Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/79

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 59 a stable ; the pulpit was delivered to the flames ; many rich crosses of gold and gems, the spoils of Asiatic churches, were made a grateful offering to the piety or avarice of the em- peror ; and he transported the gates of Mopsuestia and Tarsus, which were fixed in the wall of Constantinople, an eternal monu- ment of his victory. After they had forced and secured the invasion of narrow passes of mount Amanus, the two Roman princes re- peatedly carried their arms into the heart of Syria. Yet, instead of assaulting the walls of Antioch, the humanity or superstition of Nicephorus appeared to respect the ancient metropolis of the East: he contented himself with drawing round the city a line [A.d. $68] of circumvallation ; left a stationary army ; and instructed his lieutenant to expect, without impatience, the return of spring. But in the depth of winter, in a dark and rainy night, an adventur- ous subaltern, with three hundred soldiers, approached the ram- part, applied his scaling-ladders, occupied two adjacent towers, stood firm against the pressure of multitudes, and bravely main- tained his post till he was relieved by the tardy, though effectual, support of his reluctant chief. The first tumult of slaughter and Recovery of rapine subsided ; the reign of Caesar and of Christ was restored ; [a d. %'9] and the efforts of an hundred thousand Saracens, of the armies of Syria and the fleets of Afric, were consumed without effect before the walls of Antioch. The royal city of Aleppo was sub- ject to Seifeddowlat, of the dynasty of Hamadan, who clouded [Sayf ad- his past glory by the precipitate retreat which abandoned his 844-67] kingdom and capital to the Roman invaders. In his statelj' palace, that stood without the walls of Aleppo, they joyfully seized a well-furnished magazine of arms, a stable of fourteen hundred mules, and three hundred bags of silver and gold. But the walls of the city withstood the strokes of their battering- rams ; and the besiegers pitched their tents on the neighbouring mountain of Jaushan. Their retreat exasperated the quarrel of the townsmen and mercenaries ; the guard of the gates and ram- parts was deserted ; and, while they furiously charged each other in the market-place, they were surprised and destroyed by the sword of a common enemy. The male sex was exterminated by the sword ; ten thousand youths were led into captivity ; the weight of the precious spoil exceeded the strength and number of the beasts of burthen ; the superfluous remainder was burnt ; and, after a licentious possession often days, the Romans marched away from the naked and bleeding city. In their Syrian inroads they commanded the husbandmen to cultivate their lands, that they themselves, in the ensuing season, might reap the. benefit :