t by the Saracens. But the seacoast still remained in the hands
of the Greeks; the predecessors of Hassan had respected the name
and fortifications of Carthage; and the number of its defenders was
recruited by the fugitives of Cabes and Tripoli. The arms of Hassan were
bolder and more fortunate: he reduced and pillaged the metropolis of
Africa; and the mention of scaling-ladders may justify the suspicion,
that he anticipated, by a sudden assault, the more tedious operations of
a regular siege. But the joy of the conquerors was soon disturbed by the
appearance of the Christian succours. The praefect and patrician John, a
general of experience and renown, embarked at Constantinople the forces
of the Eastern empire;[157] they were joined by the ships and soldiers
of Sicily, and a powerful reinforcement of Goths[158] was obtained from
the fears and religion of the Spanish monarch.

[Footnote 154: The foundation of Cairoan is mentioned by Ockley (Hist.
of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. 129, 130); and the situation, mosque, &c.
of the city are described by Leo Africanus (fol. 75), Marmol (tom. ii.
p. 532), and Shaw (p. 115).]

[Footnote 155: A portentous, though frequent mistake, has been the
confounding, from a slight similitude of name, the Cyrene of the Greeks,
and the Cairoan of the Arabs, two cities which are separated by an
interval of a thousand miles along the seacoast. The great Thuanus has
not escaped this fault, the less excusable as it is connected with a
formal and elaborate description of Africa (Historiar. l. vii. c. 2, in
tom. i. p. 240, edit. Buckley).]

[Footnote 156: Besides the Arabic Chronicles of Abulfeda, Elmacin, and
Abulpharagius, under the lxxiiid year of the Hegira, we may consult
nd'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient. p. 7,) and Ockley (Hist. of the Saracens,
vol. ii. p. 339-349). The latter has given the last and pathetic
dialogue between Abdallah and his mother; but he has forgot a physical
effect of her grief for his death, the return, at the age of ninety, and
fatal consequences of her menses.]

[Footnote 157: The patriarch of Constantinople, with Theophanes
(Chronograph. p. 309,) have slightly mentioned this last attempt for
the relief or Africa. Pagi (Critica, tom. iii. p. 129. 141,) has nicely
ascertained the chronology by a strict comparison of the Arabic and
Byzantine historians, who often disagree both in time and fact. See
likewise a note of Otter (p. 121).]

[Footnote 158: Dove s'erano ridotti i