CALIPHS OF AFRICA. 43 



awakens our curiosity or surprise more than their 

 invasion of the Roman territories. Who could have 

 foretold that the roving Bedouins should have in- 

 sulted the majesty of the Caesars in their own capi- 

 tal, or raised their tecbar in the neighbourhood of the 

 eternal city ? In full possession of Sicily, these 

 " Sons of Satan," as the Librarian Anastasius with 

 pious indignation calls them, entered with a fleet 

 the mouth of the Tiber, and presumed to approach 

 the venerated metropolis of the Christian world. 

 The gates and ramparts were guarded by a trem- 

 bling people ; but the church and tombs of St. Peter 

 and St. Paul, without the walls, whose sanctity had 

 been respected by Goths, Vandals and Lombards, 

 were pillaged by the rapacious disciples of the Ko- 

 ran. The images, or Christian idols, were stripped 

 of their costly offerings ; a silver altar was torn away 

 from the shrine of St. Peter; and if any thing 

 escaped their destructive hands, it must be imputed 

 to the haste rather than the scruples of the spoilers. 

 But their divisions saved the capital. Directing 

 their course along the Appian Way, they pillaged 

 Fundi, and laid siege to Gaeta. In the hour of dan- 

 her the Romans implored the protection of the 

 Latin sovereign Lothaire ; but the imperial army 

 was overthrovm by a detatchment of the Moslems- 

 The church and the city owed their safety to the 

 courage and energy of Pope Leo IV., who, from 

 the pressing crisis of affairs, was unanimously called 

 to the chair without the forms and intrigues of an 

 election. 



The welcome news that the siege of Gaeta had 

 been raised, and a part of the enemy with their sa- 

 crilegious plunder immersed in the waves, gave the 

 harassed Romans the assurance of a short respite. 

 But the storm soon burst upon them with redoubled 

 violence. A fleet of Arabs and Moors from Africa, 

 after a short refreshment in the harbours of Sar- 

 dinia, again cast anchor off the mouth of the Tiber, 



