The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1892-08-28

heresy Of a ~vanquished people. That such
was not the fate OF Europe We owe TO the
Byzantines whom Gibbon taught us to de-
spise. and our debt to Leo the Isaurian Is
intellectually greater than that which We owe
to Charles Martel. Europe could never have
been conquered by way OF the Pyrenees. mas
much as the Saracen assailants had to receive
orders and draw supplies from the seat oil
Moslem power in Asia By the immensely lons
and clrcuitous route through Spain. north
western Africa. and Egypt. On the other hand.
what tho Turks accomplished after 1893
shows that Europe could easily have been con-
quered by way Of Oonstantinople In the hrst
quarter OF the eighth century.
At this timetA. d. III the reigning Caliph
was Suleiman. the seventh OF the house OF the
Ommeyades. He had strained. as we have
said, all the resources OF his empire to provide
q feet and army adequate TO tho enterprise
which no had undertaken. The chief com
mand OF the expedition was given to his
brother Moslemah. who led $4,000 men from
Tarsus through Asia Minor to the Hellespont.
Meanwhile, a feet OF 1900 sail. under the
viEier Sulsiman. namesake Of the Caliph.
sailed from Syria to the Egean. carrying a
force equal to that which had marched by
land. In the month OF August Leo the Isau-
rian beheld the vessels OF the Saracens sail
ing up the Propontis. while their land army
had crossed into Thrace and was approach
ing tho city from the western side. Moslemah
caused his troops to build q line OF
oiroumvalation from the sea to the Gold
en- Horn. cutting Constantinople of from
all Communication with Thrsce. while Sulei-
man blocked the southern exit OF the Bos-
porus. and tried. though Intellectually. to close
its northern entrance also. so as to prevent
any supplies coming by water from the Euxine.
Throughout the ensuing autumn and winter
the city was b~eleagured. and with the spring
all hope OF successful resistance seemed to be
cut of by tho arrival OF . supplemental fleet
from Egypt. and OF a second large army which
came up by land from Tarsus and occupied
the Asiatic shores OF the Bosporus. Yet even
now Leo did not despair. and In tho summer
he took the offensive. His fire ships stole out
and burnt the Egyptian squadron as it lay at
anchor. A body Of his troops. lying In Bithy-
mia. surprised and cut to pieces the Saracen
army which watched the Asiatic side OF the
strait. He prevailed upon the BulGarians to
pour dow over the Balkans and rout the
covering army which observed Adrianople
| and protected the siege on the west. The
result Of these operations was the retreat OF
Moslemah. who got back to TRrsus with only
80. 900 out OF the 100. 900 men who had started
with him or rejoinod him as reGnforeements.
The fleet Jared worse. for. having been caught
by q tempest in the .Egean. II was so f~earfully
shattered that out OF the whole armada only
i've vessels got back to Syria unframed.
Thus ended the last great endeavor OF the
Saracens to destroy Constantinople. By them
the task was never again essayed. although
for $50 years longer wars incessantly broke
out between tho Emperor and tho Caliph. Iet
so little have We been taught by the purveyors
OF and water to appreciate the ire
~ lo,,o nv plotk ~ 7 M fhn Tcntrton that hn
Is remembered rather as the Iconoclast. or
breaker OF images. than as the delivcrer OF
Christendom.
The Macedonian dynasty began with Basil
l.. who became Emperor in A. d. 1857. Basil
himself Is chiefly distinguished for his codIA-
cation Of the laws OF the empire. known as the
Basiiika, which superseded the Ecloga OF Leo
tho Isaurian. Just as Leo's compilation had
superseded the work OF Justiniau. The Basil
ika OF Basil. with the additions made by his
son. Leo VI. formed the code of the Byzantine
empire down to Its last days. no further rear
rangement being ever made. The eighty years
which followed the death OF Basil the Macedo-
MAN were entirely taken up by the two long
reigns OF his son and grandson. Loo the Wise
and Constantine P~orphyrogenitus. tho latter
being so called because he was born In the
Purple Chamber. the room in the palace set
aside for the Empress. So far as foreign wars
and dangers to the empire from without were
concerned. these eighty years were the most I'M
~eventiul and monotonous in Byzantine his
tory. They witnessed. however. u remarkable
intellectual revival. the two rulers themselves
being professional men Of letters. to whom wo
are indebted for some OF the most useful and
interesting works in Byzantine literature. In
chair ratu no fnok pIaca tha illumination If fha
byzantine renaissance, which had begun un-
der the quickening influence OF the political
and social reforms Of Leo the Isaurian. The
darkest age in byzantine literary history was
from 600 to $50. q period from which We have
hardly any contemporary annalists, no poetry.
save the lost Heracliad of George Of Pisidia.
and very little even Of theology. On the other
hand. by the end Of the eighth century writer's
became far more numerous. and in the ninth
century we can trace the existence Of a large
literary class. including O few really first
rate authors. among whom should BIO
particularly mentioned the patriarch Pho
titus. whose breadth Of culture was
astonishing. and whose library catalogue
Is tho envy OF modern historians. A curious
feature OF the Byzantine literature Of this
epoch was the epics. or romances OF chivalry.
as thoy may properly DO called. These were
written toward the close OF the times Of tho
Macedonian dynasty. and a type Of the class
Is tn" epic Of Digenes Akritas. which cele-
brates the adventures OF q hero who lived in
the latter half OF tho tenth century. DiGenes
was a mighty hunter both Of bears and Snr-
acens. who sloped with the fair Eudocia
Ducas. daughter OF the General of the Cappa.
docian theme. whom he carried of In spite OF
her father and seven brethren. Pursued by
the irato family. he rode them down one by
one at vantage Doints in tho passes. hut spared