Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/113

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 93 not underiTOJie any change since the time of Thucydides : a scjuadron 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 operatit)n 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 modems, was imperfectly expressed by the various positions and colours of a commanding flag. In the darkness of the night the same orders to cliase, 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 Constan- tinople in a few hours was apprised of the hostile motions of the Saracens of Tarsus.^i Some estimate may be fomied 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 [a.d. 902] of one hundred and twelve galleys, and seventy-five vessels of the Pamphylian style, was equipped in the capital, the islands of the .Egean sea, and the sea-ports of Asia, Macedonia, and Greece. It earned 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 centen- aries of gold, about one hundred and thirty-six thousand pounds sterling. Our fancy is bewildered by the endless reca])itulation 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, inade([uate to the ccmquest of a petty island, but amply sufficient for the establishment of a flourishing colony.^" -' The continuator of Theophanes (1. iv. p. 122, 123 [c. 35]) names the successive stations, the castle of Lulum near Tarsus, mount Arga;us, Isamus, .^i^gilus, the hill of Mamas, Cyrisus [Cyrizus], Mocilus, the hill of Auxentius, the sun-dial of the Pharus of the great palace. He affirms that the news were transmitted ei- aKnptl, 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 twels-e hours ! [See above, vol. v. p. 200, note.] •^-See the Ceremoniale of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 1. ii. c. 44, p. 176-192 U^^- 376-392]. A critical reader will discern some inconsistencies in different parts of this account ; but they are not more obscure or more stubborn than the estab- lishment 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. [See above, p. 57, note 135.]