After a siege of four months Jerusalem capitulated, her defenders
having no rest from the ceaseless assaults of the besiegers. Hard
work still lay before the Saracens in Syria; but after the
reduction of Aleppo, which cost several months' siege, with great
loss of lives to the invaders, they passed on to Antioch and other
strongholds, until, one by one, all had been subdued; the surrender
of Caesarea completing the great conquest and the subjection of
Syria to the rule of the Caliph.
Heraclius, wearied with a constant and uninterrupted succession of ill
news, which like those of Job came every day treading upon the heels of
each other, grieved at the heart to see the Roman Empire, once the
mistress of the world, now become the scorn and spoil of barbarian
insolence, resolved, if possible, to put an end to the outrages of the
Saracens once for all. With this view he raised troops in all parts of
his dominions, and collected so considerable an army as since the first
invasion of the Saracens had never appeared in Syria--not much unlike
one engaged in single combat who, distrustful of his own abilities and
fearing the worst, summons together his whole strength in hopes of
ending the dispute with one decisive blow.
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