History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

Name: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5
Author: Gibbon, Edward

Gibbon, Edward

Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.

and the Melchites who submitted to the Arabian yoke were indulged
      in the obscure but tranquil exercise of their worship. The
      intelligence of this disgraceful and calamitous event afflicted
      the declining health of the emperor; and Heraclius died of a
      dropsy about seven weeks after the loss of Alexandria. 114 Under
      the minority of his grandson, the clamors of a people, deprived
      of their daily sustenance, compelled the Byzantine court to
      undertake the recovery of the capital of Egypt. In the space of
      four years, the harbor and fortifications of Alexandria were
      twice occupied by a fleet and army of Romans. They were twice
      expelled by the valor of Amrou, who was recalled by the domestic
      peril from the distant wars of Tripoli and Nubia. But the
      facility of the attempt, the repetition of the insult, and the
      obstinacy of the resistance, provoked him to swear, that if a
      third time he drove the infidels into the sea, he would render
      Alexandria as accessible on all sides as the house of a
      prostitute. Faithful to his promise, he dismantled several parts
      of the walls and towers; but the people was spared in the
      chastisement of the city, and the mosch of Mercy was erected on
      the spot where the victorious general had stopped the fury of his
      troops.

      111 (return) [ The local description of Alexandria is perfectly
      ascertained by the master hand of the first of geographers,
      (D’Anville, Memoire sur l’Egypte, p. 52-63;) but we may borrow
      the eyes of the modern travellers, more especially of Thevenot,
      (Voyage au Levant, part i. p. 381-395,) Pocock, (vol. i. p.
      2-13,) and Niebuhr, (Voyage en Arabie, tom. i. p. 34-43.) Of the
      two modern rivals, Savary and Volmey, the one may amuse, the
      other will instruct.]

      112 (return) [ Both Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 319) and
      Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 28) concur in fixing the taking of
      Alexandria to Friday of the new moon of Moharram of the twentieth
      year of the Hegira, (December 22, A.D. 640.) In reckoning
      backwards fourteen months spent before Alexandria, seven months
      before Babylon, &c., Amrou might have invaded Egypt about the end
      of the year 638; but we are assured that he entered the country
      the 12th of Bayni, 6th of June, (Murtadi, Merveilles de l’Egypte,
      p. 164. Severus, apud Renaudot, p. 162.) The Saracen, and
      afterwards Lewis IX. of France, halted at Pelusium, or Damietta,
      during the season of the inundation of the Nile.]

      113 (return) [ Eutych. Annal. tom. ii. p. 316, 319.]

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Opening the text

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5Gibbon, Edward

History

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

Gibbon, Edward

Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.

and the Melchites who submitted to the Arabian yoke were indulged
      in the obscure but tranquil exercise of their worship. The
      intelligence of this disgraceful and calamitous event afflicted
      the declining health of the emperor; and Heraclius died of a
      dropsy about seven weeks after the loss of Alexandria. 114 Under
      the minority of his grandson, the clamors of a people, deprived
      of their daily sustenance, compelled the Byzantine court to
      undertake the recovery of the capital of Egypt. In the space of
      four years, the harbor and fortifications of Alexandria were
      twice occupied by a fleet and army of Romans. They were twice
      expelled by the valor of Amrou, who was recalled by the domestic
      peril from the distant wars of Tripoli and Nubia. But the
      facility of the attempt, the repetition of the insult, and the
      obstinacy of the resistance, provoked him to swear, that if a
      third time he drove the infidels into the sea, he would render
      Alexandria as accessible on all sides as the house of a
      prostitute. Faithful to his promise, he dismantled several parts
      of the walls and towers; but the people was spared in the
      chastisement of the city, and the mosch of Mercy was erected on
      the spot where the victorious general had stopped the fury of his
      troops.

      111 (return) [ The local description of Alexandria is perfectly
      ascertained by the master hand of the first of geographers,
      (D’Anville, Memoire sur l’Egypte, p. 52-63;) but we may borrow
      the eyes of the modern travellers, more especially of Thevenot,
      (Voyage au Levant, part i. p. 381-395,) Pocock, (vol. i. p.
      2-13,) and Niebuhr, (Voyage en Arabie, tom. i. p. 34-43.) Of the
      two modern rivals, Savary and Volmey, the one may amuse, the
      other will instruct.]

      112 (return) [ Both Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 319) and
      Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 28) concur in fixing the taking of
      Alexandria to Friday of the new moon of Moharram of the twentieth
      year of the Hegira, (December 22, A.D. 640.) In reckoning
      backwards fourteen months spent before Alexandria, seven months
      before Babylon, &c., Amrou might have invaded Egypt about the end
      of the year 638; but we are assured that he entered the country
      the 12th of Bayni, 6th of June, (Murtadi, Merveilles de l’Egypte,
      p. 164. Severus, apud Renaudot, p. 162.) The Saracen, and
      afterwards Lewis IX. of France, halted at Pelusium, or Damietta,
      during the season of the inundation of the Nile.]

      113 (return) [ Eutych. Annal. tom. ii. p. 316, 319.]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

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