CHAP. between the modern cities of Arzeroum and Van. His LVII. army amounted, at the least, to one hundred thousand men. The troops of Constantinople were reinforced by the disor derly multitudes of Phrygia and Cappadocia; but the real strength was composed of the subjects and allies of Europe, the legions of Macedonia, and the squadrons of Bulgaria; the Uzi, a Moldavian hord, who were themselves of the Turkish race; and, above all, the mercenary and adventurous bands of French and Normans. Their lances were commanded by the valiant Ursel of Baliol, the kinsman or father of the Scottish kings,32 and were allowed to excel in the exercise of arms, or, according to the Greek style, in the practice of the Pyrrhic dance. Defeat of the Romans, A. D. 1071. August. 31 On the report of this bold invasion, which threatened his hereditary dominions, Alp Arslan flew to the scene of action at the head of forty thousand horse.33 His rapid and skilful evolutions distressed and dismayed the superior numbers of the Greeks; and in the defeat of Basilacius, one of their principal generals, he displayed the first example of his valour and clemency. The imprudence of the emperor had separated his forces after the reduction of Malazkerd. It was in vain that he attempted to recall the mercenary Franks: they refused to obey his summons; he disdained to await their return: the desertion of the Uzi filled his mind with anxiety and suspicion; and against the most salutary advice he rushed forwards to speedy and decisive action. Had he name of Mantzikierte, and by some is confounded with Theodosiopolis; but Deslile, in his notes and maps, has very properly fixed the situation, Abulfeda (Geograph. tab. xviii. p. 310.) describes Malasgerd as a small town, built with black stone, supplied with water, without trees. &c. 31 The Uzi of the Greeks (Stritter, Memor. Byzant. tom. iii. p. 923...948.) are the Gozz of the Orientals (Hist. des Huns, tom ii p. 522. tom. iii. p. 133, &c.). They appear on the Danube and the Volga, in Armenia, Syria, and Chorasan, and the name seems to have been extended to the whole Turkman race. 32 Urselius (the Ruszelius of Zonaras) is distinguished by Jeffrey Malaterra (1.ic 33.) among the Norman conquerors of Sicily, and with the surname of Balio: and our own historians will tell how the Balicls came from Normandy to Durham, built Bernard's castle on the Tees, married an heiress of Scotland, &c. Ducange (Not. ad Nicephor. Bryennium, 1. ii. No. 4.) has laboured the subject in honour of the president de Bailleul, whose father had exchanged the sword for the gown. 33 Elmacin (p. 343, 544.) assigns this probable number, which is reduced by Abulplaragius to 15,000 (p. 227), and by d'Herbelot (p. 102.) to 12,000 here. But the same Elmacin gives 300,000 men to the emperor, of whom Abel, haragius says, cum centuni hominum millibus, multisque equis et magna pompa instructus. The Greeks abstain from any definition of numbers. LVII. listened to the fair proposals of the sultan, Romanus might CHAP. have secured a retreat, perhaps a peace; but in these overtures he supposed the fear or weakness of the enemy, and his answer was conceived in the tone of insult and defiance. "If the Barbarian wishes for peace, let him evacuate the "ground which he occupies for the encampment of the Romans, and surrender his city and palace of Rei as a pledge "of his sincerity." Alp Arslan smiled at the vanity of the demand, but he wept the death of so many faithful Moslems; and, after a devout prayer, proclaimed a free permission to all who were desirous of retiring from the field. With his own hands he tied up his horse's tail, exchanged his bow and arrows for a mace and scymetar, clothed himself in a white garment, perfumed his body with musk, and declared that if he were vanquished, that spot should be the place of his burial.34 The sultan himself had affected to cast away his missile weapons; but his hopes of victory were placed in the arrows of the Turkish cavalry, whose squadrons were loosely distributed in the form of a crescent. Instead of the successive lines and reserves of the Grecian tactics, Romanus led his army in a single and solid phalanx, and pressed with vigour and impatience the artful and yielding resistance of the Barbarians. In this desultory and fruitless combat he wasted the greater part of a summer's day, till prudence and fatigue compelled him to return to his camp. But a retreat is always perilous in the face of an active foe; and no sooner had the standard been turned to the rear than the phalanx was broken by the base cowardice, or the baser jealousy, of Andronicus, a rival prince, who disgraced his birth and the purple of the Cæsars.35 The Turkish squadrons poured a cloud of arrows on this moment of confusion and lassitude; and the horns of their formidable crescent were closed in the rear of the Greeks. In the destruction of the army and pillage of the camp, it would be needless to mention the number of the slain or captives. The Byzantine writers deplore 34 The Byzantine writers do not speak so distinctly of the presence of the sultan; he committed his forces to an eunuch, had retired to a distance, &c. Is it ignorance, or jealousy, or truth? 35 He was the son of the Cæsar John Ducas, brother of the emperor Constantine (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 165). Nicephorus Bryennis applauds his virtues and extenuates his faults (1. i. p. 30. 38. 1. ii. p. 53). Yet he owns his enmity to Romanus, 8 πάνυ δε φιλίας έχων προς βασιλέα, Scylitzes speaks more explicitly of his treason. CHAP. the loss of an inestimable pearl: they forget to mention, that LVII. in this fatal day the Asiatic provinces of Rome were irre trievably sacrificed. Captivity and deli verance of ror. As long as a hope survived, Romanus attempted to rally and save the relics of his army. When the centre, the Imthe empe- perial station, was left naked on all sides, and encompassed by the victorious Turks, he still, with desperate courage, maintained the fight till the close of day, at the head of the brave and faithful subjects who adhered to his standard. They fell around him: his horse was slain; the emperor was wounded; yet he stood alone and intrepid, till he was oppressed and bound by the strength of multitudes. The glo ry of this illustrious prize was disputed by a slave and a soldier; a slave who had seen him on the throne of Constantinople, and a soldier whose extreme deformity had been excused on the promise of some signal service. Despoiled of his arms, his jewels, and his purple, Romanus spent a dreary and perilous night on the field of battle, amidst a disorderly crowd of the meaner Barbarians. In the morning the royal captive was presented to Alp Arslan, who doubted of his fortune, till the identity of the person was ascertained by the report of his ambassadors, and by the more pathetic evidence of Basilacius, who embraced with tears the feet of his unhappy sovereign. The successor of Constantine, in a plebeian habit, was led into the Turkish divan, and commanded to kiss the ground before the lord of Asia. He reluctantly obeyed; and Alp Arslan, starting from his throne, is said to have planted his foot on the neck of the Roman emperor. But the fact is doubtful; and if, in this moment of insolence, the sultan complied with a national custom, the rest of his conduct has extorted the praise of his bigotted foes, and may afford a lesson to the most civilized He ages. instantly raised the royal captive from the ground; and thrice clasping his hand with tender sympathy, assured him, that his life and dignity should be inviolate in the hands of a prince who had learned to respect the majesty of his equals and the vicissitudes of fortune. From the divan, Romanus was conducted to an adjacent tent, where he was served with pomp and reverence by the officers of the sultan, who, 36 36 This circumstance, which we read and doub in Scylitzes and Constantine Manasses, is more pradently omitted by Nicephorus and Zonaras. LVII. twice each day, seated him in the place of honour at his own CHAP. table. In a free and familiar conversation of eight days, not a word, not a look, of insult, escaped from the conqueror; but he severely censured the unworthy subjects who had deserted their valiant prince in the hour of danger, and gently admonished his antagonist of some errors which he had committed in the management of the war. In the preliminaries of negotiation, Alp Arslan asked him what treatment he expected to receive, and the calm indifference of the emperor displays the freedom of his mind. "If you are cruel," said he," you will take my life; if you listen to pride, you will "drag me at your chariot wheels; if you consult your interest, you will accept a ransom, and restore me to my 66 country." "And what," continued the sultan, "would "have been your own behaviour, had fortune smiled on your arms?" The reply of the Greek betrays a sentiment, which prudence, and even gratitude, should have taught him to suppress."Had I vanquished," he fiercely said, “I would "have inflicted on thy body many a stripe." The Turkish emperor smiled at the insolence of his captive; observed that the Christian law inculcated the love of enemies and forgiveness of injuries; and nobly declared, that he would not imitate an example which he condemned. After mature deliberation, Alp Arslan dictated the terms of liberty and peace, a ransom of a million, an annual tribute of three hundred and sixty thousand pieces of gold,37 the marriage of the royal children, and the deliverance of all the Moslems. who were in the power of the Greeks. Romanus, with a sigh, subscribed this treaty, so disgraceful to the majesty of the empire; he was immediately invested with a Turkish robe of honour; his nobles and patricians were restored to their sovereign; and the sultan, after a courteous embrace, dismissed him with rich presents and a military guard. No sooner did he reach the confines of the empire, than he was informed that the palace and provinces had disclaimed their allegiance to a captive: a sum of two hundred thousand pieces was painfully collected; and the fallen monarch trans 37 The ransom and tribute are attested by reason and the Orientals. The other Greeks are modestly silent; but Nicephorus Bryennius dares to affirm, that the terms were 8x avazias Papaian apps, and that the emperor would have preferred death to a shameful treaty. CHAP. mitted this part of his ransom, with a sad confession of his LVII. Death of Alp Arslan A.D. 1072. impotence and disgrace. The generosity, or perhaps the ambition, of the sultan, prepared to espouse the cause of his ally; but his designs were prevented by the defeat, imprisonment, and death, of Romanus Diogenes.38 In the treaty of peace, it does not appear that Alp Arslan extorted any province or city from the captive emperor; and his revenge was satisfied with the trophies of his victory, and the spoils of Anatolia, from Antioch to the Black Sea. The fairest part of Asia was subject to his laws: twelve hundred princes, or the sons of princes, stood before his throne; and two hundred thousand soldiers marched under his banners. The sultan disdained to pursue the fugitive Greeks; but he meditated the more glorious conquest of Turkestan, the ori ginal seat of the house of Seljuk. He moved from Bagdad to the banks of the Oxus; a bridge was thrown over the ri ver; and twenty days were consumed in the passage of his troops. But the progress of the great king was retarded by the governor of Berzem; and Joseph the Carizmian presumed to defend his fortress against the powers of the East. When he was produced a captive in the royal tent, the sultan, instead of praising his valour, severely reproached his obsti nate folly; and the insolent replies of the rebel provoked a sentence, that he should be fastened to four stakes and left to expire in that painful situation. At this command the desperate Carizmian, drawing a dagger, rushed headlong towards the throne: the guards raised their battle-axes; their zeal was checked by Alp Arslan, the most skilful archer of the age; he drew his bow, but his foot slipped, the arrow glanced aside, and he received in his breast the dagger of Joseph, who was instantly cut in pieces. The wound was mortal; and the Turkish prince bequeathed a dying admonition to the pride of kings. "In my youth," said Alp Arslan, "I was advised by a sage, to humble myself before "God; to distrust my own strength; and never to despise 38 The defeat and captivity of Romanus Diogenes may be found in John Scylitzes ad calcem Cedreni, tom. ii. p. 835...843. Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 281... 284. Nicephorus Bryennius, l. i. p. 25...52. Glycas, p. 325...327. Constantine Manasses, p. 134. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 343, 344. Abulpharag. Dynast. p. 227. d'Herbelot, p. 102, 103. de Guignes, tom. iii. p. 207...211. Besides my old acquaintance Elmacin and Abulpharagius, the histerian of the Huns has consulted Abulfeda, and his epitomizer Benschounah, a Chronicle of the Caliphs, by Soyouthi, Albumahasen of Egypt, and Novairi of Africa. |