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 36 THE DECLINE AND FALL miles, and the inclemency of the season, encoura<Ted his adversary to violate the peace. Nicephorus was astonished by the bold and [A.D. 803] rapid march of the commander of the faithful, who repassed, in the depth of winter, the snows of mount Taurus : his strataf^ems of policv and war were exhausted ; and the perfidious Greek escaped with three wounds from a field of battle overspread with forty thousand of his subjects.^'' Yet the emperor was ashamed of submission, and the caliph was resolved on victory. One hun- dred and thirty-five thousand regular soldiers received pay, and were inscribed in the military roll ; and above three hundred thousand persons of every denomination marched under the black standard of the Abbassides. They swept the surface of Asia Minor far beyond Tyana and Ancyra, and invested the Pontic Heraclea,^^ once a flourishing state, now a paltry town ; at that time capable of sustaining in her antique walls a month's [A.D. 806] siege against the forces of the East. The ruin was complete, the spoil was ample ; but, if Harun had been conversant with Grecian story, he would have regretted the statue of Hercules, whose attributes, the club, the bow, the quiver, and the lion's hide, were sculptured in massy gold. The progress of desolation by sea and land, from the Euxine to the isle of Cyprus, compelled the emperor Nicephorus to retract his haughty defiance. In the nevr treaty, the ruins of Heraclea Avere left for ever as a lesson and a trophy ; and the coin of the tribute was marked with the image and superscription of Harun and his three sons.^^ Yet this plurality of lords might contribute to remove the dishonour of the Roman name. After the death of their father, the heirs of the caliph were involved in civil discord, and the conqueror, '"[Ace. to Arabic authorities Harun himself invaded Asia Minor twice in A.D. 803. The first time he appeared before Heraclea and the promise of tribute in- duced him to retreat ; but the tribute was not paid and he repassed the Taurus at the end of the year to exact it. The battle in which 40.000 Greeks are said to have fallen was fought in the following year, A.D. 804, but Harun's general, Jabril, led the invaders. Heraclea was not taken till a subsequent campaign, A.D. 806. Cp. Weil, op. cit., ii. p. 159-60. Tabari, ed. de Goeje, iii. 695-8.] 81 M. de Tournefort, in his coasting voyage from Constantinople to Trebizond, passed a night at Heraclea or Eregri. His eye surveyed the present state, his reading collected the antiquities of the city (Voyage du Levant, torn. iii. lettre xy. p. 23-35). We have a separate history of Heraclea in the fragments of Memnon, which are preserved by Photius. ^2 The wars of Harun al Rashid agamst the Roman empire are related by Theophanes (p. 384, 385, 391, 396, 407, 408 [sub A.M. 6274, 6281, 6287, 6298, 6300]), Zonaras (torn. ii. 1. xv. p. 115, 124 [c. 10 and c. 15]), Cedrenus (p. 477, 478 [ii. p. 34, ed. Bonn]), Eutychius (. nal. torn. ii. p. 407), Elmacin (Hist. Saracen, p. 136, 151, 152), Abulpharagius (Dynast, p. 147, 151), and Abulfeda (p. 156, 166- 168). [Add Tabari, ed. cit., 701, 708-10 (a.h. 187-190). See Weil, op. cit., ii. p. 155 •f?4'-]