Note 051 The bells rung! Ockley, vol. i. p. 38. Yet I much doubt whether this expression can be justified by the text of Al Wakidi, or the practice of the times. Ad Graecos, says the learned Ducange (Glossar. med. et infim. Graecitat. tom. i. p. 774) campanarum usus serius transit et etiamnum rarissimus est. The oldest example which he can find in the Byzantine writers is of the year 1040; but the Venetians pretend that they introduced bells at Constantinople in the ninth century.]

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The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire —Fall In The East —Chapter 51