50 



CALIPHS OF AFRICA. 



who had stolen a nun from her cloister, was sen- 

 tenced by the emperor to the amputation of his 

 tongue. He appealed to the Saracens of Africa, who 

 sent him back with a fleet of 100 ships, and an army 

 of 700 horse and 10,000 foot. These troops land- 

 ed at Mazara, near the ancient Silenus, and after 

 some partial victories, in which they made them- 

 selves masters of Ragusa, Messina, Enna, and other 

 places, they invested Syracuse. This city was de- 

 livered by the Greeks ; the apostate youth was 

 slain, and his African auxiliaries reduced to the ne- 

 cessity of feeding on the flesh of their own horses. 

 In their turn they were assisted by a powerful re- 

 inforcement from Andalusia; and by degrees the 

 western and largest portion of the island was sub- 

 dued. Palermo became the seat of the emir or 

 governor (A. n. 228), and the navy of the Saracens 

 rode with ease in its commodious harbour. Syra- 

 cuse resisted the Moslem yoke for a period of fifty 

 years ; and in the last fatal siege, her citizens dis- 

 played some remnant of the valour which had for- 

 merly baffled the power of Athens and Carthage. 

 The cruelties and exactions of the Arabs were enor- 

 mous. The silver plate of the cathedral weighed 

 5000 pounds, and the entire spoil was computed at 

 1,000,000 pieces of gold (about 462,500). 



For more than two centuries the emperors of 

 Constantinople, the princes of Beneventum, and the 

 Moslem armies, contended in all the horrors of war 

 for the possession of Sicily. By degrees the reli- 

 gion and language of the Greeks were eradicated ; 

 and such was the docility of the new proselytes, that 

 15,000 boys submitted to be circumcised and clothed 

 on the same day with the son of the African caliph. 



