arrow
passes of Mount Amanus, the two Roman princes repeatedly carried their
arms into the heart of Syria. Yet, instead of assaulting the walls of
Antioch, the humanity or superstition of Nicephorus appeared to respect
the ancient metropolis of the East: he contented himself with drawing
round the city a line of circumvallation; left a stationary army; and
instructed his lieutenant to expect, without impatience, the return
of spring. But in the depth of winter, in a dark and rainy night, an
adventurous subaltern, with three hundred soldiers, approached the
rampart, applied his scaling-ladders, occupied two adjacent towers,
stood firm against the pressure of multitudes, and bravely maintained
his post till he was relieved by the tardy, though effectual, support of
his reluctant chief. The first tumult of slaughter and rapine subsided;
the reign of Caesar and of Christ was restored; and the efforts of a
hundred thousand Saracens, of the armies of Syria and the fleets of
Africa, were consumed without effect before the walls of Antioch. The
royal city of Aleppo was subject to Seifeddowlat, of the dynasty of
Hamadan, who clouded his past glory by the precipitate retreat which
abandoned his kingdom and capital to the Roman invaders. In his stately
palace, that stood without the walls of Aleppo, they joyfully seized a
well-furnished magazine of arms, a stable of fourteen hundred mules,
and three hundred bags of silver and gold. But the walls of the city
withstood the strokes of their battering-rams: and the besiegers pitched
their tents on the neighboring mountain of Jaushan. Their retreat
exasperated the quarrel of the townsmen and mercenaries; the guard of
the gates and ramparts was deserted; and while they furiously charged
each other in the market-place, they were surprised and destroyed by the
sword of a common enemy. The male sex was exterminated by the sword;
ten thousand youths were led into captivity; the weight of the precious
spoil exceeded the strength and number of the beasts of burden; the
superfluous remainder was burnt; and, after a licentious possession of
ten days, the Romans marched away from the naked and bleeding city. In
their Syrian inroads they commanded the husbandmen to cultivate their
lands, that they themselves, in the ensuing season, might reap the
benefit; more than a hundred cities were reduced to obedience; and
eighteen pulpits of the principal moschs were committed to the flames to
expiate the s