LI. his honourable wounds. The capital of Syria CHAP. was still covered by the castle of Aazaz and the iron bridge of the Orontes. After the loss of those important posts, and the defeat of the last of the Roman armies, the luxury of Antioch trembled and obeyed. Her safety was ransomed with three hundred thousand pieces of gold; but the throne of the successors of Alexander, the seat of the Roman government in the East, which had been decorated by Caesar with the titles of free, and holy, and inviolate, was degraded under the yoke of the caliphs to the secondary rank of a provin cial town.' Heraclius In the life of Heraclius, the glories of the Per- Flight of sian war are clouded on either hand by the dis- A. D. 638. grace and weakness of his more early and his later days. When the successors of Mahomet unsheathed the sword of war and religion, he was astonished at the boundless prospect of toil and danger; his nature was indolent nor could the infirm and frigid age of the emperor be kindled The date of the conquest of Antioch by the Arabs is of some importance. By comparing the years of the world in the chronography of Theophanes with the years of the Hegira in the history of Elmacin, we shall determine, that it was taken between January 23 and September 1 of the year of Christ 638, (Pagi, Critica, in Baron. Annal. tom. ii, p. 812, 813). Al Wakidi (Ockley, vol. 1, p. 314) assigns that event to Tuesday, August 31, an inconsistent date; since Easter fell that year on April 5, the 21st of August must have been a Friday, (see the Tables of the Art de Verifier les Dates). His bounteous edict, which tempted the grateful city to assume the victory of Pharsalia for a perpetual era, is given ev AITIOXEITH μητροπολεί, στα ειρα ασυλῳ και αυτονομῳ, και αρχιση και προκαθεμενη της αγά πολης. John Malala, in Chron. p. 91, edit. Venet. We may distinguish his authentic information of domestic facts from his gross ignorance of general history LI. CHAP. to a second effort. The sense of shame, and the importunities of the Syrians, prevented his hasty departure from the scene of action; but the hero was no more; and the loss of Damascus and Jerusalem, the bloody field of Aiznadin and Yermuk, may be imputed in some degree to the absence or misconduct of the sovereign. Instead of defending the sepulchre of Christ, he involved the church and state in a metaphysical controversy for the unity of his will; and while Heraclius crowned the offspring of his second nuptials he was tamely stripped of the most valuable part of their inheritance. In the cathedral of Antioch, in the presence of the bishops, at the foot of the crucifix, he bewailed the sins of the prince and people; but his confession instructed the world, that it was vain, and perhaps impious, to resist the judgment of God. The Saracens were invincible in fact, since they were invincible in opinion; and the desertion of Youkinna, his false repentance and repeated perfidy, might justify the suspicion of the emperor, that he was encompassed by traitors and apostates, who conspired to betray his person and their country to the enemies of Christ. In the hour of adversity, his superstition was agitated by the omens and dreams of a falling crown; and after bidding an eternal farewel to Syria, he secretly embarked with a few attendants, and absolved the faith of his subjects. Constantine, his eldest son, had 'See Ockley, (vol. i, p. 308, 312), who laughs at the credulity of his author. When Heraclius bade farewel to Syria, Vale Syria et ulti mum LI. been stationed wih forty thousand men at Cæsa- CHAP rea, the civil metropolis of the three provinces of Palestine. But his private interest recalled him to the Byzantine court; and, after the flight of his father, he felt himself an unequal champion to the united force of the caliph. His vanguard was boldly attacked by three hundred Arabs and a thousand black slaves, who, in the depth of winter, had climbed the snowy mountains of Libanus, and who were speedily followed by the victorious squadrons of Caled himself. From the north and south the troops of Antioch and Jerusalem advanced along the sea-shore, till their banners were joined under the walls of the Phoenician cities: Tripoli and Tyre were betrayed; and a fleet of End of the fifty transports, which entered without distrust Syrian war the captive harbours, brought a seasonable supply of arms and provisions to the camp of the Saracens. Their labours were terminated by the unexpected surrender of Cæsarea: The Roman prince had embarked in the night ;" and the defenceless citizens solicited their pardon with an offering of two hundred thousand pieces of gold. The remainder of the province, Ram mum vale, he prophesied that the Romans should never re-enter the province till the birth of an inauspicious child, the future scourge of the empire. Abulfeda, p. 68. I am perfectly ignorant of the mystic sense, or nonsense, of this prediction. u In the loose and obscure chronology of the times, I am guided by an authentic record, (in the book of ceremonies of Constantine Porphyrogenitus), which certifies that June 4, A. D. 638, the emperor crowned his younger son Heraclius in the presence of his eldest Constantine, and in the palace of Constantinople; that January 1, A. D. 639, the royal procession visited the great churcy, and on the fourth of the same month, the hippodrome. LI. CHAP. lah, Ptolemais or Achre, Sichem or Neapolis, Gaza, Ascalon, Berytus, Sidon, Gabala, Laodicea, Apamea, Hierapolis, no longer presumed to dispute the will of the conqueror; and Syria bowed under the sceptre of the caliphs seven hundred years after Pompey had despoiled the last of the Macedonian kings.* The conquerors of 639. 66 The sieges and battles of six campaigns had Syria, consumed many thousands of the Moslems. A. D. 633- They died with the reputation and the cheerfulness of martyrs; and the simplicity of their faith may be expressed in the words of an Arabian youth, when he embraced, for the last time, his sister and mother. "It is not," said he," the delicacies of Syria, or the fading delights of this world, that have prompted me "to devote my life in the cause of religion. "But I seek the favour of God and his apostle; " and I have heard, from one of the companions "of the prophet, that the spirits of the martyrs "will be lodged in the crops of green birds, "who shall taste the fruits, and drink of the "rivers, of paradise. Farewel, we shall meet again among the groves and fountains which "God has provided for his elect." The faithful captives might exercise a passive and more arduous resolution; and a cousin of Mahomet is celebrated for refusing, after an abstinence of three days, the wine and pork, the only nou * Sixty-five years before Christ, Syria Pontusque monumenta sunt Cn. Pompeii virtutis, (Vell. Patercul. ii, 38), rather of his fortune and power: he adjudged Syria to be a Roman province, and the last of the Seleucides were incapable of drawing a sword in the defence of their patrimony, (see the original texts collected by Usher, Annal p. LI rishment that was allowed by the malice of the CHAP. infidels. The frailty of some weaker brethren exasperated the implacable spirit of fanaticism; and the father of Amer deplored, in pathetic strains, the apostacy and dannation of a son, who had renounced the promises of God, and the intercession of the prophet, to occupy, with the priests and deacons, the lowest mansions of hell. The more fortunate Arabs, who survived the war, and persevered in the faith, were restrained by their abstemious leader from the abuse of prosperity. After a refreshment of three days, Abu Obeidah withdrew his troops from the pernicious contagion of the luxury of Antioch, and assured the caliph that their religion and virtue could only be preserved by the hard discipline of poverty and labour. But the virtue of Omar, however rigorous to himself, was kind and liberal to his brethren. After a just tribute of praise and thanksgiving, he dropt a tear of compassion; and sitting down on the gound, wrote an answer, in which he mildly censured the severity of his lieutenant. 66 66 God," said the successor of the prophet, "has "not forbidden the use of the good things of "this world to faithful men, and such as have performed good works. Therefore you ought "to have given them leave to rest themselves, partake freely of those good things which the "country affordeth. If any of the Saracens "have no family in Arabia, they may marry in 66 66 Syria; and whosoever of them wants any fe"male slaves, he may purchase as many as he "hath occasion for." The conquerors prepar |