Brightman - BS2823 B85 1644

C A P.9. 4Rervelationof the Apocalypse. 301 gan to prevaile, their infolencie was repreffed by almoft continnall difcomfitures which they tooke, and by civili difcord. Lechanodraco tamed them in Afsa; Conftantius;who raigned withhis mother Irene, did put them to flight ; Nicephorus was (lainby Leo eslrmenit ; :The fame did Theophidus, Michael his fonne by 73afilius Petrona,, and Andrew his Captains, and the reff of the enfuing Emperors had no leffe profperous fücceffe of their battells againfl: them; fo that there being now a manifeft declining of theirformer prosperity, their flou- rifhing Summer-time may worthily feeme to expire in the Eaft, about that time which I have fet down. But when they thus be- gan to wither in the Eaft, theybegan to bud again in the Me- terrane Ifles, in Italy, and `Pcloponefiu of Greece ; all which places theydid cruelly make havock of, and laid.wafte for' the fpace of an- other hundredandfiftie veers. Thepeople of Cyprùs were turned out their habitations, and tranfported to fome other place, about the jeer ßo7. at'lengtb, after 16o. yeers, they recovered their native foil, by the profperous condutì oftheir Captain Zimifca. This fpace is fomewhat more by a few yeers, but force weakning and infirmity -is wont togoe before an utter ruine ; fo that their flourishing eftate, may very well fquare with the number laid down. About the yeere 678. they bring under all Sicily into their power, which oftentirne before they had allayed to do; neither could. they be expelled from thence quite, till George Maniaces did utterly de- ftroy them, in the yeer o6o. more or lefl'e. Zonaras recordeth; that not long ,after this, they were' subdued 'again, and brought under the powerofthefe Agarenes ; but Ambstflus Catacalon killing -manyy thoufands of them, did fo' repreffe them, that they neither durft, nor could do the Chriftians that inhabited that place, any great harme. This (pace of time alfo is longer then the moneths here fet, unleffe, perhaps, the inhabiting of the Saracens was notfo cumberforne to the people of this Countrey all theft yeers, 'that are above the number of the five months. But in Italy the matter is more plaine. When itcalled forth the Saracens out of Babylon to come and help them, about -the yeere 830, .it' found them f}raightwayes to be deftroyers of them, whore it font for to be helpers: For they did in a molt grievous manner lay wa(te the chiefefk part of the Countrey ; neither had-they any breathing from calamities till the Emperor Otto the fecond, in the yeer 980. (That is, by â clear computation, an hundred and fiftie yeers after-they began to Make a fpoil of it ) did flay them with' fo grievous R r a a (laughter,

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=