PLEASE HANDLE WITH CARE University of Connecticut Libraries 3 =1153 DimDM71 H § H I 4-- PLEASE NOTE It has been necessary to replace some of the original pages in this book with photocopy reproductions because of damage or mistreatment by a previous user. Replacement of damaged materials is both expensive and time- consuming. Please handle this volume with care so that information will not be lost to future readers. Thank you for helping to preserve the University's research collections. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from LYRASIS members and Sloan Foundation http://www.archive.org/details/historyofdecline004gibb THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. VOL. IT. CICERO DENOUNCING CATALINE EDITION DE LUXE The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire By Edward Gibbon Volume IV. With Notes by DEAN MUM AN, M. GUIZOT and DR. WILLIAM SMITH THE NOTTINGHAM SOCIETY New York Philadelphia Chicago s CONTENTS OF VOL. IV. 3 It 3 6 CHAPTER XXXVIII. REIGN AND CONVERSION OF CLOVIS.— HIS VICTORIES OVER THE ALEMANNI, BURGUNDIANS, AND VISIGOTHS. — ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FRENCH MON- ARCHY IN GAUL. — LAWS OF THE BARBARIANS.— STATE OF THE ROMANS. THE VISIGOTHS OF SPAIN. — CONQUEST OF BRITAIN BY THE SAXONS. A.D. Page The Revolution of Gaul 13 476-485. Euric, King of the Visi- goths 15 481-511. Clovis King of the Franks 16 486. His Victory over Syagrius 18 496. Defeat and Submission of the Alemanni 20 496. Conversion of Clovis 21 497, etc. Submission of the Armo- ricans and the Roman Troops 24 499. The Burgundian War 26 500. Victory of Clovis 27 532. Final Conquest of Burgundy by the Franks 29 507. The Gothic War 30 Victory of Clovis 32 508. Conquest of Aquitaine by the Franks 34 510. Consulship of Clovis 36 636. Final Establishment of the French Monarchy in Gaul. 37 Political Controversy 39 Laws of the Barbarians 40 Pecuniary Fines for Homicide 43 Judgments of God 45 Judicial Combats 47 Division of Lands by the Bar- barians 48 A.D. Pagb Domain and Benefices of the Merovingians 50 Private Usurpations 52 Personal Servitude 53 Example of Auvergne 55 Story of Attalus 57 Privileges of the Romans of Gaul 60 Anarchy of the Franks 62 The Visigoths of Spain 64 Legislative Assemblies of Spain 64 Code of the Visigoths 66 Revolution of Britain 67 449. Descent of the Saxons 68 455-582. Establishment of the Sax- on Heptarchy 70 State of the Britons 72 Their Resistance 73 Their Flight 74 The Fame of Arthur 75 Desolation of Britain 78 Servitude of the Britons 80 Manners of the Britons 82 Obscure or Fabulous State of Britain 84 Fall of the Roman Empire in the West 86 General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West... 88 CHAPTER XXXIX 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. 455-475. Birth and Education of |474-491. The Reign ofZeno 103 Theodoric 1001491-518. The Reign of Anastasius. 104 HUH 3333 CONTENTS OF VOL. IV. A.D. Page 475-488. Service and Revolt of Theodoiic 105 489. He undertakes the Conquest of Italy 107 His March 108 489, 490. The Three Defeats of Odoacer 109 493. His Capitulation and Death... Ill 494-526. Reign of Theodoiic, King ofltaly 112 Partition ofLands 113 Separation of the Goths and Italians 114 Foreign Policy of Theodoric. 115 His Defensive Wars 118 609. His Naval Armament 119 Civil Government of Italy ac- cording to the Roman Laws 120 A.D. P A0 * Prosperity of Rome 123 500. Visit of Theodoiic 1?4 Flourishing State ofltaly 126 Theodoiic an Arian 128 His Toleration of the Catho- lics 129 Vices of his Government 130 He is provoked to persecute the Catholics 132 Character, Studies, and Hon- ors of Boethius 134 His Patriotism 136 He is accused of Treason 137 524. His Imprisonment and Death. 1 38 525. Death of Symmachus 140 526. Remorse and Death of The- odora,.,,,,,,,,, 141 CHAPTER XL ELEVATION OP JUSTIN THE ELDER. — REIGN OP JUSTINIAN i — I. THE EM- PRESS THEODORA. — II. FACTIONS OP THE CIRCUS, AND SEDITION OF CON- STANTINOPLE. — UI. TRADE AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. — IV. FINANCES AND TAXES. — V. EDIFICES OF JUSTINIAN. — CHURCH OF ST. SOPHIA. — FORTIFICATIONS AND FRONTIERS OF THE EASTERN EMPIRE. — VI. ABOLI- TION OF THE SCHOOLS OF ATHENS AND THE CONSULSHIP OF ROME. Agriculture and Manufactures of the Eastern Empire 169 The Use of Silk by the Ro- mans 171 Importation from China by Land and Sea 173 Introduction of Silk-worms into Greece 176 State of the Revenue 179 Avarice and Profusion of Jus- tinian 180 Pernicious Savings 182 Remittances 182 Taxes 183 Monopolies 184 Venality 185 Testaments 185 The Ministers of Justinian.... 186 John of Cappadocia 187 His Edifices and Architects... 189 Foundation of the Church of St. Sophia 192 Description 193 Marbles 195 Riches 196 Churches and Palaces 196 Fortifications of Europe 198 482, or 483. Birth of the Emperor Justinian 144 518-527. Elevation and Reign of his Uncle Justin 1 145 620-527. Adoption and Succession of Justinian 145 527-565. The Reign of Justinian.. 149 Character and Histories of Procopius 149 Division of the Reign of Jus- tinian 151 Birth and Vices of the Em- press Theodora 152 Her Marriage with Justinian. 154 Her Tyranny 156 Her Virtues 158 548. And Death 159 The Factions of the Circus.... 160 At Rome 161 They distract Constantinople and the East 161 Justinian favors the Blues.... 162 682. Sedition of Constantinople, surnamed Nika 164 The Distress of Justinian 166 Firmness of Theodora 167 The Sedition is suppressed..,, 168 CONTENTS OF VOL. IV. AJX Page Security ot Asia after the Con- quest of Isauria 202 Fortifications of the Empire, from the Euxine to the Persian Frontier 204 488. Death of Perozes, King of Persia 207 502-505. The Persian War. 208 Fortifications of Dara 209 A.D. Paoi The Caspian or Iberian Gates. 211 The Schools of Athens 212 They are suppressed by Jus- tinian 216 Proclus 217 485-529. His Successors 217 The Last of the Philosophers. 218 641. The Roman Consulship ex- tinguished by Justinian 219 CHAPTER XIX CONQUESTS OP JUSTINIAN IN THE WEST. — CHARACTER AND FIRST CAM- PAIGNS OF BELISAR1US. — HE INVADES AND SUBDUES THE VANDAL KING- DOM OF AFRICA. — HIS TRIUMPH. — THE GOTHIC WAR. — HE RECOVERS SICILY, NAPLES, AND ROME. — SIEGE OF ROME BV THE GOTHS. — THEIR RETREAT AND LOSSES. — SURRENDER OF RAVENNA. — GLORY OF BELISA- RIUS. — HIS DOMESTIC SHAME AND MISFORTUNES. 533. Justinian resolves to invade Africa 222 623-530. State of the Vandals. Hilderic 223 630-534. Gelimer 224 Debates on the African War. 225 Character and Choice of Beli- sarius 227 529-532. His Services in the Per- sian War 227 633. Preparations for the African War 229 Departure of the Fleet 231 Belisarius lands on the Coast of Africa 234 Defeats the Vandals in a first Battle 236 Reduction of Carthage 239 Final Defeat of Gelimer and the Vandals 241 634. Conquest of Africa by Beli- sarius 245 Distress and Captivity of Ge- limer 247 Return and Triumph of Beli- sarius 250 635. His sole Consulship 252 End of Gelimer and the Van- dals 252 Manners and Defeat of the Moors 254 Neutrality of the Visigoths.... 257 550-620. Conquests of the Romans in Spain 258 634. Belisarius threatens the Ostro- goths of Italy 258 522-534. Government of Amala- sontha, Queen of Italy 260 635. Her Exile and Death 263 Belisarius invades and subdues Sicily. 263 534-536. Reign and Weakness of Theodatus, the Gothic King of Italy 266 537. Belisarius invades Italy, and reduces Naples 268 536-540. Vitiges, King of Italy.... 271 536. Belisarius enters Rome 273 537. Siege of Rome by the Goths. . 273 Valor of Belisarius 275 His Defence of Rome 275 Repulses a General Assault of the Goths 279 His Sallies 280 Distress of the City 281 Exile of Pope Sylverius 283 Deliverance of the City 284 Belisarius recovers many Cities of Italy 287 538. The Goths raise the Siege of Rome 287 Lose Rimini 289 Retire to Ravenna 289 Jealousy of the Roman Gen- erals 289 Death of Constantine 290 The Eunuch Narses 290 Firmness and Authority of Belisarius 291 538, 539. Invasion of Italy by the Franks 291 Destruction of Milan 292 8 CONTENTS OF VOL. IV. A.D. Page Belisarius besieges Ravenna... 294 539. Subdues the Gothic Kingdom of Italy 297 Captivity of Vitiges 297 540. Return and Glory of Belisarius 298 Secret History of his Wife Antonina 300 Paob Her Lover Theodosius 301 Resentment of Belisarius and her Son Photius 303 Persecution of her Son 304 Disgrace and Submission of Belisarius 305 CHAPTER XLII. STATE OF THE BARBARIC WORLD. — ESTABLISHMENT OF THE LOMBARDS OX 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 ETHIOPIANS. 527-565. Weakness of the Empire of Justinian 307 State of the Barbarians 309 The Gepidae 310 The Lombards 310 The Sclavonians 314 Their Inroads 316 645. Origin and Monarchy of the Turks in Asia 319 The Avars fly before the Turks, and approach the Empire 324 558. Their Embassy to Constanti- nople ." 325 569-582. Embassies of the Turks and Romans 326 500-530. State of Persia 330 531-579. Reign of Nushirvan, or Chosroes 332 His Love of Learning 335 533-539. Peace and War with the Komans 338 640. He invades Syria 340 And ruins Antioch 341 541. Defence of the East by Beli- sarius 344 Description of Colchis, Lazi- ca, or Mingrelia 346 Manners of the Natives 349 Revolutions of Colchis 351 Under the Persians, before Christ 500 351 Under the Romans, before Christ 60 351 130. Visit of Arrian 352 522. Conversion of the Lazi 353 542-549. Revolt and Repentance of the Colchians 354 549-551. Siege of Petra 356 549-556. The Colchian or Lazic War 357 540-561. Negotiations and Treaties between Justinian and Chosroes 360 522. Conquests of the Abyssini- ans 362 533. Their Alliance with Justin- ian 364 CHAPTER XLIII. REBELLIONS OF AFRICA. — RESTORATION OF THE GOTHIC KINGDOM BY TO- TILA. — 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. — COMETS, EARTHQUAKES, AND PLAGUE. 535-545. The Troubles of Africa. . 367 543-558. Rebellion of the Moors... 371 640. Revolt of the Goths 373 641-544. Victories of Totila, King of Italy 374 Contrast of Greek Vice and Gothic Virtue 376 644-548. Second Command of Bel- isarius in Italy 378 546. Borne besieged by the Goths. 878 CONTENTS OF VOL. IV. 9 A.D. Paoi- Attempt of Belisarius 381 Rome taken by the Goths. .... 382 547. Recovered by Belisarius ,3_85 548. Final Recall of* Belisarius 387 549. Rome again taken by the Goths 389 549-551. Preparations of Justinian for the Gothic War 391 662. Character and Expedition of the Eunuch Narses 393 Defeat and Death of Totila... 396 Conquest of Rome by Nar- ses 398 553. Defeat and Death of Teias, the last King of the Goths. 400 A.D. F±si Invasion of Italy by the Franks and Alemanni 402 554. Defeat of the Franks and Ale- manni by Narses 404 554-568. Settlement of Italy 407 559. Invasion of the Bulgarians. ... 409 Last Victory of Belisarius 410 561. His Disgrace and Death 412 565. Death and Character of Jus- tinian 415 531-539. Comets 418 Earthquakes 420 542. Plague — its Origin and Nat- ure 423 542-594. Extent and Duration.... 425 CHAPTER XLIV. IDEA OF THE ROMAN JURISPRUDENCE. — THE LAWS OP THE KINGS. — TTTTfl TWELVE TABLES 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 PUN- ISHMENTS. The Civil or Roman Law.... 427 Laws of the Kings of Rome. . 429 The Twelve Tables of the Decemvirs 432 Their Character and Influence 434 Laws of the People 436 Decrees of the Senate 437 Edicts of the Praetors 438 The Perpetual Edict 440 Constitutions of \ he Emperors 441 Their Legislative Power 443 Their Rescripts 444 Forms of the Roman Law — 445 Succession of the Civil Law- yers 448 303-648. The First Period 448 648-988. Second Period 449 988-1230. Third Period 449 Their Philosophy 450 Authority 452 Sects 453 627. Reformation of the Roman Law bv Justinian 456 527-546. Tribonian 457 528,529. The Code of Justinian... 459 630-533. The Pandects or Digest. 460 Praise and Censure of the Code and Pandects 461 Loss of the Ancient Jurispru- dence 463 Legal Inconstancy of Justinian 465 534. Second Edition of the Code. . 466 534-565. The Novels 466 533. The Institutes 467 I. Of Persons. Freemen and Slaves 468 Fathers and Children 470 Limitations of the Paternal Authority 472 Husbands and Wives 474 The religious Rites of Mar- riage 475 Freedom of the Matrimonial Contract 476 Liberty and Abuse of Divorce 477 Limitations of the Liberty of Divorce 479 Incest, Concubines, and Bas- tards 481 Guardians and Wards 483 II. Of Things. Right of Property 485 Of Inheritance and Succession 490 Civil Degrees of Kindred 491 Introduction and Liberty of Testaments 493 Legacies 494 Codicils and Trusts 495 III. Of Actions 496 Promises 497 10 CONTENTS OF VOL. IV. A.D. Page Benefits 498 Interest of Money 500 Injuries 501 IV. Of Crimes and Punish- ments 502 Severity of the Twelve Tables 502 Abolition of Penal Laws 505 Revival of Capital Punish- ments 507 Pagb Measure of Guilt 509 Unnatural Vice 509 Rigor of the Christian Em- perors 511 Judgments of the People 512 Select Judges 514 Assessors 515 Voluntary Exile and Death. . 515 Abuses of Civil Jurisprudence 516 CHAPTER XLV. MCIGN OF THK YOUNGER JUSTIN. — EMBASSY OF THE AVARS. — THEIR SET- TLEMENT 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 Off ROME. — CHARACTER AND PONTIFICATE OF GREGORY THE FIRST. 565. Death of Justinian 519 565-574. Reign of Justin II., or the Younger 520 566. His Consulship 521 Embassy of the Avars 521 Alboin, King of the Lombards — his Valor, Love, and Re- venge 523 The Lombards and Avars destroy the King and King- dom of the Gepidaj 525 567. Alboin undertakes the Con- quest of Italy 526 Disaffection and Death of Narses 528 568-570. Conquest of a great Part of Italy by the Lombards. . 529 673. Alboin is murdered by his Wife Rosamond 531 Her Flight and Death 533 Clepho, King of the Lom- bards 534 Weakness of Emperor Justin. 534 574. Association of Tiberius 536 578. Death of Justin II 537 578-582. Reign of Tiberius II 537 His Virtues 638 582-602. The Reign of Maurice... 540 Distress of Italy 541 584-590. Autharis, King of the Lombards 542 The Exarchate of Ravenna... 543 Kingdom of the Lombards.... 545 Language and Manners of the Lombards 545 Dress and Marriage 5+9 Government 551 643. Laws 551 Misery of Rome 553 The Tombs and Relics of the Apostles 555 Birth and Profession of Greg- ory the Roman 556 590-604. Pontificate of Gregory the Great 558 His Spiritual Office 558 And Temporal Government. . 560 His Estates 560 And Alms 561 The Saviour of Rome 562 CHAPTER XLVI. REVOLUTIONS OF PERSIA AFTER THE DEATH OF CHOSROES OR NUSHIRVAN. — HIS SON HORMOUZ, A TYRANT, IS DEPOSED. — USURPATION OF BAHRAM. 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 HERA- CLIUS. — 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. Contest of Rome and Per- I 570. Conquest of Yemen by Nush- sia ,. 563| irvan 564 CONTENTS OF VOL. IV. 11 A.D. Page 672. His last War with the Ro- mans 566 579. His Death 567 579-590. Tyranny and Vices of his Son Hormouz 568 690. Exploits of Bahram 570 His Rebellion 572 Hormouz is deposed and im- prisoned 578 Elevation of his Son Chosroes 574 Death of Hormouz 575 Chosroes flies to the Romans. 575 His Return 577 And Final Victory 577 Death of Bahram 577 691-603. Restoration and Policy of Chosroes 578 670-600. Pride, Policy, and Pow- er of the Chagan of the Avars 580 695-602. Wars of Maurice against the Avars 585 State of the Roman Armies. . 587 Their Discontent 588 And Rebellion 589 602. Election of Phocas 589 Revolt of Constantinople 590 Death of Maurice and his Children 592 602-610. Phocas Emperor 693 A.D. Pao« His Character 593 And Tyranny 594 610. His Fall and Death 595 610-642. Reign of Heraclius 697 603. Chosroes invades the Roman Empire 598 611. His Conquest of iSyria 600 614. Of Palestine 600 616. Of Egypt 601 Of Asia Minor 602 His Reign and Magnificence. 602 610-622. Distress of Heraclius 605 He solicits Peace 607 621. His Preparations for War.... 608 622. First Expedition of Heraclius against the Persians 610 623. 624, 625. His Second Expedi- tion. 612 626. Deliverance of Constantinople from the Persians and Avars 617 Alliances and Conquests of Heraclius 619 627. His Third Expedition 621 And Victories 622 Flight of Chosroes 624 628. He is deposed 626 And murdered by his Son Shoes 626 Treaty of Peace between the two Empires 627 CHAPTER XLVII. THEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION. — THE HU- MAN 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 GEN- ERAL COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON. — CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL DISCORD. — INTOLERANCE OF JUSTINIAN. — THE THREE CHAPTERS. — THE MONOTHELITE CONTROVERSY. — STATE OF THE ORIENTAL SECTS :— I. THE NESTORIANS. H. THE JACOBITES. — III. THE MARONITES. — IV. THE ARMENIANS. — V. THE COPTS AND ABYSSINIANS. The Incarnation of Christ.... 630 I. A Pure Man to the Ebion- ites 631 His Birth and Elevation 633 II. A Pure God to the Do- cetas 635 His Incorruptible Body 636 III. Double Nature of Cerin- thus 638 IV. Divine Incarnation of Apollinaris 639 V. Orthodox Consent and Verbal Disputes 642 412-444. Cyril, Patriarch of Alex- andria 643 413,414,415. His Tyranny 644 428. Nestorius, Patriarch of Con- stantinople 647 429-431. His Heresy 649 431. First Council of Ephesus 652 Condemnation of Nestorius... 653 Opposition of the Orientals.... 654 431-435. Victory of Cyril 656 435. Exile of Nestorius 658 448. Heresy of Eutyches 660 449. Second Council of Ephesus... 661 12 CONTENTS OF VOL. IV. A.D. Page 451. Council of Chalcedon 662 Faith of Chalcedon 665 451-482. Discord of the East 667 482. The Henoticon of Zeno 669 508-518. The Trisagion, and Relig- ious War till the Death of Anastasius 671 514. First Religious War 673 519-565. Theological Character and Government of Justin- ian 673 His Persecution of Heretics... 675 Of Pagans 676 Of Jews 676 Of Samaritans 677 His Orthodoxy 678 532-698. The Three Chapters 678 553. Fifth General Council : Sec- ond of Constantinople 680 564. Heresy of Justinian 681 629. The Monothelite Controversy. 682 639. TheEcthesis of Heraclius.... 683 648. TheTypeofConstans 683 680, 681. Sixth General Council : Third of Constantinople.... 684 Union of the Greek and Lat- in Churches 686 Perpetual Separation of the Oriental Sects 687 A.D. Pag* I. The Nestorians 688 500. Sole Masters of Persia 690 500-1200. Their Missions in Tar- tary, India, China, etc 691 883. The Christians of St. Thomas in India 695 II. The Jacobites 697 III. The Makonites 701 IV. The Armenians 703 V. The Copts or Egyp- tians 705 537-568. The Patriarch Theodo- sius 705 538. Paul 706 551. Apollinaris 706 580. Eulogius 707 009. John 707 Their Separation and Decay. 708 625-661. Benjamin, the Jacobite Patriarch 709 VI. The Abyssinians and Nubians 710 530. Church of Abyssinia 711 1525-1550. The Portuguese in Ab- yssinia 712 1557. Mission of the Jesuits 713 1626. Conversion of the Emperor. 714 1632. Final Expulsion of the Jes- uits , 715 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME IV. Theodora, Empress of the East . . . Frontispiece " He seated her on the throne as an equal and Independent colleague in the sovereignty of the empire." Painting by Benjamin Constant PAGE Clovis, king of the Franks, baptized by Remegius, Bishop of Rheims, on Christmas day, 496 A.D. . . .22 Drawing by A. Zick Interior of the Mosque of St. Sophia . . . .192 " Erected by the piety of the Emperor Justinian and dedicated to the ' Eternal Wisdom.' " " Glory be to God, who has thought me worthy to accomplish so great a work ; I have vanquished thee, O Solomon ! " Justinian's exclamation at the dedication of the cathedral. From a Photograph An Athenian Philosopher teaching in the groves of the Academy 216 Painting by Theodore Grosse The Invasion of the Barbarians 318 " Whatever praise the boldness of the Sclavonians may deserve, it is sullied by the wanton and deliberate cruelty which they are accused of exercising on their prisoners." Painting by O. D. V. Guillonnet The Last of the Goths, after their defeat by Narses at Mount Vesuvius, departing north, carrying the dead body of their beloved King Teias with them . . 400 Painting by Fr. Roeber The Emperor Justinian orders Tribonian and his associates to compile the Pandects 46o Painting by Benjamin Constant Alboin, the Lombard king, compels Rosamond to drink to his health from the skull of her murdered father Cunimund 532 Drawing by A. Zick THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAPTER XXXVIII. Reign and Conversion of Clovis. — His Victories over the Alemanni, Burgundians, and Visigoths. — Establishment of the French Monarchy in Gaul. — Laws of the Barbarians. — State of the Romans. — The Visigoths of Spain. — Conquest of Britain by the Saxons. The Gauls, 1 who impatiently supported the Roman yoke, received a memorable lesson from one of the lieutenants of The revoiu- "Vespasian, whose weighty sense has been refined Hon of Gaui. and expressed by the genius of Tacitus: 2 "The protection of the republic has delivered Gaul from internal discord and foreign invasions. By the loss of national inde- pendence you have acquired the name and privileges of Ro- man citizens. You enjoy, in common with ourselves, the 1 In this chapter T shall draw my quotations from the Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France, Paris, 1738-1767, in eleven volumes in folio. By the labor of Dom Bouquet and the other Benedictines, all the original testimonies, as far as a.d. 1060, are disposed in chronological order, and illustrated with learned notes. Such a national work, which will be continued to the year 1500. might provoke our emulation. 2 Tacit. Hist. iv. 73, 74, in torn. i. p. 445. To abridge Tacitus would indeed be presumptuous ; but I may select the general ideas which he applies to the present state and future revolutions of Gaul, 14 REVOLUTION OF GAUL. [Ch. XXXVIII permanent benefits of civil government ; and your remote situation is less exposed to the accidental mischiefs of tyr- anny. Instead of exercising the rights of conquest, we have been contented to impose such tributes as are requisite for your own preservation. Peace cannot be secured without armies, and armies must be supported at the expense of the people. It is for your sake, not for our own, that we guard the barrier of the Rhine against the ferocious Germans, who have so often attempted, and who will always desire, to ex- change the solitude of their woods and morasses for the wealth and fertility of Gaul. The fall of Some would be fatal to the provinces, and you would be buried in the ruins of that mighty fabric which has been raised by the valor and wisdom of eight hundred years. Your imaginary freedom would be insulted and oppressed by a savage master, and the expulsion of the Romans would be succeeded by the eternal hostilities of the barbarian conquerors." 3 This salutary ad- vice was accepted, and this strange prediction was accomplish- ed. In the space of four hundred years the hardy Gauls, who iiad encountered the arms of Csssar, were imperceptibly melt- ed into the general mass of citizens and subjects : the "West- ern empire was dissolved ; and the Germans who had passed the Rhine fiercely contended for the possession of Gaul, and excited the contempt or abhorrence of its peaceful and pol- ished inhabitants. With that conscious pride which the pre- eminence of knowledge and luxury seldom fails to inspire, they derided the hairy and gigantic savages of the North ; their rustic manners, dissonant joy, voracious appetite, and their horrid appearance, equally disgusting to the sight and to the smell. The liberal studies were still cultivated in the schools of Autun and Bordeaux, and the language of Cicero and Yirgil was familiar to the Gallic youth. Their ears were astonished by the harsh and unknown sounds of the German- ic dialect, and they ingeniously lamented that the trembling 8 Eadem semper causa Germanis transcendendi in Gallias, libido atque avaritia, et mutandse sedis amor ; ut relictis paludibus et solitudinibus suis, fecundissimum hoc solum vosque ipsos possiderent. * * * Nam pulsis Eomania quid aliud quam bella omnium inter se gentium exsistent ? A.D. 476-485.] EURIC, KING OF THE VISIGOTHS. 15 muses fled from the harmony of a Burgundian lyre. The Gauls were endowed with all the advantages of art and nat- ure, but, as they wanted courage to defend them, they were justly condemned to obey, and even to flatter, the victorious barbarians by whose clemency they held their precarious fortunes and their lives. 4 As soon as Odoacer had extinguished the Western empire, lie sought the friendship of the most powerful of the bar- Euric, king barians. The new sovereign of Italy resigned to igoths. Vls " Euric, king of the Visigoths, all the Roman con- A.D.476-4S5. quegts beyond the Alps, as far as the Ehine and the Ocean ; 5 and the senate might confirm this liberal gift with some ostentation of power, and without any real loss of revenue or dominion. The lawful pretensions of Euric were justified by ambition and success, and the Gothic nation might aspire, under his command, to the monarchy of Spain and Gaul. Aries and Marseilles surrendered to his arms : he oppressed the freedom of Auvergne, and the bishop conde- scended to purchase his recall from exile by a tribute of just but reluctant praise. Sidonius waited before the gates of the palace among a crowd of ambassadors and suppliants, and their various business at the court of Bordeaux attested the power and renown of the king of the Visigoths. The Heruli of the distant ocean, who painted their naked bodies with its cerulean color, implored his protection ; and the Saxons re- spected the maritime provinces of a prince who was destitute of any naval force. The tall Burgundians submitted to his authority ; nor did he restore the captive Franks till he had imposed on that fierce nation the terms of an unequal peace. The Vandals of Africa cultivated his useful friendship, and the Ostrogoths of Pannonia were supported by his powerful aid against the oppression of the neighboring Huns. The 4 Sidonius Apollinaris ridicules, with affected wit and pleasantry, the hardships of his situation (Carra. xii. in tom. i. p. 811). 8 See Procopius de Bell. Gothico, 1. i. c. 12, in tom. ii. p. 31 [tom. ii. p. 64, edit. Bonn]. The character of Grotius inclines me to believe that he has not substitu- ted the Rhine for the Rhone (Hist. Gothorum, p. 175) without the authority of 6ome MS. 16 CLOVIS, KING OF THE FRANKS. £Ch. XXXVIII North (sach are the lofty strains of the poet) was agitated or appeased by the nod of Euric, the great King of Persia con- sulted the oracle of the "West, and the aged god of the Tiber was protected by the swelling genius of the Garonne. 8 The fortune of nations has often depended on accidents; and France may ascribe her greatness to the premature death of the Gothic king at a time when his son Alaric was a helpless infant, and his adversary Clovis 7 an ambitious and valiant youth. While Childeric, the father of Clovis, lived an exile in Ger- many, he was hospitably entertained by the queen as well as by the king of the Thuringians. After his restora- Clovle, king Jo o of the Franks, tion Bafina escaped from her husband's bed to the arms of her lover, freely declaring that, if she had known a man wiser, stronger, or more beautiful than Chil- deric, that man should have been the object of her prefer- ence. 8 Clovis was the offspring of this voluntary union, and when he was no more than fifteen years of age he succeed- ed, by his father's death, to the command of the Salian tribe. The narrow limits of his kingdom 9 were confined to the isl- and of the Batavians, with the ancient dioceses of Tournay and Arras ; 10 and at the baptism of Clovis the number of his warriors could not exceed five thousand. The kindred tribes • Sidonius, 1. viii. Epist. 3, 9, in torn. i. p. 800. Jornandes de Rebus Geticis (c. 47, p. 680) justifies in some measure this portrait of the Gothic hero. 1 I use the familiar appellation of Clovis, from the Latin Chlodovechus or Chlo- dovceus. But the Ch expresses only the German aspiration ; and the true name is not different from Luduin or Lewis (Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, torn. xx. p. 68). 8 Greg. Turon. 1. ii. c. 12, in torn. ii. p. 168. Bafina speaks the language of nat- ure : the Franks, who had seen her in their youth, might converse with Gregory in their old age ; and the Bishop of Tours could not wish to defame the mother of the first Christian king. 9 The Abbe" Dubos (Hist. Critique de l'Etablissement de la Monarchie Fran- coise dans les Gaules, torn. i. p. 630-650) has the merit of defining the primitive kingdom of Clovis, and of ascertaining the genuine number of his subjects. 10 Ecclesiam incultam ac negligent^ civium Paganorum praetermissam, vepri- um densitate oppletam, etc. Vit. St. Vedasti, in torn. iii. p. 372. This descrip- tion supposes that Alias was possessed by the pagans many years before the bap- tism of Clovis, A.D. 481-511.] CLOVIS, KING OF THE FRANKS. 17 of the Franks who had seated themselves along the Belgic rivers, the Scheldt, the Meuse, the Moselle, and the Rhine, were governed by their independent kings of the Merovingi- an race — the equals, the allies, and sometimes the enemies, of the Salic prince. But the Germans, who obeyed in peace the hereditary jurisdiction of their chiefs, were free to follow the standard of a popular and victorious general ; and the supe- rior merit of Clovis attracted the respect and allegiance of the national confederacy. When he first took the field, he had neither gold and silver in his coffers, nor wine and corn in his magazines; 11 but he imitated the example of Caesar, who in the same country had acquired wealth by the sword, and purchased soldiers with the fruits of conquest. After each successful battle or expedition the spoils were accumu- lated in one common mass; every warrior received his pro- portionable share, and the royal prerogative submitted to the equal regulations of military law. The untamed spirit of the barbarians was taught to acknowledge the advantages of regular discipline. 13 At the annual review of the month of March their arms were diligently inspected, and when they traversed a peaceful territory they were prohibited from touching a blade of grass. The justice of Clovis was inexo- rable, and his careless or disobedient soldiers were punished with instant death. It would be superfluous to praise the valor of a Frank, but the valor of Clovis was directed by cool and consummate prudence. 18 In all his transactions with mankind he calculated the weight of interest, of passion, and of opinion ; and his measures were sometimes adapted to the sanguinary manners of the Germans, and sometimes moder- 11 Gregory of Tours (1. v. ch. i. torn. ii. p. 232) contrasts the poverty of Clovis with the wealth of his grandsons. Yet Beroigius (in torn. iv. p. 52) mentions his paternas opes as sufficient for the redemption of captives. 12 See Gregory (1. ii. ch. 27, 37, in torn. ii. p. 175, 181, 182). The famous sto- ry of the vase of Soissons explains both the power and the character of Clovis. As a point of controversy, it has been strangely tortured by Boulainvilliers, Du- bos, and the other political antiquarians. 13 The Duke of Nivernois, a noble statesman, who has managed weighty and delicate negotiations, ingeniously illustrates (Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, torn. xx. p. 147-184) the political system of Clovis. IY.— 2 18 VICTORY OF CLOVIS OVER SYAGRIUS. [Ch. XXXVIIL ated by the milder genius of Rome and Christianity. He was intercepted in the career of victory, since he died in the forty-fifth year of his age : but he had already accomplished, in a reign of thirty years, the establishment of the French monarchy in Gaul. The first exploit of Clovis was the defeat of Syagrius, the son of ^Egidius, and the public quarrel might on this occa- His victory s i° n De inflamed by private resentment. The glo- grius Sya " r J oi the father still insulted the Merovingian a.d.486. race; the power of the son might excite the jeal- ous ambition of the king of the Franks. Syagrius inherited, as a patrimonial estate, the city and diocese of Soissons : the desolate remnant of the second Belgic, Rheims and Troyes, Beauvais and Amiens, would naturally submit to the count or patrician ; u and after the dissolution of the Western empire he might reign with the title, or at least with the authority, of king of the Romans. 15 As a Roman, he had been educated in the liberal studies of rhetoric and jurisprudence ; but he was engaged by accident and policy in the familiar use of the Germanic idiom. The independent barbarians resorted to the tribunal of a stranger who possessed the singular talent of explaining, in their native tongue, the dictates of reason and equity. The diligence and affability of their judge ren- dered him popular, the impartial wisdom of his decrees ob- tained their voluntary obedience, and the reign of Syagrius over the Franks and Burgundians seemed to revive the orig- inal institution of civil society. 16 In the midst of these peace- ful occupations Syagrius received, and boldly accepted, the 14 M. Biet (in a Dissertation which deserved the prize of the Academy of Sois- sons, p. 178-226) has accurately defined the nature and extent of the kingdom of Syagrius, and his father ; but he too readily allows the slight evidence of Dubos (torn. ii. p. 54-57) to deprive him of Beauvais and Amiens. 15 I may observe that Fredegarius, in his epitome of Gregory of Tours (torn. ii. p. 398 [ch. 15]), has prudently substituted the name of Patricius for the incredi- ble title of Rex Romanorum. 16 Sidonius (1. v. Epist. 5, in torn. i. p. 794), who styles him the Solon, the Am- phion, of the barbarians, addresses this imaginary king in the tone of friendship and equality. From such offices of arbitration, the crafty Deioces had raised him- self to th« throne of fhe Medes CHerodot. 1. i. c. 96-100). A.D.491.] VICTORY OF CLOVIS OVER SYAGRIUS. 19 hostile defiance of Clevis, who challenged his rival in the spirit, and almost in the language, of chivalry, to appoint the day and the field 17 of battle. In the time of Csesar, Soissons would have poured forth a body of fifty thousand horse; and such an army might have been plentifully supplied with shields, cuirasses, and military engines from the three arse- nals or manufactures of the city. 18 But the courage and num- bers of the Gallic youth were long since exhausted, and the loose bands of volunteers or mercenaries who marched under the standard of Syagrius were incapable of contending with the national valor of the Franks. It would be ungenerous, without some more accurate knowledge of his strength and resources, to condemn the rapid flight of Syagrius, who es- caped after the loss of a battle to the distant court of Tou- louse. The feeble minority of Alaric could not assist or pro- tect an unfortunate fugitive ; the pusillanimous 19 Goths were intimidated by the menaces of Clovis ; and the Koman hmg, after a short confinement, was delivered into the hands of the executioner. The Belgic cities surrendered to the king of the Franks, and his dominions were en- larged towards the east by the ample diocese of Tongres, 20 which Clovis subdued in the tenth year of his reign. The name of the Alemanni has been absurdly derived from their imaginary settlement on the banks of the Leman lake. 31 17 Campura sibi prseparari jussit. M. Biet (p. 226-251) has diligently ascer- tained this field of battle at Nogent, a Benedictine abbey, about ten miles to the north of Soissons. The ground was marked by a circle of pagan sepulchres ; and Clovis bestowed the adjacent lands of Leuilly and Coucy on the Church of Rheims. 18 See Csesar. Comment, de Bell. Gallic, ii. 4, in torn. i. p. 220, and the Notitise, torn. i. p. 126. The three Fabricce of Soissons were, Scutaria, Balistaria, and Clinabaria. The last supplied the complete armor of the heavy cuirassiers. 19 The epithet must be confined to the circumstances ; and history cannot justi- fy the French prejudice of Gregory (1. ii. ch. 27, in torn. ii. p. 175), " Ut Gothorum pavere mos est." 20 Dubos has satisfied me (torn. i. p. 277-286) that Gregory of Tours, his tran- scribers or his readers, have repeatedly confounded the German kingdom of Thu- ringia, biyond the Rhine, and the Gallic city of Tongria, on the Meuse, which was more anciently the country of the Eburones, and more recently the diocese of Liege. 21 Populi habitantes juxta Lemannum lacum, Alemanni dicuntur. — Servius, ad Virgil. Georgic. iv. 278. Dom Bouquet (torn. i. p. 817) has only alleged the mora recent and corrupt text of Isidore of Seville. 20 SUBMISSION OF THE ALEMANNI. [Ch. XXXVIH. That fortunate district, from the lake to Avcnche and Mount Jura, was occupied by the Burgundians. 98 The Defeat and ' r . ^ ^ . 6 enbmission northern parts ot Helvetia had indeed been sub- manni. dued by the ferocious Alemanni, who destroyed A D 496w with their own hands the fruits of their conquest. A province, improved and adorned by the arts of Rome, was again reduced to a savage wilderness, and some vestige of the stately Yindonissa may still be discovered in the fertile and populous valley of the Aar. 93 From the source of the Rhine to its conflux with the Main and the Moselle, the formidable swarms of the Alemanni commanded either side of the river by the right of ancient possession or recent victory. They had spread themselves into Gaul over the modern provinces of Alsace and Lorraine; and their bold invasion of the king- dom of Cologne summoned the Salic prince to the defence of his Ripuarian allies. Clovis encountered the invaders of Gaul in the plain of Tolbiac, about twenty-four miles from Cologne, and the two fiercest nations of Germany were mu- tually animated by the memory of past exploits and the pros- pect of future greatness. The Franks, after an obstinate struggle, gave way, and the Alemanni, raising a shout of vic- tory, impetuously pressed their retreat. But the battle was restored by the valor, the conduct, and perhaps by the piety of Clovis; and the event of the bloody day decided forever the alternative of empire or servitude. The last king of the Alemanni was slain in the field, and his people were slaugh- tered and pursued till they threw down their arms and yielded 82 Gregory of Tours sends St. Lupicinus "inter ilia Jurensis deserti secreta, quce, inter Burgundiara Alamanniamque sita, Aventicae adjacent civitati," in torn. i. p. 648. M. de Watteville (Hist, de la Confe'de'ration Helve'tique, torn. i. p. 9, 10) has accurately defined the Helvetian limits of the duchy of Alemanni and the Transjurane Burgundy. They were commensurate with the dioceses of Constance and Avenche, or Lausanne, and are still discriminated in modern Switzerland by the use of the German or French language. 23 See Guilliman de Kebus Helveticis, 1. i. c. 3, p. 11, 12. Within the ancient walls of Vindonissa, the castle of Hapsburg, the abbey of Konigsfeld, and the town of Bruck have successively arisen. The philosophic traveller may compare the monuments of Roman conquest, of feudal or Austrian tyranny, of monkish super- stition, and of industrious freedom. If he be truly a philosopher, he will applaud the merit and happiness of his own times. A.D. 496.] CONVERSION OF CLOVIS. 21 to the mercy of the conqueror. "Without discipline it was impossible for them to rally: they had contemptuously de- molished the walls and fortifications which might have pro- tected their distress ; and they were followed into the heart of their forests by an enemy not less active or intrepid than themselves. The great Theodoric congratulated the victory of Clovis, whose sister Albofleda the King of Italy had lately married ; but he mildly interceded with his brother in favor of the suppliants and fugitives who had implored his pro- tection. The Gallic territories which were possessed by the Alemanni became the prize of their conqueror; and the haughty nation, invincible or rebellious to the arms of Rome, acknowledged the sovereignty of the Merovingian kings, who graciously permitted them to enjoy their peculiar manners and institutions under the government of official, and at length of hereditary dukes. After the conquest of the West- ern provinces, the Franks alone maintained their ancient habi- tations beyond the Rhine. They gradually subdued and civ- ilized the exhausted countries as far as the Elbe and the mountains of Bohemia, and the peace of Europe was secured by the obedience of Germany. 9 * Till the thirtieth year of his age Clovis continued to wor- ship the gods of his ancestors. 35 His disbelief, or rather dis- regard, of Christianity, might encourage him to pil- of ciovis. lage with less remorse the churches of a hostile ter- ritory : but his subjects of Gaul enjoyed the free exercise of religious worship, and the bishops entertained 84 Gregory of Tours (1. »• 30, 37, in torn. ii. p. 176, 177, 182), the Gesta Fran- corum (in torn. ii. p. 551), and the epistle of Theodoric (Cassiodor.Variar.l. ii. Ep. 41, in torn. iv. p. 4) represent the defeat of the Alemanni. Some of their tribes settled in Rhsetia, under the protection of Theodoric, whose successors ceded the colony and their country to the grandson of Clovis. The state of the Alemanni under the Merovingian kings may be seen in Mascou (Hist, of the An- cient Germans, xi. 8, etc. ; Annotation xxxvi.) and Guilliman (de Reb. Helvet. L ii. ch. 10-12, p. 72-80). 25 Clotilda, or rather Gregory, supposes that Clovis worshipped the gods of Greece and Some. The fact is incredible, and the mistake only shows how com- pletely, in less than a century, the national religior of the Franks had been abol- ished, and even forgotten. 22 CONVERSION OF CLOVIS. £Ch. XXXVIII a more favorable hope of the idolater than of the heretics. The Merovingian prince had contracted a fortunate alliance with the fair Clotilda, the niece of the King of Burgundy, who, in the midst of an Arian court, was educated in the pro- fession of the Catholic faith. It was her interest as well as her duty to achieve the conversion 28 of a pagan husband; and Clovis insensibly listened to the voice of love and relig- ion. He consented (perhaps such terms had been previously stipulated) to the baptism of his eldest son ; and though the sudden death of the infant excited some superstitious fears, he was persuaded a second time to repeat the dangerous ex- periment. In the distress of the battle of Tolbiac, Clovis loudly invoked the God of Clotilda and the Christians ; and victory disposed him to hear with respectful gratitude the eloquent 27 Remigius, 28 Bishop of Eheims, who forcibly dis- played the temporal and spiritual advantages of his conver- sion. The king declared himself satisfied of the truth of the Catholic faith ; and the political reasons which might have suspended hi3 public profession were removed by the devout or loyal acclamations of the Franks, who showed themselves alike prepared to follow their heroic leader to the field of battle or to the baptismal font. The important ceremony was performed in the cathedral of Rheims, with every circum- stance of magnificence and solemnity that could impress an 26 Gregory of Tours relates the marriage and conversion of Clovis (1. ii. ch. 28-31, in torn. ii. p. 175-178). Even Fredegarius, or the nameless Epitomizer (in torn. ii. p. 398-400), the author of the Gesta Francorum (in torn. ii. p. 548- 552), and Aimoin himself (1. i. ch. 13-16, in torn. iii. p. 37-40), may be heard without disdain. Tradition might long preserve some curious circumstances of these important transactions. 27 A traveller, who returned from Eheims to Auvergne, had stolen a copy of his Declamations from the secretary or bookseller of the modest archbishop (Sidonius Apollinar. 1. ix. Epist. 7). Four epistles of Remigius, which are still extant (in torn. iv. p. 51, 52, 53), do not correspond with the splendid praise of Sidonius. 28 Hincmar, one of the successors of Remigius (a.d. 845-882), has composed his Life (in torn. iii. p. 373-380). The authority of ancient MSS. of the Church of Rheims might inspire some confidence, which is destroyed, however, by the self- ish and audacious fictions of Hincmar. It is remarkable enough that Remigius, who was consecrated at the age of twenty-two (a.d. 457), filled the episcopal chaii seventy-four years (Pagi Critica, in Baron, torn. ii. p. 384, 672). a.d. 496.] CONVERSION OF CLOVIS. 23 awful sense of religion on the minds of its rude proselytes." The new Constantine was immediately baptized with three thousand of his warlike subjects, and their example was imi- tated by the remainder of the gentle barbarians, who, in obe- dience to the victorious prelate, adored the cross which they had burned, and burned the idols which they had formerly adored. 30 The mind of Clovis was susceptible of transient fervor : he was exasperated by the pathetic tale of the passion and death of Christ ; and instead of weighing the salutary- consequences of that mysterious sacrifice, he exclaimed, with indiscreet fury, " Had I been present at the head of my val- iant Franks, I would have revenged his injuries." 31 But the savage conqueror of Gaul was incapable of examining the proofs of a religion which depends on the laborious investi- gation of historic evidence and speculative theology. He was still more incapable of feeling the mild influence of the Gospel, which persuades and purifies the heart of a genuine -convert. His ambitious reign was a perpetual violation of moral and Christian duties : his hands were stained with blood in peace as well as in war ; and, as soon as Clovis had dismissed a synod of the Gallican church, he calmly assassi- nated all the princes of the Merovingian race. 33 Yet the king of the Franks might sincerely worship the Christian God as a Being more excellent and powerful than his national dei- 29 A phial (the Sainte Ampoulle) of holy or rather celestial oil was brought down by a white dove for the baptism of Clovis; and it is still used and renewed in the coronation of the kings of France. Hincmar (he aspired to the primacy of Gaul) is the first author of this fable (in torn. iii. p. 377), whose slight foundations the Abbe de Vertot (Memoires de l'Acade'mie des Inscriptions, torn. ii. p. 619-633) has undermined with profound respect and consummate dexterity. 30 Mitis depone colla, Sicamber : adora quod incendisti, incende quod adorasti. — Greg. Turon. 1. ii. c. 31, in torn. ii. p. 177. 31 Si ego ibidem cum Francis meis fuissem, injurias ejus vindicassem. This rash expression, which Gregory has prudently concealed, is celebrated by Frede- garius (Epitom. c. 21, in torn. ii. p. 400), Aimoin (1. i. c. 16, in torn. iii. p. 40), and the Chroniques de St. Denys (1. i. ch. 20, in torn. iii. p. 171), as an admirable effu- sion of Christian zeal. 32 Gregory (1. ii. c. 40-43, in torn. ii. p. 183-185), after coolly relating the re- peated crimes and affected remorse of Clovis, concludes, perhaps undesignedly, with a lesson which ambition will never hear — "His ita truusactis obiit." i4 SUBMISSION OF THE AKMORICANS [Ch. XXXVIIL ties ; and the signal deliverance and victory of Tolbiac en- couraged Clovis to confide in the future protection of the Lord of Hosts. Martin, the most popular of the saints, had filled the Western world with the fame of those miracles which were incessantly performed at his holy sepulchre of Tours. His visible or invisible aid promoted the cause of a liberal and orthodox prince ; and the profane remark of Clo- vis himself, that St. Martin was an expensive friend, 33 need not be interpreted as the symptom of any permanent or ra- tional scepticism. But earth as well as heaven rejoiced in the conversion of the Franks. On the memorable day when Clovis ascended from the baptismal font, he alone in the Christian world deserved the name and prerogatives of a Catholic king. The Emperor Anastasius entertained some dangerous errors concerning the nature of the divine incar- nation ; and the barbarians of Italy, Africa, Spain, and Gaul were involved in the Arian heresy. The eldest, or rather the only son of the Church, was acknowledged by the clergy as their lawful sovereign or glorious deliverer; and the arms of Clovis were strenuously supported by the zeal and favor of the Catholic faction. 84 Under the Roman empire the wealth and jurisdiction of the bishops, their sacred character and perpetual office, their Submission numerous dependents, popular eloquence, and pro- moricats" vincial assemblies, had rendered them always re- man t troop°s! spectable, and sometimes dangerous. Their influ- A.D.497,etc. ence was augmented with the progress of supersti- tion ; and the establishment of the French monarchy may, in some degree, be ascribed to the firm alliance of a hundred prel- ates, who reigned in the discontented or independent cities of 33 After the Gothic victory, Clovis made rich offerings to St. Martin of Tours. He wished to redeem his war-horse by the gift of one hundred pieces of gold, but the enchanted steed could not move from the stable till the price of his redemp- tion had been doubled. This miracle provoked the king to exclaim, "Vere B. Martinus est bonus in auxilio, sed cams in negotio." Gesta Francorum, in torn. ii. p. 554, 555. 34 See the epistle from Pope Anastasius to the royal convert (in torn. iv. p. 50, 51). Avitus, Bishop of Vienna, addressed Clovis on the same subject (p. 49) ; and many of the Latin bishops would assure him of their joy and attachment. A.D. 499.} AND THE ROMAN TROOPS. 25 Gaul. The slight foundations of the Armorican republic had been repeatedly shaken or overthrown ; but the same people still guarded their domestic freedom, asserted the dignity of the Koman name, and bravely resisted the predatory inroads and regular attacks of Clovis, who labored to extend his con- quests from the Seine to the Loire. Their successful opposi- tion introduced an equal and honorable union. The Franks esteemed the valor of the Armoricans ; 36 and the Armoricans were reconciled by the religion of the Franks. The military force which had been stationed for the defence of Gaul con- sisted of one hundred different bands of cavalry or infantry ; and these troops, while they assumed the title and privileges of Eoman soldiers, were renewed by an incessant supply of the barbarian youth. The extreme fortifications and scattered fragments of the empire were still defended by their hopeless courage. But their retreat was intercepted, and their com- munication was impracticable : they were abandoned by the Greek princes of Constantinople, and they piously disclaim- ed all connection with the Arian usurpers of Gaul. They ac- cepted, without shame or reluctance, the generous capitula- tion which was proposed by a Catholic hero; and this spu- rious or legitimate progeny of the Roman legions was distin- guished in the succeeding age by their arms, their ensigns, and their peculiar dress and institutions. But the national strength was increased by these powerful and voluntary ac- cessions; and the neighboring kingdoms dreaded the num- bers as well as the spirit of the Franks. The reduction of the northern provinces of Gaul, instead of being decided by the chance of a single battle, appears to have been slowly effect- ed by the gradual operation of war and treaty; and Clovis 85 Instead of the 'Apfiopvxoi, an unknown people, who now appear in the text of Procopius [Bell. Goth. 1. i. c. 12], Hadrian de Valois has restored the proper name of the 'Apfiopvxot ; and this easy correction has been almost universally ap- proved. Yet an unprejudiced reader would naturally suppose that Procopius means to describe a tribe of Germans in the alliance of Rome, and not a confed* eracy of Gallic cities which had revolted from the empire. 3 • Compare Hallam's Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 2, and Darn, Hist, de Bretagne, vol. i. p. 129.— M. 26 THE BURGUNDIAN WAE. [Ch. XXXVIIL acquired eacli object of his ambition by such efforts or such concessions as were adequate to its real value. His savage character and the virtues of Henry IY. suggest the most op- posite ideas of human nature ; yet some resemblance may be found in the situation of two princes who conquered France by their valor, their policy, and the merits of a seasonable conversion. 36 The kingdom of the Burgundians, which was defined by the course of two Gallic rivers, the Saone and the Rhone, ex- tended from the forest of Yosges to the Alps and The Burgnn- ° r dian war. the sea of Marseilles." The sceptre was in the a.b. 499. hands of Gundobald. That valiant and ambitious prince had reduced the number of royal candidates by the death of two brothers, one of whom was the father of Clotil- da ; 38 but his imperfect prudence still permitted Godegesil, the youngest of his brothers, to possess the dependent principali- ty of Geneva. The Arian monarch was justly alarmed by the satisfaction and the hopes which seemed to animate his clergy and people after the conversion of Clovis; and Gundobald convened at Lyons an assembly of his bishops, to reconcile, if it were possible, their religious and political discontents. A vain conference was agitated between the two factions. The Arians upbraided the Catholics with the worship of three 36 This important digression of Procopius (de Bell. Gothic. 1. i. c. 12, in torn, ii. p. 29-36 [torn. ii. p. (J2 seq., edit. Bonn]) illustrates the origin of the French monarchy. Yet I must observe : 1. That the Greek historian betrays an inex- cusable ignorance of the geography of the West; 2. That these treaties and priv- ileges, which should leave some lasting traces, are totally invisible in Gregory of Tours, the Salic laws, etc. 31 Regnum circa Rhodanum aut Ararim cum provincia Massiliensi retinebant. — Greg. Tuion. 1. ii. c. 32, in torn. ii. p. 178. The province of Marseilles, as far as the Durance, was afterwards ceded to the Ostrogoths; and the signatures of twenty-five bishops are supposed to represent the kingdom of Burgundy, a.d. 519. Concil. Epaon. in torn. iv. p. 104, 105. Yet I would except Vindonissa. Tho bishop, who lived under the pagan Alemanni, would naturally resort to the synods of the next Christian kingdom. Mascou (in his four first annotations) has ex- plained many circumstances relative to the Burgundian monarchy. 88 Mascou (Hist, of the Germans, xi. 10), who very reasonably distrusts the testimony of Gregory of Tours, has produced a passage from Avitus (Epist. v.) to prove that Gundobald affected to deplore the tragic event which bis subjecli affected to applaud. A..D. 500.] VICTORY OF CLOVIS. 27 Gods : the Catholics defended their cause by theological di& tinctions ; and the usual arguments, objections, and replies were reverberated with obstinate clamor, till the king reveal- ed his secret apprehensions by an abrupt but decisive ques- tion, which he addressed to the orthodox bishops : " If you truly profess the Christian religion, why do you not restrain the king of the Franks ? He has declared war against me, and forms alliances with my enemies for my destruction. A sanguinary and covetous mind is not the symptom of a sin- cere conversion : let him show his faith by his works." The answer of Avitus, Bishop of Vienna, who spoke in the name of his brethren, was delivered with the voice and countenance of an angel. " We are ignorant of the motives and intentions of the king of the Franks: but we are taught by Scripture that the kingdoms which abandon the divine law are fre- quently subverted, and that enemies will arise on every side against those who have made God their enemy. Return, with thy people, to the law of God, and he will give peace and security to thy dominions." The King of Burgundy, who was not prepared to accept the condition which the Catholics considered as essential to the treaty, delayed and dismissed the ecclesiastical conference, after reproaching his bishops, that Clovis, their friend and proselyte, had privately tempted the allegiance of his brother. 39 The allegiance of his brother was already seduced ; and the obedience of Godegesil, who joined the royal standard with the troops of Geneva, more effectually promoted ciovis. the success of the conspiracy. While the Franks and Burgundians contended with equal valor, his seasonable desertion decided the event of the battle; and as Gundobald was faintly supported by the disaffected Gauls, he yielded to the arms of Clovis, and hastily retreated from the field, which appears to have been situate between Langres and Dijon. He distrusted the strength of Dijon, a quadrangular 39 See the original conference (in torn. iv. p. 99-102). Avitus, the principal actor, and probably the secretary of the meeting, was Bishop of Vienna. A short account of his person and works may be found iD Dupin (Bibliotheque Ecctesias- tique, torn. v. p. 5-1QY 28 VICTORY OF CLOVIS. [Ch. XXXVHL fortress, encompassed by two rivers and by a wall thirty feet high and fifteen thick, with four gates and thirty-three tow- ers : 40 he abandoned to the pursuit of Clovis the important cities of Lyons and Vienna ; and Gundobald still fled with precipitation till he had reached Avignon, at the distance of two hundred and fifty miles from the field of battle. A long siege and an artful negotiation admonished the king of the Franks of the danger and difficulty of his enterprise. He imposed a tribute on the Burgundian prince, compelled him to pardon and reward his brother's treachery, and proudly re- turned to his own dominions with the spoils and captives of the southern provinces. This splendid triumph was soon clouded by the intelligence that Gundobald had violated his recent obligations, and that the unfortunate Godegesil, who was left at Vienna with a garrison of five thousand Franks, 41 had been besieged, surprised, and massacred by his inhuman brother. Such an outrage might have exasperated the pa- tience of the most peaceful sovereign ; yet the conqueror of Gaul dissembled the injury, released the tribute, and accepted the alliance and military service of the King of Burgundy. Clovis no longer possessed those advantages which had as- sured the success of the preceding war ; and his rival, in- structed by adversity, had found new resources in the affec- tions of his people. The Gauls or Romans applauded the mild and impartial laws of Gundobald, which almost raised them to the same level with their conquerors. The bishops were reconciled and flattered by the hopes which he artful- ly suggested of his approaching conversion ; and though he eluded their accomplishment to the last moment of his life, 40 Gregory of Tours (1. iii. c. 19, in torn. ii. p. 197) indulges his genius, or rather transcribes some more eloquent writer, in the description of Dijon — a castle, which already deserved the title of a city. It depended on the bishops of Langres till the twelfth century, and afterwards became the capital of the dukes of Burgundy. Longuerue, Description de la France, part i. p. 280. 41 The Epitomizer of Gregory of Tours (in torn. ii. p. 401) has supplied this number of Franks, but he rashly supposes that they were cut in pieces by Gun- dobald. The prudent Burgundian spared the soldiers of Clovis, and sent these captives to the king of the Visigoths, who settled them in the territory of Tou- louse. A.D.532.] CONQUEST OF BUKGUNDY BY THE FRANKS. 29 his moderation secured the peace and suspended the ruin of the kingdom of Burgundy. 48 I am impatient to pursue the final ruin of that kingdom, which was accomplished under the reign of Sigismond, the son of Gundobald. The Catholic Sigismond has Fiual con- , . ° quest of Bur- acquired the honors of a saint and martyr; but Franks. the hands of the royal saint were stained with the a.d.532. . . " i.i blood of his innocent son, whom he inhumanly sacrificed to the pride and resentment of a step-mother. He soon discovered his error, and bewailed the irreparable loss. While Sigismond embraced the corpse of the unfortunate youth, he received a severe admonition from one of his at- tendants : " It is not his situation, O king ! it is thine which deserves pity and lamentation." The reproaches of a guilty conscience were alleviated, however, by his liberal donations to the monastery of Agaunum, or St. Maurice, in Yallais, which he himself had founded in honor of the imaginary martyrs of the Thebaean legion. 44 A full chorus of perpetual psalmody was instituted by the pious king; he assiduously practised the austere devotion of the monks ; and it was his humble prayer that Heaven would inflict in this world the punishment of his sins. His prayer was heard : the avengers were at hand ; and the provinces of Burgundy were over- whelmed by an army of victorious Franks. After the event 42 In this Burgundian war I have followed Gregory of Tours (1. ii. ch. 32, 33, in torn. ii. p. 178, 179), whose narrative appears so incompatible with that of Proco- pius (de Bell. Goth. 1. i. c. 12, in torn. ii. p. 31, 32 [torn. ii. p. 63 seq., edit. Bonn]), that some critics have supposed two different wars. The Abbe Dubos (Hist. Critique, etc., torn. ii. p. 126-162) has distinctly represented the causes and the events. 43 See his life or legend (in torn. iii. p. 402). A martyr! how strangely has that word been distorted from its original sense of a common witness 1 St. Sigis- mond was remarkable for the cure of fevers. 44 Before the end of the fifth century, the Church of St. Maurice, and his The- bsean legion, had rendered Agaunum a place of devout pilgrimage. A promiscu- ous community of both sexes had introduced some deeds of darkness, which wera abolished (a.d. 515) by the regular monasteiy of Sigismond. Within fifty years, his angels of light made a nocturnal sally to murder their bishop and his clergy. See, in the Bibliotheque Raisonnee (torn, xxxvi. p. 435-438), the curious remarks of a learned librarian of Geneva, ^ _ i 80 THE GOTHIC WAE. £Ch. XXXVHI. of an unsuccessful battle, Sigismond, who wished to protract his life that he might prolong his penance, concealed himself in the desert in a religious habit, till he was discovered and betrayed by his subjects, who solicited the favor of their new masters. The captive monarch, with his wife and two chil- dren, was transported to Orleans, and buried alive in a deep well by the stern command of the sons of Clovis, whose cru- elty might derive some excuse from the maxims and exam- ples of their barbarous age. Their ambition, which urged them to achieve the conquest of Burgundy, was inflamed or disguised by filial piety : and Clotilda, whose sanctity did not consist in the forgiveness of injuries, pressed them to revenge her father's death on the family of his assassin. The rebel- lious Burgundians, for they attempted to break their chains, were still permitted to enjoy their national laws under the ob- ligation of tribute and military service ; and the Merovingian princes peaceably reigned over a kingdom whose glory and greatness had been first overthrown by the arms of Clovis. 46 The first victory of Clovis had insulted the honor of the Goths. They viewed his rapid progress with jealousy and „ „ , . terror : and the youthful fame of Alaric was op- The Gothic ' J , . . *, war. pressed by the more potent genius of his rival. Some disputes inevitably arose on the edge of their contiguous dominions ; and after the delays of fruitless ne- gotiation a personal interview of the two kings was proposed and accepted. This conference of Clovis and Alaric was held in a small island of the Loire, near Amboise. They embraced, familiarly conversed, and feasted together, and separated with the warmest professions of peace and brotherly love. But their apparent confidence concealed a dark suspicion of hos- tile and treacherous designs ; and their mutual complaints so- licited, eluded, and disclaimed a final arbitration. At Paris, which he already considered as his royal seat, Clovis declared 45 Marins, Bishop of Avenche (Chron. in torn. ii. p. 15), has marked the authen- tic dates, and Gregory of Tours (1. ill. c. 5, 6, in torn. ii. p. 188, 189) has expressed the principal facts, of the life of Sigismond and the conquest of Burgundy. Pro- copius (in torn. ii. p. 34 [torn. ii. p. 65, edit. Bonn]) and Agathias (in torn. ii. p. 49/ show their remote and imperfect knowledge. a.d.507.] THE GOTHIC WAR. 31 to an assembly of the princes and warriors the pretence and the motive of a Gothic war. " It grieves me to see that the Arians still possess the fairest portion of Gaul. Let us march against them with the aid of God ; and having vanquished the heretics, we will possess and divide their fertile prov- inces." 48 The Franks, who were inspired by hereditary val- or and recent zeal, applauded the generous design of their monarch ; expressed their resolution to conquer or die, since death and conquest would be equally profitable ; and solemn- ly protested that they would never shave their beards till vic- tory should absolve them from that inconvenient vow. The enterprise was promoted by the public or private exhorta- tions of Clotilda. She reminded her husband how effectu- ally some pious foundation would propitiate the Deity and his servants : and the Christian hero, darting his battle - axe with a skilful and nervous hand, " There," said he, " on that spot where my Francisco? 1 shall fall, will I erect a church in honor of the holy apostles." This ostentatious piety con- firmed and justified the attachment of the Catholics, with whom he secretly corresponded ; and their devout wishes were gradually ripened into a formidable conspiracy. The people of Aquitaine were alarmed by the indiscreet reproaches of their Gothic tyrants, who justly accused them of prefer- ring the dominion of the Franks ; and their zealous adherent Quintianus, Bishop of Rodez, 48 preached more forcibly in his exile than in his diocese. To resist these foreign and domes- 46 Gregory of Tours (1. ii. c. 37, in torn. ii. p. 181) inserts the short but persua- sive speech of Clovis. " Valde moleste fero, quod hi Ariani partem teneant Gallia- rum " (the author of the Gesta Francorum, in torn. ii. p. 553, adds the precious ep- ithet of optimam), " eamus cum Dei adjutorio, et, superatis eis, redigamus terram in ditionem nostram." 47 Tunc rex projecit a se in directum Bipennem suam quod est Francisca, etc. (Gesta Franc, in torn. ii. p. 554). The form and use of this weapon are clearly de- scribed by Procopius (in torn. ii. p. 37 [Bell. Goth. 1. ii. c. 25, torn. ii. p. 247, 248, edit. Bonn]). Examples of its national appellation in Latin and French may be found in the Glossary of Ducange and the large Dictionnaire de Trevoux. 48 It is singular enough that some important and authentic facts should be found in a Life of Quintianus, composed in rhyme in the old patois of Rouergue (Dubos, Hist. Critique, etc., torn. ii. p. 179). 32 VICTORY OF CLOVIS. [Ch. XXXVIII. tic enemies, who were fortified by the alliance of the Burgun- dians, Alaric collected his troops, far more numerous than the military powers of Clovis. The Yisigoths resumed the exer- cise of arms, which they had neglected in a long and luxuri- ous peace; 49 a select band of valiant and robust slaves attend- ed their masters to the field ; B0 and the cities of Gaul were compelled to furnish their doubtful and reluctant aid. The- odoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who reigned in Italy, had la- bored to maintain the tranquillity of Gaul ; and he assumed, or affected, for that purpose the impartial character of a medi- ator. But the sagacious monarch dreaded the rising empire of Clovis, and he was firmly engaged to support the national and religious cause of the Goths. The accidental or artificial prodigies which adorned the ex- pedition of Clovis were accepted, by a superstitious age, as the manifest declaration of the Divine favor. He ciovis. marched from Paris ; and as he proceeded with decent reverence through the holy diocese of Tours, his anxiety tempted him to consult the shrine of St. Martin, the sanctuary, and the oracle of Gaul. His messen- gers were instructed to remark the words of the Psalm which should happen to be chanted at the precise moment when they entered the church. Those words most fortunately ex- pressed the valor and victory of the champions of Heaven, and the application was easily transferred to the new Joshua, the new Gideon, who went forth to battle against the enemies of the Lord. 61 Orleans secured to the Franks a bridge on the 49 "Quamvis fortitudini vestrse confidentiam tribuat parentum vestrorum innu- merabilis multitudo ; quamvis Attilam potentern reminiscamini Visigotharum viribus inclinatum ; tamen quia populorum ferocia corda longa pace mollescunt, ca- vete subito in aleam mittere, quos constat tantis temporibus exercitia non habere." Such was the salutary but fruitless advice of peace, of reason, and of Theodorie (Cassiodor. 1. iii. Ep. 2 [edit. Rotom. 1679]). 60 Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. xv. ch. 14) mentions and approves the law of the Visigoths (1. ix. tit. 2, in torn. iv. p. 425), which obliged all masters to arm and send or lead into the field a tenth of their slaves. 61 This mode of divination, by accepting as an omen the first sacred words which in particular circumstances should be presented to the eye or ear, was derived from the pagans ; and the Psalter, or Bible, was substituted to the poems of Ho- mer and Virgil. From the fourth to the fourteenth century, these sories mncto* A.D. 507.] VICTOKY OF CLOVIS. 33 Loire ; but, at the distance of forty miles from Poitiers, their progress was intercepted by an extraordinary swell of the river Yigenna or Vienna ; and the opposite banks were cov- ered by the encampment of the Yisigoths. Delay must be always dangerous to barbarians, who consume the country through which they march ; and had Clovis possessed leisure and materials, it might have been impracticable to construct a bridge, or to force a passage, in the face of a superior ene- my. But the affectionate peasants, who were impatient to welcome their deliverer, could easily betray some unknown or unguarded ford : the merit of the discovery was enhanced by the useful interposition of fraud or fiction ; and a white hart, of singular size and beauty, appeared to guide and ani- mate the march of the Catholic army. The counsels of the Visigoths were irresolute and distracted. A crowd of impa- tient warriors, presumptuous in their strength, and disdaining to fly before the robbers of Germany, excited Alaric to assert in arms the name and blood of the conqueror of Rome. The advice of the graver chieftains pressed him to elude the first ardor of the Franks, and to expect, in the southern provinces of Gaul, the veteran and victorious Ostrogoths, whom the King of Italy had already sent to his assistance. The decisive moments were wasted in idle deliberation ; the Goths too hastily abandoned, perhaps, an advantageous post ; and the opportunity of a secure retreat was lost by their slow and dis- orderly motions. After Clovis had passed the ford, as it is still named, of the Hart, he advanced with bold and hasty steps to prevent the escape of the enemy. His nocturnal march was directed by a flaming meteor suspended in the air above the Cathedral of Poitiers ; and this signal, which might be previously concerted with the orthodox successor of St. Hilar} 7 , was compared to the column of fire that guided the Israelites in the desert. At the third hour of the day, about ten miles beyond Poitiers, Clovis overtook, and instant- ly attacked, the Gothic army, whose defeat was already pre- rum, as they are styled, were repeatedly condemned by the decrees of councils, and repeatedly practised by kings, bishops, and saints. See a curious dissertation of the Abb6 du Resnel, in the Memoires de l'Academie, torn. xix. p. 287-310. IT.— 3 34 CONQUEST OF AQUITAINE BY THE FRANKS. [Ch. XXXVIIL pared by terror and confusion. Yet they rallied in their ex- treme distress, and the martial youths, who had clamorously demanded the battle, refused to survive the ignominy of flight. The two kings encountered each other in single com- bat. Alaric fell by the hand of his rival ; and the victorious Frank was saved, by the goodness ol his cuirass and the vigor of his horse, from the spears of two desperate Goths, who fu- riously rode against him to revenge the death of their sover- eign. The vague expression of a mountain of the slain serves to indicate a cruel, though indefinite, slaughter ; but Gregory has carefully observed that his valiant countryman Apolli- naris, the son of Sidonius, lost his life at the head of the no- bles of Auvergne. Perhaps these suspected Catholics had been maliciously exposed to the blind assault of the enemy ; and perhaps the influence of religion was superseded by per- sonal attachment or military honor. 63 Such is the empire of Fortune (if we may still disguise our ignorance under that popular name), that it is almost equally conquest of difficult to foresee the events of war or to explain thTFra"ks by their various consequences. A bloody and com- a.b.508. pi ete v i c tory has sometimes yielded no more than the possession of the field ; and the loss of ten thousand men has sometimes been sufficient to destroy in a single day the work of ages. The decisive battle of Poitiers was followed by the conquest of Aquitaine. Alaric had left behind him an infant son, a bastard competitor, factious nobles, and a disloyal people ; and the remaining forces of the Goths were oppressed by the general consternation, or opposed to each other in civil discord. The victorious king of the Franks proceeded without delay to the siege of Angouleme. At the sound of his trumpets the walls of the city imitated the ex- 52 After correcting the text or excusing the mistake of Procopius, who places the defeat of Alaric near Carcassonne, we maj r conclude, from the evidence of Gregory, Fortunatus, and the author of the Gesta Francorum, that the battle was fought in campo Vocladensi, on the banks of the Clain, about ten miles to the south of Poitiers. Clovis overtook and attacked the Visigoths near Vivonne, and the victory was decided near a village still named Champagne St. Hilaire. S*tt the Dissertations of the Abbe' le Boeuf, torn. i. p. 304-881. A.D.508... CONQUEST OF AQUITAINE BY THE FRANKS. 35 ample of Jericho, and instantly fell to the ground ; a splendid miracle, which may be reduced to the supposition that some clerical engineers had secretly undermined the foundations of the rampart. 6 * At Bordeaux, which had submitted without resistance, Clovis established his winter-quarters ; and his pru- dent economy transported from Toulouse the royal treasures, which were deposited in the capital of the monarchy. The conqueror penetrated as far as the confines of Spain ; 64 re- stored the honors of the Catholic Church ; fixed in Aquitaine a colony of Franks ; 66 and delegated to his lieutenants the easy task of subduing or extirpating the nation of the Visi- goths. But the Yisigoths were protected by the wise and powerful monarch of Italy. "While the balance was still equal, Theodoric had perhaps delayed the march of the Ostro- goths ; but their strenuous efforts successfully resisted the ambition of Clovis ; and the army of the Franks, and their Burgundian allies, was compelled to raise the siege of Aries, with the loss, as it is said, of thirty thousand men. These vi- cissitudes inclined the fierce spirit of Clovis to acquiesce in an advantageous treaty of peace. The Yisigoths were suffered to retain the possession of Septimania, a narrow tract of sea- coast, from the Rhone to the Pyrenees ; but the ample prov- ince of Aquitaine, from those mountains to the Loire, was in- dissolubly united to the kingdom of France. 66 63 Angouleme is in the road from Poitiers to Bordeaux ; and, although Greg- ory delays the siege, I can more readily believe that he confounded the order of history than that Clovis neglected the rules of war. 54 Pyrenaaos montes usque Perpinianum subjecit, is the expression of Rorico, which betrays his recent date, since Perpignan did not exist before the tenth cen- tury (Marca Hispanica, p. 458). This florid and fabulous writer (perhaps a monk of Amiens — see the Abbe le Boeuf, Me'm. de FAcademie, torn. xvii. p. 228-245) relates, in the allegorical character of a shepherd, the general history of his coun- trymen the Franks ; but his narrative ends with the death of Clovis. 65 The author of the Gesta Francorum positively affirms that Clovis fixed a body of Franks in the Saintonge and Bourdelois ; and he is not injudiciously followed by Rorico, electos milites, atque fortissimos, cum parvulis, atque mulieribus. Yet it should seem that they soon mingled with the Romans of Aquitaine, till Charle- magne introduced a more numerous and powerful colony (Dubos, Hist. Critique, torn. ii. p. 215). 56 In the composition of the Gothic war I have used the following materials, 36 CONSULSHIP OF CLOVIS. [Ch. XXXVIIL After the success of the Gothic war, Clovis accepted the honors of the Roman consulship. The Emperor Anastasius ambitiously bestowed on the most powerful rival Consulship 1.1 .i i . r i of clovis. of lheodonc the title and ensigns of that eminent A.D.510. ° dignity ; yet, from some unknown cause, the name of Clovis has not been inscribed in the Fasti either of the East or West." On the solemn day, the monarch of Gaul, placing a diadem on his head, was invested, in the church of St. Martin, with a purple tunic and mantle. From thence he proceeded on horseback to the Cathedral of Tours ; and, as he passed through the streets, profusely scattered, with his own hand, a donative of gold and silver to the joyful mul- titude, who incessantly repeated their acclamations of Consul and Augustus. The actual or legal authority of Clovis could not receive any new accessions from the consular dignity. It was a name, a shadow, an empty pageant ; and if the conquer- or had been instructed to claim the ancient prerogatives of that high office, they must have expired with the period of its annual duration. But the Romans were disposed to re- vere, in the person of their master, that antique title which the emperors condescended to assume : the barbarian himself seemed to contract a sacred obligation to respect the majesty of the republic ; and the successors of Theodosius, by solic- with due regard to their unequal value : Four epistles from Theodoric, King of Italy (Cassiodor. 1. iii. Epist. 1-4, in torn. iv. p. 3-5), Procopius (de Bell. Goth. 1. i. c. 12, in torn. ii. p. 32, 33), Gregory of Tours (I. ii. ch. 35, 36, 37, in torn. ii. p. 181-183), Jomandes (de Eeb. Geticis, c. 58, in torn. ii. p. 28), Foitunatus (in Vit. St. Hilarii, in torn. iii. p. 380), Isidore (in Chron. Goth, in torn. ii. p. 702), the Epitome of Gregory of Tours (in torn. ii. p. 401), the author of the Gesta Francorum (in torn. ii. p. 553-555), the Fragments of Fredegarius (in torn. ii. p. 463), Aimoin (1. i. c. 20, in torn. iii. p. 41, 42), and Rorico (1. iv. in torn. iii. p. 14-19). 51 The Fasti of Italy would naturally reject a consul, the enemy of their sov- ereign ; but any ingenious hypothesis that might explain the silence of Constanti- nople and Egypt (the Chronicle of Marcellinus, and the Paschal) is overturned by the similar silence of Marius, Bishop of Avenche, who composed his Fasti in the kingdom of Burgundy. If the evidence of Gregory of Tours were less weighty and positive (1. ii. ch. 38, in torn. ii. p. 183), I could believe that Clovis, like Odoa- cer, received the lasting title and honors of Patrician (Pagi Critica, torn. ii. p. 474, 492). A..D. 536.] ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FRENCH MONARCHY. 37 iting his friendship, tacitly forgave, and almost ratified, the usurpation of Gaul. a Twenty-live years after the death of Clovis this important concession was more formally declared in a treaty between Final estab- his sons and the Emperor Justinian. The Ostro- theFrench f g otns of I tal y> unable to defend their distant ac- in°GauL by quisitions, had resigned to the Franks the cities of a.d. 536. Aries and Marseilles : of Aries, still adorned with the seat of a Praetorian prsefect, and of Marseilles, enriched by the advantages of trade and navigation. 68 This transac- tion was confirmed by the imperial authority ; and Justinian, generously yielding to the Franks the sovereignty of the countries beyond the Alps, which they already possessed, ab- solved the provincials from their allegiance, and established on a more lawful, though not more solid, foundation, the throne of the Merovingians. 69 From that era they enjoyed 58 Under the Merovingian kings, Marseilles still imported from the East paper, wine, oil, linen, silk, precious stones, spices, etc. The Gauls or Franks traded ta Syria, and the Syrians were established in Gaul. See M. de Guignes, Mem. de l'Academie, torn, xxxvii. p. 471-475. 69 Ov yap ttote qiovTO TaXXiac Zvv r

pciyyot, [irj rov av- TOKpdropog to ipyov iiriafypayiaavTOQ tovto ye. This strong declaration of Pro- copius (de Bell. Gothic. 1. iii. cap. 33, in torn. ii. p. 41 [torn. ii. p. 417, edit. Bonn]) would almost suffice to justify the Abbe* Dubos. b a It can scarcely admit of doubt that Anastasius conferred the consulship upon Clovis ; and this fact has been employed by Dubos and many subsequent writers to prove what may be called the Roman origin of the French monarchy, since they suppose that it was mainly by the recognition of the authority of Clovis by the emperor that he was recognized as their sovereign by the provincials of Gaul. This question, which has occasioned so much controversy among French histori- ans, cannot be discussed in a note ; but the reader will find some valuable remarks upon the subject in the Supplemental Notes to Mr. Hallam's Middle Ages, ch. i. note 3. — S. b It has, however, been well observed by Mr. Hallam that it was merely a piece of Greek vanity in Procopius to pretend that the Franks never thought themselves secure of Gaul until they obtained this sanction from the emperor. They had lately put to flight the armies of Justinian in Italy, and they had held possession of Gaul for the preceding sixty years. Moreover, it may be questioned whether Procopius ever meant to say that Justinian confirmed to the Frank sovereign his rights over the whole of Gaul. The word raXkiae should probably be understood according to the general sense of the passage, which would, limit its meaning to Provence, the recent acquisition of the Franks. With respect to the next statement of Gibbon, that the gold coin of the Mero- vingian kings, "by a singular privilege, which was denied to the Persian monarch, obtained a legal currency in the empire," Mr. Hallam observes that this legal cur« 38 THE FRENCH MONARCHY. [Oh. XXXVHI the right of celebrating at Aries the games of the circus ; and by a singular privilege, which was denied even to the Persian monarch, the gold coin, impressed with their name and image, obtained a legal currency in the empire. 80 A Greek historian of that age has praised the private and public virtues of the Franks, with a partial enthusiasm which cannot be sufficient- ly justified by their domestic annals." He celebrates their politeness and urbanity, their regular government, and ortho- dox religion, and boldly asserts that these barbarians could be distinguished only by their dress and language from the subjects of Eome. Perhaps the Franks already displayed the social disposition and lively graces which in every age have disguised their vices, and sometimes concealed their intrinsic merit. Perhaps Agathias and the Greeks were dazzled by the rapid progress of their arms and the splendor of their empire. Since the conquest of Burgundy, Gaul, except the Gothic province of Septimania, was subject, in its whole ex- tent, to the sons of Clovis. They had extinguished the Ger- man kingdom of Thuringia, and their vague dominion pene- trated beyond the Rhine, into the heart of their native for- ests. The Alemanni and Bavarians, who had occupied the Roman provinces of Rhsetia and Noricum, to the south of 60 The Franks, who probably used the mints of Treves, Lyons, and Aries, imi- tated the coinage of the Roman emperors, of seventy-two solidi, or pieces, to the pound of gold. But as the Franks established only a decuple proportion of gold and silver, ten shillings will be a sufficient valuation of their solidus of gold. It was the common standard of the barbaric fines, and contained forty denarii, or silver threepences. Twelve of these denarii made a solidus, or shilling, the twen- tieth part of the ponderal and numeral livre, or pound of silver, which has been so strangely reduced in modern France. See Le Blanc, Traite Histoiique des Mon- noyes de France, p. 37-43, etc. 61 Agathias, in torn. ii. p. 47 [p. 17, edit. Bonn]. Gregory of Tours exhibits a very different picture. Perhaps it would not be easy, within the same historical 6pace, to find more vice and less virtue. We are continually shocked by the union of savage and corrupt manners. rency is not distinctly mentioned by Procopius, though he strongly asserts that it was not lawful (ov Qijxiq) for the King of Persia to coin gold with his own effigy, as if the 9efiig of Constantinople were regarded at Seleucia. There is reason to believe that the Goths as well as Franks coined gold, which might possibly circu- late in the empire, without having, strictly speaking, a legal currency. Hallam, ut supra, — S. A.D. 536.] POLITICAL CONTROVERSY. 39 the Danube, confessed themselves the humble vassals of the Franks ; and the feeble barrier of the Alps was incapable of resisting their ambition. When the last survivor of the sons of Clovis united the inheritance and conquests of the Mero- vingians, his kingdom extended far beyond the limits of mod- ern France. Yet modern France, such has been the progress of arts and policy, far surpasses, in wealth, populousness, and power, the spacious but savage realms of Clotaire or Dago- bert. 62 The Franks, or French, are the only people of Europe who can deduce a perpetual succession from the conquerors of the Political Western empire. But their conquest of G-aul was controversy. f u owe( j ]yy ten centuries of anarchy and igno- rance. On the revival of learning, the students who had been formed in the schools of Athens and Rome disdained their barbarian ancestors ; and a long period elapsed before patient labor could provide the requisite materials to satisfy, or rather to excite, the curiosity of more enlightened times. 63 At length the eye of criticism and philosophy was directed to the antiquities of France; but even philosophers have been tainted by the contagion of prejudice and passion. The most extreme and exclusive systems, of the personal servitude of the Gauls, or of their voluntary and equal alliance with the Franks, have been rashly conceived and obstinately defend- ed ; and the intemperate disputants have accused each other of conspiring against the prerogative of the crown, the dig- nity of the nobles, or the freedom of the people. Yet the 62 M. de Foncemagne has traced, in a correct and elegant dissertation (Me'm. de l'Academie, torn. viii. p. 505-528), the extent and limits of the French mon- archy. 63 The Abbe* Dubos (Histoire Critique, torn. i. p. 29-36) has truly and agreea- bly represented the slow progress of these studies ; and he observes that Gregory of Tours was only once printed before the year 1560. According to the com- plaint of Heineccius (Opera, torn. iii. Sylloge iii. p. 248, etc.), Germany received with indifference and contempt the codes of barbaric laws which were published by Heroldus,Lindebrogius, etc. At present those laws (as far as they relate to Gaul), the history of Gregory of Tours, and all the monuments of the Merovingian race, appear in a pure and perfect state, iu the first four volumes of the Historians of France. 40 LAWS OF THE BARBAKIANS. [Ch. XXXVIIL sharp conflict has usefully exercised the adverse powers of learning and genius; and each antagonist, alternately van- quished and victorious, has extirpated some ancient errors, and established some interesting truths. An impartial stran- ger, instructed by their discoveries, their disputes, and even their faults, may describe, from the same original materials, the state of the Roman provincials, after Gaul had submitted to the arms and laws of the Merovingian kings. 64 The rudest, or the most servile, condition of human socie- ty is regulated, however, by some fixed and general rules. Laws of the When Tacitus surveyed the primitive simplicity barbarians. Q f fae Germans, he discovered some permanent maxims, or customs, of public and private life, which were preserved by faithful tradition till the introduction of the art of writing and of the Latin tongue. 86 Before the election of the Merovingian kings, the most powerful tribe, or nation, of the Franks appointed four venerable chieftains to com- pose the Salic laws ; 68 and their labors were examined and ap- 64 In the space of [about] thirty years (1728-1765) this interesting subject has been agitated by the free spirit of the Count de Boulainvilliers (Me'moires Histo- riques sur l'Etat de la France, particularly torn. i. p. 15-49), the learned ingenuity of the Abbe Dubos (Histoire Critique de l'Etablissement de la Monarchic Francoise dans les Gaules, 2 vols, in 4to), the comprehensive genius of the President de Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, particularly 1. xxviii. xxx. xxxi.), and the good- sense and diligence of the Abbe de Mably (Observations sur 1'Histoire de France, 2 vols. 12mo). 65 I have derived much instruction from two learned works of Heineccius — the History and the Elements of the Germanic law. In a judicious preface to the Elements, he considers, and tries to excuse, the defects of that barbarous jurispru- dence. 66 Latin appears to have been the original language of the Salic law. It was probably composed in the beginning of the fifth century, before the era (a.d. 421) of the real or fabulous Pharamond. The preface mentions the four cantons which produced the four legislators; and many provinces — Franconia, Saxony, Hanover, Brabant, etc. — have claimed them as their own. See an excellent Dissertation of Heineccius, de Lege Salica, torn. iii. Sylloge iii. p. 247-267. a a " The Salic law exists in two texts : one purely Latin, of which there are fifteen manuscripts ; the other mingled with German words, of which there are three. Most have considered the latter to be the original : the manuscripts con- taining it are entitled, Lex Salica antiquissima, or vetustior ; the others generally run, Lex Salica recentior, or emendata. This seems to create a presumption. But M. Wraida, who published a history of the Salic law in 1808, inclines to think the A.D. 536.] LAWS OF THE BARBARIANS. 41 proved in three successive assemblies of the people. After the baptism of Clovis, he reformed several articles that ap- peared incompatible with Christianity ; the Salic law was again amended by his sons ; and at length, under the reign of Dagobert, the code was revised and promulgated in its actual form, one hundred years after the establishment of the French monarchy. Within the same period, the customs of the Ri- jpuarians were transcribed and published ; and Charlemagne himself, the legislator of his age and country, had accurately studied the two national laws which still prevailed among the Franks. 67 The same care was extended to their vassals ; and the rude institutions of the Alemcmni and Bavarians were diligently compiled and ratified by the supreme authority of the Merovingian kings. The Visigoths and Burgitndians, whose conquests in Gaul preceded those of the Franks, show- ed less impatience to attain one of the principal benefits of civilized society. Euric was the first of the Gothic princes who expressed in writing the manners and customs of his people ; and the composition of the Burgundian laws was a measure of policy rather than of justice, to alleviate the yoke and regain the affections of their Gallic subjects. 68 Thus, by 67 Eginhard, in Vit. Caroli Magni, c. 29, in torn. v. p. 100. By these two laws most critics understand the Salic and the Ripuarian. The former extended from the Carbonarian forest to the Loire (torn. iv. p. 151 [Lex Sal. tit. L.]), and the latter might be obeyed from the same forest to the Rhine (torn. iv. p. 232). 68 Consult the ancient and modern prefaces of the several codes, in the fourth pure Latin older than the other. M. Guizot adopts the same opinion (Civilisation en France, Lecon 9). M.Wraida refers its original enactment to the period when the Franks were still on the left bank of the Rhine, that is, long before the reign of Clovis. And this seems an evident inference from what is said in the prologue to the law, written long afterwards. But of course it cannot apply to those pas- sages which allude to the Romans as subjects, or to Christianity. M. Guizot is of opinion that it bears marks of an age when the Franks had long been mingled with the Roman population. This is consistent with its having been revised by the sons of Clovis, Childebert and Clotaire, as is asserted in the prologue. Nei- ther Wraida nor Guizot think it older in its present text than the seventh century. It is to be observed, however, that two later writers — M. Pertz, in Monumenta Ger- manise Historica, and M. Pardessus, in Mem. de 1'Acad. des Inscriptions, vol. xv. (Nouvelle Se'rie) — have entered anew on this discussion, and do not agree with M. Wraida, nor wholly with each other. M. Lehueron is clearly of opinion that, in all its substance, the Salic code is to be referred to Germany for its birthplace, and to the period of heathenism for its date (Institutions Mfrovingiennss, p. 83)." Hal- lam's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 276, tenth edit.— S. 42 LAWS OF THE BARBARIANS. [Ch. XXXVIH, a singular coincidence, the Germans framed their artless insti- tutions at a time when the elaborate system of Roman juris- prudence was finally consummated. In the Salic laws, and the Pandects of Justinian, we may compare the first rudi- ments, and the full maturity, of civil wisdom ; and whatever prejudices may be suggested in favor of barbarism, our calm- er reflections will ascribe to the Romans the superior advan- tages, not only of science and reason, but of humanity and justice. Tet the laws a of the barbarians were adapted to their wants and desires, their occupations and their capacity ; and they all contributed to preserve the peace, and promote the improvements, of the society for whose use they were originally established. The Merovingians, instead of impos- ing a uniform rule of conduct on their various subjects, per- mitted each people, and each family, of their empire freely to enjoy their domestic institutions ; 89 nor were the Romans excluded from the common benefits of this legal toleration. 70 The children embraced the law of their parents, the wife that of her husband, the freedman that of his patron ; and in all causes where the parties were of different nations, the plaintiff or accuser was obliged to follow the tribunal of the defend- ant, who may always plead a judicial presumption of right or volume of the Historians of France. The original prologue to the Salic law ex- presses (though in a foreign dialect) the genuine spirit of the Franks more forci- bly than the ten books of Gregory of Tours. 69 The Ripuarian law declares and defines this indulgence in favor of the plain- tiff (tit. xxxi. in torn. iv. p. 240) ; and the same toleration is understood or ex- pressed in all the codes, except that of the Visigoths of Spain. "Tanta diversi- tas legum " (says Agobard in the ninth century) "quanta non solum in [singulis] regionibus, aut civitatibus, sed etiam in multis domibus habetur. Nam plerumque contingit ut simul eant aut sedeant quinque homines, et nullas eorum commuuem legem cum altera habeat " (in torn. vi. p. 356). He foolishly proposes to intro- duce a uniformity of law as well as of faith. b 10 " Inter Romanos negotla causarum Romanis legibus praecipimus terminari.* Such are the words of a general constitution promulgated by Clotaire, the son of Clovis, and sole monarch of the Franks (in torn. iv. p. 116), about the year 560. a The most complete collection of these codes is in the "Barbarorum leges an» tiquae," by P. Canciani ; 5 vols, folio, Venice, 1781-9. — M. b It is the object of the important work of M. Savigny, Geschichte des Romi- schen Rechts im Mittelalter, to show the perpetuity of the Roman law from the fifth to the twelfth century. — M. AJ>.536.] FINES FOR HOMICIDE. 43 innocence. A more ample latitude was allowed if every citi- zen, in the presence of the judge, might declare the law under which he desired to live and the national society to which he chose to belong. Such an indulgence would abolish the partial distinctions of victory : and the Boman provincials might patiently acquiesce in the hardships of their condi- tion, since it depended on themselves to assume the privi- lege, if they dared to assert the character, of free and warlike barbarians. 71 When justice inexorably requires the death of a murderer, each private citizen is fortified by the assurance that the laws, the magistrate, and the whole community are the Pecuniary ,.■.,. „ -,-, ,. fines for guardians of his personal safety. But in the loose homicide. ° . x u society oi the Germans, revenge was always hon- orable, and often meritorious: the independent warrior chas- tised, or vindicated, with his own hand the injuries which he had offered or received ; and he had only to dread the resent- ment of the sons and kinsmen of the enemy whom he had sacrificed to his selfish or angry passions. The magistrate, conscious of his weakness, interposed, not to punish, but to reconcile ; and he was satisfied if he could persuade or com- pel the contending parties to pay and to accept the moderate 11 This liberty of choice 3 has been aptly deduced (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxviii. 2) from a constitution of Lothaire I. b (Leg. Langobard. 1. ii. tit. lvii. in Codex Lin- debrog. p. 664), though the example is too recent and partial. From a various reading in the Salic law (tit. xliv. not. xlv.), the Abbe* de Mably (torn. i. p. 290- 293) has conjectured that at first a barbarian only, and afterwards any man (con- sequently a Roman), might live according to the law of the Franks. I am sorry to offend this ingenious conjecture by observing that the stricter sense (barbarum) is expressed in the reformed copy of Charlemagne, which is confirmed by the Roy- al and Wolfenbiittel MSS. The looser interpretation (hominerri) is authorized only by the MS. of Fulda, from whence Heroldus published his edition. See the four original texts of the Salic law, in torn. iv. p. 147, 173, 196, 220. a Gibbon appears to have doubted the evidence on which this "liberty of choice" rested. His doubts have been confirmed by the researches of M. Savigny, who has not only confuted but traced with convincing sagacity the origin and progress of this error. As a general principle, though liable to some exceptions, each lived according to his native law. Gesch. des Romischen Reohts, vol. i. p. 123-138. — M. b This constitution of Lothaire at first related only to the duchy of Rome ; it afterwards found its way into the Lombard code. Savigny, p. 138. — M. 44 FINES FOE HOMICIDE. [Ch.XXXVIIL fine which had been ascertained as the price of blood. 7 ' The fierce spirit of the Franks would have opposed a more rigor- ous sentence; the same fierceness despised these ineffectual restraints ; and, when their simple manners had been corrupt- ed by the wealth of Gaul, the public peace was continually violated by acts of hasty or deliberate guilt. In every just government the same penalty is inflicted, or at least is im- posed, for the murder of a peasant or a prince. But the na- tional inequality established by the Franks in their criminal proceedings was the last insult and abuse of conquest. 73 In the calm moments of legislation they solemnly pronounced that the life of a Koman was of smaller value than that of a barbarian. The Antrustion,''* a name expressive of the most illustrious birth or dignity among the Franks, was apprecia- ted at the sum of six hundred pieces of gold ; while the no- ble provincial, who was admitted to the king's table, might be legally murdered at the expense of three hundred pieces. Two hundred were deemed sufficient for a Frank of ordinary condition ; but the meaner Romans were exposed to disgrace and danger by a trifling compensation of one hundred, or even fifty, pieces of gold. Had these laws been regulated by any principle of equity or reason, the public protection should have supplied, in just proportion, the want of personal strength. But the legislator had weighed in the scale, not of justice, but of policy, the loss of a soldier against that of a 72 In the heroic times of Greece, the guilt of murder was expiated by a pecun* iary satisfaction to the family of the deceased (Feithius Antiquitat. Homer. 1. ii. c. 8). Heineccius, in his preface to the Elements of Germanic Law, favorably suggests that at Rome and Athens homicide was only punished with exile. It is true ; but exile was a capital punishment for a citizen of Rome or Athens. 13 This proportion is fixed by the Salic (tit. xliv. in torn. iv. p. 147) and the Ripuarian (tit. vii. xi. xxxvi. in torn. iv. p. 237, 241) laws ; but the latter does not distinguish any difference of Romans. Yet the orders of the clergy are placed above the Franks themselves, and the Burgundians and Alemanni between the Franks and the Romans. 14 The Antrustiones, qui in truste Dominica sunt, leudi, JideJes, undoubtedly represent the first order of Franks ; but it is a question whether their rank was personal or hereditary. The Abbe de Mably (torn. i. p. 334-347) is not displeased to mortify the pride of birth (Esprit, 1. xxx. c. 25) by dating the origin of French nobility from the reign of Clotaire II. (a.d. 615). A.D.536.] JUDGMENTS OF GOD. 45 slave : the head of an insolent and rapacious barbarian was guarded by a heavy fine ; and the slightest aid was afforded to the most defenceless subjects. Time insensibly abated the pride of the conquerors and the patience of the vanquished; and the boldest citizen was taught by experience that he might suffer more injuries than he could inflict. As the manners of the Franks became less ferocious, their laws were rendered more severe ; and the Merovingian kings attempted to imitate the impartial rigor of the Yisigoths and Bnrgun- dians. 75 Under the empire of Charlemagne murder was uni- versally punished with death ; and the use of capital punish- ments has been liberally multiplied in the jurisprudence of modern Europe. 16 The civil and military professions, which had been separa- ted by Constantine, were again united by the barbarians. The judgments harsh sound of the Teutonic appellations was molii- ofGod. £ ec j j nto tne Latin titles of Duke, of Count, or of Prsefect; and the same officer assumed, within his district, the command of the troops and the administration of justice. 77 But the fierce and illiterate chieftain was seldom qualified to discharge the duties of a judge, which require all the faculties 1,5 See the Burgundian laws (tit. ii. in torn. iv. p. 257), the code of the Visigoths (I. vi. tit. v. in torn. iv. p. 383), and the constitution of Childebert, not of Paris, but most evidently of Austrasia (in torn. iv. p. 112). Their premature severity was sometimes rash and excessive. Childebert condemned not only murderers but robbers ; "quomodo sine lege involavit, sine lege moriatur;" and even the negli- gent judge was involved in the same sentence. The Visigoths abandoned an un- successful surgeon to the family of his deceased patient, " ut quod de eo facere voluerint habeant potestatc.n " (1. xi. tit. i. in torn. iv. p. 435). 1G See, in the sixth volume of the works of Heineccius, the Elementa Juris Ger- manici, 1. ii. p. ii. No. 261, 262, 280-283. Yet some vestiges of these pecuniary compositions for murder have been traced in Germany as late as the sixteenth century. " The whole subject of the Germanic judges and their jurisdiction is copiously treated by Heineccius (Element. Jur. Germ. 1. iii. No. 1-72). I cannot find any proof that, under the Merovingian race, the scabini, or assessors, were chosen by the people.* " The question of the scabini is treated at considerable length by Savigny. Ha questions the existence of the scabini anterior to Charlemagne. Before this time the decision was by an open court of the freemen, the boni homines. Gesch. del Bomischen Bechts, vol. i. p. 195 seq. — M» 46 JUDGMENTS OF GOD. [Ch. XXXVIII. of a philosophic mind, laboriously cultivated by experience and study ; and his rude ignorance was compelled to embrace some simple and visible methods of ascertaining the cause of justice. In every religion the Deity has been invoked to confirm the truth, or to punish the falsehood, of human tes- timony; but this powerful instrument was misapplied and abused by the simplicity of the German legislators. The party accused might justify his innocence, by producing be- fore their tribunal a number of friendly witnesses, who sol- emnly declared their belief or assurance that he was not guilty. According to the weight of the charge, this legal number of compurgators was multiplied : seventy-two voices were required to absolve an incendiary or assassin ; and when the chastity of a queen of France was suspected, three hun- dred gallant nobles swore, without hesitation, that the infant prince had been actually begotten by her deceased husband. 78 The sin and scandal of manifest and frequent perjuries en- gaged the magistrates to remove these dangerous temptations, and to supply the defects of human testimony by the famous experiments of fire and water. These extraordinary trials were so capriciously contrived, that in some cases guilt, and innocence in others, could not be proved without the inter- position of a miracle. Such miracles were readily provided by fraud and credulity ; the most intricate causes were deter- mined by this easy and infallible method ; and the turbulent barbarians, who might have disdained the sentence of the magistrate, submissively acquiesced in the judgment of God. 79 But the trials by single combat gradually obtained superior credit and authority among a warlike people, who could not 18 Gregor. Turon. 1. viii. c. 9, in torn. ii. p. 316. Montesquieu observes (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxviii. c. 13) that the Salic law did not admit these negative proofs so universally established in the barbaric codes. Yet this obscure concubine (Fiede- gundis), who became the wife of the grandson of Clovis, must have followed the Salic law. 19 Muratori, in the Antiquities of Italy, has given two Dissertations (xxxviii. xxxix.) on the judgments of God. It was expected that^re would not burn the innocent, arid that the pure element of water would not allow the guilty to sink Into its bosom. a.d.536.] JUDICIAL COMBATS. 47 deserved to live. 80 Botli in civil and criminal proceedings, judicial * ne plaintiff, or accuser, the defendant, or even combats. ^ e w jtness, were exposed to mortal challenge from the antagonist who was destitute of legal proofs ; and it was incumbent on them either to desert their cause or publicly to maintain their honor in the lists of battle. They fought either on foot or on horseback, according to the custom of their nation ; 81 and the decision of the sword or lance was rat- ified by the sanction of Heaven, of the judge, and of the peo- ple. This sanguinary law was introduced into Gaul by the Burgundians ; and their legislator Gundobald 82 condescended to answer the complaints and objections of his subject Avitus. " Is it not true," said the King of Burgundy to the bishop, " that the event of national wars and private combats is directed by the judgment of God, and that his providence awards the victory to the juster cause ?" By such prevailing arguments, the absurd and cruel practice of judicial duels, which had been peculiar to some tribes of Germany, was prop- agated and established in all the monarchies of Europe, from Sicily to the Baltic. At the end of ten centuries the reign of legal violence was not totally extinguished ; and the inef- fectual censures of saints, of popes, and of synods may seem to prove that the influence of superstition is weakened by its unnatural alliance with reason and humanity. The tribunals were stained with the blood, perhaps, of innocent and respect- 80 Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxviii. c. 17) has condescended to explain and excuse "la maniere de penser de nos peres" on the subject of judicial com- bats. He follows this strange institution from the age of Gundobald to that of St. Lewis ; and the philosopher is sometimes lost in the legal antiquarian. 81 In a memorable duel at Aix-la-Chapelle (a.d. 820), before the Emperor Lewis the Pious, his biographer observes, "Secundum legem propriam, utpote quia uterque Gothus erat, equestri pugna [prcelio] congressus est'' (Vit. Lud. Pii, c. 33, in torn. vi. p. 103). Ermoldus Nigellus (1. iii. 543-628, in torn. vi. p. 48-50), who describes the duel, admires the ars nova of fighting on horseback, which was unknown to the Franks. 82 In his original edict, published at Lyons (a.d. 501), Gundobald establishes and justifies the use of judicial combat. (Leg. Burgund. tit. xlv. in torn. iii. p. 267, 268.) Three hundred years afterwards, Agobard, Bishop of Lyons, solicited Lewis the Pious to abolish the law of an Arian tyrant (in torn. vi. p. 356-358). He relates the conversation of Gundobald and Avitus. 48 DIVISION OF LANDS. [Cn. XXXVIIL able citizens; the law, which now favors the rich, then yield- ed to the strong ; and the old, the feeble, and the infirm were condemned either to renounce their fairest claims and pos- sessions, to sustain the dangers of an unequal conflict, 63 of to trust the doubtful aid of a mercenary champion. Thifl oppressive jurisprudence was imposed on the provincials of Gaul who complained of any injuries in their persons and property. Whatever might be the strength or courage of in- dividuals, the victorious barbarians excelled in the love and exercise of arms ; and the vanquished Koman was unjustly summoned to repeat, in his own person, the bloody contest which had been already decided against his country. 84 A devouring host of one hundred and twenty thousand Germans had formerly passed the Rhine under the command of Ariovistus. One third part of the fertile lands Division of . . , , . lands by the ot the bequam was appropriated to their use; and barbarians. * , i -, • • ■, -, the conqueror soon repeated his oppressive demand of another third, for the accommodation of a new colony of twenty -four thousand barbarians whom he had invited to share the rich harvest of Gaul. 85 At the distance of five hun- dred years the Yisigoths and Burgundians, who revenged the defeat of Ariovistus, usurped the same unequal proportion of two thirds of the subject lands. But this distribution, instead of spreading over the province, may be reasonably confined to the peculiar districts where the victorious people had been planted by their own choice or by the policy of their leader. 83 "Accidit" (says Agobavd), "ut non solum valentes viribus, sed etiam in- firmi et senes lacessantur ad [certamen et] pugnam, etiam pro vilissimis rebus. Quibus feralibus certaminibus contingunt homicidia injusta, et crudeles ac per- versi eventus judiciorum " [torn. vi. p. 357]. Like a prudent rhetorician, he sup- presses the legal privilege of hiring champions. 84 Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, xxviii. c. 14), who understands why the ju- dicial combat was admitted by the Burgundians, Ripuarians, Alemanni, Bavari- ans, Lombards, Thuringians, Frisons, and Saxons, is satisfied (and Agobard seems to countenance the assertion) that it was not allowed by the Salic law. Yet the same custom, at least in cases of treason, is mentioned by Krmoldus Nigellus (1. iii. 543, in torn. vi. p. 48) and the anonymous biographer of Lewis the Pious (ch. 46, in torn. vi. p. 112), as the " mos antiquus Francorum, more Francis solito," etc., expressions too general to exclude the noblest of their tribes. 85 Caesar de Bell. Gall. 1. L c. SI, in torn. i. p. 213. A.r>. 536.3 DIVISION OF LANDS. 49 In these districts each barbarian was connected by the ties of hospitality with some Koman provincial. To this unwelcome guest the proprietor was compelled to abandon two thirds of his patrimony : but the German, a shepherd and a hunter, might sometimes content himself with a spacious range of wood and pasture, and resign the smallest, though most valu- able, portion to the toil of the industrious husbandman. 89 The silence of ancient and authentic testimony has encouraged an opinion that the rapine of the Franks was not moderated or disguised by the forms of a legal division ; that they dispersed themselves over the provinces of Gaul without order or con- trol ; and that each victorious robber, according to his wants, his avarice, and his strength, measured with his sword the ex- tent of his new inheritance. At a distance from their sover- eign the barbarians might indeed be tempted to exercise such arbitrary depredation ; but the firm and artful policy of Clo- vis must curb a licentious spirit which would aggravate the misery of the vanquished, whilst it corrupted the union and discipline of the conquerors.* The memorable vase of Sois- sons is a monument and a pledge of the regular distribution of the Gallic spoils. It was the duty and the interest of Clo- vis to provide rewards for a successful army, and settlements 86 Th« obscure hints of a division of lands occasionally scattered in the laws of the Burgundians (tit. liv. No. 1, 2, in torn. iv. p. 271, 272) and "Visigoths (1. x. tit. i. No. 8, 9, 16, in torn. iv. p. 428, 429, 430) are skilfully explained by the Presi- dent Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxx. c. 7, 8, 9). I shall only add that, among the Goths, the division seems to have been ascertained by the judgment of the neighborhood ; that the barbarians frequently usurped the remaining third; and that the Romans might recover their right, unless they were barred by a pre* scription of fifty years. * Sismondi (Hist, des Francais, vol. i. p. 197) observes that the Franks were not a conquering people, who had emigrated with their families, like the Goths or Bur- gundians. The women, the children, the old, had not followed Clovis : they re- mained in their ancient possessions on the Waal and the Rhine. The adventurers alone had formed the invading force, and they always considered themselves as an army, not as a colony. Hence their laws retained no traces of the partition of the Roman properties. It is curious to observe the recoil from the national vanity of the French historians of the last century. M. Sismondi compares the position of the Franks with regard to the conquered people with that of the Dey of Algiers and his corsair troops to the peaceful inhabitants of that province : M. Thierry (Lettres sur l'Histoire de France, p. 1 17) with that of the Turks towards the Raias or Phanariotes, the mass of the Greeks. — M. IY.— 4: 50 DOMAIN AND BENEFICES [Ch. XXXVUI. for a numerous people, without inflicting any wanton or su- perfluous injuries on the loyal Catholics of Gaul. The ample fund which he might lawfully acquire of the imperial patri- mony, vacant lands, and Gothic usurpations would diminish the cruel necessity of seizure and confiscation, and the hum- ble provincials would more patiently acquiesce in the equal and regular distribution of their loss. 87 The wealth of the Merovingian princes consisted in their extensive domain. After the conquest of Gaul they still de- Domainand lighted in the rustic simplicity of their ancestors; Jh" Merovin- tne cities were abandoned to solitude and decay ; gians. an( j £h e i r coins, their charters, and their synods are still inscribed with the names of the villas or rural palaces in which they successively resided. One hundred and sixty of these palaces — a title which need not excite any unseasonable ideas of art or luxury — were scattered through the provinces of their kingdom ; and if some might claim the honors of a fortress, the far greater part could be esteemed only in the light of profitable farms. The mansion of the long-haired kings was surrounded with convenient yards and stables for the cattle and the poultry ; the garden was planted with use- ful vegetables ; the various trades, the labors of agriculture, and even the arts of hunting and fishing, were exercised by servile hands for the emolument of the sovereign ; his mag- azines were filled with corn and wine, either for sale or con- sumption ; and the whole administration was conducted by the strictest maxims of private economy. 88 This ample patri- 87 It is singular enough that the President de Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxx. ch. 7) and the Abbe de Mably (Observations, torn. i. p. 21, 22) agree in this strange supposition of arbitrary and private rapine. The Count de Boulainvilliers (Etat de la France, torn. i. p. 22, 23) shows a strong understanding through a cloud of ignorance and prejudice. 3 88 See the rustic edict, or rather code, of Charlemagne, which contains seventy distinct and minute regulations of that great monarch (in torn. v. p. 652-657). He requires an account of the horns and skins of the goats, allows his fish to be sold, » Sismondi supposes that the barbarians, if a farm were conveniently situated, would show no great respect for the laws of property ; bat in general there would have been vacant land enough for the lots assigned to old or worn-out warriors. Hist, des Fruncais, vol. i. p. 196. — M. a.d.536.] OP THE MEROVINGIANS. 51 mony was appropriated to supply the hospitable plenty of Clovis and his successors, and to reward the fidelity of their brave companions, who, both in peace and war, were devoted to their personal service. Instead of a horse or a suit of ar- mor, each companion, according to his rank, or merit, or favor, was invested with a benefice, the primitive name and most simple form of the feudal possessions. These gifts might be resumed at the pleasure of the sovereign ; and his feeble pre- rogative derived some support from the influence of his liber- ality." But this dependent tenure was gradually abolished" by the independent and rapacious nobles of France, who es- tablished the perpetual property and hereditary succession of their benefices — a revolution salutary to the earth, which had been injured or neglected by its precarious masters. 00 Besides these royal and beneficiary estates, a large proportion had been assigned, in the division of Gaul, of allodial and Salic lands: they were exempt from tribute, and the Salic lands were equally shared among the male descendants of the Franks. 91 and carefully directs that the larger villas (Capitanece) shall maintain one hun- dred hens and thirty geese, and the smaller (Mansionales) fifty hens and twelve geese. Mabillon (de Re Diplomatics*) has investigated the names, the number, and the situation of the Merovingian villas. 89 From a passage of the Burgundian law (tit. i. No. 4 [3] in torn. iv. p. 2~>7) it is evident that a deserving son might expect to hold the lands which his father had received from the royal bounty of Gundobald. The Burgundians would firmly maintain their privilege, and their example might encourage the beneficiaries of France. 90 The revolutions of the benefices and fiefs are clearly fixed by the Abbe de Mably. His accurate distinction of times gives him a merit to which even Mon- tesquieu is a stranger. 91 See the Salic law (tit. lxii. in torn. iv. p. 156). The origin and nature of these Salic lands, which in times of ignorance were perfectly understood, now per- plex our most learned and sagacious critics. b a The resumption of benefices at the pleasure of the sovereign (the general the- ory down to his time) is ably contested by Mr. Hallam ; "for this resumption some delinquency must be imputed to the vassal." Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 159 [tenth edit.]. The reader will be interested by the singular analogies with the beneficial and feudal system of Europe in a remote part of the world, indicated by Colonel Tod in his splendid work on Raja'sthan, vol. i. c. i. p. 129, etc. — M. b No solution seems more probable than that the ancient lawgivers of the Salic Franks prohibited females from inheriting the lauds assigned to the nation, upon 52 PEIVATE USUEPATIONS. [Ch. XXXVIIL In the bloody discord and silent decay of the Merovingian line a new order of tyrants arose in the provinces, who, under Private tne appellation of Seniors, or Lords, usurped a right usurpations. £ govern and a license to oppress the subjects of their peculiar territory. Their ambition might be checked by the hostile resistance of an equal : but the laws were ex- tinguished ; and the sacrilegious barbarians, who dared to provoke the vengeance of a saint or bishop, 92 would seldom respect the landmarks of a profane and defenceless neighbor. The common or public rights of nature, such as they had always been deemed by the Roman jurisprudence, 93 were se- verely restrained by the German conquerors, whose amuse- ment, or rather passion, was the exercise of hunting. The vague dominion which Man has assumed over the wild in- habitants of the earth, the air, and the waters was confined to some fortunate individuals of the human species. Gaul was again overspread with woods ; and the animals, who were reserved for the use or pleasure of the lord, might ravage with impunity the fields of his industrious vassals. The chase was the sacred privilege of the nobles and their domes- tic servants. Plebeian transgressors were legally chastised with stripes and imprisonment ; 94 but in an age which admit- 92 Many of the two hundred and six miracles of St. Martin (Greg. Turon. in Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum, torn. xi. p. 896-932) were repeatedly performed to punish sacrilege. "Audite haec omnes " (exclaims the Bishop of Tours) "potes- tatem habentes," after relating how some horses ran mad that had been turned into a sacred meadow. 93 Heinec. Element. Jur. German. 1. ii. p. 1, No. 8. 94 Jonas, Bishop of Orleans (a.d. 82 1 -826 ; Cave, Hist. Litteraria, p. 443), cen- sm-es the legal tyranny of the nobles. Pro feris, quas cura hominum non aluit, 6ed Deus in commune mortalibus ad utendum concessit, pauperes a potentioribus spoliantur, flagellantur, ergastulis detruduntur, et multa alia patiuntur. Hoc enira qui faciunt, lege mundi se facere juste posse contendunt. De Institutione Laico- rum, 1. ii. c. 23, apud Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise, torn. iii. p. 1348. its conquest of Gaul, both in compliance with their ancient usages, and in order to secure the military service of every proprietor. But lands subsequently acquired by purchase or other means, though equally bound to the public defence, were re- lieved from the severity of this rule, and presumed not to belong to the class of Salic. Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 146. Compare Sismondi, vol. i. p. 196. — M. a.d.536.] PERSONAL SERVITUDE. 53 ted a slight composition for the life of a citizen, it was a capi- tal crime to destroy a stag or a wild bull within the precincts of the royal forests." According to the maxims of ancient war, the conqueror be- came the lawful master of the enemy whom he had subdued Personal an d spared : 9 " and the fruitful cause of personal servitude. slavery, which had been almost suppressed by the peaceful sovereignty of Rome, was again revived and mul- tiplied by the perpetual hostilities of the independent bar- barians. The Goth, the Burgundian, or the Frank, who re- turned from a successful expedition, dragged after him a long train of sheep, of oxen, and of human captives, whom he treated with the same brutal contempt. The youths of am elegant form and ingenuous aspect were set apart for the domestic service ; a doubtful situation, which alternately exposed them to the favorable or cruel impulse of passion. The useful mechanics and servants (smiths, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, cooks, gardeners, dyers, and workmen in gold and silver, etc.) employed their skill for the use or profit of their master. But the Roman captives who were destitute of art, but capable of labor, were condemned, without regard to their former rank, to tend the cattle and cultivate the lands of the barbarians. The number of the hereditary bondsmen who were attached to the Gallic estates was continually increased by new supplies ; and the servile people, according to the sit- uation and temper of their lords, was sometimes raised by precarious indulgence, and more frequently depressed by ca- pricious despotism. 97 An absolute power of life and death 98 On a mere suspicion, Chundo, a chamberlain of Gontran, King of Burgundy, was stoned to death (Greg. Turon. 1. x. c. 10, in torn. ii. p. 3'69). John of Salis- bury (Policrat. 1. i. c. 4) asserts the rights of nature, and exposes the cruel practice of the twelfth century. See Heineccius, Elem. Jur. Germ. 1. ii. p. 1, No. 51-57. 96 The custom of enslaving prisoners of war was totally extinguished in the thirteenth century by the prevailing influence of Christianity ; but it might be proved, from frequent passages of Gregory of Tours, etc., that it was practised without censure under the Merovingian race; and even Grotius himself (de Jure Belli et Pacis, 1. iii. c. 7), as well as his commentator Barbeyrac, have labored to reconcile it with the laws of nature and reason. 97 The state, professions, etc., of the German, Italian, and Gallic slaves, during 54 PEKSONAL SERVITUDE. [Ch. XXXVIIL was exercised by these lords ; and when they married their daughters, a train of useful servants, chained on the wagons to prevent their escape, was sent as a nuptial present into a distant country. 98 The majesty of the Koman laws protected the liberty of each citizen against the rash effects of his own distress or despair. But the subjects of the Merovingian kings might alienate their personal freedom ; and this act of legal suicide, which was familiarly practised, is expressed in terms most disgraceful and afflicting to the dignity of human nature." The example of the poor, who purchased life by the sacrifice of all that can render life desirable, was grad- ually imitated by the feeble and the devout, who, in times of public disorder, pusillanimously crowded to shelter them- selves under the battlements of a powerful chief and around the shrine of a popular saint. Their submission was accepted by these temporal or spiritual patrons ; and the hasty trans- action irrecoverably fixed their own condition and that of their latest posterity. From the reign of Clovis, during five successive centuries, the laws and manners of Gaul uniformly tended to promote the increase and to confirm the duration of personal servitude. Time and violence almost obliterated the intermediate ranks of society, and left an obscure and nar- row interval between the noble and the slave. This arbi- trary and recent division has been transformed by pride and prejudice into a national distinction, universally established by the arms and the laws of the Merovingians. The nobles, the Middle Ages, are explained by Heineccius (Element. Jur. Germ. 1. i. No. 28-47), Muvatori (Dissertat. xiv. xv.), Ducange (Gloss, sub voce Servi), and the Abbe' de Mably (Observations, torn. ii. p. 3, etc., p. 237, etc.). a 98 Gregory of Tours (1. vi. c. 45, in torn. ii. p. 289) relates a memorable exam- ple, in which Chilperic only abused the private rights of a master. Many fami- lies, which belonged to his domus fi&cales in the neighborhood of Paris, were forcibly sent away into Spain. 99 Liccntiam habeatis mihi qualemcunqne volueritis disciplinam ponere ; vel venumdare, ant quod vobis placuerit de me facere. Marculf. Formul. 1. ii. 28, in torn. iv. p. 497. The Formula of Lindenbrogius (p. 559), and that of Anjou (p. 565), are to the same effect. Gregory of Tours (1. vii. c. 45, in torn. ii. p. 311/ speaks of many persons who sold themselves for bread in a great famine. Compare Hallam, vol. i. p. 196.— M. A.D.536.] EXAMPLE OF AUVERGNE. 55 who claimed their genuine or fabulous descent from the in- dependent and victorious Franks, have asserted and abused the indefeasible right of conquest over a prostrate crowd of slaves and Plebeians, to whom they imputed the imaginary disgrace of a Gallic or Roman extraction. The general state and revolutions of France, a name which was imposed by the conquerors, may be illustrated by the Example of particular example of a province, a diocese, or a Auvergne. senatorial family. Auvergne had formerly main- tained a just pre-eminence among the independent states and cities of Gaul. The brave and numerous inhabitants display- ed a singular trophy — the sword of Caesar himself, which he had lost when he was repulsed before the walls of Gergovia. 100 As the common offspring of Troy, they claimed a fraternal alliance with the Romans; 101 and if each province had imi- tated the courage and loyalty of Auvergne, the fall of the Western empire might have been prevented or delayed. They firmly maintained the fidelity which they had reluctantly sworn to the Yisigoths ; but when their bravest nobles had fallen in the battle of Poitiers, they accepted without resist- ance a victorious and Catholic sovereign. This easy and val- uable conquest was achieved and possessed by Theodoric, the eldest son of Clovis ; but the remote province was separated from his Austrasian dominions by the intermediate kingdoms of Soissons, Paris, and Orleans, which formed, after their fa- ther's death, the inheritance of his three brothers. The King of Paris, Childebert, was tempted by the neighborhood and beauty of Auvergne. 102 Tl*o upper country, which rises to- 100 "When Caesar saw it, he laughed (Plutarch, in Caesar, [c. 26] in torn. i. p. 409 [p. 720, edit. Frankf.]); yet he relates his unsuccessful siege of Gergovia with less frankness than we might expect from a great man to whom victory was famil- iar. He acknowledges, however, that in one attack he lost forty-six centurions and seven hundred men (de Bell. Gallico, 1. vi. [vii.] c. 44-53, in torn. i. p. 270-272). 101 Audehant se quondam fratres Latio dicere, et sanguine ab Iliaco populos computare (Sidon. Apollinar. 1. vii. Epist. 7, in torn. i. p. 799). I am not informed of the degrees and circumstances of this fabulous pedigree. 102 Either the first or second partition among the sons of Clovis had given Berry to Childebert (Greg. Turon. 1. iii. c. 12, in torn. ii. p. 192). " Velim" (said he), " Arvernam Lemanem, quas tanta? jocunditatis gratia refulgere dicitur, oculis cer. 56 EXAMPLE OF AUVERGNE. [Ch. XXXVIIL wards the south into the mountains of the Cevennes, present- ed a rich and various prospect of woods and pastures; the sides of the hills were clothed with vines ; and each eminence was crowned with a villa or castle. In the Lower Auvergne, the river Allier flows through the fair and spacious plain of Limagne ; and the inexhaustible fertility of the soil sup- plied, and still supplies, without any interval of repose, the constant repetition of the same harvests. 103 On the false re- port that their lawful sovereign had been slain in Germany, the city and diocese of Auvergne were betrayed by the grand- son of Sidonius Apollinaris. Child ebert enjoyed this clan- destine victory ; and the free subjects of Theodoric threat- ened to desert his standard if he indulged his private resent- ment while the nation was engaged in the Burgundian war. But the Franks of Austrasia soon yielded to the persuasive eloquence of their king. " Follow me," said Theodoric, " into Auvergne; I will lead you into a province where you may acquire gold, silver, slaves, cattle, and precious apparel to the full extent of your wishes. I repeat my promise; I give you the people and their wealth as your prey, and you may transport them at pleasure into your own country." By the execution of this promise Theodoric justly forfeited the alle- giance of a people whom he devoted to destruction. His troops, reinforced by the fiercest barbarians of Germany, 104 spread desolation over the fruitful face of Auvergne; and two places only, a strong castle and a holy shrine, were saved or redeemed from their licentious fury. The castle of Mero- liac 105 was seated on a lofty rock, which rose a hundred feet nere" (1. iii. c. 9, p. 191). The face of the country was concealed by a thick fog when the King of Paris made his entry into Clermont. 103 For the description of Auvergne, see Sidonius (1. iv. Epist. 21, in torn. i. p. 793), with the notes of Savaron and Sirmond (p. 279 and 51 of their respective editions). Boulainvilliers (Etat de la France, torn. ii. p. 242-268), and the Abbe de la Longuerue (Description de la France, part i. p. 132-139). 104 Furorem gentium, qnaa de ulteriore Rheni amnis parte venerant, superare non poterat (Greg. Turon. 1. iv. c. 50, in torn. ii. 229), was the excuse of another king of Austrasia (a.d. 574) for the ravages which his troops committed in the neighborhood of Paris. 106 prom the name and situation, the Benedictine editors of Gregory of Toura a.d.530.] STORY OF ATTALUS. 57 above the surface of the plain ; and a large reservoir of fresh water was enclosed with some arable lands within the circle of its fortifications. The Franks beheld with envy and de- spair this impregnable fortress : but they surprised a party of fifty stragglers ; and, as they were oppressed by the number of their captives, they fixed at a trifling ransom the alterna- tive of life or death for these wretched victims, whom the cruel barbarians were prepared to massacre on the refusal of the garrison. Another detachment penetrated as far as Bri- vas, or Brioude, where the inhabitants, with their valuable effects, had taken refuge in the sanctuary of St. Julian. The doors of the church resisted the assault, but a daring soldier entered through a window of the choir and opened a passage to his companions. The clergy and people, the sacred and the profane spoils, were rudely torn from the altar ; and the sacrilegious division was made at a small distance from the town of Brioude. But this act of impiety was severely chas- tised by the devout son of Clovis. He punished with death the most atrocious offenders ; left their secret accomplices to the vengeance of St. Julian ; released the captives ; restored the plunder ; and extended the rights of sanctuary five miles round the sepulchre of the holy martyr. 106 Before the Austrasian army retreated from Auvergne, The- odoric exacted some pledges of the future loyalty of a people story of whose just hatred could be restrained only by their Attains. fear. A select band of noble youths, the sons of the principal senators, was delivered to the conqueror as the hostages of the faith of Childebert and of their countrymen. On the first rumor of war or conspiracy these guiltless youths (in torn. ii. p. 192) have fixed this fortress at a place named Chastel Merliac, two miles from Mauriac, in the Upper Auvergne. In this description I translate infra as if I read intra; the two prepositions are perpetually confounded by Gregory or his transcribers, and the sense must always decide. 106 See these revolutions and wars of Auvergne in Gregory of Tours (1. ii. c. 37, in torn. ii. p. 183, and 1. iii. c. 9, 12, 13, p. 191, 192, de Miraculis St. Julian, c. 13, in torn. ii. p. 466). He frequently betrays his extraordinary attention to his nativa country. 58 STORY OF ATTALUS. [Ch. XXXVIII, talus, 107 whose adventures are more particularly related, kept his master's horses in the diocese of Treves. After a painful search he was discovered, in this unworthy occupation, by the emissaries of his grandfather, Gregory, Bishop of Langres ; but his offers of ransom were sternly rejected by the avarice of the barbarian, who required an exorbitant sum of ten pounds of gold for the freedom of his noble captive. His deliver- ance was effected by the hardy stratagem of Leo, a slave belonging to the kitchens of the Bishop of Langres. 108 An unknown agent easily introduced him into the same family. The barbarian purchased Leo for the price of twelve pieces of gold, and was pleased to learn that he was deeply skilled in the luxury of an episcopal table. "Next Sunday," said the Frank, " I shall invite my neighbors and kinsmen. Exert thy art, and force them to confess that they have never seen or tasted such an entertainment, even in the king's house." Leo assured him that, if he would provide a sufficient quantity of poultry, his wishes should be satisfied. The master, who already aspired to the merit of elegant hospitality, assumed as his own the praise which the voracious guests unanimous- ly bestowed on his cook ; and the dexterous Leo insensibly acquired the trust and management of his household. After the patient expectation of a whole year, he cautiously whis- pered his design to Attalus, and exhorted him to prepare for flight in the ensuing night. At the hour of midnight the in- temperate guests retired from table, and the Frank's son-in- kw, whom Leo attended to his apartment with a nocturnal I0T The story of Attalus is related by Gregory of Tours (1- "i- ch. 15, in torn. ii. p. 193-195). His editor, the P. Ruinart, confounds this Attalus, who was a} f outh (puer) in the year 532, with a friend of Sidonius of the same name, who was Count of Autun fifty or sixty years before. Such an error, which cannot be imputed to ignorance, is excused in some degree by its own magnitude. 108 This Gregory, the great-grandfather of Gregory of Tours (in torn. ii. p. 197, 490) lived ninety-two years, of which he passed forty as Count of Autun, and thir- ty-two as Bishop of Langres. According to the poet Fortunatus, he displayed equal merit in these different stations : "Nobilis antiqufi decurrens prole parentum, Nobilior gestis, nunc super astra manet. Arbiter ante ferox, dein pius ipse sacerdos, Quos domuit judex, fovit amore patris." ad. 536.] STORY OF ATTALUS. 59 potation, condescended to jest on the facility with which he might betray his trust. The intrepid slave, after sustaining this dangerous raillery, entered his master's bedchamber, re- moved his spear and shield, silently drew the fleetest horses from the stable, unbarred the ponderous gates, and excited Attalus to save his life and liberty by incessant diligence. Their apprehensions urged them to leave their horses on the banks of the Meuse; 109 they swam the river, wandered three days in the adjacent forest, and subsisted only by the acci- dental discovery of a wild plum-tree. As they lay concealed in a dark thicket, they heard the noise of horses ; they were terrified by the angry countenance of their master, and they anxiously listened to his declaration that, if he could seize the guilty fugitives, one of them he would cut in pieces with his sword, and would expose the other on a gibbet. At length Attalus and his faithful Leo reached the frieudly habitation of a presbyter of Rheims, who recruited their fainting strength with bread and wine, concealed them from the search of their enemy, and safely conducted them beyond the limits of the Austrasian kingdom to the episcopal palace of Langres. Greg- ory embraced his grandson with tears of joy, gratefully deliv- ered Leo, with his whole family, from the yoke of servitude, and bestowed on him the property of a farm, where he might end his days in happiness and freedom. Perhaps this singu- lar adventure, which is marked with so many circumstances of truth and nature, was related by Attalus himself to his cousin or nephew, the first historian of the Franks. Gregory of Tours 110 was born about sixty years after the death of Si- donius Apollinaris ; and their situation was almost similar, eince each of them was a native of Auvergne, a senator, and 109 As M. de Valois and the P. Ruinart are determined to change the MoseUct of the text into Mosa, it becomes me to acquiesce in the alteration. Yet, after some examination of the topography, I could defend the common reading. 110 The parents of Gregory (Gregorius Florentius Georgius) were of noble ex- traction (natalibus illustres, and they possessed large estates (latifundia) both in Auvergne and Burgundy. He was born in the year 539, was consecrated Bishop of Tours in 573, and died in 593 or 595, soon after he had terminated his history. See his Life by Odo, Abbot of Clugny (in torn. ii. p. 129-135), and a new Life in the Me*moires de 1' Academic, etc., torn. xxvi. p, 598-637. 60 PRIVILEGES OF THE ROMANS lCh. XXXVIII a bishop. The difference of their style and sentiments may, therefore, express the decay of Gaul; and clearly ascertain how much, in so short a space, the human iniud had lost of its energy and refinement. 111 "We are now qualified to despise the opposite, and perhaps artful, misrepresentations which have softened or exaggerated . the oppression of the Romans of Gaul under the Privileges of LJ - . the Romans reign of the Merovingians. Ine conquerors nev- er promulgated any universal edict of servitude or confiscation : but a degenerate people, who excused their weak- ness by the specious names of politeness and peace, was ex- posed to the arms and laws of the ferocious barbarians, who contemptuously insulted their possessions, their freedom, and their safety. Their personal injuries were partial and irregu- lar ; but the great body of the Romans survived the revolu- tion, and still preserved the property and privileges of citi- zens. A large portion of their lands was exacted for the use of the Franks : but they enjoyed the remainder exempt from tribute ; ua and the same irresistible violence which swept away the arts and manufactures of Gaul destroyed the elaborate and expensive system of imperial despotism. The provin- cials must frequently deplore the savage jurisprudence of the Salic or Ripuarian laws ; but their private life, in the impor- tant concerns of marriage, testaments, or inheritance, was still regulated by the Theodosian Code; and a discontented Ro- 111 Decedente atque immo potius pereunte ab urbibus Gallicanis liberalium cul- tura literarnm, etc. (in prsefat. in torn. ii. p. 137), is the complaint of Gregory him- self, which he fully verifies by his own work. His style is equally devoid of ele- gance and simplicity. In a conspicuous stalion he still remained a stranger to his own age and country ; and in a prolix work (the five last books contain ten years) he has omitted almost everything that posterity desires to learn. I have tediously acquired, by a painful perusal, the right of pronouncing this unfavorable sentence. 112 The Abbe de Mably (torn. i. p. 247-267) has diligently confirmed this opin- ion of the President de Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxx. ch. 13). a a There is, however, no evidence in favor of this opinion ; and M. Lehuerou has shown (Histoire des Institutions Me'rovingiennes, vol. i. p. 271 seq.) that the land- tax imposed under the empire continued to be levied on the Roman subjects of Clovis and the next two generations. See Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 286, tenth edit. — S. A.D. 536.] OF GAUL. 61 man might freely aspire or descend to the title and character of a barbarian. 8 The honors of the State were accessible to his ambition : the education and temper of the Romans more peculiarly qualified them for the offices of civil government ; and as soon as emulation had rekindled their military ardor, they were permitted to march in the ranks, or even at the head, of the victorious Germans. I shall not attempt to enu- merate the generals and magistrates whose names 113 attest the liberal policy of the Merovingians. The supreme command of Burgundy, with the title of Patrician, was successively in- trusted to three Romans; and the last and most powerful, Mummolus, 114 who alternately saved and disturbed the mon- archy, had supplanted his father in the station of Count of Autun, and left a treasure of thirty talents of gold and two hundred and fifty talents of silver. The fierce and illiterate barbarians were excluded, during several generations, from the dignities, and even from the orders, of the Church. 115 The clergy of Gaul consisted almost entirely of native provincials ; the haughty Franks fell prostrate at the feet of their subjects who were dignified with the episcopal character; and the power and riches which had been lost in war were insensibly recovered by superstition. 116 In all temporal affairs the The- odosian Code was the universal law of the clergy ; but the barbaric jurisprudence had liberally provided for their person- 113 See Dubos, Hist. Critique de la Monarchic Francoise, torn. ii. 1. vi. ch. 9, 10. The French antiquarians establish as a, principle that the Romans and barbarians may be distinguished by their names. Their names undoubtedly form a reason- able presumption ; yet, in reading Gregory of Tours, I have observed Gondulphus, of Senatorian or Roman extraction (1. vi. ch. 11, in torn. ii. p. 273), and Claudius, a barbarian (1. vii. c. 29, p. 303). 114 Eunius Mummolus is repeatedly mentioned by Gregory of Tours, from the fourth (ch. 42, p. 224) to the seventh (ch. 40, p. 310) book. The computation by talents is singular enough ; but if Gregory attached any meaning to that obsolete word, the treasures of Mummolus must have exceeded £100,000 sterling. m See Fleury, Discours iii. sur l'Histoire Ecclesiastique. 116 The Bishop of Tours himself has recorded the complaint of Chilperic, the grandson of Clovis. Ecce pauper remansit fiscus noster ; ecce divitiae nostra ad ecclesias sunt translate : nulli penitus nisi soli Episcopi regnant (1. vi. c. 46, in torn, ii. p. 291). • S«e note a, p. 43.— S. 62 ANARCHY OF THE FRANKS. [Ch. XXXVIII a± safety : a subdeacon was equivalent to two Franks ; the antrustion and priest were held in similar estimation ; and the life of a bishop was appreciated far above the common standard, at the price of nine hundred pieces of gold. 117 The Romans communicated to their conquerors the use of the Christian religion and Latin language ; 118 but their language and their religion had alike degenerated from the simple pu- rity of the Augustan and Apostolic age. The progress of su- perstition and barbarism was rapid and universal: the wor^ ship of the saints concealed from vulgar eyes the God of the Christians, and the rustic dialect of peasants and soldiers was corrupted by a Teutonic idiom and pronunciation. Yet such intercourse of sacred and social communion eradicated the distinctions of birth and victory ; and the nations of Gaul were gradually confounded under the name and government of the Franks. The Franks, after they mingled with their Gallic subjects, might have imparted the most valuable of human gifts — a Anarchy of spirit and system of constitutional liberty. Under the Franks. a king, hereditary but limited, the chiefs and coun- sellors might have debated at Paris in the palace of the Cae- sars : the adjacent field, where the emperors reviewed their mercenary legions, would have admitted the legislative assem- bly of freemen and warriors; and the rude model which had been sketched in the woods of Germany 119 might have been polished and improved by the civil wisdom of the Romans. But the careless barbarians, secure of their personal independ- 111 See the Ripuarian Code (tit. xxxvi. in torn. iv. p. 241). The Salic law does not provide for the safety of the clergy ; and we might suppose, on the behalf of the more civilized tribe, that they had not foreseen such an impious act as the murder of a priest. Yet Prastextatus, Archbishop of Rouen, was assassinated by the order of Queen Fredegundis before the altar (Greg. Turon. 1. viii. c. 31, in torn. ii. p. 326). 118 M. Bonamy (Mem. de l'Acade"mie des Inscriptions, torn. xxiv. p. 582-670) has ascertained the Lingua Romana Rustica, which, through the medium of the Romance, has gradually been polished into the actual form of the French language. Under the Carlovingian race the kings and nobles of France still understood the dialect of their German ancestors. 119 Ce beau systeme a 4t6 trouve* dans les bois. Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, 1. xi. ch. 6. *.D.536\] ANARCHY OF THE FRANKS. 63 ence, disdained the labor of government: the annual assem- blies of the month of March were silently abolished, and the nation was separated and almost dissolved by the conquest of Gaul. 120 The monarchy was left without any regular establish- ment of justice, of arms, or of revenue. The successors of Clovis wanted resolution to assume, or strength to exercise, the legislative and executive powers which the people had abdica- ted: the royal prerogative was distinguished only by a more ample privilege of rapine and murder ; and the love of free- dom, so often invigorated and disgraced by private ambition, was reduced among the licentious Franks to the contempt of order and the desire of impunity. Seventy -five years after the death of Clovis, his grandson Gontran, king of Burgundy, sent an army to invade the Gothic possessions of Septimania, or Languedoc. The troops of Burgundy, Berry, Auvergne, and the adjacent territories, were excited by the hopes of spoil. They marched without discipline under the banners of German or Gallic counts : their attack was feeble and un- successful, but the friendly and hostile provinces were deso- lated with indiscriminate rage. The cornfields, the villages, the churches themselves, were consumed by fire; the inhabi- tants were massacred or dragged into captivity ; and, in the disorderly retreat, five thousand of these inhuman savages were destroyed by hunger or intestine discord. When the pious Gontran reproached the guilt or neglect of their lead- ers, and threatened to inflict, not a legal sentence, but instant and arbitrary execution, they accused the universal and incu- rable corruption of the people. " No one," they said, " any longer fears or respects his king, his duke, or his count. Each man loves to do evil, and freely indulges his criminal incli- nations. The most gentle correction provokes an immediate tumult, and the rash magistrate who presumes to censure or restrain his seditious subjects seldom escapes alive from their revenge." 121 It has been reserved for the same nation to ex- 120 See the Abbe de Mably, Observations, etc., torn. i. p. 34-56. It should seem that the institution of national assemblies, which are coeval with the French na- tion, has never been congenial to its temper. 121 Gregory of Touts Q. viii. ch. 30, in torn. ii. p. 325, 326) relates, with much iu- 64 VISIGOTHS OF SPAIN. [Ch. XXXVIH, pose, by their intemperate vices, the most odious abuse of freedom, and to supply its loss by the spirit of honor and hu- manity, which now alleviates and dignifies their obedience to an absolute sovereign.* The Visigoths had resigned to Clovis the greatest part of their Gallic possessions ; but their loss was amply compen- The Visigoths sated by the easy conquest and secure enjoyment «f Spain. £ fae provinces of Spain. From the monarchy of the Goths, which soon involved the Suevic kingdom of Gal- licia, the modern Spaniards still derive some national vanity, but the historian of the Roman empire is neither invited nor compelled to pursue the obscure and barren series of their annals. 1M The Goths of Spain were separated from the rest of mankind by the lofty ridge of the Pyrenaean mountains : their manners and institutions, as far as they were common to the Germanic tribes, have been already explained. I have anticipated in the preceding chapter the most important of their ecclesiastical events — the fall of Arianism and the per- secution of the Jews : and it only remains to observe some interesting circumstances which relate to the civil and eccle- siastical constitution of the Spanish kingdom. After their conversion from idolatry or heresy, the Franks and the Visigoths were disposed to embrace, with equal sub- mission, the inherent evils and the accidental ben- Bssembiies efits of superstition. But the prelates of France, long before the extinction of the Merovingian race, had degenerated into fighting and hunting barbarians. They disdained the use of synods, forgot the laws of temperance difference, the crimes, the reproof, and the apology. Nullus Begem metnit, nul- lus Ducem, nullus Comitem reveretur ; et si fortassis alicui ista displicent, et ea, pro longaevitate vitse vestrse, emendare conatur, statim seditio in populo, statim tumultus exoritur, et in tantum nnusquisque contra seniorem, sa;va intentione grassatur, ut vix se credat evadere, si tandem silere nequiverit. 122 Spain in these dark ages has been peculiarly unfortunate. The Franks had a Gregory of Tours ; the Saxons, or Angles, a Bede ; the Lombards, a Paul War- nefrid, etc. But the history of the Visigoths is contained in the short and in> perfect Chronicles of Isidore of Seville and John of Biclar. * This remarkable passage was published in 1779. — M. A.D. 536.] LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES OF SPAIN. 65 and chastity, and preferred the indulgence of private ambi- tion and luxury to the general interest of the sacerdotal pro- fession. 1 " The bishops of Spain respected themselves, and were respected by the public : their indissoluble union dis- guised their vices and confirmed their authority ; and the regular discipline of the Church introduced peace, order, and stability into the government of the State. From the reign of Kecared, the first Catholic king, to that of Witiza, the im- mediate predecessor of the unfortunate Koderic, sixteen na- tional councils were successively convened. The six metro- politans — Toledo, Seville, Merida, Braga, Tarragona, and Nar- bonne — presided according to their respective seniority ; the assembly was composed of their suffragan bishops, who ap- peared in person or by their proxies, and a place was assigned to the most holy or opulent of the Spanish abbots. During the first three days of the convocation, as long as they agi- tated the ecclesiastical questions of doctrine and discipline, the profane laity was excluded from their debates, which were conducted, however, with decent solemnity. But on the morning of the fourth day the doors were thrown open for the entrance of the great officers of the palace, the dukes and counts of the provinces, the judges of the cities, and the Gothic nobles; and the decrees of Heaven were ratified by the consent of the people. The same rules were observed in the provincial assemblies, the annual synods, which were em- powered to hear complaints and to redress grievances ; and a legal government was supported by the prevailing influence of the Spanish clergy. The bishops, who in each revolution were prepared to flatter the victorious and to insult the pros- trate, labored with diligence and success to kindle the flames of persecution, and to exalt the mitre above the crown. Yet the national councils of Toledo, in which the free spirit of the barbarians was tempered and guided by episcopal policy, have established some prudent laws for the common benefit of the 153 Such are the complaints of St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany and the re- former of Gaul (in torn. iv. p. 94~ The fourscore years which he deplores of li- cense and corruption would seeni to insinuate that the barbarians were admitted into the clergy about the year 660. IV.— 5 6Q CODE OF THE VISIGOTHS. [Oh. XXXVHL king and people. The vacancy of the throne was supplied by the choice of the bishops and palatines ; and after the fail- ure of the line of Alaric, the regal dignity was still limited to the pure and noble blood of the Goths. The clergy, who anointed their lawful prince, always recommended, and some- times practised, the duty of allegiance : and the spiritual cen- sures were denounced on the heads of the impious subjects who should resist his authority, conspire against his life, or violate by an indecent union the chastity even of his widow. But the monarch himself, when he ascended the throne, was bound by a reciprocal oath to God and his people that he would faithfully execute his important trust. The real or imaginary faults of his administration were subject to the control of a powerful aristocracy ; and the bishops and pala- tines were guarded by a fundamental privilege that they should not be degraded, imprisoned, tortured, nor punished with death, exile, or confiscation, unless by the free and pub- lic judgment of their peers. 124 One of these legislative councils of Toledo examined and ratified the code of laws which had been compiled by a sue- code of the cession of Gothic kings, from the fierce Euric to Visigoths. ^q (j e y 0ll t Egica. As long as the Visigoths them- selves were satisfied with the rude customs of their ancestors, they indulged their subjects of Aquitain and Spain in the enjoyment of the Roman law. Their gradual improvement in arts, in policy, and at length in religion, encouraged them to imitate and to supersede these foreign institutions, and to compose a code of civil and criminal jurisprudence for the use of a great and united people. The same obligations and the same privileges were communicated to the nations of the Spanish monarchy ; and the conquerors, insensibly renounc- ing the Teutonic idiom, submitted to the restraints of equity, 124 The acts of the councils of Toledo are still the most authentic records of the Church and constitution of Spain. The following passages are particularly impor- tant : iii. 17, 18 ; iv. 75 ; v. 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 ; vi. 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18 ; vii. 1 ; xiii. 2, 3, 6. I have found Mascon (Hist, of the Ancient Germans, xv. 29, and Anno- tations, xxvi. and xxxiii.) and Ferreras (Hist. Ge*nerale de l'Espagne, torn, ii.) very useful and accurate guides. A.D. 536.3 REVOLUTION OF BRITAIN. 67 and exalted the Romans to the participation of freedom. The merit of this impartial policy was enhanced by the situation of Spain under the reign of the Visigoths. The provincials were long separated from their Arian masters by the irrecon- cilable difference of religion. After the conversion of Re- cared had removed the prejudices of the Catholics, the coasts both of the Ocean and Mediterranean were still possessed by the Eastern emperors, who secretly excited a discontented people to reject the yoke of the barbarians, and to assert the name and dignity of Roman citizens. The allegiance of doubtful subjects is indeed most effectually secured by their own persuasion that they hazard more in a revolt than they can hope to obtain by a revolution ; but it has appeared so natural to oppress those whom we hate and fear, that the contrary system well deserves the praise of wisdom and mod- eration. 12 * While the kingdoms of the Franks and Yisigoths were es- tablished in Gaul and Spain, the Saxons achieved the con- Eevoiution quest of Britain, the third great diocese of the prse- of Britain. fecture of the West. Since Britain was already separated from the Roman empire, I might without reproach decline a story familiar to the most illiterate, and obscure to the most learned, of my readers. The Saxons, who excelled in the use of the oar or the battle-axe, were ignorant of the art which could alone perpetuate the fame of their exploits ; the provincials, relapsing into barbarism, neglected to describe the ruin of their country ; and the doubtful tradition was al- most extinguished before the missionaries of Rome restored the light of science and Christianity. The declamations of Gildas, the fragments or fables of Nennius, the obscure hints of the Saxon laws and chronicles, and the ecclesiastical tales 125 The Code of the Visigoths, regularly divided into twelve books, has been correctly published by Dom Bouquet (in torn. iv. p. 2S3-460). It has been treat- ed by the President de Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxviii. ch. 1) with ex- cessive severity. I dislike the style ; I detest the superstition ; but I shall presume to think that the civil jurisprudence displays a more civilized and en- lightened state of society than that of the Burgmidians or even of the Lom- bards. 68 DESCENT OF THE SAXONS. [Ch. XXXVIIL of the venerable Bede," 8 have been illustrated by the dili- gence, and sometimes embellished by the fancy, of succeeding writers, whose works I am not ambitious either to censure or to transcribe. 1 " Yet the historian of the empire may be tempted to pursue the revolutions of a Roman province till it vanishes from his sight ; and an Englishman may curiously trace the establishment of the barbarians from whom he de- rives his name, his laws, and perhaps his origin. About forty years after the dissolution of the Roman gov- ernment Vortigern appears to have obtained the supreme, though precarious, command of the princes and iheSaxons. cities of Britain. That unfortunate monarch has been almost unanimously condemned for the weak and mischievous policy of inviting 128 a formidable stranger to repel the vexatious inroads of a domestic foe. His ambas- sadors are despatched by the gravest historians to the coast of Germany : they address a pathetic oration to the general as- sembly of the Saxons, and those warlike barbarians resolve to assist with a fleet and army the suppliants of a distant and unknown island. If Britain had indeed been unknown to 126 See Gildas de Excidio Britanniae, c. 11-25, p. 4-9, edit. Gale; Nennius Hist. Britonum, c. 28, 35-65, p. 105-115, edit. Gale ; Bede, Hist. Ecclesiast. Gen- tis Anglovum, 1. i. c. 12-16, p. 49-53, c. 22, p. 58, edit. Smith ; Chron. Saxoni- cum, p. 11-23, etc., edit. Gibson. The Anglo-Saxon laws were published by Wilkins, London, 1731, in folio ; and the Leges Wallicse, by Wotton & Clarka, London, 1730, in folio. 127 The laborious Mr. Carte and the ingenious Mr.Whitaker are the two mod- ern writers to whom I am principally indebted. The particular historian of Man- chester embraces, under that obscure title, a subject almost as extensive as the general history of England.* 128 This invitation, which may derive some countenance from the loose expres sions of Gildas and Bede, is framed into a regular story by Witikind, a Saxon monk of the tenth century (see Cousin, Hist, de l'Empire d'Occident, torn. ii. p. 356). Rapin, and even Hume, have too freely used this suspicious evidence with- out regarding the precise and probable testimony of Nennius : " Interea vene- runt tres ChiulaB a Germanic in exilio pulsce, in quibus erant Hors et Hengist " [c28]. • Add the Anglo-Saxon History of Mr. S. Turner, and Sir ¥. Palgrave's Sketch of the " Early History of England." — M. Also Lappenbeig"s History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings, translated by Thorpe. — S. A.D. 449.] DESCENT OF THE SAXONS. 69 the Saxons, the measure of its calamities would have been less complete. But the strength of the Roman government could not always guard the maritime province against the pi- rates of Germany : the independent and. divided states were exposed to their attacks, and the Saxons might sometimes join the Scots and the Picts in a tacit or express confederacy of rapine and destruction. Vortigern could only balance the various perils which assaulted on every side his throne and his people ; and his policy may deserve either praise or ex- cuse if he preferred the alliance of those barbarians whose naval power rendered them the most dangerous enemies and the most serviceable allies. Hengist and Horsa, as they ranged along the eastern coast with three ships, were engaged by the promise of an ample stipend to embrace the defence of Britain, and their intrepid valor soon delivered the coun- try from the Caledonian invaders. The Isle of Thanet, a se- cure and fertile district, was allotted for the residence of these German auxiliaries, and they were supplied, according to the treaty, with a plentiful allowance of clothing and provisions. This favorable reception encouraged five thousand warriors to embark, with their families, in seventeen vessels, and the infant power of Hengist was fortified by this strong and sea- sonable reinforcement. The crafty barbarian suggested to Yortigern the obvious advantage of fixing, in the neighbor- hood of the Picts, a colony of faithful allies : a third fleet, of forty ships, under the command of his son and nephew, sailed from Germany, ravaged the Orkneys, and disembarked a new army on the coast of Northumberland or Lothian, at the op- posite extremity of the devoted land. It was easy to foresee, but it was impossible to prevent, the impending evils. The two nations were soon divided and exasperated by mutual jealousies. The Saxons magnified all that they had done and suffered in the cause of an ungrateful people ; while the Brit- ons regretted the liberal rewards which could not satisfy the avarice of those haughty mercenaries. The causes of fear and hatred were inflamed into an irreconcilable quarrel. The Saxons flew to arms; and if they perpetrated a treacherous massacre during the security of a feast, they destroyed the 70 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE [Ch. XXXVIII reciprocal confidence which sustains the intercourse of peace and war. 129 a Hengist, who boldly aspired to the conquest of Britain, ex- horted his countrymen to embrace the glorious opportunity: Establishment ne painted in lively colors the fertility of the soil, heptarchy. on the wealth of the cities, the pusillanimous temper a.d. 455-582. £ ^he na ti veS) an d the convenient situation of a spacious solitary island, accessible on all sides to the Saxon fleets. The successive colonies which issued in the period of a century from the mouths of the Elbe, the Weser, and the Rhine were principally composed of three valiant tribes or 129 Nennins imputes to the Saxons the murder of three hundred British chiefs ; a crime not unsuitable to their savage manners. But we are not obliged t believe (see Jeffrey of Monmouth, 1. viii. ch. 9-12) that Stonehenge is their monument, which the giants had formerly transported from Africa to Ireland, and which was removed to Britain by the order of Ambrosius and the art of Merlin. a An eminent modern historian has observed, "Hengist and Horsa, Vortigern and liowena, Arthur and Mordred, are mythical persons, whose very existence may be questioned, and whose adventures must be classed with those of Hercules and Komulns." (Macaulav, Hist, of England, vol. i. p. 17.) Of the justice of this re- mark there can be no doubt; and the following considerations will show that the popular tale which Gibbon has received rests on no trustworthy evidence: 1. The details of the conquest of England by the Saxons are not recorded by any contem- porary writer, and are only traditional. The first writer who mentions the con- quest is Gildas, who wrote his history in the year 580, or more than one hundred years after the reputed event ; but the narrative which has formed the basis of all subsequent accounts ic that or' Bede, who lived at the beginning of the eighth cen- tury. But even Bedc's narrative contains few details ; and the popular story of the conflicts between the Britons and their Saxon invaders is chiefly derived from Jeffrey of Monmouth, who was born in 1152, and whose history is little better than a romance. 2. The story of the conquest contains elements which appear in the traditions of other Germanic races. Thus Hengist and Horsa approach the coast of Kent in three ships, and iElli and his three sons land in Sussex with the same number; just as in the Gothic tradition the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Gepidse are carried in three vessels to the mouths of the Vistula. Again, the murder of the British chiefs by Hengist is told in the same words, by Widukind and others, of the Old Saxons in Thuringia. 8. There is evidence that there were Saxons Wi England before a.d. 449. In the Notitia Imperii, which was drawn up about a.d. 400 (see note in vol. ii. p. 2G9), there is mentioned, as an officer of state, the "Comes littoris Saxonici per Britannias," whose government extended along the coast from the neighborhood of Portsmouth to the Wash. (Notit. Imp. Occid. c. 25.) It has been supposed by many that the "Littus Saxonicum " derived its name from the enemy to whose attacks it was exposed ; but it has been already observed that this mode of interpretation is opposed to all sound philological prin- ciples, and has only been adopted to save the credit of the popular traditions. .(See editor's note, vol. ii. p. 60.) The Saxons ravaged the coast of Britain as early as a.d. 287 (see editor's note, vol. ii. p. 661), and it is probable that about this time they began to form settlements in the island. See Kemble, The Saxons in England, vol. L p, 1 sea,.— S. A.D. 455-582.] SAXON HEPTARCHY. 71 nations of Germany ; the Jutes, the old Saxons, and the An- gles. The Jutes, who fought under the peculiar banner of Hengist, assumed the merit of leading their countrymen in the paths of glory, and of erecting in Kent the first indepen- dent kingdom. The fame of the enterprise was attributed to the primitive Saxons, and the common laws and language of the conquerors are described by the national appellation of a people which, at the end of four hundred years, produced the first monarchs of South Britain. The Angles were distin- guished by their numbers and their success, and they claim- ed the- honor of fixing a perpetual name on the country of which they occupied the most ample portion. The barbari- ans, who followed the hopes of rapine either on the land or sea, were insensibly blended with this triple confederacy ; the Frisians, who had been tempted by their vicinity to the Brit- ish shores, might balance during a short space the strength and reputation of the native Saxons; the Danes, the Prus- sians, the Rugians, are faintly described ; and some adventu- rous Huns, who had wandered as far as the Baltic, might em- bark on board the German vessels for the conquest of a new world. 130 But this arduous achievement was not prepared or executed by the union of national powers. Each intrepid chieftain, according to the measure of his fame and fortunes, assembled his followers ; equipped a fleet of three, or perhaps of sixty, vessels; chose the place of the attack, and conducted his subsequent operations according to the events of the war and the dictates of his private interest. In the invasion of Britain many heroes vanquished and fell; but only seven victorious leaders assumed, or at least maintained, the title of kings. Seven independent thrones, the Saxon Heptarchy, 3 130 All these tribes are expressly enumerated by Bede (1. i. c. 15, p. 52, 1. v. c. 9, p. 190) ; and though I have considered Mr. Whitaker's remarks (Hist, of Man- chester, vol. ii. p. 538-543), I do not perceive the absurdity of supposing that the Frisians, etc., were mingled with the Anglo-Saxons. ■ This term (the Heptarchy) must be rejected, because an idea is conveyed thereby which is substantially wrong. At no one period were there ever seven kingdoms independent of each other. Palgrave, vol. i. p. 46. Mr. Sharon Tur- ner has the merit of having first confuted the popular notion on this subject. Anglo-Saxon History, vol. i. p. 302. — M. 72 STATE OF THE BRITONS. [Ch. XXXVIII. were founded by the conquerors ; and seven families, one of which has been continued, by female succession, to our pres- ent sovereign, derived their equal and sacred lineage from Woden, the god of war. It has been pretended that this re- public of kings was moderated by a general council and a su- preme magistrate. But such an artificial scheme of policy is repugnant to the rude and turbulent spirit of the Saxons: their laws are silent, and their imperfect annals afford only a dark and bloody prospect of intestine discord. 131 A monk, who in the profound ignorance of human life has presumed to exercise the office of historian, strangely disfig- stateofthe ures ^ ne state of Britain at the time of its separa- Britons. f.j on f rom the Western empire. Gildas 132 describes in florid language the improvements of agriculture, the for- eign trade which flowed with every tide into the Thames and the Severn, the solid and lofty construction of public and pri- vate edifices : he accuses the sinful luxury of the British peo- ple ; of a people, according to the same writer, ignorant of the most simple arts, and incapable, without the aid of the Ro mans, of providing walls of stone or weapons of iron for the defence of their native land. 133 Under the long dominion of the emperors, Britain had been insensibly moulded into the elegant and servile form of a Roman province, whose safety was intrusted to a foreign power. The p bjects of Honorius contemplated their new freedom with surprise and terror; they were left destitute of any civil or military constitution ; and their uncertain rulers wanted either skill, or courage, or authority to direct the public force against the common ene- my. The introduction of the Saxons betrayed their internal 131 Bede has enumerated seven kings — two Saxons, a Jute, and four Angles — who successively acquired in the heptarchy an indefinite supremacy of power and renown. But their reign was the effect, not of law, but of conquest ; and he ob- serves, in similar terms, that one of them subdued the Isles of Man and Anglesey, and that another imposed a tribute on the Scots and Picts (Hist. Eccles. 1. ii. c. 5, p. 83). 132 See Gildas de Excidio Britannia?, c. i. p. 1, edit. Gale. 133 jyr,._ "Whitaker (History of Manchester, vol. ii. p. 503, 516) has smartly ex- posed this glaring absurdity, which had passed unnoticed by the general historians, as they were hastening to more interesting and important events. a.d. 455-582.] THEIR RESISTANCE. 7S weakness, and degraded the character both of the prince and people. Their consternation magnified the danger, the want of union diminished their resources, and the madness of civil factions was more solicitous to accuse than to remedy the evils which they imputed to the misconduct of their adver- saries. Yet the Britons were not ignorant, they could not be ignorant, of the manufacture or the use of arms : the successive and disorderly attacks of the Saxons allowed them to recover from their amazement, and the prosperous or adverse events of the war added discipline and experience to their native valor. While the continents of Europe and Africa yielded, without resistance, to the barbarians, the British island, alone and un- Their re- aided, maintained a long, a vigorous, though an un- eistance, successful, struggle, against the formidable pirates who, almost at the same instant, assaulted the northern, the eastern, and the southern coasts. The cities, which had been fortified with skill, were defended with resolution ; the ad- vantages of ground, hills, forests, and morasses were diligently improved by the inhabitants; the conquest of each district was purchased with blood ; and the defeats of the Saxons are strongly attested by the discreet silence of their annalist. Hengist might hope to achieve the conquest of Britain ; but his ambition, in an active reign of thirty-five years, was con- fined to the possession of Kent ; and the numerous colony which he had planted in the North was extirpated by the sword of the Britons. The monarchy of the West Saxons was laboriously founded by the persevering efforts of three martial generations. The life of Cerdic, one of the bravest of the children of Woden, was consumed in tho conquest of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight ; and the loss which ne sus- tained in the battle of Mount Badon reduced him to a state of inglorious repose. Kenric, his valiant son, advanced into Wiltshire ; besieged Salisbury, at that time seated on a com- manding eminence ; and vanquished an army which advanced to the relief of the city. In the subsequent battle of Marl- borough, 134 his British enemies displayed their military sci- 134 At Beran-birig, or Barbury Castle, near Marlborough. The Saxoa Chron- 74 FLIGHT OF THE BRITONS. a. _ X] Till ence. Their troops were formed in three lines; each line consisted of three distinct bodies ; and the cavalry, the arch- ers, and the pikemen were distributed according to the prin- ciples of Roman tactics. The Saxons charged in one weighty column, boldly encountered with their short swords the long lances of the Britons, and maintained an equal conflict till the approach of night. Two decisive victories, the death of three British kings, and the reduction of Cirencester, Bath, and Gloucester, established the fame and power of Oeaulin, the grandson of Cerdic, who carried his victorious arms to ■ the banks of the Severn. After a war of a hundred years the independent Britons still occupied the whole extent of the western coast, from the wall of Antoninus to the extreme promontory of Cornwall; and the principal cities of the inland country still opposed the arms of the barbarians. Resistance became more languid, as the number and boldness of the as- sailants continually increased. "Winning their way by slow and painful efforts, the Saxons, the Angles, and their various confederates advanced from the North, from the East, and from the South, till their victorious banners were united in the centre of the island. Beyond the Severn the Britons still as- serted their national freedom, which survived the heptarchy, and even the monarchy, of the Saxons. The bravest war- riors, who preferred exile to slavery, found a secure refuge in the mountains of Wales: the reluctant submission of Corn- wall was delayed for some ages ; 135 and a band of fugitives ac- quired a settlement in Gaul, by their own valor or the liber- ality of the Merovingian kings. 138 The western angle of Ar- icle assigns the name and date. Camden (Britannia, vol. i. p. 128) ascertains the place; and Henry of Huntingdon (Scriptores post Bedam, p. 314) relates the cir- cumstances of this battle. They are probable and characteristic ; and the histo- rians of the twelfth century might consult some materials that no longer exist. 135 Cornwall was finally subdued by Athclstan (a.j . 927-941), who planted an English colony at Exeter, and confined the Britons beyond the river Tamar. See William of Malmesbury, 1. ii. in the Scriptores pcct Bedam, p. 50. The spirit of the Cornish knights was degraded by servitude : and it should seem, from the romance of Sir Tristram, that their cowardice was almost proverbial. m The establishment of the Britons in Gaul is proved in the sixth century by a.d. 455-582.] FAME OF ARTHUR. 75 morica acquired the new appellations of Corn/wall and the Lesser Britain; and the vacant lands of the Osismii were filled by a strange people, who, under the authority of their counts and bishops, preserved the laws and language of their ancestors. To the feeble descendants of Clovis and Charle- magne, the Britons of Arraorica refused the customary trib- ute, subdued the neighboring dioceses of Vannes, Rennes, and Nautes, and formed a powerful, though vassal, state, which has been united to the crown of France. 137 In a century of perpetual, or at least implacable, war, much courage and some skill must have been exerted for the de- The fame fence of Britain. Yet if the memory of its cham- of Arthur. pi ns is almost buried in oblivion, we need not re- pine ; since every age, however destitute of science or virtue, sufficiently abounds with acts of blood and military renown. Procopius [Bell. Goth. iv. 20], Gregory of Tours, the second council of Tours (a.d. 567), and the least suspicious of their chronicles and lives of saints. The subscription of a bishop of the Britons to the first council of Tours (a.d. 461, or rather 481), the army of Riothamus, and the loose declamation of Gildas ("alii transmarinas petebant regiones," c. 25, p. 8), may countenance an emigration as early as the middle of the fifth century. Beyond that era the Britons of Armori- ca can be found only in romance; 3 and I am surprised that Mr. Whitaker (Genu- ine History of the Britons, p. 214-221) should so faithfully transcribe the gross ignorance of Carte, whose venial errors he has so rigorously chastised. 137 The antiquities of Bretagne, which have been the subject even of political controversy, are illustrated by Hadrian Valesius (Notitia Galliarum, snb voce Bri- tannia Cismarina, p. 98-100), M. d'Anville (Notice de l'Ancienne Gaule, Coriso- piti, Curiosolites, Osismii, Vorganium, p. 248, 258, 508, 720, and Etats de l'Eu- rope, p. 76-80), Longuerue (Description de la France, torn. i. p. 84-94), and the Abbe de Vertot (Hist. Critique de l'Etablissement des Bretons dans les Ganles, 2 -vols, in 12mo. Paris, 1720). I may assume the merit of examining the original evidence which they have produced. 11 a Lappenberg places as early as the usurpation of Maximus in Britain the set- tlement of a Roman military colony ("milites limitanei, laeti "), consisting of Brit- ish warriors, in Arraorica, which has given name, as well as a distinct character and history, to Bretagne. (Gildas, c. 10 ; Nennius, c. 23 ; Beda, Hist. Eccl. i. 12, copies the words of Gildas.) Lappenberg expresses his surprise that Gibbon here wholly rejects the authors whom he elsewhere follows. Hist, of England, transl. by Thorpe, vol. i. p. 59.— S. b Compare Gallet, Me'moires sur la Bretagne, and Daru, Histoire de Bretagne. These authors appear to me to establish the point of the independence of Bretagne at the time that the insular Britons took refuge in their country, and that the greater part landed as fugitives rather than as conquerors. — M. 76 FAME OF ARTHUR. [Ch. XXXVIII The tomb of Vortimer, the son of Vortigern, was erected on the margin of the sea-shore, as a landmark formidable to the Saxons, whom he had thrice vanquished in the fields of Kent. Ambrosius Aurelian was descended from a noble family of Romans, 18 * his modesty was equal to his valor, and his valor, till the last fatal action, 139 was crowned with splendid success. But every British name is effaced by the illustrious name of Arthur, 140 the hereditary prince of the Silures, in South Wales, and the elective king or general of the nation. Ac- cording to the most rational account, he defeated, in twelve successive battles, the Angles of the North and the Saxons of the West ; but the declining age of the hero was embitter- ed by popular ingratitude and domestic misfortunes. The events of his life are less interesting than the singular revolu- tions of his fame. During a period of five hundred years the tradition of his exploits was preserved, and rudely embellish- ed, by the obscure bards of Wales and Armorica, who were odious to the Saxons, and unknown to the rest of mankind. The pride and curiosity of the Norman conquerors prompted 138 Bede, who in his chronicle (p. 28) places Ambrosius under the reign ofZeno (a.d. 474-491), observes that his parents had been "purpura induti;" which be explains, in his ecclesiastical history, by "regium nomen et insigne ferentibus" (1. i. c. 16, p. 53). The expression of Nennius (c. 44, p. 110, edit. Gale) is still more singular, " Unus de consulibus gentis Romanic* est pater meus." 139 By the unanimous, though doubtful, conjecture of our antiquarians, Ambro- sius is confounded with Natanleod, who (a.d. 508) lost his own life and five thou- sand of his subjects in a battle against Cerdic, the West Saxon (Chron. Saxon, p. 17, 18). 140 As I am a stranger to the Welsh bards, Myrdhin, Llomarch, a and Talies. sin, my faith in the existence and exploits of Arthur principally rests on the sim- ple and circumstantial testimony of Nennius (Hist. Brit. c. 62, 63, p. 114). Mr. Whitaker (Hist, of Manchester, vol. ii. p. 31-71) has framed an interesting, and even probable, narrative of the wars of Arthur : though it is impossible to allow the reality of the round-table. * I presume that Gibbon means Llywarch Hen, or the Aged.- — The Elegies of jhis Welsh prince and bard have been published by Mi\ Owen, in whose works, and in the Myvyrian Archaeology, slumbers much curious information on the sub- ject of Welsh tradition and poetry. But the Welsh antiquarians have never ob- tained a hearing from the public : they have had no Macpherson to compensate for his corruption of their poetic legends by forcing them into popularity. — See also Mr. Sharon Turner's Essay on the Welsh Bards. — M. a.d. 455-582.] FAME OF ARTHUR. 77 them to inquire into the ancient history of Britain ; they lis- tened with fond credulity to the tale of Arthur, and eagerly applauded the merit of a prince who had triumphed over the Saxons, their common enemies. His romance, transcribed in the Latin of Jeffrey of Monmouth, and afterwards translated into the fashionable idiom of the times, was enriched with the various, though incoherent, ornaments which were famil- iar to the experience, the learning, or the fancy of the twelfth century. The progress of a Phrygian colony, from the Tiber to the Thames, was easily ingrafted on the fable of the iEne- id ; and the royal ancestors of Arthur derived their origin from Troy, and claimed their alliance with the Csesars. His trophies were decorated with captive provinces and imperial titles; and his Danish victories avenged the recent injuries of his country. The gallantry and superstition of the British hero, his feasts and tournaments, and the memorable institu- tion of his Knights of the Bound-table, were faithfully cop- ied from the reigning manners of chivalry ; and the fabulous exploits of Uther's son appear less incredible than the advent- ures which were achieved by the enterprising valor of the Normans. Pilgrimage, and the holy wars, introduced into Europe the specious miracles of Arabian magic. Fairies and giants, flying dragons and enchanted palaces, were blended with the more simple fictions of the West ; and the fate of Britain depended on the art, or the predictions, of Merlin. Every nation embraced and adorned the popular romance of Arthur and the Knights of the Round-table: their names were celebrated in Greece* and Italy ; and the voluminous tales of Sir Lancelot and Sir Tristram were devoutly studied by the princes and nobles who disregarded the genuine he- roes and historians of antiquity. At length the light of sci- ence and reason was rekindled ; the talisman was broken ; the visionary fabric melted into air; and by a natural, though un- * In the twelfth century a Greek poem, recently Drought to light, was composed in celebration of Arthur and the Knights of the Round-table. This poem, of which only 306 verses are extant, was first published by Von der Hagen in his " Denkmale des Mittelalters," Berlin, 1824. See Lappenberg, Hist, of England, Vol. i. p. 102.— S. 78 DESOLATION OF BEITAIN. [Ch. XXXVIIL just, reverse of the public opinion, the seventy of the present age is inclined to question the existence of Arthur. 141 Resistance, if it cannot avert, must increase the miseries of conquest ; and conquest has never appeared more dreadful Desolation an0 ^ destructive than in the hands of the Saxons, of Britain. w j 10 h a t e( j the valor of their enemies, disdained the faith of treaties, and violated, without remorse, the most sa- cred objects of the Christian worship. The fields of battle might be traced, almost in every district, by monuments of bones; the fragments of falling towers were stained with blood ; the last of the Britons, without distinction of age or sex, was massacred, 142 in the ruins of Anderida ; 143 and the rep- etition of such calamities was frequent and familiar under the Saxon heptarchy. The arts and religion, the laws and language, which the Romans had so carefully planted in Brit- ain, were extirpated by their barbarous successors. After the destruction of the principal churches, the bishops who had declined the crown of martyrdom retired with the holy relics into Wales and Armorica ; the remains of their flocks were left destitute of any spiritual food ; the practice, and even the remembrance, of Christianity were abolished ; and the British clergy might obtain some comfort from the damnation of the idolatrous strangers. The kings of France maintained the privileges of their Roman subjects ; but the ferocious Saxons trampled on the laws of Rome and of the emperors. The 141 The progress of romance and the state of learning in the Middle Ages are illustrated by Mr. Thomas Warton, with the taste of a poet and the minute dili- gence of an antiquarian. I have derived much instruction from the two learned dissertations prefixed to the first volume of his History of English Poetry.* 142 Hoc anno (490) JElla et Cissa obsederunt Andredes-Ceaster ; et interfece- rtmt omnes qui id incolerent ; adeo ut ne unus Brito ibi superstes fuerit (Chron. Saxon, p. 15) ; an expression more dreadful in its simplicity than all the vague and tedious lamentations of the British Jeremiah. 143 Andredes-Ceaster, or Anderida, is placed by Camden (Britannia, vol. i. p. 258) at Newenden, in the marshy grounds of Kent, which might be formerly cov- ered by the sea, and on the edge of the great forest (Anderida) which overspread so large a portion of Hampshire and Sussex. 1 These valuable dissertations should not now be read without the note3 and preliminary essay of the iate editor, Mr. Price, which, in point of taste and fulness of information, are worthy of accompanying and completing those of Warton. — M. a.d. 455-582.] DESOLATION OF BRITAIN. 79 proceedings of civil and criminal jurisdiction, the titles of honor, the forms of office, the ranks of society, and even the domestic rights of marriage, testament, and inheritance, were finally suppressed; and the indiscriminate crowd of noble and Plebeian slaves was governed by the traditionary customs which had been coarsely framed for the shepherds and pi- rates of Germany. The language of science, of business, and of conversation, which had been introduced by the Romans, was lost in the general desolation. A sufficient number of Latin or Celtic words might be assumed by the Germans to express their new wants and ideas ; 144 but those illiterate pa- gans preserved and established the use of their national dia- lect. 145 Almost every name, conspicuous either in the Church or State, reveals its Teutonic origin ; 146 and the geography of England was universally inscribed with foreign characters 144 Dr. Johnson affirms that few English words are of British extraction. Mr. Whitaker, who understands the British language, has discovered more than three thousand, and actually produces a long and various catalogue (vol. ii. p. 235-329). It is possible, indeed, that many of these words may have been imported from the Latin or Saxon into the native idiom of Britain.* 145 In the beginning of the seventh century the Franks and the Anglo-Saxons mutually understood each other's language, which was derived from the same Teu- tonic root (Bede, 1. i. c. 25, p. 60). 146 After the first generation of Italian or Scottish missionaries, the dignities of the Church were filled with Saxon proselytes. * This question, like all others connected with comparative philology, has been placed on an entirely new footing since the time of Gibbon. Even down to a very recent time it was supposed that the Keltic languages had no connection with the great Indo-European family of languages ; but the researches of Dr. Prichard in his work on "The Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations," and of Professor Pictet of Geneva, in his work "Sur l'Affinite des Langues Celtiques avec le Sanscrit," have proved beyond question that the previous opinion was erroneous, and that the Keltic languages formed an essential part of the great Indo-European family. Consequently, in considering the words which are borrowed by us from the Keltic, we must distinguish carefully between the words which have been actually derived from the Keltic and those which are the common property of the Indo-European family. But after deducting the latter class of words, a sufficient number of the former remains to make it clear that the Anglo-Saxons adopted Keltic words to a greater extent than has been usually supposed. Mr. Garnett has shown that a large number of English words denoting the daily processes of agriculture, do- mestic life, and generally in-door and out-door service, are borrowed by us from the Keltic; and Mr. Kemb'le observes that the signatures to very early charters sup. ply us with names which are certainly not Teutonic, and were probably borne by persons of Keltic race, who occupied positions of dignity at the courts of Anglo- Saxon kings. See Garnett, Transactions of Philological Society, vol. i. p. 169; Kemble, The Saxons in England, vol. i. p. 21. — S. 80 SERVITUDE IN BRITAIN. [Ch. XXXVIIL and appellations. The example of a revolution so rapid and so complete may not easily be found ; but it will excite a probable suspicion that the arts of Rome were less deeply rooted in Britain than in Gaul or Spain ; and that the native rudeness of the country and its inhabitants was covered by a thin varnish of Italian manners. This strange alteration has persuaded historians, and even ■philosophers, that the provincials of Britain were totally ex- terminated, and that the vacant land was again Servitude. peopled by the perpetual influx and rapid increase of the German colonies. Three hundred thousand Saxons are said to have obeyed the summons of Hengist ; 147 the en- tire emigration of the Angles was attested, in the age of Bede, by the solitude of their native country ; U8 and our expe- rience has shown the free propagation of the human race, if they are cast on a fruitful wilderness, where their steps are unconfined and their subsistence is plentiful. The Saxon kingdoms displayed the face of recent discovery and cultiva- tion : the towns were small, the villages were distant ; the husbandry was languid and unskilful ; four sheep were equiv- alent to an acre of the best land ; 14fl an ample space of wood and morass was resigned to the vague dominion of nature ; and the modern bishopric of Durham, the whole territory from the Tyne to the Tees, had returned to its primitive state of a savage and solitary forest. 160 Such imperfect population might have been supplied, in some generations, by the Eng- 141 Carte's History of England, vol i. p. 195. He quotes the British historians ; but I much fear that Jeffrey of Monmouth (1. vi. ch. 15) is his only witness. 148 Bede, Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. i. c. 15, p. 52. The fact is probable and well at- tested : yet such was the loose intermixture of the German tribes, that we find, in a subsequent period, the law of the Angli and Warini of Germany (Linden- brog. Codex, p. 479-486). 149 See Dr. Henry's useful and laborious History of Great Britain, vol. ii. p. 388. 160 u Quicquid " (says John of Tinemouth) " inter Tynam et Tesam fluvios ex- titit, sola eremi vastitudo tunc temporis fuit, et idcirco nullius ditioni servivit, eo quod sola indomitorura et silvestrium animalium spelunca et habitatio fuit " (apud Carte, vol. i. p. 195). From Bishop Nicholson (English Historical Library, p. 65, 98) I understand that fair copies of John of Tinemouth's ample collections are preserved in the libraries of Oxford, Lambeth. etQ A.D. 455-582.] SERVITUDE IN BRITAIN. 81 lish colonies ; but neither reason nor facts can justify the un- natural supposition that the Saxons of Britain remained alone in the desert which they had subdued. After the sanguinary barbarians had secured their dominion and gratified their re- venge, it was their interest to preserve the peasants, as well as the cattle, of the unresisting country. In each successive revolution, the patient herd becomes the property of its new masters; and the salutary compact of food and labor is silent- ly ratified by their mutual necessities. Wilfrid, the apostle of Sussex, 161 accepted from his royal convert the gift of the peninsula of Selsey, near Chichester, with the persons and property of its inhabitants, who then amounted to eighty-sev- en families. He released them at once from spiritual and temporal bondage ; and two hundred and fifty slaves of both sexes were baptized by their indulgent master. The kingdom of Sussex, which spread from the sea to the Thames, contained seven thousand families : twelve hundred were ascribed to the Isle of Wight ; and, if we multiply this vague computation, it may seem probable that England was cultivated by a mill- ion of servants, or villains, who were attached to the estates of their arbitrary landlords. The indigent barbarians were often tempted to sell their children or themselves into perpet- ual, and even foreign, bondage ; 1M yet the special exemptions which were granted to national slaves 163 sufficiently declare that they were much less numerous than the strangers and captives who had lost their liberty, or changed their masters, by the accidents of war. When time and religion had miti- gated the fierce spirit of the Anglo-Saxons, the laws encour- aged the frequent practice of manumission ; and their sub- jects, of Welsh or Cambrian extraction, assumed the respecta- ble station of inferior freemen, possessed of lands, and entitled 161 See the mission of Wilfrid, etc., in Bede, Hist. Eccles. 1. iv. c. 13, 16, p. 155, 156, 159. 152 From the concurrent testimony of Bede (1. ii. c. 1, p. 78) and William of Malmesbury (1. iii. p. 102), it appears that the Anglo-Saxons, from the first to thg last age, persisted in this unnatural practice. Their youths were publicly sold in the market of Rome. 163 According to the laws of Ina, they could not be lawfully sold beyond the seas. IY.— 6 82 MANNERS OF THE BRITONS. [Ch. XXXVUI to the rights of civil society. 161 Such gentle treatment might secure the allegiance of a fierce people, who had been recent- ly subdued on the confines of Wales and Cornwall. The sage In a, the legislator of Wessex, united the two nations in the bands of domestic alliance; and four British lords of Som- ersetshire may be honorably distinguished in the court of a Saxon monarch. 165 The independent Britons appear to have relapsed into the state of original barbarism from whence they had been im- Manuersof perfectly reclaimed. Separated by their enemiea the Britons. f rom the rest of mankind, they soon became an object of scandal and abhorrence to the Catholic world. 168 Christianity was still professed in the mountains of Wales ; but the rude schismatics, in the form of the clerical tonsure, and in the day of the celebration of Easter, obstinately resist- ed the imperious mandates of the Roman pontiffs. The use of the Latin language was insensibly abolished, and the Brit- ons were deprived of the arts and learning which Italy com- municated to her Saxon proselytes. In Wales and Armori- ca, the Celtic tongue, the native idiom of the West, was pre- served and propagated ; and the Bards, who had been the companions of the Druids, were still protected, in the six- teenth century, by the laws of Elizabeth. Their chief, a re- spectable officer of the courts of Pengwern, or Aberfraw, or Caermarthen, accompanied the king's servants to war : the monarchy of the Britons, which he sung in the front of bat- tle, excited their courage and justified their depredations ; and the songster claimed for his legitimate prize the fairest 154 The life of a Wallus, or Cambricus, homo, who possessed a hyde of land, in fixed at 120 shillings, by the same laws (of Ina, tit. xxxii. in Leg. Anglo-Saxon. p. 20) which allowed 200 shillings for a free Saxon, and 1200 for a Thane (see likewise Leg. Anglo-Saxon, p. 71). We may observe that these legislators, the West-Saxons and Mercians, continued their British conquests after they became Christians. The laws of the four kings of Kent do not condescend to notice th& existence of any subject Britons. 166 See Carte's Hist, of England, vol. i. p. 278. 166 At the conclusion of his history (a.d. 731), Bede describes the ecclesiastical 6tate of the island, and censures the implacable, though impotent, hatred of the Britons against the English nation and the Catholic Church (1. v. c. 23, p. 219). A.D. 455-582.] MANNERS OF THE BRITONS. 83 heifer of the spoil. His subordinate ministers, the masters and disciples of vocal and instrumental music, visited, in their respective circuits, the royal, the noble, and the Plebeian houses ; and the public poverty, almost exhausted by the cler- gy, was oppressed by the importunate demands of the bards. Their rank and merit were ascertained by solemn trials, and the strong belief of supernatural inspiration exalted the fancy of the poet and of his audience. 1 " The last retreats of Celtic freedom, the extreme territories of Gaul and Britain, were less adapted to agriculture than to pasturage : the wealth of the Britons consisted in their flocks and herds ; milk and flesh were their ordinary food; and bread was sometimes esteemed, or rejected, as a foreign luxury. Liberty had peopled the mountains of Wales and the morasses of Armorica : but their populousness has been maliciously ascribed to the loose prac- tice of polygamy ; and the houses of these licentious barba- rians have been supposed to contain ten wives, and perhaps fifty children. 158 Their disposition was rash and choleric : they were bold in action and in speech ; 159 and as they were ignorant of the arts of peace, they alternately indulged their passions in foreign and domestic war. The cavalry of Ar- morica, the spearmen of Gwent, and the archers of Merioneth, were equally formidable ; but their poverty could seldom pro- cure either shields or helmets ; and the inconvenient weight would have retarded the speed and agility of their desultory operations. One of the greatest of the English monarchs was requested to satisfy the curiosity of a Greek emperor con- 157 Mr. Pennant's Tour in Wales (p. 426-449) has furnished me with a curious and interesting account of the Welsh bards. In the year 1568 a session was held at Caerwys by the special command of Queen Elizabeth, and regular degrees in vocal and instrumental music were conferred on fifty-five minstrels. The priza (a silver harp) was adjudged by the Mostyn family. 158 " Regio longe lateque diffusa, milite, magis quam credibile sit, referta. Par- tibus equidem in illis miles unus quinquaginta generat, sortitus more barbaro de- nas aut amplius uxores." This reproach of William of Poitiers (in the Histori- ans of France, torn. xi. p. 88) is disclaimed by the Benedictine editors. 159 Giraldus Cambrensis confines this gift of bold and ready eloquence to the Romans, the French, and the Britons. The malicious Welshman insinuates that the English taciturnity might possibly be the effect of their servitude under the Normans. 84 OBSCUEE STATE OF BEITATN. [Ch. XXXVIIL cerning the state of Britain ; and Henry II. could assert, from his personal experience, that "Wales was inhabited by a race of naked warriors, who encountered, without fear, the defen- sive armor of their enemies. 180 By the revolution of Britain the limits of science as well as of empire were contracted. The dark cloud which had been cleared by the Phoenician discoveries, and finallv Obscure or n -i i i t> n • i i -i fabulous state dispelled by the arms or Caesar, again settled on the ofBritain. , r „ «( . . . . n ' & shores of the Atlantic, and a Koman province was again lost among the fabulous Islands of the Ocean. One hundred and fifty years after the reign of Honorius, the gravest historian of the times 1 " describes the wonders of a remote isle, whose eastern and western parts are divided by an antique wall, the boundary of life and death, or, more properly, of truth and fiction. The east is a fair country, in- 160 The picture of Welsh and Arraorican manners is drawn from Giraldus (De- 8cript. Cambria?, c. 6-15, inter Script. Camden, p. 886-891) and the authors quoted by the Abbe de Vertot (Hist. Critique, torn. ii. p. 259-266). 161 See Procopius de Bell. Gothic. 1. iv. c. 20, p. 620-625 [edit. Paris ; torn. ii. p. 559 seq. edit. Bonn]. The Greek historian is himself so confounded by the wonders which he relates, that he weakly attempts to distinguish the islands of Brittia and Britain, which he has identified by so many inseparable circum~ stances.* a Notwithstanding Gibbon's identification of Brittia and Britannia, in which he has been followed by Mr. Macaulay (Hist, of England, vol. i. p. 5), it may be ques- tioned whether they are not two different islands. Procopius, after speaking of the Varni, whom he describes as dwelling on both sides of the river Rhine, as far as the Northern Ocean, then proceeds to say that in this ocean lies Brittia, 200 stadia opposite the mouths of the Rhine, and between Britannia and the island of Thule ; and that it is inhabited by the Frisians, the Angles, and the Britons. On this statement we may remark that Procopius has almost certainly made a mis- take in placing the Varni on the Rhine, for which we ought probably to substitute the Elbe (see next note) ; and that in that case his fabulous Brittia is probably the same as the holy island of the Germania of Tacitus (c. 40), which was visited by the Angli, Varini, and other tribes. This holy island has been identified with Heligoland or Rugen ; but it is probable that it was neither the one nor the other, but an island made out of a mixture of attributes of the two. Heligoland was a holy island, almost certainly peopled by the Germanic tribes of the Angles and Frisians; while Rugen was the holy island of the Slavonic Varini (Varni), who were near neighbors of the Angles. The name Brittia perhaps represents the Slavonic Prussia, for the eponymous hero of the ancient Prussians bore the name of Bruteus. If, then, the holy island of the Germans and that of the Slavonians tvere thus confounded, we can explain the assertion of Procopius that Brittia was inhabited by the Frisians, Angles, and the Britons, the two former being a Ger- man, and the latter a Slavonic race. See Smith's Diet, of Greek and Roman Ge- ography, vol. i. p. 430 seq. — S. M>. 455-582.] OBSCURE STATE OF BRITAIN. 85 habited by a civilized people : the air is healthy, the waters are pure and plentiful, and the earth yields her regular and fruitful increase. In the west, beyond the wall, the air is infectious and mortal ; the ground is covered with serpents ; and this dreary solitude is the region of departed spirits, who are transported from the opposite shores in substantial boats and by living rowers. Some families of fishermen, the sub- jects of the Franks, are excused from tribute, in consideration of the mysterious office which is performed by these Charons of the ocean. Each in his turn is summoned, at the hour of midnight, to hear the voices, and even the names, of the ghosts : he is sensible of their weight, and he feels himself impelled by an unknown but irresistible power. After this dream of fancy, we read with astonishment that the name of this island is Brittia / that it lies in the ocean, against the mouth of the Rhine, and less than thirty miles from the con tinent ; that it is possessed by three nations, the Frisians, the Angles, and the Britons; and that some Angles had appear- ed at Constantinople in the train of the French ambassadors. From these ambassadors Procopius might be informed of a singular, though not improbable, adventure, which announces the spirit, rather than the delicacy, of an English heroine. She had been betrothed to Radiger, king of the Yarni, a tribe of Germans who touched the ocean and the Rhine ; a but the perfidious lover was tempted, by motives of policy, to pre- fer his father's widow, the sister of Theodebert, king of the Franks. 162 The forsaken princess of the Angles, instead of 162 Theodebert, grandson of Clovis and King of Austrasia, was the most power- ful and warlike prince of the age ; and this remarkable adventure may be placed between the years 534 and 547, the extreme terms of his reign. His sister Theu- dechildis retired to Sens, where she founded monasteries and distributed alms (see the notes of the Benedictine editors, in torn. ii. p. 216). If we may credit the * The Varni, called Varini by Pliny (iv. 14, s. 28) and Tacitus (Germ. c. 40), and Ovipovvoi by Ptolemy (ii. 11, § 17), originally dwelt upon the Elbe ; and they appear to have occupied the same settlements about a.d. 512 (Procop. Bell. Goth. ii. 15). Hence there can be little doubt that Procopius was mistaken in saying (Bell. Goth. iv. 20) that the Varni touched the Rhine, and that for this river we ought to substitute the Elbe. See Zeuss, Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstamme, p. 360 seq,.— S. 86 FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. [Ch. XXXVIII bewailing, revenged her disgrace. Her warlike subjects are said to have been ignorant of the use, and even of the form, of a horse ; but she boldly sailed from Britain to the mouth of the Rhine, with a fleet of four hundred ships and an army of one hundred thousand men. After the loss of a battle the captive Radiger implored the mercy of his victorious bride, who generously pardoned his offence, dismissed her rival, and compelled the king of the Varni to discharge with honor and fidelity the duties of a husband. 163 This gallant exploit ap- pears to be the last naval enterprise of the Anglo-Saxons. The arts of navigation, by which they had acquired the em- pire of Britain and of the sea, were soon neglected by the indolent barbarians, who supinely renounced all the commer- cial advantages of their insular situation. Seven independent kingdoms were agitated by perpetual discord ; and the Brit- ish world was seldom connected, either in peace or war, with the nations of the Continent. 164 I have now accomplished the laborious narrative of the de- cline and fall of the Roman empire, from the fortunate age Pali of the °^ Trajan and the Antonines to its total extinction jrirein the" m ^ ie West, about five centuries after the Christian West - era. At that unhappy period the Saxons fiercely struggled with the natives for the possession of Britain : Gaul and Spain were divided between the powerful monarchies of the Franks and Yisigoths and the dependent kingdoms of the Suevi and Burgundians : Africa was exposed to the cruel per- secution of the Yandals and the savage insults of the Moors : praises of Fortunatus (1. vi. carta. 5, in torn. ii. p. 507), Radiger was deprived of a most valuable wife. 163 p erna ps she was the sister of one of the princes or chiefs of the Angles who landed, in 527 and the following years, between the Humber and the Thames, and gradually founded the kingdoms of East Anglia and Mercia. The English writers are ignorant of her name and existence ; but Procopius may have suggested to Mr. Rowe the character and situation of Rodogune in the tragedy of the Royal Convert. 164 In the copious history of Gregory of Tours we cannot find any traces of hos- tile or friendly intercourse between France and England, except in the marriage of the daughter of Caribert, King of Paris, quam in Cantia regis cujusdam Alius matrimonio copulavit (1. ix. c. 26, in torn. ii. p. 348). The Bishop of Toiuv» ended his history and his life almost immediately before the conversion of Kern a.d. 455-582.] FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 8? Rome and Italy, as far as the banks of the Danube, were af- flicted by an army of barbarian mercenaries, whose lawless tyranny was succeeded by the reign of Theodoric the Ostro- goth. All the subjects of the empire, who, by the use of the Latin language, more particularly deserved the name and privileges of Romans, were oppressed by the disgrace and ca- lamities of foreign conquest ; and the victorious nations of Germany established a new system of manners and govern- ment in the western countries of Europe. The majesty of Rome was faintly represented by the princes of Constantino- ple, the feeble and imaginary successors of Augustus. Yet they continued to reign over the East, from the Danube to the Nile and Tigris ; the Gothic and Yandal kingdoms of It- aly and Africa were subverted by the arms of Justinian ; and the history of the Greek emperors may still afford a long se- ries of instructive lessons and interesting revolutions. 88 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE FALL GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EM. PIRE IN THE WEST. The Greeks, after their country had been reduced into a province, imputed the triumphs of Rome, not to the merit, but to the fortune, of the republic. The inconstant goddess, who so blindly distributes and resumes her favors, had now consented- (such was the language of envious flattery) to re- sign her wings, to descend from her globe, and to fix her firm and immutable throne on the banks of the Tiber. 1 A wiser Greek, who has composed, with a philosophic spirit, the mem- orable history of his own times, deprived his countrymen of this vain and delusive comfort, by opening to their view the deep foundations of the greatness of Rome. 8 The fidelity of the citizens to each other and to the State was confirmed by the habits of education and the prejudices of religion. Hon- or, as well as virtue, was the principle of the republic ; the ambitious citizens labored to deserve the solemn glories of a triumph ; and the ardor of the Roman youth was kindled into active emulation as often as they beheld the domestic images of their ancestors. 8 The temperate struggles of the Patricians and Plebeians had finally established the firm and equal bal- ance of the constitution, which united the freedom of popu- lar assemblies with the authority and wisdom of a senate and the executive powers of a regal magistrate. "When the con- sul displayed the standard of the republic, each citizen bound 1 Such are the figurative expressions of Plutarch (Opera, torn. ii. p. 318, edit. Wechel [Frankf. 1620]), to whom, on the faith of his son Lamprias (Fabricius, Bibliot. Graac. torn. iii. p. 341), I shall holdly impute the malicious declamation ■Kepi ti)q 'Pw/iaiwj/ rvxVG- The same opinions had prevailed among the Greeks two hundred and fifty years before Plutarch ; and to confute them is the professed intention of Polybius (Hist. 1. i. [c. 63] p. 90, edit. Gronov. Amstel. 1670). 2 See the inestimable remains of the sixth book of Polybius, and many other parts of his general history, particularly a digression in the seventeenth book [1. xviii. c. 12-15], in which he compares the phalanx and the legion. 3 Sallust, de Bell. Jugurthin. c. 4. Such were the generous professions of P. Scipio and Q. Maximus. The Latin historian had read, and most probably tran« Bcribes, Polybius, their contemporary and friend. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 89 himself, by the obligation of an oath, to draw his sword in the cause of his country till he had discharged the sacred duty by a military service of ten years. This wise institu- tion continually poured into the field the rising generations of freemen and soldiers; and their numbers were reinforced by the warlike and populous states of Italy, who, after a brave resistance, had yielded to the valor and embraced the alliance of the Romans. The sage historian, who excited the virtue of the younger Scipio and beheld the ruin of Carthage, 4 has accurately described their military system ; their levies, arms, exercises, subordination, marches, encampments ; and the in- vincible legion, superior in active strength to the Macedonian phalanx of Philip and Alexander. From these institutions of peace and war Polybius has deduced the spirit and success of a people incapable of fear and impatient of repose. The ambitious design of conquest, which might have been defeat- ed by the seasonable conspiracy of mankind, was attempted and achieved ; and the perpetual violation of justice was main- tained by the political virtues of prudence and courage. The arms of the republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphra- tes, the Danube, the Ehine, and the Ocean ; and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to represent the nations and their kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome. 6 The rise of a city, which swelled into an empire, may de- serve, as a singular prodigy, the reflection of a philosophic 4 While Carthage was in flames Scipio repeated two lines of the Iliad, which express the destruction of Troy, acknowledging to Polybius, his friend and pre- ceptor (Polyb. [Fragm. 1. xxxix. sub fin.] in Excerpt, de Virtut. et Vit. torn. ii. p. 1455-1465), that while he recollected the vicissitudes of human affairs he inward- ly applied them to the future calamities of Rome (Appian. in Libycis [1. viii. e. 132], p. 136, edit. Toll.). 5 See Daniel ii. 31-40. "And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron; forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things." The remainder of the prophecy (the mixture of iron and clay) was accomplished, according to St. Jerom, in his own time. Sicut enim in principio nihil Romano Imperio fortius et durius, ita in fine rerum nihil imbecillius: quum et in bellis civilibus et ad- versus diversas nationes, aliarum gentium barbararura auxilio iudigemus (Opera, torn. t. p. 572). 90 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE FALL mind. But the decline of Rome was the natural and inevita* ble effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest ; aud as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of its ruin i? simple and obvious ; and instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. The victorious legions, who, in distant wars, acquired the vices of strangers and mercenaries, first op- pressed the freedom of the republic, and afterwards violated the majesty of the purple. The emperors, anxious for their personal safety and the public peace, were reduced to the base expedient of corrupting the discipline which rendered them alike formidable to their sovereign and to the enemy ; the vigor of the military government was relaxed and finally dis- solved by the partial institutions of Constantine ; and the Roman world was overwhelmed by a deluge of barbarians. The decay of Rome has been frequently ascribed to the translation of the seat of empire ; but this history has already shown that the powers of government were divided rather than removed. The throne of Constantinople was erected in the East ; while the West was still possessed by a series of emperors who held their residence in Italy, and claimed their equal inheritance of the legions and provinces. This danger- ous novelty impaired the strength and fomented the vices of a double reign : the instruments of an oppressive and arbi- trary system were multiplied ; and a vain emulation of lux- ury, not of merit, was introduced and supported between the degenerate successors of Theodosius. Extreme distress, which unites the virtue of a free people, embitters the factions of a declining monarchy. The hostile favorites of Arcadius and Honorius betrayed the republic to its common enemies ; and the Byzantine court beheld with indifference, perhaps with pleasure, the disgrace of Rome, the misfortunes of Italy, and the loss of the West. Under the succeeding reigns the alli- ance of the two empires was restored ; but the aid of the Ori- ental Romans was tardy, doubtful, and ineffectual ; and the OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 91 national schism of the Greeks and Latins was enlarged by the perpetual difference of language and manners, of interests, and even of religion. Yet the salutary event approved in some measure the judgment of Constantine. During a long period of decay his impregnable city repelled the victorious armies of barbarians, protected the wealth of Asia, and com- manded, both in peace and war, the important straits which connect the Euxine and Mediterranean seas. The foundation of Constantinople more essentially contributed to the preser- vation of the East than to the ruin of the West. As the happiness of a future life is the great object of re- ligion, we may hear without surprise or scandal that the intro- duction, or at least the abuse, of Christianity, had some influ- ence on the decline and fall of the Roman empire. The clergy successfully preached the doctrines of patience and pusillanimity ; the active virtues of society were discouraged ; and the last remains of military spirit were buried in the cloister : a large portion of public and private wealth was con- secrated to the specious demands of charity and devotion ; and the soldiers' pay was lavished on the useless multitudes of both sexes who could only plead the merits of abstinence and chastity. 3. Faith, zeal, curiosity, and the more earthly passions of malice and ambition, kindled the flame of theolog- ical discord ; the Church, and even the State, were distracted by religious factions, whose conflicts were sometimes bloody and always implacable ; the attention of the emperors was di- verted from camps to synods ; the Roman world was oppress- ed by a new species of tyranny ; and the persecuted sects be- came the secret enemies of their country. Yet party spirit, however pernicious or absurd, is a principle of union as well as of dissension. The bishops, from eighteen hundred pul- pits, inculcated the duty of passive obedience to a lawful and orthodox sovereign ; their frequent assemblies and perpetual correspondence maintained the communion of distant church- * It might be a curious speculation how far the purer morals of the genuine and more active Christians may have compensated, in the population of the Roman empire, for the secession of such numbers into inactive and unproductive celiba- cy. — M. 92 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE FALL es ; and the benevolent temper of the Gospel was strengthen- ed, though confined, by the spiritual alliance of the Catholics. The sacred indolence of the monks was devoutly embraced by a servile and effeminate age ; but if superstition had not af- forded a decent retreat, the same vices would have tempt- ed the unworthy Romans to desert, from baser motives, the standard of the republic. Religious precepts are easily obey- ed which indulge and sanctify the natural inclinations of their votaries ; but the pure and genuine influence of Christianity may be traced in its beneficial, though imperfect, effects on the barbarian proselytes of the North. If the decline of the Roman empire was hastened by the conversion of Constan- tine, his victorious religion broke the violence of the fall, and mollified the ferocious temper of the conquerors. This awful revolution may be usefully applied to the in- struction of the present age. It is the duty of a patriot to prefer and promote the exclusive interest and glory of hia native country : but a philosopher may be permitted to en- large his views, and to consider Europe as one great republic, whose various inhabitants have attained almost the same level of politeness and cultivation. The balance of power will continue to fluctuate, and the prosperity of our own or the neighboring kingdoms may be alternately exalted or depress- ed ; but these partial events cannot essentially injure our gen- eral state of happiness, the system of arts, and laws, and man- ners, which so advantageously distinguish, above the rest of mankind, the Europeans and their colonies. The savage na- tions of the globe are the common enemies of civilized socie- ty ; and we may inquire, with anxious curiosity, whether Eu- rope is still threatened with a repetition of those calamities which formerly oppressed the arms and institutions of Rome. Perhaps the same reflections will illustrate the fall of that mighty empire, and explain the probable causes of our actual security. I. The Romans were ignorant of the extent of their dan- ger and the number of their enemies. Beyond the Rhine and Danube the northern countries of Europe and Asia were filled with innumerable tribes of hunters and shepherds, poor, OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 93 voracious, and turbulent ; bold in arms, and impatient to rav- ish the fruits of industry. The barbarian world was agitated by the rapid impulse of war ; and the peace of Gaul or Italy was shaken by the distant revolutions of China. The Huns, who fled before a victorious enemy, directed their march to- wards the West ; and the torrent was swelled by the gradual accession of captives and allies. The flying tribes who yield- ed to the Huns assumed in their turn the spirit of conquest ; the endless column of barbarians pressed on the Koman em- pire with accumulated weight ; and, if the foremost were de- stroyed, the vacant space was instantly replenished by new assailants. Such formidable emigrations no longer issue from the North ; and the long repose, which has been imputed to the decrease of population, is the happy consequence of the progress of arts and agriculture. Instead of some rude vil- lages thinly scattered among its woods and morasses, Germa- ny now produces a list of two thousand three hundred walled towns : the Christian kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Poland have been successively established ; and the Hanse merchants, with the Teutonic knights, have extended their colonies along the coast of the Baltic as far as the Gulf of Finland. From the Gulf of Finland to the Eastern Ocean, Russia now assumes the form of a powerful and civilized empire. The plough, the loom, and the forge are introduced on the banks of the Yolga, the Oby, and the Lena ; and the fiercest of the Tartar hordes have been taught to tremble and obey. The reign of independent barbarism is now contract- ed to a narrow span ; and the remnant of Calmucks or Uz- becks, whose forces may be almost numbered, cannot serious- ly excite the apprehensions of the great republic of Europe. 8 Yet this apparent security should not tempt us to forget that 6 The French and English editors of the Genealogical History of the Tartars have subjoined a curious, though imperfect, description of their present state. We might question the independence of the Calmucks, or Eluths, since they have been recently vanquished by the Chinese, who, in the year 1759, subdued the lesser Bucharia, and advanced into the country of Badakshan, near the sources of the Oxus (Memoires sur les Chinois, torn. i. p. 825-400). But these conquests are precarious, nor will I venture to insure the safety of the Chinese empire. 94 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE FALL new enemies and unknown dangers may possibly arise from some obscure people, scarcely visible in the map of the world. The Arabs or Saracens, who spread their conquests from India to Spain, had languished in poverty and contempt till Mahom- et breathed into those savage bodies the soul of enthusiasm. II. The empire of Rome was firmly established by the sin- gular and perfect coalition of its members. The subject na- tions, resigning the hope and even the wish of independence, embraced the character of Roman citizens ; and the proviuces of the "West were reluctantly torn by the barbarians from the bosom of their mother country. 7 But this union was pur- chased by the loss of national freedom and military spirit ; and the servile provinces, destitute of life and motion, expect- ed their safety from the mercenary troops aud governors who were directed by the orders of a distant court. The happi- ness of a hundred millions depended on the personal merit of one or two men, perhaps children, whose minds were cor- rupted by education, luxury, and despotic power. The deep- est wounds were inflicted on the empire during the minori- ties of the sons and grandsons of Theodosius ; and, after those incapable princes seemed to attain the age of manhood, they abandoned the Church to the bishops, the State to the eu- nuchs, and the provinces to the barbarians. Europe is now divided into twelve powerful, though unequal kingdoms, three respectable commonwealths, and a variety of smaller, though independent states : the chances of royal and ministerial tal- ents are multiplied, at least, with the number of its rulers ; and a Julian or Semiramis may reign in the North, while Arcadius and Honorius again slumber on the thrones of the South. 3, The abuses of tyranny are restrained by the mutual 7 The prudent reader will determine how far this general proposition is weaken- ed by the revolt of the Isaurians, the independence of Britain and Armorica, the Moorish tribes, or the Bagaudse of Gaul and Spain (vol. i. p. 414, vol. iv. p. 130, 178, 252). * In the first 4to edition Gibbon wrote: "A Julian or Semiramis may reign in the North, while Arcadius and Honorius slumber on the thrones of the House of Bourbon." By Julian and Semiramis Gibbon clearly alluded to Frederic of Prus- sia and Catherine of Russia ; and in the latter part of the paragraph he appears to have as clearly alluded to the French aud Spanish Bourbons. We learn from Gib- OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 95 influence of fear and shame ; republics have acquired order and stability ; monarchies have imbibed the principles of freedom, or, at least, of moderation ; and some sense of lienor and justice is introduced into the most defective constitutions by the general manners of the times. In peace, the progress of knowledge and industry is accelerated by the emulation of so many active rivals : in war, the European forces are ex- ercised by temperate and undecisive contests. If a savage conqueror should issue from the deserts of Tartary, he must repeatedly vanquish the robust peasants of Russia, the numer- ous armies of Germany, the gallant nobles of France, and the intrepid freemen of Britain ; who, perhaps, might confederate for their common defence. Should the victorious barbarians carry slavery and desolation as far as the Atlantic Ocean, ten thousand vessels would transport beyond their pursuit the remains of civilized society; and Europe would revive and flourish in the American world, which is already filled with her colonies and institutions. 8 8 America now contains about six millions of European blood and descent ; and their numbers, at least in the North, are continually increasing. Whatever may be the changes of their political situation, they must preserve the manners of Eu- rope ; and we may reflect with some pleasure that the English language will prob- ably be diffused over an immense and populous continent. bon's Memoirs (see vol. i. p. 183) that the passage was so understood by Louis XVI., who expressed his resentment to the Prince of B [Prince de Beau- veau], frcrn whom the intelligence was conveyed to the author. Gibbon then goes on to say: "I shall neither disclaim the allusion nor examine the likeness; but the situation of the late King of France excludes all suspicion of flattery; and I am ready to declare that the concluding observations of my third volume [4to] were written before his accession to the throne. " This note in the Memoirs was apparently written in 1792, after the abolition of monarchy in France and before the execution of Louis XVI. A learned writer in the Gentleman's Magazine (November, 1839) charges Gibbon with at least an error of memory in stating that the concluding observations of the third 4to volume were written before the ac- cession of Louis XVI. to the throne, on the ground that the third 4to volume was published in 1781, while Louis XVI. ascended the throne in 1771, two years be- fore the publication of even the first volume of the History. But there is no suf- ficient reason for disbelieving the statement of Gibbon ; we know from his Me- moirs that the first draft of his History was in existence some years before the publication of the first volume ; and the paragraph in question may have origi- nally alluded to Louis XV., but was allowed by the author to remain, as it was equally applicable to his successor, Louis XVI. After the misfortunes of the lat- ter monarch, Gibbon rendered the paragraph more indefinite by altering "the thrones of the House of Bourbon " into " the thrones of the South," which might thus be applied to the Spanish and Neapolitan thrones. — S. 96 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE FALL III. Cold, poverty, and a life of danger and fatigue fortify the strength and courage of barbarians. In every age they have oppressed the polite and peaceful nations of China, In- dia, and Persia, who neglected, and still neglect, to counter- balance these natural powers by the resources of military art. The warlike states of antiquity, Greece, Macedonia, and Rome educated a race of soldiers ; exercised their bodies, disciplined their courage, multiplied their forces by regular evolutions, and converted the iron which they possessed into strong and serviceable weapons. But this superiority insensibly declined with their laws and manners : and the feeble policy of Con- stantine and his successors armed and instructed, for the ruin of the empire, the rude valor of the barbarian mercenaries. The military art has been changed by the invention of gun- powder, which enables man to command the two most pow- erful agents of nature, air and fire. Mathematics, chemistry, mechanics, architecture, have been applied to the service of war ; and the adverse parties oppose to each other the most elaborate modes of attack and of defence. Historians may indignantly observe that the preparations of a siege would found and maintain a flourishing colony ; 9 yet we cannot be displeased that the subversion of a city should be a work of cost and difficulty, or that an industrious people should be protected by those arts which survive and supply the decay of military virtue. Cannon and fortifications now form an impregnable barrier against the Tartar horse ; arid Europe is secure from any future irruption of barbarians ; since, before they can conquer, they must cease to be barbarous. Their gradual advances in the science of war would always be ac- companied, as we may learn from the example of Russia, with 9 On avoit fait venir (for the siege of Turin) 140 pieces de canon ; et il est & remarquer que chaque gros canon monte revient k environ 2000 e'cus : il y avoit 100,000 boulets ; 106,000 cartouches d'une facon, et 300,000 d'une autre ; 21,000 bombes; 27,700 grenades, 15,000 sacs k terre, 30,000 instruments pour la pion- nage; 1,200,000 livres de pondre. Ajoutez a- ces munitions le plomb, le fer, et le fer-blanc, les cordages, tout ce qui sert aux mineurs, le souphre, le salpetre, les outils de toute espece. II est certain que les frais de tous ces preparatifs de de- struction suffiroient pour fonder et pour faire fleurir la plus nombreuse colonic— Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV. ch. xx. in his Works, torn. xi. p. 391. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 97 a proportionable improvement in the arts of peace anu civil policy ; and they themselves must deserve a place among the polished nations whom they subdue. Should these speculations be found doubtful or fallacious, there still remains a more humble source of comfort and hope. The discoveries of ancient and modern navigators, and the domestic history or tradition of the most enlightened nations, represent the human savage naked both in mind and body, and destitute of laws, of arts, of ideas, and almost of language. 10 From this abject condition, perhaps the primi- tive and universal state of man, he has gradually arisen to command the animals, to fertilize the earth, to traverse the ocean, and to measure the heavens. His progress in the im- provement and exercise of his mental and corporeal facul- ties" has been irregular and various; infinitely slow in the beginning, and increasing by degrees with redoubled veloci- ty : ages of laborious ascent have been followed by a moment of rapid downfall ; and the several climates of the globe have felt the vicissitudes of light and darkness. Yet the experi- ence of four thousand years should enlarge our hopes and diminish our apprehensions: we cannot determine to what height the human species may aspire in their advances to- wards perfection ; but it may safely be presumed that no peo- ple, unless the face of nature is changed, will relapse into their original barbarism. The improvements of society may be viewed under a threefold aspect. 1. The poet or philoso- pher illustrates his age and country by the efforts of a single mind ; but these superior powers of reason or fancy are rare :o It would be an easy, though tedious, task to produce the authorities of poets, philosophers, and historians. I shall therefore content myself with appealing to the decisive and authentic testimony of Diodorus Siculus (torn. i. 1. i. p. 11, 12, 1. iii. [c. 14 seq.] p. 184, etc., edit. Wesseling). The Ichthyophagi,who in his time wandered along the shores of the Red Sea, can only be compared to the natives of New Holland (Dampier's Voyages, vol. i. p. 464-469). Fancy, or perhaps reason, may still suppose an extreme and absolute state of nature far below the level of these savages, who had acquired some arts and instruments. 11 See the learned and rational work of the President Goguet, de VOrigine dea Loix, des Arts, et des Sciences. He traces from facts or conjectures (torn. i. p. 1 47-337, edit. 12mo) the first and most difficult steps of human invention. IV.— 7 98 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE FALL and spontaneous productions ; and the genius of Homer, 01 Cicero, or Newton would excite less admiration if they could be created by the will of a prince or the lessons of a precep- tor. 2. The benefits of law and policy, of trade and manu- factures, of arts and sciences, are more solid and permanent ; and many individuals may be qualified, by education and dis- cipline, to promote, in their respective stations, the interest of the community. But this general order is the effect of skill and labor; and the complex machinery may be decayed by time or injured by violence. 3. Fortunately for mankind, the more useful, or, at least, more necessary, arts can be per- formed without superior talents or national subordination ; without the powers of one or the union of many. Each vil- lage, each family, each individual, must always possess both ability and inclination to perpetuate the use of fire 12 and of metals ; the propagation and service of domestic animals ; the methods of hunting and fishing; the rudiments of naviga- tion ; the imperfect cultivation of corn or other nutritive grain ; and the simple practice of the mechanic trades. Pri- vate genius and public industry may be extirpated ; but these hardy plants survive the tempest, and strike an everlasting root into the most unfavorable soil. The splendid days of Augustus and Trajan were eclipsed by a cloud of ignorance ; and the barbarians subverted the laws and palaces of Rome. But the scythe, the invention or emblem of Saturn, 13 still con- tinued annually to mow the harvests of Italy ; and the hu- man feasts of the Lsestrigons 14 have never been renewed on the coast of Campania. 12 It is certain, however strange, that many nations have been ignorant of the use of fire. Even the ingenious natives of Otaheite, who are destitute of metals, have not invented any earthen vessels capable of sustaining the action of fire and of communicating the heat to the liquids which they contain. 13 Plutarch. Qusest. Rom. in torn. ii. p. 275 [torn. vii. p. 112, edit. Reiske]. Macrob. Saturnal. 1. i. c. 7, p. 152, edit. London. The arrival of Saturn (of his religious worship) in a ship may indicate that the savage coast of Latium was first discovered and civilized by the Phoenicians. 14 In the ninth and tenth books of the Odyssey, Homer has embellished the tales of fearful and credulous sailors who transformed the cannibals of Italy and Sicily into monstrous giants. OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 99 Since the first discovery of tlie arts, war, commerce, and re- ligious zeal have diffused among the savages of the Old and New World these inestimable gifts: they have been succes- sively propagated ; they can never be lost. We may therefore acquiesce in the pleasing conclusion that every age of the world has increased and still increases the real wealth, the happiness, tlio knowledge, and perhaps the virtue, of the hu- man race. 16 u The merit of discovery has too often been stained with avarice, cruelty, and fanaticism ; and the intercourse of nations has produced the communication of dis ease and prejudice. A singular exception is due to the virtue of our own times and country. The five great voyages, successively undertaken by the command of his present Majesty, were inspired by the pure and generous love of science and of mankind. The same prince, adapting his benefactions to the different stages of society, has founded a school of painting in his capital, and has introduced into the islands of the (Douth Sea the vegetables and animals most useful to bumau 100 BIRTH AND EDUCATION I.Ch. XXXEX. CHAPTEE XXXIX. Zeno and Anastasius, Emperors of the East. — Birth, Education, and first Ex- ploits 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 in- terval of fifty years, till the memorable reign of Justinian, is faintly marked by the obscure names and imperfect annals of Zeno, Anastasius, and Justin, who succes- sively ascended the throne of Constantinople. During the same period, Italy revived and flourished under the govern- ment of a Gothic king who might have deserved a statue among the best and bravest of the ancient Romans. Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the fourteenth in lineal descent Birth and °f the r °y a l htae of the Amali, 1 was born in the T^eo a dor?c.° f neighborhood of Yienna 2 two years after the death a.d. 455-475. £ Attila. A recent victory had restored the inde- pendence of the Ostrogoths ; and the three brothers, Walamir, 1 Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 13, 14, p. 629, 630, edit. Grot.) has drawn the pedigree of Theodoric from Gapt, one of the Arises or Demi-gods, who lived about the time of Domitian. Cassiodorus, the first who celebrates the royal race of the Amali (Variar. viii. 5, ix. 25, x. 2, xi. 1), reckons the grandson of Theodoric as the seventeenth in descent. Peringsciold (the Swedish commentator of Coch- Iceus, Vit. Theodoric. p. 271, etc., Stockholm, 1699) labors to connect this genealogy with the legends or traditions of his native country. 1 2 More correctly on the banks of the lake Pelso (Nieusiedler-see) near Carnum- tum, almost on the same spot where Marcus Antoninus composed his Meditations (Jornandes, c. 52, p. 689. Severin. Pannonia Illustrata, p. 22. Cellarius, Geo- graph. Antiq. torn. i. p. 350). a Amala was a name of hereditary sanctity and honor among the Ostrogoths. It enters into the names of Amalaberga, Amala suintha(swinthei means strength), Amalafred, Amalarich. In the poem of the Nibelungen, written three hundred years later, the Ostrogoths are called the Amilungen. According to Wachter, it means unstained, from the privative a, and malo, a stain. It is pure Sanscrit, Amala, immaculatus. Schlegel, Indische Bibliothek. 1, p. 233. — M, A.D. 455-475.] OF THEODORIC. 101 Theodemir, and Widimir, who ruled that warlike nation with united counsels, had separately pitched their habitations in the fertile, though desolate, province of Pannonia. The Huns still threatened their revolted subjects, but their hasty attack was repelled by the single forces of Walamir, and the news of his victory reached the distant camp of his brother in the same auspicious moment that the favorite concubine of The- odemir was delivered of a son and heir. a In the eighth year of his age, Theodoric was reluctantly yielded by his father to the public interest, as the pledge of an alliance which Leo, Emperor of the East, had consented to purchase by an annual subsidy of three hundred pounds of gold. The royal host- age was educated at Constantinople with care and tenderness. His body was formed to all the exercises of war, his mind was expanded by the habits of liberal conversation ; he frequent- ed the schools of the most skilful masters, but he disdained or neglected the arts of Greece ; and so ignorant did he al- ways remain of the first elements of science, that a rude mark was contrived to represent the signature of the illiterate King of Italy. 3 As soon as he had attained the age of eighteen he 3 The four first letters of his name (0EOA) were inscribed on a gold plate, and when it was fixed on the paper the king drew his pen through the intervals (Anonym. Valesian. ad calcem Amm- Marcellin. p. 722 [torn. ii. p. 313, edit. Bi- * Genealogical table of the family of Theodoric : I I 1 Walamir. Theodemir = Erelieva. Widerair, j ob. 473. Widemir. Theudimundus, = Theodoric = Audefleda, Amalafreda, ob. 526. sister or daugh. m. Trasamuiidus, of Clovis. king of the Vandals. I Theudegotha, Ostrogotha, Amalasuentha, Theodahadus, Amalaberga, m. Alaric, m. Sigismundus, ob. 534, ob. 536. m. Hermenfredus, king of the king of the m. Eutharicus. Visigoths, Burgundians, ob. 507. ob. 523. Amalaric, Sigeric, Athalaric, ob. 531. ob. 522. ob. 534. See Clinton, Fasti Romani, vol. ii. p. 143. 102 THEODORIC. [Ch. XXXIX. was restored to the wishes of the Ostrogoths, whom the em- peror aspired to gain by liberality and confidence. "Walamir had fallen in battle ; the youngest of the brothers, Widimir, had led away into Italy and Gaul an army of barbarians ; and the whole nation acknowledged for their king the father of Theodoric. His ferocious subjects admired the strength and stature of their young prince, 4 and he soon convinced them that he had not degenerated from the valor of his ancestors. At the head of six thousand volunteers he secretly left the camp in quest of adventures, descended the Danube as far as Singidunum, or Belgrade, and soon returned to his father with the spoils of a Sarmatian king whom he had vanquished and slain. Such triumphs, however, were productive only of fame, and the invincible Ostrogoths were reduced to extreme distress by the want of clothing and food. They unanimous- ly resolved to desert their Pannonian encampments, and bold- ly to advance into the warm and wealthy neighborhood of the Byzantine court, which already maintained in pride and luxury so many bands of confederate Goths. After proving, by some acts of hostility, that they could be dangerous, or at least troublesome, enemies, the Ostrogoths sold at a high price their reconciliation and fidelity, accepted a donative of lands and money, and were intrusted with the defence of the Lower Danube under the command of Theodoric, who succeeded af- ter his father's death to the hereditary throne of the Amali. 5 b pon.]). This authentic fact, with the testimony of Procopius, or at least of the contemporary Goths (Gothic. 1. i. c. 2, p. 312 [edit. Paris; torn. ii. p. 14, edit. Bonn]), far outweighs the vague praises of Ennodius (Sirmond. Opera, torn. i. p. 1596) and Theophanes (Chronograph, p. 112 [edit. Par. ; p. 202, 203, edit. Bonn]). 1 4 Statura est quas resignet proceritate regnantem (Ennodius, p. 1614). The Bishop of Pavia (I mean the ecclesiastic who wished to be a bishop) then proceeds to celebrate the complexion, eyes, hands, etc., of his sovereign. 6 The state of the Ostrogoths and the first years of Theodoric are found in Jor- nandes (c. 52-56, p. 689-696) and Malchus (Excerpt. Legat. p. 78-80 [edit. Par. ; p. 244-248, edit. Bonn]), who erroneously styles him the son of Walamir. a Le Beau and his commentator, M. St. Martin, support, though with no very satisfactory evidence, the opposite opinion. But Lord Mahon (Life of Belisarius, p. 19) urges the much stronger argument, the Byzantine education of Theodoric. — M. b Theodoric began to reign not later than 476, when he was about twenty-two years of age. Clinton, Fast. Rom. vol. ii. p. 146. — S. A.D. 474-491.] REIGN OF ZENO. 103 A hero, descended from a race of kings, must have de- spised the base Isaurian who was invested with the Roman The reign purple, without any endowments of mind or body, a!p Z 474U9i, without any advantages of royal birth or superior F«b'.,Apni9; qualifications. After the failure of the Theodo- sian line, the choice of Pulcheria and of the senate might be justified in some measure by the characters of Marcian and Leo ; but the latter of these princes confirmed and dishonor- ed his reign by the perfidious murder of Aspar and his sons, who too rigorously exacted the debt of gratitude and obedi- ence. The inheritance of Leo and of the East was peaceably devolved on his infant grandson, the son of his daughter Ari- adne ; and her Isaurian husband, the fortunate Trascalisseus, exchanged that barbarous sound for the Grecian appellation of Zeno. After the decease of the elder Leo, he approached with unnatural respect the throne of his son, humbly received as a gift the second rank in the empire, and soon excited the public suspicion on the sudden and premature death of his young colleague, whose life could no longer promote the suc- cess of his ambition. But the palace of Constantinople was ruled by female influence and agitated by female passions ; and Yerina, the widow of Leo, claiming his empire as her own, pronounced a sentence of deposition against the worth- less and ungrateful servant on whom she alone had bestowed the sceptre of the East." As soon as she sounded a revolt in the ears of Zeno, he fled with precipitation into the moun- tains of Isauria ; and her brother Basiliscus, already infamous by his African expedition, 7 was unanimously proclaimed by the servile senate. But the reign of the usurper was short and turbulent. Basiliscus presumed to assassinate the lover of his sister ; he dared to offend the lover of his wife, the vain and insolent Harmatius, who, in the midst of Asiatic lux- ury, affected the dress, the demeanor, and the surname of 6 Theophanes (p. Ill [p. 200, edit. Bonn]) inserts a copy of her sacred letters to the provinces ; lore, on to fiaoikeiov rijierepov tan * * * icai on irpoxnpV' Tl 't 1 ^a fiao-iXza Tpao-KaXXiaalov, etc. Such female pretensions would have astonished the slaves of the first Caesars. ' See vol. iii. p. 638 seq. 104: REIGN OF ANASTASIUS. [Ch. XXXIX. Achilles. 8 By the conspiracy of the malcontents, Zeno was recalled from exile ; the r.rmies, the capital, the person of Ba- siliscus, were betrayed ; and his whole family was condemned to the long agony of cold and hunger by the inhuman con- queror, who wanted courage to encounter or to forgive his enemies. 3 The haughty spirit of Yerina was still incapable of submission or repose. She provoked the enmity of a fa- vorite general, embraced his cause as soon as he was dis- graced, created a new emperor in Syria and Egypt, b raised an army of seventy thousand men, and persisted to the last mo- ment of her life in a fruitless rebellion, which, according to the fashion of the age, had been predicted by Christian her- mits and Pagan magicians. While the East was afflicted by the passions of Yerina, her daughter Ariadne was distinguish- ed by the female virtues of mildness and fidelity ; she fol- lowed her husband in his exile, and after his restoration she implored his clemency in favor of her mother. On the de- cease of Zeno, Ariadne, the daughter, the mother, and the widow of an emperor, gave her hand and the im- tasius, perial title to Anastasius, an aged domestic of the a.b. 491-518, r . . .,,.,. , April 11, palace, who survived his elevation above twenty- July8. 1 ' , . . . ,,i seven years, and whose character is attested by the acclamation of the people, " Reign as you have lived !" 9 c 8 Suidas, torn. i. p. 332, 333, edit. Kuster. 9 The contemporary histories of Malchus and Candidus are lost ; but some ex- tracts or fragments have been saved by Photius (lxxviii. lxxix. p. 100-102 [p. 54-56, edit. Bekk.]), Constantine Porphyrogenitus (Excerpt. Leg. p. 78-97), and in various articles of the Lexicon of Suidas. The Chronicles of Marcellinns (Imago Historian) are originals for the reigns of Zeno and Anastasius ; and I must acknowledge, almost for the last time, my obligations to tlie large and ac- curate collections of Tillemont (Hist, des Emp. torn. vi. p. 472-652). * Joannes Lydus accuses Zeno of timidity, or, rather, of cowardice : he pur- chased an ignominious peace from the enemies of the empire, whom he dared not meet in battle ; and employed his whole time at home in confiscations and execu- tions. Lydus de Magist. iii. 45, p. 230 [p. 238, edit. Bonn]. — M. b Named Illus. — M. * The Panegyric of Procopius of Gaza (edited by "Villoison in his Anecdota Grteca, and reprinted in the new edition of the Byzantine historians by Niebuhr, in the same vol. with Dexippus and Eunapius, p. 488, 516) was unknown to Gib- bon. It is vague and pedantic, and contains few facts. The same criticism will apply to the poetical panegyric of Priscian, edited from the MS. of Bobbio by A p. 475-488.] SERVICE AND REVOLT OF THEODORIC. 105 Whatever fear or affection could bestow was profusely lav- ished by Zeno on the king of the Ostrogoths; the rank of Service aud patrician and consul, the command of the Palatine Theododc. troops, an equestrian statue, a treasure in gold aud a.d. 475-488. s il ver f many thousand pounds, the name of son, and the promise of a rich and honorable wife. As long as Theodoric condescended to serve, he supported with courage and fidelity the cause of his benefactor; his rapid march con- tributed to the restoration of Zeno ; and in the second revolt, the Walamirs, as they were called, pursued and pressed the Asiatic rebels, till they left an easy victory to the imperial troops. 10 But the faithful servant was suddenly converted into a formidable enemy, who spread the flames of war from Constantinople to the Adriatic ; many flourishing cities were reduced to ashes, and the agriculture of Thrace was almost extirpated by the wanton cruelty of the Goths, who deprived their captive peasants of the right hand that guided the plough. 11 On such occasions Theodoric sustained the loud and specious reproach of disloyalty, of ingratitude, and of in- satiate avarice, which could be only excused by the hard ne- cessity of his situation. He reigned, not as the monarch, but as the minister of a ferocious people, whose spirit was unbroken by slavery, and impatient of real or imaginary in- sults. Their poverty was incurable, since the most liberal do- natives were soon dissipated in wasteful luxury, and the most 10 In ipsis congressionis tuse foribus cessit invasor, cum prof ugo per te sceptra redderentur de salute dubitanti. Ennodius then proceeds (p. 1596, 1597, torn. i. Sirmond) to transport his hero (on a flying dragon?) into JEthiopia, beyond the tropic of Cancer. The evidence of the Valesian Fragment (p. 71 7), Liberatus (Brev. Eutych. c. 25. p, 118), and Theophanes (p. 112 [p. 203, edit. Bonn]), is more sober and rational. 11 This cruel practice is specially imputed to the Triarian Goths, less barbarous, as it should seem, than the Walamirs ; but the son of Theodemir is charged with the ruin of many Roman cities (Malchus, Excerpt, Leg. p. 95 [edit. Par. ; p. 238, edit. Bonn]). a Ang.Mai. Priscian, the grammarian, Niebuhr argues from this work, must have been born in the African, not in either of the Asiatic Csesareas. Pref. p. xi. — M. a Malchus does not say that the Goths cut off the right hand of the peasants, but that they cut off the hands of the Roman general Harmatius, and expelled the husbandmen from the country. Gibbon seems to have misconstrued this passage. — S. 106 SERVICES AND REVOLT OF THEODORIC. [Cu. XXXLX. fertile estates became barren in their hands; they despised, but they envied, the laborious provincials ; and when their subsistence had failed, the Ostrogoths embraced the familiar resources of war and rapine. It had been the wish of The- odoric (such, at least, was his declaration) to lead a peaceful, obscure, obedient life, on the confines of Scythia, till the By- zantine court, by splendid and fallacious promises, seduced him to attack a confederate tribe of Goths, who had been en- gaged in the party of Basiliscus. He marched from his station in Msesia, on the solemn assurance that before he reached Adrianople he should meet a plentiful convoy of provisions, and a reinforcement of eight thousand horse and thirty thousand foot, while the legions of Asia were encamped at Heraclea to second his operations. These measures were disappointed by mutual jealousy. As he ad- vanced into Thrace, the son of Theodemir found an inhospi- table solitude, and his Gothic followers, with a heavy train of horses, of mules, and of wagons, were betrayed by their guides among the rocks and precipices of Mount Sondis, a where he was assaulted by the arms and invectives of Theodoric, the son of Triarius. From a neighboring height his artful rival harangued the camp of the Wala?nirs, and branded their lead- er with the opprobrious names of child, of madman, of per- jured traitor, the enemy of his blood and nation. "Are you ignorant," exclaimed the son of Triarius, " that it is the con- stant policy of the Romans to destroy the Goths by each oth- er's swords ? Are you insensible that the victor in this un- natural contest will be exposed, and justly exposed, to their implacable revenge ? Where are those warriors, my kinsmen and thy own, whose widows now lament that their lives were sacrificed to thy rash ambition ? Where is the wealth which thy soldiers possessed when they were first allured from their native homes to enlist under thy standard ? Each of them they now follow a The name of this mountain, which is found only in this passage, is probably corrupt. We ought perhaps to read Succi, and seek the mountain near Soneium, on the borders of Dacia and Thrace, where the mountain-pass was loftiest. Man- so, Geschichte des Ost-Gothischen Reiches, p. 26.— S. a.d.481.] HE UNDEKTAKES THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 107 thee on foot, like slaves, through the deserts of Thrace ; those men who were tempted by the hope of measuring gold with a bushel, those brave men who are as free and as noble as thyself." A language so well suited to the temper of the Gotha excited clamor and discontent; and the son of The- odemir, apprehensive of being left alone, was compelled to embrace his brethren, and to imitate the example of Roman perfidy." In every state of his fortune the prudence and firmness of Theodoric were equally conspicuous ; whether he threatened He under- Constantinople at the head of the confederate Goths, conquest or retreated with a faithful band to the mountains Id. 479'. and sea -coast of Epirus. At length the acciden- a.d. 48i. tal death of the son of Triarius 13 destroyed the bal- ance which the Romans had been so anxious to preserve, the whole nation acknowledged the supremacy of the Amali, and the Byzantine court subscribed an ignominious and oppressive treaty. 14 The senate had already declared that it was neces- sary to choose a party among the Goths, since the public was unequal to the support of their united forces. A subsidy of two thousand pounds of gold, with the ample pay of thirteen thousand men, were required for the least considerable of their armies ; 15 and the Isaurians, who guarded not the empire but the emperor, enjoyed, besides the privilege of rapine, an annual pension of five thousand pounds. The sagacious mind 12 Jornandes (c. 56, 57, p. 696) displays the services of Theodoric, confesses his rewards, but dissembles his revolt, of which such curious details have been pre- served by Malchus (Excerpt. Legat. p. 78-97 [p. 244 seq., edit. Bonn]). Mar- cellinus, a domestic of Justinian, under whose fourth consulship (a.d. 534) he com- posed his Chronicle (Scaliger, Thesaurus Temporum, P. ii. p. 34-57), betrays hia prejudice and passion : in [apud] "Grseciam debacchantem * * * Zenonis munifi- centia pene pacatus * * * beneficiis nunquam satiatus,"etc. [p. 368, 369, and 370, edit. Sirmond]. 13 As he was riding in his own camp an unruly horse threw him against tha point of a spear which hung before a tent or was fixed on a wagon (Marcellin. in Chron. Evagrius, 1. iii. c. 25). 14 See Malchus (p. 91 [edit. Par. ; p. 268, edit. Bonn]) and Evagrius (1. iii. c. 35). 15 Malchus, p. 85 [p. 256, edit. Bonn]. In a single action, which was decided by the skill and discipline of Sabinian, Theodoric could lose 5000 men. 108 MAEOH OP THEODOKIC. [Ch, XXXIX. of Theodoric soon perceived that he was odious to the Ro- mans and suspected by the barbarians; he understood the popular murmur, that his subjects were exposed in their fro- zen huts to intolerable hardships, while their king was dis- solved in the luxury of Greece ; and he prevented the painful alternative of encountering the Goths as the champion, or of leading them to the field as the enemy, of Zeno. Embracing an enterprise worthy of his courage and ambition, Theodoric addressed the emperor in the following words : " Although your servant is maintained in affluence by your liberality, graciously listen to the wishes of my heart ! Italy, the inher- itance of your predecessors, and Rome itself, the head and mistress of the world, now fluctuate under the violence and oppression of Odoacer the mercenary. Direct me, with my national troops, to march against the tyrant. If I fall, you will be relieved from an expensive and troublesome friend ; if, with the Divine permission, I succeed, I shall govern, in your name and to your glory, the Roman senate and the part of the republic delivered from slavery by my victorious arms." The proposal of Theodoric was accepted, and perhaps had been suggested, by the Byzantine court. But the forms of the commission or grant appear to have been expressed with a prudent ambiguity, which might be explained by the event ; and it was left doubtful whether the conqueror of Italy should reign as the lieutenant, the vassal, or the ally of the Emperor of the East. 16 The reputation both of the leader and of the war diffused a universal ardor; the Walamirs were multiplied by the Gothic swarms already engaged in the service, or seated in His march. . „ , . -.,,-,-,-, the provinces, of the empire ; and each bold bar- barian who had heard of the wealth and beauty of Italy was impatient to seek, through the most perilous adventures, the possession of such enchanting objects. The march of Theo- doric must be considered as the emigration of an entire peo- 16 Jornandes (c. 57, p. 696, 697) has abridged the great history of Cassiodorus. See, compare, and reconcile Procopius (Gothic 1. i. c. i.), the Valesian Fragment (p. 718 [ad calcem Amm. Marc. torn. ii. p. 306, edit. Bip.]), Theophanes (p. 113 |~p. 203, edit. Bonn]), and Marcellinus (in Chron.). 0..D. 489-490.] DEFEATS OF ODOACER. 109 pie; the wives and children of the Goths, their aged parents, and most precious effects were carefully transported ; and some idea may be formed of the heavy baggage that now fol- lowed the camp by the loss of two thousand wagons which had been sustained in a single action in the war of Epirus. For their subsistence, the Goths depended on the magazines of corn, which was ground in portable mills by the hands of their women, on the milk and flesh of their flocks and herds, on the casual produce of the chase, and upon the contribu- tions which they might impose on all who should presume to dispute the passage or to refuse their friendly assistance. Notwithstanding these precautions, they were exposed to the danger, and almost to the distress, of famine, in a march of seven hundred miles, which had been undertaken in the depth of a rigorous winter. Since the fall of the Roman power, Dacia and Pannonia no longer exhibited the rich prospect of populous cities, well-cultivated fields, and conven- ient highways : the reign of barbarism and desolation was restored ; and the tribes of Bulgarians, Gepidge, and Sarma- tians, who had occupied the vacant province, were prompted by their native fierceness, or the solicitations of Odoacer, to resist the progress of his enemy. In many obscure though bloody battles Theodoric fought and vanquished ; till at length, surmounting every obstacle by skilful conduct and persevering courage, he descended from the Julian Alps, and displayed his invincible banners on the confines of Italy." Odoacer, a rival not unworthy of his arms, had already oc- The three cupied the advantageous and well-known post of odoacer° f tne river Sontius, near the ruins of Aquileia, at Aug. 4 !!' tne head of a powerful host, whose independent A^ifo,' kings™ or leaders disdained the duties of subordina- Aug.n. j.- on an( j ^ e p ra d ence f delays. No sooner had Theodoric granted a short repose and refreshment to his 17 Theodoric's march is supplied and illustrated by Ennodius (p. 1598-1602), when the bombast of the oration is translated into the language of common-sense. 18 Tot reges, etc. (Ennodius, p. 1602). We must recollect how much the royal title was multiplied and degraded, and that the mercenaries of Italy were the fragments of many tribes and nations. 110 DEFEATS OF ODOACER. [Ch. XXXIX. wearied cavalry, than he boldly attacked the fortifications of the enemy; the Ostrogoths showed more ardor to acquire, than the mercenaries to defend, the lands of Italy, and the reward of the first victory was the possession of the Venetian province as far as the walls of Verona. In the neighborhood of that city, on the steep banks of the rapid Adige, he was opposed by a new army, reinforced in its numbers, and not impaired in its courage : the contest was more obstinate, but the event was still more decisive ; Odoacer fled to Ravenna, Theodoric advanced to Milan, and the vanquished troops sa- luted their conqueror with loud acclamations of respect and fidelity. But their want either of constancy or of faith soon exposed him to the most imminent danger; his vanguard, with several Gothic counts, which had been rashly intrusted to a deserter, was betrayed and destroyed near Faenza by his double treachery ; Odoacer again appeared master of the field, and the invader, strongly intrenched in his camp of Pa- via, was reduced to solicit the aid of a kindred nation, the Visigoths of Gaul. In the course of this history the most voracious appetite for war will be abundantly satiated ; nor can I much lament that our dark and imperfect materials do not afford a more ample narrative of the distress of Italy, and of the fierce conflict which was finally decided by the abili- ties, experience, and valor of the Gothic king. Immediately before the battle of Verona he visited the tent of his moth- er 19 and sister, and requested that on a day, the most illustri- ous festival of his life, they would adorn him with the rich garments which they had worked with their own hands. "Our glory," said he, "is mutual and inseparable. You are known to the world as the mother of Theodoric, and it be- comes me to prove that I am the genuine offspring of those heroes from whom I claim my descent." The wife or concu- bine of Theodemir was inspired with the spirit of the Ger- man matrons, who esteemed their sons' honor far above their safety ; and it is reported that in a desperate action, when 19 See Ennodius, p. 1603,1604. Since the orator, in the king's presence, could mention and praise his mother, we may conclude that the magnanimity of Theod« one was not hurt by the vulgar reproaches of concubine and bastard. AJ>. 4930 DEATH OF ODOACER. Ill Theodoric himself was hurried along by the torrent of a fly- ing crowd, she boldly met them at the entrance of the camp, and, by her generous reproaches, drove them back on the swords of the enemy. 30 From the Alps to the extremity of Calabria, Theodoric reigned by the right of conquest: the Yandal ambassadors . surrendered the island of Sicily as a lawful ap- latiou and pendage of his kingdom, and he was accepted as a.d.493, the deliverer of Rome by the senate and people, March 5. , . who had shut their gates against the flying usurp- er. 21 Ravenna alone, secure in the fortifications of art and nature, still sustained a siege of almost three years, and the daring sallies of Odoacer carried slaughter and dismay into the Gothic camp. At length, destitute of provisions and hopeless of relief, that unfortunate monarch yielded to the groans of his subjects and the clamors of his soldiers. A treaty of peace was negotiated by the Bishop of Ravenna; the Ostrogoths were admitted into the city ; and the hostile kings consented, under the sanction of an oath, to rule with equal and undivided authority the provinces of Italy . b The event of such an agreement may be easily foreseen. After some days had been devoted to the semblance of joy and friendship, Odoacer, in the midst of a solemn banquet, was stabbed by the hand, or at least by the command, of his rival. Secret and effectual orders had been previously despatched ; the faithless and rapacious mercenaries at the same moment, 80 This anecdote is related on the modem but respectable authority of Sigo- nius (Op. torn. i. p. 580; De Occident. Imp. 1. xv.): his words are curious: "Would you return?" etc. She presented and almost displayed the original 21 Hist. Miscell. 1. xv., a Roman history from Janus to the ninth century, an Epitome of Eutropius, Paulus Diaconus, and Theophanes, which Muratori has published from a MS. in the Ambrosian library (Script. Rerum Italicarum, torn. i. p. 100). a The authority of Sigonius would scarcely have weighed with Gibbon except for an indecent anecdote. I have a recollection of a similar story in some of the Italian wars. — M. b This agreement to rule jointly is mentioned only by Procopius, and is not noticed by Jornandes, Cassiodorus, or the Anonymous, It is rejected by Till©* aaout. See Manso, ut supra, p. 45. — S 112 REIGN OF THEODORIC. [Ch. XXXIX. and without resistance, were universally massacred ; and the royalty of Theodoric was proclaimed by the Goths, with the tardy, reluctant, ambiguous consent of the Emperor of the East. The design of a conspiracy was imputed, according to the usual forms, to the prostrate tyrant, but his innocence and the guilt of his conqueror 32 are sufficiently proved by the ad- vantageous treaty which force would not sincerely have grant- ed, nor weakness have rashly infringed. The jealousy of power, and the mischiefs of discord, may suggest a more de^ cent apology, and a sentence less rigorous may be pronounced against a crime which was necessary to introduce Reieu of The- . odoric, king into Italy a generation of public felicity. The liv- of Italy; . , J & , ...... r , . J , . , a.d.493, mg author ot this felicity was audaciously praised a.d.526, in his own presence by sacred and profane orators ; 2S but history (in his time she was mute and inglori- ous) has not left any just representation of the events which displayed, or of the defects which clouded, the virtues of The- odoric. 24 One record of his fame, the volume of public epis- tles composed by Cassiodorus in the royal name, is still ex- tant, and has obtained more implicit credit than it seems to deserve. 25 They exhibit the forms, rather than the substance, 22 Procopius (Gothic. 1. i. c. i.) approves himself an impartial sceptic ; (petal * * * SoXtptii Tp6irn> tKTEivt [torn. ii. p. 10, edit. Bonn], Cassiodorus (in Chron.) and Ennodius (p. 1605) are loyal and credulous, and the testimony of the Valesian Fragment (p. 718 [Amm. torn. ii. p. 307, edit. Bip.]) may justify their belief. Marcellinus spits the venom of a Greek subject — "Perjuriis illectus, interfec- tusque est " (in Chron. [anno 489]). 23 The sonorous and servile oration of Ennodius was pronounced at Milan or Ravenna in the years 507 or 508 (Sirmond, torn. i. p. 1615). Two or three years afterwards the orator was rewarded with the bishopric of Pavia, which he held till his death in the year 521. (Dupin, Bibliot. Eccles. torn. v. p. 11-14. See Saxii Onomasticon, torn. ii. p. 12.) 24 Our best materials are occasional hints from Procopius and the Valesian Fragment, which was discovered by Sirmond, and is published at the end of Am- mianus Marcellinus. The author's name is unknown, and his style is barbarous ; but in his various facts he exhibits the knowledge, without the passions, of a con- temporary. The President Montesquieu had formed the plan of an history of Theodoric, which at a distance might appear a rich and interesting subject. 25 The best edition of the Variarum Libri xii. is that of Joh. Garretius (Roto- magi, 1679, in Opp. Cassiodor. 2 vols, in fol); but they deserved and required such an editor as the Marquis Scipio Maffei, who thought of publishing them at a.d. 493-526.] PARTITION OF LANDS. xl3 of his government ; and we should vainly search for the pure and spontaneous sentiments of the barbarian amidst the dec- lamation and learning of a sophist, the wishes of a Roman senator, the precedents of office, and the vague professions which, in every court and on every occasion, compose the lan- guage of discreet ministers. The reputation of Theodoric may repose with more confidence on the visible peace and prosperity of a reign of thirty- three years, the unanimous esteem of his own times, and the memory of his wisdom and courage, his justice and humanity, which was deeply im- pressed on the minds of the Goths and Italians. The partition of the lands of Italy, of which Theodoric as- signed the third part to his soldiers, is honorably arraigned as Partition * ne so ^ e injustice of his life. a And even this act ofiande. may be fairly justified by the example of Odoacer, the rights of conquest, the true interest of the Italians, and the sacred duty of subsisting a whole people, who, on the faith of his promises, had transported themselves into a dis- tant land. 28 Under the reign of Theodoric, and in the happy climate of Italy, the Goths soon multiplied to a formidable host of two hundred thousand men, 27 and the whole amount of their families may be computed by the ordinary addition of women and children. Their invasion of property, a part of which must have been already vacant, was disguised by the generous but improper name of hospitality ; these unwel- come guests were irregularly dispersed over the face of Italy, and the lot of each barbarian was adequate to his birth and office, the number of his followers, and the rustic wealth Verona. The Barbara Eleganza (as it is ingeniously named by Tiraboschi) is never simple, and seldom perspicuous. 26 Procopins, Gothic. 1. i. c. i. ; Variarum, ii. Maffei (Verona Illustrata, P. i. p. 22S) exaggerates the injustice of the Goths, whom he hated as an Italian noble. The Plebeian Muratori crouches under their oppression. 21 Procopius, Goth. 1. iii. c. 4, 21 [torn. ii. p. 295, 366, edit. Bonn]. Ennodius describes (p. 1612, 1613) the military arts and increasing numbers of the Goths. * Compare vol. iii. p. 662. It has been clearly shown by Savigny that the Goths retained the land-tax and the capitation-tax imposed by the Roman em- perors. Geschichte des Romischen Rechts, vol. i. p. 332 seq., 2d edit. See ed* itor's note on Gibbon, vol. ii. p. 312. — S. IV.— 8 114: SEPARATION OF GOTHS AND ITALIANS. [Ch. XXXIX. which he possessed in slaves and cattle. The distinctions of noble and plebeian were acknowledged, 48 but the lands of ev- ery freeman were exempt from taxes, a and he enjoyed the in- estimable privilege of being subject only to the laws of his country. 28 Fashion, and even convenience, soon persuaded the conquerors to assume the more elegant dress of the na- tives, but they still persisted in the use of their mother- tongue; and their contempt for the Latin schools was ap- plauded by Theodoric himself, who gratified their prejudices, or his own, by declaring that the child who had trembled at a rod would never dare to look upon a sword. 30 Distress might sometimes provoke the indigent Roman to assume the ferocious manners which were insensibly relinquished by the Separation the Goths and Italians. were not encouraged by the policy of a monarch who perpetuated the separation of the Italians and Goths, reserving the former for the arts of peace, and the latter for the service of war. To accomplish this design, he studied to protect his industrious subjects, and to moderate the violence, without enervating the valor, of his soldiers, who were maintained for the public defence. They held their lands and benefices as a military stipend : at the sound of the trumpet they were prepared to march under the conduct of their provincial officers, and the whole extent of 28 When Theodoric gave his sister to the king of the Vandals, she sailed for Africa with a guard of 1000 noble Goths, each of whom was attended by five armed followers (Procop. Vandal. 1. i. c. 8 [torn. i. p. 346, edit. Bonn]). The Gothic nobi'ity must have been as numerous as brave. 29 See the acknowledgment of Gothic liberty (Var. v. SO). 30 Procopius, Goth. 1. i. c. 2 [torn. ii. p. 14, edit. Bonn]. The Roman boys learned the language (Var. viii. 21) of the Goths. Their general ignorance is not d&stroved by the exceptions of Amalasuntha, a female, who might study without shame, or of Theodatus, whose learning provoked the indignation and contempt of his countrymen. 31 A saying of Theodoric was founded on experience: "Romanus miser imita- tur Gothum; et utilis (dives) Gothus imitatur Romanum." (See the Fragment and Notes of Valesius, p. 719 [Amm. ii. p. 308, edit. Bip.].) a Manso (p. 100) quotes two passages from Cassiodorus to show that the Goths ware not exempt from the fiscal clahns. Cassiodor. i. 19, iv, 14. — M. A.D. 493-526.] FOREIGN POLICY OF THEODORIC. 115 Italy was distributed into the several quarters of a well-reg ulated camp. The service of the palace and of the frontiers was performed by choice or by rotation, and each extraordi- nary fatigue was recompensed by an increase of pay and oc- casional donatives. Theodoric had convinced his brave com- panions that empire must be acquired and defended by the same arts. After his example, they strove to excel in the use not only of the lance and sword, the instruments of their vic- tories, but of the missile weapons, which they were too much inclined to neglect : and the lively image of war was display- ed in the daily exercise and annual reviews of the Gothic cav- alry. A firm though gentle discipline imposed the habits of modesty, obedience, and temperance ; and the Goths were in- structed to spare the people, to reverence the laws, to under- stand the duties of civil society, and to disclaim the barbarous license of judicial combat and private revenge. 32 Among the barbarians of the West the victory of Theod- oric had spread a general alarm. But as soon as it appeared „ . that he was satisfied with conquest and desirous policy of of peace, terror was changed into respect, and they submitted to a powerful mediation, which was uni- formly employed for the best purposes of reconciling their quarrels and civilizing their manners. 33 The ambassadors who resorted to Ravenna from the most distant countries of Eu- rope admired his wisdom, magnificence, 34 and courtesy ; and if he sometimes accepted either slaves or arms, white horses or strange animals, the gift of a sundial, a water- clock, or a musician, admonished even the princes of Gaul of the supe- 32 The view of the military establishment of the Goths in Italy 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 are illustrated by the learned Mascou (Hist, of the Germans, 1. xi. 40-44 ; Annotation xiv.). a 33 See the clearness and vigor of his negotiations in Ennodius (p. 1607) and Cassiodorus (Var. iii. 1, 2, 3, 4 ; iv. 13 ; v. 43, 44), who gives the different styles of friendship, counsel, expostulation, etc. 34 Even of his table (Var. vi. 9) and palace (vii. 5). The admiration of strangers is represented as the most rational motive to justify these vain expenses, and to stimulate the diligence of the officers to whom these provinces were intrusted. Compare Manso, Geschichte des Ost-Gothischen Keiches, p. 114. — M. 116 FOEEIGN POLICY OF THEODOEIC. [Ch. XXXIX. rior art and industry of his Italian subjects. His domestic alliances, 35 a wife, two daughters, a sister, and a niece, united the family of Theodoric with the kings of the Franks, the Burgundians, the Yisigoths, the Yandals, and the Thuringi- ans, and contributed to maintain the harmony, or at least the balance, of the great republic of the "West. 36 It is difficult, in the dark forests of Germany and Poland, to pursue the emi- grations of the Heruli, a fierce people who disdained the use of armor, and who condemned their widows and aged parents not to survive the loss of their husbands or the decay of their strength. 37 The king of these savage warriors solicited the friendship of Theodoric, and was elevated to the rank of his son, according to the barbaric rites of a military adoption. 38 35 See the public and private alliances of the Gothic monarch, with the Burgun- dians (Var. i. 45, 46), with the Franks (ii. 40), with the Thuringians (iv. 1), and with the Vandals (v. 1) ; each of these epistles affords some curious knowledge of the policy and manners of the barbarians. 36 His political system may be observed in Cassiodorus (Var. iv. 1, ix. 1), Jor- nandes (c. 58, p. 698, 699), and the Valesian Fragment (p. 720, 721 [Amm. torn. ii. p. 311, edit. Bip.]). Peace, honorable peace, was the constant aim of Theodoric. 37 The curious reader may contemplate the Heruli of Procopius (Goth. I. ii. c. 14), and the patient reader may plunge into the dark and minute researches of M. de Buat (Hist, des Peuples Anciens, torn. ix. p. 348-396). a 38 Variarum, iv. 2. The spirit and forms of this martial institution are noticed a The ethnological relations of the Heruli are uncertain, and it is impossible to determine their original abodes. They are found at different periods in almost every part of Europe ; they appear on the Dniester and the Khine, they plunder Greece and Spain, and march into Italy and Scandinavia. Various etymologies of their name have been proposed : some derive it from heru (gladius), against which it is urged that their name as frequently appears without a guttural in the form of Eruli ; others connect it with eorl or iarl (comes, nobilis) ; while Seha- farik regards the Heruli as descendants of the Hirri, and their name as a diminu- tive of the latter. Zeuss supposes that they originally dwelt on the southwest shores of the Baltic, and that they were the same people as the Suardones of Tac- itus (Germ. c. 40) and the QapoSeivoi of Ptolemy (ii. 11, § 13). But all these are at the best but ingenious speculations, which cannot lead to any satisfactory re- sult. The Heruli are first mentioned in the middle of the third century, when they accompany the Goths in their expeditions on the Euxine in the reigns of Claudius and Gallienus. Hence it has been supposed that they were Germans ; but this is not conclusive, as Slavonic tribes seem to have taken part in the Gothic expedi- tions. The names of their leaders, however, are German, which is, strictly speak- ing, the only evidence we have upon the point. See Zeuss, Die Deutschen und die Nachharstamme, p. 476 ; Latham, The Germania of Tacitus, Epil. p. xciv. { Schafarik, Slawische Alterthiimer, vol. i. p. 436. — S. A.D. 493-526.] FOREIGN POLICY OF THEODORIC. 11? From the shores of the Baltic the ^Estians or Livonians laid their offerings of native amber 39 at the feet of a prince whose fame had excited them to undertake an unknown and dan- gerous journey of fifteen hundred miles. With the country" from whence the Gothic nation derived their origin he main- tained a frequent and friendly correspondence : the Italians were clothed in the rich sables 41 of Sweden ; and one of its sovereigns, after a voluntary or reluctant abdication, found an hospitable retreat in the palace of Ravenna. He had reigned over one of the thirteen populous tribes who cultivated a small portion of the great island or peninsula of Scandinavia, to which the vague appellation of Thule has been sometimes applied. That northern region was peopled, or had been ex- plored, as high as the sixty-eighth degree of latitude, where the natives of the polar circle enjoy and lose the presence of the sun at each summer and winter solstice during an equal period of forty days. 42 The long night of his absence or death was the mournful season of distress and anxiety, till the mes- sengers, who had been sent to the mountain-tops, descried the by Cassiodorus ; but he seems to have only translated the sentiments of the Gothic king into the language of Roman eloquence. 39 Cassiodorus, who quotes Tacitus to the iEstians, the unlettered savages of the Baltic (Var. v. 2), describes the amber for which their shores have ever been famous as the gum of a tree hardened by the sun and purified and wafted by tho waves. When that singular substance is analyzed by the chemists, it yields a veg- etable oil and a mineral acid. 40 Scanzia, or Thule, is described by Jornandes (c. 3, p. 610-613) and Procopi- ns (Goth. 1. ii. c. 15). Neither the Goth nor the Greek had visited the country : ooth had conversed with the natives in their exile at Ravenna or Constantinople. 41 Saphirinas pelles. In the time of Jornandes they inhabited Suethans, the proper Sweden ; but that beautiful race of animals has gradually been driven into the eastern parts of Siberia. See Buffon (Hist. Nat. torn. xiii. p. 309-313, quarto edition) ; Pennant (System of Quadrupeds, vol. i. p. 322-328) ; Gmelin (Hist. Ge'n. des Voyages, torn, xviii. p. 257, 258) ; and Levesque (Hist, de Russie, torn. v. p. 165, 166, 514, 515). 42 In the system or romance of M. Bailly (Lettres sur les Sciences et sur l'At- lantide, torn. i. p. 249-256 ; torn. ii. p. 114-139) the phoenix of the Edda, and the annual death and revival of Adonis and Osiris, are the allegorical symbols of the absence and return of the sun in the Arctic regions. This ingenious writer is a worthy disciple of the great Buffon ; nor is it easy for the coldest reason to with- stand the magic of their philosophy. 118 DEFENSIVE WARS OF THEODORIU. [Ch. XXXIX. first rajs of returning light, and proclaimed to the plain below the festival of his resurrection. 43 The life of Theodoric represents the rare and meritorious example of a barbarian who sheathed his sword in the pride Hisdefen- °^ victory and the vigor of his age. A reign of ■ivewara. three-and- thirty years was consecrated to the du- ties of civil government, and the hostilities in which he was sometimes involved were speedily terminated by the conduct of his lieutenants, the discipline of his troops, the arms of his allies, and even by the terror of his name. He reduced, un- der a strong and regular government, the unprofitable coun- tries of Khastia, Koricum, Dalmatia, and Pannonia, from the source of the Danube and the territory of the Bavarians 44 to the petty kingdom erected by the Gepidse on the ruins of Sirmium. His prudence could not safely intrust the bulwark of Italy to such feeble and turbulent neighbors ; and his jus- tice might claim the lands which they oppressed, either as a part of his kingdom, or as the inheritance of his father. The greatness of a servant, who was named perfidious because he was successful, awakened the jealousy of the Emperor Anas- tasius ; and a war was kindled on the Dacian frontier by the protection which the Gothic king, in the vicissitude of human affairs, had granted to one of the descendants of A.D. 505. . .. ' _. . ? . ...... . . . Attila. Sabmian, a general illustrious by his own and fat '^er's merit, advanced at the head of ten thousand Ro- mans ; and the provisions and arms, which filled a long train of wagons, were distributed to the fiercest of the Bulgarian tribes. But in the fields of Margus the Eastern powers were defeated by the inferior forces of the Goths and Huns ; the 48 Avtt) re QovXiraiQ fj fiByiirrr] ra>v topT&v tan, says Procopius [torn. ii. p. 207, edit. Bonn]. At present a rude Manicheism (generous enough) prevails a.iiong the Samoyedes in Greenland and in Lapland (Hist, des Voyages, torn, xviii. p. 508, 509, torn. xix. p. 105, 106, 527, 528) ; yet, according to Grotius, Samojntas coelura atque astra adorant, numina haud aliis iniquiora (de Rebus Belgicis, 1. iv. p. 338, folio edition) ; a sentence which Tacitus would not have disowned. 44 See the Hist, des Peuples Anciens, etc., torn. ix. p. 255-273, 396-501. The Count de Buat was French minister at the court of Bavaria : a liberal curiosity prompted his inquiries into the antiquities of the country, and that curiosity was the germ of twelve respectable volumes. ',-D. 493-626.] HIS NAVAL ARMAMENT. 119 flower and even the hope of the Roman armies was irretrieva- bly destroyed ; and such was the temperance with which The- odoric had inspired his victorious troops that, as their leader had not given the signal of pillage, the rich spoils of the enemy lay untouched at their feet. 45 Exasperated His naval ,-,.,. t -r> • i t ■ armament by this disgrace, the Byzantine court despatchec two hundred ships and eight thousand men to plun der the sea-coast of Calabria and Apulia : they assaulted the ancient city of Tarentum, interrupted the trade and agricult* ure of a happy country, and sailed back to the Hellespont, proud of their piratical victory over a people whom they still presumed to consider as their Roman brethren. 46 Their re- treat was possibly hastened by the activity of Theodoric; Italy was covered by a fleet of a thousand light vessels, 47 which he constructed with incredible despatch ; and his firm moderation was soon rewarded by a solid and honorable peace. He maintained, with a powerful hand, the balance of the West, till it was at length overthrown by the ambition of Clovis ; and, although unable to assist his rash and unfortu- nate kinsman the king of the Visigoths, he saved the remains of his family and people, and checked the Franks in the midst of their victorious career. I am not desirous to pro- long or repeat 48 this narrative of military events, the least in- teresting of the reign of Theodoric ; and shall be content to add that the Alemanni were protected, 49 that an inroad of the 46 See the Gothic transactions on the Danube and in Illyricuna, in Jornandes (c. 58, p. 699), Ennodius (p. 1607-1610), Marcellinus (in Chron. p. 44, 47, 48), and Cassiodorus (in Chron. and Var. hi. 23, 50; iv. 13; vii. 4, 24; viii. 9, 10, 11, 21 ; ix. 8, 9). 46 1 cannot forbear transcribing the liberal and classic style of Count Marcel- linus: "Romanus comes domesticorum, et Rusticus comes scholariorum cam centum armatis navibus, totidemque dromonibus, octo millia militum armatorum secnm ferentibns, ad devastanda Italias littora processerunt, et usque ad Tarentum antiquissimam civitatem aggressi sunt; remensoque mari inhonestam victoriam quam piratico ausu Romani ex Romanis rapuerunt, Anastasio Csesari reportarunt" (in Chron. p. 48 [anno 508]). See Variar. i. 16 ; ii. 38. 47 See the royal orders and instructions (Var. iv. 15 ; v. 1 6-20). These armed boats should be still smaller than the thousand vessels of Agamemnon at the siege of Troy [Manso, p. 121]. 48 See p. 30 seq. 49 Ennodius (p. 1610) and Cassiodorus, in the royal name (Var. ii. 41), record his salutary protection of the Alemanni. 120 CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ITALY [Ch. XXXIX Burgundians was severely chastised, and that the conquest of A-rles and Marseilles opened a free communication with the Visigoths, who revered him both as their national protector, and as the guardian of his grandchild, the infant son of Alaric. Under this respectable character, the King of Italy restored the Praetorian prefecture of the Gauls, reformed some abuses in the civil government of Spain, and accepted the annual tribute and apparent submission of its military governor, who wisely refused to trust his person in the palace of Ravenna. 60 The Gothic sovereignty was established from Sicily to the Danube, from Sirmium or Belgrade to the At- lantic Ocean ; and the Greeks themselves have acknowledged that Theodoric reigned over the fairest portion of the West- ern empire." The union of the Goths and Romans might have fixed for ages the transient happiness of Italy ; and the first of nations, a new people of free subiects and enlightened sol- Civil govern- . , t ■, -,, . ,. , ment of Italy diers, might have gradually arisen from the mutual according to ' . ° . ° . . the Roman emulation of their respective virtues. But the sub- lime merit of guiding or seconding such a revolu- tion was not reserved for the reign of Theodoric : he wanted either the genius or the opportunities of a legislator; 62 and while he indulged the Goths in the enjoyment of rude liber- ty, he servilely copied the institutions, and even the abuses, of 50 The Gothic transactions in Gaul and Spain are represented with some per- plexity in Cassiodorus (Var. iii. 32, 38, 41, 43, 44 ; v. 39), Jornandes (c. 58, p. 698, 699), and Procopius (Goth. 1. i. c. 12). I will peither hear nor reconcile the long and contradictory arguments of the Abbe* Dubos and the Count de Buat about the wars of Burgundy. 61 Theophanes, p. 113 [p. 203, edit. Bonn]. 52 Procopius affirms that no laws whatsoever were promulgated by Theodoric and the succeeding kings of Italy (Goth. 1. ii. c. 6 [torn. ii. p. 170, edit. Bonn]). H« must mean in the Gothic language. A Latin edict of Theodoric is still extant, in one hundred and fifty-four articles.* * This edict was promulgated in a.d. 500, and its laws applied to the Goths and to the Romans. While the Goths retained the exclusive possession of arms, it was the policy of Theodoric to unite them and the Romans in all their civil relations into one people. In this respect the Ostrogothic kingdom differed from all the other German states founded upon the downfall of the empire, since in the latter each nation preserved its separate laws. Savigny, Geschichte des Romischeu Rechta* ■sol. ii. p. 172 se.500.] FLOURISHING STATE OF ITALY. 127 of the subject was more truly conspicuous in the busy scene of labor and luxury, in the rapid increase and bold enjoyment of national wealth. From the shades of Tibur and Prsencste, the Eoraan senators still retired in the winter season to the warm sun and salubrious springs of Baiae ; and their villas, which advanced on solid moles into the Bay of Naples, com- manded the various prospect of the sky, the earth, and the water. On the eastern side of the Adriatic a new Campania was formed in the fair and fruitful province of Istria, which communicated with the palace of Ravenna by an easy navi- gation of one hundred miles. The rich productions of Luca- nia and the adjacent provinces were exchanged at the Mar- cilian fountain, in a populous fair annually dedicated to trade, intemperance, and superstition. In the solitude of Comum, which had once been animated by the mild genius of Pliny, a transparent basin above sixty miles in length still reflected the rural seats which encompassed the margin of the Larian lake; and the gradual ascent of the hills was covered by a triple plantation of olives, of vines, and of chestnut -trees.' 9 Agriculture revived under the shadow of peace, and the num- ber of husbandmen was multiplied by the redemption of cap- tives. 73 The iron - mines of Dalmatia, a gold - mine in Brut- tium, were carefully explored, and the Pomptine marshes, as well as those of Spoleto, were drained and cultivated by pri- vate undertakers, whose distant reward must depend on the continuance of the public prosperity. 74 Whenever the sea- 12 The villas, climate, and landscape of Baiae (Var. ix. 6 ; see Cluver. Italia Antiq. 1. iv. c. 2, p. 1119, etc.), 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. ,3 In Liguria numerosa agricolarum progenies (Ennodius, p. 1678, 1679, 1680). St. Epiphanius of Pavia redeemed by prayer or ransom 6000 captives from the Burgundians of Lyons and Savoy. Such deeds are the best of miracles. 74 The political economy of Theodoric (see Anonym. Vales, p. 721 [Amm. torn, ii. p. 311, edit. Bip.] and Cassiodorus, in Chron.) may be distinctly traced under the following heads: iron -mine (Var. iii. 25); gold-mine (ix. 3) ; Pomptine marshes (ii. 32, 33) ; Spoleto (ii. 21) ; corn (i. 34 ; x. 27, 28 ; xi. 11, 12) ; trade calls to mind Inigo Jones's inner quadrangle in St. John's College, Oxford, Compare Hallam and D'Agincourt, vol. i. p. 140-145. — M. 128 THEODOEIC AN ARIAH. [Ch. XXXIX. eons were less propitious, the doubtful precautions of forming magazines of corn, fixing the price, and prohibiting the ex- portation, attested at least the benevolence of the State ; but such was the extraordinary plenty which an industrious peo- ple produced from a grateful soil, that a gallon of wine was sometimes sold in Italy for less than three farthings, and a quarter of wheat at about five shillings and sixpence." A country possessed of so many valuable objects of exchange soon attracted the merchants of the world, whose beneficial traffic was encouraged and protected by the liberal spirit of Theodoric. The free intercourse of the provinces by land and water was restored and extended; the city gates were never shut either by day or by night ; and the common say- ing, that a purse of gold might be safely left in the fields, was expressive of the conscious security of the inhabitants. A difference of religion is always pernicious and often fatal to the harmony of the prince and people: the Gothic Theodoric conqueror had been educated in the profession of anArian. Arianism, and Italy was devoutly attached to the Nicene faith. But the persuasion of Theodoric was not in- fected by zeal : and he piously adhered to the heresy of his fathers, without condescending to balance the subtile argu- ments of theological metaphysics. Satisfied with the private toleration of his Arian sectaries, he justly conceived him- self to be the guardian of the public worship, and his ex- ternal reverence for a superstition which he despised may have nourished in his mind the salutary indifference of a statesman or philosopher. The Catholics of his dominions (vi. 7 ; vii. 9, 23) ; fair of Leucothoe or St. Cyprian in Lucania (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). a 76 LX modii tritici in solidum ipsius tempore fuerunt, et vinum xxx amphoras in solidum (Fragment. Vales, [p. 311, edit. Bip.j). Corn was distributed from the granaries at fifteen or twenty -five modii for a piece of gold, and the price was still moderate. * The inscription commemorative of the draining the Pomptine marshes may be found in many works : in Gruter Inscript. Ant. Heidelberg, p. 152, No. 8 ; with variations, in Nicolai De' Bonificamenti delle Terre Pontine, p. 103 ; in Sartorius, in his prize essay on the reign of Theodoric ; and Manso, Beylage, xi. — M. A.D.500.] HIS TOLEKATION OF THE CATHOLICS. 129 acknowledged, perhaps with reluctance, the peace of the Church ; their clergy, according to the degrees of tion ofthe rank or merit, were honorably entertained in the palace of Theodoric ; he esteemed the living sanctity of Csesarius 78 and Epiphanius, 77 the orthodox bishops of Aries and Pa via; and presented a decent offering on the tomb of St. Peter, without any scrupulous inquiry into the creed of the apostle. 78 His favorite Goths, and even his mother, were permitted to retain or embrace the Athanasian faith, and his long reign could not afford the example of an Italian Catho- lic who, either from choice or compulsion, had deviated into the religion of the conqueror. 79 The people, and the barba- rians themselves, were edified by the pomp and order of re- ligious worship; the magistrates were instructed to defend the just immunities of ecclesiastical persons and possessions ; the bishops held their synods, the metropolitans exercised their jurisdiction, and the privileges of sanctuary were main- tained or moderated according to the spirit of the Roman jurisprudence. 80 With the protection, Theodoric assumed the ,6 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 discus of silver of the weight of sixty pounds. ™ Ennodius in Vit. St. Epiphanii, in Sirmond Op. torn. i. p. 1672-1690. The- odoric bestowed some important favors on this bishop, whom he used as a coun- sellor in peace and war. 18 Devotissimus ac si Catholicus (Anonym. Vales, p. 720 [p. S10, edit. Bip.]) ; yet his offering was no more than two silver candlesticks (cerostratd) of the weight of seventy pounds, far inferior to the gold and gems of Constantinople and Franc© (Anastasius in Vit. Pont, in Hormisda, p. 34, edit. Paris [torn. i. p. 93, edit, Horn. 1718]). 19 The tolerating system of his reign (Ennodius, p. 1612, Anonym. Vales, p. 719 [p. 308, edit. Bip. J, Procop. Goth. 1. i. c. 1 ; 1. ii. c. 6) may be studied in the Epis- tles of Cassiodorus, under the following heads : bishops (Var. i. 9 ; viii. 1 5, 24 ; xi. 23) ; immunities (i. 26 ; ii. 29, 30) ; Church lands (iv. 17, 20) ; sanctuaries (ii. 11 ; iii. 47) ; Church plate (xii. 20) ; discipline (iv. 44) ; which prove at the same tim«? that he was the head of the Church as well as of the State.* 80 We may reject a foolish tale of his beheading a Catholic deacon who tamed Arian (Theodor. Lector. No. 17). Why is Theodoric surnamed A/erf From Vqfer? (Vales, ad loc). A light conjecture. * He recommended the same toleration to the Emperor Justin.— M. 130 VICES OF THE [Ch. XXXIX. legal supremacy, of the Church ; and his firm administration restored or extended some useful prerogatives which had been neglected by the feeble emperors of the "West. He was not ignorant of the dignity and importance of the Roman pontiff, to whom the venerable name of pope was now appro- priated. The peace or the revolt of Italy might depend on the character of a wealthy and popular bishop, who claimed such ample dominion both in heaven and earth ; who had been declared in a numerous synod to be pure from all sin and exempt from all judgment. 81 When the chair of St. Pe- ter was disputed by Symmachus and Laurence, they appeared to his summons before the tribunal of an Arian monarch, and he confirmed the election of the most worthy or the most ob- sequious candidate. At the end of his life, in a moment of jealousy and resentment, he prevented the choice of the Ro- mans, by nominating a pope in the palace of Ravenna. The danger and furious contests of a schism were mildly restrain- ed, and the last decree of the senate was enacted to extin- guish, if it were possible, the scandalous venality of the papal elections. 82 I have descanted with pleasure on the fortunate condition of Italy, but our fancy must not hastily conceive that the vices of his golden age of the poets, a race of men without government. v j ce or m i ser y ? was realized under the Gothic con- quest. The fair prospect was sometimes overcast with clouds; the wisdom of Theodoric might be deceived, his power might be resisted, and the declining age of the monarch was sullied with popular hatred and Patrician blood. In the first inso- lence of victory he had been tempted to deprive the whole party of Odoacer of the civil and even the natural rights of society ; 8S a tax, unseasonably imposed after the calamities of 81 Ennodius, p. 1621, 1622, 1636, 1638. His libel was approved and registered (synodaliter) by a Roman council (Baronius, a.d. 503, No. 6. Franciscus Pagi in Breviar. Pont. Rom. torn. i. p. 242). 82 See Cassiodorus (Var. viii. 15 ; ix. 15, 16), Anastasius (in Symmacho, p. 31 [p. 84, edit. Rom.]), and the seventeenth Annotation of Mascou. Baronius, Pagi, and most of the Catholic doctors, confess, with an angry growl, this Gothic usur- pation. 83 He disabled them — a licentia testandi; and all Italy mourned — lamentabili A.D. 500.] GOVERNMENT OF THEODORIC. 131 war, would have crushed the rising agriculture of Liguria ; a rigid pre-emption of corn, which was intended for the publio relief, must have aggravated the distress of Campania. These dangerous projects were defeated by the virtue and eloquence of Epiphanius and Boethius, who, in the presence of Theod- oric himself, successfully pleaded the cause of the people : M but, if the royal ear was open to the voice of truth, a saint 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 abused by Italian fraud and Gothic violence, and the avarice of the king's nephew was publicly exposed, at first by the usurpation, and afterwards by the restitution, of the estates which he had unjustly extorted from his Tuscan neighbors. Two hundred thousand barbarians, formidable even to their master, were seated in the heart of Italy ; they indignantly supported the restraints of peace and discipline ; the disorders of their march were always felt and sometimes compensated ; and where it was dangerous to punish, it might be prudent to dissemble, the sallies of their native fierceness. When the indulgence of Theodoric had remitted two thirds of the Ligurian tribute, he condescended to explain the diffi- culties of his situation, and to lament the heavy though in- evitable burdens which he imposed on his subjects for their own defence. 86 These ungrateful subjects could never be cordially reconciled to the origin, the religion, or even the virtues of the Gothic conqueror ; past calamities were forgot- ten, and the sense or suspicion of injuries was rendered still more exquisite by the present felicity of the times. Even the religious toleration which Theodoric had the justitio. I wish to believe that these penalties were enacted against the rebels who had violated their oath of allegiance ; but the testimony of Ennodius (p. 1675-1678) is the more weighty, as he lived and died under the reign of The- odoric. 84 Ennodius, in Vit. Epipban. p. 1689, 1690. Boethius de Consolatione Philo- sophise, 1. i. pros. iv. p. 45, 46, 47 [edit. Callyus, Par. 1680]. Respect, but weigh, the passions of the saint and the senator, and fortify or alleviate their com- plaints by the various hints of Cassiodorus (ii. 8 ; iv. 36 ; viii. 5). 85 Immanium expensarum pondus * * * pro ipsorum salute, etc. ; yet these are no more than words. 132 THEODORIC PROVOKED CCH.XXXI2. glory of introducing into the Christian world was painful He is pro- an( i offensive to the orthodox zeal of the Italians, pereecute They respected the armed heresy of the Goths; the catholics, ^ u ^ ^{j. pious rage was safely pointed against the rich and defenceless Jews, who had formed their establish- ments at Naples, Rome, Ravenna, Milan, and Genoa, for the benefit of trade, and under the sanction of the laws. 88 Their persons were insulted, their effects were pillaged, and their synagogues were burned by the mad populace of Ravenna and Rome, inflamed, as it should seem, by the most frivolous or extravagant pretences. The government which could neg- lect, would have deserved such an outrage. A legal inquiry was instantly directed ; and, as the authors of the tumult had escaped in the crowd, the whole community was condemned to repair the damage, and the obstinate bigots, who refused their contributions, were whipped through the streets by the hand of the executioner. 3 This simple act of justice exas- perated the discontent of the Catholics, who applauded the merit and patience of these holy confessors. Three hundred pulpits deplored the persecution of the Church ; and if the chapel of St. Stephen at Verona was demolished by the com- mand of Theodoric, it is probable that some miracle hostile to his name and dignity had been performed on that sacred theatre. At the close of a glorious life, the King of Italy discovered that he had excited the hatred of a people whose happiness he had so assiduously labored to promote ; and his mind was soured by indignation, jealousy, and the bitterness of unrequited love. The Gothic conqueror condescended to disarm the unwarlike natives of Italy, interdicting all weap- ons of offence, and excepting only a small knife for domestic use. The deliverer of Rome was accused of conspiring with the vilest informers against the lives of senators whom he suspected of a secret and treasonable correspondence with the 86 The Jews were settled at Naples (Procopius, Goth. 1. i. c. 8 [torn. ii. p. 44, edit. Bonn]), at Genoa (Var. ii. 27 ; iv. 33), Milan (v. 37), Rome (iv. 43). See like- wise Basnage, Hist, des Juifs, torn. viii. c. 7, p. 254. See History of the Jews, vol. iii. p. 217. — M. A.D. 500.] TO PERSECUTE THE CATHOLICS. 133 Byzantine court. 87 After the death of Anastasius, the diadem had been placed on the head of a feeble old man, but the powers of government were assumed by his nephew Justin- ian, who already meditated the extirpation of heresy and the conquest of Italy and Africa. A rigorous law, which was published at Constantinople, to reduce the Arians, by the dread of punishment, within the pale of the Church, awa- kened the just resentment of Theodoric, who claimed for his distressed brethren of the East the same indulgence which he had so long granted to the Catholics of his dominions. 11 At his stern command the Roman pontiff, with four illustrious senators, embarked on an embassy of which he must have alike dreaded the failure or the success. The singular vener- ation shown to the first pope who had visited Constantinople was punished as a crime by his jealous monarch ; the artful or peremptory refusal of the Byzantine court might excuse an equal, and would provoke a larger, measure of retaliation ; and a mandate was prepared in Italy to prohibit, after a stated day, the exercise of the Catholic worship. By the bigotry of his subjects and enemies the most tolerant of princes was driven to the brink of persecution, and the life of Theodoric was too long, since he lived to condemn the virtue of Boe- thius and Symmachus. 88 87 Rex avidus communis exitii, etc. (Boethius, 1. i. p. 55) : rex dolum Ro- manis tendebat (Anonym. Vales, p. 723). These are hard words : they speak the passions of the Italians, and those (I fear) of Theodoric himself. 88 I have labored to extract a rational narrative from the dark, concise, and va- rious hints of the Valesian Fragment (p. 722, 723, 724 [p. 313 seq. edit. Bip.]), Theophanes (p. 145 [torn. i. p. 261, edit. Bonn]), Anastasius (in Johanne, p. 35 [p. 94, edit. Rom.]), and the Hist. Miscella (p. 103, edit. Muratori [Milan, 1723]). A gentle pressure and paraphrase of their words is no violence. Consult likewise Muratori (Annali d'ltalia, torn. iv. p. 471-478), with the Annals and Breviary (torn. i. p. 259-263) of the two Pagis, the uncle and the nephew. * Gibbon should not have omitted the golden words of Theodoric in a letter which he addressed to Justin : That to pretend to a dominion over the conscience is to usurp the prerogative of God ; that by the nature of things the power of sov- ereigns is confined to external government; that they have no right of punish- ment but over those who disturb the public peace, of which they are the guardi- ans ; that the most dangerous heresy is that of a sovereign who separates from himself a part of his subjects, because they believe not according to his beliefi Compare Le Beau, vol. viii. p. 68. — M. 134 CHARACTER STUDIES, AND HONORS [Ch. XXXIX. The senator Boetliius 89 is the last of the Romans whom Cato or Tully could have acknowledged for their country- character man. As a wealthy orphan, he inherited the pat- Cuors'of" d I'imony and honors of the Anician family, a name Boetiiius. ambitiously assumed by the kings and emperors of the age, and the appellation of Manlius asserted his genuine or fabulous descent from a race of consuls and dictators who had repulsed the Gauls from the Capitol, and sacrificed their sons to the discipline of the republic. In the youth of Boe- tliius the studies of Rome were not totally abandoned ; a Vir- gil 90 is now extant, corrected by the hand of a consul ; and the professors of grammar, rhetoric, and jurisprudence were maintained in their privileges and pensions by the liberality of the Goths. But the erudition of the Latin language was insufficient to satiate his ardent curiosity; and Boethius is said to have employed eighteen laborious years in the schools of Athens, 91 which were supported by the zeal, the learning, and the diligence of Proclus and his disciples. The reason and piety of their Roman pupil were fortunately saved from the contagion of mystery and magic which polluted the groves of the Academy ; but he imbibed the spirit, and im- 89 Le Clerc has composed a critical and philosophical Life of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boetius (Bibliot. Choisie, torn. xvi. p. 168-275); and both Tiraboschi (torn, iii.) and Fabricius (Bibliot. Latin.) may be usefully consulted. The date of his birth may be placed about the year 470, and his death in 52-1, in a prema- ture old age (Consol. Phil. Metrica, i. p. 5). 90 For the age and value of this MS., now in the Medicean library at Florence, see the Cenotaphia Pisana (p. 430-447) of Cardinal Noris. 91 The Athenian studies of Boethius are doubtful (Baronius, a.d. 510, No. 3, from a spurious tract, De Disciplina Scholarum), and the term of eighteen years is doubtless too long: but the simple fact of a visit to Athens is justified by much internal evidence (Brucker, Hist. Crit. Philosoph. torn. iii. p. 524-527), and by an expression (though vague and ambiguous) of his friend Cassiodorus (Var. i. 45), "Longe positas Athenas introisti." a a The only authority for Boethius having spent eighteen years in the schools of Athens is the tract De Disciplina Scholarum, which Gibbon correctly designates as spurious. The passage of Cassiodorus is misquoted by Gibbon. It rather makes against Boethius having visited Athens: "Sic enim Atheniensium scholas (not Athenas) longe posi^ws (not positas) introisti; sic palliatorum choris mis- cuisti to gam, ut Grsecorum dogmata doctrinam feceris esse Romnnam." The whole passage is figurative, and seems to mean that Boethius. though living at a great distance, had succeeded in converting Grecian learning to Roman uses.— & a.d. GOO.] OF BOETHIUS. 135 itated the method, of his dead and living masters, who at- tempted to reconcile the strong and subtle sense of Aristotle with the devout contemplation and sublime fancy of Plato. After }iis return to Rome, and his marriage with the daugh- ter of his friend the Patrician Symmachus, Boethius still con- tinued, in a palace of ivory and marble, to prosecute the same studies. 92 The Church was edified by his profound defence of the orthodox creed against the Arian, the Eutychian, and the Nestorian heresies; and the Catholic unity was explained or exposed in a formal treatise by the indifference of three distinct though consubstantial persons. For the benefit of his Latin readers, his genius submitted to teach the first ele- ments of the arts and sciences of Greece. The geometry of Euclid, the music of Pythagoras, the arithmetic of Nicoma- chus, the mechanics of Archimedes, the astronomy of Ptol- emy, the theology of Plato, and the logic of Aristotle, with the commentary of Porphyry, were translated and illustrated by the indefatigable pen of the Roman senator. And he alone was esteemed capable of describing the wonders of art, a sundial, a water-clock, or a sphere which represented the motions of the planets. From these abstruse speculations Boethius stooped — or, to speak more truly, he rose — to the social duties of public and private life ; the indigent were relieved by his liberality, and his eloquence, which flattery might compare to the voice of Demosthenes or Cicero, was uniformly exerted in the cause of innocence and humanity. Such conspicuous merit was felt and rewarded by a discern- ing prince: the dignity of Boethius was adorned with the titles of consul and patrician, and his talents were usefully employed in the important station of master of the offices. 92 Bibliothecae comptos ebore ac vitro* parietes, etc. (Consol. Phil. 1. i. pros. v. p. 74). The Epistles of Ennodius (vi. 6 ; vii. 13 ; viii. 1,31,37, 40) and Cassiodo- rus (Var. i. 39 ; iv. 6 ; ix. 21) afford many proofs of the high reputation which he enjoyed in his own times. It is true that the Bishop of Pavia wanted to pur- chase of him an old house at Milan, and praise might be tendered and accepted in part of payment. a Gibbon translated vitro, marble ; under the impression, no doubt, that glass was unknown. — M. 136 PATRIOTISM OF BOETHIUS [Ch. XXXIX. Notwithstanding the equal claims of the East and West, hia two sons were created, in their tender youth, the consuls of the same year. 93 Oq the memorable day of their inaugura- tion they proceeded in solemn pomp from their palace to the forum amidst the applause of the senate and people; and their joyful father, the true consul of Rome, after pronounc- ing an oration in the praise of his royal benefactor, distrib- uted a triumphal largess in the games of the circus. Pros- perous in his fame and fortunes, in his public honors and pri- vate alliances, in the cultivation of science and the conscious- ness of virtue, Boethius might have been styled happy, if that precarious epithet could be safely applied before the last term of the life of man. A philosopher, liberal of his wealth and parsimonious of his time, might be insensible to the common allurements of Hiepatri- ambition, the thirst of gold and employment. And otism. some credit may be due to the asseveration of Boe- thius, that he had reluctantly obeyed the divine Plato, who enjoins every virtuous citizen to rescue the State from the usurpation of vice and ignorance. For the integrity of his public conduct he appeals to the memory of his country. His authority had restrained the pride and oppression of the royal officers, and his eloquence had delivered Paulianus from the dogs of the palace. He had always pitied, and often relieved, the distress of the provincials, whose fortunes were exhausted by public and private rapine ; and Boethius alone had cour- age to oppose the tyranny of the barbarians, elated by con- quest, excited by avarice, and, as he complains, encouraged by impunity. In these honorable contests his spirit soared above the consideration of danger, and perhaps of prudence ; and we may learn from the example of Cato that a character of pure and inflexible virtue is the most apt to be misled by prej- udice, to be heated by enthusiasm, and to confound private 93 Pagi, Muratori, etc., are agreed that Boethius himself was consul in the year 510, his two sons in 522, and in 487, perhaps, his father. A desire of ascribing the last of these consulships to the philosopher had perplexed the chronology of his life. In his honors, alliances, children, he celebrates his own felicity— his past felicity (p. 109, 110). a.d.500.] ACCUSED OF TREASON. 137 enmities with public justice. The disciple of Plato might exaggerate the infirmities of nature and the imperfections of society ; and the mildest form of a Gothic kingdom, even the weight of allegiance and gratitude, must be insupportable to the free spirit of a Roman patriot. But the favor and fidel- ity of Boethius declined in just proportion with the public happiness, and an unworthy colleague was imposed to divide and control the power of the master of the offices. In the last gloomy season of Theodoric he indignantly felt that he was a slave ; but as his master had only power over his life, he stood, without arms and without fear, against the face of an angry barbarian, who had been provoked to believe that the safety of the senate was incompatible with his own. The He is accused senator Albinus was accused and already convicted of treason. on ^q presumption of hoping, as it was said, the liberty of Rome. " If Albinus be criminal," exclaimed the orator, "the senate and myself are all guilty of the same crime. If we are innocent, Albinus is equally entitled to the protection of the laws." These laws might not have punish- ed the simple and barren wish of an unattainable blessing; but they would have shown less indulgence to the rash con- fession of Boethius, that, had he known of a conspiracy, the tyrant never should. 94 The advocate of Albinus was soon in- volved in the danger and perhaps the guilt of his client ; their signature (which they denied as a forgery) was affixed to the original address inviting the emperor to deliver Italy from the Goths ; and three witnesses of honorable rank, perhaps of infamous reputation, attested the treasonable designs of the Roman Patrician. 95 Yet his innocence must be presumed, since he was deprived by Theodoric of the means of justifica- tion, and rigorously confined in the Tower of Pavia, while the 94 Si ego scissem tu nescisses. Boethius adopts this answer (1. i. pros. 4, p. 53) of Julius Canus, whose philosophic death is described by Seneca (De Tranquilli- tate Animi, c. 14). 96 The characters of his two delators, Basilius (Var. ii. 10, 11 ; iv. 22) and Opilio (v. 41, viii. 16), are illustrated, not much to their honor, in the Epistles of Cassio- dorus, which likewise mention Decoratus (v. 31), the worthless colleague of Boe* thius (1. iii. pros. 4, p. 193). 138 IMPKISONMENT OF BOETHIUS. [Ch. XXXTX. senate, at the distance of five hundred miles, pronounced a sentence of confiscation and death against the most illustrious of its members. At the command of the barbarians, the oc- cult science of a philosopher was stigmatized with the names of sacrilege and magic. 911 A devout and dutiful attachment to the senate was condemned as criminal by the trembling voices of the senators themselves ; and their ingratitude de- served the wish or prediction of Boethius, that, after him, none should be found guilty of the same offence. 97 While Boethius, oppressed with fetters, expected each mo- ment the sentence or the stroke of death, he composed in the His impris- Tower of Pavia the Consolation of Philosophy — a a"d death. golden volume not unworthy of the leisure of Pla* a.d.524. ^- or Tully, but which claims incomparable merit from the barbarism of the times and the situation of the au- thor. The celestial guide whom he had so long invoked at Rome and Athens now condescended to illumine his dungeon, to revive his courage, and to pour into his wounds her saluta- ry balm. She taught him to compare his long prosperity and his recent distress, and to conceive new hopes from the incon- stancy of fortune. Reason had informed him of the preca- rious condition of her gifts; experience had satisfied him of their real value ; he had enjoyed them without guilt, he might resign them without a sigh, and calmly disdain the impotent malice of his enemies, who had left him happiness, since they had left him virtue. From the earth Boethius ascended to heaven in search of the supreme good ; explored the meta- physical labyrinth of chance and destiny, of prescience and free-will, of time and eternity ; and generously attempted to reconcile the perfect attributes of the Deity with the appar- 96 A severe inquiry was instituted into the crime of magic (Var. iv. 22, 23 ; ix. i8); and it was believed that many necromancers had escaped by making their jailers mad : for mad, I should read drunk. 91 Boethius had composed his own Apology (p. 53), perhaps more interesting than his Consolation. We must be content with the general view of his honors, principles, persecution, etc. (1. i. pros. 4, p. 42-62), which may be compared with the short and weighty words of the Valesian Fragment (p. 723 [Amm. torn. ii. p. 314, edit. Bip.]). An anonymous writer (Sinner, Catalog. MSS. Bibliot. Bern, torn. i. p. 287) charges him home with honorable and patriotic treason. ^D.524.] HIS DEATH. 139 ent disorders of his moral and physical government. Such topics of consolation, so obvious, so vague, or so abstruse, are ineffectual to subdue the feelings of human nature. Yet the sense of misfortune may be diverted by the labor of thought ; and the sage who could artfully combine in the same work the various riches of philosophy, poetry, and eloquence must already have possessed the intrepid calmness which he affect- ed to seek. Suspense, the worst of evils, was at length deter- mined by the ministers of death, who executed, and perhaps exceeded, the inhuman mandate of Theodoric. A strong cord was fastened round the head of Boethius, and forcibly tight- ened till his eyes almost started from their sockets ; and some mercy may be discovered in the milder torture of beating him with clubs till he expired. 98 But his genius survived to dif- fuse a ray of knowledge over the darkest ages of the Latin world ; the writings of the philosopher were translated by the most glorious of the English kings," and the third emper- or of the name of Otho removed to a more honorable tomb the bones of a Catholic saint who, from his Arian persecutors, had acquired the honors of martyrdom and the fame of mira- cles. 100 a In the last hours of Boethius he derived some com- 98 IIo was executed in Agro Calventiano (Calvenzano, between Marignano and Pavia), Anonym. Vales, p. 723 [p. 315, edit. Bip.], by order of Ensebius, Count of Ticinum or Pavia. The place of his confinement is styled the baptistery, an edi- fice and name peculiar to cathedrals. It is claimed by the perpetual tradition of the Church of Pavia. The Tower of Boethius subsisted till the year 1584, and the draught is yet preserved (Tiraboschi, torn. iii. p. 47, 48). 99 See the Biographia Britannica, Alfred, torn. i. p. 80, 2d edition. The work is still more honorable if performed under the learned eye of Alfred by his foreign mid domestic doctors. For the reputation of Boethius in the Middle Ages con- sult Brucker (Hist. Crit. Philosoph. torn. iii. p. 565, 566). 100 The inscription on his new tomb was composed by the preceptor of Otho the Third, the learned Pope Silvester II., who. like Boethius himself, was styled a magician by the ignorance of the times. The Catholic martyr had carried his head in his hands a considerable way (Baronius, a.d. 526, No. 17, 18) ; yet on a a Various legends gathered round the name of Boethius, who in the Middle Ages was looked upon as the head and type of all philosophers. But though he was throughout the whole of that period regarded not only as a Christian, but also as a saint and martyr, the very question of his Christianity is beset with difficul- ties, in whatever way it is determined. If the works on dogmatic theology as- cribed to him be really his, the question is settled in the affirmative ; but then the 140 DEATH OF SYMMACHUS. [Ch. XXXIX. fort from the safety of his two sons, of his wife, and of his father-in-law, the venerable Symmaehus. But the grief of Syrnmachus was indiscreet, and perhaps disrespectful : he had presumed to lament, he might dare to revenge, the Death of *, ■■ • . . ' . ° . ° ' . symmaehus. death of an injured friend. He was dragged m chains from Rome to the palace of Havenna, and the suspicions of Theodoric could only be appeased by the blood of an innocent and aged senator. 101 Humanity will be disposed to encourage any report which testifies the jurisdiction of conscience and the remorse of kings ; and philosophy is not ignorant that the most horrid similar tale, a lady of my acquaintance once observed, "La distance n'y fait rienj il n'y a que le premier pas qui cofite." 3 101 Boethius applauds the virtues of his father-in-law (I. i. pros. 4, p. 59 ; 1. ii. pros. 4, p. 118). Procopius (Goth. 1. i. c. i. [torn. ii. p. 11, edit. Bonn]), the Vale- sian Fragment (p. 724 [p. 316, edit. Bip.]), and the Historia Miscella (1. xv. p. 105 [103?]), agree in praising the superior innocence or sanctity of Symmaehus; and in the estimation of the legend, the guilt of his murder is equal to the impris- onment of a pope. total omission of all reference to Christianity in the "Consolatio Philosophise," in passages and under circumstances where its mention seemed to be imperatively demanded, seems almost inexplicable. To solve this difficulty various expedients have been adopted. Bertius conjectured that there was to have been a sixth book, whicli was interrupted by the death of Boethius. Glareanus rejected the work it- self as spurious. Finally, Professor Hand, in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopadie, has with much ingenuity maintained the opposite hypothesis, viz., that Boethius was not a Christian at all, and that the theological works ascribed to him were written by another Boethius, who was afterwards confounded with him ; and hence the origin or confirmation of the mistake. In favor of this theory may be men- tioned, over and above the general argument arising from the "Consolatio Phi- losophias:" (1.) The number of persons of the name of Boethius in or about that time. See Fabric. Biblioth. Lat. iii. 15. (2.) The tendency of that age to con- found persons of inferior note with their more famous namesakes, as well as to publish anonymous works under celebrated names. (3.) The evidently fabulous character of all the events in his life alleged to prove his Christianity. (4.) The tendency which appears increasingly onwards through the Middle Ages to Chris- tianize eminent heathens ; as, for example, the embodiment of such traditions with regard to Trajan, Virgil, and Statius, in the Divina Commedia of Dante. Still sufficient difficulties remain to prevent an implicit acquiescence in this hypothesis. Though no author quotes the theological works of Boethius before Hincmar(A.D. 850), yet there is no trace of any doubt as to their genuineness ; and also, though the general tone of the Consolatio is heathen, a few phrases seem to savor of a be- lief in Christianity, e. g., Angelica virtute (iv. 5), patriam for " heaven " (v. 1, iv. 1), veri prcevia luminis (iv. 1). See A. P. Stanley, in Smith's Diet, of Greek and Rom. Biography, vol. i. p. 496. — S. a Madame du Deffand. This witticism referred to the miracle of St. Denia, — G. A..D. 526.] DEATH OF THEODORIC. llj spectres are sometimes created by the powers of a disordered fancy and the weakness of a distempered body. Remorse J and death of After a life of virtue and glory, Theodonc was now Theodoric. . _. . ° •" .. . , a.i). 526, descending with shame and guilt into the grave: his mind was humbled by the contrast of the past, and justly alarmed by the invisible terrors of futurity. One evening, as it is related, when the head of a large fish was served on the royal table, 102 he suddenly exclaimed that he be- held the angry countenance of Symraachus, his eyes glaring fury and revenge, and his mouth armed with long sharp teeth, which threatened to devour him. The monarch instantly re- tired to his chamber, and, as he lay trembling with aguish cold under a weight of bedclothes, he expressed in broken murmurs to his physician Elpidius his deep repentance for the murders of Boethius and Symmachus. 103 His malady in- creased, and, after a dysentery which continued three days, he expired in the palace of Ravenna, in the thirty-third, or, if we compute from the invasion of Italy, in the thirty-seventh year of his reign. Conscious of his approaching end, he divided his treasures and provinces between his two grandsons, and fixed the Rhone as their common boundary. 104 Amalaric was restored to the throne of Spain. Italy, with all the conquests of the Ostrogoths, was bequeathed to Athalaric, whose age did not exceed ten years, but who was cherished as the last male offspring of the line of Amali, by the short-lived marriage of his mother Amalasuntha with a royal fugitive of the same blood. 105 In the presence of the dying monarch, the Gothic 109 In the fanciful eloquence of Cassiodorus, the variety of sea and river fish are an evidence of extensive dominion ; and those of the Rhine, of Sicily, and of the Danube were served on the table of Theodonc (Var. xii. 44). The mon- strous turbot of Domitian (Juvenal, Satir. iv. 39) had been caught on the shores of the Adriatic. 103 Procopius, Goth. LLc.1 [torn. ii. p. 11, edit. Bonn]. But he might have informed us whether he had received this curious anecdote from common report or from the mouth of the royal physician. 104 Procopius, Goth. 1. i. c. 1, 2, 12, 13. This partition had been directed by Theodoric, though it was not executed till after his death. Regni hereditatem superstes reliquit (Isidor. Chron. p. 721, edit. Grot.). 105 Berimund, the third in descent from Hermanric, king of the Ostrogoths, had 142 DEATH OF THEODORIC. [Ch. XXXIX. chiefs and Italian magistrates mutually engaged their faith and loyalty to the young prince and to his guardian mother ; and received, in the same awful moment, his last salutary ad- vice to maintain the laws, to love the senate and people of Rome, and to cultivate with decent reverence the friendship of the emperor. 106 The monument of Theodoric was erect- ed by his daughter Amalasuntha in a conspicuous situation, which commanded the city of Eavenna, the harbor, and the adjacent coast. A chapel of a circular form, thirty feet in di- ameter, is crowned by a dome of one entire piece of granite *. from the centre of the dome four columns arose, which sup- ported in a vase of porphyry the remains of the Gothic king, surrounded by the brazen statues of the twelve apostles. 1 " His spirit, after some previous expiation, might have been per- mitted to mingle with the benefactors of mankind, if an Ital- ian hermit had not been witness in a vision to the damnation of Theodoric, 108 whose soul was plunged by the ministers of divine vengeance into the volcano of Lipari, one of the flam- ing mouths of the infernal world. 109 retired into Spain, where he lived and died in obscurity (Jornandes, c. 33, p. 202, edit. Muratori). See the discovery, nuptials, and death of his grandson Eutharic (c. 58, p. 220). His Koman games might render him popular (Cassiodor. in Chron.), but Eutharic was asper in religione (Anonym. Vales, p. 722, 723 [p. 313, edit. Bip.]). 106 See the counsels of Theodoric, and the professions of his successor, in Pro- copius (Goth. 1. i. c. 1, 2), Jornandes (c. 59 [p. 700, 701, edit. Grot.]), and Cassio- dorus (Var. viii. 1-7). These epistles are the triumph of his ministerial eloquence. 101 Anonym. Vales, p. 724 [p. 316, edit. Bip.]. Agnellus de Vitis Pont. Raven, in Muratori Script. Rerum Ital. torn. ii. pt. i. p. 67. Alberti Descrizione d'ltalia, p.311. 1 108 This legend is related by Gregory I. (Dialog, iv. 30 [torn. ii. p. 420, edit. Bened.]), and approved by Baronius (a.d. 526, No. 28) ; and both the pope and cardinal are grave doctors, sufficient to establish a probable opinion. 109 Theodoric himself, or rather Cassiodorus, had described in tragic strains the volcanoes of Lipari (Cluver. Sicilia, p. 406-410), and Vesuvius ([Var.] iv. 50). * The Mausoleum of Theodoric, now Santa Maria della Rotonda, is engraved in D'Agincourt, Histoire de l'Art, p. xviii. of the Architectural Prints. — M. BIKTH OF JUSTINIAN. 143 CHAPTER XL. 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 the inhabitants of a wild and desolate country, to which the names of Dardania, of Dacia, and of Bulgaria have been successively applied.* His elevation was prepared by the adventurous 1 There is some difficulty in the date of his birth (Ludewig in Vit. Justiniani, p. 125) ; none in the place — the district Bederiana — the village Tauresium, which he afterwards decorated with his name and splendor (D'Anville, Hist, de l'Acad. etc., torn. xxxi. p. 287-292). 2 The names of these Dardanian peasants are Gothic, and almost English : Jus- tinian is a translation of uprauda {upright) ; his father Sabatius (in Graeco-bar- barous language stipes) was styled in his village Istock (Stock) • his mother Bi- gleniza was softened into Vigilantia. b 3 Ludewig (p. 127-135) attempts to justify the Anician name of Justinian and Theodora, and to connect them with a family from which the House of Austria has been derived. a The following table exhibits the most important persons of the family of Justinian : Sabatius = Bigleniza. Justinus I. = Euphemia. (Istok). I Imp. ob. 527. Justiniantts I. Vigilantia, Filius. Imp. ob. 565, m. Dulcissimus. m. Theodora, ob. 548. JtTSTINUS II. Imp. ob. 578. Justinian had several other nephews besides Justin II.. the children both of hig sister Vigilantia, and of his brother, whose name is unknown. See the genealog- ical table by Alemannus (Procop. vol. iii. p. 417, edit. Bonn). — S. b These names are Slavonic rather than Gothic. Uprawda, or Wprawda 144 ELEVATION OF JUSTIN I. [Ch. XL. spirit of his uncle Justin, who, with two other peasants of the same village, deserted for the profession of arms Emperor the more useful employment of husbandmen or a.b. 482, ' shepherds. 4 On foot, with a scanty provision of A.r>. 483, biscuit in their knapsacks, the three youths fol- lowed the high-road of Constantinople, and were soon enrolled, for their strength and stature, among the guards of the Emperor Leo. Under the two succeeding reigns, the fortunate peasant emerged to wealth and honors ; and his es- cape from some dangers which threatened his life was after- wards ascribed to the guardian angel who watches over the fate of kings. His long and laudable service in the Tsaurian and Persian wars would not have preserved from oblivion the name of Justin; yet they might warrant the military pro- motion which, in the course of fifty years, he gradually ob- tained — the rank of tribune, of count, and of general, the dig- nity of senator, and the command of the guards, who obeyed him as their chief at the important crisis when the Emperor Anastasius was removed from the world. The powerful kins- men whom he had raised and enriched were excluded from the throne ; and the eunuch Amantius, who reigned in the palace, had secretly resolved to fix the diadem on the head of the most obsequious of his creatures. A liberal donative, to conciliate the suffrage of the guards, was intrusted for that purpose in the hands of their commander. But these weighty arguments were treacherously employed by Justin in his own favor ; and as no competitor presumed to appear, the Dacian peasant was invested with the purple by the unanimous con- 4 See the Anecdotes of Procopius (c. 6), with the notes of N. Alemannus. The satirist would not have sunk, in the vague and decent appellation of yswpyoc, the j3ovko\oq and ai(pop€og of Zonaras. Yet why are those names disgraceful ? — and what German baron would not be proud to descend from the Eumseus of the Odyssey ? (OinrpaovSa), the name by which the future emperor was called by his country- men, agrees in meaning with the Latin Justinian ; prawda in old Slavic signify- ing jus, justitia, and w being a breathing frequently prefixed to Slavonic names. Iztok (Sol oriens), the name of Justinian's father, is a Slavonic translation of the Thracian-Phrygian name of Sabatius; and in the year 1171 we find mention of a Slavonic chief of the name of Iztok. See Schafarik, Slawische Alterthiimer, vol. ii.p. 160.— S. M>. 520-527.] ADOPTION OF JUSTINIAN. 145 sent of the soldiers, who knew him to be brave and gentle ; of the clergy and people, who believed him to be and reip of orthodox ; and of the provincials, who yielded a jn 8 stin C L,' blind and implicit submission to the will of the Jaiyio; capital. The elder Justin, as he is distinguish- A.i). 627, _ r , ' /.-it April i, or ed from another emperor ot the same family and All""U6t 1 name, ascended the Byzantine throne at the age of sixty-eight years ; and, had he been left to his own guidance, every moment of a nine years' reign must have exposed to his subjects the impropriety of their choice. His ignorance was similar to that of Theodoric ; and it is remarkable that, in an age not destitute of learning, two contemporary mon- archs had never been instructed in the knowledge of the al- phabets Bat the genius of Justin was far inferior to that of the G othic king : the experience of a soldier had not qualified him for the government of an empire ; and though personal- ly brave, the consciousness of his own weakness was natural- ly attended with doubt, distrust, and political apprehension. But the official business of the State was diligently and faith- fully transacted by the quaestor Proclus ; 5 and the aged em- peror adopted the talents and ambition of his nephew Justin- ian, an aspiring youth, whom his uncle had drawn from the rustic solitude of Dacia, and educated at Constantinople as the heir of his private fortune, and at length of the Eastern empire. Since the eunuch Amantius had been defrauded of his money, it became necessary to deprive him of his life. The Adoption and tas ^ was easily accomplished by the charge of a jusdnian of rea l or fictitious conspiracy ; and the judges were a.d. 520-527. m f ormec i 5 as an accumulation of guilt, that he was secretly addicted to the Manichsean heresy. 6 Amantius lost * His virtues are praised by Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c. 11 [torn. i. p. 52, edit. Bonn]). The quajstor Proclus was the friend of Justinian, and the enemy of ev- ery other adoption. 6 Manichsean signifies Eutychian. Hear the furious acclamations of Constan- * St. Martin questions the fact in both cases. The ignorance of Justin rests on the secret history of Procopius. St. Martin's notes on Le Beau, vol. viii. p. 8. — M. IV.— 10 146 SUCCESSION OF JUSTINIAN. [Ch. XL. his head ; three of his companions, the first domestics of the palace, were punished either with death or exile; and their unfortunate candidate for the purple was cast into a deep dungeon, overwhelmed with stones, and ignominiously thrown without burial into the sea. The ruin of Vitalian was a work of more difficulty and danger. That Gothic chief had ren- dered himself popular by the civil war which he boldly waged against Anastasius for the defence of the orthodox faith ; and after the conclusion of an advantageous treaty, he still remained in the neighborhood of Constantinople, at the head of a formidable and victorious army of barbarians. By the frail security of oaths he was tempted to relinquish this advantageous situation, and to trust his person within the walls of a city whose inhabitants, particularly the blue fac- tion, were artfully incensed against him by the remembrance even of his pious hostilities. The emperor and his nephew embraced him as the faithful and worthy champion of the Church and State, and gratefully adorned their favorite with the titles of consul and general; but in the seventh month of his consulship Yitalian was stabbed with seventeen wounds at the royal banquet, 7 and Justinian, who inherited the spoil, was accused as the assassin of a spiritual brother, to whom he had recently pledged his faith in the participation of the Christian mysteries. 8 After the fall of his rival, he was pro- moted, without any claim of military service, to the office of master-general of the Eastern armies, whom it was his duty to lead into the field against the public enemy. But, in the tinople and Tyre, the former no more than six days after the decease of Anasta- sius. They produced, the latter applauded, the eunuch's death (Baronius, a.d. 518, P. ii. Xo. 15 ; Fleury, Hist. Eccles. torn. vii. p. 200, 205, from the Councils, torn. v. p. 182, 207). 1 His power, character, and intentions are perfectly explained by the Count, da Buat (torn. ix. p. 54—81). He was great-grandson of Aspar, hereditary prince in the Lesser Scythia, and count of the Gothic faederati of Thrace. The Bessi r whom he could influence, are the minor Goths of Jornandes (c. 51). 8 Justiniani patricii factione dicitur interfectus fuisse (Victor Tununensis, Chron. in Thesaur. Temp. Scaliger, P. ii. p. 7). Procopius (Anecdot. c. 7 [c. 6, torn. iii. p. 46, edit. Bonn]) styles him a tyrant, but acknowledges the aSe\ ijij ie e jg] lt jjQQks f the Persian, Yandalic, and Gothic wars," which are continued in the five books of Agathias, deserve our esteem as a laborious and successful imitation of the Attic, or at least of the Asiatic, writers of ancient Greece. His facts are collected from the personal experience and free conversation of a soldier, a statesman, and a traveller ; his style continually aspires, and often at- tains, to the merit of strength and elegance ; his reflections, more especially in the speeches, which he too frequently in- serts, contain a rich fund of political knowledge ; and the his- torian, excited by the generous ambition of pleasing and in- structing posterity, appears to disdain the prejudices of the people and the flattery of courts. The writings of Procopius 14 12 See the characters of Procopius and Agathias in La Mothe le Vayer (torn. viii. p. 144-174), Vossius (de Historicis Gratis, 1. ii. c. 22), and Fabricius (Bibliot. GraBc. 1. v. c. 5, torn. vi. p. 248-278). Their religion, an honorable problem, be- trays occasional conformity, with a secret attachment to Paganism and Philosophy. 13 In the seven first books, two Persic, two Vandalic, and three Gothic, Proco- pins has borrowed from Appian the division of provinces and wars : the eighth book, though it bears the name of Gothic, is a miscellaneous and general supple- ment down to the spring of the year 553, from whence ft is continued by Agathiaa till 559 (Pagi, Critica, a.d. 579, No. 5). 14 The literary fate of Procopius has been somewhat unlucky. 1. His books de Bello Gothico were stolen by Leonard Aretin, and published (Fulginii, 1470; Venet. 1471, apud Janson. Mattaire, Annal. Typograph. torn. i. edit, posterior, p. 290, 304, 279, 299) in his own name (see Vossius de Hist. Lat. 1. iii. c. 5, and the feeble defence of the Venice Giornale de ? Letterati, torn. xix. p. 207). 2. His works were mutilated by the first Latin translators, Christopher 'Persona (Gior- nale, torn. xix. p. 340-348) and Raphael de Volaterra (Huet, de Claris Interpre- tibus, p. 166), who did not even consult the MS. of the Vatican library, of which they were prefects ^Aleman. in Prsefat. Auecdot.). 3. The Greek text was not 150 CHARACTER AND HISTORIES [Ch.XL. were read and applauded by his contemporaries : out, al- though he respectfully laid them at the foot of the throne, the pride of Justinian must have been wounded by the praise of a hero who perpetually eclipses the glory of his inactive sovereign. The conscious dignity of independence was sub- dued by the hopes and fears of a slave ; and the secretary of Belisarius labored for pardon and reward in the six books of the imperial edifices. He had dexterously chosen a subject of apparent splendor, in which he could loudly celebrate the genius, the magnificence, and the piety of a prince who, both as a conqueror and legislator, had surpassed the puerile vir- tues of Themistocles and Cyrus. 18 Disappointment might urge the flatterer to secret revenge ; and the first glance of favor might again tempt him to suspend and suppress a libel 17 in which the Roman Cyrus is degraded into an odious and contemptible tyrant, in which both the emperor and his con- sort Theodora are seriously represented as two demons who had assumed a human form for the destruction of mankind. 18 printed till 1607, by Hoeschelius of Augsburg (Dictionnaire tie Bayle, torn. ii. p. 782). 4. The Paris edition was imperfectly executed by Claude Maltret, a Jesuit of Toulouse (in 1663), far distant from the Louvre press and the Vatican MS., from which, however, he obtained some supplements. His promised commenta- ries, etc., have never appeared. The Agathias of Leyden (159-1) has been wisely reprinted by the Paris editor, with the Latin version of Bonaventura Vulcanius, a learned interpreter (Huet, p. 176). 15 Agathias in Praefat. p. 7, 8, 1. iv. p. 136 [edit. Par. ; p. 11, 264, edit. Bonn] ; Evagrius, 1. iv. c. 12. See likewise Photius, cod. lxiii. p. 65 [p. 21, edit. Bekk.]. 16 Kvpov Traihia (says he, Prsefat. ad 1. de vEdificiis Trepl ktktjicitidv) is no more than Kvpov iraidia — a pun ! In these five books Procopius affects a Chris- tian as well as a courtly style. 11 Procopius discloses himself (Praifat. ad Anecdot. c. 1, 2, 5), and the anec- dotes are reckoned as the ninth book by Suidas (torn. 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 cus- tody, and was first published sixteen years after his death, with the learned but partial notes of Nicholas Alemannus (Lugd. 1623). 13 Justinian an ass — the perfect likeness of Domitian — Anecdot. c. 8 — The- odora's lovers driven from her bed by rival demons — her marriage foretold with a, great demon — a monk saw the prince of the demons, instead of Justinian, on the throne — the servants who watched beheld a face without features, a body walking without a head, etc. , etc. Procopius declares his own and his friends' belief in these diabolical stories (c. 12). A .D. 527-565.] OF PROCOPIUS. . 151 Such base inconsistency must doubtless sully the reputation and detract from the credit of Procopius : yet, after the venom of his malignity has been suffered to exhale, the resi- due of the anecdotes, even the most disgraceful facts, some of which had been tenderly hinted iu his public history, are es- tablished by their internal evidence, or the authentic monu- ments of the times. 19 a From these various materials I shall now proceed to describe the reign of Justinian, which will de- serve and occupy an ample space. The present chapter will explain the elevation and character of Theodora, the reign of the factions of the circus, and the peaceful admin- istration of the sovereign of the East. In the three succeeding chapters I shall relate the wars of Justinian, which achieved the conquest of Africa and Italy ; and I shall follow the victories of Belisarius and N arses, without disguis- ing the vanity of their triumphs, or the hostile virtue of the Persian and Gothic heroes. The series of this volume will embrace the jurisprudence and theology of the emperor; the controversies and sects which still divide the Oriental Church ; the reformation of the Roman law which is obeyed or respected by the nations of modern Europe. I. In the exercise of supreme power, the first act of Justin- ian was to divide it with the woman whom he loved, the fa- mous Theodora, 20 whose strange elevation cannot be applauded as the triumph of female virtue. Under the reign of Anasta- 19 Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains, ch. xx.) gives credit to these anecdotes, as counected, 1, with the weakness of the empire, and, 2, with the instability of Justinian's laws. 20 Yov the life and manners of the Empress Theodora, see the Anecdotes; more especially c. 1-5, 9,, 10-15, 16, 17, with the learned notes of Alemannus — a reference which is always implied. a 'The Anecdota of Procopius, compared with the former works of the same au- thor, appear to me the basest and most disgraceful work in literature. The wars which he has described in the former volumes as glorious or necessary are become unprofitable and wanton massacres; the buildings which he celebrated, as raised to the immortal honor of the great emperor and his admirable queen, either as magnificent embellishments of the city, or useful fortifications for the defence of the frontier, are become works of vain prodigality and useless ostentation. I doubt whether Gibbon has made sufficient allowance for the " malignity " of the Anec- dotn ; at all events the extreme and disgusting profligacy of Theodora's early life rest;; eutirelv on this virulent libel. — M. 152 BIRTH AND VICES [Ch. XL. sius, the care Of the wild beasts maintained by the green f ac- Bhthand tidn at Constantinople was intrusted to Acacius, a Emp.ess h * native of the isle of Cyprus, who, from his employ- Theoaora. me nt, was surnamed the master of the bears. This honorable office was given after his death to another candi- date, notwithstanding the diligence of his widow, who had al- ready provided a husband and a successor. Acacius had left three daughters — Comito," Theodoka, and Anastasia — the eld- est of whom did not then exceed the age of seven years. On a solemn festival, these helpless orphans were sent by their dis- tressed and indignant mother, in the garb of suppliants, into the midst of the theatre: the green faction received them with contempt, the blues with compassion ; and this diifer- ence, which sunk deep into the mind of Theodora, was felt long afterwards in the administration of the empire. As they improved in age and beauty, the three sisters were^succes- sively devoted to the public and private pleasures of the By- zantine people ; and Theodora, after following Comito on the stage, in the dress of a slave, with a stool on her head, was at length permitted to exercise her independent talents. She neither danced, nor sung, nor played on the flute ; her skill was confined to the pantomime arts; she excelled in buffoon characters ; and as 6ften as the comedian swelled her cheeks, and complained with a ridiculous tone and gesture of the blows that were inflicted, the whole theatre of Constantinople resounded with laughter and applause. The beauty of The- odora" was the subject of more flattering praise, and the source of more exquisite delight. Her features were delicate and regular ; her complexion, though somewhat pale, was tinged with a natural color; every sensation was instantly ex- pressed by the vivacity of her eyes ; her easy motions dis- 81 Comito was afterwards married to Sittas, Duke of Armenia, the father, per- haps, at least she might be the mother, of the Empress Sophia. Two nephews of Theodora may be the sons of Anastasia (Aleman. p. 30, 31). 22 Her statue was raised at Constantinople on a porphyry column. See Proco- pius (de iEdif. 1. i. c. 11), who gives her portrait in the Anecdotes (c. 10 [torn. iii. p. 69, edit. Bonn]). Aleman. (p. 47) produces one from a mosaic at Ravenna, loaded with pearls and jewels, and yet handsome. A.D. 527-565.] OF THE EMPRESS THEODORA. 153 played the graces of a small but elegant figure ; and either love or adulation might proclaim that painting and poetry were incapable of delineating the matchless excellence of her form. But this form was degraded by the facility with which it was exposed to the public eye and prostituted to licentious desire. Her venal charms were abandoned to a promiscuous crowd of citizens and strangers, of every rank and of every profession : the fortunate lover who had been promised a night of enjoyment was often driven from her bed by a stronger or more wealthy favorite ; and when she passed through the streets, her presence was avoided by all who wished to escape either the scandal or the temptation. The satirical historian has not blushed 23 to describe the naked scenes which Theodora was not ashamed to exhibit in the theatre. 24 After exhaust- ing the arts of sensual pleasure, 25 she most ungratefully mur- mured against the parsimony of Nature ; 2a but her murmurs, her pleasures, and her arts must be veiled in the obscurity of 23 A fragment of the Anecdotes (c. 9), somewhat too naked, was suppressed by Alemannus, though extant in the Vatican MS. ; nor has the defect been supplied in the Paris or Venice editions. La Mothe le Vayer (torn. viii. p. 155) gave the first hint of this curious and genuine passage (Jortin's Remarks, vol. iv. p. 366), which lie had received from Rome, and it has been since published in the Menagi- ana (torn. iii. p. 254—259), with a Latin version. 24 After the mention of a narrow girdle (as none could appear stark-naked in the theatre), Procopius thus proceeds : avairETrTUKvXa re iv rij> idd. 527-565.] TYRANNY OF THEODORA. 151 chamber ; and when at last, after tedious attendance, they were admitted to kiss the feet of Theodora, they experienced, as her humor might suggest, the silent arrogance of an em- press or the capricious levity of a comedian. Her rapacious avarice to accumulate an immense treasure may be excused by the apprehension of her husband's death, which could leave no alternative between ruin and the throne ; and fear as well as ambition might exasperate Theodora against two generals who, during a malady of the emperor, had rashly declared that they were not disposed to acquiesce in the choice of the capital. But the reproach of cruelty, so repugnant even to her softer vices, has left an indelible stain on the memory of Theodora. Her numerous spies observed and zealously re- ported every action, or word, or look injurious to their royal mistress. Whomsoever they accused were cast into her pe- culiar prisons, 31 inaccessible to the inquiries of justice ; and it was rumored that the torture of the rack or scourge had been inflicted in the presence of a female tyrant, insensible to the voice of prayer or of pity. 81 Some of these unhappy victims perished in deep unwholesome dungeons, while others were permitted, after the loss of their limbs, their reason, or their fortune, to appear in the world, the living monuments of her vengeance, which was commonly extended to the children of those whom she had suspected or injured. The senator or bishop whose death or exile Theodora had pronounced, was delivered to a trusty messenger, and his diligence was quick- ened by a menace from her own mouth. " If you fail in the execution of my commands, I swear by Him who liveth for- ever that your skin shall be flayed from your body." 33 If the creed of Theodora had not been tainted with heresy, 31 Her prisons, a labyrinth, a Tartarus (Anecdot. c. 4), were under the palace. Darkness is propitious to cruelty, but it is likewise favorable to calumny and fiction. 88 A more jocular whipping was inflicted on Saturninus, for presuming to say that his wife, a favorite of the empress, had not been found arprjroQ (Anecdot. c. 17 [torn. iii. p. 104, edit. Bonn]). 33 Per viventem in ssecula excoriari te faciam. Anastasius de Vitis Pont. Ro* man. in Vigilio, p. 40. 158 VIKTUES OF THEODORA. [Ch.XL. her exemplary devotion might have atoned, in the opinion of her contemporaries, for pride, avarice, and cruelty : Her virtues , .i.-1-i-ii./i \ but if she employed her influence to assuage the intolerant fury of the emperor, the present age will allow some merit to her religion and much indulgence to her spec- ulative errors. 34 The name of Theodora was introduced, with equal honor, in all the pious and charitable foundations of Justinian ; and the most benevolent institution of his reign may be ascribed to the sympathy of the empress for her less fortunate sisters, who had been seduced or compelled to em- brace the trade of prostitution. A palace on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus was converted into a stately and spacious monastery, 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 perpetual confinement; and the despair of some, who threw themselves headlong into the sea, was lost in the gratitude of the penitents who had been delivered from sin and misery by their generous benefactress. 36 The pru- dence of Theodora is celebrated by Justinian himself; and his laws are attributed to the sage counsels of his most rev- erend wife, whom he had received as the gift of the Deity. 38 Her courage was displayed amidst the tumult of the people and the terrors of the court. Her chastity, from the moment of her union with Justinian, is founded on the silence of her implacable enemies ; and although the daughter of Acacius might be satiated with love, yet some applause is due to the firmness of a mind which could sacrifice pleasure and habit to the stronger sense either of duty or interest. The wishes and prayers of Theodora could never obtain the blessing of a law- 34 Ludewig, p. 161-166. I give him credit for the charitable attempt, although he hath not much charity in his temper. 35 Compare the Anecdotes (c. 17) with the Edifices (1. i. c. 9). How differently may the same fact be stated ! John Malala (torn. ii. p. 174, 175 [p. 440, 441, edit. Bonn]) observes that, on this or a similar occasion, she released and clothed the girls whom she had purchased from the stews at five aurei apiece. 36 Novel, viii. 1. An allusion to Theodora. Her enemies read the name Das« monodora (Aleman. p. 66 [Procop. torn. iii. p. 415, edit. Bonn]). A.D. 527-565.] HEE DEATH. 159 ful son, and 6he buried an infant daughter, the sole offspring of her marriage. 37 Notwithstanding this disappointment, her dominion was permanent and absolute ; she preserved, by art or merit, the affections of Justinian ; and their seeming dis- sensions were always fatal to the courtiers who believed them to be sincere. Perhaps her health had been impaired by the licentiousness of her youth ; but it was always delicate, and she was directed by her physicians to use the Pythian warm- baths. In this journey the empress was followed by the Praetorian prsefect, the great treasurer, several counts and pa- tricians, and a splendid train of four thousand attendants: the highways were repaired at her approach ; a palace was erect- ed for her reception ; and as she passed through Bithynia she distributed liberal alms to the churches, the monasteries, and the hospitals, that they might implore Heaven for the resto- ration of her health. 38 At length, in the twenty -fourth year of her marriage and the twenty -second of her and death, . ° J ,«'-,, a.d. 548, reign, she was consumed by a cancer; and the irreparable loss was deplored by her husband, who, in the room of a theatrical prostitute, might have selected the purest and most noble virgin of the East. 40 II. A material difference may be observed in the games of antiquity : the most eminent of the Greeks were actors, the Romans were merely spectators. The Olympic stadium was open to wealth, merit, and ambition ; and if the candidates S7 St. Sabas refused to pray for a son of Theodora, lest he should prove a heretic worse than Anastasius himself (Cyril in Vit. St. Sabas, apud Aleman. p. 70, 109 [Procop. torn. iii. p. 421, 462, edit. Bonn]). 38 See John Malala, torn. ii. p. 174 [p. 441, edit. Bonn]. Theophanes, p. 158 [torn. i. p. 286, edit. Bonn]. Procopius de iEdific. 1. v. c. 3. 39 Theodora Chalcedonensis synodi inimica canceris plaga toto corpore perfusa vitam prodigiose finivit (Victor Tununensis in Chron.). On such occasions an orthodox mind is steeled against pity. Alemannus (p. 12, 13) understands the EVffi€u>g tKoi[ir]9ri of Theophanes as civil language, which does not imply either piety or repentance; yet two years after her death St. Theodora is celebrated by Paul Silentiarius (in Proem, ver. 58-62). 40 As she persecuted the popes and rejected a council, Baronius exhausts the names of Eve, Dalila, Herodias, etc. ; after which he has recourse to his infernal dictionary : civis inferni — alumna daamonum — satanico agitata spiritu — cestro per- cita diabolico, etc., etc. (a.d. 548, No. 24). ICO FACTIONS OF THE CIRCUS. [Ch.XL. could depend on their personal skill and activity, they might The factions pursue the footsteps of Diomede and Menelaus, of the circus an( j con( j uc t their own horses in the rapid career. 41 Ten, twenty, forty chariots, were allowed to start at the same instant ; a crown of leaves was the reward of the victor, and his fame, with that of his family and country, was chanted in lyric strains more durable than monuments of brass and mar- ble. But a senator, or even a citizen, conscious of his dig- nity, would have blushed to expose his person or his horses in the circus of Rome. The games were exhibited at the ex- pense of the republic, the magistrates, or the emperors ; but the reins were abandoned to servile hands ; and if the profits of a favorite charioteer sometimes exceeded those of an advo- cate, they must be considered as the effects of popular extrav- agance and the high wages of a disgraceful profession. The race, in its first institution, was a simple contest of two char- iots, whose drivers were distinguished by white and red liver- ies : two additional colors, a light green and a caerulean blue^ were afterwards introduced ; and, as the races were repeated twenty -five times, one hundred chariots contributed in the same day to the pomp of the circus. The four factions soon acquired a legal establishment and a mysterious origin, and their fanciful colors were derived from the various appear- ances of nature in the four seasons of the year — the red dog- star of summer, the snows of winter, the deep shades of au- tumn, and the cheerful verdure of the spring. 42 Another interpretation preferred the elements to the seasons, and the struggle of the green and blue was supposed to represent the conflict of the earth and sea. Their respective victories an- 41 Read and feel the twenty- third book of the Iliad, a living picture of manners, passions, and the whole form and spirit of the chariot-race. West's Dissertation on the Olympic Games (sect. xii.-xvii.) affords much curious and authentic in- formation. 49 The four colors, alhati, russati, prasini, veneti, represent the four seasons, ac- cording to Cassiodorus (Var. iii. 51), who lavishes much wit and eloquence on this theatrical mystery. Of these colors, the three first may be fairly translated, white, red, and green. Venetus is explained by cceruleus, a word various and vague: it is properly the sky reflected in the sea ; but custom and convenience may allow blue as an equivalent. (Robert. Stephan, sub voce. Spence's Polymetis, p. 228.) A.D. 527-565.] FACTIONS OF THE CIRCUS. 161 nounced either a plentiful harvest or a prosperous navigation, and the hostility of the husbandmen and mariners was some- what less absurd than the blind ardor of the Roman people, who devoted their lives and fortunes to the color which they had espoused. Such folly was disdained and indulged by the wisest princes ; but the names of Caligula, Nero, Yitellius, Verus, Commodus, Caracalla, and Elagabalus were enrolled in the blue or green factions of the circus: they frequented their stables, applauded their favorites, chastised at Rome. .. .-it ■> ■, ,., their antagonists, and deserved the esteem of the populace by the natural or affected imitation of their man- ners. The bloody and tumultuous contest continued to dis- turb the public festivity till the last age of the spectacles of Rome ; and Theodoric, from a motive of justice or affection, interposed his authority to protect the greens against the vio- lence of a consul and a patrician who were passionately ad^ dieted to the blue faction of the circus. 43 Constantinople adopted the follies, though not the virtues, of ancient Rome ; and the same factions which had agitated They distract the circus raged with redoubled fury in the hippo- pte n fnTthe°" drome. Under the reign of Anastasius, this popu- East. j ar f renzv was inflamed by religious zeal ; and the greens, who had treacherously concealed stones and daggers under baskets of fruit, massacred at a solemn festival three thousand of their blue adversaries. 44 From the capital this pestilence was diffused into the provinces and cities of the East, and the sportive distinction of two colors produced two strong and irreconcilable factions, which shook the founda- tions of a feeble government. 44 The popular dissensions, 43 See Onuphrius Panvinius de Ludis Circensibus, I. i. c. 10, 11 ; the seventeenth Annotation on Mascou's History of the Germans ; and Aleman. ad c. vii. 44 Marcellin. in Chron. p. 47 [anno 501]. Instead of the vulgar word veneta, ha uses the more exquisite terms of ccerulea and ccerealis. Baronius (a.d. 501, No. 4, 5, 6) is satisfied that the blues were orthodox ; but Tillemont is angry at the supposi- tion, and will not allow any martyrs in a playhouse (Hist, des Emp. torn. vi. p. 554). 45 See Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c. 24). In describing the vices of the factions and of the government, the public is not more favorable than the secret historian. Aleman. (p. 26 [torn. iii. p. 373, edit. Bonn]) has quoted a fine passage from Greg* os-7 Nazianzen, which proves the inveteracv of the evil. IV.— 11 162 JUSTINIAN FAVORS THE BLUES. [Ch.XL. founded on the most serious interest or holy pretence, have scarcely equalled the obstinacy of this wanton discord, which invaded the peace of families, divided friends and brothers, and tempted the female sex, though seldom seen in the circus, to espouse the inclinations of their lovers, or to contradict the wishes of their husbands. Every law, either human or divine, was trampled under foot ; and as long as the party was suc- cessful, its deluded followers appeared careless of private dis- tress or public calamity. The license, without the freedom, of democracy, was revived at Antioch and Constantinople, and the support of a faction became necessary to every candi- date for civil or ecclesiastical honors. A secret attachment to the family or sect of Anastasius was imputed to the greens; the blues were zealously devoted to the cause of orthodoxy and Justinian, 48 and their grateful patron protected, above five years, the disorders of a faction whose seasonable tumults overawed the palace, the senate, and the capitals of the East. Justinian fa- Insolent with royal favor, the blues affected to ws the blues. s t r ike terror by a peculiar and barbaric dress — the long hair of the Huns, their close sleeves and ample garments, a lofty step and a sonorous voice. In the day they concealed their two-edged poniards, but in the night they boldly assem- bled in arms and in numerous bands, prepared for every act of violence and rapine. Their adversaries of the green fac- tion, or even inoffensive citizens, were stripped and often mur- dered by these nocturnal robbers, and it became dangerous to wear any gold buttons or girdles, or to appear at a late hour in the streets of a peaceful capital. A daring spirit, rising with impunity, proceeded to violate the safeguard of private houses ; and fire was employed to facilitate the attack, or to conceal the crimes, of these factious rioters. No place was safe or sacred from their depredations ; to gratify either ava- rice or revenge they profusely spilled the blood of the inno- cent ; churches and altars were polluted by atrocious murders, 46 The partiality of Justinian for the blues (Anecdot. c. 7 [torn. iii. p. 53, edit. Bonn]) is attested by Evagrius (Hist. Eccles. 1. iv. c. 32), John Malala (torn. ii. p. 138, 139 [p. 152, edit. Oxon. ; lib. xviii. p. 425, edit. Bonn]), especially for Anti- och, and Theophanes (p. 142 [p. 256, edit. Bonn}). A.D. 527-565.] JUSTINIAN FAVORS THE BLUES. lG^ and it was the boast of the assassins that their dexterity eould always inflict a mortal wound with a single stroke of their dagger. The dissolute youth of Constantinople adopted the blue livery of disorder; the laws were silent, and the bonds of society were relaxed ; creditors were compelled to resign their obligations ; judges to reverse their sentence; masters to en- franchise their slaves ; fathers to supply the extravagance of their children ; noble matrons were prostituted to the lust of their servants; beautiful boys were torn from the arms of their parents ; and wives, unless they preferred a voluntary death, were ravished in the presence of their husbands. 47 The despair of the greens, who were persecuted by their enemies and deserted by the magistrate, assumed the privilege of de- fence, perhaps of retaliation; "but those who survived the combat were dragged to execution, and the unhappy fugitives, escaping to woods and caverns, preyed without mercy on the society from whence they were expelled. Those ministers of justice who had courage to punish the crimes and to brave the resentment of the blues became the victims of their indis- creet zeal : a prsef ect of Constantinople fled for refuge to the holy sepulchre, a count of the East was ignominiously whip- ped, and a governor of Cilicia was hanged, by the order of Theodora, on the tomb of two assassins whom he had con- demned for the murder of his groom and a daring attack upon his own life. 48 An aspiring candidate may be tempted to build his greatness on the public confusion, but it is the interest as well as duty of a sovereign to maintain the author- ity of the laws. The first edict of Justinian, which was oiten repeated and sometimes executed, announced his firm resolu- tion to support the innocent, and to chastise the guilty, of ev- ery denomination and color. Yet the balance of justice was 47 "A wife" (says Procopius), " who was seized and almost ravished by a blue- coat, threw herself into the Bosphorus." The bishops of the second Syria (Ale- man, p. 26 [torn. iii. p. 374, edit. Bonn]) deplore a similar suicide, the guilt or glo- ry of female chastity, and name the heroine. 48 The doubtful credit of Procopius (Anecdot. c. 17) is supported by the less partial Evagrius, who confirms the fact, and specifies the names. The tragic fate of the Prefect of Constantinople is related by John Malala (torn. ii. p. 139 [p. 416, edit. Bonn]). 164 THE "NIKA. B [CilXI* still inclined in favor of the blue faction, by the secret affec- tion, the habits, and the fears of the emperor ; his equity, af- ter an apparent struggle, submitted without reluctance to the implacable passions of Theodora, and the empress never for- got or forgave the injuries of the comedian. At the acces- sion of the younger Justin, the proclamation of equal and rig- orous justice indirectly condemned the partiality of the for- mer reign. " Te blues, Justinian is no more ! ye greens, he is still alive!" 49 A sedition, which almost laid Constantinople in ashes, was excited by the mutual hatred and momentary reconciliation sedition of °f the two f actions. In the fifth year of his reign nopiefrat Justinian celebrated the festival of the ides of Jan- J^^** uary : the games were incessantly disturbed by the January. clamorous discontent of the greens; till the twen- ty-second race the emperor maintained his silent gravity ; at length, yielding to his impatience, he condescended to hold, in abrupt sentences, and by the voice of a crier, the most sin- gular dialogue 50 that ever passed between a prince and his subjects. Their first complaints were respectful and modest; they accused the subordinate ministers of oppression, and pro- claimed their wishes for the long life and victory of the em- peror. "Be patient and attentive, ye insolent railers!" ex- claimed Justinian ; " be mute, ye Jews, Samaritans, and Mani- chseans!" The greens still attempted to awaken his compas- sion. ""We are poor, we are innocent, we are injured, we dare not pass through the streets: a general persecution is exer- 49 See John Malala (torn. ii. p. 147 [p. 422, edit. Bonn]); yet he owns that Jus- tinian was attached to the blues. The seeming discord of the emperor and The- odora is perhaps viewed with too much jealousy and refinement by Procopius (Anecdot. c. 10 [t. iii. p. 70, edit. Bonn]). See Aleman. Prasfat. p. 6. 50 This dialogue, which Theophanes has preserved, exhibits the popular lan- guage, as well as the manners, of Constantinople in the sixth century.* Their Greek is mingled with many strange and barbarous words, for which Ducange cannot always find a meaning or etymology. * Malala makes no mention of this dialogue ; and Lord Mahon expresses hia surprise that Gibbon should have adopted this improbable tale from Theophanes, whose "authority, till near his own times, is so slight, that we should never trust him more than we can help." Life of Belisarius, p. 54.— S, a.d.532.,] THE "NIKA." 165 cised against our name and color. Let us die, O emperor! but let us die by your command and for your service I" But the repetition of partial and passionate invectives degraded, in their eyes, the majesty of the purple ; they renounced allegiance to the prince who refused justice to his people, lamented that the father of Justinian had been born, and branded his son with the opprobrious names of a homicide, an ass, and a perjured tyrant. "Do you despise your lives?" cried the indignant monarch. The blues rose with fury from their seats, their hostile clamors thundered in the hippo- drome, and their adversaries, deserting the unequal contest, spread terror and despair through the streets of Constantino- ple. At this dangerous moment, seven notorious assassins of both factions, who had been condemned by the prsefect, were carried round the city, and afterwards transported to the place of execution in the suburb of Pera. Four were imme- diately beheaded ; a fifth was hanged ; but, when the same punishment was inflicted on the remaining two, the rope broke, they fell alive to the ground, the populace applauded their escape, and the monks of St. Conon, issuing from the neighboring convent, conveyed them in a boat to the sanct- uary of the church. 61 As one of these criminals was of the blue, and the other of the green, livery, the two factions were equally provoked by the cruelty of their oppressor or the in- gratitude of their patron, and a short truce was concluded till they had delivered their prisoners and satisfied their revenge. The palace of the prsefect, who withstood the seditious tor- rent, was instantly burned, his officers and guards were mas- sacred, the prisons were forced open, and freedom was re- stored to those who could only use it for the public destruc- tion. A military force which had been despatched to the aid of the civil magistrate was fiercely encountered by an armed multitude, whose numbers and boldness continually in- creased : and the Heruli, the wildest barbarians in the service of the empire, overturned the priests and their relics, which, from a pious motive, had been rashly interposed to separate 81 See this church and monastery in Ducange, C. P. Christiana, L iv. p. 182. 186 DISTRESS OF JUSTINIAN. [Ch. XI« the bloody conflict. The tumult was exasperated by this sacrilege; the people fought with enthusiasm in the cause of God ; the women, from the roofs and windows, showered stones on the heads of the soldiers, who darted firebrands against the houses ; and the various flames, which had been kindled by the hands of citizens and strangers, spread with- out control over the face of the city. The conflagration in- volved the Cathedral of St. Sophia, the baths of Zeuxippus, a part of the palace, from the first entrance to the altar of Mars, and the long portico from the palace to the Forum of Constautine : a large hospital, with the sick patients, was con- sumed ; many churches and stately edifices were destroyed ; and an immense treasure of gold and silver was either melted or lost. From such scenes of horror and distress the wise and wealthy citizens escaped over the Bosphorus to the Asi- atic side, and during five days Constantinople was abandoned to the factions, whose watchword Kika, vanquish ! has given a name to this memorable sedition. 62 As long as the factions were divided, the triumphant b!ues and desponding greens appeared to behold with the same in- The distress difference the disorders of the State. They agreed of justiuian. ^ Q censure the corrupt management of justice and the finance ; and the two responsible ministers, the artful Tribonian and the rapacious John of Cappadocia, were loudly arraigned as the authors of the public misery. The peaceful murmurs of the people would have been disregarded : they were heard with respect when the city was 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 hip- podrome to confess his own errors and to accept the repent- ance of his grateful subjects ; but they distrusted his assur- ances, though solemnly pronounced in the presence of the 62 The history of the Nika sedition is extracted from Marcellinus (in Chron. [an. 532]), Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c. 26 [c. 24, torn. i. p. 119, edit. Bonn]), John Malala (torn. ii. p. 213-218 [edit. Ox. ; p. 473-477, edit. Bonn]), Chron. Paschal. (p. 336-340 [torn. i. p. 620 seq., edit. Bonn]), Theophanes (Chronograph, p. 154- 158 [edit. Par. ; torn. i. p. 278-286, edit. Bonn]), and Zonaras (1. xiv. p. 61-63> A.D. 532.] FIRMNESS OF THEODORA. 167 holy gospels ; and the emperor, alarmed by their distrust, re- treated with precipitation to the strong fortress of the palace. The obstinacy of the tumult was now imputed to a secret and ambitious conspiracy, and a suspicion was entertained that the insurgents, more especially the green faction, had been sup- plied with arms and money by Hypatius and Pompey, two Patricians who could neither forget with honor, nor remem- ber with safety, that they were the nephews of the Emperor Anastasius. Capriciously trusted, disgraced, and pardoned by the jealous levity of the monarch, they had appeared as loyal servants before the throne, and, during five days of the tumult, they were detained as important hostages ; till at length, the fears of Justinian prevailing over his prudence, he viewed the two brothers in the light of spies, perhaps of assassins, and sternly commanded them to depart from the palace. After a fruitless representation that obedience might lead to involuntary treason, they retired to their houses, and in the morning of the sixth day Hypatius was surrounded and seized by the people, who, regardless of his virtuous re- sistance and the tears of his wife, transported their favorite to the Forum of Constantine, and, instead of a diadem, placed a rich collar on his head. If the usurper, who afterwards pleaded the merit of his delay, had complied with the advice of his senate, and urged the fury of the multitude, their first irresistible effort might have oppressed or expelled his trem- bling competitor. The Byzantine palace enjoyed a free com- munication with the sea, vessels lay ready at the garden-stairs, and a secret resolution was already formed to convey the em- peror, with his family and treasures, to a safe retreat at some distance from the capital. Justinian was lost, if the prostitute whom he raised from the theatre had not renounced the timidity as well as the virt- Firmnessof nes °f ner sex - I* 1 the midst of a council where Theodora. Belisarius was present, Theodora alone displayed the spirit of a hero, and she alone, without apprehending his future hatred, could save the emperor from the imminent danger and his unworthy fears. " If flight," said the consort of Justinian, " were the only means of safety, yet I should 168 THE SEDITION SUPPRESSED. [Ch.XL. disdain to fly. Death is the condition of our birth, but they who have reigned should never survive the loss of dignity and dominion. I implore Heaven that I may never be seen, not a day, without my diadem and purple ; that I may no longer behold the light when I cease to be saluted with the name of cpeen. If you resolve, O Csesar 1 to fly, you have treasures ; behold the sea, you have ships ; but tremble lest the desire of life should expose you to wretched exile and ignominious death. For my own part, I adhere to tbe maxim of antiquity, that the throne is a glorious sepulchre." The firmness of a woman restored the courage to deliberate and act, and courage soon discovers the resources of the most des- perate situation. It was an easy and a decisive measure to revive the animosity of the factions ; the blues were astonish- ed at their own guilt and folly, that a trifling injury should provoke them to conspire with their implacable enemies against a gracious and liberal benefactor ; they again proclaim- ed the majesty of Justinian ; and the greens, with their up- The sedition start emperor, were left alone in the hippodrome. is oppressed. TJie fidelity of ^ g uarc } s was doubtful; but the military force of Justinian consisted in three thousand vet- erans, who had been trained to valor and discipline in the Persian and Illyrian wars. Under the command of Belisa- rius and Mundus, they silently marched in two divisions from, the palace, forced their obscure way through narrow passages, expiring flames, and falling edifices, and burst open at the same moment the two opposite gates of the hippodrome. In this narrow space the disorderly and affrighted crowd was in- capable of resisting on either side a firm and regular attack ; the blues signalized the fury of their repentance, and it is computed that above thirty thousand persons were slain in the merciless and promiscuous carnage of the day. Hypatius was dragged from his throne, and conducted with his brother Pompey to the feet of the emperor ; they implored his clem- ency ; but their crime was manifest, their innocence uncertain, and Justinian had been too much terrified to forgive. The next morning the two nephews of Anastasius, with eighteen illustrious accomplices, of patrician or consular rank, were A.D. 532.] AGRICULTURE OF THE EASTERN EMPIRE. 169 privately executed by the soldiers, their bodies were thrown into the sea, their palaces razed, and their fortunes confiscated. The hippodrome itself was condemned, during several years, to a mournful silence ; with the restoration of the games the same disorders revived, and the blue and green factions con- tinued to afflict the reign of Justinian, and to disturb the tranquillity of the Eastern empire. 68 III. That empire, after Rome was barbarous, still embraced the nations whom she had conquered beyond the Adriatic, and as far as the frontiers of ^Ethiopia and Persia. Agriculture x . . . . » . andmanu- Justinian reigned over sixty -lour provinces and fftctures of the Eastern nine hundred and thirty-five cities ; M his dominions were blessed by nature with the advantages of soil, situation, and climate, and the improvements of human art had been perpetually diffused along the coast of the Mediter- ranean and the banks of the Nile, from ancient Troy to the Egyptian Thebes. Abraham 65 had been relieved by the well- known plenty of Egypt ; the same country, a small and pop- ulous tract, was still capable of exporting each year two hun- dred and sixty thousand quarters of wheat for the use of Con- stantinople ; 68 and the capital of Justinian was supplied with 63 Marcellinus says, in general terms, " Innumeris populis in circo trucidatis." Procopius numbers 30,000 victims [torn. i. p. 129, edit. Bonn] ; and the 35,000 of Theophanes are swelled to 40,000 by the more recent Zonaras [torn. ii. p. 63]. Such is the usual progress of exaggeration. 84 Hierocles, a contemporary of Justinian, composed his EuvfK&jjuoc (Itineraria, p. 631), or review of the Eastern provinces and cities, before the year 535 (Wes- seling, in Prsefat. and Not. ad p. 623, etc.). ts See the Book of Genesis (xii. 10) and the administration of Joseph. The annals of the Greeks and Hebrews agree in the early arts and plenty of Egypt : but this antiquity supposes a long series of improvement ; and Warburton, who is almost stifled by the Hebrew, calls aloud for the Samaritan, chronology (Divina Legation, vol. iii. p. 29, etc.). a 81 Eight millions of Roman modii, besides a contribution of 80,000 aurei for ■ The recent extraordinary discoveries in Egyptian antiquities strongly confirm the high notion of the early Egyptian civilization, and imperatively demand a lon- ger period for their development. As to the common Hebrew chronology, as far as such a subject is capable of demonstration, it appears to me to have been framed, with a particular view, by the Jews of Tiberias. It was not the chronology of tha Samaritans, not that of the LXX, not that of Josephus, not that of St. Paul. — Mt 170 MANUFACTURES OF THE EASTERN EMPIRE. [Ch.XL. the manufactures of Sidon fifteen centuries after they had been celebrated in the poems of Homer." The annual pow« ers of vegetation, instead of being exhausted by two thou- sand harvests, were renewed and invigorated by skilful hus- bandry, rich manure, and seasonable repose. The breed of domestic animals was infinitely multiplied. Plantations, buildings, and the instruments of labor and luxury, which are more durable than the term of human life, were accumulated by the care of successive generations. Tradition preserved, and experience simplified, the humble practice of the arts ; society was enriched by the division of labor and the facility of exchange ; and every Roman was lodged, clothed, and sub- sisted by the industry of a thousand hands. The invention of the loom and distaff has been piously ascribed to the gods. In every age a variety of animal and vegetable productions, hair, skins, wool, flax, cotton, and at length silk, have been skilfully manufactured to hide or adorn the human body ; they were stained with an infusion of permanent colors, and the pencil was successfully employed to improve the labors of the loom. In the choice of those colors 68 which imitate the beauties of nature, the freedom of taste and fashion was in- dulged ; but the deep purple 59 which the Phoenicians extract- ed from a shell-fish was restrained to the sacred person and palace of the emperor, and the penalties of treason were de- the expenses of water-carriage, from which the subject was graciously excused. See the thirteenth Edict of Justinian [c. viii.] ; the numbers are checked and verified by the agreement of the Greek and Latin texts. 67 Homer's Iliad, vi. 289. These veils, ttsttXoi 7ra.niroiiciK.oi, were the work of the Sidonian women. But this passage is more honorable to the manufactures than to the navigation of Phoenicia, from whence they had been imported to Troy in Phrygian bottoms. 58 See in Ovid (De Arte Amandi, iii. 269, etc.) a poetical list of twelve colors borrowed from flowers, the elements, etc. But it is almost impossible to discrim- inate by words all the nice and various shades both of art and nature. 69 By the discovery of cochineal, etc., we far surpass the colors of antiquity. Their royal purple had a strong smell, and a dark cast as deep as bull's blood — " Obscuritas rubens " (says Cassiodorus,Var. 1. 1, c. 2) " nigredo sanguinea." The President Goguet (Origine des Loix et des Arts, part ii. 1. ii. ch. 2, p. 184-215] will amuse and satisfy the reader. I doubt whether his book, especially in Eng* land, is as well known as it deserves to be. a.d.532.] USE OF SILK BY THE ROMANS. 171 nounced against the ambitious subjects who dared to usurp the prerogative of the throne. 80 I need not explain that siW 1 is originally spun from the bowels of a caterpillar, and that it composes the golden tomb from whence a worm emerges in the form of a The use of Mikbythe butterfly. Till the reign of Justinian, the silk- Viomaiis. " ° worms who teed on the leaves of the white mul- berry-tree were confined to China ; those of the pine, the oak, and the ash were common in the forests both of Asia and Eu- rope; but as their education is more difficult, and their prod- uce more uncertain, they were generally neglected, except in the little island of Ceos, near the coast of Attica. A thin gauze was procured from their webs, and this Cean manufact- ure, the invention of a woman, for female use, was long ad- mired both in the East and at Rome. a "Whatever suspicions may be raised by the garments of the Medes and Assyrians, Virgil is the most ancient writer who expressly mentions the soft wool which was combed from the trees of the Seres or 60 Historical proofs of this jealousy have been occasionally introduced, and many more might have been added ; but the arbitrary acts of despotism were jus- tified by the sober and general declarations of law (Codex Theodosian. 1. x. tit. 21, leg. 3; Codex Justinian. 1. xi. tit. 8, leg. 5). An inglorious permission, and necessary restriction, was applied to the mimce, the female dancers (Cod. Theodos. 1. xv. tit. 7, leg. 11). 61 In the history of insects (far more wondei ful than Ovid's Metamorphoses) the silk-worm holds a conspicuous place. The bombyx of the isle of Ceos, as de- scribed by Pliny (Hist. Natur. xi. 26, 27, with the notes of the two learned Jes- uits, Hardouin and Brotier), may be illustrated by a similar species in China (Me- moiies sur les Chinois, torn. ii. p. 575-598) ; but our silk -worm, as well as the white mulberry-tree, were unknown to Theophrastus and Pliny. 3 The first ancient writer who gives any information respecting the use of silk is Aristotle (Hist. Anim. v. c. 19), whose account has been adopted with various modifications by Pliny, Clemens Alexandrians, and Basil. Gibbon has fallen into one or two mistakes : he has confounded the island of Ceos, near the coast of Attica, with the island of Cos, off the western coast of Asia Minor, the latter, and not Ceos, being celebrated for its transparent garments ; and he has without authority supposed that a species of silk-worm was bred in this island. But Aris- totle, after describing the silk- worm of the East, only says, "Pamphile, daughter of Plates, is reported to have first woven in Cos." It is therefore probable that the raw silk from the interior of Asia was brought to Cos, and there manufactured, in the same way, as we learn from Procopius, that it was brought some centuries later to be woven in the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Berytus. bee Yates, Tex- trinum Aptiquorum, p. 162 seq. — S. 172 USE OF SILK BY THE EOMANS. [Ch. XL. Chinese f and this natural error, less marvellous than the truth, was slowly corrected by the knowledge of a valuable insect, the first artificer of the luxury of nations. That rare and elegant luxury was censured, in the reign of Tiberius, by the gravest of the Eomans ; and Pliny, in affected though for- cible language, has condemned the thirst of gain, which ex- plored the last confines of the earth for the pernicious pur- pose of exposing to the public eye naked draperies and trans- parent matrons. 69 A dress which showed the turn of the limbs and color of the skin might gratify vanity or provoke desire ; the silks which had been closely woven in China were sometimes unravelled by the Phoenician women, and the pre- cious materials were multiplied by a looser texture and the intermixture of linen threads. 64 Two hundred years after the age of Pliny the use of pure or even of mixed silks was con- fined to the female sex, till the opulent citizens of Kome and the provinces were insensibly familiarized with the example of Elagabalus, the first who, by this effeminate habit, had sul- lied the dignity of an emperor and a man. Aurelian com- plained that a pound of silk was sold at Rome for twelve ounces of gold ; but the supply increased with the demand, and the price diminished with the supply. If accident or monopoly sometimes raised the value even above the stand- ard of Aurelian, the manufacturers of Tyre and Berytus were sometimes compelled, by the operation of the same causes, to content themselves with a ninth part of that extravagant ** Georgic. ii. 121. " Serica quando venerint in nsum planissime non scio : sus- picor tamen in Julii Caesaris gevo, nam ante non invenio," says Justus Lipsius (Ex- cursus i. ad Tacit. Annal. ii. 32). See Dion Cassius (1. xliii. [c. 24] p. 358, edit. Keimar), and Pausanias (1. vi. [c. 26, § 6-9] p. 519), the first who describes, how- ever strangely, the Seric insect. v ' a Tarn longinquo orbe petitur, ut in publico matrona transluceat * * * ut de- nudet foeminas vestis (Tlin. vi. 20 ; xi. 26). Varro and Publius Syrus had al- ready played on the Toga vitrea, ventus textilis, and nebula linea (Horat. Sermon. i. 2, 101, with the notes of Torrentius and Dacier). 64 On the texture, colors, names, and use of the silk, half-silk, and linen gar- ments of antiquity, see the profound, diffuse, and obscure researches of the great Salmasius (in Hist. August, p. 127, 309, 310, 339, 341, 342, 344, 388- 391, 395, 513), who was ignorant of the most common trades of Dijon or Ley- den. ITS IMPORTATION FROM CHINA. 173 rate." A law was thought necessary to discriminate the dress of comedians from that of senators, and of the silk ex- ported from its native country the far greater part was con- sumed by the subjects of Justinian. They were still more intimately acquainted with a shell-fish of the Mediterranean, surnamed the silk-worm of the sea : the fine wool or hair by which the mother-of-pearl affixes itself to the rock is now manufactured for curiosity rather than use; and a robe ob- tained from the same singular materials was the gift of the Roman emperor to the satraps of Armenia. 68 A valuable merchandise of small bulk is capable of defray- ing the expense of land-carriage, and the caravans traversed importation tne whole latitude of Asia in two hundred and b™iandand forty-three days from the Chinese Ocean to the sea- 8ea " coast of Syria. Silk was immediately delivered to the Romans by the Persian merchants, 67 who frequented the fairs of Armenia and Nisibis ; but this trade, which in the in- tervals of truce was oppressed by avarice and jealousy, was totally interrupted by the long wars of the rival monarchies. The Great King might proudly number Sogdiana, and even Serica, among the provinces of his empire, but his real do- minion was bounded by the Oxus, and his useful intercourse with the Sogdoites, beyond the river, depended on the pleas- ure of their conquerors, the white Huns and the Turks, who successively reigned over that industrious people. Yet the most savage dominion has not extirpated the seeds of agri 65 Flavius Vopiscus in Aarelian. c. 45, in Hist. August, p. 224. See Salma- sius ad Hist. Aug. p. 392, and Plinian. Exercitat. in Solinum, p. 694, 695. The Anecdotes of Procopius (c. 25) state a partial and imperfect rate of the price of silk in the time of Justinian. 66 Procopius de iEdif. 1. iii. c. 1. These pinnes de mer are found near Smyrna, Sicily, Corsica, and Minorca ; and a pair of gloves of their silk was presented to Pope Benedict XrV. 61 Procopius, Persic. 1. i. c. 20 ; 1. ii. c. 25 ; Gothic. 1. iv. c. 17. Menander in Ex- cerpt. Legat. p. 107 [edit. Par. ; p. 296, edit. Bonn]. Of the Parthian or Persian empire, Isidore of Charax (in Stathmis Parthicis, p. 7, 8, in Hudson, Geograph. Minor, torn, ii.) has marked the roads, and Ammianus Marcellinus (1. xxiii. c 6, p. 400) has enumerated the provinces.* a See St. Martin, Mem. sur l'Arm&iei, vol. ii. p. 4X.— M. 174: IMPORTATION OF SILK. [Ch. XL. culture and commerce in a region which is celebrated as one of the four gardens of Asia; the cities of Samarcand and Bochara are advantageously seated for the exchange of its various productions, and their merchants purchased from the Chinese 68 the raw or manufactured silk which they trans- ported into Persia for the use of the Roman empire. In the vain capital of China the Sogdian caravans were entertained as the suppliant embassies of tributary kingdoms, and, if they returned in safety, the bold adventure was rewarded with exorbitant gain. But the difficult and perilous march from Samarcand to the hrst town of Shensi could not be per- formed in less than sixty, eighty, or one hundred days ; as soon as they had passed the Jaxartes they entered the desert, and the wandering hordes, unless they are restrained by ar- mies and garrisons, have always considered the citizen and the traveller as the objects of lawful rapine. To escape the Tartar robbers and the tyrants of Persia, the silk-caravans ex- plored a more southern road : they traversed the mountains of Thibet, descended the streams of the Ganges or the Indus, and patiently expected, in the ports of Guzerat and Malabar, the annual fleets of the West. 69 But the dangers of the des- ert were found less intolerable than toil, hunger, and the loss of time; the attempt was seldom renewed, and the only Eu- ropean who has passed that unfrequented way applauds his own diligence that, in nine months after his departure from Pekin, he reached the mouth of the Indus. The ocean, 68 The blind admiration of the Jesuits confounds the different periods of the Chinese history. They are more critically distinguished by M. de Guignes (Hist, des Huns, torn. i. part i. in the Tables, part ii. in the Geography. Memoires de l'Acade'mie des Inscriptions, torn, xxxii. xxxvi. xlii. xliii.), who discovers the gradual progress of the truth of the annals and the extent of the monarchy, till the Christian era. He has searched with a curious eye the connections of the Chinese with the nations of the West ; but these connections are slight, casual, and obscure ; nor did the Romans entertain a suspicion that the Seres or Sinse possessed an empire not inferior to their own. 69 The roads from China to Persia and Hindostan may be investigated in the relations of Hackluyt and Thevenot (the ambassadors of Sharokh, Anthony Jen- kinson, the Pere Greuber, etc. See likewise Hanway's Travels, vol. i. p. 345-357). A communication through Thibet has been lately explored by the English sover- eigns of Bengal A.D.532.] IMPORTATION OF SILK. 175 however, was open to the free communication of mankind. From the great river to the Tropic of Cancer the provinces of China were subdued and civilized by the emperors of tho North; they were filled about the time of the Christian era with cities and men, mulberry-trees and their precious inhab- itants; and if the Chinese, with the knowledge of the com- pass, had possessed the genius of the Greeks or Phoenicians, they might have spread their discoveries over the southern hemisphere. I am not qualified to examine, and I am not disposed to believe, their distant voyages to the Persian Gulf or the Cape of Good Hope ; but their ancestors might equal the labors and success of the present race, and the sphere of their navigation might extend from the isles of Japan to the Straits of Malacca, the Pillars, if we may apply that name, of an Oriental Hercules. 70 Without losing sight of land, they might sail along the coast to the extreme promontory of Achin, which is annually visited by ten or twelve ships laden with the productions, the manufactures, and even the artifi- cers of China ; the island of Sumatra and the opposite penin- sula are faintly delineated 71 as the regions of gold and silver, and the trading cities named in the geography of Ptolemy may indicate that this wealth was not solely derived from the mines. The direct interval between Sumatra and Ceylon is about three hundred leagues; the Chinese and Indian navi- gators were conducted by the flight of birds and periodical winds, and the ocean might be securely traversed in square- built ships, which, instead of iron, were sewed together with the strong thread of the cocoa-nut. Ceylon, Serendib, or 70 Por the Chinese navigation to Malacca and Achin, perhaps to Ceylon, see Renaudot (on the two Mahometan Travellers, p. 8-11, 13-17, 141-157), Dampier (vol. ii. p. 136), the Hist. Philosophique des deux Indes (torn. i. p. 98), and the Hist. Generale des Voyages (torn. vi. p. 201). 71 The knowledge, or rather ignorance, of Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, Arrian, Marcian, etc., of the countries eastward of Cape Comorin, is finely illustrated by D'Anville (Antiquite Ge'ographique de lTnde, especially p. 161-198). Our geog- raphy of India is improved by commerce and conquest, and has been illustrated by the excellent maps and memoirs of Major Rennell. If he extends the sphere of his inquiries with the same critical knowledge and sagacity, he will succeed, .and may surpass, the first of modern geographers. 176 INTRODUCTION OF SILK-WORMS. [Ch. XL, Taprobana was divided between two hostile princes, one of whom possessed the mountains, the elephants, and the lumi- nous carbuncle, and the other enjoyed the more solid riches of domestic industry, foreign trade, and the capacious harbor of Trinquemale, which received and dismissed the fleets of the East and West. In this hospitable isle, at an 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 ben- eficial commerce with the inhabitants of the Persian Gulf. The subjects of the Great King exalted, without a rival, his power and magnificence ; and the Roman, who confounded their vanity by comparing his paltry coin with a gold medal of the Emperor Anastasius, had sailed to Ceylon, in an Ethi- opian ship, as a simple passenger. 72 As silk became of indispensable use, the Emperor Justinian saw with concern that the Persians had occupied by land and sea the monopoly of this important supply, and Introduction r J . r iTfJi of siik-worms that the wealth 01 Ins sumects was continually into Greece. . . ;' . •* drained by a nation of enemies and idolaters. An active government would have restored the trade of Egypt and the navigation of the Red Sea, which had decayed with the prosperity of the empire ; and the Roman vessels might have sailed for the purchase of silk to the ports of Ceylon, of Malacca, or even of China. Justinian embraced a more hum- ble expedient, and solicited the aid of his Christian allies, the ^Ethiopians of Abyssinia, who had recently acquired the arts of navigation, the spirit of trade, and the seaport of Adulis," * 12 The Taprobane of Pliny (vi. 24), Solinus (c. 56), and Salmas. Plinianas Ex- ereitat. (p. 781, 782), and most of the ancients, who often confound the islands of Ceylon and Sumatra, is more clearly described by Cosmas Indicopleustes ; yet even the Christian topographer has exaggerated its dimensions. His information on the Indian and Chinese trade is rare and curious (1. ii. p. 138 ; 1. xi. p. 337, 338, edit. Montfaucon [Coll. Nova Patrum, torn. ii. Paris, 1706]). " 3 See Procopius, Persic. (1. ii. c. 20 [1. i. c. 19]). Cosmas affords some inter- esting knowledge of the port and inscription of Adulis (Topograph. Christ. 1. ii. p. 139, 140-143), and of the trade of the Axumites along the African coast of Barbaria or Zingi (p. 138, 139), and as far as Taprobane (1. xi. p. 339). * Mr. Salt obtained information of considerable ruins of an ancient town neat A.D. 532.] INTRODUCTION OF SILK-WORMS. 177 still decorated with the trophies of a Grecian conqueror. Along the African coast they penetrated to the equator in search of gold, emeralds, and aromatics ; but they wisely de- clined an unequal competition, in which they must be always prevented by the vicinity of the Persians to the markets of India : and the emperor submitted to the disappointment till his wishes were gratified by an unexpected event. The Gos- pel had been preached to the Indians: a bishop already gov- erned the Christians of St. Thomas on the pepper - coast of Malabar ; a church was planted in Ceylon, and the mission- aries pursued the footsteps of commerce to the extremities of Asia. 74 Two Persian monks had long resided in China, per- haps in the royal city of Nankin, the seat of a monarch ad- dicted to foreign superstitions, and who actually received an embassy from the isle of Ceylon. Amidst their pious occu- pations they viewed with a curious eye the common dress of the Chinese, the manufactures of silk, and the myriads of silk- worms, whose education (either on trees or in houses) had once been considered as the labor of queens." They soon discovered that it was impracticable to transport the short- lived insect, but that in the eggs a numerous progeny might be preserved and multiplied in a distant climate. Religion or interest had more power over the Persian monks than the love of their country : after a long journey they arrived at Constantinople, imparted their project to the emperor, and were liberally encouraged by the gifts and promises of Jus- tinian. To the historians of that prince a campaign at the foot of Mount Caucasus has seemed more deserving of a mi- nute relation than the labors of these missionaries of com- merce, who again entered China, deceived a jealous people by 74 See the Christian missions in India, in Cosmas (1. iii. p. 178, 179, 1. xi, p. 337), and consult Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, (torn. iv. p. 413-518). ,B The invention, manufacture, and general use of silk in China, may be seen in Duhalde (Description Ge'ne'rale de la Chine, torn. ii. p. 165, 205-223). The prov- ince of Chekian is the most renowned both for quantity and quality. Zulla, called Azoole, which answers to the position of Adulis. Mr. Salt was pre- vented by illness; Mr. Stuart, whom he sent, by the jealousy of the natives, from investigating these ruins: of their existence there seems no doubt. Salt's Sec- ond Journey, p. 452. — M. IT.— 12 178 INTRODUCTION OF SILK-WORMrf. [Ch. XL. concealing the eggs of the silk-worm in a hollow cane, and re- turned in triumph with the spoils of the East. Under their direction the eggs were hatched at the proper season by the artificial heat of dung ; the worms were fed with mulberry- leaves ; they lived and labored in a foreign climate ; a suf- ficient number of butterflies was saved to propagate the race, and trees were planted to supply the nourishment of the rising generations. Experience and reflection corrected the errors of a new attempt, and the Sogdoite ambassadors acknowl edged in the succeeding reign that the Romans were not in- ferior to the natives of China in the education of the insects and the manufactures of silk, 76 in which both China and Con- stantinople have been surpassed by the industry of modern Europe. I am not insensible of the benefits of elegant luxu- ry ; yet I reflect with some pain that if the importers of silk had introduced the art of printing, already practised by the Chinese, the comedies of Menander and the entire decades of Livy would have been perpetuated in the editions of the sixth century. A larger view of the globe might at least have pro- moted the improvement of speculative science ; but the Chris- tian geography was forcibly extracted from texts of Scripture, and the study of nature was the surest symptom of an un- believing mind. The orthodox faith confined the habitable world to one temperate zone, and represented the earth as an oblong surface, four hundred days' journey in length, two hundred in breadth, encompassed by the ocean and covered by the solid crystal of the firmament. 77 16 Procopius, Bell. Gothic, iv. c. 17. Theophanes, Byzant. apud Phot. Cod. Ixxxiv. [lxiv.] p. 38 [edit. Hoeschel. ; p. 26 a, edit. Bekk.]. Zonaras, torn. ii. 1. xiv. p. 69. Pagi (torn. ii. p. 602) assigns to the year 552 this memorable impor- tation. Menander (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 107 [p. 295, 296, edit. Bonn]) mentions the admiration of the Sogdoites ; and Theophylact Simocatta (1. vii. c. 9) darkly represents the two rival kingdoms in (China) the country of silk. 77 Cosmas, surnamed Indicopleustes, or the Indian navigator, performed his voy- age about the year 522, and composed at Alexandria, between 535 and 547, Chris- tian Topography (Montfaucon, Praefat. c. i.), in which he refutes the impious opin- ion that the earth is a globe ; and Photius had read this work (Cod. xxxvi. p. 9, 10 [p. 7, edit. Bekk.]), which displays the prejudices of a monk, with the knowl. edge of a merchant: the most valuable part has been given in French and in Greek by Melchisedec Thevenot (Relations Curieuses, part i.), and the whole is a.d. 532.] STATE OF THE REVENUE. 179 IV, The subjects of Justinian were dissatisfied with the times and with the government. Europe was overrun by the state of the barbarians, and Asia by the monks : the poverty of revenue. ^ West discouraged the trade and manufactures of the East : the produce of labor was consumed by the un- profitable servants of the Church, the State, and the army ; and a rapid decrease was felt in the fixed and circulating cap- itals which constitute the national wealth. The public dis- tress had been alleviated by the economy of Anastasius, and that prudent emperor accumulated an immense treasure while he delivered his people from the most odious or oppressive taxes. a Their gratitude universally applauded the abolition of the gold of affliction, a personal tribute on the industry of since published in a splendid edition by Pere Montfaucon (Collectio Nova Pa- trurn, Paris, 1706, 2 vols, in fol. torn. ii. p. 113-346). But the editor, a theo- logian, might blush at not discovering the Nestorian heresy of Cosmas, which has been detected by La Croze (Christianisme des Indes, torn. i. p. 40-56). a See the character of Anastasius in Joannes Lydus de Magistratibus, 1. iii. c. 45, 46, p. 230-232 [p. 238-240, edit. Bonn]). His economy is there said to have degenerated into parsimony. He is accused of having taken away the levying of taxes and payment of the troops from the municipal authorities (the decurionate) in the Eastern cities, and intrusted it to an extortionate officer named Mannus. But he admits that the imperial revenue was enormously increased by this meas- ure. A statue of iron had been erected to Anastasius in the Hippodrome, oa ■" hich appeared one morning this pasquinade : — EtKova i\oxpvi*o Bpwtiy, xa\Kur]v Sai/iova KipfiaTiaag. This epigram is also found in the Anthology, Jacobs, vol. iv. p. 104, with eorae better readings : This iron statue meetly do we place To thee, world- wasting king, than brass more base; For all the death, the penury, famine, woe, That from thy wide-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 no uncommon inconsistency in such writers, proceeds to paint the character of Anastasius as endowed with almost every virtue, not excepting the mmost liberality. He was only prevented by death from relieving his subjects altogether from the capitation-tax, which he greatly diminished. — M. 180 AVAKICE AND PROFUSION OF JUSTINIAN. [Ch. XL. the poor/ 8 but more intolerable, as it should seem, in the form than in the substance, since the flourishing city of Edessa paid only one hundred and forty pounds of gold, which was collected in four years from ten thousand artificers.™ Yet such was the parsimony which supported this liberal disposi- tion, that, in a reign of twenty-seven years, Anastasius saved from his annual revenue the enormous sum of thirteen mill- ions sterling, or three hundred and twenty thousand pounds of gold. 80 His example was neglected, and his treasure was abused, by the nephew of Justin. The riches of Justinian were speedily exhausted by alms and buildings, by ambitious wars, and ignominious treaties. His revenues were found in- adequate to his expenses. Every art was tried to profusion of extort from the people the gold and silver which Justinian. -i-i-i'ii-ie n • he scattered with a lavish hand irom .Persia to France : 81 his reign was marked by the vicissitudes, or rather by the combat, of rapaciousness and avarice, of splendor and poverty ; he lived with the reputation of hidden treasures, 88 and bequeathed to his successor the payment of his debts. 83 18 Evagrius (1. iii. c. 39, 40) is minute and grateful, but angry with Zosimus for calumniating the great Constantine. In collecting all the bonds and records of the tax, the humanity of Anastasius was diligent and artful : fathers were some- times compelled to prostitute their daughters (Zosim. Hist. 1. ii. c. 38, p. 165, 166, Lipsias, 1784 [p. 104, edit. Bonn.]). Timotheus of Gaza chose such an event for the subject of a tragedy (Suidas, torn. iii. p. 475), which contributed to the abo- lition of the tax (Cedrenus, p. 357 [edit. Par. : torn. i. p. 627, edit. Bonn]) — a happy instance (if it be true) of the use of the theatre. 79 See Josua Stylites, in the Bibliotheca Orientalis of Asseman (torn. i. p. 268). This capitation-tax is slightly mentioned in the Chronicle of Edessa. 80 Procopius (Anecdot. c. 19 [torn. iii. p. 113, edit. Bonn.]) fixes this sum from the report of the treasurers themselves. Tiberius had vicies ter millies ; but far different was his empire from that of Anastasius. 81 Evagrius (1. iv. c. 30), in the next generation, was moderate and well informed; and Zonaras (1. xiv. c. 61), in the twelfth century, had read with care, and thought without prejudice : yet their colors are almost as black as those of the Anecdotes. 82 Procopius (Anecdot. c. 30) relates the idle conjectures of the times. The death of Justinian, says the secret historian, will expose his wealth or poverty. 83 See Corippus de Laudibus Justini Aug. 1. ii. v. 260, etc., 389, etc. "Plurima sunt vivo niminm neglecta parente, Unde tot exhaustus contraxit debita fiscus." Centenaries of gold were brought by strong arms into the Hippodromes "Debita persolvit genitoris, cauta recepit." A .r>.532.] VICES OF JUSTINIAN. 181 Such a character has been justly accused by the voice of the people and of posterity: but public discontent is credulous; private malice is bold ; and a lover of truth will peruse with a suspicious eye the instructive anecdotes of Procopius. The secret historian represents only the vices cf Justinian, and those vices are darkened by his malevolent pencil. Ambig- uous actions are imputed to the worst motives : error is con- founded with guilt, accident with design, and laws with abuses; the partial injustice of a moment is dexterously ap- plied as the general maxim of a reign of thirty-two years : the emperor alone is made responsible for the faults of his officers, the disorders of the times, and the corruption of his subjects ; and even the calamities of nature, plagues, earth- quakes, and inundations, are imputed to the prince of the demons, who had mischievously assumed the form of Jus- tinian. 84 84 The Anecdotes (c. 11-14, 18, 20-30) supply many facts and more complaints.* a The work of Lydus de Magistratibus (published by Hase at Paris, 1812, and reprinted in the new edition of the Byzantine historians) was written during the reign of Justinian. This work of Lydus throws no great light on the earlier his- tory of the Roman magistracy, but gives some curious details of the changes and retrenchments in the offices of state which took place at this time. The personal history of the author, with the account of his early and rapid advancement, and the emoluments of the posts which he successively held, with the bitter disap- pointment which he expresses at finding himself, at the height of his ambition, in an unpaid place, is an excellent illustration of this statement. Gibbon has before (clu iv. n. 45, and ch. xvii. n. 112) traced the progress of a Roman citizen to the highest honors of the State under the empire; the steps by which Lydus reached his humbler eminence may likewise throw light on the civil service at this period, lie was first received into the office of the Praetorian praefect; became a notary in that office, and made in one year 1000 golden solidi, and that without extortion. His place and the influence of his relatives obtained him a wife with 400 pounds of gold for her dowry. He became chief chartularius, with an annual stipend of 24 solidi, and considerable emoluments for all the various services which he per- formed. He rose to an Augustalis, and finally to the dignity of Corniculus, the highest, and at one time the most lucrative, office in the department. But the Praetorian praefect had gradually been deprived of his powers and his honors. He lost the superintendence of the supply and manufacture of arms; the uncon- trolled charge of the public posts; the levying of the troops; the command of the army in war when the emperors ceased nominally to command in person, but really through the Praetorian praefect; that of the household troops, which fell to the magister aulas. At length the office was so completely stripped of its power as to be virtually abolished (see de Magist. 1. iii. c. 40, p. 220 [p. 233 seq. edit. Bonn.], etc.). This diminution of the office of the praefect desToyed the emolu- ments of his subordinate officers, and Lydus not only drew n revenue from his dignity, but expended upon it all the gains of his former services. Lydus gravely refers this calamitous and, as he considers it, fatal degradation 182 PERNICIOUS SAVINGS. [Ch.XL. After this precaution I shall briefly relate the anecdotes of avarice and rapine under the following heads : I. Justinian Pernicious was so profuse that he could not be liberal. The savings. civil and military officers, when they were admitted into the service of the palace, obtained an humble rank and a moderate stipend ; they ascended by seniority to a station of affluence and repose ; the annual pensions, of which the most honorable class was abolished by Justinian, amounted to four hundred thousand pounds; and this domestic economy was deplored by the venal or indigent courtiers as the last out- rage on the majesty of the empire. The posts, the salaries of physicians, and the nocturnal illuminations were objects of more general concern ; and the cities might justly complain that he usurped the municipal revenues which had been ap- propriated to these useful institutions. Even the soldiers were injured ; and such was the decay of military spirit, that they were injured with impunity. The emperor refused, at the return of each fifth year, the customary donative of five pieces of gold, reduced his veterans to beg their bread, and suffered unpaid armies to melt away in the wars of Italy and Persia. II. The humanity of his predecessors had Remittances. . " ... always remitted, in some auspicious circumstance of their reign, the arrears of the public tribute, and they dex- terously assumed the merit of resigning those claims which it was impracticable to enforce. "Justinian, in the space of thirty-two years, has never granted a similar indulgence ; and many of his subjects have renounced the possession of those lands whose value is insufficient to satisfy the demands of the treasury. To the cities which had suffered by hostile 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 a single year has been confined to those places which were actually taken by the enemy." of the Pratorian office, to the alteration in the style of the official documents from Latin to Greek ; and refers to a prophecy of a certain Ponteius, which con- nected the ruin of the Roman empire with its abandonment of its language. Lydus chiefly owed his promotion to his knowledge of Latin. — M. a.d.532.] TAXES. 183 Such is the language of the secret historian, who expressly denies that any indulgence was granted to Palestine after the revolt of the Samaritans ; a false and odious charge, confuted by the authentic record which attests a relief of thirteen cen- tenaries of gold (fifty-two thousand pounds) obtained for that desolate province by the intercession of St. Sabas. 85 III. Procopius has not condescended to explain the system of taxation, which fell like a hail-storm upon the land, like a devouring pestilence on its inhabitants: but we should be- come the accomplices of his malignity if we imputed to Jus- tinian alone the ancient though rigorous principle, that a whole district should be condemned to sustain the partial loss of the persons or property of individuals. The Annona, or supply of corn for the use of the army and capital, was a grievous and arbitrary exaction, which ex- ceeded, perhaps in a tenfold proportion, the ability of the farmer ; and his distress was aggravated by the partial injus- tice of weights and measures, and the expense and labor of distant carriage. In a time of scarcity an extraordinary req- uisition was made to the adjacent provinces of Thrace, Bi- thynia, and Phrygia : but the proprietors, after a wearisome journey and a perilous navigation, received so inadequate a compensation, that they would have chosen the alternative of delivering both the corn and price at the doors of their gran- aries. These precautions might indicate a tender solicitude for the welfare of the capital; yet Constantinople did not escape the rapacious despotism of Justinian. Till his reign the straits of the Bosphorus and Hellespont were open to the freedom of trade, and nothing was prohibited except the exportation of arms for the service of the barbarians. At each of these gates of the city a praetor was stationed, the minister of imperial avarice ; heavy customs were imposed on the vessels and their merchandise ; the oppression was retali- ated on the helpless consumer ; the poor were afflicted by the 85 One to Scythopolis, capital of the second Palestine, and twelve for the rest of the province. Aleman. (p. 59 [Procop. torn. iii. p. 407, 408, edit. Bonn]) honestly produces this fact from a MS. Life of St. Sabas, by his disciple Cyril, in the Vatican library, and since published by Cotelerius. 184 MONOPOLIES. [Ch.XL. artificial scarcity and exorbitant price of the market ; and a people accustomed to depend on the liberality of their prince might sometimes complain of the deficiency of water and bread. 88 The aerial tribute, without a name, a law, or a def- inite object, was an annual gift of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, which the emperor accepted from his Prae- torian prsefect ; and the means of payment were abandoned to the discretion of that powerful magistrate. IV. Even such a tax was less intolerable than the privilege of mo- nopolies,* which checked the fair competition of industry, and, for the sake of a small and dishonest gain, im- posed an arbitrary burden on the wants and luxury of the subject. "As soon" (I transcribe the Anecdotes) "as the ex- clusive sale of silk was usurped by the imperial treasurer, a whole people, the manufacturers of Tyre and Berytus, was reduced to extreme misery, and either perished with hunger or fled to the hostile dominions of Persia." A province might suffer by the decay of its manufactures, but in this example of silk Procopius has partially overlooked the inestimable and lasting benefit which the empire received from the curiosity of Justinian. His addition of one seventh to the ordinary price of copper-money may be interpreted with the same can- dor ; and the alteration, which might be wise, appears to have been innocent ; since he neither alloyed the purity nor en- hanced the value of the gold coin, 87 the legal measure of pub- lic and private payments. V. The ample jurisdiction required by the farmers of the revenue to accomplish their engage- 86 John Malala (torn. ii. p. 232 [p. 488, edit. Bonn]) mentions the want of bread, and Zonaras (I. xiv. p. 63) the leaden pipes, which Justinian, or his servants, stole from the aqueducts. 87 For an aureus, one sixth of an ounce of gold, instead of 210, he gave no more than 180 folles or ounces of copper. A disproportion of the mint, below the mar- ket price, must have soon produced a scarcity of small money. In England, twelve pence in copper would sell for no more than seven pence (Smith's Inquiry into the "Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p r 49). For Justinian's gold coin, see Evagrius (1. iv. c. 30). * Hullman (Geschichte des Byzantinischen Handels, p. 15) shows that the des- potism of the government was aggravated by the unchecked rapacity of the officers. This state monopoly, even of corn, wine, and oil, was in force at the time of the first crusade. — M, A.D. 532.] VENALITY.— TESTAMENTS. 185 ments might be placed in an odious light, as if they had pur- chased from the emperor the lives and fortunes of their fellow -citizens. And a more direct sale of honors and offices was transacted in the palace, with the per- mission, or at least with the connivance, of Justinian and The- odora. The claims of merit, even those of favor, were disre- garded, 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 debts which he had contracted, and the heavy interest which he paid. A sense of the disgrace and mischief of this venal practice at length awakened the slumbering virtue of Justin- ian ; and he attempted, by the sanction of oaths 88 and penal- ties, to guard the integrity of his government : but at the end of a year of perjury his rigorous edict was suspended, and corruption licentiously abused her triumph over the impo- tence of the laws. VI. The testament of Eulalius, count of the domestics, declared the emperor his sole heir, on condition, however, that he should discharge his debts and legacies, allow to his three daughters a decent main- tenance, and bestow each of them in marriage, with a portion of ten pounds of gold. But the splendid fortune of Eulalius had been consumed by fire, and the inventory of his goods did not exceed the trifling sum of five hundred and sixty-four pieces of gold. A similar instance in Grecian history admon- ished the emperor of the honorable part prescribed for his im- itation. He checked the selfish murmurs of the treasury, ap- plauded the confidence of his friend, discharged the legacies and debts, educated the three virgins under the eye of the Empress Theodora, and doubled the marriage-portion which had satisfied the tenderness of their father. 89 The humanity 88 The oath is conceived in the most formidable words (Novell, viii. tit. 3). The defaulters imprecate on themselves, quicquid habent telorum armamentaria cceli ; the part of Judas, the leprosy of Giezi, the tremor of Cain, etc., besides all temporal pains. 89 A similar or more generous act of friendship is related by Lucian of Eudam- Idas of Corinth (in Toxare, c. 22, 23, torn. ii. p. 530), and the story has produced an ingenious, though feeble, comedy of Fontenelle. 186 THE MINISTERS OF JUSTINIAN. [CH.XL. of a prince (for princes cannot be generous) is entitled to some praise ; yet even in this act of virtue we may discover the inveterate custom of supplanting the legal or natural heirs which Procopius imputes to the reign of Justinian. His charge is supported by eminent names and scandalous exam- ples ; neither widows nor orphans were spared ; and the art of soliciting, or extorting, or supposing testaments, was bene- ficially practised by the agents of the palace. This base and mischievous tyranny invades the security of private life ; and the monarch who has indulged an appetite for gain will soon be tempted to anticipate the moment of succession, to in- terpret wealth as an evidence of guilt, and to proceed, from the claim of inheritance, to the power of confiscation. TIL Among the forms of rapine a philosopher may be permitted to name the conversion of pagan or heretical riches to the use of the faithful; but in the time of Justinian this holy plunder was condemned by the sectaries alone, who became the victims of his orthodox avarice. 90 Dishonor might be ultimately reflected on the character of Justinian ; but much of the guilt, and still more of the profit, The ministers was intercepted by the ministers, who were seldom of Justinian. p romo ted for their virtues, and not always selected for their talents. 91 The merits of Tribonian the quaestor will hereafter be weighed in the reformation of the Roman law ; but the economy of the East was subordinate to the Prasto- rian prsefect; and Procopius has justified his anecdotes by the portrait which he exposes, in his public history, of the no- torious vices of John of Cappadocia. 92 * His knowledge was 90 John Malala, torn. ii. p. 101, 102, 103 [p. 171-173, edit. Oxon. ; 439, 440, edit. Bonn], 91 One of these, Anatolius, perished in an earthquake — doubtless a judgment! The complaints and clamors of the people in Agathias (L'v. p. 146, 147 [edit. Par. ; p. 284 seq., edit. Bonn]) are almost an echo of the anecdote. The aliena pecunia reddenda of Corippus (L ii. 381, etc. [Laud. Just. Min.]) is not very honorable to Justinian's memory. 92 See the history and character of John of Cappadocia in Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c. 24, 25 ; 1. ii. c. 30. Vandal. 1. i. c. 13. Anecdot. c. 2, 1 7, 22). The agreement of the history and anecdotes is a mortal wound to the reputation of the prsefect. This view, particularly of the cruelty of John of Cappadocia, is confirmed by a-D.532.] JOHN OF CAPPADOCIA. 187 not borrowed from the schools," and his style was scarcely johu of legible ; but he excelled in the powers of native cappadocia. g en j USj to suggest the wisest counsels, and to lind expedients in the most desperate situations. The corruption of his heart was equal to the vigor of his understanding. Al- though he was suspected of magic and pagan superstition, he appeared insensible to the fear of God or the reproaches of man ; and his aspiring fortune was raised on the death of thousands, the poverty of millions, the ruin of cities, and the desolation of provinces. From the dawn of light to the mo- ment of dinner, he assiduously labored to enrich his master and himself at the expense of the Roman world; the remain- der of the day was spent in sensual and obscene pleasures, 9 and the silent hours of the night were interrupted by the per- petual dread of the justice of an assassin. His abilities, per- haps his vices, recommended him to the lasting friendship of Justinian : the emperor yielded with reluctance to the fury of the people; his victory was displayed by the immediate restoration of their enemy; and they felt above ten years, un- der his oppressive administration, that he was stimulated by revenge, rather than instructed by misfortune. Their mur- murs served only to fortify the resolution of Justinian ; but the prsefect, in the insolence of favor, provoked the resent- ment of Theodora, disdained a power before which every knee was bent, and attempted to sow the seeds of discord be- tween the emperor and his beloved consort. Even Theodora herself was constrained to dissemble, to wait a favorable mo- ment, and, by an artful conspiracy, to render John of Cap- 93 Ov yap aXXo ovdtv Iq ypa/s/iaTiffTOv Qoitwv Zpa9tv, on firj ypafifLara, Kai ravra jea/cd KaKwg ypa^/ai—a forcible expression [Pers. i. c. 24]. the testimony of Joannes Lydus, who was in the office of the prefect, and eye-wit- ness of the tortures inflicted by his command on the miserable debtors, or supposed debtors, of the State. He mentions one horrible instance of a respectable old man, with whom he was personally acquainted, who, being suspected of possessing mon- ey, was hung up bv the hands till he was dead. Lydus de Magist. lib. iii. c. 57, p". 254 [p. 251, editl Bonn].— M. a Joannes Lydus is diffuse on this subject, lib. iii. c. 65, p. 268 [p. 250, er^t. Bonn]. But the indignant virtue of Lydus seems greatly stimulated by the l ss of his official fees, which he ascribes to the innovations of the minister. — M. 188 JOHN OF CAPPADOCIA. [Ch. XL. padocia the accomplice of his own destruction.* At a time when Belisarius, unless he had been a hero, must have shown himself a rebel, his wife Antonina, who enjoyed the secret confidence of the empress, communicated his feigned discon- tent to Enphemia, the daughter of the prsefect ; the credu- lous virgin imparted to her father the dangerous project ; and John, who might have known the value of oaths and prom- ises, was tempted to accept a nocturnal, and almost treasona- ble, interview with the wife of Belisarius. An ambuscade of guards and eunuchs had been posted by the command of Theodora ; they rushed with drawn swords to seize or to pun- ish the guilty minister: he was saved by the fidelity of his attendants ; but, instead of appealing to a gracious sovereign who had privately warned him of his danger, he pusillani- mously fled to the sanctuary of the Church. The favorite of Justinian was sacrificed to conjugal tenderness or domestic tranquillity ; the conversion of a prgefect into a priest extin- guished his ambitious hopes ; but the friendship of the em- peror alleviated his disgrace, and he retained in the mild ex- ile of Cyzicus an ample portion of his riches. Such imper- fect revenge could not satisfy the unrelenting hatred of The- odora ; the murder of his old enemy, the Bishop of Cyzicus, afforded a decent pretence ; and John of Cappadocia, whose ac- tions had deserved a thousand deaths, was at last condemned for a crime of which he was innocent. A great minister, who had been invested with the honors of consul and patri- cian, was ignominiously scourged like the vilest of malefac- tors ; a tattered cloak was the sole remnant of his fortunes ; he was transported in a bark to the place of his banishment at Antinopolis, in Upper Egypt, and the Prasfect of the East begged his broad through the cities which had trembled at his name. Daring an exile of seven years, his life was pro- tracted and threatened by the ingenious cruelty of Theodora ; a According to Lydus, Theodora disclosed the crimes and unpopularity of the minister to Justinian, but the emperor had not the courage to remove, and was unable to replace, a servant under whom his finances seemed to prospei - . He at- tributes the sedition and conflagration called the vikcl (see p. 164) to the popular re- sentment against the tyranny of John, lib. iii. c. 70, p. 278 [p. 265, edit. Bonn], Unfortunately there is a large gap in his work just at this period. — M. A.D.532.] EDIFICES AND ARCHITECTS. 189 and when her deatli permitted the emperor to recall a servant whom he had abandoned with regret, the ambition of John of Cappadocia was reduced to the humble duties of the sacerdo- tal profession. His successors convinced the subjects of Jus- tinian that the arts of oppression might still be improved by experience and industry ; the frauds of a Syrian banker were introduced into the administration of the finances; and the example of the prsefect was diligently copied by the quaestor, the public and private treasurer, the governors of provinces, and the principal magistrates of the Eastern empire. 94 V. The edifices of Justinian were cemented with the blood and treasure of his people; but those stately structures ap- . peared to announce the prosperity of the empire, nndarcM- and actually displayed the skill of their architects. tccls Both the theory and practice of the arts which depend on mathematical science and mechanical power were cultivated under the patronage of the emperors ; the fame of Archimedes was rivalled by Proclus and Anthemius ; and if their miracles had been related by intelligent spectators, they might now enlarge the speculations, instead of 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 a similar expedient was employed by Proclus to destroy the 94 The chronology of Procopius is loose and obscure ; but with the aid of Pag;. I can discern that John was appointed Praatorian Prtefect of the East in the year 530 ; that he was removed in January, 532 — restored before June, 533 — banished in 541 — and recalled between June, 548, and April 1, 549. Aleman. (p. 96, 97 [Procop. torn. iii. p. 449, 450, edit. Bonn]) gives the list of his ten successors — & rapid series in a part of a single reign. a 95 This conflagration is hinted by Lucian (in Hippia, c. 2) and Galen (1. iii. de Temperamentis, torn. i. p. 81, edit. Basil) in the second century. A thousand years afterwards it is positively affirmed by Zonaras (1. ix. p. 424) on the faith of Dion Cassius, by Tzetzes (Chiliad ii. 119, etc.), Eustathius (ad Iliad. E. p. 338), and the scholiast of Lucian. See Fabricius (Biblioth. Grac. 1. iii. c. 22, torn. ii. p. 551, 552 [edit. Hamb. 1716]), to whom I am more or less indebted for several of these quotations. * Lydus gives a high character of Phocas, his successor, torn. iii. c. 72, p. 288 [p. 267, edit. Bonn].— M. 100 EDIFICES AND ARCHITECTS. [CH.XL. Gothic vessels in the harbor of Constantinople, and to pro- tect his benefactor Anastasius against the bold enterprise of Vitalian. 98 A machine was fixed on the walls of the city, consisting of a hexagon mirror of polished brass, with many- smaller and movable polygons to receive and reflect the rays of the meridian sun ; and a consuming flame was darted, to the distance, perhaps, of two hundred feet. 97 The truth of these two extraordinary facts is invalidated by the silence of the most authentic historians ; and the use of burning-glasses was never adopted in the attack or defence of places. 98 Yet the admirable experiments of a French philosopher 90 have de- monstrated the possibility of such a mirror ; and, since it is possible, I am more disposed to attribute the art to the great- est mathematicians of antiquity, than to give the merit of the fiction to the idle fancy of a monk or a sophist. According to another story, Proclus applied sulphur to the destruction of the Gothic fleet ; 100 in a modern imagination, the name of sulphur is instantly connected with the suspicion of gunpow- der, and that suspicion is propagated by the secret arts of his disciple Anthemius. 101 A citizen of Tralles, in Asia, had five 96 Zonaras (1. xiv. p. 55) affirms the fact, without quoting any evidence. 91 Tzetzes describes the artifice of these burning-glasses, which he had read, per- haps with no learned eyes, in a mathematical treatise of Anthemius. That trea- tise, wepl irapaSoZuiv /j.r]xavr)fidTU)v, has been lately published, translated, and il- lustrated by M. Dupuys, a scholar and a mathematician (Memoires de l'Acade"mie des Inscriptions, torn. xlii. p. 392-451). 98 In the siege of Syracuse, by the silence of Polybius, Plutarch, Livy ; in the siege of Constantinople, by that of Marcellinus and all the contemporaries of the Bixth century. 99 Without any previous knowledge of Tzetzes or Anthemius, the immortal Buffon imagined and executed a set of burning-glasses, with which he could in- flame planks at the distance of 200 feet (Supplement a l'Hist. Naturefle, torn. i. p. 399-483, quarto edition). What miracles would not his genius have performed for the public service, with royal expense, and in the strong sun of Constantinople or Syracuse ! 100 John Malala (torn. ii. p. 120-124 [p. 403-406, edit. Bonn]) relates the fact ; but he seems to confound the names or persons of Proclus and Marinus. 101 Agathias, 1. v. p. 149-152 [edit. Par. ; p. 289-294, edit. Bonn]. The merit of Anthemius as an architect is loudly praised by Procopius (de iEdif. 1. i. c. 1 [torn. iii. p. 174, edit. Bonn]) and Paulus Silentiarius (part i. 134, etc. [p. 15, edit, Bonn]). A.7). 5:J2.] EDIFICES AND ARCHITECTS. 191 sons, who were all distinguished in their respective profes- sions by merit and success. Olympius excelled in the knowl- edge and practice of the Roman jurisprudence. Dioscorus and Alexander became learned physicians; but the skill of the former w r as exercised for the benefit of his fellow-citizens, while his more ambitious brother acquired w r ealth and repu- tation at Rome. The fame of Metrodorus the grammarian, and of Anthemius the mathematician and architect, reached the ears of the Emperor Justinian, who invited them to Con- stantinople ; and while the one instructed the rising genera- tion in the schools of eloquence, the other filled the capital and provinces with more lasting monuments of his art. In a trifling dispute relative to the walls or windows of their con- tiguous houses, he had been vanquished by the eloquence of his neighbor Zeno ; but the orator was defeated in his turn by the master of mechanics, whose malicious, though harm- less, stratagems are darkly represented by the ignorance of Agathias. In a lower room, Anthemius arranged several ves- sels or caldrons of water, each of them covered by the wide bottom of a leathern tube, which rose to a narrow top, and was artificially conveyed among the joists and rafters of the adjacent building. A fire was kindled beneath the caldron ; the steam of the boiling water ascended through the tubes ; the house was shaken by the efforts of imprisoned air, and its trembling inhabitants might wonder that the city was uncon- scious of the earthquake which they had felt. At another time, the friends of Zeno, as they sat at table, were dazzled by the intolerable light which flashed in their eyes from the re- flecting mirrors of Anthemius ; they were astonished by the noise which he produced from the collision of certain mi- nute and sonorous particles ; and the orator declared in trag- ic style to the senate, that a mere mortal must yield to the power of an antagonist who shook the earth with the tri- dent of Neptune, and imitated the thunder and lightning of Jove himself. The genius of Anthemius, and his colleague Isidore, the Milesian, was excited and employed by a prince whose taste for architecture had degenerated into a mischiev- ous and costly passion. His favorite architects submitted 192 CHURCH OF ST. SOPHIA. [Ch. XL. their designs and difficulties to Justinian, and discreetly con- fessed how much their laborious meditations were surpassed by the intuitive knowledge or celestial inspiration of an em- peror whose views were always directed to the benefit of his people, the glory of his reign, and the salvation of his soul. 10 * The principal church, which was dedicated by the founder of Constantinople to Saint Sophia, or the eternal wisdom, had „ • . been twice destroyed by fire ; after the exile of Foundation J . of the church John Chrysostom, and during the Nika of the blue of St. Sophia. . J . ■ ' , T & ,. , , , and green factions. JNo sooner did the tumult sub- side than the Christian populace deplored their sacrilegious rashness ; but they might have rejoiced in the calamity, had they foreseen the glory of the new temple, which at the end of forty days was strenuously undertaken by the piety of Jus- tinian.' 03 The ruins were cleared away, a more spacious plan was described, and, as it required the consent of some pro- prietors of ground, they obtained the most exorbitant terms from the eager desires and timorous cc^cience of the mon- arch. Anthemius formed the design, and his genius directed 102 See Procopius (de JEdificis, 1. i. c. 1, 2 ; 1. ii. c. 3). He relates a coincidence of dreams which supposes some fraud in Justinian or his architect. They both saw, in a vision, the same plan for stopping an inundation at Dara. A stone- quarry near Jerusalem was revealed to the emperor (1. v. c. 6 [torn. iii. p. 323, edit. Bonn]) : an angel was tricked into the perpetual custody of St. Sophia (Ano- nym, de Antiq. C P. 1. iv. p. 70). 103 Among the crowd of ancients and moderns who have celebrated the edifice of St. Sophia, I shall distinguish and follow, 1. Four original spectators and his- torians: Procopius (de ^Edific. 1. i. c. 1), Agathias (1. v. p. 152, 153 [p. 296, 297, edit. Bonn]), Paul Silentiarius (in a poem of 1026 hexameters, ad calcem Anna? Comnen. Alexiad. ), and Evagrius (1. iv. c. 31). 2. Two legendary Greeks of a later period : George Codinus (de Origin. O P. p. 64-74 [edit. Par. • p. 130-148, edit. Bonn]), and the anonymous writer of Banduri (Imp. Orient, torn. i. 1. iv. p. 65-80). 3. The great Byzantine antiquarian, Ducange (Comment, ad Paul Silen- tiar. p. 525-598, and C. P. Christ. 1. iii. p. 5-78). 4. Two French travellers— the one, Peter Gyllius (de Topograph. C. P. 1. ii. c. 3, 4) in the sixteenth ; the oth- er, 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 correct than those of Ducange. I have adopted and reduced the measures of Grelot: but as no Christian can now ascend the dome, the height is borrowed from Evagrius, compared with Gyllius, Greaves, and the Oriental ge« ographer. i A.D. 532.] CHUKCII OF ST. SOPHIA. 193 the hands of ten thousand workmen, whose payment in pieces of fine silver was never delayed beyond the evening. The emperor himself, clad in a linen tunic, surveyed each day their rapid progress, and encouraged their diligence by his fa- miliarity, his zeal, and his rewards. The new cathedral of St. Sophia was consecrated by the patriarch, five years, eleven months, and ten days from the first foundation ; and in the midst of the solemn festival Justinian exclaimed with devout vanity, " Glory be to God, who hath thought me worthy to accomplish so great a work; I have vanquished thee, O Solo- mon !" 104 But the pride of the Roman Solomon, before twenty years had elapsed, was humbled by an earthquake, which over- threw the eastern part of the dome. Its splendor was again restored by the perseverance of the same prince ; and in the thirty-sixth year of his reign Justinian celebrated the second dedication of a temple which remains, after twelve centuries, a stately monument of his fame. The architecture of St. So- phia, which is now converted into the principal mosque, has been imitated by the Turkish sultans, and that venerable pile continues to excite the fond admiration of the Greeks, and . . the more rational curiosity of European travellers. The eye of the spectator is disappointed by an ir- regular prospect of half-domes and shelving roofs : the west- ern front, the principal approach, is destitute of simplicity and magnificence ; and the scale of dimensions has been much surpassed by several of the Latin cathedrals. But the archi- tect who first erected an aerial cupola is entitled to the praise of bold design and skilful execution. The dome of Saint So- phia, illuminated by four-and-twenty windows, is formed with so small a curve, that the depth is equal only to one sixth of 104 Solomon's temple was surrounded with courts, porticoes, etc. ; but the prop- er structure of the house of God was no more (if we take the Egyptian or Hebrew- cubit at 22 inches) than 55 feet in height, 36| in breadth, and 110 in length — a small parish church, says Prideaux (Connection, vol. i. p. Hi, folio) ; but few sanct- uaries could be valued at four or five millions sterling ! a • Hist, of Jews, vol. i. p. 257.— M. IV.— 13 194 CHURCH OF ST. SOPHIA. [Ch. XL. and fifteen feet, and the lofty centre, where a crescent has supplanted the cross, rises to the perpendicular height of one hundred and eighty feet above the pavement. The circle which encompasses the dome lightly reposes on four strong arches, and their weight is firmly supported by four massy piles, whose strength is assisted on the northern and southern sides by four columns of Egyptian granite. A Greek cross, inscribed in a quadrangle, represents the form of the edifice ; the exact breadth is two hundred and forty-three feet, and two hundred and sixty-nine may be assigned for the extreme length, from the sanctuary in the east to the nine western doors which open into the vestibule, and from thence into the narthex or exterior portico. That portico was the humble station of the penitents. The nave or body of the church, was filled by the congregation of the faithful; but the two sexes were prudently distinguished, and the upper and lower galleries were allotted for the more private devotion of the women. Beyond the northern and southern piles, a balus- trade, terminated on either side by the thrones of the emper- or and the patriarch, divided the nave from the choir ; and the space, as far as the steps of the altar, was occupied by the clergy and singers. The altar itself, a name which insensibly became familiar to Christian ears, was placed in the eastern recess, artificially built in the form of a demicylinder ; and this sanctuary communicated by several doors with the sac- risty, the vestry, the baptistery, and the contiguous buildings, subservient either to the pomp of worship or the private use of the ecclesiastical ministers. The memory of past calami- ties inspired Justinian with a wise resolution, that no wood, except for the doors, should be admitted into the new edifice ; and the choice of the materials was applied to the strength, the lightness, or the splendor of the respective parts. The solid piles which sustained the cupola were composed of huge blocks of freestone, hewn into squares and triangles, fortified by circles of iron, and firmly cemented by the infusion of lead and quicklime ; but the weight of the cupola was dimin- ished by the levity of its substance, which consists either of pumice-stone that floats in the water, or of bricks, from the A.D. 532.1 CHURCH OF ST. SOPHIA. 195 isle of Rhodes, five times less ponderous than the ordinary sort. The whole frame of the edifice was constructed of brick ; but those base materials were concealed by a crust of marble ; and the inside of St. Sophia, the cupola, the two larger and the six smaller semidomes, the walls, the hundred columns, and the pavement, delight even the eyes of barba- rians with a rich and variegated picture. A poet, 105 who beheld the primitive lustre of St. Sophia, enu- merates the colors, the shades, and the spots of ten or twelve marbles, jaspers, and porphyries, which nature had profusely diversified, and which were blended and contrasted as it were by a skilful painter. The triumph of Christ was adorned with the last spoils of paganism, but the greater part of these costly stones was extracted from the quarries of Asia Minor, the isles and continent of Greece, Egypt, Africa, and Gaul. Eight columns of porphyry, which Aurelian had placed in the Temple of the Sun, were offered by the piety of a Roman matron ; eight others of green mar- ble were presented by the ambitious zeal of the magistrates of Ephesus : both are admirable by their size and beauty, but every order of architecture disclaims their fantastic capitals. A variety of ornaments and figures was curiously expressed in mosaic ; and the images of Christ, of the Virgin, of saints, and of angels, which have been defaced by Turkish fanati- cism, were dangerously exposed to the superstition of the Greeks. According to the sanctity of each object, the pre- cious metals were distributed in thin leaves or in solid mass- es. The balustrade of the choir, the capitals of the pillars, 105 Paul Silentiarius, in dark and poetic language, describes the various stones and marbles that were era ployed in the edifice of St. Sophia (P. ii. ver. 129, 133, etc. etc. [p. 27 seq. edit. Bonn]) : 1. The Carystian — pale, with iron veins. 2. The Phrygian — of two sorts, both of a rosy hue; the one with a white shade, 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 ob- lique veins, white and red. 6. The Lydian— pale, with a red flower. 7. The African, or Mauritanian — of a gold or saffron hue. 8. The Celtic — black, with •white veins. 9. The Bosphoric — white, with black edges. Besides the Procon- nesian, which formed the pavement; the Thessalian, Molossian, etc., which are less distinctly paiate£ 196 CHURCHES AND PALACES. [Ch. XL. the ornaments of the doors and galleries, were of gilt bronze. The spectator was dazzled by the glittering aspect of the cu- pola. 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 had arisen two cubits above the ground, forty-five thousand two hundred pounds were already consumed, and the whole expense amounted to three hundred and twenty thousand. Each reader, according to the measure of his belief, may estimate their value either in gold or silver; but the sum of one million sterling is the result of the lowest computation. A magnifi- cent temple is a laudable monument of national taste and religion, and the enthusiast who entered the dome of St. So- phia might be tempted to suppose that it was the residence, cr even the workmanship, of the Deity. Yet how dull is the artifice, how insignificant is the labor, if it be compared with the formation of the vilest insect that crawls upon the sur- face of the temple ! So minute a description of an edifice which time has re- spected may attest the truth and excuse the relation of the churches innumerable works, both in the capital and prov- and palaces. j ncegj w hi c h Justinian constructed on a smaller scale and less durable foundations. 108 In Constantinople alone, and the adjacent suburbs, he dedicated twenty-five churches to the honor of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints. Most of these churches were decorated with marble and gold; and their various situation was skilfully chosen in a populous square or a pleasant grove, on the margin of the sea-shore, or on some lofty eminence which overlooked the continents of Europe and Asia. The Church of the Holy Apostles at Con. Btantinople, and that of St. John at Ephesus, appear to have 106 The six books of the Edifices of Procopius are thus distributed : the first is confined to Constantinople ; the second includes Mesopotamia and Syria ; tha third, Armenia and the Euxine ; the fourth, Europe ; the fifth, Asia Minor and Palestine ; the sixth, Egypt and Africa. Italy is forgot by the emperor or the historian, who published this work of adulation before the date (a.d. 555) of its final conquest. A.D. 532.] CHUKCHES AND PALACES 197 been framed on the same model : their domes aspired to im- itate the cupolas of St. Sophia, but the altar was more judi- ciously placed under the centre of the dome, at the junction of four stately porticoes, which more accurately expressed the figure of the Greek cross. The Virgin of Jerusalem might exult in the temple erected by her imperial votary on a most ungrateful spot, which afforded neither ground nor materials to the architect. A level was formed by raising part of a deep valley to the height of the mountain. The stones of a neighboring quarry were hewn into regular forms ; each block was fixed on a peculiar carriage drawn by forty of the strong- est oxen, and the roads were widened for the passage of such enormous weights. Lebanon furnished her loftiest cedars for the timbers of the church ; and the seasonable discovery of a vein of red marble supplied its beautiful columns, two of which, the supporters of the exterior portico, were esteemed the largest in the world. The pious munificence of the em- peror was diffused over the Holy Land ; and if reason should condemn the monasteries of both sexes which were built or restored by Justinian, yet charity must applaud the wells which he sunk, and the hospitals which he founded, for the relief of the weary pilgrims. The schismatical temper of Egypt was ill entitled to the royal bounty : but in Syria and Africa some remedies were applied to the disasters of wars and earthquakes, and both Carthage and Antioch, emerging from their ruins, might revere the name of their gracious ben- efactor. 1 " Almost every saint in the calendar acquired the honors of a temple — almost every city of the empire obtain- ed the solid advantages of bridges, hospitals, and aqueducts ; but the severe liberality of the monarch disdained to indulge his subjects in the popular luxury of baths and theatres. While Justinian labored for the public service, he was not unmindful of his own dignity and ease. The Byzantine pal- ace, which had been damaged by the conflagration, was re- stored with new magnificence ; and some notion may be con- 1OT Justinian once gave forty-five centenaries of gold (£180,000) for the repairi of Antioch after the earthquake (John Malala, torn. ii. p. 146-149 [p. 422-424, edit. Bonn]), 198 FORTIFICATION OF EUROPE. LCH.XI* ceived of the whole edifice by the vestibule or hall, which, from the doors perhaps, or the roof, was surnamed choice, or the brazen. The dome of a spacious quadrangle was support ed by massy pillars ; the pavement and walls were incrusted with many-colored marbles — the emerald green of Laconia, the fiery red, and the white Phrygian stone, intersected with veins of a sea-green hue. The mosaic paintings of the dome and sides represented the glories of the African and Italian triumphs. On the Asiatic shore of the Propontis, at a small distance to the east of Chalcedon, the costly palace and gar- dens of Herseum 108 were prepared for the summer residence of Justinian, and more especially of Theodora. The poets of the age have celebrated the rare alliance of nature and art, the harmony of the nymphs of the groves, the fountains, and the waves ; yet the crowd of attendants who followed the court complained of their inconvenient lodgings, 109 and the nymphs were too often alarmed by the famous Porphyrio, a whale of ten cubits in breadth and thirty in length, who was stranded at the mouth of the river Sangaris after he had infested more than half a century the seas of Constantinople. 110 The fortifications of Europe and Asia were multiplied by Justinian ; but the repetition of those timid and fruitless pre- Fortiflcation cautions exposes, to a philosophic eye, the debility of Europe. of tlie emp i re .»i F rom Belgrade to the Euxine, from the conflux of the Save to the mouth of the Danube, a 108 For the Herseum, the palace of Theodora, see Gyllius (de Bosphoro Thracio, I. iii. c. xi.), Aleman. (Not. ad Anec. p. 80, 81 [Procop. torn. iii. p. 431, 432, edit. Bonn], who quotes several epigrams of the Anthology), and Ducange (C. P. Christ. 1. iv. c. 13, p. 175, 17(1). 109 Compare, in the Edifices (1. i. c. 11) and in the Anecdotes (c. 8, 15), the different styles of adulation and malevolence: stripped of the paint, or cleansed from the dirt, the object appears to be the same. 110 Procopius, Goth. iii. 29 ; most probably a stranger and wanderer, as the Mediterranean does not breed whales. Balsenas quoque in nostra maria penetrant (Plin. Hist. Natur. ix. 2 [5]). Between the polar circle and the tropic, the ceta- ceous animals of the ocean grow to the length of 50, 80, or 100 feet. (Hist, des Voyages, torn. xv. p. 289. Pennant's British Zoology, vol. iii. p. 35.) 1,1 Montesquieu observes (torn. iii. p. 503, Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains, ch. xx.) that Justinian's empire was like Fiance in tha time of the Norman inroads— never so weak as when every village was fortified- A.D 532.] FORTIFICATION OF EUROPE, 199 chain of above fourscore fortified places was extended along the banks of the great river. Single watch-towers were changed into spacious citadels ; vacant walls, which the en- gineers contracted or enlarged according to the nature of the ground, were filled with colonies or garrisons : a strong fort- ress defended the ruins of Trajan's bridge; 112 and several mil- itary stations affected to spread beyond the Danube the pride of the Roman name. But that name was divested of its ter- rors ; the barbarians, in their annual inroads, passed and con- temptuously repassed before these useless bulwarks ; and the inhabitants of the frontier, instead of reposing under the shad- ow of the general defence, were compelled to guard with inces- sant vigilance their separate habitations. The solitude of an- cient cities was replenished ; the new foundations of Justin- ian acquired, perhaps too hastily, the epithets of impregnable and populous; and the auspicious place of his own nativity attracted the grateful reverence of the vainest of princes. Under the name of Justiniana prima, the obscure village of Tauresium became the seat of an archbishop and a prasfect, whose jurisdiction extended over seven warlike provinces of Illyricum ; 113 and the corrupt appellation of Giustendil still indicates, about twenty miles to the south of Sophia, the resi- dence of a Turkish sanjak. 114 For the use of the emper- or's countrymen, a cathedral, a palace, and an aqueduct were 112 Procopins affirms (1. iv. c. 6 [torn. iiL p. 289, edit. Bonn]) that the Danube was stopped by the ruins of the bridge. Had Apollodorus, the architect, left a de- scription of his own work, the fabulous wonders of Dion Cassius (1. lxviii. [c. 13J p. 1 129) would have been corrected by the genuine picture. Trajan's bridge con- sisted of twenty or twenty-two stone piles with wooden arches ; the river is shal- low, the current gentle, and the whole interval no more than 443 (Reimar ad Dion, from Marsigli) or 515 toises (D'Anville, Ge'ographie Ancienne, torn. i. p. 305). 113 Of the two Dacias, Mediterranean and Ripensis, Dardania. Prsevalitana, the second Msesia, and the second Macedonia. See Justinian (Novell, xi. [Prsef.]), who speaks of his castles beyond the Danube, and of homines semper bellicis su- doribus inhterentes. 114 See D'Anville (Memoires de 1'Acade'mie, etc., torn. xxxi. p. 289, 290). Rycaut (Present State of the Turkish Empire, p. 97, 316), Marsigli (Stato Militare del Im- perio Ottomano, p. 130). The sanjak of Giustendil is one of the twenty under tha begierbeg of Rumelia, and his district maintains 48 zaims and 588 timariots. 200 FORTIFICATION OF EUROPE. [Ch. XI* speedily constructed; the public and private edifices were adapted to the greatness of a royal city ; and the strength of the walls resisted, during the lifetime of Justinian, the un- skilful assaults of the Huns and Sclavonians. Their progress was sometimes retarded, and their hopes of rapine were dis- appointed, by the innumerable castles which, in the provinces of Da'cia, Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace, appeared to cover the whole face of the country. Six hundred of these forts were built or repaired by the emperor; but it seems reasonable to believe that the far greater part consist- ed only of a stone or brick tower in the midst of a square or circular area, which was surrounded by a wall and ditch, and afforded in a moment of danger some protection to the peas- ants and cattle of the neighboring villages. 115 Yet these mil- itary works, which exhausted the public treasure, could not remove the just apprehensions of Justinian and his European subjects. The warm baths of Anchialus, in Thrace, were ren- dered as safe as they were salutary ; but the rich pastures of Thessalonica were foraged by the Scythian cavalry ; the de- licious vale of Tempe, three hundred miles from the Danube, was continually alarmed by the sound of war; 116 and no un- fortified spot, however distant or solitary, could securely en- joy the blessings of peace. The straits of Thermopylae, which seemed to protect, but which had so often betrayed, the safety of Greece, were diligently strengthened by the la- bors of Justinian. From the edge of the sea-shore, through the forests and valleys, and as far as the summit of the Thes- salian mountains, a strong wall was continued which occupied every practicable entrance. Instead of a hasty crowd of peas- ants, a garrison of two thousand soldiers was stationed along the rampart, granaries of corn and reservoirs of water were provided for their use, and. by a precaution that inspired the 1,6 These fortifications may be compared tc the castles in Mingrelia (Chardin, Voyages en Perse, torn. i. p. 60, 131) — a natural picture. 116 The valley of Tempe is situate along the river Peneus, between the hills of Ossa and Olympus ; it is only five miles long, and in some places no more than 120 feet in breadth. Its verdant beauties are elegantly described by Pliny (Hist Natur. 1. iv. 15), and more diffusely by iElian (Hist. Var. 1. iii. c. L\ a.d.532.] FORTIFICATION OF EUROPE. 201 cowardice which it foresaw, convenient fortresses were erect- ed for their retreat. The walls of Corinth, overthrown by an earthquake, and the mouldering bulwarks of Athens and Platcea, were carefully restored ; the barbarians were discour- aged by the prospect of successive and painful sieges, and the naked cities of Peloponnesus were covered by the fortifica- tions of the isthmus of Corinth. At the extremity of Eu- rope, another peninsula, the Thracian Chersonesus, runs three days' journey into the sea, to form, with the adjacent shores of Asia, the straits of the Hellespont. The intervals between eleven populous towns were filled by lofty woods, fair past- ures, and arable lands ; and the isthmus, of thirty-seven sta- dia or furlongs, had been fortified by a Spartan general nine hundred years before the reign of Justinian. 117 In an age of freedom and valor the slightest rampart may prevent a sur- prise; and Procopius appears insensible of the superiority of ancient times, while he praises the solid construction and double parapet of a wall whose long arms stretched on either side into the sea, but whose strength was deemed insufficient to guard the Chersonesus, if each city, and particularly Gal- lipoli and Sestus, had not been secured by their peculiar forti- fications. The long wall, as it was emphatically styled, was a work as disgraceful in the object as it was respectable in the execution. The riches of a capital diffuse themselves over the neighboring country, and the territory of Constantinople, a paradise of nature, was adorned with the luxurious gardens and villas of the senators and opulent citizens. But their wealth served only to attract the bold and rapacious barba- rians ; the noblest of the Romans, in the bosom of peace- ful indolence, were led away into Scythian captivity; and their sovereign might view from his palace the hostile flames which were insolently spread to the gates of the imperial city. At the distance only of forty miles, Anastasius was constrained to establish a last frontier ; his long wall of sixty miles, from the Propontis to the Euxine, proclaimed the im- 111 Xenophon Hellenic. 1. iii. c. 2. After a long and tedious conversation with the Byzantine declaimers, how refreshing is the truth, the simplicity, the elegance of an Attic writer! 202 SECURITY OF ASIA. [Ch. XL. potence of his arms ; and as the danger became more immi nent, new fortifications were added by the indefatigable pru- dence of Justinian. 118 Asia Minor, after the submission of the Isaurians, 1 " remain- ed without enemies and without fortifications. Those bold security of savages, who had disdained to be the subjects of the ia coDquest Grallienus, persisted two hundred and thirty years ofisamia. j n a Ji£ e f independence and rapine. The most successful princes respected the strength of the mountains and the despair of the natives : their fierce spirit was some- times soothed with gifts, and sometimes restrained by terror; and a military count, with three legions, fixed his permanent and ignominious station in the heart of the Eoman prov- inces. 120 But no sooner was the vigilance of power relaxed or diverted, than the light-armed squadrons descended from the hills, and invaded the peaceful plenty of Asia. Although the Isaurians were not remarkable for stature or bravery, want rendered them bold, and experience made them skilful in the exercise of predatory war. They advanced with secrecy and speed to the attack of villages and defenceless towns ; their flying parties have sometimes touched the Hellespont, the Euxine, and the gates of Tarsus, Antioch, or Damascus ; 12 ' and the spoil was lodged in their inaccessible mountains, be- fore the Eoman troops had received their orders, or the dis- tant province had computed its loss. The guilt of rebellion and robbery excluded them from the rights of national ene- mies ; and the magistrates were instructed by an edict, that the trial or punishment of an Isaurian, even on the festival of 118 See the long wall in Evagrius (1. iv. [iii.] c. 38). This whole article is drawn from the fourth hook of the Edifices, except Anchialns (1. iii. c. 7). 119 Turn back to vol. i. p. 569. In the course of this history I have sometimes mentioned, and much oftener slighted, the hasty inroads of the Isaurians, which were not attended with any consequences. 120 Trebellius PoUio in Hist. August, p. 197 [Triginta Tyr. 25], who lived under Diocletian, or Constantine. See likewise Pancirolus ad Notit. Imp. Orient, c. 115, 141. See Cod. Theodos. 1. ix. tit. 35, leg. 37 [7], with a copious collective Anno- tation of Godefroy, torn. iii. p. 256, 257. 121 See the full and wide extent of their inroads in Philostorgius (Hist. Eccles. I. xi. c. 8), with Godefroy's learned Dissertations. a.d.532.] SECURITY OF ASIA. 203 Easter, was a meritorious act of justice and piety."* If the captives were condemned to domestic slavery, they maintain- ed, with their sword or dagger, the private quarrel of their masters ; and it was found expedient for the public tranquilli- ty to prohibit the service of such dangerous retainers. When their countryman Tarcalissseus or Zeno ascended the throne, lie invited a faithful and formidable band of Isaurians, who insulted the court and city, and were rewarded by an annual tribute of five thousand pounds of gold. But the hopes of fortune depopulated the mountains, luxury enervated the hardiness of their minds and bodies, and, in proportion as they mixed with mankind, they became less qualified for the enjoyment of poor and solitary freedom. After the death of Zeno, his successor Anastasius suppressed their pensions, ex- posed their persons to the revenge of the people, banished them from Constantinople, and prepared to. sustain a war which left only the alternative of victory or servitude. A brother of the last emperor usurped the title of Augustus ; his cause was powerfully supported by the arms, the treas- ures, and the magazines collected by Zeno ; and the native Isaurians must have formed the smallest portion of the hun- dred and fifty thousand barbarians under his standard, which was sanctified for the first time by the presence of a fighting bishop. Their disorderly numbers were vanquished in the plains of Phrygia by the valor and discipline of the Goths, but a war of six years almost exhausted the cour- a.d. 492-498. age of the emperor. 123 The Isaurians retired to their mountains, their fortresses were successively besieged and ruined, their communication with the sea was intercepted, the bravest of their leaders died in arms, the surviving chiefs before their execution were dragged in chains through the 122 Cod. Justinian. 1. ix. tit. 12, leg. 10. The punishments are severe — a fine of a hundred pounds of gold, degradation, and even death. The public peace might afford a pretence, but Zeno was desirous of monopolizing the valor and ser- vice of the Isaurians. 123 The Isaurian war and the triumph of Anastasius are briefly and darkly rep- resented by John Malala (torn. ii. p. 106, 107 [p. 393, 394, edit. Bonn]), Evagrius (1. iii. c. 35), Theophanes (p. 118-120 [edit. Par. ; torn. i. p. 212-215, edit. Bonn]), and the Chronicle of Marcellinus. 204 FORTIFICATIONS OF THE EMPIRE. [Ch. XL, hippodrome, a colony of their youth was transplanted into Thrace, and the remnant of the people submitted to the Ro- man government. Yet some generations elapsed before their minds were reduced to the level of slavery. The populoui villages of Mount Taurus were filled with horsemen and archers; they resisted the imposition of tributes; but they recruited the armies of Justinian ; and his civil magistrates, the Proconsul of Cappadocia, the Count of Isauria, and the Praetors of Lycaonia and Pisidia, were invested with military power to restrain the licentious practice of rapes and assassi- nations. 124 If we extend our view from the tropic to the mouth of the Tanais, we may observe, on one hand, the precautions of Jus- Fortifications tinian to curb the savages of ^Ethiopia, 128 and, on plrS'from tne other, the long walls which he constructed in thefSiau* Crimsea for the protection of his friendly Goths, a frontier. colony of three thousand shepherds and warriors. 128 From that peninsula to Trebizond the eastern curve of the Euxine was secured by forts, by alliance, or by religion ; and the possession of Lazica, the Colchos of ancient, the Mingre- lia of modern, geography, soon became the object of an im- portant war. Trebizond, in after-times the seat of a roman- tic empire, was indebted to the liberality of Justinian for a 124 ;F or tes ea regio (says Justinian) viros habet, nee in ullo differt ab Isauria ; though Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c. 18 [torn. i. p. 96, edit. Bonn]) marks an essential difference between their military character ; yet in former times the Lycaoniana and Pisidians had defended their liberty against the Great King (Xenophon, Anab- asis, 1. iii. c. 2). Justinian introduces some false and ridiculous erudition of the ancient empire of the Pisidians, and of Lycaon, who, after visiting Rome (long before iEneas), gave a name and people to Lycaonia (Novell. 24, 25, 27, 30). 125 See Procopius Persic. 1. i. c. 19. The altar of national concord, of annual sacrifice and oaths, which Diocletian had erected in the isle of Elephantine, was demolished by Justinian with less policy than zeal. 126 Procopius de ^Edificiis, 1. iii. c. 7 [p. 262, edit. Bonn] ; Bell. Goth. iv. c. 3, 4 [p. 469 seq. edit. Bonn]. These unambitious Goths had refused to follow the standard of Theodoric. As late as the fifteenth and sixteenth century the name and nation might be discovered between Caffa and the Straits of Azoph (D'An- ville, Memoires de l'Acade'mie, torn. xxx. p. 240). They well deserved the curi- osity of Busbequius (p. 321-326) ; but seem to have vanished in the more recent account of the Missions du Levant (torn, i.), Tott, Peysonnel, etc. h.v. 492-498.] FORTIFICATIONS OF THE EMPIIiE. 205 church, an aqueduct, and a castle, whose ditches are hewn in the solid rock. From that maritime city a frontier line of five hundred miles may be drawn to the fortress of Cir- cesium, the last Roman station on the Euphrates. 137 Above Trebizond immediately, and live days' journey to the south, the country rises into dark forests and craggy mountains, a8 savage though not so lofty as the Alps and the Pyrenees. In this rigorous climate, 128 where the snows seldom melt, the fruits are tardy and tasteless ; even honey is poisonous : the most industrious tillage would be confined to some pleasant valleys, and the pastoral tribes obtained a scanty sustenance from the flesh and milk of their cattle. The ChalyMans 129 derived their name and temper from the iron quality of the soil ; and, since the days of Cyrus, they might produce, under the various appellations of Chaldseans and Zanians, an unin- terrupted prescription of war and rapine. Under the reign of Justinian they acknowledged the god and the emperor of the Romans, and seven fortresses were built in the most ac- cessible passes to exclude the ambition of the Persian mon- arch. 130 The principal source of the Euphrates descends from the Chalybian mountains, and seems to flow towards the west and the Euxine : bending to the southwest, the river passes 127 For the geography and architecture of this Armenian border see the Per- sian Wars and Edifices (1. ii. c. 4-7 ; 1. iii. c. 2-7) of Procopius. 128 The country is described by Tournefort (Voyage au Levant, torn. iii. lettre xvii. xviii.). That skilful botanist soon discovered the plant that infects the honey (Plin. xxi. 44, 45): he observes that the soldiers ofLucullus might indeed be astonished at the cold, since, even in the plain ofErzerum, snow sometimes falls in June, and the harvest is seldom finished before September. The hills of Armenia are below the fortieth degree of latitude ; but iu the mountainous coun- try which I inhabit it is well known that an ascent of some hours carries the trav- eller from the climate of Languedoc to that of Norway ; and a general theory has been introduced that, under the line, an elevation of 2400 toises is equivalent to the cold of the polar circle (Remond, Observations sur les Voyages de Coxe dans la Suisse, torn. ii. p. 104). 129 The identity or proximity of the Chalybians, or Chaldaaans, may be investi- gated in Strabo (1. xii. p. 825, 826 [p. 548, 549, edit. Casaub.]), Cellarius (Geo- graph. Antiq. torn. ii. p. 202-204), and Freret (Mem. de l'Acade'mie, torn. iv. p. 594). Xenophon supposes, in his romance (Cyropaed. 1. iii. [c. 2], the same bar« barians against whom he had fought in his retreat (Anabasis, 1. iv. [c. &]). 13f " Procopius, Persic, 1. i. c. 15 ; De iEdific. 1. iiL c 6. 206 FORTIFICATIONS OF THE EMPIEE. [Ch. XL. under the walls of Satala and Melitene (which were restored by Justinian as the bulwarks of the lesser Armenia), and grad- ually approaches the Mediterranean Sea, till at length, re- pelled by Mount Taurus, 131 the Euphrates inclines his long and flexible course to the southeast and the Gulf of Persia. Among the Roman cities beyond the Euphrates we distin- guish two recent foundations, which were named from Theo- dosius and the relics of the martyrs, and two capitals, Amida and Edessa, which are celebrated in the history of every age. Their strength was proportioned by Justinian to the danger of their situation. A ditch and palisade might be sufficient to resist the artless force of the cavalry of Scythia, but more elaborate works were required to sustain a regular siege against the arms and treasures of the Great King. His skil- ful engineers understood the methods of conducting deep mines, and of raising platforms to the level of the rampart. He shook the strongest battlements with his military engines, and sometimes advanced to the assault with a line of movable turrets on the backs of elephants. In the great cities of the East the disadvantage of space, perhaps of position, was com- pensated by the zeal of the people, who seconded the garrison in the defence of their country and religion ; and the fabu- lous promise of the Son of God, that Edessa should never be taken, tilled the citizens with valiant confidence, and chilled the besiegers with doubt and dismay. 132 The subordinate towns of Armenia and Mesopotamia were diligently strength- ened, and the posts which appeared to have any command of ground or water were occupied by numerous forts substantial- ly built of stone, or more hastily erected w r ith the obvious ma- 131 Ni Taurus obstet in nostra maria venturus (Pomponius Mela, iii. 8). Pliny, a poet as well as a naturalist (v. 20), personifies the river and mountain and de- scribes their combat. See the course of the Tigris and Euphrates in the excel- lent treatise of D'Anville. 132 p r ocopius (Persic. 1. ii. c. 12 [torn. i. p. 208, edit. Bonn]) tells the story with the tone, half sceptical, half superstitious, of Herodotus. The promise was not in the primitive lie of Eusebius, but dates at least from the year 400 ; and a third lie, the Veronica, was soon raised on the two former (Evagrius, I. iv. c. 27). As Edessa has been taken, Tillemont must disclaim the promise (Me'm. Eccles. torn, i p. 362, 383, 617). A.D. 488.] DEATH OF PEEOZES, KING OF PERSIA. 207 terials of earth and brick. The eye of Justinian investigated every spot, and his cruel precautions might attract the waf into some lonely vale, whose peaceful natives, connected by trade and marriage, were ignorant of national discord and the quarrels of princes. Westward of the Euphrates a sandy des- ert extends above six hundred miles to the Red Sea. Nature had interposed a vacant solitude between the ambition of two rival empires; the Arabians, till Mahomet arose, were formi- dable only as robbers ; and in the proud security of peace the fortifications of Syria were neglected on the most vulnerable side. But the national enmity, at least the effects of that enmity, had been suspended by a truce which continued above four- score years. An ambassador from the Emperor Perozes, Zeno accompanied the rash and unfortunate Pero- Pe"JL° zes a in his expedition against the lSTepthalites, b or White Huns, whose conquests had been stretched from the Caspian to the heart of India, whose throne was enriched with emeralds, 133 and whose cavalry was supported by a line of two thousand elephants. 134 The Persians were twice circumvented, in a situation which made valor useless and flight impossible, and the double victory of the Huns 133 They were purchased from the merchants of Adulis who traded to India (Cosmas, Topograph. Christ. 1. si. p. 339) ; yet, in the estimate of precious stones, the Scythian emerald was the first, the Bactrian the second, the ^Ethiopian only the third (Hill's Theophrastus, p. 61, etc., 92). The production, mines, etc., of emeralds, are involved in darkness ; and it is doubtful whether we possess any of the twelve sorts known to the ancients (Goguet, Origine des Loix, etc., part ii. 1. ii. c. 2, art. 3). In this war the Huns got, or at least Perozes lost, the finest pearl in the world, of which Procopius relates a ridiculous fable. 134 The Indo-Scythas continued to reign from the time of Augustus (Dionyfl. Perieget. 1088, with the Commentary of Eustathius, in Hudson, Geograph. Mi- nor, torn, iv.) to that of the elder Justin (Cosmas, Topograph. Christ. 1. xi. p. 338, 339). On their origin and conquests see D'Anville (sur lTnde, p. 18, 45, etc., 69, 85, 89). In the second century they were masters of Larice or Guzerat. * Firouz the Conqueror— unfortunately so named. See St. Martin, vol. vi. p. 439.— M. b Respecting this people, more properly called Ephthalites, see editor's note, rol.iii. p. 121.— S. c According to the Persian historians, he was misled by guides who used tha old stratagem of Zopyrus. Malcolm, vol. i. p. 101. — M. 208 THE PERSIAN WAR. [Ch. XE, was achieved by military stratagem. They dismissed their royal captive after he had submitted to adore the majesty of a barbarian, and the humiliation was poorly evaded by th& casuistical subtlety of the Magi, who instructed Perozes to direct his attention to the rising sun. a The indignant suc- cessor of Cyrus forgot his danger and his gratitude ; he re- newed the attack with headstrong fury, and lost both his army and his life. 135 The death of Perozes abandoned Persia to her foreign and domestic enemies, b and twelve years of confusion elapsed before his son Cabades or Kobad could em- brace any designs of ambition or revenge. The unkind par- simony of Anastasius was the motive or pretence Bian war. of a Roman war ; 186 the Huns and Arabs marched under the Persian standard, and the fortifications of Armenia and Mesopotamia were at that time in a ruinous or imperfect condition. The emperor returned his thanks to the governor and people of Martyropolis for the prompt sur- render of a city which could not be successfully defended, and the conflagration of Theodosiopolis might justify the conduct of their prudent neighbors. Amida sustained a long and destructive siege : at the end of three months the loss of fifty thousand of the soldiers of Cabades was not balanced by any prospect of success, and it was in vain that the Magi deduced a flattering prediction from the indecency of the 135 See the fate of Phirouz or Perozes and its consequences, in Procopius (Per- sic. 1. i. c. 3-6), who may be compared with the fragments of Oriental history (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient, p. 351, and Texeira, History of Persia, translated or abridged by Stephens, 1. i. c. 32, p. 132-138). The chronology is ably ascer- tained by Asseman (Bibliot. Orient, torn. iii. p. 396-427). 126 The Persian war, under the reigns of Anastasius and Justin, may be col- lected from Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c. 7, 8, 9), Theophanes (in Chronograph, p. 124-127 [edit. Par. ; torn. i. p. 222-229, edit. Bonn]), Evagrius (I. iii. c. 37), Marcellinus (in Chron. p. 47 [p. 372 seq., edit. Sirmond.]), and Josua Stylites (apud Asseman, torn. i. p. 272-281). * In the MS. Chronicle of Tabary it is said that the Moubedan Mobed, or Grand Pontiff', opposed with all his influence the violation of the treaty. St. Martin, vol. vii. p. 254.— M. b 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. a.d. 502-605.] FOETIFICATIONS OF DARA. 209 women* on the ramparts, who had revealed their most secret charms to the eyes of the assailants. At length, in a silent night, they ascended the most accessible tower, which was guarded only by some monks, oppressed, after the duties of a festival, with sleep and wine. Scaling-ladders were applied at the dawn of day ; the presence of Cabades, his stern com- mand, and his drawn sword, compelled the Persians to van- quish, and, before it was sheathed, fourscore thousand of the inhabitants had expiated the blood of their companions. Af- ter the siege of Amida the war continued three years, and the unhappy frontier tasted the full measure of its calamities. The gold of Anastasius was offered too late, the number of his troops was defeated by the number of their generals, the country was stripped of its inhabitants, and both the living and the dead were abandoned to the wild beasts of the des- ert. The resistance of Edessa and the deficiency of spoil in- clined the mind of Cabades to peace ; he sold his conquests for an exorbitant price ; and the same line, though marked with slaughter and devastation, still separated the two em- pires. To avert the repetition of the same evils, Anastasius resolved to found a new colony, so strong that it should defy the power of the Persian, so far advanced towards Assyria that its stationary troops might defend the province by the menace or operation of offensive war. For this purpose the Portifica- town of Dara, 1 " fourteen miles from Nisibis, and tionsofDara. .f our d a78 » journey from the Tigris, was peopled and adorned : the hasty works of Anastasius were improved by the perseverance of Justinian, and, without insisting on place* less important, the fortifications of Dara may represent the military architecture of the age. The city was surround- ed with two walls, and the interval between them, of fifty 137 The description of Dara is amply and correctly given by Procopius (Persic. }. i. c. 10 ; 1. ii. c. 13 ; De ^dific. 1. ii. c. 1, 2, 3 ; 1. iii. c. 5). See the situation in D'Anville (l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 53, 54, 55), though he seems to double the interval between Dara and Nisibis. • Gibbon should have written "some prostitutes." Proc. Pers. vol. L c. 7 [p. 861-M. XV.— 14 210 FORTIFICATIONS OF DARA. [Ch.XL. paces, afforded a retreat to the cattle of the besieged. The inner wall was a monument of strength and beauty : it meas- ured sixty feet from the ground, and the height of the towers was cne hundred feet; the loopholes, from whence an enemy might be annoyed with missile weapons, were small, but nu- merous ; the soldiers were planted along the rampart, under the shelter of doable galleries ; and a third platform, spacious and secure, was raised on the summit of the towers. The ex- terior wall appears to have been less lofty, but more solid, and each tower was protected by a quadrangular bulwark. A hard rocky soil resisted the tools of the miners, and on the southeast, where the ground was more tractable, their ap- proach was retarded by a new work, which advanced in the shape of a half-moon. The double and treble ditches were tilled, with a stream of water, and in the management of the river the most skilful labor was employed to supply the in- habitants, to distress the besiegers, and to prevent the mis- chiefs of a natural or artificial inundation. Dara continued more than sixty years to fulfil the wishes of its founders and to provoke the jealousy of the Persians, who incessantly com- plained that this impregnable fortress had been constructed in manifest violation of the treaty of peace between the two empires. 11 Between the Euxine and the Caspian the countries of Col- chos, Iberia, and Albania are intersected in every direction a The situation (of Dara) does not appear to give it strength, as it must have been commanded on three sides by the mountains, but opening on the south to- wards the plains of Mesopotamia. The foundation of the walls and towers, built of large hewn stone, may be traced across the valley and over a number of low rocky hills which branch out from the foot of Mount Masius. The circumference I conceive to be nearly two miles and a half; and a small stream, which flows ihiough the middle of the place, has induced several Koordish and Armenian fam- ilies to fix their residence within the ruins. Besides the walls and towers, the re- mains of many other buildings attest the former grandeur of Dara: a considera- ble part of the space within the walls is arched and vaulted underneath, and in one place we perceived a large cavern, supported by four ponderous columns, some- what resembling the great cistern of Constantinople. , In the centre of the village are the ruins of a palace (probably that mentioned by Trocopius) or church, one hundred paces in length and sixty in breadth. The foundations, which ars quite entire, consist of a prodigious number of subterraneous vaulted chambers, entered by a narrow passage forty paces in length. The gate is still standing: a consid- erable part of the wall has bid defiance to time, etc. M 'Donald Kinneir'a Jour* ney, p. 438. — M. a.d. 503-505.] THE IBERIAN GATES. 211 by tlie brandies of Mount Caucasus, and the two principal gates, or passes, from north to south, have been fre- The Caspian * ' l > . ' or Iberian quently confounded in the geography both of the ancients and moderns. The name of Caspian or Albanian gates is properly applied to Derbend, 138 which oc- cupies a short declivity between the mountains and the sea; the city, if we give credit to local tradition, had been founded by the Greeks, and this dangerous entrance was fortified by the kings of Persia with a mole, double walls, and doors of iron. The Iherian gates 139 a are formed by a narrow passage of six miles in Mount Caucasus, which opens from the north- ern side of Iberia or Georgia into the plain that reaches to the Tanais and the Yolga. A fortress, designed by Alexan- der perhaps, or one of his successors, to command that impor- tant pass, had descended by right of conquest or inheritance to a prince of the Huns, who offered it for a moderate price to the emperor; but while Anastasius paused, while he tim- orously computed the cost and the distance, a more vigilant rival interposed, and Cabades forcibly occupied the straits of Caucasus. The Albanian and Iberian gates excluded the horsemen of Scythia from the shortest and most practicable roads, and the whole front of the mountains was covered by the rampart of Gog and Magog, the long wall which has ex- cited the curiosity of an Arabian caliph 140 and a Russian con- 138 Por the city and pass of Derbend see D'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient, p. 157, 291, 807), Petit de la Croix (Hist, de Gengisean, 1. iv. ch. 9), Histoire Genealo- gique des Tatars (torn. i. p. 120), Olearius (Voyage en Perse, p. 1039-1041), and Corneille le Bruyn (Voyages, torn. i. p. 146, 147) : his view may be compared with the plan of Olearius, who judges the wall to be of shells and gravel hardened by fcims. 139 Procopius, though with some confusion, always denominates them Caspian (Persic. 1. i. c. 10). The pass is now styled Tatar-topa, the Tartar-gates (D'An- ville, Geographic Ancienne, torn. ii. p. 119, 120). 140 The imaginary rampart of Gog and Magog, which was seriously explored a The narrative of Colonel Monteith in the Journal of the Geographical Society of London, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 39, clearly shows that tliere are but two passes between the Black Sea and the Caspian ; the central, the Caucasian, or, as Colonel Mon- teith calls it, the Caspian Gates, and the pass of Derbend, though it is practica- ble to turn this position (of Derbend) by a road a few miles distant, through the mountains, p. 40. — M. 212 THE SCHOOLS OF ATHENS. [Ch. XI* queror. 1 " According to a recent description, huge stones, seven feet thick, twenty-one feet in length or height, are ar- tificially joined, without iron or cement, to compose a wall which runs above three hundred miles from the shores of Derbend, over the hills and through the valleys of Daghestan and Georgia. Without a vision such a work might be under- taken by the policy of Cabades; without a miracle it might be accomplished by his son, so formidable to the Romans un- der the name of Chosroes, so dear to the Orientals under the appellation of Nushirwan. The Persian monarch held in his hand the keys both of peace and war; but he stipulated in every treaty that Justinian should contribute to the expense of a common barrier which equally protected the two em- pires from the inroads of the Scythians. 148 VII. Justinian suppressed the schools of Athens and the consulship of Rome, which had given so many sages and he- roes to mankind. Both these institutions had long since de- generated from their primitive glory, yet some reproach may be justly inflicted on the avarice and jealousy of a prince by whose hand such venerable ruins were destroyed. Athens, after her Persian triumphs, adopted the philosophy of Ionia and the rhetoric of Sicily ; and these studies became The schools * ae patrimony of a city whose inhabitants, about of Athens. thirty thousand males, condensed, within the period of a single life, the genius of ages and millions. Our sense of the dignity of human nature is exalted by the simple recollec- tion that Isocrates 143 was the companion of Plato and Xeno- and believed by a caliph of the ninth century, appears to be derived from the gates of Mount Caucasus, and a vague report of the wall of China (Geograph. Nu- biensis, p. 267-270 ; Me'moires de l'Acade'mie, torn. xxxi. p. 210-219). 141 See a learned dissertation of Baier, de muro Caucaseo, in Comment. Acad. Petropol. ann. 1726, torn. i. p. 425-463; but it is destitute of a map or plan. When the czar Peter I. became master of Derbend in the year 1722, the measure of the wall was found to be 3285 Russian orgygice, or fathom, each of seven feet English ; in the whole somewhat more than four miles in length. 142 See the fortifications and treaties of Chosroes or Nushirwan, in Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c. 16, 22 ; 1. ii.) and D'Herbelot (p. 682). 143 The life of Isocrates extends from Olymp. lxxxvi. 1, to ex. 3 (ante Christ. 436-338). See Dionys. Halicarn. torn. ii. p. 149, 150, edit. Hudson. Plutarch (siva jU>. 5013-505.] THE SCHOOLS OF ATHENS. 213 phon ; that he assisted, perhaps with the historian Thucydides at the first representations of the (Edipus of Sophocles and the Jphigenia of Euripides ; and that his pupils ^Eschines and De- mosthenes contended for the crown of patriotism in the pres- ence of Aristotle, the master of Theophrastus, who taught at Athens with the founders of the Stoic and Epicurean sects. 144 The ingenuous youth of Attica enjoyed the benefits of their domestic education, which was communicated without envy to the rival cities. Two thousand disciples heard the lessons of Theophrastus ;"* the schools of rhetoric must have been still more populous than those of philosophy; and a rapid succession of students diffused the fame of their teachers as far as the utmost limits of the Grecian language and name. Those limits were enlarged by the victories of Alexander; the arts of Athens survived her freedom and dominion ; and the Greek colonies which the Macedonians planted in Egypt, and scattered over Asia, undertook long and frequent pilgrim- ages to worship the Muses in their favorite temple on the banks of the Ilissus. The Latin conquerors respectfully lis- tened to the instructions of their subjects and captives ; the names of Cicero and Horace were enrolled in the schools of Athens ; and after the perfect settlement of the Roman em- pire, the natives of Italy, of Africa, and of Britain, conversed in the groves of the Academy with their fellow-students of the East. The studies of philosophy and eloquence are con- genial to a popular state, which encourages the freedom of in- quiry, and submits only to the force of persuasion. In the republics of Greece and Rome the art of speaking was the powerful engine of patriotism or ambition ; and the schools of rhetoric poured forth a colony of statesmen and legislators. "When the liberty of public debate was suppressed, the orator, anonymus), in Vit. X. Oratorura, p. 1538-1543, edit. H. Steph. Phot. cod. cclix. p. 1453 [p. 486 b, edit. Bekk.]. 144 The schools of Athens are copiously though concisely represented in tha Fortuna Attica of Meursiusi (c. viii. p. 59-73, in torn. i. Opp.). For the state and arts of the city, see the first book of Pausanias, and a small tract of Dicaearchus (in the second volume of Hudson's Geographers), who wrote about Olymp. cxvii. (Dodwell's Dissertat. sect. 4). 145 Diogen. Laert. de Vit. Philosoph. 1. v. [c. 2] segm. 37, p. 289. 214 THE SCHOOLS OF ATHENS. [Oh. XL. in the honorable profession of an advocate, might plead the cause of innocence and justice ; he might abuse his talents in the more profitable trade of panegyric ; and the same precepts continued to dictate the fanciful declamations of the sophist, and the chaster beauties of historical composition. The sys- tems which professed to unfold the nature of God, of man, and of the universe, entertained the curiosity of the philo- sophic student ; and according to the temper of his mind, he might doubt with the Sceptics, or decide with the Stoics, sub- limely speculate with Plato, or severely argue with Aristotle. The pride of the adverse sects had fixed an unattainable term of moral happiness and perfection : but the race was glorious and salutary ; the disciples of Zeno, and even those of Epicu- rus, were taught both to act and to suffer ; and the death of Petronius was not less effectual than that of Seneca to hum- ble a tyrant by the discovery of his impotence. The light of science could not indeed be confined within the walls of Athens. Her incomparable writers address themselves to the human race ; the living masters emigrated to Italy and Asia ; Berytus, in later times, was devoted to the study of the law ; astronomy and physic were cultivated in the museum of Al- exandria; but the Attic schools of rhetoric and philosophy maintained their superior reputation from the Peloponnesian war to the reign of Justinian. Athens, though situate in a barren soil, possessed a pure air, a free navigation, and the monuments of ancient art. That sacred retirement was sel- dom disturbed by the business of trade or government ; and the last of the Athenians were distinguished by their lively wit, the purity of their taste and language, their social man- ners, and some traces, at least in discourse, of the magnanimi- ty of their fathers. In the suburbs of the city, the Academy of the Platonists, the Lycc&um of the Peripatetics, the Portico of the Stoics, and the Garden of the Epicureans, were planted with trees and decorated with statues; and the philosophers, instead of being immured in a cloister, delivered their instruc- tions in spacious and pleasant walks, which, at different hours, were consecrated to the exercises of the mind and body. The genius of the founders still lived in those venerable seats; a.d. C02-505.] THE SCHOOLS OF ATHENS. 215 the ambition of succeeding to the masters of human reason excited a generous emulation ; and the merit of the candidates was determined, on each vacancy, by the free voices oi an en- lightened people. The Athenian professors were paid by their disciples : according to their mutual wants and abilities, the price appears to have varied from a mina to a talent ; and Isocrates himself, who derides the avarice of the sophists, required, in his school of rhetoric, about thirty pounds from each of his hundred pupils. The wages of industry are just and honorable, yet the same Isocrates shed tears at the first receipt of a stipend : the Stoic might blush when he was hired to preach the contempt of money ; and I should be sorry to discover that Aristotle or Plato so far degenerated from the example of Socrates as to exchange knowledge for gold. But some property of lands and houses was settled, by the per- mission of the laws, and the legacies of deceased friends, on the philosophic chairs of Athens. Epicurus bequeathed to his disciples the gardens which he had purchased for eighty minse, or two hundred and fifty pounds, with a fund sufficient for their frugal subsistence and monthly festivals ; 146 and the pat- rimony of Plato afforded an annual rent, which, in eight cen- turies, was gradually increased from three to one thousand pieces of gold. 147 The schools of Athens were protected by the wisest and most virtuous of the Roman princes. The li- brary, which Hadrian founded, was placed in a portico adorn- ed with pictures, statues, and a roof of Alabaster, and support- ed by one hundred columns of Phrygian marble. The pub- lic salaries were assigned by the generous spirit of the Anto- nines ; and each professor, of politics, of rhetoric, of the Pla- tonic, the Peripatetic, the Stoic, and the Epicurean philoso- phy, received an annual stipend of ten thousand drachmae, or 146 See the Testament of Epicurus in Diogen. Laert. 1. x. [c. 1] segm. 16-20, p. 611, 612. A single epistle (ad Familiares, xiii. 1) displays the injustice of the Areopagus, the fidelity of the Epicureans, the dexterous politeness of Cicero, and the mixture of contempt and esteem with which the Roman senators considered the philosophy and philosophers of Greece. 141 Damascius, in Vit. Isidor. apud Fhotium, cod. ccxlii. p. 1057 [p. 346 a, edit Bekk.]. 216 SUPPRESSION OF THE SCHOOLS OF ATHENS. [Ch.XL, more than three hundred pounds sterling. 148 After the death of Marcus, these liberal donations, and the privileges attached to the thrones of science, were abolished and revived, dimin- ished and enlarged ; but some vestige of royal bounty may be found under the successors of Constantine ; and their arbi- trary choice of an unworthy candidate might tempt the phi- losophers of Athens to regret the days of independence and poverty. 149 It is remarkable that the impartial favor of the Antonines was bestowed on the four adverse sects of philoso- phy, which they considered as equally useful, or at least as equally innocent. Socrates had formerly been the glory and the reproach of his country ; and the first lessons of Epicurus so strangely scandalized the pious ears of the Athenians, that by his exile, and that of his antagonists, they silenced all vain disputes concerning the nature of the gods. But in the en- suing year they recalled the hasty decree, restored the liberty of the schools, and were convinced by the experience of ages that the moral character of philosophers is not affected by the diversity of their theological speculations. 160 The Gothic arms were less fatal to the schools of Athens than the establishment sf a new religion, whose ministers superseded the exercise of reason, resolved every Thpv are snD- pressed by question by an article of faith, and condemned the Justinian. . * ' • " . ' T mndel or sceptic to eternal flames. In many a volume of laborious controversy they exposed the weakness of the understanding and the corruption of the heart, insulted 148 See Lucian (in Eunuch, torn. ii. [c. 3 seq.] p. 350-359, edit. Reitz), Philos- tratus (in Vit. Sophist. 1. ii. c. 2), and Dion Cassius, or Xiphilin (1. lxxi. [c. 31] p. 1195), with their editors Du Soul, Olearius, and Reimar, and, above all, Salma- sius (ad Hist. August, p. 72). A judicious philosopher (Smith's Wealth of Na- tions, vol. ii. p. 340-374) prefers the free contributions of the students to a fixed stipend for the professor. 149 Brucker, Hist. Crit. Philosoph. torn. ii. p. 310, etc. 160 The birth of Epicurus is fixed to the year 342 before Christ (Bayle), Olym- piad cix. 3 ; and he opened his school at Athens, Olymp. cxviii. 3, 306 years be- fore the same era. This intolerant law (Athenseus, 1. xiii. p. 610 ; Diogen. Laert. 1. v. [c. 2], s. 38, p. 290 ; Julius Pollux, ix. 5) was enacted in the same or the succeeding year (Sigonius, Opp. torn. v. p. 62 ; Menagius, ad Diogen. Laert. p. 204 ; Corsini, Fasti Attici, torn. ir. p. 67, 68). Theophrastus, chief of the Peri* patetics, and disciple of Aristotle, was involved in the same i AN ANTHENIAN PHILOSOPHER TEACHING IN THE GROVES OF THE ACADEMY Page 216 Gibbon's Rome, Vol. IV. Painting by Theodore Grosse a.d. 485-529.] PROCLUS AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 217 human nature in the sages of antiquity, and proscribed the spirit of philosophical inquiry, so repugnant to the doctrine, or at least to the temper, of a humble believer. The surviv- ing sect of the Platonists, whom Plato would have blushed to acknowledge, extravagantly mingled a sublime theory with the practice of superstition and magic ; and as they remain- ed alone in the midst of a Christian world, they indulged a secret rancor against the goverumeut of the Church and State, whose severity was still suspended over their heads. About a century after the reign of Julian, 1 " Pro- Proclns. . *\ i.i , m i . cms was permitted to teach in the philosophic chair of the Academy ; and such was his industry, that he frequently, in the same day, pronounced five lessons, and com- posed seven hundred lines. His sagacious mind explored the deepest questions of morals and metaphysics, and he vent- ured to urge eighteen arguments against the Christian doc- trine of the creation of the world. But in the intervals of study he personally conversed with Pan, iEsculapius, and Mi- nerva, in whose mysteries he was secretly initiated, and whose prostrate statues he adored ; in the devout persuasion that the philosopher, who is a citizen of the universe, should be the priest of its various deities. An eclipse of the sun announced his approaching end ; and his Life, with that of his scholar Isidore, 168 compiled by two of their most learned disciples, ex- hibits a deplorable picture of the second childhood His sue- L x . , cessors, of human reason. Yet the golden chain, as it was A. i>. 485-629 fondly styled, of the Platonic succession, contin- ued forty-four years, from the death of Proclus to the edict 151 This is no fanciful era: the pagans reckoned their calamities from the reign of their hero. Proclus, whose nativity is marked by his horoscope (a.d. 412, February 8, at C. P.), died 124 years airb 'lovXiavov fiacTikstxjQ, a.d. 485 (Marin, in Vita Procli, c. 36). 162 The Life of Proclus, by Marinus, was published by Fabricius (Hamburg, 1700, et ad calcem Biblioth. Latin. Lond. 1703). See Suidas (torn. iii. p. 185, 186), Fabricius (Biblioth. Grsec. 1. v. c. 26, p. 449-552), and Brucker (Hist. Crit. Philosoph. torn. ii. p. 319-326). 163 The Life of Isidore was composed by Damascius (apud Photium, cod. ccxlii p. 1028-1076 [p. 335-353, edit. Bekk.]). See the last age of the pagan philoso- phers in Brucker Ctom. ii. p. 341-351). 218 THE LAST OP THE PHILOSOPHERS. [Ch.XL. of Justinian/ 64 which imposed a perpetual silence on the schools of Athens, and excited the grief and indignation of the few remaining votaries of Grecian science and supersti- tion. Seven friends and philosophers — Diogenes and Herini- as, Eulalins and Priscian, Damascius, Isidore, and Simplicius — who dissented from the religion of their sovereign, embraced the resolution of seeking in a foreign land the freedom which was denied in their native country. They had heard, and they credulously believed, that the republic of Plato was re- alized in the despotic government of Persia, and that a patri- ot king reigned over the happiest and most virtuous of na- tions. They were soon astonished by the natural discovery that Persia resembled the other countries of the globe ; that Chosroes, who affected the name of a philosopher, was vain, cruel, and ambitious ; that bigotry, and a spirit of intolerance, prevailed among the Magi ; that the nobles were haughty, the courtiers servile, and the magistrates unjust; that the guilty sometimes escaped, and that the innocent were often oppressed. The disappointment of the philosophers provoked them to overlook the real virtues of the Persians ; and they were scandalized, more deeply perhaps than became their pro- fession, with the plurality of wives and concubines, the incest- uous marriages, and the custom of exposing dead bodies to the dogs and vultures, instead of hiding them in the earth, or con- suming them with fire. Their repentance was expressed by a precipitate return, and they loudly 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 the char- acter of Chosroes. He required that the seven sages who had visited the court of Persia should be exempted The last of ^ tbe piiiios- from the penal laws which Justinian enacted against ophers. x . , ° his pagan subjects; and this privilege, expressly stipulated in a treaty of peace, was guarded by the vigilance 154 The suppression of the schools of Athens is recorded by John Malala (torn, ii. p. 187 [p. 451, edit. Bonn], sub Decio Cos. Sol.), and an anonymous Chroni- cle in the Vatican library (apud Alenian. p. 106 [Procop. torn. ill. p. 459, edit. Bona]). a.d.541.] EXTINCTION OF THE ROMAN CONSULSHIP. 219 of a powerful mediator. 1 " Simplicius and his companions ended their lives in peace and obscurity ; and as they left no disciples, they terminate the long list of Grecian philosophers, who may be justly praised, notwithstanding their defects, as the wisest and most virtuous of their contemporaries. The writings of Simplicius are now extant. His physical and metaphysical commentaries on Aristotle have passed away with the fashion of the times ; but his moral interpretation of Epictetus is preserved in the library of nations, as a classic book, most excellently adapted to direct the will, to purify the heart, and to confirm the understanding, by a just confi- dence in the nature both of God and man. About the same time that Pythagoras first invented the appellation of philosopher, liberty and the consulship were founded at Rome by the elder Brutus. The revo- The Roman . J . consulship lutions of the consular omce, which may be viewed extinguished . , ' ^ by Justinian, m the successive lights of a substance, a shadow, and a name, have been occasionally mentioned in the present history. The first magistrates 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 were afterwards translated to the emperors. But the tradition of ancient dig- nity was long revered by the Romans and barbarians. A Gothic historian applauds the consulship of Theodoric as the height of all temporal glory and greatness ; 166 the king of It- aly himself congratulates 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 the peo- ple. But the expenses of this festival, in which the wealthy 155 Agathias (1. ii. p. 69, 70, 71 [edit. Par. ; p. 130-136, edit. Bonn]) relates this curious story. Chosroes ascended the throne in the year 531, and made his first peace with the Romans in the beginning of 533, a date most compatible with his young fame and the old age of Isidore (Asseman. Biblioth. Orient, torn. iii. p. 404 ; Pagi, torn. ii. p. 543, 550). 156 Cassiodor. Variarum Epist. vi. 1. Jornandes, c. 57, p. 696, edit. Grot. Quo. 523-530.] STATE OF THE VANDALS. 223 Persians, till his pride submitted to his ambition, and he purchased, at the price of four hundred and forty thousand pounds sterling, the benefit of a precarious truce, which, in the language of both nations, was dignified with the appella- tion of the endless peace. The safety of the East enabled the emperor to employ his forces against the Yandals ; and the internal state of Africa afforded an honorable motive, and promised a powerful support, to the Roman arms. 1 According to the testament of the founder, the African kingdom had lineally descended to Hilderic, the eldest of the state of the Vandal princes. A mild disposition inclined the Vandals, ilderic, A. D. son of a tyrant, the grandson of a conqueror, to pre- fer the counsels of clemency and peace, and his ac- cession was marked by the salutary edict which restored two hundred bishops to their churches, and allowed the free pro- fession of the Athanasian creed. 2 But the Catholics accept- ed with cold and transient gratitude a favor so inadequate to their pretensions, and the virtues of Hilderic offended the prejudices of his countrymen. The Arian clergy presumed to insinuate that he had renounced the faith, and the soldiers more loudly complained that he had degenerated from the courage, of his ancestors. His ambassadors were suspected of a secret and disgraceful negotiation in the Byzantine court ; and his general, the Achilles, 3 as he was named, of the Van- 1 The complete series of the Vandal war is related by Procopius in a regular and elegant narrative (1. i.e. 9-25; 1. ii. c. 1-13); and happy would be my lot could I always tread in the footsteps of such a guide. From the entire and dili- gent perusal of the Greek text I have a right to pronounce that the Latin and French versions of Grotius and Cousin may not be implicitly trusted ; yet the President Cousin has been often praised, and Hugo Grotius was the first scholar of a learned age.* 2 See Kuinart, Hist. Persecut. Vandal, c. xii. p. 589 [edit. Par. 1694]. His best evidence is drawn from the Life of St. Fulgentius, composed by one of his disciples, transcribed in a great measure in the Annals of Baronius, and printed in several great collections (Catalog. Bibliot. Bunavianse, torn. i. vol. ii. p. 1258). 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 speak German? — The Lat- * It will be seen, however, from some of the subsequent notes, that Gibbon has occasionally followed the French version of Cousin, to the neglect of the original Greek.— & 224: GELIMEE. tCH. XLL dais, lost a battle against the naked and disorderly Moors. The public discontent was exasperated by Gelimer, whose Geiimer, a o e > descent, and military fame gave him an appar- A.D.530-534. ent t j t ] e to ^g succession ; he assumed, with the consent of the nation, the reins of government, and his un- fortunate sovereign sunk without a struggle from the throne to a dungeon, where he was strictly guarded with a faithful counsellor, and his unpopular nephew the Achilles of the Vandals. But the indulgence which Hilderic had shown to his Catholic subjects had powerfully recommended him to the favor of Justinian, who, for the benefit of his own sect, could acknowledge the use and justice of religious toleration : their alliance, while the nephew of Justin remained in a pri- vate station, was cemented by the mutual exchange of gifts and letters, and the Emperor Justinian asserted the cause of royalty and friendship. In two successive embassies he ad- monished the usurper to repent of his treason, or to abstain, at least, from any further violence which might provoke the displeasure of God and of the Romans, to reverence the laws of kindred and succession, and to suffer an infirm old man peaceably to end his days either on the throne of Carthage or in the palace of Constantinople. The passions or even the prudence of Gelimer compelled him to reject these requests, which were urged in the haughty tone of menace and com- mand ; and he justified his ambition in a language rarely spoken in the Byzantine court, by alleging the right of a free people to remove or punish their chief magistrate who had failed in the execution of the kingly office. After this fruit- less expostulation, the captive monarch was more rigorously treated, his nephew was deprived of his eyes, and the cruel Yandal, confident in his strength and distance, derided the vain threats and slow preparations of the Emperor of the East. Justinian resolved to deliver or revenge his friend, Gelimer to maintain his usurpation ; and the war was preceded, ac- ins had four versions (Fabric, tom.i. 1. ii. c. 3, p. 297): yet, in spite of the praises of Seneca (Consol. [ad Polyb.] c. 26), they appear to have been more successful in imitating than in translating the Greek poets. But the name of Achilles might be famous and popular, even among the illiterate barbarians. A.D. 530-534.] DEBATES ON THE AFRICAN WAE. 223 cording to the practice of civilized nations, by the most sol- emn protestations that each party was sincerely desirous of peace. The report of an African war was grateful only to the vain and idle populace of Constantinople, whose poverty exempted them from tribute, and whose cowardice was seh Debates on the African dom exposed to military service. J3ut the wiser citizens, who judged of the future by the past, re« volved in their memory the immense loss, both of men and money, which the empire had sustained in the expedition of Basiliscus. The troops, which, after five laborious campaigns, had been recalled from the Persian frontier, dreaded the sea^ the climate, and the arms of an unknown enemy. The min- isters of the finances computed, as far as they might compute, the demands of an African war, the taxes which must be found and levied to supply those insatiate demands, and the danger lest their own lives, or at least their lucrative employ- ments, should be made responsible for the deficiency of the supply. Inspired by such selfish motives (for we may not suspect him of any zeal for the public good), John of Cappa- docia ventured to oppose in full council the inclinations of his master. He confessed that a victory of such importance could not be too dearly purchased; but he represented in a grave discourse the certain difficulties and the uncertain event. " You undertake," said the praefect, " to besiege Carthage : by land the distance is not less than one hundred and forty days' journey ; on the sea, a whole year 4 must elapse before you can receive any intelligence from your fleet. If Africa should be reduced, it cannot be preserved without the additional con- quest of Sicily and Italy. Success will impose the obligation of new labors ; a single misfortune will attract the barbarians into the heart of your exhausted empire." Justinian felt the weight of this salutary advice ; he was confounded by the un- wonted freedom of an obsequious servant ; and the design of 4 A year — absurd exaggeration ! The conquest of Africa may be dated a.d. 533, September 14. It is celebrated by Justinian in the preface to his Institutes, which were published November 21 of the same year. Including the voyage and return, such a computation might be truly applied to our Indian empire. IV.— 15 226 SERVICES OF BELISAKIUS l ch.XL{. the war would perhaps have been relinquished, if his courag9 had not been revived by a voice which silenced the doubts of profane reason. "I have seen a vision," cried an artful or fanatic bishop of the East. " It is the will of Heaven, O em- peror! that you should not abandon your holy enterprise for the deliverance of the African Church. The God of battles will march before your standard, and disperse your enemies, who are the enemies of his Son." The emperor might be tempted, and his counsellors were constrained, to give credit to this seasonable revelation ; but they derived more rational hope from the revolt which the adherents of Hilderic or Ath- anasius had already excited on the borders of the Yandal monarchy. Pudentius, an African subject, had privately sig- nified his loyal intentions, and a small military aid restored the province of Tripoli to the obedience of the Eomans. The government of Sardinia had been intrusted to Godas, a valiant barbarian : he suspended the payment of tribute, disclaimed his allegiance to the usurper, and gave audience to the emis- saries of Justinian, who found him master of that fruitful isl- and, at the head of his guards, and proudly invested with the ensigns of royalty. The forces of the Yandals were dimin- ished by discord and suspicion ; the Roman armies were ani- mated by the spirit of Belisarius, one of those heroic names which are familiar to every age and to every nation. a The Africanus of new Rome was born, and perhaps edu- cated, among the Thracian peasants, 6 without any of those 5 "QpfiqTO St 6 BeXurapiog Ik Fepfiaviac, rj OpyictJi'TE icai 'iWvpiwv fKra^v tcelrai (Procop. Vandal. 1. i. c. 1 1 [torn. i. p. 361, edit. Bonn]). Aleman (Not. ad Anecdot. p. 5), an Italian, could easily reject the German vanity of Giphanius and Velserus, who wished to claim the hero ; but his Germania, a metropolis of Thrace, I can- not find in any civil or ecclesiastical lists of the provinces and cities. b a The most important work on the campaigns of Belisarius since the time of Gibbon is Lord Mahon's Life of this general (London, 1848. 2d edit.), founded on a careful examination of the original authorities. This work has supplied Dean Milman and the present editor with many of the notes to the present and the for- ty-third chapters. — S. b Lord Mahon expresses his surprise that Gibbon cannot find the town of Ger- mania in any civil or ecclesiastical lists, and says that it is mentioned by Procopi- us (de ^Edific. lib. iv. c. 1) as near Sardica. In that passage, however, it is called TtpnavT). It is also mentioned by Constant. Porphyrog. de Themat. 1. ii. under Avppaxwv (Skn same dislike to the sea and to naval combats (Plutarch in Antonio, p. 1730, edit. Hen. Steph.). a The reason why Belisarius chose Caput Vada as the place for disembarking his troops was doubtless because the province of Tripolitana had revolted against the Vandals (Procopius, Bell. Vandal., 1. i. c. 10, p. 357, edit. Bonn). In case of a reverse by land or by sea, Belisarius would be able to retreat to the imperial provinces of Cyrena'ica and Egypt. See Dureau de la Malle, l'Algerie (which con- tains an account of the campaign of Belisarius in Africa), p. 240. — S. A.D.533.] BEL1SARI US LANDS IN AFRICA. 235 coast of Africa ; and he prudently rejected, in a council of war, the proposal of sailing with the fleet and army into the port of Carthage. a Three months after their departure from Constantinople, the men and horses, the arms and military stores, were safely disembarked; and five soldiers were left as a guard on board each of the ships, which were disposed in the form of a semicircle. The remainder of the troops occu- pied a camp on the sea-shore, which they fortified, according to ancient discipline, with a ditch and rampart; and the dis- covery of a source of fresh water, while it allayed the thirst, excited the superstitious confidence of the Romans. The next morning some of the neighboring gardens were pillaged ; and Belisarius, after chastising the offenders, embraced the slight occasion, but the decisive moment, of inculcating the maxims of justice, moderation, and genuine policy. " When I first accepted the commission of subduing Africa, I depend- ed much less," said the general, " on the numbers, or even the bravery, of my troops, than upon the friendly disposition of the natives and their immortal hatred to the Yandals. You alone can deprive me of this hope : if you continue to extort by rapine what might be purchased for a little money, such acts of violence will reconcile these implacable enemies, and unite them in a just and holy league against the invaders of their country." These exhortations were enforced by a rigid discipline, of which the soldiers themselves soon felt and praised the salutary effects. The inhabitants, instead of de- serting their houses or hiding their corn, supplied the Romans with a fair and liberal market, the civil officers of the province continued to exercise their functions in the name of Justinian, and the clergy, from motives of conscience and interest, assid- uously labored to promote the cause of a Catholic emperor. The small town of Sullecte, 17 one day's journey from the 11 Sullecte is perhaps the Tunis Hannibalis, an old building, now as large as the a Lord Mahon observes (p. 90) that the proposal, rejected by Belisarius, was not to sail into the port of Carthage, but into a haven forty stadia from Carthage, namely, the present lake of Tunis. Procopius, Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 15, p. 374, edit. Bonn. — S. 236 DEFEAT OF THE VANDALS. [CH.XLL camp, had the honor of being foremost to open her gates and to resume her ancient allegiance ; the larger cities of Leptia and Adrumetum imitated the example of loyalty as soon as Belisarius appeared ; and he advanced without opposition as far as Grasse, a palace of the Yandal kings, at the distance of fifty miles from Carthage. a The weary Romans indulged themselves in the refreshment of shady groves, cool foun- tains, and delicious fruits; and the preference which Procopius 1 allows to these gardens over any that he had seen, either in the East or West, may be ascribed either to the taste or the fatigue of the historian. In three generations prosperity and a warm climate had dissolved the hardy virtue of the Van- dals, who insensibly became the most luxurious of mankind. In their villas and gardens, which might deserve the Persian name of Paradise™ they enjoyed a cool and elegant repose ; and, after the daily use of the bath, the barbarians were seat- ed at a table profusely spread with the delicacies of the land and sea. Their silken robes, loosely flowing after the fashion of the Medes, were embroidered with gold ; love and hunting were the labors of their life, and their vacant hours were amused by pantomimes, chariot - races, and the music and dances of the theatre. In a march of ten or twelve days the vigilance of Belisa- rius was constantly awake and active against his vandais in a unseen enemies, by whom, in every place and at ev- ery hour, he might be suddenly attacked. An of- ficer of confidence and merit, John the Armenian, led the van- Tower of London. b The march of Belisarins to Leptis, Adrumetum, etc., is illus- trated by the campaign of Cassar (Hirtius de Bello Africano, with the Analyse of Guichardt), and Shaw's Travels (p. 105-113) in the same country. 18 IlapdctiaoQ KaXkicrog cnravruv wv r/fieig ia[xsv. The paradises, a name and fashion adopted from Persia, may be represented by the royal garden of Ispahan (Voyage d'Olearius, p. 774). See, in the Greek romances, their most perfect model (Longus, Pastoral. I. iv. p. 99-101 ; Achilles Tatius, 1. i. p. 22, 23). a Leptis is now Lenta, also called Lamba ; Adrumetum is Sousa ; and Grasse is conjectured to be the town previously called Aphrodisium, now Faradise. Du- reau de la Malle, p. 244. — S. b The name of Sullecte is still preserved in that of Salekto, a small town upon the coast, situated about eight (French) leagues north of Capaudia (Caput Vadaj, Dureau de la Malle, ut supra, p. 242. — S. A.D. 533.] DEFEAT OF THE VANDALS. 237 guard of three hundred horse, six hundred Massagetse cover- ed at a certain distance the left flank, and the whole fleet, steering along the coast, seldom lost sight of the army 3 which moved each day about twelve miles, and lodged in the even- ing in strong camps or in friendly towns. The near approach of the Romans to Carthage filled the mind of Gelimer with anxiety and terror. He prudently wished to protract the war till his brother, with his veteran troops, should return from the conquest of Sardinia ; and he now lamented the rash pol- icy of his ancestors, who, by destroying the fortifications of Africa, had left him only the dangerous resource of risking a battle in the neighborhood of his capital. The Yandal con- querors, from their original number of fifty thousand, were multiplied, without including their women and children, to one hundred and sixty thousand fighting- men ; a and such forces, animated with valor and union, might have crushed at their first landing the feeble and exhausted bands of the Ro- man general. But the friends of the captive king were more inclined to accept the invitations than to resist the progress of Belisarius ; and many a proud barbarian disguised his aver- sion to war under the more specious name of his hatred to the usurper. Yet the authority and promises of Gelimer collect- ed a formidable army, and his plans were concerted with some degree of military skill. An order was despatched to his brother Ammatas to collect all the forces of Carthage, and to encounter the van of the Roman army at the distance of ten miles from the city : his nephew Gibamund, with two thou- sand horse, was destined to attack their left, when the mon- arch himself, who silently followed, should charge their rear in a situation which excluded them from the aid or even the view of their fleet. But the rashness of Ammatas was fatal to himself and his country. He anticipated the hour of the attack, outstripped his tardy followers, and was pierced with a mortal wound after he had slain with his own hand twelve of his boldest antagonists. His Yandals fled to Carthage; a The number in Procopius is 80,000 (fivpidSeg 6/crw). Hist. Arc. c. 18. Gib- bon has been misled either by the Latin or French version, in both of which this mistake occurs. See Lord Mahon, p. 97.— S. 238 DEFEAT OF THE VANDALS. [Ch. XLL the highway, almost ten miles, was strewed with dead bodies ; and it seemed incredible that such multitudes could be slaugh- tered by the swords of three hundred Romans. The nephew of Gelimer was defeated, after a slight combat, by the six hundred Massagetas : they did not equal the third part of his numbers, but each Scythian was fired by the example of his chief, who gloriously exercised the privilege of his family by riding foremost and alone to shoot the first arrow against the enemy. In the mean while Gelimer himself, ignorant of the event, and misguided by the windings of the hills, inadver- tently passed the Roman army, and reached the scene of ac- tion where Ammatas had fallen. He wept the fate of his brother and of Carthage, charged with irresistible fury the ad- vancing squadrons, and might have pursued, and perhaps de- cided the victory, if he had not wasted those inestimable mo- ments in the discharge of a vain though pious duty to the dead. While his spirit was broken by this mournful office, he heard the trumpet of Belisarius, who, leaving Antonina and his infantry in the camp, pressed forward with his guards and the remainder of the cavalry to rally his flying troops, and to restore the fortune of the day. Much room could not be found in this disorderly battle for the talents of a general ; but the king fled before the hero, and the Yandals, accustom- ed only to a Moorish enemy, were incapable of withstanding the arms and discipline of the Romans. Gelimer retired with hasty steps towards the desert of Numidia ; but he had soon the consolation of learning that his private orders for the execution of Hilderic and his captive friends had been faithfully obeyed. The tyrant's revenge was useful only to his enemies. The death of a lawful prince excited the com- passion of his people ; his life might have perplexed the vic- torious Romans ; and the lieutenant of Justinian, by a crime of which he was innocent, was relieved from the painful alter-*- native of forfeiting his honor or relinquishing his conquests. As soon as the tumult had subsided, the several parts of the army informed each other of the accidents of the day; and Belisarius pitched his camp on the field of victory, to which the tenth mile-stone from Carthage had applied the A.D. 533.] REDUCTION OF CARTIIAGE. 239 Latin appellation of Decimus. From a wise suspicion of the Reduction of stratagems and resources of the Vandals, he marched A."!. l 53l; e ' the next day in order of battle, halted in the evcn- sept.15. j U g b e f ore the gates of Carthage, and allowed a night of repose, that he might not in darkness and disorder expose the city to the license of the soldiers, or the soldiers themselves to the secret ambush of the city. But as the fears of Belisarius were the result of calm and intrepid rea- son, he was soon satisfied that he might confide, without dan- ger, in the peaceful and friendly aspect of the capital. Car- thage blazed with innumerable torches, the signals of the public joy; the chain was removed that guarded the entrance of the port, the gates were thrown open, and the people with acclamations of gratitude hailed and invited their Roman de- liverers. The defeat of the Yandals and the freedom of Af- rica were announced to the city on the eve of St. Cyprian, when the churches were already adorned and illuminated for the festival of the martyr, whom three centuries of supersti- tion had almost raised to a local deity. The Arians, conscious that their reign had expired, resigned the temple to the Cath- olics, who rescued their saint from profane hands, performed the holy rites, and loudly proclaimed the creed of Athanasius and Justinian. One awful hour reversed the fortunes of the contending parties. The suppliant Yandals, who had so late- ly indulged the vices of conquerors, sought a humble refuge in the sanctuary of the Church ; while the merchants of the East were delivered from the deepest dungeon of the palace by their affrighted keeper, who implored the protection of his captives, and showed them, through an aperture in the wall, the sails of the Roman fleet. After their separation from the army, the naval commanders had proceeded with slow cau- tion along the coast till they reached the Hermsean promon- tory, and obtained the first intelligence of the victory of Beii-. sarins. Faithful to his instructions, they would have cast anchor about twenty miles from Carthage, if the more skilful seamen had not represented the perils of the shore and the signs of an impending tempest. Still ignorant of the revolu- tion, they declined, however, the rash attempt of forcing the 240 REDUCTION OF CARTHAGE. [Ch. XLL chain of the port ; and the adjacent harbor and suburb of Mandraeium were insulted only by the rapine of a private of- ficer who disobeyed and deserted his leaders. But the impe- rial fleet, advancing with a fair wind, steered through the nar- row entrance of the Goletta, and occupied in the deep and capacious lake of Tunis a secure station about five miles from the capital. 19 Eo sooner was Belisarius informed of their ar- rival than he despatched orders that the greatest part of the mariners should be immediately landed, to join the triumph, and to swell the apparent numbers of the Romans. Before he allowed them to enter the gates of Carthage, he exhorted them, in a discourse worthy of himself and the occasion, not to disgrace the glory of their arms ; and to remember that the Vandals had been the tyrants, but that they were the de- liverers, of the Africans, who must now be respected as the voluntary and affectionate subjects of their common sover- eign. The Romans marched through the streets in close ranks, prepared for battle if an enemy had appeared : the strict order maintained by the general imprinted on their minds the duty of obedience ; and in an age in which custom and impunity almost sanctified the abuse of conquest, the gen- ius of one man repressed the passions of a victorious army. The voice of menace and complaint was silent ; the trade of Carthage was not interrupted ; while Africa changed her mas- ter and her government, the shops continued open and busy ; and the soldiers, after sufficient guards had been posted, mod- estly departed to the houses which were allotted for their re- ception. Belisarius fixed his residence in the palace, seated himself on the throne of Genseric, accepted and distributed the barbaric spoil, granted their lives to the suppliant Van- dals, and labored to repair the damage which the suburb of 19 The neighborhood of Carthage, the sea, the land, and the rivers, are changed almost as much as the works of man. The isthmus, or neck, of the city is now confounded with the continent ; the harbor is a dry plain ; and the lake, or stag- nam, no more than a morass, with six or seven feet water in the mid-channel. See D'Anville (Gdographie Ancienne, torn. iii. p. 82), Shaw (Travels, p. 77-84), Mormol (Description de l'Afrique, torn. ii. p. 465), and Thuanus (lviii. 12, torn, iii, p. 334). A.D. 533.] FINAL DEFEAT OF THE VANDALS. 241 Mandracium had sustained in the prsceding night. At sup- per he entertained his principal officers with the form and magnificence of a royal banquet. 50 The victor was respectful- ly served by the captive officers of tho household ; and in the moments of festivity, when the impartial spectators applaud- ed the fortune and merit of Belisarius, his envious flatterers secretly shed their venom on ever} 7 word and gesture which might alarm the suspicions of a jealous monarch. One day was given to these pompous scenes, which may not be despised as useless if they attracted the popular veneration ; but the active mind of Belisarius, which in the pride of victory could suppose a defeat, had already resolved that the Roman em- pire in Africa should not depend on the chance of arms or the favor of the people. The fortifications of Carthage a had alone been exempted from the general proscription ; but in the reign of ninety-five years they were suffered to decay by the thoughtless and indolent Yandals. A wiser conqueror restored, with incredible despatch, the walls and ditches of the city. His liberality encouraged the workmen ; the soldiers, the mariners, and the citizens vied with each other in the sal- utary labor ; and Gelimer, who had feared to trust his person in an open town, beheld with astonishment and despair the rising strength of an impregnable fortress. That unfortunate monarch, after the loss of his capital, applied himself to collect the remains of an army scattered, Final defeat rather than destroyed, by the preceding battle, and and tie 11 " tne hopes of pillage attracted some Moorish bands I»" 533^ to * ne standard of Gelimer. He encamped in the November. fields of g^ fom , dajg , j ournev frora Carthage ; b insulted the capital, which he deprived of the use of an aque- 90 From Delphi, the name of Delphicum was given, both in Greek and Latin, to a tripod ; and, by an easy analogy, the same appellation was extended at Rome, Constantinople, and Carthage to the royal banqueting-room. (Procopius, Van- dal. 1. i. c. 21, Ducange, Gloss. Grasc. p. 277. Ae\. 535.] END OF THE VANDALS. 253 the reward of birth or valor, are insufficient to explain the fate of a nation whose numbers, before a short and bloodless war, amounted to more than six hundred thousand persons. After the exile of their king and nobles, the servile crowd might purchase their safety by abjuring their character, re ligion, and language ; and their degenerate posterity would be insensibly mingled with the common herd of African sub- jects. Yet even in the present age, and in the heart of the Moorish tribes, a curious traveller has discovered the white complexion and long flaxen hair of a northern race ; 35 and it was formerly believed that the boldest of the Yandals fled beyond the power, or even the knowledge, of the Romans, to enjoy their solitary freedom on the shores of the Altantic Ocean. 36 Africa had been their empire, it became their pris- on ; nor could they entertain a hope, or even a wish, of re- turning to the banks of the Elbe, where their brethren, of a spirit less adventurous, still wandered in their native forests. It was impossible for cowards to surmount the barriers of unknown seas and hostile barbarians; it was impossible for brave men to expose their nakedness and defeat before the eyes of their countrymen, to describe the kingdoms which, they had lost, and to claim a share of the humble inheritance which, in a happier hour, they had almost unanimously re- nounced." In the country between the Elbe and the Oder several populous villages of Lusatia are inhabited by the Yan- dals: they still preserve their language, their customs, and the purity of their blood ; support, with some impatience, the Saxon or Prussian yoke; and serve, with secret and voluntary 36 Shaw, p. 59. Yet since Procopius (1. ii. c. 13 [torn. i. p. 466, edit. Bonn]) speaks of a people of Mount Atlas, as already distinguished by white bodies and yellow hair, the phenomenon (which is likewise visible in the Andes of Peru, Buf- fon, torn. iii. p. 504) may naturally be ascribed to the elevation of the ground and the temperature of the air. 36 The geographer of Ravenna (1. iii. ch. xi. p. 129, 130, 131 ; Paris, 1688) de- scribes the Mauritania Gaditana (opposite to Cadiz), "Ubi gens Vandalorum, a Belisario devicta in Africa, fugit, et nunquam comparuit." 31 A single voice had protested, and Genseric dismissed, without a formal an- swer, the Vandals of Germany : but those of Africa derided his prudence, and af- fected to despise the poverty of their forests (Procopius, Vandal. 1. i. c. 22). 254 MANNERS OF THE MOORS. [Ch.XLL allegiance, the descendant of their ancient kings, who in his garb and present fortune is confounded with the meanest of his vassals." The name and situation of this unhappy people might indicate their descent from one common stock with the conquerors of Africa. But the use of a Sclavonic dialect more clearly represents them as the last remnant of the new colonies who succeeded to the genuine Yandals, already scat- tered or destroyed in the age of Procopius. 39 If Belisarius had been tempted to hesitate in his allegiance, he might have urged, even against the emperor himself, the Maimers and indispensable duty of saving Africa from an enemy Moors. ofthe more barbarous than the Yandals. The origin of a.d.535. ^g ]y[ oors i s involved in darkness : they were igno- rant of the use of letters. 40 Their limits cannot be precisely defined ; a boundless continent was open to the Libyan shep- 38 From the mouth of the Great Elector (in 1G87) Tollius describes the secret royalty and rebellious spirit of the Vandals of Brandenburg, who could muster five or six thousand soldiers, who had procured some cannon, etc. (Itinerar. Hungar. p. 42, apud Dubos, Hist, de la Monarchic Francoise, torn. i. p. 182, 183). The veracity, not of the elector, but of Tollius himself, may justly be suspected. 1 39 Procopius (1. i. c. 22 [torn. i. p. 400, edit. Bonn]) was in total darkness — ovtb fivrjfir] Tig ovte ovofia tg s/xe ow&tcu. Under the reign of Dagobert (a.d. 630) the tSclavonian tribes of the Sorbi and Venedi already bordered on Thuringia (Mascou, Hist, of the Germans, xv. 3, 4, 5). 40 Sallust represents the Moors as a remnant of the army of Heracles (de Bell. Jugurth. c. 21 [18]), and Procopius (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 10 [torn. ii. p. 450, edit. Bonn]) as the posterity of the Cananasans who fled from the robber Joshua (Xjjct- r?)c). He quotes two columns, with a Phoenician inscription. I believe in the columns — I doubt the inscription — and I reject the pedigree. b a On the probable Sclavonic origin of the Vandals, see editor's note, vol i. p. 573.— S. r b It has been supposed that Procopius is the only, or at least the most ancient, author who has spoken of this strange inscription, of which one may be tempted to attribute the invention to Procopius himself. Yet it is mentioned in the Ar- menian history of Moses of Chorene (1. i. c. 18), who lived and wrote more than a century before Procopius. This is sufficient to show that an earlier date must be assigned to this tradition. The same inscription is mentioned by Suidas (sub voc. Xavaav), no doubt from Procopius. According to most of the Arabian writers, who adopted a nearly similar tradition, the indigenes of Northern Africa were the people of Palestine expelled by David, who passed into Africa under the guidance of Goliath, whom they call Djalout. It is impossible to admit traditions which bear a character so fabulous. St. Martin, vol. xi. p. 324. — Unless my mem- ory greatly deceives me, I have read in the works of Lightfoot a similar Jewish tradition; but I have mislaid the reference, and cannot recover the passage. — M. l.D.535.] DEFEAT OF THE MOOES. 255 herds ; the change of seasons and pastures regulated their mo- tions; and their rude huts and slender furniture were trans- ported with the same ease as their arms, their families, and their cattle, which consisted of sheep, oxen, and camels. 41 Dur- ing the vigor of the Roman power they observed a respectful distance from Carthage and the sea-shore ; under the feeble reign of the Vandals they invaded the cities of Numidia, occu- pied the sea-coast from Tangier to Cassarea, and pitched their camps, with impunity, in the fertile province of Byzacium. The formidable strength and artful conduct of Belisarius se- cured the neutrality of the Moorish princes, whose vanity as- pired to receive in the emperor's name the ensigns of their regal dignity." They were astonished by the rapid event, and trembled in the presence of their conqueror. But his ap- proaching departure soon relieved the apprehensions of a savage and superstitious people ; the number of their wives allowed them to disregard the safety of their infant hostages ; and when the Roman general hoisted sail in the port of Car- thage, he heard the cries and almost beheld the flames of the desolated province. Yet he persisted in his resolution ; and leaving only a part of his guards to reinforce the feeble garri- sons, he intrusted the command of Africa to the eunuch Sol- omon, 43 who proved himself not unworthy to be the successor of Belisarius. In the first invasion some detachments, with two officers of merit, were surprised and intercepted ; but Solomon speedily assembled his troops, marched from Car- thage into the heart of the country, and in two great battles destroyed sixty thousand of the barbarians. The Moors de- 41 Virgil (Georgia iii. 339) and Pomponius Mela (i. 8) describe the wandering life of the African shepherds, similar to that of the Arabs and Tartars : and Shaw (p. 222) is the best commentator on the poet and the geographer. 42 The customary gifts were a sceptre, a crown or cap, a white cloak, a figured tunic, and shoes, all adorned with gold and silver ; nor were these precious metals less acceptable in the shape of coin (Procop. Vandal. 1. i. c. 25). 43 See the African government and warfare of Solomon in Procopius (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 10, 11, 12, 13, 19, 20). He was recalled and again restored ; and his last victory dates in the thirteenth year of Justinian (a.d. 539). An accident in his childhood had rendered him an eunuch (1. i. c. 11): the other Roman generals were amply furnished with beards, nuyiDVOQ tjnrnrXantvoi (1. ii. c. 8). 256 DEFEAT OF THE MOORS. [CH.XLI. pended on their multitude, their swiftness, and their inacces- sible mountains ; and the aspect and smell of their camels are said to have produced some confusion in the Eoman cavalry. 44 But as soon as thej were commanded to dismount, they de- rided this contemptible obstacle : as soon as the columns as- cended the hills, the naked and disorderly crowd was dazzled by glittering arms and regular evolutions ; and the menace of their female prophets was repeatedly fulfilled, that the Moors should be discomfited by a beardless antagonist. The victo- rious eunuch advanced thirteen days' journey from Carthage to besiege Mount Aurasius, 45 the citadel, and at the same time the garden, of Numidia. That range of hills, a branch of the great Atlas, contains, within a circumference of one hundred and twenty miles, a rare variety of soil and climate ; the in- termediate valleys and elevated plains abound with rich past- ures, perpetual streams, and fruits of a delicious taste and un- common magnitude. This fair solitude is decorated with the ruins of Lambesa, a Roman city, once the seat of a legion, and the residence of forty thousand inhabitants. The Ionic tem- ple of Jilsculapius is encompassed with Moorish huts ; and the cattle now graze in the midst of an amphitheatre, under the shade of Corinthian columns. A sharp perpendicular rock rises above the level of the mountain, where the African princes deposited their wives and treasure ; and a proverb is familiar to the Arabs, that the man may eat fire who dares to attack the craggy cliffs and inhospitable natives of Mount Aurasius. This hardy enterprise was twice attempted by the eunuch Solomon : from the first, he retreated with some dis- grace; and in the second, his patience and provisions were al- most exhausted ; and he must again have retired, if he had 44 This natural antipathy of the horse for the camel is affirmed by the ancients (Xenophon. Cyropasd. 1. vi. [c. 2] p. 438 ; 1. vii. [c. 1] p. 483, 492, edit. Hutchin- son ; Polyajn. Stratagem, vii. 6 [§ 6] ; Plin. Hist. Nat. viii. 26 ; JElian de Natur. Animal, iii. 1. c. 7) ; but it is disproved by daily experience, and derided by the best judges, the Orientals (Voyage d'Olearius, p. 553). 46 Procopius is the first who describes Mount Aurasius (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 13; Da JEdific. 1. vi. c. 7). He may be compared with Leo Africanus (dell' Africa, parte t. in Ramusio, torn, i foL 77, recto), Marmol (torn. ii. p. 430), and Shaw (p. A.D. 535.] NEUTRALITY OF THE VISIGOTHS. 257 not yielded to the impetuous courage of his troops, who au- daciously scaled, to the astonishment of the Moors, the moun- tain, the hostile camp, and the summit of the Geminian rock. A citadel was erected to secure this important conquest, and to remind the barbarians of their defeat; and as Solomon pursued his march to the west, the long-lost province of Mau- ritanian Sitifi was again annexed to the Koman empire. The Moorish war continued several years after the departure of Eelisarius; but the laurels which he resigned to a faithful lieutenant may be justly ascribed to his own triumph. The experience of past faults, which may sometimes correct the mature age of an individual, is seldom profitable to the Neutrality of successive generations of mankind. The nations the Visigoths. Q f ail tiquity, careless of each other's safety, were separately vanquished and enslaved by the Komans. This awful lesson might have instructed the barbarians of the "West to oppose, with timely counsels and confederate arms, the unbounded ambition of Justinian. Yet the same error was repeated, the same consequences were felt, and the Goths, both of Italy and Spain, insensible of their approaching dan- ger, beheld with indifference, and even with joy, the rapid downfall of the Yandals. After the failure of the royal line, Theudes, a valiant and powerful chief, ascended the throne of Spain, which he had formerly administered in the name of Theodoric and his infant grandson. Under his command the Yisigoths besieged the fortress of Ceuta, on the African coast ; but, while they spent the Sabbath-day in peace and devotion, the pious security of their camp was invaded by a sally from the town, and the king himself, with some difficulty and dan- ger, escaped from the hands of a sacrilegious enemy. 46 It was not long before his pride and resentment were gratified by a suppliant embassy from the unfortunate Gelimer, who implored, in his distress, the aid of the Spanish monarch. But instead of sacrificing these unworthy passions to the dic- 44 Isidor. Chron. p. 722, edit. Grot. Mariana, Hist. Hispan. 1. v. c. 8, p. 173. Yet, according to Isidore, the siege of Ceuta and the death of Theudes happened, a. 2E. h. 586-a.d. 648', and the place was defended, not by the Vandals, but by the Romans. IV.— 17 258 CONQUESTS IN SPAIN. [Ch. XLL tates of generosity and prudence, Theudes amused the arnbas* sadors till he was secretly informed of the loss of Carthage, and then dismissed them, with obscure and contemptuous ad- conquests of y i ce J to see ^ ^ n their native country a true knowl in e spaiu. aus edge of the state of the Yandals. 47 The long con- a.u. 550-620. tinuance of the Italian war delayed the punish- ment of the Visigoths, and the eyes of Theudes were closed before they tasted the fruits of his mistaken policy. After his death the sceptre of Spain was disputed by a civil war. The weaker candidate solicited the protection of Justinian, and ambitiously subscribed a treaty of alliance which deeply wounded the independence and happiness of his country. Several cities, both on the ocean and the Mediterranean, were ceded to the Roman troops, who afterwards refused to evac- uate those pledges, as it should seem, either of safety or pay- ment ; and as they were fortified by perpetual supplies from Africa, they maintained their impregnable stations for the mischievous purpose of inflaming the civil and religious fac- tions of the barbarians. Seventy years elapsed before this painful thorn could be extirpated from the bosom of the monarchy; and as long as the emperors retained any share of these remote and useless possessions, their vanity might number Spain in the list of their provinces, and the successors of Alaric in the rank of their vassals. 48 The error of the Goths who reigned in Italy was less ex- cusable than that of their Spanish brethren, and their punish- ment was still more immediate and terrible. From Belisarins . . threatens the a motive ot private revenge, they enabled their Ostrogoths _ l i , . of itaiy. most dangerous enemy to destroy their most valu- able ally. A sister of the great Theodoric had been given in marriage to Thrasimond, the African king : 49 on this 47 Procopius, Vandal. 1. i. c. 24. 48 See the original Chronicle of Isidore and the fifth and sixth books of the History of Spain by Mariana. The Romans were finally expelled by Stiintila, king of the Visigoths (a.d. 621-626), after their reunion to the Catholic Church. 49 See the marriage and fate of Amalafrida in Procopius (Vandal. 1. i. c. 8, 9), and in Cassiodorus (Var. ix. 1) the expostulation of her royal brother. Compare likewise the Chronicle of Victor Tunnunensii. a.d. 534.] BELISARIUS THREATENS THE OSTROGOTHS. 259 occasion the fortress of Lilybgsum, 00 in Sicily, was resigned to the Vandals, and the Princess Amalafrida was attended by a martial train of one thousand nobles and five thousand Goth« ic soldiers, who signalized their valor in the Moorish wars. Their merit was overrated by themselves, and perhaps neg- lected by the Yandals: they viewed the country with envy and the conquerors with disdain ; but their real or fictitious conspiracy was prevented by a massacre ; the Goths were op- pressed, and the captivity of Amalafrida was soon followed by her secret and suspicious death. The eloquent pen of Cassiodorus was employed to reproach, the Yandal court with the cruel violation of every social and public duty; but the vengeance which he threatened in the name of his sovereign might be derided with impunity as long as Africa was pro- tected by the sea, and the Goths were destitute of a navy. In the blind impotence of grief and indignation, they joyfully saluted the approach of the Romans, entertained the fleet of Belisarius in the ports of Sicily, and were speedily delighted or alarmed by the surprising intelligence that their revenge was executed beyond the measure of their hopes, or perhaps of their wishes. To their friendship the emperor was indebt- ed for the kingdom of Africa, and the Goths might reasona- bly think that they were entitled to resume the possession of a barren rock, so recently separated as a nuptial gift from the island of Sicily. They were soon undeceived by the haughty mandate of Belisarius, which excited their tardy and unavail- ing repentance. " The city and promontory of Lilybseum," said the Roman general, " belonged to the Yandals, and I claim them by the right of conquest. Your submission may deserve the favor of the emperor ; your obstinacy will provoke his displeasure, and must kindle a war that can terminate only in your utter ruin. If you compel us to take up arms, we shall contend, not to regain the possession of a single city, but to deprive you of all the provinces which you unjustly with- hold from their lawful sovereign." A nation of two hundred 80 Lilybseum was built by the Carthaginians, Olymp. xcv. 4; and in the first Punic war, a strong situation and excellent harbor rendered that place an impos* tant object to both nations. 260 GOVERNMENT OF AMALASONTHA, [Ch. XLL thousand soldiers might have smiled at the vain menace of Justinian and his lieutenant ; but a spirit of discord and dis« affection prevailed in Italy, and the Goths supported with re- luctance the indignity of a female reign." The birth of Amalasontha, the regent and queen of Italy, 68 united the two most illustrious families of the barbarians. Her mother, the sister of Clovis, was descended Government ' . , 1 .. and death of from the long- haired kings of the Merovmqicm Amalasontha, ° => 7 . ., queen of Italy, race, and the regal succession of the Amah was n- lustrated in the eleventh generation by her father, the great Theodoric, whose merit might have ennobled a Ple- beian origin. The sex of his daughter excluded her from the Gothic throne ; but his vigilant tenderness for his family and his people discovered the last heir of the royal line, whose an- cestors had taken refuge in Spain, and the fortunate Eutharic was suddenly exalted to the rank of a consul and a prince. He enjoyed only a short time the charms of Amalasontha, and the hopes of the succession ; and his widow, after the death of her husband and father, was left the guardian of hei son Athalaric, and the kingdom of Italy. At the age of about twenty-eight years, the endowments of her mind and person had attained their perfect maturity. Her beauty, which, in the apprehension of Theodora herself, might have disputed the conquest of an emperor, was animated by manly sense, ac- tivity, and resolution. Education and experience had culti- vated her talents ; her philosophic studies were exempt from vanity ; and, though she expressed herself with equal elegance and ease in the Greek, the Latin, and the Gothic tongue, the daughter of Theodoric maintained in her counsels a discreet 61 Compare the different passages of Procopius (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 5 ; Gothic. 1. i. c. 3). 62 For the reign and character of Amalasontha, see Procopius (Gothic. 1. i. c. 2, 3, 4, and Anecdot. c. 16, with the notes of Alemannus), Cassiodorus (Var. viii. ix. x. and xi. 1), and Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 59, and De Successione Reg- norum, in Muratori, torn. i. p. 241). 63 The marriage of Theodoric with Audefleda, the sister of Clovis, may be placed in the year 495, soon after the conquest of Italy (De Buat, Hist, des Peuples, torn. ix. p. 213). The nuptials of Eutharic and Amalasontha were celebrated in 516 (Cassiodor. in Chron. p. 453 [torn. i. p. 395, edit. Rotom.]). a.d. 522-534.] QUEEN OF ITALY. 261 and impenetrable silence. By a faithful imitation of the virt* ues, she revived the prosperity of his reign ; while she strove, with pious care, to expiate the faults and to obliterate the darker memory of his declining age. The children of Boe- thius and Symmachus were restored to their paternal inherit- ance ; her extreme lenity never consented to inflict any cor- poral or pecuniary penalties on her Roman subjects ; and she generously despised the clamors of the Goths, who, at the end of forty years, still considered the people of Italy as their slaves or their enemies. Her salutary measures were directed by the wisdom and celebrated by the eloquence of Cassiodo- rus; she solicited and deserved the friendship of the emperor; and the kingdoms of Europe respected, both in peace and war, the majesty of the Gothic throne. But the future hap- piness of the queen and of Italy depended on the education of her son, who was destined, by his birth, to support the dif- ferent and almost incompatible characters of the chief of a barbarian camp, and the first magistrate of a civilized nation. From the age of ten years 54 Athalaric was diligently in- structed in the arts and sciences either useful or ornamental for a Roman prince, and three venerable Goths were chosen to instil the principles of honor and virtue into the mind of their young king. But the pupil who is insensible of the benefits must abhor the restraints of education ; and the so- licitude of the queen, which affection rendered anxious and severe, offended the un tractable nature of her son and his subjects. On a solemn festival, when the Goths were assem- bled in the palace of Ravenna, the royal youth escaped from his mother's apartment, and, with tears of pride and anger, complained of a blow which his stubborn disobedience had provoked her to inflict. The barbarians resented the indig- nity which had been offered to their king, accused the regent of conspiring against his life and crown, and imperiously de- manded that the grandson of Theodoric should be rescued from the dastardly discipline of women and pedants, and edu- 54 At the death of Theodoric his grandson Athalaric is described by Procopius as a boy about eight years old — oktw yiyovuc err]. Cassiodorus, with authority and reason, adds two years to his age — " infantulum adhuc vix decennem." 262 AMALASONTHA, QUEEN OF ITALY. XCh. XLL cated, like a valiant Goth, in the society of his equals and the glorious ignorance of his ancestors. To this rude clamor, importunately urged as the voice of the nation, Amalasontha was compelled to yield her reason and the dearest wishes of her heart. The King of Italy was abandoned to wine, to women, and to rustic sports ; and the indiscreet contempt of the ungrateful youth betrayed the mischievous designs of hia favorites and her enemies. Encompassed with domestic foes, she entered into a secret negotiation with the Emperor Jus- tinian, obtained the assurance of a friendly reception, and had actually deposited at Dyrrachium, in Epirus, a treasure of forty thousand pounds of gold. Happy would it have been for her fame and safety if she had calmly retired from bar- barous faction to the peace and splendor of Constantinople. But the mind of Amalasontha was inflamed by ambition and revenge ; and while her ships lay at anchor in the port, she waited for the success of a crime which her passions excused or applauded as an act of justice. Three of the most danger- ous malcontents had been separately removed, under the pre- tence of trust and command, to the frontiers of Italy : they were assassinated by her private emissaries ; and the blood of these noble Goths rendered the queen-mother absolute in the court of Ravenna, and justly odious to a free people. But if she had lamented the disorders of her son, she soon wept his irreparable loss ; and the death of Athalaric, who, at the age of sixteen, was consumed by premature intemperance, left her destitute of any firm support or legal authority. Instead of submitting to the laws of her country, which held as a funda- mental maxim that the succession could never pass from the lance to the distaff, the daughter of Theodoric conceived the impracticable design of sharing, with one of her cousins, the regal title, and of reserving in her own hands the substance of supreme power. He received the proposal with profound respect and affected gratitude ; and the eloquent Cassiodorus announced to the senate and the emperor that Amalasontha and Theodatus had ascended the throne of Italy. His birth (for his mother was the sister of Theodoric) might be con- sidered as an imperfect title ; and the choice of Amalasontha A.D. 535.] HER EXILE AND DEATH. 263 was more strongly directed by her contempt of his avarice and pusillanimity, which had deprived him of the love of the Italians and the esteem of the barbarians. But Theodatur was exasperated by the contempt which he deserved: her jus- tice had repressed and reproached the oppression which he exercised against his Tuscan neighbors; and the principal Goths, united by common guilt and resentment, conspired to instigate his slow and timid disposition. The letters of Con- ner exile gratulation were scarcely despatched before the 2! 535, tb " Queen of Italy was imprisoned in a small island of April 30. t j ie i a k e f J3 lsena, B5 where, after a short confine- ment, she was strangled in the bath, by the order or with the connivance of the new king, who instructed his turbulent sub- jects to shed the blood of their sovereigns. Justinian beheld with joy the dissensions of the Goths, and the mediation of an ally concealed and promoted the am- Beiisarins bitious views of the conqueror. His ambassadors, subdues aud m their public audience, demanded the fortress of a!b^s35, Lilybseum, ten barbarian fugitives, and a just corn- Dec. 31. pensation for the pillage of a small town on the II- lyrian borders ; but they secretly negotiated with Theodatus to betray the province of Tuscany, and tempted Amalasontha to extricate herself from danger and perplexity by a free sur- render of the kingdom of Italy. A false and servile epistle was subscribed by the reluctant hand of the captive queen ; but the confession of the Roman senators who were sent to Constantinople revealed the truth of her deplorable situation, and Justinian, by the voice of a new ambassador, most pow- erfully interceded for her life and liberty. a Yet the secret 55 The lake, from the neighboring towns of Etruria, was styled either Vulsini- ensis (now of Bolsena) or Tarquiniensis. It is surrounded with white rocks, and stored with fish and wild-fowl. The younger Pliny (Epist. ii. 96 [95]) celebrates two woody islands that floated on its waters : if a fable, how credulous the an- cients! if a fact, how careless the moderns! Yet, since Pliny, the island may have been fixed by new and gradual accessions. a Amalasontha was not alive when this new ambassador, Peter of Thessalonica, arrived in Italy : he could not then secretly contribute to her death. " But " (says M. de Sainte Croix) "it is not beyond probability that Theodora had entered into some criminal intrigue with Gundelina, for that wife of Theodatus wrote to im« 264: BELISARIUS INVADES [Ch. XLL instructions of the same minister were adapted to serve the cruel jealousy of Theodora, who dreaded the presence and su- perior charms of a rival: he prompted, with artful and am- biguous hints, the execution of a crime so useful to the Ro- mans, 69 received the intelligence of her death with grief and indignation, and denounced, in his master's name immortal war against the perfidious assassin. In Italy, as well as in Africa, the guilt of a usurper appeared to justify the arms of Justinian ; but the forces which he prepared were insufficient for the subversion of a mighty kingdom, if their feeble num- bers had not been multiplied by the name, the spirit, and the conduct of a hero. A chosen troop of guards, who served on horseback, and were armed with lances and bucklers, attended the person of Belisarius ; his cavalry was composed of two hundred Huns, three hundred Moors, and four thousand eon- federates, and the infantry consisted only of three thousand Isaurians. Steering the same course as in his former expedi- tion, the Roman consul cast anchor before Catana, in Sicily, to survey the strength of the island, and to decide whether he should attempt the conquest or peaceably pursue his voy- age for the African coast. He found a fruitful land and a friendly people. Notwithstanding the decay of agriculture, Sicily still supplied the granaries of Rome ; the farmers were graciously exempted from the oppression of military quar- ters ; and the Goths, who trusted the defence of the island to the inhabitants, had some reason to complain that their confi- dence was ungratefully betrayed. Instead of soliciting and expecting the aid of the King of Italy, they yielded to the first summons a cheerful obedience ; and this province, the first-fruits of the Punic wars, was again, after a long separa- 66 Yet Procopius discredits his own evidence (Anecdot. c. 16), by confessing that in his public history he had not spoken the truth. See the Epistles from Queen Gundelina to the Empress Theodora (Var. x. 20, 21, 23, and observe a suspicious word, "de ilia persona," etc.), with the elaborate Commentary of Buat (torn. x. p. 177-185). plore her protection, reminding her of the confidence which she and her husband had always placed in her former promises." See, on Amalasontha and the au- thors of her death, an excellent dissertation of M. cle Sainte Croix in the Archives Litttraires published by M. Vandenbourg, No. 50, t. xvii. p. 216. — G. A.D.535.] AND SUBDUES SICILY. 265 tion, united to the Roman empire." The Gothic garrison of Palermo, which alone attempted to resist, was reduced, after a short siege, bj a singular stratagem. Belisarius introduced his ships into the deepest recess of the harbor ; their boats were laboriously hoisted with ropes and pulleys to the top- mast head, and he filled them with archers, who, from that superior station, commanded the ramparts of the city. After this easy though successful campaign, the conqueror entered Syracuse in triumph, at the head of his victorious bands, dis- tributing gold medals to the people, on the day which so glo- riously terminated the year of the consulship. He passed the winter season in the palace of ancient kings, amidst the ruins of a Grecian colony which once extended to a circumference of two-and-twenty miles; 68 but in the spring, about the festi- val of Easter, the prosecution of his designs was interrupted by a dangerous revolt of the African forces. Carthage was saved by the presence of Belisarius, who suddenly landed with a thousand guards. 3. Two thousand soldiers of doubtful faith returned to the standard of their old commander, and he marched, without hesitation, above fifty miles, to seek an en- emy whom he affected to pity and despise. Eight thousand rebels trembled at his approach ; they were routed at the first onset by the dexterity of their master, and this ignoble vic- tory would have restored the peace of Africa, if the conquer- or had not been hastily recalled to Sicily to appease a sedition which was kindled during his absence in his own camp. 59 67 For the conquest of Sicily compare the narrative of Procopius with the com- plaints of Totila (Gothic. 1. i. c. 5 ; 1. iii. c. 16). The Gothic queen had lately relieved that thankless island (Var. ix. 10, 11). 58 The ancient magnitude and splendor of the five quarters of Syracuse are de- lineated by Cicero (in Verrem, actio ii. 1. iv. c. 52, 53), Strabo (1. vi. p. 415 [p. 270, edit. Casaub.]), and D'Orville Sicula (torn. ii. p. 174-202). The new city, restored by Augustus, shrunk toward the island. 69 Procopius (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 14, 15) so clearly relates the return of Belisarius into Sicily (p. 146, edit. Hoeschelii [torn. i. p. 481, edit. Bonn]), that I am aston- ished at the strange misapprehension and reproaches of a learned critic ((Euvres de la Mothe le Vayer, torn. viii. p. 162, 163). a A hundred (there was no room on board for more). Gibbon has again been misled by Cousin's translation. Lord Mahon, p. 154. — M. 266 REIGN OF THEODATUS, [Ch. XH Disorder and disobedience were the common malady of the times : the genius to command and the virtue to obey resided only in the mind of Belisarius. Although Theodatus descended from a race of heroes, he was ignorant of the art and averse to the dangers of war. Al- though he had studied the writings of Plato and weakness of Tully, philosophy was incapable of purifying his the Gothic' mind f rom the basest passions, avarice and fear. a.d.534, ' ' He had purchased a sceptre by ingratitude and October- A.D.53C, murder: at the first menace of an enemy he de- graded his own majesty, and that of a nation which already disdained their 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 eloquence of Peter, the Byzantine ambassador ; and that bold and subtle advocate persuaded him to sign a treaty too ignominious to become the foundation of a lasting peace. It was stipulated that in the acclamations of the Roman people the name of the emperor should be always proclaimed before that of the Gothic king ; and that, as often as the statue of Theodatus was erected in brass or marble, the divine image of Justinian should be placed on its right hand. Instead of conferring, the King of Italy was reduced to solicit, the honors of the senate ; and the consent of the emperor was made indispen- sable before he could execute, against a priest or senator, the sentence either of death or confiscation. The feeble monarch resigned the possession of Sicily ; offered, as the annual mark of his dependence, a crown of gold of the weight of three hundred pounds ; 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 of Justinian hastened his journey to Constantinople ; but no sooner had he reached the Alban villa- than he was recalled by the anxiety of Theoda- 60 The ancient Alba was ruined in the first age of Rome. On the same spot, or at least in the neighborhood, successively arose, 1. The villa of Pompey, etc A.D. 534-636.] THE GOTHIC KING OF ITALY. 267 tus; and the dialogue which passed between the king and the ambassador deserves to be represented in its original sim- plicity. "Are you of opinion that the emperor will ratify this treaty ? Perhaps. If he refuses, what consequence will ensue ? War. Will such a war be just or reasonable ? Most assuredly: every one should act according to his character. What is your meaning ? You are a philosopher — Justinian is emperor of the Romans : it would ill become the disciple of Plato to shed the Hood of thousands in his private quarrel : the successor of Augustus should vindicate his rights, and re* eover by arms the ancient provinces of his empire" This rea- soning might not convince, but it was sufficient to alarm and subdue the weakness of Theodatus ; and he soon descended to his last offer, that for the poor equivalent of a pension of forty -eight thousand pounds sterling he would resign the kingdom of the Goths and Italians, and spend the remainder of his days in the innocent pleasures of philosophy and agri- culture. Both treaties were intrusted to the hands of the ambassador, on the frail security of an oath not to produce the second till the first had been positively rejected. The event may be easily foreseen : Justinian required and accept- ed the abdication of the Gothic king. His indefatigable agent returned from Constantinople to Eavenna with ample instructions, and a fair epistle, which praised the wisdom and generosity of the royal philosopher, granted his pension, with the assurance of such honors as a subject and a Catholic might enjoy, and wisely referred the final execution of the treaty to the presence and authority of Belisarius. But in the interval of suspense two Roman generals, who had enter- ed the province of Dalmatia, were defeated and slain by the Gothic troops. From blind and abject despair, Theodatus capriciously rose to groundless and fatal presumption," and 2. A camp of the Praetorian cohorts. 3. The modern episcopal city of Albanum or Albano (Procop. Goth. 1. ii. c. 4. Oliver. Ital. Antiq. torn. ii. p. 914). 61 A Sibylline oracle was ready to pronounce — "Africa capta mundus cum nato peribit;" a sentence of portentous ambiguity (Gothic. 1. i. c. 7), which has been published in unknown characters by Opsopseus, an editor of the oracles. Th« Pere Maltret has promised a commentary ; but all his promises have been vaia and fruitless. 268 BELISARIUS INVADES ITALY, [Ch. XLL dared to receive, with menace and contempt, the ambassador of Justinian, who claimed his promise, solicited the allegiance of his subjects, and boldly asserted .the inviolable privilege of his own character. The march of Belisarius dispelled this visionary pride ; and as the first campaign" was employed in the reduction of Sicily, the invasion of Italy is applied by Procopius to the second year of the Gothic Wak.* 3 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 Belisarius in- . _ . . ± L , vades Italy Rhegium. A Gothic prince, who had married the aud reduces ° m •*■ . . Naples. daughter of I heodatus, was stationed with an army u.D. 536.— to guard the entrance of Italy ; but he imitated without scruple the example of a sovereign faith- less to his public and private duties. The perfidious Ebermor deserted with his followers to the Roman camp, and was dis- missed to enjoy the servile honors of the Byzantine court. 64 Prom Rhegium to Naples the fleet and army of Belisarius, almost always in view of each other, advanced near three hundred miles along the sea-coast. The people of Brnttium, Lucania, and Campania, who abhorred the name and religion of the Goths, embraced the specious excuse that their ruined walls were incapable of defence: the soldiers paid a just equivalent for a plentiful market ; and curiosity alone inter- rupted the peaceful occupations of the husbandman or arti- ficer. Naples, which has swelled to a great and populous capital, long cherished the language and manners of a Gre- 62 In his chronology, imitated in some degree from Thucydides, Procopius be- gins each spring the years of Justinian and of the Gothic war ; and his first era coincides with the first of April, 535, and not 536, according to the ApiotIs of Baronius (Pagi Grit. torn. 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 of Procopius with himself, and with the Chronicle of Marcelliuus. 63 The series of the first Gothic war is represented by Procopius (1. k c. 5-59; 1. ii. c. 1-30 ; 1. iii. c. 1) till the captivity of Vitiges. With the nid of Sigonius fOpp. torn. i. de Imp. Occident. 1. xvii., xviii.) and Muratori (Annali d'ltaXia, torn, v.), I have gleaned some few additional facts. 64 Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 60, p. 702, edit, Grot., and torn k p, iSJtt, Muratori. de Success. Regn. [ib.] p. 241, a.d. 537.J AND REDUCES NAPLES. 269 cian colony ;" and the choice of Virgil had ennobled this el- egant retreat, which attracted the lovers of repose and study from the noise, the smoke, and the laborious opulence of Rome. 6 * As soon as the place was invested by sea and land, Belisarius gave audience to the deputies of the people, who exhorted -him to disregard a conquest unworthy of his arms, to seek the Gothic king in a field of battle, and, after his vic- tory, to claim, as the sovereign of Rome, the allegiance of the dependent cities. "When I treat with my enemies," replied the Roman chief, with a haughty smile, " I am more accus- tomed to give than to receive counsel; but I hold in one hand inevitable ruin, and in the other peace and freedom, such as Sicily now enjoys." The impatience of delay urged him to grant the most liberal terms; his honor secured their per- formance : but Naples was divided into two factions ; and the Greek democracy was inflamed by their orators, who with much spirit and some truth represented to the multitude that the Goths would punish their defection, and that Belisarius himself must esteem their loyalty and valor. Their deliber- ations, however, were not perfectly free : the city was com- manded by eight hundred barbarians, whose wives and chil- dren were detained at Ravenna as the pledge of their fideli- ty ; and even the Jews, who were rich and numerous, resisted, with desperate enthusiasm, the intolerant laws of Justinian. In a much later period the circumference of Naples, 67 meas- 65 "Nero" (says Tacitus, Annal. xv. 33) "Neapolim quasi Grgecam urbem de- legit." One hundred and fifty years afterwards, in the time of Septimius Severus, the Hellenism of the Neapolitans is praised by Philostratus : ysvog "EWr/veg ical aorvKoi, '66ev Kai rag airovddg ra>v yoXwv 'EXKqvucoi ei A.D. 536-540.] VITIGES, KING OF ITALY. 271 found some consolation in the secret enjoyment of their hid- den treasures. The barbarian garrison enlisted in the service of the emperor ; Apulia and Calabria, delivered from the odious presence of the Goths, acknowledged his dominion ; and the tusks of the Calydonian boar, which were still shown at Beneventum, are curiously described by the historian of Belisarius. 70 The faithful soldiers and citizens of Naples had expected their deliverance from a prince who remained the inactive and aim ^different spectator of their ruin. The- df Italy. ° odatus secured his person within the walls of Rome, August- while his cavalry advanced forty miles on the Ap- pian Way, and encamped in the Pomptine marshes, which, by a canal of nineteen miles in length, had been re- cently drained and converted into excellent pastures. 71 But the principal forces of the Goths were dispersed in Dalmatia, Yenetia, and Gaul ; and the feeble mind of their king was confounded by the unsuccessful event of a divination which seemed to presage the downfall of his empire. 72 The most abject slaves have arraigned the guilt or weakness of an un- fortunate master. The character of Theodatus was rigorously scrutinized by a free and idle camp of barbarians, conscious of their privilege and power: he was declared unworthy of his race, his nation, and his throne ; and their general, Yiti- ges, whose valor had been signalized in the Illyrian war, was raised with unanimous applause on the bucklers of his com- 10 Beneventum was built by Diomede, the nephew of Meleager (Cluver. torn. ii. p. 1195, 1196. The Calydonian hunt is a picture of savage life (Ovid. Metamorph. 1. viii.). Thirty or forty heroes were leagued against a hog: the brutes (not the hog) quarrelled with a lady for the head. 71 The Decennovium is strangely confounded by Cluverius (torn. ii. p. 1007) with the river Ufens. It was in truth a canal of nineteen miles, from Forum Appii to Terracina, on which Horace embarked in the night. The Decennovium which is mentioned by Lucan, Dion Cassius, and Cassiodorus, has been successively ruin- ed, restored, and obliterated (D'Anville, Analyse de l'ltalie, p. 185, etc.). ,2 A Jew gratified his contempt and hatred for all the Christians by enclosing three bands, each of ten hogs, and discriminated by the names of Goths, Greeks, and Romans. Of the first, almost all were found dead — almost all of the second were alive— of the third, half died, and the rest lost their bristles. No unsuitable emblem of the event. 272 VIT1GES, KING OF ITALY. . [CH.XLL panions. On the first rumor the abdicated monarch fled from the justice of his country, but he was pursued by private revenge. A Goth, whom he had injured in his love, over- took Theodatus on the Flaminian Way, and, regardless of his unmanly cries, slaughtered him as he lay prostrate on the ground, like a victim (says the historian) at the foot of the al- tar. The choice of the people is the best and purest title to reign over them : yet such is the prejudice of every age, that Yitiges impatiently wished to return to Ravenna, where he might seize, with the reluctant hand of the daughter of Amal- asontha, some faint shadow of hereditary right. A national council was immediately held, and the new monarch recon- ciled the impatient spirit of the barbarians to a measure of disgrace which the misconduct of his predecessor rendered wise and indispensable. The Goths consented to retreat in the presence of a victorious enemy, to delay till the next spring the operations of offensive war, to summon their scat- tered forces, to relinquish their distant possessions, and to trust even Rome itself to the faith of its inhabitants. Leu- deris, an aged warrior, was left in the capital with four thou- sand soldiers ; a feeble garrison, which might have seconded the zeal, though it was incapable of opposing the wishes, of the Romans. But a momentary enthusiasm of religion and patriotism was kindled in their minds. They furiously ex- claimed that the apostolic throne should no longer be pro- faned by the triumph or toleration of Arianism; that the tombs of the Caesars should no longer be trampled by the savages of the North ; and, without reflecting that Italy must sink into a province of Constantinople, they fondly hailed the restoration of a Roman emperor as a new era of freedom and prosperity. The deputies of the pope and clergy, of the sen- ate and people, invited the lieutenant of Justinian to accept their voluntary allegiance, and to enter the city, whose gates would be thrown open for his reception. As soon as Beli- sarius had fortified his new conquests, Naples and Cumae, he advanced about twenty miles to the banks of the Yulturnus, contemplated the decayed grandeur of Capua, and halted at the separation of the Latin and Appian ways. The work of a.d.533.] BELISAEIUS ENTERS ROME. 273 the censor, after the incessant use of nine centuries, still pre- served its primeval beauty, and not a flaw could be discov- ered 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 from the sea and the marshes, skirted in a space of one hundred and twen- Beiisarius ty miles along the foot of the mountains. His en- t n D e 58? ° me ' emies had disappeared : when he made his entrance nee. 10. through the Asinarian Gate the garrison departed without molestation along the Flaminian Way ; and the city, after sixty years' servitude, was delivered from the yoke of the barbarians. Leuderis alone, from a motive of pride or discontent, refused to accompany the fugitives; and the Gothic chief, himself a trophy of the victory, was sent with the keys of Rome to the throne of the Emperor Justinian. 74 The first days, which coincided with the old Saturnalia, were devoted to mutual congratulation and the public joy ; and the Catholics prepared to celebrate without a Siege of . Rome by rival the approaching festival of the nativity of a.d. 537, ' Christ. In the familiar conversation of a hero the Romans acquired some notion of the virtues which history ascribed to their ancestors ; they were edified by the apparent respect of Belisarius for the successor of St. Peter, and his rigid discipline secured in the midst of war the bless- ings of tranquillity and justice. They applauded the rapid success of his arms, which overran the adjacent country as far as Kami, Perusia, and Spoleto ; but they trembled, the sen- ate, the clergy, and the unwarlike people, as soon as they un- vi Bergier (Hist, des Grands Chemins des Romains, torn. i. p. 221-228, 440-444) examines the structure and materials, while D'Anvillc (Analyse de l'ltalie, p. 200- 213) defines the geographical line. 74 Of the first recovery of Rome, the year (536) is certain, from the series of events, rather than from the corrupt, or interpolated, text of Procopius : the month (December) is ascertained by Evagrius (1. iv. c. 19) ,■ and the day (the tenth) may be admitted on the slight evidence of Nicephorus Callistus (1. xvii. c. 13). For this accurate chronology we are indebted to the diligence and judgment of Pagi (torn. ii. p. 559, 560). a a Compare Mai tret's note, in the edition of Biudorf : the ninth is the day ac* cording to his reading. — M. IT.— 18 274 SIEGE OF ROME BY THE GOTHS. [Ca XH derstood that he had resolved, and would speedily be reduced, to sustain a siege against the powers of the Gothic monarchy. The designs of Yitiges were executed during the winter sea- son with diligence and effect. From their rustic habitations, from their distant garrisons, the Goths assembled at Ravenna for the defence of their country ; and such were their num- bers, that, after an army had been detached for the relief of Dalmatia, one hundred and fifty thousand fighting- men marched under the royal standard. According to the de- grees of rank or merit, the Gothic king distributed arms and horses, rich gifts, and liberal promises : he moved along the Flaminian Way, declined the useless sieges of Perusia and Spoleto, respected the impregnable rock of Narni, and ar- rived within two miles of Eome, at the foot of the Milvian Bridge. The narrow passage was fortified with a tower, and Belisarius had computed the value of the twenty days which must be lost in the construction of another bridge. But the consternation of the soldiers of the tower, who either fled or deserted, disappointed his hopes, and betrayed his person into the most imminent danger. At the head of one thousand horse, the Eoman general sallied from the Flaminian Gate to mark the ground of an advantageous position, and to survey the camp of the barbarians ; but while he still believed them on the other side of the Tiber, he was suddenly encompassed and assaulted by their innumerable squadrons. The fate of Italy depended on his life ; and the desert- ers pointed to the conspicuous horse, a bay, 76 with a white face, which he rode on that memorable day. "Aim at the bay horse," was the universal cry. Every bow was bent, ev- ery javelin was directed, against that fatal object, and the command was repeated and obeyed by thousands who were ignorant of its real motive. The bolder barbarians advanced to the more honorable combat of swords and spears ; and the 76 A horse of a bay or red color was styled fiakioQ by the Greeks, balan by the barbarians, and spadix by tbe Romans. Honesti spadices, says "Virgil (Georgic. 1. iii. 81, with the Observations of Martin and Heyne). SiraSiK, or [3aiov, signifies a branch of the palm-tree, whose name, d\6vra Svaevrspiag 1% dv9pu>ir either in active or speculative life, are meas- Justinian? ° f ure d n °t so rauch by their real elevation as by the a.d. 52T-565. height t WJ1 i c h they ascend above the level of their age or country; and the same stature which in a people of giants would pass unnoticed, must appear conspicuous in a race of pigmies- Leonidas and his three hundred companions devoted their lives at Thermopylae ; but the education of the infant, the boy, and the man had prepared and almost insured this memorable sacrifice; and each Spartan would approve, rather than admire, an act of duty, of which himself and eight thousand of his fellow-citizens were equally capable. 1 The great Pompey might inscribe on his trophies that he had de- feated in battle two millions of enemies, and reduced fifteen hundred cities from the lake Mseotis to the Bed Sea ; 2 but the fortune of Rome flew before his eagles ; the nations were op- pressed by their own fears ; and the invincible legions which he commanded had been formed by the habits of conquest 1 It mil be a pleasure, not a task, to read Herodotus (1. vii. c. 104, 134, p. 550, 615). The conversation of Xerxes and Demaratus at Thermopylae is one of the most interesting and moral scenes in history. It was the torture of the royal Spar- tan to behold, with anguish and remorse, the virtue of his country. 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.) pro- duce a more striking example of the vicissitudes of fortune, and the vanity of ho» man wishes 308 WEAKNESS OF THE EMPIRE. [Ch. XLII, and the discipline of ages. In this view the character of Bel- isarius may be deservedly placed above the heroes of the an- cient republics. His imperfections flowed from the conta- gion of the times ; his virtues were his own, the free gift of nature or reflection ; he raised himself without a master or a rival ; and so inadequate were the arms committed to his hand, that his sole advantage was derived from the pride and presumption of his adversaries. Under his command, the subjects of Justinian often deserved to be called Romans; but the un warlike appellation of Greeks was imposed as a term of reproach by the haughty Goths, who affected to blush, that they must dispute the kingdom of Italy with a nation of tragedians, pantomimes, and pirates. 3 The climate of Asia has indeed been found less congenial than that of Europe to military spirit : those populous countries were enervated by luxury, despotism, and superstition, and the monks were more expensive and more numerous than the soldiers of the East. The regular force of the empire had once amounted to six hundred and forty-five thousand men : it was reduced, in the time of Justinian, to one hundred and fifty thousand ; and this number, large as it may seem, was thinly scattered over the sea and land — in Spain and Italy, in Africa and Egypt, on the banks of the Danube, the coast of the Euxine, and the fron- tiers of Persia. The citizen was exhausted, yet the soldier was unpaid ; his poverty was mischievously soothed by the privilege of rapine and indolence, and the tardy payments were detained and intercepted by the fraud of those agents who usurp, without courage or danger, the emoluments of war. Public and private distress recruited the armies of the State ; but in the field, and still more in the presence of the enemy, their numbers were always defective. The want of national spirit was supplied by the precarious faith and dis- orderly service of barbarian mercenaries. Even military hon 8 TpaiKovg * * * t£ £>v ra irpurspa ovdeva ec 'IrdXiav l^Kovra uSov, on ftr) rpayfp- dove, Kai vavraq XujTrodvrag [Goth. i. 18, torn. ii. p. 93, edit. Bonn]. This last epithet of Procopius is too nobly translated by pirates ; naval thieves is the prop- er word : strippers of garments, either for injury or insult (Demosthenes contra Conon. in Reiske, Orator. Grsec. torn. ii. p. 1264.), A.D. 527-565.] STATE OF THE BARBARIANS. 309 or, which has often survived the loss of virtue and freedom, was almost totally extinct. The generals, who were multi- plied beyond the example of former times, labored only to prevent the success or to sully the reputation of their col- leagues ; and they had been taught by experience that, if merit sometimes provoked the jealousy, error, or even guilt, would obtain the indulgence of a gracious emperor. 4 In such an age the triumphs of Belisarius, and afterwards of Narses, shine with incomparable lustre; but they are encompassed with the darkest shades of disgrace and calamity. While the lieutenant of Justinian subdued the kingdoms of the Goths and Yandals, the emperor, 5 timid, though ambitious, balanced the forces of the barbarians, fomented their divisions by flat- tery and falsehood, and invited by his patience and liberality the repetition of injuries. 8 The keys of Carthage, Rome, and Pavenna were presented to their conqueror, while Antioch was destroyed by the Persians, and Justinian trembled for the safety of Constantinople. Even the Gothic victories of Belisarius were prejudicial to the State, since they abolished the important barrier of the state of the Upper Danube, which had been so faithfully guard- barbarians. e( j hj Theodoric and his daughter. For the de- fence of Italy, the Goths evacuated Pannonia and Noricum, which they left in a peaceful and flourishing condition : the sovereignty was claimed by the emperor of the Romans; the actual possession was abandoned to the boldness of the first invader. On the opposite banks of the Danube, the plains of Upper Hungary and the Transylvanian hills were possessed, since the death of Attila, by the tribes of the Gepidse, who re- spected the Gothic arms, and despised, not indeed the gold of 4 See the third and fourth books of the Gothic War : the writer of the Anec- fflotes cannot aggravate these abuses. B Agathias, 1. v. [c. 14] p. 157, 158 [p. 306, edit. Bonn]. He confines this weak- ness of the emperor and the empire to the old age of Justinian ; but, alas 1 he was never young. 6 This mischievous policy, which Procopius (Anecdot. c. 19 [torn. iii. p. 113, edit. Bonn]) imputes to the emperor, is revealed in his epistle to a Scythian prince who was capable of understanding it. "Ayav irpofxi]97} icai ayxivoiiGTaTov, says Agathias (1. v. [c. 5] p. 170, 171 [p. 331, edit. Bonn]). 310 THE GEPID^ AND LOMBARDS. [Ch. XLIL the Romans, but the secret motive of their annual subsidies. _ . The vacant fortifications of the river were instant- The Gepidse. . •>■>'• i • it ly occupied by these barbarians; their standards were planted on the walls of Sirmium and Belgrade ; and the ironical tone of their apology aggravated this insult on the majesty of the empire : " So extensive, O Caesar, are your do- minions, so numerous are your cities, that you are continual- ly seeking for nations to whom, either in peace or war, you may relinquish these useless possessions. The Gepidaa are your brave and faithful allies, and, if they have anticipated your gifts, they have shown a just confidence in your boun- ty." Their presumption was excused by the mode of revenge which Justinian embraced. Instead of asserting the rights of a sovereign for the protection of his subjects, the emperor in- vited a strange people to invade and possess the Roman prov- inces between the Danube and the Alps; and the ambition of the Gepidse was checked by the rising power and fame of The Lom- the Lombards. 7 This corrupt appellation has been bards. diffused in the thirteenth century by the merchants and bankers, the Italian posterity of these savage warriors; but the original name of Langobcvrds is expressive only of the peculiar length and fashion of their beards. a I am not dis- posed either to question or to justify their Scandinavian or- 1 Gens Germans feritate ferocior, says Velleius Paterculus of the Lombards (ii. 106) Langobardos paucitas nobilitat. Plurimis ac valentissimis nationibus cincti non per obsequium, sed proeliis et periclitando, tuti sunt (Tacit, de Moribus Ger- man, c. 40). See. likewise Strabo (1. vii. p. 446 [p. 290, 291, edit. Casaub.J). The best geographers place them beyond the Elbe, in the bishopric of Magdeburg and the middle march of Brandenburg ; and their situation will agree with the patri- otic remark of the Count de Hertzberg, that most of the barbarian conquerors is- sued from the same countries which still produce the armies of Prussia. a This etymology, which is given by Paulus Diaconus and others, has been questioned by some modern writers, who derive the name of the Langobardi from, the district they inhabited on the banks of the Elbe, where Horde (or Bord) still signifies "a fertile plain by the side of a river," and a district near Magdeburg is still called the lange Boide. According to this view, Langobardi would signify "inhabitants of the long bord of the river;" and traces of their name are sup- posed still to occur in such names as Bardengau and Bardewick, in the neigh- borhood of the Elbe. Smith's Diet, of Greek aud Roman Geogr. vol. ii. p. 119.--S. A.D.527-5G5.J THE LOMBARDS. 311 igin,* nor to pursue the migrations of the Lombards through unknown regions and marvellous adventures. About the time of Augustus and Trajan, a ray of historic light breaks on the darkness of their antiquities, and they are discovered, for the first time, between the Elbe and the Oder. Fierce, beyond the example of the Germans, they delighted to prop- agate the tremendous belief that their heads were formed like the heads of dogs, and that they drank the blood of their en- emies whom they vanquished in battle. The smallness of their numbers was recruited by the adoption of their bravest slaves; and alone, amidst their powerful neighbors, they de- fended by arms their high-spirited independence. In the tempests of the north, which overwhelmed, so many names and nations, this little bark of the Lombards still floated on the surface; they gradually descended towards the south and the Danube, and at the end of four hundred years they again appear w r ith their ancient valor and renown. Their manners were not less ferocious. The assassination of a royal guest was executed in the presence and by the command of the king's daughter, who had been provoked by some words of insult, and disappointed by his diminutive stature; and a trib- ute, the price of blood, was imposed on the Lombards by his brother, the king of the Iieruli. Adversity revived a sense of moderation and justice, and the insolence of conquest was chastised by the signal defeat and irreparable dispersion of the Iieruli, who were seated in the southern provinces of To land. 9 The victories of the Lombards recommended them to the friendship of the emperors ; and, at the solicitation of Justinian, they passed the Danube to reduce, according to their treaty, the cities of Noricuui and the fortresses of Pan- 8 The Scandinavian origin of the Goths and Lombards, as stated by Paul War- nefrid [1. i. c. 2], surnamed the Deacon, is attacked by Clayerius ^Germania Antiq. 1. iii. c. 26, p. 102, etc.), a native of Prussia, and defended by Grotius (Prolegom. ad Hist. Goth. p. 28, etc.), the Swedish ambassador. 9 Two facts in the narrative of Paul Diaconus (1. i. c. 20) are expressive of na< tional manners: 1. Dum ad tabulam luderet — while he played at draughts. 2. Camporum viridantia Una. The cultivation of flax supposes property, commerce, agriculture, and manufactures. 312 THE LOMBARDS. [Ch.XLD. tionia- But the spirit of rapine soon tempted them beyond these ample limits ; they wandered along the coast of the Adriatic as far as Dyrraehium, and presumed, with familiar rudeness, to enter the towns and houses of their Roman allies, and to seize the captives who had escaped from their auda- cious hands. These acts of hostility, the sallies, as it might be pretended, of some loose adventurers, were disowned by the nation and excused by the emperor ; but the arms of the Lombards were more seriously engaged by a contest of thirty years 9 which was terminated only by the extirpation of the Gepidse. The hostile nations often pleaded their cause before the throne of Constantinople ; and the crafty Justinian, to whom the barbarians were almost equally odious, pronounced a partial and ambiguous sentence, and dexterously protracted the war by slow and ineffectual succors. Their strength was formidable, since the Lombards, who sent into the field sev- eral myriads of soldiers, still claimed, as the weaker side, the protection of the Romans. Their spirit was intrepid; yet such is the uncertainty of courage, that the two armies were suddenly struck with a panic: they fled from each other, and the rival kings remained with their guards in the midst of an empty plain. A short truce was obtained; but their mutual resentment again kindled, and the remembrance of their shame rendered the next encounter more desperate and bloody. Forty thousand of the barbarians perished in the de- cisive battle which broke the power of the Gepidse, transfer- red the fears and wishes of Justinian, and first displayed the character of Alboin, the youthful prince of the Lombards, and the future conqueror of Italy. 10 The wild people who dwelt or wandered in the plains of Russia, Lithuania, and Poland might be reduced? in the age of Justinian, under the two great families of the Bxtlga- 10 I have used, without undertaking to reconcile, the facts in Procopius (Goth. 1. ii. c. 14 ; 1. iii. c. 33, 34 ; 1. iv. c. 18, 25), Paul Diaconns (de Gestis Langobard. 1. i. c. 1-23, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, torn. 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, des Peu- ples, etc., torn. is. s. si ), A.D.6K7-5GG.] THE SCLAVONIANS. 313 rians"* and the Sclavonians. 1 * According to the Greek writ- 11 I adopt the appellation of Bulgarians from Ennodius (in Panegyr. Theodo rici, Opp. Sirmond, torn. i. p. 1598, 1599), Jornandes (de Kebus Geticis, c. 5, p. 194, et de Eegu. Successione, p. 242), Theophanes (p. 185 [torn. i. p. 338, edit. BonnJ), and the Chronicles of Cassiodorus and Marcellinus. The name of Huns is too vague ; the tribes of the Cutturgurians and Utturgurians are too minute and too harsh. • The ethnological relations of the Bulgarians are discussed in a note on c. Iv. init., where Gibbon relates their history. It is sufficient to remark here that the Greek writers correctly represented the Bulgarians as deriving their descent from the Huns, and that consequently the Bulgarians belonged to the Turkish race. See note, vol. iii. p. 113. — S. b The Sclavonians or Slavonians belong, as is well known, to the great Indo- European family of nations. They are mentioned by classical writers under the name of Sarmatians. (See editor's note, vol. ii. p. 339.) The Sarmatians were driven out of their seats on the Danube and on the Pontus by the Goths and the Huns, and retired towards the north. But upon the downfall of the empire of the Huns, and upon the emigration of the Goths from the Danube, they again pressed towards the south, and appeared in their former seats on the Pontus and the Lower Danube. An account of them is given in the reign of Justinian both by Jornandes and Procopius. Jornandes distinguishes them by the collective name of Winidas, which is the same as the term Wends, the name given by the Germans at the present day to all Slavonians. These Winidse he divides into two principal tribes, named Sclaveni and Antes — the Sclaveni being the western division, occu- pying the country between the Danube and the Dniester, and extending as far as the Vistula ; and the Antes the eastern division, extending eastward of the Scla- veni and the Dniester to the Dnieper and the coast of the Euxine. (Jornandes, de Reb. Getic. c. 5.) In another passage (c. 23) the same writer speaks of three Slavonic tribes, called Veneti, Antes, and Sclavi, or Sclaveni ; but it is clear that these Veneti are the same as the Winidas, the collective name of the people. Pro- copius in like manner makes two principal divisions of the Slavonians, namely, Sclaveni (2(e\aj3?jvoi) and Anta3 ("Avrai), the former dwelling westward and the latter eastward. (Hist. Arc. c. 18 ; Bell. Goth. 1. i. c. 27 ; 1. ii. c. 15 ; lib. iv. c. 4.) But instead of designating the whole nation by the German name of Winidse or Wends, he uses Spori (27ropot) as their collective name (Bell. Goth. 1. iii. c. 14). This term Spori is probably only another form of the word Serb, which was the name of several tribes of the Slavonic family. The best modern writers on the history and languages of the Slavonians have also divided the nation into two great branches, a western one corresponding to the Sclaveni, and an eastern one corresponding to the Antes, the distinction be- tween these being founded upon the languages spoken by the tribes belonging to either division. The following is a list of the tribes of the two classes, but a more particular account of them will be given as their names occur in Gibbon's text : I. Western Slavonians. — 1. The Bohemians, called by other Slaves Tschechi or Chechi, Bohemia being the name not of the people but of the country. 2. The Slovaks, inhabiting the northwestern parts of Hungary. Before the arrival of the Magyars, the greater part of Hungary was inhabited by Slavonic tribes. 3. The Lekhs or Poles. " Lekh " signifies " free or noble men ;" and those who dwelt on She plains (polie) of the Ukraine were first called "Polyane" or Poles, that is, "inhabitants of the plains." 4. The Sorabians and Northern Wends, called by themselves Srbie, extending along the Baltic from the Vistula to the Elbe. II. Eastern Slavonians. — 1. The Russians. See editor's note, ch. Iv. note 43. 2. The Servians, inhabiting the Turkish and Austrian provinces of Servia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Dalmatia, Slavonia, and the eastern part of Croatia, 314 THE SCLAVONICS. [Ch. XLII. ers, the former, who touched the Euxine and the lake Msso- The scia- ^ s ? derived from the Huns their name or descent ; vouians. and it is needless to renew the simple and well- known picture of Tartar manners. They were bold and dex- terous archers, who drank the milk and feasted on the flesh of their fleet and indefatigable horses; whose flocks and herds followed, or rather guided, the motions of their roving camps ; to whose inroads no country was remote or impervi- ous, and who were practised in flight, though incapable of fear. The nation was divided into two powerful and hostile tribes, who pursued each other with fraternal hatred. They eagerly disputed the friendship or rather the gifts of the emperor; and the distinction which nature had fixed between the faith- ful dog and the rapacious wolf was applied by an ambassador who received only verbal instructions from the mouth of his illiterate prince. 14 The Bulgarians, of whatsoever species, were equally attracted by Eoman wealth : they assumed a vague dominion over the Sclavonian name, and their rapid marches could only be stopped by the Baltic Sea, or the ex- treme cold and poverty of the north. But the same race of Sclavonians appears to have maintained, in every age, the pos- session of the same countries. Their numerous tribes, how- ever distant or adverse, used one common language (it was harsh and irregular), and were known by the resemblance of their form, which deviated from the swarthy Tartar, and ap- proached without attaining the lofty stature and fair com- 12 Procopius (Goth. 1. iv„ c. 19 [torn. ii. p„ 556, edit. Bonn]). His verbal mes- sage (he owns himself an illiterate barbarian) is delivered as an epistle. The style is savage, figurative, and original 8. The Croats, inhabiting the Austrian kingdom of Croatia. 4. The Wends, called by themselves Slovenzi, inhabiting Carinthia, Carniola, Styria, and Eisenburg, and Saala in Hungary. The name of Slavi, or Slavonians, is derived by most modern writers from " Slowane," "the speakers," in opposition to Niem, "the dumb," that is, the strangers, the name especially applied by the Slavonians to the Teutonic nations. The name of Slavonians is of course the same as that of the Sclaveni, one of the two great divisions of the nation ; and this name in course of time supplanted that of the Antse, and became the collective appellation of the whole people. See Zeuss, Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstamme, p. 592 seq. ; Schafarik, Slawischd Alterthumer, Leipzig. 1843; Prichard, Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, vol. iii. p. 404, seq. — S. A.D. 527-565.] THE SCLAVONIANS. 315 plexion of the German. Four thousand six hundred vil- lages 18 were scattered over the provinces of Bussia and Po- land, and their huts were hastily built of rough timber, in a country deficient both in stone and iron. Erected, or rather concealed, in the depth of forests, on the banks of rivers, or the edge of morasses, we may not perhaps, without flattery, compare them to the architecture of the beaver, which they resembled in a double issue, to the land and water, for the es- cape of the savage inhabitant, an animal less cleanly, less dili- gent, and less social, than that marvellous quadruped. The fertility of the soil, rather than the labor of the natives, sup- plied the rustic plenty of the Sclavonians. Their sheep and horned cattle were large and numerous, and the fields which they sowed with millet and panic 14 afforded, in the place of bread, a coarse and less nutritive food. The incessant rapine of their neighbors compelled them to bury this treasure in the earth ; but on the appearance of a stranger it was freely imparted by a people whose unfavorable character is qualified bj the epithets of chaste, patient, and hospitable. As their supreme god, they adored an invisible master of the thunder. The rivers and the nymphs obtained their subordinate hon- ors, and the popular worship was expressed in vows and sac- rifice. The Sclavonians disdained to obey a despot, a prince, or even a magistrate ; but their experience was too narrow, their passions too headstrong, to compose a system of equal law or general defence. Some voluntary respect was yielded 13 This sum is the result of a particular list, in a curious MS. fragment of the year 550, found in the library of Milan. a The obscure geography of the timea provokes and exercises the patience of the Count de Buat (torn. xi. p. 69-189^ The French minister often loses himself in a wilderness which requires a Saxon and Polish guide. 14 Panicum, milium. See Columella, I. ii. c. 9, p. 430, edit. Gesner. Plin. Hist. Natur. xviii. 24, 25. The Sarmatians made a pap of millet, miagled with mare's milk or blood. In the wealth of modern husbandry, our millet feeds poul- try, and not heroes. See the dictionaries of Bomare and Miller. * Karamsin, a learned Sclavonian scholar, has examined this list, and says that it contains many words which are not Sclavonic. He deems it unworthy of cred- it. See Prichard, Researches into tu© Physical History of Mankind, vol. iii. p. 407. -S 31G INROADS OF THE SCLAVONIANS. [Ch.XLIL to age and valor; but each tribe or village existed as a sepa- rate republic, and all must be persuaded where none could be compelled. They fought on foot, almost naked, and, except an unwieldy shield, without any defensive armor: their weap- ons of offence were a bow, a quiver of small poisoned arrows, and a long rope, which they dexterously threw from a dis- tance, and entangled their enemy in a running noose. In the field, the Sclavonian infantry was dangerous by their speed, agility, and hardiness : they swam, they dived, they remained under water, drawing their breath through a hollow cane ; and a river or lake was often the scene of their unsuspected ambuscade. But these w r ere the achievements of spies or stragglers: the military art was unknown to the Sclavonians; their name was obscure, and their conquests were inglo- rious. 16 I have marked the faint and general outline of the Sclavo- nians and Bulgarians, without attempting to define their in- Their in- terinediate boundaries, which were not accurately roads. known or respected by the barbarians themselves. Their importance was measured by their vicinity to the em- pire ; and the level country of Moldavia and Wallachia was occupied by the Antes, 16 a Sclavonian tribe, wdiich swelled the titles of Justinian with an epithet of conquest." Against the Antes he erected the fortifications of the Lower Danube, and labored to secure the alliance of a people seated in the 16 For the name and nation, the situation and manners, of the Sclavonians, see the original evidence of the sixth century, in Procopius (Goth. 1. ii. c. 26 ; 1. iii. c. 14), and the emperor Mauritius or Maurice (Stratagemat. 1. xi. c. 5, apud Mas- cou, Annotat. xxxi.). The Stratagems of Maurice have been printed only, as I understand, at the end of Scheffer's edition of Arrian's Tactics, at Upsal, 1664 (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. 1. iv. c. 8, torn. iii. p. 278), a scarce, and hitherto, to me, an inaccessible book. 16 Antes eorum fortissimi * * * Taysis [Tausis] qui rapidus et verticosus in Histri fluenta furens devolvitur (Jornandes, c. 5, p. 194, edit. Murator. Proco- pius, Goth. 1. iii. c. 14, et de iEdific. 1. iv. c. 7). Yet the same Procopius men- tions the Goths and Huns as neighbors, ytiTovovvTa, to the Danube (de iEdific. 1. iv. c. 1). II The national title of Anticus, in the laws and inscriptions of Justinian, was adopted by his successors, and is justified by the pious Ludewig (in Vit. Justinian, p. 515). It had strangely puzzled the civilians of the Middle Age. A.D. 527-565.] INROADS OF THE SCLAVONIANS 317 direct channel of northern inundation, an interval of two hundred miles between the mountains of Transylvania and the Euxiue Sea. But the Antes wanted power and inclina- tion to stem the fury of the torrent : and the light-armed Sclavonians from a hundred tribes pursued with almost equal speed the footsteps of the Bulgarian horse. The payment of one piece of gold for each soldier procured a safe and easy retreat through the country of the Gepid£e, who commanded the passage of the Upper Danube. 18 The hopes or fears of the barbarians, their intestine union or discord, the accident of a frozen or shallow stream, the prospect of harvest or vin- tage, the prosperity or distress of the Romans, were the causes which produced the uniform repetition of annual visits, 19 te- dious in the narrative, and destructive in the event. The same year, and possibly the same month, in which Ravenna surrendered, was marked by an invasion of the Huns or Bul- garians, so dreadful that it almost effaced the memory of their past inroads. They spread from the suburbs of Constantino- ple to the Ionian Gulf, destroyed thirty-two cities or castles, erased Potidsea, which Athens had built, and Philip had be- sieged, and repassed the Danube, dragging at their horses' heels one hundred and twenty thousand of the subjects of Justinian. In a subsequent inroad they pierced the wall of the Thracian Chersonesus, extirpated the habitations and the inhabitants, boldly traversed the Hellespont, and returned to their companions laden with the spoils of Asia. Another party, which seemed a multitude in the eyes of the Romans, penetrated without opposition from the straits of Thermop- yles to the isthmus of Corinth ; and the last ruin of Greece has appeared an object too minute for the attention of histo- ry. The works which the emperor raised for the protection, but at the expense, of his subjects, served only to disclose the weakness of some neglected part ; and the walls, which by flattery had been deemed impregnable, were either deserted 18 Procopius, Goth. 1. iv. c. 25 [torn. ii. p. 592, edit. Bonn]. 19 An inroad of the Huns is connected by Procopius with a comet ; perhaps that of 531 (Persic. 1. ii. c. 4). Agathias (1. v. [c. 11] p. 154, 155 [p. 300, edit. Bonnp borrows from his predecessor some early facts. 318 INROADS OF THE SCLAVONIANS. [Ch. XLIL by the garrison or scaled by the barbarians. Three thousand Sclavonians, who insolently divided themselves into two bands, discovered the weakness and misery of a triumphant reign, They passed the Danube and the Hebrus, vanquished the Ro- man generals w r ho dared to oppose their progress, and plun- dered with impunity the cities of Illyricum and Thrace, each of which had arms and numbers to overwhelm their con- temptible assailants. Whatever praise the boldness of the Sclavonians may deserve, it is sullied by the wanton and de- liberate cruelty which they are accused of exercising on their prisoners. Without distinction of rank or age or sex, the captives were impaled or flayed alive, or suspended between four posts, and beaten with clubs till they expired, or enclosed in some spacious building, and left to perish in the flames with the spoil and cattle which might impede the march of these savage victors. 20 Perhaps a more impartial narrative would reduce the number and qualify the nature of these horrid acts, and they might sometimes be excused by the cruel laws of retaliation. In the siege of Topirus, 21 whose obstinate defence had enraged the Sclavonians, they massacred fifteen thousand males, but they spared the women and children ; the most valuable captives were always reserved for labor or ran- som , the servitude was not rigorous, and the terms of their deliverance were speedy and moderate. But the subject, or the historian of Justinian, exhaled his just indignation in the language of complaint and reproach ; and Procopius has con- fidently affirmed that in a reign of thirty-two years each an- nual inroad of the barbarians consumed two hundred thou- sand of the inhabitants of the Roman empire. The entire population of Turkish Europe, which nearly corresponds with the provinces of Justinian, would perhaps be incapable of 20 The cruelties of the Sclavonians are related or magnified by Procopius (Goth. 1. iii. c. 29, 38). For their mild and liberal behavior to their prisoners we may- appeal to the authority, somewhat more recent, of the Emperor Maurice (Strata- gem. 1. xi. c. 5 [p. 272 seq.]). 21 Topirus was situate near Philippi in Thrace, or Macedonia, opposite to the isle of Thasos, twelve days' journey from Constantinople (Cellarius, torn. i. p. 67^ 840). A.D. 545.] ORIGIN OF THE TURKS. 319 supplying six millions of persons, the result of this incredible estimate." In the midst of these obscure calamities, Europe felt the shock of a revolution, which first revealed to the world the name and nation of the Turks.* Like Romulus, monarchy of the founder of that martial people was suckled by in Asia. a she-wolf, who afterwards made him the father of a a.d. 545, etc „ , numerous progeny ; and the representation ot that animal in the banners of the Turks preserved the memory, or rather suggested the idea, of a fable which was invented, without any mutual intercourse, by the shepherds of Latium and those of Scythia, At the equal distance of two thousand miles from the Caspian, the Icy, the Chinese, and the Bengal seas, a ridge of mountains Is conspicuous, the centre, and per- haps the summit, of Asia, which, in the language of different 22 According to the malevolent testimony of the Anecdotes (a 18 [torn. lii. p„ 108, edit, Bonn]) these inroads had reduced the provinces sooth of the Danube to the state of a Scythian wilderness. a The name Turks is the collective appellation of a vast number of tribes ex- tending from the neighborhood of the lake Baikal, 110° E„ longitude, So the east- ern boundaries of the Greek and Sclavonic countries of Europe. A list of the va° rious Turkish tribes is given in editor's note, vol. iii. p. 108. Although the namo of the Turks* first became known to the western nations in the sixth century, the people had appeared in the west a century earlier, for there is every reason to be- lieve that the Huns belonged to the Turkish stock. (See note, vol, iii. p. 113.) The Turks of Mount Altai are called Thu-kiu by the Chinese writers, and are regarded as the same people as the Hiong-nu of earlier times. Abel-Rernusat and Klaproth assure us that numerous words are preserved by Chinese writers from the idiom of the Thu-kiu, which are to be recognized in the modern Turkish. The name of Thu-kiu first appears at the beginning of the fifth century in the Chinese writers, who relate that 500 families of the Hiong-nu, under the leader Assena, abandoned their abodes in Pe-leang, and settled at the foot of a helmet-shaped mountain, from which circumstance they derived their name. The Chinese name of the people appears to be a corruption of the Turkish word ' ' terlc, " which sig- nifies a "helmet." The Thu-kiu, became very powerful under their leader Tu- mere, who conquered the Jeujen (the Geougen of Gibbon), united under his sway all the Turkish tribes in Central and Northern Asia, and assumed the title of Chagan or Khan, a.d. 546. Tumere seems to have been succeeded by Disabul, to whom the embassy mentioned below was sent by Justin II., a.d. 569 (Remusat, Recherches stir les Langues Tartares ; Klaproth, Asia Polyglotta, p. 212 ; Gabe- lentz, Ueber den Namen Tiirken, in Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Mcrgenlandea. vol. ii. p. 70 ; Neumann, Die Volker des siidlichen Russlands 5 p. 85 ; Prichard, Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, vol iv. p. 310). — S. * The name Turcfe, in most editions of Pomponins Mela (lib. i. c. 19) and Pliny (1. 7i. c. 7), is borrowed from the 'Iuokcu of Herodotus (iv. 22), and ought to be written lyrcce. These lyrcse have nothing to do with the Turks, 320 ORIGIN AND MONARCHY OF [Ch. XLIL nations, has been styled Imaus, and Caf, 89 and Altai, and the Golden Mountains, 8, and the Girdle of the Earth. The sides of the hills were productive of minerals ; and the iron-forges, 8 * for the purpose of war, were exercised by the Turks, the most despised portion of the slaves of the great khan of the Geou- gen. But their servitude could only last till a leader, bold and eloquent, should arise to persuade his countrymen that the same arms which they forged for their masters might become in their own hands the instruments of freedom and victory. They sallied from the mountain ; 26 a sceptre was the reward of his advice ; and the annual ceremony, in which a piece of iron was heated in the fire, and a smith's hammer 1 * was successively handled, by the prince and his nobles, re- corded for ages the humble profession and rational pride of the Turkish nation. Bertezena, their first leader, signalized 23 From Caf to Caf ; which a more rational geography would interpret, from Imaus, perhaps, to Mount Atlas. According to the religious philosophy of tha Mahometans, the basis of Mount Caf is an emerald, whose reflection produces the azure of the sky. The mountain is endowed with a sensitive action in its roots or nerves ; and their vibration, at the command of God, is the cause of earth- quakes (D'Herbelot, p. 230, 231). 24 The Siberian iron is the best and most plentiful in the world : and In the southern parts above sixty mines are now worked by the industry of the Rus- sians (Strahlenberg, Hist, of Siberia, p. 342, 387 ; Voyage en SibeVie, par TAbbe Chappe d'Auteroche, p. 603-608, edit, in 12mo, Amsterdam, 1770). The Turks offered iron for sale ; yet the Roman ambassadors, with strange obstinacy, per- sisted in believing that it was all a trick, and that their country produced none (Menander in Excerpt. Leg. p. 152 [edit. Par. ; p. 380, edit. Bonn]). 25 Of Irgana-kon (Abuighazi Khan, Hist. Ge'nealogique des Tatars, P. ii. ch. 5, p. 71-77, ch. 15, p. 1 55). The tradition of the Moguls, of the 450 years which they passed in the mountains, agrees with the Chinese periods of the history of the Huns and Turks (De Guignes, torn. i. part ii. p. 376), and the twenty generations from their restoration to Zingis. * Altai, c. e. , Altun Tagh, the Golden Mountain. Von Hammer, Osman. Ge- ■chichte, vol. i. p. 2. — M. b The Mongol Temngin is also, though erroneously, explained by Rubruquis, a smith. Schmidt, p. 376.— M. c There appears the same confusion here. Bertezena (Berte-Scheno) is claimed as the founder of the Mongol race. The name means the gray (blauliche) wolf. In fact, the same tradition of the origin from a wolf seems common to the Mon- gols and the Turks. The Mongol Berte-Scheno, of the very curious Mongol His- tory published and translated by M. Schmidt of Petersburg, is brought from Thi- bet. M. Schmidt considers this tradition of the Thibetane descent of the royal a.d. 545.] THE TUEKS IN ASIA. 321 their valor and his own in successful combats against the neighboring tribes; but when he presumed to ask in mar- riage the daughter of the great khan, the insolent demand of a slave and a mechanic was contemptuously rejected. The disgrace was expiated by a more noble alliance with a prin- cess of China ; and the decisive battle which almost extirpated the nation of the Geougen established in Tartary the new and more powerful empire of the Turks. They reigned over the North ; but they confessed the vanity of conquest by their faithful attachment to the mountain of their fathers. The royal encampment seldom lost sight of Mount Altai, from whence the river Irtish descends to water the rich pastures of the Calmucks, 28 which nourish the largest sheep and oxen in the world. The soil is fruitful, and the climate mild and temperate : the happy region was ignorant of earthquake and pestilence ; the emperor's throne was turned towards the east, and a golden wolf on the top of a spear seemed to guard the entrance of his tent. One of the successors of Bertezena was tempted by the luxury and superstition of China ; but his de- sign of building cities and temples was defeated by the sim- ple wisdom of a barbarian counsellor. " The Turks," he said, " are not equal in number to one hundredth part of the inhab- itants of China. If we balance their power and elude their armies, it is because we wander without any fixed habita- tions in the exercise of war and hunting. Are we strong ? we advance and conquer : are we feeble ? we retire and are concealed. Should the Turks confine themselves within tlja walls of cities, the loss of a battle would be the destruction of their empire. The bonzes preach only patience, humility, and the renunciation of the world. Such, O king ! is not the religion of heroes." They entertained with less reluctance 26 The country of the Turks, now of the Calmucks, is well described in tha Genealogical History, p. 521-562. The curious notes of the French translator are enlarged and digested in the second volume of the English version. race of the Mongols to be much earlier than their conversion to Lnmaism, yet it seems very suspicious. See Elaproth, Tabl. de l'Asie, p. 159. The Turkish Ber- tezena is called Thou-men by Klaproth, p. 115. In 552 Thou-men took the titla of Kha-Khan, and was called II Khan.— M. IV.— 21 822 ORIGIN AND MONARCHY OF [Ch. XLIi. the doctrines of Zoroaster; but the greatest part of the na- tion acquiesced without inquiry in the opinions, or rather in the practice, of their ancestors. The honors of sacrifice were reserved for the supreme deity ; they acknowledged in rude hymns their obligations to the air, the fire, the water, and the earth ; and their priests derived some profit from the art of divination. Their unwritten laws were rigorous and impar- tial : theft was punished by a tenfold restitution ; adultery, treason, and murder with death ; and no chastisement could be inflicted too severe for the rare and inexpiable guilt of cowardice. As the subject nations marched under the stand ard of the Turks, their cavalry, both men and horses, were proudly computed by millions ; one of their effective armies consisted of four hundred thousand soldiers, and in less than fifty years they were connected in peace and war with the Eomans, the Persians, and the Chinese. In their northern limits some vestige may be discovered of the form and situ- ation of Kamtchatka, of a people of hunters and fishermen, whose sledges were drawn by dogs, and whose habitations were buried in the earth. The Turks were ignorant of as- tronomy; but the observation taken by some learned Chi- nese, with a gnomon of eight feet, fixes the royal camp in the latitude of forty-nine degrees, and marks their extreme prog- ress within three, or at least ten, degrees of the polar circle. 27 Amoug their southern conquests the most splendid was that of the Kephthalites, or White Huns, a polite and warlike peo- ple, who possessed the commercial cities of Bochara and Sam- arcand, who had vanquished the Persian monarch, and car- ried their victorious arms along the banks and perhaps to the mouth of the Indus. On the side of the west the Turkish cavalry advanced to the lake Mseotis. They passed that lake on the ice. The khan^ who dwelt at the foot of Mount Altai, issued his commands for the siege of Bosphorus, 88 a city the 27 Visdelon, p. 141, 151. The fact, though it strictly belongs to a subordinate and successive tribe, may be introduced here. 28 Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c. 12; 1. ii. c. 3; Peyssonel, Observations sur les Peu- ples Barbares, p. 99, 100) defines the distance between CafFa and the old Bos- phorus at sixteen long Tartar leagues. A.D. 545.1 THE TURKS IN ASIA. 323 voluntary subject of Borne, and whose princes had formerly been the friends of Athens. 88 To the east the Turks invaded China as often as the vigor of the government was relaxed: and I am taught to read in the history of the times that they mowed down their patient enemies like hemp or grass, and that the mandarins applauded the wisdom of an emperor who repulsed these barbarians with golden lances. This extent of savage empire compelled the Turkish monarch to establish three subordinate princes of his own blood, who soon forgot their gratitude and allegiance. The conquerors were ener- vated by luxury, which is always fatal except to an industri- ous people ; the policy of China solicited the vanquished na- tions to resume their independence; and the power of the Turks was limited to a period of two hundred years. The revival of their name and dominion in the southern countries of Asia are the events of a later age ; and the dynasties which succeeded to their native realms may sleep in oblivion, since their history bears no relation to the decline and fall of the Boman empire. 80 In the rapid career of conquest the Turks attacked and sub- dued the nation of the Ogors, or Yarchonites, on the banks of the river Til, which derived the epithet of Black from its dark water or gloomy forests. 31 The khan of the Ogors was 29 See, in a Me'moire of M. de Boze (Mem. de 1'Acade'mie des Inscriptions, torn. vi. p. 549-565), the ancient kings and medals of the Cimmerian Bocphoru3| and the gratitude of Athens, in the Oration of Demosthenes against Leptines (m Eeiske, Orator. Grsec. torn. i. p. 466, 467). 30 For the origin and revolutions of the first Turkish empire, the Chinese details are borrowed from De Guignes (Hist, des Huns, torn. i. pt. ii. p. 367-462) and Vis- delou (Supple'ment a la Bibliotheque Orient. d'Herbelot, p. 82-114). The Greek or Roman hints are gathered in Menander (p. 108-164 [p. 298, \04, edit. Bonn]), and Theophylact Simocatta (1. vii. c. 7, 8). 31 The river Til, or Tula, according to the geography of De Guignes (torn. i. pt. ii. p. lviii. and 352), is a small, though grateful, stream of the desert, that falls into the Orhon, Selinga, etc. See Bell, Journey from Petersburg to Pekin (vol. ii. p. 124) ; yet his own description of the Keat, down which he sailed into the Oby, represents the name and attributes of the black river (p. 139). a * M. Klaproth (Tableaux Historiques de 1'Asie, p. 274) supposes this river to be an eastern affluent of the Volga, the Kama, which, from the color of its waters, might be called black. M. Abel Remusat (Recherches sur les Langues TartareSj 324 THE AVARS FLY BEFORE THE TURKS. [Ch. XLIL slain with three hundred thousand of his subjects, and their bodies were scattered over the space of four days' ay beibre"the journey : their surviving countrymen acknowledged pr U oach a th« ap * the strength and mercy of the Turks ; and a small portion, about twenty thousand warriors, prefer- red exile to servitude. They followed the well-known road of the Volga, cherished the error of the nations who con- founded them with the Avars,* and spread the terror of that false, though famous appellation, which had not, however, saved its lawful proprietors from the yoke of the Turks. 3 * After a long and victorious march the new Avars arrived at the foot of Mount Caucasus, in the country of the Alani 33 and Circassians, where they first heard of the splendor and weak- ness of the Roman empire. They humbly requested their 82 Theophylact, 1. vii. c. 7, 8. And yet his true Avars are invisible even to the eyes of M. de Guignes; and what can be more illustrious than the false? The right of the fugitive Ogors to that national appellation is confessed by the Turks themselves (Menander, p. 108). 33 The Alani are still found in the Genealogical History of the Tartars (p. 61 7), and in D'Anville's maps. They opposed the march of the generals of Zingis round the Caspian Sea, and were overthrown in a great battle (Hist, de Gengis- can, 1. iv. c. 9,, p. 447). vol. i. p. 320) and M. St. Martin (vol. ix. p. 373) consider it the Volga, which is called Atel or Etel by all the Turkish tribes. It is called Attilas by Menander, and Ettilia by the monk Ruysbroek (1253). See Klaproth, Tabl. Hist. p. 247. This geography is much more clear and simple than that adopted by Gibbon from De Guignes, or suggested from Bell. — M. a The Avars, like the Huns, belonged to the Turkish stock. Their chiefs bear the Turkish or Mongolian titles of chagan or khan in the Byzantine and later writers, by whom they are also frequently identified with the Huns. (Avare9 primum Huni, postea de regis proprii nomine Avares appellati sunt, Paulus Dia- conus, i. 27.) They are first mentioned after the downfall of the empire of the Huns, between 461 and 465, as devastating the lands of the tribes on the Masotis and the Caspian Sea (Friscus, p. 158, edit. Bonn) ; but their name does not occur again till nearly a century afterwards on the occasion mentioned by Gibbon, when we find them, after long wanderings, settled in the country of the Caucasus. On this occasion Theophylactus (vii. 7, 8) says that the Avars were a section of the ancient tribes of the Var (Ovc'tp) and Chunni (Xovvvi), i. e., Huns, who formed part of the nation called Ogor ('Oyoip). They are also called Varchonites (Ovap- Xuvltcii) in the speech of Turxanth, the successor of Disabul, to Valentinus, the ambassador of Tiberius, a name which appears to be only a compound of Var and Chuni (Menander, p. 400, edit. Bonn). The Ogor of Theophylactus is evidently the same name as that of the Ouigours, on the west of the Mongol frontier, the most anciently civilized tribe of the Turkish race. See Zeuss, Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstamme, p. 727 seq. ; Smith's Diet, of Geogr. vol. L p. 349 ; Prichard, Researches, etc., vol. iv. p. 349. — S. A.D. 558.] THEIE EMBASSY TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 325 confederate, the prince of the Alani, to lead them to this source of riches; and their ambassador, with the permission of the Governor of Lazica, was transported bj the Euxine Sea to Constantinople. The whole city was poured forth to behold with curiosity and terror the aspect of a strange peo- ple ; their long hair, which hung in tresses down their backs, was gracefully bound with ribbons, but the rest of their hab- Theirem- & appeared to imitate the fashion of the Huns. Sfiuopte!, n " When they were admitted to the audience of Jus- A.D.S58. tinian, Candish, the first of the ambassadors, ad- dressed the Roman emperor in these terms : " You see be- fore you, O mighty prince, the representatives of the strong- est and most populous of nations, the invincible, the irresisti- ble Avars. "We are willing to devote ourselves to your ser- vice : we are able to vanquish and destroy all the enemies who now disturb your repose. But we expect, as the price of our alliance, as the reward of our valor, precious gifts, annual sub- sidies, and fruitful possessions." At the time of this embassy Justinian had reigned above thirty, he had lived above seven- ty-five years : his mind, as well as his body, was feeble and languid ; and the conqueror of Africa and Italy, careless of the permanent interest of his people, aspired only to end his days in the bosom even of inglorious peace. In a studied oration, he imparted to the senate his resolution to dissemble the insult and to purchase the friendship of the Avars ; and the whole senate, like the mandarins of China, applauded the incomparable wisdom and foresight of their sovereign. The instruments of luxury were immediately prepared to capti- vate the barbarians — silken garments, soft and splendid beds, and chains and collars incrusted with gold. The ambassa- dors, content with such liberal reception, departed from Con- stantinople, and Yalentin, one of the emperor's guards, was sent with a similar character to their camp at the foot of Mount Caucasus. As their destruction or their success must be alike advantageous to the empire, he persuaded them to invade the enemies of Rome ; and they were easily tempted, by gifts and promises, to gratify their ruling inclinations. Thege fugitives, who fled before the Turkish arme, passed the 626 EMBASSIES OF THE [Ch. XLH. Tanais and Borysthenes, and boldly advanced into the heart of Poland and Germany, violating the law of nations and abusing the rights of victory. Before ten years had elapsed their camps were seated on the Danube and the Elbe, many Bulgarian and Sclavonian names were obliterated from the earth, and the remainder of their tribes are found, as tributa- ries and vassals, under the standard of the Avars. The cha- gan, the peculiar title of their king, still affected to cultivate the friendship of the emperor; and Justinian entertained some thoughts of fixing them in Pannonia, to balance the prevailing power of the Lombards. But the virtue or treach- ery of an Avar betrayed the secret enmity and ambitious de- signs of their countrymen ; and they loudly complained of the timid though jealous policy of detaining their ambassa- dors, and denying the arms which they had been allowed to purchase in the capital of the empire. 34 Perhaps the apparent change in the dispositions of the em- perors may be ascribed to the embassy which was received Embassies from the conquerors of the Avars. 86 The immense audRo^ans. distance which eluded their arms could not ex- A.D.569-es2. tinguish their resentment: the Turkish ambassa- dors pursued the footsteps of the vanquished to the Jaik, the Yolga, Mount Caucasus, the Euxine, and Constantinople, and at length appeared before the successor of Constan- tine, to request that he would not espouse the cause of reb- els and fugitives. Even commerce had some share in this remarkable negotiation : and the Sogdoites, who were now the tributaries of the Turks, embraced the fair occasion of opening, by the north of the Caspian, a new road for the im- portation of Chinese silk into the Roman empire. The Per- 34 The embassies and first conquests of the Avars may be read in Menander (Excerpt. Legat. p. 99, 100, 101, 154, 155 [p. 282-287, 385-388, edit. Bonn']), Theophanes (p. 196 [torn. i. p. 359, edit. Bonn]), the Historia Miscella (1. xvi. p. 109), and Gregory of Tours (1. iv. c. 23, 29, in the Historians of France, torn. ii. p. 214, 217). 35 Theophanes (Chron. p. 201) and the Hist. Miscella (1. xvi. p. 110), as under- stood by De Guignes (torn. i. part ii. p. 354), appear to speak of a Turkish em- bassy to Justinian himself; but that of Maniach, in the fourth year of his succes- sor Justin, is positively the first that reached Constantinople (Menander, p. 108\ A.D.5G9-582.] TURKS AND ROMANS. 327 sian, who preferred the navigation of Ceylon, had stopped the caravans of Bochara and Samarcand : their silk was contempt- uously burned : some Turkish ambassadors died in Persia, with a suspicion of poison ; and the great khan permitted his faithful vassal Maniach, the prince of the Sogdoites, to pro- pose, at the Byzantine court, a treaty of alliance against their common enemies. Their splendid apparel and rich presents, the fruit of Oriental luxury, distinguished Maniach and his colleagues from the rude savages of the North : their letters, in the Scythian character and language, announced a people who had attained the rudiments of science : S6 they enumerated the conquests, they offered the friendship and military aid, of the Turks ; and their sincerity was attested by direful impre- cations (if they were guilty of falsehood) against their own head and the head of Disabul their master. a The Greek prince entertained with hospitable regard the ambassadors of a remote and powerful monarch : the sight of silk-worms and looms disappointed the hopes of the Sogdoites ; the emperor renounced, or seemed to renounce, the fugitive Avars, brat he accepted the alliance of the Turks; and the ratification of the treaty was carried by a Roman minister to the foot of Mount Altai. Under the successors of Justinian the friend- ship of the two nations was cultivated by frequent and cor- dial intercourse ; the most favored vassals were permitted to imitate the example of the great khan ; and one hundred and six Turks, who on various occasions had visited Constantino- S6 The Russians have found characters, rude hieroglyphics, on the Irtish and Yenisei, on medals, tombs, idols, rocks, obelisks, etc. (Strahlenberg, Hist, of Si- beria, p. 324, 346, 406, 429). Dr. Hyde (de Religione Veterum Persarum, p. 521, etc.) has given two alphabets of Thibet and of the Eygours. I have long harbored a suspicion that all the Scythian, and some, perhaps much, of the Indian science, was derived from the Greeks of Bactriana. b a A reference is made to this place in vol. iii. p. 113, for an account of the Turks ruled by Disabul; but these Turks have been already spoken of in p. 319. — S. b Modern discoveries give no confirmation to this suspicion. The character of Indian science, as well as of their literature and mythology, indicates an orig- inal source. Grecian art may have occasionally found its way into India. Oua or two of the sculptures in Colonel Tod's account of the Jain temples, if correct, show a finer outline and purer sense of beauty, than appears native to India, where the monstrous always predominated ovar simple nature, — M, 328 EMBASSIES OP THE [Ch. XLII. pie, departed at the same time for their native country. The duration and length of the journey from the Byzantine court to Mount Altai are not specified : it might have been difficult to mark a road through the nameless deserts,, the mountains, rivers, and morasses of Tartary; but a curious account has been preserved of the reception of the Roman ambassadors at the royal camp. After they had been purified with firo and incense, according to a rite still practised under the sons of Zingis, a they were introduced to the presence of Disabul. In a valley of the Golden Mountain they found the great khan in his tent, seated in a chair with wheels, to which a horse might be occasionally harnessed. As soon as they had deliv- ered their presents, which were received by the proper offi- cers, they exposed in a florid oration the wishes of the Ro- man emperor that victory might attend the arms of the Turks, that their reign might be long and prosperous, and that a strict alliance, without envy or deceit, might forever be maintained between the two most powerful nations of the earth. The answer of Disabul corresponded with these friendly professions, and the ambassadors were seated by hia side at a banquet which lasted the greatest part of the day : the tent was surrounded with silk hangings, and a Tartar liquor was served on the table which possessed at least the intoxicating qualities of wine. The entertainment of the succeeding day was more sumptuous; the silk hangings of the second tent were embroidered in various figures ; and the royal seat, the cups, and the vases were of gold. A third pa- vilion was supported by columns of gilt wood ; a bed of puro * This rite is so curious, that I have subjoined the description of It % When these (the exorcisers, the Shamans) approached Zemarchus, they took all our baggage and placed it in the centre. Then, kindling a fire with branches of frankincense, lowly murmuring certain barbarous words in the Scythian language, beating on a kind of bell (a gong) and a drum, they passed over the baggage the leaves of the frankincense, crackling with the fire ; and at the same time, them- selves becoming frantic, and violently leaping about, seemed to exorcise the evil spirits. Having thus, as they thought, averted all evil, they led Zemarchus him- self through the fire. Menander, in Niebuhr's Byzant. Hist. p. 381. Compare Carpini's Travels. The princes of the race of Zingis Khan condescended to re- ceive the ambassadors of the King of France, at tho end of the thirteenth century, without their submitting to this humiliating rite. See Correspondence published by Abel Ke'musat, Nouv. Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscrip. vol. vii. On the embassy of Zemarchus,, compare JUaprotfi, Tableaux, de 1'Asie, p. 116.— M. A.D. 569-582.] TURKS AND ROMANS. 329 and massy gold was raised on four peacocks of the same met- al : and before the entrance of the tent, dishes, basins, and statues of solid silver and admirable art were ostentatiously piled in wagons, the monuments of valor rather than of in- dustry. When Disabul led his armies against the frontiers of Persia, his Koman allies followed many days the march of the Turkish camp, nor were they dismissed till they had en- joyed their precedency over the envoy of the Great King, whose loud and intemperate clamors interrupted the silence of the royal banquet. The power and ambition of Chosroes cemented the union of the Turks and Komans, who touched his dominions on either side : but those distant nations, re- gardless of each other, consulted the dictates of interest, with- out recollecting the obligations of oaths and treaties. While the successor of Disabul celebrated his father's obsequies^ he was saluted by the ambassadors of the Emperor Tiberius, who proposed an invasion of Persia, and sustained with firmness the angry and perhaps the just reproaches of that haughty barbarian. " You see my ten fingers," said the great khan, and he applied them to his mouth. "You Eomans speak with as many tongues, but they are tongues of deceit and perjury. To me you hold one language, to my subjects an- other ; and the nations are successively deluded by your per- fidious eloquence. You precipitate your allies into war and danger, you enjoy their labors, and you neglect your benefac- tors. Hasten your return, inform your master that a Turk is incapable of uttering or forgiving falsehood, and that he shall speedily meet the punishment which he deserves. While he solicits my friendship with flattering and hollow words, he is sunk to a confederate of my fugitive YarchoniteSc If I con- descend to march against those contemptible slaves, they will tremble at the sound of our whips; they will be trampled, like a nest of ants, under the feet of my innumerable caval- ry. I am not ignorant of the road which they have followed to invade your empire ; nor can I be deceived by the vain pretence that Mount Caucasus is the impregnable barrier of the Romans. I know the course of the Dniester, the Dan- ube, and the Hebrus ; the most warlike nations have yielded 330 STATE OF PEKSIA. [Ch. XLII. to the arms of the Turks ; and from the rising to the setting sun, the earth is my inheritance." Notwithstanding this men- ace, a sense of mutual advantage soon renewed the alliance of the Turks and Romans : but the pride of the great khan sur- vived his resentment ; and when he announced an important conquest to his friend the Emperor Maurice, he styled him- self the master of the seven races and the lord of the seven climates of the world. 37 Disputes have often arisen between the sovereigns of Asia for the title of king of the world, while the contest has proved that it could not belong to either of the competi- Persia. tors. The kingdom of the Turks was bounded by a.d. 500-530. => J the Ox us, or (xihon ; and I our an was separated by that great river from the rival monarchy of Iran, or Persia, which in a smaller compass contained perhaps a larger meas- ure of power and population. The Persians, who alternately invaded and repulsed the Turks and the Romans, were still ruled by the House of Sassan, which ascended the throne three hundred years before the accession of Justinian. His contemporary, Cabades, or Kobad, had been successful in war against the Emperor Anastasius; but the reign of that prince was distracted by civil and religious troubles. A prisoner in the hands of his subjects, an exile among the enemies of Per- sia, he recovered his liberty by prostituting the honor of his wife, and regained his kingdom with the dangerous and mer- cenary aid of the barbarians who had slain his father. His nobles were suspicious that Kobad never forgave the authors of his expulsion, or even those of his restoration. The peo- ple was deluded and inflamed by the fanaticism of Mazdak, 38 37 All the details of these Turkish and Roman embassies, so curious in the his- tory of human manners, are drawn from the Extracts of Menander(p. 106-110, 151-154, 161-164: [295-303, 380-385, 397-405, edit. Bonn]), in which we often regret the want of order and connection. 38 See D'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient, p. 568, 929); Hyde (de Religione Vet. Per- sarum, c. 21, p. 290, 291); Pocock (Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 70, 71); Eutychim (Annal. torn. ii. p. 176); Texeira (in Stevens, Hist, of Persia, 1. i. ch. 34).* a Mazdak was an Archimagus, born, according to Mirkhond (translated by De Sacy, p. 353, and Malcolm, vol. i. p. 104), at Istakhar or Persepolis, according to an inedited and anonymous history (the Modjmal-alte-warikh in the Royal Libra- A-D. 500-530.] STATE OF PERSIA. 331 who asserted the community of women 88 and the equality of mankind, whilst he appropriated the richest lands and most beautiful females to the use of his sectaries. The view of these disorders, which had been fomented by his laws and example, 40 embittered the declining age of the Persian mon- arch ; and his fears were increased by the consciousness of his design to reverse the natural and customary order of succes- sion in favor of his third and most favored son, so famous under the names of Chosroes and ISTu shir van. To render the youth more illustrious in the eyes of the nations, Kobad was desirous that he should be adopted by the Emperor Justin : a the hope of peace inclined the Byzantine court to accept this singular proposal ; and Chosroes might have acquired a spe- cious claim to the inheritance of his Roman parent. But the future mischief was diverted by the advice of the qusestor Proclus : a difficulty was started, whether the adoption should 39 The fame of the new law for the community of women was soon propagated in Syria (Asseman. Biblioth. Orient, torn. iii. p. 402) and Greece (Procop. Persic. 1. i. "c. 5). 40 He offered his own wife and sister to the prophet ; but the prayers of Nushir- van saved his mother, and the indignant monarch never forgave the humiliation to which his filial piety had stooped : pedes tuos deosculatus (said he to Mazdak) cujus foetor adhuc nares occupat (Pocock, Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 71). ry at Paris, quoted by St. Martin, vol. vii. p. 322), at Nischapour in Chorasan : his father's name was Bamdadan. He announced himself as a reformer of Zoro- astrianism, and carried the doctrine of the two principles to a much greater height. He preached the absolute indifference of human action, perfect equality of rank, community of property and of women, marriages between the nearest kindred : he interdicted the use of animal food, proscribed the killing of animals for food, enforced a vegetable diet. See St. Martin, vol. vii. p. 322. Malcolm, vol. i. p. 10-1. Mirkhond translated by De Sacy. It is remarkable that, the doctrine of Mazdak spread into the West. Two inscriptions found in Cyrene, in 1823, and explained by M. Gesenius, and by M. Hamaker of Leyden, prove c'early that his doctrines had been eagerly embraced by the remains of the ancient Gnostics; and Mazdak was enrolled with Thoth, Saturn, Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Epicurus, John, and Christ, as the teache.'s of true Gnostic wisdom. See St. Martin, vol. vii. p. 338. Gesenius de Inscriptione Phcenicio- Grtsca in Cyrenaiea nuper reperta, Halle, 1825. Hamaker, Lettre a M. Raoul Pochette, Leyden, 1825. — M. 3 St. Martin questions this adoption : he argues its improbability ; and supposes that Procopius, perverting some popular traditions, or the remembrance of some fruitless negotiations which took place at that time, has mistaken, for a treaty of adoption, some treaty of guarantee or protection for the purpose of insuring the crown, after the death of Kobad, to his favorite son Chosroes, vol. viii. p. 32. Yet the Greek historians seem unanimous as to the proposal : the Persians might be expected to maintain silence on such a subject.— M. 332 EEIGN OF CHOSEOES. [Ch. XLII. be performed as a civil or military rite; 41 the treaty was abruptly dissolved ; and the sense of this indignity sunk deep into the mind of Chosroes, who had already advanced to the Tigris on his road to Constantinople. His father did not long survive the disappointment of his wishes : the testament of their deceased sovereign was read in the assembly of the nobles ; and a powerful faction, prepared for the event, and regardless of the priority of age, exalted Chosroes to the throne of Persia. He filled that throne during a prosperous period of forty-eight years ;" and the justice of Nushirvan is celebrated as the theme of immortal praise by the nations of the East. But the justice of kings is understood by themselves, and even by their subjects, with an ample indulgence for the Reign of gratification of passion and interest. The virtue ^"choTroe's. °f Chosroes was that of a conqueror who, in the a.d. 531-679. measures f peace and war, is excited by ambition and restrained by prudence; who confounds the greatness with the happiness of a nation, and calmly devotes the lives of thousands to the fame, or even the amusement, of a single man. In his domestic administration the just Nushirvan would merit in our feelings the appellation of a tyrant. His two elder brothers had been deprived of their fair expecta- tions of the diadem : their future life, between the supreme rank and the condition of subjects, was anxious to themselves and formidable to their master: fear, as well as revenge, might tempt them to rebel ; the slightest evidence of a con- 41 Procopius, Persic. 1. i. c. 11. Was not Proclus over-wise? Was not the danger imaginary ? — The excuse, at least, was injurious to a nation not ignorant of letters : ov ypdfi{iaffiv oi f3dp€apoi rovg ircudae iroiovvrai d\\' oirXwv ctctvg. Whether any mode of adoption was practised in Persia I much doubt. 42 From Procopius and Agathias, Pagi (torn. ii. p. 543, 626) has proved that Chosroes Nushirvan ascended the throne in the fifth year of Justinian (a.d. 531, April 1-a.d. 532, April 1). But the true chronology, which harmonizes with the Greeks and Orientals, is ascertained by John Malala (torn. ii. 211 [edit. Oxon. ; p. 471, edit. Bonn]). Cabades, or Kobad, after a reign of forty-three years and two months, sickened the 8th, and died the 13th of September, a.d. 531, aged eighty-two years. According to the Annals of Entychius, Nushirvan reigned for- ty-seven years and six months ; and his death must consequently be placed in March, a.d. 579. a.d. 531-579.] REIGN OF CHOSROES. 333 epiracy satisfied the author of their wrongs ; and the repose of Chosroes was secured by the death of these unhappy princes, with their families and adherents. One guiltless youth was saved and dismissed by the compassion of a veteran general ; and this act of humanity, which was revealed by his son, over- balanced the merit of reducing twelve nations to the obedi- ence of Persia. The zeal and prudence of Mebodes had fixed the diadem on the head of Chosroes himself ; but he delayed to attend the royal summons till he had performed the duties of a military review : he was instantly commanded to repair to the iron tripod which stood before the gate of the palace, 43 where it was death to relieve or approach the victim; and Mebodes languished several days before his sentence was pro- nounced by the inflexible pride and calm ingratitude of the son of Kobad. But the people, more especially in the East, is disposed to forgive, and even to applaud, the cruelty which strikes at the loftiest heads — at the slaves of ambition, whose voluntary choice has exposed them to live in the smiles and to perish by the frown of a capricious monarch. In the exe- cution of the laws which he had no temptation to violate ; in the punishment of crimes which attacked his own dignity, as well as the happiness of individuals, Nushirvan, or Chosroes, deserved the appellation of just. His government was firm, rigorous, and impartial. It was the first labor of his reign to abolish the dangerous theory of common or equal possessions : the lands and women which the sectaries of Mazdak had usurped were restored to their lawful owners ; and the tem- perate a chastisement of the fanatics or impostors confirmed the domestic rights of society. Instead of listening with 43 Procopius, Persic. 1. i. c. 23 [torn. i. p. 118, edit. Bonn]. Brisson de Regn. Pers. p. 494. The gate of the palace of Ispahan is, or was, the fatal scene of dis- grace or death (Chardin, Voyage en Perse, torn. iv. p. 312, 313). 1 This is a strange term. Nushirvan employed a stratagem similar to that of Jehu, 2 Kings x. 1 8-28, to separate the followers of Mazdak from the rest of his subjects, and with a body of his troops cut them all in pieces. The Greek writers concur with the Persian in this representation of Nushirvan's temperate conduct. Theophanes, p. 146. Mirkhond, p. 362. Eutychius, Ann. vol. ii. p. 179. Abulfe- da, in an unedited part, consulted by St. Martin, as well as in a passage formerly cited. Le Beau, vol. \/ii. p. 38. Malcolm, vol. i. p. 109. — M. 334: EEIGN OF CHOSROES. [Ch.XLII. blind confidence to a favorite minister, he established four viz- iers over the four great provinces of his empire — Assyria, Me- dia, Persia, and Bactriana. In the choice of judges, prsefects, and counsellors, he strove to remove the mask which is always worn in the presence of kings : he wished to substitute the natural order of talents for the accidental distinctions 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 ex- cluded from the temples of the Magi. The code of laws of the first Artaxerxes was revived and published as the rule of the magistrates ; but the assurance of speedy punishment was the best security of their virtue. Their behavior was inspect- ed by a thousand eyes, their words were overheard by a thou- sand ears, the secret or public agents of the throne ; and the provinces, from the Indian to the Arabian confines, were en- lightened by the frequent visits of a sovereign who affected to emulate his celestial brother in his rapid and salutary ca- reer. Education and agriculture he viewed as the two ob- jects most deserving of his care. In every city of Persia, or- phans and the children of the poor were maintained and in- structed at the public expense ; the daughters were given in marriage to the richest citizens of their own rank, and the sons, according to their different talents, were employed in mechanic trades or promoted to more honorable service. The deserted villages were relieved by his bounty ; to the peasants and farmers who were found incapable of cultivating their lands he distributed cattle, seed, and the instruments of hus- bandry ; and the rare and inestimable treasure of fresh water was parsimoniously managed, and skilfully dispersed over the arid territory of Persia. 44 The prosperity of that kingdom was the effect and the evidence of his virtues ; his vices are those of Oriental despotism ; but in the long competition be- 44 In Persia the prince of the waters is an officer of state. The number of wells and subterraneous channels is much diminished, and with it the fertility of the soil : 400 wells have been recently lost near Tauris, and 42,000 were once reckoned in the province of Khorasan (Chardin, torn. iii. p. 99, 100 ; Tavernier, torn. i. p. 416). *.D. 531-579.] HIS LOVE OF LEARNING. 335 tween Chosroes and Justinian, the advantage, both of merit and fortune, is almost always on the side of the barbarian." To the praise of justice Nushirvan united the reputation of knowledge ; and the seven Greek philosophers who visited His love of hi s court were invited and deceived by the strange learning. assurance that a disciple of Plato was seated on the Persian throne. Did they expect that a prince, strenuously exercised in the toils of war and government, should agitate, with dexterity like their own, the abstruse and profound ques- tions which amused the leisure of the schools of Athens? Could they hope that the precepts of philosophy should di- rect the life and control the passions of a despot whose infan- cy had been taught to consider his absolute and fluctuating will as the only rule of moral obligation V 6 The studies of Chosroes were ostentatious and superficial ; but his example awakened the curiosity of an ingenious people, and the light of science was diffused over the dominions of Persia." At Gondi Sapor, in the neighborhood of the royal city of Susa, an academy of physic was founded, which insensibly became a liberal school of poetry, philosophy, and rhetoric. 48 The an- nals of the monarchy 49 were composed; and while recent and 45 The character and government of Nushirvan is represented sometimes in the words of D'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient, p. 680, etc., from Khondemir), Eutychius (Annal. torn. ii. p. 179, 180 — very rich), Abulpharagius (Dynast, vii. p. 94, 95 — very poor), Tarikh Schikard (p. 144-150), Texeira (in Stevens, 1. i. c. 35), Asse- man (Bibliot. Orient, torn. iii. p. 404-410), and the Abbe Fourmont (Hist, de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, torn. vii. p. 325-334), who has translated a spurious or genuine testament of Nushirvan. 46 A thousand years before his birth, the judges of Persia had given a solemn opinion — r

Chosroes saw the Roman ambassadors at his feet. He accepted eleven thousand pounds of gold as the price of an endless or indefinite peace ;" some mutual ex- changes were regulated; the Persian assumed the guard of the gates of Caucasus, and the demolition of Dara was sus- pended on condition that it should never be made the resi- dence of the general of the East. This interval of repose had been solicited and was diligently improved by the am- bition of the emperor: his African conquests were the first- fruits of the Persian treaty ; and the avarice of Chosroes was soothed by a large portion of the spoils of Carthage, which his ambassadors required in a tone of pleasantry and under the color of friendship. 58 But the trophies of Belisarius dis- 66 See the Historia Shahiludii of Dr. Hyde (Syntagm. Dissertat. torn. ii. p. 61-69). 67 The endless peace (Procopius, Persic. 1. i. c. 22 [torn. i. p. 114, edit. Bonn]) was concluded or ratified in the sixth year, and third consulship, of Justinian (a.d. 533, between January 1 and April 1 ; Pagi, torn. ii. p. 550). Marcellinus, in his Chronicle, Uses the style of Medes and Persians. 68 Procopius, P§rsic. 1. i. c. 26 [p. 137, edit. Bonn]. A.D. 533-539.] THE "ENDLESS" PEACE. 339 turbed the slumbers of the Great King; and he heard with astonishment, envy, and fear, that Sicily, Italy, and Rome it- self, had been reduced in three rapid campaigns to the obedi- ence of Justinian. Unpractised in the art of violating trea- ties, he secretly excited his bold and subtle vassal Almondar. That prince of the Saracens, who resided at Hira, 69 had not been included in the general peace, and still waged an ob- scure war against his rival Arethas, the chief of the tribe of Gassan, and confederate of the empire. The subject of their dispute was an extensive sheep-walk in the desert to the south of Palmyra. An immemorial tribute for 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 the Romans. 60 The two monarchs supported the cause of their respective vassals ; and the Persian Arab, without ex- pecting the event of a slow and doubtful arbitration, enriched his flying camp with the spoil and captives of Syria. Instead of repelling the arms, Justinian attempted to seduce the fidel- ity of Almondar, while he called from the extremities of the earth the nations of ^Ethiopia and Scythia to invade the do- minions of his rival. But the aid of such allies was distant and precarious, and the discovery of this hostile correspond- ence justified the complaints of the Goths and Armenians, who implored, almost at the same time, the protection of Chosroes. The descendants of Arsaces, who were still nu- merous in Armenia, had been provoked to assert the last rel- ics of national freedom and hereditary rank ; and the ambas- sadors of Yitiges had secretly traversed the empire to expose the instant, and almost inevitable, danger of the kingdom of Italy. Their representations were uniform, weighty, and ef- 69 Almondar, king of Hira, was deposed by Kobad and restored by Nushirvan. His mother, from her beauty, was surnamed Celestial Water, an appellation which became hereditary, and was extended for a more noble cause (liberality in famine) to the Arab princes of Syria (Pocock, Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 69, 70). 60 Procopius, Persic. 1. ii. c. 1 [torn. i. p. 154, edit. Bonn]. We are ignorant of the origin and object of this strata, a paved road often days' journey from Aura- nitis to Babylonia. (See a Latin note in Delisle's Map Imp. Orient.) Wess&- ling and D'Anville are silent. 340 CHOSEOES EtfVADES SYEIA. [Ch. XLU. fectual. "We stand before your throne, the advocates of your interest as well as of our own. The ambitious and faithless Justinian aspires to be the sole master of the world. Since the endless peace, which betrayed the common freedom of mankind, that prince, your ally in words, your enemy in actions, has alike insulted his friends and foes, and has filled the earth with blood and confusion. Has he not violated the privileges of Armenia, the independence of Colchis, and the wild liberty of the Tzanian mountains ? Has he not usurped, with equal avidity, the city of Bosphorus on the frozen Mseo- tis, and the vale of palm-trees on the shores of the Red Sea % The Moors, the Yandals, the Goths, have been successively oppressed, and each 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 an his renowned general are detained in the dis- tant regions of the West. If you hesitate and delay, Belisa' rius and his victorious troops will soon return from the Tiber to the Tigris, and Persia may enjoy the wretched consolation of being the last devoured." 61 By such arguments, Chosroes was easily persuaded to imitate the example which he col demned; but the Persian, ambitious of military fame, dis- dained the inactive warfare of a rival who issued his san- guinary commands from the secure station of the Byzantine palace. Whatever might be the provocations of Chosroes, he abused the confidence of treaties ; and the just reproaches Syria, of dissimulation and falsehood could only be con- cealed by the lustre of his victories. 83 The Per- sian army, which had been assembled in the plains of Babylon, 61 I have blended, in a short speech, the two orations of the Arsacides of Arme- nia and the Gothic ambassadors. Procopius, in his public history, feels, and makes us feel, that Justinian was the true author of the war (Persic. 1. ii. c. 2, 3). 62 The invasion of Syria, the ruin of Antioch, etc., are related in a full and reg- ular series by Procopius (Persic. 1. ii. c. 5-14). Small collateral aid can be drawn from the Orientals : yet not they, but D'Herbelot himself (p. 680), should blush when he blames them for making Justinian and Nushirvan contemporaries. On the geography of the seat of war, DAnville (l'Euphrate et le Tigre) is sufficient and satisfactory. a.d. 540.] RUIN OF ANTIOCH. 341 prudently declined the strong cities of Mesopotamia, and followed the western bank of the Euphrates, till the small though populous town of Dura a presumed to arrest the prog- ress of the Great King. The gates of Dura, by treachery and surprise, were burst open ; and as soon as Chosroes had stained his scimitar with the blood of the inhabitants, he dis- missed the ambassador of Justinian to inform his master in what place he had left the enemy of the Komans. The con- queror still affected the praise of humanity and justice; and as he beheld a noble matron with her iufant rudely dragged along the ground, he sighed, he wept, and implored the di- vine justice to punish the author of these calamities. Yet the herd of twelve thousand captives was ransomed for two hundred pounds of gold ; the neighboring bishop of Sergio- polis pledged his faith for the payment, and in the subse- quent year the unfeeling avarice of Chosroes exacted the pen- alty of an obligation which it was generous to contract and im- possible to discharge. He advanced into the heart of Syria ; but a feeble enemy, who vanished at his approach, disappoint- ed him of the honor of victory ; and as he could not hope to establish his dominion, the Persian king displayed in this in- road the mean and rapacious vices of a robber. Hierapolis, Berrhcea or Aleppo, Apamea and Chalcis, were successively besieged : they redeemed their safety by a ransom of gold or silver proportioned to their respective strength and opulence, and their new master enforced without observing the terms of capitulation. Educated in the religion of the Magi, he ex- ercised, without remorse, the lucrative trade of sacrilege ; and, after stripping of its gold and gems a piece of the true cross, he generously restored the naked relic to the devotion of the ana rains Christians of Apamea. No more than fourteen Antioch. years had elapsed since Antioch was ruined by an earthquake ; b but the Queen of the East, the new Theopolis, had been raised from the ground by the liberality of Justin- ian; and the increasing greatness of the buildings and the * It is Sura in Procopius, p. 152. Is it a misprint in Gibbon? — M. b Joannes Lydus attributes the easy capture of Antioch to the want of fortifica« tions, which had not been restored since the earthquake: L iii. c. 54, p. 246. — M. 342 RUIN OF ANTIOCH ; [Ch. XLII. people already erased the memory of this recent disaster. On one side the city was defended by the mountain, on the other by the river Orontes ; but the most accessible part was commanded by a superior eminence: the proper remedies were rejected, from the despicable fear of discovering its weakness to the enemy; and Germanus, the emperor's neph- ew, refused to trust his person and dignity within the walls of a besieged city. The people of Antioch had inherited the vain and satirical genius of their ancestors: they were elated by a sudden reinforcement of six thousand soldiers ; they dis- dained the offers of an easy capitulation, and their intemper- ate clamors insulted from the ramparts the majesty of the Great King. Under his eye the Persian myriads mounted with scaling-ladders to the assault ; the Roman mercenaries fled through the opposite gate of Daphne ; and the generous assistance of the youth of Antioch served only to aggravate the miseries of their country. As Chosroes, attended by the ambassadors of Justinian, was descending from the mountain, he affected, in a plaintive voice, to deplore the obstinacy and ruin of that unhappy people ; but the slaughter still raged with unrelenting fury, and the city, at the command of a bar- barian, was delivered to the flames. The cathedral of An- tioch was indeed preserved by the avarice, not the piety, of the conqueror: a more honorable exemption was granted to the Church of St. Julian and the quarter of the town where the ambassadors resided ; some distant streets were saved by the shifting of the wind, and the walls still subsisted to pro- tect, and soon to betray, their new inhabitants. Fanaticism had defaced the ornaments of Daphne ; but Chosroes breathed a purer air amidst her groves and fountains, and some idola- ters in his train might sacrifice with impunity to the nymphs of that elegant retreat. Eighteen miles below Antioch the river Orontes falls into the Mediterranean. The haughty Persian visited the term of his conquests, and after bathing alone in the sea, he offered a solemn sacrifice of thanksgiving to the sun, or rather to the Creator of the sun, whom the Magi adored. If this act of superstition offended the preju- dices of the Syrians, they were pleased by the courteous and a.d.540.] AND FOUNDATION OF A NEW CITY. 343 even eager attention with which he assisted at the games of the circus ; and as Chosroes had heard that the blue faction was espoused by the emperor, his peremptory command se- cured the victory of the green charioteer. From the disci- pline of his camp the people derived more solid consolation, and they interceded in vain for the life of a soldier who had too faithfully copied the rapine of the just Nushirvan. At length, fatigued though unsatiated with the spoil of Syria, a he slowly moved to the Euphrates, formed a temporary bridge in the neighborhood of Barbalissus, and defined the space of three days for the entire passage of his numerous host. Af- ter his return he founded, at the distance of one day's jour- ney from the palace of Ctesiphon, a new city, which perpet- uated the joint names of Chosroes and of Antioch. The Syr- ian captives recognized the form and situation of their native abodes ; baths and a stately circus were constructed for their use; and a colony of musicians and charioteers revived in Assyria the pleasures of a Greek capital. By the munifi- cence of the royal founder, a liberal allowance was assigned to these fortunate exiles, and they enjoyed the singular priv- ilege of bestowing freedom on the slaves whom they acknowl- edged as their kinsmen. Palestine and the holy wealth of Jerusalem were the next objects that attracted the ambition, or rather the avarice, of Chosroes. Constantinople and the palace of the Caesars no longer appeared impregnable or re- mote ; and his aspiring fancy already covered Asia Minor with the troops, and the Black Sea with the navies, of Persia. These hopes might have been realized, if the conqueror of Italy had not been seasonably recalled to the defence of the East. 63 While Chosroes pursued his ambitious designs on the coast of the Euxine, Belisarius, at the head of an army without pay or discipline, encamped beyond the Euphrates, within six 63 In the public history of Procopius (Persic. 1. 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 the Anecdotes (c. 2, 3, with the Notes, as usual, of Alemannus). k Lydus asserts that he carried away all the statues, pictures, and marbles which" adorned the city : 1. iii. c. 54, p. 247 [edit. Bonn], — M. 344 DEFENCE OF THE EAST [Ch. XLIL miles of Nisibis. He meditated, by a skilful operation, to Defence of draw the Persians from their impregnable citadel, BeiifariusJ an ^> improving his advantage in the field, either to a.d.541. intercept their retreat, or perhaps to enter the gates with the flying barbarians. He advanced one day's journey on the territories of Persia, reduced the fortress of Sisaurane, and sent the governor, with eight hundred chosen horsemen, to serve the emperor in his Italian wars. He detached Are- thas and his Arabs, supported by twelve hundred Romans, to pass the Tigris, and to ravage the harvests of Assyria, a fruit- ful province, long exempt from the calamities of war. But the plans of Belisarius were disconcerted by the untractable spirit of Arethas, who neither returned to the camp, nor sent any intelligence of his motions. The Roman general was fixed in anxious expectation to the same spot; the time of action elapsed ; the ardent sun of Mesopotamia inflamed with fevers the blood of his European soldiers ; and the stationary troops and officers of Syria affected to tremble for the safety of their defenceless cities. Yet this diversion had already succeeded in forcing Chosroes to return with loss and precip- itation ; and if the skill of Belisarius had been seconded by discipline and valor, his success might have satisfied the san- guine wishes of the public, who required at his hands the conquest of Ctesiphon, and the deliverance of the captives of Antioch. At the end of the campaign, he was recalled to Constantinople by an ungrateful court, but the dan- gers of the ensuing spring restored his confidence and command ; and the hero, almost alone, was despatched, with the speed of post-horses, to repel, by his name and pres- ence, 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. But instead of lis- tening to their timid counsels, Belisarius commanded them to follow him to Europus, where he had resolved to collect his forces, and to execute whatever God should inspire him to achieve against the enemy. His firm attitude on the banka of the Euphrates restrained Chosroes from advancing towards Palestine ; and he received with art and dignity the ambassa' A.D.543.] BY BELISARIUS. 34o dors, or rather spies, of the Persian monarch. The plain be- tween Ilierapolis and the river was covered with the squad- rons of cavalry, six thousand hunters, tall and robust, who pursued their game without the apprehension of an enemy. On the opposite bank the ambassadors descried a thousand Armenian horse, who appeared to guard the passage of the Euphrates. The tent of Belisarius was of the coarsest linen, the simple equipage of a warrior who disdained the luxury of the East. Around his tent the nations who marched un- der his standard were arranged with skilful confusion. The Thracians and Illyrians were posted in the front, the Heruli and Goths in the centre ; the prospect was closed by the Moors and Yandals, and their loose array seemed to multiply their numbers. Their dress was light and active ; one sol- dier carried a whip, another a sword, a third a bow, a fourth, perhaps, a battle-axe, and the whole picture exhibited the intrepidity of the troops and the vigilance of the general. Chosroes was deluded by the address, and awed by the gen- ius, of the lieutenant of Justinian. Conscious of the merit, and ignorant of the force, of his antagonist, he dreaded a de- cisive battle in a distant country, from whence not a Persian might return to relate the melancholy tale. The Great King hastened to repass the Euphrates : and Belisarius pressed his retreat, by affecting to oppose a measure so salutary to the empire, and which could scarcely have been prevented by an army of a hundred thousand men. Envy might suggest to ignorance and pride that the public enemy had been suffered to escape ; but the African and Gothic triumphs are less glo- rious than this safe and bloodless victory, in. which neither fortune nor the valor of the soldiers can subtract any part of the general's renown. The second removal of Bel- isarius from the Persian to the Italian war reveal- ed the extent of his personal merit, which had corrected or supplied the want of discipline and courage. Fifteen gen- erals, without concert or skill, led through the mountains of Armenia an army of thirty thousand Romans, inattentive to their signals, their ranks, and their ensigns. Four thousand Persians, intrenched in the camp of Dubis, vanquished, al« 346 DESCRIPTION OF COLCHIS. [Ch. XLIL most without a combat, this disorderly multitude ; their use* less arms were scattered along the road, and their horses sunk under the fatigue of their rapid flight. But the Arabs of the Roman party prevailed over their brethren ; the Armenians returned to their allegiance ; the cities of Dara and Edessa resisted a sudden assault and a regular siege, and the calami- ties of war were suspended by those of pestilence. A tacit or formal agreement between the two sovereigns protected the tranquillity of the Eastern frontier ; and the arms of Chosroes were confined to the Colchian or Lazic war, which has been too minutely described by the historians of the times. 64 The extreme length of the Euxiue Sea, 65 from Constantino- ple to the mouth of the Phasis, may be computed as a voy- Description a g e °f nme days, and a measure of seven hundred L f azici°, h or' miles. From the Iberian Caucasus, the most lofty Mmgreiia. an( j cr aggy mountains of Asia, that river descends with such oblique vehemence, that in a short space it is trav- ersed by one hundred and 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 the Caspian lake. The proximity of these rivers has suggested the prac- tice, or at least the idea, of wafting the precious merchandise of India down the Oxus, over the Caspian, up the Cyrus, and 64 The Lazic war, the contest of Rome and Persia on the Phasis. is tediously spun through many a page of Procopius (Persic. 1. ii. c. 15, 17, 28, 29, 30 ; Gothic. 1. iv. c. 7-16) and Agathias (1. ii., iii., and iv., p. 55-132, 141). 65 The Peri-plus, or circumnavigation of the Euxine Sea, was described in Latin by Sallust, and in Greek by Arrian : 1. The former work, which no longer exists, has been restored by the singular diligence of M. de Brasses, first president of tha parliament of Dijon (Hist, de la Republique Romaine, torn. ii. 1. iii. p. 199-208), who ventures to assume the character of the Roman historian. His description of the Euxine is ingeniously formed of all the fragments of the original, and of all the Greeks and Latins whom Sallust might copy, or by whom he might be copied ; and the merit of the execution atones for the whimsical design. 2. The Periplus of Arrian is addressed to the Emperor Hadrian (in Geograph. Minor. Hudson, torn, i.), and contains whatever the Governor of Pontus had seen from Trebizond to Dioscurias ; whatever he had heard from Dioscurias to the Danube; and whatever he knew from the Danube to Trebizond* A.D.543.] DESCRIPTION OF COLCHIS. 347 with the current of the Phasis into the Euxine and Mediter- ranean seas. As it successively collects the streams of tha plain of Colchis, the Phasis moves with diminished speed, though accumulated weight. At the mouth it is sixty fath- om deep and half a league broad, but a small woody island is interposed in the midst of the channel : the water, so soon as it has deposited an earthy or metallic sediment, floats on the surface of the waves, and is no longer susceptible of corrup- tion. In a course of one hundred miles, forty of which are navigable for large vessels, the Phasis divides the celebrated region of Colchis, 68 or Mingrelia, 67 which, on three sides, is for- tified by the Iberian and Armenian mountains, and whose maritime coast extends about two hundred miles from the neighborhood of Trebizond to Dioscurias and the confines of Circassia. Both the soil and climate are relaxed by excessive moisture : twenty-eight rivers, besides the Phasis and his de- pendent streams, convey their waters to the sea ; and the hol- lowness of the ground appears to indicate the subterraneous channels between the Euxine and the Caspian. In the fields where wheat or barley is sown, the earth is too soft to sustain the action of the plough ; but the gom, a small grain, not un- like the millet or coriander seed, supplies the ordinary food of the people ; and the use of bread is confined to the prince and his nobles. Yet the vintage is more plentiful than the harvest ; and the bulk of the stems, as well as the quality of the wine, display the unassisted powers of nature. The same powers continually tend to overshadow the face of the coun- 66 Besides the many occasional hints from the poets, historians, etc., of antiq- uity, we may consult the geographical descriptions of Colchis by Strabo (1. xi. p. 760-765 [p. 497-501, edit. Casaub.]) and Pliny (Hist. Natur. vi. 5, 19, etc.). 61 I shall quote, and have used, three modern descriptions of Mingrelia and the adjacent countries. 1. Of the Pere Archangeli Lamberti (Relations de Thevenot, part i. p. 31-52, with a map), who has all the knowledge and prejudices of a mis- sionary. 2. Of Chardin (Voyages en Perse, torn. i. p. 54, 68-168): his observa- tions are judicious ; and his own adventures in the country are still more instruc- tive than his observations. 3. Of Peyssonel (Observations sur les Peuples Bar- bares, p. 49, 50, 51, 58, 62, 64, 65, 71, etc., and a more recent treatise, Sur la Commerce de la Mer Noire, torn. ii. p. 1-53) : he had long resided at Caffa, aa consul of France ; and his erudition is less valuable than his experience. 348 DESCRIPTION OF COLCHIS. [Ch. XLIL try with thick forests : the timber of the hills, and the flax of the plains, contribute to the abundance of naval stores ; the wild and tame animals, the horse, the ox, and the hog, are re- markably prolific, and the name of the pheasant is expressive of his native habitation on the banks of the Phasis. The gold-mines to the south of Trebizond, which are still worked with sufficient profit, were a subject of national dispute be- tween Justinian and Chosroes ; and it is not unreasonable to believe that a vein of precious metal may be equally diffused through the circle of the hills, although these secret treasures are neglected by the laziness, or concealed by the prudence, of the Mingrelians. The waters, impregnated with particles of gold, are carefully strained through sheepskins or fleeces ; but this expedient, the groundwork, perhaps, of a marvellous fable, affords a faint image of the wealth extracted from a virgin earth by the power and industry of ancient kings. Their silver palaces and golden chambers surpass our belief; but the fame of their riches is said to have excited the enter- prising avarice of the Argonauts. 68 Tradition has affirmed, with some color of reason, that Egypt planted on the Phasis a learned and polite colony, 69 which manufactured linen, built navies, and invented geographical maps. The ingenuity of the moderns has peopled with flourishing cities and nations the isthmus between the Euxine and the Caspian ; T0 and a lively writer, observing the resemblance of climate, and, in his ap- prehension, of trade, has not hesitated to pronounce Colchis the Holland of antiquity. 71 But the riches of Colchis shine only through the darkness 68 Pliny, Hist. Natur. I. xxxiii. 15. The gold and silver mines of Colchis at- tracted the Argonauts (Strab. 1. i. p. 77 [p. 45, edit. Casaub.]). The sagacious Chardin could find no gold in mines, rivers, or elsewhere. Yet a Mingrelian lost his hand and foot for showing some specimens at Constantinople of native gold. 69 Herodot. 1. ii. c. 104, 105, p. 150, 151 ; Diodor. Sicul. 1. i. [c. 28] p. 33, edit. Wesseling ; Dionys. Perieget. 689 ; and Eustath. ad loc Scholiast, ad Apollonium Argonaut. I. iv. 282-291. 10 Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, 1. xxi. ch. 6. LTsthme * * * couvert de villea et nations qui ne sont plus. 11 Bougainville, Me'moires de l'Acade'mie des Inscriptions, torn. xxvi. p. 33, on the African voyage of Hanno and the commerce of antiquity. a.d.500.] MANNERS OF THE COLCHIANS. 349 of conjecture or tradition ; and its genuine history presents Manners of a uniform scene of rudeness and poverty. If one the natives, hundred and thirty languages were spoken in the market of Dioscurias/ 2 they were the imperfect idioms of so many savage tribes or families, sequestered from each oth- er in the valleys of Mount Caucasus; and their separation, which diminished the importance, must have multiplied the number, of their rustic capitals. In the present state of Min- grelia, a village is an assemblage of huts within a wooden fence ; the fortresses are seated in the depth of forests ; the princely town of Cyta, or Cotatis, consists of two hundred houses, and a stone edifice appertains only to the magnificence of kings. Twelve ships from Constantinople, and about sixty barks, laden with the fruits of industry, annually cast anchor on the coast; and the list of Colchian exports is much in- creased, since the natives had only slaves and hides to offer in exchange for the corn and salt which they purchased from the subjects of Justinian. Not a vestige can be found of the art, the knowledge, or the navigation of the ancient Colchians: few Greeks desired or dared to pursue the footsteps of the Argonauts ; and even the marks of an Egyptian colony are lost on a nearer approach. The rite of circumcision is prac- tised only by the Mahometans of the Euxine ; and the curled hair and swarthy complexion of Africa no longer disfigure the most perfect of the human race. It is in the adjacent climates of Georgia, Mingrelia, and Circassia that nature has placed, at least to our eyes, the model of beauty, in the shape of the limbs, the color of the skin, the symmetry of the feat- ures, and the expression of the countenance. 73 According to the destination of the two sexes, the men seem formed for 74 A Greek historian, Timosthenes, had affirmed, in earn ccc nationes dissimili- bus Unguis descendere ; and the modest Pliny is content to add, et postea a nostris cxxx interpretibus negotia ibi gesta (vi. 5): but the words "nunc deserta" cover a multitude of past fictions. 13 Buffon (Hist. Natur. torn. iii. p. 433-437) collects the unanimous suffrage of naturalists and travellers. If, in the time of Herodotus, they were in truth fiekdy- Xpoeg and ovkoTpixeQ (and he had observed them with care), this precious fact ia an example of the influence of climate on a foreign colony. 350 MANNERS OF THE COLCHIANS. [Ch. XLIL action, the women for love ; and the perpetual supply of fe- males from Mount Caucasus has purified the blood and im- proved the breed of the southern nations of Asia. The prop- er district of Mingrelia, a portion only of the ancient Colchis, has long sustained an exportation of twelve thousand slaves. The number of prisoners or criminals would be inadequate to the annual demand ; but the common people are in a state of servitude to their lords ; the exercise of fraud or rapine is un< punished in a lawless community ; and the market is contin- ually replenished by the abuse of civil and paternal authority. Such a trade, 74 which reduces the human species to the level of cattle, may tend to encourage marriage and population, since the multitude of children enriches their sordid and in- human parent. But this source of impure wealth must in- evitably poison the national manners, obliterate the sense of honor and virtue, and almost extinguish the instincts of nat- ure: the Christians of Georgia and Mingrelia are the most dissolute of mankind ; and their children, who, in a tender age, are sold into foreign slavery, have already learned to imi- tate the rapine of the father and the prostitution of the moth- er. Yet, amidst the rudest ignorance, the untaught natives discover a singular dexterity both of mind and hand ; and al- though the want of union and discipline exposes them to their more powerful neighbors, a bold and intrepid spirit has an- imated the Colchians of every age. In the host of Xerxes they served on foot ; and their arms were a dagger or a jave- lin, a wooden casque, and a buckler of raw hides. But in their own country the use of cavalry has more generally pre- vailed : the meanest of the peasants disdain to walk ; the martial nobles are possessed, perhaps, of two hundred horses ; and above five thousand are numbered in the train of the Prince of Mingrelia. The Colchian government has been al- ways a pure and hereditary kingdom ; and the authority of 74 The Mingrelian ambassador arrived at Constantinople with two hundred per- sons ; but he ate (sold) them day by day, till his retinue was diminished to a sec- retary and two valets (Tavernier, torn. i. p. 365). To purchase his mistress, a Mingrelian gentleman sold twelve priests and his wife to the Turks (Ghardin, torn. i. p. 66). A.D. 500.] REVOLUTIONS OF COLCHIS. 351 the sovereign is only restrained by the turbulence of his sub- jects. Whenever they were obedient, he could lead a numer- ous army into the field ; but some faith is requisite to believe that the single tribe of the Suanians was composed of two hundred thousand soldiers, or that the population of Min- grelia now amounts to four millions of inhabitants. 76 It was the boast of the Colchians that their ancestors had checked the victories of Sesostris ; and the defeat of the devolutions Egyptian is less incredible than his successful of cokhis; progress as far as the foot of Mount Caucasus. They sunk without any memorable effort under the arms of Cyrus, followed in distant wars the standard of the Great King, and presented him every fifth year with one hundred under the boys and as many virgins, the fairest produce of ggf" the land.'' 6 Yet he accepted this gift like the gold Christ, 500; an( j e |3 0n y f India, the frankincense of the Arabs, or the negroes and ivory of ^Ethiopia : the Colchians were not subject to the dominion of a satrap, and they continued to enjoy the name as well as substance of national indepen- dence. 77 After the fall of the Persian empire, Mithridates, King of Pontus, added Colchis to the wide circle of his do- minions on the Euxine ; and when the natives presumed to request that his son might reign over them, he bound the ambitious youth in chains of gold, and delegated a under the Eo- . *, . t t • i- •«*■• i • i mans, before servant in his place. In pursuit of Mithridates, the Christ 60 Romans advanced to the banks of the Phasis, and their galleys ascended the river till they reached the camp 15 Strabo, 1. xi. p. 763 [p. 499, edit. Casaub.]. Lamberti, Relation de la Min- grelie. Yet we must avoid the contrary extreme of Chardin, who allows no more than 20,000 inhabitants to supply an annual exportation of 12,000 slaves ; an ab- surdity unworthy of that judicious traveller. 76 Herodot. 1. iii. c. 97. See, in 1. vii. c. 79, their arms and service in the ex- pedition of Xerxes against Greece. 17 Xenophon, who had encountered the Colchians in his retreat (Anabasis, 1. iv. [c. 8] p. 320, 343, 348, edit. Hutchinson ; and Foster's Dissertation, p. liii.-lriii., in Spelman's English version, vol. ii.), styles them avrovofioi. Before the con- quest of Mithridates they are named by Appian Wvoq apeifiavkg (de Bell. Mithri- datico, c. 15, torn. i. p. 661, of the last and best edition, by John Schweighasuser, I Lipsiss, 1785, 3 vols, large octavo). 352 REVOLUTIONS OF COLCHIS. [Ch. XLIL of Pompey and his legions. 78 But the senate, and afterwards the emperors, disdained to reduce that distant and useless con- quest into the form of a province. The family of a Greek rhetorician was permitted to reign in Colchis and the adja- cent kingdoms from the time of Mark Antony to that of Nero ; and after the race of Polemo 79 was extinct, the eastern Pontus, which preserved his name, extended no farther than the neighborhood of Trebizond. Beyond these limits the fortifications of Hyssus, of Apsarus, of the Phasis, of Dioscu- rias or Sebastopolis, and of Pityus, were guarded by sufficient detachments of horse and foot ; and six princes of Colchis re- ceived their diadems from the lieutenants of Caesar. One of these lieutenants, the eloquent and philosophic Arrian, sur- veyed an d nas described the Euxine coast under Arrian, the reign of Hadrian. The garrison which he re- viewed at the mouth of the Phasis consisted of four hundred chosen legionaries ; the brick walls and towers, the double ditch, and the military engines on the rampart, ren- dered this place inaccessible to the barbarians ; but the new suburbs which had been built by the merchants and veterans required, in the opinion of Arrian, some external defence. 80 As the strength of the empire was gradually impaired, the Romans stationed on the Phasis were either withdrawn or ex- pelled ; and the tribe of the Lazi, 81 whose posterity speak a 78 The conquest of Colchis by Mithridates and Pompey is marked by Appian (de Bell. Mithridat. [1. c] and Plutarch (in Vit. Pomp. [c. 30, 34]). 79 We may trace the rise and fall of the family of Polemo, in Strabo (1. xi. p. 755; 1. xii. p. 867 [p. 493 and 578, edit. Casaub.j), Dion Cassius or Xiphilin (p. 588, 593, 601, 719, 754, 915, 946, edit. Reimar [1. xlix. c. 25, 33, 44 ; 1. liii. c. 25; 1. liv. c. 24 ; 1. lix. c. 12 ; 1. lx. c. 8]), Suetonius (in Neron. c. 18, in Vespasian, c. 8), Eutropius (vii. 14 [9], Josephus (Antiq. Judaic. 1. xx. c. 6, p. 970, edit. Haver- camp), and Eusebius (Chron. with Scaliger, Animadvers. p. 196). 80 In the time of Procopius there were no Eoman forts on the Phasis. Pityus and Sebastopolis were evacuated on the rumor of the Persians (Goth. 1. iv. c. 4) ; but the latter was afterwards restored by Justinian (de MdiL 1. iii. c. 7 [torn. iii. p. 261, edit. Bonn]). 81 In the time of Pliny, Arrian, and Ptolemy, the Lazi were a particular tribe on the northern skirts of Colchis (Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq. torn. ii. p. 222). In the age of Justinian they spread, or at least reigned, over the whole country. At present they have migrated along the coast towards Trebizond, and compose a »ude seafaring people, with a peculiar language (Chardin, p. 149; Peyssonel, p. 64). a.d. 522.] THE CONVEESION OF THE LAZI. 353 foreign dialect and inhabit the sea- coast of Trebizond, im- posed their name and dominion on the ancient kingdom of Colchis. Their independence was soon invaded by a formida- ble neighbor, who had acquired by arms and treaties the sov- ereignty of Iberia. The dependent King of Lazica received his sceptre at the hands of the Persian monarch, and the suc- cessors of Constantine acquiesced in this injurious claim, which was proudly urged as a right of immemorial prescription. In the beginning of the sixth century their influence was restored by the introduction of Christianity, which the Min- Conversion " . V oftheLazi. grelians still proiess with becoming zeal, without A.D.522. & Til • 1.1 understanding the doctrines or observing the pre- cepts of their religion. After the decease of his father, Za- thus was exalted to the regal dignity by the favor of the Great King ; but the pious youth abhorred the ceremonies of the Magi, and sought in the palace of Constantinople an or- thodox baptism, a noble wife, and the alliance of the Emperor Justin. The King of Lazica was solemnly invested with the diadem, and his cloak and tunic of white silk, with a gold border, displayed in rich embroidery the figure of his new patron, who soothed the jealousy of the Persian court, and excused the revolt of Colchis, by the venerable names of hospitality and religion. The common interest of both em- pires imposed on the Colchians the duty of guarding the passes of Mount Caucasus, where a wall of sixty miles is now defended by the monthly service of the musketeers of Min- grelia. 82 But this honorable connection was soon corrupted by the avarice and ambition of the Eomans. Degraded from the rank of allies, the Lazi were incessantly reminded by words and actions of their dependent state. At the distance of a day's journey beyond the Apsarus they beheld the rising for- 82 John Malala, Chron. torn. ii. p. 134-137 [edit. Oxon. ; p. 412-414, edit. Bonn] ; Theophanes, p. 144. [torn. i. p. 259, edit. Bonn] ; Hist. Miscell. 1. xv. p. 1 103. The fact is authentic, but the date seems too recent. In speaking of their I Persian alliance, the Lazi contemporaries of Justinian employ the most obsolete I words — tv ypc'tfi/xaai nvij/xua, irpoyovoi, etc. Could they belong to a connection \ which had not been dissolved above twenty years ? IV.— 23 354 EEYOLT AND REPENTANCE [Ch. XLIL tress of Petra, 83 whicli commanded the maritime country to the south of Phasis. Instead of being protected by Revolt and .. 1 . ° x . J repentance the valor, Colchis was insulted by the licentiousness, chians. of foreign mercenaries; the benefits of commerce a.d. 542-549. were converted into base and vexatious monopo- ly ; and Gubazes, the native prince, was reduced to a pageant of royalty by the superior influence of the officers of Justin- ian. Disappointed in their expectations of Christian virtue, the indignant Lazi reposed some confidence in the justice of an unbeliever. After a private assurance that their ambassa- dors should not be delivered to the Romans, they publicly so- licited the friendship and aid of Chosroes. The sagacious monarch instantly discerned the use and importance of Col- chis, and meditated a plan of conquest which was renewed at the end of a thousand years by Shah Abbas, the wisest and most powerful of his successors. 84 His ambition was fired by the hope of launching a Persian navy from the Phasis, of commanding the trade and navigation of the Euxine Sea, of desolating the coast of Pontus and Bithynia, of distressing, perhaps of attacking, Constantinople, and of persuading the barbarians of Europe to second his arms and counsels against the common enemy of mankind. Under the pretence of a Scythian war he silently led his troops to the frontiers of Ibe- ria; the Colchian guides were prepared to conduct them through the woods and along the precipices of Mount Cauca- sus, and a narrow path was laboriously formed into a safe and spacious highway for the march of cavalry, and even of ele- phants. Gubazes laid his person and diadem at the feet of the King of Persia, his Colchians imitated the submission of their prince ; and after the walls of Petra had been shaken, the Roman garrison prevented by a capitulation the impend- 83 The sole vestige of Petra subsists in the writings of Procopius and Agathias. Most of the towns and castles of Lazica may be found by comparing their names and position with the map of Mingrelia, in Lamberti. 84 See the amusing letters of Pietro della Valle, the Roman traveller (Viaggi, torn. ii. 207, 209, 213, 215, 266, 286, 300 ; torn. iii. p. 5i, 127). In the years 1618, 1619, and 1620, he conversed with Shah Abbas, and strongly encouraged a design which might have united Persia and Europe against their common enemy the Turk. A.D. 549-551.] OF THE COLCHIANS. 355 ing fury of the last assault. But the Lazi soon discovered that their impatience had urged them to choose an evil more intolerable than the calamities which they strove to escape. The monopoly of salt and corn was effectually removed by the loss of those valuable commodities. The authority of a Roman legislator was succeeded by the pride of an Orient- al despot, who beheld with equal disdain the slaves whom he had exalted, and the kings whom he had humbled before the footstool of his throne. The adoration of lire was in- troduced into Colchis by the zeal of the Magi, their intol- erant spirit provoked the fervor of a Christian people, and the prejudice of nature or education was wounded by the im- pious practice of exposing the dead bodies of their parents on the summit of a lofty tower to the crows and vultures of the air. 85 Conscious of the increasing hatred which retarded the execution of his great designs, the just Nushirvan had secretly given orders to assassinate the king of the Lazi, to transplant the people into some distant land, and to fix a faithful and warlike colony on the banks of the Phasis. The watchful jealousy of the Colchians foresaw and averted the approaching ruin. Their repentance was accepted at Con- stantinople by the prudence, rather than the clemency, of Justinian ; and he commanded Dagisteus, with seven thou- sand Romans and one thousand of the Zani, a to expel the Persians from the coast of the Euxine. The siege of Petra, which the Roman general, with the aid of the Lazi, immediately undertook, is one of the most re- markable actions of the age. The city was seated on a craggy rock, which hung over the sea, and communicated by a steep 85 See Herodotus (1. i. c. 140, p. 69), who speaks with diffidence, Larcher (torn. i. p. 399-401 ; Notes sur Herodote), Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c. 1 1 [torn. i. p. 56, edit, Bonn]), and Agathias (1. ii. p. 61, 62 [edit. Par. ; p. 113 seq., edit. Bonn]). This practice, agreeable to the Zendavesta (Hyde, de Relig. Pers. c. 34, p. 414- 421), demonstrates that the burial of the Persian kings [Xenophon, Cyropaed. 1. fiii. [c. 7] p. 658), ri yap tovtov fiaKapLorepov tov ry yrj fiixOijvai, is a Greek fio tion, and that their tombs could be no more than cenotaphs. a These seem the same people called Suanians, p. 351. — M. 356 SIEGE OF PETRA. [Ch.XLIL and narrow path with the land. Since the approach waa difficult, the attack might be deemed impossible; pet?!. the Persian conqueror had strengthened the for- tifications of Justinian, and the places least inac- cessible were covered by additional bulwarks. In this impor- tant fortress the vigilance of Chosroes had deposited a maga- zine of offensive and defensive arms sufficient for five times the number, not only of the garrison, but of the besiegers themselves. The stock of flour and salt provisions was ade- quate to the consumption of five years ; the want of wine was supplied by vinegar, and grain from whence a strong liquor was extracted; and a triple aqueduct eluded the dili- gence and even the suspicions of the enemy. Bat the firmest defence of Petra was placed in the valor of fifteen hundred Persians, who resisted the assaults of the Romans, whilst in a softer vein of earth a mine was secretly perforated. The wall, supported by slender and temporary props, hung totter- ing in the air; but Dagisteus delayed the attack till he had secured a specific recompense, and the town was relieved be- fore the return of his messenger from Constantinople. The Persian garrison was reduced to four hundred men, of whom no more than fifty were exempt from sickness or wounds; yet such had been their inflexible perseverance, that they concealed their losses from the enemy by enduring without a murmur the sight and putrefying stench of the dead bodies of their eleven hundred companions. After their deliverance the breaches were hastily stopped with sand-bags, the mine was replenished with earth, a new wall was erected on a frame of substantial timber, and a fresh garrison of three thousand men was stationed at Petra to sustain the labors of a second siege. The operations, both of the attack and de- fence, were conducted with skilful obstinacy ; and each party derived useful lessons from the experience of their past faults. A battering-ram was invented, of light construction and pow- erful effect ; it was transported and worked by the hands of forty soldiers; and as the stones were loosened by its re- peated strokes, they were torn with long iron hooks from the wall. From those walls a shower of darts was incessantly A.i>. 549-556.] THE COLCHIAN WAR. 357 poured on the heads of the assailants, but thej were most dangerously annoyed by a fiery composition of sulphur and bitumen, which in Colchis might with some propriety be named the oil of Medea. Of six thousand Romans who mounted the scaling-ladders, their general Bessas was the first, a gallant veteran of seventy years of age : the courage of their leader, his fall, and extreme danger, animated the irresistible effort of his troops, and their prevailing numbers oppressed the strength, without subduing the spirit, of the Persian garrison. The fate of these valiant men deserves to be more distinctly noticed. Seven hundred had perished in the siege, two thousand three hundred survived to defend the breach. One thousand and seventy were destroyed with fire and sword in the last assault ; and if seven hundred and thirty were made prisoners, only eighteen among them were found without the marks of honorable wounds. The remain- ing five hundred escaped into the citadel, which they main- tained without any hopes of relief, rejecting the fairest terms of capitulation and service till they were lost in the flames. They died in obedience to the commands of their prince, and such examples of loyalty and valor might excite their coun- trymen to deeds of equal despair and more prosperous event. The instant demolition of the works of Petra confessed the astonishment and apprehension of the conqueror. A Spartan would have praised and pitied the virtue of these heroic slaves; but the tedious warfare and alternate success of the Roman and Persian arms cannot de- or Lazic war. tain the attention of posterity at the foot of Mount Caucasus. The advantages obtained by the troops of Justinian were more frequent and splendid; but the forces of the Great King were continually supplied till they amounted to eight elephants and seventy thousand men, in- cluding twelve thousand Scythian allies and above three thou- sand Dilemites, who descended by their free choice from the hills of Hyrcania, and were equally formidable in close or in distant combat. The siege of Archseopolis, a name imposed or corrupted by the Greeks, was raised with some loss and precipitation, but the Persians occupied the passes of Iberia. 358 THE COLCHIAN WAR. [Ch. XLII. Colciiis was enslaved by their forts and garrisons, they de- voured the scanty sustenance of the people, and the prince of the Lazi fled into the mountains. In the Eoman camp faith and discipline were unknown, and the independent leaders, who were invested with equal power, disputed with each other the pre-eminence of vice and corruption. The Persians followed without a murmur the commands of a single chief, who implicitly obeyed the instructions of their supreme lord. Their general was distinguished among the heroes of the East by his wisdom in council and his valor in the field. The ad- vanced age of Mermeroes, and the lameness of both his feet, could not diminish the activity of his mind or even of his body ; and, whilst he was carried in a litter in the front of battle, he inspired terror to the enemy, and a just confidence to the troops, who under his banners were always successful. After his death the command devolved to Nacoragan, a proud satrap who, in a conference with the imperial chiefs, had pre- sumed to declare that he disposed of victory as absolutely as of the ring on his finger. Such presumption was the natu- ral cause and forerunner of a shameful defeat. The Romans had been gradually repulsed to the edge of the sea-shore; and their last camp, on the ruins of the Grecian colony of Phasis, was defended on all sides by strong intrenchments, the river, the Euxine, and a fleet of galleys. Despair united their coun- sels and invigorated their arms ; they withstood the assault of the Persians, and the flight of Nacoragan preceded or fol- lowed the slaughter of ten thousand of his bravest soldiers. He escaped from the Romans to fall into the hands of an un- forgiving master, who severely chastised the error of his own choice : the unfortunate general was flayed alive, and his skin, stuffed into the human form, was exposed on a mountain — a dreadful warning to those who might hereafter be intrusted with the fame and fortune of Persia. 86 Yet the prudence of Chosroes insensibly relinquished the prosecution of the Col- 86 The punishment of flaying alive could not be introduced into Persia by Sapor (Brisson, de Regn. Pers. 1. ii. p. 578), nor could it be copied from the foolish tale of Marsyas, the Phrygian piper, most foolishly quoted as a precedent by Agathias (1. iv. p. 132, 133). a.d. 549-55C] THE COLCIIIAN WAR. 359 chian war, in the just persuasion that it is impossible to re- duce, or at least to hold, a distant country against the wishes and efforts of its inhabitants. The fidelity of Gubazes sus- tained the most rigorous trials. He patiently endured the hardships of a savage life, and rejected with disdain the spe- cious temptations of the Persian court. a The king of the Lazi had been educated in the Christian religion ; his mother was the daughter of a senator; during his youth he had served ten years a silentiary of the Byzantine palace, 87 and the arrears of an unpaid salary were a motive of attachment as well as of complaint. But the long continuance of his sufferings extorted from him a naked representation of the truth, and truth was an unpardonable libel on the lieutenants of Justinian, who, amidst the delays of a ruinous war, had spared his enemies and trampled on his allies. Their mali- cious information persuaded the emperor that his faithless vassal already meditated a second defection : an order was surprised to send him prisoner to Constantinople ; a treacher- ous clause was inserted that he might be lawfully killed in case of resistance ; and Gubazes, without arms or suspicion of danger, was stabbed in the security of a friendly interview. In the first moments of rage and despair, the Colchians would have sacrificed their country and religion to the gratification of revenge. But the authority and eloquence of the wiser few obtained a salutary pause : the victory of the Phasis re- stored the terror of the Roman arms, and the emperor was solicitous to absolve his own name from the imputation of so foul a murder. A judge of senatorial rank was commissioned to inquire into the conduct and death of the king of the Lazi. He ascended a stately tribunal, encompassed by the ministers of justice and punishment : in the presence of both nations this extraordinary cause was pleaded according to the forms 81 In the palace of Constantinople there were thirty silentiaries, who are styled hastati ante fores cubiculi, ri/c [_a/jKpi rbv fiaaiXia] ffiyric iiriaraTai, an honorable title which conferred the rank, without imposing the duties, of a senator (Cod. Theodos. 1. vi. tit. 23 ; Gothofred. Comment, torn. ii. p. 129). 11 According to Agathias, the death of Gubazes preceded the defeat of Nacora* gau. The trial took place after the battle. — M. 360 NEGOTIATIONS AND TREATIES [Ch. XLIIi of civil jurisprudence, and some satisfaction was granted to an injured people by the sentence and execution of the mean- er criminals. 88 In peace the King of Persia continually sought the pre- tences of a rupture, but no sooner had he taken up arms than Negotiations ne expressed his desire of a safe and honorable totmra jm- treaty. During the fiercest hostilities the two chosroes. 3 monarchs entertained a deceitful negotiation : and a.d. 540-561. guc j 1 wag f.j ie SU p er i or ity of Chosroes, that, whilst he treated the Roman ministers with insolence and contempt, he obtained the most unprecedented honors for his own am- bassadors at the imperial court. The successor of Cyrus as- sumed the majesty of the Eastern sun, and graciously per- mitted his younger brother Justinian to reign over the West with the pale and reflected splendor of the moon. This gi- gantic style was supported by the pomp and eloquence of Isdigune, one of the royal chamberlains. His wife and daughters, with a train of eunuchs and camels, attended the march of the ambassador ; two satraps with golden diadems were numbered among his followers ; he was guarded by five hundred horse, the most valiant of the Persians, and the Ro- man governor of Dara wisely refused to admit more than twenty of this martial and hostile caravan. When Isdigune had saluted the emperor and delivered his presents, he passed ten months at Constantinople without discussing any serious affairs. Instead of being confined to his palace, and receiving food and water from the hands of his keepers, the Persian ambassador, without spies or guards, was allowed to visit the capital, and the freedom of conversation and trade enjoyed by his domestics offended the prejudices of an age which rig- orously practised the law of nations without confidence or 88 On these judicial orations Agathias (1. iii. p. 81-89 ; 1. iv. p. 108-119 [p. 155- 170, 206-230, edit. Bonn]) lavishes eighteen or twenty pages of false and florid rhetoric. His ignorance or carelessness overlooks the strongest argument against the King of Lazica — his former revolt.* a The Orations in the third book of Agathias are not judicial, nor delivered be- fore the Roman tribunal : it is a deliberative debate among the Colchians on the expediency of adhering to the Roman, or embracing the Persian alliance. — M. AJ). 540-561.] BETWEEN JUSTINIAN AND CHOSROES. 361 courtesy. 89 By an unexampled indulgence, his interpreter, a servant below the notice of a Roman magistrate, was seated at the table of Justinian by the side of his master, and one thousand pounds of gold might be assigned for the expense of his journey and entertainment. Yet the repeated labors of Isdigune could procure only a partial and imperfect truce, which was always purchased with the treasures, and renewed at the solicitation, of the Byzantine court. Many years of fruitless desolation elapsed before Justinian and Chosroes were compelled by mutual lassitude to consult the repose of their declining age. At a conference held on the frontier, each party, without expecting to gain credit, displayed the power, the justice, and the pacific intentions of their respective sov- ereigns ; but necessity and interest dictated the treaty of peace, which was concluded for a term of fifty years, diligent- ly composed in the Greek and Persian languages, and attest- ed by the seals of twelve interpreters. The liberty of com- merce and religion was fixed and defined, the allies of the em- peror and the Great King were included in the same bene- fits and obligations, and the most scrupulous precautions were provided to prevent or determine the accidental disputes that might arise on the confines of two hostile nations. After twenty years of destructive though feeble war, the limits still remained without alteration, and Chosroes was persuaded to renounce his dangerous claim to the possession or sovereignty of Colchis and its dependent states. Rich in the accumulated treasures of the East, he extorted from the Romans an annual payment of thirty thousand pieces of gold ; and the smallness of the sum revealed the disgrace of a tribute in its naked de- formity. In a previous debate, the chariot of Sesostris and the wheel of fortune were applied by one of the ministers of Justinian, who observed that the reduction of Antioch and some Syrian cities had elevated beyond measure the vain and 89 Procopius represents the practice of the Gothic court of Ravenna (Goth. 1. i. c. 7 [torn. ii. p. 34, edit. Bonn]) ; and foreign ambassadors have been treated with the same jealousy and rigor in Turkey (Busbequius, Epist. iii. p. 149, 242, etc.), Russia (Voyage d'Olearius), and China (Narrative of M. de Lange, in Bell's Travels, vol. ii. p. 189-311). 362 CONQUESTS OF THE ABYSSINIANS. [Ch. XLII ambitious spirit of the barbarian. " Tou are mistaken," re- plied the modest Persian ; " the king of kings, the lord of mankind, looks down with contempt on such petty acquisi- tions; and of the ten nations vanquished by his invincible arms, he esteems the Romans as the least formidable." 90 Ac- cording to the Orientals, the empire of Nushirvan extended from Ferganah, in Transoxiana, to Yemen, or Arabia Felix. He subdued the rebels of Hyrcania, reduced the provinces of Cabul and Zablestan, on the banks of the Indus, broke the power of the Euthalites, terminated by an honorable treaty the Turkish war, and admitted the daughter of the great khan into the number of his lawful wives. Victorious and respect- ed among the princes of Asia, he gave audience, in his pal- ace of Madain or Ctesiphou, to the ambassadors of the world. Their gifts or tributes, arms, rich garments, gems, slaves, or aromatics, were humbly presented at the foot of his throne; and he condescended to accept from the King of India ten quintals of the wood of aloes, a maid seven cubits in height, and a carpet softer than silk, the skin, as it was reported, of an extraordinary serpent. 91 Justinian had been reproached for his alliance with the ^Ethiopians, as if he attempted to introduce a people of sav- conquesta a S e negroes into the system of civilized society. shiiai e 18 Abys " But the friends of the Roman empire, the Axu- a.d. 522. mites or Abyssinians, may be always distinguished from the original natives of Africa. 9 * The hand of nature 90 The negotiations and treaties between Justinian and Chosroes are copiously explained by Procopius (Persic. 1. ii. c. 10, 13, 26, 27, 28 ; Gothic. 1. ii. c. 11, 15; Agathias, 1. iv. p. 141, 142 [edit. Par. ; p. 274 seq., edit. Bonn]), and Menander (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 132-147 [p. 346 seq., edit. Bonn]). Consult Barbeyrac, Hist, des Anciens Traite's, torn. ii. p. 154, 181-184, 193-200. 91 D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient, p. 680, 681, 294, 295. 92 See Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, torn. iii. p. 449. This Arab cast of features and complexion, which has continued 3400 years (Ludolph. Hist, et Comment. iEthi- opic. 1. i. c. 4) in the colony of Abyssinia, will justify the suspicion that race, as well as climate, must have contributed to form the negroes of the adjacent and similar regions.* * Mr. Salt (Travels, vol. ii. p. 458) considers them to be distinct from the Arabs ''-"in feature, color, habit, and manners." — M. a.d. 522.] CONQUESTS OF THE ABYSSINIANS. 363 has flattened the noses of the negroes, covered their heads with shaggy wool, and tinged their skin with inherent and in- delible blackness. But the olive complexion of the Abyssin- ians, their hair, shape, and features, distinctly mark them as a colony of Arabs, and this descent is confirmed by the re- semblance of language and manners, the report of an ancient emigration, and the narrow interval between the shores of the Red Sea. Christianity had raised that nation above the level of African barbarism ; 93 their intercourse with Egypt and the successors of Constantine 8 * had communicated the rudiments of the arts and sciences; their vessels traded to the isle of Ceylon, 95 and seven kingdoms obeyed the Negus or supreme prince of Abyssinia. The independence of the Homerites, a who reigned in the rich and happy Arabia, was first violated by an ^Ethiopian conqueror: he drew his hereditary claim from the Queen of Sheba, 98 and his ambition was sanctified by religious zeal. The Jews, powerful and active in exile, had seduced the mind of Dunaan, prince of the Homerites. They urged him to retaliate the persecution inflicted by the 93 The Portuguese missionaries, Alvarez (Eamusio, torn. i. fol. 204, rect. 274, vers.), Bermudez (Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. ii. 1. v. ch. 7, p. 1149-1188), Lobo (Re- lation, etc., par M. le Grand, with fifteen Dissertations, Paris, 1728), and Tellez (Relations de Thevenot, part iv.), could only relate of modern Abyssinia what they had seen or invented. The erudition of Ludolphus (Hist. iEthiopica. Fran- cofurt. 1681 ; Commentarius, 1691 ; Appendix, 1694), in twenty-five languages, could add little concerning its ancient history. Yet the fame of Caled, or Ellis- thsRus, the conqueror of Yemen, is celebrated in national songs and legends. 94 The negotiations of Justinian with the Axumites, or .^Ethiopians, are record- ed by Procopius (Persic. 1. i. c. 19, 20) and John Malala (torn. ii. p. 163-165, 193- 196 [p. 433, 434-457, 459, edit. Bonn]). The historian of Antioch quotes the original narrative of the ambassador Nonnosus, of which Photius (Biblioth. Cod. iii.) has preserved a curious extract. 95 The trade of the Axumites to the coast of India and Africa and the Isle of Ceylon is curiously represented by Cosmas Indicopleustes (Topograph. Christian. 1. ii. p. 132, 138, 139, 140; 1. xi. p. 338, 339). 96 Ludolph. Hist, et Comment. iEthiop. 1. ii. c. 3. * It appears by the important inscription discovered by Mr. Salt at Axoum, and from a law of Constantius (16th January, 356, inserted in the Theodosian Code, I. 12, c. 12), that in the middle of the fourth century of our era, the princes of the Axumites joined to their titles that of king of the Homerites. The conquests which they made over the Arabs in the sixth century were only a restoration of the ancient order of things. St. Martin, vol. viii. p. 46. — M. 364 ALLIANCE OF THE ABYSSINIANS [Ch.XLIL imperial laws on their unfortunate brethren ; some Roman merchants were injuriously treated, and several Christians of Negra 97 were honored with the crown of martyrdom. 98 The churches of Arabia implored the protection of the Abyssin- ian monarch. The Negus passed the Red Sea with a fleet and army, deprived the Jewish proselyte of his kingdom and life, and extinguished a race of princes who had ruled above two thousand years the sequestered region of myrrh and frankincense. The conqueror immediately announced the victory of the Gospel, requested an orthodox patriarch, and so warmly professed his friendship to the Roman empire, that Justinian was flattered by the hope of diverting the silk-trade through the channel of Abyssinia, and of exciting the forces of Arabia against the Persian king. Nonnosus, descended from a family of ambassadors, was named by the emperor to execute this important commission. He wisely declined the shorter but more dangerous road through the sandy deserts Their am- °f Nubia, ascended the Nile, embarked on the Red justiniau. Sea, and safely landed at the African port of Adu- A.D.533. j| g> p rom Adulis to the royal city of Axume is no more than fifty leagues in a direct line, but the winding passes of the mountains detained the ambassador fifteen days, and as he traversed the forests he saw, and vaguely computed, about five thousand wild elephants. The capital, according to his report, was large and populous ; and the village of Axume is still conspicuous by the regal coronations, by the ruins of a Christian temple, and by sixteen or seventeen ob- 97 The city of Negra, or Nag'ran, in Yemen, is surrounded with palm-trees, and stands in the high-road between Saana, the capital, and Mecca ; from the former ten, from the latter twenty days' journey of a caravan of camels (Abulfeda, De- script. Arabia?, p. 52). 98 The martyrdom of St. Arethas, prince of Negra, and his three hundred and forty companions,* is embellished in the legends of Metaphrastes and Nicephorus Callistus, copied by Baronius (a.d. 522, No. 22-66 ; a.d. 523, No. 16-29), and re- futed, with obscure diligence, by Basnage (Hist, des Juifs, torn. xii. 1. viii. ch. ii. p. 333-348), who investigates the state of the Jews in Arabia and ^Ethiopia. * According to Johannsen (Hist. Yemanae, Prajf. p. 89), Dunaan (Dsu Nowas) massacred 20,000 Christians, and threw them into a pit, where they were burned. They are called in the Koran the companions of the pit (socii foveas). — M. A.D.533.] WITH JUSTINIAN. 365 elisks inscribed with Grecian characters." But the Negub* gave audience in the open field, seated on a lofty chariot, which was drawn by four elephants superbly caparisoned, and surrounded by his nobles and musicians. He was clad in a linen garment and cap, holding in his hand two javelins and a light shield ; and, although his nakedness w r as imperfectly covered, he displayed the barbaric pomp of gold chains, col- lars, and bracelets, richly adorned with pearls and precious stones. The ambassador of Justinian knelt : the Negus raised him from the ground, embraced Nonnosus, kissed the seal, perused the letter, accepted the Roman alliance, and, bran- dishing his weapons, denounced implacable war against the worshippers of fire. But the proposal of the silk-trade was eluded ; and notwithstanding the assurances, and perhaps the wishes, of the Abyssinians, these hostile menaces evaporated without effect. The Homerites were unwilling to abandon their aromatic groves, to explore a sandy desert, and to en- counter, after all their fatigues, a formidable nation from whom they had never received any personal injuries. In- stead of enlarging his conquests, the King of ^Ethiopia was incapable of defending his possessions. Abrahah, b the slave of a Eoman merchant of Adulis, assumed the sceptre of the Homerites ; the troops of Africa were seduced by the luxury of the climate ; and Justinian solicited the friendship of the 99 Alvarez (in Ramusio, torn. i. fol. 219, vers. 221, vers.) saw the flourishing state of Axume in the year 1520 — " Luogo molto buono e grande." It was ruined in the same century by the Turkish invasion. No more than one hundred houses remain ; but the memory of its past greatness is preserved by the regal coronation (Ludolph. Hist, et Comment. 1. ii. c. ll). c a The Negus is differently called Elesbaan, Elesboas, Ellisthseus, probably the same name, or rather appellation. See St. Martin, vol. viii. p. 49. — M. b According to the Arabian authorities (Johannsen, Hist. Yemanae, p. 94, Bonn, 1828), Abrahah was an Abyssinian, the rival of Ariathus, the brother of the Abys- sinian king : he surprised and slew Ariathus, and by his craft appeased the re- sentment of Nadjash, the Abyssinian king. Abrahah was a Christian ; he built a magnificent church at Sana, and dissuaded his subjects from their accustomed pil- grimages to Mecca. The church was denied, it was supposed, by the Koreishites, and Abrahah took up arms to revenge himself on the Temple at Mecca. He was repelled by miracle : his elephant would not advance, but knelt down before the sacred place: Abrahah fled, discomfited and mortally wounded, to Sana. — M. c Lord Valentia's and Mr. Salt's Travels give a high notion of the ruins of Axum. — M. 366 ALLIANCE WITH THE ABYSSINIANS. [Ch. XLII. usurper, who honored with a slight tribute the supremacy of his prince. After a long series of prosperity the power of Abrahah was overthrown before the gates of Mecca, his chil- dren were despoiled by the Persian conqueror, and the ^Ethio- pians were finally expelled from the continent of Asia. This narrative of obscure and remote events is not foreign to the decline and fall of the Roman empire. If a Christian power had been maintained in Arabia, Mahomet must have been crushed in his cradle, and Abyssinia would have prevented a revolution which has changed the civil and religious state of the world. 100 a 100 The revolutions of Yemen in the sixth century must he collected from Pro- copius (Persic. 1. i. c. 19, 20), Theophanes Byzant. (apud Phot. cod. lxiv. p. 80 [p. 26, edit. Bekk.]), St. Theophanes (in Chronograph, p. 144, 145, 188, 189, 206, 207 [torn. i. p. 259, 260, 377, 378, edit. Bonn], who is full of strange blunders), Po- cock (Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 62, 65), D'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 12, 477), and Sale's Preliminary Discourse and Koran (c. 105). The revolt of Abrahah is mentioned by Procopius ; and his fall, though clouded with miracles, is an histor- ical fact. b a A period of sixty-seven years is assigned by most of the Arabian authorities to the Abyssinian kingdom in Homeritis. — M. b To the authors who have illustrated the obscure history of the Jewish and Abyssinian kingdoms in Homeritis may be added Schultens, Hist. Joctanidarum ; Walch, Historia rerum in Homerite gestarum, in the fourth volume of the Gottin- gen Transactions ; Salt's Travels, vol. ii. p. 446, etc. ; Silvestre de Sacy, vol. i. Acad, des Inscrip. ; Jost, Geschichte der Israeliter; Johannsen, Hist. Yemanae; St. Martin's Notes to Le Beau, torn. vii. p. 42. — M. A.D. 6*46-546. 1 TROUBLES OF AFRICA. 361 CHAPTER XLIH. 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. — Comets, Earth- quakes, and Plague. The review of the nations from the Danube to the Nile has exposed, on every side, the weakness of the Romans ; and our wonder is reasonably excited that they should presume to enlarge an empire whose ancient limits they were incapable of defending. But the wars, the conquests, and the triumphs of Justinian are the feeble and pernicious efforts of old age, which exhaust the remains of strength and accelerate the de- cay of the powers of life. He exulted in the glorious act of restoring Africa and Italy to the republic ; but the calamities which followed the departure of Belisarius betrayed the im- potence of the conqueror, and accomplished the ruin of those unfortunate countries. From his new acquisitions Justinian expected that his avarice, as well as pride, should be richly gratified. A rapa- cious minister of the finances closely pursued the The troubles . , iit of Africa. footsteps of Belisarius ; and, as the old registers of tribute had been burned by the Yandals, he in- dulged his fancy in a liberal calculation and arbitrary assess- ment of the wealth of Africa. 1 The increase of taxes, which 1 For the troubles of Africa I neither have nor desire another guide than Pro- copius, whose eye contemplated the image, and whose ear collected the reports, of the memorable events of his own times. In the second book of the Vandalic "War he relates the revolt of Stoza(c. 14-24), the return of Belisarius (c. 15), the victory of Germanns (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, 25, 27, 28) ; nor can I discern any symptoms of flattery or malevolence in his various portraits. 368 TROUBLES OF AFRICA. iCH.XLID. were drawn away by a distant sovereign, and a general re« sumption of the patrimony or crown-lands, soon dispelled the intoxication of the public joy : but the emperor was insensi- ble to the modest complaints of the people till he was awa- kened and alarmed by the clamors of military discontent. Many of the Roman soldiers had married the widows and daughters of the Vandals. As their own, by the double right of conquest and inheritance, they claimed the estates which Genseric had assigned to his victorious troops. They heard with disdain the cold and selfish representations of their offi- cers, that the liberality of Justinian had raised them from a savage or servile condition ; that they were already enriched by the spoils of Africa, the treasure, the slaves, and the mov- ables of the vanquished barbarians ; and that the ancient and lawful patrimony of the emperors would be applied only to the support of that government on which their own safety and reward must ultimately depend. The mutiny was secret- ly inflamed by a thousand soldiers, for the most part Heruli, who had imbibed the doctrines, and were instigated by the clergy, of the Arian sect ; and the cause of perjury and rebel- lion was sanctified by the dispensing powers of fanaticism. The Arians deplored the ruin of their Church, triumphant above a century in Africa; and they were justly provoked by the laws of the conqueror which interdicted the baptism of their children and the exercise of all religious worship. Of the Vandals chosen by Belisarius, the far greater part, in the honors of the Eastern service, forgot their country and re- ligion. But a generous band of four hundred obliged the mariners, when they were in sight of the Isle of Lesbos, to al- ter their course : they touched on Peloponnesus, ran ashore on a desert coast of Africa, and boldly erected on Mount Au- rasius the standard of independence and revolt. While the troops of the province disclaimed the commands of their su- periors, a conspiracy was formed at Carthage against the life of Solomon, who filled with honor the place of Belisarius ; and the Arians had piously resolved to sacrifice the tyrant at the foot of the altar during the awful mysteries of the festi- val of Easter. Fear or remorse restrained the daggers of the A.D.53&-545.] TROUBLES OF AFRICA. 369 assassins, but the patience of Solomon emboldened their dis- content, and at the end of ten days a furious sedition was kindled in the circus, which desolated Africa above ten years. The pillage of the city, and the indiscriminate slaughter of its inhabitants, were suspended only by darkness, sleep, and intoxication. The governor, with seven companions, among whom was the historian Procopius, escaped to Sicily. Two thirds of the army were involved in the guilt of treason ; and eight thousand insurgents, assembling in the field of Bulla, elected Stoza for their chief, a private soldier who possessed in a superior degree the virtues of a rebel. Under the mask ©f freedom, his eloquence could lead, or at least impel, the passions of his equals. He raised himself to a level with Bel- isarius and the nephew of the emperor, by daring to encoun- ter them in the field ; and the victorious generals were com- pelled to acknowledge that Stoza deserved a purer cause and a more legitimate command. Vanquished in battle, he dex- terously employed the arts of negotiation ; a Roman army was seduced from their allegiance, and the chiefs who had trusted to his faithless promise were murdered by his order in a church of Kumidia. "When every resource, either of force or perfidy, was exhausted, Stoza, with some desperate Vandals, retired to the wilds of Mauritania, obtained the daughter of a barbarian prince, and eluded the pursuit of his enemies by the report of his death. The personal weight of Belisarius, the rank, the spirit, and the temper of Germanus, the emperor's nephew, and the vigor and success of the sec- ond administration of the eunuch Solomon, restored the mod- esty of the camp, and maintained for awhile the tranquillity of Africa. But the vices of the Byzantine court were felt in that distant province ; the troops complained that they were neither paid nor relieved ; and as soon as the public disorders were sufficiently mature, Stoza was again alive, in arms, and at the gates of Carthage. He fell in a single combat, but he smiled in the agonies of death when he was informed that his own javelin had reached the heart of his antagonists * Corippus gives a different account of the death of Stoza : he was transfixed IV.— 24 370 TEOUBLES OF AFRICA. [Ch. XLIIL The example of Stoza, and the assurance that a fortunate sol- dier had been the first king, encouraged the ambition of Gon- tharis, and he promised, by a private treaty, to divide Africa with the Moors, if, with their dangerous aid, he should as- cend the throne of Carthage. The feeble Areobindus, un- skilled in the affairs of peace and war, was raised by his mar- riage with the niece of Justinian to the office of exarch. He was suddenly oppressed by a sedition of the guards, and his abject supplications, which provoked the contempt, could not move the pity, of the inexorable tyrant. After a reign of thirty days, Gontharis himself was stabbed at a banquet by the hand of Artaban ; a and it is singular enough that an Ar- menian prince of the royal family of Arsaces should re-estab- lish at Carthage the authority of the Roman empire. In the conspiracy which unsheathed the dagger of Brutus against the life of Caesar, every circumstance is curious and impor- tant to the eyes of posterity ; but the guilt or merit of these loyal or rebellious assassins could interest only the contem- poraries of Procopius, who, by their hopes and fears, their friendship or resentment, were personally engaged in the revolutions of Africa. 2 2 Yet I must not refuse him the merit of painting, in lively colors, the murder of Gontharis. One of the assassins uttered a sentiment not unworthy of a Ro- man patriot: "If I fail," said Artasires, "in the first stroke, kill me on the spot, lest the rack should extort a discovery of my accomplices. " [Vand. ii. 28, torn, i. p. 529, edit. Bonn.] by an arrow from the hand of John (not the hero of his poem), who broke des* perately through the victorious troops of the enemy. Stoza repented, says the poet, of his treasonous rebellion, and anticipated — another Catiline — eternal tor- ments as bis punishment. Reddam, improba, pcenas Quas merni. Fnriis socius Catilina crnentis Exagitatus adest. Video jam Tartara fundo, Flammarumque globos et dira incendia volvi. Johannidos, book iv. line 211. All the other authorities confirm Gibbon's account of the death of John by the hand of Stoza. This poem of Corippus, unknown to Gibbon, was first published by Mazzuchelli during the present century, and is reprinted in the new edition of the Byzantine writers. — M. a This murder was prompted to the Armenian (according to Corippus) by the good Athanasius (then Prefect of Africa). Hnne placidus can& gravitate coegit Immitem nnictare virum. — Corippus, vol. iv. ver. 237.— M. A.D. 543-558.] REBELLION OF THE MOORS. 371 That country was rapidly sinking into the state of barba- rism from whence it had been raised by the Phoenician colo- „ , „. „ nies and Roman laws ; and every step of intestine Rebellion of ' J f theMoors. discord was marked by some deplorable victory of a.d. 543-658. . .,. , . „, •», savage man over civilized society. The Moors,* though ignorant of justice, were impatient of oppression : their vagrant life and boundless wilderness disappointed the arms and eluded the chains of a conqueror; and experience had shown that neither oaths nor obligations could secure the fidelity of their attachment. The victory of Mount Au- ras had awed them into momentary submission ; but if they respected the character of Solomon, they hated and despised the pride and luxury of his two nephews, Cyrus and Sergius, on whom their uncle had imprudently bestowec the provin- cial governments of Tripoli and Pentapolis. A Moorish tribe encamped under the walls of Leptis, to renew their al- liance and receive from the governor the customary gifts. Fourscore of their deputies were introduced as friends into the city ; but, on the dark suspicion of a conspiracy, they were massacred at the table of Sergius, and the clamor of arms and revenge was re-echoed through the valleys of Mount Atlas from both the Syrtes to the Atlantic Ocean. A per- sonal injury, the unjust execution or murder of his brother, rendered Antalas the enemy of the Romans. The defeat of the Vandals had formerly signalized his valor ; the rudiments of justice and prudence were still more conspicuous in a Moor ; and, while he laid Adrumetum in ashes, he calmly admonished the emperor that the peace of Africa might be secured by the recall of Solomon and his unworthy nephews. The exarch led forth his troops from Carthage ; but, at the distance of six days' journey, in the neighborhood of Tebes- te, 4 he was astonished by the superior numbers and fierce as- 8 The Moorish wars are occasionally introduced info the narrative of Procopius (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 19-23, 25, 27, 28: Gothic. I. iv. c. 17); and Theophanes adds some prosperous and adverse events in the last years of Justinian. 4 Now Tibesh, in the kingdom of Algiers. It is watered by a river, the Suje- rass, which falls into the Mejerda (Bagradas). Tibesh is still remarkable for its walls of large stones (like the Coliseum of Rome), a fountain, and a grove of wal- 372 REBELLION OF THE MOORS. [Ch. XLIIL pect of the barbarians. He proposed a treaty, solicited a rec- onciliation, and offered to bind himself by the most solemn oaths. "By what oaths can he bind himself?" interrupted the indignant Moors. "Will he swear by the gospels, the divine books of the Christians? It was on those boohs that the faith of his nephew Sergius was pledged to eighty of our innocent and unfortunate brethren. Before we trust them a second time, let ns try their efficacy in the chastisement of perjury and the vindication of their own honor." Their honor was vindicated in the field of Tebeste by the death of Solomon and the total loss of his army. a The arrival of fresh troops and more skilful commanders soon checked the inso- lence of the Moors ; seventeen of their princes were slain in the same battle ; and the doubtful and transient submission of their tribes was celebrated with lavish applause by the people of Constantinople. Successive inroads had reduced the province of Africa to one third of the measure of Italy; yet the Roman emperors continued to reign above a century over Carthage and the fruitful coast of the Mediterranean. But the victories and the losses of Justinian were alike per- nicious to mankind ; and such was the desolation of Africa, that in many parts a stranger might wander whole days with- out meeting the face either of a friend or an enemy. The nation of the Yandals had disappeared : they once amounted to a hundred and sixty thousand warriors, without including the children, the women, or the slaves. Their numbers were infinitely surpassed by the number of the Moorish families extirpated in a relentless war; and the same destruction was retaliated on the Romans and their allies, who perished by the climate, their mutual quarrels, and the rage of the barba- rians. When Procopius first landed, he admired the popu- lousness of the cities and country, strenuously exercised in nut-trees : the country is fruitful, and the neighboring Bereberes are warlike. It appears from an inscription that, under the reign of Hadrian, the road from Car- thage to Tebeste was constructed by the third legion (Marmol, Description de l'Afrique, torn. ii. p. 442, 443 ; Shaw's Travels, p. 64, 65, 66). a Corippus (Johannidos, lib. iii. 417-441) describes the defeat and death of (Solomon.— M. A.D.540.] REVOLT OF THE GOTHS. 373 the labors of commerce and agriculture. In less than twenty years that busy scene was converted into a silent solitude,* the wealthy citizens escaped to Sicily and Constantinople; and the secret historian has confidently affirmed that five millions of Africans were consumed by the wars and govern- ment of the Emperor Justinian. 6 The jealousy of the Byzantine court had not permitted Belisarius to achieve the conquest of Italy ; and his abrupt „ „ . departure revived the courage of the Goths, 6 who Revolt of r . . to ' the Goths. respected his genius, his virtue, and even the laud- able motive which had urged the servant of Jus- tinian to deceive and reject them. They had lost their king (an inconsiderable loss), their capital, their treasures, the prov- inces from Sicily to the Alps, and the military force of two hundred thousand barbarians, magnificently equipped with horses and arms. Yet all was not lost as long as Pavia was defended by one thousand Goths, inspired by a sense of hon- or, the love of freedom, and the memory of their past great- ness. The supreme command was unanimously offered to the brave Uraias ; and it was in his eyes alone that the dis- grace of his uncle Yitiges could appear as a reason of exclu- sion. His voice inclined the election in favor of Hildibald, whose personal merit was recommended by the vain hope that his kinsman Theudes, the Spanish monarch, would sup- port the common interest of the Gothic nation. The success of his arms in Liguria and Yenetia seemed to justify their choice; but he soon declared to the world that he was inca- pable of forgiving or commanding his benefactor. The con- sort of Hildibald was deeply wounded by the beauty, the rich- es, and the pride of the wife of Uraias ; and the death of that * Procopius, Anecdot. c. 18 [torn. iii. p. 107, edit. Bonn]. The series of tha African history attests this melancholy truth. 6 In the second (c. 30) and third books (c. 1-40), Procopius continues the his- tory of the Gothic war from the fifth to the fifteenth year of Justinian. As tha events are less interesting than in the former period, he allots only half the space to double the time. Jornandes, and the Chronicle of Marcellinus, afford some collateral hints. Sigonius, Pagi, Muratori, Mascou, and De Buat are useful, and have been used. 374 VICTOKIES OF TOTILA. tCH. XLIU virtuous patriot excited the indignation of a free people. A bold assassin executed their sentence by striking off the head of Hildibald in the midst of a banquet ; the Rugians, a for- eign tribe, assumed the privilege of election ; and Totila, a the nephew of the late king, was tempted by revenge to deliver himself and the garrison of Trevigo into the hands of the Ro- mans. But the gallant and accomplished youth was easily persuaded to prefer the Gothic throne before the service of Justinian ; and, as soon as the palace of Pavia had been puri- fied from the Rugian usurper, he reviewed the national force of five thousand soldiers, and generously undertook the resto- ration of the kingdom of Italy. The successors of Belisarius, eleven generals of equal rank, neglected to crush the feeble and disunited Goths, till they victories of were roused to action by the progress of Totila and of itl?i'y kins the reproaches of Justinian. The gates of Yerona a.d. 541-544. were secretly opened to Artabazus, at the head of one hundred Persians in the service of the empire. The Goths fled from the city. At the distance of sixty furlongs the Roman generals halted to regulate the division of the spoil. "While they disputed, the enemy discovered the real number of the victors : the Persians were instantly overpow- ered, and it was by leaping from the wall that Artabazus pre- served a life which he lost in a few days by the lance of a barbarian who had defied him to single combat. Twenty thousand Romans encountered the forces of Totila near Fa- enza, and on the hills of Mugello, of the Florentine territory. The ardor of freedmen who fought to regain their country was opposed to the languid temper of mercenary troops, who were even destitute of the merits of strong and well-disci- plined servitude. On the first attack they abandoned their ensigns, threw down their arms, and dispersed on all sides with an active speed which abated the loss, whilst it aggra- vated thg shame, of their defeat. The king of the Goths, who blushed for the baseness of his enemies, pursued with rapid steps the path of honor and victory. Totila passed the a His real name, as appears by medals, was Badvila. See Eckhel, vol. viii. p. 214.— S. a.d. 541-544.] VICTOKIES OF TOTILA. 375 Po, a traversed the Apennine, suspended the important con- quest of Ravenna, Florence, and Home, and marched through the heart of Italy to form the siege, or rather the blockade, of Naples. The Roman chiefs, imprisoned in their respective cities and accusing each other of the common disgrace, did not presume to disturb his enterprise. But the emperor, alarmed by the distress and danger of his Italian conquests, despatched to the relief of Naples a fleet of galleys and a body of Thracian and Armenian soldiers. They landed in Sicily, which yielded its copious stores of provisions ; but the delays of the new commander, an unwarlike magistrate, pro- tracted the sufferings of the besieged ; and the succors which he dropped with a timid and tardy hand were successively in- tercepted by the armed vessels stationed by Totila in the Bay of Naples. The principal officer of the Romans was dragged, with a rope round his neck, to the foot of the wall, from whence, with a trembling voice, he exhorted the citizens to implore, like himself, the mercy of the conqueror. They re- quested a truce, with a promise of surrendering the city if no effectual relief should appear at the end of thirty days. In- stead of one month, the audacious barbarian granted them three, in the just confidence that famine would anticipate the term of their capitulation. After the reduction of Naples and Cumse, the provinces of 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, with- in twenty miles of the capital, and calmly exhorted the senate and people to compare the tyranny of the Greeks with the blessings of the Gothic reign. The rapid success of Totila may be partly ascribed to the revolution which three years' experience had produced in the sentiments of the Italians. At the command, or at least in the name, of a Catholic emperor, the pope, 7 their spiritual father, 7 Sylverius, Bishop of Home, was first transported to Patara, in Lycia, and at length starved (sub eorura custodia inedia confectns) in the Isle of Palmaria, * This is not quite correct : he had crossed the Po before the battle of Faeaza -M. 376 CONTRAST OF VICE AND VIETUE. [Ch. XLIII had been torn from the Eoman Church, and either starved , or murdered on a desolate island. 8 The virtues Contrast of . vice and of Jielisarms were replaced by the various or uni- form vices of eleven chiefs at Rome, Ravenna, Flor- ence, Perugia, Spoleto, etc., who abused their authority for the indulgence of lust or avarice. The improvement of the rev- enue was committed to Alexander, a subtle scribe, long prac- tised in the fraud and oppression of the Byzantine schools, and whose name of Psallictionf the scissars, 9 was drawn from the dexterous artifice with which he reduced the size, without defacing the figure, of the gold coin. Instead of expecting the restoration of peace and industry, he imposed a heavy assessment on the fortunes of the Italians. Yet his present or future demands were less odious than a prosecu- tion of arbitrary rigor against the persons and property of all those who, under the Gothic kings, had been concerned in the receipt and expenditure of the public money. The sub- jects of Justinian who escaped these partial vexations were oppressed by the irregular maintenance of the soldiers, whom Alexander defrauded and despised, and their hasty sallies in quest of wealth or subsistence provoked the inhabitants of the country to await or implore their deliverance from the virtues of a barbarian. Totila 10 was chaste and temperate, and none were deceived, either friends or enemies, who de- pended on his faith or his clemency. To the husbandmen a.d. 538, June 20 (Liberat. in Breviar. c. 22 ; Anastasius, in Sylverio; Baronius, jl.d. 540, No. 2, 3 ; Pagi, in Vit. Pont. torn. i. p. 285, 286). Procopius (Anecdot. c. 1) accuses only the empress and Antonina. 8 Palir.aria, a small island, opposite to Terracina and the coast of the Volsci (Cluver. Ital. Antiq. 1. iii. c. 7, p. 1014). 9 As the Logothete Alexander, and most of his civil and military colleagues, were either disgraced or despised, the ink of the Anecdotes (c. 4, 5, 18) is scarce- ly blacker than that of the Gothic History (1. iii. c. 1, 3, 4, 9, 20, 21, etc.). 10 Procopius (1. iii. c. 2, 8, etc.) does ample and willing justice to the merit of Totila. The Roman historians, from Sallust and Tacitus, were happy to forget the vices of their countrymen in the contemplation of barbaric virtue. ■ The form Psalliction is incorrect. He is correctly called Psalidium (ipa\idiov t a diminutive of ipaXig) in Procopius (Bell. Goth. iii. c. 1, p. 284, edit. Bonn ; Hist. Arc. c. 26, p. U7),— S. a.d. 541-544.] CONTEAST OF VICE AND VIRTUE. 377 of Italy the Gothic king issued a welcome proclamation, en- joining them to pursue their important labors, and to rest assured that, on the payment of the ordinary taxes, they should be defended by his valor and discipline from the in- juries of war. The strong towns he successively attacked, and, as soon as they had yielded to his arms, he demolished the fortifications, to save the people from the calamities of a future siege, to deprive the Romans of the arts of defence, and to decide the tedious quarrel of the two nations by an equal and honorable conflict in the field of battle. The Roman captives and deserters were tempted to enlist in the service of a liberal and courteous adversary, the slaves were attracted by the firm and faithful promise that they should never be de- livered to their masters ; and from the thousand warriors of Pavia a new people, under the same appellation of Goths, was insensibly formed in the camp of Totila. He sincerely accomplished the articles of capitulation, without seeking or accepting any sinister advantage from ambiguous expressions or unforeseen events : the garrison of Naples had stipulated that they should be transported by sea ; the obstinacy of the winds prevented their voyage, but they were generously sup- plied with horses, provisions, and a safe-conduct to the gates of Rome. The wives of the senators who had been surprised in the villas of Campania were restored without a ransom to their husbands ; the violation of female chastity was inexora- bly chastised with death ; and in the salutary regulation of the diet of the famished Neapolitans, the conqueror assumed the office of a humane and attentive physician. The virtues of Totila are equally laudable, whether they proceeded from true policy, religious principle, or the instinct of humanity : he often harangued his troops ; and it was his constant theme that national vice and rain are inseparably connected; that victory is the fruit of moral as well as military virtue ; and that the prince, and even the people, are responsible for the crimes which they neglect to punish. The return of Belisarius to save the country which he had subdued was pressed with equal vehemence by his friends and enemies, and the Gothic war was imposed as a trust or an exile 378 SECOND COMMAND OF {.Cu.XLIU on the veteran commander. A hero on the banks of the Eu< second com- phrates, a slave in the palace of Constantinople, he saifiMin ftaiy" accepted with reluctance the painful task of sup- a.d. 544-548. porting his own reputation and retrieving the faults of his successors. The sea was open to the Romans ; the ships and soldiers were assembled at Salona, near the palace of Dio- cletian ; he refreshed and reviewed his troops at Pola, in Istria, coasted round the head of the Adriatic, entered the port of Ravenna, and despatched orders rather than supplies to the subordinate cities. His first public oration was addressed to the Goths and Romans, in the name of the emperor, who had suspended for awhile the conquest of Persia and listened to the prayers of his Italian subjects. He gently touched on the causes and the authors of the recent disasters, striving to remove the fear of punishment for the past, and the hope of impunity for the future, and laboring with more zeal than success to unite all the members of his government in a firm league of affection and obedience. Justinian, his gracious master, was inclined to pardon and reward, and it was their interest, as well as duty, to reclaim their deluded brethren, who had been seduced by the arts of the usurper. 'Not a man was tempted to desert the standard of the Gothic king. Belisarius soon discovered that he was sent to remain the idle and impotent spectator of the glory of a young barbarian, and his own epistle exhibits a genuine and lively picture of the distress of a noble mind. " Most excellent prince, we are ar- rived in Italy, destitute of all the necessary implements of war — men, horses, arms, and money. In our late circuit through the villages of Thrace and Illyricum, we have col- lected with extreme difficulty about four thousand recruits, naked and unskilled in the use of weapons and the exercises of the camp. The soldiers already stationed in the province are discontented, fearful, and dismayed ; at the sound of an enemy they dismiss their horses, and cast their arms on the ground. No taxes can be raised, since Italy is in the hands of the barbarians : the failure of payment has deprived us ot the right of command, or even of admonition. Be assured, dread sir, that the greater part of your troops have already A.D.546.] BELISARIUS IN ITALY. 379 deserted to the Goths. If the war could be achieved by the presence of Belisarius alone, your wishes are satisfied ; Beli- sarius is in the midst of Italy. But if you desire to conquer, far other preparations are requisite : without a military force the title of general is an empty name. It would be expe- dient to restore to my service my own veterans and domestic guards. Before I can take the field I must receive an ade- quate supply of light and heavy armed troops, and it is only with ready money that you can procure the indispensable aid of a powerful body of the cavalry of the Huns." 11 An offi- cer in whom Belisarius confided was sent from Ravenna to hasten and conduct the succors, but the message was neglect- ed, and the messenger was detained at Constantinople by an advantageous marriage. After his patience had been ex- hausted by delay and disappointment, the Roman general re- passed the Adriatic, and expected at Dyrrachium the arrival of the troops, which were slowly assembled among the sub- jects and allies of the empire. His powers were still inade- quate to the deliverance of Rome, which was closely besieged by the Gothic king. The Appian Way, a march of forty days, was covered by the barbarians ; and as the prudence of Belisarius declined a battle, he preferred the safe and speedy navigation of five days from the coast of Epirus to the mouth of the Tiber. After reducing, by force or treaty, the towns of inferior note in the midland provinces of Italy, Totila proceeded, not to assault, but to encompass and starve, the ancient Rome be- . !_ f. ' . siege,) by capital. Rome was afflicted by the avarice, and the Goths. a.d.546, ' guarded by the valor, of Bessas, a veteran chief of Gothic extraction, who filled, with a garrison of three thousand soldiers, the spacious circle of her venerable walls. From the distress of the people lie extracted a profit- able trade, and secretly rejoiced in the continuance of the siege. It was for his use that the granaries had been replen- ished ; the charity of Pope Yigilius had purchased and em* 11 Procopius, 1. iii. c. 12. The soul of a hero is deeply impressed on the let- ter ; nor can we confound such genuine and original acts with the elaborate and often empty speeches of the Byzantine historians. 880 ROME BESIEGED BY THE GOTHS. [Ch. XLIII. barked an ample supply of Sicilian corn, but the vessels which escaped the barbarians were seized bj a rapacious governor, who imparted a scanty sustenance to the soldiers, and sold the remainder to the wealthy Romans. The medimnus, or fifth part of the quarter of wheat, was exchanged for seven pieces of gold ; fifty pieces were given for an ox, a rare and accidental prize ; the progress of famine enhanced this ex- orbitant value, and the mercenaries were tempted to deprive themselves of the allowance which was scarcely sufficient for the support of life. A tasteless and unwholesome mixture, in which the bran thrice exceeded the quantity of flour, ap- peased the hunger of the poor ; they were gradually reduced to feed on dead horses, dogs, cats, and mice, and eagerly to snatch the grass and even the nettles which grew among the ruins of the city. A crowd of spectres, pale and emaciated, their bodies oppressed with disease and their minds with de- spair, surrounded the palace of the governor, urged, with un- availing truth, that it was the duty of a master to maintain his slaves, and humbly requested that he would provide for their subsistence, permit their flight, or command their im- mediate execution. Bessas replied, with unfeeling tranquil- lity, that it was impossible to feed, unsafe to dismiss, and un- lawful to kill, the subjects of the emperor. Yet the example of a private citizen might have shown his countrymen that a tyrant cannot withhold the privilege of death. Pierced by the cries of five children, who vainly called on their father for bread, he ordered them to follow his steps, advanced with calm and silent despair to one of the bridges of the Tiber, and, covering his face, threw himself headlong into the stream, in the presence of his family and the Roman people. To the rich and pusillanimous, Bessas 12 sold the permission of depart- ure; but the greatest part of the fugitives expired on the 12 The avarice of Bessas is not dissembled by Procopius (1. iii. c. 17, 20). He expiated the loss of Rome by the glorious conquest of Petrsea (Goth. 1. iv. c. 1 2) ; but the same vices followed him from the Tiber to the Phasis (c. 13) ; and the historian is equally true to the merits and defects of his character. The chastise- ment which the author of the romance of Belisaire has inflicted on the oppressor of Rome is more agreeable to justice than to history. A.D.546.] ATTEMPT OF BELISAEIUS. 381 public highways, or were intercepted by the flying parties of barbarians. In the mean while the artful governor soothed the discontent, and revived the hopes, of the Eomans, by the vague reports of the fleets and armies which were hastening to their relief from the extremities of the East. They de- rived more rational comfort from the assurance that Belisa- rius had landed at the port; and, without numbering his forces, they firmly relied on the humanity, the courage, and the skill of their great deliverer. The foresight of Totila had raised obstacles worthy of such an antagonist. Ninety furlongs below the city, in the narrow- Attempt of est P art °f tne river, he joined the two banks by Beiisanus. 8 tr ng and solid timbers in the form of a bridge, on which he erected two lofty towers, manned by the bravest of his Goths, and profusely stored with missile weapons and engines of offence. The approach of the bridge and towers was covered by a strong and massy chain of iron, and the chain, at either end, on the opposite sides of the Tiber, was defended by a numerous and chosen detachment of archers. But the enterprise of forcing these barriers and relieving the capital displays a shining example of the boldness and con- duct of Belisarius. His cavalry advanced from the port along the public road to awe the motions and distract the attention of the enemy. His infantry and provisions were distributed in two hundred large boats, and each boat was shielded by a high rampart of thick planks, pierced with many small holes for the discharge of missile weapons. In the front, two large vessels were linked together to sustain a floating castle, which commanded the towers of the bridge, and contained a maga- zine of fire, sulphur, and bitumen. The whole fleet, which the general led in person, was laboriously moved against the current of the river. The chain yielded to their weight, and the enemies who guarded the banks were either slain or scat- tered. As soon as they touched the principal barrier, the fire- ship was instantly grappled to the bridge ; one of the towers, with two hundred Goths, was consumed by the flames, the as- sailants shouted victory, and Rome was saved, if the wisdom of Belisarius had not been defeated by the misconduct of his 382 EOME TAKEN BY THE GOTHS. [Ch. XLIII. officers. He had previously sent orders to Bessas to second his operations by a timely sally from the town, and he had fixed his lieutenant, Isaac, by a peremptory command, to the station of the port. But avarice rendered Bessas immovable, while the youthful ardor of Isaac delivered him into the hands of a superior enemy. The exaggerated rumor of his defeat was hastily carried to the oars of Belisarius : he paused, be- trayed in that single moment of his life some emotions of sur- prise and perplexity, and reluctantly sounded a retreat to save his wife Antonina, his treasures, and the only harbor which he possessed on the Tuscan coast. The vexation of his mind produced an ardent and almost mortal fever, and Rome was left without protection to the mercy or indignation of Totila. The continuance of hostilities had embittered the national hatred; the Arian clergy was ignominiously driven from Eome; Pelagius, the archdeacon, returned without success from an embassy to the Gothic camp ; and a Sicilian bishop, the envoy or nuncio of the pope, was deprived of both his hands for daring to utter falsehoods in the service of the Church and State. Famine had relaxed the strength and discipline of the gar- rison of Borne. They could derive no effectual service from Rome taken a dying people ; and the inhuman avarice of the A^e^? 01118 ' merchant at length absorbed the vigilance of the Dec. n. governor. Four Isaurian sentinels, while their companions slept and their officers were absent, descended by a rope from the wall, and secretly proposed to the Gothic king to introduce his troops into the city. The offer was en- tertained with coldness and suspicion ; they returned in safe- ty ; they twice repeated their visit : the place was twice ex- amined ; the conspiracy was known and disregarded ; and no sooner had Totila consented to the attempt, than they unbar- red the Asinarian Gate and gave admittance to the Goths. Till the dawn of day they baited in order of battle, apprehen- sive of treachery or ambush ; but the troops of Bessas, with their leader, had already escaped ; and when the king was pressed to disturb their retreat, he prudently replied that no sight could be more grateful than that of a flying enemy. The A.D.54G.] ROME TAKEN BY THE GOTHS. 383 Patricians who were still possessed of horses, Deems, Basilius, etc., accompanied the governor ; their brethren, among whom Olybrius, Orestes, and Maximus are named by the historian, took refuge in the Church of St. Peter : but the assertion that only five hundred persons remained in the capital inspires some doubt of the fidelity either of his narrative or of his text. 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, twen- ty-live soldiers and sixty citizens were put to the sword in the vestibule of the temple. The archdeacon Pelagius 13 stood be- fore him, with the gospels in his hand. " O Lord, be merciful to your servant." " Pelagius," said Totila, with an insulting smile, " your pride now condescends to become a suppliant." " I am a suppliant," replied the prudent archdeacon ; " God has now made us your subjects, and, as your subjects, we are entitled to your clemency." At his humble prayer the lives of the Romans were spared, and the chastity of the maids and matrons was preserved inviolate from the passions of the hungry soldiers. But they were rewarded by the freedom of pillage, after the most precious spoils had been reserved for the royal treasury. The houses of the senators were plenti- fully stored with gold and silver; and the avarice of Bessas had labored with so much guilt and shame for the benefit of the conqueror. In this revolution the sons and daughters of Roman consuls tasted the misery which they had spurned or relieved, wandered in tattered garments through the streets of the city, and begged their bread, perhaps without success, before the gates of their hereditary mansions. The riches of RustiGiana, the daughter of Symmachus and widow of Boe- thius, had been generously devoted to alleviate the calamities of famine. But the barbarians were exasperated by the re- 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. 555) by the Pope Pelagius, who was not thought guiltless of the sufferings of his predecessor. See the original Lives of the popes under the name of Anastasius (Muratori, Script. Rer. Italicarum, torn. iii. pt. i. p. 130, 131), who relates several curious incidents of the sieges of Rome and the wars of Italy. 384: ROME TAKEN BY THE GOTHS. [Ch.XLILL port that she had prompted the people to overthrow the stat- ues of the great Theodoric; and the life of that venerable matron would have been sacrificed to his memory, if Totila had not respected her birth, her virtues, and even the pious motive of her revenge. The next day he pronounced two orations, to congratulate and admonish his victorious Goths, and to reproach the senate, as the vilest of slaves, with their perjury, folly, and ingratitude ; sternly declaring that their es- tates and honors were justly forfeited to the companions of his arms. Yet he consented to forgive their revolt ; and the senators repaid his clemency by despatching circular letters to their tenants and vassals in the provinces of Italy, strictly to enjoin them to desert the standard of the Greeks, to culti- vate their lands in peace, and to learn from their masters the duty of obedience to a Gothic sovereign. Against the city which had so long delayed the course of his victories he ap- peared inexorable : one third of the walls, in different parts, were demolished by his command ; fire and engines prepared to consume or subvert the most stately works of antiquity; and the world was astonished by the fatal decree that Kome should be changed into a pasture for cattle. The firm and temperate remonstrance of Belisarius suspended the execu- tion ; he warned the barbarian not to sully his fame by the destruction of those monuments which were the glory of the dead and the delight of the living; and Totila was per- suaded, by the advice of an enemy, to preserve Rome as the ornament of his kingdom, or the fairest pledge of peace and reconciliation. When he had signified to the ambassadors of Belisarius his intention of sparing the city, he stationed an army at the distance of one hundred and twenty furlongs, to observe the motions of the Roman general. With the re- mainder of his forces he marched into Lucania and Apulia, and occupied, on the summit of Mount Garganus," one of the 14 Mount Garganus, now Monte St. Angelo, in the kingdom of Naples, runs three hundred stadia into the Adriatic Sea (Strab.l. vi.p. 436 [p. 284, edit. Casaub.]), and in the darker ages was illustrated by the apparition, miracles, and Church of St. Michael the Archangel. Horace, a native of Apulia or Lucania, had seen the A.D.547.] ROME RECOVERED BY BELISARIUS. 385 camps of Hannibal. 19 The senators were dragged in his train, and afterwards confined in the fortresses of Campania; the citizens, with their wives and children, were dispersed in ex- ile ; and during forty days Rome was abandoned to desolate and dreary solitude. 16 The loss of Rome was speedily retrieved by an action to which, according to the event, the public opinion would ap- Recovered by P^J tne naines of rashness or heroism. After the SKE"" departure of Totila, the Roman general sallied February. f rom the port at the head of a thousand horse, cut in pieces the enemy who opposed his progress, and visited with pity and reverence the vacant space of the eternal city. Resolved to maintain a station so conspicuous in the eyes of mankind, he summoned the greatest part of his troops to the standard which he erected on the Capitol: the old inhabi- tants were recalled by the love of their country and the hope3 of food ; and the keys of Rome were sent a second time to the Emperor Justinian. The walls, as far as they had been demolished by the Goths, were repaired with rude and dis- similar materials ; the ditch was restored ; iron spikes" were profusely scattered in the highways to annoy the feet of the horses; and as new gates could not suddenly be procured, the entrance was guarded by a Spartan rampart of his bravest soldiers. At the expiration of twenty-five days Totila return- ed by hasty marches from Apulia to avenge the injury and disgrace. Belisarius expected his approach. The Goths were elms nnd oaks of Garganus laboring and bellowing with the north wind that blew on that lofty coast (Carm. ii. 9 ; Epist. ii. i. 202). 15 I cannot ascertain this particular camp of Hannibal : but the Punic quarters tvei-e long and often in the neighborhood of Arpi (T. Liv. xxii. 9, 12 ; xxiv. 3, etc.). 16 Totila * * * Romam ingreditur * * * ac evertit muros, domos aliquantas igni comburens, ac omnes Romanorum res in prsedam accepit, hos ipsos Romanos in Campaniam captivos abdnxit. Post qnam devastationem, xl aut amplius dies, Roma fnit ita desolata, ut nemo ibi hominum, nisi (nullce ?) bestiaa morarentur (Marcellin. in Chron. p. 54). 11 The tribuli are small engines with four spikes, one fixed in the ground, the three others erect or adverse (Procopius, Gothic. 1. iii. c. 24 [torn. ii. p. 379, edit. Bonn] ; Just. Lipsius, Poliorcetoiv, 1. v. c. 3). The metaphor was borrowed from the tribuli {land-caltrops), an herb with a prickly fruit, common in Italy (Martin, ad Virgil. Georgic. i. 153., vol. ii. p, 33). IY.-25 386 ROME RECOVERED BY BELISAEIUS. [Ch. XLIIL thrice repulsed in three general assaults ; they lost the flower of their troops ; the royal standard had almost fallen into the hands of the enemy, and the fame of Totila sunk, as it had risen, with the fortune of his arms. Whatever skill and cour- age could achieve had been performed by the Roman gener- al : it remained only that Justinian should terminate, by a strong and seasonable effort, the war which he had ambitious- ly undertaken. The indolence, perhaps the impotence, of a prince who despised his enemies and envied his servants, pro- tracted the calamities of Italy. After a long silence, Belisa- rius was commanded to leave a sufficient garrison at Home, and to transport himself into the province of Lucania, whose inhabitants, inflamed by Catholic zeal, had cast away the yoke of their Arian conquerors. In this ignoble warfare, the hero, invincible against the power of the barbarians, was basely vanquished by the delaj^, the disobedience, and the cowardice of his own officers. He reposed in his winter-quarters of Crotona, in the full assurance that the two passes of the Lu- canian hills were guarded by his cavalry. They were betray- ed by treachery or weakness; and the rapid march of the Goths scarcely allowed time for the escape of Belisarius to the coast of Sicily. At length a fleet and army were assem- bled for the relief of Ruscianum, or Rossano, 18 a fortress sixty furlongs from the ruins of Sybaris, where the nobles of Lu- cania had taken refuge. In the first attempt the Roman forces were dissipated by a storm. In the second, they ap- proached the shore ; but they saw the hills covered with arch- ers, the landing-place defended by a line of spears, and the king of the Goths impatient for battle. The conqueror of Italy retired with a sigh, and continued to languish, inglori- ous and inactive, till Antonina, who had been sent to Con- stantinople to solicit succors, obtained, after the death of the empress, the permission of his return. The five last campaigns of Belisarius might abate the envy 18 Ruscia, the navale T'nuriorum, was transferred to the distance of sixty stadia to Rnscianum, Rossano, an archbishopric without suffragans. The republic of Sybaris is now the estate of the Duke of Corigliane (Riedesel, Travels into Magna Grascia and Sicily, p. 1G6-171). A.D.548.] FINAL RECALL OF BELISARIUS. 387 of his competitors, whose eyes had been dazzled and wound- Fiuai recall e & Dv the blaze of his former glory. Instead of of Bdtauitu. delivering Italy from the Goths, he had wandered September, jjj^g a fugitive along the coast, without daring to march into the country, or to accept the bold and repeated challenge of Totila. Yet in the judgment of the few who could discriminate counsels from events, and compare the in- struments with the execution, he appeared a more consum- mate master of the art of war than in the season of his pros- perity, when he presented two captive kings before the throne of Justinian. The valor of Belisarius was not chilled by age : his prudence was matured by experience; but the moral virt- ues of humanity and justice seem to have yielded to the hard necessity of the times. The parsimony or poverty of the emperor compelled him to deviate from the rule of conduct which had deserved the love and confidence of the Italians. The war was maintained by the oppression of Ravenna, Sic- ily, and all the faithful subjects of the empire ; and the rig- orous prosecution of Herodian provoked that injured or guilty officer to deliver Spoleto into the 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 corrupt age, are the support and ornament of personal merit. And it can- not be presumed that he should stain his honor for the pub- lic service, without applying a part of the spoil to his private emolument. The hero had escaped the sword of the barbari- ans, but the dagger of conspiracy 19 awaited his return. In the midst of wealth and honors, Artaban, who had chastised the African tyrant, complained of the ingratitude of courts. He aspired to Prsejecta, the emperor's niece, who wished to re- ward her deliverer; but the impediment of his previous mar- riage was asserted by the piety of Theodora. The pride of royal descent was irritated by flattery ; and the service in which he gloried had proved him capable of bold and sangui- 19 This conspiracy is related by Procopius (Gothic. 1. iii. c. 31, 32) with such freedom and candor that the liberty of the Anecdotes gives him nothing to add. 388 FINAL RECALL OF BELISARIUS. £Ch. XLIIL nary deeds. The death of Justinian was resolved, but the conspirators delayed the execution till they could surprise Bel- isarius, disarmed and naked, in the palace of Constantinople. Not a hope could be entertained of shaking his long-tried fidelity; and they justly dreaded the revenge, or rather jus- tice, of the veteran general, who might speedily assemble an army in Thrace to punish the assassins, and perhaps to enjoy the fruits of their crime. Delay afforded time for rash com- munications and honest confessions: Artaban and his accom- plices were condemned by the senate, but the extreme clem- ency of Justinian detained them in the gentle confinement of the palace till he pardoned their flagitious attempt against his throne and life. If the emperor forgave his enemies, he must cordially embrace a friend whose victories were alone remem- bered, and who was endeared to his prince by the recent cir- cumstance 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 re- spectfully yielded the precedency of rank to the peerless mer- it of the first of the Romans. 20 The first of the Romans still submitted to be the slave of his wife; but the servitude of habit and affection became less disgraceful when the death of Theodora had removed the baser influence of fear. Joannina, their daughter, and the sole heiress of their fortunes, was be- trothed to Anastasius, the grandson, or rather the nephew, of the empress," whose kind interposition forwarded the con- summation of their youthful loves. But the power of Theo- 20 The honors of Belisarius are gladly commemorated by his secretary (Procop. Goth. 1. iii. c. 35 ; 1. iv. c. 21). The title of Srpanjyoc is ill translated, at least in this instance, by "prjefectus prsetorio;" and to a military character, " magister militum " is more proper and applicable (Ducange, Gloss. Gra?c. p. 1458, 1459). 21 Alemannus (ad Hist. Arcanam, p. 68 [torn. iii. p. 418, edit. Bonn]), Ducange (Familise Byzant. p. 98), and Heineccius (Hist. Juris Civilis, p. 434), all three rep- resent Anastasius as the son of the daughter of Theodora ; and their opinion firm- ly reposes on the unambiguous testimony of Procopius (Anecdot. c. 4, 5 — Svya- Tpid<{t twice repeated). And yet I will remark : 1. That in the year 547 Theodora could scarcely have a grandson of the age of puberty ; 2. That we are totally ig- norant of this daughter and her husband ; and, 3. That Theodora concealed her bastards, and that her grandson by Justinian would have been heir-apparent of the empire. a.d. 549.] ROME AGAIK TAKEN BY THE GOTHS. 389 dora expired, the parents of Joarmina returned, and her hon- or, perhaps her happiness, were sacrificed to the revenge of an unfeeling mother, who dissolved the imperfect nuptials before they had been ratified by the ceremonies of the Church. 38 Before the departure of Belisarius, Perusia was besieged, and few cities were impregnable to the Gothic arms. Ra- Eome again venna, Ancona, and Crotona still resisted the bar- theGotfL barians ; and when Totila asked in marriage one of a.b. 649. tne daughters of France, he was stung by the just reproach that the King of Italy was unworthy of his title till it was acknowledged by the Roman people. Three thousand of the bravest soldiers had been left to defend the capital. On the suspicion of a monopoly, they massacred the governor, and announced to Justinian, by a deputation of the clergy, that, unless their offence was pardoned and their arrears were satisfied, 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 finding an easy conquest, encoun- tered a vigorous resistance from the soldiers and people, who patiently endured the loss of the port and of all maritime supplies. The siege of Borne would perhaps have been raised, if the liberality of Totila to the Isaurians had not encouraged some of their venal countrymen to copy the example of trea- son. In a dark night, while the Gothic trumpets sounded on another side, they silently opened the gate of St. Paul : the barbarians rushed into the city ; and the flying garrison was intercepted before they could reach the harbor of Centum- cellse. A soldier trained in the school of Belisarius, Paul of Cilicia, retired with four hundred men to the mole of Ha- drian. They repelled the Goths ; but they felt the approach of famine ; and their aversion to the taste of horse-flesh con- firmed their resolution to risk the event of a desperate and 22 The ajuapn'/juara, or sins, of the hero in Italy and after his return, are mani- fested a-rrapaicaXvTrTujg, and most probably swelled, by the author of the Anecdotes (c. 4, 5). The designs of Antomna were favored by the fluctuating jurisprudence of Justinian. On the law of marriage and divorce, that emperor was " trocho ver- satilior " (Heineccius, Element. Juris Civil, ad Ordinem Pandect, pt. iv. No. 233)k 390 ROME AGAIN TAKEN BY THE GOTHS. [Ch. XLIIL decisive sally. But their spirit insensibly stooped to the of- fers of capitulation : they retrieved their arrears of pay, and preserved their arms and horses, by enlisting in the service of Totila; their chiefs, who pleaded a laudable attachment to their wives and children in the East, were dismissed with honor ; and above four hundred enemies, who had taken ref- uge in the sanctuaries, were saved by the clemency of the victor. He no longer entertained a wish of destroying the edifices of Rome, 23 which he now respected as the seat of the Gothic kingdom : the senate and people were restored to their country ; the means of subsistence were liberally pro- vided ; and Totila, in the robe of peace, exhibited the eques- trian games of the circus. "Whilst he amused the eyes of the multitude, four hundred vessels were prepared for the em- barkation of his troops. The cities of Rhegium and Taren- tum were reduced ; he passed into Sicily, the object of his implacable resentment; and the island was stripped of its gold and silver, of the fruits of the earth, and of an infinite number of horses, sheep, and oxen. Sardinia and Corsica obeyed the fortune of Italy ; and the sea-coast of Greece was visited by a fleet of three hundred galleys. 24 The Goths were landed in Corcyra and the ancient continent of Epirus ; they advanced as far as Nicopolis, the trophy of Augustus, and Dodona, 25 once famous by the oracle of Jove. In every step 23 The Romans were still attached to the monuments of their ancestors ; and according to Procopius (Goth. 1. iv. c. 22 [torn. ii. p. 573, edit. Bonn]), the galley of JEneas, 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 of the Aventine (Nardini, Roma, Antica, 1. vii. c. 9, p. 466 ; Donatus, Roma Antiqua, 1. iv. c. 13, p. 334). But all antiquity is ignorant of this relic. 24 In these seas Procopius searched without success for the Isle of Calypso. He was shown, at Phseacia or Corcyra, the petrified ship of Ulysses (Odyss. xiii. 163) ; but he found it a recent fabric of many stones, dedicated by a merchant to Jupi- ter Cassius (1. iv. c. 22 [torn. ii. p. 575, edit. Bonn]). Eustathius had supposed it to be the fanciful likeness of a rock. 25 M. D'Anville (Memoires de l'Acad. torn, xxxii. p. 513-528) illustrates the Gulf of Ambracia ; but ha cannot ascertain the situation of Dodona. A countiy in sight of Italy is less known than the wilds of America.* a The site of Podona still cannot be fixed with accuracy ; but Colonel Leake has shown that in all probability the fertils valley of Ioannina was the territory of A.D. 54JW551.] PREPARATIONS FOR THE GOTHIC WAR. 391 of his victories the wise barbarian repeated to Justinian his desire of peace, applauded the concord of their predecessors, and offered to employ the Gothic arms in the service of the empire. Justinian was deaf to the voice of peace, but he neglected the prosecution of war ; and the indolence of his temper dis- appointed, in some degree, the obstinacy of his pas- of Justiuiau sions. From this salutary slumber the emperor was Gothic war. awakened by the Pope Vigilius and the Patrician Cethegus, who appeared before his throne, and ad- jured him, in the name of God and the people, to resume the conquest and deliverance of Italy. In the choice of the gen- erals, caprice, as well as judgment, was shown. A fleet and army sailed for the relief of Sicily, under the conduct of Li- berius ; but his want of youth and experience 11 were after- wards discovered, and before he touched the shores of the island he was overtaken by his successor. In the place of Liberius the conspirator Artaban was raised from a prison to military honors, in the pious presumption that gratitude would animate his valor and fortify his allegiance. Belisa- rius reposed in the shade of his laurels, but the command of the principal army was reserved for Germanus, 26 the emperor's nephew, whose rank and merit had been long depressed by the jealousy of the court. Theodora had injured him in the 26 See the acts of Germanus in the public (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 16, 17, 18; Goth. 1. iii. c. 31, 32) and private history (Anecdot. c. 5), and those of his son Justin, in Agathias (1. iv. p. 130, 131 [p. 250 seq., edit. Bonn]). Notwithstanding an ambig- uous expression of Jornandes, "fratri suo," Alemannus has proved that he was the son of the emperor's brother. Dodona, and that the extensive ruins upon the hill of Kastritza, at the southern end of the lake of Ioannina, are those of the ancient city. See Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 168 seq. — S. a This is the reading in the 4to edition, but it has been altered by most mod- ern editors (among others by Dean Milman) into " his youth and want of expe- rience," ou the supposition that Gibbon could never have intended such a phrase as "his want of jouth and experience." Lord Mahon in consequence (Life of Belisarivis, p. 391) ss^f.cses Gibbon has made a mistake, since Procopius (Bell. Goth. iii. c. 39) speaks of Liberius as extremely old QaxaToyspojv). But I have little doubt that the expression in the 4to was the one intended by Gibbon, as it is quite in accordance with his enigmatical stvle — the intention being to sneer at the inconsistency of the proceeding. — S. 392 PREPARATIONS FOR THE GOTHIC WAR. [Ch. XLIIL rights of a private citizen, the marriage of his children, and the testament of his brother ; and although his conduct was pure and blameless, Justinian was displeased that he should be thought worthy of the confidence of the malcontents. The life of Germanus was a lesson of implicit obedience : he no- bly refused to prostitute his name and character in the fac- tions of the circus ; the gravity of his manners was tempered by innocent cheerfulness; and his riches were lent without interest to indigent or deserving friends. His valor had for- merly triumphed over the Sclavonians of the Danube and the rebels of Africa: the first report of his promotion re- vived the hopes of the Italians ; and he was privately assured that a crowd of Eoman deserters would abandon, on his ap- proach, the standard of Totila. His second marriage with Malasontha, the granddaughter of Theodoric, endeared Ger- manus to the Goths themselves ; and they marched with re- luctance against the father of a royal infant, the last offspring of the line of Amali." A splendid allowance was assigned by the emperor : the general contributed his private fortune ; his two sons were popular and active ; and he surpassed, in the promptitude and success of his levies, the expectation of mankind. He was permitted to select some squadrons of Thracian cavalry: the veterans, as well as the youth of Con- stantinople and Europe, engaged their voluntary service ; and as far as the heart of Germany, his fame and liberality at- tracted the aid of the barbarians. a The Romans advanced to Sardica; an army of Sclavonians fled before their march ; but within two days of their final departure the designs of Germanus were terminated by his malady and death. Yet the impulse which he had given to the Italian war still con- tinued to act with energy and effect. The maritime towns, Ancona, Crotona, Centumcellae, resisted the assaults of To- tila. Sicily was reduced by the zeal of Artaban, and the 2 ' Conjuncta Aniciorum gens cum Amala stirpe spem adhuc utriusque generis promittit (Jomandes, c. 60, p. 703). He wrote at Ravenna before the death of Totila. • See note 31, p. 394. — M. A.D. 552.] CHAKACTER OF THE EUNUCH NARSES. 393 Gothic navy was defeated near the coast of the Adriatic. The two fleets were almost equal, forty-seven to fifty galleys : the victory was decided by the knowledge and 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 ; but their own experience confirmed the truth of a maxim, that the master of the sea will always acquire the dominion of the land. 28 After the loss of Germanus, the nations were provoked to smile by the strange intelligence that the command of the character Roman armies was given to a eunuch. But the auitufof" eunuch Narses 29 is ranked among the few who Naise" uch have rescued that unhappy name from the con- a.d.552. tempt and hatred of mankind. A feeble, diminu- tive 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 ser- vice of female luxury ; but while his hands were busy, he se- cretly exercised the faculties of a vigorous and discerning mind. A stranger to the schools and the camp, he studied in the palace to dissemble, to flatter, and to persuade ; and as soon as he approached the person of the emperor, Justinian listened with surprise and pleasure to the manly counsels of his chamberlain and private treasurer, 80 The talents of Nar- 28 The third book of Procopius is terminated by the death of Germanus (Add. 1. iv. c. 23, 24, 25, 26). 29 Procopius relates the whole series of this second Gothic war and the victory of Narses (1. 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). 30 The country of Nai-ses is unknown, since he must not be confounded with the Persarmenian. a Procopius styles him (Goth. 1. ii. c. 13 [torn. ii. p. 199, edit. Bonn]) (3atn\iKu>v YjOTj/xarwv ra[iiag; Paul Warnefrid (I. ii. c. 3, p. 776), Chartu- larius : Marcellinus adds the name of Cubicularius. In an inscription on the Sa- * Lord Mahon (p. 245) has shown that there were two Persavmenians of the name of Narses, of whom the one deserted to the Romans, and the other received that deserter. The latter, who is called the imperial treasurer (o flaaiXewc rtt/i<«c), is undoubtedly the same as the eunuch. This appears clearly from a passage in Procopius, Bell. Pers. 1. i. c. 15, p. 79, edit. Bonn. — S. 394: EXPEDITION OF NAESES. [Ch. XLIII ses were tried and improved in frequent embassies : he led an army into Italy, acquired a practical knowledge of the war and the country, and presumed to strive with the genius of Belisarius. Twelve years after his return the eunuch was chosen to achieve the conquest which had been left imperfect by the first of the Roman generals. Instead of being daz- zled by vanity or emulation, he seriously declared that, unless he were armed with an adequate force, he would never con- sent to risk his own glory and that of his sovereign. Justin- ian granted to the favorite what he might have denied to the hero : the Gothic war was rekindled from its ashes, and the preparations were not unworthy of the ancient majesty of the empire. The key of the public treasure was put into his hand to collect magazines, to levy soldiers, to purchase arms and horses, to discharge the arrears of pay, and to tempt the fidelity of the fugitives and deserters. The troops of Ger- man us were still in arms ; they halted at Salona in the expec- tation of a new leader, and legions of subjects and allies were created by the well-known liberality of the eunuch Narses. The kiug of the Lombards 31 satisfied or surpassed the obliga- tions of a treaty, by lending two thousand two hundred of his bravest warriors, 3, who were followed by three thousand of their martial attendants. Three thousand Heruli fought on larian bridge he is entitled Ex-consul, Ex-praepositus, Cubiculi Patricius (Mas- cou, Hist, of the Germans, 1. xiii. ch. 25). The law of Theodosius against eunuchs was obsolete or abolished (Annotation xx.), but the foolish prophecy of the Ro- mans subsisted in full vigor (Procop. 1. iv. c. 21 [torn. ii. p. 571, edit. Bonn]). 31 Paul Warnefrid, the Lombard, records with complacency the succor, service, and honorable dimissions of his countrymen — Romanse reipublicse adversum iemu- los adjutores fuerunt (1. ii.c. i. p. 774, edit. Grot.). I am surprised that Alboin, their martial king, did not lead his subjects in person. 6 a Gibbon has blindly followed the translation of Maltretus: Bis mille ducen- tos — while the original Greek says expressly irevraKomovc rt Kai Sia\CKiovQ, 2500 (Goth. lib. iv. c. 26). In like manner he draws volunteers from Germany, on the authority of Cousin, who in one place has mistaken Germanus for Germ an ia. Yet only a few pages further (note 39) we find Gibbon loudly condemning the French and Latin readers of Procopius. Lord Mahon, p. 392. The first of these errors remains uncorrected in the new edition of the Byzantines. — M. b The Lombards were still at war with the Gepida;." See Procop. Goth. lib. iy. p. 25.— M, A..D. 552.] EXPEDITION OF NARSES. 395 horseback under Pliilemuth, their native chief; and the noble Aratus, who adopted the manners and discipline of Rome, conducted a band of veterans of the same nation. Dagis- theus was released from prison to command the Huns ; and Kobad, the grandson and nephew of the Great King, was con- spicuous by the regal tiara at the head of his faithful Per- sians, who had devoted themselves to the fortunes of their prince. 32 Absolute in the exercise of his authority, more ab- solute in the affection of his troops, Narses led a numerous and gallant army from Philippopolis to Salona, from whence he coasted the eastern side of the Adriatic as far as the con- fines of Italy. His progress was checked. The East could not supply vessels capable of transporting such multitudes of men and horses. The Franks, who in the general confusion had usurped the greater part of the Venetian province, re- fused a free passage to the friends of the Lombards. The station of Yerona was occupied by Teias with the flower of the Gothic forces ; and that skilful commander had over- spread the adjacent country with the fall of woods and the inundation of waters. 33 In this perplexity an officer of expe- rience proposed a measure, secure by the appearance of rash- ness, that the Roman army should cautiously advance along the sea-shore, while the fleet preceded their march, and suc- cessively cast a bridge of boats over the mouths of the rivers — • the Timavus,the Brenta, the Adige,and the Po — that fall into the Adriatic to the north of Ravenna. Nine days he reposed in the city, collected the fragments of the Italian army, and inarched towards Rimini to meet the defiance of an insulting enemy. The prudence of Narses impelled him to speedy and de- 32 He was, if not an impostor, the son of the blind Zames, saved by compassion and educated in the Byzantine court by the various motives of policy, pride, and generosity (Procop. Persic. 1. i. c. 23 [torn. i. p. 115, edit. Bonn]). 33 In the time of Augustus and in the Middle Ages the whole waste from Aquileia to Ravenna was covered with woods, lakes, and morasses. Man has subdued nature, and the land has been cultivated, since the waters are confined and embanked. See the learned researches of Muratori (Antiquitat. Italian Medii iEvi, torn. i. dissert, xxi. p. 253, 254), from Vitruvius, Strabo, Herodian, old char* ters, and local knowledge. 396 DEFEAT AND DEATH OF TOTILA. [Ch. XL1II. cisive action. His powers were the last effort of the State ; the cost of each day accumulated the enormous ac- Defeat and » . . . death of count, and the nations, untrained to discipline or Totila. ^ A.n.553, fatigue, might be rashly provoked to turn their arms against each other, or against their benefactor. The same considerations might have tempered the ardor of Totila. But he was conscious that the clergy and people of Italy aspired to a second revolution : he felt or suspected the rapid progress of treason, and he resolved to risk the Gothic kingdom on the chance of a day, in which the valiant would be animated by instant danger, and the disaffected might be awed by mutual ignorance. In his march from Ravenna the Roman general chastised the garrison of Rimini, traversed in a direct line the hills of Urbino, and re-entered the Flaminian Way, nine miles beyond the perforated rock, an obstacle of art and nature which might have stopped or retarded his progress. 34 The Goths were assembled in the neighborhood of Rome, they advanced without delay to seek a superior ene- my, and the two armies approached each other at the distance of one hundred furlongs, between Tagina 85 and the sepulchres of the Gauls. 36 The haughty message of Narses was an offer 34 The Flaminian Way, as it is corrected from the Itineraries, and the best modern maps, by D'Anville (Analyse de l'ltalie, p. 147-162), may be thus stated: Rome to Narni, 51 Roman miles ; 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 To- tila, but Wesseling (Itinerar. p. 614) exchanges, for the field of Taginas, the un- known appellation of Ptanias, eight miles from Nocera. 35 Taginse, or rather Tadinse, is mentioned by Pliny [iii. 19] ; but the bishop- ric of that obscure town, a mile from Gualdo, in the plain, was united, in the year 1007, with that of Nocera. The signs of antiquity are preserved in the local ap- pellations, Fossato, the camp; Capraia, Caprea ; JBastia, Busta Gallorum. Sea Cluverius (Italia Antiqua, 1. ii. c. 6, p. 615, 616, 617), Lucas Holstenius (Annotat. ad Cluver. p. 85, 86), Guazzesi (Dissertat. p. 177-217, a professed inquiry), and the maps of the ecclesiastical state and the march of Ancona, by Le Maire and Magini. 36 The battle was fought in the year of Rome 458 ; and the consul Decius, by devoting his own life, assured the triumph of his country and his colleague Fabius T. Liv. x. 28, 29). Procopius ascribes to Camillas the victory of the Busta Gal- lorum [torn. ii. p. 610, edit. Bonn] ; and his error is branded by Cluverius with the national reproach of " Grsecorum nugamenta." a.d.552.] DEFEAT AND DEATH OF TOTILA. 397 not of peace, but of pardon. The answer of the Gothic king declared his resolution to die or conquer. " What day," said the messenger, " will you fix for the combat?" " The eighth day," replied Totila ; but early the next morning he attempt- ed to surprise a foe suspicious of deceit and prepared for bat- tle. Ten thousand Heruli and Lombards, of approved valor and doubtful faith, were placed in the centre. Each of the wings was composed of eight thousand Romans ; the right was guarded by the cavalry of the Huns, the left was covered by fifteen hundred chosen horse, destined, according to the emergencies of action, to sustain the retreat of their friends, or to encompass the flank of the enemy. From his proper station at the head of the right wing, the eunuch rode along the line, expressing by his voice and countenance the assur- ance of victory, exciting the soldiers of the emperor to pun- ish the guilt and madness of a band of robbers, and exposing to their view gold chains, collars, and bracelets, the rewards of military virtue. From the event of a single combat they drew an omen of success; and they beheld with pleasure the courage of fifty archers, who maintained a small eminence against three successive attacks of the Gothic cavalry. At the distance only of two bow-shots the armies spent the morn- ing in dreadful suspense, and the Romans tasted some neces- sary food, without unloosening the cuirass from their breast or the bridle from their horses. Karses awaited the charge ; and it was delayed by Totila till he had received his last succors of two thousand Goths. While he consumed the hours in fruit- less treaty, the king exhibited in a narrow space the strength and agility of a warrior. His armor was enchased with gold ; his purple banner floated with the wind : he cast his lance into the air, caught it with the right hand, shifted it to the left, threw himself backward, recovered his seat, and managed a fiery steed in all the paces and evolutions of the equestrian school. As soon as the succors had arrived, he retired to his tent, assumed the dress and arms of a private soldier, and gave the signal of battle. The first line of cavalry advanced with more courage than discretion, and left behind them the infantry of the second line. They were soon engaged be- 898 CONQUEST OF SOME BY NARSES. [Ch. XLIII tween the horns of a crescent, into which the adverse wings had been insensibly curved, and were saluted from either side by the volleys of four thousand archers. Their ardor, and even their distress, drove them forwards to a close and une- qual conflict, in which they could only use their lances against an enemy equally skilled in all the instruments of war. A generous emulation inspired the Komans and their barbarian allies ; and JSTarses, who calmly viewed and directed their ef- forts, doubted to whom he should adjudge the prize of supe- rior bravery. The Gothic cavalry was astonished and disor- dered, pressed and broken ; and the line of infantry, instead of presenting their spears or opening their intervals, were trampled under the feet of the flying horse. Six thousand of the Goths were slaughtered without mercy in the field of Tagina. Their prince, with five attendants, was overtaken by Asbad, of the race of the Gepidse : " Spare the King of Italy !" a cried a loyal voice, and Asbad struck his lance through the body of Totila. The blow was instantly revenged by the faithful Goths : they transported their dying monarch seven miles beyond the scene of his disgrace, and his last moments were not embittered by the presence of an enemy. Compas- sion afforded him the shelter of an obscure tomb; but the Romans were not satisfied of their victory till they beheld the corpse of the Gothic king. His hat, enriched with gems, and his bloody robe, were presented to Justinian by the mes- sengers of triumph. 37 As soon as Karses had paid his devotions to the Author of victory and the blessed Virgin, his peculiar patroness, 38 he praised, rewarded, and dismissed the Lombards. Conquest of -it 1 i i Komeby The villages had been reduced to ashes by these valiant savages : they ravished matrons and virgins on the altar ; their retreat was diligently watched by a strong 37 Theophanes, Chron. p. 193 [torn. i. p. 354, edit. Bonn]. Hist. Miscell. 1. xvi. p. 108. 38 Evagrius, 1. iv. c. 24. The inspiration of the Virgin revealed to Narses the day, and the word, of battle (Paul Diacon. 1. ii. c. 3, p. 77(J). a " Dog, wilt thou strike thy lord ?" was the more characteristic exclamation of the Gothic youth. Frocop. lib. iv. c. 32.— M. A.D.552.] CONQUEST OF EOME BY NAKSES. 399 detachment of regular forces, who prevented a repetition of the like disorders. The victorious eunuch pursued his march through Tuscany, accepted the submission of the Goths, heard the acclamations and often the complaints of the Italians, and encompassed the walls of Rome with the remainder of his formidable host. Round the wide circumference Narses as- signed to himself 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 Ha- drian's mole nor of the port could long delay the progress of the conqueror ; and Justinian once more received the keys of Rome, which, under his reign, had been five times taken and recovered. 39 But the deliverance of Rome was the last ca- lamity of the Roman people. The barbarian allies of JSTarses too frequently confounded the privileges of peace and war. The despair of the flying Goths found some consolation in sanguinary revenge ; and three hundred youths of the noblest families, who had been sent as hostages beyond the Po, were inhumanly slain by the successor of Totila. The fate of the senate suggests an awful lesson of the vicissitude of human affairs. Of the senators whom Totila had banished from their country, some were rescued by an officer of Belisarius and transported from Campania to Sicily, while others were too guilty to confide in the clemency of Justinian, or too poor to provide horses for their escape to the sea-shore. Their brethren languished five years in a state of indigence and ex- ile : the victory of Parses revived their hopes ; but their pre- mature return to the metropolis was prevented by the furious Goths, and all the fortresses of Campania were stained with Patrician 40 blood. After a period of thirteen centuries the 89 'Etti tovtov fiamXtvovTog to TthjiTrrov ka\u). [Procop. Goth. lib. iv. c. 33 ; torn. ii. p. 632, edit. Bonn.] In the year 536 by Belisarius, in 5-16 by Totila, in 547 by Belisarius, in 549 by Totila, and in 552 by Narses. Maltretus had in- advertently translated sextum ; a mistake which he afterwards retracts : but the mischief was done ; and Cousin, with a train of French and Latin readers, has fallen into the snare. 40 Compare two passages of Procopius (1. iii. c. 26 ; 1. iv. c. 34 [torn. ii. p. 389, 633, edit. Bonn]), which, with some collateral hints from Marcellinus and Jor« nandes, illustrate the state of the expiring senate. 400 DEFEAT AND DEATH OF TEIAS, [Ch. XLIH. institution of Romulus expired ; and if the nobles of Rome still assumed the title of senators, few subsequent traces can be discovered of a public council or constitutional order. As- cend six hundred years, and contemplate the kings of. the earth soliciting an audience, as the slaves or freedmen of the Roman senate ! 41 The Gothic war was jet alive. The bravest of the nation. retired beyond the Po, and Teias was unanimously chosen to succeed and revenge their departed hero. The Defeat and ... , . & , r , , death of new king immediately sent ambassadors to nn- th St o ing ° f P^ ore > or ra ther to purchase, the aid of the Franks, a.i>.553> and nobly lavished for the public safety the riches which had been deposited in the palace of Pavia. The residue of the royal treasure was guarded by his brother Aligern, at Cumae, in Campania ; but the strong castle which Totila had fortified was closely besieged by the arms of Nar- ses. From the Alps to the foot of Mount Yesuvius, the Gothic king, by rapid and secret marches, advanced to the relief of his brother, eluded the vigilance of the Roman chiefs, and pitched his camp on the banks of the Sarnus or Draco, 42 which flows from Nuceria into the Bay of Naples. The river separated the two armies; sixty days were con- sumed in distant and fruitless combats, and Teias maintained this important post till he was deserted by his fleet and the hope of subsistence. With reluctant steps he ascended the Lactarian mount, where the physicians of Rome since the time of Galen had sent their patients for the benefit of the air and the milk/ 3 But the Goths soon embraced a more 41 See, in the example of Prnsias, as it is delivered in the fragments of Polybius (Excerpt. Legat. xcvii. p. 927, 928), a curious picture of a royal slave. 42 The Ap&Kwv of Procopius (Goth. 1. iv. c. 35) is evidently the Sarnus. The text is accused or altered by the rash violence of Cluverius (I. iv. c. 3, p. 1156) : but Camillo Pellegrini of Naples (Discorsi sopra la Campania Felice, p. 330, 331) lias proved from old records that as early as the year 822 that river was called the Dracontio, or Draconcello. 43 Galen (de Method. Medendi, 1. v. apud Cluver. ; 1. iv. c. 3, p. 1 159, 1160) describes the lofty site, pure air, and rich milk of Mount Lactarius, whose me- dicinal benefits were equally known and sought in the time of Symmachas (1. vi. Epist. 18 [17?]), and Cassiodorus (Var. xL 10). Nothing is now left except the name of the town of Lettere, ; §1 a.d.553.] THE LAST KING OF THE GOTHS. 401 generous resolution — to descend the hill, to dismiss their horses, and to die in arms and in the possession of freedom. The king marched at their head, bearing in his right hand a lance, and an ample buckler in his left : with the one he struck dead the foremost of the assailants, with the other he received the weapons which every hand was ambitious to aim against his life. After a combat of many hours, his left arm was fatigued by the weight of twelve javelins which hung from his shield. "Without moving from his ground or sus- pending his blows, the hero called aloud on his attendants for a fresh buckler, but in the moment while his side was uncov- ered, it was pierced by a mortal dart. He fell ; and his head, exalted on a spear, proclaimed to the nations that the Goth- ic kingdom was no more. But the example of his death served only to animate the companions who had sworn to perish with their leader. They fought till darkness descend- ed on the earth. They reposed on their arms. The combat was renewed with the return of light, and maintained with unabated vigor till the evening of the second day. The re- pose of a second night, the want of water, and the loss of their bravest champions, determined the surviving Goths to accept the fair capitulation which the prudence of Narses was inclined to propose. They embraced the alternative of residing in Italy as the subjects and soldiers of Justinian, or departing with a portion of their private wealth in search of some independent country/ 4 Yet the oath of fidelity or exile was alike rejected by one thousand Goths, who broke away before the treaty was signed, and boldly effected their retreat to the walls of Pavia. The spirit as well as the situation of Aligern prompted him to imitate rather than to bewail his brother : a strong and dexterous archer, he transpierced with a single arrow the armor and breast of his antagonist, and his military conduct defended Cumae" above a year against the 44 Bunt (torn. xi. p. 2, etc.) conveys to his favorite Bavaria this remnant of Goths, who by others are buried in the mountains of Uri, or restored to their na- tive isle of Gothland (Mascou, Annot. xxi.). 45 I leave Scaliger (Animadvers. in Euseb. p. f>9) and Salmasins (Exereitat. Plinian. p. 51, 52) to quarrel about the origin of Cutuas, the oldest of the Greek IT.— 26 402 INVASION OF ITALY [Ch. XLIIL forces of the Romans. Their industry had scooped the Sibyl's cave 48 into a prodigious mine ; combustible materials were in- troduced to consume the temporary props : the wall and the gate of Cumee sunk into the cavern, but the ruins formed a deep and inaccessible precipice. On the fragment of a rock Aligern stood alone and unshaken, till he calmly surveyed the hopeless condition of his country, and judged it more honorable to be the friend of Narses than the slave of the Franks. After the death of Teias the Roman general sepa- rated his troops to reduce the cities of Italy ; Lucca sustained a long and vigorous siege, and such was the humanity or the prudence of JSTarses, that the repeated perfidy of the inhab- itants could not provoke him to exact the forfeit lives of their hostages. These hostages were dismissed in safety, and their grateful zeal at length subdued the obstinacy of their countrymen. 47 Before Lucca had surrendered, Italy was overwhelmed by a new deluge of barbarians. A feeble youth, the grandson invasion of °f Clovis, reigned over the Austrasians or Oriental Fnlnk/anl Franks. The guardians of Theodebald entertained f.u!553, m ' w i tn coldness and reluctance the magnificent prom- August - ses -£ ^ G Q. thic ambassadors. But the spirit of a martial people outstripped the timid counsels of the court : two brothers, Lothaire and Buccelin , 48 the dukes of the Ale- colonies in Italy (Strab. 1. v. p. 372 [p. 243, edit. Casaub.] ; Velleius Paterculus, 1. i. c. 4), already vacant in Juvenal's time (Satir. iii. [v. 2]), and now in ruins. 46 Agathias (1. i. p. 21 [c. 10, p. 34, edit. Bonn]) sertles the Sibyl's cave under the wall of Cumse : he agrees with Serving (ad 1. vi. iEneid.) ; nor can I perceive why their opinion should be rejected by Heyne, the excellent editor of Virgil (torn. ii. p. 650, 651). "In urbe media secrera religioi" Eut Cuma? was not yet built ; and the lines (1. vi. 96, 97) would become ridiculous if iEneas were actually in a Greek city. 41 There is some difficulty in connecting the thirty-fifth chapter of the fourth book of the Gothic War of Procopius with the first book of the history of Aga- thias. We must now relinquish a statesman and soldier, to attend the footsteps of a poet and rhetorician (1. i. p. 11 ; 1. ii. p. 51, edit. Louvre). 43 Among the fabulous exploits of Buccelin, lie discomfited and slew Belisari- us, subdued Italy and Sicily, etc. See in the Historians of France, Gregory of Tours (torn. ii. 1. iii. ch. 32, p. 201), and Aimoin (torn. iii. 1. iL de Gestis Franco* rum, c. 23, p. 69. A.D. 553.] BY THE FRANKS AND ALEMANNI. 403 manni, stood forth as the leaders of the Italian war, and sev- enty-five thousand Germans descended in the autumn from the Rhaetian Alps into the plain of Milan. The vanguard of the Roman army was stationed near the Po under the con- duct of Fulcaris, a bold Herulian, who rashly conceived that personal bravery was the sole duty and merit of a command- er. As he marched without order or precaution along the ^Emilian Way, an ambuscade of Franks suddenly rose from the amphitheatre of Parma ; his troops were surprised and routed, but their leader refused to fly, declaring to the last moment that death was less terrible than the angry counte- nance of Karses. a The death of Fulcaris, and the retreat of the surviving chiefs, decided the fluctuating and rebellious temper of the Goths ; they flew to the standard of their de- liverers, and admitted them into the cities which still resist- ed the arms of the Roman general. The conqueror of Italy opened a free passage to the irresistible torrent of barbarians. They passed under the walls of Cesena, and answered by threats and reproaches the advice of Aligern, b that the Goth- ic treasures could no longer repay the labor of an invasion. Two thousand Franks were destroyed by the skill and valor of Narses himself, who sallied from Rimini at the head of three hundred horse to chastise the licentious rapine of their march. On the confines of Samnium the two brothers di- vided their forces. "With the right wing Buccelin assumed the spoil of Campania, Lueania, and Bruttium ; with the left, Lothaire accepted the plunder of Apulia and Calabria. They followed the coast of the Mediterranean and the Adriatic as far as Rhegium and Otranto, and the extreme lands of Italy were the term of their destructive progress. The Franks, I who were Christians and Catholics, contented themselves with simple pillage and occasional murder. But the churches which their piety had spared were stripped by the sacrilegious hands of the Alemanni, who sacrificed horses' heads to their native a * * * jjjy y\u> TT av ~Napoov fitfKponivrjv fioi rfjg afiovXias. Agathias [p. 45, edit. Bonn].— M. b Aligern, after the surrender of Cumse, had been sent to Cesena by Narses. Agathias [p. 58, edit. Bonn]. — M. 4:04: DEFEAT OF THE FRANKS AND ALEMANNI [Ch. XLIIL deities of the woods and rivers ;*" they melted or profaned the consecrated vessels, and the ruins of shrines and altars were stained with the blood of the faithful. Buccelin was actuated by ambition, and Lothaire by avarice. The former aspired to restore the Gothic kingdom ; the latter, after a promise to his brother of speedy succors, returned by the same road to de- posit his treasure beyond the Alps. The strength of their armies was already wasted by the change of climate and con- tagion of disease ; the Germans revelled in the vintage of It- aly, and their own intemperance avenged in some degree the miseries of a defenceless people.* At the entrance of the spring the imperial troops who had guarded the cities assembled, to the number of eighteen thou- sand men, in the neighborhood of Home. Their Defeat of the . •,,-,, , . Franks and winter hours had not been consumed in idleness. Alemanni by -iici ictv-t Narses. By the command and alter the example or JNarses, they repeated each day their military exercise on foot and on horseback, accustomed their ear to obey the sound of the trumpet, and practised the steps and evolutions of the Pyrrhic dance. From the straits of Sicily, Buccelin, with thirty thousand Franks and Alemanni, slowly moved to- wards Capua, occupied with a wooden tower the bridge of Casilinum, covered his right by the stream of the Vulturnus, and secured the rest of his encampment by a rampart of sharp stakes, and a circle of wagons whose wheels were bur- ied in the earth. He impatiently expected the return of Lo- thaire ; ignorant, alas ! that his brother could never return, and that the chief and his army had been swept away by a strange disease 60 on the banks of the lake Benacus, between 49 Agathias notices their superstition in a philosophic tone (1. i. p. 18 [c. 2 seq., edit. Bonn]). At Zag, in Switzerland, idolatry still prevailed in the yei 613: St. Columban and St. Gall were the apostles of that rude country; and th latter founded a hermitage, which has swelled into an ecclesiastical principalis and a populous city, the seat of freedom and commerce. 60 See the death of Lothaire in Agathias (1. ii. p. 38 [p. 70, edit. Bonn]) and " a A body of Lothaire's troops was defeated near Fano ; some were driven down precipices into the sea, others fled to the camp : many prisoners seized the oppor- tunity of making their escape ; and the barbarians lost most of their booty in their precipitate retreat. Agathias. — M. a.d. 554.] BY NARSES. 405 Trent and Verona. The banners of ISTarses soon approached the Vulturnus, and the eyes of Italy were anxiously fixed on the event of this final contest. Perhaps the talents of the Roman general were most conspicuous in the calm operations which precede the tumult of a battle. His skilful movements intercepted the subsistence of the barbarian, deprived him of the advantage of the bridge and river, and in the choice of the ground and moment of action reduced him to comply with the inclination of his enemy. On the morning of the important day, when the ranks were already formed, a ser- vant, for some trivial fault, was killed by his master, one of the leaders of the Heruli. The justice or passion of Parses was awakened: he summoned the offender to his presence, and without listening to his excuses gave the signal to the minister of death. If the cruel master had not infringed the laws of his nation, this arbitrary execution was not less un- just than it appears to have been imprudent. The Heruli felt the indignity ; they halted : but the Roman general, with- out soothing their rage or expecting their resolution, called aloud, as the trumpets sounded, that, unless they hastened to occupy their place, they would lose the honor of the victory. His troops were disposed" in a long front ; the cavalry on the wings ; in the centre the heavy-armed foot ; the archers and slingers in the rear. The Germans advanced in a sharp- pointed column of the form of a triangle or solid wedge. They pierced the feeble centre of Karses, who received them with a smile into the fatal snare, and directed his wings of cavalry insensibly to wheel on their flanks and encompass their rear. The host of the Franks and Alemanni consisted of infantry : a sword and buckler hung by their side, and they used as their weapons of offence a weighty hatchet and a hooked javelin, which were only formidable in close combat Paul Warnefrid, surnamed Diaconus (1. ii. c. 2, p. 775). The Greek makes him rave and tear his flesh. He had plundered churches. 61 Pere Daniel (Hist, de la Milice Francoise, torn. i. p. 17-21) has exhibited a fanciful representation of this battle, somewhat in the manner of the Chevalier Folard, the once famous editor of Polybius, who fashioned to his own habits and opinions all the military operations of antiquity. 40G DEFEAT OF THE FEANKS AND ALEMANNI. tCH. XLI1L or at a short distance. The flower of the Roman archers, on horseback and in complete armor, skirmished without peril round this immovable phalanx, supplied by active speed the deficiency of number, and aimed their arrows against a crowd of barbarians who, instead of a cuirass and helmet, were cov- ered by a loose garment of fur or linen. They paused, they trembled, their ranks were confounded, and in the decisive moment the Heruli, preferring glory to revenge, charged with rapid violence the head of the column. Their leader Sind- bal, and Aligern, the Gothic prince, deserved the prize of su- perior valor ; and their example incited the victorious troops to achieve with swords and spears the destruction of the en- emy. Buccelin and the greatest part of his army perished on the field of battle, in the waters of the Vulturnus, or by the hands of the enraged peasants ; but it may seem incredible that a victory, 62 whicli no more than five of the Alemanni sur- vived, could be purchased with the loss of fourscore Romans. Seven thousand Goths, the relics of the war, defended the fortress of Campsa till the ensuing spring; and every mes- senger of ISTarses announced the reduction of the Italian cit- ies, whose names were corrupted by the ignorance or vanity of the Greeks. 63 After the battle of Casilinum Karses en- tered the capital ; the arms and treasures of the Goths, the Franks, and the Alemanni were displayed ; his soldiers, with garlands in their hands, chanted the praises of the con- queror; an a triumph. After a reign of sixty years the throne of the Gothic kings was filled by the exarchs of Ravenna, the representatives ir peace and war of the emperor of the Romans. Their juris diction was soon reduced to the limits of a narrow province 62 Agathias (1. ii. p. 47 [p. 87, edit. Bonn]) has produced a Greek epigram of six lines on this victory of Narses, which is favorably compared to the battles of Marathon and Platsea. a The chief difference is, indeed, in their consequences- trivial in the former instance, so permanent and glorious in the latter. 63 The Beroia and Brincas of Theophanes or his transcriber (p. 201 [torn. i. p. 367, edit. Bonn]) must be read or understood Verona and Brixia. Not in the epigram, but in the previous observations. — M. A.D. 554-568.] SETTLEMENT OF ITALY. 407 but Narses himself, the first and most powerful of the ex* archs, administered above fifteen years the entire of itaiy. kingdom of Italy. Like Belisarius, he had deserved £..». 554-508. . ° i. -l it ! ! the honors of envy, calumny, and disgrace : but the favorite eunuch still enjoyed the confidence of Justinian ; or the leader of a victorious army awed and repressed the in- gratitude of a timid court. Yet it was not by weak and mis- chievous indulgence that Narses secured the attachment of his troops. Forgetful of the past and regardless of the fut- ure, they abused the present hour of prosperity and peace. The cities of Italy resounded with the noise of drinking and dancing: the spoils of victory were wasted in sensual pleas- ures; and nothing (says Agathias) remained unless to ex- change their shields and helmets for the soft lute and the ca- pacious hogshead. 54 In a manly oration, not unworthy of a Roman censor, the eunuch reproved these disorderly vices, which sullied their fame and endangered their safety. The 6oldiers blushed, and obeyed ; discipline was confirmed ; the fortifications were restored ; a duke was stationed for the de- fence and military command of each of the principal cities ;" and the eye of Narses pervaded the ample prospect from Ca- labria to the Alps. The remains of the Gothic nation evacu- ated the country or mingled with the people : the Franks, in- stead of revenging the death of Buccelin, abandoned, without a struggle, their Italian conquests; and the rebellious Sindbal, chief of the Heruli, was subdued, taken, and hung on a lofty gallows, by the inflexible justice of the exarch. 66 The civil 64 *E\i'nr£TO yap, olfiai, avrdlg virb d€e\Tepiag Tag aairtSag rw^ov Kai ra icpav)] dfKpoptwg o'lvov i] Kai fiaptirov airoS6a8ai (Agathias, 1. ii. [c. 11] p. 48 [p. 88, edit. Bonn]). In the first scene of Richard III. our English poet has beautifully en- larged on this idea, for which, however, he was not indebted to the Byzantine historian. 55 Maffei has proved (Verona Illustrata, pt. i. 1. x. p. 257, 289), against the com- mon opinion, that the dukes of Italy were instituted before the conquest of the Lombards, by Narses himself. In the Pragmatic Sanction (No. 23) Justinian re- strains the judices militares. B6 See Paulus Diaconus, 1. iii. c. 3, p. 776. Menander (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 133 (p. 345, edit. Bonn]) mentions some risings in Italy by the Franks, and Theopha- nes(p. 201 [torn. i. p. 367, edit. Bonn]) hints at some Gothic rebellions. 408 SETTLEMENT OF ITALY. [Ch-XLIIL state of Italy, after the agitation of a long tempest, was fixed by a pragmatic sanction, which the emperor promulgated at the request of the pope. Justinian introduced his own juris- prudence into the schools and tribunals of the "West : he rati- fied the acts of Theodoric and his immediate successors, but every deed was rescinded and abolished which force had ex- torted or fear had subscribed under the usurpation of Totila. A moderate theory was framed to reconcile the rights of property with the safety of prescription, the claims of the State with the poverty of the people, and the pardon of of- fences with the interest of virtue and order of society. Un- der the exarchs of Ravenna, Rome was degraded to the sec- ond rank. Yet the senators were gratified by the permission of visiting their estates in Italy, and of approaching with- out obstacle the throne of Constantinople : the regulation of weights and measures was delegated to the pope and senate ; and the salaries of lawyers and physicians, of orators and grammarians, were destined to preserve or rekindle the light of science in the ancient capital. Justinian might dictate benevolent edicts," and Narses might second his wishes by the restoration of cities, and more especially of churches. But the power of kings is most effectual to destroy: and the twenty years of the Gothic war had consummated the dis- tress and depopulation of Italy. As early as the fourth cam« paign, under the discipline of Belisarius himself, fifty thou- sand laborers died of hunger 68 in the narrow region of Pice- 67 The Pragmatic Sanction of Justinian, which restores and regulates the civil state of Italy, consists of twenty-seven articles : it is dated August 15, a.d. 554 ; is addressed to Narses, V. J. Prajpositus Sacri Cubiculi, and to Antiochus Pras- fectus Prsetorio Italia? ; and has been preserved by Julian Antecessor, and in the Corpus Juris Civilis, after the novels and edicts of Justinian, Justin, and Tiberius. 68 A still greater number was consumed by famine in the southern provinces, without (Jktoq) the Ionian Gulf. Acorns were used in the place of bread. Pro- copius had seen a deserted orphan suckled by a she-goat [Goth. ii. c. 17]. Seven- teen passengers were lodged, murdered, and eaten by two women, who were de- tected and slain by the eighteenth, etc.* » Denina considers that greater evil was inflicted upon Italy by the Grecian re conquest than by any other invasion. Revoluz. d'ltalia, t. i. 1. v. p. 247. — M, A.D.559.] INVASION OF THE BULGARIANS. 409 num; M and a strict interpretation of the evidence of Procopius would swell the loss of Italy above the total sum of her pres- ent inhabitants. 80 I desire to believe, but I dare not affirm, that Belisarius sincerely rejoiced in the triumph of Narses. Yet the con- invasion sciousness of his own exploits might teach him to garland" 1 * esteem, without jealousy, the merit of a rival ; and A.D.559. ^ e re p 0se f the aged warrior was crowned by a last victory, which saved the emperor and the capital. The barbarians, who annually visited the provinces of Europe, were less discouraged by some accidental defeats than they were excited by the double hope of spoil and of subsidy. . In the thirty-second winter of Justinian's reign the Danube was deeply frozen ; Zabergan led the cavalry of the Bulgarians, and his standard was followed by a promiscuous multitude of Sclavonians. The savage chief passed, without opposition, the river and the mountains, spread his troops over Macedo- nia and Thrace, and advanced with no more than seven thou- sand horse to the long walls which should have defended the territory of Constantinople. But the works of man are im- potent against the assaults of nature : a recent earthquake had shaken the foundations of the walls ; and the forces of the empire were employed on the distant frontiers of Italy, Africa, and Persia. The seven schools* 1 or companies, of the guards or domestic troops had been augmented to the num- ber of five thousand five hundred men, whose ordinary sta- tion was in the peaceful cities of Asia. But the places of the brave Armenians were insensibly supplied by lazy citizens, 59 Quinta regio Piceni est ; quondam uberrima? multitudinis. ccclx millia Picen- tium in fidem P. R. venere(Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 18). In the time of Vespasian this ancient population was already diminished. 60 Perhaps fifteen or sixteen millions. Procopius (Anecdot. c. 18) computes that Africa lost five millions, that Italy was thrice as extensive, and that the depopula- tion was in a larger proportion. But his reckoning is inflamed by passion and clouded with uncertainty. 61 In the decay of these military schools, the satire of Procopius (Anecdot. c. 24 [torn. iii. p. 135, edit. Bonn] ; Aleman. p. 102, 103) is confirmed and illustrated by Agathias (1. v. p. 159 [p. 310, edit. Bonn]), who cannot be rejected as a hostile witness. MO LAST VICTORY OF BELISARIUS. [Ch. XLIIL who purchased an exemption from the duties of civil life without being exposed to the dangers of military service. Of such soldiers few could be tempted to sally from the gates ; and none could be persuaded to remain in the field, unless they wanted strength and speed to escape from the Bulga- rians. The report of the fugitives exaggerated the numbers and fierceness of an enemy who had polluted holy virgins and abandoned new-born infants to the dogs and vultures ; a crowd of rustics, imploring food and protection, increased the consternation of the city ; and the tents of Zabergan were pitched at the distance of twenty miles, 63 on the banks of a small river which encircles Melanthias and afterwards falls into the Propontis. 83 Justinian trembled : and those who had only seen the emperor in his old age were pleased to sup- pose that he had lost the alacrity and vigor of his youth. By his command the vessels of gold and silver were removed from the churches in the neighborhood, and even the suburbs, of Constantinople : the ramparts were lined with trembling spectators ; the golden gate was crowded with useless gener- als and tribunes; and the senate shared the fatigues and the apprehensions of the populace. But the eyes of the prince and people were directed to a feeble veteran, who was compelled by the public danger to Last victory resume the armor in which he had entered Car- of Beiisaiins. thage an d defended Borne. The horses of the royal stables of private citizens, and even of the circus, were hasti- ly collected ; the emulation of the old and young was roused by the name of Belisarius, and his first encampment was in the presence of a victorious enemy. His prudence, and the 6S The distance from Constantinople to Melanthias, Villa Csesaviana (Ammian. Marcellin. xxxi. 11), is variously fixed at 120 or 140 stadia (Suidas, torn. ii. p. 522, 523 ; Agathias, 1. v. [c. 14] p. 158 [p. 308, edit. Bonn]), or eighteen or nine- teen miles (Itineraria.p. 138, 230, 323, 332, and Wesseling's Observations). The first twelve miles, as far as Rhegium, were paved by Justinian, who built a bridge over a morass or gullet between a lake and the sea (Procop. de ^Edif. 1. iv. c. 8). 63 The Atyras (Pompon. Mela, 1. ii. c. 2, p. 169, edit.Voss.) At the river's mouth a town or castle of the same name was fortified by Justinian (Procop. da ffidif. 1. iv. c. 2 ; Itinerar. p. 570 ; and Wesseling). A.D. 559.] LAST VICTORY OF BELISARIUS. 411 labor of the friendly peasants, secured, with a ditch and ram- part, the repose of the night ; innumerable fires and clouds of dust 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 his knowledge that in the hour of trial he must depend on the firmness of three hundred vet- erans. The next morning the Bulgarian cavalry advanced to the charge. But they heard, the shouts of multitudes, they beheld the anus and discipline of the front ; they were as- saulted on the flanks by two ambuscades which rose from the woods ; their foremost warriors fell by the hand of the aged hero and his guards ; and the swiftness of their evolutions was rendered useless by the close attack and rapid pursuit of the Romans. In this action (so speedy was their flight) the Bulgarians lost only four hundred horse : but Constantinople was saved; and Zabergan, who felt the hand of a master, withdrew to a respectful distance. But his friends were nu- merous in the councils of the emperor, and Belisarius obeyed with reluctance the commands of envy and Justinian, which forbade him to achieve the deliverance of his country. On his return to the city, the people, still conscious of their dan- ger, accompanied his triumph with acclamations of joy and gratitude, which were imputed as a crime to the victorious general. But when he entered the palace the courtiers were silent, and the emperor, after a cold and thankless embrace, dismissed him to mingle with the train of slaves. Yet so deep was the impression of his glory on the minds of men, that Justinian, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, was en- couraged to advance near forty miles from the capital, and to inspect in person the restoration of the long wall. The Bul- garians wasted the summer in the plains of Thrace ; but they were inclined to peace by the failure of their rash attempts on Greece and the Chersonesus. A menace of killing their prisoners quickened the payment of heavy ransoms ; and the departure of Zabergan was hastened by the report that dou- ble-prowed vessels were built on the Danube to intercept his passage. The danger was soon forgotten ; and a vain ques- 412 CONSPIRACY AGAINST JUSTINIAN. [CH.XLIH tion, whether their sovereign had shown more wisdom o* weakness, amused the idleness of the city. 64 About two years after the last victory of Belisarius, the emperor returned from a Thracian journey of health, or busi- ness, or devotion. Justinian was afflicted by a pain His disgrace , . . . i and death. m his head ; and Ins private entry countenanced 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, pre- pared for the impending tumult. The senators themselves, fearful and suspicious, were convened at the ninth hour ; and the praefect received their commands to visit every quarter of the city and proclaim a general illumination for the re- covery of the emperor's health. The ferment subsided ; but every accident betrayed the impotence of the government and the factious temper of the people : the guards were dis- posed to mutiny as often as their quarters were changed or their pay was withheld : the frequent calamities of fires and earthquakes afforded the opportunities of disorder ; the dis- putes of the blues and greens, of the orthodox and heretics, degenerated info bloody battles; and, in the presence of the Persian ambassador, Justinian blushed for himself and for his subjects. Capricious pardon and arbitrary punishment em- bittered the irksomeness and discontent of a long reign : a conspiracy was formed in the palace ; and, unless we are de- ceived by the names of Marcellus and Sergius, the most virt- uous and the most profligate of the courtiers were associated in the same designs. They had fixed the time of the execu- tion ; their rank gave them access to the royal banquet ; and their black slaves 65 were stationed in the vestibule and porti- 44 The Bulgarian war, and the last victory of Belisarius, are imperfectly repre- sented in the prolix declamation of Agathias (1. v. p. 154-174 [p. 299 seq., edit. Bonn]) and the dry Chronicle of Theophanes (p. 197, 198 [torn. i. p. 360 seq., edit. Bonn]). 65 "IrSovg. They could scarcely be real Indians; and the ^Ethiopians, some- times known by that name, were never used by the ancients as guards or follow- ers: they were the trifling, th®ugh costly, objects of female and royal luxury (Te- rent. Eunuch, act i. scene ii. [v. 88] ; Sueton. in August, c. 83, with a good noto of Casaubon, in Caligul&, c. 57). a.d. 563-565.] DISGBACE AND DEATH OF BELISARIUS. 413 coes to announce the death of the tyrant, and to excite a se dition in the capital. But the indiscretion of an accomplice saved the poor remnant of the days of Justinian. The con- spirators were detected and seized, with daggers hidden under their garments ; Marcellus died by his own hand, and Sergius was dragged from the sanctuary. 89 Pressed by remorse, or tempted by the hopes of safety, he accused two officers of the household of Belisarius, and torture forced them to declare that they had acted according to the secret instructions of their patron. 67 Posterity will not hastily believe that a hero who in the vigor of life had disdained the fairest offers of ambition and revenge should stoop to the murder of his prince, whom he could not long expect to survive. His followers were impatient to fly ; but flight must have been supported by rebellion, and he had lived enough for nature and for glory. Belisarius appeared before the council with a.d.563, l ess ^ ear tnan indignation: after forty years' ser- Dec.5. v j ce t k e em p eror had prejudged his guilt; and in- justice was sanctified by the presence and authority of the patriarch. The life of Belisarius was graciously spared, but a.d.564, hi 8 fortunes were sequestered; and, from Decem- Juiyw. k er t J u ly ? l ie was guarded as a prisoner in his own palace. At length his innocence was acknowledged ; his freedom and honors were restored ; and death, which might be hastened by resentment and grief, removed him *..n. 565, from the world about eight months after his deliv- Marchi3. erance. The name of Belisarius can never die: but, instead of the funeral, the monuments, the statues, so just- ly due to his memory, I only read that his treasures, the spoils of the Goths and Yandals, were immediately confiscated by the emperor. Some decent portion was reserved, however, for 68 The 1 Sergius (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 21, 22 ; Anecdot. c. 5) and Marcellus (Goth. L fii. c. 32) are mentioned by Procopius. See Theophanes, p. 197, 201 [torn. i. p. 360, 367, edit. Bonn]. 61 Alemannus (p. 3) quotes an old Byzantine MS., which has been printed in the Imperium Orientale of Banduri [torn. iii. p. 349, edit. Bonn]. * Some words, "the acts of," or "the crimes of," appear to have fallen from the text. The omission is in all the editions I have consulted. — M. 414: DISGKACE AND DEATH OF BELISARIUS. [Ch. XLIIL the use of Lis widow : and as Antonina had much to repent, she devoted the last remains of her life and fortune to the foundation of a convent. Such is the simple and genuine nar- rative of the fall of Belisarius, and the ingratitude of Justin- ian. 08 That he was deprived of his eyes, and reduced by envy to beg his bread, " Give a penny to Belisarius the general !" is a fiction of later times, 69 which has obtained credit, or rather favor, as a strange example of the vicissitudes of fortune. 70 * 68 Of the disgrace and restoration of Belisarius, the genuine original record is preserved in the Fragment of John Malala (torn. ii. p. 234-243 [p. 494 seq., edit. Bonn]) and the exact Chronicle of Theophanes (p. 194-204 [torn. i. p. 308 seq., edit. Bonn]). Cedrenus (Oompend. p. 387, 388 [torn. i. p. G80, edit. Bonn]) and Zonaras (torn. ii. 1. xiv. [c. 9] p. 69) seem to hesitate between the obsolete truth and the growing falsehood. 69 The source of this idle fable may be derived from a miscellaneous work of the twelfth century, the Chiliads of John Tzetzes, a monk b (Basil. 1546, ad cal- cem Lycophront. Colon. Allobrog. 1614, in Corp. Poet. Grasc). He relates the blindness and beggary of Belisarius in ten vulgar or political verses (Chiliad iii. No. 88, 339-348, in Corp. Poet. Grac. torn. ii. p. 311). "EKiriofia %v\ivov Kparwv, t€6a r<£ fii\i((t, Bs\iGapi 6€o\bv Sots tu> arpanjXaTy "Ov rhyi] fiiv iSo^aaev, airorvipXoi d' 6 $96vog. This moral or romantic tale was imported into Italy with the language and man- uscripts of Greece ; repeated before the end of the fifteenth century by Crinitus, Pontanus, and Volaterranus ; attacked by Alciat, for the honor of the Law ; and defended by Baronius (a.d. 561, No. 2, etc.), for the honor of the Church. Yet Tzetzes himself had read in other chronicles that Belisarius did not lose his sight, and that he recovered his fame and fortunes. ,0 The statue in the villa Borghese at Rome, in a sitting posture, with an open * Lord Mahon, in his Life of Belisarius, argues with learning and ingenuity favor of the celebrated story of the tragic fate of Belisarius. But in this, as in al other historical questions, it is impossible to obtain any satisfactory result withoui contemporary evidence. Now this is entirely wanting in the present instance. The earliest writer who mentions the disgrace of Belisarius is Theophanes, wh lived in the ninth century, and he relates that the hero was subsequently reston to his freedom and honors. Two other writers of a later date are the authorities for the common story, namely, the anonymous author of the Description of Con stantinople, who lived in the eleventh century, and whose statement on the subject (Banduri's Imperinm Oriental?, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 7) was pointed out for the first tim^ bv Lord Mahon, and John Tzetzes, who lived in the twelfth century. The prior- ity of time belongs to Theophanes, but he does not give any authority for his nar- raiive, and he lived at too great a distance from the event to be of any value as an iii'-h-pendent authority. Neither the anonymous author of the Description of b I know not where Gibbon found Tzetzes to be a monk : I suppose he consid- ered his had verses a proof of his monachism. Compare the preface of Gerbelius in Killing's edition of Tzeta«8. ■ It is at present in the Louvre. — S. A.D. 565.] DEATH AND CHARACTER OF JUSTINIAN. 415 If the emperor could rejoice in the death of Belisarius, he enjoyed the base satisfaction only eight months, the last pe* riod of a reign of thirty-eight and a life of eighty- character of three years. It would be difficult to trace the char- Justiniau. " . , a.d.565, acter 01 a prince who is not the most conspicuous object of his own times : but the confessions of an enemy may be received as the safest evidence of his virtues. The resemblance of Justinian to the bust of Domitian is ma- liciously urged," with the acknowledgment, however, of a well- liand, which is vulgarly given to Belisarius, may be ascribed with more dignity to Augustus in the act of propitiating Nemesis (Winckelman, Hist, de l'Art, torn. iii. p. 2GC). Ex nocturno visa etiam stipem, quotannis, die certo, emendicabat a po- pulo, cavam manum asses porrigentibus prsebens (Sueton. in August, c. 91, with an excellent note of Casaubon), 11 The rubor of Domitian is stigmatized, quaintly enough, by the pen of Tacitus Constantinople nor John Tzetzes quotes any authority for the other story ; nor is there any reason for believing that they had information which Theophanes did not possess or neglected to use. At the same time this is not impossible ; and as we have no satisfactory evidence on either side, we must be content to leave the mat- ter in uncertainty. It may, however, be remarked that Gibbon's note (68) conveys scarcely a fair impression of the authorities on the subject. Malala says nothing of the restoration of Belisarius to favor, but, on the contrary, states that he remain- ed under the displeasure of Justinian (kch efieivtv 6 avroc Bskurapiog virb dyavdic- Tr)mv, p. 495, edit. Bonn). Moreover, Gibbon gives more value to the testimony of Theophanes than it deserves, by speaking of "the exact Chronicle " of that writer ; while in other passages, as Lord Mahon observes, he gives a very different estimate of the value of Theophanes. Thus in one place he informs us that The- ophanes is " full of strange blunders " (ch. xlii. note 100), and elsewhere he re- marks that he is " the father of many a lie " (ch. 1. note 68), and that "his chro- nology is loose and inaccurate" (ch. li. note 145). Cedrenus ought not to be quoted as an independent authority, as he merely abridges from Theophanes. Two theories have been started in modern limes to account for the story of the beggary of Belisarius. The first is that of Le Beau, who supposes that Belisa- rius was confounded with his contemporary, John of Cappadocia, who was re- duced to such poverty that he begged his bread from province to province. (His- toire du Bas Empire, vol. ix. p. 419.) The second is that of Mr. Finlay, who sug- gests that the story took its rise from t he fate of Symbatius and Peganes, who, having formed a conspiracy against Michael HI. in the ninth century, were de- prived of their sight, and exposed as common beggars in Constantinople. "The degrading punishment to which two men of the highest rank in the empire were subject made a deep impression on the people of Constantinople. The figure of Peganes — a soldier of high reputation — standing in the Milion, asking for an obolos, with a platter in his hand, like a blind beggar, haunted their imagination, and, finding its way into the romances of the age, was borrowed to illustrate the greatest vicissitudes of court favor, and give coloring to the strongest pictures of the ingratitude of emperors. The fate of Peganes and Symbatius was woven into a tale called the Life of Belisarius " (Finlay, Hist, of the Byzantine Empire, vol. i. p. 229). This conjecture, however, seems improbable, on account of the vast gap in the chronology ; for it is not likely that the fate of a person in the ninth century should have been transferred to a person in the sixth.— S. 416 CHARACTER AND DEATH OF JUSTINIAN. £Ch. XLITJ. proportioned figure, a ruddy complexion, and a pleasing coun- tenance. The emperor was easy of access, patient of hearing, courteous and affable in discourse, and a master of the angry passioni which rage with such destructive violence in the breast of a despot. Procopius praises his temper, to reproach him with calm and deliberate cruelty: but in the conspira- cies which attacked his authority and person, a more candid judge will approve the justice, or admire the clemency, of Jus- tinian. He excelled in the private virtues of chastity and tem- perance ; but the impartial love of beauty would have been less mischievous than his conjugal tenderness for Theodora; and his abstemious diet was regulated, not by the prudence of a philosopher, but the superstition of a monk. His repasts were short and frugal : on solemn fasts he contented himself with water and vegetables ; and such was his strength as well as fervor, that he frequently passed two days, and as many nights, without tasting any food. The measure of his sleep was not less rigorous : after the repose of a single hour, the body was awakened by the soul, and, to the astonishment of his chamberlains, Justinian walked or studied till the morning light. Such restless application prolonged his time for the acquisition of knowledge 79 and the despatch of business ; and he might seriously deserve the reproach of confounding, by minute and preposterous diligence, the general order of his administration. The emperor professed himself a musician and architect, a poet and philosopher, a lawyer and theolo- gian ; and if he failed in the enterprise of reconciling the Christian sects, the review of the Roman jurisprudence is a noble monument of his spirit and industry. In the govern- ment of the empire he was less wise, or less successful : the age was unfortunate ; the people was oppressed and discon- (in Vit. Agricol. c. 45), and has been likewise noticed by the younger Pliny (Pa- negyr. c. 48) and Suetonius (in Domitian, c. 18, and Casaubon ad locum). Pro- copius (Anecdot. c. 8 [torn. iii. p. 55, edit. Bonn]) foolishly believes that only one bust of Domitian had reached the sixth century. M The studies and science of Justinian are attested by the confession (Anecdot. c. 8, 13) still more than by the praises (Gothic. 1. iii. c. 31, de JEdific. 1. i. Proem, c. 7) of Procopius. Consult the copious index of Alemannus, and read the Lift of Justinian by Ludewig (p. 135-142). A.D. 565.] COMETS. 417 tented ; Theodora abused her power ; a succession of bad ministers disgraced his judgment ; and Justinian was neither beloved in his life nor regretted at his death. The love of fame was deeply implanted in his breast, but he condescend- ed to the poor ambition of titles, honors, and contemporary praise ; and while he labored to fix the admiration, he forfeit- ed the esteem and affection, of the Romans. The design of the African and Italian wars was boldly conceived and exe- cuted ; and his penetration discovered the talents of Belisarius in the camp, of Narses in the palace. But the name of the emperor is eclipsed by the names of his victorious generals ; and Belisarius still lives, to upbraid the envy and ingratitude of his sovereign. The partial favor of mankind applauds the genius of a conqueror who leads and directs his subjects in the exercise of arms. The characters of Philip the Second and of Justinian are distinguished by the cold ambition which delights in war and declines the dangers of the field. Yet a colossal statue of bronze represented the emperor on horse- back, preparing to march against the Persians in the habit and armor of Achilles. In the great square before the Church of St. Sophia, this monument was raised on a brass column and a stone pedestal of seven steps; and the pillar of Theo- dosius, 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 Ms memory ; the elder Andronicus, in the be- ginning of the fourteenth century, repaired and beautified his equestrian statue: since the fall of the empire it has been melted into cannon by the victorious Turks." I shall conclude this chapter with the comets, the earth- quakes, and the plague, which astonished or afflicted the age of Justinian. I. In the fifth year of his reign, and in the month of Sep- tember, a comet 74 was seen during twenty days in the western 13 See in the C. P. Christiana of Ducange (1. i. c. 24, No. 1) a ehain of original testimonies, from Procopius in the sixth, to Gyllins in the sixteenth, cehtnry. 14 The first comet is mentioned by John Malala (torn. ii. p. 190, 219 [p. 454, IV.— 27 418 COMETS. [Ch. XLIII. quarter of the heavens, and which shot its rays into the north. Comets. Eight years afterwards, while the sun was in Cap- a.d. 531-539. r i cornj another comet appeared to follow in the Sagittary : the sizo was gradually increasing; the head was in the east, the tail in the west, and it remained visible above forty days. The nations, who gazed with astonishment, ex- pected wars and calamities from their baleful influence; and these expectations were abundantly fulfilled. The astrono- mers dissembled their ignorance of the nature of these blaz- ing stars, which they affected to represent as the floating me- teors of the air ; and few among them embraced the simple notion of Seneca and the Chaldeeans, that they are only plan- ets of a longer period and more eccentric motion. 75 Time and science have justified the conjectures and predictions of the Roman sage: the telescope has opened new worlds to the eyes of astronomers; 73 and, in the narrow space of history and fable, one and the same comet is already found to have revis- ited the earth in seven equal revolutions of five hundred and seventy -five years. The first" which ascends beyond the Christian era one thousand seven hundred and sixty -seven years, is coeval with Ogyges, the father of Grecian antiquity. And this appearance explains the tradition which Yarro has preserved, that under his reign the planet Yenus changed her color, size, figure, and course; a prodigy without example 477, edit. Bonn]) nnd Theophanes (p. 154 [torn. i. p. 278, edit. Bonn]); the sec- ond by PrOcopius (Persic. 1. ii. c. 4). Yet I strongly suspect their identity. The paleness of the sun (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 14) is applied by Theophanes (p. 158) to a dif- ferent year. 3 15 Seneca's seventh book of Natural Questions displays in the theory of comets a philosophic mind. Yet should we not too candidly confound a vague predic- tion, a " veniet tempus," etc., with the merit of real discoveries. 76 Astronomers may study Newton and Halley. I draw my humble science from the article Comets, in the French Encyclopedic, by M. d'Alembert. 77 Wliiston, the honest, pious, visionary Whiston, had fancied, for the era of Noah's flood (2242 years before Christ), a prior apparition of the same comet which drowned the earth with its tail. ■ See Lydus de Ostentis, particularly c. 15, in which the author begins to show the signification of comets according to the part of the heavens in which they ap- pear, and what fortunes they prognosticate to the lioman empire and their Per- sian enemies. The chapter, however, is imperfect. (Edit. Niebuhr, p. 290.) — M. A.D. 531-539.] COMETS. 419 either in past or succeeding ages. 78 The second visit, in the year eleven hundred and ninety-three, is darkly implied in the fable of Electra, the seventh of the Pleiads, who have been reduced to six since the time of the Trojan war. That nymph, the wife of Dardanus, was unable to support the ruin of her country : she abandoned the dances of her sister orbs, fled from the zodiac to the north pole, and obtained, from her dishevelled locks, the name of the comet. The third period expires in the year six hundred and eighteen, a date that ex- actly agrees with the tremendous comet of the Sibyl, and per- haps of Pliny, which arose in the West two generations be- fore the reign of Cyrus. The fourth apparition, forty-four years before the birth of Christ, is of all others the most splen- did and important. After the death of Caesar, a long-haired star was conspicuous to Rome and to the nations during the games which were exhibited by young Octavian in honor of Venus and his uncle. The vulgar opinion, that it conveyed to heaven the divine soul of the dictator, was cherished and consecrated by the piety of a statesman ; while his secret su- perstition referred the comet to the glory of his own times." The fifth visit has been already ascribed to the fifth year of Justinian, which coincides with the five hundred and thirty- first of the Christian era. And it may deserve notice that in this, as in the preceding instance, the comet was followed, though at a longer interval, by a remarkable paleness of the sun. The sixth return, in the year eleven hundred and six, is recorded by the chronicles of Europe and China: and in the first fervor of the Crusades, the Christians and the Mahome- 18 A Dissertation of Freret (Memoires de lAcade'mie des Inscriptions, torn. x. p. 357-377) affords a happy union of philosophy and erudition. The phenome- non in the time of Ogyges was preserved by Varro (apud Augustin. de Civitate Dei, xxi. 8), who quotes Castor, Dion of Naples, and Adrastus of Cyzicus — "no- biles mathematici." The two subsequent periods are preserved by the Greek mythologists and the spurious books of Sibylline verses. 79 Pliny (Hist. Nat. ii. 23) has transcribed the original memorial of Augustus. Mairan, in his most ingenious letters to the P. Parennin, missionary in China, re- moves the games and the comet of September from the year 44 to the year 43 before the Christian era; but I am not totally subdued by the criticism of th« astronomer (Opuscules, p. 275-351). 420 COMETS AND EARTHQUAKES. [Ch. XLIII. tans might surmise, with equal reason, that it portended the destruction of the infidels. The seventh phenomenon, of on« thousand six hundred and eighty, was presented to the eyes of an enlightened age.' The philosophy of Bayle dispelled a prejudice which Milton's muse had so recently adorned, that the comet, " from its horrid hair shakes pestilence and war."" Its road in the heavens was observed with exquisite skill by Flamsteed and Cassini: and the mathematical sci- ence of Bernoulli, Newton, a and Halley investigated the laws of its revolutions. At the eighth period, in the year two thousand three hundred and fifty-five, their calculations may perhaps be verified by the astronomers of some future capital in the Siberian or American wilderness. II. The near approach of a comet may injure or destroy the globe which we inhabit; but the changes on its surface „ , , have been hitherto produced by the action of vol- Earthquakcs. r mi canoes and earthquakes. lhe nature of the soil may indicate the countries most exposed to these formidable concussions, since they are caused by subterraneous fires, and such fires are kindled by the union and fermentation of iron and sulphur. But their times and effects appear to lie be- yond the reach of human curiosity ; and the philosopher will discreetly abstain from the prediction of earthquakes, till he has counted the drops of water that silently filtrate on the in- 80 This last comet was visible in the month of December, 1680. Bayle, who began his Pensees sur la Comete in January, 1681 (CEuvres, torn, iii.), was forced to argue that a supernatural comet would have confirmed the ancients in their idolatry. Bernoulli (see his Eloge, in Fontenelle, torn. v. p. 99) was forced to al- low that the tail, though not the head, was a sign of the wrath of God. 81 Paradise Lost was published in the year 1667 ; and the famous lines (1. ii. 708, etc.), which startled the licenser, may allude to the recent comet of 1664, ob- serv«d by Cassini at Rome in the presence of Queen Christina (Fontenelle, in his Eloge, torn. v. p. 338). Had Charles II. betrayed any symptoms of curiosity or fear? 82 For the cause of earthquakes, see Buffon (torn. i. p. 502-536 ; Supplement a l'Hist. Naturelle, torn. v. p. 382-390, edition in 4to) ; Valmont de Bomare (Dic- tionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle, Tremblemens de Terre, Pyrites) ; Watson (Chem« Seal Essays, torn. i. p. 181-209). * Compare Pingre, Histoire des Cometea.— M. A.D.526.] EARTHQUAKES. 421 flammable mineral, and measured the caverns which increase by resistance the explosion of the imprisoned air. "Without assigning the cause, history will distinguish the periods in which these calamitous events have been rare or frequent, and will observe that this fever of the earth raged with un- common violence during the reign of Justinian." Each year is marked by the repetition of earthquakes, of such duration that Constantinople has been shaken above forty days; of euch extent that the shock has been communicated to the whole surface of the globe, or at least of the Roman empire. An impulsive or vibratory motion was felt, enormous chasms- were opened, huge and heavy bodies were discharged into the air, the sea alternately advanced and retreated beyond its or- dinary bounds, and a mountain was torn from Libanus 84 and cast into the waves, where it protected, as a mole, the new harbor of Botrys, 86 in Phoenicia. The stroke that agitates an ant-hill may crush the insect-myriads in the dust; yet truth must extort a confession that man has industriously labored for his own destruction. The institution of great cities, which include a nation within the limits of a wall, almost re- alizes the wish of Caligula that the Roman people had but A.».B26, 0Iie neck. Two hundred and fifty thousand per- May 20. sons are ga ^ fo h ave perished in the earthquake of Antioch, whose domestic multitudes were swelled by the con- M The earthquakes that shook the Eoman world in the reign of Justinian are described or mentioned by Procopius (Goth. 1. iv. c. 25 [torn. ii. p. 594, edit. Bonn] ; Anecdot. c. 18), Agathias (1. ii. p. 52, 53, 54; 1. v. p. U5-152 [p. 96-101, 281- 294, edit. Bonn]), John Malala (Chron. torn. ii. p. 140-146, 176, 177, 183, 193, 220, 229, 231, 233, 234 [p. 419 seq., 442 seq., 448, 456, 478, 485 seq., 488 seq., edit. Bonn]), and Theophanes (p. 151, 183, 189, 191-196 [torn. i. p. 272, 336, 347, 350, 357, edit. Bonn]). a 84 An abrupt height, a perpendicular cape, between Aradus and Botrys, named by the Greeks Srtuiv irpoaoj-irov, and (.vTrpoauirov or XiOoirpoawirov by the scrupu- lous Christians (Polyb. 1. v. [c. C8] p. 411 ; Pompon. Mela, 1. i. c. 12, p. 87, cum Isaac Voss. Observat. Maundrell, Journey, p. 32, 33 ; Pocock's Description, vol. ii. p. 99). 88 Botrys was founded (ann. ante Christ. 935-903) by Ithobal, King of Tyre {Marsham, Canon Chron. p. 387, 388). Its poor representative, the village of Pa- trone, is now destitute of a harbor. Compare Daubeny on Earthquakes, and Lyell'i Geology, vol. ii. p. 181 seq.— M. 422 EARTHQUAKES. [Ch. XLIIL flux of strangers to the festival of the Ascension. The loss a.i). 55i, °f Berytus 66 was of smaller account, but of much July 9. greater value. That city, on the coast of Phoenicia, was illustrated by the study of the civil law, which opened the surest road to wealth and dignity : the schools of Berytus were filled with the rising spirits of the age, and many a youth was lost in the earthquake who might have lived to be the scourge or the guardian of his country. In these disas- ters the architect becomes the enemy of mankind. The hut of a savage or the tent of an Arab may be thrown down without injury to the inhabitant; and the Peruvians had rea- son to deride the folly of their Spanish conquerors, who with eo much cost and labor erected their own sepulchres. 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 fires which are necessary for the subsist- ence and manufactures of a great city. Instead of the mu- tual sympathy which might comfort and assist the distressed, they dreadfully experience the vices and passions which are released from the fear of punishment : the tottering houses are pillaged by intrepid avarice; revenge embraces the mo- ment and selects the victim; and the earth often swallows the assassin, or the ravisher, in the consummation of their crimes. Superstition involves the present danger with in- visible terrors ; and if the image of death may sometimes be subservient to the virtue or repentance of individuals, an af- frighted people is more forcibly moved to expect the end of the world, or to deprecate with servile homage the wrath of an avenging Deity. III. ^Ethiopia and Egypt have been stigmatized in every age as the original source and seminary of the plague. 87 In a 86 The university, splendor, and ruin of Berytus are celebrated by Heinecciua (p. 351-35G) as an essential part of the history of the Roman law. It was over- thrown in tho twenty -fifth year of Justinian, a.d. 551, July 9 (Theophanes, p. 192); but Agathias (1. ii. p. 51, 52 [p. 95 seq., edit Bonn]) suspends the earth- quake till he has achieved the Italian war. 87 I have read with pleasure Mead's short, but elegant, treatise concerning Pes- tilential Disorders, the eighth edition, London, 1722. A.D.C40.] THE PLAGUE. 423 damp, Lot, stagnating air, this African fever is generated from piague— the putrefaction of animal substances, and espe- aud'nalure. cially from the swarms of locusts, not less destruc- a.d. 542. ^.j ve ^ man ki n d [ u tlieir death than in their lives. The fatal disease which depopulated the earth in the time of Justinian and his successors 88 first appeared in the neighbor- hood of Pelusium, between the Serbonian bog and the eastern channel of the Nile. From thence, tracing as it were a dou- ble path, it spread to the East, over Syria, Persia, and the Indies, and penetrated to the West, along the coast of Africa and over the continent of Europe. In the spring of the sec- ond year Constantinople, during three or four months, was visited by the pestilence ; and Procopius, who observed its progress and symptoms with the eyes of a physician, 89 has emulated the skill and. diligence of Thucydides in the de- scription of the plague of Athens. 90 The infection was some- times announced by the visions of a distempered fancy, and the victim despaired as soon as he had heard the menace and felt the stroke of an invisible spectre. But the greater num- ber, in tlieir beds, in the streets, in their usual occupation, were surprised by a slight fever; so slight, indeed, that nei- ther the pulse nor the color of the patient gave any signs of the approaching danger. The same, the next, or the succeed- ing day, it was declared by the swelling of the glands, partic- ularly those of the groin, of the armpits, and under the ear ; 88 The great plague which raged in 542 and the following years (Pagi, Critica, torn, ii. p. 518) must be traced in Procopius (Persic. 1. ii. c. 22, 23), Agathias (1. v. p. 153, 154 [p. 297 seq., edit. Bonn]), Evagrius (1. iv. c. 29), Paul Diaconus (1. ii. c. 4, p. 776, 777), Gregory of Tours (torn. ii. 1. iv. ch. 5, p. 205), who styles it Lues Inguinaria, and the Chronicles of Victor Tunnunensis (p. 9 in Thesaur. Temporum), of Marcellinus (p. 54), and of Theophanes (p. 153). 89 Dr. Friend (Hist. Medicin. in Opp. p. 416-420, Lond. 1733) is satisfied that Procopius must have studied physic, from his knowledge and use of the technical words. Yet many words that are now scientific were common and popular in the Greek idiom. 90 See Thucydides, 1. ii. c. 47-54, p. 127-133, edit. Duker, and the poetical de- scription of the same plague by Lucretius (1. vi. 1136-1284). I was indebted to Dr. Hunter for an elaborate commentary on this part of Thucydides, a quarto of 600 pages (Venet. 1603, apnd Juntas), which was pronounced in St. Mark's Li- brary by Eabius Paullinus Utinensis, a physician and philosopher. 424 THE PLAGUE. tCH.XLUI. and when these buboes or tumors were opened, they wer« found to contain a coal, or black substance, of the size of a lentil. If they came to a just swelling and suppuration, the patient was saved by this kind and natural discharge of the morbid humor ; but if they continued hard and dry, a morti- fication quickly ensued, and the fifth day was commonly the term of his life. The fever was often accompanied with lethargy or delirium; the bodies of the sick were covered with black pustules or carbuncles, the symptoms of immedi- ate death ; and in the constitutions too feeble to produce an eruption, the vomiting of blood was followed by a mortifi- cation of the bowels. To pregnant women the plague was generally mortal ; yet one infant was drawn alive from his dead mother, and three mothers survived the loss of their in- fected foetus. Youth was the most perilous season, and the female sex was less susceptible than the male; but every rank and profession was attacked with indiscriminate rage, and many of those who escaped were deprived of the use of their speech, without being secure from a return of the dis- order. 91 The physicians of Constantinople were zealous and skilful; but their art was baffled by the various symptoms and pertinacious vehemence of the disease : the same reme- dies were productive of contrary effects, and the event capri- ciously disappointed their prognostics of death or recovery. The order of funerals and the right of sepulchres were con- founded ; those who were left without friends or servants lay unburied in the streets or in their desolate houses ; and a magistrate was authorized to collect the promiscuous heaps of dead bodies, to transport them by land or water, and to inter them in deep pits beyond the precincts of the city. Their own danger and the prospect of public distress awaken- ed some remorse in the minds of the most vicious of man- 91 Thucydides (c. 51) affirms that the infection could only be once taken ; but Evagrius, who had family experience of the plague, observes that some persons, who had escaped the first, sunk under th« second attack ; and this repetition is confirmed by Fabius Paullinus (p. 588). I observe that on this head physicians are divided; and the nature and operation of the disease may not always be a.d. 543-594.] THE PLAGUE. 425 kind : the confidence of health again revived their passions and habits ; but philosophy must disdain the observation of Procopius, that the lives of such men were guarded by the peculiar favor of fortune or Providence. He forgot, or per- haps he secretly recollected, that the plague had touched the person of Justinian himself; but the abstemious diet of the emperor may suggest, as in the case of Socrates, a more ra- tional and honorable cause for his recovery." During his sickness the public consternation was expressed in the habits of the citizens ; and their idleness and despondence occasion- ed a general scarcity in the capital of the East. Contagion is the inseparable symptom of the plague, which, by mutual respiration, is transfused from the infected persons to the lungs and stomach of those who ap- dnration. proach them. "While philosophers believe and trem- ble, it is singular that the existence of a real danger should have been denied by a people most prone to vain and imaginary terrors. 93 Yet the fellow-citizens of Procopius were satisfied, by some short and partial experience, that the in- fection could not be gained by the closest conversation ; 94 and this persuasion might support the assiduity of friends or phy- sicians in the care of the sick, whom inhuman prudence would have condemned to solitude and despair. But the fatal secu- rity, like the predestination of the Turks, must have aided the progress of the contagion ; and those salutary precautions to which Europe is indebted for her safety were unknown to the government of Justinian. No restraints were imposed * ! It was thus that Socrates had been saved by his temperance, in the plague of Athens (Aul. Gellius, Noct. Attic, ii. 1). Dr. Mead accounts for the peculiar salubrity of religious houses by the two advantages of seclusion and abstinence (p. 18, 19). 93 Mead proves that the plague is contagious, from Thucydides, Lucretius, Aris- totle, Galen, and common experience (p. 10-20) ; and he refutes (Preface, p. ii.- xiii.) the contrary opinion of the French physicians who visited Marseilles in the year 1720. Yet these were the recent and enlightened spectators of a plague which, in a few months, swept away 50,000 inhabitants (sur la Peste de Marseille, Paris, 1786), of a city that, in the present hour of prosperity and trade, contains no more than 90,000 souls (Necker, sur les Finances, torn. i. p. 231). 94 The strong assertions of Procopius — oSre yap iarp^ ovre iduxiry — are over* thrown by the subsequent experience of Evagrius. 426 THE PLAGUE. [Ch. XLIIL on the free and frequent intercourse of the Roman provinces : from Persia to France the nations were mingled and infected by wars and emigrations; and the pestilential odor which lurks for years in a bale of cotton was imported, by the abuse of trade, into the most distant regions. The mode of its prop- agation is explained by the remark of Procopius himself, that it always spread from the sea-coast to the inland country : the most sequestered islands and mountains were successively vis- ited ; the places which had escaped the fury of its first pas- sage were alone exposed to the contagion of the ensuing year. The winds might diffuse that subtle venom ; but unless the atmosphere be previously disposed for its reception, the plague would soon expire in the cold or temperate climates of the earth. Such was the universal corruption of the air, that the pestilence which burst forth in the fifteenth year of Justinian was not checked or alleviated by any difference of the sea- sons. In time its first malignity was abated and dispersed ; the disease alternately languished and revived ; but it was not till the end of a calamitous period of fifty-two years that man- kind recovered their health, or the air resumed its pure and salubrious quality. No facts have been preserved to sustain an account, or even a conjecture, of the numbers that perish- ed in this extraordinary mortality. I only find that, during three months, five and at length ten thousand persons died each day at Constantinople ; that many cities of the East were left vacant ; and that in several districts of Italy the harvest and the vintage withered on the ground. The triple scourge of war, pestilence, and famine afflicted the subjects of Justin- ian ; and his reign is disgraced by a visible decrease of the human species, which has never been repaired in some of the fairest countries of the globe. 95 * 5 After some figures of rhetoric, the sands of the sea, etc., Procopius (Anecdol. c. 18) attempts a more definite account ; that fivpidSaq fivpiddwv fivpiag had been exterminated under the reign of the imperial demon. The expression is obscure in grammar and arithmetic ; and a literal interpretation would produce several millions of millions. Alemannus (p. 80) and Cousin (torn. iii. p. 178) translate this passage " two hundred millions ;" but I am ignorant of their motives. If we drop the pvpidSag, the remaining ftvpidSiav fivpiag, a myriad of myriads, would famish one hundred millions — a number ^ot wholly inadmissible. Ch. XLIV.l THE ROMAN LAW. 427 CHAPTER XLIY. a Idea of the Roman Jurisprudence.— The Laws of the Kings. — The Twelve Ta- bles 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. The vain titles of the victories of Justinian are crumbled into dust, but the name of the legislator is inscribed on a fair and everlasting monument. Under his reign, and or Roman by his care, the civil jurisprudence was digested in the immortal works of the Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes :' the public reason of the Romans has been silently or studiously transfused into the domestic institutions of Europe, 2 and the laws of Justinian still command the re- 1 The civilians of the darker ages have established an absurd and incompre- hensible mode of quotation, which is supported by authority and custom. In their references to the Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes, they mention the number, not of the book, but only of the law; and content themselves with reciting the first words of the title to which it belongs ; and of these titles there are more than a thousand. Ludewig (Vit. Justiniani, p. 268) wishes to shake off this pedantic yoke ; r.nd I have dared to adopt the simple and rational method of numbering the book, the title, and the law. b 2 Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, and Scotland have received them as common law or reason ; in France, Italy, etc., they possess a direct or indirect a In the notes to this important chapter, which is received as the text-book on Civil Law in some of the foreign universities, I have consulted : I. The newly dis- covered Institutes of Gains (Gaii Institutiones, edit. Goeschen, Berlin, 1824), with some other fragments of the Roman law (Codicis Theodosiani Eraginenta inedita, ab Amadeo Peyron, Turin, 1824). II. The History of the Roman Law, by Pro- fessor Hugo, in the French translation of M. Jourdan, Paris, 1825. III. Savigny, Geschichte des Romischen Rechts im Mittelalter, 6 vols., Heidelberg, 1815 [2d edit. 1834-1851]. IV. Walther, Geschichte des Romischen Rechts, Bonn, 1834 [2d edit. 2 vols. 1845-46]. But I am particularly indebted to an edition of the French translation of this chapter, with additional notes, by one of the most learn- ed civilians of Europe, Professor Warnkonig, published at Liege, 1821. These potes are distinguished by the letter W. — M. b The example of Gibbon has been followed by M. Hugo and other civilians. — M. 428 THE ROMAN LAW. [Ch. XLIV. spect or obedience of independent nations. Wise or fortu- nate is the prince who connects his own reputation with the honor and interest of a perpetual order of men. The defence of their founder is the first cause which in every age has ex- ercised the zeal and industry of the civilians. They piously commemorate his virtues, dissemble or deny his failings, and fiercely chastise the guilt or folly of the rebels who presume to sully the majesty of the purple. The idolatry of love has provoked, as it usually happens, the rancor of opposition ; the character of Justinian has been exposed to the blind vehe- mence of flattery and invective ; and the injustice of a sect (the Anti-Trihonians) has refused all praise and merit to the prince, his ministers, and his laws.* Attached to no party, in- terested only for the truth and candor of history, and directed influence; and they were respected in England from Stephen to Edward I., our national Justinian (Duck, de Usu et Auctoritate Juris Civilis, 1. ii. c. 1, 8-15 ; Heineccius, Hist. Juris Germanici, c. 3, 4, No. 55-124, and the legal historians of each country).* 3 Francis Hottoman, a learned and acute lawyer of the sixteenth century, wished to mortify Cujacius and to please the Chancellor de l'Hdpital. His Anti-Tribonia- nus (which I have never been able to procure) was published in French in 1609 ; and his sect was propagated in Germany (Heineccius, Op. torn. iii. sylloge iii. p. 171-183). * Although the restoration of the Roman law, introduced by the revival of this •tudy in Italy, is one of the most important branches of history, it had been treat- ed but imperfectly when Gibbon wrote his work. That of Arthur Duck is but an insignificant performance. But the researches of the learned have thrown much light upon the matter. The Sarti, the Tiraboschi, the Fantuzzi, the Savioli, had made some very interesting inquiries ; but it was reserved for M. de Savigny, in a work entitled " The History of the Roman Law during the Middle Ages," to cast the strongest light on this part of history. He demonstrates incontestably the preservation of the Roman law from Justinian to the time of the Glossators, who, by their indefatigable zeal, propagated the study of the Roman jurisprudence in all the countries of Europe. It is much to be desired that the author should con- tinue this interesting work, and that the learned should engage in the inquiry in what manner the Roman law introduced itself into their respective countries, and the authority which it progressively acquired. For Belgium, there exists on this subject (proposed by the Academy of Brussels in 1781) a Collection of Memoirs, printed at Brussels in 4to, 1783, among which should be distinguished those of M. de Berg. M. Berriat Saint Prix has given us hopes of the speedy appearance of a work in which he will discuss this question, especially in relation to France. M. Spangenberg, in his Introduction to the Study of the Corpus Juris Civilis, Hanover, 1817, 1 vol. 8vo, p. 86, 116, gives us a general sketch of the history of the Roman law in different parts of Europe. We cannot avoid mentioning an ele- mentary work by M. Hugo, in which he treats of the History of the Roman Law from Justinian to the Present Time, 2d edit. Berlin, 1818.— W. CH.XLIV.] LAWS OF THE KINGS OF ROME. 429 by the most temperate and skilful guides, 4 I enter with just diffidence on the subject of civil law, which has exhausted so many learned lives and clothed the walls of such spacious librarieSc In a single, if possible in a short, chapter, I shall trace the Roman jurisprudence from Romulus to Justinian,* appreciate the labors of that emperor, and pause to contem- plate the principles of a science so important to the peace and happiness of society. The laws of a nation form the most in- structive portion of its history ; and, although I have devoted myself to write the annals of a declining monarchy, I shall embrace the occasion to breathe the pure and invigorating air of the republic. The primitive government of Rome 9 was composed with some political skill of an elective king, a council of nobles, and a general assembly of the people. War and Laws of . ° t • • i i i takings religion were administered by the supreme magis- trate, and he alone proposed the laws which were debated in the senate, and finally ratified or rejected by a majority of votes in the thirty curice or parishes of the city. Romulus, Numa, and Servius Tullius are celebrated as the most ancient legislators ; and each of them claims his pe- culiar part in the threefold division of jurisprudence. 7 The 4 At the head of these guides I shall respectfully place the learned and perspic- uous Heineccius, a German professor, who died at Halle in the year 1741 (see his Eloge in the Nouvelle Bibliotheque Germanique, torn. ii. p. 51-G4). His ample works have been collected in eight volumes in 4to, Geneva, 1743-1748. The treatises which I have separately used are : 1. Historia Juris Roraani et Germanici, Lugd. Batav. 1740, in 8vo; 2. Syntagma Antiquitatum Romanam Jurispruden- tiam illustrantium, 2 vols, in 8vo, Traject. ad Rhenum ; 3. Elementa Juris Civi- lis secundum Ordinem Institutionum, Lugd. Bat. 1751, in 8vo ; 4. Elementa J„ C. secundum Ordinem Pandectarum, Traject. 1772, in 8vo, 2 vols. 6 Our original text is a fragment de Origine Juris (Pandect. 1. i. tit. ii.) of Pom- ponius, a Roman lawyer, who lived under the Antonines (Heinecc. torn. iii. syl. iii. p. G6-126). It has been abridged, and probably corrupted, by Tribonian, and since restored by Bynkershoek (Opp. torn. i. p. 279-304). 6 The constitutional history of the kings of Rome may be studied in the first book of Livy, and more copiously in Dionysius Halicarnassensis (1. ii. [c. 4-25] p. 80-96, 119-130 [c. 57-70] ; 1. iv. [c. 15, etc.] p. 198-220), who sometimes betrays the character of a rhetorician and a Greek. 7 This threefold division of the law was applied to the three Roman kings by Justus Lipsius (Opp. torn. iv. p. 279) ; is adopted by Gravina (Origines Juri* Civi. 430 LAWS OF THE KINGS OF ROME. [Ch. XLIT. laws of marriage, the education of children, and the author- ity of parents, which may seem to draw their origin from nat- ure itself, are ascribed to the untutored wisdom of Romulus. The law of nations and of religious worship, which Numa introduced, was derived from his nocturnal converse with the nymph Egeria. The civil law is attributed to the experience of Servius ; he balanced the rights and fortunes of the sev- en classes of citizens, and guarded by fifty new regulations the observance of contracts and the punishment of crimes. The State, which he had inclined towards a democracy, was changed by the last Tarquin into lawless despotism ; and when the kingly office was abolished, the Patricians engrossed the benefits of freedom. The royal laws became odious or obsolete, the mysterious deposit was silently preserved by the priests and nobles, and at the end of sixty years the cit- izens of Rome still complained that they were ruled by the arbitrary sentence of the magistrates. Yet the positive insti- tutions of the kings had blended themselves with the pub- lic and private manners of the city ; some fragments of that venerable jurisprudence 8 were compiled by the diligence of lis, p. 28, edit. Lips. 1737) ; and is reluctantly admitted by Mascou, his German editor. 8 The most ancient Code or Digest was styled Jus Papirianum, from the first compiler, Papirius, who flourished somewhat before or after the Regifugium (Pan- dect. 1. i. tit. ii.). The best judicial critics, even Bynkershoek (torn. i. p. 284, 285) and Ileineccius (Hist. J. C. R. 1. i. c. 16, 17, and Opp. torn. iii. sylloge iv. p. 1-8), give credit to this tale of Pomponius, without sufficiently adverting to the value and rarity of such a monument of the third century of the illiterate city. I much suspect that the Cains Papirius, the Pontifex Maximus, who revived the laws of Numa (Dionys. Hal. 1. iii. [c. 36] p. 171), left only an oral tradition ; and that the Jus Papirianum of Granius Flaccus (Pandect. 1. l. tit. xvi. leg. 144) was not a com- mentary, but am original work, compiled in the time of Csesar (Censorin. de Die Natali, c. iii. p. 13 ; Duker de Latinitate J. C. p. 157). a a Much has been written since the time of Gibbon respecting this compilation of Papirius ; but nothing certain is known, and all conjecture is fruitless. Even the name of the compiler is not quite certain, as he is variously called Caius, Sextus, and Publius. Dionysius says (iii. 36) that Caius Papirius, the Pontifex Maximus, made a collection of the religious ordinances of Numa, after the expulsion of the last Tarquin ; and Pomponius (Pandect. 1. i. tit. 2, leg. 2, § 2, 36) states that Sex- tus or Publius Papirius made a compilation of all the Leges Regise. The best no- tice of the fragments of the Leges Regiae is by Diiksen in his Versuchen zur Kritik und Auslegung der Quellen des Romischen Rechts. See Zimmern, Geschichte des Cn. XLIV.] LAWS OF THE KINGS OF ROME. 431 antiquarians; 9 and above twenty texts still speak the rudeness of the Pelasgic idiom of the Latins. 10 I shall not repeat the well-known story of the Decemvirs, 11 9 A pompous, though feeble, attempt to restore the original is made in the His- toire de la Jurisprudence Romaine of Terrasson, p. 22-72 ; Paris, 1750, in folio; a work of more promise than performance. 10 In the year 1444 seven or eight tables of brass were dug up between Cortona and Gubbio. 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 (1. i. c. 56, 57, 58) ; though this difficult passage may be explained of a Crestona in Thrace (Notes de Larcher, torn. i. p. 256-26 l). a The savage dia- lect of the Eugubine Tables has exercised, and may still elude, the divination of criticism ; but the root is undoubtedly Latin, of the same age and character as the Saliare Carmen, which, in the time of Horace, none could understand. b The Ro- man idiom, by an infusion of Doric and iEolic Greek, was gradually ripened into the style of the Twelve Tables, of the Duilian column, ofEnmus, of Terence, and of Cicero (Gruter. Inscript. torn. i. p. cxlii.; Scipion Maffei, Istoria Diplomatica, p. 241-258 ; Bibliotheque Italique, torn. iii. p. 30-41, 174-205 ; torn. xiv. p. 1-52). II Compare Livy (1. iii. c. 31-59) with Dionysius Halicarnassensis (1. x. [c. 55J p. 644 — xi. [c. 1 seq.] p. 691). How concise and animated is the Roman — how Romischen Privatrechts, vol. i. p. 86, 88 ; Smith's Diet, of Greek and Rom. Antiq, p. 659, 2d edit.; Diet, of Biogr. vol. iii. p. 1 18.— S. a Herodotus speaks of the Pelasgian inhabitants of Creston, a town above the Tyrrhenians. The mention of the Tyrrhenians has led many writers, whom Gib- bon follows, to conclude that Creston was a city of Italy. Niebuhr, on the au- thority of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Antiq. Rom. i. c. 29), proposes to read Cro- ton instead of Creston in Herodotus, regarding this city as Cortona, in Etruria ; but this seems improbable, as Herodotus couples Creston with Scylace and Placie, on the Hellespont. The Tyrrhenians mentioned by Herodotus in this passage are probably the Tyrrhenian Pelasgians of Mount Ariios ; and Creston was a town in Crestonia, a district of Macedonia. See Niebuhr, Hist, of Rome, vol. i. p. 34, note 89; Miiller, Etrusker, vol. i. p. 94 seq.; Lepsius, Tyrrhenische Pelasger, p. 18 seq. — S. b The Eugubine Tables contain four inscriptions in Etruscan characters, two in Latin, and one partially in Etruscan and partially in Latin characters ; but the language is in all cases apparently the same, and is wholly distinct from that of the genuine Etruscan monuments on the one hand, as well as from Latin on the oth- er, though exhibiting strong traces of affinity with the older Latin forms, as well as with the existing remains of the Oscan dialects. The best modern scholars are agreed that the language which we here find is that of the Umbrians themselves, who are represented by all ancient writers as nationally distinct both from the Etruscan and Sabellian races. The best works on the interpretation of these Ta- bles are — Lepsius De Tabulis Eugubinis, 1833 ; Inscriptiones Umbricse et Oscse, 1841 ; Grotefend, Rudimenta Linguae Umbricaa, 1835-1839 ; Aufiecht und Kirch- hoff, Die Umbrischen Sprach-Denkmaler, 1849. See Smith's Diet, of Greek and Rom. Geography, vol. i. p. 30. — S. e This remark belongs to the scholarship of a former age. It is almost unnec- essary to remark that the Latin language is not borrowed from the Greek, but is as ancient as the latter, and that their similarity is owing to their both being members of the great Indo-European family of languages. — S. 432 THE TWELVE TABLES. [Ch. XL1T. who sullied by their actions the honor of inscribing on brass, or wood, or ivory, the twelve tables of the Bo- Tabiea of the man laws." They were dictated by the rigid and Decemvirs. . .. J , -i.ii-i.iii jealous spirit of an aristocracy which had yielded with reluctance to the just demands of the people. But the substance of the Twelve Tables was adapted to the state of the city, and the Komans had emerged from barbarism, since they were capable of studying and embracing the institu- tions of their more enlightened neighbors. A wise Ephe- sian was driven by envy from his native country : before he could reach the shores of Latium, he had observed the vari- ous forms of human nature and civil society; he imparted his knowledge to the legislators of Rome, and a statue was erected in the Forum to the perpetual memory of Hermodo- rus. 18 The names and divisions of the copper money, the sole coin of the infant State, were of Dorian origin ; 14 the harvests prolix and lifeless the Greek ! Yet he has admirably judged the masters, and de- fined the rules, of historical composition. 12 From the historians, Heineccius (Hist. J. E. 1. i. No. 26) maintains that the Twelve Tables were of brass — cereas: in the text of Pomponius we read eboreas; for which Scaliger has substituted roboreas (Bynkershoek, p. 286). Wood, brass, and ivory might be successively employed.* 13 His exile is mentioned by Cicero (Tusculan. Qusestion. v. 36); his statue by Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxiv. 11). The letter, dream, and prophecy of Heraclitus are alike spurious (Epistoke Grsec. Divers, p. 337). b 14 This intricate subject of the Sicilian and Roman money is ably discussed by Dr. Bentley (Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris, p. 427-479), whose powers in this controversy were called forth by honor and resentment. ■ Niebuhr justly observes that the notion of ivory tables (eborece, not roborece by aisy means) in Pomponius is in the spirit of an age which could form no concep- tion of anything important without show and costliness in the materials ; it was probably suggested by the ivory diptychs. Hist, of Rome, vol. ii. p. 316, note 720.— S. It is a more important question whether the Twelve Tables in fact include laws Imported from Greece. The negative opinion maintained by our author is now almost universally adopted, particularly by MM. Niebuhr, Hugo, and others. See my Institutiones Juris Romani privati Leodii, 1819, p. 311, 312. — W. Dr. Ar- nold, p. 255, seems to incline to the opposite opinion. Compare some just and sen- sible observations in the Appendix to Mr. Travers Twiss's Epitome of Niebuhr, p. 347, Oxford, 1836.— M. Mr. Phillimore, in his Introduction to the study of Ro- man Law (p. 160), maintains that the elements of Greek law existing in the Ro- man law are much more numerous than are usually supposed. — S. b Niebuhr accepts the tradition that Hermodorus assisted the Decemvirs in framing their laws, but that the share he had in the Twelve Tables was confined to the constitution. Hist, of Rome, vol. ii. p. 309. — S, Ch. XLIV.] the twelve tables. 433 of Campania and Sicily relieved the wants of a people whose agriculture was often interrupted by war and faction ; and since the trade was established," the deputies who sailed from the Tiber might return from the same harbors with a more precious cargo of political wisdom. The colonies of Great, Greece had transported and improved the arts of their moth- er-country. Cumse and Rhegium, Crotona and Tarentum, Ag- rigentum and Syracuse, were in the rank of the most flourish- ing cities. The disciples of Pythagoras applied philosophy to the use of government, the unwritten laws of Charondas ac- cepted the aid of poetry and music, 18 and Zaleucus framed the republic of the Locrians, which stood without alteration above two hundred years." From a similar motive of na- tional pride, both Livy and Dionysius are willing to believe that the deputies of Rome visited Athens under the wise and splendid administration of Pericles, and the laws of Solon were transfused into the Twelve Tables. If such an embassy had indeed been received from the barbarians of Hesperia, the Roman name would have been familiar to the Greeks be- fore the reign of Alexander, 18 and the faintest evidence would 15 The Eomans, or their allies, sailed as far as the fair promontory of Africa (Polyb. 1. iii. [c. 22] p. 177, edit. Casaubon, in folio). Their voyages to Cumse, etc., are noticed by Livy and Dionysius. 16 This circumstance would alone prove the antiquity of Charondas, the legisla- tor of Rhegium and Catana, who, by a strange error of Diodorus Siculus (torn. i. 1. xii. [c. 11 seq.] p. 485-492), is celebrated long afterwards as the author of the policy of Thurium. 11 Zaleucus, whose existence has been rashly attacked, had the merit and glory of converting a band of outlaws (the Locrians) into the most virtuous and orderly of the Greek republics. (See two Me'moires of the Baron de St. Croix, sur la Le- gislation de la Grande Grece; Me'm. de l'Acade'mie, torn. xlii. p. 276-333.) But the laws of Zaleucus and Charondas, which imposed on Diodorus and Stobasus, are the spurious composition of a Pythagorean sophist, whose fraud has been de- tected by the critical sagacity of Bentley, p. 335-377. 18 I seize the opportunity of tracing the progress of this national intercourse : 1. Herodotus and Thucydides (a.u.c. 300-350) appear ignorant of the name and existence of Rome (Joseph, contra Apion. torn. ii. 1. i. c. 12, p. 444, edit. Haver- camp.). 2. Theopompus (a.u.c. 400, Plin. iii. 9) mentions the invasion of the Gauls, which is noticed in looser terms by Heraclides Ponticus (Plutarch in Ca- millo [c. 15], p. 292, edit. H. Stephan.). 3. The real or fabulous embassy of the Romans to Alexander (a.u.c. 430) is attested by Gits'-chus (Plin. iii. 9), by Aril* IV.— 3S 434 THE TWELVE TABLES. [Ch. iLIV. have been explored and celebrated by the curiosity of suc- ceeding times. But the Athenian monuments are silent, nor will it seem credible that the Patricians should undertake a long and perilous navigation to copy the purest model of a democracy. In the comparison of the tables of Solon with those of the Decemvirs, some casual resemblance may be found ; some rules which nature and reason have revealed to every society ; some proofs of a common descent from Egypt or Phoenicia. 19 But in all the great lines of public and pri- vate jurisprudence the legislators of Rome and Athens appear- to be strangers or adverse to each other. Whatever might be the origin or the merit of the Twelve Tables, 20 they obtained among the Romans that blind and par- tial reverence which the lawyers of every country Their char- J . . , . J . . J acierand delight to bestow on their municipal institutions. The study is recommended by Cicero 21 as equally pleasant and instructive. " They amuse the mind by the re- membrance of old words and the portrait of ancient manners ; they inculcate the soundest principles of government and mor- als ; and I am not afraid to affirm that the brief composition tus and Asclepiades (Arrian, 1. vii. [c. 15] p. 294, 295), and by Memnon of Hera- clea (apud Photium, cod. ccxxiv. p. 725 [p. 229, edit. Bekker]), though tacitly- denied by Livy. 4. Theophrastus (a.u.c. 440) primus externorura aliqua de Ro- manis diligentius scripsit (Plin. iii. 9). 5. Lycophron (a.u.c. 480-500) scattered the first seed of a Trojan colony and the fable of the iEneid (Cassandra, 1226- 1280) : 1% Kal Sa\dy t j ie em p eror an( j the senate ; the long divorce of law and equity was at length reconciled ; and, instead of the Twelve Tables, the Perpetual Edict was fixed as the in- variable standard of civil jurisprudence. 8 * 34 Dion Cassius (torn. i. 1. xxxvi. [c. 23] p. 100) fixes the perpetual edicts in the year of Rome 686. Their institution, however, is ascribed to the year 585 in the Acta Diurna, which have been published from the papers of Ludovicus Vives. Their authenticity is supported or allowed by Pighius (Annal. Roman, torn. ii. p. 377, 378), Graevius (ad Sueton. p. 778), Dodwell (Praelection. Cambden, p. 665), and Heineccius : but a single word, Scutum Cimbricum, detects the forg- ery (Moyle's Works, vol. L p. 303). 86 The history of edicts is composed, and the text of the perpetual edict is re* Ch. XLIV.] constitutions of the emperors. 441 From Augustus to Trajan, the modest Csesars were content to promulgate their edicts in the various characters Constltn- » -r, . i . , i » -, tiouaofth* of a Koman magistrate; and in the decrees of the senate the epistUi and orations of the prince were respectfully inserted. Hadrian" appears to have been the stored, by the master-hand of Heineccius (Opp. torn. vii. pt. ii. p. 1-564) ;■ in whose researches I might safely acquiesce. In the Academy of Inscriptions, M. Bouchaud has given a series of memoirs to this interesting subject of law and literature. b 86 His laws are the first in the Code. See Dodwell (Praelect. Cambden, p. 319- 840), who wanders from the subject in confused reading and feeble paradox.' • This restoration was only the commencement of a work found among the pa- pers of Heineccius, and published after his death. — G. b Gibbon has here fallen into an error, with Heineccius, and almost the whole literary world, concerning the real meaning of what is called the perpetual edict of Hadrian. Since the Cornelian law, the edicts were perpetual, but only in this sense, that the praetor could not change them during trie year of his magistracy. And although it appears that under Hadrian the civilian Julianus made, or as- sisted in making, a complete collection of the edicts (which certainly had been done likewise before Hadrian, for example, by Ofilius, "qui diligenter edictum composuit"), we have no sufficient proof to admit the common opinion that the praetorian edict was declared perpetually unalterable by Hadrian. The writers on law subsequent to Hadrian (and among the rest Pomponius, in his Summary of the Roman Jurisprudence) speak of the edict as it existed in the time of Cicero. They would not certainly have passed over in silence so remarkable a change in the most important source of the civil law. M. Hugo has conclusively shown that the various passages in authors like Eutropius are not sufficient to establish the opinion introduced by Heineccius. Compare Hugo, vol. ii. p. 78. A new proof of this is found in the Institutes of Gaius, who, in the first books of his work, expresses himself in the same manner, without mentioning any change made by Hadrian. Nevertheless, if it had taken place, he must have noticed it, as he does, 1. i. § 7, the responsa prudentum, on the occasion of a rescript of Ha- drian. There is no lacuna in the text. Why then should Gaius maintain silence concerning an innovation so much more important than that of which he speaks ? After all, this question becomes of slight interest, since, in fact, we find no change in the perpetual edict inserted in the Digest from the time of Hadrian to the end of that epoch, except that made by Julian (compare Hugo, 1. c). The later law- yers appear to follow, in their commentaries, the same text as their predecessors. It is natural to suppose that, after the labors of so many men distinguished in jurisprudence, the framing of the edict must have attained such perfection that it would have been difficult to have made any innovation. We nowhere find that the jurists of the Pandects disputed concerning the words or the drawing up of the edict. What difference would, in fact, result from this with regard to our codes and our modern legislation ? Compare the learned Dissertation of M. Biener, De Sal- vii Juliani meritis in Edictum Praetorium recte eestimandis. Lipsiae, 1809, 4to. — W. c This is again an error which Gibbon shares with Heineccius and the general- ity of authors. It arises from having mistaken the insignificant edict of Hadrian, inserted in the Code of Justinian (lib. vi. tit. xxiii. c. 11), for the first constitutio principis, without attending to the fact that the Pandects contain so many con- stitutions of the emperors from Julius Csesar. M. Hugo justly observes that tha 442 CONSTITUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS [Ch. XLIV. first who assumed without disguise the plenitude of legisla- tive power. And this innovation, so agreeable to his active mind, was countenanced by the patience of the times and his long absence from the seat of government. The same poli- cy was embraced by succeeding monarchs, and, according to the harsh metaphor of Tertullian, " the gloomy and intricate forest of ancient laws was cleared away by the axe of royal mandates and constitutions." 3 '' During four centuries, from Hadrian to Justinian, the public and private jurisprudence was moulded by the will of the sovereign, and few institu- tions, either human or divine, were permitted to stand on their former basis. The origin of imperial legislation was concealed by the darkness of ages and the terrors of armed despotism ; and a double fiction was propagated by the ser- vility, or perhaps the ignorance, of the civilians who basked in the sunshine of the Roman and Byzantine courts. 1. To the prayer of the ancient Caesars the people or the senate had sometimes granted a personal exemption from the obligation and penalty of particular statutes, and each indulgence was an act of jurisdiction exercised by the republic over the first of her citizens. His humble privilege was at length trans- formed into the prerogative of a tyrant ; and the Latin ex- pression of " released from the laws " 38 was supposed to exalt the emperor above all human restraints, and to leave his conscience and reason as the sacred measure of his conduct. 37 "Totam illam veterem et squalentem silvam legum novis principalium rescrip- toruni et edictorum securibus truncatis et caeditis " (Apologet. c. 4, p. 50, edit. Ha- vercamp.). He proceeds to praise the recent firmness of Severus, who repealed the useless or pernicious laws, without any regard to their age or authority. 88 The constitutional style of Legibus solutus is misinterpreted by the art or ignorance of Dion Cassius (torn. i. 1. liii. [c. 18] p. 713). a On this occasion his editor, Reimar, joins the universal censure which freedom and criticism have pro- nounced against that slavish historian. acta of Sylla, approved by the senate, were the same thing with the constitutions of those who after him usurped the sovereign power. Moreover, we find that Pliny, and other ancient authors, report a multitude of rescripts of the emperors from the fime of Augustus. See Hugo, Hist, du Droit Romain, vol. ii. p. 24, 27. — W. a It seems certain that the expression Legibus solutus only meant "released from particular laws." See the following note respecting the Lex de Imperial Vespasiani. — S. Ch.XLIV.] legislative powers OF THE EMPEKORS. 44:3 i l. A similar dependence was implied in the decrees of the senate, which in every reign defined the titles and powers of an elective magistrate. But it was not before the ideas and even the language of the Komans had been corrupted that a royal law, 39 and an irrevocable gift of the people, were created by the fancy of Ulpian, or more probably of Tribonian him- self ; 40 and the origin of imperial power, though false in fact and slavish in its consequence, was supported on a principle of freedom and justice. " The pleasure of the emperor has the vigor and effect of law, since the Roman people, by the Their legisia- royal law, have transferred to their prince the full tive power. ex tent of their own power and sovereignty." 41 a The will of a single man, of a child, perhaps, was allowed to prevail over the wisdom of ages and the inclinations of mill- ions, and the degenerate Greeks were proud to declare that in his hands alone the arbitrary exercise of legislation could be safely deposited. "What interest or passion," exclaims Theophilus in the court of Justinian, " can reach the calm and sublime elevation of the monarch ? he is already master of the lives and fortunes of his subjects, and those who have in- curred his displeasure are already numbered with the dead." 43 S9 The word (Lex liegia) was still more recent than the thing. Th« slaves of Commodus or Caracalla would have started at the name of royalty. 40 See Gravina (Opp. p. 501-512) and Beaufort (Re'jmblique Romaine, torn. i. p. 255-274). He has made a proper use of two dissertations by John Frederick Gronovius and Noodt, both translated, with valuable notes, by Barbeyrac, 2 yols. in 12mo, 1731. 41 Institut. 1. i. tit. ii. No. 6 ; Pandect. 1. i. tit. iv. leg. 1 ; Cod. Justinian. 1. i. tit. xvii. leg. 1, No. 7. In his Antiquities and Elements, Heineccius has amply •eated de constitutionibus principum, which are illustrated by Godefroy (Com- ment, ad Cod. Theodos. 1. i. tit. i. ii. iii.) and Gravina (p. 87-90). 42 Theophilus, in Paraphras. Graec. Institut. p. 33, 34, edit. Reitz. For his 1 Imperial authority and legislative power were conferred even upon the early emperors by a law called Lex Imperii, or Lex de Imperio. Hence Gains says (1. i. §5), "Cum ipse Imperator per legem impeiium accipiat." A considerable fragment of the Lex de Imperio Vespasiani is still preserved at Rome. This Lex empowers Vespasian to make treaties, to originate senatus-consulta, to pro- pose persons to the people and the senate to be elected to magistracies, to extend the Pomoeiium, to make constitutions or edicts which should have the force of law, and to be released from the same laws from which Augustus, Claudius, and Tiberius were released. It was this Lex Imperii which was called Lex Regia under the later emperors. See Diet, of Antiq. p. 697, 2d edit, — S. 444 RESCRIPTS OF THE EMPERORS. [Ch. XLIV, Disdaining the language of flattery, the historian may confess that in questions of private jurisprudence the absolute sover- eign of a great empire can seldom be influenced by any per- sonal considerations. Virtue, or even reason, will suggest to his impartial mind that he is the guardian of peace and equi- ty, and that the interest of society is inseparably connected with his own. Under the weakest and most vicious reign, the seat of justice was filled by the wisdom and integrity of Papinian and Ulpian, 48 and the purest materials of the Code and Pandects are inscribed with the names of Caracalla and his ministers. 44 The tyrant of Rome was sometimes the ben- efactor of the provinces. A dagger terminated the crimes of Domitian ; but the prudence of Nerva confirmed his acts, which, in the joy of their deliverance, had been rescinded Their re- by an indignant senate. 46 Yet in the rescripts" scripts. replies to the consultations of the magistrates, the wisest of princes might be deceived by a partial exposition of the case. And this abuse, which placed their hasty decisions on the same level with mature and deliberate acts of legisla- tion, was ineffectually condemned by the sense and example of Trajan. The rescripts of the emperor, his grants and de- crees, his edicts and pragmatic sanctions, were subscribed m purple ink, 47 and transmitted to the provinces as general or person, time, writings, see the Theophilus of J. H. Mylius, Excurs. iii. p. 1034- 1073. 43 There is more envy than reason in the complaint of Macrinus (Jul. Capito- lin. c. 13). "Nefas esse leges videri Commodi et Caracallae et hominum imperito- rum voluntates." Commodus was made a Divus by Severus (Dodwell, Praelect. viii. p. 324, 325). Yet he occurs only twice in the Pandects. 44 Of Antoninus Caracalla alone 200 constitutions are extant in the Code, and with his father 160. These two princes are quoted fifty times in the Pandects and eight in the Institutes (Terrasson, p. 265). 45 Plin. Secund. Epistol. x. 66 ; Sueton. in Domitian. c. 23. 46 It was a maxim of Constantino, "Contra jus rescripta non valeant" (Cod. Theodos. 1. i. tit. ii. leg. 1). The emperors reluctantly allow some scrutiny into the law and the fact, some delay, petition, etc. ; but these insufficient remedies are too much in the discretion and at the peril of the judge. 47 A compound of vermilion and cinnabar, which marks the imperial diplomas from Leo I. (a.d. 470) to the fall of the Greek empire (Bibliotheque Raisonnee da la Diplomatique, torn. i. p. 509-514 ; Lami, de Eruditione Apostolorum, torn. ii. p. 7Z0-726> Ch. XLIV.] FOEMS OF THE ROMAN LAW. 445 special laws, which the magistrates were bound to execute and the people to obey. But as their number continually multiplied, the rule of obedience became each day more doubtful and obscure, till the will of the sovereign was fixed and ascertained in the Gregorian, the Hermogenian, and the Theodosian codes. a The two first, of which some fragments have escaped, were framed by two private lawyers to preserve the constitutions of the Pagan emperors from Hadrian to Constantine. The third, which is still extant, was digested in sixteen books by the order of the younger Theodosius to con- secrate the laws of the Christian princes from Constantine to his own reign. But the three codes obtained an equal au- thority in the tribunals, and any act which was not included in the sacred deposit might be disregarded by the judge as spurious or obsolete." Among savage nations the want of letters is imperfectly supplied by the use of visible signs, which awaken attention Forms of the an( ^ perpetuate the remembrance of any public or Eoman law. p r i va te transaction. The jurisprudence of the first Romans exhibited the scenes of a pantomime; the words were adapted to the gestures, and the slightest error or neg- lect in the forms of proceeding was sufficient to annul the substance of the fairest claim. The communion of the mar- riage life was denoted by the necessary elements of fire and 48 Schuking, Jurisprudentia Ante-Justinianea, p. 681-718. Cujacius assigned to Gregory the reigns from Hadrian to Gallienus, and the continuation to his fel- low-laborer Hermogenes. This general division may be just, but they often tres- passed on each other's ground. a Savigny states the following as the authorities for the Roman law at the com- mencement of the fifth century : 1. The writings of the jurists according to the regulations of the Constitution of Valentinian the Third, first promulgated in the West, but by its admission into the Theodosian Code established likewise in the East. (This Constitution estab- lished the authority of the five great jurists, Papinian, Paulus, Caius, Ulpian, and Modestinus, as interpreters of the ancient law. * * * In case of difference of opin- ion among these five, a majority decided the case ; where they were equal, tha opinion of Papinian ; where he was silent, the judge : but see p. 40, and Hugo, vol. ii. p. 89.) 2. The Gregorian and Hermogenian Collection of the Imperial Rescripts. 3. The Code of Theodosius the Second. 4. The particular Novelise, as additions and supplements to this Code. Savigny vol. i. p. 10.— M. 446 FORMS OF THE ROMAN LAW. [Ck. XLIV. water ; 4 ' and the divorced wife resigned the bunch of keys, by the delivery of which she had been invested with the gov- ernment of the family. The manumission of a son or a slave was performed by turning him round with a gentle blow on the cheek ; a work was prohibited by the casting of a stone; prescription was interrupted by the breaking of a branch ; the clinched fist was the symbol of a pledge or deposit; the right hand was the gift of faith and confidence. The indent ure of covenants was a broken straw; weights and scales were introduced into every payment ; and the heir who ac- cepted a testament was sometimes obliged to snap his fingers, to cast away his garments, and to leap and dance with real or affected transport. 60 If a citizen pursued any stolen goods into a neighbor's house, he concealed his nakedness with a linen towel, and hid his face with a mask or basin, lest he should encounter the eyes of a virgin or a matron." In a 49 Scsevola, most probably Q. Cervidius Scasvola, the master of Papinian, con- siders this acceptance of fire and water as the essence of marriage (Pandect. L xxiv. tit. 1, leg. 66. See Heineccius, Hist. J. R. No. 317). 50 Cicero (de Officiis, iii. 19) may state an ideal case, but St. Ambrose (de Offi- ciis, iii. 2) appeals to the practice of his own times, which he understood as a law- yer and a magistrate (Schulting ad Ulpian. Fragment, tit. xxii. No. 28, p. 643, 644 [Jurispr. Ante-Justin.]). 1 51 The furtum lance licioque conceptum was no longer understood in the time of the Antonines (Aulus Gellius, xvi. 10). The Attic derivation of Heineccius (Antiquitat. Rom. 1. iv. tit. i. No. 13-21) is supported by the evidence of Aristo- phanes, his scholiast, and Pollux. b * In this passage the author has endeavored to collect all the examples of judi- cial formicaries which he could find. That which he adduces as the form of ere- tio hereditatis is absolutely false. It is sufficient to glance at the passage in Cic- ero which he cites to see that it has no relation to it. The author appeals to the opinion of Schulting, who, in the passage quoted, himself protests against the ridic- ulous and absurd interpretation of the passage in Cicero, and observes that Grae- vins had already well explained the real sense. See in Gaius the form of cretio hereditatis, Instit. 1. ii. § 166.— W. b Nothing more is known of this ceremony ; nevertheless we find that already in his own days Gaius turned it into ridicule. He says (lib. iii. § 192, 193), " Pro- hibit actio quadrupli ex edicto praetoris introducta est ; lex autem eo nomine nul- lum pcenam constituit. Hoc solum praecepit, ut qui quaerere velit, nudiis quadrat, linteo cinctus, lancem habens ; qui si quid invenerit, jubet id lex furtum manifat- tum esse. Quid sit autem linteum, quaesitum est. Sed verius est, consuti genus esse, quo necessarian partes tegerentur. Quare lex tota ridicula est. Nam qui vestitum quaerere probibet, is et nudum quajrere prohibiturus est ; eo magis, quod ita quaesita res inventa majori poena? subjiciatur. Deinde quod lancem sive ideo haberi jubeat, ut manibus occupatis nihil subjiciatur, sive ideo, ut quod invenerit, Cu. XLIV.] FORMS OF THE ROMAN LAW. 447 civil action, the plaintiff touched the ear of his witness, seized his reluctant adversary by the neck, and implored, in solemn lamentation, the aid of his fellow-citizens. The two compet- itors grasped each other's hand as if they stood prepared for combat before the tribunal of the praetor ; he commanded them to produce the object of the dispute ; they went, they returned with measured steps, and a clod of earth was cast at his feet to represent the field for which they contended. This occult science of the words and actions of law was the inheritance of the pontiffs and patricians. Like the Chal- dsean astrologers, they announced to their clients the days of business and repose ; these important trifles were interwoven with the religion of K"uma, and after the publication of the Twelve Tables the Eoman people was still enslaved by the ignorance of judicial proceedings. The treachery of some Plebeian officers at length revealed the profitable mystery ; in a more enlightened age the legal actions were derided and observed, and the same antiquity which sanctified the prac- tice, obliterated the use and meaning, of this primitive lan- guage. Ba A more liberal art was cultivated, however, by the sages of Kome, who, in a stricter sense, may be considered as the au- 52 In his Oration for Murena (c. 9-13) Cicero turns into ridicule the forms and mysteries of the civilians, which are represented with more candor by Aulus Gel- lius (Noct. Attic, xx. 10), Gravina (Opp. p. 265, 286, 267), and Heineccius (An- tiquitat. .. iv. tit. vi.). a ibi imponat, neutrum eorum procedit, si id, quod quseratur, ejus magnitudinis aut naturae sit ut ueque suhjiei, neqne ibi imponi possit. Ceite non dubitatur, cujus- cunque materise sit eahmx, satis legi fieri." We see, moreover, from this passage, that the basin, as most authors, resting on the authority of Festus, have supposed, was not used to cover the face. — W. See Grimm, Von der Poesie in Recht, Zeit- ichrift fur geschichtliche Rechtswissenschaft,vol. ii. — S. a Gibbon iiad conceived opinions too decided against the forms of procedure in use among the Romans. Yet it is on these solemn forms that the certainty of laws has been founded among all nations. Those of the Romans were very inti- mately allied with the ancient religion, and must of necessity have disappeared as Rome attained a higher degree of civilization. Have not modern nations, even the most civilized, overloaded their laws with a thousand forms, often absurd, al- most always trivial ? How many examples are afforded by the English law ? See on the nature of these forms the work of M. de Savigny on the "Vocation of our Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence, Heidelberg, ISl-i.p. 9, 10. W. — This work of M. Savigny has beer, translated into English by Mr. Hay ward. — M. 4AS SUCCESSION OF THE CIVIL LAWYEKS. [Ch. XLIV. thors of the civil law. The alteration of the idiom and man- ners of the Eomans rendered the style of the Twelve of the civil Tables less familiar to each rising generation, and the doubtful passages were imperfectly explained by the study of legal antiquarians. To define the ambigui- ties, to circumscribe the latitude, to apply the principles, to extend the consequences, to reconcile the real or apparent contradictions, was a much nobler and more important task ; and the province of legislation was silently invaded by the expounders of ancient statutes. Their subtle interpretations concurred with the equity of the prsetor to reform the tyr- anny of the darker ages ; however strange or intricate the means, it was the aim of artificial jurisprudence to restore the simple dictates of nature and reason, and the skill of private citizens was usefully employed to undermine the public insti- tutions of their country. The revolution of almost one thou- sand years, from the Twelve Tables to the reign of Justinian, may be divided into three periods almost equal in duration, and distinguished from each other by the mode of instruction and the character of the civilians. 53 Pride and ignorance con- The first tributed, during the first period, to confine within P e ™ d - narrow limits the science of the Eoman law. On 303-648. ^ e p U b}j C d a y S f mar k e t or assembly the masters of the art were seen walking in the Forum, ready to impart the needful advice to the meanest of their fellow -citizens, from whose votes, on a future occasion, they might solicit a grateful return. As their years and honors increased, they 63 The series of the civil lawyers is deduced by Pomponius (De Origine Juris Pandect. 1. i. tit. ii. [§ 35 seq.]). The moderns have discussed, with learning and criticism, this branch of literary history ; and among these I have chiefly been guided by Gravina(p. 41-79) and Heineccius (Hist. J. E. No. 113-351). Cicero, more especially in his books de Oratore, de Claris Oratoribus, de Legibus, and the Clavis Ciceroniana of Ernesti (under the names of Mucins, etc.), afford much gen- uine and pleasing information. Horace often alludes to the morning labors of the civilians (Serm. L i. 10, Epist. II. i. 103, etc.). " Agricolam laudat juris legumque peritus, Sub galli can turn consultor ubi ostia pulsat. ******* Romae dulce diu fuit et solemne, reclusa Mane domo vigilare, clienti promere jura.* Ch.XLIV.] SUCCESSION OF THE CIVIL LAWYE2S. 449 seated themselves at home on a chair or throne, to expect, with patient gravity, the visits of their clients, who at the dawn of day, from the town and country, began to thunder at their door. The duties of social life and the incidents of ju- dicial proceeding were the ordinary subject of these consulta- tions, and the verbal or written opinion of the juris-consults was framed according to the rules of prudence and law. The youths of their own order and family were permitted to lis- ten ; their children enjoyed the benefit of more private les- sons, and the Mucian race was long renowned for the he- Second reditary knowledge of the civil law. The second A e n!o. d " period, the learned and splendid age of jurispru- 648-9S8. dence, may be extended from the birth of Cicero to the reign of Severus Alexander. A system was formed, schools were instituted, books were composed, and both the living and the dead became subservient to the instruction of the student. The tripartite of ^Elius Psetus, surnamed Ca- tus, or the Cunning, was preserved as the oldest work of ju- risprudence. Cato the censor derived some additional fame from his legal studies and those of his son ; the kindred ap- pellation of Mucius Scsevola was illustrated by three sages of the law, but the perfection of the science was ascribed to Servius Sulpicins, their disciple, and the friend of Tully ; and the long succession, which shone with equal lustre under the republic and under the Csesars, is finally closed by the re- spectable characters of Papinian, of Paul, and of TTlpian. Their names, and the various titles of their productions, have been minutely preserved, and the example of Labeo may sug- gest some idea of their diligence and fecundity. That emi- nent lawyer of the Augustan Age divided the year between the city and country, between business and composition, and four hundred books are enumerated as the fruit of his retire- ment. Of the collections of his rival Capito, the two hun- dred and fifty-ninth book is expressly quoted, and few teach- Thiid ers could deliver their opinions in less than a cen- P e ™ d - tury of volumes. In the third period, between the 988-1230. reigns of Alexander and Justinian, the oracles of jurisprudence were almost mute. The measure of curios- IY.— 29 450 PHILOSOPHY OF THE CIVIL LAWYERS. [Ch. XLIV, ity bad been filled ; tbe tbrone was occupied by tyrants and barbarians; tbe active spirits were diverted by religious dis- putes ; and tbe professors of Koine, Constantinople, and Bery- tus were burably content to repeat tbe lessons of tbeir more enligbtened predecessors. From tbe slow advances and rapid decay of tbese legal studies, it may be inferred tbat tbey re- quire a state of peace and refinement. From tbe multitude of voluminous civilians wbo fill the intermediate space, it is evident tbat such studies may be pursued, and such works may be performed, with a common share of judgment, expe- rience, and industry. Tbe genius of Cicero and Yirgil was more sensibly felt, as each revolving age bad been found in- capable of producing a similar or a second; but the most eminent teachers of the law were assured of leaving dis- ciples equal or superior to themselves in merit and repu- tation. The jurisprudence which bad been grossly adapted to the wants of the first Romans was polished and improved in the Their pM- seventh century of the city by the alliance of Gre- losophy. c - an philosophy. The Scsevolas had been taught by use and experience; but Servius Sulpicius a was tbe first civilian who established his art on a certain and general the- ory. 54 For the discernment of truth and falsehood he applied, as an infallible rule, the logic of Aristotle and the Stoics, re- duced particular cases to general principles, and diffused over the shapeless mass the light of order and eloquence. Cicero, bis contemporary and friend, declined the reputation of a pro- fessed lawyer ; but the jurisprudence of his country was adorn- ed by his incomparable genius, which converts into gold ev- ery object that it touches. After the example of Plato, he 54 Crassus, or rather Cicero himself, proposes (De Oratore, i. 41, 42) an idea of the art or science of jurisprudence, which the eloquent but illiterate Antonius (i. 58) affects to deride. It was partly executed by Servius Sulpicius (in Bruto, c. 41), whose praises are elegantly varied in the classic Latinity of the Roman Gravina (p. 60). a M. Hugo thinks that the ingenious system of the Institutes adopted by a great number of the ancient lawyers, and by Justinian himself, dates from Servius Sul- picius. Hist, du Droit Remain, vol. ii. p. 119. — W. C&XLIV.] PHILOSOPHY OF THE CIVIL LAWYERS. 451 composed a republic ; and, for the use of his republic, a trea« tise of laws, in which he labors to deduce from a celestial ori- gin the wisdom and justice of the Roman constitution. The whole universe, according to his sublime hypothesis, forms one immense commonwealth : gods and men, who participate of the same essence, are members of the same community ; reason prescribes the law of nature and nations ; and all posi- tive institutions, however modified by accident or custom, are drawn from the rule of right, which the Deity has inscribed on every virtuous mind. From these philosophical mysteries he mildly excludes the sceptics who refuse to believe, and the epicureans who are unwilling to act. The latter disdain the care of the republic : he advises them to slumber in their shady gardens. But he humbly entreats that the new Acad- emy would be silent, since her bold objections would too soon destroy the fair and well-ordered structure of his lofty sys- tem. 55 Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno he represents as the only teachers who arm and instruct a citizen for the duties of so* cial life. Of these, the armor of the Stoics 66 was found to be of the firmest temper ; and it was chiefly worn, both for use and ornament, in the schools of jurisprudence. From the Portico the Roman civilians learned to live, to reason, and to die : but they imbibed in some degree the prejudices of the sect ; the love of paradox, the pertinacious habits of dispute, and a minute attachment to words and verbal distinctions. The superiority oiform to matter was introduced to ascertain the right of property ; and the equality of crimes is counte- nanced by an opinion of Trebatius, 57 that he who touches the 66 " Perturbatricem autem omnium harum reriim Acaderniam, hanc ab Areesila et Carneade recentem, exoremus ut sileat, nam si invaserit in hasc, quae satis scita instructa et composita videntur, nimias edet ruinas, quam quidem ego placare cu- pio, submovere non audeo" (De Legibus, i. 13). From this passage alone, Bent- ley (Remarks on Freethinking, p. 250) might have learned how firmly Cicero be- lieved in the specious doctrines which he has adorned. 68 The Stoic philosophy was first taught at Rome by Panastius, the friend of tha younger Scipio (see his Life in the Mem. de l'Acad^raie des Inscriptions, torn. x. to. 75-89). 51 As he is quoted by Ulpian (leg. 40 ad Sabinum in Pandect. 1. xlvii. tit. ii. teg. 21). Yet Trebatius, after he was a leading civilian, " qui [quod] familiam 452 AUTHOKITY OF THE CIVIL LAWYEES. [Ch. XLTV* ear touclies the whole body, and that he who steals from a heap of corn or a hogshead of wine is guilty of the entire theft. 5 * Arms, eloquence, and the study of the civil law promoted a citizen to the honors of the Roman State ; and the three pro- fessions were sometimes more conspicuous by their u °" y union in the same character. In the composition of the edict a learned praetor gave a sanction and preference to his private sentiments ; the opinion of a censor or a consul was entertained with respect ; and a doubtful interpretation of the laws might be supported by the virtues or triumphs of the civilian. The patrician arts were long protected by the veil of mystery ; and in more enlightened times the freedom of inquiry established the general principles of jurisprudence. Subtle and intricate cases were elucidated by the disputes of the Forum ; rules, axioms, and definitions 69 were admitted as the genuine dictates of reason ; and the consent of the legal professors was interwoven into the practice of the tribunals. But these interpreters could neither enact nor execute the laws of the republic; and the judges might disregard the authority of the Scsevolas themselves, which was often over- thrown by the eloquence or sophistry of an ingenious plead- er. 60 Augustus and Tiberius were the first to adopt, as a use- ful engine, the science of the civilians ; and their servile la- bors accommodated the old system to the spirit and views of despotism. Under the fair pretence of securing the dignity duxit," became an epicurean (Cicero ad Fam. vii. 5). a Perhaps he was not con- stant or sincere in his new sect. 68 See Gravina (p. 45-51) and the ineffectual cavils of Mascou. Heineccius (Hist. J. E. No. 125) quotes and approves a dissertation of Everard Otto, de Sto- ica, Jurisconsultorum Philosophic. 69 We have heard of the Catonian rule, the Aquilian stipulation, and the Manil- ian forms, of 211 maxims, and of 247 definitions (Pandect. 1. L. tit. xvi xvii.). 60 Bead Cicero, 1. i. De Oratore, Topica, pro Murena. a The passage in Cicero runs "Accedit etiam, quod familiam ducit in jure ci- vili, singularis memoria, summa scientia." Modern writers interpret "quod fa- miliam ducit" to mean "quod prsecipuum est." Hence the passage would signi- fy that Trebatius was remarkable for the extent of his memory, etc., which was the most important thing in civil law. See Zimmern, Geschichte des Romischen Piivatrechts, vol. i. p. 298, note 7. — S. Ch. XLIV.] sects of lawyers. 453 of the art, the privilege of subscribing legal and valid opin- ions was confined to the sages of senatorian or equestrian rank, who had been previously approved by the judgment of the prince ; and this monopoly prevailed till Hadrian restored the freedom of the profession to every citizen conscious of his abilities and knowledge. The discretion of the praetor was now governed by the lessons of his teachers ; the judges were enjoined to obey the comment as well as the text of the law ; and the use of codicils was a memorable innovation, which Augustus ratified by the advice of the civilians. 61 The most absolute mandate could only require that the judges should agree with the civilians, if the civilians agreed among themselves. But positive institutions are often the result of custom and prejudice; laws and language are ambiguous and arbitrary; where reason is in- capable of pronouncing, the love of argument is inflamed by the envy of rivals, the vanity of masters, the blind attachment of their disciples ; and the Roman jurisprudence was divided by the once famous sects of the Proculians and Sabinians™ Two sages of the law, Ateius Capito and Antistius Labeo, 63 61 See Pomponius (De Origine Juris Pandect. 1. i. tit. ii. leg. 2, No. 47), Hei- ceccius(ad Institut. 1. i. tit. ii. No. 8 ; 1. ii. tit. xxv. in Element, et Antiquitat.), and Gravina (p. 41-45). Yet the monopoly of Augustus, a harsh measure, would ap- pear with some softening in contemporary evidence ; and it was ^robably veiled by a decree of the senate.* 62 I have perused the Diatribe of Gotfridus Mascovius, the learned Mascou, de Sectis Jurisconsultorum (Lipsias, 1728, in 12mo, p. 276), a learned treatise on a narrow and barren ground. 63 See the character of Antistius Labeo in Tacitus (Annal. iii. 75), and in an epistle of Ateius Capito (Aul. Gellms, xiii. 12), who accuses his rival of "libertas nimia et vecors." Yet Horace would not have lashed a virtuous and respectable senator; and I must adopt the emendation of Bentley, who reads Labieno insa- nior b (Serm. I. iii. 82). See Mascou, de Sectis (c. i. p. 1-24). * Gibbon here follows the opinion of Heineccius, which has been impugned by Hugo ; but the following passage from Gaius conclusively settles the question in favor of the opinion expressed in the text: "Responsa prudentum sunt sentential et opiniones eorum, quibus permissum est jura condere ; quorum omnium si in unum 6ententise concurrunt, id quod ita sentiunt, legis vicem obtinet, si vero dissentiunt, judici licet, quam velit sententiam sequi, idque rescripto Divi Hadriani significa- tur"(l.i. §7).-S. b The best modern editors of Horace retain the old reading, but suppose the Labeo mentioned by Horace to be ?, different person from the celebrated jurist.— &, 454 SECTS OF LAWYEES. [Ch. XLIV. adorned the peace of the Augustan age: the former distin- guished by the favor of his sovereign ; the latter more illus trious by his contempt of that favor, and his stern though harmless opposition to the tyrant of Kome. Their legal stud- ies were influenced by the various colors of their temper and principles. Labeo was attached to the form of the old repub- lic ; his rival embraced the more profitable substance of the rising monarchy. But the disposition of a courtier is tame and submissive; and Capito seldom presumed to deviate from the sentiments, or at least from the words, of his prede- cessors ; while the bold republican pursued his independent ideas without fear of paradox or innovations. The freedom of Labeo was enslaved, however, by the rigor of his own con- clusions, and he decided, according to the letter of the law, the same questions which his indulgent competitor resolved with a latitude of equity more suitable to the common-sense and feelings of mankind. If a fair exchange had been sub- stituted to the payment of money, Capito still considered the transaction as a legal sale ; 64 and he consulted nature for the age of puberty, without confining his definition to the pre- cise period of twelve or fourteen years. 86 This opposition of sentiments was propagated in the writings and lessons of the two founders ; the schools of Capito and Labeo maintained their inveterate conflict from the age of Augustus to that of Hadrian ; 66 and the two sects derived their appellations from 64 Justinian (Institut. 1. iii. tit. 23, and Theophil. Vers. Grasc. p. 677, 680) has commemorated this weighty dispute, and the verses of Homer that were alleged on either side as legal authorities. It was decided by Paul (leg. 33, ad Edict, ia Pandect. 1. xviii. tit. i. leg. 1), since, in a simple exchange, the buyer could not be discriminated from the seller. 65 This controversy was likewise given for the Proculians, to supersede the in- decency of a search, and to comply with the aphorism of Hippocrates, who was attached to the septenary number of two weeks of years, or 700 of days (Institut. 1. i. tit. xxii.). Plutarch and the Stoics (de Placit. Philosoph. 1. v. c. 24) assign a more natural reason. Fourteen years is the age — irapl rjv 6 (nrspp,aTucbg icpivETai oppog. See the vestigia of the sects in Mascou, c. ix. p. 145-276. 66 The series and conclusion of the sects are described by Mascou (c. ii.-vii. p. 24-120); and it would be almost ridiculous to praise his equal justice to these obsolete sects. a a The work of Gaius, subsequent to the time of Hadrian, furnishes us with Ch. XLIV.] sects of lawyers. 455 Sabinus and Proeulus, their most celebrated teachers. The names of Cassians and Pegasians were likewise applied to the same parties ; but, by a strange reverse, the popular cause was in the hands of Pegasus, 67 a timid slave of Domitian, while the favorite of the Caesars was represented by Cassi- us, 68 who gloried in his descent from the patriot assassin. By the perpetual edict the controversies of the sects were in a great measure determined. For that important work the Emperor Hadrian preferred the chief of the Sabinians: the friends of monarchy prevailed ; but the moderation of Salvi- us Julian insensibly reconciled the victors and the vanquish- ed. Like the contemporary philosophers, the lawyers of the age of the Antonines disclaimed the authority of a master, and adopted from every system the most probable doctrines. 6 * But their writings would have been less voluminous, had their choice been more unanimous. The conscience of the judge was perplexed by the number and weight of discordant testi- monies, and every sentence that his passion or interest might pronounce was justified by the sanction of some venerable name. An indulgent edict of the younger Theodosius ex- cused him from the labor of comparing and weighing their arguments. Five civilians, Caius, Papinian, Paul, Ulpian, and Modestinus, were established as the oracles of jurisprudence : a majority was decisive ; but if their opinions were equally divided, a casting-vote was ascribed to the superior wisdom of Papinian. 70 67 At the first summons he flies to the turbot-council ; yet Juvenal (Satir. W. 75-81) styles the prsefect or bailiff of Home "sanctissimus legum interpres." From his science, says the old scholiast, he was called, not a man, but a book. He derived the singular name of Pegasus from the galley which his father com- manded. 68 Tacit. Annal. xvi. 7. Sueton. in Nerone, c. xxxvii. 69 Mascou, de Sectis, c. viii. p. 120-144, de Herciscundis, a legal term which was applied to these eclectic lawyers : herciscere is synonymous to dividere. TO See the Theodosian Code, 1. i. tit. iv. with Godefroy's Commentary, torn. i. some information on this subject. The disputes which rose between these two sects appear to have been very numerous. Gaius avows himself a disciple of Sa- binus and of Caius. Compare Hugo, vol. ii. p. 106.— W. But it should be re- marked that, on controverted points, Gaius notwithstanding generally follows the opinion of the opposite school. There is reason to believe that the antagonism of the rival sects was dying out even in the time of Gains. — S. 456 REFORMATION OF THE ROMAN LAW [Ch. XEIV. When Justinian ascended the throne, the reformation of the Roman "jurisprudence was an arduous but indis- Keformatton ". %. . . .)f the Roman pensable task, in the space 01 ten centuries the Jaw by Jus- J „ . . ,. n , , , . . tinian. mtmite variety or laws and legal opinions. had filled" many thousand volumes, which no fortune could purchase and no capacity could digest. Books could not ea=- p. 31-35. a This decree might give occasion to Jesuitical disputes like those in the Lettres Provinciates, whether a judge was obliged to follow the opinion of Papin- ian, or of a majority, against his judgment, against his conscience, etc. Yet a legislator might give that opinion, however false, the" validity, not of truth, but of lawA * We possess (since, 1824) some interesting information as to the framing of the Theodosiun Code, and its ratification at Rome, in the year 438. M. Closius, now professor at Dorpat, in Russia, and M. Peyron, member of the Academy of Turin, have discovered, the one at Milan, the other at Turin, a great part of the five first books of the Code, which were wanting, and besides this, the reports (gesta) of the sitting of the senate at Rome, in which the Code was published, -in the yeaiv after the marriage of Valentinian III. Among these pieces are the con- stitutions which nominate commissioners for the formation of the Code; and though there are many points of considerable obscurity "in these documents, they communicate many facts relative to this legislation. 1. That Theodosius designed a great reform in the legislation ; to add to the ©regorian and Hermogenian codes all the new constitutions from Constantine to his own day ; and to frame a second code for common use, with extracts from the three codes, and from the works of the civil lawyers. All laws either abrogated or fallen into disuse were to be noted under their proper heads. 2. An ordinance was issued in 429 to form a commission for this purpose, of nine persons, of which Antiochus, as quagstor and praefectus, was president. A second commission of sixteen members was issued in 435 under the same presi- dent. 3. A code, which we possess under the name of Codex Theodosianus, was fin- ished in 438, published in the East, in an ordinance addressed to the praetorian prefect, Florentines, and intended to be published in the West. 4. Before it was published in the West, Valentinian submitted it to the senate. There is a report of tlie proceedings of the senate, which closed with loud accla- mations and gratulations. — From Warnkonig, Histoire du Droit Romain, p. 169. — Wenck has published this work, Codicis Theodosiani libri priores. Leipzig, 1825.— M. *" b Closius of Tubingen communicated to M. Warnkonig the two following con- stitutions of the Emperor Constantine, which he discovered in the Ambrosian Li- brary at Milan : 1. Imper. Constantinus Aug. ad Maximium Prasf. Prastorio. Perpetuas prudentum contentiones eruere cupientes, Ulpiani ac Patdi, in Papin- ianum notas, qui dum ingenii laudem sectantur, non tam corrigere eum quam de- pravere maluerunt, aboleri prajeepimus. Dat. III. Kalend. Octob. et Const. Cons, et Crispi (321). 2. Idem Aug. ad^Maximrum PrasJ Praet. Uni versa, qua? scripture Pauli coh'tinentur, recepta auctoritate firmanda sunt, et omni veneratione celebranda. Ideoqne sententiarum libros plen'issima lace et) perfectissima, elocutione et justissima, juris ratione suecinctos in judiciis prolatos valere minime dubitatur. Dat. V. Kalend. Oct. Trevir. Const, et Max. Coss. (327).— W. a.d. 527-546.] BY JUSTINIAN. 457 sily be found ; and the judges, poor in the midst of riches, were reduced to the exercise of their illiterate discretion. The subjects of the Greek provinces were ignorant of the language that disposed of their lives and properties ; and the barbarous dialect of the Latins was imperfectly studied in the academies of Berytus and Constantinople. As an Iltyrian soldier, that idiom was familiar to the infancy of Justinian ; his youth had been instructed by the lessons of jurisprudence, and his -imperial choice selected the most learned civilians of the East, to labor with their sovereign in the work of refor- mation," The theory of professors was assisted by the prac- tice of advocates and the experience of magistrates ; and the Tribonian. whole undertaking was animated by the spirit of a.d. 52T-546. Tribonian. 72 This extraordinary man, the object of so much praise and censure, was a native of Side, in Pam- phylia; 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 of curious and abstruse subjects : 73 a double panegyric of Justin- ian and the life of the philosopher Theodotus ; the nature of happiness and the duties of government; Homer's catalogue and the four -and -twenty sorts of metre; the astronomical canon of Ptolemy; the changes of the months; the houses of the planets ; and the harmonic system of the world. To the ' =! ■ ' ■ 11 For the legal labors of Justinian, I have studied the Preface to the Insti- tutes; the first, second, and third j 'refaees to the Pandects; the first and second Preface to the Code; and the Code itself (1. i. tit. xvji. de Veteri Jure enuclean- do). After these original testimonies, I have consulted, among the moderns, Hei- neccius (Hist. J. R. No. 383-404), Terrassn (Hist, de la Jurisprudence Romaine, p. 295-356), Gravina (Opp. p. 93-100), and Lnlewig, in his Life of Justinian (p. 19-123, 318-321; for the Code and Novels, p. 209-261; for the Digest or Pandects, p. 262-317). 72 For the character of Tribonian, see the testimonies of Procopius (Persic. I. i. c. 23, 24 [24, 25] ; Anecdot. c 13, 20) and Suidas (torn. Hi. p. 501, edit. Kus- ter). Ludewig (in Vit. Justinian, p. 175-209) works hard, very hard, to white- wash — the blackamoor. 73 I apply the two passages of Suidas to the same man ; every circumstance so exactly tallies. Yet the lawyers appear ignorant; and Fabricius is inclined to separate the two characters (Biblioth. Grsec. torn. i. p. 341 ; ii. p. 518 ; iii. p. 418; xii. p. 346, 353, 474). 458 KEFORMATION OF THE SOMAN LAW. [CH.XLIV. literature of Greece he added the use of the Latin tongue ; the Roman civilians were deposited in his library and in his mind; and he most assiduously cultivated those arts which opened the road of wealth and preferment. From the bar of the praetorian praefects he raised himself to the honors of quaestor, of consul, and of master of the offices : the Council of Justinian listened to his eloquence and wisdom ; and envy was mitigated by the gentleness and affability of his manners. The reproaches of impiety and avarice have stained the virt- ues or the reputation of Tribonian. In a bigoted and perse- cuting court, the principal minister was accused of a secret aversion to the Christian faith, and was supposed to entertain the sentiments of an atheist and a pagan, which have been imputed, inconsistently enough, to the last philosophers of Greece. His avarice was more clearly proved and more sen- sibly felt. If he were swayed by gifts in the administration of justice, the example of Bacon will again occur ; nor can the merit of Tribonian atone for his baseness, if he degraded the sanctity of his profession, and if laws were every day enacted, modified, or repealed, for the base consideration of his private emolument. In the sedition of Constantinople, his removal was granted to the clamors, perhaps to the just indignation, of the people : but the quaestor was speedily restored, and, till the hour of his death, he possessed, above twenty years, the favor and confidence of the emperor. His passive and dutiful sub- mission has been honored with the praise of Justinian him- self, whose vanity was incapable of discerning how often that submission degenerated into the grossest adulation. Tribo- nian adored the virtues of his gracious master : the earth was unworthy of such a prince ; and he affected a pious fear that Justinian, like Elijah or Romulus, would be snatched into the air, and translated alive to the mansions of celestial glory. 74 14 This story is related by Hesyehius (de Viris Ulustribus), Procopius (Anec- dot. c. 13 [torn. iii. p. 84, edit. Bonn]), and Suidas (com. iii. p. 501). Such flat- tery is incredible ! " Nihil est quod credere de se Non possit, cum laudatur Diis asqua potestas." Fontenelle (torn. i. p. 32-39) has ridiculed the impudence of the modest Virgil. But the same Fontenelle places his king above the divine Augustus ; and the saga Feb. 13 ; s..i>. 529, ad. 523, 529.] THE CODE OF JUSTINIAN. 459 If Csesar bad achieved the reformation of the Roman law, his creative genius, enlightened by reflection and study, would The code of have given to the world a pure and original sys- tem of jurisprudence. Whatever flattery might suggest, the Emperor of the East was afraid to es- Apnl T# tablisb his private judgment as the standard of equity : in the possession of legislative power, he borrowed the aid of time and opinion ; and his laborious compilations are guarded by the sages and legislators of past times. Instead of a statue cast in a simple mould by the hand of an artist, the works of Justinian represent a tesselated pavement of antique and costly, but too often of incoherent, fragments. In the first year of his reign, he directed the faithful Tribonian, and nine learned associates, to revise the ordinances of his predecessors, as they were contained, since the time of Ha- drian, in the Gregorian, Hermogenian, and Theodosian codes ; to purge the errors and contradictions, to retrench whatever was obsolete or superfluous, and to select the wise and salu- tary laws best adapted to the practice of the tribunals and the use of his subjects. The work was accomplished in fourteen months ; and the twelve books or tables, which the new de- cemvirs produced, might be designed to imitate the labors of their Roman predecessors. The new Code of Justinian was honored with his name and confirmed by his royal signa- ture: authentic transcripts were multiplied by the pens of notaries and scribes ; they were transmitted to the magistrates of the European, the Asiatic, and afterwards the African prov- inces ; and the law of the empire was proclaimed on solemn festivals at the doors of churches. A more arduous operation was still behind — to extract the spirit of jurisprudence from the decisions and conjectures, the questions and disputes, of the Roman civilians. Seventeen lawyers, with Tribonian at their head, were appointed by the emperor to exercise an ab- solute jurisdiction over the works of their predecessors. If they had obeyed his commands in ten years, Justinian would Boilean has not blushed to say, "Le destin k ses yeux n'oseroit balancer." Yet neither Augustus nor Louis XIV. were fools. 460 THE PANDECTS. [CH.XLIV. have been satisfied with their diligence ; and the rapid com- Th^PaudectB position of the Digest or Pandects 76 in three years T.-^Mo^ w iH deserve praise or censure according to the a.d."533» merit of the execution. From the library of Tri- Decrs. b'onian they chose forty, the most eminent civil- ians of former times ; 78 two thousand treatises were comprised in an abridgment of fifty books ; and it has been carefully recorded that three millions of lines or sentences" were re- duced, in this abstract, to the moderate number of one hun- dred and fifty thousand. The edition of this great work was delayed a month after that of the Institutes ; and it seemed reasonable that the elements should precede the digest of the Pfmian law. As soon as the emperor had approved their la- bors, he ratified, by his legislative power, the speculations of these private citizens : their commentaries on the Twelve Ta- bles, the Perpetual Edict, the laws of the people, and the de- crees of the senate, succeeded to the authority of the text ; and the text was abandoned as a useless, though venerable, relic of antiquity. The Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes were declared to be the legitimate system of civil jurispru- dence ; they alone were admitted in the tribunals, and they 16 UdvSeKTai (general receivers) was a common titJe of the Greek miscellanies (Plin. Prsefat. ad Hist. Natqr.). The Digesta of Scsevola, Marcellinus, Celsus, were already familiar to the civilians : but Justinian was in the wrong when he used the two appellations as synonymous. Is the word Pandects Greek or Latin — masculine or feminine? The diligent Brenckman will not presume to decide these momentous controversies (Hist. Pandect. EJorentin. p. 300-304).* 76 Angelus Politianus (1. v. Epist. ult.) reckons thirty-seven (p. 192-200) civil- ians quoted in the Pandects — a learned, and for his times, an extraordinary list. The Greek index to the Pandects enumerates thirty-nine, and forty are produced by the indefatigable Fabricius (Biblioth. Graac. tqm. iii. p. 488-502). Antoninus Augustus [Antonius Augustinus] (de Npminibus P.ropriis Pandect, apud Ludewig, p. 283) is s«id to have added fifty-four names ; but they must be vague or second- band references. " The 2rt%oi of the aneient MSS. may be strictly defined as sentences or peri- ods of a complete sense, which, on the breadth of the parchment rolls or volumes, composed as many lines of unequal length. The number of Sn^ot in each book served as a check on the errors of the scribes (Ludewig, p. 211-215; and his orig. inal author Suicer. Thesaur. Ecclesiast. torn. i. p. 1021-1036). a ^The word HavSwrcu was formerly in common use. See the preface to Aulas Gefiius.— W. a.d. 533.3 PRAISE AND CENSURE. 461 alone were taught in the academies, of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus. Justinian addressed to the senate and provinces his eternal oracles; and his pride, under the mask of piety, ascribed the consummation of this great design to the support and inspiration of the Deity. Since the emperor declined the fame and envy of original composition, we can only require at his hands method, choice, praise aud an( ^ fidelity — the humble, though indispensable, o n ae Q m)d fthe virtues of a compil-er. Among the various combi- Paudeets. nations of ideas it is difficult to assign any reason- able preference; but, as the order of Justinian is different in his three works, it is possible that all may be wrong, and it is certain that two cannot be right. In the selection of ancient laws he seems to have viewed his predecessors without jeal- ousy and with equal regard : the series could not ascend above the reign of Hadrian, and the narrow distinction of pagan- ism and Christianity, introduced by the superstition of The- odosius, had been abolished by the consent of mankind. But the jurisprudence of the Pandects is circumscribed within a period of a hundred years, from the Perpetual Edict to the death of Severus Alexander : the civilians who lived under the first Caesars are seldom permitted to speak, and only three names can be attributed to the age of the republic. The fa- vorite of Justinian (it has been fiercely urged) was fearful of encountering the light of freedom and the gravity of Roman sages. Tribonian condemned to oblivion the genuine and na- tive wisdom of Cato, the Scsevolas, and Sulpicius ; while he invoked spirits more congenial to his own, the Syrians, Greeks, and Africans, who flocked to the imperial court to study Latin as a foreign tongue, and jurisprudence as a lucrative profes- sion. But the ministers of Justinian 78 were instructed >to la- bor not for the curiosity of antiquarians, but for the imme- diate benefit of his subjects. It was their duty to select the useful and practical parts of the Roman law ; and the writ- ings of the old republicans, however curious or excellent, were 15 An ingenious and learned oration of Schultingius (Jurisprudentia Ante- Justinianea, p. 883-907) justifies the choice of Tiibcftiian, against the passional* charges Qf Francis Hottoman and his sectaries. 462 THE CODE AND PANDECTS. [Ch. XLIV. no longer suited to the new system of manners, religion, and government. Perhaps, if the preceptors and friends of Cicero were still alive, our candor would acknowledge that, except in purity of language, 79 their intrinsic merit was excelled by the school of Papinian and Ulpian. The science of the laws is the slow growth of time and experience, and the advan- tage both of method and materials is naturally assumed by the most recent authors. The civilians of the reign of the An- tonines had studied the works of their predecessors: their philosophic spirit had mitigated the rigor of antiquity, sim- plified the forms of proceeding, and emerged from the jeal- ousy and prejudice of the rival sects. The choice of the au- thorities that compose the Pandects depended on the judg- ment of Tribonian ; but the power of his sovereign could not absolve him from the sacred obligations of truth and fidelity. As the legislator of the empire, Justinian might repeal the acts of the Antonines, or condemn as seditious the free prin- ciples which were maintained by the last of the Roman law- yers. 80 But the existence of past facts is placed beyond the reach of despotism; and the emperor was guilty of fraud and forgery when he corrupted the integrity of their text, inscribed with their venerable names the words and ideas of 19 Strip away the crust of Tribonian, and allow for the use of technical words, and the Latin of the Pandects will be found not unworthy of the silver age. It has been vehemently attacked by Laurentius Valla, a a fastidious grammarian of the fifteenth century, and by his apologist Floridus Sabinus. It has been defended by Alciat, and a nameless advocate (most probably James Capellus). Their vari- ous treatises are collected by Duker (Opuscula de Latinitate veterum Juriscon- sultorum, Lugd. Bat. 1721, in 12mo). 80 " Nomina quidem veteribus servavimus, legum autem veritatem nostram feci- mus. Itaque siquid erat in illis seditiosum, mult a autem talia erant ibi reposita, hoc decisum est et definitum, et in perspicuum finem deducta est quseque lex" (Cod. Justinian. 1. i. tit. xvii. leg. 3, No. 10). A frank confession ! b a Gibbon is mistaken with regard to Valla, who, though he inveighs against the barbarous style of the civilians of his own day, lavishes the highest praise on the admirable purity of the language of the ancient writers on civil law. (M. Warn- konig quotes a long passage of Valla in justification of this observation.) Since his time this truth has been recognized by men of the highest eminence, such as TSrasmus, David Hume, and Ruhnkenius. — W. b " Seditiosum " in the language of Justinian means not seditious, but disputed. — W. A.D. 533.] LOSS OF THE ANCIENT JURISPRUDENCE. 463 his servile reign," and suppressed by the hand of power the pure and authentic copies of their sentiments. The changes and interpolations of Tribonian and his colleagues are ex- cused by the pretence of uniformity : but their cares have been insufficient, and the antinomies, or contradictions, of the Code and Pandects still exercise the patience and subtlety of modern civilians. 82 A rumor, devoid of evidence, has beer, propagated by the enemies of Justinian, that the jurisprudence of ancient Kome was reduced to ashes by the author of the Pan- Loss of the . . , . audent juris- dects, from the vain persuasion that it was now prudence. . ' x either false or superfluous. Without usurping an office so invidious, the emperor might safely commit to igno- rance and time the accomplishment of this destructive wish. Before the invention of printing and paper, the labor and the materials of writing could be purchased only by the rich; and it may reasonably be computed that the price of books was a hundred-fold their present value. 83 Copies were slow- ly multiplied and cautiously renewed : the hopes of profit tempted the sacrilegious scribes to erase the characters of an- tiquity, and Sophocles or Tacitus were obliged to resign the parchment to missals, homilies, and the golden legend. 84 If such was the fate of the most beautiful compositions of gen- ius, what stability could be expected for the dull and barren 81 The number of these emblemata (a polite name for forgeries) is much reduced by Bynkershoek (in the four last books of his Observations), who poorly maintains the right of Justinian and the duty of Tribonian. 82 The antinomies, or opposite laws of the Code and Pandects, are sometimes the cause, and often the excuse, of the glorious uncertainty of the civil law, which so often affords what Montaigne calls ' ; Questions pour l'Ami." See a fine passaga of Franciscus Balduinus in Justinian (1. ii. p. 259, etc., apud Ludewig, p. 305, 306). 83 When Faust, or Faustus, sold at Paris his first printed Bibles as manuscripts, the price of a parchment copy was reduced from four or five hundred to sixty, fif- ty, and forty crowns. The public was at first pleased with the cheapness, and at length provoked by the discovery of the fraud (Mattaire, Annal. Typograph. torn. i. p. 12; first edition). 84 This execrable practice prevailed from the eighth, and more especially from the twelfth century, when it became almost universal (Montfaucon, in the Me- moires de l'Acade'mie, torn. vi. p. 606, etc.; Bibliotheque Raisonnee de la Diplo- matique, torn, i, p. 176). 464: LOSS OF THE ANCIENT JURISPRUDENCE. [Ch. XLIV. works of an obsolete science ? The books of jurisprudence were interesting to few and entertaining to none ; their val- ue was connected with present use, and they sunk forever as soon as that use was superseded by the innovations of fash- ion, superior merit, or public authority. In the age of peace and learning, between Cicero and the last of the Antonines, many losses had been already sustained, and some luminaries of the school or forum were known only to the curious by tradition and report. Three hundred and sixty years of dis- order and decay accelerated the progress of oblivion ; and it may fairly be presumed that, of the writings which Justinian is accused of neglecting, many were no longer to be found in the libraries of the East. 85 The copies of Papinian or Ulpian, which the reformer had proscribed, were deemed unworthy of future notice ; the Twelve Tables and praetorian edict insensibly vanished ; and the monuments of ancient Rome were neglected or destroyed by the envy and ignorance of the Greeks. Even the Pandects themselves have escaped with difficulty and danger from the common shipwreck, and criticism has pronounced that all the editions and manu- scripts of the West are derived from one original. 8 ' It was transcribed at Constantinople in the beginning of the seventh century, 87 was successively transported by the accidents of 85 Pomponius (Pandect. 1. i. tit. ii. leg. 2 [§ 39]) observes, that of the three found- ers of the civil law, Mucius, Brutus, and Manilius, "extant volumina, [in-J scripta Manilii monumenta;" that of some old republican lawyers, "hsec versantur eorum scripta inter manus hominum." Eight of the Augustan sages were reduced to a compendium: of Cascellius, "scripta non extant sed unus liber," etc. [§ 45]; of Trebatius, "minus frequentatur " [ib.]; of Tubero, "libri parum grati sunt"[§ 46]. Many quotations in the Pandects are derived from books which Tribonian. never saw ; and, in the long period from the seventh to the thirteenth century of Rome, the apparent reading of the moderns successively depends on the knowl- edge and veracity of their predecessors. 86 All, in several instances, repeat the errors of the scribe and the transpositions of some leaves in the Elorentine Pandects. This fact, if it be true, is decisive. Yet the Pandects are quoted by Ivo of Chartres (who died in 1117), by Theobald, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, and by Vacarius, our first professor, in the year 1140 (Sel- den ad Fletam, c. 7, torn. ii. p. 1080-1085). Have our British MSS. of the Pan- dects been collated P 87 See the description of this original in Brenckman (Hist. Pandect. Florent. 1. i. c. 2, 3, p. 4-17, and 1. ii.). Politian, an enthusiast, revered it as the authentic A.D.533.] LEGAL INCONSTANCY OF JUSTINIAN. 405 war and commerce to Amalphi, 88 Pisa, 60 and Florence, 00 and is now deposited as a sacred relic 91 in the ancient palace of the republic." It is the first care of a reformer to prevent any future ref- ormation. To maintain the text of the Pandects, the Insti- tutes, and the Code, the use of ciphers and abbre- Legal incon- . . ' .._*■__. stancy.of viations was rigorously proscribed; and as Justin- ian recollected that the Perpetual Edict had been buried under the weight of commentators, he denounced the punishment of forgery against the rash civilians who should presume to interpret or pervert the will of their sovereign. The scholars of Accursius, of Bartolus, of Cujacius, should standard of Justinian himself (p. 407, 408) ; but this paradox is refuted by the ab- breviations of the Florentine MS. (1. ii. c. 3, p. 117-130). It is composed of two quarto volumes, with large margins, on a thin parchment, and the Latin charac- ters betray the hand of a Greek scribe. 88 Brenckman, at the end of his history, has inserted two dissertations on the republic of Amalphi, and the Pisan war in the year 1135, etc. 89 The discovery of the Pandects at Amalphi (a.d. 1137) is first noticed (in 1501) by Ludovicus Bologninus (Brenckman, 1. i. c. 11, p. 73, 74 ; 1. iv. c. 2, p. 417- 425) f on the faith of a Pisan chronicle (p. 409, 410) without a name or a date. The whole story, a though unknown to the twelfth century, embellished by igno- rant ages, and suspected by rigid criticism, is not, however, destitute of much in- ternal probability (1. i. c. 4-8, p. 17-50). The Liber Pandectarura of Pisa was un- doubtedly consulted in the fourteenth century by the great Bartolus (p. 406, 407. See 1. i. c. 9, p. 50-62). 90 Pisa was taken by the Florentines in the year 1406 ; and in 141 1 the Pan- dects were, transported to the capital. These events are authentic and famous. 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 ta- kers (Brenckman, 1. i. c. 10, 11, 12, p. 62-93). 92 After the collations of Politian, Bologninus, and Antoninus Augnstinus, and the splendid edition of the Pandects by Taurellus(in 1551), b Henry Brenckman, a Dutchman, undertook a pilgrimage to Florence, where he employed several years in the study of a single manuscript. His Historia Pandectarum Florentinorum (Utrecht, 1722, in 4to), though a monument of industry, is a small portion of his original design. a Savigny (vol. iii. p. 83 seq.) examines and rejects the whole story. See like- wise Hallam, vol. iii. p. 414, 18th edit. — M. b Two or three mistakes (perhaps misprints) in this note are pointed out by a writer in Notes and Queries, vol. ii. p. 422. The edition of the Pandects was ed- ited by Taurellius, not Taurellus, and in 1553, not 1551. In the preceding line Antonius Augustinus is falsely called Antoninus Augustiuus ; in a preceding note (76) he had been erroneously called Antoninus Augustus. — S. IY.— 30 466 THE NOVELS. [Ch. XLIV. blush for their accumulated guilt, unless they dare to dispute his right of binding the authority of his successors and the native freedom of the mind. But the emperor was unable to fix his own inconstancy ; and, while he boasted of renew* ing the exchange of Diomede, of transmuting brass into gold, 93 he discovered the necessity of purifying his gold from the mixture of baser alloy. Six years had not Second earn.;.] of elapsed from the publication of the Code before he the Code. r . r a.d. 5H4, condemned the imperiect attempt by a new and Nov. 16. _. . r „ , r J _ , . . , more accurate edition 01 the same work, which he enriched with two hundred of his own laws and fifty deci- sions of the darkest and most intricate points of jurisprudence. Every year, or, according to Procopius, each day, of his long reign was marked by some legal innovation. Many of his acts were rescinded by himself ; many were rejected by his successors; many have been obliterated by time; but the The Novels, number of sixteen Edicts, and one hundred and a.b. 534-565. s i x ty-eight Novels, 94 has been admitted into the authentic body of the civil jurisprudence. In the opinion of a philosopher superior to the prejudices of his profession, these incessant, and for the most part trifling alterations, can be only explained by the venal spirit of a prince who sold without shame his judgments and his laws. 95 The charge of the secret historian is indeed explicit and vehement ; but the sole instance which he produces may be ascribed to the de- votion as well as to the avarice of Justinian. A wealthy bigot had bequeathed his inheritance to the Church of Eme- 93 Xpvaea xa\K£vta€oia)v, apud Homerum patrem oranis vir- tutis (1st Prsefat. ad Pandect.). A line of Milton or Tasso would surprise us in an act of parliament. " Quae omnia obtinere sancimus in omne gevum." Of the first Code he says (2d Praafat.), "In seternum valiturum." Man and forever! 94 Novellce is a classic adjective, but a barbarous substantive (Ludewig, p. 245). Justinian never collected them himself; the nine collations, the legal standard of modern tribunals, consist of ninety-eight Novels; but the number was increased by the diligence of Julian, Haloander, and Contius (Ludewig, p. 249, 258; Ale- man. Not. in Anecdot. p. 98). 93 Montesquieu, Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Eomains, ch. 20, torn. iii. p. 501, in 4to. On this occasion he throws aside the gown and cap of a President a Mortier. A.D.533.] THE INSTITUTES. 467 sa, and its value was enhanced by the dexterity of an artist, who subscribed confessions of debt and promises of payment with the names of the richest Syrians. They pleaded the established prescription of thirty or forty years; but their defence was overruled by a retrospective edict, which extend- ed the claims of the Church to the term of a century — an edict so pregnant with injustice and disorder, that, after serv- ing this occasional purpose, it was prudently abolished in the same reign. 06 If candor will acquit the emperor himself, and transfer the corruption to his wife and favorites, the suspicion of so foul a vice must still degrade the majesty of his laws ; and the advocates of Justinian may acknowledge that such levity, whatsoever be the motive, is unworthy of a legislator and a man. Monarchs seldom condescend to become the preceptors of their subjects ; and some praise is due to Justinian, by whose The insti- command an ample system was reduced to a short l U B e 533, an d elementary treatise. Among the various in- Nov.21. stitutes of the Roman law, 97 those of Caius 98 were the most popular in the East and West ; and their use may be considered as an evidence of their merit. They were se- lected by the imperial delegates, Tribonian, Theophilus, and Dorotheus; and the freedom and purity of the Antonines was incrusted with the coarser materials of a degenerate age. 96 Procopii: i, Anccdot c. 28 [torn. iii. p. 155, edit. Bonn]. A similar privilege was granted to t 1 j Church of Kome (Novel, ix.). For the general repeal of these mischievous indulgences, see Novel, cxi. and Edict, v. 97 Lactantius, in his Institutes of Christianity, an elegant and specious work, proposes to imitate the title and method of the civilians. " Quidam prudentes et arbitri sequitatis Institutiones Civilis Juris compositas ediderunt" (Institut. Divin. 1. i. c. 1). Such as Ulpir", Paul, Florentinus, Marcian. 93 The Emperor Justirran calls him suum, though he died before the end of the second century. His Institutes are quoted by Servius, Boethius, Priscian, etc. ; and the Epitome by Am .n is still extant. (See the Prolegomena and notes to the edition of Schulting, in the Jurisprudentia Ante- Justinianea, Lugd. Bat. 1717; Heineccius, Hist. J. It. No. 313 ; Ludewig, in Vit. Just. p. 199.)' * The Institutes of Caius. or Gaius, as he is now more generally called, were discovered by Niebuhr in 1818 in a palimpsest MS. preserved in the cathedral library of Verona. The work was published for the first time by Goeschen in 1821.— S. 468 PERSONS. [Ch. XLIV. The same volume which introduced the youth of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus to the gradual study of the Code and Pandects, is still precious to the historian, the philosopher, and the magistrate. The Institutes of Justinian are divided into four books : they proceed, with no contemptible method, from, I. Persons, to, II. Things, and from things to, III. Ac- tions ; and the article IV., of Private Wrongs, is terminated by the principles of Criminal Law.* The distinction of ranks and persons is the firmest basis of a mixed and limited government. In France the remains of i. of peb- liberty are kept alive by the spirit, the honors, and Free'meu even tne prejudices of fifty thousand nobles." Two and slaves, hundred families 1 * supply, in lineal descent, the sec- ond branch of the English legislature, which maintains, be- tween the king and commons, the balance of the constitution. A gradation of Patricians and Plebeians, of strangers and sub- jects, has supported the aristocracy of Genoa, Venice, and an- cient Rome. The perfect equality of men is the point in which the extremes of democracy and despotism are con- founded ; since the majesty of the prince or people would be offended if any heads were exalted above the level of their fellow-slaves or fellow-citizens. In the decline of the Roman empire, the proud distinctions of the republic were gradually abolished, and the reason or instinct of Justinian completed the simple form of an absolute monarchy. The emperor could not eradicate the popular reverence which always waits on the possession of hereditary wealth or the memory of fa- mous ancestors. He delighted to honor with titles and emol- 99 See the Annales Politiques de l'Abbe' de St. Pierre, torn. i. p. 25, who dates in the year 1735. The most ancient families claim the immemorial possession of arms and fiefs. Since the Crusades, some, the most truly respectable, have been created by the king for merit and services. The recent and vulgar crowd is de- rived from the multitude of venal offices, without trust or dignity, which continu- ally ennoble the wealthy Plebeians. a Gibbon 4 dividing the Institutes into four parts, considers the appendix of the criminal law in the last title as a fourth part. — W. b Since the time of Gibbon the House of Peers has been more than doubled : it is above 400, exclusive of the spiritual peers — a wise policy, to increase the Pa- trician order in proportion to the funeral increase of the nation. — M. A.D. 533.] FEEEMEN AND SLAVES. 469 uments his generals, magistrates, and senators ; and his pre- carious indulgence communicated some rays of their glory to the persons of their wives and children. But in the eye of the law a]l Roman citizens were equal, and all subjects of the empire were citizens of Rome. That inestimable character was degraded to an obsolete and empty name. The voice of a Roman could no longer enact his laws or create the annual ministers of his power: his constitutional rights might have checked the arbitrary will era master ; and the bold advent- urer from Germany or Arabia was admitted, with equal fa- vor, to the civil and military command, which the citizen alone had been once entitled to assume over the conquests of his fathers. The first Caesars had scrupulously guarded the distinction of ingenuous and servile birth, which was decided by the condition of the mother ; and the candor of the laws was satisfied if her freedom could be ascertained, during a sin- gle moment, between the conception and the 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 obedi- ence and gratitude : whatever were the fruits of their indus- try, their patron and his family inherited the third part ; or even the whole of their fortune if they died without children and without a testament. Justinian respected the rights of patrons ; but his indulgence removed the badge of disgrace from the two inferior orders of freedmen: whoever ceased to be a slave obtained, without reserve or delay, the station of a citizen ; and at length the dignity of an ingenuous birth, which nature had refused, was created, or supposed, by the omnipotence of the emperor. Whatever restraints of age, or forms, or numbers, had been formerly introduced to check the abuse of manumissions and the too rapid increase of vile and indigent Romans, he finally abolished ; and the spirit of his laws promoted the extinction of domestic servitude. Yet the eastern provinces were filled, in the time of Justinian, with multitudes of slaves, either born or purchased for the use of their masters ; and the price, from ten to seventy pieces of gold, was determined by their age, their strength, and their 4:70 FATHERS AND CHILDREN. [Ch. XLIV. education. 100 But the hardships of this dependent state were continually diminished by the influence of government and religion ; and the pride of a subject was no longer elated by his absolute dominion over the life and happiness of his bondsman. 1 " The law of nature instructs most animals to cherish and educate their infant progeny. The law of reason inculcates Fathers and to the human species the returns of filial piety, children. j> n |. t ] ie exc i us i vej absolute, and perpetual domin- ion of the father over his children is peculiar to the Roman jurisprudence, 102 and seems to be coeval with the foundation of the city. 103 The paternal power was instituted or confirm- ed by Romulus himself ; and, after the practice of three cen- turies, it was inscribed on the fourth table of the Decemvirs. 100 If the option of a slave was bequeathed to several legatees, they drew lots, and the losers were entitled to their share of his value : ten pieces of gold for a common servant or maid under ten years ; if above that age, twenty ; if they knew a trade, thirty ; notaries or writers, fifty ; midwives or physicians, sixty ; eunuchs under ten years, thirty pieces ; above, fifty ; if tradesmen, seventy (Cod. 1. vi. tit. xliii. leg. 3). These legal prices are generally below those of the market. 101 For the state of slaves and freedmen, see Institutes, 1. i. tit. iii.-viii., 1. ii. tit. ix., 1. iii. tit. viii. ix. [vii. viii.] ; Pandects or Digest, 1. i. tit. v. vi., 1. xxxviii. tit. i.-iv., ...id the whole of the fortieth book ; Code, 1. vi. tit. iv. v., 1. vii. tit. i.-xxiii. Be it henceforward understood that, with the original text of the Institutes and Pandects, the correspondent articles in the Antiquities and Elements of Heinec- eius m-e implicitly quoted ; and with the twenty-seven first books of the Pandects, the learned and rational Commentaries of Gerard Noodt (Opera, torn. ii. p. 1-590, the end, Lugd. Bat. 1724). 102 See the "patria potestas" in the Institutes (1. i. tit. ix.), the Pandects (1. i. tit. vi. vii.), and the Code (1. viii. tit. xlvii. xlviii. xlix. [tit. xlvi. xlvii. xlviii.]). "Jus potestatis quod in liberos habemus proprium est civium Romanorum. Null] enim alii sunt homines, qui talem in liberos habeant potestatem quulem nos habemus. " a 103 Dionysius Hal. 1. ii. [c. 26] p. 94, 95. Gravina (Opp. p. 286) produces tha words of the Twelve Tables. Papinian (in Collatione Legum Roman, et Mosaica- rum, tit. iv. p. 204 [edit. Cannegieter, 1774]) styles this "patria potestas, lex re- gia." Ulpian (ad Sabin. 1. xxvi. in Pandect. 1. i. tit. vi. leg. 8) says, "Jus potesta- tis moribus receptum," and " Furiosus filium in potestate habebit." How sacred — or rather, how absurd ! b a The newly discovered Institutes of Gaius name one nation in which the same power was vested in the parent. " Nee me preterit Galatarum gentem credere, in potestate parent mn liberos esse." — M. b All this is in strict accordance with the Roman character. — W. A.D. 533-565.] FATHERS AND CHILDREN. 471 In the Forum, the senate, or the camp, the adult son of a So- man citizen enjoyed the public and private rights of a per- son: in his father's house he was a mere thing ; confound- ed by the laws with the movables, the cattle, and the slaves, whom the capricious master might alienate or destroy with- out being responsible to any earthly tribunal. The hand which bestowed the daily sustenance might resume the vol- untary gift, and whatever was acquired by the labor or fort- une of the son was immediately lost in the property of the father. His stolen goods (his oxen or his children) might be recovered by the same action of theft; 104 and if either had been guilty of a trespass, it was in his own option to compem sate the damage, or resign to the injured party the obnoxious animal. At the call of indigence or avarice, the master of a family could dispose of his children or his slaves. But the condition of the slave was far more advantageous, since he re- gained, by the first manumission, his alienated freedom : the son was again restored to his unnatural father ; he might be condemned to servitude a second and a third time, and it was not till after the third sale and deliverance 105 that he was en- franchised from the domestic power which had been so re- peatedly abused. According to his discretion, a father might chastise the real or imaginary faults of his children by stripes, by imprisonment, by exile, by sending them to the country to work in chains among the meanest of his servants. The majesty of a parent was armed with the power of life and death ; 106 and the examples of such bloody executions, which were sometimes praised and never punished, may be traced in the annals of Rome, beyond the times of Pompey and Au- gustus. Neither age, nor rank, nor the consular office, nor the honors of a triumph, could exempt the most illustrious 104 Pandect. 1. xlvii. tit. ii. leg. 14, No. 13 ; leg. 38, No. 1. Such was the deci- sion of Uipian and Paul. 105 The " trina mancipatio " is most clearly defined by Uipian (Fragment, x. p. 591,592, edit. Schulring) ; and best illustrated in the Antiquities of Heineccius. 106 By Justinian, the old law, the "jus necis" of the Roman father (Institute 1. iv. tit. ix. [viii.] No. 7), is reported and reprobated. Some legal vestiges are left in the Pandects (1. xliii. tit. xxix. leg. 3, No. 4) and the Collatio Legum Ro« xnanaium et Mosaicarum (tit. ii. No. 3, p. 189). 472 LIMITATIONS OF PARENTAL AUTHORITY. [Ch. XLIV. citizen from the bonds of filial subjection : 10T his own descend* ants were included in the family of their common ancestor; and the claims of adoption were not less sacred or less rigor- ous than those of nature. Without fear, though not without danger of abuse, the Roman legislators had reposed an un- bounded confidence in the sentiments of paternal love; and the oppression was tempered by the assurance that each gen- eration must succeed in its turn to the awful dignity of par- ent and master. The first limitation of paternal power is ascribed to the justice and humanity of ISTuma ; and the maid who, with his father's consent, had espoused a freeman, was pro- of the pater- tected from the disgrace of becoming the wife of a y ' slave. In the first ages, when the city was pressed and often famished by her Latin and Tuscan neighbors, the sale of children might be a frequent practice ; but as a Ro- man could not legally purchase the liberty of his fellow-citi- zen, the market must gradually fail, and the trade would be destroyed by the conquests of the republic. An imperfect right of property was at length communicated to sons; and the threefold distinction of jwqfectitious, adventitious, and professional was ascertained by the jurisprudence of the Code and Pandects. 108 Of all that proceeded from the father he imparted only the use, and reserved the absolute domin- ion , yet, if his goods were sold, the filial portion was accept- ed, by a favorable interpretation, from the demands of the creditors. In whatever accrued by marriage, gift, or collateral succession, the property was secured to the son ; but the fa- ther, unless he had been specially excluded, enjoyed the usu- 101 Except on public occasions and in the actual exercise of his office. "In publicis locis atque muneribus, atque actionibus patrum, jura cum filiorum qui in magistrate sunt, potestatibus collata iuterquiescere paullulum et connivere," etc. (Aul. Gellius, Noctes Attica?, ii. 2). The Lessons of the philosopher Taurus were justified by the old and memorable example of Fabius ; and we may contemplate the same story in the style of Livy (xxiv. 44) and the homely idiom of Claudius Quadrigarius the annalist. 108 See the gradual enlargement and security of the filial peculium in the Insti- tutes (1. ii. tit. ix.), the Pandects (1. xv. tit. i. ; 1. xli. tit. i.), and the Code (1. iv. tit. xxvi. xxvii.). A.D. 533-565.] LIMITATIONS OF PAEENTAL AUTHORITY. 473 fruct during his life. As a just and prudent reward of mili- tary virtue, the spoils of the enemy were acquired, possessed, and bequeathed by the soldier alone ; and the fair analogy was extended to the emoluments of any liberal profession, the salary of public service, and the sacred liberality of the emperor or the empress. The life of a citizen was less ex- posed than his fortune to the abuse of paternal power. Yet his life might be adverse to the interest or passions of an un- worthy father : the same crimes that flowed from the corrup- tion were more sensibly felt by the humanity of the Augus- tan 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 The Roman father, from the license of servile dominion, was reduced to the gravity and moderation of a judge. The presence and opinion of Augustus confirmed the sentence of exile pronounced against an intentional parricide by the domestic tribunal of Arius. Hadrian transported to an island the jealous parent, who, like a robber, had seized the opportunity of hunting to assassinate a youth, the incestuous lover of his step-mother. 110 A private jurisdiction is repug- nant to the spirit of monarchy ; the parent was again reduced from a judge to an accuser ; and the magistrates were enjoined by Severus Alexander to hear his complaints and execute his sentence. He could no longer take the life of a son without incurring the guilt and punishment of murder ; and the pains of parricide, from which he had been excepted by the Pom- peian law, were finally inflicted by the justice of Constan- tine. 111 The same protection was due to every period of ex- 109 The examples of Evixo and Arius are related by Seneca (de dementia, i. 14, 15), the former with horror, the latter with applause. 110 "Quod latronis magis quam patris jure eum interfecisset, nam patria potestag in pietate debet non in atrocitate consistere " (Marcian, Institut. 1. xiv. in Pandect. 1. xlviii. tit. ix. leg. 5). 111 The Pompeian and Cornelian laws de sicariis and parricidis, are repeated, or rather abridged, with the last supplements of Alexander Severus, Constantine, and Valentinian, in the Pandects (1. xlviii. tit. viii. ix.), and Code (1. ix. tit. xvi. xvii.). See likewise the Theodosian Code (1. ix. tit. xiv. xv.), with Godefroy's Commentary (torn. iii. p. 84-113), who pours a flood of ancient and modern learning over these penal laws. 474 HUSBANDS AND WIVES. [Ch. XLIV. istence ; and reason must applaud the humanity of Paulus for imputing the crime of murder to the father who strangles, or starves, or abandons his new-born infant, or exposes him in a public place to find the mercy which he himself had de- nied. But the exposition of children was the prevailing and stubborn vice of antiquity : it was sometimes prescribed, of- ten permitted, almost always practised with impunity by the nations who never entertained the Roman ideas of paternal power ; and the dramatic poets, who appeal to the human heart, represent with indifference a popular custom which was palliated by the motives of economy and compassion. 118 If the father could subdue his own feelings, he might escape, though not the censure, at least the chastisement, of the laws; and the Roman empire was stained with the blood of infants, till such murders were included by Valentinian and his col- leagues in the letter and spirit of the Cornelian law. The lessons of jurisprudence 113 and Christianity had been insuffi- cient to eradicate this inhuman practice, till their gentle in- fluence was fortified by the terrors of capital punishment. 114 Experience has proved that savages are the tyrants of the female sex, and that the condition of women is usually soften- Husbands e ^ by the refinements of social life. In the hope of and wives. a ro^gf; progeny, Lycurgus had delayed the season of marriage : it was fixed by Numa at the tender age of twelve 1,2 When the Chremes of Terence reproaches his wife for not obeying his or- ders and exposing their infant, he speaks like a father and a master, and silences the scruples of a foolish woman. See Apuleius (Metamorph. 1. x. p. 337, edit. Delphin.). 113 The opinion of the lawyers, and the discretion of the magistrates had intro- duced, in the time of Tacitus, some legal restraints, which might support his con- trast of the boni mores of the Germans to the bonaj leges alibi — that is to say, at Rome (de Moribus Germanorum, c. 19). Tertullian (ad Nationes, 1. i. c. 15) re- futes his own charges, and those of his brethren, against the heathen jurisprudence. 114 The wise and humane sentence of the civilian Paul (1. ii. Sententiarum in Pandect. 1. xxv. tit. iii. leg. 4) is represented as a mere moral precept by Gerard Noodt (Opp. torn. i. in Julius Faulus, p. 567-588, and Arnica Responsio, p. 591- 606), who maintains the opini on of Justus Lipsius (Opp. torn. ii. p. 409, ad Bel- gas, cent. i. epist. 85), and as a positive binding law by Bynkershoek (de Jure occidendi Liberos, Opp. torn. i. p. 318-310; Cura3 Secunda?, p. 391-127). In a learned but angry controversy the two friends deviated into the opposite extremes. A..D. 533-565.] MARRIAGE. 475 years, that the Roman husband might educate to his will a pure and obedient virgin. 116 According to the custom of an- tiquity, he bought his bride of her parents, and she ions rites fulfilled the coemption by purchasing, with three of marriage. . . M . .,.,., pieces of copper, a just introduction to Jus house and household deities. A sacrifice of fruits was offered by the pontiffs in the presence of ten witnesses : the contracting parties were seated on the same sheepskin ; they tasted a salt cake of far, or rice ; and this confarreation, w which denoted the ancient food of Italy, served as an emblem of their mystic union of mind and body. But this union on the side of the woman was rigorous and unequal; and she renounced the name and worship of her father's house, to embrace a new servitude, decorated only by the title of adoption : a fiction of the law, neither rational nor elegant, bestowed on the moth- er of a family 117 (her proper appellation) the strange characters of sister to her own children and of daughter to her husband or master, who was invested with the plenitude of paternal power. By his judgment or caprice her behavior was ap- proved, or censured, or chastised ; he exercised the jurisdic- tion of life and death ; and it was allowed that in the cases of adultery or drunkenness 118 the sentence might be properly in- flicted. She acquired and inherited for the sole profit of her lord ; and so clearly was woman defined, not as & person, but as a thing, that, if the original title were deficient, she might be claimed, like other movables, by the use and possession of 115 Dionys. Hal. 1. ii. p. 92, 93 ; Plutarch, in Numa, p. 140, 141. T6 uS>/ia ko.1 to ijQog KaQapov Kai oBiktov eirl rip yafiovvn ykveaQai. [Comp. Lycurg. cum Numa, torn. i. p. 310, edit. Reiske.] 116 Among the winter frumenta, the triticum, or bearded wheat; the siligo, or the unbearded; the far, adorea, oryza, whose description perfectly tallies with tha rice of Spain and Itidy. I adopt this identity on the credit of M. Paucton in his useful and laborious Metrologie (p. 517-529). 117 Aulus Gellius (Noctes Atticse, xviii. 6) gives a ridiculous definition of iElius Melissus : " Matronn, quae semel, materfamilias quae ssepius peperit," as porcetra and scropha in the sow kind. He then adds the genuine meaning, " Quae in ma- trimonium vel in manum convenisset." 118 It was enough to have tasted wine, or to have stolen the key of the cellar (Plin. Hist. Nat. xiv. 14). 476 THE MATRIMONIAL CONTRACT. [Ch. XLIV. an entire year. The inclination of the Roman husband dis- charged or withheld the conjugal debt, so scrupulously exact- ed by the Athenian and Jewish laws : 119 but as polygamy was unknown, he could never admit to his bed a fairer or more favored partner. After the Punic triumphs the matrons of Rome aspired to the common benefits of a free and opulent republic ; their wishes were gratified by the indulgence of fathers Freedom of ° . J . . & the matrimo- and lovers, and their ambition was unsuccessfully nial contract. ' . ion rm resisted by the gravity of Cato the Censor. They declined the solemnities of the old nuptials, defeated the an- nual prescription by an absence of three days, and, without losing their name or independence, subscribed the liberal and definite terms of a marriage contract. Of their private fort- unes, they communicated the use and secured the property : the estates of a wife could neither be alienated nor mortgaged by a prodigal husband; their mutual gifts were prohibited by the jealousy of the laws; and the misconduct of either party might afford, under another name, a future subject for an action of theft. To this loose and voluntary compact re- ligious and civil rites were no longer essential, and between persons of a similar rank the apparent community of life was allowed as sufficient evidence of their nuptials. The dignity of marriage was restored by the Christians, who derived all spiritual grace from the prayers of the faithful and the bene- diction of the priest or bishop. The origin, validity, and du- ties of the holy institution were regulated by the tradition of 119 Solon requires three payments per month. By the Misna, a daily debt was imposed on an idle, vigorous, young husband; twice a week on a citizen ; once on a peasant ; once in thirty days on a camel-driver ; once in six months on a sea- man. But the student or doctor was free from tribute ; and no wife, if she re- ceived a weekly sustenance, could sue for a divorce : for one week a vow of ab- stinence was allowed. Polygamy divided, without multiplying, the duties of the husband (Selden, Uxor Ebraica, 1. iii. c. 6, in his works, vol. ii. p. 717-720). 120 On the Oppian law we may hear the mitigating speech of Valerius Flaccus and the severe censorial oration of the elder Cato (Li v. xxxiv. 1-8). But we shall rather hear the polished historian of the eighth, than the rough orators of the sixth century of Rome. The principles, and even the style, of Cato are more accu- rately preserved by Aulus Gellius (x. 23). a.d. 533-565.] DIVORCE. 4?7 the synagogue, the precepts of the Gospel, and the canons of general or provincial synods ; 131 and the conscience of the Christians was awed by the decrees and censures of their ec- clesiastical rulers. Yet the magistrates of Justinian were not subject to the authority of the Church : the emperor consulted the unbelieving civilians of antiquity ; and the choice of mat- rimonial laws in the Code and Pandects is directed by the earthly motives of justice, policy, and the natural freedom of both sexes. 122 Besides the agreement of the parties, the essence of every rational contract, the Roman marriage required the previous , approbation of the parents. A father mi^ht be Liberty and ri r ° ■ . abuse of di- iorced bv some recent laws to supply the wants of vorce. " .... a mature daughter, but even his insanity was not generally allowed to supersede the necessity of his consent. The causes of the dissolution of matrimony have varied among the Romans; 123 but the most solemn sacrament, the confarrea- tion itself, might always be done away by rites of a contrary tendency. In the first ages the father of a family might sell his children, and his wife was reckoned in the number of his children : the domestic judge might pronounce the death of the offender, or his mercy might expel her from his bed and house ; but the slavery of the wretched female was hopeless 121 For the system of Jewish and Catholic matrimony, see Selden (Uxor Ebrai- ca, Opp. vol. ii. p. 529-860), Bingham (Christian Antiquities, 1. xxii.), and Char- don (Hist, des Sacremens, torn. vi.). 122 The civil laws of marriage are exposed in the Institutes (1. i. tit. x.), the Pandects (1. xxiii. xxiv. xxv.), and the Code (1. v.) ; but as the title " De ritu nup- tiarum" is yet imperfect, we are obliged to explore the fragments of Ulpian (tit. ix. p. 590, 591), and the Collatio Legum Mosaicarum (tit. xvi. p. 790, 791) with the notes of Pithaens and Schulting [Jurispr. Ante-Justin.]. They find, in the Com- mentary of Servius (on the first Georgic and the fourth iEneid), two curious pas, sages. 123 According to Plutarch (p. 57 [Rom. c. 22]) Romulus allowed only three grounds of a divorce — drunkenness, 3 adultery, and false keys. Otherwise, the husband who abused his supremacy forfeited half his goods to the wife, and half to the goddess Ceres, and offered a sacrifice (with the remainder ?) to the terres- trial deities. This strange law was either imaginary or transient. * Plutarch mentions poisoning, not drunkenness — ktrl b 132 The principles of the Roman jurisprudence are exposed by Justinian (Insti- tut. 1. i. tit. x.) ; and the laws and manners of the different nations of antiquity concerning forbidden degrees, etc., are copiously explained by Dr. Taylor in hia Elements of Civil Law (p. 108, 314-339), a work of amusing though various read- ing, but which cannot be praised for philosophical precision. * In consequence of the marriage of the Emperor Claudius with his niece Agrip- pina, the daughter of his brother Germanicus, it became lawful for a man to mar- ry the daughter of his brother; but it continued unlawful for a man to marry the daughter of his sister. Gaius, 1. i. § 62. — S. b But these had nothing to do with the question of a divorce made by judicial c •tthority. — Hugo. 482 CONCUBINES AND BASTARDS. [Ch. XLIV. ties of blood. According to the proud maxims of the repub- lic, a legal marriage could only be contracted by free citizens ; an honorable, at least an ingenuous, birth was required for the spouse of a senator; but the blood of kings could never mingle in legitimate nuptials with the blood of a Roman; and the name of Stranger degraded Cleopatra and Berenice 1 " to live the concubines of Mark Antony and Titus. 134 This appellation, indeed, so injurious to the majesty, cannot with- out indulgence be applied to the manners, of these Oriental queens. A concubine, in the strict sense of the civilians, wa3 a woman of servile or Plebeian extraction, the sole and faith- ful companion of a Eoman citizen, who continued in a state of celibacy. Her modest station, below the honors of a wife, above the infamy of a prostitute, was acknowledged and ap- proved by the laws : from the age of Augustus to the tenth century, the use of this secondary marriage prevailed both in the "West and East; and the humble virtues of a concubine were often preferred to the pomp and insolence of a noble matron. In this connection the two Antonines, the best of princes and of men, enjoyed the comforts of domestic love ; the example was imitated by many citizens impatient of celi- bacy, but regardful of their families. If at any time they desired to legitimate their natural children, the conversion was instantly performed by the celebration of their nuptials with a partner whose fruitfulness and fidelity they had al- ready tried. a By this epithet of natural the offspring of the concubine were distinguished from the spurious blood of adultery, prostitution, and incest, to whom Justinian reluc- 133 When her father Agrippa died (a.d. 44), Berenice was sixteen years of age (Joseph, torn. i. Antiquit. Judaic. I. xix. c. 9, p. 952, edit. Havercamp.). She was therefore above fifty years old when Titns (a.d. 79) ; 'invitus invitam invisit." This date would not have adorned the tragedy or pastoral of the tender Racine. 134 The "JDgyptia conjnx" of Virgil (iEneid. viii. 68S) seems to be numbered among the monsters who warred with Mark Antony against Augustus, the senate, and the gods of Italy. 1 The edict of Constantine first conferred this right : for Augustus had prohib- ited the taking as a concubine a woman who might be taken as a wife ; and if mar- riage took place afterwards, this marriage made no change in the rights of the children born before it : recourse was then had to adoption, properly called arro- gation. — G. A.D. 533-565.] GUARDIANS AND WARDS. 483 tantly grants the necessary aliments of life ; and these natu- ral children alone were capable of succeeding to a sixth part of the 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 a citizen. The outcasts of every family were adopted, without reproach, as the children of the State. 135 a The relation of guardian and ward, or, in Roman words, of tutor and pupil, which covers so many titles of the Institutes Guardians an ^ Pandects, 138 is of a very simple and uniform and wards. na ture. The person and property of an orphan must always be trusted to the custody of some discreet friend. If the deceased father had not signified his choice, the agnats, or paternal kindred of the nearest degree, were compelled to act as the natural guardians : the Athenians were apprehen- sive of exposing the infant to the power of those most inter- ested in his death ; but an axiom of Roman jurisprudence has pronounced that the charge of tutelage should constantly at- 135 The humble but legal rights of concubines and natural children are stated in the Institutes (1. i. tit. x.), the Pandects (1. i. tit. vii.), the Code (1. v. tit. xxv.), and the Novels (Ixxiv. Ixxxix.). The researches of Heineccius and Giannone (ad Le- gem Juliam et Papiam-Poppasam, c. iv. p. 164-175, Opere Posthume, p. 108-158) illustrate this interesting and domestic subject. 136 See the article of guardians and wards in the Institutes (1. i. tit. xiii.-xxvi.}, the Pandects (1. xxvi. xxvii.), and the Code (1. v. tit. xxviji.-lxx.). a See, however, the two fragments of laws in the newly discovered extracts from the Theodosian Code, published by M. A. Peyron, at Turin. By the first law of Constantine, the legitimate offspring could alone inherit: where there were no near legitimate relatives, the inheritance went to the fiscus. The son of a certain Licinianus, who had inherited his father's property under the supposition that he was legitimate, and had been promoted to a place of dignity, was to be degraded, his property confiscated, himself punished with stripes and imprisonment. By the second, all persons, even of the highest rank, senators, perfect issimi, decemvirs, were to be declared infamous, and out of the protection of the Roman law, if born "ex ancilla, vel ancillas filia, vel liberta, vel libertae filia\ sive Romana facta, seu Latina, vel scasnicaj filia, vel ex tabernaria, vel ex tabernaiiaj filia, vel humili vel abjecta, vel lenonis, aut arenarii (ilia, vel quaj mercimoniis publicis praefuit." What- ever a fond father had conferred on such children was revoked, and either restored to the legitimate children, or confiscated to the State ; the mothers who were guilty of thus poisoning the minds of the fathers were to be put to the torture (" tormen- tis subjici jubemus "). The unfortunate son of Licinianus, it appears from this second law, having fled, had been taken, and was ordered to be kept in chains to work in the Gynajceum at Carthage. Cod. Theodos. ab A. Peyron, 87-90. — M. 484 GUARDIANS AND WARDS. [Ch. XLIV. tend the emolument of succession. If the choice of the father and the line of consanguinity afforded no efficient guardian, the failure was supplied by the nomination of the prsetor of the city or the president of the province ; but the person whom they named to this public office might be legally excused by insanity or blindness, by ignorance or inability, by previous enmity or adverse interest, by the number of children or guardianships with which he was already burdened, and by the immunities which were granted to the useful labors of magistrates, lawyers, physicians, and professors. Till the in- fant could speak and think, he was represented by the tutor, whose authority was finally determined by the age of puber- ty/ "Without his consent, no act of the pupil could bind him- self to his own prejudice, though it might oblige others for his personal benefit. It is needless to observe that the tutor often gave security, and always rendered an account ; and that the want of diligence or integrity exposed him to a civil and almost criminal action for the violation of his sacred trust. The age of puberty had been rashly fixed by the ci- vilians at fourteen ; b but as 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 his own inex- perience and headstrong passions. Such a trustee had been first instituted by the praetor to save a family from the blind liavoc of a prodigal or madman * Gibbon's ibeory of pupilage does not seem correct. The tutor certainly did not "represent " the pupillus. His office is always described as "augere auctori- tatem, interponere, anctor fieri, " i. e. , to fill out or complete the defective legal per- sonality of the ward. All formal words essential to a legal transaction had to be pronounced by the ward himself, and then the tutor, by his assent, added the ani- mus, the intention, of which the child was not capable. Hence it is additionally inaccurate to describe the tutor as representing the ward "till he could speak." The infant, the child incapable of speech, could do nothing either with or without his tutor. — S. b It is probable that the doctrine attributed to the civilians generally by Gibbon was quite unknown to the older law. As the pupillus was in theory a defective paterfamilias, it is more than likely that the tutelage ceased at the epoch of actual physical manhood. We learn from Gaius (1. i. § 198) and Ulpian (Reg. 11, 28) that the Sabinians still maintained this view, while the Proculeians were in favor of the age of puberty being fixed at fourteen. It was not, however, till the legis- lation of Justinian that the question was finally settled in favor of the latter opin- ion. In the case of females the age of puberty was fixed at twelve, from the ear- liest times. Institut. 1. i. tit. 22.— S. A.D. 533-565.] THE INSTITUTES : OF THINGS." 485 pelled by the laws to solicit the same protection to give valid- ity to his acts till he accomplished the full period of twen- ty-five years. a "Women were condemned to the perpetual tu- telage of parents, husbands, or guardians ; a sex created to please and obey was never supposed to have attained the age of reason and experience Such at least was the stern and haughty spirit of the anicent law, which had been insensibly mollified before the time of Justinian. II. The original right of property can only be justified by the accident or merit of prior occupancy ; and on this foun- n 0p dation it is wisely established by the philosophy of Ri"iu of tne civilians. 137 The savage who hollows a tree, in- property. ger f. s a gjj ar p gtone into a wooden handle, or applies a string to an elastic branch, becomes in a state of nature the just proprietor of the canoe, the bow, or the hatchet. The materials were common to all ; the new form, the produce of his time and simple industry, belongs solely to himself. His hungry brethren cannot, without a sense of their own injus- tice, extort from the hunter the game of the forest overtaken or slain by his personal strength and dexterity. If his provi- 131 Institut. 1. ii. tit. i. ii. Compare the pure and precise reasoning of Cains and Heineccius (1. ii. tit. i. p. 69-91) with the loose prolixity of Theophilus (p. 207-265). The opinions of Ulpian are preserved in the Pandects (1. i. tit. viii. leg. 41, No. 1). a There has been considerable dispute among modern writers respecting the curator, but the following seems the most probable and consistent account of the matter : The law of the Twelve Tables provided for the appointment of curators in the case of madmen and prodigals, but did not make any provision for the pro- tection of young persons who had attained the age of puberty. The first enact- ment on the subject of which we have any knowledge is the lex Plcetoria (not Lcetoria, as it is often written), passed before the time of Plautus (Pseud, i. 3, 69), which, fixing the age of the perfecta setas at twenty-five years, provided that any one defrauding a person under that age should be liable to a criminal prosecution and to infamy (Cic. de Nat. Deor. iii. 30 ; de Off. iii. 15) ; and probably permitted the appointment of curators in cases where a good reason for the appointment was given. The praetor subsequently provided a remedy, which was a great protection to persons under twenty-five years who came before him, by directing, in all cases of fraud, a restitutio in integrum ; that is, that the applicant should be placed ex- actly in the position in which he would have been had not the fraud been prac- tised against him. Finally, Marcus Antoninus ordered that curators should be given in all cases, without inquiry, on the application of the pubes. The chief authority on the subject is Julius Capitolinus, in Vita M. Aurel. Anton, c. 10, who says : " De curatoribus vero, quum ante non nisi ex lege Lastoria, vel propter las- civiam vel propter dementiam, darentur ita statuit (M. Antoninus) ut omnes adul- ti curatorem acciperent non redditis causis." Sandars, The Institutes of Justiu° ian, p. 157 ; see also Smith's Diet, of Antiq. p. 374 seri., 2d edit, — S. 48G EIGHT OF PROPERTY. [Ch. XLIT. dent care preserves aad multiplies the tame animals, whose nature is tractable to the arts of education, he acquires a per- petual title to the use and service of their numerous progeny, which derives its existence from him alone. If he encloses and cultivates a field for their sustenance and his own, a bar- ren waste is converted into a fertile soil ; the seed, the ma- nure, the labor, create a new value, and the rewards of harvest are painfully earned by the fatigues of the revolving year. In the successive states of society, the hunter, the shepherd, the husbandman, may defend their possessions by two reasons which forcibly appeal to the feelings of the human mind: that whatever they enjoy is the fruit of their own industry ; and that every man who envies their felicitj- may purchase similar acquisitions by the exercise of similar diligence. Such, in truth, may be the freedom and plenty of a small coLny cast on a fruitful island. But the colony multiplies, while the space still continues the same ; the common rights, the equal inheritance of mankind, are engrossed by the bold and crafty ; each field and forest is circumscribed by the landmarks of a jealous master ; and it is the peculiar praise of the Roman jurisprudence that it asserts the claim of the first occupant to the wild animals of the earth, the air, and the waters. In the progress from primitive equity to final injustice, the steps are silent, the shades are almost impercep- tible, and the absolute monopoly is guarded by positive laws and artificial reason. The active, insatiate principle of self- love can alone supply the arts of life and the wages of indus- try ; and as soon as civil government and exclusive property have been introduced, they become necessary to the existence of the human race. Except in the singular institutions of Sparta, the wisest legislators have disapproved an agrarian law as a false and dangerous innovation. Among the Ro- mans, the enormous disproportion of wealth surmounted the ideal restraints of a doubtful tradition and an obsolete statute — a tradition that the poorest follower of Romulus had been endowed with the perpetual inheritance of two jugera; iaa a 188 The heredium of the first Romans is defined by Varro (De Re Rustic!* L L C. *.D. 533-565.] RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 487 statute which confined the richest citizen to the measure of five hundred jugera, or three hundred and twelve acres of land. a The original territory of Rome consisted only of some miles of wood and meadow along the banks of the Ti- ber; and domestic exchange could add nothing to the na- tional stock. But the goods of an alien or enemy were law- fully exposed to the first hostile occupier ; the city was en- riched by the profitable trade of war ; and the blood of her sons was the only price that was paid for the Yolscian sheep, the slaves of Britain, or the gems and gold of Asiatic king- doms. In the language of ancient jurisprudence, which was corrupted and forgotten before the age of Justinian, these spoils were distinguished by the name of manc&ps or manci- jpium, taken with the hand ; and whenever they were sold or emancipated, the purchaser required some assurance that they had been the property of an enemy, and not of a fellow-citi- zen. 138 A citizen could only forfeit his rights by apparent dereliction, and such dereliction of a valuable interest could not easily be presumed. Yet, according to the Twelve Ta- bles, a prescription of one year for movables, and of two years for immovables, abolished the claim of the ancient master, if the actual possessor had acquired them by a fair transaction from the person whom he believed to be the law- ful proprietor. 140 Such conscientious injustice, without any ii. p. 141, c. x. p. 160, 161, edit. Gesner), an J clouded by Pliny's declamation (Hist. Natur. xviii. 2). A just and learned comment is given in the Administration des Terres cliez les Romains (p. 12-66). 139 he fathers are unanimous (Barbeyrac, Morale des Peres, p. 144, etc.): Cyp- rian, Lactantius, Basil, Chrysostom (see his frivolous arguments in Noodt, 1. i. c. 7, p. 188), Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, Jerom, Augustin, and a host of councils and casuists. 167 Cato, Seneca, Plutarch, have loudly condemned the practice or abuse of usu- ry. According to the etymology of fcenus and tokoq, the principal is supposed to generate the interest : a breed of barren metal, exclaims Shakspeare — and tha stage is the echo of the public voice. a The real nature of the fcenus unciarium has been proved : it amounted in a year of twelve 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 the conjectures of Niebuhr, Hist. Rom. torn. ii. p. 431.— W. Compare a very clear account of this question in the appendix to Mr. Travera Twiss's Epitome of Niebuhr, vol. ii. p. 257. — M. a.d. 533-565.] INJUEIES. 501 quires a personal right and a legitimate action. If the prop- erty of another be intrusted to our care, the requi' site degree of care may rise and fall according to the benefit which we derive from such temporary possession ; we are seldom made responsible for inevitable accident, but the consequences of a voluntary fault must always be imputed to the author. 108 A Roman pursued and recovered his stolen goods by a civil action of theft; they might pass through a succession of pure and innocent hands, but nothing less than a prescription of thirty years could extinguish his original claim. They were restored by the sentence of the praetor, and the injury was compensated by double, or threefold, or even quadruple damages, as the deed had been perpetrated by secret fraud or open rapine, as the robber had been surprised in the fact, or detected by a subsequent research. The Aqui- lian law 169 defended the living property of a citizen, his slaves and cattle, from the stroke of malice or negligence : the high- est price was allowed that could be ascribed to the domes- tic animal at any moment of the year preceding his death ; a similar latitude of thirty days was granted on the destruction of any other valuable effects. A personal injury is blunted or sharpened by the manners of the times and the sensibility of the individual : the pain or the disgrace of a word or blow cannot easily be appreciated by a pecuniary equivalent. The rude jurisprudence of the decemvirs had confounded all hasty insults, which did not amount to the fracture of a limb, by condemning the aggressor to the common penalty of twenty- five asses. But the same denomination of money was re- duced, in three centuries, from a pound to the weight of half an ounce ; and the insolence of a wealthy Roman indulged liimself in the cheap amusement of breaking and satisfying i the law of the Twelve Tables. Veratius ran through the ; 168 Sir William Jones has given an ingenious and rational Essay on the Law of: Bailment (London, 1781, p. 127, in 8vo). He is perhaps the only lawyer equal ]y conversant with the year-books of Westminster, the Commentaries of Ulpian, the Attic pleadings of Isaeus, and the sentences of Arabian and Persian cadhis. 169 Noodt (Opp. torn. i. p. 137-172) has composed s separate treatise, ad L» gem Aquiliam (Pandect. 1. ix. tit. iL). 502 SEVERITY OF THE TWELVE TABLES. [Ch. XLTV. streets striking on the face the inoffensive passengers, and hia attendant purse-bearer immediately silenced their clamors by the legal tender of twenty -five pieces of copper, about the value of one shilling. 170 The equity of the praetors examined and estimated the distinct merits of each particular complaint. In the adjudication of civil damages, the magistrate assumed a right to consider the various circumstances of time and place, of age and dignity, which may aggravate the shame and sufferings of the injured person ; but if h@ admitted the idea of a fine, a punishment, an example, he invaded the province, though perhaps he supplied the defects, of the criminal law. The execution of the Alban dictator, who was dismem- bered by eight horses, is represented by Livy as the first and the last instance of Roman cruelty in the punish- Punishments. . •_ _ ' ment of the most atrocious crimes. ±sut this act of justice or revenge was inflicted on a foreign enemy in the heat of victory, and at the command of a single man. The Twelve Tables afford a more decisive proof of the Seventy of .-,... , „ , . , the Twelve national spirit, since they were framed by the wisest of the senate and accepted by the free voices of the people ; yet these laws, like the statutes of Draco,"* are written in characters of blood. 1 " They approve the in- human and unequal 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, unless the offender can redeem his pardon by a fine of three hundred pounds of copper. The decem- virs distributed with much liberality the slighter chastise- 170 Aulns Gellius (Noct. Attic, xx. 1 [torn. ii. p. 284]) borrowed this story from the Commentaries of Q. Labeo on the Twelve Tables. 111 The narrative of Livy (i. 28) is weighty and solemn. " At tu dictis, Al- bane, maneres," is a harsh reflection, unworthy of Virgil's humanity (iEneid. viii. 643). Heyne, with his usual good taste, observes that the subject was too horrid for the shield of iEneas (torn. iii. p. 229). 172 The age of Draco (Olympiad xxxix. 1) is fixed by Sir John Marsham (Ca- non Chronicus, p. 593-596) and Corsini (Fasti Attici, torn. iii. p. 62). Eor his laws, see the writers on the government of Athens, Sigonius, Meursius, Potter, etc. 178 The seventh, " de delictis," of the Twelve Tables is delineated by Gravina (Opp. p. 292, 293, with a commentary, p. 214-230). Aulus Gellius (xx. 1) and the Collatio Legum Mosaicarum et Komanarum afford much original information. a.d. 533-565.] SEVERITY OF THE TWELVE TABLES. 503 ments of flagellation and servitude ; and nine crimes of a very different complexion are adjudged worthy of death. 1. Any act of treason against the State, or of correspondence with the public enemy. The mode of execution was pain- ful and ignominious : the head of the degenerate Roman was shrouded in a veil, his hands were tied behind his back, and, after he had been scourged by the lictor, he was suspended in the midst of the Forum on a cross, or inauspicious tree. 2. Nocturnal meetings in the city, whatever might be the pre- tence — of pleasure, or religion, or the public good. 3. The murder of a citizen ; for which the common feelings of man- kind demand the blood of the murderer. Poison is still more odious than the sword or dagger; and we are surprised to discover, in two flagitious events, how early such subtle wick- edness had infected the simplicity of the republic and the chaste virtues of the Roman matrons. 174 The parricide, who violated the duties of nature and gratitude, was cast into the river or the sea, inclosed in a sack ; and a cock, a viper, a dog, and a monkey were successively added as the most suit- able companions. 175 Italy produces no monkeys ; but the want could never be felt till the middle of the sixth century first revealed the guilt of a parricide. 178 4. The malice of an in- cendiary. After the previous ceremony of whipping, he him- m Livy mentions two remarkable and flagitious eras, of 3000 persons accused, and of 190 noble matrons convicted, of the crime of poisoning (xl. 43 ; viii. 18). Mr. Hume discriminates the ages of private and public virtue (Essays, vol. i. p. 22, 23). I would rather say that such ebullitions of mischief (as in France in the year 1680) are accidents and prodigies which leave no marks on the manners of a nation. 115 The Twelve Tables and Cicero (pro Roscio Amerino, c. 25, 26) are content with the sack; Seneca (Excerpt. Controvers. v. 4) adorns it with serpents ; Juve- nal pities the guiltless monkey (innoxia simia — Satir. xiii. 156). Adrian (apud Dositheum Magistrum, 1. iii. c. 16, p. 874-876, with Schulting's Note), Modestinus (Pandect, xlviii. tit. ix. leg. 9), Constantine (Cod. 1. ix. tit. xvii.), and Justinian ] (Institut. 1. iv. tit. xviii.), enumerate all the companions of the parricide. But this fanciful execution was simplified in practice. "Hodie tamen vivi exuruntur vel ad bestias dantur " (Paul. Sentent. Recept. 1. v. tit. xxiv. p. 512, edit. Schulting [Jurispr. Ante-Justin]). 1,6 The first parricide at Rome was L. Ostius, after the second Punic war I (Plutarch in Romulo [c. 22], torn. i. p. 57). During the Ciinbric, P. Malleolus '■■ was guilty of the first matricide (Liv. Epitom. 1. lxviii.). 504 SEVERITY OF THE TWELVE TABLES. [Ch. XLTV. self was delivered to the flames ; and in this example alone our reason is tempted to applaud the justice of retaliation. 5, Judicial perjury. The corrupt or malicious witness was thrown headlong from the Tarpeian rock to expiate his false- hood, which was rendered still more fatal by the severity of the penal laws and the deficiency of written evidence. 6. The corruption of a judge, who accepted bribes to pro- nounce an iniquitous sentence. 7. Libels and satires, whose rude strains sometimes disturbed the peace of an illiterate city. The author was beaten with clubs, a worthy chastise- ment ; but it is not certain that he was left to expire under the blows 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 syl- van deities were less implacable, and the extirpation of a more valuable tree was compensated by the moderate fine of twen- ty-five pounds of copper. 9. Magical incantations; which had power, in the opinion of the Latian shepherds, to exhaust the strength of an enemy, to extinguish his life, and to re- move from their seats his deep-rooted plantations. The cru- elty of the Twelve Tables against insolvent debtors still re- mains to be told ; and I shall dare to prefer the literal sense of antiquity to the specious refinements of modern criti- cism. 178 * After the judicial proof or confession of the debt, thirty days of grace were allowed before a Roman was deliv- ered into the power of his fellow -citizen. In this private prison twelve ounces of rice were his daily food ; he might be bound with a chain of fifteen pounds' weight; and his m Horace talks of the formidine fustis (1. ii. Epist. i. 154), but Cicero (De Re- publica, 1. iv. apud Augustin. de Civitat. Dei, ix. 6, in Fragment. Philosoph. torn, iii. p. 393, edit. Olivet) affirms that the decemvirs made libels a capital offence : "Cum perpaucas res cnpite sanxissent— perpaucas /" 118 Bynkershoek (Observat. Juris Rom. 1. i. c. 1, in Opp. torn. 5. p. 9, 10, 11) laborg to prove that the creditors divided not the body, but the price, of the insolvent debtor. Yet his interpretation is one perpetual harsh metaphor ; nor can he sur- mount the Koman authorities of Quintilian, Caacilius, Favonius, and Tertullian. See Aulus Geliius, Noct. Attic, xx. 1 [torn. ii. p. 285], * Hugo (Histoire du Droit Romain, torn. i. p. 234) concurs with Gibbon. Sea Niebuhr, vol. ii. p. 313.— Ms A.D.533-5G5.] ABOLITION OH OBLIVION OF PENAL LAWS. 505 misery was thrice exposed in the market-place, to solicit the compassion of his friends and countrymen. At the expira- tion of sixty days the debt was discharged by the loss of lib- erty or life ; the insolvent debtor was either put to death, or sold in foreign slavery beyond the Tiber : but if several cred- itors were alike obstinate and unrelenting, they might legally dismember his body, and satiate their revenge by this horrid partition. The advocates for this savage law have insisted that it must strongly operate in deterring idleness and fraud from contracting debts which they were unable to discharge; but experience would dissipate this salutary terror, by prov- ing that no creditor could be found to exact this unprofita- ble penalty of life or limb. As the manners of Rome were insensibly polished, the criminal code of the decemvirs was abolished by the humanity of accusers, witnesses, and judges ; and impunity became the consequence of immoderate rigor. The Porcian and Yalerian laws prohibited the magistrates from inflicting on a free citizen any capital, or even corporal, punishment ; and the obsolete statutes of blood were artfully, and perhaps truly, ascribed to the spirit, not of patrician, but of regal, tyranny. In the absence of penal laws and the insufficiency of civil actions, the peace and justice of the city were imperfectly maintained by the private jurisdiction of the citi- obiivion of zens. The malefactors who replenish our jails are the outcasts of society, and the crimes for which they suffer may be commonly ascribed to ignorance, poverty, and brutal appetite. For the perpetration of similar enormi- ties, a vile Plebeian might claim and abuse the sacred charac- ter of a member of the republic ; but on the proof or suspi- cion of guilt the slave or the stranger was nailed to a cross, and this strict and summary justice might be exercised with- out restraint over the greatest part of the populace of Rome. Each family contained a domestic tribunal, which was not confined, like that of the prgetor, to the cognizance of exter- nal actions: virtuous principles and habits were inculcated by the discipline of education, and the Roman father was ac- countable to the State for the manners of his children, since 506 ABOLITION OR OBLIVION OF PENAL LAWS. [Ch. XLIV. lie disposed without appeal of their life, their liberty, and their inheritance. In some pressing emergencies, the citizen was authorized to avenge his private or public wrongs. The consent of the Jewish, the Athenian, and the Eoman laws ap- proved the slaughter of the nocturnal thief ; though in open daylight a robber could not be slain without some previous evidence of danger and complaint. Whoever surprised an adulterer in his nuptial bed might freely exercise his re- venge ; 179 the most bloody or wanton outrage was excused by the provocation ; 180 nor was it before the reign of Augustus that the husband was reduced to weigh the rank of the of- fender, or that the parent was condemned to sacrifice his daughter with her guilty seducer. After the expulsion of the kings, the ambitious Roman who should dare to assume their title or imitate their tyranny was devoted to the infernal gods : each of his fellow-citizens was armed with the sword of justice ; and the act of Brutus, however repugnant to grati- tude or prudence, had been already sanctified by the judg- ment 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 to the end of the Punic wars, the city was never disturbed by sedition, and 179 The first speech of Lysias (Eeiske, Orator. Graec. torn. v. p. 2-48) is in de- fence of a husband who had killed the adulterer. The rights of husbands and fa- thers at Rome and Athens are discussed with much learning by Dr. Taylor (Lec- tiones Lysiacae, c. xi. in Reiske, torn. vi. p. 301-308). 180 See Casaubon ad Athenaeum, 1. i. c. 5, p. 19. "Percurrent raphanique mu- gilesque " (Catull. [xv. 18] p. 41, 42, edit. Vossian.). " Hunc mugilis intrat " (Ju- venal. Satir. x. 317). "Hunc. perminxere calones" (Horat. 1. i. Satir. ii. 44). ' ' Familiae stuprandum dedit [objecit] * * * fraudi non fuit " (Val. Maxim. 1. vi. c. 1, No. 13). 181 This law is noticed by Livy (ii. 8) and Plutarch (in Publicola [c. 12], torn. i. p. 187), and it fully justifies the public opinion on the death of Caesar, which Sue- tonius could publish under the imperial government. "Jure caesus existimatur" (in Julio, c. 76). Read the letters that passed between Cicero and Matius a few months after the ides of March (ad Fam. xi. 27, 28). 183 Ilpwroi Si AQqvaioi tov te ffifypov KarkQivTO. Thucydid. 1. i. c. 6. The his- torian who considers this circumstance as the test of civilization would disdain tha barbarism of a European court. a.d. 533-565.] CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS. 507 rarely polluted with atrocious crimes. The failure of penal laws was more sensibly felt when every vice was inflamed by faction at home and dominion abroad. In the time of Cicero each private citizen enjoyed the privilege of anarchy — each minister of the republic was exalted to the temptations of regal power, and their virtues are entitled to the warmest praise as the spontaneous fruits of nature or philosophy. Af- ter a triennial indulgence of lust, rapine, and cruelty, Yerres, the tyrant of Sicily, could only be sued for the pecuniary restitution of three hundred thousand pounds sterling ; and such was the temper of the laws, the judges, and perhaps the accuser himself, 183 that, on refunding a thirteenth part of his plunder, Yerres could retire to an easy and luxurious exile. 184 The first imperfect attempt to restore the proportion of crimes and punishments was made by the dictator Sylla, who, in the midst of his sanguinary triumph, aspired to capital pun- restrain the license rather than to oppress the lib- erty of the Romans. He gloried in the arbitrary proscription of four thousand seven hundred citizens. 186 But, in the character of a legislator, he respected the prejudices of the times ; and instead of pronouncing a sentence of death against the robber or assassin, the general who betrayed an army or the magistrate who ruined a province, Sylla was con- tent to aggravate the pecuniary damages by the penalty of exile, or, in more constitutional language, by the interdiction of fire and water. The Cornelian, and afterwards the Pom- 183 He first rated at millies (£800,000) the damages of Sicily (Divinatio in Csecilium, c. 5), which he afterwards reduced to quadringenties (£320,000 — 1 Actio in Verrem, c. 18), and was finally content with tricies (£24,000). Plutarch (in Ciceron. [c. 8] torn. iii. p. 1584) has not dissembled the popular suspicion and report. 184 Verres lived near thirty years after his trial, till the second triumvirate, when he was proscribed by the taste of Mark Antony for the sake of his Corinthian plate (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiv. 3). 185 Such is the number assigned by Valerius Maximus (1. ix. c. 2, No. 1). Flo- ras (iii. 21) distinguishes 2000 senators and knights. Appian (De Bell. Civil. 1. i. c. 95, torn. ii. p. 133, edit. Schweighiiiiser) more accurately computes forty victims of the senatorian rank and 1600 of the equestrian census or order. 508 CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS. [Ch. XLTV. peian and Julian laws, introduced a new system of criminal jurisprudence ; 188 and the emperors, from Augustus to Justin- ian, disguised their increasing rigor under the names of the original authors. But the invention and frequent use of ex- traordinary jpains proceeded from the desire to extend and conceal the progress of despotism. In the condemnation of illustrious Romans, the senate was always prepared to con- found, at the will of their masters, the judicial and legislative powers. It was the duty of the governors to maintain the peace of their province by the arbitrary and rigid administra- tion of justice ; the freedom of the city evaporated in the ex- tent of empire, and the Spanish malefactor who claimed the privilege of a Roman was elevated by the command of Galba on a fairer and more lofty cross. 187 Occasional rescripts issued from the throne to decide the questions which, by their nov- elty or importance, appeared to surpass the authority and dis- cernment of a proconsul. Transportation and beheading were reserved for honorable persons ; meaner criminals were either hanged, or burned, or buried in the mines, or exposed to the wild beasts of the amphitheatre. Armed robbers were pur- sued and extirpated as the enemies of society; the driving away horses or cattle was made a capital offence ; 188 but simple theft was uniformly considered as a mere civil and private injury. The degrees of guilt and the modes of punishment were too often determined by the discretion of the rulers, and 186 For the penal laws (Leges Cornelise, Pompeias, Juliae, of Sylla, Pompey, and the Cajsars), see the sentences of Paulus (I. iv. tit. xviii. -xxx. p. 497-528, edit. Schulting), the Gregorian Code (Fragment. 1. xix. p. 705, 706, in Schulting), the Collatio Legum Mosaicarura et Romanarum (tit. i.-xv.), the Theodosian Code (1. ix.), the Code of Justinian (1. ix.), the Pandects (xlviii.), the Institutes (1. m tit. xviii.), and the Greek version of Theophilus (p. 917-926). 181 It was a guardian who had poisoned his ward. The crime was atrocious : yet the punishment is reckoned by Suetonius (c. 9) among the acts in which Galba showed himself "acer, vehemens, et in delictis coercendis immodicus." 188 The abactores or abigeatores, who drove one horse, or two mares or oxen, or five hogs, or ten goats, were subject to capital punishment (Paul. Sentent. Re- cept. 1. iv. tit. xviii. p. 497, 498). Hadrian (ad Concil. Baeticse), most severe where the offence was most frequent, condensns the criminals, "ad gladium, ludi damna- tionem " (Ulpian, de Officio Proconsulis, 1. viii. in Collatione Legum Mosaic, et Rom. tit. xi. p. 236 [edit. Cannegieter, 1774]). A.D. 533-565.] MEASURE OF GUILT. 509 the subject was left in ignorance of the legal danger which he might incur bj every action of his life. A sin, a vice, a crime, are the objects of theology, ethics, and jurisprudence. Whenever their judgments agree, they Measure corroborate each other; but as often as they differ, of guiic a p ruc j en t legislator appreciates the guilt and pun- ishment according to the measure of social injury. On this principle the most daring attack on the life and property of a private citizen is judged less atrocious than the crime of treason or rebellion, which invades the majesty of the repub- lic: the obsequious civilians unanimously pronounced that the republic is contained in the person of its chief, and the edge of the Julian law was sharpened by the incessant dil- igence of the emperors. The licentious commerce of the sexes may be tolerated as an impulse of nature, or forbidden as a source of disorder and corruption ; but the fame, the fort- unes, the family of the husband, are seriously injured by the adultery of the wife. The wisdom of Augustus, after curb- ing the freedom of revenge, applied to this domestic offence the animadversion of the laws ; and the guilty parties, after the payment of heavy forfeitures and fines, were condemned to long or perpetual exile in two separate islands. 189 Religion pronounces an equal censure against the infidelity of the hus- band, but, as it is not accompanied by the same civil effects, the wife was never permitted to vindicate her wrongs ; 190 and the distinction of simple or double adultery, so familiar and so important in the canon law, is unknown to the jurispru- Unnatn- dence of the Code and Pandects. I touch with raivice. reluctance, and despatch with impatience, a more odious vice, of which modesty rejects the name, and nature 189 "pill the publication of the Julius Paulus of Schulting (1. ii. tit. xxvi. p. 317- 323), it was affirmed and believed that the Julian laws punished adultery with death ; and the mistake arose from the fraud or error of Tribonian. Yet Lipsius had suspected the truth from the narratives of Tacitus (Annal. ii. 50 ; iii. 24 ; iv. 42), and even from the practice of Augustus, who distinguished the treasonable frailties of his female kindred. 190 In cases of adultery Severus confined to the husband the right of public ac- cusation (Cod. Justinian. 1. ix. tit. ix. leg. 1). Nor is this privilege unjust, so dif* ferent are the effects of male or female infidelity. 510 UNNATUEAL VICE. [Ch. XLIV. abominates the idea. The primitive Romans were infected by the example of the Etruscans 191 and Greeks ; 1M in the mad abuse of prosperity and power every pleasure that is innocent was deemed insipid ; and the Scatinian law, 193 which had been extorted by an act of violence, was insensibly abolished by the lapse of time and the multitude of criminals. By this law the rape, perhaps the seduction, of an ingenuous youth was compensated as a personal injury by the poor damagea of ten thousand sesterces, or fourscore pounds ; the ravisher* might be slain by the resistance or revenge of chastity ; and I wish to believe that at Rome, as in Athens, the voluntary and effeminate deserter of his sex was degraded from the honors and the rights of a citizen. 194 But the practice of vice was not discouraged by the severity of opinion : the indelible stain of manhood was confounded with the more venial transgressions of fornication and adultery ; nor was the licentious lover ex- posed to the same dishonor which he impressed on the male or female partner of his guilt. From Catullus to Juvenal, 18 ' the poets accuse and celebrate the degeneracy of the times; and the reformation of manners was feebly attempted by 191 Timon [Timaeus] (1. i.) and Theopompus (L xliii. apud Athenaeum, I. xii. p. 517 [c. 14, torn. iv. p. 422, edit. Schweigh.]) describe the luxury and lust of the Etruscans : iroXv (itv rot ye x a ^P 0V(Tl avvovrtg Tolg natal icai toIq fiEipaKioiQ. About the same period (a.u.c. 445) the Koman youth studied in Etruria (liv. ix. 36). 192 The Persians had been corrupted in the same school : an 'EWjjvwv fiaOovne iraioi filayovrai (Herodot. 1. i. c. 135). A curious dissertation might be formed on the introduction of paederasty after the time of Homer, its progress among the Greeks of Asia and Europe, the vehemence of their passions, and the thin device of virtue and friendship which amused the philosophers of Athens. But, "Scelera ostendi oportet dum puniuntur, abscondi flagitia." 193 The name, the date, and the provisions of this law are equally doubtful (Gra- vina, Opp. p. 432, 433 ; Heineccius, Hist. Jur. Eom. No. 108 ; Ernesti, Clav. Cice- ron. in Indice Legum). But I will observe that the nefanda Venus of the hones* German is styled aversa by the more polite Italian. 194 See the oration of iEschines against the catamite Timarchus (in Eeiske, Ora- tor. Grsec. torn. iii. p. 21-184). 195 A crowd of disgraceful passages will force themselves on the memory of the classic reader ; I will only remind him of the cool declaration of Ovid : "Odi concubitus qui non utrumque resolvunt. Hoc est quod puerum tangar amore minus." A.D. 533-565.] RIGOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EMPERORS. 511 the reason and authority of the civilians, till the most virtu- ous of the Caesars proscribed the sin against nature as a crime against society.' 99 A new spirit of legislation, respectable even in its error, arose in the empire with the religion of Constantine. 197 The laws of Moses were received as the divine original chffetian e of justice, and the Christian princes adapted their penal statutes to the degrees of moral and relig- ious turpitude. Adultery was first declared to be a capital offence : the frailty of the sexes was assimilated to poison or assassination, to sorcery or parricide ; the same penalties were inflicted on the passive and active guilt of paederasty; and all criminals, of free or servile condition, were either drowned, or beheaded, or cast alive into the avenging flames. The adulterers were spared by the common sympathy of mankind ; but the lovers of their own sex were pursued by general and pious indignation: the impure manners of Greece still pre- vailed in the cities of Asia, and every vice was fomented by the celibacy of the monks and clergy. Justinian relaxed the punishment at least of female infidelity : the guilty spouse was only condemned to solitude and penance, and at the end of two years she might be recalled to the arms of a forgiving husband. But the same emperor declared himself the im- placable enemy of unmanly lust, and the cruelty of his perse- cution can scarcely be excused by the purity of his motives. 198 In defiance of every principle of justice, he stretched to past as well as future offences the operations of his edicts, with 198 iElius Lampridius, in Vit. Heliogabal. in Hist. August, p. 1 1 2. Aurelius Vic- tor, in Philippo [De Caesar, c. 28], Codex. Theodos. 1. ix. tit. vii. leg. 6, and Gode- froy's Commentary, torn. iii. p. 63. Theodosius abolished the subterraneous broth- els of Rome, in which ihe prostitution of both sexes was acted with impunity. 197 See the laws of Constantine and his successors against adultery, sodomy, etc., in the Theodosian (1. ix. tit. vii. leg. 7 ; 1. xi. tit. xxxvi. leg. 1, 4) and Justinian Codes (1, 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. 198 Justinian, Novel. Ixxvii. cxxxiv. cxli. , Frocopius in Anecdot. c. 11, 16 [torn. iii. p. 76, 99, edit. Bonn], with the notes of Alemannus ; Theophanes, p. 151 [edit. Par. ; torn. i. p. 271, edit. Bonn] ; Cedrenus, p. 368 [edit. Far. ; torn. i. p, 645, edit. Bonn] , Zonaras, 1. xiv. [c. 7] p. 6 A. 512 JUDGMENTS OF THE PEOPLE. [Ch.XLIV. the previous allowance of a short respite for confession and pardon. A painful death was inflicted by the amputation of the sinful instrument, or the insertion of sharp reeds into the pores and tubes of most exquisite sensibility ; and Justinian defended the propriety of the execution, since the criminals would have lost their hands had they been convicted of sac- rilege. In this state of disgrace and agony two bishops, Isaiah of Rhodes and Alexander of Diospolis, were dragged through the streets of Constantinople, while their brethren were ad- monished by the voice of a crier to observe this awful lesson, and not to pollute the sanctity of their character. Perhaps these prelates were innocent. A sentence of death and in- famy was often founded on the slight and suspicious evi- dence of a child or a servant : the guilt of the green faction, of the rich, and of the enemies of Theodora, was presumed by the judges, and paederasty became the crime of those to whom no crime could be imputed. A French philosopher 199 has dared to remark that whatever is secret must be doubtful, and that our natural horror of vice may be abused as an en- gine of tyranny. But the favorable persuasion of the same writer, that a legislator may confide in the taste and reason of mankind, is impeached by the unwelcome discovery of the antiquity and extent of the disease. 800 The free citizens of Athens and Rome enjoyed in all crim- judgmeuts i na l cases the invaluable privilege of being tried by of the people. their countr y. m 1. The administration of justice is the most ancient office of a prince : it was exercised by the 199 Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, 1. xii. ch. 6. That eloquent philosopher con- ciliates the rights of liberty and of nature, which should never be placed in oppo- sition to each other. soo j or tne corruption of Palestine, 2000 years before the Christian era, see the history and laws of Moses. Ancient Gaul is stigmatized by Diodorus Siculua (torn. i. 1. v. [c. 32] p. 356), China by the Mahometan and Christian travellers (Ancient Relations of India and China, p. 34, translated by Renaudot, and his bitter critic the Pere Premare, Lettres Edifiantes, torn. xix. p. 435), and native Amer- ica by the Spanish historians (Garcilasso de la Vega, 1. iii. c. 13, Rycaut's transla- tion ; and Dictionnaire de Bayle, torn. iii. p. 88). I believe, and hope, that the negroes, in their own country, were exempt from this moral pestilence. 201 The important subject of the public questions and judgments at Rome is ex- plained with much learning, and in a classic style, by Charles Sigonius (1. iii da AJ>. 533-565.] JUDGMENTS OF THE PEOPLE. 613 Koman kings, and abused by Tarquin, who alone, without law or council, pronounced his arbitrary judgments. The first consuls succeeded to this regal prerogative ; but the sa- cred right of appeal soon abolished the jurisdiction of the magistrates, and all public causes were decided by the su- preme tribunal of the people. But a wild democracy, supe- rior to the forms, too often disdains the essential principles, of justice; the pride of despotism was envenomed by Plebeian envy; and the heroes of Athens might sometimes applaud the happiness of the Persian, whose fate depended on the ca- price of a single tyrant. Some salutary restraints, imposed by the people on their own passions, were at once the cause and effect of the gravity and temperance of the Romans. The right of accusation was confined to the magistrates. A vote of the thirty-five tribes could inflict a fine; but the cognizance of all capital crimes was reserved by a fundamental law to the assembly of the centuries, in which the weight of influ- ence and property was sure to preponderate. Eepeated proc- lamations and adjournments were interposed, to allow time for prejudice and resentment to subside ; the whole proceed- ing might be annulled by a seasonable omen or the opposition of a tribune, and such popular trials were commonly less for- midable to innocence than they were favorable to guilt. But this union of the judicial and legislative powers left it doubt- ful whether the accused party was pardoned or acquitted ; and, in the defence of an illustrious client, the orators of Rome and Athens address their arguments to the policy and benevolence, as well as to the justice, of their sovereign. 2. The task of convening the citizens for the trial of each of- fender became more difficult, as the citizens and the offend- Judiciis, in Opp. torn. iii. p. 679-864); and a good abridgment may be found in the Republique Romaine of Beaufort (torn. ii. 1. v. p. 1-121). Those who wisk for more abstruse law may study Noodt (De Jurisdictione et Imperio Libri duo, torn. i. p. 93-134), Heineccius (ad Pandect. 1. i. et ii. ad Institut. 1. iv. tit. xvii. Element, ad Antiquitat.), and Gravina (Opp. 230-25 l). a a The best modern works on the Roman Criminal Jurisprudence are Rein, daa Ciiminalrecht der Romer ; and Laboulaye, Essai sur les Loix Criminelles des Ro mains.— S. IV.— 33 514 SELECT JUDGES. [Ch. XLIV. ers continually multiplied, and the ready expedient was adopt- ed of delegating the jurisdiction of the people to the ordinary magistrates or to extraordinary inquisitors. In the first ages these questions were rare and occasional. In the beginning of the seventh century of Koine they were made perpetual; four praetors were annually empowered to sit in judgment on the State offences of treason, extortion, peculation, and bri- bery; and Sylla added new praetors and new questions for those crimes which more directly injure the safety of individ- uals. By these inquisitors the trial was prepared and direct- ed ; but they could only pronounce the sentence of the majority of judges, who, with some truth and more prejudice, have been compared to the English juries. 208 To discharge this important though burdensome office, an annual list of ancient and respectable citizens was formed by the praetor. After many constitutional struggles, they were chosen in equal numbers from the senate, the equestrian or- der, and the people ; four hundred and fifty were appointed for single questions, and the various rolls or decuries of judges must have contained the names of some thousand Komans, who represented the judicial authority of the State. In each particular cause a sufficient number was drawn from the urn ; their integrity was guarded by an oath ; the mode of ballot secured their independence; the suspicion of partiality was removed by the mutual challenges of the accuser and defend- ant; and the judges of Milo, by the retrenchment of fifteen on each side, were reduced to fifty-one voices or tablets, of ac- quittal, of condemnation, or of favorable doubt. 203 3. In his civil jurisdiction the praetor of the city was truly a judge, and almost a legislator ; but, as soon as he had prescribed the ac- tion of law, he often referred to a delegate the determination 802 The office, both at Kome and in England, must be considered as an occa. sional duty, and not a magistracy or profession. But the obligation of a unani- mous verdict is peculiar to our laws, which condemn the juryman to undergo the torture from whence they have exempted the criminal. 203 -^r e are indebted for this interesting fact to a fragment of Asconius Pedia- nus, who flourished under the reign of Tiberius. The loss of his Commentaries on the Orations of Cicero has deprived us of a valuable fund of historical and legal knowledge. a.d. 533-565.] VOLUNTARY EXILE AND DEATH. 515 of the fact. AVith the increase of legal proceedings, the tri- bunal of the centumvirs, in which he presided, acquired more weight and reputation. But whether he acted alone or with the advice of his council, the most absolute powers might be trusted to a magistrate who was annually chosen by the votes of the people. The rules and precautions of freedom have required some explanation ; the order of despotism is simple and inanimate. Before the age of Justinian, or perhaps of Diocletian, the decuries of Roman judges had sunk to an empty title; the humble advice of the assessors might be accepted or despised ; and in each tribunal the civil and criminal jurisdiction was administered by a single magis- trate, who was raised and disgraced by the will of the emperor. A Roman accused of any capital crime might prevent the sentence of the law by voluntary exile or death. Till his voluntary ex- g in ^ na ^ Deen legally proved, his innocence was iie and death. p re8ume( j an( j his person was free; till the votes of the last century had been counted and declared, he might peaceably secede to any of the allied cities of Italy, or Greece, or Asia. 804 His fame and fortunes were preserved, at least to his children, by this civil death ; and he might still be happy in every rational and sensual enjoyment, if a mind accustom- ed to the ambitious tumult of Rome could support the uni- formity and silence of Rhodes or Athens. A bolder effort was required to escape from the tyranny of the Caesars ; but this effort was rendered familiar by the maxims of the Stoics, the example of the bravest Romans, and the legal encourage- ments of suicide. The bodies of condemned criminals were exposed to public ignominy, and their children, a more seri- ous evil, were reduced to poverty by the confiscation of their fortunes. But, if the victims of Tiberius and Nero anticipa- ted the decree of the prince or senate, their courage and de- spatch were recompensed by the applause of the public, the decent honors of burial, and the validity of their testaments. 505 204 p iyb. 1. vi. [c. 14] p. 643. The extension of the empire and city of Rome obliged the exile to seek a more distant place of retirement. 205 "Quicle se statuebant, humabantur corpora, manebant testamenta ; pratium festinandi " (Tacit. Annal. vi. 29, with the Notes of Lipsius). 516 ABUSES OF CIVIL JURISPRUDENCE. [Ch. XLIV. The exquisite avarice and cruelty of Domitian appears to have deprived the unfortunate of this last consolation, and it was still denied even by the clemency of the Antonines. A voluntary death, which, in the case of a capital offence, in- tervened between the accusation and the sentence, was ad- mitted as a confession of guilt, and the spoils of the deceased were seized by the inhuman claims of the treasury. 208 Yet the civilians have always respected the natural right of a cit- izen to dispose of his life ; and the posthumous disgrace in- vented by Tarquin 207 to check the despair of his subjects was never revived or imitated by succeeding tyrants. The pow- ers of this world have indeed lost their dominion over him who is resolved on death, and his arm can only be restrained by the religious apprehension of a future state. Suicides are enumerated by Yirgil among the unfortunate, rather than the guilty , c ° 8 and the poetical fables of the infernal shades could not seriously influence the faith or practice of mankind. But the precepts of the Gospel or the Church have at length im- posed a pious servitude on the minds of Christians, and con- demn them to expect, without a murmur, the last stroke of disease or the executioner. The penal statutes form a very small proportion of the six- ty-two books of the Code and Pandects, and in all judicial proceeding the life or death of a citizen is deter- civii juris- mined with less caution and delay than the most prudence. . . , . m . ordinary question 01 covenant or inheritance. This singular distinction, though something may be allowed for the 206 Julius Paulus (Sentent. Recept. 1. v. tit. xii. p. 476), the Pandects (1. xlvjji. tit. xxi.), the Code (1. ix. tit. l.), Bynkershoek (torn. i. p. 59 ; Observat. J. C. R. iv. 4), and Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxix. ch. 9), define the civil limitations of the liberty and privileges of suicide. The criminal penalties are the production of a later and darker age. 207 Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxvi. 24. When he fatigued his subjects in building the Capitol, many of the laborers were provoked to despatch themselves: he nailed their dead bodies to crosses. 208 The sole resemblance of a violent and premature death has engaged Virgil (iEneid. vi. 434-439) to confound suicides with infants, lovers, and persons un. justly condemned. Heyne, the best of his editors, is at a loss to deduce the idea, or ascertain the jurisprudence, of the Roman poet. A.D. 533-565.] ABUSES OF CIVIL JURISPRUDENCE. 517 urgent necessity of defending the peace of society, is derived from the nature of criminal and civil jurisprudence. Our duties to the State are simple and uniform ; the law by which he is condemned is inscribed not only on brass or marble, but on the conscience of the offender, and his guilt is commonly proved by the testimony of a single fact. But our relations to each other are various and infinite; our obligations are created, annulled, and modified by injuries, benefits, and prom- ises ; and the interpretation of voluntary contracts and testa- ments, which are often dictated by fraud or ignorance, affords a long and laborious exercise to the sagacity of the judge. The business of life is multiplied by the extent of commerce and dominion, and the residence of the parties in the distant provinces of an empire is productive of doubt, delay, and in- evitable appeals from the local to the supreme magistrate. Justinian, the Greek emperor of Constantinople and the East, was the legal successor of the Latian shepherd who had plant- ed a colony on the banks of the Tiber. In a period of thir- teen hundred years the laws had reluctantly followed the changes of government and manners; and the laudable desire of conciliating ancient names with recent institutions destroy- ed the harmony, and swelled the magnitude, of the obscure and irregular system. The laws which excuse on any occa- sions the ignorance of their subjects, confess their own imper- fections ; the civil jurisprudence, as it was abridged by Jus- tinian, still continued a mysterious science and a profitable trade, and the innate perplexity of the study was involved in tenfold darkness by the private industry of the practitioners. The expense of the pursuit sometimes exceeded the value of the prize, and the fairest rights were abandoned by the pov- erty or prudence of the claimants. Such costly justice might tend to abate the spirit of litigation, but the unequal pressure serves only to increase the influence of the rich and to aggra- vate the misery of the poor. By these dilatory and expen- sive proceedings the wealthy pleader obtains a more certain advantage than he could hope from the accidental corrup- tion of his judge. The experience of an abuse from which our own age and country are not perfectly exempt may some- 518 ABUSES OF CIVIL JURISPRUDENCE. [Cu. XLIV. times provoke a generous indignation, and extort the hasty wish of exchanging our elaborate jurisprudence for the sim- ple and summary decrees of a Turkish cadi. Our calmer re- flection will suggest that such forms and delays are necessary to guard the person and property of the citizen ; that the dis- cretion of the judge is the first engine of tyranny; and that the laws of a free people should foresee and determine every question that may probably arise in the exercise of power and the transactions of industry. But the government of Justin- ian united the evils of liberty and servitude, and the Eomans were oppressed at the same time by the multiplicity of their laws and the arbitrary will of their master. a.d. 5650 DEATH OF JUSTINIAN. 519 CHAPTER XLY. Reign of the younger Justin. — Embassy of the Avars. — Their Settlement on the Danube. — Conquest of Italy by the Lombards. — Adoption and Reign of Ti- berius. — Of Maurice. — State of Italy under the Lombards and the Exarchs of Ravenna. — Distress of Rome. — Character and Pontificate of Gregory the First. Dtjking the last years of Justinian, his infirm mind was de- voted to heavenly contemplation, and he neglected the busi- Deathof ness of the lower world. His subjects were impa- SSSJ 0, tient of the long continuance of his life and reign : Nov. 14. y e £ a rj w h were capable of reflection apprehended the moment of his death, which might involve the capital in tumult and the empire in civil war. Seven nephews 1 of the childless monarch, the sons or grandsons of his brother and sister, had been educated in the splendor of a princely fort- une ; they had been shown in high commands to the prov- inces and armies ; their characters were known, their follow- ers were zealous, and, as the jealousy of age postponed the declaration of a successor, they might expect with equal hopes the inheritance of their uncle. He expired in his palace, af- ter a reign of thirty-eight years ; and the decisive opportunity was embraced by the friends of Justin, the son of Yigilantia. 2 At the hour of midnight his domestics were awakened by an importunate crowd, who thundered at his door, and obtained admittance by revealing themselves to be the principal mem- 1 See the family of Justin and Justinian in the Familiae Byzantinse of Ducange, p. 89-101. The devout civilians, Ludewig (in Vit. Justinian, p. 131) and Heinec- cius (Hist. Juris Roman, p. 374) have since illustrated the genealogy of their fa- vorite prince. 9 In the story of Justin's elevation I have translated into simple and concise prose the eight hundred verses of the two first books of Corippus, De Laudibus Justini, Appendix Hist. Byzaut. p. 401-416, Rome, 1777 [p. 166-187, edit. Bonn]. 520 EEIGN OF JUSTIN H [Cil XLV, bers of the senate. These welcome deputies announced the recent and momentous secret of the emperor's decease; re- ported, or perhaps invented, his dying choice of the best be- loved and most deserving of his nephews ; and conjured Jus- tin to prevent the disorders of the multitude, if they should perceive, with the return of light, that they were left without a master. After composing his countenance to surprise, sor- row, and decent modesty, Justin, by the advice of his wife Sophia, submitted to the authority of the senate. He was conducted with speed and silence to the palace ; the guards saluted their new sovereign ; and the martial and religious rites of his coronation were diligently accomplished. By the hands of the proper officers he was invested with the impe- rial 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 ro- bust youths exalted him on a shield ; he stood firm and erect to receive the adoration of his subjects ; and their choice was sanctified by the benediction of the patriarch, who imposed the diadem on the head of an orthodox prince, tin n., or the The hippodrome was already filled with innumer- Tounger. T • i t a.i). 565, able multitudes; and no sooner did the emperor Nov. 15- . ' . - , , , a.d.574, appear on his throne than the voices of the blue December. * L . and the green tactions were confounded in the same loyal acclamations. In the speeches which Justin ad- dressed to the senate and people he promised to correct the abuses which had disgraced the age of his predecessor, dis- played the maxims of a just and beneficent government, and declared that, on the approaching calends of January, 8 he 8 It is surprising how Pagi (Critica, in Annal. Baron, torn. ii. p. 639) could ba tempted by any chronicles to contradict the plain and decisive text of Corippus ("vicina dona," 1. ii. 354; "vicina dies," 1. iv. 1), and to postpone till a.d. 567 the consulship of Justin.* * Gibbon justly censures Pagi for placing the consulship at the second year of Justin, but he has not adverted to the true point of the difficulty. There is no doubt that Justin's consulship immediately followed his accession, but the acces- sion was placed by some authors (as by Marius and Victor) in 566, and this was the fRuse of assigning the consulship to 567. The accession is rightly placed bf Gibbon in 565. Clinton, Fasti Komani, vol. i. p. 822.— S. A.D.566.] EMBASSY OF THE AVAES. 521 would revive in his own person the name and liberality of a His con- lioinan consul. The immediate discharge of his SK', uncle's debts exhibited a solid pledge of his faith January 1. an( j g eneros ity : a train of porters, laden with bags of gold, advanced into the midst of the hippodrome, and the hopeless creditors of Justinian accepted this equitable payment as a voluntary gift. Before the end of three years his example was imitated and surpassed by the Empress So- phia, who delivered many indigent citizens from the weight of debt and usury : an act of benevolence the best entitled to gratitude, since it relieves the most intolerable distress ; but in which the bounty of a prince is the most liable to be abused by the claims of prodigality and fraud. 4 On the seventh day of his reign Justin gave audienee to the ambassadors of the Avars, and the scene was decorated to impress the barbarians with astonishment, venera- Embassy of , A ' 7 the Avars. tion, and terror, it rom the palace gate, the spa- A.D.566. . ' . r ,. t . , cious courts and long porticoes were lined with the lofty crests and gilt bucklers of the guards, who presented their spears and axes with more confidence than they would have shown in a field of battle. The officers who exercised the power, or attended the person, of the prince, were attired in their richest habits, and arranged according to the military and civil order of the hierarchy. When the veil of the sanct- uary was withdrawn, the ambassadors beheld the Emperor of the East on his throne, beneath a canopy, or dome, which was supported by four columns, and crowned with a winged fig- ure of Victory. In the first emotions of surprise, they sub- mitted to the servile adoration of the Byzantine court ; but, as soon as they rose from the ground, Targetius, the chief of the embassy, expressed the freedom and pride of a barbarian. He extolled,^y the tongue of his interpreter, the greatness of the chagah, by whose clemency the kingdoms of the South were permitted to exist, whose victorious subjects had trav- ersed the frozen rivers of Seythia, and who now covered the 4 Theophan. Chronograph, p. 205 [torn. i. p. 374, edit. Bonn]. Whenever Ce« drenus or Zonaras are mere transcribers, it is superfluous to allege their testimony. 522 EMBASSY OF THE AVAKS. [Ch. XLV. banks of the Danube with innumerable tents. The late em< peror had cultivated, with annual and costly gifts, the friend- ship of a grateful monarch, and the enemies of Rome had re- spected the allies of the Avars. The same prudence would instruct the nephew of Justinian to imitate the liberality of his uncle, and to purchase the blessings of peace from an in- vincible people, who delighted and excelled in the exercise of war. The reply of the emperor was delivered in the same strain of haughty defiance, and he derived his confidence from the God of the Christians, the ancient glory of Rome, and the recent triumphs of Justinian. " The empire," said he, " abounds with men and horses, and arms sufficient to defend our frontiers and to chastise the barbarians. You offer aid, you threaten hostilities: we despise your enmity and your aid. The conquerors of the Avars solicit our alliance ; shal} we dread their fugitives and exiles? 5 The bounty of our uncle was granted to your misery, to your humble prayers- From ns you shall receive a more important obligation, the knowledge of your own weakness. Retire from our pres- ence ; the lives of ambassadors are safe ; and, if you return to implore our pardon, perhaps you will taste of our benevo- lence.' 58 On the report of his ambassadors, the chagan was awed by the apparent firmness of a Roman emperor of whose character and resources he was ignorant. Instead of execut- ing his threats against the Eastern empire, he marched into the poor and savage countries of Germany, which were sub- 6 Corippus, 1. iii. 390. The unquestionable sense relates to the Turks, the con- querors of the Avars ; but the word scultor has no apparent meaning, and the sole MS. of Corippus, from whence the first edition (1581, apud Plantin) was printed, is no longer visible. The last editor, Foggini of Rome, has inserted the conject- ural emendation of soldan ; but the proofs of Ducange (Joinville, Dissert, xvi. p. 238-240), for the early use of this title among the Turks and Persians, are weak or ambiguous. And I must incline to the authority of D'Herbelot (Bibliotheque Orient, p. 825), who ascribes the word to the Arabic and Chaldaean tongues, and the date to the beginning of the eleventh century, when it was bestowed by the Caliph of Bagdad on Mahmud, Prince of Gazna, and conqueror of India. a For these characteristic speeches, compare the verse of Corippus (1. iii. 266- 401) with the prose of Menander (Excerpt. Legation, p. 102, 103 [edit. Par. ; p. 287 seq.,edit. Bonn]). Their diversity proves that they did not copy each other ; their resemblance, that they drew from a common original. a.d.566.] ALBOIN, KING OF TOE LOMBARDS. 523 ject to the dominion of the Franks. After two doubtful bat- tles he consented to retire, and the Austrasian king relieved the distress of his camp with an immediate supply of corn and cattle. 7 Such repeated disappointments had chilled the spirit of the Avars, and their power would have dissolved away in the Sarmatian desert, if the alliance of Alboin, king of the Lombards, had not given a new object to their arms, and a lasting settlement to their wearied fortunes. While Alboin served under his father's standard, he en- countered in battle, and transpierced with his lance, the rival prince of the Gepidoe. The Lombards, who ap- of the tom- plauded such early prowess, requested his father, valor, love, with unanimous acclamations, that the heroic youth, who had shared the dangers of the field, might be admitted to the feast of victory. " You are not unmindful," replied the inflexible Audoin, " of the wise customs of our ancestors. "Whatever may be his merit, a prince is incapable of sitting at table with his father till he has received his arms from a foreign and royal hand." Alboin bowed with rever- ence to the institutions of his country, selected forty compan- ions, and boldly visited the court of Turisund, king of the Gepidse, who embraced and entertained, according to the laws of hospitality, the murderer of his son. At the banquet, whilst Alboin occupied the seat of the youth whom he had slain, a tender remembrance arose in the mind of Turisund. " How dear is that place — how hateful is that person !" were the words that escaped, with a sigh, from the indignant father. His grief exasperated the national resentment of the Gepidse ; and Cunimund, his surviving son, was provoked by wine, or fraternal affection, to the desire of vengeance. " The Lom- bards," said the rude barbarian, " resemble, in figure and in smell, the mares of our Sarmatian plains." And this insult was a coarse allusion to the white bands which enveloped their legs. "Add another resemblance," replied an audacious Lombard ; " you have felt how strongly they kick. Yisit the ' For the Austrasian war, see Menander (Excerpt. Legat, p. 110 [c. 11, p. 303, edit. Bonn]), Gregory of Tours (Hist. Franc. 1. iv. ch. 29), and Paul the Deacon (De Gest. Langobard. 1. ii. c. 10). 524 ALBOIN, KING OF THE LOMBARDS. [Ch. XLT. plain of Asfeld, and seek for the bones of thy brother : they are mingled with those of the vilest animals." The Gepidse, a nation of warriors, started from their seats, and the fearless Alboin, with his forty companions, laid their hands on their swords. The tumult was appeased by the venerable interpo- sition of Turisund. He sav«d his own honor, and the life of his guest ; and, after the solemn rites of investiture, dismissed the stranger in the bloody arms of his son, the gift of a weep- ing parent. Alboin returned in triumph ; and the Lombards, who celebrated his matchless intrepidity, were compelled. to praise the virtues of an enemy. 8 In this extraordinary visit he had probably seen the daughter of Cunimund, who soon after ascended the throne of the Gepidse. Her name was Rosamond, an appellation expressive of female beauty, and which our own history or romance has consecrated to amorous tales. The king of the Lombards (the father of Alboin no longer lived) was contracted to the granddaughter of Clovis ; but the restraints of faith and policy soon yielded to the hope of possessing the fair Rosamond, and of insulting her family and nation. The arts of persuasion were tried without suc- cess ; and the impatient lover, by force and stratagem, ob- tained the object of his desires. War was the consequence which he foresaw and solicited ; but the Lombards could not long withstand the furious assault of the Gepidse, who were sustained by a Roman army. And, as the offer of marriage was rejected with contempt, Alboin was compelled to relin- quish his prey, and to partake of the disgrace which he had inflicted on the House of Cunimund. 9 When a public quarrel is envenomed by private injuries, a blow that is not mortal or decisive pan be productive only of a short truce, which allows the unsuccessful combatant to sharpen his arms for a new encounter. The strength of Al- 8 Paul Wamefrid, the Deacon of Friuli, De Gest. Langobard. 1. i. c. 23, 24. His pictures of national manners, though rudely sketched, are more lively and faithful than those of Bede or Gregory of Tours. 9 The story is told by an impostor (Theophylact. Simocat. 1. vi. c„ 10 [p. 261, edit. Bonn}) j but he had art enough to build his fictions on public and notorious facts. AJJ.566.] FALL OF THE GEPHXffl. 525 boin had been found unequal to the gratification of his love, The Lom- ambition, and revenge: he condescended to implore Avars de- * ne formidable aid of the chagan ; and the arguments king and tna ^ ne employed are expressive of the art and pol- ffifiKuf ic 7 of the barbarians. In the attack of the Gepidse a.d.566. ^g j^ k een prompted by the just desire of extir- pating a people whom their alliance with the Koman em- pire had rendered the common enemies of the nations, and the personal adversaries of the chagan. If the forces of the Avars and the Lombards should unite in this glorious quar- rel, the victory was secure, and the reward inestimable : the Danube, the Hebrus, Italy, and Constantinople would be ex- posed, without a barrier, to their invincible arms. But, if they hesitated or delayed to prevent the malice of the Ro- mans, the same spirit which had insulted would pursue the Avars to the extremity of the earth. These specious reasons were heard by the chagan with coldness and disdain : he de- tained the Lombard ambassadors in his camp, protracted the negotiation, and by turns alleged his want of inclination, or his want of ability, to undertake this important enterprise. At length he signified the ultimate price of his alliance, that the Lombards should immediately present him with the tithe of their cattle ; that the spoils and captives should be equally divided ; but that the lands of the Gepidse should become the sole patrimony of the Avars. Such hard conditions were eagerly accepted by the passions of Alboin ; and, as the Ro- mans were dissatisfied with the ingratitude and perfidy of the Gepidse, Justin abandoned that incorrigible people to their fate, and remained the tranquil spectator of this unequal con- flict. The despair of Cunimund was active and dangerous. He was informed that the Avars had entered his confines ; but, on the strong assurance that after the defeat of the Lom- bards these foreign invaders would easily be repelled, he rush- ed forward to encounter the implacable enemy of his name and family. But the courage of the Gepidss could secure them no more than an honorable 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 526 ALBOIN UNDERTAKES [Ch.XLV. skull was fashioned into a cup to satiate the hatred of the conqueror, or perhaps to comply with the savage custom of his country. 10 After this victory no farther obstacle could impede the progress of the confederates, and they faithfully executed the terms of their agreement. 11 The fair countries of Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, and the parts of Hun- gary beyond the Danube, were occupied without resistance by a new colony of Scythians ; and the Dacian empire of the chagans subsisted with splendor above two hundred and thir- ty years. The nation of the Gepidse was dissolved ; but, in the distribution of the captives, the slaves of the Avars were less fortunate than the companions of the Lombards, whose generosity adopted a valiant foe, and whose freedom was in- compatible with cool and deliberate tyranny. One moiety of the spoil introduced into the camp of Alboin more wealth than a barbarian could readily compute. The fair Rosamond was persuaded or compelled to acknowledge the rights of her victorious lover ; and the daughter of Cunimund appeared to forgive those crimes which might be imputed to her own irresistible charms. The destruction of a mighty kingdom established the fame of Alboin. In the days of Charlemagne the Ba- dertakesthe vanans, the Saxons, and the other tribes of the conquest of . .-n i . Italy. leutonic language, still repeated the songs which described the heroic virtues, the valor, liberality, and fortune of the king of the Lombards. 12 But his ambition 10 It appears from Strabo [1. viL], Pliny [1. vii. c. 11], and Ammianus MarceT- linus [1. xxvii.], that the same practice was common among the Scythian tribes (Muratori, Scriptores Rer. Italic, torn. i. p. 424). The scalps of North America are likewise trophies of valor. The skull of Cunimund was preserved above two hundred years among the Lombards ; and Paul himself was one of the guests to whom Duke Ratchis exhibited this cup on a high festival (1. ii. c. 28). 11 Paul, 1. i. c. 27. Menander, in Excerpt. Legat. p. 110, 111 [p. 303, 304, edit. Bonn]o 12 " Ut hactenus etiam tam apud Bajoariorum gentem, quam et Saxonum, sed et alios ejusdem linguas homines * * * in eorum carminibus celebretur " (Paul, 1. i. c. 27). He died a.d. 799 (Muratori, in Prasfat. torn. i. p. 397). These Ger- man songs, some of which might be as old as Tacitus (De Moribus Germ. c. 2), were compiled and transcribed by Charlemagne. " Barbara et antiquissima car- mina, quibus veterum regum actus et bella canebantur scripsit memorieeque man- a.d.567.] THE CONQUEST OF ITALY. 527 was yet unsatisfied ; and the conqueror of the Gepidse turn- ed his eyes from the Danube to the richer banks of the Po and the Tiber. Fifteen years had not elapsed since his sub- jects, the confederates of Narses, had visited the pleasant cli- mate of Italy ; the mountains, the rivers, the highways, were familiar to their memory ; the report of their success, perhaps the view of their spoils, had kindled in the rising generation the flame of emulation and enterprise. Their hopes were en- couraged by the spirit and eloquence of Alboin ; and it is af- firmed that he spoke to their senses by producing at the royal feast the fairest and most exquisite fruits that grew spontane- ously in the garden of the world. No sooner had he erected his standard than the native strength of the Lombards was multiplied by the adventurous youth of Germany and Scythia. The robust peasantry of Noricum and Pannonia had resumed the manners of barbarians ; and the names of the Gepidse, Bulgarians, Sarmatians, and Bavarians may be distinctly traced in the provinces of Italy. 13 Of the Saxons, the old allies of the Lombards, twenty thousand warriors, with their wives and children, accepted the invitation of Alboin. Their bravery contributed to his success ; but the accession or the absence of their numbers was not sensibly felt in the magnitude of his host. Every mode of religion was freely practised by its re- spective votaries. The king of the Lombards had been edu- cated in the Arian heresy, but the Catholics in their public worship were allowed to pray for his conversion ; while the more 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 all the virtues and vices of a sav- davit " (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 contemptible romances. 13 The other nations are rehearsed by Paul (1. ii. c. 6, 26). Muratori (Anti- chita Italiane, torn. i. dissert, i. p. 4) has discovered the village of the Bavarians, three miles from Modena. 14 Gregory the Koman (Dialog. 1. iii. c. 27, 28, apud Baron. Annal. Eccles. a.d. 579, No. 10) supposes that they likewise adored this she-goat. I know but of one religion in which the god and the victim are the same. 528 DISAFFECTION AND DEATH OF NARSES. [Ch, XLV. age hero ; and the vigilance of Alboin, provided an ample magazine of offensive and defensive arms for the use of the expedition. The portable wealth of the Lombards attended the march; their lands they cheerfully relinquished to the Avars, on the solemn promise, which was made and accepted without a smile, that if they failed in the conquest of Italy these voluntary exiles should be reinstated in their former possessions. They might have failed if Narses had been the antagonist of the Lombards ; and the veteran warriors, the associates of . „ . his Gothic victory, would have encountered with Disaffection \ and death of reluctance an enemy whom they dreaded and es- teemed. But the weakness of the Byzantine court was subservient to the barbarian cause; and it was for the ruin of Italy that the emperor once listened to the complaints of his subjects. The virtues of Narses were stained with av- arice ; and in his provincial reign of fifteen years he accumu- lated a treasure of gold and silver which surpassed the mod- esty of a private fortune. His government was oppressive or unpopular, and the general discontent was expressed with freedom by the deputies of Eome. Before the throne of Jus- tin they boldly declared that their Gothic servitude had been more tolerable than the despotism of a Greek eunuch ; and that, unless their tyrant were instantly removed, they would consult their own happiness in the choice of a master. The apprehension of a revolt was urged by the voice of envy and detraction, which had so recently triumphed over the merit of Belisarius. A new exarch, Longinus, was appointed to su- persede the conqueror of Italy ; and the base motives of his recall were revealed in the insulting mandate of the Empress Sophia, " that he should leave to men the exercise of arms, and return to his proper station among the maidens of the palace, where a distaff should be again placed in the hand of the eunuch." " I will spin her such a thread as she shall not easily unravel !" is said to have been the reply which indig- nation and conscious virtue extorted from the hero. Instead of attending, a slave and a victim, at the gate of the Byzan- tine palace, he retired to Naples, from whence (if any credit A.D. 5G6-570.] CONQUESTS OF THE LOMBAKDS IN ITALY. 529 is due to the belief of the times) Narses invited the Lombards to chastise the ingratitude of the prince and people. 1 * But the passions of the people are furious and changeable, and the Romans soon recollected the merits, or dreaded the resent- ment, of their victorious general. By the mediation of the pope, who undertook a special pilgrimage to Naples, their re- pentance was accepted ; and Narses, assuming a milder aspect and a more dutiful language, consented to fix his residence in the Capitol. His death, 16 though in the extreme period of old age, was unseasonable and premature, since his genius alone could have repaired the last and fatal error of his life. The reality, or the suspicion, of a conspiracy disarmed and dis- united the Italians. The soldiers resented the disgrace, and bewailed the loss, of their general. They were ignorant of their new exarch ; and Longinus was himself ignorant of the state of the army and the province. In the preceding years Italy had been desolated by pestilence and famine, and a dis- affected people ascribed the calamities of nature to the guilt or folly of their rulers. 17 Whatever might be the grounds of his security, Alboin „ neither expected nor encountered a Roman army in Conquest of a _ great part of the field. He ascended the Julian Alps, and look- Italy by the . r ■ ' . Lombards. ed down with contempt and desire on the fruitful a.d. 568-5T0. ,.,,.. plains to which his victory communicated the per- petual appellation of Lombaedt. A faithful chieftain and a 16 The charge of the deacon against Narses (1. ii. c. 5) may be groundless ; but the weak apology of the cardinal (Baron. Annal. Eccles. a.d. 567, No. 8-12) is rejected by the best critics — Pagi (torn. ii. p. 639, 640), Muratori (Annali d'ltalia, torn. v. p. 160-163), and the last editors, Horatius Blancus (Script. Kerum Italic, torn. i. p. 427, 428) and Philip Argelatus (Sigon. Opera, torn. ii. p. 11, 12). The Narses who assisted at the coronation of Justin (Corippus, 1. iii. 221) is clearly understood to be a different person. 16 The death of Narses is meutioned by Paul, 1. ii. c. 11. Anastas. in Vit. Johan. iii. p. 43. Agnellus, Liber Pontifical. Eaven. [c. 3 fin.] in Script. Ker. Itahcarum, torn. ii. part i. p. 114, 124. Yet I cannot believe with Agnellus that Narses was ninety-five years of age. Is it probable that all his exploits were performed at fourscore ? 11 The designs of Narses and of the Lombards for the invasion of Italy are ex- posed in the last chapter of the first book, and the seven first chapters of the sec- ond book, of Paul the Deacon. IV.— 34 530 CONQUESTS OF THE LOMBARDS IN ITALY. [Ch. XLY. select band were stationed at Forum Julii, the modern Fri« uli, to guard the passes of the mountains. The Lombards re- spected the strength of Pavia, and listened to the prayers of the Trevisans : their slow and heavy multitudes proceeded to occupy the palace and city of Verona ; and Milan, now rising from her ashes, was invested by the powers of Alboin five months after his departure from Pannonia. Terror preceded his march : he found everywhere, or he left, a dreary solitude ; and the pusillanimous Italians presumed, without a trial, that the stranger was invincible. Escaping to lakes, or rocks, or morasses, the affrighted crowds concealed some fragments of their wealth, and delayed the moment of their servitude. Paulinus, the patriarch of Aquileia, removed his treasures, sacred and profane, to the Isle of Grado, 18 and his successors were adopted by the infant republic of Venice, which was continually enriched by the public calamities. Honoratus, who filled the chair of St. Ambrose, had credulously accept- ed the faithless offers of a capitulation ; and the archbishop, with the clergy and nobles of Milan, were driven by the per- fidy of Alboin to seek a refuge in the less accessible ramparts of Genoa. Along the maritime coast the courage of the in- habitants was supported by the facility of supply, the hopes of relief, and the power of escape ; but, from the Trentine hills to the gates of Eavenna and Eome, the inland regions of Italy became, without a battle or a siege, the lasting patrimony of the Lombards. The submission of the people invited the barbarian to assume the character of a lawful sovereign, and the helpless exarch was confined to the office of announcing to the Emperor Justin the rapid and irretrievable loss of his provinces and cities. 19 One city, which had been diligently 18 Which from this translation was called New Aquileia (Chron. Venet. p. 3). The patriarch of Grado soon became the first citizen of the republic (p. 9, etc.), but his seat was not removed to Venice 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 the government of a Catholic city is strictly Presbyterian. Thomas- sin, Discipline de 1'Eglise, torn. i. p. 156, 157, 161-165. Amelot de la Honssaye, Gouvernement de Venise, torn. i. p. 256-261. 19 Paul has given a description of Italy, as it was then divided, into eighteen regions (1. ii. c. 14-24). The Dissertatio Chorographica de Italia Medii Mvi, b] a.d. 573.] MURDER OF ALBOIN. 531 fortified by the Goths, resisted the arms of a new invader ; and, while Italy was subdued by the flying detachments of the Lombards, the royal camp was fixed above three years before the western gate of Ticinum, or Pavia. The same courage which obtains the esteem of a civilized enemy provokes the fury of a savage ; and the impatient besieger had bound him- self by a tremendous oath that age, and sex, and dignity should be confounded in a general massacre. The aid of famine at length enabled him to execute his bloody vow ; but as Al- boin entered the gate his horse stumbled, fell, and could not be raised from the ground. One of his attendants was prompted by compassion, or piety, to interpret this miraculous sign of the wrath of Heaven : the conqueror paused and relented ; he sheathed his sword, and, peacefully reposing himself in the palace of Theodoric, proclaimed to the trembling multitude that they should live and obey. Delighted with the situation of a city which was endeared to his pride by the difficulty of the purchase, the prince of the Lombards disdained the an- cient glories of Milan ; and Pavia during some ages was re- spected as the capital of the kingdom of Italy. 20 The reign of the founder was splendid and transient ; and, before he could regulate his new conquests, Alboin fell a sac- Aiboin is rifice to domestic treason and female revenge. In by wb wife a palace near Yerona, which had not been erected r.» sa 5T3° nd " f° r tne barbarians, he feasted the companions of his June 28. arms ; intoxication was the reward of valor, and the king himself was tempted by appetite or vanity to exceed the ordinary measure of his intemperance. After draining many capacious bowls of Khsetian or Falernian wine he called for the skull of Cunimund, the noblest and most precious orna- ment of his sideboard. The cup of victory was accepted with horrid applause by the circle of the Lombard chiefs. " Fill Father Beretti, a Benedictine monk, and regius professor at Pavia, has been use- fully consulted. 30 For the conquest of Italy, see the original materials of Paul (1. ii. c. 7-10, 12, 14, 25, 2G, 27), the eloquent narrative of Sigonius (torn. ii. De Regno Italise, 1. i. p. 13-19), and the correct and critical review of Muratori (Annali d'ltalia, torn, v p. 164-180). 532 MURDER OF ALBOIN. [Ch.XLV. it again with wine V exclaimed the inhuman conqueror ; " fill it to the brim ! carry this goblet to the queen, and request in my name that she would rejoice with her father." In an ag- ony of grief and rage, Kosamond had strength to utter, " Let the will of my lord be obeyed 1" and, touching it with her lips, pronounced a silent imprecation that the insult should be washed away in the blood of Alboin. Some indulgence might be due to the resentment of a daughter, if she had not already violated the duties of a wife. Implacable in her en- mity, or inconstant in her love, the Queen of Italy had stoop- ed from the throne to the arms of a subject, and Helmichis, the king's armor-bearer, was the secret minister of her pleas- ure and revenge. Against the proposal of the murder he could no longer urge the scruples of fidelity or gratitude ; but Helmichis trembled when he revolved the danger as well as the guilt, when he recollected the matchless strength and intrepidity of a warrior whom he had so often attended in the field of battle. He pressed, and obtained, that one of the bravest champions of the Lombards should be associated to the enterprise ; but no more than a promise of secrecy could be drawn from the gallant Peredens, and the mode of seduc- tion employed by Bosainond betrays her shameless insensibil- ity both to honor and love. She supplied the place of one of her female attendants who was beloved by Peredeus, and con- trived some excuse for darkness and silence till she could in- form her companion that he had enjoyed the queen of the Lombards, and that his own death or the death of Alboin must be the consequence of such treasonable adultery. In this alternative he chose rather to be the accomplice than the victim of Rosamond, 91 whose undaunted spirit was incapable of fear or remorse. She expected and soon found a favora- ble moment, when the king, oppressed with wine, had retired from the table to his afternoon slumbers. His faithless spouse 21 The classical reader will recollect the wife and murder of Candaules, so agree- ably told in the first book of Herodotus [c. 8 seq.]. The choice of Gyges, aipitrai avng TTsputvat, may serve as the excuse of Peredeus ; and this soft insinuation of an odious idea has been imitated by the best writers of antiquity (Grajvius, ad Ciceron. Orat. pro Milone, c. 10). ALBION, THE LOMBARD KING, COMPELS ROSAMOND TO DRINK TO HIS HEALTH Page 532 from the skull of her murdered father Cunimund Gibbons Rome, Vol. IV. Drawing by A. Zick A.D. 573.] FLIGHT AND DEATH OF ROSAMOND. 533 was anxious for his health and repose ; the gates of the palace were shut, the arms removed, the attendants dismissed, and Rosamond, after lulling him to rest by her tender caresses, unbolted the chamber-door and urged the reluctant conspira- tors to the instant execution of the deed. On the first alarm the warrior started from his couch : his sword, which he at- tempted to draw, had been fastened to the scabbard by the hand of Rosamond ; and a small stool, his only weapon, could not long protect him from the spears of the assassins. The daughter of Cunimund smiled in his fall : his body was bur- ied under the staircase of the palace ; and the grateful poster- ity of the Lombards revered the tomb and the memory of their victorious leader. The ambitious Rosamond aspired to reign in the name of her lover ; the city and palace of Verona were awed by her Her flight power ; and a faithful band of her native Gepidae and death. wag p re p are d to applaud the revenge and to second the wishes of their sovereign. But the Lombard chiefs, who fled in the first moments of consternation and disorder, had resumed their courage and collected their powers; and the nation, instead of submitting to her reign, demanded with unanimous cries that justice should be executed on the guilty spouse and the murderers of their king. She sought a refuge among the enemies of her country, and a criminal who de- served the abhorrence of mankind was protected by the self- ish policy of the exarch. With her daughter, the heiress of the Lombard throne, her two lovers, her trusty Gepidse, and the spoils of the palace of Yerona, Rosamond descended the Adige and the Po, and was transported by a Greek vessel to the safe harbor of Ravenna. Longinus beheld with delight the charms and the treasures of the widow of Alboin: her situation and her past conduct might justify the most licen- tious proposals, and she readily listened to the passion of a minister who, even in the decline of the empire, was respect- ed as the equal of kings. The death of a jealous lover was an easy and grateful sacrifice, and as Helmichis issued from the bath he received the deadly potion from the hand of his mistress. The taste of the liquor, its speedy operation, and 534 CLEPHO, KING OF THE LOMBARDS. [CH.XLY4 his experience of the character of Rosamondj convinced him that he was poisoned ; he pointed his dagger to her breast, compelled her to drain the remainder of the cup, and ex- pired in a few minutes with the consolation that she could not survive to enjoy the fruits of her wickedness. The daugh- ter of Alboin and Rosamond, with the richest spoils of the Lombards, was embarked for Constantinople : the surprising strength of Peredeus amused and terrified the imperial court; a his blindness and revenge exhibited an imperfect copy of the adventures of Samson. By the free suffrage of the nation in ho the assembly of Pavia, Clepho, one of their noblest fcmgof'the chiefs, was elected as the successor of Alboin. Be- a.d.5T3, ' fore the end of eighteen months the throne was polluted by a second murder: Clepho was stabbed by the hand of a domestic; the regal office was suspended above ten years during the minority of his son Autharis, and Italy was divided and oppressed by a ducal aristocracy of thirty tyrants." When the nephew of Justinian ascended the throne, he proclaimed a new era of happiness and glory. The annals of the second Justin 33 are marked with disgrace of the Em- abroad and misery at home. In the West the Ro- peror Justin. . m. . -i i ,-, i P -r -, , man empire was afflicted by the loss of Italy, the desolation of Africa, and the conquests of the Persians. In- justice prevailed both in the capital and the provinces : the rich trembled for their property, the poor for their safety ; the ordinary magistrates were ignorant or venal, the occasion- al remedies appear to have been arbitrary and violent, and 52 See the history of Paul, 1. ii. c. 28-32. I have borrowed some interesting circumstances from the Liber Pontificalis of Agnellus [c. 4] in Script. Rer. Ital. torn. ii. p. 124. Of all chronological guides Muratori is the safest. 23 The original authors for the reign of Justin the younger are Evagrius, Hist. Eccles. 1. v. c. 1-12 ; Theophanes, in Chronograph, p. 204-210 [torn. i. p. 373 seq., edit. Bonn]; Zonaras, torn. ii. 1. xiv. [c. 10] p. 70-72; Cedrenus, in Com- pend. p. 388-392 [torn. i. p. 680-688, edit. Bonn]. ■ He killed a lion. His eyes were put out by the timid Justin. Peredeus re- questing an interview, Justin substituted two Patricians, whom the blinded bar- barian stabbed to the heart with two concealed daggers. See Le Beau, vol. x. p. 99.— M. a.d. 573.] WEAKNESS OF JUSTIN II. 535 the complaints of the people could no longer be silenced by the splendid names of a legislator and a conqueror. The opinion which imputes to the prince all the calamities of his times may be countenanced by the historian as a serious truth or a salutary prejudice. Yet a candid suspicion will arise that the sentiments of Justin were pure and benevolent, and that he might have filled his station without reproach if the faculties of his mind had not been impaired by disease, which deprived the emperor of the use of his feet and con- fined him to the palace, a stranger to the complaints of the people and the vices of the government. The tardy knowl- edge of his own impotence determined him to lay down the weight of the diadem, and in the choice of a worthy substi- tute he showed some symptoms of a discerning and even magnanimous spirit. The only son of Justin and Sophia died in his infancy ; their daughter Arabia was the wife of Baduarius/ 4 superintendent of the palace, and afterwards commander of the Italian armies, who vainly aspired to con- firm the rights of marriage by those of adoption. While the empire appeared an object of desire, Justin was accustomed to behold with jealousy and hatred his brothers and cousins, the rivals of his hopes ; nor could he depend on the gratitude of those who would accept the purple as a restitution rather than a gift. Of these competitors one had been removed by exile, and afterwards by death ; and the emperor himself had inflicted such cruel insults on another, that he must either dread his resentment or despise his patience. This domestic animosity was refined into a generous resolution of seeking a successor, not in his family, but in the republic ; and the artful Sophia recommended Tiberius," his faithful captain of 54 Dispositor que novus sacras Baduarius aula?. Successor soceri mox factus Cura-palati. — Corippus. Baduarius is enumerated among the descendants and allies of the House of Jus- tinian. A family of noble Venetians (Casa Badoero) built churches and gave dukes to the republic as early as the ninth century ; and, if their descent be ad- mitted, no kings in Europe can produce a pedigree so ancient and illustrious. Ducange, Fam. Byzantin. p. 99. Amelot de la Houssaye, Gouvernement de Ve- hise, torn. ii. p. 555. 26 The praise bestowed on princes before their elevation is the purest and most 536 ASSOCIATION OF TIBERIUS. [Ch. XLV. the guards, whose virtues and fortune the emperor might Association cherish as the fruit of his judicious choice. The I'dK™ 8, ceremony of his elevation to the rank of Caesar or December. Augustus was performed in the portico of the pal- ace in the presence of the patriarch and the senate. Justin collected the remaining strength of his mind and body ; but the popular belief that his speech was inspired by the Deity betrays a very humble opinion both of the man and of the times. 29 " You behold," said the emperor, " the ensigns of eupreme power. You are about to receive them, not from my hand, but from the hand of God. Honor them, and from them you will derive honor. Respect the empress your mother ; you are now her son ; before, you were her servant. Delight not in blood ; abstain from revenge ; avoid those ac- tions by which I have incurred the public hatred ; and con- sult the experience, rather than the example, of your pred- ecessor. As a man, I have sinned ; as a sinner, even in this life, I have been severely punished : but these servants " (and he pointed to his ministers), " who have abused my confidence and inflamed my passions, will appear with me before the tribunal of Christ. I have been dazzled by the splendor of the diadem : be thou wise and modest ; remember what yon have been, remember what you are. You see around us your slaves and your children ; with the authority, assume the tenderness of a parent. Love your people like yourself; cultivate the affections, maintain the discipline, of the army ; protect the fortunes of the rich, relieve the necessities of the poor." 27 The assembly, in silence and in tears, applauded weighty. Corippus has celebrated Tiberius at the time of the accession of Justin (1. i. 212-222). Yet even a captain of the guards might attract the flattery of an African exile. 26 Evagrius (1. v. c. 13) has added the reproach to his ministers. He applies this speech to the ceremony when Tiberius was invested with the rank of CEesar. The loose expression, rather than the positive error, of Theophanes, etc., has delayed it to his Augustan investiture, immediately before the death of Justin. 21 Theophylact Simocatta (1. iii. c. 11 [p. 136, edit. Bonn]) declares that ha shall give to posterity the speech of Justin as it was pronounced, without attempt- ing to correct the imperfections of language or rhetoric. Perhaps the vain soph' 1st would have been incapable of producing such sentiments. a.d. 578.] DEATH OF JUSTIN II. 537 the counsels and sympathized with the repentance of their prince : the patriarch rehearsed the prayers of the Church ; Tiberius received the diadem on his knees; and Justin, who in his abdication appeared most worthy to reign, addressed the new monarch in 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 have neglected or Death of forgotten," The four last years of the Emperor a").'^ 11 ' Justin were passed in tranquil obscurity : his con- octobers. science was no longer tormented by the remem- brance of those duties which he was incapable of discharging, and his choice was justified by the filial reverence and grati- tude of Tiberius. Among the virtues of Tiberius, 28 his beauty (he was one of the tallest and most comely of the Romans) might introduce Reign of nnn to the favor of Sophia ; and the widow of Jus- ™%is, IL tm was persuaded that she should preserve her sta- aTjJ^ tion and influence under the reign of a second and Aug. 14. more youthful husband. But if the ambitious can- didate had been tempted to flatter and dissemble, it was no longer in his power to fulfil her expectations or his own promise. The factions of the hippodrome demanded with some impatience the name of their new empress; both the people and Sophia were astonished by the proclamation of Anastasia, the secret though lawful wife of the Emperor Tiberius. "Whatever could alleviate the disappointment of Sophia, imperial honors, a stately palace, a numerous house- hold, was liberally bestowed by the piety of her adopted son ; on solemn occasions he attended and consulted the widow of his benefactor, but her ambition disdained the vain semblance of royalty, 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 58 For the character and reign of Tiberius see Evagrins, 1. v. c. 13; Theophylact, 1. iii. c. 12, etc. ; Theophanes, in Chron. p. 210-213 [edit. Par. ; torn. i. p. 382-388, edit. Bonn]; Zonaras,tom. ii. 1. xiv. [c. 11] p. 72; Cedienus,p. 392 [torn. i. p. 688, edit. Bonn] ; Paul AVarnefrid, De Gestis Langobard. 1. iii. c. 11, 12. The deacon of Forum Julii appears to have possessed some curious and authentic facts. 538 REIGN OF TIBERIUS II. [Ch. XLV. expressions of regard and confidence, a secret alliance was concluded between the dowager-empress and her ancient ene- mies ; and Justinian, the son of Germanus, was employed as the instrument of her revenge. The pride of the reigning house supported with reluctance the dominion of a stranger : the youth was deservedly popular, his name after the death of Justin had been mentioned by a tumultuous faction, and his own submissive offer of his head, with a treasure of sixty thousand pounds, might be interpreted as an evidence of guilt, or at least of fear. Justinian received a free pardon, and the command of the Eastern army. The Persian mon- arch fled before his arms, and the acclamations which accom- panied his triumph declared him worthy of the purple. His artful patroness had chosen the month of the vintage, while the emperor, in a rural solitude, was permitted to enjoy the pleasures of a subject. On the first intelligence of her de- signs he returned to Constantinople, and the conspiracy was suppressed by his presence and firmness. From the pomp and honors which she had abused, Sophia was reduced to a modest allowance ; Tiberius dismissed her train, intercepted her correspondence, and committed to a faithful guard the custody of her person. But the services of Justinian were not considered by that excellent prince as an aggravation of his offences : after a mild reproof his treason and ingratitude were forgiven, and it was commonly believed that the emper- or entertained some thoughts of contracting a double alliance with the rival of his throne. The voice of an angel (such a fable was propagated) might reveal to the emperor that he should always triumph over his domestic foes, but Tiberius derived a firmer assurance from the innocence and generosity of his own mind. "With the odious name of Tiberius he assumed the more popular appellation of Constantine, and imitated the purer . virtues of the Antonines. After recording the vice or folly of so many Roman princes, it is pleas- ing to repose for a moment on a character conspicuous by the qualities of humanity, justice, temperance, and fortitude ; to contemplate a sovereign affable in his palace, pious in the A-D.57&-582.] HIS VIRTUES. 539 Church, impartial on the seat of judgment, and victorious, at least by his generals, in the Persian war. The most glorious trophy of his victory consisted in a multitude of captives, whom Tiberius entertained, redeemed, and dismissed to their native homes with the charitable spirit of a Christian hero. The merit or misfortunes of his own subjects had a dearer claim to his beneficence, and he measured his bounty not so much by their expectations as by his own dignity. This maxim, however dangerous in a trustee of the public wealth, was balanced by a principle of humanity and justice, which taught him to abhor, as of the basest alloy, the gold that was extracted from the tears of the people. For their relief, as often as they had suffered by natural or hostile calamities, he was impatient to remit the arrears of the past or the demands of future taxes : he sternly rejected the servile offerings of his ministers, which were compensated by tenfold oppression ; and the wise and equitable laws of Tiberius excited the praise and regret of succeeding times. Constantinople believed that the emperor had discovered a treasure ; but his genuine treas- ure consisted in the practice of liberal economy, and the con- tempt of all vain and superfluous expense. The Romans of the East would have been happy if the best gift of Heaven, a patriot king, had been confirmed as a proper and permanent blessing. But in less than four years after the death of Jus- tin, his worthy successor sunk into a mortal disease, which left him only sufficient time to restore the diadem, according to the tenure by which he held it, to the most deserving of his fellow -citizens. He selected Maurice from the crowd — a judgment more precious than the purple itself : the patriarch and senate were summoned to the bed of the dying prince ; he bestowed his daughter and the empire, and his last advice was solemnly delivered by the voice of the quaestor. Tiberius expressed his hope that the virtues of his son and successor would erect the noblest mausoleum to his memory. His memory was embalmed by the public affliction ; but the most sincere grief evaporates in the tumult of a new reign, and the eyes and acclamations of mankind were speedily directed to the rising sun. 540 REIGN OF MAURICE. [Ch. XLV. The Emperor Maurice derived his origin from ancient Rome ; 2 * but his immediate parents were settled at Arabissus, The reign i n Cappadocia, and their singular felicity preserved °J.^m% ce ' them alive to behold and partake the fortune of a.d?'602~ their august son. The youth of Maurice was spent Nov. 27. i n f^g p ro f ess i on f arms: Tiberius promoted him to the command of a new and favorite legion of twelve thou- sand confederates; his valor and conduct were signalized in the Persian war; and he returned to Constantinople to ac- cept, as his just reward, the inheritance of the empire. Mau- rice ascended the throne at the mature age of forty- three years ; and he reigned above twenty years over the East and over himself; 30 expelling from his mind the wild democracy of passions, and establishing (according to the quaint expres- sion of Evagrius) a perfect aristocracy of reason and virtue. Some suspicion will degrade the testimony of a subject, though he protests that his secret praise should never reach the ear of his sovereign, 31 and some failings seem to place the character of Maurice below the purer merit of his predeces- sor. His cold and reserved demeanor might be imputed to arrogance; his justice was not always exempt from cruelty, nor his clemency from weakness ; and his rigid economy too often exposed him to the reproach of avarice. But the ra- tional wishes of an absolute monarch must tend to the hap- piness of his people : Maurice was endowed with sense and 29 It Is therefore singular enough that Paul (1. iii. c. 15) should distinguish him sis the first Greek emperor — "Primus ex Graecorum genere in Imperio constitutus" [confirmatus]. His immediate predecessors had indeed been born in the Latin provinces of Europe ; and a various reading, in Gnecorum Imperio, would apply the expression to the empire rather than the prince. 30 Consult, for the character and reign of Maurice, the fifth and sixth books of Evagrius, particularly 1. vi. c. 1 ; the eight books of his prolix and florid history by Theophylact Simocatta; Theophanes, p. 213, etc. [torn. i. p. 288 seq., edit. Bonn] ; Zonaras, torn. ii. 1. xiv. [c. 12] p. 73 ; Cedrenus, p. 394 [torn. i. p. 691, edit. Bonn]. 31 AvTOKparup ovtq yzvojitvog rrjv fitv ox^oicpartiav ruiv ira9£>v tK rrjg oiKtictQ £%Evri\aTT]

. 003, etc ill . i ambassador Linus, who had presented him with the heads of Maurice and his sons, was the best qualified to de- scribe the circumstances of the tragic scene. 55 However it might be varnished by fiction or sophistry, Chosroes turned with horror from the assassin, imprisoned the pretended en- voy, disclaimed the usurper, and declared himself the avenger of his father and benefactor. The sentiments of grief and resentment, which humanity would feel and honor would dic- tate, promoted on this occasion the interest of the Persian king, and his interest was powerfully magnified by the national and religious prejudices of the Magi and satraps. In a strain of artful adulation, which assumed the language of freedom, they presumed to censure the excess of his gratitude and friendship for the Greeks, a nation with whom it was danger- ous to conclude either peace or alliance, whose superstition was devoid of truth and justice, and who must be incapable of any virtue since they could perpetrate the most atrocious 64 See the tyranny of Phocas and the elevation of Heraclius, in Chron. Pas- chal, p. 380-383 [torn. i. p. 694-701, edit. Bonn]; Theophancs, p. 242-250 [torn. i. p. 446-459, edit. Bonn]; Nicephorus, p. 3-7 [edit. Par. 1648]; Cedre- nus, p. 404-407 [torn. i. p. 708-714, edit. Bonn] ; Zonaras, torn. ii. 1. xiv. [c. 14, 15] p. 80-82. 65 Theophylact, 1. viii. c. 15 [p. 346, edit. Bonn]. The Life of Maurice was composed about the year 628 (1. viii. c. 13) by Theophylact Simocatta, ex-praefect, a native of Egypt. Photius, who gives an ample extract of the work (cod. lxv. p. 81-100 [p. 27-33, edit. Bekk.]), gently reproves the affectation and allegory of the style. His preface is a dialogue between Philosophy and History ; they seat themselves under a plane-tree, and the latter touches her lyre. A.D.G03.] CHOSROES INVADES THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 599 of crimes, the impious murder of their sovereign. 68 For the crime of an ambitious centurion the nation which he oppress- ed was chastised with the calamities of war, and the same ca- lamities, at the end of twenty years, were retaliated and re- doubled on the heads of the Persians." The general who had restored Chosroes to the throne still commanded in the East, and the name of JSTarses was the formidable sound with which the Assyrian mothers were accustomed to terrify their infants. It is not improbable that a native subject of Per- sia should encourage his master and his friend to deliver and possess the provinces of Asia. It is still more probable that Chosroes should animate his troops by the assurance that the sword which they dreaded the most would remain in its scab- bard or be drawn in their favor. The hero could not depend on the faith of a tyrant, and the tyrant was conscious how lit- tle he deserved the obedience of a hero. Narses was removed from his military command ; he reared an independent stand- ard at Hierapolis, in Syria; he was betrayed by fallacious prom- ises, and burned alive in the market-place of Constantinople. Deprived of the only chief whom they could fear or esteem, the bands which he had led to victory were twice broken by the cavalry, trampled by the elephants, and pierced by the ar- rows of the barbarians ; and a great number of the captives were beheaded on the field of battle by the sentence of the victor, who might justly condemn these seditious mercenaries as the authors or accomplices of the death of Maurice. Un- der the reign of Phocas, the fortifications of Merdin, Dara, 66 "Christianis nee pactum esse, nee fidera nee fcedus*** quod si ulla ipsis fides fuisset, regem suum non occidissent" (Eutych. Annales, torn. ii. p. 211, vers. Pocock). 67 We must now, for some ages, take our leave of contemporary historians, and descend, if it be a descent, from the affectation of rhetoric to the rude simplicity of chronicles and abridgments. Those of Theophanes (Chronograph, p. 244-279 [torn. i. p. 449-516, edit. Bonn] and Nicephorus (p. 3-16) supply a regular, but imperfect, series of the Persian war ; and for any additional facts I quote my spe- cial authorities. Theophanes, a courtier who became a monk, was born a.d. 748 ; Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople, who died a.d. 829, was somewhat young er : they both suffered in the cause of images. Hankius, De Scriptoribus Byzan« tinis, p. 200-246. 600 CONQUESTS OF CHOSROES. [Ch. XLV1, Amida, and Edessa were successively besieged, reduced, and destroyed by the Persian monarch; he passed the His conquest _ , J J . , ,. _. . .'. JL. .. of Syria, Euphrates, occupied the byrian cities, Hierapolis, Chalcis, and Berrhcea or Aleppo, and soon encom- passed the walls of Antioch with his irresistible arms. The rapid tide of success discloses the decay of the empire, the in- capacity of Phocas, and the disaffection of his subjects ; and Chosroes provided a decent apology for their submission or revolt by an impostor who attended his camp as the son of Maurice 68 and the lawful heir of the monarchy. The first intelligence from the East which Heraclius re- ceived 69 was that of the loss of Antiocli ; but the aged me- tropolis, so often overturned by earthquakes and pillaged by the enemy, could supply but a small and languid stream of treasure and blood. The Persians were equally successful and more fortunate in the sack of Csesarea, the capital of Cap- padocia; and as they advanced beyond the ramparts of the frontier, the boundary of ancient war, they found a less obsti- nate resistance and a more plentiful harvest. The pleasant vale of Damascus has been adorned in every age with a royal city : her obscure felicity has hitherto escaped the historian of the Koman empire : but Chosroes reposed his troops in the of Palestine, paradise of Damascus before he ascended the hills a.d.614; £ inarms or invaded the cities of the Phoenician coast. The conquest of Jerusalem, 60 which had been meditated s8 The Persian historians have been themselves deceived ; but Theophanes (p. 244 [torn. i. p. 449, edit. Bonn]) accuses Chosroes of the fraud and falsehood; and Eutychius believes (Annal. torn. ii. p. 211) that the son of Maurice, who was saved from the assassins, lived and died a monk on Mount Sinai. 6 ' Eutychius dates all the losses of the empire under the reign of Phocas ; an error which saves the honor of Heraclius, whom he brings not from Carthage, but Salonica, with a fleet laden with vegetables for the relief of Constantinople (An- nal. torn. ii. p. 223, 224). The other Christians of the East, Barhebraus (apud Asseman, Bibliothec. Oriental, torn. iii. p. 412, 413), Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 13-16), Abulpharagius (Dynast, p. 98, 99), are more sincere and accurate. The years of the Persian war are disposed in the chronology of Pagi. 60 On the conquest of Jerusalem, an event so interesting to the Church, see the Annals of Eutychius (torn. ii. p. 212-223), and the lamentations of the monk Anti- ochus (apud Baronium, Annal. Eccles. a.d. 614, No. 16-26), whose one hundred and twenty-nine homilies are still extant, if what no one reads may be said to be « a.d. 616.] CONQUESTS OF CHOSROES. 601 by Nushirvan, was achieved by the zeal and avarice of hia grandson ; the ruin of the proudest monument of Christianity was vehemently urged by the intolerant spirit of the Mag7* ; and he could enlist for this holy warfare an army of six-and- twenty thousand Jews, whose furious bigotry might compen- sate in some degree for the want of valor and discipline.* After the reduction of Galilee and the region beyond the Jordan, whose resistance appears to have delayed the fate of the capital, Jerusalem itself was taken by assault. The sep- ulchre of Christ and the stately churches of Helena and Con- stantine were consumed, or at least damaged, by the flames; the devout offerings of three hundred years were rifled in one sacrilegious day ; the Patriarch Zachariah and the true cross were transported into Persia; and the massacre of ninety thousand Christians is imputed to the Jews and Arabs, who swelled the disorder of the Persian march. The fugitives of Palestine were entertained at Alexandria by the charity of John the Archbishop, who is distinguished among a crowd of saints by the epithet of alms-giver ; ei and the revenues of the Church, with a treasure of three hundred thousand pounds, were restored to the true proprietors, the poor of every coun- try and every denomination. But Egypt itself, the only province which had been exempt since the time of Diocletian from foreign and domestic war, was again subdued by the of Egypt, successors of Cyrus. Pelusium, the key of that im- a.b.616; pervious country, was surprised by the cavalry of the Persians: they passed with impunity the innumerable channels of the Delta, and explored the long valley of the JSTile from the pyramids of Memphis to the confines of ^Ethi- opia. Alexandria might have been relieved by a naval force, but the archbishop and the praefect embarked for Cyprus; and Chosroes entered the second city of the empire, which still preserved a wealthy remnant of industry and commerce. 41 The Life of this worthy saint is composed by Leontius, a contemporary bish- op; and I find in Baronius (Annal. Eccles. a.d. 610, No. 10, etc.) and Fleurj (torn. viii. p 235-242) sufficient extracts of this edifying work. • See Hist, of Jews, vol. iii. p. 240.— M. 602 REIGN AND MAGNIFICENCE OF CHOSROES. [Ch.XLVL His western trophy was erected, not on the walls of Carthage," but in the neighborhood of Tripoli : the Greek colonies of Cyrene were finally extirpated ; and the conqueror, treading in the footsteps of Alexander, returned in triumph through the sands of the Libyan desert. In the same cam- Minor, paign another army advanced from the Euphrates to the Thracian Bosphorus ; Chalcedon surrendered after a long siege, and a Persian camp was maintained above ten years in the presence of Constantinople. The sea-coast of Pontus, the city of Ancyra, and the Isle of Rhodes are enumerated among the last conquests of the Great King; and if Chosroes had possessed any maritime power, his boundless ambition would have spread slavery and desolation over the provinces of Europe. From the long-disputed banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, the reign of the grandson of Nushirvan was suddenly extend- ed to the Hellespont and the Nile, the ancient lim- sind mag- its of the Persian monarchy. But the provinces, which had been fashioned by the habits of six hun- dred years to the virtues and vices of the Roman government, supported with reluctance the yoke of the barbarians. The idea of a republic was kept alive by the institutions, or at least by the writings, of the Greeks and Romans, and the subjects of Heraclius had been educated to pronounce the words of liberty and law. But it has always been the pride and policy of Oriental princes to display the titles and attributes of their omnipotence ; to upbraid a nation of slaves with their true name and abject condition ; and to enforce, by cruel and in- solent threats, the rigor of their absolute commands. The Christians of the East were scandalized by the worship of fire and the impious doctrine of the two principles : the Magi were not less intolerant than the bishops ; and the martyrdom of some native Persians who had deserted the religion of Zo- •* The error of Baronius, and many others who have carried the arms of Chos- roes to Carthage instead of Chalcedon, is founded on the near resemblance of the Greek words KaXxn^ova and Kapxhdova, in the text of Theophanes, etc., which have been sometimes confounded by transcribers, and sometimes bv critics. A.D. 616.] EEIGN AND MAGNIFICENCE OF CHOSBOES. 6 33 roaster* 3 was conceived to be the prelude of a fierce and gen- eral persecution. By the oppressive laws of Justinian the ad- versaries of the Church were made the enemies of the State; the alliance of the Jews, Nestorians, and Jacobites had con- tributed to the success of Chosroes, and his partial favor to the sectaries provoked the hatred and fears of the Catholic clergy. Conscious of their fear and hatred, the Persian con- queror governed his new subjects with an iron sceptre ; and, as if he suspected the stability of his dominion, he exhausted their wealth by oxorbitant tributes and licentious rapine ; de- spoiled or demolished the temples of the East ; and transport- ed 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 not easy to discern the figure of Chosroes himself, to separate his ac- tions from those of his lieutenants, or to ascertain his person- al merit in the general blaze of glory and magnificence. He enjoyed with ostentation the fruits of victory, and frequently retired from the hardships of war to the luxury of the palace. But, in the space of twenty-four years, he was deterred by su- perstition or resentment from approaching the gates of Ctes- iphon : and his favorite residence of Artemita, or Dastagerd, was situate beyond the Tigris, about sixty miles to the north of the capital. 65 The adjacent pastures were covered with flocks and herds : the paradise or park was replenished with pheasants, peacocks, ostriches, roebucks, and wild-boars ; and the noble game of lions and tigers was sometimes turned loose for the bolder pleasures of the chase. Nine hundred and sixty elephants were maintained for the use or splendor of the Great King ; his tents and baggage were carried into 63 The genuine acts of St. Anastasius are published in those of the seventh gen- eral council, from whence Baronius (Annal. Eccles. a.d. 614, 626, 627) and But- ler (Lives of the Saints, vol. i. p. 242-248) have taken their accounts. The holy martyr deserted from the Persian to the Roman army, became a monk at Jerusa- lem, and insulted the worship of the Magi, which was then established at Caesarea, in Palestine. 64 Abulpharagius, Dynast, p. 99 ; Elmacin, Hist. Saracen, p. 14. u D'Anville* Me'ro. de TAcademie des Inscriptions, torn, xxxii, p. 568-571. 604 REIGN AND MAGNIFICENCE OF CHOSROES. [Ch. XLVI the field by twelve 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 Sheb- diz and Barid are renowned for their speed or beauty . a Six thousand guards successively mounted before the palace gate ; the service of the interior apartments was performed by twelve thousand slaves; and in the number of three thou- sand virgins, the fairest of Asia, some happy concubine might console her master for the age or the indifference of Sira„ The various treasures of gold, silver, gems, silk, and aromatics were deposited in a hundred subterraneous vaults ; and the chamber Badaverd denoted the accidental gift of the winds which had wafted the spoils of Heraclius into one of the Syr- ian harbors of his rival. The voice of flattery, and perhaps of fiction, is not ashamed to compute the thirty thousand rich hangings that adorned the walls ; the forty thousand columns of silver, or more probably of marble, and plated wood, that supported the roof; and the thousand globes of gold sus- pended in the dome, to imitate the motions of the planets and the constellations of the zodiac. 67 While the Persian monarch contemplated the wonders of his art and power, he received an epistle from an obscure citizen of Mecca, inviting him to acknowledge Mahomet as the apostle of God. He re- jected the invitation, and tore the epistle. " It is thus," ex- claimed the Arabian prophet, " that God will tear the king- 66 The difference between the two races consists in one or two humps; the dromedary has only one ; the size of the proper camel is larger ; the country h6 comes from, Turkistan or Bactriana ; the dromedary is confined to Arabia and Africa. Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, torn. xi. p. 211, etc. ; Aristot. Hist. Animal, torn. i. 1. ii. c. 1 ; torn. ii. p. 185. 61 Theophanes, Chronograph, p. 268 [torn. i. p. 494, edit. Bonn]. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 997. The Greeks describe the decay, the Persians the splendor, of Dastagerd ; but the former speak from the modest witness of the eye, the latter from the vague report of the ear. ■ The ruin9 of these scenes of Khoosroo's magnificence have 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 this passage. Travels, vol. ii. p. 204. Kisra Shirene, which he afterwards examined, appears to have been the palace of Das- tagerd, vol. ii. p. 173-175.— M. a.d. 610-622.] DISTRESS OF HERACLIUS. C05 dom and reject the supplications of Chosroes." 8 ** Placed on the verge of the two great empires of the East, Mahomet observed with secret joy the progress of their mutual de- struction ; and in the midst of the Persian triumphs he vent- ured to foretell that, before many years should elapse, victory would again return to the banners of the Romans. 8 * At the time when this prediction is said to have been de- livered, no prophecy could be more distant from its accom- plishment, since the first twelve years of Hera.clius HeraciiuB. announced the approaching dissolution of the em- pire. If the motives of Chosroes had been pure and honorable, he must have ended the quarrel with the death of Phocas, and he would have embraced, as his best ally, the fortunate African who had so generously avenged the inju- ries of his benefactor Maurice. The prosecution of the war revealed the true character of the barbarian ; and the suppli- ant embassies of Heraclius to beseech his clemency, that he would spare the innocent, accept a tribute, and give peace to the world, were rejected with contemptuous silence or inso- lent menace. Syria, Egypt, and the provinces of Asia were 68 The historians of Mahomet, Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed, p. 92, 93) and Gagmer (Vie de Mahomet, torn. ii. p. 247), date this embassy in the seventh rear of the Hegira, which commences a.d. 628, May 11. Their chronology is errone- ous, since Chosroes died in the month of February of the same year (Pagi, Criti- ca, torn. ii. p. 779). The Count de Boulainvilliers (Vie de Mahomed, p. 327, 328) places this embassy about a.d. 615, soon after the conquest of Palestine. Yet Mahomet would scarcely have ventured so soon on so bold a step. 69 See the thirtieth chapter of the Koran, entitled the Greeks. Our honest and learned translator, Sale (p. 330, 331), fairly states this conjecture, guess, wager, of Mahomet ; but Boulainvilliers (p. 329-34-1), with wicked intentions, labors to es- tablish this evident prophecy of a future event, which must, in his opinion, embar- rass the Christian polemics. a Khoosroo Purveez was encamped on the banks of the Karasoo River when he received the letter of Mahomed. He tore the letter and threw it into the Karasoo. For this action the moderate author of the Zeenut-ul-Tuarikh calls him a wretch, and rejoices in all his subsequent misfortunes. These impressions still exist. I remarked to a Persian, when encamped near the Karasoo. in 1800, that the banks were very high, which must make it difficult to apply its waters to irrigation. "It once fertilized the whole country, 1 ' said the zealous Mahometan, ''but its channel sunk with horror from its banks when that madman, Khoosroo, threw our holy Prophet's letter into its stream ; which has ever since been accursed and useless." Malcolm's Persia, vol. L p. 126.— M. 606 DISTRESS OF HERACLIUS. [Ch. X LVL subdued by the Persian arms ; while Europe, from the con- fines of Istria to the long wall of Thrace, was oppressed by the Avars, unsatiated with the blood and rapine of the Italian war. They had coolly massacred their male captives in the eacred field of Pannonia; the women and children were re- duced to servitude, and the noblest virgins were abandoned to the promiscuous lust of the barbarians. The amorous ma- tron who opened the gates of Friuli passed a short night in the arms of her royal lover; the next evening Komilda was condemned to the embraces of twelve Avars ; and, the third day, the Lombard princess was impaled in the sight of the camp, while the chagan observed, with a cruel smile, that such a husband was the fit recompense of her lewdness and per- fidy. 70 By these implacable enemies Heraclius, on either side, was insulted and besieged : and the Roman empire was re- duced to the walls of Constantinople, with the remnant of Greece, Italy, and Africa, and some maritime cities, from Tyre to Trebizond, of the Asiatic coast. After the loss of Egypt the capital was afflicted by "famine and pestilence; and the emperor, incapable of resistance and hopeless of relief, had resolved to transfer his person and government to the more secure residence of Carthage. His ships were already laden with the treasures of the palace ; but his flight was arrested by the patriarch, who armed the powers of religion in the de- fence of his country, led Heraclius to the altar of St. Sophia, and extorted a solemn oath that he would live and die with the people whom God had intrusted to his care. The cha- gan was encamped in the plains of Thrace ; but he dissembled his perfidious designs, and solicited an interview with the em- peror near the town of Heraclea. Their reconciliation was celebrated with equestrian games ; the senate and people, in their gayest apparel, resorted to the festival of peace ; and the Avars beheld, with envy and desire, the spectacle of Ro- man luxury. On a sudden the hippodrome was encompass- ed by the Scythian cavalry, who had pressed their secret and nocturnal march: the tremendous sound of the chagan's whip 10 Paul Warnefrid, De Gestis Langobardoium, 1. iv. c. 38, 42 ; Muratori, An- nali d'ltalia, torn. v. p. 305, etc. A.D. 610-6S2.] HE SOLICITS PEACE. 607 gave the signal of the assault; and Heraclius, wrapping his diadem round his arm, was saved, with extreme hazard, by the fleetness of his horse. So rapid was the pursuit, that the Avars almost entered the golden gate of Constantinople with the flying crowds :" but the plunder of the suburbs rewarded their treason, and they transported beyond the Danube two 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 gal- ley, saluted with reverence and pity the majesty of the pur- ple. The friendly offer of Sain, the Persian general, to con- He solicits duct an embassy to the presence of the Great King peace - was accepted with the warmest gratitude; and the prayer for pardon and peace was humbly presented by the praetorian praefect, the praefect of the city, and one of the first ecclesiastics of the patriarchal Church." But the lieu- tenant of Chosroes had fatally mistaken the intentions of his master. " It was not an embassy," said the tyrant of Asia ; "it was the person of Heraclius, bound in chains, that he should have brought to the foot of my throne. I will never give peace to the Emperor of Rome till he has abjured his crucified God and embraced the worship of the sun." Sain was flayed alive, according to the inhuman practice of his country; and the separate and rigorous confinement of the ambassadors violated -the law of nations and the faith of an express stipulation. Yet the experience of six years at length persuaded the Persian monarch to renounce the conquest of Constantinople, and to specify the annual tribute or ransom of the Roman empire : a thousand talents of gold, a thousand talents of silver, a thousand silk robes, a thousand horses, and a thousand virgins. Heraclius subscribed these ignominious 71 The Paschal Chronicle, which sometimes introduces fragments of history into a barren list of names and dates, gives the best account of the treason of the Avars, p. 389, 390 [torn. i. p. 712 seq., edit. Bonn]. The number of captives is added by Nicephorus. 72 Some original pieces, such as the speech or letter of the Eoman ambassadors (p. 386-388 [edit. Par. ; torn. i. p. 707-709, edit. Bonn]), likewise constitute the merit of the Paschal Chronicle, which was composed, perhaps at Alexandria, un« der the reign of Heraclius. 608 HERACLIUS PREPARES FOR WAR. [Ch. XLVt terms ; but the time and space which he obtained to collect Such treasures from the poverty of the East was industriously employed in the preparations of a bold and desperate attack. Of the characters conspicuous in history, that of Heraclius is one of the most extraordinary and inconsistent. In the first and the last years of a long reign the emperor tions for war. appears to be the slave of sloth, of pleasure, or of A.D. 621. l r . . , n , . r superstition; the careless and impotent spectator of the public calamities. But the languid mists of the morn- ing and evening are separated by the brightness of the me- ridian sun : the Arcadius of the palace arose the Csesar of the camp; and the honor of Rome and Heraclius was gloriously retrieved by the exploits and trophies of six adventurous campaigns. It was the duty of the Byzantine historians to fcave revealed the causes of his slumber and vigilance. At this distance we can only conjecture that he was endowed with more personal courage than political resolution ; that he was detained by the charms, and perhaps the arts, of his niece Martina, with whom, after the death of Eudocia, he contract- ed an incestuous marriage ;" and that he yielded to the base advice of the counsellors who urged, as a fundamental law, that the life of the emperor should never be exposed in the field. 74 Perhaps he was awakened by the last insolent de- mand of the Persian conqueror ; but at the moment when Heraclius assumed the spirit of a hero, the only hopes of the Romans were drawn from the vicissitudes of fortune, which might threaten the proud prosperity of Chosroes, and must be favorable to those who had attained the lowest period of depression." To provide for the expenses of war was the ,3 Nicephorus (p. 10, 11), who brands this marriage with the names of dOttr/iov and a9s[iiTov, is happy to observe, that of two sons, its incestuous fruit, the elder Was marked by Providence with a stiff neck, the younger with the loss of hearing. 14 George of Pisidia (Acroas. i. 112-125, p. 5), who states the opinions, acquits the pusillanimous counsellors of any sinister views. Would he have excused the proud and contemptuous admonition of Crispus ? 'Eiri9(i)7rTaZ(ov ovtc 'i'iov fiaoiXti iv iax ut instead, of a temporary and occasional alliance, they established, and we still embrace, the substantial, indissol- uble, and everlasting union of a perfect God with a perfect man, of the second person of the trinity with a reasonable soul and human flesh. In the beginning of the fifth century the tmity of the two natures was the prevailing doctrine of the Church. On all sides it was confessed that the mode of their co-existence could neither be represented by our ideas nor expressed by onr language. Yet a secret and incurable discord was cherished between those who were most appre- hensive of confounding, and those who were most fearful of separating, the divinity and the humanity of Christ. Impel- led by religious frenzy, they fled with adverse haste from the error which they mutually deemed most destructive, of truth and salvation. On either hand they were anxious to guard, they were jealous to defend, the union and the distinction of the two natures, and to invent such forms of speech, such symbols of doctrine, as were least susceptible of doubt or am- biguity. The poverty of ideas and language tempted them to ransack art and nature for every possible comparison, and each comparison misled their fancy in the explanation of an incomparable mystery. In the polemic microscope an atom is enlarged to a monster, and each party was skilful to exag- gerate the absurd or impious conclusions that might be ex- torted from the principles of their adversaries. To escape from each other they wandered through many a dark and devious thicket, till they were astonished by the horrid phan- toms of Cerinthus and Apollinaris, who guarded the opposite issues of the theological labyrinth. As soon as they beheld the twilight of sense and heresy, they started, measured bac£ A.D. 412-444.] CYRIL, PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA. 643 their steps, and were again involved in the gloom of impene- trable orthodoxy. To purge themselves from the guilt or re- proach of damnable error, they disavowed their consequences, explained their principles, excused their indiscretions, and unanimously pronounced the sounds of concord and faith. Yet a latent and almost invisible spark still lurked among the embers of controversy : by the breath of prejudice and pas- sion it was quickly kindled to a mighty name, and the verbal disputes 19 of the Oriental sects have shaken the pillars of the Church and State. The name of Ctkil of Alexandria is famous in controver- sial story, and the title of saint is a mark that his opinions and his party have finally prevailed. In the house triarc'hof of his uncle, the Archbishop Theophilus, he im- Alexandria. ,.,,-■, -, -, t /. i -i -i • • a.d.412, bibed the orthodox lessons of zeal and dominion, a.d.444, and five years of his youth were profitably spent in the adjacent monasteries of Mtria. Under the tuition of the Abbot Serapion, he applied himself to ecclesias- tical studies with such indefatigable ardor, that in the course of one sleepless night he has perused the four Gospels, the Catholic Epistles, and the Epistle to the Komans. Origen he detested; but the writings of Clemens and Dionysius, of Athanasius and Basil, were continually in his hands : by the theory and practice of dispute, his faith was confirmed and his wit was sharpened ; he extended round his cell the cob- webs of scholastic theology, and meditated the works of alle- gory and metaphysics, whose remains, in seven verbose folios, now peaceably slumber by the side of their rivals. 20 Cyrii 19 I appeal to the confession of two Oriental prelates, Gregory Abulpharagius, the Jacobite primate of the East, and Elias, the Nestorian metropolitan of Damas- cus (see Asseman, Bibliothec. Oriental, torn. ii. p. 291 ; torn. iii. p. 514, etc.), that the Melchites, Jacobites, Nestorians, etc., agree in the doctrine, and differ only in the expression. Our most learned and rational divines — Basnage, Le Clerc, Beau- sobre, La Croze, Mosheim, Jablonski — are inclined to favor this charitable judg- ment ; but the zeal of Petavius is loud and angry, and the moderation of Dupin is conveyed in a whisper. 20 La Croze (Hist, du Christianisme des Indes, torn. i. p. 24) avows his con- tempt for the genius and writings of Cyril — " De tous les ouvrages des auciens, il y en a peu qu'on Use avec moins d'utilite :" and Dupin (Bibliotheque Eeelesias* tique, torn. iv. p. 42-52), iu words of respect, teaches us to despise them. 644 TYRANNY OF CYRIL. [Ch. XLVII. prayed and fasted in the desert, but his thoughts (it is the re- proach of a friend 21 ) were still fixed on the world ; and the call of Theophilus. who summoned him to the tumult of cit- ies and synods, was too readily obeyed by the aspiring her- mit. With the approbation of his uncle, he assumed the office and acquired the fame of a popular preacher. His comely person adorned the pulpit ; the harmony of his voice resounded in the cathedral ; his friends were stationed to lead or second the applause of the congregation ; M and the hasty notes of the scribes preserved his discourses, which, in their effect, though not in their composition, might be compared with those of the Athenian orators. The death of Theoph- ilus expanded and realized the hopes of his nephew. The clergy of Alexandria was divided ; the soldiers and their gen- eral supported the claims of the archdeacon; but a resistless multitude, with voices and with hands, asserted the cause of their favorite ; and after a period of thirty-nine years Cyril was seated on the throne of Athanasius." The prize was not unworthy of his ambition. At a dis- tance from the court, and at the head of an immense capital, the Patriarch, as he was now styled, of Alexandria His tyranny. in -i i -i 1 • a.u.413,414, had gradually usurped the state and authority of a civil magistrate. The public and private charities of the city were managed by his discretion ; his voice in- flamed or appeased the passions of the multitude : his com- mands were blindly obeyed by his numerous and fanatic parabolani,™ familiarized in their daily office with scenes of 21 Of Isidore of Pelusium (1. i. Epist. 25, p. 8). As the letter is not of the most creditable sort, Tillemont, less sincere than the Bollandists, affects a doubt whether this Cyril is the nephew of Theophilus (Mem. Eccles. torn. xiv. p. 268). 22 A grammarian is named by Socrates (1. vii. c. 13) Siairvpog Sk aKpoarrjg ro& tiriGKOTrov KvpLXkov KaOsarujg, icai irspi to upbrovg iv ralg diSaaKaXlaig avrov iyei- pav rjv oirovSaioTCtrog. 23 See the youth and promotion of Cyril, in Socrates (1. vii. c. 7) and Renaudot (Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 106, 108). The Abbe Renaudot drew bis mate- rials from the Arabic history of Severus, Bishop of Hermopolis Magna, or Ash- munein, in the tenth century, who can never be trusted, unless our assent is ex- torted by the internal evidence of facts. 24 The Parabolani of Alexandria were a charitable corporation, instituted dur- ing the plague of Gallienus, to visit the sick and to bury the dead. They gradu- a.d. 413-415.] TYRANNY OF CYRIL. 645 death ; and the prefects of Egypt were awed or provoked by the temporal power of these Christian pontiffs. Ardent in the prosecution of heresy, Cyril auspiciously opened his reign by oppressing the Novatians, the most innocent and harmless of the sectaries. The interdiction of their religious worship appeared in his eyes a just and meritorious act ; and he con- fiscated their holy vessels, without apprehending the guilt of sacrilege. The toleration, and even the privileges of the Jews, who had multiplied to the number of forty thousand, were secured by the laws of the Caesars and Ptolemies, and a long prescription of seven hundred years since the foundation of Alexandria. Without any legal sentence, without any royal mandate, the patriarch, at the dawn of day, led a seditious multitude to the attack of the synagogues. Unarmed and unprepared, the Jews were incapable of resistance ; their houses of prayer were levelled with the ground, and the epis- copal warrior, after rewarding his troops with the plunder of their goods, expelled from the city the remnant of the unbe- lieving nation. Perhaps he might plead the insolence of their prosperity, and their deadly hatred of the Christians, whose blood they had recently shed in a malicious or accidental tumult. Such crimes would have deserved the animadver- sion of the magistrate; but in this promiscuous outrage the innocent were confounded with the guilty, and Alexandria was impoverished by the loss of a wealthy and industrious colony. The zeal of Cyril exposed him to the penalties of the Julian law; but in a feeble government and a superstitious age he was secure of impunity, and even of praise. Orestes complained ; but his just complaints were too quickly for- gotten by the ministers of Theodosius, and too deeply remem- bered by a priest who affected to pardon, and continued to hate, the Prgef ect of Egypt. As he passed through the streets his chariot was assaulted by a band of five hundred of the ally enlarged, abused, and sold the privileges of their order. Their outrageous conduct during the reign of Cyril provoked the emperor to deprive the patriarch of their nomination, and to restrain their number to fire or six hundred. But these restraints were transient and ineffectual. See the Theodosian Code, 1. xvi. tit. ii. [leg. 42], and Tillemont, Mem. Eccle"s. torn, xiv, p, 276-278. 643 TYEANNY OF CYRIL. tCH.XLVIL Nitrian monks ; his guards fled from the wild beasts of the desert ; his protestations that he was a Christian and a Cath- olic were answered by a volley of stones, and the face of Ores- tes was covered with blood. The loyal citizens of Alexandria hastened to his rescue ; he instantly satisfied his justice and revenge against the monk by whose hand he had been wound- ed, and Ammonius expired under the rod of the lictor. At the command of Cyril his body was raised from the ground, and transported in solemn procession to the cathedral ; the name of Ammonius was changed to that of Thaumasius, the wonderful • his tomb was decorated with the trophies of mar- tyrdom ; and the patriarch ascended the pulpit to celebrate the magnanimity of an assassin and a rebel. Such honors might incite the faithful to combat and die under the banners of the saint ; and he soon prompted, or accepted, the sacrifice of a virgin, who professed the religion of the Greeks, and cultivated the friendship of Orestes. Hypatia, the daughter of Theon the mathematician, 26 was initiated in her father's studies ; her learned comments have elucidated the geometry of Apollonius and Diophantus; and she publicly taught, both at Athens and Alexandria, the philosophy of Plato and Aris- totle. In the bloom of beauty, and in the maturity of wis- dom, the modest maid refused her lovers and instructed her disciples ; the persons most illustrious for their rank or merit were impatient to visit the female philosopher; and Cyril be- held with a jealous eye the gorgeous train of horses and slaves who crowded the door of her academy. A rumor was spread among the Christians that the daughter of Theon was the only obstacle to the reconciliation of the prsefect and the archbish- op ; and that obstacle was speedily removed. On a fatal day, in the holy season of Lent, Hypatia was torn from her chariot, 85 For Theon and his daughter Hypatia, see Fabricius, Bibliothec. torn. viii. p. 210, 211. Her article in the Lexicon of Suidas is curious and original. Hesy- chius (Meursii Opera, torn. vii. p. 295, 296) observes that she was persecuted fiia T-qv vTrtptaWovaav oo anc * envious priest, who perplexed the simplicity of the faith, violated the peace of the Church and State, and, by his artful and separate addresses to the wife and sister of Theodosius, presumed to suppose, or to scatter, the seeds of discord in the imperial family. At the stern command of his sovereign, Cyril had repaired to Ephesus, where he was resisted, threatened, and confined by the magistrates in the interest of !Nestorius and the Orientals, who assembled the troops of Lydia and Ionia to suppress the fanatic and disorderly train of the patriarch. Without ex- pecting the royal license, he escaped from his guards, precipi- tately embarked, deserted the imperfect synod, and retired to his episcopal fortress of safety and independence. But his artful emissaries, both in the court and city, successfully la- bored to appease the resentment, and to conciliate the favor, of the emperor. The feeble son of Arcadius was alternate- ly swayed by his wife and sister, by the eunuchs and women of the palace : superstition and avarice were their ruling pas- sions; and the orthodox chiefs were assiduous in their en- deavors to alarm the former and to gratify the latter. Con- stantinople and the suburbs were sanctified with frequent monasteries, and the holy abbots, Dalmatius and Eutyches, 49 had devoted their zeal and fidelity to the cause of Cyril, the worship of Mary, and the unity of Christ. From the first moment of their monastic life they had never mingled with the world, or trod the profane ground of the city. But in this awful moment of the danger of the Church, their vow 48 Tapaxrjv (says the emperor in pointed language) to ye inl >pi(Tfibv rdiQ tKKXrimaiQ ifi€e€XriKae * * * wc SrpaavripaQ opfirjg TrptirovariQ fiaXXov ij mpi- Gsiag * * * km TTOiKiXiag fiaXXov tovtojv rjfiiv dpKovarjC rjirep airX6Tj]TOQ * * * ■navTOQ fiaXXov »} Upewg * * * ret ti tuiv IkkXtjgiCjv, rd re rwv flamXewv fifXXeiv yupi^uv (5ovXao~Qat, wq ovk ovotjq cKpopfirje erspag EvSoKifirj(jeu)g. I should be curious to know how much Nestorius paid for these expressions, so mortifying to his rival. 49 Eutyches, the heresiarch Eutyches, is honorably named by Cyril as a friend, a saint, and the strenuous defender of the faith. His brother, the Abbot Dalma- tius, is likewise employed to bind the emperor and all his chamberlains terribili conjwatione. Synodicon, c. 203, in Concil. torn, iv, p. 467. A.D. 431-435.] VICTORY OF CYRIL. 657 was superseded by a more sublime and indispensable duty. At the head of a long order of monks and hermits, who car- ried burning tapers in their hands, and chanted litanies to the mother of God, they proceeded from their monasteries to the palace. The people were edified and inflamed by this extraordinary spectacle, and the trembling monarch listened to the prayers and adjurations of the saints, who boldly pro- nounced that none could hope for salvation unless they em- braced the person and the creed of the orthodox successor of Athanasins. At the same time every avenue of the throne was assaulted with gold. Under the decent names of eulogies and benedictions, the courtiers of both sexes were bribed ac- cording to the measure of their power and rapaciousness. But their incessant demands despoiled the sanctuaries of Con- stantinople and Alexandria; and the authority of the patri- arch was unable to silence the just murmur of his clergy, that a debt of sixty thousand pounds had already been contracted to support the expense of this scandalous corruption. 50 Pul- cheria, who relieved her brother from the weight of an em- pire, was the firmest pillar of orthodoxy ; and so intimate was the alliance between the thunders of the synod and the whispers of the court, that Cyril was assured of success if he could displace one eunuch, and substitute another in the fa- vor of Theodosius. Yet the Egyptian could not boast of a glorious or decisive victory. The emperor, with unaccustom- ed firmness, adhered to his promise of protecting the inno- cence of the Oriental bishops; and Cyril softened his anathe- mas, and confessed, with ambiguity and reluctance, a twofold nature of Christ, before he was permitted to satiate his re- venge against the unfortunate Nestorius." 50 "Clerici qui hie sunt contristantur, quod ecclesia Alexandrina nudata sit hu- jns causa turbelse : et debet prater ilia qua? hinc transmissa sint ami libras mille quingtntas. Et nunc ei scriptum est ut prasstet ; sed de tua ecclesia prajsta avari- tise quorum nosti,"etc. This curious and original letter, from Cyril's archdeacon to his creature the new bishop of Constantinople, has been unaccountably pre- served in an old Latin version (Synodicon, c. 203, Concil. torn. iv. p. 465-468). The mask is almost dropped, and the saints speak the honest language of interest and confederacy. 51 The tedious negotiations that succeeded the Synod of Ephesu3 are diffusely IV.— 42 658 EXILE OF NESTORIUS: [Ch. XLVIL The rash and obstinate Nestorius, before the end of the synod, was oppressed by Cyril, betrayed by the court, and faintly supported by his Eastern friends. A sen- Nestonus. timent of fear or indignation prompted him, while it was yet time, to affect the glory of a voluntary abdication : M his wish, or at least his request, was readily granted ; he was conducted with honor from Ephesus to his old monastery of Antioch ; and, after a short pause, his suc- cessors, Maximian and Proclus, were acknowledged as the law- ful bishops of Constantinople. But in the silence of his cell the degraded patriarch could no longer resume the innocence and security of a private monk. The past he regretted, he was discontented with the present, and the future he had rea- son to dread : the Oriental bishops successively disengaged their cause from his unpopular name, and each day decreased the number of the schismatics who revered Nestorius as the confessor of the faith. After a residence at Antioch of four years, the hand of Theodosius subscribed an edict 53 which ranked him with Simon the magician, proscribed his opin- ions and followers, condemned his writings to the flames, and banished his person first to Petra, in Arabia, and at length to Oasis, one of the islands of the Libyan desert. 64 Secluded related in the original Acts (Concil. torn. iii. p. 1339-1771, ad fin. vol. and the Synodicon, in torn, iv.), Socrates (1. vii. c. 28, 35, 40, 41), Evagrius (1. i. c. 6, 7, 8, 12), Liberatus (c. 7-10), Tillemont (Mem. Eccle's. torn. xiv. p. 487-676). The most patient reader will thank me for compressing so much nonsense and false- hood in a few lines. 62 Avtov re av Sei]9ivTOQ, i7rsrpa7rr) Kara rb oikeiov t7rava^Ev^ai fiovaarripiov. Evagrius, 1. i. c. 7. The original letters in the Synodicon (c. 15, 24, 25, 26) jus- tify the appearance of a voluntary resignation, which is asserted by Ebed-Jesu, a Nestorian writer, apud Asseman. Biblioth. Oriental, torn. iii. p. 299, 302. 53 See the imperial letters in the Acts of the Synod of Ephesus (Concil. torn. iii. p. 1730-1735). The odious name of Simonians, which was affixed to the disciples of this TEparwdovQ cSictacvcaXiac, was designed wc av oveidevi Trpo£\n9kvTiQ aiiliviot inrofi'tvoiEv Tij-iwpiav tojv anapTi]jxaTij)v, Kal ftvjre Ziuvrac. rt/twpi'af, fifjrs SiavovraQ cLTifxiaQ iicTog vnapxuv. Yet these were Christians! who differed only in names and in shadows. 64 The metaphor of islands is applied by the grave civilians (Pandect. 1. xlviii. tit. 22, leg. 7 [§ 5]) to those happy spots which are discriminated by water and verdure from the Libyan sands. Three of these under the common name of Oasis, Ar Alvahat : 1. The Temple of Jupiter Ammon. 2. The middle Oasis, three days' *.D. 435.] EXILE OF NESTORIUS. 659 from the Church and from the world, the exile was still pur- sued by the rage of bigotry and war. A wandering tribe of the Blemrayes or Nubians invaded his solitary prison : in their retreat they dismissed a crowd of useless captives ; but no sooner had Nestorius reached the banks of the Nile, than he would gladly have escaped from a Roman and orthodox city to the milder servitude of the savages. His flight was punished as a new crime : the soul of the patriarch inspired the civil and ecclesiastical powers of Egypt; the magistrates, the soldiers, the monks, devoutly tortured the enemy of Christ and St. Cyril; and, as far as the confines of ^Ethiopia, the her- etic was alternately dragged and recalled, till his aged body was broken by the hardships and accidents of these reiterated journeys. Yet his mind was still independent and erect ; the President of Thebais was awed by his pastoral letters ; he survived the Catholic tyrant of Alexandria, and, after sixteen years' banishment, the Synod of Chalcedon would perhaps have restored him to the honors, or at least to the commun- ion, of the Church. The death of Nestorius prevented his obedience to their welcome summons ; 65 and his disease might afford some color to the scandalous report, that his tongue, the organ of blasphemy, had been eaten by the worms. He was buried in a city of Upper Egypt, known by the names of journey to the west of Lycopolis. 3. The southern, where Nestorius was banished, in the first climate, and only three days' journey from the confines of Nubia. See a learned note of Michaelis (ad Descript. JEgypt. Abulfeda;, p. 21-34). a 55 The invitation of Nestorius to the Synod of Chalcedon is related by Zacharias, Bishop of Melitene (Evagrius, 1. ii. c. 2; Asseman. Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. p. 55), and the famous Xenaias or Philoxenus, Bishop of Hierapolis (Asseman. Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. p. 40, etc.), denied by Evagrius and Asseman, and stoutly main- tained by La Croze (Thesaur. Epistol. torn. iii. p. 181, etc.). The fact is not im- probable ; yet it was the interest of the Monopliysites to spread the invidious re- port; and Eutychius (torn. ii. p 12) affirms that Nestorius died after an exile of seven years, and consequently ten years before the Synod of Chalcedon. » 1. The Oasis of Sivah has been visited by Mons. Drovetti and Mr. Browne. 2. The little Oasis, that of El Kassar, was visited and described by Belzoni. 3. The great Oasis, and its splendid ruins, have been well described in the Travels of Sir A. Edmonstone. To these must be added another western Oasis, also visited by 6ir A. Edmonstone. — M. 660 HERESY OF EUTYCHES. [Ch. XLVIL Chemnis, or Panopolis, or Akmim ; M but the immortal malice of the Jacobites has persevered for ages to cast stones against his sepulchre, and to propagate the foolish tradition that it was never watered by the rain of heaven, which equally de- scends on the righteous and the ungodly." Humanity may drop a tear on the fate of Nestorins; yet justice must ob- serve that he suffered the persecution which he had approved and inflicted. 68 The death of the Alexandrian primate, after a reign of thirty- two years, abandoned the Catholics to the intemper- „ ance of zeal and the abuse of victory. 69 The mo- Heresyof ,.,,.,. * s Eutyches. nophysite doctrine (one incarnate nature) was rig- orously preached in the churches of Egypt and the monasteries of the East ; the primitive creed of Apollinaris was protected by the sanctity of Cyril ; and the name of Eu- tyches, his venerable friend, has been applied to the sect most adverse to the Syrian heresy of Nestorius. His rival Euty- ches was the abbot, or archimandrite, or superior of three hundred monks ; but the opinions of a simple and illiterate recluse might have expired in the cell where he had slept above seventy years, if the resentment or indiscretion of Fla- vian, the Byzantine pontiff, had not exposed the scandal to the eyes of the Christian world. His domestic synod was in- 56 Consult D'Anville (Me'moire sur l'Egypte, p. 191), Pocock (Description of the East, vol. i. p. 76), Abulfeda (Descript. jEgypt. p. 14), and his commentator Mi- chaelis (Not. p. 78-83), and the Nubian Geographer (p. 42), who mentions, in the twelfth century, the ruins and the sugar-canes of Akmim. 61 Eutychius (Annal. torn. ii. p. 12) and Gregory Bar-Hebra?us, or Abulphara- gius (Asseman. torn. ii. p. 316), represent the credulity of the tenth and thirteenth centuries. 68 We are obliged to Evagrius (1. i. c. 7) for some extracts from the letters of Nestorius ; but the lively picture of his sufferings is treated with insult by the hard and stupid fanatic. 69 "Dixi Cyrillum dum viveret, auctoritate sua effecisse, ne Eutychianismus et Monophysitarum error in nervum erumperet : idque verum puto * * * aliquo * * * honesto modo TraXivySiap cecinerat." The learned but cautious Jablonski did not always speak the whole truth. "Cum Cyrillo lenius omnino egi, quam si te- cum aut cum aliis rei hujus probe gnaris et asquis rerum sestimatoribus sermones privatos conferrem " (Thesaur. Epistol. La Crozian. torn. i. p. 197, 198) ; an excel* lent key to his dissertations on the Nestorian controversy I A.D.449.] SECOND COUNCIL OF EPHESUS. CGI stantly convened, their proceedings were sullied with clamor and artifice, and the aged heretic was surprised into a seeming confession that Christ had not derived his body from the sub- stance of the Virgin Mary. From their partial decree Euty- ches appealed to a general council, and his cause was vigor- ously asserted by his godson Chrysaphius, the reigning eunuch of the palace, and his accomplice Dioscorus, who had succeed- ed to the throne, the creed, the talents, and the vices of the second coun- nephew of Theophilus. By the special summons ^ 1 D of 4 f 9 phe8US - of Theodosius, the second synod of Ephesus was Aug.8-11. judiciously composed of ten metropolitans and ten bishops from each of the six dioceses of the Eastern empire : some exceptions of favor or merit enlarged the number to one hundred and thirty-five ; and the Syrian Barsumas, as the chief and representative of the monks, was invited to sit and vote with the successors of the apostles. But the despotism of the Alexandrian patriarch again oppressed the freedom of debate: the same spiritual and carnal weapons were again drawn from the arsenals of Egypt ; the Asiatic veterans, a "band of archers, served under the orders of Dioscorus ; and the more formidable monks, whose minds were inaccessible to reason or mercy, besieged the doors of the cathedral. The general, and, as it should seem, the unconstrained voice of the fathers accepted the faith and even the anathemas of Cyril ; and the heresy of the two natures was formally condemned in the persons and writings of the most learned Orientals. "May those who divide Christ be divided with the sword, may they be hewn in pieces, may they be burned alive!" were the charitable wishes of a Christian synod. 80 The inno- cence and sanctity of Eutyches were acknowledged without hesitation ; but the prelates, more especially those of Thrace and Asia, were unwilling to depose their patriarch for the use 60 'H ayla ovvoSoq u-Ktv, apov, tcavaov ~Evaktiov, ovtoq %uiv Kay, ovtoq uq 5vo yivTjTcu, wq t/iepiaf, jiipivQi'} * * * u tiq Xiyu Svo, avdOefia. At the request cf Di- oscorus, those who were not able to roar (/3of;.451, aj . ' -11, i. Oct. s- the mystery or the incarnation, had been disregard- ed by the Gynod of Ephesus : his authority, and that of the Latin Church, was insulted in his legates, who es- caped from slavery and death to relate the melancholy tale of 61 "EXeye 0£ (Eusebius, Bishop of Dorylscum) ruv Xa€iavov re SetXaiujg avaipt- Qijvai irpoQ AiovKopov io6oiv. IIwc Svvarm iracnv, i)v \novog tvSov f%ei ; I am ignorant whether the patriarch, who seems to have been a jealous lover, is the Cimon of a preceding epigram, whose ireog tarrjKog was viewed with envy and wonder by Priapus himself. 64 Those who reverence the infallibility of synods may try to ascertain their sense. The leading bishops were attended by partial or careless scribes, who dis- persed their copies round the world. Our Greek MSS. are sullied with the false and proscribed reading of etc twv fvaiujv (Concil. torn. iii. p. 1460) : the authentic translation of Pope Leo I. does not seem to have been executed, and the old Latin versions materially differ from the present Vulgate, which was revised (a.d. 550) by Rusticus, a Roman priest, from the best MSS. of the 'AKoi/Mjroi at Constanti- nople (Ducange, C. P. Christiana, 1. iv. p. 151), a famous monastery of Latins, Greeks, and Syrians. See Conci' Jom. iv. p. 1959-2019, and Pagi, Critica, torn, ii. p. 326, etc. 666 FAITH OF CHALCEDON. [Ch. XLVIL either their previous existence, or their subsequent confusion, or some dangerous interval between the conception of the man and the assumption of the God. The Roman theology, more positive and precise, adopted the term most offensive to the ears of the Egyptians, that Christ existed in two natures ; and this momentous particle" (which the memory, rather than the understanding, must retain) had almost produced a schism among the Catholic bishops. The tome of Leo had been re- spectfully, perhaps sincerely, subscribed ; but they protested, in two successive debates, that it was neither expedient nor lawful to transgress the sacred landmarks which had been fixed at Nice, Constantinople, and Ephesus, according to the rule of Scripture and tradition. At length they yielded to the importunities of their masters, but their infallible decree, after it had been ratified with deliberate votes and vehement acclamations, was overturned in the next session by the oppo- sition of the legates and their Oriental friends. It was in vain that a multitude of episcopal voices repeated in chorus, " The definition of the fathers is orthodox and immutable ! The heretics are now discovered ! Anathema to the Nestori- ans ! Let them depart from the synod ! Let them repair to Rome." 66 The legates threatened, the emperor was absolute, and a committee of eighteen bishops prepared a new decree, which was imposed on the reluctant assembly. In the name of the fourth general council, the Christ in one person, but in two natures, was announced to the Catholic world : an invisi- ble line was drawn between the heresy of Apollinaris and the faith of St. Cyril ; and the road to paradise, a bridge as sharp as a razor, was suspended over the abyss by the master-hand of the theological artist. During ten centuries of blindness and servitude Europe received her religious opinions from 66 It is darkly represented in the microscope of Petavins (torn. v. 1. iii. c. 5) ; yet the subtle theologian is himself afraid — "Ne quis fortasse supervacaneam, et nimis anxiam putet hujusmodi vocularum inquisitionem, et ab instituti iheologici gravitate alienam" (p. 124). 66 'Etotjcrav, r] 6 opoq KpaTtiToj, r) cnrEpxofitBa * * * bl avTiXeyovTeg (pavepoi ye~ vntvTcti, oi avTiXeyovreg NeaTopiavoi tiaiv, o'l avTiksyovTeg elg 'Piofirjv dirkXOwaiv (Concil. torn. iv. p. 1449). Evagrins and Liberatus present only the placid face ef the synod, and discreetly slide over these embers, "suppositos cineri doloso." A.D. 451-482.] DISCORD OF THE EAST. 667 the oracle of the Vatican ; and the same doctrine, already varnished with the rust of antiquitj r , was admitted without dispute into the creed of the reformers, who disclaimed the supremacy of the Roman pontiff. The Synod of Chalcedon still triumphs in the Protestant churches ; but the ferment of controversy has subsided, and the most pious Christians of the present day are ignorant, or careless, of their own belief concerning the mystery of the incarnation. Far different was the temper of the Greeks and Egyptians under the orthodox reigns of Leo and Marcian. Those pious emperors enforced with arms and edicts the sym- Discord, of the East. bol of their faith ;" and it was declared by the con- a.d. 451-4S2. " science or honor of five hundred bishops, that the decrees of the Synod of Chalcedon might be lawfully sup- ported, even with blood. The Catholics observed with satis- faction that the same synod was odious both to the Nestori- ans and the Monophysites ; 68 but the ISTestorians were less an- gry, or less powerful, and the East was distracted by the ob- stinate and sanguinary zeal of the Monophysites. Jerusalem was occupied by an army of monks ; in the name of the one incarnate nature, they pillaged, they burned, they murdered ; the sepulchre of Christ was defiled with blood ; and the gates of the city were guarded in tumultuous rebellion against the troops of the emperor. After the disgrace and exile of Dioscorus, the Egyptians still regretted their spiritual father, and detested the usurpation of his successor, who was intro- 67 See, in the Appendix to the Acts of Chalcedon, the confirmation of the synod by Marcian (Concil. torn. iv. p. 1781, 1783); his letters to the monks of Alexan- dria (p. 1791), of Mount Sinai (p. 1793), of Jerusalem and Palestine (p. 1798); his laws against the Eutychians (p. 1809, 1811, 1831) ; the correspondence of Leo with the provincial synods on the revolution of Alexandria (p. 1835-1930). 68 Photius (or rather Enlogius of Alexandria) confesses, in a fine passage, the specious color of this double charge against Pope Leo and his Synod of Chalce- don (Biblioth. cod. ccxxv. p. 768 [p. 243, edit. Bekk.]). He waged a double war against the enemies of the Church, and wounded either foe with the darts of his adversaiy — icaraWriXoiQ fikXscn rovg avrnrakovQ triVpwffKE. Against Nestorins he seemed to introduce the ovyxvaig of the Monophysites ; against Eutyches he ap- peared to countenance the incooTaaiiov SiaQopa of the Nestorians. The apologist claims a charitable interpretation for the saints : if the same had been extended to the heretics, the sound of the controversy would have been lost in the air. 668 THE HENOTICON OF ZENO. [Ch. XLVII. duced by the fathers of Chalcedon. The throne of Proterius was supported by a guard of two thousand soldiers ; he waged a five years' war against the people of Alexandria ; and on the first intelligence of the death of Martian, he became the victim of their zeal. On the third day before the festival of Easter the patriarch was besieged in the cathedral, and mur- dered in the baptistery. The remains of his mangled corpse were delivered to the flames, and his ashes to the wind : and the deed was inspired by the vision of a pretended angel ; an ambitious monk who, under the name of Timothy the Cat, 69 succeeded to the place and opinions of Dioscorus. This dead- ly superstition was inflamed on either side by the principle and the practice of retaliation : in the pursuit of a metaphys- ical quarrel many thousands 70 were slain, and the Christians of every degree were deprived of the substantial enjoyments of social life, and of the invisible gifts of baptism and the holy communion. Perhaps an extravagant fable of the times may conceal an allegorical picture of these fanatics, who tor- tured each other and themselves. " Under the consulship of Yenantius and Celer," says a grave bishop, " the people of Alexandria, and all Egypt, were seized with a strange and di- abolical frenzy : great and small, slaves and f reedmen, monks and clergy, the natives of the land, who opposed the Synod of Chalcedon, lost their speech and reason, barked like dogs, and tore, with their own teeth, the flesh from their hands and arms." 71 The disorders of thirty years at length produced the fa- mous Henoticon 73 of the Emperor Zeno, which in his reign, 69 AiXovpoc, from his nocturnal expeditions. In darkness and disguise he crept round the cells of the monastery, and whispered the revelation to his slumbering brethren (Theodor. Lector. 1. i. [c. 8]). 70 &6vovg re ToXfirjQi'p'ai fivpiovg, [jvai fir) fiovov rr)v yr)v dXXd icai avrbv rbv depa. Such is the hyperbolic language of the He- noticon. 71 See the Chronicle of Victor Tununensis, in the Lectiones Antiquae of Cani- sius, republished by Basnage, torn. i. p. 328. 72 The Henoticon is transcribed by Evagrius (1. iii. c. 13 [14]), and translated by Liberatus (Brev. c. 18). Pagi (Critica, torn. ii. p. 41 1) and Asseman (Biblioth. Orient, torn. i. p. 343) are satisfied that it is free from heresy ; but Petavius (Dog' A.D.4B2.] THE HENOTICON OF ZENO. 009 and in that of Anastasius, was signed by all the bishops of the „ t „ , East, under the penalty of degradation and exile The Henoti- ' . * , » -, i ^ conofzeno. if they rejected or infringed this salutary and fun- damental law. The clergy may smile or groan at the presumption of a layman who defines the articles of faith ; yet, if he stoops to the humiliating task, his mind is less infected by prejudice or interest, and the authority of the magistrate can only be maintained by the concord of the people. It is in ecclesiastical story that Zeno appears least contemptible; and I am not able to discern any Manichsean or Eutychian guilt in the generous saying of Anastasius, That It was unworthy of an emperor to persecute the worshippers of Christ and the citizens of Home. The Henoticon was most pleasing to the Egyptians ; yet the smallest blemish has not been descried by the jealous and even jaundiced eyes of our orthodox schoolmen, and it accurately represents the Catholic faith of the incarnation, without adopting or dis- claiming the peculiar terms or tenets of the hostile sects. A solemn anathema is pronounced against Kestorius and Euty- ches ; against all heretics by whom Christ is divided, or con- founded, or reduced to a phantom. Without defining the number or the article of the word nature, the pure system of St. Cyril, the faith of Nice, Constantinople, and Ephesus is re- spectfully confirmed ; but, instead of bowing at the name of the fourth council, the subject is dismissed by the censure of all contrary doctrines, ^any such have been taught either elsewhere or at Chalcedon. Under this ambiguous expression the friends and the enemies of the last synod might unite in a silent embrace. The most reasonable Christians acquiesced in this mode of toleration ; but their reason was feeble and inconstant, and their obedience was despised as timid and servile by the vehement spirit of their brethren. On a sub- ject which engrossed the thoughts and discourses of men, it was difficult to preserve an exact neutrality ; a book, a ser- mon, a prayer, rekindled the flame of controversy ; and the mat. Theolog. torn. t. 1. i. c. 13, p. 40) most unaccountably affirms " Chalcedonen- sem ascivit. " An adversary would prove that he had never read the Henoticon. 670 THE HENOTICON OF ZENO. [Ch. XLVIl bonds of communion were alternately broken and renewed by the private animosity of the bishops. The space between Nestorius and Eutyches was filled by a thousand shades of language and opinion ; the acephaW* of Egypt, and the Ro- man pontiffs, of equal valor, though of unequal strength, may be found at the two extremities of the theological scale The acephali, without a king or a bishop, were separated above three hundred years from the patriarchs of Alexan- dria, who had accepted the communion of Constantinople, without exacting a formal condemnation of the Synod of Chalcedon. For accepting the communion of Alexandria, without a formal approbation of the same synod, the patri- archs of Constantinople were anathematized by the popes. Their inflexible despotism involved the most orthodox of the Greek churches in this spiritual contagion, denied or doubted the validity of their sacraments, 74 and fomented, thirty-five years, the schism of the East and West, till they finally abol- ished the memory of four Byzantine pontiffs who had dared to oppose the supremacy of St. Peter. 76 Before that period the precarious truce of Constantinople and Egypt had been violated by the zeal of the rival prelates. Macedonius, who was suspected of the Kestorian heresy, asserted, in disgrace and exile, the Synod of Chalcedon, while the successor of " See Eenaudot (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 123, 131, 145, 195, 217). 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 DAnville, p. 82), and sup- plied the sacraments, which had failed for want of an episcopal ordination. 74 "De his quos baptizavit, quos ordinavit Acacius, majorum traditione con- fectam et veram, prascipue religiosse solicitudini congruam prsebemus sine difficul- tate medicinam " (Gelasius, in Epist. i. ad Euphemium, Concil. torn. v. p. 286). The offer of a medicine proves the disease, and numbers must have perished be- fore the arrival of the Koman physician. Tillemont himself (Me'm. Eccle's. torn, xvi. p. 372, 642, etc.) is shocked at the proud, uncharitable temper of the popes : they are now glad, says he, to invoke St. Flavian of Antioch, St. Elias of Jerusa- lem, etc., to whom they refused communion whilst upon earth. But Cardinal Baronius is firm and hard as the rock of St. Peter. 75 Their names were erased from the diptych of the Church : " Ex venerabili diptycho, in quo pise memorise transitum ad coelum habendum episcoporum voca- bula continentur" (Concil. torn. iv. p. 1846). This ecclesiastical record was there- fore equivalent to the book of life. *J>. 50&-518.] THE TRISAGION. 671 Cyril would have purchased its overthrow with a bribe of t\v.o thousand pounds of gold. In the fever of the times the sense, or rather the sound of a syllable, was sufficient to disturb the peace of an empire. Trig The Trisagion 78 (thrice holy), " Holy, holy, holy gion, and Lord God of Hosts !" is supposed by the Greeks to war, till the be the identical hymn which the angels and chern- death of v , o Anastasius. bim eternally repeat before the throne of God, and A T> 51)8—518 which, about the middle of the fifth century, was miraculously revealed to the Church of Constantinople. The devotion of Antioch soon added, " who was crucified for us !" and this grateful address, either to Christ alone, or to the whole Trinity, may be justified by the rules of theology, and has been gradually adopted by the Catholics of the East and West. But it had been imagined by a Monophysite bishop ; 77 the gift of an enemy was at first rejected as a dire and dan- gerous blasphemy, and the rash innovation had nearly cost the Emperor Anastasius his throne and his life. 78 The peo- ple of Constantinople were devoid of any rational principles of freedom ; but they held, as a lawful cause of rebellion, the color of a livery in the races, or the color of a mystery in the schools. The Trisagion, with and without this obnoxious ad- dition, was chanted in the cathedral by two adverse choirs, and, when their lungs were exhausted, they had recourse to the more solid arguments of sticks and stones ; the aggressors were punished by the emperor, and defended by the patri- arch ; and the crown and mitre were staked on the event of 76 Petavius (Dogmat. Theolog. torn. v. 1. v. c. 2, 3, 4, p. 217-225) and Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. torn. xiv. p. 713, etc., 799) represent the history and doctrine of the Trisagion. In the twelve centuries between Isaiah and St. Proclus's boy, who was taken up into heaven before the bishop and people of Constantinople, the song was considerably improved. The boy heard the angels sing, "Holy God! Holy strong! Holy immortal !" 77 Peter Gnapheus, thefuller (a trade which he had exercised in his monastery), Patriarch of Antioch. His tedious story is discussed in the Annals of Pagi (a.d. 477-490) and a dissertation of M. de Valois at the end of his Evagrius. 78 The troubles under the reign of Anastasius must be gathered from the Chron- icles of Victor, Marcellinus, and Theophanes. As the last was not published in the time of Baronius, his critic Pagi is more copious, as well as more correct. 672 THE TEISAGION. [Ch. XLVU this momentous quarrel. The streets were instantly crowded with innumerable swarms of men, women, and children ; the legions of monks, in regular array, marched, and shouted, and fought at their head. " Christians ! this is the day of mar- tyrdom : let us not desert our spiritual father ; anathema to the Manichsean tyrant ! he is unworthy to reign." Such was the Catholic cry ; and the galleys of Anastasius lay upon their oars before the palace, till the patriarch had pardoned his pen- itent, and hushed the waves of the troubled multitude. The triumph of Macedonius was checked by a speedy exile ; but the zeal of his flock was again exasperated by the same ques- tion, " Whether one of the Trinity had been crucified ?" On this momentous occasion the blue and green factions of Con- stantinople suspended their discord, and the civil and military powers were annihilated in their presence. The keys of the city, and the standards of the guards, were deposited in the Forum of Constantine, the principal station and camp of the faithful. Day and night they were incessantly busied either in singing hymns to the honor of their God, or in pillaging and murdering the servants of their prince. The head of his favorite monk, the friend, as they styled him, of the enemy of the Holy Trinity, was borne aloft on a spear ; and the fire- brands, which had been darted against heretical structures, diffused the undistinguishing flames over the most orthodox buildings. The statues of the emperor were broken, and his person was concealed in a suburb, till, at the end of three days, he dared to implore the mercy of his subjects. Without his diadem, and in the posture of a suppliant, Anastasius ap- peared on the throne of the circus. The Catholics, before his face, rehearsed their genuine Trisagion ; they exulted in the offer which he proclaimed by the voice of a herald of abdicat- ing the purple ; they listened to the admonition, that, since all could not reign, they should previously agree in the choice of a sovereign ; and they accepted the blood of two unpopular ministers, whom their master without hesitation condemned to the lions. These furious but transient seditions were en- couraged by the success of Yitalian, who, with an army of Huns and Bulgarians, for the most part idolaters, declared A.D. 519-565.J FIRST RELIGIOUS WAR. 673 himself the champion of the Catholic faith. In this pious re- bellion he depopulated Thrace, besieged Constantinople, ex- terminated sixty-five thousand of his fellow-Christians, till he obtained the recall of the bishops, the satisfaction of the pope, and the establishment of the Council of Chalcedon, an ortho- dox treaty, reluctantly signed by the dying Anastasius, and more faithfully performed by the uncle of Justinian. And such was the event of the first of the religious wars which have been waged in the name and by the disciples of the God of Peace. 79 Justinian has been already seen in the various lights of a prince, a conqueror, and a law-giver : the theologian 80 still re- First reiig- mains, and it affords an unfavorable prejudice that i°D?5i4.'' hi s theology should form a very prominent feat- Jh h a e rac°ter C and ure °f n ^ 8 portrait. The sovereign sympathized of juTtinian. w ^ n hi s subjects in their superstitious reverence a.d. 519-565. £ or iiyj U g au( j departed saints : his Code, and more especially his Novels, confirm and enlarge the privileges of the clergy ; and in every dispute between a monk and a lay- man, the partial judge was inclined to pronounce that truth and innocence and justice were always on the side of the Church. In his public 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 ; he had 79 The general history, from the Council of Chalcedon to the death of Anasta- sius, may be found in the Breviary of Liberatus (c. 14-19), the second and third books of Evagrius, the Abstract of the two books of Theodore the Reader, the Acts of the Synods, and the Epistles of the Popes (Concil. torn. v.). The series is continued with some disorder in the fifteenth and sixteenth tomes of the Memoires Ecclesiastiques of Tillemont. And here I must take leave forever of that incom- parable guide, whose bigotry is overbalanced by the merits of erudition, diligence, veracity, and scrupulous minuteness. He was prevented by death from complet- ing, as he designed, the sixth century of the Church and Empire. 80 The strain of the Anecdotes of Procopius (c. 11, 13, 18, 27, 28) with the learned remarks of Alemannus is confirmed, rather than contradicted, by the Acts of the Councils, the fourth book of Evagrius, and the complaints of the African Facundus, in his twelfth book — de tribus capitulis, " Cum videri doctus appetit importune * * * spontaneis qusestionibus ecclesiam turbat." See Procop. de Bell. Goth. 1. iii. c. 35 [torn. ii. p. 429, edit. Bonn], iy.— 43 674 THEOLOGICAL aOVERNMENT OF JUSTINIAN. [Ch. XLVIL secured, the patronage of the Yirgin and St. Michael the arch- angel f and his recovery from a dangerous disease was ascribed to the miraculous succor of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian. The capital and the provinces of the East were dec- orated with the monuments of his religion ; 81 and though the far greater part of these costly structures may be attributed to his taste or ostentation, the zeal of the royal architect was probably quickened by a genuine sense of love and gratitude towards his invisible benefactors. Among the titles of im- perial greatness the name of Pious was most pleasing to his ear; to promote the temporal and spiritual interest of the Church was the serious business of his life ; and the duty of father of his country was often sacrificed to that of defender of the faith. The controversies of the times were congenial to his temper and understanding ; and the theological profess- ors must inwardly deride the diligence of a stranger who cul- tivated their art and neglected his own. " What can ye fear," said a bold conspirator to his associates, "from your bigoted tyrant ? Sleepless and unarmed, he sits whole nights in his closet debating with reverend graybeards, and turning over the pages of ecclesiastical volumes." 82 The fruits of these lucubrations were displayed in many a conference, where Jus- tinian might shine as the loudest and most subtle of the dis- putants ; in many a sermon, which, under the name of edicts and epistles, proclaimed to the empire the theology of their master. While the barbarians invaded the provinces, while ,he victorious legions marched under the banners of Beli- earius and Karses, the successor of Trajan, unknown to the camp, was content to vanquish at the head of a synod. Had he invited to these synods a disinterested and rational specta- tor, Justinian might have learned " that religious controversy is the offspring of arrogance and folly ; that true piety is mosfc 81 Procop. de iEdificiis, 1. i. c. 6, 7, etc., passim. 82 "Of St) KaQrirai apl vvktwv, 6[iov toiq tuiv itpstav iax aT0V y'spovaiv \i axaToyspovffiv^ clvcucvrKeLv to. XpiGTiavwv \6yia gttov$i)v ix&v. Procop. de Bell. Goth. 1. iii. c. 32 [torn. ii. p. 409, edit. Bonn]. In the Lifa of St. Eutychius (apud Aleman. ad Procop. Arcan. c. 18 [torn. iii. p. 439, edit. BonnD the same character is given with a design to praise Justinian. a.d. 519-565.] HIS PERSECUTIONS. 675 laudably expressed by silence and submission ; that man, ig- norant of his own nature, should not presume to scrutinize the nature of his God ; and that it is sufficient for us to know that power and benevolence are the perfect attributes of the Deity." 88 Toleration was not the virtue of the times, and indulgence to rebels has seldom been the virtue of princes. But when His per- the prince descends to the narrow and peevish char- Becution acter of a disputant, he is easily provoked to sup- ply the defect of argument by the plenitude of power, and to chastise without mercy the perverse blindness of those who wilfully shut their eyes against the light of demonstration. The reign of Justinian was a uniform yet various scene of persecution; and he appears to have surpassed his indolent predecessors, both in the contrivance of his laws and the rig- or of their execution. The insufficient term of three months was assigned for the conversion or exile of all her- etics; 84 and if he still connived at their precarious stay, they were deprived, under his iron yoke, not only of the benefits of society, but of the common birthright of men and Christians. At the end of four hundred years the Monta- nists of Phrygia 85 still breathed the wild enthusiasm of perfec- tion and prophecy which they had imbibed from their male and female apostles, the special organs of the Paraclete. On the approach of the Catholic priests and soldiers, they grasped with alacrity the crown of martyrdom ; the conventicle and the congregation perished in the flames, but these primitive 83 For these wise and moderate sentiments Procopius (De Bell. Goth. 1. i. c. 3) is scourged in the preface of Alemannus, who ranks him among the political Christians — " Sed longe verius hasresium omnium sentinas, prorsusque Atheos " — abominable Atheists, who preached the imitation of God's mercy to man (ad Hist. Arcan. c. 13). 84 This alternative, a precious circumstance, is preserved by John Malala (torn, ii. p. 63, edit. Venet. 1733 [p. 449, edit. Bonn]), who deserves more credit as ha draws towai-ds his end. After numbering the heretics, Nestorians, Eutychians, etc., "Ne expectent," says Justinian, "ut digni venia judicentur : jubemus enim ut •* * * convicti et aperti hceretici justse et idoneee animadversioni subjiciantur." Baronius copies and applauds this edict of the Code (a.d. 527, No. 39, 40). 85 See the character and principles of the Montauists, in Mosheim, De Eebus Christ, ante Constantinum, p. 410-424. 676 PERSECUTIONS OP JUSTINIAN. [Ch.XLVIL fanatics were not extinguished three hundred years after the death of their tyrant. Under the protection of the Gothic confederates, the Church of the Arians at Constantinople had braved the severity of the laws: their clergy equalled the wealth and magnificence of the senate; and the gold and silver which were seized by the rapacious hand of Justinian might perhaps be claimed as the spoils of the provinces and the trophies of the barbarians. A secret remnant of pagans; ^ p a g auSj w i 10 s tiH lurked in the most refined and most rustic conditions of mankind, excited the indignation of the Christians, who were perhaps unwilling that any strangers should be the witnesses of their intestine quarrels. A bishop was named as the inquisitor of the faith, and his diligence soon discovered, in the court and city, the magistrates, law- yers, physicians, and sophists, who still cherished the supersti- tion of the Greeks. They were sternly informed that they must choose without delay between the displeasure of Jupiter or Justinian, and that their aversion to the Gospel could no longer be disguised under the scandalous mask of indifference or impiety. The Patrician Photius perhaps alone was re- solved to live and to die like his ancestors : he enfranchised himself with the stroke of a dagger, and left his tyrant the poor consolation of exposing with ignominy the lifeless corpse of the fugitive. His weaker brethren submitted to their earthly monarch, underwent the ceremony of baptism, and labored, by their extraordinary zeal, to erase the suspicion, or to expiate the guilt, of idolatry. The native country of Ho- mer, and the theatre of the Trojan war, still retained the last sparks of his mythology : by the care of the same bishop, sev- enty thousand pagans were detected and converted in Asia, Phrygia, Lydia, and Caria ; ninety-six churches were built for the new proselytes ; and linen vestments, Bibles and liturgies, and vases of gold and silver, were supplied by the pious munificence of Justinian. 8 * The Jews, who had been gradually stripped of their immunities, were op* 86 Theophan. Chron. p. 153 [torn. i. p. 276, edit. Bonn]. John, the Monophy- site Bishop of Asia, is a more authentic witness of this transaction, in which ha was himself employed by the emperor (Asseman. Bib. Orient, torn. ii. p. 85). A.D. 519-565.] PERSECUTIONS OF JUSTINIAN. 677 pressed by a vexatious law, which compelled them to observe the festival of Easter the same day on which it was celebrated by the Christians. 87 And they might complain with the more reason, since the Catholics themselves did not agree with the astronomical calculations of their sovereign : the people of Constantinople delayed the beginning of their Lent a whole week after it had been ordained by authority ; and they had the pleasure of fasting seven days, while meat was exposed ofsamar- f° r sa ^ e D J the command of the emperor. The Sa- ltans, maritans of Palestine 88 were a motley race, an am- biguous sect, rejected as Jews by the pagans, by the Jews as schismatics, and by the Christians as idolaters. The abomi- nation of the cross had already been planted on their holy mount of Garizim, 89 but the persecution of Justinian offered only the alternative of baptism or rebellion. They chose the latter : under the standard of a desperate leader they rose in arms, and retaliated their wrongs on the lives, the property, and the temples of a defenceless people. The Samaritans were finally subdued by the regular forces of the East : twen- ty thousand were slain, twenty thousand were sold by the Arabs to the infidels of Persia and India, and the remains of that unhappy nation atoned for the crime of treason by the sin of hypocrisy. It has been computed that one hundred thousand Roman subjects were extirpated in the Samaritan war, 90 which converted the once fruitful province into a deso- 81 Compare Procopius (Hist. Arcan. c. 28 [torn. iii. p. 156, edit. Bonn] and AI- eman's Notes) with Theophanes (Chron. p. 190 [torn. i. p. 340, edit. Bonn]). The Council of Nice has intrusted the patriarch, or rather the astronomers, of Alexan- dria, with the annual proclamation of Easter ; and we still read, or rather we do not read, many of the Paschal epistles of St. Cyril. Since the reign of Monophy- tism in Egypt, the Catholics were perplexed by such a foolish prejudice as that which so long opposed, among the Protestants, the reception of the Gregorian style. 88 For the religion and history of the Samaritans, consult Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, a learned and impartial work. 89 Sichem, Neapolis, Napious, the ancient and modern seat of the Samaritans, \3 situate in a valley between the barren Ebal, the mountain of cursing to the north, and the fruitful Garizim, or mountain of cursing to the south, ten or eleven hours' travel from Jerusalem. See Maundrell, Journey from Aleppo, etc., p. 59-63. 90 Procop. Anecdot. c. 11 [p. 75, edit. Bonn] ; Theophan. Chron. p. 122 [vol. i. p. 274, edit. Bonn] ; Johu Malala, Cbron, torn, jj, p, 62 [p, ii7, edit. Bonn]. I 678 JUSTINIAN'S OETHODOXY. [Ch.XLYH late and smoking wilderness. But in the creed of Justinian the guilt of murder could not be applied to the slaughter of unbelievers ; and he piously labored to establish with fire and sword the unity of the Christian faith. 91 With these sentiments, it was incumbent on him, at least, to be always in the right. In the first years of his adminis- nia ortho- tration he signalized his zeal as the disciple and pa- doxy. ^ron of orthodoxy : the reconciliation of the Greeks and Latins established the tome of St. Leo as the creed of the emperor and the empire ; the ISTestorians and Eutychians were exposed, on either side, to the double edge of persecution ; and the four synods of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon were ratified by the code of a Catholic law-giver. 02 But while Justinian strove to maintain the uniformity of faith and worship, his wife Theodora, whose vices were not incom- patible with devotion, had listened to the Monophysite teach- ers ; and the open or clandestine enemies of the Church re- vived and multiplied at the smile of their gracious patroness. The capital, the palace, the nuptial bed, were torn by spiritual discord; yet so doubtful was the sincerity of the royal con- „, m sorts, that their seeming disagreement was imputed The Three ' ° ? . * chapters. by many to a secret and mischievous confederacy a.d. 532-69S. J , J . . J against the religion and happiness of their peo- ple. 03 The famous dispute of the thkee chapters, 94 which has remember an observation, half philosophical, half superstitious, that the province which had been ruined by the bigotry of Justinian was the same through which the Mahometans penetrated into the empire. 91 The expression of Procopins is remarkable : oi yap ol sdoicei xouv ovteq. Anecdot. c. 13 [p. 84, edit. Bonn]. 92 See the Chronicle of Victor, p. 328, and the original evidence of the laws of Justinian. During the first years of his reign, Baronius himself is in extreme good humor with the emperor, who courted the popes till he got them into his power. 93 Procopius, Anecdot. c. 13 ; Evagrius, 1. iv. c. 10. If the ecclesiastical nev- er read the secret historian, their common suspicion proves at least the general hatred. 94 On the subject of the three chapters, the original acts of the fifth general council of Constantinople supply much useless though authentic knowledge (Con- cil. torn. vi. p. 1-419.) The Greek Evagrius is less copious and correct (1. iv. c. 38) than the three zealous Africans, Facundus (in his twelve books, "De tribus capi' A.D. 533-698.] THE THREE CHAPTERS. 679 filled more volumes than it deserves lines, is deeply marked with this subtle and disingenuous spirit. It was now three hundred years since the body of Origen 05 had been eaten by the worms: his soul, of which he held the pre-existence, was in the hands of its Creator ; but his writings were eagerly perused by the monks of Palestine. In these writings the piercing eye of Justinian descried more than ten metaphys- ical errors ; and the primitive doctor, in the company of Pythagoras and Plato, was devoted by the clergy to the eter- nity of hell-fire, which he had presumed to deny. Under the cover of this precedent a treacherous blow was aimed at the Council of Chalcedon. The fathers had listened without im- patience to the praise of Theodore of Mopsuestia ; 96 and their justice or indulgence had restored both Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Ibas of Edessa to the communion of the Church. But the characters of these Oriental bishops were tainted with the reproach of heresy ; the first had been the master, the two others were the friends, of Kestorius : their most suspicious passages were accused under the title of the three chapters; and the condemnation of their memory must involve the honor of a synod whose name was pronounced with sincere or affected reverence by the Catholic world. If these bish- ops, whether innocent or guilty, were annihilated in the sleep of death, they would not probably be awakened by the clam- tulis," which are most correctly published by Sirmond), Liberatus (in his Brevia- rium, c. 22, 23, 24), and Victor Tununensis in his Chronicle (in torn. i. Antiq. Lect. Canisii, p. 330-334). The Liber Pontificalis, or Anastasius (in Vigilio, Pe- lagio, etc.), is original Italian evidence. The modern reader will derive some in- formation from Dupin (Biblioth. Eccles. torn. v. p. 189-207) and Basnage (Hist, de l'Eglise, torn. i. p. 519-541) ; yet the latter is too firmly resolved to depreciate the authority and character of the popes. 95 Origen had, indeed, too great a propensity to imitate the ■kKuvh] and Bwasteia of the old philosophers (Justinian, ad Mennam, in Concil. torn. vi. p. 356). His moderate opinions were too repugnant to the zeal of the Church, and he was found guilty of the heresy of reason. 96 Basnage (Prasfat. p. 11-14, ad torn. i. Antiq. Lect. Canis.) has fairly weighed the guilt and innocence of Theodore of Mopsuestia. If he composed 10,000 vol- umes, as many errors would be a charitable allowance. In all the subsequent cat- alogues of heresiarchs, he alone, without his two brethren, is included ; and it is the duty of Asseman (Biblioth. Orient, torn. iv. p. 203-207) to justify the sentence. 680 FIFTH GENEKAL COUNCIL. [Ch. XLVH or which, after a hundred years, was raised over their grave. If they were already in the fangs of the demon, their tor- ments could neither be aggravated nor assuaged by human industry. If in the company of saints and angels they en- joyed the rewards of piety, they must have smiled at the idle fury of the theological insects who still crawled on the sur- face of the earth. The foremost of these insects, the Emperor of the Romans, darted his sting, and. distilled his venom, per- haps without discerning the true motives of Theodora and her ecclesiastical faction. The victims were no longer sub- ject to his power, and the vehement style of his edicts could only proclaim their damnation, and invite the clergy of the East to join in a full chorus of curses and anathemas. The East, with some hesitation, consented to the voice of her sov- , ereign : the fifth general council, of three patri- Fifth general . & *? . ' . . r couocii-sec- archs and one hundred and sixty-nve bishops, was ondofCon- . J -n stantinopie. held at Constantinople ; and the authors, as well as May 4-' the defenders of the three chapters, were separated from the communion ol the saints, and solemnly delivered to the prince of darkness. But the Latin Churches were more jealous of the honor of Leo and the Synod of Chalcedon ; and if they had fought as they usually did under the standard of Home, they might have prevailed in the cause of reason and humanity. But their chief 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 Yigilius, who yielded, after a long and inconsistent strug- gle, to the despotism of Justinian and the sophistry of the Greeks. His apostasy provoked the indignation of the Lat- ins, and no more than two bishops could be found who would impose their hands on his deacon and successor Pelagius. Yet the perseverance of the popes insensibly transferred to their adversaries the appellation of schismatics ; the Illyrian- African, and Italian Churches were oppressed by the civil and ecclesiastical powers, not without some effort of military force;" the distant barbarians transcribed the creed of the w See the complaints of Liberates and Victor, and the exhortations of Pope A.D.5G4.] HEKESY OF JUSTINIAN. 681 Vatican, and, in the period of a century, the schism of the three chapters expired in an obscure angle of the Venetian province. 08 But the religious discontent of the Italians had already promoted the conquests of the Lombards, and the Ro- mans themselves were accustomed to suspect the faith, and to detest the government, of their Byzantine tyrant. Justinian was neither steady nor consistent in the nice proc- ess of fixing his volatile opinions and those of his subjects. In his youth he was offended by the slightest dc- Heresy of , J . Justinian. viation from the orthodox line : in his old age he transgressed the measure of temperate heresy, and the Jacobites, not less than the Catholics, were scandalized by his declaration that the body of Christ was incorruptible, and that his manhood was never subject to any wants and in- firmities, the inheritance of our mortal flesh. This fantastic opinion was announced in the last edicts of Justinian; and at the moment of his seasonable departure, the clergy had re- fused 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 East in the language of authority and affec- tion. " Most gracious Justinian, remember your baptism and your creed. Let not your gray hairs be defiled with heresy. Recall your fathers from exile, and your followers from per- dition. You cannot be ignorant that Italy and Gaul, Spain and Africa, already deplore your fall, and anathematize your name. Unless, without delay, you destroy what you have taught ; unless you exclaim with a loud voice, I have erred, Pelagius to the conqueror and exarch of Italy. "Schisma * * * per potestates publicas opprimatur,"etc. (Concil. torn. vi. p. 467, etc.)- An army was detained to suppress the sedition of an Illyrian city. See Procopius (De Bell. Goth. 1. iv. c. 25 [torn. iii. p. 594, edit. Bonn]) : wv-jrsp 'iveica cnpiaiv cvrolg oi Xpiariavot Siapa- Xovrai. He seems to promise an ecclesiastical history It would have been cu- rious and impartial. 98 The bishops of the patriarchate of Aquileia were reconciled by Pope Hono- rius a.d. 638 (Muratori, Annali d'ltalia, torn. v. p. 376) ; but they again relapsed, and the schism was not finally extinguished till 698. Fourteen years before, the Church of Spain had overlooked the fifth general council with contemptuous si- lence (xiii, Concil, Toletan, in Concil, torn. vii. p. 4.S7-194), 682 THE MONOTHELITE CONTROVERSY. [Ch. XLVU I have sinned, anathema to Nestorius, anathema to Eutyches, you deliver your soul to the same flames in which they will eternally burn." He died and made no sign. 09 His death restored in some degree the peace of the Church, and the reigns of his four successors, Justin, Tiberius, Maurice, and Phocas, are distinguished by a rare, though fortunate, vacancy in the ecclesiastical history of the East. 100 The faculties of sense and reason are least capable of act- ing on themselves ; the eye is most inaccessible to the sight, TheHonoth- tne sou l to * ne thought- ; yet we think, and even novei'sy." feel, that one will, a sole principle of action, is es- A.«.629. sential to a rational and conscious being. When Heraclius returned 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 Egypt and Syria might be reconciled by the profession of a doctrine most certainly harmless and most probably true, since it was taught even by the Nestorians themselves. 101 The experiment was tried without effect, and the timid or vehement Catholics con- demned even the semblance of a retreat in the presence of a subtle and audacious enemy. The orthodox (the prevailing) 99 Nicetius, Bishop of Treves (Concil. torn. vi. p. 511-513) : he himself, like most of the Gallican prelates (Gregor. Epist. 1. vii. Ep. 5, in Concil. torn. vi. p. 1007), was separated from the communion of the four patriarchs by his refusal to con- demn the three chapters. Baronius almost pronounces the damnation of Justin- ian (a.d. 565, No. 6). 100 After relating the last heresy of Justinian (1. iv. c. 39, 40, 41) and the edict of his successor (1. v. c. 3 [4]), the remainder of the history of Evagrius is filled with civil, instead of ecclesiastical, events. 101 This extraordinary, and perhaps inconsistent, doctrine of the Nestorians, had been observed by La Croze (Christianisme des Indes, torn. i. p. 19, 20), and is more fully exposed by Abulpharagius (Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. p. 292 ; Hist. Dynast, p. 91, vers. Latin. Pocock), and Asseman himself (torn. iv. p. 218). They seem ignorant that they might allege the positive authority of the ecthesis. *0 fiiapog titaropiog KaiTrep diaipwv n)v Sreiav rov Kvpiov ivavQptinrtjaiv, Kai Sio df the Greeks to abjure the cate- chism of his infancy, and to persecute the religion of his fa- 104 The sufferings of Martin and Maximus are described with pathetic simplic- ity in their original letters and acts (Concil. torn. vii. p. 63-78 ; Baron. Annal. Eccles. a.d. 656, No. 2, et annos subsequent.). Yet the chastisement of their dis- obedience, £%6pia and aw/xarog aifcio/tos, had been previously announced in the Type of Constans (Concil. torn. vii. p. 240). 105 Eutychius (Annal. torn. ii. p. 348) most erroneously supposes that the 124 bishops of the Roman synod transported themselves to Constantinople ; and by adding them to the 168 Greeks, thus composes the sixth council of 292 fathers. a.d. 681.] SIXTH GENERAL COUNCIL. 685 thers. Perhaps the monks and people of Constantinople' * were favorable to the Lateran creed, which is indeed the least reasonable of the two : and the suspicion is countenanced by the unnatural moderation of the Greek clergy, who appear in this quarrel to be conscious of their weakness. "While the synod debated, a fanatic proposed a more summary decision, by raising a dead man to life: the prelates assisted at- the trial ; but the acknowledged failure may serve to indicate that the passions and prejudices of the multitude were not enlist- ed on the side of the Monothelites. In the next generation, when the son of Constantine was deposed and slain by the disciple of Macarius, they tasted the feast of revenge and do- minion; the image or monument of the sixth council was defaced, and the original acts were committed to the flames. But in the second year their patron was cast headlong from the throne, the bishops of the East were released from their occasional conformity, the Roman faith was more firmly re- planted by the orthodox successors of Bardanes, and the fine problems of the incarnation were forgotten in the more pop- ular and visible quarrel of the worship of images. 107 Before the end of the seventh century the creed of the in- carnation, which had been defined at Rome and Constanti- nople, was uniformly preached in the remote islands of Brit' ain and Ireland ; 108 the same ideas were entertained, or rathei io« The Monothelite Constans was hated by all, Sia toi tcivto. (says Theophanes, Chron. p. 292 [edit. Par. ; torn. i. p. 538, edit. Bonn]) sjiicn'jQri cQodpwg napci irdvTOJV. "When the Monothelite monk failed in his miracle, the people shouted, 6 Xabg aveGorjoe (Concil. torn. vii. p. 1032). But this was a natural and transient emotion, and I much fear that the latter is an anticipation of orthodoxy in the good people of Constantinople. 101 The history of Monothelitism may be found in the Acts of the Synods of Rome (torn. vii. p. 77-395, 601-608) and Constantinople (p. 609-1429). Baronius extracted some original documents from the Vatican library ; and his chronology is rectified by the diligence of Pagi. Even Dupin (Bibliotheque Eccle's. torn, vi. p. 57-71) and Basnage (Hist, de l'Eglise, torn. i. p. 541-555) afford a tolerable abridgment. 108 In the Lateran synod of 679, Wilfrid, an Anglo-Saxon bishop, subscribed "pro omni Aquilonari parte Britannia? et Hiberniae, qua? ab Anglorum et Bntto- num, necnon Scotorum et Pictorum gentibus colebantur" (Eddius, in Vit. St. Wil- frid., c. 31, apud Pagi, Ciitica, torn. iii. p. 88). Theodore ("magus insula Bri- 686 UNION OF THE GEEEK AND LATIN CHURCHES. [Ch. XLVIL the same words were repeated, by all the Christians whose Union of liturgy was performed in the Greek or the Lat- ind Latin * n tongue. Their numbers and visible splendor be- chmches. stowed an imperfect claim to the appellation of Catholics : but in the East they were marked with the less hon- orable name of Melchites, or Royalists ; 109 of men whose faith, instead of resting on the basis of Scripture, reason, or tradi- tion, had been established, and was still maintained, by the arbitrary power of a temporal monarch. Their adversaries might allege the words of the fathers of Constantinople, who profess themselves the slaves of the king ; and they might relate, with malicious joy, how the decrees of Chalcedon had been inspired and reformed by the Emperor Marcian and his virgin bride. The prevailing faction will naturally inculcate the duty of submission, nor is it less natural that dissenters should feel and assert the principles of freedom. Under the rod of persecution the Nestorians and Monophysites degener- ated into rebels and fugitives ; and the most ancient and use- ful allies of Rome were taught to consider the emperor not as the chief but as the enemy of the Christians. Language, th6 Reading principle which unites or separates the tribes of tannic archiepiscopus et philosophus ") was long expected at Rome (Concil. torn, vii. p. 714), but he contented himself with holding (a.d. 680) his provincial synod of Hatfield, in which he received the decrees of Pope Martin and the first Lateran council against the Monothelites (Concil. torn. vii. p. 597, etc.). Theodore, a monk of Tarsus, in Cilicia, had been named to the primacy of Britain by Pope Vitalian (a.d. 668, see Baronius and Pagi), whose esteem for his learning and pi- ety was tainted by some distrust of his national character — "Ne quid contrarium veritati fidei, Grascorum more, in ecclesiam cui praesset introduceret." The Ci- lician was sent from Rome to Canterbury under the tuition of an African guide (Bedae Hist. Eccles. Anglorum, 1. iv. c. 1). He adhered to the Roman doctrine; and the same creed of the incarnation has been uniformly transmitted from Theo- dore to the modern primates, whose sound understanding is perhaps seldom en- gaged with that abstruse mystery. 109 This name, unknown till the tenth century, appears to be of Syriac origin. It was invented by the Jacobites, and eagerly adopted by the Nestorians and Ma- hometans ; but it was accepted without shame by the Catholics, and is frequently used in the Annals of Eutychius (Asseman. Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. p. 507, etc., torn. iii. p. 355 ; Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 1 19). 'H,ue7c SovXot tov BatnXtwg, was the acclamation of the fathers of Constantinople (Concil. torn, vii. p. 765). a.d. 681.] SEPARATION OF THE ORIENTAL SECTS. 637 mankind, soon discriminated the sectaries of the East by a Perpetual peculiar and perpetual badge which abolished the tt3 oriental' means of intercourse and the hope of reconciliation, sects. rp^g ] on g dominion of the Greeks, their colonies, and above all their eloquence, had propagated a language doubtless the most perfect that has been contrived by the art of man. Yet the body of the people, both in Syria and Egypt, still persevered in the use of their national idioms ; with this difference, however, that the Coptic was confined to the rude and illiterate peasants of the Kile, while the Syriac, 110 from the mountains of Assyria to the Red Sea, was adapted to the higher topics of poetry and argument. Armenia and Abys- sinia were infected by the speech or learning of the Greeks; and their barbaric tongues, which have been revived in the studies of modern Europe, were unintelligible to the inhabi- tants of the Roman empire. The Syriac and the Coptic, the Armenian and the iEthiopic, are consecrated in the service of their respective churches ; and their theology is enriched by domestic versions 111 both of the Scriptures and of the most popular fathers. After a period of thirteen hundred and six- ty years, the spark of controversy, first kindled by a sermon of Nestorius, still burns in the bosom of the East, and the hos- tile communions still maintain the faith and discipline of their founders. In the most abject state of ignorance, poverty, and servitude, the Nestorians and Monophysites reject the spiritual supremacy of Rome, and cherish the toleration of their Turk- ish masters, which allows them to anathematize, on one hand, 110 The Syriac, which the natives revere as the primitive language, was divided into three dialects. 1. The Aramaean, as it was refined at Edessa and the cities of Mesopotamia; 2. The Palestine, which was used in Jerusalem, Damascus, and the rest of Syria ; 3. The Nabathcean, the rustic idiom of the mountains of Assyria and the villages of Irak (Gregor. Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast, p. 11). On the Syriac, see Ebed-Jesu (Asseman. torn. iii. p. 326, etc.), whose prejudice alona could prefer it to the Arabic. 111 I shall not enrich my ignorance with the spoils of Simon, Walton, Mill, Watstein, Assemannus, Ludolphus, La Croze, whom I have consulted with soma care. It appears: 1. That, of all the versions which are celebrated by the fathers, it is doubtful whether any are now extant in 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 more ancient &an their sckisna. 688 THE NESTOKIANS. [CaXLVIL St. Cyril and the Synod of Ephesus ; on the other, Pope Leo and the Council of Chalcedon. The weight which they cast into the downfall of the Eastern empire demands our notice, and the reader may be amused with the various prospect of — I. The Nestorians ; II. The Jacobites ; lia III. The Maronites ; IV. The Armenians ; Y. The Copts ; and, VI. The Abyssinians. To the three former the Syriac is common ; but of the lat- ter, each is discriminated by the use of a national idiom. Yet the modern natives of Armenia and Abyssinia would be in- capable of conversing with their ancestors ; and the Christians of Egypt and Syria, who reject the religion, have adopted the language, of the Arabians. The lapse of time has seconded the sacerdotal arts ; and in the East as well as in the West the Deity is addressed in an obsolete tongue unknown to the majority of the congregation. I. Both in his native and his episcopal province the heresy of the unfortunate Nestorius was speedily obliterated. The i. the nes- Oriental bishops, who at Ephesus had resisted to tobians, his face the arrogance of Cyril, were mollified by his tardy concessions. The same prelates, or their successors, subscribed, not without a murmur, the decrees of Chalcedon ; the power of the Monophy sites reconciled them with the Catholics in the conformity of passion, of interest, and, insen- sibly, of belief ; and their last reluctant sigh was breathed in the defence of the three chapters. Their dissenting brethren, less moderate or more sincere, were crushed by the penal laws ; and, as early as the reign of Justinian, it became diffi- cult to find a church of Nestorians within the limits of the 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 112 In the account of the Monophysites and Nestorians I am deeply indebted to the Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana of Joseph Simon Assemannus. That learned Maronite was despatched in the year 1715 by Pope Clement XI. to visit the monasteries of Egypt and Syria in search of MSS. His four folio vol- umes, published at Rome 1719-1728, contain a part only, though perhaps the most valuable, of his extensive project. As a native and as a scholar, he possessed the Syriac literature; and, though a dependent of Rome, he wishes to be moderate end candid. a.d. 681.] THE NEST0RIAN8. C89 Magi, Christianity had struck a deep root, and the nations of the East reposed under its salutary shade. The catholic, or primate, resided in the capital: in Ms synods, and in their di- oceses, his metropolitans, bishops, and clergy represented the pomp and order of a regular hierarchy : they rejoiced in the increase of proselytes, who were converted from the Zenda- vesta to the Gospel, from the secular to the monastic life ; and their zeal was stimulated by the presence of an artful and formidable enemy. The Persian Church had been founded by the missionaries of Syria ; and their language, discipline, and doctrine were closely interwoven with its original frame. The catholics were elected and ordained by their own suffra- gans ; but their filial dependence on the patriarchs of Anti- och is attested by the canons of the Oriental Church." 3 In the Persian school of Edessa 114 the rising generations of the faithful imbibed their theological idiom : they studied in the Syriac version the ten thousand volumes of Theodore of Mop- suestia ; and they revered the apostolic faith and holy mar- tyrdom of his disciple Nestorius, whose person and language were equally unknown to the nations beyond the Tigris. The first indelible lesson of Ibas, Bishop of Edessa, taught them to execrate the^y^'aw. 500-1200.] THEIR MISSIONS. C91 of the Eastern empire ; the narrow bigotry of Justinian was punished by the emigration of his most industrious subjects; they transported into Persia the arts both of peace and war: and those who deserved the favor were promoted in the ser- vice of a discerning monarch. The arms of Nnshirvan, and his fiercer grandson, were assisted with advice, and money, and troops by the desperate sectaries who still lurked in their native cities of the East : their zeal was rewarded with the gift of the Catholic churches ; but when those cities and churches were recovered by Heraclius, their open profession of treason and heresy compelled them to seek a refuge in the realm of their foreign ally. But the seeming tranquil- lity of the ISTestorians was often endangered and sometimes overthrown. They were involved in the common evils of Oriental despotism : their enmity to Home could not always atone for their attachment to the Gospel: and a colony of three hundred thousand Jacobites, the captives of Apamea and Antioch, was permitted to erect a hostile altar in the face of the catholic and in the sunshine of the court. In his last treaty Justinian introduced some conditions which tended to enlarge and fortify the toleration of Christian- ity in Persia. The emperor, ignorant of the rights of con- science, was incapable of pity or esteem for the heretics who denied the authority of the holy synods: but he flattered himself that they would gradually perceive the temporal ben- efits of union with the empire and the Church of Rome ; and if he failed in exciting their gratitude, he might hope to provoke the jealousy of their sovereign. In a later age the Lutherans have been burned at Paris and protected in Ger- many, by the superstition and policy of the most Christian king. The desire of gaining souls for God and subjects for the Church has excited in every age the diligence of the Chris- , tian priests. From the conquest of Persia they car- eious in Tar- ried their spiritual arms to the north, the east, and tary, India, i-ii t • eir-i i china, etc. the south ; and the simplicity ot the Gospel was fashioned and painted with the colors of the Syriac theology. In the sixth century, according to the report of C02 MISSIONS OF THE NESTORIANS. [Ch. XLVII a ISTestorian traveller, 116 Christianity was successfully preached to the Bactrians, the Huns, the Persians, the Indians, the Per- sarmenians, the Medes, and the Elamites : the barbaric church- es, from the Gulf of Persia to the Caspian Sea, were almost infinite ; and their recent faith was conspicuous in the num- ber and sanctity of their monks and martyrs. The pepper coast of Malabar and the isles of the ocean, Socotora and Cey- lon, were peopled with an increasing multitude of Christians ; and the bishops and clergy of those sequestered regions de- rived their ordination from the Catholic of Babylon. In a subsequent age the zeal of the Nestorians overleaped the lim- its which had confined the ambition and curiosity both of the Greeks and Persians. The missionaries of Balch and Samar- cand pursued without fear the footsteps of the roving Tartar, and insinuated themselves into the camps of the valleys of Imaus and the banks of the Selinga. They exposed a meta- physical creed to those illiterate shepherds : to those sangui- nary warriors they recommended humanity and repose. Yet a khan, whose power they vainly magnified, is said to have received at their hands the rites of baptism and even of or- dination ; and the fame of Prester or Presbyter John 1 " has 1,6 See the Topographia Christiana of Cosmas, surnamed Indicopleustes, or the Indian navigator, 1. iii. p. 178, 179 ; 1. xi. p. 337. The entire work, of which some curious extracts may be found in Photius (cod. xxxvi. p. 9, 10, edit. Hoeschel), Thevenot (in the first part of his Relation des Voyages, etc.), and Fabricius (Bi- blioth Grse<\ . iii. c. 25, torn. ii. p. 603-617), has been published by Father Mont- faucon at Paris, 1707, in the Nova Collectio Patrum (torn. ii. p. 113-346). It was the design of the author to confute the impious heresy of those who maintained that the earth a globe, and not a flat oblong table, as it is represented in the Scriptures (1. ii. p. 138 [125 seq.]). But the nonsense of the monk is mingled with the practical knowledge of the traveller, who performed his voyage a.d. 522, and published his book at Alexandria, a.d. 547 (1. ii. p. 140, 141 ; Montfaucon, Prsefat. c. 1). The Nestorianism of Cosmas, unknown to his learned editor, was detected by La Croze (Christianisme des Indes, torn. i. p. 40-55), and is confirmed by Assemanni (Biblioth. Orient, torn. iv. p. 605, 606). 117 In its long progress to Mosul, Jerusalem, Rome, etc., the story of Prester John evaporated in a monstrous fable, of which some features have been borrow- ed from the Lama of Thibet (Hist. Ge'ne'alogique des Tatares, pt. ii. p. 42 ; Hist, de Gengiscan, p. 31, etc.), and were ignorantly transferred by the Portuguese to the Emperor of Abyssinia (Ludolph. Hist. iEthiop. Comment. 1. ii. c. 1). Yet it is probable that in the eleventh and twelfth centuries Nestorian Christianity was a.d. 500-1200.] MISSIONS OF THE NESTORIANS. 693 long amused the credulity of Europe. The royal convert was indulged in the use of a portable altar; but he despatched an embassy to the patriarch to inquire how, in the season of Lent, he should abstain from animal food, and how he might celebrate the Eucharist in a desert that produced neither corn nor wine. In their progress by sea and land the Nes- torians entered China by the port of Canton and the northern residence of Sigan. Unlike the senators of Rome, who as- sumed with a smile the characters of priests and augurs, the mandarins, who affect in public the reason of philosophers, are devoted in private to every mode of popular superstition. They cherished and they confounded the gods of Palestine and of India; but the propagation of Christianity awakened the jealousy of the State, and, after a short vicissitude of fa- vor and persecution, the foreign sect expired in ignorance and oblivion. 118 Under the reign of the caliphs the Nestorian professed in the horde of the Keraites (D'Herhelot, p. 256, 915, 959 ; Assemanni, torn. iv. p. 468-504). a 118 The Christianity of China, between the seventh and the thirteenth century, is invincibly proved by the consent of Chinese, Arabian, Syriac, and Latin evi- dence (Assemanni, Biblioth. Orient, torn. iv. p. 502-552 ; Mem. de l'Academie des Inscript. torn. xxx. p. 802-819). The inscription of Siganfu, which describes the fortunes of the Nestorian Church, from the first mission, a.d. 636, to the cur- rent year 781, is accused of forgery by La Croze, Voltaire, etc., who become the dupes of their own cunning, while they are afraid of a Jesuitical fraud. b a The extent to which Nestorian Christianity prevailed among the Tartar tribes is one of the most curious questions in Oriental history. M. Schmidt (Geschichte der Ost Mongolen, notes, p. 383) appears to question the Christianity of Ong Cha- ghan and his Keraite subjects. — M. b This famous monument, the authenticity of which many have attempted to impeach, rather from hatred to the Jesuits, by whom it was made known, than by a candid examination of its contents, is now generally considered above all sus- picion. The Chinese text and the facts which it relates are equally strong proofs of its authenticity. This monument was raised as a memorial of the establish- ment of Christianity in China. It is dated the year 1092 of the era of the Greeks, or the Seleucidai, a.d. 781, in the time of the Nestorian patriarch Anan-jesu. It was raised by Iezdbouzid, priest and chorepiscopus of Chumdan, that is, of the capital of the Chinese empire, and the son of a priest who came from Balkh, in Tokharistan. Among the various arguments which may be urged in favor of the authenticity of this monument, and which have not yet been advanced, may be reckoned the name of the priest by whom it was raised. The name is Persian, and at the time the monument was discovered it would have been impossible to have imagined it : for there was no work extant from whence the knowledge of it could be derived. I do not believe that, even since this period, any book has been published in which it can be found a. second time. It is very celebrated amongst 694 MISSIONS OF THE NESTOKIANS. [Ch. XLVIL Church was diffused from China to Jerusalem and Cyprus; and their numbers, with those of the Jacobites, were com- puted to surpass the Greek and Latin communions. 119 Twen- ty-five metropolitans or archbishops composed their hierar- chy; but several of these were dispensed, by the distance and danger of the way, from the duty of personal attendance, on the easy condition that every six years they should testify their faith and obedience to the catholic or patriarch of Baby- lon, a vague appellation which has been successively applied to the royal seats of Seleucia, Ctesiphon, and Bagdad. These remote branches are long since withered ; and the old patri- archal trunk 120 is now divided by the Elijahs of Mosul, the representatives almost in lineal descent of the genuine and primitive succession,* the Josephs of Amida, who are recon- ciled to the Church of Rome ; iai and the Simeons of Yan or Ormia, whose revolt, at the head of forty thousand families, was promoted in the sixteenth century by the Sophis of Per- sia. The number of three hundred thousand is allowed for the whole body of Nestorians, who, under the name of Chal- dasans or Assyrians, are confounded with the most learned or the most powerful nation of Eastern antiquity. According to the legend of antiquity, the Gospel wa3 119 Jacobitas et Nestoriana? plures quam Graeci et Latini. Jacob a Vitriaco, Hist. Hierosol. 1. ii. c. 76, p. 1093, in the Gesta Dei per Francos. The numbers are given by Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise, torn. i. p. 172. 120 The division of the patriarchate may be traced in the Bibliotheca Orient, of Assemanni, torn. i. p. 523-549 ; torn. ii. p. 457, etc. ; torn. iii. p. 603, p. 621-623; torn. iv. p. 164-169, p. 423, p. 622-629, etc. 121 The pompous language of Rome, on the submission of a Nestorian patriarch, is elegantly represented in the seventh book of Fra-Paolo, Babylon, Nineveh, Ar- bela, and the trophies of Alexander, Tauris and Ecbatana, the Tigris and Indus. the Armenians, and is derived from a martyr, a Persian by birth, of the royal race, who perished towards the middle of the seventh century, and rendered his name celebrated among the Christian nations of the East. St. Martin, vol. i. p. G9. M. Remusat has also strongly expressed his conviction of the authenticity of this monument. Melanges Asiatiques. pt. i. p. 33. D'Ohson, in his History of the Moguls, concurs in this view. Yet M. Schmidt (Geschichte der Ost Mon- golen, p. 384) denies that there is any satisfactory proof that such a monument was ever found in China, or that it was not manufactured in Europe. But if the Jesuits had attempted such a forgery, would it not have been more adapted ta further their peculiar views ? — M. A.D. 883.] CHRISTIANS OF ST. THOMAS IN INDIA. 695 preached in India by St. Thomas. 1 " At the end of the ninth century his shrine, perhaps in the neighborhood of tiansof Madras, was devoutly visited by the ambassadors St. Thoinas „ . . „ 7 , -,,. ., ,. in iudia. of Alfred ; and their return with a cargo of pearls and spices rewarded the zeal of the English mon- arch, who entertained the largest projects of trade and discov- ery. 198 When the Portuguese first opened the navigation of India, the Christians of St. Thomas had been seated for ages on th© coast of Malabar, and the difference of their character and color attested the mixture of a foreign race. In arms, in arts, and possibly in virtue, they excelled the natives of Hin- dostan; the husbandmen cultivated the palm-tree, the mer- chants were enriched by the pepper trade, the soldiers pre- ceded the nairs or nobles of Malabar, and their hereditary privileges were respected by the gratitude or the fear of the King of Cochin and the Zamorin himself. They acknowl- edged a Gentoo sovereign, but they were governed, even in temporal concerns, by the Bishop of Angamala. He still as- serted his ancient title of Metropolitan of India, but his real jurisdiction was exercised in fourteen hundred churches, and he was intrusted with the care of two hundred A.i>. 1500, etc. mi • t • thousand souls, iheir religion would have ren- dered them the firmest and most cordial allies of the Portu- 122 The Indian missionary, St. Thomas, an apostle, a Manichaean, or an Arme- nian merchant (La Croze, Christianisme des Indes, torn. i. p. 57-70), was famous, however, as early as the time of Jerom (ad Marcellam, Epist. 148 [Ep. 59, p. 328, edit.Vallars.]). Marco-Polo was informed on the spot that he suffered martyr- dom in the city of Maabar, or Meliapour, a league only from Madras (D'Anville, Eclaircissemens sur l'lnde, p. J 25 ; where the Portuguese founded an Episcopal church under the name of St. Thome', and where the saint performed an annual miracle, till he was silenced by the profane neighborhood of the English (La Croze, torn. ii. p. 7-16). 123 Neither the author of the Saxon Chronicle (a.d. 883) nor William of Malmes- bury (De Gestis Regum Angliae, 1. ii. c. 4, p. 44 were capable, in the twelfth cent- ury, of inventing this extraordinary fact ; they are incapable of explaining the mo- tives and measures of Alfred, and their hasty notice serves only to provoke our curiosity. William of Malmesbury feels the difficulties of the enterprise, " Quod quivis in hoc sseculo miretur;" and I almost suspect that the English ambassa- dors collected their cargo and legend in Egypt. The royal author has not enrich- ed Ids Orosins (see Barrington's Miscellanies) with an Indian as well as a Scandt navian voyage. GOO CHRISTIANS OF ST. THOMAS IN INDIA. [Ch. XLVIL guese ; but the inquisitors soon discerned in the Christiana of St. Thomas the unpardonable guilt of heresy and schism. Instead of owning themselves the subjects of the Roman pontiff, the spiritual and temporal monarch of the globe, they adhered, like their ancestors, to the communion of the Nesto- rian patriarch ; and the bishops whom he ordained at Mosul traversed the dangers of the sea and land to reach their dio- cese on the coast of Malabar. In their Syriac liturgy the lames of Theodore and Nestorius were piously commemo- rated : they united their adoration of the two persons of Christ; the title of Mother of God was offensive to their ear; and they measured with scrupulous avarice the honors of the Virgin Mary, whom the superstition of the Latins had almost exalted to the rank of a goddess. "When her image was first presented to the disciples of St. Thomas they indig- nantly 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 ignorance of the improvements or corruptions of a thousand years ; and their conformity with the faith and practice of the fifth century would equally disappoint the prejudices of a Papist or a Protestant. It was the first care of the ministers of Rome to intercept all correspondence with the Nestorian patriarch, and several of his bishops expired in the prisons of the holy office. The flock, without a shepherd, was assaulted by the power of the Portuguese, 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 work of the reunion, and rigorously imposed the doc- trine and discipline of the Roman Church, without forgetting auricular confession, the strongest engine of ecclesiastical tort- ure. The memory of Theodore and Nestorius was condemn- ed, and Malabar was reduced under the dominion of the pope, A D of the primate, and of the Jesuits who invaded the 1599-1063. gee Q f Angamala or Cranganor. Sixty years of servitude and hypocrisy were patiently endured ; but as soon as the Portuguese empire was shaken by the courage and in* a.d. 1599-1663.] THE JACOBITES. G97 dustry of the Dutch, the Nestorians asserted with vigor and effect the religion of their fathers. The Jesuits were inca- pable of defending the power which they had abused; the arms of forty thousand Christians were pointed against their falling tyrants ; and the Indian archdeacon assumed the char- acter of bishop till a fresh supply of episcopal gifts and Syriac missionaries could be obtained from the Patriarch of Babylon. Since the expulsion of the Portuguese the Nesto- rian creed is freely professed on the coast of Malabar. The trading companies of Holland and England are the friends of toleration ; but if oppression be less mortifying than con- tempt, the Christians of St. Thomas have reason to complain of the cold and silent indifference of their brethren of Eu- rope. 124 II. The history of the Monophysites is less copious and in- teresting than that of the Nestorians. Under the reigns of ilthe Zeno and Anastasius their artful leaders surprised Jacobites. ^ ear f ^ Q p r i nc6j usurped the thrones of the East, and crushed on its native soil the school of the Syrians. The rule of the Monophysite faith was defined with exqui- site discretion by Severus, Patriarch of Antioch ; he con. demned, in the style of the Henoticon, the adverse heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches ; maintained against the latter the reality of the body of Christ ; and constrained the Greeks to allow that he was a liar who spoke truth. 125 But the ap- 124 Concerning the Christians of St. Thomas, see Assemann. Biblioth. Orient. torn. iv. p. 391-407, 435-451 ; Geddes's Church History of Malabar; and, above all, La Croze, Histoire du Christianisme des Indes, in two vols. 12mo, La Haye, 1758 — a learned and agreeable work. They have drawn from the same source the Portuguese and Italian narratives ; and the prejudices of the Jesuits are suffi- ciently corrected by those of the Protestants. 3 125 Olov tiTTiiv \l/evSa\ri9r]g, is the expression of Theodore, in his Treatise of the Incarnation, p. 245, 247, as he is quoted by La Croze (Hist, du Christianisme d'Ethiopie et d'Armenie, p. 35), who exclaims, perhaps too hastily, " Quel pitoya- ble raisonnement!" Renaudot has touched (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 127-138) ' The St. Thome* Christians had excited great interest in the ardent mind of the admirable Bishop Heber. See his curious and to his friends highly charac- teristic letter to Mar Athanasius, Appendix to Journal. The arguments of his friend and coadjutor, Mr. Robinson (Last Days of Bishop Heber), have not con- vinced me that the Christianity of India is older than the Nestorian dispersion. — M. 698 THE JACOBITES. [Ch. XLVII proximation of ideas could not abate the vehemence of pas- sion ; each party was the more astonished that their blind an- tagonist could dispute on so trifling a difference ; the tyrant of Syria enforced the belief of his creed, and his reign was polluted with the blood of three hundred and fifty monks, who were slain, not perhaps without provocation or resist- ance, under the walls of Apamea. 138 The successor of Anas- tasius replanted the orthodox standard in the East ; Severus fled into Egypt ; and his friend, the elo- quent Xenaias, 1 " who had escaped from the Nestorians of Persia, was suffocated in his exile by the Melchites of Paph- lagonia. Fifty-four bishops were swept from their thrones, eight hundred ecclesiastics were cast into prison, 128 and, not- withstanding the ambiguous favor of Theodora, the Orient- al flocks, deprived of their shepherds, must insensibly have been either famished or poisoned. In this spiritual distress the expiring faction was revived, and united, and perpetu- ated by the labors of a monk ; and the name of James Ba- radaeus 189 has been preserved in the appellation of Jacobites, a the Oriental accounts of Severus ; and his authentic creed may be found in the epistle of John the Jacobite patriarch of Antioch, in the tenth century, to his brother Mennas of Alexandria (Asseman. Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. p. 132-141). 126 Epist. Archimandritarum et Monachorum Syrise, Secundas ad Papam Hor- misdam, Concil. torn. v. p. 598-602. The courage of St. Sabas, "ut leo animo- sus," will justify the suspicion that the arms of these monks were not always spir- itual or defensive (Baronius, a.d. 513, No. 7, etc.). 127 Assemanni (Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. p. 10-46) and La Croze (Christianisme d'Ethiopie, p. 36-40) will supply the history of Xenaias, or Philoxenus, Bishop of Mabug, or Hierapolis, in Syria. He was a perfect master of the Syriac language, and the author or editor of a version of the New Testament. 128 The names and titles of fifty-four bishops who were exiled by Justin are preserved in the Chronicle of Dionysius (apud Asseman. torn. ii. p. 54). Severus was personally summoned to Constantinople — for his trial, says Liberatus (Brev. c. 19) — that his tongue might be cut out, says Evagrius (1. iv. c. 4). The prudent patriarch did not stay to examine the difference. This ecclesiastical revolution is fixed by Pagi to the month of September of the year 518 (Critica, torn. ii. p. 506). 129 The obscure history of James, or Jacobus Baradaeus, or Zanzalus, may be gathered from Eutychius (Annal. torn. ii. p. 144, 147), Eenaudot (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 133), and Assemannus (Biblioth. Orient, torn. i. p. 424 ; torn. ii. p. 62-69, 324-332,414; torn. iii. p. 385-388). He seems to be unknown to the Greeks. The Jacobites themselves had rather deduce their name and pedigree from St. James the apostle. a.d.518.] THE JACOBITES. 699 familiar sound which may startle the ear of an English read- er. From the holy confessors in their prison of Constanti- nople he received the powers of Bishop of Edessa and apos- tle of the East, and the ordination of fourscore thousand bish- ops, priests, and deacons is derived from the same inexhausti- ble source. The speed of the zealous missionary was pro- moted by the fleetest dromedaries of a devout chief of the Arabs ; the doctrine and discipline of the Jacobites were se- cretly established in the dominions of Justinian ; and each Jacobite was compelled to violate the laws and to hate the Eoman legislator. The successors of Severus, while they lurked in convents or villages, while they sheltered their pro- scribed heads in the caverns of hermits or the tents of the Saracens, still asserted, as they now assert, their indefeasible right to the title, the rank, and the prerogatives of patriarch of Antioch : under the milder yoke of the infidels they reside about a league from Merdin, in the pleasant monastery of Za- pharan, which they have embellished with cells, aqueducts, and plantations. The secondary, though honorable, place is filled by the maphrian, who, in his station at Mosul itself, de- lies the Nestorian catholic with whom he contests the prima- cy of the East. Under the patriarch and the maphrian one hundred and fifty archbishops and bishops have been counted in the different ages of the Jacobite Church ; but the order of the hierarchy is relaxed or dissolved, and the greater part of their dioceses is confined to the neighborhood of the Eu- phrates and the Tigris. The cities of Aleppo and Amida, which are often visited by the patriarch, contain some wealthy merchants and industrious mechanics, but the multitude de- rive their scanty sustenance from their daily labor : and pov- erty, as well as superstition, may impose their excessive fasts — five annual lents, during which both the clergy and laity abstain not only from flesh or eggs, but even from the taste of wine, of oil, and of fish. Their present numbers are es- teemed from fifty to fourscore thousand souls, the remnant of a populous church, which has gradually decreased under the oppression of twelve centuries. Yet in that long period som« strangers of merit have been converted to the Monophysite 700 THE JACOBITES. [Ch. XLVII. faith, and a Jew was the father of Abulpharagius," primate of the East, so truly eminent both in his life and death. In his life he was an elegant writer of the Syriac and Arabic tongues, a poet, physician, and historian, a subtle philosopher, and a moderate divine. In his death his funeral was attend- ed by his rival the Nestorian patriarch, with a train of Greeks and Armenians, who forgot their disputes, and mingled their tears over the grave of an enemy. The sect which was hon- ored by the virtues of Abulpharagius appears, however, to sink below the level of their Eestorian brethren. The su- perstition of the Jacobites is more abject, their fasts more rigid, 131 their intestine divisions are more numerous, and their doctors (as far as I can measure the degrees of nonsense) are more remote from the precincts of reason. Something may possibly be allowed for the rigor of the Monophysite theology, much more for the superior influence of the monastic order. In Syria, in Egypt, in ^Ethiopiaj the Jacobite monks have ever been distinguished by the austerity of their penance and the absurdity of their legends. Alive or dead, they are wor- shipped as the favorites of the Deity ; the crosier of bishop and patriarch is reserved for their venerable hands ; and they assume the government of men while they are yet reeking with the habits and prejudices of the cloister." 9 III. In the style of the Oriental Christians, the Monothe- lites of every age are described under the appellation of Mar- onites, 133 a name which has been insensibly transferred from 130 The account of his person and writings is perhaps the most curious articlo in the Bibliotheca of Assemannus (torn. ii. p. 244-321, under the name of Grega. rius Bar-Hebrcens). La Croze (Christianisme d'Ethiopie, p. 53-63) ridicules the prejudice of the Spaniards against the Jewish blood which secretly defiles their Church and State. 131 This excessive abstinence is censured by La Croze (p. 352), and even by the Syrian Assemannus (torn. i. p. 226 ; torn. ii. p. 304, 305). 132 The state of the Monophysites is excellently illustrated in a dissertation at the beginning of the second volume of Assemannus, which contains 142 pages. The Syriac Chronicle of Gregory Bar - Hebraeus, or Abulpharagius (Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. p. 321-463), pursues the double series of the Nestorian Catholici and the Maphrians of the Jacobites. ' 33 The synonymous use of the two words may be proved from Eutychius { An- na!, torn. ii. p. 191, 267, 332), and many similar passages which may be found in A.D.518.] THE MAE0NITE8. 701 a hermit to a monastery, from a monastery to a nation. Ma- in, tub ron j a saint or savage of the fifth century, displayed Mabonites. jjjg re iigi ons madness in Syria; the rival cities of Apamea and Emesa disputed his relics, a stately church was erected on his tomb, and six hundred of his disciples united their solitary cells on the banks of the Orontes. In the controversies of the incarnation they nicely threaded the orthodox line between the sects of Kestorius and Eutyches ; but the unfortunate question of one will or operation in the two natures of Christ was generated by their curious leisure. Their proselyte, the Emperor Heraclius, was rejected as a Maronite from the walls of Emesa ; he found a refuge in the monastery of his brethren ; and their theological lessons were repaid with the gift of a spacious and wealthy domain. The name and doctrine of this venerable school were propagated among the Greeks and Syrians, and their zeal is expressed by Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch, who declared before the Syn- od of Constantinople, that, sooner than subscribe the two wills of Christ, he would submit to be hewn piecemeal and cast into the sea. 134 A similar or a less cruel mode of persecution soon converted the unresisting subjects of the plain, while the glorious title of Mardaites™ or rebels, was bravely maintain- ed by the hardy natives of Mount Libanus. John Maron, one of the most learned and popular of the monks, assumed the character of Patriarch of Antioch; his nephew, Abraham, the methodical table of Pocock. He was not actuated by any prejudice against the Marotiites of the tenth century ; and we may believe a Melchite, whose testi- mony is confirmed by the Jacobites and Latins. 134 Concil. torn. vii. p. 780. The Monothelite cause was supported with firm- ness and subtlety by Constantine, a Syrian priest of Apamea (p. 1040, etc.). 135 Theophanes (Chron. p. 295, 296, 300, 302, 306 [torn. i. p. 512 seq., 552, 555, 561, edit. Bonn]) and Cedrenus (p. 437, 440 [edit. Par. ; torn. i. p. 765 seq., edit. Bonn]) relate the exploits of the Mardaites : the name (Mard, in Syriac rebel- lavit) is explained by La Eoque (Voyage de la Syrie, torn. ii. p. 53) ; the dates are fixed by Pagi (a.d. 676, No. 4-14 ; A.r>. 685, Nos. 3, 4) ; and even the ob- scure story of the patriarch John Maron (Asseman. Biblioth. Orient, torn. i. p. 496- 520) illustrates, from the year 686 to 707, the troubles of Mount Libanus.* a Compare, on the Mardaites, Anquetil du Perron, in the fiftieth vol. of the Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions ; and Schlosser, Bildersiuimeaden Kaiser, p. 100. — M. 702 THE MARONITES. [Ch. XLVH at the head of the Maronites, defended their civil and relig« ions freedom against the tyrants of the East. The son of the orthodox Constantine pursued with pious hatred a people of soldiers, who might have stood the bulwark of his empire against the common foes of Christ and of Rome. An army of Greeks invaded Syria; the monastery of St. Maron was destroyed with fire ; the bravest chieftains were betrayed and murdered, and twelve thousand of their followers were trans- planted to the distant frontiers of Armenia and Thrace. Yet the humble nation of the Maronites has survived the empire of Constantinople, and they still enjoy, under their Turkish masters, a free religion and a mitigated servitude. Their do- mestic governors are chosen among the ancient nobility : the patriarch, in his monastery of Canobin, still fancies himself on the throne of Antioch ; nine bishops compose his synod, and one hundred and fifty priests, who retain the liberty of marriage, are intrusted with the care of one hundred thousand souls. Their country extends from the ridge of Mount Liba- nus to the shores of Tripoli ; and the gradual descent affords, in a narrow space, each variety of soil and climate, from the Holy Cedars, erect under the weight of snow, 136 to the vine, the mulberry, and the olive trees of the fruitful valley.' In the twelfth century the Maronites, abjuring the Monothelite error, were reconciled to the Latin churches of Antioch and Rome, 137 and the same alliance has been frequently renewed 136 In the last century twenty large cedars still remained (Voyage deLaRoqne, torn. i. p. 68-76); at present they are reduced to four or five (Volney, torn. i.p. 264).* These trees, so famous in Scripture, were guarded by excommunication : the wood was sparingly borrowed for small crosses, etc. ; an annual mass was chanted un- der their shade , and they were endowed by the Syrians with a sensitive power of erecting their branches to repel the snow, to which Mount Libanus is less faithful than it is painted by Tacitus : " Inter ardores opacum fidumque nivibus " — a dar- ing metaphor (Hist. v. 6). 137 The evidence of William of Tyre (Hist, in Gestis Dei per Francos, 1. xxii. c. 8, p. 1022 [fol. Hanov. 1611]) is copied or confirmed by Jacques de Vitra (Hist. Hierosolym. 1. ii. c. 77, p. 1093, 1091). But this unnatural league expired with a Of the oldest and best-looking trees I counted eleven or twelve ; twenty-five very large ones ; about fifty of middling size ; and more than three hundred small- er and young ones. Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, p. 19. — M. *D. 518.] THB ARMENIANS. 703 by the ambition of the popes and the distress of the Syrians. But it may reasonably be questioned whether their union haa ever been perfect or sincere ; and the learned Maronites of the College of Koine have vainly labored to absolve their an- cestors from the guilt of heresy and schism. 138 IY. Since the age of Constantine, the Armenians" 9 had sig- nalized their attachment to the religion and empire of the iv. thh Christians. 11 The disorders of their country, and abmbnians. their ignorance of the Greek tongue, prevented their clergy from assisting at the Synod of Chalcedon, and they floated eighty-four years 140 in a state of indifference cr suspense, till their vacant faith was finally occupied by the missionaries of Julian of Halicarnassus, 141 who in Egypt, their common exile, had been vanquished by the arguments or the influence of his rival Severus, the Monophysite patriarch of Antioch. The Armenians alone are the pure disciples of Eu- tyches, an unfortunate parent, who has been renounced by the th3 power of the Franks; and Abulpharagius (who died in 1286) considers the Maronites as a sect of Monothelites (Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. p. 292). 138 I find a description and history of the Maronites in the Voyage de la Syria et du Mont Liban par La Koque (2 vols, in 12mo, Amsterdam, 1723 ; particu- larly torn. i. p. 42-47, p. 174-184 ; torn. ii. p. 10-120). In the ancient part ha copies the prejudices of Nairon and the other Maronites of Rome, which Asseman- nus is afraid to renounce and ashamed to support. Jablonski (Institut. Hist. Christ, torn. iii. p. 186), Niebuhr (Voyage de TArabie, etc., torn. ii. p. 346, 370- 381), and, above all, the judicious Volney (Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie, torn. ii. p. 8-31, Paris, 1787), may be consulted. 139 The religion of the Armenians is briefly described by La Croze (Hist, da Christ, de l'Ethiopie et de TArmenie, p. 269-402). He refers to the great Ar- menian History of Galanus (3 vols, in fol. Rome, 1650-1661), and commends the state of Armenia in the third volume of the Nouveaux Me'moires des Missions da Levant. The work of a Jesuit must have sterling merit when it is praised bjr La Croze. 140 The schism of the Armenians is placed eighty-four years after the Council of Chalcedon (Pagi, Critica, ad a.d. 535). It was consummated at the end of seventeen years ; and it is from the year of Christ 552 that we date the era cf the Armenians (L'Art de Verifier les Dates, p. xxxv.). 141 The sentiments and success of Julian of Halicarnassus may be seen in Lib* eratns (Brev. c. 19), Renaudot (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 132, 303), and Asseman« uus (Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. Dissertat. de Monophysitis, p. viii. p. 286). * See vol. ii. ch. xx. p. 456.— M. 704 THE ARMENIANS. [Ch. XLVII. greater part of his spiritual progeny. They alone persevere in the opinion that the manhood of Christ was created, or ex- isted without creation, of a divine and incorruptible substance. Their adversaries reproach them with the adoration of a phan< torn ; and they retort the accusation, by deriding or execrat- ing the blasphemy of the Jacobites, who impute to the God- head the vile infirmities of the flesh, even the natural effects of nutrition and digestion. The religion of Armenia could not derive much glory from the learning or the power of its inhabitants. The royalty expired with the origin of their schism ; and their Christian kings, who arose and fell in the thirteenth century on the confines of Cilicia, were the clients of the latins and the vassals of the Turkish sultan of Iconi- um. The helpless nation has seldom been permitted to en- joy the tranquillity of servitude. From the earliest period to the present hour Armenia has been the theatre of perpetual war : the lands between Tauris and Erivan were dispeopled by the cruel policy of the Sophis ; and myriads of Christian families were transplanted, to perish or to propagate in the distant provinces of Persia. Under the rod of oppression, the zeal of the Armenians is fervent and intrepid; they have often preferred the crown of martyrdom to the white turban of Mahomet ; they devoutly hate the error and idolatry of the Greeks ; and their transient union with the Latins is not less devoid of truth than the thousand bishops whom their patriarch offered at the feet of the Roman pontiff. 10 The catholic, or patriarch, of the Armenians resides in the mon- astery of Ekmiasin, three leagues from Erivan. Forty-seven archbishops, each of whom may claim the obedience of four or five suffragans, are consecrated by his hand ; but the far greater part are only titular prelates, who dignify with their presence and service the simplicity of his court. As soon as they have performed the liturgy, they cultivate the garden ; and our bishops will hear with surprise that the austerity of *• See a remarkable fact of the twelfth century in the History of Nicetas Choniates (p. 258). Yet three hundred years before, Photius (Epistol. ii. p. 49, edit. Montacut.) had gloried in the conversion of the Armenians — \aroeuti orijiv pov 6p9o$6Z The powers of government were strained in his support ; he might appoint or displace the dukes and trib- unes of Egypt ; the allowance of bread which Diocletian had granted was suppressed, the churches were shut, and a nation of schismatics was deprived at once of their spiritual and car- nal food. In his turn, the tyrant was excommunicated by the zeal and revenge of the people; and none except his servile Melchites would salute him as a 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, with a bribe of seven hundred pounds of gold, his restoration to the same sta« Apoiiinarfs. tion of hatred and ignominy. His successor Apol- A.D.B61. Ii nar i8 entered the hostile city in military array, alike qualified for prayer or for battle. His troops, under arms, were distributed through the streets ; the gates of the cathedral were guarded, and a chosen band was stationed in the choir to defend the person of their chief. He stood erect on his throne, and, throwing aside the upper garment of a warrior, suddenly appeared before the eyes of the multitude in the robes of Patriarch of Alexandria. Astonishment held them mute ; but no sooner had Apollinaris begun to read the tome of St. Leo, than a volley of curses, and invectives, and stones assaulted the odious minister of the emperor and the synod. A charge was instantly sounded by the successor of the apostles ; the soldiers waded to their knees in blood ; and a.d. 580, 609.] THE COPTS. 707 two hundred thousand Christians are said to have fallen by the sword : an incredible account, even if it be extended from the slaughter of a day to the eighteen years of the reign of Euiogiui. Apollinaris. Two succeeding patriarchs, Eulogius 14 * a.d.080. an( j j h n , 147 labored in the conversion of heretics with arms and arguments more worthy of their evangelical profession. The theological knowledge of Eulogius was dis- played in many a volume, which magnified the errors of Eu- tyches and Severus, and attempted to reconcile the ambigu- John. ous language of St. Cyril with the orthodox creed a.d.609. of p ope Leo anc [ t he fathers of Chalcedon. The bounteous alms of John the Eleemosynary were dictated by- superstition, or benevolence, or policy. Seven thousand five hundred poor were maintained at his expense ; on his acces- sion he found eight thousand pounds of gold in the treasury of the Church ; he collected ten thousand from the liberality of the faithful ; yet the primate could boast in his testament that he left behind him no more than the third part of the smallest of the silver coins. The churches of Alexandria were delivered to the Catholics, the religion of the Monophysites was proscribed in Egypt, and a law was revived which ex- cluded the natives from the honors and emoluments of the State. A more important conquest still remained of the patriarch, the oracle and leader of the Egyptian Church. Theodosius had resisted the threats and promises of Justinian with the spirit of an apostle or an enthusiast. "Such," replied the 146 Eulogius, who had been a monk of Antioch, was more conspicuous for sub- tlety than eloquence. He proves that the enemies of the faith, the Gaianites and Theodosians, ought not to be reconciled ; that the same proposition may be or- thodox in the mouth of St. Cyril, heretical in that of Severus ; that the opposite assertions of St. Leo are equally true, etc. His writings are no longer extant, ex- cept in the Extracts of Photius, who had perused them with care and satisfaction, cod. ccviii., ccxxv., ccxxvi., ccxxvii., ccxxx., cclxxx. 147 See the Life of John the Eleemosynary by his contemporary Leontius, Bish- op of Neapolis, in Cyprus, whose Greek text, either lost or hidden, is reflected in the Latin version of Baronius (a.d. 610, No. 9 ; a.d. 620, No. 8). Pagi (Critica, torn. ii. p. 763) and Fabricius (1. v. c. 11, torn. vii. p. 454) have made some critical observations. 708 SEPARATION AND DECAY OF THE COPTS. [Ch.XLTII. patriarch, " were the offers of the tempter when he showed the „,_ , kingdoms of the earth. But my soul is far dearer Their eep- ° * aratiouand to me than life or dominion. The churches are in the hands of a prince 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 holy predecessors, Athanasius, Cyril, and Dioscorus. Anathema to the tome of Leo and the Synod of Chalcedon ! Anathema to all who embrace their creed ! Anathema to them now and for ever- more ! Naked came I out of my mother's womb, naked shall I descend into the grave. Let those who love God follow me and seek their salvation." After comforting his brethren, he embarked for Constantinople, and sustained, in six successive interviews, the almost irresistible weight of the royal pres- ence. His opinions were favorably entertained in the palace and the city ; the influence of Theodora assured him a safe- conduct and honorable dismission ; and he ended his days, though not on the throne, yet in the bosom of his native country. On the news of his death, Apollinaris indecently feasted the nobles and the clergy ; but his joy was checked by the intelligence of a new election ; and while he enjoyed the wealth of Alexandria, his rivals reigned in the monaste- ries of Thebais, and were maintained by the voluntary obla- tions of the people. A perpetual succession of patriarchs arose from the ashes of Theodosius; and the Monophysite churches of Syria and Egypt were united by the name of Jacobites and the communion of the faith. But the same faith, which has been confined to a narrow sect of the Syri- ans, was diffused over the mass of the Egyptian or Coptic na- tion, who almost unanimously rejected the decrees of the Syn- od of Chalcedon. A thousand years were now elapsed since Egypt had ceased to be a kingdom, since the conquerors of Asia and Europe had trampled on the ready necks of a peo- ple whose ancient wisdom and power ascends beyond the rec- ords of history. The conflict of zeal and persecution rekin- dled some sparks of their national spirit. They abjured, with a foreign heresy, the manners and language of the Greeks : every Melchite, in their eyes, was a stranger, every Jacobite A.D. 625-<561.] BENJAMIN, THE JACOBITE PATRIARCH- 709 a citizen ; the alliance of marriage, the offices of humanity, were condemned as a deadly sin ; the natives renounced all allegiance to the emperor ; and his orders, at a distance from Alexandria, were obeyed only under the pressure of military force. A generous effort might have redeemed the religion and liberty of Egypt, and her six hundred monasteries might have poured forth their myriads of holy warriors, for whom death should have no terrors, since life had no comfort or de- light. But experience has proved the distinction of active and passive courage : the fanatic who endures without a groan the torture of the rack or the stake, would tremble and fly be- fore the face of an armed enemy. The pusillanimous temper of the Egyptians could only hope for a change of masters; the arms of Chosroes depopulated the land, yet under his reign the Jacobites enjoyed a short and precarious respite. The victory of Heraclius renewed and aggravated the perse- cution, and the patriarch again escaped from Alexandria to the desert. In his flight, Benjamin was encouraged by a Benjamin voice which bade him expect, at the end of ten jmtrfarch blte years, the aid of a foreign nation, marked, like the a.d.62£m>6i. Egyptians themselves, with the ancient rite of cir- cumcision. The character of these deliverers, and the nature of the deliverance, will be hereafter explained ; and I shall step over the interval of eleven centuries to observe the pres- ent misery of the Jacobites of Egypt. The populous city of Cairo affords a residence, or rather a shelter, for their indi- gent patriarch and a remnant of ten bishops ; forty monaste- ries have survived the inroads of the Arabs ; and the progress of servitude and apostasy has reduced the Coptic nation to the despicable number of twenty-five or thirty thousand fam- ilies ;" 8 a race of illiterate beggars, whose only consolation is 148 This number is taken from the curious Recherches sur les Egyptiens et lea Cbinois (torn. ii. p. 192, 193), and appears more probable than the 600,000 ancient or 15,000 modern Copts of Gemelli Carreri. Cyril Lucar, the Protestant Patri- arch of Constantinople, laments that those heretics were ten times more numerous than bis orthodox Greeks, ingeniously applying the iroWai ksv Sacadte SevoiaT» oivo\ooto of Homer (Iliad ii. 128), the most perfect expression of contempt (Ear brie. Lux Evangelii, 740> 710 THE ABYSSINIANS AND NUBIANS. [Ch. XLVIL derived from the superior wretchedness of the Greek patri* arch and his diminutive congregation. 149 VI. The Coptic patriarch, a rebel to the Csesars, or a slave to the Caliphs, still gloried in the filial obedience of the kings of Nubia and ^Ethiopia. He repaid their homage BimiNBAND by magnifying their greatness; and it was boldly asserted that they could bring into the field a hun- dred thousand horse, with an equal number of camels ; 16 ° that their hand could pour or restrain the waters of the Nile ; ,u and the peace and plenty of Egypt was obtained, even in this world, by the intercession of the patriarch. In exile at Con- stantinople, Theodosius recommended to his patroness the conversion of the black nations of Nubia, from the Tropic of Cancer to the confines of Abyssinia. 1 " Her design was sus- pected and emulated by the more orthodox emperor. The rival missionaries, a Melchite and a Jacobite, embarked at the same time ; but the empress, from a motive of love or fear, 149 The history of the Copts, their religion, manners, etc., may he found in the Abbe - Eenaudot's motley work, neither a translation nor an original ; the Chroni- con Orientale of Peter, a Jacobite ; in the two versions of Abraham Ecchellensis, Paris, 1651 ; and John Simon Asseman, Venet. 1729. These annals descend no lower than the thirteenth century. The more recent accounts must be searched for in the travellers into Egypt, and the Nouveaux Me'moires des Missions du Le- vant. In the last century Joseph Abudacnus, a native of Cairo, published at Ox- ford, in thirty pages, a slight Historia Jacobitarum, 147, post 150. 160 About the year 737. See Kenaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 221, 222; El- macin. Hist. Saracen, p. 99. 161 Ludolph. Hist. iEthiopic. et Comment. 1. i. c. 8 ; Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 480, etc. This opinion, introduced into Egypt and Europe by the arti- fice of the Copts, the pride of the Abyssinians, the fear and ignorance of the Turks and Arabs, has not even the semblance of truth. The rains of ^Ethiopia do not, in the increase of the Nile, consult the will of the monarch. If the river approach- es at Napata within three days' journey of the Red Sea (see D'Anville's Maps), a canal that should divert its course would demand, and most probably surpass, the power of the Cagsars. 152 The Abyssinians, who still preserve the features and olive complexion of the Arabs, afford a proof that two thousand years are not sufficient to change the col- or of the human race. The Nubians, an African race, are pare negroes, as black as those of Senegal or Congo, with flat noses, thick lips, and woolly hair (Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, torn. v. p. 117, 143, 144, 166, 219, edit, in 12mo, Paris, 1769). The ancients beheld, without much attention, the extraordinary phenomenon which has exercised the philosophers and theologians of modern A.D. 530.] CHURCH OF ABYSSINIA. 7ll was more effectually obeyed ; and the Catholic priest was de- tained by the President of Thebais, while the King of Nubia and his court were hastily baptized in the faith of Dioscorus. The tardy envoy of Justinian was received and dismissed with honor; but when he accused the heresy and treason of the Egyptians, the negro convert was instructed to reply that he would never abandon his brethren, the true believers, to the persecuting ministers of the Synod of Chalcedon."* Dur- ing several ages the bishops of Nubia were named and conse- crated by the Jacobite patriarch of Alexandria : as late as the twelfth century Christianity prevailed ; and some rites, some ruins, are still visible in the savage towns of Sennaar and Dongola. ,M But the Nubians at length executed their threats of returning to the worship of idols ; the climate required the indulgence of polygamy, and they have finally preferred the triumph of the Koran to the abasement of the Cross. A met- aphysical religion may appear too refined for the capacity of the negro race : yet a black or a parrot might be taught to repeat the words of the Chalcedonian or Monophysite creed. Christianity was more deeply rooted in the Abyssinian em- pire ; and, although the correspondence has been sometimes interrupted above seventy or a hundred years, the Abyseinia. mother-church of Alexandria retains her colony in a.». 530, etc . ■* a state of perpetual pupilage. Seven bishops once composed the ^Ethiopic synod : had their number amounted to ten, they might have elected an independent primate ; and one of their kings was ambitious of promoting his brother to the ecclesiastical throne. But the event was foreseen, the increase was denied ; the episcopal office has been gradually confined to the aouna,"'* the head and author of the Abyssin- 168 Asseman. Biblioth. Orient, torn. i. p. 329. ,M The Christianity of the Nubians, a.d. 1153, is attested by the sheriff Al Edrisi, falsely described under the name of the Nubian geographer (p. 18), who represents them as a nation of Jacobites. The rays of historical light that twinkle in the history of Renaudot (p. 178, 220-224, 281-286, 405, 434, 451, 464) are all previous to this era. See the modern state in the Lettres Edifiantes (Recueil, iv.) and Busching (torn. ix. p. 152-159, par Berenger). 165 The abuna is improperly dignified by the Latins with the title of patriarch. The Abyssinians acknowledge only the four patriarchs, and their chief is no more than a m + opolitan or national primate (Ludolph. Hist. JEthiopic. et Comment. T12 THE PORTUGUESE IN ABYSSINIA. [Ch. XL VII. ian priesthood ; the patriarch supplies each vacancy with an Egyptian monk ; and the character of a stranger appears more venerable in the eyes of the people, less dangerous in those of the monarch. In the sixth century, when the schism of Egypt was confirmed, the rival chiefs, with their patrons Jus- tinian and Theodora, strove to outstrip each other in the con- quest of a remote and independent province. The industry of the empress was again victorious, and the pious Theodora has established in that sequestered church the faith and disci- pline of the Jacobites. 169 Encompassed on all sides by the en- emies of their religion, the ^Ethiopians slept near a thousand years, forgetful of the world, by whom they were forgotten. They were awakened by the Portuguese, who, turn- gueseiu ing; the southern promontory of Africa, appeared a.d.1525- in India and the Red Sea, as if they had descended lS60,etc. . , ' J through the air from a distant planet. In the first moments of their interview, the subjects of Rome and Alex- andria observed the resemblance rather than the difference of their faith ; and each nation expected the most important ben- efits from an alliance with their Christian brethren. In their lonely situation the ^Ethiopians had almost relapsed into the savage life. Their vessels, which had traded to Ceylon, scarce- ly presumed to navigate the rivers of Africa ; the ruins of Axume were deserted, the nation was scattered in villages, and the emperor, a pompous name, was content, both in peace and war, with the immovable residence of a camp. Con- scious of their own indigence, the Abyssinians had formed the rational project of importing the arts and ingenuity of Eu- rope ; m and their ambassadors at Rome and Lisbon were in- structed to solicit a colony of smiths, carpenters, tilers, masons, 1. iii. c. 7). The seven bishops of Renaudot (p. 511), who existed a.d. 1131, are unknown to the historian. m I know not why Assemannus (Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. p. 384) should call in question these probable missions of Theodora into Nubia and ^Ethiopia. The slight notices of Abyssinia till the year 1500 are supplied by Renaudot (p. 336- 341, 381, 382, 405, 443, etc., 452, 456, 463, 475, 480, 511, 525, 559-564) from the Coptic writers. The mind of Ludolphus was a perfect blank. 151 Ludolph. Hist. iEthiop. 1. iv. c. 5. The most necessary arts are now exercised by the Jews, and the foreign trade is in the hands of the Armenians. What Greg- ory principally admired and envied was the industry of Europe — "artes et opificia.* A.D.1557.] MISSION OF THE JESUITS. 713 printers, surgeons, and physicians, for the use of their coun- try. But the public danger soon called for the instant and effectual aid of arms and soldiers to defend an unwarlike peo- ple from the barbarians who ravaged the inland country, and the Turks and Arabs who advanced from the sea -coast in more formidable array. ^Ethiopia was saved by four hun- dred and fifty Portuguese, who displayed in the field the na- tive valor of Europeans, and the artificial powers of the mus- ket and cannon. In a moment of terror the emperor had promised to reconcile himself and his subjects to the Catho- lic faith ; a Latin patriarch represented the supremacy of the pope ; 168 the empire, enlarged in a tenfold proportion, was sup- posed to contain more gold than the mines of America ; and the wildest hopes of avarice and zeal were built on the will- ing submission of the Christians of Africa. But the vows which pain had extorted were forsworn on the return of health. The Abyssinians still adhered with unshaken constancy to the Monophysite faith ; their the Jesuits, languid belief was inflamed by the exercise of dis- pute ; they branded the Latins with the names of Arians and Nestorians, and imputed the adoration of four gods to those who separated the two natures of Christ. Fre- mona, a place of worship, or rather of exile, was assigned to the Jesuit missionaries. Their skill in the liberal and me- chanic arts, their theological learning, and the decency of their manners, inspired a barren esteem ; but they were not en- dowed with the gift of miracles, 16 * and they vainly solicited a reinforcement of European troops. The patience and dex- terity of forty years at length obtained a more favorable au- dience, and two emperors of Abyssinia were persuaded that Rome could insure the temporal and everlasting happiness 168 John Bermudez, whose relation, printed at Lisbon, 1569, was translated into English by Pui-chas (Pilgrims, 1. vii. c. 7, p. 1149, etc.), and from thence into French by La Croze (Christianisme d'Ethiopie, p. 92-265). The piece is curious ; but the author may be suspected of deceiving Abyssinia, Rome, and Portugal. His title to the rank of patriarch is dark and doubtful (Ludolph. Comment. No. 101, p. 473). 159 "Religio Romana * * * nee precibus patrum nee miraculis ab ipsis editia suffulciebatur," is the uncontradicted assurance of the devout Emperor Susneus to his patriarch Mendez (Ludolph. Comment. No. 126, p. 529) ; and such assurances should be preciously kept as an antidote against any marvellous legends. . 71 J: CONVERSION OF THE EMPEROR OF ABYSSINIA. [Ch.XLVIL of her votaries. The first of these royal converts lost his crown and his life ; and the rebel army was sanctified by the abuna, who hurled an anathema at the apostate and absolved his subjects from their oath of fidelity. The fate of Zadenghel ,vas revenged by the courage and fortune of Susneus, who ascended the throne under the name of Segued, and more vig- orously prosecuted the pious enterprise of his kinsman. Af- ter the amusement of some unequal combats between the Jes- uits and his illiterate priests, the emperor declared himself a proselyte to the Synod of Chalcedon, presuming that his clergy and people would embrace without delay the religion of their prince. The liberty of choice was succeeded by a law which imposed, under pain of death, the belief of the two natures of Christ : the Abyssinians were enjoined to work and to play on the Sabbath ; and Segued, in the face of Europe and Af- rica, renounced his connection with the Alexandrian Church, conversion A Jesuit, Alphonso Mendez, the Catholic patriarch pero' em ' o f ^Ethiopia, accepted, in the name of Urban VIII., a.d.1626. ^ e h oina g e an d abjuration of his penitent. "I confess," said the emperor on his knees — "I confess that the pope is the vicar of Christ, the successor of St. Peter, and the sovereign of the world. To him I swear true obedience, and at his feet I offer my person and kingdom." A similar oath was repeated by his son, his brother, the clergy, the nobles, and even the ladies of the court : the Latin patriarch was in- vested with honors and wealth ; and his missionaries erected their churches or citadels in the most convenient stations of the empire. The Jesuits themselves deplore the fatal indis- cretion of their chief, who forgot the mildness of the Gospel and the policy of his order, to introduce with hasty violence the liturgy of Rome and the inquisition of Portugal. He condemned the ancient practice of circumcision, which health rather than superstition had first invented in the climate of Ethiopia. 160 A new baptism, a new ordination, was inflicted 160 I am aware how tender is the question of circumcision. Yet I will affirm, 1. That the ^Ethiopians have a physical reason for the circumcision of males, and even of females (Recherches Philosophiquts sur les Americains, torn. ii.). 2. That it was practised in ^Ethiopia long before the introduction of Judaism OJ Christianity (Herodot, J, ii. c. 104 ; Marsham, Canon Chron. p. 72, 73). " Infantes AJ>.1632.] FINAL EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS. 715 on the natives ; and they trembled with horror when the most holy of the dead were torn from their graves, when the most illustrious of the living were excommunicated by a foreign priest. In the defence of their religion and liberty the Abys- sinians rose in arms, with desperate but unsuccessful zeal. Five rebellions were extinguished in the blood of the insur- gents : two abunas were slain in battle ; whole legions were slaughtered in the field or suffocated in their caverns; and neither merit, nor rank, nor sex could save from an ignomin- ious death the enemies of Rome. But the victorious mon- arch was finally subdued by the constancy of the nation, of his mother, of his son, and of his most faithful friends. Se- gued listened to the voice of pity, of reason, perhaps of fear: and his edict of liberty of conscience instantly revealed the tyranny and weakness of the Jesuits. On the death of his father, Basilides expelled the Latin patriarch, and restored to Final expui- * ue wishes of the nation the faith and discipline jesniti the °f Egypt. The Monophysite churches resounded a.b. 1632, etc. w i t b a son g f triumph, "that the sheep of ^Ethi- opia were now delivered from the hyenas of the West ;" and the gates of that solitary realm were forever shut against the arts, the science, and the fanaticism of Europe. 1 ' 1 circumcidunt ob consuetudinem non ob Judaismum," says Gregory, the Abyssinian priest (apud Fabric. Lux Christiana, p. 720). Yet, in the heat of dispute, the Portuguese were sometimes branded with the name of uncircumcised (La Croze, p. 80 ; Ludolph. Hist, and Comment. 1. iii. c. 1). 161 The three Protestant historians, Ludolphus (Hist. JSthiopica, Francofurt, 1681; Commentarius, 1691 ; Relatio Nova, etc., 1693, in folio), Geddes (Church History of ^Ethiopia, London, 1696, in 8vo), and La Croze (Hist, du Christianisme d'Ethiopie et d'Armenie, La Haye, 1739, in 12mo),have drawn their principal ma- terials from the Jesuits, especially from the General History of Tellez, published in Portuguese at Coimbra, 1660. We might be surprised at their frankness ; but their most flagitious vice, the spirit of persecution, was in their eyes the most meri- torious virtue. Ludolphus possessed some, though a slight, advantage from the iEthiopic language, and the personal conversation of Gregory, a free-spirited Abyssinian priest, whom he invited from Rome to the court of Saxe-Gotha. Sea the Theologia iEthiopica of Gregory, in Fabricius, Lux Evangelii, p. 71 6-734. ■ * The travels of Bruce, illustrated by those of Mr. Salt, and the narrative of Nathaniel Pearce, have brought us again acquainted with this remote region. Whatever may be their speculative opinions, the barbarous manners of the iEthi- opians seem to be gaining more and more the ascendency over the practice of Christianity. — M. ' END OP VOL. IV. University of Connecticut Libraries