the Abbassides; he reigned
eight years, eight months, and eight days; left eight sons, eight
daughters, eight thousand slaves, eight millions of gold.]

[Footnote 92: Amorium is seldom mentioned by the old geographers, and
to tally forgotten in the Roman Itineraries. After the vith century,
it became an episcopal see, and at length the metropolis of the new
Galatia, (Carol. Scto. Paulo, Geograph. Sacra, p. 234.) The city rose
again from its ruins, if we should read Ammeria, not Anguria, in the
text of the Nubian geographer. (p. 236.)]

[Footnote 93: In the East he was styled, (Continuator Theophan. l. iii.
p. 84;) but such was the ignorance of the West, that his ambassadors,
in public discourse, might boldly narrate, de victoriis, quas adversus
exteras bellando gentes coelitus fuerat assecutus, (Annalist. Bertinian.
apud Pagi, tom. iii. p. 720.)]

[Footnote 94: Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 167, 168) relates one of these
singular transactions on the bridge of the River Lamus in Cilicia, the
limit of the two empires, and one day's journey westward of Tarsus,
(D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 91.) Four thousand four
hundred and sixty Moslems, eight hundred women and children, one hundred
confederates, were exchanged for an equal number of Greeks. They passed
each other in the middle of the bridge, and when they reached their
respective friends, they shouted Allah Acbar, and Kyrie Eleison. Many of
the prisoners of Amorium were probably among them, but in the same year,
(A. H. 231,) the most illustrious of them, the forty two martyrs, were
beheaded by the caliph's order.]

[Footnote 95: Constantin. Porphyrogenitus, in Vit. Basil. c. 61, p. 186.
These Saracens were indeed treated with peculiar severity as pirates and
renegadoes.]

[Footnote 96: For Theophilus, Motassem, and the Amorian war, see the
Continuator of Theophanes, (l. iii. p. 77-84,) Genesius (l. iii. p.
24-34.) Cedrenus, (p. 528-532,) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 180,)
Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 165, 166,) Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. p. 191,)
D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 639, 640.)]

With Motassem, the eighth of the Abbassides, the glory of his family and
nation expired. When the Arabian conquerors had spread themselves over
the East, and were mingled with the servile crowds of Persia, Syria,
and Egypt, they insensibly lost the freeborn and martial virtues of the
desert. The courage of the South is the artificial fruit of discipline
and prejudic