© GEORGE FINLAY
HISTORY OF
with an introduction by V. R. R.
First Edition February 1906
CONTENTS
SECTION II
REIGN OF LEO III. (THE ISAURIAN) A.D.
717-741[1]
Saracen war - Siege of Constantinople -
Circumstances favourable to Leo's
reforms - Fables concerning Leo - Military, financial, and legal reforms
- Ecclesiastical policy - Rebellion in Greece - Papal opposition - Physical phenomena.
When Leo was raised to the throne, the
empire was threatened with immediate ruin. Six emperors had been dethroned
within the space of twenty years. Four perished by the hand of the public
executioner,[2] one died in obscurity, after being
deprived of sight,[3] and the other was only allowed to end
his days peacefully in a monastery, because Leo felt the imperial sceptre
firmly fixed in his own grasp.[4] Every army assembled to encounter the
Saracens had broken out into rebellion. The Bulgarians and Sclavonians wasted
Europe up top the walls of Constantinople; the Saracens ravaged the whole of
Asia Minor to the shores of the Bosphorus.
Amorium was the principal city of the
theme Anatolikon.[5] The Caliph Suleiman had sent his
brother, Moslemah, with a numerous army, to complete the conquest of the Roman
empire, which appeared to be an enterprise of no extraordinary difficulty, and
Amorium was besieged by the Saracens. Leo, who commanded the Byzantine troops,
required some time to concert the operations by which he hoped to raise the
siege. To gain the necessary delay, he opened negotiations with the invaders,
and, under the pretext of hastening the conclusion of the treaty, he visited
the Saracens general engaged in the siege with an escort of only 500 horse. The
Saracens were invited to suspend their attacks until the decision of Moslemah –
who was at the head of another division of the Mohammedan army – could be
known. In an interview which took place with the bishop and principal
inhabitants of the Amorium, relating to the proferred terms, Leo contrived to
exhort them to continue their defence, and assured them of speedy succour. The
besiegers, nevertheless, pressed forward their approaches. Leo, after his
interview with the Amorians, proposed that the Saracen general should accompany
him to the headquarters of Moslemah. The Saracen readily agreed to an
arrangement which would enable him to deliver so important a hostage to the
commander-in-chief. The wary Isaurian, who well knew that he would be closely
watched, had made his plan of escape. On reaching a narrow defile, from which a
cross road led to the advanced posts of his own army, Leo suddenly drew his
sabre and attacked the Saracens about his person; while his guards, who were
prepared for the signal, easily opened a way through the two thousand hostile
cavalry of the escort, and all reached the Byzantine camp in safety. Leo's
subsequent military dispositions and diplomatic negotiations induced the enemy
to raise the siege of Amorium, and the grateful inhabitants united with the
army in saluting the Emperor of the Romans. But in his arrangements with
Moslemah, he is accused by his enemies of having agreed to conditions which
facilitated the further progress of the Mohammedans, in order to secure his own
march to Constantinople. On this march he was met by the son of Theodosius III,
whom he defeated. Theodosius resigned his crown, and retired into a monastery;[6] while Leo made his triumphal entry into
the capital of the Golden Gate, and was crowned by the Patriarch in the church
of St. Sophia on the 25th of March, 717.
The position of Leo continued to be one of
extreme difficulty. The Caliph Suleiman, who had seen one private adventurer
succeed the other in quick succession on the imperial throne, deemed the moment
favourable for the final conquest of the Christians; and, reinforcing his
brother's army, he ordered him to lay siege to Constantinople. The Saracen
empire had now reached its greatest extent. From the banks of the Sihun and the
Indus to the shores of the Atlantic in Mauretania and Spain, the orders of
Suleiman were implicitly obeyed. The recent conquests of Spain in the West, and
of Fergana, Cashgar, and Sind in the East, had animated the confidence of the
Mohammedans to such a degree that no enterprise appeared difficult. The army
Moslemah led against Constantinople was the best appointed that had ever
attacked the Christians: it consisted
of eighty thousand fighting men. The caliph announced his intention of taking
the field in person with additional forces, should the capital of the
Christians offer a protracted resistance to the arms of Islam. The whole
expedition is said to have employed one hundred and eighty thousand; and the
number does not appear to be greatly exaggerated, if it be supposed to include
the sailors of the fleet, and the reinforcements which reached the camp before
Constantinople.
Moslemah, after capturing Pergamus,
marched to Abydos, where he was joined by the Saracen fleet. He then
transported his army across the Hellespont, and, marching along the shore of
the Propontis, invested Leo in his capital both by land and sea. The strong
walls of Constantinople, the engines of defence with which Roman and Greek art
had covered the ramparts, and the skill of the Byzantine engineers, rendered
every attempt to carry the place by assault hopeless, so that the Saracens were
compelled to trust to the effect of a strict blockade for gaining possession of
the city. They surrounded their camp with a deep ditch, and strengthened it
with a strong dyke. Moslemah then sent out large detachments to collect forage
and destroy the provisions, which might otherwise find their way into the besieged city. The presence of an
active enemy and a populous city required constant vigilance on the part of a
great portion of his land forces.
The Sacarcen fleet consisted of eighteen
hundred vessels of war and transports. In order to form the blockade, it was
divided into two squadrons: one was stationed on the Asiatic coast, in the
ports of Eutropius[7] and Anthimus, to prevent supplies
arriving from the Archipelago; the other occupied the bays in the European
shore of the Bosphorus above the point of Galata, in order to cut off all
communication with the balck sea and the cities of Cherson and Trebizond. The
first naval engagement took place as the fleet was taking up its position
within the Bosphorus. The current, rendered impetuous by a change of wind,
threw the heavy ships and transports into confusion. The besieged directed some
fireships against the crowded vessels, and succeeded in burning several, and
driving others on shore under the walls of Constantinople. The Saracen admiral,
Suleiman, confident in the number of his remaining ships of war, resolved to
avenge his partial defeat by a complete victory. He placed one hundred chosen
Arabs, in complete armour, in each of his best vessels, and, advancing to the
walls of Constantinople, made a vigorous attempt to enter the place by assault,
as it was enetered long after by Doge Dandolo. Leo was well prepared to repulse
the attack, and, under his experienced guidance, the Arabs were completely
defeated. A number of the Saracen ships were burned by the Greek fire which the
besieged launched from their walls. After this defeat, Suleiman withdrew the
European squadron of his fleet into the Sosthenian bay.
[7]Mundi Burnou.