Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/139

 OF THE ROMAN EMl^lKE 119 people, and the neighbouring hills were covered with tlie Paulician fugitives, who now reconciled the use of the Bible and the sword. During more than thirty years, Asia was afflicted by the calamities of foreign and domestic war ; in their iiostile inroads tiie disciples of St. Paul were joined with those of Mahomet ; antl the peaceful Christians, the aged parent and tender virgin, who were delivered into barbarous servitude, might justly accuse the intolerant spirit of their sovereign. So urgent was the mischief, so intolerable the shame, that even the dissolute Michael, the son of Theodora, was compelled to march in person against the Paulicians : he was defeated under the walls of Samosata ; and the Roman emperor Hed before the hei'etics whom his mother had condemned to the Hames.'-^ The Saracens fought under the same banners, but the victory was ascribed to Carbeas ; and the captive generals, with moi-e than an hundred tribunes, were either released by his avarice or tortured by his fanaticism. The valour and ambition of Chry- socheir,-'' his successor, embraced a wider circle of rapine and revenge. In alliance with his faithful Moslems, he boldly pene- trated into the heart of Asia ; the troops of the frontier and the palace were repeatedly overthrown ; the edicts of perse- cution were answered by the pillage of Nice and Nicomedia, of Ancyra and Ephesus ; nor could the apostle St. John protect ana pnia^e from violation his city and sepulchre. The cathedral of Ephesus ^^*^"'*" was turned into a stable for mules and horses ; and the Pauli- cians vied with the Saracens in their contempt and abhorrence ol' images and relics. It is not unpleasing to observe the triumph of rebellion over the same despotism which has dis- dained the prayers of an injured people. The emperor Basil, the Macedonian, was reduced to sue for peace, to oifer a ransom for the captives, and to request, in the language of moderation and charity, that Chrysocheir would spare his fellow-Christians, Anderson (Journal of Hell. Studies, xvii. p. 27, 1897) ; and he places Amara (or Abara) on a high pass on the road from Sebaslea to Lycandus, nearly due south of Sebastea. Tephrice lay fci.E. from Sebastea on the road from that city to Satala. " The secluded position of Divreky made it the seat of an almost independent band of Kurds, when it was visited by Otter in 1743. Voyage en Turquieet en Perse, ii. 306." Finlay, ii. p. 169, note. See further, for the site, Mr. Guy Le Strange in Journ. R. Asiat. Soc. vol. 28 (1896). The Arabic name was Abrlk.] '•'■'[For this expedition see Iheoph. Contin. iv. c. 23.] ^ In the history of Chrysocheir, Genesius (Chron. p. 67-70. edit. Venet. ^leg. 57- Oo, p. 121 sqq., ed. Bonn]) has exposed the nakedness of the empire. Constantine Porphyrogenitus (m Vit. Uasil. c. 37-43, p. 166-171) has displayed the glory of his grandfatlier. Cedrenu.s (p. 570-573 [ii. p. logsi/q., ed. B.]) is without their passions or their knowledge.