LII.

Arabs. The former of these conquests is dif- CHAP. dained by their own writers, who were ignorant

80

of the fame of Jupiter and Minos, but it has not been overlooked by the Byzantine hiftorians, who now begin to caft a clearer light on the affairs of their own times 8°. A band of Andalufian volunteers, discontented with the climate or government of Spain, explored the adventures of the fea; but as they failed in no more than ten or twenty gallies, their warfare must be branded with the name of piracy. As the fubjects and fectaries of the white party, they might lawfully invade the dominions of the black caliphs. A rebellious faction introduced them into Alexandria "; they cut in pieces both friends and foes, pillaged the churches and the moschs, fold above fix thousand Christian captives, and maintained their station in the capital of Egypt, till they were oppreffed by the forces and the pre

Although Crete is styled by Homer mapa, by Dionyfius Aman Te xas EuBoros, I cannot conceive that mountainous island to surpass, or even to equal, in fertility the greater part of Spain.

80 The most authentic and circumftantial intelligence is obtained from the four books of the Continuation of Theophanes, compiled by the pen or the command of Conftantine Porphyrogenitus, with the Life of his father Bafil the Macedonian (Scriptores poft Theophanem, p. 1-162. à Francif. Combefis, Paris, 1685). The lofs of Crete and Sicily is related, 1. ii. p. 46-52. To these we may add the fecondary evidence of Jofeph Genefius (1. ii. p. 21. Venet. 1733), George Cedrenus (Compend. p. 506–508.), and John Scylitzes Curopalata (apud Baron. Annal. Ecclef. A. D. 827. No. 24, &c.). But the modern Greeks are fuch notorious plagiaries, that I fhould only quote a plurality of names.

81 Renaudot (Hift. Patriarch. Alex. p. 251-256. 268-270.) has described the ravages of the Andabifian Arabs in Egypt, but has forgot to connect them with the conqueft of Crete.

fence

LII.

CHA P. fence of Almamon himself. From the mouth of the Nile to the Hellefpont, the islands and feacoafts both of the Greeks and Moflems were exposed to their depredations; they faw, they envied, they tafted, the fertility of Crete, and foon returned with forty gallies to a more ferious attack. The Andalufians wandered over the land fearlefs and unmolefted; but when they defcended with their plunder to the fea-fhore, their veffels were in flames, and their chief, Abu Caab, confeffed himfelf the author of the mifchief. Their clamours accufed his madnefs 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; repofe from your toils, and forget the barren place of your nativity." "And our "wives and children ?" "Your beauteous "captives will fupply the place of your wives, "and in their embraces you will foon 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 apoftate monk led them to a more desirable position in the eastern parts; and the name of Candax, their fortrefs 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 fubftance of freedom and the profeffion of Chriftianity. The Saracens of Crete foon repaired the lofs of their navy; and the timbers of mount Ida were launched into

18

LII.

into the main. During an hoftile period, of one CHAP. hundred and thirty-eight years, the princes of Conftantinople attacked thefe licentious corfairs with fruitlefs curfes and ineffectual arms.

82

The lofs of Sicily 2 was occafioned by an act of fuperftitious rigour. An amorous youth who had stolen a nun from her cloyfter, was fentenced by the emperor to the amputation of his tongue. Euphemius appealed to the reafon and policy of the Saracens of Africa; and foon returned with the Imperial purple, a fleet of one hundred ships, and an army of feven hundred horfe and ten thousand foot. They landed at Mazara near the ruins of the ancient Selinus; but after fome partial victories, Syracufe was delivered by the Greeks, the apoftate was flain before her walls, and his African friends were reduced to the neceffity of feeding on the flesh of their own horfes. In their turn they were relieved by a powerful reinforcement of their brethren of Andalufia; the largeft and western part of the island was gradually reduced, and the commodious harbour of Palermo was chosen for the feat of the naval and military power of the Saracens. Syracufe preferved about

83

82 Ano (fays the continuator of Theophanes, I. ii. p. 51.) No ταυτα σαφέςατα και πλαστικώτερον ή τοτε γράφεισα Θεογνως» και εις χειράς μ. This hiftory of the lofs of Sicily is no longer extant. Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. vii. p. 7. 19. 21, &c.) has added fome circumstances from the Italian chronicles.

83 The fplendid and interefting tragedy of Tancrede would adapt itself much better to this epoch, than to the date (A. D. 1005) which Voltaire himself has chofen. But I muft gently reproach the poet, for infufing into the Greek subjects the fpirit of modern knights and ancient republicans.

fifty

and of Si827-878.

cily, A. D.

LII.

CHAP. fifty years the faith which she had fworn to Christ and to Cæfar. In the laft and fatal fiege, her citizens difplayed fome remnant of the fpirit which. had formerly refifted the powers of Athens and Carthage. They ftood above twenty days against the battering-rams and catapulta, the mines and tortoises of the befiegers; and the place might have been relieved, if the mariners of the Imperial fleet had not been detained at Conftantinople in building a church to the Virgin Mary. The deacon Theodofius, with the bifhop and clergy, was dragged in chains from the altar to Palermo, caft into a fubterraneous dungeon, and expofed to the hourly peril of death or apoftacy. His pathetic, and not inelegant complaint, may be read as the epitaph of his country 34. From the Roman conqueft to this final calamity, Syracufe, now dwindled to the primitive ifle of Ortygea, had infenfibly declined. Yet the relics were still precious; the plate of the cathedral weighed five thousand pounds of filver; the entire spoil was computed at one million of pieces of gold (about four hundred thousand pounds fterling), and the captives muft out-number the feventeen thoufand Christians who were tranfported from the fack of Tauromenium into African fervitude. In Sicily, the religion and language of the Greeks were eradicated; and fuch was the docility of the rifing generation, that fifteen thousand boys were

84

34 The narrative or lamentation of Theodofius, is transcribed and illuftrated by Pagi (Critica, tom. iii. p. 719, &c.). Conftantine Porphyrogenitus (in Vit. Bafil. c. 69, 70. p. 199—192.) mentions the lofs of Syracuse and the triumph of the demons.

circums

LII.

circumcifed and clothed on the fame day with the CHA P. son of the Fatimite caliph. The Arabian fquadrons iffued from the harbours of Palermo, Biferta, and Tunis; an hundred and fifty towns of Calabria and Campania were attacked and pillaged; nor could the fuburbs of Rome be defended by the name of the Cæfars and Apostles. Had the Mahometans been united, Italy must have fallen an easy and glorious acceffion to the empire of the prophet. But the caliphs of Bagdad had loft their authority in the Weft; the Aglabites and Fatimites ufurped the provinces of Africa; their emirs of Sicily afpired to independence; and the defign of conqueft and dominion was degraded to a repetition of predatory inroads $5.

85

of Rome

by the Saracens,

A. D. 845.

In the fufferings of proftrate Italy, the name of Invafion Rome awakens a folemn and mournful recollection. A fleet of Saracens from the African coaft prefumed 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 Chriftian world. The gates and ramparts were guarded by a trembling people; but the tombs and temples of St. Peter and St. Paul were left expofed in the fuburbs of the Vatican and of the Oftian way. Their invifible fanctity had protected them against the Goths, the Vandals, and the Lombards; but

85 The extracts from the Arabic hiftories 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 (Hift. des Huns, tom. i. p. 363, 364.) has added some important facts.

the