of Tyana, Amorium, and Pergamus, were of sufficient
duration to exercise their skill and to elevate their hopes. At the
well-known passage of Abydus, on the Hellespont, the Mahometan arms
were transported, for the first time, [1111] from Asia to Europe. From
thence, wheeling round the Thracian cities of the Propontis, Moslemah
invested Constantinople on the land side, surrounded his camp with a
ditch and rampart, prepared and planted his engines of assault, and
declared, by words and actions, a patient resolution of expecting the
return of seed-time and harvest, should the obstinacy of the besieged
prove equal to his own. [1112] The Greeks would gladly have ransomed
their religion and empire, by a fine or assessment of a piece of gold
on the head of each inhabitant of the city; but the liberal offer was
rejected with disdain, and the presumption of Moslemah was exalted by
the speedy approach and invincible force of the natives of Egypt and
Syria. They are said to have amounted to eighteen hundred ships: the
number betrays their inconsiderable size; and of the twenty stout and
capacious vessels, whose magnitude impeded their progress, each was
manned with no more than one hundred heavy-armed soldiers. This huge
armada proceeded on a smooth sea, and with a gentle gale, towards the
mouth of the Bosphorus; the surface of the strait was overshadowed, in
the language of the Greeks, with a moving forest, and the same fatal
night had been fixed by the Saracen chief for a general assault by sea
and land. To allure the confidence of the enemy, the emperor had thrown
aside the chain that usually guarded the entrance of the harbor; but
while they hesitated whether they should seize the opportunity, or
apprehend the snare, the ministers of destruction were at hand. The
fire-ships of the Greeks were launched against them; the Arabs, their
arms, and vessels, were involved in the same flames; the disorderly
fugitives were dashed against each other or overwhelmed in the waves;
and I no longer find a vestige of the fleet, that had threatened to
extirpate the Roman name. A still more fatal and irreparable loss was
that of the caliph Soliman, who died of an indigestion, [12] in his camp
near Kinnisrin or Chalcis in Syria, as he was preparing to lead against
Constantinople the remaining forces of the East. The brother of Moslemah
was succeeded by a kinsman and an enemy; and the throne of an active
and able prince was degraded by the useless