library, and translated into Latin by the Jesuit Sirmond, for the
use of Cardinal Baronius. This contemporary legend casts a ray of
light on Crete and Peloponnesus in the 10th century. He found the
newly-recovered island, foedis detestandae Agarenorum superstitionis
vestigiis adhuc plenam ac refertam.... but the victorious missionary,
perhaps with some carnal aid, ad baptismum omnes veraeque fidei
disciplinam pepulit. Ecclesiis per totam insulam aedificatis, &c.,
(Annal. Eccles. A.D. 961.)]

After the death of the younger Romanus, the fourth in lineal descent of
the Basilian race, his widow Theophania successively married Nicephorus
Phocas and his assassin John Zimisces, the two heroes of the age. They
reigned as the guardians and colleagues of her infant sons; and the
twelve years of their military command form the most splendid period of
the Byzantine annals. The subjects and confederates, whom they led to
war, appeared, at least in the eyes of an enemy, two hundred thousand
strong; and of these about thirty thousand were armed with cuirasses:
[114] a train of four thousand mules attended their march; and their
evening camp was regularly fortified with an enclosure of iron spikes.
A series of bloody and undecisive combats is nothing more than an
anticipation of what would have been effected in a few years by the
course of nature; but I shall briefly prosecute the conquests of the
two emperors from the hills of Cappadocia to the desert of Bagdad. The
sieges of Mopsuestia and Tarsus, in Cilicia, first exercised the skill
and perseverance of their troops, on whom, at this moment, I shall not
hesitate to bestow the name of Romans. In the double city of Mopsuestia,
which is divided by the River Sarus, two hundred thousand Moslems
were predestined to death or slavery, [115] a surprising degree of
population, which must at least include the inhabitants of the dependent
districts. They were surrounded and taken by assault; but Tarsus was
reduced by the slow progress of famine; and no sooner had the Saracens
yielded on honorable terms than they were mortified by the distant and
unprofitable view of the naval succors of Egypt. They were dismissed
with a safe-conduct to the confines of Syria: a part of the old
Christians had quietly lived under their dominion; and the vacant
habitations were replenished by a new colony. But the mosch was
converted into a stable; the pulpit was delivered to the flames; many
rich crosses of gold a