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 harbour; but while they hesitated whether they should seize the oppor tunity, 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.† 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 an 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 favour; 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 (12) 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. 156.).* (13) See the article of Omar Ben Abdalaziz, in the Bibliothèque Orientale (p. 689, 690.), præferens, 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 orbis Moslemus (Abulfeda, p. 127.). * The Tarikh Tebry ascribes the death of So-Major Price's estimate of Omar's character liman to a pleurisy. The same gross gluttony is much more favourable. Among a race of sanin which Soliman indulged, though not fatal guinary tyrants, Omar was just and humane. to the life, interfered with the military duties, His virtues, as well as his bigotry, were active. of his brother Moslemah. Price, vol. i. p. 511. -M -M. the Egyptians 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 straggle 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 twentytwo 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 Failure and retreat.* The march of the Arabian cavalry over the Hellespont and retreat of the 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). Saracens. Invention the Greek fire. In the two sieges, the deliverance of Constantinople may be and use of 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 (14) 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. (15) 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. 98102.), Elmaçin (list. Saracen. p. 88.), Abulfeda (Annal. Moslem. p. 126.), and Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 130.), the most satisfactory of the Arabs. (16) 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. Græcitat. p. 1275. sub voce Hop Sakáσolov, Sypov. Glossar. Med. et Infim. Latinitat. Ignis Græcus. Observations sur Villehardouin, p. 305, 306. Observations sur Joinville, p. 71, 72. *The Tarikh Tebry embellishes the retreat of Moslemah with some extraordinary and incredible circumstances. Price, p. 514.-M. to that of the emperor (17). The skill of a chemist and engineer was equivalent to the succour 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 vigour of the Saracens. The historian who presumes to analyse 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 (17) Theophanes styles him άpxitéxtwy (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) The naphtha, the oleum incendiarium of the history of Jerusalem (Gest. Dei per Francos, p. 1167.), the Oriental fountain of James de Vitry (1. iii. c. 84.), is introduced on slight evidence and strong probability. Cinnamus (1. vi. p. 165.) calls the Greek fire up Mixov; 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 the atov Mudías, or Mndsias (Procop. de Bell. Gothic. 1. iv. c. 11.), may fairly signify this liquid bitumen.* (19) On the different sorts of oils and bitumens, see Dr. Watson's (the present Bishop of Llandaff's) Chemical Essays, vol. iii. essay i., a classic book, the best adapted to infuse the taste and knowledge of chemistry. The less perfect ideas of the ancients may be found in Strabo (Geograp. 1. xvi. p. 1078.) and Pliny Hist. Natur. ii. 108, 109.) Huic (Naphtha) 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) Anna Comnena has partly drawn aside the curtain. Απὸ τῆς πεύκης, καὶ ἄλλων τινων τοιούτων δένδρων ἀειθάλων συνάγεται δάκρυον ἄκαυστον. Τοῦτο μετὰ θείου τριβό μενον ἐμβάλλεται εἰς αὐλίσκους καλάμων, καὶ ἐμφύσαται παρὰ τοῦ παίζοντος λάβρῳ xal σvvexet̃ πvεúμati (Alexiad. 1. xiii. p. 383.). Elsewhere (l. xi. p. 336.) she mentions the property of burning κατὰ τὸ πρανὲς καὶ ἐφ' ἑκάτερα. Leo, in the xixth chapter of his Tactics (Opera Meursii, tom. vi. p. 843. edit. Lami, Florent. 1745), speaks of the new invention of p μετὰ βρόντης καὶ κάπνου. These are genuine and Imperial testimonies. It is remarkable that the Syrian historian that this substance formed the base of the deMichel gives the name of naphtha to the newly structive compound. St. Martin, tom. xi. p. invented Greek fire, which seems to indicate 420.-M. 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 fireships, 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 treatise 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 injunc tion, that this gift of heaven, this peculiar blessing of the Romans, should never be communicated to any foreign nation that the prince and 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 an 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 (21) Constantin. Porphyrogenit. de Administrat. Imperii, c. xiii. p. 64, 65. (22) 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 javeliu, from an engine that acted like a sling. the fourteenth century (23), when the scientific or casual compoundof nitre, sulphur, and charcoal, effected a new revolution in the art of war and the history of mankind (24). 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 neighbourhood 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 waggon 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, the provin (23) 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 Salluste du Président des Brosses, tom. ii. p. 381.). But their evidence, which precedes the vulgar æra 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. 1. 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. L (24) 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). (25) 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) Eginhart, de Vita Caroli Magni, c. ii. p. 13-18. edit. Schmink, Utrecht, 1711. Some mo dern critics accuse the minister of Charlemagne of exaggerating the weakness of the Merovingians: but the general outline is just, and the French reader will for ever repeat the beautiful lines of Boileau's Lutrin. Com (27) Mamacca, 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). pendium, or Compiegne, was a palace of more dignity (Hadrian. Valesii Notitia Galliarum, p. 152.), and that laughing philosopher, the Abbé Galliani (Dialogues sur le Commerce des Blés), may truly affirm, that it was the residence of the rois très-chrétiens et très-chevelus. Invasion of France by the A. D. 721, &c. |