HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.
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the cruelty of the orders issued to the commanding officers, and the horridprecision with which they were carried into execution.
About the year 712, the Saracens again revived their former and apparentlymost favourite scheme of laying siege to Constantinople. But information oftheir intention having been conveyed to Anastasius, who, after the assassinationof Justinian the Second, and the deposition of Philippicus, had ascended thethrone, he immediately ordered a considerable number of light gallies to beconstructed, for the purpose of opposing their passage through that narrowstrcight, now known by the name of the Dardanelles. The Saracens, findingtheir project discovered, and having placed their principal hope of success onbeing able to make a sudden and unopposed attack, or what is commonly calleda coup de main, directed the course of their fleet to Phoenicia. In consequenceof this measure, the emperor on his part ordered the imperial armament torendezvous at Rhodes, where a mutiny taking place, not only rendered hiswhole plan of operations abortive, but caused the whole body of marinersand soldiers to throw off their allegiance to him, and declare in favour ofTheodosius, who, though a person of mean extraction, had found means to<insinuate himself into the favour of those people.
The usurper immediately determined on taking the most decisive and spi-rited measures in support of his newly acquired dignity, and proceeding atthe head of that armament which had raised him to the throne, resolved toundertake the siege of Constantinople itself. In this enterprize he provedmore successful than his rebellious usurpation merited, having made himselfmaster of the city, after a close investiture by sea and land for the space ofsix months. Successful, however, as his operations proved in their com-mencement, he was unable to keep possession of his assumed diadem; for Leo rwho had been appointed generalissimo by Anastasius, being powerfully sup-ported not only by the Imperialists, but by the Saracens themselves, defeatedthe army of Theodosius, which was to oppose him, under the command of hisson, and compelled him to abdicate his short-lived honours. About the year719, the Saracens, who with that versatility which constantly marked their poli-tical conduct, had taken up arms against Leo, the creature of their own power,invested Constantinople both by sea and land. The naval force employed,on this occasion, consisted, according to report, of two distinct, and, accordingto the term used by historians, mighty fleets : one equipped in Egypt, the-other in Africa. These extensive preparations were nevertheless incapable of
effecting