Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/270

 248 THE DECLINE AND FALL Asia. After the death of Malek^ the bands of union and sub- ordination were relaxed and finally dissolved ; the indulgence of the house of Seljuk invested their slaves with the inheritance of kingdoms ; and, in the Oriental style, a crowd of princes arose from the dust of their feet.^^ AsSino/b ^ prince of the royal line, Cutulmish, the son of Izrail, the AD^:^^io84 ^^^ Seljuk, had fallen in a battle against Alp Arslan ; and the humane victor had dropped a tear over his grave. His five sons, strong in arms, ambitious of power, and eager for revenge, un- sheathed their scymetars against the son of Alp Arslan. The two armies expected the signal, when the caliph, forgetful of the majesty which secluded him from vulgar eyes, interposed his venerable mediation. " Instead of shedding the blood of your brethren, your brethren both in descent and faith, unite your forces in an holy war against the Greeks, the enemies of God and his apostle." They listened to his voice ; the sultan embraced his rebellious kinsmen ; and the eldest, the valiant Soliman, accepted the royal standard, which gave him the free conquest and hereditary command of the provinces of the Roman empire, from Arzeroum to Constantinople and the unknown regions of the West.^" Accompanied by his four brothers, he passed the Euphrates : the Turkish camp was soon seated in the [Cotyaeum] neighbourhood of Kutaieh, in Phrygia ; and his flying cavalry laid waste the country as far as the Hellespont and the Black Sea. Since the decline of the empire, the peninsula of Asia Minor had been exposed to the transient though destructive inroads of the Persians and Saracens ; but the fruits of a lasting conquest were reserved for the Turkish sultan ; and his arms were introduced by the Greeks, who aspired to reign on the ruins of their country. Since the captivity of Romanus, six years the feeble son of Eudocia had trembled under the weight of the Imperial crown, till the provinces of the East and West [AD. 1078] were lost in the same month by a double rebellion : of either chief Nicephorus was the common name ; but the surnames of ^8 This expression is quoted by Petit de la Croix (Vie de Gengiscan, p. i6i) from some poet, most probably a Persian. [The slaves who were to conduct the affairs of the Seljuk princes generally became the governors or regents, atabegs, for their sons or heirs, and thus got the supreme power into their hands.] ^"^ On the conquest of Asia Minor, M. de Guignes has derived no assistance from the Turkish or Arabian writers, who produce a naked list of the Seljukides of Roum. The Greeks are unwilling to expose their shame, and we must extort some hints from Scylitzes (p. 86o, 863 [p. 731, 736, ed. B.]), Nicephorus Bryennius (p. 88, 91, 92, &c. 103, 104 [p. 130, p. 136, 137, p. 158 sqq. cd. B.]), and Anna Comnena (Alexias, p. 91, 92, &c. [iii. c, 9], 168, &c, [vi. c. 9]) [and the History of Michael Attaleiatesj,