Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs.—Part IV

Syria, 67 one of the countries that have been improved by the
most early cultivation, is not unworthy of the preference. 68 The
heat of the climate is tempered by the vicinity of the sea and
mountains, by the plenty of wood and water; and the produce of a
fertile soil affords the subsistence, and encourages the
propagation, of men and animals. From the age of David to that of
Heraclius, the country was overspread with ancient and
flourishing cities: the inhabitants were numerous and wealthy;
and, after the slow ravage of despotism and superstition, after
the recent calamities of the Persian war, Syria could still
attract and reward the rapacious tribes of the desert. A plain,
of ten days’ journey, from Damascus to Aleppo and Antioch, is
watered, on the western side, by the winding course of the
Orontes. The hills of Libanus and Anti-Libanus are planted from
north to south, between the Orontes and the Mediterranean; and
the epithet of hollow (Coelesyria) was applied to a long and
fruitful valley, which is confined in the same direction, by the
two ridges of snowy mountains. 69 Among the cities, which are
enumerated by Greek and Oriental names in the geography and
conquest of Syria, we may distinguish Emesa or Hems, Heliopolis
or Baalbec, the former as the metropolis of the plain, the latter
as the capital of the valley. Under the last of the Caesars, they
were strong and populous; the turrets glittered from afar: an
ample space was covered with public and private buildings; and
the citizens were illustrious by their spirit, or at least by
their pride; by their riches, or at least by their luxury. In the
days of Paganism, both Emesa and Heliopolis were addicted to the
worship of Baal, or the sun; but the decline of their
superstition and splendor has been marked by a singular variety
of fortune. Not a vestige remains of the temple of Emesa, which
was equalled in poetic style to the summits of Mount Libanus, 70
while the ruins of Baalbec, invisible to the writers of
antiquity, excite the curiosity and wonder of the European
traveller. 71 The measure of the temple is two hundred feet in
length, and one hundred in breadth: the front is adorned with a
double portico of eight columns; fourteen may be counted on
either side; and each column, forty-five feet in height, is
composed of three massy blocks of stone or marble. The
proportions and ornaments of the Corinthian order express the
architecture of the Greeks: but as Baalbec has never been the
seat of a monarch, we are at a loss to conceive how the expense
of these magnificent structures could be supplied by private or
municipal liberality. 72 From the conquest of Damascus the
Saracens proceeded to Heliopolis and Emesa: but I shall decline
the repetition of the sallies and combats which have been already
shown on a larger scale. In the prosecution of the war, their
policy was not less effectual than their sword. By short and
separate truces they dissolved the union of the enemy; accustomed
the Syrians to compare their friendship with their enmity;
familiarized the idea of their language, religion, and manners;
and exhausted, by clandestine purchase, the magazines and
arsenals of the cities which they returned to besiege. They
aggravated the ransom of the more wealthy, or the more obstinate;
and Chalcis alone was taxed at five thousand ounces of gold, five
thousand ounces of silver, two thousand robes of silk, and as
many figs and olives as would load five thousand asses. But the
terms of truce or capitulation were faithfully observed; and the
lieutenant of the caliph, who had promised not to enter the walls
of the captive Baalbec, remained tranquil and immovable in his
tent till the jarring factions solicited the interposition of a
foreign master. The conquest of the plain and valley of Syria was
achieved in less than two years. Yet the commander of the
faithful reproved the slowness of their progress; and the
Saracens, bewailing their fault with tears of rage and
repentance, called aloud on their chiefs to lead them forth to
fight the battles of the Lord. In a recent action, under the
walls of Emesa, an Arabian youth, the cousin of Caled, was heard
aloud to exclaim, “Methinks I see the black-eyed girls looking
upon me; one of whom, should she appear in this world, all
mankind would die for love of her. And I see in the hand of one
of them a handkerchief of green silk, and a cap of precious
stones, and she beckons me, and calls out, Come hither quickly,
for I love thee.” With these words, charging the Christians, he
made havoc wherever he went, till, observed at length by the
governor of Hems, he was struck through with a javelin.

67 (return) [ In the Geography of Abulfeda, the description of
Syria, his native country, is the most interesting and authentic
portion. It was published in Arabic and Latin, Lipsiae, 1766, in
quarto, with the learned notes of Kochler and Reiske, and some
extracts of geography and natural history from Ibn Ol Wardii.
Among the modern travels, Pocock’s Description of the East (of
Syria and Mesopotamia, vol. ii. p. 88-209) is a work of superior
learning and dignity; but the author too often confounds what he
had seen and what he had read.]

68 (return) [ The praises of Dionysius are just and lively.
Syria, (in Periegesi, v. 902, in tom. iv. Geograph. Minor.
Hudson.) In another place he styles the country differently, (v.
898.) This poetical geographer lived in the age of Augustus, and
his description of the world is illustrated by the Greek
commentary of Eustathius, who paid the same compliment to Homer
and Dionysius, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. l. iv. c. 2, tom. iii. p.
21, &c.)]

69 (return) [ The topography of the Libanus and Anti-Libanus is
excellently described by the learning and sense of Reland,
(Palestin. tom. i. p. 311-326)]

70 (return) [

—Emesae fastigia celsa renident. Nam diffusa solo latus explicat; ac subit auras Turribus in coelum nitentibus: incola claris Cor studiis acuit... Denique flammicomo devoti pectora soli Vitam agitant. Libanus frondosa cacumina turget. Et tamen his certant celsi fastigia templi.

These verses of the Latin version of Rufus Avienus are wanting in
the Greek original of Dionysius; and since they are likewise
unnoticed by Eustathius, I must, with Fabricius, (Bibliot. Latin.
tom. iii. p. 153, edit. Ernesti,) and against Salmasius, (ad
Vopiscum, p. 366, 367, in Hist. August.,) ascribed them to the
fancy, rather than the Mss., of Avienus.]

71 (return) [ I am much better satisfied with Maundrell’s slight
octavo, (Journey, p. 134-139), than with the pompous folio of Dr.
Pocock, (Description of the East, vol. ii. p. 106-113;) but every
preceding account is eclipsed by the magnificent description and
drawings of Mm. Dawkins and Wood, who have transported into
England the ruins of Pamyra and Baalbec.]

72 (return) [ The Orientals explain the prodigy by a
never-failing expedient. The edifices of Baalbec were constructed
by the fairies or the genii, (Hist. de Timour Bec, tom. iii. l.
v. c. 23, p. 311, 312. Voyage d’Otter, tom. i. p. 83.) With less
absurdity, but with equal ignorance, Abulfeda and Ibn Chaukel
ascribe them to the Sabaeans or Aadites Non sunt in omni Syria
aedificia magnificentiora his, (Tabula Syria p. 108.)]

It was incumbent on the Saracens to exert the full powers of
their valor and enthusiasm against the forces of the emperor, who
was taught, by repeated losses, that the rovers of the desert had
undertaken, and would speedily achieve, a regular and permanent
conquest. From the provinces of Europe and Asia, fourscore
thousand soldiers were transported by sea and land to Antioch and
Caesarea: the light troops of the army consisted of sixty
thousand Christian Arabs of the tribe of Gassan. Under the banner
of Jabalah, the last of their princes, they marched in the van;
and it was a maxim of the Greeks, that for the purpose of cutting
diamond, a diamond was the most effectual. Heraclius withheld his
person from the dangers of the field; but his presumption, or
perhaps his despondency, suggested a peremptory order, that the
fate of the province and the war should be decided by a single
battle. The Syrians were attached to the standard of Rome and of
the cross: but the noble, the citizen, the peasant, were
exasperated by the injustice and cruelty of a licentious host,
who oppressed them as subjects, and despised them as strangers
and aliens. 73 A report of these mighty preparations was conveyed
to the Saracens in their camp of Emesa, and the chiefs, though
resolved to fight, assembled a council: the faith of Abu Obeidah
would have expected on the same spot the glory of martyrdom; the
wisdom of Caled advised an honorable retreat to the skirts of
Palestine and Arabia, where they might await the succors of their
friends, and the attack of the unbelievers. A speedy messenger
soon returned from the throne of Medina, with the blessings of
Omar and Ali, the prayers of the widows of the prophet, and a
reenforcement of eight thousand Moslems. In their way they
overturned a detachment of Greeks, and when they joined at Yermuk
the camp of their brethren, they found the pleasing intelligence,
that Caled had already defeated and scattered the Christian Arabs
of the tribe of Gassan. In the neighborhood of Bosra, the springs
of Mount Hermon descend in a torrent to the plain of Decapolis,
or ten cities; and the Hieromax, a name which has been corrupted
to Yermuk, is lost, after a short course, in the Lake of
Tiberias. 74 The banks of this obscure stream were illustrated by
a long and bloody encounter. 7411 On this momentous occasion, the
public voice, and the modesty of Abu Obeidah, restored the
command to the most deserving of the Moslems. Caled assumed his
station in the front, his colleague was posted in the rear, that
the disorder of the fugitive might be checked by his venerable
aspect, and the sight of the yellow banner which Mahomet had
displayed before the walls of Chaibar. The last line was occupied
by the sister of Derar, with the Arabian women who had enlisted
in this holy war, who were accustomed to wield the bow and the
lance, and who in a moment of captivity had defended, against the
uncircumcised ravishers, their chastity and religion. 75 The
exhortation of the generals was brief and forcible: “Paradise is
before you, the devil and hell-fire in your rear.” Yet such was
the weight of the Roman cavalry, that the right wing of the Arabs
was broken and separated from the main body. Thrice did they
retreat in disorder, and thrice were they driven back to the
charge by the reproaches and blows of the women. In the intervals
of action, Abu Obeidah visited the tents of his brethren,
prolonged their repose by repeating at once the prayers of two
different hours, bound up their wounds with his own hands, and
administered the comfortable reflection, that the infidels
partook of their sufferings without partaking of their reward.
Four thousand and thirty of the Moslems were buried in the field
of battle; and the skill of the Armenian archers enabled seven
hundred to boast that they had lost an eye in that meritorious
service. The veterans of the Syrian war acknowledged that it was
the hardest and most doubtful of the days which they had seen.
But it was likewise the most decisive: many thousands of the
Greeks and Syrians fell by the swords of the Arabs; many were
slaughtered, after the defeat, in the woods and mountains; many,
by mistaking the ford, were drowned in the waters of the Yermuk;
and however the loss may be magnified, 76 the Christian writers
confess and bewail the bloody punishment of their sins. 77
Manuel, the Roman general, was either killed at Damascus, or took
refuge in the monastery of Mount Sinai. An exile in the Byzantine
court, Jabalah lamented the manners of Arabia, and his unlucky
preference of the Christian cause. 78 He had once inclined to the
profession of Islam; but in the pilgrimage of Mecca, Jabalah was
provoked to strike one of his brethren, and fled with amazement
from the stern and equal justice of the caliph. These victorious
Saracens enjoyed at Damascus a month of pleasure and repose: the
spoil was divided by the discretion of Abu Obeidah: an equal
share was allotted to a soldier and to his horse, and a double
portion was reserved for the noble coursers of the Arabian breed.

73 (return) [ I have read somewhere in Tacitus, or Grotius,
Subjectos habent tanquam suos, viles tanquam alienos. Some Greek
officers ravished the wife, and murdered the child, of their
Syrian landlord; and Manuel smiled at his undutiful complaint.]

74 (return) [ See Reland, Palestin. tom. i. p. 272, 283, tom. ii.
p. 773, 775. This learned professor was equal to the task of
describing the Holy Land, since he was alike conversant with
Greek and Latin, with Hebrew and Arabian literature. The Yermuk,
or Hieromax, is noticed by Cellarius (Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii.
p. 392) and D’Anville, (Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 185.)
The Arabs, and even Abulfeda himself, do not seem to recognize
the scene of their victory.]

7411 (return) [ Compare Price, p. 79. The army of the Romans is
swoller to 400,000 men of which 70,000 perished.—M.]

75 (return) [ These women were of the tribe of the Hamyarites,
who derived their origin from the ancient Amalekites. Their
females were accustomed to ride on horseback, and to fight like
the Amazons of old, (Ockley, vol. i. p. 67.)]

76 (return) [ We killed of them, says Abu Obeidah to the caliph,
one hundred and fifty thousand, and made prisoners forty
thousand, (Ockley vol. i. p. 241.) As I cannot doubt his
veracity, nor believe his computation, I must suspect that the
Arabic historians indulge themselves in the practice of comparing
speeches and letters for their heroes.]

77 (return) [ After deploring the sins of the Christians,
Theophanes, adds, (Chronograph. p. 276,) does he mean Aiznadin?
His account is brief and obscure, but he accuses the numbers of
the enemy, the adverse wind, and the cloud of dust. (Chronograph.
p. 280.)]

78 (return) [ See Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. p. 70, 71,) who
transcribes the poetical complaint of Jabalah himself, and some
panegyrical strains of an Arabian poet, to whom the chief of
Gassan sent from Constantinople a gift of five hundred pieces of
gold by the hands of the ambassador of Omar.]

After the battle of Yermuk, the Roman army no longer appeared in
the field; and the Saracens might securely choose, among the
fortified towns of Syria, the first object of their attack. They
consulted the caliph whether they should march to Caesarea or
Jerusalem; and the advice of Ali determined the immediate siege
of the latter. To a profane eye, Jerusalem was the first or
second capital of Palestine; but after Mecca and Medina, it was
revered and visited by the devout Moslems, as the temple of the
Holy Land which had been sanctified by the revelation of Moses,
of Jesus, and of Mahomet himself. The son of Abu Sophian was sent
with five thousand Arabs to try the first experiment of surprise
or treaty; but on the eleventh day, the town was invested by the
whole force of Abu Obeidah. He addressed the customary summons to
the chief commanders and people of Aelia. 79

79 (return) [ In the name of the city, the profane prevailed over
the sacred Jerusalem was known to the devout Christians, (Euseb.
de Martyr Palest. c xi.;) but the legal and popular appellation
of Aelia (the colony of Aelius Hadrianus) has passed from the
Romans to the Arabs. (Reland, Palestin. tom. i. p. 207, tom. ii.
p. 835. D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, Cods, p. 269, Ilia,
p. 420.) The epithet of Al Cods, the Holy, is used as the proper
name of Jerusalem.]

“Health and happiness to every one that follows the right way! We
require of you to testify that there is but one God, and that
Mahomet is his apostle. If you refuse this, consent to pay
tribute, and be under us forthwith. Otherwise I shall bring men
against you who love death better than you do the drinking of
wine or eating hog’s flesh. Nor will I ever stir from you, if it
please God, till I have destroyed those that fight for you, and
made slaves of your children.” But the city was defended on every
side by deep valleys and steep ascents; since the invasion of
Syria, the walls and towers had been anxiously restored; the
bravest of the fugitives of Yermuk had stopped in the nearest
place of refuge; and in the defence of the sepulchre of Christ,
the natives and strangers might feel some sparks of the
enthusiasm, which so fiercely glowed in the bosoms of the
Saracens. The siege of Jerusalem lasted four months; not a day
was lost without some action of sally or assault; the military
engines incessantly played from the ramparts; and the inclemency
of the winter was still more painful and destructive to the
Arabs. The Christians yielded at length to the perseverance of
the besiegers. The patriarch Sophronius appeared on the walls,
and by the voice of an interpreter demanded a conference. 7911
After a vain attempt to dissuade the lieutenant of the caliph
from his impious enterprise, he proposed, in the name of the
people, a fair capitulation, with this extraordinary clause, that
the articles of security should be ratified by the authority and
presence of Omar himself. The question was debated in the council
of Medina; the sanctity of the place, and the advice of Ali,
persuaded the caliph to gratify the wishes of his soldiers and
enemies; and the simplicity of his journey is more illustrious
than the royal pageants of vanity and oppression. The conqueror
of Persia and Syria was mounted on a red camel, which carried,
besides his person, a bag of corn, a bag of dates, a wooden dish,
and a leathern bottle of water. Wherever he halted, the company,
without distinction, was invited to partake of his homely fare,
and the repast was consecrated by the prayer and exhortation of
the commander of the faithful. 80 But in this expedition or
pilgrimage, his power was exercised in the administration of
justice: he reformed the licentious polygamy of the Arabs,
relieved the tributaries from extortion and cruelty, and
chastised the luxury of the Saracens, by despoiling them of their
rich silks, and dragging them on their faces in the dirt. When he
came within sight of Jerusalem, the caliph cried with a loud
voice, “God is victorious. O Lord, give us an easy conquest!”
and, pitching his tent of coarse hair, calmly seated himself on
the ground. After signing the capitulation, he entered the city
without fear or precaution; and courteously discoursed with the
patriarch concerning its religious antiquities. 81 Sophronius
bowed before his new master, and secretly muttered, in the words
of Daniel, “The abomination of desolation is in the holy place.”
82 At the hour of prayer they stood together in the church of the
resurrection; but the caliph refused to perform his devotions,
and contented himself with praying on the steps of the church of
Constantine. To the patriarch he disclosed his prudent and
honorable motive. “Had I yielded,” said Omar, “to your request,
the Moslems of a future age would have infringed the treaty under
color of imitating my example.” By his command the ground of the
temple of Solomon was prepared for the foundation of a mosch; 83
and, during a residence of ten days, he regulated the present and
future state of his Syrian conquests. Medina might be jealous,
lest the caliph should be detained by the sanctity of Jerusalem
or the beauty of Damascus; her apprehensions were dispelled by
his prompt and voluntary return to the tomb of the apostle. 84

7911 (return) [ See the explanation of this in Price, with the
prophecy which was hereby fulfilled, p 85.—M]

80 (return) [ The singular journey and equipage of Omar are
described (besides Ockley, vol. i. p. 250) by Murtadi,
(Merveilles de l’Egypte, p. 200-202.)]

81 (return) [ The Arabs boast of an old prophecy preserved at
Jerusalem, and describing the name, the religion, and the person
of Omar, the future conqueror. By such arts the Jews are said to
have soothed the pride of their foreign masters, Cyrus and
Alexander, (Joseph. Ant. Jud. l. xi c. 1, 8, p. 447, 579-582.)]

82 (return) [ Theophan. Chronograph. p. 281. This prediction,
which had already served for Antiochus and the Romans, was again
refitted for the present occasion, by the economy of Sophronius,
one of the deepest theologians of the Monothelite controversy.]

83 (return) [ According to the accurate survey of D’Anville,
(Dissertation sun l’ancienne Jerusalem, p. 42-54,) the mosch of
Omar, enlarged and embellished by succeeding caliphs, covered the
ground of the ancient temple, (says Phocas,) a length of 215, a
breadth of 172, toises. The Nubian geographer declares, that this
magnificent structure was second only in size and beauty to the
great mosch of Cordova, (p. 113,) whose present state Mr.
Swinburne has so elegantly represented, (Travels into Spain, p.
296-302.)]

84 (return) [ Of the many Arabic tarikhs or chronicles of
Jerusalem, (D’Herbelot, p. 867,) Ockley found one among the
Pocock Mss. of Oxford, (vol. i. p. 257,) which he has used to
supply the defective narrative of Al Wakidi.]

To achieve what yet remained of the Syrian war the caliph had
formed two separate armies; a chosen detachment, under Amrou and
Yezid, was left in the camp of Palestine; while the larger
division, under the standard of Abu Obeidah and Caled, marched
away to the north against Antioch and Aleppo. The latter of
these, the Beraea of the Greeks, was not yet illustrious as the
capital of a province or a kingdom; and the inhabitants, by
anticipating their submission and pleading their poverty,
obtained a moderate composition for their lives and religion. But
the castle of Aleppo, 85 distinct from the city, stood erect on a
lofty artificial mound; the sides were sharpened to a precipice,
and faced with free-stone; and the breadth of the ditch might be
filled with water from the neighboring springs. After the loss of
three thousand men, the garrison was still equal to the defence;
and Youkinna, their valiant and hereditary chief, had murdered
his brother, a holy monk, for daring to pronounce the name of
peace. In a siege of four or five months, the hardest of the
Syrian war, great numbers of the Saracens were killed and
wounded: their removal to the distance of a mile could not seduce
the vigilance of Youkinna; nor could the Christians be terrified
by the execution of three hundred captives, whom they beheaded
before the castle wall. The silence, and at length the
complaints, of Abu Obeidah informed the caliph that their hope
and patience were consumed at the foot of this impregnable
fortress. “I am variously affected,” replied Omar, “by the
difference of your success; but I charge you by no means to raise
the siege of the castle. Your retreat would diminish the
reputation of our arms, and encourage the infidels to fall upon
you on all sides. Remain before Aleppo till God shall determine
the event, and forage with your horse round the adjacent
country.” The exhortation of the commander of the faithful was
fortified by a supply of volunteers from all the tribes of
Arabia, who arrived in the camp on horses or camels. Among these
was Dames, of a servile birth, but of gigantic size and intrepid
resolution. The forty-seventh day of his service he proposed,
with only thirty men, to make an attempt on the castle. The
experience and testimony of Caled recommended his offer; and Abu
Obeidah admonished his brethren not to despise the baser origin
of Dames, since he himself, could he relinquish the public care,
would cheerfully serve under the banner of the slave. His design
was covered by the appearance of a retreat; and the camp of the
Saracens was pitched about a league from Aleppo. The thirty
adventurers lay in ambush at the foot of the hill; and Dames at
length succeeded in his inquiries, though he was provoked by the
ignorance of his Greek captives. “God curse these dogs,” said the
illiterate Arab; “what a strange barbarous language they speak!”
At the darkest hour of the night, he scaled the most accessible
height, which he had diligently surveyed, a place where the
stones were less entire, or the slope less perpendicular, or the
guard less vigilant. Seven of the stoutest Saracens mounted on
each other’s shoulders, and the weight of the column was
sustained on the broad and sinewy back of the gigantic slave. The
foremost in this painful ascent could grasp and climb the lowest
part of the battlements; they silently stabbed and cast down the
sentinels; and the thirty brethren, repeating a pious
ejaculation, “O apostle of God, help and deliver us!” were
successively drawn up by the long folds of their turbans. With
bold and cautious footsteps, Dames explored the palace of the
governor, who celebrated, in riotous merriment, the festival of
his deliverance. From thence, returning to his companions, he
assaulted on the inside the entrance of the castle. They
overpowered the guard, unbolted the gate, let down the
drawbridge, and defended the narrow pass, till the arrival of
Caled, with the dawn of day, relieved their danger and assured
their conquest. Youkinna, a formidable foe, became an active and
useful proselyte; and the general of the Saracens expressed his
regard for the most humble merit, by detaining the army at Aleppo
till Dames was cured of his honorable wounds. The capital of
Syria was still covered by the castle of Aazaz and the iron
bridge of the Orontes. After the loss of those important posts,
and the defeat of the last of the Roman armies, the luxury of
Antioch 86 trembled and obeyed. Her safety was ransomed with
three hundred thousand pieces of gold; but the throne of the
successors of Alexander, the seat of the Roman government of the
East, which had been decorated by Caesar with the titles of free,
and holy, and inviolate was degraded under the yoke of the
caliphs to the secondary rank of a provincial town. 87

85 (return) [ The Persian historian of Timur (tom. iii. l. v. c.
21, p. 300) describes the castle of Aleppo as founded on a rock
one hundred cubits in height; a proof, says the French
translator, that he had never visited the place. It is now in the
midst of the city, of no strength with a single gate; the circuit
is about 500 or 600 paces, and the ditch half full of stagnant
water, (Voyages de Tavernier, tom. i. p. 149 Pocock, vol. ii.
part i. p. 150.) The fortresses of the East are contemptible to a
European eye.]

86 (return) [ The date of the conquest of Antioch by the Arabs is
of some importance. By comparing the years of the world in the
chronography of Theophanes with the years of the Hegira in the
history of Elmacin, we shall determine, that it was taken between
January 23d and September 1st of the year of Christ 638, (Pagi,
Critica, in Baron. Annal. tom. ii. p. 812, 813.) Al Wakidi
(Ockley, vol. i. p. 314) assigns that event to Tuesday, August
21st, an inconsistent date; since Easter fell that year on April
5th, the 21st of August must have been a Friday, (see the Tables
of the Art de Verifier les Dates.)]

87 (return) [ His bounteous edict, which tempted the grateful
city to assume the victory of Pharsalia for a perpetual aera, is
given. John Malala, in Chron. p. 91, edit. Venet. We may
distinguish his authentic information of domestic facts from his
gross ignorance of general history.]

In the life of Heraclius, the glories of the Persian war are
clouded on either hand by the disgrace and weakness of his more
early and his later days. When the successors of Mahomet
unsheathed the sword of war and religion, he was astonished at
the boundless prospect of toil and danger; his nature was
indolent, nor could the infirm and frigid age of the emperor be
kindled to a second effort. The sense of shame, and the
importunities of the Syrians, prevented the hasty departure from
the scene of action; but the hero was no more; and the loss of
Damascus and Jerusalem, the bloody fields of Aiznadin and Yermuk,
may be imputed in some degree to the absence or misconduct of the
sovereign. Instead of defending the sepulchre of Christ, he
involved the church and state in a metaphysical controversy for
the unity of his will; and while Heraclius crowned the offspring
of his second nuptials, he was tamely stripped of the most
valuable part of their inheritance. In the cathedral of Antioch,
in the presence of the bishops, at the foot of the crucifix, he
bewailed the sins of the prince and people; but his confession
instructed the world, that it was vain, and perhaps impious, to
resist the judgment of God. The Saracens were invincible in fact,
since they were invincible in opinion; and the desertion of
Youkinna, his false repentance and repeated perfidy, might
justify the suspicion of the emperor, that he was encompassed by
traitors and apostates, who conspired to betray his person and
their country to the enemies of Christ. In the hour of adversity,
his superstition was agitated by the omens and dreams of a
falling crown; and after bidding an eternal farewell to Syria, he
secretly embarked with a few attendants, and absolved the faith
of his subjects. 88 Constantine, his eldest son, had been
stationed with forty thousand men at Caesarea, the civil
metropolis of the three provinces of Palestine. But his private
interest recalled him to the Byzantine court; and, after the
flight of his father, he felt himself an unequal champion to the
united force of the caliph. His vanguard was boldly attacked by
three hundred Arabs and a thousand black slaves, who, in the
depth of winter, had climbed the snowy mountains of Libanus, and
who were speedily followed by the victorious squadrons of Caled
himself. From the north and south the troops of Antioch and
Jerusalem advanced along the sea-shore till their banners were
joined under the walls of the Phoenician cities: Tripoli and Tyre
were betrayed; and a fleet of fifty transports, which entered
without distrust the captive harbors, brought a seasonable supply
of arms and provisions to the camp of the Saracens. Their labors
were terminated by the unexpected surrender of Caesarea: the
Roman prince had embarked in the night; 89 and the defenceless
citizens solicited their pardon with an offering of two hundred
thousand pieces of gold. The remainder of the province, Ramlah,
Ptolemais or Acre, Sichem or Neapolis, Gaza, Ascalon, Berytus,
Sidon, Gabala, Laodicea, Apamea, Hierapolis, no longer presumed
to dispute the will of the conqueror; and Syria bowed under the
sceptre of the caliphs seven hundred years after Pompey had
despoiled the last of the Macedonian kings. 90

88 (return) [ See Ockley, (vol. i. p. 308, 312,) who laughs at
the credulity of his author. When Heraclius bade farewell to
Syria, Vale Syria et ultimum vale, he prophesied that the Romans
should never reenter the province till the birth of an
inauspicious child, the future scourge of the empire. Abulfeda,
p. 68. I am perfectly ignorant of the mystic sense, or nonsense,
of this prediction.]

89 (return) [ In the loose and obscure chronology of the times, I
am guided by an authentic record, (in the book of ceremonies of
Constantine Porphyrogenitus,) which certifies that, June 4, A.D.
638, the emperor crowned his younger son Heraclius, in the
presence of his eldest, Constantine, and in the palace of
Constantinople; that January 1, A.D. 639, the royal procession
visited the great church, and on the 4th of the same month, the
hippodrome.]

90 (return) [ Sixty-five years before Christ, Syria Pontusque
monumenta sunt Cn. Pompeii virtutis, (Vell. Patercul. ii. 38,)
rather of his fortune and power: he adjudged Syria to be a Roman
province, and the last of the Seleucides were incapable of
drawing a sword in the defence of their patrimony (see the
original texts collected by Usher, Annal. p. 420)]