Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/80

 60 THE DECLINE AND FALL more than an hundred cities were reduced to obedience ; and eighteen pulpits of the principal mosques were committed to the flames, to expiate the sacrilege of the disciples of Mahomet. The classic names of Hierapolis, Apamea, and Emesa^ revive for a moment in the list of conquest : the emperor Zimisces en- camped in the Paradise of Damascus, and accepted the ransom of a submissive people ; and the torrent was only stopped by the impregnable fortress of Tripoli, on the sea-coast of Phoenicia. Passage of Since the days of Heraclius, the Euphrates, below the passage r»te^°^[A.D. of uiount Taurus, had been impervious, and almost invisible, to ^*^ the Greeks. The river yielded a free passage to the victorious Zimisces ; and the historian may imitate the speed with which he overran the once famous cities of Samosata, Edessa, Mar- tyropolis, Amida,^^° and Nisibis, the ancient limit of the empire in the neighbourhood of the Tigris. His ardour was quickened bv the desire of grasping the virgin treasures of Ecbatana,^*^ a well-known name, under which the Byzantine writer has concealed the capital of the Abbassides. The consternation of the fugitives had already diffused the terror of his name ; but the fancied riches of Bagdad had already been dissipated by the Eanger of avaricc and prodigality of domestic tyrants. The prayers of the people, and the stern demands of the lieutenant of the Bowides, required the caliph to provide for the defence of the city. The helpless Mothi replied that his arms, his revenues, and his pro- vinces had been torn from his hands, and that he was ready to abdicate a dignity which he was unable to support. The emir was inexorable ; the furniture of the palace Mas sold ; and the paltry price of forty thousand pieces of gold was instantly con- sumed in private luxury. But the apprehensions of Bagdad were relieved by the retreat of the Greeks ; thirst and hunger guarded the desert of Mesopotamia ; and the emperor, satiated ^■'•'The text of Leo the deacon, in the corrupt names of Enieta ['E^fr, p. i6i, 1. 19, ed. Bonn] and Myctarsim, reveals the cities of Amida and JVIartyropolis (Mia- farekin [Mit-Joip/ci^i, ih. 1. 21]. See Abulfeda, Geograph. p. 345, rers. Reiske). Of the former, Leo observes, urbs munita et illustris ; of the latter, clara atque conspicua opibusque et pecore, reliquis ejus provinciis [^leg. provinciae] urbibus atque oppidis longe praestans. i-*! Ut et Ecbatana pergeret Agarenorumque regiam everteret. . . aiunt enim urbium quje usquam sunt ac toto orbe existunt felicissimam esse auroque ditissi- mam (Leo Diacon. apud Pagium, torn. iv. p. 34 [p. 163, ed. Bonn]). This splendid description suits only with Bagdad, and cannot possibly apply either to Hamada, the true Ecbatana (d'Anville, Geog. .^ncienne, torn. ii. p. 237), orTauris, which has been commonly mistaken for that city. The name of Ecbatana, in the same indefinite sense, is transterred by a more classic authority (Cicero pro Lege Manilla, c. 4) to the royal seat of Mithridates, king of Pontus,