Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/485

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 468 this fallacious transaction, if each foot-soldier had shared one thousand, and each horseman three thousand, pieces in the real division of the plunder. The author of the death of Gregory was expected to have claimed the most precious reward of the victory : from his silence it might be presumed that he had fallen in the battle, till the tears and exclamations of the prae- fect's daughter at the sight of Zobeir revealed the valour and modesty of that gallant soldier. The unfortunate virgin was offered, and almost rejected, as a slave, by her father's murderer, ■ who coolly declared that his sword was consecrated to the service of religion ; and that he laboured for a recompense far above the charms of mortal beauty or the riches of this transitory life.^*''' A reward congenial to his temper was the honourable commis- sion of announcing to the caliph Othman the success of his arms. The companions, the chiefs, and the people were assembled in the mosch of Medina, to hear the interesting narrative of Zobeir ; and, as the orator forgot nothing except the merit of his own counsels and actions, the name of Abdallah was joined by the Arabians with the heroic names of Caled and Amrou.^'''^ The western conquests of the Saracens were suspended near Progress Till • 111_ 1°^ *'*^ twenty years, till their dissensions were composed by the estab- saracena in lishment of the house of Ommiyah ; and the caliph Moawiyah 665-689 was invited by the cries of the Africans themselves. The suc- cessors of Heraclius had been informed of the tribute which they had been compelled to stipulate with the Arabs ; but, instead of being moved to pity and relieve their distress, they job. When the .rabs besieged the palace of Othman, it stood high in their cata- logue of grievances. 18'' [Ibn Abd al Hakam [loc. cit. p. 306) gives another story about the daughter of Gregory. She fell to the lot of a man of Medina. He placed her on a camel and returned with her improvising these verses : — ' ' Daughter of Joujlr, you will go on foot in your turn ; Your mistress awaits you in the Hijaz, You will carry a skin of water from Koba (to Medina) ". She "asked what this dog meant ; and having learned the meaning of the words threw herself from the camel and broke her neck ' ' .] ■'™ 'ETreorpaTeutrai' Sapaxiji/oi tv 'A0pt/c))i', Kai cru/x^aAdt'Tes Tw TUpai'i'W rprjyopto) Tovrov TpeTToiKTL /cat Tov? dpou? /xera Tuyv "Ac^pajt* uTre'cTTpe fav. Theophan. Chronograph, p. 285, edit. Paris [a.m. 6139]. His chronology is loose and inaccurate. [Some words have accidentally fallen out in this passage after Krervova-L and are preserved in the translation of Anastasius : ef hunc ab Africa pellunt (de Boor supplies koI tovtov '.ptK^? iTrtXavi'oucru'). This implies that Gregory was not slain ; cp. above, note 162. Diehl justly remarks that he must not be identified with Gregory the nephew of Heraclius who died in 651-2 ; op. cit. p. 559 ; but does not question the statement (of Arabic sources, e.g. Ibn Abd al Hakam, loc. cit. p. 304) that he was slain at Sbaitla. The details of the battle given in the text depend chiefly on the doubtful authority of Novairi.]