History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 6Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 6
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
doleful litany, “From the fury of the Tartars, good Lord, deliver
us,” had scattered the hasty report of an assault and massacre.
In the blind credulity of fear, the streets of Nice were crowded
with thousands of both sexes, who knew not from what or to whom
they fled; and some hours elapsed before the firmness of the
military officers could relieve the city from this imaginary foe.
But the ambition of Holagou and his successors was fortunately
diverted by the conquest of Bagdad, and a long vicissitude of
Syrian wars; their hostility to the Moslems inclined them to
unite with the Greeks and Franks; 37 and their generosity or
contempt had offered the kingdom of Anatolia as the reward of an
Armenian vassal. The fragments of the Seljukian monarchy were
disputed by the emirs who had occupied the cities or the
mountains; but they all confessed the supremacy of the khans of
Persia; and he often interposed his authority, and sometimes his
arms, to check their depredations, and to preserve the peace and
balance of his Turkish frontier. The death of Cazan, 38 one of
the greatest and most accomplished princes of the house of
Zingis, removed this salutary control; and the decline of the
Moguls gave a free scope to the rise and progress of the Ottoman
Empire. 39
34 (return) [ Some repulse of the Moguls in Hungary (Matthew
Paris, p. 545, 546) might propagate and color the report of the
union and victory of the kings of the Franks on the confines of
Bulgaria. Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 310) after forty years,
beyond the Tigris, might be easily deceived.]
35 (return) [ See Pachymer, l. iii. c. 25, and l. ix. c. 26, 27;
and the false alarm at Nice, l. iii. c. 27. Nicephorus Gregoras,
l. iv. c. 6.]
36 (return) [ G. Acropolita, p. 36, 37. Nic. Greg. l. ii. c. 6,
l. iv. c. 5.]
37 (return) [ Abulpharagius, who wrote in the year 1284, declares
that the Moguls, since the fabulous defeat of Batou, had not
attacked either the Franks or Greeks; and of this he is a
competent witness. Hayton likewise, the Armenian prince,
celebrates their friendship for himself and his nation.]
38 (return) [ Pachymer gives a splendid character of Cazan Khan,
the rival of Cyrus and Alexander, (l. xii. c. 1.) In the
conclusion of his history (l. xiii. c. 36) he _hopes_ much from
the arrival of 30,000 Tochars, or Tartars, who were ordered by
the successor of Cazan to restrain the Turks of Bithynia, A.D.
1308.]
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