Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/261

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 239 On the i-eport of this bold invasion, which threatened his Defeat of the hereditary dominions. Alp Arslan flew to the scene of action at 1071, August ' the head of forty thousand horse. ^^ His rapid and skilful evolu- tions distressed and dismayed the superior numbers of the Greeks ; [Battle of and in the defeat of Basilacius, one of their principal generals, he displayed the first example of his valour and clemency. The imprudence of the emperor had separated his forces after the reduction of Malazkerd. It was in vain that he attempted to recal the mercenary Franks : they refused to obey his summons ; he disdained to await their return ; the desertion of the Uzi filled his mind with anxiety and suspicion ; and against the most salutary advice he rushed forward to speedy and decisive action. Had he listened to the fair proposals of the sultan, Romanus might have secured a retreat, perhaps a peace ; but in these overtures he supposed the fear or weakness of the enemy, and his answer was conceived in the tone of insult and defiance. " If the barbarian wishes for peace, let him evacuate the ground which he occupies for the encampment of the Romans, and sur- render his city and palace of Rei as a pledge of his sincerity." Alp Arslan smiled at the vanity of the demand, but he wept the death of so many faithful Moslems ; and, after a devout prayer, proclaimed a free permission to all who were desirous of retiring from the field. With his o^vn hands he tied up his horse's tail, exchanged his bow and arrow for a mace and scymetar, clothed himself in a white garment, perfumed his body with musk, and declared that, if he were vanquished, that spot should be the place of his burial. -^^ The sultan himself had affected to cast away his missile weapons ; but his hopes of victor}' were placed in the arrows of the Turkish cavalry, whose squadrons were loosely distributed in the form of a crescent. Instead of the successive lines and reserves of the Grecian tactics, Romanus led his army in a single and solid phalanx, and pressed with vigour ^ Elmacin (p. 343, 344) assigns this probable number, which is reduced by Abulpharagius to 15,000 (p. 227) and by d'Herbelot (p. 102) to 12,000 horse. But the same Elmacin gives 300,000 men to the emperor, of whom Abulpharagius says, cum centum hominum millibus, multisque equis et magna pompil instructus. The Greeks abstain from any definition of numbers. TThe Byzantine army was not prepared to cope with the extraordinarily rapid motions of the Turks ; Gibbon brings this point out. But it should be added that the army in any case was in- clined to be insubordinate, and Romanus had difficulty in handling it. Moreover there was treachery in his camp. There seems no doubt however that he fought the battle rashly. Cp. Finlay, iii. 33 ; and C. W. Oman, Hist, of the Art of War, vol. 2, p. 217-19.] ^The Byzantine writers do not speak so distinctly of the presence of the sultan; he committed his forces to an eunuch, had retired to a distance, &c. Is it ignor- ance, or jealousy, or truth?