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COLLECTION.

OF

ANCIENT AND MODERN

BRITISH AUTHORS.

VOL. CCXCIX.

GIBBON'S

ROMAN EMPIRE.

VOL. VII.

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THE

HISTORY

OF

THE DECLINE AND FALL

OF THE

ROMAN EMPIRE.

BY EDWARD GIBBON; ESQ.

WITH NOTES

BY THE REV. H. H. MILMAN,

PREBENDARY OF ST. PETER'S AND VICAR OF ST. MARGARET'S, WESTMINSTER.

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1

PARIS :

BAUDRY'S EUROPEAN LIBRARY,

3, QUAI MALAQUAIS, NEAR THE PONT DES ARTS,

AND STASSIN AND XAVIER, 9, RUE DU COQ, NEAR THE LOuvre.

SOLD ALSO BY AMYOT, RUE LE LA PAIX; TRUCHY, BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS; GIRARD FRÈRES,
RUE RICHELIEU; LEOPOLD MICHELSEN, LEIPZIC; AND BY ALL THE PRINCIPAL

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THE

HISTORY

OF

THE DECLINE AND FALL

OF THE

ROMAN EMPIRE.

CHAPTER LII.

The Two Sieges of Constantinople by the Arabs. Their Invasion of France, and Defeat
by Charles Martel. - Civil Wars 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.

the Arabian

WHEN the Arabs first issued from the desert, they must have The limits of been surprised at the ease and rapidity of their own success. But conquests. 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

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