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chap, xlii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 377 the empire golden lances. This extent of savage empire compelled the Turkish monarch to establish three subordinate princes of his own blood, who soon forgot their gratitude and allegiance. The conquerors were enervated by luxury, which is always fatal except to an industrious people ; the policy of China solicited the vanquished nations to resume their independence ; and the power of the Turks was limited to a period of two hundred years. The revival of their name and dominion in the southern countries of Asia are the events of a later age ; and the dynasties which succeeded to their native realms may sleep in oblivion, since their history bears no relation to the decline and fall of the Koman empire. 34 In the rapid career of conquest, the Turks attacked and The Avars subdued the nation of the Ogors, or Varchonites, 35 on the banks the Turks, of the river Til, which derived the epithet of black from its dark approach water or gloomy forests. 30 The khan of the Ogors was slain with three hundred thousand of his subjects, and their bodies were scattered over the space of four days' journey : their sur- viving countrymen acknowledged the strength and mercy of the Turks ; and a small portion, about twenty thousand warriors, preferred exile to servitude. They followed the well-known road of the Volga, cherished the error of the nations who confounded them with the Avaks, and spread the terror of that false though famous appellation, which had not, however, saved its lawful proprietors from the yoke of the Turks. 37 After a long and 34 For the origin and revolutions of the first Turkish empire, the Chinese de- tails are borrowed from De Guignes (Hist, des Huns, torn. i. P. ii. p. 367-462) and Visdelou (Supplement a la Bibliotheque Orient. d'Herbelot, p. 82-114). The Greek or Boman hints are gathered in Menander (p. 108-164) and Theophylact Simocatta (1. vii. c. 7, 8). 35 [Theophylactus (vii. 7, 14) says that the race called Ogor (ol 'Oywp) were after- wards called Var-and-Chunni (Ovap ical Xovvvt) ; and these are clearly Menander 's " Varchonites ". The word var meant " river " and was used by the Huns for the Dnieper (Jordanes, p. 127, ed. Momms.). The Chinese sources mention Uigours (T'ie-le) near the Tula (see next note), who seem to correspond to the Ogor of Theo- phylaotus near the Til. Cp. Marquart, Chronologie der altturkischen Inschriften, p. 95.] 36 The river Til, or Tula, according to the geography of De Guignes (torn. i. part ii. p. lviii. and 352), is a small though grateful stream of the desert, that falls into the Orchon, Selinga, &c. See Bell, Journey from Petersburg to Pekin (vol. ii. p. 124) ; yet his own description of the Keat, down which he sailed into the Oby, represents the name and attributes of the black river (p. 139). 37 Theophylact, 1. vii. c. 7, 8. And yet his true Avars are invisible even to the eyes of M. de Guignes ; and what can be more illustrious than the false ? The right of the fugitive Ogors to that national appellation is confessed by the Turks themselves (Menander, p. 108 [?]). [See below, vol. v. Appendix 2.]