The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon [1730]
[Footnote 67: In the Geography of Abulfeda, the description of Syria, his native country, is the most interesting and authentic portion. It was published in Arabic and Latin, Lipsiae, 1766, in quarto, with the learned notes of Kochler and Reiske, and some extracts of geography and natural history from Ibn Ol Wardii. Among the modern travels, Pocock's Description of the East (of Syria and Mesopotamia, vol. ii. p. 88 - 209) is a work of superior learning and dignity; but the author too often confounds what he had seen and what he had read.]
[Footnote 68: The praises of Dionysius are just and lively. Syria, (in Periegesi, v. 902, in tom. iv. Geograph. Minor. Hudson.) In another place he styles the country differently, (v. 898.)
This poetical geographer lived in the age of Augustus, and his description of the world is illustrated by the Greek commentary of Eustathius, who paid the same compliment to Homer and Dionysius, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. l. iv. c. 2, tom. iii. p. 21, &c.)]
[Footnote 69: The topography of the Libanus and Anti-Libanus is excellently described by the learning and sense of Reland, (Palestin. tom. i. p. 311 - 326)]
[Footnote 70: - Emesae fastigia celsa renident. Nam diffusa solo latus explicat; ac subit auras Turribus in coelum nitentibus: incola claris Cor studiis acuit ... Denique flammicomo devoti pectora soli Vitam agitant. Libanus frondosa cacumina turget. Et tamen his certant celsi fastigia templi.
These verses of the Latin version of Rufus Avienus are wanting in the Greek original of Dionysius; and since they are likewise unnoticed by Eustathius, I must, with Fabricius, (Bibliot. Latin. tom. iii. p. 153, edit. Ernesti,) and against Salmasius, (ad Vopiscum, p. 366, 367, in Hist. August.,) ascribed them to the fancy, rather than the Mss., of Avienus.]
[Footnote 71: I am much better satisfied with Maundrell's slight octavo, (Journey, p. 134 - 139), than with the pompous folio of Dr. Pocock, (Description of the East, vol. ii. p. 106 - 113;) but every preceding account is eclipsed by the magnificent description and drawings of Mm. Dawkins and Wood, who have transported into England the ruins of Pamyra and Baalbec.]
[Footnote 72: The Orientals explain the prodigy by a never-failing expedient. The edifices of Baalbec were constructed by the fairies or the genii, Hist. de Timour Bec, tom. iii. l. v. c. 23, p. 311, 312. Voyage d'Otter, tom. i. p. 83.) With less absurdity, but with equal ignorance, Abulfeda and Ibn Chaukel ascribe them to the Sabaeans or Aadites Non sunt in omni Syria aedificia magnificentiora his, (Tabula Syria p. 108.)]
It was incumbent on the Saracens to exert the full powers of their valor and enthusiasm against the forces of the emperor, who was taught, by repeated losses, that the rovers of the desert had undertaken, and would speedily achieve, a regular and permanent conquest. From the provinces of Europe and Asia, fourscore thousand soldiers were transported by sea and land to Antioch and Caesarea: the light troops of the army consisted of sixty thousand Christian Arabs of the tribe of Gassan. Under the banner of Jabalah, the last of their princes, they marched in the van; and it was a maxim of the Greeks, that for the purpose of cutting diamond, a diamond was the most effectual. Heraclius withheld his person from the dangers of the field; but his presumption, or perhaps his despondency, suggested a peremptory order, that the fate of the province and the war should be decided by a single battle. The Syrians were attached to the standard of Rome and of the cross: but the noble, the citizen, the peasant, were exasperated by the injustice and cruelty of a licentious host, who