Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/259

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 237 were indefatigable in this holy -war ; their captives were com- pelled to promise a spiritual as well as temporal obedience ; and, instead of their collars and bracelets, an iron horse-shoe, a badge of ignominy, was imposed on the infidels who still ad- hered to the worship of their fathers. The change, however, was not sincere or universal ; and, through ages of servitude, the Georgians have maintained the succession of their princes and bishops. But a race of men, whom nature has cast in her most perfect mould, is degraded by poverty, ignorance, and vice ; their profession, and still more their practice, of Chris- tianity is an empty name ; and, if they have emerged from heresy, it is only because they are too illiterate to remember a metaphysical creed.^'^ The false or genuine magnanimity of Mahmud the Gaznevide The empsror was not imitated by Alp Arslan ; and he attacked, without scruple, seues. a.d. " 1068-107 the Greek empress Eudocia and her children. His alarming progress compelled her to give herself and her sceptre to the hand of a soldier ; and Romanus Diogenes was invested with the Imperial purple. His patriotism, and perhaps his pride, [ist cam- urged him from Constantinople within two months after hisio68;2nd accession ; and the next campaign he most scandalously took a.d. msj the field during the holy festival of Easter. In the palace, Diogenes was no more than the husband of Eudocia ; in the camp, he was the emperor of the Romans, and he sustained that character with feeble resources and invincible courage. By his spirit and success, the soldiers were taught to act, the subjects to hope, and the enemies to fear. The Turks had penetrated into the heart of Phrygia ; but the sultan himself had resigned to his emirs the prosecution of the war ; and their numerous detachments were scattered over Asia in the security of conquest. Laden with spoil and careless of discipline, they were separately surprised and defeated by the Greeks ; the ac- tivity 'of the emperor seemed to multiply his presence; and, while they heard of his expedition to Antioch, the enemy felt his sword on the hills of Trebizond. In three laborious cam- paigns, the Turks Avere driven beyond the Euphrates ; ^^ in the '^Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 632. See in Chardin's Travels (torn. i. p. 171-175) the manners and religion of this handsome but worthless nation. See the pedigree of their princes from Adam to the present centur}', in the Tables of M. dc Guignes (torn. i. p. 433-438). •''^ [In the first two campaigns Romanus led the army himself. For the geo- graphy of these military operations see Mr. J. G. C. Anderson's paper in Journal of Hellenic Studies, xvii. p. 36-39 (1897). In the third campaign (a.d. 1070) Manuel Comnenus was entrusted with the command.]