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was sold; and the paltry price of forty thousand pieces of gold was instantly consumed in private luxury. But the apprehensions of Bagdad were relieved by the retreat of the Greeks: thirst and hunger guarded the desert of Mesopotamia; and the emperor, satiated with glory, and laden with Oriental spoils, returned to Constantinople, and displayed, in his triumph, the silk, the aromatics, and three hundred myriads of gold and silver. Yet the powers of the East had been bent, not broken, by this transient hurricane. After the departure of the Greeks, the fugitive princes returned to their capitals; the subjects disclaimed their involuntary oaths of allegiance; the Moslems again purified their temples, and overturned the idols of the saints and martyrs; the Nestorians and Jacobites preferred a Saracen to an orthodox master; and the numbers and spirit of the Melchites were inadequate to the support of the church and state. Of these extensive conquests, Antioch, with the cities of Cilicia and the Isle of Cyprus, was alone restored, a permanent and useful accession to the Roman empire.
Chapter LIII:
Fate Of The Eastern Empire.
Part I. Fate Of The Eastern Empire In The Tenth Century. -- Extent And Division. -- Wealth And Revenue. -- Palace Of Constantinople. -- Titles And Offices. -- Pride And Power Of The Emperors. -- Tactics Of The Greeks, Arabs, And Franks. -- Loss Of The Latin Tongue. -- Studies And Solitude Of The Greeks. A ray of historic light seems to beam from the darkness of the tenth century. We open with curiosity and respect the