Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/44

 fAl 24 THE DECLINE AND FALL his wars and buildings, Almansor left behind him in gold and silver about thirty millions sterling; ^ and this treasure was exliausted in a few years by the vices or virtues of his children. AiMiiidi] j^ig gQj^ Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of dinars of gold. A pious and charitable motive may sanctify the foundation of cisterns and caravanseras, which he distributed along a measured road of seven hundred miles ; but his train of camels, laden with snow, could serve only to astonish the natives of Arabia, and to refresh the fi-uits and liquors of the royal banquet. ^^ The courtiers would surely praise the liberality of his ffrandson Almamon. who ffave awav four-fifths of the in- come of a province, a sum of two milhons four hundred thousand gold dinars, before he di-ew his foot from the stirrup. At the nuptials of the same prince, a thousand pearls of the largest size were showered on the head of the bride/^^ and a lottery' of lands and houses displayed the capricious bounty of fortune. The glories of the court were brightened rather than impaired in the decline of the empire ; and a Greek ambassador might admire nktadiri ^^ V^^} *^^^ magnificence of the feeble Moctader. " The caliph's whole army," says the historian Abulfeda, " both horse and foot, was under arms, Avhich together made a bod}" of one hundred and sixty thousand men. His state-officers, the favourite slaves, stood near him in splendid apparel, their belts glittering with gold and gems. Near them were seven thousand eunuchs, four thousand of them Avhite, the remainder black. The porters or door-keepers were in number seven hundred. Barges and boats, with the most superb decorations, were seen swimming upon the Tigris. Nor was the palace itself less splendid, in v.hich were hung u]) thirty-eight thousand pieces of tapestry, twelve thou- sand five hundred of which were of silk embroidered with gold. The carpets on the floor were twenty-two thousand. An hun- ^ Reliquit in rcrario sexcenties millies mille stateres, et quater et vicies millies mille aureos aurcos. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen, p. 126. I have reckoned the gold pieces at eight shillings, and the proportion to the silver as twelve to one. [But see Appendix 2.] But I wU never answer for the numbers of Erpenius ; and the Latins are scarcelj' above the savages in the language of arithmetic. ^ D'Herbelot, p. 530. Abulfeda, p. 154. Nivem Meccam apportavit, rem ibi aut nunquam aut rarissirae visam. Milton has alluded to this Oriental custom : — — Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand. Showers on her kings Barbaric pearls and gold. r have used the modern word lottery to express the Missilia oi the Roman em- jjerors, which entitled to some prize the person who caught them, as they were thrown among the crowd.
 * • Abulfeda, p. 184, 189, describes the splendour and liberality of .Almamon.