The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 8

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R. Priestley, ... J. Offor, ... W.H. Reid, ... Priestley and Weale, ... M. Doyle, ... and D.A. Talboys, Oxford, 1821 - Byzantine Empire

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Page 172 - The example of the .Roman pontiff' was preceded or imitated by a Florentine merchant, who governed the republic without arms and without a title. Cosmo of Medicis * was the father of a line of princes, whose name and age are almost synonymous with the restoration of learning ; his credit was ennobled into fame ; his riches were dedicated to the service of mankind; he corresponded at once with Cairo and London ; and a cargo of Indian spices and Greek books was often imported in the same vessel.
Page 239 - The immediate loss of Constantinople may be ascribed to the bullet, or arrow, which pierced the gauntlet of John Justiniani. The sight of his blood, and the exquisite pain, appalled the courage of the chief, whose arms and counsels were the firmest rampart of the city. As he withdrew from his station in quest of a surgeon, his flight was perceived and stopped by the indefatigable emperor. 'Your wound,' exclaimed Palseologus, 'is slight; the danger is pressing ; your presence is necessary ; and whither...
Page 358 - The place and the object gave ample scope for moralizing on the vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave...
Page 295 - His memory is stained with the glaring vices of avarice and pride ; nor has the courage of a martyr promoted this ecclesiastical champion to the honors of a saint ; a magnanimous sinner (say the chronicles of the times), who entered like a fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog.
Page 237 - Mahomet advised him to expect the morning, the memorable 29th of May, in the fourteen hundred and fifty-third year of the Christian era. The preceding night had been strenuously employed : the troops, the cannon, and the fascines were advanced to the edge of the ditch, which in many parts presented a smooth and level passage to the breach; and his fourscore galleys almost touched with the prows and their scaling-ladders the less defensible walls of the harbor.
Page 103 - After the marriage-contracts had been ratified by the cadhis, the bridegrooms and their brides retired to the nuptial chambers ; nine times, according to the Asiatic fashion, they were dressed and undressed ; and, at each change of apparel, pearls and rubies were showered on their heads, and contemptuously abandoned to their attendants.
Page 233 - After a siege of forty days, the fate of Constantinople could no longer be averted. The diminutive garrison was exhausted by a double attack: the fortifications, which had stood for ages against hostile violence, were dismantled on all sides by the Ottoman cannon: many breaches were opened; and near the gate of St. Romanus, four towers had been levelled with the ground.
Page 365 - II. The crowd of writers of every nation who impute the destruction of the Roman monuments to the Goths and the Christians, have neglected to inquire how far they were animated by a hostile principle, and how far they possessed the means and the leisure to satiate their enmity. In the preceding volumes of this history I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion...
Page 239 - From the lines, the galleys, and the bridge, the Ottoman artillery thundered on all sides; and the camp and city, the Greeks and the Turks, were involved in a cloud of smoke, which could only be dispelled by the final deliverance or destruction of the Roman empire.
Page 239 - ... dispelled by the final deliverance or destruction of the Roman empire. The single combats of the heroes of history or fable amuse our fancy and engage our affections: the skilful evolutions of war may inform the mind, and improve a necessary, though pernicious, science. But in the uniform and odious pictures of a general assault, all is blood, and horror, and confusion...

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