So fell the second great city of Christendom—­the fate of Jerusalem had fallen on Alexandria, the city of Athanasius, and Arius, and Cyril; the city that had imposed Trinitarian ideas and Mariolatry on the Church.  In his palace at Constantinople Heraclius received the fatal tidings.  He was overwhelmed with grief.  It seemed as if his reign was to be disgraced by the downfall of Christianity.  He lived scarcely a month after the loss of the town.

But if Alexandria had been essential to Constantinople in the supply of orthodox faith, she was also essential in the supply of daily food.  Egypt was the granary of the Byzantines.  For this reason two attempts were made by powerful fleets and armies for the recovery of the place, and twice had Amrou to renew his conquest.  He saw with what facility these attacks could be made, the place being open to the sea; he saw that there was but one and that a fatal remedy.  “By the living God, if this thing be repeated a third time I will make Alexandria as open to anybody as is the house of a prostitute!” He was better than his word, for he forthwith dismantled its fortifications, and made it an untenable place.

Fall of Carthage.  It was not the intention of the khalifs to limit their conquest to Egypt.  Othman contemplated the annexation of the entire North-African coast.  His general, Abdallah, set out from Memphis with forty thousand men, passed through the desert of Barca, and besieged Tripoli.  But, the plague breaking out in his army, he was compelled to retreat to Egypt.

All attempts were now suspended for more than twenty years.  Then Akbah forced his way from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean.  In front of the Canary Islands he rode his horse into the sea, exclaiming:  “Great God! if my course were not stopped by this sea, I would still go on to the unknown kingdoms of the West, preaching the unity of thy holy name, and putting to the sword the rebellious nations who worship any other gods than thee.”

These Saracen expeditions had been through the interior of the country, for the Byzantine emperors, controlling for the time the Mediterranean, had retained possession of the cities on the coast.  The Khalif Abdalmalek at length resolved on the reduction of Carthage, the most important of those cities, and indeed the capital of North Africa.  His general, Hassan, carried it by escalade; but reenforcements from Constantinople, aided by some Sicilian and Gothic troops, compelled him to retreat.  The relief was, however, only temporary.  Hassan, in the course of a few months renewed his attack.  It proved successful, and he delivered Carthage to the flames.

Jerusalem, Alexandria, Carthage, three out of the five great Christian capitals, were lost.  The fall of Constantinople was only a question of time.  After its fall, Rome alone remained.

In the development of Christianity, Carthage had played no insignificant part.  It had given to Europe its Latin form of faith, and some of its greatest theologians.  It was the home of St. Augustine.