HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Edward Gibbon, Esq. 

With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman

Vol. 4

1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)

Chapter XXXIX: Gothic Kingdom Of Italy. --Part I. 

 Zeno And Anastasius, Emperors Of The East. --Birth, Education, And First Exploits Of Theodoric The Ostrogoth. -- His Invasion And Conquest Of Italy. --The Gothic Kingdom Of Italy. --State Of The West. --Military And Civil Government. -- The Senator Boethius. --Last Acts And Death Of Theodoric. 

After the fall of the Roman empire in the West, an interval of fiftyyears, till the memorable reign of Justinian, is faintly marked by theobscure names and imperfect annals of Zeno, Anastasius, and Justin, whosuccessively ascended to the throne of Constantinople. During the sameperiod, Italy revived and flourished under the government of a Gothicking, who might have deserved a statue among the best and bravest of theancient Romans. 

Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the fourteenth in lineal descent of the royalline of the Amali, [1] was born in the neighborhood of Vienna [2] twoyears after the death of Attila. [2111] A recent victory had restoredthe independence of the Ostrogoths; and the three brothers, Walamir, Theodemir, and Widimir, who ruled that warlike nation with unitedcounsels, had separately pitched their habitations in the fertile thoughdesolate province of Pannonia. The Huns still threatened their revoltedsubjects, but their hasty attack was repelled by the single forces ofWalamir, and the news of his victory reached the distant camp of hisbrother in the same auspicious moment that the favorite concubine ofTheodemir was delivered of a son and heir. In the eighth year of hisage, Theodoric was reluctantly yielded by his father to the publicinterest, as the pledge of an alliance which Leo, emperor of the East, had consented to purchase by an annual subsidy of three hundred poundsof gold. The royal hostage was educated at Constantinople with care andtenderness. His body was formed to all the exercises of war, his mindwas expanded by the habits of liberal conversation; he frequented theschools of the most skilful masters; but he disdained or neglectedthe arts of Greece, and so ignorant did he always remain of the firstelements of science, that a rude mark was contrived to representthe signature of the illiterate king of Italy. [3] As soon as he hadattained the age of eighteen, he was restored to the wishes ofthe Ostrogoths, whom the emperor aspired to gain by liberality andconfidence. Walamir had fallen in battle; the youngest of the brothers, Widimir, had led away into Italy and Gaul an army of Barbarians, and thewhole nation acknowledged for their king the father of Theodoric. Hisferocious subjects admired the strength and stature of their youngprince; [4] and he soon convinced them that he had not degenerated fromthe valor of his ancestors. At the head of six thousand volunteers, hesecretly left the camp in quest of adventures, descended the Danube asfar as Singidunum, or Belgrade, and soon returned to his father withthe spoils of a Sarmatian king whom he had vanquished and slain. Suchtriumphs, however, were productive only of fame, and the invincibleOstrogoths were reduced to extreme distress by the want of clothing andfood. They unanimously resolved to desert their Pannonian encampments, and boldly to advance into the warm and wealthy neighborhood of theByzantine court, which already maintained in pride and luxury so manybands of confederate Goths. After proving, by some acts of hostility, that they could be dangerous, or at least troublesome, enemies, theOstrogoths sold at a high price their reconciliation and fidelity, accepted a donative of lands and money, and were intrusted with thedefence of the Lower Danube, under the command of Theodoric, whosucceeded after his father's death to the hereditary throne of theAmali. [5]

[Footnote 1: Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 13, 14, p. 629, 630, edit. Grot. ) has drawn the pedigree of Theodoric from Gapt, one of the Ansesor Demigods, who lived about the time of Domitian. Cassiodorus, thefirst who celebrates the royal race of the Amali, (Viriar. Viii. 5, ix. 25, x. 2, xi. 1, ) reckons the grandson of Theodoric as the xviithin descent. Peringsciold (the Swedish commentator of Cochloeus, Vit. Theodoric. P. 271, &c. , Stockholm, 1699) labors to connect thisgenealogy with the legends or traditions of his native country. * Note:Amala was a name of hereditary sanctity and honor among the Visigoths. It enters into the names of Amalaberga, Amala suintha, (swinther meansstrength, ) Amalafred, Amalarich. In the poem of the Nibelungen writtenthree hundred years later, the Ostrogoths are called the Amilungen. According to Wachter it means, unstained, from the privative a, and maloa stain. It is pure Sanscrit, Amala, immaculatus. Schlegel. IndischeBibliothek, 1. P. 233. --M. ]

[Footnote 2: More correctly on the banks of the Lake Pelso, (Nieusiedler-see, ) near Carnuntum, almost on the same spot where MarcusAntoninus composed his meditations, Jornandes, c. 52, p. 659. Severin. Pannonia Illustrata, p. 22. Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq. (tom. I. P. 350. )]

[Footnote 2111: The date of Theodoric's birth is not accuratelydetermined. We can hardly err, observes Manso, in placing it betweenthe years 453 and 455, Manso, Geschichte des Ost Gothischen Reichs, p. 14. --M. ]

[Footnote 3: The four first letters of his name were inscribed on a goldplate, and when it was fixed on the paper, the king drew his pen throughthe intervals (Anonym. Valesian. Ad calcem Amm. Marcellin p. 722. ) Thisauthentic fact, with the testimony of Procopius, or at least of thecontemporary Goths, (Gothic. 1. I. C. 2, p. 311, ) far outweighsthe vague praises of Ennodius (Sirmond Opera, tom. I. P. 1596) andTheophanes, (Chronograph. P. 112. ) * Note: Le Beau and his Commentator, M. St. Martin, support, though with no very satisfactory evidence, theopposite opinion. But Lord Mahon (Life of Belisarius, p. 19) urges themuch stronger argument, the Byzantine education of Theodroic. --M. ]

[Footnote 4: Statura est quae resignet proceritate regnantem, (Ennodius, p. 1614. ) The bishop of Pavia (I mean the ecclesiastic who wished to bea bishop) then proceeds to celebrate the complexion, eyes, hands, &c, ofhis sovereign. ]

[Footnote 5: The state of the Ostrogoths, and the first years ofTheodoric, are found in Jornandes, (c. 52--56, p. 689--696) and Malchus, (Excerpt. Legat. P. 78--80, ) who erroneously styles him the son ofWalamir. ]

A hero, descended from a race of kings, must have despised the baseIsaurian who was invested with the Roman purple, without any endowmentof mind or body, without any advantages of royal birth, or superiorqualifications. After the failure of the Theodosian life, the choice ofPulcheria and of the senate might be justified in some measure by thecharacters of Martin and Leo, but the latter of these princes confirmedand dishonored his reign by the perfidious murder of Aspar and his sons, who too rigorously exacted the debt of gratitude and obedience. Theinheritance of Leo and of the East was peaceably devolved on his infantgrandson, the son of his daughter Ariadne; and her Isaurian husband, thefortunate Trascalisseus, exchanged that barbarous sound for the Grecianappellation of Zeno. After the decease of the elder Leo, he approachedwith unnatural respect the throne of his son, humbly received, asa gift, the second rank in the empire, and soon excited the publicsuspicion on the sudden and premature death of his young colleague, whose life could no longer promote the success of his ambition. But thepalace of Constantinople was ruled by female influence, and agitated byfemale passions: and Verina, the widow of Leo, claiming his empire asher own, pronounced a sentence of deposition against the worthless andungrateful servant on whom she alone had bestowed the sceptre of theEast. [6] As soon as she sounded a revolt in the ears of Zeno, hefled with precipitation into the mountains of Isauria, and her brotherBasiliscus, already infamous by his African expedition, [7] wasunanimously proclaimed by the servile senate. But the reign of theusurper was short and turbulent. Basiliscus presumed to assassinate thelover of his sister; he dared to offend the lover of his wife, the vainand insolent Harmatius, who, in the midst of Asiatic luxury, affectedthe dress, the demeanor, and the surname of Achilles. [8] By theconspiracy of the malecontents, Zeno was recalled from exile; thearmies, the capital, the person, of Basiliscus, were betrayed; and hiswhole family was condemned to the long agony of cold and hunger by theinhuman conqueror, who wanted courage to encounter or to forgive hisenemies. [811] The haughty spirit of Verina was still incapable ofsubmission or repose. She provoked the enmity of a favorite general, embraced his cause as soon as he was disgraced, created a new emperorin Syria and Egypt, [812] raised an army of seventy thousand men, andpersisted to the last moment of her life in a fruitless rebellion, which, according to the fashion of the age, had been predicted byChristian hermits and Pagan magicians. While the East was afflicted bythe passions of Verina, her daughter Ariadne was distinguished by thefemale virtues of mildness and fidelity; she followed her husband in hisexile, and after his restoration, she implored his clemency in favor ofher mother. On the decease of Zeno, Ariadne, the daughter, the mother, and the widow of an emperor, gave her hand and the Imperial title toAnastasius, an aged domestic of the palace, who survived his elevationabove twenty-seven years, and whose character is attested by theacclamation of the people, "Reign as you have lived!" [9] [911]

[Footnote 6: Theophanes (p. 111) inserts a copy of her sacred letters tothe provinces. Such female pretensions would have astonished the slavesof the first Caesars. ]

[Footnote 7: Vol. Iii. P. 504--508. ]

[Footnote 8: Suidas, tom. I. P. 332, 333, edit. Kuster. ]

[Footnote 811: Joannes Lydus accuses Zeno of timidity, or, rather, ofcowardice; he purchased an ignominious peace from the enemies of theempire, whom he dared not meet in battle; and employed his whole timeat home in confiscations and executions. Lydus, de Magist. Iii. 45, p. 230. --M. ]

[Footnote 812: Named Illus. --M. ]

[Footnote 9: The contemporary histories of Malchus and Candidus arelost; but some extracts or fragments have been saved by Photius, (lxxviii. Lxxix. P. 100--102, ) Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (Excerpt. Leg. P. 78--97, ) and in various articles of the Lexicon of Suidas. TheChronicles of Marcellinus (Imago Historiae) are originals for the reignsof Zeno and Anastasius; and I must acknowledge, almost for the lasttime, my obligations to the large and accurate collections of Tillemont, (Hist. Des Emp. Tom. Vi. P. 472--652). ]

[Footnote 912: The Panegyric of Procopius of Gaza, (edited by Villoisonin his Anecdota Graeca, and reprinted in the new edition of theByzantine historians by Niebuhr, in the same vol. With Dexippus andEunapius, viii. P. 488 516, ) was unknown to Gibbon. It is vague andpedantic, and contains few facts. The same criticism will apply to thepoetical panegyric of Priscian edited from the Ms. Of Bobbio by Ang. Mai. Priscian, the gram marian, Niebuhr argues from this work, must havebeen born in the African, not in either of the Asiatic Caesareas. Pref. P. Xi. --M. ]

Whatever fear of affection could bestow, was profusely lavished by Zenoon the king of the Ostrogoths; the rank of patrician and consul, thecommand of the Palatine troops, an equestrian statue, a treasure in goldand silver of many thousand pounds, the name of son, and the promise ofa rich and honorable wife. As long as Theodoric condescended to serve, he supported with courage and fidelity the cause of his benefactor; hisrapid march contributed to the restoration of Zeno; and in the secondrevolt, the Walamirs, as they were called, pursued and pressed theAsiatic rebels, till they left an easy victory to the Imperial troops. [10] But the faithful servant was suddenly converted into a formidableenemy, who spread the flames of war from Constantinople to the Adriatic;many flourishing cities were reduced to ashes, and the agriculture ofThrace was almost extirpated by the wanton cruelty of the Goths, whodeprived their captive peasants of the right hand that guided theplough. [11] On such occasions, Theodoric sustained the loud andspecious reproach of disloyalty, of ingratitude, and of insatiateavarice, which could be only excused by the hard necessity of hissituation. He reigned, not as the monarch, but as the minister of aferocious people, whose spirit was unbroken by slavery, and impatient ofreal or imaginary insults. Their poverty was incurable; since the mostliberal donatives were soon dissipated in wasteful luxury, and the mostfertile estates became barren in their hands; they despised, but theyenvied, the laborious provincials; and when their subsistence hadfailed, the Ostrogoths embraced the familiar resources of war andrapine. It had been the wish of Theodoric (such at least was hisdeclaration) to lead a peaceful, obscure, obedient life on the confinesof Scythia, till the Byzantine court, by splendid and fallaciouspromises, seduced him to attack a confederate tribe of Goths, who hadbeen engaged in the party of Basiliscus. He marched from his station inMaesia, on the solemn assurance that before he reached Adrianople, heshould meet a plentiful convoy of provisions, and a reenforcement ofeight thousand horse and thirty thousand foot, while the legions of Asiawere encamped at Heraclea to second his operations. These measures weredisappointed by mutual jealousy. As he advanced into Thrace, the son ofTheodemir found an inhospitable solitude, and his Gothic followers, witha heavy train of horses, of mules, and of wagons, were betrayed by theirguides among the rocks and precipices of Mount Sondis, where he wasassaulted by the arms and invectives of Theodoric the son of Triarius. From a neighboring height, his artful rival harangued the camp of theWalamirs, and branded their leader with the opprobrious names of child, of madman, of perjured traitor, the enemy of his blood and nation. "Areyou ignorant, " exclaimed the son of Triarius, "that it is the constantpolicy of the Romans to destroy the Goths by each other's swords?Are you insensible that the victor in this unnatural contest will beexposed, and justly exposed, to their implacable revenge? Where arethose warriors, my kinsmen and thy own, whose widows now lament thattheir lives were sacrificed to thy rash ambition? Where is the wealthwhich thy soldiers possessed when they were first allured from theirnative homes to enlist under thy standard? Each of them was then masterof three or four horses; they now follow thee on foot, like slaves, through the deserts of Thrace; those men who were tempted by the hopeof measuring gold with a bushel, those brave men who are as free and asnoble as thyself. " A language so well suited to the temper of the Gothsexcited clamor and discontent; and the son of Theodemir, apprehensive ofbeing left alone, was compelled to embrace his brethren, and to imitatethe example of Roman perfidy. [12] [1211]

[Footnote 10: In ipsis congressionis tuae foribus cessit invasor, cumprofugo per te sceptra redderentur de salute dubitanti. Ennodius thenproceeds (p. 1596, 1597, tom. I. Sirmond. ) to transport his hero (ona flying dragon?) into Aethiopia, beyond the tropic of Cancer. Theevidence of the Valesian Fragment, (p. 717, ) Liberatus, (Brev. Eutych. C. 25 p. 118, ) and Theophanes, (p. 112, ) is more sober and rational. ]

[Footnote 11: This cruel practice is specially imputed to the TriarianGoths, less barbarous, as it should seem, than the Walamirs; but the sonof Theodemir is charged with the ruin of many Roman cities, (Malchus, Excerpt. Leg. P. 95. )]

[Footnote 12: Jornandes (c. 56, 57, p. 696) displays the services ofTheodoric, confesses his rewards, but dissembles his revolt, of whichsuch curious details have been preserved by Malchus, (Excerpt. Legat. P. 78--97. ) Marcellinus, a domestic of Justinian, under whose ivthconsulship (A. D. 534) he composed his Chronicle, (Scaliger, ThesaurusTemporum, P. Ii, p. 34--57, ) betrays his prejudice and passion: inGraeciam debacchantem . .. Zenonis munificentia pene pacatus. .. Beneficiisnunquam satiatus, &c. ]

[Footnote 1211: Gibbon has omitted much of the complicated intrigues ofthe Byzantine court with the two Theodorics. The weak emperor attemptedto play them one against the other, and was himself in turn insulted, and the empire ravaged, by both. The details of the successivealliance and revolt, of hostility and of union, between the twoGothic chieftains, to dictate terms to the emperor, may be found inMalchus. --M. ]

In every state of his fortune, the prudence and firmness of Theodoricwere equally conspicuous; whether he threatened Constantinople at thehead of the confederate Goths, or retreated with a faithful band to themountains and sea-coast of Epirus. At length the accidental death of theson of Triarius [13] destroyed the balance which the Romans had been soanxious to preserve, the whole nation acknowledged the supremacy of theAmali, and the Byzantine court subscribed an ignominious and oppressivetreaty. [14] The senate had already declared, that it was necessaryto choose a party among the Goths, since the public was unequal to thesupport of their united forces; a subsidy of two thousand pounds ofgold, with the ample pay of thirteen thousand men, were required for theleast considerable of their armies; [15] and the Isaurians, who guardednot the empire but the emperor, enjoyed, besides the privilege ofrapine, an annual pension of five thousand pounds. The sagacious mind ofTheodoric soon perceived that he was odious to the Romans, and suspectedby the Barbarians: he understood the popular murmur, that his subjectswere exposed in their frozen huts to intolerable hardships, while theirking was dissolved in the luxury of Greece, and he prevented the painfulalternative of encountering the Goths, as the champion, or of leadingthem to the field, as the enemy, of Zeno. Embracing an enterprise worthyof his courage and ambition, Theodoric addressed the emperor in thefollowing words: "Although your servant is maintained in affluence byyour liberality, graciously listen to the wishes of my heart! Italy, theinheritance of your predecessors, and Rome itself, the head and mistressof the world, now fluctuate under the violence and oppression of Odoacerthe mercenary. Direct me, with my national troops, to march againstthe tyrant. If I fall, you will be relieved from an expensive andtroublesome friend: if, with the divine permission, I succeed, I shallgovern in your name, and to your glory, the Roman senate, and the partof the republic delivered from slavery by my victorious arms. " Theproposal of Theodoric was accepted, and perhaps had been suggested, bythe Byzantine court. But the forms of the commission, or grant, appear to have been expressed with a prudent ambiguity, which might beexplained by the event; and it was left doubtful, whether the conquerorof Italy should reign as the lieutenant, the vassal, or the ally, of theemperor of the East. [16

[Footnote 13: As he was riding in his own camp, an unruly horse threwhim against the point of a spear which hung before a tent, or was fixedon a wagon, (Marcellin. In Chron. Evagrius, l. Iii. C. 25. )]

[Footnote 14: See Malchus (p. 91) and Evagrius, (l. Iii. C. 35. )]

[Footnote 15: Malchus, p. 85. In a single action, which was decided bythe skill and discipline of Sabinian, Theodoric could lose 5000 men. ][Footnote 16: Jornandes (c. 57, p. 696, 697) has abridged the greathistory of Cassiodorus. See, compare, and reconcile Procopius, (Gothic. L. I. C. I. , ) the Valesian Fragment, (p. 718, ) Theophanes, (p. 113, ) andMarcellinus, (in Chron. )]

The reputation both of the leader and of the war diffused a universalardor; the Walamirs were multiplied by the Gothic swarms already engagedin the service, or seated in the provinces, of the empire; and eachbold Barbarian, who had heard of the wealth and beauty of Italy, wasimpatient to seek, through the most perilous adventures, the possessionof such enchanting objects. The march of Theodoric must be considered asthe emigration of an entire people; the wives and children of theGoths, their aged parents, and most precious effects, were carefullytransported; and some idea may be formed of the heavy baggage that nowfollowed the camp, by the loss of two thousand wagons, which hadbeen sustained in a single action in the war of Epirus. For theirsubsistence, the Goths depended on the magazines of corn which wasground in portable mills by the hands of their women; on the milk andflesh of their flocks and herds; on the casual produce of the chase, andupon the contributions which they might impose on all who shouldpresume to dispute the passage, or to refuse their friendly assistance. Notwithstanding these precautions, they were exposed to the danger, andalmost to the distress, of famine, in a march of seven hundred miles, which had been undertaken in the depth of a rigorous winter. Since thefall of the Roman power, Dacia and Pannonia no longer exhibited therich prospect of populous cities, well-cultivated fields, and convenienthighways: the reign of barbarism and desolation was restored, and thetribes of Bulgarians, Gepidae, and Sarmatians, who had occupied thevacant province, were prompted by their native fierceness, or thesolicitations of Odoacer, to resist the progress of his enemy. In manyobscure though bloody battles, Theodoric fought and vanquished; till atlength, surmounting every obstacle by skilful conduct and perseveringcourage, he descended from the Julian Alps, and displayed his invinciblebanners on the confines of Italy. [17]

[Footnote 17: Theodoric's march is supplied and illustrated by Ennodius, (p. 1598--1602, ) when the bombast of the oration is translated into thelanguage of common sense. ]

Odoacer, a rival not unworthy of his arms, had already occupied theadvantageous and well-known post of the River Sontius, near the ruins ofAquileia, at the head of a powerful host, whose independent kings [18]or leaders disdained the duties of subordination and the prudence ofdelays. No sooner had Theodoric gained a short repose and refreshment tohis wearied cavalry, than he boldly attacked the fortifications of theenemy; the Ostrogoths showed more ardor to acquire, than the mercenariesto defend, the lands of Italy; and the reward of the first victory wasthe possession of the Venetian province as far as the walls of Verona. In the neighborhood of that city, on the steep banks of the rapidAdige, he was opposed by a new army, reenforced in its numbers, and notimpaired in its courage: the contest was more obstinate, but the eventwas still more decisive; Odoacer fled to Ravenna, Theodoric advancedto Milan, and the vanquished troops saluted their conqueror with loudacclamations of respect and fidelity. But their want either of constancyor of faith soon exposed him to the most imminent danger; his vanguard, with several Gothic counts, which had been rashly intrusted toa deserter, was betrayed and destroyed near Faenza by his doubletreachery; Odoacer again appeared master of the field, and the invader, strongly intrenched in his camp of Pavia, was reduced to solicit theaid of a kindred nation, the Visigoths of Gaul. In the course ofthis History, the most voracious appetite for war will be abundantlysatiated; nor can I much lament that our dark and imperfect materials donot afford a more ample narrative of the distress of Italy, and of thefierce conflict, which was finally decided by the abilities, experience, and valor of the Gothic king. Immediately before the battle of Verona, he visited the tent of his mother [19] and sister, and requested, thaton a day, the most illustrious festival of his life, they would adornhim with the rich garments which they had worked with their own hands. "Our glory, " said he, "is mutual and inseparable. You are known to theworld as the mother of Theodoric; and it becomes me to prove, that I amthe genuine offspring of those heroes from whom I claim my descent. "The wife or concubine of Theodemir was inspired with the spirit of theGerman matrons, who esteemed their sons' honor far above their safety;and it is reported, that in a desperate action, when Theodoric himselfwas hurried along by the torrent of a flying crowd, she boldly met themat the entrance of the camp, and, by her generous reproaches, drove themback on the swords of the enemy. [20]

[Footnote 18: Tot reges, &c. , (Ennodius, p. 1602. ) We must recollecthow much the royal title was multiplied and degraded, and that themercenaries of Italy were the fragments of many tribes and nations. ]

[Footnote 19: See Ennodius, p. 1603, 1604. Since the orator, in theking's presence, could mention and praise his mother, we may concludethat the magnanimity of Theodoric was not hurt by the vulgar reproachesof concubine and bastard. * Note: Gibbon here assumes that the motherof Theodoric was the concubine of Theodemir, which he leaves doubtful inthe text. --M. ]

[Footnote 20: This anecdote is related on the modern but respectableauthority of Sigonius, (Op. Tom. I. P. 580. De Occident. Impl. L. Xv. :)his words are curious: "Would you return?" &c. She presented and almostdisplayed the original recess. * Note: The authority of Sigonius wouldscarcely have weighed with Gibboa except for an indecent anecdote. I have a recollection of a similar story in some of the Italianwars. --M. ]

From the Alps to the extremity of Calabria, Theodoric reigned by theright of conquest; the Vandal ambassadors surrendered the Island ofSicily, as a lawful appendage of his kingdom; and he was accepted asthe deliverer of Rome by the senate and people, who had shut theirgates against the flying usurper. [21] Ravenna alone, secure in thefortifications of art and nature, still sustained a siege of almostthree years; and the daring sallies of Odoacer carried slaughter anddismay into the Gothic camp. At length, destitute of provisions andhopeless of relief, that unfortunate monarch yielded to the groans ofhis subjects and the clamors of his soldiers. A treaty of peace wasnegotiated by the bishop of Ravenna; the Ostrogoths were admitted intothe city, and the hostile kings consented, under the sanction of anoath, to rule with equal and undivided authority the provinces of Italy. The event of such an agreement may be easily foreseen. After some dayshad been devoted to the semblance of joy and friendship, Odoacer, in themidst of a solemn banquet, was stabbed by the hand, or at least by thecommand, of his rival. Secret and effectual orders had been previouslydespatched; the faithless and rapacious mercenaries, at the same moment, and without resistance, were universally massacred; and the royaltyof Theodoric was proclaimed by the Goths, with the tardy, reluctant, ambiguous consent of the emperor of the East. The design of a conspiracywas imputed, according to the usual forms, to the prostrate tyrant; buthis innocence, and the guilt of his conqueror, [22] are sufficientlyproved by the advantageous treaty which force would not sincerely havegranted, nor weakness have rashly infringed. The jealousy of power, and the mischiefs of discord, may suggest a more decent apology, anda sentence less rigorous may be pronounced against a crime which wasnecessary to introduce into Italy a generation of public felicity. The living author of this felicity was audaciously praised in his ownpresence by sacred and profane orators; [23] but history (in his timeshe was mute and inglorious) has not left any just representation of theevents which displayed, or of the defects which clouded, the virtues ofTheodoric. [24] One record of his fame, the volume of public epistlescomposed by Cassiodorus in the royal name, is still extant, and hasobtained more implicit credit than it seems to deserve. [25] Theyexhibit the forms, rather than the substance, of his government; andwe should vainly search for the pure and spontaneous sentiments of theBarbarian amidst the declamation and learning of a sophist, the wishesof a Roman senator, the precedents of office, and the vague professions, which, in every court, and on every occasion, compose the language ofdiscreet ministers. The reputation of Theodoric may repose withmore confidence on the visible peace and prosperity of a reign ofthirty-three years; the unanimous esteem of his own times, and thememory of his wisdom and courage, his justice and humanity, which wasdeeply impressed on the minds of the Goths and Italians. 

[Footnote 21: Hist. Miscell. L. Xv. , a Roman history from Janus to theixth century, an Epitome of Eutropius, Paulus Diaconus, and Theophaneswhich Muratori has published from a Ms. In the Ambrosian library, (Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. I. P. 100. )]

[Footnote 22: Procopius (Gothic. L. I. C. I. ) approves himself animpartial sceptic. Cassiodorus (in Chron. ) and Ennodius (p. 1604) areloyal and credulous, and the testimony of the Valesian Fragment (p. 718) may justify their belief. Marcellinus spits the venom of a Greeksubject--perjuriis illectus, interfectusque est, (in Chron. )]

[Footnote 23: The sonorous and servile oration of Ennodius waspronounced at Milan or Ravenna in the years 507 or 508, (Sirmond, tom. I. P. 615. ) Two or three years afterwards, the orator was rewarded withthe bishopric of Pavia, which he held till his death in the year 521. (Dupin, Bibliot. Eccles. Tom. V. P. 11-14. See Saxii Onomasticon, tom. Ii. P. 12. )]

[Footnote 24: Our best materials are occasional hints from Procopius andthe Valesian Fragment, which was discovered by Sirmond, and is publishedat the end of Ammianus Marcellinus. The author's name is unknown, and his style is barbarous; but in his various facts he exhibits theknowledge, without the passions, of a contemporary. The presidentMontesquieu had formed the plan of a history of Theodoric, which at adistance might appear a rich and interesting subject. ]

[Footnote 25: The best edition of the Variarum Libri xii. Is that ofJoh. Garretius, (Rotomagi, 1679, in Opp. Cassiodor. 2 vols. In fol. ;)but they deserved and required such an editor as the Marquis ScipioMaffei, who thought of publishing them at Verona. The Barbara Eleganza(as it is ingeniously named by Tiraboschi) is never simple, and seldomperspicuous]

The partition of the lands of Italy, of which Theodoric assigned thethird part to his soldiers, is honorably arraigned as the sole injusticeof his life. [2511] And even this act may be fairly justified by theexample of Odoacer, the rights of conquest, the true interest of theItalians, and the sacred duty of subsisting a whole people, who, on thefaith of his promises, had transported themselves into a distant land. [26] Under the reign of Theodoric, and in the happy climate of Italy, the Goths soon multiplied to a formidable host of two hundred thousandmen, [27] and the whole amount of their families may be computed by theordinary addition of women and children. Their invasion of property, a part of which must have been already vacant, was disguised by thegenerous but improper name of hospitality; these unwelcome guestswere irregularly dispersed over the face of Italy, and the lot ofeach Barbarian was adequate to his birth and office, the number ofhis followers, and the rustic wealth which he possessed in slaves andcattle. The distinction of noble and plebeian were acknowledged; [28]but the lands of every freeman were exempt from taxes, [2811] and heenjoyed the inestimable privilege of being subject only to the lawsof his country. [29] Fashion, and even convenience, soon persuaded theconquerors to assume the more elegant dress of the natives, but theystill persisted in the use of their mother-tongue; and their contemptfor the Latin schools was applauded by Theodoric himself, who gratifiedtheir prejudices, or his own, by declaring, that the child who hadtrembled at a rod, would never dare to look upon a sword. [30] Distressmight sometimes provoke the indigent Roman to assume the ferociousmanners which were insensibly relinquished by the rich and luxuriousBarbarian; [31] but these mutual conversions were not encouraged by thepolicy of a monarch who perpetuated the separation of the Italians andGoths; reserving the former for the arts of peace, and the latter forthe service of war. To accomplish this design, he studied to protect hisindustrious subjects, and to moderate the violence, without enervatingthe valor, of his soldiers, who were maintained for the public defence. They held their lands and benefices as a military stipend: at the soundof the trumpet, they were prepared to march under the conduct of theirprovincial officers; and the whole extent of Italy was distributed intothe several quarters of a well-regulated camp. The service of the palaceand of the frontiers was performed by choice or by rotation; andeach extraordinary fatigue was recompensed by an increase of pay andoccasional donatives. Theodoric had convinced his brave companions, that empire must be acquired and defended by the same arts. After hisexample, they strove to excel in the use, not only of the lance andsword, the instruments of their victories, but of the missile weapons, which they were too much inclined to neglect; and the lively image ofwar was displayed in the daily exercise and annual reviews of the Gothiccavalry. A firm though gentle discipline imposed the habits of modesty, obedience, and temperance; and the Goths were instructed to sparethe people, to reverence the laws, to understand the duties of civilsociety, and to disclaim the barbarous license of judicial combat andprivate revenge. [32]

[Footnote 2511: Compare Gibbon, ch. Xxxvi. Vol. Iii. P. 459, &c. --Mansoobserves that this division was conducted not in a violent andirregular, but in a legal and orderly, manner. The Barbarian, who couldnot show a title of grant from the officers of Theodoric appointed forthe purpose, or a prescriptive right of thirty years, in case he hadobtained the property before the Ostrogothic conquest, was ejected fromthe estate. He conceives that estates too small to bear division paida third of their produce. --Geschichte des Os Gothischen Reiches, p. 82. --M. ]

[Footnote 26: Procopius, Gothic, l. I. C. I. Variarum, ii. Maffei(Verona Illustrata, P. I. P. 228) exaggerates the injustice of theGoths, whom he hated as an Italian noble. The plebeian Muratori crouchesunder their oppression. ]

[Footnote 27: Procopius, Goth. L. Iii. C. 421. Ennodius describes (p. 1612, 1613) the military arts and increasing numbers of the Goths. ]

[Footnote 28: When Theodoric gave his sister to the king of the Vandalsshe sailed for Africa with a guard of 1000 noble Goths, each of whomwas attended by five armed followers, (Procop. Vandal. L. I. C. 8. ) TheGothic nobility must have been as numerous as brave. ]

[Footnote 2811: Manso (p. 100) quotes two passages from Cassiodorus toshow that the Goths were not exempt from the fiscal claims. --Cassiodor, i. 19, iv. 14--M. ]

[Footnote 29: See the acknowledgment of Gothic liberty, (Var. V. 30. )]

[Footnote 30: Procopius, Goth. L. I. C. 2. The Roman boys learnt thelanguage (Var. Viii. 21) of the Goths. Their general ignorance is notdestroyed by the exceptions of Amalasuntha, a female, who might studywithout shame, or of Theodatus, whose learning provoked the indignationand contempt of his countrymen. ]

[Footnote 31: A saying of Theodoric was founded on experience: "Romanusmiser imitatur Gothum; ut utilis (dives) Gothus imitatur Romanum. " (Seethe Fragment and Notes of Valesius, p. 719. )]

[Footnote 32: The view of the military establishment of the Goths inItaly is collected from the Epistles of Cassiodorus (Var. I. 24, 40; iii. 3, 24, 48; iv. 13, 14; v. 26, 27; viii. 3, 4, 25. ) They areillustrated by the learned Mascou, (Hist. Of the Germans, l. Xi. 40--44, Annotation xiv. ) Note: Compare Manso, Geschichte des Ost GothischenReiches, p. 114. --M. ]

Chapter XXXIX: Gothic Kingdom Of Italy. --Part II. 

Among the Barbarians of the West, the victory of Theodoric had spreada general alarm. But as soon as it appeared that he was satisfied withconquest and desirous of peace, terror was changed into respect, andthey submitted to a powerful mediation, which was uniformly employedfor the best purposes of reconciling their quarrels and civilizing theirmanners. [33] The ambassadors who resorted to Ravenna from the mostdistant countries of Europe, admired his wisdom, magnificence, [34]and courtesy; and if he sometimes accepted either slaves or arms, whitehorses or strange animals, the gift of a sun-dial, a water-clock, or amusician, admonished even the princes of Gaul of the superior art andindustry of his Italian subjects. His domestic alliances, [35] a wife, two daughters, a sister, and a niece, united the family of Theodoricwith the kings of the Franks, the Burgundians, the Visigoths, theVandals, and the Thuringians, and contributed to maintain the harmony, or at least the balance, of the great republic of the West. [36] Itis difficult in the dark forests of Germany and Poland to pursue theemigrations of the Heruli, a fierce people who disdained the use ofarmor, and who condemned their widows and aged parents not to survivethe loss of their husbands, or the decay of their strength. [37] Theking of these savage warriors solicited the friendship of Theodoric, andwas elevated to the rank of his son, according to the barbaric rites ofa military adoption. [38] From the shores of the Baltic, the Aestiansor Livonians laid their offerings of native amber [39] at the feet ofa prince, whose fame had excited them to undertake an unknown anddangerous journey of fifteen hundred miles. With the country [40] fromwhence the Gothic nation derived their origin, he maintained a frequentand friendly correspondence: the Italians were clothed in the richsables [41] of Sweden; and one of its sovereigns, after a voluntaryor reluctant abdication, found a hospitable retreat in the palace ofRavenna. He had reigned over one of the thirteen populous tribeswho cultivated a small portion of the great island or peninsula ofScandinavia, to which the vague appellation of Thule has been sometimesapplied. That northern region was peopled, or had been explored, as highas the sixty-eighth degree of latitude, where the natives of the polarcircle enjoy and lose the presence of the sun at each summer and wintersolstice during an equal period of forty days. [42] The long night ofhis absence or death was the mournful season of distress and anxiety, till the messengers, who had been sent to the mountain tops, descriedthe first rays of returning light, and proclaimed to the plain below thefestival of his resurrection. [43]

[Footnote 33: See the clearness and vigor of his negotiations inEnnodius, (p. 1607, ) and Cassiodorus, (Var. Iii. 1, 2, 3, 4; iv. 13;v. 43, 44, ) who gives the different styles of friendship, counselexpostulation, &c. ]

[Footnote 34: Even of his table (Var. Vi. 9) and palace, (vii. 5. ) Theadmiration of strangers is represented as the most rational motiveto justify these vain expenses, and to stimulate the diligence of theofficers to whom these provinces were intrusted. ]

[Footnote 35: See the public and private alliances of the Gothicmonarch, with the Burgundians, (Var. I. 45, 46, ) with the Franks, (ii. 40, ) with the Thuringians, (iv. 1, ) and with the Vandals, (v. 1;) eachof these epistles affords some curious knowledge of the policy andmanners of the Barbarians. ]

[Footnote 36: His political system may be observed in Cassiodorus, (Var. Iv. L ix. L, ) Jornandes, (c. 58, p. 698, 699, ) and the ValesianFragment, (p. 720, 721. ) Peace, honorable peace, was the constant aim ofTheodoric. ]

[Footnote 37: The curious reader may contemplate the Heruli ofProcopius, (Goth. L. Ii. C. 14, ) and the patient reader may plungeinto the dark and minute researches of M. De Buat, (Hist. Des PeuplesAnciens, tom. Ix. P. 348--396. * Note: Compare Manso, Ost Gothische Reich. Beylage, vi. Malte-Brun bringsthem from Scandinavia: their names, the only remains of their language, are Gothic. "They fought almost naked, like the Icelandic Berserkirstheir bravery was like madness: few in number, they were mostly ofroyal blood. What ferocity, what unrestrained license, sullied theirvictories! The Goth respects the church, the priests, the senate; theHeruli mangle all in a general massacre: there is no pity for age, norefuge for chastity. Among themselves there is the same ferocity: thesick and the aged are put to death. At their own request, during asolemn festival; the widow ends her days by hanging herself upon thetree which shadows her husband's tomb. All these circumstances, sostriking to a mind familiar with Scandinavian history, lead us todiscover among the Heruli not so much a nation as a confederacy ofprinces and nobles, bound by an oath to live and die together with theirarms in their hands. Their name, sometimes written Heruli or Eruli. Sometimes Aeruli, signified, according to an ancient author, (Isid. Hispal. In gloss. P. 24, ad calc. Lex. Philolog. Martini, ll, ) nobles, and appears to correspond better with the Scandinavian word iarlor earl, than with any of those numerous derivations proposed byetymologists. " Malte-Brun, vol. I. P. 400, (edit. 1831. ) Of all theBarbarians who threw themselves on the ruins of the Roman empire, itis most difficult to trace the origin of the Heruli. They seem never tohave been very powerful as a nation, and branches of them are found incountries very remote from each other. In my opinion they belong to theGothic race, and have a close affinity with the Scyrri or Hirri. Theywere, possibly, a division of that nation. They are often mingled andconfounded with the Alani. Though brave and formidable. They werenever numerous. Nor did they found any state. --St. Martin, vol. Vi. P. 375. --M. Schafarck considers them descendants of the Hirri. Of whichHeruli is a diminutive, --Slawische Alter thinner--M. 1845. ]

[Footnote 38: Variarum, iv. 2. The spirit and forms of this martialinstitution are noticed by Cassiodorus; but he seems to have onlytranslated the sentiments of the Gothic king into the language of Romaneloquence. ]

[Footnote 39: Cassiodorus, who quotes Tacitus to the Aestians, theunlettered savages of the Baltic, (Var. V. 2, ) describes the amber forwhich their shores have ever been famous, as the gum of a tree, hardenedby the sun, and purified and wafted by the waves. When that singularsubstance is analyzed by the chemists, it yields a vegetable oil and amineral acid. ]

[Footnote 40: Scanzia, or Thule, is described by Jornandes (c. 3, p. 610--613) and Procopius, (Goth. L. Ii. C. 15. ) Neither the Goth nor theGreek had visited the country: both had conversed with the natives intheir exile at Ravenna or Constantinople. ]

[Footnote 41: Sapherinas pelles. In the time of Jornandes they inhabitedSuethans, the proper Sweden; but that beautiful race of animals hasgradually been driven into the eastern parts of Siberia. See Buffon, (Hist. Nat. Tom. Xiii. P. 309--313, quarto edition;) Pennant, (System ofQuadrupeds, vol. I. P. 322--328;) Gmelin, (Hist. Gen des. Voyages, tom. Xviii. P. 257, 258;) and Levesque, (Hist. De Russie, tom. V. P. 165, 166, 514, 515. )]

[Footnote 42: In the system or romance of Mr. Bailly, (Lettres sur lesSciences et sur l'Atlantide, tom. I. P. 249--256, tom. Ii. P. 114--139, )the phoenix of the Edda, and the annual death and revival of Adonis andOsiris, are the allegorical symbols of the absence and return of the sunin the Arctic regions. This ingenious writer is a worthy disciple ofthe great Buffon; nor is it easy for the coldest reason to withstand themagic of their philosophy. ]

[Footnote 43: Says Procopius. At present a rude Manicheism (generousenough) prevails among the Samoyedes in Greenland and in Lapland, (Hist. Des Voyages, tom. Xviii. P. 508, 509, tom. Xix. P. 105, 106, 527, 528;)yet, according to Orotius Samojutae coelum atque astra adorant, numinahaud aliis iniquiora, (de Rebus Belgicis, l. Iv. P. 338, folio edition)a sentence which Tacitus would not have disowned. ]

The life of Theodoric represents the rare and meritorious example of aBarbarian, who sheathed his sword in the pride of victory and the vigorof his age. A reign of three and thirty years was consecrated tothe duties of civil government, and the hostilities, in which he wassometimes involved, were speedily terminated by the conduct of hislieutenants, the discipline of his troops, the arms of his allies, andeven by the terror of his name. He reduced, under a strong and regulargovernment, the unprofitable countries of Rhaetia, Noricum, Dalmatia, and Pannonia, from the source of the Danube and the territory of theBavarians, [44] to the petty kingdom erected by the Gepidae on the ruinsof Sirmium. His prudence could not safely intrust the bulwark of Italyto such feeble and turbulent neighbors; and his justice might claim thelands which they oppressed, either as a part of his kingdom, or as theinheritance of his father. The greatness of a servant, who was namedperfidious because he was successful, awakened the jealousy of theemperor Anastasius; and a war was kindled on the Dacian frontier, by theprotection which the Gothic king, in the vicissitude of human affairs, had granted to one of the descendants of Attila. Sabinian, a generalillustrious by his own and father's merit, advanced at the head of tenthousand Romans; and the provisions and arms, which filled a long trainof wagons, were distributed to the fiercest of the Bulgarian tribes. But in the fields of Margus, the eastern powers were defeated by theinferior forces of the Goths and Huns; the flower and even the hopeof the Roman armies was irretrievably destroyed; and such was thetemperance with which Theodoric had inspired his victorious troops, that, as their leader had not given the signal of pillage, the richspoils of the enemy lay untouched at their feet. [45] Exasperated bythis disgrace, the Byzantine court despatched two hundred ships andeight thousand men to plunder the sea-coast of Calabria and Apulia:they assaulted the ancient city of Tarentum, interrupted the trade andagriculture of a happy country, and sailed back to the Hellespont, proudof their piratical victory over a people whom they still presumedto consider as their Roman brethren. [46] Their retreat was possiblyhastened by the activity of Theodoric; Italy was covered by a fleet ofa thousand light vessels, [47] which he constructed with incredibledespatch; and his firm moderation was soon rewarded by a solid andhonorable peace. He maintained, with a powerful hand, the balance of theWest, till it was at length overthrown by the ambition of Clovis; andalthough unable to assist his rash and unfortunate kinsman, the kingof the Visigoths, he saved the remains of his family and people, andchecked the Franks in the midst of their victorious career. I am notdesirous to prolong or repeat [48] this narrative of military events, the least interesting of the reign of Theodoric; and shall be contentto add, that the Alemanni were protected, [49] that an inroad of theBurgundians was severely chastised, and that the conquest of Arles andMarseilles opened a free communication with the Visigoths, who reveredhim as their national protector, and as the guardian of his grandchild, the infant son of Alaric. Under this respectable character, the king ofItaly restored the praetorian praefecture of the Gauls, reformed someabuses in the civil government of Spain, and accepted the annual tributeand apparent submission of its military governor, who wisely refused totrust his person in the palace of Ravenna. [50] The Gothic sovereigntywas established from Sicily to the Danube, from Sirmium or Belgrade tothe Atlantic Ocean; and the Greeks themselves have acknowledged thatTheodoric reigned over the fairest portion of the Western empire. [51]

[Footnote 44: See the Hist. Des Peuples Anciens, &c. , tom. Ix. P. 255--273, 396--501. The count de Buat was French minister at thecourt of Bavaria: a liberal curiosity prompted his inquiries into theantiquities of the country, and that curiosity was the germ of twelverespectable volumes. ]

[Footnote 45: See the Gothic transactions on the Danube and theIllyricum, in Jornandes, (c. 58, p. 699;) Ennodius, (p. 1607-1610;)Marcellmus (in Chron. P. 44, 47, 48;) and Cassiodorus, in (in Chron andVar. Iii. 29 50, iv. 13, vii. 4 24, viii. 9, 10, 11, 21, ix. 8, 9. )]

[Footnote 46: I cannot forbear transcribing the liberal and classicstyle of Count Marcellinus: Romanus comes domesticorum, et Rusticuscomes scholariorum cum centum armatis navibus, totidemque dromonibus, octo millia militum armatorum secum ferentibus, ad devastanda Italiaelittora processerunt, ut usque ad Tarentum antiquissimam civitatemaggressi sunt; remensoque mari in honestam victoriam quam piratico ausuRomani ex Romanis rapuerunt, Anastasio Caesari reportarunt, (in Chron. P. 48. ) See Variar. I. 16, ii. 38. ]

[Footnote 47: See the royal orders and instructions, (Var. Iv. 15, v. 16--20. ) These armed boats should be still smaller than the thousandvessels of Agamemnon at the siege of Troy. (Manso, p. 121. )]

[Footnote 48: Vol. Iii. P. 581--585. ]

[Footnote 49: Ennodius (p. 1610) and Cassiodorus, in the royal name, (Var. Ii 41, ) record his salutary protection of the Alemanni. ]

[Footnote 50: The Gothic transactions in Gaul and Spain are representedwith some perplexity in Cassiodorus, (Var. Iii. 32, 38, 41, 43, 44, v. 39. ) Jornandes, (c. 58, p. 698, 699, ) and Procopius, (Goth. L. I. C. 12. ) I will neither hear nor reconcile the long and contradictoryarguments of the Abbe Dubos and the Count de Buat, about the wars ofBurgundy. ]

[Footnote 51: Theophanes, p. 113. ]

The union of the Goths and Romans might have fixed for ages thetransient happiness of Italy; and the first of nations, a new people offree subjects and enlightened soldiers, might have gradually arisen fromthe mutual emulation of their respective virtues. But the sublime meritof guiding or seconding such a revolution was not reserved for the reignof Theodoric: he wanted either the genius or the opportunities of alegislator; [52] and while he indulged the Goths in the enjoyment ofrude liberty, he servilely copied the institutions, and even the abuses, of the political system which had been framed by Constantine and hissuccessors. From a tender regard to the expiring prejudices of Rome, the Barbarian declined the name, the purple, and the diadem, of theemperors; but he assumed, under the hereditary title of king, the wholesubstance and plenitude of Imperial prerogative. [53] His addressesto the eastern throne were respectful and ambiguous: he celebrated, in pompous style, the harmony of the two republics, applauded his owngovernment as the perfect similitude of a sole and undivided empire, and claimed above the kings of the earth the same preeminence which hemodestly allowed to the person or rank of Anastasius. The alliance ofthe East and West was annually declared by the unanimous choice of twoconsuls; but it should seem that the Italian candidate who was namedby Theodoric accepted a formal confirmation from the sovereign ofConstantinople. [54] The Gothic palace of Ravenna reflected the imageof the court of Theodosius or Valentinian. The Praetorian praefect, the praefect of Rome, the quaestor, the master of the offices, with thepublic and patrimonial treasurers, [5411] whose functions are painted ingaudy colors by the rhetoric of Cassiodorus, still continued to actas the ministers of state. And the subordinate care of justice and therevenue was delegated to seven consulars, three correctors, and fivepresidents, who governed the fifteen regions of Italy according tothe principles, and even the forms, of Roman jurisprudence. [55] Theviolence of the conquerors was abated or eluded by the slow artificeof judicial proceedings; the civil administration, with its honors andemoluments, was confined to the Italians; and the people still preservedtheir dress and language, their laws and customs, their personalfreedom, and two thirds of their landed property. [5511] It had been theobject of Augustus to conceal the introduction of monarchy; it was thepolicy of Theodoric to disguise the reign of a Barbarian. [56] If hissubjects were sometimes awakened from this pleasing vision of a Romangovernment, they derived more substantial comfort from the character ofa Gothic prince, who had penetration to discern, and firmness to pursue, his own and the public interest. Theodoric loved the virtues whichhe possessed, and the talents of which he was destitute. Liberius waspromoted to the office of Praetorian praefect for his unshaken fidelityto the unfortunate cause of Odoacer. The ministers of Theodoric, Cassiodorus, [57] and Boethius, have reflected on his reign the lustreof their genius and learning. More prudent or more fortunate than hiscolleague, Cassiodorus preserved his own esteem without forfeiting theroyal favor; and after passing thirty years in the honors of the world, he was blessed with an equal term of repose in the devout and studioussolitude of Squillace. [5711]

[Footnote 52: Procopius affirms that no laws whatsoever were promulgatedby Theodoric and the succeeding kings of Italy, (Goth. L. Ii. C. 6. ) Hemust mean in the Gothic language. A Latin edict of Theodoric is stillextant, in one hundred and fifty-four articles. * Note: See Manso, 92. Savigny, vol. Ii. P. 164, et seq. --M. ]

[Footnote 53: The image of Theodoric is engraved on his coins: hismodest successors were satisfied with adding their own name to the headof the reigning emperor, (Muratori, Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. Ii. Dissert. Xxvii. P. 577--579. Giannone, Istoria Civile di Napoli tom. I. P. 166. )]

[Footnote 54: The alliance of the emperor and the king of Italyare represented by Cassiodorus (Var. I. L, ii. 1, 2, 3, vi. L) andProcopius, (Goth. L. Ii. C. 6, l. Iii. C. 21, ) who celebrate thefriendship of Anastasius and Theodoric; but the figurative style ofcompliment was interpreted in a very different sense at Constantinopleand Ravenna. ]

[Footnote 5411: All causes between Roman and Roman were judged by theold Roman courts. The comes Gothorum judged between Goth and Goth;between Goths and Romans, (without considering which was the plaintiff. )the comes Gothorum, with a Roman jurist as his assessor, making a kindof mixed jurisdiction, but with a natural predominance to the side ofthe Goth Savigny, vol. I. P. 290. --M. ]

[Footnote 55: To the xvii. Provinces of the Notitia, Paul Warnefrid thedeacon (De Reb. Longobard. L. Ii. C. 14--22) has subjoined an xviiith, the Apennine, (Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. I. P. 431--443. )But of these Sardinia and Corsica were possessed by the Vandals, and thetwo Rhaetias, as well as the Cottian Alps, seem to have been abandonedto a military government. The state of the four provinces that now formthe kingdom of Naples is labored by Giannone (tom. I. P. 172, 178) withpatriotic diligence. ]

[Footnote 5511: Manso enumerates and develops at some length thefollowing sources of the royal revenue of Theodoric: 1. A domain, eitherby succession to that of Odoacer, or a part of the third of the landswas reserved for the royal patrimony. 1. Regalia, including mines, unclaimed estates, treasure-trove, and confiscations. 3. Land tax. 4. Aurarium, like the Chrysargyrum, a tax on certain branches of trade. 5. Grant of Monopolies. 6. Siliquaticum, a small tax on the sale of allkinds of commodities. 7. Portoria, customs Manso, 96, 111. Savigny (i. 285) supposes that in many cases the property remained in the originalowner, who paid his tertia, a third of the produce to the crown, vol. I. P. 285. --M. ]

[Footnote 56: See the Gothic history of Procopius, (l. I. C. 1, l. Ii. C. 6, ) the Epistles of Cassiodorus, passim, but especially the vth andvith books, which contain the formulae, or patents of offices, ) andthe Civil History of Giannone, (tom. I. L. Ii. Iii. ) The Gothic counts, which he places in every Italian city, are annihilated, however, byMaffei, (Verona Illustrata, P. I. L. Viii. P. 227; for those of Syracuseand Naples (Var vi. 22, 23) were special and temporary commissions. ]

[Footnote 57: Two Italians of the name of Cassiodorus, the father (Var. I. 24, 40) and the son, (ix. 24, 25, ) were successively employed inthe administration of Theodoric. The son was born in the year 479: hisvarious epistles as quaestor, master of the offices, and Praetorianpraefect, extend from 509 to 539, and he lived as a monk about thirtyyears, (Tiraboschi Storia della Letteratura Italiana, tom. Iii. P. 7--24. Fabricius, Bibliot. Lat. Med. Aevi, tom. I. P. 357, 358, edit. Mansi. )]

[Footnote 5711: Cassiodorus was of an ancient and honorable family; hisgrandfather had distinguished himself in the defence of Sicily againstthe ravages of Genseric; his father held a high rank at the court ofValentinian III. , enjoyed the friendship of Aetius, and was one of theambassadors sent to arrest the progress of Attila. Cassiodorushimself was first the treasurer of the private expenditure to Odoacer, afterwards "count of the sacred largesses. " Yielding with the rest ofthe Romans to the dominion of Theodoric, he was instrumental in thepeaceable submission of Sicily; was successively governor of hisnative provinces of Bruttium and Lucania, quaestor, magister, palatii, Praetorian praefect, patrician, consul, and private secretary, and, infact, first minister of the king. He was five times Praetorian praefectunder different sovereigns, the last time in the reign of Vitiges. Thisis the theory of Manso, which is not unencumbered with difficulties. M. Buat had supposed that it was the father of Cassiodorus who heldthe office first named. Compare Manso, p. 85, &c. , and Beylage, vii. Itcertainly appears improbable that Cassiodorus should have been count ofthe sacred largesses at twenty years old. --M. ]

As the patron of the republic, it was the interest and duty of theGothic king to cultivate the affections of the senate [58] and people. The nobles of Rome were flattered by sonorous epithets and formalprofessions of respect, which had been more justly applied to the meritand authority of their ancestors. The people enjoyed, without fear ordanger, the three blessings of a capital, order, plenty, and publicamusements. A visible diminution of their numbers may be found even inthe measure of liberality; [59] yet Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, pouredtheir tribute of corn into the granaries of Rome an allowance of breadand meat was distributed to the indigent citizens; and every office wasdeemed honorable which was consecrated to the care of their health andhappiness. The public games, such as the Greek ambassador might politelyapplaud, exhibited a faint and feeble copy of the magnificence of theCaesars: yet the musical, the gymnastic, and the pantomime arts, had nottotally sunk in oblivion; the wild beasts of Africa still exercisedin the amphitheatre the courage and dexterity of the hunters; and theindulgent Goth either patiently tolerated or gently restrained theblue and green factions, whose contests so often filled the circus withclamor and even with blood. [60] In the seventh year of his peacefulreign, Theodoric visited the old capital of the world; the senate andpeople advanced in solemn procession to salute a second Trajan, a newValentinian; and he nobly supported that character by the assurance ofa just and legal government, [61] in a discourse which he was not afraidto pronounce in public, and to inscribe on a tablet of brass. Rome, inthis august ceremony, shot a last ray of declining glory; and a saint, the spectator of this pompous scene, could only hope, in his piousfancy, that it was excelled by the celestial splendor of the newJerusalem. [62] During a residence of six months, the fame, the person, and the courteous demeanor of the Gothic king, excited the admiration ofthe Romans, and he contemplated, with equal curiosity and surprise, themonuments that remained of their ancient greatness. He imprinted thefootsteps of a conqueror on the Capitoline hill, and frankly confessedthat each day he viewed with fresh wonder the forum of Trajan and hislofty column. The theatre of Pompey appeared, even in its decay, as ahuge mountain artificially hollowed, and polished, and adorned by humanindustry; and he vaguely computed, that a river of gold must have beendrained to erect the colossal amphitheatre of Titus. [63] From themouths of fourteen aqueducts, a pure and copious stream was diffusedinto every part of the city; among these the Claudian water, whicharose at the distance of thirty-eight miles in the Sabine mountains, wasconveyed along a gentle though constant declivity of solid arches, tillit descended on the summit of the Aventine hill. The long and spaciousvaults which had been constructed for the purpose of common sewers, subsisted, after twelve centuries, in their pristine strength; and thesesubterraneous channels have been preferred to all the visible wondersof Rome. [64] The Gothic kings, so injuriously accused of the ruin ofantiquity, were anxious to preserve the monuments of the nation whomthey had subdued. [65] The royal edicts were framed to prevent theabuses, the neglect, or the depredations of the citizens themselves;and a professed architect, the annual sum of two hundred pounds of gold, twenty-five thousand tiles, and the receipt of customs from the Lucrineport, were assigned for the ordinary repairs of the walls and publicedifices. A similar care was extended to the statues of metal or marbleof men or animals. The spirit of the horses, which have given a modernname to the Quirinal, was applauded by the Barbarians; [66] the brazenelephants of the Via sacra were diligently restored; [67] the famousheifer of Myron deceived the cattle, as they were driven through theforum of peace; [68] and an officer was created to protect those worksof rat, which Theodoric considered as the noblest ornament of hiskingdom. 

[Footnote 58: See his regard for the senate in Cochlaeus, (Vit. Theod. Viii. P. 72--80. )]

[Footnote 59: No more than 120, 000 modii, or four thousand quarters, (Anonym. Valesian. P. 721, and Var. I. 35, vi. 18, xi. 5, 39. )]

[Footnote 60: See his regard and indulgence for the spectacles of thecircus, the amphitheatre, and the theatre, in the Chronicle andEpistles of Cassiodorus, (Var. I. 20, 27, 30, 31, 32, iii. 51, iv. 51, illustrated by the xivth Annotation of Mascou's History), who hascontrived to sprinkle the subject with ostentatious, though agreeable, learning. ]

[Footnote 61: Anonym. Vales. P. 721. Marius Aventicensis in Chron. Inthe scale of public and personal merit, the Gothic conqueror is at leastas much above Valentinian, as he may seem inferior to Trajan. ]

[Footnote 62: Vit. Fulgentii in Baron. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 500, No. 10. ]

[Footnote 63: Cassiodorus describes in his pompous style the Forumof Trajan (Var. Vii. 6, ) the theatre of Marcellus, (iv. 51, ) and theamphitheatre of Titus, (v. 42;) and his descriptions are not unworthyof the reader's perusal. According to the modern prices, the AbbeBarthelemy computes that the brick work and masonry of the Coliseumwould now cost twenty millions of French livres, (Mem. De l'Academiedes Inscriptions, tom. Xxviii. P. 585, 586. ) How small a part of thatstupendous fabric!]

[Footnote 64: For the aqueducts and cloacae, see Strabo, (l. V. P. 360;)Pliny, (Hist. Natur. Xxxvi. 24; Cassiodorus, Var. Iii. 30, 31, vi. 6;)Procopius, (Goth. L. I. C. 19;) and Nardini, (Roma Antica, p. 514--522. )How such works could be executed by a king of Rome, is yet a problem. Note: See Niebuhr, vol. I. P. 402. These stupendous works are amongthe most striking confirmations of Niebuhr's views of the early Romanhistory; at least they appear to justify his strong sentence--"Theseworks and the building of the Capitol attest with unquestionableevidence that this Rome of the later kings was the chief city of a greatstate. "--Page 110--M. ]

[Footnote 65: For the Gothic care of the buildings and statues, seeCassiodorus (Var. I. 21, 25, ii. 34, iv. 30, vii. 6, 13, 15) and theValesian Fragment, (p. 721. )]

[Footnote 66: Var. Vii. 15. These horses of Monte Cavallo had beentransported from Alexandria to the baths of Constantine, (Nardini, p. 188. ) Their sculpture is disdained by the Abbe Dubos, (Reflexions surla Poesie et sur la Peinture, tom. I. Section 39, ) and admired byWinkelman, (Hist. De l'Art, tom. Ii. P. 159. )]

[Footnote 67: Var. X. 10. They were probably a fragment of sometriumphal car, (Cuper de Elephantis, ii. 10. )]

[Footnote 68: Procopius (Goth. L. Iv. C. 21) relates a foolish story ofMyron's cow, which is celebrated by the false with of thirty-six Greekepigrams, (Antholog. L. Iv. P. 302--306, edit. Hen. Steph. ; Auson. Epigram. Xiii. --lxviii. )]

Chapter XXXIX: Gothic Kingdom Of Italy. --Part III. 

After the example of the last emperors, Theodoric preferred theresidence of Ravenna, where he cultivated an orchard with his own hands. [69] As often as the peace of his kingdom was threatened (for it wasnever invaded) by the Barbarians, he removed his court to Verona [70]on the northern frontier, and the image of his palace, still extant ona coin, represents the oldest and most authentic model of Gothicarchitecture. These two capitals, as well as Pavia, Spoleto, Naples, andthe rest of the Italian cities, acquired under his reign the usefulor splendid decorations of churches, aqueducts, baths, porticos, and palaces. [71] But the happiness of the subject was more trulyconspicuous in the busy scene of labor and luxury, in the rapid increaseand bold enjoyment of national wealth. From the shades of Tibur andPraeneste, the Roman senators still retired in the winter season tothe warm sun, and salubrious springs of Baiae; and their villas, whichadvanced on solid moles into the Bay of Naples, commanded the variousprospect of the sky, the earth, and the water. On the eastern sideof the Adriatic, a new Campania was formed in the fair and fruitfulprovince of Istria, which communicated with the palace of Ravenna by aneasy navigation of one hundred miles. The rich productions of Lucaniaand the adjacent provinces were exchanged at the Marcilian fountain, in a populous fair annually dedicated to trade, intemperance, andsuperstition. In the solitude of Comum, which had once been animatedby the mild genius of Pliny, a transparent basin above sixty miles inlength still reflected the rural seats which encompassed the margin ofthe Larian lake; and the gradual ascent of the hills was covered bya triple plantation of olives, of vines, and of chestnut trees. [72]Agriculture revived under the shadow of peace, and the number ofhusbandmen was multiplied by the redemption of captives. [73] The ironmines of Dalmatia, a gold mine in Bruttium, were carefully explored, and the Pomptine marshes, as well as those of Spoleto, were drained andcultivated by private undertakers, whose distant reward must depend onthe continuance of the public prosperity. [74] Whenever the seasons wereless propitious, the doubtful precautions of forming magazines of corn, fixing the price, and prohibiting the exportation, attested at least thebenevolence of the state; but such was the extraordinary plenty which anindustrious people produced from a grateful soil, that a gallon of winewas sometimes sold in Italy for less than three farthings, and a quarterof wheat at about five shillings and sixpence. [75] A country possessedof so many valuable objects of exchange soon attracted the merchants ofthe world, whose beneficial traffic was encouraged and protected by theliberal spirit of Theodoric. The free intercourse of the provinces byland and water was restored and extended; the city gates were never shuteither by day or by night; and the common saying, that a purse of goldmight be safely left in the fields, was expressive of the conscioussecurity of the inhabitants. [Footnote 69: See an epigram of Ennodius(ii. 3, p. 1893, 1894) on this garden and the royal gardener. ]

[Footnote 70: His affection for that city is proved by the epithet of"Verona tua, " and the legend of the hero; under the barbarous name ofDietrich of Bern, (Peringsciold and Cochloeum, p. 240, ) Maffei traceshim with knowledge and pleasure in his native country, (l. Ix. P. 230--236. )]

[Footnote 71: See Maffei, (Verona Illustrata, Part i. P. 231, 232, 308, &c. ) His amputes Gothic architecture, like the corruption of language, writing &c. , not to the Barbarians, but to the Italians themselves. Compare his sentiments with those of Tiraboschi, (tom. Iii. P. 61. )* Note: Mr. Hallam (vol. Iii. P. 432) observes that "the image ofTheodoric's palace" is represented in Maffei, not from a coin, butfrom a seal. Compare D'Agincourt (Storia dell'arte, Italian Transl. , Arcitecttura, Plate xvii. No. 2, and Pittura, Plate xvi. No. 15, )where there is likewise an engraving from a mosaic in the church of St. Apollinaris in Ravenna, representing a building ascribed to Theodoric inthat city. Neither of these, as Mr. Hallam justly observes, in the leastapproximates to what is called the Gothic style. They are evidently thedegenerate Roman architecture, and more resemble the early attempts ofour architects to get back from our national Gothic into a classicalGreek style. One of them calls to mind Inigo Jones inner quadranglein St. John's College Oxford. Compare Hallam and D'Agincon vol. I. P. 140--145. --M]

[Footnote 72: The villas, climate, and landscape of Baiae, (Var. Ix. 6;see Cluver Italia Antiq. L. Iv. C. 2, p. 1119, &c. , ) Istria, (Var. Xii. 22, 26, ) and Comum, (Var. Xi. 14; compare with Pliny's two villas, ix. 7, ) are agreeably painted in the Epistles of Cassiodorus. ]

[Footnote 73: In Liguria numerosa agricolarum progenies, (Ennodius, p. 1678, 1679, 1680. ) St. Epiphanius of Pavia redeemed by prayer or ransom6000 captives from the Burgundians of Lyons and Savoy. Such deeds arethe best of miracles. ]

[Footnote 74: The political economy of Theodoric (see Anonym. Vales. P. 721, and Cassiodorus, in Chron. ) may be distinctly traced under thefollowing heads: iron mine, (Var. Iii. 23;) gold mine, (ix. 3;) Pomptinemarshes, (ii. 32, 33;) Spoleto, (ii. 21;) corn, (i. 34, x. 27, 28, xi. 11, 12;) trade, (vi. 7, vii. 9, 23;) fair of Leucothoe or St. Cyprian inLucania, (viii. 33;) plenty, (xii. 4;) the cursus, or public post, (i. 29, ii. 31, iv. 47, v. 5, vi 6, vii. 33;) the Flaminian way, (xii. 18. )* Note: The inscription commemorative of the draining of the Pomptinemarshes may be found in many works; in Gruter, Inscript. Ant. Heidelberg, p. 152, No. 8. With variations, in Nicolai De' bonificamentidelle terre Pontine, p. 103. In Sartorius, in his prize essay on thereign of Theodoric, and Manse Beylage, xi. --M. ]

[Footnote 75: LX modii tritici in solidum ipsius tempore fuerunt, etvinum xxx amphoras in solidum, (Fragment. Vales. ) Corn was distributedfrom the granaries at xv or xxv modii for a piece of gold, and the pricewas still moderate. ]

A difference of religion is always pernicious, and often fatal, to theharmony of the prince and people: the Gothic conqueror had been educatedin the profession of Arianism, and Italy was devoutly attached to theNicene faith. But the persuasion of Theodoric was not infected byzeal; and he piously adhered to the heresy of his fathers, withoutcondescending to balance the subtile arguments of theologicalmetaphysics. Satisfied with the private toleration of his Ariansectaries, he justly conceived himself to be the guardian of thepublic worship, and his external reverence for a superstition which hedespised, may have nourished in his mind the salutary indifference of astatesman or philosopher. The Catholics of his dominions acknowledged, perhaps with reluctance, the peace of the church; their clergy, according to the degrees of rank or merit, were honorably entertainedin the palace of Theodoric; he esteemed the living sanctity of Caesarius[76] and Epiphanius, [77] the orthodox bishops of Arles and Pavia;and presented a decent offering on the tomb of St. Peter, without anyscrupulous inquiry into the creed of the apostle. [78] His favoriteGoths, and even his mother, were permitted to retain or embrace theAthanasian faith, and his long reign could not afford the example of anItalian Catholic, who, either from choice or compulsion, had deviatedinto the religion of the conqueror. [79] The people, and the Barbariansthemselves, were edified by the pomp and order of religious worship;the magistrates were instructed to defend the just immunities ofecclesiastical persons and possessions; the bishops held their synods, the metropolitans exercised their jurisdiction, and the privileges ofsanctuary were maintained or moderated according to the spirit of theRoman jurisprudence. [80] With the protection, Theodoric assumed thelegal supremacy, of the church; and his firm administration restored orextended some useful prerogatives which had been neglected by the feebleemperors of the West. He was not ignorant of the dignity and importanceof the Roman pontiff, to whom the venerable name of Pope was nowappropriated. The peace or the revolt of Italy might depend on thecharacter of a wealthy and popular bishop, who claimed such ampledominion both in heaven and earth; who had been declared in a numeroussynod to be pure from all sin, and exempt from all judgment. [81] Whenthe chair of St. Peter was disputed by Symmachus and Laurence, theyappeared at his summons before the tribunal of an Arian monarch, andhe confirmed the election of the most worthy or the most obsequiouscandidate. At the end of his life, in a moment of jealousy andresentment, he prevented the choice of the Romans, by nominating a popein the palace of Ravenna. The danger and furious contests of a schismwere mildly restrained, and the last decree of the senate was enactedto extinguish, if it were possible, the scandalous venality of the papalelections. [82]

[Footnote 76: See the life of St. Caesarius in Baronius, (A. D. 508, No. 12, 13, 14. ) The king presented him with 300 gold solidi, and a discusof silver of the weight of sixty pounds. ]

[Footnote 77: Ennodius in Vit. St. Epiphanii, in Sirmond, Op. Tom. I. P. 1672--1690. Theodoric bestowed some important favors on this bishop, whom he used as a counsellor in peace and war. ]

[Footnote 78: Devotissimus ac si Catholicus, (Anonym. Vales. P. 720;)yet his offering was no more than two silver candlesticks (cerostrata)of the weight of seventy pounds, far inferior to the gold and gems ofConstantinople and France, (Anastasius in Vit. Pont. In Hormisda, p. 34, edit. Paris. )]

[Footnote 79: The tolerating system of his reign (Ennodius, p. 1612. Anonym. Vales. P. 719. Procop. Goth. L. I. C. 1, l. Ii. C. 6) may bestudied in the Epistles of Cassiodorous, under the following heads:bishops, (Var. I. 9, vii. 15, 24, xi. 23;) immunities, (i. 26, ii. 29, 30;) church lands (iv. 17, 20;) sanctuaries, (ii. 11, iii. 47;) churchplate, (xii. 20;) discipline, (iv. 44;) which prove, at the same time, that he was the head of the church as well as of the state. * Note: Herecommended the same toleration to the emperor Justin. --M. ]

[Footnote 80: We may reject a foolish tale of his beheading a Catholicdeacon who turned Arian, (Theodor. Lector. No. 17. ) Why is Theodoricsurnamed After? From Vafer? (Vales. Ad loc. ) A light conjecture. ]

[Footnote 81: Ennodius, p. 1621, 1622, 1636, 1638. His libel wasapproved and registered (synodaliter) by a Roman council, (Baronius, A. D. 503, No. 6, Franciscus Pagi in Breviar. Pont. Rom. Tom. I. P. 242. )]

[Footnote 82: See Cassiodorus, (Var. Viii. 15, ix. 15, 16, ) Anastasius, (in Symmacho, p. 31, ) and the xviith Annotation of Mascou. Baronius, Pagi, and most of the Catholic doctors, confess, with an angry growl, this Gothic usurpation. ]

I have descanted with pleasure on the fortunate condition of Italy; butour fancy must not hastily conceive that the golden age of the poets, a race of men without vice or misery, was realized under the Gothicconquest. The fair prospect was sometimes overcast with clouds; thewisdom of Theodoric might be deceived, his power might be resisted andthe declining age of the monarch was sullied with popular hatred andpatrician blood. In the first insolence of victory, he had been temptedto deprive the whole party of Odoacer of the civil and even the naturalrights of society; [83] a tax unseasonably imposed after the calamitiesof war, would have crushed the rising agriculture of Liguria; a rigidpreemption of corn, which was intended for the public relief, musthave aggravated the distress of Campania. These dangerous projects weredefeated by the virtue and eloquence of Epiphanius and Boethius, who, inthe presence of Theodoric himself, successfully pleaded the cause ofthe people: [84] but if the royal ear was open to the voice of truth, asaint and a philosopher are not always to be found at the ear of kings. 

The privileges of rank, or office, or favor, were too frequently abusedby Italian fraud and Gothic violence, and the avarice of the king'snephew was publicly exposed, at first by the usurpation, and afterwardsby the restitution of the estates which he had unjustly extorted fromhis Tuscan neighbors. Two hundred thousand Barbarians, formidable evento their master, were seated in the heart of Italy; they indignantlysupported the restraints of peace and discipline; the disorders oftheir march were always felt and sometimes compensated; and where it wasdangerous to punish, it might be prudent to dissemble, the sallies oftheir native fierceness. When the indulgence of Theodoric had remittedtwo thirds of the Ligurian tribute, he condescended to explain thedifficulties of his situation, and to lament the heavy though inevitableburdens which he imposed on his subjects for their own defence. [85]These ungrateful subjects could never be cordially reconciled to theorigin, the religion, or even the virtues of the Gothic conqueror; pastcalamities were forgotten, and the sense or suspicion of injuries wasrendered still more exquisite by the present felicity of the times. 

[Footnote 83: He disabled them--alicentia testandi; and all Italymourned--lamentabili justitio. I wish to believe, that these penaltieswere enacted against the rebels who had violated their oath ofallegiance; but the testimony of Ennodius (p. 1675-1678) is the moreweighty, as he lived and died under the reign of Theodoric. ]

[Footnote 84: Ennodius, in Vit. Epiphan. P. 1589, 1690. Boethius deConsolatione Philosphiae, l. I. Pros. Iv. P. 45, 46, 47. Respect, but weigh the passions of the saint and the senator; and fortify andalleviate their complaints by the various hints of Cassiodorus, (ii. 8, iv. 36, viii. 5. )]

[Footnote 85: Immanium expensarum pondus. .. Pro ipsorum salute, &c. ; yetthese are no more than words. ]

Even the religious toleration which Theodoric had the glory ofintroducing into the Christian world, was painful and offensive to theorthodox zeal of the Italians. They respected the armed heresy of theGoths; but their pious rage was safely pointed against the rich anddefenceless Jews, who had formed their establishments at Naples, Rome, Ravenna, Milan, and Genoa, for the benefit of trade, and under thesanction of the laws. [86] Their persons were insulted, their effectswere pillaged, and their synagogues were burned by the mad populace ofRavenna and Rome, inflamed, as it should seem, by the most frivolous orextravagant pretences. The government which could neglect, would havedeserved such an outrage. A legal inquiry was instantly directed; and asthe authors of the tumult had escaped in the crowd, the whole communitywas condemned to repair the damage; and the obstinate bigots, whorefused their contributions, were whipped through the streets by thehand of the executioner. [8611] This simple act of justice exasperatedthe discontent of the Catholics, who applauded the merit and patience ofthese holy confessors. Three hundred pulpits deplored the persecution ofthe church; and if the chapel of St. Stephen at Verona was demolishedby the command of Theodoric, it is probable that some miracle hostile tohis name and dignity had been performed on that sacred theatre. Atthe close of a glorious life, the king of Italy discovered that he hadexcited the hatred of a people whose happiness he had so assiduouslylabored to promote; and his mind was soured by indignation, jealousy, and the bitterness of unrequited love. The Gothic conqueror condescendedto disarm the unwarlike natives of Italy, interdicting all weaponsof offence, and excepting only a small knife for domestic use. Thedeliverer of Rome was accused of conspiring with the vilest informersagainst the lives of senators whom he suspected of a secret andtreasonable correspondence with the Byzantine court. [87] After thedeath of Anastasius, the diadem had been placed on the head of afeeble old man; but the powers of government were assumed by his nephewJustinian, who already meditated the extirpation of heresy, and theconquest of Italy and Africa. A rigorous law, which was published atConstantinople, to reduce the Arians by the dread of punishment withinthe pale of the church, awakened the just resentment of Theodoric, whoclaimed for his distressed brethren of the East the same indulgencewhich he had so long granted to the Catholics of his dominions. [8711]At his stern command, the Roman pontiff, with four illustrious senators, embarked on an embassy, of which he must have alike dreaded the failureor the success. The singular veneration shown to the first pope who hadvisited Constantinople was punished as a crime by his jealous monarch;the artful or peremptory refusal of the Byzantine court might excuse anequal, and would provoke a larger, measure of retaliation; and a mandatewas prepared in Italy, to prohibit, after a stated day, the exercise ofthe Catholic worship. By the bigotry of his subjects and enemies, themost tolerant of princes was driven to the brink of persecution; and thelife of Theodoric was too long, since he lived to condemn the virtue ofBoethius and Symmachus. [88]

[Footnote 86: The Jews were settled at Naples, (Procopius, Goth. L. I. C. 8, ) at Genoa, (Var. Ii. 28, iv. 33, ) Milan, (v. 37, ) Rome, (iv. 43. )See likewise Basnage, Hist. Des Juifs, tom. Viii. C. 7, p. 254. ]

[Footnote 8611: See History of the Jews vol. Iii. P. 217. --M. ]

[Footnote 87: Rex avidus communis exitii, &c. , (Boethius, l. I. P. 59:)rex colum Romanis tendebat, (Anonym. Vales. P. 723. ) These are hardwords: they speak the passions of the Italians and those (I fear) ofTheodoric himself. ]

[Footnote 8711: Gibbon should not have omitted the golden words ofTheodoric in a letter which he addressed to Justin: That to pretend to adominion over the conscience is to usurp the prerogative of God; thatby the nature of things the power of sovereigns is confined to externalgovernment; that they have no right of punishment but over those whodisturb the public peace, of which they are the guardians; that the mostdangerous heresy is that of a sovereign who separates from himself apart of his subjects because they believe not according to his belief. Compare Le Beau, vol viii. P. 68. --M]

[Footnote 88: I have labored to extract a rational narrative from thedark, concise, and various hints of the Valesian Fragment, (p. 722, 723, 724, ) Theophanes, (p. 145, ) Anastasius, (in Johanne, p. 35, ) andthe Hist Miscella, (p. 103, edit. Muratori. ) A gentle pressure andparaphrase of their words is no violence. Consult likewise Muratori(Annali d' Italia, tom. Iv. P. 471-478, ) with the Annals and Breviary(tom. I. P. 259--263) of the two Pagis, the uncle and the nephew. ]

The senator Boethius [89] is the last of the Romans whom Cato or Tullycould have acknowledged for their countryman. As a wealthy orphan, he inherited the patrimony and honors of the Anician family, a nameambitiously assumed by the kings and emperors of the age; and theappellation of Manlius asserted his genuine or fabulous descent froma race of consuls and dictators, who had repulsed the Gauls from theCapitol, and sacrificed their sons to the discipline of the republic. Inthe youth of Boethius the studies of Rome were not totally abandoned;a Virgil [90] is now extant, corrected by the hand of a consul; and theprofessors of grammar, rhetoric, and jurisprudence, were maintained intheir privileges and pensions by the liberality of the Goths. But theerudition of the Latin language was insufficient to satiate his ardentcuriosity: and Boethius is said to have employed eighteen laboriousyears in the schools of Athens, [91] which were supported by the zeal, the learning, and the diligence of Proclus and his disciples. The reasonand piety of their Roman pupil were fortunately saved from the contagionof mystery and magic, which polluted the groves of the academy; buthe imbibed the spirit, and imitated the method, of his dead and livingmasters, who attempted to reconcile the strong and subtile sense ofAristotle with the devout contemplation and sublime fancy of Plato. After his return to Rome, and his marriage with the daughter of hisfriend, the patrician Symmachus, Boethius still continued, in a palaceof ivory and marble, to prosecute the same studies. [92] The church wasedified by his profound defence of the orthodox creed against the Arian, the Eutychian, and the Nestorian heresies; and the Catholic unity wasexplained or exposed in a formal treatise by the indifference of threedistinct though consubstantial persons. For the benefit of his Latinreaders, his genius submitted to teach the first elements of the artsand sciences of Greece. The geometry of Euclid, the music of Pythagoras, the arithmetic of Nicomachus, the mechanics of Archimedes, the astronomyof Ptolemy, the theology of Plato, and the logic of Aristotle, withthe commentary of Porphyry, were translated and illustrated by theindefatigable pen of the Roman senator. And he alone was esteemedcapable of describing the wonders of art, a sun-dial, a water-clock, or a sphere which represented the motions of the planets. From theseabstruse speculations, Boethius stooped, or, to speak more truly, herose to the social duties of public and private life: the indigent wererelieved by his liberality; and his eloquence, which flattery mightcompare to the voice of Demosthenes or Cicero, was uniformly exerted inthe cause of innocence and humanity. Such conspicuous merit was feltand rewarded by a discerning prince: the dignity of Boethius was adornedwith the titles of consul and patrician, and his talents wereusefully employed in the important station of master of the offices. Notwithstanding the equal claims of the East and West, his two sons werecreated, in their tender youth, the consuls of the same year. [93] Onthe memorable day of their inauguration, they proceeded in solemn pompfrom their palace to the forum amidst the applause of the senateand people; and their joyful father, the true consul of Rome, after pronouncing an oration in the praise of his royal benefactor, distributed a triumphal largess in the games of the circus. Prosperousin his fame and fortunes, in his public honors and private alliances, in the cultivation of science and the consciousness of virtue, Boethiusmight have been styled happy, if that precarious epithet could be safelyapplied before the last term of the life of man. 

[Footnote 89: Le Clerc has composed a critical and philosophical lifeof Anicius Manlius Severinus Boetius, (Bibliot. Choisie, tom. Xvi. P. 168--275;) and both Tiraboschi (tom. Iii. ) and Fabricius (BibliotLatin. ) may be usefully consulted. The date of his birth may be placedabout the year 470, and his death in 524, in a premature old age, (Consol. Phil. Metrica. I. P. 5. )]

[Footnote 90: For the age and value of this Ms. , now in the Mediceanlibrary at Florence, see the Cenotaphia Pisana (p. 430-447) of CardinalNoris. ]

[Footnote 91: The Athenian studies of Boethius are doubtful, (Baronius, A. D. 510, No. 3, from a spurious tract, De Disciplina Scholarum, ) andthe term of eighteen years is doubtless too long: but the simple factof a visit to Athens is justified by much internal evidence, (Brucker, Hist. Crit. Philosoph. Tom. Iii. P. 524--527, ) and by an expression(though vague and ambiguous) of his friend Cassiodorus, (Var. I. 45, )"longe positas Athenas intrioisti. "]

[Footnote 92: Bibliothecae comptos ebore ac vitro * parietes, &c. , (Consol. Phil. L. I. Pros. V. P. 74. ) The Epistles of Ennodius (vi. 6, vii. 13, viii. 1 31, 37, 40) and Cassiodorus (Var. I. 39, iv. 6, ix. 21)afford many proofs of the high reputation which he enjoyed in his owntimes. It is true, that the bishop of Pavia wanted to purchase of him anold house at Milan, and praise might be tendered and accepted in part ofpayment. * Note: Gibbon translated vitro, marble; under the impression, no doubt that glass was unknown. --M. ]

[Footnote 93: Pagi, Muratori, &c. , are agreed that Boethius himself wasconsul in the year 510, his two sons in 522, and in 487, perhaps, hisfather. A desire of ascribing the last of these consulships to thephilosopher had perplexed the chronology of his life. In his honors, alliances, children, he celebrates his own felicity--his past felicity, (p. 109 110)]

A philosopher, liberal of his wealth and parsimonious of his time, mightbe insensible to the common allurements of ambition, the thirst ofgold and employment. And some credit may be due to the asseveration ofBoethius, that he had reluctantly obeyed the divine Plato, who enjoinsevery virtuous citizen to rescue the state from the usurpation of viceand ignorance. For the integrity of his public conduct he appeals tothe memory of his country. His authority had restrained the prideand oppression of the royal officers, and his eloquence had deliveredPaulianus from the dogs of the palace. He had always pitied, and oftenrelieved, the distress of the provincials, whose fortunes were exhaustedby public and private rapine; and Boethius alone had courage to opposethe tyranny of the Barbarians, elated by conquest, excited by avarice, and, as he complains, encouraged by impunity. In these honorablecontests his spirit soared above the consideration of danger, andperhaps of prudence; and we may learn from the example of Cato, that acharacter of pure and inflexible virtue is the most apt to be misled byprejudice, to be heated by enthusiasm, and to confound private enmitieswith public justice. The disciple of Plato might exaggerate theinfirmities of nature, and the imperfections of society; and the mildestform of a Gothic kingdom, even the weight of allegiance and gratitude, must be insupportable to the free spirit of a Roman patriot. But thefavor and fidelity of Boethius declined in just proportion with thepublic happiness; and an unworthy colleague was imposed to divide andcontrol the power of the master of the offices. In the last gloomyseason of Theodoric, he indignantly felt that he was a slave; but as hismaster had only power over his life, he stood without arms and withoutfear against the face of an angry Barbarian, who had been provoked tobelieve that the safety of the senate was incompatible with his own. Thesenator Albinus was accused and already convicted on the presumption ofhoping, as it was said, the liberty of Rome. "If Albinus be criminal, "exclaimed the orator, "the senate and myself are all guilty of the samecrime. If we are innocent, Albinus is equally entitled to the protectionof the laws. " These laws might not have punished the simple and barrenwish of an unattainable blessing; but they would have shown lessindulgence to the rash confession of Boethius, that, had he known of aconspiracy, the tyrant never should. [94] The advocate of Albinus wassoon involved in the danger and perhaps the guilt of his client; theirsignature (which they denied as a forgery) was affixed to the originaladdress, inviting the emperor to deliver Italy from the Goths; and threewitnesses of honorable rank, perhaps of infamous reputation, attestedthe treasonable designs of the Roman patrician. [95] Yet his innocencemust be presumed, since he was deprived by Theodoric of the means ofjustification, and rigorously confined in the tower of Pavia, while thesenate, at the distance of five hundred miles, pronounced a sentence ofconfiscation and death against the most illustrious of its members. Atthe command of the Barbarians, the occult science of a philosopher wasstigmatized with the names of sacrilege and magic. [96] A devout anddutiful attachment to the senate was condemned as criminal by thetrembling voices of the senators themselves; and their ingratitudedeserved the wish or prediction of Boethius, that, after him, noneshould be found guilty of the same offence. [97]

[Footnote 94: Si ego scissem tu nescisses. Beothius adopts this answer(l. I. Pros. 4, p. 53) of Julius Canus, whose philosophic death isdescribed by Seneca, (De Tranquillitate Animi, c. 14. )]

[Footnote 95: The characters of his two delators, Basilius (Var. Ii. 10, 11, iv. 22) and Opilio, (v. 41, viii. 16, ) are illustrated, not muchto their honor, in the Epistles of Cassiodorus, which likewise mentionDecoratus, (v. 31, ) the worthless colleague of Beothius, (l. Iii. Pros. 4, p. 193. )]

[Footnote 96: A severe inquiry was instituted into the crime of magic, (Var. Iv 22, 23, ix. 18;) and it was believed that many necromancers hadescaped by making their jailers mad: for mad I should read drunk. ]

[Footnote 97: Boethius had composed his own Apology, (p. 53, ) perhapsmore interesting than his Consolation. We must be content with thegeneral view of his honors, principles, persecution, &c. , (l. I. Pros. 4, p. 42--62, ) which may be compared with the short and weighty words ofthe Valesian Fragment, (p. 723. ) An anonymous writer (Sinner, Catalog. Mss. Bibliot. Bern. Tom. I. P. 287) charges him home with honorable andpatriotic treason. ]

While Boethius, oppressed with fetters, expected each moment thesentence or the stroke of death, he composed, in the tower of Pavia, theConsolation of Philosophy; a golden volume not unworthy of the leisureof Plato or Tully, but which claims incomparable merit from thebarbarism of the times and the situation of the author. The celestialguide, whom he had so long invoked at Rome and Athens, now condescendedto illumine his dungeon, to revive his courage, and to pour into hiswounds her salutary balm. She taught him to compare his long prosperityand his recent distress, and to conceive new hopes from the inconstancyof fortune. Reason had informed him of the precarious condition of hergifts; experience had satisfied him of their real value; he had enjoyedthem without guilt; he might resign them without a sigh, and calmlydisdain the impotent malice of his enemies, who had left him happiness, since they had left him virtue. From the earth, Boethius ascendedto heaven in search of the Supreme Good; explored the metaphysicallabyrinth of chance and destiny, of prescience and free will, oftime and eternity; and generously attempted to reconcile the perfectattributes of the Deity with the apparent disorders of his moral andphysical government. Such topics of consolation so obvious, so vague, orso abstruse, are ineffectual to subdue the feelings of human nature. Yetthe sense of misfortune may be diverted by the labor of thought; and thesage who could artfully combine in the same work the various richesof philosophy, poetry, and eloquence, must already have possessed theintrepid calmness which he affected to seek. Suspense, the worst ofevils, was at length determined by the ministers of death, who executed, and perhaps exceeded, the inhuman mandate of Theodoric. A strong cordwas fastened round the head of Boethius, and forcibly tightened, tillhis eyes almost started from their sockets; and some mercy may bediscovered in the milder torture of beating him with clubs till heexpired. [98] But his genius survived to diffuse a ray of knowledge overthe darkest ages of the Latin world; the writings of the philosopherwere translated by the most glorious of the English kings, [99] and thethird emperor of the name of Otho removed to a more honorable tomb thebones of a Catholic saint, who, from his Arian persecutors, had acquiredthe honors of martyrdom, and the fame of miracles. [100] In the lasthours of Boethius, he derived some comfort from the safety of his twosons, of his wife, and of his father-in-law, the venerable Symmachus. But the grief of Symmachus was indiscreet, and perhaps disrespectful:he had presumed to lament, he might dare to revenge, the death of aninjured friend. He was dragged in chains from Rome to the palace ofRavenna; and the suspicions of Theodoric could only be appeased by theblood of an innocent and aged senator. [101]

[Footnote 98: He was executed in Agro Calventiano, (Calvenzano, betweenMarignano and Pavia, ) Anonym. Vales. P. 723, by order of Eusebius, countof Ticinum or Pavia. This place of confinement is styled the baptistery, an edifice and name peculiar to cathedrals. It is claimed by theperpetual tradition of the church of Pavia. The tower of Boethiussubsisted till the year 1584, and the draught is yet preserved, (Tiraboschi, tom. Iii. P. 47, 48. )]

[Footnote 99: See the Biographia Britannica, Alfred, tom. I. P. 80, 2dedition. The work is still more honorable if performed under the learnedeye of Alfred by his foreign and domestic doctors. For the reputationof Boethius in the middle ages, consult Brucker, (Hist. Crit. Philosoph. Tom. Iii. P. 565, 566. )]

[Footnote 100: The inscription on his new tomb was composed by thepreceptor of Otho III. , the learned Pope Silvester II. , who, likeBoethius himself, was styled a magician by the ignorance of the times. The Catholic martyr had carried his head in his hands a considerableway, (Baronius, A. D. 526, No. 17, 18;) and yet on a similar tale, a ladyof my acquaintance once observed, "La distance n'y fait rien; il n'y aque lo remier pas qui coute. " Note: Madame du Deffand. This witticismreferred to the miracle of St. Denis. --G. ]

[Footnote 101: Boethius applauds the virtues of his father-in-law, (l. I. Pros. 4, p. 59, l. Ii. Pros. 4, p. 118. ) Procopius, (Goth. L. I. C. I. , ) the Valesian Fragment, (p. 724, ) and the Historia Miscella, (l. Xv. P. 105, ) agree in praising the superior innocence or sanctity ofSymmachus; and in the estimation of the legend, the guilt of his murderis equal to the imprisonment of a pope. ]

Humanity will be disposed to encourage any report which testifies thejurisdiction of conscience and the remorse of kings; and philosophy isnot ignorant that the most horrid spectres are sometimes created by thepowers of a disordered fancy, and the weakness of a distempered body. After a life of virtue and glory, Theodoric was now descending withshame and guilt into the grave; his mind was humbled by the contrast ofthe past, and justly alarmed by the invisible terrors of futurity. Oneevening, as it is related, when the head of a large fish was served onthe royal table, [102] he suddenly exclaimed, that he beheld the angrycountenance of Symmachus, his eyes glaring fury and revenge, and hismouth armed with long sharp teeth, which threatened to devour him. Themonarch instantly retired to his chamber, and, as he lay, tremblingwith aguish cold, under a weight of bed-clothes, he expressed, in brokenmurmurs to his physician Elpidius, his deep repentance for the murdersof Boethius and Symmachus. [103] His malady increased, and after adysentery which continued three days, he expired in the palace ofRavenna, in the thirty-third, or, if we compute from the invasionof Italy, in the thirty-seventh year of his reign. Conscious of hisapproaching end, he divided his treasures and provinces between his twograndsons, and fixed the Rhone as their common boundary. [104] Amalaricwas restored to the throne of Spain. Italy, with all the conquests ofthe Ostrogoths, was bequeathed to Athalaric; whose age did not exceedten years, but who was cherished as the last male offspring of the lineof Amali, by the short-lived marriage of his mother Amalasuntha witha royal fugitive of the same blood. [105] In the presence of the dyingmonarch, the Gothic chiefs and Italian magistrates mutually engagedtheir faith and loyalty to the young prince, and to his guardian mother;and received, in the same awful moment, his last salutary advice, to maintain the laws, to love the senate and people of Rome, and tocultivate with decent reverence the friendship of the emperor. [106]The monument of Theodoric was erected by his daughter Amalasuntha, in aconspicuous situation, which commanded the city of Ravenna, the harbor, and the adjacent coast. A chapel of a circular form, thirty feet indiameter, is crowned by a dome of one entire piece of granite: from thecentre of the dome four columns arose, which supported, in a vase ofporphyry, the remains of the Gothic king, surrounded by the brazenstatues of the twelve apostles. [107] His spirit, after some previousexpiation, might have been permitted to mingle with the benefactors ofmankind, if an Italian hermit had not been witness, in a vision, to thedamnation of Theodoric, [108] whose soul was plunged, by the ministersof divine vengeance, into the volcano of Lipari, one of the flamingmouths of the infernal world. [109]

[Footnote 102: In the fanciful eloquence of Cassiodorus, the variety ofsea and river fish are an evidence of extensive dominion; and those ofthe Rhine, of Sicily, and of the Danube, were served on the table ofTheodoric, (Var. Xii. 14. ) The monstrous turbot of Domitian (JuvenalSatir. Iii. 39) had been caught on the shores of the Adriatic. ]

[Footnote 103: Procopius, Goth. L. I. C. 1. But he might have informedus, whether he had received this curious anecdote from common report orfrom the mouth of the royal physician. ]

[Footnote 104: Procopius, Goth. L. I. C. 1, 2, 12, 13. This partitionhad been directed by Theodoric, though it was not executed till afterhis death, Regni hereditatem superstes reliquit, (Isidor. Chron. P. 721, edit. Grot. )]

[Footnote 105: Berimund, the third in descent from Hermanric, kingof the Ostrogoths, had retired into Spain, where he lived and diedin obscurity, (Jornandes, c. 33, p. 202, edit. Muratori. ) See thediscovery, nuptials, and death of his grandson Eutharic, (c. 58, p. 220. ) His Roman games might render him popular, (Cassiodor. In Chron. , )but Eutharic was asper in religione, (Anonym. Vales. P. 723. )]

[Footnote 106: See the counsels of Theodoric, and the professions of hissuccessor, in Procopius, (Goth. L. I. C. 1, 2, ) Jornandes, (c. 59, p. 220, 221, ) and Cassiodorus, (Var. Viii. 1--7. ) These epistles are thetriumph of his ministerial eloquence. ]

[Footnote 107: Anonym. Vales. P. 724. Agnellus de Vitis. Pont. Raven. InMuratori Script. Rerum Ital. Tom. Ii. P. I. P. 67. Alberti Descrittioned' Italia, p. 311. * Note: The Mausoleum of Theodoric, now Sante Mariadella Rotonda, is engraved in D'Agincourt, Histoire de l'Art, p xviii. Of the Architectural Prints. --M]

[Footnote 108: This legend is related by Gregory I. , (Dialog. Iv. 36, )and approved by Baronius, (A. D. 526, No. 28;) and both the pope andcardinal are grave doctors, sufficient to establish a probable opinion. ]

[Footnote 109: Theodoric himself, or rather Cassiodorus, had describedin tragic strains the volcanos of Lipari (Cluver. Sicilia, p. 406--410)and Vesuvius, (v 50. )]

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian. --Part I. 

 Elevation Of Justin The Elder. --Reign Of Justinian. --I. The Empress Theodora. --II. Factions Of The Circus, And Sedition Of Constantinople. --III. Trade And Manufacture Of Silk. -- IV. Finances And Taxes. --V. Edifices Of Justinian. --Church Of St. Sophia. --Fortifications And Frontiers Of The Eastern Empire. --Abolition Of The Schools Of Athens, And The Consulship Of Rome. 

The emperor Justinian was born [1] near the ruins of Sardica, (the modern Sophia, ) of an obscure race [2] of Barbarians, [3] theinhabitants of a wild and desolate country, to which the names ofDardania, of Dacia, and of Bulgaria, have been successively applied. Hiselevation was prepared by the adventurous spirit of his uncle Justin, who, with two other peasants of the same village, deserted, forthe profession of arms, the more useful employment of husbandmen orshepherds. [4] On foot, with a scanty provision of biscuit in theirknapsacks, the three youths followed the high road of Constantinople, and were soon enrolled, for their strength and stature, among the guardsof the emperor Leo. Under the two succeeding reigns, the fortunatepeasant emerged to wealth and honors; and his escape from some dangerswhich threatened his life was afterwards ascribed to the guardian angelwho watches over the fate of kings. His long and laudable service inthe Isaurian and Persian wars would not have preserved from oblivion thename of Justin; yet they might warrant the military promotion, which inthe course of fifty years he gradually obtained; the rank of tribune, of count, and of general; the dignity of senator, and the command of theguards, who obeyed him as their chief, at the important crisis when theemperor Anastasius was removed from the world. The powerful kinsmen whomhe had raised and enriched were excluded from the throne; and the eunuchAmantius, who reigned in the palace, had secretly resolved to fix thediadem on the head of the most obsequious of his creatures. A liberaldonative, to conciliate the suffrage of the guards, was intrustedfor that purpose in the hands of their commander. But these weightyarguments were treacherously employed by Justin in his own favor; and asno competitor presumed to appear, the Dacian peasant was invested withthe purple by the unanimous consent of the soldiers, who knew him tobe brave and gentle, of the clergy and people, who believed him tobe orthodox, and of the provincials, who yielded a blind and implicitsubmission to the will of the capital. The elder Justin, as he isdistinguished from another emperor of the same family and name, ascendedthe Byzantine throne at the age of sixty-eight years; and, had he beenleft to his own guidance, every moment of a nine years' reign must haveexposed to his subjects the impropriety of their choice. His ignorancewas similar to that of Theodoric; and it is remarkable that in an agenot destitute of learning, two contemporary monarchs had never beeninstructed in the knowledge of the alphabet. [411] But the genius ofJustin was far inferior to that of the Gothic king: the experience ofa soldier had not qualified him for the government of an empire; andthough personally brave, the consciousness of his own weakness wasnaturally attended with doubt, distrust, and political apprehension. But the official business of the state was diligently and faithfullytransacted by the quaestor Proclus; [5] and the aged emperor adopted thetalents and ambition of his nephew Justinian, an aspiring youth, whomhis uncle had drawn from the rustic solitude of Dacia, and educated atConstantinople, as the heir of his private fortune, and at length of theEastern empire. 

[Footnote 1: There is some difficulty in the date of his birth(Ludewig in Vit. Justiniani, p. 125;) none in the place--the districtBederiana--the village Tauresium, which he afterwards decorated withhis name and splendor, (D'Anville, Hist. De l'Acad. &c. , tom. Xxxi. P. 287--292. )]

[Footnote 2: The names of these Dardanian peasants are Gothic, andalmost English: Justinian is a translation of uprauda, (upright;) hisfather Sabatius (in Graeco-barbarous language stipes) was styled inhis village Istock, (Stock;) his mother Bigleniza was softened intoVigilantia. ]

[Footnote 3: Ludewig (p. 127--135) attempts to justify the Anician nameof Justinian and Theodora, and to connect them with a family from whichthe house of Austria has been derived. ]

[Footnote 4: See the anecdotes of Procopius, (c. 6, ) with the notes ofN. Alemannus. The satirist would not have sunk, in the vague and decentappellation of Zonaras. Yet why are those names disgraceful?--and whatGerman baron would not be proud to descend from the Eumaeus of theOdyssey! Note: It is whimsical enough that, in our own days, we shouldhave, even in jest, a claimant to lineal descent from the godlikeswineherd not in the person of a German baron, but in that of aprofessor of the Ionian University. Constantine Koliades, or somemalicious wit under this name, has written a tall folio to prove Ulyssesto be Homer, and himself the descendant, the heir (?), of the Eumaeus ofthe Odyssey. --M]

[Footnote 411: St. Martin questions the fact in both cases. Theignorance of Justin rests on the secret history of Procopius, vol. Viii. P. 8. St. Martin's notes on Le Beau. --M]

[Footnote 5: His virtues are praised by Procopius, (Persic. L. I. C. 11. ) The quaestor Proclus was the friend of Justinian, and the enemy ofevery other adoption. ]

Since the eunuch Amantius had been defrauded of his money, it becamenecessary to deprive him of his life. The task was easily accomplishedby the charge of a real or fictitious conspiracy; and the judges wereinformed, as an accumulation of guilt, that he was secretly addictedto the Manichaean heresy. [6] Amantius lost his head; three of hiscompanions, the first domestics of the palace, were punished either withdeath or exile; and their unfortunate candidate for the purple was castinto a deep dungeon, overwhelmed with stones, and ignominiously thrown, without burial, into the sea. The ruin of Vitalian was a work of moredifficulty and danger. That Gothic chief had rendered himself popular bythe civil war which he boldly waged against Anastasius for the defenceof the orthodox faith, and after the conclusion of an advantageoustreaty, he still remained in the neighborhood of Constantinople at thehead of a formidable and victorious army of Barbarians. By the frailsecurity of oaths, he was tempted to relinquish this advantageoussituation, and to trust his person within the walls of a city, whoseinhabitants, particularly the blue faction, were artfully incensedagainst him by the remembrance even of his pious hostilities. Theemperor and his nephew embraced him as the faithful and worthy championof the church and state; and gratefully adorned their favorite withthe titles of consul and general; but in the seventh month of hisconsulship, Vitalian was stabbed with seventeen wounds at the royalbanquet; [7] and Justinian, who inherited the spoil, was accused as theassassin of a spiritual brother, to whom he had recently pledged hisfaith in the participation of the Christian mysteries. [8] After thefall of his rival, he was promoted, without any claim of militaryservice, to the office of master-general of the Eastern armies, whom itwas his duty to lead into the field against the public enemy. But, inthe pursuit of fame, Justinian might have lost his present dominion overthe age and weakness of his uncle; and instead of acquiring by Scythianor Persian trophies the applause of his countrymen, [9] the prudentwarrior solicited their favor in the churches, the circus, and thesenate, of Constantinople. The Catholics were attached to the nephewof Justin, who, between the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies, trod thenarrow path of inflexible and intolerant orthodoxy. [10] In the firstdays of the new reign, he prompted and gratified the popular enthusiasmagainst the memory of the deceased emperor. After a schism ofthirty-four years, he reconciled the proud and angry spirit of the Romanpontiff, and spread among the Latins a favorable report of his piousrespect for the apostolic see. The thrones of the East were filled withCatholic bishops, devoted to his interest, the clergy and the monks weregained by his liberality, and the people were taught to pray fortheir future sovereign, the hope and pillar of the true religion. Themagnificence of Justinian was displayed in the superior pomp of hispublic spectacles, an object not less sacred and important in the eyesof the multitude than the creed of Nice or Chalcedon: the expense of hisconsulship was esteemed at two hundred and twenty-eight thousand piecesof gold; twenty lions, and thirty leopards, were produced at the sametime in the amphitheatre, and a numerous train of horses, with theirrich trappings, was bestowed as an extraordinary gift on thevictorious charioteers of the circus. While he indulged the people ofConstantinople, and received the addresses of foreign kings, the nephewof Justin assiduously cultivated the friendship of the senate. Thatvenerable name seemed to qualify its members to declare the sense ofthe nation, and to regulate the succession of the Imperial throne: thefeeble Anastasius had permitted the vigor of government to degenerateinto the form or substance of an aristocracy; and the military officerswho had obtained the senatorial rank were followed by their domesticguards, a band of veterans, whose arms or acclamations might fix in atumultuous moment the diadem of the East. The treasures of the statewere lavished to procure the voices of the senators, and their unanimouswish, that he would be pleased to adopt Justinian for his colleague, was communicated to the emperor. But this request, which too clearlyadmonished him of his approaching end, was unwelcome to the jealoustemper of an aged monarch, desirous to retain the power which he wasincapable of exercising; and Justin, holding his purple with both hishands, advised them to prefer, since an election was so profitable, someolder candidate. Not withstanding this reproach, the senate proceededto decorate Justinian with the royal epithet of nobilissimus; and theirdecree was ratified by the affection or the fears of his uncle. Aftersome time the languor of mind and body, to which he was reduced byan incurable wound in his thigh, indispensably required the aid of aguardian. He summoned the patriarch and senators; and in their presencesolemnly placed the diadem on the head of his nephew, who was conductedfrom the palace to the circus, and saluted by the loud and joyfulapplause of the people. The life of Justin was prolonged about fourmonths; but from the instant of this ceremony, he was considered as deadto the empire, which acknowledged Justinian, in the forty-fifth year ofhis age, for the lawful sovereign of the East. [11]

[Footnote 6: Manichaean signifies Eutychian. Hear the furiousacclamations of Constantinople and Tyre, the former no more thansix days after the decease of Anastasius. They produced, the latterapplauded, the eunuch's death, (Baronius, A. D. 518, P. Ii. No. 15. Fleury, Hist Eccles. Tom. Vii. P. 200, 205, from the Councils, tom. V. P. 182, 207. )]

[Footnote 7: His power, character, and intentions, are perfectlyexplained by the court de Buat, (tom. Ix. P. 54--81. ) He wasgreat-grandson of Aspar, hereditary prince in the Lesser Scythia, and count of the Gothic foederati of Thrace. The Bessi, whom he couldinfluence, are the minor Goths of Jornandes, (c. 51. )]

[Footnote 8: Justiniani patricii factione dicitur interfectus fuisse, (Victor Tu nunensis, Chron. In Thesaur. Temp. Scaliger, P. Ii. P. 7. ) Procopius (Anecdot. C. 7) styles him a tyrant, but acknowledgessomething which is well explained by Alemannus. ]

[Footnote 9: In his earliest youth (plane adolescens) he had passed sometime as a hostage with Theodoric. For this curious fact, Alemannus (adProcop. Anecdot. C. 9, p. 34, of the first edition) quotes a Ms. Historyof Justinian, by his preceptor Theophilus. Ludewig (p. 143) wishes tomake him a soldier. ]

[Footnote 10: The ecclesiastical history of Justinian will be shownhereafter. See Baronius, A. D. 518--521, and the copious articleJustinianas in the index to the viith volume of his Annals. ]

[Footnote 11: The reign of the elder Justin may be found in the threeChronicles of Marcellinus, Victor, and John Malala, (tom. Ii. P. 130--150, ) the last of whom (in spite of Hody, Prolegom. No. 14, 39, edit. Oxon. ) lived soon after Justinian, (Jortin's Remarks, &c. , vol. Ivp. 383:) in the Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius, (l. Iv. C. 1, 2, 3, 9, ) and the Excerpta of Theodorus Lector, (No. 37, ) and in Cedrenus, (p. 362--366, ) and Zonaras, (l. Xiv. P. 58--61, ) who may pass for anoriginal. * Note: Dindorf, in his preface to the new edition of Malala, p. Vi. , concurs with this opinion of Gibbon, which was also that ofReiske, as to the age of the chronicler. --M. ]

From his elevation to his death, Justinian governed the Roman empirethirty-eight years, seven months, and thirteen days. 

The events of his reign, which excite our curious attention by theirnumber, variety, and importance, are diligently related by the secretaryof Belisarius, a rhetorician, whom eloquence had promoted to the rank ofsenator and praefect of Constantinople. According to the vicissitudes ofcourage or servitude, of favor or disgrace, Procopius [12] successivelycomposed the history, the panegyric, and the satire of his own times. The eight books of the Persian, Vandalic, and Gothic wars, [13] whichare continued in the five books of Agathias, deserve our esteem as alaborious and successful imitation of the Attic, or at least of theAsiatic, writers of ancient Greece. His facts are collected from thepersonal experience and free conversation of a soldier, a statesman, anda traveller; his style continually aspires, and often attains, to themerit of strength and elegance; his reflections, more especially inthe speeches, which he too frequently inserts, contain a rich fund ofpolitical knowledge; and the historian, excited by the generous ambitionof pleasing and instructing posterity, appears to disdain the prejudicesof the people, and the flattery of courts. The writings of Procopius[14] were read and applauded by his contemporaries: [15] but, althoughhe respectfully laid them at the foot of the throne, the prideof Justinian must have been wounded by the praise of a hero, whoperpetually eclipses the glory of his inactive sovereign. The consciousdignity of independence was subdued by the hopes and fears of a slave;and the secretary of Belisarius labored for pardon and reward in the sixbooks of the Imperial edifices. He had dexterously chosen a subject ofapparent splendor, in which he could loudly celebrate the genius, themagnificence, and the piety of a prince, who, both as a conqueror andlegislator, had surpassed the puerile virtues of Themistocles and Cyrus. [16] Disappointment might urge the flatterer to secret revenge; and thefirst glance of favor might again tempt him to suspend and suppressa libel, [17] in which the Roman Cyrus is degraded into an odious andcontemptible tyrant, in which both the emperor and his consort Theodoraare seriously represented as two daemons, who had assumed a humanform for the destruction of mankind. [18] Such base inconsistencymust doubtless sully the reputation, and detract from the credit, ofProcopius: yet, after the venom of his malignity has been suffered toexhale, the residue of the anecdotes, even the most disgraceful facts, some of which had been tenderly hinted in his public history, areestablished by their internal evidence, or the authentic monuments ofthe times. [19] [1911] From these various materials, I shall now proceedto describe the reign of Justinian, which will deserve and occupyan ample space. The present chapter will explain the elevation andcharacter of Theodora, the factions of the circus, and the peacefuladministration of the sovereign of the East. In the three succeedingchapters, I shall relate the wars of Justinian, which achieved theconquest of Africa and Italy; and I shall follow the victories ofBelisarius and Narses, without disguising the vanity of their triumphs, or the hostile virtue of the Persian and Gothic heroes. The seriesof this and the following volume will embrace the jurisprudence andtheology of the emperor; the controversies and sects which still dividethe Oriental church; the reformation of the Roman law which is obeyed orrespected by the nations of modern Europe. 

[Footnote 12: See the characters of Procopius and Agathias in La Mothele Vayer, (tom. Viii. P. 144--174, ) Vossius, (de Historicis Graecis, l. Ii. C. 22, ) and Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. L. V. C. 5, tom. Vi. P. 248--278. ) Their religion, an honorable problem, betrays occasionalconformity, with a secret attachment to Paganism and Philosophy. ]

[Footnote 13: In the seven first books, two Persic, two Vandalic, and three Gothic, Procopius has borrowed from Appian the division ofprovinces and wars: the viiith book, though it bears the name of Gothic, is a miscellaneous and general supplement down to the spring of the year553, from whence it is continued by Agathias till 559, (Pagi, Critica, A. D. 579, No. 5. )]

[Footnote 14: The literary fate of Procopius has been somewhat unlucky. 

1. His book de Bello Gothico were stolen by Leonard Aretin, andpublished (Fulginii, 1470, Venet. 1471, apud Janson. Mattaire, AnnalTypograph. Tom. I. Edit. Posterior, p. 290, 304, 279, 299, ) in his ownname, (see Vossius de Hist. Lat. L. Iii. C. 5, and the feeble defence ofthe Venice Giornale de Letterati, tom. Xix. P. 207. )

2. His works were mutilated by the first Latin translators, ChristopherPersona, (Giornale, tom. Xix. P. 340--348, ) and Raphael de Volaterra, (Huet, de Claris Interpretibus, p. 166, ) who did not even consult theMs. Of the Vatican library, of which they were praefects, (Aleman. In Praefat Anecdot. ) 3. The Greek text was not printed till 1607, byHoeschelius of Augsburg, (Dictionnaire de Bayle, tom. Ii. P. 782. )

4. The Paris edition was imperfectly executed by Claude Maltret, aJesuit of Toulouse, (in 1663, ) far distant from the Louvre press andthe Vatican Ms. , from which, however, he obtained some supplements. Hispromised commentaries, &c. , have never appeared. The Agathias of Leyden(1594) has been wisely reprinted by the Paris editor, with the Latinversion of Bonaventura Vulcanius, a learned interpreter, (Huet, p. 176. )

* Note: Procopius forms a part of the new Byzantine collection under thesuperintendence of Dindorf. --M. ]

[Footnote 15: Agathias in Praefat. P. 7, 8, l. Iv. P. 137. Evagrius, l. Iv. C. 12. See likewise Photius, cod. Lxiii. P. 65. ]

[Footnote 16: Says, he, Praefat. Ad l. De Edificiis is no more than apun! In these five books, Procopius affects a Christian as well as acourtly style. ]

[Footnote 17: Procopius discloses himself, (Praefat. Ad Anecdot. C. 1, 2, 5, ) and the anecdotes are reckoned as the ninth book by Suidas, (tom. Iii. P. 186, edit. Kuster. ) The silence of Evagrius is a poor objection. Baronius (A. D. 548, No. 24) regrets the loss of this secret history:it was then in the Vatican library, in his own custody, and was firstpublished sixteen years after his death, with the learned, but partialnotes of Nicholas Alemannus, (Lugd. 1623. )]

[Footnote 18: Justinian an ass--the perfect likeness ofDomitian--Anecdot. C. 8. --Theodora's lovers driven from her bed byrival daemons--her marriage foretold with a great daemon--a monk saw theprince of the daemons, instead of Justinian, on the throne--the servantswho watched beheld a face without features, a body walking without ahead, &c. , &c. Procopius declares his own and his friends' belief inthese diabolical stories, (c. 12. )]

[Footnote 19: Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur et laDecadence des Romains, c. Xx. ) gives credit to these anecdotes, as connected, 1. With the weakness of the empire, and, 2. With theinstability of Justinian's laws. ]

[Footnote 1911: The Anecdota of Procopius, compared with the formerworks of the same author, appear to me the basest and most disgracefulwork in literature. The wars, which he has described in the formervolumes as glorious or necessary, are become unprofitable and wantonmassacres; the buildings which he celebrated, as raised to theimmortal honor of the great emperor, and his admirable queen, either asmagnificent embellishments of the city, or useful fortifications forthe defence of the frontier, are become works of vain prodigalityand useless ostentation. I doubt whether Gibbon has made sufficientallowance for the "malignity" of the Anecdota; at all events, theextreme and disgusting profligacy of Theodora's early life restsentirely on this viratent libel--M. ]

I. In the exercise of supreme power, the first act of Justinian was todivide it with the woman whom he loved, the famous Theodora, [20] whosestrange elevation cannot be applauded as the triumph of female virtue. Under the reign of Anastasius, the care of the wild beasts maintained bythe green faction at Constantinople was intrusted to Acacius, a nativeof the Isle of Cyprus, who, from his employment, was surnamed the masterof the bears. This honorable office was given after his death to anothercandidate, notwithstanding the diligence of his widow, who had alreadyprovided a husband and a successor. Acacius had left three daughters, Comito, [21] Theodora, and Anastasia, the eldest of whom did not thenexceed the age of seven years. On a solemn festival, these helplessorphans were sent by their distressed and indignant mother, in the garbof suppliants, into the midst of the theatre: the green faction receivedthem with contempt, the blues with compassion; and this difference, which sunk deep into the mind of Theodora, was felt long afterwards inthe administration of the empire. As they improved in age and beauty, the three sisters were successively devoted to the public and privatepleasures of the Byzantine people: and Theodora, after following Comitoon the stage, in the dress of a slave, with a stool on her head, wasat length permitted to exercise her independent talents. She neitherdanced, nor sung, nor played on the flute; her skill was confined to thepantomime arts; she excelled in buffoon characters, and as often as thecomedian swelled her cheeks, and complained with a ridiculous toneand gesture of the blows that were inflicted, the whole theatre ofConstantinople resounded with laughter and applause. The beauty ofTheodora [22] was the subject of more flattering praise, and the sourceof more exquisite delight. Her features were delicate and regular; hercomplexion, though somewhat pale, was tinged with a natural color; everysensation was instantly expressed by the vivacity of her eyes; her easymotions displayed the graces of a small but elegant figure; andeither love or adulation might proclaim, that painting and poetry wereincapable of delineating the matchless excellence of her form. Butthis form was degraded by the facility with which it was exposed to thepublic eye, and prostituted to licentious desire. Her venal charms wereabandoned to a promiscuous crowd of citizens and strangers of everyrank, and of every profession: the fortunate lover who had been promiseda night of enjoyment, was often driven from her bed by a stronger ormore wealthy favorite; and when she passed through the streets, herpresence was avoided by all who wished to escape either the scandal orthe temptation. The satirical historian has not blushed [23] to describethe naked scenes which Theodora was not ashamed to exhibit in thetheatre. [24] After exhausting the arts of sensual pleasure, [25] shemost ungratefully murmured against the parsimony of Nature; [26] but hermurmurs, her pleasures, and her arts, must be veiled in the obscurityof a learned language. After reigning for some time, the delight andcontempt of the capital, she condescended to accompany Ecebolus, a native of Tyre, who had obtained the government of the AfricanPentapolis. But this union was frail and transient; Ecebolus soonrejected an expensive or faithless concubine; she was reduced atAlexandria to extreme distress; and in her laborious return toConstantinople, every city of the East admired and enjoyed the fairCyprian, whose merit appeared to justify her descent from the peculiarisland of Venus. The vague commerce of Theodora, and the most detestableprecautions, preserved her from the danger which she feared; yet once, and once only, she became a mother. The infant was saved and educated inArabia, by his father, who imparted to him on his death-bed, that hewas the son of an empress. Filled with ambitious hopes, the unsuspectingyouth immediately hastened to the palace of Constantinople, and wasadmitted to the presence of his mother. As he was never more seen, even after the decease of Theodora, she deserves the foul imputationof extinguishing with his life a secret so offensive to her Imperialvirtue. [2611]

[Footnote 20: For the life and manners of the empress Theodora see theAnecdotes; more especially c. 1--5, 9, 10--15, 16, 17, with the learnednotes of Alemannus--a reference which is always implied. ]

[Footnote 21: Comito was afterwards married to Sittas, duke of Armenia, the father, perhaps, at least she might be the mother, of the empressSophia. Two nephews of Theodora may be the sons of Anastasia, (Aleman. P. 30, 31. )]

[Footnote 22: Her statute was raised at Constantinople, on a porphyrycolumn. See Procopius, (de Edif. L. I. C. 11, ) who gives her portraitin the Anecdotes, (c. 10. ) Aleman. (p. 47) produces one from a Mosaic atRavenna, loaded with pearls and jewels, and yet handsome. ]

[Footnote 23: A fragment of the Anecdotes, (c. 9, ) somewhat too naked, was suppressed by Alemannus, though extant in the Vatican Ms. ; nor hasthe defect been supplied in the Paris or Venice editions. La Mothele Vayer (tom. Viii. P. 155) gave the first hint of this curious andgenuine passage, (Jortin's Remarks, vol. Iv. P. 366, ) which he hadreceived from Rome, and it has been since published in the Menagiana(tom. Iii. P. 254--259) with a Latin version. ]

[Footnote 24: After the mention of a narrow girdle, (as none couldappear stark naked in the theatre, ) Procopius thus proceeds. I haveheard that a learned prelate, now deceased, was fond of quoting thispassage in conversation. ]

[Footnote 25: Theodora surpassed the Crispa of Ausonius, (Epigramlxxi. , ) who imitated the capitalis luxus of the females of Nola. SeeQuintilian Institut. Viii. 6, and Torrentius ad Horat. Sermon. L. I. Sat. 2, v. 101. At a memorable supper, thirty slaves waited round thetable ten young men feasted with Theodora. Her charity was universal. Etlassata viris, necdum satiata, recessit. ]

[Footnote 26: She wished for a fourth altar, on which she might pourlibations to the god of love. ]

[Footnote 2611: Gibbon should have remembered the axiom which hequotes in another piece, scelera ostendi oportet dum puniantur abscondiflagitia. --M. ]

In the most abject state of her fortune, and reputation, some vision, either of sleep or of fancy, had whispered to Theodora the pleasingassurance that she was destined to become the spouse of a potentmonarch. Conscious of her approaching greatness, she returned fromPaphlagonia to Constantinople; assumed, like a skilful actress, a moredecent character; relieved her poverty by the laudable industry ofspinning wool; and affected a life of chastity and solitude in a smallhouse, which she afterwards changed into a magnificent temple. [27] Herbeauty, assisted by art or accident, soon attracted, captivated, andfixed, the patrician Justinian, who already reigned with absolute swayunder the name of his uncle. Perhaps she contrived to enhance the valueof a gift which she had so often lavished on the meanest of mankind;perhaps she inflamed, at first by modest delays, and at last by sensualallurements, the desires of a lover, who, from nature or devotion, wasaddicted to long vigils and abstemious diet. When his first transportshad subsided, she still maintained the same ascendant over his mind, bythe more solid merit of temper and understanding. Justinian delightedto ennoble and enrich the object of his affection; the treasures of theEast were poured at her feet, and the nephew of Justin was determined, perhaps by religious scruples, to bestow on his concubine the sacred andlegal character of a wife. But the laws of Rome expressly prohibitedthe marriage of a senator with any female who had been dishonored bya servile origin or theatrical profession: the empress Lupicina, orEuphemia, a Barbarian of rustic manners, but of irreproachable virtue, refused to accept a prostitute for her niece; and even Vigilantia, thesuperstitious mother of Justinian, though she acknowledged the wit andbeauty of Theodora, was seriously apprehensive, lest the levity andarrogance of that artful paramour might corrupt the piety and happinessof her son. These obstacles were removed by the inflexible constancy ofJustinian. He patiently expected the death of the empress; he despisedthe tears of his mother, who soon sunk under the weight of heraffliction; and a law was promulgated in the name of the emperorJustin, which abolished the rigid jurisprudence of antiquity. A gloriousrepentance (the words of the edict) was left open for the unhappyfemales who had prostituted their persons on the theatre, and they werepermitted to contract a legal union with the most illustrious ofthe Romans. [28] This indulgence was speedily followed by the solemnnuptials of Justinian and Theodora; her dignity was gradually exaltedwith that of her lover, and, as soon as Justin had invested his nephewwith the purple, the patriarch of Constantinople placed the diadem onthe heads of the emperor and empress of the East. But the usual honorswhich the severity of Roman manners had allowed to the wives of princes, could not satisfy either the ambition of Theodora or the fondness ofJustinian. He seated her on the throne as an equal and independentcolleague in the sovereignty of the empire, and an oath of allegiancewas imposed on the governors of the provinces in the joint names ofJustinian and Theodora. [29] The Eastern world fell prostrate before thegenius and fortune of the daughter of Acacius. The prostitute who, inthe presence of innumerable spectators, had polluted the theatreof Constantinople, was adored as a queen in the same city, by gravemagistrates, orthodox bishops, victorious generals, and captivemonarchs. [30]

[Footnote 27: Anonym. De Antiquitat. C. P. L. Iii. 132, in BanduriImperium Orient. Tom. I. P. 48. Ludewig (p. 154) argues sensibly thatTheodora would not have immortalized a brothel: but I apply this fact toher second and chaster residence at Constantinople. ]

[Footnote 28: See the old law in Justinian's Code, (l. V. Tit. V. Leg. 7, tit. Xxvii. Leg. 1, ) under the years 336 and 454. The new edict(about the year 521 or 522, Aleman. P. 38, 96) very awkwardly repeals nomore than the clause of mulieres scenicoe, libertinae, tabernariae. See the novels 89 and 117, and a Greek rescript from Justinian to thebishops, (Aleman. P. 41. )]

[Footnote 29: I swear by the Father, &c. , by the Virgin Mary, by thefour Gospels, quae in manibus teneo, and by the Holy Archangels Michaeland Gabriel, puram conscientiam germanumque servitium me servaturum, sacratissimis DDNN. Justiniano et Theodorae conjugi ejus, (Novell. Viii. Tit. 3. ) Would the oath have been binding in favor of the widow?Communes tituli et triumphi, &c. , (Aleman. P. 47, 48. )]

[Footnote 30: "Let greatness own her, and she's mean no more, " &c. Without Warburton's critical telescope, I should never have seen, in this general picture of triumphant vice, any personal allusion toTheodora. ]

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian. --Part II. 

Those who believe that the female mind is totally depraved by the lossof chastity, will eagerly listen to all the invectives of private envy, or popular resentment which have dissembled the virtues of Theodora, exaggerated her vices, and condemned with rigor the venal or voluntarysins of the youthful harlot. From a motive of shame, or contempt, sheoften declined the servile homage of the multitude, escaped from theodious light of the capital, and passed the greatest part of the year inthe palaces and gardens which were pleasantly seated on the sea-coast ofthe Propontis and the Bosphorus. Her private hours were devoted to theprudent as well as grateful care of her beauty, the luxury of the bathand table, and the long slumber of the evening and the morning. Hersecret apartments were occupied by the favorite women and eunuchs, whoseinterests and passions she indulged at the expense of justice; the mostillustrious person ages of the state were crowded into a dark and sultryantechamber, and when at last, after tedious attendance, they wereadmitted to kiss the feet of Theodora, they experienced, as her humormight suggest, the silent arrogance of an empress, or the capriciouslevity of a comedian. Her rapacious avarice to accumulate an immensetreasure, may be excused by the apprehension of her husband's death, which could leave no alternative between ruin and the throne; and fearas well as ambition might exasperate Theodora against two generals, who, during the malady of the emperor, had rashly declared that they were notdisposed to acquiesce in the choice of the capital. But the reproach ofcruelty, so repugnant even to her softer vices, has left an indeliblestain on the memory of Theodora. Her numerous spies observed, andzealously reported, every action, or word, or look, injurious to theirroyal mistress. Whomsoever they accused were cast into her peculiarprisons, [31] inaccessible to the inquiries of justice; and it wasrumored, that the torture of the rack, or scourge, had been inflicted inthe presence of the female tyrant, insensible to the voice of prayeror of pity. [32] Some of these unhappy victims perished in deep, unwholesome dungeons, while others were permitted, after the loss oftheir limbs, their reason, or their fortunes, to appear in the world, the living monuments of her vengeance, which was commonly extended tothe children of those whom she had suspected or injured. The senator orbishop, whose death or exile Theodora had pronounced, was delivered toa trusty messenger, and his diligence was quickened by a menace from herown mouth. "If you fail in the execution of my commands, I swear by Himwho liveth forever, that your skin shall be flayed from your body. " [33]

[Footnote 31: Her prisons, a labyrinth, a Tartarus, (Anecdot. C. 4, )were under the palace. Darkness is propitious to cruelty, but it islikewise favorable to calumny and fiction. ]

[Footnote 32: A more jocular whipping was inflicted on Saturninus, forpresuming to say that his wife, a favorite of the empress, had not beenfound. (Anecdot. C. 17. )]

[Footnote 33: Per viventem in saecula excoriari te faciam. Anastasius deVitis Pont. Roman. In Vigilio, p. 40. ]

If the creed of Theodora had not been tainted with heresy, her exemplarydevotion might have atoned, in the opinion of her contemporaries, forpride, avarice, and cruelty. But, if she employed her influence toassuage the intolerant fury of the emperor, the present age will allowsome merit to her religion, and much indulgence to her speculativeerrors. [34] The name of Theodora was introduced, with equal honor, in all the pious and charitable foundations of Justinian; and the mostbenevolent institution of his reign may be ascribed to the sympathyof the empress for her less fortunate sisters, who had been seduced orcompelled to embrace the trade of prostitution. A palace, on theAsiatic side of the Bosphorus, was converted into a stately and spaciousmonastery, and a liberal maintenance was assigned to five hundred women, who had been collected from the streets and brothels of Constantinople. In this safe and holy retreat, they were devoted to perpetualconfinement; and the despair of some, who threw themselves headlonginto the sea, was lost in the gratitude of the penitents, who had beendelivered from sin and misery by their generous benefactress. [35] Theprudence of Theodora is celebrated by Justinian himself; and his lawsare attributed to the sage counsels of his most reverend wife whom hehad received as the gift of the Deity. [36] Her courage was displayedamidst the tumult of the people and the terrors of the court. Herchastity, from the moment of her union with Justinian, is founded on thesilence of her implacable enemies; and although the daughter of Acaciusmight be satiated with love, yet some applause is due to the firmnessof a mind which could sacrifice pleasure and habit to the stronger senseeither of duty or interest. The wishes and prayers of Theodora couldnever obtain the blessing of a lawful son, and she buried an infantdaughter, the sole offspring of her marriage. [37] Notwithstanding thisdisappointment, her dominion was permanent and absolute; she preserved, by art or merit, the affections of Justinian; and their seemingdissensions were always fatal to the courtiers who believed them to besincere. Perhaps her health had been impaired by the licentiousnessof her youth; but it was always delicate, and she was directed by herphysicians to use the Pythian warm baths. In this journey, the empresswas followed by the Praetorian praefect, the great treasurer, severalcounts and patricians, and a splendid train of four thousand attendants:the highways were repaired at her approach; a palace was erected for herreception; and as she passed through Bithynia, she distributed liberalalms to the churches, the monasteries, and the hospitals, that theymight implore Heaven for the restoration of her health. [38] At length, in the twenty-fourth year of her marriage, and the twenty-second of herreign, she was consumed by a cancer; [39] and the irreparable loss wasdeplored by her husband, who, in the room of a theatrical prostitute, might have selected the purest and most noble virgin of the East. [40]

[Footnote 34: Ludewig, p. 161--166. I give him credit for the charitableattempt, although he hath not much charity in his temper. ]

[Footnote 35: Compare the anecdotes (c. 17) with the Edifices (l. I. C. 9)--how differently may the same fact be stated! John Malala (tom. Ii. P. 174, 175) observes, that on this, or a similar occasion, she releasedand clothed the girls whom she had purchased from the stews at fiveaurei apiece. ]

[Footnote 36: Novel. Viii. 1. An allusion to Theodora. Her enemies readthe name Daemonodora, (Aleman. P. 66. )]

[Footnote 37: St. Sabas refused to pray for a son of Theodora, lest heshould prove a heretic worse than Anastasius himself, (Cyril in Vit. St. Sabae, apud Aleman. P. 70, 109. )]

[Footnote 38: See John Malala, tom. Ii. P. 174. Theophanes, p. 158. Procopius de Edific. L. V. C. 3. ]

[Footnote 39: Theodora Chalcedonensis synodi inimica canceris plaga totocorpore perfusa vitam prodigiose finivit, (Victor Tununensis in Chron. )On such occasions, an orthodox mind is steeled against pity. Alemannus(p. 12, 13) understands of Theophanes as civil language, which does notimply either piety or repentance; yet two years after her death, St. Theodora is celebrated by Paul Silentiarius, (in proem. V. 58--62. )]

[Footnote 40: As she persecuted the popes, and rejected a council, Baronius exhausts the names of Eve, Dalila, Herodias, &c. ; after whichhe has recourse to his infernal dictionary: civis inferni--alumnadaemonum--satanico agitata spiritu-oestro percita diabolico, &c. , &c. , (A. D. 548, No. 24. )]

II. A material difference may be observed in the games of antiquity:the most eminent of the Greeks were actors, the Romans were merelyspectators. The Olympic stadium was open to wealth, merit, and ambition;and if the candidates could depend on their personal skill and activity, they might pursue the footsteps of Diomede and Menelaus, and conducttheir own horses in the rapid career. [41] Ten, twenty, forty chariotswere allowed to start at the same instant; a crown of leaves was thereward of the victor; and his fame, with that of his family and country, was chanted in lyric strains more durable than monuments of brass andmarble. But a senator, or even a citizen, conscious of his dignity, would have blushed to expose his person, or his horses, in the circusof Rome. The games were exhibited at the expense of the republic, themagistrates, or the emperors: but the reins were abandoned to servilehands; and if the profits of a favorite charioteer sometimes exceededthose of an advocate, they must be considered as the effects of popularextravagance, and the high wages of a disgraceful profession. The race, in its first institution, was a simple contest of two chariots, whosedrivers were distinguished by white and red liveries: two additionalcolors, a light green, and a caerulean blue, were afterwards introduced;and as the races were repeated twenty-five times, one hundred chariotscontributed in the same day to the pomp of the circus. The four factionssoon acquired a legal establishment, and a mysterious origin, and theirfanciful colors were derived from the various appearances of nature inthe four seasons of the year; the red dogstar of summer, the snowsof winter, the deep shades of autumn, and the cheerful verdure ofthe spring. [42] Another interpretation preferred the elements tothe seasons, and the struggle of the green and blue was supposed torepresent the conflict of the earth and sea. Their respective victoriesannounced either a plentiful harvest or a prosperous navigation, and thehostility of the husbandmen and mariners was somewhat less absurdthan the blind ardor of the Roman people, who devoted their lives andfortunes to the color which they had espoused. Such folly was disdainedand indulged by the wisest princes; but the names of Caligula, Nero, Vitellius, Verus, Commodus, Caracalla, and Elagabalus, were enrolled inthe blue or green factions of the circus; they frequented their stables, applauded their favorites, chastised their antagonists, and deserved theesteem of the populace, by the natural or affected imitation of theirmanners. The bloody and tumultuous contest continued to disturb thepublic festivity, till the last age of the spectacles of Rome; andTheodoric, from a motive of justice or affection, interposed hisauthority to protect the greens against the violence of a consul anda patrician, who were passionately addicted to the blue faction of thecircus. [43]

[Footnote 41: Read and feel the xxiid book of the Iliad, a livingpicture of manners, passions, and the whole form and spirit ofthe chariot race West's Dissertation on the Olympic Games (sect. Xii. --xvii. ) affords much curious and authentic information. ]

[Footnote 42: The four colors, albati, russati, prasini, veneti, represent the four seasons, according to Cassiodorus, (Var. Iii. 51, )who lavishes much wit and eloquence on this theatrical mystery. Of thesecolors, the three first may be fairly translated white, red, and green. Venetus is explained by coeruleus, a word various and vague: it isproperly the sky reflected in the sea; but custom and conveniencemay allow blue as an equivalent, (Robert. Stephan. Sub voce. Spence'sPolymetis, p. 228. )]

[Footnote 43: See Onuphrius Panvinius de Ludis Circensibus, l. I. C. 10, 11; the xviith Annotation on Mascou's History of the Germans; and Alemanad c. Vii. ]

Constantinople adopted the follies, though not the virtues, of ancientRome; and the same factions which had agitated the circus, raged withredoubled fury in the hippodrome. Under the reign of Anastasius, thispopular frenzy was inflamed by religious zeal; and the greens, whohad treacherously concealed stones and daggers under baskets offruit, massacred, at a solemn festival, three thousand of their blueadversaries. [44] From this capital, the pestilence was diffused intothe provinces and cities of the East, and the sportive distinction oftwo colors produced two strong and irreconcilable factions, which shookthe foundations of a feeble government. [45] The popular dissensions, founded on the most serious interest, or holy pretence, have scarcelyequalled the obstinacy of this wanton discord, which invaded the peaceof families, divided friends and brothers, and tempted the female sex, though seldom seen in the circus, to espouse the inclinations of theirlovers, or to contradict the wishes of their husbands. Every law, eitherhuman or divine, was trampled under foot, and as long as the party wassuccessful, its deluded followers appeared careless of private distressor public calamity. The license, without the freedom, of democracy, was revived at Antioch and Constantinople, and the support of a factionbecame necessary to every candidate for civil or ecclesiastical honors. A secret attachment to the family or sect of Anastasius was imputed tothe greens; the blues were zealously devoted to the cause of orthodoxyand Justinian, [46] and their grateful patron protected, above fiveyears, the disorders of a faction, whose seasonable tumults overawed thepalace, the senate, and the capitals of the East. Insolent with royalfavor, the blues affected to strike terror by a peculiar and Barbaricdress, the long hair of the Huns, their close sleeves and amplegarments, a lofty step, and a sonorous voice. In the day they concealedtheir two-edged poniards, but in the night they boldly assembled inarms, and in numerous bands, prepared for every act of violence andrapine. Their adversaries of the green faction, or even inoffensivecitizens, were stripped and often murdered by these nocturnal robbers, and it became dangerous to wear any gold buttons or girdles, or toappear at a late hour in the streets of a peaceful capital. A daringspirit, rising with impunity, proceeded to violate the safeguard ofprivate houses; and fire was employed to facilitate the attack, orto conceal the crimes of these factious rioters. No place was safe orsacred from their depredations; to gratify either avarice or revenge, they profusely spilt the blood of the innocent; churches and altars werepolluted by atrocious murders; and it was the boast of the assassins, that their dexterity could always inflict a mortal wound with a singlestroke of their dagger. The dissolute youth of Constantinople adoptedthe blue livery of disorder; the laws were silent, and the bondsof society were relaxed: creditors were compelled to resign theirobligations; judges to reverse their sentence; masters to enfranchisetheir slaves; fathers to supply the extravagance of their children;noble matrons were prostituted to the lust of their servants; beautifulboys were torn from the arms of their parents; and wives, unless theypreferred a voluntary death, were ravished in the presence of theirhusbands. [47] The despair of the greens, who were persecuted by theirenemies, and deserted by the magistrates, assumed the privilege ofdefence, perhaps of retaliation; but those who survived the combat weredragged to execution, and the unhappy fugitives, escaping to woodsand caverns, preyed without mercy on the society from whence they wereexpelled. Those ministers of justice who had courage to punish thecrimes, and to brave the resentment, of the blues, became the victims oftheir indiscreet zeal; a praefect of Constantinople fled for refuge tothe holy sepulchre, a count of the East was ignominiously whipped, and agovernor of Cilicia was hanged, by the order of Theodora, on the tomb oftwo assassins whom he had condemned for the murder of his groom, anda daring attack upon his own life. [48] An aspiring candidate may betempted to build his greatness on the public confusion, but it is theinterest as well as duty of a sovereign to maintain the authority ofthe laws. The first edict of Justinian, which was often repeated, and sometimes executed, announced his firm resolution to support theinnocent, and to chastise the guilty, of every denomination and color. Yet the balance of justice was still inclined in favor of the bluefaction, by the secret affection, the habits, and the fears of theemperor; his equity, after an apparent struggle, submitted, withoutreluctance, to the implacable passions of Theodora, and the empressnever forgot, or forgave, the injuries of the comedian. At the accessionof the younger Justin, the proclamation of equal and rigorous justiceindirectly condemned the partiality of the former reign. "Ye blues, Justinian is no more! ye greens, he is still alive!" [49]

[Footnote 44: Marcellin. In Chron. P. 47. Instead of the vulgar wordvenata he uses the more exquisite terms of coerulea and coerealis. Baronius (A. D. 501, No. 4, 5, 6) is satisfied that the blues wereorthodox; but Tillemont is angry at the supposition, and will not allowany martyrs in a playhouse, (Hist. Des Emp. Tom. Vi. P. 554. )]

[Footnote 45: See Procopius, (Persic. L. I. C. 24. ) In describing thevices of the factions and of the government, the public, is not morefavorable than the secret, historian. Aleman. (p. 26) has quoted afine passage from Gregory Nazianzen, which proves the inveteracy of theevil. ]

[Footnote 46: The partiality of Justinian for the blues (Anecdot. C. 7)is attested by Evagrius, (Hist. Eccles. L. Iv. C. 32, ) John Malala, (tomii p. 138, 139, ) especially for Antioch; and Theophanes, (p. 142. )]

[Footnote 47: A wife, (says Procopius, ) who was seized and almostravished by a blue-coat, threw herself into the Bosphorus. The bishopsof the second Syria (Aleman. P. 26) deplore a similar suicide, the guiltor glory of female chastity, and name the heroine. ]

[Footnote 48: The doubtful credit of Procopius (Anecdot. C. 17) issupported by the less partial Evagrius, who confirms the fact, andspecifies the names. The tragic fate of the praefect of Constantinopleis related by John Malala, (tom. Ii. P. 139. )]

[Footnote 49: See John Malala, (tom. Ii. P. 147;) yet he owns thatJustinian was attached to the blues. The seeming discord of the emperorand Theodora is, perhaps, viewed with too much jealousy and refinementby Procopius, (Anecdot. C. 10. ) See Aleman. Praefat. P. 6. ]

A sedition, which almost laid Constantinople in ashes, was excited bythe mutual hatred and momentary reconciliation of the two factions. Inthe fifth year of his reign, Justinian celebrated the festival of theides of January; the games were incessantly disturbed by the clamorousdiscontent of the greens: till the twenty-second race, the emperormaintained his silent gravity; at length, yielding to his impatience, hecondescended to hold, in abrupt sentences, and by the voice of a crier, the most singular dialogue [50] that ever passed between a prince andhis subjects. Their first complaints were respectful and modest; theyaccused the subordinate ministers of oppression, and proclaimed theirwishes for the long life and victory of the emperor. "Be patient andattentive, ye insolent railers!" exclaimed Justinian; "be mute, ye Jews, Samaritans, and Manichaeans!" The greens still attempted to awaken hiscompassion. "We are poor, we are innocent, we are injured, we dare notpass through the streets: a general persecution is exercised against ourname and color. Let us die, O emperor! but let us die by your command, and for your service!" But the repetition of partial and passionateinvectives degraded, in their eyes, the majesty of the purple; theyrenounced allegiance to the prince who refused justice to his people;lamented that the father of Justinian had been born; and branded his sonwith the opprobrious names of a homicide, an ass, and a perjured tyrant. "Do you despise your lives?" cried the indignant monarch: the bluesrose with fury from their seats; their hostile clamors thundered in thehippodrome; and their adversaries, deserting the unequal contest spreadterror and despair through the streets of Constantinople. At thisdangerous moment, seven notorious assassins of both factions, whohad been condemned by the praefect, were carried round the city, andafterwards transported to the place of execution in the suburb of Pera. Four were immediately beheaded; a fifth was hanged: but when the samepunishment was inflicted on the remaining two, the rope broke, they fellalive to the ground, the populace applauded their escape, and the monksof St. Conon, issuing from the neighboring convent, conveyed them in aboat to the sanctuary of the church. [51] As one of these criminals wasof the blue, and the other of the green livery, the two factions wereequally provoked by the cruelty of their oppressor, or the ingratitudeof their patron; and a short truce was concluded till they had deliveredtheir prisoners and satisfied their revenge. The palace of the praefect, who withstood the seditious torrent, was instantly burnt, his officersand guards were massacred, the prisons were forced open, and freedom wasrestored to those who could only use it for the public destruction. A military force, which had been despatched to the aid of the civilmagistrate, was fiercely encountered by an armed multitude, whosenumbers and boldness continually increased; and the Heruli, the wildestBarbarians in the service of the empire, overturned the priests andtheir relics, which, from a pious motive, had been rashly interposedto separate the bloody conflict. The tumult was exasperated by thissacrilege, the people fought with enthusiasm in the cause of God; thewomen, from the roofs and windows, showered stones on the heads of thesoldiers, who darted fire brands against the houses; and the variousflames, which had been kindled by the hands of citizens and strangers, spread without control over the face of the city. The conflagrationinvolved the cathedral of St. Sophia, the baths of Zeuxippus, a part ofthe palace, from the first entrance to the altar of Mars, and the longportico from the palace to the forum of Constantine: a large hospital, with the sick patients, was consumed; many churches and stately edificeswere destroyed and an immense treasure of gold and silver was eithermelted or lost. From such scenes of horror and distress, the wise andwealthy citizens escaped over the Bosphorus to the Asiatic side; andduring five days Constantinople was abandoned to the factions, whosewatchword, Nika, vanquish! has given a name to this memorable sedition. [52]

[Footnote 50: This dialogue, which Theophanes has preserved, exhibitsthe popular language, as well as the manners, of Constantinople, in thevith century. Their Greek is mingled with many strange and barbarouswords, for which Ducange cannot always find a meaning or etymology. ]

[Footnote 51: See this church and monastery in Ducange, C. P. Christiana, l. Iv p 182. ]

[Footnote 52: The history of the Nika sedition is extracted fromMarcellinus, (in Chron. , ) Procopius, (Persic. L. I. C. 26, ) John Malala, (tom. Ii. P. 213--218, ) Chron. Paschal. , (p. 336--340, ) Theophanes, (Chronograph. P. 154--158) and Zonaras, (l. Xiv. P. 61--63. )]

As long as the factions were divided, the triumphant blues, anddesponding greens, appeared to behold with the same indifference thedisorders of the state. They agreed to censure the corrupt management ofjustice and the finance; and the two responsible ministers, the artfulTribonian, and the rapacious John of Cappadocia, were loudly arraignedas the authors of the public misery. The peaceful murmurs of the peoplewould have been disregarded: they were heard with respect when the citywas in flames; the quaestor, and the praefect, were instantly removed, and their offices were filled by two senators of blameless integrity. After this popular concession, Justinian proceeded to the hippodrometo confess his own errors, and to accept the repentance of his gratefulsubjects; but they distrusted his assurances, though solemnly pronouncedin the presence of the holy Gospels; and the emperor, alarmed by theirdistrust, retreated with precipitation to the strong fortress of thepalace. The obstinacy of the tumult was now imputed to a secretand ambitious conspiracy, and a suspicion was entertained, that theinsurgents, more especially the green faction, had been supplied witharms and money by Hypatius and Pompey, two patricians, who could neitherforget with honor, nor remember with safety, that they were thenephews of the emperor Anastasius. Capriciously trusted, disgraced, andpardoned, by the jealous levity of the monarch, they had appeared asloyal servants before the throne; and, during five days of the tumult, they were detained as important hostages; till at length, the fears ofJustinian prevailing over his prudence, he viewed the two brothers inthe light of spies, perhaps of assassins, and sternly commanded them todepart from the palace. After a fruitless representation, that obediencemight lead to involuntary treason, they retired to their houses, and inthe morning of the sixth day, Hypatius was surrounded and seized by thepeople, who, regardless of his virtuous resistance, and the tears ofhis wife, transported their favorite to the forum of Constantine, andinstead of a diadem, placed a rich collar on his head. If the usurper, who afterwards pleaded the merit of his delay, had complied with theadvice of his senate, and urged the fury of the multitude, their firstirresistible effort might have oppressed or expelled his tremblingcompetitor. The Byzantine palace enjoyed a free communication with thesea; vessels lay ready at the garden stairs; and a secret resolution wasalready formed, to convey the emperor with his family and treasures to asafe retreat, at some distance from the capital. 

Justinian was lost, if the prostitute whom he raised from the theatrehad not renounced the timidity, as well as the virtues, of her sex. Inthe midst of a council, where Belisarius was present, Theodora alonedisplayed the spirit of a hero; and she alone, without apprehending hisfuture hatred, could save the emperor from the imminent danger, and hisunworthy fears. "If flight, " said the consort of Justinian, "werethe only means of safety, yet I should disdain to fly. Death is thecondition of our birth; but they who have reigned should never survivethe loss of dignity and dominion. I implore Heaven, that I may neverbe seen, not a day, without my diadem and purple; that I may no longerbehold the light, when I cease to be saluted with the name of queen. Ifyou resolve, O Caesar! to fly, you have treasures; behold the sea, youhave ships; but tremble lest the desire of life should expose you towretched exile and ignominious death. For my own part, I adhere tothe maxim of antiquity, that the throne is a glorious sepulchre. " Thefirmness of a woman restored the courage to deliberate and act, andcourage soon discovers the resources of the most desperate situation. It was an easy and a decisive measure to revive the animosity of thefactions; the blues were astonished at their own guilt and folly, thata trifling injury should provoke them to conspire with their implacableenemies against a gracious and liberal benefactor; they again proclaimedthe majesty of Justinian; and the greens, with their upstart emperor, were left alone in the hippodrome. The fidelity of the guards wasdoubtful; but the military force of Justinian consisted in threethousand veterans, who had been trained to valor and discipline in thePersian and Illyrian wars. 

Under the command of Belisarius and Mundus, they silently marched intwo divisions from the palace, forced their obscure way through narrowpassages, expiring flames, and falling edifices, and burst open at thesame moment the two opposite gates of the hippodrome. In this narrowspace, the disorderly and affrighted crowd was incapable of resisting oneither side a firm and regular attack; the blues signalized the fury oftheir repentance; and it is computed, that above thirty thousand personswere slain in the merciless and promiscuous carnage of the day. Hypatiuswas dragged from his throne, and conducted, with his brother Pompey, tothe feet of the emperor: they implored his clemency; but their crimewas manifest, their innocence uncertain, and Justinian had been too muchterrified to forgive. The next morning the two nephews of Anastasius, with eighteen illustrious accomplices, of patrician or consular rank, were privately executed by the soldiers; their bodies were throwninto the sea, their palaces razed, and their fortunes confiscated. Thehippodrome itself was condemned, during several years, to a mournfulsilence: with the restoration of the games, the same disorders revived;and the blue and green factions continued to afflict the reign ofJustinian, and to disturb the tranquility of the Eastern empire. [53]

[Footnote 53: Marcellinus says in general terms, innumeris populis incircotrucidatis. Procopius numbers 30, 000 victims: and the 35, 000 ofTheophanes are swelled to 40, 000 by the more recent Zonaras. Such is theusual progress of exaggeration. ]

III. That empire, after Rome was barbarous, still embraced the nationswhom she had conquered beyond the Adriatic, and as far as the frontiersof Aethiopia and Persia. Justinian reigned over sixty-four provinces, and nine hundred and thirty-five cities; [54] his dominions were blessedby nature with the advantages of soil, situation, and climate: and theimprovements of human art had been perpetually diffused along the coastof the Mediterranean and the banks of the Nile from ancient Troy to theEgyptian Thebes. Abraham [55] had been relieved by the well-knownplenty of Egypt; the same country, a small and populous tract, was stillcapable of exporting, each year, two hundred and sixty thousandquarters of wheat for the use of Constantinople; [56] and the capital ofJustinian was supplied with the manufactures of Sidon, fifteen centuriesafter they had been celebrated in the poems of Homer. [57] The annualpowers of vegetation, instead of being exhausted by two thousandharvests, were renewed and invigorated by skilful husbandry, richmanure, and seasonable repose. The breed of domestic animals wasinfinitely multiplied. Plantations, buildings, and the instruments oflabor and luxury, which are more durable than the term of human life, were accumulated by the care of successive generations. Traditionpreserved, and experience simplified, the humble practice of the arts:society was enriched by the division of labor and the facility ofexchange; and every Roman was lodged, clothed, and subsisted, by theindustry of a thousand hands. The invention of the loom and distaff hasbeen piously ascribed to the gods. In every age, a variety of animal andvegetable productions, hair, skins, wool, flax, cotton, and at lengthsilk, have been skilfully manufactured to hide or adorn the human body;they were stained with an infusion of permanent colors; and the pencilwas successfully employed to improve the labors of the loom. In thechoice of those colors [58] which imitate the beauties of nature, thefreedom of taste and fashion was indulged; but the deep purple [59]which the Phoenicians extracted from a shell-fish, was restrained to thesacred person and palace of the emperor; and the penalties of treasonwere denounced against the ambitious subjects who dared to usurp theprerogative of the throne. [60]

[Footnote 54: Hierocles, a contemporary of Justinian, composed his(Itineraria, p. 631, ) review of the eastern provinces and cities, beforethe year 535, (Wesseling, in Praefat. And Not. Ad p. 623, &c. )]

[Footnote 55: See the Book of Genesis (xii. 10) and the administrationof Joseph. The annals of the Greeks and Hebrews agree in the earlyarts and plenty of Egypt: but this antiquity supposes a long series ofimprovement; and Warburton, who is almost stifled by the Hebrew callsaloud for the Samaritan, Chronology, (Divine Legation, vol. Iii. P. 29, &c. ) * Note: The recent extraordinary discoveries in Egyptianantiquities strongly confirm the high notion of the early Egyptiancivilization, and imperatively demand a longer period for theirdevelopment. As to the common Hebrew chronology, as far as such asubject is capable of demonstration, it appears to me to have beenframed, with a particular view, by the Jews of Tiberias. It was notthe chronology of the Samaritans, not that of the LXX. , not that ofJosephus, not that of St. Paul. --M. ]

[Footnote 56: Eight millions of Roman modii, besides a contribution of80, 000 aurei for the expenses of water-carriage, from which the subjectwas graciously excused. See the 13th Edict of Justinian: the numbers arechecked and verified by the agreement of the Greek and Latin texts. ]

[Footnote 57: Homer's Iliad, vi. 289. These veils, were the work of theSidonian women. But this passage is more honorable to the manufacturesthan to the navigation of Phoenicia, from whence they had been importedto Troy in Phrygian bottoms. ]

[Footnote 58: See in Ovid (de Arte Amandi, iii. 269, &c. ) a poeticallist of twelve colors borrowed from flowers, the elements, &c. But itis almost impossible to discriminate by words all the nice and variousshades both of art and nature. ]

[Footnote 59: By the discovery of cochineal, &c. , we far surpass thecolors of antiquity. Their royal purple had a strong smell, and a darkcast as deep as bull's blood--obscuritas rubens, (says Cassiodorus, Var. 1, 2, ) nigredo saguinea. The president Goguet (Origine des Loix et desArts, part ii. L. Ii. C. 2, p. 184--215) will amuse and satisfy thereader. I doubt whether his book, especially in England, is as wellknown as it deserves to be. ]

[Footnote 60: Historical proofs of this jealousy have been occasionallyintroduced, and many more might have been added; but the arbitrary actsof despotism were justified by the sober and general declarations oflaw, (Codex Theodosian. L. X. Tit. 21, leg. 3. Codex Justinian. L. Xi. Tit. 8, leg. 5. ) An inglorious permission, and necessary restriction, was applied to the mince, the female dancers, (Cod. Theodos. L. Xv. Tit. 7, leg. 11. )]

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian. --Part III. 

I need not explain that silk [61] is originally spun from the bowels ofa caterpillar, and that it composes the golden tomb, from whence a wormemerges in the form of a butterfly. Till the reign of Justinian, the silk-worm who feed on the leaves of the white mulberry-tree wereconfined to China; those of the pine, the oak, and the ash, were commonin the forests both of Asia and Europe; but as their education ismore difficult, and their produce more uncertain, they were generallyneglected, except in the little island of Ceos, near the coast ofAttica. A thin gauze was procured from their webs, and this Ceanmanufacture, the invention of a woman, for female use, was long admiredboth in the East and at Rome. Whatever suspicions may be raised by thegarments of the Medes and Assyrians, Virgil is the most ancient writer, who expressly mentions the soft wool which was combed from the trees ofthe Seres or Chinese; [62] and this natural error, less marvellous thanthe truth, was slowly corrected by the knowledge of a valuable insect, the first artificer of the luxury of nations. That rare and elegantluxury was censured, in the reign of Tiberius, by the gravest of theRomans; and Pliny, in affected though forcible language, has condemnedthe thirst of gain, which explores the last confines of the earth, forthe pernicious purpose of exposing to the public eye naked draperies andtransparent matrons. [63] [6311] A dress which showed the turn of thelimbs, and color of the skin, might gratify vanity, or provokedesire; the silks which had been closely woven in China were sometimesunravelled by the Phoenician women, and the precious materials weremultiplied by a looser texture, and the intermixture of linen threads. [64] Two hundred years after the age of Pliny, the use of pure, oreven of mixed silks, was confined to the female sex, till the opulentcitizens of Rome and the provinces were insensibly familiarized withthe example of Elagabalus, the first who, by this effeminate habit, hadsullied the dignity of an emperor and a man. Aurelian complained, that apound of silk was sold at Rome for twelve ounces of gold; but the supplyincreased with the demand, and the price diminished with the supply. Ifaccident or monopoly sometimes raised the value even above the standardof Aurelian, the manufacturers of Tyre and Berytus were sometimescompelled, by the operation of the same causes, to content themselveswith a ninth part of that extravagant rate. [65] A law was thoughtnecessary to discriminate the dress of comedians from that of senators;and of the silk exported from its native country the far greaterpart was consumed by the subjects of Justinian. They were still moreintimately acquainted with a shell-fish of the Mediterranean, surnamed the silk-worm of the sea: the fine wool or hair by which themother-of-pearl affixes itself to the rock is now manufactured forcuriosity rather than use; and a robe obtained from the same singularmaterials was the gift of the Roman emperor to the satraps of Armenia. [66]

[Footnote 61: In the history of insects (far more wonderful than Ovid'sMetamorphoses) the silk-worm holds a conspicuous place. The bombyx ofthe Isle of Ceos, as described by Pliny, (Hist. Natur. Xi. 26, 27, withthe notes of the two learned Jesuits, Hardouin and Brotier, ) may beillustrated by a similar species in China, (Memoires sur les Chinois, tom. Ii. P. 575--598;) but our silk-worm, as well as the whitemulberry-tree, were unknown to Theophrastus and Pliny. ]

[Footnote 62: Georgic. Ii. 121. Serica quando venerint in usumplanissime non acio: suspicor tamen in Julii Caesaris aevo, nam ante noninvenio, says Justus Lipsius, (Excursus i. Ad Tacit. Annal. Ii. 32. ) SeeDion Cassius, (l. Xliii. P. 358, edit. Reimar, ) and Pausanius, (l. Vi. P. 519, ) the first who describes, however strangely, the Seric insect. ]

[Footnote 63: Tam longinquo orbe petitur, ut in publico matronatransluceat. .. Ut denudet foeminas vestis, (Plin. Vi. 20, xi. 21. ) Varroand Publius Syrus had already played on the Toga vitrea, ventustexilis, and nebula linen, (Horat. Sermon. I. 2, 101, with the notes ofTorrentius and Dacier. )]

[Footnote 6311: Gibbon must have written transparent draperies and nakedmatrons. Through sometimes affected, he is never inaccurate. --M. ]

[Footnote 64: On the texture, colors, names, and use of the silk, halfsilk, and liuen garments of antiquity, see the profound, diffuse, andobscure researches of the great Salmasius, (in Hist. August. P. 127, 309, 310, 339, 341, 342, 344, 388--391, 395, 513, ) who was ignorant ofthe most common trades of Dijon or Leyden. ]

[Footnote 65: Flavius Vopiscus in Aurelian. C. 45, in Hist. August. P. 224. See Salmasius ad Hist. Aug. P. 392, and Plinian. Exercitat. InSolinum, p. 694, 695. The Anecdotes of Procopius (c. 25) state a partialand imperfect rate of the price of silk in the time of Justinian. ]

[Footnote 66: Procopius de Edit. L. Iii. C. 1. These pinnes de mer arefound near Smyrna, Sicily, Corsica, and Minorca; and a pair of gloves oftheir silk was presented to Pope Benedict XIV. ]

A valuable merchandise of small bulk is capable of defraying the expenseof land-carriage; and the caravans traversed the whole latitude ofAsia in two hundred and forty-three days from the Chinese Ocean to thesea-coast of Syria. Silk was immediately delivered to the Romans by thePersian merchants, [67] who frequented the fairs of Armenia and Nisibis;but this trade, which in the intervals of truce was oppressed by avariceand jealousy, was totally interrupted by the long wars of the rivalmonarchies. The great king might proudly number Sogdiana, and evenSerica, among the provinces of his empire; but his real dominion wasbounded by the Oxus and his useful intercourse with the Sogdoites, beyond the river, depended on the pleasure of their conquerors, the white Huns, and the Turks, who successively reigned over thatindustrious people. Yet the most savage dominion has not extirpated theseeds of agriculture and commerce, in a region which is celebrated asone of the four gardens of Asia; the cities of Samarcand and Bochara areadvantageously seated for the exchange of its various productions; andtheir merchants purchased from the Chinese, [68] the raw or manufacturedsilk which they transported into Persia for the use of the Roman empire. In the vain capital of China, the Sogdian caravans were entertained asthe suppliant embassies of tributary kingdoms, and if they returned insafety, the bold adventure was rewarded with exorbitant gain. But thedifficult and perilous march from Samarcand to the first town of Shensi, could not be performed in less than sixty, eighty, or one hundred days:as soon as they had passed the Jaxartes they entered the desert; and thewandering hordes, unless they are restrained by armies and garrisons, have always considered the citizen and the traveller as the objects oflawful rapine. To escape the Tartar robbers, and the tyrants of Persia, the silk caravans explored a more southern road; they traversed themountains of Thibet, descended the streams of the Ganges or the Indus, and patiently expected, in the ports of Guzerat and Malabar, the annualfleets of the West. [69] But the dangers of the desert were found lessintolerable than toil, hunger, and the loss of time; the attempt wasseldom renewed, and the only European who has passed that unfrequentedway, applauds his own diligence, that, in nine months after hisdeparture from Pekin, he reached the mouth of the Indus. The ocean, however, was open to the free communication of mankind. From the greatriver to the tropic of Cancer, the provinces of China were subdued andcivilized by the emperors of the North; they were filled about the timeof the Christian aera with cities and men, mulberry-trees and theirprecious inhabitants; and if the Chinese, with the knowledge of thecompass, had possessed the genius of the Greeks or Phoenicians, theymight have spread their discoveries over the southern hemisphere. Iam not qualified to examine, and I am not disposed to believe, theirdistant voyages to the Persian Gulf, or the Cape of Good Hope; but theirancestors might equal the labors and success of the present race, andthe sphere of their navigation might extend from the Isles of Japan tothe Straits of Malacca, the pillars, if we may apply that name, of anOriental Hercules. [70] Without losing sight of land, they might sailalong the coast to the extreme promontory of Achin, which is annuallyvisited by ten or twelve ships laden with the productions, themanufactures, and even the artificers of China; the Island of Sumatraand the opposite peninsula are faintly delineated [71] as the regionsof gold and silver; and the trading cities named in the geography ofPtolemy may indicate, that this wealth was not solely derived from themines. The direct interval between Sumatra and Ceylon is about threehundred leagues: the Chinese and Indian navigators were conducted by theflight of birds and periodical winds; and the ocean might be securelytraversed in square-built ships, which, instead of iron, were sewedtogether with the strong thread of the cocoanut. Ceylon, Serendib, or Taprobana, was divided between two hostile princes; one of whompossessed the mountains, the elephants, and the luminous carbuncle, andthe other enjoyed the more solid riches of domestic industry, foreigntrade, and the capacious harbor of Trinquemale, which received anddismissed the fleets of the East and West. In this hospitable isle, atan equal distance (as it was computed) from their respective countries, the silk merchants of China, who had collected in their voyages aloes, cloves, nutmeg, and sandal wood, maintained a free and beneficialcommerce with the inhabitants of the Persian Gulf. The subjects of thegreat king exalted, without a rival, his power and magnificence: and theRoman, who confounded their vanity by comparing his paltry coin witha gold medal of the emperor Anastasius, had sailed to Ceylon, in anAethiopian ship, as a simple passenger. [72]

[Footnote 67: Procopius, Persic. L. I. C. 20, l. Ii. C. 25; Gothic. L. Iv. C. 17. Menander in Excerpt. Legat. P. 107. Of the Parthian orPersian empire, Isidore of Charax (in Stathmis Parthicis, p. 7, 8, inHudson, Geograph. Minor. Tom. Ii. ) has marked the roads, and AmmianusMarcellinus (l. Xxiii. C. 6, p. 400) has enumerated the provinces. *Note: See St. Martin, Mem. Sur l'Armenie, vol. Ii. P. 41. --M. ]

[Footnote 68: The blind admiration of the Jesuits confounds thedifferent periods of the Chinese history. They are more criticallydistinguished by M. De Guignes, (Hist. Des Huns, tom. I. Part i. Inthe Tables, part ii. In the Geography. Memoires de l'Academie desInscriptions, tom. Xxxii. Xxxvi. Xlii. Xliii. , ) who discovers thegradual progress of the truth of the annals and the extent of themonarchy, till the Christian aera. He has searched, with a curious eye, the connections of the Chinese with the nations of the West; butthese connections are slight, casual, and obscure; nor did the Romansentertain a suspicion that the Seres or Sinae possessed an empire notinferior to their own. * Note: An abstract of the various opinions ofthe learned modern writers, Gosselin, Mannert, Lelewel, Malte-Brun, Heeren, and La Treille, on the Serica and the Thinae of the ancients, may be found in the new edition of Malte-Brun, vol. Vi. P. 368, 382. --M. ]

[Footnote 69: The roads from China to Persia and Hindostan may beinvestigated in the relations of Hackluyt and Thevenot, the ambassadorsof Sharokh, Anthony Jenkinson, the Pere Greuber, &c. See likewiseHanway's Travels, vol. I. P. 345--357. A communication through Thibethas been lately explored by the English sovereigns of Bengal. ]

[Footnote 70: For the Chinese navigation to Malacca and Achin, perhapsto Ceylon, see Renaudot, (on the two Mahometan Travellers, p. 8--11, 13--17, 141--157;) Dampier, (vol. Ii. P. 136;) the Hist. Philosophiquedes deux Indes, (tom. I. P. 98, ) and Hist. Generale des Voyages, (tom. Vi. P. 201. )]

[Footnote 71: The knowledge, or rather ignorance, of Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, Arrian, Marcian, &c. , of the countries eastward of CapeComorin, is finely illustrated by D'Anville, (Antiquite Geographique del'Inde, especially p. 161--198. ) Our geography of India is improved bycommerce and conquest; and has been illustrated by the excellent mapsand memoirs of Major Rennel. If he extends the sphere of his inquirieswith the same critical knowledge and sagacity, he will succeed, and maysurpass, the first of modern geographers. ]

[Footnote 72: The Taprobane of Pliny, (vi. 24, ) Solinus, (c. 53, ) andSalmas. Plinianae Exercitat. , (p. 781, 782, ) and most of the ancients, who often confound the islands of Ceylon and Sumatra, is more clearlydescribed by Cosmas Indicopleustes; yet even the Christian topographerhas exaggerated its dimensions. His information on the Indian andChinese trade is rare and curious, (l. Ii. P. 138, l. Xi. P. 337, 338, edit. Montfaucon. )]

As silk became of indispensable use, the emperor Justinian saw withconcern that the Persians had occupied by land and sea the monopolyof this important supply, and that the wealth of his subjects wascontinually drained by a nation of enemies and idolaters. An activegovernment would have restored the trade of Egypt and the navigation ofthe Red Sea, which had decayed with the prosperity of the empire; andthe Roman vessels might have sailed, for the purchase of silk, to theports of Ceylon, of Malacca, or even of China. Justinian embraced a morehumble expedient, and solicited the aid of his Christian allies, the Aethiopians of Abyssinia, who had recently acquired the arts ofnavigation, the spirit of trade, and the seaport of Adulis, [73] [7311]still decorated with the trophies of a Grecian conqueror. Along theAfrican coast, they penetrated to the equator in search of gold, emeralds, and aromatics; but they wisely declined an unequalcompetition, in which they must be always prevented by the vicinity ofthe Persians to the markets of India; and the emperor submitted to thedisappointment, till his wishes were gratified by an unexpected event. The gospel had been preached to the Indians: a bishop already governedthe Christians of St. Thomas on the pepper-coast of Malabar; a churchwas planted in Ceylon, and the missionaries pursued the footsteps ofcommerce to the extremities of Asia. [74] Two Persian monks had longresided in China, perhaps in the royal city of Nankin, the seat of amonarch addicted to foreign superstitions, and who actually received anembassy from the Isle of Ceylon. Amidst their pious occupations, they viewed with a curious eye the common dress of the Chinese, themanufactures of silk, and the myriads of silk-worms, whose education(either on trees or in houses) had once been considered as the labor ofqueens. [75] They soon discovered that it was impracticable to transportthe short-lived insect, but that in the eggs a numerous progeny might bepreserved and multiplied in a distant climate. Religion or interest hadmore power over the Persian monks than the love of their country: aftera long journey, they arrived at Constantinople, imparted their projectto the emperor, and were liberally encouraged by the gifts and promisesof Justinian. To the historians of that prince, a campaign at the footof Mount Caucasus has seemed more deserving of a minute relation thanthe labors of these missionaries of commerce, who again entered China, deceived a jealous people by concealing the eggs of the silk-worm in ahollow cane, and returned in triumph with the spoils of the East. Undertheir direction, the eggs were hatched at the proper season by theartificial heat of dung; the worms were fed with mulberry leaves;they lived and labored in a foreign climate; a sufficient number ofbutterflies was saved to propagate the race, and trees were plantedto supply the nourishment of the rising generations. Experience andreflection corrected the errors of a new attempt, and the Sogdoiteambassadors acknowledged, in the succeeding reign, that the Romans werenot inferior to the natives of China in the education of theinsects, and the manufactures of silk, [76] in which both China andConstantinople have been surpassed by the industry of modern Europe. Iam not insensible of the benefits of elegant luxury; yet I reflectwith some pain, that if the importers of silk had introduced the art ofprinting, already practised by the Chinese, the comedies of Menander andthe entire decads of Livy would have been perpetuated in the editions ofthe sixth century. 

A larger view of the globe might at least have promoted the improvementof speculative science, but the Christian geography was forciblyextracted from texts of Scripture, and the study of nature was thesurest symptom of an unbelieving mind. The orthodox faith confined thehabitable world to one temperate zone, and represented the earth as anoblong surface, four hundred days' journey in length, two hundred inbreadth, encompassed by the ocean, and covered by the solid crystal ofthe firmament. [77]

[Footnote 73: See Procopius, Persic. (l. Ii. C. 20. ) Cosmas affords someinteresting knowledge of the port and inscription of Adulis, (Topograph. Christ. L. Ii. P. 138, 140--143, ) and of the trade of the Axumites alongthe African coast of Barbaria or Zingi, (p. 138, 139, ) and as far asTaprobane, (l. Xi. P. 339. )]

[Footnote 7311: Mr. Salt obtained information of considerable ruins ofan ancient town near Zulla, called Azoole, which answers to the positionof Adulis. Mr. Salt was prevented by illness, Mr. Stuart, whom he sent, by the jealousy of the natives, from investigating these ruins: of theirexistence there seems no doubt. Salt's 2d Journey, p. 452. --M. ]

[Footnote 74: See the Christian missions in India, in Cosmas, (l. Iii. P. 178, 179, l. Xi. P. 337, ) and consult Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. (tom. Iv. P. 413--548. )]

[Footnote 75: The invention, manufacture, and general use of silk inChina, may be seen in Duhalde, (Description Generale de la Chine, tom. Ii. P. 165, 205--223. ) The province of Chekian is the most renowned bothfor quantity and quality. ]

[Footnote 76: Procopius, (l. Viii. Gothic. Iv. C. 17. Theophanes Byzant. Apud Phot. Cod. Lxxxiv. P. 38. Zonaras, tom. Ii. L. Xiv. P. 69. Pagitom. Ii. P. 602) assigns to the year 552 this memorable importation. Menander (in Excerpt. Legat. P. 107) mentions the admiration of theSogdoites; and Theophylact Simocatta (l. Vii. C. 9) darkly representsthe two rival kingdoms in (China) the country of silk. ]

[Footnote 77: Cosmas, surnamed Indicopleustes, or the Indian navigator, performed his voyage about the year 522, and composed at Alexandria, between 535, and 547, Christian Topography, (Montfaucon, Praefat. C. I. , ) in which he refutes the impious opinion, that the earth is a globe;and Photius had read this work, (Cod. Xxxvi. P. 9, 10, ) which displaysthe prejudices of a monk, with the knowledge of a merchant; the mostvaluable part has been given in French and in Greek by MelchisedecThevenot, (Relations Curieuses, part i. , ) and the whole is sincepublished in a splendid edition by Pere Montfaucon, (Nova CollectioPatrum, Paris, 1707, 2 vols. In fol. , tom. Ii. P. 113--346. ) But theeditor, a theologian, might blush at not discovering the Nestorianheresy of Cosmas, which has been detected by La Croz (Christianisme desIndes, tom. I. P. 40--56. )]

IV. The subjects of Justinian were dissatisfied with the times, and withthe government. Europe was overrun by the Barbarians, and Asia by themonks: the poverty of the West discouraged the trade and manufactures ofthe East: the produce of labor was consumed by the unprofitable servantsof the church, the state, and the army; and a rapid decrease was felt inthe fixed and circulating capitals which constitute the national wealth. The public distress had been alleviated by the economy of Anastasius, and that prudent emperor accumulated an immense treasure, while hedelivered his people from the most odious or oppressive taxes. [7711]Their gratitude universally applauded the abolition of the gold ofaffliction, a personal tribute on the industry of the poor, [78] butmore intolerable, as it should seem, in the form than in the substance, since the flourishing city of Edessa paid only one hundred and fortypounds of gold, which was collected in four years from ten thousandartificers. [79] Yet such was the parsimony which supported this liberaldisposition, that, in a reign of twenty-seven years, Anastasius saved, from his annual revenue, the enormous sum of thirteen millions sterling, or three hundred and twenty thousand pounds of gold. [80] His examplewas neglected, and his treasure was abused, by the nephew of Justin. Theriches of Justinian were speedily exhausted by alms and buildings, by ambitious wars, and ignominious treaties. His revenues were foundinadequate to his expenses. Every art was tried to extort from thepeople the gold and silver which he scattered with a lavish hand fromPersia to France: [81] his reign was marked by the vicissitudes orrather by the combat, of rapaciousness and avarice, of splendor andpoverty; he lived with the reputation of hidden treasures, [82] andbequeathed to his successor the payment of his debts. [83] Such acharacter has been justly accused by the voice of the people and ofposterity: but public discontent is credulous; private malice is bold;and a lover of truth will peruse with a suspicious eye the instructiveanecdotes of Procopius. The secret historian represents only the vicesof Justinian, and those vices are darkened by his malevolent pencil. Ambiguous actions are imputed to the worst motives; error is confoundedwith guilt, accident with design, and laws with abuses; the partialinjustice of a moment is dexterously applied as the general maxim of areign of thirty-two years; the emperor alone is made responsible for thefaults of his officers, the disorders of the times, and the corruptionof his subjects; and even the calamities of nature, plagues, earthquakes, and inundations, are imputed to the prince of the daemons, who had mischievously assumed the form of Justinian. [84]

[Footnote 7711: See the character of Anastasius in Joannes Lydus deMagistratibus, iii. C. 45, 46, p. 230--232. His economy is there said tohave degenerated into parsimony. He is accused of having taken awaythe levying of taxes and payment of the troops from the municipalauthorities, (the decurionate) in the Eastern cities, and intrusted itto an extortionate officer named Mannus. But he admits that the imperialrevenue was enormously increased by this measure. A statue of iron hadbeen erected to Anastasius in the Hippodrome, on which appeared onemorning this pasquinade. This epigram is also found in the Anthology. Jacobs, vol. Iv. P. 114 with some better readings. This iron statuemeetly do we place To thee, world-wasting king, than brass morebase; For all the death, the penury, famine, woe, That from thywide-destroying avarice flow, This fell Charybdis, Scylla, near to thee, This fierce devouring Anastasius, see; And tremble, Scylla! on thee, too, his greed, Coining thy brazen deity, may feed. But Lydus, with nouncommon inconsistency in such writers, proceeds to paint the characterof Anastasius as endowed with almost every virtue, not excepting theutmost liberality. He was only prevented by death from relievinghis subjects altogether from the capitation tax, which he greatlydiminished. --M. ]

[Footnote 78: Evagrius (l. Ii. C. 39, 40) is minute and grateful, butangry with Zosimus for calumniating the great Constantine. In collectingall the bonds and records of the tax, the humanity of Anastasius wasdiligent and artful: fathers were sometimes compelled to prostitutetheir daughters, (Zosim. Hist. L. Ii. C. 38, p. 165, 166, Lipsiae, 1784. ) Timotheus of Gaza chose such an event for the subject of atragedy, (Suidas, tom. Iii. P. 475, ) which contributed to the abolitionof the tax, (Cedrenus, p. 35, )--a happy instance (if it be true) of theuse of the theatre. ]

[Footnote 79: See Josua Stylites, in the Bibliotheca Orientalis ofAsseman, (tom. P. 268. ) This capitation tax is slightly mentioned in theChronicle of Edessa. ]

[Footnote 80: Procopius (Anecdot. C. 19) fixes this sum from the reportof the treasurers themselves. Tiberias had vicies ter millies; but fardifferent was his empire from that of Anastasius. ]

[Footnote 81: Evagrius, (l. Iv. C. 30, ) in the next generation, wasmoderate and well informed; and Zonaras, (l. Xiv. C. 61, ) in the xiithcentury, had read with care, and thought without prejudice; yet theircolors are almost as black as those of the anecdotes. ]

[Footnote 82: Procopius (Anecdot. C. 30) relates the idle conjecturesof the times. The death of Justinian, says the secret historian, willexpose his wealth or poverty. ]

[Footnote 83: See Corippus de Laudibus Justini Aug. L. Ii. 260, &c. , 384, &c "Plurima sunt vivo nimium neglecta parenti, Unde tot exhaustuscontraxit debita fiscus. " Centenaries of gold were brought by strong meninto the Hippodrome, "Debita persolvit, genitoris cauta recepit. "]

[Footnote 84: The Anecdotes (c. 11--14, 18, 20--30) supply manyfacts and more complaints. * Note: The work of Lydus de Magistratibus(published by Hase at Paris, 1812, and reprinted in the new edition ofthe Byzantine Historians, ) was written during the reign of Justinian. This work of Lydus throws no great light on the earlier history of theRoman magistracy, but gives some curious details of the changes andretrenchments in the offices of state, which took place at this time. The personal history of the author, with the account of his early andrapid advancement, and the emoluments of the posts which he successivelyheld, with the bitter disappointment which he expresses, at findinghimself, at the height of his ambition, in an unpaid place, is anexcellent illustration of this statement. Gibbon has before, c. Iv. N. 45, and c. Xvii. N. 112, traced the progress of a Roman citizen to thehighest honors of the state under the empire; the steps by which Lydusreached his humbler eminence may likewise throw light on the civilservice at this period. He was first received into the office of thePraetorian praefect; became a notary in that office, and made in oneyear 1000 golden solidi, and that without extortion. His place and theinfluence of his relatives obtained him a wife with 400 pounds of goldfor her dowry. He became chief chartularius, with an annual stipendof twenty-four solidi, and considerable emoluments for all the variousservices which he performed. He rose to an Augustalis, and finallyto the dignity of Corniculus, the highest, and at one time the mostlucrative office in the department. But the Praetorian praefect hadgradually been deprived of his powers and his honors. He lost thesuperintendence of the supply and manufacture of arms; the uncontrolledcharge of the public posts; the levying of the troops; the command ofthe army in war when the emperors ceased nominally to command in person, but really through the Praetorian praefect; that of the householdtroops, which fell to the magister aulae. At length the office was socompletely stripped of its power, as to be virtually abolished, (see deMagist. L. Iii. C. 40, p. 220, &c. ) This diminution of the office of thepraefect destroyed the emoluments of his subordinate officers, and Lydusnot only drew no revenue from his dignity, but expended upon it all thegains of his former services. Lydus gravely refers this calamitous, and, as he considers it, fatal degradation of the Praetorian office to thealteration in the style of the official documents from Latin to Greek;and refers to a prophecy of a certain Fonteius, which connected the ruinof the Roman empire with its abandonment of its language. Lydus chieflyowed his promotion to his knowledge of Latin!--M. ]

After this precaution, I shall briefly relate the anecdotes of avariceand rapine under the following heads: I. Justinian was so profuse thathe could not be liberal. The civil and military officers, when they wereadmitted into the service of the palace, obtained an humble rank and amoderate stipend; they ascended by seniority to a station of affluenceand repose; the annual pensions, of which the most honorable class wasabolished by Justinian, amounted to four hundred thousand pounds; andthis domestic economy was deplored by the venal or indigent courtiers asthe last outrage on the majesty of the empire. The posts, the salariesof physicians, and the nocturnal illuminations, were objects of moregeneral concern; and the cities might justly complain, that he usurpedthe municipal revenues which had been appropriated to these usefulinstitutions. Even the soldiers were injured; and such was the decayof military spirit, that they were injured with impunity. The emperorrefused, at the return of each fifth year, the customary donativeof five pieces of gold, reduced his veterans to beg their bread, andsuffered unpaid armies to melt away in the wars of Italy and Persia. II. The humanity of his predecessors had always remitted, in some auspiciouscircumstance of their reign, the arrears of the public tribute, and theydexterously assumed the merit of resigning those claims which it wasimpracticable to enforce. "Justinian, in the space of thirty-two years, has never granted a similar indulgence; and many of his subjects haverenounced the possession of those lands whose value is insufficient tosatisfy the demands of the treasury. To the cities which had suffered byhostile inroads Anastasius promised a general exemption of seven years:the provinces of Justinian have been ravaged by the Persians and Arabs, the Huns and Sclavonians; but his vain and ridiculous dispensation of asingle year has been confined to those places which were actuallytaken by the enemy. " Such is the language of the secret historian, whoexpressly denies that any indulgence was granted to Palestine after therevolt of the Samaritans; a false and odious charge, confuted by theauthentic record which attests a relief of thirteen centenaries of gold(fifty-two thousand pounds) obtained for that desolate province by theintercession of St. Sabas. [85] III. Procopius has not condescended toexplain the system of taxation, which fell like a hail-storm upon theland, like a devouring pestilence on its inhabitants: but we shouldbecome the accomplices of his malignity, if we imputed to Justinianalone the ancient though rigorous principle, that a whole districtshould be condemned to sustain the partial loss of the persons orproperty of individuals. The Annona, or supply of corn for the useof the army and capital, was a grievous and arbitrary exaction, whichexceeded, perhaps in a tenfold proportion, the ability of the farmer;and his distress was aggravated by the partial injustice of weights andmeasures, and the expense and labor of distant carriage. In a timeof scarcity, an extraordinary requisition was made to the adjacentprovinces of Thrace, Bithynia, and Phrygia: but the proprietors, aftera wearisome journey and perilous navigation, received so inadequate acompensation, that they would have chosen the alternative of deliveringboth the corn and price at the doors of their granaries. Theseprecautions might indicate a tender solicitude for the welfare of thecapital; yet Constantinople did not escape the rapacious despotism ofJustinian. Till his reign, the Straits of the Bosphorus and Hellespontwere open to the freedom of trade, and nothing was prohibited except theexportation of arms for the service of the Barbarians. At each of thesegates of the city, a praetor was stationed, the minister of Imperialavarice; heavy customs were imposed on the vessels and theirmerchandise; the oppression was retaliated on the helpless consumer; thepoor were afflicted by the artificial scarcity, and exorbitant priceof the market; and a people, accustomed to depend on the liberality oftheir prince, might sometimes complain of the deficiency of water andbread. [86] The aerial tribute, without a name, a law, or a definiteobject, was an annual gift of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, which the emperor accepted from his Praetorian praefect; and the meansof payment were abandoned to the discretion of that powerful magistrate. 

IV. Even such a tax was less intolerable than the privilege ofmonopolies, [8611] which checked the fair competition of industry, and, for the sake of a small and dishonest gain, imposed an arbitrary burdenon the wants and luxury of the subject. "As soon" (I transcribe theAnecdotes) "as the exclusive sale of silk was usurped by the Imperialtreasurer, a whole people, the manufacturers of Tyre and Berytus, wasreduced to extreme misery, and either perished with hunger, or fled tothe hostile dominions of Persia. " A province might suffer by thedecay of its manufactures, but in this example of silk, Procopius haspartially overlooked the inestimable and lasting benefit which theempire received from the curiosity of Justinian. His addition of oneseventh to the ordinary price of copper money may be interpreted withthe same candor; and the alteration, which might be wise, appears tohave been innocent; since he neither alloyed the purity, nor enhancedthe value, of the gold coin, [87] the legal measure of public andprivate payments. V. The ample jurisdiction required by the farmers ofthe revenue to accomplish their engagements might be placed in an odiouslight, as if they had purchased from the emperor the lives and fortunesof their fellow-citizens. And a more direct sale of honors and officeswas transacted in the palace, with the permission, or at least with theconnivance, of Justinian and Theodora. The claims of merit, even thoseof favor, were disregarded, and it was almost reasonable to expect, that the bold adventurer, who had undertaken the trade of a magistrate, should find a rich compensation for infamy, labor, danger, the debtswhich he had contracted, and the heavy interest which he paid. A senseof the disgrace and mischief of this venal practice, at length awakenedthe slumbering virtue of Justinian; and he attempted, by the sanction ofoaths [88] and penalties, to guard the integrity of his government: butat the end of a year of perjury, his rigorous edict was suspended, andcorruption licentiously abused her triumph over the impotence of thelaws. VI. The testament of Eulalius, count of the domestics, declaredthe emperor his sole heir, on condition, however, that he shoulddischarge his debts and legacies, allow to his three daughters a decentmaintenance, and bestow each of them in marriage, with a portion of tenpounds of gold. But the splendid fortune of Eulalius had been consumedby fire, and the inventory of his goods did not exceed the trifling sumof five hundred and sixty-four pieces of gold. A similar instance, inGrecian history, admonished the emperor of the honorable part prescribedfor his imitation. He checked the selfish murmurs of the treasury, applauded the confidence of his friend, discharged the legacies anddebts, educated the three virgins under the eye of the empress Theodora, and doubled the marriage portion which had satisfied the tendernessof their father. [89] The humanity of a prince (for princes cannot begenerous) is entitled to some praise; yet even in this act of virtue wemay discover the inveterate custom of supplanting the legal or naturalheirs, which Procopius imputes to the reign of Justinian. His charge issupported by eminent names and scandalous examples; neither widowsnor orphans were spared; and the art of soliciting, or extorting, orsupposing testaments, was beneficially practised by the agents ofthe palace. This base and mischievous tyranny invades the security ofprivate life; and the monarch who has indulged an appetite for gain, will soon be tempted to anticipate the moment of succession, tointerpret wealth as an evidence of guilt, and to proceed, from the claimof inheritance, to the power of confiscation. VII. Among the forms ofrapine, a philosopher may be permitted to name the conversion of Paganor heretical riches to the use of the faithful; but in the time ofJustinian this holy plunder was condemned by the sectaries alone, whobecame the victims of his orthodox avarice. [90]

[Footnote 85: One to Scythopolis, capital of the second Palestine, andtwelve for the rest of the province. Aleman. (p. 59) honestly producesthis fact from a Ms. Life of St. Sabas, by his disciple Cyril, in theVatican Library, and since published by Cotelerius. ]

[Footnote 86: John Malala (tom. Ii. P. 232) mentions the want of bread, and Zonaras (l. Xiv. P. 63) the leaden pipes, which Justinian, or hisservants, stole from the aqueducts. ]

[Footnote 8611: Hullman (Geschichte des Byzantinischen Handels. P. 15) shows that the despotism of the government was aggravated by theunchecked rapenity of the officers. This state monopoly, even of corn, wine, and oil, was to force at the time of the first crusade. --M. ]

[Footnote 87: For an aureus, one sixth of an ounce of gold, insteadof 210, he gave no more than 180 folles, or ounces of copper. Adisproportion of the mint, below the market price, must have soonproduced a scarcity of small money. In England twelve pence in copperwould sell for no more than seven pence, (Smith's Inquiry into theWealth of Nations, vol. I. P. 49. ) For Justinian's gold coin, seeEvagrius, (l. Iv. C. 30. )]

[Footnote 88: The oath is conceived in the most formidable words, (Novell. Viii. Tit. 3. ) The defaulters imprecate on themselves, quicquidhaben: telorum armamentaria coeli: the part of Judas, the leprosy ofGieza, the tremor of Cain, &c. , besides all temporal pains. ]

[Footnote 89: A similar or more generous act of friendship is related byLucian of Eudamidas of Corinth, (in Toxare, c. 22, 23, tom. Ii. P. 530, ) and the story has produced an ingenious, though feeble, comedy ofFontenelle. ]

[Footnote 90: John Malala, tom. Ii. P. 101, 102, 103. ]

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian. --Part IV. 

Dishonor might be ultimately reflected on the character of Justinian;but much of the guilt, and still more of the profit, was interceptedby the ministers, who were seldom promoted for their virtues, and notalways selected for their talents. [91] The merits of Tribonian thequaestor will hereafter be weighed in the reformation of the Roman law;but the economy of the East was subordinate to the Praetorian praefect, and Procopius has justified his anecdotes by the portrait which heexposes in his public history, of the notorious vices of John ofCappadocia. [92]

[921] His knowledge was not borrowed from the schools, [93] and hisstyle was scarcely legible; but he excelled in the powers of nativegenius, to suggest the wisest counsels, and to find expedients in themost desperate situations. The corruption of his heart was equal to thevigor of his understanding. Although he was suspected of magic andPagan superstition, he appeared insensible to the fear of God or thereproaches of man; and his aspiring fortune was raised on the deathof thousands, the poverty of millions, the ruins of cities, and thedesolation of provinces. From the dawn of light to the moment of dinner, he assiduously labored to enrich his master and himself at the expenseof the Roman world; the remainder of the day was spent in sensualand obscene pleasures, [931] and the silent hours of the night wereinterrupted by the perpetual dread of the justice of an assassin. Hisabilities, perhaps his vices, recommended him to the lasting friendshipof Justinian: the emperor yielded with reluctance to the fury of thepeople; his victory was displayed by the immediate restoration oftheir enemy; and they felt above ten years, under his oppressiveadministration, that he was stimulated by revenge, rather thaninstructed by misfortune. Their murmurs served only to fortify theresolution of Justinian; but the resentment of Theodora, disdained apower before which every knee was bent, and attempted to sow the seedsof discord between the emperor and his beloved consort. Even Theodoraherself was constrained to dissemble, to wait a favorable moment, and, by an artful conspiracy, to render John of Coppadocia the accomplice ofhis own destruction. [932] At a time when Belisarius, unless he had beena hero, must have shown himself a rebel, his wife Antonina, whoenjoyed the secret confidence of the empress, communicated his feigneddiscontent to Euphemia, the daughter of the praefect; the credulousvirgin imparted to her father the dangerous project, and John, who mighthave known the value of oaths and promises, was tempted to accepta nocturnal, and almost treasonable, interview with the wife ofBelisarius. An ambuscade of guards and eunuchs had been posted by thecommand of Theodora; they rushed with drawn swords to seize or to punishthe guilty minister: he was saved by the fidelity of his attendants; butinstead of appealing to a gracious sovereign, who had privately warnedhim of his danger, he pusillanimously fled to the sanctuary of thechurch. The favorite of Justinian was sacrificed to conjugal tendernessor domestic tranquility; the conversion of a praefect into a priestextinguished his ambitious hopes: but the friendship of the emperoralleviated his disgrace, and he retained in the mild exile of Cyzicusan ample portion of his riches. Such imperfect revenge could not satisfythe unrelenting hatred of Theodora; the murder of his old enemy, thebishop of Cyzicus, afforded a decent pretence; and John of Cappadocia, whose actions had deserved a thousand deaths, was at last condemnedfor a crime of which he was innocent. A great minister, who had beeninvested with the honors of consul and patrician, was ignominiouslyscourged like the vilest of malefactors; a tattered cloak was the soleremnant of his fortunes; he was transported in a bark to the place ofhis banishment at Antinopolis in Upper Egypt, and the praefect of theEast begged his bread through the cities which had trembled at his name. During an exile of seven years, his life was protracted and threatenedby the ingenious cruelty of Theodora; and when her death permittedthe emperor to recall a servant whom he had abandoned with regret, theambition of John of Cappadocia was reduced to the humble duties ofthe sacerdotal profession. His successors convinced the subjects ofJustinian, that the arts of oppression might still be improved byexperience and industry; the frauds of a Syrian banker were introducedinto the administration of the finances; and the example of the praefectwas diligently copied by the quaestor, the public and private treasurer, the governors of provinces, and the principal magistrates of the Easternempire. [94]

[Footnote 91: One of these, Anatolius, perished in anearthquake--doubtless a judgment! The complaints and clamors of thepeople in Agathias (l. V. P. 146, 147) are almost an echo of theanecdote. The aliena pecunia reddenda of Corippus (l. Ii. 381, &c. , ) isnot very honorable to Justinian's memory. ]

[Footnote 92: See the history and character of John of Cappadocia inProcopius. (Persic, l. I. C. 35, 25, l. Ii. C. 30. Vandal. L. I. C. 13. Anecdot. C. 2, 17, 22. ) The agreement of the history and anecdotes is amortal wound to the reputation of the praefct. ]

[Footnote 921: This view, particularly of the cruelty of John ofCappadocia, is confirmed by the testimony of Joannes Lydus, who was inthe office of the praefect, and eye-witness of the tortures inflicted byhis command on the miserable debtors, or supposed debtors, of the state. He mentions one horrible instance of a respectable old man, with whom hewas personally acquainted, who, being suspected of possessing money, washung up by the hands till he was dead. Lydus de Magist. Lib. Iii. C. 57, p. 254. --M. ]

[Footnote 93: A forcible expression. ]

[Footnote 931: Joannes Lydus is diffuse on this subject, lib. Iii. C. 65, p. 268. But the indignant virtue of Lydus seems greatly stimulatedby the loss of his official fees, which he ascribes to the innovationsof the minister. --M. ]

[Footnote 932: According to Lydus, Theodora disclosed the crimes andunpopularity of the minister to Justinian, but the emperor had not thecourage to remove, and was unable to replace, a servant, under whom hisfinances seemed to prosper. He attributes the sedition and conflagrationto the popular resentment against the tyranny of John, lib. Iii. C 70, p. 278. Unfortunately there is a large gap in his work just at thisperiod. --M. ]

[Footnote 94: The chronology of Procopius is loose and obscure; butwith the aid of Pagi I can discern that John was appointed Praetorianpraefect of the East in the year 530--that he was removed in January, 532--restored before June, 533--banished in 541--and recalled betweenJune, 548, and April 1, 549. Aleman. (p. 96, 97) gives the list of histen successors--a rapid series in a part of a single reign. * Note:Lydus gives a high character of Phocas, his successor tom. Iii. C. 78 p. 288. --M. ]

V. The edifices of Justinian were cemented with the blood and treasureof his people; but those stately structures appeared to announce theprosperity of the empire, and actually displayed the skill of theirarchitects. Both the theory and practice of the arts which depend onmathematical science and mechanical power, were cultivated under thepatronage of the emperors; the fame of Archimedes was rivalled byProclus and Anthemius; and if their miracles had been related byintelligent spectators, they might now enlarge the speculations, insteadof exciting the distrust, of philosophers. A tradition has prevailed, that the Roman fleet was reduced to ashes in the port of Syracuse, by the burning-glasses of Archimedes; [95] and it is asserted, that asimilar expedient was employed by Proclus to destroy the Gothicvessels in the harbor of Constantinople, and to protect his benefactorAnastasius against the bold enterprise of Vitalian. [96] A machinewas fixed on the walls of the city, consisting of a hexagon mirror ofpolished brass, with many smaller and movable polygons to receive andreflect the rays of the meridian sun; and a consuming flame was darted, to the distance, perhaps of two hundred feet. [97] The truth of thesetwo extraordinary facts is invalidated by the silence of the mostauthentic historians; and the use of burning-glasses was never adoptedin the attack or defence of places. [98] Yet the admirable experimentsof a French philosopher [99] have demonstrated the possibility of sucha mirror; and, since it is possible, I am more disposed to attribute theart to the greatest mathematicians of antiquity, than to give the meritof the fiction to the idle fancy of a monk or a sophist. According toanother story, Proclus applied sulphur to the destruction of the Gothicfleet; [100] in a modern imagination, the name of sulphur is instantlyconnected with the suspicion of gunpowder, and that suspicion ispropagated by the secret arts of his disciple Anthemius. [101] A citizenof Tralles in Asia had five sons, who were all distinguished in theirrespective professions by merit and success. Olympius excelled inthe knowledge and practice of the Roman jurisprudence. Dioscorus andAlexander became learned physicians; but the skill of the formerwas exercised for the benefit of his fellow-citizens, while his moreambitious brother acquired wealth and reputation at Rome. The fameof Metrodorus the grammarian, and of Anthemius the mathematician andarchitect, reached the ears of the emperor Justinian, who invited themto Constantinople; and while the one instructed the rising generationin the schools of eloquence, the other filled the capital and provinceswith more lasting monuments of his art. In a trifling dispute relativeto the walls or windows of their contiguous houses, he had beenvanquished by the eloquence of his neighbor Zeno; but the orator wasdefeated in his turn by the master of mechanics, whose malicious, though harmless, stratagems are darkly represented by the ignoranceof Agathias. In a lower room, Anthemius arranged several vessels orcaldrons of water, each of them covered by the wide bottom of a leatherntube, which rose to a narrow top, and was artificially conveyed amongthe joists and rafters of the adjacent building. A fire was kindledbeneath the caldron; the steam of the boiling water ascended through thetubes; the house was shaken by the efforts of imprisoned air, and itstrembling inhabitants might wonder that the city was unconscious of theearthquake which they had felt. At another time, the friends of Zeno, asthey sat at table, were dazzled by the intolerable light which flashedin their eyes from the reflecting mirrors of Anthemius; they wereastonished by the noise which he produced from the collision of certainminute and sonorous particles; and the orator declared in tragicstyle to the senate, that a mere mortal must yield to the power ofan antagonist, who shook the earth with the trident of Neptune, andimitated the thunder and lightning of Jove himself. The genius ofAnthemius, and his colleague Isidore the Milesian, was excited andemployed by a prince, whose taste for architecture had degenerated intoa mischievous and costly passion. His favorite architects submittedtheir designs and difficulties to Justinian, and discreetly confessedhow much their laborious meditations were surpassed by the intuitiveknowledge of celestial inspiration of an emperor, whose views werealways directed to the benefit of his people, the glory of his reign, and the salvation of his soul. [102]

[Footnote 95: This conflagration is hinted by Lucian (in Hippia, c. 2)and Galen, (l. Iii. De Temperamentis, tom. I. P. 81, edit. Basil. )in the second century. A thousand years afterwards, it is positivelyaffirmed by Zonaras, (l. Ix. P. 424, ) on the faith of Dion Cassius, Tzetzes, (Chiliad ii. 119, &c. , ) Eustathius, (ad Iliad. E. P. 338, ) andthe scholiast of Lucian. See Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. L. Iii. C. 22, tom. Ii. P. 551, 552, ) to whom I am more or less indebted for several ofthese quotations. ]

[Footnote 96: Zonaras (l. Xi. C. P. 55) affirms the fact, withoutquoting any evidence. ]

[Footnote 97: Tzetzes describes the artifice of these burning-glasses, which he had read, perhaps, with no learned eyes, in a mathematicaltreatise of Anthemius. That treatise has been lately published, translated, and illustrated, by M. Dupuys, a scholar and amathematician, (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom xlii p. 392--451. )]

[Footnote 98: In the siege of Syracuse, by the silence of Polybius, Plutarch, Livy; in the siege of Constantinople, by that of Marcellinusand all the contemporaries of the vith century. ]

[Footnote 99: Without any previous knowledge of Tzetzes or Anthemius, the immortal Buffon imagined and executed a set of burning-glasses, withwhich he could inflame planks at the distance of 200 feet, (Supplementa l'Hist. Naturelle, tom. I. 399--483, quarto edition. ) What miracleswould not his genius have performed for the public service, with royalexpense, and in the strong sun of Constantinople or Syracuse?]

[Footnote 100: John Malala (tom. Ii. P. 120--124) relates the fact; buthe seems to confound the names or persons of Proclus and Marinus. ]

[Footnote 101: Agathias, l. V. P. 149--152. The merit of Anthemius asan architect is loudly praised by Procopius (de Edif. L. I. C. 1) andPaulus Silentiarius, (part i. 134, &c. )]

[Footnote 102: See Procopius, (de Edificiis, l. I. C. 1, 2, l. Ii. C. 3. ) He relates a coincidence of dreams, which supposes some fraud inJustinian or his architect. They both saw, in a vision, the same planfor stopping an inundation at Dara. A stone quarry near Jerusalem wasrevealed to the emperor, (l. V. C. 6:) an angel was tricked into theperpetual custody of St. Sophia, (Anonym. De Antiq. C. P. L. Iv. P. 70. )]

The principal church, which was dedicated by the founder ofConstantinople to St. Sophia, or the eternal wisdom, had been twicedestroyed by fire; after the exile of John Chrysostom, and during theNika of the blue and green factions. No sooner did the tumult subside, than the Christian populace deplored their sacrilegious rashness; butthey might have rejoiced in the calamity, had they foreseen the gloryof the new temple, which at the end of forty days was strenuouslyundertaken by the piety of Justinian. [103] The ruins were cleared away, a more spacious plan was described, and as it required the consent ofsome proprietors of ground, they obtained the most exorbitant termsfrom the eager desires and timorous conscience of the monarch. Anthemiusformed the design, and his genius directed the hands of ten thousandworkmen, whose payment in pieces of fine silver was never delayed beyondthe evening. The emperor himself, clad in a linen tunic, surveyedeach day their rapid progress, and encouraged their diligence by hisfamiliarity, his zeal, and his rewards. The new Cathedral of St. Sophiawas consecrated by the patriarch, five years, eleven months, and tendays from the first foundation; and in the midst of the solemn festivalJustinian exclaimed with devout vanity, "Glory be to God, who haththought me worthy to accomplish so great a work; I have vanquished thee, O Solomon!" [104] But the pride of the Roman Solomon, before twentyyears had elapsed, was humbled by an earthquake, which overthrewthe eastern part of the dome. Its splendor was again restored by theperseverance of the same prince; and in the thirty-sixth year of hisreign, Justinian celebrated the second dedication of a temple whichremains, after twelve centuries, a stately monument of his fame. Thearchitecture of St. Sophia, which is now converted into the principalmosch, has been imitated by the Turkish sultans, and that venerablepile continues to excite the fond admiration of the Greeks, and the morerational curiosity of European travellers. The eye of the spectator isdisappointed by an irregular prospect of half-domes and shelving roofs:the western front, the principal approach, is destitute of simplicityand magnificence; and the scale of dimensions has been much surpassed byseveral of the Latin cathedrals. But the architect who first erectedand aerial cupola, is entitled to the praise of bold design and skilfulexecution. The dome of St. Sophia, illuminated by four-and-twentywindows, is formed with so small a curve, that the depth is equalonly to one sixth of its diameter; the measure of that diameter is onehundred and fifteen feet, and the lofty centre, where a crescent hassupplanted the cross, rises to the perpendicular height of one hundredand eighty feet above the pavement. The circle which encompasses thedome, lightly reposes on four strong arches, and their weight is firmlysupported by four massy piles, whose strength is assisted, on thenorthern and southern sides, by four columns of Egyptian granite. 

A Greek cross, inscribed in a quadrangle, represents the form of theedifice; the exact breadth is two hundred and forty-three feet, and twohundred and sixty-nine may be assigned for the extreme length from thesanctuary in the east, to the nine western doors, which open into thevestibule, and from thence into the narthex or exterior portico. Thatportico was the humble station of the penitents. The nave or body of thechurch was filled by the congregation of the faithful; but the two sexeswere prudently distinguished, and the upper and lower galleries wereallotted for the more private devotion of the women. Beyond the northernand southern piles, a balustrade, terminated on either side by thethrones of the emperor and the patriarch, divided the nave from thechoir; and the space, as far as the steps of the altar, was occupied bythe clergy and singers. The altar itself, a name which insensiblybecame familiar to Christian ears, was placed in the eastern recess, artificially built in the form of a demi-cylinder; and this sanctuarycommunicated by several doors with the sacristy, the vestry, thebaptistery, and the contiguous buildings, subservient either to thepomp of worship, or the private use of the ecclesiastical ministers. The memory of past calamities inspired Justinian with a wise resolution, that no wood, except for the doors, should be admitted into the newedifice; and the choice of the materials was applied to the strength, the lightness, or the splendor of the respective parts. The solid pileswhich contained the cupola were composed of huge blocks of freestone, hewn into squares and triangles, fortified by circles of iron, andfirmly cemented by the infusion of lead and quicklime: but the weight ofthe cupola was diminished by the levity of its substance, which consistseither of pumice-stone that floats in the water, or of bricks from theIsle of Rhodes, five times less ponderous than the ordinary sort. Thewhole frame of the edifice was constructed of brick; but those basematerials were concealed by a crust of marble; and the inside of St. Sophia, the cupola, the two larger, and the six smaller, semi-domes, thewalls, the hundred columns, and the pavement, delight even the eyes ofBarbarians, with a rich and variegated picture. A poet, [105] who beheldthe primitive lustre of St. Sophia, enumerates the colors, the shades, and the spots of ten or twelve marbles, jaspers, and porphyries, whichnature had profusely diversified, and which were blended and contrastedas it were by a skilful painter. The triumph of Christ was adorned withthe last spoils of Paganism, but the greater part of these costly stoneswas extracted from the quarries of Asia Minor, the isles and continentof Greece, Egypt, Africa, and Gaul. Eight columns of porphyry, whichAurelian had placed in the temple of the sun, were offered by the pietyof a Roman matron; eight others of green marble were presented by theambitious zeal of the magistrates of Ephesus: both are admirable bytheir size and beauty, but every order of architecture disclaims theirfantastic capital. A variety of ornaments and figures was curiouslyexpressed in mosaic; and the images of Christ, of the Virgin, of saints, and of angels, which have been defaced by Turkish fanaticism, weredangerously exposed to the superstition of the Greeks. According to thesanctity of each object, the precious metals were distributed in thinleaves or in solid masses. The balustrade of the choir, the capitalsof the pillars, the ornaments of the doors and galleries, were ofgilt bronze; the spectator was dazzled by the glittering aspect of thecupola; the sanctuary contained forty thousand pounds weight of silver;and the holy vases and vestments of the altar were of the purest gold, enriched with inestimable gems. Before the structure of the church hadarisen two cubits above the ground, forty-five thousand two hundredpounds were already consumed; and the whole expense amounted to threehundred and twenty thousand: each reader, according to the measure ofhis belief, may estimate their value either in gold or silver; but thesum of one million sterling is the result of the lowest computation. A magnificent temple is a laudable monument of national taste andreligion; and the enthusiast who entered the dome of St. Sophia might betempted to suppose that it was the residence, or even the workmanship, of the Deity. Yet how dull is the artifice, how insignificant is thelabor, if it be compared with the formation of the vilest insect thatcrawls upon the surface of the temple! [Footnote 103: Among the crowdof ancients and moderns who have celebrated the edifice of St. Sophia, I shall distinguish and follow, 1. Four original spectators andhistorians: Procopius, (de Edific. L. I. C. 1, ) Agathias, (l. V. P. 152, 153, ) Paul Silentiarius, (in a poem of 1026 hexameters, and calcem AnnaeCommen. Alexiad. , ) and Evagrius, (l. Iv. C. 31. ) 2. Two legendary Greeksof a later period: George Codinus, (de Origin. C. P. P. 64-74, ) and theanonymous writer of Banduri, (Imp. Orient. Tom. I. L. Iv. P. 65--80. )3. The great Byzantine antiquarian. Ducange, (Comment. Ad Paul Silentiar. P. 525--598, and C. P. Christ. L. Iii. P. 5--78. ) 4. Two Frenchtravellers--the one, Peter Gyllius, (de Topograph. C. P. L. Ii. C. 3, 4, ) in the xvith; the other, Grelot, (Voyage de C. P. P. 95--164, Paris, 1680, in 4to:) he has given plans, prospects, and inside views of St. Sophia; and his plans, though on a smaller scale, appear more correctthan those of Ducange. I have adopted and reduced the measures ofGrelot: but as no Christian can now ascend the dome, the height isborrowed from Evagrius, compared with Gyllius, Greaves, and the OrientalGeographer. ]

[Footnote 104: Solomon's temple was surrounded with courts, porticos, &c. ; but the proper structure of the house of God was no more (if wetake the Egyptian or Hebrew cubic at 22 inches) than 55 feet in height, 36 2/3 in breadth, and 110 in length--a small parish church, saysPrideaux, (Connection, vol. I. P. 144, folio;) but few sanctuaries couldbe valued at four or five millions sterling! * Note *: Hist of Jews, voli p 257. --M]

[Footnote 105: Paul Silentiarius, in dark and poetic language, describesthe various stones and marbles that were employed in the edifice of St. Sophia, (P. Ii. P. 129, 133, &c. , &c. :)

1. The Carystian--pale, with iron veins. 

2. The Phrygian--of two sorts, both of a rosy hue; the one with a whiteshade, the other purple, with silver flowers. 

3. The Porphyry of Egypt--with small stars. 

4. The green marble of Laconia. 

5. The Carian--from Mount Iassis, with oblique veins, white and red. 6. The Lydian--pale, with a red flower. 

7. The African, or Mauritanian--of a gold or saffron hue. 8. TheCeltic--black, with white veins. 

9. The Bosphoric--white, with black edges. Besides the Proconnesianwhich formed the pavement; the Thessalian, Molossian, &c. , which areless distinctly painted. ]

So minute a description of an edifice which time has respected, mayattest the truth, and excuse the relation, of the innumerable works, both in the capital and provinces, which Justinian constructed on asmaller scale and less durable foundations. [106] In Constantinoplealone and the adjacent suburbs, he dedicated twenty-five churches to thehonor of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints: most of these churcheswere decorated with marble and gold; and their various situation wasskilfully chosen in a populous square, or a pleasant grove; on themargin of the sea-shore, or on some lofty eminence which overlookedthe continents of Europe and Asia. The church of the Holy Apostles atConstantinople, and that of St. John at Ephesus, appear to have beenframed on the same model: their domes aspired to imitate the cupolas ofSt. Sophia; but the altar was more judiciously placed under the centreof the dome, at the junction of four stately porticos, which moreaccurately expressed the figure of the Greek cross. The Virgin ofJerusalem might exult in the temple erected by her Imperial votary on amost ungrateful spot, which afforded neither ground nor materials to thearchitect. A level was formed by raising part of a deep valley to theheight of the mountain. The stones of a neighboring quarry were hewninto regular forms; each block was fixed on a peculiar carriage, drawnby forty of the strongest oxen, and the roads were widened for thepassage of such enormous weights. Lebanon furnished her loftiest cedarsfor the timbers of the church; and the seasonable discovery of a vein ofred marble supplied its beautiful columns, two of which, the supportersof the exterior portico, were esteemed the largest in the world. Thepious munificence of the emperor was diffused over the Holy Land; and ifreason should condemn the monasteries of both sexes which were built orrestored by Justinian, yet charity must applaud the wells which hesunk, and the hospitals which he founded, for the relief of the wearypilgrims. The schismatical temper of Egypt was ill entitled to theroyal bounty; but in Syria and Africa, some remedies were applied tothe disasters of wars and earthquakes, and both Carthage and Antioch, emerging from their ruins, might revere the name of their graciousbenefactor. [107] Almost every saint in the calendar acquired thehonors of a temple; almost every city of the empire obtained thesolid advantages of bridges, hospitals, and aqueducts; but the severeliberality of the monarch disdained to indulge his subjects in thepopular luxury of baths and theatres. While Justinian labored for thepublic service, he was not unmindful of his own dignity and ease. TheByzantine palace, which had been damaged by the conflagration, wasrestored with new magnificence; and some notion may be conceived of thewhole edifice, by the vestibule or hall, which, from the doors perhaps, or the roof, was surnamed chalce, or the brazen. The dome of a spaciousquadrangle was supported by massy pillars; the pavement and walls wereincrusted with many-colored marbles--the emerald green of Laconia, thefiery red, and the white Phrygian stone, intersected with veins of asea-green hue: the mosaic paintings of the dome and sides representedthe glories of the African and Italian triumphs. On the Asiatic shore ofthe Propontis, at a small distance to the east of Chalcedon, thecostly palace and gardens of Heraeum [108] were prepared for the summerresidence of Justinian, and more especially of Theodora. The poets ofthe age have celebrated the rare alliance of nature and art, the harmonyof the nymphs of the groves, the fountains, and the waves: yet the crowdof attendants who followed the court complained of their inconvenientlodgings, [109] and the nymphs were too often alarmed by the famousPorphyrio, a whale of ten cubits in breadth, and thirty in length, whowas stranded at the mouth of the River Sangaris, after he had infestedmore than half a century the seas of Constantinople. [110]

[Footnote 106: The six books of the Edifices of Procopius are thusdistributed the first is confined to Constantinople: the second includesMesopotamia and Syria the third, Armenia and the Euxine; the fourth, Europe; the fifth, Asia Minor and Palestine; the sixth, Egypt andAfrica. Italy is forgot by the emperor or the historian, who publishedthis work of adulation before the date (A. D. 555) of its finalconquest. ]

[Footnote 107: Justinian once gave forty-five centenaries of gold(180, 000 L. ) for the repairs of Antioch after the earthquake, (John Malala, tom. Ii p 146--149. )]

[Footnote 108: For the Heraeum, the palace of Theodora, see Gyllius, (deBosphoro Thracio, l. Iii. C. Xi. , ) Aleman. (Not. Ad. Anec. P. 80, 81, who quotes several epigrams of the Anthology, ) and Ducange, (C. P. Christ. L. Iv. C. 13, p. 175, 176. )]

[Footnote 109: Compare, in the Edifices, (l. I. C. 11, ) and inthe Anecdotes, (c. 8, 15. ) the different styles of adulation andmalevolence: stripped of the paint, or cleansed from the dirt, theobject appears to be the same. ]

[Footnote 110: Procopius, l. Viii. 29; most probably a stranger andwanderer, as the Mediterranean does not breed whales. Balaenae quoquein nostra maria penetrant, (Plin. Hist. Natur. Ix. 2. ) Between the polarcircle and the tropic, the cetaceous animals of the ocean grow to thelength of 50, 80, or 100 feet, (Hist. Des Voyages, tom. Xv. P. 289. Pennant's British Zoology, vol. Iii. P. 35. )]

The fortifications of Europe and Asia were multiplied by Justinian; butthe repetition of those timid and fruitless precautions exposes, to aphilosophic eye, the debility of the empire. [111] From Belgrade to theEuxine, from the conflux of the Save to the mouth of the Danube, a chainof above fourscore fortified places was extended along the banks of thegreat river. Single watch-towers were changed into spacious citadels;vacant walls, which the engineers contracted or enlarged according tothe nature of the ground, were filled with colonies or garrisons; astrong fortress defended the ruins of Trajan's bridge, [112] and severalmilitary stations affected to spread beyond the Danube the pride of theRoman name. But that name was divested of its terrors; the Barbarians, in their annual inroads, passed, and contemptuously repassed, beforethese useless bulwarks; and the inhabitants of the frontier, insteadof reposing under the shadow of the general defence, were compelledto guard, with incessant vigilance, their separate habitations. Thesolitude of ancient cities, was replenished; the new foundations ofJustinian acquired, perhaps too hastily, the epithets of impregnableand populous; and the auspicious place of his own nativity attractedthe grateful reverence of the vainest of princes. Under the name ofJustiniana prima, the obscure village of Tauresium became the seat ofan archbishop and a praefect, whose jurisdiction extended over sevenwarlike provinces of Illyricum; [113] and the corrupt appellation ofGiustendil still indicates, about twenty miles to the south of Sophia, the residence of a Turkish sanjak. [114] For the use of the emperor'scountryman, a cathedral, a place, and an aqueduct, were speedilyconstructed; the public and private edifices were adapted to thegreatness of a royal city; and the strength of the walls resisted, during the lifetime of Justinian, the unskilful assaults of the Huns andSclavonians. Their progress was sometimes retarded, and their hopesof rapine were disappointed, by the innumerable castles which, in theprovinces of Dacia, Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace, appearedto cover the whole face of the country. Six hundred of these forts werebuilt or repaired by the emperor; but it seems reasonable to believe, that the far greater part consisted only of a stone or brick tower, inthe midst of a square or circular area, which was surrounded by a walland ditch, and afforded in a moment of danger some protection tothe peasants and cattle of the neighboring villages. [115] Yet thesemilitary works, which exhausted the public treasure, could not removethe just apprehensions of Justinian and his European subjects. Thewarm baths of Anchialus in Thrace were rendered as safe as they weresalutary; but the rich pastures of Thessalonica were foraged by theScythian cavalry; the delicious vale of Tempe, three hundred miles fromthe Danube, was continually alarmed by the sound of war; [116] and nounfortified spot, however distant or solitary, could securely enjoy theblessings of peace. The Straits of Thermopylae, which seemed to protect, but which had so often betrayed, the safety of Greece, were diligentlystrengthened by the labors of Justinian. From the edge of the sea-shore, through the forests and valleys, and as far as the summit of theThessalian mountains, a strong wall was continued, which occupied everypracticable entrance. Instead of a hasty crowd of peasants, a garrisonof two thousand soldiers was stationed along the rampart; granariesof corn and reservoirs of water were provided for their use; and bya precaution that inspired the cowardice which it foresaw, convenientfortresses were erected for their retreat. The walls of Corinth, overthrown by an earthquake, and the mouldering bulwarks of Athens andPlataea, were carefully restored; the Barbarians were discouraged bythe prospect of successive and painful sieges: and the naked citiesof Peloponnesus were covered by the fortifications of the Isthmus ofCorinth. At the extremity of Europe, another peninsula, the ThracianChersonesus, runs three days' journey into the sea, to form, with theadjacent shores of Asia, the Straits of the Hellespont. The intervalsbetween eleven populous towns were filled by lofty woods, fair pastures, and arable lands; and the isthmus, of thirty seven stadia or furlongs, had been fortified by a Spartan general nine hundred years before thereign of Justinian. [117] In an age of freedom and valor, the slightestrampart may prevent a surprise; and Procopius appears insensible of thesuperiority of ancient times, while he praises the solid constructionand double parapet of a wall, whose long arms stretched on either sideinto the sea; but whose strength was deemed insufficient to guard theChersonesus, if each city, and particularly Gallipoli and Sestus, hadnot been secured by their peculiar fortifications. The long wall, as itwas emphatically styled, was a work as disgraceful in the object, asit was respectable in the execution. The riches of a capital diffusethemselves over the neighboring country, and the territory ofConstantinople a paradise of nature, was adorned with the luxuriousgardens and villas of the senators and opulent citizens. But theirwealth served only to attract the bold and rapacious Barbarians; thenoblest of the Romans, in the bosom of peaceful indolence, were led awayinto Scythian captivity, and their sovereign might view from his palacethe hostile flames which were insolently spread to the gates of theImperial city. At the distance only of forty miles, Anastasius wasconstrained to establish a last frontier; his long wall, of sixty milesfrom the Propontis to the Euxine, proclaimed the impotence of his arms;and as the danger became more imminent, new fortifications were added bythe indefatigable prudence of Justinian. [118]

[Footnote 111: Montesquieu observes, (tom. Iii. P. 503, Considerationssur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains, c. Xx. , ) that Justinian'sempire was like France in the time of the Norman inroads--never so weakas when every village was fortified. ]

[Footnote 112: Procopius affirms (l. Iv. C. 6) that the Danube wasstopped by the ruins of the bridge. Had Apollodorus, the architect, lefta description of his own work, the fabulous wonders of Dion Cassius(l lxviii. P. 1129) would have been corrected by the genuine pictureTrajan's bridge consisted of twenty or twenty-two stone piles withwooden arches; the river is shallow, the current gentle, and the wholeinterval no more than 443 (Reimer ad Dion. From Marsigli) or 5l7 toises, (D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. I. P. 305. )]

[Footnote 113: Of the two Dacias, Mediterranea and Ripensis, Dardania, Pravalitana, the second Maesia, and the second Macedonia. See Justinian(Novell. Xi. , ) who speaks of his castles beyond the Danube, and onomines semper bellicis sudoribus inhaerentes. ]

[Footnote 114: See D'Anville, (Memoires de l'Academie, &c. , tom. Xxxip. 280, 299, ) Rycaut, (Present State of the Turkish Empire, p. 97, 316, )Max sigli, (Stato Militare del Imperio Ottomano, p. 130. ) The sanjak ofGiustendil is one of the twenty under the beglerbeg of Rurselis, and hisdistrict maintains 48 zaims and 588 timariots. ]

[Footnote 115: These fortifications may be compared to the castles inMingrelia (Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. I. P. 60, 131)--a naturalpicture. ]

[Footnote 116: The valley of Tempe is situate along the River Peneus, between the hills of Ossa and Olympus: it is only five miles long, andin some places no more than 120 feet in breadth. Its verdant beautiesare elegantly described by Pliny, (Hist. Natur. L. Iv. 15, ) and morediffusely by Aelian, (Hist. Var. L. Iii. C. I. )]

[Footnote 117: Xenophon Hellenic. L. Iii. C. 2. After a long and tediousconversation with the Byzantine declaimers, how refreshing is the truth, the simplicity, the elegance of an Attic writer!]

[Footnote 118: See the long wall in Evagarius, (l. Iv. C. 38. ) Thiswhole article is drawn from the fourth book of the Edifices, exceptAnchialus, (l. Iii. C. 7. )]

Asia Minor, after the submission of the Isaurians, [119] remainedwithout enemies and without fortifications. Those bold savages, who haddisdained to be the subjects of Gallienus, persisted two hundred andthirty years in a life of independence and rapine. The most successfulprinces respected the strength of the mountains and the despair ofthe natives; their fierce spirit was sometimes soothed with gifts, and sometimes restrained by terror; and a military count, with threelegions, fixed his permanent and ignominious station in the heart of theRoman provinces. [120] But no sooner was the vigilance of power relaxedor diverted, than the light-armed squadrons descended from the hills, and invaded the peaceful plenty of Asia. Although the Isaurians werenot remarkable for stature or bravery, want rendered them bold, andexperience made them skilful in the exercise of predatory war. They advanced with secrecy and speed to the attack of villages anddefenceless towns; their flying parties have sometimes touched theHellespont, the Euxine, and the gates of Tarsus, Antioch, or Damascus;[121] and the spoil was lodged in their inaccessible mountains, beforethe Roman troops had received their orders, or the distant province hadcomputed its loss. The guilt of rebellion and robbery excluded them fromthe rights of national enemies; and the magistrates were instructed, by an edict, that the trial or punishment of an Isaurian, even on thefestival of Easter, was a meritorious act of justice and piety. [122] Ifthe captives were condemned to domestic slavery, they maintained, withtheir sword or dagger, the private quarrel of their masters; and it wasfound expedient for the public tranquillity to prohibit the service ofsuch dangerous retainers. When their countryman Tarcalissaeus or Zenoascended the throne, he invited a faithful and formidable band ofIsaurians, who insulted the court and city, and were rewarded by anannual tribute of five thousand pounds of gold. But the hopes of fortunedepopulated the mountains, luxury enervated the hardiness of their mindsand bodies, and in proportion as they mixed with mankind, they becameless qualified for the enjoyment of poor and solitary freedom. Afterthe death of Zeno, his successor Anastasius suppressed their pensions, exposed their persons to the revenge of the people, banished them fromConstantinople, and prepared to sustain a war, which left only thealternative of victory or servitude. A brother of the last emperorusurped the title of Augustus; his cause was powerfully supported bythe arms, the treasures, and the magazines, collected by Zeno; and thenative Isaurians must have formed the smallest portion of the hundredand fifty thousand Barbarians under his standard, which was sanctified, for the first time, by the presence of a fighting bishop. Theirdisorderly numbers were vanquished in the plains of Phrygia by the valorand discipline of the Goths; but a war of six years almost exhausted thecourage of the emperor. [123] The Isaurians retired to their mountains;their fortresses were successively besieged and ruined; theircommunication with the sea was intercepted; the bravest of their leadersdied in arms; the surviving chiefs, before their execution, weredragged in chains through the hippodrome; a colony of their youth wastransplanted into Thrace, and the remnant of the people submitted to theRoman government. Yet some generations elapsed before their minds werereduced to the level of slavery. The populous villages of Mount Tauruswere filled with horsemen and archers: they resisted the impositionof tributes, but they recruited the armies of Justinian; and his civilmagistrates, the proconsul of Cappadocia, the count of Isauria, and thepraetors of Lycaonia and Pisidia, were invested with military power torestrain the licentious practice of rapes and assassinations. [124]

[Footnote 119: Turn back to vol. I. P. 328. In the course of thisHistory, I have sometimes mentioned, and much oftener slighted, thehasty inroads of the Isaurians, which were not attended with anyconsequences. ]

[Footnote 120: Trebellius Pollio in Hist. August. P. 107, who livedunder Diocletian, or Constantine. See likewise Pancirolus ad Notit. Imp. Orient c. 115, 141. See Cod. Theodos. L. Ix. Tit. 35, leg. 37, with acopious collective Annotation of Godefroy, tom. Iii. P. 256, 257. ]

[Footnote 121: See the full and wide extent of their inroads inPhilostorgius (Hist. Eccles. L. Xi. C. 8, ) with Godefroy's learnedDissertations. ]

[Footnote 122: Cod. Justinian. L. Ix. Tit. 12, leg. 10. The punishmentsare severs--a fine of a hundred pounds of gold, degradation, and evendeath. The public peace might afford a pretence, but Zeno was desirousof monopolizing the valor and service of the Isaurians. ]

[Footnote 123: The Isaurian war and the triumph of Anastasius arebriefly and darkly represented by John Malala, (tom. Ii. P. 106, 107, )Evagrius, (l. Iii. C. 35, ) Theophanes, (p. 118--120, ) and the Chronicleof Marcellinus. ]

[Footnote 124: Fortes ea regio (says Justinian) viros habet, nec inullo differt ab Isauria, though Procopius (Persic. L. I. C. 18) marksan essential difference between their military character; yet in formertimes the Lycaonians and Pisidians had defended their liberty againstthe great king, Xenophon. (Anabasis, l. Iii. C. 2. ) Justinian introducessome false and ridiculous erudition of the ancient empire of thePisidians, and of Lycaon, who, after visiting Rome, (long beforeAeenas, ) gave a name and people to Lycaoni, (Novell. 24, 25, 27, 30. )]

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian. --Part V. 

If we extend our view from the tropic to the mouth of the Tanais, we mayobserve, on one hand, the precautions of Justinian to curb thesavages of Aethiopia, [125] and on the other, the long walls whichhe constructed in Crimaea for the protection of his friendly Goths, a colony of three thousand shepherds and warriors. [126] From thatpeninsula to Trebizond, the eastern curve of the Euxine was secured byforts, by alliance, or by religion; and the possession of Lazica, theColchos of ancient, the Mingrelia of modern, geography, soon becamethe object of an important war. Trebizond, in after-times the seat ofa romantic empire, was indebted to the liberality of Justinian for achurch, an aqueduct, and a castle, whose ditches are hewn in the solidrock. From that maritime city, frontier line of five hundred miles maybe drawn to the fortress of Circesium, the last Roman station on theEuphrates. [127] Above Trebizond immediately, and five days' journey tothe south, the country rises into dark forests and craggy mountains, as savage though not so lofty as the Alps and the Pyrenees. In thisrigorous climate, [128] where the snows seldom melt, the fruits aretardy and tasteless, even honey is poisonous: the most industrioustillage would be confined to some pleasant valleys; and the pastoraltribes obtained a scanty sustenance from the flesh and milk of theircattle. The Chalybians [129] derived their name and temper from the ironquality of the soil; and, since the days of Cyrus, they mightproduce, under the various appellations of Cha daeans and Zanians, an uninterrupted prescription of war and rapine. Under the reign ofJustinian, they acknowledged the god and the emperor of the Romans, andseven fortresses were built in the most accessible passages, to excludethe ambition of the Persian monarch. [130] The principal source ofthe Euphrates descends from the Chalybian mountains, and seems to flowtowards the west and the Euxine: bending to the south-west, the riverpasses under the walls of Satala and Melitene, (which were restoredby Justinian as the bulwarks of the Lesser Armenia, ) and graduallyapproaches the Mediterranean Sea; till at length, repelled by MountTaurus, [131] the Euphrates inclines its long and flexible course tothe south-east and the Gulf of Persia. Among the Roman cities beyond theEuphrates, we distinguish two recent foundations, which were named fromTheodosius, and the relics of the martyrs; and two capitals, Amida andEdessa, which are celebrated in the history of every age. Their strengthwas proportioned by Justinian to the danger of their situation. A ditchand palisade might be sufficient to resist the artless force of thecavalry of Scythia; but more elaborate works were required to sustaina regular siege against the arms and treasures of the great king. Hisskilful engineers understood the methods of conducting deep mines, andof raising platforms to the level of the rampart: he shook the strongestbattlements with his military engines, and sometimes advanced to theassault with a line of movable turrets on the backs of elephants. Inthe great cities of the East, the disadvantage of space, perhaps ofposition, was compensated by the zeal of the people, who seconded thegarrison in the defence of their country and religion; and the fabulouspromise of the Son of God, that Edessa should never be taken, filled thecitizens with valiant confidence, and chilled the besiegers with doubtand dismay. [132] The subordinate towns of Armenia and Mesopotamiawere diligently strengthened, and the posts which appeared to haveany command of ground or water were occupied by numerous forts, substantially built of stone, or more hastily erected with the obviousmaterials of earth and brick. The eye of Justinian investigated everyspot; and his cruel precautions might attract the war into some lonelyvale, whose peaceful natives, connected by trade and marriage, wereignorant of national discord and the quarrels of princes. Westward ofthe Euphrates, a sandy desert extends above six hundred miles to the RedSea. Nature had interposed a vacant solitude between the ambition of tworival empires; the Arabians, till Mahomet arose, were formidable only asrobbers; and in the proud security of peace the fortifications of Syriawere neglected on the most vulnerable side. 

[Footnote 125: See Procopius, Persic. L. I. C. 19. The altar of nationalconcern, of annual sacrifice and oaths, which Diocletian had created inthe Isla of Elephantine, was demolished by Justinian with less policythan]

[Footnote 126: Procopius de Edificiis, l. Iii. C. 7. Hist. L. Viii. C. 3, 4. These unambitious Goths had refused to follow the standard ofTheodoric. As late as the xvth and xvith century, the name and nationmight be discovered between Caffa and the Straits of Azoph, (D'Anville, Memoires de l'academie, tom. Xxx. P. 240. ) They well deserved thecuriosity of Busbequius, (p. 321-326;) but seem to have vanished inthe more recent account of the Missions du Levant, (tom. I. , ) Tott, Peysonnnel, &c. ]

[Footnote 127: For the geography and architecture of this Armenianborder, see the Persian Wars and Edifices (l. Ii. C. 4-7, l. Iii. C. 2--7) of Procopius. ]

[Footnote 128: The country is described by Tournefort, (Voyage auLevant, tom. Iii. Lettre xvii. Xviii. ) That skilful botanist soondiscovered the plant that infects the honey, (Plin. Xxi. 44, 45:) heobserves, that the soldiers of Lucullus might indeed be astonished atthe cold, since, even in the plain of Erzerum, snow sometimes falls inJune, and the harvest is seldom finished before September. The hillsof Armenia are below the fortieth degree of latitude; but in themountainous country which I inhabit, it is well known that an ascent ofsome hours carries the traveller from the climate of Languedoc to thatof Norway; and a general theory has been introduced, that, under theline, an elevation of 2400 toises is equivalent to the cold of the polarcircle, (Remond, Observations sur les Voyages de Coxe dans la Suisse, tom. Ii. P. 104. )]

[Footnote 129: The identity or proximity of the Chalybians, orChaldaeana may be investigated in Strabo, (l. Xii. P. 825, 826, )Cellarius, (Geograph. Antiq. Tom. Ii. P. 202--204, ) and Freret, (Mem. DeAcademie, tom. Iv. P. 594) Xenophon supposes, in his romance, (Cyropaedl. Iii. , ) the same Barbarians, against whom he had fought in hisretreat, (Anabasis, l. Iv. )]

[Footnote 130: Procopius, Persic. L. I. C. 15. De Edific. L. Iii. C. 6. ]

[Footnote 131: Ni Taurus obstet in nostra maria venturus, (PomponiusMela, iii. 8. ) Pliny, a poet as well as a naturalist, (v. 20, )personifies the river and mountain, and describes their combat. Seethe course of the Tigris and Euphrates in the excellent treatise ofD'Anville. ]

[Footnote 132: Procopius (Persic. L. Ii. C. 12) tells the story with thetone, half sceptical, half superstitious, of Herodotus. The promise wasnot in the primitive lie of Eusebius, but dates at least from the year400; and a third lie, the Veronica, was soon raised on the two former, (Evagrius, l. Iv. C. 27. ) As Edessa has been taken, Tillemont mustdisclaim the promise, (Mem. Eccles. Tom. I. P. 362, 383, 617. )]

But the national enmity, at least the effects of that enmity, hadbeen suspended by a truce, which continued above fourscore years. Anambassador from the emperor Zeno accompanied the rash and unfortunatePerozes, [1321] in his expedition against the Nepthalites, [1322] orwhite Huns, whose conquests had been stretched from the Caspian to theheart of India, whose throne was enriched with emeralds, [133] and whosecavalry was supported by a line of two thousand elephants. [134] ThePersians [1341] were twice circumvented, in a situation which made valoruseless and flight impossible; and the double victory of the Huns wasachieved by military stratagem. They dismissed their royal captiveafter he had submitted to adore the majesty of a Barbarian; and thehumiliation was poorly evaded by the casuistical subtlety of the Magi, who instructed Perozes to direct his attention to the rising sun. [1342]The indignant successor of Cyrus forgot his danger and his gratitude; herenewed the attack with headstrong fury, and lost both his army and hislife. [135] The death of Perozes abandoned Persia to her foreign anddomestic enemies; [1351] and twelve years of confusion elapsed beforehis son Cabades, or Kobad, could embrace any designs of ambition orrevenge. The unkind parsimony of Anastasius was the motive or pretenceof a Roman war; [136] the Huns and Arabs marched under the Persianstandard, and the fortifications of Armenia and Mesopotamia were, atthat time, in a ruinous or imperfect condition. The emperor returnedhis thanks to the governor and people of Martyropolis for the promptsurrender of a city which could not be successfully defended, and theconflagration of Theodosiopolis might justify the conduct of theirprudent neighbors. Amida sustained a long and destructive siege: atthe end of three months the loss of fifty thousand of the soldiers ofCabades was not balanced by any prospect of success, and it was in vainthat the Magi deduced a flattering prediction from the indecency of thewomen [1361] on the ramparts, who had revealed their most secret charmsto the eyes of the assailants. At length, in a silent night, theyascended the most accessible tower, which was guarded only by somemonks, oppressed, after the duties of a festival, with sleep andwine. Scaling-ladders were applied at the dawn of day; the presence ofCabades, his stern command, and his drawn sword, compelled the Persiansto vanquish; and before it was sheathed, fourscore thousand of theinhabitants had expiated the blood of their companions. After the siegeof Amida, the war continued three years, and the unhappy frontier tastedthe full measure of its calamities. The gold of Anastasius was offeredtoo late, the number of his troops was defeated by the number of theirgenerals; the country was stripped of its inhabitants, and both theliving and the dead were abandoned to the wild beasts of the desert. Theresistance of Edessa, and the deficiency of spoil, inclined the mind ofCabades to peace: he sold his conquests for an exorbitant price; and thesame line, though marked with slaughter and devastation, still separatedthe two empires. To avert the repetition of the same evils, Anastasiusresolved to found a new colony, so strong, that it should defy the powerof the Persian, so far advanced towards Assyria, that its stationarytroops might defend the province by the menace or operation of offensivewar. For this purpose, the town of Dara, [137] fourteen miles fromNisibis, and four days' journey from the Tigris, was peopled andadorned; the hasty works of Anastasius were improved by the perseveranceof Justinian; and, without insisting on places less important, thefortifications of Dara may represent the military architecture of theage. The city was surrounded with two walls, and the interval betweenthem, of fifty paces, afforded a retreat to the cattle of the besieged. The inner wall was a monument of strength and beauty: it measured sixtyfeet from the ground, and the height of the towers was one hundredfeet; the loopholes, from whence an enemy might be annoyed with missileweapons, were small, but numerous; the soldiers were planted along therampart, under the shelter of double galleries, and a third platform, spacious and secure, was raised on the summit of the towers. Theexterior wall appears to have been less lofty, but more solid; andeach tower was protected by a quadrangular bulwark. A hard, rocky soilresisted the tools of the miners, and on the south-east, where theground was more tractable, their approach was retarded by a new work, which advanced in the shape of a half-moon. The double and trebleditches were filled with a stream of water; and in the management of theriver, the most skilful labor was employed to supply the inhabitants, to distress the besiegers, and to prevent the mischiefs of a natural orartificial inundation. Dara continued more than sixty years to fulfilthe wishes of its founders, and to provoke the jealousy of the Persians, who incessantly complained, that this impregnable fortress had beenconstructed in manifest violation of the treaty of peace between the twoempires. [1371]

[Footnote 1321: Firouz the Conqueror--unfortunately so named. See St. Martin, vol. Vi. P. 439. --M. ]

[Footnote 1322: Rather Hepthalites. --M. ]

[Footnote 133: They were purchased from the merchants of Adulis whotraded to India, (Cosmas, Topograph. Christ. L. Xi. P. 339;) yet, inthe estimate of precious stones, the Scythian emerald was the first, the Bactrian the second, the Aethiopian only the third, (Hill'sTheophrastus, p. 61, &c. , 92. ) The production, mines, &c. , of emeralds, are involved in darkness; and it is doubtful whether we possess any ofthe twelve sorts known to the ancients, (Goguet, Origine des Loix, &c. , part ii. L. Ii. C. 2, art. 3. ) In this war the Huns got, or at leastPerozes lost, the finest pearl in the world, of which Procopius relatesa ridiculous fable. ]

[Footnote 134: The Indo-Scythae continued to reign from the time ofAugustus (Dionys. Perieget. 1088, with the Commentary of Eustathius, inHudson, Geograph. Minor. Tom. Iv. ) to that of the elder Justin, (Cosmas, Topograph. Christ. L. Xi. P. 338, 339. ) On their origin and conquests, see D'Anville, (sur l'Inde, p. 18, 45, &c. , 69, 85, 89. ) In the secondcentury they were masters of Larice or Guzerat. ]

[Footnote 1341: According to the Persian historians, he was misledby guides who used he old stratagem of Zopyrus. Malcolm, vol. I. P. 101. --M. ]

[Footnote 1342: In the Ms. Chronicle of Tabary, it is said that theMoubedan Mobed, or Grand Pontiff, opposed with all his influence theviolation of the treaty. St. Martin, vol. Vii. P. 254. --M. ]

[Footnote 135: See the fate of Phirouz, or Perozes, and itsconsequences, in Procopius, (Persic. L. I. C. 3--6, ) who may be comparedwith the fragments of Oriental history, (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. P. 351, and Texeira, History of Persia, translated or abridged by Stephens, l. I. C. 32, p. 132--138. ) The chronology is ably ascertained byAsseman. (Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Iii. P. 396--427. )]

[Footnote 1351: When Firoze advanced, Khoosh-Nuaz (the king of the Huns)presented on the point of a lance the treaty to which he had sworn, and exhorted him yet to desist before he destroyed his fame forever. Malcolm, vol. I. P. 103. --M. ]

[Footnote 136: The Persian war, under the reigns of Anastasius andJustin, may be collected from Procopius, (Persic. L. I. C. 7, 8, 9, )Theophanes, (in Chronograph. P. 124--127, ) Evagrius, (l. Iii. C. 37, )Marcellinus, (in Chron. P. 47, ) and Josue Stylites, (apud Asseman. Tom. I. P. 272--281. )]

[Footnote 1361: Gibbon should have written "some prostitutes. " ProcPers. Vol. 1 p. 7. --M. ]

[Footnote 137: The description of Dara is amply and correctly given byProcopius, (Persic. L. I. C. 10, l. Ii. C. 13. De Edific. L. Ii. C. 1, 2, 3, l. Iii. C. 5. ) See the situation in D'Anville, (l'Euphrate et leTigre, p. 53, 54, 55, ) though he seems to double the interval betweenDara and Nisibis. ]

[Footnote 1371: The situation (of Dara) does not appear to giveit strength, as it must have been commanded on three sides by themountains, but opening on the south towards the plains of Mesopotamia. The foundation of the walls and towers, built of large hewn stone, maybe traced across the valley, and over a number of low rocky hills whichbranch out from the foot of Mount Masius. The circumference I conceiveto be nearly two miles and a half; and a small stream, which flowsthrough the middle of the place, has induced several Koordish andArmenian families to fix their residence within the ruins. Besides thewalls and towers, the remains of many other buildings attest the formergrandeur of Dara; a considerable part of the space within the walls isarched and vaulted underneath, and in one place we perceived a largecavern, supported by four ponderous columns, somewhat resembling thegreat cistern of Constantinople. In the centre of the village are theruins of a palace (probably that mentioned by Procopius) or church, onehundred paces in length, and sixty in breadth. The foundations, whichare quite entire, consist of a prodigious number of subterraneousvaulted chambers, entered by a narrow passage forty paces in length. Thegate is still standing; a considerable part of the wall has bid defianceto time, &c. M Donald Kinneir's Journey, p. 438. --M]

Between the Euxine and the Caspian, the countries of Colchos, Iberia, and Albania, are intersected in every direction by the branches of MountCaucasus; and the two principal gates, or passes, from north to south, have been frequently confounded in the geography both of the ancientsand moderns. The name of Caspian or Albanian gates is properly appliedto Derbend, [138] which occupies a short declivity between the mountainsand the sea: the city, if we give credit to local tradition, had beenfounded by the Greeks; and this dangerous entrance was fortified bythe kings of Persia with a mole, double walls, and doors of iron. TheIberian gates [139] [1391] are formed by a narrow passage of six milesin Mount Caucasus, which opens from the northern side of Iberia, orGeorgia, into the plain that reaches to the Tanais and the Volga. Afortress, designed by Alexander perhaps, or one of his successors, to command that important pass, had descended by right of conquest orinheritance to a prince of the Huns, who offered it for a moderateprice to the emperor; but while Anastasius paused, while he timorouslycomputed the cost and the distance, a more vigilant rival interposed, and Cabades forcibly occupied the Straits of Caucasus. The Albanian andIberian gates excluded the horsemen of Scythia from the shortest andmost practicable roads, and the whole front of the mountains was coveredby the rampart of Gog and Magog, the long wall which has excited thecuriosity of an Arabian caliph [140] and a Russian conqueror. [141]According to a recent description, huge stones, seven feet thick, andtwenty-one feet in length or height, are artificially joined withoutiron or cement, to compose a wall, which runs above three hundred milesfrom the shores of Derbend, over the hills, and through the valleys ofDaghestan and Georgia. 

Without a vision, such a work might be undertaken by the policy ofCabades; without a miracle, it might be accomplished by his son, soformidable to the Romans, under the name of Chosroes; so dear to theOrientals, under the appellation of Nushirwan. The Persian monarch heldin his hand the keys both of peace and war; but he stipulated, in everytreaty, that Justinian should contribute to the expense of a commonbarrier, which equally protected the two empires from the inroads of theScythians. [142]

[Footnote 138: For the city and pass of Derbend, see D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. P. 157, 291, 807, ) Petit de la Croix. (Hist. DeGengiscan, l. Iv. C. 9, ) Histoire Genealogique des Tatars, (tom. I. P. 120, ) Olearius, (Voyage en Perse, p. 1039--1041, ) and Corneille leBruyn, (Voyages, tom. I. P. 146, 147:) his view may be compared withthe plan of Olearius, who judges the wall to be of shells and gravelhardened by time. ]

[Footnote 139: Procopius, though with some confusion, always denominatesthem Caspian, (Persic. L. I. C. 10. ) The pass is now styled Tatar-topa, the Tartar-gates, (D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. Ii. P. 119, 120. )]

[Footnote 1391: Malte-Brun. Tom. Viii. P. 12, makes three passes: 1. Thecentral, which leads from Mosdok to Teflis. 2. The Albanian, moreinland than the Derbend Pass. 3. The Derbend--the Caspian Gates. But thenarrative of Col. Monteith, in the Journal of the Geographical Societyof London. Vol. Iii. P. I. P. 39, clearly shows that there are buttwo passes between the Black Sea and the Caspian; the central, theCaucasian, or, as Col. Monteith calls it, the Caspian Gates, and thepass of Derbend, though it is practicable to turn this position (ofDerbend) by a road a few miles distant through the mountains, p. 40. --M. ]

[Footnote 140: The imaginary rampart of Gog and Magog, which wasseriously explored and believed by a caliph of the ninth century, appears to be derived from the gates of Mount Caucasus, and a vaguereport of the wall of China, (Geograph. Nubiensis, p. 267-270. Memoiresde l'Academie, tom. Xxxi. P. 210--219. )]

[Footnote 141: See a learned dissertation of Baier, de muro Caucaseo, in Comment. Acad. Petropol. Ann. 1726, tom. I. P. 425-463; but it isdestitute of a map or plan. When the czar Peter I. Became master ofDerbend in the year 1722, the measure of the wall was found to be 3285Russian orgyioe, or fathom, each of seven feet English; in the wholesomewhat more than four miles in length. ]

[Footnote 142: See the fortifications and treaties of Chosroes, or Nushirwan, in Procopius (Persic. L. I. C. 16, 22, l. Ii. ) andD'Herbelot, (p. 682. )] VII. Justinian suppressed the schools of Athensand the consulship of Rome, which had given so many sages and heroes tomankind. Both these institutions had long since degenerated from theirprimitive glory; yet some reproach may be justly inflicted on theavarice and jealousy of a prince, by whose hand such venerable ruinswere destroyed. 

Athens, after her Persian triumphs, adopted the philosophy of Ioniaand the rhetoric of Sicily; and these studies became the patrimony of acity, whose inhabitants, about thirty thousand males, condensed, withinthe period of a single life, the genius of ages and millions. Our senseof the dignity of human nature is exalted by the simple recollection, that Isocrates [143] was the companion of Plato and Xenophon; thathe assisted, perhaps with the historian Thucydides, at the firstrepresentation of the Oedipus of Sophocles and the Iphigenia ofEuripides; and that his pupils Aeschines and Demosthenes contended forthe crown of patriotism in the presence of Aristotle, the master ofTheophrastus, who taught at Athens with the founders of the Stoicand Epicurean sects. [144] The ingenuous youth of Attica enjoyed thebenefits of their domestic education, which was communicated withoutenvy to the rival cities. Two thousand disciples heard the lessons ofTheophrastus; [145] the schools of rhetoric must have been still morepopulous than those of philosophy; and a rapid succession of studentsdiffused the fame of their teachers as far as the utmost limits of theGrecian language and name. Those limits were enlarged by the victoriesof Alexander; the arts of Athens survived her freedom and dominion; andthe Greek colonies which the Macedonians planted in Egypt, and scatteredover Asia, undertook long and frequent pilgrimages to worship theMuses in their favorite temple on the banks of the Ilissus. The Latinconquerors respectfully listened to the instructions of their subjectsand captives; the names of Cicero and Horace were enrolled in theschools of Athens; and after the perfect settlement of the Roman empire, the natives of Italy, of Africa, and of Britain, conversed in the grovesof the academy with their fellow-students of the East. The studiesof philosophy and eloquence are congenial to a popular state, whichencourages the freedom of inquiry, and submits only to the force ofpersuasion. In the republics of Greece and Rome, the art of speakingwas the powerful engine of patriotism or ambition; and the schools ofrhetoric poured forth a colony of statesmen and legislators. When theliberty of public debate was suppressed, the orator, in the honorableprofession of an advocate, might plead the cause of innocence andjustice; he might abuse his talents in the more profitable trade ofpanegyric; and the same precepts continued to dictate the fancifuldeclamations of the sophist, and the chaster beauties of historicalcomposition. The systems which professed to unfold the nature of God, ofman, and of the universe, entertained the curiosity of the philosophicstudent; and according to the temper of his mind, he might doubt withthe Sceptics, or decide with the Stoics, sublimely speculate with Plato, or severely argue with Aristotle. The pride of the adverse sects hadfixed an unattainable term of moral happiness and perfection; but therace was glorious and salutary; the disciples of Zeno, and even thoseof Epicurus, were taught both to act and to suffer; and the death ofPetronius was not less effectual than that of Seneca, to humble a tyrantby the discovery of his impotence. The light of science could not indeedbe confined within the walls of Athens. Her incomparable writers addressthemselves to the human race; the living masters emigrated to Italyand Asia; Berytus, in later times, was devoted to the study of the law;astronomy and physic were cultivated in the musaeum of Alexandria; butthe Attic schools of rhetoric and philosophy maintained their superiorreputation from the Peloponnesian war to the reign of Justinian. Athens, though situate in a barren soil, possessed a pure air, a freenavigation, and the monuments of ancient art. That sacred retirement wasseldom disturbed by the business of trade or government; and the lastof the Athenians were distinguished by their lively wit, the purityof their taste and language, their social manners, and some traces, atleast in discourse, of the magnanimity of their fathers. In thesuburbs of the city, the academy of the Platonists, the lycaeum ofthe Peripatetics, the portico of the Stoics, and the garden of theEpicureans, were planted with trees and decorated with statues; and thephilosophers, instead of being immured in a cloister, delivered theirinstructions in spacious and pleasant walks, which, at different hours, were consecrated to the exercises of the mind and body. The geniusof the founders still lived in those venerable seats; the ambition ofsucceeding to the masters of human reason excited a generous emulation;and the merit of the candidates was determined, on each vacancy, by thefree voices of an enlightened people. The Athenian professors were paidby their disciples: according to their mutual wants and abilities, theprice appears to have varied; and Isocrates himself, who derides theavarice of the sophists, required, in his school of rhetoric, aboutthirty pounds from each of his hundred pupils. The wages of industryare just and honorable, yet the same Isocrates shed tears at the firstreceipt of a stipend: the Stoic might blush when he was hired to preachthe contempt of money; and I should be sorry to discover that Aristotleor Plato so far degenerated from the example of Socrates, as to exchangeknowledge for gold. But some property of lands and houses was settled bythe permission of the laws, and the legacies of deceased friends, on thephilosophic chairs of Athens. Epicurus bequeathed to his disciples thegardens which he had purchased for eighty minae or two hundred and fiftypounds, with a fund sufficient for their frugal subsistence and monthlyfestivals; [146] and the patrimony of Plato afforded an annual rent, which, in eight centuries, was gradually increased from three to onethousand pieces of gold. [147] The schools of Athens were protected bythe wisest and most virtuous of the Roman princes. The library, whichHadrian founded, was placed in a portico adorned with pictures, statues, and a roof of alabaster, and supported by one hundred columns ofPhrygian marble. The public salaries were assigned by the generousspirit of the Antonines; and each professor of politics, of rhetoric, ofthe Platonic, the Peripatetic, the Stoic, and the Epicurean philosophy, received an annual stipend of ten thousand drachmae, or more than threehundred pounds sterling. [148] After the death of Marcus, these liberaldonations, and the privileges attached to the thrones of science, wereabolished and revived, diminished and enlarged; but some vestige ofroyal bounty may be found under the successors of Constantine; and theirarbitrary choice of an unworthy candidate might tempt the philosophersof Athens to regret the days of independence and poverty. [149] It isremarkable, that the impartial favor of the Antonines was bestowed onthe four adverse sects of philosophy, which they considered as equallyuseful, or at least, as equally innocent. Socrates had formerly been theglory and the reproach of his country; and the first lessons of Epicurusso strangely scandalized the pious ears of the Athenians, that by hisexile, and that of his antagonists, they silenced all vain disputesconcerning the nature of the gods. But in the ensuing year theyrecalled the hasty decree, restored the liberty of the schools, andwere convinced by the experience of ages, that the moral characterof philosophers is not affected by the diversity of their theologicalspeculations. [150]

[Footnote 143: The life of Isocrates extends from Olymp. Lxxxvi. 1. Tocx. 3, (ante Christ. 436--438. ) See Dionys. Halicarn. Tom. Ii. P. 149, 150, edit. Hudson. Plutarch (sive anonymus) in Vit. X. Oratorum, p. 1538--1543, edit. H. Steph. Phot. Cod. Cclix. P. 1453. ]

[Footnote 144: The schools of Athens are copiously though conciselyrepresented in the Fortuna Attica of Meursius, (c. Viii. P. 59--73, intom. I. Opp. ) For the state and arts of the city, see the first bookof Pausanias, and a small tract of Dicaearchus, in the second volumeof Hudson's Geographers, who wrote about Olymp. Cxvii. (Dodwell'sDissertia sect. 4. )]

[Footnote 145: Diogen Laert. De Vit. Philosoph. L. V. Segm. 37, p. 289. ]

[Footnote 146: See the Testament of Epicurus in Diogen. Laert. L. X. Segm. 16--20, p. 611, 612. A single epistle (ad Familiares, xiii. L. )displays the injustice of the Areopagus, the fidelity of the Epicureans, the dexterous politeness of Cicero, and the mixture of contempt andesteem with which the Roman senators considered the philosophy andphilosophers of Greece. ]

[Footnote 147: Damascius, in Vit. Isidor. Apud Photium, cod. Ccxlii. P. 1054. ]

[Footnote 148: See Lucian (in Eunuch. Tom. Ii. P. 350--359, edit. Reitz, ) Philostratus (in Vit. Sophist. L. Ii. C. 2, ) and Dion Cassius, or Xiphilin, (lxxi. P. 1195, ) with their editors Du Soul, Olearius, andReimar, and, above all, Salmasius, (ad Hist. August. P. 72. ) A judiciousphilosopher (Smith's Wealth of Nations, vol. Ii. P. 340--374) prefersthe free contributions of the students to a fixed stipend for theprofessor. ]

[Footnote 149: Brucker, Hist. Crit. Philosoph. Tom. Ii. P. 310, &c. ]

[Footnote 150: The birth of Epicurus is fixed to the year 342 beforeChrist, (Bayle, ) Olympiad cix. 3; and he opened his school at Athens, Olmp. Cxviii. 3, 306 years before the same aera. This intolerant law(Athenaeus, l. Xiii. P. 610. Diogen. Laertius, l. V. S. 38. P. 290. Julius Pollux, ix. 5) was enacted in the same or the succeeding year, (Sigonius, Opp. Tom. V. P. 62. Menagius ad Diogen. Laert. P. 204. Corsini, Fasti Attici, tom. Iv. P. 67, 68. ) Theophrastus chief ofthe Peripatetics, and disciple of Aristotle, was involved in the sameexile. ]

The Gothic arms were less fatal to the schools of Athens than theestablishment of a new religion, whose ministers superseded the exerciseof reason, resolved every question by an article of faith, and condemnedthe infidel or sceptic to eternal flames. In many a volume of laboriouscontroversy, they exposed the weakness of the understanding andthe corruption of the heart, insulted human nature in the sages ofantiquity, and proscribed the spirit of philosophical inquiry, sorepugnant to the doctrine, or at least to the temper, of an humblebeliever. The surviving sects of the Platonists, whom Plato would haveblushed to acknowledge, extravagantly mingled a sublime theory with thepractice of superstition and magic; and as they remained alone in themidst of a Christian world, they indulged a secret rancor against thegovernment of the church and state, whose severity was still suspendedover their heads. About a century after the reign of Julian, [151]Proclus [152] was permitted to teach in the philosophic chair of theacademy; and such was his industry, that he frequently, in the same day, pronounced five lessons, and composed seven hundred lines. His sagaciousmind explored the deepest questions of morals and metaphysics, and heventured to urge eighteen arguments against the Christian doctrine ofthe creation of the world. But in the intervals of study, he personallyconversed with Pan, Aesculapius, and Minerva, in whose mysteries he wassecretly initiated, and whose prostrate statues he adored; in the devoutpersuasion that the philosopher, who is a citizen of the universe, should be the priest of its various deities. An eclipse of the sunannounced his approaching end; and his life, with that of his scholarIsidore, [153] compiled by two of their most learned disciples, exhibitsa deplorable picture of the second childhood of human reason. Yet thegolden chain, as it was fondly styled, of the Platonic succession, continued forty-four years from the death of Proclus to the edict ofJustinian, [154] which imposed a perpetual silence on the schools ofAthens, and excited the grief and indignation of the few remainingvotaries of Grecian science and superstition. Seven friends andphilosophers, Diogenes and Hermias, Eulalius and Priscian, Damascius, Isidore, and Simplicius, who dissented from the religion of theirsovereign, embraced the resolution of seeking in a foreign land thefreedom which was denied in their native country. They had heard, andthey credulously believed, that the republic of Plato was realized inthe despotic government of Persia, and that a patriot king reigned everthe happiest and most virtuous of nations. They were soon astonished bythe natural discovery, that Persia resembled the other countries of theglobe; that Chosroes, who affected the name of a philosopher, wasvain, cruel, and ambitious; that bigotry, and a spirit of intolerance, prevailed among the Magi; that the nobles were haughty, the courtiersservile, and the magistrates unjust; that the guilty sometimes escaped, and that the innocent were often oppressed. The disappointment of thephilosophers provoked them to overlook the real virtues of the Persians;and they were scandalized, more deeply perhaps than became theirprofession, with the plurality of wives and concubines, the incestuousmarriages, and the custom of exposing dead bodies to the dogs andvultures, instead of hiding them in the earth, or consuming them withfire. Their repentance was expressed by a precipitate return, and theyloudly declared that they had rather die on the borders of the empire, than enjoy the wealth and favor of the Barbarian. From this journey, however, they derived a benefit which reflects the purest lustre on thecharacter of Chosroes. He required, that the seven sages who hadvisited the court of Persia should be exempted from the penal lawswhich Justinian enacted against his Pagan subjects; and this privilege, expressly stipulated in a treaty of peace, was guarded by the vigilanceof a powerful mediator. [155] Simplicius and his companions endedtheir lives in peace and obscurity; and as they left no disciples, they terminate the long list of Grecian philosophers, who may be justlypraised, notwithstanding their defects, as the wisest and most virtuousof their contemporaries. The writings of Simplicius are now extant. Hisphysical and metaphysical commentaries on Aristotle have passed awaywith the fashion of the times; but his moral interpretation of Epictetusis preserved in the library of nations, as a classic book, mostexcellently adapted to direct the will, to purify the heart, and toconfirm the understanding, by a just confidence in the nature both ofGod and man. 

[Footnote 151: This is no fanciful aera: the Pagans reckoned theircalamities from the reign of their hero. Proclus, whose nativity ismarked by his horoscope, (A. D. 412, February 8, at C. P. , ) died 124years, A. D. 485, (Marin. In Vita Procli, c. 36. )]

[Footnote 152: The life of Proclus, by Marinus, was published byFabricius (Hamburg, 1700, et ad calcem Bibliot. Latin. Lond. 1703. ) SeeSaidas, (tom. Iii. P. 185, 186, ) Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. L. V. C. 26p. 449--552, ) and Brucker, (Hist. Crit. Philosoph. Tom. Ii. P. 319--326)]

[Footnote 153: The life of Isidore was composed by Damascius, (apudPhotium, sod. Ccxlii. P. 1028--1076. ) See the last age of the Paganphilosophers, in Brucker, (tom. Ii. P. 341--351. )]

[Footnote 154: The suppression of the schools of Athens is recorded byJohn Malala, (tom. Ii. P. 187, sub Decio Cos. Sol. , ) and an anonymousChronicle in the Vatican library, (apud Aleman. P. 106. )]

[Footnote 155: Agathias (l. Ii. P. 69, 70, 71) relates this curiousstory Chosroes ascended the throne in the year 531, and made his firstpeace with the Romans in the beginning of 533--a date most compatiblewith his young fame and the old age of Isidore, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Iii. P. 404. Pagi, tom. Ii. P. 543, 550. )]

About the same time that Pythagoras first invented the appellation ofphilosopher, liberty and the consulship were founded at Rome by theelder Brutus. The revolutions of the consular office, which may beviewed in the successive lights of a substance, a shadow, and a name, have been occasionally mentioned in the present History. The firstmagistrates of the republic had been chosen by the people, to exercise, in the senate and in the camp, the powers of peace and war, which wereafterwards translated to the emperors. But the tradition of ancientdignity was long revered by the Romans and Barbarians. A Gothichistorian applauds the consulship of Theodoric as the height ofall temporal glory and greatness; [156] the king of Italy himselfcongratulated those annual favorites of fortune who, without the cares, enjoyed the splendor of the throne; and at the end of a thousand years, two consuls were created by the sovereigns of Rome and Constantinople, for the sole purpose of giving a date to the year, and a festival to thepeople. But the expenses of this festival, in which the wealthy andthe vain aspired to surpass their predecessors, insensibly arose to theenormous sum of fourscore thousand pounds; the wisest senators declineda useless honor, which involved the certain ruin of their families, andto this reluctance I should impute the frequent chasms in the last ageof the consular Fasti. The predecessors of Justinian had assisted fromthe public treasures the dignity of the less opulent candidates; theavarice of that prince preferred the cheaper and more convenient methodof advice and regulation. [157] Seven processions or spectacles werethe number to which his edict confined the horse and chariot races, the athletic sports, the music, and pantomimes of the theatre, andthe hunting of wild beasts; and small pieces of silver were discreetlysubstituted to the gold medals, which had always excited tumult anddrunkenness, when they were scattered with a profuse hand among thepopulace. Notwithstanding these precautions, and his own example, the succession of consuls finally ceased in the thirteenth year ofJustinian, whose despotic temper might be gratified by the silentextinction of a title which admonished the Romans of their ancientfreedom. [158] Yet the annual consulship still lived in the minds of thepeople; they fondly expected its speedy restoration; they applauded thegracious condescension of successive princes, by whom it was assumed inthe first year of their reign; and three centuries elapsed, afterthe death of Justinian, before that obsolete dignity, which had beensuppressed by custom, could be abolished by law. [159] The imperfectmode of distinguishing each year by the name of a magistrate, wasusefully supplied by the date of a permanent aera: the creation of theworld, according to the Septuagint version, was adopted by the Greeks;[160] and the Latins, since the age of Charlemagne, have computed theirtime from the birth of Christ. [161]

[Footnote 156: Cassiodor. Variarum Epist. Vi. 1. Jornandes, c. 57, p. 696, dit. Grot. Quod summum bonum primumque in mundo decus dicitur. ]

[Footnote 157: See the regulations of Justinian, (Novell. Cv. , ) datedat Constantinople, July 5, and addressed to Strategius, treasurer of theempire. ]

[Footnote 158: Procopius, in Anecdot. C. 26. Aleman. P. 106. Inthe xviiith year after the consulship of Basilius, according to thereckoning of Marcellinus, Victor, Marius, &c. , the secret history wascomposed, and, in the eyes of Procopius, the consulship was finallyabolished. ]

[Footnote 159: By Leo, the philosopher, (Novell. Xciv. A. D. 886-911. )See Pagi (Dissertat. Hypatica, p. 325--362) and Ducange, (Gloss, Graecp. 1635, 1636. ) Even the title was vilified: consulatus codicilli. . Vilescunt, says the emperor himself. ]

[Footnote 160: According to Julius Africanus, &c. , the world was createdthe first of September, 5508 years, three months, and twenty-five daysbefore the birth of Christ. (See Pezron, Antiquite des Tems defendue, p. 20--28. ) And this aera has been used by the Greeks, the OrientalChristians, and even by the Russians, till the reign of Peter I Theperiod, however arbitrary, is clear and convenient. Of the 7296 yearswhich are supposed to elapse since the creation, we shall find 3000of ignorance and darkness; 2000 either fabulous or doubtful; 1000 ofancient history, commencing with the Persian empire, and the Republicsof Rome and Athens; 1000 from the fall of the Roman empire in the Westto the discovery of America; and the remaining 296 will almost completethree centuries of the modern state of Europe and mankind. I regretthis chronology, so far preferable to our double and perplexed method ofcounting backwards and forwards the years before and after the Christianera. ]

[Footnote 161: The aera of the world has prevailed in the East since thevith general council, (A. D. 681. ) In the West, the Christian aera wasfirst invented in the vith century: it was propagated in the viiith bythe authority and writings of venerable Bede; but it was not till thexth that the use became legal and popular. See l'Art de Veriner lesDates, Dissert. Preliminaire, p. Iii. Xii. Dictionnaire Diplomatique, tom. I. P. 329--337; the works of a laborious society of Benedictinemonks. ]

Chapter XLI: Conquests Of Justinian, Charact Of Balisarius. --Part I. 

 Conquests Of Justinian In The West. --Character And First Campaigns Of Belisarius--He Invades And Subdues The Vandal Kingdom Of Africa--His Triumph. --The Gothic War. --He Recovers Sicily, Naples, And Rome. --Siege Of Rome By The Goths. --Their Retreat And Losses. --Surrender Of Ravenna. -- Glory Of Belisarius. --His Domestic Shame And Misfortunes. 

When Justinian ascended the throne, about fifty years after the fall ofthe Western empire, the kingdoms of the Goths and Vandals had obtaineda solid, and, as it might seem, a legal establishment both in Europe andAfrica. The titles, which Roman victory had inscribed, were erasedwith equal justice by the sword of the Barbarians; and their successfulrapine derived a more venerable sanction from time, from treaties, and from the oaths of fidelity, already repeated by a second or thirdgeneration of obedient subjects. Experience and Christianity had refutedthe superstitious hope, that Rome was founded by the gods to reignforever over the nations of the earth. But the proud claim of perpetualand indefeasible dominion, which her soldiers could no longer maintain, was firmly asserted by her statesmen and lawyers, whose opinionshave been sometimes revived and propagated in the modern schools ofjurisprudence. After Rome herself had been stripped of the Imperialpurple, the princes of Constantinople assumed the sole and sacredsceptre of the monarchy; demanded, as their rightful inheritance, theprovinces which had been subdued by the consuls, or possessed by theCaesars; and feebly aspired to deliver their faithful subjects of theWest from the usurpation of heretics and Barbarians. The execution ofthis splendid design was in some degree reserved for Justinian. Duringthe five first years of his reign, he reluctantly waged a costly andunprofitable war against the Persians; till his pride submitted tohis ambition, and he purchased at the price of four hundred and fortythousand pounds sterling, the benefit of a precarious truce, which, inthe language of both nations, was dignified with the appellation of theendless peace. The safety of the East enabled the emperor to employ hisforces against the Vandals; and the internal state of Africa affordedan honorable motive, and promised a powerful support, to the Roman arms. [1]

[Footnote 1: The complete series of the Vandal war is related byProcopius in a regular and elegant narrative, (l. I. C. 9--25, l. Ii. C. 1--13, ) and happy would be my lot, could I always tread in the footstepsof such a guide. From the entire and diligent perusal of the Greektext, I have a right to pronounce that the Latin and French versionsof Grotius and Cousin may not be implicitly trusted; yet the presidentCousin has been often praised, and Hugo Grotius was the first scholar ofa learned age. ]

According to the testament of the founder, the African kingdom hadlineally descended to Hilderic, the eldest of the Vandal princes. A milddisposition inclined the son of a tyrant, the grandson of a conqueror, to prefer the counsels of clemency and peace; and his accession wasmarked by the salutary edict, which restored two hundred bishops totheir churches, and allowed the free profession of the Athanasian creed. [2] But the Catholics accepted, with cold and transient gratitude, afavor so inadequate to their pretensions, and the virtues of Hildericoffended the prejudices of his countrymen. The Arian clergy presumed toinsinuate that he had renounced the faith, and the soldiers more loudlycomplained that he had degenerated from the courage, of his ancestors. His ambassadors were suspected of a secret and disgraceful negotiationin the Byzantine court; and his general, the Achilles, [3] as he wasnamed, of the Vandals, lost a battle against the naked and disorderlyMoors. The public discontent was exasperated by Gelimer, whoseage, descent, and military fame, gave him an apparent title to thesuccession: he assumed, with the consent of the nation, the reins ofgovernment; and his unfortunate sovereign sunk without a struggle fromthe throne to a dungeon, where he was strictly guarded with a faithfulcounsellor, and his unpopular nephew the Achilles of the Vandals. Butthe indulgence which Hilderic had shown to his Catholic subjects hadpowerfully recommended him to the favor of Justinian, who, for thebenefit of his own sect, could acknowledge the use and justice ofreligious toleration: their alliance, while the nephew of Justinremained in a private station, was cemented by the mutual exchangeof gifts and letters; and the emperor Justinian asserted the cause ofroyalty and friendship. In two successive embassies, he admonished theusurper to repent of his treason, or to abstain, at least, from anyfurther violence which might provoke the displeasure of God and of theRomans; to reverence the laws of kindred and succession, and to sufferan infirm old man peaceably to end his days, either on the throne ofCarthage or in the palace of Constantinople. The passions, or even theprudence, of Gelimer compelled him to reject these requests, which wereurged in the haughty tone of menace and command; and he justified hisambition in a language rarely spoken in the Byzantine court, by allegingthe right of a free people to remove or punish their chief magistrate, who had failed in the execution of the kingly office. 

After this fruitless expostulation, the captive monarch was morerigorously treated, his nephew was deprived of his eyes, and the cruelVandal, confident in his strength and distance, derided the vain threatsand slow preparations of the emperor of the East. Justinian resolved todeliver or revenge his friend, Gelimer to maintain his usurpation; andthe war was preceded, according to the practice of civilized nations, bythe most solemn protestations, that each party was sincerely desirous ofpeace. 

[Footnote 2: See Ruinart, Hist. Persecut. Vandal. C. Xii. P. 589. Hisbest evidence is drawn from the life of St. Fulgentius, composed byone of his disciples, transcribed in a great measure in the annals ofBaronius, and printed in several great collections, (Catalog. Bibliot. Bunavianae, tom. I. Vol. Ii. P. 1258. )]

[Footnote 3: For what quality of the mind or body? For speed, or beauty, or valor?--In what language did the Vandals read Homer?--Did he speakGerman?--The Latins had four versions, (Fabric. Tom. I. L. Ii. C. 8, p. 297:) yet, in spite of the praises of Seneca, (Consol. C. 26, ) theyappear to have been more successful in imitating than in translating theGreek poets. But the name of Achilles might be famous and popular evenamong the illiterate Barbarians. ]

The report of an African war was grateful only to the vain and idlepopulace of Constantinople, whose poverty exempted them from tribute, and whose cowardice was seldom exposed to military service. But thewiser citizens, who judged of the future by the past, revolved in theirmemory the immense loss, both of men and money, which the empire hadsustained in the expedition of Basiliscus. The troops, which, afterfive laborious campaigns, had been recalled from the Persian frontier, dreaded the sea, the climate, and the arms of an unknown enemy. Theministers of the finances computed, as far as they might compute, thedemands of an African war; the taxes which must be found and levied tosupply those insatiate demands; and the danger, lest their own lives, orat least their lucrative employments, should be made responsible for thedeficiency of the supply. Inspired by such selfish motives, (for we maynot suspect him of any zeal for the public good, ) John of Cappadociaventured to oppose in full council the inclinations of his master. Heconfessed, that a victory of such importance could not be too dearlypurchased; but he represented in a grave discourse the certaindifficulties and the uncertain event. "You undertake, " said thepraefect, "to besiege Carthage: by land, the distance is not less thanone hundred and forty days' journey; on the sea, a whole year [4] mustelapse before you can receive any intelligence from your fleet. IfAfrica should be reduced, it cannot be preserved without the additionalconquest of Sicily and Italy. Success will impose the obligations of newlabors; a single misfortune will attract the Barbarians into the heartof your exhausted empire. " Justinian felt the weight of this salutaryadvice; he was confounded by the unwonted freedom of an obsequiousservant; and the design of the war would perhaps have been relinquished, if his courage had not been revived by a voice which silenced the doubtsof profane reason. "I have seen a vision, " cried an artful or fanaticbishop of the East. "It is the will of Heaven, O emperor! that youshould not abandon your holy enterprise for the deliverance of theAfrican church. The God of battles will march before your standard, anddisperse your enemies, who are the enemies of his Son. " The emperor, might be tempted, and his counsellors were constrained, to give creditto this seasonable revelation: but they derived more rational hope fromthe revolt, which the adherents of Hilderic or Athanasius had alreadyexcited on the borders of the Vandal monarchy. Pudentius, an Africansubject, had privately signified his loyal intentions, and a smallmilitary aid restored the province of Tripoli to the obedience ofthe Romans. The government of Sardinia had been intrusted to Godas, avaliant Barbarian he suspended the payment of tribute, disclaimedhis allegiance to the usurper, and gave audience to the emissaries ofJustinian, who found him master of that fruitful island, at the head ofhis guards, and proudly invested with the ensigns of royalty. The forcesof the Vandals were diminished by discord and suspicion; the Romanarmies were animated by the spirit of Belisarius; one of those heroicnames which are familiar to every age and to every nation. 

[Footnote 4: A year--absurd exaggeration! The conquest of Africa maybe dated A. D 533, September 14. It is celebrated by Justinian in thepreface to his Institutes, which were published November 21 of the sameyear. Including the voyage and return, such a computation might be trulyapplied to our Indian empire. ]

The Africanus of new Rome was born, and perhaps educated, among theThracian peasants, [5] without any of those advantages which had formedthe virtues of the elder and younger Scipio; a noble origin, liberalstudies, and the emulation of a free state. 

The silence of a loquacious secretary may be admitted, to prove that theyouth of Belisarius could not afford any subject of praise: he served, most assuredly with valor and reputation, among the private guards ofJustinian; and when his patron became emperor, the domestic was promotedto military command. After a bold inroad into Persarmenia, in whichhis glory was shared by a colleague, and his progress was checked by anenemy, Belisarius repaired to the important station of Dara, where hefirst accepted the service of Procopius, the faithful companion, and diligent historian, of his exploits. [6] The Mirranes of Persiaadvanced, with forty thousand of her best troops, to raze thefortifications of Dara; and signified the day and the hour on which thecitizens should prepare a bath for his refreshment, after the toils ofvictory. He encountered an adversary equal to himself, by the new titleof General of the East; his superior in the science of war, but muchinferior in the number and quality of his troops, which amounted only totwenty-five thousand Romans and strangers, relaxed in their discipline, and humbled by recent disasters. As the level plain of Dara refused allshelter to stratagem and ambush, Belisarius protected his front witha deep trench, which was prolonged at first in perpendicular, and afterwards in parallel, lines, to cover the wings of cavalryadvantageously posted to command the flanks and rear of the enemy. Whenthe Roman centre was shaken, their well-timed and rapid charge decidedthe conflict: the standard of Persia fell; the immortals fled; theinfantry threw away their bucklers, and eight thousand of the vanquishedwere left on the field of battle. In the next campaign, Syria wasinvaded on the side of the desert; and Belisarius, with twenty thousandmen, hastened from Dara to the relief of the province. During thewhole summer, the designs of the enemy were baffled by his skilfuldispositions: he pressed their retreat, occupied each night their campof the preceding day, and would have secured a bloodless victory, ifhe could have resisted the impatience of his own troops. Their valiantpromise was faintly supported in the hour of battle; the right wing wasexposed by the treacherous or cowardly desertion of the Christian Arabs;the Huns, a veteran band of eight hundred warriors, were oppressed bysuperior numbers; the flight of the Isaurians was intercepted; butthe Roman infantry stood firm on the left; for Belisarius himself, dismounting from his horse, showed them that intrepid despair was theironly safety. [611] They turned their backs to the Euphrates, and theirfaces to the enemy: innumerable arrows glanced without effect from thecompact and shelving order of their bucklers; an impenetrable line ofpikes was opposed to the repeated assaults of the Persian cavalry; andafter a resistance of many hours, the remaining troops were skilfullyembarked under the shadow of the night. The Persian commander retiredwith disorder and disgrace, to answer a strict account of the lives ofso many soldiers, which he had consumed in a barren victory. But thefame of Belisarius was not sullied by a defeat, in which he alone hadsaved his army from the consequences of their own rashness: the approachof peace relieved him from the guard of the eastern frontier, andhis conduct in the sedition of Constantinople amply discharged hisobligations to the emperor. When the African war became the topic ofpopular discourse and secret deliberation, each of the Roman generalswas apprehensive, rather than ambitious, of the dangerous honor; but assoon as Justinian had declared his preference of superior merit, theirenvy was rekindled by the unanimous applause which was given to thechoice of Belisarius. The temper of the Byzantine court may encouragea suspicion, that the hero was darkly assisted by the intrigues ofhis wife, the fair and subtle Antonina, who alternately enjoyed theconfidence, and incurred the hatred, of the empress Theodora. 

The birth of Antonina was ignoble; she descended from a family ofcharioteers; and her chastity has been stained with the foulestreproach. Yet she reigned with long and absolute power over the mind ofher illustrious husband; and if Antonina disdained the merit of conjugalfidelity, she expressed a manly friendship to Belisarius, whom sheaccompanied with undaunted resolution in all the hardships and dangersof a military life. [7]

[Footnote 5: (Procop. Vandal. L. I. C. 11. ) Aleman, (Not. Ad Anecdot. P. 5, ) an Italian, could easily reject the German vanity of Giphanius andVelserus, who wished to claim the hero; but his Germania, a metropolisof Thrace, I cannot find in any civil or ecclesiastical lists of theprovinces and cities. Note *: M. Von Hammer (in a review of Lord Mahon'sLife of Belisarius in the Vienna Jahrbucher) shows that the name ofBelisarius is a Sclavonic word, Beli-tzar, the White Prince, and thatthe place of his birth was a village of Illvria, which still bears thename of Germany. --M. ]

[Footnote 6: The two first Persian campaigns of Belisarius are fairlyand copiously related by his secretary, (Persic. L. I. C. 12--18. )]

[Footnote 611: The battle was fought on Easter Sunday, April 19, notat the end of the summer. The date is supplied from John Malala by LordMabon p. 47. --M. ]

[Footnote 7: See the birth and character of Antonina, in the Anecdotes, c. L. And the notes of Alemannus, p. 3. ]

The preparations for the African war were not unworthy of the lastcontest between Rome and Carthage. The pride and flower of the armyconsisted of the guards of Belisarius, who, according to the perniciousindulgence of the times, devoted themselves, by a particular oath offidelity, to the service of their patrons. Their strength and stature, for which they had been curiously selected, the goodness of their horsesand armor, and the assiduous practice of all the exercises of war, enabled them to act whatever their courage might prompt; and theircourage was exalted by the social honor of their rank, and the personalambition of favor and fortune. Four hundred of the bravest of theHeruli marched under the banner of the faithful and active Pharas; theiruntractable valor was more highly prized than the tame submission of theGreeks and Syrians; and of such importance was it deemed to procure areenforcement of six hundred Massagetae, or Huns, that they were alluredby fraud and deceit to engage in a naval expedition. Five thousand horseand ten thousand foot were embarked at Constantinople, for the conquestof Africa; but the infantry, for the most part levied in Thrace andIsauria, yielded to the more prevailing use and reputation of thecavalry; and the Scythian bow was the weapon on which the armies of Romewere now reduced to place their principal dependence. From a laudabledesire to assert the dignity of his theme, Procopius defends thesoldiers of his own time against the morose critics, who confinedthat respectable name to the heavy-armed warriors of antiquity, andmaliciously observed, that the word archer is introduced by Homer [8]as a term of contempt. "Such contempt might perhaps be due to the nakedyouths who appeared on foot in the fields of Troy, and lurking behinda tombstone, or the shield of a friend, drew the bow-string to theirbreast, [9] and dismissed a feeble and lifeless arrow. But our archers(pursues the historian) are mounted on horses, which they manage withadmirable skill; their head and shoulders are protected by a casque orbuckler; they wear greaves of iron on their legs, and their bodies areguarded by a coat of mail. On their right side hangs a quiver, a swordon their left, and their hand is accustomed to wield a lance or javelinin closer combat. Their bows are strong and weighty; they shoot in everypossible direction, advancing, retreating, to the front, to the rear, or to either flank; and as they are taught to draw the bow-string not tothe breast, but to the right ear, firm indeed must be the armor thatcan resist the rapid violence of their shaft. " Five hundred transports, navigated by twenty thousand mariners of Egypt, Cilicia, and Ionia, werecollected in the harbor of Constantinople. The smallest of these vesselsmay be computed at thirty, the largest at five hundred, tons; and thefair average will supply an allowance, liberal, but not profuse, ofabout one hundred thousand tons, [10] for the reception of thirty-fivethousand soldiers and sailors, of five thousand horses, of arms, engines, and military stores, and of a sufficient stock of water andprovisions for a voyage, perhaps, of three months. The proud galleys, which in former ages swept the Mediterranean with so many hundred oars, had long since disappeared; and the fleet of Justinian was escorted onlyby ninety-two light brigantines, covered from the missile weapons ofthe enemy, and rowed by two thousand of the brave and robust youthof Constantinople. Twenty-two generals are named, most of whom wereafterwards distinguished in the wars of Africa and Italy: but thesupreme command, both by land and sea, was delegated to Belisariusalone, with a boundless power of acting according to his discretion, as if the emperor himself were present. The separation of the naval andmilitary professions is at once the effect and the cause of the modernimprovements in the science of navigation and maritime war. [Footnote8: See the preface of Procopius. The enemies of archery might quote thereproaches of Diomede (Iliad. Delta. 385, &c. ) and the permittere vulneraventis of Lucan, (viii. 384:) yet the Romans could not despise thearrows of the Parthians; and in the siege of Troy, Pandarus, Paris, andTeucer, pierced those haughty warriors who insulted them as women orchildren. ]

[Footnote 9: (Iliad. Delta. 123. ) How concise--how just--how beautifulis the whole picture! I see the attitudes of the archer--I hear thetwanging of the bow. ]

[Footnote 10: The text appears to allow for the largest vessels 50, 000medimni, or 3000 tons, (since the medimnus weighed 160 Roman, or 120avoirdupois, pounds. ) I have given a more rational interpretation, by supposing that the Attic style of Procopius conceals the legaland popular modius, a sixth part of the medimnus, (Hooper's AncientMeasures, p. 152, &c. ) A contrary and indeed a stranger mistake hascrept into an oration of Dinarchus, (contra Demosthenem, in ReiskeOrator. Graec tom iv. P. Ii. P. 34. ) By reducing the number of shipsfrom 500 to 50, and translating by mines, or pounds, Cousin hasgenerously allowed 500 tons for the whole of the Imperial fleet! Did henever think?]

In the seventh year of the reign of Justinian, and about the time ofthe summer solstice, the whole fleet of six hundred ships was ranged inmartial pomp before the gardens of the palace. The patriarch pronouncedhis benediction, the emperor signified his last commands, the general'strumpet gave the signal of departure, and every heart, according toits fears or wishes, explored, with anxious curiosity, the omensof misfortune and success. The first halt was made at Perinthus orHeraclea, where Belisarius waited five days to receive some Thracianhorses, a military gift of his sovereign. From thence the fleet pursuedtheir course through the midst of the Propontis; but as they struggledto pass the Straits of the Hellespont, an unfavorable wind detained themfour days at Abydus, where the general exhibited a memorable lesson offirmness and severity. Two of the Huns, who in a drunken quarrel hadslain one of their fellow-soldiers, were instantly shown to the armysuspended on a lofty gibbet. The national dignity was resented by theircountrymen, who disclaimed the servile laws of the empire, and assertedthe free privilege of Scythia, where a small fine was allowed to expiatethe hasty sallies of intemperance and anger. Their complaints werespecious, their clamors were loud, and the Romans were not averse to theexample of disorder and impunity. But the rising sedition was appeasedby the authority and eloquence of the general: and he represented tothe assembled troops the obligation of justice, the importance ofdiscipline, the rewards of piety and virtue, and the unpardonableguilt of murder, which, in his apprehension, was aggravated rather thanexcused by the vice of intoxication. [11] In the navigation from theHellespont to Peloponnesus, which the Greeks, after the siege of Troy, had performed in four days, [12] the fleet of Belisarius was guided intheir course by his master-galley, conspicuous in the day by the rednessof the sails, and in the night by the torches blazing from the masthead. It was the duty of the pilots, as they steered between theislands, and turned the Capes of Malea and Taenarium, to preserve thejust order and regular intervals of such a multitude of ships: as thewind was fair and moderate, their labors were not unsuccessful, and thetroops were safely disembarked at Methone on the Messenian coast, torepose themselves for a while after the fatigues of the sea. In thisplace they experienced how avarice, invested with authority, may sportwith the lives of thousands which are bravely exposed for the publicservice. According to military practice, the bread or biscuit of theRomans was twice prepared in the oven, and the diminution of one fourthwas cheerfully allowed for the loss of weight. To gain this miserableprofit, and to save the expense of wood, the praefect John of Cappadociahad given orders that the flour should be slightly baked by the samefire which warmed the baths of Constantinople; and when the sackswere opened, a soft and mouldy paste was distributed to the army. Suchunwholesome food, assisted by the heat of the climate and season, soonproduced an epidemical disease, which swept away five hundred soldiers. Their health was restored by the diligence of Belisarius, who providedfresh bread at Methone, and boldly expressed his just and humaneindignation the emperor heard his complaint; the general was praisedbut the minister was not punished. From the port of Methone, the pilotssteered along the western coast of Peloponnesus, as far as the Isle ofZacynthus, or Zante, before they undertook the voyage (in their eyes amost arduous voyage) of one hundred leagues over the Ionian Sea. As thefleet was surprised by a calm, sixteen days were consumed in the slownavigation; and even the general would have suffered the intolerablehardship of thirst, if the ingenuity of Antonina had not preserved thewater in glass bottles, which she buried deep in the sand in a partof the ship impervious to the rays of the sun. At length the harborof Caucana, [13] on the southern side of Sicily, afforded a secure andhospitable shelter. The Gothic officers who governed the island in thename of the daughter and grandson of Theodoric, obeyed their imprudentorders, to receive the troops of Justinian like friends and allies:provisions were liberally supplied, the cavalry was remounted, [14] andProcopius soon returned from Syracuse with correct information of thestate and designs of the Vandals. His intelligence determined Belisariusto hasten his operations, and his wise impatience was seconded by thewinds. The fleet lost sight of Sicily, passed before the Isle of Malta, discovered the capes of Africa, ran along the coast with a strong galefrom the north-east, and finally cast anchor at the promontory of CaputVada, about five days' journey to the south of Carthage. [15]

[Footnote 11: I have read of a Greek legislator, who inflicted a doublepenalty on the crimes committed in a state of intoxication; but it seemsagreed that this was rather a political than a moral law. ]

[Footnote 12: Or even in three days, since they anchored the firstevening in the neighboring isle of Tenedos: the second day they sailedto Lesbon the third to the promontory of Euboea, and on the fourth theyreached Argos, (Homer, Odyss. P. 130--183. Wood's Essay on Homer, p. 40--46. ) A pirate sailed from the Hellespont to the seaport of Sparta inthree days, (Xenophon. Hellen. L. Ii. C. L. )]

[Footnote 13: Caucana, near Camarina, is at least 50 miles (350 or 400stadia) from Syracuse, (Cluver. Sicilia Antiqua, p. 191. ) * Note *:Lord Mahon. (Life of Belisarius, p. 88) suggests some valid reasons forreading Catana, the ancient name of Catania. --M. ]

[Footnote 14: Procopius, Gothic. L. I. C. 3. Tibi tollit hinnitum aptaquadrigis equa, in the Sicilian pastures of Grosphus, (Horat. Carm. Ii. 16. ) Acragas. .. . Magnanimum quondam generator equorum, (Virg. Aeneid. Iii. 704. ) Thero's horses, whose victories are immortalized by Pindar, were bred in this country. ]

[Footnote 15: The Caput Vada of Procopius (where Justinian afterwardsfounded a city--De Edific. L. Vi. C. 6) is the promontory of Ammon inStrabo, the Brachodes of Ptolemy, the Capaudia of the moderns, a longnarrow slip that runs into the sea, (Shaw's Travels, p. 111. )]

If Gelimer had been informed of the approach of the enemy, he must havedelayed the conquest of Sardinia for the immediate defence of his personand kingdom. A detachment of five thousand soldiers, and one hundred andtwenty galleys, would have joined the remaining forces of the Vandals;and the descendant of Genseric might have surprised and oppresseda fleet of deep laden transports, incapable of action, and of lightbrigantines that seemed only qualified for flight. Belisarius hadsecretly trembled when he overheard his soldiers, in the passage, emboldening each other to confess their apprehensions: if they were onceon shore, they hoped to maintain the honor of their arms; but if theyshould be attacked at sea, they did not blush to acknowledge that theywanted courage to contend at the same time with the winds, the waves, and the Barbarians. [16] The knowledge of their sentiments decidedBelisarius to seize the first opportunity of landing them on the coastof Africa; and he prudently rejected, in a council of war, the proposalof sailing with the fleet and army into the port of Carthage. [1611]Three months after their departure from Constantinople, the men andhorses, the arms and military stores, were safely disembarked, and fivesoldiers were left as a guard on board each of the ships, which weredisposed in the form of a semicircle. The remainder of the troopsoccupied a camp on the sea-shore, which they fortified, according toancient discipline, with a ditch and rampart; and the discovery ofa source of fresh water, while it allayed the thirst, excited thesuperstitious confidence, of the Romans. The next morning, some of theneighboring gardens were pillaged; and Belisarius, after chastising theoffenders, embraced the slight occasion, but the decisive moment, ofinculcating the maxims of justice, moderation, and genuine policy. "WhenI first accepted the commission of subduing Africa, I depended muchless, " said the general, "on the numbers, or even the bravery of mytroops, than on the friendly disposition of the natives, and theirimmortal hatred to the Vandals. You alone can deprive me of this hope;if you continue to extort by rapine what might be purchased for a littlemoney, such acts of violence will reconcile these implacable enemies, and unite them in a just and holy league against the invaders of theircountry. " These exhortations were enforced by a rigid discipline, of which the soldiers themselves soon felt and praised the salutaryeffects. The inhabitants, instead of deserting their houses, or hidingtheir corn, supplied the Romans with a fair and liberal market: thecivil officers of the province continued to exercise their functions inthe name of Justinian: and the clergy, from motives of conscienceand interest, assiduously labored to promote the cause of a Catholicemperor. The small town of Sullecte, [17] one day's journey from thecamp, had the honor of being foremost to open her gates, and to resumeher ancient allegiance: the larger cities of Leptis and Adrumetumimitated the example of loyalty as soon as Belisarius appeared; and headvanced without opposition as far as Grasse, a palace of the Vandalkings, at the distance of fifty miles from Carthage. The weary Romansindulged themselves in the refreshment of shady groves, cool fountains, and delicious fruits; and the preference which Procopius allows to thesegardens over any that he had seen, either in the East or West, may beascribed either to the taste, or the fatigue, or the historian. Inthree generations, prosperity and a warm climate had dissolved thehardy virtue of the Vandals, who insensibly became the most luxuriousof mankind. In their villas and gardens, which might deserve the Persianname of Paradise, [18] they enjoyed a cool and elegant repose; and, after the daily use of the bath, the Barbarians were seated at a tableprofusely spread with the delicacies of the land and sea. Their silkenrobes loosely flowing, after the fashion of the Medes, were embroideredwith gold; love and hunting were the labors of their life, and theirvacant hours were amused by pantomimes, chariot-races, and the music anddances of the theatre. 

[Footnote 16: A centurion of Mark Antony expressed, though in a moremanly train, the same dislike to the sea and to naval combats, (Plutarchin Antonio, p. 1730, edit. Hen. Steph. )]

[Footnote 1611: Rather into the present Lake of Tunis. Lord Mahon, p. 92. --M. ]

[Footnote 17: Sullecte is perhaps the Turris Hannibalis, an oldbuilding, now as large as the Tower of London. The march of Belisariusto Leptis. Adrumetum, &c. , is illustrated by the campaign of Caesar, (Hirtius, de Bello Africano, with the Analyse of Guichardt, ) and Shaw'sTravels (p. 105--113) in the same country. ]

[Footnote 18: The paradises, a name and fashion adopted from Persia, maybe represented by the royal garden of Ispahan, (Voyage d'Olearius, p. 774. ) See, in the Greek romances, their most perfect model, (Longus. Pastoral. L. Iv. P. 99--101 Achilles Tatius. L. I. P. 22, 23. )]

In a march of ten or twelve days, the vigilance of Belisarius wasconstantly awake and active against his unseen enemies, by whom, inevery place, and at every hour, he might be suddenly attacked. Anofficer of confidence and merit, John the Armenian, led the vanguardof three hundred horse; six hundred Massagetae covered at a certaindistance the left flank; and the whole fleet, steering along the coast, seldom lost sight of the army, which moved each day about twelve miles, and lodged in the evening in strong camps, or in friendly towns. Thenear approach of the Romans to Carthage filled the mind of Gelimer withanxiety and terror. He prudently wished to protract the war till hisbrother, with his veteran troops, should return from the conquest ofSardinia; and he now lamented the rash policy of his ancestors, who, bydestroying the fortifications of Africa, had left him only the dangerousresource of risking a battle in the neighborhood of his capital. TheVandal conquerors, from their original number of fifty thousand, weremultiplied, without including their women and children, to one hundredand sixty thousand fighting men: [1811] and such forces, animated withvalor and union, might have crushed, at their first landing, the feebleand exhausted bands of the Roman general. But the friends of the captiveking were more inclined to accept the invitations, than to resistthe progress, of Belisarius; and many a proud Barbarian disguisedhis aversion to war under the more specious name of his hatred tothe usurper. Yet the authority and promises of Gelimer collected aformidable army, and his plans were concerted with some degree ofmilitary skill. An order was despatched to his brother Ammatas, tocollect all the forces of Carthage, and to encounter the van of theRoman army at the distance of ten miles from the city: his nephewGibamund, with two thousand horse, was destined to attack their left, when the monarch himself, who silently followed, should charge theirrear, in a situation which excluded them from the aid or even the viewof their fleet. But the rashness of Ammatas was fatal to himself and hiscountry. He anticipated the hour of the attack, outstripped his tardyfollowers, and was pierced with a mortal wound, after he had slain withhis own hand twelve of his boldest antagonists. His Vandals fled toCarthage; the highway, almost ten miles, was strewed with dead bodies;and it seemed incredible that such multitudes could be slaughtered bythe swords of three hundred Romans. The nephew of Gelimer was defeated, after a slight combat, by the six hundred Massagetae: they did notequal the third part of his numbers; but each Scythian was fired bythe example of his chief, who gloriously exercised the privilege of hisfamily, by riding, foremost and alone, to shoot the first arrow againstthe enemy. In the mean while, Gelimer himself, ignorant of the event, and misguided by the windings of the hills, inadvertently passed theRoman army, and reached the scene of action where Ammatas had fallen. Hewept the fate of his brother and of Carthage, charged with irresistiblefury the advancing squadrons, and might have pursued, and perhapsdecided, the victory, if he had not wasted those inestimable momentsin the discharge of a vain, though pious, duty to the dead. While hisspirit was broken by this mournful office, he heard the trumpet ofBelisarius, who, leaving Antonina and his infantry in the camp, pressedforwards with his guards and the remainder of the cavalry to rally hisflying troops, and to restore the fortune of the day. Much room couldnot be found, in this disorderly battle, for the talents of a general;but the king fled before the hero; and the Vandals, accustomed only to aMoorish enemy, were incapable of withstanding the arms and disciplineof the Romans. Gelimer retired with hasty steps towards the desert ofNumidia: but he had soon the consolation of learning that his privateorders for the execution of Hilderic and his captive friends had beenfaithfully obeyed. The tyrant's revenge was useful only to his enemies. The death of a lawful prince excited the compassion of his people; hislife might have perplexed the victorious Romans; and the lieutenant ofJustinian, by a crime of which he was innocent, was relieved fromthe painful alternative of forfeiting his honor or relinquishing hisconquests. 

[Footnote 1811: 80, 000. Hist. Arc. C. 18. Gibbon has been misled by thetranslation. See Lord ov. P. 99. --M. ]

Chapter XLI: Conquests Of Justinian, Charact Of Balisarius. --Part II. 

As soon as the tumult had subsided, the several parts of the armyinformed each other of the accidents of the day; and Belisarius pitchedhis camp on the field of victory, to which the tenth mile-stone fromCarthage had applied the Latin appellation of Decimus. From a wisesuspicion of the stratagems and resources of the Vandals, he marched thenext day in order of battle, halted in the evening before the gates ofCarthage, and allowed a night of repose, that he might not, in darknessand disorder, expose the city to the license of the soldiers, or thesoldiers themselves to the secret ambush of the city. But as the fearsof Belisarius were the result of calm and intrepid reason, he was soonsatisfied that he might confide, without danger, in the peacefuland friendly aspect of the capital. Carthage blazed with innumerabletorches, the signals of the public joy; the chain was removed thatguarded the entrance of the port; the gates were thrown open, and thepeople, with acclamations of gratitude, hailed and invited their Romandeliverers. The defeat of the Vandals, and the freedom of Africa, wereannounced to the city on the eve of St. Cyprian, when the churches werealready adorned and illuminated for the festival of the martyr whomthree centuries of superstition had almost raised to a local deity. TheArians, conscious that their reign had expired, resigned the temple tothe Catholics, who rescued their saint from profane hands, performed theholy rites, and loudly proclaimed the creed of Athanasius and Justinian. One awful hour reversed the fortunes of the contending parties. Thesuppliant Vandals, who had so lately indulged the vices of conquerors, sought an humble refuge in the sanctuary of the church; while themerchants of the East were delivered from the deepest dungeon of thepalace by their affrighted keeper, who implored the protection of hiscaptives, and showed them, through an aperture in the wall, the sailsof the Roman fleet. After their separation from the army, the navalcommanders had proceeded with slow caution along the coast till theyreached the Hermaean promontory, and obtained the first intelligence ofthe victory of Belisarius. Faithful to his instructions, they would havecast anchor about twenty miles from Carthage, if the more skilfulseamen had not represented the perils of the shore, and the signs ofan impending tempest. Still ignorant of the revolution, they declined, however, the rash attempt of forcing the chain of the port; and theadjacent harbor and suburb of Mandracium were insulted only by therapine of a private officer, who disobeyed and deserted his leaders. But the Imperial fleet, advancing with a fair wind, steered through thenarrow entrance of the Goletta, and occupied, in the deep and capaciouslake of Tunis, a secure station about five miles from the capital. [19]No sooner was Belisarius informed of their arrival, than he despatchedorders that the greatest part of the mariners should be immediatelylanded to join the triumph, and to swell the apparent numbers, ofthe Romans. Before he allowed them to enter the gates of Carthage, heexhorted them, in a discourse worthy of himself and the occasion, not todisgrace the glory of their arms; and to remember that the Vandals hadbeen the tyrants, but that they were the deliverers, of the Africans, who must now be respected as the voluntary and affectionate subjects oftheir common sovereign. The Romans marched through the streets in closeranks prepared for battle if an enemy had appeared: the strictorder maintained by the general imprinted on their minds the duty ofobedience; and in an age in which custom and impunity almost sanctifiedthe abuse of conquest, the genius of one man repressed the passions of avictorious army. The voice of menace and complaint was silent; the tradeof Carthage was not interrupted; while Africa changed her master and hergovernment, the shops continued open and busy; and the soldiers, aftersufficient guards had been posted, modestly departed to the houses whichwere allotted for their reception. Belisarius fixed his residence inthe palace; seated himself on the throne of Genseric; accepted anddistributed the Barbaric spoil; granted their lives to the suppliantVandals; and labored to repair the damage which the suburb of Mandraciumhad sustained in the preceding night. At supper he entertained hisprincipal officers with the form and magnificence of a royal banquet. [20] The victor was respectfully served by the captive officers ofthe household; and in the moments of festivity, when the impartialspectators applauded the fortune and merit of Belisarius, his enviousflatterers secretly shed their venom on every word and gesture whichmight alarm the suspicions of a jealous monarch. One day was given tothese pompous scenes, which may not be despised as useless, if theyattracted the popular veneration; but the active mind of Belisarius, which in the pride of victory could suppose a defeat, had alreadyresolved that the Roman empire in Africa should not depend on the chanceof arms, or the favor of the people. The fortifications of Carthage[2011] had alone been exempted from the general proscription; but inthe reign of ninety-five years they were suffered to decay by thethoughtless and indolent Vandals. A wiser conqueror restored, withincredible despatch, the walls and ditches of the city. His liberalityencouraged the workmen; the soldiers, the mariners, and the citizens, vied with each other in the salutary labor; and Gelimer, who had fearedto trust his person in an open town, beheld with astonishment anddespair, the rising strength of an impregnable fortress. 

[Footnote 19: The neighborhood of Carthage, the sea, the land, and therivers, are changed almost as much as the works of man. The isthmus, orneck of the city, is now confounded with the continent; the harbor is adry plain; and the lake, or stagnum, no more than a morass, with sixor seven feet water in the mid-channel. See D'Anville, (GeographieAncienne, tom. Iii. P. 82, ) Shaw, (Travels, p. 77--84, ) Marmol, (Description de l'Afrique, tom. Ii. P. 465, ) and Thuanus, (lviii. 12, tom. Iii. P. 334. )]

[Footnote 20: From Delphi, the name of Delphicum was given, bothin Greek and Latin, to a tripod; and by an easy analogy, the sameappellation was extended at Rome, Constantinople, and Carthage, to theroyal banquetting room, (Procopius, Vandal. L. I. C. 21. Ducange, Gloss, Graec. P. 277. , ad Alexiad. P. 412. )]

[Footnote 2011: And a few others. Procopius states in his work De EdiSciis. L. Vi. Vol i. P. 5. --M]

That unfortunate monarch, after the loss of his capital, applied himselfto collect the remains of an army scattered, rather than destroyed, bythe preceding battle; and the hopes of pillage attracted some Moorishbands to the standard of Gelimer. He encamped in the fields of Bulla, four days' journey from Carthage; insulted the capital, which hedeprived of the use of an aqueduct; proposed a high reward for thehead of every Roman; affected to spare the persons and property of hisAfrican subjects, and secretly negotiated with the Arian sectariesand the confederate Huns. Under these circumstances, the conquest ofSardinia served only to aggravate his distress: he reflected, with thedeepest anguish, that he had wasted, in that useless enterprise, fivethousand of his bravest troops; and he read, with grief and shame, thevictorious letters of his brother Zano, [2012] who expressed a sanguineconfidence that the king, after the example of their ancestors, hadalready chastised the rashness of the Roman invader. "Alas! my brother, "replied Gelimer, "Heaven has declared against our unhappy nation. Whileyou have subdued Sardinia, we have lost Africa. No sooner did Belisariusappear with a handful of soldiers, than courage and prosperity desertedthe cause of the Vandals. Your nephew Gibamund, your brother Ammatas, have been betrayed to death by the cowardice of their followers. Ourhorses, our ships, Carthage itself, and all Africa, are in the power ofthe enemy. Yet the Vandals still prefer an ignominious repose, at theexpense of their wives and children, their wealth and liberty. Nothingnow remains, except the fields of Bulla, and the hope of your valor. Abandon Sardinia; fly to our relief; restore our empire, or perish byour side. " On the receipt of this epistle, Zano imparted his grief tothe principal Vandals; but the intelligence was prudently concealed fromthe natives of the island. The troops embarked in one hundred andtwenty galleys at the port of Caghari, cast anchor the third day onthe confines of Mauritania, and hastily pursued their march to join theroyal standard in the camp of Bulla. Mournful was the interview: the twobrothers embraced; they wept in silence; no questions were asked of theSardinian victory; no inquiries were made of the African misfortunes:they saw before their eyes the whole extent of their calamities; andthe absence of their wives and children afforded a melancholy proof thateither death or captivity had been their lot. The languid spirit of theVandals was at length awakened and united by the entreaties of theirking, the example of Zano, and the instant danger which threatened theirmonarchy and religion. The military strength of the nation advanced tobattle; and such was the rapid increase, that before their army reachedTricameron, about twenty miles from Carthage, they might boast, perhapswith some exaggeration, that they surpassed, in a tenfold proportion, the diminutive powers of the Romans. But these powers were under thecommand of Belisarius; and, as he was conscious of their superior merit, he permitted the Barbarians to surprise him at an unseasonable hour. The Romans were instantly under arms; a rivulet covered their front; thecavalry formed the first line, which Belisarius supported in the centre, at the head of five hundred guards; the infantry, at some distance, wasposted in the second line; and the vigilance of the general watched theseparate station and ambiguous faith of the Massagetae, who secretlyreserved their aid for the conquerors. The historian has inserted, andthe reader may easily supply, the speeches [21] of the commanders, who, by arguments the most apposite to their situation, inculcated theimportance of victory, and the contempt of life. Zano, with the troopswhich had followed him to the conquest of Sardinia, was placed in thecentre; and the throne of Genseric might have stood, if the multitudeof Vandals had imitated their intrepid resolution. Casting away theirlances and missile weapons, they drew their swords, and expected thecharge: the Roman cavalry thrice passed the rivulet; they were thricerepulsed; and the conflict was firmly maintained, till Zano fell, andthe standard of Belisarius was displayed. Gelimer retreated to his camp;the Huns joined the pursuit; and the victors despoiled the bodies ofthe slain. Yet no more than fifty Romans, and eight hundred Vandals werefound on the field of battle; so inconsiderable was the carnage of aday, which extinguished a nation, and transferred the empire of Africa. In the evening Belisarius led his infantry to the attack of the camp;and the pusillanimous flight of Gelimer exposed the vanity of his recentdeclarations, that to the vanquished, death was a relief, life a burden, and infamy the only object of terror. His departure was secret; but assoon as the Vandals discovered that their king had deserted them, theyhastily dispersed, anxious only for their personal safety, and carelessof every object that is dear or valuable to mankind. The Romans enteredthe camp without resistance; and the wildest scenes of disorder wereveiled in the darkness and confusion of the night. Every Barbarian whomet their swords was inhumanly massacred; their widows and daughters, as rich heirs, or beautiful concubines, were embraced by the licentioussoldiers; and avarice itself was almost satiated with the treasures ofgold and silver, the accumulated fruits of conquest or economy in a longperiod of prosperity and peace. In this frantic search, the troops, evenof Belisarius, forgot their caution and respect. Intoxicated with lustand rapine, they explored, in small parties, or alone, the adjacentfields, the woods, the rocks, and the caverns, that might possiblyconceal any desirable prize: laden with booty, they deserted theirranks, and wandered without a guide, on the high road to Carthage; andif the flying enemies had dared to return, very few of the conquerorswould have escaped. Deeply sensible of the disgrace and danger, Belisarius passed an apprehensive night on the field of victory: at thedawn of day, he planted his standard on a hill, recalled his guardiansand veterans, and gradually restored the modesty and obedience of thecamp. It was equally the concern of the Roman general to subdue thehostile, and to save the prostrate, Barbarian; and the suppliantVandals, who could be found only in churches, were protected by hisauthority, disarmed, and separately confined, that they might neitherdisturb the public peace, nor become the victims of popular revenge. After despatching a light detachment to tread the footsteps of Gelimer, he advanced, with his whole army, about ten days' march, as far as HippoRegius, which no longer possessed the relics of St. Augustin. [22] Theseason, and the certain intelligence that the Vandal had fled to aninaccessible country of the Moors, determined Belisarius to relinquishthe vain pursuit, and to fix his winter quarters at Carthage. Fromthence he despatched his principal lieutenant, to inform the emperor, that in the space of three months he had achieved the conquest ofAfrica. 

[Footnote 2012: Gibbon had forgotten that the bearer of the "victoriousletters of his brother" had sailed into the port of Carthage; and thatthe letters had fallen into the hands of the Romans. Proc. Vandal. L. I. C. 23. --M. ]

[Footnote 21: These orations always express the sense of the times, andsometimes of the actors. I have condensed that sense, and thrown awaydeclamation. ]

[Footnote 22: The relics of St. Augustin were carried by the Africanbishops to their Sardinian exile, (A. D. 500;) and it was believed, inthe viiith century, that Liutprand, king of the Lombards, transportedthem (A. D. 721) from Sardinia to Pavia. In the year 1695, the Augustanfriars of that city found a brick arch, marble coffin, silver case, silkwrapper, bones, blood, &c. , and perhaps an inscription of Agostino inGothic letters. But this useful discovery has been disputed by reasonand jealousy, (Baronius, Annal. A. D. 725, No. 2-9. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. Tom. Xiii. P. 944. Montfaucon, Diarium Ital. P. 26-30. Muratori, Antiq. Ital. Medii Aevi, tom. V. Dissert. Lviii. P. 9, who had composeda separate treatise before the decree of the bishop of Pavia, and PopeBenedict XIII. )]

Belisarius spoke the language of truth. The surviving Vandals yielded, without resistance, their arms and their freedom; the neighborhood ofCarthage submitted to his presence; and the more distant provinces weresuccessively subdued by the report of his victory. Tripoli was confirmedin her voluntary allegiance; Sardinia and Corsica surrendered to anofficer, who carried, instead of a sword, the head of the valiant Zano;and the Isles of Majorca, Minorca, and Yvica consented to remain anhumble appendage of the African kingdom. Caesarea, a royal city, whichin looser geography may be confounded with the modern Algiers, wassituate thirty days' march to the westward of Carthage: by land, theroad was infested by the Moors; but the sea was open, and the Romanswere now masters of the sea. An active and discreet tribune sailed asfar as the Straits, where he occupied Septem or Ceuta, [23] whichrises opposite to Gibraltar on the African coast; that remote placewas afterwards adorned and fortified by Justinian; and he seems to haveindulged the vain ambition of extending his empire to the columns ofHercules. He received the messengers of victory at the time when he waspreparing to publish the Pandects of the Roman laws; and the devoutor jealous emperor celebrated the divine goodness, and confessed, insilence, the merit of his successful general. [24] Impatient to abolishthe temporal and spiritual tyranny of the Vandals, he proceeded, without delay, to the full establishment of the Catholic church. Herjurisdiction, wealth, and immunites, perhaps the most essential part ofepiscopal religion, were restored and amplified with a liberal hand;the Arian worship was suppressed; the Donatist meetings were proscribed;[25] and the synod of Carthage, by the voice of two hundred andseventeen bishops, [26] applauded the just measure of pious retaliation. On such an occasion, it may not be presumed, that many orthodox prelateswere absent; but the comparative smallness of their number, which inancient councils had been twice or even thrice multiplied, most clearlyindicates the decay both of the church and state. While Justinianapproved himself the defender of the faith, he entertained an ambitioushope, that his victorious lieutenant would speedily enlarge the narrowlimits of his dominion to the space which they occupied before theinvasion of the Moors and Vandals; and Belisarius was instructedto establish five dukes or commanders in the convenient stations ofTripoli, Leptis, Cirta, Caesarea, and Sardinia, and to compute themilitary force of palatines or borderers that might be sufficient forthe defence of Africa. The kingdom of the Vandals was not unworthyof the presence of a Praetorian praefect; and four consulars, threepresidents, were appointed to administer the seven provinces under hiscivil jurisdiction. The number of their subordinate officers, clerks, messengers, or assistants, was minutely expressed; three hundred andninety-six for the praefect himself, fifty for each of his vicegerents;and the rigid definition of their fees and salaries was more effectualto confirm the right than to prevent the abuse. These magistrates mightbe oppressive, but they were not idle; and the subtile questions ofjustice and revenue were infinitely propagated under the new government, which professed to revive the freedom and equity of the Roman republic. The conqueror was solicitous to extract a prompt and plentiful supplyfrom his African subjects; and he allowed them to claim, even in thethird degree, and from the collateral line, the houses and lands ofwhich their families had been unjustly despoiled by the Vandals. Afterthe departure of Belisarius, who acted by a high and special commission, no ordinary provision was made for a master-general of the forces; butthe office of Praetorian praefect was intrusted to a soldier; the civiland military powers were united, according to the practice of Justinian, in the chief governor; and the representative of the emperor in Africa, as well as in Italy, was soon distinguished by the appellation ofExarch. [27]

[Footnote 23: The expression of Procopius (de Edific. L. Vi. C. 7. )Ceuta, which has been defaced by the Portuguese, flourished in noblesand palaces, in agriculture and manufactures, under the more prosperousreign of the Arabs, (l'Afrique de Marmai, tom. Ii. P. 236. )]

[Footnote 24: See the second and third preambles to the Digest, orPandects, promulgated A. D. 533, December 16. To the titles of Vandalicusand Africanus, Justinian, or rather Belisarius, had acquired a justclaim; Gothicus was premature, and Francicus false, and offensive to agreat nation. ]

[Footnote 25: See the original acts in Baronius, (A. D. 535, No. 21--54. )The emperor applauds his own clemency to the heretics, cum sufficiat eisvivere. ]

[Footnote 26: Dupin (Geograph. Sacra Africana, p. Lix. Ad Optat. Milav. )observes and bewails this episcopal decay. In the more prosperous age ofthe church, he had noticed 690 bishoprics; but however minute were thedioceses, it is not probable that they all existed at the same time. ]

[Footnote 27: The African laws of Justinian are illustrated by hisGerman biographer, (Cod. L. I. Tit. 27. Novell. 36, 37, 131. Vit. Justinian, p. 349--377. )]

Yet the conquest of Africa was imperfect till her former sovereign wasdelivered, either alive or dead, into the hands of the Romans. Doubtfulof the event, Gelimer had given secret orders that a part of histreasure should be transported to Spain, where he hoped to find a securerefuge at the court of the king of the Visigoths. But these intentionswere disappointed by accident, treachery, and the indefatigable pursuitof his enemies, who intercepted his flight from the sea-shore, andchased the unfortunate monarch, with some faithful followers, to theinaccessible mountain of Papua, [28] in the inland country of Numidia. He was immediately besieged by Pharas, an officer whose truth andsobriety were the more applauded, as such qualities could seldom befound among the Heruli, the most corrupt of the Barbarian tribes. To hisvigilance Belisarius had intrusted this important charge and, after abold attempt to scale the mountain, in which he lost a hundred andten soldiers, Pharas expected, during a winter siege, the operation ofdistress and famine on the mind of the Vandal king. From the softesthabits of pleasure, from the unbounded command of industry and wealth, he was reduced to share the poverty of the Moors, [29] supportable onlyto themselves by their ignorance of a happier condition. In their rudehovels, of mud and hurdles, which confined the smoke and excluded thelight, they promiscuously slept on the ground, perhaps on a sheep-skin, with their wives, their children, and their cattle. Sordid and scantywere their garments; the use of bread and wine was unknown; and theiroaten or barley cakes, imperfectly baked in the ashes, were devouredalmost in a crude state, by the hungry savages. The health of Gelimermust have sunk under these strange and unwonted hardships, fromwhatsoever cause they had been endured; but his actual misery wasimbittered by the recollection of past greatness, the daily insolenceof his protectors, and the just apprehension, that the light andvenal Moors might be tempted to betray the rights of hospitality. Theknowledge of his situation dictated the humane and friendly epistleof Pharas. "Like yourself, " said the chief of the Heruli, "I am anilliterate Barbarian, but I speak the language of plain sense and anhonest heart. Why will you persist in hopeless obstinacy? Why willyou ruin yourself, your family, and nation? The love of freedom andabhorrence of slavery? Alas! my dearest Gelimer, are you not already theworst of slaves, the slave of the vile nation of the Moors? Would itnot be preferable to sustain at Constantinople a life of poverty andservitude, rather than to reign the undoubted monarch of the mountainof Papua? Do you think it a disgrace to be the subject of Justinian?Belisarius is his subject; and we ourselves, whose birth is not inferiorto your own, are not ashamed of our obedience to the Roman emperor. Thatgenerous prince will grant you a rich inheritance of lands, a placein the senate, and the dignity of patrician: such are his graciousintentions, and you may depend with full assurance on the word ofBelisarius. So long as Heaven has condemned us to suffer, patience is avirtue; but if we reject the proffered deliverance, it degenerates intoblind and stupid despair. " "I am not insensible" replied the king of theVandals, "how kind and rational is your advice. But I cannot persuademyself to become the slave of an unjust enemy, who has deserved myimplacable hatred. Him I had never injured either by word or deed: yethe has sent against me, I know not from whence, a certain Belisarius, who has cast me headlong from the throne into his abyss of misery. Justinian is a man; he is a prince; does he not dread for himself asimilar reverse of fortune? I can write no more: my grief oppresses me. Send me, I beseech you, my dear Pharas, send me, a lyre, [30] a sponge, and a loaf of bread. " From the Vandal messenger, Pharas was informedof the motives of this singular request. It was long since the king ofAfrica had tasted bread; a defluxion had fallen on his eyes, the effectof fatigue or incessant weeping; and he wished to solace the melancholyhours, by singing to the lyre the sad story of his own misfortunes. Thehumanity of Pharas was moved; he sent the three extraordinary gifts; buteven his humanity prompted him to redouble the vigilance of his guard, that he might sooner compel his prisoner to embrace a resolutionadvantageous to the Romans, but salutary to himself. The obstinacy ofGelimer at length yielded to reason and necessity; the solemn assurancesof safety and honorable treatment were ratified in the emperor's name, by the ambassador of Belisarius; and the king of the Vandals descendedfrom the mountain. The first public interview was in one of the suburbsof Carthage; and when the royal captive accosted his conqueror, he burstinto a fit of laughter. The crowd might naturally believe, that extremegrief had deprived Gelimer of his senses: but in this mournful state, unseasonable mirth insinuated to more intelligent observers, that thevain and transitory scenes of human greatness are unworthy of a seriousthought. [31]

[Footnote 28: Mount Papua is placed by D'Anville (tom. Iii. P. 92, andTabul. Imp. Rom. Occident. ) near Hippo Regius and the sea; yet thissituation ill agrees with the long pursuit beyond Hippo, and the wordsof Procopius, (l. Ii. C. 4, ). * Note: Compare Lord Mahon, 120. ConceiveGibbon to be right--M. ]

[Footnote 29: Shaw (Travels, p. 220) most accurately represents themanners of the Bedoweens and Kabyles, the last of whom, by theirlanguage, are the remnant of the Moors; yet how changed--how civilizedare these modern savages!--provisions are plenty among them and bread iscommon. ]

[Footnote 30: By Procopius it is styled a lyre; perhaps harp would havebeen more national. The instruments of music are thus distinguished byVenantius Fortunatus:-- Romanusque lyra tibi plaudat, Barbarus harpa. ]

[Footnote 31: Herodotus elegantly describes the strange effects of griefin another royal captive, Psammetichus of Egypt, who wept at the lesserand was silent at the greatest of his calamities, (l. Iii. C. 14. ) Inthe interview of Paulus Aemilius and Perses, Belisarius might study hispart; but it is probable that he never read either Livy or Plutarch; andit is certain that his generosity did not need a tutor. ]

Their contempt was soon justified by a new example of a vulgar truth;that flattery adheres to power, and envy to superior merit. The chiefsof the Roman army presumed to think themselves the rivals of a hero. Their private despatches maliciously affirmed, that the conqueror ofAfrica, strong in his reputation and the public love, conspired toseat himself on the throne of the Vandals. Justinian listened with toopatient an ear; and his silence was the result of jealousy rather thanof confidence. An honorable alternative, of remaining in the province, or of returning to the capital, was indeed submitted to the discretionof Belisarius; but he wisely concluded, from intercepted letters andthe knowledge of his sovereign's temper, that he must either resign hishead, erect his standard, or confound his enemies by his presenceand submission. Innocence and courage decided his choice; his guards, captives, and treasures, were diligently embarked; and so prosperous wasthe navigation, that his arrival at Constantinople preceded any certainaccount of his departure from the port of Carthage. Such unsuspectingloyalty removed the apprehensions of Justinian; envy was silenced andinflamed by the public gratitude; and the third Africanus obtained thehonors of a triumph, a ceremony which the city of Constantine had neverseen, and which ancient Rome, since the reign of Tiberius, had reservedfor the auspicious arms of the Caesars. [32] From the palace ofBelisarius, the procession was conducted through the principal streetsto the hippodrome; and this memorable day seemed to avenge the injuriesof Genseric, and to expiate the shame of the Romans. The wealth ofnations was displayed, the trophies of martial or effeminate luxury;rich armor, golden thrones, and the chariots of state which had beenused by the Vandal queen; the massy furniture of the royal banquet, thesplendor of precious stones, the elegant forms of statues and vases, themore substantial treasure of gold, and the holy vessels of the Jewishtemple, which after their long peregrination were respectfully depositedin the Christian church of Jerusalem. A long train of the noblestVandals reluctantly exposed their lofty stature and manly countenance. Gelimer slowly advanced: he was clad in a purple robe, and stillmaintained the majesty of a king. Not a tear escaped from his eyes, nota sigh was heard; but his pride or piety derived some secret consolationfrom the words of Solomon, [33] which he repeatedly pronounced, Vanity!vanity! all is vanity! Instead of ascending a triumphal car drawn byfour horses or elephants, the modest conqueror marched on foot at thehead of his brave companions; his prudence might decline an honor tooconspicuous for a subject; and his magnanimity might justly disdainwhat had been so often sullied by the vilest of tyrants. The gloriousprocession entered the gate of the hippodrome; was saluted by theacclamations of the senate and people; and halted before the thronewhere Justinian and Theodora were seated to receive homage of thecaptive monarch and the victorious hero. They both performed thecustomary adoration; and falling prostrate on the ground, respectfullytouched the footstool of a prince who had not unsheathed his sword, andof a prostitute who had danced on the theatre; some gentle violencewas used to bend the stubborn spirit of the grandson of Genseric;and however trained to servitude, the genius of Belisarius must havesecretly rebelled. He was immediately declared consul for the ensuingyear, and the day of his inauguration resembled the pomp of a secondtriumph: his curule chair was borne aloft on the shoulders of captiveVandals; and the spoils of war, gold cups, and rich girdles, wereprofusely scattered among the populace. [Footnote 32: After the title ofimperator had lost the old military sense, and the Roman auspices wereabolished by Christianity, (see La Bleterie, Mem. De l'Academie, tom. Xxi. P. 302--332, ) a triumph might be given with less inconsistency to aprivate general. ]

[Footnote 33: If the Ecclesiastes be truly a work of Solomon, and not, like Prior's poem, a pious and moral composition of more recent times, in his name, and on the subject of his repentance. The latter is theopinion of the learned and free-spirited Grotius, (Opp. Theolog. Tom. I. P. 258;) and indeed the Ecclesiastes and Proverbs display a largercompass of thought and experience than seem to belong either to a Jew ora king. * Note: Rosenmuller, arguing from the difference of style fromthat of the greater part of the book of Proverbs, and from its nearerapproximation to the Aramaic dialect than any book of the Old Testament, assigns the Ecclesiastes to some period between Nehemiah and Alexanderthe Great Schol. In Vet. Test. Ix. Proemium ad Eccles. P. 19. --M. ]

Chapter XLI: Conquests Of Justinian, Charact Of Balisarius. --Part III. 

Although Theodatus descended from a race of heroes, he was ignorant ofthe art, and averse to the dangers, of war. Although he had studied thewritings of Plato and Tully, philosophy was incapable of purifying hismind from the basest passions, avarice and fear. He had purchased asceptre by ingratitude and murder: at the first menace of an enemy, hedegraded his own majesty and that of a nation, which already disdainedtheir unworthy sovereign. Astonished by the recent example of Gelimer, he saw himself dragged in chains through the streets of Constantinople:the terrors which Belisarius inspired were heightened by the eloquenceof Peter, the Byzantine ambassador; and that bold and subtle advocatepersuaded him to sign a treaty, too ignominious to become the foundationof a lasting peace. It was stipulated, that in the acclamations of theRoman people, the name of the emperor should be always proclaimed beforethat of the Gothic king; and that as often as the statue of Theodatuswas erected in brass on marble, the divine image of Justinian should beplaced on its right hand. Instead of conferring, the king of Italy wasreduced to solicit, the honors of the senate; and the consent of theemperor was made indispensable before he could execute, against a priestor senator, the sentence either of death or confiscation. The feeblemonarch resigned the possession of Sicily; offered, as the annualmark of his dependence, a crown of gold of the weight of three hundredpounds; and promised to supply, at the requisition of his sovereign, three thousand Gothic auxiliaries, for the service of the empire. Satisfied with these extraordinary concessions, the successful agent ofJustinian hastened his journey to Constantinople; but no sooner had hereached the Alban villa, [60] than he was recalled by the anxietyof Theodatus; and the dialogue which passed between the king and theambassador deserves to be represented in its original simplicity. "Areyou of opinion that the emperor will ratify this treaty? Perhaps. If herefuses, what consequence will ensue? War. Will such a war, be justor reasonable? Most assuredly: every to his character. What is yourmeaning? You are a philosopher--Justinian is emperor of the Romans: itwould all become the disciple of Plato to shed the blood of thousandsin his private quarrel: the successor of Augustus should vindicate hisrights, and recover by arms the ancient provinces of his empire. " Thisreasoning might not convince, but it was sufficient to alarm and subduethe weakness of Theodatus; and he soon descended to his last offer, that for the poor equivalent of a pension of forty-eight thousand poundssterling, he would resign the kingdom of the Goths and Italians, andspend the remainder of his days in the innocent pleasures of philosophyand agriculture. 

Both treaties were intrusted to the hands of the ambassador, on thefrail security of an oath not to produce the second till the first hadbeen positively rejected. The event may be easily foreseen: Justinianrequired and accepted the abdication of the Gothic king. Hisindefatigable agent returned from Constantinople to Ravenna, withample instructions; and a fair epistle, which praised the wisdom andgenerosity of the royal philosopher, granted his pension, with theassurance of such honors as a subject and a Catholic might enjoy; andwisely referred the final execution of the treaty to the presence andauthority of Belisarius. But in the interval of suspense, two Romangenerals, who had entered the province of Dalmatia, were defeated andslain by the Gothic troops. From blind and abject despair, Theodatuscapriciously rose to groundless and fatal presumption, [61] and daredto receive, with menace and contempt, the ambassador of Justinian;who claimed his promise, solicited the allegiance of his subjects, andboldly asserted the inviolable privilege of his own character. The marchof Belisarius dispelled this visionary pride; and as the first campaign[62] was employed in the reduction of Sicily, the invasion of Italy isapplied by Procopius to the second year of the Gothic war. [63]

[Footnote 60: The ancient Alba was ruined in the first age of Rome. Onthe same spot, or at least in the neighborhood, successively arose. 1. The villa of Pompey, &c. ; 2. A camp of the Praetorian cohorts; 3. Themodern episcopal city of Albanum or Albano. (Procop. Goth. L. Ii. C. 4Oluver. Ital. Antiq tom. Ii. P. 914. )]

[Footnote 61: A Sibylline oracle was ready to pronounce--Africa captamunitus cum nato peribit; a sentence of portentous ambiguity, (Gothic. L. I. C. 7, ) which has been published in unknown characters byOpsopaeus, an editor of the oracles. The Pere Maltret has promised acommentary; but all his promises have been vain and fruitless. ]

[Footnote 62: In his chronology, imitated, in some degree, fromThucydides, Procopius begins each spring the years of Justinian and ofthe Gothic war; and his first aera coincides with the first of April, 535, and not 536, according to the Annals of Baronius, (Pagi, Crit. Tom. Ii. P. 555, who is followed by Muratori and the editors of Sigonius. )Yet, in some passages, we are at a loss to reconcile the dates ofProcopius with himself, and with the Chronicle of Marcellinus. ]

[Footnote 63: The series of the first Gothic war is represented byProcopius (l. I. C. 5--29, l. Ii. C. L--30, l. Iii. C. L) till thecaptivity of Vitigas. With the aid of Sigonius (Opp. Tom. I. De Imp. Occident. L. Xvii. Xviii. ) and Muratori, (Annali d'Itaia, tom. V. , ) Ihave gleaned some few additional facts. ]

After Belisarius had left sufficient garrisons in Palermo and Syracuse, he embarked his troops at Messina, and landed them, without resistance, on the opposite shores of Rhegium. A Gothic prince, who had married thedaughter of Theodatus, was stationed with an army to guard the entranceof Italy; but he imitated, without scruple, the example of a sovereignfaithless to his public and private duties. The perfidious Ebermordeserted with his followers to the Roman camp, and was dismissed toenjoy the servile honors of the Byzantine court. [64] From Rhegium toNaples, the fleet and army of Belisarius, almost always in view of eachother, advanced near three hundred miles along the sea-coast. The peopleof Bruttium, Lucania, and Campania, who abhorred the name and religionof the Goths, embraced the specious excuse, that their ruined wallswere incapable of defence: the soldiers paid a just equivalent fora plentiful market; and curiosity alone interrupted the peacefuloccupations of the husbandman or artificer. Naples, which has swelled toa great and populous capital, long cherished the language and mannersof a Grecian colony; [65] and the choice of Virgil had ennobled thiselegant retreat, which attracted the lovers of repose and study, elegantretreat, which attracted the lovers of repose and study, from the noise, the smoke, and the laborious opulence of Rome. [66] As soon as the placewas invested by sea and land, Belisarius gave audience to the deputiesof the people, who exhorted him to disregard a conquest unworthy ofhis arms, to seek the Gothic king in a field of battle, and, afterhis victory, to claim, as the sovereign of Rome, the allegiance of thedependent cities. "When I treat with my enemies, " replied the Romanchief, with a haughty smile, "I am more accustomed to give than toreceive counsel; but I hold in one hand inevitable ruin, and in theother peace and freedom, such as Sicily now enjoys. " The impatience ofdelay urged him to grant the most liberal terms; his honor secured theirperformance: but Naples was divided into two factions; and the Greekdemocracy was inflamed by their orators, who, with much spirit and sometruth, represented to the multitude that the Goths would punish theirdefection, and that Belisarius himself must esteem their loyalty andvalor. Their deliberations, however, were not perfectly free: the citywas commanded by eight hundred Barbarians, whose wives and children weredetained at Ravenna as the pledge of their fidelity; and even the Jews, who were rich and numerous, resisted, with desperate enthusiasm, theintolerant laws of Justinian. In a much later period, the circumferenceof Naples [67] measured only two thousand three hundred and sixty threepaces: [68] the fortifications were defended by precipices or the sea;when the aqueducts were intercepted, a supply of water might be drawnfrom wells and fountains; and the stock of provisions was sufficient toconsume the patience of the besiegers. At the end of twenty days, thatof Belisarius was almost exhausted, and he had reconciled himself to thedisgrace of abandoning the siege, that he might march, before the winterseason, against Rome and the Gothic king. But his anxiety was relievedby the bold curiosity of an Isaurian, who explored the dry channel of anaqueduct, and secretly reported, that a passage might be perforated tointroduce a file of armed soldiers into the heart of the city. When thework had been silently executed, the humane general risked the discoveryof his secret by a last and fruitless admonition of the impendingdanger. In the darkness of the night, four hundred Romans enteredthe aqueduct, raised themselves by a rope, which they fastened to anolive-tree, into the house or garden of a solitary matron, soundedtheir trumpets, surprised the sentinels, and gave admittance to theircompanions, who on all sides scaled the walls, and burst open thegates of the city. Every crime which is punished by social justice waspractised as the rights of war; the Huns were distinguished by crueltyand sacrilege, and Belisarius alone appeared in the streets and churchesof Naples to moderate the calamities which he predicted. "The gold andsilver, " he repeatedly exclaimed, "are the just rewards of your valor. But spare the inhabitants; they are Christians, they are suppliants, they are now your fellow-subjects. Restore the children to theirparents, the wives to their husbands; and show them by you, generosityof what friends they have obstinately deprived themselves. " The city wassaved by the virtue and authority of its conqueror; [69] and when theNeapolitans returned to their houses, they found some consolation inthe secret enjoyment of their hidden treasures. The Barbarian garrisonenlisted in the service of the emperor; Apulia and Calabria, deliveredfrom the odious presence of the Goths, acknowledged his dominion; andthe tusks of the Calydonian boar, which were still shown at Beneventum, are curiously described by the historian of Belisarius. [70]

[Footnote 64: Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 60, p. 702, edit. Grot. , and tom. I. P. 221. Muratori, de Success, Regn. P. 241. ]

[Footnote 65: Nero (says Tacitus, Annal. Xv. 35) Neapolim quasi Graecamurbem delegit. One hundred and fifty years afterwards, in the timeof Septimius Severus, the Hellenism of the Neapolitans is praised byPhilostratus. (Icon. L. I. P. 763, edit. Olear. )]

[Footnote 66: The otium of Naples is praised by the Roman poets, byVirgil, Horace, Silius Italicus, and Statius, (Cluver. Ital. Ant. L. Iv. P. 1149, 1150. ) In an elegant epistles, (Sylv. L. Iii. 5, p. 94--98, edit. Markland, ) Statius undertakes the difficult task of drawing hiswife from the pleasures of Rome to that calm retreat. ]

[Footnote 67: This measure was taken by Roger l. , after the conquestof Naples, (A. D. 1139, ) which he made the capital of his new kingdom, (Giannone, Istoria Civile, tom. Ii. P. 169. ) That city, the third inChristian Europe, is now at least twelve miles in circumference, (Jul. Caesar. Capaccii Hist. Neapol. L. I. P. 47, ) and contains moreinhabitants (350, 000) in a given space, than any other spot in the knownworld. ]

[Footnote 68: Not geometrical, but common, paces or steps, of 22 Frenchinches, (D' Anville, Mesures Itineraires, p. 7, 8. ) The 2363 do not takean English mile. ]

[Footnote 69: Belisarius was reproved by Pope Silverius for themassacre. He repeopled Naples, and imported colonies of African captivesinto Sicily, Calabria, and Apulia, (Hist. Miscell. L. Xvi. In Muratori, tom. I. P. 106, 107. )]

[Footnote 70: Beneventum was built by Diomede, the nephew of Meleager(Cluver. Tom. Ii. P. 1195, 1196. ) The Calydonian hunt is a picture ofsavage life, (Ovid, Metamorph. L. Viii. ) Thirty or forty heroes wereleagued against a hog: the brutes (not the hog) quarrelled with lady forthe head. ]

The faithful soldiers and citizens of Naples had expected theirdeliverance from a prince, who remained the inactive and almostindifferent spectator of their ruin. Theodatus secured his person withinthe walls of Rome, whilst his cavalry advanced forty miles on the Appianway, and encamped in the Pomptine marshes; which, by a canal of nineteenmiles in length, had been recently drained and converted into excellentpastures. [71] But the principal forces of the Goths were dispersedin Dalmatia, Venetia, and Gaul; and the feeble mind of their king wasconfounded by the unsuccessful event of a divination, which seemed topresage the downfall of his empire. [72] The most abject slaves havearraigned the guilt or weakness of an unfortunate master. The characterof Theodatus was rigorously scrutinized by a free and idle camp ofBarbarians, conscious of their privilege and power: he was declaredunworthy of his race, his nation, and his throne; and their generalVitiges, whose valor had been signalized in the Illyrian war, was raisedwith unanimous applause on the bucklers of his companions. On the firstrumor, the abdicated monarch fled from the justice of his country; buthe was pursued by private revenge. A Goth, whom he had injured in hislove, overtook Theodatus on the Flaminian way, and, regardless of hisunmanly cries, slaughtered him, as he lay, prostrate on the ground, likea victim (says the historian) at the foot of the altar. The choice ofthe people is the best and purest title to reign over them; yet such isthe prejudice of every age, that Vitiges impatiently wished to return toRavenna, where he might seize, with the reluctant hand of the daughterof Amalasontha, some faint shadow of hereditary right. A nationalcouncil was immediately held, and the new monarch reconciled theimpatient spirit of the Barbarians to a measure of disgrace, which themisconduct of his predecessor rendered wise and indispensable. The Gothsconsented to retreat in the presence of a victorious enemy; to delaytill the next spring the operations of offensive war; to summon theirscattered forces; to relinquish their distant possessions, and to trusteven Rome itself to the faith of its inhabitants. Leuderis, an ancientwarrior, was left in the capital with four thousand soldiers; a feeblegarrison, which might have seconded the zeal, though it was incapableof opposing the wishes, of the Romans. But a momentary enthusiasm ofreligion and patriotism was kindled in their minds. They furiouslyexclaimed, that the apostolic throne should no longer be profaned by thetriumph or toleration of Arianism; that the tombs of the Caesarsshould no longer be trampled by the savages of the North; and, withoutreflecting, that Italy must sink into a province of Constantinople, they fondly hailed the restoration of a Roman emperor as a new aeraof freedom and prosperity. The deputies of the pope and clergy, of thesenate and people, invited the lieutenant of Justinian to accept theirvoluntary allegiance, and to enter the city, whose gates would be thrownopen for his reception. As soon as Belisarius had fortified his newconquests, Naples and Cumae, he advanced about twenty miles to the banksof the Vulturnus, contemplated the decayed grandeur of Capua, and haltedat the separation of the Latin and Appian ways. The work of the censor, after the incessant use of nine centuries, still preserved its primaevalbeauty, and not a flaw could be discovered in the large polished stones, of which that solid, though narrow road, was so firmly compacted. [73]Belisarius, however, preferred the Latin way, which, at a distance fromthe sea and the marshes, skirted in a space of one hundred and twentymiles along the foot of the mountains. His enemies had disappeared: whenhe made his entrance through the Asinarian gate, the garrison departedwithout molestation along the Flaminian way; and the city, aftersixty years' servitude, was delivered from the yoke of the Barbarians. Leuderis alone, from a motive of pride or discontent, refused toaccompany the fugitives; and the Gothic chief, himself a trophy of thevictory, was sent with the keys of Rome to the throne of the emperorJustinian. [74]

[Footnote 71: The Decennovium is strangely confounded by Cluverius (tom. Ii. P. 1007) with the River Ufens. It was in truth a canal of nineteenmiles, from Forum Appii to Terracina, on which Horace embarked in thenight. The Decennovium, which is mentioned by Lucan, Dion Cassius, andCassiodorus, has been sufficiently ruined, restored, and obliterated, (D'Anville, Anayse de l'Italie, p. 185, &c. )]

[Footnote 72: A Jew, gratified his contempt and hatred for allthe Christians, by enclosing three bands, each of ten hogs, anddiscriminated by the names of Goths, Greeks, and Romans. Of the first, almost all were found dead; almost all the second were alive: of thethird, half died, and the rest lost their bristles. No unsuitable emblemof the event]

[Footnote 73: Bergier (Hist. Des Grands Chemins des Romains, tom. I. P. 221-228, 440-444) examines the structure and materials, while D'Anville(Analyse d'Italie, p. 200--123) defines the geographical line. ]

[Footnote 74: Of the first recovery of Rome, the year (536) iscertain, from the series of events, rather than from the corrupt, orinterpolated, text of Procopius. The month (December) is ascertained byEvagrius, (l. Iv. V. 19;) and the day (the tenth) may be admitted onthe slight evidence of Nicephorus Callistus, (l. Xvii. C. 13. ) For thisaccurate chronology, we are indebted to the diligence and judgmentof Pagi, (tom, ii. P. 659, 560. ) Note: Compare Maltret's note, in theedition of Dindorf the ninth is the day, according to his reading, --M. ]

The first days, which coincided with the old Saturnalia, were devoted tomutual congratulation and the public joy; and the Catholics prepared tocelebrate, without a rival, the approaching festival of the nativity ofChrist. In the familiar conversation of a hero, the Romans acquired somenotion of the virtues which history ascribed to their ancestors; theywere edified by the apparent respect of Belisarius for the successorof St. Peter, and his rigid discipline secured in the midst of war theblessings of tranquillity and justice. They applauded the rapid successof his arms, which overran the adjacent country, as far as Narni, Perusia, and Spoleto; but they trembled, the senate, the clergy, and theunwarlike people, as soon as they understood that he had resolved, andwould speedily be reduced, to sustain a siege against the powers of theGothic monarchy. The designs of Vitiges were executed, during the winterseason, with diligence and effect. From their rustic habitations, fromtheir distant garrisons, the Goths assembled at Ravenna for the defenceof their country; and such were their numbers, that, after an army hadbeen detached for the relief of Dalmatia, one hundred and fifty thousandfighting men marched under the royal standard. According to the degreesof rank or merit, the Gothic king distributed arms and horses, richgifts, and liberal promises; he moved along the Flaminian way, declinedthe useless sieges of Perusia and Spoleto, respected he impregnablerock of Narni, and arrived within two miles of Rome at the foot ofthe Milvian bridge. The narrow passage was fortified with a tower, andBelisarius had computed the value of the twenty days which must be lostin the construction of another bridge. But the consternation of thesoldiers of the tower, who either fled or deserted, disappointed hishopes, and betrayed his person into the most imminent danger. At thehead of one thousand horse, the Roman general sallied from the Flaminiangate to mark the ground of an advantageous position, and to survey thecamp of the Barbarians; but while he still believed them on the otherside of the Tyber, he was suddenly encompassed and assaulted by theirnumerous squadrons. The fate of Italy depended on his life; and thedeserters pointed to the conspicuous horse a bay, [75] with a whiteface, which he rode on that memorable day. "Aim at the bay horse, "was the universal cry. Every bow was bent, every javelin was directed, against that fatal object, and the command was repeated and obeyed bythousands who were ignorant of its real motive. The bolder Barbariansadvanced to the more honorable combat of swords and spears; and thepraise of an enemy has graced the fall of Visandus, the standard-bearer, [76] who maintained his foremost station, till he was pierced withthirteen wounds, perhaps by the hand of Belisarius himself. The Romangeneral was strong, active, and dexterous; on every side he dischargedhis weighty and mortal strokes: his faithful guards imitated his valor, and defended his person; and the Goths, after the loss of a thousandmen, fled before the arms of a hero. They were rashly pursued to theircamp; and the Romans, oppressed by multitudes, made a gradual, and atlength a precipitate retreat to the gates of the city: the gates wereshut against the fugitives; and the public terror was increased, by thereport that Belisarius was slain. His countenance was indeed disfiguredby sweat, dust, and blood; his voice was hoarse, his strength was almostexhausted; but his unconquerable spirit still remained; he imparted thatspirit to his desponding companions; and their last desperate charge wasfelt by the flying Barbarians, as if a new army, vigorous and entire, had been poured from the city. The Flaminian gate was thrown open to areal triumph; but it was not before Belisarius had visited every post, and provided for the public safety, that he could be persuaded, by hiswife and friends, to taste the needful refreshments of food and sleep. In the more improved state of the art of war, a general is seldomrequired, or even permitted to display the personal prowess of asoldier; and the example of Belisarius may be added to the rare examplesof Henry IV. , of Pyrrhus, and of Alexander. 

[Footnote 75: A horse of a bay or red color was styled by the Greeks, balan by the Barbarians, and spadix by the Romans. Honesti spadices, says Virgil, (Georgic. L. Iii. 72, with the Observations of Martin andHeyne. ) It signifies a branch of the palm-tree, whose name is synonymousto red, (Aulus Gellius, ii. 26. )]

[Footnote 76: I interpret it, not as a proper, name, but an office, standard-bearer, from bandum, (vexillum, ) a Barbaric word adopted bythe Greeks and Romans, (Paul Diacon. L. I. C. 20, p. 760. Grot. NominaHethica, p. 575. Ducange, Gloss. Latin. Tom. I. P. 539, 540. )]

After this first and unsuccessful trial of their enemies, the whole armyof the Goths passed the Tyber, and formed the siege of the city, whichcontinued above a year, till their final departure. Whatever fancy mayconceive, the severe compass of the geographer defines the circumferenceof Rome within a line of twelve miles and three hundred and forty-fivepaces; and that circumference, except in the Vatican, has invariablybeen the same from the triumph of Aurelian to the peaceful but obscurereign of the modern popes. [77] But in the day of her greatness, thespace within her walls was crowded with habitations and inhabitants; andthe populous suburbs, that stretched along the public roads, were dartedlike so many rays from one common centre. Adversity swept away theseextraneous ornaments, and left naked and desolate a considerable parteven of the seven hills. Yet Rome in its present state could send intothe field about thirty thousand males of a military age; [78] and, notwithstanding the want of discipline and exercise, the far greaterpart, inured to the hardships of poverty, might be capable of bearingarms for the defence of their country and religion. The prudence ofBelisarius did not neglect this important resource. His soldiers wererelieved by the zeal and diligence of the people, who watched while theyslept, and labored while they reposed: he accepted the voluntary serviceof the bravest and most indigent of the Roman youth; and the companiesof townsmen sometimes represented, in a vacant post, the presence of thetroops which had been drawn away to more essential duties. But his justconfidence was placed in the veterans who had fought under his banner inthe Persian and African wars; and although that gallant band was reducedto five thousand men, he undertook, with such contemptible numbers, to defend a circle of twelve miles, against an army of one hundredand fifty thousand Barbarians. In the walls of Rome, which Belisariusconstructed or restored, the materials of ancient architecture may bediscerned; [79] and the whole fortification was completed, except in achasm still extant between the Pincian and Flaminian gates, which theprejudices of the Goths and Romans left under the effectual guard of St. Peter the apostle. [80]

[Footnote 77: M. D'Anville has given, in the Memoirs of the Academyfor the year 1756, (tom. Xxx. P. 198--236, ) a plan of Rome on a smallerscale, but far more accurate than that which he had delineated in 1738for Rollin's history. Experience had improved his knowledge and insteadof Rossi's topography, he used the new and excellent map of Nolli. Pliny's old measure of thirteen must be reduced to eight miles. Itis easier to alter a text, than to remove hills or buildings. * Note:Compare Gibbon, ch. Xi. Note 43, and xxxi. 67, and ch. Lxxi. "It isquite clear, " observes Sir J. Hobhouse, "that all these measurementsdiffer, (in the first and second it is 21, in the text 12 and 345 paces, in the last 10, ) yet it is equally clear that the historian avers thatthey are all the same. " The present extent, 12 3/4 nearly agrees withthe second statement of Gibbon. Sir. J. Hobhouse also observes that thewalls were enlarged by Constantine; but there can be no doubt that thecircuit has been much changed. Illust. Of Ch. Harold, p. 180. --M. ]

[Footnote 78: In the year 1709, Labat (Voyages en Italie, tom. Iii. P. 218) reckoned 138, 568 Christian souls, besides 8000 or 10, 000Jews--without souls? In the year 1763, the numbers exceeded 160, 000. ]

[Footnote 79: The accurate eye of Nardini (Roma Antica, l. I. C. Viii. P. 31) could distinguish the tumultuarie opere di Belisario. ]

[Footnote 80: The fissure and leaning in the upper part of the wall, which Procopius observed, (Goth. L. I. C. 13, ) is visible to the presenthour, (Douat. Roma Vetus, l. I. C. 17, p. 53, 54. )]

The battlements or bastions were shaped in sharp angles a ditch, broadand deep, protected the foot of the rampart; and the archers on therampart were assisted by military engines; the balistri, a powerfulcross-bow, which darted short but massy arrows; the onagri, or wildasses, which, on the principle of a sling, threw stones and bullets ofan enormous size. [81] A chain was drawn across the Tyber; the arches ofthe aqueducts were made impervious, and the mole or sepulchre of Hadrian[82] was converted, for the first time, to the uses of a citadel. Thatvenerable structure, which contained the ashes of the Antonines, was acircular turret rising from a quadrangular basis; it was covered withthe white marble of Paros, and decorated by the statues of gods andheroes; and the lover of the arts must read with a sigh, that the worksof Praxiteles or Lysippus were torn from their lofty pedestals, andhurled into the ditch on the heads of the besiegers. [83] To each of hislieutenants Belisarius assigned the defence of a gate, with the wise andperemptory instruction, that, whatever might be the alarm, they shouldsteadily adhere to their respective posts, and trust their general forthe safety of Rome. The formidable host of the Goths was insufficient toembrace the ample measure of the city, of the fourteen gates, seven onlywere invested from the Proenestine to the Flaminian way; and Vitigesdivided his troops into six camps, each of which was fortified with aditch and rampart. On the Tuscan side of the river, a seventh encampmentwas formed in the field or circus of the Vatican, for the importantpurpose of commanding the Milvian bridge and the course of the Tyber;but they approached with devotion the adjacent church of St. Peter; andthe threshold of the holy apostles was respected during the siege by aChristian enemy. In the ages of victory, as often as the senate decreedsome distant conquest, the consul denounced hostilities, by unbarring, in solemn pomp, the gates of the temple of Janus. [84] Domestic war nowrendered the admonition superfluous, and the ceremony was superseded bythe establishment of a new religion. But the brazen temple of Janus wasleft standing in the forum; of a size sufficient only to contain thestatue of the god, five cubits in height, of a human form, but with twofaces directed to the east and west. The double gates were likewiseof brass; and a fruitless effort to turn them on their rusty hingesrevealed the scandalous secret that some Romans were still attached tothe superstition of their ancestors. 

[Footnote 81: Lipsius (Opp. Tom. Iii. Poliorcet, l. Iii. ) was ignorantof this clear and conspicuous passage of Procopius, (Goth. L. I. C. 21. )The engine was named the wild ass, a calcitrando, (Hen. Steph. Thesaur. Linguae Graec. Tom. Ii. P. 1340, 1341, tom. Iii. P. 877. ) I have seenan ingenious model, contrived and executed by General Melville, whichimitates or surpasses the art of antiquity. ]

[Footnote 82: The description of this mausoleum, or mole, in Procopius, (l. I. C. 25. ) is the first and best. The height above the walls. OnNolli's great plan, the sides measure 260 English feet. * Note: Donatusand Nardini suppose that Hadrian's tomb was fortified by Honorius;it was united to the wall by men of old, (Procop in loc. ) Gibbon hasmistaken the breadth for the height above the walls Hobhouse, Illust. OfChilde Harold, p. 302. --M. ]

[Footnote 83: Praxiteles excelled in Fauns, and that of Athens was hisown masterpiece. Rome now contains about thirty of the same character. When the ditch of St. Angelo was cleansed under Urban VIII. , the workmenfound the sleeping Faun of the Barberini palace; but a leg, a thigh, andthe right arm, had been broken from that beautiful statue, (Winkelman, Hist. De l'Art, tom. Ii. P. 52, 53, tom iii. P. 265. )]

[Footnote 84: Procopius has given the best description of the temple ofJanus a national deity of Latium, (Heyne, Excurs. V. Ad l. Vii. Aeneid. )It was once a gate in the primitive city of Romulus and Numa, (Nardini, p. 13, 256, 329. ) Virgil has described the ancient rite like a poetand an antiquarian. ] Eighteen days were employed by the besiegers, toprovide all the instruments of attack which antiquity had invented. Fascines were prepared to fill the ditches, scaling-ladders to ascendthe walls. The largest trees of the forest supplied the timbers of fourbattering-rams: their heads were armed with iron; they were suspended byropes, and each of them was worked by the labor of fifty men. Thelofty wooden turrets moved on wheels or rollers, and formed a spaciousplatform of the level of the rampart. On the morning of the nineteenthday, a general attack was made from the Praenestine gate to the Vatican:seven Gothic columns, with their military engines, advanced to theassault; and the Romans, who lined the ramparts, listened with doubt andanxiety to the cheerful assurances of their commander. As soon as theenemy approached the ditch, Belisarius himself drew the first arrow; andsuch was his strength and dexterity, that he transfixed the foremost ofthe Barbarian leaders. 

As shout of applause and victory was reechoed along the wall. He drew asecond arrow, and the stroke was followed with the same success and thesame acclamation. The Roman general then gave the word, that the archersshould aim at the teams of oxen; they were instantly covered with mortalwounds; the towers which they drew remained useless and immovable, anda single moment disconcerted the laborious projects of the king of theGoths. After this disappointment, Vitiges still continued, or feignedto continue, the assault of the Salarian gate, that he might divert theattention of his adversary, while his principal forces more strenuouslyattacked the Praenestine gate and the sepulchre of Hadrian, at thedistance of three miles from each other. Near the former, the doublewalls of the Vivarium [85] were low or broken; the fortifications of thelatter were feebly guarded: the vigor of the Goths was excited by thehope of victory and spoil; and if a single post had given way, theRomans, and Rome itself, were irrecoverably lost. This perilous day wasthe most glorious in the life of Belisarius. Amidst tumult and dismay, the whole plan of the attack and defence was distinctly present to hismind; he observed the changes of each instant, weighed every possibleadvantage, transported his person to the scenes of danger, andcommunicated his spirit in calm and decisive orders. The contest wasfiercely maintained from the morning to the evening; the Goths wererepulsed on all sides; and each Roman might boast that he had vanquishedthirty Barbarians, if the strange disproportion of numbers werenot counterbalanced by the merit of one man. Thirty thousand Goths, according to the confession of their own chiefs, perished in this bloodyaction; and the multitude of the wounded was equal to that of the slain. When they advanced to the assault, their close disorder suffered not ajavelin to fall without effect; and as they retired, the populace of thecity joined the pursuit, and slaughtered, with impunity, the backs oftheir flying enemies. Belisarius instantly sallied from the gates; andwhile the soldiers chanted his name and victory, the hostile engines ofwar were reduced to ashes. Such was the loss and consternation of theGoths, that, from this day, the siege of Rome degenerated into a tediousand indolent blockade; and they were incessantly harassed by the Romangeneral, who, in frequent skirmishes, destroyed above five thousand oftheir bravest troops. Their cavalry was unpractised in the use of thebow; their archers served on foot; and this divided force was incapableof contending with their adversaries, whose lances and arrows, at adistance, or at hand, were alike formidable. The consummate skill ofBelisarius embraced the favorable opportunities; and as he chose theground and the moment, as he pressed the charge or sounded the retreat, [86] the squadrons which he detached were seldom unsuccessful. Thesepartial advantages diffused an impatient ardor among the soldiers andpeople, who began to feel the hardships of a siege, and to disregard thedangers of a general engagement. Each plebeian conceived himself to bea hero, and the infantry, who, since the decay of discipline, wererejected from the line of battle, aspired to the ancient honors of theRoman legion. Belisarius praised the spirit of his troops, condemnedtheir presumption, yielded to their clamors, and prepared the remediesof a defeat, the possibility of which he alone had courage to suspect. In the quarter of the Vatican, the Romans prevailed; and if theirreparable moments had not been wasted in the pillage of the camp, theymight have occupied the Milvian bridge, and charged in the rear of theGothic host. On the other side of the Tyber, Belisarius advanced fromthe Pincian and Salarian gates. But his army, four thousand soldiersperhaps, was lost in a spacious plain; they were encompassed andoppressed by fresh multitudes, who continually relieved the broken ranksof the Barbarians. The valiant leaders of the infantry were unskilledto conquer; they died: the retreat (a hasty retreat) was covered by theprudence of the general, and the victors started back with affright fromthe formidable aspect of an armed rampart. The reputation of Belisariuswas unsullied by a defeat; and the vain confidence of the Goths was notless serviceable to his designs than the repentance and modesty of theRoman troops. 

[Footnote 85: Vivarium was an angle in the new wall enclosed for wildbeasts, (Procopius, Goth. L. I. C. 23. ) The spot is still visible inNardini (l iv. C. 2, p. 159, 160, ) and Nolli's great plan of Rome. ]

[Footnote 86: For the Roman trumpet, and its various notes, consultLipsius de Militia Romana, (Opp. Tom. Iii. L. Iv. Dialog. X. P. 125-129. ) A mode of distinguishing the charge by the horse-trumpet ofsolid brass, and the retreat by the foot-trumpet of leather and lightwood, was recommended by Procopius, and adopted by Belisarius. ]

Chapter XLI: Conquests Of Justinian, Charact Of Balisarius. --Part IV. 

From the moment that Belisarius had determined to sustain a siege, hisassiduous care provided Rome against the danger of famine, more dreadfulthan the Gothic arms. An extraordinary supply of corn was imported fromSicily: the harvests of Campania and Tuscany were forcibly swept for theuse of the city; and the rights of private property were infringed bythe strong plea of the public safety. It might easily be foreseenthat the enemy would intercept the aqueducts; and the cessation of thewater-mills was the first inconvenience, which was speedily removedby mooring large vessels, and fixing mill-stones in the current ofthe river. The stream was soon embarrassed by the trunks of trees, andpolluted with dead bodies; yet so effectual were the precautions ofthe Roman general, that the waters of the Tyber still continued togive motion to the mills and drink to the inhabitants: the more distantquarters were supplied from domestic wells; and a besieged city mightsupport, without impatience, the privation of her public baths. A largeportion of Rome, from the Praenestine gate to the church of St. Paul, was never invested by the Goths; their excursions were restrained bythe activity of the Moorish troops: the navigation of the Tyber, and theLatin, Appian, and Ostian ways, were left free and unmolested for theintroduction of corn and cattle, or the retreat of the inhabitants, whosought refuge in Campania or Sicily. Anxious to relieve himself from auseless and devouring multitude, Belisarius issued his peremptoryorders for the instant departure of the women, the children, and slaves;required his soldiers to dismiss their male and female attendants, andregulated their allowance that one moiety should be given in provisions, and the other in money. His foresight was justified by the increase ofthe public distress, as soon as the Goths had occupied two importantposts in the neighborhood of Rome. By the loss of the port, or, as itis now called, the city of Porto, he was deprived of the country onthe right of the Tyber, and the best communication with the sea; and hereflected, with grief and anger, that three hundred men, could he havespared such a feeble band, might have defended its impregnable works. Seven miles from the capital, between the Appian and the Latin ways, twoprincipal aqueducts crossing, and again crossing each other: enclosedwithin their solid and lofty arches a fortified space, [87] whereVitiges established a camp of seven thousand Goths to intercept theconvoy of Sicily and Campania. The granaries of Rome were insensiblyexhausted, the adjacent country had been wasted with fire and sword;such scanty supplies as might yet be obtained by hasty excursions werethe reward of valor, and the purchase of wealth: the forage of thehorses, and the bread of the soldiers, never failed: but in thelast months of the siege, the people were exposed to the miseries ofscarcity, unwholesome food, [88] and contagious disorders. Belisariussaw and pitied their sufferings; but he had foreseen, and he watched thedecay of their loyalty, and the progress of their discontent. Adversityhad awakened the Romans from the dreams of grandeur and freedom, andtaught them the humiliating lesson, that it was of small moment to theirreal happiness, whether the name of their master was derived from theGothic or the Latin language. The lieutenant of Justinian listened totheir just complaints, but he rejected with disdain the idea of flightor capitulation; repressed their clamorous impatience for battle; amusedthem with the prospect of a sure and speedy relief; and secured himselfand the city from the effects of their despair or treachery. Twice ineach month he changed the station of the officers to whom the custodyof the gates was committed: the various precautions of patroles, watchwords, lights, and music, were repeatedly employed to discover whateverpassed on the ramparts; out-guards were posted beyond the ditch, and thetrusty vigilance of dogs supplied the more doubtful fidelity of mankind. A letter was intercepted, which assured the king of the Goths that theAsinarian gate, adjoining to the Lateran church, should be secretlyopened to his troops. On the proof or suspicion of treason, severalsenators were banished, and the pope Sylverius was summoned to attendthe representative of his sovereign, at his head-quarters in the Pincianpalace. [89] The ecclesiastics, who followed their bishop, were detainedin the first or second apartment, [90] and he alone was admitted to thepresence of Belisarius. The conqueror of Rome and Carthage was modestlyseated at the feet of Antonina, who reclined on a stately couch: thegeneral was silent, but the voice of reproach and menace issued fromthe mouth of his imperious wife. Accused by credible witnesses, andthe evidence of his own subscription, the successor of St. Peter wasdespoiled of his pontifical ornaments, clad in the mean habit of a monk, and embarked, without delay, for a distant exile in the East. [9011] Atthe emperor's command, the clergy of Rome proceeded to the choice of anew bishop; and after a solemn invocation of the Holy Ghost, elected thedeacon Vigilius, who had purchased the papal throne by a bribe of twohundred pounds of gold. The profit, and consequently the guilt, of thissimony, was imputed to Belisarius: but the hero obeyed the orders of hiswife; Antonina served the passions of the empress; and Theodora lavishedher treasures, in the vain hope of obtaining a pontiff hostile orindifferent to the council of Chalcedon. [91]

[Footnote 87: Procopius (Goth. L. Ii. C. 3) has forgot to name theseaqueducts nor can such a double intersection, at such a distance fromRome, be clearly ascertained from the writings of Frontinus, Fabretti, and Eschinard, de Aquis and de Agro Romano, or from the local maps ofLameti and Cingolani. Seven or eight miles from the city, (50 stadia, )on the road to Albano, between the Latin and Appian ways, I discern theremains of an aqueduct, (probably the Septimian, ) a series (630 paces)of arches twenty-five feet high. ]

[Footnote 88: They made sausages of mule's flesh; unwholesome, if theanimals had died of the plague. Otherwise, the famous Bologna sausagesare said to be made of ass flesh, (Voyages de Labat, tom. Ii. P. 218. )]

[Footnote 89: The name of the palace, the hill, and the adjoining gate, were all derived from the senator Pincius. Some recent vestiges oftemples and churches are now smoothed in the garden of the Minims ofthe Trinita del Monte, (Nardini, l. Iv. C. 7, p. 196. Eschinard, p. 209, 210, the old plan of Buffalino, and the great plan of Nolli. ) Belisariushad fixed his station between the Pincian and Salarian gates, (Procop. Goth. L. I. C. 15. )]

[Footnote 90: From the mention of the primum et secundum velum, itshould seem that Belisarius, even in a siege, represented the emperor, and maintained the proud ceremonial of the Byzantine palace. ]

[Footnote 9011: De Beau, as a good Catholic, makes the Pope the victimof a dark intrigue. Lord Mahon, (p. 225. ) with whom I concur, summed upagainst him. --M. ]

[Footnote 91: Of this act of sacrilege, Procopius (Goth. L. I. C. 25) isa dry and reluctant witness. The narratives of Liberatus (Breviarium, c. 22) and Anastasius (de Vit. Pont. P. 39) are characteristic, butpassionate. Hear the execrations of Cardinal Baronius, (A. D. 536, No. 123 A. D. 538, No. 4--20:) portentum, facinus omni execratione dignum. ]

The epistle of Belisarius to the emperor announced his victory, hisdanger, and his resolution. "According to your commands, we have enteredthe dominions of the Goths, and reduced to your obedience Sicily, Campania, and the city of Rome; but the loss of these conquests will bemore disgraceful than their acquisition was glorious. Hitherto we havesuccessfully fought against the multitudes of the Barbarians, but theirmultitudes may finally prevail. Victory is the gift of Providence, but the reputation of kings and generals depends on the success or thefailure of their designs. Permit me to speak with freedom: if you wishthat we should live, send us subsistence; if you desire that we shouldconquer, send us arms, horses, and men. The Romans have received us asfriends and deliverers: but in our present distress, they will beeither betrayed by their confidence, or we shall be oppressed bytheir treachery and hatred. For myself, my life is consecrated to yourservice: it is yours to reflect, whether my death in this situationwill contribute to the glory and prosperity of your reign. " Perhaps thatreign would have been equally prosperous if the peaceful master ofthe East had abstained from the conquest of Africa and Italy: but asJustinian was ambitious of fame, he made some efforts (they werefeeble and languid) to support and rescue his victorious general. Areenforcement of sixteen hundred Sclavonians and Huns was led by Martinand Valerian; and as they reposed during the winter season in theharbors of Greece, the strength of the men and horses was not impairedby the fatigues of a sea-voyage; and they distinguished their valorin the first sally against the besiegers. About the time of the summersolstice, Euthalius landed at Terracina with large sums of money for thepayment of the troops: he cautiously proceeded along the Appian way, andthis convoy entered Rome through the gate Capena, [92] while Belisarius, on the other side, diverted the attention of the Goths by a vigorous andsuccessful skirmish. These seasonable aids, the use and reputationof which were dexterously managed by the Roman general, revivedthe courage, or at least the hopes, of the soldiers and people. Thehistorian Procopius was despatched with an important commission tocollect the troops and provisions which Campania could furnish, orConstantinople had sent; and the secretary of Belisarius was soonfollowed by Antonina herself, [93] who boldly traversed the posts ofthe enemy, and returned with the Oriental succors to the relief of herhusband and the besieged city. A fleet of three thousand Isaurians castanchor in the Bay of Naples and afterwards at Ostia. Above two thousandhorse, of whom a part were Thracians, landed at Tarentum; and, afterthe junction of five hundred soldiers of Campania, and a train of wagonsladen with wine and flour, they directed their march on the Appian way, from Capua to the neighborhood of Rome. The forces that arrived byland and sea were united at the mouth of the Tyber. Antonina conveneda council of war: it was resolved to surmount, with sails and oars, the adverse stream of the river; and the Goths were apprehensive ofdisturbing, by any rash hostilities, the negotiation to which Belisariushad craftily listened. They credulously believed that they saw no morethan the vanguard of a fleet and army, which already covered the IonianSea and the plains of Campania; and the illusion was supported by thehaughty language of the Roman general, when he gave audience to theambassadors of Vitiges. After a specious discourse to vindicate thejustice of his cause, they declared, that, for the sake of peace, theywere disposed to renounce the possession of Sicily. "The emperor is notless generous, " replied his lieutenant, with a disdainful smile, "inreturn for a gift which you no longer possess: he presents you with anancient province of the empire; he resigns to the Goths the sovereigntyof the British island. " Belisarius rejected with equal firmness andcontempt the offer of a tribute; but he allowed the Gothic ambassadorsto seek their fate from the mouth of Justinian himself; and consented, with seeming reluctance, to a truce of three months, from the wintersolstice to the equinox of spring. Prudence might not safely trusteither the oaths or hostages of the Barbarians, and the conscioussuperiority of the Roman chief was expressed in the distribution of histroops. As soon as fear or hunger compelled the Goths to evacuateAlba, Porto, and Centumcellae, their place was instantly supplied; thegarrisons of Narni, Spoleto, and Perusia, were reenforced, and the sevencamps of the besiegers were gradually encompassed with the calamities ofa siege. The prayers and pilgrimage of Datius, bishop of Milan, were notwithout effect; and he obtained one thousand Thracians and Isaurians, toassist the revolt of Liguria against her Arian tyrant. At the same time, John the Sanguinary, [94] the nephew of Vitalian, was detached with twothousand chosen horse, first to Alba, on the Fucine Lake, and afterwardsto the frontiers of Picenum, on the Hadriatic Sea. "In the province, "said Belisarius, "the Goths have deposited their families and treasures, without a guard or the suspicion of danger. Doubtless they will violatethe truce: let them feel your presence, before they hear of yourmotions. Spare the Italians; suffer not any fortified places to remainhostile in your rear; and faithfully reserve the spoil for an equal andcommon partition. It would not be reasonable, " he added with a laugh, "that whilst we are toiling to the destruction of the drones, our morefortunate brethren should rifle and enjoy the honey. "

[Footnote 92: The old Capena was removed by Aurelian to, or near, themodern gate of St. Sebastian, (see Nolli's plan. ) That memorable spothas been consecrated by the Egerian grove, the memory of Numa two umphalarches, the sepulchres of the Scipios, Metelli, &c. ]

[Footnote 93: The expression of Procopius has an invidious cast, (Goth. L. Ii. C. 4. ) Yet he is speaking of a woman. ]

[Footnote 94: Anastasius (p. 40) has preserved this epithet ofSanguinarius which might do honor to a tiger. ]

The whole nation of the Ostrogoths had been assembled for the attack, and was almost entirely consumed in the siege of Rome. If any credit bedue to an intelligent spectator, one third at least of their enormoushost was destroyed, in frequent and bloody combats under the walls ofthe city. The bad fame and pernicious qualities of the summer air mightalready be imputed to the decay of agriculture and population; andthe evils of famine and pestilence were aggravated by their ownlicentiousness, and the unfriendly disposition of the country. WhileVitiges struggled with his fortune, while he hesitated between shame andruin, his retreat was hastened by domestic alarms. The king of the Gothswas informed by trembling messengers, that John the Sanguinary spreadthe devastations of war from the Apennine to the Hadriatic; that therich spoils and innumerable captives of Picenum were lodged in thefortifications of Rimini; and that this formidable chief had defeatedhis uncle, insulted his capital, and seduced, by secret correspondence, the fidelity of his wife, the imperious daughter of Amalasontha. Yet, before he retired, Vitiges made a last effort, either to storm orto surprise the city. A secret passage was discovered in one of theaqueducts; two citizens of the Vatican were tempted by bribes tointoxicate the guards of the Aurelian gate; an attack was meditatedon the walls beyond the Tyber, in a place which was not fortified withtowers; and the Barbarians advanced, with torches and scaling-ladders, to the assault of the Pincian gate. But every attempt was defeated bythe intrepid vigilance of Belisarius and his band of veterans, who, in the most perilous moments, did not regret the absence of theircompanions; and the Goths, alike destitute of hope and subsistence, clamorously urged their departure before the truce should expire, andthe Roman cavalry should again be united. One year and nine days afterthe commencement of the siege, an army, so lately strong and triumphant, burnt their tents, and tumultuously repassed the Milvian bridge. Theyrepassed not with impunity: their thronging multitudes, oppressed in anarrow passage, were driven headlong into the Tyber, by their own fearsand the pursuit of the enemy; and the Roman general, sallying from thePincian gate, inflicted a severe and disgraceful wound on their retreat. The slow length of a sickly and desponding host was heavily draggedalong the Flaminian way; from whence the Barbarians were sometimescompelled to deviate, lest they should encounter the hostile garrisonsthat guarded the high road to Rimini and Ravenna. Yet so powerful wasthis flying army, that Vitiges spared ten thousand men for the defenceof the cities which he was most solicitous to preserve, and detachedhis nephew Uraias, with an adequate force, for the chastisement ofrebellious Milan. At the head of his principal army, he besieged Rimini, only thirty-three miles distant from the Gothic capital. A feeblerampart, and a shallow ditch, were maintained by the skill and valor ofJohn the Sanguinary, who shared the danger and fatigue of the meanestsoldier, and emulated, on a theatre less illustrious, the militaryvirtues of his great commander. The towers and battering-engines of theBarbarians were rendered useless; their attacks were repulsed; and thetedious blockade, which reduced the garrison to the last extremity ofhunger, afforded time for the union and march of the Roman forces. A fleet, which had surprised Ancona, sailed along the coast of theHadriatic, to the relief of the besieged city. The eunuch Narses landedin Picenum with two thousand Heruli and five thousand of the bravesttroops of the East. The rock of the Apennine was forced; ten thousandveterans moved round the foot of the mountains, under the commandof Belisarius himself; and a new army, whose encampment blazed withinnumerable lights, appeared to advance along the Flaminian way. Overwhelmed with astonishment and despair, the Goths abandoned the siegeof Rimini, their tents, their standards, and their leaders; and Vitiges, who gave or followed the example of flight, never halted till he found ashelter within the walls and morasses of Ravenna. To these walls, and tosome fortresses destitute of any mutual support, the Gothic monarchywas now reduced. The provinces of Italy had embraced the party ofthe emperor and his army, gradually recruited to the number of twentythousand men, must have achieved an easy and rapid conquest, if theirinvincible powers had not been weakened by the discord of the Romanchiefs. Before the end of the siege, an act of blood, ambiguous andindiscreet, sullied the fair fame of Belisarius. Presidius, a loyalItalian, as he fled from Ravenna to Rome, was rudely stopped byConstantine, the military governor of Spoleto, and despoiled, even in achurch, of two daggers richly inlaid with gold and precious stones. Assoon as the public danger had subsided, Presidius complained of the lossand injury: his complaint was heard, but the order of restitution wasdisobeyed by the pride and avarice of the offender. Exasperated bythe delay, Presidius boldly arrested the general's horse as he passedthrough the forum; and, with the spirit of a citizen, demanded thecommon benefit of the Roman laws. The honor of Belisarius was engaged;he summoned a council; claimed the obedience of his subordinate officer;and was provoked, by an insolent reply, to call hastily for the presenceof his guards. Constantine, viewing their entrance as the signal ofdeath, drew his sword, and rushed on the general, who nimbly eluded thestroke, and was protected by his friends; while the desperate assassinwas disarmed, dragged into a neighboring chamber, and executed, orrather murdered, by the guards, at the arbitrary command of Belisarius. [95] In this hasty act of violence, the guilt of Constantine was nolonger remembered; the despair and death of that valiant officer weresecretly imputed to the revenge of Antonina; and each of his colleagues, conscious of the same rapine, was apprehensive of the same fate. The fear of a common enemy suspended the effects of their envyand discontent; but in the confidence of approaching victory, theyinstigated a powerful rival to oppose the conqueror of Rome and Africa. From the domestic service of the palace, and the administration of theprivate revenue, Narses the eunuch was suddenly exalted to the head ofan army; and the spirit of a hero, who afterwards equalled the merit andglory of Belisarius, served only to perplex the operations of the Gothicwar. To his prudent counsels, the relief of Rimini was ascribed by theleaders of the discontented faction, who exhorted Narses to assume anindependent and separate command. The epistle of Justinian had indeedenjoined his obedience to the general; but the dangerous exception, "asfar as may be advantageous to the public service, " reserved some freedomof judgment to the discreet favorite, who had so lately departed fromthe sacred and familiar conversation of his sovereign. In the exerciseof this doubtful right, the eunuch perpetually dissented from theopinions of Belisarius; and, after yielding with reluctance to the siegeof Urbino, he deserted his colleague in the night, and marched away tothe conquest of the Aemilian province. The fierce and formidable bandsof the Heruli were attached to the person of Narses; [96] ten thousandRomans and confederates were persuaded to march under his banners; everymalecontent embraced the fair opportunity of revenging his private orimaginary wrongs; and the remaining troops of Belisarius were dividedand dispersed from the garrisons of Sicily to the shores of theHadriatic. His skill and perseverance overcame every obstacle: Urbinowas taken, the sieges of Faesulae Orvieto, and Auximum, were undertakenand vigorously prosecuted; and the eunuch Narses was at length recalledto the domestic cares of the palace. All dissensions were healed, andall opposition was subdued, by the temperate authority of the Romangeneral, to whom his enemies could not refuse their esteem; andBelisarius inculcated the salutary lesson that the forces of thestate should compose one body, and be animated by one soul. But in theinterval of discord, the Goths were permitted to breathe; an importantseason was lost, Milan was destroyed, and the northern provinces ofItaly were afflicted by an inundation of the Franks. 

[Footnote 95: This transaction is related in the public history (Goth. L. Ii. C. 8) with candor or caution; in the Anecdotes (c. 7) withmalevolence or freedom; but Marcellinus, or rather his continuator, (inChron. , ) casts a shade of premeditated assassination over the death ofConstantine. He had performed good service at Rome and Spoleto, (Procop. Goth l. I. C. 7, 14;) but Alemannus confounds him with a Constantianuscomes stabuli. ]

[Footnote 96: They refused to serve after his departure; sold theircaptives and cattle to the Goths; and swore never to fight against them. Procopius introduces a curious digression on the manners and adventuresof this wandering nation, a part of whom finally emigrated to Thule orScandinavia. (Goth. L. Ii. C. 14, 15. )]

When Justinian first meditated the conquest of Italy, he sentambassadors to the kings of the Franks, and adjured them, by the commonties of alliance and religion, to join in the holy enterprise againstthe Arians. The Goths, as their want were more urgent, employed a moreeffectual mode of persuasion, and vainly strove, by the gift of landsand money, to purchase the friendship, or at least the neutrality, ofa light and perfidious nation. [97] But the arms of Belisarius, and therevolt of the Italians, had no sooner shaken the Gothic monarchy, than Theodebert of Austrasia, the most powerful and warlike of theMerovingian kings, was persuaded to succor their distress by an indirectand seasonable aid. Without expecting the consent of their sovereign, the thousand Burgundians, his recent subjects, descended from the Alps, and joined the troops which Vitiges had sent to chastise the revolt ofMilan. After an obstinate siege, the capital of Liguria was reducedby famine; but no capitulation could be obtained, except for the saferetreat of the Roman garrison. Datius, the orthodox bishop, who hadseduced his countrymen to rebellion [98] and ruin, escaped to the luxuryand honors of the Byzantine court; [99] but the clergy, perhaps theArian clergy, were slaughtered at the foot of their own altars by thedefenders of the Catholic faith. Three hundred thousand males werereported to be slain; [100] the female sex, and the more precious spoil, was resigned to the Burgundians; and the houses, or at least the walls, of Milan, were levelled with the ground. The Goths, in their lastmoments, were revenged by the destruction of a city, second only to Romein size and opulence, in the splendor of its buildings, or the numberof its inhabitants; and Belisarius sympathized alone in the fate ofhis deserted and devoted friends. Encouraged by this successful inroad, Theodebert himself, in the ensuing spring, invaded the plains of Italywith an army of one hundred thousand Barbarians. [101] The king, andsome chosen followers, were mounted on horseback, and armed with lances;the infantry, without bows or spears, were satisfied with a shield, asword, and a double-edged battle-axe, which, in their hands, became adeadly and unerring weapon. Italy trembled at the march of the Franks;and both the Gothic prince and the Roman general, alike ignorant oftheir designs, solicited, with hope and terror, the friendship of thesedangerous allies. Till he had secured the passage of the Po on thebridge of Pavia, the grandson of Clovis dissembled his intentions, whichhe at length declared, by assaulting, almost at the same instant, thehostile camps of the Romans and Goths. Instead of uniting their arms, they fled with equal precipitation; and the fertile, though desolateprovinces of Liguria and Aemilia, were abandoned to a licentious host ofBarbarians, whose rage was not mitigated by any thoughts of settlementor conquest. Among the cities which they ruined, Genoa, not yetconstructed of marble, is particularly enumerated; and the deaths ofthousands, according to the regular practice of war, appear to haveexcited less horror than some idolatrous sacrifices of women andchildren, which were performed with impunity in the camp of the mostChristian king. If it were not a melancholy truth, that the first andmost cruel sufferings must be the lot of the innocent and helpless, history might exult in the misery of the conquerors, who, in the midstof riches, were left destitute of bread or wine, reduced to drink thewaters of the Po, and to feed on the flesh of distempered cattle. Thedysentery swept away one third of their army; and the clamors of hissubjects, who were impatient to pass the Alps, disposed Theodebert tolisten with respect to the mild exhortations of Belisarius. The memoryof this inglorious and destructive warfare was perpetuated on the medalsof Gaul; and Justinian, without unsheathing his sword, assumed the titleof conqueror of the Franks. The Merovingian prince was offended by thevanity of the emperor; he affected to pity the fallen fortunes of theGoths; and his insidious offer of a federal union was fortified bythe promise or menace of descending from the Alps at the head of fivehundred thousand men. His plans of conquest were boundless, and perhapschimerical. The king of Austrasia threatened to chastise Justinian, andto march to the gates of Constantinople: [102] he was overthrown andslain [103] by a wild bull, [104] as he hunted in the Belgic or Germanforests. [Footnote 97: This national reproach of perfidy (Procop. Goth. L. Ii. C. 25) offends the ear of La Mothe le Vayer, (tom. Viii. P. 163--165, ) who criticizes, as if he had not read, the Greek historian. ]

[Footnote 98: Baronius applauds his treason, and justifies the Catholicbishops--qui ne sub heretico principe degant omnem lapidem movent--auseful caution. The more rational Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. V. P. 54) hints at the guilt of perjury, and blames at least the imprudence ofDatius. ]

[Footnote 99: St. Datius was more successful against devils than againstBarbarians. He travelled with a numerons retinue, and occupied atCorinth a large house. (Baronius, A. D. 538, No. 89, A. D. 539, No. 20. )]

[Footnote 100: (Compare Procopius, Goth. L. Ii. C. 7, 21. ) Yet suchpopulation is incredible; and the second or third city of Italy need notrepine if we only decimate the numbers of the present text Both Milanand Genoa revived in less than thirty years, (Paul Diacon de GestisLangobard. L. Ii. C. 38. ) Note: Procopius says distinctly that Milan wasthe second city of the West. Which did Gibbon suppose could compete withit, Ravenna or Naples; the next page he calls it the second. --M. ]

[Footnote 101: Besides Procopius, perhaps too Roman, see the Chroniclesof Marius and Marcellinus, Jornandes, (in Success. Regn. In Muratori, tom. I. P. 241, ) and Gregory of Tours, (l. Iii. C. 32, in tom. Ii. Ofthe Historians of France. ) Gregory supposes a defeat of Belisarius, who, in Aimoin, (de Gestis Franc. L. Ii. C. 23, in tom. Iii. P. 59, ) is slainby the Franks. ]

[Footnote 102: Agathias, l. I. P. 14, 15. Could he have seduced orsubdued the Gepidae or Lombards of Pannonia, the Greek historian isconfident that he must have been destroyed in Thrace. ]

[Footnote 103: The king pointed his spear--the bull overturned a treeon his head--he expired the same day. Such is the story of Agathias;but the original historians of France (tom. Ii. P. 202, 403, 558, 667)impute his death to a fever. ]

[Footnote 104: Without losing myself in a labyrinth of species andnames--the aurochs, urus, bisons, bubalus, bonasus, buffalo, &c. , (Buffon. Hist. Nat. Tom. Xi. , and Supplement, tom. Iii. Vi. , ) it iscertain, that in the sixth century a large wild species of horned cattlewas hunted in the great forests of the Vosges in Lorraine, and theArdennes, (Greg. Turon. Tom. Ii. L. X. C. 10, p. 369. )]

Chapter XLI: Conquests Of Justinian, Charact Of Balisarius. --Part V. 

As soon as Belisarius was delivered from his foreign and domesticenemies, he seriously applied his forces to the final reduction ofItaly. In the siege of Osimo, the general was nearly transpierced withan arrow, if the mortal stroke had not been intercepted by one of hisguards, who lost, in that pious office, the use of his hand. The Gothsof Osimo, [1041] four thousand warriors, with those of Faesulae and theCottian Alps, were among the last who maintained their independence; andtheir gallant resistance, which almost tired the patience, deserved theesteem, of the conqueror. His prudence refused to subscribe the safeconduct which they asked, to join their brethren of Ravenna; but theysaved, by an honorable capitulation, one moiety at least of theirwealth, with the free alternative of retiring peaceably to theirestates, or enlisting to serve the emperor in his Persian wars. Themultitudes which yet adhered to the standard of Vitiges far surpassedthe number of the Roman troops; but neither prayers nor defiance, northe extreme danger of his most faithful subjects, could tempt the Gothicking beyond the fortifications of Ravenna. These fortifications were, indeed, impregnable to the assaults of art or violence; and whenBelisarius invested the capital, he was soon convinced that famine onlycould tame the stubborn spirit of the Barbarians. The sea, the land, and the channels of the Po, were guarded by the vigilance of the Romangeneral; and his morality extended the rights of war to the practice ofpoisoning the waters, [105] and secretly firing the granaries [106] ofa besieged city. [107] While he pressed the blockade of Ravenna, he wassurprised by the arrival of two ambassadors from Constantinople, witha treaty of peace, which Justinian had imprudently signed, withoutdeigning to consult the author of his victory. By this disgraceful andprecarious agreement, Italy and the Gothic treasure were divided, and the provinces beyond the Po were left with the regal title to thesuccessor of Theodoric. The ambassadors were eager to accomplish theirsalutary commission; the captive Vitiges accepted, with transport, theunexpected offer of a crown; honor was less prevalent among the Goths, than the want and appetite of food; and the Roman chiefs, who murmuredat the continuance of the war, professed implicit submission to thecommands of the emperor. If Belisarius had possessed only the courageof a soldier, the laurel would have been snatched from his hand by timidand envious counsels; but in this decisive moment, he resolved, withthe magnanimity of a statesman, to sustain alone the danger and merit ofgenerous disobedience. Each of his officers gave a written opinion thatthe siege of Ravenna was impracticable and hopeless: the general thenrejected the treaty of partition, and declared his own resolution ofleading Vitiges in chains to the feet of Justinian. The Goths retiredwith doubt and dismay: this peremptory refusal deprived them of the onlysignature which they could trust, and filled their minds with a justapprehension, that a sagacious enemy had discovered the full extent oftheir deplorable state. They compared the fame and fortune of Belisariuswith the weakness of their ill-fated king; and the comparison suggestedan extraordinary project, to which Vitiges, with apparent resignation, was compelled to acquiesce. Partition would ruin the strength, exilewould disgrace the honor, of the nation; but they offered their arms, their treasures, and the fortifications of Ravenna, if Belisarius woulddisclaim the authority of a master, accept the choice of the Goths, andassume, as he had deserved, the kingdom of Italy. If the false lustreof a diadem could have tempted the loyalty of a faithful subject, hisprudence must have foreseen the inconstancy of the Barbarians, and hisrational ambition would prefer the safe and honorable station of aRoman general. Even the patience and seeming satisfaction with which heentertained a proposal of treason, might be susceptible of a malignantinterpretation. But the lieutenant of Justinian was conscious of his ownrectitude; he entered into a dark and crooked path, as it might leadto the voluntary submission of the Goths; and his dexterous policypersuaded them that he was disposed to comply with their wishes, withoutengaging an oath or a promise for the performance of a treaty which hesecretly abhorred. The day of the surrender of Ravenna was stipulatedby the Gothic ambassadors: a fleet, laden with provisions, sailed asa welcome guest into the deepest recess of the harbor: the gates wereopened to the fancied king of Italy; and Belisarius, without meeting anenemy, triumphantly marched through the streets of an impregnable city. [108] The Romans were astonished by their success; the multitudes oftall and robust Barbarians were confounded by the image of their ownpatience and the masculine females, spitting in the faces of their sonsand husbands, most bitterly reproached them for betraying their dominionand freedom to these pygmies of the south, contemptible in theirnumbers, diminutive in their stature. Before the Goths could recoverfrom the first surprise, and claim the accomplishment of their doubtfulhopes, the victor established his power in Ravenna, beyond the danger ofrepentance and revolt. 

[Footnote 1041: Auximum, p. 175. --M. ]

[Footnote 105: In the siege of Auximum, he first labored to demolishan old aqueduct, and then cast into the stream, 1. Dead bodies; 2. Mischievous herbs; and 3. Quicklime. (says Procopius, l. Ii. C. 27) Yetboth words are used as synonymous in Galen, Dioscorides, and Lucian, (Hen. Steph. Thesaur. Ling. Graec. Tom. Iii. P. 748. )]

[Footnote 106: The Goths suspected Mathasuintha as an accomplice in themischief, which perhaps was occasioned by accidental lightning. ]

[Footnote 107: In strict philosophy, a limitation of the rights of warseems to imply nonsense and contradiction. Grotius himself is lost inan idle distinction between the jus naturae and the jus gentium, betweenpoison and infection. He balances in one scale the passages of Homer(Odyss. A 259, &c. ) and Florus, (l. Ii. C. 20, No. 7, ult. ;) and in theother, the examples of Solon (Pausanias, l. X. C. 37) and Belisarius. See his great work De Jure Belli et Pacis, (l. Iii. C. 4, s. 15, 16, 17, and in Barbeyrac's version, tom. Ii. P. 257, &c. ) Yet I can understandthe benefit and validity of an agreement, tacit or express, mutually toabstain from certain modes of hostility. See the Amphictyonic oath inAeschines, de falsa Legatione. ]

[Footnote 108: Ravenna was taken, not in the year 540, but in the latterend of 539; and Pagi (tom. Ii. P. 569) is rectified by Muratori. (Annalid'Italia, tom. V. P. 62, ) who proves from an original act on papyrus, (Antiquit. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. Ii. Dissert. Xxxii. P. 999--1007, )Maffei, (Istoria Diplomat. P. 155-160, ) that before the third ofJanuary, 540, peace and free correspondence were restored betweenRavenna and Faenza. ] Vitiges, who perhaps had attempted to escape, washonorably guarded in his palace; [109] the flower of the Gothic youthwas selected for the service of the emperor; the remainder of the peoplewas dismissed to their peaceful habitations in the southern provinces;and a colony of Italians was invited to replenish the depopulated city. The submission of the capital was imitated in the towns and villages ofItaly, which had not been subdued, or even visited, by the Romans; andthe independent Goths, who remained in arms at Pavia and Verona, wereambitious only to become the subjects of Belisarius. But his inflexibleloyalty rejected, except as the substitute of Justinian, their oaths ofallegiance; and he was not offended by the reproach of their deputies, that he rather chose to be a slave than a king. 

[Footnote 109: He was seized by John the Sanguinary, but an oath orsacrament was pledged for his safety in the Basilica Julii, (Hist. Miscell. L. Xvii. In Muratori, tom. I. P. 107. ) Anastasius (in Vit. Pont. P. 40) gives a dark but probable account. Montfaucon is quoted byMascou (Hist. Of the Germans, xii. 21) for a votive shield representingthe captivity of Vitiges and now in the collection of Signor Landi atRome. ]

After the second victory of Belisarius, envy again whispered, Justinianlistened, and the hero was recalled. "The remnant of the Gothic war wasno longer worthy of his presence: a gracious sovereign was impatient toreward his services, and to consult his wisdom; and he alone wascapable of defending the East against the innumerable armies of Persia. "Belisarius understood the suspicion, accepted the excuse, embarked atRavenna his spoils and trophies; and proved, by his ready obedience, that such an abrupt removal from the government of Italy was not lessunjust than it might have been indiscreet. The emperor received withhonorable courtesy both Vitiges and his more noble consort; and as theking of the Goths conformed to the Athanasian faith, he obtained, witha rich inheritance of land in Asia, the rank of senator and patrician. [110] Every spectator admired, without peril, the strength and statureof the young Barbarians: they adored the majesty of the throne, andpromised to shed their blood in the service of their benefactor. Justinian deposited in the Byzantine palace the treasures of the Gothicmonarchy. A flattering senate was sometime admitted to gaze on themagnificent spectacle; but it was enviously secluded from the publicview: and the conqueror of Italy renounced, without a murmur, perhapswithout a sigh, the well-earned honors of a second triumph. His glorywas indeed exalted above all external pomp; and the faint and hollowpraises of the court were supplied, even in a servile age, by therespect and admiration of his country. Whenever he appeared in thestreets and public places of Constantinople, Belisarius attractedand satisfied the eyes of the people. His lofty stature and majesticcountenance fulfilled their expectations of a hero; the meanest of hisfellow-citizens were emboldened by his gentle and gracious demeanor;and the martial train which attended his footsteps left his person moreaccessible than in a day of battle. Seven thousand horsemen, matchlessfor beauty and valor, were maintained in the service, and at the privateexpense, of the general. [111] Their prowess was always conspicuous insingle combats, or in the foremost ranks; and both parties confessedthat in the siege of Rome, the guards of Belisarius had alone vanquishedthe Barbarian host. Their numbers were continually augmented by thebravest and most faithful of the enemy; and his fortunate captives, the Vandals, the Moors, and the Goths, emulated the attachment of hisdomestic followers. By the union of liberality and justice, he acquiredthe love of the soldiers, without alienating the affections of thepeople. The sick and wounded were relieved with medicines and money;and still more efficaciously, by the healing visits and smiles of theircommander. The loss of a weapon or a horse was instantly repaired, andeach deed of valor was rewarded by the rich and honorable gifts of abracelet or a collar, which were rendered more precious by the judgmentof Belisarius. He was endeared to the husbandmen by the peace and plentywhich they enjoyed under the shadow of his standard. Instead of beinginjured, the country was enriched by the march of the Roman armies;and such was the rigid discipline of their camp, that not an apple wasgathered from the tree, not a path could be traced in the fields ofcorn. Belisarius was chaste and sober. In the license of a militarylife, none could boast that they had seen him intoxicated with wine:the most beautiful captives of Gothic or Vandal race were offered tohis embraces; but he turned aside from their charms, and the husband ofAntonina was never suspected of violating the laws of conjugal fidelity. The spectator and historian of his exploits has observed, that amidstthe perils of war, he was daring without rashness, prudent without fear, slow or rapid according to the exigencies of the moment; that in thedeepest distress he was animated by real or apparent hope, but that hewas modest and humble in the most prosperous fortune. By these virtues, he equalled or excelled the ancient masters of the military art. Victory, by sea and land, attended his arms. He subdued Africa, Italy, and the adjacent islands; led away captives the successors of Gensericand Theodoric; filled Constantinople with the spoils of their palaces;and in the space of six years recovered half the provinces of theWestern empire. In his fame and merit, in wealth and power, he remainedwithout a rival, the first of the Roman subjects; the voice of envycould only magnify his dangerous importance; and the emperor mightapplaud his own discerning spirit, which had discovered and raisedthe genius of Belisarius. [Footnote 110: Vitiges lived two years atConstantinople, and imperatoris in affectu convictus (or conjunctus)rebus excessit humanis. His widow Mathasuenta, the wife and mother ofthe patricians, the elder and younger Germanus, united the streams ofAnician and Amali blood, (Jornandes, c. 60, p. 221, in Muratori, tom. I. )]

[Footnote 111: Procopius, Goth. L. Iii. C. 1. Aimoin, a French monk ofthe xith century, who had obtained, and has disfigured, some authenticinformation of Belisarius, mentions, in his name, 12, 000, pueri orslaves--quos propriis alimus stipendiis--besides 18, 000 soldiers, (Historians of France, tom. Iii. De Gestis Franc. L. Ii. C. 6, p. 48. )]

It was the custom of the Roman triumphs, that a slave should be placedbehind the chariot to remind the conqueror of the instability offortune, and the infirmities of human nature. Procopius, in hisAnecdotes, has assumed that servile and ungrateful office. The generousreader may cast away the libel, but the evidence of facts will adhere tohis memory; and he will reluctantly confess, that the fame, and eventhe virtue, of Belisarius, were polluted by the lust and cruelty of hiswife; and that hero deserved an appellation which may not drop fromthe pen of the decent historian. The mother of Antonina [112] was atheatrical prostitute, and both her father and grandfather exercised, atThessalonica and Constantinople, the vile, though lucrative, professionof charioteers. In the various situations of their fortune she becamethe companion, the enemy, the servant, and the favorite of the empressTheodora: these loose and ambitious females had been connected bysimilar pleasures; they were separated by the jealousy of vice, and atlength reconciled by the partnership of guilt. Before her marriage withBelisarius, Antonina had one husband and many lovers: Photius, the sonof her former nuptials, was of an age to distinguish himself at thesiege of Naples; and it was not till the autumn of her age and beauty[113] that she indulged a scandalous attachment to a Thracian youth. Theodosius had been educated in the Eunomian heresy; the African voyagewas consecrated by the baptism and auspicious name of the first soldierwho embarked; and the proselyte was adopted into the family of hisspiritual parents, [114] Belisarius and Antonina. Before they touchedthe shores of Africa, this holy kindred degenerated into sensual love:and as Antonina soon overleaped the bounds of modesty and caution, the Roman general was alone ignorant of his own dishonor. During theirresidence at Carthage, he surprised the two lovers in a subterraneouschamber, solitary, warm, and almost naked. Anger flashed from his eyes. "With the help of this young man, " said the unblushing Antonina, "I wassecreting our most precious effects from the knowledge of Justinian. "The youth resumed his garments, and the pious husband consented todisbelieve the evidence of his own senses. From this pleasing andperhaps voluntary delusion, Belisarius was awakened at Syracuse, by theofficious information of Macedonia; and that female attendant, afterrequiring an oath for her security, produced two chamberlains, who, likeherself, had often beheld the adulteries of Antonina. A hasty flightinto Asia saved Theodosius from the justice of an injured husband, whohad signified to one of his guards the order of his death; but the tearsof Antonina, and her artful seductions, assured the credulous heroof her innocence: and he stooped, against his faith and judgment, toabandon those imprudent friends, who had presumed to accuse or doubt thechastity of his wife. The revenge of a guilty woman is implacable andbloody: the unfortunate Macedonia, with the two witnesses, were secretlyarrested by the minister of her cruelty; their tongues were cut out, their bodies were hacked into small pieces, and their remains were castinto the Sea of Syracuse. A rash though judicious saying of Constantine, "I would sooner have punished the adulteress than the boy, " was deeplyremembered by Antonina; and two years afterwards, when despair had armedthat officer against his general, her sanguinary advice decided andhastened his execution. Even the indignation of Photius was not forgivenby his mother; the exile of her son prepared the recall of her lover;and Theodosius condescended to accept the pressing and humble invitationof the conqueror of Italy. In the absolute direction of his household, and in the important commissions of peace and war, [115] the favoriteyouth most rapidly acquired a fortune of four hundred thousand poundssterling; and after their return to Constantinople, the passion ofAntonina, at least, continued ardent and unabated. But fear, devotion, and lassitude perhaps, inspired Theodosius with more serious thoughts. He dreaded the busy scandal of the capital, and the indiscreet fondnessof the wife of Belisarius; escaped from her embraces, and retiring toEphesus, shaved his head, and took refuge in the sanctuary of a monasticlife. The despair of the new Ariadne could scarcely have been excusedby the death of her husband. She wept, she tore her hair, she filled thepalace with her cries; "she had lost the dearest of friends, a tender, afaithful, a laborious friend!" But her warm entreaties, fortified by theprayers of Belisarius, were insufficient to draw the holy monk from thesolitude of Ephesus. It was not till the general moved forward forthe Persian war, that Theodosius could be tempted to return toConstantinople; and the short interval before the departure of Antoninaherself was boldly devoted to love and pleasure. [Footnote 112: Thediligence of Alemannus could add but little to the four first and mostcurious chapters of the Anecdotes. Of these strange Anecdotes, a partmay be true, because probable--and a part true, because improbable. Procopius must have known the former, and the latter he could scarcelyinvent. Note: The malice of court scandal is proverbially inventive; andof such scandal the "Anecdota" may be an embellished record. --M. ]

[Footnote 113: Procopius intimates (Anecdot. C. 4) that when Belisariusreturned to Italy, (A. D. 543, ) Antonina was sixty years of age. Aforced, but more polite construction, which refers that date to themoment when he was writing, (A. D. 559, ) would be compatible with themanhood of Photius, (Gothic. L. I. C. 10) in 536. ]

[Footnote 114: Gompare the Vandalic War (l. I. C. 12) with the Anecdotes(c. I. ) and Alemannus, (p. 2, 3. ) This mode of baptismal adoption wasrevived by Leo the philosopher. ]

[Footnote 115: In November, 537, Photius arrested the pope, (Liberat. Brev. C. 22. Pagi, tom. Ii. P. 562) About the end of 539, Belisariussent Theodosius on an important and lucrative commission to Ravenna, (Goth. L. Ii. C. 18. )]

A philosopher may pity and forgive the infirmities of female nature, from which he receives no real injury: but contemptible is the husbandwho feels, and yet endures, his own infamy in that of his wife. Antoninapursued her son with implacable hatred; and the gallant Photius [116]was exposed to her secret persecutions in the camp beyond the Tigris. Enraged by his own wrongs, and by the dishonor of his blood, he castaway in his turn the sentiments of nature, and revealed to Belisariusthe turpitude of a woman who had violated all the duties of a motherand a wife. From the surprise and indignation of the Roman general, hisformer credulity appears to have been sincere: he embraced the knees ofthe son of Antonina, adjured him to remember his obligations rather thanhis birth, and confirmed at the altar their holy vows of revenge andmutual defence. The dominion of Antonina was impaired by absence; andwhen she met her husband, on his return from the Persian confines, Belisarius, in his first and transient emotions, confined her person, and threatened her life. Photius was more resolved to punish, and lessprompt to pardon: he flew to Ephesus; extorted from a trusty eunuch ofhis another the full confession of her guilt; arrested Theodosius andhis treasures in the church of St. John the Apostle, and concealed hiscaptives, whose execution was only delayed, in a secure and sequesteredfortress of Cilicia. Such a daring outrage against public justice couldnot pass with impunity; and the cause of Antonina was espoused by theempress, whose favor she had deserved by the recent services of thedisgrace of a praefect, and the exile and murder of a pope. At the endof the campaign, Belisarius was recalled; he complied, as usual, withthe Imperial mandate. His mind was not prepared for rebellion: hisobedience, however adverse to the dictates of honor, was consonant tothe wishes of his heart; and when he embraced his wife, at the command, and perhaps in the presence, of the empress, the tender husband wasdisposed to forgive or to be forgiven. The bounty of Theodora reservedfor her companion a more precious favor. "I have found, " she said, "mydearest patrician, a pearl of inestimable value; it has not yet beenviewed by any mortal eye; but the sight and the possession of thisjewel are destined for my friend. " [1161] As soon as the curiosityand impatience of Antonina were kindled, the door of a bed-chamber wasthrown open, and she beheld her lover, whom the diligence of the eunuchshad discovered in his secret prison. Her silent wonder burst intopassionate exclamations of gratitude and joy, and she named Theodoraher queen, her benefactress, and her savior. The monk of Ephesuswas nourished in the palace with luxury and ambition; but insteadof assuming, as he was promised, the command of the Roman armies, Theodosius expired in the first fatigues of an amorous interview. [1162]The grief of Antonina could only be assuaged by the sufferings of herson. A youth of consular rank, and a sickly constitution, was punished, without a trial, like a malefactor and a slave: yet such was theconstancy of his mind, that Photius sustained the tortures of thescourge and the rack, [1163] without violating the faith which he hadsworn to Belisarius. After this fruitless cruelty, the son ofAntonina, while his mother feasted with the empress, was buried in hersubterraneous prisons, which admitted not the distinction of nightand day. He twice escaped to the most venerable sanctuaries ofConstantinople, the churches of St. Sophia, and of the Virgin: but histyrants were insensible of religion as of pity; and the helpless youth, amidst the clamors of the clergy and people, was twice dragged from thealtar to the dungeon. His third attempt was more successful. At the endof three years, the prophet Zachariah, or some mortal friend, indicatedthe means of an escape: he eluded the spies and guards of the empress, reached the holy sepulchre of Jerusalem, embraced the profession of amonk; and the abbot Photius was employed, after the death of Justinian, to reconcile and regulate the churches of Egypt. The son of Antoninasuffered all that an enemy can inflict: her patient husband imposed onhimself the more exquisite misery of violating his promise and desertinghis friend. 

[Footnote 116: Theophanes (Chronograph. P. 204) styles him Photinus, theson-in-law of Belisarius; and he is copied by the Historia Miscella andAnastasius. ]

[Footnote 1161: This and much of the private scandal in the"Anecdota" is liable to serious doubt. Who reported all these privateconversations, and how did they reach the ears of Procopius?--M. ]

[Footnote 1162: This is a strange misrepresentation--he died of adysentery; nor does it appear that it was immediately after this scene. Antonina proposed to raise him to the generalship of the army. Procop. Anecd. P. 14. The sudden change from the abstemious diet of a monk tothe luxury of the court is a much more probable cause of his death. --M. ]

[Footnote 1163: The expression of Procopius does not appear to me tomean this kind of torture. Ibid. --M. ]

In the succeeding campaign, Belisarius was again sent against thePersians: he saved the East, but he offended Theodora, and perhaps theemperor himself. The malady of Justinian had countenanced the rumor ofhis death; and the Roman general, on the supposition of that probableevent spoke the free language of a citizen and a soldier. His colleagueBuzes, who concurred in the same sentiments, lost his rank, his liberty, and his health, by the persecution of the empress: but the disgrace ofBelisarius was alleviated by the dignity of his own character, and theinfluence of his wife, who might wish to humble, but could not desire toruin, the partner of her fortunes. Even his removal was colored by theassurance, that the sinking state of Italy would be retrieved by thesingle presence of its conqueror. 

But no sooner had he returned, alone and defenceless, than a hostilecommission was sent to the East, to seize his treasures and criminatehis actions; the guards and veterans, who followed his private banner, were distributed among the chiefs of the army, and even the eunuchspresumed to cast lots for the partition of his martial domestics. When he passed with a small and sordid retinue through the streetsof Constantinople, his forlorn appearance excited the amazement andcompassion of the people. Justinian and Theodora received him with coldingratitude; the servile crowd, with insolence and contempt; and inthe evening he retired with trembling steps to his deserted palace. Anindisposition, feigned or real, had confined Antonina to her apartment;and she walked disdainfully silent in the adjacent portico, whileBelisarius threw himself on his bed, and expected, in an agony of griefand terror, the death which he had so often braved under the walls ofRome. Long after sunset a messenger was announced from the empress: heopened, with anxious curiosity, the letter which contained the sentenceof his fate. "You cannot be ignorant how much you have deserved mydispleasure. I am not insensible of the services of Antonina. To hermerits and intercession I have granted your life, and permit you toretain a part of your treasures, which might be justly forfeited to thestate. Let your gratitude, where it is due, be displayed, not in words, but in your future behavior. " I know not how to believe or to relate thetransports with which the hero is said to have received this ignominiouspardon. He fell prostrate before his wife, he kissed the feet of hissavior, and he devoutly promised to live the grateful and submissiveslave of Antonina. A fine of one hundred and twenty thousand poundssterling was levied on the fortunes of Belisarius; and with the officeof count, or master of the royal stables, he accepted the conduct of theItalian war. At his departure from Constantinople, his friends, and eventhe public, were persuaded that as soon as he regained his freedom, he would renounce his dissimulation, and that his wife, Theodora, andperhaps the emperor himself, would be sacrificed to the just revengeof a virtuous rebel. Their hopes were deceived; and the unconquerablepatience and loyalty of Belisarius appear either below or above thecharacter of a man. [117]

[Footnote 117: The continuator of the Chronicle of Marcellinus gives, in a few decent words, the substance of the Anecdotes: Belisarius deOriente evocatus, in offensam periculumque incurrens grave, et invidiaesubeacens rursus remittitur in Italiam, (p. 54. )]

Chapter XLII: State Of The Barbaric World. --Part I. 

 State Of The Barbaric World. --Establishment Of The Lombards On the Danube. --Tribes And Inroads Of The Sclavonians. -- Origin, Empire, And Embassies Of The Turks. --The Flight Of The Avars. --Chosroes I, Or Nushirvan, King Of Persia. --His Prosperous Reign And Wars With The Romans. --The Colchian Or Lazic War. --The Aethiopians. 

Our estimate of personal merit, is relative to the common faculties ofmankind. The aspiring efforts of genius, or virtue, either in active orspeculative life, are measured, not so much by their real elevation, as by the height to which they ascend above the level of their age andcountry; and the same stature, which in a people of giants would passunnoticed, must appear conspicuous in a race of pygmies. Leonidas, andhis three hundred companions, devoted their lives at Thermopylae; butthe education of the infant, the boy, and the man, had prepared, and almost insured, this memorable sacrifice; and each Spartan wouldapprove, rather than admire, an act of duty, of which himself and eightthousand of his fellow-citizens were equally capable. [1] The greatPompey might inscribe on his trophies, that he had defeated in battletwo millions of enemies, and reduced fifteen hundred cities from theLake Maeotis to the Red Sea: [2] but the fortune of Rome flew beforehis eagles; the nations were oppressed by their own fears, and theinvincible legions which he commanded, had been formed by the habitsof conquest and the discipline of ages. In this view, the characterof Belisarius may be deservedly placed above the heroes of the ancientrepublics. His imperfections flowed from the contagion of the times; hisvirtues were his own, the free gift of nature or reflection; he raisedhimself without a master or a rival; and so inadequate were the armscommitted to his hand, that his sole advantage was derived from thepride and presumption of his adversaries. Under his command, thesubjects of Justinian often deserved to be called Romans: but theunwarlike appellation of Greeks was imposed as a term of reproach by thehaughty Goths; who affected to blush, that they must dispute the kingdomof Italy with a nation of tragedians pantomimes, and pirates. [3] Theclimate of Asia has indeed been found less congenial than that of Europeto military spirit: those populous countries were enervated by luxury, despotism, and superstition; and the monks were more expensive and morenumerous than the soldiers of the East. The regular force of the empirehad once amounted to six hundred and forty-five thousand men: it wasreduced, in the time of Justinian, to one hundred and fifty thousand;and this number, large as it may seem, was thinly scattered over the seaand land; in Spain and Italy, in Africa and Egypt, on the banks ofthe Danube, the coast of the Euxine, and the frontiers of Persia. Thecitizen was exhausted, yet the soldier was unpaid; his poverty wasmischievously soothed by the privilege of rapine and indolence; andthe tardy payments were detained and intercepted by the fraud of thoseagents who usurp, without courage or danger, the emoluments of war. Public and private distress recruited the armies of the state; but inthe field, and still more in the presence of the enemy, their numberswere always defective. The want of national spirit was supplied by theprecarious faith and disorderly service of Barbarian mercenaries. 

Even military honor, which has often survived the loss of virtue andfreedom, was almost totally extinct. The generals, who were multipliedbeyond the example of former times, labored only to prevent the success, or to sully the reputation of their colleagues; and they had been taughtby experience, that if merit sometimes provoked the jealousy, error, oreven guilt, would obtain the indulgence, of a gracious emperor. [4] Insuch an age, the triumphs of Belisarius, and afterwards of Narses, shinewith incomparable lustre; but they are encompassed with the darkestshades of disgrace and calamity. While the lieutenant of Justiniansubdued the kingdoms of the Goths and Vandals, the emperor, [5] timid, though ambitious, balanced the forces of the Barbarians, fomented theirdivisions by flattery and falsehood, and invited by his patience andliberality the repetition of injuries. [6] The keys of Carthage, Rome, and Ravenna, were presented to their conqueror, while Antioch wasdestroyed by the Persians, and Justinian trembled for the safety ofConstantinople. 

[Footnote 1: It will be a pleasure, not a task, to read Herodotus, (l. Vii. C. 104, 134, p. 550, 615. ) The conversation of Xerxes and Demaratusat Thermopylae is one of the most interesting and moral scenes inhistory. It was the torture of the royal Spartan to behold, with anguishand remorse, the virtue of his country. ]

[Footnote 2: See this proud inscription in Pliny, (Hist. Natur. Vii. 27. ) Few men have more exquisitely tasted of glory and disgrace;nor could Juvenal (Satir. X. ) produce a more striking example of thevicissitudes of fortune, and the vanity of human wishes. ]

[Footnote 3: This last epithet of Procopius is too nobly translated bypirates; naval thieves is the proper word; strippers of garments, eitherfor injury or insult, (Demosthenes contra Conon Reiske, Orator, Graec. Tom. Ii. P. 1264. )]

[Footnote 4: See the third and fourth books of the Gothic War: thewriter of the Anecdotes cannot aggravate these abuses. ]

[Footnote 5: Agathias, l. V. P. 157, 158. He confines this weakness ofthe emperor and the empire to the old age of Justinian; but alas! he wasnever young. ]

[Footnote 6: This mischievous policy, which Procopius (Anecdot. C. 19)imputes to the emperor, is revealed in his epistle to a Scythian prince, who was capable of understanding it. ]

Even the Gothic victories of Belisarius were prejudicial to the state, since they abolished the important barrier of the Upper Danube, whichhad been so faithfully guarded by Theodoric and his daughter. For thedefence of Italy, the Goths evacuated Pannonia and Noricum, whichthey left in a peaceful and flourishing condition: the sovereigntywas claimed by the emperor of the Romans; the actual possession wasabandoned to the boldness of the first invader. On the opposite banks ofthe Danube, the plains of Upper Hungary and the Transylvanian hills werepossessed, since the death of Attila, by the tribes of the Gepidae, who respected the Gothic arms, and despised, not indeed the gold ofthe Romans, but the secret motive of their annual subsidies. The vacantfortifications of the river were instantly occupied by these Barbarians;their standards were planted on the walls of Sirmium and Belgrade; andthe ironical tone of their apology aggravated this insult on the majestyof the empire. "So extensive, O Caesar, are your dominions, so numerousare your cities, that you are continually seeking for nations to whom, either in peace or in war, you may relinquish these useless possessions. The Gepidae are your brave and faithful allies; and if they haveanticipated your gifts, they have shown a just confidence in yourbounty. " Their presumption was excused by the mode of revenge whichJustinian embraced. Instead of asserting the rights of a sovereign forthe protection of his subjects, the emperor invited a strange people toinvade and possess the Roman provinces between the Danube and the Alpsand the ambition of the Gepidae was checked by the rising power and fameof the Lombards. [7] This corrupt appellation has been diffused in thethirteenth century by the merchants and bankers, the Italian posterityof these savage warriors: but the original name of Langobards isexpressive only of the peculiar length and fashion of their beards. I amnot disposed either to question or to justify their Scandinavian origin;[8] nor to pursue the migrations of the Lombards through unknown regionsand marvellous adventures. About the time of Augustus and Trajan, a rayof historic light breaks on the darkness of their antiquities, andthey are discovered, for the first time, between the Elbe and the Oder. Fierce, beyond the example of the Germans, they delighted to propagatethe tremendous belief, that their heads were formed like the headsof dogs, and that they drank the blood of their enemies, whom theyvanquished in battle. The smallness of their numbers was recruited bythe adoption of their bravest slaves; and alone, amidst their powerfulneighbors, they defended by arms their high-spirited independence. Inthe tempests of the north, which overwhelmed so many names and nations, this little bark of the Lombards still floated on the surface: theygradually descended towards the south and the Danube, and, at the endof four hundred years, they again appear with their ancient valor andrenown. Their manners were not less ferocious. The assassination of aroyal guest was executed in the presence, and by the command, of theking's daughter, who had been provoked by some words of insult, anddisappointed by his diminutive stature; and a tribute, the price ofblood, was imposed on the Lombards, by his brother the king of theHeruli. Adversity revived a sense of moderation and justice, and theinsolence of conquest was chastised by the signal defeat and irreparabledispersion of the Heruli, who were seated in the southern provincesof Poland. [9] The victories of the Lombards recommended them to thefriendship of the emperors; and at the solicitations of Justinian, theypassed the Danube, to reduce, according to their treaty, the cities ofNoricum and the fortresses of Pannonia. But the spirit of rapine soontempted them beyond these ample limits; they wandered along the coast ofthe Hadriatic as far as Dyrrachium, and presumed, with familiar rudenessto enter the towns and houses of their Roman allies, and to seize thecaptives who had escaped from their audacious hands. These actsof hostility, the sallies, as it might be pretended, of some looseadventurers, were disowned by the nation, and excused by the emperor;but the arms of the Lombards were more seriously engaged by a contestof thirty years, which was terminated only by the extirpation of theGepidae. The hostile nations often pleaded their cause before the throneof Constantinople; and the crafty Justinian, to whom the Barbarians werealmost equally odious, pronounced a partial and ambiguous sentence, anddexterously protracted the war by slow and ineffectual succors. Theirstrength was formidable, since the Lombards, who sent into the fieldseveral myriads of soldiers, still claimed, as the weaker side, theprotection of the Romans. Their spirit was intrepid; yet such is theuncertainty of courage, that the two armies were suddenly struck witha panic; they fled from each other, and the rival kings remained withtheir guards in the midst of an empty plain. A short truce was obtained;but their mutual resentment again kindled; and the remembrance oftheir shame rendered the next encounter more desperate and bloody Fortythousand of the Barbarians perished in the decisive battle, which brokethe power of the Gepidae, transferred the fears and wishes of Justinian, and first displayed the character of Alboin, the youthful prince of theLombards, and the future conqueror of Italy. [10]

[Footnote 7: Gens Germana feritate ferocior, says Velleius Paterculusof the Lombards, (ii. 106. ) Langobardos paucitas nobilitat. Plurimisac valentissimis nationibus cincti non per obsequium, sed praeliis etperilitando, tuti sunt, (Tacit. De Moribus German. C. 40. ) See likewiseStrabo, (l. Viii. P. 446. ) The best geographers place them beyondthe Elbe, in the bishopric of Magdeburgh and the middle march ofBrandenburgh; and their situation will agree with the patriotic remarkof the count de Hertzberg, that most of the Barbarian conquerors issuedfrom the same countries which still produce the armies of Prussia. *Note: See Malte Brun, vol. I. P 402. --M]

[Footnote 8: The Scandinavian origin of the Goths and Lombards, asstated by Paul Warnefrid, surnamed the deacon, is attacked by Cluverius, (Germania, Antiq. L. Iii. C. 26, p. 102, &c. , ) a native of Prussia, anddefended by Grotius, (Prolegom. Ad Hist. Goth. P. 28, &c. , ) the SwedishAmbassador. ]

[Footnote 9: Two facts in the narrative of Paul Diaconus (l. I. C. 20)are expressive of national manners: 1. Dum ad tabulam luderet--while heplayed at draughts. 2. Camporum viridantia lina. The cultivation of flaxsupposes property, commerce, agriculture, and manufactures]

[Footnote 10: I have used, without undertaking to reconcile, the factsin Procopius, (Goth. L. Ii. C. 14, l. Iii. C. 33, 34, l. Iv. C. 18, 25, )Paul Diaconus, (de Gestis Langobard, l. I. C. 1-23, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. I. P. 405-419, ) and Jornandes, (de Success. Regnorum, p. 242. ) The patient reader may draw some light from Mascou(Hist. Of the Germans, and Annotat. Xxiii. ) and De Buat, (Hist. DesPeuples, &c. , tom. Ix. X. Xi. )]

The wild people who dwelt or wandered in the plains of Russia, Lithuania, and Poland, might be reduced, in the age of Justinian, underthe two great families of the Bulgarians [11] and the Sclavonians. According to the Greek writers, the former, who touched the Euxine andthe Lake Maeotis, derived from the Huns their name or descent; and it isneedless to renew the simple and well-known picture of Tartar manners. They were bold and dexterous archers, who drank the milk, and feastedon the flesh, of their fleet and indefatigable horses; whose flocks andherds followed, or rather guided, the motions of their roving camps;to whose inroads no country was remote or impervious, and who werepractised in flight, though incapable of fear. The nation was dividedinto two powerful and hostile tribes, who pursued each other withfraternal hatred. They eagerly disputed the friendship, or rather thegifts, of the emperor; and the distinctions which nature had fixedbetween the faithful dog and the rapacious wolf was applied by anambassador who received only verbal instructions from the mouth of hisilliterate prince. [12] The Bulgarians, of whatsoever species, wereequally attracted by Roman wealth: they assumed a vague dominion overthe Sclavonian name, and their rapid marches could only be stopped bythe Baltic Sea, or the extreme cold and poverty of the north. But thesame race of Sclavonians appears to have maintained, in every age, thepossession of the same countries. Their numerous tribes, however distantor adverse, used one common language, (it was harsh and irregular, ) andwhere known by the resemblance of their form, which deviated from theswarthy Tartar, and approached without attaining the lofty stature andfair complexion of the German. Four thousand six hundred villages [13]were scattered over the provinces of Russia and Poland, and their hutswere hastily built of rough timber, in a country deficient both in stoneand iron. Erected, or rather concealed, in the depth of forests, on thebanks of rivers, or the edges of morasses, we may not perhaps, withoutflattery, compare them to the architecture of the beaver; which theyresembled in a double issue, to the land and water, for the escape ofthe savage inhabitant, an animal less cleanly, less diligent, and lesssocial, than that marvellous quadruped. The fertility of the soil, rather than the labor of the natives, supplied the rustic plenty of theSclavonians. Their sheep and horned cattle were large and numerous, andthe fields which they sowed with millet or panic [14] afforded, in placeof bread, a coarse and less nutritive food. The incessant rapine oftheir neighbors compelled them to bury this treasure in the earth; buton the appearance of a stranger, it was freely imparted by a people, whose unfavorable character is qualified by the epithets of chaste, patient, and hospitable. As their supreme god, they adored an invisiblemaster of the thunder. The rivers and the nymphs obtained theirsubordinate honors, and the popular worship was expressed in vows andsacrifice. The Sclavonians disdained to obey a despot, a prince, or evena magistrate; but their experience was too narrow, their passions tooheadstrong, to compose a system of equal law or general defence. Somevoluntary respect was yielded to age and valor; but each tribe orvillage existed as a separate republic, and all must be persuaded wherenone could be compelled. They fought on foot, almost naked, and exceptan unwieldy shield, without any defensive armor; their weapons ofoffence were a bow, a quiver of small poisoned arrows, and a long rope, which they dexterously threw from a distance, and entangled their enemyin a running noose. In the field, the Sclavonian infantry was dangerousby their speed, agility, and hardiness: they swam, they dived, theyremained under water, drawing their breath through a hollow cane; anda river or lake was often the scene of their unsuspected ambuscade. Butthese were the achievements of spies or stragglers; the military art wasunknown to the Sclavonians; their name was obscure, and their conquestswere inglorious. [15]

[Footnote 11: I adopt the appellation of Bulgarians from Ennodius, (inPanegyr. Theodorici, Opp. Sirmond, tom. I. P. 1598, 1599, ) Jornandes, (de Rebus Geticis, c. 5, p. 194, et de Regn. Successione, p. 242, )Theophanes, (p. 185, ) and the Chronicles of Cassiodorus and Marcellinus. The name of Huns is too vague; the tribes of the Cutturgurians andUtturgurians are too minute and too harsh. * Note: The Bulgariansare first mentioned among the writers of the West in the Panegyric onTheodoric by Ennodius, Bishop of Pavia. Though they perhaps took part inthe conquests of the Huns, they did not advance to the Danube tillafter the dismemberment of that monarchy on the death of Attila. But theBulgarians are mentioned much earlier by the Armenian writers. Above600 years before Christ, a tribe of Bulgarians, driven from their nativepossessions beyond the Caspian, occupied a part of Armenia, north of theAraxes. They were of the Finnish race; part of the nation, in the fifthcentury, moved westward, and reached the modern Bulgaria; part remainedalong the Volga, which is called Etel, Etil, or Athil, in all the Tartarlanguages, but from the Bulgarians, the Volga. The power of the easternBulgarians was broken by Batou, son of Tchingiz Khan; that of thewestern will appear in the course of the history. From St. Martin, vol. Vii p. 141. Malte-Brun, on the contrary, conceives that the Bulgarianstook their name from the river. According to the Byzantine historiansthey were a branch of the Ougres, (Thunmann, Hist. Of the People tothe East of Europe, ) but they have more resemblance to the Turks. Theirfirst country, Great Bulgaria, was washed by the Volga. Some remainsof their capital are still shown near Kasan. They afterwards dwelt inKuban, and finally on the Danube, where they subdued (about the year500) the Slavo-Servians established on the Lower Danube. Conquered intheir turn by the Avars, they freed themselves from that yoke in 635;their empire then comprised the Cutturgurians, the remains of the Hunsestablished on the Palus Maeotis. The Danubian Bulgaria, a dismembermentof this vast state, was long formidable to the Byzantine empire. Malte-Brun, Prec. De Geog Univ. Vol. I. P. 419. --M. ----According toShafarik, the Danubian Bulgaria was peopled by a Slavo Bulgarian race. The Slavish population was conquered by the Bulgarian (of Uralian andFinnish descent, ) and incorporated with them. This mingled race arethe Bulgarians bordering on the Byzantine empire. Shafarik, ii 152, etseq. --M. 1845]

[Footnote 12: Procopius, (Goth. L. Iv. C. 19. ) His verbal message (heowns him self an illiterate Barbarian) is delivered as an epistle. Thestyle is savage, figurative, and original. ]

[Footnote 13: This sum is the result of a particular list, in a curiousMs. Fragment of the year 550, found in the library of Milan. The obscuregeography of the times provokes and exercises the patience of the countde Buat, (tom. Xi. P. 69--189. ) The French minister often loses himselfin a wilderness which requires a Saxon and Polish guide. ]

[Footnote 14: Panicum, milium. See Columella, l. Ii. C. 9, p. 430, edit. Gesner. Plin. Hist. Natur. Xviii. 24, 25. The Samaritans made a papof millet, mingled with mare's milk or blood. In the wealth ofmodern husbandry, our millet feeds poultry, and not heroes. See thedictionaries of Bomare and Miller. ]

[Footnote 15: For the name and nation, the situation and manners, ofthe Sclavonians, see the original evidence of the vith century, in Procopius, (Goth. L. Ii. C. 26, l. Iii. C. 14, ) and the emperorMauritius or Maurice (Stratagemat. L. Ii. C. 5, apud Mascon Annotat. Xxxi. ) The stratagems of Maurice have been printed only, as Iunderstand, at the end of Scheffer's edition of Arrian's Tactics, atUpsal, 1664, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. L. Iv. C. 8, tom. Iii. P. 278, ) ascarce, and hitherto, to me, an inaccessible book. ]

I have marked the faint and general outline of the Sclavonians andBulgarians, without attempting to define their intermediate boundaries, which were not accurately known or respected by the Barbariansthemselves. Their importance was measured by their vicinity to theempire; and the level country of Moldavia and Wallachia was occupiedby the Antes, [16] a Sclavonian tribe, which swelled the titles ofJustinian with an epithet of conquest. [17] Against the Antes he erectedthe fortifications of the Lower Danube; and labored to securethe alliance of a people seated in the direct channel of northerninundation, an interval of two hundred miles between the mountainsof Transylvania and the Euxine Sea. But the Antes wanted power andinclination to stem the fury of the torrent; and the light-armedSclavonians, from a hundred tribes, pursued with almost equal speed thefootsteps of the Bulgarian horse. The payment of one piece of gold foreach soldier procured a safe and easy retreat through the country of theGepidae, who commanded the passage of the Upper Danube. [18] The hopesor fears of the Barbarians; their intense union or discord; the accidentof a frozen or shallow stream; the prospect of harvest or vintage; theprosperity or distress of the Romans; were the causes which produced theuniform repetition of annual visits, [19] tedious in the narrative, anddestructive in the event. The same year, and possibly the same month, in which Ravenna surrendered, was marked by an invasion of the Huns orBulgarians, so dreadful, that it almost effaced the memory of their pastinroads. They spread from the suburbs of Constantinople to the IonianGulf, destroyed thirty-two cities or castles, erased Potidaea, whichAthens had built, and Philip had besieged, and repassed the Danube, dragging at their horses' heels one hundred and twenty thousand of thesubjects of Justinian. In a subsequent inroad they pierced the wallof the Thracian Chersonesus, extirpated the habitations and theinhabitants, boldly traversed the Hellespont, and returned to theircompanions, laden with the spoils of Asia. Another party, which seemeda multitude in the eyes of the Romans, penetrated, without opposition, from the Straits of Thermopylae to the Isthmus of Corinth; and the lastruin of Greece has appeared an object too minute for the attention ofhistory. The works which the emperor raised for the protection, but atthe expense of his subjects, served only to disclose the weakness ofsome neglected part; and the walls, which by flattery had been deemedimpregnable, were either deserted by the garrison, or scaled bythe Barbarians. Three thousand Sclavonians, who insolently dividedthemselves into two bands, discovered the weakness and misery of atriumphant reign. They passed the Danube and the Hebrus, vanquished theRoman generals who dared to oppose their progress, and plundered, withimpunity, the cities of Illyricum and Thrace, each of which had arms andnumbers to overwhelm their contemptible assailants. Whatever praise theboldness of the Sclavonians may deserve, it is sullied by the wantonand deliberate cruelty which they are accused of exercising on theirprisoners. Without distinction of rank, or age, or sex, the captiveswere impaled or flayed alive, or suspended between four posts, andbeaten with clubs till they expired, or enclosed in some spaciousbuilding, and left to perish in the flames with the spoil and cattlewhich might impede the march of these savage victors. [20] Perhapsa more impartial narrative would reduce the number, and qualify thenature, of these horrid acts; and they might sometimes be excused by thecruel laws of retaliation. In the siege of Topirus, [21] whose obstinatedefence had enraged the Sclavonians, they massacred fifteen thousandmales; but they spared the women and children; the most valuablecaptives were always reserved for labor or ransom; the servitude was notrigorous, and the terms of their deliverance were speedy and moderate. But the subject, or the historian of Justinian, exhaled his justindignation in the language of complaint and reproach; and Procopius hasconfidently affirmed, that in a reign of thirty-two years, eachannual inroad of the Barbarians consumed two hundred thousand of theinhabitants of the Roman empire. The entire population of TurkishEurope, which nearly corresponds with the provinces of Justinian, wouldperhaps be incapable of supplying six millions of persons, the result ofthis incredible estimate. [22]

[Footnote 16: Antes corum fortissimi. .. . Taysis qui rapidus etvorticosus in Histri fluenta furens devolvitur, (Jornandes, c. 5, p. 194, edit. Murator. Procopius, Goth. L. Iii. C. 14, et de Edific. L iv. C. 7. ) Yet the same Procopius mentions the Goths and Huns as neighborsto the Danube, (de Edific. L. V. C. 1. )]

[Footnote 17: The national title of Anticus, in the laws andinscriptions of Justinian, was adopted by his successors, and isjustified by the pious Ludewig (in Vit. Justinian. P. 515. ) It hadstrangely puzzled the civilians of the middle age. ]

[Footnote 18: Procopius, Goth. L. Iv. C. 25. ]

[Footnote 19: An inroad of the Huns is connected, by Procopius, witha comet perhaps that of 531, (Persic. L. Ii. C. 4. ) Agathias (l. V. P. 154, 155) borrows from his predecessors some early facts. ]

[Footnote 20: The cruelties of the Sclavonians are related or magnifiedby Procopius, (Goth. L. Iii. C. 29, 38. ) For their mild and liberalbehavior to their prisoners, we may appeal to the authority, somewhatmore recent of the emperor Maurice, (Stratagem. L. Ii. C. 5. )]

[Footnote 21: Topirus was situate near Philippi in Thrace, or Macedonia, opposite to the Isle of Thasos, twelve days' journey from Constantinople(Cellarius, tom. I. P. 676, 846. )]

[Footnote 22: According to the malevolent testimony of the Anecdotes, (c. 18, ) these inroads had reduced the provinces south of the Danube tothe state of a Scythian wilderness. ]

In the midst of these obscure calamities, Europe felt the shock ofrevolution, which first revealed to the world the name and nation of theTurks. [2211] Like Romulus, the founder [2212] of that martial peoplewas suckled by a she-wolf, who afterwards made him the father of anumerous progeny; and the representation of that animal in the bannersof the Turks preserved the memory, or rather suggested the idea, ofa fable, which was invented, without any mutual intercourse, by theshepherds of Latium and those of Scythia. At the equal distance of twothousand miles from the Caspian, the Icy, the Chinese, and the BengalSeas, a ridge of mountains is conspicuous, the centre, and perhaps thesummit, of Asia; which, in the language of different nations, has beenstyled Imaus, and Caf, [23] and Altai, and the Golden Mountains, [2311]and the Girdle of the Earth. The sides of the hills were productiveof minerals; and the iron forges, [24] for the purpose of war, wereexercised by the Turks, the most despised portion of the slaves of thegreat khan of the Geougen. But their servitude could only last till aleader, bold and eloquent, should arise to persuade his countrymen thatthe same arms which they forged for their masters, might become, intheir own hands, the instruments of freedom and victory. They salliedfrom the mountains; [25] a sceptre was the reward of his advice; and theannual ceremony, in which a piece of iron was heated in the fire, anda smith's hammer [2511] was successively handled by the prince and hisnobles, recorded for ages the humble profession and rational pride ofthe Turkish nation. Bertezena, [2512] their first leader, signalizedtheir valor and his own in successful combats against the neighboringtribes; but when he presumed to ask in marriage the daughter ofthe great khan, the insolent demand of a slave and a mechanic wascontemptuously rejected. The disgrace was expiated by a more noblealliance with a princess of China; and the decisive battle which almostextirpated the nation of the Geougen, established in Tartary the new andmore powerful empire of the Turks. [2513] They reigned over the north;but they confessed the vanity of conquest, by their faithful attachmentto the mountain of their fathers. The royal encampment seldom lost sightof Mount Altai, from whence the River Irtish descends to water the richpastures of the Calmucks, [26] which nourish the largest sheep and oxenin the world. The soil is fruitful, and the climate mild and temperate:the happy region was ignorant of earthquake and pestilence; theemperor's throne was turned towards the East, and a golden wolf on thetop of a spear seemed to guard the entrance of his tent. One of thesuccessors of Bertezena was tempted by the luxury and superstition ofChina; but his design of building cities and temples was defeated by thesimple wisdom of a Barbarian counsellor. "The Turks, " he said, "are notequal in number to one hundredth part of the inhabitants of China. Ifwe balance their power, and elude their armies, it is because we wanderwithout any fixed habitations in the exercise of war and hunting. Are we strong? we advance and conquer: are we feeble? we retire andare concealed. Should the Turks confine themselves within the walls ofcities, the loss of a battle would be the destruction of their empire. The bonzes preach only patience, humility, and the renunciation of theworld. Such, O king! is not the religion of heroes. " They entertained, with less reluctance, the doctrines of Zoroaster; but the greatest partof the nation acquiesced, without inquiry, in the opinions, or rather inthe practice, of their ancestors. The honors of sacrifice werereserved for the supreme deity; they acknowledged, in rude hymns, theirobligations to the air, the fire, the water, and the earth; and theirpriests derived some profit from the art of divination. Their unwrittenlaws were rigorous and impartial: theft was punished with a tenfoldrestitution; adultery, treason, and murder, with death; and nochastisement could be inflicted too severe for the rare and inexpiableguilt of cowardice. As the subject nations marched under the standard ofthe Turks, their cavalry, both men and horses, were proudly computedby millions; one of their effective armies consisted of four hundredthousand soldiers, and in less than fifty years they were connected inpeace and war with the Romans, the Persians, and the Chinese. Intheir northern limits, some vestige may be discovered of the form andsituation of Kamptchatka, of a people of hunters and fishermen, whosesledges were drawn by dogs, and whose habitations were buried in theearth. The Turks were ignorant of astronomy; but the observation takenby some learned Chinese, with a gnomon of eight feet, fixes the royalcamp in the latitude of forty-nine degrees, and marks their extremeprogress within three, or at least ten degrees, of the polar circle. [27] Among their southern conquests the most splendid was that of theNephthalites, or white Huns, a polite and warlike people, who possessedthe commercial cities of Bochara and Samarcand, who had vanquished thePersian monarch, and carried their victorious arms along the banks, andperhaps to the mouth, of the Indus. On the side of the West, the Turkishcavalry advanced to the Lake Maeotis. They passed that lake on the ice. The khan who dwelt at the foot of Mount Altai issued his commands forthe siege of Bosphorus, [28] a city the voluntary subject of Rome, andwhose princes had formerly been the friends of Athens. [29] To the east, the Turks invaded China, as often as the vigor of the government wasrelaxed: and I am taught to read in the history of the times, thatthey mowed down their patient enemies like hemp or grass; and thatthe mandarins applauded the wisdom of an emperor who repulsed theseBarbarians with golden lances. This extent of savage empire compelledthe Turkish monarch to establish three subordinate princes of his ownblood, who soon forgot their gratitude and allegiance. The conquerorswere enervated by luxury, which is always fatal except to an industriouspeople; the policy of China solicited the vanquished nations to resumetheir independence and the power of the Turks was limited to a periodof two hundred years. The revival of their name and dominion in thesouthern countries of Asia are the events of a later age; and thedynasties, which succeeded to their native realms, may sleep inoblivion; since their history bears no relation to the decline and fallof the Roman empire. [30]

[Footnote 2211: It must be remembered that the name of Turks is extendedto a whole family of the Asiatic races, and not confined to the Assena, or Turks of the Altai. --M. ]

[Footnote 2212: Assena (the wolf) was the name of this chief. Klaproth, Tabl. Hist. De l'Asie p. 114. --M. ]

[Footnote 23: From Caf to Caf; which a more rational geography wouldinterpret, from Imaus, perhaps, to Mount Atlas. According to thereligious philosophy of the Mahometans, the basis of Mount Caf is anemerald, whose reflection produces the azure of the sky. The mountainis endowed with a sensitive action in its roots or nerves; andtheir vibration, at the command of God, is the cause of earthquakes. (D'Herbelot, p. 230, 231. )]

[Footnote 2311: Altai, i. E. Altun Tagh, the Golden Mountain. Von HammerOsman Geschichte, vol. I. P. 2. --M. ]

[Footnote 24: The Siberian iron is the best and most plentiful in theworld; and in the southern parts, above sixty mines are now worked bythe industry of the Russians, (Strahlenberg, Hist. Of Siberia, p. 342, 387. Voyage en Siberie, par l'Abbe Chappe d'Auteroche, p. 603--608, edit in 12mo. Amsterdam. 1770. ) The Turks offered iron for sale; yet theRoman ambassadors, with strange obstinacy, persisted in believing thatit was all a trick, and that their country produced none, (Menander inExcerpt. Leg. P. 152. )]

[Footnote 25: Of Irgana-kon, (Abulghazi Khan, Hist. Genealogique desTatars, P ii. C. 5, p. 71--77, c. 15, p. 155. ) The tradition of theMoguls, of the 450 years which they passed in the mountains, agrees withthe Chinese periods of the history of the Huns and Turks, (De Guignes, tom. I. Part ii. P. 376, ) and the twenty generations, from theirrestoration to Zingis. ]

[Footnote 2511: The Mongol Temugin is also, though erroneously, explained by Rubruquis, a smith. Schmidt, p 876. --M. ]

[Footnote 2512: There appears the same confusion here. Bertezena(Berte-Scheno) is claimed as the founder of the Mongol race. The namemeans the gray (blauliche) wolf. In fact, the same tradition of theorigin from a wolf seems common to the Mongols and the Turks. TheMongol Berte-Scheno, of the very curious Mongol History, publishedand translated by M. Schmidt of Petersburg, is brought from Thibet. M. Schmidt considers this tradition of the Thibetane descent of the royalrace of the Mongols to be much earlier than their conversion to Lamaism, yet it seems very suspicious. See Klaproth, Tabl. De l'Asie, p. 159. The Turkish Bertezena is called Thou-men by Klaproth, p. 115. In 552, Thou-men took the title of Kha-Khan, and was called Il Khan. --M. ]

[Footnote 2513: Great Bucharia is called Turkistan: see Hammer, 2. Itincludes all the last steppes at the foot of the Altai. The name is thesame with that of the Turan of Persian poetic legend. --M. ]

[Footnote 26: The country of the Turks, now of the Calmucks, is welldescribed in the Genealogical History, p. 521--562. The curious notes ofthe French translator are enlarged and digested in the second volume ofthe English version. ]

[Footnote 27: Visdelou, p. 141, 151. The fact, though it strictlybelongs to a subordinate and successive tribe, may be introduced here. ]

[Footnote 28: Procopius, Persic. L. I. C. 12, l. Ii. C. 3. Peyssonel, Observations sur les Peuples Barbares, p. 99, 100, defines the distancebetween Caffa and the old Bosphorus at xvi. Long Tartar leagues. ]

[Footnote 29: See, in a Memoire of M. De Boze, (Mem. De l'Academie desInscriptions, tom. Vi. P. 549--565, ) the ancient kings and medals ofthe Cimmerian Bosphorus; and the gratitude of Athens, in the Oration ofDemosthenes against Leptines, (in Reiske, Orator. Graec. Tom. I. P. 466, 187. )]

[Footnote 30: For the origin and revolutions of the first Turkishempire, the Chinese details are borrowed from De Guignes (Hist. Des Huns, tom. P. Ii. P. 367--462) and Visdelou, (Supplement a laBibliotheque Orient. D'Herbelot, p. 82--114. ) The Greek or Roman hintsare gathered in Menander (p. 108--164) and Theophylact Simocatta, (l. Vii. C. 7, 8. )]

Chapter XLII: State Of The Barbaric World. --Part II. 

In the rapid career of conquest, the Turks attacked and subdued thenation of the Ogors or Varchonites [3011] on the banks of the RiverTil, which derived the epithet of Black from its dark water or gloomyforests. [31] The khan of the Ogors was slain with three hundredthousand of his subjects, and their bodies were scattered over thespace of four days' journey: their surviving countrymen acknowledgedthe strength and mercy of the Turks; and a small portion, about twentythousand warriors, preferred exile to servitude. They followed thewell-known road of the Volga, cherished the error of the nations whoconfounded them with the Avars, and spread the terror of that falsethough famous appellation, which had not, however, saved its lawfulproprietors from the yoke of the Turks. [32] After a long and victoriousmarch, the new Avars arrived at the foot of Mount Caucasus, in thecountry of the Alani [33] and Circassians, where they first heard of thesplendor and weakness of the Roman empire. They humbly requested theirconfederate, the prince of the Alani, to lead them to this source ofriches; and their ambassador, with the permission of the governor ofLazica, was transported by the Euxine Sea to Constantinople. The wholecity was poured forth to behold with curiosity and terror the aspectof a strange people: their long hair, which hung in tresses down theirbacks, was gracefully bound with ribbons, but the rest of their habitappeared to imitate the fashion of the Huns. When they were admittedto the audience of Justinian, Candish, the first of the ambassadors, addressed the Roman emperor in these terms: "You see before you, Omighty prince, the representatives of the strongest and most populousof nations, the invincible, the irresistible Avars. We are willing todevote ourselves to your service: we are able to vanquish and destroyall the enemies who now disturb your repose. But we expect, as the priceof our alliance, as the reward of our valor, precious gifts, annualsubsidies, and fruitful possessions. " At the time of this embassy, Justinian had reigned above thirty, he had lived above seventy-fiveyears: his mind, as well as his body, was feeble and languid; and theconqueror of Africa and Italy, careless of the permanent interest ofhis people, aspired only to end his days in the bosom even of ingloriouspeace. In a studied oration, he imparted to the senate his resolution todissemble the insult, and to purchase the friendship of the Avars;and the whole senate, like the mandarins of China, applauded theincomparable wisdom and foresight of their sovereign. The instrumentsof luxury were immediately prepared to captivate the Barbarians; silkengarments, soft and splendid beds, and chains and collars incrusted withgold. The ambassadors, content with such liberal reception, departedfrom Constantinople, and Valentin, one of the emperor's guards, was sentwith a similar character to their camp at the foot of Mount Caucasus. As their destruction or their success must be alike advantageous to theempire, he persuaded them to invade the enemies of Rome; and theywere easily tempted, by gifts and promises, to gratify their rulinginclinations. These fugitives, who fled before the Turkish arms, passedthe Tanais and Borysthenes, and boldly advanced into the heart of Polandand Germany, violating the law of nations, and abusing the rights ofvictory. Before ten years had elapsed, their camps were seated onthe Danube and the Elbe, many Bulgarian and Sclavonian names wereobliterated from the earth, and the remainder of their tribes are found, as tributaries and vassals, under the standard of the Avars. The chagan, the peculiar title of their king, still affected to cultivate thefriendship of the emperor; and Justinian entertained some thoughtsof fixing them in Pannonia, to balance the prevailing power of theLombards. But the virtue or treachery of an Avar betrayed the secretenmity and ambitious designs of their countrymen; and they loudlycomplained of the timid, though jealous policy, of detaining theirambassadors, and denying the arms which they had been allowed topurchase in the capital of the empire. [34]

[Footnote 3011: The Ogors or Varchonites, from Var. A river, (obviouslyconnected with the name Avar, ) must not be confounded with the Uigours, the eastern Turks, (v. Hammer, Osmanische Geschichte, vol. I. P. 3, ) whospeak a language the parent of the more modern Turkish dialects. CompareKlaproth, page 121. They are the ancestors of the Usbeck Turks. TheseOgors were of the same Finnish race with the Huns; and the 20, 000families which fled towards the west, after the Turkish invasion, wereof the same race with those which remained to the east of the Volga, thetrue Avars of Theophy fact. --M. ]

[Footnote 31: The River Til, or Tula, according to the geography ofDe Guignes, (tom. I. Part ii. P. Lviii. And 352, ) is a small, thoughgrateful, stream of the desert, that falls into the Orhon, Selinga, &c. See Bell, Journey from Petersburg to Pekin, (vol. Ii. P. 124;) yethis own description of the Keat, down which he sailed into the Oby, represents the name and attributes of the black river, (p. 139. ) * Note:M. Klaproth, (Tableaux Historiques de l'Asie, p. 274) supposes thisriver to be an eastern affluent of the Volga, the Kama, which, from thecolor of its waters, might be called black. M. Abel Remusat (Rechercheasur les Langues Tartares, vol. I. P. 320) and M. St. Martin (vol. Ix. P. 373) consider it the Volga, which is called Atel or Etel by all theTurkish tribes. It is called Attilas by Menander, and Ettilia by themonk Ruysbreek (1253. ) See Klaproth, Tabl. Hist. P. 247. This geographyis much more clear and simple than that adopted by Gibbon from DeGuignes, or suggested from Bell. --M. ]

[Footnote 32: Theophylact, l. Vii. C. 7, 8. And yet his true Avarsare invisible even to the eyes of M. De Guignes; and what can be moreillustrious than the false? The right of the fugitive Ogors to thatnational appellation is confessed by the Turks themselves, (Menander, p. 108. )]

[Footnote 33: The Alani are still found in the Genealogical History ofthe Tartars, (p. 617, ) and in D'Anville's maps. They opposed the marchof the generals of Zingis round the Caspian Sea, and were overthrown ina great battle, (Hist. De Gengiscan, l. Iv. C. 9, p. 447. )]

[Footnote 34: The embassies and first conquests of the Avars may be readin Menander, (Excerpt. Legat. P. 99, 100, 101, 154, 155, ) Theophanes, (p. 196, ) the Historia Miscella, (l. Xvi. P. 109, ) and Gregory of Tours, (L iv. C. 23, 29, in the Historians of France, tom. Ii. P. 214, 217. )]

Perhaps the apparent change in the dispositions of the emperors may beascribed to the embassy which was received from the conquerors of theAvars. [35] The immense distance which eluded their arms could notextinguish their resentment: the Turkish ambassadors pursued thefootsteps of the vanquished to the Jaik, the Volga, Mount Caucasus, theEuxine and Constantinople, and at length appeared before the successorof Constantine, to request that he would not espouse the cause ofrebels and fugitives. Even commerce had some share in this remarkablenegotiation: and the Sogdoites, who were now the tributaries of theTurks, embraced the fair occasion of opening, by the north of theCaspian, a new road for the importation of Chinese silk into the Romanempire. The Persian, who preferred the navigation of Ceylon, had stoppedthe caravans of Bochara and Samarcand: their silk was contemptuouslyburnt: some Turkish ambassadors died in Persia, with a suspicion ofpoison; and the great khan permitted his faithful vassal Maniach, theprince of the Sogdoites, to propose, at the Byzantine court, a treaty ofalliance against their common enemies. Their splendid apparel and richpresents, the fruit of Oriental luxury, distinguished Maniach and hiscolleagues from the rude savages of the North: their letters, in theScythian character and language, announced a people who had attained therudiments of science: [36] they enumerated the conquests, they offeredthe friendship and military aid of the Turks; and their sincerity wasattested by direful imprecations (if they were guilty of falsehood)against their own head, and the head of Disabul their master. The Greekprince entertained with hospitable regard the ambassadors of a remoteand powerful monarch: the sight of silk-worms and looms disappointed thehopes of the Sogdoites; the emperor renounced, or seemed to renounce, the fugitive Avars, but he accepted the alliance of the Turks; and theratification of the treaty was carried by a Roman minister to the footof Mount Altai. Under the successors of Justinian, the friendship of thetwo nations was cultivated by frequent and cordial intercourse; the mostfavored vassals were permitted to imitate the example of the great khan, and one hundred and six Turks, who, on various occasions, had visitedConstantinople, departed at the same time for their native country. Theduration and length of the journey from the Byzantine court to MountAltai are not specified: it might have been difficult to mark a roadthrough the nameless deserts, the mountains, rivers, and morasses ofTartary; but a curious account has been preserved of the reception ofthe Roman ambassadors at the royal camp. After they had been purifiedwith fire and incense, according to a rite still practised under thesons of Zingis, [3611] they were introduced to the presence of Disabul. In a valley of the Golden Mountain, they found the great khan inhis tent, seated in a chair with wheels, to which a horse might beoccasionally harnessed. As soon as they had delivered their presents, which were received by the proper officers, they exposed, in a floridoration, the wishes of the Roman emperor, that victory might attend thearms of the Turks, that their reign might be long and prosperous, and that a strict alliance, without envy or deceit, might forever bemaintained between the two most powerful nations of the earth. Theanswer of Disabul corresponded with these friendly professions, andthe ambassadors were seated by his side, at a banquet which lasted thegreatest part of the day: the tent was surrounded with silk hangings, and a Tartar liquor was served on the table, which possessed at leastthe intoxicating qualities of wine. The entertainment of the succeedingday was more sumptuous; the silk hangings of the second tent wereembroidered in various figures; and the royal seat, the cups, and thevases, were of gold. A third pavilion was supported by columns of giltwood; a bed of pure and massy gold was raised on four peacocks of thesame metal: and before the entrance of the tent, dishes, basins, andstatues of solid silver, and admirable art, were ostentatiously piled inwagons, the monuments of valor rather than of industry. When Disabul ledhis armies against the frontiers of Persia, his Roman allies followedmany days the march of the Turkish camp, nor were they dismissed tillthey had enjoyed their precedency over the envoy of the great king, whose loud and intemperate clamors interrupted the silence of the royalbanquet. The power and ambition of Chosroes cemented the union of theTurks and Romans, who touched his dominions on either side: but thosedistant nations, regardless of each other, consulted the dictates ofinterest, without recollecting the obligations of oaths and treaties. While the successor of Disabul celebrated his father's obsequies, hewas saluted by the ambassadors of the emperor Tiberius, who proposed aninvasion of Persia, and sustained, with firmness, the angry and perhapsthe just reproaches of that haughty Barbarian. "You see my ten fingers, "said the great khan, and he applied them to his mouth. "You Romans speakwith as many tongues, but they are tongues of deceit and perjury. Tome you hold one language, to my subjects another; and the nations aresuccessively deluded by your perfidious eloquence. You precipitate yourallies into war and danger, you enjoy their labors, and you neglectyour benefactors. Hasten your return, inform your master that a Turk isincapable of uttering or forgiving falsehood, and that he shall speedilymeet the punishment which he deserves. While he solicits my friendshipwith flattering and hollow words, he is sunk to a confederate ofmy fugitive Varchonites. If I condescend to march against thosecontemptible slaves, they will tremble at the sound of our whips; theywill be trampled, like a nest of ants, under the feet of my innumerablecavalry. I am not ignorant of the road which they have followed toinvade your empire; nor can I be deceived by the vain pretence, thatMount Caucasus is the impregnable barrier of the Romans. I know thecourse of the Niester, the Danube, and the Hebrus; the most warlikenations have yielded to the arms of the Turks; and from the rising tothe setting sun, the earth is my inheritance. " Notwithstanding thismenace, a sense of mutual advantage soon renewed the alliance ofthe Turks and Romans: but the pride of the great khan survived hisresentment; and when he announced an important conquest to his friendthe emperor Maurice, he styled himself the master of the seven races, and the lord of the seven climates of the world. [37]

[Footnote 35: Theophanes, (Chron. P. 204, ) and the Hist. Miscella, (l. Xvi. P. 110, ) as understood by De Guignes, (tom. I. Part ii. P. 354, )appear to speak of a Turkish embassy to Justinian himself; but that ofManiach, in the fourth year of his successor Justin, is positively thefirst that reached Constantinople, (Menander p. 108. )]

[Footnote 36: The Russians have found characters, rude hieroglyphics, onthe Irtish and Yenisei, on medals, tombs, idols, rocks, obelisks, &c. , (Strahlenberg, Hist. Of Siberia, p. 324, 346, 406, 429. ) Dr. Hyde (deReligione Veterum Persarum, p. 521, &c. ) has given two alphabets ofThibet and of the Eygours. I have long harbored a suspicion, that allthe Scythian, and some, perhaps much, of the Indian science, wasderived from the Greeks of Bactriana. * Note: Modern discoveries give noconfirmation to this suspicion. The character of Indian science, aswell as of their literature and mythology, indicates an original source. Grecian art may have occasionally found its way into India. One or twoof the sculptures in Col. Tod's account of the Jain temples, if correct, show a finer outline, and purer sense of beauty, than appears native toIndia, where the monstrous always predominated over simple nature. --M. ]

[Footnote 3611: This rite is so curious, that I have subjoined thedescription of it:-- When these (the exorcisers, the Shamans) approachedZemarchus, they took all our baggage and placed it in the centre. Then, kindling a fire with branches of frankincense, lowly murmuring certainbarbarous words in the Scythian language, beating on a kind of bell(a gong) and a drum, they passed over the baggage the leaves of thefrankincense, crackling with the fire, and at the same time themselvesbecoming frantic, and violently leaping about, seemed to exorcise theevil spirits. Having thus as they thought, averted all evil, they ledZemarchus himself through the fire. Menander, in Niebuhr's Bryant. Hist. P. 381. Compare Carpini's Travels. The princes of the race of ZingisKhan condescended to receive the ambassadors of the king of France, atthe end of the 13th century without their submitting to this humiliatingrite. See Correspondence published by Abel Remusat, Nouv. Mem. De l'Acaddes Inscrip. Vol. Vii. On the embassy of Zemarchus, compare Klaproth, Tableaux de l'Asie p. 116. --M. ]

[Footnote 37: All the details of these Turkish and Roman embassies, socurious in the history of human manners, are drawn from the extracts ofMenander, (p. 106--110, 151--154, 161-164, ) in which we often regret thewant of order and connection. ]

Disputes have often arisen between the sovereigns of Asia for the titleof king of the world; while the contest has proved that it could notbelong to either of the competitors. The kingdom of the Turks wasbounded by the Oxus or Gihon; and Touran was separated by that greatriver from the rival monarchy of Iran, or Persia, which in a smallercompass contained perhaps a larger measure of power and population. ThePersians, who alternately invaded and repulsed the Turks and the Romans, were still ruled by the house of Sassan, which ascended the thronethree hundred years before the accession of Justinian. His contemporary, Cabades, or Kobad, had been successful in war against the emperorAnastasius; but the reign of that prince was distracted by civil andreligious troubles. A prisoner in the hands of his subjects, an exileamong the enemies of Persia, he recovered his liberty by prostitutingthe honor of his wife, and regained his kingdom with the dangerous andmercenary aid of the Barbarians, who had slain his father. His nobleswere suspicious that Kobad never forgave the authors of his expulsion, or even those of his restoration. The people was deluded and inflamed bythe fanaticism of Mazdak, [38] who asserted the community of women, [39]and the equality of mankind, whilst he appropriated the richest landsand most beautiful females to the use of his sectaries. The view ofthese disorders, which had been fomented by his laws and example, [40]imbittered the declining age of the Persian monarch; and his fears wereincreased by the consciousness of his design to reverse the natural andcustomary order of succession, in favor of his third and most favoredson, so famous under the names of Chosroes and Nushirvan. To render theyouth more illustrious in the eyes of the nations, Kobad was desirousthat he should be adopted by the emperor Justin: [4011] the hope ofpeace inclined the Byzantine court to accept this singular proposal; andChosroes might have acquired a specious claim to the inheritance of hisRoman parent. But the future mischief was diverted by the advice of thequaestor Proclus: a difficulty was started, whether the adoption shouldbe performed as a civil or military rite; [41] the treaty was abruptlydissolved; and the sense of this indignity sunk deep into the mindof Chosroes, who had already advanced to the Tigris on his road toConstantinople. His father did not long survive the disappointment ofhis wishes: the testament of their deceased sovereign was read in theassembly of the nobles; and a powerful faction, prepared for the event, and regardless of the priority of age, exalted Chosroes to the throne ofPersia. He filled that throne during a prosperous period of forty-eightyears; [42] and the Justice of Nushirvan is celebrated as the theme ofimmortal praise by the nations of the East. 

[Footnote 38: See D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. P. 568, 929;) Hyde, (deReligione Vet. Persarum, c. 21, p. 290, 291;) Pocock, (Specimen Hist. Arab. P. 70, 71;) Eutychius, (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 176;) Texeira, (in Stevens, Hist. Of Persia, l. I. C. 34. ) * Note: Mazdak was anArchimagus, born, according to Mirkhond, (translated by De Sacy, p. 353, and Malcolm, vol. I. P. 104, ) at Istakhar or Persepolis, according toan inedited and anonymous history, (the Modjmal-alte-warikh in the RoyalLibrary at Paris, quoted by St. Martin, vol. Vii. P. 322) at Wischapourin Chorasan: his father's name was Bamdadam. He announces himself asa reformer of Zoroastrianism, and carried the doctrine of thetwo principles to a much grater height. He preached the absoluteindifference of human action, perfect equality of rank, communityof property and of women, marriages between the nearest kindred; heinterdicted the use of animal food, proscribed the killing of animalsfor food, enforced a vegetable diet. See St. Martin, vol. Vii. P. 322. Malcolm, vol. I. P. 104. Mirkhond translated by De Sacy. Itis remarkable that the doctrine of Mazdak spread into the West. Twoinscriptions found in Cyrene, in 1823, and explained by M. Gesenius, and by M. Hamaker of Leyden, prove clearly that his doctrines had beeneagerly embraced by the remains of the ancient Gnostics; and Mazdak wasenrolled with Thoth, Saturn, Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Epicurus, John, andChrist, as the teachers of true Gnostic wisdom. See St. Martin, vol. Vii. P. 338. Gesenius de Inscriptione Phoenicio-Graeca in Cyrenaicanuper reperta, Halle, 1825. Hamaker, Lettre a M. Raoul Rochette, Leyden, 1825. --M. ]

[Footnote 39: The fame of the new law for the community of women wassoon propagated in Syria (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Iii. P. 402)and Greece, (Procop. Persic. L. I. C. 5. )]

[Footnote 40: He offered his own wife and sister to the prophet; but theprayers of Nushirvan saved his mother, and the indignant monarch neverforgave the humiliation to which his filial piety had stooped: pedestuos deosculatus (said he to Mazdak, ) cujus foetor adhuc nares occupat, (Pocock, Specimen Hist. Arab. P. 71. )]

[Footnote 4011: St. Martin questions this adoption: he urges itsimprobability; and supposes that Procopius, perverting some populartraditions, or the remembrance of some fruitless negotiations which tookplace at that time, has mistaken, for a treaty of adoption some treatyof guaranty or protection for the purpose of insuring the crown, afterthe death of Kobad, to his favorite son Chosroes, vol. Viii. P. 32. Yetthe Greek historians seem unanimous as to the proposal: the Persiansmight be expected to maintain silence on such a subject. --M. ]

[Footnote 41: Procopius, Persic. L. I. C. 11. Was not Proclus over-wise?Was not the danger imaginary?--The excuse, at least, was injurious toa nation not ignorant of letters. Whether any mode of adoption waspractised in Persia, I much doubt. ]

[Footnote 42: From Procopius and Agathias, Pagi (tom. Ii. P. 543, 626)has proved that Chosroes Nushirvan ascended the throne in the fifthyear of Justinian, (A. D. 531, April 1. --A. D. 532, April 1. ) But thetrue chronology, which harmonizes with the Greeks and Orientals, isascertained by John Malala, (tom. Ii. 211. ) Cabades, or Kobad, after areign of forty-three years and two months, sickened the 8th, and diedthe 13th of September, A. D. 531, aged eighty-two years. According to theannals of Eutychius, Nushirvan reigned forty seven years and six months;and his death must consequently be placed in March, A. D. 579. ]

But the justice of kings is understood by themselves, and even by theirsubjects, with an ample indulgence for the gratification of passion andinterest. The virtue of Chosroes was that of a conqueror, who, in themeasures of peace and war, is excited by ambition, and restrained byprudence; who confounds the greatness with the happiness of a nation, and calmly devotes the lives of thousands to the fame, or even theamusement, of a single man. In his domestic administration, the justNushirvan would merit in our feelings the appellation of a tyrant. Histwo elder brothers had been deprived of their fair expectations of thediadem: their future life, between the supreme rank and the condition ofsubjects, was anxious to themselves and formidable to their master: fearas well as revenge might tempt them to rebel: the slightest evidenceof a conspiracy satisfied the author of their wrongs; and the repose ofChosroes was secured by the death of these unhappy princes, with theirfamilies and adherents. One guiltless youth was saved and dismissed bythe compassion of a veteran general; and this act of humanity, which wasrevealed by his son, overbalanced the merit of reducing twelve nationsto the obedience of Persia. The zeal and prudence of Mebodes had fixedthe diadem on the head of Chosroes himself; but he delayed to attend theroyal summons, till he had performed the duties of a military review: hewas instantly commanded to repair to the iron tripod, which stood beforethe gate of the palace, [43] where it was death to relieve or approachthe victim; and Mebodes languished several days before his sentence waspronounced, by the inflexible pride and calm ingratitude of the sonof Kobad. But the people, more especially in the East, is disposed toforgive, and even to applaud, the cruelty which strikes at the loftiestheads; at the slaves of ambition, whose voluntary choice has exposedthem to live in the smiles, and to perish by the frown, of a capriciousmonarch. In the execution of the laws which he had no temptation toviolate; in the punishment of crimes which attacked his own dignity, aswell as the happiness of individuals; Nushirvan, or Chosroes, deservedthe appellation of just. His government was firm, rigorous, andimpartial. It was the first labor of his reign to abolish the dangeroustheory of common or equal possessions: the lands and women which thesectaries of Mazdak has usurped were restored to their lawful owners;and the temperate [4311] chastisement of the fanatics or impostorsconfirmed the domestic rights of society. Instead of listening withblind confidence to a favorite minister, he established four viziersover the four great provinces of his empire, Assyria, Media, Persia, and Bactriana. In the choice of judges, praefects, and counsellors, hestrove to remove the mask which is always worn in the presence of kings:he wished to substitute the natural order of talents for the accidentaldistinctions of birth and fortune; he professed, in specious language, his intention to prefer those men who carried the poor in their bosoms, and to banish corruption from the seat of justice, as dogs were excludedfrom the temples of the Magi. The code of laws of the first Artaxerxeswas revived and published as the rule of the magistrates; but theassurance of speedy punishment was the best security of their virtue. Their behavior was inspected by a thousand eyes, their words wereoverheard by a thousand ears, the secret or public agents of thethrone; and the provinces, from the Indian to the Arabian confines, were enlightened by the frequent visits of a sovereign, who affectedto emulate his celestial brother in his rapid and salutary career. Education and agriculture he viewed as the two objects most deserving ofhis care. In every city of Persia orphans, and the children of the poor, were maintained and instructed at the public expense; the daughters weregiven in marriage to the richest citizens of their own rank, and thesons, according to their different talents, were employed in mechanictrades, or promoted to more honorable service. The deserted villageswere relieved by his bounty; to the peasants and farmers who were foundincapable of cultivating their lands, he distributed cattle, seed, andthe instruments of husbandry; and the rare and inestimable treasure offresh water was parsimoniously managed, and skilfully dispersed over thearid territory of Persia. [44] The prosperity of that kingdom was theeffect and evidence of his virtues; his vices are those of Orientaldespotism; but in the long competition between Chosroes and Justinian, the advantage both of merit and fortune is almost always on the side ofthe Barbarian. [45]

[Footnote 43: Procopius, Persic. L. I. C. 23. Brisson, de Regn. Pers. P. 494. The gate of the palace of Ispahan is, or was, the fatal scene ofdisgrace or death, (Chardin, Voyage en Perse, tom. Iv. P. 312, 313. )]

[Footnote 4311: This is a strange term. Nushirvan employed a stratagemsimilar to that of Jehu, 2 Kings, x. 18--28, to separate the followersof Mazdak from the rest of his subjects, and with a body of his troopscut them all in pieces. The Greek writers concur with the Persian inthis representation of Nushirvan's temperate conduct. Theophanes, p. 146. Mirkhond. P. 362. Eutychius, Ann. Vol. Ii. P. 179. Abulfeda, in anunedited part, consulted by St. Martin as well as in a passage formerlycited. Le Beau vol. Viii. P. 38. Malcolm vol l p. 109. --M. ]

[Footnote 44: In Persia, the prince of the waters is an officerof state. The number of wells and subterraneous channels is muchdiminished, and with it the fertility of the soil: 400 wells have beenrecently lost near Tauris, and 42, 000 were once reckoned in the provinceof Khorasan (Chardin, tom. Iii. P. 99, 100. Tavernier, tom. I. P. 416. )]

[Footnote 45: The character and government of Nushirvan is representedsome times in the words of D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. P. 680, &c. , from Khondemir, ) Eutychius, (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 179, 180, --very rich, )Abulpharagius, (Dynast. Vii. P. 94, 95, --very poor, ) Tarikh Schikard, (p. 144--150, ) Texeira, (in Stevens, l. I. C. 35, ) Asseman, (BibliotOrient. Tom. Iii. P. 404-410, ) and the Abbe Fourmont, (Hist. De l'Acad. Des Inscriptions, tom. Vii. P. 325--334, ) who has translated a spuriousor genuine testament of Nushirvan. ]

To the praise of justice Nushirvan united the reputation of knowledge;and the seven Greek philosophers, who visited his court, were invitedand deceived by the strange assurance, that a disciple of Platowas seated on the Persian throne. Did they expect, that a prince, strenuously exercised in the toils of war and government, shouldagitate, with dexterity like their own, the abstruse and profoundquestions which amused the leisure of the schools of Athens? Could theyhope that the precepts of philosophy should direct the life, and controlthe passions, of a despot, whose infancy had been taught to consider hisabsolute and fluctuating will as the only rule of moral obligation?[46] The studies of Chosroes were ostentatious and superficial: but hisexample awakened the curiosity of an ingenious people, and the light ofscience was diffused over the dominions of Persia. [47] At Gondi Sapor, in the neighborhood of the royal city of Susa, an academy of physic wasfounded, which insensibly became a liberal school of poetry, philosophy, and rhetoric. [48] The annals of the monarchy [49] were composed; andwhile recent and authentic history might afford some useful lessons bothto the prince and people, the darkness of the first ages was embellishedby the giants, the dragons, and the fabulous heroes of Oriental romance. [50] Every learned or confident stranger was enriched by the bounty, andflattered by the conversation, of the monarch: he nobly rewarded a Greekphysician, [51] by the deliverance of three thousand, captives; and thesophists, who contended for his favor, were exasperated by the wealthand insolence of Uranius, their more successful rival. Nushirvanbelieved, or at least respected, the religion of the Magi; and sometraces of persecution may be discovered in his reign. [52] Yet heallowed himself freely to compare the tenets of the various sects; andthe theological disputes, in which he frequently presided, diminishedthe authority of the priest, and enlightened the minds of the people. At his command, the most celebrated writers of Greece and India weretranslated into the Persian language; a smooth and elegant idiom, recommended by Mahomet to the use of paradise; though it is branded withthe epithets of savage and unmusical, by the ignorance and presumptionof Agathias. [53] Yet the Greek historian might reasonably wonder thatit should be found possible to execute an entire version of Plato andAristotle in a foreign dialect, which had not been framed to express thespirit of freedom and the subtilties of philosophic disquisition. And, if the reason of the Stagyrite might be equally dark, or equallyintelligible in every tongue, the dramatic art and verbal argumentationof the disciple of Socrates, [54] appear to be indissolubly mingled withthe grace and perfection of his Attic style. In the search of universalknowledge, Nushirvan was informed, that the moral and political fablesof Pilpay, an ancient Brachman, were preserved with jealous reverenceamong the treasures of the kings of India. The physician Perozes wassecretly despatched to the banks of the Ganges, with instructions toprocure, at any price, the communication of this valuable work. Hisdexterity obtained a transcript, his learned diligence accomplished thetranslation; and the fables of Pilpay [55] were read and admired inthe assembly of Nushirvan and his nobles. The Indian original, and thePersian copy, have long since disappeared; but this venerable monumenthas been saved by the curiosity of the Arabian caliphs, revived inthe modern Persic, the Turkish, the Syriac, the Hebrew, and the Greekidioms, and transfused through successive versions into the modernlanguages of Europe. In their present form, the peculiar character, themanners and religion of the Hindoos, are completely obliterated; and theintrinsic merit of the fables of Pilpay is far inferior to the conciseelegance of Phaedrus, and the native graces of La Fontaine. Fifteenmoral and political sentences are illustrated in a series of apologues:but the composition is intricate, the narrative prolix, and the preceptobvious and barren. Yet the Brachman may assume the merit of inventinga pleasing fiction, which adorns the nakedness of truth, and alleviates, perhaps, to a royal ear, the harshness of instruction. With a similardesign, to admonish kings that they are strong only in the strength oftheir subjects, the same Indians invented the game of chess, which waslikewise introduced into Persia under the reign of Nushirvan. [56]

[Footnote 46: A thousand years before his birth, the judges of Persiahad given a solemn opinion, (Herodot. L. Iii. C. 31, p. 210, edit. Wesseling. ) Nor had this constitutional maxim been neglected as auseless and barren theory. ]

[Footnote 47: On the literary state of Persia, the Greek versions, philosophers, sophists, the learning or ignorance of Chosroes, Agathias(l. Ii. C. 66--71) displays much information and strong prejudices. ]

[Footnote 48: Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Iv. P. DCCXLV. Vi. Vii. ]

[Footnote 49: The Shah Nameh, or Book of Kings, is perhaps the originalrecord of history which was translated into Greek by the interpreterSergius, (Agathias, l. V. P. 141, ) preserved after the Mahometanconquest, and versified in the year 994, by the national poet Ferdoussi. See D'Anquetil (Mem. De l'Academie, tom. Xxxi. P. 379) and Sir WilliamJones, (Hist. Of Nadir Shah, p. 161. )]

[Footnote 50: In the fifth century, the name of Restom, or Rostam, ahero who equalled the strength of twelve elephants, was familiar to theArmenians, (Moses Chorenensis, Hist. Armen. L. Ii. C. 7, p. 96, edit. Whiston. ) In the beginning of the seventh, the Persian Romance of Rostamand Isfendiar was applauded at Mecca, (Sale's Koran, c. Xxxi. P. 335. )Yet this exposition of ludicrum novae historiae is not given by Maracci, (Refutat. Alcoran. P. 544--548. )]

[Footnote 51: Procop. (Goth. L. Iv. C. 10. ) Kobad had a favorite Greekphysician, Stephen of Edessa, (Persic. L. Ii. C. 26. ) The practice wasancient; and Herodotus relates the adventures of Democedes of Crotona, (l. Iii p. 125--137. )]

[Footnote 52: See Pagi, tom. Ii. P. 626. In one of the treaties anhonorable article was inserted for the toleration and burial of theCatholics, (Menander, in Excerpt. Legat. P. 142. ) Nushizad, a son ofNushirvan, was a Christian, a rebel, and--a martyr? (D'Herbelot, p. 681. )]

[Footnote 53: On the Persian language, and its three dialects, consultD'Anquetil (p. 339--343) and Jones, (p. 153--185:) is the characterwhich Agathias (l. Ii. P. 66) ascribes to an idiom renowned in the Eastfor poetical softness. ]

[Footnote 54: Agathias specifies the Gorgias, Phaedon, Parmenides, andTimaeus. Renaudot (Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Xii. P. 246--261)does not mention this Barbaric version of Aristotle. ]

[Footnote 55: Of these fables, I have seen three copies in threedifferent languages: 1. In Greek, translated by Simeon Seth (A. D. 1100)from the Arabic, and published by Starck at Berlin in 1697, in 12mo. 2. In Latin, a version from the Greek Sapientia Indorum, inserted by PerePoussin at the end of his edition of Pachymer, (p. 547--620, edit. Roman. ) 3. In French, from the Turkish, dedicated, in 1540, to SultanSoliman Contes et Fables Indiennes de Bidpai et de Lokman, par Mm. Galland et Cardonne, Paris, 1778, 3 vols. In 12mo. Mr. Warton (Historyof English Poetry, vol. I. P. 129--131) takes a larger scope. * Note:The oldest Indian collection extant is the Pancha-tantra, (the fivecollections, ) analyzed by Mr. Wilson in the Transactions of the RoyalAsiat. Soc. It was translated into Persian by Barsuyah, the physicianof Nushirvan, under the name of the Fables of Bidpai, (Vidyapriya, theFriend of Knowledge, or, as the Oriental writers understand it, theFriend of Medicine. ) It was translated into Arabic by Abdolla IbnMokaffa, under the name of Kalila and Dimnah. From the Arabic it passedinto the European languages. Compare Wilson, in Trans. As. Soc. I. 52. Dohlen, das alte Indien, ii. P. 386. Silvestre de Sacy, Memoire surKalila vs Dimnah. --M. ]

[Footnote 56: See the Historia Shahiludii of Dr. Hyde, (Syntagm. Dissertat. Tom. Ii. P. 61--69. )]

Chapter XLII: State Of The Barbaric World. --Part III. 

The son of Kobad found his kingdom involved in a war with the successorof Constantine; and the anxiety of his domestic situation inclinedhim to grant the suspension of arms, which Justinian was impatient topurchase. Chosroes saw the Roman ambassadors at his feet. He acceptedeleven thousand pounds of gold, as the price of an endless or indefinitepeace: [57] some mutual exchanges were regulated; the Persian assumedthe guard of the gates of Caucasus, and the demolition of Dara wassuspended, on condition that it should never be made the residence ofthe general of the East. This interval of repose had been solicited, and was diligently improved, by the ambition of the emperor: his Africanconquests were the first fruits of the Persian treaty; and the avariceof Chosroes was soothed by a large portion of the spoils of Carthage, which his ambassadors required in a tone of pleasantry and under thecolor of friendship. [58] But the trophies of Belisarius disturbed theslumbers of the great king; and he heard with astonishment, envy, andfear, that Sicily, Italy, and Rome itself, had been reduced, in threerapid campaigns, to the obedience of Justinian. Unpractised in the artof violating treaties, he secretly excited his bold and subtle vassalAlmondar. That prince of the Saracens, who resided at Hira, [59] hadnot been included in the general peace, and still waged an obscurewar against his rival Arethas, the chief of the tribe of Gassan, andconfederate of the empire. The subject of their dispute was an extensivesheep-walk in the desert to the south of Palmyra. An immemorial tributefor the license of pasture appeared to attest the rights of Almondar, while the Gassanite appealed to the Latin name of strata, a paved road, as an unquestionable evidence of the sovereignty and labors of theRomans. [60] The two monarchs supported the cause of their respectivevassals; and the Persian Arab, without expecting the event of a slowand doubtful arbitration, enriched his flying camp with the spoil andcaptives of Syria. Instead of repelling the arms, Justinian attempted toseduce the fidelity of Almondar, while he called from the extremities ofthe earth the nations of Aethiopia and Scythia to invade the dominionsof his rival. But the aid of such allies was distant and precarious, andthe discovery of this hostile correspondence justified the complaintsof the Goths and Armenians, who implored, almost at the same time, the protection of Chosroes. The descendants of Arsaces, who were stillnumerous in Armenia, had been provoked to assert the last relics ofnational freedom and hereditary rank; and the ambassadors of Vitigeshad secretly traversed the empire to expose the instant, and almostinevitable, danger of the kingdom of Italy. Their representations wereuniform, weighty, and effectual. "We stand before your throne, theadvocates of your interest as well as of our own. The ambitious andfaithless Justinian aspires to be the sole master of the world. Sincethe endless peace, which betrayed the common freedom of mankind, thatprince, your ally in words, your enemy in actions, has alike insultedhis friends and foes, and has filled the earth with blood and confusion. Has he not violated the privileges of Armenia, the independence ofColchos, and the wild liberty of the Tzanian mountains? Has he notusurped, with equal avidity, the city of Bosphorus on the frozenMaeotis, and the vale of palm-trees on the shores of the Red Sea? TheMoors, the Vandals, the Goths, have been successively oppressed, andeach nation has calmly remained the spectator of their neighbor's ruin. Embrace, O king! the favorable moment; the East is left without defence, while the armies of Justinian and his renowned general are detained inthe distant regions of the West. If you hesitate or delay, Belisariusand his victorious troops will soon return from the Tyber to theTigris, and Persia may enjoy the wretched consolation of being the lastdevoured. " [61] By such arguments, Chosroes was easily persuaded toimitate the example which he condemned: but the Persian, ambitious ofmilitary fame, disdained the inactive warfare of a rival, who issuedhis sanguinary commands from the secure station of the Byzantine palace. [Footnote 57: The endless peace (Procopius, Persic. L. I. C. 21)was concluded or ratified in the vith year, and iiid consulship, ofJustinian, (A. D. 533, between January 1 and April 1. Pagi, tom. Ii. P. 550. ) Marcellinus, in his Chronicle, uses the style of Medes andPersians. ]

[Footnote 58: Procopius, Persic. L. I. C. 26. ]

[Footnote 59: Almondar, king of Hira, was deposed by Kobad, and restoredby Nushirvan. His mother, from her beauty, was surnamed Celestial Water, an appellation which became hereditary, and was extended for a morenoble cause (liberality in famine) to the Arab princes of Syria, (Pocock, Specimen Hist. Arab. P. 69, 70. )]

[Footnote 60: Procopius, Persic. L. Ii. C. 1. We are ignorant of theorigin and object of this strata, a paved road of ten days' journey fromAuranitis to Babylonia. (See a Latin note in Delisle's Map Imp. Orient. )Wesseling and D'Anville are silent. ]

[Footnote 61: I have blended, in a short speech, the two orations ofthe Arsacides of Armenia and the Gothic ambassadors. Procopius, in hispublic history, feels, and makes us feel, that Justinian was the trueauthor of the war, (Persic. L. Ii. C. 2, 3. )]

Whatever might be the provocations of Chosroes, he abused the confidenceof treaties; and the just reproaches of dissimulation and falsehoodcould only be concealed by the lustre of his victories. [62] The Persianarmy, which had been assembled in the plains of Babylon, prudentlydeclined the strong cities of Mesopotamia, and followed the western bankof the Euphrates, till the small, though populous, town of Dura [6211]presumed to arrest the progress of the great king. The gates of Dura, by treachery and surprise, were burst open; and as soon as Chosroes hadstained his cimeter with the blood of the inhabitants, he dismissed theambassador of Justinian to inform his master in what place he had leftthe enemy of the Romans. The conqueror still affected the praise ofhumanity and justice; and as he beheld a noble matron with her infantrudely dragged along the ground, he sighed, he wept, and implored thedivine justice to punish the author of these calamities. Yet the herdof twelve thousand captives was ransomed for two hundred pounds of gold;the neighboring bishop of Sergiopolis pledged his faith for the payment:and in the subsequent year the unfeeling avarice of Chosroes exactedthe penalty of an obligation which it was generous to contract andimpossible to discharge. He advanced into the heart of Syria: but afeeble enemy, who vanished at his approach, disappointed him of thehonor of victory; and as he could not hope to establish his dominion, the Persian king displayed in this inroad the mean and rapacious vicesof a robber. Hierapolis, Berrhaea or Aleppo, Apamea and Chalcis, weresuccessively besieged: they redeemed their safety by a ransom of goldor silver, proportioned to their respective strength and opulence; andtheir new master enforced, without observing, the terms of capitulation. Educated in the religion of the Magi, he exercised, without remorse, thelucrative trade of sacrilege; and, after stripping of its gold and gemsa piece of the true cross, he generously restored the naked relic to thedevotion of the Christians of Apamea. No more than fourteen years hadelapsed since Antioch was ruined by an earthquake; [6212] but the queenof the East, the new Theopolis, had been raised from the ground by theliberality of Justinian; and the increasing greatness of the buildingsand the people already erased the memory of this recent disaster. On oneside, the city was defended by the mountain, on the other by the RiverOrontes; but the most accessible part was commanded by a superioreminence: the proper remedies were rejected, from the despicable fearof discovering its weakness to the enemy; and Germanus, the emperor'snephew, refused to trust his person and dignity within the walls ofa besieged city. The people of Antioch had inherited the vain andsatirical genius of their ancestors: they were elated by a suddenreenforcement of six thousand soldiers; they disdained the offers ofan easy capitulation and their intemperate clamors insulted from theramparts the majesty of the great king. Under his eye the Persianmyriads mounted with scaling-ladders to the assault; the Romanmercenaries fled through the opposite gate of Daphne; and the generousassistance of the youth of Antioch served only to aggravate the miseriesof their country. As Chosroes, attended by the ambassadors of Justinian, was descending from the mountain, he affected, in a plaintive voice, todeplore the obstinacy and ruin of that unhappy people; but the slaughterstill raged with unrelenting fury; and the city, at the command of aBarbarian, was delivered to the flames. The cathedral of Antioch wasindeed preserved by the avarice, not the piety, of the conqueror: a morehonorable exemption was granted to the church of St. Julian, and thequarter of the town where the ambassadors resided; some distant streetswere saved by the shifting of the wind, and the walls still subsistedto protect, and soon to betray, their new inhabitants. Fanaticism haddefaced the ornaments of Daphne, but Chosroes breathed a purer airamidst her groves and fountains; and some idolaters in his train mightsacrifice with impunity to the nymphs of that elegant retreat. Eighteenmiles below Antioch, the River Orontes falls into the Mediterranean. Thehaughty Persian visited the term of his conquests; and, after bathingalone in the sea, he offered a solemn sacrifice of thanksgiving to thesun, or rather to the Creator of the sun, whom the Magi adored. If thisact of superstition offended the prejudices of the Syrians, they werepleased by the courteous and even eager attention with which he assistedat the games of the circus; and as Chosroes had heard that the bluefaction was espoused by the emperor, his peremptory command secured thevictory of the green charioteer. From the discipline of his camp thepeople derived more solid consolation; and they interceded in vain forthe life of a soldier who had too faithfully copied the rapine of thejust Nushirvan. At length, fatigued, though unsatiated, with the spoilof Syria, [6213] he slowly moved to the Euphrates, formed a temporarybridge in the neighborhood of Barbalissus, and defined the space ofthree days for the entire passage of his numerous host. After hisreturn, he founded, at the distance of one day's journey from the palaceof Ctesiphon, a new city, which perpetuated the joint names of Chosroesand of Antioch. The Syrian captives recognized the form and situationof their native abodes: baths and a stately circus were constructed fortheir use; and a colony of musicians and charioteers revived in Assyriathe pleasures of a Greek capital. By the munificence of the royalfounder, a liberal allowance was assigned to these fortunate exiles; andthey enjoyed the singular privilege of bestowing freedom on the slaveswhom they acknowledged as their kinsmen. Palestine, and the holy wealthof Jerusalem, were the next objects that attracted the ambition, orrather the avarice, of Chosroes. Constantinople, and the palace of theCaesars, no longer appeared impregnable or remote; and his aspiringfancy already covered Asia Minor with the troops, and the Black Sea withthe navies, of Persia. 

[Footnote 62: The invasion of Syria, the ruin of Antioch, &c. , arerelated in a full and regular series by Procopius, (Persic. L. Ii. C. 5--14. ) Small collateral aid can be drawn from the Orientals: yet notthey, but D'Herbelot himself, (p. 680, ) should blush when he blames themfor making Justinian and Nushirvan contemporaries. On the geography ofthe seat of war, D'Anville (l'Euphrate et le Tigre) is sufficient andsatisfactory. ]

[Footnote 6211: It is Sura in Procopius. Is it a misprint inGibbon?--M. ]

[Footnote 6212: Joannes Lydus attributes the easy capture of Antiochto the want of fortifications which had not been restored since theearthquake, l. Iii. C. 54. P. 246. --M. ]

[Footnote 6213: Lydus asserts that he carried away all the statues, pictures, and marbles which adorned the city, l. Iii. C. 54, p. 246. --M. ]

These hopes might have been realized, if the conqueror of Italy had notbeen seasonably recalled to the defence of the East. [63] While Chosroespursued his ambitious designs on the coast of the Euxine, Belisarius, at the head of an army without pay or discipline, encamped beyond theEuphrates, within six miles of Nisibis. He meditated, by a skilfuloperation, to draw the Persians from their impregnable citadel, andimproving his advantage in the field, either to intercept their retreat, or perhaps to enter the gates with the flying Barbarians. He advancedone day's journey on the territories of Persia, reduced the fortress ofSisaurane, and sent the governor, with eight hundred chosen horsemen, to serve the emperor in his Italian wars. He detached Arethas and hisArabs, supported by twelve hundred Romans, to pass the Tigris, and toravage the harvests of Assyria, a fruitful province, long exempt fromthe calamities of war. But the plans of Belisarius were disconcerted bythe untractable spirit of Arethas, who neither returned to the camp, nor sent any intelligence of his motions. The Roman general was fixedin anxious expectation to the same spot; the time of action elapsed, theardent sun of Mesopotamia inflamed with fevors the blood of his Europeansoldiers; and the stationary troops and officers of Syria affected totremble for the safety of their defenceless cities. Yet this diversionhad already succeeded in forcing Chosroes to return with loss andprecipitation; and if the skill of Belisarius had been seconded bydiscipline and valor, his success might have satisfied the sanguinewishes of the public, who required at his hands the conquest ofCtesiphon, and the deliverance of the captives of Antioch. At the end ofthe campaign, he was recalled to Constantinople by an ungrateful court, but the dangers of the ensuing spring restored his confidence andcommand; and the hero, almost alone, was despatched, with the speed ofpost-horses, to repel, by his name and presence, the invasion of Syria. He found the Roman generals, among whom was a nephew of Justinian, imprisoned by their fears in the fortifications of Hierapolis. Butinstead of listening to their timid counsels, Belisarius commanded themto follow him to Europus, where he had resolved to collect his forces, and to execute whatever God should inspire him to achieve againstthe enemy. His firm attitude on the banks of the Euphrates restrainedChosroes from advancing towards Palestine; and he received with art anddignity the ambassadors, or rather spies, of the Persian monarch. Theplain between Hierapolis and the river was covered with the squadrons ofcavalry, six thousand hunters, tall and robust, who pursued theirgame without the apprehension of an enemy. On the opposite bank theambassadors descried a thousand Armenian horse, who appeared to guardthe passage of the Euphrates. The tent of Belisarius was of the coarsestlinen, the simple equipage of a warrior who disdained the luxury of theEast. Around his tent, the nations who marched under his standard werearranged with skilful confusion. The Thracians and Illyrians were postedin the front, the Heruli and Goths in the centre; the prospect wasclosed by the Moors and Vandals, and their loose array seemed tomultiply their numbers. Their dress was light and active; one soldiercarried a whip, another a sword, a third a bow, a fourth, perhaps, a battle axe, and the whole picture exhibited the intrepidity of thetroops and the vigilance of the general. Chosroes was deluded bythe address, and awed by the genius, of the lieutenant of Justinian. Conscious of the merit, and ignorant of the force, of his antagonist, he dreaded a decisive battle in a distant country, from whence nota Persian might return to relate the melancholy tale. The great kinghastened to repass the Euphrates; and Belisarius pressed his retreat, byaffecting to oppose a measure so salutary to the empire, and which couldscarcely have been prevented by an army of a hundred thousand men. Envymight suggest to ignorance and pride, that the public enemy had beensuffered to escape: but the African and Gothic triumphs are lessglorious than this safe and bloodless victory, in which neither fortune, nor the valor of the soldiers, can subtract any part of the general'srenown. The second removal of Belisarius from the Persian to the Italianwar revealed the extent of his personal merit, which had corrected orsupplied the want of discipline and courage. Fifteen generals, withoutconcert or skill, led through the mountains of Armenia an army of thirtythousand Romans, inattentive to their signals, their ranks, and theirensigns. Four thousand Persians, intrenched in the camp of Dubis, vanquished, almost without a combat, this disorderly multitude; theiruseless arms were scattered along the road, and their horses sunk underthe fatigue of their rapid flight. But the Arabs of the Roman partyprevailed over their brethren; the Armenians returned to theirallegiance; the cities of Dara and Edessa resisted a sudden assault anda regular siege, and the calamities of war were suspended by thoseof pestilence. A tacit or formal agreement between the two sovereignsprotected the tranquillity of the Eastern frontier; and the arms ofChosroes were confined to the Colchian or Lazic war, which has been toominutely described by the historians of the times. [64]

[Footnote 63: In the public history of Procopius, (Persic. L. Ii. C. 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28;) and, with some slight exceptions, we may reasonably shut our ears against the malevolent whisper of theAnecdotes, (c. 2, 3, with the Notes, as usual, of Alemannus. )]

[Footnote 64: The Lazic war, the contest of Rome and Persia on thePhasis, is tediously spun through many a page of Procopius (Persic. L. Ii. C. 15, 17, 28, 29, 30. ) Gothic. (l. Iv. C. 7--16) and Agathias, (l. Ii. Iii. And iv. P. 55--132, 141. )]

The extreme length of the Euxine Sea [65] from Constantinople to themouth of the Phasis, may be computed as a voyage of nine days, and ameasure of seven hundred miles. From the Iberian Caucasus, the mostlofty and craggy mountains of Asia, that river descends with suchoblique vehemence, that in a short space it is traversed by one hundredand twenty bridges. Nor does the stream become placid and navigable, till it reaches the town of Sarapana, five days' journey from the Cyrus, which flows from the same hills, but in a contrary direction to theCaspian Lake. The proximity of these rivers has suggested the practice, or at least the idea, of wafting the precious merchandise of India downthe Oxus, over the Caspian, up the Cyrus, and with the current ofthe Phasis into the Euxine and Mediterranean Seas. As it successivelycollects the streams of the plain of Colchos, the Phasis moves withdiminished speed, though accumulated weight. At the mouth it is sixtyfathom deep, and half a league broad, but a small woody island isinterposed in the midst of the channel; the water, so soon as it hasdeposited an earthy or metallic sediment, floats on the surface of thewaves, and is no longer susceptible of corruption. In a course of onehundred miles, forty of which are navigable for large vessels, thePhasis divides the celebrated region of Colchos, [66] or Mingrelia, [67] which, on three sides, is fortified by the Iberian and Armenianmountains, and whose maritime coast extends about two hundred milesfrom the neighborhood of Trebizond to Dioscurias and the confines ofCircassia. Both the soil and climate are relaxed by excessive moisture:twenty-eight rivers, besides the Phasis and his dependent streams, convey their waters to the sea; and the hollowness of the ground appearsto indicate the subterraneous channels between the Euxine and theCaspian. In the fields where wheat or barley is sown, the earth is toosoft to sustain the action of the plough; but the gom, a small grain, not unlike the millet or coriander seed, supplies the ordinary foodof the people; and the use of bread is confined to the prince and hisnobles. Yet the vintage is more plentiful than the harvest; and the bulkof the stems, as well as the quality of the wine, display the unassistedpowers of nature. The same powers continually tend to overshadow theface of the country with thick forests; the timber of the hills, andthe flax of the plains, contribute to the abundance of naval stores; thewild and tame animals, the horse, the ox, and the hog, are remarkablyprolific, and the name of the pheasant is expressive of his nativehabitation on the banks of the Phasis. The gold mines to the south ofTrebizond, which are still worked with sufficient profit, were a subjectof national dispute between Justinian and Chosroes; and it is notunreasonable to believe, that a vein of precious metal may be equallydiffused through the circle of the hills, although these secrettreasures are neglected by the laziness, or concealed by the prudence, of the Mingrelians. The waters, impregnated with particles of gold, arecarefully strained through sheep-skins or fleeces; but this expedient, the groundwork perhaps of a marvellous fable, affords a faint image ofthe wealth extracted from a virgin earth by the power and industry ofancient kings. Their silver palaces and golden chambers surpass ourbelief; but the fame of their riches is said to have excited theenterprising avarice of the Argonauts. [68] Tradition has affirmed, withsome color of reason, that Egypt planted on the Phasis a learned andpolite colony, [69] which manufactured linen, built navies, and inventedgeographical maps. The ingenuity of the moderns has peopled, withflourishing cities and nations, the isthmus between the Euxine and theCaspian; [70] and a lively writer, observing the resemblance of climate, and, in his apprehension, of trade, has not hesitated to pronounceColchos the Holland of antiquity. [71]

[Footnote 65: The Periplus, or circumnavigation of the Euxine Sea, wasdescribed in Latin by Sallust, and in Greek by Arrian: I. The formerwork, which no longer exists, has been restored by the singulardiligence of M. De Brosses, first president of the parliament of Dijon, (Hist. De la Republique Romaine, tom. Ii. L. Iii. P. 199--298, ) whoventures to assume the character of the Roman historian. His descriptionof the Euxine is ingeniously formed of all the fragments of theoriginal, and of all the Greeks and Latins whom Sallust might copy, orby whom he might be copied; and the merit of the execution atones forthe whimsical design. 2. The Periplus of Arrian is addressed to theemperor Hadrian, (in Geograph. Minor. Hudson, tom. I. , ) and containswhatever the governor of Pontus had seen from Trebizond to Dioscurias;whatever he had heard from Dioscurias to the Danube; and whatever heknew from the Danube to Trebizond. ]

[Footnote 66: Besides the many occasional hints from the poets, historians &c. , of antiquity, we may consult the geographicaldescriptions of Colchos, by Strabo (l. Xi. P. 760--765) and Pliny, (Hist. Natur. Vi. 5, 19, &c. )]

[Footnote 67: I shall quote, and have used, three modern descriptionsof Mingrelia and the adjacent countries. 1. Of the Pere ArchangeliLamberti, (Relations de Thevenot, part i. P. 31-52, with a map, ) whohas all the knowledge and prejudices of a missionary. 2. Of Chardia, (Voyages en Perse, tom. I. P. 54, 68-168. ) His observations arejudicious and his own adventures in the country are still moreinstructive than his observations. 3. Of Peyssonel, (Observations surles Peuples Barbares, p. 49, 50, 51, 58 62, 64, 65, 71, &c. , and a morerecent treatise, Sur le Commerce de la Mer Noire, tom. Ii. P. 1--53. )He had long resided at Caffa, as consul of France; and his erudition isless valuable than his experience. ]

[Footnote 68: Pliny, Hist. Natur. L. Xxxiii. 15. The gold and silvermines of Colchos attracted the Argonauts, (Strab. L. I. P. 77. ) Thesagacious Chardin could find no gold in mines, rivers, or elsewhere. Yet a Mingrelian lost his hand and foot for showing some specimens atConstantinople of native gold]

[Footnote 69: Herodot. L. Ii. C. 104, 105, p. 150, 151. Diodor. Sicul. L. I. P. 33, edit. Wesseling. Dionys. Perieget. 689, and Eustath. Adloc. Schohast ad Apollonium Argonaut. L. Iv. 282-291. ]

[Footnote 70: Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, l. Xxi. C. 6. L'Isthme. .. Couvero de villes et nations qui ne sont plus. ]

[Footnote 71: Bougainville, Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. Xxvi. P. 33, on the African voyage of Hanno and the commerce ofantiquity. ]

But the riches of Colchos shine only through the darkness of conjectureor tradition; and its genuine history presents a uniform scene ofrudeness and poverty. If one hundred and thirty languages were spoken inthe market of Dioscurias, [72] they were the imperfect idioms of so manysavage tribes or families, sequestered from each other in the valleys ofMount Caucasus; and their separation, which diminished the importance, must have multiplied the number, of their rustic capitals. In thepresent state of Mingrelia, a village is an assemblage of huts withina wooden fence; the fortresses are seated in the depths of forests; theprincely town of Cyta, or Cotatis, consists of two hundred houses, and astone edifice appertains only to the magnificence of kings. Twelve shipsfrom Constantinople, and about sixty barks, laden with the fruits ofindustry, annually cast anchor on the coast; and the list of Colchianexports is much increased, since the natives had only slaves and hidesto offer in exchange for the corn and salt which they purchased fromthe subjects of Justinian. Not a vestige can be found of the art, theknowledge, or the navigation, of the ancient Colchians: few Greeksdesired or dared to pursue the footsteps of the Argonauts; and even themarks of an Egyptian colony are lost on a nearer approach. The rite ofcircumcision is practised only by the Mahometans of the Euxine; and thecurled hair and swarthy complexion of Africa no longer disfigure themost perfect of the human race. It is in the adjacent climates ofGeorgia, Mingrelia, and Circassia, that nature has placed, at least toour eyes, the model of beauty in the shape of the limbs, the colorof the skin, the symmetry of the features, and the expression of thecountenance. [73] According to the destination of the two sexes, the menseemed formed for action, the women for love; and the perpetual supplyof females from Mount Caucasus has purified the blood, and improvedthe breed, of the southern nations of Asia. The proper district ofMingrelia, a portion only of the ancient Colchos, has long sustainedan exportation of twelve thousand slaves. The number of prisoners orcriminals would be inadequate to the annual demand; but the commonpeople are in a state of servitude to their lords; the exercise offraud or rapine is unpunished in a lawless community; and the market iscontinually replenished by the abuse of civil and paternal authority. Such a trade, [74] which reduces the human species to the level ofcattle, may tend to encourage marriage and population, since themultitude of children enriches their sordid and inhuman parent. But thissource of impure wealth must inevitably poison the national manners, obliterate the sense of honor and virtue, and almost extinguish theinstincts of nature: the Christians of Georgia and Mingrelia are themost dissolute of mankind; and their children, who, in a tender age, aresold into foreign slavery, have already learned to imitate the rapineof the father and the prostitution of the mother. Yet, amidst the rudestignorance, the untaught natives discover a singular dexterity both ofmind and hand; and although the want of union and discipline exposesthem to their more powerful neighbors, a bold and intrepid spirit hasanimated the Colchians of every age. In the host of Xerxes, they servedon foot; and their arms were a dagger or a javelin, a wooden casque, anda buckler of raw hides. But in their own country the use of cavalry hasmore generally prevailed: the meanest of the peasants disdained to walk;the martial nobles are possessed, perhaps, of two hundred horses;and above five thousand are numbered in the train of the prince ofMingrelia. The Colchian government has been always a pure and hereditarykingdom; and the authority of the sovereign is only restrained by theturbulence of his subjects. Whenever they were obedient, he could leada numerous army into the field; but some faith is requisite to believe, that the single tribe of the Suanians as composed of two hundredthousand soldiers, or that the population of Mingrelia now amounts tofour millions of inhabitants. [75]

[Footnote 72: A Greek historian, Timosthenes, had affirmed, in eamccc. Nationes dissimilibus linguis descendere; and the modest Plinyis content to add, et postea a nostris cxxx. Interpretibus negotia ibigesta, (vi. 5) But the words nunc deserta cover a multitude of pastfictions. ]

[Footnote 73: Buffon (Hist. Nat. Tom. Iii. P. 433--437) collects theunanimous suffrage of naturalists and travellers. If, in the timeof Herodotus, they were, (and he had observed them with care, ) thisprecious fact is an example of the influence of climate on a foreigncolony. ]

[Footnote 74: The Mingrelian ambassador arrived at Constantinople withtwo hundred persons; but he ate (sold) them day by day, till his retinuewas diminished to a secretary and two valets, (Tavernier, tom. I. P. 365. ) To purchase his mistress, a Mingrelian gentleman sold twelvepriests and his wife to the Turks, (Chardin, tom. I. P. 66. )]

[Footnote 75: Strabo, l. Xi. P. 765. Lamberti, Relation de la Mingrelie. Yet we must avoid the contrary extreme of Chardin, who allows no morethan 20, 000 inhabitants to supply an annual exportation of 12, 000slaves; an absurdity unworthy of that judicious traveller. ]

Chapter XLII: State Of The Barbaric World. --Part IV. 

It was the boast of the Colchians, that their ancestors had checkedthe victories of Sesostris; and the defeat of the Egyptian is lessincredible than his successful progress as far as the foot of MountCaucasus. They sunk without any memorable effort, under the arms ofCyrus; followed in distant wars the standard of the great king, andpresented him every fifth year with one hundred boys, and as manyvirgins, the fairest produce of the land. [76] Yet he accepted this giftlike the gold and ebony of India, the frankincense of the Arabs, or thenegroes and ivory of Aethiopia: the Colchians were not subject to thedominion of a satrap, and they continued to enjoy the name as well assubstance of national independence. [77] After the fall of the Persianempire, Mithridates, king of Pontus, added Colchos to the wide circleof his dominions on the Euxine; and when the natives presumed to requestthat his son might reign over them, he bound the ambitious youth inchains of gold, and delegated a servant in his place. In pursuit ofMithridates, the Romans advanced to the banks of the Phasis, and theirgalleys ascended the river till they reached the camp of Pompey and hislegions. [78] But the senate, and afterwards the emperors, disdained toreduce that distant and useless conquest into the form of a province. The family of a Greek rhetorician was permitted to reign in Colchos andthe adjacent kingdoms from the time of Mark Antony to that of Nero; andafter the race of Polemo [79] was extinct, the eastern Pontus, whichpreserved his name, extended no farther than the neighborhood ofTrebizond. Beyond these limits the fortifications of Hyssus, of Apsarus, of the Phasis, of Dioscurias or Sebastopolis, and of Pityus, wereguarded by sufficient detachments of horse and foot; and six princes ofColchos received their diadems from the lieutenants of Caesar. One ofthese lieutenants, the eloquent and philosophic Arrian, surveyed, and has described, the Euxine coast, under the reign of Hadrian. Thegarrison which he reviewed at the mouth of the Phasis consisted offour hundred chosen legionaries; the brick walls and towers, the doubleditch, and the military engines on the rampart, rendered this placeinaccessible to the Barbarians: but the new suburbs which had been builtby the merchants and veterans, required, in the opinion of Arrian, some external defence. [80] As the strength of the empire was graduallyimpaired, the Romans stationed on the Phasis were neither withdrawnnor expelled; and the tribe of the Lazi, [81] whose posterity speak aforeign dialect, and inhabit the sea coast of Trebizond, imposed theirname and dominion on the ancient kingdom of Colchos. Their independencewas soon invaded by a formidable neighbor, who had acquired, by armsand treaties, the sovereignty of Iberia. The dependent king of Lazicareceived his sceptre at the hands of the Persian monarch, and thesuccessors of Constantine acquiesced in this injurious claim, which wasproudly urged as a right of immemorial prescription. In the beginning ofthe sixth century, their influence was restored by the introduction ofChristianity, which the Mingrelians still profess with becoming zeal, without understanding the doctrines, or observing the precepts, of theirreligion. After the decease of his father, Zathus was exalted to theregal dignity by the favor of the great king; but the pious youthabhorred the ceremonies of the Magi, and sought, in the palace ofConstantinople, an orthodox baptism, a noble wife, and the alliance ofthe emperor Justin. The king of Lazica was solemnly invested with thediadem, and his cloak and tunic of white silk, with a gold border, displayed, in rich embroidery, the figure of his new patron; who soothedthe jealousy of the Persian court, and excused the revolt of Colchos, bythe venerable names of hospitality and religion. The common interest ofboth empires imposed on the Colchians the duty of guarding the passesof Mount Caucasus, where a wall of sixty miles is now defended by themonthly service of the musketeers of Mingrelia. [82]

[Footnote 76: Herodot. L. Iii. C. 97. See, in l. Vii. C. 79, their armsand service in the expedition of Xerxes against Greece. ]

[Footnote 77: Xenophon, who had encountered the Colchians in hisretreat, (Anabasis, l. Iv. P. 320, 343, 348, edit. Hutchinson; andFoster's Dissertation, p. Liii. --lviii. , in Spelman's English version, vol. Ii. , ) styled them. Before the conquest of Mithridates, they arenamed by Appian, (de Bell. Mithridatico, c. 15, tom. I. P. 661, of thelast and best edition, by John Schweighaeuser. Lipsae, 1785 8 vols. Largo octavo. )]

[Footnote 78: The conquest of Colchos by Mithridates and Pompey ismarked by Appian (de Bell. Mithridat. ) and Plutarch, (in Vit. Pomp. )]

[Footnote 79: We may trace the rise and fall of the family of Polemo, inStrabo, (l. Xi. P. 755, l. Xii. P. 867, ) Dion Cassius, or Xiphilin, (p. 588, 593, 601, 719, 754, 915, 946, edit. Reimar, ) Suetonius, (in Neron. C. 18, in Vespasian, c. 8, ) Eutropius, (vii. 14, ) Josephus, (Antiq. Judaic. L. Xx. C. 7, p. 970, edit. Havercamp, ) and Eusebius, (Chron. With Scaliger, Animadvers. P. 196. )]

[Footnote 80: In the time of Procopius, there were no Roman forts onthe Phasis. Pityus and Sebastopolis were evacuated on the rumor of thePersians, (Goth. L. Iv. C. 4;) but the latter was afterwards restored byJustinian, (de Edif. L. Iv. C. 7. )]

[Footnote 81: In the time of Pliny, Arrian, and Ptolemy, the Lazi werea particular tribe on the northern skirts of Colchos, (Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq. Tom. Ii. P. 222. ) In the age of Justinian, they spread, or at least reigned, over the whole country. At present, they havemigrated along the coast towards Trebizond, and compose a rudesea-faring people, with a peculiar language, (Chardin, p. 149. Peyssonelp. 64. )]

[Footnote 82: John Malala, Chron. Tom. Ii. P. 134--137 Theophanes, p. 144. Hist. Miscell. L. Xv. P. 103. The fact is authentic, but thedate seems too recent. In speaking of their Persian alliance, the Lazicontemporaries of Justinian employ the most obsolete words, &c. Couldthey belong to a connection which had not been dissolved above twentyyears?]

But this honorable connection was soon corrupted by the avarice andambition of the Romans. Degraded from the rank of allies, the Lazi wereincessantly reminded, by words and actions, of their dependent state. At the distance of a day's journey beyond the Apsarus, they beheld therising fortress of Petra, [83] which commanded the maritime countryto the south of the Phasis. Instead of being protected by the valor, Colchos was insulted by the licentiousness, of foreign mercenaries; thebenefits of commerce were converted into base and vexatious monopoly;and Gubazes, the native prince, was reduced to a pageant of royalty, by the superior influence of the officers of Justinian. Disappointed intheir expectations of Christian virtue, the indignant Lazi reposed someconfidence in the justice of an unbeliever. After a private assurancethat their ambassadors should not be delivered to the Romans, theypublicly solicited the friendship and aid of Chosroes. The sagaciousmonarch instantly discerned the use and importance of Colchos; andmeditated a plan of conquest, which was renewed at the end of a thousandyears by Shah Abbas, the wisest and most powerful of his successors. [84] His ambition was fired by the hope of launching a Persian navy fromthe Phasis, of commanding the trade and navigation of the Euxine Sea, ofdesolating the coast of Pontus and Bithynia, of distressing, perhaps ofattacking, Constantinople, and of persuading the Barbarians of Europe tosecond his arms and counsels against the common enemy of mankind. 

Under the pretence of a Scythian war, he silently led his troops to thefrontiers of Iberia; the Colchian guides were prepared to conduct themthrough the woods and along the precipices of Mount Caucasus; and anarrow path was laboriously formed into a safe and spacious highway, forthe march of cavalry, and even of elephants. Gubazes laid his personand diadem at the feet of the king of Persia; his Colchians imitatedthe submission of their prince; and after the walls of Petra had beenshaken, the Roman garrison prevented, by a capitulation, the impendingfury of the last assault. But the Lazi soon discovered, that theirimpatience had urged them to choose an evil more intolerable than thecalamities which they strove to escape. The monopoly of salt and cornwas effectually removed by the loss of those valuable commodities. The authority of a Roman legislator, was succeeded by the pride of anOriental despot, who beheld, with equal disdain, the slaves whom he hadexalted, and the kings whom he had humbled before the footstool of histhrone. The adoration of fire was introduced into Colchos by the zealof the Magi: their intolerant spirit provoked the fervor of a Christianpeople; and the prejudice of nature or education was wounded by theimpious practice of exposing the dead bodies of their parents, on thesummit of a lofty tower, to the crows and vultures of the air. [85]Conscious of the increasing hatred, which retarded the execution ofhis great designs, the just Nashirvan had secretly given orders toassassinate the king of the Lazi, to transplant the people into somedistant land, and to fix a faithful and warlike colony on the banks ofthe Phasis. The watchful jealousy of the Colchians foresaw and avertedthe approaching ruin. Their repentance was accepted at Constantinopleby the prudence, rather than clemency, of Justinian; and he commandedDagisteus, with seven thousand Romans, and one thousand of the Zani, [8511] to expel the Persians from the coast of the Euxine. 

[Footnote 83: The sole vestige of Petra subsists in the writings ofProcopius and Agathias. Most of the towns and castles of Lazica may befound by comparing their names and position with the map of Mingrelia, in Lamberti. ]

[Footnote 84: See the amusing letters of Pietro della Valle, the Romantraveler, (Viaggi, tom. Ii. 207, 209, 213, 215, 266, 286, 300, tom. Iii. P. 54, 127. ) In the years 1618, 1619, and 1620, he conversed with ShahAbbas, and strongly encouraged a design which might have united Persiaand Europe against their common enemy the Turk. ]

[Footnote 85: See Herodotus, (l. I. C. 140, p. 69, ) who speaks withdiffidence, Larcher, (tom. I. P. 399--401, Notes sur Herodote, )Procopius, (Persic. L. I. C. 11, ) and Agathias, (l. Ii. P. 61, 62. ) Thispractice, agreeable to the Zendavesta, (Hyde, de Relig. Pers. C. 34, p. 414--421, ) demonstrates that the burial of the Persian kings, (Xenophon, Cyropaed. L. Viii. P. 658, ) is a Greek fiction, and that their tombscould be no more than cenotaphs. ]

[Footnote 8511: These seem the same people called Suanians, p. 328. --M. ]

The siege of Petra, which the Roman general, with the aid of the Lazi, immediately undertook, is one of the most remarkable actions of theage. The city was seated on a craggy rock, which hung over the sea, and communicated by a steep and narrow path with the land. Since theapproach was difficult, the attack might be deemed impossible: thePersian conqueror had strengthened the fortifications of Justinian; andthe places least inaccessible were covered by additional bulwarks. In this important fortress, the vigilance of Chosroes had deposited amagazine of offensive and defensive arms, sufficient for five times thenumber, not only of the garrison, but of the besiegers themselves. Thestock of flour and salt provisions was adequate to the consumption offive years; the want of wine was supplied by vinegar; and of grain fromwhence a strong liquor was extracted, and a triple aqueduct eludedthe diligence, and even the suspicions, of the enemy. But the firmestdefence of Petra was placed in the valor of fifteen hundred Persians, who resisted the assaults of the Romans, whilst, in a softer vein ofearth, a mine was secretly perforated. The wall, supported by slenderand temporary props, hung tottering in the air; but Dagisteus delayedthe attack till he had secured a specific recompense; and the town wasrelieved before the return of his messenger from Constantinople. ThePersian garrison was reduced to four hundred men, of whom no more thanfifty were exempt from sickness or wounds; yet such had been theirinflexible perseverance, that they concealed their losses from theenemy, by enduring, without a murmur, the sight and putrefying stenchof the dead bodies of their eleven hundred companions. After theirdeliverance, the breaches were hastily stopped with sand-bags; themine was replenished with earth; a new wall was erected on a frameof substantial timber; and a fresh garrison of three thousand menwas stationed at Petra to sustain the labors of a second siege. Theoperations, both of the attack and defence, were conducted with skilfulobstinacy; and each party derived useful lessons from the experience oftheir past faults. A battering-ram was invented, of light constructionand powerful effect: it was transported and worked by the hands of fortysoldiers; and as the stones were loosened by its repeated strokes, theywere torn with long iron hooks from the wall. From those walls, a showerof darts was incessantly poured on the heads of the assailants; butthey were most dangerously annoyed by a fiery composition of sulphur andbitumen, which in Colchos might with some propriety be named the oilof Medea. Of six thousand Romans who mounted the scaling-ladders, theirgeneral Bessas was the first, a gallant veteran of seventy years of age:the courage of their leader, his fall, and extreme danger, animatedthe irresistible effort of his troops; and their prevailing numbersoppressed the strength, without subduing the spirit, of the Persiangarrison. The fate of these valiant men deserves to be more distinctlynoticed. Seven hundred had perished in the siege, two thousand threehundred survived to defend the breach. One thousand and seventy weredestroyed with fire and sword in the last assault; and if seven hundredand thirty were made prisoners, only eighteen among them were foundwithout the marks of honorable wounds. The remaining five hundredescaped into the citadel, which they maintained without any hopes ofrelief, rejecting the fairest terms of capitulation and service, tillthey were lost in the flames. They died in obedience to the commands oftheir prince; and such examples of loyalty and valor might excite theircountrymen to deeds of equal despair and more prosperous event. Theinstant demolition of the works of Petra confessed the astonishment andapprehension of the conqueror. A Spartan would have praised and pitiedthe virtue of these heroic slaves; but the tedious warfare and alternatesuccess of the Roman and Persian arms cannot detain the attention ofposterity at the foot of Mount Caucasus. The advantages obtained by thetroops of Justinian were more frequent and splendid; but the forces ofthe great king were continually supplied, till they amounted to eightelephants and seventy thousand men, including twelve thousand Scythianallies, and above three thousand Dilemites, who descended by their freechoice from the hills of Hyrcania, and were equally formidable in closeor in distant combat. The siege of Archaeopolis, a name imposed orcorrupted by the Greeks, was raised with some loss and precipitation;but the Persians occupied the passes of Iberia: Colchos was enslaved bytheir forts and garrisons; they devoured the scanty sustenance of thepeople; and the prince of the Lazi fled into the mountains. In the Romancamp, faith and discipline were unknown; and the independent leaders, who were invested with equal power, disputed with each other thepreeminence of vice and corruption. The Persians followed, withouta murmur, the commands of a single chief, who implicitly obeyed theinstructions of their supreme lord. Their general was distinguishedamong the heroes of the East by his wisdom in council, and his valor inthe field. The advanced age of Mermeroes, and the lameness of both hisfeet, could not diminish the activity of his mind, or even of hisbody; and, whilst he was carried in a litter in the front of battle, heinspired terror to the enemy, and a just confidence to the troops, who, under his banners, were always successful. After his death, the commanddevolved to Nacoragan, a proud satrap, who, in a conference with theImperial chiefs, had presumed to declare that he disposed of victoryas absolutely as of the ring on his finger. Such presumption was thenatural cause and forerunner of a shameful defeat. The Romans had beengradually repulsed to the edge of the sea-shore; and their last camp, onthe ruins of the Grecian colony of Phasis, was defended on all sidesby strong intrenchments, the river, the Euxine, and a fleet of galleys. Despair united their counsels and invigorated their arms: they withstoodthe assault of the Persians and the flight of Nacoragan preceded orfollowed the slaughter of ten thousand of his bravest soldiers. Heescaped from the Romans to fall into the hands of an unforgiving masterwho severely chastised the error of his own choice: the unfortunategeneral was flayed alive, and his skin, stuffed into the human form, wasexposed on a mountain; a dreadful warning to those who might hereafterbe intrusted with the fame and fortune of Persia. [86] Yet the prudenceof Chosroes insensibly relinquished the prosecution of the Colchian war, in the just persuasion, that it is impossible to reduce, or, atleast, to hold a distant country against the wishes and efforts of itsinhabitants. The fidelity of Gubazes sustained the most rigorous trials. He patiently endured the hardships of a savage life, and rejected withdisdain, the specious temptations of the Persian court. [8611] The kingof the Lazi had been educated in the Christian religion; his mother wasthe daughter of a senator; during his youth he had served ten years asilentiary of the Byzantine palace, [87] and the arrears of an unpaidsalary were a motive of attachment as well as of complaint. But the longcontinuance of his sufferings extorted from him a naked representationof the truth; and truth was an unpardonable libel on the lieutenantsof Justinian, who, amidst the delays of a ruinous war, had sparedhis enemies and trampled on his allies. Their malicious informationpersuaded the emperor that his faithless vassal already meditateda second defection: an order was surprised to send him prisoner toConstantinople; a treacherous clause was inserted, that he might belawfully killed in case of resistance; and Gubazes, without arms, or suspicion of danger, was stabbed in the security of a friendlyinterview. In the first moments of rage and despair, the Colchianswould have sacrificed their country and religion to the gratificationof revenge. But the authority and eloquence of the wiser few obtaineda salutary pause: the victory of the Phasis restored the terror of theRoman arms, and the emperor was solicitous to absolve his own namefrom the imputation of so foul a murder. A judge of senatorial rank wascommissioned to inquire into the conduct and death of the king of theLazi. He ascended a stately tribunal, encompassed by the ministersof justice and punishment: in the presence of both nations, thisextraordinary cause was pleaded, according to the forms of civiljurisprudence, and some satisfaction was granted to an injured people, by the sentence and execution of the meaner criminals. [88]

[Footnote 86: The punishment of flaying alive could not be introducedinto Persia by Sapor, (Brisson, de Regn. Pers. L. Ii. P. 578, ) nor couldit be copied from the foolish tale of Marsyas, the Phrygian piper, mostfoolishly quoted as a precedent by Agathias, (l. Iv. P. 132, 133. )]

[Footnote 8611: According to Agathias, the death of Gubazos preceded thedefeat of Nacoragan. The trial took place after the battle. --M. ]

[Footnote 87: In the palace of Constantinople there were thirtysilentiaries, who were styled hastati, ante fores cubiculi, an honorabletitle which conferred the rank, without imposing the duties, of asenator, (Cod. Theodos. L. Vi. Tit. 23. Gothofred. Comment. Tom. Ii. P. 129. )]

[Footnote 88: On these judicial orations, Agathias (l. Iii. P. 81-89, l. Iv. P. 108--119) lavishes eighteen or twenty pages of false and floridrhetoric. His ignorance or carelessness overlooks the strongest argumentagainst the king of Lazica--his former revolt. * Note: The Orations inthe third book of Agathias are not judicial, nor delivered before theRoman tribunal: it is a deliberative debate among the Colchians onthe expediency of adhering to the Roman, or embracing the Persianalliance. --M. ]

In peace, the king of Persia continually sought the pretences of arupture: but no sooner had he taken up arms, than he expressed hisdesire of a safe and honorable treaty. During the fiercest hostilities, the two monarchs entertained a deceitful negotiation; and such was thesuperiority of Chosroes, that whilst he treated the Roman ministers withinsolence and contempt, he obtained the most unprecedented honorsfor his own ambassadors at the Imperial court. The successor of Cyrusassumed the majesty of the Eastern sun, and graciously permitted hisyounger brother Justinian to reign over the West, with the pale andreflected splendor of the moon. This gigantic style was supported by thepomp and eloquence of Isdigune, one of the royal chamberlains. His wifeand daughters, with a train of eunuchs and camels, attended the march ofthe ambassador: two satraps with golden diadems were numbered among hisfollowers: he was guarded by five hundred horse, the most valiant of thePersians; and the Roman governor of Dara wisely refused to admit morethan twenty of this martial and hostile caravan. When Isdigune hadsaluted the emperor, and delivered his presents, he passed ten months atConstantinople without discussing any serious affairs. Instead of beingconfined to his palace, and receiving food and water from the handsof his keepers, the Persian ambassador, without spies or guards, wasallowed to visit the capital; and the freedom of conversation andtrade enjoyed by his domestics, offended the prejudices of an age whichrigorously practised the law of nations, without confidence or courtesy. [89] By an unexampled indulgence, his interpreter, a servant below thenotice of a Roman magistrate, was seated, at the table of Justinian, by the side of his master: and one thousand pounds of gold might beassigned for the expense of his journey and entertainment. Yet therepeated labors of Isdigune could procure only a partial and imperfecttruce, which was always purchased with the treasures, and renewed at thesolicitation, of the Byzantine court Many years of fruitless desolationelapsed before Justinian and Chosroes were compelled, by mutuallassitude, to consult the repose of their declining age. At a conferenceheld on the frontier, each party, without expecting to gain credit, displayed the power, the justice, and the pacific intentions, of theirrespective sovereigns; but necessity and interest dictated the treatyof peace, which was concluded for a term of fifty years, diligentlycomposed in the Greek and Persian languages, and attested by the sealsof twelve interpreters. The liberty of commerce and religion was fixedand defined; the allies of the emperor and the great king wereincluded in the same benefits and obligations; and the most scrupulousprecautions were provided to prevent or determine the accidentaldisputes that might arise on the confines of two hostile nations. Aftertwenty years of destructive though feeble war, the limits still remainedwithout alteration; and Chosroes was persuaded to renounce his dangerousclaim to the possession or sovereignty of Colchos and its dependentstates. Rich in the accumulated treasures of the East, he extorted fromthe Romans an annual payment of thirty thousand pieces of gold; and thesmallness of the sum revealed the disgrace of a tribute in its nakeddeformity. In a previous debate, the chariot of Sesostris, and thewheel of fortune, were applied by one of the ministers of Justinian, who observed that the reduction of Antioch, and some Syrian cities, hadelevated beyond measure the vain and ambitious spirit of the Barbarian. "You are mistaken, " replied the modest Persian: "the king of kings, thelord of mankind, looks down with contempt on such petty acquisitions;and of the ten nations, vanquished by his invincible arms, he esteemsthe Romans as the least formidable. " [90] According to the Orientals, the empire of Nushirvan extended from Ferganah, in Transoxiana, toYemen or Arabia Faelix. He subdued the rebels of Hyrcania, reduced theprovinces of Cabul and Zablestan on the banks of the Indus, broke thepower of the Euthalites, terminated by an honorable treaty the Turkishwar, and admitted the daughter of the great khan into the number of hislawful wives. Victorious and respected among the princes of Asia, hegave audience, in his palace of Madain, or Ctesiphon, to the ambassadorsof the world. Their gifts or tributes, arms, rich garments, gems, slavesor aromatics, were humbly presented at the foot of his throne; and hecondescended to accept from the king of India ten quintals of the woodof aloes, a maid seven cubits in height, and a carpet softer than silk, the skin, as it was reported, of an extraordinary serpent. [91]

[Footnote 89: Procopius represents the practice of the Gothic court ofRavenna (Goth. L. I. C. 7;) and foreign ambassadors have been treatedwith the same jealousy and rigor in Turkey, (Busbequius, epist. Iii. P. 149, 242, &c. , ) Russia, (Voyage D'Olearius, ) and China, (Narrative of A. De Lange, in Bell's Travels, vol. Ii. P. 189--311. )]

[Footnote 90: The negotiations and treaties between Justinian andChosroes are copiously explained by Procopius, (Persie, l. Ii. C. 10, 13, 26, 27, 28. Gothic. L. Ii. C. 11, 15, ) Agathias, (l. Iv. P. 141, 142, ) and Menander, (in Excerpt. Legat. P. 132--147. ) Consult Barbeyrac, Hist. Des Anciens Traites, tom. Ii. P. 154, 181--184, 193--200. ]

[Footnote 91: D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. P. 680, 681, 294, 295. ]

Justinian had been reproached for his alliance with the Aethiopians, asif he attempted to introduce a people of savage negroes into the systemof civilized society. But the friends of the Roman empire, the Axumites, or Abyssinians, may be always distinguished from the original natives ofAfrica. [92] The hand of nature has flattened the noses of the negroes, covered their heads with shaggy wool, and tinged their skin withinherent and indelible blackness. But the olive complexion of theAbyssinians, their hair, shape, and features, distinctly mark them asa colony of Arabs; and this descent is confirmed by the resemblance oflanguage and manners the report of an ancient emigration, and the narrowinterval between the shores of the Red Sea. Christianity had raised thatnation above the level of African barbarism: [93] their intercoursewith Egypt, and the successors of Constantine, [94] had communicated therudiments of the arts and sciences; their vessels traded to the Isle ofCeylon, [95] and seven kingdoms obeyed the Negus or supreme prince ofAbyssinia. The independence of the Homerites, [9511] who reigned in therich and happy Arabia, was first violated by an Aethiopian conqueror: hedrew his hereditary claim from the queen of Sheba, [96] and his ambitionwas sanctified by religious zeal. The Jews, powerful and active inexile, had seduced the mind of Dunaan, prince of the Homerites. Theyurged him to retaliate the persecution inflicted by the Imperial lawson their unfortunate brethren: some Roman merchants were injuriouslytreated; and several Christians of Negra [97] were honored with thecrown of martyrdom. [98] The churches of Arabia implored the protectionof the Abyssinian monarch. The Negus passed the Red Sea with a fleetand army, deprived the Jewish proselyte of his kingdom and life, andextinguished a race of princes, who had ruled above two thousandyears the sequestered region of myrrh and frankincense. The conquerorimmediately announced the victory of the gospel, requested an orthodoxpatriarch, and so warmly professed his friendship to the Roman empire, that Justinian was flattered by the hope of diverting the silk tradethrough the channel of Abyssinia, and of exciting the forces ofArabia against the Persian king. Nonnosus, descended from a familyof ambassadors, was named by the emperor to execute this importantcommission. He wisely declined the shorter, but more dangerous, road, through the sandy deserts of Nubia; ascended the Nile, embarked on theRed Sea, and safely landed at the African port of Adulis. From Adulis tothe royal city of Axume is no more than fifty leagues, in a direct line;but the winding passes of the mountains detained the ambassador fifteendays; and as he traversed the forests, he saw, and vaguely computed, about five thousand wild elephants. The capital, according to hisreport, was large and populous; and the village of Axume is stillconspicuous by the regal coronations, by the ruins of a Christiantemple, and by sixteen or seventeen obelisks inscribed with Greciancharacters. [99] But the Negus [9911] gave audience in the open field, seated on a lofty chariot, which was drawn by four elephants, superblycaparisoned, and surrounded by his nobles and musicians. He was clad ina linen garment and cap, holding in his hand two javelins and alight shield; and, although his nakedness was imperfectly covered, hedisplayed the Barbaric pomp of gold chains, collars, and bracelets, richly adorned with pearls and precious stones. The ambassador ofJustinian knelt; the Negus raised him from the ground, embracedNonnosus, kissed the seal, perused the letter, accepted the Romanalliance, and, brandishing his weapons, denounced implacable war againstthe worshipers of fire. But the proposal of the silk trade was eluded;and notwithstanding the assurances, and perhaps the wishes, of theAbyssinians, these hostile menaces evaporated without effect. TheHomerites were unwilling to abandon their aromatic groves, to explore asandy desert, and to encounter, after all their fatigues, a formidablenation from whom they had never received any personal injuries. Insteadof enlarging his conquests, the king of Aethiopia was incapable ofdefending his possessions. Abrahah, [9912] the slave of a Roman merchantof Adulis, assumed the sceptre of the Homerites, ; the troops of Africawere seduced by the luxury of the climate; and Justinian solicitedthe friendship of the usurper, who honored with a slight tribute thesupremacy of his prince. After a long series of prosperity, the power ofAbrahah was overthrown before the gates of Mecca; and his children weredespoiled by the Persian conqueror; and the Aethiopians were finallyexpelled from the continent of Asia. This narrative of obscure andremote events is not foreign to the decline and fall of the Romanempire. If a Christian power had been maintained in Arabia, Mahomet musthave been crushed in his cradle, and Abyssinia would have prevented arevolution which has changed the civil and religious state of the world. [100] [1001]

[Footnote 92: See Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. Iii. P. 449. ThisArab cast of features and complexion, which has continued 3400 years(Ludolph. Hist. Et Comment. Aethiopic. L. I. C. 4) in the colony ofAbyssinia, will justify the suspicion, that race, as well as climate, must have contributed to form the negroes of the adjacent and similarregions. * Note: Mr. Salt (Travels, vol. Ii. P. 458) considers themto be distinct from the Arabs--"in feature, color, habit, andmanners. "--M. ]

[Footnote 93: The Portuguese missionaries, Alvarez, (Ramusio, tom. I. Fol. 204, rect. 274, vers. ) Bermudez, (Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. Ii. L. V. C. 7, p. 1149--1188, ) Lobo, (Relation, &c. , par M. Le Grand, withxv. Dissertations, Paris, 1728, ) and Tellez (Relations de Thevenot, part iv. ) could only relate of modern Abyssinia what they had seen orinvented. The erudition of Ludolphus, (Hist. Aethiopica, Francofurt, 1681. Commentarius, 1691. Appendix, 1694, ) in twenty-five languages, could add little concerning its ancient history. Yet the fame of Caled, or Ellisthaeus, the conqueror of Yemen, is celebrated in national songsand legends. ]

[Footnote 94: The negotiations of Justinian with the Axumites, orAethiopians, are recorded by Procopius (Persic. L. I. C. 19, 20) andJohn Malala, (tom. Ii. P. 163--165, 193--196. ) The historian of Antiochquotes the original narrative of the ambassador Nonnosus, of whichPhotius (Bibliot. Cod. Iii. ) has preserved a curious extract. ]

[Footnote 95: The trade of the Axumites to the coast of India andAfrica, and the Isle of Ceylon, is curiously represented by CosmasIndicopleustes, (Topograph. Christian. L. Ii. P. 132, 138, 139, 140, l. Xi. P. 338, 339. )]

[Footnote 9511: It appears by the important inscription discoveredby Mr. Salt at Axoum, and from a law of Constantius, (16th Jan. 356, inserted in the Theodosian Code, l. 12, c. 12, ) that in the middle ofthe fourth century of our era the princes of the Axumites joined totheir titles that of king of the Homerites. The conquests which theymade over the Arabs in the sixth century were only a restoration of theancient order of things. St. Martin vol. Viii. P. 46--M. ]

[Footnote 96: Ludolph. Hist. Et Comment. Aethiop. L. Ii. C. 3. ]

[Footnote 97: The city of Negra, or Nag'ran, in Yemen, is surroundedwith palm-trees, and stands in the high road between Saana, the capital, and Mecca; from the former ten, from the latter twenty days' journey ofa caravan of camels, (Abulfeda, Descript. Arabiae, p. 52. )]

[Footnote 98: The martyrdom of St. Arethas, prince of Negra, and histhree hundred and forty companions, is embellished in the legends ofMetaphrastes and Nicephorus Callistus, copied by Baronius, (A. D 522, No. 22--66, A. D. 523, No. 16--29, ) and refuted with obscure diligence, by Basnage, (Hist. Des Juifs, tom. Viii. L. Xii. C. Ii. P. 333--348, )who investigates the state of the Jews in Arabia and Aethiopia. * Note:According to Johannsen, (Hist. Yemanae, Praef. P. 89, ) Dunaan (Ds Nowas)massacred 20, 000 Christians, and threw them into a pit, where they wereburned. They are called in the Koran the companions of the pit (sociifoveae. )--M. ]

[Footnote 99: Alvarez (in Ramusio, tom. I. Fol. 219, vers. 221, vers. )saw the flourishing state of Axume in the year 1520--luogomolto buonoe grande. It was ruined in the same century by the Turkish invasion. No more than 100 houses remain; but the memory of its past greatness ispreserved by the regal coronation, (Ludolph. Hist. Et Comment. L. Ii. C. 11. ) * Note: Lord Valentia's and Mr. Salt's Travels give a high notionof the ruins of Axum. --M. ]

[Footnote 9911: The Negus is differently called Elesbaan, Elesboas, Elisthaeus, probably the same name, or rather appellation. See St. Martin, vol. Viii. P. 49. --M. ]

[Footnote 9912: According to the Arabian authorities, (Johannsen, Hist. Yemanae, p. 94, Bonn, 1828, ) Abrahah was an Abyssinian, the rival ofAriathus, the brother of the Abyssinian king: he surprised and slewAriathus, and by his craft appeased the resentment of Nadjash, theAbyssinian king. Abrahah was a Christian; he built a magnificent churchat Sana, and dissuaded his subjects from their accustomed pilgrimages toMecca. The church was defiled, it was supposed, by the Koreishites, andAbrahah took up arms to revenge himself on the temple at Mecca. He wasrepelled by miracle: his elephant would not advance, but knelt downbefore the sacred place; Abrahah fled, discomfited and mortally wounded, to Sana--M. ]

[Footnote 100: The revolutions of Yemen in the sixth century must becollected from Procopius, (Persic. L. I. C. 19, 20, ) Theophanes Byzant. , (apud Phot. Cod. Lxiii. P. 80, ) St. Theophanes, (in Chronograph. P. 144, 145, 188, 189, 206, 207, who is full of strange blunders, ) Pocock, (Specimen Hist. Arab. P. 62, 65, ) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 12, 477, ) and Sale's Preliminary Discourse and Koran, (c. 105. ) Therevolt of Abrahah is mentioned by Procopius; and his fall, thoughclouded with miracles, is an historical fact. Note: To the authorswho have illustrated the obscure history of the Jewish and Abyssiniankingdoms in Homeritis may be added Schultens, Hist. Joctanidarum; Walch, Historia rerum in Homerite gestarum, in the 4th vol. Of the GottingenTransactions; Salt's Travels, vol. Ii. P. 446, &c. : Sylvestre de Sacy, vol. I. Acad. Des Inscrip. Jost, Geschichte der Israeliter; Johannsen, Hist. Yemanae; St. Martin's notes to Le Beau, t. Vii p. 42. --M. ]

[Footnote 1001: A period of sixty-seven years is assigned by most of theArabian authorities to the Abyssinian kingdoms in Homeritis. --M. ]

Chapter XLIII: Last Victory And Death Of Belisarius, Death Of Justinian. --Part I. 

 Rebellions Of Africa. --Restoration Of The Gothic Kingdom By Totila. --Loss And Recovery Of Rome. --Final Conquest Of Italy By Narses. --Extinction Of The Ostrogoths. --Defeat Of The Franks And Alemanni. --Last Victory, Disgrace, And Death Of Belisarius. --Death And Character Of Justinian. --Comet, Earthquakes, And Plague. 

The review of the nations from the Danube to the Nile has exposed, onevery side, the weakness of the Romans; and our wonder is reasonablyexcited that they should presume to enlarge an empire whose ancientlimits they were incapable of defending. But the wars, the conquests, and the triumphs of Justinian, are the feeble and pernicious efforts ofold age, which exhaust the remains of strength, and accelerate thedecay of the powers of life. He exulted in the glorious act of restoringAfrica and Italy to the republic; but the calamities which followed thedeparture of Belisarius betrayed the impotence of the conqueror, andaccomplished the ruin of those unfortunate countries. 

From his new acquisitions, Justinian expected that his avarice, aswell as pride, should be richly gratified. A rapacious minister of thefinances closely pursued the footsteps of Belisarius; and as the oldregisters of tribute had been burnt by the Vandals, he indulged hisfancy in a liberal calculation and arbitrary assessment of the wealthof Africa. [1] The increase of taxes, which were drawn away by a distantsovereign, and a general resumption of the patrimony or crown lands, soon dispelled the intoxication of the public joy: but the emperor wasinsensible to the modest complaints of the people, till he was awakenedand alarmed by the clamors of military discontent. Many of the Romansoldiers had married the widows and daughters of the Vandals. As theirown, by the double right of conquest and inheritance, they claimed theestates which Genseric had assigned to his victorious troops. They heardwith disdain the cold and selfish representations of their officers, that the liberality of Justinian had raised them from a savage orservile condition; that they were already enriched by the spoils ofAfrica, the treasure, the slaves, and the movables of the vanquishedBarbarians; and that the ancient and lawful patrimony of the emperorswould be applied only to the support of that government on which theirown safety and reward must ultimately depend. The mutiny was secretlyinflamed by a thousand soldiers, for the most part Heruli, who hadimbibed the doctrines, and were instigated by the clergy, of the Ariansect; and the cause of perjury and rebellion was sanctified by thedispensing powers of fanaticism. The Arians deplored the ruin of theirchurch, triumphant above a century in Africa; and they were justlyprovoked by the laws of the conqueror, which interdicted the baptismof their children, and the exercise of all religious worship. Of theVandals chosen by Belisarius, the far greater part, in the honors of theEastern service, forgot their country and religion. But a generous bandof four hundred obliged the mariners, when they were in sight of theIsle of Lesbos, to alter their course: they touched on Peloponnesus, ran ashore on a desert coast of Africa, and boldly erected, on MountAurasius, the standard of independence and revolt. While the troops ofthe provinces disclaimed the commands of their superiors, a conspiracywas formed at Carthage against the life of Solomon, who filled withhonor the place of Belisarius; and the Arians had piously resolvedto sacrifice the tyrant at the foot of the altar, during the awfulmysteries of the festival of Easter. Fear or remorse restrained thedaggers of the assassins, but the patience of Solomon emboldened theirdiscontent; and, at the end of ten days, a furious sedition was kindledin the Circus, which desolated Africa above ten years. The pillage ofthe city, and the indiscriminate slaughter of its inhabitants, weresuspended only by darkness, sleep, and intoxication: the governor, withseven companions, among whom was the historian Procopius, escaped toSicily: two thirds of the army were involved in the guilt of treason;and eight thousand insurgents, assembling in the field of Bulla, electedStoza for their chief, a private soldier, who possessed in a superiordegree the virtues of a rebel. Under the mask of freedom, his eloquencecould lead, or at least impel, the passions of his equals. He raisedhimself to a level with Belisarius, and the nephew of the emperor, bydaring to encounter them in the field; and the victorious generals werecompelled to acknowledge that Stoza deserved a purer cause, and a morelegitimate command. Vanquished in battle, he dexterously employed thearts of negotiation; a Roman army was seduced from their allegiance, andthe chiefs who had trusted to his faithless promise were murdered by hisorder in a church of Numidia. When every resource, either of force orperfidy, was exhausted, Stoza, with some desperate Vandals, retired tothe wilds of Mauritania, obtained the daughter of a Barbarian prince, and eluded the pursuit of his enemies, by the report of his death. Thepersonal weight of Belisarius, the rank, the spirit, and the temper, ofGermanus, the emperor's nephew, and the vigor and success of the secondadministration of the eunuch Solomon, restored the modesty of the camp, and maintained for a while the tranquillity of Africa. But the vicesof the Byzantine court were felt in that distant province; the troopscomplained that they were neither paid nor relieved, and as soon as thepublic disorders were sufficiently mature, Stoza was again alive, inarms, and at the gates of Carthage. He fell in a single combat, buthe smiled in the agonies of death, when he was informed that his ownjavelin had reached the heart of his antagonist. [1001] The example ofStoza, and the assurance that a fortunate soldier had been the firstking, encouraged the ambition of Gontharis, and he promised, bya private treaty, to divide Africa with the Moors, if, with theirdangerous aid, he should ascend the throne of Carthage. The feebleAreobindus, unskilled in the affairs of peace and war, was raised, byhis marriage with the niece of Justinian, to the office of exarch. He was suddenly oppressed by a sedition of the guards, and his abjectsupplications, which provoked the contempt, could not move the pity, ofthe inexorable tyrant. After a reign of thirty days, Gontharis himselfwas stabbed at a banquet by the hand of Artaban; [1002] and it issingular enough, that an Armenian prince, of the royal family ofArsaces, should reestablish at Carthage the authority of the Romanempire. In the conspiracy which unsheathed the dagger of Brutus againstthe life of Caesar, every circumstance is curious and important to theeyes of posterity; but the guilt or merit of these loyal or rebelliousassassins could interest only the contemporaries of Procopius, who, bytheir hopes and fears, their friendship or resentment, were personallyengaged in the revolutions of Africa. [2]

[Footnote 1: For the troubles of Africa, I neither have nor desireanother guide than Procopius, whose eye contemplated the image, andwhose ear collected the reports, of the memorable events of his owntimes. In the second book of the Vandalic war he relates the revolt ofStoza, (c. 14--24, ) the return of Belisarius, (c. 15, ) the victory ofGermanus, (c. 16, 17, 18, ) the second administration of Solomon, (c. 19, 20, 21, ) the government of Sergius, (c. 22, 23, ) of Areobindus, (c. 24, ) the tyranny and death of Gontharis, (c. 25, 26, 27, 28;) nor canI discern any symptoms of flattery or malevolence in his variousportraits. ]

[Footnote 1001: Corippus gives a different account of the death ofStoza; he was transfixed by an arrow from the hand of John, (not thehero of his poem) who broke desperately through the victorious troops ofthe enemy. Stoza repented, says the poet, of his treasonous rebellion, and anticipated--another Cataline--eternal torments as his punishment. 

 Reddam, improba, poenas Quas merui. Furiis socius Catilina cruentis Exagitatus adest. Video jam Tartara, fundo Flammarumque globos, et clara incendia volvi. --Johannidos, book iv. Line 211. 

All the other authorities confirm Gibbon's account of the death of Johnby the hand of Stoza. This poem of Corippus, unknown to Gibbon, wasfirst published by Mazzuchelli during the present century, and isreprinted in the new edition of the Byzantine writers. --M]

[Footnote 1002: This murder was prompted to the Armenian (according toCorippus) by Athanasius, (then praefect of Africa. )

 Hunc placidus cana gravitate coegit Inumitera mactare virum. --Corripus, vol. Iv. P. 237--M. ]

[Footnote 2: Yet I must not refuse him the merit of painting, inlively colors, the murder of Gontharis. One of the assassins uttered asentiment not unworthy of a Roman patriot: "If I fail, " said Artasires, "in the first stroke, kill me on the spot, lest the rack should extort adiscovery of my accomplices. "]

That country was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism from whenceit had been raised by the Phoenician colonies and Roman laws; and everystep of intestine discord was marked by some deplorable victory ofsavage man over civilized society. The Moors, [3] though ignorant ofjustice, were impatient of oppression: their vagrant life and boundlesswilderness disappointed the arms, and eluded the chains, of a conqueror;and experience had shown, that neither oaths nor obligations couldsecure the fidelity of their attachment. The victory of Mount Auras hadawed them into momentary submission; but if they respected the characterof Solomon, they hated and despised the pride and luxury of his twonephews, Cyrus and Sergius, on whom their uncle had imprudently bestowedthe provincial governments of Tripoli and Pentapolis. A Moorish tribeencamped under the walls of Leptis, to renew their alliance, and receivefrom the governor the customary gifts. Fourscore of their deputies wereintroduced as friends into the city; but on the dark suspicion of aconspiracy, they were massacred at the table of Sergius, and the clamorof arms and revenge was reechoed through the valleys of Mount Atlas fromboth the Syrtes to the Atlantic Ocean. A personal injury, the unjustexecution or murder of his brother, rendered Antalas the enemy of theRomans. The defeat of the Vandals had formerly signalized his valor; therudiments of justice and prudence were still more conspicuous in a Moor;and while he laid Adrumetum in ashes, he calmly admonished the emperorthat the peace of Africa might be secured by the recall of Solomon andhis unworthy nephews. The exarch led forth his troops from Carthage:but, at the distance of six days' journey, in the neighborhood ofTebeste, [4] he was astonished by the superior numbers and fierce aspectof the Barbarians. He proposed a treaty; solicited a reconciliation; andoffered to bind himself by the most solemn oaths. "By what oaths can hebind himself?" interrupted the indignant Moors. "Will he swear by theGospels, the divine books of the Christians? It was on those books thatthe faith of his nephew Sergius was pledged to eighty of our innocentand unfortunate brethren. Before we trust them a second time, let ustry their efficacy in the chastisement of perjury and the vindication oftheir own honor. " Their honor was vindicated in the field of Tebeste, bythe death of Solomon, and the total loss of his army. [411] The arrivalof fresh troops and more skilful commanders soon checked the insolenceof the Moors: seventeen of their princes were slain in the same battle;and the doubtful and transient submission of their tribes was celebratedwith lavish applause by the people of Constantinople. Successive inroadshad reduced the province of Africa to one third of the measure of Italy;yet the Roman emperors continued to reign above a century over Carthageand the fruitful coast of the Mediterranean. But the victories and thelosses of Justinian were alike pernicious to mankind; and such was thedesolation of Africa, that in many parts a stranger might wander wholedays without meeting the face either of a friend or an enemy. The nationof the Vandals had disappeared: they once amounted to a hundred andsixty thousand warriors, without including the children, the women, orthe slaves. Their numbers were infinitely surpassed by the number ofthe Moorish families extirpated in a relentless war; and the samedestruction was retaliated on the Romans and their allies, who perishedby the climate, their mutual quarrels, and the rage of the Barbarians. When Procopius first landed, he admired the populousness of the citiesand country, strenuously exercised in the labors of commerce andagriculture. In less than twenty years, that busy scene was convertedinto a silent solitude; the wealthy citizens escaped to Sicily andConstantinople; and the secret historian has confidently affirmed, thatfive millions of Africans were consumed by the wars and government ofthe emperor Justinian. [5]

[Footnote 3: The Moorish wars are occasionally introduced into thenarrative of Procopius, (Vandal. L. Ii. C. 19--23, 25, 27, 28. Gothic. L. Iv. C. 17;) and Theophanes adds some prosperous and adverse events inthe last years of Justinian. ]

[Footnote 4: Now Tibesh, in the kingdom of Algiers. It is watered by ariver, the Sujerass, which falls into the Mejerda, (Bagradas. ) Tibeshis still remarkable for its walls of large stones, (like the Coliseum ofRome, ) a fountain, and a grove of walnut-trees: the country isfruitful, and the neighboring Bereberes are warlike. It appears from aninscription, that, under the reign of Adrian, the road from Carthageto Tebeste was constructed by the third legion, (Marmol, Description del'Afrique, tom. Ii. P. 442, 443. Shaw's Travels, p. 64, 65, 66. )]

[Footnote 411: Corripus (Johannidos lib. Iii. 417--441) describes thedefeat and death of Solomon. --M. ]

[Footnote 5: Procopius, Anecdot. C. 18. The series of the Africanhistory at tests this melancholy truth. ]

The jealousy of the Byzantine court had not permitted Belisarius toachieve the conquest of Italy; and his abrupt departure revived thecourage of the Goths, [6] who respected his genius, his virtue, and eventhe laudable motive which had urged the servant of Justinian to deceiveand reject them. They had lost their king, (an inconsiderable loss, )their capital, their treasures, the provinces from Sicily to the Alps, and the military force of two hundred thousand Barbarians, magnificentlyequipped with horses and arms. Yet all was not lost, as long as Paviawas defended by one thousand Goths, inspired by a sense of honor, thelove of freedom, and the memory of their past greatness. The supremecommand was unanimously offered to the brave Uraias; and it was in hiseyes alone that the disgrace of his uncle Vitiges could appear asa reason of exclusion. His voice inclined the election in favor ofHildibald, whose personal merit was recommended by the vain hope thathis kinsman Theudes, the Spanish monarch, would support the commoninterest of the Gothic nation. The success of his arms in Liguria andVenetia seemed to justify their choice; but he soon declared to theworld that he was incapable of forgiving or commanding his benefactor. The consort of Hildibald was deeply wounded by the beauty, the riches, and the pride, of the wife of Uraias; and the death of that virtuouspatriot excited the indignation of a free people. A bold assassinexecuted their sentence by striking off the head of Hildibald in themidst of a banquet; the Rugians, a foreign tribe, assumed the privilegeof election: and Totila, [611] the nephew of the late king, was tempted, by revenge, to deliver himself and the garrison of Trevigo into thehands of the Romans. 

But the gallant and accomplished youth was easily persuaded to preferthe Gothic throne before the service of Justinian; and as soon as thepalace of Pavia had been purified from the Rugian usurper, he reviewedthe national force of five thousand soldiers, and generously undertookthe restoration of the kingdom of Italy. 

[Footnote 6: In the second (c. 30) and third books, (c. 1--40, )Procopius continues the history of the Gothic war from the fifth to thefifteenth year of Justinian. As the events are less interesting thanin the former period, he allots only half the space to double the time. Jornandes, and the Chronicle of Marcellinus, afford some collateralhints Sigonius, Pagi, Muratori, Mascou, and De Buat, are useful, andhave been used. ]

[Footnote 611: His real name, as appears by medals, was Baduilla, orBadiula. Totila signifies immortal: tod (in German) is death. Todilas, deathless. Compare St Martin, vol. Ix. P. 37. --M. ]

The successors of Belisarius, eleven generals of equal rank, neglectedto crush the feeble and disunited Goths, till they were roused to actionby the progress of Totila and the reproaches of Justinian. The gatesof Verona were secretly opened to Artabazus, at the head of one hundredPersians in the service of the empire. The Goths fled from the city. Atthe distance of sixty furlongs the Roman generals halted to regulatethe division of the spoil. While they disputed, the enemy discovered thereal number of the victors: the Persians were instantly overpowered, andit was by leaping from the wall that Artabazus preserved a life whichhe lost in a few days by the lance of a Barbarian, who had defied him tosingle combat. Twenty thousand Romans encountered the forces of Totila, near Faenza, and on the hills of Mugello, of the Florentine territory. The ardor of freedmen, who fought to regain their country, was opposedto the languid temper of mercenary troops, who were even destituteof the merits of strong and well-disciplined servitude. On the firstattack, they abandoned their ensigns, threw down their arms, anddispersed on all sides with an active speed, which abated the loss, whilst it aggravated the shame, of their defeat. The king of the Goths, who blushed for the baseness of his enemies, pursued with rapid stepsthe path of honor and victory. Totila passed the Po, [6112] traversedthe Apennine, suspended the important conquest of Ravenna, Florence, and Rome, and marched through the heart of Italy, to form the siege orrather the blockade, of Naples. The Roman chiefs, imprisoned in theirrespective cities, and accusing each other of the common disgrace, didnot presume to disturb his enterprise. But the emperor, alarmed by thedistress and danger of his Italian conquests, despatched to the reliefof Naples a fleet of galleys and a body of Thracian and Armeniansoldiers. They landed in Sicily, which yielded its copious storesof provisions; but the delays of the new commander, an unwarlikemagistrate, protracted the sufferings of the besieged; and the succors, which he dropped with a timid and tardy hand, were successivelyintercepted by the armed vessels stationed by Totila in the Bay ofNaples. The principal officer of the Romans was dragged, with a roperound his neck, to the foot of the wall, from whence, with a tremblingvoice, he exhorted the citizens to implore, like himself, the mercy ofthe conqueror. They requested a truce, with a promise of surrenderingthe city, if no effectual relief should appear at the end of thirtydays. Instead of one month, the audacious Barbarian granted them three, in the just confidence that famine would anticipate the term of theircapitulation. After the reduction of Naples and Cumae, the provincesof Lucania, Apulia, and Calabria, submitted to the king of the Goths. Totila led his army to the gates of Rome, pitched his camp at Tibur, or Tivoli, within twenty miles of the capital, and calmly exhortedthe senate and people to compare the tyranny of the Greeks with theblessings of the Gothic reign. 

[Footnote 6112: This is not quite correct: he had crossed the Po beforethe battle of Faenza. --M. ]

The rapid success of Totila may be partly ascribed to the revolutionwhich three years' experience had produced in the sentiments of theItalians. At the command, or at least in the name, of a Catholicemperor, the pope, [7] their spiritual father, had been torn from theRoman church, and either starved or murdered on a desolate island. [8]The virtues of Belisarius were replaced by the various or uniform vicesof eleven chiefs, at Rome, Ravenna, Florence, Perugia, Spoleto, &c. , who abused their authority for the indulgence of lust or avarice. Theimprovement of the revenue was committed to Alexander, a subtle scribe, long practised in the fraud and oppression of the Byzantine schools, and whose name of Psalliction, the scissors, [9] was drawn from thedexterous artifice with which he reduced the size without defacing thefigure, of the gold coin. Instead of expecting the restoration of peaceand industry, he imposed a heavy assessment on the fortunes of theItalians. Yet his present or future demands were less odious than aprosecution of arbitrary rigor against the persons and property of allthose who, under the Gothic kings, had been concerned in the receipt andexpenditure of the public money. The subjects of Justinian, who escapedthese partial vexations, were oppressed by the irregular maintenanceof the soldiers, whom Alexander defrauded and despised; and their hastysallies in quest of wealth, or subsistence, provoked the inhabitants ofthe country to await or implore their deliverance from the virtues of aBarbarian. Totila [10] was chaste and temperate; and none were deceived, either friends or enemies, who depended on his faith or his clemency. Tothe husbandmen of Italy the Gothic king issued a welcome proclamation, enjoining them to pursue their important labors, and to rest assured, that, on the payment of the ordinary taxes, they should be defended byhis valor and discipline from the injuries of war. The strong towns hesuccessively attacked; and as soon as they had yielded to his arms, hedemolished the fortifications, to save the people from the calamitiesof a future siege, to deprive the Romans of the arts of defence, and todecide the tedious quarrel of the two nations, by an equal and honorableconflict in the field of battle. The Roman captives and deserters weretempted to enlist in the service of a liberal and courteous adversary;the slaves were attracted by the firm and faithful promise, that theyshould never be delivered to their masters; and from the thousandwarriors of Pavia, a new people, under the same appellation of Goths, was insensibly formed in the camp of Totila. He sincerely accomplishedthe articles of capitulation, without seeking or accepting any sinisteradvantage from ambiguous expressions or unforeseen events: the garrisonof Naples had stipulated that they should be transported by sea; theobstinacy of the winds prevented their voyage, but they were generouslysupplied with horses, provisions, and a safe-conduct to the gates ofRome. The wives of the senators, who had been surprised in the villasof Campania, were restored, without a ransom, to their husbands; theviolation of female chastity was inexorably chastised with death; andin the salutary regulation of the edict of the famished Neapolitans, theconqueror assumed the office of a humane and attentive physician. Thevirtues of Totila are equally laudable, whether they proceeded fromtrue policy, religious principle, or the instinct of humanity: he oftenharangued his troops; and it was his constant theme, that national viceand ruin are inseparably connected; that victory is the fruit of moralas well as military virtue; and that the prince, and even the people, are responsible for the crimes which they neglect to punish. [Footnote7: Sylverius, bishop of Rome, was first transported to Patara, in Lycia, and at length starved (sub eorum custodia inedia confectus) in the Isleof Palmaria, A. D. 538, June 20, (Liberat. In Breviar. C. 22. Anastasius, in Sylverio. Baronius, A. D. 540, No. 2, 3. Pagi, in Vit. Pont. Tom. I. P. 285, 286. ) Procopius (Anecdot. C. 1) accuses only the empress andAntonina. ]

[Footnote 8: Palmaria, a small island, opposite to Terracina and thecoast of the Volsci, (Cluver. Ital. Antiq. L. Iii. C. 7, p. 1014. )]

[Footnote 9: As the Logothete Alexander, and most of his civil andmilitary colleagues, were either disgraced or despised, the ink of theAnecdotes (c. 4, 5, 18) is scarcely blacker than that of the GothicHistory (l. Iii. C. 1, 3, 4, 9, 20, 21, &c. )]

[Footnote 10: Procopius (l. Iii. C. 2, 8, &c. , ) does ample and willingjustice to the merit of Totila. The Roman historians, from Sallustand Tacitus were happy to forget the vices of their countrymen in thecontemplation of Barbaric virtue. ]

The return of Belisarius to save the country which he had subdued, waspressed with equal vehemence by his friends and enemies; and the Gothicwar was imposed as a trust or an exile on the veteran commander. A heroon the banks of the Euphrates, a slave in the palace of Constantinople, he accepted with reluctance the painful task of supporting his ownreputation, and retrieving the faults of his successors. The sea wasopen to the Romans: the ships and soldiers were assembled at Salona, near the palace of Diocletian: he refreshed and reviewed his troops atPola in Istria, coasted round the head of the Adriatic, entered theport of Ravenna, and despatched orders rather than supplies to thesubordinate cities. His first public oration was addressed to the Gothsand Romans, in the name of the emperor, who had suspended for a whilethe conquest of Persia, and listened to the prayers of his Italiansubjects. He gently touched on the causes and the authors of the recentdisasters; striving to remove the fear of punishment for the past, andthe hope of impunity for the future, and laboring, with more zeal thansuccess, to unite all the members of his government in a firm league ofaffection and obedience. Justinian, his gracious master, was inclinedto pardon and reward; and it was their interest, as well as duty, toreclaim their deluded brethren, who had been seduced by the arts ofthe usurper. Not a man was tempted to desert the standard of the Gothicking. Belisarius soon discovered, that he was sent to remain the idleand impotent spectator of the glory of a young Barbarian; and his ownepistle exhibits a genuine and lively picture of the distress of a noblemind. "Most excellent prince, we are arrived in Italy, destitute of allthe necessary implements of war, men, horses, arms, and money. In ourlate circuit through the villages of Thrace and Illyricum, we havecollected, with extreme difficulty, about four thousand recruits, naked, and unskilled in the use of weapons and the exercises of the camp. Thesoldiers already stationed in the province are discontented, fearful, and dismayed; at the sound of an enemy, they dismiss their horses, andcast their arms on the ground. No taxes can be raised, since Italy is inthe hands of the Barbarians; the failure of payment has deprived us ofthe right of command, or even of admonition. Be assured, dread Sir, thatthe greater part of your troops have already deserted to the Goths. If the war could be achieved by the presence of Belisarius alone, yourwishes are satisfied; Belisarius is in the midst of Italy. But if youdesire to conquer, far other preparations are requisite: without amilitary force, the title of general is an empty name. It would beexpedient to restore to my service my own veteran and domestic guards. Before I can take the field, I must receive an adequate supply of lightand heavy armed troops; and it is only with ready money that you canprocure the indispensable aid of a powerful body of the cavalry of theHuns. " [11] An officer in whom Belisarius confided was sent from Ravennato hasten and conduct the succors; but the message was neglected, and the messenger was detained at Constantinople by an advantageousmarriage. After his patience had been exhausted by delay anddisappointment, the Roman general repassed the Adriatic, and expected atDyrrachium the arrival of the troops, which were slowly assembled amongthe subjects and allies of the empire. His powers were still inadequateto the deliverance of Rome, which was closely besieged by the Gothicking. The Appian way, a march of forty days, was covered by theBarbarians; and as the prudence of Belisarius declined a battle, hepreferred the safe and speedy navigation of five days from the coast ofEpirus to the mouth of the Tyber. 

[Footnote 11: Procopius, l. Iii. C. 12. The soul of a hero is deeplyimpressed on the letter; nor can we confound such genuine and originalacts with the elaborate and often empty speeches of the Byzantinehistorians]

After reducing, by force, or treaty, the towns of inferior note in themidland provinces of Italy, Totila proceeded, not to assault, but toencompass and starve, the ancient capital. Rome was afflicted by theavarice, and guarded by the valor, of Bessas, a veteran chief of Gothicextraction, who filled, with a garrison of three thousand soldiers, thespacious circle of her venerable walls. From the distress of thepeople he extracted a profitable trade, and secretly rejoiced in thecontinuance of the siege. It was for his use that the granaries had beenreplenished: the charity of Pope Vigilius had purchased and embarkedan ample supply of Sicilian corn; but the vessels which escaped theBarbarians were seized by a rapacious governor, who imparted a scantysustenance to the soldiers, and sold the remainder to the wealthyRomans. The medimnus, or fifth part of the quarter of wheat, wasexchanged for seven pieces of gold; fifty pieces were given for an ox, a rare and accidental prize; the progress of famine enhanced thisexorbitant value, and the mercenaries were tempted to deprive themselvesof the allowance which was scarcely sufficient for the support of life. A tasteless and unwholesome mixture, in which the bran thrice exceededthe quantity of flour, appeased the hunger of the poor; they weregradually reduced to feed on dead horses, dogs, cats, and mice, andeagerly to snatch the grass, and even the nettles, which grew among theruins of the city. A crowd of spectres, pale and emaciated, their bodiesoppressed with disease, and their minds with despair, surrounded thepalace of the governor, urged, with unavailing truth, that it was theduty of a master to maintain his slaves, and humbly requested that hewould provide for their subsistence, to permit their flight, or commandtheir immediate execution. Bessas replied, with unfeeling tranquillity, that it was impossible to feed, unsafe to dismiss, and unlawful to kill, the subjects of the emperor. Yet the example of a private citizen mighthave shown his countrymen that a tyrant cannot withhold the privilege ofdeath. Pierced by the cries of five children, who vainly called on theirfather for bread, he ordered them to follow his steps, advanced withcalm and silent despair to one of the bridges of the Tyber, and, covering his face, threw himself headlong into the stream, inthe presence of his family and the Roman people. To the rich andpusillammous, Bessas [12] sold the permission of departure; but thegreatest part of the fugitives expired on the public highways, or wereintercepted by the flying parties of Barbarians. In the mean while, theartful governor soothed the discontent, and revived the hopes ofthe Romans, by the vague reports of the fleets and armies which werehastening to their relief from the extremities of the East. They derivedmore rational comfort from the assurance that Belisarius had landed atthe port; and, without numbering his forces, they firmly relied on thehumanity, the courage, and the skill of their great deliverer. 

[Footnote 12: The avarice of Bessas is not dissembled by Procopius, (l. Iii. C. 17, 20. ) He expiated the loss of Rome by the glorious conquestof Petraea, (Goth. L. Iv. C. 12;) but the same vices followed him fromthe Tyber to the Phasis, (c. 13;) and the historian is equally trueto the merits and defects of his character. The chastisement which theauthor of the romance of Belisaire has inflicted on the oppressor ofRome is more agreeable to justice than to history. ]

Chapter XLIII: Last Victory And Death Of Belisarius, Death OF Justinian. --Part II. 

The foresight of Totila had raised obstacles worthy of such anantagonist. Ninety furlongs below the city, in the narrowest part of theriver, he joined the two banks by strong and solid timbers in the formof a bridge, on which he erected two lofty towers, manned by the bravestof his Goths, and profusely stored with missile weapons and engines ofoffence. The approach of the bridge and towers was covered by a strongand massy chain of iron; and the chain, at either end, on the oppositesides of the Tyber, was defended by a numerous and chosen detachment ofarchers. But the enterprise of forcing these barriers, and relievingthe capital, displays a shining example of the boldness and conduct ofBelisarius. His cavalry advanced from the port along the public road, toawe the motions, and distract the attention of the enemy. His infantryand provisions were distributed in two hundred large boats; and eachboat was shielded by a high rampart of thick planks, pierced with manysmall holes for the discharge of missile weapons. In the front, twolarge vessels were linked together to sustain a floating castle, whichcommanded the towers of the bridge, and contained a magazine of fire, sulphur, and bitumen. The whole fleet, which the general led in person, was laboriously moved against the current of the river. The chainyielded to their weight, and the enemies who guarded the banks wereeither slain or scattered. As soon as they touched the principalbarrier, the fire-ship was instantly grappled to the bridge; one ofthe towers, with two hundred Goths, was consumed by the flames; theassailants shouted victory; and Rome was saved, if the wisdom ofBelisarius had not been defeated by the misconduct of his officers. He had previously sent orders to Bessas to second his operations by atimely sally from the town; and he had fixed his lieutenant, Isaac, bya peremptory command, to the station of the port. But avarice renderedBessas immovable; while the youthful ardor of Isaac delivered him intothe hands of a superior enemy. The exaggerated rumor of his defeat washastily carried to the ears of Belisarius: he paused; betrayed in thatsingle moment of his life some emotions of surprise and perplexity; andreluctantly sounded a retreat to save his wife Antonina, his treasures, and the only harbor which he possessed on the Tuscan coast. The vexationof his mind produced an ardent and almost mortal fever; and Rome wasleft without protection to the mercy or indignation of Totila. Thecontinuance of hostilities had imbittered the national hatred: the Arianclergy was ignominiously driven from Rome; Pelagius, the archdeacon, returned without success from an embassy to the Gothic camp; and aSicilian bishop, the envoy or nuncio of the pope, was deprived of bothhis hands, for daring to utter falsehoods in the service of the churchand state. 

Famine had relaxed the strength and discipline of the garrison of Rome. They could derive no effectual service from a dying people; and theinhuman avarice of the merchant at length absorbed the vigilance of thegovernor. Four Isaurian sentinels, while their companions slept, andtheir officers were absent, descended by a rope from the wall, andsecretly proposed to the Gothic king to introduce his troops intothe city. The offer was entertained with coldness and suspicion; theyreturned in safety; they twice repeated their visit; the place was twiceexamined; the conspiracy was known and disregarded; and no sooner hadTotila consented to the attempt, than they unbarred the Asinarian gate, and gave admittance to the Goths. Till the dawn of day, they halted inorder of battle, apprehensive of treachery or ambush; but the troops ofBessas, with their leader, had already escaped; and when the king waspressed to disturb their retreat, he prudently replied, that no sightcould be more grateful than that of a flying enemy. The patricians, whowere still possessed of horses, Decius, Basilius, &c. Accompanied thegovernor; their brethren, among whom Olybrius, Orestes, and Maximus, arenamed by the historian, took refuge in the church of St. Peter: butthe assertion, that only five hundred persons remained in the capital, inspires some doubt of the fidelity either of his narrative or of histext. As soon as daylight had displayed the entire victory of the Goths, their monarch devoutly visited the tomb of the prince of the apostles;but while he prayed at the altar, twenty-five soldiers, and sixtycitizens, were put to the sword in the vestibule of the temple. Thearchdeacon Pelagius [13] stood before him, with the Gospels in his hand. "O Lord, be merciful to your servant. " "Pelagius, " said Totila, with aninsulting smile, "your pride now condescends to become a suppliant. " "Iam a suppliant, " replied the prudent archdeacon; "God has now made usyour subjects, and as your subjects, we are entitled to your clemency. "At his humble prayer, the lives of the Romans were spared; and thechastity of the maids and matrons was preserved inviolate from thepassions of the hungry soldiers. 

But they were rewarded by the freedom of pillage, after the mostprecious spoils had been reserved for the royal treasury. The housesof the senators were plentifully stored with gold and silver; and theavarice of Bessas had labored with so much guilt and shame for thebenefit of the conqueror. In this revolution, the sons and daughtersof Roman consuls lasted the misery which they had spurned or relieved, wandered in tattered garments through the streets of the city andbegged their bread, perhaps without success, before the gates of theirhereditary mansions. The riches of Rusticiana, the daughter of Symmachusand widow of Boethius, had been generously devoted to alleviate thecalamities of famine. But the Barbarians were exasperated by the report, that she had prompted the people to overthrow the statues of thegreat Theodoric; and the life of that venerable matron would have beensacrificed to his memory, if Totila had not respected her birth, hervirtues, and even the pious motive of her revenge. The next day hepronounced two orations, to congratulate and admonish his victoriousGoths, and to reproach the senate, as the vilest of slaves, with theirperjury, folly, and ingratitude; sternly declaring, that their estatesand honors were justly forfeited to the companions of his arms. Yet heconsented to forgive their revolt; and the senators repaid his clemencyby despatching circular letters to their tenants and vassals in theprovinces of Italy, strictly to enjoin them to desert the standard ofthe Greeks, to cultivate their lands in peace, and to learn from theirmasters the duty of obedience to a Gothic sovereign. Against the citywhich had so long delayed the course of his victories, he appearedinexorable: one third of the walls, in different parts, were demolishedby his command; fire and engines prepared to consume or subvert the moststately works of antiquity; and the world was astonished by the fataldecree, that Rome should be changed into a pasture for cattle. The firmand temperate remonstrance of Belisarius suspended the execution; hewarned the Barbarian not to sully his fame by the destruction of thosemonuments which were the glory of the dead, and the delight of theliving; and Totila was persuaded, by the advice of an enemy, to preserveRome as the ornament of his kingdom, or the fairest pledge of peace andreconciliation. When he had signified to the ambassadors of Belisariushis intention of sparing the city, he stationed an army at the distanceof one hundred and twenty furlongs, to observe the motions of the Romangeneral. With the remainder of his forces he marched into Lucania andApulia, and occupied on the summit of Mount Garganus [14] one of thecamps of Hannibal. [15] The senators were dragged in his train, andafterwards confined in the fortresses of Campania: the citizens, withtheir wives and children, were dispersed in exile; and during forty daysRome was abandoned to desolate and dreary solitude. [16]

[Footnote 13: During the long exile, and after the death of Vigilius, the Roman church was governed, at first by the archdeacon, and at length(A. D 655) by the pope Pelagius, who was not thought guiltless of thesufferings of his predecessor. See the original lives of the popes underthe name of Anastasius, (Muratori, Script. Rer. Italicarum, tom. Iii. P. I. P. 130, 131, ) who relates several curious incidents of the sieges ofRome and the wars of Italy. ]

[Footnote 14: Mount Garganus, now Monte St. Angelo, in the kingdom ofNaples, runs three hundred stadia into the Adriatic Sea, (Strab. --vi. P. 436, ) and in the darker ages was illustrated by the apparition, miracles, and church, of St. Michael the archangel. Horace, a native ofApulia or Lucania, had seen the elms and oaks of Garganus laboring andbellowing with the north wind that blew on that lofty coast, (Carm. Ii. 9, Epist. Ii. I. 201. )]

[Footnote 15: I cannot ascertain this particular camp of Hannibal; butthe Punic quarters were long and often in the neighborhood of Arpi, (T. Liv. Xxii. 9, 12, xxiv. 3, &c. )]

[Footnote 16: Totila. .. . Romam ingreditur. .. . Ac evertit muros, domosaliquantas igni comburens, ac omnes Romanorum res in praedam accepit, hos ipsos Romanos in Campaniam captivos abduxit. Post quamdevastationem, xl. Autamp lius dies, Roma fuit ita desolata, ut nemoibi hominum, nisi (nulloe?) bestiae morarentur, (Marcellin. In Chron. P. 54. )]

The loss of Rome was speedily retrieved by an action, to which, according to the event, the public opinion would apply the names ofrashness or heroism. After the departure of Totila, the Roman generalsallied from the port at the head of a thousand horse, cut in pieces theenemy who opposed his progress, and visited with pity and reverencethe vacant space of the eternal city. Resolved to maintain a station soconspicuous in the eyes of mankind, he summoned the greatest part ofhis troops to the standard which he erected on the Capitol: the oldinhabitants were recalled by the love of their country and the hopesof food; and the keys of Rome were sent a second time to the emperorJustinian. The walls, as far as they had been demolished by theGoths, were repaired with rude and dissimilar materials; the ditch wasrestored; iron spikes [17] were profusely scattered in the highways toannoy the feet of the horses; and as new gates could not suddenly beprocured, the entrance was guarded by a Spartan rampart of his bravestsoldiers. At the expiration of twenty-five days, Totila returned byhasty marches from Apulia to avenge the injury and disgrace. Belisariusexpected his approach. The Goths were thrice repulsed in three generalassaults; they lost the flower of their troops; the royal standard hadalmost fallen into the hands of the enemy, and the fame of Totilasunk, as it had risen, with the fortune of his arms. Whatever skilland courage could achieve, had been performed by the Roman general:it remained only that Justinian should terminate, by a strong andseasonable effort, the war which he had ambitiously undertaken. Theindolence, perhaps the impotence, of a prince who despised his enemies, and envied his servants, protracted the calamities of Italy. After along silence, Belisarius was commanded to leave a sufficient garrisonat Rome, and to transport himself into the province of Lucania, whoseinhabitants, inflamed by Catholic zeal, had cast away the yoke of theirArian conquerors. In this ignoble warfare, the hero, invincible againstthe power of the Barbarians, was basely vanquished by the delay, thedisobedience, and the cowardice of his own officers. He reposed in hiswinter quarters of Crotona, in the full assurance, that the two passesof the Lucanian hills were guarded by his cavalry. They were betrayed bytreachery or weakness; and the rapid march of the Goths scarcely allowedtime for the escape of Belisarius to the coast of Sicily. At length afleet and army were assembled for the relief of Ruscianum, or Rossano, [18] a fortress sixty furlongs from the ruins of Sybaris, where thenobles of Lucania had taken refuge. In the first attempt, the Romanforces were dissipated by a storm. In the second, they approached theshore; but they saw the hills covered with archers, the landing-placedefended by a line of spears, and the king of the Goths impatient forbattle. The conqueror of Italy retired with a sigh, and continued tolanguish, inglorious and inactive, till Antonina, who had been sentto Constantinople to solicit succors, obtained, after the death of theempress, the permission of his return. 

[Footnote 17: The tribuli are small engines with four spikes, one fixedin the ground, the three others erect or adverse, (Procopius, Gothic. L. Iii. C. 24. Just. Lipsius, Poliorcetwv, l. V. C. 3. ) The metaphorwas borrowed from the tribuli, (land-caltrops, ) an herb with a pricklyfruit, commex in Italy. (Martin, ad Virgil. Georgic. I. 153 vol. Ii. P. 33. )]

[Footnote 18: Ruscia, the navale Thuriorum, was transferred to thedistance of sixty stadia to Ruscianum, Rossano, an archbishopric withoutsuffragans. The republic of Sybaris is now the estate of the dukeof Corigliano. (Riedesel, Travels into Magna Graecia and Sicily, p. 166--171. )]

The five last campaigns of Belisarius might abate the envy of hiscompetitors, whose eyes had been dazzled and wounded by the blaze ofhis former glory. Instead of delivering Italy from the Goths, he hadwandered like a fugitive along the coast, without daring to march intothe country, or to accept the bold and repeated challenge of Totila. Yet, in the judgment of the few who could discriminate counsels fromevents, and compare the instruments with the execution, he appeareda more consummate master of the art of war, than in the season of hisprosperity, when he presented two captive kings before the throne ofJustinian. The valor of Belisarius was not chilled by age: his prudencewas matured by experience; but the moral virtues of humanity and justiceseem to have yielded to the hard necessity of the times. The parsimonyor poverty of the emperor compelled him to deviate from the rule ofconduct which had deserved the love and confidence of the Italians. Thewar was maintained by the oppression of Ravenna, Sicily, and allthe faithful subjects of the empire; and the rigorous prosecution ofHerodian provoked that injured or guilty officer to deliver Spoleto intothe hands of the enemy. The avarice of Antonina, which had been sometimes diverted by love, now reigned without a rival in her breast. Belisarius himself had always understood, that riches, in a corruptage, are the support and ornament of personal merit. And it cannot bepresumed that he should stain his honor for the public service, withoutapplying a part of the spoil to his private emolument. The hero hadescaped the sword of the Barbarians. But the dagger of conspiracy [19]awaited his return. In the midst of wealth and honors, Artaban, who hadchastised the African tyrant, complained of the ingratitude of courts. He aspired to Praejecta, the emperor's niece, who wished to reward herdeliverer; but the impediment of his previous marriage was assertedby the piety of Theodora. The pride of royal descent was irritated byflattery; and the service in which he gloried had proved him capable ofbold and sanguinary deeds. The death of Justinian was resolved, but theconspirators delayed the execution till they could surprise Belisariusdisarmed, and naked, in the palace of Constantinople. Not a hope couldbe entertained of shaking his long-tried fidelity; and they justlydreaded the revenge, or rather the justice, of the veteran general, whomight speedily assemble an army in Thrace to punish the assassins, andperhaps to enjoy the fruits of their crime. Delay afforded time for rashcommunications and honest confessions: Artaban and his accomplices werecondemned by the senate, but the extreme clemency of Justinian detainedthem in the gentle confinement of the palace, till he pardoned theirflagitious attempt against his throne and life. If the emperor forgavehis enemies, he must cordially embrace a friend whose victories werealone remembered, and who was endeared to his prince by the recentcircumstances of their common danger. Belisarius reposed from his toils, in the high station of general of the East and count of the domestics;and the older consuls and patricians respectfully yielded the precedencyof rank to the peerless merit of the first of the Romans. [20] Thefirst of the Romans still submitted to be the slave of his wife; but theservitude of habit and affection became less disgraceful when the deathof Theodora had removed the baser influence of fear. Joannina, theirdaughter, and the sole heiress of their fortunes, was betrothed toAnastasius, the grandson, or rather the nephew, of the empress, [21]whose kind interposition forwarded the consummation of their youthfulloves. But the power of Theodora expired, the parents of Joanninareturned, and her honor, perhaps her happiness, were sacrificed to therevenge of an unfeeling mother, who dissolved the imperfect nuptialsbefore they had been ratified by the ceremonies of the church. [22]

[Footnote 19: This conspiracy is related by Procopius (Gothic. L. Iii. C. 31, 32) with such freedom and candor, that the liberty of theAnecdotes gives him nothing to add. ]

[Footnote 20: The honors of Belisarius are gladly commemorated by hissecretary, (Procop. Goth. L. Iii. C. 35, l. Iv. C. 21. ) This title isill translated, at least in this instance, by praefectus praetorio; andto a military character, magister militum is more proper and applicable, (Ducange, Gloss. Graec. P. 1458, 1459. )]

[Footnote 21: Alemannus, (ad Hist. Arcanum, p. 68, ) Ducange, (FamiliaeByzant. P. 98, ) and Heineccius, (Hist. Juris Civilis, p. 434, ) all threerepresent Anastasius as the son of the daughter of Theodora; and theiropinion firmly reposes on the unambiguous testimony of Procopius, (Anecdot. C. 4, 5, --twice repeated. ) And yet I will remark, 1. Thatin the year 547, Theodora could sarcely have a grandson of the ageof puberty; 2. That we are totally ignorant of this daughter and herhusband; and, 3. That Theodora concealed her bastards, and that hergrandson by Justinian would have been heir apparent of the empire. ]

[Footnote 22: The sins of the hero in Italy and after his return, aremanifested, and most probably swelled, by the author of the Anecdotes, (c. 4, 5. ) The designs of Antonina were favored by the fluctuatingjurisprudence of Justinian. On the law of marriage and divorce, thatemperor was trocho versatilior, (Heineccius, Element Juris Civil. AdOrdinem Pandect. P. Iv. No. 233. )]

Before the departure of Belisarius, Perusia was besieged, and few citieswere impregnable to the Gothic arms. Ravenna, Ancona, and Crotona, stillresisted the Barbarians; and when Totila asked in marriage one of thedaughters of France, he was stung by the just reproach that the king ofItaly was unworthy of his title till it was acknowledged by the Romanpeople. Three thousand of the bravest soldiers had been left todefend the capital. On the suspicion of a monopoly, they massacred thegovernor, and announced to Justinian, by a deputation of the clergy, that unless their offence was pardoned, and their arrears weresatisfied, they should instantly accept the tempting offers of Totila. But the officer who succeeded to the command (his name was Diogenes)deserved their esteem and confidence; and the Goths, instead of findingan easy conquest, encountered a vigorous resistance from the soldiersand people, who patiently endured the loss of the port and of allmaritime supplies. The siege of Rome would perhaps have been raised, if the liberality of Totila to the Isaurians had not encouraged some oftheir venal countrymen to copy the example of treason. In a dark night, while the Gothic trumpets sounded on another side, they silently openedthe gate of St. Paul: the Barbarians rushed into the city; and theflying garrison was intercepted before they could reach the harbor ofCentumcellae. A soldier trained in the school of Belisarius, Paul ofCilicia, retired with four hundred men to the mole of Hadrian. Theyrepelled the Goths; but they felt the approach of famine; and theiraversion to the taste of horse-flesh confirmed their resolution to riskthe event of a desperate and decisive sally. But their spirit insensiblystooped to the offers of capitulation; they retrieved their arrears ofpay, and preserved their arms and horses, by enlisting in the service ofTotila; their chiefs, who pleaded a laudable attachment to their wivesand children in the East, were dismissed with honor; and above fourhundred enemies, who had taken refuge in the sanctuaries, were savedby the clemency of the victor. He no longer entertained a wish ofdestroying the edifices of Rome, [23] which he now respected as theseat of the Gothic kingdom: the senate and people were restored to theircountry; the means of subsistence were liberally provided; and Totila, in the robe of peace, exhibited the equestrian games of the circus. Whilst he amused the eyes of the multitude, four hundred vessels wereprepared for the embarkation of his troops. The cities of Rhegiumand Tarentum were reduced: he passed into Sicily, the object of hisimplacable resentment; and the island was stripped of its gold andsilver, of the fruits of the earth, and of an infinite number of horses, sheep, and oxen. Sardinia and Corsica obeyed the fortune of Italy; andthe sea-coast of Greece was visited by a fleet of three hundred galleys. [24] The Goths were landed in Corcyra and the ancient continent ofEpirus; they advanced as far as Nicopolis, the trophy of Augustus, andDodona, [25] once famous by the oracle of Jove. In every step of hisvictories, the wise Barbarian repeated to Justinian the desire of peace, applauded the concord of their predecessors, and offered to employ theGothic arms in the service of the empire. 

[Footnote 23: The Romans were still attached to the monuments of theirancestors; and according to Procopius, (Goth. L. Iv. C. 22, ) the galleryof Aeneas, of a single rank of oars, 25 feet in breadth, 120 in length, was preserved entire in the navalia, near Monte Testaceo, at the foot ofthe Aventine, (Nardini, Roma Antica, l. Vii. C. 9, p. 466. Donatus, RomAntiqua, l. Iv. C. 13, p. 334) But all antiquity is ignorant of relic. ]

[Footnote 24: In these seas Procopius searched without success for theIsle of Calypso. He was shown, at Phaeacia, or Cocyra, the petrifiedship of Ulysses, (Odyss. Xiii. 163;) but he found it a recent fabric ofmany stones, dedicated by a merchant to Jupiter Cassius, (l. Iv. C. 22. )Eustathius had supposed it to be the fanciful likeness of a rock. ]

[Footnote 25: M. D'Anville (Memoires de l'Acad. Tom. Xxxii. P. 513--528)illustrates the Gulf of Ambracia; but he cannot ascertain the situationof Dodona. A country in sight of Italy is less known than the wilds ofAmerica. Note: On the site of Dodona compare Walpole's Travels in theEast, vol. Ii. P. 473; Col. Leake's Northern Greece, vol. Iv. P. 163;and a dissertation by the present bishop of Lichfield (Dr. Butler) inthe appendix to Hughes's Travels, vol. I. P. 511. --M. ]

Justinian was deaf to the voice of peace: but he neglected theprosecution of war; and the indolence of his temper disappointed, insome degree, the obstinacy of his passions. From this salutary slumberthe emperor was awakened by the pope Vigilius and the patricianCethegus, who appeared before his throne, and adjured him, in the nameof God and the people, to resume the conquest and deliverance of Italy. In the choice of the generals, caprice, as well as judgment, was shown. A fleet and army sailed for the relief of Sicily, under the conduct ofLiberius; but his youth [2511] and want of experience were afterwardsdiscovered, and before he touched the shores of the island he wasovertaken by his successor. In the place of Liberius, the conspiratorArtaban was raised from a prison to military honors; in the piouspresumption, that gratitude would animate his valor and fortify hisallegiance. Belisarius reposed in the shade of his laurels, but thecommand of the principal army was reserved for Germanus, [26] theemperor's nephew, whose rank and merit had been long depressed by thejealousy of the court. Theodora had injured him in the rights of aprivate citizen, the marriage of his children, and the testament of hisbrother; and although his conduct was pure and blameless, Justinian wasdispleased that he should be thought worthy of the confidence of themalecontents. The life of Germanus was a lesson of implicit obedience:he nobly refused to prostitute his name and character in the factionsof the circus: the gravity of his manners was tempered by innocentcheerfulness; and his riches were lent without interest to indigent ordeserving friends. His valor had formerly triumphed over the Sclavoniansof the Danube and the rebels of Africa: the first report of hispromotion revived the hopes of the Italians; and he was privatelyassured, that a crowd of Roman deserters would abandon, on his approach, the standard of Totila. His second marriage with Malasontha, thegranddaughter of Theodoric endeared Germanus to the Goths themselves;and they marched with reluctance against the father of a royal infantthe last offspring of the line of Amali. [27] A splendid allowance wasassigned by the emperor: the general contribute his private fortune: histwo sons were popular and active and he surpassed, in the promptitudeand success of his levies the expectation of mankind. He was permittedto select some squadrons of Thracian cavalry: the veterans, as well asthe youth of Constantinople and Europe, engaged their voluntary service;and as far as the heart of Germany, his fame and liberality attractedthe aid of the Barbarians. [2711] The Romans advanced to Sardica; anarmy of Sclavonians fled before their march; but within two days oftheir final departure, the designs of Germanus were terminated by hismalady and death. Yet the impulse which he had given to the Italianwar still continued to act with energy and effect. The maritime townsAncona, Crotona, Centumcellae, resisted the assaults of Totila Sicilywas reduced by the zeal of Artaban, and the Gothic navy was defeatednear the coast of the Adriatic. The two fleets were almost equal, forty-seven to fifty galleys: the victory was decided by the knowledgeand dexterity of the Greeks; but the ships were so closely grappled, that only twelve of the Goths escaped from this unfortunate conflict. They affected to depreciate an element in which they were unskilled; buttheir own experience confirmed the truth of a maxim, that the master ofthe sea will always acquire the dominion of the land. [28]

[Footnote 2511: This is a singular mistake. Gibbon must have hastilycaught at his inexperience, and concluded that it must have been fromyouth. Lord Mahon has pointed out this error, p. 401. I should add thatin the last 4to. Edition, corrected by Gibbon, it stands "want ofyouth and experience;"--but Gibbon can scarcely have intended such aphrase. --M. ]

[Footnote 26: See the acts of Germanus in the public (Vandal. L. Ii, c. 16, 17, 18 Goth. L. Iii. C. 31, 32) and private history, (Anecdot. C. 5, ) and those of his son Justin, in Agathias, (l. Iv. P. 130, 131. )Notwithstanding an ambiguous expression of Jornandes, fratri suo, Alemannus has proved that he was the son of the emperor's brother. ]

[Footnote 27: Conjuncta Aniciorum gens cum Amala stirpe spem adhuc utiiusque generis promittit, (Jornandes, c. 60, p. 703. ) He wrote at Ravennabefore the death of Totila]

[Footnote 2711: See note 31, p. 268. --M. ]

[Footnote 28: The third book of Procopius is terminated by the death ofGermanus, (Add. L. Iv. C. 23, 24, 25, 26. )]

After the loss of Germanus, the nations were provoked to smile, by thestrange intelligence, that the command of the Roman armies was given toa eunuch. But the eunuch Narses [29] is ranked among the few who haverescued that unhappy name from the contempt and hatred of mankind. Afeeble, diminutive body concealed the soul of a statesman and a warrior. His youth had been employed in the management of the loom and distaff, in the cares of the household, and the service of female luxury; butwhile his hands were busy, he secretly exercised the faculties of avigorous and discerning mind. A stranger to the schools and the camp, hestudied in the palace to dissemble, to flatter, and to persuade; and assoon as he approached the person of the emperor, Justinian listenedwith surprise and pleasure to the manly counsels of his chamberlain andprivate treasurer. [30] The talents of Narses were tried and improvedin frequent embassies: he led an army into Italy acquired a practicalknowledge of the war and the country, and presumed to strive with thegenius of Belisarius. Twelve years after his return, the eunuch waschosen to achieve the conquest which had been left imperfect by thefirst of the Roman generals. Instead of being dazzled by vanity oremulation, he seriously declared that, unless he were armed with anadequate force, he would never consent to risk his own glory and thatof his sovereign. Justinian granted to the favorite what he might havedenied to the hero: the Gothic war was rekindled from its ashes, and thepreparations were not unworthy of the ancient majesty of the empire. Thekey of the public treasure was put into his hand, to collect magazines, to levy soldiers, to purchase arms and horses, to discharge the arrearsof pay, and to tempt the fidelity of the fugitives and deserters. Thetroops of Germanus were still in arms; they halted at Salona in theexpectation of a new leader; and legions of subjects and allies werecreated by the well-known liberality of the eunuch Narses. The king ofthe Lombards [31] satisfied or surpassed the obligations of a treaty, bylending two thousand two hundred of his bravest warriors, [3111] who werefollowed by three thousand of their martial attendants. Three thousandHeruli fought on horseback under Philemuth, their native chief; and thenoble Aratus, who adopted the manners and discipline of Rome, conducteda band of veterans of the same nation. Dagistheus was released fromprison to command the Huns; and Kobad, the grandson and nephew ofthe great king, was conspicuous by the regal tiara at the head of hisfaithful Persians, who had devoted themselves to the fortunes of theirprince. [32] Absolute in the exercise of his authority, more absolute inthe affection of his troops, Narses led a numerous and gallant army fromPhilippopolis to Salona, from whence he coasted the eastern side of theAdriatic as far as the confines of Italy. His progress was checked. TheEast could not supply vessels capable of transporting such multitudes ofmen and horses. The Franks, who, in the general confusion, had usurpedthe greater part of the Venetian province, refused a free passage to thefriends of the Lombards. The station of Verona was occupied by Teias, with the flower of the Gothic forces; and that skilful commanderhad overspread the adjacent country with the fall of woods and theinundation of waters. [33] In this perplexity, an officer of experienceproposed a measure, secure by the appearance of rashness; that theRoman army should cautiously advance along the seashore, while the fleetpreceded their march, and successively cast a bridge of boats over themouths of the rivers, the Timavus, the Brenta, the Adige, and thePo, that fall into the Adriatic to the north of Ravenna. Nine days hereposed in the city, collected the fragments of the Italian army, andmarching towards Rimini to meet the defiance of an insulting enemy. 

[Footnote 29: Procopius relates the whole series of this second Gothicwar and the victory of Narses, (l. Iv. C. 21, 26--35. ) A splendid scene. Among the six subjects of epic poetry which Tasso revolved in his mind, he hesitated between the conquests of Italy by Belisarius and by Narses, (Hayley's Works, vol. Iv. P. 70. )]

[Footnote 30: The country of Narses is unknown, since he must not beconfounded with the Persarmenian. Procopius styles him (see Goth. L. Ii. C. 13); Paul Warnefrid, (l. Ii. C. 3, p. 776, ) Chartularius: Marcellinusadds the name of Cubicularius. In an inscription on the Salarian bridgehe is entitled Ex-consul, Ex-praepositus, Cubiculi Patricius, (Mascou, Hist. Of the Germans, (l. Xiii. C. 25. ) The law of Theodosius againstennuchs was obsolete or abolished, Annotation xx. , ) but the foolishprophecy of the Romans subsisted in full vigor, (Procop. L. Iv. C. 21. )* Note: Lord Mahon supposes them both to have been Persarmenians. Note, p. 256. --M. ]

[Footnote 31: Paul Warnefrid, the Lombard, records with complacency thesuccor, service, and honorable dismission of his countrymen--reipublicaeRomanae adversus aemulos adjutores fuerant, (l. Ii. C. I. P. 774, edit. Grot. ) I am surprised that Alboin, their martial king, did not leadhis subjects in person. * Note: The Lombards were still at war with theGepidae. See Procop. Goth. Lib. Iv. P. 25. --M. ]

[Footnote 3111: Gibbon has blindly followed the translation of Maltretus:Bis mille ducentos--while the original Greek says expressly somethingelse, (Goth. Lib. Iv. C. 26. ) In like manner, (p. 266, ) he drawsvolunteers from Germany, on the authority of Cousin, who, in one place, has mistaken Germanus for Germania. Yet only a few pages further we findGibbon loudly condemning the French and Latin readers of Procopius. LordMahon, p. 403. The first of these errors remains uncorrected in the newedition of the Byzantines. --M. ]

[Footnote 32: He was, if not an impostor, the son of the blind Zames, saved by compassion, and educated in the Byzantine court by the variousmotives of policy, pride, and generosity, (Procop. Persic. L. I. C. 23. )]

[Footnote 33: In the time of Augustus, and in the middle ages, thewhole waste from Aquileia to Ravenna was covered with woods, lakes, andmorasses. Man has subdued nature, and the land has been cultivated sincethe waters are confined and embanked. See the learned researches ofMuratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi. Tom. I. Dissert xxi. P. 253, 254, ) from Vitruvius, Strabo, Herodian, old charters, and localknowledge. ]

Chapter XLIII: Last Victory And Death Of Belisarius, Death Of Justinian. --Part III. 

The prudence of Narses impelled him to speedy and decisive action. His powers were the last effort of the state; the cost of each dayaccumulated the enormous account; and the nations, untrained todiscipline or fatigue, might be rashly provoked to turn their armsagainst each other, or against their benefactor. The same considerationsmight have tempered the ardor of Totila. But he was conscious that theclergy and people of Italy aspired to a second revolution: he felt orsuspected the rapid progress of treason; and he resolved to risk theGothic kingdom on the chance of a day, in which the valiant would beanimated by instant danger and the disaffected might be awed by mutualignorance. In his march from Ravenna, the Roman general chastised thegarrison of Rimini, traversed in a direct line the hills of Urbino, andreentered the Flaminian way, nine miles beyond the perforated rock, an obstacle of art and nature which might have stopped or retarded hisprogress. [34] The Goths were assembled in the neighborhood of Rome, they advanced without delay to seek a superior enemy, and the two armiesapproached each other at the distance of one hundred furlongs, betweenTagina [35] and the sepulchres of the Gauls. [36] The haughty messageof Narses was an offer, not of peace, but of pardon. The answer of theGothic king declared his resolution to die or conquer. "What day, " saidthe messenger, "will you fix for the combat?" "The eighth day, " repliedTotila; but early the next morning he attempted to surprise a foe, suspicious of deceit, and prepared for battle. Ten thousand Heruliand Lombards, of approved valor and doubtful faith, were placed in thecentre. Each of the wings was composed of eight thousand Romans; theright was guarded by the cavalry of the Huns, the left was covered byfifteen hundred chosen horse, destined, according to the emergenciesof action, to sustain the retreat of their friends, or to encompass theflank of the enemy. From his proper station at the head of the rightwing, the eunuch rode along the line, expressing by his voice andcountenance the assurance of victory; exciting the soldiers of theemperor to punish the guilt and madness of a band of robbers; andexposing to their view gold chains, collars, and bracelets, the rewardsof military virtue. From the event of a single combat they drew an omenof success; and they beheld with pleasure the courage of fifty archers, who maintained a small eminence against three successive attacks of theGothic cavalry. At the distance only of two bow-shots, the armies spentthe morning in dreadful suspense, and the Romans tasted some necessaryfood, without unloosing the cuirass from their breast, or the bridlefrom their horses. Narses awaited the charge; and it was delayed byTotila till he had received his last succors of two thousand Goths. While he consumed the hours in fruitless treaty, the king exhibited ina narrow space the strength and agility of a warrior. His armor wasenchased with gold; his purple banner floated with the wind: he casthis lance into the air; caught it with the right hand; shifted it to theleft; threw himself backwards; recovered his seat; and managed a fierysteed in all the paces and evolutions of the equestrian school. As soonas the succors had arrived, he retired to his tent, assumed the dressand arms of a private soldier, and gave the signal of a battle. Thefirst line of cavalry advanced with more courage than discretion, andleft behind them the infantry of the second line. They were soon engagedbetween the horns of a crescent, into which the adverse wings had beeninsensibly curved, and were saluted from either side by the volleys offour thousand archers. Their ardor, and even their distress, drove themforwards to a close and unequal conflict, in which they could only usetheir lances against an enemy equally skilled in all the instrumentsof war. A generous emulation inspired the Romans and their Barbarianallies; and Narses, who calmly viewed and directed their efforts, doubted to whom he should adjudge the prize of superior bravery. TheGothic cavalry was astonished and disordered, pressed and broken; andthe line of infantry, instead of presenting their spears, or openingtheir intervals, were trampled under the feet of the flying horse. Sixthousand of the Goths were slaughtered without mercy in the field ofTagina. Their prince, with five attendants, was overtaken by Asbad, ofthe race of the Gepidae. "Spare the king of Italy, " [3611] cried a loyalvoice, and Asbad struck his lance through the body of Totila. The blowwas instantly revenged by the faithful Goths: they transported theirdying monarch seven miles beyond the scene of his disgrace; and hislast moments were not imbittered by the presence of an enemy. Compassionafforded him the shelter of an obscure tomb; but the Romans were notsatisfied of their victory, till they beheld the corpse of the Gothicking. His hat, enriched with gems, and his bloody robe, were presentedto Justinian by the messengers of triumph. [37]

[Footnote 34: The Flaminian way, as it is corrected from theItineraries, and the best modern maps, by D'Anville, (Analyse del'Italie, p. 147--162, ) may be thus stated: Rome to Narni, 51 Romanmiles; Terni, 57; Spoleto, 75; Foligno, 88; Nocera, 103; Cagli, 142;Intercisa, 157; Fossombrone, 160; Fano, 176; Pesaro, 184; Rimini, 208--about 189 English miles. He takes no notice of the death of Totila;but West selling (Itinerar. P. 614) exchanges, for the field of Taginas, the unknown appellation of Ptanias, eight miles from Nocera. ]

[Footnote 35: Taginae, or rather Tadinae, is mentioned by Pliny; but thebishopric of that obscure town, a mile from Gualdo, in the plain, wasunited, in the year 1007, with that of Nocera. The signs of antiquityare preserved in the local appellations, Fossato, the camp; Capraia, Caprea; Bastia, Busta Gallorum. See Cluverius, (Italia Antiqua, l. Ii. C. 6, p. 615, 616, 617, ) Lucas Holstenius, (Annotat. Ad Cluver. P. 85, 86, ) Guazzesi, (Dissertat. P. 177--217, a professed inquiry, ) and themaps of the ecclesiastical state and the march of Ancona, by Le Maireand Magini. ]

[Footnote 36: The battle was fought in the year of Rome 458; and theconsul Decius, by devoting his own life, assured the triumph of hiscountry and his colleague Fabius, (T. Liv. X. 28, 29. ) Procopiusascribes to Camillus the victory of the Busta Gallorum; and his error isbranded by Cluverius with the national reproach of Graecorum nugamenta. ]

[Footnote 3611: "Dog, wilt thou strike thy Lord?" was the morecharacteristic exclamation of the Gothic youth. Procop. Lib. Iv. P. 32. --M. ]

[Footnote 37: Theophanes, Chron. P. 193. Hist. Miscell. L. Xvi. P. 108. ]

As soon as Narses had paid his devotions to the Author of victory, andthe blessed Virgin, his peculiar patroness, [38] he praised, rewarded, and dismissed the Lombards. The villages had been reduced to ashes bythese valiant savages; they ravished matrons and virgins on the altar;their retreat was diligently watched by a strong detachment of regularforces, who prevented a repetition of the like disorders. The victoriouseunuch pursued his march through Tuscany, accepted the submission ofthe Goths, heard the acclamations, and often the complaints, of theItalians, and encompassed the walls of Rome with the remainder ofhis formidable host. Round the wide circumference, Narses assigned tohimself, and to each of his lieutenants, a real or a feigned attack, while he silently marked the place of easy and unguarded entrance. Neither the fortifications of Hadrian's mole, nor of the port, couldlong delay the progress of the conqueror; and Justinian once morereceived the keys of Rome, which, under his reign, had been five timestaken and recovered. [39] But the deliverance of Rome was the lastcalamity of the Roman people. The Barbarian allies of Narses toofrequently confounded the privileges of peace and war. The despair ofthe flying Goths found some consolation in sanguinary revenge; and threehundred youths of the noblest families, who had been sent as hostagesbeyond the Po, were inhumanly slain by the successor of Totila. Thefate of the senate suggests an awful lesson of the vicissitude of humanaffairs. Of the senators whom Totila had banished from their country, some were rescued by an officer of Belisarius, and transported fromCampania to Sicily; while others were too guilty to confide in theclemency of Justinian, or too poor to provide horses for their escapeto the sea-shore. Their brethren languished five years in a state ofindigence and exile: the victory of Narses revived their hopes; buttheir premature return to the metropolis was prevented by the furiousGoths; and all the fortresses of Campania were stained with patrician[40] blood. After a period of thirteen centuries, the institution ofRomulus expired; and if the nobles of Rome still assumed the title ofsenators, few subsequent traces can be discovered of a public council, or constitutional order. Ascend six hundred years, and contemplate thekings of the earth soliciting an audience, as the slaves or freedmen ofthe Roman senate! [41]

[Footnote 38: Evagrius, l. Iv. C. 24. The inspiration of the Virginrevealed to Narses the day, and the word, of battle, (Paul Diacon. L. Ii. C. 3, p. 776)]

[Footnote 39: (Procop. Goth. Lib. Iv. P. 33. )In the year 536 by Belisarius, in 546 by Totila, in 547 by Belisarius, in 549 by Totila, and in 552 by Narses. Maltretus had inadvertentlytranslated sextum; a mistake which he afterwards retracts; out themischief was done; and Cousin, with a train of French and Latin readers, have fallen into the snare. ]

[Footnote 40: Compare two passages of Procopius, (l. Iii. C. 26, l. Iv. C. 24, ) which, with some collateral hints from Marcellinus andJornandes, illustrate the state of the expiring senate. ]

[Footnote 41: See, in the example of Prusias, as it is delivered in thefragments of Polybius, (Excerpt. Legat. Xcvii. P. 927, 928, ) a curiouspicture of a royal slave. ]

The Gothic war was yet alive. The bravest of the nation retired beyondthe Po; and Teias was unanimously chosen to succeed and revenge theirdeparted hero. The new king immediately sent ambassadors to implore, orrather to purchase, the aid of the Franks, and nobly lavished, for thepublic safety, the riches which had been deposited in the palace ofPavia. The residue of the royal treasure was guarded by his brotherAligern, at Cumaea, in Campania; but the strong castle which Totila hadfortified was closely besieged by the arms of Narses. From the Alpsto the foot of Mount Vesuvius, the Gothic king, by rapid and secretmarches, advanced to the relief of his brother, eluded the vigilanceof the Roman chiefs, and pitched his camp on the banks of the Sarnus orDraco, [42] which flows from Nuceria into the Bay of Naples. The riverseparated the two armies: sixty days were consumed in distant andfruitless combats, and Teias maintained this important post till he wasdeserted by his fleet and the hope of subsistence. With reluctant stepshe ascended the Lactarian mount, where the physicians of Rome, since thetime of Galen, had sent their patients for the benefit of the air andthe milk. [43] But the Goths soon embraced a more generous resolution:to descend the hill, to dismiss their horses, and to die in arms, andin the possession of freedom. The king marched at their head, bearing inhis right hand a lance, and an ample buckler in his left: with theone he struck dead the foremost of the assailants; with the other hereceived the weapons which every hand was ambitious to aim against hislife. After a combat of many hours, his left arm was fatigued by theweight of twelve javelins which hung from his shield. Without movingfrom his ground, or suspending his blows, the hero called aloud on hisattendants for a fresh buckler; but in the moment while his side wasuncovered, it was pierced by a mortal dart. He fell; and his head, exalted on a spear, proclaimed to the nations that the Gothic kingdomwas no more. But the example of his death served only to animate thecompanions who had sworn to perish with their leader. They fought tilldarkness descended on the earth. They reposed on their arms. The combatwas renewed with the return of light, and maintained with unabated vigortill the evening of the second day. The repose of a second night, thewant of water, and the loss of their bravest champions, determined thesurviving Goths to accept the fair capitulation which the prudenceof Narses was inclined to propose. They embraced the alternativeof residing in Italy, as the subjects and soldiers of Justinian, ordeparting with a portion of their private wealth, in search of someindependent country. [44] Yet the oath of fidelity or exile was alikerejected by one thousand Goths, who broke away before the treaty wassigned, and boldly effected their retreat to the walls of Pavia. Thespirit, as well as the situation, of Aligern prompted him to imitaterather than to bewail his brother: a strong and dexterous archer, hetranspierced with a single arrow the armor and breast of his antagonist;and his military conduct defended Cumae [45] above a year against theforces of the Romans. 

Their industry had scooped the Sibyl's cave [46] into a prodigious mine;combustible materials were introduced to consume the temporary props:the wall and the gate of Cumae sunk into the cavern, but the ruinsformed a deep and inaccessible precipice. On the fragment of a rockAligern stood alone and unshaken, till he calmly surveyed the hopelesscondition of his country, and judged it more honorable to be the friendof Narses, than the slave of the Franks. After the death of Teias, theRoman general separated his troops to reduce the cities of Italy; Luccasustained a long and vigorous siege: and such was the humanity or theprudence of Narses, that the repeated perfidy of the inhabitants couldnot provoke him to exact the forfeit lives of their hostages. Thesehostages were dismissed in safety; and their grateful zeal at lengthsubdued the obstinacy of their countrymen. [47]

[Footnote 42: The item of Procopius (Goth. L. Iv. C. 35) is evidentlythe Sarnus. The text is accused or altered by the rash violence ofCluverius (l. Iv. C. 3. P. 1156:) but Camillo Pellegrini of Naples(Discorsi sopra la Campania Felice, p. 330, 331) has proved fromold records, that as early as the year 822 that river was called theDracontio, or Draconcello. ]

[Footnote 43: Galen (de Method. Medendi, l. V. Apud Cluver. L. Iv. C. 3, p. 1159, 1160) describes the lofty site, pure air, and rich milk, ofMount Lactarius, whose medicinal benefits were equally known and soughtin the time of Symmachus (l. Vi. Epist. 18) and Cassiodorus, (Var. Xi. 10. ) Nothing is now left except the name of the town of Lettere. ]

[Footnote 44: Buat (tom. Xi. P. 2, &c. ) conveys to his favorite Bavariathis remnant of Goths, who by others are buried in the mountains of Uri, or restored to their native isle of Gothland, (Mascou, Annot. Xxi. )]

[Footnote 45: I leave Scaliger (Animadvers. In Euseb. P. 59) andSalmasius (Exercitat. Plinian. P. 51, 52) to quarrel about the origin ofCumae, the oldest of the Greek colonies in Italy, (Strab. L. V. P. 372, Velleius Paterculus, l. I. C. 4, ) already vacant in Juvenal's time, (Satir. Iii. , ) and now in ruins. ]

[Footnote 46: Agathias (l. I. C. 21) settles the Sibyl's cave under thewall of Cumae: he agrees with Servius, (ad. L. Vi. Aeneid. ;) nor can Iperceive why their opinion should be rejected by Heyne, the excellenteditor of Virgil, (tom. Ii. P. 650, 651. ) In urbe media secreta religio!But Cumae was not yet built; and the lines (l. Vi. 96, 97) would becomeridiculous, if Aeneas were actually in a Greek city. ]

[Footnote 47: There is some difficulty in connecting the 35th chapterof the fourth book of the Gothic war of Procopius with the first bookof the history of Agathias. We must now relinquish the statesman andsoldier, to attend the footsteps of a poet and rhetorician, (l. I. P. 11, l. Ii. P. 51, edit. Lonvre. )]

Before Lucca had surrendered, Italy was overwhelmed by a new deluge ofBarbarians. A feeble youth, the grandson of Clovis, reigned over theAustrasians or oriental Franks. The guardians of Theodebald entertainedwith coldness and reluctance the magnificent promises of the Gothicambassadors. But the spirit of a martial people outstripped the timidcounsels of the court: two brothers, Lothaire and Buccelin, [48] thedukes of the Alemanni, stood forth as the leaders of the Italian war;and seventy-five thousand Germans descended in the autumn from theRhaetian Alps into the plain of Milan. The vanguard of the Romanarmy was stationed near the Po, under the conduct of Fulcaris, a boldHerulian, who rashly conceived that personal bravery was the sole dutyand merit of a commander. As he marched without order or precautionalong the Aemilian way, an ambuscade of Franks suddenly rose from theamphitheatre of Parma; his troops were surprised and routed; but theirleader refused to fly; declaring to the last moment, that death wasless terrible than the angry countenance of Narses. [4811] The deathof Fulcaris, and the retreat of the surviving chiefs, decided thefluctuating and rebellious temper of the Goths; they flew to thestandard of their deliverers, and admitted them into the cities whichstill resisted the arms of the Roman general. The conqueror of Italyopened a free passage to the irresistible torrent of Barbarians. Theypassed under the walls of Cesena, and answered by threats and reproachesthe advice of Aligern, [4812] that the Gothic treasures could no longerrepay the labor of an invasion. Two thousand Franks were destroyed bythe skill and valor of Narses himself, who sailed from Rimini at thehead of three hundred horse, to chastise the licentious rapine of theirmarch. On the confines of Samnium the two brothers divided their forces. With the right wing, Buccelin assumed the spoil of Campania, Lucania, and Bruttium; with the left, Lothaire accepted the plunder of Apulia andCalabria. They followed the coast of the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, as far as Rhegium and Otranto, and the extreme lands of Italy were theterm of their destructive progress. The Franks, who were Christiansand Catholics, contented themselves with simple pillage and occasionalmurder. But the churches which their piety had spared, were stripped bythe sacrilegious hands of the Alamanni, who sacrificed horses' headsto their native deities of the woods and rivers; [49] they melted orprofaned the consecrated vessels, and the ruins of shrines and altarswere stained with the blood of the faithful. Buccelin was actuated byambition, and Lothaire by avarice. The former aspired to restore theGothic kingdom; the latter, after a promise to his brother of speedysuccors, returned by the same road to deposit his treasure beyond theAlps. The strength of their armies was already wasted by the change ofclimate and contagion of disease: the Germans revelled in the vintage ofItaly; and their own intemperance avenged, in some degree, the miseriesof a defenceless people. [4911]

[Footnote 48: Among the fabulous exploits of Buccelin, he discomfitedand slew Belisarius, subdued Italy and Sicily, &c. See in the Historiansof France, Gregory of Tours, (tom. Ii. L. Iii. C. 32, p. 203, ) andAimoin, (tom. Iii. L. Ii. De Gestis Francorum, c. 23, p. 59. )]

[Footnote 4811:. .. . Agathius. ]

[Footnote 4812: Aligern, after the surrender of Cumae, had been sent toCesent by Narses. Agathias. --M. ]

[Footnote 49: Agathias notices their superstition in a philosophic tone, (l. I. P. 18. ) At Zug, in Switzerland, idolatry still prevailed inthe year 613: St. Columban and St. Gaul were the apostles of that rudecountry; and the latter founded a hermitage, which has swelled into anecclesiastical principality and a populous city, the seat of freedom andcommerce. ]

[Footnote 4911: A body of Lothaire's troops was defeated near Fano, somewere driven down precipices into the sea, others fled to the camp;many prisoners seized the opportunity of making their escape; andthe Barbarians lost most of their booty in their precipitate retreat. Agathias. --M. ]

At the entrance of the spring, the Imperial troops, who had guardedthe cities, assembled, to the number of eighteen thousand men, inthe neighborhood of Rome. Their winter hours had not been consumedin idleness. By the command, and after the example, of Narses, theyrepeated each day their military exercise on foot and on horseback, accustomed their ear to obey the sound of the trumpet, and practised thesteps and evolutions of the Pyrrhic dance. From the Straits of Sicily, Buccelin, with thirty thousand Franks and Alamanni, slowly moved towardsCapua, occupied with a wooden tower the bridge of Casilinum, coveredhis right by the stream of the Vulturnus, and secured the rest of hisencampment by a rampart of sharp stakes, and a circle of wagons, whosewheels were buried in the earth. He impatiently expected the return ofLothaire; ignorant, alas! that his brother could never return, and thatthe chief and his army had been swept away by a strange disease [50] onthe banks of the Lake Benacus, between Trent and Verona. The bannersof Narses soon approached the Vulturnus, and the eyes of Italy wereanxiously fixed on the event of this final contest. Perhaps the talentsof the Roman general were most conspicuous in the calm operations whichprecede the tumult of a battle. His skilful movements intercepted thesubsistence of the Barbarian deprived him of the advantage of the bridgeand river, and in the choice of the ground and moment of action reducedhim to comply with the inclination of his enemy. On the morning of theimportant day, when the ranks were already formed, a servant, for sometrivial fault, was killed by his master, one of the leaders of theHeruli. The justice or passion of Narses was awakened: he summoned theoffender to his presence, and without listening to his excuses, gave thesignal to the minister of death. If the cruel master had not infringedthe laws of his nation, this arbitrary execution was not less unjustthan it appears to have been imprudent. The Heruli felt the indignity;they halted: but the Roman general, without soothing their rage, orexpecting their resolution, called aloud, as the trumpets sounded, thatunless they hastened to occupy their place, they would lose the honor ofthe victory. His troops were disposed [51] in a long front, the cavalryon the wings; in the centre, the heavy-armed foot; the archers andslingers in the rear. The Germans advanced in a sharp-pointed column, ofthe form of a triangle or solid wedge. They pierced the feeble centreof Narses, who received them with a smile into the fatal snare, anddirected his wings of cavalry insensibly to wheel on their flanks andencompass their rear. The host of the Franks and Alamanni consistedof infantry: a sword and buckler hung by their side; and they used, astheir weapons of offence, a weighty hatchet and a hooked javelin, whichwere only formidable in close combat, or at a short distance. The flowerof the Roman archers, on horseback, and in complete armor, skirmishedwithout peril round this immovable phalanx; supplied by active speedthe deficiency of number; and aimed their arrows against a crowd ofBarbarians, who, instead of a cuirass and helmet, were covered by aloose garment of fur or linen. They paused, they trembled, their rankswere confounded, and in the decisive moment the Heruli, preferring gloryto revenge, charged with rapid violence the head of the column. Theirleader, Sinbal, and Aligern, the Gothic prince, deserved the prizeof superior valor; and their example excited the victorious troops toachieve with swords and spears the destruction of the enemy. Buccelin, and the greatest part of his army, perished on the field of battle, inthe waters of the Vulturnus, or by the hands of the enraged peasants:but it may seem incredible, that a victory, [52] which no more than fiveof the Alamanni survived, could be purchased with the loss of fourscoreRomans. Seven thousand Goths, the relics of the war, defended thefortress of Campsa till the ensuing spring; and every messenger ofNarses announced the reduction of the Italian cities, whose names werecorrupted by the ignorance or vanity of the Greeks. [53] After thebattle of Casilinum, Narses entered the capital; the arms and treasuresof the Goths, the Franks, and the Alamanni, were displayed; hissoldiers, with garlands in their hands, chanted the praises of theconqueror; and Rome, for the last time, beheld the semblance of atriumph. 

[Footnote 50: See the death of Lothaire in Agathias (l. Ii. P. 38) andPaul Warnefrid, surnamed Diaconus, (l. Ii. C. 3, 775. ) The Greek makeshim rave and tear his flesh. He had plundered churches. ]

[Footnote 51: Pere Daniel (Hist. De la Milice Francoise, tom. I. P. 17--21) has exhibited a fanciful representation of this battle, somewhatin the manner of the Chevalier Folard, the once famous editor ofPolybius, who fashioned to his own habits and opinions all the militaryoperations of antiquity. ]

[Footnote 52: Agathias (l. Ii. P. 47) has produced a Greek epigram ofsix lines on this victory of Narses, which a favorably compared to thebattles of Marathon and Plataea. The chief difference is indeed intheir consequences--so trivial in the former instance--so permanent andglorious in the latter. Note: Not in the epigram, but in the previousobservations--M. ]

[Footnote 53: The Beroia and Brincas of Theophanes or his transcriber(p. 201) must be read or understood Verona and Brixia. ]

After a reign of sixty years, the throne of the Gothic kings was filledby the exarchs of Ravenna, the representatives in peace and war of theemperor of the Romans. Their jurisdiction was soon reduced to the limitsof a narrow province: but Narses himself, the first and most powerfulof the exarchs, administered above fifteen years the entire kingdom ofItaly. Like Belisarius, he had deserved the honors of envy, calumny, and disgrace: but the favorite eunuch still enjoyed the confidence ofJustinian; or the leader of a victorious army awed and repressed theingratitude of a timid court. Yet it was not by weak and mischievousindulgence that Narses secured the attachment of his troops. Forgetfulof the past, and regardless of the future, they abused the present hourof prosperity and peace. The cities of Italy resounded with the noiseof drinking and dancing; the spoils of victory were wasted in sensualpleasures; and nothing (says Agathias) remained unless to exchange theirshields and helmets for the soft lute and the capacious hogshead. [54]In a manly oration, not unworthy of a Roman censor, the eunuch reprovedthese disorderly vices, which sullied their fame, and endangered theirsafety. The soldiers blushed and obeyed; discipline was confirmed; thefortifications were restored; a duke was stationed for the defence andmilitary command of each of the principal cities; [55] and the eyeof Narses pervaded the ample prospect from Calabria to the Alps. Theremains of the Gothic nation evacuated the country, or mingled withthe people; the Franks, instead of revenging the death of Buccelin, abandoned, without a struggle, their Italian conquests; and therebellious Sinbal, chief of the Heruli, was subdued, taken and hung ona lofty gallows by the inflexible justice of the exarch. [56] The civilstate of Italy, after the agitation of a long tempest, was fixed by apragmatic sanction, which the emperor promulgated at the request of thepope. Justinian introduced his own jurisprudence into the schoolsand tribunals of the West; he ratified the acts of Theodoric and hisimmediate successors, but every deed was rescinded and abolished whichforce had extorted, or fear had subscribed, under the usurpation ofTotila. A moderate theory was framed to reconcile the rights of propertywith the safety of prescription, the claims of the state with thepoverty of the people, and the pardon of offences with the interestof virtue and order of society. Under the exarchs of Ravenna, Rome wasdegraded to the second rank. Yet the senators were gratified by thepermission of visiting their estates in Italy, and of approaching, without obstacle, the throne of Constantinople: the regulation ofweights and measures was delegated to the pope and senate; and thesalaries of lawyers and physicians, of orators and grammarians, weredestined to preserve, or rekindle, the light of science in the ancientcapital. Justinian might dictate benevolent edicts, [57] and Narsesmight second his wishes by the restoration of cities, and moreespecially of churches. But the power of kings is most effectual todestroy; and the twenty years of the Gothic war had consummated thedistress and depopulation of Italy. As early as the fourth campaign, under the discipline of Belisarius himself, fifty thousand laborersdied of hunger [58] in the narrow region of Picenum; [59] and a strictinterpretation of the evidence of Procopius would swell the loss ofItaly above the total sum of her present inhabitants. [60]

[Footnote 54: (Agathias, l. Ii. P. 48. ) In the first scene of RichardIII. Our English poet has beautifully enlarged on this idea, for which, however, he was not indebted to the Byzantine historian. ]

[Footnote 55: Maffei has proved, (Verona Illustrata. P. I. L. X. P. 257, 289, ) against the common opinion, that the dukes of Italy wereinstituted before the conquest of the Lombards, by Narses himself. In the Pragmatic Sanction, (No. 23, ) Justinian restrains the judicesmilitares. ]

[Footnote 56: See Paulus Diaconus, liii. C. 2, p. 776. Menander in(Excerp Legat. P. 133) mentions some risings in Italy by the Franks, andTheophanes (p. 201) hints at some Gothic rebellions. ]

[Footnote 57: The Pragmatic Sanction of Justinian, which restores andregulates the civil state of Italy, consists of xxvii. Articles: it isdated August 15, A. D. 554; is addressed to Narses, V. J. PraepositusSacri Cubiculi, and to Antiochus, Praefectus Praetorio Italiae; and hasbeen preserved by Julian Antecessor, and in the Corpus Juris Civilis, after the novels and edicts of Justinian, Justin, and Tiberius. ]

[Footnote 58: A still greater number was consumed by famine in thesouthern provinces, without the Ionian Gulf. Acorns were used in theplace of bread. Procopius had seen a deserted orphan suckled by ashe-goat. Seventeen passengers were lodged, murdered, and eaten, by twowomen, who were detected and slain by the eighteenth, &c. * Note: Deninaconsiders that greater evil was inflicted upon Italy by the Urocianconquest than by any other invasion. Reveluz. D' Italia, t. I. L. V. P. 247. --M. ]

[Footnote 59: Quinta regio Piceni est; quondam uberrimae multitudinis, ccclx. Millia Picentium in fidem P. R. Venere, (Plin. Hist. Natur. Iii. 18. ) In the time of Vespasian, this ancient population was alreadydiminished. ]

[Footnote 60: Perhaps fifteen or sixteen millions. Procopius (Anecdot. C. 18) computes that Africa lost five millions, that Italy was thrice asextensive, and that the depopulation was in a larger proportion. But hisreckoning is inflamed by passion, and clouded with uncertainty. ]

I desire to believe, but I dare not affirm, that Belisarius sincerelyrejoiced in the triumph of Narses. Yet the consciousness of his ownexploits might teach him to esteem without jealousy the merit of arival; and the repose of the aged warrior was crowned by a last victory, which saved the emperor and the capital. The Barbarians, who annuallyvisited the provinces of Europe, were less discouraged by someaccidental defeats, than they were excited by the double hope of spoiland of subsidy. In the thirty-second winter of Justinian's reign, theDanube was deeply frozen: Zabergan led the cavalry of the Bulgarians, and his standard was followed by a promiscuous multitude of Sclavonians. [6011] The savage chief passed, without opposition, the river and themountains, spread his troops over Macedonia and Thrace, and advancedwith no more than seven thousand horse to the long wall, which shouldhave defended the territory of Constantinople. But the works of man areimpotent against the assaults of nature: a recent earthquake had shakenthe foundations of the wall; and the forces of the empire were employedon the distant frontiers of Italy, Africa, and Persia. The sevenschools, [61] or companies of the guards or domestic troops, hadbeen augmented to the number of five thousand five hundred men, whoseordinary station was in the peaceful cities of Asia. But the placesof the brave Armenians were insensibly supplied by lazy citizens, whopurchased an exemption from the duties of civil life, without beingexposed to the dangers of military service. Of such soldiers, few couldbe tempted to sally from the gates; and none could be persuaded toremain in the field, unless they wanted strength and speed to escapefrom the Bulgarians. The report of the fugitives exaggerated the numbersand fierceness of an enemy, who had polluted holy virgins, and abandonednew-born infants to the dogs and vultures; a crowd of rustics, imploringfood and protection, increased the consternation of the city, and thetents of Zabergan were pitched at the distance of twenty miles, [62] onthe banks of a small river, which encircles Melanthias, and afterwardsfalls into the Propontis. [63] Justinian trembled: and those who hadonly seen the emperor in his old age, were pleased to suppose, that hehad lost the alacrity and vigor of his youth. By his command the vesselsof gold and silver were removed from the churches in the neighborhood, and even the suburbs, of Constantinople; the ramparts were lined withtrembling spectators; the golden gate was crowded with useless generalsand tribunes, and the senate shared the fatigues and the apprehensionsof the populace. 

[Footnote 6011: Zabergan was king of the Cutrigours, a tribe of Huns, who were neither Bulgarians nor Sclavonians. St. Martin, vol. Ix. P. 408--420. --M]

[Footnote 61: In the decay of these military schools, the satireof Procopius (Anecdot. C. 24, Aleman. P. 102, 103) is confirmed andillustrated by Agathias, (l. V. P. 159, ) who cannot be rejected as ahostile witness. ]

[Footnote 62: The distance from Constantinople to Melanthias, VillaCaesariana, (Ammian. Marcellin. Xxx. 11, ) is variously fixed at 102 or140 stadia, (Suidas, tom. Ii. P. 522, 523. Agathias, l. V. P. 158, )or xviii. Or xix. Miles, (Itineraria, p. 138, 230, 323, 332, andWesseling's Observations. ) The first xii. Miles, as far as Rhegium, werepaved by Justinian, who built a bridge over a morass or gullet between alake and the sea, (Procop. De Edif. L. Iv. C. 8. )]

[Footnote 63: The Atyras, (Pompon. Mela, l. Ii. C. 2, p. 169, edit. Voss. ) At the river's mouth, a town or castle of the same name wasfortified by Justinian, (Procop. De Edif. L. Iv. C. 2. Itinerar. P. 570, and Wesseling. )]

But the eyes of the prince and people were directed to a feeble veteran, who was compelled by the public danger to resume the armor in which hehad entered Carthage and defended Rome. The horses of the royal stables, of private citizens, and even of the circus, were hastily collected; theemulation of the old and young was roused by the name of Belisarius, and his first encampment was in the presence of a victorious enemy. Hisprudence, and the labor of the friendly peasants, secured, with a ditchand rampart, the repose of the night; innumerable fires, and clouds ofdust, were artfully contrived to magnify the opinion of his strength;his soldiers suddenly passed from despondency to presumption; and, while ten thousand voices demanded the battle, Belisarius dissembled hisknowledge, that in the hour of trial he must depend on the firmness ofthree hundred veterans. The next morning the Bulgarian cavalry advancedto the charge. But they heard the shouts of multitudes, they beheld thearms and discipline of the front; they were assaulted on the flanks bytwo ambuscades which rose from the woods; their foremost warriors fellby the hand of the aged hero and his guards; and the swiftness of theirevolutions was rendered useless by the close attack and rapid pursuit ofthe Romans. In this action (so speedy was their flight) the Bulgarianslost only four hundred horse; but Constantinople was saved; andZabergan, who felt the hand of a master, withdrew to a respectfuldistance. But his friends were numerous in the councils of theemperor, and Belisarius obeyed with reluctance the commands of envy andJustinian, which forbade him to achieve the deliverance of his country. On his return to the city, the people, still conscious of their danger, accompanied his triumph with acclamations of joy and gratitude, whichwere imputed as a crime to the victorious general. But when he enteredthe palace, the courtiers were silent, and the emperor, after a cold andthankless embrace, dismissed him to mingle with the train of slaves. Yet so deep was the impression of his glory on the minds of men, thatJustinian, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, was encouraged toadvance near forty miles from the capital, and to inspect in person therestoration of the long wall. The Bulgarians wasted the summer in theplains of Thrace; but they were inclined to peace by the failure oftheir rash attempts on Greece and the Chersonesus. A menace of killingtheir prisoners quickened the payment of heavy ransoms; and thedeparture of Zabergan was hastened by the report, that double-prowedvessels were built on the Danube to intercept his passage. The dangerwas soon forgotten; and a vain question, whether their sovereign hadshown more wisdom or weakness, amused the idleness of the city. [64]

[Footnote 64: The Bulgarian war, and the last victory of Belisarius, areimperfectly represented in the prolix declamation of Agathias. (l. 5, p. 154-174, ) and the dry Chronicle of Theophanes, (p. 197 198. )]

Chapter XLIII: Last Victory And Death Of Belisarius, Death Of Justinian. --Part IV. 

About two years after the last victory of Belisarius, the emperorreturned from a Thracian journey of health, or business, or devotion. Justinian was afflicted by a pain in his head; and his private entrycountenanced the rumor of his death. Before the third hour of the day, the bakers' shops were plundered of their bread, the houses were shut, and every citizen, with hope or terror, prepared for the impendingtumult. The senators themselves, fearful and suspicious, were convenedat the ninth hour; and the praefect received their commands to visitevery quarter of the city, and proclaim a general illumination forthe recovery of the emperor's health. The ferment subsided; but everyaccident betrayed the impotence of the government, and the factioustemper of the people: the guards were disposed to mutiny as often astheir quarters were changed, or their pay was withheld: the frequentcalamities of fires and earthquakes afforded the opportunities ofdisorder; the disputes of the blues and greens, of the orthodox andheretics, degenerated into bloody battles; and, in the presence of thePersian ambassador, Justinian blushed for himself and for his subjects. Capricious pardon and arbitrary punishment imbittered the irksomenessand discontent of a long reign: a conspiracy was formed in the palace;and, unless we are deceived by the names of Marcellus and Sergius, themost virtuous and the most profligate of the courtiers were associatedin the same designs. They had fixed the time of the execution; theirrank gave them access to the royal banquet; and their black slaves [65]were stationed in the vestibule and porticos, to announce the deathof the tyrant, and to excite a sedition in the capital. But theindiscretion of an accomplice saved the poor remnant of the days ofJustinian. The conspirators were detected and seized, with daggershidden under their garments: Marcellus died by his own hand, and Sergiuswas dragged from the sanctuary. [66] Pressed by remorse, or temptedby the hopes of safety, he accused two officers of the household ofBelisarius; and torture forced them to declare that they had actedaccording to the secret instructions of their patron. [67] Posteritywill not hastily believe that a hero who, in the vigor of life, haddisdained the fairest offers of ambition and revenge, should stoop tothe murder of his prince, whom he could not long expect to survive. Hisfollowers were impatient to fly; but flight must have been supported byrebellion, and he had lived enough for nature and for glory. Belisariusappeared before the council with less fear than indignation: after fortyyears' service, the emperor had prejudged his guilt; and injustice wassanctified by the presence and authority of the patriarch. The life ofBelisarius was graciously spared; but his fortunes were sequestered, and, from December to July, he was guarded as a prisoner in his ownpalace. At length his innocence was acknowledged; his freedom and honorwere restored; and death, which might be hastened by resentment andgrief, removed him from the world in about eight months after hisdeliverance. The name of Belisarius can never die but instead of thefuneral, the monuments, the statues, so justly due to his memory, Ionly read, that his treasures, the spoil of the Goths and Vandals, were immediately confiscated by the emperor. Some decent portion wasreserved, however for the use of his widow: and as Antonina had muchto repent, she devoted the last remains of her life and fortune to thefoundation of a convent. Such is the simple and genuine narrative of thefall of Belisarius and the ingratitude of Justinian. [68] That he wasdeprived of his eyes, and reduced by envy to beg his bread, [6811] "Givea penny to Belisarius the general!" is a fiction of later times, [69]which has obtained credit, or rather favor, as a strange example of thevicissitudes of fortune. [70]

[Footnote 65: They could scarcely be real Indians; and the Aethiopians, sometimes known by that name, were never used by the ancients as guardsor followers: they were the trifling, though costly objects of femaleand royal luxury, (Terent. Eunuch. Act. I. Scene ii Sueton. In August. C. 83, with a good note of Casaubon, in Caligula, c. 57. )]

[Footnote 66: The Sergius (Vandal. L. Ii. C. 21, 22, Anecdot. C. 5)and Marcellus (Goth. L. Iii. C. 32) are mentioned by Procopius. SeeTheophanes, p. 197, 201. * Note: Some words, "the acts of, " or "thecrimes cf, " appear to have false from the text. The omission is in allthe editions I have consulted. --M. ]

[Footnote 67: Alemannus, (p. Quotes an old Byzantian Ms. , which has beenprinted in the Imperium Orientale of Banduri. )]

[Footnote 68: Of the disgrace and restoration of Belisarius, the genuineoriginal record is preserved in the Fragment of John Malala (tom. Ii. P. 234--243) and the exact Chronicle of Theophanes, (p. 194--204. ) Cedrenus(Compend. P. 387, 388) and Zonaras (tom. Ii. L. Xiv. P. 69) seem tohesitate between the obsolete truth and the growing falsehood. ]

[Footnote 6811: Le Beau, following Allemannus, conceives that Belisariuswas confounded with John of Cappadocia, who was thus reduced to beggary, (vol. Ix. P. 58, 449. ) Lord Mahon has, with considerable learning, and on the authority of a yet unquoted writer of the eleventh century, endeavored to reestablish the old tradition. I cannot acknowledge thatI have been convinced, and am inclined to subscribe to the theory of LeBeau. --M. ]

[Footnote 69: The source of this idle fable may be derived from amiscellaneous work of the xiith century, the Chiliads of John Tzetzes, a monk, (Basil. 1546, ad calcem Lycophront. Colon. Allobrog. 1614, inCorp. Poet. Graec. ) He relates the blindness and beggary of Belisariusin ten vulgar or political verses, (Chiliad iii. No. 88, 339--348, inCorp. Poet. Graec. Tom. Ii. P. 311. ) This moral or romantic talewas imported into Italy with the language and manuscripts of Greece;repeated before the end of the xvth century by Crinitus, Pontanus, andVolaterranus, attacked by Alciat, for the honor of the law; and defendedby Baronius, (A. D. 561, No. 2, &c. , ) for the honor of the church. YetTzetzes himself had read in other chronicles, that Belisarius did notlose his sight, and that he recovered his fame and fortunes. * Note:I know not where Gibbon found Tzetzes to be a monk; I suppose heconsidered his bad verses a proof of his monachism. Compare to Gerbeliusin Kiesling's edition of Tzetzes. --M. ]

[Footnote 70: The statue in the villa Borghese at Rome, in a sittingposture, with an open hand, which is vulgarly given to Belisarius, maybe ascribed with more dignity to Augustus in the act of propitiatingNemesis, (Winckelman, Hist. De l'Art, tom. Iii. P. 266. ) Ex nocturnovisu etiam stipem, quotannis, die certo, emendicabat a populo, cavanamanum asses porrigentibus praebens, (Sueton. In August. C. 91, with anexcellent note of Casaubon. ) * Note: Lord Mahon abandons the statue, asaltogether irreconcilable with the state of the arts at this period, (p. 472. )--M. ]

If the emperor could rejoice in the death of Belisarius, he enjoyedthe base satisfaction only eight months, the last period of a reignof thirty-eight years, and a life of eighty-three years. It wouldbe difficult to trace the character of a prince who is not the mostconspicuous object of his own times: but the confessions of an enemy maybe received as the safest evidence of his virtues. The resemblance ofJustinian to the bust of Domitian, is maliciously urged; [71] withthe acknowledgment, however, of a well-proportioned figure, a ruddycomplexion, and a pleasing countenance. The emperor was easy of access, patient of hearing, courteous and affable in discourse, and a masterof the angry passions which rage with such destructive violence in thebreast of a despot. Procopius praises his temper, to reproach him withcalm and deliberate cruelty: but in the conspiracies which attacked hisauthority and person, a more candid judge will approve the justice, oradmire the clemency, of Justinian. He excelled in the private virtuesof chastity and temperance: but the impartial love of beauty would havebeen less mischievous than his conjugal tenderness for Theodora; and hisabstemious diet was regulated, not by the prudence of a philosopher, butthe superstition of a monk. His repasts were short and frugal: on solemnfasts, he contented himself with water and vegetables; and such was hisstrength, as well as fervor, that he frequently passed two days, and asmany nights, without tasting any food. The measure of his sleep was notless rigorous: after the repose of a single hour, the body was awakenedby the soul, and, to the astonishment of his chamberlain, Justinianwalked or studied till the morning light. Such restless applicationprolonged his time for the acquisition of knowledge [72] and thedespatch of business; and he might seriously deserve the reproach ofconfounding, by minute and preposterous diligence, the general orderof his administration. The emperor professed himself a musician andarchitect, a poet and philosopher, a lawyer and theologian; and if hefailed in the enterprise of reconciling the Christian sects, thereview of the Roman jurisprudence is a noble monument of his spirit andindustry. In the government of the empire, he was less wise, or lesssuccessful: the age was unfortunate; the people was oppressed anddiscontented; Theodora abused her power; a succession of bad ministersdisgraced his judgment; and Justinian was neither beloved in his life, nor regretted at his death. The love of fame was deeply implanted in hisbreast, but he condescended to the poor ambition of titles, honors, and contemporary praise; and while he labored to fix the admiration, heforfeited the esteem and affection, of the Romans. 

The design of the African and Italian wars was boldly conceived andexecuted; and his penetration discovered the talents of Belisariusin the camp, of Narses in the palace. But the name of the emperor iseclipsed by the names of his victorious generals; and Belisarius stilllives, to upbraid the envy and ingratitude of his sovereign. The partialfavor of mankind applauds the genius of a conqueror, who leads anddirects his subjects in the exercise of arms. The characters of Philipthe Second and of Justinian are distinguished by the cold ambition whichdelights in war, and declines the dangers of the field. Yet a colossalstatue of bronze represented the emperor on horseback, preparing tomarch against the Persians in the habit and armor of Achilles. In thegreat square before the church of St. Sophia, this monument was raisedon a brass column and a stone pedestal of seven steps; and the pillar ofTheodosius, which weighed seven thousand four hundred pounds of silver, was removed from the same place by the avarice and vanity of Justinian. Future princes were more just or indulgent to his memory; the elderAndronicus, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, repaired andbeautified his equestrian statue: since the fall of the empire it hasbeen melted into cannon by the victorious Turks. [73]

[Footnote 71: The rubor of Domitian is stigmatized, quaintly enough, by the pen of Tacitus, (in Vit. Agricol. C. 45;) and has been likewisenoticed by the younger Pliny, (Panegyr. C. 48, ) and Suetonius, (inDomitian, c. 18, and Casaubon ad locum. ) Procopius (Anecdot. C. 8)foolishly believes that only one bust of Domitian had reached the vithcentury. ]

[Footnote 72: The studies and science of Justinian are attested by theconfession (Anecdot. C. 8, 13) still more than by the praises (Gothic. L. Iii. C. 31, de Edific. L. I. Proem. C. 7) of Procopius. Consult thecopious index of Alemannus, and read the life of Justinian by Ludewig, (p. 135--142. )]

[Footnote 73: See in the C. P. Christiana of Ducange (l. I. C. 24, No. 1) a chain of original testimonies, from Procopius in the vith, toGyllius in the xvith century. ]

I shall conclude this chapter with the comets, the earthquakes, and theplague, which astonished or afflicted the age of Justinian. I. In thefifth year of his reign, and in the month of September, a comet [74] wasseen during twenty days in the western quarter of the heavens, and whichshot its rays into the north. Eight years afterwards, while the sun wasin Capricorn, another comet appeared to follow in the Sagittary; thesize was gradually increasing; the head was in the east, the tail in thewest, and it remained visible above forty days. The nations, who gazedwith astonishment, expected wars and calamities from their balefulinfluence; and these expectations were abundantly fulfilled. Theastronomers dissembled their ignorance of the nature of these blazingstars, which they affected to represent as the floating meteors of theair; and few among them embraced the simple notion of Seneca and theChaldeans, that they are only planets of a longer period and moreeccentric motion. [75] Time and science have justified the conjecturesand predictions of the Roman sage: the telescope has opened new worldsto the eyes of astronomers; [76] and, in the narrow space of historyand fable, one and the same comet is already found to have revisited theearth in seven equal revolutions of five hundred and seventy-five years. The first, [77] which ascends beyond the Christian aera one thousandseven hundred and sixty-seven years, is coeval with Ogyges, the fatherof Grecian antiquity. And this appearance explains the tradition whichVarro has preserved, that under his reign the planet Venus changed hercolor, size, figure, and course; a prodigy without example either inpast or succeeding ages. [78] The second visit, in the year elevenhundred and ninety-three, is darkly implied in the fable of Electra, theseventh of the Pleiads, who have been reduced to six since the time ofthe Trojan war. That nymph, the wife of Dardanus, was unable to supportthe ruin of her country: she abandoned the dances of her sisterorbs, fled from the zodiac to the north pole, and obtained, from herdishevelled locks, the name of the comet. The third period expires inthe year six hundred and eighteen, a date that exactly agrees with thetremendous comet of the Sibyl, and perhaps of Pliny, which arose in theWest two generations before the reign of Cyrus. The fourth apparition, forty-four years before the birth of Christ, is of all others the mostsplendid and important. After the death of Caesar, a long-haired starwas conspicuous to Rome and to the nations, during the games which wereexhibited by young Octavian in honor of Venus and his uncle. The vulgaropinion, that it conveyed to heaven the divine soul of the dictator, wascherished and consecrated by the piety of a statesman; while his secretsuperstition referred the comet to the glory of his own times. [79] Thefifth visit has been already ascribed to the fifth year of Justinian, which coincides with the five hundred and thirty-first of the Christianaera. And it may deserve notice, that in this, as in the precedinginstance, the comet was followed, though at a longer interval, by aremarkable paleness of the sun. The sixth return, in the year elevenhundred and six, is recorded by the chronicles of Europe and China: andin the first fervor of the crusades, the Christians and the Mahometansmight surmise, with equal reason, that it portended the destruction ofthe Infidels. The seventh phenomenon, of one thousand six hundredand eighty, was presented to the eyes of an enlightened age. [80] Thephilosophy of Bayle dispelled a prejudice which Milton's muse hadso recently adorned, that the comet, "from its horrid hair shakespestilence and war. " [81] Its road in the heavens was observed withexquisite skill by Flamstead and Cassini: and the mathematical scienceof Bernoulli, Newton [8111], and Halley, investigated the laws ofits revolutions. At the eighth period, in the year two thousand threehundred and fifty-five, their calculations may perhaps be verifiedby the astronomers of some future capital in the Siberian or Americanwilderness. 

[Footnote 74: The first comet is mentioned by John Malala (tom. Ii. P. 190, 219) and Theophanes, (p. 154;) the second by Procopius, (Persic. L. Ii. 4. ) Yet I strongly suspect their identity. The paleness of thesun sum Vandal. (l. Ii. C. 14) is applied by Theophanes (p. 158) to adifferent year. Note: See Lydus de Ostentis, particularly c 15, in whichthe author begins to show the signification of comets according tothe part of the heavens in which they appear, and what fortunes theyprognosticate to the Roman empire and their Persian enemies. Thechapter, however, is imperfect. (Edit. Neibuhr, p. 290. )--M. ]

[Footnote 75: Seneca's viith book of Natural Questions displays, in thetheory of comets, a philosophic mind. Yet should we not too candidlyconfound a vague prediction, a venient tempus, &c. , with the merit ofreal discoveries. ]

[Footnote 76: Astronomers may study Newton and Halley. I draw my humblescience from the article Comete, in the French Encyclopedie, by M. D'Alembert. ]

[Footnote 77: Whiston, the honest, pious, visionary Whiston, hadfancied for the aera of Noah's flood (2242 years before Christ) a priorapparition of the same comet which drowned the earth with its tail. ]

[Footnote 78: A Dissertation of Freret (Memoires de l'Academie desInscriptions, tom. X. P. 357-377) affords a happy union of philosophyand erudition. The phenomenon in the time of Ogyges was preserved byVarro, (Apud Augustin. De Civitate Dei, xxi. 8, ) who quotes Castor, Dion of Naples, and Adastrus of Cyzicus--nobiles mathematici. The twosubsequent periods are preserved by the Greek mythologists and thespurious books of Sibylline verses. ]

[Footnote 79: Pliny (Hist. Nat. Ii. 23) has transcribed the originalmemorial of Augustus. Mairan, in his most ingenious letters to theP. Parennin, missionary in China, removes the games and the comet ofSeptember, from the year 44 to the year 43, before the Christianaera; but I am not totally subdued by the criticism of the astronomer, (Opuscules, p. 275 )]

[Footnote 80: This last comet was visible in the month of December, 1680. Bayle, who began his Pensees sur la Comete in January, 1681, (Oeuvres, tom. Iii. , ) was forced to argue that a supernatural cometwould have confirmed the ancients in their idolatry. Bernoulli (see hisEloge, in Fontenelle, tom. V. P. 99) was forced to allow that the tailthough not the head, was a sign of the wrath of God. ]

[Footnote 81: Paradise Lost was published in the year 1667; and thefamous lines (l. Ii. 708, &c. ) which startled the licenser, may alludeto the recent comet of 1664, observed by Cassini at Rome in the presenceof Queen Christina, (Fontenelle, in his Eloge, tom. V. P. 338. ) HadCharles II. Betrayed any symptoms of curiosity or fear?]

[Footnote 8111: Compare Pingre, Histoire des Cometes. --M. ]

II. The near approach of a comet may injure or destroy the globe whichwe inhabit; but the changes on its surface have been hitherto producedby the action of volcanoes and earthquakes. [82] The nature of the soilmay indicate the countries most exposed to these formidable concussions, since they are caused by subterraneous fires, and such fires are kindledby the union and fermentation of iron and sulphur. But their timesand effects appear to lie beyond the reach of human curiosity; and thephilosopher will discreetly abstain from the prediction of earthquakes, till he has counted the drops of water that silently filtrate onthe inflammable mineral, and measured the caverns which increase byresistance the explosion of the imprisoned air. Without assigning thecause, history will distinguish the periods in which these calamitousevents have been rare or frequent, and will observe, that this fever ofthe earth raged with uncommon violence during the reign of Justinian. [83] Each year is marked by the repetition of earthquakes, of suchduration, that Constantinople has been shaken above forty days; of suchextent, that the shock has been communicated to the whole surface of theglobe, or at least of the Roman empire. An impulsive or vibratorymotion was felt: enormous chasms were opened, huge and heavy bodieswere discharged into the air, the sea alternately advanced and retreatedbeyond its ordinary bounds, and a mountain was torn from Libanus, [84]and cast into the waves, where it protected, as a mole, the new harborof Botrys [85] in Phoenicia. The stroke that agitates an ant-hill maycrush the insect-myriads in the dust; yet truth must extort confessionthat man has industriously labored for his own destruction. Theinstitution of great cities, which include a nation within the limits ofa wall, almost realizes the wish of Caligula, that the Roman people hadbut one neck. Two hundred and fifty thousand persons are said to haveperished in the earthquake of Antioch, whose domestic multitudes wereswelled by the conflux of strangers to the festival of the Ascension. The loss of Berytus [86] was of smaller account, but of much greatervalue. That city, on the coast of Phoenicia, was illustrated by thestudy of the civil law, which opened the surest road to wealth anddignity: the schools of Berytus were filled with the rising spirits ofthe age, and many a youth was lost in the earthquake, who might havelived to be the scourge or the guardian of his country. In thesedisasters, the architect becomes the enemy of mankind. The hut of asavage, or the tent of an Arab, may be thrown down without injury to theinhabitant; and the Peruvians had reason to deride the folly of theirSpanish conquerors, who with so much cost and labor erected their ownsepulchres. The rich marbles of a patrician are dashed on his own head:a whole people is buried under the ruins of public and private edifices, and the conflagration is kindled and propagated by the innumerable fireswhich are necessary for the subsistence and manufactures of a greatcity. Instead of the mutual sympathy which might comfort and assist thedistressed, they dreadfully experience the vices and passions which arereleased from the fear of punishment: the tottering houses are pillagedby intrepid avarice; revenge embraces the moment, and selects thevictim; and the earth often swallows the assassin, or the ravisher, in the consummation of their crimes. Superstition involves the presentdanger with invisible terrors; and if the image of death may sometimesbe subservient to the virtue or repentance of individuals, an affrightedpeople is more forcibly moved to expect the end of the world, or todeprecate with servile homage the wrath of an avenging Deity. 

[Footnote 82: For the cause of earthquakes, see Buffon, (tom. I. P. 502--536Supplement a l'Hist. Naturelle, tom. V. P. 382-390, edition in 4to. , Valmont de Bomare, Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle, Tremblemen deTerre, Pyrites, ) Watson, (Chemical Essays, tom. I. P. 181--209. )]

[Footnote 83: The earthquakes that shook the Roman world in the reign ofJustinian are described or mentioned by Procopius, (Goth. L. Iv. C. 25Anecdot. C. 18, ) Agathias, (l. Ii. P. 52, 53, 54, l. V. P. 145-152, )John Malala, (Chron. Tom. Ii. P. 140-146, 176, 177, 183, 193, 220, 229, 231, 233, 234, ) and Theophanes, (p. 151, 183, 189, 191-196. ) * Note *:Compare Daubeny on Earthquakes, and Lyell's Geology, vol. Ii. P. 161 etseq. --M]

[Footnote 84: An abrupt height, a perpendicular cape, between Aradusand Botrys (Polyb. L. V. P. 411. Pompon. Mela, l. I. C. 12, p. 87, cum Isaac. Voss. Observat. Maundrell, Journey, p. 32, 33. Pocock'sDescription, vol. Ii. P. 99. )]

[Footnote 85: Botrys was founded (ann. Ante Christ. 935--903) byIthobal, king of Tyre, (Marsham, Canon. Chron. P. 387, 388. ) Its poorrepresentative, the village of Patrone, is now destitute of a harbor. ]

[Footnote 86: The university, splendor, and ruin of Berytus arecelebrated by Heineccius (p. 351--356) as an essential part of thehistory of the Roman law. It was overthrown in the xxvth year ofJustinian, A. D 551, July 9, (Theophanes, p. 192;) but Agathias (l. Ii. P. 51, 52) suspends the earthquake till he has achieved the Italianwar. ]

III. Aethiopia and Egypt have been stigmatized, in every age, asthe original source and seminary of the plague. [87] In a damp, hot, stagnating air, this African fever is generated from the putrefaction ofanimal substances, and especially from the swarms of locusts, not lessdestructive to mankind in their death than in their lives. The fataldisease which depopulated the earth in the time of Justinian and hissuccessors, [88] first appeared in the neighborhood of Pelusium, betweenthe Serbonian bog and the eastern channel of the Nile. From thence, tracing as it were a double path, it spread to the East, over Syria, Persia, and the Indies, and penetrated to the West, along the coast ofAfrica, and over the continent of Europe. In the spring of the secondyear, Constantinople, during three or four months, was visited by thepestilence; and Procopius, who observed its progress and symptoms withthe eyes of a physician, [89] has emulated the skill and diligenceof Thucydides in the description of the plague of Athens. [90] Theinfection was sometimes announced by the visions of a distempered fancy, and the victim despaired as soon as he had heard the menace and felt thestroke of an invisible spectre. But the greater number, in their beds, in the streets, in their usual occupation, were surprised by a slightfever; so slight, indeed, that neither the pulse nor the color of thepatient gave any signs of the approaching danger. The same, the next, or the succeeding day, it was declared by the swelling of the glands, particularly those of the groin, of the armpits, and under the ear; andwhen these buboes or tumors were opened, they were found to contain acoal, or black substance, of the size of a lentil. If they came to ajust swelling and suppuration, the patient was saved by this kind andnatural discharge of the morbid humor. But if they continued hard anddry, a mortification quickly ensued, and the fifth day was commonlythe term of his life. The fever was often accompanied with lethargy ordelirium; the bodies of the sick were covered with black pustules orcarbuncles, the symptoms of immediate death; and in the constitutionstoo feeble to produce an irruption, the vomiting of blood was followedby a mortification of the bowels. To pregnant women the plague wasgenerally mortal: yet one infant was drawn alive from his dead mother, and three mothers survived the loss of their infected foetus. Youth wasthe most perilous season; and the female sex was less susceptible thanthe male: but every rank and profession was attacked with indiscriminaterage, and many of those who escaped were deprived of the use of theirspeech, without being secure from a return of the disorder. [91] Thephysicians of Constantinople were zealous and skilful; but their artwas baffled by the various symptoms and pertinacious vehemence of thedisease: the same remedies were productive of contrary effects, and theevent capriciously disappointed their prognostics of death or recovery. The order of funerals, and the right of sepulchres, were confounded:those who were left without friends or servants, lay unburied in thestreets, or in their desolate houses; and a magistrate was authorized tocollect the promiscuous heaps of dead bodies, to transport them by landor water, and to inter them in deep pits beyond the precincts of thecity. Their own danger, and the prospect of public distress, awakenedsome remorse in the minds of the most vicious of mankind: the confidenceof health again revived their passions and habits; but philosophy mustdisdain the observation of Procopius, that the lives of such men wereguarded by the peculiar favor of fortune or Providence. He forgot, orperhaps he secretly recollected, that the plague had touched theperson of Justinian himself; but the abstemious diet of the emperor maysuggest, as in the case of Socrates, a more rational and honorable causefor his recovery. [92] During his sickness, the public consternationwas expressed in the habits of the citizens; and their idleness anddespondence occasioned a general scarcity in the capital of the East. [Footnote 87: I have read with pleasure Mead's short, but elegant, treatise concerning Pestilential Disorders, the viiith edition, London, 1722. ]

[Footnote 88: The great plague which raged in 542 and the followingyears (Pagi, Critica, tom. Ii. P. 518) must be traced in Procopius, (Persic. L. Ii. C. 22, 23, ) Agathias, (l. V. P. 153, 154, ) Evagrius, (l. Iv. C. 29, ) Paul Diaconus, (l. Ii. C. Iv. P. 776, 777, ) Gregory ofTours, (tom. Ii. L. Iv. C. 5, p 205, ) who styles it Lues Inguinaria, andthe Chronicles of Victor Tunnunensis, (p. 9, in Thesaur. Temporum, ) ofMarcellinus, (p. 54, ) and of Theophanes, (p. 153. )]

[Footnote 89: Dr. Friend (Hist. Medicin. In Opp. P. 416--420, Lond. 1733) is satisfied that Procopius must have studied physic, from hisknowledge and use of the technical words. Yet many words that are nowscientific were common and popular in the Greek idiom. ]

[Footnote 90: See Thucydides, l. Ii. C. 47--54, p. 127--133, edit. Duker, and the poetical description of the same plague by Lucretius. (l. Vi. 1136--1284. ) I was indebted to Dr. Hunter for an elaboratecommentary on this part of Thucydides, a quarto of 600 pages, (Venet. 1603, apud Juntas, ) which was pronounced in St. Mark's Library by FabiusPaullinus Utinensis, a physician and philosopher. ]

[Footnote 91: Thucydides (c. 51) affirms, that the infection could onlybe once taken; but Evagrius, who had family experience of the plague, observes, that some persons, who had escaped the first, sunk under thesecond attack; and this repetition is confirmed by Fabius Paullinus, (p. 588. ) I observe, that on this head physicians are divided; and thenature and operation of the disease may not always be similar. ]

[Footnote 92: It was thus that Socrates had been saved by histemperance, in the plague of Athens, (Aul. Gellius, Noct. Attic. Ii. L. )Dr. Mead accounts for the peculiar salubrity of religious houses, by thetwo advantages of seclusion and abstinence, (p. 18, 19. )]

Contagion is the inseparable symptom of the plague; which, by mutualrespiration, is transfused from the infected persons to the lungs andstomach of those who approach them. While philosophers believe andtremble, it is singular, that the existence of a real danger should havebeen denied by a people most prone to vain and imaginary terrors. [93]Yet the fellow-citizens of Procopius were satisfied, by some shortand partial experience, that the infection could not be gained bythe closest conversation: [94] and this persuasion might support theassiduity of friends or physicians in the care of the sick, whom inhumanprudence would have condemned to solitude and despair. But the fatalsecurity, like the predestination of the Turks, must have aided theprogress of the contagion; and those salutary precautions to whichEurope is indebted for her safety, were unknown to the governmentof Justinian. No restraints were imposed on the free and frequentintercourse of the Roman provinces: from Persia to France, the nationswere mingled and infected by wars and emigrations; and the pestilentialodor which lurks for years in a bale of cotton was imported, bythe abuse of trade, into the most distant regions. The mode of itspropagation is explained by the remark of Procopius himself, thatit always spread from the sea-coast to the inland country: the mostsequestered islands and mountains were successively visited; the placeswhich had escaped the fury of its first passage were alone exposed tothe contagion of the ensuing year. The winds might diffuse thatsubtile venom; but unless the atmosphere be previously disposed forits reception, the plague would soon expire in the cold or temperateclimates of the earth. Such was the universal corruption of the air, that the pestilence which burst forth in the fifteenth year of Justinianwas not checked or alleviated by any difference of the seasons. In time, its first malignity was abated and dispersed; the disease alternatelylanguished and revived; but it was not till the end of a calamitousperiod of fifty-two years, that mankind recovered their health, or theair resumed its pure and salubrious quality. 

No facts have been preserved to sustain an account, or even aconjecture, of the numbers that perished in this extraordinarymortality. I only find, that during three months, five, and at lengthten, thousand persons died each day at Constantinople; that many citiesof the East were left vacant, and that in several districts of Italy theharvest and the vintage withered on the ground. The triple scourge ofwar, pestilence, and famine, afflicted the subjects of Justinian; andhis reign is disgraced by the visible decrease of the human species, which has never been repaired in some of the fairest countries of theglobe. [95]

[Footnote 93: Mead proves that the plague is contagious from Thucydides, Lacretius, Aristotle, Galen, and common experience, (p. 10--20;) andhe refutes (Preface, p. 2--13) the contrary opinion of the Frenchphysicians who visited Marseilles in the year 1720. Yet these were therecent and enlightened spectators of a plague which, in a few months, swept away 50, 000 inhabitants (sur le Peste de Marseille, Paris, 1786)of a city that, in the present hour of prosperity and trade contains nomore then 90, 000 souls, (Necker, sur les Finances, tom. I. P. 231. )]

[Footnote 94: The strong assertions of Procopius are overthrown by thesubsequent experience of Evagrius. ]

[Footnote 95: After some figures of rhetoric, the sands of the sea, &c. , Procopius (Anecdot. C. 18) attempts a more definite account; that it hadbeen exterminated under the reign of the Imperial demon. The expressionis obscure in grammar and arithmetic and a literal interpretation wouldproduce several millions of millions Alemannus (p. 80) and Cousin (tom. Iii. P. 178) translate this passage, "two hundred millions:" but Iam ignorant of their motives. The remaining myriad of myriads, wouldfurnish one hundred millions, a number not wholly inadmissible. ]

Chapter XLIV: Idea Of The Roman Jurisprudence. --Part I. 

 Idea Of The Roman Jurisprudence. --The Laws Of The Kings--The Twelve Of The Decemvirs. --The Laws Of The People. --The Decrees Of The Senate. --The Edicts Of The Magistrates And Emperors--Authority Of The Civilians. --Code, Pandects, Novels, And Institutes Of Justinian:--I. Rights Of Persons. --II. Rights Of Things. --III. Private Injuries And Actions. --IV. Crimes And Punishments. 

Note: In the notes to this important chapter, which is received asthe text-book on Civil Law in some of the foreign universities, I haveconsulted, I. The newly-discovered Institutes of Gaius, (Gaii Institutiones, ed. Goeschen, Berlin, 1824, ) with some other fragments of the Roman law, (Codicis Theodosiani Fragmenta inedita, ab Amadeo Peyron. Turin, 1824. )

II. The History of the Roman Law, by Professor Hugo, in the Frenchtranslation of M. Jourdan. Paris, 1825. 

III. Savigny, Geschichte des Romischen Rechts im Mittelalter, 6 bande, Heidelberg, 1815. 

IV. Walther, Romische Rechts-Geschichte, Bonn. 1834. But I amparticularly indebted to an edition of the French translation of thischapter, with additional notes, by one of the most learned civilians ofEurope, Professor Warnkonig, published at Liege, 1821. I have insertedalmost the whole of these notes, which are distinguished by the letterW. --M. The vain titles of the victories of Justinian are crumbledinto dust; but the name of the legislator is inscribed on a fair andeverlasting monument. Under his reign, and by his care, the civiljurisprudence was digested in the immortal works of the Code, thePandects, and the Institutes: [1] the public reason of the Romans hasbeen silently or studiously transfused into the domestic institutionsof Europe, [2], and the laws of Justinian still command the respect orobedience of independent nations. Wise or fortunate is the prince whoconnects his own reputation with the honor or interest of a perpetualorder of men. The defence of their founder is the first cause, whichin every age has exercised the zeal and industry of the civilians. Theypiously commemorate his virtues; dissemble or deny his failings; andfiercely chastise the guilt or folly of the rebels, who presume to sullythe majesty of the purple. The idolatry of love has provoked, as itusually happens, the rancor of opposition; the character of Justinianhas been exposed to the blind vehemence of flattery and invective; andthe injustice of a sect (the Anti-Tribonians, ) has refused all praiseand merit to the prince, his ministers, and his laws. [3] Attached to noparty, interested only for the truth and candor of history, anddirected by the most temperate and skilful guides, [4] I enter withjust diffidence on the subject of civil law, which has exhausted so manylearned lives, and clothed the walls of such spacious libraries. Ina single, if possible in a short, chapter, I shall trace the Romanjurisprudence from Romulus to Justinian, [5] appreciate the labors ofthat emperor, and pause to contemplate the principles of a science soimportant to the peace and happiness of society. The laws of a nationform the most instructive portion of its history; and although I havedevoted myself to write the annals of a declining monarchy, I shallembrace the occasion to breathe the pure and invigorating air of therepublic. 

[Footnote 1: The civilians of the darker ages have established an absurdand incomprehensible mode of quotation, which is supported by authorityand custom. In their references to the Code, the Pandects, and theInstitutes, they mention the number, not of the book, but only of thelaw; and content themselves with reciting the first words of the titleto which it belongs; and of these titles there are more than a thousand. Ludewig (Vit. Justiniani, p. 268) wishes to shake off this pendanticyoke; and I have dared to adopt the simple and rational method ofnumbering the book, the title, and the law. Note: The example of Gibbonhas been followed by M Hugo and other civilians. --M]

[Footnote 2: Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, and Scotland, havereceived them as common law or reason; in France, Italy, &c. , theypossess a direct or indirect influence; and they were respected inEngland, from Stephen to Edward I. Our national Justinian, (Duck. DeUsu et Auctoritate Juris Civilis, l. Ii. C. 1, 8--15. Heineccius, Hist. Juris Germanici, c. 3, 4, No. 55-124, and the legal historians of eachcountry. ) * Note: Although the restoration of the Roman law, introducedby the revival of this study in Italy, is one of the most importantbranches of history, it had been treated but imperfectly when Gibbonwrote his work. That of Arthur Duck is but an insignificant performance. But the researches of the learned have thrown much light upon thematter. The Sarti, the Tiraboschi, the Fantuzzi, the Savioli, had madesome very interesting inquiries; but it was reserved for M. De Savigny, in a work entitled "The History of the Roman Law during the MiddleAges, " to cast the strongest right on this part of history. Hedemonstrates incontestably the preservation of the Roman law fromJustinian to the time of the Glossators, who by their indefatigablezeal, propagated the study of the Roman jurisprudence in all thecountries of Europe. It is much to be desired that the author shouldcontinue this interesting work, and that the learned should engage inthe inquiry in what manner the Roman law introduced itself into theirrespective countries, and the authority which it progressively acquired. For Belgium, there exists, on this subject, (proposed by the Academy ofBrussels in 1781, ) a Collection of Memoirs, printed at Brussels in4to. , 1783, among which should be distinguished those of M. De Berg. M. Berriat Saint Prix has given us hopes of the speedy appearance of awork in which he will discuss this question, especially in relation toFrance. M. Spangenberg, in his Introduction to the Study of the CorpusJuris Civilis Hanover, 1817, 1 vol. 8vo. P. 86, 116, gives us a generalsketch of the history of the Roman law in different parts of Europe. We cannot avoid mentioning an elementary work by M. Hugo, in which hetreats of the History of the Roman Law from Justinian to the presentTime, 2d edit. Berlin 1818 W. ]

[Footnote 3: Francis Hottoman, a learned and acute lawyer of the xvithcentury, wished to mortify Cujacius, and to please the Chancellorde l'Hopital. His Anti-Tribonianus (which I have never been able toprocure) was published in French in 1609; and his sect was propagated inGermany, (Heineccius, Op. Tom. Iii. Sylloge iii. P. 171--183. ) * Note:Though there have always been many detractors of the Roman law, no sectof Anti-Tribonians has ever existed under that name, as Gibbon seems tosuppose. --W. ]

[Footnote 4: At the head of these guides I shall respectfully placethe learned and perspicuous Heineccius, a German professor, who diedat Halle in the year 1741, (see his Eloge in the Nouvelle BibliothequeGermanique, tom. Ii. P. 51--64. ) His ample works have been collectedin eight volumes in 4to. Geneva, 1743-1748. The treatises which I haveseparately used are, 1. Historia Juris Romani et Germanici, Lugd. Batav. 1740, in 8 vo. 2. Syntagma Antiquitatum Romanam Jurisprudentiamillustrantium, 2 vols. In 8 vo. Traject. Ad Rhenum. 3. Elementa JurisCivilis secundum Ordinem Institutionum, Lugd. Bat. 1751, in 8 vo. 4. Elementa J. C. Secundum Ordinem Pandectarum Traject. 1772, in 8vo. 2vols. * Note: Our author, who was not a lawyer, was necessarily obligedto content himself with following the opinions of those writers who werethen of the greatest authority; but as Heineccius, notwithstanding hishigh reputation for the study of the Roman law, knew nothing ofthe subject on which he treated, but what he had learned from thecompilations of various authors, it happened that, in following thesometimes rash opinions of these guides, Gibbon has fallen into manyerrors, which we shall endeavor in succession to correct. The work ofBach on the History of the Roman Jurisprudence, with which Gibbon wasnot acquainted, is far superior to that of Heineccius and since thattime we have new obligations to the modern historic civilians, whoseindefatigable researches have greatly enlarged the sphere of ourknowledge in this important branch of history. We want a pen like thatof Gibbon to give to the more accurate notions which we have acquiredsince his time, the brilliancy, the vigor, and the animationwhich Gibbon has bestowed on the opinions of Heineccius and hiscontemporaries. --W]

[Footnote 5: Our original text is a fragment de Origine Juris (Pandect. L. I. Tit. Ii. ) of Pomponius, a Roman lawyer, who lived under theAntonines, (Heinecc. Tom. Iii. Syl. Iii. P. 66--126. ) It has beenabridged, and probably corrupted, by Tribonian, and since restored byBynkershoek (Opp. Tom. I. P. 279--304. )]

The primitive government of Rome [6] was composed, with some politicalskill, of an elective king, a council of nobles, and a general assemblyof the people. War and religion were administered by the suprememagistrate; and he alone proposed the laws, which were debated in thesenate, and finally ratified or rejected by a majority of votes inthe thirty curiae or parishes of the city. Romulus, Numa, and ServiusTullius, are celebrated as the most ancient legislators; and eachof them claims his peculiar part in the threefold division ofjurisprudence. [7] The laws of marriage, the education of children, and the authority of parents, which may seem to draw their origin fromnature itself, are ascribed to the untutored wisdom of Romulus. The lawof nations and of religious worship, which Numa introduced, was derivedfrom his nocturnal converse with the nymph Egeria. The civil law isattributed to the experience of Servius: he balanced the rights andfortunes of the seven classes of citizens; and guarded, by fifty newregulations, the observance of contracts and the punishment of crimes. The state, which he had inclined towards a democracy, was changed by thelast Tarquin into a lawless despotism; and when the kingly office wasabolished, the patricians engrossed the benefits of freedom. The royallaws became odious or obsolete; the mysterious deposit was silentlypreserved by the priests and nobles; and at the end of sixty years, thecitizens of Rome still complained that they were ruled by the arbitrarysentence of the magistrates. Yet the positive institutions of the kingshad blended themselves with the public and private manners of the city, some fragments of that venerable jurisprudence [8] were compiled by thediligence of antiquarians, [9] and above twenty texts still speak therudeness of the Pelasgic idiom of the Latins. [10]

[Footnote 6: The constitutional history of the kings of Rome may bestudied in the first book of Livy, and more copiously in DionysiusHalicarnassensis, (l. Li. P. 80--96, 119--130, l. Iv. P. 198--220, ) whosometimes betrays the character of a rhetorician and a Greek. * Note: M. Warnkonig refers to the work of Beaufort, on the Uncertainty of theFive First Ages of the Roman History, with which Gibbon was probablyacquainted, to Niebuhr, and to the less known volume of Wachsmuth, "Aeltere Geschichte des Rom. Staats. " To these I would add A. W. Schlegel's Review of Niebuhr, and my friend Dr. Arnold's recentlypublished volume, of which the chapter on the Law of the XII. Tablesappears to me one of the most valuable, if not the most valuable, chapter. --M. ]

[Footnote 7: This threefold division of the law was applied to the threeRoman kings by Justus Lipsius, (Opp. Tom. Iv. P. 279;) is adopted byGravina, (Origines Juris Civilis, p. 28, edit. Lips. 1737:) and isreluctantly admitted by Mascou, his German editor. * Note: Whoever isacquainted with the real notions of the Romans on the jus naturale, gentium et civile, cannot but disapprove of this explanation whichhas no relation to them, and might be taken for a pleasantry. It iscertainly unnecessary to increase the confusion which already prevailsamong modern writers on the true sense of these ideas. Hugo. --W]

[Footnote 8: The most ancient Code or Digest was styled Jus Papirianum, from the first compiler, Papirius, who flourished somewhat beforeor after the Regifugium, (Pandect. L. I. Tit. Ii. ) The best judicialcritics, even Bynkershoek (tom. I. P. 284, 285) and Heineccius, (Hist. J. C. R. L. I. C. 16, 17, and Opp. Tom. Iii. Sylloge iv. P. 1--8, ) givecredit to this tale of Pomponius, without sufficiently adverting tothe value and rarity of such a monument of the third century, of theilliterate city. I much suspect that the Caius Papirius, the PontifexMaximus, who revived the laws of Numa (Dionys. Hal. L. Iii. P. 171) leftonly an oral tradition; and that the Jus Papirianum of Granius Flaccus(Pandect. L. L. Tit. Xvi. Leg. 144) was not a commentary, but anoriginal work, compiled in the time of Caesar, (Censorin. De DieNatali, l. Iii. P. 13, Duker de Latinitate J. C. P. 154. ) Note: Niebuhrconsiders the Jus Papirianum, adduced by Verrius Fiaccus, to be ofundoubted authenticity. Rom. Geschichte, l. 257. --M. Compare this withthe work of M. Hugo. --W. ]

[Footnote 9: A pompous, though feeble attempt to restore the original, is made in the Histoire de la Jurisprudence Romaine of Terasson, p. 22--72, Paris, 1750, in folio; a work of more promise than performance. ]

[Footnote 10: In the year 1444, seven or eight tables of brass were dugup between Cortona and Gubio. A part of these (for the rest is Etruscan)represents the primitive state of the Pelasgic letters and language, which are ascribed by Herodotus to that district of Italy, (l. I. C. 56, 57, 58;) though this difficult passage may be explained of a Crestona inThrace, (Notes de Larcher, tom. I. P. 256--261. ) The savage dialectof the Eugubine tables has exercised, and may still elude, thedivination of criticism; but the root is undoubtedly Latin, of the sameage and character as the Saliare Carmen, which, in the time of Horace, none could understand. The Roman idiom, by an infusion of Doric andAeolic Greek, was gradually ripened into the style of the xii. Tables, of the Duillian column, of Ennius, of Terence, and of Cicero, (Gruter. Inscript. Tom. I. P. Cxlii. Scipion Maffei, Istoria Diplomatica, p. 241--258. Bibliotheque Italique, tom. Iii. P. 30--41, 174--205. Tom. Xiv. P. 1--52. ) * Note: The Eugubine Tables have exercised the ingenuityof the Italian and German critics; it seems admitted (O. Muller, die Etrusker, ii. 313) that they are Tuscan. See the works of Lanzi, Passeri, Dempster, and O. Muller. --M]

I shall not repeat the well-known story of the Decemvirs, [11] whosullied by their actions the honor of inscribing on brass, or wood, orivory, the Twelve Tables of the Roman laws. [12] They were dictated bythe rigid and jealous spirit of an aristocracy, which had yielded withreluctance to the just demands of the people. But the substance of theTwelve Tables was adapted to the state of the city; and the Romanshad emerged from Barbarism, since they were capable of studying andembracing the institutions of their more enlightened neighbors. [1211]A wise Ephesian was driven by envy from his native country: before hecould reach the shores of Latium, he had observed the various formsof human nature and civil society: he imparted his knowledge to thelegislators of Rome, and a statue was erected in the forum to theperpetual memory of Hermodorus. [13] The names and divisions of thecopper money, the sole coin of the infant state, were of Dorian origin:[14] the harvests of Campania and Sicily relieved the wants of a peoplewhose agriculture was often interrupted by war and faction; and sincethe trade was established, [15] the deputies who sailed from theTyber might return from the same harbors with a more precious cargoof political wisdom. The colonies of Great Greece had transported andimproved the arts of their mother country. Cumae and Rhegium, Crotonaand Tarentum, Agrigentum and Syracuse, were in the rank of the mostflourishing cities. The disciples of Pythagoras applied philosophy tothe use of government; the unwritten laws of Charondas accepted theaid of poetry and music, [16] and Zaleucus framed the republic of theLocrians, which stood without alteration above two hundred years. [17]From a similar motive of national pride, both Livy and Dionysius arewilling to believe, that the deputies of Rome visited Athens under thewise and splendid administration of Pericles; and the laws of Solon weretransfused into the twelve tables. If such an embassy had indeed beenreceived from the Barbarians of Hesperia, the Roman name would havebeen familiar to the Greeks before the reign of Alexander; [18] andthe faintest evidence would have been explored and celebrated by thecuriosity of succeeding times. But the Athenian monuments are silent;nor will it seem credible that the patricians should undertake a longand perilous navigation to copy the purest model of democracy. In thecomparison of the tables of Solon with those of the Decemvirs, somecasual resemblance may be found; some rules which nature and reason haverevealed to every society; some proofs of a common descent from Egyptor Phoenicia. [19] But in all the great lines of public and privatejurisprudence, the legislators of Rome and Athens appear to be strangersor adverse at each other. 

[Footnote 11: Compare Livy (l. Iii. C. 31--59) with DionysiusHalicarnassensis, (l. X. P. 644--xi. P. 691. ) How concise and animatedis the Roman--how prolix and lifeless the Greek! Yet he has admirablyjudged the masters, and defined the rules, of historical composition. ]

[Footnote 12: From the historians, Heineccius (Hist. J. R. L. I. No. 26)maintains that the twelve tables were of brass--aereas; in the text ofPomponius we read eboreas; for which Scaliger has substituted roboreas, (Bynkershoek, p. 286. ) Wood, brass, and ivory, might be successivelyemployed. Note: Compare Niebuhr, vol. Ii. P. 349, &c. --M. ]

[Footnote 1211: Compare Niebuhr, 355, note 720. --M. It is a mostimportant question whether the twelve tables in fact include lawsimported from Greece. The negative opinion maintained by our author, isnow almost universally adopted, particularly by Mm. Niebuhr, Hugo, andothers. See my Institutiones Juris Romani privati Leodii, 1819, p. 311, 312. --W. Dr. Arnold, p. 255, seems to incline to the opposite opinion. Compare some just and sensible observations in the Appendix to Mr. Travers Twiss's Epitome of Niebuhr, p. 347, Oxford, 1836. --M. ]

[Footnote 13: His exile is mentioned by Cicero, (Tusculan. Quaestion. V. 36; his statue by Pliny, (Hist. Nat. Xxxiv. 11. ) The letter, dream, andprophecy of Heraclitus, are alike spurious, (Epistolae Graec. Divers. P. 337. ) * Note: Compare Niebuhr, ii. 209. --M. See the Mem de l'Academ. DesInscript. Xxii. P. 48. It would be difficult to disprove, that a certainHermodorus had some share in framing the Laws of the Twelve Tables. Pomponius even says that this Hermodorus was the author of the last twotables. Pliny calls him the Interpreter of the Decemvirs, which may leadus to suppose that he labored with them in drawing up that law. Butit is astonishing that in his Dissertation, (De Hermodoro vero XII. Tabularum Auctore, Annales Academiae Groninganae anni 1817, 1818, ) M. Gratama has ventured to advance two propositions entirely devoid ofproof: "Decem priores tabulas ab ipsis Romanis non esse profectas, totaconfirma Decemviratus Historia, " et "Hermodorum legum decemviralium cerinominis auctorem esse, qui eas composuerit suis ordinibus, disposuerit, suaque fecerit auctoritate, ut a decemviris reciperentur. " This trulywas an age in which the Roman Patricians would allow their laws to bedictated by a foreign Exile! Mr. Gratama does not attempt to prove theauthenticity of the supposititious letter of Heraclitus. He contentshimself with expressing his astonishment that M. Bonamy (as well asGibbon) will be receive it as genuine. --W. ]

[Footnote 14: This intricate subject of the Sicilian and Roman money, is ably discussed by Dr. Bentley, (Dissertation on the Epistles ofPhalaris, p. 427--479, ) whose powers in this controversy were calledforth by honor and resentment. ]

[Footnote 15: The Romans, or their allies, sailed as far as the fairpromontory of Africa, (Polyb. L. Iii. P. 177, edit. Casaubon, in folio. )Their voyages to Cumae, &c. , are noticed by Livy and Dionysius. ]

[Footnote 16: This circumstance would alone prove the antiquity ofCharondas, the legislator of Rhegium and Catana, who, by a strange errorof Diodorus Siculus (tom. I. L. Xii. P. 485--492) is celebrated longafterwards as the author of the policy of Thurium. ]

[Footnote 17: Zaleucus, whose existence has been rashly attacked, hadthe merit and glory of converting a band of outlaws (the Locrians) intothe most virtuous and orderly of the Greek republics. (See two Memoirsof the Baron de St. Croix, sur la Legislation de la Grande Grece Mem. De l'Academie, tom. Xlii. P. 276--333. ) But the laws of Zaleucus andCharondas, which imposed on Diodorus and Stobaeus, are the spuriouscomposition of a Pythagorean sophist, whose fraud has been detected bythe critical sagacity of Bentley, p. 335--377. ]

[Footnote 18: I seize the opportunity of tracing the progress of thisnational intercourse 1. Herodotus and Thucydides (A. U. C. 300--350)appear ignorant of the name and existence of Rome, (Joseph. ContraAppion tom. Ii. L. I. C. 12, p. 444, edit. Havercamp. ) 2. Theopompus (A. U. C. 400, Plin. Iii. 9) mentions the invasion of the Gauls, which isnoticed in looser terms by Heraclides Ponticus, (Plutarch in Camillo, p. 292, edit. H. Stephan. ) 3. The real or fabulous embassy of the Romans toAlexander (A. U. C. 430) is attested by Clitarchus, (Plin. Iii. 9, ) byAristus and Asclepiades, (Arrian. L. Vii. P. 294, 295, ) and by Memnon ofHeraclea, (apud Photium, cod. Ccxxiv. P. 725, ) though tacitly denied byLivy. 4. Theophrastus (A. U. C. 440) primus externorum aliqua de Romanisdiligentius scripsit, (Plin. Iii. 9. ) 5. Lycophron (A. U. C. 480--500)scattered the first seed of a Trojan colony and the fable of the Aeneid, (Cassandra, 1226--1280. ) A bold prediction before the end of the firstPunic war! * Note: Compare Niebuhr throughout. Niebuhr has writtena dissertation (Kleine Schriften, i. P. 438, ) arguing from thisprediction, and on the other conclusive grounds, that the Lycophron, the author of the Cassandra, is not the Alexandrian poet. He had beenanticipated in this sagacious criticism, as he afterwards discovered, by a writer of no less distinction than Charles James Fox. --Letters toWakefield. And likewise by the author of the extraordinary translationof this poem, that most promising scholar, Lord Royston. See the Remainsof Lord Royston, by the Rev. Henry Pepys, London, 1838. ]

[Footnote 19: The tenth table, de modo sepulturae, was borrowed fromSolon, (Cicero de Legibus, ii. 23--26:) the furtem per lancem etlicium conceptum, is derived by Heineccius from the manners of Athens, (Antiquitat. Rom. Tom. Ii. P. 167--175. ) The right of killing anocturnal thief was declared by Moses, Solon, and the Decemvirs, (Exodusxxii. 3. Demosthenes contra Timocratem, tom. I. P. 736, edit. Reiske. Macrob. Saturnalia, l. I. C. 4. Collatio Legum Mosaicarum et Romanatum, tit, vii. No. I. P. 218, edit. Cannegieter. ) *Note: Are not the samepoints of similarity discovered in the legislation of all actions in theinfancy of their civilization?--W. ]

Chapter XLIV: Idea Of The Roman Jurisprudence. --Part II. 

Whatever might be the origin or the merit of the twelve tables, [20]they obtained among the Romans that blind and partial reverence whichthe lawyers of every country delight to bestow on their municipalinstitutions. The study is recommended by Cicero [21] as equallypleasant and instructive. "They amuse the mind by the remembrance of oldwords and the portrait of ancient manners; they inculcate the soundestprinciples of government and morals; and I am not afraid to affirm, thatthe brief composition of the Decemvirs surpasses in genuine value thelibraries of Grecian philosophy. How admirable, " says Tully, with honestor affected prejudice, "is the wisdom of our ancestors! We alone are themasters of civil prudence, and our superiority is the more conspicuous, if we deign to cast our eyes on the rude and almost ridiculousjurisprudence of Draco, of Solon, and of Lycurgus. " The twelve tableswere committed to the memory of the young and the meditation of the old;they were transcribed and illustrated with learned diligence; they hadescaped the flames of the Gauls, they subsisted in the age of Justinian, and their subsequent loss has been imperfectly restored by the laborsof modern critics. [22] But although these venerable monuments wereconsidered as the rule of right and the fountain of justice, [23] theywere overwhelmed by the weight and variety of new laws, which, at theend of five centuries, became a grievance more intolerable than thevices of the city. [24] Three thousand brass plates, the acts of thesenate of the people, were deposited in the Capitol: [25] and some ofthe acts, as the Julian law against extortion, surpassed the number ofa hundred chapters. [26] The Decemvirs had neglected to import thesanction of Zaleucus, which so long maintained the integrity of hisrepublic. A Locrian, who proposed any new law, stood forth in theassembly of the people with a cord round his neck, and if the law wasrejected, the innovator was instantly strangled. 

[Footnote 20: It is the praise of Diodorus, (tom. I. L. Xii. P. 494, )which may be fairly translated by the eleganti atque absoluta brevitateverborum of Aulus Gellius, (Noct. Attic. Xxi. 1. )]

[Footnote 21: Listen to Cicero (de Legibus, ii. 23) and hisrepresentative Crassus, (de Oratore, i. 43, 44. )]

[Footnote 22: See Heineccius, (Hist. J. R. No. 29--33. ) I have followedthe restoration of the xii. Tables by Gravina (Origines J. C. P. 280--307) and Terrasson, (Hist. De la Jurisprudence Romaine, p. 94--205. ) Note: The wish expressed by Warnkonig, that the text and theconjectural emendations on the fragments of the xii. Tables should besubmitted to rigid criticism, has been fulfilled by Dirksen, Uebersichtder bisherigen Versuche Leipzig Kritik und Herstellung des Textes derZwolf-Tafel-Fragmente, Leipzug, 1824. --M. ]

[Footnote 23: Finis aequi juris, (Tacit. Annal. Iii. 27. ) Fons omnispublici et privati juris, (T. Liv. Iii. 34. ) * Note: From the context ofthe phrase in Tacitus, "Nam secutae leges etsi alquando in maleficosex delicto; saepius tamen dissensione ordinum * * * latae sunt, " it isclear that Gibbon has rendered this sentence incorrectly. Hugo, Hist. P. 62. --M. ]

[Footnote 24: De principiis juris, et quibus modis ad hanc multitudineminfinitam ac varietatem legum perventum sit altius disseram, (Tacit. Annal. Iii. 25. ) This deep disquisition fills only two pages, but theyare the pages of Tacitus. With equal sense, but with less energy, Livy(iii. 34) had complained, in hoc immenso aliarum super alias acervatarumlegum cumulo, &c. ]

[Footnote 25: Suetonius in Vespasiano, c. 8. ]

[Footnote 26: Cicero ad Familiares, viii. 8. ]

The Decemvirs had been named, and their tables were approved, byan assembly of the centuries, in which riches preponderated againstnumbers. To the first class of Romans, the proprietors of one hundredthousand pounds of copper, [27] ninety-eight votes were assigned, andonly ninety-five were left for the six inferior classes, distributedaccording to their substance by the artful policy of Servius. But thetribunes soon established a more specious and popular maxim, that everycitizen has an equal right to enact the laws which he is bound to obey. Instead of the centuries, they convened the tribes; and the patricians, after an impotent struggle, submitted to the decrees of an assembly, inwhich their votes were confounded with those of the meanest plebeians. Yet as long as the tribes successively passed over narrow bridges [28]and gave their voices aloud, the conduct of each citizen was exposed tothe eyes and ears of his friends and countrymen. The insolvent debtorconsulted the wishes of his creditor; the client would have blushedto oppose the views of his patron; the general was followed by hisveterans, and the aspect of a grave magistrate was a living lesson tothe multitude. A new method of secret ballot abolished the influenceof fear and shame, of honor and interest, and the abuse of freedomaccelerated the progress of anarchy and despotism. [29] The Romans hadaspired to be equal; they were levelled by the equality of servitude;and the dictates of Augustus were patiently ratified by the formalconsent of the tribes or centuries. Once, and once only, he experienceda sincere and strenuous opposition. His subjects had resigned allpolitical liberty; they defended the freedom of domestic life. A lawwhich enforced the obligation, and strengthened the bonds of marriage, was clamorously rejected; Propertius, in the arms of Delia, applaudedthe victory of licentious love; and the project of reform was suspendedtill a new and more tractable generation had arisen in the world. [30]Such an example was not necessary to instruct a prudent usurper of themischief of popular assemblies; and their abolition, which Augustushad silently prepared, was accomplished without resistance, and almostwithout notice, on the accession of his successor. [31] Sixty thousandplebeian legislators, whom numbers made formidable, and poverty secure, were supplanted by six hundred senators, who held their honors, theirfortunes, and their lives, by the clemency of the emperor. The loss ofexecutive power was alleviated by the gift of legislative authority; andUlpian might assert, after the practice of two hundred years, that thedecrees of the senate obtained the force and validity of laws. In thetimes of freedom, the resolves of the people had often been dictated bythe passion or error of the moment: the Cornelian, Pompeian, and Julianlaws were adapted by a single hand to the prevailing disorders; but thesenate, under the reign of the Caesars, was composed of magistrates andlawyers, and in questions of private jurisprudence, the integrity oftheir judgment was seldom perverted by fear or interest. [32]

[Footnote 27: Dionysius, with Arbuthnot, and most of the moderns, (except Eisenschmidt de Ponderibus, &c. , p. 137--140, ) represent the100, 000 asses by 10, 000 Attic drachmae, or somewhat more than 300 poundssterling. But their calculation can apply only to the latter times, whenthe as was diminished to 1-24th of its ancient weight: nor can I believethat in the first ages, however destitute of the precious metals, asingle ounce of silver could have been exchanged for seventy poundsof copper or brass. A more simple and rational method is to value thecopper itself according to the present rate, and, after comparingthe mint and the market price, the Roman and avoirdupois weight, theprimitive as or Roman pound of copper may be appreciated at one Englishshilling, and the 100, 000 asses of the first class amounted to 5000pounds sterling. It will appear from the same reckoning, that an ox wassold at Rome for five pounds, a sheep for ten shillings, and a quarterof wheat for one pound ten shillings, (Festus, p. 330, edit. Dacier. Plin. Hist. Natur. Xviii. 4:) nor do I see any reason to reject theseconsequences, which moderate our ideas of the poverty of the firstRomans. * Note: Compare Niebuhr, English translation, vol. I. P. 448, &c. --M. ]

[Footnote 28: Consult the common writers on the Roman Comitia, especially Sigonius and Beaufort. Spanheim (de Praestantia et UsuNumismatum, tom. Ii. Dissert. X. P. 192, 193) shows, on a curious medal, the Cista, Pontes, Septa, Diribitor, &c. ]

[Footnote 29: Cicero (de Legibus, iii. 16, 17, 18) debates thisconstitutional question, and assigns to his brother Quintus the mostunpopular side. ]

[Footnote 30: Prae tumultu recusantium perferre non potuit, (Sueton. In August. C. 34. ) See Propertius, l. Ii. Eleg. 6. Heineccius, in aseparate history, has exhausted the whole subject of the Julian andPapian Poppaean laws, (Opp. Tom. Vii. P. I. P. 1--479. )]

[Footnote 31: Tacit. Annal. I. 15. Lipsius, Excursus E. In Tacitum. Note: This error of Gibbon has been long detected. The senate, underTiberius did indeed elect the magistrates, who before that emperor wereelected in the comitia. But we find laws enacted by the people duringhis reign, and that of Claudius. For example; the Julia-Norbana, Vellea, and Claudia de tutela foeminarum. Compare the Hist. Du Droit Romain, by M. Hugo, vol. Ii. P. 55, 57. The comitia ceased imperceptibly as therepublic gradually expired. --W. ]

[Footnote 32: Non ambigitur senatum jus facere posse, is the decisionof Ulpian, (l. Xvi. Ad Edict. In Pandect. L. I. Tit. Iii. Leg. 9. )Pomponius taxes the comitia of the people as a turba hominum, (Pandect. L. I. Tit. Ii. Leg 9. ) * Note: The author adopts the opinion, that underthe emperors alone the senate had a share in the legislative power. They had nevertheless participated in it under the Republic, sincesenatus-consulta relating to civil rights have been preserved, which aremuch earlier than the reigns of Augustus or Tiberius. It is true that, under the emperors, the senate exercised this right more frequently, andthat the assemblies of the people had become much more rare, though inlaw they were still permitted, in the time of Ulpian. (See the fragmentsof Ulpian. ) Bach has clearly demonstrated that the senate had thesame power in the time of the Republic. It is natural that thesenatus-consulta should have been more frequent under the emperors, because they employed those means of flattering the pride of thesenators, by granting them the right of deliberating on all affairswhich did not intrench on the Imperial power. Compare the discussions ofM. Hugo, vol. I. P. 284, et seq. --W. ]

The silence or ambiguity of the laws was supplied by the occasionaledicts [3211] of those magistrates who were invested with the honorsof the state. [33] This ancient prerogative of the Roman kings wastransferred, in their respective offices, to the consuls and dictators, the censors and praetors; and a similar right was assumed by thetribunes of the people, the ediles, and the proconsuls. At Rome, andin the provinces, the duties of the subject, and the intentions of thegovernor, were proclaimed; and the civil jurisprudence was reformed bythe annual edicts of the supreme judge, the praetor of the city. [3311]As soon as he ascended his tribunal, he announced by the voice of thecrier, and afterwards inscribed on a white wall, the rules which heproposed to follow in the decision of doubtful cases, and the reliefwhich his equity would afford from the precise rigor of ancientstatutes. A principle of discretion more congenial to monarchy wasintroduced into the republic: the art of respecting the name, andeluding the efficacy, of the laws, was improved by successive praetors;subtleties and fictions were invented to defeat the plainest meaning ofthe Decemvirs, and where the end was salutary, the means were frequentlyabsurd. The secret or probable wish of the dead was suffered to prevailover the order of succession and the forms of testaments; and theclaimant, who was excluded from the character of heir, accepted withequal pleasure from an indulgent praetor the possession of the goodsof his late kinsman or benefactor. In the redress of private wrongs, compensations and fines were substituted to the obsolete rigor of theTwelve Tables; time and space were annihilated by fanciful suppositions;and the plea of youth, or fraud, or violence, annulled the obligation, or excused the performance, of an inconvenient contract. A jurisdictionthus vague and arbitrary was exposed to the most dangerous abuse: thesubstance, as well as the form, of justice were often sacrificed to theprejudices of virtue, the bias of laudable affection, and the grosserseductions of interest or resentment. But the errors or vices of eachpraetor expired with his annual office; such maxims alone as had beenapproved by reason and practice were copied by succeeding judges; therule of proceeding was defined by the solution of new cases; and thetemptations of injustice were removed by the Cornelian law, whichcompelled the praetor of the year to adhere to the spirit and letterof his first proclamation. [34] It was reserved for the curiosity andlearning of Adrian, to accomplish the design which had been conceived bythe genius of Caesar; and the praetorship of Salvius Julian, an eminentlawyer, was immortalized by the composition of the Perpetual Edict. Thiswell-digested code was ratified by the emperor and the senate; the longdivorce of law and equity was at length reconciled; and, instead of theTwelve Tables, the perpetual edict was fixed as the invariable standardof civil jurisprudence. [35]

[Footnote 3211: There is a curious passage from Aurelius, a writer onLaw, on the Praetorian Praefect, quoted in Lydus de Magistratibus, p. 32, edit. Hase. The Praetorian praefect was to the emperor what themaster of the horse was to the dictator under the Republic. He was thedelegate, therefore, of the full Imperial authority; and no appeal couldbe made or exception taken against his edicts. I had not observedthis passage, when the third volume, where it would have been moreappropriately placed, passed through the press. --M]

[Footnote 33: The jus honorarium of the praetors and other magistratesis strictly defined in the Latin text to the Institutes, (l. I. Tit. Ii. No. 7, ) and more loosely explained in the Greek paraphrase ofTheophilus, (p. 33--38, edit. Reitz, ) who drops the important wordhonorarium. * Note: The author here follows the opinion of Heineccius, who, according to the idea of his master Thomasius, was unwillingto suppose that magistrates exercising a judicial could share in thelegislative power. For this reason he represents the edicts of thepraetors as absurd. (See his work, Historia Juris Romani, 69, 74. ) ButHeineccius had altogether a false notion of this important institutionof the Romans, to which we owe in a great degree the perfection of theirjurisprudence. Heineccius, therefore, in his own days had many opponentsof his system, among others the celebrated Ritter, professor atWittemberg, who contested it in notes appended to the work ofHeineccius, and retained in all subsequent editions of that book. After Ritter, the learned Bach undertook to vindicate the edicts of thepraetors in his Historia Jurisprud. Rom. Edit. 6, p. 218, 224. But itremained for a civilian of our own days to throw light on the spirit andtrue character of this institution. M. Hugo has completely demonstratedthat the praetorian edicts furnished the salutary means of perpetuallyharmonizing the legislation with the spirit of the times. The praetorswere the true organs of public opinion. It was not according to theircaprice that they framed their regulations, but according to the mannersand to the opinions of the great civil lawyers of their day. We knowfrom Cicero himself, that it was esteemed a great honor among theRomans to publish an edict, well conceived and well drawn. The mostdistinguished lawyers of Rome were invited by the praetor to assist inframing this annual law, which, according to its principle, was only adeclaration which the praetor made to the public, to announce themanner in which he would judge, and to guard against every charge ofpartiality. Those who had reason to fear his opinions might delay theircause till the following year. The praetor was responsible for allthe faults which he committed. The tribunes could lodge an accusationagainst the praetor who issued a partial edict. He was bound strictlyto follow and to observe the regulations published by him at thecommencement of his year of office, according to the Cornelian law, bywhich these edicts were called perpetual, and he could make no changein a regulation once published. The praetor was obliged to submit tohis own edict, and to judge his own affairs according to its provisions. These magistrates had no power of departing from the fundamentallaws, or the laws of the Twelve Tables. The people held them insuch consideration, that they rarely enacted laws contrary to theirprovisions; but as some provisions were found inefficient, othersopposed to the manners of the people, and to the spirit of subsequentages, the praetors, still maintaining respect for the laws, endeavoredto bring them into accordance with the necessities of the existingtime, by such fictions as best suited the nature of the case. In whatlegislation do we not find these fictions, which even yet exist, absurdand ridiculous as they are, among the ancient laws of modern nations?These always variable edicts at length comprehended the whole of theRoman legislature, and became the subject of the commentaries of themost celebrated lawyers. They must therefore be considered as the basisof all the Roman jurisprudence comprehended in the Digest of Justinian. ----It is in this sense that M. Schrader has written on this importantinstitution, proposing it for imitation as far as may be consistent withour manners, and agreeable to our political institutions, in order toavoid immature legislation becoming a permanent evil. See the History ofthe Roman Law by M. Hugo, vol. I. P. 296, &c. , vol. Ii. P. 30, et seq. , 78. Et seq. , and the note in my elementary book on the Industries, p. 313. With regard to the works best suited to give information onthe framing and the form of these edicts, see Haubold, InstitutionesLiterariae, tom. I. P. 321, 368. All that Heineccius says about theusurpation of the right of making these edicts by the praetors is false, and contrary to all historical testimony. A multitude of authoritiesproves that the magistrates were under an obligation to publish theseedicts. --W. ----With the utmost deference for these excellent civilians, I cannot but consider this confusion of the judicial and legislativeauthority as a very perilous constitutional precedent. It might answeramong a people so singularly trained as the Romans were by habit andnational character in reverence for legal institutions, so as to be anaristocracy, if not a people, of legislators; but in most nations theinvestiture of a magistrate in such authority, leaving to his solejudgment the lawyers he might consult, and the view of public opinionwhich he might take, would be a very insufficient guaranty for rightlegislation. --M. ]

[Footnote 3311: Compare throughout the brief but admirable sketch of theprogress and growth of the Roman jurisprudence, the necessary operationof the jusgentium, when Rome became the sovereign of nations, upon thejus civile of the citizens of Rome, in the first chapter of Savigny. Geschichte des Romischen Rechts im Mittelalter. --M. ]

[Footnote 34: Dion Cassius (tom. I. L. Xxxvi. P. 100) fixes theperpetual edicts in the year of Rome, 686. Their institution, however, is ascribed to the year 585 in the Acta Diurna, which have beenpublished from the papers of Ludovicus Vives. Their authenticity issupported or allowed by Pighius, (Annal. Rom. Tom. Ii. P. 377, 378, )Graevius, (ad Sueton. P. 778, ) Dodwell, (Praelection. Cambden, p. 665, ) and Heineccius: but a single word, Scutum Cimbricum, detects theforgery, (Moyle's Works, vol. I. P. 303. )]

[Footnote 35: The history of edicts is composed, and the text of theperpetual edict is restored, by the master-hand of Heineccius, (Opp. Tom. Vii. P. Ii. P. 1--564;) in whose researches I might safelyacquiesce. In the Academy of Inscriptions, M. Bouchaud has given aseries of memoirs to this interesting subject of law and literature. *Note: This restoration was only the commencement of a work found amongthe papers of Heineccius, and published after his death. --G. ----Note:Gibbon has here fallen into an error, with Heineccius, and almost thewhole literary world, concerning the real meaning of what is called theperpetual edict of Hadrian. Since the Cornelian law, the edicts wereperpetual, but only in this sense, that the praetor could not changethem during the year of his magistracy. And although it appears thatunder Hadrian, the civilian Julianus made, or assisted in making, a complete collection of the edicts, (which certainly had been donelikewise before Hadrian, for example, by Ofilius, qui diligenter edictumcomposuit, ) we have no sufficient proof to admit the common opinion, that the Praetorian edict was declared perpetually unalterable byHadrian. The writers on law subsequent to Hadrian (and among the restPomponius, in his Summary of the Roman Jurisprudence) speak of theedict as it existed in the time of Cicero. They would not certainlyhave passed over in silence so remarkable a change in the most importantsource of the civil law. M. Hugo has conclusively shown that the variouspassages in authors, like Eutropius, are not sufficient to establish theopinion introduced by Heineccius. Compare Hugo, vol. Ii. P. 78. A newproof of this is found in the Institutes of Gaius, who, in the firstbooks of his work, expresses himself in the same manner, withoutmentioning any change made by Hadrian. Nevertheless, if it had takenplace, he must have noticed it, as he does l. I. 8, the responsaprudentum, on the occasion of a rescript of Hadrian. There is no lacunain the text. Why then should Gaius maintain silence concerning aninnovation so much more important than that of which he speaks? Afterall, this question becomes of slight interest, since, in fact, we findno change in the perpetual edict inserted in the Digest, from thetime of Hadrian to the end of that epoch, except that made by Julian, (compare Hugo, l. C. ) The latter lawyers appear to follow, in theircommentaries, the same texts as their predecessors. It is naturalto suppose, that, after the labors of so many men distinguishedin jurisprudence, the framing of the edict must have attainedsuch perfection that it would have been difficult to have made anyinnovation. We nowhere find that the jurists of the Pandects disputedconcerning the words, or the drawing up of the edict. What differencewould, in fact, result from this with regard to our codes, and ourmodern legislation? Compare the learned Dissertation of M. Biener, DeSalvii Juliani meritis in Edictum Praetorium recte aestimandis. Lipsae, 1809, 4to. --W. ]

From Augustus to Trajan, the modest Caesars were content to promulgatetheir edicts in the various characters of a Roman magistrate; [3511]and, in the decrees of the senate, the epistles and orations of theprince were respectfully inserted. Adrian [36] appears to have been thefirst who assumed, without disguise, the plenitude of legislative power. And this innovation, so agreeable to his active mind, was countenancedby the patience of the times, and his long absence from the seat ofgovernment. The same policy was embraced by succeeding monarchs, and, according to the harsh metaphor of Tertullian, "the gloomy and intricateforest of ancient laws was cleared away by the axe of royal mandates andconstitutions. " [37] During four centuries, from Adrian to Justinianthe public and private jurisprudence was moulded by the will of thesovereign; and few institutions, either human or divine, were permittedto stand on their former basis. The origin of Imperial legislation wasconcealed by the darkness of ages and the terrors of armed despotism;and a double tiction was propagated by the servility, or perhaps theignorance, of the civilians, who basked in the sunshine of the Roman andByzantine courts. 1. To the prayer of the ancient Caesars, the peopleor the senate had sometimes granted a personal exemption from theobligation and penalty of particular statutes; and each indulgence wasan act of jurisdiction exercised by the republic over the first ofher citizens. His humble privilege was at length transformed into theprerogative of a tyrant; and the Latin expression of "released from thelaws" [38] was supposed to exalt the emperor above all human restraints, and to leave his conscience and reason as the sacred measure of hisconduct. 2. A similar dependence was implied in the decrees of thesenate, which, in every reign, defined the titles and powers of anelective magistrate. But it was not before the ideas, and even thelanguage, of the Romans had been corrupted, that a royal law, [39] andan irrevocable gift of the people, were created by the fancy of Ulpian, or more probably of Tribonian himself; [40] and the origin of Imperialpower, though false in fact, and slavish in its consequence, wassupported on a principle of freedom and justice. "The pleasure of theemperor has the vigor and effect of law, since the Roman people, by theroyal law, have transferred to their prince the full extent of theirown power and sovereignty. " [41] The will of a single man, of achild perhaps, was allowed to prevail over the wisdom of ages andthe inclinations of millions; and the degenerate Greeks were proud todeclare, that in his hands alone the arbitrary exercise of legislationcould be safely deposited. "What interest or passion, " exclaimsTheophilus in the court of Justinian, "can reach the calm and sublimeelevation of the monarch? He is already master of the lives and fortunesof his subjects; and those who have incurred his displeasure are alreadynumbered with the dead. " [42] Disdaining the language of flattery, thehistorian may confess, that in questions of private jurisprudence, theabsolute sovereign of a great empire can seldom be influenced by anypersonal considerations. Virtue, or even reason, will suggest to hisimpartial mind, that he is the guardian of peace and equity, and thatthe interest of society is inseparably connected with his own. Under theweakest and most vicious reign, the seat of justice was filled bythe wisdom and integrity of Papinian and Ulpian; [43] and the purestmaterials of the Code and Pandects are inscribed with the names ofCaracalla and his ministers. [44] The tyrant of Rome was sometimes thebenefactor of the provinces. A dagger terminated the crimes of Domitian;but the prudence of Nerva confirmed his acts, which, in the joy of theirdeliverance, had been rescinded by an indignant senate. [45] Yet in therescripts, [46] replies to the consultations of the magistrates, thewisest of princes might be deceived by a partial exposition of the case. And this abuse, which placed their hasty decisions on the same levelwith mature and deliberate acts of legislation, was ineffectuallycondemned by the sense and example of Trajan. The rescripts of theemperor, his grants and decrees, his edicts and pragmatic sanctions, were subscribed in purple ink, [47] and transmitted to the provinces asgeneral or special laws, which the magistrates were bound to execute, and the people to obey. But as their number continually multiplied, therule of obedience became each day more doubtful and obscure, till thewill of the sovereign was fixed and ascertained in the Gregorian, theHermogenian, and the Theodosian codes. [4711] The two first, of whichsome fragments have escaped, were framed by two private lawyers, to preserve the constitutions of the Pagan emperors from Adrian toConstantine. The third, which is still extant, was digested in sixteenbooks by the order of the younger Theodosius to consecrate the laws ofthe Christian princes from Constantine to his own reign. But the threecodes obtained an equal authority in the tribunals; and any act whichwas not included in the sacred deposit might be disregarded by the judgeas epurious or obsolete. [48]

[Footnote 3511: It is an important question in what manner the emperorswere invested with this legislative power. The newly discovered Gaiusdistinctly states that it was in virtue of a law--Nec unquam dubitatumest, quin id legis vicem obtineat, cum ipse imperator per legem imperiumaccipiat. But it is still uncertain whether this was a general law, passed on the transition of the government from a republican to amonarchical form, or a law passed on the accession of each emperor. Compare Hugo, Hist. Du Droit Romain, (French translation, ) vol. Ii. P. 8. --M. ]

[Footnote 36: His laws are the first in the code. See Dodwell, (Praelect. Cambden, p. 319--340, ) who wanders from the subject inconfused reading and feeble paradox. * Note: This is again an errorwhich Gibbon shares with Heineccius, and the generality of authors. Itarises from having mistaken the insignificant edict of Hadrian, insertedin the Code of Justinian, (lib. Vi, tit. Xxiii. C. 11, ) for the firstconstitutio principis, without attending to the fact, that the Pandectscontain so many constitutions of the emperors, from Julius Caesar, (seel. I. Digest 29, l) M. Hugo justly observes, that the acta of Sylla, approved by the senate, were the same thing with the constitutions ofthose who after him usurped the sovereign power. Moreover, we find thatPliny, and other ancient authors, report a multitude of rescripts ofthe emperors from the time of Augustus. See Hugo, Hist. Du Droit Romain, vol. Ii. P. 24-27. --W. ]

[Footnote 37: Totam illam veterem et squalentem sylvam legum novisprincipalium rescriptorum et edictorum securibus truncatis et caeditis;(Apologet. C. 4, p. 50, edit. Havercamp. ) He proceeds to praise therecent firmness of Severus, who repealed the useless or pernicious laws, without any regard to their age or authority. ]

[Footnote 38: The constitutional style of Legibus Solutus ismisinterpreted by the art or ignorance of Dion Cassius, (tom. I. L. Liii. P. 713. ) On this occasion, his editor, Reimer, joins the universalcensure which freedom and criticism have pronounced against that slavishhistorian. ]

[Footnote 39: The word (Lex Regia) was still more recent than the thing. The slaves of Commodus or Caracalla would have started at the name ofroyalty. Note: Yet a century before, Domitian was called not only byMartial but even in public documents, Dominus et Deus Noster. Sueton. Domit. Cap. 13. Hugo. --W. ]

[Footnote 40: See Gravina (Opp. P. 501--512) and Beaufort, (RepubliqueRomaine, tom. I. P. 255--274. ) He has made a proper use of twodissertations by John Frederic Gronovius and Noodt, both translated, with valuable notes, by Barbeyrac, 2 vols. In 12mo. 1731. ]

[Footnote 41: Institut. L. I. Tit. Ii. No. 6. Pandect. L. I. Tit. Iv. Leg. 1. Cod. Justinian, l. I. Tit. Xvii. Leg. 1, No. 7. Inhis Antiquities and Elements, Heineccius has amply treated deconstitutionibus principum, which are illustrated by Godefroy (Comment. Ad Cod. Theodos. L. I. Tit. I. Ii. Iii. ) and Gravina, (p. 87--90. )----Note: Gaius asserts that the Imperial edict or rescript has andalways had, the force of law, because the Imperial authority rests uponlaw. Constitutio principis est, quod imperator decreto vel edicto, vel epistola constituit, nee unquam dubitatum, quin id legis, vicemobtineat, cum ipse imperator per legem imperium accipiat. Gaius, 6Instit. I. 2. --M. ]

[Footnote 42: Theophilus, in Paraphras. Graec. Institut. P. 33, 34, edit. Reitz For his person, time, writings, see the Theophilus of J. H. Mylius, Excurs. Iii. P. 1034--1073. ]

[Footnote 43: There is more envy than reason in the complaint ofMacrinus (Jul. Capitolin. C. 13:) Nefas esse leges videri Commodi etCaracalla at hominum imperitorum voluntates. Commodus was made a Divusby Severus, (Dodwell, Praelect. Viii. P. 324, 325. ) Yet he occurs onlytwice in the Pandects. ]

[Footnote 44: Of Antoninus Caracalla alone 200 constitutions are extantin the Code, and with his father 160. These two princes are quoted fiftytimes in the Pandects, and eight in the Institutes, (Terasson, p. 265. )]

[Footnote 45: Plin. Secund. Epistol. X. 66. Sueton. In Domitian. C. 23. ]

[Footnote 46: It was a maxim of Constantine, contra jus rescripta nonvaleant, (Cod. Theodos. L. I. Tit. Ii. Leg. 1. ) The emperors reluctantlyallow some scrutiny into the law and the fact, some delay, petition, &c. ; but these insufficient remedies are too much in the discretion andat the peril of the judge. ]

[Footnote 47: A compound of vermilion and cinnabar, which marks theImperial diplomas from Leo I. (A. D. 470) to the fall of the Greekempire, (Bibliotheque Raisonnee de la Diplomatique, tom. I. P. 504--515Lami, de Eruditione Apostolorum, tom. Ii. P. 720-726. )]

[Footnote 4711: Savigny states the following as the authorities for theRoman law at the commencement of the fifth century:-- 1. The writingsof the jurists, according to the regulations of the Constitution ofValentinian III. , first promulgated in the West, but by its admissioninto the Theodosian Code established likewise in the East. (ThisConstitution established the authority of the five great jurists, Papinian, Paulus, Caius, Ulpian, and Modestinus as interpreters of theancient law. * * * In case of difference of opinion among these five, a majority decided the case; where they were equal, the opinion ofPapinian, where he was silent, the judge; but see p. 40, and Hugo, vol. Ii. P. 89. ) 2. The Gregorian and Hermogenian Collection of the ImperialRescripts. 3. The Code of Theodosius II. 4. The particular Novellae, asadditions and Supplements to this Code Savigny. Vol. I. P 10. --M. ]

[Footnote 48: Schulting, Jurisprudentia Ante-Justinianea, p. 681-718. Cujacius assigned to Gregory the reigns from Hadrian to Gallienus. Andthe continuation to his fellow-laborer Hermogenes. This general divisionmay be just, but they often trespassed on each other's ground]

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Chapter XLIV: Idea Of The Roman Jurisprudence. --Part III. 

Among savage nations, the want of letters is imperfectly supplied bythe use of visible signs, which awaken attention, and perpetuate theremembrance of any public or private transaction. The jurisprudence ofthe first Romans exhibited the scenes of a pantomime; the words wereadapted to the gestures, and the slightest error or neglect in theforms of proceeding was sufficient to annul the substance of the fairestclaim. The communion of the marriage-life was denoted by the necessaryelements of fire and water; [49] and the divorced wife resigned thebunch of keys, by the delivery of which she had been invested with thegovernment of the family. The manumission of a son, or a slave, wasperformed by turning him round with a gentle blow on the cheek; a workwas prohibited by the casting of a stone; prescription was interruptedby the breaking of a branch; the clinched fist was the symbol of apledge or deposit; the right hand was the gift of faith and confidence. The indenture of covenants was a broken straw; weights and scales wereintroduced into every payment, and the heir who accepted a testament wassometimes obliged to snap his fingers, to cast away his garments, and toleap or dance with real or affected transport. [50] If a citizen pursuedany stolen goods into a neighbor's house, he concealed his nakednesswith a linen towel, and hid his face with a mask or basin, lest heshould encounter the eyes of a virgin or a matron. [51] In a civilaction the plaintiff touched the ear of his witness, seized hisreluctant adversary by the neck, and implored, in solemn lamentation, the aid of his fellow-citizens. The two competitors grasped each other'shand as if they stood prepared for combat before the tribunal of thepraetor; he commanded them to produce the object of the dispute; theywent, they returned with measured steps, and a clod of earth was castat his feet to represent the field for which they contended. This occultscience of the words and actions of law was the inheritance of thepontiffs and patricians. Like the Chaldean astrologers, they announcedto their clients the days of business and repose; these importanttrifles were interwoven with the religion of Numa; and after thepublication of the Twelve Tables, the Roman people was still enslavedby the ignorance of judicial proceedings. The treachery of someplebeian officers at length revealed the profitable mystery: in a moreenlightened age, the legal actions were derided and observed; and thesame antiquity which sanctified the practice, obliterated the use andmeaning of this primitive language. [52]

[Footnote 49: Scaevola, most probably Q. Cervidius Scaevola; the masterof Papinian considers this acceptance of fire and water as the essenceof marriage, (Pandect. L. Xxiv. Tit. 1, leg. 66. See Heineccius, Hist. J. R. No. 317. )]

[Footnote 50: Cicero (de Officiis, iii. 19) may state an ideal case, butSt. Am brose (de Officiis, iii. 2, ) appeals to the practice of his owntimes, which he understood as a lawyer and a magistrate, (Schultingad Ulpian, Fragment. Tit. Xxii. No. 28, p. 643, 644. ) * Note: Inthis passage the author has endeavored to collect all the examples ofjudicial formularies which he could find. That which he adduces as theform of cretio haereditatis is absolutely false. It is sufficient toglance at the passage in Cicero which he cites, to see that it has norelation to it. The author appeals to the opinion of Schulting, who, inthe passage quoted, himself protests against the ridiculous and absurdinterpretation of the passage in Cicero, and observes that Graevius hadalready well explained the real sense. See in Gaius the form of cretiohaereditatis Inst. L. Ii. P. 166. --W. ]

[Footnote 51: The furtum lance licioque conceptum was no longerunderstood in the time of the Antonines, (Aulus Gellius, xvi. 10. ) TheAttic derivation of Heineccius, (Antiquitat. Rom. L. Iv. Tit. I. No. 13--21) is supported by the evidence of Aristophanes, his scholiast, andPollux. * Note: Nothing more is known of this ceremony; neverthelesswe find that already in his own days Gaius turned it into ridicule. Hesays, (lib. Iii. Et p. 192, Sections 293, ) prohibiti actio quadrupliex edicto praetoris introducta est; lex autem eo nomine nullam poenamconstituit. Hoc solum praecepit, ut qui quaerere velit, nudus quaerat, linteo cinctus, lancem habens; qui si quid invenerit. Jubet id lexfurtum manifestum esse. Quid sit autem linteum? quaesitum est. Sedverius est consuti genus esse, quo necessariae partes tegerentur. Quarelex tota ridicula est. Nam qui vestitum quaerere prohibet, is et nudumquaerere prohibiturus est; eo magis, quod invenerit ibi imponat, neutrumeorum procedit, si id quod quaeratur, ejus magnitudinis aut naturaesit ut neque subjici, neque ibi imponi possit. Certe non dubitatur, cujuscunque materiae sit ea lanx, satis legi fieri. We see moreover, from this passage, that the basin, as most authors, resting onthe authority of Festus, have supposed, was not used to cover thefigure. --W. Gibbon says the face, though equally inaccurately. Thispassage of Gaius, I must observe, as well as others in M. Warnkonig'swork, is very inaccurately printed. --M. ]

[Footnote 52: In his Oration for Murena, (c. 9--13, ) Cicero turns intoridicule the forms and mysteries of the civilians, which are representedwith more candor by Aulus Gellius, (Noct. Attic. Xx. 10, ) Gravina, (Oppp. 265, 266, 267, ) and Heineccius, (Antiquitat. L. Iv. Tit. Vi. ) * Note:Gibbon had conceived opinions too decided against the forms of procedurein use among the Romans. Yet it is on these solemn forms that thecertainty of laws has been founded among all nations. Those of theRomans were very intimately allied with the ancient religion, andmust of necessity have disappeared as Rome attained a higher degreeof civilization. Have not modern nations, even the most civilized, overloaded their laws with a thousand forms, often absurd, almost alwaystrivial? How many examples are afforded by the English law! See, on thenature of these forms, the work of M. De Savigny on the Vocation of ourAge for Legislation and Jurisprudence, Heidelberg, 1814, p. 9, 10. --W. This work of M. Savigny has been translated into English by Mr. Hayward. --M. ]

A more liberal art was cultivated, however, by the sage of Rome, who, ina stricter sense, may be considered as the authors of the civil law. Thealteration of the idiom and manners of the Romans rendered the styleof the Twelve Tables less familiar to each rising generation, and thedoubtful passages were imperfectly explained by the study of legalantiquarians. To define the ambiguities, to circumscribe the latitude, to apply the principles, to extend the consequences, to reconcile thereal or apparent contradictions, was a much nobler and more importanttask; and the province of legislation was silently invaded by theexpounders of ancient statutes. Their subtle interpretations concurredwith the equity of the praetor, to reform the tyranny of the darkerages: however strange or intricate the means, it was the aim ofartificial jurisprudence to restore the simple dictates of nature andreason, and the skill of private citizens was usefully employed toundermine the public institutions of their country. [521] The revolutionof almost one thousand years, from the Twelve Tables to the reign ofJustinian, may be divided into three periods, almost equal in duration, and distinguished from each other by the mode of instruction and thecharacter of the civilians. [53] Pride and ignorance contributed, duringthe first period, to confine within narrow limits the science of theRoman law. On the public days of market or assembly, the masters of theart were seen walking in the forum ready to impart the needful adviceto the meanest of their fellow-citizens, from whose votes, on a futureoccasion, they might solicit a grateful return. As their years andhonors increased, they seated themselves at home on a chair or throne, to expect with patient gravity the visits of their clients, who at thedawn of day, from the town and country, began to thunder at their door. The duties of social life, and the incidents of judicial proceeding, were the ordinary subject of these consultations, and the verbal orwritten opinion of the juris-consults was framed according to the rulesof prudence and law. The youths of their own order and family werepermitted to listen; their children enjoyed the benefit of more privatelessons, and the Mucian race was long renowned for the hereditaryknowledge of the civil law. The second period, the learned and splendidage of jurisprudence, may be extended from the birth of Cicero tothe reign of Severus Alexander. A system was formed, schools wereinstituted, books were composed, and both the living and the dead becamesubservient to the instruction of the student. The tripartite of AeliusPaetus, surnamed Catus, or the Cunning, was preserved as the oldest workof Jurisprudence. Cato the censor derived some additional fame from hislegal studies, and those of his son: the kindred appellation of MuciusScaevola was illustrated by three sages of the law; but the perfectionof the science was ascribed to Servius Sulpicius, their disciple, andthe friend of Tully; and the long succession, which shone with equallustre under the republic and under the Caesars, is finally closed bythe respectable characters of Papinian, of Paul, and of Ulpian. Theirnames, and the various titles of their productions, have been minutelypreserved, and the example of Labeo may suggest some idea of theirdiligence and fecundity. That eminent lawyer of the Augustan age dividedthe year between the city and country, between business and composition;and four hundred books are enumerated as the fruit of his retirement. Ofthe collection of his rival Capito, the two hundred and fifty-ninth bookis expressly quoted; and few teachers could deliver their opinions inless than a century of volumes. In the third period, between the reignsof Alexander and Justinian, the oracles of jurisprudence were almostmute. The measure of curiosity had been filled: the throne was occupiedby tyrants and Barbarians, the active spirits were diverted by religiousdisputes, and the professors of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus, were humbly content to repeat the lessons of their more enlightenedpredecessors. From the slow advances and rapid decay of these legalstudies, it may be inferred, that they require a state of peace andrefinement. From the multitude of voluminous civilians who fill theintermediate space, it is evident that such studies may be pursued, and such works may be performed, with a common share of judgment, experience, and industry. The genius of Cicero and Virgil was moresensibly felt, as each revolving age had been found incapable ofproducing a similar or a second: but the most eminent teachers of thelaw were assured of leaving disciples equal or superior to themselves inmerit and reputation. 

[Footnote 521: Compare, on the Responsa Prudentum, Warnkonig, HistoireExterne du Droit Romain Bruxelles, 1836, p. 122. --M. ]

[Footnote 53: The series of the civil lawyers is deduced by Pomponius, (de Origine Juris Pandect. L. I. Tit. Ii. ) The moderns have discussed, with learning and criticism, this branch of literary history; and amongthese I have chiefly been guided by Gravina (p. 41--79) and Hei neccius, (Hist. J. R. No. 113-351. ) Cicero, more especially in his books deOratore, de Claris Oratoribus, de Legibus, and the Clavie Ciceronianaof Ernesti (under the names of Mucius, &c. ) afford much genuine andpleasing information. Horace often alludes to the morning labors of thecivilians, (Serm. I. I. 10, Epist. II. I. 103, &c)

 Agricolam laudat juris legumque peritus Sub galli cantum, consultor ubi ostia pulsat. ------------ Romae dulce diu fuit et solemne, reclusa Mane domo vigilare, clienti promere jura. 

* Note: It is particularly in this division of the history ofthe Roman jurisprudence into epochs, that Gibbon displays his profoundknowledge of the laws of this people. M. Hugo, adopting this division, prefaced these three periods with the history of the times anterior tothe Law of the Twelve Tables, which are, as it were, the infancy of theRoman law. --W]

The jurisprudence which had been grossly adapted to the wants of thefirst Romans, was polished and improved in the seventh century of thecity, by the alliance of Grecian philosophy. The Scaevolas had beentaught by use and experience; but Servius Sulpicius [5311] was the firstcivilian who established his art on a certain and general theory. [54]For the discernment of truth and falsehood he applied, as an infalliblerule, the logic of Aristotle and the stoics, reduced particular casesto general principles, and diffused over the shapeless mass the light oforder and eloquence. Cicero, his contemporary and friend, declined thereputation of a professed lawyer; but the jurisprudence of his countrywas adorned by his incomparable genius, which converts into gold everyobject that it touches. After the example of Plato, he composed arepublic; and, for the use of his republic, a treatise of laws; in whichhe labors to deduce from a celestial origin the wisdom and justice ofthe Roman constitution. The whole universe, according to his sublimehypothesis, forms one immense commonwealth: gods and men, whoparticipate of the same essence, are members of the same community;reason prescribes the law of nature and nations; and all positiveinstitutions, however modified by accident or custom, are drawn fromthe rule of right, which the Deity has inscribed on every virtuous mind. From these philosophical mysteries, he mildly excludes the scepticswho refuse to believe, and the epicureans who are unwilling to act. Thelatter disdain the care of the republic: he advises them to slumber intheir shady gardens. But he humbly entreats that the new academy wouldbe silent, since her bold objections would too soon destroy the fair andwell ordered structure of his lofty system. [55] Plato, Aristotle, andZeno, he represents as the only teachers who arm and instruct a citizenfor the duties of social life. Of these, the armor of the stoics [56]was found to be of the firmest temper; and it was chiefly worn, both foruse and ornament, in the schools of jurisprudence. From the portico, theRoman civilians learned to live, to reason, and to die: but they imbibedin some degree the prejudices of the sect; the love of paradox, thepertinacious habits of dispute, and a minute attachment to words andverbal distinctions. The superiority of form to matter was introducedto ascertain the right of property: and the equality of crimes iscountenanced by an opinion of Trebatius, [57] that he who touches theear, touches the whole body; and that he who steals from a heap of corn, or a hogshead of wine, is guilty of the entire theft. [58]

[Footnote 5311: M. Hugo thinks that the ingenious system of theInstitutes adopted by a great number of the ancient lawyers, and byJustinian himself, dates from Severus Sulpicius. Hist du Droit Romain, vol. Iii. P. 119. --W. ]

[Footnote 54: Crassus, or rather Cicero himself, proposes (de Oratore, i. 41, 42) an idea of the art or science of jurisprudence, which theeloquent, but illiterate, Antonius (i. 58) affects to deride. It waspartly executed by Servius Sulpicius, (in Bruto, c. 41, ) whose praisesare elegantly varied in the classic Latinity of the Roman Gravina, (p. 60. )]

[Footnote 55: Perturbatricem autem omnium harum rerum academiam, hanc abArcesila et Carneade recentem, exoremus ut sileat, nam si invaseritin haec, quae satis scite instructa et composita videantur, nimis edetruinas, quam quidem ego placare cupio, submovere non audeo. (de Legibus, i. 13. ) From this passage alone, Bentley (Remarks on Free-thinking, p. 250) might have learned how firmly Cicero believed in the speciousdoctrines which he has adorned. ]

[Footnote 56: The stoic philosophy was first taught at Rome byPanaetius, the friend of the younger Scipio, (see his life in the Mem. De l'Academis des Inscriptions, tom. X. P. 75--89. )]

[Footnote 57: As he is quoted by Ulpian, (leg. 40, 40, ad Sabinum inPandect. L. Xlvii. Tit. Ii. Leg. 21. ) Yet Trebatius, after he was aleading civilian, que qui familiam duxit, became an epicurean, (Ciceroad Fam. Vii. 5. ) Perhaps he was not constant or sincere in his new sect. * Note: Gibbon had entirely misunderstood this phrase of Cicero. It wasonly since his time that the real meaning of the author was apprehended. Cicero, in enumerating the qualifications of Trebatius, says, Acceditetiam, quod familiam ducit in jure civili, singularis memoria, summascientia, which means that Trebatius possessed a still further mostimportant qualification for a student of civil law, a remarkable memory, &c. This explanation, already conjectured by G. Menage, Amaenit. JurisCivilis, c. 14, is found in the dictionary of Scheller, v. Familia, andin the History of the Roman Law by M. Hugo. Many authors have asserted, without any proof sufficient to warrant the conjecture, that Trebatiuswas of the school of Epicurus--W. ]

[Footnote 58: See Gravina (p. 45--51) and the ineffectual cavilsof Mascou. Heineccius (Hist. J. R. No. 125) quotes and approves adissertation of Everard Otto, de Stoica Jurisconsultorum Philosophia. ]

Arms, eloquence, and the study of the civil law, promoted a citizen tothe honors of the Roman state; and the three professions weresometimes more conspicuous by their union in the same character. Inthe composition of the edict, a learned praetor gave a sanction andpreference to his private sentiments; the opinion of a censor, or acounsel, was entertained with respect; and a doubtful interpretation ofthe laws might be supported by the virtues or triumphs of the civilian. The patrician arts were long protected by the veil of mystery; and inmore enlightened times, the freedom of inquiry established the generalprinciples of jurisprudence. Subtile and intricate cases were elucidatedby the disputes of the forum: rules, axioms, and definitions, [59] wereadmitted as the genuine dictates of reason; and the consent of the legalprofessors was interwoven into the practice of the tribunals. But theseinterpreters could neither enact nor execute the laws of the republic;and the judges might disregard the authority of the Scaevolasthemselves, which was often overthrown by the eloquence or sophistryof an ingenious pleader. [60] Augustus and Tiberius were the firstto adopt, as a useful engine, the science of the civilians; and theirservile labors accommodated the old system to the spirit and views ofdespotism. Under the fair pretence of securing the dignity of the art, the privilege of subscribing legal and valid opinions was confined tothe sages of senatorian or equestrian rank, who had been previouslyapproved by the judgment of the prince; and this monopoly prevailed, till Adrian restored the freedom of the profession to every citizenconscious of his abilities and knowledge. The discretion of the praetorwas now governed by the lessons of his teachers; the judges wereenjoined to obey the comment as well as the text of the law; and the useof codicils was a memorable innovation, which Augustus ratified by theadvice of the civilians. [61] [6111]

[Footnote 59: We have heard of the Catonian rule, the Aquilianstipulation, and the Manilian forms, of 211 maxims, and of 247definitions, (Pandect. L. I. Tit. Xvi. Xvii. )]

[Footnote 60: Read Cicero, l. I. De Oratore, Topica, pro Murena. ]

[Footnote 61: See Pomponius, (de Origine Juris Pandect. L. I. Tit. Ii. Leg. 2, No 47, ) Heineccius, (ad Institut. L. I. Tit. Ii. No. 8, l. Ii. Tit. Xxv. In Element et Antiquitat. , ) and Gravina, (p. 41--45. ) Yet themonopoly of Augustus, a harsh measure, would appear with some softeningin contemporary evidence; and it was probably veiled by a decree of thesenate]

[Footnote 6111: The author here follows the then generally receivedopinion of Heineccius. The proofs which appear to confirm it are l. 247, D. I. 2, and 8. Instit. I. 2. The first of these passages speaksexpressly of a privilege granted to certain lawyers, until the time ofAdrian, publice respondendi jus ante Augusti tempora non dabatur. PrimusDivus ut major juris auctoritas haberetur, constituit, ut ex auctoritateejus responderent. The passage of the Institutes speaks of the differentopinions of those, quibus est permissum jura condere. It is true thatthe first of these passages does not say that the opinion of theseprivileged lawyers had the force of a law for the judges. For thisreason M. Hugo altogether rejects the opinion adopted by Heineccius, byBach, and in general by all the writers who preceded him. He conceivesthat the 8 of the Institutes referred to the constitution of ValentinianIII. , which regulated the respective authority to be ascribed to thedifferent writings of the great civilians. But we have now the followingpassage in the Institutes of Gaius: Responsa prudentum sunt sententiaeet opiniones eorum, quibus permissum est jura condere; quorum omniumsi in unum sententiae concorrupt, id quod ita sentiunt, legis vicemobtinet, si vero dissentiunt, judici licet, quam velit sententiamsequi, idque rescripto Divi Hadrian signiticatur. I do not know, how inopposition to this passage, the opinion of M. Hugo can be maintained. Wemust add to this the passage quoted from Pomponius and from such strongproofs, it seems incontestable that the emperors had granted some kindof privilege to certain civilians, quibus permissum erat jura condere. Their opinion had sometimes the force of law, legis vicem. M. Hugo, endeavoring to reconcile this phrase with his system, gives it a forcedinterpretation, which quite alters the sense; he supposes that thepassage contains no more than what is evident of itself, that theauthority of the civilians was to be respected, thus making a privilegeof that which was free to all the world. It appears to me almostindisputable, that the emperors had sanctioned certain provisionsrelative to the authority of these civilians, consulted by the judges. But how far was their advice to be respected? This is a questionwhich it is impossible to answer precisely, from the want of historicevidence. Is it not possible that the emperors established an authorityto be consulted by the judges? and in this case this authority must haveemanated from certain civilians named for this purpose by the emperors. See Hugo, l. C. Moreover, may not the passage of Suetonius, in the Lifeof Caligula, where he says that the emperor would no longer permitthe civilians to give their advice, mean that Caligula entertained thedesign of suppressing this institution? See on this passage the Themis, vol. Xi. P. 17, 36. Our author not being acquainted with the opinionsopposed to Heineccius has not gone to the bottom of the subject. --W. ]

The most absolute mandate could only require that the judges shouldagree with the civilians, if the civilians agreed among themselves. Butpositive institutions are often the result of custom and prejudice; lawsand language are ambiguous and arbitrary; where reason is incapable ofpronouncing, the love of argument is inflamed by the envy of rivals, the vanity of masters, the blind attachment of their disciples; andthe Roman jurisprudence was divided by the once famous sects of theProculians and Sabinians. [62] Two sages of the law, Ateius Capito andAntistius Labeo, [63] adorned the peace of the Augustan age; the formerdistinguished by the favor of his sovereign; the latter more illustriousby his contempt of that favor, and his stern though harmless oppositionto the tyrant of Rome. Their legal studies were influenced by thevarious colors of their temper and principles. Labeo was attached tothe form of the old republic; his rival embraced the more profitablesubstance of the rising monarchy. But the disposition of a courtieris tame and submissive; and Capito seldom presumed to deviate from thesentiments, or at least from the words, of his predecessors; while thebold republican pursued his independent ideas without fear of paradox orinnovations. The freedom of Labeo was enslaved, however, by the rigor ofhis own conclusions, and he decided, according to the letter of thelaw, the same questions which his indulgent competitor resolved witha latitude of equity more suitable to the common sense and feelingsof mankind. If a fair exchange had been substituted to the payment ofmoney, Capito still considered the transaction as a legal sale; [64]and he consulted nature for the age of puberty, without confining hisdefinition to the precise period of twelve or fourteen years. [65] Thisopposition of sentiments was propagated in the writings and lessonsof the two founders; the schools of Capito and Labeo maintained theirinveterate conflict from the age of Augustus to that of Adrian; [66]and the two sects derived their appellations from Sabinus and Proculus, their most celebrated teachers. The names of Cassians and Pegasians werelikewise applied to the same parties; but, by a strange reverse, the popular cause was in the hands of Pegasus, [67] a timid slave ofDomitian, while the favorite of the Caesars was represented by Cassius, [68] who gloried in his descent from the patriot assassin. By theperpetual edict, the controversies of the sects were in a great measuredetermined. For that important work, the emperor Adrian preferred thechief of the Sabinians: the friends of monarchy prevailed; but themoderation of Salvius Julian insensibly reconciled the victors and thevanquished. Like the contemporary philosophers, the lawyers of the ageof the Antonines disclaimed the authority of a master, and adopted fromevery system the most probable doctrines. [69] But their writings wouldhave been less voluminous, had their choice been more unanimous. Theconscience of the judge was perplexed by the number and weight ofdiscordant testimonies, and every sentence that his passion or interestmight pronounce was justified by the sanction of some venerable name. Anindulgent edict of the younger Theodosius excused him from the labor ofcomparing and weighing their arguments. Five civilians, Caius, Papinian, Paul, Ulpian, and Modestinus, were established as the oracles ofjurisprudence: a majority was decisive: but if their opinions wereequally divided, a casting vote was ascribed to the superior wisdom ofPapinian. [70]

[Footnote 62: I have perused the Diatribe of Gotfridus Mascovius, thelearned Mascou, de Sectis Jurisconsultorum, (Lipsiae, 1728, in 12mo. , p. 276, ) a learned treatise on a narrow and barren ground. ]

[Footnote 63: See the character of Antistius Labeo in Tacitus, (Annal. Iii. 75, ) and in an epistle of Ateius Capito, (Aul. Gellius, xiii. 12, )who accuses his rival of libertas nimia et vecors. Yet Horace would nothave lashed a virtuous and respectable senator; and I must adopt theemendation of Bentley, who reads Labieno insanior, (Serm. I. Iii. 82. )See Mascou, de Sectis, (c. I. P. 1--24. )]

[Footnote 64: Justinian (Institut. L. Iii. Tit. 23, and Theophil. Vers. Graec. P. 677, 680) has commemorated this weighty dispute, and theverses of Homer that were alleged on either side as legal authorities. It was decided by Paul, (leg. 33, ad Edict. In Pandect. L. Xviii. Tit. I. Leg. 1, ) since, in a simple exchange, the buyer could not bediscriminated from the seller. ]

[Footnote 65: This controversy was likewise given for the Proculians, tosupersede the indecency of a search, and to comply with the aphorism ofHippocrates, who was attached to the septenary number of two weeks ofyears, or 700 of days, (Institut. L. I. Tit. Xxii. ) Plutarch and theStoics (de Placit. Philosoph. L. V. C. 24) assign a more natural reason. Fourteen years is the age. See the vestigia of the sects in Mascou, c. Ix. P. 145--276. ]

[Footnote 66: The series and conclusion of the sects are described byMascou, (c. Ii. --vii. P. 24--120;) and it would be almost ridiculous topraise his equal justice to these obsolete sects. * Note: The workof Gaius, subsequent to the time of Adrian, furnishes us with someinformation on this subject. The disputes which rose between these twosects appear to have been very numerous. Gaius avows himself a discipleof Sabinus and of Caius. Compare Hugo, vol. Ii. P. 106. --W. ]

[Footnote 67: At the first summons he flies to the turbot-council;yet Juvenal (Satir. Iv. 75--81) styles the praefect or bailiff of Romesanctissimus legum interpres. From his science, says the old scholiast, he was called, not a man, but a book. He derived the singular name ofPegasus from the galley which his father commanded. ]

[Footnote 68: Tacit. Annal. Xvii. 7. Sueton. In Nerone, c. Xxxvii. ]

[Footnote 69: Mascou, de Sectis, c. Viii. P. 120--144 de Herciscundis, a legal term which was applied to these eclectic lawyers: herciscere issynonymous to dividere. * Note: This word has never existed. Cujaciusis the author of it, who read me words terris condi in Servius ad Virg. Herciscundi, to which he gave an erroneous interpretation. --W. ]

[Footnote 70: See the Theodosian Code, l. I. Tit. Iv. With Godefroy'sCommentary, tom. I. P. 30--35. [! This decree might give occasion toJesuitical disputes like those in the Lettres Provinciales, whether aJudge was obliged to follow the opinion of Papinian, or of a majority, against his judgment, against his conscience, &c. Yet a legislator mightgive that opinion, however false, the validity, not of truth, but oflaw. Note: We possess (since 1824) some interesting information as tothe framing of the Theodosian Code, and its ratification at Rome, in theyear 438. M. Closius, now professor at Dorpat in Russia, and M. Peyron, member of the Academy of Turin, have discovered, the one at Milan, theother at Turin, a great part of the five first books of the Code whichwere wanting, and besides this, the reports (gesta) of the sitting ofthe senate at Rome, in which the Code was published, in the yearafter the marriage of Valentinian III. Among these pieces are theconstitutions which nominate commissioners for the formation of theCode; and though there are many points of considerable obscurityin these documents, they communicate many facts relative to thislegislation. 1. That Theodosius designed a great reform in thelegislation; to add to the Gregorian and Hermogenian codes all the newconstitutions from Constantine to his own day; and to frame a secondcode for common use with extracts from the three codes, and from theworks of the civil lawyers. All laws either abrogated or fallen intodisuse were to be noted under their proper heads. 2. An Ordinance wasissued in 429 to form a commission for this purpose of nine persons, of which Antiochus, as quaestor and praefectus, was president. Asecond commission of sixteen members was issued in 435 under thesame president. 3. A code, which we possess under the name of CodexTheodosianus, was finished in 438, published in the East, in anordinance addressed to the Praetorian praefect, Florentinus, andintended to be published in the West. 4. Before it was published in theWest, Valentinian submitted it to the senate. There is a report ofthe proceedings of the senate, which closed with loud acclamations andgratulations. --From Warnkonig, Histoire du Droit Romain, p. 169-Wenckhas published this work, Codicis Theodosiani libri priores. Leipzig, 1825. --M. ] * Note *: Closius of Tubingen communicated to M. Warnkonigthe two following constitutions of the emperor Constantine, which hediscovered in the Ambrosian library at Milan:-- 1. Imper. ConstantinusAug. Ad Maximium Praef. Praetorio. Perpetuas prudentum contentioneseruere cupientes, Ulpiani ac Pauli, in Papinianum notas, qui dum ingeniilaudem sectantur, non tam corrigere eum quam depravere maluerunt, aboleri praecepimus. Dat. III. Kalend. Octob. Const. Cons. Et Crispi, (321. ) Idem. Aug. Ad Maximium Praef Praet. Universa, quae scripturaPauli continentur, recepta auctoritate firmanda runt, et omniveneratione celebranda. Ideoque sententiarum libros plepissima luceet perfectissima elocutione et justissima juris ratione succinctos injudiciis prolatos valere minimie dubitatur. Dat. V. Kalend. Oct. TroviaCoust. Et Max. Coss. (327. )--W]

Chapter XLIV: Idea Of The Roman Jurisprudence. --Part IV. 

When Justinian ascended the throne, the reformation of the Romanjurisprudence was an arduous but indispensable task. In the space of tencenturies, the infinite variety of laws and legal opinions had filledmany thousand volumes, which no fortune could purchase and no capacitycould digest. Books could not easily be found; and the judges, poor inthe midst of riches, were reduced to the exercise of their illiteratediscretion. The subjects of the Greek provinces were ignorant of thelanguage that disposed of their lives and properties; and the barbarousdialect of the Latins was imperfectly studied in the academies ofBerytus and Constantinople. As an Illyrian soldier, that idiom wasfamiliar to the infancy of Justinian; his youth had been instructed bythe lessons of jurisprudence, and his Imperial choice selected the mostlearned civilians of the East, to labor with their sovereign in thework of reformation. [71] The theory of professors was assisted by thepractice of advocates, and the experience of magistrates; and thewhole undertaking was animated by the spirit of Tribonian. [72] Thisextraordinary man, the object of so much praise and censure, wasa native of Side in Pamphylia; and his genius, like that of Bacon, embraced, as his own, all the business and knowledge of the age. Tribonian composed, both in prose and verse, on a strange diversity ofcurious and abstruse subjects: [73] a double panegyric of Justinian andthe life of the philosopher Theodotus; the nature of happiness and theduties of government; Homer's catalogue and the four-and-twenty sorts ofmetre; the astronomical canon of Ptolemy; the changes of the months;the houses of the planets; and the harmonic system of the world. To theliterature of Greece he added the use of the Latin tonque; the Romancivilians were deposited in his library and in his mind; and he mostassiduously cultivated those arts which opened the road of wealth andpreferment. From the bar of the Praetorian praefects, he raised himselfto the honors of quaestor, of consul, and of master of the offices: thecouncil of Justinian listened to his eloquence and wisdom; and envywas mitigated by the gentleness and affability of his manners. Thereproaches of impiety and avarice have stained the virtue or thereputation of Tribonian. In a bigoted and persecuting court, theprincipal minister was accused of a secret aversion to the Christianfaith, and was supposed to entertain the sentiments of an Atheist anda Pagan, which have been imputed, inconsistently enough, to the lastphilosophers of Greece. His avarice was more clearly proved and moresensibly felt. If he were swayed by gifts in the administration ofjustice, the example of Bacon will again occur; nor can the merit ofTribonian atone for his baseness, if he degraded the sanctity of hisprofession; and if laws were every day enacted, modified, or repealed, for the base consideration of his private emolument. In the sedition ofConstantinople, his removal was granted to the clamors, perhaps to thejust indignation, of the people: but the quaestor was speedily restored, and, till the hour of his death, he possessed, above twenty years, thefavor and confidence of the emperor. His passive and dutiful submissionhad been honored with the praise of Justinian himself, whose vanity wasincapable of discerning how often that submission degenerated into thegrossest adulation. Tribonian adored the virtues of his gracious ofhis gracious master; the earth was unworthy of such a prince; and heaffected a pious fear, that Justinian, like Elijah or Romulus, would besnatched into the air, and translated alive to the mansions of celestialglory. [74]

[Footnote 71: For the legal labors of Justinian, I have studied thePreface to the Institutes; the 1st, 2d, and 3d Prefaces to the Pandects;the 1st and 2d Preface to the Code; and the Code itself, (l. I. Tit. Xvii. De Veteri Jure enucleando. ) After these original testimonies, I have consulted, among the moderns, Heineccius, (Hist. J. R. No. 383--404, ) Terasson. (Hist. De la Jurisprudence Romaine, p. 295--356, )Gravina, (Opp. P. 93-100, ) and Ludewig, in his Life of Justinian, (p. 19--123, 318-321; for the Code and Novels, p. 209--261; for theDigest or Pandects, p. 262--317. )]

[Footnote 72: For the character of Tribonian, see the testimonies ofProcopius, (Persic. L. I. C. 23, 24. Anecdot. C. 13, 20, ) and Suidas, (tom. Iii. P. 501, edit. Kuster. ) Ludewig (in Vit. Justinian, p. 175--209) works hard, very hard, to whitewash--the blackamoor. ]

[Footnote 73: I apply the two passages of Suidas to the same man; everycircumstance so exactly tallies. Yet the lawyers appear ignorant; andFabricius is inclined to separate the two characters, (Bibliot. Grae. Tom. I. P. 341, ii. P. 518, iii. P. 418, xii. P. 346, 353, 474. )]

[Footnote 74: This story is related by Hesychius, (de VirisIllustribus, ) Procopius, (Anecdot. C. 13, ) and Suidas, (tom. Iii. P. 501. ) Such flattery is incredible! --Nihil est quod credere de se Nonpossit, cum laudatur Diis aequa potestas. Fontenelle (tom. I. P. 32--39) has ridiculed the impudence of the modest Virgil. But the sameFontenelle places his king above the divine Augustus; and the sageBoileau has not blushed to say, "Le destin a ses yeux n'oseroitbalancer" Yet neither Augustus nor Louis XIV. Were fools. ]

If Caesar had achieved the reformation of the Roman law, his creativegenius, enlightened by reflection and study, would have given to theworld a pure and original system of jurisprudence. Whatever flatterymight suggest, the emperor of the East was afraid to establish hisprivate judgment as the standard of equity: in the possession oflegislative power, he borrowed the aid of time and opinion; and hislaborious compilations are guarded by the sages and legislature of pasttimes. Instead of a statue cast in a simple mould by the hand of anartist, the works of Justinian represent a tessellated pavement ofantique and costly, but too often of incoherent, fragments. In the firstyear of his reign, he directed the faithful Tribonian, and nine learnedassociates, to revise the ordinances of his predecessors, as they werecontained, since the time of Adrian, in the Gregorian Hermogenian, andTheodosian codes; to purge the errors and contradictions, to retrenchwhatever was obsolete or superfluous, and to select the wise andsalutary laws best adapted to the practice of the tribunals and the useof his subjects. The work was accomplished in fourteen months; andthe twelve books or tables, which the new decemvirs produced, might bedesigned to imitate the labors of their Roman predecessors. The newCode of Justinian was honored with his name, and confirmed by his royalsignature: authentic transcripts were multiplied by the pens of notariesand scribes; they were transmitted to the magistrates of the European, the Asiatic, and afterwards the African provinces; and the law of theempire was proclaimed on solemn festivals at the doors of churches. A more arduous operation was still behind--to extract the spirit ofjurisprudence from the decisions and conjectures, the questions anddisputes, of the Roman civilians. Seventeen lawyers, with Tribonianat their head, were appointed by the emperor to exercise an absolutejurisdiction over the works of their predecessors. If they had obeyedhis commands in ten years, Justinian would have been satisfied withtheir diligence; and the rapid composition of the Digest of Pandects, [75] in three years, will deserve praise or censure, according to themerit of the execution. From the library of Tribonian, they chose forty, the most eminent civilians of former times: [76] two thousand treatiseswere comprised in an abridgment of fifty books; and it has beencarefully recorded, that three millions of lines or sentences, [77] werereduced, in this abstract, to the moderate number of one hundred andfifty thousand. The edition of this great work was delayed a monthafter that of the Institutes; and it seemed reasonable that the elementsshould precede the digest of the Roman law. As soon as the emperorhad approved their labors, he ratified, by his legislative power, thespeculations of these private citizens: their commentaries, on thetwelve tables, the perpetual edict, the laws of the people, and thedecrees of the senate, succeeded to the authority of the text; and thetext was abandoned, as a useless, though venerable, relic of antiquity. The Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes, were declared to be thelegitimate system of civil jurisprudence; they alone were admitted intothe tribunals, and they alone were taught in the academies of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus. Justinian addressed to the senate andprovinces his eternal oracles; and his pride, under the mask of piety, ascribed the consummation of this great design to the support andinspiration of the Deity. 

[Footnote 75: General receivers was a common title of the Greekmiscellanies, (Plin. Praefat. Ad Hist. Natur. ) The Digesta of Scaevola, Marcellinus, Celsus, were already familiar to the civilians: butJustinian was in the wrong when he used the two appellations assynonymous. Is the word Pandects Greek or Latin--masculine or feminine?The diligent Brenckman will not presume to decide these momentouscontroversies, (Hist. Pandect. Florentine. P. 200--304. ) Note: The wordwas formerly in common use. See the preface is Aulus Gellius--W]

[Footnote 76: Angelus Politianus (l. V. Epist. Ult. ) reckonsthirty-seven (p. 192--200) civilians quoted in the Pandects--a learned, and for his times, an extraordinary list. The Greek index to thePandects enumerates thirty-nine, and forty are produced by theindefatigable Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Iii. P. 488--502. )Antoninus Augustus (de Nominibus Propriis Pandect. Apud Ludewig, p. 283) is said to have added fifty-four names; but they must be vague orsecond-hand references. ]

[Footnote 77: The item of the ancient Mss. May be strictly defined assentences or periods of a complete sense, which, on the breadth of theparchment rolls or volumes, composed as many lines of unequal length. The number in each book served as a check on the errors of the scribes, (Ludewig, p. 211--215; and his original author Suicer. Thesaur. Ecclesiast. Tom. I. P 1021-1036). ]

Since the emperor declined the fame and envy of original composition, wecan only require, at his hands, method choice, and fidelity, thehumble, though indispensable, virtues of a compiler. Among the variouscombinations of ideas, it is difficult to assign any reasonablepreference; but as the order of Justinian is different in his threeworks, it is possible that all may be wrong; and it is certain thattwo cannot be right. In the selection of ancient laws, he seems to haveviewed his predecessors without jealousy, and with equal regard: theseries could not ascend above the reign of Adrian, and the narrowdistinction of Paganism and Christianity, introduced by the superstitionof Theodosius, had been abolished by the consent of mankind. But thejurisprudence of the Pandects is circumscribed within a period ofa hundred years, from the perpetual edict to the death of SeverusAlexander: the civilians who lived under the first Caesars are seldompermitted to speak, and only three names can be attributed to the age ofthe republic. The favorite of Justinian (it has been fiercely urged) wasfearful of encountering the light of freedom and the gravity of Romansages. 

Tribonian condemned to oblivion the genuine and native wisdom of Cato, the Scaevolas, and Sulpicius; while he invoked spirits more congenial tohis own, the Syrians, Greeks, and Africans, who flocked to the Imperialcourt to study Latin as a foreign tongue, and jurisprudence as alucrative profession. But the ministers of Justinian, [78] wereinstructed to labor, not for the curiosity of antiquarians, but forthe immediate benefit of his subjects. It was their duty to select theuseful and practical parts of the Roman law; and the writings of the oldrepublicans, however curious on excellent, were no longer suited tothe new system of manners, religion, and government. Perhaps, if thepreceptors and friends of Cicero were still alive, our candor wouldacknowledge, that, except in purity of language, [79] their intrinsicmerit was excelled by the school of Papinian and Ulpian. The science ofthe laws is the slow growth of time and experience, and the advantageboth of method and materials, is naturally assumed by the most recentauthors. The civilians of the reign of the Antonines had studied theworks of their predecessors: their philosophic spirit had mitigated therigor of antiquity, simplified the forms of proceeding, and emergedfrom the jealousy and prejudice of the rival sects. The choice ofthe authorities that compose the Pandects depended on the judgment ofTribonian: but the power of his sovereign could not absolve him fromthe sacred obligations of truth and fidelity. As the legislator of theempire, Justinian might repeal the acts of the Antonines, or condemn, asseditious, the free principles, which were maintained by the last of theRoman lawyers. [80] But the existence of past facts is placed beyondthe reach of despotism; and the emperor was guilty of fraud and forgery, when he corrupted the integrity of their text, inscribed with theirvenerable names the words and ideas of his servile reign, [81] andsuppressed, by the hand of power, the pure and authentic copies oftheir sentiments. The changes and interpolations of Tribonian and hiscolleagues are excused by the pretence of uniformity: but their careshave been insufficient, and the antinomies, or contradictions of theCode and Pandects, still exercise the patience and subtilty of moderncivilians. [82]

[Footnote 78: An ingenious and learned oration of Schultingius(Jurisprudentia Ante-Justinianea, p. 883--907) justifies the choice ofTribonian, against the passionate charges of Francis Hottoman and hissectaries. ]

[Footnote 79: Strip away the crust of Tribonian, and allow for the useof technical words, and the Latin of the Pandects will be foundnot unworthy of the silver age. It has been vehemently attacked byLaurentius Valla, a fastidious grammarian of the xvth century, and byhis apologist Floridus Sabinus. It has been defended by Alciat, anda name less advocate, (most probably James Capellus. ) Their varioustreatises are collected by Duker, (Opuscula de Latinitate veterumJurisconsultorum, Lugd. Bat. 1721, in 12mo. ) Note: Gibbon is mistakenwith regard to Valla, who, though he inveighs against the barbarousstyle of the civilians of his own day, lavishes the highest praise onthe admirable purity of the language of the ancient writers on civillaw. (M. Warnkonig quotes a long passage of Valla in justification ofthis observation. ) Since his time, this truth has been recognized bymen of the highest eminence, such as Erasmus, David Hume andRunkhenius. --W. ]

[Footnote 80: Nomina quidem veteribus servavimus, legum autem veritatemnostram fecimus. Itaque siquid erat in illis seditiosum, multa autemtalia erant ibi reposita, hoc decisum est et definitum, et in perspicuumfinem deducta est quaeque lex, (Cod. Justinian. L. I. Tit. Xvii. Leg. 3, No 10. ) A frank confession! * Note: Seditiosum, in the language ofJustinian, means not seditious, but discounted. --W. ]

[Footnote 81: The number of these emblemata (a polite name forforgeries) is much reduced by Bynkershoek, (in the four last books ofhis Observations, ) who poorly maintains the right of Justinian and theduty of Tribonian. ]

[Footnote 82: The antinomies, or opposite laws of the Code andPandects, are sometimes the cause, and often the excuse, of the gloriousuncertainty of the civil law, which so often affords what Montaignecalls "Questions pour l'Ami. " See a fine passage of Franciscus Balduinusin Justinian, (l. Ii. P. 259, &c. , apud Ludewig, p. 305, 306. )]

A rumor devoid of evidence has been propagated by the enemies ofJustinian; that the jurisprudence of ancient Rome was reduced to ashesby the author of the Pandects, from the vain persuasion, that it was noweither false or superfluous. Without usurping an office soinvidious, the emperor might safely commit to ignorance and time theaccomplishments of this destructive wish. Before the invention ofprinting and paper, the labor and the materials of writing could bepurchased only by the rich; and it may reasonably be computed, that theprice of books was a hundred fold their present value. [83] Copies wereslowly multiplied and cautiously renewed: the hopes of profit temptedthe sacrilegious scribes to erase the characters of antiquity, [8311]and Sophocles or Tacitus were obliged to resign the parchment tomissals, homilies, and the golden legend. [84] If such was the fateof the most beautiful compositions of genius, what stability could beexpected for the dull and barren works of an obsolete science? The booksof jurisprudence were interesting to few, and entertaining to none:their value was connected with present use, and they sunk forever assoon as that use was superseded by the innovations of fashion, superiormerit, or public authority. In the age of peace and learning, betweenCicero and the last of the Antonines, many losses had been alreadysustained, and some luminaries of the school, or forum, were known onlyto the curious by tradition and report. Three hundred and sixty yearsof disorder and decay accelerated the progress of oblivion; and it mayfairly be presumed, that of the writings, which Justinian is accusedof neglecting, many were no longer to be found in the libraries of theEast. [85] The copies of Papinian, or Ulpian, which the reformer hadproscribed, were deemed unworthy of future notice: the Twelve Tables andpraetorian edicts insensibly vanished, and the monuments of ancient Romewere neglected or destroyed by the envy and ignorance of the Greeks. Even the Pandects themselves have escaped with difficulty and dangerfrom the common shipwreck, and criticism has pronounced that all theeditions and manuscripts of the West are derived from one original. [86]It was transcribed at Constantinople in the beginning of the seventhcentury, [87] was successively transported by the accidents of warand commerce to Amalphi, [88] Pisa, [89] and Florence, [90] and is nowdeposited as a sacred relic [91] in the ancient palace of the republic. [92]

[Footnote 83: When Faust, or Faustus, sold at Paris his first printedBibles as manuscripts, the price of a parchment copy was reduced fromfour or five hundred to sixty, fifty, and forty crowns. The publicwas at first pleased with the cheapness, and at length provoked by thediscovery of the fraud, (Mattaire, Annal. Typograph. Tom. I. P. 12;first edit. )]

[Footnote 8311: Among the works which have been recovered, by thepersevering and successful endeavors of M. Mai and his followers totrace the imperfectly erased characters of the ancient writers on thesePalimpsests, Gibbon at this period of his labors would have hailed withdelight the recovery of the Institutes of Gaius, and the fragments ofthe Theodosian Code, published by M Keyron of Turin. --M. ]

[Footnote 84: This execrable practice prevailed from the viiith, andmore especially from the xiith, century, when it became almost universal(Montfaucon, in the Memoires de l'Academie, tom. Vi. P. 606, &c. Bibliotheque Raisonnee de la Diplomatique, tom. I. P. 176. )]

[Footnote 85: Pomponius (Pandect. L. I. Tit. Ii. Leg. 2) observes, thatof the three founders of the civil law, Mucius, Brutus, and Manilius, extant volumina, scripta Manilii monumenta; that of some old republicanlawyers, haec versantur eorum scripta inter manus hominum. Eight of theAugustan sages were reduced to a compendium: of Cascellius, scripta nonextant sed unus liber, &c. ; of Trebatius, minus frequentatur; of Tubero, libri parum grati sunt. Many quotations in the Pandects are derived frombooks which Tribonian never saw; and in the long period from the viithto the xiiith century of Rome, the apparent reading of the modernssuccessively depends on the knowledge and veracity of theirpredecessors. ]

[Footnote 86: All, in several instances, repeat the errors of the scribeand the transpositions of some leaves in the Florentine Pandects. Thisfact, if it be true, is decisive. Yet the Pandects are quoted by Ivo ofChartres, (who died in 1117, ) by Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, andby Vacarius, our first professor, in the year 1140, (Selden ad Fletam, c. 7, tom. Ii. P. 1080--1085. ) Have our British Mss. Of the Pandectsbeen collated?]

[Footnote 87: See the description of this original in Brenckman, (Hist. Pandect. Florent. L. I. C. 2, 3, p. 4--17, and l. Ii. ) Politian, anenthusiast, revered it as the authentic standard of Justinian himself, (p. 407, 408;) but this paradox is refuted by the abbreviations of theFlorentine Ms. (l. Ii. C. 3, p. 117-130. ) It is composed of twoquarto volumes, with large margins, on a thin parchment, and the Latincharacters betray the band of a Greek scribe. ]

[Footnote 88: Brenckman, at the end of his history, has inserted twodissertations on the republic of Amalphi, and the Pisan war in the year1135, &c. ]

[Footnote 89: The discovery of the Pandects at Amalphi (A. D 1137) isfirst noticed (in 1501) by Ludovicus Bologninus, (Brenckman, l. I. C. 11, p. 73, 74, l. Iv. C. 2, p. 417--425, ) on the faith of a Pisanchronicle, (p. 409, 410, ) without a name or a date. The whole story, though unknown to the xiith century, embellished by ignorant ages, and suspected by rigid criticism, is not, however, destitute of muchinternal probability, (l. I. C. 4--8, p. 17--50. ) The Liber Pandectarumof Pisa was undoubtedly consulted in the xivth century by the greatBartolus, (p. 406, 407. See l. I. C. 9, p. 50--62. ) Note: Savigny (vol. Iii. P. 83, 89) examines and rejects the whole story. See likewiseHallam vol. Iii. P. 514. --M. ]

[Footnote 90: Pisa was taken by the Florentines in the year 1406; andin 1411 the Pandects were transported to the capital. These events areauthentic and famous. ]

[Footnote 91: They were new bound in purple, deposited in a rich casket, and shown to curious travellers by the monks and magistrates bareheaded, and with lighted tapers, (Brenckman, l. I. C. 10, 11, 12, p. 62--93. )]

[Footnote 92: After the collations of Politian, Bologninus, andAntoninus Augustinus, and the splendid edition of the Pandectsby Taurellus, (in 1551, ) Henry Brenckman, a Dutchman, undertook apilgrimage to Florence, where he employed several years in the study ofa single manuscript. His Historia Pandectarum Florentinorum, (Utrecht, 1722, in 4to. , ) though a monument of industry, is a small portion of hisoriginal design. ]

It is the first care of a reformer to prevent any future reformation. Tomaintain the text of the Pandects, the Institutes, and the Code, the useof ciphers and abbreviations was rigorously proscribed; and as Justinianrecollected, that the perpetual edict had been buried under the weightof commentators, he denounced the punishment of forgery against the rashcivilians who should presume to interpret or pervert the will of theirsovereign. The scholars of Accursius, of Bartolus, of Cujacius, shouldblush for their accumulated guilt, unless they dare to dispute his rightof binding the authority of his successors, and the native freedom ofthe mind. But the emperor was unable to fix his own inconstancy; and, while he boasted of renewing the exchange of Diomede, of transmutingbrass into gold, [93] discovered the necessity of purifying his goldfrom the mixture of baser alloy. Six years had not elapsed from thepublication of the Code, before he condemned the imperfect attempt, bya new and more accurate edition of the same work; which he enriched withtwo hundred of his own laws, and fifty decisions of the darkest andmost intricate points of jurisprudence. Every year, or, accordingto Procopius, each day, of his long reign, was marked by some legalinnovation. Many of his acts were rescinded by himself; many wererejected by his successors; many have been obliterated by time; but thenumber of sixteen Edicts, and one hundred and sixty-eight Novels, [94]has been admitted into the authentic body of the civil jurisprudence. In the opinion of a philosopher superior to the prejudices ofhis profession, these incessant, and, for the most part, triflingalterations, can be only explained by the venal spirit of a prince, whosold without shame his judgments and his laws. [95] The charge of thesecret historian is indeed explicit and vehement; but the sole instance, which he produces, may be ascribed to the devotion as well as to theavarice of Justinian. A wealthy bigot had bequeathed his inheritance tothe church of Emesa; and its value was enhanced by the dexterity of anartist, who subscribed confessions of debt and promises of paymentwith the names of the richest Syrians. They pleaded the establishedprescription of thirty or forty years; but their defence was overruledby a retrospective edict, which extended the claims of the church tothe term of a century; an edict so pregnant with injustice and disorder, that, after serving this occasional purpose, it was prudently abolishedin the same reign. [96] If candor will acquit the emperor himself, andtransfer the corruption to his wife and favorites, the suspicion ofso foul a vice must still degrade the majesty of his laws; and theadvocates of Justinian may acknowledge, that such levity, whatsoever bethe motive, is unworthy of a legislator and a man. 

[Footnote 93: Apud Homerum patrem omnis virtutis, (1st Praefat. AdPandect. ) A line of Milton or Tasso would surprise us in an act ofparliament. Quae omnia obtinere sancimus in omne aevum. Of the firstCode, he says, (2d Praefat. , ) in aeternum valiturum. Man and forever!]

[Footnote 94: Novellae is a classic adjective, but a barbaroussubstantive, (Ludewig, p. 245. ) Justinian never collected them himself;the nine collations, the legal standard of modern tribunals, consist ofninety-eight Novels; but the number was increased by the diligence ofJulian, Haloander, and Contius, (Ludewig, p. 249, 258 Aleman. Not inAnecdot. P. 98. )]

[Footnote 95: Montesquieu, Considerations sur la Grandeur et laDecadence des Romains, c. 20, tom. Iii. P. 501, in 4to. On this occasionhe throws aside the gown and cap of a President a Mortier. ]

[Footnote 96: Procopius, Anecdot. C. 28. A similar privilege was grantedto the church of Rome, (Novel. Ix. ) For the general repeal of thesemischievous indulgences, see Novel. Cxi. And Edict. V. ]

Monarchs seldom condescend to become the preceptors of their subjects;and some praise is due to Justinian, by whose command an ample systemwas reduced to a short and elementary treatise. Among the variousinstitutes of the Roman law, [97] those of Caius [98] were the mostpopular in the East and West; and their use may be considered as anevidence of their merit. They were selected by the Imperial delegates, Tribonian, Theophilus, and Dorotheus; and the freedom and purity of theAntonines was incrusted with the coarser materials of a degenerate age. The same volume which introduced the youth of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus, to the gradual study of the Code and Pandects, is stillprecious to the historian, the philosopher, and the magistrate. TheInstitutes of Justinian are divided into four books: they proceed, with no contemptible method, from, I. Persons, to, II. Things, and fromthings, to, III. Actions; and the article IV. , of Private Wrongs, isterminated by the principles of Criminal Law. [9811]

[Footnote 97: Lactantius, in his Institutes of Christianity, an elegantand specious work, proposes to imitate the title and method of thecivilians. Quidam prudentes et arbitri aequitatis Institutiones CivilisJuris compositas ediderunt, (Institut. Divin. L. I. C. 1. ) Such asUlpian, Paul, Florentinus, Marcian. ]

[Footnote 98: The emperor Justinian calls him suum, though he diedbefore the end of the second century. His Institutes are quoted byServius, Boethius, Priscian, &c. ; and the Epitome by Arrian is stillextant. (See the Prolegomena and notes to the edition of Schulting, inthe Jurisprudentia Ante-Justinianea, Lugd. Bat. 1717. Heineccius, Hist. J R No. 313. Ludewig, in Vit. Just. P. 199. )]

[Footnote 9811: Gibbon, dividing the Institutes into four parts, considers the appendix of the criminal law in the last title as a fourthpart. --W. ]

Chapter XLIV: Idea Of The Roman Jurisprudence. --Part V. 

The distinction of ranks and persons is the firmest basis of a mixed andlimited government. In France, the remains of liberty are kept aliveby the spirit, the honors, and even the prejudices, of fifty thousandnobles. [99] Two hundred families [9911] supply, in lineal descent, thesecond branch of English legislature, which maintains, between the kingand commons, the balance of the constitution. A gradation of patriciansand plebeians, of strangers and subjects, has supported the aristocracyof Genoa, Venice, and ancient Rome. The perfect equality of men is thepoint in which the extremes of democracy and despotism are confounded;since the majesty of the prince or people would be offended, ifany heads were exalted above the level of their fellow-slaves orfellow-citizens. In the decline of the Roman empire, the prouddistinctions of the republic were gradually abolished, and the reason orinstinct of Justinian completed the simple form of an absolute monarchy. The emperor could not eradicate the popular reverence which alwayswaits on the possession of hereditary wealth, or the memory of famousancestors. He delighted to honor, with titles and emoluments, hisgenerals, magistrates, and senators; and his precarious indulgencecommunicated some rays of their glory to the persons of their wives andchildren. But in the eye of the law, all Roman citizens were equal, and all subjects of the empire were citizens of Rome. That inestimablecharacter was degraded to an obsolete and empty name. The voice of aRoman could no longer enact his laws, or create the annual ministers ofhis power: his constitutional rights might have checked the arbitrarywill of a master: and the bold adventurer from Germany or Arabia wasadmitted, with equal favor, to the civil and military command, which thecitizen alone had been once entitled to assume over the conquests of hisfathers. The first Caesars had scrupulously guarded the distinction ofingenuous and servile birth, which was decided by the condition of themother; and the candor of the laws was satisfied, if her freedom couldbe ascertained, during a single moment, between the conception andthe delivery. The slaves, who were liberated by a generous master, immediately entered into the middle class of libertines or freedmen;but they could never be enfranchised from the duties of obedience andgratitude; whatever were the fruits of their industry, their patron andhis family inherited the third part; or even the whole of their fortune, if they died without children and without a testament. Justinianrespected the rights of patrons; but his indulgence removed the badge ofdisgrace from the two inferior orders of freedmen; whoever ceased to bea slave, obtained, without reserve or delay, the station of a citizen;and at length the dignity of an ingenuous birth, which nature hadrefused, was created, or supposed, by the omnipotence of the emperor. Whatever restraints of age, or forms, or numbers, had been formerlyintroduced to check the abuse of manumissions, and the too rapidincrease of vile and indigent Romans, he finally abolished; and thespirit of his laws promoted the extinction of domestic servitude. Yet the eastern provinces were filled, in the time of Justinian, withmultitudes of slaves, either born or purchased for the use of theirmasters; and the price, from ten to seventy pieces of gold, wasdetermined by their age, their strength, and their education. [100] Butthe hardships of this dependent state were continually diminished by theinfluence of government and religion: and the pride of a subject was nolonger elated by his absolute dominion over the life and happiness ofhis bondsman. [101]

[Footnote 99: See the Annales Politiques de l'Abbe de St. Pierre, tom. I. P. 25 who dates in the year 1735. The most ancient families claim theimmemorial possession of arms and fiefs. Since the Crusades, some, themost truly respectable, have been created by the king, for merit andservices. The recent and vulgar crowd is derived from the multitude ofvenal offices without trust or dignity, which continually ennoble thewealthy plebeians. ]

[Footnote 9911: Since the time of Gibbon, the House of Peers has beenmore than doubled: it is above 400, exclusive of the spiritual peers--awise policy to increase the patrician order in proportion to the generalincrease of the nation. --M. ]

[Footnote 100: If the option of a slave was bequeathed to severallegatees, they drew lots, and the losers were entitled to their shareof his value; ten pieces of gold for a common servant or maid under tenyears: if above that age, twenty; if they knew a trade, thirty; notariesor writers, fifty; midwives or physicians, sixty; eunuchs under tenyears, thirty pieces; above, fifty; if tradesmen, seventy, (Cod. L. Vi. Tit. Xliii. Leg. 3. ) These legal prices are generally below those of themarket. ]

[Footnote 101: For the state of slaves and freedmen, see Institutes, l. I. Tit. Iii. --viii. L. Ii. Tit. Ix. L. Iii. Tit. Viii. Ix. Pandects orDigest, l. I. Tit. V. Vi. L. Xxxviii. Tit. I. --iv. , and the whole ofthe xlth book. Code, l. Vi. Tit. Iv. V. L. Vii. Tit. I. --xxiii. Be ithenceforward understood that, with the original text of the Institutesand Pandects, the correspondent articles in the Antiquities and Elementsof Heineccius are implicitly quoted; and with the xxvii. First booksof the Pandects, the learned and rational Commentaries of Gerard Noodt, (Opera, tom. Ii. P. 1--590, the end. Lugd. Bat. 1724. )]

The law of nature instructs most animals to cherish and educate theirinfant progeny. The law of reason inculcates to the human species thereturns of filial piety. But the exclusive, absolute, and perpetualdominion of the father over his children, is peculiar to the Romanjurisprudence, [102] and seems to be coeval with the foundation of thecity. [103] The paternal power was instituted or confirmed by Romulushimself; and, after the practice of three centuries, it was inscribedon the fourth table of the Decemvirs. In the forum, the senate, or thecamp, the adult son of a Roman citizen enjoyed the public and privaterights of a person: in his father's house he was a mere thing; [1031]confounded by the laws with the movables, the cattle, and the slaves, whom the capricious master might alienate or destroy, without beingresponsible to any earthly tribunal. The hand which bestowed the dailysustenance might resume the voluntary gift, and whatever was acquired bythe labor or fortune of the son was immediately lost in the propertyof the father. His stolen goods (his oxen or his children) might berecovered by the same action of theft; [104] and if either had beenguilty of a trespass, it was in his own option to compensate the damage, or resign to the injured party the obnoxious animal. At the call ofindigence or avarice, the master of a family could dispose of hischildren or his slaves. But the condition of the slave was far moreadvantageous, since he regained, by the first manumission, his alienatedfreedom: the son was again restored to his unnatural father; he mightbe condemned to servitude a second and a third time, and it was not tillafter the third sale and deliverance, [105] that he was enfranchisedfrom the domestic power which had been so repeatedly abused. Accordingto his discretion, a father might chastise the real or imaginary faultsof his children, by stripes, by imprisonment, by exile, by sending themto the country to work in chains among the meanest of his servants. Themajesty of a parent was armed with the power of life and death; [106]and the examples of such bloody executions, which were sometimes praisedand never punished, may be traced in the annals of Rome beyond the timesof Pompey and Augustus. Neither age, nor rank, nor the consular office, nor the honors of a triumph, could exempt the most illustrious citizenfrom the bonds of filial subjection: [107] his own descendants wereincluded in the family of their common ancestor; and the claims ofadoption were not less sacred or less rigorous than those of nature. Without fear, though not without danger of abuse, the Roman legislatorshad reposed an unbounded confidence in the sentiments of paternal love;and the oppression was tempered by the assurance that each generationmust succeed in its turn to the awful dignity of parent and master. [Footnote 102: See the patria potestas in the Institutes, (l. I. Tit. Ix. , ) the Pandects, (l. I. Tit. Vi. Vii. , ) and the Code, (l. Viii. Tit. Xlvii. Xlviii. Xlix. ) Jus potestatis quod in liberos habemus propriumest civium Romanorum. Nulli enim alii sunt homines, qui talem in liberoshabeant potestatem qualem nos habemus. * Note: The newly-discoveredInstitutes of Gaius name one nation in which the same power was vestedin the parent. Nec me praeterit Galatarum gentem credere, in potestateparentum liberos esse. Gaii Instit. Edit. 1824, p. 257. --M. ]

[Footnote 103: Dionysius Hal. L. Ii. P. 94, 95. Gravina (Opp. P. 286)produces the words of the xii. Tables. Papinian (in Collatione LegumRoman et Mosaicarum, tit. Iv. P. 204) styles this patria potestas, lexregia: Ulpian (ad Sabin. L. Xxvi. In Pandect. L. I. Tit. Vi. Leg. 8)says, jus potestatis moribus receptum; and furiosus filium in potestatehabebit How sacred--or rather, how absurd! * Note: All this is in strictaccordance with the Roman character. --W. ]

[Footnote 1031: This parental power was strictly confined to the Romancitizen. The foreigner, or he who had only jus Latii, did not possessit. If a Roman citizen unknowingly married a Latin or a foreign wife, hedid not possess this power over his son, because the son, following thelegal condition of the mother, was not a Roman citizen. A man, however, alleging sufficient cause for his ignorance, might raise both mother andchild to the rights of citizenship. Gaius. P. 30. --M. ]

[Footnote 104: Pandect. L. Xlvii. Tit. Ii. Leg. 14, No. 13, leg. 38, No. 1. Such was the decision of Ulpian and Paul. ]

[Footnote 105: The trina mancipatio is most clearly defined by Ulpian, (Fragment. X. P. 591, 592, edit. Schulting;) and best illustrated inthe Antiquities of Heineccius. * Note: The son of a family sold by hisfather did not become in every respect a slave, he was statu liber; thatis to say, on paying the price for which he was sold, he became entirelyfree. See Hugo, Hist. Section 61--W. ]

[Footnote 106: By Justinian, the old law, the jus necis of the Romanfather (Institut. L. Iv. Tit. Ix. No. 7) is reported and reprobated. Some legal vestiges are left in the Pandects (l. Xliii. Tit. Xxix. Leg. 3, No. 4) and the Collatio Legum Romanarum et Mosaicarum, (tit. Ii. No. 3, p. 189. )]

[Footnote 107: Except on public occasions, and in the actual exercise ofhis office. In publicis locis atque muneribus, atque actionibuspatrum, jura cum filiorum qui in magistratu sunt potestatibus collatainterquiescere paullulum et connivere, &c. , (Aul. Gellius, NoctesAtticae, ii. 2. ) The Lessons of the philosopher Taurus were justified bythe old and memorable example of Fabius; and we may contemplate the samestory in the style of Livy (xxiv. 44) and the homely idiom of ClaudiusQuadri garius the annalist. ]

The first limitation of paternal power is ascribed to the justice andhumanity of Numa; and the maid who, with his father's consent, hadespoused a freeman, was protected from the disgrace of becoming thewife of a slave. In the first ages, when the city was pressed, and oftenfamished, by her Latin and Tuscan neighbors, the sale of children mightbe a frequent practice; but as a Roman could not legally purchase theliberty of his fellow-citizen, the market must gradually fail, and thetrade would be destroyed by the conquests of the republic. An imperfectright of property was at length communicated to sons; and the threefolddistinction of profectitious, adventitious, and professional wasascertained by the jurisprudence of the Code and Pandects. [108] Of allthat proceeded from the father, he imparted only the use, and reservedthe absolute dominion; yet if his goods were sold, the filial portionwas excepted, by a favorable interpretation, from the demands ofthe creditors. In whatever accrued by marriage, gift, or collateralsuccession, the property was secured to the son; but the father, unlesshe had been specially excluded, enjoyed the usufruct during his life. As a just and prudent reward of military virtue, the spoils of the enemywere acquired, possessed, and bequeathed by the soldier alone; and thefair analogy was extended to the emoluments of any liberal profession, the salary of public service, and the sacred liberality of the emperoror empress. The life of a citizen was less exposed than his fortuneto the abuse of paternal power. Yet his life might be adverse to theinterest or passions of an unworthy father: the same crimes that flowedfrom the corruption, were more sensibly felt by the humanity, of theAugustan age; and the cruel Erixo, who whipped his son till he expired, was saved by the emperor from the just fury of the multitude. [109] TheRoman father, from the license of servile dominion, was reduced to thegravity and moderation of a judge. The presence and opinion of Augustusconfirmed the sentence of exile pronounced against an intentionalparricide by the domestic tribunal of Arius. Adrian transported toan island the jealous parent, who, like a robber, had seized theopportunity of hunting, to assassinate a youth, the incestuous lover ofhis step-mother. [110] A private jurisdiction is repugnant to the spiritof monarchy; the parent was again reduced from a judge to an accuser;and the magistrates were enjoined by Severus Alexander to hear hiscomplaints and execute his sentence. He could no longer take the lifeof a son without incurring the guilt and punishment of murder; and thepains of parricide, from which he had been excepted by the Pompeian law, were finally inflicted by the justice of Constantine. [111] The sameprotection was due to every period of existence; and reason must applaudthe humanity of Paulus, for imputing the crime of murder to the fatherwho strangles, or starves, or abandons his new-born infant; or exposeshim in a public place to find the mercy which he himself had denied. But the exposition of children was the prevailing and stubborn vice ofantiquity: it was sometimes prescribed, often permitted, almost alwayspractised with impunity, by the nations who never entertained the Romanideas of paternal power; and the dramatic poets, who appeal to the humanheart, represent with indifference a popular custom which was palliatedby the motives of economy and compassion. [112] If the father couldsubdue his own feelings, he might escape, though not the censure, atleast the chastisement, of the laws; and the Roman empire was stainedwith the blood of infants, till such murders were included, byValentinian and his colleagues, in the letter and spirit of theCornelian law. The lessons of jurisprudence [113] and Christianity hadbeen insufficient to eradicate this inhuman practice, till their gentleinfluence was fortified by the terrors of capital punishment. [114]

[Footnote 108: See the gradual enlargement and security of the filialpeculium in the Institutes, (l. Ii. Tit. Ix. , ) the Pandects, (l. Xv. Tit. I. L. Xli. Tit. I. , ) and the Code, (l. Iv. Tit. Xxvi. Xxvii. )]

[Footnote 109: The examples of Erixo and Arius are related by Seneca, (de Clementia, i. 14, 15, ) the former with horror, the latter withapplause. ]

[Footnote 110: Quod latronis magis quam patris jure eum interfecit, nampatria potestas in pietate debet non in atrocitate consistere, (Marcian. Institut. L. Xix. In Pandect. L. Xlviii. Tit. Ix. Leg. 5. )]

[Footnote 111: The Pompeian and Cornelian laws de sicariis andparricidis are repeated, or rather abridged, with the last supplementsof Alexander Severus, Constantine, and Valentinian, in the Pandects (l. Xlviii. Tit. Viii ix, ) and Code, (l. Ix. Tit. Xvi. Xvii. ) See likewisethe Theodosian Code, (l. Ix. Tit. Xiv. Xv. , ) with Godefroy's Commentary, (tom. Iii. P. 84--113) who pours a flood of ancient and modern learningover these penal laws. ]

[Footnote 112: When the Chremes of Terence reproaches his wife for notobeying his orders and exposing their infant, he speaks like a fatherand a master, and silences the scruples of a foolish woman. SeeApuleius, (Metamorph. L. X. P. 337, edit. Delphin. )]

[Footnote 113: The opinion of the lawyers, and the discretion ofthe magistrates, had introduced, in the time of Tacitus, some legalrestraints, which might support his contrast of the boni mores of theGermans to the bonae leges alibi--that is to say, at Rome, (de MoribusGermanorum, c. 19. ) Tertullian (ad Nationes, l. I. C. 15) refuteshis own charges, and those of his brethren, against the heathenjurisprudence. ]

[Footnote 114: The wise and humane sentence of the civilian Paul (l. Ii. Sententiarum in Pandect, 1. Xxv. Tit. Iii. Leg. 4) is represented as amere moral precept by Gerard Noodt, (Opp. Tom. I. In Julius Paulus, p. 567--558, and Amica Responsio, p. 591-606, ) who maintains the opinion ofJustus Lipsius, (Opp. Tom. Ii. P. 409, ad Belgas. Cent. I. Epist. 85, ) and as a positive binding law by Bynkershoek, (de Jure occidendiLiberos, Opp. Tom. I. P. 318--340. Curae Secundae, p. 391--427. ) Ina learned out angry controversy, the two friends deviated into theopposite extremes. ]

Experience has proved, that savages are the tyrants of the female sex, and that the condition of women is usually softened by the refinementsof social life. In the hope of a robust progeny, Lycurgus had delayedthe season of marriage: it was fixed by Numa at the tender age of twelveyears, that the Roman husband might educate to his will a pure andobedient virgin. [115] According to the custom of antiquity, he boughthis bride of her parents, and she fulfilled the coemption by purchasing, with three pieces of copper, a just introduction to his house andhousehold deities. A sacrifice of fruits was offered by the pontiffs inthe presence of ten witnesses; the contracting parties were seated onthe same sheep-skin; they tasted a salt cake of far or rice; and thisconfarreation, [116] which denoted the ancient food of Italy, served asan emblem of their mystic union of mind and body. But this union on theside of the woman was rigorous and unequal; and she renounced the nameand worship of her father's house, to embrace a new servitude, decoratedonly by the title of adoption, a fiction of the law, neither rationalnor elegant, bestowed on the mother of a family [117] (her properappellation) the strange characters of sister to her own children, and of daughter to her husband or master, who was invested with theplenitude of paternal power. By his judgment or caprice her behavior wasapproved, or censured, or chastised; he exercised the jurisdiction oflife and death; and it was allowed, that in the cases of adulteryor drunkenness, [118] the sentence might be properly inflicted. Sheacquired and inherited for the sole profit of her lord; and so clearlywas woman defined, not as a person, but as a thing, that, if theoriginal title were deficient, she might be claimed, like othermovables, by the use and possession of an entire year. The inclinationof the Roman husband discharged or withheld the conjugal debt, soscrupulously exacted by the Athenian and Jewish laws: [119] but aspolygamy was unknown, he could never admit to his bed a fairer or a morefavored partner. 

[Footnote 115: Dionys. Hal. L. Ii. P. 92, 93. Plutarch, in Numa, p. 140-141. ]

[Footnote 116: Among the winter frunenta, the triticum, or beardedwheat; the siligo, or the unbearded; the far, adorea, oryza, whosedescription perfectly tallies with the rice of Spain and Italy. I adoptthis identity on the credit of M. Paucton in his useful and laboriousMetrologie, (p. 517--529. )]

[Footnote 117: Aulus Gellius (Noctes Atticae, xviii. 6) givesa ridiculous definition of Aelius Melissus, Matrona, quae semelmaterfamilias quae saepius peperit, as porcetra and scropha in the sowkind. He then adds the genuine meaning, quae in matrimonium vel in manumconvenerat. ]

[Footnote 118: It was enough to have tasted wine, or to have stolen thekey of the cellar, (Plin. Hist. Nat. Xiv. 14. )]

[Footnote 119: Solon requires three payments per month. By the Misna, adaily debt was imposed on an idle, vigorous, young husband; twice a weekon a citizen; once on a peasant; once in thirty days on a camel-driver;once in six months on a seaman. But the student or doctor was free fromtribute; and no wife, if she received a weekly sustenance, could suefor a divorce; for one week a vow of abstinence was allowed. Polygamydivided, without multiplying, the duties of the husband, (Selden, UxorEbraica, l. Iii. C 6, in his works, vol ii. P. 717--720. )]

After the Punic triumphs, the matrons of Rome aspired to the commonbenefits of a free and opulent republic: their wishes were gratifiedby the indulgence of fathers and lovers, and their ambition wasunsuccessfully resisted by the gravity of Cato the Censor. [120] Theydeclined the solemnities of the old nuptiais; defeated the annualprescription by an absence of three days; and, without losing their nameor independence, subscribed the liberal and definite terms of a marriagecontract. Of their private fortunes, they communicated the use, andsecured the property: the estates of a wife could neither be alienatednor mortgaged by a prodigal husband; their mutual gifts were prohibitedby the jealousy of the laws; and the misconduct of either party mightafford, under another name, a future subject for an action of theft. To this loose and voluntary compact, religious and civil rights were nolonger essential; and, between persons of a similar rank, the apparentcommunity of life was allowed as sufficient evidence of their nuptials. The dignity of marriage was restored by the Christians, who derived allspiritual grace from the prayers of the faithful and the benedictionof the priest or bishop. The origin, validity, and duties of the holyinstitution were regulated by the tradition of the synagogue, theprecepts of the gospel, and the canons of general or provincial synods;[121] and the conscience of the Christians was awed by the decreesand censures of their ecclesiastical rulers. Yet the magistrates ofJustinian were not subject to the authority of the church: the emperorconsulted the unbelieving civilians of antiquity, and the choice ofmatrimonial laws in the Code and Pandects, is directed by the earthlymotives of justice, policy, and the natural freedom of both sexes. [122]

[Footnote 120: On the Oppian law we may hear the mitigating speech ofVaerius Flaccus, and the severe censorial oration of the elder Cato, (Liv. Xxxiv. L--8. ) But we shall rather hear the polished historian ofthe eighth, than the rough orators of the sixth, century of Rome. Theprinciples, and even the style, of Cato are more accurately preserved byAulus Gellius, (x. 23. )]

[Footnote 121: For the system of Jewish and Catholic matrimony, seeSelden, (Uxor Ebraica, Opp. Vol. Ii. P. 529--860, ) Bingham, (ChristianAntiquities, l. Xxii. , ) and Chardon, (Hist. Des Sacremens, tom. Vi. )]

[Footnote 122: The civil laws of marriage are exposed in the Institutes, (l. I. Tit. X. , ) the Pandects, (l. Xxiii. Xxiv. Xxv. , ) and the Code, (l. V. ;) but as the title de ritu nuptiarum is yet imperfect, we are obligedto explore the fragments of Ulpian (tit. Ix. P. 590, 591, ) and theCollatio Legum Mosaicarum, (tit. Xvi. P. 790, 791, ) with the notes ofPithaeus and Schulting. They find in the Commentary of Servius (on the1st Georgia and the 4th Aeneid) two curious passages. ]

Besides the agreement of the parties, the essence of every rationalcontract, the Roman marriage required the previous approbation of theparents. A father might be forced by some recent laws to supply thewants of a mature daughter; but even his insanity was not graduallyallowed to supersede the necessity of his consent. The causes of thedissolution of matrimony have varied among the Romans; [123] but themost solemn sacrament, the confarreation itself, might always be doneaway by rites of a contrary tendency. In the first ages, the father of afamily might sell his children, and his wife was reckoned in the numberof his children: the domestic judge might pronounce the death of theoffender, or his mercy might expel her from his bed and house; but theslavery of the wretched female was hopeless and perpetual, unless heasserted for his own convenience the manly prerogative of divorce. [1231] The warmest applause has been lavished on the virtue of theRomans, who abstained from the exercise of this tempting privilege abovefive hundred years: [124] but the same fact evinces the unequal terms ofa connection in which the slave was unable to renounce her tyrant, andthe tyrant was unwilling to relinquish his slave. When the Romanmatrons became the equal and voluntary companions of their lords, a newjurisprudence was introduced, that marriage, like other partnerships, might be dissolved by the abdication of one of the associates. In threecenturies of prosperity and corruption, this principle was enlarged tofrequent practice and pernicious abuse. 

Passion, interest, or caprice, suggested daily motives for thedissolution of marriage; a word, a sign, a message, a letter, themandate of a freedman, declared the separation; the most tender of humanconnections was degraded to a transient society of profit or pleasure. According to the various conditions of life, both sexes alternately feltthe disgrace and injury: an inconstant spouse transferred her wealth toa new family, abandoning a numerous, perhaps a spurious, progeny tothe paternal authority and care of her late husband; a beautiful virginmight be dismissed to the world, old, indigent, and friendless; butthe reluctance of the Romans, when they were pressed to marriage byAugustus, sufficiently marks, that the prevailing institutions wereleast favorable to the males. A specious theory is confuted by this freeand perfect experiment, which demonstrates, that the liberty of divorcedoes not contribute to happiness and virtue. The facility of separationwould destroy all mutual confidence, and inflame every trifling dispute:the minute difference between a husband and a stranger, which might soeasily be removed, might still more easily be forgotten; and the matron, who in five years can submit to the embraces of eight husbands, mustcease to reverence the chastity of her own person. [125]

[Footnote 123: According to Plutarch, (p. 57, ) Romulus allowed onlythree grounds of a divorce--drunkenness, adultery, and false keys. Otherwise, the husband who abused his supremacy forfeited half his goodsto the wife, and half to the goddess Ceres, and offered a sacrifice(with the remainder?) to the terrestrial deities. This strange law waseither imaginary or transient. ]

[Footnote 1231: Montesquieu relates and explains this fact in adifferent marnes Esprit des Loix, l. Xvi. C. 16. --G. ]

[Footnote 124: In the year of Rome 523, Spurius Carvilius Rugarepudiated a fair, a good, but a barren, wife, (Dionysius Hal. L. Ii. P. 93. Plutarch, in Numa, p. 141; Valerius Maximus, l. Ii. C. 1; AulusGellius, iv. 3. ) He was questioned by the censors, and hated by thepeople; but his divorce stood unimpeached in law. ]

[Footnote 125:--Sic fiunt octo mariti Quinque per autumnos. Juvenal, Satir. Vi. 20. --A rapid succession, which may yet be credible, as wellas the non consulum numero, sed maritorum annos suos computant, ofSeneca, (de Beneficiis, iii. 16. ) Jerom saw at Rome a triumphant husbandbury his twenty-first wife, who had interred twenty-two of his lesssturdy predecessors, (Opp. Tom. I. P. 90, ad Gerontiam. ) But the tenhusbands in a month of the poet Martial, is an extravagant hyperbole, (l. 71. Epigram 7. )]

Insufficient remedies followed with distant and tardy steps the rapidprogress of the evil. The ancient worship of the Romans afforded apeculiar goddess to hear and reconcile the complaints of a marriedlife; but her epithet of Viriplaca, [126] the appeaser of husbands, tooclearly indicates on which side submission and repentance were alwaysexpected. Every act of a citizen was subject to the judgment of thecensors; the first who used the privilege of divorce assigned, at theircommand, the motives of his conduct; [127] and a senator was expelledfor dismissing his virgin spouse without the knowledge or advice ofhis friends. Whenever an action was instituted for the recovery of amarriage portion, the proetor, as the guardian of equity, examined thecause and the characters, and gently inclined the scale in favor of theguiltless and injured party. Augustus, who united the powers of bothmagistrates, adopted their different modes of repressing or chastisingthe license of divorce. [128] The presence of seven Roman witnesseswas required for the validity of this solemn and deliberate act: if anyadequate provocation had been given by the husband, instead of the delayof two years, he was compelled to refund immediately, or in the space ofsix months; but if he could arraign the manners of his wife, her guiltor levity was expiated by the loss of the sixth or eighth part of hermarriage portion. The Christian princes were the first who specified thejust causes of a private divorce; their institutions, from Constantineto Justinian, appear to fluctuate between the custom of the empireand the wishes of the church, [129] and the author of the Novels toofrequently reforms the jurisprudence of the Code and Pandects. Inthe most rigorous laws, a wife was condemned to support a gamester, adrunkard, or a libertine, unless he were guilty of homicide, poison, orsacrilege, in which cases the marriage, as it should seem, might havebeen dissolved by the hand of the executioner. But the sacred right ofthe husband was invariably maintained, to deliver his name and familyfrom the disgrace of adultery: the list of mortal sins, either male orfemale, was curtailed and enlarged by successive regulations, and theobstacles of incurable impotence, long absence, and monastic profession, were allowed to rescind the matrimonial obligation. Whoever transgressedthe permission of the law, was subject to various and heavy penalties. The woman was stripped of her wealth and ornaments, without exceptingthe bodkin of her hair: if the man introduced a new bride into his bed, her fortune might be lawfully seized by the vengeance of his exiledwife. Forfeiture was sometimes commuted to a fine; the fine wassometimes aggravated by transportation to an island, or imprisonment ina monastery; the injured party was released from the bonds of marriage;but the offender, during life, or a term of years, was disabled fromthe repetition of nuptials. The successor of Justinian yielded to theprayers of his unhappy subjects, and restored the liberty of divorce bymutual consent: the civilians were unanimous, [130] the theologians weredivided, [131] and the ambiguous word, which contains the preceptof Christ, is flexible to any interpretation that the wisdom of alegislator can demand. 

[Footnote 126: Sacellum Viriplacae, (Valerius Maximus, l. Ii. C. 1, )in the Palatine region, appears in the time of Theodosius, in thedescription of Rome by Publius Victor. ]

[Footnote 127: Valerius Maximus, l. Ii. C. 9. With some propriety hejudges divorce more criminal than celibacy: illo namque conjugalia sacrespreta tantum, hoc etiam injuriose tractata. ]

[Footnote 128: See the laws of Augustus and his successors, inHeineccius, ad Legem Papiam-Poppaeam, c. 19, in Opp. Tom. Vi. P. I. P. 323--333. ]

[Footnote 129: Aliae sunt leges Caesarum, aliae Christi; aliudPapinianus, aliud Paulus nocter praecipit, (Jerom. Tom. I. P. 198. Selden, Uxor Ebraica l. Iii. C. 31 p. 847--853. )]

[Footnote 130: The Institutes are silent; but we may consult the Codesof Theodosius (l. Iii. Tit. Xvi. , with Godefroy's Commentary, tom. I. P. 310--315) and Justinian, (l. V. Tit. Xvii. , ) the Pandects (l. Xxiv. Tit. Ii. ) and the Novels, (xxii. Cxvii. Cxxvii. Cxxxiv. Cxl. ) Justinianfluctuated to the last between civil and ecclesiastical law. ]

[Footnote 131: In pure Greek, it is not a common word; nor can theproper meaning, fornication, be strictly applied to matrimonial sin. Ina figurative sense, how far, and to what offences, may it be extended?Did Christ speak the Rabbinical or Syriac tongue? Of what original wordis the translation? How variously is that Greek word translated in theversions ancient and modern! There are two (Mark, x. 11, Luke, xvi. 18)to one (Matthew, xix. 9) that such ground of divorce was not exceptedby Jesus. Some critics have presumed to think, by an evasive answer, heavoided the giving offence either to the school of Sammai or to that ofHillel, (Selden, Uxor Ebraica, l. Iii. C. 18--22, 28, 31. ) * Note: Butthese had nothing to do with the question of a divorce made by judicialauthority. --Hugo. ]

The freedom of love and marriage was restrained among the Romans bynatural and civil impediments. An instinct, almost innate and universal, appears to prohibit the incestuous commerce [132] of parents andchildren in the infinite series of ascending and descending generations. Concerning the oblique and collateral branches, nature is indifferent, reason mute, and custom various and arbitrary. In Egypt, the marriageof brothers and sisters was admitted without scruple or exception: aSpartan might espouse the daughter of his father, an Athenian, that ofhis mother; and the nuptials of an uncle with his niece were applaudedat Athens as a happy union of the dearest relations. The profanelawgivers of Rome were never tempted by interest or superstition tomultiply the forbidden degrees: but they inflexibly condemned themarriage of sisters and brothers, hesitated whether first cousins shouldbe touched by the same interdict; revered the parental character ofaunts and uncles, [1321] and treated affinity and adoption as a justimitation of the ties of blood. According to the proud maxims of therepublic, a legal marriage could only be contracted by free citizens; anhonorable, at least an ingenuous birth, was required for the spouse ofa senator: but the blood of kings could never mingle in legitimatenuptials with the blood of a Roman; and the name of Stranger degradedCleopatra and Berenice, [133] to live the concubines of Mark Antonyand Titus. [134] This appellation, indeed, so injurious to the majesty, cannot without indulgence be applied to the manners, of these Orientalqueens. A concubine, in the strict sense of the civilians, was a womanof servile or plebeian extraction, the sole and faithful companion of aRoman citizen, who continued in a state of celibacy. Her modest station, below the honors of a wife, above the infamy of a prostitute, wasacknowledged and approved by the laws: from the age of Augustus to thetenth century, the use of this secondary marriage prevailed both inthe West and East; and the humble virtues of a concubine were oftenpreferred to the pomp and insolence of a noble matron. In thisconnection, the two Antonines, the best of princes and of men, enjoyedthe comforts of domestic love: the example was imitated by many citizensimpatient of celibacy, but regardful of their families. If at any timethey desired to legitimate their natural children, the conversion wasinstantly performed by the celebration of their nuptials with a partnerwhose faithfulness and fidelity they had already tried. [1341] By thisepithet of natural, the offspring of the concubine were distinguishedfrom the spurious brood of adultery, prostitution, and incest, to whomJustinian reluctantly grants the necessary aliments of life; and thesenatural children alone were capable of succeeding to a sixth part ofthe inheritance of their reputed father. According to the rigor of law, bastards were entitled only to the name and condition of their mother, from whom they might derive the character of a slave, a stranger, or acitizen. The outcasts of every family were adopted without reproach asthe children of the state. [135] [1351]

[Footnote 132: The principles of the Roman jurisprudence are exposed byJustinian, (Institut. T. I. Tit. X. ;) and the laws and manners of thedifferent nations of antiquity concerning forbidden degrees, &c. , arecopiously explained by Dr. Taylor in his Elements of Civil Law, (p. 108, 314--339, ) a work of amusing, though various reading; but which cannotbe praised for philosophical precision. ]

[Footnote 1321: According to the earlier law, (Gaii Instit. P. 27, ) aman might marry his niece on the brother's, not on the sister's, side. The emperor Claudius set the example of the former. In the Institutes, this distinction was abolished and both declared illegal. --M. ]

[Footnote 133: When her father Agrippa died, (A. D. 44, ) Berenice wassixteen years of age, (Joseph. Tom. I. Antiquit. Judaic. L. Xix. C. 9, p. 952, edit. Havercamp. ) She was therefore above fifty years oldwhen Titus (A. D. 79) invitus invitam invisit. This date would not haveadorned the tragedy or pastoral of the tender Racine. ]

[Footnote 134: The Aegyptia conjux of Virgil (Aeneid, viii. 688) seemsto be numbered among the monsters who warred with Mark Antony againstAugustus, the senate, and the gods of Italy. ]

[Footnote 1341: The Edict of Constantine first conferred this right; forAugustus had prohibited the taking as a concubine a woman who might betaken as a wife; and if marriage took place afterwards, this marriagemade no change in the rights of the children born before it; recoursewas then had to adoption, properly called arrogation. --G. ]

[Footnote 135: The humble but legal rights of concubines and naturalchildren are stated in the Institutes, (l. I. Tit. X. , ) the Pandects, (l. I. Tit. Vii. , ) the Code, (l. V. Tit. Xxv. , ) and the Novels, (lxxiv. Lxxxix. ) The researches of Heineccius and Giannone, (ad Legem Juliamet Papiam-Poppaeam, c. Iv. P. 164-175. Opere Posthume, p. 108--158)illustrate this interesting and domestic subject. ]

[Footnote 1351: See, however, the two fragments of laws in the newlydiscovered extracts from the Theodosian Code, published by M. A. Peyron, at Turin. By the first law of Constantine, the legitimate offspringcould alone inherit; where there were no near legitimate relatives, theinheritance went to the fiscus. The son of a certain Licinianus, whohad inherited his father's property under the supposition that he waslegitimate, and had been promoted to a place of dignity, was to bedegraded, his property confiscated, himself punished with stripes andimprisonment. By the second, all persons, even of the highest rank, senators, perfectissimi, decemvirs, were to be declared infamous, andout of the protection of the Roman law, if born ex ancilla, vel ancillaefilia, vel liberta, vel libertae filia, sive Romana facta, seu Latina, vel scaenicae filia, vel ex tabernaria, vel ex tabernariae filia, vel humili vel abjecta, vel lenonis, aut arenarii filia, vel quaemercimoniis publicis praefuit. Whatever a fond father had conferredon such children was revoked, and either restored to the legitimatechildren, or confiscated to the state; the mothers, who were guilty ofthus poisoning the minds of the fathers, were to be put to the torture(tormentis subici jubemus. ) The unfortunate son of Licinianus, itappears from this second law, having fled, had been taken, and wasordered to be kept in chains to work in the Gynaeceum at Carthage. Cod. Theodor ab. A. Person, 87--90. --M. ]

Chapter XLIV: Idea Of The Roman Jurisprudence. --Part VI. 

The relation of guardian and ward, or in Roman words of tutor and pupil, which covers so many titles of the Institutes and Pandects, [136] is ofa very simple and uniform nature. The person and property of an orphanmust always be trusted to the custody of some discreet friend. If thedeceased father had not signified his choice, the agnats, or paternalkindred of the nearest degree, were compelled to act as the naturalguardians: the Athenians were apprehensive of exposing the infant tothe power of those most interested in his death; but an axiom ofRoman jurisprudence has pronounced, that the charge of tutelage shouldconstantly attend the emolument of succession. If the choice of thefather, and the line of consanguinity, afforded no efficient guardian, the failure was supplied by the nomination of the praetor of the city, or the president of the province. But the person whom they named tothis public office might be legally excused by insanity or blindness, byignorance or inability, by previous enmity or adverse interest, by thenumber of children or guardianships with which he was already burdened, and by the immunities which were granted to the useful labors ofmagistrates, lawyers, physicians, and professors. Till the infant couldspeak, and think, he was represented by the tutor, whose authority wasfinally determined by the age of puberty. Without his consent, no actof the pupil could bind himself to his own prejudice, though it mightoblige others for his personal benefit. It is needless to observe, thatthe tutor often gave security, and always rendered an account, and thatthe want of diligence or integrity exposed him to a civil and almostcriminal action for the violation of his sacred trust. The age ofpuberty had been rashly fixed by the civilians at fourteen; [1361] butas the faculties of the mind ripen more slowly than those of the body, a curator was interposed to guard the fortunes of a Roman youth from hisown inexperience and headstrong passions. Such a trustee had been firstinstituted by the praetor, to save a family from the blind havoc of aprodigal or madman; and the minor was compelled, by the laws, to solicitthe same protection, to give validity to his acts till he accomplishedthe full period of twenty-five years. Women were condemned to theperpetual tutelage of parents, husbands, or guardians; a sex created toplease and obey was never supposed to have attained the age of reasonand experience. Such, at least, was the stern and haughty spirit ofthe ancient law, which had been insensibly mollified before the time ofJustinian. 

[Footnote 136: See the article of guardians and wards in the Institutes, (l. I. Tit. Xiii. --xxvi. , ) the Pandects, (l. Xxvi. Xxvii. , ) and theCode, (l. V. Tit. Xxviii. --lxx. )]

[Footnote 1361: Gibbon accuses the civilians of having "rashly fixedthe age of puberty at twelve or fourteen years. " It was not so;before Justinian, no law existed on this subject. Ulpian relates thediscussions which took place on this point among the different sectsof civilians. See the Institutes, l. I. Tit. 22, and the fragments ofUlpian. Nor was the curatorship obligatory for all minors. --W. ]

II. The original right of property can only be justified by the accidentor merit of prior occupancy; and on this foundation it is wiselyestablished by the philosophy of the civilians. [137] The savage whohollows a tree, inserts a sharp stone into a wooden handle, or appliesa string to an elastic branch, becomes in a state of nature the justproprietor of the canoe, the bow, or the hatchet. The materialswere common to all, the new form, the produce of his time and simpleindustry, belongs solely to himself. His hungry brethren cannot, withouta sense of their own injustice, extort from the hunter the game of theforest overtaken or slain by his personal strength and dexterity. If hisprovident care preserves and multiplies the tame animals, whose natureis tractable to the arts of education, he acquires a perpetual titleto the use and service of their numerous progeny, which derives itsexistence from him alone. If he encloses and cultivates a field fortheir sustenance and his own, a barren waste is converted into a fertilesoil; the seed, the manure, the labor, create a new value, and therewards of harvest are painfully earned by the fatigues of the revolvingyear. In the successive states of society, the hunter, the shepherd, thehusbandman, may defend their possessions by two reasons which forciblyappeal to the feelings of the human mind: that whatever they enjoy isthe fruit of their own industry; and that every man who envies theirfelicity, may purchase similar acquisitions by the exercise of similardiligence. Such, in truth, may be the freedom and plenty of a smallcolony cast on a fruitful island. But the colony multiplies, while thespace still continues the same; the common rights, the equal inheritanceof mankind. Are engrossed by the bold and crafty; each field and forestis circumscribed by the landmarks of a jealous master; and it is thepeculiar praise of the Roman jurisprudence, that i asserts the claim ofthe first occupant to the wild animals of the earth, the air, and thewaters. In the progress from primitive equity to final injustice, thesteps are silent, the shades are almost imperceptible, and the absolutemonopoly is guarded by positive laws and artificial reason. The active, insatiate principle of self-love can alone supply the arts of life andthe wages of industry; and as soon as civil government and exclusiveproperty have been introduced, they become necessary to the existenceof the human race. Except in the singular institutions of Sparta, thewisest legislators have disapproved an agrarian law as a false anddangerous innovation. Among the Romans, the enormous disproportion ofwealth surmounted the ideal restraints of a doubtful tradition, and anobsolete statute; a tradition that the poorest follower of Romulushad been endowed with the perpetual inheritance of two jugera; [138]a statute which confined the richest citizen to the measure of fivehundred jugera, or three hundred and twelve acres of land. The originalterritory of Rome consisted only of some miles of wood and meadow alongthe banks of the Tyber; and domestic exchange could add nothing to thenational stock. But the goods of an alien or enemy were lawfully exposedto the first hostile occupier; the city was enriched by the profitabletrade of war; and the blood of her sons was the only price that was paidfor the Volscian sheep, the slaves of Briton, or the gems and gold ofAsiatic kingdoms. In the language of ancient jurisprudence, which wascorrupted and forgotten before the age of Justinian, these spoils weredistinguished by the name of manceps or manicipium, taken with the hand;and whenever they were sold or emancipated, the purchaser required someassurance that they had been the property of an enemy, and not ofa fellow-citizen. [139] A citizen could only forfeit his rights byapparent dereliction, and such dereliction of a valuable interestcould not easily be presumed. Yet, according to the Twelve Tables, aprescription of one year for movables, and of two years for immovables, abolished the claim of the ancient master, if the actual possessor hadacquired them by a fair transaction from the person whom he believed tobe the lawful proprietor. [140] Such conscientious injustice, withoutany mixture of fraud or force could seldom injure the members of a smallrepublic; but the various periods of three, of ten, or of twenty years, determined by Justinian, are more suitable to the latitude of a greatempire. It is only in the term of prescription that the distinction ofreal and personal fortune has been remarked by the civilians; andtheir general idea of property is that of simple, uniform, and absolutedominion. The subordinate exceptions of use, of usufruct, [141] ofservitude, [142] imposed for the benefit of a neighbor on lands andhouses, are abundantly explained by the professors of jurisprudence. The claims of property, as far as they are altered by the mixture, thedivision, or the transformation of substances, are investigated withmetaphysical subtilty by the same civilians. 

[Footnote 137: Institut. L. Ii. Tit i. Ii. Compare the pure and precisereasoning of Caius and Heineccius (l. Ii. Tit. I. P. 69-91) with theloose prolixity of Theophilus, (p. 207--265. ) The opinions of Ulpian arepreserved in the Pandects, (l. I. Tit. Viii. Leg. 41, No. 1. )]

[Footnote 138: The heredium of the first Romans is defined by Varro, (deRe Rustica, l. I. C. Ii. P. 141, c. X. P. 160, 161, edit. Gesner, ) andclouded by Pliny's declamation, (Hist. Natur. Xviii. 2. ) A just andlearned comment is given in the Administration des Terres chez lesRomains, (p. 12--66. ) Note: On the duo jugera, compare Niebuhr, vol. I. P. 337. --M. ]

[Footnote 139: The res mancipi is explained from faint and remote lightsby Ulpian (Fragment. Tit. Xviii. P. 618, 619) and Bynkershoek, (Opptom. I. P. 306--315. ) The definition is somewhat arbitrary; and as noneexcept myself have assigned a reason, I am diffident of my own. ]

[Footnote 140: From this short prescription, Hume (Essays, vol. I. P. 423) infers that there could not then be more order and settlement inItaly than now amongst the Tartars. By the civilian of his adversaryWallace, he is reproached, and not without reason, for overlooking theconditions, (Institut. L. Ii. Tit. Vi. ) * Note: Gibbon acknowledges, in the former note, the obscurity of his views with regard to the resmancipi. The interpreters, who preceded him, are not agreed onthis point, one of the most difficult in the ancient Roman law. Theconclusions of Hume, of which the author here speaks, are groundedon false assumptions. Gibbon had conceived very inaccurate notions ofProperty among the Romans, and those of many authors in the present dayare not less erroneous. We think it right, in this place, to develop thesystem of property among the Romans, as the result of the study ofthe extant original authorities on the ancient law, and as it has beendemonstrated, recognized, and adopted by the most learned expositorsof the Roman law. Besides the authorities formerly known, such as theFragments of Ulpian, t. Xix. And t. I. 16. Theoph. Paraph. I. 5, 4, maybe consulted the Institutes of Gaius, i. 54, and ii. 40, et seq. The Roman laws protected all property acquired in a lawful manner. They imposed on those who had invaded it, the obligation of makingrestitution and reparation of all damage caused by that invasion; theypunished it moreover, in many cases, by a pecuniary fine. But they didnot always grant a recovery against the third person, who had becomebona fide possessed of the property. He who had obtained possession of athing belonging to another, knowing nothing of the prior rights of thatperson, maintained the possession. The law had expressly determinedthose cases, in which it permitted property to be reclaimed from aninnocent possessor. In these cases possession had the characters ofabsolute proprietorship, called mancipium, jus Quiritium. To possessthis right, it was not sufficient to have entered into possession of thething in any manner; the acquisition was bound to have that characterof publicity, which was given by the observation of solemn forms, prescribed by the laws, or the uninterrupted exercise of proprietorshipduring a certain time: the Roman citizen alone could acquire thisproprietorship. Every other kind of possession, which might be namedimperfect proprietorship, was called "in bonis habere. " It was not tillafter the time of Cicero that the general name of Dominium was given toall proprietorship. It was then the publicity which constituted the distinctive characterof absolute dominion. This publicity was grounded on the mode ofacquisition, which the moderns have called Civil, (Modi adquirendiCiviles. ) These modes of acquisition were, 1. Mancipium or mancipatio, which was nothing but the solemn deliveringover of the thing in the presence of a determinate number of witnessesand a public officer; it was from this probably that proprietorship wasnamed, 2. In jure cessio, which was a solemn delivering over before thepraetor. 3. Adjudicatio, made by a judge, in a case of partition. 4. Lex, which comprehended modes of acquiring in particular casesdetermined by law; probably the law of the xii. Tables; for instance, the sub corona emptio and the legatum. 5. Usna, called afterwards usacapio, and by the moderns prescription. This was only a year for movables; two years for things not movable. Itsprimary object was altogether different from that of prescription inthe present day. It was originally introduced in order to transformthe simple possession of a thing (in bonis habere) into Romanproprietorship. The public and uninterrupted possession of a thing, enjoyed for the space of one or two years, was sufficient to make knownto the inhabitants of the city of Rome to whom the thing belonged. Thislast mode of acquisition completed the system of civil acquisitions. Bylegalizing. As it were, every other kind of acquisition which was notconferred, from the commencement, by the Jus Quiritium. V. Ulpian. Fragm. I. 16. Gaius, ii. 14. We believe, according to Gaius, 43, thatthis usucaption was extended to the case where a thing had been acquiredfrom a person not the real proprietor; and that according to the timeprescribed, it gave to the possessor the Roman proprietorship. But thisdoes not appear to have been the original design of this Institution. Caeterum etiam earum rerum usucapio nobis competit, quae non a dominonobis tradita fuerint, si modo eas bona fide acceperimus Gaius, l ii. 43. As to things of smaller value, or those which it was difficult todistinguish from each other, the solemnities of which we speak were notrequisite to obtain legal proprietorship. In this case simple delivery was sufficient. In proportion to the aggrandizement of the Republic, this latterprinciple became more important from the increase of the commerce andwealth of the state. It was necessary to know what were those things ofwhich absolute property might be acquired by simple delivery, and what, on the contrary, those, the acquisition of which must be sanctionedby these solemnities. This question was necessarily to be decided bya general rule; and it is this rule which establishes the distinctionbetween res mancipi and nec mancipi, a distinction about which theopinions of modern civilians differ so much that there are above tenconflicting systems on the subject. The system which accords best with asound interpretation of the Roman laws, is that proposed by M. Trekel ofHamburg, and still further developed by M. Hugo, who has extracted it inthe Magazine of Civil Law, vol. Ii. P. 7. This is the system now almost universally adopted. Res mancipi (bycontraction for mancipii) were things of which the absolute property(Jus Quiritium) might be acquired only by the solemnities mentionedabove, at least by that of mancipation, which was, without doubt, themost easy and the most usual. Gaius, ii. 25. As for other things, theacquisition of which was not subject to these forms, in order to conferabsolute right, they were called res nec mancipi. See Ulpian, Fragm. Xix. 1. 3, 7. Ulpian and Varro enumerate the different kinds of res mancipi. Theirenumerations do not quite agree; and various methods of reconciling themhave been attempted. The authority of Ulpian, however, who wrote as acivilian, ought to have the greater weight on this subject. But why are these things alone res mancipi? This is one of the questionswhich have been most frequently agitated, and on which the opinions ofcivilians are most divided. M. Hugo has resolved it in the mostnatural and satisfactory manner. "All things which were easily knownindividually, which were of great value, with which the Romans wereacquainted, and which they highly appreciated, were res mancipi. Of oldmancipation or some other solemn form was required for the acquisitionof these things, an account of their importance. Mancipation served toprove their acquisition, because they were easily distinguished one fromthe other. " On this great historical discussion consult the Magazine ofCivil Law by M. Hugo, vol. Ii. P. 37, 38; the dissertation of M. J. M. Zachariae, de Rebus Mancipi et nec Mancipi Conjecturae, p. 11. Lipsiae, 1807; the History of Civil Law by M. Hugo; and my Institutiones JurisRomani Privati p. 108, 110. As a general rule, it may be said that all things are res nec mancipi;the res mancipi are the exception to this principle. The praetors changed the system of property by allowing a person, whohad a thing in bonis, the right to recover before the prescribed termof usucaption had conferred absolute proprietorship. (Pauliana in remactio. ) Justinian went still further, in times when there was no longerany distinction between a Roman citizen and a stranger. He granted theright of recovering all things which had been acquired, whether by whatwere called civil or natural modes of acquisition, Cod. L. Vii. T. 25, 31. And he so altered the theory of Gaius in his Institutes, ii. 1, thatno trace remains of the doctrine taught by that civilian. --W. ]

[Footnote 141: See the Institutes (l. I. Tit. Iv. V. ) and the Pandects, (l. Vii. ) Noodt has composed a learned and distinct treatise deUsufructu, (Opp. Tom. I. P. 387--478. )]

[Footnote 142: The questions de Servitutibus are discussed in theInstitutes (l. Ii. Tit. Iii. ) and Pandects, (l. Viii. ) Cicero (proMurena, c. 9) and Lactantius (Institut. Divin. L. I. C. I. ) affect tolaugh at the insignificant doctrine, de aqua de pluvia arcenda, &c. Yetit might be of frequent use among litigious neighbors, both in town andcountry. ]

The personal title of the first proprietor must be determined byhis death: but the possession, without any appearance of change, ispeaceably continued in his children, the associates of his toil, and thepartners of his wealth. This natural inheritance has been protected bythe legislators of every climate and age, and the father is encouragedto persevere in slow and distant improvements, by the tender hope, thata long posterity will enjoy the fruits of his labor. The principle ofhereditary succession is universal; but the order has been variouslyestablished by convenience or caprice, by the spirit of nationalinstitutions, or by some partial example which was originally decidedby fraud or violence. The jurisprudence of the Romans appear to havedeviated from the inequality of nature much less than the Jewish, [143]the Athenian, [144] or the English institutions. [145] On the death ofa citizen, all his descendants, unless they were already freed from hispaternal power, were called to the inheritance of his possessions. Theinsolent prerogative of primogeniture was unknown; the two sexes wereplaced on a just level; all the sons and daughters were entitled to anequal portion of the patrimonial estate; and if any of the sons had beenintercepted by a premature death, his person was represented, and hisshare was divided, by his surviving children. On the failure of thedirect line, the right of succession must diverge to the collateralbranches. The degrees of kindred [146] are numbered by the civilians, ascending from the last possessor to a common parent, and descendingfrom the common parent to the next heir: my father stands in the firstdegree, my brother in the second, his children in the third, and theremainder of the series may be conceived by a fancy, or pictured ina genealogical table. In this computation, a distinction was made, essential to the laws and even the constitution of Rome; the agnats, orpersons connected by a line of males, were called, as they stood in thenearest degree, to an equal partition; but a female was incapable oftransmitting any legal claims; and the cognats of every rank, withoutexcepting the dear relation of a mother and a son, were disinherited bythe Twelve Tables, as strangers and aliens. Among the Romans agens orlineage was united by a common name and domestic rites; the variouscognomens or surnames of Scipio, or Marcellus, distinguished from eachother the subordinate branches or families of the Cornelian or Claudianrace: the default of the agnats, of the same surname, was suppliedby the larger denomination of gentiles; and the vigilance of the lawsmaintained, in the same name, the perpetual descent of religion andproperty. A similar principle dictated the Voconian law, [147] whichabolished the right of female inheritance. As long as virgins were givenor sold in marriage, the adoption of the wife extinguished the hopes ofthe daughter. But the equal succession of independent matrons supportedtheir pride and luxury, and might transport into a foreign house theriches of their fathers. 

While the maxims of Cato [148] were revered, they tended to perpetuatein each family a just and virtuous mediocrity: till female blandishmentsinsensibly triumphed; and every salutary restraint was lost in thedissolute greatness of the republic. The rigor of the decemvirs wastempered by the equity of the praetors. Their edicts restored andemancipated posthumous children to the rights of nature; and upon thefailure of the agnats, they preferred the blood of the cognats to thename of the gentiles whose title and character were insensibly coveredwith oblivion. The reciprocal inheritance of mothers and sons wasestablished in the Tertullian and Orphitian decrees by the humanity ofthe senate. A new and more impartial order was introduced by the Novelsof Justinian, who affected to revive the jurisprudence of the TwelveTables. The lines of masculine and female kindred were confounded: thedescending, ascending, and collateral series was accurately defined;and each degree, according tot he proximity of blood and affection, succeeded to the vacant possessions of a Roman citizen. [149]

[Footnote 143: Among the patriarchs, the first-born enjoyed a mystic andspiritual primogeniture, (Genesis, xxv. 31. ) In the land of Canaan, hewas entitled to a double portion of inheritance, (Deuteronomy, xxi. 17, with Le Clerc's judicious Commentary. )]

[Footnote 144: At Athens, the sons were equal; but the poor daughterswere endowed at the discretion of their brothers. See the pleadings ofIsaeus, (in the viith volume of the Greek Orators, ) illustrated by theversion and comment of Sir William Jones, a scholar, a lawyer, and a manof genius. ]

[Footnote 145: In England, the eldest son also inherits all the land;a law, says the orthodox Judge Blackstone, (Commentaries on the Lawsof England, vol. Ii. P. 215, ) unjust only in the opinion of youngerbrothers. It may be of some political use in sharpening their industry. ]

[Footnote 146: Blackstone's Tables (vol. Ii. P. 202) represent andcompare the decrees of the civil with those of the canon and common law. A separate tract of Julius Paulus, de gradibus et affinibus, is insertedor abridged in the Pandects, (l. Xxxviii. Tit. X. ) In the viith degreeshe computes (No. 18) 1024 persons. ]

[Footnote 147: The Voconian law was enacted in the year of Rome 584. Theyounger Scipio, who was then 17 years of age, (Frenshemius, Supplement. Livian. Xlvi. 40, ) found an occasion of exercising his generosity to hismother, sisters, &c. (Polybius, tom. Ii. L. Xxxi. P. 1453--1464, editGronov. , a domestic witness. )]

[Footnote 148: Legem Voconiam (Ernesti, Clavis Ciceroniana) magna vocebonis lateribus (at lxv. Years of age) suasissem, says old Cato, (deSenectute, c. 5, ) Aulus Gellius (vii. 13, xvii. 6) has saved somepassages. ]

[Footnote 149: See the law of succession in the Institutes of Caius, (l. Ii. Tit. Viii. P. 130--144, ) and Justinian, (l. Iii. Tit. I. --vi. , withthe Greek version of Theophilus, p. 515-575, 588--600, ) the Pandects, (l. Xxxviii. Tit. Vi. --xvii. , ) the Code, (l. Vi. Tit. Lv. --lx. , ) and theNovels, (cxviii. )]

The order of succession is regulated by nature, or at least by thegeneral and permanent reason of the lawgiver: but this order isfrequently violated by the arbitrary and partial wills, which prolongthe dominion of the testator beyond the grave. [150] In the simple stateof society, this last use or abuse of the right of property is seldomindulged: it was introduced at Athens by the laws of Solon; and theprivate testaments of the father of a family are authorized by theTwelve Tables. Before the time of the decemvirs, [151] a Roman citizenexposed his wishes and motives to the assembly of the thirty curiaeor parishes, and the general law of inheritance was suspended byan occasional act of the legislature. After the permission of thedecemvirs, each private lawgiver promulgated his verbal or writtentestament in the presence of five citizens, who represented the fiveclasses of the Roman people; a sixth witness attested their concurrence;a seventh weighed the copper money, which was paid by an imaginarypurchaser; and the estate was emancipated by a fictitious sale andimmediate release. This singular ceremony, [152] which excited thewonder of the Greeks, was still practised in the age of Severus; but thepraetors had already approved a more simple testament, for which theyrequired the seals and signatures of seven witnesses, free from alllegal exception, and purposely summoned for the execution of thatimportant act. A domestic monarch, who reigned over the lives andfortunes of his children, might distribute their respective sharesaccording to the degrees of their merit or his affection; his arbitrarydispleasure chastised an unworthy son by the loss of his inheritance, and the mortifying preference of a stranger. But the experience ofunnatural parents recommended some limitations of their testamentarypowers. A son, or, by the laws of Justinian, even a daughter, could nolonger be disinherited by their silence: they were compelled to namethe criminal, and to specify the offence; and the justice of the emperorenumerated the sole causes that could justify such a violation ofthe first principles of nature and society. [153] Unless a legitimateportion, a fourth part, had been reserved for the children, they wereentitled to institute an action or complaint of inofficious testament;to suppose that their father's understanding was impaired by sicknessor age; and respectfully to appeal from his rigorous sentence to thedeliberate wisdom of the magistrate. In the Roman jurisprudence, anessential distinction was admitted between the inheritance and thelegacies. The heirs who succeeded to the entire unity, or to any of thetwelve fractions of the substance of the testator, represented his civiland religious character, asserted his rights, fulfilled his obligations, and discharged the gifts of friendship or liberality, which his lastwill had bequeathed under the name of legacies. But as the imprudence orprodigality of a dying man might exhaust the inheritance, and leaveonly risk and labor to his successor, he was empowered to retain theFalcidian portion; to deduct, before the payment of the legacies, aclear fourth for his own emolument. A reasonable time was allowed toexamine the proportion between the debts and the estate, to decidewhether he should accept or refuse the testament; and if he used thebenefit of an inventory, the demands of the creditors could not exceedthe valuation of the effects. The last will of a citizen might bealtered during his life, or rescinded after his death: the persons whomhe named might die before him, or reject the inheritance, or be exposedto some legal disqualification. In the contemplation of these events, he was permitted to substitute second and third heirs, to replace eachother according to the order of the testament; and the incapacity ofa madman or an infant to bequeath his property might be supplied by asimilar substitution. [154] But the power of the testator expired withthe acceptance of the testament: each Roman of mature age and discretionacquired the absolute dominion of his inheritance, and the simplicity ofthe civil law was never clouded by the long and intricate entails whichconfine the happiness and freedom of unborn generations. 

[Footnote 150: That succession was the rule, testament the exception, is proved by Taylor, (Elements of Civil Law, p. 519-527, ) a learned, rambling, spirited writer. In the iid and iiid books, the method ofthe Institutes is doubtless preposterous; and the Chancellor Daguesseau(Oeuvres, tom. I. P. 275) wishes his countryman Domat in the place ofTribonian. Yet covenants before successions is not surely the naturalorder of civil laws. ]

[Footnote 151: Prior examples of testaments are perhaps fabulous. AtAthens a childless father only could make a will, (Plutarch, in Solone, tom. I. P. 164. See Isaeus and Jones. )]

[Footnote 152: The testament of Augustus is specified by Suetonius, (inAugust, c. 101, in Neron. C. 4, ) who may be studied as a code of Romanantiquities. Plutarch (Opuscul. Tom. Ii. P. 976) is surprised. Thelanguage of Ulpian (Fragment. Tit. Xx. P. 627, edit. Schulting) isalmost too exclusive--solum in usu est. ]

[Footnote 153: Justinian (Novell. Cxv. No. 3, 4) enumerates only thepublic and private crimes, for which a son might likewise disinherit hisfather. Note: Gibbon has singular notions on the provisions of Novell. Cxv. 3, 4, which probably he did not clearly understand. --W]

[Footnote 154: The substitutions of fidei-commissaires of the moderncivil law is a feudal idea grafted on the Roman jurisprudence, and bearsscarcely any resemblance to the ancient fidei-commissa, (Institutionsdu Droit Francois, tom. I. P. 347-383. Denissart, Decisions deJurisprudence, tom. Iv. P. 577-604. ) They were stretched to thefourth degree by an abuse of the clixth Novel; a partial, perplexed, declamatory law. ]

Conquest and the formalities of law established the use of codicils. Ifa Roman was surprised by death in a remote province of the empire, headdressed a short epistle to his legitimate or testamentary heir; whofulfilled with honor, or neglected with impunity, this last request, which the judges before the age of Augustus were not authorized toenforce. A codicil might be expressed in any mode, or in any language;but the subscription of five witnesses must declare that it was thegenuine composition of the author. His intention, however laudable, wassometimes illegal; and the invention of fidei-commissa, or trusts, aroseform the struggle between natural justice and positive jurisprudence. A stranger of Greece or Africa might be the friend or benefactor of achildless Roman, but none, except a fellow-citizen, could act as hisheir. The Voconian law, which abolished female succession, restrainedthe legacy or inheritance of a woman to the sum of one hundred thousandsesterces; [155] and an only daughter was condemned almost as an alienin her father's house. The zeal of friendship, and parental affection, suggested a liberal artifice: a qualified citizen was named in thetestament, with a prayer or injunction that he would restore theinheritance to the person for whom it was truly intended. Various wasthe conduct of the trustees in this painful situation: they had swornto observe the laws of their country, but honor prompted them to violatetheir oath; and if they preferred their interest under the mask ofpatriotism, they forfeited the esteem of every virtuous mind. Thedeclaration of Augustus relieved their doubts, gave a legal sanction toconfidential testaments and codicils, and gently unravelled the formsand restraints of the republican jurisprudence. [156] But as the newpractice of trusts degenerated into some abuse, the trustee was enabled, by the Trebellian and Pegasian decrees, to reserve one fourth of theestate, or to transfer on the head of the real heir all the debts andactions of the succession. The interpretation of testaments was strictand literal; but the language of trusts and codicils was delivered fromthe minute and technical accuracy of the civilians. [157]

[Footnote 155: Dion Cassius (tom. Ii. L. Lvi. P. 814, with Reimar'sNotes) specifies in Greek money the sum of 25, 000 drachms. ]

[Footnote 156: The revolutions of the Roman laws of inheritance arefinely, though sometimes fancifully, deduced by Montesquieu, (Esprit desLoix, l. Xxvii. )]

[Footnote 157: Of the civil jurisprudence of successions, testaments, codicils, legacies, and trusts, the principles are ascertained in theInstitutes of Caius, (l. Ii. Tit. Ii. --ix. P. 91--144, ) Justinian, (l. Ii. Tit. X. --xxv. , ) and Theophilus, (p. 328--514;) and the immensedetail occupies twelve books (xxviii. --xxxix. ) of the Pandects. ] III. The general duties of mankind are imposed by their public and privaterelations: but their specific obligations to each other can only be theeffect of, 1. A promise, 2. A benefit, or 3. An injury: and when theseobligations are ratified by law, the interested party may compel theperformance by a judicial action. On this principle, the civilians ofevery country have erected a similar jurisprudence, the fair conclusionof universal reason and justice. [158]

[Footnote 158: The Institutes of Caius, (l. Ii. Tit. Ix. X. P. 144--214, ) of Justinian, (l. Iii. Tit. Xiv. --xxx. L. Iv. Tit. I. --vi. , ) and of Theophilus, (p. 616--837, ) distinguish four sorts ofobligations--aut re, aut verbis, aut literis aut consensu: but I confessmyself partial to my own division. Note: It is not at all applicable tothe Roman system of contracts, even if I were allowed to be good. --M. ]

Chapter XLIV: Idea Of The Roman Jurisprudence. --Part VII. 

1. The goddess of faith (of human and social faith) was worshipped, notonly in her temples, but in the lives of the Romans; and if thatnation was deficient in the more amiable qualities of benevolence andgenerosity, they astonished the Greeks by their sincere and simpleperformance of the most burdensome engagements. [159] Yet among the samepeople, according to the rigid maxims of the patricians and decemvirs, a naked pact, a promise, or even an oath, did not create any civilobligation, unless it was confirmed by the legal form of a stipulation. Whatever might be the etymology of the Latin word, it conveyed the ideaof a firm and irrevocable contract, which was always expressed in themode of a question and answer. Do you promise to pay me one hundredpieces of gold? was the solemn interrogation of Seius. I do promise, wasthe reply of Sempronius. The friends of Sempronius, who answered forhis ability and inclination, might be separately sued at the option ofSeius; and the benefit of partition, or order of reciprocal actions, insensibly deviated from the strict theory of stipulation. The mostcautious and deliberate consent was justly required to sustain thevalidity of a gratuitous promise; and the citizen who might haveobtained a legal security, incurred the suspicion of fraud, and paid theforfeit of his neglect. But the ingenuity of the civilians successfullylabored to convert simple engagements into the form of solemnstipulations. The praetors, as the guardians of social faith, admittedevery rational evidence of a voluntary and deliberate act, which intheir tribunal produced an equitable obligation, and for which they gavean action and a remedy. [160]

[Footnote 159: How much is the cool, rational evidence of Polybius (l. Vi. P. 693, l. Xxxi. P. 1459, 1460) superior to vague, indiscriminateapplause--omnium maxime et praecipue fidem coluit, (A. Gellius, xx. L. )]

[Footnote 160: The Jus Praetorium de Pactis et Transactionibus is aseparate and satisfactory treatise of Gerard Noodt, (Opp. Tom. I. P. 483--564. ) And I will here observe, that the universities of Hollandand Brandenburg, in the beginning of the present century, appear to havestudied the civil law on the most just and liberal principles. * Note:Simple agreements (pacta) formed as valid an obligation as a solemncontract. Only an action, or the right to a direct judicial prosecution, was not permitted in every case of compact. In all other respects, thejudge was bound to maintain an agreement made by pactum. The stipulationwas a form common to every kind of agreement, by which the right ofaction was given to this. --W. ]

2. The obligations of the second class, as they were contracted by thedelivery of a thing, are marked by the civilians with the epithet ofreal. [161] A grateful return is due to the author of a benefit; andwhoever is intrusted with the property of another, has bound himselfto the sacred duty of restitution. In the case of a friendly loan, themerit of generosity is on the side of the lender only; in a deposit, onthe side of the receiver; but in a pledge, and the rest of the selfishcommerce of ordinary life, the benefit is compensated by an equivalent, and the obligation to restore is variously modified by the nature of thetransaction. The Latin language very happily expresses the fundamentaldifference between the commodatum and the mutuum, which our poverty isreduced to confound under the vague and common appellation of a loan. In the former, the borrower was obliged to restore the same individualthing with which he had been accommodated for the temporary supply ofhis wants; in the latter, it was destined for his use and consumption, and he discharged this mutual engagement, by substituting the samespecific value according to a just estimation of number, of weight, and of measure. In the contract of sale, the absolute dominion istransferred to the purchaser, and he repays the benefit with an adequatesum of gold or silver, the price and universal standard of all earthlypossessions. The obligation of another contract, that of location, is ofa more complicated kind. Lands or houses, labor or talents, may be hiredfor a definite term; at the expiration of the time, the thing itselfmust be restored to the owner, with an additional reward for thebeneficial occupation and employment. In these lucrative contracts, towhich may be added those of partnership and commissions, the civilianssometimes imagine the delivery of the object, and sometimes presume theconsent of the parties. The substantial pledge has been refined into theinvisible rights of a mortgage or hypotheca; and the agreement of sale, for a certain price, imputes, from that moment, the chances of gain orloss to the account of the purchaser. It may be fairly supposed, thatevery man will obey the dictates of his interest; and if he accepts thebenefit, he is obliged to sustain the expense, of the transaction. Inthis boundless subject, the historian will observe the location of landand money, the rent of the one and the interest of the other, as theymaterially affect the prosperity of agriculture and commerce. Thelandlord was often obliged to advance the stock and instruments ofhusbandry, and to content himself with a partition of the fruits. If thefeeble tenant was oppressed by accident, contagion, or hostile violence, he claimed a proportionable relief from the equity of the laws: fiveyears were the customary term, and no solid or costly improvements couldbe expected from a farmer, who, at each moment might be ejected by thesale of the estate. [162] Usury, [163] the inveterate grievance of thecity, had been discouraged by the Twelve Tables, [164] and abolished bythe clamors of the people. It was revived by their wants and idleness, tolerated by the discretion of the praetors, and finally determined bythe Code of Justinian. Persons of illustrious rank were confined to themoderate profit of four per cent. ; six was pronounced to be the ordinaryand legal standard of interest; eight was allowed for the convenienceof manufactures and merchants; twelve was granted to nautical insurance, which the wiser ancients had not attempted to define; but, except inthis perilous adventure, the practice of exorbitant usury was severelyrestrained. [165] The most simple interest was condemned by the clergyof the East and West; [166] but the sense of mutual benefit, which hadtriumphed over the law of the republic, has resisted with equal firmnessthe decrees of the church, and even the prejudices of mankind. [167]

[Footnote 161: The nice and various subject of contracts by consent isspread over four books (xvii. --xx. ) of the Pandects, and is one of theparts best deserving of the attention of an English student. * Note:This is erroneously called "benefits. " Gibbon enumerates various kindsof contracts, of which some alone are properly called benefits. --W. ]

[Footnote 162: The covenants of rent are defined in the Pandects (l. Xix. ) and the Code, (l. Iv. Tit. Lxv. ) The quinquennium, or term of fiveyears, appears to have been a custom rather than a law; but in Franceall leases of land were determined in nine years. This limitation wasremoved only in the year 1775, (Encyclopedie Methodique, tom. I. Dela Jurisprudence, p. 668, 669;) and I am sorry to observe that it yetprevails in the beauteous and happy country where I am permitted toreside. ]

[Footnote 163: I might implicitly acquiesce in the sense and learningof the three books of G. Noodt, de foenore et usuris. (Opp. Tom. I. P. 175--268. ) The interpretation of the asses or centesimoe usuroeat twelve, the unciarioe at one per cent. , is maintained by the bestcritics and civilians: Noodt, (l. Ii. C. 2, p. 207, ) Gravina, (Opp. P. 205, &c. , 210, ) Heineccius, (Antiquitat. Ad Institut. L. Iii. Tit. Xv. , )Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, l. Xxii. C. 22, tom. Ii. P. 36). Defensede l'Esprit des Loix, (tom. Iii. P. 478, &c. , ) and above all, JohnFrederic Gronovius (de Pecunia Veteri, l. Iii. C. 13, p. 213--227, )and his three Antexegeses, (p. 455--655), the founder, or at least thechampion, of this probable opinion; which is, however, perplexed withsome difficulties. ]

[Footnote 164: Primo xii. Tabulis sancitum est ne quis unciario foenoreamplius exerceret, (Tacit. Annal. Vi. 16. ) Pour peu (says Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, l. Xxii. 22) qu'on soit verse dans l'histoire de Rome, on verra qu'une pareille loi ne devoit pas etre l'ouvrage des decemvirs. Was Tacitus ignorant--or stupid? But the wiser and more virtuouspatricians might sacrifice their avarice to their ambition, and mightattempt to check the odious practice by such interest as no lender wouldaccept, and such penalties as no debtor would incur. * Note: The realnature of the foenus unciarium has been proved; it amounted in a year oftwelve months to ten per cent. See, in the Magazine for Civil Law, by M. Hugo, vol. V. P. 180, 184, an article of M. Schrader, following up theconjectures of Niebuhr, Hist. Rom. Tom. Ii. P. 431. --W. Compare a veryclear account of this question in the appendix to Mr. Travers Twiss'sEpitome of Niebuhr, vol. Ii. P. 257. --M. ]

[Footnote 165: Justinian has not condescended to give usury a place inhis Institutes; but the necessary rules and restrictions are insertedin the Pandects (l. Xxii. Tit. I. Ii. ) and the Code, (l. Iv. Tit. Xxxii. Xxxiii. )]

[Footnote 166: The Fathers are unanimous, (Barbeyrac, Morale des Peres, p. 144. &c. :) Cyprian, Lactantius, Basil, Chrysostom, (see his frivolousarguments in Noodt, l. I. C. 7, p. 188, ) Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, Jerom, Augustin, and a host of councils and casuists. ]

[Footnote 167: Cato, Seneca, Plutarch, have loudly condemned thepractice or abuse of usury. According to the etymology of foenus, theprincipal is supposed to generate the interest: a breed of barren metal, exclaims Shakespeare--and the stage is the echo of the public voice. ]

3. Nature and society impose the strict obligation of repairing aninjury; and the sufferer by private injustice acquires a personal rightand a legitimate action. If the property of another be intrusted to ourcare, the requisite degree of care may rise and fall according to thebenefit which we derive from such temporary possession; we are seldommade responsible for inevitable accident, but the consequences of avoluntary fault must always be imputed to the author. [168] A Romanpursued and recovered his stolen goods by a civil action of theft; theymight pass through a succession of pure and innocent hands, but nothingless than a prescription of thirty years could extinguish his originalclaim. They were restored by the sentence of the praetor, and the injurywas compensated by double, or threefold, or even quadruple damages, asthe deed had been perpetrated by secret fraud or open rapine, as therobber had been surprised in the fact, or detected by a subsequentresearch. The Aquilian law [169] defended the living property of acitizen, his slaves and cattle, from the stroke of malice or negligence:the highest price was allowed that could be ascribed to the domesticanimal at any moment of the year preceding his death; a similar latitudeof thirty days was granted on the destruction of any other valuableeffects. A personal injury is blunted or sharpened by the manners of thetimes and the sensibility of the individual: the pain or the disgrace ofa word or blow cannot easily be appreciated by a pecuniary equivalent. The rude jurisprudence of the decemvirs had confounded all hastyinsults, which did not amount to the fracture of a limb, by condemningthe aggressor to the common penalty of twenty-five asses. But the samedenomination of money was reduced, in three centuries, from a poundto the weight of half an ounce: and the insolence of a wealthy Romanindulged himself in the cheap amusement of breaking and satisfying thelaw of the twelve tables. Veratius ran through the streets strikingon the face the inoffensive passengers, and his attendant purse-bearerimmediately silenced their clamors by the legal tender of twenty-fivepieces of copper, about the value of one shilling. [170] The equityof the praetors examined and estimated the distinct merits of eachparticular complaint. In the adjudication of civil damages, themagistrate assumed a right to consider the various circumstances oftime and place, of age and dignity, which may aggravate the shame andsufferings of the injured person; but if he admitted the idea of a fine, a punishment, an example, he invaded the province, though, perhaps, hesupplied the defects, of the criminal law. [Footnote 168: Sir WilliamJones has given an ingenious and rational Essay on the law of Bailment, (London, 1781, p. 127, in 8vo. ) He is perhaps the only lawyer equallyconversant with the year-books of Westminster, the Commentaries ofUlpian, the Attic pleadings of Isaeus, and the sentences of Arabian andPersian cadhis. ]

[Footnote 169: Noodt (Opp. Tom. I. P. 137--172) has composed a separatetreatise, ad Legem Aquilian, (Pandect. L. Ix. Tit. Ii. )]

[Footnote 170: Aulus Gellius (Noct. Attic. Xx. I. ) borrowed this storyfrom the Commentaries of Q. Labeo on the xii. Tables. ]

The execution of the Alban dictator, who was dismembered by eighthorses, is represented by Livy as the first and the fast instance ofRoman cruelty in the punishment of the most atrocious crimes. [171] Butthis act of justice, or revenge, was inflicted on a foreign enemy in theheat of victory, and at the command of a single man. The twelve tablesafford a more decisive proof of the national spirit, since they wereframed by the wisest of the senate, and accepted by the free voicesof the people; yet these laws, like the statutes of Draco, [172] arewritten in characters of blood. [173] They approve the inhuman andunequal principle of retaliation; and the forfeit of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a limb for a limb, is rigorously exacted, unlessthe offender can redeem his pardon by a fine of three hundred poundsof copper. The decemvirs distributed with much liberality the slighterchastisements of flagellation and servitude; and nine crimes of a verydifferent complexion are adjudged worthy of death. 

1. Any act of treason against the state, or of correspondence with thepublic enemy. The mode of execution was painful and ignominious: thehead of the degenerate Roman was shrouded in a veil, his hands were tiedbehind his back, and after he had been scourged by the lictor, he wassuspended in the midst of the forum on a cross, or inauspicious tree. 

2. Nocturnal meetings in the city; whatever might be the pretence, ofpleasure, or religion, or the public good. 

3. The murder of a citizen; for which the common feelings of mankinddemand the blood of the murderer. Poison is still more odious than thesword or dagger; and we are surprised to discover, in two flagitiousevents, how early such subtle wickedness had infected the simplicityof the republic, and the chaste virtues of the Roman matrons. [174] Theparricide, who violated the duties of nature and gratitude, was castinto the river or the sea, enclosed in a sack; and a cock, a viper, a dog, and a monkey, were successively added, as the most suitablecompanions. [175] Italy produces no monkeys; but the want could never befelt, till the middle of the sixth century first revealed the guilt of aparricide. [176]

4. The malice of an incendiary. After the previous ceremony of whipping, he himself was delivered to the flames; and in this example alone ourreason is tempted to applaud the justice of retaliation. 

5. Judicial perjury. The corrupt or malicious witness was thrownheadlong from the Tarpeian rock, to expiate his falsehood, which wasrendered still more fatal by the severity of the penal laws, and thedeficiency of written evidence. 

6. The corruption of a judge, who accepted bribes to pronounce aniniquitous sentence. 

7. Libels and satires, whose rude strains sometimes disturbed thepeace of an illiterate city. The author was beaten with clubs, a worthychastisement, but it is not certain that he was left to expire under theblows of the executioner. [177]

8. The nocturnal mischief of damaging or destroying a neighbor's corn. The criminal was suspended as a grateful victim to Ceres. But the sylvandeities were less implacable, and the extirpation of a more valuabletree was compensated by the moderate fine of twenty-five pounds ofcopper. 

9. Magical incantations; which had power, in the opinion of the Latinshepherds, to exhaust the strength of an enemy, to extinguish his life, and to remove from their seats his deep-rooted plantations. 

The cruelty of the twelve tables against insolvent debtors still remainsto be told; and I shall dare to prefer the literal sense of antiquityto the specious refinements of modern criticism. [178] [1781] Afterthe judicial proof or confession of the debt, thirty days of gracewere allowed before a Roman was delivered into the power of hisfellow-citizen. In this private prison, twelve ounces of rice were hisdaily food; he might be bound with a chain of fifteen pounds weight;and his misery was thrice exposed in the market place, to solicit thecompassion of his friends and countrymen. At the expiration of sixtydays, the debt was discharged by the loss of liberty or life; theinsolvent debtor was either put to death, or sold in foreign slaverybeyond the Tyber: but, if several creditors were alike obstinate andunrelenting, they might legally dismember his body, and satiate theirrevenge by this horrid partition. The advocates for this savage law haveinsisted, that it must strongly operate in deterring idleness andfraud from contracting debts which they were unable to discharge; butexperience would dissipate this salutary terror, by proving that nocreditor could be found to exact this unprofitable penalty of life orlimb. As the manners of Rome were insensibly polished, the criminal codeof the decemvirs was abolished by the humanity of accusers, witnesses, and judges; and impunity became the consequence of immoderate rigor. ThePorcian and Valerian laws prohibited the magistrates from inflictingon a free citizen any capital, or even corporal, punishment; and theobsolete statutes of blood were artfully, and perhaps truly, ascribed tothe spirit, not of patrician, but of regal, tyranny. 

[Footnote 171: The narrative of Livy (i. 28) is weighty and solemn. At tu, Albane, maneres, is a harsh reflection, unworthy of Virgil'shumanity, (Aeneid, viii. 643. ) Heyne, with his usual good taste, observes that the subject was too horrid for the shield of Aencas, (tom. Iii. P. 229. )]

[Footnote 172: The age of Draco (Olympiad xxxix. L) is fixed by Sir JohnMarsham (Canon Chronicus, p. 593--596) and Corsini, (Fasti Attici, tom. Iii. P. 62. ) For his laws, see the writers on the government of Athens, Sigonius, Meursius, Potter, &c. ]

[Footnote 173: The viith, de delictis, of the xii. Tables is delineatedby Gravina, (Opp. P. 292, 293, with a commentary, p. 214--230. ) AulusGellius (xx. 1) and the Collatio Legum Mosaicarum et Romanarum affordmuch original information. ]

[Footnote 174: Livy mentions two remarkable and flagitious aeras, of3000 persons accused, and of 190 noble matrons convicted, of the crimeof poisoning, (xl. 43, viii. 18. ) Mr. Hume discriminates the ages ofprivate and public virtue, (Essays, vol. I. P. 22, 23. ) I would rathersay that such ebullitions of mischief (as in France in the year 1680)are accidents and prodigies which leave no marks on the manners of anation. ]

[Footnote 175: The xii. Tables and Cicero (pro Roscio Amerino, c. 25, 26) are content with the sack; Seneca (Excerpt. Controvers. V 4)adorns it with serpents; Juvenal pities the guiltless monkey (innoxiasimia--156. ) Adrian (apud Dositheum Magistrum, l. Iii. C. P. 874--876, with Schulting's Note, ) Modestinus, (Pandect. Xlviii. Tit. Ix. Leg. 9, )Constantine, (Cod. L. Ix. Tit. Xvii. , ) and Justinian, (Institut. L. Iv. Tit. Xviii. , ) enumerate all the companions of the parricide. But thisfanciful execution was simplified in practice. Hodie tamen viv exurunturvel ad bestias dantur, (Paul. Sentent. Recept. L. V. Tit. Xxiv p. 512, edit. Schulting. )]

[Footnote 176: The first parricide at Rome was L. Ostius, after thesecond Punic war, (Plutarch, in Romulo, tom. I. P. 54. ) During theCimbric, P. Malleolus was guilty of the first matricide, (Liv. Epitom. L. Lxviii. )]

[Footnote 177: Horace talks of the formidine fustis, (l. Ii. Epist. Ii. 154, ) but Cicero (de Republica, l. Iv. Apud Augustin. De Civitat. Dei, ix. 6, in Fragment. Philosoph. Tom. Iii. P. 393, edit. Olivet) affirmsthat the decemvirs made libels a capital offence: cum perpaucas rescapite sanxisent--perpaucus!]

[Footnote 178: Bynkershoek (Observat. Juris Rom. L. I. C. 1, in Opp. Tom. I. P. 9, 10, 11) labors to prove that the creditors divided not thebody, but the price, of the insolvent debtor. Yet his interpretation isone perpetual harsh metaphor; nor can he surmount the Roman authoritiesof Quintilian, Caecilius, Favonius, and Tertullian. See Aulus Gellius, Noct. Attic. Xxi. ]

[Footnote 1781: Hugo (Histoire du Droit Romain, tom. I. P. 234) concurswith Gibbon See Niebuhr, vol. Ii. P. 313. --M. ]

In the absence of penal laws, and the insufficiency of civil actions, the peace and justice of the city were imperfectly maintained by theprivate jurisdiction of the citizens. The malefactors who replenish ourjails are the outcasts of society, and the crimes for which they suffermay be commonly ascribed to ignorance, poverty, and brutal appetite. Forthe perpetration of similar enormities, a vile plebeian might claimand abuse the sacred character of a member of the republic: but, on theproof or suspicion of guilt, the slave, or the stranger, was nailed toa cross; and this strict and summary justice might be exercised withoutrestraint over the greatest part of the populace of Rome. 

Each family contained a domestic tribunal, which was not confined, likethat of the praetor, to the cognizance of external actions: virtuousprinciples and habits were inculcated by the discipline of education;and the Roman father was accountable to the state for the manners ofhis children, since he disposed, without appeal, of their life, theirliberty, and their inheritance. In some pressing emergencies, thecitizen was authorized to avenge his private or public wrongs. Theconsent of the Jewish, the Athenian, and the Roman laws approved theslaughter of the nocturnal thief; though in open daylight a robber couldnot be slain without some previous evidence of danger and complaint. Whoever surprised an adulterer in his nuptial bed might freely exercisehis revenge; [179] the most bloody and wanton outrage was excused bythe provocation; [180] nor was it before the reign of Augustus thatthe husband was reduced to weigh the rank of the offender, or that theparent was condemned to sacrifice his daughter with her guilty seducer. After the expulsion of the kings, the ambitious Roman, who should dareto assume their title or imitate their tyranny, was devoted to theinfernal gods: each of his fellow-citizens was armed with the swordof justice; and the act of Brutus, however repugnant to gratitude orprudence, had been already sanctified by the judgment of his country. [181] The barbarous practice of wearing arms in the midst of peace, [182] and the bloody maxims of honor, were unknown to the Romans; and, during the two purest ages, from the establishment of equal freedom tothe end of the Punic wars, the city was never disturbed by sedition, and rarely polluted with atrocious crimes. The failure of penal laws wasmore sensibly felt, when every vice was inflamed by faction at home anddominion abroad. In the time of Cicero, each private citizen enjoyed theprivilege of anarchy; each minister of the republic was exalted tothe temptations of regal power, and their virtues are entitled to thewarmest praise, as the spontaneous fruits of nature or philosophy. Aftera triennial indulgence of lust, rapine, and cruelty, Verres, the tyrantof Sicily, could only be sued for the pecuniary restitution of threehundred thousand pounds sterling; and such was the temper of the laws, the judges, and perhaps the accuser himself, [183] that, on refundinga thirteenth part of his plunder, Verres could retire to an easy andluxurious exile. [184]

[Footnote 179: The first speech of Lysias (Reiske, Orator. Graec. Tom. V. P. 2--48) is in defence of a husband who had killed the adulterer. The rights of husbands and fathers at Rome and Athens are discussed withmuch learning by Dr. Taylor, (Lectiones Lysiacae, c. Xi. In Reiske, tom. Vi. P. 301--308. )]

[Footnote 180: See Casaubon ad Athenaeum, l. I. C. 5, p. 19. Percurrentraphanique mugilesque, (Catull. P. 41, 42, edit. Vossian. ) Hunc mugilisintrat, (Juvenal. Satir. X. 317. ) Hunc perminxere calones, (Horat l. I. Satir. Ii. 44. ) Familiae stuprandum dedit. . Fraudi non fuit, (Val. Maxim. L. Vi. C. L, No. 13. )]

[Footnote 181: This law is noticed by Livy (ii. 8) and Plutarch, (inPubliccla, tom. I. P. 187, ) and it fully justifies the public opinionon the death of Caesar which Suetonius could publish under the Imperialgovernment. Jure caesus existimatur, (in Julio, c. 76. ) Read the lettersthat passed between Cicero and Matius a few months after the ides ofMarch (ad Fam. Xi. 27, 28. )]

[Footnote 182: Thucydid. L. I. C. 6 The historian who considers thiscircumstance as the test of civilization, would disdain the barbarism ofa European court]

[Footnote 183: He first rated at millies (800, 000 L. ) the damages ofSicily, (Divinatio in Caecilium, c. 5, ) which he afterwards reduced toquadringenties, (320, 000 L. --1 Actio in Verrem, c. 18, ) and was finallycontent with tricies, (24, 000l L. ) Plutarch (in Ciceron. Tom. Iii. P. 1584) has not dissembled the popular suspicion and report. ]

[Footnote 184: Verres lived near thirty years after his trial, till thesecond triumvirate, when he was proscribed by the taste of Mark Antonyfor the sake of his Corinthian plate, (Plin. Hist. Natur. Xxxiv. 3. )]

The first imperfect attempt to restore the proportion of crimes andpunishments was made by the dictator Sylla, who, in the midst of hissanguinary triumph, aspired to restrain the license, rather thanto oppress the liberty, of the Romans. He gloried in the arbitraryproscription of four thousand seven hundred citizens. [185] But, in thecharacter of a legislator, he respected the prejudices of the times;and, instead of pronouncing a sentence of death against the robber orassassin, the general who betrayed an army, or the magistrate who ruineda province, Sylla was content to aggravate the pecuniary damages bythe penalty of exile, or, in more constitutional language, by theinterdiction of fire and water. The Cornelian, and afterwardsthe Pompeian and Julian, laws introduced a new system of criminaljurisprudence; [186] and the emperors, from Augustus to Justinian, disguised their increasing rigor under the names of the originalauthors. But the invention and frequent use of extraordinary painsproceeded from the desire to extend and conceal the progress ofdespotism. In the condemnation of illustrious Romans, the senate wasalways prepared to confound, at the will of their masters, the judicialand legislative powers. It was the duty of the governors to maintain thepeace of their province, by the arbitrary and rigid administration ofjustice; the freedom of the city evaporated in the extent of empire, and the Spanish malefactor, who claimed the privilege of a Roman, waselevated by the command of Galba on a fairer and more lofty cross. [187]Occasional rescripts issued from the throne to decide the questionswhich, by their novelty or importance, appeared to surpass the authorityand discernment of a proconsul. Transportation and beheading werereserved for honorable persons; meaner criminals were either hanged, or burnt, or buried in the mines, or exposed to the wild beasts of theamphitheatre. Armed robbers were pursued and extirpated as the enemiesof society; the driving away horses or cattle was made a capitaloffence; [188] but simple theft was uniformly considered as a mere civiland private injury. The degrees of guilt, and the modes of punishment, were too often determined by the discretion of the rulers, and thesubject was left in ignorance of the legal danger which he might incurby every action of his life. 

[Footnote 185: Such is the number assigned by Valer'us Maximus, (l. Ix. C. 2, No. 1, ) Florus (iv. 21) distinguishes 2000 senators andknights. Appian (de Bell. Civil. L. I. C. 95, tom. Ii. P. 133, edit. Schweighauser) more accurately computes forty victims of the senatorianrank, and 1600 of the equestrian census or order. ]

[Footnote 186: For the penal laws (Leges Corneliae, Pompeiae, Julae, of Sylla, Pompey, and the Caesars) see the sentences of Paulus, (l. Iv. Tit. Xviii. --xxx. P. 497--528, edit. Schulting, ) the Gregorian Code, (Fragment. L. Xix. P. 705, 706, in Schulting, ) the Collatio LegumMosaicarum et Romanarum, (tit. I. --xv. , ) the Theodosian Code, (l. Ix. , ) the Code of Justinian, (l. Ix. , ) the Pandects, (xlviii. , ) theInstitutes, (l. Iv. Tit. Xviii. , ) and the Greek version of Theophilus, (p. 917--926. )]

[Footnote 187: It was a guardian who had poisoned his ward. The crimewas atrocious: yet the punishment is reckoned by Suetonius (c. 9) amongthe acts in which Galba showed himself acer, vehemens, et in delictiscoercendis immodicus. ]

[Footnote 188: The abactores or abigeatores, who drove one horse, ortwo mares or oxen, or five hogs, or ten goats, were subject to capitalpunishment, (Paul, Sentent. Recept. L. Iv. Tit. Xviii. P. 497, 498. )Hadrian, (ad Concil. Baeticae, ) most severe where the offence was mostfrequent, condemns the criminals, ad gladium, ludi damnationem, (Ulpian, de Officio Proconsulis, l. Viii. In Collatione Legum Mosaic. Et Rom. Tit. Xi p. 235. )]

A sin, a vice, a crime, are the objects of theology, ethics, andjurisprudence. Whenever their judgments agree, they corroborate eachother; but, as often as they differ, a prudent legislator appreciatesthe guilt and punishment according to the measure of social injury. Onthis principle, the most daring attack on the life and property of aprivate citizen is judged less atrocious than the crime of treason orrebellion, which invades the majesty of the republic: the obsequiouscivilians unanimously pronounced, that the republic is contained in theperson of its chief; and the edge of the Julian law was sharpened bythe incessant diligence of the emperors. The licentious commerce of thesexes may be tolerated as an impulse of nature, or forbidden as a sourceof disorder and corruption; but the fame, the fortunes, the family ofthe husband, are seriously injured by the adultery of the wife. Thewisdom of Augustus, after curbing the freedom of revenge, applied tothis domestic offence the animadversion of the laws: and the guiltyparties, after the payment of heavy forfeitures and fines, werecondemned to long or perpetual exile in two separate islands. [189]Religion pronounces an equal censure against the infidelity of thehusband; but, as it is not accompanied by the same civil effects, the wife was never permitted to vindicate her wrongs; [190] and thedistinction of simple or double adultery, so familiar and so importantin the canon law, is unknown to the jurisprudence of the Code and thePandects. I touch with reluctance, and despatch with impatience, a moreodious vice, of which modesty rejects the name, and nature abominatesthe idea. The primitive Romans were infected by the example of theEtruscans [191] and Greeks: [192] and in the mad abuse of prosperityand power, every pleasure that is innocent was deemed insipid; and theScatinian law, [193] which had been extorted by an act of violence, was insensibly abolished by the lapse of time and the multitude ofcriminals. By this law, the rape, perhaps the seduction, of an ingenuousyouth, was compensated, as a personal injury, by the poor damages of tenthousand sesterces, or fourscore pounds; the ravisher might be slain bythe resistance or revenge of chastity; and I wish to believe, that atRome, as in Athens, the voluntary and effeminate deserter of his sexwas degraded from the honors and the rights of a citizen. [194] But thepractice of vice was not discouraged by the severity of opinion:the indelible stain of manhood was confounded with the more venialtransgressions of fornication and adultery, nor was the licentious loverexposed to the same dishonor which he impressed on the male or femalepartner of his guilt. From Catullus to Juvenal, [195] the poets accuseand celebrate the degeneracy of the times; and the reformation ofmanners was feebly attempted by the reason and authority of thecivilians till the most virtuous of the Caesars proscribed the sinagainst nature as a crime against society. [196]

[Footnote 189: Till the publication of the Julius Paulus of Schulting, (l. Ii. Tit. Xxvi. P. 317--323, ) it was affirmed and believed that theJulian laws punished adultery with death; and the mistake arose from thefraud or error of Tribonian. Yet Lipsius had suspected the truth fromthe narratives of Tacitus, (Annal. Ii. 50, iii. 24, iv. 42, ) andeven from the practice of Augustus, who distinguished the treasonablefrailties of his female kindred. ]

[Footnote 190: In cases of adultery, Severus confined to the husband theright of public accusation, (Cod. Justinian, l. Ix. Tit. Ix. Leg. 1. )Nor is this privilege unjust--so different are the effects of male orfemale infidelity. ]

[Footnote 191: Timon (l. I. ) and Theopompus (l. Xliii. Apud Athenaeum, l. Xii. P. 517) describe the luxury and lust of the Etruscans. About thesame period (A. U. C. 445) the Roman youth studied in Etruria, (liv. Ix. 36. )]

[Footnote 192: The Persians had been corrupted in the same school, (Herodot. L. I. C. 135. ) A curious dissertation might be formed on theintroduction of paederasty after the time of Homer, its progress amongthe Greeks of Asia and Europe, the vehemence of their passions, and thethin device of virtue and friendship which amused the philosophers ofAthens. But scelera ostendi oportet dum puniuntur, abscondi flagitia. ]

[Footnote 193: The name, the date, and the provisions of this law areequally doubtful, (Gravina, Opp. P. 432, 433. Heineccius, Hist. Jur. Rom. No. 108. Ernesti, Clav. Ciceron. In Indice Legum. ) But I willobserve that the nefanda Venus of the honest German is styled aversa bythe more polite Italian. ]

[Footnote 194: See the oration of Aeschines against the catamiteTimarchus, (in Reiske, Orator. Graec. Tom. Iii. P. 21--184. )]

[Footnote 195: A crowd of disgraceful passages will force themselveson the memory of the classic reader: I will only remind him of the cooldeclaration of Ovid:-- Odi concubitus qui non utrumque resolvant. Hocest quod puerum tangar amore minus. ]

[Footnote 196: Aelius Lampridius, in Vit. Heliogabal. In Hist. August p. 112 Aurelius Victor, in Philippo, Codex Theodos. L. Ix. Tit. Vii. Leg. 7, and Godefroy's Commentary, tom. Iii. P. 63. Theodosius abolished thesubterraneous brothels of Rome, in which the prostitution of both sexeswas acted with impunity. ]

Chapter XLIV: Idea Of The Roman Jurisprudence. --Part VIII. 

A new spirit of legislation, respectable even in its error, arose in theempire with the religion of Constantine. [197] The laws of Moses werereceived as the divine original of justice, and the Christian princesadapted their penal statutes to the degrees of moral and religiousturpitude. Adultery was first declared to be a capital offence: thefrailty of the sexes was assimilated to poison or assassination, tosorcery or parricide; the same penalties were inflicted on the passiveand active guilt of paederasty; and all criminals of free or servilecondition were either drowned or beheaded, or cast alive into theavenging flames. The adulterers were spared by the common sympathy ofmankind; but the lovers of their own sex were pursued by general andpious indignation: the impure manners of Greece still prevailed in thecities of Asia, and every vice was fomented by the celibacy of themonks and clergy. Justinian relaxed the punishment at least of femaleinfidelity: the guilty spouse was only condemned to solitude andpenance, and at the end of two years she might be recalled to thearms of a forgiving husband. But the same emperor declared himself theimplacable enemy of unmanly lust, and the cruelty of his persecution canscarcely be excused by the purity of his motives. [198] In defianceof every principle of justice, he stretched to past as well as futureoffences the operations of his edicts, with the previous allowance of ashort respite for confession and pardon. A painful death was inflictedby the amputation of the sinful instrument, or the insertion of sharpreeds into the pores and tubes of most exquisite sensibility; andJustinian defended the propriety of the execution, since the criminalswould have lost their hands, had they been convicted of sacrilege. Inthis state of disgrace and agony, two bishops, Isaiah of Rhodesand Alexander of Diospolis, were dragged through the streets ofConstantinople, while their brethren were admonished, by the voice of acrier, to observe this awful lesson, and not to pollute the sanctityof their character. Perhaps these prelates were innocent. A sentence ofdeath and infamy was often founded on the slight and suspicious evidenceof a child or a servant: the guilt of the green faction, of therich, and of the enemies of Theodora, was presumed by the judges, andpaederasty became the crime of those to whom no crime could be imputed. A French philosopher [199] has dared to remark that whatever is secretmust be doubtful, and that our natural horror of vice may be abused asan engine of tyranny. But the favorable persuasion of the same writer, that a legislator may confide in the taste and reason of mankind, isimpeached by the unwelcome discovery of the antiquity and extent of thedisease. [200]

[Footnote 197: See the laws of Constantine and his successors againstadultery, sodomy &c. , in the Theodosian, (l. Ix. Tit. Vii. Leg. 7, l. Xi. Tit. Xxxvi leg. 1, 4) and Justinian Codes, (l. Ix. Tit. Ix. Leg. 30, 31. ) These princes speak the language of passion as well as of justice, and fraudulently ascribe their own severity to the first Caesars. ]

[Footnote 198: Justinian, Novel. Lxxvii. Cxxxiv. Cxli. Procopius inAnecdot. C. 11, 16, with the notes of Alemannus. Theophanes, p. 151. Cedrenus. P. 688. Zonaras, l. Xiv. P. 64. ]

[Footnote 199: Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, l. Xii. C. 6. That eloquentphilosopher conciliates the rights of liberty and of nature, whichshould never be placed in opposition to each other. ]

[Footnote 200: For the corruption of Palestine, 2000 years before theChristian aera, see the history and laws of Moses. Ancient Gaul isstigmatized by Diodorus Siculus, (tom. I. L. V. P. 356, ) China by theMahometar and Christian travellers, (Ancient Relations of India andChina, p. 34 translated by Renaudot, and his bitter critic the PerePremare, Lettres Edifiantes, tom. Xix. P. 435, ) and native America bythe Spanish historians, (Garcilasso de la Vega, l. Iii. C. 13, Rycaut'stranslation; and Dictionnaire de Bayle, tom. Iii. P. 88. ) I believe, and hope, that the negroes, in their own country, were exempt from thismoral pestilence. ]

The free citizens of Athens and Rome enjoyed, in all criminal cases, the invaluable privilege of being tried by their country. [201] 1. Theadministration of justice is the most ancient office of a prince: it wasexercised by the Roman kings, and abused by Tarquin; who alone, withoutlaw or council, pronounced his arbitrary judgments. The first consulssucceeded to this regal prerogative; but the sacred right of appeal soonabolished the jurisdiction of the magistrates, and all public causeswere decided by the supreme tribunal of the people. But a wilddemocracy, superior to the forms, too often disdains the essentialprinciples, of justice: the pride of despotism was envenomed by plebeianenvy, and the heroes of Athens might sometimes applaud the happiness ofthe Persian, whose fate depended on the caprice of a single tyrant. Somesalutary restraints, imposed by the people or their own passions, were at once the cause and effect of the gravity and temperance of theRomans. The right of accusation was confined to the magistrates. 

A vote of the thirty five tribes could inflict a fine; but thecognizance of all capital crimes was reserved by a fundamental law tothe assembly of the centuries, in which the weight of influenceand property was sure to preponderate. Repeated proclamations andadjournments were interposed, to allow time for prejudice and resentmentto subside: the whole proceeding might be annulled by a seasonable omen, or the opposition of a tribune; and such popular trials were commonlyless formidable to innocence than they were favorable to guilt. But thisunion of the judicial and legislative powers left it doubtful whetherthe accused party was pardoned or acquitted; and, in the defence ofan illustrious client, the orators of Rome and Athens address theirarguments to the policy and benevolence, as well as to the justice, oftheir sovereign. 2. The task of convening the citizens for the trial ofeach offender became more difficult, as the citizens and the offenderscontinually multiplied; and the ready expedient was adopted ofdelegating the jurisdiction of the people to the ordinary magistrates, or to extraordinary inquisitors. In the first ages these questions wererare and occasional. In the beginning of the seventh century of Romethey were made perpetual: four praetors were annually empowered to sitin judgment on the state offences of treason, extortion, peculation, andbribery; and Sylla added new praetors and new questions for thosecrimes which more directly injure the safety of individuals. By theseinquisitors the trial was prepared and directed; but they could onlypronounce the sentence of the majority of judges, who with some truth, and more prejudice, have been compared to the English juries. [202] Todischarge this important, though burdensome office, an annual list ofancient and respectable citizens was formed by the praetor. After manyconstitutional struggles, they were chosen in equal numbers from thesenate, the equestrian order, and the people; four hundred and fiftywere appointed for single questions; and the various rolls or decuriesof judges must have contained the names of some thousand Romans, whorepresented the judicial authority of the state. In each particularcause, a sufficient number was drawn from the urn; their integrity wasguarded by an oath; the mode of ballot secured their independence; thesuspicion of partiality was removed by the mutual challenges of theaccuser and defendant; and the judges of Milo, by the retrenchment offifteen on each side, were reduced to fifty-one voices or tablets, ofacquittal, of condemnation, or of favorable doubt. [203] 3. In his civiljurisdiction, the praetor of the city was truly a judge, and almosta legislator; but, as soon as he had prescribed the action of law, heoften referred to a delegate the determination of the fact. With theincrease of legal proceedings, the tribunal of the centumvirs, in whichhe presided, acquired more weight and reputation. But whether he actedalone, or with the advice of his council, the most absolute powers mightbe trusted to a magistrate who was annually chosen by the votes ofthe people. The rules and precautions of freedom have required someexplanation; the order of despotism is simple and inanimate. Before theage of Justinian, or perhaps of Diocletian, the decuries of Roman judgeshad sunk to an empty title: the humble advice of the assessors mightbe accepted or despised; and in each tribunal the civil and criminaljurisdiction was administered by a single magistrate, who was raisedand disgraced by the will of the emperor. [Footnote 201: The importantsubject of the public questions and judgments at Rome, is explained withmuch learning, and in a classic style, by Charles Sigonius, (l. Iii. DeJudiciis, in Opp. Tom. Iii. P. 679--864;) and a good abridgment may befound in the Republique Romaine of Beaufort, (tom. Ii. L. V. P. 1--121. )Those who wish for more abstruse law may study Noodt, (de Jurisdictioneet Imperio Libri duo, tom. I. P. 93--134, ) Heineccius, (ad Pandect. L. I. Et ii. Ad Institut. L. Iv. Tit. Xvii Element. Ad Antiquitat. ) andGravina (Opp. 230--251. )]

[Footnote 202: The office, both at Rome and in England, must beconsidered as an occasional duty, and not a magistracy, or profession. But the obligation of a unanimous verdict is peculiar to our laws, which condemn the jurymen to undergo the torture from whence they haveexempted the criminal. ]

[Footnote 203: We are indebted for this interesting fact to a fragmentof Asconius Pedianus, who flourished under the reign of Tiberius. Theloss of his Commentaries on the Orations of Cicero has deprived us of avaluable fund of historical and legal knowledge. ]

A Roman accused of any capital crime might prevent the sentence ofthe law by voluntary exile, or death. Till his guilt had been legallyproved, his innocence was presumed, and his person was free: tillthe votes of the last century had been counted and declared, he mightpeaceably secede to any of the allied cities of Italy, or Greece, or Asia. [204] His fame and fortunes were preserved, at least to hischildren, by this civil death; and he might still be happy in everyrational and sensual enjoyment, if a mind accustomed to the ambitioustumult of Rome could support the uniformity and silence of Rhodes orAthens. A bolder effort was required to escape from the tyranny of theCaesars; but this effort was rendered familiar by the maxims of thestoics, the example of the bravest Romans, and the legal encouragementsof suicide. The bodies of condemned criminals were exposed to publicignominy, and their children, a more serious evil, were reduced topoverty by the confiscation of their fortunes. But, if the victims ofTiberius and Nero anticipated the decree of the prince or senate, theircourage and despatch were recompensed by the applause of the public, thedecent honors of burial, and the validity of their testaments. [205] Theexquisite avarice and cruelty of Domitian appear to have deprived theunfortunate of this last consolation, and it was still denied even bythe clemency of the Antonines. A voluntary death, which, in the case ofa capital offence, intervened between the accusation and the sentence, was admitted as a confession of guilt, and the spoils of the deceasedwere seized by the inhuman claims of the treasury. [206] Yet thecivilians have always respected the natural right of a citizen todispose of his life; and the posthumous disgrace invented by Tarquin, [207] to check the despair of his subjects, was never revived orimitated by succeeding tyrants. The powers of this world have indeedlost their dominion over him who is resolved on death; and his arm canonly be restrained by the religious apprehension of a future state. Suicides are enumerated by Virgil among the unfortunate, rather than theguilty; [208] and the poetical fables of the infernal shades could notseriously influence the faith or practice of mankind. But the preceptsof the gospel, or the church, have at length imposed a pious servitudeon the minds of Christians, and condemn them to expect, without amurmur, the last stroke of disease or the executioner. [Footnote 204:Polyb. L. Vi. P. 643. The extension of the empire and city of Romeobliged the exile to seek a more distant place of retirement. ]

[Footnote 205: Qui de se statuebant, humabanta corpora, manebanttestamenta; pretium festinandi. Tacit. Annal. Vi. 25, with the Notes ofLipsius. ]

[Footnote 206: Julius Paulus, (Sentent. Recept. L. V. Tit. Xii. P. 476, ) the Pandects, (xlviii. Tit. Xxi. , ) the Code, (l. Ix. Tit. L. , )Bynkershoek, (tom. I. P. 59, Observat. J. C. R. Iv. 4, ) and Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, l. Xxix. C. Ix. , ) define the civil limitations ofthe liberty and privileges of suicide. The criminal penalties are theproduction of a later and darker age. ]

[Footnote 207: Plin. Hist. Natur. Xxxvi. 24. When he fatigued hissubjects in building the Capitol, many of the laborers were provoked todespatch themselves: he nailed their dead bodies to crosses. ]

[Footnote 208: The sole resemblance of a violent and premature death hasengaged Virgil (Aeneid, vi. 434--439) to confound suicides with infants, lovers, and persons unjustly condemned. Heyne, the best of his editors, is at a loss to deduce the idea, or ascertain the jurisprudence, of theRoman poet. ]

The penal statutes form a very small proportion of the sixty-two booksof the Code and Pandects; and in all judicial proceedings, the life ordeath of a citizen is determined with less caution or delay thanthe most ordinary question of covenant or inheritance. This singulardistinction, though something may be allowed for the urgent necessity ofdefending the peace of society, is derived from the nature of criminaland civil jurisprudence. Our duties to the state are simple and uniform:the law by which he is condemned is inscribed not only on brass ormarble, but on the conscience of the offender, and his guilt is commonlyproved by the testimony of a single fact. But our relations to eachother are various and infinite; our obligations are created, annulled, and modified, by injuries, benefits, and promises; and theinterpretation of voluntary contracts and testaments, which are oftendictated by fraud or ignorance, affords a long and laborious exerciseto the sagacity of the judge. The business of life is multiplied by theextent of commerce and dominion, and the residence of the parties inthe distant provinces of an empire is productive of doubt, delay, andinevitable appeals from the local to the supreme magistrate. Justinian, the Greek emperor of Constantinople and the East, was the legalsuccessor of the Latin shepherd who had planted a colony on the banksof the Tyber. In a period of thirteen hundred years, the laws hadreluctantly followed the changes of government and manners; and thelaudable desire of conciliating ancient names with recent institutionsdestroyed the harmony, and swelled the magnitude, of the obscure andirregular system. The laws which excuse, on any occasions, theignorance of their subjects, confess their own imperfections: thecivil jurisprudence, as it was abridged by Justinian, still continued amysterious science, and a profitable trade, and the innate perplexityof the study was involved in tenfold darkness by the private industryof the practitioners. The expense of the pursuit sometimes exceeded thevalue of the prize, and the fairest rights were abandoned by the povertyor prudence of the claimants. Such costly justice might tend to abatethe spirit of litigation, but the unequal pressure serves only toincrease the influence of the rich, and to aggravate the misery of thepoor. By these dilatory and expensive proceedings, the wealthy pleaderobtains a more certain advantage than he could hope from the accidentalcorruption of his judge. The experience of an abuse, from which ourown age and country are not perfectly exempt, may sometimes provokea generous indignation, and extort the hasty wish of exchanging ourelaborate jurisprudence for the simple and summary decrees of a Turkishcadhi. Our calmer reflection will suggest, that such forms and delaysare necessary to guard the person and property of the citizen; that thediscretion of the judge is the first engine of tyranny; and that thelaws of a free people should foresee and determine every question thatmay probably arise in the exercise of power and the transactions ofindustry. But the government of Justinian united the evils of libertyand servitude; and the Romans were oppressed at the same time by themultiplicity of their laws and the arbitrary will of their master. 

Chapter XLV: State Of Italy Under The Lombards. --Part I. 

 Reign Of The Younger Justin. --Embassy Of The Avars. --Their Settlement On The Danube. --Conquest Of Italy By The Lombards. --Adoption And Reign Of Tiberius. --Of Maurice. -- State Of Italy Under The Lombards And The Exarchs. --Of Ravenna. --Distress Of Rome. --Character And Pontificate Of Gregory The First. 

During the last years of Justinian, his infirm mind was devoted toheavenly contemplation, and he neglected the business of the lowerworld. His subjects were impatient of the long continuance of his lifeand reign: yet all who were capable of reflection apprehended the momentof his death, which might involve the capital in tumult, and the empirein civil war. Seven nephews [1] of the childless monarch, the sons orgrandsons of his brother and sister, had been educated in the splendorof a princely fortune; they had been shown in high commands to theprovinces and armies; their characters were known, their followers werezealous, and, as the jealousy of age postponed the declaration of asuccessor, they might expect with equal hopes the inheritance of theiruncle. He expired in his palace, after a reign of thirty-eight years;and the decisive opportunity was embraced by the friends of Justin, the son of Vigilantia. [2] At the hour of midnight, his domesticswere awakened by an importunate crowd, who thundered at his door, andobtained admittance by revealing themselves to be the principal membersof the senate. These welcome deputies announced the recent and momentoussecret of the emperor's decease; reported, or perhaps invented, hisdying choice of the best beloved and most deserving of his nephews, and conjured Justin to prevent the disorders of the multitude, if theyshould perceive, with the return of light, that they were left without amaster. After composing his countenance to surprise, sorrow, and decentmodesty, Justin, by the advice of his wife Sophia, submitted to theauthority of the senate. He was conducted with speed and silence tothe palace; the guards saluted their new sovereign; and the martial andreligious rites of his coronation were diligently accomplished. By thehands of the proper officers he was invested with the Imperial garments, the red buskins, white tunic, and purple robe. 

A fortunate soldier, whom he instantly promoted to the rank of tribune, encircled his neck with a military collar; four robust youths exaltedhim on a shield; he stood firm and erect to receive the adoration ofhis subjects; and their choice was sanctified by the benediction of thepatriarch, who imposed the diadem on the head of an orthodox prince. Thehippodrome was already filled with innumerable multitudes; and no soonerdid the emperor appear on his throne, than the voices of the blue andthe green factions were confounded in the same loyal acclamations. In the speeches which Justin addressed to the senate and people, hepromised to correct the abuses which had disgraced the age of hispredecessor, displayed the maxims of a just and beneficent government, and declared that, on the approaching calends of January, [3] he wouldrevive in his own person the name and liberty of a Roman consul. Theimmediate discharge of his uncle's debts exhibited a solid pledge ofhis faith and generosity: a train of porters, laden with bags of gold, advanced into the midst of the hippodrome, and the hopeless creditorsof Justinian accepted this equitable payment as a voluntary gift. Beforethe end of three years, his example was imitated and surpassed by theempress Sophia, who delivered many indigent citizens from the weight ofdebt and usury: an act of benevolence the best entitled to gratitude, since it relieves the most intolerable distress; but in which the bountyof a prince is the most liable to be abused by the claims of prodigalityand fraud. [4]

[Footnote 1: See the family of Justin and Justinian in the FamiliaeByzantine of Ducange, p. 89--101. The devout civilians, Ludewig (inVit. Justinian. P. 131) and Heineccius (Hist. Juris. Roman. P. 374) havesince illustrated the genealogy of their favorite prince. ]

[Footnote 2: In the story of Justin's elevation I have translated intosimple and concise prose the eight hundred verses of the two first booksof Corippus, de Laudibus Justini Appendix Hist. Byzant. P. 401--416 Rome1777. ]

[Footnote 3: It is surprising how Pagi (Critica. In Annal. Baron. Tom. Ii. P 639) could be tempted by any chronicles to contradict the plainand decisive text of Corippus, (vicina dona, l. Ii. 354, vicina dies, l. Iv. 1, ) and to postpone, till A. D. 567, the consulship of Justin. ]

[Footnote 4: Theophan. Chronograph. P. 205. Whenever Cedrenus or Zonarasare mere transcribers, it is superfluous to allege their testimony. ]

On the seventh day of his reign, Justin gave audience to the ambassadorsof the Avars, and the scene was decorated to impress the Barbarians withastonishment, veneration, and terror. From the palace gate, the spaciouscourts and long porticos were lined with the lofty crests and giltbucklers of the guards, who presented their spears and axes with moreconfidence than they would have shown in a field of battle. The officerswho exercised the power, or attended the person, of the prince, wereattired in their richest habits, and arranged according to the militaryand civil order of the hierarchy. When the veil of the sanctuary waswithdrawn, the ambassadors beheld the emperor of the East on his throne, beneath a canopy, or dome, which was supported by four columns, andcrowned with a winged figure of Victory. In the first emotions ofsurprise, they submitted to the servile adoration of the Byzantinecourt; but as soon as they rose from the ground, Targetius, the chiefof the embassy, expressed the freedom and pride of a Barbarian. Heextolled, by the tongue of his interpreter, the greatness of the chagan, by whose clemency the kingdoms of the South were permitted to exist, whose victorious subjects had traversed the frozen rivers of Scythia, and who now covered the banks of the Danube with innumerable tents. The late emperor had cultivated, with annual and costly gifts, thefriendship of a grateful monarch, and the enemies of Rome had respectedthe allies of the Avars. The same prudence would instruct the nephew ofJustinian to imitate the liberality of his uncle, and to purchase theblessings of peace from an invincible people, who delighted and excelledin the exercise of war. The reply of the emperor was delivered in thesame strain of haughty defiance, and he derived his confidence fromthe God of the Christians, the ancient glory of Rome, and the recenttriumphs of Justinian. "The empire, " said he, "abounds with men andhorses, and arms sufficient to defend our frontiers, and to chastisethe Barbarians. You offer aid, you threaten hostilities: we despise yourenmity and your aid. The conquerors of the Avars solicit our alliance;shall we dread their fugitives and exiles? [5] The bounty of our unclewas granted to your misery, to your humble prayers. From us you shallreceive a more important obligation, the knowledge of your own weakness. Retire from our presence; the lives of ambassadors are safe; and, ifyou return to implore our pardon, perhaps you will taste of ourbenevolence. " [6] On the report of his ambassadors, the chagan wasawed by the apparent firmness of a Roman emperor of whose character andresources he was ignorant. Instead of executing his threats againstthe Eastern empire, he marched into the poor and savage countries ofGermany, which were subject to the dominion of the Franks. After twodoubtful battles, he consented to retire, and the Austrasian kingrelieve the distress of his camp with an immediate supply of corn andcattle. [7] Such repeated disappointments had chilled the spirit ofthe Avars, and their power would have dissolved away in the Sarmatiandesert, if the alliance of Alboin, king of the Lombards, had not givena new object to their arms, and a lasting settlement to their weariedfortunes. 

[Footnote 5: Corippus, l. Iii. 390. The unquestionable sense relatesto the Turks, the conquerors of the Avars; but the word scultor has noapparent meaning, and the sole Ms. Of Corippus, from whence the firstedition (1581, apud Plantin) was printed, is no longer visible. Thelast editor, Foggini of Rome, has inserted the conjectural emendationof soldan: but the proofs of Ducange, (Joinville, Dissert. Xvi. P. 238--240, ) for the early use of this title among the Turks andPersians, are weak or ambiguous. And I must incline to the authority ofD'Herbelot, (Bibliotheque Orient. P. 825, ) who ascribes the word to theArabic and Chaldaean tongues, and the date to the beginning of the xithcentury, when it was bestowed by the khalif of Bagdad on Mahmud, princeof Gazna, and conqueror of India. ]

[Footnote 6: For these characteristic speeches, compare the verseof Corippus (l. Iii. 251--401) with the prose of Menander, (Excerpt. Legation. P 102, 103. ) Their diversity proves that they did not copyeach other their resemblance, that they drew from a common original. ]

[Footnote 7: For the Austrasian war, see Menander (Excerpt. Legat. P. 110, ) Gregory of Tours, (Hist. Franc. L. Iv. C 29, ) and Paul the deacon, (de Gest. Langobard. L. Ii. C. 10. )]

While Alboin served under his father's standard, he encountered inbattle, and transpierced with his lance, the rival prince of theGepidae. The Lombards, who applauded such early prowess, requested hisfather, with unanimous acclamations, that the heroic youth, who hadshared the dangers of the field, might be admitted to the feast ofvictory. "You are not unmindful, " replied the inflexible Audoin, "of thewise customs of our ancestors. Whatever may be his merit, a prince isincapable of sitting at table with his father till he has received hisarms from a foreign and royal hand. " Alboin bowed with reverence tothe institutions of his country, selected forty companions, and boldlyvisited the court of Turisund, king of the Gepidae, who embraced andentertained, according to the laws of hospitality, the murderer of hisson. At the banquet, whilst Alboin occupied the seat of the youth whomhe had slain, a tender remembrance arose in the mind of Turisund. "Howdear is that place! how hateful is that person!" were the words thatescaped, with a sigh, from the indignant father. His grief exasperatedthe national resentment of the Gepidae; and Cunimund, his survivingson, was provoked by wine, or fraternal affection, to the desire ofvengeance. "The Lombards, " said the rude Barbarian, "resemble, in figureand in smell, the mares of our Sarmatian plains. " And this insult wasa coarse allusion to the white bands which enveloped their legs. "Addanother resemblance, " replied an audacious Lombard; "you have felt howstrongly they kick. Visit the plain of Asfield, and seek for the bonesof thy brother: they are mingled with those of the vilest animals. "The Gepidae, a nation of warriors, started from their seats, and thefearless Alboin, with his forty companions, laid their hands on theirswords. The tumult was appeased by the venerable interposition ofTurisund. He saved his own honor, and the life of his guest; and, afterthe solemn rites of investiture, dismissed the stranger in the bloodyarms of his son; the gift of a weeping parent. Alboin returned intriumph; and the Lombards, who celebrated his matchless intrepidity, were compelled to praise the virtues of an enemy. [8] In thisextraordinary visit he had probably seen the daughter of Cunimund, whosoon after ascended the throne of the Gepidae. Her name was Rosamond, an appellation expressive of female beauty, and which our own history orromance has consecrated to amorous tales. The king of the Lombards (thefather of Alboin no longer lived) was contracted to the granddaughter ofClovis; but the restraints of faith and policy soon yielded to the hopeof possessing the fair Rosamond, and of insulting her family and nation. The arts of persuasion were tried without success; and the impatientlover, by force and stratagem, obtained the object of his desires. Warwas the consequence which he foresaw and solicited; but the Lombardscould not long withstand the furious assault of the Gepidae, who weresustained by a Roman army. And, as the offer of marriage was rejectedwith contempt, Alboin was compelled to relinquish his prey, and topartake of the disgrace which he had inflicted on the house of Cunimund. [9]

[Footnote 8: Paul Warnefrid, the deacon of Friuli, de Gest. Langobard. L. I. C. 23, 24. His pictures of national manners, though rudelysketched are more lively and faithful than those of Bede, or Gregory ofTours]

[Footnote 9: The story is told by an impostor, (Theophylact. Simocat. L. Vi. C. 10;) but he had art enough to build his fictions on public andnotorious facts. ]

When a public quarrel is envenomed by private injuries, a blow that isnot mortal or decisive can be productive only of a short truce, which allows the unsuccessful combatant to sharpen his arms for anew encounter. The strength of Alboin had been found unequal to thegratification of his love, ambition, and revenge: he condescended toimplore the formidable aid of the chagan; and the arguments that heemployed are expressive of the art and policy of the Barbarians. Inthe attack of the Gepidae, he had been prompted by the just desireof extirpating a people whom their alliance with the Roman empire hadrendered the common enemies of the nations, and the personal adversariesof the chagan. If the forces of the Avars and the Lombards shouldunite in this glorious quarrel, the victory was secure, and the rewardinestimable: the Danube, the Hebrus, Italy, and Constantinople, wouldbe exposed, without a barrier, to their invincible arms. But, if theyhesitated or delayed to prevent the malice of the Romans, the samespirit which had insulted would pursue the Avars to the extremity of theearth. These specious reasons were heard by the chagan with coldness anddisdain: he detained the Lombard ambassadors in his camp, protracted thenegotiation, and by turns alleged his want of inclination, or hiswant of ability, to undertake this important enterprise. At length hesignified the ultimate price of his alliance, that the Lombards shouldimmediately present him with a tithe of their cattle; that the spoilsand captives should be equally divided; but that the lands of theGepidae should become the sole patrimony of the Avars. Such hardconditions were eagerly accepted by the passions of Alboin; and, asthe Romans were dissatisfied with the ingratitude and perfidy of theGepidae, Justin abandoned that incorrigible people to their fate, andremained the tranquil spectator of this unequal conflict. The despairof Cunimund was active and dangerous. He was informed that the Avarshad entered his confines; but, on the strong assurance that, after thedefeat of the Lombards, these foreign invaders would easily be repelled, he rushed forwards to encounter the implacable enemy of his name andfamily. But the courage of the Gepidae could secure them no more than anhonorable death. The bravest of the nation fell in the field of battle;the king of the Lombards contemplated with delight the head of Cunimund;and his skull was fashioned into a cup to satiate the hatred of theconqueror, or, perhaps, to comply with the savage custom of his country. [10] After this victory, no further obstacle could impede the progressof the confederates, and they faithfully executed the terms of theiragreement. [11] The fair countries of Walachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, and the other parts of Hungary beyond the Danube, were occupied, withoutresistance, by a new colony of Scythians; and the Dacian empire of thechagans subsisted with splendor above two hundred and thirty years. Thenation of the Gepidae was dissolved; but, in the distribution ofthe captives, the slaves of the Avars were less fortunate than thecompanions of the Lombards, whose generosity adopted a valiant foe, andwhose freedom was incompatible with cool and deliberate tyranny. Onemoiety of the spoil introduced into the camp of Alboin more wealth thana Barbarian could readily compute. The fair Rosamond was persuaded, orcompelled, to acknowledge the rights of her victorious lover; and thedaughter of Cunimund appeared to forgive those crimes which might beimputed to her own irresistible charms. 

[Footnote 10: It appears from Strabo, Pliny, and Ammianus Marcellinus, that the same practice was common among the Scythian tribes, (Muratori, Scriptores Rer. Italic. Tom. I. P. 424. ) The scalps of North America arelikewise trophies of valor. The skull of Cunimund was preserved abovetwo hundred years among the Lombards; and Paul himself was one of theguests to whom Duke Ratchis exhibited this cup on a high festival, (l. Ii. C. 28. )]

[Footnote 11: Paul, l. I. C. 27. Menander, in Excerpt Legat. P. 110, 111. ]

The destruction of a mighty kingdom established the fame of Alboin. Inthe days of Charlemagne, the Bavarians, the Saxons, and the other tribesof the Teutonic language, still repeated the songs which described theheroic virtues, the valor, liberality, and fortune of the king of theLombards. [12] But his ambition was yet unsatisfied; and the conquerorof the Gepidae turned his eyes from the Danube to the richer banksof the Po, and the Tyber. Fifteen years had not elapsed, since hissubjects, the confederates of Narses, had visited the pleasant climateof Italy: the mountains, the rivers, the highways, were familiar totheir memory: the report of their success, perhaps the view of theirspoils, had kindled in the rising generation the flame of emulation andenterprise. Their hopes were encouraged by the spirit and eloquence ofAlboin: and it is affirmed, that he spoke to their senses, by producingat the royal feast, the fairest and most exquisite fruits that grewspontaneously in the garden of the world. No sooner had he erected hisstandard, than the native strength of the Lombard was multiplied bythe adventurous youth of Germany and Scythia. The robust peasantry ofNoricum and Pannonia had resumed the manners of Barbarians; and thenames of the Gepidae, Bulgarians, Sarmatians, and Bavarians, may bedistinctly traced in the provinces of Italy. [13] Of the Saxons, the oldallies of the Lombards, twenty thousand warriors, with their wives andchildren, accepted the invitation of Alboin. Their bravery contributedto his success; but the accession or the absence of their numbers wasnot sensibly felt in the magnitude of his host. Every mode of religionwas freely practised by its respective votaries. The king of theLombards had been educated in the Arian heresy; but the Catholics, intheir public worship, were allowed to pray for his conversion; while themore stubborn Barbarians sacrificed a she-goat, or perhaps a captive, to the gods of their fathers. [14] The Lombards, and their confederates, were united by their common attachment to a chief, who excelled in allthe virtues and vices of a savage hero; and the vigilance of Alboinprovided an ample magazine of offensive and defensive arms for the useof the expedition. The portable wealth of the Lombards attended themarch: their lands they cheerfully relinquished to the Avars, on thesolemn promise, which was made and accepted without a smile, that ifthey failed in the conquest of Italy, these voluntary exiles should bereinstated in their former possessions. 

[Footnote 12: Ut hactenus etiam tam apud Bajoarior um gentem, quam etSaxmum, sed et alios ejusdem linguae homines. .. .. In eorum carmini buscelebretur. Paul, l. I. C. 27. He died A. D. 799, (Muratori, in Praefat. Tom. I. P. 397. ) These German songs, some of which might be as oldas Tacitus, (de Moribus Germ. C. 2, ) were compiled and transcribed byCharlemagne. Barbara et antiquissima carmina, quibus veterum regum actuset bella canebantur scripsit memoriaeque mandavit, (Eginard, in Vit. Carol. Magn. C. 29, p. 130, 131. ) The poems, which Goldast commends, (Animadvers. Ad Eginard. P. 207, ) appear to be recent and contemptibleromances. ]

[Footnote 13: The other nations are rehearsed by Paul, (l. Ii. C. 6, 26, ) Muratori (Antichita Italiane, tom. I. Dissert. I. P. 4) hasdiscovered the village of the Bavarians, three miles from Modena. ]

[Footnote 14: Gregory the Roman (Dialog. L. I. Iii. C. 27, 28, apudBaron. Annal Eccles. A. D. 579, No. 10) supposes that they likewiseadored this she-goat. I know but of one religion in which the god andthe victim are the same. ]

They might have failed, if Narses had been the antagonist of theLombards; and the veteran warriors, the associates of his Gothicvictory, would have encountered with reluctance an enemy whom theydreaded and esteemed. But the weakness of the Byzantine court wassubservient to the Barbarian cause; and it was for the ruin of Italy, that the emperor once listened to the complaints of his subjects. Thevirtues of Narses were stained with avarice; and, in his provincialreign of fifteen years, he accumulated a treasure of gold and silverwhich surpassed the modesty of a private fortune. His government wasoppressive or unpopular, and the general discontent was expressed withfreedom by the deputies of Rome. Before the throne of Justinian theyboldly declared, that their Gothic servitude had been more tolerablethan the despotism of a Greek eunuch; and that, unless their tyrant wereinstantly removed, they would consult their own happiness in the choiceof a master. The apprehension of a revolt was urged by the voice ofenvy and detraction, which had so recently triumphed over the meritof Belisarius. A new exarch, Longinus, was appointed to supersede theconqueror of Italy, and the base motives of his recall were revealed inthe insulting mandate of the empress Sophia, "that he should leave tomen the exercise of arms, and return to his proper station among themaidens of the palace, where a distaff should be again placed in thehand of the eunuch. " "I will spin her such a thread as she shall noteasily unravel!" is said to have been the reply which indignation andconscious virtue extorted from the hero. Instead of attending, a slaveand a victim, at the gate of the Byzantine palace, he retired to Naples, from whence (if any credit is due to the belief of the times) Narsesinvited the Lombards to chastise the ingratitude of the prince andpeople. [15] But the passions of the people are furious and changeable, and the Romans soon recollected the merits, or dreaded the resentment, of their victorious general. By the mediation of the pope, who undertooka special pilgrimage to Naples, their repentance was accepted; andNarses, assuming a milder aspect and a more dutiful language, consentedto fix his residence in the Capitol. His death, [16] though in theextreme period of old age, was unseasonable and premature, since hisgenius alone could have repaired the last and fatal error of his life. The reality, or the suspicion, of a conspiracy disarmed and disunitedthe Italians. The soldiers resented the disgrace, and bewailed the loss, of their general. They were ignorant of their new exarch; and Longinuswas himself ignorant of the state of the army and the province. In thepreceding years Italy had been desolated by pestilence and famine, anda disaffected people ascribed the calamities of nature to the guilt orfolly of their rulers. [17]

[Footnote 15: The charge of the deacon against Narses (l. Ii. C. 5)may be groundless; but the weak apology of the Cardinal (Baron. AnnalEccles. A. D. 567, No. 8--12) is rejected by the best critics--Pagi (tom. Ii. P. 639, 640, ) Muratori, (Annali d' Italia, tom. V. P. 160--163, ) andthe last editors, Horatius Blancus, (Script. Rerum Italic. Tom. I. P. 427, 428, ) and Philip Argelatus, (Sigon. Opera, tom. Ii. P. 11, 12. ) TheNarses who assisted at the coronation of Justin (Corippus, l. Iii. 221)is clearly understood to be a different person. ]

[Footnote 16: The death of Narses is mentioned by Paul, l. Ii. C. 11. Anastas. In Vit. Johan. Iii. P. 43. Agnellus, Liber Pontifical. Raven. In Script. Rer. Italicarum, tom. Ii. Part i. P. 114, 124. Yet I cannotbelieve with Agnellus that Narses was ninety-five years of age. Is itprobable that all his exploits were performed at fourscore?]

[Footnote 17: The designs of Narses and of the Lombards for the invasionof Italy are exposed in the last chapter of the first book, and theseven last chapters of the second book, of Paul the deacon. ]

Whatever might be the grounds of his security, Alboin neither expectednor encountered a Roman army in the field. He ascended the Julian Alps, and looked down with contempt and desire on the fruitful plains towhich his victory communicated the perpetual appellation of Lombardy. A faithful chieftain, and a select band, were stationed at Forum Julii, the modern Friuli, to guard the passes of the mountains. The Lombardsrespected the strength of Pavia, and listened to the prayers of theTrevisans: their slow and heavy multitudes proceeded to occupy thepalace and city of Verona; and Milan, now rising from her ashes, wasinvested by the powers of Alboin five months after his departure fromPannonia. Terror preceded his march: he found every where, or he left, a dreary solitude; and the pusillanimous Italians presumed, without atrial, that the stranger was invincible. Escaping to lakes, or rocks, or morasses, the affrighted crowds concealed some fragments of theirwealth, and delayed the moment of their servitude. Paulinus, thepatriarch of Aquileia, removed his treasures, sacred and profane, tothe Isle of Grado, [18] and his successors were adopted by the infantrepublic of Venice, which was continually enriched by the publiccalamities. Honoratus, who filled the chair of St. Ambrose, hadcredulously accepted the faithless offers of a capitulation; and thearchbishop, with the clergy and nobles of Milan, were driven by theperfidy of Alboin to seek a refuge in the less accessible ramparts ofGenoa. Along the maritime coast, the courage of the inhabitants wassupported by the facility of supply, the hopes of relief, and the powerof escape; but from the Trentine hills to the gates of Ravenna and Romethe inland regions of Italy became, without a battle or a siege, thelasting patrimony of the Lombards. The submission of the people invitedthe Barbarian to assume the character of a lawful sovereign, and thehelpless exarch was confined to the office of announcing to the emperorJustin the rapid and irretrievable loss of his provinces and cities. [19] One city, which had been diligently fortified by the Goths, resisted the arms of a new invader; and while Italy was subdued by theflying detachments of the Lombards, the royal camp was fixed above threeyears before the western gate of Ticinum, or Pavia. The same couragewhich obtains the esteem of a civilized enemy provokes the fury of asavage, and the impatient besieger had bound himself by a tremendousoath, that age, and sex, and dignity, should be confounded in a generalmassacre. The aid of famine at length enabled him to execute his bloodyvow; but, as Alboin entered the gate, his horse stumbled, fell, andcould not be raised from the ground. One of his attendants was promptedby compassion, or piety, to interpret this miraculous sign of the wrathof Heaven: the conqueror paused and relented; he sheathed his sword, andpeacefully reposing himself in the palace of Theodoric, proclaimed tothe trembling multitude that they should live and obey. Delightedwith the situation of a city which was endeared to his pride by thedifficulty of the purchase, the prince of the Lombards disdained theancient glories of Milan; and Pavia, during some ages, was respected asthe capital of the kingdom of Italy. [20]

[Footnote 18: Which from this translation was called New Aquileia, (Chron. Venet. P. 3. ) The patriarch of Grado soon became the firstcitizen of the republic, (p. 9, &c. , ) but his seat was not removed toVenice till the year 1450. He is now decorated with titles and honors;but the genius of the church has bowed to that of the state, and thegovernment of a Catholic city is strictly Presbyterian. Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. I. P. 156, 157, 161--165. Amelot de laHoussaye, Gouvernement de Venise, tom. I. P. 256--261. ]

[Footnote 19: Paul has given a description of Italy, as it was thendivided into eighteen regions, (l. Ii. C. 14--24. ) The DissertatioChorographica de Italia Medii Aevi, by Father Beretti, a Benedictinemonk, and regius professor at Pavia, has been usefully consulted. ]

[Footnote 20: For the conquest of Italy, see the original materialsof Paul, (l. P. 7--10, 12, 14, 25, 26, 27, ) the eloquent narrative ofSigonius, (tom. Il. De Regno Italiae, l. I. P. 13--19, ) and thecorrect and critical review el Muratori, (Annali d' Italia, tom. V. P. 164--180. )]

The reign of the founder was splendid and transient; and, before hecould regulate his new conquests, Alboin fell a sacrifice to domestictreason and female revenge. In a palace near Verona, which had notbeen erected for the Barbarians, he feasted the companions of his arms;intoxication was the reward of valor, and the king himself wastempted by appetite, or vanity, to exceed the ordinary measure ofhis intemperance. After draining many capacious bowls of Rhaetian orFalernian wine, he called for the skull of Cunimund, the noblest andmost precious ornament of his sideboard. The cup of victory was acceptedwith horrid applause by the circle of the Lombard chiefs. "Fill it againwith wine, " exclaimed the inhuman conqueror, "fill it to the brim: carrythis goblet to the queen, and request in my name that she would rejoicewith her father. " In an agony of grief and rage, Rosamond had strengthto utter, "Let the will of my lord be obeyed!" and, touching it with herlips, pronounced a silent imprecation, that the insult should bewashed away in the blood of Alboin. Some indulgence might be due to theresentment of a daughter, if she had not already violated the duties ofa wife. Implacable in her enmity, or inconstant in her love, the queenof Italy had stooped from the throne to the arms of a subject, andHelmichis, the king's armor-bearer, was the secret minister of herpleasure and revenge. Against the proposal of the murder, he couldno longer urge the scruples of fidelity or gratitude; but Helmichistrembled when he revolved the danger as well as the guilt, when herecollected the matchless strength and intrepidity of a warrior whom hehad so often attended in the field of battle. He pressed and obtained, that one of the bravest champions of the Lombards should be associatedto the enterprise; but no more than a promise of secrecy could bedrawn from the gallant Peredeus, and the mode of seduction employed byRosamond betrays her shameless insensibility both to honor and love. Shesupplied the place of one of her female attendants who was beloved byPeredeus, and contrived some excuse for darkness and silence, tillshe could inform her companion that he had enjoyed the queen of theLombards, and that his own death, or the death of Alboin, must be theconsequence of such treasonable adultery. In this alternative he choserather to be the accomplice than the victim of Rosamond, [21] whoseundaunted spirit was incapable of fear or remorse. She expected andsoon found a favorable moment, when the king, oppressed with wine, hadretired from the table to his afternoon slumbers. His faithless spousewas anxious for his health and repose: the gates of the palace wereshut, the arms removed, the attendants dismissed, and Rosamond, afterlulling him to rest by her tender caresses, unbolted the chamber door, and urged the reluctant conspirators to the instant execution of thedeed. On the first alarm, the warrior started from his couch: his sword, which he attempted to draw, had been fastened to the scabbard by thehand of Rosamond; and a small stool, his only weapon, could not longprotect him from the spears of the assassins. The daughter of Cunimundsmiled in his fall: his body was buried under the staircase of thepalace; and the grateful posterity of the Lombards revered the tomb andthe memory of their victorious leader. 

[Footnote 21: The classical reader will recollect the wife and murder ofCandaules, so agreeably told in the first book of Herodotus. The choiceof Gyges, may serve as the excuse of Peredeus; and this soft insinuationof an odious idea has been imitated by the best writers of antiquity, (Graevius, ad Ciceron. Orat. Pro Miloue c. 10)]

Chapter XLV: State Of Italy Under The Lombards. --Part II. 

The ambitious Rosamond aspired to reign in the name of her lover; thecity and palace of Verona were awed by her power; and a faithful bandof her native Gepidae was prepared to applaud the revenge, and to secondthe wishes, of their sovereign. But the Lombard chiefs, who fled in thefirst moments of consternation and disorder, had resumed their courageand collected their powers; and the nation, instead of submitting to herreign, demanded, with unanimous cries, that justice should be executedon the guilty spouse and the murderers of their king. She sought arefuge among the enemies of her country; and a criminal who deserved theabhorrence of mankind was protected by the selfish policy of the exarch. With her daughter, the heiress of the Lombard throne, her two lovers, her trusty Gepidae, and the spoils of the palace of Verona, Rosamonddescended the Adige and the Po, and was transported by a Greek vessel tothe safe harbor of Ravenna. Longinus beheld with delight the charms andthe treasures of the widow of Alboin: her situation and her past conductmight justify the most licentious proposals; and she readily listened tothe passion of a minister, who, even in the decline of the empire, wasrespected as the equal of kings. The death of a jealous lover was aneasy and grateful sacrifice; and, as Helmichis issued from the bath, hereceived the deadly potion from the hand of his mistress. The taste ofthe liquor, its speedy operation, and his experience of the character ofRosamond, convinced him that he was poisoned: he pointed his dagger toher breast, compelled her to drain the remainder of the cup, and expiredin a few minutes, with the consolation that she could not survive toenjoy the fruits of her wickedness. The daughter of Alboin andRosamond, with the richest spoils of the Lombards, was embarked forConstantinople: the surprising strength of Peredeus amused and terrifiedthe Imperial court: [2111] his blindness and revenge exhibited animperfect copy of the adventures of Samson. By the free suffrage of thenation, in the assembly of Pavia, Clepho, one of their noblest chiefs, was elected as the successor of Alboin. Before the end of eighteenmonths, the throne was polluted by a second murder: Clepho was stabbedby the hand of a domestic; the regal office was suspended above tenyears during the minority of his son Autharis; and Italy was divided andoppressed by a ducal aristocracy of thirty tyrants. [22]

[Footnote 2111: He killed a lion. His eyes were put out by the timidJustin. Peredeus requesting an interview, Justin substituted twopatricians, whom the blinded Barbarian stabbed to the heart with twoconcealed daggers. See Le Beau, vol. X. P. 99. --M. ]

[Footnote 22: See the history of Paul, l. Ii. C. 28--32. I have borrowedsome interesting circumstances from the Liber Pontificalis of Agnellus, in Script. Rer. Ital. Tom. Ii. P. 124. Of all chronological guides, Muratori is the safest. ]

When the nephew of Justinian ascended the throne, he proclaimed a newaera of happiness and glory. The annals of the second Justin [23] aremarked with disgrace abroad and misery at home. In the West, the Romanempire was afflicted by the loss of Italy, the desolation of Africa, andthe conquests of the Persians. Injustice prevailed both in the capitaland the provinces: the rich trembled for their property, the poor fortheir safety, the ordinary magistrates were ignorant or venal, theoccasional remedies appear to have been arbitrary and violent, and thecomplaints of the people could no longer be silenced by the splendidnames of a legislator and a conqueror. The opinion which imputes tothe prince all the calamities of his times may be countenanced by thehistorian as a serious truth or a salutary prejudice. Yet a candidsuspicion will arise, that the sentiments of Justin were pure andbenevolent, and that he might have filled his station without reproach, if the faculties of his mind had not been impaired by disease, whichdeprived the emperor of the use of his feet, and confined him to thepalace, a stranger to the complaints of the people and the vices of thegovernment. The tardy knowledge of his own impotence determined himto lay down the weight of the diadem; and, in the choice of a worthysubstitute, he showed some symptoms of a discerning and even magnanimousspirit. The only son of Justin and Sophia died in his infancy; theirdaughter Arabia was the wife of Baduarius, [24] superintendent of thepalace, and afterwards commander of the Italian armies, who vainlyaspired to confirm the rights of marriage by those of adoption. Whilethe empire appeared an object of desire, Justin was accustomed to beholdwith jealousy and hatred his brothers and cousins, the rivals of hishopes; nor could he depend on the gratitude of those who would acceptthe purple as a restitution, rather than a gift. Of these competitors, one had been removed by exile, and afterwards by death; and the emperorhimself had inflicted such cruel insults on another, that he must eitherdread his resentment or despise his patience. This domestic animositywas refined into a generous resolution of seeking a successor, notin his family, but in the republic; and the artful Sophia recommendedTiberius, [25] his faithful captain of the guards, whose virtues andfortune the emperor might cherish as the fruit of his judicious choice. The ceremony of his elevation to the rank of Caesar, or Augustus, wasperformed in the portico of the palace, in the presence of the patriarchand the senate. Justin collected the remaining strength of his mind andbody; but the popular belief that his speech was inspired by the Deitybetrays a very humble opinion both of the man and of the times. [26]"You behold, " said the emperor, "the ensigns of supreme power. You areabout to receive them, not from my hand, but from the hand of God. Honorthem, and from them you will derive honor. Respect the empress yourmother: you are now her son; before, you were her servant. Delight notin blood; abstain from revenge; avoid those actions by which I haveincurred the public hatred; and consult the experience, rather than theexample, of your predecessor. As a man, I have sinned; as a sinner, evenin this life, I have been severely punished: but these servants, (and wepointed to his ministers, ) who have abused my confidence, and inflamedmy passions, will appear with me before the tribunal of Christ. I havebeen dazzled by the splendor of the diadem: be thou wise and modest;remember what you have been, remember what you are. You see aroundus your slaves, and your children: with the authority, assume thetenderness, of a parent. Love your people like yourself; cultivate theaffections, maintain the discipline, of the army; protect the fortunesof the rich, relieve the necessities of the poor. " [27] The assembly, insilence and in tears, applauded the counsels, and sympathized with therepentance, of their prince the patriarch rehearsed the prayers of thechurch; Tiberius received the diadem on his knees; and Justin, who inhis abdication appeared most worthy to reign, addressed the new monarchin the following words: "If you consent, I live; if you command, I die:may the God of heaven and earth infuse into your heart whatever I haveneglected or forgotten. " The four last years of the emperor Justin werepassed in tranquil obscurity: his conscience was no longer tormented bythe remembrance of those duties which he was incapable of discharging;and his choice was justified by the filial reverence and gratitude ofTiberius. 

[Footnote 23: The original authors for the reign of Justin the youngerare Evagrius, Hist. Eccles. L. V. C. 1--12; Theophanes, in Chonograph. P. 204--210; Zonaras, tom. Ii. L. Xiv. P. 70-72; Cedrenus, in Compend. P. 388--392. ]

[Footnote 24: Dispositorque novus sacrae Baduarius aulae. Successorsoceri mox factus Cura-palati. --Cerippus. Baduarius is enumerated amongthe descendants and allies of the house of Justinian. A family of nobleVenetians (Casa Badoero) built churches and gave dukes to the republicas early as the ninth century; and, if their descent be admitted, nokings in Europe can produce a pedigree so ancient and illustrious. Ducange, Fam. Byzantin, p. 99 Amelot de la Houssaye, Gouvernement deVenise, tom. Ii. P. 555. ]

[Footnote 25: The praise bestowed on princes before their elevation isthe purest and most weighty. Corippus has celebrated Tiberius at thetime of the accession of Justin, (l. I. 212--222. ) Yet even a captain ofthe guards might attract the flattery of an African exile. ]

[Footnote 26: Evagrius (l. V. C. 13) has added the reproach to hisministers He applies this speech to the ceremony when Tiberius wasinvested with the rank of Caesar. The loose expression, rather thanthe positive error, of Theophanes, &c. , has delayed it to his Augustaninvestitura immediately before the death of Justin. ]

[Footnote 27: Theophylact Simocatta (l. Iii. C. 11) declares that heshall give to posterity the speech of Justin as it was pronounced, without attempting to correct the imperfections of language or rhetoric. Perhaps the vain sophist would have been incapable of producing suchsentiments. ]

Among the virtues of Tiberius, [28] his beauty (he was one of thetallest and most comely of the Romans) might introduce him to thefavor of Sophia; and the widow of Justin was persuaded, that she shouldpreserve her station and influence under the reign of a second and moreyouthful husband. But, if the ambitious candidate had been temptedto flatter and dissemble, it was no longer in his power to fulfilher expectations, or his own promise. The factions of the hippodromedemanded, with some impatience, the name of their new empress: both thepeople and Sophia were astonished by the proclamation of Anastasia, the secret, though lawful, wife of the emperor Tiberius. Whatever couldalleviate the disappointment of Sophia, Imperial honors, a statelypalace, a numerous household, was liberally bestowed by the piety of heradopted son; on solemn occasions he attended and consulted the widowof his benefactor; but her ambition disdained the vain semblance ofroyalty, and the respectful appellation of mother served to exasperate, rather than appease, the rage of an injured woman. While she accepted, and repaid with a courtly smile, the fair expressions of regard andconfidence, a secret alliance was concluded between the dowager empressand her ancient enemies; and Justinian, the son of Germanus, wasemployed as the instrument of her revenge. The pride of the reigninghouse supported, with reluctance, the dominion of a stranger: the youthwas deservedly popular; his name, after the death of Justin, had beenmentioned by a tumultuous faction; and his own submissive offer of hishead with a treasure of sixty thousand pounds, might be interpreted asan evidence of guilt, or at least of fear. Justinian received a freepardon, and the command of the eastern army. The Persian monarch fledbefore his arms; and the acclamations which accompanied his triumphdeclared him worthy of the purple. His artful patroness had chosenthe month of the vintage, while the emperor, in a rural solitude, waspermitted to enjoy the pleasures of a subject. On the first intelligenceof her designs, he returned to Constantinople, and the conspiracy wassuppressed by his presence and firmness. From the pomp and honors whichshe had abused, Sophia was reduced to a modest allowance: Tiberiusdismissed her train, intercepted her correspondence, and committed to afaithful guard the custody of her person. But the services of Justinianwere not considered by that excellent prince as an aggravation ofhis offences: after a mild reproof, his treason and ingratitude wereforgiven; and it was commonly believed, that the emperor entertainedsome thoughts of contracting a double alliance with the rival of histhrone. The voice of an angel (such a fable was propagated) might revealto the emperor, that he should always triumph over his domesticfoes; but Tiberius derived a firmer assurance from the innocence andgenerosity of his own mind. 

[Footnote 28: For the character and reign of Tiberius, see Evagrius, l v. C. 13. Theophylact, l. Iii. C. 12, &c. Theophanes, in Chron. P. 2 0--213. Zonaras, tom. Ii. L. Xiv. P. 72. Cedrenus, p. 392. PaulWarnefrid, de Gestis Langobard. L. Iii. C. 11, 12. The deacon of ForumJuli appears to have possessed some curious and authentic facts. ]

With the odious name of Tiberius, he assumed the more popularappellation of Constantine, and imitated the purer virtues of theAntonines. After recording the vice or folly of so many Roman princes, it is pleasing to repose, for a moment, on a character conspicuousby the qualities of humanity, justice, temperance, and fortitude; tocontemplate a sovereign affable in his palace, pious in the church, impartial on the seat of judgment, and victorious, at least by hisgenerals, in the Persian war. The most glorious trophy of his victoryconsisted in a multitude of captives, whom Tiberius entertained, redeemed, and dismissed to their native homes with the charitable spiritof a Christian hero. The merit or misfortunes of his own subjects had adearer claim to his beneficence, and he measured his bounty not somuch by their expectations as by his own dignity. This maxim, howeverdangerous in a trustee of the public wealth, was balanced by a principleof humanity and justice, which taught him to abhor, as of the basestalloy, the gold that was extracted from the tears of the people. Fortheir relief, as often as they had suffered by natural or hostilecalamities, he was impatient to remit the arrears of the past, or thedemands of future taxes: he sternly rejected the servile offerings ofhis ministers, which were compensated by tenfold oppression; and thewise and equitable laws of Tiberius excited the praise and regretof succeeding times. Constantinople believed that the emperor haddiscovered a treasure: but his genuine treasure consisted in thepractice of liberal economy, and the contempt of all vain andsuperfluous expense. The Romans of the East would have been happy, ifthe best gift of Heaven, a patriot king, had been confirmed as a properand permanent blessing. But in less than four years after the death ofJustin, his worthy successor sunk into a mortal disease, which left himonly sufficient time to restore the diadem, according to the tenureby which he held it, to the most deserving of his fellow-citizens. He selected Maurice from the crowd, a judgment more precious than thepurple itself: the patriarch and senate were summoned to the bed ofthe dying prince: he bestowed his daughter and the empire; and his lastadvice was solemnly delivered by the voice of the quaestor. Tiberiusexpressed his hope that the virtues of his son and successor would erectthe noblest mausoleum to his memory. His memory was embalmed by thepublic affliction; but the most sincere grief evaporates in the tumultof a new reign, and the eyes and acclamations of mankind were speedilydirected to the rising sun. The emperor Maurice derived his origin fromancient Rome; [29] but his immediate parents were settled at Arabissusin Cappadocia, and their singular felicity preserved them alive tobehold and partake the fortune of their august son. The youth of Mauricewas spent in the profession of arms: Tiberius promoted him to thecommand of a new and favorite legion of twelve thousand confederates;his valor and conduct were signalized in the Persian war; andhe returned to Constantinople to accept, as his just reward, theinheritance of the empire. Maurice ascended the throne at the mature ageof forty-three years; and he reigned above twenty years over the Eastand over himself; [30] expelling from his mind the wild democracyof passions, and establishing (according to the quaint expression ofEvagrius) a perfect aristocracy of reason and virtue. Some suspicionwill degrade the testimony of a subject, though he protests that hissecret praise should never reach the ear of his sovereign, [31] and somefailings seem to place the character of Maurice below the purer meritof his predecessor. His cold and reserved demeanor might be imputedto arrogance; his justice was not always exempt from cruelty, nor hisclemency from weakness; and his rigid economy too often exposed him tothe reproach of avarice. But the rational wishes of an absolute monarchmust tend to the happiness of his people. Maurice was endowed withsense and courage to promote that happiness, and his administration wasdirected by the principles and example of Tiberius. The pusillanimity ofthe Greeks had introduced so complete a separation between the officesof king and of general, that a private soldier, who had deserved andobtained the purple, seldom or never appeared at the head of his armies. Yet the emperor Maurice enjoyed the glory of restoring the Persianmonarch to his throne; his lieutenants waged a doubtful war against theAvars of the Danube; and he cast an eye of pity, of ineffectual pity, onthe abject and distressful state of his Italian provinces. 

[Footnote 29: It is therefore singular enough that Paul (l. Iii. C. 15)should distinguish him as the first Greek emperor--primus ex Graecorumgenere in Imperio constitutus. His immediate predecessors had in deedbeen born in the Latin provinces of Europe: and a various reading, inGraecorum Imperio, would apply the expression to the empire rather thanthe prince. ]

[Footnote 30: Consult, for the character and reign of Maurice, the fifthand sixth books of Evagrius, particularly l. Vi. C. L; the eight booksof his prolix and florid history by Theophylact Simocatta; Theophanes, p. 213, &c. ; Zonaras, tom. Ii. L. Xiv. P. 73; Cedrenus, p. 394. ]

[Footnote 31: Evagrius composed his history in the twelfth year ofMaurice; and he had been so wisely indiscreet that the emperor know andrewarded his favorable opinion, (l. Vi. C. 24. )]

From Italy the emperors were incessantly tormented by tales of miseryand demands of succor, which extorted the humiliating confession oftheir own weakness. The expiring dignity of Rome was only marked by thefreedom and energy of her complaints: "If you are incapable, " she said, "of delivering us from the sword of the Lombards, save us at least fromthe calamity of famine. " Tiberius forgave the reproach, and relieved thedistress: a supply of corn was transported from Egypt to the Tyber; andthe Roman people, invoking the name, not of Camillus, but of St. Peterrepulsed the Barbarians from their walls. But the relief was accidental, the danger was perpetual and pressing; and the clergy and senate, collecting the remains of their ancient opulence, a sum of threethousand pounds of gold, despatched the patrician Pamphronius to laytheir gifts and their complaints at the foot of the Byzantine throne. The attention of the court, and the forces of the East, were diverted bythe Persian war: but the justice of Tiberius applied the subsidy tothe defence of the city; and he dismissed the patrician with his bestadvice, either to bribe the Lombard chiefs, or to purchase the aid ofthe kings of France. Notwithstanding this weak invention, Italy wasstill afflicted, Rome was again besieged, and the suburb of Classe, onlythree miles from Ravenna, was pillaged and occupied by the troops of asimple duke of Spoleto. Maurice gave audience to a second deputationof priests and senators: the duties and the menaces of religion wereforcibly urged in the letters of the Roman pontiff; and his nuncio, the deacon Gregory, was alike qualified to solicit the powers either ofheaven or of the earth. 

The emperor adopted, with stronger effect, the measures of hispredecessor: some formidable chiefs were persuaded to embrace thefriendship of the Romans; and one of them, a mild and faithfulBarbarian, lived and died in the service of the exarchs: the passes ofthe Alps were delivered to the Franks; and the pope encouraged themto violate, without scruple, their oaths and engagements to themisbelievers. Childebert, the great-grandson of Clovis, was persuadedto invade Italy by the payment of fifty thousand pieces; but, as he hadviewed with delight some Byzantine coin of the weight of one pound ofgold, the king of Austrasia might stipulate, that the gift should berendered more worthy of his acceptance, by a proper mixture of theserespectable medals. The dukes of the Lombards had provoked by frequentinroads their powerful neighbors of Gaul. As soon as they wereapprehensive of a just retaliation, they renounced their feeble anddisorderly independence: the advantages of real government, union, secrecy, and vigor, were unanimously confessed; and Autharis, the son ofClepho, had already attained the strength and reputation of a warrior. Under the standard of their new king, the conquerors of Italy withstoodthree successive invasions, one of which was led by Childebert himself, the last of the Merovingian race who descended from the Alps. The firstexpedition was defeated by the jealous animosity of the Franks andAlemanni. In the second they were vanquished in a bloody battle, withmore loss and dishonor than they had sustained since the foundation oftheir monarchy. Impatient for revenge, they returned a third time withaccumulated force, and Autharis yielded to the fury of the torrent. The troops and treasures of the Lombards were distributed in the walledtowns between the Alps and the Apennine. A nation, less sensible ofdanger than of fatigue and delay, soon murmured against the folly oftheir twenty commanders; and the hot vapors of an Italian sun infectedwith disease those tramontane bodies which had already suffered thevicissitudes of intemperance and famine. The powers that were inadequateto the conquest, were more than sufficient for the desolation, of thecountry; nor could the trembling natives distinguish between theirenemies and their deliverers. If the junction of the Merovingian andImperial forces had been effected in the neighborhood of Milan, perhapsthey might have subverted the throne of the Lombards; but the Franksexpected six days the signal of a flaming village, and the arms of theGreeks were idly employed in the reduction of Modena and Parma, whichwere torn from them after the retreat of their transalpine allies. Thevictorious Autharis asserted his claim to the dominion of Italy. At thefoot of the Rhaetian Alps, he subdued the resistance, and rifled thehidden treasures, of a sequestered island in the Lake of Comum. At theextreme point of the Calabria, he touched with his spear a column on thesea-shore of Rhegium, [32] proclaiming that ancient landmark to standthe immovable boundary of his kingdom. [33]

[Footnote 32: The Columna Rhegina, in the narrowest part of the Faro ofMessina, one hundred stadia from Rhegium itself, is frequently mentionedin ancient geography. Cluver. Ital. Antiq. Tom. Ii. P. 1295. LucasHolsten. Annotat. Ad Cluver. P. 301. Wesseling, Itinerar. P. 106. ]

[Footnote 33: The Greek historians afford some faint hints of the warsof Italy (Menander, in Excerpt. Legat. P. 124, 126. Theophylact, l. Iii. C. 4. ) The Latins are more satisfactory; and especially Paul Warnefrid, (l iii. C. 13--34, ) who had read the more ancient histories of Secundusand Gregory of Tours. Baronius produces some letters of the popes, &c. ;and the times are measured by the accurate scale of Pagi and Muratori. ]

During a period of two hundred years, Italy was unequally dividedbetween the kingdom of the Lombards and the exarchate of Ravenna. The offices and professions, which the jealousy of Constantine hadseparated, were united by the indulgence of Justinian; and eighteensuccessive exarchs were invested, in the decline of the empire, with thefull remains of civil, of military, and even of ecclesiastical, power. Their immediate jurisdiction, which was afterwards consecrated as thepatrimony of St. Peter, extended over the modern Romagna, the marshes orvalleys of Ferrara and Commachio, [34] five maritime cities from Riminito Ancona, and a second inland Pentapolis, between the Adriatic coastand the hills of the Apennine. Three subordinate provinces, of Rome, of Venice, and of Naples, which were divided by hostile lands from thepalace of Ravenna, acknowledged, both in peace and war, the supremacyof the exarch. The duchy of Rome appears to have included the Tuscan, Sabine, and Latin conquests, of the first four hundred years of thecity, and the limits may be distinctly traced along the coast, fromCivita Vecchia to Terracina, and with the course of the Tyber fromAmeria and Narni to the port of Ostia. The numerous islands fromGrado to Chiozza composed the infant dominion of Venice: but the moreaccessible towns on the Continent were overthrown by the Lombards, whobeheld with impotent fury a new capital rising from the waves. The powerof the dukes of Naples was circumscribed by the bay and the adjacentisles, by the hostile territory of Capua, and by the Roman colonyof Amalphi, [35] whose industrious citizens, by the invention of themariner's compass, have unveiled the face of the globe. The threeislands of Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily, still adhered to the empire;and the acquisition of the farther Calabria removed the landmark ofAutharis from the shore of Rhegium to the Isthmus of Consentia. InSardinia, the savage mountaineers preserved the liberty and religion oftheir ancestors; and the husbandmen of Sicily were chained to theirrich and cultivated soil. Rome was oppressed by the iron sceptre of theexarchs, and a Greek, perhaps a eunuch, insulted with impunity the ruinsof the Capitol. But Naples soon acquired the privilege of electing herown dukes: [36] the independence of Amalphi was the fruit of commerce;and the voluntary attachment of Venice was finally ennobled by an equalalliance with the Eastern empire. On the map of Italy, the measure ofthe exarchate occupies a very inadequate space, but it included an ampleproportion of wealth, industry, and population. The most faithful andvaluable subjects escaped from the Barbarian yoke; and the banners ofPavia and Verona, of Milan and Padua, were displayed in their respectivequarters by the new inhabitants of Ravenna. The remainder of Italy waspossessed by the Lombards; and from Pavia, the royal seat, theirkingdom was extended to the east, the north, and the west, as far as theconfines of the Avars, the Bavarians, and the Franks of Austrasia andBurgundy. In the language of modern geography, it is now represented bythe Terra Firma of the Venetian republic, Tyrol, the Milanese, Piedmont, the coast of Genoa, Mantua, Parma, and Modena, the grand duchy ofTuscany, and a large portion of the ecclesiastical state from Perugiato the Adriatic. The dukes, and at length the princes, of Beneventum, survived the monarchy, and propagated the name of the Lombards. FromCapua to Tarentum, they reigned near five hundred years over thegreatest part of the present kingdom of Naples. [37]

[Footnote 34: The papal advocates, Zacagni and Fontanini, might justlyclaim the valley or morass of Commachio as a part of the exarchate. But the ambition of including Modena, Reggio, Parma, and Placentia, has darkened a geographical question somewhat doubtful and obscureEven Muratori, as the servant of the house of Este, is not free frompartiality and prejudice. ]

[Footnote 35: See Brenckman, Dissert. Ima de Republica Amalphitana, p. 1--42, ad calcem Hist. Pandect. Florent. ]

[Footnote 36: Gregor. Magn. L. Iii. Epist. 23, 25. ]

[Footnote 37: I have described the state of Italy from the excellentDissertation of Beretti. Giannone (Istoria Civile, tom. I. P. 374--387)has followed the learned Camillo Pellegrini in the geography of thekingdom of Naples. After the loss of the true Calabria, the vanity ofthe Greeks substituted that name instead of the more ignoble appellationof Bruttium; and the change appears to have taken place before the timeof Charlemagne, (Eginard, p. 75. )]

In comparing the proportion of the victorious and the vanquishedpeople, the change of language will afford the most probably inference. According to this standard, it will appear, that the Lombards of Italy, and the Visigoths of Spain, were less numerous than the Franks orBurgundians; and the conquerors of Gaul must yield, in their turn, tothe multitude of Saxons and Angles who almost eradicated the idioms ofBritain. The modern Italian has been insensibly formed by the mixtureof nations: the awkwardness of the Barbarians in the nice managementof declensions and conjugations reduced them to the use of articlesand auxiliary verbs; and many new ideas have been expressed by Teutonicappellations. Yet the principal stock of technical and familiar wordsis found to be of Latin derivation; [38] and, if we were sufficientlyconversant with the obsolete, the rustic, and the municipal dialectsof ancient Italy, we should trace the origin of many terms which might, perhaps, be rejected by the classic purity of Rome. A numerous armyconstitutes but a small nation, and the powers of the Lombards weresoon diminished by the retreat of twenty thousand Saxons, who scorneda dependent situation, and returned, after many bold and perilousadventures, to their native country. [39] The camp of Alboin wasof formidable extent, but the extent of a camp would be easilycircumscribed within the limits of a city; and its martial in habitantsmust be thinly scattered over the face of a large country. When Alboindescended from the Alps, he invested his nephew, the first duke ofFriuli, with the command of the province and the people: but the prudentGisulf would have declined the dangerous office, unless he had beenpermitted to choose, among the nobles of the Lombards, a sufficientnumber of families [40] to form a perpetual colony of soldiers andsubjects. In the progress of conquest, the same option could not begranted to the dukes of Brescia or Bergamo, or Pavia or Turin, ofSpoleto or Beneventum; but each of these, and each of their colleagues, settled in his appointed district with a band of followers who resortedto his standard in war and his tribunal in peace. Their attachment wasfree and honorable: resigning the gifts and benefits which they hadaccepted, they might emigrate with their families into the jurisdictionof another duke; but their absence from the kingdom was punished withdeath, as a crime of military desertion. [41] The posterity of the firstconquerors struck a deeper root into the soil, which, by every motiveof interest and honor, they were bound to defend. A Lombard was born thesoldier of his king and his duke; and the civil assemblies of the nationdisplayed the banners, and assumed the appellation, of a regular army. Of this army, the pay and the rewards were drawn from the conqueredprovinces; and the distribution, which was not effected till after thedeath of Alboin, is disgraced by the foul marks of injustice and rapine. Many of the most wealthy Italians were slain or banished; the remainderwere divided among the strangers, and a tributary obligation was imposed(under the name of hospitality) of paying to the Lombards a thirdpart of the fruits of the earth. Within less than seventy years, thisartificial system was abolished by a more simple and solid tenure. [42]Either the Roman landlord was expelled by his strong and insolent guest, or the annual payment, a third of the produce, was exchanged by a moreequitable transaction for an adequate proportion of landed property. Under these foreign masters, the business of agriculture, in thecultivation of corn, wines, and olives, was exercised with degenerateskill and industry by the labor of the slaves and natives. But theoccupations of a pastoral life were more pleasing to the idleness of theBarbarian. In the rich meadows of Venetia, they restored and improvedthe breed of horses, for which that province had once been illustrious;[43] and the Italians beheld with astonishment a foreign race of oxenor buffaloes. [44] The depopulation of Lombardy, and the increase offorests, afforded an ample range for the pleasures of the chase. [45]That marvellous art which teaches the birds of the air to acknowledgethe voice, and execute the commands, of their master, had been unknownto the ingenuity of the Greeks and Romans. [46] Scandinavia and Scythiaproduce the boldest and most tractable falcons: [47] they were tamedand educated by the roving inhabitants, always on horseback and in thefield. This favorite amusement of our ancestors was introduced by theBarbarians into the Roman provinces; and the laws of Italy esteemed thesword and the hawk as of equal dignity and importance in the hands of anoble Lombard. [48]

[Footnote 38: Maffei (Verona Illustrata, part i. P. 310--321) andMuratori (Antichita Italiane, tom. Ii. Dissertazione xxxii. Xxxiii. P. 71--365) have asserted the native claims of the Italian idiom; theformer with enthusiasm, the latter with discretion; both with learning, ingenuity, and truth. Note: Compare the admirable sketch of thedegeneracy of the Latin language and the formation of the Italian inHallam, Middle Ages, vol. Iii. P. 317 329. --M. ]

[Footnote 39: Paul, de Gest. Langobard. L. Iii. C. 5, 6, 7. ]

[Footnote 40: Paul, l. Ii. C. 9. He calls these families or generationsby the Teutonic name of Faras, which is likewise used in the Lombardlaws. The humble deacon was not insensible of the nobility of his ownrace. See l. Iv. C. 39. ]

[Footnote 41: Compare No. 3 and 177 of the Laws of Rotharis. ]

[Footnote 42: Paul, l. Ii. C. 31, 32, l. Iii. C. 16. The Laws ofRotharis, promulgated A. D. 643, do not contain the smallest vestige ofthis payment of thirds; but they preserve many curious circumstances ofthe state of Italy and the manners of the Lombards. ]

[Footnote 43: The studs of Dionysius of Syracuse, and his frequentvictories in the Olympic games, had diffused among the Greeks the fameof the Venetian horses; but the breed was extinct in the time of Strabo, (l. V. P. 325. ) Gisulf obtained from his uncle generosarum equarumgreges. Paul, l. Ii. C. 9. The Lombards afterwards introduced caballisylvatici--wild horses. Paul, l. Iv. C. 11. ]

[Footnote 44: Tunc (A. D. 596) primum, bubali in Italiam delati Italiaepopulis miracula fuere, (Paul Warnefrid, l. Iv. C. 11. ) The buffaloes, whose native climate appears to be Africa and India, are unknownto Europe, except in Italy, where they are numerous and useful. Theancients were ignorant of these animals, unless Aristotle (Hist. Anim. L. Ii. C. 1, p. 58, Paris, 1783) has described them as the wild oxen ofArachosia. See Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. Xi. And Supplement, tom. Vi. Hist. Generale des Voyages, tom. I. P. 7, 481, ii. 105, iii. 291, iv. 234, 461, v. 193, vi. 491, viii. 400, x. 666. Pennant's Quadrupedes, p. 24. Dictionnaire d'Hist. Naturelle, par Valmont de Bomare, tom. Ii. P. 74. Yet I must not conceal the suspicion that Paul, by a vulgarerror, may have applied the name of bubalus to the aurochs, or wildbull, of ancient Germany. ]

[Footnote 45: Consult the xxist Dissertation of Muratori. ]

[Footnote 46: Their ignorance is proved by the silence even of thosewho professedly treat of the arts of hunting and the history of animals. Aristotle, (Hist. Animal. L. Ix. C. 36, tom. I. P. 586, and the Notes ofhis last editor, M. Camus, tom. Ii. P. 314, ) Pliny, (Hist. Natur. L. X. C. 10, ) Aelian (de Natur. Animal. L. Ii. C. 42, ) and perhaps Homer, (Odyss. Xxii. 302-306, ) describe with astonishment a tacit league andcommon chase between the hawks and the Thracian fowlers. ]

[Footnote 47: Particularly the gerfaut, or gyrfalcon, of the size ofa small eagle. See the animated description of M. De Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. Xvi. P. 239, &c. ]

[Footnote 48: Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. I. Part ii. P. 129. This isthe xvith law of the emperor Lewis the Pious. His father Charlemagne hadfalconers in his household as well as huntsmen, (Memoires sur l'ancienneChevalerie, par M. De St. Palaye, tom. Iii. P. 175. ) I observe in thelaws of Rotharis a more early mention of the art of hawking, (No. 322;) and in Gaul, in the fifth century, it is celebrated by SidoniusApollinaris among the talents of Avitus, (202--207. ) * Note: SeeBeckman, Hist. Of Inventions, vol. I. P. 319--M. ]

Chapter XLV: State Of Italy Under The Lombards. --Part III. 

So rapid was the influence of climate and example, that the Lombards ofthe fourth generation surveyed with curiosity and affright the portraitsof their savage forefathers. [49] Their heads were shaven behind, but the shaggy locks hung over their eyes and mouth, and a long beardrepresented the name and character of the nation. Their dress consistedof loose linen garments, after the fashion of the Anglo-Saxons, whichwere decorated, in their opinion, with broad stripes or variegatedcolors. The legs and feet were clothed in long hose, and open sandals;and even in the security of peace a trusty sword was constantly girt totheir side. Yet this strange apparel, and horrid aspect, often concealeda gentle and generous disposition; and as soon as the rage of battlehad subsided, the captives and subjects were sometimes surprised by thehumanity of the victor. The vices of the Lombards were the effect ofpassion, of ignorance, of intoxication; their virtues are the morelaudable, as they were not affected by the hypocrisy of social manners, nor imposed by the rigid constraint of laws and education. I should notbe apprehensive of deviating from my subject, if it were in my powerto delineate the private life of the conquerors of Italy; and I shallrelate with pleasure the adventurous gallantry of Autharis, whichbreathes the true spirit of chivalry and romance. [50] After the lossof his promised bride, a Merovingian princess, he sought in marriage thedaughter of the king of Bavaria; and Garribald accepted the alliance ofthe Italian monarch. Impatient of the slow progress of negotiation, theardent lover escaped from his palace, and visited the court of Bavariain the train of his own embassy. At the public audience, the unknownstranger advanced to the throne, and informed Garribald that theambassador was indeed the minister of state, but that he alone was thefriend of Autharis, who had trusted him with the delicate commission ofmaking a faithful report of the charms of his spouse. Theudelinda wassummoned to undergo this important examination; and, after a pauseof silent rapture, he hailed her as the queen of Italy, and humblyrequested that, according to the custom of the nation, she would presenta cup of wine to the first of her new subjects. By the command ofher father she obeyed: Autharis received the cup in his turn, and, inrestoring it to the princess, he secretly touched her hand, and drew hisown finger over his face and lips. In the evening, Theudelinda impartedto her nurse the indiscreet familiarity of the stranger, and wascomforted by the assurance, that such boldness could proceed only fromthe king her husband, who, by his beauty and courage, appeared worthy ofher love. The ambassadors were dismissed: no sooner did they reach theconfines of Italy than Autharis, raising himself on his horse, dartedhis battle-axe against a tree with incomparable strength and dexterity. "Such, " said he to the astonished Bavarians, "such are the strokes ofthe king of the Lombards. " On the approach of a French army, Garribaldand his daughter took refuge in the dominions of their ally; and themarriage was consummated in the palace of Verona. At the end of oneyear, it was dissolved by the death of Autharis: but the virtues ofTheudelinda [51] had endeared her to the nation, and she was permittedto bestow, with her hand, the sceptre of the Italian kingdom. 

[Footnote 49: The epitaph of Droctulf (Paul, l. Iii. C. 19) may beapplied to many of his countrymen:-- Terribilis visu facies, sed cordabenignus Longaque robusto pectore barba fuit. The portraits of the oldLombards might still be seen in the palace of Monza, twelve miles fromMilan, which had been founded or restored by Queen Theudelinda, (l. Iv. 22, 23. ) See Muratori, tom. I. Disserta, xxiii. P. 300. ]

[Footnote 50: The story of Autharis and Theudelinda is related by Paul, l. Iii. 29, 34; and any fragment of Bavarian antiquity excites theindefatigable diligence of the count de Buat, Hist. Des Peuples del'Europe, ton. Xi. P. 595--635, tom. Xii. P. 1-53. ]

[Footnote 51: Giannone (Istoria Civile de Napoli, tom. I. P. 263) hasjustly censured the impertinence of Boccaccio, (Gio. Iii. Novel. 2, )who, without right, or truth, or pretence, has given the pious queenTheudelinda to the arms of a muleteer. ]

From this fact, as well as from similar events, [52] it is certain thatthe Lombards possessed freedom to elect their sovereign, and sense todecline the frequent use of that dangerous privilege. The public revenuearose from the produce of land and the profits of justice. When theindependent dukes agreed that Autharis should ascend the throne ofhis father, they endowed the regal office with a fair moiety of theirrespective domains. The proudest nobles aspired to the honors ofservitude near the person of their prince: he rewarded the fidelity ofhis vassals by the precarious gift of pensions and benefices; andatoned for the injuries of war by the rich foundation of monasteries andchurches. In peace a judge, a leader in war, he never usurped thepowers of a sole and absolute legislator. The king of Italy convened thenational assemblies in the palace, or more probably in the fields, ofPavia: his great council was composed of the persons most eminent bytheir birth and dignities; but the validity, as well as the execution, of their decrees depended on the approbation of the faithful people, thefortunate army of the Lombards. About fourscore years after the conquestof Italy, their traditional customs were transcribed in Teutonic Latin, [53] and ratified by the consent of the prince and people: some newregulations were introduced, more suitable to their present condition;the example of Rotharis was imitated by the wisest of his successors;and the laws of the Lombards have been esteemed the least imperfect ofthe Barbaric codes. [54] Secure by their courage in the possession ofliberty, these rude and hasty legislators were incapable of balancingthe powers of the constitution, or of discussing the nice theoryof political government. Such crimes as threatened the life of thesovereign, or the safety of the state, were adjudged worthy of death;but their attention was principally confined to the defence ofthe person and property of the subject. According to the strangejurisprudence of the times, the guilt of blood might be redeemed by afine; yet the high price of nine hundred pieces of gold declares ajust sense of the value of a simple citizen. Less atrocious injuries, a wound, a fracture, a blow, an opprobrious word, were measured withscrupulous and almost ridiculous diligence; and the prudence of thelegislator encouraged the ignoble practice of bartering honor andrevenge for a pecuniary compensation. The ignorance of the Lombards inthe state of Paganism or Christianity gave implicit credit to the maliceand mischief of witchcraft, but the judges of the seventeenth centurymight have been instructed and confounded by the wisdom of Rotharis, whoderides the absurd superstition, and protects the wretched victimsof popular or judicial cruelty. [55] The same spirit of a legislator, superior to his age and country, may be ascribed to Luitprand, whocondemns, while he tolerates, the impious and inveterate abuse of duels, [56] observing, from his own experience, that the juster cause had oftenbeen oppressed by successful violence. Whatever merit may be discoveredin the laws of the Lombards, they are the genuine fruit of the reasonof the Barbarians, who never admitted the bishops of Italy to a seat intheir legislative councils. But the succession of their kings is markedwith virtue and ability; the troubled series of their annals is adornedwith fair intervals of peace, order, and domestic happiness; and theItalians enjoyed a milder and more equitable government, than any ofthe other kingdoms which had been founded on the ruins of the Westernempire. [57]

[Footnote 52: Paul, l. Iii. C. 16. The first dissertations of Muratori, and the first volume of Giannone's history, may be consulted for thestate of the kingdom of Italy. ]

[Footnote 53: The most accurate edition of the Laws of the Lombardsis to be found in the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. I. Part ii. P. 1--181, collated from the most ancient Mss. And illustrated by thecritical notes of Muratori. ]

[Footnote 54: Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, l. Xxviii. C. 1. Les loixdes Bourguignons sont assez judicieuses; celles de Rotharis et desautres princes Lombards le sont encore plus. ]

[Footnote 55: See Leges Rotharis, No. 379, p. 47. Striga is used as thename of a witch. It is of the purest classic origin, (Horat. Epod. V. 20. Petron. C. 134;) and from the words of Petronius, (quae strigescomederunt nervos tuos?) it may be inferred that the prejudice was ofItalian rather than Barbaric extraction. ]

[Footnote 56: Quia incerti sumus de judicio Dei, et multos audivimus perpugnam sine justa causa suam causam perdere. Sed propter consuetudinomgentem nostram Langobardorum legem impiam vetare non possumus. See p. 74, No. 65, of the Laws of Luitprand, promulgated A. D. 724. ]

[Footnote 57: Read the history of Paul Warnefrid; particularly l. Iii. C. 16. Baronius rejects the praise, which appears to contradict theinvectives of Pope Gregory the Great; but Muratori (Annali d' Italia, tom. V. P. 217) presumes to insinuate that the saint may have magnifiedthe faults of Arians and enemies. ]

Amidst the arms of the Lombards, and under the despotism of the Greeks, we again inquire into the fate of Rome, [58] which had reached, aboutthe close of the sixth century, the lowest period of her depression. By the removal of the seat of empire, and the successive loss of theprovinces, the sources of public and private opulence were exhausted:the lofty tree, under whose shade the nations of the earth had reposed, was deprived of its leaves and branches, and the sapless trunk was leftto wither on the ground. The ministers of command, and the messengers ofvictory, no longer met on the Appian or Flaminian way; and the hostileapproach of the Lombards was often felt, and continually feared. Theinhabitants of a potent and peaceful capital, who visit without ananxious thought the garden of the adjacent country, will faintly picturein their fancy the distress of the Romans: they shut or opened theirgates with a trembling hand, beheld from the walls the flames of theirhouses, and heard the lamentations of their brethren, who were coupledtogether like dogs, and dragged away into distant slavery beyond the seaand the mountains. Such incessant alarms must annihilate the pleasuresand interrupt the labors of a rural life; and the Campagna of Rome wasspeedily reduced to the state of a dreary wilderness, in which the landis barren, the waters are impure, and the air is infectious. Curiosityand ambition no longer attracted the nations to the capital of theworld: but, if chance or necessity directed the steps of a wanderingstranger, he contemplated with horror the vacancy and solitude of thecity, and might be tempted to ask, Where is the senate, and where arethe people? In a season of excessive rains, the Tyber swelled above itsbanks, and rushed with irresistible violence into the valleys of theseven hills. A pestilential disease arose from the stagnation of thedeluge, and so rapid was the contagion, that fourscore persons expiredin an hour in the midst of a solemn procession, which implored the mercyof Heaven. [59] A society in which marriage is encouraged and industryprevails soon repairs the accidental losses of pestilence and war:but, as the far greater part of the Romans was condemned to hopelessindigence and celibacy, the depopulation was constant and visible, andthe gloomy enthusiasts might expect the approaching failure of the humanrace. [60] Yet the number of citizens still exceeded the measure ofsubsistence: their precarious food was supplied from the harvests ofSicily or Egypt; and the frequent repetition of famine betrays theinattention of the emperor to a distant province. The edifices of Romewere exposed to the same ruin and decay: the mouldering fabrics wereeasily overthrown by inundations, tempests, and earthquakes: and themonks, who had occupied the most advantageous stations, exulted in theirbase triumph over the ruins of antiquity. [61] It is commonly believed, that Pope Gregory the First attacked the temples and mutilated thestatues of the city; that, by the command of the Barbarian, the Palatinelibrary was reduced to ashes, and that the history of Livy was thepeculiar mark of his absurd and mischievous fanaticism. The writingsof Gregory himself reveal his implacable aversion to the monuments ofclassic genius; and he points his severest censure against the profanelearning of a bishop, who taught the art of grammar, studied the Latinpoets, and pronounced with the same voice the praises of Jupiter andthose of Christ. But the evidence of his destructive rage is doubtfuland recent: the Temple of Peace, or the theatre of Marcellus, have beendemolished by the slow operation of ages, and a formal proscriptionwould have multiplied the copies of Virgil and Livy in the countrieswhich were not subject to the ecclesiastical dictator. [62]

[Footnote 58: The passages of the homilies of Gregory, which representthe miserable state of the city and country, are transcribed in theAnnals of Baronius, A. D. 590, No. 16, A. D. 595, No. 2, &c. , &c. ]

[Footnote 59: The inundation and plague were reported by a deacon, whomhis bishop, Gregory of Tours, had despatched to Rome for some relicsThe ingenious messenger embellished his tale and the river with a greatdragon and a train of little serpents, (Greg. Turon. L. X. C. 1. )]

[Footnote 60: Gregory of Rome (Dialog. L. Ii. C. 15) relates a memorableprediction of St. Benedict. Roma a Gentilibus non exterminabitur sedtempestatibus, coruscis turbinibus ac terrae motu in semetipsa marcescet. Such a prophecy melts into true history, and becomes the evidenceof the fact after which it was invented. ]

[Footnote 61: Quia in uno se ore cum Jovis laudibus, Christi laudes noncapiunt, et quam grave nefandumque sit episcopis canere quod nec laicoreligioso conveniat, ipse considera, (l. Ix. Ep. 4. ) The writings ofGregory himself attest his innocence of any classic taste or literature]

[Footnote 62: Bayle, (Dictionnaire Critique, tom. Ii. 598, 569, ) ina very good article of Gregoire I. , has quoted, for the buildings andstatues, Platina in Gregorio I. ; for the Palatine library, John ofSalisbury, (de Nugis Curialium, l. Ii. C. 26;) and for Livy, Antoninusof Florence: the oldest of the three lived in the xiith century. ]

Like Thebes, or Babylon, or Carthage, the names of Rome might have beenerased from the earth, if the city had not been animated by a vitalprinciple, which again restored her to honor and dominion. A vaguetradition was embraced, that two Jewish teachers, a tent-maker and afisherman, had formerly been executed in the circus of Nero, and atthe end of five hundred years, their genuine or fictitious relics wereadored as the Palladium of Christian Rome. The pilgrims of the East andWest resorted to the holy threshold; but the shrines of the apostleswere guarded by miracles and invisible terrors; and it was not withoutfear that the pious Catholic approached the object of his worship. It was fatal to touch, it was dangerous to behold, the bodies of thesaints; and those who, from the purest motives, presumed to disturb therepose of the sanctuary, were affrighted by visions, or punished withsudden death. The unreasonable request of an empress, who wished todeprive the Romans of their sacred treasure, the head of St. Paul, was rejected with the deepest abhorrence; and the pope asserted, mostprobably with truth, that a linen which had been sanctified in theneighborhood of his body, or the filings of his chain, which it wassometimes easy and sometimes impossible to obtain, possessed an equaldegree of miraculous virtue. [63] But the power as well as virtue of theapostles resided with living energy in the breast of their successors;and the chair of St. Peter was filled under the reign of Maurice by thefirst and greatest of the name of Gregory. [64] His grandfather Felixhad himself been pope, and as the bishops were already bound by the lawsof celibacy, his consecration must have been preceded by the death ofhis wife. The parents of Gregory, Sylvia, and Gordian, were the noblestof the senate, and the most pious of the church of Rome; his femalerelations were numbered among the saints and virgins; and his ownfigure, with those of his father and mother, were represented nearthree hundred years in a family portrait, [65] which he offered to themonastery of St. Andrew. The design and coloring of this picture affordan honorable testimony that the art of painting was cultivated bythe Italians of the sixth century; but the most abject ideas must beentertained of their taste and learning, since the epistles of Gregory, his sermons, and his dialogues, are the work of a man who was second inerudition to none of his contemporaries: [66] his birth and abilitieshad raised him to the office of praefect of the city, and he enjoyedthe merit of renouncing the pomps and vanities of this world. His amplepatrimony was dedicated to the foundation of seven monasteries, [67] onein Rome, [68] and six in Sicily; and it was the wish of Gregory that hemight be unknown in this life, and glorious only in the next. Yet hisdevotion (and it might be sincere) pursued the path which would havebeen chosen by a crafty and ambitious statesman. The talents of Gregory, and the splendor which accompanied his retreat, rendered him dear anduseful to the church; and implicit obedience has always been inculcatedas the first duty of a monk. As soon as he had received the character ofdeacon, Gregory was sent to reside at the Byzantine court, the nuncio orminister of the apostolic see; and he boldly assumed, in the name of St. Peter, a tone of independent dignity, which would have been criminal anddangerous in the most illustrious layman of the empire. He returned toRome with a just increase of reputation, and, after a short exerciseof the monastic virtues, he was dragged from the cloister to the papalthrone, by the unanimous voice of the clergy, the senate, and thepeople. He alone resisted, or seemed to resist, his own elevation; andhis humble petition, that Maurice would be pleased to reject the choiceof the Romans, could only serve to exalt his character in the eyesof the emperor and the public. When the fatal mandate was proclaimed, Gregory solicited the aid of some friendly merchants to convey him ina basket beyond the gates of Rome, and modestly concealed himself somedays among the woods and mountains, till his retreat was discovered, asit is said, by a celestial light. [Footnote 63: Gregor. L. Iii. Epist. 24, edict. 12, &c. From the epistles of Gregory, and the viiith volumeof the Annals of Baronius, the pious reader may collect the particlesof holy iron which were inserted in keys or crosses of gold, anddistributed in Britain, Gaul, Spain, Africa, Constantinople, and Egypt. The pontifical smith who handled the file must have understood themiracles which it was in his own power to operate or withhold; acircumstance which abates the superstition of Gregory at the expense ofhis veracity. ]

[Footnote 64: Besides the epistles of Gregory himself, which aremethodized by Dupin, (Bibliotheque Eccles. Tom. V. P. 103--126, ) we havethree lives of the pope; the two first written in the viiith and ixthcenturies, (de Triplici Vita St. Greg. Preface to the ivth volume ofthe Benedictine edition, ) by the deacons Paul (p. 1--18) and John, (p. 19--188, ) and containing much original, though doubtful, evidence; thethird, a long and labored compilation by the Benedictine editors, (p. 199--305. ) The annals of Baronius are a copious but partial history. His papal prejudices are tempered by the good sense of Fleury, (Hist. Eccles. Tom. Viii. , ) and his chronology has been rectified by thecriticism of Pagi and Muratori. ]

[Footnote 65: John the deacon has described them like an eye-witness, (l. Iv. C. 83, 84;) and his description is illustrated by Angelo Rocca, a Roman antiquary, (St. Greg. Opera, tom. Iv. P. 312--326;) who observesthat some mosaics of the popes of the viith century are still preservedin the old churches of Rome, (p. 321--323) The same walls whichrepresented Gregory's family are now decorated with the martyrdom of St. Andrew, the noble contest of Dominichino and Guido. ]

[Footnote 66: Disciplinis vero liberalibus, hoc est grammatica, rhetorica, dialectica ita apuero est institutus, ut quamvis eo temporeflorerent adhuc Romae studia literarum, tamen nulli in urbe ipsasecundus putaretur. Paul. Diacon. In Vit. St. Gregor. C. 2. ]

[Footnote 67: The Benedictines (Vit. Greg. L. I. P. 205--208) labor toreduce the monasteries of Gregory within the rule of their own order;but, as the question is confessed to be doubtful, it is clear that thesepowerful monks are in the wrong. See Butler's Lives of the Saints, vol. Iii. P. 145; a work of merit: the sense and learning belong to theauthor--his prejudices are those of his profession. ]

[Footnote 68: Monasterium Gregorianum in ejusdem Beati Gregorii aedibusad clivum Scauri prope ecclesiam SS. Johannis et Pauli in honorem St. Andreae, (John, in Vit. Greg. L. I. C. 6. Greg. L. Vii. Epist. 13. ) Thishouse and monastery were situate on the side of the Caelian hillwhich fronts the Palatine; they are now occupied by the Camaldoli: SanGregorio triumphs, and St. Andrew has retired to a small chapel Nardini, Roma Antica, l. Iii. C. 6, p. 100. Descrizzione di Roma, tom. I. P. 442--446. ]

The pontificate of Gregory the Great, which lasted thirteen years, sixmonths, and ten days, is one of the most edifying periods of the historyof the church. His virtues, and even his faults, a singular mixtureof simplicity and cunning, of pride and humility, of sense andsuperstition, were happily suited to his station and to the temper ofthe times. In his rival, the patriarch of Constantinople, he condemnedthe anti-Christian title of universal bishop, which the successor ofSt. Peter was too haughty to concede, and too feeble to assume; andthe ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Gregory was confined to the triplecharacter of Bishop of Rome, Primate of Italy, and Apostle of the West. He frequently ascended the pulpit, and kindled, by his rude, thoughpathetic, eloquence, the congenial passions of his audience: thelanguage of the Jewish prophets was interpreted and applied; and theminds of a people, depressed by their present calamities, were directedto the hopes and fears of the invisible world. His precepts and exampledefined the model of the Roman liturgy; [69] the distribution of theparishes, the calendar of the festivals, the order of processions, theservice of the priests and deacons, the variety and change of sacerdotalgarments. Till the last days of his life, he officiated in the canon ofthe mass, which continued above three hours: the Gregorian chant [70]has preserved the vocal and instrumental music of the theatre, and therough voices of the Barbarians attempted to imitate the melody of theRoman school. [71] Experience had shown him the efficacy of these solemnand pompous rites, to soothe the distress, to confirm the faith, tomitigate the fierceness, and to dispel the dark enthusiasm of thevulgar, and he readily forgave their tendency to promote the reignof priesthood and superstition. The bishops of Italy and the adjacentislands acknowledged the Roman pontiff as their special metropolitan. Even the existence, the union, or the translation of episcopal seats wasdecided by his absolute discretion: and his successful inroads into theprovinces of Greece, of Spain, and of Gaul, might countenance the morelofty pretensions of succeeding popes. He interposed to prevent theabuses of popular elections; his jealous care maintained the purity offaith and discipline; and the apostolic shepherd assiduously watchedover the faith and discipline of the subordinate pastors. Under hisreign, the Arians of Italy and Spain were reconciled to the Catholicchurch, and the conquest of Britain reflects less glory on the name ofCaesar, than on that of Gregory the First. Instead of six legions, fortymonks were embarked for that distant island, and the pontiff lamentedthe austere duties which forbade him to partake the perils of theirspiritual warfare. In less than two years, he could announce to thearchbishop of Alexandria, that they had baptized the king of Kent withten thousand of his Anglo-Saxons, and that the Roman missionaries, like those of the primitive church, were armed only with spiritual andsupernatural powers. The credulity or the prudence of Gregory was alwaysdisposed to confirm the truths of religion by the evidence of ghosts, miracles, and resurrections; [72] and posterity has paid to his memorythe same tribute which he freely granted to the virtue of his own or thepreceding generation. The celestial honors have been liberally bestowedby the authority of the popes, but Gregory is the last of their ownorder whom they have presumed to inscribe in the calendar of saints. 

[Footnote 69: The Lord's Prayer consists of half a dozen lines; theSacramentarius and Antiphonarius of Gregory fill 880 folio pages, (tom. Iii. P. I. P. 1--880;) yet these only constitute a part of the OrdoRomanus, which Mabillon has illustrated and Fleury has abridged, (Hist. Eccles. Tom. Viii. P. 139--152. )]

[Footnote 70: I learn from the Abbe Dobos, (Reflexions sur la Poesieet la Peinture, tom. Iii. P. 174, 175, ) that the simplicity of theAmbrosian chant was confined to four modes, while the more perfectharmony of the Gregorian comprised the eight modes or fifteen chords ofthe ancient music. He observes (p. 332) that the connoisseurs admire thepreface and many passages of the Gregorian office. ]

[Footnote 71: John the deacon (in Vit. Greg. L. Ii. C. 7) expresses theearly contempt of the Italians for tramontane singing. Alpina scilicetcorpora vocum suarum tonitruis altisone perstrepentia, susceptaemodulationis dulcedinem proprie non resultant: quia bibuli gutturisbarbara feritas dum inflexionibus et repercussionibus mitem nitituredere cantilenam, naturali quodam fragore, quasi plaustra per gradusconfuse sonantia, rigidas voces jactat, &c. In the time of Charlemagne, the Franks, though with some reluctance, admitted the justice of thereproach. Muratori, Dissert. Xxv. ]

[Footnote 72: A French critic (Petrus Gussanvillus, Opera, tom. Ii. P. 105--112) has vindicated the right of Gregory to the entire nonsense ofthe Dialogues. Dupin (tom. V. P. 138) does not think that any one willvouch for the truth of all these miracles: I should like to know howmany of them he believed himself. ]

Their temporal power insensibly arose from the calamities of the times:and the Roman bishops, who have deluged Europe and Asia with blood, werecompelled to reign as the ministers of charity and peace. I. The churchof Rome, as it has been formerly observed, was endowed with amplepossessions in Italy, Sicily, and the more distant provinces; and heragents, who were commonly sub-deacons, had acquired a civil, and evencriminal, jurisdiction over their tenants and husbandmen. The successorof St. Peter administered his patrimony with the temper of a vigilantand moderate landlord; [73] and the epistles of Gregory are filled withsalutary instructions to abstain from doubtful or vexatious lawsuits;to preserve the integrity of weights and measures; to grant everyreasonable delay; and to reduce the capitation of the slaves ofthe glebe, who purchased the right of marriage by the payment of anarbitrary fine. [74] The rent or the produce of these estates wastransported to the mouth of the Tyber, at the risk and expense of thepope: in the use of wealth he acted like a faithful steward ofthe church and the poor, and liberally applied to their wants theinexhaustible resources of abstinence and order. The voluminous accountof his receipts and disbursements was kept above three hundred yearsin the Lateran, as the model of Christian economy. On the four greatfestivals, he divided their quarterly allowance to the clergy, to hisdomestics, to the monasteries, the churches, the places of burial, thealmshouses, and the hospitals of Rome, and the rest of the diocese. Onthe first day of every month, he distributed to the poor, according tothe season, their stated portion of corn, wine, cheese, vegetables, oil, fish, fresh provisions, clothes, and money; and his treasurers werecontinually summoned to satisfy, in his name, the extraordinary demandsof indigence and merit. The instant distress of the sick and helpless, of strangers and pilgrims, was relieved by the bounty of each day, andof every hour; nor would the pontiff indulge himself in a frugal repast, till he had sent the dishes from his own table to some objects deservingof his compassion. The misery of the times had reduced the nobles andmatrons of Rome to accept, without a blush, the benevolence of thechurch: three thousand virgins received their food and raiment from thehand of their benefactor; and many bishops of Italy escaped from theBarbarians to the hospitable threshold of the Vatican. Gregory mightjustly be styled the Father of his Country; and such was the extremesensibility of his conscience, that, for the death of a beggar who hadperished in the streets, he interdicted himself during several daysfrom the exercise of sacerdotal functions. II. The misfortunes of Romeinvolved the apostolical pastor in the business of peace and war; and itmight be doubtful to himself, whether piety or ambition prompted him tosupply the place of his absent sovereign. Gregory awakened the emperorfrom a long slumber; exposed the guilt or incapacity of the exarch andhis inferior ministers; complained that the veterans were withdrawn fromRome for the defence of Spoleto; encouraged the Italians to guard theircities and altars; and condescended, in the crisis of danger, to namethe tribunes, and to direct the operations, of the provincial troops. But the martial spirit of the pope was checked by the scruples ofhumanity and religion: the imposition of tribute, though it was employedin the Italian war, he freely condemned as odious and oppressive; whilsthe protected, against the Imperial edicts, the pious cowardice of thesoldiers who deserted a military for a monastic life If we may credithis own declarations, it would have been easy for Gregory to exterminatethe Lombards by their domestic factions, without leaving a king, a duke, or a count, to save that unfortunate nation from the vengeance of theirfoes As a Christian bishop, he preferred the salutary offices of peace;his mediation appeased the tumult of arms: but he was too conscious ofthe arts of the Greeks, and the passions of the Lombards, to engage hissacred promise for the observance of the truce. Disappointed in the hopeof a general and lasting treaty, he presumed to save his country withoutthe consent of the emperor or the exarch. The sword of the enemy wassuspended over Rome; it was averted by the mild eloquence and seasonablegifts of the pontiff, who commanded the respect of heretics andBarbarians. The merits of Gregory were treated by the Byzantine courtwith reproach and insult; but in the attachment of a grateful people, hefound the purest reward of a citizen, and the best right of a sovereign. [75]

[Footnote 73: Baronius is unwilling to expatiate on the care of thepatrimonies, lest he should betray that they consisted not of kingdoms, but farms. The French writers, the Benedictine editors, (tom. Iv. L. Iii. P. 272, &c. , ) and Fleury, (tom. Viii. P. 29, &c. , ) are not afraidof entering into these humble, though useful, details; and the humanityof Fleury dwells on the social virtues of Gregory. ]

[Footnote 74: I much suspect that this pecuniary fine on the marriagesof villains produced the famous, and often fabulous right, de cuissage, de marquette, &c. With the consent of her husband, a handsome bridemight commute the payment in the arms of a young landlord, and themutual favor might afford a precedent of local rather than legaltyranny]

[Footnote 75: The temporal reign of Gregory I. Is ably exposed bySigonius in the first book, de Regno Italiae. See his works, tom. Ii. P. 44--75]

Chapter XLVI: Troubles In Persia. --Part I. 

 Revolutions On Persia After The Death Of Chosroes On Nushirvan. --His Son Hormouz, A Tyrant, Is Deposed. -- Usurpation Of Baharam. --Flight And Restoration Of Chosroes II. --His Gratitude To The Romans. --The Chagan Of The Avars. - -Revolt Of The Army Against Maurice. --His Death. --Tyranny Of Phocas. --Elevation Of Heraclius. --The Persian War. --Chosroes Subdues Syria, Egypt, And Asia Minor. --Siege Of Constantinople By The Persians And Avars. --Persian Expeditions. --Victories And Triumph Of Heraclius. 

The conflict of Rome and Persia was prolonged from the death of Craesusto the reign of Heraclius. An experience of seven hundred years mightconvince the rival nations of the impossibility of maintaining theirconquests beyond the fatal limits of the Tigris and Euphrates. Yetthe emulation of Trajan and Julian was awakened by the trophies ofAlexander, and the sovereigns of Persia indulged the ambitious hope ofrestoring the empire of Cyrus. [1] Such extraordinary efforts of powerand courage will always command the attention of posterity; but theevents by which the fate of nations is not materially changed, leave afaint impression on the page of history, and the patience of the readerwould be exhausted by the repetition of the same hostilities, undertakenwithout cause, prosecuted without glory, and terminated without effect. The arts of negotiation, unknown to the simple greatness of the senateand the Caesars, were assiduously cultivated by the Byzantine princes;and the memorials of their perpetual embassies [2] repeat, with thesame uniform prolixity, the language of falsehood and declamation, theinsolence of the Barbarians, and the servile temper of the tributaryGreeks. Lamenting the barren superfluity of materials, I have studied tocompress the narrative of these uninteresting transactions: but the justNushirvan is still applauded as the model of Oriental kings, and theambition of his grandson Chosroes prepared the revolution of the East, which was speedily accomplished by the arms and the religion of thesuccessors of Mahomet. 

[Footnote 1: Missis qui. .. Reposcerent. .. Veteres Persarum ac Macedonumterminos, seque invasurum possessa Cyro et post Alexandro, pervaniloquentiam ac minas jaciebat. Tacit. Annal. Vi. 31. Such was thelanguage of the Arsacides. I have repeatedly marked the lofty claims ofthe Sassanians. ]

[Footnote 2: See the embassies of Menander, extracted and preserved inthe tenth century by the order of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. ]

In the useless altercations, that precede and justify the quarrels ofprinces, the Greeks and the Barbarians accused each other of violatingthe peace which had been concluded between the two empires about fouryears before the death of Justinian. The sovereign of Persia and Indiaaspired to reduce under his obedience the province of Yemen or Arabia[3] Felix; the distant land of myrrh and frankincense, which hadescaped, rather than opposed, the conquerors of the East. After thedefeat of Abrahah under the walls of Mecca, the discord of his sonsand brothers gave an easy entrance to the Persians: they chased thestrangers of Abyssinia beyond the Red Sea; and a native prince of theancient Homerites was restored to the throne as the vassal or viceroyof the great Nushirvan. [4] But the nephew of Justinian declared hisresolution to avenge the injuries of his Christian ally the prince ofAbyssinia, as they suggested a decent pretence to discontinue the annualtribute, which was poorly disguised by the name of pension. The churchesof Persarmenia were oppressed by the intolerant spirit of the Magi;[411] they secretly invoked the protector of the Christians, and, afterthe pious murder of their satraps, the rebels were avowed and supportedas the brethren and subjects of the Roman emperor. The complaints ofNushirvan were disregarded by the Byzantine court; Justin yielded to theimportunities of the Turks, who offered an alliance against the commonenemy; and the Persian monarchy was threatened at the same instant bythe united forces of Europe, of Aethiopia, and of Scythia. At the ageof fourscore the sovereign of the East would perhaps have chosen thepeaceful enjoyment of his glory and greatness; but as soon as war becameinevitable, he took the field with the alacrity of youth, whilst theaggressor trembled in the palace of Constantinople. Nushirvan, orChosroes, conducted in person the siege of Dara; and although thatimportant fortress had been left destitute of troops and magazines, thevalor of the inhabitants resisted above five months the archers, theelephants, and the military engines of the Great King. In the mean whilehis general Adarman advanced from Babylon, traversed the desert, passedthe Euphrates, insulted the suburbs of Antioch, reduced to ashes thecity of Apamea, and laid the spoils of Syria at the feet of his master, whose perseverance in the midst of winter at length subverted thebulwark of the East. But these losses, which astonished the provincesand the court, produced a salutary effect in the repentance andabdication of the emperor Justin: a new spirit arose in the Byzantinecouncils; and a truce of three years was obtained by the prudence ofTiberius. That seasonable interval was employed in the preparationsof war; and the voice of rumor proclaimed to the world, that from thedistant countries of the Alps and the Rhine, from Scythia, Maesia, Pannonia, Illyricum, and Isauria, the strength of the Imperial cavalrywas reenforced with one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers. Yet theking of Persia, without fear, or without faith, resolved to preventthe attack of the enemy; again passed the Euphrates, and dismissing theambassadors of Tiberius, arrogantly commanded them to await his arrivalat Caesarea, the metropolis of the Cappadocian provinces. The two armiesencountered each other in the battle of Melitene: [412] the Barbarians, who darkened the air with a cloud of arrows, prolonged their line, andextended their wings across the plain; while the Romans, in deep andsolid bodies, expected to prevail in closer action, by the weight oftheir swords and lances. A Scythian chief, who commanded their rightwing, suddenly turned the flank of the enemy, attacked their rear-guardin the presence of Chosroes, penetrated to the midst of the camp, pillaged the royal tent, profaned the eternal fire, loaded a train ofcamels with the spoils of Asia, cut his way through the Persian host, and returned with songs of victory to his friends, who had consumed theday in single combats, or ineffectual skirmishes. The darkness of thenight, and the separation of the Romans, afforded the Persian monarch anopportunity of revenge; and one of their camps was swept away by a rapidand impetuous assault. But the review of his loss, and the consciousnessof his danger, determined Chosroes to a speedy retreat: he burnt, in hispassage, the vacant town of Melitene; and, without consulting the safetyof his troops, boldly swam the Euphrates on the back of an elephant. After this unsuccessful campaign, the want of magazines, and perhapssome inroad of the Turks, obliged him to disband or divide his forces;the Romans were left masters of the field, and their general Justinian, advancing to the relief of the Persarmenian rebels, erected his standardon the banks of the Araxes. The great Pompey had formerly halted withinthree days' march of the Caspian: [5] that inland sea was explored, forthe first time, by a hostile fleet, [6] and seventy thousand captiveswere transplanted from Hyrcania to the Isle of Cyprus. On the returnof spring, Justinian descended into the fertile plains of Assyria;the flames of war approached the residence of Nushirvan; the indignantmonarch sunk into the grave; and his last edict restrained hissuccessors from exposing their person in battle against the Romans. [611] Yet the memory of this transient affront was lost in the gloriesof a long reign; and his formidable enemies, after indulging their dreamof conquest, again solicited a short respite from the calamities of war. [7]

[Footnote 3: The general independence of the Arabs, which cannot beadmitted without many limitations, is blindly asserted in a separatedissertation of the authors of the Universal History, vol. Xx. P. 196--250. A perpetual miracle is supposed to have guarded the prophecyin favor of the posterity of Ishmael; and these learned bigots are notafraid to risk the truth of Christianity on this frail and slipperyfoundation. * Note: It certainly appears difficult to extract aprediction of the perpetual independence of the Arabs from the text inGenesis, which would have received an ample fulfilment duringcenturies of uninvaded freedom. But the disputants appear to forget theinseparable connection in the prediction between the wild, the Bedoweenhabits of the Ismaelites, with their national independence. Thestationary and civilized descendant of Ismael forfeited, as it were, hisbirthright, and ceased to be a genuine son of the "wild man" Thephrase, "dwelling in the presence of his brethren, " is interpreted byRosenmuller (in loc. ) and others, according to the Hebrew geography, "tothe East" of his brethren, the legitimate race of Abraham--M. ]

[Footnote 4: D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. P. 477. Pocock, SpecimenHist. Arabum, p. 64, 65. Father Pagi (Critica, tom. Ii. P. 646) hasproved that, after ten years' peace, the Persian war, which continuedtwenty years, was renewed A. D. 571. Mahomet was born A. D. 569, inthe year of the elephant, or the defeat of Abrahah, (Gagnier, Vie deMahomet, tom. I. P. 89, 90, 98;) and this account allows two years forthe conquest of Yemen. * Note: Abrahah, according to some accounts, wassucceeded by his son Taksoum, who reigned seventeen years; his brotherMascouh, who was slain in battle against the Persians, twelve. But thischronology is irreconcilable with the Arabian conquests of Nushirvan theGreat. Either Seif, or his son Maadi Karb, was the native prince placedon the throne by the Persians. St. Martin, vol. X. P. 78. See likewiseJohannsen, Hist. Yemanae. --M. ]

[Footnote 411: Persarmenia was long maintained in peace by the tolerantadministration of Mejej, prince of the Gnounians. On his death he wassucceeded by a persecutor, a Persian, named Ten-Schahpour, who attemptedto propagate Zoroastrianism by violence. Nushirvan, on an appeal tothe throne by the Armenian clergy, replaced Ten-Schahpour, in 552, byVeschnas-Vahram. The new marzban, or governor, was instructed to repressthe bigoted Magi in their persecutions of the Armenians, but the Persianconverts to Christianity were still exposed to cruel sufferings. Themost distinguished of them, Izdbouzid, was crucified at Dovin in thepresence of a vast multitude. The fame of this martyr spread to theWest. Menander, the historian, not only, as appears by a fragmentpublished by Mai, related this event in his history, but, accordingto M. St. Martin, wrote a tragedy on the subject. This, however, isan unwarrantable inference from the phrase which merely means that herelated the tragic event in his history. An epigram on the same subject, preserved in the Anthology, Jacob's Anth. Palat. I. 27, belongs tothe historian. Yet Armenia remained in peace under the government ofVeschnas-Vahram and his successor Varazdat. The tyranny of his successorSurena led to the insurrection under Vartan, the Mamigonian, whorevenged the death of his brother on the marzban Surena, surprisedDovin, and put to the sword the governor, the soldiers, and the Magians. From St. Martin, vol x. P. 79--89. --M. ]

[Footnote 412: Malathiah. It was in the lesser Armenia. --M. ]

[Footnote 5: He had vanquished the Albanians, who brought into the field12, 000 horse and 60, 000 foot; but he dreaded the multitude of venomousreptiles, whose existence may admit of some doubt, as well as that ofthe neighboring Amazons. Plutarch, in Pompeio, tom. Ii. P. 1165, 1166. ]

[Footnote 6: In the history of the world I can only perceive two navieson the Caspian: 1. Of the Macedonians, when Patrocles, the admiral ofthe kings of Syria, Seleucus and Antiochus, descended most probably theRiver Oxus, from the confines of India, (Plin. Hist. Natur. Vi. 21. ) 2. Of the Russians, when Peter the First conducted a fleet and army fromthe neighborhood of Moscow to the coast of Persia, (Bell's Travels, vol. Ii. P. 325--352. ) He justly observes, that such martial pomp had neverbeen displayed on the Volga. ]

[Footnote 611: This circumstance rests on the statements of Evagrius andTheophylaci Simocatta. They are not of sufficient authority to establisha fact so improbable. St. Martin, vol. X. P. 140. --M. ]

[Footnote 7: For these Persian wars and treaties, see Menander, inExcerpt. Legat. P. 113--125. Theophanes Byzant. Apud Photium, cod. Lxivp. 77, 80, 81. Evagrius, l. V. C. 7--15. Theophylact, l. Iii. C. 9--16Agathias, l. Iv. P. 140. ]

The throne of Chosroes Nushirvan was filled by Hormouz, or Hormisdas, the eldest or the most favored of his sons. With the kingdoms of Persiaand India, he inherited the reputation and example of his father, theservice, in every rank, of his wise and valiant officers, and a generalsystem of administration, harmonized by time and political wisdom topromote the happiness of the prince and people. But the royal youthenjoyed a still more valuable blessing, the friendship of a sage who hadpresided over his education, and who always preferred the honor to theinterest of his pupil, his interest to his inclination. In a disputewith the Greek and Indian philosophers, Buzurg [8] had once maintained, that the most grievous misfortune of life is old age without theremembrance of virtue; and our candor will presume that the sameprinciple compelled him, during three years, to direct the councils ofthe Persian empire. His zeal was rewarded by the gratitude and docilityof Hormouz, who acknowledged himself more indebted to his preceptor thanto his parent: but when age and labor had impaired the strength, andperhaps the faculties, of this prudent counsellor, he retired fromcourt, and abandoned the youthful monarch to his own passions and thoseof his favorites. By the fatal vicissitude of human affairs, the samescenes were renewed at Ctesiphon, which had been exhibited at Rome afterthe death of Marcus Antoninus. The ministers of flattery and corruption, who had been banished by his father, were recalled and cherished bythe son; the disgrace and exile of the friends of Nushirvan establishedtheir tyranny; and virtue was driven by degrees from the mind ofHormouz, from his palace, and from the government of the state. Thefaithful agents, the eyes and ears of the king, informed him of theprogress of disorder, that the provincial governors flew to their preywith the fierceness of lions and eagles, and that their rapine andinjustice would teach the most loyal of his subjects to abhor the nameand authority of their sovereign. The sincerity of this advice waspunished with death; the murmurs of the cities were despised, theirtumults were quelled by military execution: the intermediate powersbetween the throne and the people were abolished; and the childishvanity of Hormouz, who affected the daily use of the tiara, was fond ofdeclaring, that he alone would be the judge as well as the master of hiskingdom. 

In every word, and in every action, the son of Nushirvan degeneratedfrom the virtues of his father. His avarice defrauded the troops; hisjealous caprice degraded the satraps; the palace, the tribunals, thewaters of the Tigris, were stained with the blood of the innocent, andthe tyrant exulted in the sufferings and execution of thirteen thousandvictims. As the excuse of his cruelty, he sometimes condescended toobserve, that the fears of the Persians would be productive of hatred, and that their hatred must terminate in rebellion but he forgot that hisown guilt and folly had inspired the sentiments which he deplored, andprepared the event which he so justly apprehended. Exasperated by longand hopeless oppression, the provinces of Babylon, Susa, and Carmania, erected the standard of revolt; and the princes of Arabia, India, andScythia, refused the customary tribute to the unworthy successor ofNushirvan. The arms of the Romans, in slow sieges and frequent inroads, afflicted the frontiers of Mesopotamia and Assyria: one of theirgenerals professed himself the disciple of Scipio; and the soldiers wereanimated by a miraculous image of Christ, whose mild aspect should neverhave been displayed in the front of battle. [9] At the same time, theeastern provinces of Persia were invaded by the great khan, who passedthe Oxus at the head of three or four hundred thousand Turks. Theimprudent Hormouz accepted their perfidious and formidable aid; thecities of Khorassan or Bactriana were commanded to open their gates themarch of the Barbarians towards the mountains of Hyrcania revealed thecorrespondence of the Turkish and Roman arms; and their union must havesubverted the throne of the house of Sassan. 

[Footnote 8: Buzurg Mihir may be considered, in his character andstation, as the Seneca of the East; but his virtues, and perhaps hisfaults, are less known than those of the Roman, who appears to have beenmuch more loquacious. The Persian sage was the person who imported fromIndia the game of chess and the fables of Pilpay. Such has been the fameof his wisdom and virtues, that the Christians claim him as a believerin the gospel; and the Mahometans revere Buzurg as a prematureMussulman. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 218. ]

[Footnote 9: See the imitation of Scipio in Theophylact, l. I. C. 14;the image of Christ, l. Ii. C. 3. Hereafter I shall speak more amplyof the Christian images--I had almost said idols. This, if I am notmistaken, is the oldest of divine manufacture; but in the next thousandyears, many others issued from the same workshop. ]

Persia had been lost by a king; it was saved by a hero. After hisrevolt, Varanes or Bahram is stigmatized by the son of Hormouz as anungrateful slave; the proud and ambiguous reproach of despotism, sincehe was truly descended from the ancient princes of Rei, [10] one ofthe seven families whose splendid, as well as substantial, prerogativesexalted them above the heads of the Persian nobility. [11] At the siegeof Dara, the valor of Bahram was signalized under the eyes of Nushirvan, and both the father and son successively promoted him to the command ofarmies, the government of Media, and the superintendence of the palace. The popular prediction which marked him as the deliverer of Persia, might be inspired by his past victories and extraordinary figure: theepithet Giubin [1111] is expressive of the quality of dry wood: he hadthe strength and stature of a giant; and his savage countenance wasfancifully compared to that of a wild cat. While the nation trembled, while Hormouz disguised his terror by the name of suspicion, and hisservants concealed their disloyalty under the mask of fear, Bahram alonedisplayed his undaunted courage and apparent fidelity: and as soon ashe found that no more than twelve thousand soldiers would follow himagainst the enemy; he prudently declared, that to this fatal numberHeaven had reserved the honors of the triumph. [1112] The steep andnarrow descent of the Pule Rudbar, [12] or Hyrcanian rock, is the onlypass through which an army can penetrate into the territory of Rei andthe plains of Media. From the commanding heights, a band of resolute menmight overwhelm with stones and darts the myriads of the Turkishhost: their emperor and his son were transpierced with arrows; and thefugitives were left, without counsel or provisions, to the revenge of aninjured people. The patriotism of the Persian general was stimulated byhis affection for the city of his forefathers: in the hour of victory, every peasant became a soldier, and every soldier a hero; and theirardor was kindled by the gorgeous spectacle of beds, and thrones, andtables of massy gold, the spoils of Asia, and the luxury of the hostilecamp. A prince of a less malignant temper could not easily have forgivenhis benefactor; and the secret hatred of Hormouz was envenomed by amalicious report, that Bahram had privately retained the most preciousfruits of his Turkish victory. But the approach of a Roman army onthe side of the Araxes compelled the implacable tyrant to smile and toapplaud; and the toils of Bahram were rewarded with the permission ofencountering a new enemy, by their skill and discipline more formidablethan a Scythian multitude. Elated by his recent success, he despatcheda herald with a bold defiance to the camp of the Romans, requesting themto fix a day of battle, and to choose whether they would pass the riverthemselves, or allow a free passage to the arms of the great king. Thelieutenant of the emperor Maurice preferred the safer alternative; andthis local circumstance, which would have enhanced the victory ofthe Persians, rendered their defeat more bloody and their escape moredifficult. But the loss of his subjects, and the danger of his kingdom, were overbalanced in the mind of Hormouz by the disgrace of his personalenemy; and no sooner had Bahram collected and reviewed his forces, thanhe received from a royal messenger the insulting gift of a distaff, aspinning-wheel, and a complete suit of female apparel. Obedient to thewill of his sovereign he showed himself to the soldiers in this unworthydisguise they resented his ignominy and their own; a shout of rebellionran through the ranks; and the general accepted their oath of fidelityand vows of revenge. A second messenger, who had been commanded to bringthe rebel in chains, was trampled under the feet of an elephant, andmanifestos were diligently circulated, exhorting the Persians to asserttheir freedom against an odious and contemptible tyrant. The defectionwas rapid and universal; his loyal slaves were sacrificed to the publicfury; the troops deserted to the standard of Bahram; and the provincesagain saluted the deliverer of his country. 

[Footnote 10: Ragae, or Rei, is mentioned in the Apocryphal bookof Tobit as already flourishing, 700 years before Christ, under theAssyrian empire. Under the foreign names of Europus and Arsacia, thiscity, 500 stadia to the south of the Caspian gates, was successivelyembellished by the Macedonians and Parthians, (Strabo, l. Xi. P. 796. )Its grandeur and populousness in the ixth century are exaggerated beyondthe bounds of credibility; but Rei has been since ruined by wars and theunwholesomeness of the air. Chardin, Voyage en Perse, tom. I. P. 279, 280. D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Oriental. P. 714. ]

[Footnote 11: Theophylact. L. Iii. C. 18. The story of the sevenPersians is told in the third book of Herodotus; and their nobledescendants are often mentioned, especially in the fragments of Ctesias. Yet the independence of Otanes (Herodot. L. Iii. C. 83, 84) is hostileto the spirit of despotism, and it may not seem probable that the sevenfamilies could survive the revolutions of eleven hundred years. Theymight, however, be represented by the seven ministers, (Brisson, deRegno Persico, l. I. P. 190;) and some Persian nobles, like the kingsof Pontus (Polyb l. V. P. 540) and Cappadocia, (Diodor. Sicul. L. Xxxi. Tom. Ii. P. 517, ) might claim their descent from the bold companions ofDarius. ]

[Footnote 1111: He is generally called Baharam Choubeen, Baharam, thestick-like, probably from his appearance. Malcolm, vol. I. P. 120. --M. ]

[Footnote 1112: The Persian historians say, that Hormouz entreated hisgeneral to increase his numbers; but Baharam replied, that experiencehad taught him that it was the quality, not the number of soldiers, which gave success. * * * No man in his army was under forty years, andnone above fifty. Malcolm, vol. I. P. 121--M. ]

[Footnote 12: See an accurate description of this mountain by Olearius, (Voyage en Perse, p. 997, 998, ) who ascended it with much difficulty anddanger in his return from Ispahan to the Caspian Sea. ]

As the passes were faithfully guarded, Hormouz could only compute thenumber of his enemies by the testimony of a guilty conscience, and thedaily defection of those who, in the hour of his distress, avenged theirwrongs, or forgot their obligations. He proudly displayed the ensigns ofroyalty; but the city and palace of Modain had already escaped fromthe hand of the tyrant. Among the victims of his cruelty, Bindoes, aSassanian prince, had been cast into a dungeon; his fetters were brokenby the zeal and courage of a brother; and he stood before the king atthe head of those trusty guards, who had been chosen as the ministersof his confinement, and perhaps of his death. Alarmed by the hastyintrusion and bold reproaches of the captive, Hormouz looked round, but in vain, for advice or assistance; discovered that his strengthconsisted in the obedience of others; and patiently yielded to thesingle arm of Bindoes, who dragged him from the throne to the samedungeon in which he himself had been so lately confined. At the firsttumult, Chosroes, the eldest of the sons of Hormouz, escaped from thecity; he was persuaded to return by the pressing and friendly invitationof Bindoes, who promised to seat him on his father's throne, and whoexpected to reign under the name of an inexperienced youth. In the justassurance, that his accomplices could neither forgive nor hope to beforgiven, and that every Persian might be trusted as the judge and enemyof the tyrant, he instituted a public trial without a precedent andwithout a copy in the annals of the East. The son of Nushirvan, who hadrequested to plead in his own defence, was introduced as a criminalinto the full assembly of the nobles and satraps. [13] He was heard withdecent attention as long as he expatiated on the advantages of order andobedience, the danger of innovation, and the inevitable discord of thosewho had encouraged each other to trample on their lawful and hereditarysovereign. By a pathetic appeal to their humanity, he extorted that pitywhich is seldom refused to the fallen fortunes of a king; and while theybeheld the abject posture and squalid appearance of the prisoner, his tears, his chains, and the marks of ignominious stripes, it wasimpossible to forget how recently they had adored the divine splendor ofhis diadem and purple. But an angry murmur arose in the assembly as soonas he presumed to vindicate his conduct, and to applaud the victoriesof his reign. He defined the duties of a king, and the Persian nobleslistened with a smile of contempt; they were fired with indignationwhen he dared to vilify the character of Chosroes; and by the indiscreetoffer of resigning the sceptre to the second of his sons, he subscribedhis own condemnation, and sacrificed the life of his own innocentfavorite. The mangled bodies of the boy and his mother were exposed tothe people; the eyes of Hormouz were pierced with a hot needle; and thepunishment of the father was succeeded by the coronation of his eldestson. Chosroes had ascended the throne without guilt, and his pietystrove to alleviate the misery of the abdicated monarch; from thedungeon he removed Hormouz to an apartment of the palace, supplied withliberality the consolations of sensual enjoyment, and patiently enduredthe furious sallies of his resentment and despair. He might despise theresentment of a blind and unpopular tyrant, but the tiara was tremblingon his head, till he could subvert the power, or acquire the friendship, of the great Bahram, who sternly denied the justice of a revolution, inwhich himself and his soldiers, the true representatives of Persia, hadnever been consulted. The offer of a general amnesty, and of the secondrank in his kingdom, was answered by an epistle from Bahram, friend ofthe gods, conqueror of men, and enemy of tyrants, the satrap of satraps, general of the Persian armies, and a prince adorned with the title ofeleven virtues. [14] He commands Chosroes, the son of Hormouz, to shunthe example and fate of his father, to confine the traitors who had beenreleased from their chains, to deposit in some holy place the diademwhich he had usurped, and to accept from his gracious benefactor thepardon of his faults and the government of a province. The rebel mightnot be proud, and the king most assuredly was not humble; but the onewas conscious of his strength, the other was sensible of his weakness;and even the modest language of his reply still left room for treaty andreconciliation. Chosroes led into the field the slaves of the palace andthe populace of the capital: they beheld with terror the banners of aveteran army; they were encompassed and surprised by the evolutionsof the general; and the satraps who had deposed Hormouz, received thepunishment of their revolt, or expiated their first treason by a secondand more criminal act of disloyalty. The life and liberty of Chosroeswere saved, but he was reduced to the necessity of imploring aid orrefuge in some foreign land; and the implacable Bindoes, anxious tosecure an unquestionable title, hastily returned to the palace, andended, with a bowstring, the wretched existence of the son of Nushirvan. [15]

[Footnote 13: The Orientals suppose that Bahram convened this assemblyand proclaimed Chosroes; but Theophylact is, in this instance, moredistinct and credible. * Note: Yet Theophylact seems to have seizedthe opportunity to indulge his propensity for writing orations; and theorations read rather like those of a Grecian sophist than of an Easternassembly. --M. ]

[Footnote 14: See the words of Theophylact, l. Iv. C. 7. , &c. In answer, Chosroes styles himself in genuine Oriental bombast. ]

[Footnote 15: Theophylact (l. Iv. C. 7) imputes the death of Hormouzto his son, by whose command he was beaten to death with clubs. I havefollowed the milder account of Khondemir and Eutychius, and shallalways be content with the slightest evidence to extenuate the crimeof parricide. Note: Malcolm concurs in ascribing his death to Bundawee, (Bindoes, ) vol. I. P. 123. The Eastern writers generally impute thecrime to the uncle St. Martin, vol. X. P. 300. --M. ]

While Chosroes despatched the preparations of his retreat, hedeliberated with his remaining friends, [16] whether he should lurkin the valleys of Mount Caucasus, or fly to the tents of the Turks, or solicit the protection of the emperor. The long emulation of thesuccessors of Artaxerxes and Constantine increased his reluctance toappear as a suppliant in a rival court; but he weighed the forces of theRomans, and prudently considered that the neighborhood of Syria wouldrender his escape more easy and their succors more effectual. Attendedonly by his concubines, and a troop of thirty guards, he secretlydeparted from the capital, followed the banks of the Euphrates, traversed the desert, and halted at the distance of ten miles fromCircesium. About the third watch of the night, the Roman praefect wasinformed of his approach, and he introduced the royal stranger tothe fortress at the dawn of day. From thence the king of Persia wasconducted to the more honorable residence of Hierapolis; and Mauricedissembled his pride, and displayed his benevolence, at the receptionof the letters and ambassadors of the grandson of Nushirvan. They humblyrepresented the vicissitudes of fortune and the common interest ofprinces, exaggerated the ingratitude of Bahram, the agent of the evilprinciple, and urged, with specious argument, that it was for theadvantage of the Romans themselves to support the two monarchies whichbalance the world, the two great luminaries by whose salutary influenceit is vivified and adorned. The anxiety of Chosroes was soon relievedby the assurance, that the emperor had espoused the cause of justiceand royalty; but Maurice prudently declined the expense and delay of hisuseless visit to Constantinople. In the name of his generous benefactor, a rich diadem was presented to the fugitive prince, with an inestimablegift of jewels and gold; a powerful army was assembled on the frontiersof Syria and Armenia, under the command of the valiant and faithfulNarses, [17] and this general, of his own nation, and his own choice, was directed to pass the Tigris, and never to sheathe his sword tillhe had restored Chosroes to the throne of his ancestors. [1711] Theenterprise, however splendid, was less arduous than it might appear. Persia had already repented of her fatal rashness, which betrayed theheir of the house of Sassan to the ambition of a rebellious subject:and the bold refusal of the Magi to consecrate his usurpation, compelledBahram to assume the sceptre, regardless of the laws and prejudices ofthe nation. The palace was soon distracted with conspiracy, the citywith tumult, the provinces with insurrection; and the cruel execution ofthe guilty and the suspected served to irritate rather than subdue thepublic discontent. No sooner did the grandson of Nushirvan display hisown and the Roman banners beyond the Tigris, than he was joined, eachday, by the increasing multitudes of the nobility and people; and as headvanced, he received from every side the grateful offerings of the keysof his cities and the heads of his enemies. As soon as Modain was freedfrom the presence of the usurper, the loyal inhabitants obeyed the firstsummons of Mebodes at the head of only two thousand horse, and Chosroesaccepted the sacred and precious ornaments of the palace as the pledgeof their truth and the presage of his approaching success. After thejunction of the Imperial troops, which Bahram vainly struggled toprevent, the contest was decided by two battles on the banks of the Zab, and the confines of Media. The Romans, with the faithful subjects ofPersia, amounted to sixty thousand, while the whole force of the usurperdid not exceed forty thousand men: the two generals signalized theirvalor and ability; but the victory was finally determined by theprevalence of numbers and discipline. With the remnant of a broken army, Bahram fled towards the eastern provinces of the Oxus: the enmity ofPersia reconciled him to the Turks; but his days were shortened bypoison, perhaps the most incurable of poisons; the stings of remorseand despair, and the bitter remembrance of lost glory. Yet the modernPersians still commemorate the exploits of Bahram; and some excellentlaws have prolonged the duration of his troubled and transitory reign. 

[Footnote 16: After the battle of Pharsalia, the Pompey of Lucan (l. Viii. 256--455) holds a similar debate. He was himself desirous ofseeking the Parthians: but his companions abhorred the unnaturalalliance and the adverse prejudices might operate as forcibly onChosroes and his companions, who could describe, with the samevehemence, the contrast of laws, religion, and manners, between the Eastand West. ]

[Footnote 17: In this age there were three warriors of the name ofNarses, who have been often confounded, (Pagi, Critica, tom. Ii. P. 640:) 1. A Persarmenian, the brother of Isaac and Armatius, who, aftera successful action against Belisarius, deserted from his Persiansovereign, and afterwards served in the Italian war. --2. The eunuch whoconquered Italy. --3. The restorer of Chosroes, who is celebrated inthe poem of Corippus (l. Iii. 220--327) as excelsus super omniavertico agmina. .. . Habitu modestus. .. . Morum probitate placens, virtuteverendus; fulmineus, cautus, vigilans, &c. ]

[Footnote 1711: The Armenians adhered to Chosroes. St. Martin, vol. X. P. 312. --M. ]

[Footnote 1712: According to Mivkhond and the Oriental writers, Bahramreceived the daughter of the Khakan in marriage, and commanded a bodyof Turks in an invasion of Persia. Some say that he was assassinated;Malcolm adopts the opinion that he was poisoned. His sister Gourdieh, the companion of his flight, is celebrated in the Shah Nameh. Shewas afterwards one of the wives of Chosroes. St. Martin. Vol. X. P. 331. --M. ]

The restoration of Chosroes was celebrated with feasts and executions;and the music of the royal banquet was often disturbed by the groansof dying or mutilated criminals. A general pardon might have diffusedcomfort and tranquillity through a country which had been shaken bythe late revolutions; yet, before the sanguinary temper of Chosroes isblamed, we should learn whether the Persians had not been accustomedeither to dread the rigor, or to despise the weakness, of theirsovereign. The revolt of Bahram, and the conspiracy of the satraps, wereimpartially punished by the revenge or justice of the conqueror; themerits of Bindoes himself could not purify his hand from the guiltof royal blood: and the son of Hormouz was desirous to assert his owninnocence, and to vindicate the sanctity of kings. During the vigor ofthe Roman power, several princes were seated on the throne of Persia bythe arms and the authority of the first Caesars. But their new subjectswere soon disgusted with the vices or virtues which they had imbibed ina foreign land; the instability of their dominion gave birth to a vulgarobservation, that the choice of Rome was solicited and rejected withequal ardor by the capricious levity of Oriental slaves. But the gloryof Maurice was conspicuous in the long and fortunate reign of his sonand his ally. A band of a thousand Romans, who continued to guard theperson of Chosroes, proclaimed his confidence in the fidelity of thestrangers; his growing strength enabled him to dismiss this unpopularaid, but he steadily professed the same gratitude and reverence to hisadopted father; and till the death of Maurice, the peace and allianceof the two empires were faithfully maintained. [18] Yet the mercenaryfriendship of the Roman prince had been purchased with costly andimportant gifts; the strong cities of Martyropolis and Dara [1811]were restored, and the Persarmenians became the willing subjects of anempire, whose eastern limit was extended, beyond the example of formertimes, as far as the banks of the Araxes, and the neighborhood of theCaspian. A pious hope was indulged, that the church as well as the statemight triumph in this revolution: but if Chosroes had sincerely listenedto the Christian bishops, the impression was erased by the zeal andeloquence of the Magi: if he was armed with philosophic indifference, he accommodated his belief, or rather his professions, to the variouscircumstances of an exile and a sovereign. The imaginary conversion ofthe king of Persia was reduced to a local and superstitious venerationfor Sergius, [19] one of the saints of Antioch, who heard his prayersand appeared to him in dreams; he enriched the shrine with offerings ofgold and silver, and ascribed to this invisible patron the success ofhis arms, and the pregnancy of Sira, a devout Christian and the bestbeloved of his wives. [20] The beauty of Sira, or Schirin, [21] her wit, her musical talents, are still famous in the history, or rather inthe romances, of the East: her own name is expressive, in the Persiantongue, of sweetness and grace; and the epithet of Parviz alludes to thecharms of her royal lover. Yet Sira never shared the passions which sheinspired, and the bliss of Chosroes was tortured by a jealous doubt, that while he possessed her person, she had bestowed her affections on ameaner favorite. [22]

[Footnote 18: Experimentis cognitum est Barbaros malle Roma peterereges quam habere. These experiments are admirably represented in theinvitation and expulsion of Vonones, (Annal. Ii. 1--3, ) Tiridates, (Annal. Vi. 32-44, ) and Meherdates, (Annal. Xi. 10, xii. 10-14. ) The eyeof Tacitus seems to have transpierced the camp of the Parthians and thewalls of the harem. ]

[Footnote 1811: Concerning Nisibis, see St. Martin and his Armenianauthorities, vol. X p. 332, and Memoires sur l'Armenie, tom. I. P. 25. --M. ]

[Footnote 19: Sergius and his companion Bacchus, who are said to havesuffered in the persecution of Maximian, obtained divine honor inFrance, Italy, Constantinople, and the East. Their tomb at Rasaphe wasfamous for miracles, and that Syrian town acquired the more honorablename of Sergiopolis. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. Tom. V. P. 481--496. Butler's Saints, vol. X. P. 155. ]

[Footnote 20: Evagrius (l. Vi. C. 21) and Theophylact (l. V. C. 13, 14) have preserved the original letters of Chosroes, written in Greek, signed with his own hand, and afterwards inscribed on crosses and tablesof gold, which were deposited in the church of Sergiopolis. They hadbeen sent to the bishop of Antioch, as primate of Syria. * Note:St. Martin thinks that they were first written in Syriac, and thentranslated into the bad Greek in which they appear, vol. X. P. 334. --M. ]

[Footnote 21: The Greeks only describe her as a Roman by birth, aChristian by religion: but she is represented as the daughter of theemperor Maurice in the Persian and Turkish romances which celebrate thelove of Khosrou for Schirin, of Schirin for Ferhad, the most beautifulyouth of the East, D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. P. 789, 997, 998. *Note: Compare M. Von Hammer's preface to, and poem of, Schirin inwhich he gives an account of the various Persian poems, of which he hasendeavored to extract the essence in his own work. --M. ]

[Footnote 22: The whole series of the tyranny of Hormouz, the revolt ofBahram, and the flight and restoration of Chosroes, is related by twocontemporary Greeks--more concisely by Evagrius, (l. Vi. C. 16, 17, 18, 19, ) and most diffusely by Theophylact Simocatta, (l. Iii. C. 6--18, l. Iv. C. 1--16, l. V. C. 1-15:) succeeding compilers, Zonaras andCedrenus, can only transcribe and abridge. The Christian Arabs, Eutychius (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 200--208) and Abulpharagius (Dynast. P. 96--98) appear to have consulted some particular memoirs. The greatPersian historians of the xvth century, Mirkhond and Khondemir, areonly known to me by the imperfect extracts of Schikard, (Tarikh, p. 150--155, ) Texeira, or rather Stevens, (Hist. Of Persia, p. 182--186, )a Turkish Ms. Translated by the Abbe Fourmount, (Hist. De l'Academie desInscriptions, tom. Vii. P. 325--334, ) and D'Herbelot, (aux mots Hormouz, p. 457--459. Bahram, p. 174. Khosrou Parviz, p. 996. ) Were I perfectlysatisfied of their authority, I could wish these Oriental materials hadbeen more copious. ]

Chapter XLVI: Troubles In Persia. --Part II. 

While the majesty of the Roman name was revived in the East, theprospect of Europe is less pleasing and less glorious. By the departureof the Lombards, and the ruin of the Gepidae, the balance of power wasdestroyed on the Danube; and the Avars spread their permanent dominionfrom the foot of the Alps to the sea-coast of the Euxine. The reignof Baian is the brightest aera of their monarchy; their chagan, whooccupied the rustic palace of Attila, appears to have imitated hischaracter and policy; [23] but as the same scenes were repeated in asmaller circle, a minute representation of the copy would be devoidof the greatness and novelty of the original. The pride of the secondJustin, of Tiberius, and Maurice, was humbled by a proud Barbarian, moreprompt to inflict, than exposed to suffer, the injuries of war; and asoften as Asia was threatened by the Persian arms, Europe was oppressedby the dangerous inroads, or costly friendship, of the Avars. When theRoman envoys approached the presence of the chagan, they were commandedto wait at the door of his tent, till, at the end perhaps of ten ortwelve days, he condescended to admit them. If the substance or thestyle of their message was offensive to his ear, he insulted, with realor affected fury, their own dignity, and that of their prince; theirbaggage was plundered, and their lives were only saved by the promiseof a richer present and a more respectful address. But his sacredambassadors enjoyed and abused an unbounded license in the midst ofConstantinople: they urged, with importunate clamors, the increase oftribute, or the restitution of captives and deserters: and the majestyof the empire was almost equally degraded by a base compliance, orby the false and fearful excuses with which they eluded such insolentdemands. The chagan had never seen an elephant; and his curiosity wasexcited by the strange, and perhaps fabulous, portrait of that wonderfulanimal. At his command, one of the largest elephants of the Imperialstables was equipped with stately caparisons, and conducted by anumerous train to the royal village in the plains of Hungary. Hesurveyed the enormous beast with surprise, with disgust, and possiblywith terror; and smiled at the vain industry of the Romans, who, insearch of such useless rarities, could explore the limits of the landand sea. He wished, at the expense of the emperor, to repose in a goldenbed. The wealth of Constantinople, and the skilful diligence of herartists, were instantly devoted to the gratification of his caprice; butwhen the work was finished, he rejected with scorn a present so unworthythe majesty of a great king. [24] These were the casual sallies of hispride; but the avarice of the chagan was a more steady and tractablepassion: a rich and regular supply of silk apparel, furniture, andplate, introduced the rudiments of art and luxury among the tents of theScythians; their appetite was stimulated by the pepper and cinnamon ofIndia; [25] the annual subsidy or tribute was raised from fourscore toone hundred and twenty thousand pieces of gold; and after each hostileinterruption, the payment of the arrears, with exorbitant interest, wasalways made the first condition of the new treaty. In the language of aBarbarian, without guile, the prince of the Avars affected to complainof the insincerity of the Greeks; [26] yet he was not inferior to themost civilized nations in the refinement of dissimulation and perfidy. As the successor of the Lombards, the chagan asserted his claim tothe important city of Sirmium, the ancient bulwark of the Illyrianprovinces. [27] The plains of the Lower Hungary were covered with theAvar horse and a fleet of large boats was built in the Hercynian wood, to descend the Danube, and to transport into the Save the materials ofa bridge. But as the strong garrison of Singidunum, which commanded theconflux of the two rivers, might have stopped their passage and baffledhis designs, he dispelled their apprehensions by a solemn oath that hisviews were not hostile to the empire. He swore by his sword, the symbolof the god of war, that he did not, as the enemy of Rome, constructa bridge upon the Save. "If I violate my oath, " pursued the intrepidBaian, "may I myself, and the last of my nation, perish by the sword!May the heavens, and fire, the deity of the heavens, fall upon ourheads! May the forests and mountains bury us in their ruins! and theSave returning, against the laws of nature, to his source, overwhelmus in his angry waters!" After this barbarous imprecation, he calmlyinquired, what oath was most sacred and venerable among the Christians, what guilt or perjury it was most dangerous to incur. The bishop ofSingidunum presented the gospel, which the chagan received with devoutreverence. "I swear, " said he, "by the God who has spoken in this holybook, that I have neither falsehood on my tongue, nor treachery in myheart. " As soon as he rose from his knees, he accelerated the labor ofthe bridge, and despatched an envoy to proclaim what he no longer wishedto conceal. "Inform the emperor, " said the perfidious Baian, "thatSirmium is invested on every side. Advise his prudence to withdrawthe citizens and their effects, and to resign a city which it is nowimpossible to relieve or defend. " Without the hope of relief, thedefence of Sirmium was prolonged above three years: the walls were stilluntouched; but famine was enclosed within the walls, till a mercifulcapitulation allowed the escape of the naked and hungry inhabitants. Singidunum, at the distance of fifty miles, experienced a more cruelfate: the buildings were razed, and the vanquished people was condemnedto servitude and exile. Yet the ruins of Sirmium are no longer visible;the advantageous situation of Singidunum soon attracted a new colony ofSclavonians, and the conflux of the Save and Danube is still guardedby the fortifications of Belgrade, or the White City, so often andso obstinately disputed by the Christian and Turkish arms. [28] FromBelgrade to the walls of Constantinople a line may be measured of sixhundred miles: that line was marked with flames and with blood; thehorses of the Avars were alternately bathed in the Euxine and theAdriatic; and the Roman pontiff, alarmed by the approach of a moresavage enemy, [29] was reduced to cherish the Lombards, as theprotectors of Italy. The despair of a captive, whom his country refusedto ransom, disclosed to the Avars the invention and practice of militaryengines. [30] But in the first attempts they were rudely framed, andawkwardly managed; and the resistance of Diocletianopolis and Beraea, ofPhilippopolis and Adrianople, soon exhausted the skill and patience ofthe besiegers. The warfare of Baian was that of a Tartar; yet his mindwas susceptible of a humane and generous sentiment: he spared Anchialus, whose salutary waters had restored the health of the best beloved of hiswives; and the Romans confessed, that their starving army was fed anddismissed by the liberality of a foe. His empire extended over Hungary, Poland, and Prussia, from the mouth of the Danube to that of the Oder;[31] and his new subjects were divided and transplanted by the jealouspolicy of the conqueror. [32] The eastern regions of Germany, which hadbeen left vacant by the emigration of the Vandals, were replenished withSclavonian colonists; the same tribes are discovered in the neighborhoodof the Adriatic and of the Baltic, and with the name of Baian himself, the Illyrian cities of Neyss and Lissa are again found in the heart ofSilesia. In the disposition both of his troops and provinces the chaganexposed the vassals, whose lives he disregarded, [33] to the firstassault; and the swords of the enemy were blunted before theyencountered the native valor of the Avars. 

[Footnote 23: A general idea of the pride and power of the chagan may betaken from Menander (Excerpt. Legat. P. 118, &c. ) and Theophylact, (l. I. C. 3, l. Vii. C. 15, ) whose eight books are much more honorable tothe Avar than to the Roman prince. The predecessors of Baian had tastedthe liberality of Rome, and he survived the reign of Maurice, (Buat, Hist. Des Peuples Barbares, tom. Xi. P. 545. ) The chagan who invadedItaly, A. D. 611, (Muratori, Annali, tom. V. P. 305, ) was then inveniliaetate florentem, (Paul Warnefrid, de Gest. Langobard. L v c 38, ) theson, perhaps, or the grandson, of Baian. ]

[Footnote 24: Theophylact, l. I. C. 5, 6. ]

[Footnote 25: Even in the field, the chagan delighted in the use ofthese aromatics. He solicited, as a gift, and received. Theophylact, l. Vii. C. 13. The Europeans of the ruder ages consumed more spices intheir meat and drink than is compatible with the delicacy of a modernpalate. Vie Privee des Francois, tom. Ii. P. 162, 163. ]

[Footnote 26: Theophylact, l. Vi. C. 6, l. Vii. C. 15. The Greekhistorian confesses the truth and justice of his reproach]

[Footnote 27: Menander (in Excerpt. Legat. P. 126--132, 174, 175)describes the perjury of Baian and the surrender of Sirmium. We havelost his account of the siege, which is commended by Theophylact, l. I. C. 3. * Note: Compare throughout Schlozer Nordische Geschichte, p. 362--373--M. ]

[Footnote 28: See D'Anville, in the Memoires de l'Acad. DesInscriptions, tom. Xxviii. P. 412--443. The Sclavonic name of Belgradeis mentioned in the xth century by Constantine Porphyrogenitus: theLatin appellation of Alba Croeca is used by the Franks in the beginningof the ixth, (p. 414. )]

[Footnote 29: Baron. Annal. Eccles. A. B. 600, No. 1. Paul Warnefrid(l. Iv. C. 38) relates their irruption into Friuli, and (c. 39) thecaptivity of his ancestors, about A. D. 632. The Sclavi traversed theAdriatic cum multitudine navium, and made a descent in the territory ofSipontum, (c. 47. )]

[Footnote 30: Even the helepolis, or movable turret. Theophylact, l. Ii. 16, 17. ]

[Footnote 31: The arms and alliances of the chagan reached tothe neighborhood of a western sea, fifteen months' journey fromConstantinople. The emperor Maurice conversed with some itinerantharpers from that remote country, and only seems to have mistaken atrade for a nation Theophylact, l. Vi. C. 2. ]

[Footnote 32: This is one of the most probable and luminous conjecturesof the learned count de Buat, (Hist. Des Peuples Barbares, tom. Xi. P. 546--568. ) The Tzechi and Serbi are found together near Mount Caucasus, in Illyricum, and on the lower Elbe. Even the wildest traditions of theBohemians, &c. , afford some color to his hypothesis. ]

[Footnote 33: See Fredegarius, in the Historians of France, tom. Ii. P. 432. Baian did not conceal his proud insensibility. ]

The Persian alliance restored the troops of the East to the defence ofEurope: and Maurice, who had supported ten years the insolence ofthe chagan, declared his resolution to march in person against theBarbarians. In the space of two centuries, none of the successors ofTheodosius had appeared in the field: their lives were supinely spent inthe palace of Constantinople; and the Greeks could no longer understand, that the name of emperor, in its primitive sense, denoted the chief ofthe armies of the republic. The martial ardor of Maurice was opposedby the grave flattery of the senate, the timid superstition of thepatriarch, and the tears of the empress Constantina; and they allconjured him to devolve on some meaner general the fatigues and perilsof a Scythian campaign. Deaf to their advice and entreaty, the emperorboldly advanced [34] seven miles from the capital; the sacred ensignof the cross was displayed in the front; and Maurice reviewed, withconscious pride, the arms and numbers of the veterans who had fought andconquered beyond the Tigris. Anchialus was the last term of his progressby sea and land; he solicited, without success, a miraculous answerto his nocturnal prayers; his mind was confounded by the death of afavorite horse, the encounter of a wild boar, a storm of wind and rain, and the birth of a monstrous child; and he forgot that the best of omensis to unsheathe our sword in the defence of our country. [35] Under thepretence of receiving the ambassadors of Persia, the emperor returned toConstantinople, exchanged the thoughts of war for those of devotion, and disappointed the public hope by his absence and the choice of hislieutenants. The blind partiality of fraternal love might excuse thepromotion of his brother Peter, who fled with equal disgrace from theBarbarians, from his own soldiers and from the inhabitants of a Romancity. That city, if we may credit the resemblance of name and character, was the famous Azimuntium, [36] which had alone repelled the tempest ofAttila. The example of her warlike youth was propagated to succeedinggenerations; and they obtained, from the first or the second Justin, anhonorable privilege, that their valor should be always reserved for thedefence of their native country. The brother of Maurice attemptedto violate this privilege, and to mingle a patriot band with themercenaries of his camp; they retired to the church, he was not awedby the sanctity of the place; the people rose in their cause, the gateswere shut, the ramparts were manned; and the cowardice of Peter wasfound equal to his arrogance and injustice. The military fame ofCommentiolus [37] is the object of satire or comedy rather than ofserious history, since he was even deficient in the vile and vulgarqualification of personal courage. His solemn councils, strangeevolutions, and secret orders, always supplied an apology for flight ordelay. If he marched against the enemy, the pleasant valleys of MountHaemus opposed an insuperable barrier; but in his retreat, he explored, with fearless curiosity, the most difficult and obsolete paths, whichhad almost escaped the memory of the oldest native. The only blood whichhe lost was drawn, in a real or affected malady, by the lancet of asurgeon; and his health, which felt with exquisite sensibility theapproach of the Barbarians, was uniformly restored by the repose andsafety of the winter season. A prince who could promote and support thisunworthy favorite must derive no glory from the accidental merit of hiscolleague Priscus. [38] In five successive battles, which seem to havebeen conducted with skill and resolution, seventeen thousand two hundredBarbarians were made prisoners: near sixty thousand, with four sons ofthe chagan, were slain: the Roman general surprised a peaceful districtof the Gepidae, who slept under the protection of the Avars; and hislast trophies were erected on the banks of the Danube and the Teyss. Since the death of Trajan the arms of the empire had not penetrated sodeeply into the old Dacia: yet the success of Priscus was transient andbarren; and he was soon recalled by the apprehension that Baian, withdauntless spirit and recruited forces, was preparing to avenge hisdefeat under the walls of Constantinople. [39]

[Footnote 34: See the march and return of Maurice, in Theophylact, l. V. C. 16 l. Vi. C. 1, 2, 3. If he were a writer of taste or genius, we might suspect him of an elegant irony: but Theophylact is surelyharmless. ]

[Footnote 35: Iliad, xii. 243. This noble verse, which unites the spiritof a hero with the reason of a sage, may prove that Homer was in everylight superior to his age and country. ]

[Footnote 36: Theophylact, l. Vii. C. 3. On the evidence of this fact, which had not occurred to my memory, the candid reader will correct andexcuse a note in Chapter XXXIV. , note 86 of this History, which hastensthe decay of Asimus, or Azimuntium; another century of patriotism andvalor is cheaply purchased by such a confession. ]

[Footnote 37: See the shameful conduct of Commentiolus, in Theophylact, l. Ii. C. 10--15, l. Vii. C. 13, 14, l. Viii. C. 2, 4. ]

[Footnote 38: See the exploits of Priscus, l. Viii. C. 23. ]

[Footnote 39: The general detail of the war against the Avars may betraced in the first, second, sixth, seventh, and eighth books of thehistory of the emperor Maurice, by Theophylact Simocatta. As he wrote inthe reign of Heraclius, he had no temptation to flatter; but his wantof judgment renders him diffuse in trifles, and concise in the mostinteresting facts. ]

The theory of war was not more familiar to the camps of Caesar andTrajan, than to those of Justinian and Maurice. [40] The iron of Tuscanyor Pontus still received the keenest temper from the skill of theByzantine workmen. The magazines were plentifully stored with everyspecies of offensive and defensive arms. In the construction and use ofships, engines, and fortifications, the Barbarians admired the superioringenuity of a people whom they had so often vanquished in the field. The science of tactics, the order, evolutions, and stratagems ofantiquity, was transcribed and studied in the books of the Greeks andRomans. But the solitude or degeneracy of the provinces could no longersupply a race of men to handle those weapons, to guard those walls, to navigate those ships, and to reduce the theory of war into bold andsuccessful practice. The genius of Belisarius and Narses had been formedwithout a master, and expired without a disciple Neither honor, norpatriotism, nor generous superstition, could animate the lifeless bodiesof slaves and strangers, who had succeeded to the honors of the legions:it was in the camp alone that the emperor should have exercised adespotic command; it was only in the camps that his authority wasdisobeyed and insulted: he appeased and inflamed with gold thelicentiousness of the troops; but their vices were inherent, theirvictories were accidental, and their costly maintenance exhausted thesubstance of a state which they were unable to defend. After a long andpernicious indulgence, the cure of this inveterate evil was undertakenby Maurice; but the rash attempt, which drew destruction on his ownhead, tended only to aggravate the disease. A reformer should be exemptfrom the suspicion of interest, and he must possess the confidence andesteem of those whom he proposes to reclaim. The troops of Mauricemight listen to the voice of a victorious leader; they disdained theadmonitions of statesmen and sophists; and, when they received an edictwhich deducted from their pay the price of their arms and clothing, theyexecrated the avarice of a prince insensible of the dangers and fatiguesfrom which he had escaped. 

The camps both of Asia and Europe were agitated with frequent andfurious seditions; [41] the enraged soldiers of Edessa pursued withreproaches, with threats, with wounds, their trembling generals;they overturned the statues of the emperor, cast stones against themiraculous image of Christ, and either rejected the yoke of allcivil and military laws, or instituted a dangerous model of voluntarysubordination. The monarch, always distant and often deceived, wasincapable of yielding or persisting, according to the exigence of themoment. But the fear of a general revolt induced him too readily toaccept any act of valor, or any expression of loyalty, as an atonementfor the popular offence; the new reform was abolished as hastily as ithad been announced, and the troops, instead of punishment and restraint, were agreeably surprised by a gracious proclamation of immunities andrewards. But the soldiers accepted without gratitude the tardy andreluctant gifts of the emperor: their insolence was elated by thediscovery of his weakness and their own strength; and their mutualhatred was inflamed beyond the desire of forgiveness or the hope ofreconciliation. The historians of the times adopt the vulgar suspicion, that Maurice conspired to destroy the troops whom he had labored toreform; the misconduct and favor of Commentiolus are imputed to thismalevolent design; and every age must condemn the inhumanity of avarice[42] of a prince, who, by the trifling ransom of six thousand pieces ofgold, might have prevented the massacre of twelve thousand prisoners inthe hands of the chagan. In the just fervor of indignation, an orderwas signified to the army of the Danube, that they should spare themagazines of the province, and establish their winter quarters in thehostile country of the Avars. The measure of their grievances was full:they pronounced Maurice unworthy to reign, expelled or slaughteredhis faithful adherents, and, under the command of Phocas, asimple centurion, returned by hasty marches to the neighborhood ofConstantinople. After a long series of legal succession, the militarydisorders of the third century were again revived; yet such was thenovelty of the enterprise, that the insurgents were awed by theirown rashness. They hesitated to invest their favorite with the vacantpurple; and, while they rejected all treaty with Maurice himself, they held a friendly correspondence with his son Theodosius, and withGermanus, the father-in-law of the royal youth. So obscure had been theformer condition of Phocas, that the emperor was ignorant of thename and character of his rival; but as soon as he learned, that thecenturion, though bold in sedition, was timid in the face of danger, "Alas!" cried the desponding prince, "if he is a coward, he will surelybe a murderer. "

[Footnote 40: Maurice himself composed xii books on the military art, which are still extant, and have been published (Upsal, 1664) by JohnSchaeffer, at the end of the Tactics of Arrian, (Fabricius, BibliotGraeca, l. Iv. C. 8, tom. Iii. P. 278, ) who promises to speak more fullyof his work in its proper place. ]

[Footnote 41: See the mutinies under the reign of Maurice, inTheophylact l iii c. 1--4, . Vi. C. 7, 8, 10, l. Vii. C. 1 l. Viii. C. 6, &c. ]

[Footnote 42: Theophylact and Theophanes seem ignorant of the conspiracyand avarice of Maurice. These charges, so unfavorable to the memoryof that emperor, are first mentioned by the author of the PaschalChronicle, (p. 379, 280;) from whence Zonaras (tom. Ii. L. Xiv. P. 77, 78) has transcribed them. Cedrenus (p. 399) has followed anothercomputation of the ransom. ]

Yet if Constantinople had been firm and faithful, the murderer mighthave spent his fury against the walls; and the rebel army would havebeen gradually consumed or reconciled by the prudence of the emperor. In the games of the Circus, which he repeated with unusual pomp, Maurice disguised, with smiles of confidence, the anxiety of his heart, condescended to solicit the applause of the factions, and flatteredtheir pride by accepting from their respective tribunes a list of ninehundred blues and fifteen hundred greens, whom he affected to esteemas the solid pillars of his throne Their treacherous or languid supportbetrayed his weakness and hastened his fall: the green faction were thesecret accomplices of the rebels, and the blues recommended lenityand moderation in a contest with their Roman brethren The rigid andparsimonious virtues of Maurice had long since alienated the hearts ofhis subjects: as he walked barefoot in a religious procession, he wasrudely assaulted with stones, and his guards were compelled to presenttheir iron maces in the defence of his person. A fanatic monk ranthrough the streets with a drawn sword, denouncing against him thewrath and the sentence of God; and a vile plebeian, who representedhis countenance and apparel, was seated on an ass, and pursued by theimprecations of the multitude. [43] The emperor suspected the popularityof Germanus with the soldiers and citizens: he feared, he threatened, but he delayed to strike; the patrician fled to the sanctuary of thechurch; the people rose in his defence, the walls were deserted by theguards, and the lawless city was abandoned to the flames and rapine ofa nocturnal tumult. In a small bark, the unfortunate Maurice, with hiswife and nine children, escaped to the Asiatic shore; but the violenceof the wind compelled him to land at the church of St. Autonomus, [44]near Chalcedon, from whence he despatched Theodosius, he eldest son, to implore the gratitude and friendship of the Persian monarch. Forhimself, he refused to fly: his body was tortured with sciatic pains, [45] his mind was enfeebled by superstition; he patiently awaited theevent of the revolution, and addressed a fervent and public prayer tothe Almighty, that the punishment of his sins might be inflicted in thisworld rather than in a future life. After the abdication of Maurice, thetwo factions disputed the choice of an emperor; but the favorite of theblues was rejected by the jealousy of their antagonists, and Germanushimself was hurried along by the crowds who rushed to the palace ofHebdomon, seven miles from the city, to adore the majesty of Phocas thecenturion. A modest wish of resigning the purple to the rank and meritof Germanus was opposed by his resolution, more obstinate and equallysincere; the senate and clergy obeyed his summons; and, as soon asthe patriarch was assured of his orthodox belief, he consecrated thesuccessful usurper in the church of St. John the Baptist. On the thirdday, amidst the acclamations of a thoughtless people, Phocas made hispublic entry in a chariot drawn by four white horses: the revolt of thetroops was rewarded by a lavish donative; and the new sovereign, aftervisiting the palace, beheld from his throne the games of the hippodrome. In a dispute of precedency between the two factions, his partialjudgment inclined in favor of the greens. "Remember that Maurice isstill alive, " resounded from the opposite side; and the indiscreetclamor of the blues admonished and stimulated the cruelty of the tyrant. The ministers of death were despatched to Chalcedon: they draggedthe emperor from his sanctuary; and the five sons of Maurice weresuccessively murdered before the eyes of their agonizing parent. Ateach stroke, which he felt in his heart, he found strength to rehearsea pious ejaculation: "Thou art just, O Lord! and thy judgments arerighteous. " And such, in the last moments, was his rigid attachment totruth and justice, that he revealed to the soldiers the pious falsehoodof a nurse who presented her own child in the place of a royal infant. [46] The tragic scene was finally closed by the execution of the emperorhimself, in the twentieth year of his reign, and the sixty-third of hisage. The bodies of the father and his five sons were cast into the sea;their heads were exposed at Constantinople to the insults or pity of themultitude; and it was not till some signs of putrefaction had appeared, that Phocas connived at the private burial of these venerable remains. In that grave, the faults and errors of Maurice were kindly interred. His fate alone was remembered; and at the end of twenty years, in therecital of the history of Theophylact, the mournful tale was interruptedby the tears of the audience. [47]

[Footnote 43: In their clamors against Maurice, the people ofConstantinople branded him with the name of Marcionite or Marcionist; aheresy (says Theophylact, l. Viii. C. 9). Did they only cast out a vaguereproach--or had the emperor really listened to some obscure teacher ofthose ancient Gnostics?]

[Footnote 44: The church of St. Autonomous (whom I have not the honor toknow) was 150 stadia from Constantinople, (Theophylact, l. Viii. C. 9. )The port of Eutropius, where Maurice and his children were murdered, isdescribed by Gyllius (de Bosphoro Thracio, l. Iii. C. Xi. ) as one of thetwo harbors of Chalcedon. ]

[Footnote 45: The inhabitants of Constantinople were generally subject;and Theophylact insinuates, (l. Viii. C. 9, ) that if it were consistentwith the rules of history, he could assign the medical cause. Yet sucha digression would not have been more impertinent than his inquiry (l. Vii. C. 16, 17) into the annual inundations of the Nile, and all theopinions of the Greek philosophers on that subject. ]

[Footnote 46: From this generous attempt, Corneille has deduced theintricate web of his tragedy of Heraclius, which requires more than onerepresentation to be clearly understood, (Corneille de Voltaire, tom. V. P. 300;) and which, after an interval of some years, is said to havepuzzled the author himself, (Anecdotes Dramatiques, tom. I. P. 422. )]

[Footnote 47: The revolt of Phocas and death of Maurice are told byTheophylact Simocatta, (l. Viii. C. 7--12, ) the Paschal Chronicle, (p. 379, 380, ) Theophanes, (Chronograph. P. 238-244, ) Zonaras, (tom. Ii. L. Xiv. P. 77--80, ) and Cedrenus, (p. 399--404. )]

Such tears must have flowed in secret, and such compassion would havebeen criminal, under the reign of Phocas, who was peaceably acknowledgedin the provinces of the East and West. The images of the emperor and hiswife Leontia were exposed in the Lateran to the veneration of theclergy and senate of Rome, and afterwards deposited in the palace of theCaesars, between those of Constantine and Theodosius. As a subject anda Christian, it was the duty of Gregory to acquiesce in the establishedgovernment; but the joyful applause with which he salutes the fortune ofthe assassin, has sullied, with indelible disgrace, the character of thesaint. The successor of the apostles might have inculcated with decentfirmness the guilt of blood, and the necessity of repentance; he iscontent to celebrate the deliverance of the people and the fall of theoppressor; to rejoice that the piety and benignity of Phocas have beenraised by Providence to the Imperial throne; to pray that his hands maybe strengthened against all his enemies; and to express a wish, perhaps a prophecy, that, after a long and triumphant reign, he maybe transferred from a temporal to an everlasting kingdom. [48] I havealready traced the steps of a revolution so pleasing, in Gregory'sopinion, both to heaven and earth; and Phocas does not appear lesshateful in the exercise than in the acquisition of power The pencil ofan impartial historian has delineated the portrait of a monster:[49] his diminutive and deformed person, the closeness of his shaggyeyebrows, his red hair, his beardless chin, and his cheek disfigured anddiscolored by a formidable scar. Ignorant of letters, of laws, and evenof arms, he indulged in the supreme rank a more ample privilege of lustand drunkenness; and his brutal pleasures were either injurious to hissubjects or disgraceful to himself. Without assuming the office ofa prince, he renounced the profession of a soldier; and the reign ofPhocas afflicted Europe with ignominious peace, and Asia with desolatingwar. His savage temper was inflamed by passion, hardened by fear, andexasperated by resistance of reproach. The flight of Theodosius to thePersian court had been intercepted by a rapid pursuit, or a deceitfulmessage: he was beheaded at Nice, and the last hours of the youngprince were soothed by the comforts of religion and the consciousnessof innocence. Yet his phantom disturbed the repose of the usurper: awhisper was circulated through the East, that the son of Maurice wasstill alive: the people expected their avenger, and the widow anddaughters of the late emperor would have adopted as their son andbrother the vilest of mankind. In the massacre of the Imperial family, [50] the mercy, or rather the discretion, of Phocas had spared theseunhappy females, and they were decently confined to a private house. Butthe spirit of the empress Constantina, still mindful of her father, herhusband, and her sons, aspired to freedom and revenge. At the dead ofnight, she escaped to the sanctuary of St. Sophia; but her tears, andthe gold of her associate Germanus, were insufficient to provoke aninsurrection. Her life was forfeited to revenge, and even to justice:but the patriarch obtained and pledged an oath for her safety: amonastery was allotted for her prison, and the widow of Maurice acceptedand abused the lenity of his assassin. The discovery or the suspicion ofa second conspiracy, dissolved the engagements, and rekindled the fury, of Phocas. A matron who commanded the respect and pity of mankind, thedaughter, wife, and mother of emperors, was tortured like the vilestmalefactor, to force a confession of her designs and associates; and theempress Constantina, with her three innocent daughters, was beheaded atChalcedon, on the same ground which had been stained with the bloodof her husband and five sons. After such an example, it would besuperfluous to enumerate the names and sufferings of meaner victims. Their condemnation was seldom preceded by the forms of trial, and theirpunishment was embittered by the refinements of cruelty: their eyes werepierced, their tongues were torn from the root, the hands and feet wereamputated; some expired under the lash, others in the flames; othersagain were transfixed with arrows; and a simple speedy death was mercywhich they could rarely obtain. The hippodrome, the sacred asylum ofthe pleasures and the liberty of the Romans, was polluted with heads andlimbs, and mangled bodies; and the companions of Phocas were the mostsensible, that neither his favor, nor their services, could protect themfrom a tyrant, the worthy rival of the Caligulas and Domitians of thefirst age of the empire. [51]

[Footnote 48: Gregor. L. Xi. Epist. 38, indict. Vi. Benignitatem vestraepietatis ad Imperiale fastigium pervenisse gaudemus. Laetentur coeliet exultet terra, et de vestris benignis actibus universae republicaepopulus nunc usque vehementer afflictus hilarescat, &c. This baseflattery, the topic of Protestant invective, is justly censured by thephilosopher Bayle, (Dictionnaire Critique, Gregoire I. Not. H. Tom. Ii. P. 597 598. ) Cardinal Baronius justifies the pope at the expense of thefallen emperor. ]

[Footnote 49: The images of Phocas were destroyed; but even the maliceof his enemies would suffer one copy of such a portrait or caricature(Cedrenus, p. 404) to escape the flames. ]

[Footnote 50: The family of Maurice is represented by Ducange, (FamiliaeBy zantinae, p. 106, 107, 108;) his eldest son Theodosius had beencrowned emperor, when he was no more than four years and a half old, andhe is always joined with his father in the salutations of Gregory. Withthe Christian daughters, Anastasia and Theocteste, I am surprised tofind the Pagan name of Cleopatra. ]

[Footnote 51: Some of the cruelties of Phocas are marked by Theophylact, l. Viii. C. 13, 14, 15. George of Pisidia, the poet of Heraclius, styleshim (Bell. Avaricum, p. 46, Rome, 1777). The latter epithet is just--butthe corrupter of life was easily vanquished. ]

Chapter XLVI: Troubles In Persia. --Part III. 

A daughter of Phocas, his only child, was given in marriage to thepatrician Crispus, [52] and the royal images of the bride and bridegroomwere indiscreetly placed in the circus, by the side of the emperor. Thefather must desire that his posterity should inherit the fruit of hiscrimes, but the monarch was offended by this premature and popularassociation: the tribunes of the green faction, who accused theofficious error of their sculptors, were condemned to instant death:their lives were granted to the prayers of the people; but Crispus mightreasonably doubt, whether a jealous usurper could forget and pardonhis involuntary competition. The green faction was alienated by theingratitude of Phocas and the loss of their privileges; every provinceof the empire was ripe for rebellion; and Heraclius, exarch of Africa, persisted above two years in refusing all tribute and obedience to thecenturion who disgraced the throne of Constantinople. By the secretemissaries of Crispus and the senate, the independent exarch wassolicited to save and to govern his country; but his ambition waschilled by age, and he resigned the dangerous enterprise to hisson Heraclius, and to Nicetas, the son of Gregory, his friend andlieutenant. The powers of Africa were armed by the two adventurousyouths; they agreed that the one should navigate the fleet from Carthageto Constantinople, that the other should lead an army through Egypt andAsia, and that the Imperial purple should be the reward of diligence andsuccess. A faint rumor of their undertaking was conveyed to the ears ofPhocas, and the wife and mother of the younger Heraclius were securedas the hostages of his faith: but the treacherous heart of Crispusextenuated the distant peril, the means of defence were neglected ordelayed, and the tyrant supinely slept till the African navy cast anchorin the Hellespont. Their standard was joined at Abidus by the fugitivesand exiles who thirsted for revenge; the ships of Heraclius, whose loftymasts were adorned with the holy symbols of religion, [53] steered theirtriumphant course through the Propontis; and Phocas beheld from thewindows of the palace his approaching and inevitable fate. The greenfaction was tempted, by gifts and promises, to oppose a feeble andfruitless resistance to the landing of the Africans: but the people, andeven the guards, were determined by the well-timed defection of Crispus;and they tyrant was seized by a private enemy, who boldly invaded thesolitude of the palace. Stripped of the diadem and purple, clothed in avile habit, and loaded with chains, he was transported in a small boatto the Imperial galley of Heraclius, who reproached him with the crimesof his abominable reign. "Wilt thou govern better?" were the last wordsof the despair of Phocas. After suffering each variety of insult andtorture, his head was severed from his body, the mangled trunk was castinto the flames, and the same treatment was inflicted on the statuesof the vain usurper, and the seditious banner of the green faction. Thevoice of the clergy, the senate, and the people, invited Heraclius toascend the throne which he had purified from guilt and ignominy; aftersome graceful hesitation, he yielded to their entreaties. His coronationwas accompanied by that of his wife Eudoxia; and their posterity, tillthe fourth generation, continued to reign over the empire of the East. The voyage of Heraclius had been easy and prosperous; the tedious marchof Nicetas was not accomplished before the decision of the contest:but he submitted without a murmur to the fortune of his friend, andhis laudable intentions were rewarded with an equestrian statue, and adaughter of the emperor. It was more difficult to trust the fidelity ofCrispus, whose recent services were recompensed by the command of theCappadocian army. His arrogance soon provoked, and seemed to excuse, the ingratitude of his new sovereign. In the presence of the senate, theson-in-law of Phocas was condemned to embrace the monastic life; and thesentence was justified by the weighty observation of Heraclius, that theman who had betrayed his father could never be faithful to his friend. [54]

[Footnote 52: In the writers, and in the copies of those writers, thereis such hesitation between the names of Priscus and Crispus, (Ducange, Fam Byzant. P. 111, ) that I have been tempted to identify the son-in-lawof Phocas with the hero five times victorious over the Avars. ]

[Footnote 53: According to Theophanes. Cedrenus adds, which Heracliusbore as a banner in the first Persian expedition. See George Pisid. Acroas L 140. The manufacture seems to have flourished; but Foggini, theRoman editor, (p. 26, ) is at a loss to determine whether this picturewas an original or a copy. ]

[Footnote 54: See the tyranny of Phocas and the elevation of Heraclius, in Chron. Paschal. P. 380--383. Theophanes, p. 242-250. Nicephorus, p. 3--7. Cedrenus, p. 404--407. Zonaras, tom. Ii. L. Xiv. P. 80--82. ]

Even after his death the republic was afflicted by the crimes of Phocas, which armed with a pious cause the most formidable of her enemies. According to the friendly and equal forms of the Byzantine and Persiancourts, he announced his exaltation to the throne; and his ambassadorLilius, who had presented him with the heads of Maurice and his sons, was the best qualified to describe the circumstances of the tragicscene. [55] However it might be varnished by fiction or sophistry, Chosroes turned with horror from the assassin, imprisoned the pretendedenvoy, disclaimed the usurper, and declared himself the avenger of hisfather and benefactor. The sentiments of grief and resentment, whichhumanity would feel, and honor would dictate, promoted on this occasionthe interest of the Persian king; and his interest was powerfullymagnified by the national and religious prejudices of the Magi andsatraps. In a strain of artful adulation, which assumed the languageof freedom, they presumed to censure the excess of his gratitude andfriendship for the Greeks; a nation with whom it was dangerous toconclude either peace or alliance; whose superstition was devoid oftruth and justice, and who must be incapable of any virtue, since theycould perpetrate the most atrocious of crimes, the impious murder oftheir sovereign. [56] For the crime of an ambitious centurion, thenation which he oppressed was chastised with the calamities of war; andthe same calamities, at the end of twenty years, were retaliatedand redoubled on the heads of the Persians. [57] The general who hadrestored Chosroes to the throne still commanded in the East; and thename of Narses was the formidable sound with which the Assyrian motherswere accustomed to terrify their infants. It is not improbable, that anative subject of Persia should encourage his master and his friend todeliver and possess the provinces of Asia. It is still more probable, that Chosroes should animate his troops by the assurance that the swordwhich they dreaded the most would remain in its scabbard, or be drawn intheir favor. The hero could not depend on the faith of a tyrant; andthe tyrant was conscious how little he deserved the obedience of a hero. Narses was removed from his military command; he reared an independentstandard at Hierapolis, in Syria: he was betrayed by fallaciouspromises, and burnt alive in the market-place of Constantinople. Deprived of the only chief whom they could fear or esteem, the bandswhich he had led to victory were twice broken by the cavalry, trampledby the elephants, and pierced by the arrows of the Barbarians; and agreat number of the captives were beheaded on the field of battle bythe sentence of the victor, who might justly condemn these seditiousmercenaries as the authors or accomplices of the death of Maurice. Underthe reign of Phocas, the fortifications of Merdin, Dara, Amida, andEdessa, were successively besieged, reduced, and destroyed, by thePersian monarch: he passed the Euphrates, occupied the Syrian cities, Hierapolis, Chalcis, and Berrhaea or Aleppo, and soon encompassed thewalls of Antioch with his irresistible arms. The rapid tide of successdiscloses the decay of the empire, the incapacity of Phocas, and thedisaffection of his subjects; and Chosroes provided a decent apology fortheir submission or revolt, by an impostor, who attended his camp as theson of Maurice [58] and the lawful heir of the monarchy. 

[Footnote 55: Theophylact, l. Viii. C. 15. The life of Maurice wascomposed about the year 628 (l. Viii. C. 13) by Theophylact Simocatta, ex-praefect, a native of Egypt. Photius, who gives an ample extract ofthe work, (cod. Lxv. P. 81--100, ) gently reproves the affectation andallegory of the style. His preface is a dialogue between Philosophy andHistory; they seat themselves under a plane-tree, and the latter touchesher lyre. ]

[Footnote 56: Christianis nec pactum esse, nec fidem nec foedus . .. .. Quod si ulla illis fides fuisset, regem suum non occidissent. Eutych. Annales tom. Ii. P. 211, vers. Pocock. ]

[Footnote 57: We must now, for some ages, take our leave of contemporaryhistorians, and descend, if it be a descent, from the affectation ofrhetoric to the rude simplicity of chronicles and abridgments. Those ofTheophanes (Chronograph. P. 244--279) and Nicephorus (p. 3--16) supplya regular, but imperfect, series of the Persian war; and for anyadditional facts I quote my special authorities. Theophanes, acourtier who became a monk, was born A. D. 748; Nicephorus patriarchof Constantinople, who died A. D. 829, was somewhat younger: they bothsuffered in the cause of images Hankius, de Scriptoribus Byzantinis, p. 200-246. ]

[Footnote 58: The Persian historians have been themselves deceived: butTheophanes (p. 244) accuses Chosroes of the fraud and falsehood; andEutychius believes (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 212) that the son of Maurice, whowas saved from the assassins, lived and died a monk on Mount Sinai. ]

The first intelligence from the East which Heraclius received, [59]was that of the loss of Antioch; but the aged metropolis, so oftenoverturned by earthquakes, and pillaged by the enemy, could supply buta small and languid stream of treasure and blood. The Persians wereequally successful, and more fortunate, in the sack of Caesarea, thecapital of Cappadocia; and as they advanced beyond the ramparts ofthe frontier, the boundary of ancient war, they found a less obstinateresistance and a more plentiful harvest. The pleasant vale of Damascushas been adorned in every age with a royal city: her obscure felicityhas hitherto escaped the historian of the Roman empire: but Chosroesreposed his troops in the paradise of Damascus before he ascended thehills of Libanus, or invaded the cities of the Phoenician coast. Theconquest of Jerusalem, [60] which had been meditated by Nushirvan, was achieved by the zeal and avarice of his grandson; the ruin of theproudest monument of Christianity was vehemently urged by the intolerantspirit of the Magi; and he could enlist for this holy warfare withan army of six-and-twenty thousand Jews, whose furious bigotry mightcompensate, in some degree, for the want of valor and discipline. [6011]After the reduction of Galilee, and the region beyond the Jordan, whoseresistance appears to have delayed the fate of the capital, Jerusalemitself was taken by assault. The sepulchre of Christ, and the statelychurches of Helena and Constantine, were consumed, or at least damaged, by the flames; the devout offerings of three hundred years were rifledin one sacrilegious day; the Patriarch Zachariah, and the true cross, were transported into Persia; and the massacre of ninety thousandChristians is imputed to the Jews and Arabs, who swelled the disorderof the Persian march. The fugitives of Palestine were entertained atAlexandria by the charity of John the Archbishop, who is distinguishedamong a crowd of saints by the epithet of almsgiver: [61] and therevenues of the church, with a treasure of three hundred thousandpounds, were restored to the true proprietors, the poor of every countryand every denomination. But Egypt itself, the only province which hadbeen exempt, since the time of Diocletian, from foreign and domesticwar, was again subdued by the successors of Cyrus. Pelusium, the key ofthat impervious country, was surprised by the cavalry of the Persians:they passed, with impunity, the innumerable channels of the Delta, andexplored the long valley of the Nile, from the pyramids of Memphis tothe confines of Aethiopia. Alexandria might have been relieved by anaval force, but the archbishop and the praefect embarked for Cyprus;and Chosroes entered the second city of the empire, which stillpreserved a wealthy remnant of industry and commerce. His western trophywas erected, not on the walls of Carthage, [62] but in the neighborhoodof Tripoli; the Greek colonies of Cyrene were finally extirpated; andthe conqueror, treading in the footsteps of Alexander, returned intriumph through the sands of the Libyan desert. In the same campaign, another army advanced from the Euphrates to the Thracian Bosphorus;Chalcedon surrendered after a long siege, and a Persian camp wasmaintained above ten years in the presence of Constantinople. Thesea-coast of Pontus, the city of Ancyra, and the Isle of Rhodes, areenumerated among the last conquests of the great king; and if Chosroeshad possessed any maritime power, his boundless ambition would havespread slavery and desolation over the provinces of Europe. 

[Footnote 59: Eutychius dates all the losses of the empire under thereign of Phocas; an error which saves the honor of Heraclius, whomhe brings not from Carthage, but Salonica, with a fleet laden withvegetables for the relief of Constantinople, (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 223, 224. ) The other Christians of the East, Barhebraeus, (apud Asseman, Bibliothec. Oriental. Tom. Iii. P. 412, 413, ) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. P. 13--16, ) Abulpharagius, (Dynast. P. 98, 99, ) are more sincere andaccurate. The years of the Persian war are disposed in the chronology ofPagi. ]

[Footnote 60: On the conquest of Jerusalem, an event so interesting tothe church, see the Annals of Eutychius, (tom. Ii. P. 212--223, ) and thelamentations of the monk Antiochus, (apud Baronium, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 614, No. 16--26, ) whose one hundred and twenty-nine homilies are stillextant, if what no one reads may be said to be extant. ]

[Footnote 6011: See Hist. Of Jews, vol. Iii. P. 240. --M. ]

[Footnote 61: The life of this worthy saint is composed by Leontius, acontemporary bishop; and I find in Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 610, No. 10, &c. ) and Fleury (tom. Viii. P. 235-242) sufficient extracts ofthis edifying work. ]

[Footnote 62: The error of Baronius, and many others who have carriedthe arms of Chosroes to Carthage instead of Chalcedon, is founded onthe near resemblance of the Greek words, in the text of Theophanes, &c. , which have been sometimes confounded by transcribers, and sometimes bycritics. ]

From the long-disputed banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, the reign ofthe grandson of Nushirvan was suddenly extended to the Hellespont andthe Nile, the ancient limits of the Persian monarchy. But the provinces, which had been fashioned by the habits of six hundred years to thevirtues and vices of the Roman government, supported with reluctancethe yoke of the Barbarians. The idea of a republic was kept alive by theinstitutions, or at least by the writings, of the Greeks and Romans, andthe subjects of Heraclius had been educated to pronounce the words ofliberty and law. But it has always been the pride and policy of Orientalprinces to display the titles and attributes of their omnipotence; toupbraid a nation of slaves with their true name and abject condition, and to enforce, by cruel and insolent threats, the rigor of theirabsolute commands. The Christians of the East were scandalized by theworship of fire, and the impious doctrine of the two principles: theMagi were not less intolerant than the bishops; and the martyrdom ofsome native Persians, who had deserted the religion of Zoroaster, [63]was conceived to be the prelude of a fierce and general persecution. By the oppressive laws of Justinian, the adversaries of the church weremade the enemies of the state; the alliance of the Jews, Nestorians, andJacobites, had contributed to the success of Chosroes, and his partialfavor to the sectaries provoked the hatred and fears of the Catholicclergy. Conscious of their fear and hatred, the Persian conquerorgoverned his new subjects with an iron sceptre; and, as if he suspectedthe stability of his dominion, he exhausted their wealth by exorbitanttributes and licentious rapine despoiled or demolished the temples ofthe East; and transported to his hereditary realms the gold, the silver, the precious marbles, the arts, and the artists of the Asiatic cities. In the obscure picture of the calamities of the empire, [64] it is noteasy to discern the figure of Chosroes himself, to separate his actionsfrom those of his lieutenants, or to ascertain his personal merit in thegeneral blaze of glory and magnificence. He enjoyed with ostentation thefruits of victory, and frequently retired from the hardships of war tothe luxury of the palace. But in the space of twenty-four years, he wasdeterred by superstition or resentment from approaching the gates ofCtesiphon: and his favorite residence of Artemita, or Dastagerd, was situate beyond the Tigris, about sixty miles to the north of thecapital. [65] The adjacent pastures were covered with flocks andherds: the paradise or park was replenished with pheasants, peacocks, ostriches, roebucks, and wild boars, and the noble game of lions andtigers was sometimes turned loose for the bolder pleasures of the chase. Nine hundred and sixty elephants were maintained for the use or splendorof the great king: his tents and baggage were carried into the field bytwelve thousand great camels and eight thousand of a smaller size; [66]and the royal stables were filled with six thousand mules and horses, among whom the names of Shebdiz and Barid are renowned for their speedor beauty. [6611] Six thousand guards successively mounted before thepalace gate; the service of the interior apartments was performed bytwelve thousand slaves, and in the number of three thousand virgins, thefairest of Asia, some happy concubine might console her master for theage or the indifference of Sira. 

The various treasures of gold, silver, gems, silks, and aromatics, weredeposited in a hundred subterraneous vaults and the chamber Badaverddenoted the accidental gift of the winds which had wafted the spoilsof Heraclius into one of the Syrian harbors of his rival. The vice offlattery, and perhaps of fiction, is not ashamed to compute the thirtythousand rich hangings that adorned the walls; the forty thousandcolumns of silver, or more probably of marble, and plated wood, thatsupported the roof; and the thousand globes of gold suspended in thedome, to imitate the motions of the planets and the constellations ofthe zodiac. [67] While the Persian monarch contemplated the wonders ofhis art and power, he received an epistle from an obscure citizen ofMecca, inviting him to acknowledge Mahomet as the apostle of God. Herejected the invitation, and tore the epistle. "It is thus, " exclaimedthe Arabian prophet, "that God will tear the kingdom, and reject thesupplications of Chosroes. " [68] [] Placed on the verge of the two greatempires of the East, Mahomet observed with secret joy the progress oftheir mutual destruction; and in the midst of the Persian triumphs, he ventured to foretell, that before many years should elapse, victoryshould again return to the banners of the Romans. [69]

[Footnote 63: The genuine acts of St. Anastasius are published in thoseof the with general council, from whence Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 614, 626, 627) and Butler (Lives of the Saints, vol. I. P. 242--248)have taken their accounts. The holy martyr deserted from the Persian tothe Roman army, became a monk at Jerusalem, and insulted the worship ofthe Magi, which was then established at Caesarea in Palestine. ]

[Footnote 64: Abulpharagius, Dynast. P. 99. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. P. 14. ]

[Footnote 65: D'Anville, Mem. De l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. Xxxii. P. 568--571. ]

[Footnote 66: The difference between the two races consists in one ortwo humps; the dromedary has only one; the size of the proper camel islarger; the country he comes from, Turkistan or Bactriana; the dromedaryis confined to Arabia and Africa. Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. Xi. P. 211, &c. Aristot. Hist. Animal. Tom. I. L. Ii. C. 1, tom. Ii. P. 185. ]

[Footnote 6611: The ruins of these scenes of Khoosroo's magnificencehave been visited by Sir R. K. Porter. At the ruins of Tokht i Bostan, he saw a gorgeous picture of a hunt, singularly illustrative of thispassage. Travels, vol. Ii. P. 204. Kisra Shirene, which he afterwardsexamined, appears to have been the palace of Dastagerd. Vol. Ii. P. 173--175. --M. ]

[Footnote 67: Theophanes, Chronograph. P. 268. D'Herbelot, BibliothequeOrientale, p. 997. The Greeks describe the decay, the Persians thesplendor, of Dastagerd; but the former speak from the modest witness ofthe eye, the latter from the vague report of the ear. ]

[Footnote 68: The historians of Mahomet, Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed, p. 92, 93) and Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. Ii. P. 247, ) date thisembassy in the viith year of the Hegira, which commences A. D. 628, May11. Their chronology is erroneous, since Chosroes died in the month ofFebruary of the same year, (Pagi, Critica, tom. Ii. P. 779. ) The countde Boulainvilliers (Vie de Mahomed, p. 327, 328) places this embassyabout A. D. 615, soon after the conquest of Palestine. Yet Mahomet wouldscarcely have ventured so soon on so bold a step. ]

[Footnote 6811: Khoosroo Purveez was encamped on the banks of theKarasoo River when he received the letter of Mahomed. He tore the letterand threw it into the Karasoo. For this action, the moderate authorof the Zeenut-ul-Tuarikh calls him a wretch, and rejoices in all hissubsequent misfortunes. These impressions still exist. I remarked to aPersian, when encamped near the Karasoo, in 1800, that the bankswere very high, which must make it difficult to apply its waters toirrigation. "It once fertilized the whole country, " said the zealousMahomedan, "but its channel sunk with honor from its banks, when thatmadman, Khoosroo, threw our holy Prophet's letter into its stream; whichhas ever since been accursed and useless. " Malcolm's Persia, vol. I. P. 126--M. ]

[Footnote 69: See the xxxth chapter of the Koran, entitled the Greeks. Our honest and learned translator, Sale, (p. 330, 331, ) fairly statesthis conjecture, guess, wager, of Mahomet; but Boulainvilliers, (p. 329--344, ) with wicked intentions, labors to establish this evidentprophecy of a future event, which must, in his opinion, embarrass theChristian polemics. ]

At the time when this prediction is said to have been delivered, noprophecy could be more distant from its accomplishment, since the firsttwelve years of Heraclius announced the approaching dissolution of theempire. If the motives of Chosroes had been pure and honorable, hemust have ended the quarrel with the death of Phocas, and he would haveembraced, as his best ally, the fortunate African who had so generouslyavenged the injuries of his benefactor Maurice. The prosecution of thewar revealed the true character of the Barbarian; and the suppliantembassies of Heraclius to beseech his clemency, that he would spare theinnocent, accept a tribute, and give peace to the world, were rejectedwith contemptuous silence or insolent menace. Syria, Egypt, and theprovinces of Asia, were subdued by the Persian arms, while Europe, fromthe confines of Istria to the long wall of Thrace, was oppressed by theAvars, unsatiated with the blood and rapine of the Italian war. They hadcoolly massacred their male captives in the sacred field of Pannonia;the women and children were reduced to servitude, and the noblestvirgins were abandoned to the promiscuous lust of the Barbarians. Theamorous matron who opened the gates of Friuli passed a short night inthe arms of her royal lover; the next evening, Romilda was condemned tothe embraces of twelve Avars, and the third day the Lombard princess wasimpaled in the sight of the camp, while the chagan observed with a cruelsmile, that such a husband was the fit recompense of her lewdness andperfidy. [70] By these implacable enemies, Heraclius, on either side, was insulted and besieged: and the Roman empire was reduced to the wallsof Constantinople, with the remnant of Greece, Italy, and Africa, andsome maritime cities, from Tyre to Trebizond, of the Asiatic coast. After the loss of Egypt, the capital was afflicted by famine andpestilence; and the emperor, incapable of resistance, and hopeless ofrelief, had resolved to transfer his person and government to the moresecure residence of Carthage. His ships were already laden with thetreasures of the palace; but his flight was arrested by the patriarch, who armed the powers of religion in the defence of his country; ledHeraclius to the altar of St. Sophia, and extorted a solemn oath, thathe would live and die with the people whom God had intrusted to hiscare. The chagan was encamped in the plains of Thrace; but he dissembledhis perfidious designs, and solicited an interview with the emperornear the town of Heraclea. Their reconciliation was celebrated withequestrian games; the senate and people, in their gayest apparel, resorted to the festival of peace; and the Avars beheld, with envy anddesire, the spectacle of Roman luxury. On a sudden the hippodrome wasencompassed by the Scythian cavalry, who had pressed their secret andnocturnal march: the tremendous sound of the chagan's whip gave thesignal of the assault, and Heraclius, wrapping his diadem round his arm, was saved with extreme hazard, by the fleetness of his horse. So rapidwas the pursuit, that the Avars almost entered the golden gate ofConstantinople with the flying crowds: [71] but the plunder of thesuburbs rewarded their treason, and they transported beyond the Danubetwo hundred and seventy thousand captives. On the shore of Chalcedon, the emperor held a safer conference with a more honorable foe, who, before Heraclius descended from his galley, saluted with reverence andpity the majesty of the purple. The friendly offer of Sain, the Persiangeneral, to conduct an embassy to the presence of the great king, wasaccepted with the warmest gratitude, and the prayer for pardon and peacewas humbly presented by the Praetorian praefect, the praefect of thecity, and one of the first ecclesiastics of the patriarchal church. [72]But the lieutenant of Chosroes had fatally mistaken the intentions ofhis master. "It was not an embassy, " said the tyrant of Asia, "it wasthe person of Heraclius, bound in chains, that he should have brought tothe foot of my throne. I will never give peace to the emperor of Rome, till he had abjured his crucified God, and embraced the worship of thesun. " Sain was flayed alive, according to the inhuman practice of hiscountry; and the separate and rigorous confinement of the ambassadorsviolated the law of nations, and the faith of an express stipulation. Yet the experience of six years at length persuaded the Persian monarchto renounce the conquest of Constantinople, and to specify the annualtribute or ransom of the Roman empire; a thousand talents of gold, athousand talents of silver, a thousand silk robes, a thousand horses, and a thousand virgins. Heraclius subscribed these ignominious terms;but the time and space which he obtained to collect such treasures fromthe poverty of the East, was industriously employed in the preparationsof a bold and desperate attack. [Footnote 70: Paul Warnefrid, de GestisLangobardorum, l. Iv. C. 38, 42. Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. V. P. 305, &c. ]

[Footnote 71: The Paschal Chronicle, which sometimes introducesfragments of history into a barren list of names and dates, gives thebest account of the treason of the Avars, p. 389, 390. The number ofcaptives is added by Nicephorus. ]

[Footnote 72: Some original pieces, such as the speech or letter of theRoman ambassadors, (p. 386--388, ) likewise constitute the merit of thePaschal Chronicle, which was composed, perhaps at Alexandria, under thereign of Heraclius. ]

Of the characters conspicuous in history, that of Heraclius is one ofthe most extraordinary and inconsistent. In the first and last years ofa long reign, the emperor appears to be the slave of sloth, of pleasure, or of superstition, the careless and impotent spectator of the publiccalamities. But the languid mists of the morning and evening areseparated by the brightness of the meridian sun; the Arcadius of thepalace arose the Caesar of the camp; and the honor of Rome and Heracliuswas gloriously retrieved by the exploits and trophies of six adventurouscampaigns. It was the duty of the Byzantine historians to have revealedthe causes of his slumber and vigilance. At this distance we canonly conjecture, that he was endowed with more personal courage thanpolitical resolution; that he was detained by the charms, and perhapsthe arts, of his niece Martina, with whom, after the death of Eudocia, he contracted an incestuous marriage; [73] and that he yielded to thebase advice of the counsellors, who urged, as a fundamental law, thatthe life of the emperor should never be exposed in the field. [74]Perhaps he was awakened by the last insolent demand of the Persianconqueror; but at the moment when Heraclius assumed the spirit of ahero, the only hopes of the Romans were drawn from the vicissitudes offortune, which might threaten the proud prosperity of Chosroes, and mustbe favorable to those who had attained the lowest period of depression. [75] To provide for the expenses of war, was the first care of theemperor; and for the purpose of collecting the tribute, he was allowedto solicit the benevolence of the eastern provinces. But the revenue nolonger flowed in the usual channels; the credit of an arbitrary princeis annihilated by his power; and the courage of Heraclius was firstdisplayed in daring to borrow the consecrated wealth of churches, underthe solemn vow of restoring, with usury, whatever he had been compelledto employ in the service of religion and the empire. The clergythemselves appear to have sympathized with the public distress; and thediscreet patriarch of Alexandria, without admitting the precedentof sacrilege, assisted his sovereign by the miraculous or seasonablerevelation of a secret treasure. [76] Of the soldiers who had conspiredwith Phocas, only two were found to have survived the stroke of time andof the Barbarians; [77] the loss, even of these seditious veterans, wasimperfectly supplied by the new levies of Heraclius, and the gold of thesanctuary united, in the same camp, the names, and arms, and languagesof the East and West. He would have been content with the neutrality ofthe Avars; and his friendly entreaty, that the chagan would act, not asthe enemy, but as the guardian, of the empire, was accompanied with amore persuasive donative of two hundred thousand pieces of gold. Twodays after the festival of Easter, the emperor, exchanging his purplefor the simple garb of a penitent and warrior, [78] gave the signalof his departure. To the faith of the people Heraclius recommendedhis children; the civil and military powers were vested in the mostdeserving hands, and the discretion of the patriarch and senate wasauthorized to save or surrender the city, if they should be oppressedin his absence by the superior forces of the enemy. [Footnote 73:Nicephorus, (p. 10, 11, ) is happy to observe, that of two sons, itsincestuous fruit, the elder was marked by Providence with a stiff neck, the younger with the loss of hearing. ]

[Footnote 74: George of Pisidia, (Acroas. I. 112--125, p. 5, ) who statesthe opinions, acquits the pusillanimous counsellors of any sinisterviews. Would he have excused the proud and contemptuous admonition ofCrispus?]

[Footnote 75: George Pisid. Acroas. I. 51, &c. P: 4. The Orientals arenot less fond of remarking this strange vicissitude; and I remembersome story of Khosrou Parviz, not very unlike the ring of Polycrates ofSamos. ]

[Footnote 76: Baronius gravely relates this discovery, or rathertransmutation, of barrels, not of honey, but of gold, (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 620, No. 3, &c. ) Yet the loan was arbitrary, since it was collectedby soldiers, who were ordered to leave the patriarch of Alexandria nomore than one hundred pounds of gold. Nicephorus, (p. 11, ) two hundredyears afterwards, speaks with ill humor of this contribution, which thechurch of Constantinople might still feel. ]

[Footnote 77: Theophylact Symocatta, l. Viii. C. 12. This circumstanceneed not excite our surprise. The muster-roll of a regiment, even intime of peace, is renewed in less than twenty or twenty-five years. ]

[Footnote 78: He changed his purple for black, buckskins, and dyed themred in the blood of the Persians, (Georg. Pisid. Acroas. Iii. 118, 121, 122 See the notes of Foggini, p. 35. )]

The neighboring heights of Chalcedon were covered with tents and arms:but if the new levies of Heraclius had been rashly led to the attack, the victory of the Persians in the sight of Constantinople might havebeen the last day of the Roman empire. As imprudent would it have beento advance into the provinces of Asia, leaving their innumerable cavalryto intercept his convoys, and continually to hang on the lassitude anddisorder of his rear. But the Greeks were still masters of the sea;a fleet of galleys, transports, and store-ships, was assembled in theharbor; the Barbarians consented to embark; a steady wind carried themthrough the Hellespont the western and southern coast of Asia Minor layon their left hand; the spirit of their chief was first displayed in astorm, and even the eunuchs of his train were excited to suffer andto work by the example of their master. He landed his troops on theconfines of Syria and Cilicia, in the Gulf of Scanderoon, wherethe coast suddenly turns to the south; [79] and his discernment wasexpressed in the choice of this important post. [80] From all sides, the scattered garrisons of the maritime cities and the mountains mightrepair with speed and safety to his Imperial standard. The naturalfortifications of Cilicia protected, and even concealed, the campof Heraclius, which was pitched near Issus, on the same ground whereAlexander had vanquished the host of Darius. The angle which the emperoroccupied was deeply indented into a vast semicircle of the Asiatic, Armenian, and Syrian provinces; and to whatsoever point of thecircumference he should direct his attack, it was easy for him todissemble his own motions, and to prevent those of the enemy. In thecamp of Issus, the Roman general reformed the sloth and disorder of theveterans, and educated the new recruits in the knowledge and practice ofmilitary virtue. Unfolding the miraculous image of Christ, he urged themto revenge the holy altars which had been profaned by the worshippersof fire; addressing them by the endearing appellations of sons andbrethren, he deplored the public and private wrongs of the republic. Thesubjects of a monarch were persuaded that they fought in the causeof freedom; and a similar enthusiasm was communicated to the foreignmercenaries, who must have viewed with equal indifference the interestof Rome and of Persia. Heraclius himself, with the skill and patienceof a centurion, inculcated the lessons of the school of tactics, and thesoldiers were assiduously trained in the use of their weapons, and theexercises and evolutions of the field. The cavalry and infantry in lightor heavy armor were divided into two parties; the trumpets were fixedin the centre, and their signals directed the march, the charge, theretreat or pursuit; the direct or oblique order, the deep or extendedphalanx; to represent in fictitious combat the operations of genuinewar. Whatever hardships the emperor imposed on the troops, he inflictedwith equal severity on himself; their labor, their diet, their sleep, were measured by the inflexible rules of discipline; and, withoutdespising the enemy, they were taught to repose an implicit confidencein their own valor and the wisdom of their leader. Cilicia was soonencompassed with the Persian arms; but their cavalry hesitated toenter the defiles of Mount Taurus, till they were circumvented by theevolutions of Heraclius, who insensibly gained their rear, whilst heappeared to present his front in order of battle. By a false motion, which seemed to threaten Armenia, he drew them, against their wishes, toa general action. They were tempted by the artful disorder of hiscamp; but when they advanced to combat, the ground, the sun, and theexpectation of both armies, were unpropitious to the Barbarians; theRomans successfully repeated their tactics in a field of battle, [81]and the event of the day declared to the world, that the Persians werenot invincible, and that a hero was invested with the purple. Strong invictory and fame, Heraclius boldly ascended the heights of Mount Taurus, directed his march through the plains of Cappadocia, and establishedhis troops, for the winter season, in safe and plentiful quarters on thebanks of the River Halys. [82] His soul was superior to the vanity ofentertaining Constantinople with an imperfect triumph; but the presenceof the emperor was indispensably required to soothe the restless andrapacious spirit of the Avars. 

[Footnote 79: George of Pisidia, (Acroas. Ii. 10, p. 8) has fixed thisimportant point of the Syrian and Cilician gates. They are elegantlydescribed by Xenophon, who marched through them a thousand yearsbefore. A narrow pass of three stadia between steep, high rocks, and theMediterranean, was closed at each end by strong gates, impregnableto the land, accessible by sea, (Anabasis, l. I. P. 35, 36, withHutchinson's Geographical Dissertation, p. Vi. ) The gates werethirty-five parasangs, or leagues, from Tarsus, (Anabasis, l. I. P. 33, 34, ) and eight or ten from Antioch. Compare Itinerar. Wesseling, p. 580, 581. Schultens, Index Geograph. Ad calcem Vit. Saladin. P. 9. Voyage enTurquie et en Perse, par M. Otter, tom. I. P. 78, 79. ]

[Footnote 80: Heraclius might write to a friend in the modest words ofCicero: "Castra habuimus ea ipsa quae contra Darium habuerat apud IssumAlexander, imperator haud paulo melior quam aut tu aut ego. " Ad Atticum, v. 20. Issus, a rich and flourishing city in the time of Xenophon, wasruined by the prosperity of Alexandria or Scanderoon, on the other sideof the bay. ]

[Footnote 81: Foggini (Annotat. P. 31) suspects that the Persians weredeceived by the of Aelian, (Tactic. C. 48, ) an intricate spiral motionof the army. He observes (p. 28) that the military descriptions ofGeorge of Pisidia are transcribed in the Tactics of the emperor Leo. ]

[Footnote 82: George of Pisidia, an eye-witness, (Acroas. Ii. 122, &c. , ) described in three acroaseis, or cantos, the first expedition ofHeraclius. The poem has been lately (1777) published at Rome; but suchvague and declamatory praise is far from corresponding with the sanguinehopes of Pagi, D'Anville, &c. ]

Since the days of Scipio and Hannibal, no bolder enterprise has beenattempted than that which Heraclius achieved for the deliverance ofthe empire [83] He permitted the Persians to oppress for a while theprovinces, and to insult with impunity the capital of the East; whilethe Roman emperor explored his perilous way through the Black Sea, [84]and the mountains of Armenia, penetrated into the heart of Persia, [85] and recalled the armies of the great king to the defence oftheir bleeding country. With a select band of five thousand soldiers, Heraclius sailed from Constantinople to Trebizond; assembled his forceswhich had wintered in the Pontic regions; and, from the mouth of thePhasis to the Caspian Sea, encouraged his subjects and allies to marchwith the successor of Constantine under the faithful and victoriousbanner of the cross. When the legions of Lucullus and Pompey firstpassed the Euphrates, they blushed at their easy victory over thenatives of Armenia. But the long experience of war had hardened theminds and bodies of that effeminate peeple; their zeal and bravery wereapproved in the service of a declining empire; they abhorred and fearedthe usurpation of the house of Sassan, and the memory of persecutionenvenomed their pious hatred of the enemies of Christ. The limits ofArmenia, as it had been ceded to the emperor Maurice, extended as far asthe Araxes: the river submitted to the indignity of a bridge, [86] andHeraclius, in the footsteps of Mark Antony, advanced towards the cityof Tauris or Gandzaca, [87] the ancient and modern capital of one of theprovinces of Media. At the head of forty thousand men, Chosroes himselfhad returned from some distant expedition to oppose the progress of theRoman arms; but he retreated on the approach of Heraclius, declining thegenerous alternative of peace or of battle. Instead of half a million ofinhabitants, which have been ascribed to Tauris under the reign of theSophys, the city contained no more than three thousand houses; but thevalue of the royal treasures was enhanced by a tradition, that theywere the spoils of Croesus, which had been transported by Cyrus from thecitadel of Sardes. The rapid conquests of Heraclius were suspendedonly by the winter season; a motive of prudence, or superstition, [88]determined his retreat into the province of Albania, along the shores ofthe Caspian; and his tents were most probably pitched in the plains ofMogan, [89] the favorite encampment of Oriental princes. In the courseof this successful inroad, he signalized the zeal and revenge of aChristian emperor: at his command, the soldiers extinguished the fire, and destroyed the temples, of the Magi; the statues of Chosroes, whoaspired to divine honors, were abandoned to the flames; and the ruins ofThebarma or Ormia, [90] which had given birth to Zoroaster himself, madesome atonement for the injuries of the holy sepulchre. A purer spiritof religion was shown in the relief and deliverance of fiftythousand captives. Heraclius was rewarded by their tears and gratefulacclamations; but this wise measure, which spread the fame of hisbenevolence, diffused the murmurs of the Persians against the prideand obstinacy of their own sovereign. [Footnote 83: Theophanes (p. 256)carries Heraclius swiftly into Armenia. Nicephorus, (p. 11, ) though heconfounds the two expeditions, defines the province of Lazica. Eutychius(Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 231) has given the 5000 men, with the more probablestation of Trebizond. ]

[Footnote 84: From Constantinople to Trebizond, with a fair wind, four or five days; from thence to Erzerom, five; to Erivan, twelve; toTaurus, ten; in all, thirty-two. Such is the Itinerary of Tavernier, (Voyages, tom. I. P. 12--56, ) who was perfectly conversant with theroads of Asia. Tournefort, who travelled with a pacha, spent ten ortwelve days between Trebizond and Erzerom, (Voyage du Levant, tom. Iii. Lettre xviii. ;) and Chardin (Voyages, tom. I. P. 249--254) gives themore correct distance of fifty-three parasangs, each of 5000 paces, (what paces?) between Erivan and Tauris. ]

[Footnote 85: The expedition of Heraclius into Persia is finelyillustrated by M. D'Anville, (Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. Xxviii. P. 559--573. ) He discovers the situation of Gandzaca, Thebarma, Dastagerd, &c. , with admirable skill and learning; but theobscure campaign of 624 he passes over in silence. ]

[Footnote 86: Et pontem indignatus Araxes. --Virgil, Aeneid, viii. 728. The River Araxes is noisy, rapid, vehement, and, with the melting of thesnows, irresistible: the strongest and most massy bridges are swept awayby the current; and its indignation is attested by the ruins of manyarches near the old town of Zulfa. Voyages de Chardin, tom. I. P. 252. ]

[Footnote 87: Chardin, tom. I. P. 255--259. With the Orientals, (D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. P. 834, ) he ascribes the foundation ofTauris, or Tebris, to Zobeide, the wife of the famous Khalif HarounAlrashid; but it appears to have been more ancient; and the names ofGandzaca, Gazaca, Gaza, are expressive of the royal treasure. The numberof 550, 000 inhabitants is reduced by Chardin from 1, 100, 000, the popularestimate. ]

[Footnote 88: He opened the gospel, and applied or interpreted the firstcasual passage to the name and situation of Albania. Theophanes, p. 258. ]

[Footnote 89: The heath of Mogan, between the Cyrus and the Araxes, issixty parasangs in length and twenty in breadth, (Olearius, p. 1023, 1024, ) abounding in waters and fruitful pastures, (Hist. De Nadir Shah, translated by Mr. Jones from a Persian Ms. , part ii. P. 2, 3. ) See theencampments of Timur, (Hist. Par Sherefeddin Ali, l. V. C. 37, l. Vi. C. 13, ) and the coronation of Nadir Shah, (Hist. Persanne, p. 3--13 and theEnglish Life by Mr. Jones, p. 64, 65. )]

[Footnote 90: Thebarma and Ormia, near the Lake Spauta, are proved tobe the same city by D'Anville, (Memoires de l'Academie, tom. Xxviii. P. 564, 565. ) It is honored as the birthplace of Zoroaster, according tothe Persians, (Schultens, Index Geograph. P. 48;) and their tradition isfortified by M. Perron d'Anquetil, (Mem. De l'Acad. Des Inscript. Tom. Xxxi. P. 375, ) with some texts from his, or their, Zendavesta. * Note:D'Anville (Mem. De l'Acad. Des Inscript. Tom. Xxxii. P. 560) labored toprove the identity of these two cities; but according to M. St. Martin, vol. Xi. P. 97, not with perfect success. Ourmiah. Called Ariema in theancient Pehlvi books, is considered, both by the followers of Zoroasterand by the Mahometans, as his birthplace. It is situated in the southernpart of Aderbidjan. --M. ]

Chapter XLVI: Troubles In Persia. --Part IV. 

Amidst the glories of the succeeding campaign, Heraclius is almost lostto our eyes, and to those of the Byzantine historians. [91] From thespacious and fruitful plains of Albania, the emperor appears to followthe chain of Hyrcanian Mountains, to descend into the province of Mediaor Irak, and to carry his victorious arms as far as the royal citiesof Casbin and Ispahan, which had never been approached by a Romanconqueror. Alarmed by the danger of his kingdom, the powers of Chosroeswere already recalled from the Nile and the Bosphorus, and threeformidable armies surrounded, in a distant and hostile land, the campof the emperor. The Colchian allies prepared to desert his standard; andthe fears of the bravest veterans were expressed, rather than concealed, by their desponding silence. "Be not terrified, " said the intrepidHeraclius, "by the multitude of your foes. With the aid of Heaven, oneRoman may triumph over a thousand Barbarians. But if we devote ourlives for the salvation of our brethren, we shall obtain the crown ofmartyrdom, and our immortal reward will be liberally paid by God andposterity. " These magnanimous sentiments were supported by the vigor ofhis actions. He repelled the threefold attack of the Persians, improvedthe divisions of their chiefs, and, by a well-concerted train ofmarches, retreats, and successful actions, finally chased them from thefield into the fortified cities of Media and Assyria. In the severityof the winter season, Sarbaraza deemed himself secure in the walls ofSalban: he was surprised by the activity of Heraclius, who divided histroops, and performed a laborious march in the silence of the night. Theflat roofs of the houses were defended with useless valor against thedarts and torches of the Romans: the satraps and nobles of Persia, withtheir wives and children, and the flower of their martial youth, wereeither slain or made prisoners. The general escaped by a precipitateflight, but his golden armor was the prize of the conqueror; and thesoldiers of Heraclius enjoyed the wealth and repose which they had sonobly deserved. On the return of spring, the emperor traversed in sevendays the mountains of Curdistan, and passed without resistance therapid stream of the Tigris. Oppressed by the weight of their spoils andcaptives, the Roman army halted under the walls of Amida; and Heracliusinformed the senate of Constantinople of his safety and success, whichthey had already felt by the retreat of the besiegers. The bridges ofthe Euphrates were destroyed by the Persians; but as soon as the emperorhad discovered a ford, they hastily retired to defend the banks of theSarus, [92] in Cilicia. That river, an impetuous torrent, was aboutthree hundred feet broad; the bridge was fortified with strong turrets;and the banks were lined with Barbarian archers. After a bloodyconflict, which continued till the evening, the Romans prevailed in theassault; and a Persian of gigantic size was slain and thrown into theSarus by the hand of the emperor himself. The enemies were dispersed anddismayed; Heraclius pursued his march to Sebaste in Cappadocia; and atthe expiration of three years, the same coast of the Euxine applaudedhis return from a long and victorious expedition. [93]

[Footnote 91: I cannot find, and (what is much more, ) M. D'Anville doesnot attempt to seek, the Salban, Tarantum, territory of the Huns, &c. , mentioned by Theophanes, (p. 260-262. ) Eutychius, (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 231, 232, ) an insufficient author, names Asphahan; and Casbin is mostprobably the city of Sapor. Ispahan is twenty-four days' journey fromTauris, and Casbin half way between, them (Voyages de Tavernier, tom. I. P. 63--82. )]

[Footnote 92: At ten parasangs from Tarsus, the army of the youngerCyrus passed the Sarus, three plethra in breadth: the Pyramus, a stadiumin breadth, ran five parasangs farther to the east, (Xenophon, Anabas. L. I. P 33, 34. ) Note: Now the Sihan. --M. ]

[Footnote 93: George of Pisidia (Bell. Abaricum, 246--265, p. 49)celebrates with truth the persevering courage of the three campaignsagainst the Persians. ]

Instead of skirmishing on the frontier, the two monarchs who disputedthe empire of the East aimed their desperate strokes at the heart oftheir rival. The military force of Persia was wasted by the marches andcombats of twenty years, and many of the veterans, who had survivedthe perils of the sword and the climate, were still detained in thefortresses of Egypt and Syria. But the revenge and ambition of Chosroesexhausted his kingdom; and the new levies of subjects, strangers, andslaves, were divided into three formidable bodies. [94] The first armyof fifty thousand men, illustrious by the ornament and title of thegolden spears, was destined to march against Heraclius; the secondwas stationed to prevent his junction with the troops of his brotherTheodorus; and the third was commanded to besiege Constantinople, andto second the operations of the chagan, with whom the Persian king hadratified a treaty of alliance and partition. Sarbar, the general of thethird army, penetrated through the provinces of Asia to the well-knowncamp of Chalcedon, and amused himself with the destruction of the sacredand profane buildings of the Asiatic suburbs, while he impatientlywaited the arrival of his Scythian friends on the opposite side of theBosphorus. On the twenty-ninth of June, thirty thousand Barbarians, thevanguard of the Avars, forced the long wall, and drove into the capitala promiscuous crowd of peasants, citizens, and soldiers. Fourscorethousand [95] of his native subjects, and of the vassal tribes ofGepidae, Russians, Bulgarians, and Sclavonians, advanced under thestandard of the chagan; a month was spent in marches and negotiations, but the whole city was invested on the thirty-first of July, from thesuburbs of Pera and Galata to the Blachernae and seven towers; and theinhabitants descried with terror the flaming signals of the Europeanand Asiatic shores. In the mean while, the magistrates of Constantinoplerepeatedly strove to purchase the retreat of the chagan; but theirdeputies were rejected and insulted; and he suffered the patricians tostand before his throne, while the Persian envoys, in silk robes, wereseated by his side. "You see, " said the haughty Barbarian, "the proofsof my perfect union with the great king; and his lieutenant is ready tosend into my camp a select band of three thousand warriors. Presume nolonger to tempt your master with a partial and inadequate ransom yourwealth and your city are the only presents worthy of my acceptance. Foryourselves, I shall permit you to depart, each with an under-garment anda shirt; and, at my entreaty, my friend Sarbar will not refuse a passagethrough his lines. Your absent prince, even now a captive or a fugitive, has left Constantinople to its fate; nor can you escape the arms ofthe Avars and Persians, unless you could soar into the air like birds, unless like fishes you could dive into the waves. " [96] During tensuccessive days, the capital was assaulted by the Avars, who had madesome progress in the science of attack; they advanced to sap or batterthe wall, under the cover of the impenetrable tortoise; their enginesdischarged a perpetual volley of stones and darts; and twelve loftytowers of wood exalted the combatants to the height of the neighboringramparts. 

But the senate and people were animated by the spirit of Heraclius, whohad detached to their relief a body of twelve thousand cuirassiers; thepowers of fire and mechanics were used with superior art and success inthe defence of Constantinople; and the galleys, with two and three ranksof oars, commanded the Bosphorus, and rendered the Persians the idlespectators of the defeat of their allies. The Avars were repulsed; afleet of Sclavonian canoes was destroyed in the harbor; the vassalsof the chagan threatened to desert, his provisions were exhausted, andafter burning his engines, he gave the signal of a slow and formidableretreat. The devotion of the Romans ascribed this signal deliverance tothe Virgin Mary; but the mother of Christ would surely have condemnedtheir inhuman murder of the Persian envoys, who were entitled to therights of humanity, if they were not protected by the laws of nations. [97]

[Footnote 94: Petavius (Annotationes ad Nicephorum, p. 62, 63, 64)discriminates the names and actions of five Persian generals who weresuccessively sent against Heraclius. ]

[Footnote 95: This number of eight myriads is specified by George ofPisidia, (Bell. Abar. 219. ) The poet (50--88) clearly indicates thatthe old chagan lived till the reign of Heraclius, and that his son andsuccessor was born of a foreign mother. Yet Foggini (Annotat. P. 57) hasgiven another interpretation to this passage. ]

[Footnote 96: A bird, a frog, a mouse, and five arrows, had been thepresent of the Scythian king to Darius, (Herodot. L. Iv. C. 131, 132. )Substituez une lettre a ces signes (says Rousseau, with much goodtaste) plus elle sera menacante moins elle effrayera; ce ne sera qu'unefanfarronade dont Darius n'eut fait que rire, (Emile, tom. Iii. P. 146. )Yet I much question whether the senate and people of Constantinoplelaughed at this message of the chagan. ]

[Footnote 97: The Paschal Chronicle (p. 392--397) gives a minute andauthentic narrative of the siege and deliverance of ConstantinopleTheophanes (p. 264) adds some circumstances; and a faint light may beobtained from the smoke of George of Pisidia, who has composed a poem(de Bello Abarico, p. 45--54) to commemorate this auspicious event. ]

After the division of his army, Heraclius prudently retired to the banksof the Phasis, from whence he maintained a defensive war against thefifty thousand gold spears of Persia. His anxiety was relieved by thedeliverance of Constantinople; his hopes were confirmed by a victory ofhis brother Theodorus; and to the hostile league of Chosroes with theAvars, the Roman emperor opposed the useful and honorable allianceof the Turks. At his liberal invitation, the horde of Chozars [98]transported their tents from the plains of the Volga to the mountains ofGeorgia; Heraclius received them in the neighborhood of Teflis, and thekhan with his nobles dismounted from their horses, if we may credit theGreeks, and fell prostrate on the ground, to adore the purple of theCaesars. Such voluntary homage and important aid were entitled to thewarmest acknowledgments; and the emperor, taking off his own diadem, placed it on the head of the Turkish prince, whom he saluted with atender embrace and the appellation of son. After a sumptuous banquet, hepresented Ziebel with the plate and ornaments, the gold, the gems, andthe silk, which had been used at the Imperial table, and, with his ownhand, distributed rich jewels and ear-rings to his new allies. In asecret interview, he produced the portrait of his daughter Eudocia, [99]condescended to flatter the Barbarian with the promise of a fair andaugust bride; obtained an immediate succor of forty thousand horse, andnegotiated a strong diversion of the Turkish arms on the side of theOxus. [100] The Persians, in their turn, retreated with precipitation;in the camp of Edessa, Heraclius reviewed an army of seventy thousandRomans and strangers; and some months were successfully employed inthe recovery of the cities of Syria, Mesopotamia and Armenia, whosefortifications had been imperfectly restored. Sarbar still maintainedthe important station of Chalcedon; but the jealousy of Chosroes, or theartifice of Heraclius, soon alienated the mind of that powerful satrapfrom the service of his king and country. A messenger was interceptedwith a real or fictitious mandate to the cadarigan, or second incommand, directing him to send, without delay, to the throne, the headof a guilty or unfortunate general. The despatches were transmitted toSarbar himself; and as soon as he read the sentence of his own death, he dexterously inserted the names of four hundred officers, assembleda military council, and asked the cadarigan whether he was prepared toexecute the commands of their tyrant. The Persians unanimously declared, that Chosroes had forfeited the sceptre; a separate treaty was concludedwith the government of Constantinople; and if some considerationsof honor or policy restrained Sarbar from joining the standard ofHeraclius, the emperor was assured that he might prosecute, withoutinterruption, his designs of victory and peace. 

[Footnote 98: The power of the Chozars prevailed in the viith, viiith, and ixth centuries. They were known to the Greeks, the Arabs, and underthe name of Kosa, to the Chinese themselves. De Guignes, Hist. Des Huns, tom. Ii. Part ii. P. 507--509. * Note: Moses of Chorene speaks of aninvasion of Armenia by the Khazars in the second century, l. Ii. C. 62. M. St. Martin suspects them to be the same with the Hunnish nationof the Acatires or Agazzires. They are called by the Greek historiansEastern Turks; like the Madjars and other Hunnish or Finnish tribes, they had probably received some admixture from the genuine Turkishraces. Ibn. Hankal (Oriental Geography) says that their language waslike the Bulgarian, and considers them a people of Finnish or Hunnishrace. Klaproth, Tabl. Hist. P. 268-273. Abel Remusat, Rech. Sur lesLangues Tartares, tom. I. P. 315, 316. St. Martin, vol. Xi. P. 115. --M]

[Footnote 99: Epiphania, or Eudocia, the only daughter of Heraclius andhis first wife Eudocia, was born at Constantinople on the 7th of July, A. D. 611, baptized the 15th of August, and crowned (in the oratory ofSt. Stephen in the palace) the 4th of October of the same year. At thistime she was about fifteen. Eudocia was afterwards sent to her Turkishhusband, but the news of his death stopped her journey, and preventedthe consummation, (Ducange, Familiae Byzantin. P. 118. )]

[Footnote 100: Elmcain (Hist. Saracen. P. 13--16) gives some curiousand probable facts; but his numbers are rather too high--300, 000 Romansassembled at Edessa--500, 000 Persians killed at Nineveh. The abatementof a cipher is scarcely enough to restore his sanity]

Deprived of his firmest support, and doubtful of the fidelity of hissubjects, the greatness of Chosroes was still conspicuous in its ruins. The number of five hundred thousand may be interpreted as an Orientalmetaphor, to describe the men and arms, the horses and elephants, thatcovered Media and Assyria against the invasion of Heraclius. Yet theRomans boldly advanced from the Araxes to the Tigris, and the timidprudence of Rhazates was content to follow them by forced marchesthrough a desolate country, till he received a peremptory mandate torisk the fate of Persia in a decisive battle. Eastward of the Tigris, at the end of the bridge of Mosul, the great Nineveh had formerly beenerected: [101] the city, and even the ruins of the city, had long sincedisappeared; [102] the vacant space afforded a spacious field for theoperations of the two armies. But these operations are neglected by theByzantine historians, and, like the authors of epic poetry and romance, they ascribe the victory, not to the military conduct, but to thepersonal valor, of their favorite hero. On this memorable day, Heraclius, on his horse Phallas, surpassed the bravest of his warriors:his lip was pierced with a spear; the steed was wounded in the thigh;but he carried his master safe and victorious through the triple phalanxof the Barbarians. In the heat of the action, three valiant chiefs weresuccessively slain by the sword and lance of the emperor: among thesewas Rhazates himself; he fell like a soldier, but the sight of his headscattered grief and despair through the fainting ranks of the Persians. His armor of pure and massy gold, the shield of one hundred and twentyplates, the sword and belt, the saddle and cuirass, adorned the triumphof Heraclius; and if he had not been faithful to Christ and his mother, the champion of Rome might have offered the fourth opime spoils tothe Jupiter of the Capitol. [103] In the battle of Nineveh, whichwas fiercely fought from daybreak to the eleventh hour, twenty-eightstandards, besides those which might be broken or torn, were taken fromthe Persians; the greatest part of their army was cut in pieces, and thevictors, concealing their own loss, passed the night on the field. Theyacknowledged, that on this occasion it was less difficult to killthan to discomfit the soldiers of Chosroes; amidst the bodies of theirfriends, no more than two bow-shot from the enemy the remnant of thePersian cavalry stood firm till the seventh hour of the night; aboutthe eighth hour they retired to their unrifled camp, collected theirbaggage, and dispersed on all sides, from the want of orders rather thanof resolution. The diligence of Heraclius was not less admirable inthe use of victory; by a march of forty-eight miles in four-and-twentyhours, his vanguard occupied the bridges of the great and the lesserZab; and the cities and palaces of Assyria were open for the firsttime to the Romans. By a just gradation of magnificent scenes, theypenetrated to the royal seat of Dastagerd, [1031] and, though much ofthe treasure had been removed, and much had been expended, the remainingwealth appears to have exceeded their hopes, and even to have satiatedtheir avarice. Whatever could not be easily transported, they consumedwith fire, that Chosroes might feel the anguish of those wounds which hehad so often inflicted on the provinces of the empire: and justice mightallow the excuse, if the desolation had been confined to the works ofregal luxury, if national hatred, military license, and religious zeal, had not wasted with equal rage the habitations and the temples of theguiltless subject. The recovery of three hundred Roman standards, andthe deliverance of the numerous captives of Edessa and Alexandria, reflect a purer glory on the arms of Heraclius. From the palaceof Dastagerd, he pursued his march within a few miles of Modain orCtesiphon, till he was stopped, on the banks of the Arba, by thedifficulty of the passage, the rigor of the season, and perhaps the fameof an impregnable capital. The return of the emperor is marked by themodern name of the city of Sherhzour: he fortunately passed MountZara, before the snow, which fell incessantly thirty-four days; and thecitizens of Gandzca, or Tauris, were compelled to entertain the soldiersand their horses with a hospitable reception. [104]

[Footnote 101: Ctesias (apud Didor. Sicul. Tom. I. L. Ii. P. 115, edit. Wesseling) assigns 480 stadia (perhaps only 32 miles) for thecircumference of Nineveh. Jonas talks of three days' journey: the120, 000 persons described by the prophet as incapable of discerningtheir right hand from their left, may afford about 700, 000 persons ofall ages for the inhabitants of that ancient capital, (Goguet, Originesdes Loix, &c. , tom. Iii. Part i. P. 92, 93, ) which ceased to exist600 years before Christ. The western suburb still subsisted, and ismentioned under the name of Mosul in the first age of the Arabiankhalifs. ]

[Footnote 102: Niebuhr (Voyage en Arabie, &c. , tom. Ii. P. 286) passedover Nineveh without perceiving it. He mistook for a ridge of hills theold rampart of brick or earth. It is said to have been 100 feet high, flanked with 1500 towers, each of the height of 200 feet. ]

[Footnote 103: Rex regia arma fero (says Romulus, in the firstconsecration). .. . Bina postea (continues Livy, i. 10) inter tot bella, opima parta sunt spolia, adeo rara ejus fortuna decoris. If Varro (apudPomp Festum, p. 306, edit. Dacier) could justify his liberality ingranting the opime spoils even to a common soldier who had slain theking or general of the enemy, the honor would have been much more cheapand common]

[Footnote 1031: Macdonald Kinneir places Dastagerd at Kasr e Shirin, the palace of Sira on the banks of the Diala between Holwan and Kanabee. Kinnets Geograph. Mem. P. 306. --M. ]

[Footnote 104: In describing this last expedition of Heraclius, thefacts, the places, and the dates of Theophanes (p. 265--271) are soaccurate and authentic, that he must have followed the original lettersof the emperor, of which the Paschal Chronicle has preserved (p. 398--402) a very curious specimen. ]

When the ambition of Chosroes was reduced to the defence of hishereditary kingdom, the love of glory, or even the sense of shame, should have urged him to meet his rival in the field. In the battle ofNineveh, his courage might have taught the Persians to vanquish, orhe might have fallen with honor by the lance of a Roman emperor. Thesuccessor of Cyrus chose rather, at a secure distance, to expect theevent, to assemble the relics of the defeat, and to retire, by measuredsteps, before the march of Heraclius, till he beheld with a sigh theonce loved mansions of Dastagerd. Both his friends and enemies werepersuaded, that it was the intention of Chosroes to bury himself underthe ruins of the city and palace: and as both might have been equallyadverse to his flight, the monarch of Asia, with Sira, [1041] and threeconcubines, escaped through a hole in the wall nine days before thearrival of the Romans. The slow and stately procession in which heshowed himself to the prostrate crowd, was changed to a rapid and secretjourney; and the first evening he lodged in the cottage of a peasant, whose humble door would scarcely give admittance to the great king. [105] His superstition was subdued by fear: on the third day, he enteredwith joy the fortifications of Ctesiphon; yet he still doubted ofhis safety till he had opposed the River Tigris to the pursuit of theRomans. The discovery of his flight agitated with terror and tumultthe palace, the city, and the camp of Dastagerd: the satraps hesitatedwhether they had most to fear from their sovereign or the enemy; andthe females of the harem were astonished and pleased by the sight ofmankind, till the jealous husband of three thousand wives again confinedthem to a more distant castle. At his command, the army of Dastagerdretreated to a new camp: the front was covered by the Arba, and a lineof two hundred elephants; the troops of the more distant provincessuccessively arrived, and the vilest domestics of the king and satrapswere enrolled for the last defence of the throne. It was still in thepower of Chosroes to obtain a reasonable peace; and he was repeatedlypressed by the messengers of Heraclius to spare the blood of hissubjects, and to relieve a humane conqueror from the painful duty ofcarrying fire and sword through the fairest countries of Asia. But thepride of the Persian had not yet sunk to the level of his fortune; hederived a momentary confidence from the retreat of the emperor; hewept with impotent rage over the ruins of his Assyrian palaces, anddisregarded too long the rising murmurs of the nation, who complainedthat their lives and fortunes were sacrificed to the obstinacy of an oldman. That unhappy old man was himself tortured with the sharpest painsboth of mind and body; and, in the consciousness of his approaching end, he resolved to fix the tiara on the head of Merdaza, the most favoredof his sons. But the will of Chosroes was no longer revered, andSiroes, [1051] who gloried in the rank and merit of his mother Sira, hadconspired with the malecontents to assert and anticipate the rightsof primogeniture. [106] Twenty-two satraps (they styled themselvespatriots) were tempted by the wealth and honors of a new reign: tothe soldiers, the heir of Chosroes promised an increase of pay; tothe Christians, the free exercise of their religion; to the captives, liberty and rewards; and to the nation, instant peace and the reductionof taxes. It was determined by the conspirators, that Siroes, with theensigns of royalty, should appear in the camp; and if the enterpriseshould fail, his escape was contrived to the Imperial court. But the newmonarch was saluted with unanimous acclamations; the flight of Chosroes(yet where could he have fled?) was rudely arrested, eighteen sons weremassacred [1061] before his face, and he was thrown into a dungeon, where he expired on the fifth day. The Greeks and modern Persiansminutely describe how Chosroes was insulted, and famished, and tortured, by the command of an inhuman son, who so far surpassed the example ofhis father: but at the time of his death, what tongue would relatethe story of the parricide? what eye could penetrate into the tower ofdarkness? According to the faith and mercy of his Christian enemies, hesunk without hope into a still deeper abyss; [107] and it will not bedenied, that tyrants of every age and sect are the best entitled to suchinfernal abodes. The glory of the house of Sassan ended with the life ofChosroes: his unnatural son enjoyed only eight months the fruit of hiscrimes: and in the space of four years, the regal title was assumed bynine candidates, who disputed, with the sword or dagger, the fragmentsof an exhausted monarchy. Every province, and each city of Persia, wasthe scene of independence, of discord, and of blood; and the state ofanarchy prevailed about eight years longer, [1071] till the factionswere silenced and united under the common yoke of the Arabian caliphs. [108]

[Footnote 1041: The Schirin of Persian poetry. The love of Chosru andSchirin rivals in Persian romance that of Joseph with Zuleika the wifeof Potiphar, of Solomon with the queen of Sheba, and that of Mejnoun andLeila. The number of Persian poems on the subject may be seen in M. VonHammer's preface to his poem of Schirin. --M]

[Footnote 105: The words of Theophanes are remarkable. Young princes whodiscover a propensity to war should repeatedly transcribe and translatesuch salutary texts. ]

[Footnote 1051: His name was Kabad (as appears from an official letterin the Paschal Chronicle, p. 402. ) St. Martin considers the name Siroes, Schirquieh of Schirwey, derived from the word schir, royal. St. Martin, xi. 153. --M. ]

[Footnote 106: The authentic narrative of the fall of Chosroes iscontained in the letter of Heraclius (Chron. Paschal. P. 398) and thehistory of Theophanes, (p. 271. )]

[Footnote 1061: According to Le Beau, this massacre was perpetratedat Mahuza in Babylonia, not in the presence of Chosroes. The Syrianhistorian, Thomas of Maraga, gives Chosroes twenty-four sons; Mirkhond, (translated by De Sacy, ) fifteen; the inedited Modjmel-alte-warikh, agreeing with Gibbon, eighteen, with their names. Le Beau and St. Martin, xi. 146. --M. ]

[Footnote 107: On the first rumor of the death of Chosroes, an Heracliadin two cantos was instantly published at Constantinople by George ofPisidia, (p. 97--105. ) A priest and a poet might very properly exult inthe damnation of the public enemy but such mean revenge is unworthy of aking and a conqueror; and I am sorry to find so much black superstitionin the letter of Heraclius: he almost applauds the parricide of Siroesas an act of piety and justice. * Note: The Mahometans show no morecharity towards the memory of Chosroes or Khoosroo Purveez. All hisreverses are ascribed to the just indignation of God, upon a monarch whohad dared, with impious and accursed hands, to tear the letter of theHoly Prophet Mahomed. Compare note, p. 231. --M. ]

[Footnote 1071: Yet Gibbon himself places the flight and death ofYesdegird Ill. , the last king of Persia, in 651. The famous era ofYesdegird dates from his accession, June 16 632. --M. ]

[Footnote 108: The best Oriental accounts of this last period of theSassanian kings are found in Eutychius, (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 251--256, )who dissembles the parricide of Siroes, D'Herbelot (BibliothequeOrientale, p. 789, ) and Assemanni, (Bibliothec. Oriental. Tom. Iii. P. 415--420. )]

As soon as the mountains became passable, the emperor received thewelcome news of the success of the conspiracy, the death of Chosroes, and the elevation of his eldest son to the throne of Persia. The authorsof the revolution, eager to display their merits in the court or camp ofTauris, preceded the ambassadors of Siroes, who delivered the lettersof their master to his brother the emperor of the Romans. [109] In thelanguage of the usurpers of every age, he imputes his own crimes to theDeity, and, without degrading his equal majesty, he offers to reconcilethe long discord of the two nations, by a treaty of peace and alliancemore durable than brass or iron. The conditions of the treaty wereeasily defined and faithfully executed. In the recovery of the standardsand prisoners which had fallen into the hands of the Persians, theemperor imitated the example of Augustus: their care of the nationaldignity was celebrated by the poets of the times, but the decay ofgenius may be measured by the distance between Horace and George ofPisidia: the subjects and brethren of Heraclius were redeemed frompersecution, slavery, and exile; but, instead of the Roman eagles, thetrue wood of the holy cross was restored to the importunate demands ofthe successor of Constantine. The victor was not ambitious of enlargingthe weakness of the empire; the son of Chosroes abandoned without regretthe conquests of his father; the Persians who evacuated the cities ofSyria and Egypt were honorably conducted to the frontier, and a warwhich had wounded the vitals of the two monarchies, produced no changein their external and relative situation. The return of Heraclius fromTauris to Constantinople was a perpetual triumph; and after the exploitsof six glorious campaigns, he peaceably enjoyed the Sabbath of histoils. After a long impatience, the senate, the clergy, and the people, went forth to meet their hero, with tears and acclamations, with olivebranches and innumerable lamps; he entered the capital in a chariotdrawn by four elephants; and as soon as the emperor could disengagehimself from the tumult of public joy, he tasted more genuinesatisfaction in the embraces of his mother and his son. [110]

[Footnote 109: The letter of Siroes in the Paschal Chronicle (p. 402)unfortunately ends before he proceeds to business. The treaty appears inits execution in the histories of Theophanes and Nicephorus. * Note: M. Mai. Script. Vet. Nova Collectio, vol. I. P. 2, p. 223, has added somelines, but no clear sense can be made out of the fragment. --M. ]

[Footnote 110: The burden of Corneille's song, "Montrez Heraclius aupeuple qui l'attend, " is much better suited to the present occasion. Seehis triumph in Theophanes (p. 272, 273) and Nicephorus, (p. 15, 16. ) Thelife of the mother and tenderness of the son are attested by George ofPisidia, (Bell. Abar. 255, &c. , p. 49. ) The metaphor of the Sabbath isused somewhat profanely by these Byzantine Christians. ]

The succeeding year was illustrated by a triumph of a very differentkind, the restitution of the true cross to the holy sepulchre. Heracliusperformed in person the pilgrimage of Jerusalem, the identity of therelic was verified by the discreet patriarch, [111] and this augustceremony has been commemorated by the annual festival of the exaltationof the cross. Before the emperor presumed to tread the consecratedground, he was instructed to strip himself of the diadem and purple, the pomp and vanity of the world: but in the judgment of his clergy, thepersecution of the Jews was more easily reconciled with the preceptsof the gospel. [1111] He again ascended his throne to receive thecongratulations of the ambassadors of France and India: and the fameof Moses, Alexander, and Hercules, [112] was eclipsed in the popularestimation, by the superior merit and glory of the great Heraclius. Yet the deliverer of the East was indigent and feeble. Of the Persianspoils, the most valuable portion had been expended in the war, distributed to the soldiers, or buried, by an unlucky tempest, in thewaves of the Euxine. The conscience of the emperor was oppressed by theobligation of restoring the wealth of the clergy, which he had borrowedfor their own defence: a perpetual fund was required to satisfy theseinexorable creditors; the provinces, already wasted by the arms andavarice of the Persians, were compelled to a second payment of the sametaxes; and the arrears of a simple citizen, the treasurer of Damascus, were commuted to a fine of one hundred thousand pieces of gold. The lossof two hundred thousand soldiers [113] who had fallen by the sword, was of less fatal importance than the decay of arts, agriculture, andpopulation, in this long and destructive war: and although a victoriousarmy had been formed under the standard of Heraclius, the unnaturaleffort appears to have exhausted rather than exercised their strength. While the emperor triumphed at Constantinople or Jerusalem, an obscuretown on the confines of Syria was pillaged by the Saracens, and theycut in pieces some troops who advanced to its relief; an ordinary andtrifling occurrence, had it not been the prelude of a mighty revolution. These robbers were the apostles of Mahomet; their fanatic valor hademerged from the desert; and in the last eight years of his reign, Heraclius lost to the Arabs the same provinces which he had rescued fromthe Persians. 

[Footnote 111: See Baronius, (Annal. Eccles. A. D. 628, No. 1-4, )Eutychius, (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 240--248, ) Nicephorus, (Brev. P. 15. ) Theseals of the case had never been broken; and this preservation of thecross is ascribed (under God) to the devotion of Queen Sira. ]

[Footnote 1111: If the clergy imposed upon the kneeling and penitentemperor the persecution of the Jews, it must be acknowledge thatprovocation was not wanting; for how many of them had been eye-witnessesof, perhaps sufferers in, the horrible atrocities committed onthe capture of the city! Yet we have no authentic account of greatseverities exercised by Heraclius. The law of Hadrian was reenacted, which prohibited the Jews from approaching within three miles of thecity--a law, which, in the present exasperated state of the Christians, might be a measure of security of mercy, rather than of oppression. Milman, Hist. Of the Jews, iii. 242. --M. ]

[Footnote 112: George of Pisidia, Acroas. Iii. De Expedit. ContraPersas, 415, &c. , and Heracleid. Acroas. I. 65--138. I neglect themeaner parallels of Daniel, Timotheus, &c. ; Chosroes and the chagan wereof course compared to Belshazzar, Pharaoh, the old serpent, &c. ]

[Footnote 13: Suidas (in Excerpt. Hist. Byzant. P. 46) gives thisnumber; but either the Persian must be read for the Isaurian war, orthis passage does not belong to the emperor Heraclius. ]

Chapter XLVII: Ecclesiastical Discord. --Part I. 

 Theological History Of The Doctrine Of The Incarnation. --The Human And Divine Nature Of Christ. --Enmity Of The Patriarchs Of Alexandria And Constantinople. --St. Cyril And Nestorius. --Third General Council Of Ephesus. --Heresy Of Eutyches. -- Fourth General Council Of Chalcedon. --Civil And Ecclesiastical Discord. --Intolerance Of Justinian. --The Three Chapters. --The Monothelite Controversy. --State Of The Oriental Sects:--I. The Nestorians. --II. The Jacobites. -- III. The Maronites. --IV. The Armenians. --V. The Copts And Abyssinians. 

After the extinction of paganism, the Christians in peace and pietymight have enjoyed their solitary triumph. But the principle of discordwas alive in their bosom, and they were more solicitous to explore thenature, than to practice the laws, of their founder. I have alreadyobserved, that the disputes of the Trinity were succeeded by those ofthe Incarnation; alike scandalous to the church, alike pernicious to thestate, still more minute in their origin, still more durable in theireffects. 

It is my design to comprise in the present chapter a religious warof two hundred and fifty years, to represent the ecclesiastical andpolitical schism of the Oriental sects, and to introduce their clamorousor sanguinary contests, by a modest inquiry into the doctrines of theprimitive church. [1]

[Footnote 1: By what means shall I authenticate this previous inquiry, which I have studied to circumscribe and compress?--If I persist insupporting each fact or reflection by its proper and special evidence, every line would demand a string of testimonies, and every note wouldswell to a critical dissertation. But the numberless passages ofantiquity which I have seen with my own eyes, are compiled, digested andillustrated by Petavius and Le Clerc, by Beausobre and Mosheim. I shallbe content to fortify my narrative by the names and characters of theserespectable guides; and in the contemplation of a minute or remoteobject, I am not ashamed to borrow the aid of the strongest glasses: 1. The Dogmata Theologica of Petavius are a work of incredible labor andcompass; the volumes which relate solely to the Incarnation (two folios, vth and vith, of 837 pages) are divided into xvi. Books--the firstof history, the remainder of controversy and doctrine. The Jesuit'slearning is copious and correct; his Latinity is pure, his method clear, his argument profound and well connected; but he is the slave of thefathers, the scourge of heretics, and the enemy of truth and candor, as often as they are inimical to the Catholic cause. 2. The ArminianLe Clerc, who has composed in a quarto volume (Amsterdam, 1716) theecclesiastical history of the two first centuries, was free both in histemper and situation; his sense is clear, but his thoughts are narrow;he reduces the reason or folly of ages to the standard of his privatejudgment, and his impartiality is sometimes quickened, and sometimestainted by his opposition to the fathers. See the heretics (Cerinthians, lxxx. Ebionites, ciii. Carpocratians, cxx. Valentiniins, cxxi. Basilidians, cxxiii. Marcionites, cxli. , &c. ) under their proper dates. 3. The Histoire Critique du Manicheisme (Amsterdam, 1734, 1739, intwo vols. In 4to. , with a posthumous dissertation sur les Nazarenes, Lausanne, 1745) of M. De Beausobre is a treasure of ancient philosophyand theology. The learned historian spins with incomparable art thesystematic thread of opinion, and transforms himself by turns into theperson of a saint, a sage, or a heretic. Yet his refinement is sometimesexcessive; he betrays an amiable partiality in favor of the weaker side, and, while he guards against calumny, he does not allow sufficient scopefor superstition and fanaticism. A copious table of contents will directthe reader to any point that he wishes to examine. 4. Less profound thanPetavius, less independent than Le Clerc, less ingenious than Beausobre, the historian Mosheim is full, rational, correct, and moderate. In hislearned work, De Rebus Christianis ante Constantinum (Helmstadt 1753, in 4to. , ) see the Nazarenes and Ebionites, p. 172--179, 328--332. TheGnostics in general, p. 179, &c. Cerinthus, p. 196--202. Basilides, p. 352--361. Carpocrates, p. 363--367. Valentinus, p. 371--389 Marcion, p. 404--410. The Manichaeans, p. 829-837, &c. ]

I. A laudable regard for the honor of the first proselyte hascountenanced the belief, the hope, the wish, that the Ebionites, orat least the Nazarenes, were distinguished only by their obstinateperseverance in the practice of the Mosaic rites. 

Their churches have disappeared, their books are obliterated: theirobscure freedom might allow a latitude of faith, and the softness oftheir infant creed would be variously moulded by the zeal or prudence ofthree hundred years. Yet the most charitable criticism must refusethese sectaries any knowledge of the pure and proper divinity of Christ. Educated in the school of Jewish prophecy and prejudice, they had neverbeen taught to elevate their hopes above a human and temporal Messiah. [2] If they had courage to hail their king when he appeared in aplebeian garb, their grosser apprehensions were incapable of discerningtheir God, who had studiously disguised his celestial character underthe name and person of a mortal. [3] The familiar companions of Jesusof Nazareth conversed with their friend and countryman, who, in all theactions of rational and animal life, appeared of the same species withthemselves. His progress from infancy to youth and manhood was marked bya regular increase in stature and wisdom; and after a painful agonyof mind and body, he expired on the cross. He lived and died for theservice of mankind: but the life and death of Socrates had likewise beendevoted to the cause of religion and justice; and although the stoicor the hero may disdain the humble virtues of Jesus, the tears which heshed over his friend and country may be esteemed the purest evidence ofhis humanity. The miracles of the gospel could not astonish a people whoheld with intrepid faith the more splendid prodigies of the Mosaiclaw. The prophets of ancient days had cured diseases, raised the dead, divided the sea, stopped the sun, and ascended to heaven in a fierychariot. And the metaphorical style of the Hebrews might ascribe to asaint and martyr the adoptive title of Son of God. 

[Footnote 2: Jew Tryphon, (Justin. Dialog. P. 207) in the name of hiscountrymen, and the modern Jews, the few who divert their thoughts frommoney to religion, still hold the same language, and allege the literalsense of the prophets. * Note: See on this passage Bp. Kaye, JustinMartyr, p. 25. --M. Note: Most of the modern writers, who have closelyexamined this subject, and who will not be suspected of any theologicalbias, Rosenmuller on Isaiah ix. 5, and on Psalm xlv. 7, and Bertholdt, Christologia Judaeorum, c. Xx. , rightly ascribe much higher notionsof the Messiah to the Jews. In fact, the dispute seems to rest on thenotion that there was a definite and authorized notion of the Messiah, among the Jews, whereas it was probably so vague, as to admit everyshade of difference, from the vulgar expectation of a mere temporalking, to the philosophic notion of an emanation from the Deity. --M. ]

[Footnote 3: Chrysostom (Basnage, Hist. Des Juifs, tom. V. C. 9, p. 183)and Athanasius (Petav. Dogmat. Theolog. Tom. V. L. I. C. 2, p. 3) areobliged to confess that the Divinity of Christ is rarely mentioned byhimself or his apostles. ]

Yet in the insufficient creed of the Nazarenes and the Ebionites, adistinction is faintly noticed between the heretics, who confounded thegeneration of Christ in the common order of nature, and the less guiltyschismatics, who revered the virginity of his mother, and excluded theaid of an earthly father. The incredulity of the former was countenancedby the visible circumstances of his birth, the legal marriage of thereputed parents, Joseph and Mary, and his lineal claim to the kingdom ofDavid and the inheritance of Judah. But the secret and authentic historyhas been recorded in several copies of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, [4] which these sectaries long preserved in the originalHebrew, [5] as the sole evidence of their faith. The natural suspicionsof the husband, conscious of his own chastity, were dispelled by theassurance (in a dream) that his wife was pregnant of the Holy Ghost: andas this distant and domestic prodigy could not fall under the personalobservation of the historian, he must have listened to the same voicewhich dictated to Isaiah the future conception of a virgin. The son ofa virgin, generated by the ineffable operation of the Holy Spirit, was acreature without example or resemblance, superior in every attributeof mind and body to the children of Adam. Since the introduction of theGreek or Chaldean philosophy, [6] the Jews [7] were persuaded of thepreexistence, transmigration, and immortality of souls; and providencewas justified by a supposition, that they were confined in their earthlyprisons to expiate the stains which they had contracted in a formerstate. [8] But the degrees of purity and corruption are almostimmeasurable. It might be fairly presumed, that the most sublime andvirtuous of human spirits was infused into the offspring of Mary andthe Holy Ghost; [9] that his abasement was the result of his voluntarychoice; and that the object of his mission was, to purify, not hisown, but the sins of the world. On his return to his native skies, hereceived the immense reward of his obedience; the everlasting kingdom ofthe Messiah, which had been darkly foretold by the prophets, under thecarnal images of peace, of conquest, and of dominion. Omnipotence couldenlarge the human faculties of Christ to the extend of is celestialoffice. In the language of antiquity, the title of God has not beenseverely confined to the first parent, and his incomparable minister, his only-begotten son, might claim, without presumption, the religious, though secondary, worship of a subject of a subject world. 

[Footnote 4: The two first chapters of St. Matthew did not exist inthe Ebionite copies, (Epiphan. Haeres. Xxx. 13;) and the miraculousconception is one of the last articles which Dr. Priestley has curtailedfrom his scanty creed. * Note: The distinct allusion to the factsrelated in the two first chapters of the Gospel, in a work evidentlywritten about the end of the reign of Nero, the Ascensio Isaiae, editedby Archbishop Lawrence, seems convincing evidence that they are integralparts of the authentic Christian history. --M. ]

[Footnote 5: It is probable enough that the first of the Gospels for theuse of the Jewish converts was composed in the Hebrew or Syriac idiom:the fact is attested by a chain of fathers--Papias, Irenaeus, Origen, Jerom, &c. It is devoutly believed by the Catholics, and admitted byCasaubon, Grotius, and Isaac Vossius, among the Protestant critics. Butthis Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew is most unaccountably lost; and wemay accuse the diligence or fidelity of the primitive churches, who havepreferred the unauthorized version of some nameless Greek. Erasmusand his followers, who respect our Greek text as the original Gospel, deprive themselves of the evidence which declares it to be the workof an apostle. See Simon, Hist. Critique, &c. , tom. Iii. C. 5--9, p. 47--101, and the Prolegomena of Mill and Wetstein to the New Testament. * Note: Surely the extinction of the Judaeo-Christian community relatedfrom Mosheim by Gibbon himself (c. Xv. ) accounts both simply andnaturally for the loss of a composition, which had become of nouse--nor does it follow that the Greek Gospel of St. Matthew isunauthorized. --M. ]

[Footnote 6: The metaphysics of the soul are disengaged by Cicero(Tusculan. L. I. ) and Maximus of Tyre (Dissertat. Xvi. ) from theintricacies of dialogue, which sometimes amuse, and often perplex, thereaders of the Phoedrus, the Phoedon, and the Laws of Plato. ]

[Footnote 7: The disciples of Jesus were persuaded that a man might havesinned before he was born, (John, ix. 2, ) and the Pharisees held thetransmigration of virtuous souls, (Joseph. De Bell. Judaico, l. Ii. C. 7;) and a modern Rabbi is modestly assured, that Hermes, Pythagoras, Plato, &c. , derived their metaphysics from his illustrious countrymen. ]

[Footnote 8: Four different opinions have been entertained concerningthe origin of human souls: 1. That they are eternal and divine. 2. Thatthey were created in a separate state of existence, before their unionwith the body. 3. That they have been propagated from the original stockof Adam, who contained in himself the mental as well as the corporealseed of his posterity. 4. That each soul is occasionally created andembodied in the moment of conception. --The last of these sentimentsappears to have prevailed among the moderns; and our spiritual historyis grown less sublime, without becoming more intelligible. ]

[Footnote 9: It was one of the fifteen heresies imputed to Origen, anddenied by his apologist, (Photius, Bibliothec. Cod. Cxvii. P. 296. ) Someof the Rabbis attribute one and the same soul to the persons of Adam, David, and the Messiah. ]

II. The seeds of the faith, which had slowly arisen in the rocky andungrateful soil of Judea, were transplanted, in full maturity, to thehappier climes of the Gentiles; and the strangers of Rome or Asia, whonever beheld the manhood, were the more readily disposed to embrace thedivinity, of Christ. The polytheist and the philosopher, the Greek andthe Barbarian, were alike accustomed to conceive a long succession, an infinite chain of angels or daemons, or deities, or aeons, oremanations, issuing from the throne of light. Nor could it seem strangeor incredible, that the first of these aeons, the Logos, or Word of God, of the same substance with the Father, should descend upon earth, todeliver the human race from vice and error, and to conduct them inthe paths of life and immortality. But the prevailing doctrine of theeternity and inherent pravity of matter infected the primitive churchesof the East. Many among the Gentile proselytes refused to believe thata celestial spirit, an undivided portion of the first essence, had beenpersonally united with a mass of impure and contaminated flesh; and, in their zeal for the divinity, they piously abjured the humanity, ofChrist. While his blood was still recent on Mount Calvary, [10]the Docetes, a numerous and learned sect of Asiatics, invented thephantastic system, which was afterwards propagated by the Marcionites, the Manichaeans, and the various names of the Gnostic heresy. [11] Theydenied the truth and authenticity of the Gospels, as far as they relatethe conception of Mary, the birth of Christ, and the thirty years thatpreceded the exercise of his ministry. He first appeared on the banks ofthe Jordan in the form of perfect manhood; but it was a form only, andnot a substance; a human figure created by the hand of Omnipotence toimitate the faculties and actions of a man, and to impose a perpetualillusion on the senses of his friends and enemies. Articulate soundsvibrated on the ears of the disciples; but the image which was impressedon their optic nerve eluded the more stubborn evidence of the touch; andthey enjoyed the spiritual, not the corporeal, presence of the Son ofGod. The rage of the Jews was idly wasted against an impassive phantom;and the mystic scenes of the passion and death, the resurrection andascension, of Christ were represented on the theatre of Jerusalem forthe benefit of mankind. If it were urged, that such ideal mimicry, such incessant deception, was unworthy of the God of truth, the Docetesagreed with too many of their orthodox brethren in the justification ofpious falsehood. In the system of the Gnostics, the Jehovah of Israel, the Creator of this lower world, was a rebellious, or at least anignorant, spirit. The Son of God descended upon earth to abolish histemple and his law; and, for the accomplishment of this salutary end, hedexterously transferred to his own person the hope and prediction of atemporal Messiah. 

[Footnote 10: Apostolis adhuc in seculo superstitibus, apud JudaeamChristi sanguine recente, Phantasma domini corpus asserebatur. Hieronym, advers. Lucifer. C. 8. The epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, andeven the Gospel according to St. John, are levelled against the growingerror of the Docetes, who had obtained too much credit in the world, (1 John, iv. 1--5. )]

[Footnote 11: About the year 200 of the Christian aera, Irenaeusand Hippolytus efuted the thirty-two sects, which had multiplied tofourscore in the time of Epiphanius, (Phot. Biblioth. Cod. Cxx. Cxxi. Cxxii. ) The five books of Irenaeus exist only in barbarous Latin; butthe original might perhaps be found in some monastery of Greece. ]

One of the most subtile disputants of the Manichaean school has pressedthe danger and indecency of supposing, that the God of the Christians, in the state of a human foetus, emerged at the end of nine months froma female womb. The pious horror of his antagonists provoked them todisclaim all sensual circumstances of conception and delivery; tomaintain that the divinity passed through Mary like a sunbeam through aplate of glass; and to assert, that the seal of her virginity remainedunbroken even at the moment when she became the mother of Christ. Butthe rashness of these concessions has encouraged a milder sentiment ofthose of the Docetes, who taught, not that Christ was a phantom, butthat he was clothed with an impassible and incorruptible body. Such, indeed, in the more orthodox system, he has acquired since hisresurrection, and such he must have always possessed, if it were capableof pervading, without resistance or injury, the density of intermediatematter. Devoid of its most essential properties, it might be exemptfrom the attributes and infirmities of the flesh. A foetus that couldincrease from an invisible point to its full maturity; a child thatcould attain the stature of perfect manhood without deriving anynourishment from the ordinary sources, might continue to exist withoutrepairing a daily waste by a daily supply of external matter. Jesusmight share the repasts of his disciples without being subject to thecalls of thirst or hunger; and his virgin purity was never sulliedby the involuntary stains of sensual concupiscence. Of a body thussingularly constituted, a question would arise, by what means, and ofwhat materials, it was originally framed; and our sounder theology isstartled by an answer which was not peculiar to the Gnostics, that boththe form and the substance proceeded from the divine essence. The ideaof pure and absolute spirit is a refinement of modern philosophy: theincorporeal essence, ascribed by the ancients to human souls, celestialbeings, and even the Deity himself, does not exclude the notion ofextended space; and their imagination was satisfied with a subtilenature of air, or fire, or aether, incomparably more perfect thanthe grossness of the material world. If we define the place, we mustdescribe the figure, of the Deity. Our experience, perhaps our vanity, represents the powers of reason and virtue under a human form. TheAnthropomorphites, who swarmed among the monks of Egypt and theCatholics of Africa, could produce the express declaration of Scripture, that man was made after the image of his Creator. [12] The venerableSerapion, one of the saints of the Nitrian deserts, relinquished, withmany a tear, his darling prejudice; and bewailed, like an infant, hisunlucky conversion, which had stolen away his God, and left his mindwithout any visible object of faith or devotion. [13]

[Footnote 12: The pilgrim Cassian, who visited Egypt in the beginningof the vth century, observes and laments the reign of anthropomorphismamong the monks, who were not conscious that they embraced the systemof Epicurus, (Cicero, de Nat. Deorum, i. 18, 34. ) Ab universo propemodumgenere monachorum, qui per totam provinciam Egyptum morabantur, prosimplicitatis errore susceptum est, ut e contraric memoratum pontificem(Theophilus) velut haeresi gravissima depravatum, pars maxima seniorumab universo fraternitatis corpore decerneret detestandum, (Cassian, Collation. X. 2. ) As long as St. Augustin remained a Manichaean, he wasscandalized by the anthropomorphism of the vulgar Catholics. ]

[Footnote 13: Ita est in oratione senex mente confusus, eo quod illamimaginem Deitatis, quam proponere sibi in oratione consueverat, aboleride suo corde sentiret, ut in amarissimos fletus, crebrosque singultusrepente prorumpens, in terram prostratus, cum ejulatu validissimoproclamaret; "Heu me miserum! tulerunt a me Deum meum, et quem nuncteneam non habeo, vel quem adorem, aut interpallam am nescio. " Cassian, Collat. X. 2. ]

III. Such were the fleeting shadows of the Docetes. A more substantial, though less simple, hypothesis, was contrived by Cerinthus of Asia, [14]who dared to oppose the last of the apostles. Placed on the confines ofthe Jewish and Gentile world, he labored to reconcile the Gnostic withthe Ebionite, by confessing in the same Messiah the supernatural unionof a man and a God; and this mystic doctrine was adopted with manyfanciful improvements by Carpocrates, Basilides, and Valentine, [15] theheretics of the Egyptian school. In their eyes, Jesus of Nazareth was amere mortal, the legitimate son of Joseph and Mary: but he was thebest and wisest of the human race, selected as the worthy instrument torestore upon earth the worship of the true and supreme Deity. When hewas baptized in the Jordan, the Christ, the first of the aeons, the Sonof God himself, descended on Jesus in the form of a dove, to inhabit hismind, and direct his actions during the allotted period of his ministry. When the Messiah was delivered into the hands of the Jews, the Christ, an immortal and impassible being, forsook his earthly tabernacle, flewback to the pleroma or world of spirits, and left the solitary Jesus tosuffer, to complain, and to expire. But the justice and generosity ofsuch a desertion are strongly questionable; and the fate of an innocentmartyr, at first impelled, and at length abandoned, by his divinecompanion, might provoke the pity and indignation of the profane. Their murmurs were variously silenced by the sectaries who espoused andmodified the double system of Cerinthus. It was alleged, that when Jesuswas nailed to the cross, he was endowed with a miraculous apathy of mindand body, which rendered him insensible of his apparent sufferings. It was affirmed, that these momentary, though real, pangs would beabundantly repaid by the temporal reign of a thousand years reserved forthe Messiah in his kingdom of the new Jerusalem. It was insinuated, that if he suffered, he deserved to suffer; that human nature is neverabsolutely perfect; and that the cross and passion might serve toexpiate the venial transgressions of the son of Joseph, before hismysterious union with the Son of God. [16]

[Footnote 14: St. John and Cerinthus (A. D. 80. Cleric. Hist. Eccles. P. 493) accidentally met in the public bath of Ephesus; but the apostlefled from the heretic, lest the building should tumble on their heads. This foolish story, reprobated by Dr. Middleton, (Miscellaneous Works, vol. Ii. , ) is related, however, by Irenaeus, (iii. 3, ) on the evidenceof Polycarp, and was probably suited to the time and residence ofCerinthus. The obsolete, yet probably the true, reading of 1 John, iv. 3 alludes to the double nature of that primitive heretic. * Note:Griesbach asserts that all the Greek Mss. , all the translators, and allthe Greek fathers, support the common reading. --Nov. Test. In loc. --M]

[Footnote 15: The Valentinians embraced a complex, and almostincoherent, system. 1. Both Christ and Jesus were aeons, though ofdifferent degrees; the one acting as the rational soul, the other as thedivine spirit of the Savior. 2. At the time of the passion, they bothretired, and left only a sensitive soul and a human body. 3. Eventhat body was aethereal, and perhaps apparent. --Such are the laboriousconclusions of Mosheim. But I much doubt whether the Latin translatorunderstood Irenaeus, and whether Irenaeus and the Valetinians understoodthemselves. ]

[Footnote 16: The heretics abused the passionate exclamation of "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Rousseau, who has drawn an eloquent, but indecent, parallel between Christ and Socrates, forgets that nota word of impatience or despair escaped from the mouth of the dyingphilosopher. In the Messiah, such sentiments could be only apparent; andsuch ill-sounding words were properly explained as the application of apsalm and prophecy. ]

IV. All those who believe the immateriality of the soul, a speciousand noble tenet, must confess, from their present experience, theincomprehensible union of mind and matter. A similar union is notinconsistent with a much higher, or even with the highest, degree ofmental faculties; and the incarnation of an aeon or archangel, the mostperfect of created spirits, does not involve any positive contradictionor absurdity. In the age of religious freedom, which was determinedby the council of Nice, the dignity of Christ was measured by privatejudgment according to the indefinite rule of Scripture, or reason, ortradition. But when his pure and proper divinity had been established onthe ruins of Arianism, the faith of the Catholics trembled on the edgeof a precipice where it was impossible to recede, dangerous to stand, dreadful to fall and the manifold inconveniences of their creed wereaggravated by the sublime character of their theology. They hesitatedto pronounce; that God himself, the second person of an equal andconsubstantial trinity, was manifested in the flesh; [17] that a beingwho pervades the universe, had been confined in the womb of Mary; thathis eternal duration had been marked by the days, and months, and yearsof human existence; that the Almighty had been scourged and crucified;that his impassible essence had felt pain and anguish; that hisomniscience was not exempt from ignorance; and that the source of lifeand immortality expired on Mount Calvary. These alarming consequenceswere affirmed with unblushing simplicity by Apollinaris, [18] bishop ofLaodicea, and one of the luminaries of the church. The son of a learnedgrammarian, he was skilled in all the sciences of Greece; eloquence, erudition, and philosophy, conspicuous in the volumes of Apollinaris, were humbly devoted to the service of religion. The worthy friend ofAthanasius, the worthy antagonist of Julian, he bravely wrestledwith the Arians and Polytheists, and though he affected the rigor ofgeometrical demonstration, his commentaries revealed the literal andallegorical sense of the Scriptures. A mystery, which had long floatedin the looseness of popular belief, was defined by his perversediligence in a technical form; and he first proclaimed the memorablewords, "One incarnate nature of Christ, " which are still reechoed withhostile clamors in the churches of Asia, Egypt, and Aethiopia. He taughtthat the Godhead was united or mingled with the body of a man; andthat the Logos, the eternal wisdom, supplied in the flesh the place andoffice of a human soul. Yet as the profound doctor had been terrified athis own rashness, Apollinaris was heard to mutter some faint accentsof excuse and explanation. He acquiesced in the old distinction of theGreek philosophers between the rational and sensitive soul of man; thathe might reserve the Logos for intellectual functions, and employ thesubordinate human principle in the meaner actions of animal life. 

With the moderate Docetes, he revered Mary as the spiritual, rather thanas the carnal, mother of Christ, whose body either came from heaven, impassible and incorruptible, or was absorbed, and as it weretransformed, into the essence of the Deity. The system of Apollinariswas strenuously encountered by the Asiatic and Syrian divines whoseschools are honored by the names of Basil, Gregory and Chrysostom, andtainted by those of Diodorus, Theodore, and Nestorius. But the personof the aged bishop of Laedicea, his character and dignity, remainedinviolate; and his rivals, since we may not suspect them of the weaknessof toleration, were astonished, perhaps, by the novelty of the argument, and diffident of the final sentence of the Catholic church. Her judgmentat length inclined in their favor; the heresy of Apollinaris wascondemned, and the separate congregations of his disciples wereproscribed by the Imperial laws. But his principles were secretlyentertained in the monasteries of Egypt, and his enemies felt thehatred of Theophilus and Cyril, the successive patriarchs of Alexandria. [Footnote 17: This strong expression might be justified by the languageof St. Paul, (1 Tim. Iii. 16;) but we are deceived by our modern Bibles. The word which was altered to God at Constantinople in the beginning ofthe vith century: the true reading, which is visible in the Latin andSyriac versions, still exists in the reasoning of the Greek, as well asof the Latin fathers; and this fraud, with that of the three witnessesof St. John, is admirably detected by Sir Isaac Newton. (See his twoletters translated by M. De Missy, in the Journal Britannique, tom. Xv. P. 148--190, 351--390. ) I have weighed the arguments, and may yield tothe authority of the first of philosophers, who was deeply skilled incritical and theological studies. Note: It should be Griesbach in loc. The weight of authority is so much against the common reading inboth these points, that they are no longer urged by prudentcontroversialists. Would Gibbon's deference for the first ofphilosophers have extended to all his theological conclusions?--M. ]

[Footnote 18: For Apollinaris and his sect, see Socrates, l. Ii. C. 46, l. Iii. C. 16 Sazomen, l. V. C. 18, 1. Vi. C. 25, 27. Theodoret, l. V. 3, 10, 11. Tillemont, Memoires Ecclesiastiques, tom. Vii. P. 602--638. Not. P. 789--794, in 4to. Venise, 1732. The contemporary saint alwaysmentions the bishop of Laodicea as a friend and brother. The styleof the more recent historians is harsh and hostile: yet Philostorgiuscompares him (l. Viii. C. 11-15) to Basil and Gregory. ]

V. The grovelling Ebionite, and the fantastic Docetes, were rejected andforgotten: the recent zeal against the errors of Apollinaris reduced theCatholics to a seeming agreement with the double nature of Cerinthus. But instead of a temporary and occasional alliance, they established, and we still embrace, the substantial, indissoluble, and everlastingunion of a perfect God with a perfect man, of the second person of thetrinity with a reasonable soul and human flesh. In the beginning of thefifth century, the unity of the two natures was the prevailing doctrineof the church. On all sides, it was confessed, that the mode of theircoexistence could neither be represented by our ideas, nor expressed byour language. Yet a secret and incurable discord was cherished, betweenthose who were most apprehensive of confounding, and those who weremost fearful of separating, the divinity, and the humanity, of Christ. Impelled by religious frenzy, they fled with adverse haste fromthe error which they mutually deemed most destructive of truth andsalvation. On either hand they were anxious to guard, they were jealousto defend, the union and the distinction of the two natures, and toinvent such forms of speech, such symbols of doctrine, as were leastsusceptible of doubt or ambiguity. The poverty of ideas and languagetempted them to ransack art and nature for every possible comparison, and each comparison mislead their fancy in the explanation of anincomparable mystery. In the polemic microscope, an atom is enlargedto a monster, and each party was skilful to exaggerate the absurd orimpious conclusions that might be extorted from the principles of theiradversaries. To escape from each other, they wandered through manya dark and devious thicket, till they were astonished by the horridphantoms of Cerinthus and Apollinaris, who guarded the opposite issuesof the theological labyrinth. As soon as they beheld the twilight ofsense and heresy, they started, measured back their steps, and wereagain involved in the gloom of impenetrable orthodoxy. To purgethemselves from the guilt or reproach of damnable error, theydisavowed their consequences, explained their principles, excused theirindiscretions, and unanimously pronounced the sounds of concord andfaith. Yet a latent and almost invisible spark still lurked among theembers of controversy: by the breath of prejudice and passion, it wasquickly kindled to a mighty flame, and the verbal disputes [19] of theOriental sects have shaken the pillars of the church and state. 

[Footnote 19: I appeal to the confession of two Oriental prelates, Gregory Abulpharagius the Jacobite primate of the East, and Elias theNestorian metropolitan of Damascus, (see Asseman, Bibliothec. Oriental. Tom. Ii. P. 291, tom. Iii. P. 514, &c. , ) that the Melchites, Jacobites, Nestorians, &c. , agree in the doctrine, and differ only in theexpression. Our most learned and rational divines--Basnage, Le Clerc, Beausobre, La Croze, Mosheim, Jablonski--are inclined to favor thischaritable judgment; but the zeal of Petavius is loud and angry, and themoderation of Dupin is conveyed in a whisper. ]

The name of Cyril of Alexandria is famous in controversial story, and the title of saint is a mark that his opinions and his party havefinally prevailed. In the house of his uncle, the archbishop Theophilus, he imbibed the orthodox lessons of zeal and dominion, and five years ofhis youth were profitably spent in the adjacent monasteries ofNitria. Under the tuition of the abbot Serapion, he applied himselfto ecclesiastical studies, with such indefatigable ardor, that in thecourse of one sleepless night, he has perused the four Gospels, theCatholic Epistles, and the Epistle to the Romans. Origen he detested;but the writings of Clemens and Dionysius, of Athanasius and Basil, werecontinually in his hands: by the theory and practice of dispute, hisfaith was confirmed and his wit was sharpened; he extended round hiscell the cobwebs of scholastic theology, and meditated the works ofallegory and metaphysics, whose remains, in seven verbose folios, nowpeaceably slumber by the side of their rivals. [20] Cyril prayed andfasted in the desert, but his thoughts (it is the reproach of a friend)[21] were still fixed on the world; and the call of Theophilus, whosummoned him to the tumult of cities and synods, was too readily obeyedby the aspiring hermit. With the approbation of his uncle, he assumedthe office, and acquired the fame, of a popular preacher. His comelyperson adorned the pulpit; the harmony of his voice resounded in thecathedral; his friends were stationed to lead or second the applause ofthe congregation; [22] and the hasty notes of the scribes preservedhis discourses, which in their effect, though not in their composition, might be compared with those of the Athenian orators. The death ofTheophilus expanded and realized the hopes of his nephew. The clergyof Alexandria was divided; the soldiers and their general supported theclaims of the archdeacon; but a resistless multitude, with voices andwith hands, asserted the cause of their favorite; and after a period ofthirty-nine years, Cyril was seated on the throne of Athanasius. [23]

[Footnote 20: La Croze (Hist. Du Christianisme des Indes, tom. I. P. 24)avows his contempt for the genius and writings of Cyril. De tous les onvrages des anciens, il y en a peu qu'on lise avec moins d'utilite: andDupin, (Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. Iv. P. 42--52, ) in words ofrespect, teaches us to despise them. ]

[Footnote 21: Of Isidore of Pelusium, (l. I. Epist. 25, p. 8. ) As theletter is not of the most creditable sort, Tillemont, less sincere thanthe Bollandists, affects a doubt whether this Cyril is the nephew ofTheophilus, (Mem. Eccles. Tom. Xiv. P. 268. )]

[Footnote 22: A grammarian is named by Socrates (l. Vii. C. 13). ]

[Footnote 23: See the youth and promotion of Cyril, in Socrates, (l. Vii. C. 7) and Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarchs. Alexandrin. P. 106, 108. )The Abbe Renaudot drew his materials from the Arabic history of Severus, bishop of Hermopolis Magma, or Ashmunein, in the xth century, who cannever be trusted, unless our assent is extorted by the internal evidenceof facts. ]

Chapter XLVII: Ecclesiastical Discord. --Part II. 

The prize was not unworthy of his ambition. At a distance from thecourt, and at the head of an immense capital, the patriarch, as he wasnow styled, of Alexandria had gradually usurped the state and authorityof a civil magistrate. The public and private charities of the city wereblindly obeyed by his numerous and fanatic parabolani, [24] familiarizedin their daily office with scenes of death; and the praefects of Egyptwere awed or provoked by the temporal power of these Christian pontiffs. Ardent in the prosecution of heresy, Cyril auspiciously opened hisreign by oppressing the Novatians, the most innocent and harmless of thesectaries. The interdiction of their religious worship appeared in hiseyes a just and meritorious act; and he confiscated their holy vessels, without apprehending the guilt of sacrilege. The toleration, and eventhe privileges of the Jews, who had multiplied to the number of fortythousand, were secured by the laws of the Caesars and Ptolemies, anda long prescription of seven hundred years since the foundation ofAlexandria. Without any legal sentence, without any royal mandate, thepatriarch, at the dawn of day, led a seditious multitude to the attackof the synagogues. Unarmed and unprepared, the Jews were incapable ofresistance; their houses of prayer were levelled with the ground, andthe episcopal warrior, after-rewarding his troops with the plunderof their goods, expelled from the city the remnant of the unbelievingnation. Perhaps he might plead the insolence of their prosperity, andtheir deadly hatred of the Christians, whose blood they had recentlyshed in a malicious or accidental tumult. 

Such crimes would have deserved the animadversion of the magistrate;but in this promiscuous outrage, the innocent were confounded with theguilty, and Alexandria was impoverished by the loss of a wealthy andindustrious colony. The zeal of Cyril exposed him to the penalties ofthe Julian law; but in a feeble government and a superstitious age, hewas secure of impunity, and even of praise. Orestes complained; buthis just complaints were too quickly forgotten by the ministers ofTheodosius, and too deeply remembered by a priest who affected topardon, and continued to hate, the praefect of Egypt. As he passedthrough the streets, his chariot was assaulted by a band of five hundredof the Nitrian monks his guards fled from the wild beasts of the desert;his protestations that he was a Christian and a Catholic were answeredby a volley of stones, and the face of Orestes was covered with blood. The loyal citizens of Alexandria hastened to his rescue; he instantlysatisfied his justice and revenge against the monk by whose hand he hadbeen wounded, and Ammonius expired under the rod of the lictor. At thecommand of Cyril his body was raised from the ground, and transported, in solemn procession, to the cathedral; the name of Ammonius was changedto that of Thaumasius the wonderful; his tomb was decorated withthe trophies of martyrdom, and the patriarch ascended the pulpit tocelebrate the magnanimity of an assassin and a rebel. Such honors mightincite the faithful to combat and die under the banners of the saint;and he soon prompted, or accepted, the sacrifice of a virgin, whoprofessed the religion of the Greeks, and cultivated the friendshipof Orestes. Hypatia, the daughter of Theon the mathematician, [25] wasinitiated in her father's studies; her learned comments have elucidatedthe geometry of Apollonius and Diophantus, and she publicly taught, bothat Athens and Alexandria, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. In thebloom of beauty, and in the maturity of wisdom, the modest maid refusedher lovers and instructed her disciples; the persons most illustriousfor their rank or merit were impatient to visit the female philosopher;and Cyril beheld, with a jealous eye, the gorgeous train of horses andslaves who crowded the door of her academy. A rumor was spread amongthe Christians, that the daughter of Theon was the only obstacle to thereconciliation of the praefect and the archbishop; and that obstacle wasspeedily removed. On a fatal day, in the holy season of Lent, Hypatiawas torn from her chariot, stripped naked, dragged to the church, andinhumanly butchered by the hands of Peter the reader, and a troop ofsavage and merciless fanatics: her flesh was scraped from her bones withsharp cyster shells, [26] and her quivering limbs were delivered tothe flames. The just progress of inquiry and punishment was stopped byseasonable gifts; but the murder of Hypatia has imprinted an indeliblestain on the character and religion of Cyril of Alexandria. [27]

[Footnote 24: The Parabolani of Alexandria were a charitablecorporation, instituted during the plague of Gallienus, to visit thesick and to bury the dead. They gradually enlarged, abused, and sold theprivileges of their order. Their outrageous conduct during the reign ofCyril provoked the emperor to deprive the patriarch of their nomination, and to restrain their number to five or six hundred. But theserestraints were transient and ineffectual. See the Theodosian Code, l. Xvi. Tit. Ii. And Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. Tom. Xiv. P. 276--278. ]

[Footnote 25: For Theon and his daughter Hypatia. See Fabricius, Bibliothec. Tom. Viii. P. 210, 211. Her article in the Lexicon of Suidasis curious and original. Hesychius (Meursii Opera, tom. Vii. P. 295, 296) observes, that he was persecuted; and an epigram in the GreekAnthology (l. I. C. 76, p. 159, edit. Brodaei) celebrates her knowledgeand eloquence. She is honorably mentioned (Epist. 10, 15 16, 33--80, 124, 135, 153) by her friend and disciple the philosophic bishopSynesius. ]

[Footnote 26: Oyster shells were plentifully strewed on the sea-beachbefore the Caesareum. I may therefore prefer the literal sense, withoutrejecting the metaphorical version of tegulae, tiles, which is usedby M. De Valois ignorant, and the assassins were probably regardless, whether their victim was yet alive. ]

[Footnote 27: These exploits of St. Cyril are recorded by Socrates, (l. Vii. C. 13, 14, 15;) and the most reluctant bigotry is compelled to copyan historian who coolly styles the murderers of Hypatia. At the mentionof that injured name, I am pleased to observe a blush even on the cheekof Baronius, (A. D. 415, No. 48. )]

Superstition, perhaps, would more gently expiate the blood of a virgin, than the banishment of a saint; and Cyril had accompanied his uncleto the iniquitous synod of the Oak. When the memory of Chrysostom wasrestored and consecrated, the nephew of Theophilus, at the head of adying faction, still maintained the justice of his sentence; nor was ittill after a tedious delay and an obstinate resistance, that he yieldedto the consent of the Catholic world. [28] His enmity to the Byzantinepontiffs [29] was a sense of interest, not a sally of passion: he enviedtheir fortunate station in the sunshine of the Imperial court; and hedreaded their upstart ambition. Which oppressed the metropolitans ofEurope and Asia, invaded the provinces of Antioch and Alexandria, andmeasured their diocese by the limits of the empire. The long moderationof Atticus, the mild usurper of the throne of Chrysostom, suspended theanimosities of the Eastern patriarchs; but Cyril was at length awakenedby the exaltation of a rival more worthy of his esteem and hatred. Afterthe short and troubled reign of Sisinnius, bishop of Constantinople, the factions of the clergy and people were appeased by the choice of theemperor, who, on this occasion, consulted the voice of fame, and invitedthe merit of a stranger. 

Nestorius, [30] native of Germanicia, and a monk of Antioch, wasrecommended by the austerity of his life, and the eloquence of hissermons; but the first homily which he preached before the devoutTheodosius betrayed the acrimony and impatience of his zeal. "Give me, OCaesar!" he exclaimed, "give me the earth purged of heretics, and Iwill give you in exchange the kingdom of heaven. Exterminate with me theheretics; and with you I will exterminate the Persians. " On thefifth day as if the treaty had been already signed, the patriarch ofConstantinople discovered, surprised, and attacked a secret conventicleof the Arians: they preferred death to submission; the flames that werekindled by their despair, soon spread to the neighboring houses, and thetriumph of Nestorius was clouded by the name of incendiary. On eitherside of the Hellespont his episcopal vigor imposed a rigid formulary offaith and discipline; a chronological error concerning the festival ofEaster was punished as an offence against the church and state. Lydiaand Caria, Sardes and Miletus, were purified with the blood of theobstinate Quartodecimans; and the edict of the emperor, or rather of thepatriarch, enumerates three-and-twenty degrees and denominations in theguilt and punishment of heresy. [31] But the sword of persecution whichNestorius so furiously wielded was soon turned against his own breast. Religion was the pretence; but, in the judgment of a contemporary saint, ambition was the genuine motive of episcopal warfare. [32]

[Footnote 28: He was deaf to the entreaties of Atticus ofConstantinople, and of Isidore of Pelusium, and yielded only (if we maybelieve Nicephorus, l. Xiv. C. 18) to the personal intercession of theVirgin. Yet in his last years he still muttered that John Chrysostom hadbeen justly condemned, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. Tom. Xiv. P. 278--282. Baronius Annal. Eccles. A. D. 412, No. 46--64. )]

[Footnote 29: See their characters in the history of Socrates, (l. Vii. C. 25--28;) their power and pretensions, in the huge compilation ofThomassin, (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. I. P. 80-91. )]

[Footnote 30: His elevation and conduct are described by Socrates, (l. Vii. C. 29 31;) and Marcellinus seems to have applied the eloquentiaesatis, sapi entiae parum, of Sallust. ]

[Footnote 31: Cod. Theodos. L. Xvi. Tit. V. Leg. 65, with theillustrations of Baronius, (A. D. 428, No. 25, &c. , ) Godefroy, (adlocum, ) and Pagi, Critica, (tom. Ii. P. 208. )]

[Footnote 32: Isidore of Pelusium, (l. Iv. Epist. 57. ) His words arestrong and scandalous. Isidore is a saint, but he never became a bishop;and I half suspect that the pride of Diogenes trampled on the pride ofPlato. ]

In the Syrian school, Nestorius had been taught to abhor the confusionof the two natures, and nicely to discriminate the humanity of hismaster Christ from the divinity of the Lord Jesus. [33] The BlessedVirgin he revered as the mother of Christ, but his ears were offendedwith the rash and recent title of mother of God, [34] which had beeninsensibly adopted since the origin of the Arian controversy. From thepulpit of Constantinople, a friend of the patriarch, and afterwards thepatriarch himself, repeatedly preached against the use, or the abuse, of a word [35] unknown to the apostles, unauthorized by the church, andwhich could only tend to alarm the timorous, to mislead the simple, toamuse the profane, and to justify, by a seeming resemblance, the oldgenealogy of Olympus. [36] In his calmer moments Nestorius confessed, that it might be tolerated or excused by the union of the two natures, and the communication of their idioms: [37] but he was exasperated, bycontradiction, to disclaim the worship of a new-born, an infant Deity, to draw his inadequate similes from the conjugal or civil partnershipsof life, and to describe the manhood of Christ as the robe, theinstrument, the tabernacle of his Godhead. At these blasphemous sounds, the pillars of the sanctuary were shaken. The unsuccessful competitorsof Nestorius indulged their pious or personal resentment, the Byzantineclergy was secretly displeased with the intrusion of a stranger:whatever is superstitious or absurd, might claim the protection ofthe monks; and the people were interested in the glory of their virginpatroness. [38] The sermons of the archbishop, and the service of thealtar, were disturbed by seditious clamor; his authority and doctrinewere renounced by separate congregations; every wind scattered round theempire the leaves of controversy; and the voice of the combatants on asonorous theatre reechoed in the cells of Palestine and Egypt. It wasthe duty of Cyril to enlighten the zeal and ignorance of his innumerablemonks: in the school of Alexandria, he had imbibed and professed theincarnation of one nature; and the successor of Athanasius consultedhis pride and ambition, when he rose in arms against another Arius, moreformidable and more guilty, on the second throne of the hierarchy. Aftera short correspondence, in which the rival prelates disguised theirhatred in the hollow language of respect and charity, the patriarch ofAlexandria denounced to the prince and people, to the East and to theWest, the damnable errors of the Byzantine pontiff. From the East, more especially from Antioch, he obtained the ambiguous counsels oftoleration and silence, which were addressed to both parties while theyfavored the cause of Nestorius. But the Vatican received with open armsthe messengers of Egypt. The vanity of Celestine was flattered by theappeal; and the partial version of a monk decided the faith of the pope, who with his Latin clergy was ignorant of the language, the arts, andthe theology of the Greeks. At the head of an Italian synod, Celestineweighed the merits of the cause, approved the creed of Cyril, condemnedthe sentiments and person of Nestorius, degraded the heretic from hisepiscopal dignity, allowed a respite of ten days for recantation andpenance, and delegated to his enemy the execution of this rash andillegal sentence. But the patriarch of Alexandria, while he darted thethunders of a god, exposed the errors and passions of a mortal; and histwelve anathemas [39] still torture the orthodox slaves, who adore thememory of a saint, without forfeiting their allegiance to the synod ofChalcedon. These bold assertions are indelibly tinged with the colorsof the Apollinarian heresy; but the serious, and perhaps the sincereprofessions of Nestorius have satisfied the wiser and less partialtheologians of the present times. [40]

[Footnote 33: La Croze (Christianisme des Indes, tom. I. P. 44-53. Thesaurus Epistolicus, La Crozianus, tom. Iii. P. 276--280) has detectedthe use, which, in the ivth, vth, and vith centuries, discriminates theschool of Diodorus of Tarsus and his Nestorian disciples. ]

[Footnote 34: Deipara; as in zoology we familiarly speak of oviparousand viviparous animals. It is not easy to fix the invention of thisword, which La Croze (Christianisme des Indes, tom. I. P. 16) ascribesto Eusebius of Caesarea and the Arians. The orthodox testimonies areproduced by Cyril and Petavius, (Dogmat. Theolog. Tom. V. L. V. C. 15, p. 254, &c. ;) but the veracity of the saint is questionable, and theepithet so easily slides from the margin to the text of a Catholic Ms]

[Footnote 35: Basnage, in his Histoire de l'Eglise, a work ofcontroversy, (tom l. P. 505, ) justifies the mother, by the blood, ofGod, (Acts, xx. 28, with Mill's various readings. ) But the Greek Mss. Are far from unanimous; and the primitive style of the blood of Christis preserved in the Syriac version, even in those copies which wereused by the Christians of St. Thomas on the coast of Malabar, (La Croze, Christianisme des Indes, tom. I. P. 347. ) The jealousy of the Nestoriansand Monophysites has guarded the purity of their text. ]

[Footnote 36: The Pagans of Egypt already laughed at the new Cybele ofthe Christians, (Isidor. L. I. Epist. 54;) a letter was forged in thename of Hypatia, to ridicule the theology of her assassin, (Synodicon, c. 216, in iv. Tom. Concil. P. 484. ) In the article of Nestorius, Baylehas scattered some loose philosophy on the worship of the Virgin Mary. ]

[Footnote 37: The item of the Greeks, a mutual loan or transfer of theidioms or properties of each nature to the other--of infinity to man, passibility to God, &c. Twelve rules on this nicest of subjects composethe Theological Grammar of Petavius, (Dogmata Theolog. Tom. V. L. Iv. C. 14, 15, p 209, &c. )]

[Footnote 38: See Ducange, C. P. Christiana, l. I. P. 30, &c. ]

[Footnote 39: Concil. Tom. Iii. P. 943. They have never been directlyapproved by the church, (Tillemont. Mem. Eccles. Tom. Xiv. P. 368--372. )I almost pity the agony of rage and sophistry with which Petavius seemsto be agitated in the vith book of his Dogmata Theologica]

[Footnote 40: Such as the rational Basnage (ad tom. I. Variar. Lection. Canisine in Praefat. C. 2, p. 11--23) and La Croze, the universalscholar, (Christianisme des Indes, tom. I. P. 16--20. De l'Ethiopie, p. 26, 27. The saur. Epist. P. 176, &c. , 283, 285. ) His free sentence isconfirmed by that of his friends Jablonski (Thesaur. Epist. Tom. I. P. 193--201) and Mosheim, (idem. P. 304, Nestorium crimine caruisse estet mea sententia;) and three more respectable judges will not easilybe found. Asseman, a learned and modest slave, can hardly discern(Bibliothec. Orient. Tom. Iv. P. 190--224) the guilt and error of theNestorians. ]

Yet neither the emperor nor the primate of the East were disposed toobey the mandate of an Italian priest; and a synod of the Catholic, orrather of the Greek church, was unanimously demanded as the sole remedythat could appease or decide this ecclesiastical quarrel. [41] Ephesus, on all sides accessible by sea and land, was chosen for the place, thefestival of Pentecost for the day, of the meeting; a writ of summons wasdespatched to each metropolitan, and a guard was stationed to protectand confine the fathers till they should settle the mysteries of heaven, and the faith of the earth. Nestorius appeared not as a criminal, butas a judge; he depended on the weight rather than the number of hisprelates, and his sturdy slaves from the baths of Zeuxippus were armedfor every service of injury or defence. But his adversary Cyril was morepowerful in the weapons both of the flesh and of the spirit. Disobedientto the letter, or at least to the meaning, of the royal summons, he wasattended by fifty Egyptian bishops, who expected from their patriarch'snod the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. He had contracted an intimatealliance with Memnon, bishop of Ephesus. The despotic primate of Asiadisposed of the ready succors of thirty or forty episcopal votes: acrowd of peasants, the slaves of the church, was poured into the city tosupport with blows and clamors a metaphysical argument; and the peoplezealously asserted the honor of the Virgin, whose body reposed withinthe walls of Ephesus. [42] The fleet which had transported Cyril fromAlexandria was laden with the riches of Egypt; and he disembarked anumerous body of mariners, slaves, and fanatics, enlisted with blindobedience under the banner of St. Mark and the mother of God. Thefathers, and even the guards, of the council were awed by this martialarray; the adversaries of Cyril and Mary were insulted in the streets, or threatened in their houses; his eloquence and liberality made a dailyincrease in the number of his adherents; and the Egyptian soon computedthat he might command the attendance and the voices of two hundredbishops. [43] But the author of the twelve anathemas foresaw and dreadedthe opposition of John of Antioch, who, with a small, but respectable, train of metropolitans and divines, was advancing by slow journeysfrom the distant capital of the East. Impatient of a delay, which hestigmatized as voluntary and culpable, [44] Cyril announced the openingof the synod sixteen days after the festival of Pentecost. Nestorius, who depended on the near approach of his Eastern friends, persisted, like his predecessor Chrysostom, to disclaim the jurisdiction, and todisobey the summons, of his enemies: they hastened his trial, andhis accuser presided in the seat of judgment. Sixty-eight bishops, twenty-two of metropolitan rank, defended his cause by a modest andtemperate protest: they were excluded from the councils of theirbrethren. Candidian, in the emperor's name, requested a delay of fourdays; the profane magistrate was driven with outrage and insult fromthe assembly of the saints. The whole of this momentous transaction wascrowded into the compass of a summer's day: the bishops delivered theirseparate opinions; but the uniformity of style reveals the influenceor the hand of a master, who has been accused of corrupting the publicevidence of their acts and subscriptions. [45] Without a dissentingvoice, they recognized in the epistles of Cyril the Nicene creed and thedoctrine of the fathers: but the partial extracts from the letters andhomilies of Nestorius were interrupted by curses and anathemas: and theheretic was degraded from his episcopal and ecclesiastical dignity. The sentence, maliciously inscribed to the new Judas, was affixed andproclaimed in the streets of Ephesus: the weary prelates, as they issuedfrom the church of the mother of God, were saluted as her champions;and her victory was celebrated by the illuminations, the songs, and thetumult of the night. 

[Footnote 41: The origin and progress of the Nestorian controversy, till the synod of Ephesus, may be found in Socrates, (l. Vii. C. 32, )Evagrius, (l. I. C. 1, 2, ) Liberatus, (Brev. C. 1--4, ) the originalActs, (Concil. Tom. Iii. P. 551--991, edit. Venice, 1728, ) the Annalsof Baronius and Pagi, and the faithful collections of Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. Tom. Xiv p. 283--377. )]

[Footnote 42: The Christians of the four first centuries were ignorantof the death and burial of Mary. The tradition of Ephesus is affirmedby the synod, (Concil. Tom. Iii. P. 1102;) yet it has been superseded bythe claim of Jerusalem; and her empty sepulchre, as it was shown tothe pilgrims, produced the fable of her resurrection and assumption, inwhich the Greek and Latin churches have piously acquiesced. See Baronius(Annal. Eccles. A. D. 48, No. 6, &c. ) and Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. Tom. I. P. 467--477. )]

[Footnote 43: The Acts of Chalcedon (Concil. Tom. Iv. P. 1405, 1408)exhibit a lively picture of the blind, obstinate servitude of thebishops of Egypt to their patriarch. ]

[Footnote 44: Civil or ecclesiastical business detained the bishopsat Antioch till the 18th of May. Ephesus was at the distance of thirtydays' journey; and ten days more may be fairly allowed for accidents andrepose. The march of Xenophon over the same ground enumerates above 260parasangs or leagues; and this measure might be illustrated from ancientand modern itineraries, if I knew how to compare the speed of an army, a synod, and a caravan. John of Antioch is reluctantly acquitted byTillemont himself, (Mem. Eccles. Tom. Xiv. P. 386--389. )]

[Footnote 45: Evagrius, l. I. C. 7. The same imputation was urged byCount Irenaeus, (tom. Iii. P. 1249;) and the orthodox critics do notfind it an easy task to defend the purity of the Greek or Latin copiesof the Acts. ]

On the fifth day, the triumph was clouded by the arrival and indignationof the Eastern bishops. In a chamber of the inn, before he had wipedthe dust from his shoes, John of Antioch gave audience to Candidian, theImperial minister; who related his ineffectual efforts to prevent or toannul the hasty violence of the Egyptian. With equal haste and violence, the Oriental synod of fifty bishops degraded Cyril and Memnon from theirepiscopal honors, condemned, in the twelve anathemas, the purest venomof the Apollinarian heresy, and described the Alexandrian primate as amonster, born and educated for the destruction of the church. [46] Histhrone was distant and inaccessible; but they instantly resolved tobestow on the flock of Ephesus the blessing of a faithful shepherd. By the vigilance of Memnon, the churches were shut against them, anda strong garrison was thrown into the cathedral. The troops, under thecommand of Candidian, advanced to the assault; the outguards were routedand put to the sword, but the place was impregnable: the besiegersretired; their retreat was pursued by a vigorous sally; they lost theirhorses, and many of their soldiers were dangerously wounded with clubsand stones. Ephesus, the city of the Virgin, was defiled with rage andclamor, with sedition and blood; the rival synods darted anathemasand excommunications from their spiritual engines; and the court ofTheodosius was perplexed by the adverse and contradictory narratives ofthe Syrian and Egyptian factions. During a busy period of three months, the emperor tried every method, except the most effectual means ofindifference and contempt, to reconcile this theological quarrel. Heattempted to remove or intimidate the leaders by a common sentence, ofacquittal or condemnation; he invested his representatives at Ephesuswith ample power and military force; he summoned from either party eightchosen deputies to a free and candid conference in the neighborhood ofthe capital, far from the contagion of popular frenzy. But the Orientalsrefused to yield, and the Catholics, proud of their numbers and of theirLatin allies, rejected all terms of union or toleration. The patienceof the meek Theodosius was provoked; and he dissolved in anger thisepiscopal tumult, which at the distance of thirteen centuries assumesthe venerable aspect of the third oecumenical council. [47] "God ismy witness, " said the pious prince, "that I am not the author of thisconfusion. His providence will discern and punish the guilty. Returnto your provinces, and may your private virtues repair the mischief andscandal of your meeting. " They returned to their provinces; but the samepassions which had distracted the synod of Ephesus were diffused overthe Eastern world. After three obstinate and equal campaigns, John ofAntioch and Cyril of Alexandria condescended to explain and embrace: buttheir seeming reunion must be imputed rather to prudence than to reason, to the mutual lassitude rather than to the Christian charity of thepatriarchs. 

[Footnote 46: After the coalition of John and Cyril these invectiveswere mutually forgotten. The style of declamation must never beconfounded with the genuine sense which respectable enemies entertain ofeach other's merit, (Concil tom. Iii. P. 1244. )]

[Footnote 47: See the acts of the synod of Ephesus in the originalGreek, and a Latin version almost contemporary, (Concil. Tom. Iii. P. 991--1339, with the Synodicon adversus Tragoediam Irenaei, tom. Iv. P. 235--497, ) the Ecclesiastical Histories of Socrates (l. Vii. C. 34) andEvagrius, (l i. C. 3, 4, 5, ) and the Breviary of Liberatus, (in Concil. Tom. Vi. P. 419--459, c. 5, 6, ) and the Memoires Eccles. Of Tillemont, (tom. Xiv p. 377-487. )]

The Byzantine pontiff had instilled into the royal ear a balefulprejudice against the character and conduct of his Egyptian rival. Anepistle of menace and invective, [48] which accompanied the summons, accused him as a busy, insolent, and envious priest, who perplexed thesimplicity of the faith, violated the peace of the church and state, and, by his artful and separate addresses to the wife and sister ofTheodosius, presumed to suppose, or to scatter, the seeds of discord inthe Imperial family. At the stern command of his sovereign. Cyril hadrepaired to Ephesus, where he was resisted, threatened, and confined, by the magistrates in the interest of Nestorius and the Orientals; whoassembled the troops of Lydia and Ionia to suppress the fanatic anddisorderly train of the patriarch. Without expecting the royal license, he escaped from his guards, precipitately embarked, deserted theimperfect synod, and retired to his episcopal fortress of safety andindependence. But his artful emissaries, both in the court and city, successfully labored to appease the resentment, and to conciliate thefavor, of the emperor. The feeble son of Arcadius was alternatelyswayed by his wife and sister, by the eunuchs and women of the palace:superstition and avarice were their ruling passions; and the orthodoxchiefs were assiduous in their endeavors to alarm the former, and togratify the latter. Constantinople and the suburbs were sanctified withfrequent monasteries, and the holy abbots, Dalmatius and Eutyches, [49]had devoted their zeal and fidelity to the cause of Cyril, the worshipof Mary, and the unity of Christ. From the first moment of theirmonastic life, they had never mingled with the world, or trod theprofane ground of the city. But in this awful moment of the danger ofthe church, their vow was superseded by a more sublime and indispensableduty. At the head of a long order of monks and hermits, who carriedburning tapers in their hands, and chanted litanies to the mother ofGod, they proceeded from their monasteries to the palace. The people wasedified and inflamed by this extraordinary spectacle, and the tremblingmonarch listened to the prayers and adjurations of the saints, whoboldly pronounced, that none could hope for salvation, unless theyembraced the person and the creed of the orthodox successor ofAthanasius. At the same time, every avenue of the throne was assaultedwith gold. Under the decent names of eulogies and benedictions, thecourtiers of both sexes were bribed according to the measure of theirpower and rapaciousness. But their incessant demands despoiled thesanctuaries of Constantinople and Alexandria; and the authority of thepatriarch was unable to silence the just murmur of his clergy, that adebt of sixty thousand pounds had already been contracted to support theexpense of this scandalous corruption. [50] Pulcheria, who relievedher brother from the weight of an empire, was the firmest pillar oforthodoxy; and so intimate was the alliance between the thunders of thesynod and the whispers of the court, that Cyril was assured of successif he could displace one eunuch, and substitute another in the favor ofTheodosius. Yet the Egyptian could not boast of a glorious or decisivevictory. The emperor, with unaccustomed firmness, adhered to his promiseof protecting the innocence of the Oriental bishops; and Cyril softenedhis anathemas, and confessed, with ambiguity and reluctance, a twofoldnature of Christ, before he was permitted to satiate his revenge againstthe unfortunate Nestorius. [51]

[Footnote 48: I should be curious to know how much Nestorius paid forthese expressions, so mortifying to his rival. ]

[Footnote 49: Eutyches, the heresiarch Eutyches, is honorably named byCyril as a friend, a saint, and the strenuous defender of the faith. Hisbrother, the abbot Dalmatus, is likewise employed to bind the emperorand all his chamberlains terribili conjuratione. Synodicon. C. 203, inConcil. Tom. Iv p. 467. ]

[Footnote 50: Clerici qui hic sunt contristantur, quod ecclesiaAlexandrina nudata sit hujus causa turbelae: et debet praeter illa quaehinc transmissa sint auri libras mille quingentas. Et nunc ei scriptumest ut praestet; sed de tua ecclesia praesta avaritiae quorum nosti, &c. This curious and original letter, from Cyril's archdeacon to hiscreature the new bishop of Constantinople, has been unaccountablypreserved in an old Latin version, (Synodicon, c. 203, Concil. Tom. Iv. P. 465--468. ) The mask is almost dropped, and the saints speak thehonest language of interest and confederacy. ]

[Footnote 51: The tedious negotiations that succeeded the synod ofEphesus are diffusely related in the original acts, (Concil. Tom. Iii. P. 1339--1771, ad fin. Vol. And the Synodicon, in tom. Iv. , ) Socrates, (l. Vii. C. 28, 35, 40, 41, ) Evagrius, (l. I. C. 6, 7, 8, 12, )Liberatus, (c. 7--10, 7-10, ) Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. Tom. Xiv. P. 487--676. ) The most patient reader will thank me for compressing so muchnonsense and falsehood in a few lines. ]

The rash and obstinate Nestorius, before the end of the synod, wasoppressed by Cyril, betrayed by the court, and faintly supported by hisEastern friends. A sentiment or fear or indignation prompted him, whileit was yet time, to affect the glory of a voluntary abdication: [52]his wish, or at least his request, was readily granted; he was conductedwith honor from Ephesus to his old monastery of Antioch; and, after ashort pause, his successors, Maximian and Proclus, were acknowledged asthe lawful bishops of Constantinople. But in the silence of his cell, the degraded patriarch could no longer resume the innocence and securityof a private monk. The past he regretted, he was discontented with thepresent, and the future he had reason to dread: the Oriental bishopssuccessively disengaged their cause from his unpopular name, and eachday decreased the number of the schismatics who revered Nestorius as theconfessor of the faith. After a residence at Antioch of four years, thehand of Theodosius subscribed an edict, [53] which ranked him withSimon the magician, proscribed his opinions and followers, condemnedhis writings to the flames, and banished his person first to Petra, inArabia, and at length to Oasis, one of the islands of the Libyan desert. [54] Secluded from the church and from the world, the exile was stillpursued by the rage of bigotry and war. A wandering tribe of theBlemmyes or Nubians invaded his solitary prison: in their retreat theydismissed a crowd of useless captives: but no sooner had Nestoriusreached the banks of the Nile, than he would gladly have escaped froma Roman and orthodox city, to the milder servitude of the savages. Hisflight was punished as a new crime: the soul of the patriarch inspiredthe civil and ecclesiastical powers of Egypt; the magistrates, thesoldiers, the monks, devoutly tortured the enemy of Christ and St. Cyril; and, as far as the confines of Aethiopia, the heretic wasalternately dragged and recalled, till his aged body was broken by thehardships and accidents of these reiterated journeys. Yet his mind wasstill independent and erect; the president of Thebais was awed by hispastoral letters; he survived the Catholic tyrant of Alexandria, and, after sixteen years' banishment, the synod of Chalcedon would perhapshave restored him to the honors, or at least to the communion, of thechurch. The death of Nestorius prevented his obedience to their welcomesummons; [55] and his disease might afford some color to the scandalousreport, that his tongue, the organ of blasphemy, had been eaten by theworms. He was buried in a city of Upper Egypt, known by the names ofChemnis, or Panopolis, or Akmim; [56] but the immortal malice of theJacobites has persevered for ages to cast stones against his sepulchre, and to propagate the foolish tradition, that it was never watered by therain of heaven, which equally descends on the righteous and the ungodly. [57] Humanity may drop a tear on the fate of Nestorius; yet justicemust observe, that he suffered the persecution which he had approved andinflicted. [58]

[Footnote 52: Evagrius, l. I. C. 7. The original letters in theSynodicon (c. 15, 24, 25, 26) justify the appearance of a voluntaryresignation, which is asserted by Ebed-Jesu, a Nestorian writer, apudAsseman. Bibliot. Oriental. Tom. Iii. P. 299, 302. ]

[Footnote 53: See the Imperial letters in the Acts of the Synodof Ephesus, (Concil. Tom. Iii. P. 1730--1735. ) The odious name ofSimonians, which was affixed to the disciples of this. Yet these wereChristians! who differed only in names and in shadows. ]

[Footnote 54: The metaphor of islands is applied by the grave civilians(Pandect. L. Xlviii. Tit. 22, leg. 7) to those happy spots which arediscriminated by water and verdure from the Libyan sands. Three of theseunder the common name of Oasis, or Alvahat: 1. The temple of JupiterAmmon. 2. The middle Oasis, three days' journey to the west ofLycopolis. 3. The southern, where Nestorius was banished in the firstclimate, and only three days' journey from the confines of Nubia. See alearned note of Michaelis, (ad Descript. Aegypt. Abulfedae, p. 21-34. )* Note: 1. The Oasis of Sivah has been visited by Mons. Drovetti andMr. Browne. 2. The little Oasis, that of El Kassar, was visited anddescribed by Belzoni. 3. The great Oasis, and its splendid ruins, havebeen well described in the travels of Sir A. Edmonstone. To these mustbe added another Western Oasis also visited by Sir A. Edmonstone. --M. ]

[Footnote 55: The invitation of Nestorius to the synod of Chalcedon, is related by Zacharias, bishop of Melitene (Evagrius, l. Ii. C. 2. Asseman. Biblioth. Orient. Tom. Ii. P. 55, ) and the famous Xenaias orPhiloxenus, bishop of Hierapolis, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Ii. P. 40, &c. , ) denied by Evagrius and Asseman, and stoutly maintained byLa Croze, (Thesaur. Epistol. Tom. Iii. P. 181, &c. ) The fact is notimprobable; yet it was the interest of the Monophysites to spread theinvidious report, and Eutychius (tom. Ii. P. 12) affirms, that Nestoriusdied after an exile of seven years, and consequently ten years beforethe synod of Chalcedon. ]

[Footnote 56: Consult D'Anville, (Memoire sur l'Egypte, p. 191, ) Pocock. (Description of the East, vol. I. P. 76, ) Abulfeda, (Descript. Aegypt, p. 14, ) and his commentator Michaelis, (Not. P. 78--83, ) and the NubianGeographer, (p. 42, ) who mentions, in the xiith century, the ruins andthe sugar-canes of Akmim. ]

[Footnote 57: Eutychius (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 12) and GregoryBar-Hebraeus, of Abulpharagius, (Asseman, tom. Ii. P. 316, ) representthe credulity of the xth and xiith centuries. ]

[Footnote 58: We are obliged to Evagrius (l. I. C. 7) for some extractsfrom the letters of Nestorius; but the lively picture of his sufferingsis treated with insult by the hard and stupid fanatic. ]

Chapter XLVII: Ecclesiastical Discord. --Part III. 

The death of the Alexandrian primate, after a reign of thirty-two years, abandoned the Catholics to the intemperance of zeal and the abuseof victory. [59] The monophysite doctrine (one incarnate nature) wasrigorously preached in the churches of Egypt and the monasteries of theEast; the primitive creed of Apollinarius was protected by the sanctityof Cyril; and the name of Eutyches, his venerable friend, has beenapplied to the sect most adverse to the Syrian heresy of Nestorius. Hisrival Eutyches was the abbot, or archimandrite, or superior of threehundred monks, but the opinions of a simple and illiterate recluse mighthave expired in the cell, where he had slept above seventy years, if theresentment or indiscretion of Flavian, the Byzantine pontiff, had notexposed the scandal to the eyes of the Christian world. His domesticsynod was instantly convened, their proceedings were sullied withclamor and artifice, and the aged heretic was surprised into a seemingconfession, that Christ had not derived his body from the substanceof the Virgin Mary. From their partial decree, Eutyches appealed to ageneral council; and his cause was vigorously asserted by his godsonChrysaphius, the reigning eunuch of the palace, and his accompliceDioscorus, who had succeeded to the throne, the creed, the talents, and the vices, of the nephew of Theophilus. By the special summons ofTheodosius, the second synod of Ephesus was judiciously composed often metropolitans and ten bishops from each of the six dioceses of theEastern empire: some exceptions of favor or merit enlarged the number toone hundred and thirty-five; and the Syrian Barsumas, as the chiefand representative of the monks, was invited to sit and vote withthe successors of the apostles. But the despotism of the Alexandrianpatriarch again oppressed the freedom of debate: the same spiritual andcarnal weapons were again drawn from the arsenals of Egypt: the Asiaticveterans, a band of archers, served under the orders of Dioscorus; andthe more formidable monks, whose minds were inaccessible to reason ormercy, besieged the doors of the cathedral. The general, and, as itshould seem, the unconstrained voice of the fathers, accepted the faithand even the anathemas of Cyril; and the heresy of the two natureswas formally condemned in the persons and writings of the most learnedOrientals. "May those who divide Christ be divided with the sword, maythey be hewn in pieces, may they be burned alive!" were the charitablewishes of a Christian synod. [60] The innocence and sanctity of Eutycheswere acknowledged without hesitation; but the prelates, more especiallythose of Thrace and Asia, were unwilling to depose their patriarch forthe use or even the abuse of his lawful jurisdiction. They embracedthe knees of Dioscorus, as he stood with a threatening aspect on thefootstool of his throne, and conjured him to forgive the offences, and to respect the dignity, of his brother. "Do you mean to raise asedition?" exclaimed the relentless tyrant. "Where are the officers?" Atthese words a furious multitude of monks and soldiers, with staves, andswords, and chains, burst into the church; the trembling bishops hidthemselves behind the altar, or under the benches, and as they werenot inspired with the zeal of martyrdom, they successively subscribeda blank paper, which was afterwards filled with the condemnation of theByzantine pontiff. Flavian was instantly delivered to the wild beasts ofthis spiritual amphitheatre: the monks were stimulated by the voice andexample of Barsumas to avenge the injuries of Christ: it is said thatthe patriarch of Alexandria reviled, and buffeted, and kicked, andtrampled his brother of Constantinople: [61] it is certain, that thevictim, before he could reach the place of his exile, expired on thethird day of the wounds and bruises which he had received at Ephesus. This second synod has been justly branded as a gang of robbers andassassins; yet the accusers of Dioscorus would magnify his violence, toalleviate the cowardice and inconstancy of their own behavior. 

[Footnote 59: Dixi Cyrillum dum viveret, auctoritate sua effecisse, neEutychianismus et Monophysitarum error in nervum erumperet: idque verumputo. .. Aliquo. .. Honesto modo cecinerat. The learned but cautiousJablonski did not always speak the whole truth. Cum Cyrillo leniusomnino egi, quam si tecum aut cum aliis rei hujus probe gnaris et aequisrerum aestimatoribus sermones privatos conferrem, (Thesaur. Epistol. LaCrozian. Tom. I. P. 197, 198) an excellent key to his dissertations onthe Nestorian controversy!]

[Footnote 60: At the request of Dioscorus, those who were not able toroar, stretched out their hands. At Chalcedon, the Orientals disclaimedthese exclamations: but the Egyptians more consistently declared. (Concil. Tom. Iv. P. 1012. )]

[Footnote 61: (Eusebius, bishop of Dorylaeum): and this testimony ofEvagrius (l. Ii. C. 2) is amplified by the historian Zonaras, (tom. Ii. L. Xiii. P. 44, ) who affirms that Dioscorus kicked like a wild ass. Butthe language of Liberatus (Brev. C. 12, in Concil. Tom. Vi. P. 438)is more cautious; and the Acts of Chalcedon, which lavish the namesof homicide, Cain, &c. , do not justify so pointed a charge. The monkBarsumas is more particularly accused, (Concil. Tom. Iv. P. 1418. )]

The faith of Egypt had prevailed: but the vanquished party was supportedby the same pope who encountered without fear the hostile rage of Attilaand Genseric. The theology of Leo, his famous tome or epistle onthe mystery of the incarnation, had been disregarded by the synod ofEphesus: his authority, and that of the Latin church, was insulted inhis legates, who escaped from slavery and death to relate the melancholytale of the tyranny of Dioscorus and the martyrdom of Flavian. Hisprovincial synod annulled the irregular proceedings of Ephesus; butas this step was itself irregular, he solicited the convocation of ageneral council in the free and orthodox provinces of Italy. From hisindependent throne, the Roman bishop spoke and acted without dangeras the head of the Christians, and his dictates were obsequiouslytranscribed by Placidia and her son Valentinian; who addressed theirEastern colleague to restore the peace and unity of the church. But thepageant of Oriental royalty was moved with equal dexterity by the handof the eunuch; and Theodosius could pronounce, without hesitation, thatthe church was already peaceful and triumphant, and that the recentflame had been extinguished by the just punishment of the Nestorians. Perhaps the Greeks would be still involved in the heresy of theMonophysites, if the emperor's horse had not fortunately stumbled;Theodosius expired; his orthodox sister Pulcheria, with a nominalhusband, succeeded to the throne; Chrysaphius was burnt, Dioscorus wasdisgraced, the exiles were recalled, and the tome of Leo was subscribedby the Oriental bishops. Yet the pope was disappointed in his favoriteproject of a Latin council: he disdained to preside in the Greek synod, which was speedily assembled at Nice in Bithynia; his legates requiredin a peremptory tone the presence of the emperor; and the weary fatherswere transported to Chalcedon under the immediate eye of Marcian andthe senate of Constantinople. A quarter of a mile from the ThracianBosphorus, the church of St. Euphemia was built on the summit of agentle though lofty ascent: the triple structure was celebrated as aprodigy of art, and the boundless prospect of the land and sea mighthave raised the mind of a sectary to the contemplation of the God ofthe universe. Six hundred and thirty bishops were ranged in order in thenave of the church; but the patriarchs of the East were preceded by thelegates, of whom the third was a simple priest; and the place of honorwas reserved for twenty laymen of consular or senatorian rank. Thegospel was ostentatiously displayed in the centre, but the rule offaith was defined by the Papal and Imperial ministers, who moderatedthe thirteen sessions of the council of Chalcedon. [62] Their partialinterposition silenced the intemperate shouts and execrations, whichdegraded the episcopal gravity; but, on the formal accusation of thelegates, Dioscorus was compelled to descend from his throne to therank of a criminal, already condemned in the opinion of his judges. TheOrientals, less adverse to Nestorius than to Cyril, accepted the Romansas their deliverers: Thrace, and Pontus, and Asia, were exasperatedagainst the murderer of Flavian, and the new patriarchs ofConstantinople and Antioch secured their places by the sacrifice oftheir benefactor. The bishops of Palestine, Macedonia, and Greece, wereattached to the faith of Cyril; but in the face of the synod, in theheat of the battle, the leaders, with their obsequious train, passedfrom the right to the left wing, and decided the victory by thisseasonable desertion. Of the seventeen suffragans who sailed fromAlexandria, four were tempted from their allegiance, and the thirteen, falling prostrate on the ground, implored the mercy of the council, withsighs and tears, and a pathetic declaration, that, if they yielded, theyshould be massacred, on their return to Egypt, by the indignant people. A tardy repentance was allowed to expiate the guilt or error of theaccomplices of Dioscorus: but their sins were accumulated on his head;he neither asked nor hoped for pardon, and the moderation of thosewho pleaded for a general amnesty was drowned in the prevailing cry ofvictory and revenge. 

To save the reputation of his late adherents, some personal offenceswere skilfully detected; his rash and illegal excommunication of thepope, and his contumacious refusal (while he was detained a prisoner) toattend to the summons of the synod. Witnesses were introduced to provethe special facts of his pride, avarice, and cruelty; and the fathersheard with abhorrence, that the alms of the church were lavished onthe female dancers, that his palace, and even his bath, was open to theprostitutes of Alexandria, and that the infamous Pansophia, or Irene, was publicly entertained as the concubine of the patriarch. [63]

[Footnote 62: The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon (Concil. Tom. Iv. P. 761--2071) comprehend those of Ephesus, (p. 890--1189, ) which againcomprise the synod of Constantinople under Flavian, (p. 930--1072;)and at requires some attention to disengage this double involution. The whole business of Eutyches, Flavian, and Dioscorus, is related byEvagrius (l. I. C. 9--12, and l. Ii. C. 1, 2, 3, 4, ) and Liberatus, (Brev. C. 11, 12, 13, 14. ) Once more, and almost for the last time, I appeal to the diligence of Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. Tom. Xv. P. 479-719. ) The annals of Baronius and Pagi will accompany me much furtheron my long and laborious journey. ]

[Footnote 63: (Concil. Tom. Iv. P. 1276. ) A specimen of the wit andmalice of the people is preserved in the Greek Anthology, (l. Ii. C. 5, p. 188, edit. Wechel, ) although the application was unknown to theeditor Brodaeus. The nameless epigrammatist raises a tolerable pun, by confounding the episcopal salutation of "Peace be to all!" withthe genuine or corrupted name of the bishop's concubine: I am ignorantwhether the patriarch, who seems to have been a jealous lover, is theCimon of a preceding epigram, was viewed with envy and wonder by Priapushimself. ]

For these scandalous offences, Dioscorus was deposed by the synod, andbanished by the emperor; but the purity of his faith was declared in thepresence, and with the tacit approbation, of the fathers. Their prudencesupposed rather than pronounced the heresy of Eutyches, who was neversummoned before their tribunal; and they sat silent and abashed, whena bold Monophysite casting at their feet a volume of Cyril, challengedthem to anathematize in his person the doctrine of the saint. If wefairly peruse the acts of Chalcedon as they are recorded by the orthodoxparty, [64] we shall find that a great majority of the bishops embracedthe simple unity of Christ; and the ambiguous concession that hewas formed Of or From two natures, might imply either their previousexistence, or their subsequent confusion, or some dangerous intervalbetween the conception of the man and the assumption of the God. The Roman theology, more positive and precise, adopted the term mostoffensive to the ears of the Egyptians, that Christ existed In twonatures; and this momentous particle [65] (which the memory, rather thanthe understanding, must retain) had almost produced a schism amongthe Catholic bishops. The tome of Leo had been respectfully, perhapssincerely, subscribed; but they protested, in two successive debates, that it was neither expedient nor lawful to transgress the sacredlandmarks which had been fixed at Nice, Constantinople, and Ephesus, according to the rule of Scripture and tradition. At length they yieldedto the importunities of their masters; but their infallible decree, after it had been ratified with deliberate votes and vehementacclamations, was overturned in the next session by the opposition ofthe legates and their Oriental friends. It was in vain that a multitudeof episcopal voices repeated in chorus, "The definition of the fathersis orthodox and immutable! The heretics are now discovered! Anathemato the Nestorians! Let them depart from the synod! Let them repair toRome. " [66] The legates threatened, the emperor was absolute, and acommittee of eighteen bishops prepared a new decree, which was imposedon the reluctant assembly. In the name of the fourth general council, the Christ in one person, but in two natures, was announced to theCatholic world: an invisible line was drawn between the heresy ofApollinaris and the faith of St. Cyril; and the road to paradise, a bridge as sharp as a razor, was suspended over the abyss by themaster-hand of the theological artist. During ten centuries of blindnessand servitude, Europe received her religious opinions from the oracle ofthe Vatican; and the same doctrine, already varnished with the rust ofantiquity, was admitted without dispute into the creed of the reformers, who disclaimed the supremacy of the Roman pontiff. The synod ofChalcedon still triumphs in the Protestant churches; but the ferment ofcontroversy has subsided, and the most pious Christians of the presentday are ignorant, or careless, of their own belief concerning themystery of the incarnation. 

[Footnote 64: Those who reverence the infallibility of synods, may tryto ascertain their sense. The leading bishops were attended by partialor careless scribes, who dispersed their copies round the world. OurGreek Mss. Are sullied with the false and prescribed reading of (Concil. Tom. Iii. P. 1460:) the authentic translation of Pope Leo I. Does notseem to have been executed, and the old Latin versions materially differfrom the present Vulgate, which was revised (A. D. 550) by Rusticus, a Roman priest, from the best Mss. At Constantinople, (Ducange, C. P. Christiana, l. Iv. P. 151, ) a famous monastery of Latins, Greeks, andSyrians. See Concil. Tom. Iv. P. 1959--2049, and Pagi, Critica, tom. Ii. P. 326, &c. ]

[Footnote 65: It is darkly represented in the microscope of Petavius, (tom. V. L. Iii. C. 5;) yet the subtle theologian is himself afraid--nequis fortasse supervacaneam, et nimis anxiam putet hujusmodi vocularuminquisitionem, et ab instituti theologici gravitate alienam, (p. 124. )]

[Footnote 66: (Concil. Tom. Iv. P. 1449. ) Evagrius and Liberatus presentonly the placid face of the synod, and discreetly slide over theseembers, suppositos cineri doloso. ]

Far different was the temper of the Greeks and Egyptians under theorthodox reigns of Leo and Marcian. Those pious emperors enforced witharms and edicts the symbol of their faith; [67] and it was declared bythe conscience or honor of five hundred bishops, that the decrees ofthe synod of Chalcedon might be lawfully supported, even with blood. The Catholics observed with satisfaction, that the same synod was odiousboth to the Nestorians and the Monophysites; [68] but the Nestorianswere less angry, or less powerful, and the East was distracted bythe obstinate and sanguinary zeal of the Monophysites. Jerusalem wasoccupied by an army of monks; in the name of the one incarnate nature, they pillaged, they burnt, they murdered; the sepulchre of Christ wasdefiled with blood; and the gates of the city were guarded in tumultuousrebellion against the troops of the emperor. After the disgrace andexile of Dioscorus, the Egyptians still regretted their spiritualfather; and detested the usurpation of his successor, who was introducedby the fathers of Chalcedon. The throne of Proterius was supported by aguard of two thousand soldiers: he waged a five years' war against thepeople of Alexandria; and on the first intelligence of the death ofMarcian, he became the victim of their zeal. On the third day beforethe festival of Easter, the patriarch was besieged in the cathedral, and murdered in the baptistery. The remains of his mangled corpse weredelivered to the flames, and his ashes to the wind; and the deed wasinspired by the vision of a pretended angel: an ambitious monk, who, under the name of Timothy the Cat, [69] succeeded to the place andopinions of Dioscorus. This deadly superstition was inflamed, on eitherside, by the principle and the practice of retaliation: in the pursuitof a metaphysical quarrel, many thousands [70] were slain, and theChristians of every degree were deprived of the substantial enjoymentsof social life, and of the invisible gifts of baptism and the holycommunion. Perhaps an extravagant fable of the times may conceal anallegorical picture of these fanatics, who tortured each other andthemselves. "Under the consulship of Venantius and Celer, " says a gravebishop, "the people of Alexandria, and all Egypt, were seized with astrange and diabolical frenzy: great and small, slaves and freedmen, monks and clergy, the natives of the land, who opposed the synod ofChalcedon, lost their speech and reason, barked like dogs, and tore, with their own teeth the flesh from their hands and arms. " [71]

[Footnote 67: See, in the Appendix to the Acts of Chalcedon, theconfirmation of the Synod by Marcian, (Concil. Tom. Iv. P. 1781, 1783;)his letters to the monks of Alexandria, (p. 1791, ) of Mount Sinai, (p. 1793, ) of Jerusalem and Palestine, (p. 1798;) his laws against theEutychians, (p. 1809, 1811, 1831;) the correspondence of Leo with theprovincial synods on the revolution of Alexandria, (p. 1835--1930. )]

[Footnote 68: Photius (or rather Eulogius of Alexandria) confesses, in afine passage, the specious color of this double charge against Pope Leoand his synod of Chalcedon, (Bibliot. Cod. Ccxxv. P. 768. ) He waged adouble war against the enemies of the church, and wounded eitherfoe with the darts of his adversary. Against Nestorius he seemed tointroduce Monophysites; against Eutyches he appeared to countenance theNestorians. The apologist claims a charitable interpretation for thesaints: if the same had been extended to the heretics, the sound of thecontroversy would have been lost in the air]

[Footnote 69: From his nocturnal expeditions. In darkness and disguisehe crept round the cells of the monastery, and whispered the revelationto his slumbering brethren, (Theodor. Lector. L. I. )]

[Footnote 70: Such is the hyperbolic language of the Henoticon. ]

[Footnote 71: See the Chronicle of Victor Tunnunensis, in the LectionesAntiquae of Canisius, republished by Basnage, tom. 326. ]

The disorders of thirty years at length produced the famous Henoticon[72] of the emperor Zeno, which in his reign, and in that of Anastasius, was signed by all the bishops of the East, under the penalty ofdegradation and exile, if they rejected or infringed this salutary andfundamental law. The clergy may smile or groan at the presumption ofa layman who defines the articles of faith; yet if he stoops to thehumiliating task, his mind is less infected by prejudice or interest, and the authority of the magistrate can only be maintained by theconcord of the people. It is in ecclesiastical story, that Zeno appearsleast contemptible; and I am not able to discern any Manichaean orEutychian guilt in the generous saying of Anastasius. That it wasunworthy of an emperor to persecute the worshippers of Christ and thecitizens of Rome. The Henoticon was most pleasing to the Egyptians; yetthe smallest blemish has not been described by the jealous, and evenjaundiced eyes of our orthodox schoolmen, and it accurately representsthe Catholic faith of the incarnation, without adopting or disclaimingthe peculiar terms of tenets of the hostile sects. A solemn anathema ispronounced against Nestorius and Eutyches; against all heretics bywhom Christ is divided, or confounded, or reduced to a phantom. Withoutdefining the number or the article of the word nature, the pure systemof St. Cyril, the faith of Nice, Constantinople, and Ephesus, isrespectfully confirmed; but, instead of bowing at the name of thefourth council, the subject is dismissed by the censure of allcontrary doctrines, if any such have been taught either elsewhere or atChalcedon. Under this ambiguous expression, the friends and the enemiesof the last synod might unite in a silent embrace. The most reasonableChristians acquiesced in this mode of toleration; but their reason wasfeeble and inconstant, and their obedience was despised as timid andservile by the vehement spirit of their brethren. On a subject whichengrossed the thoughts and discourses of men, it was difficult topreserve an exact neutrality; a book, a sermon, a prayer, rekindled theflame of controversy; and the bonds of communion were alternately brokenand renewed by the private animosity of the bishops. The space betweenNestorius and Eutyches was filled by a thousand shades of language andopinion; the acephali [73] of Egypt, and the Roman pontiffs, of equalvalor, though of unequal strength, may be found at the two extremitiesof the theological scale. The acephali, without a king or a bishop, wereseparated above three hundred years from the patriarchs of Alexandria, who had accepted the communion of Constantinople, without exactinga formal condemnation of the synod of Chalcedon. For accepting thecommunion of Alexandria, without a formal approbation of the same synod, the patriarchs of Constantinople were anathematized by the popes. Theirinflexible despotism involved the most orthodox of the Greek churchesin this spiritual contagion, denied or doubted the validity of theirsacraments, [74] and fomented, thirty-five years, the schism of theEast and West, till they finally abolished the memory of four Byzantinepontiffs, who had dared to oppose the supremacy of St. Peter. [75]Before that period, the precarious truce of Constantinople and Egypthad been violated by the zeal of the rival prelates. Macedonius, who wassuspected of the Nestorian heresy, asserted, in disgrace and exile, thesynod of Chalcedon, while the successor of Cyril would have purchasedits overthrow with a bribe of two thousand pounds of gold. [Footnote72: The Henoticon is transcribed by Evagrius, (l. Iii. C. 13, ) andtranslated by Liberatus, (Brev. C. 18. ) Pagi (Critica, tom. Ii. P. 411)and (Bibliot. Orient. Tom. I. P. 343) are satisfied that it is free fromheresy; but Petavius (Dogmat. Theolog. Tom. V. L. I. C. 13, p. 40) mostunaccountably affirms Chalcedonensem ascivit. An adversary would provethat he had never read the Henoticon. ]

[Footnote 73: See Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. P. 123, 131, 145, 195, 247. ) They were reconciled by the care of Mark I. (A. D. 799--819;)he promoted their chiefs to the bishoprics of Athribis and Talba, (perhaps Tava. See D'Anville, p. 82, ) and supplied the sacraments, whichhad failed for want of an episcopal ordination. ]

[Footnote 74: De his quos baptizavit, quos ordinavit Acacius, majorumtraditione confectam et veram, praecipue religiosae solicitudinicongruam praebemus sine difficultate medicinam, (Galacius, in epist. I. Ad Euphemium, Concil. Tom. V. 286. ) The offer of a medicine proves thedisease, and numbers must have perished before the arrival of the Romanphysician. Tillemont himself (Mem. Eccles. Tom. Xvi. P. 372, 642, &c. )is shocked at the proud, uncharitable temper of the popes; they are nowglad, says he, to invoke St. Flavian of Antioch, St. Elias of Jerusalem, &c. , to whom they refused communion whilst upon earth. But CardinalBaronius is firm and hard as the rock of St. Peter. ]

[Footnote 75: Their names were erased from the diptych of the church: exvenerabili diptycho, in quo piae memoriae transitum ad coelum habentiumepiscoporum vocabula continentur, (Concil. Tom. Iv. P. 1846. ) Thisecclesiastical record was therefore equivalent to the book of life. ]

In the fever of the times, the sense, or rather the sound of a syllable, was sufficient to disturb the peace of an empire. The Trisagion [76](thrice holy, ) "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts!" is supposed, by the Greeks, to be the identical hymn which the angels and cherubimeternally repeat before the throne of God, and which, about the middleof the fifth century, was miraculously revealed to the church ofConstantinople. The devotion of Antioch soon added, "who was crucifiedfor us!" and this grateful address, either to Christ alone, or to thewhole Trinity, may be justified by the rules of theology, and has beengradually adopted by the Catholics of the East and West. But it had beenimagined by a Monophysite bishop; [77] the gift of an enemy was at firstrejected as a dire and dangerous blasphemy, and the rash innovation hadnearly cost the emperor Anastasius his throne and his life. [78] Thepeople of Constantinople was devoid of any rational principles offreedom; but they held, as a lawful cause of rebellion, the color ofa livery in the races, or the color of a mystery in the schools. TheTrisagion, with and without this obnoxious addition, was chanted in thecathedral by two adverse choirs, and when their lungs were exhausted, they had recourse to the more solid arguments of sticks and stones; theaggressors were punished by the emperor, and defended by the patriarch;and the crown and mitre were staked on the event of this momentousquarrel. The streets were instantly crowded with innumerable swarmsof men, women, and children; the legions of monks, in regular array, marched, and shouted, and fought at their head, "Christians! this is theday of martyrdom: let us not desert our spiritual father; anathema tothe Manichaean tyrant! he is unworthy to reign. " Such was the Catholiccry; and the galleys of Anastasius lay upon their oars before thepalace, till the patriarch had pardoned his penitent, and hushed thewaves of the troubled multitude. The triumph of Macedonius was checkedby a speedy exile; but the zeal of his flock was again exasperated bythe same question, "Whether one of the Trinity had been crucified?" Onthis momentous occasion, the blue and green factions of Constantinoplesuspended their discord, and the civil and military powers wereannihilated in their presence. The keys of the city, and the standardsof the guards, were deposited in the forum of Constantine, the principalstation and camp of the faithful. Day and night they were incessantlybusied either in singing hymns to the honor of their God, or inpillaging and murdering the servants of their prince. The head of hisfavorite monk, the friend, as they styled him, of the enemy of the HolyTrinity, was borne aloft on a spear; and the firebrands, which hadbeen darted against heretical structures, diffused the undistinguishingflames over the most orthodox buildings. The statues of the emperor werebroken, and his person was concealed in a suburb, till, at the end ofthree days, he dared to implore the mercy of his subjects. Without hisdiadem, and in the posture of a suppliant, Anastasius appeared on thethrone of the circus. The Catholics, before his face, rehearsed theirgenuine Trisagion; they exulted in the offer, which he proclaimed bythe voice of a herald, of abdicating the purple; they listened to theadmonition, that, since all could not reign, they should previouslyagree in the choice of a sovereign; and they accepted the blood of twounpopular ministers, whom their master, without hesitation, condemned tothe lions. These furious but transient seditions were encouraged by thesuccess of Vitalian, who, with an army of Huns and Bulgarians, forthe most part idolaters, declared himself the champion of the Catholicfaith. In this pious rebellion he depopulated Thrace, besiegedConstantinople, exterminated sixty-five thousand of hisfellow-Christians, till he obtained the recall of the bishops, thesatisfaction of the pope, and the establishment of the councilof Chalcedon, an orthodox treaty, reluctantly signed by the dyingAnastasius, and more faithfully performed by the uncle of Justinian. Andsuch was the event of the first of the religious wars which have beenwaged in the name and by the disciples, of the God of peace. [79]

[Footnote 76: Petavius (Dogmat. Theolog. Tom. V. L. V. C. 2, 3, 4, p. 217-225) and Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. Tom. Xiv. P. 713, &c. , 799)represent the history and doctrine of the Trisagion. In the twelvecenturies between Isaiah and St. Proculs's boy, who was taken up intoheaven before the bishop and people of Constantinople, the song wasconsiderably improved. The boy heard the angels sing, "Holy God! Holystrong! Holy immortal!"]

[Footnote 77: Peter Gnapheus, the fuller, (a trade which he hadexercised in his monastery, ) patriarch of Antioch. His tedious story isdiscussed in the Annals of Pagi (A. D. 477--490) and a dissertation of M. De Valois at the end of his Evagrius. ]

[Footnote 78: The troubles under the reign of Anastasius must begathered from the Chronicles of Victor, Marcellinus, and Theophanes. Asthe last was not published in the time of Baronius, his critic Pagi ismore copious, as well as more correct. ]

[Footnote 79: The general history, from the council of Chalcedon tothe death of Anastasius, may be found in the Breviary of Liberatus, (c. 14--19, ) the iid and iiid books of Evagrius, the abstract of the twobooks of Theodore the Reader, the Acts of the Synods, and the Epistlesof the Pope, (Concil. Tom. V. ) The series is continued with somedisorder in the xvth and xvith tomes of the Memoires Ecclesiastiquesof Tillemont. And here I must take leave forever of that incomparableguide--whose bigotry is overbalanced by the merits of erudition, diligence, veracity, and scrupulous minuteness. He was prevented bydeath from completing, as he designed, the vith century of the churchand empire. ]

Chapter XLVII: Ecclesiastical Discord. --Part IV. 

Justinian has been already seen in the various lights of a prince, aconqueror, and a lawgiver: the theologian [80] still remains, and itaffords an unfavorable prejudice, that his theology should form a veryprominent feature of his portrait. The sovereign sympathized withhis subjects in their superstitious reverence for living and departedsaints: his Code, and more especially his Novels, confirm and enlargethe privileges of the clergy; and in every dispute between a monk anda layman, the partial judge was inclined to pronounce, that truth, andinnocence, and justice, were always on the side of the church. In hispublic and private devotions, the emperor was assiduous and exemplary;his prayers, vigils, and fasts, displayed the austere penance of a monk;his fancy was amused by the hope, or belief, of personal inspiration; hehad secured the patronage of the Virgin and St. Michael the archangel;and his recovery from a dangerous disease was ascribed to the miraculoussuccor of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian. The capital and theprovinces of the East were decorated with the monuments of his religion;[81] and though the far greater part of these costly structures may beattributed to his taste or ostentation, the zeal of the royal architectwas probably quickened by a genuine sense of love and gratitude towardshis invisible benefactors. Among the titles of Imperial greatness, thename of Pious was most pleasing to his ear; to promote the temporal andspiritual interest of the church was the serious business of his life;and the duty of father of his country was often sacrificed to that ofdefender of the faith. The controversies of the times were congenialto his temper and understanding and the theological professors mustinwardly deride the diligence of a stranger, who cultivated their artand neglected his own. "What can ye fear, " said a bold conspirator tohis associates, "from your bigoted tyrant? Sleepless and unarmed, hesits whole nights in his closet, debating with reverend graybeards, andturning over the pages of ecclesiastical volumes. " [82] The fruits ofthese lucubrations were displayed in many a conference, where Justinianmight shine as the loudest and most subtile of the disputants; in many asermon, which, under the name of edicts and epistles, proclaimed to theempire the theology of their master. While the Barbarians invaded theprovinces, while the victorious legion marched under the banners ofBelisarius and Narses, the successor of Trajan, unknown to the camp, was content to vanquish at the head of a synod. Had he invited to thesesynods a disinterested and rational spectator, Justinian might havelearned, "that religious controversy is the offspring of arroganceand folly; that true piety is most laudably expressed by silence andsubmission; that man, ignorant of his own nature, should not presume toscrutinize the nature of his God; and that it is sufficient for usto know, that power and benevolence are the perfect attributes of theDeity. " [83]

[Footnote 80: The strain of the Anecdotes of Procopius, (c. 11, 13, 18, 27, 28, ) with the learned remarks of Alemannus, is confirmed, ratherthan contradicted, by the Acts of the Councils, the fourth book ofEvagrius, and the complaints of the African Facundus, in hisxiith book--de tribus capitulis, "cum videri doctus appetitimportune. .. Spontaneis quaestionibus ecclesiam turbat. " See Procop. DeBell. Goth. L. Iii. C. 35. ]

[Footnote 81: Procop. De Edificiis, l. I. C. 6, 7, &c. , passim. ]

[Footnote 82: Procop. De Bell. Goth. L. Iii. C. 32. In the life of St. Eutychius (apud Aleman. Ad Procop. Arcan. C. 18) the same character isgiven with a design to praise Justinian. ]

[Footnote 83: For these wise and moderate sentiments, Procopius (deBell. Goth. L. I. C. 3) is scourged in the preface of Alemannus, whoranks him among the political Christians--sed longe verius haeresiumomnium sentinas, prorsusque Atheos--abominable Atheists, who preachedthe imitation of God's mercy to man, (ad Hist. Arcan. C. 13. )]

Toleration was not the virtue of the times, and indulgence to rebels hasseldom been the virtue of princes. But when the prince descends to thenarrow and peevish character of a disputant, he is easily provoked tosupply the defect of argument by the plenitude of power, and to chastisewithout mercy the perverse blindness of those who wilfully shut theireyes against the light of demonstration. The reign of Justinian wasa uniform yet various scene of persecution; and he appears to havesurpassed his indolent predecessors, both in the contrivance of his lawsand the rigor of their execution. The insufficient term of three monthswas assigned for the conversion or exile of all heretics; [84] and if hestill connived at their precarious stay, they were deprived, underhis iron yoke, not only of the benefits of society, but of the commonbirth-right of men and Christians. At the end of four hundred years, the Montanists of Phrygia [85] still breathed the wild enthusiasm ofperfection and prophecy which they had imbibed from their male andfemale apostles, the special organs of the Paraclete. On the approach ofthe Catholic priests and soldiers, they grasped with alacrity thecrown of martyrdom the conventicle and the congregation perished in theflames, but these primitive fanatics were not extinguished three hundredyears after the death of their tyrant. Under the protection of theirGothic confederates, the church of the Arians at Constantinople hadbraved the severity of the laws: their clergy equalled the wealth andmagnificence of the senate; and the gold and silver which were seized bythe rapacious hand of Justinian might perhaps be claimed as the spoilsof the provinces, and the trophies of the Barbarians. A secret remnantof Pagans, who still lurked in the most refined and most rusticconditions of mankind, excited the indignation of the Christians, whowere perhaps unwilling that any strangers should be the witnesses oftheir intestine quarrels. A bishop was named as the inquisitor of thefaith, and his diligence soon discovered, in the court and city, themagistrates, lawyers, physicians, and sophists, who still cherished thesuperstition of the Greeks. They were sternly informed that they mustchoose without delay between the displeasure of Jupiter or Justinian, and that their aversion to the gospel could no longer be distinguishedunder the scandalous mask of indifference or impiety. The patricianPhotius, perhaps, alone was resolved to live and to die like hisancestors: he enfranchised himself with the stroke of a dagger, and lefthis tyrant the poor consolation of exposing with ignominy the lifelesscorpse of the fugitive. His weaker brethren submitted to their earthlymonarch, underwent the ceremony of baptism, and labored, by theirextraordinary zeal, to erase the suspicion, or to expiate the guilt, of idolatry. The native country of Homer, and the theatre of the Trojanwar, still retained the last sparks of his mythology: by the care ofthe same bishop, seventy thousand Pagans were detected and converted inAsia, Phrygia, Lydia, and Caria; ninety-six churches were built for thenew proselytes; and linen vestments, Bibles, and liturgies, and vasesof gold and silver, were supplied by the pious munificence of Justinian. [86] The Jews, who had been gradually stripped of their immunities, were oppressed by a vexatious law, which compelled them to observethe festival of Easter the same day on which it was celebrated by theChristians. [87] And they might complain with the more reason, since theCatholics themselves did not agree with the astronomical calculations oftheir sovereign: the people of Constantinople delayed the beginning oftheir Lent a whole week after it had been ordained by authority; andthey had the pleasure of fasting seven days, while meat was exposed forsale by the command of the emperor. The Samaritans of Palestine [88]were a motley race, an ambiguous sect, rejected as Jews by the Pagans, by the Jews as schismatics, and by the Christians as idolaters. Theabomination of the cross had already been planted on their holy mountof Garizim, [89] but the persecution of Justinian offered only thealternative of baptism or rebellion. They chose the latter: under thestandard of a desperate leader, they rose in arms, and retaliated theirwrongs on the lives, the property, and the temples, of a defencelesspeople. The Samaritans were finally subdued by the regular forces of theEast: twenty thousand were slain, twenty thousand were sold by the Arabsto the infidels of Persia and India, and the remains of that unhappynation atoned for the crime of treason by the sin of hypocrisy. It hasbeen computed that one hundred thousand Roman subjects were extirpatedin the Samaritan war, [90] which converted the once fruitful provinceinto a desolate and smoking wilderness. But in the creed of Justinian, the guilt of murder could not be applied to the slaughter ofunbelievers; and he piously labored to establish with fire and sword theunity of the Christian faith. [91]

[Footnote 84: This alternative, a precious circumstance, is preservedby John Malala, (tom. Ii. P. 63, edit. Venet. 1733, ) who deservesmore credit as he draws towards his end. After numbering the heretics, Nestorians, Eutychians, &c. , ne expectent, says Justinian, ut dignivenia judicen tur: jubemus, enim ut. .. Convicti et aperti haereticijustae et idoneae animadversioni subjiciantur. Baronius copies andapplauds this edict of the Code, (A. D. 527, No. 39, 40. )]

[Footnote 85: See the character and principles of the Montanists, inMosheim, Rebus Christ. Ante Constantinum, p. 410--424. ]

[Footnote 86: Theophan. Chron. P. 153. John, the Monophysite bishop ofAsia, is a more authentic witness of this transaction, in which he washimself employed by the emperor, (Asseman. Bib. Orient. Tom. Ii. P. 85. )]

[Footnote 87: Compare Procopius (Hist. Arcan. C. 28, and Aleman's Notes)with Theophanes, (Chron. P. 190. ) The council of Nice has intrusted thepatriarch, or rather the astronomers, of Alexandria, with the annualproclamation of Easter; and we still read, or rather we do notread, many of the Paschal epistles of St. Cyril. Since the reign ofMonophytism in Egypt, the Catholics were perplexed by such a foolishprejudice as that which so long opposed, among the Protestants, thereception of the Gregorian style. ]

[Footnote 88: For the religion and history of the Samaritans, consultBasnage, Histoire des Juifs, a learned and impartial work. ]

[Footnote 89: Sichem, Neapolis, Naplous, the ancient and modern seatof the Samaritans, is situate in a valley between the barren Ebal, themountain of cursing to the north, and the fruitful Garizim, or mountainof cursing to the south, ten or eleven hours' travel from Jerusalem. SeeMaundrel, Journey from Aleppo &c. ]

[Footnote 90: Procop. Anecdot. C. 11. Theophan. Chron. P. 122. John Malala Chron. Tom. Ii. P. 62. I remember an observation, halfphilosophical. Half superstitious, that the province which had beenruined by the bigotry of Justinian, was the same through which theMahometans penetrated into the empire. ]

[Footnote 91: The expression of Procopius is remarkable. Anecdot. C. 13. ]

With these sentiments, it was incumbent on him, at least, to be alwaysin the right. In the first years of his administration, he signalizedhis zeal as the disciple and patron of orthodoxy: the reconciliation ofthe Greeks and Latins established the tome of St. Leo as the creed ofthe emperor and the empire; the Nestorians and Eutychians were exposed. On either side, to the double edge of persecution; and the four synodsof Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, were ratified by thecode of a Catholic lawgiver. [92] But while Justinian strove to maintainthe uniformity of faith and worship, his wife Theodora, whose viceswere not incompatible with devotion, had listened to the Monophysiteteachers; and the open or clandestine enemies of the church revived andmultiplied at the smile of their gracious patroness. The capital, thepalace, the nuptial bed, were torn by spiritual discord; yet so doubtfulwas the sincerity of the royal consorts, that their seeming disagreementwas imputed by many to a secret and mischievous confederacy against thereligion and happiness of their people. [93] The famous dispute of theThree Chapters, [94] which has filled more volumes than it deserveslines, is deeply marked with this subtile and disingenuous spirit. Itwas now three hundred years since the body of Origen [95] had been eatenby the worms: his soul, of which he held the preexistence, was in thehands of its Creator; but his writings were eagerly perused by the monksof Palestine. In these writings, the piercing eye of Justinian descriedmore than ten metaphysical errors; and the primitive doctor, in thecompany of Pythagoras and Plato, was devoted by the clergy to theeternity of hell-fire, which he had presumed to deny. Under the coverof this precedent, a treacherous blow was aimed at the council ofChalcedon. The fathers had listened without impatience to the praiseof Theodore of Mopsuestia; [96] and their justice or indulgence hadrestored both Theodore of Cyrrhus, and Ibas of Edessa, to the communionof the church. But the characters of these Oriental bishops were taintedwith the reproach of heresy; the first had been the master, the twoothers were the friends, of Nestorius; their most suspicious passageswere accused under the title of the three chapters; and the condemnationof their memory must involve the honor of a synod, whose name waspronounced with sincere or affected reverence by the Catholic world. Ifthese bishops, whether innocent or guilty, were annihilated in the sleepof death, they would not probably be awakened by the clamor which, afterthe a hundred years, was raised over their grave. If they were alreadyin the fangs of the daemon, their torments could neither be aggravatednor assuaged by human industry. If in the company of saints and angelsthey enjoyed the rewards of piety, they must have smiled at the idlefury of the theological insects who still crawled on the surface of theearth. The foremost of these insects, the emperor of the Romans, dartedhis sting, and distilled his venom, perhaps without discerning the truemotives of Theodora and her ecclesiastical faction. The victims were nolonger subject to his power, and the vehement style of his edicts couldonly proclaim their damnation, and invite the clergy of the East tojoin in a full chorus of curses and anathemas. The East, with somehesitation, consented to the voice of her sovereign: the fifth generalcouncil, of three patriarchs and one hundred and sixty-five bishops, washeld at Constantinople; and the authors, as well as the defenders, ofthe three chapters were separated from the communion of the saints, andsolemnly delivered to the prince of darkness. But the Latin churcheswere more jealous of the honor of Leo and the synod of Chalcedon: andif they had fought as they usually did under the standard of Rome, theymight have prevailed in the cause of reason and humanity. But theirchief was a prisoner in the hands of the enemy; the throne of St. Peter, which had been disgraced by the simony, was betrayed by the cowardice, of Vigilius, who yielded, after a long and inconsistent struggle, tothe despotism of Justinian and the sophistry of the Greeks. His apostasyprovoked the indignation of the Latins, and no more than two bishopscould be found who would impose their hands on his deacon and successorPelagius. Yet the perseverance of the popes insensibly transferred totheir adversaries the appellation of schismatics; the Illyrian, African, and Italian churches were oppressed by the civil and ecclesiasticalpowers, not without some effort of military force; [97] the distantBarbarians transcribed the creed of the Vatican, and, in the period of acentury, the schism of the three chapters expired in an obscure angle ofthe Venetian province. [98] But the religious discontent of the Italianshad already promoted the conquests of the Lombards, and the Romansthemselves were accustomed to suspect the faith and to detest thegovernment of their Byzantine tyrant. 

[Footnote 92: See the Chronicle of Victor, p. 328, and the originalevidence of the laws of Justinian. During the first years of his reign, Baronius himself is in extreme good humor with the emperor, who courtedthe popes, till he got them into his power. ]

[Footnote 93: Procopius, Anecdot. C. 13. Evagrius, l. Iv. C. 10. If theecclesiastical never read the secret historian, their common suspicionproves at least the general hatred. ]

[Footnote 94: On the subject of the three chapters, the original actsof the vth general council of Constantinople supply much useless, thoughauthentic, knowledge, (Concil. Tom. Vi. P. 1-419. ) The Greek Evagrius isless copious and correct (l. Iv. C. 38) than the three zealous Africans, Facundus, (in his twelve books, de tribus capitulis, which are mostcorrectly published by Sirmond, ) Liberatus, (in his Breviarium, c. 22, 23, 24, ) and Victor Tunnunensis in his Chronicle, (in tom. I. Antiq. Lect. Canisii, 330--334. ) The Liber Pontificalis, or Anastasius, (inVigilio, Pelagio, &c. , ) is original Italian evidence. The modern readerwill derive some information from Dupin (Bibliot. Eccles. Tom. V. P. 189--207) and Basnage, (Hist. De l'Eglise, tom. I. P. 519--541;) yet thelatter is too firmly resolved to depreciate the authority and characterof the popes. ]

[Footnote 95: Origen had indeed too great a propensity to imitate theold philosophers, (Justinian, ad Mennam, in Concil. Tom. Vi. P. 356. )His moderate opinions were too repugnant to the zeal of the church, andhe was found guilty of the heresy of reason. ]

[Footnote 96: Basnage (Praefat. P. 11--14, ad tom. I. Antiq. Lect. Canis. ) has fairly weighed the guilt and innocence of Theodore ofMopsuestia. If he composed 10, 000 volumes, as many errors would be acharitable allowance. In all the subsequent catalogues of heresiarchs, he alone, without his two brethren, is included; and it is the dutyof Asseman (Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Iv. P. 203--207) to justify thesentence. ]

[Footnote 97: See the complaints of Liberatus and Victor, and theexhortations of Pope Pelagius to the conqueror and exarch of Italy. Schisma. . Per potestates publicas opprimatur, &c. , (Concil. Tom. Vi. P. 467, &c. ) An army was detained to suppress the sedition of an Illyriancity. See Procopius, (de Bell. Goth. L. Iv. C. 25:). He seems to promisean ecclesiastical history. It would have been curious and impartial. ]

[Footnote 98: The bishops of the patriarchate of Aquileia werereconciled by Pope Honorius, A. D. 638, (Muratori, Annali d' Italia, tom. V. P. 376;) but they again relapsed, and the schism was not finallyextinguished till 698. Fourteen years before, the church of Spain hadoverlooked the vth general council with contemptuous silence, (xiii. Concil. Toretan. In Concil. Tom. Vii. P. 487--494. )]

Justinian was neither steady nor consistent in the nice process offixing his volatile opinions and those of his subjects. In his youth hewas, offended by the slightest deviation from the orthodox line; inhis old age he transgressed the measure of temperate heresy, andthe Jacobites, not less than the Catholics, were scandalized by hisdeclaration, that the body of Christ was incorruptible, and that hismanhood was never subject to any wants and infirmities, the inheritanceof our mortal flesh. This fantastic opinion was announced in the lastedicts of Justinian; and at the moment of his seasonable departure, theclergy had refused to subscribe, the prince was prepared to persecute, and the people were resolved to suffer or resist. A bishop of Treves, secure beyond the limits of his power, addressed the monarch of the Eastin the language of authority and affection. "Most gracious Justinian, remember your baptism and your creed. Let not your gray hairs be defiledwith heresy. Recall your fathers from exile, and your followers fromperdition. You cannot be ignorant, that Italy and Gaul, Spain andAfrica, already deplore your fall, and anathematize your name. Unless, without delay, you destroy what you have taught; unless you exclaimwith a loud voice, I have erred, I have sinned, anathema to Nestorius, anathema to Eutyches, you deliver your soul to the same flames in whichthey will eternally burn. " He died and made no sign. [99] His deathrestored in some degree the peace of the church, and the reigns of hisfour successors, Justin Tiberius, Maurice, and Phocas, are distinguishedby a rare, though fortunate, vacancy in the ecclesiastical history ofthe East. [100]

[Footnote 99: Nicetus, bishop of Treves, (Concil. Tom. Vi. P. 511-513:)he himself, like most of the Gallican prelates, (Gregor. Epist. L. Vii. 5 in Concil. Tom. Vi. P. 1007, ) was separated from the communion of thefour patriarchs by his refusal to condemn the three chapters. Baroniusalmost pronounces the damnation of Justinian, (A. D. 565, No. 6. )]

[Footnote 100: After relating the last heresy of Justinian, (l. Iv. C. 39, 40, 41, ) and the edict of his successor, (l. V. C. 3, ) theremainder of the history of Evagrius is filled with civil, instead ofecclesiastical events. ]

The faculties of sense and reason are least capable of acting onthemselves; the eye is most inaccessible to the sight, the soul to thethought; yet we think, and even feel, that one will, a sole principle ofaction, is essential to a rational and conscious being. When Heracliusreturned from the Persian war, the orthodox hero consulted his bishops, whether the Christ whom he adored, of one person, but of two natures, was actuated by a single or a double will. They replied in the singular, and the emperor was encouraged to hope that the Jacobites of Egyptand Syria might be reconciled by the profession of a doctrine, mostcertainly harmless, and most probably true, since it was taught evenby the Nestorians themselves. [101] The experiment was tried withouteffect, and the timid or vehement Catholics condemned even the semblanceof a retreat in the presence of a subtle and audacious enemy. Theorthodox (the prevailing) party devised new modes of speech, andargument, and interpretation: to either nature of Christ they speciouslyapplied a proper and distinct energy; but the difference was no longervisible when they allowed that the human and the divine will wereinvariably the same. [102] The disease was attended with the customarysymptoms: but the Greek clergy, as if satiated with the endlesscontroversy of the incarnation, instilled a healing counsel into theear of the prince and people. They declared themselves Monothelites, (asserters of the unity of will, ) but they treated the words as new, the questions as superfluous; and recommended a religious silence as themost agreeable to the prudence and charity of the gospel. This lawof silence was successively imposed by the ecthesis or exposition ofHeraclius, the type or model of his grandson Constans; [103] and theImperial edicts were subscribed with alacrity or reluctance by the fourpatriarchs of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch. But thebishop and monks of Jerusalem sounded the alarm: in the language, oreven in the silence, of the Greeks, the Latin churches detected alatent heresy: and the obedience of Pope Honorius to the commands ofhis sovereign was retracted and censured by the bolder ignorance of hissuccessors. They condemned the execrable and abominable heresy of theMonothelites, who revived the errors of Manes, Apollinaris, Eutyches, &c. ; they signed the sentence of excommunication on the tomb of St. Peter; the ink was mingled with the sacramental wine, the blood ofChrist; and no ceremony was omitted that could fill the superstitiousmind with horror and affright. As the representative of the Westernchurch, Pope Martin and his Lateran synod anathematized the perfidiousand guilty silence of the Greeks: one hundred and five bishops of Italy, for the most part the subjects of Constans, presumed to reprobatehis wicked type, and the impious ecthesis of his grandfather; and toconfound the authors and their adherents with the twenty-one notoriousheretics, the apostates from the church, and the organs of the devil. Such an insult under the tamest reign could not pass with impunity. Pope Martin ended his days on the inhospitable shore of the TauricChersonesus, and his oracle, the abbot Maximus, was inhumanly chastisedby the amputation of his tongue and his right hand. [104] But the sameinvincible spirit survived in their successors; and the triumph of theLatins avenged their recent defeat, and obliterated the disgrace of thethree chapters. The synods of Rome were confirmed by the sixth generalcouncil of Constantinople, in the palace and the presence of a newConstantine, a descendant of Heraclius. The royal convert converted theByzantine pontiff and a majority of the bishops; [105] the dissenters, with their chief, Macarius of Antioch, were condemned to the spiritualand temporal pains of heresy; the East condescended to accept thelessons of the West; and the creed was finally settled, which teachesthe Catholics of every age, that two wills or energies are harmonizedin the person of Christ. The majesty of the pope and the Roman synodwas represented by two priests, one deacon, and three bishops; but theseobscure Latins had neither arms to compel, nor treasures to bribe, nor language to persuade; and I am ignorant by what arts they coulddetermine the lofty emperor of the Greeks to abjure the catechism of hisinfancy, and to persecute the religion of his fathers. Perhaps the monksand people of Constantinople [106] were favorable to the Lateran creed, which is indeed the least reasonable of the two: and the suspicion iscountenanced by the unnatural moderation of the Greek clergy, who appearin this quarrel to be conscious of their weakness. While the synoddebated, a fanatic proposed a more summary decision, by raising a deadman to life: the prelates assisted at the trial; but the acknowledgedfailure may serve to indicate, that the passions and prejudices of themultitude were not enlisted on the side of the Monothelites. In the nextgeneration, when the son of Constantine was deposed and slain by thedisciple of Macarius, they tasted the feast of revenge and dominion:the image or monument of the sixth council was defaced, and the originalacts were committed to the flames. But in the second year, their patronwas cast headlong from the throne, the bishops of the East were releasedfrom their occasional conformity, the Roman faith was more firmlyreplanted by the orthodox successors of Bardanes, and the fine problemsof the incarnation were forgotten in the more popular and visiblequarrel of the worship of images. [107]

[Footnote 101: This extraordinary, and perhaps inconsistent, doctrine ofthe Nestorians, had been observed by La Croze, (Christianisme desIndes, tom. I. P. 19, 20, ) and is more fully exposed by Abulpharagius, (Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Ii. P. 292. Hist. Dynast. P. 91, vers. Latin. Pocock. ) and Asseman himself, (tom. Iv. P. 218. ) They seem ignorant thatthey might allege the positive authority of the ecthesis. (the commonreproach of the Monophysites) (Concil. Tom. Vii. P. 205. )]

[Footnote 102: See the Orthodox faith in Petavius, (Dogmata Theolog. Tom. V. L. Ix. C. 6--10, p. 433--447:) all the depths of thiscontroversy in the Greek dialogue between Maximus and Pyrrhus, (acalcemtom. Viii. Annal. Baron. P. 755--794, ) which relates a real conference, and produced as short-lived a conversion. ]

[Footnote 103: Impiissimam ecthesim. .. . Scelerosum typum (Concil. Tom. Vii p. 366) diabolicae operationis genimina, (fors. Germina, or else theGreek in the original. Concil. P. 363, 364, ) are the expressions ofthe xviiith anathema. The epistle of Pope Martin to Amandus, Gallicanbishop, stigmatizes the Monothelites and their heresy with equalvirulence, (p. 392. )]

[Footnote 104: The sufferings of Martin and Maximus are described withsimplicity in their original letters and acts, (Concil. Tom. Vii. P. 63--78. Baron. Annal. Eccles. A. D. 656, No. 2, et annos subsequent. ) Yetthe chastisement of their disobedience had been previously announced inthe Type of Constans, (Concil. Tom. Vii. P. 240. )]

[Footnote 105: Eutychius (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 368) most erroneouslysupposes that the 124 bishops of the Roman synod transported themselvesto Constantinople; and by adding them to the 168 Greeks, thus composesthe sixth council of 292 fathers. ]

[Footnote 106: The Monothelite Constans was hated by all, (saysTheophanes, Chron. P. 292). When the Monothelite monk failed in hismiracle, the people shouted, (Concil. Tom. Vii. P. 1032. ) But this wasa natural and transient emotion; and I much fear that the latter is ananticipation of the good people of Constantinople. ]

[Footnote 107: The history of Monothelitism may be found in the Acts ofthe Synods of Rome (tom. Vii. P. 77--395, 601--608) and Constantinople, (p. 609--1429. ) Baronius extracted some original documents from theVatican library; and his chronology is rectified by the diligence ofPagi. Even Dupin (Bibliotheque Eccles. Tom. Vi. P. 57--71) and Basnage(Hist. De l'Eglise, tom. I. P. 451--555) afford a tolerable abridgment. ]

Before the end of the seventh century, the creed of the incarnation, which had been defined at Rome and Constantinople, was uniformlypreached in the remote islands of Britain and Ireland; [108] the sameideas were entertained, or rather the same words were repeated, by allthe Christians whose liturgy was performed in the Greek or the Latintongue. Their numbers, and visible splendor, bestowed an imperfect claimto the appellation of Catholics: but in the East, they were marked withthe less honorable name of Melchites, or Royalists; [109] of men, whose faith, instead of resting on the basis of Scripture, reason, or tradition, had been established, and was still maintained, by thearbitrary power of a temporal monarch. Their adversaries might allegethe words of the fathers of Constantinople, who profess themselves theslaves of the king; and they might relate, with malicious joy, howthe decrees of Chalcedon had been inspired and reformed by the emperorMarcian and his virgin bride. The prevailing faction will naturallyinculcate the duty of submission, nor is it less natural that dissentersshould feel and assert the principles of freedom. Under the rod ofpersecution, the Nestorians and Monophysites degenerated into rebels andfugitives; and the most ancient and useful allies of Rome were taughtto consider the emperor not as the chief, but as the enemy of theChristians. Language, the leading principle which unites or separatesthe tribes of mankind, soon discriminated the sectaries of the East, bya peculiar and perpetual badge, which abolished the means of intercourseand the hope of reconciliation. The long dominion of the Greeks, theircolonies, and, above all, their eloquence, had propagated a languagedoubtless the most perfect that has been contrived by the art of man. Yet the body of the people, both in Syria and Egypt, still perseveredin the use of their national idioms; with this difference, however, thatthe Coptic was confined to the rude and illiterate peasants of the Nile, while the Syriac, [110] from the mountains of Assyria to the Red Sea, was adapted to the higher topics of poetry and argument. Armenia andAbyssinia were infected by the speech or learning of the Greeks; andtheir Barbaric tongues, which have been revived in the studies of modernEurope, were unintelligible to the inhabitants of the Roman empire. TheSyriac and the Coptic, the Armenian and the Aethiopic, are consecratedin the service of their respective churches: and their theology isenriched by domestic versions [111] both of the Scriptures and of themost popular fathers. After a period of thirteen hundred and sixtyyears, the spark of controversy, first kindled by a sermon of Nestorius, still burns in the bosom of the East, and the hostile communions stillmaintain the faith and discipline of their founders. In the mostabject state of ignorance, poverty, and servitude, the Nestorians andMonophysites reject the spiritual supremacy of Rome, and cherish thetoleration of their Turkish masters, which allows them to anathematize, on the one hand, St. Cyril and the synod of Ephesus: on the other, PopeLeo and the council of Chalcedon. The weight which they cast into thedownfall of the Eastern empire demands our notice, and the reader maybe amused with the various prospect of, I. The Nestorians; II. TheJacobites; [112] III. The Maronites; IV. The Armenians; V. The Copts;and, VI. The Abyssinians. To the three former, the Syriac is common; butof the latter, each is discriminated by the use of a national idiom. 

Yet the modern natives of Armenia and Abyssinia would be incapable ofconversing with their ancestors; and the Christians of Egypt and Syria, who reject the religion, have adopted the language of the Arabians. Thelapse of time has seconded the sacerdotal arts; and in the East, as wellas in the West, the Deity is addressed in an obsolete tongue, unknown tothe majority of the congregation. 

[Footnote 108: In the Lateran synod of 679, Wilfred, an Anglo-Saxonbishop, subscribed pro omni Aquilonari parte Britanniae et Hiberniae, quae ab Anglorum et Britonum, necnon Scotorum et Pictorum gentibuscolebantur, (Eddius, in Vit. St. Wilfrid. C. 31, apud Pagi, Critica, tom. Iii. P. 88. ) Theodore (magnae insulae Britanniae archiepiscopus etphilosophus) was long expected at Rome, (Concil. Tom. Vii. P. 714, ) buthe contented himself with holding (A. D. 680) his provincial synod ofHatfield, in which he received the decrees of Pope Martin and the firstLateran council against the Monothelites, (Concil. Tom. Vii. P. 597, &c. ) Theodore, a monk of Tarsus in Cilicia, had been named to theprimacy of Britain by Pope Vitalian, (A. D. 688; see Baronius and Pagi, )whose esteem for his learning and piety was tainted by some distrustof his national character--ne quid contrarium veritati fidei, Graecorummore, in ecclesiam cui praeesset introduceret. The Cilician was sentfrom Rome to Canterbury under the tuition of an African guide, (BedaeHist. Eccles. Anglorum. L. Iv. C. 1. ) He adhered to the Roman doctrine;and the same creed of the incarnation has been uniformly transmittedfrom Theodore to the modern primates, whose sound understanding isperhaps seldom engaged with that abstruse mystery. ]

[Footnote 109: This name, unknown till the xth century, appears to be ofSyriac origin. It was invented by the Jacobites, and eagerly adopted bythe Nestorians and Mahometans; but it was accepted without shame by theCatholics, and is frequently used in the Annals of Eutychius, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Ii. P. 507, &c. , tom. Iii. P. 355. Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. P. 119. ), was the acclamation of the fathers ofConstantinople, (Concil. Tom. Vii. P. 765. )]

[Footnote 110: The Syriac, which the natives revere as the primitivelanguage, was divided into three dialects. 1. The Aramoean, as it wasrefined at Edessa and the cities of Mesopotamia. 2. The Palestine, which was used in Jerusalem, Damascus, and the rest of Syria. 3. The Nabathoean, the rustic idiom of the mountains of Assyria and thevillages of Irak, (Gregor, Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. P. 11. ) On theSyriac, sea Ebed-Jesu, (Asseman. Tom. Iii. P. 326, &c. , ) whose prejudicealone could prefer it to the Arabic. ]

[Footnote 111: I shall not enrich my ignorance with the spoils of Simon, Walton, Mill, Wetstein, Assemannus, Ludolphus, La Croze, whom I haveconsulted with some care. It appears, 1. That, of all the versions whichare celebrated by the fathers, it is doubtful whether any are now extantin their pristine integrity. 2. That the Syriac has the best claim, and that the consent of the Oriental sects is a proof that it is moreancient than their schism. ]

[Footnote 112: In the account of the Monophysites and Nestorians, I amdeeply indebted to the Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana ofJoseph Simon Assemannus. That learned Maronite was despatched, in theyear 1715, by Pope Clement XI. To visit the monasteries of Egypt andSyria, in search of Mss. His four folio volumes, published at Rome1719--1728, contain a part only, though perhaps the most valuable, ofhis extensive project. As a native and as a scholar, he possessed theSyriac literature; and though a dependent of Rome, he wishes to bemoderate and candid. ]

Chapter XLVII: Ecclesiastical Discord. --Part V. 

I. Both in his native and his episcopal province, the heresy of theunfortunate Nestorius was speedily obliterated. The Oriental bishops, who at Ephesus had resisted to his face the arrogance of Cyril, were mollified by his tardy concessions. The same prelates, or theirsuccessors, subscribed, not without a murmur, the decrees of Chalcedon;the power of the Monophysites reconciled them with the Catholics inthe conformity of passion, of interest, and, insensibly, of belief;and their last reluctant sigh was breathed in the defence of the threechapters. Their dissenting brethren, less moderate, or more sincere, were crushed by the penal laws; and, as early as the reign of Justinian, it became difficult to find a church of Nestorians within the limits ofthe Roman empire. Beyond those limits they had discovered a new world, in which they might hope for liberty, and aspire to conquest. In Persia, notwithstanding the resistance of the Magi, Christianity had struck adeep root, and the nations of the East reposed under its salutary shade. The catholic, or primate, resided in the capital: in his synods, and intheir dioceses, his metropolitans, bishops, and clergy, represented thepomp and order of a regular hierarchy: they rejoiced in the increase ofproselytes, who were converted from the Zendavesta to the gospel, fromthe secular to the monastic life; and their zeal was stimulated by thepresence of an artful and formidable enemy. The Persian church had beenfounded by the missionaries of Syria; and their language, discipline, and doctrine, were closely interwoven with its original frame. Thecatholics were elected and ordained by their own suffragans; but theirfilial dependence on the patriarchs of Antioch is attested by the canonsof the Oriental church. [113] In the Persian school of Edessa, [114] therising generations of the faithful imbibed their theological idiom: theystudied in the Syriac version the ten thousand volumes of Theodore ofMopsuestia; and they revered the apostolic faith and holy martyrdom ofhis disciple Nestorius, whose person and language were equally unknownto the nations beyond the Tigris. The first indelible lesson of Ibas, bishop of Edessa, taught them to execrate the Egyptians, who, in thesynod of Ephesus, had impiously confounded the two natures of Christ. The flight of the masters and scholars, who were twice expelled fromthe Athens of Syria, dispersed a crowd of missionaries inflamed bythe double zeal of religion and revenge. And the rigid unity of theMonophysites, who, under the reigns of Zeno and Anastasius, had invadedthe thrones of the East, provoked their antagonists, in a land offreedom, to avow a moral, rather than a physical, union of the twopersons of Christ. Since the first preaching of the gospel, theSassanian kings beheld with an eye of suspicion a race of aliens andapostates, who had embraced the religion, and who might favor the cause, of the hereditary foes of their country. The royal edicts had oftenprohibited their dangerous correspondence with the Syrian clergy: theprogress of the schism was grateful to the jealous pride of Perozes, andhe listened to the eloquence of an artful prelate, who painted Nestoriusas the friend of Persia, and urged him to secure the fidelity of hisChristian subjects, by granting a just preference to the victims andenemies of the Roman tyrant. The Nestorians composed a large majority ofthe clergy and people: they were encouraged by the smile, and armed withthe sword, of despotism; yet many of their weaker brethren were startledat the thought of breaking loose from the communion of the Christianworld, and the blood of seven thousand seven hundred Monophysites, or Catholics, confirmed the uniformity of faith and discipline inthe churches of Persia. [115] Their ecclesiastical institutions aredistinguished by a liberal principle of reason, or at least of policy:the austerity of the cloister was relaxed and gradually forgotten;houses of charity were endowed for the education of orphans andfoundlings; the law of celibacy, so forcibly recommended to the Greeksand Latins, was disregarded by the Persian clergy; and the number ofthe elect was multiplied by the public and reiterated nuptials of thepriests, the bishops, and even the patriarch himself. To this standardof natural and religious freedom, myriads of fugitives resorted from allthe provinces of the Eastern empire; the narrow bigotry of Justinianwas punished by the emigration of his most industrious subjects; theytransported into Persia the arts both of peace and war: and thosewho deserved the favor, were promoted in the service, of a discerningmonarch. The arms of Nushirvan, and his fiercer grandson, were assistedwith advice, and money, and troops, by the desperate sectaries who stilllurked in their native cities of the East: their zeal was rewarded withthe gift of the Catholic churches; but when those cities and churcheswere recovered by Heraclius, their open profession of treason and heresycompelled them to seek a refuge in the realm of their foreign ally. Butthe seeming tranquillity of the Nestorians was often endangered, andsometimes overthrown. They were involved in the common evils of Orientaldespotism: their enmity to Rome could not always atone for theirattachment to the gospel: and a colony of three hundred thousandJacobites, the captives of Apamea and Antioch, was permitted to erecta hostile altar in the face of the catholic, and in the sunshine of thecourt. In his last treaty, Justinian introduced some conditions whichtended to enlarge and fortify the toleration of Christianity in Persia. The emperor, ignorant of the rights of conscience, was incapable of pityor esteem for the heretics who denied the authority of the holy synods:but he flattered himself that they would gradually perceive the temporalbenefits of union with the empire and the church of Rome; and ifhe failed in exciting their gratitude, he might hope to provoke thejealousy of their sovereign. In a later age the Lutherans have beenburnt at Paris, and protected in Germany, by the superstition and policyof the most Christian king. 

[Footnote 113: See the Arabic canons of Nice in the translation ofAbraham Ecchelensis, No. 37, 38, 39, 40. Concil. Tom. Ii. P. 335, 336, edit. Venet. These vulgar titles, Nicene and Arabic, are bothapocryphal. The council of Nice enacted no more than twenty canons, (Theodoret. Hist. Eccles. L. I. C. 8;) and the remainder, seventy oreighty, were collected from the synods of the Greek church. The Syriacedition of Maruthas is no longer extant, (Asseman. Bibliot. Oriental. Tom. I. P. 195, tom. Iii. P. 74, ) and the Arabic version is marked withmany recent interpolations. Yet this Code contains many curious relicsof ecclesiastical discipline; and since it is equally revered by all theEastern communions, it was probably finished before the schism ofthe Nestorians and Jacobites, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. Tom. Xi. P. 363--367. )]

[Footnote 114: Theodore the Reader (l. Ii. C. 5, 49, ad calcem Hist. Eccles. ) has noticed this Persian school of Edessa. Its ancientsplendor, and the two aeras of its downfall, (A. D. 431 and 489) areclearly discussed by Assemanni, (Biblioth. Orient. Tom. Ii. P. 402, iii. P. 376, 378, iv. P. 70, 924. )]

[Footnote 115: A dissertation on the state of the Nestorians has swelledin the bands of Assemanni to a folio volume of 950 pages, and hislearned researches are digested in the most lucid order. Besides thisivth volume of the Bibliotheca Orientalis, the extracts in the threepreceding tomes (tom. I. P. 203, ii. P. 321-463, iii. 64--70, 378--395, &c. , 405--408, 580--589) may be usefully consulted. ]

The desire of gaining souls for God and subjects for the church, hasexcited in every age the diligence of the Christian priests. From theconquest of Persia they carried their spiritual arms to the north, theeast, and the south; and the simplicity of the gospel was fashioned andpainted with the colors of the Syriac theology. In the sixth century, according to the report of a Nestorian traveller, [116] Christianitywas successfully preached to the Bactrians, the Huns, the Persians, theIndians, the Persarmenians, the Medes, and the Elamites: the Barbaricchurches, from the Gulf of Persia to the Caspian Sea, were almostinfinite; and their recent faith was conspicuous in the number andsanctity of their monks and martyrs. The pepper coast of Malabar, and the isles of the ocean, Socotora and Ceylon, were peopled with anincreasing multitude of Christians; and the bishops and clergy ofthose sequestered regions derived their ordination from the Catholic ofBabylon. In a subsequent age the zeal of the Nestorians overleaped thelimits which had confined the ambition and curiosity both of the Greeksand Persians. The missionaries of Balch and Samarcand pursued withoutfear the footsteps of the roving Tartar, and insinuated themselves intothe camps of the valleys of Imaus and the banks of the Selinga. Theyexposed a metaphysical creed to those illiterate shepherds: to thosesanguinary warriors, they recommended humanity and repose. Yet a khan, whose power they vainly magnified, is said to have received at theirhands the rites of baptism, and even of ordination; and the fame ofPrester or Presbyter John [117] has long amused the credulity of Europe. The royal convert was indulged in the use of a portable altar; but hedespatched an embassy to the patriarch, to inquire how, in the season ofLent, he should abstain from animal food, and how he might celebratethe Eucharist in a desert that produced neither corn nor wine. In theirprogress by sea and land, the Nestorians entered China by the port ofCanton and the northern residence of Sigan. Unlike the senators ofRome, who assumed with a smile the characters of priests and augurs, themandarins, who affect in public the reason of philosophers, are devotedin private to every mode of popular superstition. They cherished andthey confounded the gods of Palestine and of India; but the propagationof Christianity awakened the jealousy of the state, and, after a shortvicissitude of favor and persecution, the foreign sect expired inignorance and oblivion. [118] Under the reign of the caliphs, theNestorian church was diffused from China to Jerusalem and Cyrus; andtheir numbers, with those of the Jacobites, were computed to surpassthe Greek and Latin communions. [119] Twenty-five metropolitansor archbishops composed their hierarchy; but several of these weredispensed, by the distance and danger of the way, from the duty ofpersonal attendance, on the easy condition that every six years theyshould testify their faith and obedience to the catholic or patriarch ofBabylon, a vague appellation which has been successively applied to theroyal seats of Seleucia, Ctesiphon, and Bagdad. These remote branchesare long since withered; and the old patriarchal trunk [120] is nowdivided by the Elijahs of Mosul, the representatives almost on linealdescent of the genuine and primitive succession; the Josephs of Amida, who are reconciled to the church of Rome: [121] and the Simeons of Vanor Ormia, whose revolt, at the head of forty thousand families, waspromoted in the sixteenth century by the Sophis of Persia. The number ofthree hundred thousand is allowed for the whole body of the Nestorians, who, under the name of Chaldeans or Assyrians, are confounded with themost learned or the most powerful nation of Eastern antiquity. 

[Footnote 116: See the Topographia Christiana of Cosmas, surnamedIndicopleustes, or the Indian navigator, l. Iii. P. 178, 179, l. Xi. P. 337. The entire work, of which some curious extracts may be found inPhotius, (cod. Xxxvi. P. 9, 10, edit. Hoeschel, ) Thevenot, (in the 1stpart of his Relation des Voyages, &c. , ) and Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. L. Iii. C. 25, tom. Ii. P. 603-617, ) has been published by FatherMontfaucon at Paris, 1707, in the Nova Collectio Patrum, (tom. Ii. P. 113--346. ) It was the design of the author to confute the impious heresyof those who maintained that the earth is a globe, and not a flat, oblong table, as it is represented in the Scriptures, (l. Ii. P. 138. )But the nonsense of the monk is mingled with the practical knowledge ofthe traveller, who performed his voyage A. D. 522, and published his bookat Alexandria, A. D. 547, (l. Ii. P. 140, 141. Montfaucon, Praefat. C. 2. ) The Nestorianism of Cosmas, unknown to his learned editor, wasdetected by La Croze, (Christianisme des Indes, tom. I. P. 40--55, ) andis confirmed by Assemanni, (Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Iv. P. 605, 606. )]

[Footnote 117: In its long progress to Mosul, Jerusalem, Rome, &c. , thestory of Prester John evaporated in a monstrous fable, of which somefeatures have been borrowed from the Lama of Thibet, (Hist. Genealogiquedes Tartares, P. Ii. P. 42. Hist. De Gengiscan, p. 31, &c. , ) and wereignorantly transferred by the Portuguese to the emperor of Abyssinia, (Ludolph. Hist. Aethiop. Comment. L. Ii. C. 1. ) Yet it is probable thatin the xith and xiith centuries, Nestorian Christianity was professedin the horde of the Keraites, (D'Herbelot, p. 256, 915, 959. Assemanni, tom. Iv. P. 468--504. ) Note: The extent to which Nestorian Christianityprevailed among the Tartar tribes is one of the most curious questionsin Oriental history. M. Schmidt (Geschichte der Ost Mongolen, notes, p. 383) appears to question the Christianity of Ong Chaghan, and hisKeraite subjects. --M. ]

[Footnote 118: The Christianity of China, between the seventh and thethirteenth century, is invincibly proved by the consent of Chinese, Arabian, Syriac, and Latin evidence, (Assemanni, Biblioth. Orient. Tom. Iv. P. 502--552. Mem. De l'Academie des Inscript. Tom. Xxx. P. 802--819. ) The inscription of Siganfu which describes the fortunes ofthe Nestorian church, from the first mission, A. D. 636, to the currentyear 781, is accused of forgery by La Croze, Voltaire, &c. , who becomethe dupes of their own cunning, while they are afraid of a Jesuiticalfraud. * Note: This famous monument, the authenticity of which many haveattempted to impeach, rather from hatred to the Jesuits, by whom itwas made known, than by a candid examination of its contents, is nowgenerally considered above all suspicion. The Chinese text and the factswhich it relates are equally strong proofs of its authenticity. Thismonument was raised as a memorial of the establishment of Christianityin China. It is dated the year 1092 of the era of the Greeks, or theSeleucidae, A. D. 781, in the time of the Nestorian patriarch Anan-jesu. It was raised by Iezdbouzid, priest and chorepiscopus of Chumdan, thatis, of the capital of the Chinese empire, and the son of a priest whocame from Balkh in Tokharistan. Among the various arguments which may beurged in favor of the authenticity of this monument, and which has notyet been advanced, may be reckoned the name of the priest by whom itwas raised. The name is Persian, and at the time the monument wasdiscovered, it would have been impossible to have imagined it; for therewas no work extant from whence the knowledge of it could be derived. Ido not believe that ever since this period, any book has been publishedin which it can be found a second time. It is very celebrated amongstthe Armenians, and is derived from a martyr, a Persian by birth, of theroyal race, who perished towards the middle of the seventh century, andrendered his name celebrated among the Christian nations of the East. St. Martin, vol. I. P. 69. M. Remusat has also strongly expressed hisconviction of the authenticity of this monument. Melanges Asiatiques, P. I. P. 33. Yet M. Schmidt (Geschichte der Ost Mongolen, p. 384) deniesthat there is any satisfactory proof that much a monument was ever foundin China, or that it was not manufactured in Europe. But if the Jesuitshad attempted such a forgery, would it not have been more adapted tofurther their peculiar views?--M. ]

[Footnote 119: Jacobitae et Nestorianae plures quam Graeci et LatiniJacob a Vitriaco, Hist. Hierosol. L. Ii. C. 76, p. 1093, in the GestaDei per Francos. The numbers are given by Thomassin, Discipline del'Eglise, tom. I. P. 172. ]

[Footnote 120: The division of the patriarchate may be traced in theBibliotheca Orient. Of Assemanni, tom. I. P. 523--549, tom. Ii. P. 457, &c. , tom. Iii. P. 603, p. 621--623, tom. Iv. P. 164-169, p. 423, p. 622--629, &c. ]

[Footnote 121: The pompous language of Rome on the submission of aNestorian patriarch, is elegantly represented in the viith book of FraPaola, Babylon, Nineveh, Arbela, and the trophies of Alexander, Tauris, and Ecbatana, the Tigris and Indus. ]

According to the legend of antiquity, the gospel was preached in Indiaby St. Thomas. [122] At the end of the ninth century, his shrine, perhaps in the neighborhood of Madras, was devoutly visited by theambassadors of Alfred; and their return with a cargo of pearls andspices rewarded the zeal of the English monarch, who entertained thelargest projects of trade and discovery. [123] When the Portuguese firstopened the navigation of India, the Christians of St. Thomas had beenseated for ages on the coast of Malabar, and the difference of theircharacter and color attested the mixture of a foreign race. In arms, inarts, and possibly in virtue, they excelled the natives of Hindostan;the husbandmen cultivated the palm-tree, the merchants were enriched bythe pepper trade, the soldiers preceded the nairs or nobles of Malabar, and their hereditary privileges were respected by the gratitude or thefear of the king of Cochin and the Zamorin himself. They acknowledged aGentoo of sovereign, but they were governed, even in temporal concerns, by the bishop of Angamala. He still asserted his ancient title ofmetropolitan of India, but his real jurisdiction was exercised infourteen hundred churches, and he was intrusted with the care of twohundred thousand souls. Their religion would have rendered them thefirmest and most cordial allies of the Portuguese; but the inquisitorssoon discerned in the Christians of St. Thomas the unpardonable guiltof heresy and schism. Instead of owning themselves the subjects of theRoman pontiff, the spiritual and temporal monarch of the globe, theyadhered, like their ancestors, to the communion of the Nestorianpatriarch; and the bishops whom he ordained at Mosul, traversed thedangers of the sea and land to reach their diocese on the coast ofMalabar. In their Syriac liturgy the names of Theodore and Nestoriuswere piously commemorated: they united their adoration of the twopersons of Christ; the title of Mother of God was offensive to theirear, and they measured with scrupulous avarice the honors of the VirginMary, whom the superstition of the Latins had almost exalted to the rankof a goddess. When her image was first presented to the disciples of St. Thomas, they indignantly exclaimed, "We are Christians, not idolaters!"and their simple devotion was content with the veneration of the cross. Their separation from the Western world had left them in ignoranceof the improvements, or corruptions, of a thousand years; and theirconformity with the faith and practice of the fifth century wouldequally disappoint the prejudices of a Papist or a Protestant. It wasthe first care of the ministers of Rome to intercept all correspondencewith the Nestorian patriarch, and several of his bishops expired in theprisons of the holy office. 

The flock, without a shepherd, was assaulted by the power of thePortuguese, the arts of the Jesuits, and the zeal of Alexis de Menezes, archbishop of Goa, in his personal visitation of the coast of Malabar. The synod of Diamper, at which he presided, consummated the pious workof the reunion; and rigorously imposed the doctrine and discipline ofthe Roman church, without forgetting auricular confession, the strongestengine of ecclesiastical torture. The memory of Theodore and Nestoriuswas condemned, and Malabar was reduced under the dominion of the pope, of the primate, and of the Jesuits who invaded the see of Angamalaor Cranganor. Sixty years of servitude and hypocrisy were patientlyendured; but as soon as the Portuguese empire was shaken by the courageand industry of the Dutch, the Nestorians asserted, with vigor andeffect, the religion of their fathers. The Jesuits were incapable ofdefending the power which they had abused; the arms of forty thousandChristians were pointed against their falling tyrants; and the Indianarchdeacon assumed the character of bishop till a fresh supply ofepiscopal gifts and Syriac missionaries could be obtained from thepatriarch of Babylon. Since the expulsion of the Portuguese, theNestorian creed is freely professed on the coast of Malabar. The tradingcompanies of Holland and England are the friends of toleration; butif oppression be less mortifying than contempt, the Christians of St. Thomas have reason to complain of the cold and silent indifference oftheir brethren of Europe. [124]

[Footnote 122: The Indian missionary, St. Thomas, an apostle, aManichaean, or an Armenian merchant, (La Croze, Christianisme des Indes, tom. I. P. 57--70, ) was famous, however, as early as the time of Jerom, (ad Marcellam, epist. 148. ) Marco-Polo was informed on the spot that hesuffered martyrdom in the city of Malabar, or Meliapour, a league onlyfrom Madras, (D'Anville, Eclaircissemens sur l'Inde, p. 125, ) where thePortuguese founded an episcopal church under the name of St. Thome, andwhere the saint performed an annual miracle, till he was silenced by theprofane neighborhood of the English, (La Croze, tom. Ii. P. 7-16. )]

[Footnote 123: Neither the author of the Saxon Chronicle (A. D. 833) notWilliam of Malmesbury (de Gestis Regum Angliae, l. Ii. C. 4, p. 44) werecapable, in the twelfth century, of inventing this extraordinary fact;they are incapable of explaining the motives and measures of Alfred;and their hasty notice serves only to provoke our curiosity. William ofMalmesbury feels the difficulty of the enterprise, quod quivis in hocsaeculo miretur; and I almost suspect that the English ambassadorscollected their cargo and legend in Egypt. The royal author has notenriched his Orosius (see Barrington's Miscellanies) with an Indian, aswell as a Scandinavian, voyage. ]

[Footnote 124: Concerning the Christians of St. Thomas, see Assemann. Bibliot Orient. Tom. Iv. P. 391--407, 435--451; Geddes's Church Historyof Malabar; and, above all, La Croze, Histoire du Christianisme desIndes, in 2 vols. 12mo. , La Haye, 1758, a learned and agreeable work. They have drawn from the same source, the Portuguese and Italiannarratives; and the prejudices of the Jesuits are sufficiently correctedby those of the Protestants. Note: The St. Thome Christians had excitedgreat interest in the ancient mind of the admirable Bishop Heber. Seehis curious and, to his friends, highly characteristic letter toMar Athanasius, Appendix to Journal. The arguments of his friend andcoadjutor, Mr. Robinson, (Last Days of Bishop Heber, ) have notconvinced me that the Christianity of India is older than the Nestoriandispersion. --M]

II. The history of the Monophysites is less copious and interesting thanthat of the Nestorians. Under the reigns of Zeno and Anastasius, theirartful leaders surprised the ear of the prince, usurped the thrones ofthe East, and crushed on its native soil the school of the Syrians. Therule of the Monophysite faith was defined with exquisite discretionby Severus, patriarch of Antioch: he condemned, in the style of theHenoticon, the adverse heresies of Nestorius; and Eutyches maintainedagainst the latter the reality of the body of Christ, and constrainedthe Greeks to allow that he was a liar who spoke truth. [125] But theapproximation of ideas could not abate the vehemence of passion; eachparty was the more astonished that their blind antagonist could disputeon so trifling a difference; the tyrant of Syria enforced the belief ofhis creed, and his reign was polluted with the blood of three hundredand fifty monks, who were slain, not perhaps without provocation orresistance, under the walls of Apamea. [126] The successor of Anastasiusreplanted the orthodox standard in the East; Severus fled into Egypt;and his friend, the eloquent Xenaias, [127] who had escaped from theNestorians of Persia, was suffocated in his exile by the Melchites ofPaphlagonia. Fifty-four bishops were swept from their thrones, eighthundred ecclesiastics were cast into prison, [128] and notwithstandingthe ambiguous favor of Theodora, the Oriental flocks, deprived of theirshepherds, must insensibly have been either famished or poisoned. Inthis spiritual distress, the expiring faction was revived, and united, and perpetuated, by the labors of a monk; and the name of JamesBaradaeus [129] has been preserved in the appellation of Jacobites, afamiliar sound, which may startle the ear of an English reader. Fromthe holy confessors in their prison of Constantinople, he received thepowers of bishop of Edessa and apostle of the East, and the ordinationof fourscore thousand bishops, priests, and deacons, is derived fromthe same inexhaustible source. The speed of the zealous missionary waspromoted by the fleetest dromedaries of a devout chief of the Arabs; thedoctrine and discipline of the Jacobites were secretly established inthe dominions of Justinian; and each Jacobite was compelled to violatethe laws and to hate the Roman legislator. The successors of Severus, while they lurked in convents or villages, while they shelteredtheir proscribed heads in the caverns of hermits, or the tents of theSaracens, still asserted, as they now assert, their indefeasible rightto the title, the rank, and the prerogatives of patriarch of Antioch:under the milder yoke of the infidels, they reside about a leaguefrom Merdin, in the pleasant monastery of Zapharan, which they haveembellished with cells, aqueducts, and plantations. The secondary, though honorable, place is filled by the maphrian, who, in his stationat Mosul itself, defies the Nestorian catholic with whom he contests theprimacy of the East. Under the patriarch and the maphrian, one hundredand fifty archbishops and bishops have been counted in the differentages of the Jacobite church; but the order of the hierarchy is relaxedor dissolved, and the greater part of their dioceses is confined to theneighborhood of the Euphrates and the Tigris. The cities of Aleppo andAmida, which are often visited by the patriarch, contain some wealthymerchants and industrious mechanics, but the multitude derive theirscanty sustenance from their daily labor: and poverty, as well assuperstition, may impose their excessive fasts: five annual lents, during which both the clergy and laity abstain not only from fleshor eggs, but even from the taste of wine, of oil, and of fish. Theirpresent numbers are esteemed from fifty to fourscore thousand souls, theremnant of a populous church, which was gradually decreased under theimpression of twelve centuries. Yet in that long period, some strangersof merit have been converted to the Monophysite faith, and a Jew wasthe father of Abulpharagius, [130] primate of the East, so truly eminentboth in his life and death. In his life he was an elegant writer of theSyriac and Arabic tongues, a poet, physician, and historian, a subtilephilosopher, and a moderate divine. In his death, his funeral wasattended by his rival the Nestorian patriarch, with a train of Greeksand Armenians, who forgot their disputes, and mingled their tears overthe grave of an enemy. The sect which was honored by the virtuesof Abulpharagius appears, however, to sink below the level of theirNestorian brethren. The superstition of the Jacobites is more abject, their fasts more rigid, [131] their intestine divisions are morenumerous, and their doctors (as far as I can measure the degrees ofnonsense) are more remote from the precincts of reason. Something maypossibly be allowed for the rigor of the Monophysite theology; much morefor the superior influence of the monastic order. In Syria, in Egypt, in Ethiopia, the Jacobite monks have ever been distinguished by theausterity of their penance and the absurdity of their legends. Alive ordead, they are worshipped as the favorites of the Deity; the crosierof bishop and patriarch is reserved for their venerable hands; and theyassume the government of men, while they are yet reeking with the habitsand prejudices of the cloister. [132]

[Footnote 125: Is the expression of Theodore, in his Treatise ofthe Incarnation, p. 245, 247, as he is quoted by La Croze, (Hist. DuChristianisme d'Ethiopie et d'Armenie, p. 35, ) who exclaims, perhapstoo hastily, "Quel pitoyable raisonnement!" Renaudot has touched (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. P. 127--138) the Oriental accounts of Severus; andhis authentic creed may be found in the epistle of John the Jacobitepatriarch of Antioch, in the xth century, to his brother Mannas ofAlexandria, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Ii. P. 132--141. )]

[Footnote 126: Epist. Archimandritarum et Monachorum Syriae Secundae adPapam Hormisdam, Concil. Tom. V. P. 598--602. The courage of St. Sabas, ut leo animosus, will justify the suspicion that the arms of these monkswere not always spiritual or defensive, (Baronius, A. D. 513, No. 7, &c. )]

[Footnote 127: Assemanni (Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Ii. P. 10--46) and LaCroze (Christianisme d'Ethiopie, p. 36--40) will supply the history ofXenaias, or Philoxenus, bishop of Mabug, or Hierapolis, in Syria. He wasa perfect master of the Syriac language, and the author or editor of aversion of the New Testament. ]

[Footnote 128: The names and titles of fifty-four bishops who wereexiled by Justin, are preserved in the Chronicle of Dionysius, (apud Asseman. Tom. Ii. P. 54. ) Severus was personally summoned toConstantinople--for his trial, says Liberatus (Brev. C. 19)--that histongue might be cut out, says Evagrius, (l. Iv. C. Iv. ) The prudentpatriarch did not stay to examine the difference. This ecclesiasticalrevolution is fixed by Pagi to the month of September of the year 518, (Critica, tom. Ii. P. 506. )]

[Footnote 129: The obscure history of James or Jacobus Baradaeus, orZanzalust may be gathered from Eutychius, (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 144, 147, )Renau dot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. P. 133, ) and Assemannus, (Bibliot. Orient. Tom. I. P. 424, tom. Ii. P. 62-69, 324--332, 414, tom. Iii. P. 385--388. ) He seems to be unknown to the Greeks. The Jacobitesthemselves had rather deduce their name and pedigree from St. James theapostle. ]

[Footnote 130: The account of his person and writings is perhaps themost curious article in the Bibliotheca of Assemannus, (tom. Ii. P. 244--321, under the name of Gregorius Bar-Hebroeus. ) La Croze(Christianisme d'Ethiopie, p. 53--63) ridicules the prejudice of theSpaniards against the Jewish blood which secretly defiles their churchand state. ]

[Footnote 131: This excessive abstinence is censured by La Croze, (p. 352, ) and even by the Syrian Assemannus, (tom. I. P. 226, tom. Ii. P. 304, 305. )]

[Footnote 132: The state of the Monophysites is excellently illustratedin a dissertation at the beginning of the iid volume of Assemannus, which contains 142 pages. The Syriac Chronicle of Gregory Bar-Hebraeus, or Abulpharagius, (Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Ii. P. 321--463, ) pursuesthe double series of the Nestorian Catholics and the Maphrians of theJacobites. ]

III. In the style of the Oriental Christians, the Monothelites of everyage are described under the appellation of Maronites, [133] a name whichhas been insensibly transferred from a hermit to a monastery, from amonastery to a nation. Maron, a saint or savage of the fifth century, displayed his religious madness in Syria; the rival cities of Apamea andEmesa disputed his relics, a stately church was erected on his tomb, andsix hundred of his disciples united their solitary cells on the banksof the Orontes. In the controversies of the incarnation they nicelythreaded the orthodox line between the sects of Nestorians and Eutyches;but the unfortunate question of one will or operation in the two naturesof Christ, was generated by their curious leisure. Their proselyte, theemperor Heraclius, was rejected as a Maronite from the walls ofEmesa, he found a refuge in the monastery of his brethren; and theirtheological lessons were repaid with the gift a spacious and wealthydomain. The name and doctrine of this venerable school were propagatedamong the Greeks and Syrians, and their zeal is expressed by Macarius, patriarch of Antioch, who declared before the synod of Constantinople, that sooner than subscribe the two wills of Christ, he would submit tobe hewn piecemeal and cast into the sea. [134] A similar or a lesscruel mode of persecution soon converted the unresisting subjects ofthe plain, while the glorious title of Mardaites, [135] or rebels, wasbravely maintained by the hardy natives of Mount Libanus. John Maron, one of the most learned and popular of the monks, assumed the characterof patriarch of Antioch; his nephew, Abraham, at the head of theMaronites, defended their civil and religious freedom against thetyrants of the East. The son of the orthodox Constantine pursued withpious hatred a people of soldiers, who might have stood the bulwark ofhis empire against the common foes of Christ and of Rome. An army ofGreeks invaded Syria; the monastery of St. Maron was destroyed withfire; the bravest chieftains were betrayed and murdered, and twelvethousand of their followers were transplanted to the distant frontiersof Armenia and Thrace. Yet the humble nation of the Maronites hadsurvived the empire of Constantinople, and they still enjoy, undertheir Turkish masters, a free religion and a mitigated servitude. Theirdomestic governors are chosen among the ancient nobility: the patriarch, in his monastery of Canobin, still fancies himself on the throne ofAntioch: nine bishops compose his synod, and one hundred and fiftypriests, who retain the liberty of marriage, are intrusted with the careof one hundred thousand souls. Their country extends from the ridge ofMount Libanus to the shores of Tripoli; and the gradual descent affords, in a narrow space, each variety of soil and climate, from the HolyCedars, erect under the weight of snow, [136] to the vine, the mulberry, and the olive-trees of the fruitful valley. In the twelfth century, theMaronites, abjuring the Monothelite error were reconciled to the Latinchurches of Antioch and Rome, [137] and the same alliance has beenfrequently renewed by the ambition of the popes and the distress of theSyrians. But it may reasonably be questioned, whether their union hasever been perfect or sincere; and the learned Maronites of the collegeof Rome have vainly labored to absolve their ancestors from the guilt ofheresy and schism. [138]

[Footnote 133: The synonymous use of the two words may be proved fromEutychius, (Annal. Tom. Ii. P. 191, 267, 332, ) and many similar passageswhich may be found in the methodical table of Pocock. He was notactuated by any prejudice against the Maronites of the xth century; andwe may believe a Melchite, whose testimony is confirmed by the Jacobitesand Latins. ]

[Footnote 134: Concil. Tom. Vii. P. 780. The Monothelite cause wassupported with firmness and subtilty by Constantine, a Syrian priest ofApamea, (p. 1040, &c. )]

[Footnote 135: Theophanes (Chron. P. 295, 296, 300, 302, 306) andCedrenus (p. 437, 440) relates the exploits of the Mardaites: the name(Mard, in Syriac, rebellavit) is explained by La Roque, (Voyage de laSyrie, tom. Ii. P. 53;) and dates are fixed by Pagi, (A. D. 676, No. 4--14, A. D. 685, No. 3, 4;) and even the obscure story of the patriarchJohn Maron (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. Tom. I. P. 496--520) illustratesfrom the year 686 to 707, the troubles of Mount Libanus. * Note: Compareon the Mardaites Anquetil du Perron, in the fiftieth volume of the Mem. De l'Acad. Des Inscriptions; and Schlosser, Bildersturmendes Kaiser, p. 100. --M]

[Footnote 136: In the last century twenty large cedars still remained, (Voyage de la Roque, tom. I. P. 68--76;) at present they are reducedto four or five, (Volney, tom. I. P. 264. ) These trees, so famous inScripture, were guarded by excommunication: the wood was sparinglyborrowed for small crosses, &c. ; an annual mass was chanted under theirshade; and they were endowed by the Syrians with a sensitive power oferecting their branches to repel the snow, to which Mount Libanusis less faithful than it is painted by Tacitus: inter ardores opacumfidumque nivibus--a daring metaphor, (Hist. V. 6. ) Note: Of the oldestand best looking trees, I counted eleven or twelve twenty-five verylarge ones; and about fifty of middling size; and more than threehundred smaller and young ones. Burckhardt's Travels in Syria p. 19. --M]

[Footnote 137: The evidence of William of Tyre (Hist. In Gestis Dei perFrancos, l. Xxii. C. 8, p. 1022) is copied or confirmed by Jacquesde Vitra, (Hist. Hierosolym. L. Ii. C. 77, p. 1093, 1094. ) But thisunnatural league expired with the power of the Franks; and Abulpharagius(who died in 1286) considers the Maronites as a sect of Monothelites, (Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Ii. P. 292. )]

[Footnote 138: I find a description and history of the Maronites in theVoyage de la Syrie et du Mont Liban par la Roque, (2 vols. In 12mo. , Amsterdam, 1723; particularly tom. I. P. 42--47, p. 174--184, tom. Ii. P. 10--120. ) In the ancient part, he copies the prejudices of Nairon andthe other Maronites of Rome, which Assemannus is afraid to renounce andashamed to support. Jablonski, (Institut. Hist. Christ. Tom. Iii. P. 186. ) Niebuhr, (Voyage de l'Arabie, &c. , tom. Ii. P. 346, 370--381, )and, above all, the judicious Volney, (Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie, tom. Ii. P. 8--31, Paris, 1787, ) may be consulted. ]

IV. Since the age of Constantine, the Armenians [139] had signalizedtheir attachment to the religion and empire of the Christians. [1391]The disorders of their country, and their ignorance of the Greek tongue, prevented their clergy from assisting at the synod of Chalcedon, andthey floated eighty-four years [140] in a state of indifferenceor suspense, till their vacant faith was finally occupied by themissionaries of Julian of Halicarnassus, [141] who in Egypt, theircommon exile, had been vanquished by the arguments or the influence ofhis rival Severus, the Monophysite patriarch of Antioch. The Armeniansalone are the pure disciples of Eutyches, an unfortunate parent, who hasbeen renounced by the greater part of his spiritual progeny. They alonepersevere in the opinion, that the manhood of Christ was created, orexisted without creation, of a divine and incorruptible substance. Theiradversaries reproach them with the adoration of a phantom; and theyretort the accusation, by deriding or execrating the blasphemy of theJacobites, who impute to the Godhead the vile infirmities of the flesh, even the natural effects of nutrition and digestion. The religion ofArmenia could not derive much glory from the learning or the power ofits inhabitants. The royalty expired with the origin of their schism;and their Christian kings, who arose and fell in the thirteenth centuryon the confines of Cilicia, were the clients of the Latins and thevassals of the Turkish sultan of Iconium. The helpless nation has seldombeen permitted to enjoy the tranquillity of servitude. From the earliestperiod to the present hour, Armenia has been the theatre of perpetualwar: the lands between Tauris and Erivan were dispeopled by thecruel policy of the Sophis; and myriads of Christian families weretransplanted, to perish or to propagate in the distant provinces ofPersia. Under the rod of oppression, the zeal of the Armenians isfervent and intrepid; they have often preferred the crown of martyrdomto the white turban of Mahomet; they devoutly hate the error andidolatry of the Greeks; and their transient union with the Latins is notless devoid of truth, than the thousand bishops, whom their patriarchoffered at the feet of the Roman pontiff. [142] The catholic, orpatriarch, of the Armenians resides in the monastery of Ekmiasin, threeleagues from Erivan. Forty-seven archbishops, each of whom may claim theobedience of four or five suffragans, are consecrated by his hand; butthe far greater part are only titular prelates, who dignify with theirpresence and service the simplicity of his court. As soon as they haveperformed the liturgy, they cultivate the garden; and our bishops willhear with surprise, that the austerity of their life increases in justproportion to the elevation of their rank. 

In the fourscore thousand towns or villages of his spiritual empire, thepatriarch receives a small and voluntary tax from each person above theage of fifteen; but the annual amount of six hundred thousand crownsis insufficient to supply the incessant demands of charity and tribute. Since the beginning of the last century, the Armenians have obtained alarge and lucrative share of the commerce of the East: in their returnfrom Europe, the caravan usually halts in the neighborhood of Erivan, the altars are enriched with the fruits of their patient industry;and the faith of Eutyches is preached in their recent congregations ofBarbary and Poland. [143]

[Footnote 139: The religion of the Armenians is briefly described by LaCroze, (Hist. Du Christ. De l'Ethiopie et de l'Armenie, p. 269--402. ) Herefers to the great Armenian History of Galanus, (3 vols. In fol. Rome, 1650--1661, ) and commends the state of Armenia in the iiid volume of theNouveaux Memoires des Missions du Levant. The work of a Jesuit must havesterling merit when it is praised by La Croze. ]

[Footnote 1391: See vol. Iii. Ch. Xx. P. 271. --M. ]

[Footnote 140: The schism of the Armenians is placed 84 years after thecouncil of Chalcedon, (Pagi, Critica, ad A. D. 535. ) It was consummatedat the end of seventeen years; and it is from the year of Christ 552that we date the aera of the Armenians, (L'Art de verifier les Dates, p. Xxxv. )]

[Footnote 141: The sentiments and success of Julian of Halicarnassus maybe seen in Liberatus, (Brev. C. 19, ) Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. P. 132, 303, ) and Assemannus, (Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Ii. Dissertat. Monophysitis, l. Viii. P. 286. )]

[Footnote 142: See a remarkable fact of the xiith century in the Historyof Nicetas Choniates, (p. 258. ) Yet three hundred years before, Photius(Epistol. Ii. P. 49, edit. Montacut. ) had gloried in the conversion ofthe Armenians. ]

[Footnote 143: The travelling Armenians are in the way of everytraveller, and their mother church is on the high road betweenConstantinople and Ispahan; for their present state, see Fabricius, (Lux Evangelii, &c. , c. Xxxviii. P. 40--51, ) Olearius, (l. Iv. C. 40, )Chardin, (vol. Ii. P. 232, ) Teurnefort, (lettre xx. , ) and, above all, Tavernier, (tom. I. P. 28--37, 510-518, ) that rambling jeweller, who hadread nothing, but had seen so much and so well]

V. In the rest of the Roman empire, the despotism of the prince mighteradicate or silence the sectaries of an obnoxious creed. But thestubborn temper of the Egyptians maintained their opposition to thesynod of Chalcedon, and the policy of Justinian condescended to expectand to seize the opportunity of discord. The Monophysite church ofAlexandria [144] was torn by the disputes of the corruptibles andincorruptibles, and on the death of the patriarch, the two factionsupheld their respective candidates. [145] Gaian was the disciple ofJulian, Theodosius had been the pupil of Severus: the claims of theformer were supported by the consent of the monks and senators, the cityand the province; the latter depended on the priority of his ordination, the favor of the empress Theodora, and the arms of the eunuch Narses, which might have been used in more honorable warfare. The exile ofthe popular candidate to Carthage and Sardinia inflamed the ferment ofAlexandria; and after a schism of one hundred and seventy years, theGaianites still revered the memory and doctrine of their founder. Thestrength of numbers and of discipline was tried in a desperate andbloody conflict; the streets were filled with the dead bodies ofcitizens and soldiers; the pious women, ascending the roofs of theirhouses, showered down every sharp or ponderous utensil on the heads ofthe enemy; and the final victory of Narses was owing to the flames, withwhich he wasted the third capital of the Roman world. But the lieutenantof Justinian had not conquered in the cause of a heretic; Theodosiushimself was speedily, though gently, removed; and Paul of Tanis, anorthodox monk, was raised to the throne of Athanasius. The powers ofgovernment were strained in his support; he might appoint or displacethe dukes and tribunes of Egypt; the allowance of bread, whichDiocletian had granted, was suppressed, the churches were shut, and anation of schismatics was deprived at once of their spiritual and carnalfood. In his turn, the tyrant was excommunicated by the zeal and revengeof the people: and none except his servile Melchites would salute him asa man, a Christian, or a bishop. Yet such is the blindness of ambition, that, when Paul was expelled on a charge of murder, he solicited, witha bribe of seven hundred pounds of gold, his restoration to the samestation of hatred and ignominy. His successor Apollinaris enteredthe hostile city in military array, alike qualified for prayer or forbattle. His troops, under arms, were distributed through the streets;the gates of the cathedral were guarded, and a chosen band was stationedin the choir, to defend the person of their chief. He stood erect onhis throne, and, throwing aside the upper garment of a warrior, suddenlyappeared before the eyes of the multitude in the robes of patriarch ofAlexandria. Astonishment held them mute; but no sooner had Apollinarisbegun to read the tome of St. Leo, than a volley of curses, andinvectives, and stones, assaulted the odious minister of the emperorand the synod. A charge was instantly sounded by the successor of theapostles; the soldiers waded to their knees in blood; and two hundredthousand Christians are said to have fallen by the sword: an incredibleaccount, even if it be extended from the slaughter of a day to theeighteen years of the reign of Apollinaris. Two succeeding patriarchs, Eulogius [146] and John, [147] labored in the conversion of heretics, with arms and arguments more worthy of their evangelical profession. Thetheological knowledge of Eulogius was displayed in many a volume, whichmagnified the errors of Eutyches and Severus, and attempted to reconcilethe ambiguous language of St. Cyril with the orthodox creed of PopeLeo and the fathers of Chalcedon. The bounteous alms of John theeleemosynary were dictated by superstition, or benevolence, or policy. Seven thousand five hundred poor were maintained at his expense; on hisaccession he found eight thousand pounds of gold in the treasury of thechurch; he collected ten thousand from the liberality of the faithful;yet the primate could boast in his testament, that he left behind himno more than the third part of the smallest of the silver coins. Thechurches of Alexandria were delivered to the Catholics, the religion ofthe Monophysites was proscribed in Egypt, and a law was revived whichexcluded the natives from the honors and emoluments of the state. 

[Footnote 144: The history of the Alexandrian patriarchs, from Dioscorusto Benjamin, is taken from Renaudot, (p. 114--164, ) and the second tomeof the Annals of Eutychius. ]

[Footnote 145: Liberat. Brev. C. 20, 23. Victor. Chron. P. 329 330. Procop. Anecdot. C. 26, 27. ]

[Footnote 146: Eulogius, who had been a monk of Antioch, was moreconspicuous for subtilty than eloquence. He proves that the enemies ofthe faith, the Gaianites and Theodosians, ought not to be reconciled;that the same proposition may be orthodox in the mouth of St. Cyril, heretical in that of Severus; that the opposite assertions of St. Leoare equally true, &c. His writings are no longer extant except in theExtracts of Photius, who had perused them with care and satisfaction, ccviii. Ccxxv. Ccxxvi. Ccxxvii. Ccxxx. Cclxxx. ]

[Footnote 147: See the Life of John the eleemosynary by his contemporaryLeontius, bishop of Neapolis in Cyrus, whose Greek text, either lost orhidden, is reflected in the Latin version of Baronius, (A. D. 610, No. 9, A. D. 620, No. 8. ) Pagi (Critica, tom. Ii. P. 763) and Fabricius (l. V c. 11, tom. Vii. P. 454) have made some critical observations]

Chapter XLVII: Ecclesiastical Discord. --Part VI. 

A more important conquest still remained, of the patriarch, the oracleand leader of the Egyptian church. Theodosius had resisted thethreats and promises of Justinian with the spirit of an apostle oran enthusiast. "Such, " replied the patriarch, "were the offers of thetempter when he showed the kingdoms of the earth. But my soul is fardearer to me than life or dominion. The churches are in the hands of aprince who can kill the body; but my conscience is my own; and in exile, poverty, or chains, I will steadfastly adhere to the faith of my holypredecessors, Athanasius, Cyril, and Dioscorus. Anathema to the tome ofLeo and the synod of Chalcedon! Anathema to all who embrace their creed!Anathema to them now and forevermore! Naked came I out of my mother'swomb, naked shall I descend into the grave. Let those who love Godfollow me and seek their salvation. " After comforting his brethren, he embarked for Constantinople, and sustained, in six successiveinterviews, the almost irresistible weight of the royal presence. Hisopinions were favorably entertained in the palace and the city;the influence of Theodora assured him a safe conduct and honorabledismission; and he ended his days, though not on the throne, yet inthe bosom, of his native country. On the news of his death, Apollinarisindecently feasted the nobles and the clergy; but his joy was checked bythe intelligence of a new election; and while he enjoyed the wealth ofAlexandria, his rivals reigned in the monasteries of Thebais, andwere maintained by the voluntary oblations of the people. A perpetualsuccession of patriarchs arose from the ashes of Theodosius; and theMonophysite churches of Syria and Egypt were united by the name ofJacobites and the communion of the faith. But the same faith, which hasbeen confined to a narrow sect of the Syrians, was diffused over themass of the Egyptian or Coptic nation; who, almost unanimously, rejectedthe decrees of the synod of Chalcedon. A thousand years were now elapsedsince Egypt had ceased to be a kingdom, since the conquerors of Asia andEurope had trampled on the ready necks of a people, whose ancient wisdomand power ascend beyond the records of history. The conflict of zealand persecution rekindled some sparks of their national spirit. Theyabjured, with a foreign heresy, the manners and language of the Greeks:every Melchite, in their eyes, was a stranger, every Jacobite a citizen;the alliance of marriage, the offices of humanity, were condemned as adeadly sin the natives renounced all allegiance to the emperor; andhis orders, at a distance from Alexandria, were obeyed only under thepressure of military force. A generous effort might have edeemed thereligion and liberty of Egypt, and her six hundred monasteries mighthave poured forth their myriads of holy warriors, for whom death shouldhave no terrors, since life had no comfort or delight. But experiencehas proved the distinction of active and passive courage; the fanaticwho endures without a groan the torture of the rack or the stake, wouldtremble and fly before the face of an armed enemy. The pusillanimoustemper of the Egyptians could only hope for a change of masters; thearms of Chosroes depopulated the land, yet under his reign the Jacobitesenjoyed a short and precarious respite. The victory of Heraclius renewedand aggravated the persecution, and the patriarch again escaped fromAlexandria to the desert. In his flight, Benjamin was encouraged bya voice, which bade him expect, at the end of ten years, the aid of aforeign nation, marked, like the Egyptians themselves, with the ancientrite of circumcision. The character of these deliverers, and the natureof the deliverance, will be hereafter explained; and I shall step overthe interval of eleven centuries to observe the present misery of theJacobites of Egypt. The populous city of Cairo affords a residence, orrather a shelter, for their indigent patriarch, and a remnant of tenbishops; forty monasteries have survived the inroads of the Arabs; andthe progress of servitude and apostasy has reduced the Coptic nation tothe despicable number of twenty-five or thirty thousand families; [148]a race of illiterate beggars, whose only consolation is derived fromthe superior wretchedness of the Greek patriarch and his diminutivecongregation. [149]

[Footnote 148: This number is taken from the curious Recherches surles Egyptiens et les Chinois, (tom. Ii. P. 192, 193, ) and appears moreprobable than the 600, 000 ancient, or 15, 000 modern, Copts of GemelliCarreri Cyril Lucar, the Protestant patriarch of Constantinople, lamentsthat those heretics were ten times more numerous than his orthodoxGreeks, ingeniously applying Homer, (Iliad, ii. 128, ) the most perfectexpression of contempt, (Fabric. Lux Evangelii, 740. )]

[Footnote 149: The history of the Copts, their religion, manners, &c. , may be found in the Abbe Renaudot's motley work, neither a translationnor an original; the Chronicon Orientale of Peter, a Jacobite; inthe two versions of Abraham Ecchellensis, Paris, 1651; and John SimonAsseman, Venet. 1729. These annals descend no lower than the xiiithcentury. The more recent accounts must be searched for in the travellersinto Egypt and the Nouveaux Memoires des Missions du Levant. In the lastcentury, Joseph Abudacnus, a native of Cairo, published at Oxford, inthirty pages, a slight Historia Jacobitarum, 147, post p. 150]

VI. The Coptic patriarch, a rebel to the Caesars, or a slave to thekhalifs, still gloried in the filial obedience of the kings of Nubia andAethiopia. He repaid their homage by magnifying their greatness; andit was boldly asserted that they could bring into the field a hundredthousand horse, with an equal number of camels; [150] that their handcould pour out or restrain the waters of the Nile; [151] and thepeace and plenty of Egypt was obtained, even in this world, by theintercession of the patriarch. In exile at Constantinople, Theodosiusrecommended to his patroness the conversion of the black nations ofNubia, from the tropic of Cancer to the confines of Abyssinia. [152]Her design was suspected and emulated by the more orthodox emperor. The rival missionaries, a Melchite and a Jacobite, embarked at thesame time; but the empress, from a motive of love or fear, was moreeffectually obeyed; and the Catholic priest was detained by thepresident of Thebais, while the king of Nubia and his court were hastilybaptized in the faith of Dioscorus. The tardy envoy of Justinian wasreceived and dismissed with honor: but when he accused the heresy andtreason of the Egyptians, the negro convert was instructed to replythat he would never abandon his brethren, the true believers, to thepersecuting ministers of the synod of Chalcedon. [153] During severalages, the bishops of Nubia were named and consecrated by the Jacobitepatriarch of Alexandria: as late as the twelfth century, Christianityprevailed; and some rites, some ruins, are still visible in the savagetowns of Sennaar and Dongola. [154] But the Nubians at length executedtheir threats of returning to the worship of idols; the climate requiredthe indulgence of polygamy, and they have finally preferred the triumphof the Koran to the abasement of the Cross. A metaphysical religion mayappear too refined for the capacity of the negro race: yet a black ora parrot might be taught to repeat the words of the Chalcedonian orMonophysite creed. 

[Footnote 150: About the year 737. See Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexp. 221, 222. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. P. 99. ]

[Footnote 151: Ludolph. Hist. Aethiopic. Et Comment. L. I. C. 8. Renaudot Hist. Patriarch. Alex. P. 480, &c. This opinion, introducedinto Egypt and Europe by the artifice of the Copts, the pride of theAbyssinians, the fear and ignorance of the Turks and Arabs, has not eventhe semblance of truth. The rains of Aethiopia do not, in the increaseof the Nile, consult the will of the monarch. If the river approaches atNapata within three days' journey of the Red Sea (see D'Anville's Maps, )a canal that should divert its course would demand, and most probablysurpass, the power of the Caesars. ]

[Footnote 152: The Abyssinians, who still preserve the features andolive complexion of the Arabs, afford a proof that two thousand yearsare not sufficient to change the color of the human race. The Nubians, an African race, are pure negroes, as black as those of Senegal orCongo, with flat noses, thick lips, and woolly hair, (Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. V. P. 117, 143, 144, 166, 219, edit. In 12mo. , Paris, 1769. ) The ancients beheld, without much attention, the extraordinaryphenomenon which has exercised the philosophers and theologians ofmodern times]

[Footnote 153: Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. Tom. I. P. 329. ]

[Footnote 154: The Christianity of the Nubians (A. D. 1153) is attestedby the sheriff al Edrisi, falsely described under the name of the Nubiangeographer, (p. 18, ) who represents them as a nation of Jacobites. Therays of historical light that twinkle in the history of Ranaudot (p. 178, 220--224, 281--286, 405, 434, 451, 464) are all previous to thisaera. See the modern state in the Lettres Edifiantes (Recueil, iv. ) andBusching, (tom. Ix. P. 152--139, par Berenger. )]

Christianity was more deeply rooted in the Abyssinian empire; and, although the correspondence has been sometimes interrupted above seventyor a hundred years, the mother-church of Alexandria retains her colonyin a state of perpetual pupilage. Seven bishops once composed theAethiopic synod: had their number amounted to ten, they might haveelected an independent primate; and one of their kings was ambitious ofpromoting his brother to the ecclesiastical throne. But the eventwas foreseen, the increase was denied: the episcopal office has beengradually confined to the abuna, [155] the head and author of theAbyssinian priesthood; the patriarch supplies each vacancy with anEgyptian monk; and the character of a stranger appears more venerable inthe eyes of the people, less dangerous in those of the monarch. In thesixth century, when the schism of Egypt was confirmed, the rival chiefs, with their patrons, Justinian and Theodora, strove to outstrip eachother in the conquest of a remote and independent province. Theindustry of the empress was again victorious, and the pious Theodora hasestablished in that sequestered church the faith and discipline ofthe Jacobites. [156] Encompassed on all sides by the enemies of theirreligion, the Aethiopians slept near a thousand years, forgetful ofthe world, by whom they were forgotten. They were awakened by thePortuguese, who, turning the southern promontory of Africa, appeared inIndia and the Red Sea, as if they had descended through the air from adistant planet. In the first moments of their interview, the subjectsof Rome and Alexandria observed the resemblance, rather than thedifference, of their faith; and each nation expected the most importantbenefits from an alliance with their Christian brethren. In their lonelysituation, the Aethiopians had almost relapsed into the savage life. Their vessels, which had traded to Ceylon, scarcely presumed to navigatethe rivers of Africa; the ruins of Axume were deserted, the nation wasscattered in villages, and the emperor, a pompous name, was content, both in peace and war, with the immovable residence of a camp. Consciousof their own indigence, the Abyssinians had formed the rationalproject of importing the arts and ingenuity of Europe; [157] and theirambassadors at Rome and Lisbon were instructed to solicit a colony ofsmiths, carpenters, tilers, masons, printers, surgeons, and physicians, for the use of their country. But the public danger soon called for theinstant and effectual aid of arms and soldiers, to defend an unwarlikepeople from the Barbarians who ravaged the inland country and the Turksand Arabs who advanced from the sea-coast in more formidable array. Aethiopia was saved by four hundred and fifty Portuguese, who displayedin the field the native valor of Europeans, and the artificial power ofthe musket and cannon. In a moment of terror, the emperor had promisedto reconcile himself and his subjects to the Catholic faith; a Latinpatriarch represented the supremacy of the pope: [158] the empire, enlarged in a tenfold proportion, was supposed to contain more gold thanthe mines of America; and the wildest hopes of avarice and zeal werebuilt on the willing submission of the Christians of Africa. 

[Footnote 155: The abuna is improperly dignified by the Latins withthe title of patriarch. The Abyssinians acknowledge only the fourpatriarchs, and their chief is no more than a metropolitan or nationalprimate, (Ludolph. Hist. Aethiopic. Et Comment. L. Iii. C. 7. ) The sevenbishops of Renaudot, (p. 511, ) who existed A. D. 1131, are unknown to thehistorian. ]

[Footnote 156: I know not why Assemannus (Bibliot. Orient. Tom. Ii. P. 384) should call in question these probable missions of Theodora intoNubia and Aethiopia. The slight notices of Abyssinia till the year 1500are supplied by Renaudot (p. 336-341, 381, 382, 405, 443, &c. , 452, 456, 463, 475, 480, 511, 525, 559--564) from the Coptic writers. The mind ofLudolphus was a perfect blank. ]

[Footnote 157: Ludolph. Hist. Aethiop. L. Iv. C. 5. The most necessaryarts are now exercised by the Jews, and the foreign trade is in thehands of the Armenians. What Gregory principally admired and envied wasthe industry of Europe--artes et opificia. ]

[Footnote 158: John Bermudez, whose relation, printed at Lisbon, 1569, was translated into English by Purchas, (Pilgrims, l. Vii. C. 7, p. 1149, &c. , ) and from thence into French by La Croze, (Christianismed'Ethiopie, p. 92--265. ) The piece is curious; but the author may besuspected of deceiving Abyssinia, Rome, and Portugal. His title to therank of patriarch is dark and doubtful, (Ludolph. Comment. No. 101, p. 473. )]

But the vows which pain had extorted were forsworn on the return ofhealth. The Abyssinians still adhered with unshaken constancy to theMonophysite faith; their languid belief was inflamed by the exerciseof dispute; they branded the Latins with the names of Arians andNestorians, and imputed the adoration of four gods to those whoseparated the two natures of Christ. Fremona, a place of worship, orrather of exile, was assigned to the Jesuit missionaries. Their skillin the liberal and mechanic arts, their theological learning, and thedecency of their manners, inspired a barren esteem; but they were notendowed with the gift of miracles, [159] and they vainly solicited areenforcement of European troops. The patience and dexterity of fortyyears at length obtained a more favorable audience, and two emperorsof Abyssinia were persuaded that Rome could insure the temporal andeverlasting happiness of her votaries. The first of these royal convertslost his crown and his life; and the rebel army was sanctified by theabuna, who hurled an anathema at the apostate, and absolved his subjectsfrom their oath of fidelity. The fate of Zadenghel was revenged by thecourage and fortune of Susneus, who ascended the throne under the nameof Segued, and more vigorously prosecuted the pious enterprise of hiskinsman. After the amusement of some unequal combats between the Jesuitsand his illiterate priests, the emperor declared himself a proselyteto the synod of Chalcedon, presuming that his clergy and people wouldembrace without delay the religion of their prince. The liberty ofchoice was succeeded by a law, which imposed, under pain of death, thebelief of the two natures of Christ: the Abyssinians were enjoined towork and to play on the Sabbath; and Segued, in the face of Europe andAfrica, renounced his connection with the Alexandrian church. A Jesuit, Alphonso Mendez, the Catholic patriarch of Aethiopia, accepted, inthe name of Urban VIII. , the homage and abjuration of the penitent. "Iconfess, " said the emperor on his knees, "I confess that the pope is thevicar of Christ, the successor of St. Peter, and the sovereign of theworld. To him I swear true obedience, and at his feet I offer my personand kingdom. " A similar oath was repeated by his son, his brother, the clergy, the nobles, and even the ladies of the court: the Latinpatriarch was invested with honors and wealth; and his missionarieserected their churches or citadels in the most convenient stations ofthe empire. The Jesuits themselves deplore the fatal indiscretion oftheir chief, who forgot the mildness of the gospel and the policy ofhis order, to introduce with hasty violence the liturgy of Rome andthe inquisition of Portugal. He condemned the ancient practice ofcircumcision, which health, rather than superstition, had first inventedin the climate of Aethiopia. [160] A new baptism, a new ordination, wasinflicted on the natives; and they trembled with horror when the mostholy of the dead were torn from their graves, when the most illustriousof the living were excommunicated by a foreign priest. In the defense oftheir religion and liberty, the Abyssinians rose in arms, with desperatebut unsuccessful zeal. Five rebellions were extinguished in the bloodof the insurgents: two abunas were slain in battle, whole legions wereslaughtered in the field, or suffocated in their caverns; and neithermerit, nor rank, nor sex, could save from an ignominious death theenemies of Rome. But the victorious monarch was finally subdued by theconstancy of the nation, of his mother, of his son, and of his mostfaithful friends. Segued listened to the voice of pity, of reason, perhaps of fear: and his edict of liberty of conscience instantlyrevealed the tyranny and weakness of the Jesuits. On the death of hisfather, Basilides expelled the Latin patriarch, and restored tothe wishes of the nation the faith and the discipline of Egypt. TheMonophysite churches resounded with a song of triumph, "that the sheepof Aethiopia were now delivered from the hyaenas of the West;" and thegates of that solitary realm were forever shut against the arts, thescience, and the fanaticism of Europe. [161]

[Footnote 159: Religio Romana. .. Nec precibus patrum nec miraculis abipsis editis suffulciebatur, is the uncontradicted assurance of thedevout emperor Susneus to his patriarch Mendez, (Ludolph. Comment. No. 126, p. 529;) and such assurances should be preciously kept, as anantidote against any marvellous legends. ]

[Footnote 160: I am aware how tender is the question of circumcision. Yet I will affirm, 1. That the Aethiopians have a physical reasonfor the circumcision of males, and even of females, (RecherchesPhilosophiques sur les Americains, tom. Ii. ) 2. That it was practisedin Aethiopia long before the introduction of Judaism or Christianity, (Herodot. L. Ii. C. 104. Marsham, Canon. Chron. P. 72, 73. ) "Infantescircumcidunt ob consuetudinemn, non ob Judaismum, " says Gregory theAbyssinian priest, (apud Fabric. Lux Christiana, p. 720. ) Yet in theheat of dispute, the Portuguese were sometimes branded with the name ofuncircumcised, (La Croze, p. 90. Ludolph. Hist. And Comment. L. Iii. C. L. )]

[Footnote 161: The three Protestant historians, Ludolphus, (Hist. Aethiopica, Francofurt. 1681; Commentarius, 1691; Relatio Nova, &c. , 1693, in folio, ) Geddes, (Church History of Aethiopia, London, 1696, in8vo. . ) and La Croze, (Hist. Du Christianisme d'Ethiopie et d'Armenie, La Haye, 1739, in 12mo. , ) have drawn their principal materials from theJesuits, especially from the General History of Tellez, published inPortuguese at Coimbra, 1660. We might be surprised at their frankness;but their most flagitious vice, the spirit of persecution, was in theireyes the most meritorious virtue. Ludolphus possessed some, thougha slight, advantage from the Aethiopic language, and the personalconversation of Gregory, a free-spirited Abyssinian priest, whomhe invited from Rome to the court of Saxe-Gotha. See the TheologiaAethiopica of Gregory, in (Fabric. Lux Evangelii, p. 716--734. ) *Note: The travels of Bruce, illustrated by those of Mr. Salt, and thenarrative of Nathaniel Pearce, have brought us again acquainted withthis remote region. Whatever may be their speculative opinions thebarbarous manners of the Ethiopians seem to be gaining more and more theascendency over the practice of Christianity. --M. ]

Chapter XLVIII: Succession And Characters Of The Greek Emperors. --Part I. 

 Plan Of The Two Last Volumes. --Succession And Characters Of The Greek Emperors Of Constantinople, From The Time Of Heraclius To The Latin Conquest. 

I have now deduced from Trajan to Constantine, from Constantine toHeraclius, the regular series of the Roman emperors; and faithfullyexposed the prosperous and adverse fortunes of their reigns. Fivecenturies of the decline and fall of the empire have already elapsed;but a period of more than eight hundred years still separates me fromthe term of my labors, the taking of Constantinople by the Turks. ShouldI persevere in the same course, should I observe the same measure, aprolix and slender thread would be spun through many a volume, nor wouldthe patient reader find an adequate reward of instruction or amusement. At every step, as we sink deeper in the decline and fall of theEastern empire, the annals of each succeeding reign would impose a moreungrateful and melancholy task. These annals must continue to repeat atedious and uniform tale of weakness and misery; the natural connectionof causes and events would be broken by frequent and hasty transitions, and a minute accumulation of circumstances must destroy the light andeffect of those general pictures which compose the use and ornament ofa remote history. From the time of Heraclius, the Byzantine theatre iscontracted and darkened: the line of empire, which had been defined bythe laws of Justinian and the arms of Belisarius, recedes on all sidesfrom our view; the Roman name, the proper subject of our inquiries, is reduced to a narrow corner of Europe, to the lonely suburbs ofConstantinople; and the fate of the Greek empire has been compared tothat of the Rhine, which loses itself in the sands, before its waterscan mingle with the ocean. The scale of dominion is diminished to ourview by the distance of time and place; nor is the loss of externalsplendor compensated by the nobler gifts of virtue and genius. In thelast moments of her decay, Constantinople was doubtless more opulent andpopulous than Athens at her most flourishing aera, when a scanty sumof six thousand talents, or twelve hundred thousand pounds sterling waspossessed by twenty-one thousand male citizens of an adult age. But eachof these citizens was a freeman, who dared to assert the liberty of histhoughts, words, and actions, whose person and property were guarded byequal law; and who exercised his independent vote in the governmentof the republic. Their numbers seem to be multiplied by the strong andvarious discriminations of character; under the shield of freedom, onthe wings of emulation and vanity, each Athenian aspired to the level ofthe national dignity; from this commanding eminence, some chosen spiritssoared beyond the reach of a vulgar eye; and the chances of superiormerit in a great and populous kingdom, as they are proved by experience, would excuse the computation of imaginary millions. The territories ofAthens, Sparta, and their allies, do not exceed a moderate province ofFrance or England; but after the trophies of Salamis and Platea, they expand in our fancy to the gigantic size of Asia, which had beentrampled under the feet of the victorious Greeks. But the subjects ofthe Byzantine empire, who assume and dishonor the names both of Greeksand Romans, present a dead uniformity of abject vices, which are neithersoftened by the weakness of humanity, nor animated by the vigor ofmemorable crimes. The freemen of antiquity might repeat with generousenthusiasm the sentence of Homer, "that on the first day of hisservitude, the captive is deprived of one half of his manly virtue. "But the poet had only seen the effects of civil or domestic slavery, norcould he foretell that the second moiety of manhood must be annihilatedby the spiritual despotism which shackles not only the actions, but eventhe thoughts, of the prostrate votary. By this double yoke, the Greekswere oppressed under the successors of Heraclius; the tyrant, a law ofeternal justice, was degraded by the vices of his subjects; and on thethrone, in the camp, in the schools, we search, perhaps with fruitlessdiligence, the names and characters that may deserve to be rescued fromoblivion. Nor are the defects of the subject compensated by the skilland variety of the painters. Of a space of eight hundred years, the fourfirst centuries are overspread with a cloud interrupted by some faintand broken rays of historic light: in the lives of the emperors, fromMaurice to Alexius, Basil the Macedonian has alone been the theme of aseparate work; and the absence, or loss, or imperfection of contemporaryevidence, must be poorly supplied by the doubtful authority of morerecent compilers. The four last centuries are exempt from the reproachof penury; and with the Comnenian family, the historic muse ofConstantinople again revives, but her apparel is gaudy, her motions arewithout elegance or grace. A succession of priests, or courtiers, treads in each other's footsteps in the same path of servitude andsuperstition: their views are narrow, their judgment is feeble orcorrupt; and we close the volume of copious barrenness, still ignorantof the causes of events, the characters of the actors, and the mannersof the times which they celebrate or deplore. The observation whichhas been applied to a man, may be extended to a whole people, that theenergy of the sword is communicated to the pen; and it will be found byexperience, that the tone of history will rise or fall with the spiritof the age. 

From these considerations, I should have abandoned without regret theGreek slaves and their servile historians, had I not reflected thatthe fate of the Byzantine monarchy is passively connected with the mostsplendid and important revolutions which have changed the state of theworld. The space of the lost provinces was immediately replenished withnew colonies and rising kingdoms: the active virtues of peace and wardeserted from the vanquished to the victorious nations; and it is intheir origin and conquests, in their religion and government, thatwe must explore the causes and effects of the decline and fall of theEastern empire. Nor will this scope of narrative, the riches andvariety of these materials, be incompatible with the unity of designand composition. As, in his daily prayers, the Mussulman of Fez or Delhistill turns his face towards the temple of Mecca, the historian's eyeshall be always fixed on the city of Constantinople. The excursive linemay embrace the wilds of Arabia and Tartary, but the circle will beultimately reduced to the decreasing limit of the Roman monarchy. 

On this principle I shall now establish the plan of the last two volumesof the present work. The first chapter will contain, in a regularseries, the emperors who reigned at Constantinople during a period ofsix hundred years, from the days of Heraclius to the Latin conquest; arapid abstract, which may be supported by a general appeal to the orderand text of the original historians. In this introduction, I shallconfine myself to the revolutions of the throne, the succession offamilies, the personal characters of the Greek princes, the modeof their life and death, the maxims and influence of their domesticgovernment, and the tendency of their reign to accelerate or suspend thedownfall of the Eastern empire. Such a chronological review will serveto illustrate the various argument of the subsequent chapters; and eachcircumstance of the eventful story of the Barbarians will adapt itselfin a proper place to the Byzantine annals. The internal state of theempire, and the dangerous heresy of the Paulicians, which shook the Eastand enlightened the West, will be the subject of two separate chapters;but these inquiries must be postponed till our further progress shallhave opened the view of the world in the ninth and tenth centuries ofthe Christian area. After this foundation of Byzantine history, thefollowing nations will pass before our eyes, and each will occupy thespace to which it may be entitled by greatness or merit, or the degreeof connection with the Roman world and the present age. I. The Franks; ageneral appellation which includes all the Barbarians of France, Italy, and Germany, who were united by the sword and sceptre of Charlemagne. The persecution of images and their votaries separated Rome and Italyfrom the Byzantine throne, and prepared the restoration of the Romanempire in the West. II. The Arabs or Saracens. Three ample chapters willbe devoted to this curious and interesting object. In the first, aftera picture of the country and its inhabitants, I shall investigatethe character of Mahomet; the character, religion, and success of theprophet. In the second, I shall lead the Arabs to the conquest of Syria, Egypt, and Africa, the provinces of the Roman empire; nor can I checktheir victorious career till they have overthrown the monarchies ofPersia and Spain. In the third, I shall inquire how Constantinople andEurope were saved by the luxury and arts, the division and decay, ofthe empire of the caliphs. A single chapter will include, III. TheBulgarians, IV. Hungarians, and, V. Russians, who assaulted by sea or byland the provinces and the capital; but the last of these, so importantin their present greatness, will excite some curiosity in their originand infancy. VI. The Normans; or rather the private adventurers of thatwarlike people, who founded a powerful kingdom in Apulia and Sicily, shook the throne of Constantinople, displayed the trophies of chivalry, and almost realized the wonders of romance. 

VII. The Latins; the subjects of the pope, the nations of the West, whoenlisted under the banner of the cross for the recovery or relief of theholy sepulchre. The Greek emperors were terrified and preserved by themyriads of pilgrims who marched to Jerusalem with Godfrey of Bouillonand the peers of Christendom. The second and third crusades trod in thefootsteps of the first: Asia and Europe were mingled in a sacred war oftwo hundred years; and the Christian powers were bravely resisted, and finally expelled by Saladin and the Mamelukes of Egypt. In thesememorable crusades, a fleet and army of French and Venetians werediverted from Syria to the Thracian Bosphorus: they assaulted thecapital, they subverted the Greek monarchy: and a dynasty of Latinprinces was seated near threescore years on the throne of Constantine. VII. The Greeks themselves, during this period of captivity and exile, must be considered as a foreign nation; the enemies, and again thesovereigns of Constantinople. Misfortune had rekindled a spark ofnational virtue; and the Imperial series may be continued with somedignity from their restoration to the Turkish conquest. IX. The Mogulsand Tartars. By the arms of Zingis and his descendants, the globe wasshaken from China to Poland and Greece: the sultans were overthrown: thecaliphs fell, and the Caesars trembled on their throne. The victoriesof Timour suspended above fifty years the final ruin of the Byzantineempire. X. I have already noticed the first appearance of the Turks;and the names of the fathers, of Seljuk and Othman, discriminate thetwo successive dynasties of the nation, which emerged in the eleventhcentury from the Scythian wilderness. The former established a splendidand potent kingdom from the banks of the Oxus to Antioch and Nice; andthe first crusade was provoked by the violation of Jerusalem and thedanger of Constantinople. From an humble origin, the Ottomans arose, thescourge and terror of Christendom. Constantinople was besieged and takenby Mahomet II. , and his triumph annihilates the remnant, the image, thetitle, of the Roman empire in the East. The schism of the Greeks will beconnected with their last calamities, and the restoration of learning inthe Western world. 

I shall return from the captivity of the new, to the ruins of ancientRome; and the venerable name, the interesting theme, will shed a ray ofglory on the conclusion of my labors. 

The emperor Heraclius had punished a tyrant and ascended his throne; andthe memory of his reign is perpetuated by the transient conquest, andirreparable loss, of the Eastern provinces. After the death of Eudocia, his first wife, he disobeyed the patriarch, and violated the laws, byhis second marriage with his niece Martina; and the superstition of theGreeks beheld the judgment of Heaven in the diseases of the father andthe deformity of his offspring. But the opinion of an illegitimate birthis sufficient to distract the choice, and loosen the obedience, of thepeople: the ambition of Martina was quickened by maternal love, andperhaps by the envy of a step-mother; and the aged husband was toofeeble to withstand the arts of conjugal allurements. Constantine, his eldest son, enjoyed in a mature age the title of Augustus; but theweakness of his constitution required a colleague and a guardian, andhe yielded with secret reluctance to the partition of the empire. Thesenate was summoned to the palace to ratify or attest the associationof Heracleonas, the son of Martina: the imposition of the diadem wasconsecrated by the prayer and blessing of the patriarch; the senatorsand patricians adored the majesty of the great emperor and the partnersof his reign; and as soon as the doors were thrown open, they werehailed by the tumultuary but important voice of the soldiers. After aninterval of five months, the pompous ceremonies which formed theessence of the Byzantine state were celebrated in the cathedral and thehippodrome; the concord of the royal brothers was affectedly displayedby the younger leaning on the arm of the elder; and the name of Martinawas mingled in the reluctant or venal acclamations of the people. Heraclius survived this association about two years: his last testimonydeclared his two sons the equal heirs of the Eastern empire, andcommanded them to honor his widow Martina as their mother and theirsovereign. 

When Martina first appeared on the throne with the name and attributesof royalty, she was checked by a firm, though respectful, opposition;and the dying embers of freedom were kindled by the breath ofsuperstitious prejudice. "We reverence, " exclaimed the voice of acitizen, "we reverence the mother of our princes; but to those princesalone our obedience is due; and Constantine, the elder emperor, is of anage to sustain, in his own hands, the weight of the sceptre. Your sex isexcluded by nature from the toils of government. How could you combat, how could you answer, the Barbarians, who, with hostile or friendlyintentions, may approach the royal city? May Heaven avert from the Romanrepublic this national disgrace, which would provoke the patience of theslaves of Persia!" Martina descended from the throne with indignation, and sought a refuge in the female apartment of the palace. The reign ofConstantine the Third lasted only one hundred and three days: he expiredin the thirtieth year of his age, and, although his life had been a longmalady, a belief was entertained that poison had been the means, andhis cruel step-mother the author, of his untimely fate. Martina reapedindeed the harvest of his death, and assumed the government in the nameof the surviving emperor; but the incestuous widow of Heraclius wasuniversally abhorred; the jealousy of the people was awakened, and thetwo orphans whom Constantine had left became the objects of the publiccare. It was in vain that the son of Martina, who was no more thanfifteen years of age, was taught to declare himself the guardian of hisnephews, one of whom he had presented at the baptismal font: it was invain that he swore on the wood of the true cross, to defend them againstall their enemies. On his death-bed, the late emperor had despatcheda trusty servant to arm the troops and provinces of the East in thedefence of his helpless children: the eloquence and liberality ofValentin had been successful, and from his camp of Chalcedon, he boldlydemanded the punishment of the assassins, and the restoration of thelawful heir. The license of the soldiers, who devoured the grapes anddrank the wine of their Asiatic vineyards, provoked the citizens ofConstantinople against the domestic authors of their calamities, and thedome of St. Sophia reechoed, not with prayers and hymns, but with theclamors and imprecations of an enraged multitude. At their imperiouscommand, Heracleonas appeared in the pulpit with the eldest of the royalorphans; Constans alone was saluted as emperor of the Romans, and acrown of gold, which had been taken from the tomb of Heraclius, wasplaced on his head, with the solemn benediction of the patriarch. 

But in the tumult of joy and indignation, the church was pillaged, thesanctuary was polluted by a promiscuous crowd of Jews and Barbarians;and the Monothelite Pyrrhus, a creature of the empress, after dropping aprotestation on the altar, escaped by a prudent flight from the zealof the Catholics. A more serious and bloody task was reserved forthe senate, who derived a temporary strength from the consent of thesoldiers and people. 

The spirit of Roman freedom revived the ancient and awful examples ofthe judgment of tyrants, and the Imperial culprits were deposed andcondemned as the authors of the death of Constantine. But the severityof the conscript fathers was stained by the indiscriminate punishment ofthe innocent and the guilty: Martina and Heracleonas were sentenced tothe amputation, the former of her tongue, the latter of his nose; andafter this cruel execution, they consumed the remainder of their days inexile and oblivion. The Greeks who were capable of reflection might findsome consolation for their servitude, by observing the abuse of powerwhen it was lodged for a moment in the hands of an aristocracy. 

We shall imagine ourselves transported five hundred years backwards tothe age of the Antonines, if we listen to the oration which Constans II. Pronounced in the twelfth year of his age before the Byzantine senate. After returning his thanks for the just punishment of the assassins, whohad intercepted the fairest hopes of his father's reign, "By the divineProvidence, " said the young emperor, "and by your righteous decree, Martina and her incestuous progeny have been cast headlong from thethrone. Your majesty and wisdom have prevented the Roman state fromdegenerating into lawless tyranny. I therefore exhort and beseech youto stand forth as the counsellors and judges of the common safety. " Thesenators were gratified by the respectful address and liberal donativeof their sovereign; but these servile Greeks were unworthy andregardless of freedom; and in his mind, the lesson of an hour wasquickly erased by the prejudices of the age and the habits of despotism. He retained only a jealous fear lest the senate or people should one dayinvade the right of primogeniture, and seat his brother Theodosius onan equal throne. By the imposition of holy orders, the grandson ofHeraclius was disqualified for the purple; but this ceremony, whichseemed to profane the sacraments of the church, was insufficient toappease the suspicions of the tyrant, and the death of the deaconTheodosius could alone expiate the crime of his royal birth. [1111] Hismurder was avenged by the imprecations of the people, and the assassin, in the fullness of power, was driven from his capital into voluntaryand perpetual exile. Constans embarked for Greece and, as if he meantto retort the abhorrence which he deserved he is said, from the Imperialgalley, to have spit against the walls of his native city. After passingthe winter at Athens, he sailed to Tarentum in Italy, visited Rome, [1112] and concluded a long pilgrimage of disgrace and sacrilegiousrapine, by fixing his residence at Syracuse. But if Constans couldfly from his people, he could not fly from himself. The remorse of hisconscience created a phantom who pursued him by land and sea, by day andby night; and the visionary Theodosius, presenting to his lips a cup ofblood, said, or seemed to say, "Drink, brother, drink;" a sure emblemof the aggravation of his guilt, since he had received from the hands ofthe deacon the mystic cup of the blood of Christ. Odious to himselfand to mankind, Constans perished by domestic, perhaps by episcopal, treason, in the capital of Sicily. A servant who waited in the bath, after pouring warm water on his head, struck him violently with thevase. He fell, stunned by the blow, and suffocated by the water; and hisattendants, who wondered at the tedious delay, beheld with indifferencethe corpse of their lifeless emperor. The troops of Sicily investedwith the purple an obscure youth, whose inimitable beauty eluded, and itmight easily elude, the declining art of the painters and sculptors ofthe age. 

[Footnote 1111: His soldiers (according to Abulfaradji. Chron. Syr. P. 112) called him another Cain. St. Martin, t. Xi. P. 379. --M. ]

[Footnote 1112: He was received in Rome, and pillaged the churches. Hecarried off the brass roof of the Pantheon to Syracuse, or, as Schlosserconceives, to Constantinople Schlosser Geschichte der bilder-sturmendenKaiser p. 80--M. ]

Constans had left in the Byzantine palace three sons, the eldest ofwhom had been clothed in his infancy with the purple. When the fathersummoned them to attend his person in Sicily, these precious hostageswere detained by the Greeks, and a firm refusal informed him that theywere the children of the state. The news of his murder was conveyedwith almost supernatural speed from Syracuse to Constantinople; andConstantine, the eldest of his sons, inherited his throne without beingthe heir of the public hatred. His subjects contributed, with zeal andalacrity, to chastise the guilt and presumption of a province which hadusurped the rights of the senate and people; the young emperor sailedfrom the Hellespont with a powerful fleet; and the legions of Rome andCarthage were assembled under his standard in the harbor of Syracuse. The defeat of the Sicilian tyrant was easy, his punishment just, and hisbeauteous head was exposed in the hippodrome: but I cannot applaud theclemency of a prince, who, among a crowd of victims, condemned the sonof a patrician, for deploring with some bitterness the execution of avirtuous father. The youth was castrated: he survived the operation, and the memory of this indecent cruelty is preserved by the elevation ofGermanus to the rank of a patriarch and saint. After pouring this bloodylibation on his father's tomb, Constantine returned to his capital; andthe growth of his young beard during the Sicilian voyage was announced, by the familiar surname of Pogonatus, to the Grecian world. But hisreign, like that of his predecessor, was stained with fraternal discord. On his two brothers, Heraclius and Tiberius, he had bestowed the titleof Augustus; an empty title, for they continued to languish, withouttrust or power, in the solitude of the palace. At their secretinstigation, the troops of the Anatolian theme or province approachedthe city on the Asiatic side, demanded for the royal brothers thepartition or exercise of sovereignty, and supported their seditiousclaim by a theological argument. They were Christians, (they cried, )and orthodox Catholics; the sincere votaries of the holy and undividedTrinity. Since there are three equal persons in heaven, it is reasonablethere should be three equal persons upon earth. The emperor invitedthese learned divines to a friendly conference, in which they mightpropose their arguments to the senate: they obeyed the summons, but theprospect of their bodies hanging on the gibbet in the suburb of Galatareconciled their companions to the unity of the reign of Constantine. He pardoned his brothers, and their names were still pronounced in thepublic acclamations: but on the repetition or suspicion of a similaroffence, the obnoxious princes were deprived of their titles and noses, [1113] in the presence of the Catholic bishops who were assembled atConstantinople in the sixth general synod. In the close of his life, Pogonatus was anxious only to establish the right of primogeniture: theheir of his two sons, Justinian and Heraclius, was offered on the shrineof St. Peter, as a symbol of their spiritual adoption by the pope; butthe elder was alone exalted to the rank of Augustus, and the assuranceof the empire. 

[Footnote 1113: Schlosser (Geschichte der bilder sturmenden Kaiser, p. 90) supposed that the young princes were mutilated after the firstinsurrection; that after this the acts were still inscribed withtheir names, the princes being closely secluded in the palace. Theimprobability of this circumstance may be weighed against Gibbon's wantof authority for his statement. --M. ]

After the decease of his father, the inheritance of the Roman worlddevolved to Justinian II. ; and the name of a triumphant lawgiver wasdishonored by the vices of a boy, who imitated his namesake only inthe expensive luxury of building. His passions were strong; hisunderstanding was feeble; and he was intoxicated with a foolish pride, that his birth had given him the command of millions, of whom thesmallest community would not have chosen him for their local magistrate. His favorite ministers were two beings the least susceptible of humansympathy, a eunuch and a monk: to the one he abandoned the palace, tothe other the finances; the former corrected the emperor's mother witha scourge, the latter suspended the insolvent tributaries, with theirheads downwards, over a slow and smoky fire. Since the days of Commodusand Caracalla, the cruelty of the Roman princes had most commonly beenthe effect of their fear; but Justinian, who possessed some vigorof character, enjoyed the sufferings, and braved the revenge, of hissubjects, about ten years, till the measure was full, of his crimes andof their patience. In a dark dungeon, Leontius, a general of reputation, had groaned above three years, with some of the noblest and mostdeserving of the patricians: he was suddenly drawn forth to assume thegovernment of Greece; and this promotion of an injured man was a markof the contempt rather than of the confidence of his prince. As hewas followed to the port by the kind offices of his friends, Leontiusobserved, with a sigh, that he was a victim adorned for sacrifice, and that inevitable death would pursue his footsteps. They venturedto reply, that glory and empire might be the recompense of a generousresolution; that every order of men abhorred the reign of a monster; andthat the hands of two hundred thousand patriots expected only the voiceof a leader. The night was chosen for their deliverance; and in thefirst effort of the conspirators, the praefect was slain, and theprisons were forced open: the emissaries of Leontius proclaimed in everystreet, "Christians, to St. Sophia!" and the seasonable text ofthe patriarch, "This is the day of the Lord!" was the prelude ofan inflammatory sermon. From the church the people adjourned to thehippodrome: Justinian, in whose cause not a sword had been drawn, wasdragged before these tumultuary judges, and their clamors demanded theinstant death of the tyrant. But Leontius, who was already clothedwith the purple, cast an eye of pity on the prostrate son of his ownbenefactor and of so many emperors. The life of Justinian was spared;the amputation of his nose, perhaps of his tongue, was imperfectlyperformed: the happy flexibility of the Greek language could impose thename of Rhinotmetus; and the mutilated tyrant was banished to Chersonaein Crim-Tartary, a lonely settlement, where corn, wine, and oil, wereimported as foreign luxuries. 

On the edge of the Scythian wilderness, Justinian still cherished thepride of his birth, and the hope of his restoration. After three years'exile, he received the pleasing intelligence that his injury was avengedby a second revolution, and that Leontius in his turn had been dethronedand mutilated by the rebel Apsimar, who assumed the more respectablename of Tiberius. But the claim of lineal succession was stillformidable to a plebeian usurper; and his jealousy was stimulated by thecomplaints and charges of the Chersonites, who beheld the vices of thetyrant in the spirit of the exile. With a band of followers, attachedto his person by common hope or common despair, Justinian fled from theinhospitable shore to the horde of the Chozars, who pitched their tentsbetween the Tanais and Borysthenes. The khan entertained with pity andrespect the royal suppliant: Phanagoria, once an opulent city, on theAsiatic side of the lake Moeotis, was assigned for his residence; andevery Roman prejudice was stifled in his marriage with the sister ofthe Barbarian, who seems, however, from the name of Theodora, to havereceived the sacrament of baptism. But the faithless Chozar was soontempted by the gold of Constantinople: and had not the design beenrevealed by the conjugal love of Theodora, her husband must havebeen assassinated or betrayed into the power of his enemies. Afterstrangling, with his own hands, the two emissaries of the khan, Justinian sent back his wife to her brother, and embarked on the Euxinein search of new and more faithful allies. His vessel was assaulted by aviolent tempest; and one of his pious companions advised him to deservethe mercy of God by a vow of general forgiveness, if he should berestored to the throne. "Of forgiveness?" replied the intrepid tyrant:"may I perish this instant--may the Almighty whelm me in the waves--if Iconsent to spare a single head of my enemies!" He survived this impiousmenace, sailed into the mouth of the Danube, trusted his person in theroyal village of the Bulgarians, and purchased the aid of Terbelis, apagan conqueror, by the promise of his daughter and a fair partitionof the treasures of the empire. The Bulgarian kingdom extended to theconfines of Thrace; and the two princes besieged Constantinople at thehead of fifteen thousand horse. Apsimar was dismayed by the sudden andhostile apparition of his rival whose head had been promised by theChozar, and of whose evasion he was yet ignorant. After an absence often years, the crimes of Justinian were faintly remembered, and thebirth and misfortunes of their hereditary sovereign excited the pityof the multitude, ever discontented with the ruling powers; and by theactive diligence of his adherents, he was introduced into the city andpalace of Constantine. 

Chapter XLVIII: Succession And Characters Of The Greek Emperors. --Part II. 

In rewarding his allies, and recalling his wife, Justinian displayedsome sense of honor and gratitude; [1114] and Terbelis retired, aftersweeping away a heap of gold coin, which he measured with his Scythianwhip. But never was vow more religiously performed than the sacred oathof revenge which he had sworn amidst the storms of the Euxine. The twousurpers (for I must reserve the name of tyrant for the conqueror) weredragged into the hippodrome, the one from his prison, the other from hispalace. Before their execution, Leontius and Apsimar were cast prostratein chains beneath the throne of the emperor; and Justinian, plantinga foot on each of their necks, contemplated above an hour thechariot-race, while the inconstant people shouted, in the words of thePsalmist, "Thou shalt trample on the asp and basilisk, and on the lionand dragon shalt thou set thy foot!" The universal defection which hehad once experienced might provoke him to repeat the wish of Caligula, that the Roman people had but one head. Yet I shall presume to observe, that such a wish is unworthy of an ingenious tyrant, since his revengeand cruelty would have been extinguished by a single blow, instead ofthe slow variety of tortures which Justinian inflicted on the victims ofhis anger. His pleasures were inexhaustible: neither private virtuenor public service could expiate the guilt of active, or even passive, obedience to an established government; and, during the six years of hisnew reign, he considered the axe, the cord, and the rack, as the onlyinstruments of royalty. But his most implacable hatred was pointedagainst the Chersonites, who had insulted his exile and violated thelaws of hospitality. Their remote situation afforded some means ofdefence, or at least of escape; and a grievous tax was imposed onConstantinople, to supply the preparations of a fleet and army. "Allare guilty, and all must perish, " was the mandate of Justinian; andthe bloody execution was intrusted to his favorite Stephen, who wasrecommended by the epithet of the savage. Yet even the savage Stephenimperfectly accomplished the intentions of his sovereign. The slownessof his attack allowed the greater part of the inhabitants to withdrawinto the country; and the minister of vengeance contented himself withreducing the youth of both sexes to a state of servitude, with roastingalive seven of the principal citizens, with drowning twenty in the sea, and with reserving forty-two in chains to receive their doom from themouth of the emperor. In their return, the fleet was driven on the rockyshores of Anatolia; and Justinian applauded the obedience of the Euxine, which had involved so many thousands of his subjects and enemies in acommon shipwreck: but the tyrant was still insatiate of blood; anda second expedition was commanded to extirpate the remains of theproscribed colony. In the short interval, the Chersonites had returnedto their city, and were prepared to die in arms; the khan of the Chozarshad renounced the cause of his odious brother; the exiles of everyprovince were assembled in Tauris; and Bardanes, under the nameof Philippicus, was invested with the purple. The Imperial troops, unwilling and unable to perpetrate the revenge of Justinian, escapedhis displeasure by abjuring his allegiance: the fleet, under theirnew sovereign, steered back a more auspicious course to the harbors ofSinope and Constantinople; and every tongue was prompt to pronounce, every hand to execute, the death of the tyrant. Destitute of friends, hewas deserted by his Barbarian guards; and the stroke of the assassin waspraised as an act of patriotism and Roman virtue. His son Tiberius hadtaken refuge in a church; his aged grandmother guarded the door; and theinnocent youth, suspending round his neck the most formidable relics, embraced with one hand the altar, with the other the wood of the truecross. But the popular fury that dares to trample on superstition, is deaf to the cries of humanity; and the race of Heraclius wasextinguished after a reign of one hundred years

[Footnote 1114: Of fear rather than of more generous motives. Compare LeBeau vol. Xii. P. 64. --M. ]

Between the fall of the Heraclian and the rise of the Isaurian dynasty, a short interval of six years is divided into three reigns. Bardanes, or Philippicus, was hailed at Constantinople as a hero who had deliveredhis country from a tyrant; and he might taste some moments of happinessin the first transports of sincere and universal joy. Justinian had leftbehind him an ample treasure, the fruit of cruelty and rapine: butthis useful fund was soon and idly dissipated by his successor. On thefestival of his birthday, Philippicus entertained the multitude with thegames of the hippodrome; from thence he paraded through the streets witha thousand banners and a thousand trumpets; refreshed himself in thebaths of Zeuxippus, and returning to the palace, entertained his nobleswith a sumptuous banquet. At the meridian hour he withdrew to hischamber, intoxicated with flattery and wine, and forgetful that hisexample had made every subject ambitious, and that every ambitioussubject was his secret enemy. Some bold conspirators introducedthemselves in the disorder of the feast; and the slumbering monarch wassurprised, bound, blinded, and deposed, before he was sensible of hisdanger. Yet the traitors were deprived of their reward; and the freevoice of the senate and people promoted Artemius from the office ofsecretary to that of emperor: he assumed the title of Anastasius theSecond, and displayed in a short and troubled reign the virtues both ofpeace and war. But after the extinction of the Imperial line, the ruleof obedience was violated, and every change diffused the seeds of newrevolutions. In a mutiny of the fleet, an obscure and reluctant officerof the revenue was forcibly invested with the purple: after some monthsof a naval war, Anastasius resigned the sceptre; and the conqueror, Theodosius the Third, submitted in his turn to the superior ascendantof Leo, the general and emperor of the Oriental troops. His twopredecessors were permitted to embrace the ecclesiastical profession:the restless impatience of Anastasius tempted him to risk and to losehis life in a treasonable enterprise; but the last days of Theodosiuswere honorable and secure. The single sublime word, "Health, " whichhe inscribed on his tomb, expresses the confidence of philosophy orreligion; and the fame of his miracles was long preserved among thepeople of Ephesus. This convenient shelter of the church might sometimesimpose a lesson of clemency; but it may be questioned whether it is forthe public interest to diminish the perils of unsuccessful ambition. 

I have dwelt on the fall of a tyrant; I shall briefly represent thefounder of a new dynasty, who is known to posterity by the invectivesof his enemies, and whose public and private life is involved in theecclesiastical story of the Iconoclasts. Yet in spite of the clamorsof superstition, a favorable prejudice for the character of Leo theIsaurian may be reasonably drawn from the obscurity of his birth, andthe duration of his reign. --I. In an age of manly spirit, the prospectof an Imperial reward would have kindled every energy of the mind, andproduced a crowd of competitors as deserving as they were desirous toreign. Even in the corruption and debility of the modern Greeks, theelevation of a plebeian from the last to the first rank of society, supposes some qualifications above the level of the multitude. He wouldprobably be ignorant and disdainful of speculative science; and, in thepursuit of fortune, he might absolve himself from the obligations ofbenevolence and justice; but to his character we may ascribe the usefulvirtues of prudence and fortitude, the knowledge of mankind, and theimportant art of gaining their confidence and directing their passions. It is agreed that Leo was a native of Isauria, and that Conon was hisprimitive name. The writers, whose awkward satire is praise, describehim as an itinerant pedler, who drove an ass with some paltrymerchandise to the country fairs; and foolishly relate that he met onthe road some Jewish fortune-tellers, who promised him the Romanempire, on condition that he should abolish the worship of idols. A moreprobable account relates the migration of his father from Asia Minor toThrace, where he exercised the lucrative trade of a grazier; and he musthave acquired considerable wealth, since the first introduction of hisson was procured by a supply of five hundred sheep to the Imperialcamp. His first service was in the guards of Justinian, where he soonattracted the notice, and by degrees the jealousy, of the tyrant. His valor and dexterity were conspicuous in the Colchian war: fromAnastasius he received the command of the Anatolian legions, and by thesuffrage of the soldiers he was raised to the empire with the generalapplause of the Roman world. --II. In this dangerous elevation, Leo theThird supported himself against the envy of his equals, the discontentof a powerful faction, and the assaults of his foreign and domesticenemies. The Catholics, who accuse his religious innovations, areobliged to confess that they were undertaken with temper and conductedwith firmness. Their silence respects the wisdom of his administrationand the purity of his manners. After a reign of twenty-four years, hepeaceably expired in the palace of Constantinople; and the purple whichhe had acquired was transmitted by the right of inheritance to the thirdgeneration. [1115]

[Footnote 1115: During the latter part of his reign, the hostilitiesof the Saracens, who invested a Pergamenian, named Tiberius, with thepurple, and proclaimed him as the son of Justinian, and an earthquake, which destroyed the walls of Constantinople, compelled Leo greatlyto increase the burdens of taxation upon his subjects. A twelfth wasexacted in addition to every aurena as a wall tax. Theophanes p. 275Schlosser, Bilder eturmeud Kaiser, p. 197. --M. ]

In a long reign of thirty-four years, the son and successor of Leo, Constantine the Fifth, surnamed Copronymus, attacked with less temperatezeal the images or idols of the church. Their votaries have exhaustedthe bitterness of religious gall, in their portrait of this spottedpanther, this antichrist, this flying dragon of the serpent's seed, who surpassed the vices of Elagabalus and Nero. His reign was a longbutchery of whatever was most noble, or holy, or innocent, in hisempire. In person, the emperor assisted at the execution of his victims, surveyed their agonies, listened to their groans, and indulged, withoutsatiating, his appetite for blood: a plate of noses was accepted as agrateful offering, and his domestics were often scourged or mutilatedby the royal hand. His surname was derived from his pollution of hisbaptismal font. The infant might be excused; but the manly pleasures ofCopronymus degraded him below the level of a brute; his lust confoundedthe eternal distinctions of sex and species, and he seemed to extractsome unnatural delight from the objects most offensive to human sense. In his religion the Iconoclast was a Heretic, a Jew, a Mahometan, aPagan, and an Atheist; and his belief of an invisible power couldbe discovered only in his magic rites, human victims, and nocturnalsacrifices to Venus and the daemons of antiquity. His life was stainedwith the most opposite vices, and the ulcers which covered his body, anticipated before his death the sentiment of hell-tortures. Of theseaccusations, which I have so patiently copied, a part is refuted by itsown absurdity; and in the private anecdotes of the life of the princes, the lie is more easy as the detection is more difficult. Withoutadopting the pernicious maxim, that where much is alleged, somethingmust be true, I can however discern, that Constantine the Fifth wasdissolute and cruel. Calumny is more prone to exaggerate than to invent;and her licentious tongue is checked in some measure by the experienceof the age and country to which she appeals. Of the bishops and monks, the generals and magistrates, who are said to have suffered underhis reign, the numbers are recorded, the names were conspicuous, theexecution was public, the mutilation visible and permanent. [1116] TheCatholics hated the person and government of Copronymus; but even theirhatred is a proof of their oppression. They dissembled the provocationswhich might excuse or justify his rigor, but even these provocationsmust gradually inflame his resentment and harden his temper in the useor the abuse of despotism. Yet the character of the fifth Constantinewas not devoid of merit, nor did his government always deserve thecurses or the contempt of the Greeks. From the confession of hisenemies, I am informed of the restoration of an ancient aqueduct, of theredemption of two thousand five hundred captives, of the uncommonplenty of the times, and of the new colonies with which he repeopledConstantinople and the Thracian cities. They reluctantly praise hisactivity and courage; he was on horseback in the field at the headof his legions; and, although the fortune of his arms was various, hetriumphed by sea and land, on the Euphrates and the Danube, in civiland Barbarian war. Heretical praise must be cast into the scale tocounterbalance the weight of orthodox invective. The Iconoclasts reveredthe virtues of the prince: forty years after his death they still prayedbefore the tomb of the saint. A miraculous vision was propagated byfanaticism or fraud: and the Christian hero appeared on a milk-whitesteed, brandishing his lance against the Pagans of Bulgaria: "An absurdfable, " says the Catholic historian, "since Copronymus is chained withthe daemons in the abyss of hell. "

[Footnote 1116: He is accused of burning the library of Constantinople, founded by Julian, with its president and twelve professors. Thiseastern Sorbonne had discomfited the Imperial theologians on the greatquestion of image worship. Schlosser observes that this accidentalfire took place six years after the emperor had laid the question ofimage-worship before the professors. Bilder sturmand Kaiser, p. 294. Compare Le Heau. Vol. Xl. P. 156. --M. ]

Leo the Fourth, the son of the fifth and the father of the sixthConstantine, was of a feeble constitution both of mind [1117] andbody, and the principal care of his reign was the settlement of thesuccession. The association of the young Constantine was urged by theofficious zeal of his subjects; and the emperor, conscious of his decay, complied, after a prudent hesitation, with their unanimous wishes. Theroyal infant, at the age of five years, was crowned with his motherIrene; and the national consent was ratified by every circumstance ofpomp and solemnity, that could dazzle the eyes or bind the conscienceof the Greeks. An oath of fidelity was administered in the palace, thechurch, and the hippodrome, to the several orders of the state, whoadjured the holy names of the Son, and mother of God. "Be witness, OChrist! that we will watch over the safety of Constantine the son ofLeo, expose our lives in his service, and bear true allegiance to hisperson and posterity. " They pledged their faith on the wood of the truecross, and the act of their engagement was deposited on the altar of St. Sophia. The first to swear, and the first to violate their oath, werethe five sons of Copronymus by a second marriage; and the story of theseprinces is singular and tragic. The right of primogeniture excluded themfrom the throne; the injustice of their elder brother defrauded themof a legacy of about two millions sterling; some vain titles werenot deemed a sufficient compensation for wealth and power; and theyrepeatedly conspired against their nephew, before and after the deathof his father. Their first attempt was pardoned; for the second offence[1118] they were condemned to the ecclesiastical state; and for thethird treason, Nicephorus, the eldest and most guilty, was deprived ofhis eyes, and his four brothers, Christopher, Nicetas, Anthemeus, andEudoxas, were punished, as a milder sentence, by the amputation of theirtongues. After five years' confinement, they escaped to the churchof St. Sophia, and displayed a pathetic spectacle to the people. "Countrymen and Christians, " cried Nicephorus for himself and his mutebrethren, "behold the sons of your emperor, if you can still recognizeour features in this miserable state. A life, an imperfect life, is allthat the malice of our enemies has spared. It is now threatened, and wenow throw ourselves on your compassion. " The rising murmur might haveproduced a revolution, had it not been checked by the presence of aminister, who soothed the unhappy princes with flattery and hope, andgently drew them from the sanctuary to the palace. They were speedilyembarked for Greece, and Athens was allotted for the place of theirexile. In this calm retreat, and in their helpless condition, Nicephorusand his brothers were tormented by the thirst of power, and tempted by aSclavonian chief, who offered to break their prison, and to lead themin arms, and in the purple, to the gates of Constantinople. But theAthenian people, ever zealous in the cause of Irene, prevented herjustice or cruelty; and the five sons of Copronymus were plunged ineternal darkness and oblivion. 

[Footnote 1117: Schlosser thinks more highly of Leo's mind; but his onlyproof of his superiority is the successes of his generals against theSaracens, Schlosser, p. 256. --M. ]

[Footnote 1118: The second offence was on the accession of the youngConstantine--M. ]

For himself, that emperor had chosen a Barbarian wife, the daughter ofthe khan of the Chozars; but in the marriage of his heir, he preferredan Athenian virgin, an orphan, seventeen years old, whose sole fortunemust have consisted in her personal accomplishments. The nuptials of Leoand Irene were celebrated with royal pomp; she soon acquired the loveand confidence of a feeble husband, and in his testament he declared theempress guardian of the Roman world, and of their son Constantine theSixth, who was no more than ten years of age. During his childhood, Irene most ably and assiduously discharged, in her publicadministration, the duties of a faithful mother; and her zeal in therestoration of images has deserved the name and honors of a saint, whichshe still occupies in the Greek calendar. But the emperor attainedthe maturity of youth; the maternal yoke became more grievous; and helistened to the favorites of his own age, who shared his pleasures, andwere ambitious of sharing his power. Their reasons convinced him ofhis right, their praises of his ability, to reign; and he consented toreward the services of Irene by a perpetual banishment to the Isle ofSicily. But her vigilance and penetration easily disconcerted theirrash projects: a similar, or more severe, punishment was retaliated onthemselves and their advisers; and Irene inflicted on the ungratefulprince the chastisement of a boy. After this contest, the mother andthe son were at the head of two domestic factions; and instead of mildinfluence and voluntary obedience, she held in chains a captive and anenemy. The empress was overthrown by the abuse of victory; the oathof fidelity, which she exacted to herself alone, was pronouncedwith reluctant murmurs; and the bold refusal of the Armenian guardsencouraged a free and general declaration, that Constantine the Sixthwas the lawful emperor of the Romans. In this character he ascended hishereditary throne, and dismissed Irene to a life of solitude and repose. But her haughty spirit condescended to the arts of dissimulation: sheflattered the bishops and eunuchs, revived the filial tenderness ofthe prince, regained his confidence, and betrayed his credulity. Thecharacter of Constantine was not destitute of sense or spirit; buthis education had been studiously neglected; and the ambitious motherexposed to the public censure the vices which she had nourished, and theactions which she had secretly advised: his divorce and second marriageoffended the prejudices of the clergy, and by his imprudent rigor heforfeited the attachment of the Armenian guards. A powerful conspiracywas formed for the restoration of Irene; and the secret, though widelydiffused, was faithfully kept above eight months, till the emperor, suspicious of his danger, escaped from Constantinople, with the designof appealing to the provinces and armies. By this hasty flight, theempress was left on the brink of the precipice; yet before she imploredthe mercy of her son, Irene addressed a private epistle to the friendswhom she had placed about his person, with a menace, that unless theyaccomplished, she would reveal, their treason. Their fear renderedthem intrepid; they seized the emperor on the Asiatic shore, and he wastransported to the porphyry apartment of the palace, where he hadfirst seen the light. In the mind of Irene, ambition had stifled everysentiment of humanity and nature; and it was decreed in her bloodycouncil, that Constantine should be rendered incapable of the throne:her emissaries assaulted the sleeping prince, and stabbed their daggerswith such violence and precipitation into his eyes as if they meant toexecute a mortal sentence. An ambiguous passage of Theophanes persuadedthe annalist of the church that death was the immediate consequence ofthis barbarous execution. The Catholics have been deceived or subdued bythe authority of Baronius; and Protestant zeal has reechoed the wordsof a cardinal, desirous, as it should seem, to favor the patroness ofimages. [1119] Yet the blind son of Irene survived many years, oppressedby the court and forgotten by the world; the Isaurian dynasty wassilently extinguished; and the memory of Constantine was recalled onlyby the nuptials of his daughter Euphrosyne with the emperor Michael theSecond. 

[Footnote 1119: Gibbon has been attacked on account of this statement, but is successfully defended by Schlosser. B S. Kaiser p. 327. CompareLe Beau, c. Xii p. 372. --M. ]

The most bigoted orthodoxy has justly execrated the unnatural mother, who may not easily be paralleled in the history of crimes. To her bloodydeed superstition has attributed a subsequent darkness of seventeendays; during which many vessels in midday were driven from their course, as if the sun, a globe of fire so vast and so remote, could sympathizewith the atoms of a revolving planet. On earth, the crime of Irenewas left five years unpunished; her reign was crowned with externalsplendor; and if she could silence the voice of conscience, she neitherheard nor regarded the reproaches of mankind. The Roman world bowedto the government of a female; and as she moved through the streets ofConstantinople, the reins of four milk-white steeds were held by asmany patricians, who marched on foot before the golden chariot of theirqueen. But these patricians were for the most part eunuchs; and theirblack ingratitude justified, on this occasion, the popular hatred andcontempt. Raised, enriched, intrusted with the first dignities of theempire, they basely conspired against their benefactress; the greattreasurer Nicephorus was secretly invested with the purple; hersuccessor was introduced into the palace, and crowned at St. Sophia bythe venal patriarch. In their first interview, she recapitulated withdignity the revolutions of her life, gently accused the perfidy ofNicephorus, insinuated that he owed his life to her unsuspiciousclemency, and for the throne and treasures which she resigned, soliciteda decent and honorable retreat. His avarice refused this modestcompensation; and, in her exile of the Isle of Lesbos, the empressearned a scanty subsistence by the labors of her distaff. 

Many tyrants have reigned undoubtedly more criminal than Nicephorus, butnone perhaps have more deeply incurred the universal abhorrence oftheir people. His character was stained with the three odious vices ofhypocrisy, ingratitude, and avarice: his want of virtue was not redeemedby any superior talents, nor his want of talents by any pleasingqualifications. Unskilful and unfortunate in war, Nicephorus wasvanquished by the Saracens, and slain by the Bulgarians; and theadvantage of his death overbalanced, in the public opinion, thedestruction of a Roman army. [1011] His son and heir Stauracius escapedfrom the field with a mortal wound; yet six months of an expiring lifewere sufficient to refute his indecent, though popular declaration, that he would in all things avoid the example of his father. On the nearprospect of his decease, Michael, the great master of the palace, andthe husband of his sister Procopia, was named by every person of thepalace and city, except by his envious brother. Tenacious of a sceptrenow falling from his hand, he conspired against the life of hissuccessor, and cherished the idea of changing to a democracy the Romanempire. But these rash projects served only to inflame the zeal of thepeople and to remove the scruples of the candidate: Michael the Firstaccepted the purple, and before he sunk into the grave the son ofNicephorus implored the clemency of his new sovereign. Had Michael inan age of peace ascended an hereditary throne, he might have reigned anddied the father of his people: but his mild virtues were adapted to theshade of private life, nor was he capable of controlling the ambition ofhis equals, or of resisting the arms of the victorious Bulgarians. While his want of ability and success exposed him to the contempt ofthe soldiers, the masculine spirit of his wife Procopia awakened theirindignation. Even the Greeks of the ninth century were provoked by theinsolence of a female, who, in the front of the standards, presumed todirect their discipline and animate their valor; and their licentiousclamors advised the new Semiramis to reverence the majesty of a Romancamp. After an unsuccessful campaign, the emperor left, in theirwinter-quarters of Thrace, a disaffected army under the command of hisenemies; and their artful eloquence persuaded the soldiers to breakthe dominion of the eunuchs, to degrade the husband of Procopia, andto assert the right of a military election. They marched towards thecapital: yet the clergy, the senate, and the people of Constantinople, adhered to the cause of Michael; and the troops and treasures of Asiamight have protracted the mischiefs of civil war. But his humanity (bythe ambitious it will be termed his weakness) protested that not a dropof Christian blood should be shed in his quarrel, and his messengerspresented the conquerors with the keys of the city and the palace. Theywere disarmed by his innocence and submission; his life and his eyeswere spared; and the Imperial monk enjoyed the comforts of solitude andreligion above thirty-two years after he had been stripped of the purpleand separated from his wife. 

[Footnote 1011: The Syrian historian Aboulfaradj. Chron. Syr. P. 133, 139, speaks of him as a brave, prudent, and pious prince, formidable tothe Arabs. St. Martin, c. Xii. P. 402. Compare Schlosser, p. 350. --M. ]

A rebel, in the time of Nicephorus, the famous and unfortunate Bardanes, had once the curiosity to consult an Asiatic prophet, who, afterprognosticating his fall, announced the fortunes of his three principalofficers, Leo the Armenian, Michael the Phrygian, and Thomas theCappadocian, the successive reigns of the two former, the fruitless andfatal enterprise of the third. This prediction was verified, or ratherwas produced, by the event. Ten years afterwards, when the Thracian camprejected the husband of Procopia, the crown was presented to the sameLeo, the first in military rank and the secret author of the mutiny. Ashe affected to hesitate, "With this sword, " said his companion Michael, "I will open the gates of Constantinople to your Imperial sway; orinstantly plunge it into your bosom, if you obstinately resist the justdesires of your fellow-soldiers. " The compliance of the Armenian wasrewarded with the empire, and he reigned seven years and a half underthe name of Leo the Fifth. Educated in a camp, and ignorant both of lawsand letters, he introduced into his civil government the rigor andeven cruelty of military discipline; but if his severity was sometimesdangerous to the innocent, it was always formidable to the guilty. Hisreligious inconstancy was taxed by the epithet of Chameleon, but theCatholics have acknowledged by the voice of a saint and confessors, thatthe life of the Iconoclast was useful to the republic. The zeal of hiscompanion Michael was repaid with riches, honors, and military command;and his subordinate talents were beneficially employed in the publicservice. Yet the Phrygian was dissatisfied at receiving as a favor ascanty portion of the Imperial prize which he had bestowed on his equal;and his discontent, which sometimes evaporated in hasty discourse, atlength assumed a more threatening and hostile aspect against a princewhom he represented as a cruel tyrant. That tyrant, however, repeatedlydetected, warned, and dismissed the old companion of his arms, till fearand resentment prevailed over gratitude; and Michael, after a scrutinyinto his actions and designs, was convicted of treason, and sentenced tobe burnt alive in the furnace of the private baths. The devout humanityof the empress Theophano was fatal to her husband and family. A solemnday, the twenty-fifth of December, had been fixed for the execution: sheurged, that the anniversary of the Savior's birth would be profaned bythis inhuman spectacle, and Leo consented with reluctance to a decentrespite. But on the vigil of the feast his sleepless anxiety promptedhim to visit at the dead of night the chamber in which his enemy wasconfined: he beheld him released from his chain, and stretched on hisjailer's bed in a profound slumber. Leo was alarmed at these signs ofsecurity and intelligence; but though he retired with silent steps, hisentrance and departure were noticed by a slave who lay concealed in acorner of the prison. Under the pretence of requesting the spiritualaid of a confessor, Michael informed the conspirators, that their livesdepended on his discretion, and that a few hours were left to assuretheir own safety, by the deliverance of their friend and country. On thegreat festivals, a chosen band of priests and chanters was admitted intothe palace by a private gate to sing matins in the chapel; and Leo, whoregulated with the same strictness the discipline of the choir andof the camp, was seldom absent from these early devotions. In theecclesiastical habit, but with their swords under their robes, theconspirators mingled with the procession, lurked in the angles of thechapel, and expected, as the signal of murder, the intonation ofthe first psalm by the emperor himself. The imperfect light, and theuniformity of dress, might have favored his escape, whilst their assaultwas pointed against a harmless priest; but they soon discovered theirmistake, and encompassed on all sides the royal victim. Without a weaponand without a friend, he grasped a weighty cross, and stood at bayagainst the hunters of his life; but as he asked for mercy, "This isthe hour, not of mercy, but of vengeance, " was the inexorable reply. Thestroke of a well-aimed sword separated from his body the right arm andthe cross, and Leo the Armenian was slain at the foot of the altar. Amemorable reverse of fortune was displayed in Michael the Second, whofrom a defect in his speech was surnamed the Stammerer. He was snatchedfrom the fiery furnace to the sovereignty of an empire; and as in thetumult a smith could not readily be found, the fetters remained on hislegs several hours after he was seated on the throne of the Caesars. Theroyal blood which had been the price of his elevation, was unprofitablyspent: in the purple he retained the ignoble vices of his origin; andMichael lost his provinces with as supine indifference as if they hadbeen the inheritance of his fathers. His title was disputed by Thomas, the last of the military triumvirate, who transported into Europefourscore thousand Barbarians from the banks of the Tigris and theshores of the Caspian. He formed the siege of Constantinople; but thecapital was defended with spiritual and carnal weapons; a Bulgarian kingassaulted the camp of the Orientals, and Thomas had the misfortune, orthe weakness, to fall alive into the power of the conqueror. The handsand feet of the rebel were amputated; he was placed on an ass, and, amidst the insults of the people, was led through the streets, which hesprinkled with his blood. The depravation of manners, as savage as theywere corrupt, is marked by the presence of the emperor himself. Deafto the lamentation of a fellow-soldier, he incessantly pressed thediscovery of more accomplices, till his curiosity was checked by thequestion of an honest or guilty minister: "Would you give credit to anenemy against the most faithful of your friends?" After the death ofhis first wife, the emperor, at the request of the senate, drew from hermonastery Euphrosyne, the daughter of Constantine the Sixth. Her augustbirth might justify a stipulation in the marriage-contract, that herchildren should equally share the empire with their elder brother. Butthe nuptials of Michael and Euphrosyne were barren; and she was contentwith the title of mother of Theophilus, his son and successor. 

The character of Theophilus is a rare example in which religious zealhas allowed, and perhaps magnified, the virtues of a heretic and apersecutor. His valor was often felt by the enemies, and his justice bythe subjects, of the monarchy; but the valor of Theophilus was rash andfruitless, and his justice arbitrary and cruel. He displayed thebanner of the cross against the Saracens; but his five expeditionswere concluded by a signal overthrow: Amorium, the native city of hisancestors, was levelled with the ground and from his military toils hederived only the surname of the Unfortunate. The wisdom of a sovereignis comprised in the institution of laws and the choice of magistrates, and while he seems without action, his civil government revolves roundhis centre with the silence and order of the planetary system. Butthe justice of Theophilus was fashioned on the model of the Orientaldespots, who, in personal and irregular acts of authority, consult thereason or passion of the moment, without measuring the sentence by thelaw, or the penalty by the offense. A poor woman threw herself at theemperor's feet to complain of a powerful neighbor, the brother of theempress, who had raised his palace-wall to such an inconvenient height, that her humble dwelling was excluded from light and air! On the proofof the fact, instead of granting, like an ordinary judge, sufficient orample damages to the plaintiff, the sovereign adjudged to her use andbenefit the palace and the ground. Nor was Theophilus content with thisextravagant satisfaction: his zeal converted a civil trespass into acriminal act; and the unfortunate patrician was stripped and scourgedin the public place of Constantinople. For some venial offenses, somedefect of equity or vigilance, the principal ministers, a praefect, a quaestor, a captain of the guards, were banished or mutilated, orscalded with boiling pitch, or burnt alive in the hippodrome; and asthese dreadful examples might be the effects of error or caprice, they must have alienated from his service the best and wisest of thecitizens. But the pride of the monarch was flattered in the exerciseof power, or, as he thought, of virtue; and the people, safe in theirobscurity, applauded the danger and debasement of their superiors. Thisextraordinary rigor was justified, in some measure, by its salutaryconsequences; since, after a scrutiny of seventeen days, not a complaintor abuse could be found in the court or city; and it might be allegedthat the Greeks could be ruled only with a rod of iron, and that thepublic interest is the motive and law of the supreme judge. Yet in thecrime, or the suspicion, of treason, that judge is of all others themost credulous and partial. Theophilus might inflict a tardy vengeanceon the assassins of Leo and the saviors of his father; but he enjoyedthe fruits of their crime; and his jealous tyranny sacrificed a brotherand a prince to the future safety of his life. A Persian of the race ofthe Sassanides died in poverty and exile at Constantinople, leaving anonly son, the issue of a plebeian marriage. At the age of twelve years, the royal birth of Theophobus was revealed, and his merit was notunworthy of his birth. He was educated in the Byzantine palace, aChristian and a soldier; advanced with rapid steps in the career offortune and glory; received the hand of the emperor's sister; and waspromoted to the command of thirty thousand Persians, who, like hisfather, had fled from the Mahometan conquerors. These troops, doublyinfected with mercenary and fanatic vices, were desirous of revoltingagainst their benefactor, and erecting the standard of their nativeking but the loyal Theophobus rejected their offers, disconcerted theirschemes, and escaped from their hands to the camp or palace of his royalbrother. A generous confidence might have secured a faithful and ableguardian for his wife and his infant son, to whom Theophilus, in theflower of his age, was compelled to leave the inheritance of the empire. But his jealousy was exasperated by envy and disease; he feared thedangerous virtues which might either support or oppress their infancyand weakness; and the dying emperor demanded the head of the Persianprince. With savage delight he recognized the familiar features of hisbrother: "Thou art no longer Theophobus, " he said; and, sinking on hiscouch, he added, with a faltering voice, "Soon, too soon, I shall be nomore Theophilus!"

Chapter XLVIII: Succession And Characters Of The Greek Emperors. --Part III. 

The Russians, who have borrowed from the Greeks the greatest part oftheir civil and ecclesiastical policy, preserved, till the last century, a singular institution in the marriage of the Czar. They collected, notthe virgins of every rank and of every province, a vain and romanticidea, but the daughters of the principal nobles, who awaited in thepalace the choice of their sovereign. It is affirmed, that a similarmethod was adopted in the nuptials of Theophilus. With a golden apple inhis hand, he slowly walked between two lines of contending beauties: hiseye was detained by the charms of Icasia, and in the awkwardness of afirst declaration, the prince could only observe, that, in this world, women had been the cause of much evil; "And surely, sir, " she pertlyreplied, "they have likewise been the occasion of much good. " Thisaffectation of unseasonable wit displeased the Imperial lover: he turnedaside in disgust; Icasia concealed her mortification in a convent; andthe modest silence of Theodora was rewarded with the golden apple. Shedeserved the love, but did not escape the severity, of her lord. Fromthe palace garden he beheld a vessel deeply laden, and steering into theport: on the discovery that the precious cargo of Syrian luxury was theproperty of his wife, he condemned the ship to the flames, with a sharpreproach, that her avarice had degraded the character of an empressinto that of a merchant. Yet his last choice intrusted her with theguardianship of the empire and her son Michael, who was left an orphanin the fifth year of his age. The restoration of images, and the finalextirpation of the Iconoclasts, has endeared her name to the devotion ofthe Greeks; but in the fervor of religious zeal, Theodora entertaineda grateful regard for the memory and salvation of her husband. Afterthirteen years of a prudent and frugal administration, she perceived thedecline of her influence; but the second Irene imitated only the virtuesof her predecessor. Instead of conspiring against the life or governmentof her son, she retired, without a struggle, though not without amurmur, to the solitude of private life, deploring the ingratitude, the vices, and the inevitable ruin, of the worthless youth. Amongthe successors of Nero and Elagabalus, we have not hitherto found theimitation of their vices, the character of a Roman prince who consideredpleasure as the object of life, and virtue as the enemy of pleasure. Whatever might have been the maternal care of Theodora in the educationof Michael the Third, her unfortunate son was a king before he was aman. If the ambitious mother labored to check the progress of reason, she could not cool the ebullition of passion; and her selfish policy wasjustly repaid by the contempt and ingratitude of the headstrong youth. At the age of eighteen, he rejected her authority, without feeling hisown incapacity to govern the empire and himself. With Theodora, allgravity and wisdom retired from the court; their place was supplied bythe alternate dominion of vice and folly; and it was impossible, withoutforfeiting the public esteem, to acquire or preserve the favor of theemperor. The millions of gold and silver which had been accumulatedfor the service of the state, were lavished on the vilest of men, whoflattered his passions and shared his pleasures; and in a reign ofthirteen years, the richest of sovereigns was compelled to strip thepalace and the churches of their precious furniture. Like Nero, hedelighted in the amusements of the theatre, and sighed to be surpassedin the accomplishments in which he should have blushed to excel. Yet thestudies of Nero in music and poetry betrayed some symptoms of a liberaltaste; the more ignoble arts of the son of Theophilus were confined tothe chariot-race of the hippodrome. The four factions which had agitatedthe peace, still amused the idleness, of the capital: for himself, theemperor assumed the blue livery; the three rival colors were distributedto his favorites, and in the vile though eager contention he forgot thedignity of his person and the safety of his dominions. He silenced themessenger of an invasion, who presumed to divert his attention in themost critical moment of the race; and by his command, the importunatebeacons were extinguished, that too frequently spread the alarm fromTarsus to Constantinople. The most skilful charioteers obtained thefirst place in his confidence and esteem; their merit was profuselyrewarded the emperor feasted in their houses, and presented theirchildren at the baptismal font; and while he applauded his ownpopularity, he affected to blame the cold and stately reserve of hispredecessors. The unnatural lusts which had degraded even the manhoodof Nero, were banished from the world; yet the strength of Michaelwas consumed by the indulgence of love and intemperance. [1012] Inhis midnight revels, when his passions were inflamed by wine, he wasprovoked to issue the most sanguinary commands; and if any feelings ofhumanity were left, he was reduced, with the return of sense, to approvethe salutary disobedience of his servants. But the most extraordinaryfeature in the character of Michael, is the profane mockery of thereligion of his country. The superstition of the Greeks might indeedexcite the smile of a philosopher; but his smile would have beenrational and temperate, and he must have condemned the ignorant folly ofa youth who insulted the objects of public veneration. A buffoon ofthe court was invested in the robes of the patriarch: his twelvemetropolitans, among whom the emperor was ranked, assumed theirecclesiastical garments: they used or abused the sacred vessels ofthe altar; and in their bacchanalian feasts, the holy communion wasadministered in a nauseous compound of vinegar and mustard. Nor werethese impious spectacles concealed from the eyes of the city. On the dayof a solemn festival, the emperor, with his bishops or buffoons, rode onasses through the streets, encountered the true patriarch at the headof his clergy; and by their licentious shouts and obscene gestures, disordered the gravity of the Christian procession. The devotion ofMichael appeared only in some offence to reason or piety: he receivedhis theatrical crowns from the statue of the Virgin; and an Imperialtomb was violated for the sake of burning the bones of Constantine theIconoclast. By this extravagant conduct, the son of Theophilus becameas contemptible as he was odious: every citizen was impatient for thedeliverance of his country; and even the favorites of the momentwere apprehensive that a caprice might snatch away what a capricehad bestowed. In the thirtieth year of his age, and in the hour ofintoxication and sleep, Michael the Third was murdered in his chamber bythe founder of a new dynasty, whom the emperor had raised to an equalityof rank and power. 

[Footnote 1012: In a campaign against the Saracens, he betrayed bothimbecility and cowardice. Genesius, c. Iv. P. 94. --M. ]

The genealogy of Basil the Macedonian (if it be not the spuriousoffspring of pride and flattery) exhibits a genuine picture of therevolution of the most illustrious families. The Arsacides, the rivalsof Rome, possessed the sceptre of the East near four hundred years: ayounger branch of these Parthian kings continued to reign in Armenia;and their royal descendants survived the partition and servitude ofthat ancient monarchy. Two of these, Artabanus and Chlienes, escaped orretired to the court of Leo the First: his bounty seated them in a safeand hospitable exile, in the province of Macedonia: Adrianople was theirfinal settlement. During several generations they maintained the dignityof their birth; and their Roman patriotism rejected the tempting offersof the Persian and Arabian powers, who recalled them to their nativecountry. But their splendor was insensibly clouded by time and poverty;and the father of Basil was reduced to a small farm, which he cultivatedwith his own hands: yet he scorned to disgrace the blood of theArsacides by a plebeian alliance: his wife, a widow of Adrianople, waspleased to count among her ancestors the great Constantine; and theirroyal infant was connected by some dark affinity of lineage or countrywith the Macedonian Alexander. No sooner was he born, than the cradle ofBasil, his family, and his city, were swept away by an inundation ofthe Bulgarians: he was educated a slave in a foreign land; and in thissevere discipline, he acquired the hardiness of body and flexibility ofmind which promoted his future elevation. In the age of youth or manhoodhe shared the deliverance of the Roman captives, who generously broketheir fetters, marched through Bulgaria to the shores of the Euxine, defeated two armies of Barbarians, embarked in the ships which had beenstationed for their reception, and returned to Constantinople, fromwhence they were distributed to their respective homes. But the freedomof Basil was naked and destitute: his farm was ruined by the calamitiesof war: after his father's death, his manual labor, or service, couldno longer support a family of orphans and he resolved to seek a moreconspicuous theatre, in which every virtue and every vice may leadto the paths of greatness. The first night of his arrival atConstantinople, without friends or money, the weary pilgrim slept on thesteps of the church of St. Diomede: he was fed by the casual hospitalityof a monk; and was introduced to the service of a cousin and namesake ofthe emperor Theophilus; who, though himself of a diminutive person, was always followed by a train of tall and handsome domestics. Basilattended his patron to the government of Peloponnesus; eclipsed, by hispersonal merit the birth and dignity of Theophilus, and formed a usefulconnection with a wealthy and charitable matron of Patras. Her spiritualor carnal love embraced the young adventurer, whom she adopted as herson. Danielis presented him with thirty slaves; and the produce of herbounty was expended in the support of his brothers, and the purchaseof some large estates in Macedonia. His gratitude or ambition stillattached him to the service of Theophilus; and a lucky accidentrecommended him to the notice of the court. A famous wrestler, in thetrain of the Bulgarian ambassadors, had defied, at the royal banquet, the boldest and most robust of the Greeks. The strength of Basil waspraised; he accepted the challenge; and the Barbarian champion wasoverthrown at the first onset. A beautiful but vicious horse wascondemned to be hamstrung: it was subdued by the dexterity and courageof the servant of Theophilus; and his conqueror was promoted to anhonorable rank in the Imperial stables. But it was impossible to obtainthe confidence of Michael, without complying with his vices; and his newfavorite, the great chamberlain of the palace, was raised and supportedby a disgraceful marriage with a royal concubine, and the dishonor ofhis sister, who succeeded to her place. The public administration hadbeen abandoned to the Caesar Bardas, the brother and enemy of Theodora;but the arts of female influence persuaded Michael to hate and to fearhis uncle: he was drawn from Constantinople, under the pretence of aCretan expedition, and stabbed in the tent of audience, by the sword ofthe chamberlain, and in the presence of the emperor. About a month afterthis execution, Basil was invested with the title of Augustus and thegovernment of the empire. He supported this unequal association till hisinfluence was fortified by popular esteem. His life was endangered bythe caprice of the emperor; and his dignity was profaned by a secondcolleague, who had rowed in the galleys. Yet the murder of hisbenefactor must be condemned as an act of ingratitude and treason; andthe churches which he dedicated to the name of St. Michael were a poorand puerile expiation of his guilt. The different ages of Basil theFirst may be compared with those of Augustus. The situation of the Greekdid not allow him in his earliest youth to lead an army against hiscountry; or to proscribe the nobles of her sons; but his aspiring geniusstooped to the arts of a slave; he dissembled his ambition and even hisvirtues, and grasped, with the bloody hand of an assassin, the empirewhich he ruled with the wisdom and tenderness of a parent. 

A private citizen may feel his interest repugnant to his duty; but itmust be from a deficiency of sense or courage, that an absolute monarchcan separate his happiness from his glory, or his glory from the publicwelfare. The life or panegyric of Basil has indeed been composed andpublished under the long reign of his descendants; but even theirstability on the throne may be justly ascribed to the superior merit oftheir ancestor. In his character, his grandson Constantine has attemptedto delineate a perfect image of royalty: but that feeble prince, unlesshe had copied a real model, could not easily have soared so high abovethe level of his own conduct or conceptions. But the most solid praiseof Basil is drawn from the comparison of a ruined and a flourishingmonarchy, that which he wrested from the dissolute Michael, and thatwhich he bequeathed to the Mecedonian dynasty. The evils which had beensanctified by time and example, were corrected by his master-hand; andhe revived, if not the national spirit, at least the order and majestyof the Roman empire. His application was indefatigable, his temper cool, his understanding vigorous and decisive; and in his practice he observedthat rare and salutary moderation, which pursues each virtue, at anequal distance between the opposite vices. His military service had beenconfined to the palace: nor was the emperor endowed with the spirit orthe talents of a warrior. Yet under his reign the Roman arms were againformidable to the Barbarians. As soon as he had formed a new army bydiscipline and exercise, he appeared in person on the banks of theEuphrates, curbed the pride of the Saracens, and suppressed thedangerous though just revolt of the Manichaeans. His indignation againsta rebel who had long eluded his pursuit, provoked him to wish and topray, that, by the grace of God, he might drive three arrows into thehead of Chrysochir. That odious head, which had been obtained by treasonrather than by valor, was suspended from a tree, and thrice exposed tothe dexterity of the Imperial archer; a base revenge against thedead, more worthy of the times than of the character of Basil. But hisprincipal merit was in the civil administration of the finances and ofthe laws. To replenish and exhausted treasury, it was proposed to resumethe lavish and ill-placed gifts of his predecessor: his prudence abatedone moiety of the restitution; and a sum of twelve hundred thousandpounds was instantly procured to answer the most pressing demands, andto allow some space for the mature operations of economy. Among thevarious schemes for the improvement of the revenue, a new mode wassuggested of capitation, or tribute, which would have too much dependedon the arbitrary discretion of the assessors. A sufficient list ofhonest and able agents was instantly produced by the minister; but onthe more careful scrutiny of Basil himself, only two could be found, whomight be safely intrusted with such dangerous powers; but they justifiedhis esteem by declining his confidence. But the serious and successfuldiligence of the emperor established by degrees the equitable balanceof property and payment, of receipt and expenditure; a peculiar fund wasappropriated to each service; and a public method secured the interestof the prince and the property of the people. After reforming theluxury, he assigned two patrimonial estates to supply the decent plenty, of the Imperial table: the contributions of the subject were reservedfor his defence; and the residue was employed in the embellishment ofthe capital and provinces. A taste for building, however costly, maydeserve some praise and much excuse: from thence industry is fed, art isencouraged, and some object is attained of public emolument or pleasure:the use of a road, an aqueduct, or a hospital, is obvious and solid; andthe hundred churches that arose by the command of Basil were consecratedto the devotion of the age. In the character of a judge he wasassiduous and impartial; desirous to save, but not afraid to strike: theoppressors of the people were severely chastised; but his personal foes, whom it might be unsafe to pardon, were condemned, after the loss oftheir eyes, to a life of solitude and repentance. The change of languageand manners demanded a revision of the obsolete jurisprudence ofJustinian: the voluminous body of his Institutes, Pandects, Code, andNovels, was digested under forty titles, in the Greek idiom; and theBasilics, which were improved and completed by his son and grandson, must be referred to the original genius of the founder of their race. This glorious reign was terminated by an accident in the chase. Afurious stag entangled his horns in the belt of Basil, and raised himfrom his horse: he was rescued by an attendant, who cut the belt andslew the animal; but the fall, or the fever, exhausted the strength ofthe aged monarch, and he expired in the palace amidst the tears of hisfamily and people. If he struck off the head of the faithful servantfor presuming to draw his sword against his sovereign, the pride ofdespotism, which had lain dormant in his life, revived in the lastmoments of despair, when he no longer wanted or valued the opinion ofmankind. 

Of the four sons of the emperor, Constantine died before his father, whose grief and credulity were amused by a flattering impostor and avain apparition. Stephen, the youngest, was content with the honors ofa patriarch and a saint; both Leo and Alexander were alike invested withthe purple, but the powers of government were solely exercised by theelder brother. The name of Leo the Sixth has been dignified with thetitle of philosopher; and the union of the prince and the sage, of theactive and speculative virtues, would indeed constitute the perfectionof human nature. But the claims of Leo are far short of this idealexcellence. Did he reduce his passions and appetites under the dominionof reason? His life was spent in the pomp of the palace, in the societyof his wives and concubines; and even the clemency which he showed, andthe peace which he strove to preserve, must be imputed to the softnessand indolence of his character. Did he subdue his prejudices, and thoseof his subjects? His mind was tinged with the most puerile superstition;the influence of the clergy, and the errors of the people, wereconsecrated by his laws; and the oracles of Leo, which reveal, inprophetic style, the fates of the empire, are founded on the arts ofastrology and divination. If we still inquire the reason of his sageappellation, it can only be replied, that the son of Basil was lessignorant than the greater part of his contemporaries in church andstate; that his education had been directed by the learned Photius; andthat several books of profane and ecclesiastical science were composedby the pen, or in the name, of the Imperial philosopher. But thereputation of his philosophy and religion was overthrown by a domesticvice, the repetition of his nuptials. The primitive ideas of the meritand holiness of celibacy were preached by the monks and entertainedby the Greeks. Marriage was allowed as a necessary means for thepropagation of mankind; after the death of either party, the survivormight satisfy, by a second union, the weakness or the strength ofthe flesh: but a third marriage was censured as a state of legalfornication; and a fourth was a sin or scandal as yet unknown to theChristians of the East. In the beginning of his reign, Leo himself hadabolished the state of concubines, and condemned, without annulling, third marriages: but his patriotism and love soon compelled him toviolate his own laws, and to incur the penance, which in a similarcase he had imposed on his subjects. In his three first alliances, hisnuptial bed was unfruitful; the emperor required a female companion, andthe empire a legitimate heir. The beautiful Zoe was introduced into thepalace as a concubine; and after a trial of her fecundity, and the birthof Constantine, her lover declared his intention of legitimating themother and the child, by the celebration of his fourth nuptials. Butthe patriarch Nicholas refused his blessing: the Imperial baptism ofthe young prince was obtained by a promise of separation; and thecontumacious husband of Zoe was excluded from the communion of thefaithful. Neither the fear of exile, nor the desertion of his brethren, nor the authority of the Latin church, nor the danger of failure ordoubt in the succession to the empire, could bend the spirit of theinflexible monk. After the death of Leo, he was recalled from exileto the civil and ecclesiastical administration; and the edict of unionwhich was promulgated in the name of Constantine, condemned the futurescandal of fourth marriages, and left a tacit imputation on his ownbirth. In the Greek language, purple and porphyry are the same word: andas the colors of nature are invariable, we may learn, that a dark deepred was the Tyrian dye which stained the purple of the ancients. Anapartment of the Byzantine palace was lined with porphyry: it wasreserved for the use of the pregnant empresses; and the royal birth oftheir children was expressed by the appellation of porphyrogenite, orborn in the purple. Several of the Roman princes had been blessed withan heir; but this peculiar surname was first applied to Constantinethe Seventh. His life and titular reign were of equal duration; but offifty-four years, six had elapsed before his father's death; and theson of Leo was ever the voluntary or reluctant subject of those whooppressed his weakness or abused his confidence. His uncle Alexander, who had long been invested with the title of Augustus, was the firstcolleague and governor of the young prince: but in a rapid career ofvice and folly, the brother of Leo already emulated the reputation ofMichael; and when he was extinguished by a timely death, he entertaineda project of castrating his nephew, and leaving the empire to aworthless favorite. The succeeding years of the minority of Constantinewere occupied by his mother Zoe, and a succession or council of sevenregents, who pursued their interest, gratified their passions, abandonedthe republic, supplanted each other, and finally vanished in thepresence of a soldier. From an obscure origin, Romanus Lecapenus hadraised himself to the command of the naval armies; and in the anarchy ofthe times, had deserved, or at least had obtained, the national esteem. With a victorious and affectionate fleet, he sailed from the mouth ofthe Danube into the harbor of Constantinople, and was hailed as thedeliverer of the people, and the guardian of the prince. His supremeoffice was at first defined by the new appellation of father ofthe emperor; but Romanus soon disdained the subordinate powers of aminister, and assumed with the titles of Caesar and Augustus, the fullindependence of royalty, which he held near five-and-twenty years. Histhree sons, Christopher, Stephen, and Constantine were successivelyadorned with the same honors, and the lawful emperor was degraded fromthe first to the fifth rank in this college of princes. Yet, in thepreservation of his life and crown, he might still applaud his ownfortune and the clemency of the usurper. The examples of ancient andmodern history would have excused the ambition of Romanus: the powersand the laws of the empire were in his hand; the spurious birth ofConstantine would have justified his exclusion; and the grave or themonastery was open to receive the son of the concubine. But Lecapenusdoes not appear to have possessed either the virtues or the vices of atyrant. The spirit and activity of his private life dissolved away inthe sunshine of the throne; and in his licentious pleasures, he forgotthe safety both of the republic and of his family. Of a mild andreligious character, he respected the sanctity of oaths, the innocenceof the youth, the memory of his parents, and the attachment of thepeople. The studious temper and retirement of Constantine disarmed thejealousy of power: his books and music, his pen and his pencil, were aconstant source of amusement; and if he could improve a scanty allowanceby the sale of his pictures, if their price was not enhanced by the nameof the artist, he was endowed with a personal talent, which few princescould employ in the hour of adversity. 

The fall of Romanus was occasioned by his own vices and those of hischildren. After the decease of Christopher, his eldest son, the twosurviving brothers quarrelled with each other, and conspired againsttheir father. At the hour of noon, when all strangers were regularlyexcluded from the palace, they entered his apartment with an armedforce, and conveyed him, in the habit of a monk, to a small island inthe Propontis, which was peopled by a religious community. The rumorof this domestic revolution excited a tumult in the city; butPorphyrogenitus alone, the true and lawful emperor, was the objectof the public care; and the sons of Lecapenus were taught, by tardyexperience, that they had achieved a guilty and perilous enterprisefor the benefit of their rival. Their sister Helena, the wife ofConstantine, revealed, or supposed, their treacherous design ofassassinating her husband at the royal banquet. His loyal adherents werealarmed, and the two usurpers were prevented, seized, degraded fromthe purple, and embarked for the same island and monastery where theirfather had been so lately confined. Old Romanus met them on the beachwith a sarcastic smile, and, after a just reproach of their folly andingratitude, presented his Imperial colleagues with an equal shareof his water and vegetable diet. In the fortieth year of his reign, Constantine the Seventh obtained the possession of the Eastern world, which he ruled or seemed to rule, near fifteen years. But he was devoidof that energy of character which could emerge into a life of action andglory; and the studies, which had amused and dignified his leisure, were incompatible with the serious duties of a sovereign. The emperorneglected the practice to instruct his son Romanus in the theory ofgovernment; while he indulged the habits of intemperance and sloth, hedropped the reins of the administration into the hands of Helena hiswife; and, in the shifting scene of her favor and caprice, each ministerwas regretted in the promotion of a more worthless successor. Yet thebirth and misfortunes of Constantine had endeared him to the Greeks;they excused his failings; they respected his learning, his innocence, and charity, his love of justice; and the ceremony of his funeral wasmourned with the unfeigned tears of his subjects. The body, accordingto ancient custom, lay in state in the vestibule of the palace; and thecivil and military officers, the patricians, the senate, and the clergyapproached in due order to adore and kiss the inanimate corpse of theirsovereign. Before the procession moved towards the Imperial sepulchre, a herald proclaimed this awful admonition: "Arise, O king of the world, and obey the summons of the King of kings!"

The death of Constantine was imputed to poison; and his son Romanus, whoderived that name from his maternal grandfather, ascended the throne ofConstantinople. A prince who, at the age of twenty, could be suspectedof anticipating his inheritance, must have been already lost in thepublic esteem; yet Romanus was rather weak than wicked; and the largestshare of the guilt was transferred to his wife, Theophano, a womanof base origin masculine spirit, and flagitious manners. The sense ofpersonal glory and public happiness, the true pleasures of royalty, were unknown to the son of Constantine; and, while the two brothers, Nicephorus and Leo, triumphed over the Saracens, the hours which theemperor owed to his people were consumed in strenuous idleness. In themorning he visited the circus; at noon he feasted the senators; thegreater part of the afternoon he spent in the sphoeristerium, ortennis-court, the only theatre of his victories; from thence he passedover to the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, hunted and killed four wildboars of the largest size, and returned to the palace, proudly contentwith the labors of the day. In strength and beauty he was conspicuousabove his equals: tall and straight as a young cypress, his complexionwas fair and florid, his eyes sparkling, his shoulders broad, his noselong and aquiline. Yet even these perfections were insufficient to fixthe love of Theophano; and, after a reign of four [1013] years, shemingled for her husband the same deadly draught which she had composedfor his father. 

[Footnote 1013: Three years and five months. Leo Diaconus in Niebuhr. Byz p. 50--M. ]

By his marriage with this impious woman, Romanus the younger left twosons, Basil the Second and Constantine the Ninth, and two daughters, Theophano and Anne. The eldest sister was given to Otho the Second, emperor of the West; the younger became the wife of Wolodomir, greatduke and apostle of russia, and by the marriage of her granddaughterwith Henry the First, king of France, the blood of the Macedonians, andperhaps of the Arsacides, still flows in the veins of the Bourbon line. After the death of her husband, the empress aspired to reign in the nameof her sons, the elder of whom was five, and the younger only two, years of age; but she soon felt the instability of a throne which wassupported by a female who could not be esteemed, and two infants whocould not be feared. Theophano looked around for a protector, and threwherself into the arms of the bravest soldier; her heart was capacious;but the deformity of the new favorite rendered it more than probablethat interest was the motive and excuse of her love. Nicephorus Phocusunited, in the popular opinion, the double merit of a hero and a saint. In the former character, his qualifications were genuine and splendid:the descendant of a race illustrious by their military exploits, hehad displayed in every station and in every province the courage ofa soldier and the conduct of a chief; and Nicephorus was crowned withrecent laurels, from the important conquest of the Isle of Crete. Hisreligion was of a more ambiguous cast; and his hair-cloth, his fasts, his pious idiom, and his wish to retire from the business of the world, were a convenient mask for his dark and dangerous ambition. Yet heimposed on a holy patriarch, by whose influence, and by a decree of thesenate, he was intrusted, during the minority of the young princes, withthe absolute and independent command of the Oriental armies. As soonas he had secured the leaders and the troops, he boldly marched toConstantinople, trampled on his enemies, avowed his correspondence withthe empress, and without degrading her sons, assumed, with the title ofAugustus, the preeminence of rank and the plenitude of power. But hismarriage with Theophano was refused by the same patriarch who had placedthe crown on his head: by his second nuptials he incurred a year ofcanonical penance; [1014] a bar of spiritual affinity was opposed totheir celebration; and some evasion and perjury were required to silencethe scruples of the clergy and people. The popularity of the emperor waslost in the purple: in a reign of six years he provoked the hatredof strangers and subjects: and the hypocrisy and avarice of the firstNicephorus were revived in his successor. Hypocrisy I shall neverjustify or palliate; but I will dare to observe, that the odious vice ofavarice is of all others most hastily arraigned, and most unmercifullycondemned. In a private citizen, our judgment seldom expects an accuratescrutiny into his fortune and expense; and in a steward of the publictreasure, frugality is always a virtue, and the increase of taxes toooften an indispensable duty. In the use of his patrimony, the generoustemper of Nicephorus had been proved; and the revenue was strictlyapplied to the service of the state: each spring the emperor marchedin person against the Saracens; and every Roman might compute theemployment of his taxes in triumphs, conquests, and the security of theEastern barrier. [1015]

[Footnote 1014: The canonical objection to the marriage was his relationof Godfather sons. Leo Diac. P. 50. --M. ]

[Footnote 1015: He retook Antioch, and brought home as a trophy thesword of "the most unholy and impious Mahomet. " Leo Diac. P. 76. --M. ]

Chapter XLVIII: Succession And Characters Of The Greek Emperors. --Part IV. 

Among the warriors who promoted his elevation, and served under hisstandard, a noble and valiant Armenian had deserved and obtainedthe most eminent rewards. The stature of John Zimisces was below theordinary standard: but this diminutive body was endowed with strength, beauty, and the soul of a hero. By the jealousy of the emperor'sbrother, he was degraded from the office of general of the East, to thatof director of the posts, and his murmurs were chastised with disgraceand exile. But Zimisces was ranked among the numerous lovers of theempress: on her intercession, he was permitted to reside at Chalcedon, in the neighborhood of the capital: her bounty was repaid in hisclandestine and amorous visits to the palace; and Theophano consented, with alacrity, to the death of an ugly and penurious husband. Some boldand trusty conspirators were concealed in her most private chambers: inthe darkness of a winter night, Zimisces, with his principal companions, embarked in a small boat, traversed the Bosphorus, landed at the palacestairs, and silently ascended a ladder of ropes, which was cast down bythe female attendants. Neither his own suspicions, nor the warningsof his friends, nor the tardy aid of his brother Leo, nor the fortresswhich he had erected in the palace, could protect Nicephorus from adomestic foe, at whose voice every door was open to the assassins. Ashe slept on a bear-skin on the ground, he was roused by their noisyintrusion, and thirty daggers glittered before his eyes. It is doubtfulwhether Zimisces imbrued his hands in the blood of his sovereign; buthe enjoyed the inhuman spectacle of revenge. [1016] The murder wasprotracted by insult and cruelty: and as soon as the head of Nicephoruswas shown from the window, the tumult was hushed, and the Armenian wasemperor of the East. On the day of his coronation, he was stopped onthe threshold of St. Sophia, by the intrepid patriarch; who charged hisconscience with the deed of treason and blood; and required, as a signof repentance, that he should separate himself from his more criminalassociate. This sally of apostolic zeal was not offensive to theprince, since he could neither love nor trust a woman who had repeatedlyviolated the most sacred obligations; and Theophano, instead of sharinghis imperial fortune, was dismissed with ignominy from his bed andpalace. In their last interview, she displayed a frantic and impotentrage; accused the ingratitude of her lover; assaulted, with words andblows, her son Basil, as he stood silent and submissive in the presenceof a superior colleague; and avowed her own prostitution in proclaimingthe illegitimacy of his birth. The public indignation was appeased byher exile, and the punishment of the meaner accomplices: the death of anunpopular prince was forgiven; and the guilt of Zimisces was forgottenin the splendor of his virtues. Perhaps his profusion was less usefulto the state than the avarice of Nicephorus; but his gentle and generousbehavior delighted all who approached his person; and it was only in thepaths of victory that he trod in the footsteps of his predecessor. Thegreatest part of his reign was employed in the camp and the field:his personal valor and activity were signalized on the Danube and theTigris, the ancient boundaries of the Roman world; and by his doubletriumph over the Russians and the Saracens, he deserved the titles ofsavior of the empire, and conqueror of the East. In his last return fromSyria, he observed that the most fruitful lands of his new provinceswere possessed by the eunuchs. "And is it for them, " he exclaimed, withhonest indignation, "that we have fought and conquered? Is it for themthat we shed our blood, and exhaust the treasures of our people?" Thecomplaint was reechoed to the palace, and the death of Zimisces isstrongly marked with the suspicion of poison. 

[Footnote 1016: According to Leo Diaconus, Zimisces, after ordering thewounded emperor to be dragged to his feet, and heaping him with insult, to which the miserable man only replied by invoking the name ofthe "mother of God, " with his own hand plucked his beard, while hisaccomplices beat out his teeth with the hilts of their swords, and thentrampling him to the ground, drove his sword into his skull. Leo Diac, in Niebuhr Byz. Hist. L vii. C. 8. P. 88. --M. ]

Under this usurpation, or regency, of twelve years, the two lawfulemperors, Basil and Constantine, had silently grown to the age ofmanhood. Their tender years had been incapable of dominion: therespectful modesty of their attendance and salutation was due to the ageand merit of their guardians; the childless ambition of those guardianshad no temptation to violate their right of succession: their patrimonywas ably and faithfully administered; and the premature death ofZimisces was a loss, rather than a benefit, to the sons of Romanus. Their want of experience detained them twelve years longer the obscureand voluntary pupils of a minister, who extended his reign by persuadingthem to indulge the pleasures of youth, and to disdain the labors ofgovernment. In this silken web, the weakness of Constantine was foreverentangled; but his elder brother felt the impulse of genius and thedesire of action; he frowned, and the minister was no more. Basilwas the acknowledged sovereign of Constantinople and the provincesof Europe; but Asia was oppressed by two veteran generals, Phocas andSclerus, who, alternately friends and enemies, subjects and rebels, maintained their independence, and labored to emulate the example ofsuccessful usurpation. Against these domestic enemies the son of Romanusfirst drew his sword, and they trembled in the presence of a lawful andhigh-spirited prince. The first, in the front of battle, was thrown fromhis horse, by the stroke of poison, or an arrow; the second, who hadbeen twice loaded with chains, [1017] and twice invested with thepurple, was desirous of ending in peace the small remainder of his days. As the aged suppliant approached the throne, with dim eyes and falteringsteps, leaning on his two attendants, the emperor exclaimed, in theinsolence of youth and power, "And is this the man who has so long beenthe object of our terror?" After he had confirmed his own authority, andthe peace of the empire, the trophies of Nicephorus and Zimisces wouldnot suffer their royal pupil to sleep in the palace. His long andfrequent expeditions against the Saracens were rather glorious thanuseful to the empire; but the final destruction of the kingdom ofBulgaria appears, since the time of Belisarius, the most importanttriumph of the Roman arms. Yet, instead of applauding their victoriousprince, his subjects detested the rapacious and rigid avarice of Basil;and in the imperfect narrative of his exploits, we can only discern thecourage, patience, and ferociousness of a soldier. A vicious education, which could not subdue his spirit, had clouded his mind; he wasignorant of every science; and the remembrance of his learned and feeblegrandsire might encourage his real or affected contempt of laws andlawyers, of artists and arts. Of such a character, in such an age, superstition took a firm and lasting possession; after the first licenseof his youth, Basil the Second devoted his life, in the palace and thecamp, to the penance of a hermit, wore the monastic habit under hisrobes and armor, observed a vow of continence, and imposed onhis appetites a perpetual abstinence from wine and flesh. In thesixty-eighth year of his age, his martial spirit urged him to embark inperson for a holy war against the Saracens of Sicily; he was preventedby death, and Basil, surnamed the Slayer of the Bulgarians, wasdismissed from the world with the blessings of the clergy and the curseof the people. After his decease, his brother Constantine enjoyed, aboutthree years, the power, or rather the pleasures, of royalty; and hisonly care was the settlement of the succession. He had enjoyed sixty-sixyears the title of Augustus; and the reign of the two brothers is thelongest, and most obscure, of the Byzantine history. 

[Footnote 1017: Once by the caliph, once by his rival Phocas. Compare DeBeau l. P. 176. --M. ]

A lineal succession of five emperors, in a period of one hundred andsixty years, had attached the loyalty of the Greeks to the Macedoniandynasty, which had been thrice respected by the usurpers of their power. After the death of Constantine the Ninth, the last male of the royalrace, a new and broken scene presents itself, and the accumulated yearsof twelve emperors do not equal the space of his single reign. His elderbrother had preferred his private chastity to the public interest, andConstantine himself had only three daughters; Eudocia, who took theveil, and Zoe and Theodora, who were preserved till a mature age in astate of ignorance and virginity. When their marriage was discussed inthe council of their dying father, the cold or pious Theodora refusedto give an heir to the empire, but her sister Zoe presented herself awilling victim at the altar. Romanus Argyrus, a patrician of a gracefulperson and fair reputation, was chosen for her husband, and, on hisdeclining that honor, was informed, that blindness or death was thesecond alternative. The motive of his reluctance was conjugal affectionbut his faithful wife sacrificed her own happiness to his safety andgreatness; and her entrance into a monastery removed the only bar tothe Imperial nuptials. After the decease of Constantine, the sceptredevolved to Romanus the Third; but his labors at home and abroad wereequally feeble and fruitless; and the mature age, the forty-eightyears of Zoe, were less favorable to the hopes of pregnancy than tothe indulgence of pleasure. Her favorite chamberlain was a handsomePaphlagonian of the name of Michael, whose first trade had been that ofa money-changer; and Romanus, either from gratitude or equity, connivedat their criminal intercourse, or accepted a slight assurance of theirinnocence. But Zoe soon justified the Roman maxim, that every adulteressis capable of poisoning her husband; and the death of Romanus wasinstantly followed by the scandalous marriage and elevation of Michaelthe Fourth. The expectations of Zoe were, however, disappointed: insteadof a vigorous and grateful lover, she had placed in her bed a miserablewretch, whose health and reason were impaired by epileptic fits, andwhose conscience was tormented by despair and remorse. The most skilfulphysicians of the mind and body were summoned to his aid; and his hopeswere amused by frequent pilgrimages to the baths, and to the tombs ofthe most popular saints; the monks applauded his penance, and, exceptrestitution, (but to whom should he have restored?) Michael sought everymethod of expiating his guilt. While he groaned and prayed in sackclothand ashes, his brother, the eunuch John, smiled at his remorse, andenjoyed the harvest of a crime of which himself was the secret and mostguilty author. His administration was only the art of satiating hisavarice, and Zoe became a captive in the palace of her fathers, and inthe hands of her slaves. When he perceived the irretrievable declineof his brother's health, he introduced his nephew, another Michael, whoderived his surname of Calaphates from his father's occupation in thecareening of vessels: at the command of the eunuch, Zoe adopted for herson the son of a mechanic; and this fictitious heir was invested withthe title and purple of the Caesars, in the presence of the senate andclergy. So feeble was the character of Zoe, that she was oppressedby the liberty and power which she recovered by the death of thePaphlagonian; and at the end of four days, she placed the crown on thehead of Michael the Fifth, who had protested, with tears and oaths, thathe should ever reign the first and most obedient of her subjects. 

The only act of his short reign was his base ingratitude to hisbenefactors, the eunuch and the empress. The disgrace of the former waspleasing to the public: but the murmurs, and at length the clamors, of Constantinople deplored the exile of Zoe, the daughter of so manyemperors; her vices were forgotten, and Michael was taught, that thereis a period in which the patience of the tamest slaves rises into furyand revenge. The citizens of every degree assembled in a formidabletumult which lasted three days; they besieged the palace, forced thegates, recalled their mothers, Zoe from her prison, Theodora from hermonastery, and condemned the son of Calaphates to the loss of his eyesor of his life. For the first time the Greeks beheld with surprise thetwo royal sisters seated on the same throne, presiding in the senate, and giving audience to the ambassadors of the nations. But the singularunion subsisted no more than two months; the two sovereigns, theirtempers, interests, and adherents, were secretly hostile to each other;and as Theodora was still averse to marriage, the indefatigable Zoe, at the age of sixty, consented, for the public good, to sustain theembraces of a third husband, and the censures of the Greek church. His name and number were Constantine the Tenth, and the epithet ofMonomachus, the single combatant, must have been expressive of his valorand victory in some public or private quarrel. But his health was brokenby the tortures of the gout, and his dissolute reign was spent inthe alternative of sickness and pleasure. A fair and noble widow hadaccompanied Constantine in his exile to the Isle of Lesbos, and Sclerenagloried in the appellation of his mistress. After his marriage andelevation, she was invested with the title and pomp of Augusta, andoccupied a contiguous apartment in the palace. The lawful consort (suchwas the delicacy or corruption of Zoe) consented to this strange andscandalous partition; and the emperor appeared in public between hiswife and his concubine. He survived them both; but the last measures ofConstantine to change the order of succession were prevented by the morevigilant friends of Theodora; and after his decease, she resumed, withthe general consent, the possession of her inheritance. In her name, and by the influence of four eunuchs, the Eastern world was peaceablygoverned about nineteen months; and as they wished to prolong theirdominion, they persuaded the aged princess to nominate for her successorMichael the Sixth. The surname of Stratioticus declares his militaryprofession; but the crazy and decrepit veteran could only see with theeyes, and execute with the hands, of his ministers. Whilst he ascendedthe throne, Theodora sunk into the grave; the last of the Macedonianor Basilian dynasty. I have hastily reviewed, and gladly dismiss, thisshameful and destructive period of twenty-eight years, in which theGreeks, degraded below the common level of servitude, were transferredlike a herd of cattle by the choice or caprice of two impotent females. 

From this night of slavery, a ray of freedom, or at least of spirit, begins to emerge: the Greeks either preserved or revived the use ofsurnames, which perpetuate the fame of hereditary virtue: and we nowdiscern the rise, succession, and alliances of the last dynasties ofConstantinople and Trebizond. The Comneni, who upheld for a while thefate of the sinking empire, assumed the honor of a Roman origin: butthe family had been long since transported from Italy to Asia. Theirpatrimonial estate was situate in the district of Castamona, in theneighborhood of the Euxine; and one of their chiefs, who had alreadyentered the paths of ambition, revisited with affection, perhaps withregret, the modest though honorable dwelling of his fathers. The firstof their line was the illustrious Manuel, who in the reign of the secondBasil, contributed by war and treaty to appease the troubles of theEast: he left, in a tender age, two sons, Isaac and John, whom, with theconsciousness of desert, he bequeathed to the gratitude and favor of hissovereign. The noble youths were carefully trained in the learning ofthe monastery, the arts of the palace, and the exercises of the camp:and from the domestic service of the guards, they were rapidly promotedto the command of provinces and armies. Their fraternal union doubledthe force and reputation of the Comneni, and their ancient nobility wasillustrated by the marriage of the two brothers, with a captive princessof Bulgaria, and the daughter of a patrician, who had obtained the nameof Charon from the number of enemies whom he had sent to the infernalshades. The soldiers had served with reluctant loyalty a series ofeffeminate masters; the elevation of Michael the Sixth was a personalinsult to the more deserving generals; and their discontent was inflamedby the parsimony of the emperor and the insolence of the eunuchs. Theysecretly assembled in the sanctuary of St. Sophia, and the votes of themilitary synod would have been unanimous in favor of the old and valiantCatacalon, if the patriotism or modesty of the veteran had not suggestedthe importance of birth as well as merit in the choice of a sovereign. Isaac Comnenus was approved by general consent, and the associatesseparated without delay to meet in the plains of Phrygia at the headof their respective squadrons and detachments. The cause of Michael wasdefended in a single battle by the mercenaries of the Imperial guard, who were aliens to the public interest, and animated only by a principleof honor and gratitude. After their defeat, the fears of the emperorsolicited a treaty, which was almost accepted by the moderation ofthe Comnenian. But the former was betrayed by his ambassadors, and thelatter was prevented by his friends. The solitary Michael submittedto the voice of the people; the patriarch annulled their oath ofallegiance; and as he shaved the head of the royal monk, congratulatedhis beneficial exchange of temporal royalty for the kingdom of heaven;an exchange, however, which the priest, on his own account, wouldprobably have declined. By the hands of the same patriarch, IsaacComnenus was solemnly crowned; the sword which he inscribed on his coinsmight be an offensive symbol, if it implied his title by conquest;but this sword would have been drawn against the foreign and domesticenemies of the state. The decline of his health and vigor suspendedthe operation of active virtue; and the prospect of approaching deathdetermined him to interpose some moments between life and eternity. Butinstead of leaving the empire as the marriage portion of his daughter, his reason and inclination concurred in the preference of his brotherJohn, a soldier, a patriot, and the father of five sons, the futurepillars of an hereditary succession. His first modest reluctance mightbe the natural dictates of discretion and tenderness, but his obstinateand successful perseverance, however it may dazzle with the show ofvirtue, must be censured as a criminal desertion of his duty, and a rareoffence against his family and country. The purple which he had refusedwas accepted by Constantine Ducas, a friend of the Comnenian house, and whose noble birth was adorned with the experience and reputationof civil policy. In the monastic habit, Isaac recovered his health, and survived two years his voluntary abdication. At the command of hisabbot, he observed the rule of St. Basil, and executed the most servileoffices of the convent: but his latent vanity was gratified by thefrequent and respectful visits of the reigning monarch, who revered inhis person the character of a benefactor and a saint. If Constantine theEleventh were indeed the subject most worthy of empire, we must pity thedebasement of the age and nation in which he was chosen. In the laborof puerile declamations he sought, without obtaining, the crown ofeloquence, more precious, in his opinion, than that of Rome; and in thesubordinate functions of a judge, he forgot the duties of a sovereignand a warrior. Far from imitating the patriotic indifference of theauthors of his greatness, Ducas was anxious only to secure, at theexpense of the republic, the power and prosperity of his children. Histhree sons, Michael the Seventh, Andronicus the First, and Constantinethe Twelfth, were invested, in a tender age, with the equal title ofAugustus; and the succession was speedily opened by their father'sdeath. His widow, Eudocia, was intrusted with the administration; butexperience had taught the jealousy of the dying monarch to protect hissons from the danger of her second nuptials; and her solemn engagement, attested by the principal senators, was deposited in the hands of thepatriarch. Before the end of seven months, the wants of Eudocia, orthose of the state, called aloud for the male virtues of a soldier; andher heart had already chosen Romanus Diogenes, whom she raised fromthe scaffold to the throne. The discovery of a treasonable attempt hadexposed him to the severity of the laws: his beauty and valor absolvedhim in the eyes of the empress; and Romanus, from a mild exile, wasrecalled on the second day to the command of the Oriental armies. 

Her royal choice was yet unknown to the public; and the promise whichwould have betrayed her falsehood and levity, was stolen by a dexterousemissary from the ambition of the patriarch. Xiphilin at first allegedthe sanctity of oaths, and the sacred nature of a trust; but a whisper, that his brother was the future emperor, relaxed his scruples, andforced him to confess that the public safety was the supreme law. Heresigned the important paper; and when his hopes were confounded by thenomination of Romanus, he could no longer regain his security, retracthis declarations, nor oppose the second nuptials of the empress. Yeta murmur was heard in the palace; and the Barbarian guards had raisedtheir battle-axes in the cause of the house of Lucas, till the youngprinces were soothed by the tears of their mother and the solemnassurances of the fidelity of their guardian, who filled the Imperialstation with dignity and honor. Hereafter I shall relate his valiant, but unsuccessful, efforts to resist the progress of the Turks. Hisdefeat and captivity inflicted a deadly wound on the Byzantine monarchyof the East; and after he was released from the chains of the sultan, hevainly sought his wife and his subjects. His wife had been thrust intoa monastery, and the subjects of Romanus had embraced the rigid maxim ofthe civil law, that a prisoner in the hands of the enemy is deprived, as by the stroke of death, of all the public and private rights of acitizen. In the general consternation, the Caesar John asserted theindefeasible right of his three nephews: Constantinople listened tohis voice: and the Turkish captive was proclaimed in the capital, andreceived on the frontier, as an enemy of the republic. Romanus was notmore fortunate in domestic than in foreign war: the loss of twobattles compelled him to yield, on the assurance of fair and honorabletreatment; but his enemies were devoid of faith or humanity; and, afterthe cruel extinction of his sight, his wounds were left to bleed andcorrupt, till in a few days he was relieved from a state of misery. Under the triple reign of the house of Ducas, the two younger brotherswere reduced to the vain honors of the purple; but the eldest, thepusillanimous Michael, was incapable of sustaining the Roman sceptre;and his surname of Parapinaces denotes the reproach which he sharedwith an avaricious favorite, who enhanced the price, and diminished themeasure, of wheat. In the school of Psellus, and after the example ofhis mother, the son of Eudocia made some proficiency in philosophy andrhetoric; but his character was degraded, rather than ennobled, by thevirtues of a monk and the learning of a sophist. Strong in the contemptof their sovereign and their own esteem, two generals, at the head ofthe European and Asiatic legions, assumed the purple at Adrianople andNice. Their revolt was in the same months; they bore the same name ofNicephorus; but the two candidates were distinguished by the surnamesof Bryennius and Botaniates; the former in the maturity of wisdom andcourage, the latter conspicuous only by the memory of his past exploits. While Botaniates advanced with cautious and dilatory steps, his activecompetitor stood in arms before the gates of Constantinople. The nameof Bryennius was illustrious; his cause was popular; but his licentioustroops could not be restrained from burning and pillaging a suburb; andthe people, who would have hailed the rebel, rejected and repulsedthe incendiary of his country. This change of the public opinionwas favorable to Botaniates, who at length, with an army of Turks, approached the shores of Chalcedon. A formal invitation, in the nameof the patriarch, the synod, and the senate, was circulated through thestreets of Constantinople; and the general assembly, in the dome ofSt. Sophia, debated, with order and calmness, on the choice of theirsovereign. The guards of Michael would have dispersed this unarmedmultitude; but the feeble emperor, applauding his own moderation andclemency, resigned the ensigns of royalty, and was rewarded with themonastic habit, and the title of Archbishop of Ephesus. He left a son, a Constantine, born and educated in the purple; and a daughter of thehouse of Ducas illustrated the blood, and confirmed the succession, ofthe Comnenian dynasty. 

John Comnenus, the brother of the emperor Isaac, survived in peace anddignity his generous refusal of the sceptre. By his wife Anne, a womanof masculine spirit and a policy, he left eight children: the threedaughters multiplied the Comnenian alliance with the noblest of theGreeks: of the five sons, Manuel was stopped by a premature death; Isaacand Alexius restored the Imperial greatness of their house, which wasenjoyed without toil or danger by the two younger brethren, Adrian andNicephorus. Alexius, the third and most illustrious of the brothers wasendowed by nature with the choicest gifts both of mind and body: theywere cultivated by a liberal education, and exercised in the school ofobedience and adversity. The youth was dismissed from the perils of theTurkish war, by the paternal care of the emperor Romanus: but the motherof the Comneni, with her aspiring face, was accused of treason, andbanished, by the sons of Ducas, to an island in the Propontis. The twobrothers soon emerged into favor and action, fought by each other's sideagainst the rebels and Barbarians, and adhered to the emperor Michael, till he was deserted by the world and by himself. In his first interviewwith Botaniates, "Prince, " said Alexius with a noble frankness, "my dutyrendered me your enemy; the decrees of God and of the people have mademe your subject. Judge of my future loyalty by my past opposition. " Thesuccessor of Michael entertained him with esteem and confidence: hisvalor was employed against three rebels, who disturbed the peace of theempire, or at least of the emperors. Ursel, Bryennius, and Basilacius, were formidable by their numerous forces and military fame: they weresuccessively vanquished in the field, and led in chains to the foot ofthe throne; and whatever treatment they might receive from a timid andcruel court, they applauded the clemency, as well as the courage, oftheir conqueror. But the loyalty of the Comneni was soon tainted by fearand suspicion; nor is it easy to settle between a subject and a despot, the debt of gratitude, which the former is tempted to claim by a revolt, and the latter to discharge by an executioner. The refusal of Alexius tomarch against a fourth rebel, the husband of his sister, destroyedthe merit or memory of his past services: the favorites of Botaniatesprovoked the ambition which they apprehended and accused; and theretreat of the two brothers might be justified by the defence of theirlife and liberty. The women of the family were deposited in a sanctuary, respected by tyrants: the men, mounted on horseback, sallied from thecity, and erected the standard of civil war. The soldiers who had beengradually assembled in the capital and the neighborhood, were devotedto the cause of a victorious and injured leader: the ties of commoninterest and domestic alliance secured the attachment of the house ofDucas; and the generous dispute of the Comneni was terminated by thedecisive resolution of Isaac, who was the first to invest his youngerbrother with the name and ensigns of royalty. They returned toConstantinople, to threaten rather than besiege that impregnablefortress; but the fidelity of the guards was corrupted; a gate wassurprised, and the fleet was occupied by the active courage of GeorgePalaeologus, who fought against his father, without foreseeing that helabored for his posterity. Alexius ascended the throne; and his agedcompetitor disappeared in a monastery. An army of various nations wasgratified with the pillage of the city; but the public disorders wereexpiated by the tears and fasts of the Comneni, who submitted to everypenance compatible with the possession of the empire. The life of theemperor Alexius has been delineated by a favorite daughter, who wasinspired by a tender regard for his person and a laudable zeal toperpetuate his virtues. Conscious of the just suspicions of her readers, the princess Anna Comnena repeatedly protests, that, besides herpersonal knowledge, she had searched the discourses and writings ofthe most respectable veterans: and after an interval of thirty years, forgotten by, and forgetful of, the world, her mournful solitude wasinaccessible to hope and fear; and that truth, the naked perfect truth, was more dear and sacred than the memory of her parent. Yet, insteadof the simplicity of style and narrative which wins our belief, anelaborate affectation of rhetoric and science betrays in every page thevanity of a female author. The genuine character of Alexius is lost ina vague constellation of virtues; and the perpetual strain of panegyricand apology awakens our jealousy, to question the veracity of thehistorian and the merit of the hero. We cannot, however, refuse herjudicious and important remark, that the disorders of the times were themisfortune and the glory of Alexius; and that every calamity which canafflict a declining empire was accumulated on his reign by the justiceof Heaven and the vices of his predecessors. In the East, the victoriousTurks had spread, from Persia to the Hellespont, the reign of the Koranand the Crescent: the West was invaded by the adventurous valor ofthe Normans; and, in the moments of peace, the Danube poured forth newswarms, who had gained, in the science of war, what they had lost in theferociousness of manners. The sea was not less hostile than the land;and while the frontiers were assaulted by an open enemy, the palace wasdistracted with secret treason and conspiracy. On a sudden, the bannerof the Cross was displayed by the Latins; Europe was precipitated onAsia; and Constantinople had almost been swept away by this impetuousdeluge. In the tempest, Alexius steered the Imperial vessel withdexterity and courage. At the head of his armies, he was bold inaction, skilful in stratagem, patient of fatigue, ready to improve hisadvantages, and rising from his defeats with inexhaustible vigor. Thediscipline of the camp was revived, and a new generation of men andsoldiers was created by the example and precepts of their leader. Inhis intercourse with the Latins, Alexius was patient and artful: hisdiscerning eye pervaded the new system of an unknown world and I shallhereafter describe the superior policy with which he balanced theinterests and passions of the champions of the first crusade. In a longreign of thirty-seven years, he subdued and pardoned the envy of hisequals: the laws of public and private order were restored: the artsof wealth and science were cultivated: the limits of the empire wereenlarged in Europe and Asia; and the Comnenian sceptre was transmittedto his children of the third and fourth generation. Yet the difficultiesof the times betrayed some defects in his character; and have exposedhis memory to some just or ungenerous reproach. The reader may possiblysmile at the lavish praise which his daughter so often bestows on aflying hero: the weakness or prudence of his situation might be mistakenfor a want of personal courage; and his political arts are branded bythe Latins with the names of deceit and dissimulation. The increaseof the male and female branches of his family adorned the throne, andsecured the succession; but their princely luxury and pride offendedthe patricians, exhausted the revenue, and insulted the misery of thepeople. Anna is a faithful witness that his happiness was destroyed, andhis health was broken, by the cares of a public life; the patience ofConstantinople was fatigued by the length and severity of his reign;and before Alexius expired, he had lost the love and reverence of hissubjects. The clergy could not forgive his application of the sacredriches to the defence of the state; but they applauded his theologicallearning and ardent zeal for the orthodox faith, which he defended withhis tongue, his pen, and his sword. His character was degraded by thesuperstition of the Greeks; and the same inconsistent principle of humannature enjoined the emperor to found a hospital for the poor and infirm, and to direct the execution of a heretic, who was burned alive in thesquare of St. Sophia. Even the sincerity of his moral and religiousvirtues was suspected by the persons who had passed their lives in hisfamiliar confidence. In his last hours, when he was pressed by his wifeIrene to alter the succession, he raised his head, and breathed a piousejaculation on the vanity of this world. The indignant reply of theempress may be inscribed as an epitaph on his tomb, "You die, as youhave lived--A Hypocrite!"

It was the wish of Irene to supplant the eldest of her surviving sons, in favor of her daughter the princess Anne whose philosophy would nothave refused the weight of a diadem. But the order of male successionwas asserted by the friends of their country; the lawful heir drew theroyal signet from the finger of his insensible or conscious father andthe empire obeyed the master of the palace. Anna Comnena was stimulatedby ambition and revenge to conspire against the life of her brother, andwhen the design was prevented by the fears or scruples of her husband, she passionately exclaimed that nature had mistaken the two sexes, andhad endowed Bryennius with the soul of a woman. The two sons of Alexius, John and Isaac, maintained the fraternal concord, the hereditary virtueof their race, and the younger brother was content with the title ofSebastocrator, which approached the dignity, without sharing the power, of the emperor. In the same person the claims of primogeniture and meritwere fortunately united; his swarthy complexion, harsh features, anddiminutive stature, had suggested the ironical surname of Calo-Johannes, or John the Handsome, which his grateful subjects more seriously appliedto the beauties of his mind. After the discovery of her treason, thelife and fortune of Anne were justly forfeited to the laws. Her lifewas spared by the clemency of the emperor; but he visited the pomp andtreasures of her palace, and bestowed the rich confiscation on the mostdeserving of his friends. That respectable friend Axuch, a slave ofTurkish extraction, presumed to decline the gift, and to intercede forthe criminal: his generous master applauded and imitated the virtue ofhis favorite, and the reproach or complaint of an injured brother wasthe only chastisement of the guilty princess. After this example ofclemency, the remainder of his reign was never disturbed by conspiracyor rebellion: feared by his nobles, beloved by his people, Johnwas never reduced to the painful necessity of punishing, or even ofpardoning, his personal enemies. During his government of twenty-fiveyears, the penalty of death was abolished in the Roman empire, a law ofmercy most delightful to the humane theorist, but of which the practice, in a large and vicious community, is seldom consistent with thepublic safety. Severe to himself, indulgent to others, chaste, frugal, abstemious, the philosophic Marcus would not have disdained the artlessvirtues of his successor, derived from his heart, and not borrowed fromthe schools. He despised and moderated the stately magnificence of theByzantine court, so oppressive to the people, so contemptible to the eyeof reason. Under such a prince, innocence had nothing to fear, and merithad every thing to hope; and, without assuming the tyrannic office of acensor, he introduced a gradual though visible reformation in thepublic and private manners of Constantinople. The only defect of thisaccomplished character was the frailty of noble minds, the love of armsand military glory. Yet the frequent expeditions of John the Handsomemay be justified, at least in their principle, by the necessity ofrepelling the Turks from the Hellespont and the Bosphorus. The sultan ofIconium was confined to his capital, the Barbarians were driven to themountains, and the maritime provinces of Asia enjoyed the transientblessings of their deliverance. From Constantinople to Antioch andAleppo, he repeatedly marched at the head of a victorious army, andin the sieges and battles of this holy war, his Latin allies wereastonished by the superior spirit and prowess of a Greek. As he beganto indulge the ambitious hope of restoring the ancient limits of theempire, as he revolved in his mind, the Euphrates and Tigris, thedominion of Syria, and the conquest of Jerusalem, the thread of his lifeand of the public felicity was broken by a singular accident. He huntedthe wild boar in the valley of Anazarbus, and had fixed his javelin inthe body of the furious animal; but in the struggle a poisoned arrowdropped from his quiver, and a slight wound in his hand, which produceda mortification, was fatal to the best and greatest of the Comnenianprinces. 

Chapter XLVIII: Succession And Characters Of The Greek Emperors. --Part V. 

A premature death had swept away the two eldest sons of John theHandsome; of the two survivors, Isaac and Manuel, his judgment oraffection preferred the younger; and the choice of their dying princewas ratified by the soldiers, who had applauded the valor of hisfavorite in the Turkish war The faithful Axuch hastened to the capital, secured the person of Isaac in honorable confinement, and purchased, with a gift of two hundred pounds of silver, the leading ecclesiasticsof St. Sophia, who possessed a decisive voice in the consecration of anemperor. With his veteran and affectionate troops, Manuel soon visitedConstantinople; his brother acquiesced in the title of Sebastocrator;his subjects admired the lofty stature and martial graces of their newsovereign, and listened with credulity to the flattering promise, thathe blended the wisdom of age with the activity and vigor of youth. Bythe experience of his government, they were taught, that he emulated thespirit, and shared the talents, of his father whose social virtueswere buried in the grave. A reign of thirty seven years is filled by aperpetual though various warfare against the Turks, the Christians, andthe hordes of the wilderness beyond the Danube. The arms of Manuel wereexercised on Mount Taurus, in the plains of Hungary, on the coast ofItaly and Egypt, and on the seas of Sicily and Greece: the influenceof his negotiations extended from Jerusalem to Rome and Russia; and theByzantine monarchy, for a while, became an object of respect or terrorto the powers of Asia and Europe. Educated in the silk and purple of theEast, Manuel possessed the iron temper of a soldier, which cannot easilybe paralleled, except in the lives of Richard the First of England, andof Charles the Twelfth of Sweden. Such was his strength and exercise inarms, that Raymond, surnamed the Hercules of Antioch, was incapableof wielding the lance and buckler of the Greek emperor. In a famoustournament, he entered the lists on a fiery courser, and overturned inhis first career two of the stoutest of the Italian knights. The firstin the charge, the last in the retreat, his friends and his enemiesalike trembled, the former for his safety, and the latter for their own. After posting an ambuscade in a wood, he rode forwards in search of someperilous adventure, accompanied only by his brother and the faithfulAxuch, who refused to desert their sovereign. Eighteen horsemen, after ashort combat, fled before them: but the numbers of the enemy increased;the march of the reenforcement was tardy and fearful, and Manuel, without receiving a wound, cut his way through a squadron of fivehundred Turks. In a battle against the Hungarians, impatient of theslowness of his troops, he snatched a standard from the head of thecolumn, and was the first, almost alone, who passed a bridge thatseparated him from the enemy. In the same country, after transportinghis army beyond the Save, he sent back the boats, with an order underpain of death, to their commander, that he should leave him to conqueror die on that hostile land. In the siege of Corfu, towing after him acaptive galley, the emperor stood aloft on the poop, opposing againstthe volleys of darts and stones, a large buckler and a flowing sail;nor could he have escaped inevitable death, had not the Sicilian admiralenjoined his archers to respect the person of a hero. In one day, he issaid to have slain above forty of the Barbarians with his own hand; hereturned to the camp, dragging along four Turkish prisoners, whom he hadtied to the rings of his saddle: he was ever the foremost to provoke orto accept a single combat; and the gigantic champions, who encounteredhis arm, were transpierced by the lance, or cut asunder by the sword, of the invincible Manuel. The story of his exploits, which appear asa model or a copy of the romances of chivalry, may induce a reasonablesuspicion of the veracity of the Greeks: I will not, to vindicate theircredit, endanger my own: yet I may observe, that, in the long seriesof their annals, Manuel is the only prince who has been the subject ofsimilar exaggeration. With the valor of a soldier, he did no unite theskill or prudence of a general; his victories were not productive of anypermanent or useful conquest; and his Turkish laurels were blastedin his last unfortunate campaign, in which he lost his army in themountains of Pisidia, and owed his deliverance to the generosity of thesultan. But the most singular feature in the character of Manuel, isthe contrast and vicissitude of labor and sloth, of hardiness andeffeminacy. In war he seemed ignorant of peace, in peace he appearedincapable of war. In the field he slept in the sun or in the snow, tiredin the longest marches the strength of his men and horses, and sharedwith a smile the abstinence or diet of the camp. No sooner did he returnto Constantinople, than he resigned himself to the arts and pleasures ofa life of luxury: the expense of his dress, his table, and his palace, surpassed the measure of his predecessors, and whole summer days wereidly wasted in the delicious isles of the Propontis, in the incestuouslove of his niece Theodora. The double cost of a warlike and dissoluteprince exhausted the revenue, and multiplied the taxes; and Manuel, inthe distress of his last Turkish campaign, endured a bitter reproachfrom the mouth of a desperate soldier. As he quenched his thirst, hecomplained that the water of a fountain was mingled with Christianblood. "It is not the first time, " exclaimed a voice from the crowd, "that you have drank, O emperor, the blood of your Christian subjects. "Manuel Comnenus was twice married, to the virtuous Bertha or Ireneof Germany, and to the beauteous Maria, a French or Latin princess ofAntioch. The only daughter of his first wife was destined for Bela, aHungarian prince, who was educated at Constantinople under the name ofAlexius; and the consummation of their nuptials might have transferredthe Roman sceptre to a race of free and warlike Barbarians. But assoon as Maria of Antioch had given a son and heir to the empire, thepresumptive rights of Bela were abolished, and he was deprived ofhis promised bride; but the Hungarian prince resumed his name and thekingdom of his fathers, and displayed such virtues as might excite theregret and envy of the Greeks. The son of Maria was named Alexius; andat the age of ten years he ascended the Byzantine throne, after hisfather's decease had closed the glories of the Comnenian line. 

The fraternal concord of the two sons of the great Alexius had beensometimes clouded by an opposition of interest and passion. By ambition, Isaac the Sebastocrator was excited to flight and rebellion, from whencehe was reclaimed by the firmness and clemency of John the Handsome. Theerrors of Isaac, the father of the emperors of Trebizond, were short andvenial; but John, the elder of his sons, renounced forever his religion. Provoked by a real or imaginary insult of his uncle, he escaped from theRoman to the Turkish camp: his apostasy was rewarded with the sultan'sdaughter, the title of Chelebi, or noble, and the inheritance of aprincely estate; and in the fifteenth century, Mahomet the Secondboasted of his Imperial descent from the Comnenian family. Andronicus, the younger brother of John, son of Isaac, and grandson of AlexiusComnenus, is one of the most conspicuous characters of the age; and hisgenuine adventures might form the subject of a very singular romance. Tojustify the choice of three ladies of royal birth, it is incumbent on meto observe, that their fortunate lover was cast in the best proportionsof strength and beauty; and that the want of the softer graces wassupplied by a manly countenance, a lofty stature, athletic muscles, andthe air and deportment of a soldier. The preservation, in his old age, of health and vigor, was the reward of temperance and exercise. A pieceof bread and a draught of water was often his sole and evening repast;and if he tasted of a wild boar or a stag, which he had roasted with hisown hands, it was the well-earned fruit of a laborious chase. Dexterousin arms, he was ignorant of fear; his persuasive eloquence could bendto every situation and character of life, his style, though not hispractice, was fashioned by the example of St. Paul; and, in every deedof mischief, he had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and ahand to execute. In his youth, after the death of the emperor John, hefollowed the retreat of the Roman army; but, in the march through AsiaMinor, design or accident tempted him to wander in the mountains: thehunter was encompassed by the Turkish huntsmen, and he remained sometime a reluctant or willing captive in the power of the sultan. Hisvirtues and vices recommended him to the favor of his cousin: he sharedthe perils and the pleasures of Manuel; and while the emperor livedin public incest with his niece Theodora, the affections of her sisterEudocia were seduced and enjoyed by Andronicus. Above the decencies ofher sex and rank, she gloried in the name of his concubine; and boththe palace and the camp could witness that she slept, or watched, inthe arms of her lover. She accompanied him to his military command ofCilicia, the first scene of his valor and imprudence. He pressed, withactive ardor, the siege of Mopsuestia: the day was employed in theboldest attacks; but the night was wasted in song and dance; and a bandof Greek comedians formed the choicest part of his retinue. Andronicuswas surprised by the sally of a vigilant foe; but, while his troops fledin disorder, his invincible lance transpierced the thickest ranks ofthe Armenians. On his return to the Imperial camp in Macedonia, he wasreceived by Manuel with public smiles and a private reproof; butthe duchies of Naissus, Braniseba, and Castoria, were the reward orconsolation of the unsuccessful general. Eudocia still attended hismotions: at midnight, their tent was suddenly attacked by her angrybrothers, impatient to expiate her infamy in his blood: his daringspirit refused her advice, and the disguise of a female habit; and, boldly starting from his couch, he drew his sword, and cut his waythrough the numerous assassins. It was here that he first betrayed hisingratitude and treachery: he engaged in a treasonable correspondencewith the king of Hungary and the German emperor; approached the royaltent at a suspicious hour with a drawn sword, and under the mask of aLatin soldier, avowed an intention of revenge against a mortal foe;and imprudently praised the fleetness of his horse as an instrument offlight and safety. The monarch dissembled his suspicions; but, after theclose of the campaign, Andronicus was arrested and strictly confined ina tower of the palace of Constantinople. 

In this prison he was left about twelve years; a most painful restraint, from which the thirst of action and pleasure perpetually urged him toescape. Alone and pensive, he perceived some broken bricks in a cornerof the chamber, and gradually widened the passage, till he had exploreda dark and forgotten recess. Into this hole he conveyed himself, andthe remains of his provisions, replacing the bricks in their formerposition, and erasing with care the footsteps of his retreat. At thehour of the customary visit, his guards were amazed by the silenceand solitude of the prison, and reported, with shame and fear, hisincomprehensible flight. The gates of the palace and city were instantlyshut: the strictest orders were despatched into the provinces, for therecovery of the fugitive; and his wife, on the suspicion of a pious act, was basely imprisoned in the same tower. At the dead of night she behelda spectre; she recognized her husband: they shared their provisions;and a son was the fruit of these stolen interviews, which alleviatedthe tediousness of their confinement. In the custody of a woman, thevigilance of the keepers was insensibly relaxed; and the captive hadaccomplished his real escape, when he was discovered, brought back toConstantinople, and loaded with a double chain. At length he found themoment, and the means, of his deliverance. A boy, his domestic servant, intoxicated the guards, and obtained in wax the impression of the keys. By the diligence of his friends, a similar key, with a bundle of ropes, was introduced into the prison, in the bottom of a hogshead. Andronicusemployed, with industry and courage, the instruments of his safety, unlocked the doors, descended from the tower, concealed himself all dayamong the bushes, and scaled in the night the garden-wall of the palace. A boat was stationed for his reception: he visited his own house, embraced his children, cast away his chain, mounted a fleet horse, anddirected his rapid course towards the banks of the Danube. At Anchialusin Thrace, an intrepid friend supplied him with horses and money: hepassed the river, traversed with speed the desert of Moldavia and theCarpathian hills, and had almost reached the town of Halicz, in thePolish Russia, when he was intercepted by a party of Walachians, whoresolved to convey their important captive to Constantinople. Hispresence of mind again extricated him from danger. Under the pretence ofsickness, he dismounted in the night, and was allowed to step aside fromthe troop: he planted in the ground his long staff, clothed it with hiscap and upper garment; and, stealing into the wood, left a phantom toamuse, for some time, the eyes of the Walachians. From Halicz he washonorably conducted to Kiow, the residence of the great duke: thesubtle Greek soon obtained the esteem and confidence of Ieroslaus; hischaracter could assume the manners of every climate; and the Barbariansapplauded his strength and courage in the chase of the elks and bearsof the forest. In this northern region he deserved the forgivenessof Manuel, who solicited the Russian prince to join his arms in theinvasion of Hungary. The influence of Andronicus achieved this importantservice: his private treaty was signed with a promise of fidelity on oneside, and of oblivion on the other; and he marched, at the head of theRussian cavalry, from the Borysthenes to the Danube. In his resentmentManuel had ever sympathized with the martial and dissolute character ofhis cousin; and his free pardon was sealed in the assault of Zemlin, inwhich he was second, and second only, to the valor of the emperor. 

No sooner was the exile restored to freedom and his country, than hisambition revived, at first to his own, and at length to the public, misfortune. A daughter of Manuel was a feeble bar to the succession ofthe more deserving males of the Comnenian blood; her future marriagewith the prince of Hungary was repugnant to the hopes or prejudices ofthe princes and nobles. But when an oath of allegiance was required tothe presumptive heir, Andronicus alone asserted the honor of the Romanname, declined the unlawful engagement, and boldly protested against theadoption of a stranger. His patriotism was offensive to the emperor, buthe spoke the sentiments of the people, and was removed from the royalpresence by an honorable banishment, a second command of the Cilicianfrontier, with the absolute disposal of the revenues of Cyprus. Inthis station the Armenians again exercised his courage and exposed hisnegligence; and the same rebel, who baffled all his operations, wasunhorsed, and almost slain by the vigor of his lance. But Andronicussoon discovered a more easy and pleasing conquest, the beautifulPhilippa, sister of the empress Maria, and daughter of Raymond ofPoitou, the Latin prince of Antioch. For her sake he deserted hisstation, and wasted the summer in balls and tournaments: to his loveshe sacrificed her innocence, her reputation, and the offer of anadvantageous marriage. But the resentment of Manuel for this domesticaffront interrupted his pleasures: Andronicus left the indiscreetprincess to weep and to repent; and, with a band of desperateadventurers, undertook the pilgrimage of Jerusalem. His birth, hismartial renown, and professions of zeal, announced him as the championof the Cross: he soon captivated both the clergy and the king; and theGreek prince was invested with the lordship of Berytus, on the coast ofPhoenicia. 

In his neighborhood resided a young and handsome queen, of his ownnation and family, great-granddaughter of the emperor Alexis, and widowof Baldwin the Third, king of Jerusalem. She visited and loved herkinsman. Theodora was the third victim of his amorous seduction; and hershame was more public and scandalous than that of her predecessors. Theemperor still thirsted for revenge; and his subjects and allies of theSyrian frontier were repeatedly pressed to seize the person, and put outthe eyes, of the fugitive. In Palestine he was no longer safe; but thetender Theodora revealed his danger, and accompanied his flight. Thequeen of Jerusalem was exposed to the East, his obsequious concubine;and two illegitimate children were the living monuments of her weakness. Damascus was his first refuge; and, in the characters of the greatNoureddin and his servant Saladin, the superstitious Greek might learnto revere the virtues of the Mussulmans. As the friend of Noureddin hevisited, most probably, Bagdad, and the courts of Persia; and, aftera long circuit round the Caspian Sea and the mountains of Georgia, hefinally settled among the Turks of Asia Minor, the hereditary enemiesof his country. The sultan of Colonia afforded a hospitable retreat toAndronicus, his mistress, and his band of outlaws: the debt of gratitudewas paid by frequent inroads in the Roman province of Trebizond; andhe seldom returned without an ample harvest of spoil and of Christiancaptives. In the story of his adventures, he was fond of comparinghimself to David, who escaped, by a long exile, the snares of thewicked. But the royal prophet (he presumed to add) was content to lurkon the borders of Judaea, to slay an Amalekite, and to threaten, in hismiserable state, the life of the avaricious Nabal. The excursions of theComnenian prince had a wider range; and he had spread over the Easternworld the glory of his name and religion. 

By a sentence of the Greek church, the licentious rover had beenseparated from the faithful; but even this excommunication may prove, that he never abjured the profession of Chistianity. 

His vigilance had eluded or repelled the open and secret persecutionof the emperor; but he was at length insnared by the captivity of hisfemale companion. The governor of Trebizond succeeded in his attemptto surprise the person of Theodora: the queen of Jerusalem and her twochildren were sent to Constantinople, and their loss imbittered thetedious solitude of banishment. The fugitive implored and obtained afinal pardon, with leave to throw himself at the feet of his sovereign, who was satisfied with the submission of this haughty spirit. Prostrateon the ground, he deplored with tears and groans the guilt of his pastrebellion; nor would he presume to arise, unless some faithful subjectwould drag him to the foot of the throne, by an iron chain with which hehad secretly encircled his neck. This extraordinary penance excited thewonder and pity of the assembly; his sins were forgiven by the churchand state; but the just suspicion of Manuel fixed his residence at adistance from the court, at Oenoe, a town of Pontus, surrounded withrich vineyards, and situate on the coast of the Euxine. The death ofManuel, and the disorders of the minority, soon opened the fairest fieldto his ambition. The emperor was a boy of twelve or fourteen years ofage, without vigor, or wisdom, or experience: his mother, the empressMary, abandoned her person and government to a favorite of the Comnenianname; and his sister, another Mary, whose husband, an Italian, wasdecorated with the title of Caesar, excited a conspiracy, and at lengthan insurrection, against her odious step-mother. The provinces wereforgotten, the capital was in flames, and a century of peace and orderwas overthrown in the vice and weakness of a few months. A civil war waskindled in Constantinople; the two factions fought a bloody battle inthe square of the palace, and the rebels sustained a regular siege inthe cathedral of St. Sophia. The patriarch labored with honest zeal toheal the wounds of the republic, the most respectable patriots calledaloud for a guardian and avenger, and every tongue repeated the praiseof the talents and even the virtues of Andronicus. In his retirement, he affected to revolve the solemn duties of his oath: "If the safety orhonor of the Imperial family be threatened, I will reveal and opposethe mischief to the utmost of my power. " His correspondence with thepatriarch and patricians was seasoned with apt quotations from thePsalms of David and the epistles of St. Paul; and he patiently waitedtill he was called to her deliverance by the voice of his country. Inhis march from Oenoe to Constantinople, his slender train insensiblyswelled to a crowd and an army: his professions of religion and loyaltywere mistaken for the language of his heart; and the simplicity of aforeign dress, which showed to advantage his majestic stature, displayeda lively image of his poverty and exile. All opposition sunk before him;he reached the straits of the Thracian Bosphorus; the Byzantine navysailed from the harbor to receive and transport the savior of theempire: the torrent was loud and irresistible, and the insects who hadbasked in the sunshine of royal favor disappeared at the blast of thestorm. It was the first care of Andronicus to occupy the palace, tosalute the emperor, to confine his mother, to punish her minister, and to restore the public order and tranquillity. He then visited thesepulchre of Manuel: the spectators were ordered to stand aloof, but ashe bowed in the attitude of prayer, they heard, or thought they heard, amurmur of triumph or revenge: "I no longer fear thee, my old enemy, whohast driven me a vagabond to every climate of the earth. Thou art safetydeposited under a seven-fold dome, from whence thou canst never arisetill the signal of the last trumpet. It is now my turn, and speedilywill I trample on thy ashes and thy posterity. " From his subsequenttyranny we may impute such feelings to the man and the moment; but itis not extremely probable that he gave an articulate sound to his secretthoughts. In the first months of his administration, his designs wereveiled by a fair semblance of hypocrisy, which could delude only theeyes of the multitude; the coronation of Alexius was performed with duesolemnity, and his perfidious guardian, holding in his hands the bodyand blood of Christ, most fervently declared that he lived, and wasready to die, for the service of his beloved pupil. But his numerousadherents were instructed to maintain, that the sinking empire mustperish in the hands of a child, that the Romans could only be saved by aveteran prince, bold in arms, skilful in policy, and taught to reign bythe long experience of fortune and mankind; and that it was the duty ofevery citizen to force the reluctant modesty of Andronicus to undertakethe burden of the public care. The young emperor was himself constrainedto join his voice to the general acclamation, and to solicit theassociation of a colleague, who instantly degraded him from the supremerank, secluded his person, and verified the rash declaration of thepatriarch, that Alexius might be considered as dead, so soon as he wascommitted to the custody of his guardian. But his death was precededby the imprisonment and execution of his mother. After blackening herreputation, and inflaming against her the passions of the multitude, thetyrant accused and tried the empress for a treasonable correspondencewith the king of Hungary. His own son, a youth of honor and humanity, avowed his abhorrence of this flagitious act, and three of the judgeshad the merit of preferring their conscience to their safety: but theobsequious tribunal, without requiring any reproof, or hearing anydefence, condemned the widow of Manuel; and her unfortunate sonsubscribed the sentence of her death. Maria was strangled, her corpsewas buried in the sea, and her memory was wounded by the insult mostoffensive to female vanity, a false and ugly representation of herbeauteous form. The fate of her son was not long deferred: he wasstrangled with a bowstring; and the tyrant, insensible to pity orremorse, after surveying the body of the innocent youth, struck itrudely with his foot: "Thy father, " he cried, "was a knave, thy mother awhore, and thyself a fool!"

The Roman sceptre, the reward of his crimes, was held by Andronicusabout three years and a half as the guardian or sovereign of the empire. His government exhibited a singular contrast of vice and virtue. Whenhe listened to his passions, he was the scourge; when he consulted hisreason, the father, of his people. In the exercise of private justice, he was equitable and rigorous: a shameful and pernicious venalitywas abolished, and the offices were filled with the most deservingcandidates, by a prince who had sense to choose, and severity to punish. He prohibited the inhuman practice of pillaging the goods and persons ofshipwrecked mariners; the provinces, so long the objects of oppressionor neglect, revived in prosperity and plenty; and millions applauded thedistant blessings of his reign, while he was cursed by the witnesses ofhis daily cruelties. The ancient proverb, That bloodthirsty is the manwho returns from banishment to power, had been applied, with too muchtruth, to 'Marius and Tiberius; and was now verified for the third timein the life of Andronicus. His memory was stored with a black listof the enemies and rivals, who had traduced his merit, opposed hisgreatness, or insulted his misfortunes; and the only comfort ofhis exile was the sacred hope and promise of revenge. The necessaryextinction of the young emperor and his mother imposed the fatalobligation of extirpating the friends, who hated, and might punish, theassassin; and the repetition of murder rendered him less willing, andless able, to forgive. [1018] A horrid narrative of the victims whom hesacrificed by poison or the sword, by the sea or the flames, would beless expressive of his cruelty than the appellation of the halcyon days, which was applied to a rare and bloodless week of repose: the tyrantstrove to transfer, on the laws and the judges, some portion of hisguilt; but the mask was fallen, and his subjects could no longer mistakethe true author of their calamities. The noblest of the Greeks, more especially those who, by descent or alliance, might dispute theComnenian inheritance, escaped from the monster's den: Nice and Prusa, Sicily or Cyprus, were their places of refuge; and as their flight wasalready criminal, they aggravated their offence by an open revolt, andthe Imperial title. Yet Andronicus resisted the daggers and swords ofhis most formidable enemies: Nice and Prusa were reduced and chastised:the Sicilians were content with the sack of Thessalonica; and thedistance of Cyprus was not more propitious to the rebel than to thetyrant. His throne was subverted by a rival without merit, and a peoplewithout arms. Isaac Angelus, a descendant in the female line from thegreat Alexius, was marked as a victim by the prudence or superstitionof the emperor. [1019] In a moment of despair, Angelus defended his lifeand liberty, slew the executioner, and fled to the church of St. Sophia. The sanctuary was insensibly filled with a curious and mournful crowd, who, in his fate, prognosticated their own. But their lamentations weresoon turned to curses, and their curses to threats: they dared toask, "Why do we fear? why do we obey? We are many, and he is one: ourpatience is the only bond of our slavery. " With the dawn of day the cityburst into a general sedition, the prisons were thrown open, the coldestand most servile were roused to the defence of their country, and Isaac, the second of the name, was raised from the sanctuary to the throne. Unconscious of his danger, the tyrant was absent; withdrawn from thetoils of state, in the delicious islands of the Propontis. He hadcontracted an indecent marriage with Alice, or Agnes, daughter of Lewisthe Seventh, of France, and relict of the unfortunate Alexius; and hissociety, more suitable to his temper than to his age, was composed ofa young wife and a favorite concubine. On the first alarm, he rushedto Constantinople, impatient for the blood of the guilty; but he wasastonished by the silence of the palace, the tumult of the city, and thegeneral desertion of mankind. Andronicus proclaimed a free pardon to hissubjects; they neither desired, nor would grant, forgiveness; he offeredto resign the crown to his son Manuel; but the virtues of the son couldnot expiate his father's crimes. The sea was still open for his retreat;but the news of the revolution had flown along the coast; when fear hadceased, obedience was no more: the Imperial galley was pursued and takenby an armed brigantine; and the tyrant was dragged to the presence ofIsaac Angelus, loaded with fetters, and a long chain round his neck. Hiseloquence, and the tears of his female companions, pleaded in vain forhis life; but, instead of the decencies of a legal execution, the newmonarch abandoned the criminal to the numerous sufferers, whom he haddeprived of a father, a husband, or a friend. His teeth and hair, an eyeand a hand, were torn from him, as a poor compensation for their loss:and a short respite was allowed, that he might feel the bitternessof death. Astride on a camel, without any danger of a rescue, he wascarried through the city, and the basest of the populace rejoiced totrample on the fallen majesty of their prince. After a thousand blowsand outrages, Andronicus was hung by the feet, between two pillars, thatsupported the statues of a wolf and an a sow; and every hand that couldreach the public enemy, inflicted on his body some mark of ingenious orbrutal cruelty, till two friendly or furious Italians, plunging theirswords into his body, released him from all human punishment. In thislong and painful agony, "Lord, have mercy upon me!" and "Why will youbruise a broken reed?" were the only words that escaped from his mouth. Our hatred for the tyrant is lost in pity for the man; nor can we blamehis pusillanimous resignation, since a Greek Christian was no longermaster of his life. 

[Footnote 1018: Fallmerayer (Geschichte des Kaiserthums von Trapezunt, p. 29, 33) has highly drawn the character of Andronicus. In his view theextermination of the Byzantine factions and dissolute nobility was partof a deep-laid and splendid plan for the regeneration of the empire. Itwas necessary for the wise and benevolent schemes of the father of hispeople to lop off those limbs which were infected with irremediablepestilence-- "and with necessity, The tyrant's plea, excused hisdevilish deeds!!"--Still the fall of Andronicus was a fatal blow to theByzantine empire. --M. ]

[Footnote 1019: According to Nicetas, (p. 444, ) Andronicus despised theimbecile Isaac too much to fear him; he was arrested by the officiouszeal of Stephen, the instrument of the Emperor's cruelties. --M. ]

I have been tempted to expatiate on the extraordinary character andadventures of Andronicus; but I shall here terminate the series of theGreek emperors since the time of Heraclius. The branches that sprangfrom the Comnenian trunk had insensibly withered; and the male linewas continued only in the posterity of Andronicus himself, who, in thepublic confusion, usurped the sovereignty of Trebizond, so obscure inhistory, and so famous in romance. A private citizen of Philadelphia, Constantine Angelus, had emerged to wealth and honors, by hismarriage with a daughter of the emperor Alexius. His son Andronicusis conspicuous only by his cowardice. His grandson Isaac punished andsucceeded the tyrant; but he was dethroned by his own vices, and theambition of his brother; and their discord introduced the Latins to theconquest of Constantinople, the first great period in the fall of theEastern empire. 

If we compute the number and duration of the reigns, it will befound, that a period of six hundred years is filled by sixty emperors, including in the Augustan list some female sovereigns; and deductingsome usurpers who were never acknowledged in the capital, and someprinces who did not live to possess their inheritance. The averageproportion will allow ten years for each emperor, far below thechronological rule of Sir Isaac Newton, who, from the experience ofmore recent and regular monarchies, has defined about eighteen or twentyyears as the term of an ordinary reign. The Byzantine empire wasmost tranquil and prosperous when it could acquiesce in hereditarysuccession; five dynasties, the Heraclian, Isaurian, Amorian, Basilian, and Comnenian families, enjoyed and transmitted the royal patrimonyduring their respective series of five, four, three, six, and fourgenerations; several princes number the years of their reign with thoseof their infancy; and Constantine the Seventh and his two grandsonsoccupy the space of an entire century. But in the intervals of theByzantine dynasties, the succession is rapid and broken, and the nameof a successful candidate is speedily erased by a more fortunatecompetitor. Many were the paths that led to the summit of royalty:the fabric of rebellion was overthrown by the stroke of conspiracy, orundermined by the silent arts of intrigue: the favorites of the soldiersor people, of the senate or clergy, of the women and eunuchs, werealternately clothed with the purple: the means of their elevation werebase, and their end was often contemptible or tragic. A being of thenature of man, endowed with the same faculties, but with a longermeasure of existence, would cast down a smile of pity and contempt onthe crimes and follies of human ambition, so eager, in a narrow span, to grasp at a precarious and shortlived enjoyment. It is thus thatthe experience of history exalts and enlarges the horizon of ourintellectual view. In a composition of some days, in a perusal of somehours, six hundred years have rolled away, and the duration of a life orreign is contracted to a fleeting moment: the grave is ever beside thethrone: the success of a criminal is almost instantly followed by theloss of his prize and our immortal reason survives and disdains thesixty phantoms of kings who have passed before our eyes, and faintlydwell on our remembrance. The observation that, in every age andclimate, ambition has prevailed with the same commanding energy, mayabate the surprise of a philosopher: but while he condemns the vanity, he may search the motive, of this universal desire to obtain and holdthe sceptre of dominion. To the greater part of the Byzantine series, we cannot reasonably ascribe the love of fame and of mankind. The virtuealone of John Comnenus was beneficent and pure: the most illustrious ofthe princes, who procede or follow that respectable name, have trodwith some dexterity and vigor the crooked and bloody paths of a selfishpolicy: in scrutinizing the imperfect characters of Leo the Isaurian, Basil the First, and Alexius Comnenus, of Theophilus, the second Basil, and Manuel Comnenus, our esteem and censure are almost equally balanced;and the remainder of the Imperial crowd could only desire and expect tobe forgotten by posterity. Was personal happiness the aim and object oftheir ambition? I shall not descant on the vulgar topics of the miseryof kings; but I may surely observe, that their condition, of all others, is the most pregnant with fear, and the least susceptible of hope. Forthese opposite passions, a larger scope was allowed in the revolutionsof antiquity, than in the smooth and solid temper of the modern world, which cannot easily repeat either the triumph of Alexander or the fallof Darius. But the peculiar infelicity of the Byzantine princes exposedthem to domestic perils, without affording any lively promise of foreignconquest. From the pinnacle of greatness, Andronicus was precipitatedby a death more cruel and shameful than that of the malefactor; butthe most glorious of his predecessors had much more to dread fromtheir subjects than to hope from their enemies. The army was licentiouswithout spirit, the nation turbulent without freedom: the Barbarians ofthe East and West pressed on the monarchy, and the loss of the provinceswas terminated by the final servitude of the capital. 

The entire series of Roman emperors, from the first of the Caesars tothe last of the Constantines, extends above fifteen hundred years:and the term of dominion, unbroken by foreign conquest, surpassesthe measure of the ancient monarchies; the Assyrians or Medes, thesuccessors of Cyrus, or those of Alexander.