The hundred cities of the age of Minos were diminished to thirty; and of these, only one, most probably Cydonia, had courage to retain the substance of freedom and the profession of Christianity.

The Saracens of Crete soon repaired the loss of their navy; and the timbers of Mount Ida were launched into the main.

During a hostile period of one hundred and thirty-eight years, the princes of Constantinople attacked these licentious corsairs with fruitless curses and ineffectual arms.
The loss of Sicily was occasioned by an act of superstitious rigor.

An amorous youth, who had stolen a nun from her cloister, was sentenced by the emperor to the amputation of his tongue.

Euphemius appealed to the reason and policy of the Saracens of Africa; and soon returned with the Imperial purple, a fleet of one hundred ships, and an army of seven hundred horse and ten thousand foot.