progress
was favored by the caliphs, their unknown and accidental auxiliaries:
the Roman legions were occupied in Asia; and after the loss of Syria,
Egypt, and Africa, the Caesars were twice reduced to the danger and
disgrace of defending their capital against the Saracens. If, in the
account of this interesting people, I have deviated from the strict and
original line of my undertaking, the merit of the subject will hide my
transgression, or solicit my excuse. In the East, in the West, in war,
in religion, in science, in their prosperity, and in their decay, the
Arabians press themselves on our curiosity: the first overthrow of the
church and empire of the Greeks may be imputed to their arms; and the
disciples of Mahomet still hold the civil and religious sceptre of the
Oriental world. But the same labor would be unworthily bestowed on the
swarms of savages, who, between the seventh and the twelfth century,
descended from the plains of Scythia, in transient inroad or perpetual
emigration. [1] Their names are uncouth, their origins doubtful, their
actions obscure, their superstition was blind, their valor brutal, and
the uniformity of their public and private lives was neither softened
by innocence nor refined by policy. The majesty of the Byzantine throne
repelled and survived their disorderly attacks; the greater part of
these Barbarians has disappeared without leaving any memorial of their
existence, and the despicable remnant continues, and may long continue,
to groan under the dominion of a foreign tyrant. From the antiquities
of, I. Bulgarians, II. Hungarians, and, III. Russians, I shall content
myself with selecting such facts as yet deserve to be remembered. The
conquests of the, IV. Normans, and the monarchy of the, V. Turks, will
naturally terminate in the memorable Crusades to the Holy Land, and the
double fall of the city and empire of Constantine.

[Footnote 1: All the passages of the Byzantine history which relate to
the Barbarians are compiled, methodized, and transcribed, in a Latin
version, by the laborious John Gotthelf Stritter, in his "Memoriae
Populorum, ad Danubium, Pontum Euxinum, Paludem Maeotidem, Caucasum,
Mare Caspium, et inde Magis ad Septemtriones incolentium." Petropoli,
1771-1779; in four tomes, or six volumes, in 4to. But the fashion has
not enhanced the price of these raw materials.]

I. In his march to Italy, Theodoric [2] the Ostrogoth had trampled on
the arms of the Bulgarians. After