Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/271

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 249 Bn-ennius and Botoniates distinguish the European and Asiatic candidates. Their reasons, or rather their promises, were weighed in the divan ; and, after some hesitation, Soliman de- clared himself in favour of Botoniates, opened a free passage to his troops in their march from Antioch to Nice, and joined the banner of the crescent to that of the cross. After his ally had ascended the throne of Constantinople, the sultan was hospitably entertained in the suburb of Chrysopolis or Scutari ; and a body of two thousand Turks was transported into Europe, to whose dexterity and courage the new emperor was indebted for the defeat and captivity of his rival Bryennius. But the conquest of Europe was dearly purchased by the sacrifice of Asia : Con- stantinople was deprived of the obedience and revenue of the provinces beyond the Bosphorus and Hellespont ; and the regular progress of the Turks, who fortified the passes of the rivers and mountains, left not a hope of their retreat or expulsion. Another candidate implored the aid of the sultan : ^^ Melissenus, [^d- iots] in his purple robes and red buskins, attended the motions of the Turkish camp ; and the desponding cities were tempted by the summons of a Roman prince, who immediately surrendered them into the hands of the barbarians. These acquisitions were [ad. loa] confirmed by a treaty of peace with the empei-or Alexius ; his fear of Robert compelled him to seek the friendship of Soliman ; and it was not till after the sultan's death that he extended as far as Nicomedia, about sixty miles from Constantinople, the eastern boundary of the Roman world. Trebizond alone, de- fended on either side by the sea and mountains, preserved at the extremity of the Euxine the ancient character of a Greek colony, and the future destiny of a Christian empire. Since the first conquests of the caliphs, the establishment of The seiinkian the Turks in Anatolia, or Asia Minor, was the most deplorable rJS^"™ °^ loss which the church and empire had sustained. By the propa- gation of the Moslem faith, Soliman deserved the name of Gazi, a holy champion ; and his new kingdom of the Romans, or of Roum, was added to the tables of Oriental geography. It is de- scribed as extending from the Euphrates to Constantinople, from the Black Sea to the confines of Syria ; pregnant with mines of silver and iron, of alum and copper, fruitful in corn and wine, and productive of cattle and excellent horses.*' The wealth of Lydia, ^ [It was Melissenus who yielded Nicaea to Sulaiman.] '8 Such is the description of Roum by Haiton the Armenian, whose Tartar history may be found in the collections of Ramusio and Bergeron [and in L. de Backer's L'extrCme orient au moyen age, p. 125 sqq. 1877] (see Abulfeda, Geograph. climat. xvii. p. 301-305 [and P. Paris, in Hist, litt^raire de France, t. 25, p. 479 sgq. 1869]).