,
+ 160, 161.) In her turn, she invents or magnifies a fourth action,
+ to give the Venetians revenge and rewards. Their own feelings
+ were far different, since they deposed their doge, propter
+ excidium stoli, (Dandulus in Chron in Muratori, Script. Rerum
+ Italicarum, tom. xii. p. 249.)]
+
+ 92 (return) [ The most authentic writers, William of Apulia. (l.
+ v. 277,) Jeffrey Malaterra, (l. iii. c. 41, p. 589,) and Romuald
+ of Salerno, (Chron. in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. vii.,)
+ are ignorant of this crime, so apparent to our countrymen William
+ of Malmsbury (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 historian is indeed so blind, that he ranks Robert
+ Guiscard, or Wiscard, among the knights of Henry I, who ascended
+ the throne fifteen years after the duke of Apulia’s death.]
+
+ 93 (return) [ The joyful Anna Comnena scatters some flowers over
+ the grave of an enemy, (Alexiad, l. v. p. 162-166;) and his best
+ praise is the esteem and envy of William the Conqueror, the
+ sovereign of his family Graecia (says Malaterra) hostibus
+ recedentibus libera laeta quievit: Apulia tota sive Calabria
+ turbatur.]
+
+ 94 (return) [ Urbs Venusina nitet tantis decorata sepulchris, is
+ one of the last lines of the Apulian’s poems, (l. v. p. 278.)
+ William of Malmsbury (l. iii. p. 107) inserts an epitaph on
+ Guiscard, which is not worth transcribing.]
+
+ 95 (return) [ Yet Horace had few obligations to Venusia; he was
+ carried to Rome in his childhood, (Serm. i. 6;) and his repeated
+ allusions to the doubtful limit of Apulia and Lucania (Carm. iii.
+ 4, Serm. ii. I) are unworthy of his age and genius.]
+
+ 96 (return) [ See Giannone (tom. ii. p. 88-93) and the historians
+ of the fire crusade.]
+
+ Of human life, the most glorious or humble prospects are alike
+ and soon bounded by the sepulchre. The male line of Robert
+ Guiscard was extinguished, both in Apulia and at Antioch, in the
+ second generation; but his younger brother became the father of a
+ line of kings; and the son of the great count was endowed with
+ the name, the conquests, and the spirit, of the first Roger. 97
+ The heir of that Norman adventurer was born in Sicily; and, at
+ the age of only four years, he succeeded to the sovereignty of
+ the island, a lot which reason might envy, could she indulge for
+ a moment the visionary, though virtuous wish of dominion. Had
+ Roger been content with his fruitful patrimony, a happy and
+ grateful people might have blessed their benefactor; and if a
+ wise administration could have restored the prosperous times of
+ the Greek colonies, 98 the opulence and power of Sicily alone
+ might have equalled the widest scope that could be acquired and
+ desolated by the sword of war. But the ambition of the great
+ count was ignorant of these noble pursuits; it was gratified by
+ the vulgar means of violence and artifice. He sought to obtain
+ the undivided possession of Palermo, of which one moiety had been
+ ceded to the elder branch; struggled to enlarge his Calabrian
+ limits beyond the measure of former treaties; and impatiently
+ watched the declining health of his cousin William of Apulia, the
+ grandson of Robert. On the first intelligence of his premature
+ death, Roger sailed from Palermo with seven galleys, cast anchor
+ in the Bay of Salerno, received, after ten days’ negotiation, an
+ oath of fidelity from the Norman capital, commanded the
+ submission of the barons, and extorted a legal investiture from
+ the reluctant popes, who could not long endure either the
+ friendship or enmity of a powerful vassal. The sacred spot of
+ Benevento was respectfully spared, as the patrimony of St. Peter;
+ but the reduction of Capua and Naples completed the design of his
+ uncle Guiscard; and the sole inheritance of the Norman conquests
+ was possessed by the victorious Roger. A conscious superiority of
+ power and merit prompted him to disdain the titles of duke and of
+ count; and the Isle of Sicily, with a third perhaps of the
+ continent of Italy, might form the basis of a kingdom 99 which
+ would only yield to the monarchies of France and England. The
+ chiefs of the nation who attended his coronation at Palermo might
+ doubtless pronounce under what name he should reign over them;
+ but the example of a Greek tyrant or a Saracen emir was
+ insufficient to justify his regal character; and the nine kings
+ of the Latin world 100 might disclaim their new associate, unless
+ he were consecrated by the authority of the supreme pontiff. The
+ pride of Anacletus was pleased to confer a title, which the pride
+ of the Norman had stooped to solicit; 101 but his own legitimacy
+ was attacked by the adverse election of Innocent the Second; and
+ while Anacletus sat in the Vatican, the successful fugitive was
+ acknowledged by the nations of Europe. The infant monarchy of
+ Roger was shaken, and almost overthrown, by the unlucky choice of
+ an ecclesiastical patron; and the sword of Lothaire the Second of
+ Germany, the excommunications of Innocent, the fleets of Pisa,
+ and the zeal of St. Bernard, were united for the ruin of the
+ Sicilian robber. After a gallant resistance, the Norman prince
+ was driven from the continent of Italy: a new duke of Apulia was
+ invested by the pope and the emperor, each of whom held one end
+ of the gonfanon, or flagstaff, as a token that they asserted
+ their right, and suspended their quarrel. But such jealous
+ friendship was of short and precarious duration: the German
+ armies soon vanished in disease and desertion: 102 the Apulian
+ duke, with all his adherents, was exterminated by a conqueror who
+ seldom forgave either the dead or the living; like his
+ predecessor Leo the Ninth, the feeble though haughty pontiff
+ became the captive and friend of the Normans; and their
+ reconciliation was celebrated by the eloquence of Bernard, who
+ now revered the title and virtues of the king of Sicily.
+
+ 97 (return) [ 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 Italian Annals of Muratori. In the Bibliotheque Italique
+ (tom. i. p. 175-122,) I find a useful abstract of Capacelatro, a
+ modern Neapolitan, who has composed, in two volumes, the history
+ of his country from Roger Frederic II. inclusive.]
+
+ 98 (return) [ According to the testimony of Philistus and
+ Diodorus, the tyrant Dionysius of Syracuse could maintain a
+ standing force of 10,000 horse, 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.]
+
+ 99 (return) [ A contemporary historian of the acts of Roger from
+ the year 1127 to 1135, founds his title on merit and power, the
+ consent of the barons, and the ancient royalty of Sicily and
+ Palermo, without introducing Pope Anacletus, (Alexand. Coenobii
+ Telesini Abbatis de Rebus gestis Regis Rogerii, lib. iv. in
+ Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. v. p. 607-645)]
+
+ 100 (return) [ The kings of France, England, Scotland, Castille,
+ Arragon, Navarre, Sweden, Denmark, and Hungary. The three first
+ were more ancient than Charlemagne; the three next were created
+ by their sword; the three last by their baptism; and of these the
+ king of Hungary alone was honored or debased by a papal crown.]
+
+ 101 (return) [ Fazellus, and a crowd of Sicilians, had imagined a
+ more early and independent coronation, (A.D. 1130, May 1,) which
+ Giannone unwillingly rejects, (tom. ii. p. 137-144.) This fiction
+ is disproved by the silence of contemporaries; nor can it be
+ restored by a spurious character of Messina, (Muratori, Annali d’
+ Italia, tom. ix. p. 340. Pagi, Critica, tom. iv. p. 467, 468.)]
+
+ 102 (return) [ Roger corrupted the second person of Lothaire’s
+ army, who sounded, or rather cried, a retreat; for the Germans
+ (says Cinnamus, l. iii. c. i. p. 51) are ignorant of the use of
+ trumpets. Most ignorant himself! * 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 and revenge. The recent injuries of Sicily might
+ provoke a just retaliation on the heads of the Saracens: the
+ Normans, whose blood had been mingled with so many subject
+ streams, were encouraged to remember and emulate the naval
+ trophies of their fathers, and in the maturity of their strength
+ they contended with the decline of an African power. When the
+ Fatimite caliph departed for the conquest of Egypt, he rewarded
+ the real merit and apparent fidelity of his servant Joseph with a
+ gift of his royal mantle, and forty Arabian horses, his palace
+ with its sumptuous furniture, and the government of the kingdoms
+ of Tunis and Algiers. The Zeirides, 103 the descendants of
+ Joseph, forgot their allegiance and gratitude to a distant
+ benefactor, grasped and abused the fruits of prosperity; and
+ after running the little course of an Oriental dynasty, were now
+ fainting in their own weakness. On the side of the land, they
+ were pressed by the Almohades, the fanatic princes of Morocco,
+ while the 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 two hundred thousand pieces of gold. By the
+ first arms of Roger, the island or rock of Malta, which has been
+ since ennobled by a military and religious colony, was
+ inseparably annexed to the crown of Sicily. Tripoli, 104 a strong
+ and maritime city, was the next object of his attack; 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, and
+ Mahadia 105 from the Arabian founder: it is strongly built on a
+ neck of land, but the imperfection of the harbor is not
+ compensated by the fertility of the adjacent plain. Mahadia was
+ besieged by George the Sicilian admiral, with a fleet of one
+ hundred and fifty galleys, amply provided with men and the
+ instruments of mischief: the sovereign had fled, the Moorish
+ governor refused to capitulate, declined the last and
+ irresistible assault, and secretly escaping with the Moslem
+ inhabitants abandoned the place and its treasures to the
+ rapacious Franks. In successive expeditions, the king of Sicily
+ or his lieutenants reduced the cities of Tunis, Safax, Capsia,
+ Bona, and a long tract of the sea-coast; 106 the fortresses were
+ garrisoned, the country was tributary, and a boast that it held
+ Africa in subjection might be inscribed with some flattery on the
+ sword of Roger. 107 After his death, that sword was broken; and
+ these transmarine possessions were neglected, evacuated, or lost,
+ under the troubled reign of his successor. 108 The triumphs of
+ Scipio and Belisarius have proved, that the African continent is
+ neither inaccessible nor invincible; yet the great princes and
+ powers of Christendom have repeatedly failed in their armaments
+ against the Moors, who may still glory in the easy conquest and
+ long servitude of Spain.
+
+ 103 (return) [ See De Guignes, Hist. Generate des Huns, tom. i.
+ p. 369-373 and Cardonne, Hist. de l’Afrique, &c., sous la
+ Domination des Arabes tom. ii. p. 70-144. Their common original
+ appears to be Novairi.]
+
+ 104 (return) [ Tripoli (says the Nubian geographer, or more
+ properly the Sherif al Edrisi) urbs fortis, saxeo muro vallata,
+ sita prope littus maris Hanc expugnavit Rogerius, qui mulieribus
+ captivis ductis, viros pere mit.]
+
+ 105 (return) [ See the geography of Leo Africanus, (in Ramusio
+ tom. i. fol. 74 verso. fol. 75, recto,) and Shaw’s Travels, (p.
+ 110,) the viith book of Thuanus, and the xith of the Abbe de
+ Vertot. The possession and defence of the place was offered by
+ Charles V. and wisely declined by the knights of Malta.]
+
+ 106 (return) [ Pagi has accurately marked the African conquests
+ of Roger and his criticism was supplied by his friend the Abbe de
+ Longuerue with some Arabic memorials, (A.D. 1147, No. 26, 27,
+ A.D. 1148, No. 16, A.D. 1153, No. 16.)]
+
+ 107 (return) [ Appulus et Calaber, Siculus mihi servit et Afer. A
+ proud inscription, which denotes, that the Norman conquerors were
+ still discriminated from their Christian and Moslem subjects.]
+
+ 108 (return) [ Hugo Falcandus (Hist. Sicula, in Muratori, Script.
+ tom. vii. p. 270, 271) ascribes these losses to the neglect or
+ treachery of the 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 Greek princes, whose alliance would
+ dignify his regal character: he demanded in marriage a daughter
+ of the Comnenian family, and the first steps of the treaty seemed
+ to promise a favorable event. But the contemptuous treatment of
+ his ambassadors exasperated the vanity of the new monarch; and
+ the insolence of the Byzantine court was expiated, according to
+ the laws of nations, by the sufferings of a guiltless people. 109
+ With the fleet of seventy galleys, George, the admiral of Sicily,
+ appeared before Corfu; and both the island and city were
+ delivered into his hands by the disaffected inhabitants, who had
+ yet to learn that a siege is still more calamitous than a
+ tribute. In this invasion, of some moment in the annals of
+ commerce, the Normans spread themselves by sea, and over the
+ provinces of Greece; and the venerable age of Athens, Thebes, and
+ Corinth, was violated by rapine and cruelty. Of the wrongs of
+ Athens, no memorial remains. The ancient walls, which
+ encompassed, without guarding, the opulence of Thebes, were
+ scaled by the Latin Christians; but their sole use of the gospel
+ was to sanctify an oath, that the lawful owners had not secreted
+ any relic of their inheritance or industry. On the approach of
+ the Normans, the lower town of Corinth was evacuated; the Greeks
+ retired to the citadel, which was seated on a lofty eminence,
+ abundantly watered by the classic fountain of Pirene; an
+ impregnable fortress, if the want of courage could be balanced by
+ any advantages of art or nature. As soon as the besiegers had
+ surmounted the labor (their sole labor) of climbing the hill,
+ their general, from the commanding eminence, admired his own
+ victory, and testified his gratitude to Heaven, by tearing from
+ the altar the precious image of Theodore, the tutelary saint. The
+ silk weavers of both sexes, whom George transported to Sicily,
+ composed the most valuable part of the spoil; and in comparing
+ the skilful industry of the mechanic with the sloth and cowardice
+ of the soldier, he was heard to exclaim that the distaff and loom
+ were the only weapons which the Greeks were capable of using. The
+ progress of this naval armament was marked by two conspicuous
+ events, the rescue of the king of France, and the insult of the
+ Byzantine capital. In his return by sea from an unfortunate
+ crusade, Louis the Seventh was intercepted by the Greeks, who
+ basely violated the laws of honor and religion. The fortunate
+ encounter of the Norman fleet delivered the royal captive; and
+ after a free and honorable entertainment in the court of Sicily,
+ Louis continued his journey to Rome and Paris. 110 In the absence
+ of the emperor, Constantinople and the Hellespont were left
+ without defence and without the suspicion of danger. The clergy
+ and people (for the soldiers had followed the standard of Manuel)
+ were astonished and dismayed at the hostile appearance of a line
+ of galleys, which boldly cast anchor in the front of the Imperial
+ city. The forces of the Sicilian admiral were inadequate to the
+ siege or assault of an immense and populous metropolis; but
+ George enjoyed the glory of humbling the Greek arrogance, and of
+ marking the path of conquest to the navies of the West. He landed
+ some soldiers to rifle the fruits of the royal gardens, and
+ pointed with silver, or most probably with fire, the arrows which
+ he discharged against the palace of the Caesars. 111 This playful
+ outrage of the pirates of Sicily, who had surprised an unguarded
+ moment, Manuel affected to despise, while his martial spirit, and
+ the forces of the empire, were awakened to revenge. The
+ Archipelago and Ionian Sea were covered with his squadrons and
+ those of Venice; but I know not by what favorable allowance of
+ transports, victuallers, and pinnaces, our reason, or even our
+ fancy, can be reconciled to the stupendous account of fifteen
+ hundred vessels, which is proposed by a Byzantine historian.
+ These operations were directed with prudence and energy: in his
+ homeward voyage George lost nineteen of his galleys, which were
+ separated and taken: after an obstinate defence, Corfu implored
+ the clemency of her lawful sovereign; nor could a ship, a
+ soldier, of the Norman prince, be found, unless as a captive,
+ within the limits of the Eastern empire. The prosperity and the
+ health of Roger were already in a declining state: while he
+ listened in his palace of Palermo to the messengers of victory or
+ defeat, the invincible Manuel, the foremost in every assault, was
+ celebrated by the Greeks and Latins as the Alexander or the
+ Hercules of the age.
+
+ 109 (return) [ The silence of the Sicilian historians, who end
+ too soon, or begin too late, must be supplied by Otho of
+ Frisingen, a German, (de Gestis 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 Greek writers Cinnamus (l.
+ iii. c. 2-5) and Nicetas, (in Manuel. l. iii. c. 1-6.)]
+
+ 110 (return) [ To this imperfect capture and speedy rescue I
+ apply Cinnamus, l. ii. c. 19, p. 49. Muratori, on tolerable
+ evidence, (Annali d’Italia, tom. ix. p. 420, 421,) laughs at the
+ delicacy of the French, who maintain, marisque nullo impediente
+ periculo ad regnum proprium reversum esse; yet I observe that
+ their advocate, Ducange, is less positive as the commentator on
+ Cinnamus, than as the editor of Joinville.]
+
+ 111 (return) [ In palatium regium sagittas igneas injecit, says
+ Dandulus; but Nicetas (l. ii. c. 8, p. 66) transforms them, and
+ adds, that Manuel styled this insult. These arrows, by the
+ compiler, Vincent de 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
+ repelled the insolence of a Barbarian. It was the right and duty,
+ it might be the interest and glory, of Manuel to restore the
+ ancient majesty of the empire, to recover the provinces of Italy
+ and Sicily, and to chastise this pretended king, the grandson of
+ a Norman vassal. 112 The natives of Calabria were still attached
+ to the Greek language and worship, which had been inexorably
+ proscribed by the Latin clergy: after the loss of her dukes,
+ Apulia was chained as a servile appendage to the crown of Sicily;
+ the founder of the monarchy had ruled by the sword; and his death
+ had abated the fear, without healing the discontent, of his
+ subjects: the feudal government was always pregnant with the
+ seeds of rebellion; and a nephew of Roger himself invited the
+ enemies of his family and nation. The majesty of the purple, and
+ a series of Hungarian and Turkish wars, prevented Manuel from
+ embarking his person in the Italian expedition. To the brave and
+ noble Palaeologus, his lieutenant, the Greek monarch intrusted a
+ fleet and army: the siege of Bari was his first exploit; and, in
+ every operation, gold as well as steel was the instrument of
+ victory. Salerno, and some places along the western coast,
+ maintained their fidelity to the Norman king; but he lost in two
+ campaigns the greater part of his continental possessions; and
+ the modest emperor, disdaining all flattery and falsehood, was
+ content with the reduction of three hundred cities or villages of
+ Apulia and Calabria, whose names and titles were inscribed on all
+ the walls of the palace. The prejudices of the Latins were
+ gratified by a genuine or fictitious donation under the seal of
+ the German Caesars; 113 but the successor of Constantine soon
+ renounced this ignominious pretence, claimed the indefeasible
+ dominion of Italy, and professed his design of chasing the
+ Barbarians beyond the Alps. By the artful speeches, liberal
+ gifts, and unbounded promises, of their Eastern ally, the free
+ cities were encouraged to persevere in their generous struggle
+ against the despotism of Frederic Barbarossa: the walls of Milan
+ were rebuilt by the contributions of Manuel; and he poured, says
+ the historian, a river of gold into the bosom of Ancona, whose
+ attachment to the Greeks was fortified by the jealous enmity of
+ the Venetians. 114 The situation and trade of Ancona rendered it
+ an important garrison in the heart of Italy: it was twice
+ besieged by the arms of Frederic; the imperial forces were twice
+ repulsed by the spirit of freedom; that spirit was animated by
+ the ambassador of Constantinople; and the most intrepid patriots,
+ the most faithful servants, were rewarded by the wealth and
+ honors of the Byzantine court. 115 The pride of Manuel disdained
+ and rejected a Barbarian colleague; his ambition was excited by
+ the hope of stripping the purple from the German usurpers, and of
+ establishing, in the West, as in the East, his lawful title of
+ sole emperor of the Romans. With this view, he solicited the
+ alliance of the people and the bishop of Rome. Several of the
+ nobles embraced the cause of the Greek monarch; the splendid
+ nuptials of his niece with Odo Frangipani secured the support of
+ that powerful family, 116 and his royal standard or image was
+ entertained with due reverence in the ancient metropolis. 117
+ During the quarrel between Frederic and Alexander the Third, the
+ pope 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 pontiff to seize the just
+ provocation, the favorable moment, to humble the savage insolence
+ of the Alemanni and to acknowledge the true representative of
+ Constantine and Augustus. 118
+
+ 112 (return) [ For the invasion of Italy, which is almost
+ overlooked by Nicetas 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.]
+
+ 113 (return) [ 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 of fraud is always credible when it is told of
+ the Greeks.]
+
+ 114 (return) [ Quod Ancontiani Graecum imperium nimis diligerent
+ ... Veneti speciali odio Anconam oderunt. The cause of love,
+ perhaps of envy, were the beneficia, flumen aureum of the
+ emperor; and the Latin narrative is confirmed by Cinnamus, (l.
+ iv. c. 14, p. 98.)]
+
+ 115 (return) [ Muratori mentions the two sieges of Ancona; the
+ first, in 1167, against Frederic I. in person (Annali, tom. x. p.
+ 39, &c.;) the second, in 1173, against his lieutenant Christian,
+ archbishop of Mentz, a man unworthy of his name and office, (p.
+ 76, &c.) It is of the second siege that we possess an original
+ narrative, which he has published in his great collection, (tom.
+ vi. p. 921-946.)]
+
+ 116 (return) [ We derive this anecdote from an anonymous
+ chronicle of Fossa Nova, published by Muratori, (Script. Ital.
+ tom. vii. p. 874.)]
+
+ 117 (return) [ Cinnamus (l. iv. c. 14, p. 99) is susceptible of
+ this double sense. A standard is more Latin, an image more
+ Greek.]
+
+ 118 (return) [ Nihilominus quoque petebat, ut quia occasio justa
+ et tempos opportunum et acceptabile se obtulerant, Romani corona
+ imperii a sancto 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 second embassy was accompanied cum
+ immensa multitudine pecuniarum.]
+
+ But these Italian conquests, this universal reign, soon escaped
+ from the hand of the Greek emperor. His first demands were eluded
+ by the prudence of Alexander the Third, who paused on this deep
+ and momentous revolution; 119 nor could the pope be seduced by a
+ personal dispute to renounce the perpetual inheritance of the
+ Latin name. After the reunion with Frederic, he spoke a more
+ peremptory language, confirmed the acts of his predecessors,
+ excommunicated the adherents of Manuel, and pronounced the final
+ separation of the churches, or at least the empires, of
+ Constantinople and Rome. 120 The free cities of Lombardy no
+ longer remembered their foreign benefactor, and without
+ preserving the friendship of Ancona, he soon incurred the enmity
+ of Venice. 121 By his own avarice, or the complaints of his
+ subjects, the Greek emperor was provoked to arrest the persons,
+ and confiscate the effects, of the Venetian merchants. This
+ violation of the public faith exasperated a free and commercial
+ people: one hundred galleys were launched and armed in as many
+ days; they swept the coasts of Dalmatia and Greece: but after
+ some mutual wounds, the war was terminated by an agreement,
+ inglorious to the empire, insufficient for the republic; and a
+ complete vengeance of these and of fresh injuries was reserved
+ for the succeeding generation. The lieutenant of Manuel had
+ informed his sovereign that he was strong enough to quell any
+ domestic revolt of Apulia and Calabria; but that his forces were
+ inadequate to resist the impending attack of the king of Sicily.
+ His prophecy was soon verified: the death of Palaeologus devolved
+ the command on several chiefs, alike eminent in rank, alike
+ defective in military talents; the Greeks were oppressed by land
+ and sea; and a captive remnant that escaped the swords of the
+ Normans and Saracens, abjured all future hostility against the
+ person or dominions of their conqueror. 122 Yet the king of
+ Sicily esteemed the courage and constancy of Manuel, who had
+ landed a second army on the Italian shore; he respectfully
+ addressed the new Justinian; solicited a peace or truce of thirty
+ years, accepted as a gift the regal title; and acknowledged
+ himself the military vassal of the Roman empire. 123 The
+ Byzantine Caesars acquiesced in this shadow of dominion, without
+ expecting, perhaps without desiring, the service of a Norman
+ army; and the truce of thirty years was not disturbed by any
+ hostilities between Sicily and Constantinople. About the end of
+ that period, the throne of Manuel was usurped by an inhuman
+ tyrant, who had deserved the abhorrence of his country and
+ mankind: the sword of William the Second, the grandson of Roger,
+ was drawn by a fugitive of the Comnenian race; and the subjects
+ of Andronicus might salute the strangers as friends, since they
+ detested their sovereign as the worst of enemies. The Latin
+ historians 124 expatiate on the rapid progress of the four counts
+ who invaded Romania with a fleet and army, and reduced many
+ castles and cities to the obedience of the king of Sicily. The
+ Greeks 125 accuse and magnify the wanton and sacrilegious
+ cruelties that were perpetrated in the sack of Thessalonica, the
+ second city of the empire. The former deplore the fate of those
+ invincible but unsuspecting warriors who were destroyed by the
+ arts of a vanquished foe. The latter applaud, in songs of
+ triumph, the repeated victories of their countrymen on the Sea of
+ Marmora or Propontis, on the banks of the Strymon, and under the
+ walls of Durazzo. A revolution which punished the crimes of
+ Andronicus, had united against the Franks the zeal and courage of
+ the successful insurgents: ten thousand were slain in battle, and
+ Isaac Angelus, the new emperor, might indulge his vanity or
+ vengeance in the treatment of four thousand captives. Such was
+ the event of the last contest between the Greeks and Normans:
+ before the expiration of twenty years, the rival nations were
+ lost or degraded in foreign servitude; and the successors of
+ Constantine did not long survive to insult the fall of the
+ Sicilian monarchy.
+
+ 119 (return) [ Nimis alta et perplexa sunt, (Vit. Alexandri III.
+ p. 460, 461,) says the cautious pope.]
+
+ 120 (return) [ (Cinnamus, l. iv. c. 14, p. 99.)]
+
+ 121 (return) [ In his vith book, Cinnamus describes the Venetian
+ war, which Nicetas has not thought worthy of his attention. The
+ Italian accounts, which do not satisfy our curiosity, are
+ reported by the annalist Muratori, under the years 1171, &c.]
+
+ 122 (return) [ This victory is mentioned by Romuald of Salerno,
+ (in Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. vii. p. 198.) It is whimsical
+ enough, that in 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 Greek is fond of description, and the
+ Latin historian is not fond of William the Bad.]
+
+ 123 (return) [ 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 these flattering portraits of the grandeur of the
+ empire.]
+
+ 124 (return) [ I can only quote, of original evidence, the poor
+ chronicles 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.... ad acquirendum imperium C. P. They were.... decepti
+ captique, by Isaac.]
+
+ 125 (return) [ 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 now becomes a respectable contemporary. As he survived
+ the emperor and the empire, he is above flattery; but the fall of
+ Constantinople exasperated his prejudices against the Latins. For
+ the honor of learning I shall observe that Homer’s great
+ commentator, Eustathias archbishop of Thessalonica, 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 strongly discriminated by the epithets of the bad and
+ the good; but these epithets, which appear to describe the
+ perfection of vice and virtue, cannot strictly be applied to
+ either of the Norman princes. When he was roused to arms by
+ danger and shame, the first William did not degenerate from the
+ valor of his race; but his temper was slothful; his manners were
+ dissolute; his passions headstrong and mischievous; and the
+ monarch is responsible, not only for his personal vices, but for
+ those of Majo, the great admiral, who abused the confidence, and
+ conspired against the life, of his benefactor. From the Arabian
+ conquest, Sicily had imbibed a deep tincture of Oriental manners;
+ the despotism, the pomp, and even the harem, of a sultan; and a
+ Christian people was oppressed and insulted by the ascendant of
+ the eunuchs, who openly professed, or secretly cherished, the
+ religion of Mahomet. An eloquent historian of the times 126 has
+ delineated the misfortunes of his country: 127 the ambition and
+ fall of the ungrateful Majo; the revolt and punishment of his
+ assassins; the imprisonment and deliverance of the king himself;
+ the private feuds that arose from the public confusion; and the
+ various forms of calamity and discord which afflicted Palermo,
+ the island, and the continent, during the reign of William the
+ First, and the minority of his son. The youth, innocence, and
+ beauty of William the Second, 128 endeared him to the nation: the
+ factions were reconciled; the laws were revived; and from the
+ manhood to the premature death of that amiable prince, Sicily
+ enjoyed a short season of peace, justice, and happiness, whose
+ value was enhanced by the remembrance of the past and the dread
+ of futurity. The legitimate male posterity of Tancred of
+ Hauteville was extinct in the person of the second William; but
+ his aunt, the daughter of Roger, had married the most powerful
+ prince of the age; and Henry the Sixth, the son of Frederic
+ Barbarossa, descended from the Alps to claim the Imperial crown
+ and the inheritance of his wife. Against the unanimous wish of a
+ free people, this inheritance could only be acquired by arms; and
+ I am pleased to transcribe the style and sense of 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
+ the pleasures and plenty, and educated in the arts and manners,
+ of this fortunate isle, departed long since to enrich the
+ Barbarians with our treasures, and now returns, with her savage
+ allies, to contaminate the beauties of her venerable parent.
+ Already I behold the swarms of angry Barbarians: our opulent
+ cities, the places flourishing in a long peace, are shaken with
+ fear, desolated by slaughter, consumed by rapine, and polluted by
+ intemperance and lust. I see the massacre or captivity of our
+ citizens, the rapes of our virgins and matrons. 129 In this
+ extremity (he interrogates a friend) how must the Sicilians act?
+ By the unanimous election of a king of valor and experience,
+ Sicily and Calabria might yet be preserved; 130 for in the levity
+ of the Apulians, ever eager for new revolutions, I can repose
+ neither confidence nor hope. 131 Should Calabria be lost, the
+ lofty towers, the numerous youth, and the naval strength, of
+ Messina, 132 might guard the passage against a foreign invader.
+ If the savage Germans coalesce with the pirates of Messina; if
+ they destroy with fire the fruitful region, so often wasted by
+ the fires of Mount Aetna, 133 what resource will be left for the
+ interior parts of the island, these noble cities which should
+ never be violated by the hostile footsteps of a Barbarian? 134
+ Catana has again been overwhelmed by an earthquake: the ancient
+ virtue of Syracuse expires in poverty and solitude; 135 but
+ Palermo is still crowned with a diadem, and her triple walls
+ enclose the active multitudes of Christians and Saracens. If the
+ two nations, under one king, can unite for their common safety,
+ they may rush on the Barbarians with invincible arms. But if the
+ Saracens, fatigued by a repetition of injuries, should now retire
+ and rebel; if they should occupy the castles of the mountains and
+ sea-coast, the unfortunate Christians, exposed to a double
+ attack, and placed as it were between the hammer and the anvil,
+ must resign themselves to hopeless and inevitable servitude.” 136
+ We must not forget, that a priest here prefers his country to his
+ religion; and that the Moslems, whose alliance he seeks, were
+ still numerous and powerful in the state of Sicily.
+
+ 126 (return) [ The Historia Sicula of Hugo Falcandus, which
+ properly extends from 1154 to 1169, is inserted in the viiith
+ volume of Muratori’s Collection, (tom. vii. p. 259-344,) and
+ preceded by a eloquent preface or epistle, (p. 251-258, de
+ Calamitatibus Siciliae.) Falcandus has been styled the Tacitus of
+ Sicily; and, after a just, but immense, abatement, from the ist
+ to the xiith century, from a senator to a monk, I would not strip
+ him of his title: his narrative is rapid and perspicuous, his
+ style bold and elegant, his observation keen; he had studied
+ mankind, and feels like a man. I can only regret the narrow and
+ barren field on which his labors have been cast.]
+
+ 127 (return) [ The laborious Benedictines (l’Art de verifier les
+ Dates, p. 896) are of opinion, that the true name of Falcandus is
+ Fulcandus, or Foucault. According to them, Hugues Foucalt, a
+ Frenchman by birth, and at length abbot of St. Denys, had
+ followed into Sicily his patron Stephen de la Perche, uncle to
+ the mother of William II., archbishop of Palermo, and great
+ chancellor of the kingdom. Yet Falcandus has all the feelings of
+ a Sicilian; and the title of Alumnus (which he bestows on
+ himself) appears to indicate that he was born, or at least
+ educated, in the island.]
+
+ 128 (return) [ Falcand. p. 303. Richard de St. Germano begins his
+ history from the death and praises of William II. After some
+ unmeaning epithets, he thus continues: Legis et justitiae cultus
+ tempore suo vigebat in regno; sua erat quilibet sorte contentus;
+ (were they mortals?) abique pax, ubique securitas, nec latronum
+ metuebat viator insidias, nec maris nauta offendicula piratarum,
+ (Script. Rerum Ital. tom. vii p 939.)]
+
+ 129 (return) [ Constantia, primis a cunabulis in deliciarun
+ tuarum affluentia diutius educata, tuisque institutis, doctrinus
+ et moribus informata, tandem opibus tuis Barbaros delatura
+ discessit: et nunc cum imgentibus copiis revertitur, ut
+ pulcherrima nutricis ornamenta barbarica foeditate contaminet
+ .... Intuari mihi jam videor turbulentas bar barorum acies....
+ civitates opulentas et loca diuturna pace florentia, metu
+ concutere, caede vastare, rapinis atterere, et foedare luxuria
+ hinc cives aut gladiis intercepti, aut servitute depressi,
+ virgines constupratae, matronae, &c.]
+
+ 130 (return) [ Certe si regem non dubiae virtutis elegerint, nec
+ a Saracenis Christiani dissentiant, poterit rex creatus rebus
+ licet quasi desperatis et perditis subvenire, et incursus
+ hostium, si prudenter egerit, propulsare.]
+
+ 131 (return) [ In Apulis, qui, semper novitate gaudentes, novarum
+ rerum studiis aguntur, nihil arbitror spei aut fiduciae
+ reponendum.]
+
+ 132 (return) [ Si civium tuorum virtutem et audaciam attendas,
+ .... muriorum etiam ambitum densis turribus circumseptum.]
+
+ 133 (return) [ Cum erudelitate piratica Theutonum confligat
+ atrocitas, et inter aucbustos lapides, et Aethnae flagrant’s
+ incendia, &c.]
+
+ 134 (return) [ Eam partem, quam nobilissimarum civitatum fulgor
+ illustrat, quae et toti regno singulari meruit privilegio
+ praeminere, nefarium esset.... vel barbarorum ingressu pollui. I
+ wish to transcribe his florid, but curious, description, of the
+ palace, city, and luxuriant plain of Palermo.]
+
+ 135 (return) [ Vires non suppetunt, et conatus tuos tam inopia
+ civium, quam paucitas bellatorum elidunt.]
+
+ 136 (return) [ The Normans and Sicilians appear to be
+ confounded.]
+
+ The hopes, or at least the wishes, of Falcandus were at first
+ gratified by the free and unanimous election of Tancred, the
+ grandson of the first king, whose birth was illegitimate, but
+ whose civil and military virtues shone without a blemish. During
+ four years, the term of his life and reign, 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 surpass the most
+ liberal measure of policy or reason. After his decease, the
+ kingdom of his widow and infant son fell without a struggle; and
+ Henry pursued his victorious march from Capua to Palermo. The
+ political balance of Italy was destroyed by his success; and if
+ the pope and the free cities had consulted their obvious and real
+ interest, they would have combined the powers of earth and heaven
+ to prevent the dangerous union of the German empire with the
+ kingdom of Sicily. But the subtle policy, for which the Vatican
+ has so often been praised or arraigned, was on this occasion
+ blind and inactive; and if it were true that Celestine the Third
+ had kicked away the Imperial crown from the head of the prostrate
+ Henry, 137 such an act of impotent pride could serve only to
+ cancel an obligation and provoke an enemy. The Genoese, who
+ enjoyed a beneficial trade and establishment in Sicily, listened
+ to the promise of his boundless gratitude and speedy departure:
+ 138 their fleet commanded the straits of Messina, and opened the
+ harbor of Palermo; and the first act of his government was to
+ abolish the privileges, and to seize the property, of these
+ imprudent allies. The last hope of Falcandus was defeated by the
+ discord of the Christians and Mahometans: they fought in the
+ capital; several thousands of the latter were slain; but their
+ surviving brethren fortified the mountains, and disturbed above
+ thirty years the peace of the island. By the policy of Frederic
+ the Second, sixty thousand Saracens were transplanted to Nocera
+ in Apulia. In their wars against the Roman church, the emperor
+ and his son Mainfroy were strengthened and disgraced by the
+ service of the enemies of Christ; and this national colony
+ maintained their religion and manners in the heart of Italy, till
+ they were extirpated, at the end of the thirteenth century, by
+ the zeal and revenge of the house of Anjou. 139 All the
+ calamities which the prophetic orator had deplored were surpassed
+ by the cruelty and avarice of the German conqueror. He violated
+ the royal sepulchres, 1391 and explored the secret treasures of
+ the palace, Palermo, and the whole kingdom: the pearls and
+ jewels, however precious, might be easily removed; but one
+ hundred and sixty horses were laden with the gold and silver of
+ Sicily. 140 The young king, his mother and sisters, and the
+ nobles of both sexes, were separately confined in the fortresses
+ of the Alps; and, on the slightest rumor of rebellion, the
+ captives were deprived of life, of their eyes, or of the hope of
+ posterity. Constantia herself was touched with sympathy for the
+ miseries of her country; and the heiress of the Norman line might
+ struggle to check her despotic husband, and to save the patrimony
+ of her new-born son, of an emperor so famous in the next age
+ under the name of Frederic the Second. Ten years after this
+ revolution, the French monarchs annexed to their crown the duchy
+ of Normandy: the sceptre of her ancient dukes had been
+ transmitted, by a granddaughter of William the Conqueror, to the
+ house of Plantagenet; and the adventurous Normans, who had raised
+ so many trophies in France, England, and Ireland, in Apulia,
+ Sicily, and the East, were lost, either in victory or servitude,
+ among the vanquished nations.
+
+ 137 (return) [ The testimony of an Englishman, of Roger de
+ Hoveden, (p. 689,) will lightly weigh against the silence of
+ German and Italian history, (Muratori, Annali d’ Italia, tom. x.
+ p. 156.) The priests and pilgrims, who returned from Rome,
+ exalted, by every tale, the omnipotence of the holy father.]
+
+ 138 (return) [ Ego enim in eo cum Teutonicis manere non debeo,
+ (Caffari, Annal. Genuenses, in Muratori, Script. Rerum
+ Italicarum, tom vi. p. 367, 368.)]
+
+ 139 (return) [ For the Saracens of Sicily and Nocera, see the
+ Annals of Muratori, (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, in reducing the
+ Saracens of Nocera, Charles II. of Anjou employed rather artifice
+ than violence.]
+
+ 1391 (return) [ It is remarkable that at the same time the tombs
+ of the Roman emperors, even of Constantine himself, were violated
+ and ransacked by their degenerate successor Alexius Comnenus, in
+ order to enable him to 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.]
+
+ 140 (return) [ Muratori quotes a passage from Arnold of Lubec,
+ (l. iv. c. 20:) Reperit thesauros absconditos, et omnem lapidum
+ pretiosorum et gemmarum gloriam, ita ut oneratis 160 somariis,
+ gloriose ad terram suam redierit. Roger de Hoveden, who mentions
+ the violation of the royal tombs and corpses, computes the spoil
+ of Salerno at 200,000 ounces of gold, (p. 746.) On these
+ occasions, I am almost tempted to exclaim with the listening maid
+ in La Fontaine, “Je voudrois bien avoir ce qui manque.”]
+
+
+
+
+ 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
+ the Caspian Sea, to the original seat of the Turks or Turkmans,
+ against whom the first crusade was principally directed. Their
+ Scythian empire of the sixth century was long since dissolved;
+ but the name was still famous among the Greeks and Orientals; and
+ the fragments of the nation, each a powerful and independent
+ people, were scattered over the desert from China to the Oxus and
+ the Danube: the colony of Hungarians was admitted into the
+ republic of Europe, and the thrones of Asia were occupied by
+ slaves and soldiers of Turkish extraction. While Apulia and
+ Sicily were subdued by the Norman lance, a swarm of these
+ northern shepherds overspread the kingdoms of Persia; their
+ princes of the race of Seljuk erected a splendid and solid empire
+ from Samarcand to the confines of Greece and Egypt; and the Turks
+ have maintained their dominion in Asia Minor, 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,
+ one thousand years after the birth of Christ. His father
+ Sebectagi was the slave of the slave of the slave of the
+ commander of the faithful. But in this descent of servitude, the
+ first degree was merely titular, since it was filled by the
+ sovereign of Transoxiana and Chorasan, who still paid a nominal
+ allegiance to the caliph of Bagdad. The second rank was that of 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 a state of real and domestic servitude in the family of that
+ rebel; from which Sebectagi, by his courage and dexterity,
+ ascended to the supreme command of the city and provinces of
+ Gazna, 3 as the son-in-law and successor of his grateful master.
+
+ The falling dynasty of the Samanides was at first protected, and
+ at last overthrown, by their servants; and, in the public
+ disorders, the fortune of Mahmud continually increased. From him
+ the title of Sultan 4 was first invented; and his kingdom was
+ enlarged from Transoxiana to the neighborhood of Ispahan, from
+ the shores of the Caspian to the mouth of the Indus. But the
+ principal source of his fame and riches was the holy war which he
+ waged against the Gentoos of Hindostan. In this foreign narrative
+ I may not consume a page; and a volume would scarcely suffice to
+ recapitulate the battles and sieges of his twelve expeditions.
+ Never was the Mussulman hero dismayed by the inclemency of the
+ seasons, the height of the mountains, the breadth of the rivers,
+ the barrenness of the desert, the multitudes of the enemy, or the
+ formidable array of their elephants of war. 5 The sultan of Gazna
+ surpassed the limits of the conquests of Alexander: after a march
+ of three months, over the hills 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 of the Indus, he fought and
+ vanquished four thousand boats of the natives. Delhi, Lahor, and
+ Multan, were compelled to open their gates: the fertile kingdom
+ of Guzarat attracted his ambition and tempted his stay; and his
+ avarice indulged the fruitless project of discovering the golden
+ and aromatic isles of the Southern Ocean. On the payment of a
+ tribute, the rajahs preserved their dominions; the people, their
+ lives and fortunes; but to the religion of Hindostan the zealous
+ Mussulman was cruel and inexorable: many hundred temples, or
+ pagodas, were levelled with the ground; many thousand idols were
+ demolished; and the servants of the prophet were stimulated and
+ rewarded by the precious materials of which they were composed.
+ The pagoda of Sumnat was situate on the promontory of Guzarat, in
+ the neighborhood of Diu, one of the last remaining possessions of
+ the Portuguese. 7 It was endowed with the revenue of two thousand
+ villages; two thousand Brahmins were consecrated to the service
+ of the Deity, whom they washed each morning and evening in water
+ from the distant Ganges: the subordinate ministers consisted of
+ three hundred musicians, three hundred barbers, and five hundred
+ dancing girls, conspicuous for their birth or beauty. Three sides
+ of the temple were protected by the ocean, the narrow isthmus was
+ fortified by a natural or artificial precipice; and the city and
+ adjacent country were peopled by a nation of fanatics. They
+ confessed the sins and the punishment of Kinnoge and Delhi; but
+ if the impious stranger should presume to approach their holy
+ precincts, he would surely be overwhelmed by a blast of the
+ divine vengeance. By this challenge, the faith of Mahmud was
+ animated to a personal trial of the strength of this Indian
+ deity. Fifty thousand of his worshippers were pierced by the
+ spear of the Moslems; the walls were scaled; the sanctuary was
+ profaned; and the conqueror aimed a blow of his iron mace at the
+ head of the idol. The trembling Brahmins are said to have offered
+ ten millions 711 sterling for his ransom; and it was urged by the
+ wisest counsellors, that the destruction 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 true believers. “Your reasons,”
+ replied the sultan, “are specious and strong; but never in the
+ eyes of posterity shall Mahmud appear as a merchant of idols.”
+ 712 He repeated his blows, and a treasure of pearls and rubies,
+ concealed in the belly of the statue, explained in some degree
+ the devout prodigality of the Brahmins. The fragments of the idol
+ were distributed to Gazna, Mecca, and Medina. Bagdad listened to
+ the edifying tale; and Mahmud was saluted by the caliph with the
+ title of guardian of the fortune and faith of Mahomet.
+
+ 1 (return) [ I am indebted for his character and history to
+ D’Herbelot, (Bibliotheque Orientale, Mahmud, p. 533-537,) M. De
+ Guignes, (Histoire des Huns, tom. iii. p. 155-173,) and our
+ countryman Colonel Alexander Dow, (vol. i. p. 23-83.) In the two
+ first volumes of his History of Hindostan, he styles himself the
+ translator of the Persian Ferishta; but in his florid text, it is
+ not easy to distinguish the version and the original. * Note: The
+ European reader now possesses a more accurate version of
+ Ferishta, that of Col. Briggs. Of Col. Dow’s work, Col. Briggs
+ observes, “that the author’s name will be handed down to
+ posterity as one of the earliest and most indefatigable of our
+ Oriental scholars. Instead of confining himself, however, to mere
+ translation, he has filled his work with his own observations,
+ which have been so embodied in the text that Gibbon declares it
+ impossible to distinguish the translator from the original
+ author.” Preface p. vii.—M.]
+
+ 2 (return) [ The dynasty of the Samanides continued 125 years,
+ A.D. 847-999, under ten princes. See their succession and ruin,
+ in the Tables of M. De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p.
+ 404-406.) They were followed by the Gaznevides, A.D. 999-1183,
+ (see tom. i. p. 239, 240.) His divisions of nations often
+ disturbs the series of time and place.]
+
+ 3 (return) [ Gaznah hortos non habet: est emporium et domicilium
+ mercaturae Indicae. Abulfedae Geograph. Reiske, tab. xxiii. p.
+ 349. D’Herbelot, p. 364. It has not been visited by any modern
+ traveller.]
+
+ 4 (return) [ By the ambassador of the caliph of Bagdad, who
+ employed an Arabian or Chaldaic word that signifies lord and
+ master, (D’Herbelot, p. 825.) It is interpreted by the Byzantine
+ writers of the eleventh century; and the name (Soldanus) is
+ familiarly employed in the Greek and Latin languages, after it
+ had passed from the Gaznevides to the Seljukides, and other emirs
+ of Asia and Egypt. Ducange (Dissertation xvi. sur Joinville, p.
+ 238-240. Gloss. Graec. et Latin.) labors to find the title of
+ Sultan in the ancient kingdom of Persia: but his proofs are mere
+ shadows; a proper name in the Themes of Constantine, (ii. 11,) an
+ anticipation of Zonaras, &c., and a medal of Kai Khosrou, not (as
+ he believes) the Sassanide of the vith, but the Seljukide of
+ Iconium of the xiiith century, (De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom.
+ i. p. 246.)]
+
+ 5 (return) [ 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 in believing this premature (A.D. 1008) use of artillery, I
+ must desire to scrutinize first the text, and then the authority
+ of Ferishta, who lived in the Mogul court in the last century. *
+ Note: This passage is differently written in the various
+ manuscripts I have seen; and in some the word tope (gun) has been
+ written for nupth, (naphtha, and toofung) (musket) for khudung,
+ (arrow.) But no Persian or Arabic history speaks of 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.]
+
+ 6 (return) [ Kinnouge, or Canouge, (the old Palimbothra) is
+ marked in latitude 27 Degrees 3 Minutes, longitude 80 Degrees 13
+ Minutes. See D’Anville, (Antiquite de l’Inde, p. 60-62,)
+ corrected by the local knowledge of Major Rennel (in his
+ excellent Memoir on his Map of Hindostan, 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 (Hindu
+ Drama, vol. iii. p. 12) and Schlegel (Indische Bibliothek, vol.
+ ii. p. 394) concur in identifying Palimbothra with the Patalipara
+ of the Indians; the Patna of the moderns.—M.]
+
+ 7 (return) [ The idolaters of Europe, says Ferishta, (Dow, vol.
+ i. p. 66.) Consult Abulfeda, (p. 272,) and Rennel’s Map of
+ Hindostan.]
+
+ 711 (return) [ Ferishta says, some “crores of gold.” Dow says, in
+ a note at the bottom of the page, “ten millions,” which is the
+ explanation of the word “crore.” Mr. Gibbon says rashly that the
+ sum offered by the Brahmins was ten millions sterling. Note to
+ Mill’s India, vol. ii. p. 222. Col. Briggs’s translation is “a
+ quantity of gold.” The treasure found in the temple, “perhaps in
+ the image,” according to Major Price’s authorities, was twenty
+ millions of dinars of gold, above nine millions sterling; but
+ this was a hundred-fold the ransom offered by the Brahmins.
+ Price, vol. ii. p. 290.—M.]
+
+ 712 (return) [ Rather than the idol broker, he chose to be called
+ Mahmud the idol breaker. Price, vol. ii. p. 289—M]
+
+ From the paths of blood (and such is the history of nations) I
+ cannot refuse to turn aside to gather some flowers of science or
+ virtue. The name of Mahmud the Gaznevide is still venerable in
+ the East: his subjects enjoyed the blessings of prosperity and
+ peace; his vices were concealed by the veil of religion; and two
+ familiar examples will testify his justice and magnanimity.
+
+ I. As he sat in the Divan, an unhappy subject bowed before the
+ throne to accuse the insolence of a Turkish soldier who had
+ driven him from his house and bed. “Suspend your clamors,” said
+ Mahmud; “inform me of his next visit, and ourself in person will
+ judge and punish the offender.” The sultan followed his guide,
+ invested the house with his guards, and extinguishing the
+ torches, pronounced the death of the criminal, who had been
+ seized in the act of rapine and adultery. After the execution of
+ his sentence, the lights were rekindled, Mahmud fell prostrate in
+ prayer, and rising from the ground, demanded some homely fare,
+ which he devoured with the voraciousness of hunger. The poor man,
+ whose injury he had avenged, was unable to suppress his
+ astonishment and curiosity; and the courteous monarch
+ condescended to explain the motives of this singular behavior. “I
+ had reason to suspect that none, except one of my sons, could
+ dare to perpetrate such an outrage; and I extinguished the
+ lights, that my justice might be blind and inexorable. My prayer
+ was a thanksgiving on the discovery of the offender; and so
+ painful was my anxiety, that I had passed three days without food
+ since the first moment of your complaint.”
+
+ II. The sultan of Gazna had declared war against the dynasty of
+ the Bowides, the sovereigns of the western Persia: he was
+ disarmed by an epistle of the sultana mother, and delayed his
+ invasion till the manhood of 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 soldier worthy of your arms.
+ He is now no more; his sceptre has passed to a woman and a child,
+ and you dare not attack their infancy and weakness. How
+ inglorious would be your conquest, how shameful your defeat! and
+ yet the event of war is in the hand of the Almighty.” Avarice was
+ the only defect that tarnished the illustrious character of
+ Mahmud; and never has that passion been more richly satiated. 811
+ The Orientals exceed the measure of credibility in the account of
+ millions of gold and silver, such as the avidity of man has never
+ accumulated; in the magnitude of pearls, diamonds, and rubies,
+ such as have never been produced by the workmanship of nature. 9
+ Yet the soil of Hindostan is impregnated with precious minerals:
+ her trade, in every age, has attracted the gold and silver of the
+ world; and her virgin spoils were rifled by the first of the
+ Mahometan conquerors. His behavior, in the last days of his life,
+ evinces the vanity of these possessions, so laboriously won, so
+ dangerously held, and so inevitably lost. He surveyed the vast
+ and various chambers of the treasury of Gazna, burst into tears,
+ and again closed the doors, without bestowing any portion of the
+ wealth which he could no longer hope to preserve. The following
+ day he reviewed the state of his military force; one hundred
+ thousand foot, fifty-five thousand horse, and thirteen hundred
+ elephants of battle. 10 He again wept the instability of human
+ greatness; and his grief was imbittered by the hostile progress
+ of the Turkmans, whom he had introduced into the heart of his
+ Persian kingdom.
+
+ 8 (return) [ D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 527. Yet
+ these letters apothegms, &c., are rarely the language of the
+ heart, or the motives of public action.]
+
+ 811 (return) [ Compare Price, vol. ii. p. 295.—M]
+
+ 9 (return) [ For instance, a ruby of four hundred and fifty
+ miskals, (Dow, vol. i. p. 53,) or six pounds three ounces: the
+ largest in the treasury of Delhi weighed seventeen miskals,
+ (Voyages de Tavernier, partie ii. p. 280.) It is true, that in
+ the East all colored stones are calied rubies, (p. 355,) and that
+ Tavernier saw three larger and more precious among the jewels de
+ notre grand roi, le plus puissant et plus magnifique de tous les
+ rois de la terre, (p. 376.)]
+
+ 10 (return) [ Dow, vol. i. p. 65. The sovereign of Kinoge is said
+ to have possessed 2500 elephants, (Abulfed. Geograph. tab. xv. p.
+ 274.) From these Indian stories, the reader may correct a note in
+ my first volume, (p. 245;) or from that note he may correct these
+ stories.]
+
+ In the modern depopulation of Asia, the regular operation of
+ government and agriculture is confined to the neighborhood of
+ cities; and the distant country is abandoned to the pastoral
+ tribes of Arabs, Curds, and Turkmans. 11 Of the last-mentioned
+ people, two considerable branches extend on either side of the
+ Caspian Sea: the western colony can muster forty thousand
+ soldiers; the eastern, less obvious to the traveller, but more
+ strong and populous, has increased to the number of one hundred
+ thousand families. In the midst of civilized nations, they
+ preserve the manners of the Scythian desert, remove their
+ encampments with a change of seasons, and feed their cattle among
+ the ruins of palaces and temples. Their flocks and herds are
+ their only riches; their tents, either black or white, according
+ to the color of the banner, are covered with 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 the men are
+ harsh and ferocious; the countenance of their women is soft and
+ pleasing. Their wandering life maintains the spirit and exercise
+ of arms; they fight on horseback; and their courage is displayed
+ in frequent contests with each other and with their neighbors.
+ For the license of pasture they pay a slight tribute to the
+ sovereign of the land; but the domestic jurisdiction is in the
+ hands of the chiefs and elders. The first emigration of the
+ Eastern Turkmans, the most ancient of the race, may be ascribed
+ to the tenth century of the Christian aera. 12 In the decline of
+ the caliphs, and the weakness of their lieutenants, the barrier
+ of the Jaxartes was often violated; in each invasion, after the
+ victory or retreat of their countrymen, some wandering tribe,
+ embracing the Mahometan faith, obtained a free encampment in the
+ spacious plains and pleasant climate of Transoxiana and Carizme.
+ The Turkish slaves who aspired to the throne encouraged these
+ emigrations which recruited their armies, awed their subjects and
+ rivals, and protected the frontier against the wilder natives of
+ Turkestan; and this policy was abused by Mahmud the Gaznevide
+ beyond the example of former times. He was admonished of his
+ error by the chief of the race of Seljuk, who dwelt in the
+ territory of Bochara. The sultan had 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 if that number,”
+ continued Mahmud, “should not be sufficient?”—“Send this second
+ arrow to the horde of Balik, and you will find fifty thousand
+ more.”—“But,” said the Gaznevide, dissembling his anxiety, “if I
+ should stand in need of the whole force of your kindred
+ tribes?”—“Despatch my bow,” was the last reply of Ismael, “and as
+ it is circulated around, the summons will be obeyed by two
+ hundred thousand horse.” The apprehension of such formidable
+ friendship induced Mahmud to transport the most obnoxious tribes
+ into the heart of Chorasan, where they would be separated from
+ their brethren of the River Oxus, and enclosed on all sides by
+ the walls of obedient cities. But the face of the country was an
+ object of temptation rather than terror; and the vigor of
+ government was relaxed by the absence and death of the sultan of
+ Gazna. The shepherds were converted into robbers; the bands of
+ robbers were collected into an army of conquerors: as far as
+ Ispahan and the Tigris, Persia was afflicted by their predatory
+ inroads; and the Turkmans were not ashamed or afraid to measure
+ their courage and numbers with the proudest 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 are now little
+ snakes; and, unless they be instantly crushed, they will acquire
+ the venom and magnitude of serpents.” After some alternatives of
+ truce and hostility, after the repulse or partial success of his
+ lieutenants, the sultan marched in person against the Turkmans,
+ who attacked him on all sides with barbarous shouts and irregular
+ onset. “Massoud,” says the Persian historian, 13 “plunged singly
+ to oppose the torrent of gleaming arms, exhibiting such acts of
+ gigantic force and valor as never king had before displayed. A
+ few of his friends, roused by his words and actions, and that
+ innate honor which inspires the brave, seconded their lord so
+ well, that wheresoever he turned his fatal sword, the enemies
+ were mowed down, or retreated before him. But now, when victory
+ seemed to blow on his standard, misfortune was active behind it;
+ for when he looked round, be beheld almost his whole army,
+ excepting that body he commanded in person, devouring the paths
+ of flight.” The Gaznevide was abandoned by the cowardice or
+ treachery of some generals of Turkish race; and this memorable
+ day of Zendecan 14 founded in Persia the dynasty of the shepherd
+ kings. 15
+
+ 11 (return) [ See a just and natural picture of these pastoral
+ manners, in the history of William archbishop of Tyre, (l. i. c.
+ vii. in the Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 633, 634,) and a valuable
+ note by the editor of the Histoire Genealogique des Tatars, p.
+ 535-538.]
+
+ 12 (return) [ The first emigration of the Turkmans, and doubtful
+ origin of 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,) and Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 221, 222.)]
+
+ 13 (return) [ Dow, Hist. of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 89, 95-98. I
+ have copied this passage as a specimen of the Persian manner; but
+ I suspect that, by some odd fatality, the style of Ferishta has
+ been improved by that of Ossian. * Note: Gibbon’s conjecture was
+ well founded. Compare the more sober and genuine version of Col.
+ Briggs, vol. i. p. 110.-M.]
+
+ 14 (return) [ 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, and renowned through the East for the
+ production and manufacture of cotton.]
+
+ 15 (return) [ 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 (which I shall not stop to unravel) may
+ inspire some distrust of the story of Cyaxares 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 of arrows 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 Michael the son of Seljuk,
+ whose surname was immortalized in the greatness of his posterity.
+ The sultan Mahmud, who valued himself on his skill in national
+ genealogy, professed his ignorance of the family of Seljuk; yet
+ the father of that race appears to have been a chief of power and
+ renown. 17 For a daring intrusion into the harem of his prince,
+ Seljuk was banished from Turkestan: with a numerous tribe of his
+ friends and vassals, he passed the Jaxartes, encamped in the
+ neighborhood of Samarcand, embraced the religion of Mahomet, and
+ acquired the crown of martyrdom in a war against the infidels.
+ His age, of a hundred and seven years, surpassed the life of his
+ son, and Seljuk adopted the care of his two grandsons, Togrul and
+ Jaafar; the eldest of whom, at the age of forty-five, was
+ invested with the title of Sultan, in the royal city of Nishabur.
+ The blind determination of chance was justified by the virtues of
+ the successful candidate. It would be superfluous to praise the
+ valor of a Turk; and the ambition of Togrul 18 was equal to his
+ valor. By his arms, the Gasnevides were expelled from the eastern
+ kingdoms of Persia, and gradually driven to the banks of the
+ Indus, in search of a softer and more wealthy conquest. In the
+ West he annihilated the dynasty of the Bowides; and the sceptre
+ of Irak passed from the Persian to the Turkish nation. The
+ princes who had felt, or who feared, the Seljukian arrows, bowed
+ their heads in the dust; by the conquest of Aderbijan, or Media,
+ he approached the Roman confines; and the shepherd presumed to
+ despatch an ambassador, or herald, to demand the tribute and
+ obedience of the emperor of Constantinople. 19 In his own
+ dominions, Togrul was the father of his soldiers and people; by a
+ firm and equal administration, Persia was relieved from the evils
+ of anarchy; and the same hands which had been imbrued in blood
+ became the guardians of justice and the public peace. The more
+ rustic, perhaps the wisest, portion of the Turkmans 20 continued
+ to dwell in the tents of their ancestors; and, from the Oxus to
+ the Euphrates, these military colonies were protected and
+ propagated by their native princes. But the Turks of the court
+ and city were refined by business and softened by pleasure: they
+ imitated the dress, language, and manners of Persia; and the
+ royal palaces of Nishabur and Rei displayed the order and
+ magnificence of a great monarchy. The most deserving of the
+ Arabians and Persians were promoted to the honors of the state;
+ and the whole body of the Turkish nation embraced, with fervor
+ and sincerity, the religion of Mahomet. The northern swarms of
+ Barbarians, who overspread both Europe and Asia, have been
+ irreconcilably separated by the consequences of a similar
+ conduct. Among the Moslems, as among the Christians, their vague
+ and local traditions have yielded to the reason and authority of
+ the prevailing system, to the fame of antiquity, and the consent
+ of nations. But the triumph of the Koran is more pure and
+ meritorious, as it was not assisted by any visible splendor of
+ worship which might allure the Pagans by some resemblance of
+ idolatry. The first of the Seljukian sultans was conspicuous by
+ his zeal and faith: each day he repeated the five prayers which
+ are enjoined to the true believers; of each week, the two first
+ days were consecrated by an extraordinary fast; and in every city
+ a mosch was completed, before Togrul presumed to lay the
+ foundations of a palace. 21
+
+ 16 (return) [ Willerm. Tyr. l. i. c. 7, p. 633. The divination by
+ arrows is ancient and famous in the East.]
+
+ 17 (return) [ D’Herbelot, p. 801. Yet after the fortune of his
+ posterity, Seljuk became the thirty-fourth in lineal descent from
+ the great Afrasiab, emperor of Touran, (p. 800.) The Tartar
+ pedigree of the house of Zingis gave a different cast to flattery
+ and fable; and the historian Mirkhond derives the Seljukides from
+ Alankavah, the virgin mother, (p. 801, col. 2.) If they be the
+ same as the Zalzuts of Abulghazi Bahadur Kahn, (Hist.
+ Genealogique, p. 148,) we quote in their favor the most weighty
+ evidence of a Tartar prince himself, the descendant of Zingis,
+ Alankavah, or Alancu, and Oguz Khan.]
+
+ 18 (return) [ By a slight corruption, Togrul Beg is the
+ Tangroli-pix of the Greeks. His reign and character are
+ faithfully exhibited by D’Herbelot (Bibliotheque Orientale, p.
+ 1027, 1028) and De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p.
+ 189-201.)]
+
+ 19 (return) [ Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 774, 775. Zonaras, tom. ii.
+ p. 257. With their usual knowledge of Oriental affairs, they
+ describe the ambassador as a sherif, who, like the syncellus of
+ the patriarch, was the vicar and successor of the caliph.]
+
+ 20 (return) [ From William of Tyre I have borrowed this
+ distinction of Turks and Turkmans, which at least is popular and
+ convenient. The names are the same, and the addition of man is of
+ the same import in the Persic and Teutonic idioms. Few critics
+ will adopt the etymology of James de Vitry, (Hist. Hierosol. l.
+ i. c. 11 p. 1061,) of Turcomani, quesi Turci et Comani, a mixed
+ people.]
+
+ 21 (return) [ 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 lively
+ reverence for the successor of the prophet. But that sublime
+ character was still disputed by the caliphs of Bagdad and Egypt,
+ and each of the rivals was solicitous to prove his title in the
+ judgment of the strong, though illiterate Barbarians. Mahmud the
+ Gaznevide had declared himself in favor of the line of Abbas; and
+ had treated with indignity the robe of honor which was presented
+ by the Fatimite ambassador. Yet the ungrateful Hashemite had
+ changed with the change of fortune; he applauded the victory of
+ Zendecan, and named the Seljukian sultan his temporal vicegerent
+ over the Moslem world. As Togrul executed and enlarged this
+ important trust, he was called to the deliverance of the caliph
+ Cayem, and obeyed the holy summons, which gave a new kingdom to
+ his arms. 22 In the palace of Bagdad, the commander of the
+ faithful still slumbered, a venerable phantom. His servant or
+ master, the prince of the Bowides, could no longer protect him
+ from the insolence of meaner tyrants; and the Euphrates and
+ Tigris were oppressed by the revolt of the Turkish and Arabian
+ emirs. The presence of a conqueror was implored as a blessing;
+ and the transient mischiefs of fire and sword were excused as the
+ sharp but salutary remedies which alone could restore the health
+ of the republic. At the head of an irresistible force, the sultan
+ of Persia marched from Hamadan: the proud were crushed, the
+ prostrate were spared; the prince of the Bowides disappeared; the
+ heads of the most obstinate rebels were laid at the feet of
+ Togrul; and he inflicted a lesson of obedience on the people of
+ Mosul and Bagdad. After the chastisement of the guilty, and the
+ restoration of peace, the royal shepherd accepted the reward of
+ his labors; and a solemn comedy represented the triumph of
+ religious prejudice over Barbarian power. 23 The Turkish sultan
+ embarked on the Tigris, landed at the gate of Racca, and made his
+ public entry on horseback. At the palace-gate he respectfully
+ dismounted, and walked on foot, preceded by his emirs without
+ arms. The caliph was seated behind his black veil: the black
+ garment of the Abbassides was cast over his shoulders, and he
+ held in his hand the staff of the apostle of God. The conqueror
+ of the East kissed the ground, stood some time in a modest
+ posture, and was led towards the throne by the vizier and
+ interpreter. After Togrul had seated 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 presented with seven
+ slaves, the natives of the seven climates of the Arabian empire.
+ His mystic veil was perfumed with musk; two crowns 231 were
+ placed on his head; two cimeters were girded to his side, as the
+ symbols of a double reign over the East and West. After this
+ inauguration, the sultan was prevented from prostrating himself a
+ second time; but he twice kissed the hand of the commander of the
+ faithful, and his titles were proclaimed by the voice of heralds
+ and the applause of the Moslems. In a second visit to Bagdad, the
+ Seljukian prince again rescued the caliph from his enemies and
+ devoutly, on foot, led the bridle of his mule from the prison to
+ the palace. Their alliance was cemented by the marriage of
+ Togrul’s sister with the successor of the prophet. Without
+ reluctance he had introduced a Turkish virgin into his harem; but
+ Cayem proudly refused his daughter to the sultan, disdained to
+ mingle the blood of the Hashemites with the blood of a Scythian
+ shepherd; and protracted the negotiation many months, till the
+ gradual diminution of his 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 title and prerogatives of
+ sultan; and his name, after that of the caliph, was pronounced in
+ the public prayers of the Moslems. Yet in this revolution, the
+ Abbassides acquired a larger measure of liberty and power. On the
+ throne of Asia, the Turkish monarchs were less jealous of the
+ domestic administration of Bagdad; and the commanders of the
+ faithful were relieved from the ignominious vexations to which
+ they had been exposed by the presence and poverty of the Persian
+ dynasty.
+
+ 22 (return) [ Consult the Bibliotheque Orientale, in the articles
+ of the Abbassides, Caher, and Caiem, and the Annals of Elmacin
+ and Abulpharagius.]
+
+ 23 (return) [ 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) I am ignorant of his age, country,
+ and character.]
+
+ 231 (return) [ According to Von Hammer, “crowns” are incorrect.
+ They are unknown as a symbol of royalty in the East. V. Hammer,
+ Osmanische Geschischte, vol. i. p. 567.—M.]
+
+ 24 (return) [ Eodem anno (A. H. 455) obiit princeps Togrulbecus
+ .... rex fuit clemens, prudens, et peritus regnandi, cujus terror
+ corda mortalium invaserat, ita ut obedirent ei reges atque ad
+ ipsum scriberent. Elma cin, Hist. Saracen. p. 342, vers. Erpenii.
+ * Note: He died, being 75 years old. V. Hammer.—M.]
+
+
+
+
+ Chapter LVII: The Turks.—Part II.
+
+ Since the fall of the caliphs, the discord and degeneracy of the
+ Saracens respected the Asiatic provinces of Rome; which, by the
+ victories of Nicephorus, Zimisces, and Basil, had been extended
+ as far as Antioch and the eastern boundaries of Armenia.
+
+ Twenty-five years after the death of Basil, his successors were
+ suddenly assaulted by an unknown race of Barbarians, who united
+ the Scythian valor with the fanaticism of new proselytes, and the
+ art and riches of a powerful monarchy. 25 The myriads of Turkish
+ horse overspread a frontier of six hundred miles from Tauris to
+ Arzeroum, and the blood of one hundred and thirty thousand
+ Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the Arabian prophet. Yet
+ the arms of Togrul did not make any deep or lasting impression on
+ the Greek empire. The torrent rolled away from the open country;
+ the sultan retired without glory or success from the siege of an
+ Armenian city; the obscure hostilities were continued or
+ suspended with a vicissitude of events; and the bravery of the
+ Macedonian legions renewed 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 of man; and the successor of
+ Togrul displayed the fierceness and generosity of the royal
+ animal. He passed the Euphrates at the head of the Turkish
+ cavalry, and entered Caesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, to
+ which he had been attracted by the fame and wealth of the temple
+ of St. Basil. The solid structure resisted the destroyer: but he
+ carried away the doors of the shrine incrusted with gold and
+ pearls, and profaned the relics of the tutelar saint, whose
+ mortal frailties were now covered by the venerable rust of
+ antiquity. The final conquest of Armenia and Georgia was achieved
+ by Alp Arslan. In Armenia, the title of a kingdom, and the spirit
+ of a nation, were annihilated: the artificial fortifications were
+ yielded by the mercenaries of Constantinople; by strangers
+ without faith, veterans without pay or arms, and recruits without
+ experience or discipline. The loss of this important frontier was
+ the news of a day; and the Catholics were neither surprised nor
+ displeased, that a people so deeply infected with the Nestorian
+ and Eutychian errors had been delivered by Christ and his mother
+ into the hands of the infidels. 27 The woods and valleys of Mount
+ Caucasus were more strenuously defended by the native Georgians
+ 28 or Iberians; but the Turkish sultan and his son Malek were
+ indefatigable in this holy war: their captives were compelled to
+ promise a spiritual, as well as temporal, obedience; and, instead
+ of their collars and bracelets, an iron horseshoe, a badge of
+ ignominy, was imposed on the infidels who still adhered to the
+ worship of their fathers. The change, however, was not sincere or
+ universal; and, through ages of servitude, the Georgians have
+ maintained the succession of their princes and bishops. But a
+ race of men, whom nature has cast in her most perfect mould, is
+ degraded by poverty, ignorance, and vice; their profession, and
+ still more their practice, of Christianity is an empty name; and
+ if they have emerged from heresy, it is only because they are too
+ illiterate to remember a metaphysical creed. 29
+
+ 25 (return) [ For these wars of the Turks and Romans, see in
+ general the Byzantine histories of Zonaras and Cedrenus,
+ Scylitzes the continuator of Cedrenus, and Nicephorus Bryennius
+ Caesar. The two first of these were monks, the two latter
+ statesmen; yet such were the Greeks, that the difference of style
+ and character is scarcely discernible. For the Orientals, I draw
+ as usuul on the wealth of D’Herbelot (see titles of the first
+ Seljukides) and the accuracy of De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom.
+ iii. l. x.)]
+
+ 26 (return) [ Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 791. The credulity of the
+ vulgar is always probable; and the Turks had learned from the
+ Arabs the history or legend of Escander Dulcarnein, (D’Herbelot,
+ p. 213 &c.)]
+
+ 27 (return) [ (Scylitzes, ad calcem Cedreni, tom. ii. p. 834,
+ whose ambiguous construction shall not tempt me to suspect that
+ he confounded the Nestorian and Monophysite heresies,) He
+ familiarly talks of the qualities, as I should apprehend, very
+ foreign to the perfect Being; but his bigotry is forced to
+ confess that they were soon afterwards discharged on the orthodox
+ Romans.]
+
+ 28 (return) [ Had the name of Georgians been known to the Greeks,
+ (Stritter, Memoriae Byzant. tom. iv. Iberica,) I should derive it
+ from their agriculture, (l. iv. c. 18, p. 289, edit. Wesseling.)
+ But it appears only since the crusades, among the Latins (Jac. a
+ Vitriaco, Hist. Hierosol. c. 79, p. 1095) and Orientals,
+ (D’Herbelot, p. 407,) and was devoutly borrowed from St. George
+ of Cappadocia.]
+
+ 29 (return) [ Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 632. See, in
+ Chardin’s Travels, (tom. i. p. 171-174,) the manners and religion
+ of this handsome but worthless nation. See the pedigree of their
+ princes from Adam 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 not
+ imitated by Alp Arslan; and he attacked without scruple the Greek
+ empress Eudocia and her children. His alarming progress compelled
+ her to give herself and her sceptre to the hand of a soldier; and
+ Romanus Diogenes was invested with the Imperial purple. His
+ patriotism, and perhaps his pride, urged him from Constantinople
+ within two months after his accession; and the next campaign he
+ most scandalously took the field during the holy festival of
+ Easter. In the palace, Diogenes was no more than the husband of
+ Eudocia: in the camp, he was the emperor of the Romans, and he
+ sustained that character with feeble resources and invincible
+ courage. By his spirit and success the soldiers were taught to
+ act, the subjects to hope, and the enemies to fear. The Turks had
+ penetrated into the heart of Phrygia; but the sultan himself had
+ resigned to his emirs the prosecution of the war; and their
+ numerous detachments were scattered over Asia in the security of
+ conquest. Laden with spoil, and careless of discipline, they were
+ separately surprised and defeated by the Greeks: the activity of
+ the emperor seemed to multiply his presence: and while they heard
+ of his expedition to Antioch, the enemy felt his sword on the
+ hills of Trebizond. In three laborious campaigns, the Turks were
+ driven beyond the Euphrates; in the fourth and last, Romanus
+ undertook the deliverance of Armenia. The desolation of the land
+ obliged him to transport a supply of two months’ provisions; and
+ he marched forwards to the siege of Malazkerd, 30 an important
+ fortress in the midway between the modern cities of Arzeroum and
+ Van. His army amounted, at the least, to one hundred thousand
+ men. The troops of Constantinople were reenforced by the
+ disorderly multitudes of Phrygia and Cappadocia; but the real
+ strength was composed of the subjects and allies of Europe, the
+ legions of Macedonia, and the squadrons of Bulgaria; the Uzi, a
+ Moldavian horde, who were themselves of the Turkish race; 31 and,
+ above all, the mercenary and adventurous bands of French and
+ Normans. Their lances were commanded by the valiant Ursel of
+ Baliol, the kinsman or father of the Scottish kings, 32 and were
+ allowed to excel in the exercise of arms, or, according to the
+ Greek style, in the practice of the Pyrrhic dance.
+
+ 30 (return) [ This city is mentioned by Constantine
+ Porphyrogenitus, (de Administrat. Imperii, l. ii. c. 44, p. 119,)
+ and the Byzantines of the xith century, under the name of
+ Mantzikierte, and by some is confounded with Theodosiopolis; but
+ Delisle, in his notes and maps, has very properly fixed the
+ situation. Abulfeda (Geograph. tab. xviii. p. 310) describes
+ Malasgerd as a small town, built with black stone, supplied with
+ water, without trees, &c.]
+
+ 31 (return) [ 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, and Armenia, Syria, and Chorasan, and the
+ name seems to have been extended to the whole Turkman race.]
+
+ 32 (return) [ Urselius (the Russelius of Zonaras) is
+ distinguished by Jeffrey Malaterra (l. i. c. 33) among the Norman
+ conquerors of Sicily, and with the surname of Baliol: and our own
+ historians will tell how the Baliols came from Normandy to
+ Durham, built Bernard’s castle on the Tees, married an heiress of
+ Scotland, &c. Ducange (Not. ad Nicephor. Bryennium, l. ii. No. 4)
+ has labored the subject in honor of the president de Bailleul,
+ whose father had exchanged the sword for the gown.]
+
+ On the report of this bold invasion, which threatened his
+ hereditary dominions, Alp Arslan flew to the scene of action at
+ the head of forty thousand horse. 33 His rapid and skilful
+ evolutions distressed and dismayed the superior numbers of the
+ Greeks; and in the defeat of Basilacius, one of their principal
+ generals, he displayed the first example of his valor and
+ clemency. The imprudence of the emperor had separated his forces
+ after the reduction of Malazkerd. It was in vain that he
+ attempted to recall the mercenary Franks: they refused to obey
+ his summons; he disdained to await their return: the desertion of
+ the Uzi filled his mind with anxiety and suspicion; and against
+ the most salutary advice he rushed forwards to speedy and
+ decisive action. Had he listened to the fair proposals of the
+ sultan, Romanus might have secured a retreat, perhaps a peace;
+ but in these overtures he supposed the fear or weakness of the
+ enemy, and his answer was conceived in the tone of insult and
+ defiance. “If the Barbarian wishes for peace, let him evacuate
+ 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 of so many faithful Moslems; and, after a devout
+ prayer, proclaimed a free permission to all who were desirous of
+ retiring from the field. With his own hands he tied up his
+ horse’s tail, exchanged his bow and arrows for a mace and
+ cimeter, clothed himself in a white garment, perfumed his body
+ with musk, and declared that if he were vanquished, that spot
+ should be the place of his burial. 34 The sultan himself had
+ affected to cast away his missile weapons: but his hopes of
+ victory were placed in the arrows of the Turkish cavalry, whose
+ squadrons were loosely distributed in the form of a crescent.
+ Instead of the successive lines and reserves of the Grecian
+ tactics, Romulus led his army in a single and solid phalanx, and
+ pressed with vigor and impatience the artful and yielding
+ resistance of the Barbarians. In this desultory and fruitless
+ combat he spent the greater part of a summer’s day, till prudence
+ and fatigue compelled him to return to his camp. But a retreat is
+ always perilous in the face of an active foe; and no sooner had
+ the standard been turned to the rear than the phalanx was broken
+ by the base cowardice, or the baser jealousy, of Andronicus, a
+ rival prince, who disgraced his birth and the purple of the
+ Caesars. 35 The Turkish squadrons poured a cloud of arrows on
+ this moment of confusion and lassitude; and the horns of their
+ formidable crescent were closed in the rear of the Greeks. In the
+ destruction of the army and pillage of the camp, it would be
+ needless to mention the number of the slain or captives. The
+ Byzantine writers deplore the loss of an inestimable pearl: they
+ forgot to mention, that in this fatal day the Asiatic provinces
+ of Rome were irretrievably sacrificed.
+
+ 33 (return) [ Elmacin (p. 343, 344) assigns this probable number,
+ which is 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 the emperor, of whom Abulpharagius says, Cum
+ centum hominum millibus, multisque equis et magna pompa
+ instructus. The Greeks abstain from any definition of numbers.]
+
+ 34 (return) [ The Byzantine writers do not speak so distinctly of
+ the presence of the sultan: he committed his forces to a eunuch,
+ had retired to a distance, &c. Is it ignorance, or jealousy, or
+ truth?]
+
+ 35 (return) [ He was the son of Caesar John Ducas, brother of the
+ emperor Constantine, (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 165.) Nicephorus
+ Bryennius applauds his virtues and extenuates his faults, (l. i.
+ p. 30, 38. l. ii. p. 53.) Yet he owns his enmity to Romanus.
+ Scylitzes speaks more explicitly of his treason.]
+
+ As long as a hope survived, Romanus attempted to rally and save
+ the relics of his army. When the centre, the Imperial station,
+ was left naked on all sides, and encompassed by the victorious
+ Turks, he still, with desperate courage, maintained the fight
+ till the close of day, at the 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 the strength of
+ multitudes. The glory of this illustrious prize was disputed by a
+ slave and a soldier; a slave who had seen him on the throne of
+ Constantinople, and a soldier whose extreme deformity had been
+ excused on the promise of some signal service.
+
+ Despoiled of his arms, his jewels, and his purple, Romanus spent
+ a dreary and perilous night on the field of battle, amidst a
+ disorderly crowd of the meaner Barbarians. In the morning the
+ royal captive was presented to Alp Arslan, who doubted of his
+ fortune, till the identity of the person was ascertained by the
+ report of his ambassadors, and by the more pathetic evidence of
+ Basilacius, who embraced with tears the feet of his unhappy
+ sovereign. The successor of Constantine, in a plebeian habit, was
+ led into the Turkish divan, and commanded to kiss the ground
+ before the lord of Asia. He reluctantly obeyed; and Alp Arslan,
+ starting from his throne, is said to have planted his foot on the
+ neck of the Roman emperor. 36 But the fact is doubtful; and if,
+ in this moment of insolence, the sultan complied with the
+ national custom, the rest of his conduct has extorted the praise
+ of his bigoted foes, and may afford a lesson to the most
+ civilized ages. He instantly raised the royal captive from the
+ ground; and thrice clasping his hand with tender sympathy,
+ assured him, that his life and dignity should be inviolate in the
+ hands of a prince who had learned to respect the majesty of his
+ equals and the vicissitudes of fortune. From the divan, Romanus
+ was conducted to an adjacent tent, where he was served with pomp
+ and reverence by the officers of the sultan, who, twice each day,
+ seated him in the place of honor at his own table. In a free and
+ familiar conversation of eight days, not a word, not a look, of
+ insult escaped from the conqueror; but he severely censured the
+ unworthy subjects who had deserted their valiant prince in the
+ hour of danger, and gently admonished his antagonist of some
+ errors which he had committed in the management of the war. In
+ the preliminaries of negotiation, Alp Arslan asked him what
+ treatment he expected to receive, and the calm indifference of
+ the emperor displays the freedom of his mind. “If you are cruel,”
+ said he, “you will take my life; if you listen to pride, you will
+ 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
+ fortune smiled on your arms?” The reply of the Greek betrays a
+ sentiment, which prudence, and even gratitude, should have taught
+ him to suppress. “Had I vanquished,” he fiercely said, “I would
+ have inflicted on thy body many a stripe.” The Turkish conqueror
+ smiled at the insolence of his captive; observed that the
+ Christian law inculcated the love of enemies and forgiveness of
+ injuries; and nobly declared, that he would not imitate an
+ example which he condemned. After mature deliberation, Alp Arslan
+ dictated the terms of liberty and peace, a ransom of a million,
+ 361 an annual tribute of three hundred and sixty thousand pieces
+ of gold, 37 the marriage of the royal children, and the
+ deliverance of all the Moslems, who were in the power of the
+ Greeks. Romanus, with a sigh, subscribed this treaty, so
+ disgraceful to the majesty of the empire; he was immediately
+ invested with a Turkish robe of honor; his nobles and patricians
+ were restored to their sovereign; and the sultan, after a
+ courteous embrace, dismissed him with rich presents and a
+ military guard. No sooner did he reach the confines of the
+ empire, than he was informed that the palace and provinces had
+ disclaimed their allegiance to a captive: a sum of two hundred
+ thousand pieces was painfully collected; and the fallen monarch
+ transmitted this part of his ransom, with a sad confession of his
+ impotence and disgrace. The generosity, or perhaps the ambition,
+ of the sultan, prepared to espouse the cause of his ally; but his
+ designs were prevented by the defeat, imprisonment, and death, of
+ Romanus Diogenes. 38
+
+ 36 (return) [ This circumstance, which we read and doubt in
+ Scylitzes and Constantine Manasses, is more prudently omitted by
+ Nicephorus and Zonaras.]
+
+ 361 (return) [ Elmacin gives 1,500,000. Wilken, Geschichte der
+ Kreuz-zuge, vol. l. p. 10.—M.]
+
+ 37 (return) [ The ransom and tribute are attested by reason and
+ the Orientals. The other Greeks are modestly silent; but
+ Nicephorus Bryennius dares to affirm, that the terms were bad and
+ that the emperor would have preferred death to a shameful
+ treaty.]
+
+ 38 (return) [ The defeat and captivity of Romanus Diogenes may be
+ found in 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. 343 344. Abulpharag. Dynast. p. 227.
+ D’Herbelot, p. 102, 103. D Guignes, tom. iii. p. 207-211. Besides
+ my old acquaintance Elmacin and Abulpharagius, the historian of
+ the Huns has consulted Abulfeda, and his epitomizer Benschounah,
+ a Chronicle of the Caliphs, by Abulmahasen of Egypt, and Novairi
+ of Africa.]
+
+ In the treaty of peace, it does not appear that Alp Arslan
+ extorted any province or city from the captive emperor; and his
+ revenge was satisfied with the trophies of his victory, and the
+ spoils of Anatolia, from Antioch to the Black Sea. The fairest
+ part of Asia was subject to his laws: twelve hundred princes, or
+ the sons of princes, stood before his throne; and two hundred
+ thousand soldiers marched under his banners. The sultan disdained
+ to pursue the fugitive Greeks; but he meditated the more glorious
+ conquest of Turkestan, the original seat of the house of Seljuk.
+ He moved from Bagdad to the banks of the Oxus; a bridge was
+ thrown over the river; and twenty days were consumed in the
+ passage of his troops. But the progress of the great king was
+ retarded by the governor of Berzem; and Joseph the Carizmian
+ presumed to defend his fortress against the powers of the East.
+ When he was produced a captive in the royal tent, the sultan,
+ instead of praising his valor, severely reproached his obstinate
+ folly: and the insolent replies of the rebel provoked a sentence,
+ that he should be fastened to four stakes, and left to expire in
+ that painful situation. At this command, the desperate Carizmian,
+ drawing a dagger, rushed headlong towards the throne: the guards
+ raised their battle-axes; their zeal was checked by Alp Arslan,
+ the most skilful archer of the age: he drew his bow, but his foot
+ slipped, the arrow glanced aside, and he received in his breast
+ the dagger of Joseph, who was instantly cut in pieces.
+
+ The wound was mortal; and the Turkish prince bequeathed a dying
+ admonition to the pride of kings. “In my youth,” said Alp Arslan,
+ “I was advised by a sage to humble myself before God; to distrust
+ my own strength; and never to despise the most contemptible foe.
+ I have neglected these lessons; and my neglect has been
+ deservedly punished. Yesterday, as from an eminence I beheld the
+ numbers, the discipline, and the spirit, of my armies, the earth
+ seemed to tremble under my feet; and I said in my heart, Surely
+ thou art the king of the world, the greatest and most invincible
+ of warriors. These armies are no longer mine; and, in the
+ confidence of my personal strength, I now fall by the hand of an
+ assassin.” 39 Alp Arslan possessed the virtues of a Turk and a
+ Mussulman; his voice and stature commanded the reverence of
+ mankind; his face was shaded with long whiskers; and his ample
+ turban was fashioned in the shape of a crown. The remains of the
+ sultan were deposited in the tomb of the Seljukian dynasty; and
+ the passenger might read and meditate this useful inscription: 40
+ “O ye who have seen the glory of Alp Arslan exalted to the
+ heavens, repair to Maru, and you will behold it buried in the
+ dust.” The annihilation of the inscription, and the tomb itself,
+ more forcibly proclaims the instability of human greatness.
+
+ 39 (return) [ This interesting death is told by D’Herbelot, (p.
+ 103, 104,) and M. De Guignes, (tom. iii. p. 212, 213.) from their
+ Oriental writers; but neither of them have transfused the spirit
+ of Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen p. 344, 345.)]
+
+ 40 (return) [ A critic of high renown, (the late Dr. Johnson,)
+ who has severely scrutinized the epitaphs of Pope, might cavil in
+ this sublime inscription at the words “repair to Maru,” since the
+ reader must already be at Maru before he could peruse the
+ inscription.]
+
+ During the life of Alp Arslan, his eldest son had been
+ acknowledged as the future sultan of the Turks. On his father’s
+ death the inheritance was disputed by an uncle, a cousin, and a
+ brother: they drew their cimeters, and assembled their followers;
+ and the triple victory of Malek Shah 41 established his own
+ reputation and the right of primogeniture. In every age, and more
+ especially in Asia, the thirst of power has inspired the same
+ passions, and occasioned the same disorders; but, from the long
+ series of civil war, it would not be easy to extract a sentiment
+ more pure and magnanimous than is contained in the saying of the
+ Turkish prince. On the eve of the battle, he performed his
+ devotions at Thous, before the tomb of the Imam Riza. As the
+ sultan rose from the ground, he asked his vizier Nizam, who had
+ knelt beside him, what had been the object of his secret
+ petition: “That your arms may be crowned with victory,” was the
+ prudent, and most probably the sincere, answer of the minister.
+ “For my part,” replied the generous Malek, “I implored the Lord
+ of Hosts that he would take from me my life and crown, if my
+ brother be more worthy than myself to reign over the Moslems.”
+ The favorable judgment of heaven was ratified by the caliph; and
+ for the first time, the sacred title of Commander of the Faithful
+ was communicated 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 of innumerable armies to achieve the conquest
+ of Turkestan, which had been undertaken by his father. In his
+ passage of the Oxus, the boatmen, who had been employed in
+ transporting some troops, complained, that their payment was
+ assigned on the revenues of Antioch. The sultan frowned at this
+ preposterous choice; but he miled at the artful flattery of his
+ vizier. “It was not to postpone their reward, that I selected
+ those remote places, but to leave a memorial to posterity, that,
+ under your reign, Antioch and the Oxus were subject to the same
+ sovereign.” But this description of his limits was unjust and
+ parsimonious: beyond the Oxus, he reduced to his obedience the
+ cities of Bochara, Carizme, and Samarcand, and crushed each
+ rebellious slave, or independent savage, who dared to resist.
+ Malek passed the Sihon or Jaxartes, the last boundary of Persian
+ civilization: the hordes of Turkestan yielded to his supremacy:
+ his name was inserted on the coins, and in the prayers of
+ Cashgar, a Tartar kingdom on the extreme borders of China. From
+ the Chinese frontier, he stretched his immediate jurisdiction or
+ feudatory sway to the west and south, as far as the mountains of
+ Georgia, the neighborhood of Constantinople, the holy city of
+ Jerusalem, and the spicy groves of Arabia Felix. Instead of
+ resigning himself to the luxury of his harem, the shepherd king,
+ both in peace and war, was in action and in the field. By the
+ perpetual motion of the royal camp, each province was
+ successively blessed with his presence; and he is said to have
+ perambulated twelve times the wide extent of his dominions, which
+ surpassed the Asiatic reign of Cyrus and the caliphs. Of these
+ expeditions, the most pious and splendid was the pilgrimage of
+ Mecca: the freedom and safety of the caravans were protected by
+ his arms; the citizens and pilgrims were enriched by the
+ profusion of his alms; and the desert was cheered by the places
+ of relief and refreshment, which he instituted for the use of his
+ brethren. Hunting was the pleasure, and even the passion, of the
+ sultan, and his train consisted of forty-seven thousand horses;
+ but after the massacre of a Turkish chase, for each piece of
+ game, he bestowed a piece of gold on the poor, a slight
+ atonement, at the expense of the people, for the cost and
+ mischief of the amusement of kings. In the peaceful prosperity of
+ his reign, the cities of Asia were adorned with palaces and
+ hospitals with moschs and colleges; few departed from his Divan
+ without reward, and none without justice. The language and
+ literature of Persia revived under the house of Seljuk; 42 and if
+ Malek emulated the liberality of a Turk less potent than himself,
+ 43 his palace might resound with the songs of a hundred poets.
+ The sultan bestowed a more serious and learned care on the
+ reformation of the calendar, which was effected by a general
+ assembly of the astronomers of the East. By a law of the prophet,
+ the Moslems are confined to the irregular course of the lunar
+ months; in Persia, since the age of Zoroaster, the revolution of
+ the sun has been known and celebrated as an annual festival; 44
+ but after the fall of the Magian empire, the intercalation had
+ been neglected; the fractions of minutes and hours were
+ multiplied into days; and the date of the springs was removed
+ from the sign of Aries to that of Pisces. The reign of Malek was
+ illustrated by the Gelalaean aera; and all errors, either past or
+ future, were corrected by a computation of time, which surpasses
+ the Julian, and approaches the accuracy of the Gregorian, style.
+ 45
+
+ 41 (return) [ The Bibliotheque Orientale has given the text of
+ the reign of Malek, (p. 542, 543, 544, 654, 655;) and the
+ Histoire Generale des Huns (tom. iii. p. 214-224) has added the
+ usual measure of repetition emendation, and supplement. Without
+ those two learned Frenchmen I should be blind indeed in the
+ Eastern world.]
+
+ 42 (return) [ See an excellent discourse at the end of Sir
+ William Jones’s History of Nadir Shah, and the articles of the
+ poets, Amak, Anvari, Raschidi, &c., in the Bibliotheque
+ Orientale. ]
+
+ 43 (return) [ His name was Kheder Khan. Four bags were placed
+ round his sopha, and as he listened to the song, he cast handfuls
+ of gold and silver to the poets, (D’Herbelot, p. 107.) All this
+ may be true; but I do not understand how he could reign in
+ Transoxiana in the time of Malek Shah, and much less how Kheder
+ could surpass him in power and pomp. I suspect that the
+ beginning, not the end, of the xith century is the true aera of
+ his reign.]
+
+ 44 (return) [ See Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. ii. p. 235.]
+
+ 45 (return) [ The Gelalaean aera (Gelaleddin, Glory of the Faith,
+ was one 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 testimonies of 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
+ light and splendor of Asia may be ascribed to the docility rather
+ than the knowledge of the Turkish conquerors. An ample share of
+ their wisdom and virtue is due to a Persian vizier, who ruled the
+ empire under the reigns of Alp Arslan and his son. Nizam, one of
+ the most illustrious ministers of the East, was honored by the
+ caliph as an oracle of religion and science; he was trusted by
+ the sultan as the faithful vicegerent of his power and justice.
+ After an administration of thirty years, the fame of the vizier,
+ his wealth, and even his services, were transformed into crimes.
+ 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 and
+ ink-horn, the badges of his office, were connected by the divine
+ decree with the throne and diadem of the sultan. At the age of
+ ninety-three years, the venerable statesman was dismissed by his
+ master, accused by his enemies, and murdered by a fanatic: 451
+ the last words of Nizam attested his innocence, and the remainder
+ of Malek’s life was short and inglorious. From Ispahan, the scene
+ of this disgraceful transaction, the sultan moved to Bagdad, with
+ the design of transplanting the caliph, and of fixing his own
+ residence in the capital of the Moslem world. The feeble
+ successor of Mahomet obtained a respite of ten days; and before
+ the expiration of the term, the Barbarian was summoned by the
+ angel of death. His ambassadors at Constantinople had asked in
+ marriage a Roman princess; but the proposal was decently eluded;
+ and the daughter of Alexius, who might herself have been the
+ victim, expresses her abhorrence of his unnatural conjunction. 46
+ The daughter of the sultan was bestowed on the caliph Moctadi,
+ with the imperious condition, that, renouncing the society of his
+ wives and concubines, he should forever confine himself to this
+ honorable alliance.
+
+ 451 (return) [ He was the first great victim of his enemy, Hassan
+ Sabek, founder of the Assassins. Von Hammer, Geschichte der
+ Assassinen, p. 95.—M.]
+
+ 46 (return) [ She speaks of this Persian royalty. Anna Comnena
+ was only nine years old at the end of the reign of Malek Shah,
+ (A.D. 1092,) and when she speaks of his assassination, she
+ confounds the sultan with the vizier, (Alexias, l. vi. p. 177,
+ 178.)]
+
+
+
+
+ Chapter LVII: The Turks.—Part III.
+
+ The greatness and unity of the Turkish empire expired in the
+ person of Malek Shah. His vacant throne was disputed by his
+ brother and his four sons; 461 and, after a series of civil wars,
+ the treaty which reconciled the surviving candidates confirmed a
+ lasting separation in the Persian dynasty, the eldest and
+ principal branch of the house of Seljuk. The three younger
+ dynasties were those of Kerman, of Syria, and of Roum: the first
+ of these commanded an extensive, though obscure, 47 dominion on
+ the shores of the Indian Ocean: 48 the second expelled the
+ Arabian princes of Aleppo and Damascus; and the third, our
+ peculiar care, invaded the Roman provinces of Asia Minor. The
+ generous policy of Malek contributed to their elevation: he
+ allowed the princes of his blood, even those whom he had
+ vanquished in the field, to seek new kingdoms worthy of their
+ ambition; nor was he displeased that they should draw away the
+ more ardent spirits, who might have disturbed the tranquillity of
+ his reign. As the supreme head of his family and nation, the
+ great sultan of Persia commanded the obedience and tribute of his
+ royal brethren: the thrones of Kerman and Nice, of Aleppo and
+ Damascus; the Atabeks, and emirs of Syria and Mesopotamia,
+ erected their standards under the shadow of his sceptre: 49 and
+ the hordes of Turkmans overspread the plains of the Western Asia.
+
+ After the death of Malek, the bands of union and subordination
+ were relaxed and finally dissolved: the indulgence of the house
+ of Seljuk invested their slaves with the inheritance of kingdoms;
+ and, in the Oriental style, a crowd of princes arose from the
+ dust of their feet. 50
+
+ 461 (return) [ See Von Hammer, Osmanische Geschichte, vol. i. p.
+ 16. The Seljukian dominions were for a time reunited in the
+ person of Sandjar, one of the sons of Malek Shah, who ruled “from
+ Kashgar to Antioch, from the Caspian to the Straits of
+ Babelmandel.”—M.]
+
+ 47 (return) [ So obscure, that the industry of M. De Guignes
+ could only copy (tom. i. p. 244, tom. iii. part i. p. 269, &c.)
+ the history, or rather list, of the Seljukides of Kerman, in
+ Bibliotheque Orientale. They were extinguished before the end of
+ the xiith century.]
+
+ 48 (return) [ Tavernier, perhaps the only traveller who has
+ visited Kerman, describes the capital as a great ruinous village,
+ twenty-five days’ journey from Ispahan, and twenty-seven from
+ Ormus, in the midst of a fertile country, (Voyages en Turquie et
+ en Perse, p. 107, 110.)]
+
+ 49 (return) [ It appears from Anna Comnena, that the Turks of
+ Asia Minor obeyed 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.)]
+
+ 50 (return) [ This expression is quoted by Petit de la Croix (Vie
+ de Gestis p. 160) from some poet, most probably a Persian.]
+
+ A prince of the royal line, Cutulmish, 501 the son of Izrail, the
+ son of Seljuk, had fallen in a battle against Alp Arslan and the
+ humane victor had dropped a tear over his grave. His five sons,
+ strong in arms, ambitious of power, and eager for revenge,
+ unsheathed their cimeters against the son of Alp Arslan. The two
+ armies expected the signal when the caliph, forgetful of the
+ majesty which secluded him from vulgar eyes, interposed his
+ venerable mediation. “Instead of shedding the blood of your
+ brethren, your brethren both in descent and faith, unite your
+ forces in a holy war against the Greeks, the enemies of God and
+ his apostle.” They listened to his voice; the sultan embraced his
+ rebellious kinsmen; and the eldest, the valiant Soliman, accepted
+ the royal standard, which gave him the free conquest and
+ hereditary command of the provinces of the Roman empire, from
+ Arzeroum to Constantinople, and the unknown regions of the West.
+ 51 Accompanied by his four brothers, he passed the Euphrates; the
+ Turkish camp was soon seated in the neighborhood of Kutaieh in
+ Phrygia; and his flying cavalry laid waste the country as far as
+ the Hellespont and the Black Sea. Since the decline of the
+ empire, the peninsula of Asia Minor had been exposed to the
+ transient, though destructive, inroads of the Persians and
+ Saracens; but the fruits of a lasting conquest were reserved for
+ the Turkish sultan; and his arms were introduced by the Greeks,
+ who aspired to reign on the ruins of their country. Since the
+ captivity of Romanus, six years the feeble son of Eudocia had
+ trembled under the weight of the Imperial crown, till the
+ provinces of the East and West were lost in the same month by a
+ double rebellion: of either chief Nicephorus was the common name;
+ but the surnames of Bryennius and Botoniates distinguish the
+ European and Asiatic candidates. Their reasons, or rather their
+ promises, were weighed in the Divan; and, after some hesitation,
+ Soliman declared himself in favor of Botoniates, opened a free
+ passage to his troops in their march from Antioch to Nice, and
+ joined the banner of the Crescent to that of the Cross. After his
+ ally had ascended the throne of Constantinople, the sultan was
+ hospitably entertained in the suburb of Chrysopolis or Scutari;
+ and a body of two thousand Turks was transported into Europe, to
+ whose dexterity and courage the new emperor was indebted for the
+ defeat and captivity of his rival, Bryennius. But the conquest of
+ Europe was dearly purchased by the sacrifice of Asia:
+ Constantinople was deprived of the obedience and revenue of the
+ provinces beyond the Bosphorus and Hellespont; and the regular
+ progress of the Turks, who fortified the passes of the rivers and
+ mountains, left not a hope of their retreat or expulsion. Another
+ candidate implored the aid of the sultan: Melissenus, in his
+ purple robes and red buskins, attended the motions of the Turkish
+ camp; and the desponding cities were tempted by the summons of a
+ Roman prince, who immediately surrendered them into the hands of
+ the Barbarians. These acquisitions were confirmed by a treaty of
+ peace with the emperor Alexius: his fear of Robert compelled him
+ to seek the friendship of Soliman; and it was not till after the
+ sultan’s death that he extended as far as Nicomedia, about sixty
+ miles from Constantinople, the eastern boundary of the Roman
+ world. Trebizond alone, defended on either side by the sea and
+ mountains, preserved at the extremity of the Euxine the ancient
+ character of a Greek colony, and the future destiny of a
+ Christian empire.
+
+ 501 (return) [ Wilken considers Cutulmish not a Turkish name.
+ Geschicht Kreuz-zuge, vol. i. p. 9.—M.]
+
+ 51 (return) [ On the conquest of Asia Minor, M. De Guignes has
+ derived no assistance from the Turkish or Arabian writers, who
+ produce a naked list of the Seljukides of Roum. The Greeks are
+ unwilling to expose their shame, 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 Turks in Anatolia or Asia Minor was the most deplorable loss
+ which the church and empire had sustained. By the propagation of
+ the Moslem faith, Soliman deserved the name of Gazi, a holy
+ champion; and his new kingdoms, of the Romans, or of Roum, was
+ added to the tables of Oriental geography. It is described as
+ extending from the Euphrates to Constantinople, from the Black
+ Sea to the confines of Syria; pregnant with mines of silver and
+ iron, of alum and copper, fruitful in corn and wine, and
+ productive of cattle and excellent horses. 52 The wealth of
+ Lydia, the arts of the Greeks, the splendor of the Augustan age,
+ existed only in books and ruins, which were equally obscure in
+ the eyes of the Scythian conquerors. Yet, in the present decay,
+ Anatolia still contains some wealthy and populous cities; and,
+ under the Byzantine empire, they were far more flourishing in
+ numbers, size, and opulence. By the choice of the sultan, Nice,
+ the metropolis of Bithynia, was preferred for his palace and
+ fortress: the seat of the Seljukian dynasty of Roum was planted
+ one hundred miles from Constantinople; and the divinity of Christ
+ was denied and derided in the same temple in which it had been
+ pronounced by the first general synod of the Catholics. The unity
+ of God, and the mission of Mahomet, were preached in the moschs;
+ the Arabian learning was taught in the schools; the Cadhis judged
+ according to the law of the Koran; the Turkish manners and
+ language prevailed in the cities; and Turkman camps were
+ scattered over the plains and mountains of Anatolia. On the hard
+ conditions of tribute and servitude, the Greek Christians might
+ enjoy the exercise of their religion; but their most holy
+ churches were profaned; their priests and bishops were insulted;
+ 53 they were compelled to suffer the triumph of the Pagans, and
+ the apostasy of their brethren; many thousand children were
+ marked by the knife of circumcision; and many thousand captives
+ were devoted to the service or the pleasures of their masters. 54
+ After the loss of Asia, Antioch still maintained her primitive
+ allegiance to Christ and Caesar; but the solitary province was
+ separated from all Roman aid, and surrounded on all sides by the
+ Mahometan powers. The despair of Philaretus the governor prepared
+ the sacrifice of his religion and loyalty, had not his guilt been
+ prevented by his son, who hastened to the Nicene palace, and
+ offered to deliver this valuable prize into the hands of Soliman.
+ The ambitious sultan mounted on horseback, and in twelve nights
+ (for he reposed in the day) performed a march of six hundred
+ miles. Antioch was oppressed by the speed and secrecy of his
+ enterprise; and the dependent cities, as far as Laodicea and the
+ confines of Aleppo, 55 obeyed the example of the metropolis. From
+ Laodicea to the Thracian Bosphorus, or arm of St. George, the
+ conquests and reign of Soliman extended thirty days’ journey in
+ length, and in breadth about ten or fifteen, between the rocks of
+ Lycia and the Black Sea. 56 The Turkish ignorance of navigation
+ protected, for a while, the inglorious safety of the emperor; but
+ no sooner had a fleet of two hundred ships been constructed by
+ the hands of the captive Greeks, than Alexius trembled behind the
+ walls of his capital. His plaintive epistles were dispersed over
+ Europe, to excite the compassion of the Latins, and to paint the
+ danger, the weakness, and the riches of the city of Constantine.
+ 57
+
+ 52 (return) [ Such is the description of Roum by Haiton the
+ Armenian, whose Tartar history may be found in the collections of
+ Ramusio and Bergeron, (see Abulfeda, Geograph. climat. xvii. p.
+ 301-305.)]
+
+ 53 (return) [ Dicit eos quendam abusione Sodomitica intervertisse
+ episcopum, (Guibert. Abbat. Hist. Hierosol. l. i. p. 468.) It is
+ odd enough, that we should find a parallel passage of the same
+ people in the present 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, non contens de disposer de tout a leur
+ gre pretendent encore aux succes les moins desirables. Quelque
+ Sipahis ont porte leurs attentats sur la personne du vieux rabbi
+ de la synagogue, et celle de l’Archeveque Grec.” (Memoires du
+ Baron de Tott, tom. ii. p. 193.)]
+
+ 54 (return) [ The emperor, or abbot describe the scenes of a
+ Turkish camp as if they had been present. Matres correptae in
+ conspectu filiarum multipliciter repetitis diversorum coitibus
+ vexabantur; (is that the true reading?) cum filiae assistentes
+ carmina praecinere saltando cogerentur. Mox eadem passio ad
+ filias, &c.]
+
+ 55 (return) [ See Antioch, and the death of Soliman, in Anna
+ Comnena, (Alexius, l. vi. p. 168, 169,) with the notes of
+ Ducange.]
+
+ 56 (return) [ William of Tyre (l. i. c. 9, 10, p. 635) gives the
+ most authentic and deplorable account of these Turkish
+ conquests.]
+
+ 57 (return) [ In his epistle to the count of Flanders, Alexius
+ seems to fall too low beneath his character and dignity; yet it
+ is approved by Ducange, (Not. ad Alexiad. p. 335, &c.,) and
+ paraphrased by the Abbot Guibert, a contemporary historian. The
+ Greek text no longer exists; and each translator and scribe might
+ say with Guibert, (p. 475,) verbis vestita meis, a privilege of
+ most indefinite latitude.]
+
+ But the most interesting conquest of the Seljukian Turks was that
+ of Jerusalem, 58 which soon became the theatre of nations. In
+ their capitulation with Omar, the inhabitants had stipulated the
+ assurance of their religion and property; but the articles were
+ interpreted by a master against whom it was dangerous to dispute;
+ and in the four hundred years of the reign of the caliphs, the
+ political climate of Jerusalem was exposed to the vicissitudes of
+ storm and sunshine. 59 By the increase of proselytes and
+ population, the Mahometans might excuse the usurpation of three
+ fourths of the city: but a peculiar quarter was resolved for the
+ patriarch with his clergy and people; a tribute of two pieces 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 his votaries. Of these votaries, the most numerous and
+ respectable portion were strangers to Jerusalem: the pilgrimages
+ to the Holy Land had been stimulated, rather than suppressed, by
+ the conquest of the Arabs; and the enthusiasm which had always
+ prompted these perilous journeys, was nourished by the congenial
+ passions of grief and indignation. A crowd of pilgrims 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 and Abyssinians, the Armenians and Georgians, maintained
+ the chapels, the clergy, and the poor of their respective
+ communions. The harmony of prayer in so many various tongues, the
+ worship of so many nations in the common temple of their
+ religion, might have afforded a spectacle of edification and
+ peace; but the zeal of the Christian sects was imbittered by
+ hatred and revenge; and in the kingdom of a suffering Messiah,
+ who had pardoned his enemies, they aspired to command and
+ persecute their spiritual brethren. The preeminence was asserted
+ by the spirit and numbers of the Franks; and the greatness of
+ Charlemagne 60 protected both the Latin pilgrims and the
+ Catholics of the East. The poverty of Carthage, Alexandria, and
+ Jerusalem, was relieved by the alms of that pious emperor; and
+ many monasteries of Palestine were founded or restored by his
+ liberal devotion. Harun Alrashid, the greatest of the Abbassides,
+ esteemed in his Christian brother a similar supremacy of genius
+ and power: their friendship was cemented by a frequent
+ intercourse of gifts and embassies; and the caliph, without
+ resigning the substantial dominion, presented the emperor with
+ the keys of the holy sepulchre, and perhaps of the city of
+ Jerusalem. In the decline of the Carlovingian monarchy, the
+ republic of Amalphi promoted the interest of trade and religion
+ in the East. Her vessels transported the Latin pilgrims to the
+ coasts of Egypt and Palestine, and deserved, by their useful
+ imports, the favor and alliance of the Fatimite caliphs: 61 an
+ annual fair was instituted on Mount Calvary: and the Italian
+ merchants founded the convent and hospital of St. John of
+ Jerusalem, the cradle of the monastic and military order, which
+ has since reigned in the isles of Rhodes and of Malta. Had the
+ Christian pilgrims been content to revere the tomb of a prophet,
+ the disciples of Mahomet, instead of blaming, would have
+ imitated, their piety: but these rigid Unitarians were
+ scandalized by a worship which represents the birth, death, and
+ resurrection, of a God; the Catholic images were branded with the
+ name of idols; and the Moslems smiled with indignation 62 at the
+ miraculous flame which was kindled on the eve of Easter in the
+ holy sepulchre. 63 This pious fraud, first devised in the ninth
+ century, 64 was devoutly cherished by the Latin crusaders, and is
+ annually repeated by the clergy of the Greek, Armenian, and
+ Coptic sects, 65 who impose on the credulous spectators 66 for
+ their own benefit, and that of their tyrants. In every age, a
+ principle of toleration has been fortified by a sense of
+ interest: and the revenue of the prince and his emir was
+ increased each year, by the expense and tribute of so many
+ thousand strangers.
+
+ 58 (return) [ Our best fund for the history of Jerusalem from
+ Heraclius to the crusades is contained in two large and original
+ passages of William 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 has composed a very learned Memoire sur le Commerce
+ des Francois dans le de Levant avant les Croisades, &c. (Mem. de
+ l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxxvii. p. 467-500.)]
+
+ 59 (return) [ Secundum Dominorum dispositionem plerumque lucida
+ plerum que nubila recepit intervalla, et aegrotantium more
+ temporum praesentium gravabatur aut respirabat qualitate, (l. i.
+ c. 3, p. 630.) The latinity of William of Tyre is by no means
+ contemptible: but in his account of 490 years, from the loss to
+ the recovery of Jerusalem, precedes the true account by 30
+ years.]
+
+ 60 (return) [ For the transactions of Charlemagne with the Holy
+ Land, see Eginhard, (de Vita Caroli Magni, c. 16, p. 79-82,)
+ Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Administratione Imperii, l. ii.
+ c. 26, p. 80,) and Pagi, (Critica, tom. iii. A.D. 800, No. 13,
+ 14, 15.)]
+
+ 61 (return) [ The caliph granted his privileges, Amalphitanis
+ viris amicis et utilium introductoribus, (Gesta Dei, p. 934.) The
+ trade of Venice to Egypt and Palestine cannot produce so old a
+ title, unless we adopt the laughable translation of a Frenchman,
+ who mistook the two factions of the circus (Veneti et Prasini)
+ for the Venetians and Parisians.]
+
+ 62 (return) [ An Arabic chronicle of Jerusalem (apud Asseman.
+ Bibliot. Orient. tom. i. p. 268, tom. iv. p. 368) attests the
+ unbelief of the caliph and the historian; yet Cantacuzene
+ presumes to appeal to the Mahometans themselves for the truth of
+ this perpetual miracle.]
+
+ 63 (return) [ In his Dissertations on Ecclesiastical History, the
+ learned Mosheim has separately discussed this pretended miracle,
+ (tom. ii. p. 214-306,) de lumine sancti sepulchri.]
+
+ 64 (return) [ William of Malmsbury (l. iv. c. 2, p. 209) quotes
+ the Itinerary of the monk Bernard, an eye-witness, who visited
+ Jerusalem A.D. 870. The miracle is confirmed by another pilgrim
+ some years older; and Mosheim ascribes the invention to the
+ Franks, soon after the decease of Charlemagne.]
+
+ 65 (return) [ Our travellers, Sandys, (p. 134,) Thevenot, (p.
+ 621-627,) Maundrell, (p. 94, 95,) &c., describes this extravagant
+ farce. The Catholics are puzzled to decide when the miracle ended
+ and the trick began.]
+
+ 66 (return) [ The Orientals themselves confess the fraud, and
+ plead necessity and edification, (Memoires du Chevalier
+ D’Arvieux, tom. ii. p. 140. Joseph Abudacni, Hist. Copt. c. 20;)
+ but I will not attempt, with Mosheim, to explain the mode. Our
+ travellers have failed with the blood of St. Januarius at
+ Naples.]
+
+ The revolution which transferred the sceptre from the Abbassides
+ to the Fatimites was a benefit, rather than an injury, to the
+ Holy Land. A sovereign resident in Egypt was more sensible of the
+ importance of Christian trade; and the emirs of Palestine were
+ less remote from the justice and power of the throne. But the
+ third of these Fatimite caliphs was the famous Hakem, 67 a
+ frantic youth, who was delivered by his impiety and despotism
+ from the fear either of God or man; and whose reign was a wild
+ mixture of vice and folly. Regardless of the most ancient customs
+ of Egypt, he imposed on the women an absolute confinement; the
+ restraint excited the clamors of both sexes; their clamors
+ provoked his fury; a part of Old Cairo was delivered to the
+ flames and the guards and citizens were engaged many days in a
+ bloody conflict. At first the caliph declared himself a zealous
+ Mussulman, the founder or benefactor of moschs and colleges:
+ twelve hundred and ninety copies of the Koran were transcribed at
+ his expense in letters of gold; and his edict extirpated the
+ vineyards of the Upper Egypt. But his vanity was soon flattered
+ by the hope of introducing a new religion; he aspired above the
+ fame of a prophet, and styled himself the visible image of the
+ Most High God, who, after nine apparitions on earth, was at
+ length manifest in his royal person. At the name of Hakem, the
+ lord of the living and the dead, every knee was bent in religious
+ adoration: his mysteries were performed on a mountain near Cairo:
+ sixteen thousand converts had signed his profession of faith; and
+ at the present hour, a free and warlike people, the Druses of
+ Mount Libanus, are persuaded of the life and divinity of a madman
+ and tyrant. 68 In his divine character, Hakem hated the Jews and
+ Christians, as the servants of his rivals; while some remains of
+ prejudice or prudence still pleaded in favor of the law of
+ Mahomet. Both in Egypt and Palestine, his cruel and wanton
+ persecution made some martyrs and many apostles: the common
+ rights and special privileges of the sectaries were equally
+ disregarded; and a general interdict was laid on the devotion of
+ strangers and natives. The temple of the Christian world, the
+ church of the Resurrection, was demolished to its foundations;
+ the luminous prodigy of Easter was interrupted, and much profane
+ labor was exhausted to destroy the cave in the rock which
+ properly constitutes the holy sepulchre. At the report of this
+ sacrilege, the nations of Europe were astonished and afflicted:
+ but instead of arming in the defence of the Holy Land, they
+ contented themselves with burning, or banishing, the Jews, as the
+ secret advisers of the impious Barbarian. 69 Yet the calamities
+ of Jerusalem were in some measure alleviated by the inconstancy
+ or repentance of Hakem himself; and the royal mandate was sealed
+ for the restitution of the churches, when the tyrant was
+ assassinated by the emissaries of his sister. The succeeding
+ caliphs resumed the maxims of religion and policy: a free
+ toleration was again granted; with the pious aid of the emperor
+ of Constantinople, the holy sepulchre arose from its ruins; and,
+ after a short abstinence, the pilgrims returned with an increase
+ of appetite to the spiritual feast. 70 In the sea-voyage of
+ Palestine, the dangers were frequent, and the opportunities rare:
+ but the conversion of Hungary opened a safe communication between
+ Germany and Greece. The charity of St. Stephen, the apostle of
+ his kingdom, relieved and conducted his itinerant brethren; 71
+ and from Belgrade to Antioch, they traversed fifteen hundred
+ miles of a Christian empire. Among the Franks, the zeal of
+ pilgrimage prevailed beyond the example of former times: and the
+ roads were covered with multitudes of either sex, and of every
+ rank, who professed their contempt of life, so soon as they
+ should have kissed the tomb of their Redeemer. Princes and
+ prelates abandoned the care of their dominions; and the numbers
+ of these pious caravans were a prelude to the armies which
+ marched in the ensuing age under the banner of the cross. About
+ thirty years before the first crusade, the arch bishop of Mentz,
+ with the bishops of Utrecht, Bamberg, and Ratisbon, 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; but the ostentation of their wealth provoked the assault
+ of the wild Arabs: they drew their swords with scrupulous
+ reluctance, and sustained siege in the village of Capernaum, till
+ they were rescued by the venal protection of the Fatimite emir.
+ After visiting the holy places, they embarked for Italy, but only
+ a remnant of two thousand arrived in safety in their native land.
+
+ Ingulphus, a secretary of William the Conqueror, was a companion
+ of this pilgrimage: he observes that they sailed from Normandy,
+ thirty stout and well-appointed horsemen; but that they repassed
+ the Alps, twenty miserable palmers, with the staff in their hand,
+ and the wallet at their back. 72
+
+ 67 (return) [ 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, translated by Reiske from Arabic into German,
+ and verbally interpreted to me by a friend.]
+
+ 68 (return) [ The religion of the Druses is concealed by their
+ ignorance and hypocrisy. Their secret doctrines are confined to
+ the elect who profess a contemplative life; and the vulgar
+ Druses, the most indifferent of men, occasionally conform to the
+ worship of the Mahometans and Christians of their neighborhood.
+ The little that is, or deserves to be, known, may be seen in the
+ industrious Niebuhr, (Voyages, tom. ii. p. 354-357,) and the
+ second volume of the recent and instructive Travels of M. de
+ Volney. * Note: The religion of the Druses has, within the
+ present year, been fully developed from their own writings, which
+ have long lain neglected in the libraries of Paris and Oxford, in
+ the “Expose de la Religion des Druses, by M. Silvestre de Sacy.”
+ Deux tomes, Paris, 1838. The learned author has prefixed a life
+ of Hakem Biamr-Allah, which enables us to correct several errors
+ in the account of Gibbon. These errors chiefly arose from his
+ want of knowledge or of attention to the chronology of Hakem’s
+ life. Hakem succeeded to the throne of Egypt in the year of the
+ Hegira 386. He did not assume his divinity till 408. His life was
+ indeed “a wild mixture of vice and folly,” to which may be added,
+ of the most sanguinary cruelty. During his reign, 18,000 persons
+ were victims of his ferocity. Yet such is the god, observes M. de
+ Sacy, whom the Druses have worshipped for 800 years! (See p.
+ ccccxxix.) All his wildest and most extravagant actions were
+ interpreted by his followers as having a mystic and allegoric
+ meaning, alluding to the destruction of other religions and the
+ propagation of his own. It does not seem to have been the
+ “vanity” of Hakem which induced him to introduce a new religion.
+ The curious point in the new faith is that Hamza, the son of Ali,
+ the real founder of the Unitarian religion, (such is its boastful
+ title,) was content to take a secondary part. While Hakem was
+ God, the one Supreme, the Imam Hamza was his Intelligence. It was
+ not in his “divine character” that Hakem “hated the Jews and
+ Christians,” but in that of a Mahometan bigot, which he displayed
+ in the earlier years of his reign. His barbarous persecution, and
+ the burning of the church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem,
+ belong entirely to that period; and his assumption of divinity
+ was followed by an edict of toleration to Jews and Christians.
+ The Mahometans, whose religion he then treated with hostility and
+ contempt, being far the most numerous, were his most dangerous
+ enemies, and therefore the objects of his most inveterate hatred.
+ It is another singular fact, that the religion of Hakem was by no
+ means confined to Egypt and Syria. M. de Sacy quotes a letter
+ addressed to the chief of the sect in India; and there is
+ likewise a letter to the Byzantine emperor Constantine, son of
+ Armanous, (Romanus,) and the clergy of the empire. (Constantine
+ VIII., M. de Sacy supposes, but this is irreconcilable with
+ chronology; it must mean Constantine XI., Monomachus.) The
+ assassination of Hakem is, of course, disbelieved by his
+ sectaries. M. de Sacy seems to consider the fact obscure and
+ doubtful. According to his followers he disappeared, but is
+ hereafter to return. At his return the resurrection is to take
+ place; the triumph of Unitarianism, and the final discomfiture of
+ all other religions. The temple of Mecca is especially devoted to
+ destruction. It is remarkable that one of the signs of this final
+ consummation, and of the reappearance of Hakem, is that
+ Christianity shall be gaining a manifest predominance over
+ Mahometanism. As for the religion 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 large volumes, for the full
+ examination of the most extraordinary religious aberration which
+ ever extensively affected the mind of man. The worship of a mad
+ tyrant is the basis of a subtle metaphysical creed, and of a
+ severe, and even ascetic, morality.—M.]
+
+ 69 (return) [ See Glaber, l. iii. c. 7, and the Annals of
+ Baronius and Pagi, A.D. 1009.]
+
+ 70 (return) [ Per idem tempus ex universo orbe tam innumerabilis
+ multitudo coepit confluere ad sepulchrum Salvatoris Hierosolymis,
+ quantum nullus hominum prius sperare poterat. Ordo inferioris
+ plebis.... mediocres.... reges et comites..... praesules .....
+ mulieres multae nobilis cum pauperioribus.... Pluribus enim erat
+ mentis desiderium mori priusquam ad propria reverterentur,
+ (Glaber, l. iv. c. 6, Bouquet. Historians of France, tom. x. p.
+ 50.) * Note: Compare the first chap. of Wilken, Geschichte der
+ Kreuz-zuge.—M.]
+
+ 71 (return) [ Glaber, l. iii. c. 1. Katona (Hist. Critic. Regum
+ Hungariae, tom. i. p. 304-311) examines whether St. Stephen
+ founded a monastery at Jerusalem.]
+
+ 72 (return) [ Baronius (A.D. 1064, No. 43-56) has transcribed the
+ greater part of the original narratives of Ingulphus, Marianus,
+ and Lambertus.]
+
+ After the defeat of the Romans, the tranquillity of the Fatimite
+ caliphs was 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 cities of the province, acknowledged the
+ caliph of Bagdad and the sultan of Persia; and the victorious
+ emir advanced without resistance to the banks of the Nile: the
+ Fatimite was preparing to fly into the heart of Africa; but the
+ negroes of his guard and the inhabitants of Cairo made a
+ desperate sally, and repulsed the Turk from the confines of
+ Egypt. In his retreat he indulged the license of slaughter and
+ rapine: the judge and notaries of Jerusalem were invited to his
+ camp; and their execution was followed by the massacre of three
+ thousand citizens. The cruelty or the defeat of Atsiz was soon
+ punished by the sultan Toucush, the brother of Malek Shah, who,
+ with a higher title and more formidable powers, asserted the
+ dominion of Syria and Palestine. The house of Seljuk reigned
+ about twenty years in Jerusalem; 74 but the hereditary command of
+ the holy city and territory was intrusted or abandoned to the
+ emir Ortok, the chief of a tribe of Turkmans, whose children,
+ after their expulsion from Palestine, formed two dynasties on the
+ borders of Armenia and Assyria. 75 The Oriental Christians and
+ the Latin pilgrims deplored a revolution, which, instead of the
+ regular government and old alliance of the caliphs, imposed on
+ their necks the iron yoke of the strangers of the North. 76 In
+ his court and camp the great sultan had adopted in some degree
+ the arts and manners of Persia; but the body of the Turkish
+ nation, and more especially the pastoral tribes, still breathed
+ the fierceness of the desert. From Nice to Jerusalem, the western
+ countries of Asia were a scene of foreign and domestic hostility;
+ and the shepherds of Palestine, who held a precarious sway on a
+ doubtful frontier, had neither leisure nor capacity to await the
+ slow profits of commercial and religious freedom. The pilgrims,
+ who, through innumerable perils, had reached the gates of
+ Jerusalem, were the victims of private rapine or public
+ oppression, and often sunk under the pressure of famine and
+ disease, before they were permitted to salute the holy sepulchre.
+ A spirit of native barbarism, or recent zeal, prompted the
+ Turkmans to insult the clergy of every sect: the patriarch was
+ dragged by the hair along the pavement, and cast into a dungeon,
+ to extort a ransom from the sympathy of his flock; and the divine
+ worship in the church of the Resurrection was often disturbed by
+ the savage rudeness of its masters. The pathetic tale excited the
+ millions of the West to march under the standard of the cross to
+ the relief of the Holy Land; and yet how trifling is the sum of
+ these accumulated evils, if compared with the single act of the
+ sacrilege of Hakem, which had been so patiently endured by the
+ Latin Christians! A slighter provocation inflamed the more
+ irascible temper of their descendants: a new spirit had arisen of
+ religious chivalry and papal dominion; a nerve was touched of
+ exquisite feeling; and the sensation vibrated to the heart of
+ Europe.
+
+ 73 (return) [ See Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 349, 350) and
+ Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 237, vers. Pocock.) M. De Guignes
+ (Hist. des Huns, tom iii. part i. p. 215, 216) adds the
+ testimonies, or rather the names, of Abulfeda and Novairi.]
+
+ 74 (return) [ 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 the hands of the Turks; and an Arabic
+ chronicle, quoted by Pagi, (tom. iv. p. 202) supposes that the
+ city was reduced by a Carizmian general to the obedience of the
+ caliph of Bagdad, A. H. 463, A.D. 1070. These early dates are not
+ very compatible with the general history of Asia; and I am sure,
+ that as late as A.D. 1064, the regnum Babylonicum (of Cairo)
+ still prevailed in Palestine, (Baronius, A.D. 1064, No. 56.)]
+
+ 75 (return) [ De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 249-252. ]
+
+ 76 (return) [ Willierm. Tyr. l. i. c. 8, p. 634, who strives hard
+ to magnify the Christian grievances. The Turks exacted an aureus
+ from each pilgrim! The caphar of the Franks now is fourteen
+ dollars: and Europe does not complain of this voluntary tax.]
+
+
+
+
+ Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.—Part I.
+
+ Origin And Numbers Of The First Crusade.—Characters Of The Latin
+ Princes.—Their March To Constantinople.—Policy Of The Greek
+ Emperor Alexius.—Conquest Of Nice, Antioch, And Jerusalem, By The
+ Franks.—Deliverance Of The Holy Sepulchre.— Godfrey Of Bouillon,
+ First King Of Jerusalem.—Institutions Of The French Or Latin
+ Kingdom.
+
+ About twenty years after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Turks,
+ the holy sepulchre was visited by a hermit of the name of Peter,
+ a native of Amiens, in the province of Picardy 1 in France. His
+ resentment and sympathy were excited by his own injuries and the
+ oppression of the Christian name; he mingled his tears with those
+ of the patriarch, and earnestly inquired, if no hopes of relief
+ could be entertained from the Greek emperors of the East. The
+ patriarch exposed the vices and weakness of the successors of
+ Constantine. “I will rouse,” exclaimed the hermit, “the martial
+ nations of Europe in your cause;” and Europe was obedient to the
+ call of the hermit. The astonished patriarch dismissed him with
+ epistles of credit and complaint; and no sooner did he land at
+ Bari, than Peter hastened to kiss the feet of the Roman pontiff.
+ His stature was small, his appearance contemptible; but his eye
+ was keen and lively; and he possessed that vehemence of speech,
+ which seldom fails to impart the 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 was under the neighboring counts
+ of Boulogne, the heroes of the first crusade. But he soon
+ relinquished the sword and the world; and if it be true, that his
+ wife, however noble, was aged and ugly, he might withdraw, with
+ the less reluctance, from her bed to a convent, and at length to
+ a hermitage. 211 In this austere solitude, his body was
+ emaciated, his fancy was inflamed; whatever he wished, he
+ believed; whatever he believed, he saw in dreams and revelations.
+ From Jerusalem the pilgrim returned an accomplished fanatic; but
+ as he excelled in the popular madness of the times, Pope Urban
+ the Second received him as a prophet, applauded his glorious
+ design, promised to support it in a general council, and
+ encouraged him to proclaim the deliverance of the Holy Land.
+ Invigorated by the approbation of the pontiff, his zealous
+ missionary traversed. with speed and success, the provinces of
+ Italy and France. His diet was abstemious, his prayers long and
+ fervent, and the alms which he received with one hand, he
+ distributed with the other: his head was bare, his feet naked,
+ his meagre body was wrapped in a coarse garment; he bore and
+ displayed a weighty crucifix; and the ass on which he rode was
+ sanctified, in the public eye, by the service of the man of God.
+ He preached to innumerable crowds in the churches, the streets,
+ and the highways: the hermit entered with equal confidence the
+ palace and the cottage; and the people (for all was people) was
+ impetuously moved by his call to repentance and arms. When he
+ painted the sufferings of the natives and pilgrims of Palestine,
+ every heart was melted to compassion; every breast glowed with
+ indignation, when he challenged the warriors 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 loud and frequent
+ appeals to Christ and his mother, to the saints and angels of
+ paradise, with whom he had personally conversed. 212 The most
+ perfect orator of Athens might have envied the success of his
+ eloquence; the rustic enthusiast inspired the passions which he
+ felt, and Christendom expected with impatience the counsels and
+ decrees of the supreme pontiff.
+
+ 1 (return) [ Whimsical enough is the origin of the name of
+ Picards, and from thence of Picardie, which does not date later
+ than A.D. 1200. It was an academical joke, an epithet first
+ applied to the quarrelsome humor of those students, in the
+ University of Paris, who came from the frontier of France and
+ Flanders, (Valesii Notitia Galliarum, p. 447, Longuerue.
+ Description de la France, p. 54.)]
+
+ 2 (return) [ William of Tyre (l. i. c. 11, p. 637, 638) thus
+ describes the hermit: Pusillus, persona contemptibilis, vivacis
+ ingenii, et oculum habeas 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.]
+
+ 211 (return) [ Wilken considers this as doubtful, (vol. i. p.
+ 47.)—M.]
+
+ 212 (return) [ He had seen the Savior in a vision: a letter had
+ fallen from heaven Wilken, (vol. i. p. 49.)—M.]
+
+ The magnanimous spirit of Gregory the Seventh had already
+ embraced the design of arming Europe against Asia; the ardor of
+ his zeal and ambition still breathes in his epistles: from either
+ side of the Alps, fifty thousand Catholics had enlisted under the
+ banner of St. Peter; 3 and his successor reveals his intention of
+ marching at their head against the impious sectaries of Mahomet.
+ But the glory or reproach of executing, though not in person,
+ this holy enterprise, was reserved for Urban the Second, 4 the
+ most faithful of his disciples. He undertook the conquest of the
+ East, whilst the larger portion of Rome was possessed and
+ fortified by his rival Guibert of Ravenna, who contended with
+ Urban for the name and honors of the pontificate. He attempted to
+ unite the powers of the West, at a time when the princes were
+ separated from the church, and the people from their princes, by
+ the excommunication which himself and his predecessors had
+ thundered against the emperor and the king of France. Philip the
+ First, of France, supported with patience the censures which he
+ had provoked by his scandalous life and adulterous marriage.
+ Henry the Fourth, of Germany, asserted the right of investitures,
+ the prerogative of confirming his bishops by the delivery of the
+ ring and crosier. But the emperor’s party was crushed in Italy by
+ the arms of the Normans and the Countess Mathilda; and the long
+ quarrel had been recently envenomed by the revolt of his son
+ Conrad and the shame of his wife, 5 who, in the synods of
+ Constance and Placentia, confessed the manifold prostitutions to
+ which she 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 two hundred bishops of Italy, France, Burgandy,
+ Swabia, and Bavaria. Four thousand of the clergy, and thirty
+ thousand of the laity, attended this important meeting; and, as
+ the most spacious cathedral would have been inadequate to the
+ multitude, the session of seven days was held in a plain adjacent
+ to the city. The ambassadors of the Greek emperor, Alexius
+ Comnenus, were introduced to plead the distress of their
+ sovereign, and the danger of Constantinople, which was divided
+ only by a narrow sea from the victorious Turks, the common
+ enemies of the Christian name. In their suppliant address they
+ flattered the pride of the Latin princes; and, appealing at once
+ to their policy and religion, exhorted them to repel the
+ Barbarians on the confines of Asia, rather than to expect them in
+ the heart of Europe. At the sad tale of the misery and perils of
+ their Eastern brethren, the assembly burst into tears; the most
+ eager champions declared their readiness to march; and the Greek
+ ambassadors were dismissed with the assurance of a speedy and
+ powerful succor. The relief of Constantinople was included in the
+ larger and most distant project of the deliverance of Jerusalem;
+ but the prudent Urban adjourned the final decision to a second
+ synod, which he proposed to celebrate in some city of France in
+ the autumn of the same year. The short delay would propagate the
+ flame of enthusiasm; and his firmest hope was in a nation of
+ soldiers 8 still proud of the preeminence of their name, and
+ ambitious to emulate their hero Charlemagne, 9 who, in the
+ popular romance of Turpin, 10 had achieved the conquest of the
+ Holy Land. A latent motive of affection or vanity might influence
+ the choice of Urban: he was himself a native of France, a monk of
+ Clugny, and the first of his countrymen who ascended the throne
+ of St. Peter. The pope had illustrated his family and province;
+ nor is there perhaps a more exquisite gratification than to
+ revisit, in a conspicuous dignity, the humble and laborious
+ scenes of our youth.
+
+ 3 (return) [ Ultra quinquaginta millia, si me possunt in
+ expeditione pro duce et pontifice habere, armata manu volunt in
+ inimicos Dei insurgere et ad sepulchrum Domini ipso ducente
+ pervenire, (Gregor. vii. epist. ii. 31, in tom. xii. 322,
+ concil.)]
+
+ 4 (return) [ See the original lives of Urban II. by Pandulphus
+ Pisanus and Bernardus Guido, in Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. tom.
+ iii. pars i. p. 352, 353.]
+
+ 5 (return) [ She is known by the different names of Praxes,
+ Eupraecia, Eufrasia, and Adelais; and was the daughter of a
+ Russian prince, and the widow of a margrave of Brandenburgh.
+ (Struv. Corpus Hist. Germanicae, p. 340.)]
+
+ 6 (return) [ Henricus odio eam coepit habere: ideo incarceravit
+ eam, et concessit ut plerique vim ei inferrent; immo filium
+ hortans ut eam subagitaret, (Dodechin, Continuat. Marian. Scot.
+ apud Baron. A.D. 1093, No. 4.) In the synod of Constance, she is
+ described by Bertholdus, rerum inspector: quae se tantas et tam
+ inauditas fornicationum spur citias, et a tantis passam fuisse
+ conquesta est, &c.; and again at Placentia: satis misericorditer
+ suscepit, eo quod ipsam tantas spurcitias pertulisse pro certo
+ 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
+ and council. These abominations are repugnant to every principle
+ of human nature, which is not altered by a dispute about rings
+ and crosiers. Yet it should seem, that the wretched woman was
+ tempted by the priests to relate or subscribe some infamous
+ stories of herself and her husband.]
+
+ 7 (return) [ See the narrative and acts of the synod of
+ Placentia, Concil. tom. xii. p. 821, &c.]
+
+ 8 (return) [ Guibert, himself a Frenchman, praises the piety and
+ valor of the French nation, the author and example of the
+ crusades: Gens nobilis, prudens, bellicosa, dapsilis et nitida
+ .... Quos enim Britones, Anglos, Ligures, si bonis eos moribus
+ videamus, non illico Francos homines appellemus? (p. 478.) He
+ owns, however, that the vivacity of the French degenerates into
+ petulance among foreigners, (p. 488.) and vain loquaciousness,
+ (p. 502.)]
+
+ 9 (return) [ Per viam quam jamdudum Carolus Magnus mirificus rex
+ Francorum aptari fecit usque C. P., (Gesta Francorum, p. 1.
+ Robert. Monach. Hist. Hieros. l. i. p. 33, &c.)]
+
+ 10 (return) [ John Tilpinus, or Turpinus, was archbishop of
+ Rheims, A.D. 773. After the year 1000, this romance was composed
+ in his name, by a monk of the borders of France and Spain; and
+ such was the idea of ecclesiastical merit, that he describes
+ himself as a fighting and drinking priest! Yet the book of lies
+ was pronounced authentic by Pope Calixtus II., (A.D. 1122,) and
+ is respectfully quoted by the abbot Suger, in the great
+ Chronicles of St. Denys, (Fabric Bibliot. Latin Medii Aevi, edit.
+ Mansi, tom. iv. p. 161.)]
+
+ It may occasion some surprise that the Roman pontiff should
+ erect, in the heart of France, the tribunal from whence he hurled
+ his anathemas against the king; but our surprise will vanish so
+ soon as we form a just estimate of a king of France of the
+ eleventh century. 11 Philip the First was the great-grandson of
+ Hugh Capet, the founder of the present race, who, in the decline
+ of Charlemagne’s posterity, added the regal title to his
+ patrimonial estates of Paris and Orleans. In this narrow compass,
+ he was possessed of wealth and jurisdiction; but in the rest of
+ France, Hugh and his first descendants were no more than the
+ feudal lords of about sixty dukes and counts, of independent and
+ hereditary power, 12 who disdained the control of laws and legal
+ assemblies, and whose disregard of their sovereign was revenged
+ by the disobedience of their inferior vassals. At Clermont, in
+ the territories of the count of Auvergne, 13 the pope might brave
+ with impunity the resentment of Philip; and the council which he
+ convened in that city was not less numerous or respectable than
+ the synod of Placentia. 14 Besides his court and council of Roman
+ cardinals, he was supported by thirteen archbishops and two
+ hundred and twenty-five bishops: the number of mitred prelates
+ was computed at four hundred; and the fathers of the church were
+ blessed by the saints and enlightened by the doctors of the age.
+ From the adjacent kingdoms, a martial train of lords and knights
+ of power and renown attended the council, 15 in high expectation
+ of its resolves; and such was the ardor of zeal and curiosity,
+ that the city was filled, and many thousands, in the month of
+ November, erected their tents or huts in the open field. A
+ session of eight days produced some useful or edifying canons for
+ the reformation of manners; a severe censure was pronounced
+ against the license of private war; the Truce of God 16 was
+ confirmed, a suspension of hostilities during four days of the
+ week; women and priests were placed under the safeguard of the
+ church; and a protection of three years was extended to
+ husbandmen and merchants, the defenceless victims of military
+ rapine. But a law, however venerable be the sanction, cannot
+ suddenly transform the temper of the times; and the benevolent
+ efforts of Urban deserve the less praise, since he labored to
+ appease some domestic quarrels that he might spread the flames of
+ war from the Atlantic to the Euphrates. From the synod of
+ Placentia, the rumor of his great design had gone forth among the
+ nations: the clergy on their return had preached in every diocese
+ the merit and glory of the deliverance of the Holy Land; and when
+ the pope ascended a lofty scaffold in the market-place of
+ Clermont, his eloquence was addressed to a well-prepared and
+ impatient audience. His topics were obvious, his exhortation was
+ vehement, his success inevitable. The orator was interrupted by
+ the shout of thousands, who with one voice, and in their rustic
+ idiom, exclaimed aloud, “God wills it, God wills it.” 17 “It is
+ indeed the will of God,” replied the pope; “and let this
+ memorable word, the inspiration surely of the Holy Spirit, be
+ forever adopted as your cry of battle, to animate the devotion
+ and courage of the champions of Christ. His cross is the symbol
+ of 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 irrevocable engagement.” The proposal was joyfully accepted;
+ great numbers, both of the clergy and laity, impressed on their
+ garments the sign of the cross, 18 and solicited the pope to
+ march at their head. This dangerous honor was declined by the
+ more prudent successor of Gregory, who alleged the schism of the
+ church, and the duties of his pastoral office, recommending to
+ the faithful, who were disqualified by sex or profession, by age
+ or infirmity, to aid, with their prayers and alms, the personal
+ service of their robust brethren. The name and powers of his
+ legate he devolved on Adhemar bishop of Puy, the first who had
+ received the cross at his hands. The foremost of the temporal
+ chiefs was Raymond count of Thoulouse, whose ambassadors in the
+ council excused the absence, and pledged the honor, of their
+ master. After the confession and absolution of their sins, the
+ champions of the cross were dismissed with a superfluous
+ admonition to invite their countrymen and friends; and their
+ departure for the Holy Land was fixed to the festival of the
+ Assumption, the fifteenth of August, of the ensuing year. 19
+
+ 11 (return) [ See Etat de la France, by the Count de
+ Boulainvilliers, tom. i. p. 180-182, and the second volume of the
+ Observations sur l’Histoire de France, by the Abbe de Mably.]
+
+ 12 (return) [ In the provinces to the south of the Loire, the
+ first Capetians 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]
+
+ 13 (return) [ These counts, a younger branch of the dukes of
+ Aquitain, were at length despoiled of the greatest part of their
+ country by Philip Augustus. The bishops of Clermont gradually
+ became princes of the city. Melanges, tires d’une grand
+ Bibliotheque, tom. xxxvi. p. 288, &c.]
+
+ 14 (return) [ See the Acts of the council of Clermont, Concil.
+ tom. xii. p. 829, &c.]
+
+ 15 (return) [ Confluxerunt ad concilium e multis regionibus, viri
+ potentes et honorati, innumeri quamvis cingulo laicalis militiae
+ superbi, (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.)]
+
+ 16 (return) [ The Truce of God (Treva, or Treuga Dei) was first
+ invented in Aquitain, A.D. 1032; blamed by some bishops as an
+ occasion of perjury, and rejected by the Normans as contrary to
+ their privileges (Ducange, Gloss Latin. tom. vi. p. 682-685.)]
+
+ 17 (return) [ Deus vult, Deus vult! was the pure acclamation of
+ the clergy who understood Latin, (Robert. Mon. l. i. p. 32.) By
+ the illiterate laity, who spoke the Provincial or Limousin idiom,
+ it was corrupted 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 the dialect of Rovergue, A.D. 1100,
+ very near, both in time and place, to the council of Clermont,
+ (p. 15, 16.)]
+
+ 18 (return) [ Most commonly on their shoulders, in gold, or silk,
+ or cloth sewed on their garments. In the first crusade, all were
+ red, in the third, the French alone preserved that color, while
+ green crosses were adopted by the Flemings, and white by the
+ English, (Ducange, tom. ii. p. 651.) Yet in England, the red ever
+ appears the favorite, and as if were, the national, color of our
+ military ensigns and uniforms.]
+
+ 19 (return) [ Bongarsius, who has published the original writers
+ of the crusades, adopts, with much complacency, the fanatic title
+ of Guibertus, Gesta Dei per Francos; though some critics propose
+ to read Gesta Diaboli per Francos, (Hanoviae, 1611, two vols. in
+ folio.) I shall briefly enumerate, as they stand in this
+ collection, the authors whom I have used 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
+ given a large and critical list of the writers of the crusades,
+ (Esprit des Croisades, tom. i. p. 13-141,) and most of whose
+ judgments my own experience will allow me to ratify. It was late
+ before I could obtain a sight of the French historians collected
+ by Duchesne. I. Petri Tudebodi Sacerdotis Sivracensis Historia de
+ Hierosolymitano Itinere, (tom. iv. p. 773-815,) has been
+ transfused into the first anonymous writer of Bongarsius. II. The
+ Metrical History of the first Crusade, in vii. books, (p.
+ 890-912,) is of small value or account. * Note: Several new
+ documents, particularly from the East, have been collected by the
+ industry of the modern historians of the crusades, M. Michaud and
+ Wilken.—M.]
+
+ So familiar, and as it were so natural to man, is the practice of
+ violence, that our indulgence allows the slightest provocation,
+ the most disputable right, as a sufficient ground of national
+ hostility. But the name and nature of a holy war demands a more
+ rigorous scrutiny; nor can we hastily believe, that the servants
+ of the Prince of Peace would unsheathe the sword of destruction,
+ unless the motive were pure, the quarrel legitimate, and the
+ necessity inevitable. The policy of an action may be determined
+ from the tardy lessons of experience; but, before we act, our
+ conscience should be satisfied of the justice and propriety 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 and rhetoric; but they seem to insist on the right of
+ natural and religious defence, their peculiar title to the Holy
+ Land, and the impiety of their Pagan and Mahometan foes. 20
+
+ I. The right of a just defence may fairly include our civil and
+ spiritual allies: it depends on the existence of danger; and that
+ danger must be estimated by the twofold consideration of the
+ malice, and the power, of our enemies. A pernicious tenet has
+ been imputed to the Mahometans, the duty of extirpating all other
+ religions by the sword. This charge of ignorance and bigotry is
+ refuted by the Koran, by the history of the Mussulman conquerors,
+ and by their public and legal toleration of the Christian
+ worship. But it cannot be denied, that the Oriental churches are
+ depressed under their iron yoke; that, in peace and war, they
+ assert a divine and indefeasible claim of universal empire; and
+ that, in their orthodox creed, the unbelieving nations are
+ continually threatened with the loss of religion or liberty. In
+ the eleventh century, the victorious arms of the Turks presented
+ a real and urgent apprehension of these losses. They had subdued,
+ in less than thirty years, the kingdoms of Asia, as far as
+ Jerusalem and the Hellespont; and the Greek empire tottered on
+ the verge of destruction. Besides an honest sympathy for their
+ brethren, the Latins had a right and interest in the support of
+ Constantinople, the most important barrier of the West; and the
+ privilege of defence must reach to prevent, as well as to repel,
+ an impending assault. But this salutary purpose might have been
+ accomplished by a moderate succor; and our calmer reason must
+ disclaim the innumerable hosts, and remote operations, which
+ overwhelmed Asia and depopulated Europe. 2011
+
+ 20 (return) [ If the reader will turn to the first scene of the
+ First Part of Henry the Fourth, he will see in the text of
+ Shakespeare the natural feelings of enthusiasm; and in the notes
+ of Dr. Johnson the workings of a bigoted, though vigorous mind,
+ greedy of every pretence to hate and persecute those who dissent
+ from his creed.]
+
+ 2011 (return) [ The manner in which the war was conducted surely
+ has little relation to the abstract question of the justice or
+ injustice of the war. The most just and necessary war may be
+ conducted with the most prodigal waste of human life, and the
+ wildest fanaticism; the most unjust with the coolest moderation
+ and consummate generalship. The question is, whether the
+ liberties and religion of Europe were in danger from the
+ aggressions of Mahometanism? If so, it is difficult to limit the
+ right, though it may be proper to question the wisdom, of
+ overwhelming the enemy with the armed population of a whole
+ continent, and repelling, if possible, the invading conqueror
+ into his native deserts. The crusades are monuments of human
+ folly! but to which of the more regular wars civilized. Europe,
+ waged for personal ambition or national jealousy, will our calmer
+ reason appeal as monuments either of human 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 that distant and narrow province. The Christians
+ affirmed that their inalienable title to the promised land had
+ been sealed by the blood of their divine Savior; it was their
+ right and duty to rescue their inheritance from the unjust
+ possessors, who profaned his sepulchre, and oppressed the
+ pilgrimage of his disciples. Vainly would it be alleged that the
+ preeminence of Jerusalem, and the sanctity of Palestine, have
+ been abolished with the Mosaic law; that the God of the
+ Christians is not a local deity, and that the recovery of Bethlem
+ or Calvary, his cradle or his tomb, will not atone for the
+ violation of the moral precepts of the gospel. Such arguments
+ glance aside from the leaden shield of superstition; and the
+ religious mind will not easily relinquish its hold on the sacred
+ ground of mystery and miracle.
+
+ III. But the holy wars which have been waged in every climate of
+ the globe, from Egypt to Livonia, and from Peru to Hindostan,
+ require the support of some more general and flexible tenet. It
+ has been often supposed, and sometimes affirmed, that a
+ difference of religion is a worthy cause of hostility; that
+ obstinate unbelievers may be slain or subdued by the champions of
+ the cross; and that grace is the sole fountain of dominion as
+ well as of mercy. 2012 Above four hundred years before the first
+ crusade, the eastern and western provinces of the Roman empire
+ had been acquired about the same time, and in the same manner, by
+ the Barbarians of Germany and Arabia. Time and treaties had
+ legitimated the conquest of the Christian Franks; but in the eyes
+ of their subjects and neighbors, the Mahometan princes were still
+ tyrants and usurpers, who, by the arms of war or rebellion, might
+ be lawfully driven from their unlawful possession. 21
+
+ 2012 (return) [ “God,” says the abbot Guibert, “invented the
+ crusades as a 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 et vulgus oberrans qui vetustae
+ Paganitatis exemplo in mutuas versabatur caedes, novum reperirent
+ salutis promerendae genus, ut nec funditus electa, ut fieri
+ assolet, monastica conversatione, seu religiosa qualibet
+ professione saeculum relinquere congerentur; sed sub consueta
+ licentia et habitu ex suo ipsorum officio Dei aliquantenus
+ gratiam consequerentur.” Guib. Abbas, p. 371. See Wilken, vol. i.
+ p. 63.—M.]
+
+ 21 (return) [ The vith Discourse of Fleury on Ecclesiastical
+ History (p. 223-261) contains an accurate and rational view of
+ the causes and effects of the crusades.]
+
+ As the manners of the Christians were relaxed, their discipline
+ of penance 22 was enforced; and with the multiplication of sins,
+ the remedies were multiplied. In the primitive church, a
+ voluntary and open confession prepared the work of atonement. In
+ the middle ages, the bishops and priests interrogated the
+ criminal; compelled him to account for his thoughts, words, and
+ actions; and prescribed the terms of his reconciliation with God.
+ But as this discretionary power might alternately be abused by
+ indulgence and tyranny, a rule of discipline was framed, to
+ inform and regulate the spiritual judges. This mode of
+ legislation was invented by the Greeks; their penitentials 23
+ were translated, or imitated, in the Latin church; and, in the
+ time of Charlemagne, the clergy of every diocese were provided
+ with a code, which they prudently concealed from the knowledge of
+ the vulgar. In this dangerous estimate of crimes and punishments,
+ each case was supposed, each difference was remarked, by the
+ experience or penetration of the monks; some sins are enumerated
+ which innocence could not have suspected, and others which reason
+ cannot believe; and the more ordinary offences of fornication and
+ adultery, of perjury and sacrilege, of rapine and murder, were
+ expiated by a penance, which, according to the various
+ circumstances, was prolonged from forty days to seven years.
+ During this term of mortification, the patient was healed, the
+ criminal was absolved, by a salutary regimen of fasts and
+ prayers: the disorder of his dress was expressive of grief and
+ remorse; and he humbly abstained from all the business and
+ pleasure of social life. But the rigid execution of these laws
+ would have depopulated the palace, the camp, and the city; the
+ Barbarians of the West believed and trembled; but nature often
+ rebelled against principle; and the magistrate labored without
+ effect to enforce the jurisdiction of the priest. A literal
+ accomplishment of penance was indeed impracticable: the guilt of
+ adultery was multiplied by daily repetition; that of homicide
+ might involve the massacre of a whole people; each act was
+ separately numbered; and, in those times of anarchy and vice, a
+ modest sinner might easily incur a debt of three hundred years.
+ His insolvency was relieved by a commutation, or indulgence: a
+ year of penance was appreciated at twenty-six solidi 24 of
+ silver, about four pounds sterling, for the rich; at three
+ solidi, or nine shillings, for the indigent: and these alms were
+ soon appropriated to the use of the church, which derived, from
+ the redemption of sins, an inexhaustible source of opulence and
+ dominion. A debt of three hundred years, or twelve hundred
+ pounds, was enough to impoverish a plentiful fortune; the
+ scarcity of gold and silver was supplied by the alienation of
+ land; and the princely donations of Pepin and Charlemagne are
+ expressly given for the remedy of their soul. It is a maxim of
+ the civil law, that whosoever cannot pay with his purse, must pay
+ with his body; and the practice of flagellation was adopted by
+ the monks, a cheap, though painful equivalent. By a fantastic
+ arithmetic, a year of penance was taxed at three thousand lashes;
+ 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
+ discharge an entire century, by a whipping of three hundred
+ thousand stripes. His example was followed by many penitents of
+ both sexes; and, as a vicarious sacrifice was accepted, a sturdy
+ disciplinarian might expiate on his own back the sins of his
+ benefactors. 27 These compensations of the purse and the person
+ introduced, in the eleventh century, a more honorable mode of
+ satisfaction. The merit of military service against the Saracens
+ of Africa and Spain had been allowed by the predecessors of Urban
+ the Second. In the council of Clermont, that pope proclaimed a
+ plenary indulgence to those who should enlist under the banner of
+ the cross; the absolution of all their sins, and a full receipt
+ for all that might be due of canonical penance. 28 The cold
+ philosophy of modern times is incapable of feeling the impression
+ that was made on a sinful and fanatic world. At the voice of
+ their pastor, the robber, the incendiary, the homicide, arose by
+ thousands to redeem their souls, by repeating on the infidels the
+ same deeds which they had exercised against their Christian
+ brethren; and the terms of atonement were eagerly embraced by
+ offenders of every rank and denomination. None were pure; none
+ were exempt from the guilt and penalty of sin; and those who were
+ the least amenable to the justice of God and the church were the
+ best entitled to the temporal and eternal recompense of their
+ pious courage. If they fell, the spirit of the Latin clergy did
+ not hesitate to adorn their tomb with the crown of martyrdom; 29
+ and should they survive, they could expect without impatience the
+ delay and increase of their heavenly reward. They offered their
+ blood to the Son of God, who had laid down his life for their
+ salvation: they took up the cross, and entered with confidence
+ into the way of the Lord. His providence would watch over their
+ safety; perhaps his visible and miraculous power would smooth the
+ difficulties of their holy enterprise. The cloud and pillar of
+ Jehovah had marched before the Israelites into the promised land.
+ Might not the Christians more reasonably hope that the rivers
+ would open for their passage; that the walls of their strongest
+ cities would fall at the sound of their trumpets; and that the
+ sun would be arrested in his mid career, to allow them time for
+ the destruction of the infidels?
+
+ 22 (return) [ The penance, indulgences, &c., of the middle ages
+ are amply discussed by Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi,
+ tom. v. dissert. lxviii. p. 709-768,) and by M. Chais, (Lettres
+ sur les Jubiles et les Indulgences, tom. ii. lettres 21 & 22, p.
+ 478-556,) with this difference, that the abuses of superstition
+ are mildly, perhaps faintly, exposed by the learned Italian, and
+ peevishly magnified by the Dutch minister.]
+
+ 23 (return) [ 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-thirty murders were perpetrated at Worms.]
+
+ 24 (return) [ Till the xiith century, we may support the clear
+ account of xii. denarii, or pence, to the solidus, or shilling;
+ and xx. solidi to the pound weight of silver, about the pound
+ sterling. Our money is diminished to a third, and the French to a
+ fiftieth, of this primitive standard.]
+
+ 25 (return) [ Each century of lashes was sanctified with a
+ recital of a psalm, and the whole Psalter, with the accompaniment
+ of 15,000 stripes, was equivalent to five years.]
+
+ 26 (return) [ The Life and Achievements of St. Dominic Loricatus
+ was composed 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, (sublimis generis,) this expiation (purgatorii
+ genus) was grown.]
+
+ 27 (return) [ At a quarter, or even half a rial a lash, Sancho
+ Panza was a cheaper, and possibly not a more dishonest, workman.
+ I remember in Pere Labat (Voyages en Italie, tom. vii. p. 16-29)
+ a very lively picture of the dexterity of one of these artists.]
+
+ 28 (return) [ Quicunque pro sola devotione, non pro honoris vel
+ pecuniae adoptione, ad liberandam ecclesiam Dei Jerusalem
+ profectus fuerit, iter illud pro omni poenitentia reputetur.
+ Canon. Concil. Claromont. ii. p. 829. Guibert styles it novum
+ salutis genus, (p. 471,) and is almost philosophical on the
+ subject. * Note: See note, page 546.—M.]
+
+ 29 (return) [ Such at least was the belief of the crusaders, and
+ such is the uniform style of the historians, (Esprit des
+ Croisades, tom. iii. p. 477;) but the prayer for the repose of
+ their souls is inconsistent in orthodox 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
+ will dare to affirm, that all were prompted by the spirit of
+ enthusiasm; the belief 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 in some it was not the leading,
+ principle of action. The use and abuse of religion are feeble to
+ stem, they are strong and irresistible to impel, the stream of
+ national manners. Against the private wars of the Barbarians,
+ their bloody tournaments, licentious love, and judicial duels,
+ the popes and synods might ineffectually thunder. It is a more
+ easy task to provoke the metaphysical disputes of the Greeks, to
+ drive into the cloister the victims of anarchy or despotism, to
+ sanctify the patience of slaves and cowards, or to assume the
+ merit of the humanity and benevolence of modern Christians. War
+ and exercise were the reigning passions of the Franks or Latins;
+ they were enjoined, as a penance, to gratify those passions, to
+ visit distant lands, and to draw their swords against the nation
+ of the East. Their victory, or even their attempt, would
+ immortalize the names of the intrepid heroes of the cross; and
+ the purest piety could not be insensible to the most splendid
+ prospect of military glory. In the petty quarrels of Europe, they
+ shed the blood of their friends and countrymen, for the
+ acquisition perhaps of a castle or a village. They could march
+ with alacrity against the distant and hostile nations who were
+ devoted to their arms; their fancy already grasped the golden
+ sceptres of Asia; and the conquest of Apulia and Sicily by the
+ Normans might exalt to royalty the hopes of the most private
+ adventurer. Christendom, in her rudest state, must have yielded
+ to the climate and cultivation of the Mahometan countries; and
+ their natural and artificial wealth had been magnified by the
+ tales of pilgrims, and the gifts of an imperfect commerce. The
+ vulgar, both the great and small, were taught to believe every
+ wonder, of lands flowing with milk and honey, of mines and
+ treasures, of gold and diamonds, of palaces of marble and jasper,
+ and of odoriferous groves of cinnamon and frankincense. In this
+ earthly paradise, each warrior depended on his sword to carve a
+ plenteous and honorable establishment, which he measured only by
+ the extent of his wishes. 30 Their vassals and soldiers trusted
+ their fortunes to God and their master: the spoils of a Turkish
+ emir might enrich the meanest follower of the camp; and the
+ flavor of the wines, the beauty of the Grecian women, 31 were
+ temptations more adapted to the nature, than to the profession,
+ of the champions of the cross. The love of freedom was a powerful
+ incitement to the multitudes who were oppressed by feudal or
+ ecclesiastical tyranny. Under this holy sign, the peasants and
+ burghers, who were attached to the servitude of the glebe, might
+ escape from a haughty lord, and transplant themselves and their
+ families to a land of liberty. The monk might release himself
+ from the discipline of his convent: the debtor might suspend the
+ accumulation of usury, and the pursuit of his creditors; and
+ outlaws and malefactors of every cast might continue to brave the
+ laws and elude the punishment of their crimes. 32
+
+ 30 (return) [ The same hopes were displayed in the letters of the
+ adventurers ad animandos qui in Francia residerant. Hugh de
+ Reiteste could boast, that his share amounted to one abbey and
+ ten castles, of the yearly value of 1500 marks, and that he
+ should acquire a hundred castles by the conquest of Aleppo,
+ (Guibert, p. 554, 555.)]
+
+ 31 (return) [ In his genuine or fictitious letter to the count of
+ Flanders, Alexius mingles with the danger of the church, and the
+ relics of saints, the auri et argenti amor, and pulcherrimarum
+ foeminarum voluptas, (p. 476;) as if, says the indignant Guibert,
+ the Greek women were handsomer than those of France.]
+
+ 32 (return) [ 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
+ computed their weight on the mind of each individual, we must add
+ the infinite series, the multiplying powers, of example and
+ fashion. The first proselytes became the warmest and most
+ effectual missionaries of the cross: among their friends and
+ countrymen they preached the duty, the merit, and the recompense,
+ of their holy vow; and the most reluctant hearers were insensibly
+ drawn within the whirlpool of persuasion and authority. The
+ martial youths were fired by the reproach or suspicion of
+ cowardice; the opportunity of visiting with an army the sepulchre
+ of Christ was embraced by the old and infirm, by women and
+ children, who consulted rather their zeal than their strength;
+ and those who in the evening had derided the folly of their
+ companions, were the most eager, the ensuing day, to tread in
+ their footsteps. The ignorance, which magnified the hopes,
+ diminished the perils, of the enterprise. Since the Turkish
+ conquest, the paths of pilgrimage were obliterated; the chiefs
+ themselves had an imperfect notion of the length of the way and
+ the state 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 their knowledge, they were ready to ask whether that
+ was not the Jerusalem, the term and object of their labors. Yet
+ the more prudent of the crusaders, who were not sure that they
+ should be fed from heaven with a shower of quails or manna,
+ provided themselves with those precious metals, which, in every
+ country, are the representatives of every commodity. To defray,
+ according to their rank, the expenses of the road, princes
+ alienated their provinces, nobles their lands and castles,
+ peasants their cattle and the instruments of husbandry. The value
+ of property was depreciated by the eager competition of
+ multitudes; while the price of arms and horses was raised to an
+ exorbitant height by the wants and impatience of the buyers. 33
+ Those who remained at home, with sense and money, were enriched
+ by the epidemical disease: the sovereigns acquired at a cheap
+ rate the domains of their vassals; and the ecclesiastical
+ purchasers completed the payment by the assurance of their
+ prayers. The cross, which was commonly sewed on the garment, in
+ cloth or silk, was inscribed by some zealots on their skin: a hot
+ iron, or indelible liquor, was applied to perpetuate the mark;
+ and a crafty monk, who showed the miraculous impression on his
+ breast was repaid with the popular veneration and the richest
+ benefices of Palestine. 34
+
+ 33 (return) [ Guibert (p. 481) paints in lively colors this
+ general emotion. He was one of the few contemporaries who had
+ genius enough to feel the astonishing scenes that were passing
+ before their eyes. Erat itaque videre miraculum, caro omnes
+ emere, atque vili vendere, &c.]
+
+ 34 (return) [ Some instances of these stigmata are given in the
+ Esprit des Croisades, (tom. iii. p. 169 &c.,) from authors whom I
+ have not seen]
+
+ The fifteenth of August had been fixed in the council of Clermont
+ for the departure of the pilgrims; but the day was anticipated by
+ the thoughtless and needy crowd of plebeians, and I shall briefly
+ despatch the calamities which they inflicted and suffered, before
+ I enter on the more serious and successful enterprise of the
+ chiefs. Early in the spring, from the confines of France and
+ Lorraine, above sixty thousand of the populace of both sexes
+ flocked round the first missionary of the crusade, and pressed
+ him with clamorous importunity to lead them to the holy
+ sepulchre. The hermit, assuming the character, without the
+ talents or authority, of a general, impelled or obeyed the
+ forward impulse of his votaries along the banks of the Rhine and
+ Danube. Their wants and numbers soon compelled them to separate,
+ and his lieutenant, Walter the Penniless, a valiant though needy
+ soldier, conducted a van guard of pilgrims, whose condition may
+ be determined from the proportion of eight horsemen to fifteen
+ thousand foot. The example and footsteps of Peter were closely
+ pursued by another fanatic, the monk Godescal, whose sermons had
+ swept away fifteen or twenty thousand peasants from the villages
+ of Germany. Their rear was again pressed by a herd of two hundred
+ thousand, the most stupid and savage refuse of the people, who
+ mingled with their devotion a brutal license of rapine,
+ prostitution, and drunkenness. Some counts and gentlemen, at the
+ head of three thousand horse, attended the motions of the
+ multitude to partake in the spoil; but their genuine leaders (may
+ we credit such folly?) were a goose and a goat, who were carried
+ in the front, and to whom these worthy Christians ascribed an
+ infusion of the divine spirit. 35 Of these, and of other bands of
+ enthusiasts, the first and most easy warfare was against the
+ Jews, the murderers of the Son of God. In the trading cities of
+ the Moselle and the Rhine, their colonies were numerous and rich;
+ and they enjoyed, under the protection of the emperor and the
+ bishops, the free exercise of their religion. 36 At Verdun,
+ Treves, Mentz, Spires, Worms, many thousands of that unhappy
+ people were pillaged and massacred: 37 nor had they felt a more
+ bloody stroke since the persecution of Hadrian. A remnant was
+ saved by the firmness of their bishops, who accepted a feigned
+ and transient conversion; but the more obstinate Jews opposed
+ their fanaticism to the fanaticism of the Christians, 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 implacable foes.
+
+ 35 (return) [ Fuit et aliud scelus detestabile in hac
+ congregatione pedestris populi stulti et vesanae levitatis,
+ anserem quendam divino spiritu asserebant afflatum, et capellam
+ non minus eodem repletam, et has sibi duces secundae viae
+ fecerant, &c., (Albert. Aquensis, l. i. c. 31, p. 196.) Had these
+ peasants founded an empire, they might have introduced, as in
+ Egypt, the worship of animals, which their philosophic descend
+ ants would have glossed over with some specious and subtile
+ allegory. * Note: A singular “allegoric” explanation of this
+ strange fact has recently been broached: it is connected with the
+ charge of idolatry and Eastern heretical opinions subsequently
+ made against the Templars. “We have no doubt that they were
+ Manichee or Gnostic standards.” (The author says the animals
+ themselves were carried before the army.—M.) “The goose, in
+ Egyptian symbols, as every Egyptian scholar knows, meant ‘divine
+ Son,’ or ‘Son of God.’ The goat meant Typhon, or Devil. Thus we
+ have the Manichee opposing principles of good and evil, as
+ standards, at the head of the ignorant mob of crusading invaders.
+ Can any one doubt that a large portion of this host must have
+ been infected with the Manichee or Gnostic idolatry?” Account of
+ the Temple Church by R. W. Billings, p. 5 London. 1838. This is,
+ at all events, a curious coincidence, especially considered in
+ connection with the extensive dissemination of the Paulician
+ opinions among the common people of Europe. At any rate, in so
+ inexplicable a matter, we are inclined to catch at any
+ explanation, however wild or subtile.—M.]
+
+ 36 (return) [ Benjamin of Tudela describes the state of his
+ Jewish brethren 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 wrote about A.D. 1170) they had recovered from these
+ massacres.]
+
+ 37 (return) [ These massacres and depredations on the Jews, which
+ were renewed at each crusade, are coolly related. It is true,
+ that St. Bernard (epist. 363, tom. i. p. 329) admonishes the
+ Oriental Franks, non sunt persequendi Judaei, non sunt
+ trucidandi. The contrary doctrine had been preached by a rival
+ monk. * Note: This is an unjust sarcasm against St. Bernard. He
+ stood above all rivalry of this kind See note 31, c. l x.—M]
+
+ Between the frontiers of Austria and the seat of the Byzantine
+ monarchy, the crusaders were compelled to traverse as interval of
+ six hundred miles; the wild and desolate countries of Hungary 38
+ and Bulgaria. The soil is fruitful, and intersected with rivers;
+ but it was then covered with morasses and forests, which spread
+ to a boundless extent, whenever man has ceased to exercise his
+ dominion over the earth. Both nations had imbibed the rudiments
+ of Christianity; the Hungarians were ruled by their native
+ princes; the Bulgarians by a lieutenant of the Greek emperor;
+ but, on the slightest provocation, their ferocious nature was
+ rekindled, and ample provocation was afforded by the disorders of
+ the first pilgrims Agriculture must have been unskilful and
+ languid among a people, whose cities were built of reeds and
+ timber, which were deserted in the summer season for the tents of
+ hunters and shepherds. A scanty supply of provisions was rudely
+ demanded, forcibly seized, and greedily consumed; and on the
+ first quarrel, the crusaders gave a loose to indignation and
+ revenge. But their ignorance of the country, of war, and of
+ discipline, exposed them to every snare. The Greek praefect of
+ Bulgaria commanded a regular force; 381 at the trumpet of the
+ Hungarian king, the eighth or the tenth of his martial subjects
+ bent their bows and mounted on horseback; their policy was
+ insidious, and their retaliation on these pious robbers was
+ unrelenting and bloody. 39 About a third of the naked fugitives
+ (and the hermit Peter was of the number) escaped to the Thracian
+ mountains; and the emperor, who respected the pilgrimage and
+ succor of the Latins, conducted them by secure and easy journeys
+ to Constantinople, and advised them to await the arrival of their
+ brethren. For a while they remembered their faults and losses;
+ but no sooner were they revived by the hospitable entertainment,
+ than their venom was again inflamed; they stung their benefactor,
+ and neither gardens, nor palaces, nor churches, were safe from
+ their depredations. For his own safety, Alexius allured them to
+ pass over to the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus; but their blind
+ impetuosity soon urged them to desert the station which he had
+ assigned, and to rush headlong against the Turks, who occupied
+ the road to Jerusalem. The hermit, conscious of his shame, had
+ withdrawn from the camp to Constantinople; and his lieutenant,
+ Walter the Penniless, who was worthy of a better command,
+ attempted without success to introduce some order and prudence
+ among the herd of savages. They separated in quest of prey, and
+ themselves fell an easy prey to the arts of the sultan. By a
+ rumor that their foremost companions were rioting in the spoils
+ of his capital, Soliman 391 tempted the main body to descend into
+ the plain of Nice: they were overwhelmed by the Turkish arrows;
+ and a pyramid of bones 40 informed their companions of the place
+ of their defeat. Of the first crusaders, three hundred thousand
+ had already perished, before a single city was rescued from the
+ infidels, before their graver and more noble brethren had
+ completed the preparations of their enterprise. 41
+
+ 38 (return) [ See the contemporary description of Hungary in Otho
+ of Frisin gen, l. ii. c. 31, in Muratori, Script. Rerum
+ Italicarum, tom. vi. p. 665 666.]
+
+ 381 (return) [ The narrative of the first march is very
+ incorrect. The first party moved under Walter de Pexego and
+ Walter the Penniless: they passed safe through Hungary, the
+ kingdom of Kalmeny, and were attacked in Bulgaria. Peter followed
+ with 40,000 men; passed through Hungary; but seeing the clothes
+ of sixteen crusaders, who had been empaled on the walls of
+ Semlin. he attacked and stormed the city. He then marched to
+ Nissa, where, at first, he was hospitably received: but an
+ accidental quar rel taking place, he suffered a great defeat.
+ Wilken, vol. i. p. 84-86—M.]
+
+ 39 (return) [ The old Hungarians, without excepting Turotzius,
+ are ill informed of the first crusade, which they involve in a
+ single passage. Katona, like ourselves, can only quote the
+ writers of France; but he compares with local science the ancient
+ and modern geography. Ante portam Cyperon, is Sopron or Poson;
+ Mallevilla, Zemlin; Fluvius Maroe, Savus; Lintax, Leith;
+ Mesebroch, or Merseburg, Ouar, or Moson; Tollenburg, Pragg, (de
+ Regibus Hungariae, tom. iii. p. 19-53.)]
+
+ 391 (return) [ Soliman had been killed in 1085, in a battle
+ against Toutoneh, brother of Malek Schah, between Appelo and
+ Antioch. It was not Soliman, therefore, but his son David,
+ surnamed Kilidje Arslan, the “Sword of the Lion,” who reigned in
+ Nice. Almost all the occidental authors have fallen into this
+ mistake, which was detected by M. Michaud, Hist. des Crois. 4th
+ edit. and Extraits des Aut. Arab. rel. aux Croisades, par M.
+ Reinaud Paris, 1829, p. 3. His kingdom extended from the Orontes
+ to the Euphra tes, and as far as the Bosphorus. Kilidje Arslan
+ must uniformly be substituted for Soliman. Brosset note on Le
+ Beau, tom. xv. p. 311.—M.]
+
+ 40 (return) [ Anna Comnena (Alexias, l. x. p. 287) describes this
+ as a mountain. In the siege of Nice, such were used by the Franks
+ themselves as the materials of a wall.]
+
+ 41 (return) [ See table on following page.]
+
+ “To save time and space, I shall represent, in a short table, the
+ particular 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
+ the first crusade. The emperor Henry the Fourth was not disposed
+ to obey the summons of the pope: Philip the First of France was
+ occupied by his pleasures; William Rufus of England by a recent
+ conquest; the kin`gs of Spain were engaged in a domestic war
+ against the Moors; and the northern monarchs of Scotland,
+ Denmark, 42 Sweden, and Poland, were yet strangers to the
+ passions and interests of the South. The religious ardor was more
+ strongly felt by the princes of the second order, who held an
+ important place in the feudal system. Their situation will
+ naturally cast under four distinct heads the review of their
+ names and characters; but I may escape some needless repetition,
+ by observing at once, that courage and the exercise of arms are
+ the common attribute of these Christian adventurers. I. The first
+ rank both in war and council is justly due to Godfrey of
+ Bouillon; and happy would it have been for the crusaders, if they
+ had trusted themselves to the sole conduct of that accomplished
+ hero, a worthy representative of Charlemagne, from whom he was
+ descended in the female line. His father was of the noble race of
+ the counts of Boulogne: Brabant, the lower province of Lorraine,
+ 43 was the inheritance of his mother; and by the emperor’s bounty
+ he was himself invested with that ducal title, which has been
+ improperly transferred to his lordship of Bouillon in the
+ Ardennes. 44 In the service 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 as a pilgrim, but
+ a deliverer. His valor was matured by prudence and moderation;
+ his piety, though blind, was sincere; and, in the tumult of a
+ camp, he practised the real and fictitious virtues of a convent.
+ Superior to the private factions of the chiefs, he reserved his
+ enmity for the enemies of Christ; and though he gained a kingdom
+ by the attempt, his pure and disinterested zeal was acknowledged
+ by his rivals. Godfrey of Bouillon 45 was accompanied by his two
+ brothers, by Eustace the elder, who had succeeded to the county
+ of Boulogne, and by the younger, Baldwin, a character of more
+ ambiguous virtue. The duke of Lorraine, was alike celebrated on
+ either side of the Rhine: from his birth and education, he was
+ equally conversant with the French and Teutonic languages: the
+ barons of France, Germany, and Lorraine, assembled their vassals;
+ and the confederate force that marched under his banner was
+ composed of fourscore thousand foot and about ten thousand horse.
+ II. In the parliament that was held at Paris, in the king’s
+ presence, about two months after the council of Clermont, Hugh,
+ count of Vermandois, was the most conspicuous of the princes who
+ assumed the cross. But the appellation of the Great was applied,
+ not so much to his merit or possessions, (though neither were
+ contemptible,) as to the royal birth of the brother of the king
+ of France. 46 Robert, duke of Normandy, was the eldest son of
+ William the Conqueror; but on his father’s death he was deprived
+ of the kingdom of England, by his own indolence and the activity
+ of his brother Rufus. The worth of Robert was degraded by an
+ excessive levity and easiness of temper: his cheerfulness seduced
+ him to the indulgence of pleasure; his profuse liberality
+ impoverished the prince and people; his indiscriminate clemency
+ multiplied the number of offenders; and the amiable qualities of
+ a private man became the essential defects of a sovereign. For
+ the trifling sum of ten thousand marks, he mortgaged Normandy
+ during his absence to the English usurper; 47 but his engagement
+ and behavior in the holy war announced in Robert a reformation of
+ manners, and restored him in some degree to the public esteem.
+ Another Robert was count of Flanders, a royal province, which, in
+ this century, gave three queens to the thrones of France,
+ England, and Denmark: he was surnamed the Sword and Lance of the
+ Christians; but in the exploits of a soldier he sometimes forgot
+ the duties of a general. Stephen, count of Chartres, of Blois,
+ and of Troyes, was one of the richest princes of the age; and the
+ number of his castles has been compared to the three hundred and
+ sixty-five days of the year. His mind was improved by literature;
+ and, in the council of the chiefs, the eloquent Stephen 48 was
+ chosen to discharge the office of their president. These four
+ were the principal leaders of the French, the Normans, and the
+ pilgrims of the British isles: but the list of the barons who
+ were possessed of three or four towns would exceed, says a
+ contemporary, the catalogue of the Trojan war. 49 III. In the
+ south of France, the command was assumed by Adhemar bishop of
+ Puy, the pope egate, and by Raymond count of St. Giles and
+ Thoulouse who added the prouder titles of duke of Narbonne and
+ marquis of Provence. The former was a respectable prelate, alike
+ qualified for this world and the next. The latter was a veteran
+ warrior, who had fought against the Saracens of Spain, and who
+ consecrated his declining age, not only to the deliverance, but
+ to the perpetual service, of the holy sepulchre. His experience
+ and riches gave him a strong ascendant in the Christian camp,
+ whose distress he was often able, and sometimes willing, to
+ relieve. But it was easier for him to extort the praise of the
+ Infidels, than to preserve the love of his subjects and
+ associates. His eminent qualities were clouded by a temper
+ haughty, envious, and obstinate; and, though he resigned an ample
+ patrimony for the cause of God, his piety, in the public opinion,
+ was not exempt from avarice and ambition. 50 A mercantile, rather
+ than a martial, spirit prevailed among his provincials, 51 a
+ common name, which included the natives of Auvergne and
+ Languedoc, 52 the vassals of the kingdom of Burgundy or Arles.
+ From the adjacent frontier of Spain he drew a band of hardy
+ adventurers; as he marched through Lombardy, a crowd of Italians
+ flocked to his standard, and his united force consisted of one
+ hundred thousand horse and foot. If Raymond was the first to
+ enlist and the last to depart, the delay may be excused by the
+ greatness of his preparation and the promise of an everlasting
+ farewell. IV. The name of Bohemond, the son of Robert Guiscard,
+ was already famous by his double victory over the Greek emperor;
+ but his father’s will had reduced him to the principality of
+ Tarentum, and the remembrance of his Eastern trophies, till he
+ was awakened by the rumor and passage of the French pilgrims. It
+ is in the person of this Norman chief that we may seek for the
+ coolest policy and ambition, with a small allay of religious
+ fanaticism. His conduct may justify a belief that he had secretly
+ directed the design of the pope, which he affected to second with
+ astonishment and zeal: at the siege of Amalphi, his example and
+ discourse inflamed the passions of a confederate army; he
+ instantly tore his garment to supply crosses for the numerous
+ candidates, and prepared to visit Constantinople and Asia at the
+ head of ten thousand horse and twenty thousand foot. Several
+ princes of the Norman race accompanied this 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 of a perfect knight, 54 the true spirit of chivalry,
+ which inspired the generous sentiments and social offices of man
+ far better than the base philosophy, or the baser religion, of
+ the times.
+
+ 42 (return) [ The author of the Esprit des Croisades has doubted,
+ and might have disbelieved, the crusade and tragic death of
+ Prince Sueno, with 1500 or 15,000 Danes, who was cut off by
+ Sultan Soliman in Cappadocia, but who still lives in the poem of
+ Tasso, (tom. iv. p. 111-115.)]
+
+ 43 (return) [ The fragments of the kingdoms of Lotharingia, or
+ Lorraine, were broken into the two duchies of the Moselle and of
+ the Meuse: the first has preserved its name, which in the latter
+ has been changed into that of Brabant, (Vales. Notit. Gall. p.
+ 283-288.)]
+
+ 44 (return) [ See, in the Description of France, by the Abbe de
+ Longuerue, the articles of Boulogne, part i. p. 54; Brabant, part
+ ii. p. 47, 48; Bouillon, p. 134. On his departure, Godfrey sold
+ or pawned Bouillon to the church for 1300 marks.]
+
+ 45 (return) [ See the family character of Godfrey, in William of
+ Tyre, l. ix. c. 5-8; his previous design in Guibert, (p. 485;)
+ his sickness and vow in Bernard. Thesaur., (c 78.)]
+
+ 46 (return) [ Anna Comnena supposes, that Hugh was proud of his
+ nobility riches, and power, (l. x. p. 288: ) the two last
+ articles appear more equivocal; but an item, which seven hundred
+ years ago was famous in the palace of Constantinople, attests the
+ ancient dignity of the Capetian family of France.]
+
+ 47 (return) [ Will. Gemeticensis, l. vii. c. 7, p. 672, 673, in
+ Camden. Normani cis. He pawned the duchy for one hundredth part
+ of the present yearly revenue. Ten thousand marks may be equal to
+ five hundred thousand livres, and Normandy annually yields
+ fifty-seven millions to the king, (Necker, Administration des
+ Finances, tom. i. p. 287.)]
+
+ 48 (return) [ His original letter to his wife is inserted in the
+ Spicilegium of Dom. Luc. d’Acheri, tom. iv. and quoted in the
+ Esprit des Croisades tom. i. p. 63.]
+
+ 49 (return) [ Unius enim duum, trium seu quatuor oppidorum
+ dominos quis numeret? quorum tanta fuit copia, ut non vix totidem
+ Trojana obsidio coegisse putetur. (Ever the lively and
+ interesting Guibert, p. 486.)]
+
+ 50 (return) [ It is singular enough, that Raymond of St. Giles, a
+ second character in the genuine history of the crusades, should
+ shine as the first of heroes in the writings of the Greeks (Anna
+ Comnen. Alexiad, l. x xi.) and the Arabians, (Longueruana, p.
+ 129.)]
+
+ 51 (return) [ Omnes de Burgundia, et Alvernia, et Vasconia, et
+ Gothi, (of Languedoc,) provinciales appellabantur, caeteri vero
+ Francigenae et hoc in exercitu; inter hostes autem Franci
+ dicebantur. Raymond des Agiles, p. 144.]
+
+ 52 (return) [ The town of his birth, or first appanage, was
+ consecrated to St Aegidius, whose name, as early as the first
+ crusade, was corrupted by the French into St. Gilles, or St.
+ Giles. It is situate in the Iowen Languedoc, between Nismes and
+ the Rhone, and still boasts a collegiate church of the foundation
+ of Raymond, (Melanges tires d’une Grande Bibliotheque, tom.
+ xxxvii. p 51.)]
+
+ 53 (return) [ The mother of Tancred was Emma, sister of the great
+ Robert Guiscard; his father, the Marquis Odo the Good. It is
+ singular enough, that the family and country of so illustrious a
+ person should be unknown; but Muratori reasonably conjectures
+ that he was an Italian, and perhaps of the race of the marquises
+ of Montferrat in Piedmont, (Script. tom. v. p. 281, 282.)]
+
+ 54 (return) [ To gratify the childish vanity of the house of
+ Este. Tasso has 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 his name 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 sixty years
+ between the youth of the two Rinaldos destroys their identity. 2.
+ The Storia Imperiale is a forgery of the Conte Boyardo, at the
+ end of the xvth century, (Muratori, p. 281-289.) 3. This Rinaldo,
+ and his exploits, 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
+ revolution had taken place among the Spaniards, the Normans, and
+ the French, which was gradually extended to the rest of Europe.
+ The service of the infantry was degraded to the plebeians; the
+ cavalry formed the strength of the armies, and the honorable name
+ of miles, or soldier, was confined to the gentlemen 55 who served
+ on horseback, and were invested with the character of knighthood.
+ The dukes and counts, who had usurped the rights of sovereignty,
+ divided the provinces among their faithful barons: the barons
+ distributed among their vassals the fiefs or benefices of their
+ jurisdiction; and these military tenants, the peers of each other
+ and of their lord, composed the noble or equestrian order, which
+ disdained to conceive the peasant or burgher as of the same
+ species with themselves. The dignity of their birth was preserved
+ by pure and equal alliances; their sons alone, who could produce
+ four quarters or lines of ancestry without spot or reproach,
+ might legally pretend to the honor of knighthood; but a valiant
+ plebeian was sometimes enriched and ennobled by the sword, and
+ became the father of a new race. A single knight could impart,
+ according to his judgment, the character which he received; and
+ the warlike sovereigns of Europe derived more glory from this
+ personal distinction than from the lustre of their diadem. This
+ ceremony, of which some traces may be found in Tacitus and the
+ woods of Germany, 56 was in its origin simple and profane; the
+ candidate, after some previous trial, was invested with the sword
+ and spurs; and his cheek or shoulder was touched with a slight
+ blow, as an emblem of the last affront which it was lawful for
+ him to endure. But superstition mingled in every public and
+ private action of life: in the holy wars, it sanctified the
+ profession of arms; and the order of chivalry was assimilated in
+ its rights and privileges to the sacred orders of priesthood. The
+ bath and white garment of the novice were an indecent copy of the
+ regeneration of baptism: his sword, which he offered on the
+ altar, was blessed by the ministers of religion: his solemn
+ reception was preceded by fasts and vigils; and he was created a
+ knight in the name of God, of St. George, and of St. Michael the
+ archangel. He swore to accomplish the duties of his profession;
+ and education, example, and the public opinion, were the
+ inviolable guardians of his oath. As the champion of God and the
+ ladies, (I blush to 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; to despise the allurements of
+ ease and safety; and to vindicate in every perilous adventure the
+ honor of his character. The abuse of the same spirit provoked the
+ illiterate knight to disdain the arts of industry and peace; to
+ esteem himself the sole judge and avenger of his own injuries;
+ and proudly to neglect the laws of civil society and military
+ discipline. Yet the benefits of this institution, to refine the
+ temper of Barbarians, and to infuse some principles of faith,
+ justice, and humanity, were strongly felt, and have been often
+ observed. The asperity of national prejudice was softened; and
+ the community of religion and arms spread a similar color and
+ generous emulation over the face of Christendom. Abroad in
+ enterprise and pilgrimage, at home in martial exercise, the
+ warriors of every country were perpetually associated; and
+ impartial taste must prefer a Gothic tournament to the Olympic
+ games of classic antiquity. 57 Instead of the naked spectacles
+ which corrupted the manners of the Greeks, and banished from the
+ stadium the virgins and matrons, the pompous decoration of the
+ lists was crowned with the presence of chaste and high-born
+ beauty, from whose hands the conqueror received the prize of his
+ dexterity and courage. The skill and strength that were exerted
+ in wrestling and boxing bear a distant and doubtful relation to
+ the merit of a soldier; but the tournaments, as they were
+ invented in France, and eagerly adopted both in the East and
+ West, presented a lively image of the business of the field. The
+ single combats, the general skirmish, the defence of a pass, or
+ castle, were rehearsed as in actual service; and the contest,
+ both in real and mimic war, was decided by the superior
+ management of the horse and lance. The lance was the proper and
+ peculiar weapon of the knight: his horse was of a large and heavy
+ breed; but this charger, till he was roused by the approaching
+ danger, was usually led by an attendant, and he quietly rode a
+ pad or palfrey of a more easy pace. His helmet and sword, his
+ greaves and buckler, it would be superfluous to describe; but I
+ may remark, that, at the period of the crusades, the armor was
+ less ponderous than in later times; and that, instead of a massy
+ cuirass, his breast was defended by a hauberk or coat of mail.
+ When their long lances were fixed in the rest, the warriors
+ furiously spurred their horses against the foe; and the light
+ cavalry of the Turks and Arabs could seldom stand against the
+ direct and impetuous weight of their charge. Each knight was
+ attended to the field by his faithful squire, a youth of equal
+ birth and similar 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 complete lance. In the expeditions to the
+ neighboring kingdoms or the Holy Land, the duties of the feudal
+ tenure no longer subsisted; the voluntary service of the knights
+ and their followers were either prompted by zeal or attachment,
+ or purchased with rewards and promises; and the numbers of 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 families of Europe must seek in these achievements the
+ origin and proof of their nobility. In this rapid portrait of
+ chivalry I have been urged to anticipate on the story of the
+ crusades, at once an effect and a cause, of this memorable
+ institution. 58
+
+ 55 (return) [ Of the words gentilis, gentilhomme, gentleman, two
+ etymologies are produced: 1. From the Barbarians of the fifth
+ century, the soldiers, and at length the conquerors of the Roman
+ empire, who were vain of their foreign nobility; and 2. From the
+ sense of the civilians, who consider gentilis as synonymous with
+ ingenuus. Selden inclines to the first but the latter is more
+ pure, as well as probable.]
+
+ 56 (return) [ Framea scutoque juvenem ornant. Tacitus, Germania.
+ c. 13.]
+
+ 57 (return) [ The athletic exercises, particularly the caestus
+ and pancratium, were condemned by Lycurgus, Philopoemen, and
+ Galen, a lawgiver, a general, and a physician. Against their
+ authority and reasons, the reader may weigh the apology of
+ Lucian, in the character of Solon. See West on the Olympic Games,
+ in his Pindar, vol. ii. p. 86-96 243-248]
+
+ 58 (return) [ On the curious subjects of knighthood,
+ knights-service, nobility, arms, cry of war, banners, and
+ tournaments, an ample fund of information may be sought in
+ Selden, (Opera, tom. iii. part i. Titles of 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
+ for the deliverance of the holy sepulchre. As soon as they were
+ relieved by the absence of the plebeian multitude, they
+ encouraged each other, by interviews and messages, to accomplish
+ their vow, and hasten their departure. Their wives and sisters
+ were desirous of partaking the danger and merit of the
+ pilgrimage: their portable treasures were conveyed in bars of
+ silver and gold; and the princes and barons were attended by
+ their equipage of hounds and hawks to amuse their leisure and to
+ supply their table. The difficulty of procuring subsistence for
+ so many myriads of men and horses engaged them to separate their
+ forces: their choice or situation determined the road; and it was
+ agreed to meet in the neighborhood of Constantinople, and from
+ thence to begin their operations against the Turks. From the
+ banks of the Meuse and the Moselle, Godfrey of Bouillon followed
+ the direct way of Germany, Hungary, and Bulgaria; and, as long as
+ he exercised the sole command every step afforded some proof of
+ his prudence and virtue. On the confines 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 received
+ from the first pilgrims: in their turn they had abused the right
+ of defence and retaliation; and they had reason to apprehend a
+ severe revenge from a hero of the same nation, and who was
+ engaged in the same cause. But, after weighing the motives and
+ the events, the virtuous duke was content to pity the crimes and
+ misfortunes of his worthless brethren; and his twelve deputies,
+ the messengers of peace, requested in his name a free passage and
+ an equal market. To remove their suspicions, Godfrey trusted
+ himself, and afterwards his brother, to the faith of Carloman,
+ 581 king of Hungary, who treated them with a simple but
+ hospitable entertainment: the treaty was sanctified by their
+ common gospel; and a proclamation, under pain of death,
+ restrained the animosity and license of the Latin soldiers. From
+ Austria to Belgrade, they traversed the plains of Hungary,
+ without enduring or offering an injury; and the proximity of
+ Carloman, who hovered on their flanks with his numerous cavalry,
+ was a precaution not less useful for their safety than for his
+ own. They reached the banks of the Save; and no sooner had they
+ passed the river, than the king of Hungary restored the hostages,
+ and saluted their departure with the fairest wishes for the
+ success of their enterprise. With the same conduct and
+ discipline, Godfrey pervaded the woods of Bulgaria and the
+ frontiers of Thrace; and might congratulate himself that he had
+ almost reached the first term of his pilgrimage, without drawing
+ his sword against a Christian adversary. After an easy and
+ pleasant journey through Lombardy, from Turin to Aquileia,
+ Raymond and his provincials marched forty days through the savage
+ country of Dalmatia 59 and Sclavonia. The weather was a perpetual
+ fog; the land was mountainous and desolate; the natives were
+ either fugitive or hostile: loose in their religion and
+ government, they refused to furnish provisions or guides;
+ murdered the stragglers; and exercised by night and day the
+ vigilance of the count, who derived more security from the
+ punishment of some captive robbers than from his interview and
+ treaty with the prince of Scodra. 60 His march between Durazzo
+ and Constantinople was harassed, without being stopped, by the
+ peasants and soldiers of the Greek emperor; and the same faint
+ and ambiguous hostility was prepared for the remaining chiefs,
+ who passed the Adriatic from the coast of Italy. Bohemond had
+ arms and vessels, and foresight and discipline; and his name was
+ not forgotten in the provinces of Epirus and Thessaly. Whatever
+ obstacles he encountered were surmounted by his military conduct
+ and the valor of Tancred; and if the Norman prince affected to
+ spare the Greeks, he gorged his soldiers with the full plunder of
+ an heretical castle. 61 The nobles of France pressed forwards
+ with the vain and thoughtless ardor of which their nation has
+ been sometimes accused. From the Alps to Apulia the march of Hugh
+ the Great, of the two Roberts, and of Stephen of Chartres,
+ through a wealthy country, and amidst the applauding Catholics,
+ was a devout or triumphant progress: they kissed the feet of the
+ Roman pontiff; and the golden standard of St. Peter was delivered
+ to the brother of the French monarch. 62 But in this visit of
+ piety and pleasure, they neglected to secure the season, and the
+ means of their embarkation: the winter was insensibly lost: their
+ troops were scattered and corrupted in the towns of Italy. They
+ separately accomplished their passage, regardless of safety or
+ dignity; and within nine months from the feast of the Assumption,
+ the day appointed by Urban, all the Latin princes had reached
+ Constantinople. But the count of Vermandois was produced as a
+ captive; his foremost vessels were scattered by a tempest; and
+ his person, against the law of nations, was detained by the
+ lieutenants of Alexius. Yet the arrival of Hugh had been
+ announced by four-and-twenty knights in golden armor, who
+ commanded the emperor to revere the general of the Latin
+ Christians, the brother of the king of kings. 63 631
+
+ 581 (return) [ Carloman (or Calmany) demanded the brother of
+ Godfrey as hostage but Count Baldwin refused the humiliating
+ submission. Godfrey shamed him into this sacrifice for the common
+ good by offering to surrender himself Wilken, vol. i. p. 104.—M.]
+
+ 59 (return) [ The Familiae Dalmaticae of Ducange are meagre and
+ imperfect; the national historians are recent and fabulous, the
+ Greeks remote and careless. In the year 1104 Coloman reduced the
+ maritine country as far as Trau and Saloma, (Katona, Hist. Crit.
+ tom. iii. p. 195-207.)]
+
+ 60 (return) [ Scodras appears in Livy as the capital and fortress
+ of Gentius, king of the Illyrians, arx munitissima, afterwards a
+ Roman colony, (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 393, 394.) It is now called
+ Iscodar, or Scutari, (D’Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p.
+ 164.) The sanjiak (now a pacha) of Scutari, or Schendeire, was
+ the viiith under the Beglerbeg of Romania, and furnished 600
+ soldiers on a revenue of 78,787 rix dollars, (Marsigli, Stato
+ Militare del Imperio Ottomano, p. 128.)]
+
+ 61 (return) [ In Pelagonia castrum haereticum..... spoliatum cum
+ suis habi tatoribus igne combussere. Nec id eis injuria contigit:
+ quia illorum detestabilis sermo et cancer serpebat, jamque
+ circumjacentes regiones suo pravo dogmate foedaverat, (Robert.
+ Mon. p. 36, 37.) After cooly relating the fact, the Archbishop
+ Baldric adds, as a praise, Omnes siquidem illi viatores, Judeos,
+ haereticos, Saracenos aequaliter habent exosos; quos omnes
+ appellant inimicos Dei, (p. 92.)]
+
+ 62 (return) [ (Alexiad. l. x. p. 288.)]
+
+ 63 (return) [ This Oriental pomp is extravagant in a count of
+ Vermandois; but the patriot Ducange repeats with much complacency
+ (Not. ad Alexiad. p. 352, 353. Dissert. xxvii. sur Joinville, p.
+ 315) the passages 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 rois Chretiens.]
+
+ 631 (return) [ Hugh was taken at Durazzo, and sent by land to
+ Constantinople Wilken—M.]
+
+ In some oriental tale I have read the fable of a shepherd, who
+ was ruined by the accomplishment of his own wishes: he had prayed
+ for water; the Ganges was turned into his grounds, and his flock
+ and cottage were swept away by the inundation. Such was the
+ fortune, or at least the apprehension of the Greek emperor
+ Alexius Comnenus, whose name has already appeared in this
+ history, and whose conduct is so differently represented by his
+ daughter Anne, 64 and by the Latin writers. 65 In the council of
+ Placentia, his ambassadors had solicited a moderate succor,
+ perhaps of ten thousand soldiers, but he was astonished by the
+ approach of so many potent chiefs and fanatic nations. The
+ emperor fluctuated between hope and fear, between timidity and
+ courage; but in the crooked policy which he mistook for wisdom, I
+ cannot believe, I cannot discern, that he maliciously conspired
+ against the life or honor of the French heroes. The promiscuous
+ multitudes of Peter the Hermit were savage beasts, alike
+ destitute of humanity and reason: nor was it possible for Alexius
+ to prevent or deplore their destruction. The troops of Godfrey
+ and his peers were less contemptible, but not less suspicious, 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
+ the French was blind and headstrong; they might be tempted by the
+ luxury and wealth of Greece, and elated by the view and opinion
+ of their invincible strength: and Jerusalem might be forgotten in
+ the prospect of Constantinople. After a long march and painful
+ abstinence, the troops of Godfrey encamped in the plains of
+ Thrace; they heard with indignation, that their brother, the
+ count of Vermandois, was imprisoned by the Greeks; and their
+ reluctant duke was compelled to indulge them in some freedom of
+ retaliation and rapine. They were appeased by the submission of
+ Alexius: he promised to supply their camp; and as they refused,
+ in the midst of winter, to pass the Bosphorus, their quarters
+ were assigned among the gardens and palaces on the shores of that
+ narrow sea. But an incurable jealousy still rankled in the minds
+ of the two nations, who despised each other as slaves and
+ Barbarians. Ignorance is the ground of suspicion, and suspicion
+ was inflamed into daily provocations: prejudice is blind, hunger
+ is deaf; and Alexius is accused of a design to starve or assault
+ the Latins in a dangerous post, on all sides encompassed with the
+ waters. 66 Godfrey sounded his trumpets, burst the net,
+ overspread the plain, and insulted the suburbs; but the gates of
+ Constantinople were strongly fortified; the ramparts were lined
+ with archers; and, after a doubtful conflict, both parties
+ listened to the voice of peace and religion. The gifts and
+ promises of the emperor insensibly soothed the fierce spirit of
+ the western strangers; as a Christian warrior, he rekindled their
+ zeal for the prosecution of their holy enterprise, which he
+ engaged to second with his troops and treasures. On the return of
+ spring, Godfrey was persuaded to occupy a pleasant and plentiful
+ camp in Asia; and no sooner had he passed the Bosphorus, than the
+ Greek vessels were suddenly recalled to the opposite shore. The
+ same policy was repeated with the succeeding chiefs, who were
+ swayed by the example, and weakened by the departure, of their
+ foremost companions. By his skill and diligence, Alexius
+ prevented the union of any two of the confederate armies at the
+ same moment under the walls of Constantinople; and before the
+ feast of the Pentecost not a Latin pilgrim was left on the coast
+ of Europe.
+
+ 64 (return) [ Anna Comnena was born the 1st of December, A.D.
+ 1083, indiction vii., (Alexiad. l. vi. p. 166, 167.) At thirteen,
+ the time of the first crusade, she was nubile, and perhaps
+ married to the younger Nicephorus Bryennius, whom she fondly
+ styles, (l. x. p. 295, 296.) Some moderns have imagined, that her
+ enmity to Bohemond was the fruit of disappointed love. In the
+ transactions of Constantinople and Nice, her partial accounts
+ (Alex. l. x. xi. p. 283-317) may be opposed to the partiality of
+ the Latins, but in their subsequent exploits she is brief and
+ ignorant.]
+
+ 65 (return) [ In their views of the character and conduct of
+ Alexius, Maimbourg has favored the Catholic Franks, and Voltaire
+ has been partial to the schismatic Greeks. The prejudice of a
+ philosopher is less excusable than that of a Jesuit.]
+
+ 651 (return) [ Wilken quotes a remarkable passage of William of
+ Malmsbury as to the secret motives of Urban and of Bohemond in
+ urging the crusade. Illud repositius propositum non ita
+ vulgabatur, quod Boemundi 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. Nam eas terras et
+ quidquid praeterea a Dyrrachio usque ad Thessalonicam
+ protenditur, Guiscardus pater, super Alexium acquisierat; ideirco
+ illas Boemundus suo juri competere clamitabat: inops haereditatis
+ Apuliae, quam genitor Rogerio, minori filio delegaverat. Wilken,
+ vol. ii. p. 313.—M]
+
+ 66 (return) [ Between the Black Sea, the Bosphorus, and the River
+ Barbyses, which is deep in summer, and runs fifteen miles through
+ a flat meadow. Its communication with Europe and Constantinople
+ is by the stone bridge of the Blachernoe, which in successive
+ ages was restored by Justinian and Basil, (Gyllius de Bosphoro
+ Thracio, l. ii. c. 3. Ducange O. P. Christiana, l. v. c. 2, p,
+ 179.)]
+
+ The same arms which threatened Europe might deliver Asia, and
+ repel the Turks from the neighboring shores of the Bosphorus and
+ Hellespont. The fair provinces from Nice to Antioch were the
+ recent patrimony of the Roman emperor; and his ancient and
+ perpetual claim still embraced the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt.
+ In his enthusiasm, Alexius indulged, or affected, the ambitious
+ hope of leading his new allies to subvert the thrones of the
+ East; but the calmer dictates of reason and temper dissuaded him
+ from exposing his royal person to the faith of unknown and
+ lawless Barbarians. His prudence, or his pride, was content with
+ extorting from the French princes an oath of homage and fidelity,
+ and a solemn promise, that they
+
+ would either restore, or hold, their Asiatic conquests as the
+ humble and loyal vassals of the Roman empire. Their independent
+ spirit was fired at the mention of this foreign and voluntary
+ servitude: they successively yielded to the dexterous application
+ of gifts and flattery; and the first proselytes became the most
+ eloquent and effectual missionaries to multiply the companions of
+ their shame. The pride of Hugh of Vermandois was soothed by the
+ honors of his captivity; and in the brother of the French king,
+ the example of submission was prevalent and weighty. In the mind
+ of Godfrey of Bouillon every human consideration was subordinate
+ to the glory of God and the success of the crusade. He had firmly
+ resisted the temptations of Bohemond and Raymond, who urged the
+ attack and conquest of Constantinople. Alexius esteemed his
+ virtues, deservedly named him the champion of the empire, and
+ dignified his homage with the filial name and the rights of
+ adoption. 67 The hateful Bohemond was received as a true and
+ ancient ally; and if the emperor reminded him of former
+ hostilities, it was only to praise the valor that he had
+ displayed, and the glory that he had acquired, in the fields of
+ Durazzo and Larissa. The son of Guiscard was lodged and
+ entertained, and served with Imperial pomp: one day, as he passed
+ through the gallery of the palace, a door was carelessly left
+ open to expose a pile of gold and silver, of silk and gems, of
+ curious and costly furniture, that was heaped, in seeming
+ disorder, from the floor to the roof of the chamber. “What
+ conquests,” exclaimed the ambitious miser, “might not be achieved
+ by the possession of such a treasure!”—“It is your own,” replied
+ a Greek attendant, who watched the motions of his soul; and
+ Bohemond, after some hesitation, condescended to accept this
+ magnificent present. The Norman was flattered by the assurance of
+ an independent principality; and Alexius eluded, rather than
+ denied, his daring demand of the office of great domestic, or
+ general of the East. The two Roberts, the son of the conqueror of
+ England, and the kinsmen of three queens, 68 bowed in their turn
+ before the Byzantine throne. A private letter of Stephen of
+ Chartres attests his admiration of the emperor, the most
+ excellent and liberal of men, who taught him to believe that he
+ was a favorite, and promised to educate and establish his
+ youngest son. In his southern province, the count of St. Giles
+ and Thoulouse faintly recognized the supremacy of the king of
+ France, a prince of a foreign nation and language. At the head of
+ a hundred thousand men, he declared that he was the soldier and
+ servant of Christ alone, and that the Greek might be satisfied
+ with an equal treaty of alliance and friendship. His obstinate
+ resistance enhanced the value and the price of his submission;
+ and he shone, says the princess Anne, among the Barbarians, as
+ the sun amidst the stars of heaven. His disgust of the noise and
+ insolence of the French, his suspicions of the designs of
+ Bohemond, the emperor imparted to his faithful Raymond; and that
+ aged statesman might clearly discern, 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 that gallant
+ knight. He disdained the gold and flattery of the Greek monarch;
+ assaulted in his presence an insolent patrician; escaped to Asia
+ in the habit of a private soldier; and yielded with a sigh to the
+ authority of Bohemond, and the interest of the Christian cause.
+ The best and most ostensible reason was the impossibility of
+ passing the sea and accomplishing their vow, without the license
+ and the vessels of Alexius; but they cherished a secret hope,
+ that as soon as they trod the continent of Asia, their swords
+ would obliterate their shame, and dissolve the engagement, which
+ on his side might not be very faithfully performed. The ceremony
+ of their homage was grateful to a people who had long since
+ considered pride as the substitute of power. High on his throne,
+ the emperor sat mute and immovable: his majesty was adored by the
+ Latin princes; and they submitted to kiss either his feet or his
+ knees, an indignity which their own writers are ashamed to
+ confess and unable to deny. 70
+
+ 67 (return) [ There are two sorts of adoption, the one by arms,
+ the other by introducing the son between the shirt and skin of
+ his father. Ducange isur Joinville, (Diss. xxii. p. 270) supposes
+ Godfrey’s adoption to have been of the latter sort.]
+
+ 68 (return) [ After his return, Robert of Flanders became the man
+ of the king of England, for a pension of four hundred marks. See
+ the first act in Rymer’s Foedera.]
+
+ 69 (return) [ Sensit vetus regnandi, falsos in amore, odia non
+ fingere. Tacit. vi. 44.]
+
+ 70 (return) [ The proud historians of the crusades slide and
+ stumble over this humiliating step. Yet, since the heroes knelt
+ to salute the emperor, as he sat motionless on his throne, it is
+ clear that they must have kissed either his feet or knees. It is
+ only singular, that Anna should not have amply supplied the
+ silence or ambiguity of the Latins. The abasement of their
+ princes would have added a fine chapter to the Ceremoniale Aulae
+ Byzantinae.]
+
+ Private or public interest suppressed the murmurs of the dukes
+ and counts; 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 of Alexius. The sage reproof of Baldwin provoked him to
+ exclaim, in his barbarous idiom, “Who is this rustic, that keeps
+ his seat, while so many valiant captains are standing round him?”
+ The emperor maintained his silence, dissembled his indignation,
+ and questioned his interpreter concerning the meaning of the
+ words, which he partly suspected from the universal language of
+ gesture and countenance. Before the departure of the pilgrims, he
+ endeavored to learn the name and condition of the audacious
+ baron. “I am a Frenchman,” replied Robert, “of the purest and
+ most ancient nobility of my country. All that I know is, that
+ there is a church in my neighborhood, 72 the resort of those who
+ are desirous of approving their valor in single combat. Till an
+ enemy appears, they address their prayers to God and his saints.
+ That church I have frequently visited. But never have I found an
+ antagonist who dared to accept my defiance.” Alexius dismissed
+ the challenger with some prudent advice for his conduct in the
+ Turkish warfare; and history repeats with pleasure this lively
+ example of the manners of his age and country.
+
+ 71 (return) [ He called himself (see Alexias, l. x. p. 301.) What
+ a title of noblesse of the eleventh century, if any one could now
+ prove his inheritance! Anna relates, with visible pleasure, that
+ the swelling Barbarian, was killed, or wounded, after fighting in
+ the front in the battle of Dorylaeum, (l. xi. p. 317.) This
+ circumstance may justify the suspicion of Ducange, (Not. p. 362,)
+ that he was no other than Robert of Paris, of the district most
+ peculiarly styled the Duchy or Island of France, (L’Isle de
+ France.)]
+
+ 72 (return) [ With the same penetration, Ducange discovers his
+ church to be that of St. Drausus, or Drosin, of Soissons, quem
+ duello dimicaturi solent invocare: pugiles qui ad memoriam ejus
+ (his tomb) pernoctant invictos reddit, ut et de Burgundia et
+ Italia tali necessitate confugiatur ad eum. Joan. Sariberiensis,
+ epist. 139.]
+
+ The conquest of Asia was undertaken and achieved by Alexander,
+ with thirty-five thousand Macedonians and Greeks; 73 and his best
+ hope was in the strength and discipline of his phalanx of
+ infantry. The principal force of the crusaders consisted in their
+ cavalry; and when that force was mustered in the plains of
+ Bithynia, the knights and their martial attendants on horseback
+ amounted to one hundred thousand fighting men, completely armed
+ with the helmet and coat of mail. The value of these soldiers
+ deserved a strict and authentic account; and the flower of
+ European chivalry might furnish, in a first effort, this
+ formidable body of heavy horse. A part of the infantry might be
+ enrolled for the service of scouts, pioneers, and archers; but
+ the promiscuous crowd were lost in their own disorder; and we
+ depend not on the eyes and knowledge, but on the belief and
+ fancy, of a chaplain of Count Baldwin, 74 in the estimate of six
+ hundred thousand pilgrims able to bear arms, besides the priests
+ and monks, the women and children of the Latin camp. The reader
+ starts; and before he is recovered from his surprise, I shall
+ add, on the same testimony, that if all who took the cross had
+ accomplished their vow, above six millions would have migrated
+ from Europe to Asia. Under this oppression of faith, I derive
+ some relief from a more sagacious and thinking writer, 75 who,
+ after the same review of the cavalry, accuses the credulity of
+ the priest of Chartres, and even doubts 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 volunteers
+ great numbers never beheld Constantinople and Nice. Of enthusiasm
+ the influence is irregular and transient: many were detained at
+ home by reason or cowardice, by poverty or weakness; and many
+ were repulsed by the obstacles of the way, the more insuperable
+ as they were unforeseen, to these ignorant fanatics. The savage
+ countries of Hungary and Bulgaria were whitened with their bones:
+ their vanguard was cut in pieces by the Turkish sultan; and the
+ loss of the first adventure, by the sword, or climate, or
+ fatigue, has already been stated at three hundred thousand men.
+ Yet the myriads that survived, that marched, that pressed
+ forwards on the holy pilgrimage, were a subject of astonishment
+ to themselves and to the Greeks. The copious energy of her
+ language sinks under the efforts of the princess Anne: 76 the
+ images of locusts, of leaves and flowers, of the sands of the
+ sea, or the stars of heaven, imperfectly represent what she had
+ seen and heard; and the daughter of Alexius exclaims, that Europe
+ was loosened from its foundations, and hurled against Asia. The
+ ancient hosts of Darius and Xerxes labor under the same doubt of
+ a vague and indefinite magnitude; but I am inclined to believe,
+ that a larger number has never been contained within the lines of
+ a single camp, than at the siege of Nice, the first operation of
+ the Latin princes. Their motives, their characters, and their
+ arms, have been already displayed. Of their troops the most
+ numerous portion were natives of France: the Low Countries, the
+ banks of the Rhine, and Apulia, sent a powerful reenforcement:
+ some bands of adventurers were drawn from Spain, Lombardy, and
+ England; 77 and from the distant bogs and mountains of Ireland or
+ Scotland 78 issued some naked and savage fanatics, ferocious at
+ home but unwarlike abroad. Had not superstition condemned the
+ sacrilegious prudence of depriving the poorest or weakest
+ Christian of the merit of the pilgrimage, the useless crowd, with
+ mouths but without hands, might have been stationed in the Greek
+ empire, till their companions had opened and secured the way of
+ the Lord. A small remnant of the pilgrims, who passed the
+ Bosphorus, was permitted to visit the holy sepulchre. Their
+ northern constitution was scorched by the rays, and infected by
+ the vapors, of a Syrian sun. They consumed, with heedless
+ prodigality, their stores of water and provision: their numbers
+ exhausted the inland country: the sea was remote, the Greeks were
+ unfriendly, and the Christians of every sect fled before the
+ voracious and cruel rapine of their brethren. In the dire
+ necessity of famine, they sometimes roasted and devoured the
+ flesh of their infant or adult captives. Among the Turks and
+ Saracens, the idolaters of Europe were rendered more odious by
+ the name and reputation of Cannibals; the spies, who introduced
+ themselves into the kitchen of Bohemond, were shown several human
+ bodies turning on the spit: and the artful Norman encouraged a
+ report, which increased at the same time the abhorrence and the
+ terror of the infidels. 79
+
+ 73 (return) [ There is some diversity on the numbers of his army;
+ but no authority can be compared with that of Ptolemy, who states
+ it at five thousand horse and thirty thousand foot, (see Usher’s
+ Annales, p 152.)]
+
+ 74 (return) [ Fulcher. Carnotensis, p. 387. He enumerates
+ nineteen nations of different names and languages, (p. 389;) but
+ I do not clearly apprehend his difference between the Franci and
+ Galli, Itali and Apuli. Elsewhere (p. 385) he contemptuously
+ brands the deserters.]
+
+ 75 (return) [ Guibert, p. 556. Yet even his gentle opposition
+ implies an immense multitude. By Urban II., in the fervor of his
+ zeal, it is only rated at 300,000 pilgrims, (epist. xvi. Concil.
+ tom. xii. p. 731.)]
+
+ 76 (return) [ Alexias, l. x. p. 283, 305. Her fastidious delicacy
+ complains of their strange and inarticulate names; and indeed
+ there is scarcely one that she has not contrived to disfigure
+ with the proud ignorance so dear and familiar to a polished
+ people. I shall select only one example, Sangeles, for the count
+ of St. Giles.]
+
+ 77 (return) [ William of Malmsbury (who wrote about the year
+ 1130) has inserted in his history (l. iv. p. 130-154) a narrative
+ of the first crusade: but I wish that, instead of listening to
+ the tenue murmur which had passed the British ocean, (p. 143,) he
+ had confined himself to the numbers, families, and adventures of
+ his countrymen. I find in Dugdale, that an English Norman,
+ Stephen earl of Albemarle and Holdernesse, led the rear-guard
+ with Duke Robert, at the battle of Antioch, (Baronage, part i. p.
+ 61.)]
+
+ 78 (return) [ Videres Scotorum apud se ferocium alias imbellium
+ cuneos, (Guibert, p. 471;) the crus intectum and hispida chlamys,
+ may suit the Highlanders; but the finibus uliginosis may rather
+ apply to the Irish bogs. William of Malmsbury expressly mentions
+ the Welsh and Scots, &c., (l. iv. p. 133,) who quitted, the
+ former venatiorem, the latter familiaritatem pulicum.]
+
+ 79 (return) [ This cannibal hunger, sometimes real, more
+ frequently an artifice or a lie, may be found in Anna Comnena,
+ (Alexias, l. x. p. 288,) Guibert, (p. 546,) Radulph. Cadom., (c.
+ 97.) The stratagem is related 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, as they paint the manners and character of Europe: but
+ I shall abridge the tedious and uniform narrative of their blind
+ achievements, which were performed by strength and are described
+ by ignorance. From their first station in the neighborhood of
+ Nicomedia, they advanced in successive divisions; passed the
+ contracted limit of the Greek empire; opened a road through the
+ hills, and commenced, by the siege of his capital, their pious
+ warfare against the Turkish sultan. His kingdom of Roum extended
+ from the Hellespont to the confines of Syria, and barred the
+ pilgrimage of Jerusalem, his name was Kilidge-Arslan, or Soliman,
+ 80 of the race of Seljuk, and son of the first conqueror; and in
+ the defence of a land which the Turks considered as their own, he
+ deserved the praise of his enemies, by whom alone he is known to
+ posterity. Yielding to the first impulse of the torrent, he
+ deposited his family and treasure in Nice; retired to the
+ mountains with fifty thousand horse; and twice descended to
+ assault the camps or quarters of the Christian besiegers, which
+ formed an imperfect circle of above six miles. 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 of
+ Christendom, the Moslems were trained in arms, and inflamed by
+ religion. Before this city, the French princes occupied their
+ stations, and prosecuted 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 the siege of Nice, the arts and engines of
+ antiquity were employed by the Latins; the mine and the
+ battering-ram, the tortoise, and the belfrey or movable turret,
+ artificial fire, and the catapult and balist, the sling, and the
+ crossbow for the casting of stones and darts. 81 In the space of
+ seven weeks much labor and blood were expended, and some
+ progress, especially by Count Raymond, was made on the side of
+ the besiegers. But the Turks could protract their resistance and
+ secure their escape, as long as they were masters of the Lake 82
+ Ascanius, which stretches several miles to the westward of the
+ city. The means of conquest were supplied by the prudence and
+ industry of Alexius; a great number of boats was transported on
+ sledges from the sea to the lake; they were filled with the most
+ dexterous of his archers; the flight of the sultana was
+ intercepted; Nice was invested by land and water; and a Greek
+ emissary persuaded the inhabitants to accept his master’s
+ protection, and to save themselves, by a timely surrender, from
+ the rage of the savages of Europe. In the moment of victory, or
+ at least of hope, the crusaders, thirsting for blood and plunder,
+ were awed by the Imperial banner that streamed from the citadel;
+ 821 and Alexius guarded with jealous vigilance this important
+ conquest. The murmurs of the chiefs were stifled by honor or
+ interest; and after a halt of nine days, they directed their
+ march towards Phrygia under the guidance of a Greek general, whom
+ they suspected of a secret connivance with the sultan. The
+ consort and the principal servants of Soliman had been honorably
+ restored without ransom; and the emperor’s generosity to the
+ miscreants 83 was interpreted as treason to the Christian cause.
+
+ 80 (return) [ His Mussulman appellation of Soliman is used by the
+ Latins, and his character is highly embellished by Tasso. His
+ Turkish name of Kilidge-Arslan (A. H. 485-500, A.D. 1192-1206.
+ See De Guignes’s Tables, tom. i. p. 245) is employed by the
+ Orientals, and with some corruption by the Greeks; but little
+ more than his name can be found in the Mahometan writers, who are
+ dry and sulky on the subject of the first crusade, (De Guignes,
+ tom. iii. p. ii. p. 10-30.) * Note: See note, page 556. Soliman
+ and Kilidge-Arslan were father and son—M.]
+
+ 81 (return) [ On the fortifications, engines, and sieges of the
+ middle ages, see Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae, tom. ii.
+ dissert. xxvi. p. 452-524.) The belfredus, from whence our
+ belfrey, was the movable tower of the ancients, (Ducange, tom. i.
+ p. 608.)]
+
+ 82 (return) [ I cannot forbear remarking the resemblance between
+ the siege and lake of Nice, with the operations of Hernan Cortez
+ before Mexico. See Dr. Robertson, History of America, l. v.]
+
+ 821 (return) [ See Anna Comnena.—M.]
+
+ 83 (return) [ Mecreant, a word invented by the French crusaders,
+ and confined in that language to its primitive sense. It should
+ seem, that the zeal of our ancestors boiled higher, and that they
+ branded every unbeliever as a rascal. A similar prejudice still
+ lurks in the minds of many 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 the Western Barbarians; the Turkish emirs obeyed the
+ call of loyalty or religion; the Turkman hordes encamped round
+ his standard; and his whole force is loosely stated by the
+ Christians at two hundred, or even three hundred and sixty
+ thousand horse. Yet he patiently waited till they had left behind
+ them the sea and the Greek frontier; and hovering on the flanks,
+ observed their careless and confident progress in two columns
+ beyond the view of each other. Some miles before they could reach
+ Dorylaeum in Phrygia, the left, and least numerous, division was
+ surprised, and attacked, and almost oppressed, by the Turkish
+ cavalry. 84 The heat of the weather, the clouds of arrows, and
+ the barbarous onset, overwhelmed the crusaders; they lost their
+ order and confidence, and the fainting fight was sustained by the
+ personal valor, rather than by the military conduct, of Bohemond,
+ Tancred, and Robert of Normandy. They were revived by the welcome
+ banners of Duke Godfrey, who flew to their succor, with the count
+ of Vermandois, and sixty thousand horse; and was followed by
+ Raymond of Tholouse, the bishop of Puy, and the remainder of the
+ sacred army. Without a moment’s pause, they formed in new order,
+ and advanced to a second battle. They were received with equal
+ resolution; and, in their common disdain for the unwarlike people
+ of Greece and Asia, it was confessed on both sides, that the
+ Turks and the Franks were the only nations entitled to the
+ appellation of soldiers. 85 Their encounter was varied, and
+ balanced by the contrast of arms and discipline; of the direct
+ charge, and wheeling evolutions; of the couched lance, and the
+ brandished javelin; of a weighty broadsword, and a crooked sabre;
+ of cumbrous armor, and thin flowing robes; and of the long Tartar
+ bow, and the arbalist or crossbow, a deadly weapon, yet unknown
+ to the Orientals. 86 As long as the horses were fresh, and the
+ quivers full, Soliman maintained the advantage of the day; and
+ four thousand Christians were pierced by the Turkish arrows. In
+ the evening, swiftness yielded to strength: on either side, the
+ numbers were equal or at least as great as any ground could hold,
+ or any generals could manage; but in turning the hills, the last
+ division of Raymond and his provincials was led, perhaps without
+ design on the rear of an exhausted enemy; and the long contest
+ was determined. Besides a nameless and unaccounted multitude,
+ three thousand Pagan knights were slain in the battle and
+ pursuit; the camp of Soliman was pillaged; and in the variety of
+ precious spoil, the curiosity of the Latins was amused with
+ foreign arms and apparel, and the new aspect of dromedaries and
+ camels. The importance of the victory was proved by the hasty
+ retreat of 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 five hundred miles, the crusaders
+ traversed the Lesser Asia, through a wasted land and deserted
+ towns, without finding either a friend or an enemy. The
+ geographer 87 may trace the position of Dorylaeum, Antioch of
+ Pisidia, Iconium, Archelais, and Germanicia, and may compare
+ those classic appellations with the modern names of Eskishehr the
+ old city, Akshehr the white city, Cogni, Erekli, and Marash. As
+ the pilgrims passed over a desert, where a draught of water is
+ exchanged for silver, they were tormented by intolerable thirst;
+ and on the banks of the first rivulet, their haste and
+ intemperance were still more pernicious to the disorderly throng.
+ They climbed with toil and danger the steep and slippery sides of
+ Mount Taurus; many of the soldiers cast away their arms to secure
+ their footsteps; and had not terror preceded their van, the long
+ and trembling file might have been driven down the precipice by a
+ 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 and perilous chase in the mountains of
+ Pisidia.
+
+ 84 (return) [ Baronius has produced a very doubtful letter to his
+ brother Roger, (A.D. 1098, No. 15.) The enemies consisted of
+ Medes, Persians, Chaldeans: be it so. The first attack was cum
+ nostro incommodo; true and tender. But why Godfrey of Bouillon
+ and Hugh brothers! Tancred is styled filius; of whom? Certainly
+ not of Roger, nor of Bohemond.]
+
+ 85 (return) [ Verumtamen dicunt se esse de Francorum generatione;
+ et quia nullus homo naturaliter debet esse miles nisi Franci et
+ Turci, (Gesta Francorum, p. 7.) The same community of blood and
+ valor is attested by Archbishop Baldric, (p. 99.)]
+
+ 86 (return) [ Balista, Balestra, Arbalestre. See Muratori, Antiq.
+ tom. ii. p. 517-524. Ducange, Gloss. Latin. tom. i. p. 531, 532.
+ In the time of Anna Comnena, this weapon, which she describes
+ under the name of izangra, was unknown in the East, (l. x. p.
+ 291.) By a humane inconsistency, the pope strove to prohibit it
+ in Christian wars.]
+
+ 87 (return) [ The curious reader may compare the classic learning
+ of Cellarius and the geographical science of D’Anville. William
+ of Tyre is the only historian of the crusades who has any
+ knowledge of antiquity; and M. Otter trod almost in the footsteps
+ of the Franks from Constantinople to Antioch, (Voyage en Turquie
+ et en Perse, tom. i. p. 35-88.) * Note: The journey of Col.
+ Macdonald Kinneir in Asia Minor throws considerable light on the
+ geography of this march of the crusaders.—M.]
+
+ To improve the general consternation, the cousin of Bohemond and
+ the brother of Godfrey were detached from the main army with
+ their respective squadrons of five, and of seven, hundred
+ knights. They overran in a rapid career the hills and sea-coast
+ of Cilicia, from Cogni to the Syrian gates: the Norman standard
+ was first planted on the walls of Tarsus and Malmistra; but the
+ proud injustice of Baldwin at length provoked the patient and
+ generous Italian; and they turned their consecrated swords
+ against each other in a private and profane quarrel. Honor was
+ the motive, and fame the reward, of Tancred; but fortune smiled
+ on the more selfish enterprise of his rival. 88 He was called to
+ the assistance of a Greek or Armenian tyrant, who had been
+ suffered under the Turkish yoke to reign over the Christians of
+ Edessa. Baldwin accepted the character of his son and champion:
+ but no sooner was he introduced into the city, than he inflamed
+ the people to the massacre of his father, occupied the throne and
+ treasure, extended his conquests over the hills of Armenia and
+ the plain of Mesopotamia, and founded the first principality of
+ the Franks or Latins, which subsisted fifty-four years beyond the
+ Euphrates. 89
+
+ 88 (return) [ This detached conquest of Edessa is best
+ represented by Fulcherius Carnotensis, or of Chartres, (in the
+ collections of Bongarsius Duchesne, and Martenne,) the valiant
+ chaplain of Count Baldwin (Esprit des Croisades, tom. i. p. 13,
+ 14.) In the disputes of that prince with Tancred, his partiality
+ is encountered by the partiality of Radulphus Cadomensis, the
+ soldier and historian of the gallant marquis.]
+
+ 89 (return) [ 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 and repose of the army during the winter season, was
+ strongly debated in their council: the love of arms and the holy
+ sepulchre urged them to advance; and reason perhaps was on the
+ side of resolution, since every hour of delay abates the fame and
+ force of the invader, and multiplies the resources of defensive
+ war. The capital of Syria was protected by the River Orontes; and
+ the iron bridge, 891 of nine arches, derives its name from the
+ massy gates of the two towers which are constructed at either
+ end. They were opened by the sword of the duke of Normandy: his
+ victory gave entrance to three hundred thousand crusaders, an
+ account which may allow some scope for losses and desertion, but
+ which clearly detects much exaggeration in the review of Nice. In
+ the description of Antioch, 90 it is not easy to define a middle
+ term between her ancient magnificence, under the successors of
+ Alexander and Augustus, and the modern aspect of Turkish
+ desolation. The Tetrapolis, or four cities, if they retained
+ their name and position, must have left a large vacuity in a
+ circumference of twelve miles; and that measure, as well as the
+ number of four hundred towers, are not perfectly consistent with
+ the five gates, so often mentioned in the history of the siege.
+ Yet Antioch must have still flourished as a great and populous
+ capital. At the head of the Turkish emirs, Baghisian, a veteran
+ chief, commanded in the place: his garrison was composed of six
+ or seven thousand horse, and fifteen or twenty thousand foot: one
+ hundred thousand Moslems are said to have fallen by the sword;
+ and their numbers were probably inferior to the Greeks,
+ Armenians, and Syrians, who had been no more than fourteen years
+ the slaves of the house of Seljuk. From the remains of a solid
+ and stately wall, it appears to have arisen to the height of
+ threescore feet in the valleys; and wherever less art and labor
+ had been applied, the ground was supposed to be defended by the
+ river, the morass, and the mountains. Notwithstanding these
+ fortifications, the city had been repeatedly taken by the
+ Persians, the Arabs, the Greeks, and the Turks; so large a
+ circuit must have yielded many pervious points of attack; and in
+ a siege that was formed about the middle of October, the vigor of
+ the execution could alone justify the boldness of the attempt.
+ Whatever strength and valor could perform in the field was
+ abundantly discharged by the champions of the cross: in the
+ frequent occasions of sallies, of forage, of the attack and
+ defence of convoys, they were often victorious; and we can only
+ complain, that their exploits are sometimes enlarged 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 the infidel
+ fell to the ground, while the other was transported by his horse
+ to the city gate. As Robert of Normandy rode against his
+ antagonist, “I devote thy head,” he piously exclaimed, “to the
+ daemons of hell;” and that head was instantly cloven to the
+ breast by the resistless stroke of his descending falchion. But
+ the reality or the report of such gigantic prowess 92 must have
+ taught the Moslems to keep within their walls: and against those
+ walls of earth or stone, the sword and the lance were unavailing
+ weapons. In the slow and successive labors of a siege, the
+ crusaders were supine and ignorant, without skill to contrive, or
+ money to purchase, or industry to use, the artificial engines and
+ implements of assault. In the conquest of Nice, they had been
+ powerfully assisted by the wealth and knowledge of the Greek
+ emperor: his absence was poorly supplied by some Genoese and
+ Pisan vessels, that were attracted by religion or trade to the
+ coast of Syria: the stores were scanty, the return precarious,
+ and the communication difficult and dangerous. Indolence or
+ weakness had prevented the Franks from investing the entire
+ circuit; and the perpetual freedom of two gates relieved the
+ wants and recruited the garrison of the city. At the end of seven
+ months, after the ruin of their cavalry, and an enormous loss by
+ famine, desertion and fatigue, the progress of the crusaders was
+ imperceptible, and their success remote, if the Latin Ulysses,
+ the artful and ambitious Bohemond, had not employed the arms of
+ cunning and deceit. The Christians of Antioch were numerous and
+ discontented: Phirouz, a Syrian renegado, had acquired the favor
+ of the emir and the command of three towers; and the merit of his
+ repentance disguised to the Latins, and perhaps to himself, the
+ foul design of perfidy and treason. A secret correspondence, for
+ their mutual interest, was soon established between Phirouz and
+ the prince of Tarento; and Bohemond declared in the council of
+ the chiefs, that he could deliver the city into their hands. 921
+ But he claimed the sovereignty of Antioch as the reward of his
+ service; and the proposal which had been rejected by the envy,
+ was at length extorted from the distress, of his equals. The
+ nocturnal surprise was executed by the French and Norman princes,
+ who ascended in person the scaling-ladders that were thrown from
+ the walls: their new proselyte, after the murder of his too
+ scrupulous brother, embraced and introduced the servants of
+ Christ; the army rushed through the gates; and the Moslems soon
+ found, that although mercy was hopeless, resistance was impotent.
+
+ But the citadel still refused to surrender; and the victims
+ themselves were speedily encompassed and besieged by the
+ innumerable forces of Kerboga, prince of Mosul, who, with
+ twenty-eight Turkish emirs, advanced to the deliverance of
+ Antioch. Five-and-twenty days the Christians spent on the verge
+ of destruction; and the proud lieutenant of the caliph and the
+ sultan left them only the choice of servitude or death. 93 In
+ this extremity they collected the relics of their strength,
+ sallied from the town, and in a single memorable day, annihilated
+ or dispersed the host of Turks and Arabians, which they might
+ safely report to have consisted of six hundred thousand men. 94
+ Their supernatural allies I shall proceed to consider: the human
+ causes of the victory of Antioch were the fearless despair of the
+ Franks; and the surprise, the discord, perhaps the errors, of
+ their unskilful and presumptuous adversaries. The battle is
+ described with as much disorder as it was fought; but we may
+ observe the tent of Kerboga, a movable and spacious palace,
+ enriched with the luxury of Asia, and capable of holding above
+ two thousand persons; we may distinguish his three thousand
+ guards, who were cased, the horse as well as the men, in complete
+ steel.
+
+ 891 (return) [ This bridge was over the Ifrin, not the Orontes,
+ at a distance of three leagues from Antioch. See Wilken, vol. i.
+ p. 172.—M.]
+
+ 90 (return) [ 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 Geographicus of Schultens, (ad calcem Bohadin. Vit.
+ Saladin.,) and Abulfeda, (Tabula Syriae, p. 115, 116, vers.
+ Reiske.)]
+
+ 91 (return) [ Ensem elevat, eumque a sinistra parte scapularum,
+ tanta virtute intorsit, ut quod pectus medium disjunxit spinam et
+ vitalia interrupit; 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 in urbem equitaret, alter
+ arcitenens in flumine nataret, (Radulph. Cadom. c. 53, p. 304.)
+ Yet he justifies the deed by the stupendis viribus of Godfrey;
+ and William of Tyre covers it by obstupuit populus facti novitate
+ .... mirabilis, (l. v. c. 6, p. 701.) Yet it must not have
+ appeared incredible to the knights of that age.]
+
+ 92 (return) [ See the exploits of Robert, Raymond, and the modest
+ Tancred who imposed silence on his squire, (Randulph. Cadom. c.
+ 53.)]
+
+ 921 (return) [ See the interesting extract from Kemaleddin’s
+ History of Aleppo in Wilken, preface to vol. ii. p. 36. Phirouz,
+ or Azzerrad, the breastplate maker, had been pillaged and put to
+ the torture by Bagi Sejan, the prince of Antioch.—M.]
+
+ 93 (return) [ After mentioning the distress and humble petition
+ of the Franks, Abulpharagius adds the haughty reply of Codbuka,
+ or Kerboga, “Non evasuri estis nisi per gladium,” (Dynast. p.
+ 242.)]
+
+ 94 (return) [ In describing the host of Kerboga, most of the
+ Latin historians, 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 Anna Comnena, (Alexias,
+ l. xi. p. 318-320.) The numbers of the Turks are fixed by Albert
+ Aquensis at 200,000, (l. iv. c. 10, p. 242,) and by Radulphus
+ Cadomensis at 400,000 horse, (c. 72, p. 309.)]
+
+ In the eventful period of the siege and defence of Antioch, the
+ crusaders were alternately exalted by victory or sunk in despair;
+ either swelled with plenty or emaciated with hunger. A
+ speculative reasoner might suppose, that their faith had a strong
+ and serious influence on their practice; and that the soldiers of
+ the cross, the deliverers of the holy sepulchre, prepared
+ themselves by a sober and virtuous life for the daily
+ contemplation of martyrdom. Experience blows away this charitable
+ illusion; and seldom does the history of profane war display such
+ scenes of intemperance and prostitution as were exhibited under
+ the walls of Antioch. The grove of Daphne no longer flourished;
+ but the Syrian air was still impregnated with the same vices; the
+ Christians were seduced by every temptation 95 that nature either
+ prompts or reprobates; the authority of the chiefs was despised;
+ and sermons and edicts were alike fruitless against those
+ scandalous disorders, not less pernicious to military discipline,
+ than repugnant to evangelic purity. In the first days of the
+ siege and the possession of Antioch, the Franks consumed with
+ wanton and thoughtless prodigality the frugal subsistence of
+ weeks and months: the desolate country no longer yielded a
+ supply; and from that country they were at length excluded by the
+ arms of the besieging Turks. Disease, the faithful companion of
+ want, was envenomed by the rains of the winter, the summer heats,
+ unwholesome food, and the close imprisonment of multitudes. The
+ pictures of famine and pestilence are always the same, and always
+ disgustful; and our imagination may suggest the nature of their
+ sufferings and their resources. The remains of treasure or spoil
+ were eagerly lavished in the purchase of the vilest nourishment;
+ and dreadful must have been the calamities of the poor, since,
+ after paying three marks of silver for a goat and fifteen for a
+ lean camel, 96 the count of Flanders was reduced to beg a dinner,
+ and Duke Godfrey to borrow a horse. Sixty thousand horse had been
+ reviewed in the camp: before the end of the siege they were
+ diminished to two thousand, and scarcely two hundred fit for
+ service could be mustered on the day of battle. Weakness of body
+ and terror of mind extinguished the ardent enthusiasm of the
+ pilgrims; and every motive of honor and religion was subdued by
+ the desire of life. 97 Among the chiefs, three heroes may be
+ found without fear or reproach: Godfrey of Bouillon was supported
+ by his magnanimous piety; Bohemond by ambition and interest; and
+ Tancred declared, in the true spirit of chivalry, that as long as
+ he was at the head of forty knights, he would never relinquish
+ the enterprise of Palestine. But the count of Tholouse and
+ Provence was suspected of a voluntary indisposition; the duke of
+ Normandy was recalled from the sea-shore by the censures of the
+ church: Hugh the Great, though he led the vanguard of the battle,
+ embraced an ambiguous opportunity of returning to France and
+ Stephen, count of Chartres, basely deserted the standard which he
+ bore, and the council in which he presided. The soldiers were
+ discouraged by the flight of William, viscount of Melun, surnamed
+ the Carpenter, from the weighty strokes of his axe; and the
+ saints were scandalized by the fall 971 of Peter the Hermit, who,
+ after arming Europe against Asia, attempted to escape from the
+ penance of a necessary fast. Of the multitude of recreant
+ warriors, the names (says an historian) are blotted from the book
+ of life; and the opprobrious epithet of the rope-dancers was
+ applied to the deserters who 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 by the assurance of their
+ hopeless condition. They expected their fate in silent despair;
+ oaths and punishments were tried without effect; and to rouse the
+ soldiers to the defence of the walls, it was found necessary to
+ set fire to their quarters.
+
+ 95 (return) [ See the tragic and scandalous fate of an archdeacon
+ of royal birth, who was slain by the Turks as he reposed in an
+ orchard, playing at dice with a Syrian concubine.]
+
+ 96 (return) [ The value of an ox rose from five solidi, (fifteen
+ shillings,) at Christmas to two marks, (four pounds,) and
+ afterwards much higher; a kid or lamb, from one shilling to
+ eighteen of our present money: 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 the ordinary, not the
+ extraordinary, prices, that deserve the notice of the
+ philosopher.]
+
+ 97 (return) [ Alli multi, quorum nomina non tenemus; quia, deleta
+ de libro vitae, praesenti operi non sunt inserenda, (Will. Tyr.
+ l. vi. c. 5, p. 715.) Guibert (p. 518, 523) attempts to excuse
+ Hugh the Great, and even Stephen of Chartres.]
+
+ 971 (return) [ Peter fell during the siege: he went afterwards on
+ an embassy to Kerboga Wilken. vol. i. p. 217.—M.]
+
+ 98 (return) [ 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 she magnifies the exploits of the Latins.]
+
+ For their salvation and victory, they were indebted to the same
+ fanaticism which had led them to the brink of ruin. In such a
+ cause, and in such an army, visions, prophecies, and miracles,
+ were frequent and familiar. In the distress of Antioch, they were
+ repeated with unusual energy and success: St. Ambrose had assured
+ a pious ecclesiastic, that two years of trial must precede the
+ season of deliverance and grace; the deserters were stopped by
+ the presence and reproaches of Christ himself; the dead had
+ promised to arise and combat with their brethren; the Virgin had
+ obtained the pardon of their sins; and their confidence was
+ revived by a visible sign, the seasonable and splendid discovery
+ of the Holy Lance. The policy of their chiefs has on this
+ occasion been admired, and might surely be excused; but a pious
+ fraud is seldom produced by the cool conspiracy of many persons;
+ and a voluntary impostor might depend on the support of the wise
+ and the credulity of the people. Of the diocese of Marseilles,
+ there was a priest of low cunning and loose manners, and his name
+ was Peter Bartholemy. He presented himself at the door of the
+ council-chamber, to disclose an apparition of St. Andrew, which
+ had been thrice reiterated in his sleep with a dreadful menace,
+ if he presumed to suppress the commands of Heaven. “At Antioch,”
+ said the apostle, “in the church of my brother St. Peter, near
+ the high altar, is concealed the steel head of the lance that
+ pierced the side of our Redeemer. In three days that instrument
+ of eternal, and now of temporal, salvation, will be manifested to
+ his disciples. Search, and ye shall find: bear it aloft in
+ battle; and that mystic weapon shall penetrate the souls of the
+ miscreants.” The pope’s legate, the bishop of Puy, affected to
+ listen with coldness and distrust; but the revelation was eagerly
+ accepted by Count Raymond, whom his faithful subject, in the name
+ of the apostle, had chosen for the guardian of the holy lance.
+ The experiment was resolved; and on the third day after a due
+ preparation of prayer and fasting, the priest of Marseilles
+ introduced twelve trusty spectators, among whom were the count
+ and his chaplain; and the church doors were barred against the
+ impetuous multitude. The ground was opened in the appointed
+ place; but the workmen, who relieved each other, dug to the depth
+ of twelve feet without discovering the object of their search. In
+ the evening, when Count Raymond had withdrawn to his post, and
+ the weary assistants began to murmur, Bartholemy, in his shirt,
+ and without his shoes, boldly descended into the pit; the
+ darkness of the hour and of the place enabled him to secrete and
+ deposit the head of a Saracen lance; and the first sound, the
+ first gleam, of the steel was saluted with a devout rapture. The
+ holy lance was drawn from its recess, wrapped in a veil of silk
+ and gold, and exposed to the veneration of the crusaders; their
+ anxious suspense burst forth in a general shout of joy and hope,
+ and the desponding troops were again inflamed with the enthusiasm
+ of valor. Whatever had been the arts, and whatever might be the
+ sentiments of the chiefs, they skilfully improved this fortunate
+ revolution by every aid that discipline and devotion could
+ afford. The soldiers were dismissed to their quarters with an
+ injunction to fortify their minds and bodies for the approaching
+ conflict, freely to bestow their last pittance on themselves and
+ their horses, and to expect with the dawn of day the signal of
+ victory. On the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, the gates of
+ Antioch were thrown open: a martial psalm, “Let the Lord arise,
+ and let his enemies be scattered!” was chanted by a procession of
+ priests and monks; the battle array was marshalled in twelve
+ divisions, in honor of the twelve apostles; and the holy lance,
+ in the absence of Raymond, was intrusted to the hands of his
+ chaplain. The influence of his relic or trophy, was felt by the
+ servants, and perhaps by the enemies, of Christ; 99 and its
+ potent energy was heightened by an accident, a stratagem, or a
+ rumor, of a miraculous complexion. Three knights, in white
+ garments and resplendent arms, either issued, or seemed to issue,
+ from the hills: the voice of Adhemar, the pope’s legate,
+ proclaimed them as the martyrs St. George, St. Theodore, and St.
+ Maurice: the tumult of battle allowed no time for doubt or
+ scrutiny; and the welcome apparition dazzled the eyes or the
+ imagination of a fanatic army. 991 In the season of danger and
+ triumph, the revelation of Bartholemy of Marseilles was
+ unanimously asserted; but as soon as the temporary service was
+ accomplished, the personal dignity and liberal arms which the
+ count of Tholouse 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 of the discovery, and the
+ character of the prophet; and the pious Bohemond ascribed their
+ deliverance to the merits and intercession of Christ alone. For a
+ while, the Provincials defended their national palladium with
+ clamors and arms and new visions condemned to death and hell the
+ profane sceptics who presumed to scrutinize the truth and merit
+ of the discovery. The prevalence of incredulity compelled the
+ author to submit his life and veracity to the judgment of God. A
+ pile of dry fagots, four feet high and fourteen long, was erected
+ in the midst of the camp; the flames burnt fiercely to the
+ elevation of thirty cubits; and a narrow path of twelve inches
+ was left for the perilous trial. The unfortunate priest of
+ Marseilles traversed the fire with dexterity and speed; but the
+ thighs and belly were scorched by the intense heat; he expired
+ the next day; 992 and the logic of believing minds will pay some
+ regard to his dying protestations of innocence and truth. Some
+ efforts were made by the Provincials to substitute a cross, a
+ ring, or a tabernacle, in the place of the holy lance, which soon
+ vanished in contempt and oblivion. 100 Yet the revelation of
+ Antioch is gravely asserted by succeeding historians: and such is
+ the progress of credulity, that miracles most doubtful on the
+ spot, and at the moment, will be received with implicit faith at
+ a convenient distance of time and space.
+
+ 99 (return) [ The Mahometan Aboulmahasen (apud De Guignes, tom.
+ ii. p. ii. p. 95) is more correct in his account of the holy
+ lance than the Christians, Anna Comnena and Abulpharagius: the
+ Greek princess confounds it with the nail of the cross, (l. xi.
+ p. 326;) the Jacobite primate, with St. Peter’s staff, (p. 242.)]
+
+ 991 (return) [ The real cause of this victory appears to have
+ been the feud in Kerboga’s army Wilken, vol. ii. p. 40.—M.]
+
+ 992 (return) [ The twelfth day after. He was much injured, and
+ his flesh torn off, from the ardor of pious congratulation with
+ which he was assailed by those who witnessed his escape, unhurt,
+ as it was first supposed. Wilken vol. i p. 263—M.]
+
+ 100 (return) [ The two antagonists who express the most intimate
+ knowledge and the strongest conviction of the miracle, and of the
+ fraud, are Raymond des Agiles, and Radulphus Cadomensis, the one
+ attached to the count of Tholouse, the other to the Norman
+ prince. Fulcherius Carnotensis presumes to say, Audite fraudem et
+ non fraudem! and afterwards, Invenit lanceam, fallaciter
+ occultatam forsitan. The rest of the herd are loud and
+ strenuous.]
+
+ The prudence or fortune of the Franks had delayed their invasion
+ till the decline of the Turkish empire. 101 Under the manly
+ government of the three first sultans, the kingdoms of Asia were
+ united in peace and justice; and the innumerable armies which
+ they led in person were equal in courage, and superior in
+ discipline, to the Barbarians of the West. But at the time of the
+ crusade, the inheritance of Malek Shaw was disputed by his four
+ sons; their private ambition was insensible of the public danger;
+ and, in the vicissitudes of their fortune, the royal vassals were
+ ignorant, or regardless, of the true object of their allegiance.
+ The twenty-eight emirs who marched with the standard or Kerboga
+ were his rivals or enemies: their hasty levies were drawn from
+ the towns and tents of Mesopotamia and Syria; and the Turkish
+ veterans were employed or consumed in the civil wars beyond the
+ Tigris. The caliph of Egypt embraced this opportunity of weakness
+ and discord to recover his ancient possessions; and his sultan
+ Aphdal besieged Jerusalem and Tyre, expelled the children of
+ Ortok, and restored in Palestine the civil and ecclesiastical
+ authority of the Fatimites. 102 They heard with astonishment of
+ the vast armies of Christians that had passed from Europe to
+ Asia, and rejoiced in the sieges and battles which broke the
+ power of the Turks, the adversaries of their sect and monarchy.
+ But the same Christians were the enemies of the prophet; and from
+ the overthrow of Nice and Antioch, the motive of their
+ enterprise, which was gradually understood, would urge them
+ forwards to the banks of the Jordan, or perhaps of the Nile.
+
+ An intercourse of epistles and embassies, which rose and fell
+ with the events of war, was maintained between the throne of
+ Cairo and the camp of the Latins; and their adverse pride was the
+ result of ignorance and enthusiasm. The ministers of Egypt
+ declared in a haughty, or insinuated in a milder, tone, that
+ their sovereign, the true and lawful commander of the faithful,
+ had rescued Jerusalem from the Turkish yoke; and that the
+ pilgrims, if they would divide their numbers, and lay aside their
+ arms, should find a safe and hospitable reception at the
+ sepulchre of Jesus. In the belief of their lost condition, the
+ caliph Mostali despised their arms and imprisoned their deputies:
+ the conquest and victory of Antioch prompted him to solicit those
+ formidable champions with gifts of horses and silk robes, of
+ vases, and purses of gold and silver; and in his estimate of
+ their merit or power, the first place was assigned to Bohemond,
+ and the second to Godfrey. In either fortune, the answer of the
+ crusaders was firm and uniform: they disdained to inquire into
+ the private claims or possessions of the followers of Mahomet;
+ whatsoever was his name or nation, the usurper of Jerusalem was
+ their enemy; and instead of prescribing the mode and terms of
+ their pilgrimage, it was only by a timely surrender of the city
+ and province, their sacred right, that he could deserve their
+ alliance, or deprecate their impending and irresistible attack.
+ 103
+
+ 101 (return) [ See M. De Guignes, tom. ii. p. ii. p. 223, &c.;
+ and the articles of Barkidrok, Mohammed, Sangiar, in D’Herbelot.]
+
+ 102 (return) [ The emir, or sultan, Aphdal, recovered Jerusalem
+ and Tyre, A. H. 489, (Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p.
+ 478. De Guignes, tom. i. p. 249, from Abulfeda and Ben Schounah.)
+ Jerusalem ante adventum vestrum recuperavimus, Turcos ejecimus,
+ say the Fatimite ambassadors]
+
+ 103 (return) [ See the transactions between the caliph of Egypt
+ and the crusaders in William of Tyre (l. iv. c. 24, l. vi. c. 19)
+ and Albert Aquensis, (l. iii. c. 59,) who are more sensible of
+ their importance than the contemporary writers.]
+
+ Yet this attack, when they were within the view and reach of
+ their glorious prize, was suspended above ten months after the
+ defeat of Kerboga. The zeal and courage of the crusaders were
+ chilled in the moment of victory; and instead of marching to
+ improve the consternation, they hastily dispersed to enjoy the
+ luxury, of Syria. The causes of this strange delay may be found
+ in the want of strength and subordination. In the painful and
+ various service of Antioch, the cavalry was annihilated; many
+ thousands of every rank had been lost by famine, sickness, and
+ desertion: the same abuse of plenty had been productive of a
+ third famine; and the alternative of intemperance and distress
+ had generated a pestilence, which swept away above fifty thousand
+ of the pilgrims. Few were 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 at least in sentiments, of
+ hostility; the fortune of Baldwin and Bohemond excited the envy
+ of their companions; the bravest knights were enlisted for the
+ defence of their new principalities; and Count Raymond exhausted
+ his troops and treasures in an idle expedition into the heart of
+ Syria. 1031 The winter was consumed in discord and disorder; a
+ sense of honor and religion was rekindled in the spring; and the
+ private soldiers, less susceptible of ambition and jealousy,
+ awakened with angry clamors the indolence of their chiefs. In the
+ month of May, the relics of this mighty host proceeded from
+ Antioch to Laodicea: about forty thousand Latins, of whom no more
+ than fifteen hundred horse, and twenty thousand foot, were
+ capable of immediate service. Their easy march was continued
+ between Mount Libanus and the sea-shore: their wants were
+ liberally supplied by the coasting traders of Genoa and Pisa; and
+ they drew large contributions from the emirs of Tripoli, Tyre,
+ Sidon, Acre, and Caesarea, who granted a free passage, and
+ promised to follow the example of 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, the crusaders forgot
+ their toils and claimed their reward. 104
+
+ 1031 (return) [ This is not quite correct: he took Marra on his
+ road. His excursions were partly to obtain provisions for the
+ army and fodder for the horses Wilken, vol. i. p. 226.—M.]
+
+ 1032 (return) [ Scarcely of Bethlehem, to the south of
+ Jerusalem.— M.]
+
+ 104 (return) [ The greatest part of the march of the Franks is
+ traced, and most accurately traced, in Maundrell’s Journey from
+ Aleppo to Jerusalem, (p. 11-67;) un des meilleurs morceaux, sans
+ contredit qu’on ait 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 of her memorable sieges. It was not till after a long
+ and obstinate contest that 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 accessible plain. 105
+ These obstacles were diminished in the age of the crusades. The
+ bulwarks had been completely destroyed and imperfectly restored:
+ the Jews, their nation, and worship, were forever banished; but
+ nature is less changeable than man, and the site of Jerusalem,
+ though somewhat softened and somewhat removed, was still strong
+ against the assaults of an enemy. By the experience of a recent
+ siege, and a three years’ possession, the Saracens of Egypt had
+ been taught to discern, and in some degree to remedy, the defects
+ of a place, which religion as well as honor forbade them to
+ resign. Aladin, or Iftikhar, the caliph’s lieutenant, was
+ intrusted with the defence: his policy strove to restrain the
+ native Christians by the dread of their own ruin and that of the
+ holy sepulchre; to animate the Moslems by the assurance of
+ temporal and eternal rewards. His garrison is said to have
+ consisted of forty thousand Turks and Arabians; and if he could
+ muster twenty thousand of the inhabitants, it must be confessed
+ that the besieged were more numerous than the besieging army. 106
+ Had the diminished strength and numbers of the Latins allowed
+ them to grasp the whole circumference of four thousand yards,
+ (about two English miles and a half, 107 to what useful purpose
+ should they have descended into the valley of Ben Hinnom and
+ torrent of Cedron, 108 or approach the precipices of the south
+ and east, from whence they had nothing either to hope or fear?
+ Their siege was more reasonably directed against the northern and
+ western sides of the city. Godfrey of Bouillon erected his
+ standard on the first swell of Mount Calvary: to the left, as far
+ as St. Stephen’s gate, the line of attack was continued by
+ Tancred and the two Roberts; and Count Raymond established his
+ quarters from the citadel to the foot of Mount Sion, which was no
+ longer included within the precincts of the city. On the fifth
+ day, the crusaders made a general assault, in the fanatic hope of
+ battering down the walls without engines, and of scaling them
+ without ladders. By the dint of brutal force, they burst the
+ first barrier; but they were driven back with shame and slaughter
+ to the camp: the influence of vision and prophecy was deadened by
+ the too frequent abuse of those pious stratagems; and time and
+ labor were found to be the only means of victory. The time of the
+ siege was indeed fulfilled in forty days, but they were forty
+ days of calamity and anguish. A repetition of the old complaint
+ of famine may be imputed in some degree to the voracious or
+ disorderly appetite of the Franks; but the stony soil of
+ Jerusalem is almost destitute of water; the scanty springs and
+ hasty torrents were dry in the summer season; nor was the thirst
+ of the besiegers relieved, as in the city, by the artificial
+ supply of cisterns and aqueducts. The circumjacent country is
+ equally destitute of trees for the uses of shade or building, but
+ some large beams were discovered in a cave by the crusaders: a
+ wood near Sichem, the enchanted grove of Tasso, 109 was cut down:
+ the necessary timber was transported to the camp by the vigor and
+ dexterity of Tancred; and the engines were framed by some Genoese
+ artists, who had fortunately landed in the harbor of Jaffa. Two
+ movable turrets were constructed at the expense, and in the
+ stations, of the duke of Lorraine and the count of Tholouse, and
+ rolled forwards with devout labor, not to the most accessible,
+ but to the most neglected, parts of the fortification. Raymond’s
+ Tower was reduced to ashes by the fire of the besieged, but his
+ colleague was more vigilant and successful; 1091 the enemies were
+ driven by his archers from the rampart; the draw-bridge was let
+ down; and on a Friday, at three in the afternoon, the day and
+ hour of the passion, Godfrey of Bouillon stood victorious on the
+ walls of Jerusalem. His example was followed on every side by the
+ emulation of valor; and about four hundred and sixty years after
+ the conquest of Omar, the holy city was rescued from the
+ Mahometan yoke. In the pillage of public and private wealth, the
+ adventurers had agreed to respect the exclusive property of the
+ first occupant; and the spoils of the great mosque, seventy lamps
+ and massy vases of gold and silver, rewarded the diligence, and
+ displayed the generosity, of Tancred. A bloody sacrifice was
+ offered by his mistaken votaries to the God of the Christians:
+ resistance might provoke but neither age nor sex could mollify,
+ their implacable rage: they indulged themselves three days in a
+ promiscuous massacre; 110 and the infection of the dead bodies
+ produced an epidemical disease. After seventy thousand Moslems
+ had been put to the sword, and the harmless Jews had been burnt
+ in their synagogue, they could still reserve a multitude of
+ captives, whom interest or lassitude persuaded them to spare. Of
+ these savage heroes of the cross, Tancred alone betrayed some
+ sentiments of compassion; yet we may praise the more selfish
+ lenity of Raymond, who granted a capitulation and safe-conduct to
+ the garrison of the citadel. 111 The holy sepulchre was now free;
+ and the bloody victors prepared to accomplish their vow.
+ Bareheaded and barefoot, with contrite hearts, and in an humble
+ posture, they ascended the hill of Calvary, amidst the loud
+ anthems of the clergy; kissed the stone which had covered the
+ Savior of the world; and bedewed with tears of joy and penitence
+ the monument of their redemption. This union of the fiercest and
+ most tender passions has been variously considered by two
+ philosophers; by the one, 112 as easy and natural; by the other,
+ 113 as absurd and incredible. Perhaps it is too rigorously
+ applied to the same persons and the same hour; the example of the
+ virtuous Godfrey awakened the piety of his companions; while they
+ cleansed their bodies, they purified their minds; nor shall I
+ believe that the most ardent in slaughter and rapine were the
+ foremost in the procession to the holy sepulchre.
+
+ 105 (return) [ See the masterly description of Tacitus, (Hist. v.
+ 11, 12, 13,) who supposes that the Jewish lawgivers had provided
+ for a perpetual state of hostility against the rest of mankind. *
+ Note: This is an exaggerated inference from the words of Tacitus,
+ who speaks of the founders of the city, not the lawgivers.
+ Praeviderant conditores, ex diversitate morum, crebra bella; inde
+ cuncta quamvis adversus loagum obsidium.—M.]
+
+ 106 (return) [ The lively scepticism of Voltaire is balanced with
+ sense and erudition by the French author of the Esprit des
+ Croisades, (tom. iv. p. 386-388,) who observes, that, according
+ to the Arabians, the inhabitants of Jerusalem must have exceeded
+ 200,000; that in the siege of Titus, Josephus collects 1,300,000
+ Jews; that they are stated by Tacitus himself at 600,000; and
+ that the largest defalcation, that his accepimus can justify,
+ will still leave them more numerous than the Roman army.]
+
+ 107 (return) [ Maundrell, who diligently perambulated the walls,
+ found a circuit of 4630 paces, or 4167 English yards, (p. 109,
+ 110: ) from an authentic plan, D’Anville concludes a measure
+ nearly similar, of 1960 French toises, (p. 23-29,) in his scarce
+ and valuable tract. For the topography of Jerusalem, see Reland,
+ (Palestina, tom. ii. p. 832-860.)]
+
+ 108 (return) [ 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 want of water, which, in time of war, was
+ studiously aggravated. Within the city, Tacitus mentions a
+ perennial fountain, an aqueduct and cisterns for rain water. The
+ aqueduct was conveyed from the rivulet Tekos or Etham, which is
+ likewise mentioned by Bohadin, (in Vit. Saludio p. 238.)]
+
+ 109 (return) [ Gierusalomme Liberata, canto xiii. It is pleasant
+ enough to observe how Tasso has copied and embellished the
+ minutest details of the siege.]
+
+ 1091 (return) [ This does not appear by Wilken’s account, (p.
+ 294.) They fought in vair the whole of the Thursday.—M.]
+
+ 110 (return) [ 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.]
+
+ 111 (return) [ The old tower Psephina, in the middle ages
+ Neblosa, was named Castellum Pisanum, from the patriarch
+ Daimbert. It is still the citadel, the residence of the Turkish
+ aga, and commands a prospect of the Dead Sea, Judea, and Arabia,
+ (D’Anville, p. 19-23.) It was likewise called the Tower of
+ David.]
+
+ 112 (return) [ Hume, in his History of England, vol. i. p. 311,
+ 312, octavo edition.]
+
+ 113 (return) [ 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 to hear, the Latin chiefs proceeded to the election of a
+ king, to guard and govern their conquests in Palestine. Hugh the
+ Great, and Stephen of Chartres, had retired with some loss of
+ reputation, which they strove to regain by a second crusade and
+ an honorable death. Baldwin was established at Edessa, and
+ Bohemond at Antioch; and two Roberts, the duke of Normandy 114
+ and the count of Flanders, preferred their fair inheritance in
+ the West to a doubtful competition or a barren sceptre. The
+ jealousy and ambition of Raymond were condemned by his own
+ followers, and the free, the just, the unanimous voice of the
+ army proclaimed Godfrey of Bouillon the first and most worthy of
+ the champions of Christendom. His magnanimity accepted a trust as
+ full of danger as of glory; but in a city where his Savior had
+ been crowned with thorns, the devout pilgrim rejected the name
+ and ensigns of royalty; and the founder of the kingdom of
+ Jerusalem contented himself with the modest title of Defender and
+ Baron of the Holy Sepulchre. His government of a single year, 115
+ too short for the public happiness, was interrupted in the first
+ fortnight by a summons to the field, by the approach of the
+ vizier or sultan of Egypt, who had been too slow to prevent, but
+ who was impatient to avenge, the loss of Jerusalem. His total
+ overthrow in the battle of Ascalon sealed the establishment of
+ the Latins in Syria, and signalized the valor of the French
+ princes who in this 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 the side of the Fatimites; but, except three thousand
+ Ethiopians or Blacks, who were armed with flails or scourges of
+ iron, the Barbarians of the South fled on the first onset, and
+ afforded a pleasing comparison between the active valor of the
+ Turks and the sloth and effeminacy of the natives of Egypt. After
+ suspending before the holy sepulchre the sword and standard of
+ the sultan, the new king (he deserves the title) embraced his
+ departing companions, and could retain only with the gallant
+ Tancred three hundred knights, and two thousand foot-soldiers for
+ the defence of Palestine. His sovereignty was soon attacked by a
+ new enemy, the only one against whom Godfrey was a coward.
+ Adhemar, bishop of Puy, who excelled both in council and action,
+ had been swept away in the last plague at Antioch: the remaining
+ ecclesiastics preserved only the pride and avarice of their
+ character; and their seditious clamors had required that the
+ choice of a bishop should precede that of a king. The revenue and
+ jurisdiction of the lawful patriarch were usurped by the Latin
+ clergy: the exclusion of the Greeks and Syrians was justified by
+ the reproach of heresy or schism; 116 and, under the iron yoke of
+ their deliverers, the Oriental Christians regretted the
+ tolerating government of the Arabian caliphs. Daimbert,
+ archbishop of Pisa, had long been trained in the secret policy of
+ Rome: he brought a fleet at 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 had been acquired by the
+ toil and blood of the victorious pilgrims; and both Godfrey and
+ Bohemond submitted to receive at his hands the investiture of
+ their feudal possessions. Nor was this sufficient; Daimbert
+ claimed the immediate property of Jerusalem and Jaffa; instead of
+ a firm and generous refusal, the hero negotiated with the priest;
+ a quarter of either city was ceded to the church; and the modest
+ bishop was satisfied with an eventual reversion of the rest, on
+ the death of Godfrey without children, or on the future
+ acquisition of a new seat at Cairo or Damascus.
+
+ 114 (return) [ The English ascribe to Robert of Normandy, and the
+ Provincials to Raymond of Tholouse, the glory of refusing the
+ crown; but the honest voice of tradition has preserved the memory
+ of the ambition and revenge (Villehardouin, No. 136) of the count
+ of St. Giles. He died at the siege of Tripoli, which was
+ possessed by his descendants.]
+
+ 115 (return) [ See the election, the battle of Ascalon, &c., in
+ William of Tyre l. ix. c. 1-12, and in the conclusion of the
+ Latin historians of the first crusade.]
+
+ 1151 (return) [ 20,000 Franks, 300,000 Mussulmen, according to
+ Wilken, (vol. ii. p. 9)—M.]
+
+ 116 (return) [ Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 479.]
+
+ 1161 (return) [ Arnulf was first chosen, but illegitimately, and
+ degraded. He was ever after the secret enemy of Daimbert or
+ Dagobert. Wilken, vol. i. p. 306, vol. ii. p. 52.—M]
+
+ 117 (return) [ See the claims of the patriarch Daimbert, in
+ William of Tyre (l. ix. c. 15-18, x. 4, 7, 9,) who asserts with
+ marvellous candor the independence of the conquerors and kings of
+ Jerusalem.]
+
+ Without this indulgence, the conqueror would have almost been
+ stripped of his infant kingdom, which consisted only of Jerusalem
+ and Jaffa, with about twenty villages and towns of the adjacent
+ country. 118 Within this narrow verge, the Mahometans were still
+ lodged in some impregnable castles: and the husbandman, the
+ trader, and the pilgrim, were exposed to daily and domestic
+ hostility. By the arms of Godfrey himself, and of the two
+ Baldwins, his brother and cousin, who succeeded to the throne,
+ the Latins breathed with more ease and safety; and at length they
+ equalled, in the extent of their dominions, though not in the
+ millions of their subjects, the ancient princes of Judah and
+ Israel. 119 After the reduction of the maritime cities of
+ Laodicea, Tripoli, Tyre, and Ascalon, 120 which were powerfully
+ assisted by the fleets of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, and even of
+ Flanders and Norway, 121 the range of sea-coast from Scanderoon
+ to the borders of Egypt was possessed by the Christian pilgrims.
+ If the prince of Antioch disclaimed his supremacy, the counts of
+ Edessa and Tripoli owned themselves the vassals of the king of
+ Jerusalem: the Latins reigned beyond the Euphrates; and the four
+ cities of Hems, Hamah, Damascus, and Aleppo, were the only relics
+ of the Mahometan conquests in Syria. 122 The laws and language,
+ the manners and titles, of the French nation and Latin church,
+ were introduced into these transmarine colonies. According to the
+ feudal jurisprudence, the principal states and subordinate
+ baronies descended in the line of male and female succession: 123
+ but the children of the first conquerors, 124 a motley and
+ degenerate race, were dissolved by the luxury of the climate; the
+ arrival of new crusaders from Europe was a doubtful hope and a
+ casual event. The service of the feudal tenures 125 was performed
+ by six hundred and sixty-six knights, who might expect the aid of
+ two hundred more under the banner of the count of Tripoli; and
+ each knight was attended to the field by four squires or archers
+ on horseback. 126 Five thousand and seventy sergeants, most
+ probably foot-soldiers, were supplied by the churches and cities;
+ and the whole legal militia of the kingdom could not exceed
+ eleven thousand men, a slender defence against the surrounding
+ myriads of Saracens and Turks. 127 But the firmest bulwark of
+ Jerusalem was founded on the knights of the Hospital of St. John,
+ 128 and of the temple of Solomon; 129 on the strange association
+ of a monastic and military life, which fanaticism might suggest,
+ but which policy must approve. The flower of the nobility of
+ Europe aspired to wear the cross, and to profess the vows, of
+ these respectable orders; their spirit and discipline were
+ immortal; and the speedy donation of twenty-eight thousand farms,
+ or manors, 130 enabled them to support a regular force of cavalry
+ and infantry for the defence of Palestine. The austerity of the
+ convent soon evaporated in the exercise of arms; the world was
+ scandalized by the pride, avarice, and corruption of these
+ Christian soldiers; their claims of immunity and jurisdiction
+ disturbed the harmony of the church and state; and the public
+ peace was endangered by their jealous emulation. But in their
+ most dissolute period, the knights of their hospital and temple
+ maintained their fearless and fanatic character: they neglected
+ to live, but they were prepared to die, in the service of Christ;
+ and the spirit of chivalry, the parent and offspring of the
+ crusades, has been transplanted by this institution from the holy
+ sepulchre to the Isle of Malta. 131
+
+ 118 (return) [ Willerm. Tyr. l. x. 19. The Historia
+ Hierosolimitana of Jacobus a Vitriaco (l. i. c. 21-50) and the
+ Secreta Fidelium Crucis of Marinus Sanutus (l. iii. p. 1)
+ describe the state and conquests of the Latin kingdom of
+ Jerusalem.]
+
+ 119 (return) [ An actual muster, not including the tribes of Levi
+ and Benjamin, 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 a population of thirteen millions, in a country
+ sixty leagues in length, and thirty broad. The honest and
+ rational Le Clerc (Comment on 2d Samuel xxiv. and 1st Chronicles,
+ xxi.) aestuat angusto in limite, and mutters his suspicion of a
+ false transcript; a dangerous suspicion! * Note: David determined
+ to take a census of his vast dominions, which extended from
+ Lebanon to the frontiers of Egypt, from the Euphrates to the
+ Mediterranean. 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 the highest census in his estimate of the population,
+ and confined the dominions of David to Jordandic Palestine.—M.]
+
+ 120 (return) [ These sieges are related, each in its proper
+ place, in the great history of William of Tyre, from the ixth to
+ the xviiith book, and more briefly told by Bernardus
+ Thesaurarius, (de Acquisitione Terrae Sanctae, c. 89-98, p.
+ 732-740.) Some domestic facts are celebrated in the Chronicles of
+ Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, in the vith, ixth, and xiith tomes of
+ Muratori.]
+
+ 121 (return) [ Quidam populus de insulis occidentis egressus, et
+ maxime de 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 of Sidon.]
+
+ 122 (return) [ Benelathir, apud De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom.
+ ii. part ii. p. 150, 151, A.D. 1127. He must speak of the inland
+ country.]
+
+ 123 (return) [ Sanut very sensibly descants on the mischiefs of
+ female succession, in a land hostibus circumdata, ubi cuncta
+ virilia et virtuosa esse deberent. Yet, at the summons, and with
+ the approbation, of her feudal lord, a noble damsel was obliged
+ to choose a husband and champion, (Assises de Jerusalem, c. 242,
+ &c.) See in M. De Guignes (tom. i. p. 441-471) the accurate and
+ useful tables of these dynasties, which are chiefly drawn from
+ the Lignages d’Outremer.]
+
+ 124 (return) [ They were called by derision Poullains, Pallani,
+ and their name is never pronounced without contempt, (Ducange,
+ Gloss. Latin. tom. v. p. 535; and Observations sur Joinville, p.
+ 84, 85; Jacob. a Vitriaco Hist. Hierosol. i. c. 67, 72; and
+ Sanut, l. iii. p. viii. c. 2, p. 182.) Illustrium virorum, qui ad
+ Terrae Sanctae.... liberationem in ipsa manserunt, degeneres
+ filii.... in deliciis enutriti, molles et effoe minati, &c.]
+
+ 125 (return) [ This authentic detail is extracted from the
+ Assises de Jerusalem (c. 324, 326-331.) Sanut (l. iii. p. viii.
+ c. 1, p. 174) reckons only 518 knights, and 5775 followers.]
+
+ 126 (return) [ The sum total, and the division, ascertain the
+ service of the three great baronies at 100 knights each; and the
+ text of the Assises, which extends the number to 500, can only be
+ justified by this supposition.]
+
+ 127 (return) [ Yet on great emergencies (says Sanut) the barons
+ brought a voluntary aid; decentem comitivam militum juxta statum
+ suum.]
+
+ 128 (return) [ William of Tyre (l. xviii. c. 3, 4, 5) relates the
+ ignoble origin and early insolence of the Hospitallers, who soon
+ deserted their humble patron, St. John the Eleemosynary, for the
+ more august character of St. John the Baptist, (see the
+ ineffectual struggles of Pagi, Critica, A. D 1099, No. 14-18.)
+ They assumed the profession of arms about the year 1120; the
+ Hospital was mater; the Temple filia; the Teutonic order was
+ founded A.D. 1190, at the siege of Acre, (Mosheim Institut p.
+ 389, 390.)]
+
+ 129 (return) [ See St. Bernard de Laude Novae Militiae Templi,
+ composed A.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 dead Templars, would be highly valued by the historians of
+ Malta.]
+
+ 130 (return) [ Matthew Paris, Hist. Major, p. 544. He assigns to
+ the Hospitallers 19,000, to the Templars 9,000 maneria, word of
+ much higher import (as Ducange has rightly observed) in the
+ English than in the French idiom. Manor is a lordship, manoir a
+ dwelling.]
+
+ 131 (return) [ In the three first books of the Histoire de
+ Chevaliers de Malthe par l’Abbe de Vertot, the reader may amuse
+ himself with a fair, and sometimes flattering, picture of the
+ order, while it was employed for the defence of Palestine. The
+ subsequent books pursue their emigration to Rhodes and Malta.]
+
+ The spirit of freedom, which pervades the feudal institutions,
+ was felt in its strongest energy by the volunteers of the cross,
+ who elected for their chief the most deserving of his peers.
+ Amidst the slaves of Asia, unconscious of the lesson or example,
+ a model of political liberty was introduced; and the laws of the
+ French kingdom are derived from the purest source of equality and
+ justice. Of such laws, the first and indispensable condition is
+ the assent of those whose obedience they require, and for whose
+ benefit they are designed. No sooner had Godfrey of Bouillon
+ accepted the office of supreme magistrate, than he solicited the
+ public and private advice of the Latin pilgrims, who were the
+ best skilled in the statutes and customs of Europe. From these
+ materials, with the counsel and approbation of the patriarch and
+ barons, of the clergy and laity, Godfrey composed the Assise of
+ Jerusalem, 132 a precious monument of feudal jurisprudence. The
+ new code, attested by the seals of the king, the patriarch, and
+ the viscount of Jerusalem, was deposited in the holy sepulchre,
+ enriched with the improvements of succeeding times, and
+ respectfully consulted as often as any doubtful question arose in
+ the tribunals of Palestine. With the kingdom and city all was
+ lost: 133 the fragments of the written law were preserved by
+ jealous tradition 134 and variable practice till the middle of
+ the thirteenth century: the code was restored by the pen of John
+ d’Ibelin, count of Jaffa, one of the principal feudatories; 135
+ and the final revision was accomplished in the year thirteen
+ hundred and sixty-nine, for the use of the Latin kingdom of
+ Cyprus. 136
+
+ 132 (return) [ The Assises de Jerusalem, in old law French, were
+ printed with Beaumanoir’s Coutumes de Beauvoisis, (Bourges and
+ Paris, 1690, in folio,) and illustrated by Gaspard Thaumas de la
+ Thaumassiere, with a comment and glossary. An Italian version had
+ been published in 1534, at Venice, for the use of the kingdom of
+ Cyprus. * Note: See Wilken, vol. i. p. 17, &c.,—M.]
+
+ 133 (return) [ A la terre perdue, tout fut perdu, is the vigorous
+ expression of the Assise, (c. 281.) Yet Jerusalem capitulated
+ with Saladin; the queen and the principal Christians departed in
+ peace; and a code so precious and so portable could not provoke
+ the avarice of the conquerors. I have sometimes suspected the
+ existence of this original copy of the Holy Sepulchre, which
+ might be invented to sanctify and authenticate the traditionary
+ customs of the French in Palestine.]
+
+ 134 (return) [ A noble lawyer, Raoul de Tabarie, denied the
+ prayer of King Amauri, (A.D. 1195-1205,) that he would commit his
+ knowledged to writing, and frankly declared, que de ce qu’il
+ savoit ne feroit-il ja nul borjois son pareill, ne null sage
+ homme lettre, (c. 281.)]
+
+ 135 (return) [ The compiler of this work, Jean d’Ibelin, was
+ count of Jaffa 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, which descended from a younger brother of a count of
+ Chartres in France, long flourished in Palestine and Cyprus, (see
+ the Lignages de deca Mer, or d’Outremer, c. 6, at the end of the
+ Assises de Jerusalem, an original book, which records the
+ pedigrees of the French adventurers.)]
+
+ 136 (return) [ By sixteen commissioners chosen in the states of
+ the island: the work was finished the 3d of November, 1369,
+ sealed with four seals and deposited in the cathedral of Nicosia,
+ (see the preface to the Assises.)]
+
+ The justice and freedom of the constitution were maintained by
+ two tribunals of unequal dignity, which were instituted by
+ Godfrey of Bouillon after the conquest of Jerusalem. The king, in
+ person, presided in the upper court, the court of the barons. Of
+ these the four most conspicuous were the prince of Galilee, the
+ lord of Sidon and Caesarea, and the counts of Jaffa and Tripoli,
+ who, perhaps with the constable and marshal, 137 were in a
+ special manner the compeers and judges of each other. But all the
+ nobles, who held their lands immediately of the crown, were
+ entitled and bound to attend the king’s court; and each baron
+ exercised a similar jurisdiction on the subordinate assemblies of
+ his own feudatories. The connection of lord and vassal was
+ honorable and voluntary: reverence was due to the benefactor,
+ protection to the dependant; but they mutually pledged their
+ faith to each other; and the obligation on either side might be
+ suspended by neglect or dissolved by injury. The cognizance of
+ marriages and testaments was blended with religion, and usurped
+ by the clergy: but the civil and criminal causes of the nobles,
+ the inheritance and tenure of their fiefs, formed the proper
+ occupation of the supreme court. Each member was the judge and
+ guardian both of public and private rights. It was his duty to
+ assert with his tongue and sword the lawful claims of the lord;
+ but if an unjust superior presumed to violate the freedom or
+ property of a vassal, the confederate peers stood forth to
+ maintain his quarrel by word and deed. They boldly affirmed his
+ innocence and his wrongs; demanded the restitution of his liberty
+ or his lands; suspended, after a fruitless demand, their own
+ service; rescued their brother from prison; and employed every
+ weapon in his defence, without offering direct violence to the
+ person of their lord, which was ever sacred in their eyes. 138 In
+ their pleadings, replies, and rejoinders, the advocates of the
+ court were subtle and copious; but the use of argument and
+ evidence was often superseded by judicial combat; and the Assise
+ of Jerusalem admits in many cases this barbarous institution,
+ which has been slowly abolished by the laws and manners of
+ Europe.
+
+ 137 (return) [ The cautious John D’Ibelin argues, rather than
+ affirms, that Tripoli is the fourth barony, and expresses some
+ doubt concerning the right or pretension of the constable and
+ marshal, (c. 323.)]
+
+ 138 (return) [ Entre seignor et homme ne n’a que la foi;.... mais
+ tant que l’homme doit a son seignor reverence en toutes choses,
+ (c. 206.) Tous les hommes dudit royaume sont par ladite Assise
+ tenus les uns as autres.... et en celle maniere que le seignor
+ mette main ou face mettre au cors ou au fie d’aucun d’yaus sans
+ esgard et sans connoissans de court, que tous les autres doivent
+ venir devant le seignor, &c., (212.) The form of their
+ remonstrances is conceived with the noble simplicity of freedom.]
+
+ The trial by battle was established in all criminal cases which
+ affected the life, or limb, or honor, of any person; and in all
+ civil transactions, of or above the value of one mark of silver.
+ It appears that in criminal cases the combat was the privilege of
+ the accuser, who, except in a charge of treason, avenged his
+ personal injury, or the death of those persons whom he had a
+ right to represent; but wherever, from the nature of the charge,
+ testimony could be obtained, it was necessary for him to produce
+ witnesses of the fact. In civil cases, the combat was not 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 the
+ defendant; because he charged the witness with an attempt by
+ perjury to take away his right. He came therefore to be in the
+ same situation as the appellant in criminal cases. It was not
+ then as a mode of proof that the combat was received, nor as
+ making negative evidence, (according to the supposition of
+ Montesquieu; 139 but in every case the right to offer battle was
+ founded on the right to pursue by arms the redress of an injury;
+ and the judicial combat was fought on the same principle, and
+ with the same spirit, as a private duel. Champions were only
+ allowed to women, and to men maimed or past the age of sixty. The
+ consequence of a defeat was death to the person accused, or to
+ the champion or witness, as well as to the accuser himself: but
+ in civil cases, the demandant was punished with infamy and the
+ loss of his suit, while his witness and champion suffered
+ ignominious death. In many cases it was in the option of 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
+ faithful vassal gave the lie to his compeer, who unjustly claimed
+ any portion of their lord’s demesnes; or if an unsuccessful
+ suitor presumed to impeach the judgment and veracity of the
+ court. He might impeach them, but the terms were severe and
+ perilous: in the same day he successively fought all the members
+ of the tribunal, even those who had been absent; a single defeat
+ was followed by death and infamy; and where none could hope for
+ victory, it is highly probable that none would adventure the
+ trial. In the Assise of Jerusalem, the legal subtlety of the
+ count of Jaffa is more laudably employed to elude, than to
+ facilitate, the judicial combat, which he derives from a
+ principle of honor rather than of superstition. 140
+
+ 139 (return) [ See l’Esprit des Loix, l. xxviii. In the forty
+ years since its publication, no work has been more read and
+ criticized; and the spirit of inquiry which it has excited is not
+ the least of our obligations to the author.]
+
+ 140 (return) [ For the intelligence of this obscure and obsolete
+ jurisprudence (c. 80-111) I am deeply indebted to the friendship
+ of a learned lord, who, with an accurate and discerning eye, has
+ surveyed the philosophic history of law. By his studies,
+ posterity might be enriched: the merit of the orator and the
+ judge can be felt only by his contemporaries.]
+
+ Among the causes which enfranchised the plebeians from the yoke
+ of feudal tyranny, the institution of cities and corporations is
+ one of the most powerful; and if those of Palestine are coeval
+ with the first crusade, they may be ranked with the most ancient
+ of the Latin world. Many of the pilgrims had escaped from their
+ lords under the banner of the cross; and it was the policy of the
+ French princes to tempt their stay by the assurance of the rights
+ and privileges of freemen. It is expressly declared in the Assise
+ of Jerusalem, that after instituting, for his knights and barons,
+ the court of peers, in which he presided himself, Godfrey of
+ Bouillon established a second tribunal, in which his person was
+ represented by his viscount. The jurisdiction of this inferior
+ court extended over the burgesses of the kingdom; and it was
+ composed of a select number of the most discreet and worthy
+ citizens, who were sworn to judge, according to the laws of the
+ actions and fortunes of their equals. 141 In the conquest and
+ settlement of new cities, the example of Jerusalem was imitated
+ by the kings and their great vassals; and above thirty similar
+ corporations were founded before the loss of the Holy Land.
+ Another class of subjects, the Syrians, 142 or Oriental
+ Christians, were oppressed by the zeal of the clergy, and
+ protected by the toleration of the state. Godfrey listened to
+ their reasonable prayer, that they might be judged by their own
+ national laws. A third court was instituted for their use, of
+ limited and domestic jurisdiction: the sworn members were
+ Syrians, in blood, language, and religion; but the office of the
+ president (in Arabic, of the rais) was sometimes exercised by the
+ viscount of the city. At an immeasurable distance below the
+ nobles, the burgesses, and the strangers, the Assise of Jerusalem
+ condescends to mention the villains and slaves, the peasants of
+ the land and the captives of war, who were almost equally
+ considered as the objects of property. The relief or protection
+ of these unhappy men was not esteemed worthy of the care of the
+ legislator; but he diligently provides for the recovery, though
+ not indeed for the punishment, of the fugitives. Like hounds, or
+ hawks, who had strayed from the lawful owner, they might be lost
+ and claimed: the slave and falcon were of the same value; but
+ three slaves, or twelve oxen, were accumulated to equal the price
+ of the war-horse; and a sum of three hundred pieces of gold was
+ fixed, in the age of chivalry, as the equivalent of the more
+ noble animal. 143
+
+ 141 (return) [ Louis le Gros, who is considered as the father of
+ this institution in France, did not begin his reign till nine
+ years (A.D. 1108) after Godfrey of Bouillon, (Assises, c. 2,
+ 324.) For its origin and effects, see the judicious remarks of
+ Dr. Robertson, (History of Charles V. vol. i. p. 30-36, 251-265,
+ quarto edition.)]
+
+ 142 (return) [ Every reader conversant with the historians of the
+ crusades will understand by the peuple des Suriens, the Oriental
+ Christians, Melchites, Jacobites, or Nestorians, who had all
+ adopted the use of the Arabic language, (vol. iv. p. 593.)]
+
+ 143 (return) [ See the Assises de Jerusalem, (310, 311, 312.)
+ These laws were enacted as late as the year 1350, in the kingdom
+ of Cyprus. In the same century, in the reign of Edward I., I
+ understand, from a late publication, (of his Book of Account,)
+ that the price of a war-horse was not less exorbitant in
+ England.]
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE ***
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