Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/257

 OF THE EOMAN E:IPIEE 235 by the marriage of Togrul's sister with the successor of the pro- phet. Without reluctance he had introduced a Turkish virgin into his harem ; but Cayem proudly refused his daughter to the sultan^ disdained to mingle the blood of the Hashemites with the blood of a Scythian shepherd ; and protracted the negotiation many months, till the gradual diminution of his revenue admon- ished him that he was still in the hands of a master. The royal nuptials were followed bv the death of Togrrul himself;-" as he ani death. ^ o -^ A.D. 1083 left no children, his nephew Alp Arslan succeeded to the title and prerogatives of sultan ; and his name, after that of the caliph, was pronounced in the public prayers of the Moslems. Yet in this revolution the Abbassides acquired a larger measure of liberty and power. On the throne of Asia, the Turkish monarchs were less jealous of the domestic administration of Bagdad ; and the commanders of the faithful were relieved from the ignominious vexations to which they had been exposed by the presence and poverty of the Persian dynasty. Since the fall of the caliphs, the discord and degeneracy of The Turks in- ^ •^ vade the the Saracens respected the Asiatic provinces of Rome; which, fioman em- pire A D 1050 by the victories of Nicephorus, Zimisces, and Basil, had been extended as far as Antioch and the eastern boundaries of Ar- menia. Twenty-five years after the death of Basil, his successors were suddenly assaulted bv an unknowai race of barbarians, who united the Scythian valour with the fanaticism of new proselytes and the art and riches of a powerful monarchy.-^ The myriads of Turkish horse overspread a frontier of six hundred miles from Taurus to Arzeroum, and the blood of one hundred and thirty thousand Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the Arabian prophet. Yet the arms of Togrul did not make any deep or lasting impression on the Greek empire. The torrent rolled away from the open country ; the sultan retired without glory or success from the siege of an Armenian city ; the obscure hostilities were continued or suspended with a vicissitude of 2^ Eodem anno (a.h. 455) obiit princeps Togrulbecus. . . rex fuit clemens, prudens, et peritus regnandi, cujus terror corda niortalium invaserat, ita ut obedir- ent ei reges atque ad ipsum scriberent. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen, p. 342, vers. Er- penii. ^ For these wars of the Turks and Romans, see in general the Byzantine histories of Zonaras and Cedrenus, Scylitzes the continuator of Cedrenus, and Nicephorus Bryennius Caesar. The two first of these were monks, the two latter statesmen ; yet such were the Greeks that the difference of style and character is scarcely dis- cernible. For the Orientals, I draw as usual on the wealth of d'Herbelot (see titles of the first Seljukides) and the accuracy of de Guignes (Hist, des Huns, torn, iii. 1. X.).