ALOPECURUS, or Foxtail, genus of plants of the class 'I'riandria, and order Digynia. See BoTANy. (w) ALP AitsLAN, the second sultan of the dynasty of Seljeik in Persia, was born A. D. 1030. After many splendid conquests, he died A. D. 1072.
The original name of this prince V, as Ismael ; and he obtained the surname of Alp Arslan, or the valiant lion, from his military prowess and success in war. Alter commanding for ten years in Khorasan, under his uncle Togrul Beg, he succeeded him in the government, A. I). 1063. At the commencement of his reign, he found many of his subjects in open rebellion ; but by the de cision of his measures, and the able assistance of his vizier, he quickly reduced the insurgents to obedience. He then declared his son Malek Shah his successor; and having placed him on a throne of gold, he exacted an oath of allegiance to him from the chief officers and captains of the empire. The authority of Alp Arslan was now confirmed. Stimulated by the hope of obtain ing immense booty in the temple of St Basil, in Cesarea, he crossed the Euphrates at the head of the Turkish horse, entered the city, and plundered it of all its riches. The conquest of Armenia and Georgia was somewhat more difficult. In the former country indeed, the very name of independence was soon extinguished; but the Georgians retiring to the woods and fortresses of Mount Caucasus, struggled for some time with the power of the Sultan. They were, however, finally reduced to subjection (A. D. 1065,) and were condemned by the orders of Alp Arslan to wear horse shoes of iron at their ears as the mark of their degraded condition.
In 1068, Alp Arslan invaded the Roman dominions. At that time Eudocia, an able princess, ruled at Constan tinople. Sensible of the danger which threatened her empire, and of her own incapacity for leading the troops, she married Diogenes Romanus, a soldier of great bravery, and elevated him to a scat upon the throne. Notwithstanding the exhausted condition of his resources, the new emperor made head against the Turks, and sustained the declining fortune of Rome, with all the heroic valour for WhiCh he was conspicu ous. In three severe campaigns his arms were victori ous, and the Turks were obliged to retire beyond the Euphrates. But in the fourth, having advanced to the relief of Armenia with 100,000 soldiers under his com mand, he was met by Alp Arslan in person, and 40,000 of the Turkish cavalry. The sultan offered peace, but the emperor indignantly rejected his terms. " If the barbarian wishes for peace," said he, " let him evacuate the ground which he occupies for the encampment of the Romans, and surrender his city and palace of Rei as the pled6c of his sincerity." It is said that Alp Arslan smiled at this vain demand ; but reflecting that an awful engagement was about to follow, he wept at the thought of the slaughter which would take place, and of the many brave and faithful Moslems who should perish in the struggle. The legions of the emperor advanced in a solid phalanx. The Turks, who were loosely drawn up in the form of a crescent, yielded to the impetuosity of the Romans, and suffered them to waste their strength in fruitless encounters with detached bodies of their horse. The whole day was spent by the emperor in these ineffectual attempts. At length, wearied with ex ertion, he was forced to retreat ; and the barbarians pressing hard upon him, threw his troops into conftt' stun, and hastened their discomfiture. Still, however,
the native courage of Romanus was unbroken ; he at tempted to rally the legions, and maintained for a time, the unequal contest; but being wounded by an arrow, he fell in the midst of his enemies, was recognized, and taken prisoner. When brought into the presence of Alp Arslan, he sheaved none of that cowardly submis sion which is the attribute of little minds; and it is ex tremely improbable, from the general character of the sultan, that he leaped from his throne, as Scylitzes and Constantine Manasses have related, and put his foot upon the neck of the captive emperor, when prostrate before the divan. Nor is this at all consistent with the treatment which Romanus otherwise experienced : For the sultan raised him from the ground, embraced him affectionately, and assured him that his life was in no danger from a prince in whose eyes the bravery even of an enemy could be respected, and who was not ignorant of the changes which take place in the condition of kings. Generous and polite, to a degree of which there are few examples even among a civilized people, Alp Arslan conversed freely with his illustrious captive, during the period of eight clays; and suffered not a word or a look to escape front him which might wound the sensibility, or insult the misfortunes of the emperor. At length, when the terms of his ransom were about to be settled, Romanus was asked by the conqueror, what treatment he expected to receive. To this question the fallen emperor, with unsubdued magnanimity, replied in the following words " If you are cruel, you will take my life ; if you listen to pride, you will drag me at your cha riot wheels ; if you consult your interest, you will ac cept of a ransom, and restore me to my country :" "And what," continued the sultan, "would have been your own behaviour, had fortune smiled upon your arms ?" " Had I vanquished," said Romanus, "I would hare inflicted on thy body many a stripe." This firm and ungrateful reply did not provoke the resentment of the Turkish conqueror. Ile smiled at the words of his cap tive, observed that the Christian religion enjoined us to love our enemies, and to forgive those who have injured us; and generously avowed his resolution not to imitate an example which his judgment could not approve.
It was agreed that the emperor should pay to the Asiatic ruler 1,000,000 pieces of gold as his ransom, and 30,000 pieces as an annual tribute; that an inter marriage should take place between the royal children ; and that all the Moslems in the power of the Greeks should be instantly set free. To these humiliating con ditions Romanus submitted with reluctance. Nor was his reception among his own subjects at all calculated to diminish the sorrow which he experienced on account of his misfortunes. Many of the provinces had rebelled during his captivity ; and the officers of the palace, and numbers of the soldiers, had disclaimed their allegiance to one who was a prisoner at a foreign court. He was unable to collect the sum which had been agreed upon for his ransom, and could remit no more than 200,000 pieces ; and even these were procured with the utmost difficulty. The sultan, however, prompted by ambition, or perhaps influenced by friendship, was inclined to espouse the cause of the unfortunate emperor, and to support him with his troops ; but the defeat, imprison ment, and death of Romanus, constrained bins to relin quish his purpose.