Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/64

44 THE DECLINE AND FALL both the old and the new Rome might ever be preserved pure, prosperous, and impregnable.^'^- sAmorian The cmperor Theophilus, son of Michael the Stammerer, was EopMius one of the most active and high-spirited princes who reigned at n. A.D. 833 Constantinople during the middle age. In offensive or defensive war, he marched in person five times against the Saracens, formidable in his attack, esteemed by the enemy in his losses and defeats. In the last of these expeditions he penetrated into Syria, and besieged the obscure town of Sozopetra : the casual utasim] birth-place of the caliph Motassem, whose father Harun was attended in peace or war by the most favourite of his wives and concubines. The revolt of a Persian impostor employed at that moment the arms of the Saracen, and he could only intercede in favour of a place for which he felt and acknowledged some degree of filial affection. These solicitations determined the emperor to wound his pride in so sensible a part. Sozopetra was levelled with the ground, the Syrian prisoners were marked or mutilated with ignominious cruelty, and a thousand female captives were forced away from the adjacent territory. Among these a matron of the house of Abbas invoked, in an agony of despair, the name of Motassem ; and the insults of the Greeks engaged the honour of her kinsman to avenge his indignity and to answer her appeal. Under the reign of the two elder brothers, the inheritance of the youngest had been confined to Anatolia, Armenia, Georgia, and Circassia ; this frontier station had exer- cised his militaiy talents ; and, among his accidental claims to the name of Odoiiary}^'^ the most meritorious are the eight battles which he gained or fought against the enemies of the Koran. In this personal quarrel, the troops of Irak, Syria, and Egypt, were recruited from the tribes of Arabia and the Turkish hordes : his cavalrj' might be numerous, though we should deduct some myriads from the hundred and thirty thousand horses of the royal stables ; and the expense of the It** The Arabs and the Greeks are alike silent concerning the invasion of Rome by the Africans. The Latin chronicles do not afford much instruction (see the Annals of Baronius and Pagi). Our authentic and contemporary guide for the Popes of the i.xth century is Anasiasius, librarian of the Roman church. His Life of Leo IV. contains twenty-four pages (p. 175-199, edit. Paris) ; and, if a great part consists of superstitious trifles, we must blame or commend his hero, who was much oftener in a church than in a camp. I'j'-' The same number was applied to the following circumstance in the life of Motassem : he was the eighth of the Abbassides ; he reigned eight years, eight months, and eight days ; left eight sons, eight daughters, eight thousand slaves, eight millions of gold.