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 repulsed by the Byzantine skill in machines and engines; that the attempt of Moslemah to prevent the passage of provisions into the city failed; and that the Saracens' ships were destroyed by fire. Leo, on the other hand, well provided with food and supplies of all kinds, waited with patience within the walls, the spirit of the people rising with every small advantage. The caliph died; the winter proved severe. The Saracen soldiers, unused to the piercing frost, died in multitudes. Their provisions ran short; and when reinforcements arrived in the shape of 800 ships from Alexandria and from Africa, they were manned in great part by Christians, who, dismayed by the wretched plight of the army, deserted in thousands to the Greeks, and informed the emperor of the enemy's weakness. Leo took advantage of this information, and by the aid of his ships succeeded in destroying a great part of the Saracens' naval force. A year and a half after the commencement Moslemah raised the siege. Part of the troops were embarked on board the ships, but the fleet fell in with a tempest and was dispersed. Then the islanders went out after them. In the end five only out of the original 2,600 vessels are said to have reached the shores of Syria—a destruction unparalleled in history. The rest of the army made a a peaceable and safe journey across Asia Minor to Damascus.

Finlay compares this check to the Saracenic arms with that given them by Charles Martel at Poitiers. He sees in the latter a trifling success over a plundering expedition, and in the former a lesson that the limits of Moham-