244 ' A. D. yii. 



the whole of that great peninfula, which for two centuries withftood the 

 attacks of Rome when in the zenith of her miUtary glory, fell under 

 the power of the Saracens, excepting the mountains of Afturia, where 

 a few unconquerable fpirits flill preferved their independence ; and 

 whence ia after ages they defcended to recover the fovereignty of their 

 country from the pofterity of the Saracen conquerors, then called 

 Moors. 



yi6 — A fecond and more formidable attack upon Conftantinople was 

 made by the Saracens under the command of Moflemah, the brother of 

 Soliman the calif. Belides a great army, who marched by land to the 

 Hellefpont, they had a fleet, faid to confifl of eighteen hundred veflels, 

 twenty of which, capable of carrying a hundred foldiers each, were 

 efteemed large fhips ; whence it appears, that the reft were very fmall. 

 The Greek fire, conveyed among them by means of fire-fhips, totally 

 deftroyed this very numerous fleet, which, being crowded together in 

 fo narrow a channel, had no poflibility of efcaping from the flames. 

 A reinforcement of fhips and provifions from Egypt and Africa in the 

 following year fcarcely efcaped the fame defl:ru61:ion. The Saracens at 

 lafl: gave up the imdertaking as hopelefs : and Conftantinople was a fe- 

 cond time faved by the invention of Callinicus. 



It is worthy of remark, that the mountains of Libanus, which fur- 

 niftied timber for building the fliips of Sidon in the infancy of navi- 

 gation, were ftill the great nurfery for ftiip timbers, vaft fl;ores of which 

 were colleded on the coaft of Phoenicia by the Saracens for building 

 their fleets. 



718, September 4''' The earlieft naval battle recorded in Britifli 



hiftory was fought at a place called Ardanefs (apparently on the weft 

 coaft of Scotland) between Duncha-beg, king of Kentire, and Celvac 

 (or Selvac), king of Lorn, the fovereigns of two divifions or tribes of 

 the Scots. [J/i/i. Ult. MS. in MuJ. Biitan. Cat. Ayfc. N". 4,795.] 



About 730 — Now, and probably long before (for the notice is con- 

 nected by Bede with events of the year 604) London, though the ca- 

 pital of one of the fmalleft kingdoms in England, by its happy fituation 

 on the bank of the noble navigable River Thames, was an emporium 

 for many nations repairing to it by land and by fea *. This undoubted 

 teftimony of the trade of London fliows us, that the commerce of 

 England, which now anjmates the induftry of all the world, was then 

 chiefly, or entirely, of the paflive kind, and carried on by ftrangers. 



Bede, to whom we are indebted for this earlieft commercial notice of 



• ' Lomloiiia civitas eft, fupcr ripam prxf.iti ' ccaftfi' — ' and fco is moiiisjra folcc ccnp (tow.' 



' fliimlnis \_TI.Himefis'\ pofita, ct ipfa miiltoriim cm- Ceap (low (incicliaiuUzc pl.ice) will explain the 



' poriiim prpiilo.um terra mariquc vemcniiwn.' modern name of one of the principal trading ihccts 



[Beilx Hijl. ecchf. L. ii, c. 3.] King Alfred, in liis of the city, 

 tranflation of this paffage, calU the city ' Lunden- o 



