Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/258

 236 THE DECLINE AND FALL events ; and the bravery of the Macedonian legions renewed Reign of Alp the fame of the conqueror of Asia.-^ The name of Alp Arslan, 10S3 1072 ■ ' the valiant lion, is expressive of the popular idea of the perfec- tion of man ; and the successor of Togrul displayed the fierceness and generosit)^ of the royal animal. He passed the Euphrates at the head of the Turkish cavalry, and entered Caesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, to which he had been attracted by the fame and wealth of the temple of St. Basil. The solid structure resisted the destroyer ; but he carried away the doors of the shrine incrusted with gold and pearls, and profaned the relics of the tutelar saint, whose mortal frailties were now coniiuestof covcrcd by the venerable rust of antiquity. The final conquest Georgfa.* a!d. of Armenia and Georgia was achieved by Alp Arslan. In Ar- menia, the title of a kingdom and the spirit of a nation -^^ were annihilated ; the artificial fortifications were yielded by the mercenaries of Constantinople ; by strangers without faith, vete- rans without pay or arms, and recruits without experience or discipline. The loss of this important frontier was the news of a day ; and the Catholics were neither surprised nor displeased that a people so deeply infected with the Nestorian and Euty- chian errors had been delivered by Christ and his mother into the hands of the infidels."^^ The woods and valleys of mount Caucasus were more strenuously defended by the native Geor- gians -^^ or Iberians : but the Turkish sultan and his son Malek ^ Ei^epeTO yap tv TuvpKOis A6yo9, (U? sir) -ncnpMfiei'oi' (caraoTpai^TJi'ac to Toup(C(or yei'os aiTO Tij9 T0tav7»)9 5vi'a/^tuJ9, bTToiai- 6 MaKeJiui' *AAe^ar5po? e'wr Kartcrrpe'i^aTO Heptras. Cedienus, torn. ii. p. 791 [ii. p. 6ii, ed. B.]. The credulity of the vulgar is always probable ; and the Turks had learned from the Arabs the history or legend of Escander Dulcarnein (d'Herbelot, p. 317, i&c. ). 30 [And the culture. Ani which had passed under the dominion of the Empire in 1046 was captured by Alp Arslan in 1064 (July 6). Kars was then ceded by its trembling prince to the Empire in exchange for Camendav in the mountains of Cilicia ; but it had hardly been occupied by the Imperialists before it was taken by the Turks. ] •* Ot Ka'i ['^- T^/yJ 'I^ijpcav Kal MeTO" ora/xt'ar /cat 'Ap^ei-tai' oiicor'crtr' L^^^. icoii MeaoTTOrafxtat' M^'xP^ jXvKavSov Kal MeAfnyvri? Kai ri^v rrapaKSt.fisi'rti' oIkovclv 'Apfisfiavj Koi ot rrjv *Iov5atKT]r rou NcOToptOV Kai rtoi' 'AK^dwi' 6p-qaKevov(TLV aipco'ii' {ocylltzeS, ad calcem Cedreni, torn. ii. p. 834 [ii. p. 687, ed. B.], whose ambiguous construction! shall not tempt me to suspect that he confounded the Nestorian and Monophysite heresies). He familiarly talks of the p.T)i't?, x<''<'?> opyv. ®eov, qualities, as I should apprehend, very foreign to the perfect Being ; but his bigotry is forced to confess that they were soon afterwards dischai-ged on the orthodox Romans. '2 Had the name of Georgians been known to the Greeks (Stritter, Memorijje j Bvzant. torn. iv. Iberica), I should derive it from their agriculture, as theSKiiflatj yeiooyoi of Herodotus (1. iv. c. 18, p. 289, edit. 'osseling). But it appears only since the crusades, among the Latins (Jac. a Vitriaco, Hist. Hierosol. c. 79, p. 1095) and Orientals (d'Herbelot, p. 407), and was devoutly borrowed from St. George of Cappadocia.