Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/78

 56 THE DECLINE AND FALL defend." Without the hope of reUef, the defence of Sirmium was prolonged above three years ; the walls were still untouched ; [AD. 581] but famine was inclosed within the walls, till a merciful capitu- lation allowed the escape of the naked and hungry inhabitants. Singidunum, at the distance of fiftj^ miles, experienced a more cruel fate : the buildings were rased, and the vanquished people was condemned to servitude and exile. ^" Yet the ruins of Sir- mium are no longer visible ; the advantageous situation of Singidunum soon attracted a new colony of Sclavonians ; and the conflux of the Save and Danube is still guarded by the fortifications of Belgrade, or the While (aIi/, so often and so obstinately disputed by the Christian and Turkish arms.^^ From Belgrade to the walls of Constantinople a line may be measured of six hundred miles : that line was marked with flames and with blood ; the horses of the Avars were alternately bathed in the Euxine and the Adriatic ; and the Roman pontiff, alarmed by the approach of a more savage enemy, •'•' was reduced to cherish the Lombards as the protectors of Italy. The despair of a captive, whom his country refused to ransom, disclosed to the Avars the invention and practice of military engines ; ***^ but in the first attempts they were rudely framed and awkwardly managed ; and the resistance of Diocletianopolis and Beroea, of [A.D. B87] Philippopolis and Hadrianople, soon exhausted the skill and patience of the besiegers. The warfare of Baian was that of a Tartar, yet his mind was susceptible of a humane and generous sentiment ; he spared Anchialus, whose salutary waters had restored the health of the best beloved of his wives ; and the Romans confess that their starving army was fed and dismissed by the liberality of a foe. His empire extended over Hungary, Poland, and Prussia, from the mouth of the Danube to that of the Oder ; 'i and his new subjects were divided and transplanted •'" [We find tlie chagan again attacking it in A.D. 591.] •* See d'Anville, in the Memoires de I'Acad. des Inscriptions, torn, xxviii. p. 412-443. The Sclavonic name of Belgrade is mentioned in the .xth century by Constantine Porphyrogenitus ; the Latin appellation of Alba Grceca is used by the Franks in the beginning of the ixth (p. 414). '^ Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.D. 600. No. i. Paul Warnefrid (1. iv. c. 38) relates their irruption into Friuli, and (c. 39), the captivity of his ancestors, about .'.D. 632. The Sclavi traversed the Adriatic cum multitudine navium, and made a descent in the territory of Sipontum (c. 47). ■*" Even the helepolis, or moveable turret. Theophylact, 1. ii. 16, 17. ^1 The arms and alliances of the chagan reached to the neighbourhood of a western sea, fifteen months' journey from Constantinople. The emperor Maurice conversed with some itinerant harpers from that remote country, and only seems to have mistaken a trade for a nation. Theophylact, 1. vi. c, 2. fOii c.xtcpt of Avar empire, cp. Appendix 2,]