esistance, the baptism of the
conqueror. Constantinople applauded the long-forgotten pomp of a
triumph; but the Imperial diadem was the sole reward that could repay
the services, or satisfy the ambition, of Nicephorus.

After the death of the younger Romanus, the fourth in lineal descent of
the Basilian race, his widow Theophania successively married Nicephorus
Phocas and his assassin John Zimisces, the two heroes of the age. They
reigned as the guardians and colleagues of her infant sons; and the
twelve years of their military command form the most splendid period of
the Byzantine annals. The subjects and confederates, whom they led to
war, appeared, at least in the eyes of an enemy, two hundred thousand
strong; and of these about thirty thousand were armed with cuirasses:
a train of four thousand mules attended their march; and their evening
camp was regularly fortified with an enclosure of iron spikes. A series
of bloody and undecisive combats is nothing more than an anticipation
of what would have been effected in a few years by the course of nature;
but I shall briefly prosecute the conquests of the two emperors from the
hills of Cappadocia to the desert of Bagdad. The sieges of Mopsuestia
and Tarsus, in Cilicia, first exercised the skill and perseverance of
their troops, on whom, at this moment, I shall not hesitate to bestow
the name of Romans. In the double city of Mopsuestia, which is divided
by the River Sarus, two hundred thousand Moslems were predestined to
death or slavery, a surprising degree of population, which must at least
include the inhabitants of the dependent districts. They were surrounded
and taken by assault; but Tarsus was reduced by the slow progress of
famine; and no sooner had the Saracens yielded on honorable terms than
they were mortified by the distant and unprofitable view of the naval
succors of Egypt. They were dismissed with a safe-conduct to the
confines of Syria: a part of the old Christians had quietly lived under
their dominion; and the vacant habitations were replenished by a new
colony. But the mosch was converted into a stable; the pulpit was
delivered to the flames; many rich crosses of gold and gems, the spoils
of Asiatic churches, were made a grateful offering to the piety or
avarice of the emperor; and he transported the gates of Mopsuestia and
Tarsus, which were fixed in the walls of Constantinople, an eternal
monument of his victory. After they had forced and secured the n