naccuracy.]

[Footnote 74: Constantin. Porphyrogen. in Vit. Basil. c. lxi. p. 185.
He calmly praises the stratagem; but the sailing round Peloponnesus is
described by his terrified fancy as a circumnavigation of a thousand
miles.]

[Footnote 75: The continuator of Theophanes (l. iv. p. 122, 123) names
the successive stations, the castle of Lulum near Tarsus, Mount Argaeus
Isamus, Aegilus, the hill of Mamas, Cyrisus, Mocilus, the hill of
Auxentius, the sun-dial of the Pharus of the great palace. He affirms
that the news were transmitted in an indivisible moment of time.
Miserable amplification, which, by saying too much, says nothing. How
much more forcible and instructive would have been the definition of
three, or six, or twelve hours!]

[Footnote 76: See the Ceremoniale of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, l. ii.
c. 44, p. 176-192. A critical reader will discern some inconsistencies
in different parts of this account; but they are not more obscure or
more stubborn than the establishment and effectives, the present and fit
for duty, the rank and file and the private, of a modern return, which
retain in proper hands the knowledge of these profitable mysteries.]

The invention of the Greek fire did not, like that of gun powder,
produce a total revolution in the art of war. To these liquid
combustibles the city and empire of Constantine owed their deliverance;
and they were employed in sieges and sea-fights with terrible effect.
But they were either less improved, or less susceptible of improvement:
the engines of antiquity, the catapultae, balistae, and battering-rams,
were still of most frequent and powerful use in the attack and defence
of fortifications; nor was the decision of battles reduced to the quick
and heavy fire of a line of infantry, whom it were fruitless to protect
with armor against a similar fire of their enemies. Steel and iron were
still the common instruments of destruction and safety; and the helmets,
cuirasses, and shields, of the tenth century did not, either in form
or substance, essentially differ from those which had covered the
companions of Alexander or Achilles. [77] But instead of accustoming the
modern Greeks, like the legionaries of old, to the constant and easy use
of this salutary weight, their armor was laid aside in light chariots,
which followed the march, till, on the approach of an enemy, they
resumed with haste and reluctance the unusual encumbrance. Their
offensive weapons consiste