THE GEOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF ASIA MINOR 



567 



the country, in 1882 we found a great 

 inscription, erected about 260 A. D., re- 

 cording 108 subscriptions to a purpose 

 half religious, half patriotic, viz., the 

 rally of paganism to support the Roman 

 emperors in their last great struggle 

 against the rising flood of Christianity. 



The subscriptions vary from 6,000 

 denarii to 500. This monument happens 

 to be complete ; but there are many frag- 

 ments of others similar in character. It 

 is not possible to specify what was the 

 actual monetary value of the denarius at 

 that exact date. Rapid depreciation in its 

 value was proceeding during the third 

 century, and exact knowledge is lacking, 

 but in any case the amount of money in- 

 volved is very considerable, and this dis- 

 trict is at the present time almost entirely 

 lacking in coinage. 



We used to find about 1880 that it was 

 extremely difficult to get change for a dol- 

 lar in any village. At first I suspected 

 intentional reluctance, but I learned that 

 it was largely due to actual want of 

 coined money. 



THE ARAB INVASIONS BEGIN 



There remains little space for the two 

 concluding topics. The prosperity of a 

 country such as we have described, just 

 as it was created by work guided by sci- 

 entific knowledge, could be maintained 

 only so long as there existed in the coun- 

 try a sufficiently high standard of social 

 and economic attainment to keep in order 

 the basis on which that prosperity rested. 



Watchfulness, care, and knowledge 

 were required to repair any fault which 

 developed in the irrigation works and 

 prevent any dislocation in trade. 



During the third century A. D., when 

 the Roman Empire was going to pieces, 

 Asia Minor was exposed to frequent in- 

 roads of barbarian tribes from Central 

 Asia, and there was for centuries almost 

 continuous war with the Sassanian mon- 

 archs of Persia and Mesopotamia. 



Thereafter arose the still greater men- 

 ace of the fiery Arab inroads. The Mos- 

 lem armies were knocking at the gates of 

 Constantinople only a few years after 

 Mohammed had fled a hunted fugitive 

 from Mecca, and almost every year be- 

 tween 660 and 965 A. D., bands of Arab 

 raiders or even great armies crossed the 

 Taurus and ranged over Asia Minor. 



Almost every city of the country was 

 captured at least once by the raiders ; yet 

 the immense strength of the highly or- 

 ganized Roman society prevailed in the 

 long run. 



There arose from time to time some 

 great emperor, such as Heraclius, about 

 600, who in a wonderful series of cam- 

 paigns broke the Sassanian power and 

 marched at will through Mesopotamia 

 and Persia and Armenia, or Xicephorus 

 Phocas, who finally ejected the Arabs 

 about 965 ; and these emperors rebuilt the 

 empire again and again. 



Although the Roman civilization sur- 

 vived in Asia Minor, it was dislocated 

 and out of repair. 



GREAT HIGHWAY WRECKED TO STOP 

 INVADERS 



The great highway through the Cilician 

 Gates, which was a necessary line of com- 

 munication and trade, had been wrecked 

 completely during those long wars. By- 

 zantine troops destroyed it to prevent the 

 Arabs from entering the Roman terri- 

 tory, and the Arabs naturally did nothing 

 to repair the damage. 



The road system generally was broken 

 up, and very few remnants of the old 

 Roman roadways can now be seen. The 

 lines of road can be traced by the mile- 

 stones, but the structure has usually dis- 

 appeared. 



The Roman social system had not been 

 destroyed to the same degree. The Arab 

 raids were too hurried. Moreover, there 

 was in western Asia the old religious law 

 of war, that the invader might destroy 

 the annual crops and produce scarcity and 

 famine, but he must not destroy the trees, 

 the olives and the vines, on which the 

 prosperity rested in so large a degree. 



Annual crops can be resown next year, 

 but trees require many years before they 

 begin to reward the labor bestowed upon 

 them. 



It was left to the Crusaders, under the 

 command of German and Norman and 

 Frankish nobles and bishops, to inaugu- 

 rate the era of the total destruction of a 

 country by cutting down the trees. 



Sometimes this was done as an urgent 

 war measure. For example, during the 

 siege of Jerusalem by the warriors of the 

 First Crusade, in 1100, almost all the 

 olive trees around Jerusalem were cut 



