Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 4
by Edward Gibbon
Hypertext Meanings and Commentaries
from the Encyclopedia of the Self
by Mark Zimmerman
Go to Part 2 of 2

Edward Gibbon, Esq.

With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman

Vol. 4

1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)

Chapter XXXIX: Gothic Kingdom Of Italy.

Part I.

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

     After the fall of the Roman empire in the West, an interval
of fifty years, till the memorable reign of Justinian, is faintly
marked by the obscure names and imperfect annals of Zeno,
Anastasius, and Justin, who successively ascended to the throne
of Constantinople. During the same period, Italy revived and
flourished under the government 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 of
the royal line of the Amali, ^1 was born in the neighborhood of
Vienna ^2 two years after the death of Attila. ^! A recent
victory had restored the independence of the Ostrogoths; and the
three brothers, Walamir, 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
Theodemir was delivered of a son and heir. 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 hostage 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 frequented the schools of the most
skilful masters; but he disdained or neglected the arts of
Greece, and so ignorant did he always 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 was restored to the wishes
of the Ostrogoths, whom the emperor 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 unanimously resolved to desert
their Pannonian encampments, and boldly 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 after his father's death to the hereditary throne of
the Amali. ^5

[Footnote 1: Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 13, 14, p. 629, 630,
edit. Grot.) has drawn the pedigree of Theodoric from Gapt, one
of the Anses or Demigods, who lived about the time of Domitian.
Cassiodorus, the first who celebrates the royal race of the
Amali, (Viriar. viii. 5, ix. 25, x. 2, xi. 1,) reckons the
grandson of Theodoric as the xviith in descent. Peringsciold
(the Swedish commentator of Cochloeus, Vit. Theodoric. p. 271,
&c., Stockholm, 1699) labors to connect this genealogy with the
legends or traditions of his native country.

     Note: Amala was a name of hereditary sanctity and honor
among the Visigoths. It enters into the names of Amalaberga,
Amala suintha, (swinther 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.]

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

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

[Footnote 3: The four first letters of his name were inscribed on
a 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.) This authentic fact, with the testimony of
Procopius, or at least of the contemporary Goths, (Gothic. 1. i.
c. 2, p. 311,) far outweighs the vague praises of Ennodius
(Sirmond Opera, tom. i. p. 1596) and Theophanes, (Chronograph. p.
112.)
     Note: 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 Theodroic. - M.]
[Footnote 4: Statura est quae 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, &c, of his sovereign.]
[Footnote 5: The state of the Ostrogoths, and the first years of
Theodoric, are found in Jornandes, (c. 52 - 56, p. 689 - 696) and
Malchus, (Excerpt. Legat. p. 78 - 80,) who erroneously styles him
the son of Walamir.]
     A hero, descended from a race of kings, must have despised
the base Isaurian who was invested with the Roman purple, without
any endowment of mind or body, without any advantages of royal
birth, or superior qualifications. After the failure of the
Theodosian life, the choice of Pulcheria and of the senate might
be justified in some measure by the characters of Martin and Leo,
but the latter of these princes confirmed and dishonored his
reign by the perfidious murder of Aspar and his sons, who too
rigorously exacted the debt of gratitude and obedience. The
inheritance of Leo and of the East was peaceably devolved on his
infant grandson, the son of his daughter Ariadne; 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 success of his ambition. But the
palace of Constantinople was ruled by female influence, and
agitated by female passions: and Verina, the widow of Leo,
claiming his empire as her own, pronounced a sentence of
deposition against the worthless and ungrateful servant on whom
she alone had bestowed the sceptre of the East. ^6 As soon as she
sounded a revolt in the ears of Zeno, he fled with precipitation
into the mountains 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
luxury, affected the dress, the demeanor, and the surname of
Achilles. ^8 By the conspiracy of the malecontents, Zeno was
recalled from exile; the armies, the capital, the person, of
Basiliscus, were betrayed; and his whole family was condemned to
the long agony of cold and hunger by the inhuman conqueror, who
wanted courage to encounter or to forgive his enemies. ^* The
haughty spirit of Verina was still incapable of submission or
repose. She provoked the enmity of a favorite general, embraced
his cause as soon as he was disgraced, created a new emperor in
Syria and Egypt, ^* raised an army of seventy thousand men, and
persisted to the last moment of her life in a fruitless
rebellion, which, according to the fashion of the age, had been
predicted by Christian hermits and Pagan magicians. While the
East was afflicted by the passions of Verina, her daughter
Ariadne was distinguished by the female virtues of mildness and
fidelity; she followed her husband in his exile, and after his
restoration, she implored his clemency in favor of her mother.
On the decease of Zeno, Ariadne, the daughter, the mother, and
the widow of an emperor, gave her hand and the Imperial title to
Anastasius, an aged domestic of the palace, who survived his
elevation above twenty-seven years, and whose character is
attested by the acclamation of the people, "Reign as you have
lived!" ^9 ^!
[Footnote 6: Theophanes (p. 111) inserts a copy of her sacred
letters to the provinces. Such female pretensions would have
astonished the slaves of the first Caesars.]

[Footnote 7: Vol. iii. p. 504 - 508.]

[Footnote 8: Suidas, tom. i. p. 332, 333, edit. Kuster.]

[Footnote *: Joannes Lydus accuses Zeno of timidity, or, rather,
of cowardice; he purchased 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 executions. Lydus, de
Magist. iii. 45, p. 230. - M.]

[Footnote *: Named Illus. - M.]

[Footnote 9: The contemporary histories of Malchus and Candidus
are lost; but some extracts or fragments have been saved by
Photius, (lxxviii. lxxix. p. 100 - 102,) Constantine
Porphyrogenitus, (Excerpt. Leg. p. 78 - 97,) and in various
articles of the Lexicon of Suidas. The Chronicles of Marcellinus
(Imago Historiae) are originals for the reigns of Zeno and
Anastasius; and I must acknowledge, almost for the last time, my
obligations to the large and accurate collections of Tillemont,
(Hist. des Emp. tom. vi. p. 472 - 652).]
[Footnote !: The Panegyric of Procopius of Gaza, (edited by
Villoison in his Anecdota Graeca, and reprinted in the new
edition of the Byzantine historians by Niebuhr, in the same vol.
with Dexippus and Eunapius, viii. p. 488 516,) was unknown to
Gibbon. 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 Ang. Mai. Priscian, the gram
marian, Niebuhr argues from this work, must have been born in the
African, not in either of the Asiatic Caesareas. Pref. p. xi. -
M.]

     Whatever fear of affection could bestow, was profusely
lavished by Zeno on the king of the Ostrogoths; the rank of
patrician and consul, the command of the Palatine troops, an
equestrian statue, a treasure in gold and silver of 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 contributed 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 insatiate avarice,
which could be only excused by the hard necessity 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 insults. Their poverty was
incurable; since the most liberal donatives were soon dissipated
in wasteful luxury, and the most 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 Theodoric (such at least was his
declaration) to lead a peaceful, obscure, obedient life on the
confines of Scythia, till the Byzantine court, by splendid and
fallacious promises, seduced him to attack a confederate tribe of
Goths, who had been engaged in the party of Basiliscus. He
marched from his station in Maesia, on the solemn assurance that
before he reached Adrianople, he should meet a plentiful convoy
of provisions, and a reenforcement 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 advanced into Thrace, the
son of Theodemir found an inhospitable 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, 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 Walamirs, and branded
their leader with the opprobrious names of child, of madman, of
perjured traitor, the enemy of his blood and nation. "Are you
ignorant," exclaimed the son of Triarius, "that it is the
constant policy of the Romans to destroy the Goths by each
other's swords? Are you insensible that the victor in this
unnatural 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 was then master of three
or four horses; they now follow 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 Goths excited clamor and discontent; and the son of
Theodemir, apprehensive of being left alone, was compelled to
embrace his brethren, and to imitate the example of Roman
perfidy. ^12 ^*

[Footnote 10: In ipsis congressionis tuae foribus cessit invasor,
cum profugo per te sceptra redderentur de salute dubitanti.
Ennodius then proceeds (p. 1596, 1597, tom. i. Sirmond.) to
transport his hero (on a flying dragon?) into Aethiopia, beyond
the tropic of Cancer. The evidence of the Valesian Fragment, (p.
717,) Liberatus, (Brev. Eutych. c. 25 p. 118,) and Theophanes,
(p. 112,) is more sober and rational.]

[Footnote 11: This cruel practice is specially imputed to the
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.)]

[Footnote 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 preserved by Malchus,
(Excerpt. Legat. p. 78 - 97.) Marcellinus, a domestic of
Justinian, under whose ivth consulship (A.D. 534) he composed his
Chronicle, (Scaliger, Thesaurus Temporum, P. ii, p. 34 - 57,)
betrays his prejudice and passion: in Graeciam debacchantem
...Zenonis munificentia pene pacatus ...beneficiis nunquam
satiatus, &c.]
[Footnote *: Gibbon has omitted much of the complicated intrigues
of the Byzantine court with the two Theodorics. The weak emperor
attempted to play them one against the other, and was himself in
turn insulted, and the empire ravaged, by both. The details of
the successive alliance and revolt, of hostility and of union,
between the two Gothic chieftains, to dictate terms to the
emperor, may be found in Malchus. - M.]

     In every state of his fortune, the prudence and firmness of
Theodoric were equally conspicuous; whether he threatened
Constantinople at the head of the confederate Goths, or retreated
with a faithful band to the mountains and sea-coast of Epirus.
At length the accidental death of the son of Triarius ^13
destroyed the balance 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 necessary 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 of Theodoric
soon perceived that he was odious to the Romans, and suspected by
the Barbarians: he understood the popular murmur, that his
subjects were exposed in their frozen huts to intolerable
hardships, while their king was dissolved 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 inheritance 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

[Footnote 13: As he was riding in his own camp, an unruly horse
threw him against the point of a spear which hung before a tent,
or was fixed on a wagon, (Marcellin. in Chron. Evagrius, l. iii.
c. 25.)]

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

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

     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 the
provinces, of the empire; and each bold Barbarian, 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 Theodoric must be considered as the
emigration of an entire people; 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 followed 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 contributions
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
convenient highways: the reign of barbarism and desolation was
restored, and the tribes of Bulgarians, Gepidae, and Sarmatians,
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. ^17

[Footnote 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.]

     Odoacer, a rival not unworthy of his arms, had already
occupied the advantageous and well-known post of the River
Sontius, near the ruins of Aquileia, at the head of a powerful
host, whose independent kings ^18 or leaders disdained the duties
of subordination and the prudence of delays. No sooner had
Theodoric gained a short repose and refreshment to his 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,
reenforced 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 saluted 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
Pavia, 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 abilities, experience,
and valor of the Gothic king. Immediately before the battle of
Verona, he visited the tent of his mother ^19 and sister, and
requested, that on a day, the most illustrious 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 becomes me to prove, that I am the genuine
offspring of those heroes from whom I claim my descent." The wife
or concubine of Theodemir was inspired with the spirit of the
German matrons, who esteemed their sons' honor far above their
safety; and it is reported, that in a desperate action, when
Theodoric himself was hurried along by the torrent of a flying
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. ^20

[Footnote 18: Tot reges, &c., (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.]

[Footnote 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 Theodoric was not hurt by the
vulgar reproaches of concubine and bastard.

     Note: Gibbon here assumes that the mother of Theodoric was
the concubine of Theodemir, which he leaves doubtful in the text.
- M.]

[Footnote 20: This anecdote is related on the modern but
respectable authority of Sigonius, (Op. tom. i. p. 580. De
Occident. Impl. l. xv.:) his words are curious: "Would you
return?" &c. She presented and almost displayed the original
recess.

     Note: The authority of Sigonius would scarcely have weighed
with Gibboa except for an indecent anecdote. I have a
recollection of a similar story in some of the Italian wars. -
M.]]

     From the Alps to the extremity of Calabria, Theodoric
reigned by the right of conquest; the Vandal ambassadors
surrendered the Island of Sicily, as a lawful appendage of his
kingdom; and he was accepted as the deliverer of Rome by the
senate and people, who had shut their gates against the flying
usurper. ^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. 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, 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, ^22 are sufficiently
proved by the advantageous treaty which force would not sincerely
have granted, nor weakness have rashly infringed. The jealousy
of power, and the mischiefs of discord, may suggest a more decent
apology, and a sentence less rigorous may be pronounced against a
crime which was necessary to introduce into Italy a generation of
public felicity. The living author of this felicity was
audaciously praised in his own presence by sacred and profane
orators; ^23 but history (in his time she was mute and
inglorious) has not left any just representation of the events
which displayed, or of the defects which clouded, the virtues of
Theodoric. ^24 One record of his fame, the volume of public
epistles composed by Cassiodorus in the royal name, is still
extant, and has obtained more implicit credit than it seems to
deserve. ^25 They exhibit the forms, rather than the substance,
of his government; and we should vainly search for the pure and
spontaneous sentiments of the Barbarian amidst the declamation
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 language 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 impressed on the minds of the Goths and
Italians.

[Footnote 21: Hist. Miscell. l. xv., a Roman history from Janus
to the ixth century, an Epitome of Eutropius, Paulus Diaconus,
and Theophanes which Muratori has published from a Ms. in the
Ambrosian library, (Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. i. p. 100.)]
[Footnote 22: Procopius (Gothic. l. i. c. i.) approves himself an
impartial sceptic. Cassiodorus (in Chron.) and Ennodius (p. 1604)
are loyal and credulous, and the testimony of the Valesian
Fragment (p. 718) may justify their belief. Marcellinus spits
the venom of a Greek subject - perjuriis illectus, interfectusque
est, (in Chron.)]

[Footnote 23: The sonorous and servile oration of Ennodius was
pronounced at Milan or Ravenna in the years 507 or 508, (Sirmond,
tom. i. p. 615.) 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. tom. v. p. 11 -
14. See Saxii Onomasticon, tom. ii. p. 12.)]

[Footnote 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 Ammianus 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 contemporary. The president Montesquieu had
formed the plan of a history of Theodoric, which at a distance
might appear a rich and interesting subject.]

[Footnote 25: The best edition of the Variarum Libri xii. is that
of Joh. Garretius, (Rotomagi, 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 Verona.
The Barbara Eleganza (as it is ingeniously named by Tiraboschi)
is never simple, and seldom perspicuous]
     The partition of the lands of Italy, of which Theodoric
assigned the third part to his soldiers, is honorably arraigned
as the sole injustice of his life. ^* And even this act 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 distant land. ^26 Under the
reign of Theodoric, and in the happy climate of Italy, the Goths
soon multiplied to a formidable host of two hundred 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
unwelcome 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
which he possessed in slaves and cattle. The distinction of noble
and plebeian were acknowledged; ^28 but the lands of every
freeman were exempt from taxes, ^* and he enjoyed the inestimable
privilege of being subject only to the laws of his country. ^29
Fashion, and even convenience, soon persuaded the conquerors to
assume the more elegant dress of the natives, but they still
persisted in the use of their mother- tongue; and their contempt
for the Latin schools was applauded 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 rich and luxurious Barbarian; ^31 but these mutual
conversions 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 Italy was distributed into the several quarters
of a well- regulated camp. The service of the palace and of the
frontiers was performed by choice or by rotation; and each
extraordinary fatigue was recompensed by an increase of pay and
occasional donatives. Theodoric had convinced his brave
companions, 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 victories,
but of the missile weapons, which they were too much inclined to
neglect; and the lively image of war was displayed in the daily
exercise and annual reviews of the Gothic cavalry. A firm though
gentle discipline imposed the habits of modesty, obedience, and
temperance; and the Goths were instructed to spare the people, to
reverence the laws, to understand the duties of civil society,
and to disclaim the barbarous license of judicial combat and
private revenge. ^32

[Footnote *: Compare Gibbon, ch. xxxvi. vol. iii. p. 459, &c. -
Manso observes that this division was conducted not in a violent
and irregular, but in a legal and orderly, manner. The
Barbarian, who could not show a title of grant from the officers
of Theodoric appointed for the purpose, or a prescriptive right
of thirty years, in case he had obtained the property before the
Ostrogothic conquest, was ejected from the estate. He conceives
that estates too small to bear division paid a third of their
produce. - Geschichte des Os Gothischen Reiches, p. 82. - M.]
[Footnote 26: Procopius, Gothic, l. i. c. i. Variarum, ii. Maffei
(Verona Illustrata, P. i. p. 228) exaggerates the injustice of
the Goths, whom he hated as an Italian noble. The plebeian
Muratori crouches under their oppression.]

[Footnote 27: Procopius, Goth. l. iii. c. 421. Ennodius
describes (p. 1612, 1613) the military arts and increasing
numbers of the Goths.]
[Footnote 28: When Theodoric gave his sister to the king of the
Vandals she sailed for Africa with a guard of 1000 noble Goths,
each of whom was attended by five armed followers, (Procop.
Vandal. l. i. c. 8.) The Gothic nobility must have been as
numerous as brave.]

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

[Footnote 29: See the acknowledgment of Gothic liberty, (Var. v.
30.)]
[Footnote 30: Procopius, Goth. l. i. c. 2. The Roman boys learnt
the language (Var. viii. 21) of the Goths. Their general
ignorance is not destroyed 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.]

[Footnote 31: A saying of Theodoric was founded on experience:
"Romanus miser imitatur Gothum; ut utilis (dives) Gothus imitatur
Romanum." (See the Fragment and Notes of Valesius, p. 719.)]
[Footnote 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, l. xi. 40 - 44, Annotation xiv.)
     Note: Compare Manso, Geschichte des Ost Gothischen Reiches,
p. 114. - M.]

Chapter XXXIX: Gothic Kingdom Of Italy.

Part II.

     Among the Barbarians of the West, the victory of Theodoric
had spread a general alarm. But as soon as it appeared that he
was satisfied with conquest and desirous of peace, terror was
changed into respect, and they submitted to a powerful mediation,
which was uniformly 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
Europe, 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 sun-dial, a water-clock, or a
musician, admonished even the princes of Gaul of the superior 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
Visigoths, the Vandals, and the Thuringians, 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 emigrations 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 From the shores of the Baltic, the
Aestians 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 dangerous journey of fifteen hundred miles. With the
country ^40 from whence the Gothic nation derived their origin,
he maintained 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 a 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 explored, 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 messengers, who had been
sent to the mountain tops, descried the first rays of returning
light, and proclaimed to the plain below the festival of his
resurrection. ^43

[Footnote 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, &c.]
[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 35: See the public and private alliances of the Gothic
monarch, with the Burgundians, (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.]
[Footnote 36: His political system may be observed in
Cassiodorus, (Var. iv. l ix. l,) Jornandes, (c. 58, p. 698, 699,)
and the Valesian Fragment, (p. 720, 721.) Peace, honorable peace,
was the constant aim of Theodoric.]
[Footnote 37: The curious reader may contemplate the Heruli of
Procopius, (Goth. l. ii. c. 14,) and the patient reader may
plunge into the dark and minute researches of M. de Buat, (Hist.
des Peuples Anciens, tom. ix. p. 348 - 396.)

     Note: Compare Manso, Ost Gothische Reich. Beylage, vi.
Malte- Brun brings them from Scandinavia: their names, the only
remains of their language, are Gothic. "They fought almost
naked, like the Icelandic Berserkirs their bravery was like
madness: few in number, they were mostly of royal blood. What
ferocity, what unrestrained license, sullied their victories!
The Goth respects the church, the priests, the senate; the Heruli
mangle all in a general massacre: there is no pity for age, no
refuge for chastity. Among themselves there is the same
ferocity: the sick and the aged are put to death. at their own
request, during a solemn festival; the widow ends her days by
hanging herself upon the tree which shadows her husband's tomb.
All these circumstances, so striking to a mind familiar with
Scandinavian history, lead us to discover among the Heruli not so
much a nation as a confederacy of princes and nobles, bound by an
oath to live and die together with their arms in their hands.
Their name, sometimes written Heruli or Eruli. sometimes Aeruli,
signified, according to an ancient author, (Isid. Hispal. in
gloss. p. 24, ad calc. Lex. Philolog. Martini, ll,) nobles, and
appears to correspond better with the Scandinavian word iarl or
earl, than with any of those numerous derivations proposed by
etymologists." Malte- Brun, vol. i. p. 400, (edit. 1831.) Of all
the Barbarians who threw themselves on the ruins of the Roman
empire, it is most difficult to trace the origin of the Heruli.
They seem never to have been very powerful as a nation, and
branches of them are found in countries very remote from each
other. In my opinion they belong to the Gothic race, and have a
close affinity with the Scyrri or Hirri. They were, possibly, a
division of that nation. They are often mingled and confounded
with the Alani. Though brave and formidable. they were never
numerous. nor did they found any state. - St. Martin, vol. vi. p.
375. - M. Schafarck considers them descendants of the Hirri. of
which Heruli is a diminutive, - Slawische Alter thinner - M.
1845.]

[Footnote 38: Variarum, iv. 2. The spirit and forms of this
martial institution are noticed by Cassiodorus; but he seems to
have only translated the sentiments of the Gothic king into the
language of Roman eloquence.]
[Footnote 39: Cassiodorus, who quotes Tacitus to the Aestians,
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 the
waves. When that singular substance is analyzed by the chemists,
it yields a vegetable oil and a mineral acid.]

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

[Footnote 41: Sapherinas 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. tom. xiii. p. 309 - 313, quarto
edition;) Pennant, (System of Quadrupeds, vol. i. p. 322 - 328;)
Gmelin, (Hist. Gen des. Voyages, tom. xviii. p. 257, 258;) and
Levesque, (Hist. de Russie, tom. v. p. 165, 166, 514, 515.)]
[Footnote 42: In the system or romance of Mr. Bailly, (Lettres
sur les Sciences et sur l'Atlantide, tom. i. p. 249 - 256, tom.
ii. p. 114 - 139,) the phoenix of the Edda, and the annual death
and revival of Adonis 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 withstand the magic of their
philosophy.]
[Footnote 43: Says Procopius. At present a rude Manicheism
(generous enough) prevails among the Samoyedes in Greenland and
in Lapland, (Hist. des Voyages, tom. xviii. p. 508, 509, tom.
xix. p. 105, 106, 527, 528;) yet, according to Orotius Samojutae
coelum atque astra adorant, numina haud aliis iniquiora, (de
Rebus Belgicis, l. iv. p. 338, folio edition) a sentence which
Tacitus would not have disowned.]

     The life of Theodoric represents the rare and meritorious
example of a Barbarian, who sheathed his sword in the pride of
victory and the vigor of his age. A reign of three and thirty
years was consecrated to the duties 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, under a strong and regular government, the
unprofitable countries of Rhaetia, Noricum, Dalmatia, and
Pannonia, from the source of the Danube and the territory of the
Bavarians, ^44 to the petty kingdom erected by the Gepidae on the
ruins of Sirmium. His prudence could not safely intrust the
bulwark of Italy to such feeble and turbulent neighbors; and his
justice 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 Anastasius; 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 Attila. Sabinian, a general
illustrious by his own and father's merit, advanced at the head
of ten thousand Romans; 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 flower and even the hope of the Roman armies was
irretrievably destroyed; and such was the temperance with which
Theodoric 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 by this
disgrace, the Byzantine court despatched two hundred ships and
eight thousand men to plunder the sea-coast of Calabria and
Apulia: they assaulted the ancient city of Tarentum, interrupted
the trade and agriculture 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 retreat 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 unfortunate 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 prolong or repeat ^48 this
narrative of military events, the least interesting of the reign
of Theodoric; and shall be content to add, that the Alemanni were
protected, ^49 that an inroad of the Burgundians was severely
chastised, and that the conquest of Arles and Marseilles opened a
free communication with the Visigoths, who revered him 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 praefecture 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. ^50 The Gothic sovereignty was established
from Sicily to the Danube, from Sirmium or Belgrade to the
Atlantic Ocean; and the Greeks themselves have acknowledged that
Theodoric reigned over the fairest portion of the Western empire.
^51
[Footnote 44: See the Hist. des Peuples Anciens, &c., tom. ix. p.
255 - 273, 396 - 501. The count de Buat was French minister at
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.]
[Footnote 45: See the Gothic transactions on the Danube and the
Illyricum, in Jornandes, (c. 58, p. 699;) Ennodius, (p. 1607 -
1610;) Marcellmus (in Chron. p. 44, 47, 48;) and Cassiodorus, in
(in Chron and Var. iii. 29 50, iv. 13, vii. 4 24, viii. 9, 10,
11, 21, ix. 8, 9.)]

[Footnote 46: I cannot forbear transcribing the liberal and
classic style of Count Marcellinus: Romanus comes domesticorum,
et Rusticus comes scholariorum cum centum armatis navibus,
totidemque dromonibus, octo millia militum armatorum secum
ferentibus, ad devastanda Italiae littora processerunt, ut usque
ad Tarentum antiquissimam civitatem aggressi sunt; remensoque
mari in honestam victoriam quam piratico ausu Romani ex Romanis
rapuerunt, Anastasio Caesari reportarunt, (in Chron. p. 48.) See
Variar. i. 16, ii. 38.]
[Footnote 47: See the royal orders and instructions, (Var. iv.
15, v. 16 - 20.) These armed boats should be still smaller than
the thousand vessels of Agamemnon at the siege of Troy. (Manso,
p. 121.)]

[Footnote 48: Vol. iii. p. 581 - 585.]

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

[Footnote 50: The Gothic transactions in Gaul and Spain are
represented with some perplexity in Cassiodorus, (Var. iii. 32,
38, 41, 43, 44, v. 39.) Jornandes, (c. 58, p. 698, 699,) and
Procopius, (Goth. l. i. c. 12.) I will neither hear nor reconcile
the long and contradictory arguments of the Abbe Dubos and the
Count de Buat, about the wars of Burgundy.]

[Footnote 51: Theophanes, p. 113.]

     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 subjects and enlightened soldiers, might have
gradually arisen from the mutual emulation of their respective
virtues. But the sublime merit of guiding or seconding such a
revolution was not reserved for the reign of Theodoric: he wanted
either the genius or the opportunities of a legislator; ^52 and
while he indulged the Goths in the enjoyment of rude liberty, he
servilely copied the institutions, and even the abuses, of the
political system which had been framed by Constantine and his
successors. From a tender regard to the expiring prejudices of
Rome, the Barbarian declined the name, the purple, and the
diadem, of the emperors; but he assumed, under the hereditary
title of king, the whole substance and plenitude of Imperial
prerogative. ^53 His addresses to the eastern throne were
respectful and ambiguous: he celebrated, in pompous style, the
harmony of the two republics, applauded his own government as the
perfect similitude of a sole and undivided empire, and claimed
above the kings of the earth the same preeminence which he
modestly allowed to the person or rank of Anastasius. The
alliance of the East and West was annually declared by the
unanimous choice of two consuls; but it should seem that the
Italian candidate who was named by Theodoric accepted a formal
confirmation from the sovereign of Constantinople. ^54 The Gothic
palace of Ravenna reflected the image of the court of Theodosius
or Valentinian. The Praetorian praefect, the praefect of Rome,
the quaestor, the master of the offices, with the public and
patrimonial treasurers, ^* whose functions are painted in gaudy
colors by the rhetoric of Cassiodorus, still continued to act as
the ministers of state. And the subordinate care of justice and
the revenue was delegated to seven consulars, three correctors,
and five presidents, who governed the fifteen regions of Italy
according to the principles, and even the forms, of Roman
jurisprudence. ^55 The violence of the conquerors was abated or
eluded by the slow artifice of judicial proceedings; the civil
administration, with its honors and emoluments, was confined to
the Italians; and the people still preserved their dress and
language, their laws and customs, their personal freedom, and two
thirds of their landed property. ^! It had been the object of
Augustus to conceal the introduction of monarchy; it was the
policy of Theodoric to disguise the reign of a Barbarian. ^56 If
his subjects were sometimes awakened from this pleasing vision of
a Roman government, they derived more substantial comfort from
the character of a Gothic prince, who had penetration to discern,
and firmness to pursue, his own and the public interest.
Theodoric loved the virtues which he possessed, and the talents
of which he was destitute. Liberius was promoted to the office
of Praetorian praefect for his unshaken fidelity to the
unfortunate cause of Odoacer. The ministers of Theodoric,
Cassiodorus, ^57 and Boethius, have reflected on his reign the
lustre of their genius and learning. More prudent or more
fortunate than his colleague, Cassiodorus preserved his own
esteem without forfeiting the royal favor; and after passing
thirty years in the honors of the world, he was blessed with an
equal term of repose in the devout and studious solitude of
Squillace. ^*

[Footnote 52: Procopius affirms that no laws whatsoever were
promulgated by Theodoric and the succeeding kings of Italy,
(Goth. l. ii. c. 6.) He must mean in the Gothic language. A
Latin edict of Theodoric is still extant, in one hundred and
fifty-four articles.

     Note: See Manso, 92. Savigny, vol. ii. p. 164, et seq. - M.]

[Footnote 53: The image of Theodoric is engraved on his coins:
his modest successors were satisfied with adding their own name
to the head of the reigning emperor, (Muratori, Antiquitat.
Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. ii. dissert. xxvii. p. 577 - 579.
Giannone, Istoria Civile di Napoli tom. i. p. 166.)]
[Footnote 54: The alliance of the emperor and the king of Italy
are represented by Cassiodorus (Var. i. l, ii. 1, 2, 3, vi. l)
and Procopius, (Goth. l. ii. c. 6, l. iii. c. 21,) who celebrate
the friendship of Anastasius and Theodoric; but the figurative
style of compliment was interpreted in a very different sense at
Constantinople and Ravenna.]

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

[Footnote 55: To the xvii. provinces of the Notitia, Paul
Warnefrid the deacon (De Reb. Longobard. l. ii. c. 14 - 22) has
subjoined an xviiith, the Apennine, (Muratori, Script. Rerum
Italicarum, tom. i. p. 431 - 443.) But of these Sardinia and
Corsica were possessed by the Vandals, and the two Rhaetias, as
well as the Cottian Alps, seem to have been abandoned to a
military government. The state of the four provinces that now
form the kingdom of Naples is labored by Giannone (tom. i. p.
172, 178) with patriotic diligence.]
[Footnote !: Manso enumerates and develops at some length the
following sources of the royal revenue of Theodoric: 1. A domain,
either by succession to that of Odoacer, or a part of the third
of the lands was reserved for the royal patrimony. 1. Regalia,
including mines, unclaimed estates, treasure-trove, and
confiscations. 3. Land tax. 4. Aurarium, like the Chrysargyrum,
a tax on certain branches of trade. 5. Grant of Monopolies. 6.
Siliquaticum, a small tax on the sale of all kinds of
commodities. 7. Portoria, customs Manso, 96, 111. Savigny (i.
285) supposes that in many cases the property remained in the
original owner, who paid his tertia, a third of the produce to
the crown, vol. i. p. 285. - M.]

[Footnote 56: See the Gothic history of Procopius, (l. i. c. 1,
l. ii. c. 6,) the Epistles of Cassiodorus, (passim, but
especially the vth and vith books, which contain the formulae, or
patents of offices,) and the Civil History of Giannone, (tom. i.
l. ii. iii.) The Gothic counts, which he places in every Italian
city, are annihilated, however, by Maffei, (Verona Illustrata, P.
i. l. viii. p. 227; for those of Syracuse and Naples (Var vi. 22,
23) were special and temporary commissions.]

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

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

     As the patron of the republic, it was the interest and duty
of the Gothic king to cultivate the affections of the senate ^58
and people. The nobles of Rome were flattered by sonorous
epithets and formal professions of respect, which had been more
justly applied to the merit and authority of their ancestors.
The people enjoyed, without fear or danger, the three blessings
of a capital, order, plenty, and public amusements. A visible
diminution of their numbers may be found even in the measure of
liberality; ^59 yet Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, poured their
tribute of corn into the granaries of Rome an allowance of bread
and meat was distributed to the indigent citizens; and every
office was deemed honorable which was consecrated to the care of
their health and happiness. The public games, such as the Greek
ambassador might politely applaud, exhibited a faint and feeble
copy of the magnificence of the Caesars: yet the musical, the
gymnastic, and the pantomime arts, had not totally sunk in
oblivion; the wild beasts of Africa still exercised in the
amphitheatre the courage and dexterity of the hunters; and the
indulgent Goth either patiently tolerated or gently restrained
the blue and green factions, whose contests so often filled the
circus with clamor and even with blood. ^60 In the seventh year
of his peaceful reign, Theodoric visited the old capital of the
world; the senate and people advanced in solemn procession to
salute a second Trajan, a new Valentinian; and he nobly supported
that character by the assurance of a just and legal government,
^61 in a discourse which he was not afraid to pronounce in
public, and to inscribe on a tablet of brass. Rome, in this
august ceremony, shot a last ray of declining glory; and a saint,
the spectator of this pompous scene, could only hope, in his
pious fancy, that it was excelled by the celestial splendor of
the new Jerusalem. ^62 During a residence of six months, the
fame, the person, and the courteous demeanor of the Gothic king,
excited the admiration of the Romans, and he contemplated, with
equal curiosity and surprise, the monuments that remained of
their ancient greatness. He imprinted the footsteps of a
conqueror on the Capitoline hill, and frankly confessed that each
day he viewed with fresh wonder the forum of Trajan and his lofty
column. The theatre of Pompey appeared, even in its decay, as a
huge mountain artificially hollowed, and polished, and adorned by
human industry; and he vaguely computed, that a river of gold
must have been drained to erect the colossal amphitheatre of
Titus. ^63 From the mouths of fourteen aqueducts, a pure and
copious stream was diffused into every part of the city; among
these the Claudian water, which arose at the distance of
thirty-eight miles in the Sabine mountains, was conveyed along a
gentle though constant declivity of solid arches, till it
descended on the summit of the Aventine hill. The long and
spacious vaults which had been constructed for the purpose of
common sewers, subsisted, after twelve centuries, in their
pristine strength; and these subterraneous channels have been
preferred to all the visible wonders of Rome. ^64 The Gothic
kings, so injuriously accused of the ruin of antiquity, were
anxious to preserve the monuments of the nation whom they had
subdued. ^65 The royal edicts were framed to prevent the abuses,
the neglect, or the depredations of the citizens themselves; and
a professed architect, the annual sum of two hundred pounds of
gold, twenty-five thousand tiles, and the receipt of customs from
the Lucrine port, were assigned for the ordinary repairs of the
walls and public edifices. A similar care was extended to the
statues of metal or marble of men or animals. The spirit of the
horses, which have given a modern name to the Quirinal, was
applauded by the Barbarians; ^66 the brazen elephants of the Via
sacra were diligently restored; ^67 the famous heifer of Myron
deceived the cattle, as they were driven through the forum of
peace; ^68 and an officer was created to protect those works of
rat, which Theodoric considered as the noblest ornament of his
kingdom.

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 62: Vit. Fulgentii in Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.D. 500,
No. 10.]
[Footnote 63: Cassiodorus describes in his pompous style the
Forum of Trajan (Var. vii. 6,) the theatre of Marcellus, (iv.
51,) and the amphitheatre of Titus, (v. 42;) and his descriptions
are not unworthy of the reader's perusal. According to the modern
prices, the Abbe Barthelemy computes that the brick work and
masonry of the Coliseum would now cost twenty millions of French
livres, (Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p.
585, 586.) How small a part of that stupendous fabric!]

[Footnote 64: For the aqueducts and cloacae, see Strabo, (l. v.
p. 360;) Pliny, (Hist. Natur. xxxvi. 24; Cassiodorus, (Var. iii.
30, 31, vi. 6;) Procopius, (Goth. l. i. c. 19;) and Nardini,
(Roma Antica, p. 514 - 522.) How such works could be executed by
a king of Rome, is yet a problem.
     Note: See Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 402. These stupendous works
are among the most striking confirmations of Niebuhr's views of
the early Roman history; at least they appear to justify his
strong sentence - "These works and the building of the Capitol
attest with unquestionable evidence that this Rome of the later
kings was the chief city of a great state." - Page 110 - M.]
[Footnote 65: For the Gothic care of the buildings and statues,
see Cassiodorus (Var. i. 21, 25, ii. 34, iv. 30, vii. 6, 13, 15)
and the Valesian Fragment, (p. 721.)]

[Footnote 66: Var. vii. 15. These horses of Monte Cavallo had
been transported from Alexandria to the baths of Constantine,
(Nardini, p. 188.) Their sculpture is disdained by the Abbe
Dubos, (Reflexions sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture, tom. i.
section 39,) and admired by Winkelman, (Hist. de l'Art, tom. ii.
p. 159.)]

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

[Footnote 68: Procopius (Goth. l. iv. c. 21) relates a foolish
story of Myron's cow, which is celebrated by the false with of
thirty-six Greek epigrams, Antholog. l. iv. p. 302 - 306, edit.
Hen. Steph.; Auson. Epigram. xiii. - lxviii.)]

Chapter XXXIX: Gothic Kingdom Of Italy.

Part III.

     After the example of the last emperors, Theodoric preferred
the residence of Ravenna, where he cultivated an orchard with his
own hands. ^69 As often as the peace of his kingdom was
threatened (for it was never invaded) by the Barbarians, he
removed his court to Verona ^70 on the northern frontier, and the
image of his palace, still extant on a coin, represents the
oldest and most authentic model of Gothic architecture. These
two capitals, as well as Pavia, Spoleto, Naples, and the rest of
the Italian cities, acquired under his reign the useful or
splendid decorations of churches, aqueducts, baths, porticos, and
palaces. ^71 But the happiness 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 Praeneste, the Roman 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, commanded 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 navigation of
one hundred miles. The rich productions of Lucania and the
adjacent provinces were exchanged at the Marcilian 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. ^72 Agriculture revived under the
shadow of peace, and the number of husbandmen was multiplied by
the redemption of captives. ^73 The iron mines of Dalmatia, a
gold mine in Bruttium, were carefully explored, and the Pomptine
marshes, as well as those of Spoleto, were drained and cultivated
by private undertakers, whose distant reward must depend on the
continuance of the public prosperity. ^74 Whenever the seasons
were less propitious, the doubtful precautions of forming
magazines of corn, fixing the price, and prohibiting the
exportation, attested at least the benevolence of the state; but
such was the extraordinary plenty which an industrious people
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. ^75 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 saying, that a purse of gold
might be safely left in the fields, was expressive of the
conscious security of the inhabitants.
[Footnote 69: See an epigram of Ennodius (ii. 3, p. 1893, 1894)
on this garden and the royal gardener.]

[Footnote 70: His affection for that city is proved by the
epithet of "Verona tua,' and the legend of the hero; under the
barbarous name of Dietrich of Bern, (Peringsciold and Cochloeum,
p. 240,) Maffei traces him with knowledge and pleasure in his
native country, (l. ix. p. 230 - 236.)]
[Footnote 71: See Maffei, (Verona Illustrata, Part i. p. 231,
232, 308, &c.) His amputes Gothic architecture, like the
corruption of language, writing &c., not to the Barbarians, but
to the Italians themselves. Compare his sentiments with those of
Tiraboschi, (tom. iii. p. 61.)

     Note: Mr. Hallam (vol. iii. p. 432) observes that "the image
of Theodoric's palace" is represented in Maffei, not from a coin,
but from a seal. Compare D'Agincourt (Storia dell'arte, Italian
Transl., Arcitecttura, Plate xvii. No. 2, and Pittura, Plate
xvi. No. 15,) where there is likewise an engraving from a mosaic
in the church of St. Apollinaris in Ravenna, representing a
building ascribed to Theodoric in that city. Neither of these,
as Mr. Hallam justly observes, in the least approximates to what
is called the Gothic style. They are evidently the degenerate
Roman architecture, and more resemble the early attempts of our
architects to get back from our national Gothic into a classical
Greek style. One of them calls to mind Inigo Jones inner
quadrangle in St. John's College Oxford. Compare Hallam and
D'Agincon vol. i. p. 140 - 145. - M]

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

[Footnote 73: In Liguria numerosa agricolarum progenies,
(Ennodius, p. 1678, 1679, 1680.) St. Epiphanius of Pavia redeemed
by prayer or ransom 6000 captives from the Burgundians of Lyons
and Savoy. Such deeds are the best of miracles.]

[Footnote 74: The political economy of Theodoric (see Anonym.
Vales. p. 721, and Cassiodorus, in Chron.) may be distinctly
traced under the following heads: iron mine, (Var. iii. 23;) gold
mine, (ix. 3;) Pomptine marshes, (ii. 32, 33;) Spoleto, (ii. 21;)
corn, (i. 34, x. 27, 28, xi. 11, 12;) trade, (vi. 7, vii. 9, 23;)
fair of Leucothoe or St. Cyprian 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.)

     Note: The inscription commemorative of the draining of 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 Manse Beylage, xi. -
M.]

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

     A difference of religion is always pernicious, and often
fatal, to the harmony of the prince and people: the Gothic
conqueror had been educated in the profession of Arianism, and
Italy was devoutly attached to the Nicene faith. But the
persuasion of Theodoric was not infected by zeal; and he piously
adhered to the heresy of his fathers, without condescending to
balance the subtile arguments of theological metaphysics.
Satisfied with the private toleration of his Arian sectaries, he
justly conceived himself to be the guardian of the public
worship, and his external 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 acknowledged, perhaps with reluctance, the peace of the
church; their clergy, according to the degrees of rank or merit,
were honorably entertained in the palace of Theodoric; he
esteemed the living sanctity of Caesarius ^76 and Epiphanius, ^77
the orthodox bishops of Arles and Pavia; and presented a decent
offering on the tomb of St. Peter, without 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 Catholic, who, either from choice or compulsion, had
deviated into the religion of the conqueror. ^79 The people, and
the Barbarians themselves, were edified by the pomp and order of
religious 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 maintained or
moderated according to the spirit of the Roman jurisprudence. ^80
With the protection, Theodoric assumed the 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 appropriated. 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. Peter was
disputed by Symmachus and Laurence, they appeared at his summons
before the tribunal of an Arian monarch, and he confirmed the
election of the most worthy or the most obsequious candidate. At
the end of his life, in a moment of jealousy and resentment, he
prevented the choice of the Romans, by nominating a pope in the
palace of Ravenna. The danger and furious contests of a schism
were mildly restrained, and the last decree of the senate was
enacted to extinguish, if it were possible, the scandalous
venality of the papal elections. ^82

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

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

[Footnote 78: Devotissimus ac si Catholicus, (Anonym. Vales. p.
720;) yet his offering was no more than two silver candlesticks
(cerostrata) of the weight of seventy pounds, far inferior to the
gold and gems of Constantinople and France, (Anastasius in Vit.
Pont. in Hormisda, p. 34, edit. Paris.)]
[Footnote 79: The tolerating system of his reign (Ennodius, p.
1612. Anonym. Vales. p. 719. Procop. Goth. l. i. c. 1, l. ii.
c. 6) may be studied in the Epistles of Cassiodorous, under the
following heads: bishops, (Var. i. 9, vii. 15, 24, xi. 23;)
immunities, (i. 26, ii. 29, 30;) church lands (iv. 17, 20;)
sanctuaries, (ii. 11, iii. 47;) church plate, (xii. 20;)
discipline, (iv. 44;) which prove, at the same time, that he was
the head of the church as well as of the state.

    Note: He recommended the same toleration to the emperor
Justin. - M.]
[Footnote 80: We may reject a foolish tale of his beheading a
Catholic deacon who turned Arian, (Theodor. Lector. No. 17.) Why
is Theodoric surnamed After? From Vafer? (Vales. ad loc.) A
light conjecture.]

[Footnote 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. tom. i. p. 242.)]

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

     I have descanted with pleasure on the fortunate condition of
Italy; but our fancy must not hastily conceive that the golden
age of the poets, a race of men without vice or misery, was
realized under the Gothic conquest. 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 insolence of victory, he had been tempted to deprive
the whole party of Odoacer of the civil and even the natural
rights of society; ^83 a tax unseasonably imposed after the
calamities of war, would have crushed the rising agriculture of
Liguria; a rigid preemption of corn, which was intended for the
public 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
Theodoric himself, successfully pleaded the cause of the people:
^84 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 difficulties of his situation, and to
lament the heavy though inevitable burdens which he imposed on
his subjects for their own defence. ^85 These ungrateful subjects
could never be cordially reconciled to the origin, the religion,
or even the virtues of the Gothic conqueror; past calamities were
forgotten, and the sense or suspicion of injuries was rendered
still more exquisite by the present felicity of the times.

[Footnote 83: He disabled them - alicentia testandi; and all
Italy mourned - lamentabili 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 Theodoric.]

[Footnote 84: Ennodius, in Vit. Epiphan. p. 1589, 1690. Boethius
de Consolatione Philosphiae, l. i. pros. iv. p. 45, 46, 47.
Respect, but weigh the passions of the saint and the senator; and
fortify and alleviate their complaints by the various hints of
Cassiodorus, (ii. 8, iv. 36, viii. 5.)]
[Footnote 85: Immanium expensarum pondus ...pro ipsorum salute,
&c.; yet these are no more than words.]

     Even the religious toleration which Theodoric had the glory
of introducing into the Christian world, was painful and
offensive to the orthodox zeal of the Italians. They respected
the armed heresy of the Goths; but their pious rage was safely
pointed against the rich and defenceless Jews, who had formed
their establishments at Naples, Rome, Ravenna, Milan, and Genoa,
for the benefit of trade, and under the sanction of the laws. ^86
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 neglect, 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. ^*
This simple act of justice exasperated 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 command 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 weapons 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 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 Justinian, 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, awakened
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. ^! 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 veneration 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 Boethius and Symmachus. ^88
[Footnote 86: The Jews were settled at Naples, (Procopius, Goth.
l. i. c. 8,) at Genoa, (Var. ii. 28, iv. 33,) Milan, (v. 37,)
Rome, (iv. 43.) See likewise Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, tom. viii.
c. 7, p. 254.]

[Footnote *: See History of the Jews vol. iii. p. 217. - M.]
[Footnote 87: Rex avidus communis exitii, &c., (Boethius, l. i.
p. 59:) rex colum Romanis tendebat, (Anonym. Vales. p. 723.)
These are hard words: they speak the passions of the Italians and
those (I fear) of Theodoric himself.]
[Footnote !: 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
sovereigns is confined to external government; that they have no
right of punishment but over those who disturb the public peace,
of which they are the guardians; 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 belief.
Compare Le Beau, vol viii. p. 68. - M]
[Footnote 88: I have labored to extract a rational narrative from
the dark, concise, and various hints of the Valesian Fragment,
(p. 722, 723, 724,) Theophanes, (p. 145,) Anastasius, (in
Johanne, p. 35,) and the Hist Miscella, (p. 103, edit. Muratori.)
A gentle pressure and paraphrase of their words is no violence.
Consult likewise Muratori (Annali d' Italia, tom. iv. p. 471 -
478,) with the Annals and Breviary (tom. i. p. 259 - 263) of the
two Pagis, the uncle and the nephew.]

     The senator Boethius ^89 is the last of the Romans whom Cato
or Tully could have acknowledged for their countryman. As a
wealthy orphan, he inherited the patrimony and honors of the
Anician family, a name 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 Boethius
the studies of Rome were not totally abandoned; a Virgil ^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 imitated the method, of his dead and living masters,
who attempted to reconcile the strong and subtile sense of
Aristotle with the devout contemplation and sublime fancy of
Plato. After his return to Rome, and his marriage with the
daughter of his friend, the patrician Symmachus, Boethius still
continued, 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 elements
of the arts and sciences of Greece. The geometry of Euclid, the
music of Pythagoras, the arithmetic of Nicomachus, the mechanics
of Archimedes, the astronomy of Ptolemy, 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 sun-dial, 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 discerning 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. Notwithstanding the
equal claims of the East and West, his two sons were created, in
their tender youth, the consuls of the same year. ^93 On the
memorable day of their inauguration, 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 pronouncing an oration in the praise of his royal
benefactor, distributed a triumphal largess in the games of the
circus. Prosperous in his fame and fortunes, in his public honors
and private alliances, in the cultivation of science and the
consciousness 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.

[Footnote 89: Le Clerc has composed a critical and philosophical
life of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boetius, (Bibliot. Choisie,
tom. xvi. p. 168 - 275;) and both Tiraboschi (tom. 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
524, in a premature old age, (Consol. Phil. Metrica. i. p. 5.)]

[Footnote 90: For the age and value of this Ms., now in the
Medicean library at Florence, see the Cenotaphia Pisana (p. 430 -
447) of Cardinal Noris.]
[Footnote 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. tom. iii. p.
524 - 527,) and by an expression (though vague and ambiguous) of
his friend Cassiodorus, (Var. i. 45,) "longe positas Athenas
intrioisti."]
[Footnote 92: Bibliothecae comptos ebore ac vitro ^* parietes,
&c., (Consol. Phil. l. i. pros. v. p. 74.) The Epistles of
Ennodius (vi. 6, vii. 13, viii. 1 31, 37, 40) and Cassiodorus
(Var. i. 39, iv. 6, ix. 21) afford many proofs of the high
reputation which he enjoyed in his own times. It is true, that
the bishop of Pavia wanted to purchase of him an old house at
Milan, and praise might be tendered and accepted in part of
payment.

     Note: Gibbon translated vitro, marble; under the impression,
no doubt that glass was unknown. - M.]

[Footnote 93: Pagi, Muratori, &c., are agreed that Boethius
himself 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 philosopher, liberal of his wealth and parsimonious of his
time, might be insensible to the common allurements of ambition,
the thirst of gold and employment. And some credit may be due to
the asseveration of Boethius, 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
courage to oppose the tyranny of the Barbarians, elated by
conquest, 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 prejudice, to
be heated by enthusiasm, and to confound private 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 fidelity 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 senator Albinus was accused and already convicted on
the 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 punished the simple and barren wish of an
unattainable blessing; but they would have shown less indulgence
to the rash confession of Boethius, that, had he known of a
conspiracy, the tyrant never should. ^94 The advocate of Albinus
was soon involved 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 justification,
and rigorously confined in the tower of Pavia, while the 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 occult science of
a philosopher was stigmatized with the names of sacrilege and
magic. ^96 A devout and dutiful attachment to the senate was
condemned as criminal by the trembling voices of the senators
themselves; and their ingratitude deserved the wish or prediction
of Boethius, that, after him, none should be found guilty of the
same offence. ^97

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

[Footnote 95: The characters of his two delators, Basilius (Var.
ii. 10, 11, iv. 22) and Opilio, (v. 41, viii. 16,) are
illustrated, not much to their honor, in the Epistles of
Cassiodorus, which likewise mention Decoratus, (v. 31,) the
worthless colleague of Beothius, (l. iii. pros. 4, p. 193.)]
[Footnote 96: A severe inquiry was instituted into the crime of
magic, (Var. iv 22, 23, ix. 18;) and it was believed that many
necromancers had escaped by making their jailers mad: for mad I
should read drunk.]

[Footnote 97: 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, &c., (l. i. pros. 4, p. 42 - 62,) which may be
compared with the short and weighty words of the Valesian
Fragment, (p. 723.) An anonymous writer (Sinner, Catalog. Mss.
Bibliot. Bern. tom. i. p. 287) charges him home with honorable
and patriotic treason.]
     While Boethius, oppressed with fetters, expected each moment
the sentence or the stroke of death, he composed, in the tower of
Pavia, the Consolation of Philosophy; a golden volume not
unworthy of the leisure of Plato or Tully, but which claims
incomparable merit from the barbarism of the times and the
situation of the author. 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
salutary balm. She taught him to compare his long prosperity and
his recent distress, and to conceive new hopes from the
inconstancy of fortune. Reason had informed him of the
precarious 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 metaphysical 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 apparent 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 affected to seek. Suspense, the worst of evils, was at
length determined 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
tightened, 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
diffuse 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, ^99 and the third emperor 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 miracles. ^100 In the last
hours of Boethius, he derived some comfort from the safety of his
two sons, of his wife, and of his father-in-law, the venerable
Symmachus. But the grief of Symmachus was indiscreet, and
perhaps disrespectful: he had presumed to lament, he might dare
to revenge, the death of an injured friend. He was dragged in
chains from Rome to the palace of Ravenna; and the suspicions of
Theodoric could only be appeased by the blood of an innocent and
aged senator. ^101

[Footnote 98: He was executed in Agro Calventiano, (Calvenzano,
between Marignano and Pavia,) Anonym. Vales. p. 723, by order of
Eusebius, count of Ticinum or Pavia. This place of confinement
is styled the baptistery, an edifice 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, tom. iii. p.
47, 48.)]

[Footnote 99: See the Biographia Britannica, Alfred, tom. i. p.
80, 2d edition. The work is still more honorable if performed
under the learned eye of Alfred by his foreign and domestic
doctors. For the reputation of Boethius in the middle ages,
consult Brucker, (Hist. Crit. Philosoph. tom. iii. p. 565, 566.)]

[Footnote 100: The inscription on his new tomb was composed by
the preceptor of Otho III., 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;) and yet on a
similar tale, a lady of my acquaintance once observed, "La
distance n'y fait rien; il n'y a que lo remier pas qui coute."
     Note: Madame du Deffand. This witticism referred to the
miracle of St. Denis. - G.]

[Footnote 101: Boethius applauds the virtues of his
father-in-law, (l. i. pros. 4, p. 59, l. ii. pros. 4, p. 118.)
Procopius, (Goth. l. i. c. i.,) the Valesian Fragment, (p. 724,)
and the Historia Miscella, (l. xv. p. 105,) agree in praising the
superior innocence or sanctity of Symmachus; and in the
estimation of the legend, the guilt of his murder is equal to the
imprisonment of a pope.]

     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
spectres are sometimes created by the powers of a disordered
fancy, and the weakness of a distempered body. After a life of
virtue and glory, Theodoric was now 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
beheld the angry countenance of Symmachus, his eyes glaring fury
and revenge, and his mouth armed with long sharp teeth, which
threatened to devour him. The monarch instantly retired to his
chamber, and, as he lay, trembling with aguish cold, under a
weight of bed-clothes, he expressed, in broken murmurs to his
physician Elpidius, his deep repentance for the murders of
Boethius and Symmachus. ^103 His malady increased, 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 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 advice, 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
erected by his daughter Amalasuntha, in a conspicuous situation,
which commanded the city of Ravenna, the harbor, and the adjacent
coast. A chapel of a circular form, thirty feet in diameter, is
crowned by a dome of one entire piece of granite: from the centre
of the dome four columns arose, which supported, in a vase of
porphyry, the remains of the Gothic king, surrounded by the
brazen statues of the twelve apostles. ^107 His spirit, after
some previous expiation, might have been permitted to mingle with
the benefactors of mankind, if an Italian 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 flaming mouths of the infernal
world. ^109

[Footnote 102: 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 Theodoric, (Var. xii. 14.) The
monstrous turbot of Domitian (Juvenal Satir. iii. 39) had been
caught on the shores of the Adriatic.]

[Footnote 103: Procopius, Goth. l. i. c. 1. But he might have
informed us, whether he had received this curious anecdote from
common report or from the mouth of the royal physician.]

[Footnote 104: Procopius, Goth. l. 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.)]
[Footnote 105: Berimund, the third in descent from Hermanric,
king of the Ostrogoths, had 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 Roman games might render him
popular, (Cassiodor. in Chron.,) but Eutharic was asper in
religione, (Anonym. Vales. p. 723.)]

[Footnote 106: See the counsels of Theodoric, and the professions
of his successor, in Procopius, (Goth. l. i. c. 1, 2,) Jornandes,
(c. 59, p. 220, 221,) and Cassiodorus, (Var. viii. 1 - 7.) These
epistles are the triumph of his ministerial eloquence.]

[Footnote 107: Anonym. Vales. p. 724. Agnellus de Vitis. Pont.
Raven. in Muratori Script. Rerum Ital. tom. ii. P. i. p. 67.
Alberti Descrittione d' Italia, p. 311.

     Note: The Mausoleum of Theodoric, now Sante Maria della
Rotonda, is engraved in D'Agincourt, Histoire de l'Art, p xviii.
of the Architectural Prints. - M]

[Footnote 108: This legend is related by Gregory I., (Dialog. iv.
36,) and approved by Baronius, (A.D. 526, No. 28;) and both the
pope and cardinal are grave doctors, sufficient to establish a
probable opinion.]
[Footnote 109: Theodoric himself, or rather Cassiodorus, had
described in tragic strains the volcanos of Lipari (Cluver.
Sicilia, p. 406 - 410) and Vesuvius, (v 50.)]

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian.

Part I.

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

     The emperor Justinian was born ^1 near the ruins of Sardica,
(the modern Sophia,) of an obscure race ^2 of Barbarians, ^3 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 spirit of
his uncle Justin, who, with two other peasants of the same
village, deserted, for the profession of arms, the more useful
employment of husbandmen or shepherds. ^4 On foot, with a scanty
provision of biscuit in their knapsacks, the three youths
followed 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 escape from some dangers
which threatened his life was afterwards ascribed to the guardian
angel who watches over the fate of kings. His long and laudable
service in the Isaurian and Persian wars would not have preserved
from oblivion the name of Justin; yet they might warrant the
military promotion, which in the course of fifty years he
gradually obtained; the rank of tribune, of count, and of
general; the dignity 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
kinsmen 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 consent of the soldiers, who
knew him to be brave and gentle, of the clergy and people, who
believed him to be orthodox, and of the provincials, who yielded
a blind and implicit submission to the will of the capital. The
elder Justin, as he is distinguished from another emperor of the
same family and 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 monarchs had never
been instructed in the knowledge of the alphabet. ^* But the
genius of Justin was far inferior to that of the Gothic king: the
experience of a soldier had not qualified him for the government
of an empire; and though personally brave, the consciousness of
his own weakness was naturally attended with doubt, distrust, and
political apprehension. But the official business of the state
was diligently and faithfully transacted by the quaestor Proclus;
^5 and the aged emperor adopted the talents and ambition of his
nephew Justinian, 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.

[Footnote 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. &c., tom. xxxi. p. 287 - 292.)]
[Footnote 2: The names of these Dardanian peasants are Gothic,
and almost English: Justinian is a translation of uprauda,
(upright;) his father Sabatius (in Graeco-barbarous language
stipes) was styled in his village Istock, (Stock;) his mother
Bigleniza was softened into Vigilantia.]
[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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 Zonaras. Yet why are those names
disgraceful? - and what German baron would not be proud to
descend from the Eumaeus of the Odyssey!
     Note: It is whimsical enough that, in our own days, we
should have, even in jest, a claimant to lineal descent from the
godlike swineherd not in the person of a German baron, but in
that of a professor of the Ionian University. Constantine
Koliades, or some malicious wit under this name, has written a
tall folio to prove Ulysses to be Homer, and himself the
descendant, the heir (?), of the Eumaeus of the Odyssey. - M]

[Footnote *: St. Martin questions the fact in both cases. The
ignorance of Justin rests on the secret history of Procopius,
vol. viii. p. 8. St. Martin's notes on Le Beau. - M]

[Footnote 5: His virtues are praised by Procopius, (Persic. l. i.
c. 11.) The quaestor Proclus was the friend of Justinian, and the
enemy of every other adoption.]

     Since the eunuch Amantius had been defrauded of his money,
it became necessary to deprive him of his life. The task was
easily accomplished by the charge of a real or fictitious
conspiracy; and the judges were informed, as an accumulation of
guilt, that he was secretly addicted to the Manichaean heresy. ^6
Amantius lost 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
rendered 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 faction, 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, Vitalian 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 promoted, 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 pursuit of fame, Justinian might have lost
his present dominion over the age and weakness of his uncle; and
instead of acquiring by Scythian or Persian trophies the applause
of his countrymen, ^9 the prudent warrior solicited their favor
in the churches, the circus, and the senate, of Constantinople.
The Catholics were attached to the nephew of Justin, who, between
the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies, trod the narrow path of
inflexible and intolerant orthodoxy. ^10 In the first days of the
new reign, he prompted and gratified the popular enthusiasm
against the memory of the deceased emperor. After a schism of
thirty-four years, he reconciled the proud and angry spirit of
the Roman pontiff, and spread among the Latins a favorable report
of his pious respect for the apostolic see. The thrones of the
East were filled with Catholic bishops, devoted to his interest,
the clergy and the monks were gained by his liberality, and the
people were taught to pray for their future sovereign, the hope
and pillar of the true religion. The magnificence of Justinian
was displayed in the superior pomp of his public spectacles, an
object not less sacred and important in the eyes of the multitude
than the creed of Nice or Chalcedon: the expense of his
consulship was esteemed at two hundred and twenty-eight thousand
pieces of gold; twenty lions, and thirty leopards, were produced
at the same time in the amphitheatre, and a numerous train of
horses, with their rich trappings, was bestowed as an
extraordinary gift on the victorious charioteers of the circus.
While he indulged the people of Constantinople, and received the
addresses of foreign kings, the nephew of Justin assiduously
cultivated the friendship of the senate. That venerable name
seemed to qualify its members to declare the sense of the nation,
and to regulate the succession of the Imperial throne: the feeble
Anastasius had permitted the vigor of government to degenerate
into the form or substance of an aristocracy; and the military
officers who had obtained the senatorial rank were followed by
their domestic guards, a band of veterans, whose arms or
acclamations might fix in a tumultuous moment the diadem of the
East. The treasures of the state were lavished to procure the
voices of the senators, and their unanimous wish, that he would
be pleased to adopt Justinian for his colleague, was communicated
to the emperor. But this request, which too clearly admonished
him of his approaching end, was unwelcome to the jealous temper
of an aged monarch, desirous to retain the power which he was
incapable of exercising; and Justin, holding his purple with both
his hands, advised them to prefer, since an election was so
profitable, some older candidate. Not withstanding this
reproach, the senate proceeded to decorate Justinian with the
royal epithet of nobilissimus; and their decree was ratified by
the affection or the fears of his uncle. After some time the
languor of mind and body, to which he was reduced by an incurable
wound in his thigh, indispensably required the aid of a guardian.
He summoned the patriarch and senators; and in their presence
solemnly placed the diadem on the head of his nephew, who was
conducted from the palace to the circus, and saluted by the loud
and joyful applause of the people. The life of Justin was
prolonged about four months; but from the instant of this
ceremony, he was considered as dead to the empire, which
acknowledged Justinian, in the forty-fifth year of his age, for
the lawful sovereign of the East. ^11

[Footnote 6: Manichaean signifies Eutychian. Hear the furious
acclamations of Constantinople and Tyre, the former no more than
six days after the decease of Anastasius. They produced, the
latter applauded, the eunuch's death, (Baronius, A.D. 518, P. ii.
No. 15. Fleury, Hist Eccles. tom. vii. p. 200, 205, from the
Councils, tom. v. p. 182, 207.)]

[Footnote 7: His power, character, and intentions, are perfectly
explained by the court de Buat, (tom. ix. p. 54 - 81.) He was
great-grandson of Aspar, hereditary prince in the Lesser Scythia,
and count of the Gothic foederati of Thrace. The Bessi, whom he
could influence, are the minor Goths of Jornandes, (c. 51.)]

[Footnote 8: Justiniani patricii factione dicitur interfectus
fuisse, (Victor Tu nunensis, Chron. in Thesaur. Temp. Scaliger,
P. ii. p. 7.) Procopius (Anecdot. c. 7) styles him a tyrant, but
acknowledges something which is well explained by Alemannus.]

[Footnote 9: In his earliest youth (plane adolescens) he had
passed some time as a hostage with Theodoric. For this curious
fact, Alemannus (ad Procop. Anecdot. c. 9, p. 34, of the first
edition) quotes a Ms. history of Justinian, by his preceptor
Theophilus. Ludewig (p. 143) wishes to make him a soldier.]
[Footnote 10: The ecclesiastical history of Justinian will be
shown hereafter. See Baronius, A.D. 518 - 521, and the copious
article Justinianas in the index to the viith volume of his
Annals.]

[Footnote 11: The reign of the elder Justin may be found in the
three Chronicles of Marcellinus, Victor, and John Malala, (tom.
ii. p. 130 - 150,) the last of whom (in spite of Hody, Prolegom.
No. 14, 39, edit. Oxon.) lived soon after Justinian, (Jortin's
Remarks, &c., vol. iv p. 383:) in the Ecclesiastical History of
Evagrius, (l. iv. c. 1, 2, 3, 9,) and the Excerpta of Theodorus
Lector, (No. 37,) and in Cedrenus, (p. 362 - 366,) and Zonaras,
(l. xiv. p. 58 - 61,) who may pass for an original.

     Note: Dindorf, in his preface to the new edition of Malala,
p. vi., concurs with this opinion of Gibbon, which was also that
of Reiske, as to the age of the chronicler. - M.]

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

The events of his reign, which excite our curious attention by
their number, variety, and importance, are diligently related by
the secretary of Belisarius, a rhetorician, whom eloquence had
promoted to the rank of senator and praefect of Constantinople.
According to the vicissitudes of courage or servitude, of favor
or disgrace, Procopius ^12 successively composed the history, the
panegyric, and the satire of his own times. The eight books of
the Persian, Vandalic, and Gothic wars, ^13 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 attains, to the merit of strength and elegance; his
reflections, more especially in the speeches, which he too
frequently inserts, contain a rich fund of political knowledge;
and the historian, excited by the generous ambition of pleasing
and instructing posterity, appears to disdain the prejudices of
the people, and the flattery of courts. The writings of
Procopius ^14 were read and applauded by his contemporaries: ^15
but, although 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
subdued 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 virtues of
Themistocles and Cyrus. ^16 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 consort Theodora are seriously
represented as two daemons, who had assumed a human form for the
destruction of mankind. ^18 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 residue of the anecdotes, even the most
disgraceful facts, some of which had been tenderly hinted in his
public history, are established by their internal evidence, or
the authentic monuments of the times. ^19 ^* From these various
materials, I shall now proceed to describe the reign of
Justinian, which will deserve and occupy an ample space. The
present chapter will explain the elevation and character of
Theodora, the factions of the circus, and the peaceful
administration 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 Narses, without disguising the vanity
of their triumphs, or the hostile virtue of the Persian and
Gothic heroes. The series of this and the following 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.
[Footnote 12: See the characters of Procopius and Agathias in La
Mothe le Vayer, (tom. viii. p. 144 - 174,) Vossius, (de
Historicis Graecis, l. ii. c. 22,) and Fabricius, (Bibliot.
Graec. l. v. c. 5, tom. vi. p. 248 - 278.) Their religion, an
honorable problem, betrays occasional conformity, with a secret
attachment to Paganism and Philosophy.]

[Footnote 13: In the seven first books, two Persic, two Vandalic,
and three Gothic, Procopius has borrowed from Appian the division
of provinces and wars: the viiith book, though it bears the name
of Gothic, is a miscellaneous and general supplement down to the
spring of the year 553, from whence it is continued by Agathias
till 559, (Pagi, Critica, A.D. 579, No. 5.)]
[Footnote 14: The literary fate of Procopius has been somewhat
unlucky.
     1. His book de Bello Gothico were stolen by Leonard Aretin,
and published (Fulginii, 1470, Venet. 1471, apud Janson.
Mattaire, Annal Typograph. tom. i. edit. posterior, p. 290, 304,
279, 299,) in his own name, (see Vossius de Hist. Lat. l. iii. c.
5, and the feeble defence of the Venice Giornale de Letterati,
tom. xix. p. 207.)

     2. His works were mutilated by the first Latin translators,
Christopher Persona, (Giornale, tom. xix. p. 340 - 348,) and
Raphael de Volaterra, (Huet, de Claris Interpretibus, p. 166,)
who did not even consult the Ms. of the Vatican library, of which
they were praefects, (Aleman. in Praefat Anecdot.)
     3. The Greek text was not printed till 1607, by Hoeschelius
of Augsburg, (Dictionnaire de Bayle, tom. 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 commentaries, &c., have
never appeared. The Agathias of Leyden (1594) has been wisely
reprinted by the Paris editor, with the Latin version of
Bonaventura Vulcanius, a learned interpreter, (Huet, p. 176.)

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

[Footnote 15: Agathias in Praefat. p. 7, 8, l. iv. p. 137.
Evagrius, l. iv. c. 12. See likewise Photius, cod. lxiii. p.
65.]

[Footnote 16: Says, he, Praefat. ad l. de Edificiis is no more
than a pun! In these five books, Procopius affects a Christian
as well as a courtly style.]
[Footnote 17: Procopius discloses himself, (Praefat. ad Anecdot.
c. 1, 2, 5,) and the anecdotes are reckoned as the ninth book by
Suidas, (tom. iii. p. 186, edit. Kuster.) The silence of Evagrius
is a poor objection. Baronius (A.D. 548, No. 24) regrets the
loss of this secret history: it was then in the Vatican library,
in his own custody, and was first published sixteen years after
his death, with the learned, but partial notes of Nicholas
Alemannus, (Lugd. 1623.)]

[Footnote 18: Justinian an ass - the perfect likeness of Domitian
- Anecdot. c. 8. - Theodora's lovers driven from her bed by rival
daemons - her marriage foretold with a great daemon - a monk saw
the prince of the daemons, instead of Justinian, on the throne -
the servants who watched beheld a face without features, a body
walking without a head, &c., &c. Procopius declares his own and
his friends' belief in these diabolical stories, (c. 12.)]
[Footnote 19: Montesquieu (Considerations sur la Grandeur et la
Decadence des Romains, c. xx.) gives credit to these anecdotes,
as connected, 1. with the weakness of the empire, and, 2. with
the instability of Justinian's laws.]
[Footnote *: The Anecdota of Procopius, compared with the former
works of the same author, 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 Anecdota; at all events, the
extreme and disgusting profligacy of Theodora's early life rests
entirely on this viratent libel - M.]

     I. In the exercise of supreme power, the first act of
Justinian was to divide it with the woman whom he loved, the
famous Theodora, ^20 whose strange elevation cannot be applauded
as the triumph of female virtue. Under the reign of Anastasius,
the care of the wild beasts maintained by the green faction at
Constantinople was intrusted to Acacius, a native of the Isle of
Cyprus, who, from his employment, was surnamed the master of the
bears. This honorable office was given after his death to
another candidate, notwithstanding the diligence of his widow,
who had already provided a husband and a successor. Acacius had
left three daughters, Comito, ^21 Theodora, and Anastasia, the
eldest of whom did not then exceed the age of seven years. On a
solemn festival, these helpless orphans were sent by their
distressed 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 difference, 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 successively devoted to the public
and private pleasures of the Byzantine 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 often 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 Theodora ^22 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 expressed by
the vivacity of her eyes; her easy motions displayed 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
exhausting the arts of sensual pleasure, ^25 she most
ungratefully murmured against the parsimony of Nature; ^26 but
her murmurs, her pleasures, and her arts, must be veiled in the
obscurity of a learned language. After reigning for some time,
the delight and contempt of the capital, she condescended to
accompany Ecebolus, a native of Tyre, who had obtained the
government of the African Pentapolis. But this union was frail
and transient; Ecebolus soon rejected an expensive or faithless
concubine; she was reduced at Alexandria to extreme distress; and
in her laborious return to Constantinople, every city of the East
admired and enjoyed the fair Cyprian, whose merit appeared to
justify her descent from the peculiar island of Venus. The vague
commerce of Theodora, and the most detestable precautions,
preserved her from the danger which she feared; yet once, and
once only, she became a mother. The infant was saved and
educated in Arabia, by his father, who imparted to him on his
death-bed, that he was the son of an empress. Filled with
ambitious hopes, the unsuspecting youth immediately hastened to
the palace of Constantinople, and was admitted to the presence of
his mother. As he was never more seen, even after the decease of
Theodora, she deserves the foul imputation of extinguishing with
his life a secret so offensive to her Imperial virtue.

[Footnote 20: For 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.]
[Footnote 21: Comito was afterwards married to Sittas, duke of
Armenia, the father, perhaps, 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.)]
[Footnote 22: Her statute was raised at Constantinople, on a
porphyry column. See Procopius, (de Edif. l. i. c. 11,) who gives
her portrait in the Anecdotes, (c. 10.) Aleman. (p. 47) produces
one from a Mosaic at Ravenna, loaded with pearls and jewels, and
yet handsome.]

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

[Footnote 24: After the mention of a narrow girdle, (as none
could appear stark naked in the theatre,) Procopius thus
proceeds. I have heard that a learned prelate, now deceased, was
fond of quoting this passage in conversation.]

[Footnote 25: Theodora surpassed the Crispa of Ausonius, (Epigram
lxxi.,) who imitated the capitalis luxus of the females of Nola.
See Quintilian Institut. viii. 6, and Torrentius ad Horat.
Sermon. l. i. sat. 2, v. 101. At a memorable supper, thirty
slaves waited round the table ten young men feasted with
Theodora. Her charity was universal.

Et lassata viris, necdum satiata, recessit.]

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

[Footnote *: Gibbon should have remembered the axiom which he
quotes in another piece, scelera ostendi oportet dum puniantur
abscondi flagitia. - M.]
     In the most abject state of her fortune, and reputation,
some vision, either of sleep or of fancy, had whispered to
Theodora the pleasing assurance that she was destined to become
the spouse of a potent monarch. Conscious of her approaching
greatness, she returned from Paphlagonia to Constantinople;
assumed, like a skilful actress, a more decent character;
relieved her poverty by the laudable industry of spinning wool;
and affected a life of chastity and solitude in a small house,
which she afterwards changed into a magnificent temple. ^27 Her
beauty, assisted by art or accident, soon attracted, captivated,
and fixed, the patrician Justinian, who already reigned with
absolute sway under the name of his uncle. Perhaps she contrived
to enhance the value of a gift which she had so often lavished on
the meanest of mankind; perhaps she inflamed, at first by modest
delays, and at last by sensual allurements, the desires of a
lover, who, from nature or devotion, was addicted to long vigils
and abstemious diet. When his first transports had subsided, she
still maintained the same ascendant over his mind, by the more
solid merit of temper and understanding. Justinian delighted to
ennoble and enrich the object of his affection; the treasures of
the East were poured at her feet, and the nephew of Justin was
determined, perhaps by religious scruples, to bestow on his
concubine the sacred and legal character of a wife. But the laws
of Rome expressly prohibited the marriage of a senator with any
female who had been dishonored by a servile origin or theatrical
profession: the empress Lupicina, or Euphemia, a Barbarian of
rustic manners, but of irreproachable virtue, refused to accept a
prostitute for her niece; and even Vigilantia, the superstitious
mother of Justinian, though she acknowledged the wit and beauty
of Theodora, was seriously apprehensive, lest the levity and
arrogance of that artful paramour might corrupt the piety and
happiness of her son. These obstacles were removed by the
inflexible constancy of Justinian. He patiently expected the
death of the empress; he despised the tears of his mother, who
soon sunk under the weight of her affliction; and a law was
promulgated in the name of the emperor Justin, which abolished
the rigid jurisprudence of antiquity. A glorious repentance (the
words of the edict) was left open for the unhappy females who had
prostituted their persons on the theatre, and they were permitted
to contract a legal union with the most illustrious of the
Romans. ^28 This indulgence was speedily followed by the solemn
nuptials of Justinian and Theodora; her dignity was gradually
exalted with that of her lover, and, as soon as Justin had
invested his nephew with the purple, the patriarch of
Constantinople placed the diadem on the heads of the emperor and
empress of the East. But the usual honors which the severity of
Roman manners had allowed to the wives of princes, could not
satisfy either the ambition of Theodora or the fondness of
Justinian. He seated her on the throne as an equal and
independent colleague in the sovereignty of the empire, and an
oath of allegiance was imposed on the governors of the provinces
in the joint names of Justinian and Theodora. ^29 The Eastern
world fell prostrate before the genius and fortune of the
daughter of Acacius. The prostitute who, in the presence of
innumerable spectators, had polluted the theatre of
Constantinople, was adored as a queen in the same city, by grave
magistrates, orthodox bishops, victorious generals, and captive
monarchs. ^30
[Footnote 27: Anonym. de Antiquitat. C. P. l. iii. 132, in
Banduri Imperium Orient. tom. i. p. 48. Ludewig (p. 154) argues
sensibly that Theodora would not have immortalized a brothel: but
I apply this fact to her second and chaster residence at
Constantinople.]

[Footnote 28: See the old law in Justinian's Code, (l. v. tit. v.
leg. 7, tit. xxvii. leg. 1,) under the years 336 and 454. The
new edict (about the year 521 or 522, Aleman. p. 38, 96) very
awkwardly repeals no more than the clause of mulieres scenicoe,
libertinae, tabernariae. See the novels 89 and 117, and a Greek
rescript from Justinian to the bishops, (Aleman. p. 41.)]
[Footnote 29: I swear by the Father, &c., by the Virgin Mary, by
the four Gospels, quae in manibus teneo, and by the Holy
Archangels Michael and Gabriel, puram conscientiam germanumque
servitium me servaturum, sacratissimis DDNN. Justiniano et
Theodorae conjugi ejus, (Novell. viii. tit. 3.) Would the oath
have been binding in favor of the widow? Communes tituli et
triumphi, &c., (Aleman. p. 47, 48.)]

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

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian.

Part II.

     Those who believe that the female mind is totally depraved
by the loss of chastity, will eagerly listen to all the
invectives of private envy, or popular resentment which have
dissembled the virtues of Theodora, exaggerated her vices, and
condemned with rigor the venal or voluntary sins of the youthful
harlot. From a motive of shame, or contempt, she often declined
the servile homage of the multitude, escaped from the odious
light of the capital, and passed the greatest part of the year in
the palaces and gardens which were pleasantly seated on the
sea-coast of the Propontis and the Bosphorus. Her private hours
were devoted to the prudent as well as grateful care of her
beauty, the luxury of the bath and table, and the long slumber of
the evening and the morning. Her secret apartments were occupied
by the favorite women and eunuchs, whose interests and passions
she indulged at the expense of justice; the most illustrious
person ages of the state were crowded into a dark and sultry
antechamber, 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 empress, 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 the 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 reported, every action, or
word, or look, injurious to their royal mistress. Whomsoever they
accused were cast into her peculiar 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 the
female tyrant, insensible to the voice of prayer or of pity. ^32
Some of these unhappy victims perished in deep, unwholesome
dungeons, while others were permitted, after the loss of their
limbs, their reason, or their fortunes, 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 quickened by a menace from her own mouth. "If you
fail in the execution of my commands, I swear by Him who liveth
forever, that your skin shall be flayed from your body." ^33

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

[Footnote 32: A more jocular whipping was inflicted on
Saturninus, for presuming to say that his wife, a favorite of the
empress, had not been found. (Anecdot. c. 17.)]

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

     If the creed of Theodora had not been tainted with heresy,
her exemplary devotion might have atoned, in the opinion of her
contemporaries, for pride, avarice, and cruelty. 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 speculative 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 embrace 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. ^35 The prudence of
Theodora is celebrated by Justinian himself; and his laws are
attributed to the sage counsels of his most reverend wife whom he
had received as the gift of the Deity. ^36 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 lawful son, and she 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 dissensions 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 praefect, the great treasurer, several counts and
patricians, and a splendid train of four thousand attendants: the
highways were repaired at her approach; a palace was erected 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 restoration
of her health. ^38 At length, in the twenty-fourth year of her
marriage, and the twenty-second of her reign, she was consumed by
a cancer; ^39 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

[Footnote 34: Ludewig, p. 161 - 166. I give him credit for the
charitable attempt, although he hath not much charity in his
temper.]
[Footnote 35: Compare the anecdotes (c. 17) with the Edifices (l.
i. c. 9) - how differently may the same fact be stated! John
Malala (tom. ii. p. 174, 175) observes, that on this, or a
similar occasion, she released and clothed the girls whom she had
purchased from the stews at five aurei apiece.]
[Footnote 36: Novel. viii. 1. An allusion to Theodora. Her
enemies read the name Daemonodora, (Aleman. p. 66.)]

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

[Footnote 38: See John Malala, tom. ii. p. 174. Theophanes, p.
158. Procopius de Edific. l. v. c. 3.]

[Footnote 39: Theodora Chalcedonensis synodi inimica canceris
plaga 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 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. v. 58 - 62.)]

[Footnote 40: As she persecuted the popes, and rejected a
council, Baronius exhausts the names of Eve, Dalila, Herodias,
&c.; after which he has recourse to his infernal dictionary:
civis inferni - alumna daemonum - satanico agitata spiritu -
oestro percita diabolico, &c., &c., (A.D. 548, No. 24.)]
     II. A material difference may be observed in the games of
antiquity: the most eminent of the Greeks were actors, the Romans
were merely spectators. The Olympic stadium was open to wealth,
merit, and ambition; and if the candidates could depend on their
personal skill and activity, they might pursue the footsteps of
Diomede and Menelaus, and conduct 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 marble.
But a senator, or even a citizen, conscious of his dignity, would
have blushed to expose his person, or his horses, in the circus
of Rome. The games were exhibited at the expense 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 advocate, they must be
considered as the effects of popular extravagance, and the high
wages of a disgraceful profession. The race, in its first
institution, was a simple contest of two chariots, whose drivers
were distinguished by white and red liveries: 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 appearances of nature in the four seasons of the
year; the red dogstar of summer, the snows of winter, the deep
shades of autumn, 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
announced either a plentiful harvest or a prosperous navigation,
and the hostility of the husbandmen and mariners was somewhat
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, Vitellius, Verus, Commodus,
Caracalla, and Elagabalus, were enrolled in the blue or green
factions of the circus; they frequented their stables, applauded
their favorites, chastised their antagonists, and deserved the
esteem of the populace, by the natural or affected imitation of
their manners. The bloody and tumultuous contest continued to
disturb 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
violence of a consul and a patrician, who were passionately
addicted to the blue faction of the circus. ^43

[Footnote 41: Read and feel the xxiid 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 information.]

[Footnote 42: The four colors, albati, russati, prasini, veneti,
represent the four seasons, according to Cassiodorus, (Var. iii.
51,) who lavishes much wit and eloquence on this theatrical
mystery. Of these colors, the three first may be fairly
translated white, red, and green. Venetus is explained by
coeruleus, 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.)]

[Footnote 43: See Onuphrius Panvinius de Ludis Circensibus, l. i.
c. 10, 11; the xviith Annotation on Mascou's History of the
Germans; and Aleman ad c. vii.]

     Constantinople adopted the follies, though not the virtues,
of ancient Rome; and the same factions which had agitated the
circus, raged with redoubled fury in the hippodrome. Under the
reign of Anastasius, this popular frenzy 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 this
capital, the 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
foundations of a feeble government. ^45 The popular dissensions,
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 successful, its
deluded followers appeared careless of private distress 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 candidate 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, ^46 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. Insolent with royal favor,
the blues affected to strike 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
assembled in arms, and in numerous bands, prepared for every act
of violence and rapine. Their adversaries of the green faction,
or even inoffensive citizens, were stripped and often murdered 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 avarice or revenge, they
profusely spilt the blood of the innocent; churches and altars
were polluted by atrocious murders; and it was the boast of the
assassins, that their dexterity could 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 enfranchise 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 magistrates,
assumed the privilege of defence, 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
indiscreet zeal; a praefect of Constantinople fled for refuge to
the holy sepulchre, a count of the East was ignominiously
whipped, and a governor of Cilicia was hanged, by the order of
Theodora, on the tomb of two assassins whom he had condemned 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 authority of the laws. The first
edict of Justinian, which was often repeated, and sometimes
executed, announced his firm resolution to support the innocent,
and to chastise the guilty, of every denomination and color. Yet
the balance of justice was still inclined in favor of the blue
faction, by the secret affection, the habits, and the fears of
the emperor; his equity, after an apparent struggle, submitted,
without reluctance, to the implacable passions of Theodora, and
the empress never forgot, or forgave, the injuries of the
comedian. At the accession of the younger Justin, the
proclamation of equal and rigorous justice indirectly condemned
the partiality of the former reign. "Ye blues, Justinian is no
more! ye greens, he is still alive!" ^49
[Footnote 44: Marcellin. in Chron. p. 47. Instead of the vulgar
word venata he uses the more exquisite terms of coerulea and
coerealis. Baronius (A.D. 501, No. 4, 5, 6) is satisfied that
the blues were orthodox; but Tillemont is angry at the
supposition, and will not allow any martyrs in a playhouse,
(Hist. des Emp. tom. vi. p. 554.)]

[Footnote 45: See Procopius, (Persic. l. 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)
has quoted a fine passage from Gregory Nazianzen, which proves
the inveteracy of the evil.]

[Footnote 46: The partiality of Justinian for the blues (Anecdot.
c. 7) is attested by Evagrius, (Hist. Eccles. l. iv. c. 32,) John
Malala, (tom ii p. 138, 139,) especially for Antioch; and
Theophanes, (p. 142.)]
[Footnote 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 (Aleman. p. 26) deplore a similar
suicide, the guilt or glory of female chastity, and name the
heroine.]

[Footnote 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 praefect of
Constantinople is related by John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 139.)]

[Footnote 49: See John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 147;) yet he owns
that Justinian was attached to the blues. The seeming discord of
the emperor and Theodora is, perhaps, viewed with too much
jealousy and refinement by Procopius, (Anecdot. c. 10.) See
Aleman. Praefat. p. 6.]

     A sedition, which almost laid Constantinople in ashes, was
excited by the mutual hatred and momentary reconciliation of the
two factions. In the fifth year of his reign, Justinian
celebrated the festival of the ides of January; the games were
incessantly disturbed by the clamorous discontent of the greens:
till the twenty-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 singular 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
proclaimed their wishes for the long life and victory of the
emperor. "Be patient and attentive, ye insolent railers!"
exclaimed Justinian; "be mute, ye Jews, Samaritans, and
Manichaeans!" The greens still attempted to awaken his
compassion. "We are poor, we are innocent, we are injured, we
dare not pass through the streets: a general persecution is
exercised against our name and color. Let us die, O emperor! but
let us die by your command, and for your service!" 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 hippodrome; and their adversaries,
deserting the unequal contest spread terror and despair through
the streets of Constantinople. At this dangerous moment, seven
notorious assassins of both factions, who had been condemned by
the praefect, were carried round the city, and afterwards
transported to the place of execution in the suburb of Pera.
Four were immediately 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 sanctuary of
the church. ^51 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 ingratitude of
their patron; and a short truce was concluded till they had
delivered their prisoners and satisfied their revenge. The
palace of the praefect, who withstood the seditious torrent, was
instantly burnt, his officers and guards were massacred, the
prisons were forced open, and freedom was restored to those who
could only use it for the public destruction. 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 increased; 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 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 fire
brands against the houses; and the various flames, which had been
kindled by the hands of citizens and strangers, spread without
control over the face of the city. The conflagration involved
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 Constantine: a large
hospital, with the sick patients, was consumed; 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 Asiatic side; and during five days
Constantinople was abandoned to the factions, whose watchword,
Nika, vanquish! has given a name to this memorable sedition. ^52

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

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

[Footnote 52: The history of the Nika sedition is extracted from
Marcellinus, (in Chron.,) Procopius, (Persic. l. i. c. 26,) John
Malala, (tom. ii. p. 213 - 218,) Chron. Paschal., (p. 336 - 340,)
Theophanes, (Chronograph. p. 154 - 158) and Zonaras, (l. xiv. p.
61 - 63.)]

     As long as the factions were divided, the triumphant blues,
and desponding greens, appeared to behold with the same
indifference the disorders of the state. They agreed to 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 hippodrome to confess his own errors, and to
accept the repentance of his grateful subjects; but they
distrusted his assurances, though solemnly pronounced in the
presence of the holy Gospels; and the emperor, alarmed by their
distrust, retreated 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
supplied with arms and money by Hypatius and Pompey, two
patricians, who could neither forget with honor, nor remember
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 resistance, 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 trembling competitor. The Byzantine
palace enjoyed a free communication with the sea; vessels lay
ready at the garden stairs; and a secret resolution was already
formed, to convey the emperor 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
virtues, of her sex. In the midst of a council, where 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 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 queen. If you resolve, O Caesar! 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 the 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 desperate situation. It was an easy and a
decisive measure to revive the animosity of the factions; the
blues were astonished 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 proclaimed the majesty of Justinian; and the greens,
with their upstart emperor, were left alone in the hippodrome.
The fidelity of the guards was doubtful; but the military force
of Justinian consisted in three thousand veterans, who had been
trained to valor and discipline in the Persian and Illyrian wars.

Under the command of Belisarius 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 incapable 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 clemency; 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 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
continued to afflict the reign of Justinian, and to disturb the
tranquility of the Eastern empire. ^53

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

     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 Aethiopia and Persia. Justinian reigned
over sixty-four provinces, and nine hundred and thirty-five
cities; ^54 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
Mediterranean and the banks of the Nile from ancient Troy to the
Egyptian Thebes. Abraham ^55 had been relieved by the well-known
plenty of Egypt; the same country, a small and populous tract,
was still capable of exporting, each year, two hundred and sixty
thousand quarters of wheat for the use of Constantinople; ^56 and
the capital of Justinian was supplied with the manufactures of
Sidon, fifteen centuries after they had been celebrated in the
poems of Homer. ^57 The annual powers of vegetation, instead of
being exhausted by two thousand harvests, were renewed and
invigorated by skilful husbandry, 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
subsisted, 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 ^58 which imitate the beauties of nature,
the freedom of taste and fashion was indulged; but the deep
purple ^59 which the Phoenicians extracted from a shell-fish, was
restrained to the sacred person and palace of the emperor; and
the penalties of treason were denounced against the ambitious
subjects who dared to usurp the prerogative of the throne. ^60

[Footnote 54: Hierocles, a contemporary of Justinian, composed
his (Itineraria, p. 631,) review of the eastern provinces and
cities, before the year 535, (Wesseling, in Praefat. and Not. ad
p. 623, &c.)]
[Footnote 55: 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, (Divine Legation, vol. iii. p. 29, &c.)

     Note: The recent extraordinary discoveries in Egyptian
antiquities strongly confirm the high notion of the early
Egyptian civilization, and imperatively demand a longer 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 the Samaritans, not that
of the LXX., not that of Josephus, not that of St. Paul. - M.]

[Footnote 56: Eight millions of Roman modii, besides a
contribution of 80,000 aurei for the expenses of water-carriage,
from which the subject was graciously excused. See the 13th
Edict of Justinian: the numbers are checked and verified by the
agreement of the Greek and Latin texts.]
[Footnote 57: Homer's Iliad, vi. 289. These veils, 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.]

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

[Footnote 59: By the discovery of cochineal, &c., 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, 2,) nigredo saguinea. The president
Goguet (Origine des Loix et des Arts, part ii. l. ii. c. 2, p.
184 - 215) will amuse and satisfy the reader. I doubt whether
his book, especially in England, is as well known as it deserves
to be.]
[Footnote 60: Historical proofs of this jealousy have been
occasionally introduced, and many more might have been added; but
the arbitrary acts of despotism were justified by the sober and
general declarations of law, (Codex Theodosian. l. x. tit. 21,
leg. 3. Codex Justinian. l. xi. tit. 8, leg. 5.) An inglorious
permission, and necessary restriction, was applied to the mince,
the female dancers, (Cod. Theodos. l. xv. tit. 7, leg. 11.)]

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian.

Part III.

     I need not explain that silk ^61 is originally spun from the
bowels of a caterpillar, and that it composes the golden tomb,
from whence a worm emerges in the form of a butterfly. Till the
reign of Justinian, the silk- worm who feed on the leaves of the
white mulberry-tree were confined to China; those of the pine,
the oak, and the ash, were common in the forests both of Asia and
Europe; but as their education is more difficult, and their
produce 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 manufacture, the
invention of a woman, for female use, was long admired both in
the East and at Rome. 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 Chinese; ^62 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 Romans; and Pliny,
in affected though forcible language, has condemned the thirst of
gain, which explores the last confines of the earth, for the
pernicious purpose of exposing to the public eye naked draperies
and transparent matrons. ^63 ^* 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
precious 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
confined to the female sex, till the opulent citizens of Rome and
the provinces were insensibly familiarized with the example of
Elagabalus, the first who, by this effeminate habit, had sullied
the dignity of an emperor and a man. Aurelian complained, 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 standard 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 rate. ^65 A law was thought necessary to discriminate
the dress of comedians from that of senators; and of the silk
exported from its native country the far greater part was
consumed 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 obtained
from the same singular materials was the gift of the Roman
emperor to the satraps of Armenia. ^66

[Footnote 61: In the history of insects (far more wonderful than
Ovid's Metamorphoses) the silk-worm holds a conspicuous place.
The bombyx of the Isle of Ceos, as described by Pliny, (Hist.
Natur. xi. 26, 27, with the notes of the two learned Jesuits,
Hardouin and Brotier,) may be illustrated by a similar species in
China, (Memoires sur les Chinois, tom. ii. p. 575 - 598;) but our
silk-worm, as well as the white mulberry-tree, were unknown to
Theophrastus and Pliny.]

[Footnote 62: Georgic. ii. 121. Serica quando venerint in usum
planissime non acio: suspicor tamen in Julii Caesaris aevo, nam
ante non invenio, says Justus Lipsius, (Excursus i. ad Tacit.
Annal. ii. 32.) See Dion Cassius, (l. xliii. p. 358, edit.
Reimar,) and Pausanius, (l. vi. p. 519,) the first who describes,
however strangely, the Seric insect.]

[Footnote 63: Tam longinquo orbe petitur, ut in publico matrona
transluceat ...ut denudet foeminas vestis, (Plin. vi. 20, xi.
21.) Varro and Publius Syrus had already played on the Toga
vitrea, ventus texilis, and nebula linen, (Horat. Sermon. i. 2,
101, with the notes of Torrentius and Dacier.)]
[Footnote *: Gibbon must have written transparent draperies and
naked matrons. Through sometimes affected, he is never
inaccurate. - M.]

[Footnote 64: On the texture, colors, names, and use of the silk,
half silk, and liuen garments 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
Leyden.]

[Footnote 65: Flavius Vopiscus in Aurelian. c. 45, in Hist.
August. p. 224. See Salmasius 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.]

[Footnote 66: Procopius de Edit. l. 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 XIV.]

     A valuable merchandise of small bulk is capable of defraying
the expense of land-carriage; and the caravans traversed the
whole latitude of Asia in two hundred and forty-three days from
the Chinese Ocean to the sea-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 intervals 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
dominion was bounded by the Oxus and his useful intercourse with
the Sogdoites, beyond the river, depended on the pleasure of
their conquerors, the white Huns, and the Turks, who successively
reigned over that industrious people. Yet the most savage
dominion has not extirpated the seeds of agriculture 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 transported 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 first town of Shensi,
could not be performed in less than sixty, eighty, or one hundred
days: as soon as they had passed the Jaxartes they entered the
desert; and the wandering hordes, unless they are restrained by
armies 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 explored 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 desert were found less
intolerable than toil, hunger, and the loss of time; the attempt
was seldom renewed, and the only European 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, 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 the North; they were filled about the time of the
Christian aera with cities and men, mulberry- trees and their
precious inhabitants; and if the Chinese, with the knowledge of
the compass, 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 artificers of China; the Island of
Sumatra and the opposite peninsula 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 navigators 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 cocoanut. Ceylon, Serendib, or
Taprobana, was divided between two hostile princes; one of whom
possessed the mountains, the elephants, and the luminous
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 beneficial
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 Aethiopian ship, as a
simple passenger. ^72
[Footnote 67: Procopius, Persic. l. i. c. 20, l. ii. c. 25;
Gothic. l. iv. c. 17. Menander in Excerpt. Legat. p. 107. Of
the Parthian or Persian empire, Isidore of Charax (in Stathmis
Parthicis, p. 7, 8, in Hudson, Geograph. Minor. tom. ii.) has
marked the roads, and Ammianus Marcellinus (l. xxiii. c. 6, p.
400) has enumerated the provinces.

     Note: See St. Martin, Mem. sur l'Armenie, vol. ii. p. 41. -
M.]
[Footnote 68: The blind admiration of the Jesuits confounds the
different periods of the Chinese history. They are more
critically distinguished by M. de Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom.
i. part i. in the Tables, part ii. in the Geography. Memoires de
l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxxii. xxxvi. xlii. xliii.,)
who discovers the gradual progress of the truth of the annals and
the extent of the monarchy, till the Christian aera. 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 Sinae possessed an empire not inferior to their
own.

     Note: An abstract of the various opinions of the learned
modern writers, Gosselin, Mannert, Lelewel, Malte-Brun, Heeren,
and La Treille, on the Serica and the Thinae of the ancients, may
be found in the new edition of Malte-Brun, vol. vi. p. 368, 382.
- M.]

[Footnote 69: The roads from China to Persia and Hindostan may be
investigated in the relations of Hackluyt and Thevenot, the
ambassadors of Sharokh, Anthony Jenkinson, the Pere Greuber, &c.
See likewise Hanway's Travels, vol. i. p. 345 - 357. A
communication through Thibet has been lately explored by the
English sovereigns of Bengal.]

[Footnote 70: For 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, (tom. i. p. 98,)
and Hist. Generale des Voyages, (tom. vi. p. 201.)]
[Footnote 71: The knowledge, or rather ignorance, of Strabo,
Pliny, Ptolemy, Arrian, Marcian, &c., of the countries eastward
of Cape Comorin, is finely illustrated by D'Anville, (Antiquite
Geographique de l'Inde, especially p. 161 - 198.) Our geography
of India is improved by commerce and conquest; and has been
illustrated by the excellent maps and memoirs of Major Rennel.
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.]
[Footnote 72: The Taprobane of Pliny, (vi. 24,) Solinus, (c. 53,)
and Salmas. Plinianae Exercitat., (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,
(l. ii. p. 138, l. xi. p. 337, 338, edit. Montfaucon.)]
     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 that the wealth of his
subjects was continually 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 humble
expedient, and solicited the aid of his Christian allies, the
Aethiopians of Abyssinia, who had recently acquired the arts of
navigation, the spirit of trade, and the seaport of Adulis, ^73
^* 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 declined 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 gospel had been preached
to the Indians: a bishop already governed the Christians of St.
Thomas on the pepper-coast of Malabar; a church was planted in
Ceylon, and the missionaries pursued the footsteps of commerce to
the extremities of Asia. ^74 Two Persian monks had long resided
in China, perhaps in the royal city of Nankin, the seat of a
monarch addicted to foreign superstitions, and who actually
received an embassy from the Isle of Ceylon. Amidst their pious
occupations, 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. ^75 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 Justinian. To
the historians of that prince, a campaign at the foot of Mount
Caucasus has seemed more deserving of a minute relation than the
labors of these missionaries of commerce, who again entered
China, deceived a jealous people by concealing the eggs of the
silk-worm in a hollow cane, and returned 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 sufficient 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 acknowledged, in the succeeding reign, that the
Romans were not inferior to the natives of China in the education
of the insects, and the manufactures of silk, ^76 in which both
China and Constantinople have been surpassed by the industry of
modern Europe. I am not insensible of the benefits of elegant
luxury; 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 decads of Livy
would have been perpetuated in the editions of the sixth century.

A larger view of the globe might at least have promoted the
improvement of speculative science, but the Christian geography
was forcibly extracted from texts of Scripture, and the study of
nature was the surest symptom of an unbelieving 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

[Footnote 73: See Procopius, Persic. (l. ii. c. 20.) Cosmas
affords some interesting knowledge of the port and inscription of
Adulis, (Topograph. Christ. l. ii. p. 138, 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, (l. xi. p. 339.)]

[Footnote *: Mr. Salt obtained information of considerable ruins
of an ancient town near Zulla, called Azoole, which answers to
the position of Adulis. Mr. Salt was prevented 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 2d Journey, p. 452. - M.]

[Footnote 74: See the Christian missions in India, in Cosmas, (l.
iii. p. 178, 179, l. xi. p. 337,) and consult Asseman. Bibliot.
Orient. (tom. iv. p. 413 - 548.)]

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

[Footnote 76: Procopius, (l. viii. Gothic. iv. c. 17. Theophanes
Byzant. apud Phot. Cod. lxxxiv. p. 38. Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiv.
p. 69. Pagi (tom. ii. p. 602) assigns to the year 552 this
memorable importation. Menander (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 107)
mentions the admiration of the Sogdoites; and Theophylact
Simocatta (l. vii. c. 9) darkly represents the two rival kingdoms
in (China) the country of silk.]

[Footnote 77: Cosmas, surnamed Indicopleustes, or the Indian
navigator, performed his voyage about the year 522, and composed
at Alexandria, between 535, and 547, Christian Topography,
(Montfaucon, Praefat. c. i.,) in which he refutes the impious
opinion, that the earth is a globe; and Photius had read this
work, (Cod. xxxvi. p. 9, 10,) which displays the prejudices of a
monk, with the knowledge 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 since published
in a splendid edition by Pere Montfaucon, (Nova Collectio Patrum,
Paris, 1707, 2 vols. in fol., tom. ii. p. 113 - 346.) But the
editor, a theologian, might blush at not discovering the
Nestorian heresy of Cosmas, which has been detected by La Croz
(Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 40 - 56.)]

     IV. The subjects of Justinian were dissatisfied with the
times, and with the government. Europe was overrun by the
Barbarians, and Asia by the monks: the poverty of the West
discouraged the trade and manufactures of the East: the produce
of labor was consumed by the unprofitable servants of the church,
the state, and the army; and a rapid decrease was felt in the
fixed and circulating capitals which constitute the national
wealth. The public distress had been alleviated by the economy
of Anastasius, and that prudent emperor accumulated an immense
treasure, while he delivered his people from the most odious or
oppressive taxes. ^* Their gratitude universally applauded the
abolition of the gold of affliction, a personal tribute on the
industry of the poor, ^78 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.
^79 Yet such was the parsimony which supported this liberal
disposition, that, in a reign of twenty-seven years, Anastasius
saved, from his annual revenue, the enormous sum of thirteen
millions sterling, or three hundred and twenty thousand pounds of
gold. ^80 His 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 inadequate to his
expenses. Every art was tried to extort from the people the gold
and silver which he scattered with a lavish hand from 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, ^82
and bequeathed to his successor the payment of his debts. ^83
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 of Justinian, and
those vices are darkened by his malevolent pencil. Ambiguous
actions are imputed to the worst motives; error is confounded
with guilt, accident with design, and laws with abuses; the
partial injustice of a moment is dexterously applied 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, earthquakes, and inundations, are
imputed to the prince of the daemons, who had mischievously
assumed the form of Justinian. ^84

[Footnote *: See the character of Anastasius in Joannes Lydus de
Magistratibus, iii. c. 45, 46, p. 230 - 232. 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 measure. A statue of iron had been erected to Anastasius
in the Hippodrome, on which appeared one morning this pasquinade.

     This epigram is also found in the Anthology. Jacobs, vol.
iv. p. 114 with some 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 utmost liberality. He was
only prevented by death from relieving his subjects altogether
from the capitation tax, which he greatly diminished. - M.]

[Footnote 78: Evagrius (l. ii. 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 sometimes
compelled to prostitute their daughters, (Zosim. Hist. l. ii. c.
38, p. 165, 166, Lipsiae, 1784.) Timotheus of Gaza chose such an
event for the subject of a tragedy, (Suidas, tom. iii. p. 475,)
which contributed to the abolition of the tax, (Cedrenus, p. 35,)
- a happy instance (if it be true) of the use of the theatre.]

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

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

[Footnote 81: Evagrius, (l. iv. c. 30,) in the next generation,
was moderate and well informed; and Zonaras, (l. xiv. c. 61,) in
the xiith century, had read with care, and thought without
prejudice; yet their colors are almost as black as those of the
anecdotes.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 83: See Corippus de Laudibus Justini Aug. l. ii. 260,
&c., 384, &c
"Plurima sunt vivo nimium neglecta parenti, Unde tot exhaustus
contraxit debita fiscus."

Centenaries of gold were brought by strong men into the
Hippodrome,
"Debita persolvit, genitoris cauta recepit."]

[Footnote 84: The Anecdotes (c. 11 - 14, 18, 20 - 30) supply many
facts and more complaints.

     Note: 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 history 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 disappointment
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, c. iv. n. 45, and c. 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. He 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 twenty-four solidi, and considerable
emoluments for all the various services which he performed. 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
uncontrolled 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 aulae. At length the office was so completely stripped
of its power, as to be virtually abolished, (see de Magist. l.
iii. c. 40, p. 220, &c.) This diminution of the office of the
praefect destroyed the emoluments of his subordinate officers,
and Lydus not only drew no 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 of the Praetorian office to the alteration
in the style of the official documents from Latin to Greek; and
refers to a prophecy of a certain Fonteius, which connected the
ruin of the Roman empire with its abandonment of its language.
Lydus chiefly owed his promotion to his knowledge of Latin! - M.]

     After this precaution, I shall briefly relate the anecdotes
of avarice and rapine under the following heads: I. Justinian
was so profuse that he could not be liberal. The 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 outrage 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
appropriated 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 always remitted, in some
auspicious circumstance of their reign, the arrears of the public
tribute, and they dexterously 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." 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 centenaries 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 become the accomplices of his
malignity, if we imputed to Justinian 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
exceeded, perhaps in a tenfold proportion, the ability of the
farmer; and his distress was aggravated by the partial injustice
of weights and measures, and the expense and labor of distant
carriage. In a time of scarcity, an extraordinary requisition
was made to the adjacent provinces of Thrace, Bithynia, and
Phrygia: but the proprietors, after a wearisome journey and
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 granaries. 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 retaliated on the helpless consumer; the poor were
afflicted by the 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. ^86 The aerial tribute, without a name, a law, or a
definite object, was an annual gift of one hundred and twenty
thousand pounds, which the emperor accepted from his Praetorian
praefect; 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 monopolies, ^* which
checked the fair competition of industry, and, for the sake of a
small and dishonest gain, imposed an arbitrary burden on the
wants and luxury of the subject. "As soon" (I transcribe the
Anecdotes) "as the exclusive 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
candor; and the alteration, which might be wise, appears to have
been innocent; since he neither alloyed the purity, nor enhanced
the value, of the gold coin, ^87 the legal measure of public and
private payments. V. The ample jurisdiction required by the
farmers of the revenue to accomplish their engagements might be
placed in an odious light, as if they had purchased 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 permission, or at least with the connivance, of
Justinian and Theodora. The claims of merit, even those of
favor, were disregarded, and it was almost reasonable to expect,
that the bold adventurer, who had undertaken the trade of a
magistrate, should find a rich compensation for infamy, labor,
danger, the 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
Justinian; and he attempted, by the sanction of oaths ^88 and
penalties, 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 impotence 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 maintenance, 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, admonished the emperor of the honorable part
prescribed for his imitation. He checked the selfish murmurs of
the treasury, applauded 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 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 examples; neither
widows nor orphans were spared; and the art of soliciting, or
extorting, or supposing testaments, was beneficially 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 interpret wealth as an evidence of
guilt, and to proceed, from the claim of inheritance, to the
power of confiscation. VII. 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

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

[Footnote 86: John Malala (tom. ii. p. 232) mentions the want of
bread, and Zonaras (l. xiv. p. 63) the leaden pipes, which
Justinian, or his servants, stole from the aqueducts.]

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

[Footnote 87: For an aureus, one sixth of an ounce of gold,
instead of 210, he gave no more than 180 folles, or ounces of
copper. A disproportion of the mint, below the market 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. 49.) For
Justinian's gold coin, see Evagrius, (l. iv. c. 30.)]

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

[Footnote 89: A similar or more generous act of friendship is
related by Lucian of Eudamidas of Corinth, (in Toxare, c. 22, 23,
tom. ii. p. 530,) and the story has produced an ingenious, though
feeble, comedy of Fontenelle.]
[Footnote 90: John Malala, tom. ii. p. 101, 102, 103.]

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian.

Part IV.

     Dishonor might be ultimately reflected on the character of
Justinian; but much of the guilt, and still more of the profit,
was intercepted by the ministers, who were seldom promoted 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 Praetorian praefect, and Procopius has
justified his anecdotes by the portrait which he exposes in his
public history, of the notorious vices of John of Cappadocia. ^92
^* His knowledge was not borrowed from the schools, ^93 and his
style was scarcely legible; but he excelled in the powers of
native genius, to suggest the wisest counsels, and to find
expedients in the most desperate situations. The corruption of
his heart was equal to the vigor of his understanding. Although
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 ruins of cities, and the desolation of
provinces. From the dawn of light to the moment of dinner, he
assiduously labored to enrich his master and himself at the
expense of the Roman world; the remainder of the day was spent in
sensual and obscene pleasures, ^* and the silent hours of the
night were interrupted by the perpetual dread of the justice of
an assassin. His abilities, perhaps 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, under his oppressive administration, that he was
stimulated by revenge, rather than instructed by misfortune.
Their murmurs served only to fortify the resolution of Justinian;
but the resentment of Theodora, disdained a power before which
every knee was bent, and attempted to sow the seeds of discord
between the emperor and his beloved consort. Even Theodora
herself was constrained to dissemble, to wait a favorable moment,
and, by an artful conspiracy, to render John of Coppadocia 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 discontent to Euphemia, the daughter of
the praefect; the credulous virgin imparted to her father the
dangerous project, and John, who might have known the value of
oaths and promises, was tempted to accept a nocturnal, and almost
treasonable, 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 punish 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 pusillanimously fled to the
sanctuary of the church. The favorite of Justinian was
sacrificed to conjugal tenderness or domestic tranquility; the
conversion of a praefect into a priest extinguished his ambitious
hopes: but the friendship of the emperor alleviated his disgrace,
and he retained in the mild exile of Cyzicus an ample portion of
his riches. Such imperfect revenge could not satisfy the
unrelenting hatred of Theodora; the murder of his old enemy, the
bishop of Cyzicus, afforded a decent pretence; and John of
Cappadocia, whose actions 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
patrician, was ignominiously scourged like the vilest of
malefactors; 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 praefect of the
East begged his bread through the cities which had trembled at
his name. During an exile of seven years, his life was
protracted and threatened by the ingenious cruelty of Theodora;
and when her death 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 sacerdotal profession.
His successors convinced the subjects of Justinian, 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 praefect
was diligently copied by the quaestor, the public and private
treasurer, the governors of provinces, and the principal
magistrates of the Eastern empire. ^94

[Footnote 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) are almost an echo of the
anecdote. The aliena pecunia reddenda of Corippus (l. ii. 381,
&c.,) is not very honorable to Justinian's memory.]
[Footnote 92: See the history and character of John of Cappadocia
in Procopius. (Persic, l. i. c. 35, 25, l. ii. c. 30. Vandal.
l. i. c. 13. Anecdot. c. 2, 17, 22.) The agreement of the history
and anecdotes is a mortal wound to the reputation of the
praefct.]

[Footnote *: This view, particularly of the cruelty of John of
Cappadocia, is confirmed by the testimony of Joannes Lydus, who
was in the office of the praefect, and eye-witness 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 money, was hung up
by the hands till he was dead. Lydus de Magist. lib. iii. c. 57,
p. 254. - M.]
[Footnote 93: A forcible expression.]

[Footnote *: Joannes Lydus is diffuse on this subject, lib. iii.
c. 65, p. 268. But the indignant virtue of Lydus seems greatly
stimulated by the loss of his official fees, which he ascribes to
the innovations of the minister. - M.]

[Footnote !: 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 prosper. He
attributes the sedition and conflagration to the popular
resentment against the tyranny of John, lib. iii. c 70, p. 278.
Unfortunately there is a large gap in his work just at this
period. - M.]
[Footnote 94: The chronology of Procopius is loose and obscure;
but with the aid of Pagi I can discern that John was appointed
Praetorian praefect 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) gives the list of his ten successors - a rapid series
in a part of a single reign.

     Note: Lydus gives a high character of Phocas, his successor
tom. iii. c. 78 p. 288. - M.]

     V. The edifices of Justinian were cemented with the blood
and treasure of his people; but those stately structures appeared
to announce the prosperity of the empire, and actually displayed
the skill of their architects. 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 Gothic
vessels in the harbor of Constantinople, and to protect his
benefactor Anastasius against the bold enterprise of Vitalian.
^96 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 ^99 have demonstrated the possibility of such a
mirror; and, since it is possible, I am more disposed to
attribute the art to the greatest 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 gunpowder, and that suspicion is propagated by the
secret arts of his disciple Anthemius. ^101 A citizen of Tralles
in Asia had five sons, who were all distinguished in their
respective professions by merit and success. Olympius excelled in
the knowledge and practice of the Roman jurisprudence. Dioscorus
and Alexander became learned physicians; but the skill of the
former was exercised for the benefit of his fellow-citizens,
while his more ambitious brother acquired wealth and reputation
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 Constantinople; and while the one
instructed the rising generation 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 contiguous 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 harmless, stratagems are darkly represented by
the ignorance of Agathias. In a lower room, Anthemius arranged
several vessels 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 unconscious 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 reflecting mirrors of
Anthemius; they were astonished by the noise which he produced
from the collision of certain minute and sonorous particles; and
the orator declared in tragic style to the senate, that a mere
mortal must yield to the power of an antagonist, who shook the
earth with the trident 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
mischievous and costly passion. His favorite architects
submitted their designs and difficulties to Justinian, and
discreetly confessed how much their laborious meditations were
surpassed by the intuitive knowledge of celestial inspiration of
an emperor, whose views were always directed to the benefit of
his people, the glory of his reign, and the salvation of his
soul. ^102
[Footnote 95: This conflagration is hinted by Lucian (in Hippia,
c. 2) and Galen, (l. iii. de Temperamentis, tom. i. p. 81, edit.
Basil.) in the second century. A thousand years afterwards, it
is positively affirmed by Zonaras, (l. ix. p. 424,) on the faith
of Dion Cassius, Tzetzes, (Chiliad ii. 119, &c.,) Eustathius, (ad
Iliad. E. p. 338,) and the scholiast of Lucian. See Fabricius,
(Bibliot. Graec. l. iii. c. 22, tom. ii. p. 551, 552,) to whom I
am more or less indebted for several of these quotations.]

[Footnote 96: Zonaras (l. xi. c. p. 55) affirms the fact, without
quoting any evidence.]

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

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

[Footnote 99: Without any previous knowledge of Tzetzes or
Anthemius, the immortal Buffon imagined and executed a set of
burning-glasses, with which he could inflame planks at the
distance of 200 feet, (Supplement a l'Hist. Naturelle, tom. i.
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?]

[Footnote 100: John Malala (tom. ii. p. 120 - 124) relates the
fact; but he seems to confound the names or persons of Proclus
and Marinus.]
[Footnote 101: Agathias, l. v. p. 149 - 152. The merit of
Anthemius as an architect is loudly praised by Procopius (de
Edif. l. i. c. 1) and Paulus Silentiarius, (part i. 134, &c.)]

[Footnote 102: See Procopius, (de Edificiis, l. i. c. 1, 2, l.
ii. c. 3.) He relates a coincidence of dreams, which supposes
some fraud 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, (l. v.
c. 6:) an angel was tricked into the perpetual custody of St.
Sophia, (Anonym. de Antiq. C. P. l. iv. p. 70.)]

     The principal church, which was dedicated by the founder of
Constantinople to St. Sophia, or the eternal wisdom, had been
twice destroyed by fire; after the exile of John Chrysostom, and
during the Nika of the blue and green factions. No sooner did
the tumult subside, 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
Justinian. ^103 The ruins were cleared away, a more spacious plan
was described, and as it required the consent of some proprietors
of ground, they obtained the most exorbitant terms from the eager
desires and timorous conscience of the monarch. Anthemius formed
the design, and his genius directed 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 familiarity, 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 Solomon!"
^104 But the pride of the Roman Solomon, before twenty years had
elapsed, was humbled by an earthquake, which overthrew 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. Sophia, which is now converted into
the principal mosch, 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
irregular prospect of half-domes and shelving roofs: the western
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 architect who first
erected and aerial cupola, is entitled to the praise of bold
design and skilful execution. The dome of St. Sophia,
illuminated by four-and-twenty windows, is formed with so small a
curve, that the depth is equal only to one sixth of its diameter;
the measure of that diameter is one hundred 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 balustrade, terminated on
either side by the thrones of the emperor 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 demi-cylinder; and this sanctuary
communicated by several doors with the sacristy, 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 calamities 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 contained 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 diminished by the levity of its substance, which consists
either of pumice-stone that floats in the water, or of bricks
from the 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, semi-domes, the walls, the hundred columns,
and the pavement, delight even the eyes of Barbarians, with a
rich and variegated picture. A poet, ^105 who beheld the
primitive lustre of St. Sophia, enumerates 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 marble 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 capital. 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 fanaticism, were dangerously exposed
to the superstition of the Greeks. According to the sanctity of
each object, the precious metals were distributed in thin leaves
or in solid masses. The balustrade of the choir, the capitals of
the pillars, the ornaments of the doors and galleries, were of
gilt bronze; the spectator was dazzled by the glittering aspect
of the cupola; 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 magnificent temple is a laudable monument of
national taste and religion; and the enthusiast who entered the
dome of St. Sophia might be tempted to suppose that it was the
residence, or 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 surface of the temple!
[Footnote 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 historians: Procopius,
(de Edific. l. i. c. 1,) Agathias, (l. v. p. 152, 153,) Paul
Silentiarius, (in a poem of 1026 hexameters, and calcem Annae
Commen. Alexiad.,) and Evagrius, (l. iv. c. 31.) 2. Two legendary
Greeks of a later period: George Codinus, (de Origin. C. P. p. 64
- 74,) and the anonymous writer of Banduri, (Imp. Orient. tom. i.
l. iv. p. 65 - 80.)3. The great Byzantine antiquarian. Ducange,
(Comment. ad Paul Silentiar. p. 525 - 598, and C. P. Christ. l.
iii. p. 5 - 78.) 4. Two French travellers - the one, Peter
Gyllius, (de Topograph. C. P. l. ii. c. 3, 4,) in the xvith; the
other, Grelot, (Voyage de C. P. p. 95 - 164, Paris, 1680, in
4to:) he has given plans, prospects, and inside views of St.
Sophia; and his plans, though on a smaller scale, appear more
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 Geographer.]

[Footnote 104: Solomon's temple was surrounded with courts,
porticos, &c.; but the proper structure of the house of God was
no more (if we take the Egyptian or Hebrew cubic at 22 inches)
than 55 feet in height, 36 2/3 in breadth, and 110 in length - a
small parish church, says Prideaux, (Connection, vol. i. p. 144,
folio;) but few sanctuaries could be valued at four or five
millions sterling!

     Note *: Hist of Jews, vol i p 257. - M]

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

1. The Carystian - pale, with iron veins.

2. The Phrygian - of two sorts, both of a rosy hue; the one with
a 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 oblique veins, white and
red.
6. The Lydian - pale, with a red flower.

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

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

     So minute a description of an edifice which time has
respected, may attest the truth, and excuse the relation, of the
innumerable works, both in the capital and provinces, which
Justinian constructed on a smaller scale and less durable
foundations. ^106 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 Constantinople, and that of St. John at Ephesus,
appear to have been framed on the same model: their domes aspired
to imitate the cupolas of St. Sophia; but the altar was more
judiciously placed under the centre of the dome, at the junction
of four stately porticos, 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 strongest 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 emperor 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 benefactor. ^107
Almost every saint in the calendar acquired the honors of a
temple; almost every city of the empire obtained 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 palace, which had been damaged
by the conflagration, was restored with new magnificence; and
some notion may be conceived of the whole edifice, by the
vestibule or hall, which, from the doors perhaps, or the roof,
was surnamed chalce, or the brazen. The dome of a spacious
quadrangle was supported 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 gardens
of Heraeum ^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

[Footnote 106: The six books of the Edifices of Procopius are
thus distributed the first is confined to Constantinople: the
second includes Mesopotamia and Syria the 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.]

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

[Footnote 108: For the Heraeum, the palace of Theodora, see
Gyllius, (de Bosphoro Thracio, l. iii. c. xi.,) Aleman. (Not.
ad. Anec. p. 80, 81, who quotes several epigrams of the
Anthology,) and Ducange, (C. P. Christ. l. iv. c. 13, p. 175,
176.)]

[Footnote 109: Compare, in the Edifices, (l. i. c. 11,) and 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.]
[Footnote 110: Procopius, l. viii. 29; most probably a stranger
and wanderer, as the Mediterranean does not breed whales.
Balaenae quoque in nostra maria penetrant, (Plin. Hist. Natur.
ix. 2.) Between the polar circle and the tropic, the cetaceous
animals of the ocean grow to the length of 50, 80, or 100 feet,
(Hist. des Voyages, tom. xv. p. 289. Pennant's British Zoology,
vol. iii. p. 35.)]

     The fortifications of Europe and Asia were multiplied by
Justinian; but the repetition of those timid and fruitless
precautions exposes, to a philosophic eye, the debility of the
empire. ^111 From Belgrade to the Euxine, from the conflux of the
Save to the mouth of the Danube, a 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 engineers contracted or enlarged according to
the nature of the ground, were filled with colonies or garrisons;
a strong fortress defended the ruins of Trajan's bridge, ^112 and
several military stations affected to spread beyond the Danube
the pride of the Roman name. But that name was divested of its
terrors; the Barbarians, in their annual inroads, passed, and
contemptuously repassed, before these useless bulwarks; and the
inhabitants of the frontier, instead of reposing under the shadow
of the general defence, were compelled to guard, with incessant
vigilance, their separate habitations. The solitude of ancient
cities, was replenished; the new foundations of Justinian
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 praefect, whose jurisdiction extended
over seven warlike provinces of Illyricum; ^113 and the corrupt
apellation of Giustendil still indicates, about twenty miles to
the south of Sophia, the residence of a Turkish sanjak. ^114 For
the use of the emperor's countryman, a cathedral, a place, and an
aqueduct, were 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 unskilful assaults of the Huns and Sclavonians. Their
progress was sometimes retarded, and their hopes of rapine were
disappointed, by the innumerable castles which, in the provinces
of Dacia, 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 consisted 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 peasants and cattle of the
neighboring villages. ^115 Yet these military 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 rendered as safe as they were
salutary; but the rich pastures of Thessalonica were foraged by
the Scythian cavalry; the delicious vale of Tempe, three hundred
miles from the Danube, was continually alarmed by the sound of
war; ^116 and no unfortified spot, however distant or solitary,
could securely enjoy 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 labors of Justinian. From the edge of the sea-shore, through
the forests and valleys, and as far as the summit of the
Thessalian mountains, a strong wall was continued, which occupied
every practicable entrance. Instead of a hasty crowd of
peasants, 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
cowardice which it foresaw, convenient fortresses were erected
for their retreat. The walls of Corinth, overthrown by an
earthquake, and the mouldering bulwarks of Athens and Plataea,
were carefully restored; the Barbarians were discouraged by the
prospect of successive and painful sieges: and the naked cities
of Peloponnesus were covered by the fortifications of the Isthmus
of Corinth. At the extremity of Europe, 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 pastures, and arable lands; and the
isthmus, of thirty seven stadia 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 surprise; 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 Gallipoli and Sestus, had not been secured by their
peculiar fortifications. 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 Barbarians; the noblest of the Romans, in the bosom of
peaceful 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 impotence of his
arms; and as the danger became more imminent, new fortifications
were added by the indefatigable prudence of Justinian. ^118
[Footnote 111: Montesquieu observes, (tom. iii. p. 503,
Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains, c.
xx.,) that Justinian's empire was like France in the time of the
Norman inroads - never so weak as when every village was
fortified.]

[Footnote 112: Procopius affirms (l. iv. c. 6) that the Danube
was stopped by the ruins of the bridge. Had Apollodorus, the
architect, left a description of his own work, the fabulous
wonders of Dion Cassius (l lxviii. p. 1129) would have been
corrected by the genuine picture Trajan's bridge consisted of
twenty or twenty-two stone piles with wooden arches; the river is
shallow, the current gentle, and the whole interval no more than
443 (Reimer ad Dion. from Marsigli) or 5l7 toises, (D'Anville,
Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 305.)]
[Footnote 113: Of the two Dacias, Mediterranea and Ripensis,
Dardania, Pravalitana, the second Maesia, and the second
Macedonia. See Justinian (Novell. xi.,) who speaks of his
castles beyond the Danube, and on omines semper bellicis
sudoribus inhaerentes.]

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

[Footnote 115: These fortifications may be compared to the
castles in Mingrelia (Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. i. p. 60,
131) - a natural picture.]

[Footnote 116: The valley of Tempe is situate along the River
Peneus, between the hills of Ossa and Olympus: it is only five
miles long, and in some places no more than 120 feet in breadth.
Its verdant beauties are elegantly described by Pliny, (Hist.
Natur. l. iv. 15,) and more diffusely by Aelian, (Hist. Var. l.
iii. c. i.)]

[Footnote 117: Xenophon Hellenic. l. 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!]

[Footnote 118: See the long wall in Evagarius, (l. iv. c. 38.)
This whole article is drawn from the fourth book of the Edifices,
except Anchialus, (l. iii. c. 7.)]

     Asia Minor, after the submission of the Isaurians, ^119
remained without enemies and without fortifications. Those bold
savages, who had disdained to be the subjects of Gallienus,
persisted two hundred and thirty years in a life of independence
and rapine. The most successful princes respected the strength
of the mountains and the despair of the natives; their fierce
spirit was sometimes 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 Roman
provinces. ^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; ^121 and the spoil was
lodged in their inaccessible mountains, before the Roman troops
had received their orders, or the distant province had computed
its loss. The guilt of rebellion and robbery excluded them from
the rights of national enemies; and the magistrates were
instructed, by an edict, that the trial or punishment of an
Isaurian, even on the festival of Easter, was a meritorious act
of justice and piety. ^122 If the captives were condemned to
domestic slavery, they maintained, with their sword or dagger,
the private quarrel of their masters; and it was found expedient
for the public tranquillity to prohibit the service of such
dangerous retainers. When their countryman Tarcalissaeus or Zeno
ascended the throne, he 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, exposed 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 treasures, and the magazines,
collected by Zeno; and the native Isaurians must have formed the
smallest portion of the hundred 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 courage
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 hippodrome; a
colony of their youth was transplanted into Thrace, and the
remnant of the people submitted to the Roman government. Yet
some generations elapsed before their minds were reduced to the
level of slavery. The populous 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 assassinations. ^124
[Footnote 119: Turn back to vol. i. p. 328. 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.]
[Footnote 120: Trebellius Pollio in Hist. August. p. 107, who
lived under Diocletian, or Constantine. See likewise Pancirolus
ad Notit. Imp. Orient c. 115, 141. See Cod. Theodos. l. ix. tit.
35, leg. 37, with a copious collective Annotation of Godefroy,
tom. iii. p. 256, 257.]
[Footnote 121: See the full and wide extent of their inroads in
Philostorgius (Hist. Eccles. l. xi. c. 8,) with Godefroy's
learned Dissertations.]
[Footnote 122: Cod. Justinian. l. ix. tit. 12, leg. 10. The
punishments are severs - 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
service of the Isaurians.]

[Footnote 123: The Isaurian war and the triumph of Anastasius are
briefly and darkly represented by John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 106,
107,) Evagrius, (l. iii. c. 35,) Theophanes, p. 118 - 120,) and
the Chronicle of Marcellinus.]
[Footnote 124: Fortes ea regio (says Justinian) viros habet, nec
in ullo differt ab Isauria, though Procopius (Persic. l. i. c.
18) marks an essential difference between their military
character; yet in former times the Lycaonians and Pisidians had
defended their liberty against the great king, Xenophon.
Anabasis, l. 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 Aeenas,) gave a
name and people to Lycaoni, (Novell. 24, 25, 27, 30.)]

Chapter XL: Reign Of Justinian.

Part V.

     If we extend our view from the tropic to the mouth of the
Tanais, we may observe, on one hand, the precautions of Justinian
to curb the savages of Aethiopia, ^125 and on the other, the long
walls which he constructed in Crimaea for the protection of his
friendly Goths, a colony of three thousand shepherds and
warriors. ^126 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 Mingrelia of modern, geography, soon became the object of an
important war. Trebizond, in after- times the seat of a romantic
empire, was indebted to the liberality of Justinian for a church,
an aqueduct, and a castle, whose ditches are hewn in the solid
rock. From that maritime city, frontier line of five hundred
miles may be drawn to the fortress of Circesium, the last Roman
station on the Euphrates. ^127 Above Trebizond immediately, and
five days' journey to the south, the country rises into dark
forests and craggy mountains, as 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 Chalybians ^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 Cha daeans and
Zanians, an uninterrupted 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
accessible passages, to exclude the ambition of the Persian
monarch. ^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 south-west, the river passes under the
walls of Satala and Melitene, (which were restored by Justinian
as the bulwarks of the Lesser Armenia,) and gradually approaches
the Mediterranean Sea; till at length, repelled by Mount Taurus,
^131 the Euphrates inclines its long and flexible course to the
south-east and the Gulf of Persia. Among the Roman cities beyond
the Euphrates, we distinguish two recent foundations, which were
named from Theodosius, 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 skilful
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 compensated by
the zeal of the people, who seconded the garrison in the defence
of their country and religion; and the fabulous promise of the
Son of God, that Edessa should never be taken, filled the
citizens with valiant confidence, and chilled the besiegers with
doubt and dismay. ^132 The subordinate towns of Armenia and
Mesopotamia were diligently strengthened, and the posts which
appeared to have any command of ground or water were occupied by
numerous forts, substantially built of stone, or more hastily
erected with the obvious materials of earth and brick. The eye
of Justinian investigated every spot; and his cruel precautions
might attract the war 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 desert 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 formidable only as robbers; and in the proud security of
peace the fortifications of Syria were neglected on the most
vulnerable side.

[Footnote 125: See Procopius, Persic. l. i. c. 19. The altar of
national concern, of annual sacrifice and oaths, which Diocletian
had created in the Isla of Elephantine, was demolished by
Justinian with less policy than]
[Footnote 126: Procopius de Edificiis, l. iii. c. 7. Hist. l.
viii. c. 3, 4. These unambitious Goths had refused to follow the
standard of Theodoric. As late as the xvth and xvith century,
the name and nation might be discovered between Caffa and the
Straits of Azoph, (D'Anville, Memoires de l'academie, tom. xxx.
p. 240.) They well deserved the curiosity of Busbequius, (p. 321
- 326;) but seem to have vanished in the more recent account of
the Missions du Levant, (tom. i.,) Tott, Peysonnnel, &c.]

[Footnote 127: For the geography and architecture of this
Armenian border, see the Persian Wars and Edifices (l. ii. c. 4 -
7, l. iii. c. 2 - 7) of Procopius.]

[Footnote 128: The country is described by Tournefort, (Voyage au
Levant, tom. iii. lettre xvii. xviii.) That skilful botanist soon
discovered the plant that infects the honey, (Plin. xxi. 44, 45:)
he observes, that the soldiers of Lucullus might indeed be
astonished at the cold, since, even in the plain of Erzerum, 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 in the mountainous country which I
inhabit, it is well known that an ascent of some hours carries
the traveller 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, tom. ii. p. 104.)]

[Footnote 129: The identity or proximity of the Chalybians, or
Chaldaeana may be investigated in Strabo, (l. xii. p. 825, 826,)
Cellarius, (Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii. p. 202 - 204,) and Freret,
(Mem. de Academie, tom. iv. p. 594) Xenophon supposes, in his
romance, (Cyropaed l. iii.,) the same Barbarians, against whom he
had fought in his retreat, (Anabasis, l. iv.)]
[Footnote 130: Procopius, Persic. l. i. c. 15. De Edific. l.
iii. c. 6.]
[Footnote 131: Ni Taurus obstet in nostra maria venturus,
(Pomponius Mela, iii. 8.) Pliny, a poet as well as a naturalist,
(v. 20,) personifies the river and mountain, and describes their
combat. See the course of the Tigris and Euphrates in the
excellent treatise of D'Anville.]

[Footnote 132: Procopius (Persic. l. ii. c. 12) 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, l. iv. c. 27.) As
Edessa has been taken, Tillemont must disclaim the promise, (Mem.
Eccles. tom. i. p. 362, 383, 617.)]

     But the national enmity, at least the effects of that
enmity, had been suspended by a truce, which continued above
fourscore years. An ambassador from the emperor Zeno accompanied
the rash and unfortunate Perozes, ^* in his expedition against
the Nepthalites, ^! 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 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 the
casuistical subtlety of the Magi, who instructed Perozes to
direct his attention to the rising sun. ^!! The indignant
successor of Cyrus forgot his danger and his gratitude; he
renewed 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; ^!!! and twelve years of confusion
elapsed before his son Cabades, or Kobad, could embrace any
designs of ambition or revenge. The unkind parsimony of
Anastasius was the motive or pretence of a Roman war; ^136 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
surrender 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 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 command, and his drawn sword, compelled the
Persians to vanquish; and before it was sheathed, fourscore
thousand of the inhabitants had expiated the blood of their
companions. After 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
desert. The resistance of Edessa, and the deficiency of spoil,
inclined 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 empires. 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 town of Dara, ^137 fourteen
miles from Nisibis, and four days' journey from the Tigris, was
peopled and adorned; the hasty works of Anastasius were improved
by the perseverance of Justinian; and, without insisting on
places less important, the fortifications of Dara may represent
the military architecture of the age. The city was surrounded
with two walls, and the interval between them, of fifty paces,
afforded a retreat to the cattle of the besieged. The inner wall
was a monument of strength and beauty: it measured sixty feet
from the ground, and the height of the towers was one hundred
feet; the loopholes, from whence an enemy might be annoyed with
missile weapons, were small, but numerous; the soldiers were
planted along the rampart, under the shelter of double galleries,
and a third platform, spacious and secure, was raised on the
summit of the towers. The exterior 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 south-east, where the ground was more
tractable, their approach was retarded by a new work, which
advanced in the shape of a half-moon. The double and treble
ditches were filled with a stream of water; and in the management
of the river, the most skilful labor was employed to supply the
inhabitants, to distress the besiegers, and to prevent the
mischiefs 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
complained, that this impregnable fortress had been constructed
in manifest violation of the treaty of peace between the two
empires. ^*

[Footnote *: Firouz the Conqueror - unfortunately so named. See
St. Martin, vol. vi. p. 439. - M.]

[Footnote !: Rather Hepthalites. - M.]

[Footnote 133: They were purchased from the merchants of Adulis
who traded to India, (Cosmas, Topograph. Christ. l. xi. p. 339;)
yet, in the estimate of precious stones, the Scythian emerald was
the first, the Bactrian the second, the Aethiopian only the
third, (Hill's Theophrastus, p. 61, &c., 92.) The production,
mines, &c., 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, &c., part ii. l. 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.]

[Footnote 134: The Indo-Scythae continued to reign from the time
of Augustus (Dionys. Perieget. 1088, with the Commentary of
Eustathius, in Hudson, Geograph. Minor. tom. iv.) to that of the
elder Justin, (Cosmas, Topograph. Christ. l. xi. p. 338, 339.) On
their origin and conquests, see D'Anville, (sur l'Inde, p. 18,
45, &c., 69, 85, 89.) In the second century they were masters of
Larice or Guzerat.]

[Footnote *: According to the Persian historians, he was misled
by guides who used he old stratagem of Zopyrus. Malcolm, vol. i.
p. 101. - M.]
[Footnote !!: 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.]

[Footnote 135: See the fate of Phirouz, or Perozes, and its
consequences, in Procopius, (Persic. l. 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, l. i. c. 32, p. 132 - 138.)
The chronology is ably ascertained by Asseman. (Bibliot. Orient.
tom. iii. p. 396 - 427.)]

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

[Footnote 136: The Persian war, under the reigns of Anastasius
and Justin, may be collected from Procopius, (Persic. l. i. c. 7,
8, 9,) Theophanes, (in Chronograph. p. 124 - 127,) Evagrius, (l.
iii. c. 37,) Marcellinus, (in Chron. p. 47,) and Josue Stylites,
(apud Asseman. tom. i. p. 272 - 281.)]
[Footnote *: Gibbon should have written "some prostitutes." Proc
Pers. vol. 1 p. 7. - M.]

[Footnote 137: The description of Dara is amply and correctly
given by Procopius, (Persic. l. i. c. 10, l. ii. c. 13. De
Edific. l. ii. c. 1, 2, 3, l. iii. c. 5.) See the situation in
D'Anville, (l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 53, 54, 55,) though he
seems to double the interval between Dara and Nisibis.]
[Footnote *: 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 towards 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 through the middle of the
place, has induced several Koordish and Armenian families to fix
their residence within the ruins. Besides the walls and towers,
the remains of many other buildings attest the former grandeur of
Dara; a considerable 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, somewhat resembling
the great cistern of Constantinople. In the centre of the
village are the ruins of a palace (probably that mentioned by
Procopius) or church, one hundred paces in length, and sixty in
breadth. The foundations, which are 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 considerable part of the wall has bid defiance to
time, &c. M Donald Kinneir's Journey, p. 438. - M]

     Between the Euxine and the Caspian, the countries of
Colchos, Iberia, and Albania, are intersected in every direction
by the branches of Mount Caucasus; and the two principal gates,
or passes, from north to south, have been frequently confounded
in the geography both of the ancients and moderns. The name of
Caspian or Albanian gates is properly applied to Derbend, ^138
which occupies 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 Iberian gates ^139 ^* are formed by a narrow passage
of six miles in Mount Caucasus, which opens from the northern
side of Iberia, or Georgia, into the plain that reaches to the
Tanais and the Volga. A fortress, designed by Alexander perhaps,
or one of his successors, to command that important 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 timorously 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 excited the curiosity of an Arabian caliph ^140 and a Russian
conqueror. ^141 According to a recent description, huge stones,
seven feet thick, and twenty-one feet in length or height, are
artificially 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 undertaken by the policy
of Cabades; without a miracle, it might be accomplished by his
son, so formidable to the Romans, under 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 empires from the inroads of the Scythians. ^142

[Footnote 138: For the city and pass of Derbend, see D'Herbelot,
(Bibliot. Orient. p. 157, 291, 807,) Petit de la Croix. (Hist.
de Gengiscan, l. iv. c. 9,) Histoire Genealogique des Tatars,
(tom. i. p. 120,) Olearius, (Voyage en Perse, p. 1039 - 1041,)
and Corneille le Bruyn, (Voyages, tom. 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 time.]

[Footnote 139: Procopius, though with some confusion, always
denominates them Caspian, (Persic. l. i. c. 10.) The pass is now
styled Tatar-topa, the Tartar-gates, (D'Anville, Geographie
Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 119, 120.)]
[Footnote *: Malte-Brun. tom. viii. p. 12, makes three passes:
     1. The central, which leads from Mosdok to Teflis.

     2. The Albanian, more inland than the Derbend Pass.

     3. The Derbend - the Caspian Gates.

     But the narrative of Col. Monteith, in the Journal of the
Geographical Society of London. vol. iii. p. i. p. 39, clearly
shows that there are but two passes between the Black Sea and the
Caspian; the central, the Caucasian, or, as Col. Monteith calls
it, the Caspian Gates, and the pass of Derbend, though it is
practicable to turn this position (of Derbend) by a road a few
miles distant through the mountains, p. 40. - M.]

[Footnote 140: The imaginary rampart of Gog and Magog, which was
seriously explored 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. Nubiensis, p. 267 -
270. Memoires de l'Academie, tom. xxxi. p. 210 - 219.)]

[Footnote 141: See a learned dissertation of Baier, de muro
Caucaseo, in Comment. Acad. Petropol. ann. 1726, tom. i. p. 425 -
463; but it 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 orgyioe, or fathom, each of
seven feet English; in the whole somewhat more than four miles in
length.]

[Footnote 142: See the fortifications and treaties of Chosroes,
or Nushirwan, in Procopius (Persic. l. i. c. 16, 22, l. ii.) and
D'Herbelot, (p. 682.)]
     VII. Justinian suppressed the schools of Athens and the
consulship of Rome, which had given so many sages and heroes to
mankind. Both these institutions had long since degenerated 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
patrimony of a city, whose inhabitants, about 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 recollection, that Isocrates ^143 was
the companion of Plato and Xenophon; that he assisted, perhaps
with the historian Thucydides, at the first representation of the
Oedipus of Sophocles and the Iphigenia of Euripides; and that his
pupils Aeschines and Demosthenes contended for the crown of
patriotism in the presence 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; ^145 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 pilgrimages to worship the
Muses in their favorite temple on the banks of the Ilissus. The
Latin conquerors respectfully listened 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 empire, 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 congenial to a popular state, which encourages the
freedom of inquiry, 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, 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 systems which professed
to unfold the nature of God, of man, and of the universe,
entertained the curiosity of the philosophic student; and
according to the temper of his mind, he might doubt with the
Sceptics, or decide with the Stoics, sublimely 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 Epicurus, were taught both
to act and to suffer; and the death of Petronius was not less
effectual than that of Seneca, to humble 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 musaeum of Alexandria; 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 seldom 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 manners, and some traces, at least in discourse, of the
magnanimity of their fathers. In the suburbs of the city, the
academy of the Platonists, the lycaeum 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 instructions 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; 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 of
an enlightened people. The Athenian professors were paid by
their disciples: according to their mutual wants and abilities,
the price appears to have varied; 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 permission 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 minae or two hundred and fifty pounds, with a fund
sufficient for their frugal subsistence and monthly festivals;
^146 and the patrimony of Plato afforded an annual rent, which,
in eight centuries, 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 library, which Hadrian founded, was placed in a portico
adorned with pictures, statues, and a roof of alabaster, and
supported by one hundred columns of Phrygian marble. The public
salaries were assigned by the generous spirit of the Antonines;
and each professor of politics, of rhetoric, of the Platonic, the
Peripatetic, the Stoic, and the Epicurean philosophy, received an
annual stipend of ten thousand drachmae, or 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, diminished and enlarged; but
some vestige of royal bounty may be found under the successors of
Constantine; and their arbitrary choice of an unworthy candidate
might tempt the philosophers 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 philosophy, 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 ensuing 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. ^150

[Footnote 143: The life of Isocrates extends from Olymp. lxxxvi.
1. to cx. 3, (ante Christ. 436 - 438.) See Dionys. Halicarn. tom.
ii. p. 149, 150, edit. Hudson. Plutarch (sive anonymus) in Vit.
X. Oratorum, p. 1538 - 1543, edit. H. Steph. Phot. cod. cclix.
p. 1453.]

[Footnote 144: The schools of Athens are copiously though
concisely represented in the Fortuna Attica of Meursius, (c.
viii. p. 59 - 73, in tom. 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 Dissertia sect. 4.)]
[Footnote 145: Diogen Laert. de Vit. Philosoph. l. v. segm. 37,
p. 289.]
[Footnote 146: See the Testament of Epicurus in Diogen. Laert.
l. x. segm. 16 - 20, p. 611, 612. A single epistle (ad
Familiares, xiii. l.) displays the injustice of the Areopagus,
the fidelity of the Epicureans, the dexterous politeness of
Cicero, and the mixture of contempt and esteem with which the
Roman senators considered the philosophy and philosophers of
Greece.]
[Footnote 147: Damascius, in Vit. Isidor. apud Photium, cod.
ccxlii. p. 1054.]

[Footnote 148: See Lucian (in Eunuch. tom. ii. p. 350 - 359,
edit. Reitz,) Philostratus (in Vit. Sophist. l. ii. c. 2,) and
Dion Cassius, or Xiphilin, (lxxi. p. 1195,) with their editors Du
Soul, Olearius, and Reimar, and, above all, Salmasius, (ad Hist.
August. p. 72.) A judicious philosopher (Smith's Wealth of
Nations, vol. ii. p. 340 - 374) prefers the free contributions of
the students to a fixed stipend for the professor.]

[Footnote 149: Brucker, Hist. Crit. Philosoph. tom. ii. p. 310,
&c.]
[Footnote 150: The birth of Epicurus is fixed to the year 342
before Christ, (Bayle,) Olympiad cix. 3; and he opened his school
at Athens, Olmp. cxviii. 3, 306 years before the same aera. This
intolerant law (Athenaeus, l. xiii. p. 610. Diogen. Laertius, l.
v. s. 38. p. 290. Julius Pollux, ix. 5) was enacted in the same
or the succeeding year, (Sigonius, Opp. tom. v. p. 62. Menagius
ad Diogen. Laert. p. 204. Corsini, Fasti Attici, tom. iv. p.
67, 68.) Theophrastus chief of the Peripatetics, and disciple of
Aristotle, was involved in the same exile.]

     The Gothic arms were less fatal to the schools of Athens
than the establishment of a new religion, whose ministers
superseded the exercise of reason, resolved every question by an
article of faith, and condemned the infidel 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 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 an humble believer.
The surviving sects 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 remained
alone in the midst of a Christian world, they indulged a secret
rancor against the government of the church and state, whose
severity was still suspended over their heads. About a century
after the reign of Julian, ^151 Proclus ^152 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 composed seven hundred lines. His sagacious mind
explored the deepest questions of morals and metaphysics, and he
ventured to urge eighteen arguments against the Christian
doctrine of the creation of the world. But in the intervals of
study, he personally conversed with Pan, Aesculapius, and
Minerva, 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, ^153 compiled by two of their most learned disciples,
exhibits a deplorable picture of the second childhood of human
reason. Yet the golden chain, as it was fondly styled, of the
Platonic succession, continued forty-four years from the death of
Proclus to the edict of Justinian, ^154 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
superstition. Seven friends and philosophers, Diogenes and
Hermias, Eulalius 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
realized in the despotic government of Persia, and that a patriot
king reigned ever the happiest and most virtuous of nations.
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 profession, with the plurality
of wives and concubines, the incestuous marriages, and the custom
of exposing dead bodies to the dogs and vultures, instead of
hiding them in the earth, or consuming 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 character of Chosroes. He required, that
the seven sages who had visited the court of Persia should be
exempted from the penal laws which Justinian enacted against his
Pagan subjects; and this privilege, expressly stipulated in a
treaty of peace, was guarded by the vigilance of a powerful
mediator. ^155 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 confidence in the nature both of God
and man.

[Footnote 151: This is no fanciful aera: 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, A.D. 485, (Marin. in Vita Procli, c. 36.)]

[Footnote 152: The life of Proclus, by Marinus, was published by
Fabricius (Hamburg, 1700, et ad calcem Bibliot. Latin. Lond.
1703.) See Saidas, (tom. iii. p. 185, 186,) Fabricius, (Bibliot.
Graec. l. v. c. 26 p. 449 - 552,) and Brucker, (Hist. Crit.
Philosoph. tom. ii. p. 319 - 326]

[Footnote 153: The life of Isidore was composed by Damascius,
(apud Photium, sod. ccxlii. p. 1028 - 1076.) See the last age of
the Pagan philosophers, in Brucker, (tom. ii. p. 341 - 351.)]

[Footnote 154: The suppression of the schools of Athens is
recorded by John Malala, (tom. ii. p. 187, sub Decio Cos. Sol.,)
and an anonymous Chronicle in the Vatican library, (apud Aleman.
p. 106.)]

[Footnote 155: Agathias (l. ii. p. 69, 70, 71) 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. Bibliot. Orient. tom. iii. p. 404. Pagi, tom.
ii. p. 543, 550.)]

     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 revolutions of the
consular office, which may be viewed in 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 dignity 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; ^156 the king of
Italy himself congratulated 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 people. But the
expenses of this festival, in which the wealthy and the vain
aspired to surpass their predecessors, insensibly arose to the
enormous sum of fourscore thousand pounds; the wisest senators
declined a useless honor, which involved the certain ruin of
their families, and to this reluctance I should impute the
frequent chasms in the last age of the consular Fasti. The
predecessors of Justinian had assisted from the public treasures
the dignity of the less opulent candidates; the avarice of that
prince preferred the cheaper and more convenient method of advice
and regulation. ^157 Seven processions or spectacles were the
number to which his edict confined the horse and chariot races,
the athletic sports, the music, and pantomimes of the theatre,
and the hunting of wild beasts; and small pieces of silver were
discreetly substituted to the gold medals, which had always
excited tumult and drunkenness, when they were scattered with a
profuse hand among the populace. Notwithstanding these
precautions, and his own example, the succession of consuls
finally ceased in the thirteenth year of Justinian, whose
despotic temper might be gratified by the silent extinction of a
title which admonished the Romans of their ancient freedom. ^158
Yet the annual consulship still lived in the minds of the people;
they fondly expected its speedy restoration; they applauded the
gracious condescension of successive princes, by whom it was
assumed in the first year of their reign; and three centuries
elapsed, after the death of Justinian, before that obsolete
dignity, which had been suppressed by custom, could be abolished
by law. ^159 The imperfect mode of distinguishing each year by
the name of a magistrate, was usefully supplied by the date of a
permanent aera: the creation of the world, according to the
Septuagint version, was adopted by the Greeks; ^160 and the
Latins, since the age of Charlemagne, have computed their time
from the birth of Christ. ^161

[Footnote 156: Cassiodor. Variarum Epist. vi. 1. Jornandes, c.
57, p. 696, dit. Grot. Quod summum bonum primumque in mundo
decus dicitur.]
[Footnote 157: See the regulations of Justinian, (Novell. cv.,)
dated at Constantinople, July 5, and addressed to Strategius,
treasurer of the empire.]
[Footnote 158: Procopius, in Anecdot. c. 26. Aleman. p. 106. In
the xviiith year after the consulship of Basilius, according to
the reckoning of Marcellinus, Victor, Marius, &c., the secret
history was composed, and, in the eyes of Procopius, the
consulship was finally abolished.]

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

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

[Footnote 161: The aera of the world has prevailed in the East
since the vith general council, (A.D. 681.) In the West, the
Christian aera was first invented in the vith century: it was
propagated in the viiith by the authority and writings of
venerable Bede; but it was not till the xth that the use became
legal and popular. See l'Art de Veriner les Dates, Dissert.
Preliminaire, p. iii. xii. Dictionnaire Diplomatique, tom. i. p.
329 - 337; the works of a laborious society of Benedictine
monks.]

Chapter XLI: Conquests Of Justinian, Charact Of Balisarius.     

Part I.

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

     When Justinian ascended the throne, about fifty years after
the fall of the Western empire, the kingdoms of the Goths and
Vandals had obtained a solid, and, as it might seem, a legal
establishment both in Europe and Africa. The titles, which Roman
victory had inscribed, were erased with equal justice by the
sword of the Barbarians; and their successful rapine derived a
more venerable sanction from time, from treaties, and from the
oaths of fidelity, already repeated by a second or third
generation of obedient subjects. Experience and Christianity had
refuted the superstitious hope, that Rome was founded by the gods
to reign forever over the nations of the earth. But the proud
claim of perpetual and indefeasible dominion, which her soldiers
could no longer maintain, was firmly asserted by her statesmen
and lawyers, whose opinions have been sometimes revived and
propagated in the modern schools of jurisprudence. After Rome
herself had been stripped of the Imperial purple, the princes of
Constantinople assumed the sole and sacred sceptre of the
monarchy; demanded, as their rightful inheritance, the provinces
which had been subdued by the consuls, or possessed by the
Caesars; and feebly aspired to deliver their faithful subjects of
the West from the usurpation of heretics and Barbarians. The
execution of this splendid design was in some degree reserved for
Justinian. During the five first years of his reign, he
reluctantly waged a costly and unprofitable war against the
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 appellation of
the endless peace. The safety of the East enabled the emperor to
employ his forces against the Vandals; and the internal state of
Africa afforded an honorable motive, and promised a powerful
support, to the Roman arms. ^1
[Footnote 1: The complete series of the Vandal war is related by
Procopius in a regular and elegant narrative, (l. i. c. 9 - 25,
l. ii. c. 1 - 13,) and happy would be my lot, could I always
tread in the footsteps of such a guide. From the entire and
diligent 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.]

     According to the testament of the founder, the African
kingdom had lineally descended to Hilderic, the eldest of the
Vandal princes. A mild disposition inclined the son of a tyrant,
the grandson of a conqueror, to prefer the counsels of clemency
and peace; and his accession was marked by the salutary edict,
which restored two hundred bishops to their churches, and allowed
the free profession of the Athanasian creed. ^2 But the Catholics
accepted, 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 Vandals,
lost a battle against the naked and disorderly Moors. The public
discontent was exasperated by Gelimer, whose age, descent, and
military fame, gave him an apparent title to the succession: he
assumed, with the consent of the nation, the reins of government;
and his unfortunate 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 private
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 admonished 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 command; 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 fruitless expostulation, the captive monarch was more
rigorously treated, his nephew was deprived of his eyes, and the
cruel Vandal, 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, according to
the practice of civilized nations, by the most solemn
protestations, that each party was sincerely desirous of peace.

[Footnote 2: See Ruinart, Hist. Persecut. Vandal. c. xii. p. 589.

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. Bunavianae, tom. i. vol. ii. p.
1258.)]

[Footnote 3: For what quality of the mind or body? For speed, or
beauty, or valor? - In what language did the Vandals read Homer?
- Did he speak German? - The Latins had four versions, (Fabric.
tom. i. l. ii. c. 8, p. 297:) yet, in spite of the praises of
Seneca, (Consol. c. 26,) 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.]
     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 seldom exposed to military
service. But the wiser citizens, who judged of the future by the
past, revolved 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 ministers 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 employments, 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 Cappadocia 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 conquest of Sicily and Italy. Success will impose the
obligations 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
unwonted freedom of an obsequious servant; and the design of the
war would perhaps have been relinquished, if his courage 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 emperor! 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 Athanasius had already excited on the
borders of the Vandal monarchy. Pudentius, an African subject,
had privately signified his loyal intentions, and a small
military aid restored the province of Tripoli to the obedience of
the Romans. 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 emissaries of Justinian, who found him master of that
fruitful island, at the head of his guards, and proudly invested
with the ensigns of royalty. The forces of the Vandals were
diminished by discord and suspicion; the Roman armies were
animated by the spirit of Belisarius; one of those heroic names
which are familiar to every age and to every nation.

[Footnote 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.]

     The Africanus of new Rome was born, and perhaps educated,
among the Thracian peasants, ^5 without any of those advantages
which had formed the virtues of the elder and younger Scipio; a
noble origin, liberal studies, and the emulation of a free state.

The silence of a loquacious secretary may be admitted, to prove
that the youth of Belisarius could not afford any subject of
praise: he served, most assuredly with valor and reputation,
among the private guards of Justinian; and when his patron became
emperor, the domestic was promoted to military command. After a
bold inroad into Persarmenia, in which his glory was shared by a
colleague, and his progress was checked by an enemy, Belisarius
repaired to the important station of Dara, where he first
accepted the service of Procopius, the faithful companion, and
diligent historian, of his exploits. ^6 The Mirranes of Persia
advanced, with forty thousand of her best troops, to raze the
fortifications of Dara; and signified the day and the hour on
which the citizens should prepare a bath for his refreshment,
after the toils of victory. He encountered an adversary equal to
himself, by the new title of General of the East; his superior in
the science of war, but much inferior in the number and quality
of his troops, which amounted only to twenty-five thousand Romans
and strangers, relaxed in their discipline, and humbled by recent
disasters. As the level plain of Dara refused all shelter to
stratagem and ambush, Belisarius protected his front with a deep
trench, which was prolonged at first in perpendicular, and
afterwards in parallel, lines, to cover the wings of cavalry
advantageously posted to command the flanks and rear of the
enemy. When the Roman centre was shaken, their well-timed and
rapid charge decided the conflict: the standard of Persia fell;
the immortals fled; the infantry threw away their bucklers, and
eight thousand of the vanquished were left on the field of
battle. In the next campaign, Syria was invaded on the side of
the desert; and Belisarius, with twenty thousand men, hastened
from Dara to the relief of the province. During the whole summer,
the designs of the enemy were baffled by his skilful
dispositions: he pressed their retreat, occupied each night their
camp of the preceding day, and would have secured a bloodless
victory, if he could have resisted the impatience of his own
troops. Their valiant promise was faintly supported in the hour
of battle; the right wing was exposed by the treacherous or
cowardly desertion of the Christian Arabs; the Huns, a veteran
band of eight hundred warriors, were oppressed by superior
numbers; the flight of the Isaurians was intercepted; but the
Roman infantry stood firm on the left; for Belisarius himself,
dismounting from his horse, showed them that intrepid despair was
their only safety. ^* They turned their backs to the Euphrates,
and their faces to the enemy: innumerable arrows glanced without
effect from the compact and shelving order of their bucklers; an
impenetrable line of pikes was opposed to the repeated assaults
of the Persian cavalry; and after a resistance of many hours, the
remaining troops were skilfully embarked under the shadow of the
night. The Persian commander retired with disorder and disgrace,
to answer a strict account of the lives of so many soldiers,
which he had consumed in a barren victory. But the fame of
Belisarius was not sullied by a defeat, in which he alone had
saved his army from the consequences of their own rashness: the
approach of peace relieved him from the guard of the eastern
frontier, and his conduct in the sedition of Constantinople amply
discharged his obligations to the emperor. When the African war
became the topic of popular discourse and secret deliberation,
each of the Roman generals was apprehensive, rather than
ambitious, of the dangerous honor; but as soon as Justinian had
declared his preference of superior merit, their envy was
rekindled by the unanimous applause which was given to the choice
of Belisarius. The temper of the Byzantine court may encourage a
suspicion, that the hero was darkly assisted by the intrigues of
his wife, the fair and subtle Antonina, who alternately enjoyed
the confidence, and incurred the hatred, of the empress Theodora.

The birth of Antonina was ignoble; she descended from a family of
charioteers; and her chastity has been stained with the foulest
reproach. Yet she reigned with long and absolute power over the
mind of her illustrious husband; and if Antonina disdained the
merit of conjugal fidelity, she expressed a manly friendship to
Belisarius, whom she accompanied with undaunted resolution in all
the hardships and dangers of a military life. ^7

[Footnote 5: (Procop. Vandal. l. i. c. 11.) Aleman, (Not. ad
Anecdot. p. 5,) an Italian, could easily reject the German vanity
of Giphanius and Velserus, who wished to claim the hero; but his
Germania, a metropolis of Thrace, I cannot find in any civil or
ecclesiastical lists of the provinces and cities.

     Note *: M. von Hammer (in a review of Lord Mahon's Life of
Belisarius in the Vienna Jahrbucher) shows that the name of
Belisarius is a Sclavonic word, Beli-tzar, the White Prince, and
that the place of his birth was a village of Illvria, which still
bears the name of Germany. - M.]

[Footnote 6: The two first Persian campaigns of Belisarius are
fairly and copiously related by his secretary, (Persic. l. i. c.
12 - 18.)]
[Footnote *: The battle was fought on Easter Sunday, April 19,
not at the end of the summer. The date is supplied from John
Malala by Lord Mabon p. 47. - M.]

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

     The preparations for the African war were not unworthy of
the last contest between Rome and Carthage. The pride and flower
of the army consisted of the guards of Belisarius, who, according
to the pernicious indulgence of the times, devoted themselves, by
a particular oath of fidelity, to the service of their patrons.
Their strength and stature, for which they had been curiously
selected, the goodness of their horses and armor, and the
assiduous practice of all the exercises of war, enabled them to
act whatever their courage might prompt; and their courage was
exalted by the social honor of their rank, and the personal
ambition of favor and fortune. Four hundred of the bravest of
the Heruli marched under the banner of the faithful and active
Pharas; their untractable valor was more highly prized than the
tame submission of the Greeks and Syrians; and of such importance
was it deemed to procure a reenforcement of six hundred
Massagetae, or Huns, that they were allured by fraud and deceit
to engage in a naval expedition. Five thousand horse and ten
thousand foot were embarked at Constantinople, for the conquest
of Africa; but the infantry, for the most part levied in Thrace
and Isauria, yielded to the more prevailing use and reputation of
the cavalry; and the Scythian bow was the weapon on which the
armies of Rome were now reduced to place their principal
dependence. From a laudable desire to assert the dignity of his
theme, Procopius defends the soldiers of his own time against the
morose critics, who confined that respectable name to the
heavy-armed warriors of antiquity, and maliciously observed, that
the word archer is introduced by Homer ^8 as a term of contempt.
"Such contempt might perhaps be due to the naked youths who
appeared on foot in the fields of Troy, and lurking behind a
tombstone, or the shield of a friend, drew the bow-string to
their breast, ^9 and dismissed a feeble and lifeless arrow. But
our archers (pursues the historian) are mounted on horses, which
they manage with admirable skill; their head and shoulders are
protected by a casque or buckler; they wear greaves of iron on
their legs, and their bodies are guarded by a coat of mail. On
their right side hangs a quiver, a sword on their left, and their
hand is accustomed to wield a lance or javelin in closer combat.
Their bows are strong and weighty; they shoot in every possible
direction, advancing, retreating, to the front, to the rear, or
to either flank; and as they are taught to draw the bow-string
not to the breast, but to the right ear, firm indeed must be the
armor that can resist the rapid violence of their shaft." Five
hundred transports, navigated by twenty thousand mariners of
Egypt, Cilicia, and Ionia, were collected in the harbor of
Constantinople. The smallest of these vessels may be computed at
thirty, the largest at five hundred, tons; and the fair average
will supply an allowance, liberal, but not profuse, of about one
hundred thousand tons, ^10 for the reception of thirty-five
thousand soldiers and sailors, of five thousand horses, of arms,
engines, and military stores, and of a sufficient stock of water
and provisions for a voyage, perhaps, of three months. The proud
galleys, which in former ages swept the Mediterranean with so
many hundred oars, had long since disappeared; and the fleet of
Justinian was escorted only by ninety-two light brigantines,
covered from the missile weapons of the enemy, and rowed by two
thousand of the brave and robust youth of Constantinople.
Twenty-two generals are named, most of whom were afterwards
distinguished in the wars of Africa and Italy: but the supreme
command, both by land and sea, was delegated to Belisarius alone,
with a boundless power of acting according to his discretion, as
if the emperor himself were present. The separation of the naval
and military professions is at once the effect and the cause of
the modern improvements in the science of navigation and maritime
war.
[Footnote 8: See the preface of Procopius. The enemies of
archery might quote the reproaches of Diomede Iliad. Delta. 385,
&c.) and the permittere vulnera ventis of Lucan, (viii. 384:) yet
the Romans could not despise the arrows of the Parthians; and in
the siege of Troy, Pandarus, Paris, and Teucer, pierced those
haughty warriors who insulted them as women or children.]
[Footnote 9: (Iliad. Delta. 123.) How concise - how just - how
beautiful is the whole picture! I see the attitudes of the
archer - I hear the twanging of the bow.]

[Footnote 10: The text appears to allow for the largest vessels
50,000 medimni, or 3000 tons, (since the medimnus weighed 160
Roman, or 120 avoirdupois, pounds.) I have given a more rational
interpretation, by supposing that the Attic style of Procopius
conceals the legal and popular modius, a sixth part of the
medimnus, (Hooper's Ancient Measures, p. 152, &c.) A contrary and
indeed a stranger mistake has crept into an oration of Dinarchus,
(contra Demosthenem, in Reiske Orator. Graec tom iv. P. ii. p.
34.) By reducing the number of ships from 500 to 50, and
translating by mines, or pounds, Cousin has generously allowed
500 tons for the whole of the Imperial fleet! Did he never
think?]

     In the seventh year of the reign of Justinian, and about the
time of the summer solstice, the whole fleet of six hundred ships
was ranged in martial pomp before the gardens of the palace. The
patriarch pronounced his benediction, the emperor signified his
last commands, the general's trumpet gave the signal of
departure, and every heart, according to its fears or wishes,
explored, with anxious curiosity, the omens of misfortune and
success. The first halt was made at Perinthus or Heraclea, where
Belisarius waited five days to receive some Thracian horses, a
military gift of his sovereign. From thence the fleet pursued
their course through the midst of the Propontis; but as they
struggled to pass the Straits of the Hellespont, an unfavorable
wind detained them four days at Abydus, where the general
exhibited a memorable lesson of firmness and severity. Two of
the Huns, who in a drunken quarrel had slain one of their
fellow-soldiers, were instantly shown to the army suspended on a
lofty gibbet. The national dignity was resented by their
countrymen, who disclaimed the servile laws of the empire, and
asserted the free privilege of Scythia, where a small fine was
allowed to expiate the hasty sallies of intemperance and anger.
Their complaints were specious, their clamors were loud, and the
Romans were not averse to the example of disorder and impunity.
But the rising sedition was appeased by the authority and
eloquence of the general: and he represented to the assembled
troops the obligation of justice, the importance of discipline,
the rewards of piety and virtue, and the unpardonable guilt of
murder, which, in his apprehension, was aggravated rather than
excused by the vice of intoxication. ^11 In the navigation from
the Hellespont to Peloponnesus, which the Greeks, after the siege
of Troy, had performed in four days, ^12 the fleet of Belisarius
was guided in their course by his master-galley, conspicuous in
the day by the redness of the sails, and in the night by the
torches blazing from the mast head. It was the duty of the
pilots, as they steered between the islands, and turned the Capes
of Malea and Taenarium, to preserve the just order and regular
intervals of such a multitude of ships: as the wind was fair and
moderate, their labors were not unsuccessful, and the troops were
safely disembarked at Methone on the Messenian coast, to repose
themselves for a while after the fatigues of the sea. In this
place they experienced how avarice, invested with authority, may
sport with the lives of thousands which are bravely exposed for
the public service. According to military practice, the bread or
biscuit of the Romans was twice prepared in the oven, and the
diminution of one fourth was cheerfully allowed for the loss of
weight. To gain this miserable profit, and to save the expense
of wood, the praefect John of Cappadocia had given orders that
the flour should be slightly baked by the same fire which warmed
the baths of Constantinople; and when the sacks were opened, a
soft and mouldy paste was distributed to the army. Such
unwholesome food, assisted by the heat of the climate and season,
soon produced an epidemical disease, which swept away five
hundred soldiers. Their health was restored by the diligence of
Belisarius, who provided fresh bread at Methone, and boldly
expressed his just and humane indignation the emperor heard his
complaint; the general was praised but the minister was not
punished. From the port of Methone, the pilots steered along the
western coast of Peloponnesus, as far as the Isle of Zacynthus,
or Zante, before they undertook the voyage (in their eyes a most
arduous voyage) of one hundred leagues over the Ionian Sea. As
the fleet was surprised by a calm, sixteen days were consumed in
the slow navigation; and even the general would have suffered the
intolerable hardship of thirst, if the ingenuity of Antonina had
not preserved the water in glass bottles, which she buried deep
in the sand in a part of the ship impervious to the rays of the
sun. At length the harbor of Caucana, ^13 on the southern side
of Sicily, afforded a secure and hospitable shelter. The Gothic
officers who governed the island in the name of the daughter and
grandson of Theodoric, obeyed their imprudent orders, to receive
the troops of Justinian like friends and allies: provisions were
liberally supplied, the cavalry was remounted, ^14 and Procopius
soon returned from Syracuse with correct information of the state
and designs of the Vandals. His intelligence determined
Belisarius to hasten his operations, and his wise impatience was
seconded by the winds. The fleet lost sight of Sicily, passed
before the Isle of Malta, discovered the capes of Africa, ran
along the coast with a strong gale from the north-east, and
finally cast anchor at the promontory of Caput Vada, about five
days' journey to the south of Carthage. ^15
[Footnote 11: I have read of a Greek legislator, who inflicted a
double penalty on the crimes committed in a state of
intoxication; but it seems agreed that this was rather a
political than a moral law.]
[Footnote 12: Or even in three days, since they anchored the
first evening in the neighboring isle of Tenedos: the second day
they sailed to Lesbon the third to the promontory of Euboea, and
on the fourth they reached Argos, (Homer, Odyss. P. 130 - 183.
Wood's Essay on Homer, p. 40 - 46.) A pirate sailed from the
Hellespont to the seaport of Sparta in three days, (Xenophon.
Hellen. l. ii. c. l.)]

[Footnote 13: Caucana, near Camarina, is at least 50 miles (350
or 400 stadia) from Syracuse, (Cluver. Sicilia Antiqua, p. 191.)

     Note *: Lord Mahon. (Life of Belisarius, p.88) suggests some
valid reasons for reading Catana, the ancient name of Catania. -
M.]
[Footnote 14: Procopius, Gothic. l. i. c. 3. Tibi tollit
hinnitum apta quadrigis equa, in the Sicilian pastures of
Grosphus, (Horat. Carm. ii. 16.) Acragas .... magnanimum quondam
generator equorum, (Virg. Aeneid. iii. 704.) Thero's horses,
whose victories are immortalized by Pindar, were bred in this
country.]

[Footnote 15: The Caput Vada of Procopius (where Justinian
afterwards founded a city - De Edific.l. vi. c. 6) is the
promontory of Ammon in Strabo, the Brachodes of Ptolemy, the
Capaudia of the moderns, a long narrow slip that runs into the
sea, (Shaw's Travels, p. 111.)]

     If Gelimer had been informed of the approach of the enemy,
he must have delayed the conquest of Sardinia for the immediate
defence of his person and kingdom. A detachment of five thousand
soldiers, and one hundred and twenty galleys, would have joined
the remaining forces of the Vandals; and the descendant of
Genseric might have surprised and oppressed a fleet of deep laden
transports, incapable of action, and of light brigantines that
seemed only qualified for flight. Belisarius had secretly
trembled when he overheard his soldiers, in the passage,
emboldening each other to confess their apprehensions: if they
were once on shore, they hoped to maintain the honor of their
arms; but if they should be attacked at sea, they did not blush
to acknowledge that they wanted courage to contend at the same
time with the winds, the waves, and the Barbarians. ^16 The
knowledge of their sentiments decided Belisarius to seize the
first opportunity of landing them on the 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. ^* 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 occupied a camp on the sea- shore, which
they fortified, according to ancient discipline, with a ditch and
rampart; and the discovery 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 depended much less," said the general, "on the numbers, or even
the bravery of my troops, than on the friendly disposition of the
natives, and their immortal hatred to the Vandals. You alone can
deprive me of this hope; if you continue to extort by rapine what
might be purchased for a 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 deserting 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, assiduously labored to promote the
cause of a Catholic emperor. The small town of Sullecte, ^17 one
day's journey from the camp, had the honor of being foremost to
open her gates, and to resume her ancient allegiance: the larger
cities of Leptis 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 Vandal kings, at the distance
of fifty miles from Carthage. The weary Romans indulged
themselves in the refreshment of shady groves, cool fountains,
and delicious fruits; and the preference which Procopius 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, or the
historian. In three generations, prosperity and a warm climate
had dissolved the hardy virtue of the Vandals, who insensibly
became the most luxurious of mankind. In their villas and
gardens, which might deserve the Persian name of Paradise, ^18
they enjoyed a cool and elegant repose; and, after the daily use
of the bath, the Barbarians were seated 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.

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

[Footnote *: Rather into the present Lake of Tunis. Lord Mahon,
p. 92. - M.]
[Footnote 17: Sullecte is perhaps the Turris Hannibalis, an old
building, now as large as the Tower of London. The march of
Belisarius to Leptis. Adrumetum, &c., is illustrated by the
campaign of Caesar, (Hirtius, de Bello Africano, with the Analyse
of Guichardt,) and Shaw's Travels (p. 105 - 113) in the same
country.]

[Footnote 18: 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. l. iv. p. 99 - 101
Achilles Tatius. l. i. p. 22, 23.)]

     In a march of ten or twelve days, the vigilance of
Belisarius was constantly awake and active against his unseen
enemies, by whom, in every place, and at every hour, he might be
suddenly attacked. An officer of confidence and merit, John the
Armenian, led the vanguard of three hundred horse; six hundred
Massagetae covered at a certain distance the left flank; and the
whole fleet, steering along the coast, seldom lost sight of the
army, which moved each day about twelve miles, and lodged in the
evening in strong camps, or in friendly towns. 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 policy 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 Vandal conquerors, from their
original number of fifty thousand, were multiplied, without
including their women and children, to one hundred and sixty
thousand fighting men: ^* and such forces, animated with valor
and union, might have crushed, at their first landing, the feeble
and exhausted bands of the Roman 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 aversion to war under the more specious name of his
hatred to the usurper. Yet the authority and promises of Gelimer
collected 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 thousand horse, was
destined to attack their left, when the monarch 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
Vandals fled to Carthage; the highway, almost ten miles, was
strewed with dead bodies; and it seemed incredible that such
multitudes could be slaughtered by the swords of three hundred
Romans. The nephew of Gelimer was defeated, after a slight
combat, by the six hundred Massagetae: 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, inadvertently passed the Roman army, and reached the scene
of action where Ammatas had fallen. He wept the fate of his
brother and of Carthage, charged with irresistible fury the
advancing squadrons, and might have pursued, and perhaps decided,
the victory, if he had not wasted those inestimable moments 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 forwards 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 Vandals, accustomed 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 compassion of his people; his life might have
perplexed the victorious Romans; and the lieutenant of Justinian,
by a crime of which he was innocent, was relieved from the
painful alternative of forfeiting his honor or relinquishing his
conquests.

[Footnote *: 80,000. Hist. Arc. c. 18. Gibbon has been misled by
the translation. See Lord ov. p. 99. - M.]

Chapter XLI: Conquests Of Justinian, Charact Of Balisarius.

Part II.

     As soon as the tumult had subsided, the several parts of the
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 Latin appellation
of Decimus. From a wise suspicion of the stratagems and
resources of the Vandals, he marched the next day in order of
battle, halted in the evening before 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 reason,
he was soon satisfied that he might confide, without danger, in
the peaceful and friendly aspect of the capital. Carthage 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 deliverers. The defeat
of the Vandals, and the freedom of Africa, 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 superstition had almost raised to a local deity.
The Arians, conscious that their reign had expired, resigned the
temple to the Catholics, 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 Vandals, who
had so lately indulged the vices of conquerors, sought an 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 caution along the
coast till they reached the Hermaean promontory, and obtained the
first intelligence of the victory of Belisarius. 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 revolution, they declined, however, the
rash attempt of forcing the chain of the port; and the adjacent
harbor and suburb of Mandracium were insulted only by the rapine
of a private officer, who disobeyed and deserted his leaders.
But the Imperial fleet, advancing with a fair wind, steered
through the narrow entrance of the Goletta, and occupied, in the
deep and capacious lake of Tunis, a secure station about five
miles from the capital. ^19 No sooner was Belisarius informed of
their arrival, 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 deliverers, of the
Africans, who must now be respected as the voluntary and
affectionate subjects of their common sovereign. 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 genius 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 master and her government, the shops continued open and busy;
and the soldiers, after sufficient guards had been posted,
modestly departed to the houses which were allotted for their
reception. 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 Vandals; and
labored to repair the damage which the suburb of Mandracium had
sustained in the preceding night. At supper he entertained his
principal officers with the form and magnificence of a royal
banquet. ^20 The victor was respectfully served by the captive
officers of the household; and in the moments of festivity, when
the impartial spectators applauded the fortune and merit of
Belisarius, his envious flatterers secretly shed their venom on
every 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 empire in Africa should not depend on the chance
of arms, or the favor of the people. The fortifications of
Carthage ^* 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 Vandals. 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 salutary 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.

[Footnote 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 stagnum,
no more than a morass, with six or seven feet water in the
mid-channel. See D'Anville, (Geographie Ancienne, tom. iii. p.
82,) Shaw, (Travels, p. 77 - 84,) Marmol, (Description de
l'Afrique, tom. ii. p. 465,) and Thuanus, (lviii. 12, tom. iii.
p. 334.)]

[Footnote 20: From Delphi, the name of Delphicum was given, 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 banquetting room, (Procopius, Vandal. l. i. c. 21.
Ducange, Gloss, Graec. p. 277., ad Alexiad. p. 412.)]

[Footnote *: And a few others. Procopius states in his work De
Edi Sciis. l. vi. vol i. p. 5. - M]

     That unfortunate monarch, after the loss of his capital,
applied himself to collect the remains of an army scattered,
rather than destroyed, by the preceding battle; and the hopes of
pillage attracted some Moorish bands to the standard of Gelimer.
He encamped in the fields of Bulla, four days' journey from
Carthage; insulted the capital, which he deprived of the use of
an aqueduct; proposed a high reward for the head of every Roman;
affected to spare the persons and property of his African
subjects, and secretly negotiated with the Arian sectaries and
the confederate Huns. Under these circumstances, the conquest of
Sardinia served only to aggravate his distress: he reflected,
with the deepest anguish, that he had wasted, in that useless
enterprise, five thousand of his bravest troops; and he read,
with grief and shame, the victorious letters of his brother Zano,
^* who expressed a sanguine confidence that the king, after the
example of their ancestors, had already chastised the rashness of
the Roman invader. "Alas! my brother," replied Gelimer, "Heaven
has declared against our unhappy nation. While you have subdued
Sardinia, we have lost Africa. No sooner did Belisarius appear
with a handful of soldiers, than courage and prosperity deserted
the cause of the Vandals. Your nephew Gibamund, your brother
Ammatas, have been betrayed to death by the cowardice of their
followers. Our horses, our ships, Carthage itself, and all
Africa, are in the power of the enemy. Yet the Vandals still
prefer an ignominious repose, at the expense of their wives and
children, their wealth and liberty. Nothing now remains, except
the fields of Bulla, and the hope of your valor. Abandon
Sardinia; fly to our relief; restore our empire, or perish by our
side." On the receipt of this epistle, Zano imparted his grief to
the principal Vandals; but the intelligence was prudently
concealed from the natives of the island. The troops embarked in
one hundred and twenty galleys at the port of Caghari, cast
anchor the third day on the confines of Mauritania, and hastily
pursued their march to join the royal standard in the camp of
Bulla. Mournful was the interview: the two brothers embraced;
they wept in silence; no questions were asked of the Sardinian
victory; no inquiries were made of the African misfortunes: they
saw before their eyes the whole extent of their calamities; and
the absence of their wives and children afforded a melancholy
proof that either death or captivity had been their lot. The
languid spirit of the Vandals was at length awakened and united
by the entreaties of their king, the example of Zano, and the
instant danger which threatened their monarchy and religion. The
military strength of the nation advanced to battle; and such was
the rapid increase, that before their army reached Tricameron,
about twenty miles from Carthage, they might boast, perhaps with
some exaggeration, that they surpassed, in a tenfold proportion,
the diminutive powers of the Romans. But these powers were under
the command of Belisarius; and, as he was conscious of their
superior merit, he permitted the Barbarians to surprise him at an
unseasonable hour. The Romans were instantly under arms; a
rivulet covered their front; the cavalry formed the first line,
which Belisarius supported in the centre, at the head of five
hundred guards; the infantry, at some distance, was posted in the
second line; and the vigilance of the general watched the
separate station and ambiguous faith of the Massagetae, who
secretly reserved their aid for the conquerors. The historian
has inserted, and the reader may easily supply, the speeches ^21
of the commanders, who, by arguments the most apposite to their
situation, inculcated the importance of victory, and the contempt
of life. Zano, with the troops which had followed him to the
conquest of Sardinia, was placed in the centre; and the throne of
Genseric might have stood, if the multitude of Vandals had
imitated their intrepid resolution. Casting away their lances and
missile weapons, they drew their swords, and expected the charge:
the Roman cavalry thrice passed the rivulet; they were thrice
repulsed; and the conflict was firmly maintained, till Zano fell,
and the standard of Belisarius was displayed. Gelimer retreated
to his camp; the Huns joined the pursuit; and the victors
despoiled the bodies of the slain. Yet no more than fifty Romans,
and eight hundred Vandals were found on the field of battle; so
inconsiderable was the carnage of a day, which extinguished a
nation, and transferred the empire of Africa. In the evening
Belisarius led his infantry to the attack of the camp; and the
pusillanimous flight of Gelimer exposed the vanity of his recent
declarations, that to the vanquished, death was a relief, life a
burden, and infamy the only object of terror. His departure was
secret; but as soon as the Vandals discovered that their king had
deserted them, they hastily dispersed, anxious only for their
personal safety, and careless of every object that is dear or
valuable to mankind. The Romans entered the camp without
resistance; and the wildest scenes of disorder were veiled in the
darkness and confusion of the night. Every Barbarian who met
their swords was inhumanly massacred; their widows and daughters,
as rich heirs, or beautiful concubines, were embraced by the
licentious soldiers; and avarice itself was almost satiated with
the treasures of gold and silver, the accumulated fruits of
conquest or economy in a long period of prosperity and peace. In
this frantic search, the troops, even of Belisarius, forgot their
caution and respect. Intoxicated with lust and rapine, they
explored, in small parties, or alone, the adjacent fields, the
woods, the rocks, and the caverns, that might possibly conceal
any desirable prize: laden with booty, they deserted their ranks,
and wandered without a guide, on the high road to Carthage; and
if the flying enemies had dared to return, very few of the
conquerors would have escaped. Deeply sensible of the disgrace
and danger, Belisarius passed an apprehensive night on the field
of victory: at the dawn of day, he planted his standard on a
hill, recalled his guardians and veterans, and gradually restored
the modesty and obedience of the camp. It was equally the
concern of the Roman general to subdue the hostile, and to save
the prostrate, Barbarian; and the suppliant Vandals, who could be
found only in churches, were protected by his authority,
disarmed, and separately confined, that they might neither
disturb the public peace, nor become the victims of popular
revenge. After despatching a light detachment to tread the
footsteps of Gelimer, he advanced, with his whole army, about ten
days' march, as far as Hippo Regius, which no longer possessed
the relics of St. Augustin. ^22 The season, and the certain
intelligence that the Vandal had fled to an inaccessible country
of the Moors, determined Belisarius to relinquish the vain
pursuit, and to fix his winter quarters at Carthage. From thence
he despatched his principal lieutenant, to inform the emperor,
that in the space of three months he had achieved the conquest of
Africa.
[Footnote *: Gibbon had forgotten that the bearer of the
"victorious letters of his brother" had sailed into the port of
Carthage; and that the letters had fallen into the hands of the
Romans. Proc. Vandal. l. i. c. 23. - M.]
[Footnote 21: These orations always express the sense of the
times, and sometimes of the actors. I have condensed that sense,
and thrown away declamation.]

[Footnote 22: The relics of St. Augustin were carried by the
African bishops to their Sardinian exile, (A.D. 500;) and it was
believed, in the viiith century, that Liutprand, king of the
Lombards, transported them (A.D. 721) from Sardinia to Pavia. In
the year 1695, the Augustan friars of that city found a brick
arch, marble coffin, silver case, silk wrapper, bones, blood,
&c., and perhaps an inscription of Agostino in Gothic letters.
But this useful discovery has been disputed by reason and
jealousy, (Baronius, Annal. A.D. 725, No. 2 - 9. Tillemont, Mem.
Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 944. Montfaucon, Diarium Ital. p. 26 - 30.

Muratori, Antiq. Ital. Medii Aevi, tom. v. dissert. lviii. p. 9,
who had composed a separate treatise before the decree of the
bishop of Pavia, and Pope Benedict XIII.)]

     Belisarius spoke the language of truth. The surviving
Vandals yielded, without resistance, their arms and their
freedom; the neighborhood of Carthage submitted to his presence;
and the more distant provinces were successively subdued by the
report of his victory. Tripoli was confirmed in her voluntary
allegiance; Sardinia and Corsica surrendered to an officer, who
carried, instead of a sword, the head of the valiant Zano; and
the Isles of Majorca, Minorca, and Yvica consented to remain an
humble appendage of the African kingdom. Caesarea, a royal city,
which in looser geography may be confounded with the modern
Algiers, was situate thirty days' march to the westward of
Carthage: by land, the road was infested by the Moors; but the
sea was open, and the Romans were now masters of the sea. An
active and discreet tribune sailed as far as the Straits, where
he occupied Septem or Ceuta, ^23 which rises opposite to
Gibraltar on the African coast; that remote place was afterwards
adorned and fortified by Justinian; and he seems to have indulged
the vain ambition of extending his empire to the columns of
Hercules. He received the messengers of victory at the time when
he was preparing to publish the Pandects of the Roman laws; and
the devout or jealous emperor celebrated the divine goodness, and
confessed, in silence, the merit of his successful general. ^24
Impatient to abolish the temporal and spiritual tyranny of the
Vandals, he proceeded, without delay, to the full establishment
of the Catholic church. Her jurisdiction, wealth, and immunites,
perhaps the most essential part of episcopal religion, were
restored and amplified with a liberal hand; the Arian worship was
suppressed; the Donatist meetings were proscribed; ^25 and the
synod of Carthage, by the voice of two hundred and seventeen
bishops, ^26 applauded the just measure of pious retaliation. On
such an occasion, it may not be presumed, that many orthodox
prelates were absent; but the comparative smallness of their
number, which in ancient councils had been twice or even thrice
multiplied, most clearly indicates the decay both of the church
and state. While Justinian approved himself the defender of the
faith, he entertained an ambitious hope, that his victorious
lieutenant would speedily enlarge the narrow limits of his
dominion to the space which they occupied before the invasion of
the Moors and Vandals; and Belisarius was instructed to establish
five dukes or commanders in the convenient stations of Tripoli,
Leptis, Cirta, Caesarea, and Sardinia, and to compute the
military force of palatines or borderers that might be sufficient
for the defence of Africa. The kingdom of the Vandals was not
unworthy of the presence of a Praetorian praefect; and four
consulars, three presidents, were appointed to administer the
seven provinces under his civil jurisdiction. The number of
their subordinate officers, clerks, messengers, or assistants,
was minutely expressed; three hundred and ninety-six for the
praefect himself, fifty for each of his vicegerents; and the
rigid definition of their fees and salaries was more effectual to
confirm the right than to prevent the abuse. These magistrates
might be oppressive, but they were not idle; and the subtile
questions of justice and revenue were infinitely propagated under
the new government, which professed to revive the freedom and
equity of the Roman republic. The conqueror was solicitous to
extract a prompt and plentiful supply from his African subjects;
and he allowed them to claim, even in the third degree, and from
the collateral line, the houses and lands of which their families
had been unjustly despoiled by the Vandals. After the departure
of Belisarius, who acted by a high and special commission, no
ordinary provision was made for a master- general of the forces;
but the office of Praetorian praefect was intrusted to a soldier;
the civil and military powers were united, according to the
practice of Justinian, in the chief governor; and the
representative of the emperor in Africa, as well as in Italy, was
soon distinguished by the appellation of Exarch. ^27
[Footnote 23: The expression of Procopius (de Edific. l. vi. c.
7.) Ceuta, which has been defaced by the Portuguese, flourished
in nobles and palaces, in agriculture and manufactures, under the
more prosperous reign of the Arabs, (l'Afrique de Marmai, tom.
ii. p. 236.]

[Footnote 24: See the second and third preambles to the Digest,
or Pandects, promulgated A.D. 533, December 16. To the titles of
Vandalicus and Africanus, Justinian, or rather Belisarius, had
acquired a just claim; Gothicus was premature, and Francicus
false, and offensive to a great nation.]
[Footnote 25: See the original acts in Baronius, (A.D. 535, No.
21 - 54.) The emperor applauds his own clemency to the heretics,
cum sufficiat eis vivere.]
[Footnote 26: Dupin (Geograph. Sacra Africana, p. lix. ad Optat.
Milav.) observes and bewails this episcopal decay. In the more
prosperous age of the church, he had noticed 690 bishoprics; but
however minute were the dioceses, it is not probable that they
all existed at the same time.]
[Footnote 27: The African laws of Justinian are illustrated by
his German biographer, (Cod. l. i. tit. 27. Novell. 36, 37, 131.

Vit. Justinian, p. 349 - 377.)]

     Yet the conquest of Africa was imperfect till her former
sovereign was delivered, either alive or dead, into the hands of
the Romans. Doubtful of the event, Gelimer had given secret
orders that a part of his treasure should be transported to
Spain, where he hoped to find a secure refuge at the court of the
king of the Visigoths. But these intentions were disappointed by
accident, treachery, and the indefatigable pursuit of his
enemies, who intercepted his flight from the sea-shore, and
chased the unfortunate monarch, with some faithful followers, to
the inaccessible mountain of Papua, ^28 in the inland country of
Numidia. He was immediately besieged by Pharas, an officer whose
truth and sobriety were the more applauded, as such qualities
could seldom be found among the Heruli, the most corrupt of the
Barbarian tribes. To his vigilance Belisarius had intrusted this
important charge and, after a bold attempt to scale the mountain,
in which he lost a hundred and ten soldiers, Pharas expected,
during a winter siege, the operation of distress and famine on
the mind of the Vandal king. From the softest habits of
pleasure, from the unbounded command of industry and wealth, he
was reduced to share the poverty of the Moors, ^29 supportable
only to themselves by their ignorance of a happier condition. In
their rude hovels, of mud and hurdles, which confined the smoke
and excluded the light, they promiscuously slept on the ground,
perhaps on a sheep-skin, with their wives, their children, and
their cattle. Sordid and scanty were their garments; the use of
bread and wine was unknown; and their oaten or barley cakes,
imperfectly baked in the ashes, were devoured almost in a crude
state, by the hungry savages. The health of Gelimer must have
sunk under these strange and unwonted hardships, from whatsoever
cause they had been endured; but his actual misery was imbittered
by the recollection of past greatness, the daily insolence of his
protectors, and the just apprehension, that the light and venal
Moors might be tempted to betray the rights of hospitality. The
knowledge of his situation dictated the humane and friendly
epistle of Pharas. "Like yourself," said the chief of the
Heruli, "I am an illiterate Barbarian, but I speak the language
of plain sense and an honest heart. Why will you persist in
hopeless obstinacy? Why will you ruin yourself, your family, and
nation? The love of freedom and abhorrence of slavery? Alas! my
dearest Gelimer, are you not already the worst of slaves, the
slave of the vile nation of the Moors? Would it not be
preferable to sustain at Constantinople a life of poverty and
servitude, rather than to reign the undoubted monarch of the
mountain of Papua? Do you think it a disgrace to be the subject
of Justinian? Belisarius is his subject; and we ourselves, whose
birth is not inferior to your own, are not ashamed of our
obedience to the Roman emperor. That generous prince will grant
you a rich inheritance of lands, a place in the senate, and the
dignity of patrician: such are his gracious intentions, and you
may depend with full assurance on the word of Belisarius. So
long as Heaven has condemned us to suffer, patience is a virtue;
but if we reject the proffered deliverance, it degenerates into
blind and stupid despair." "I am not insensible" replied the king
of the Vandals, "how kind and rational is your advice. But I
cannot persuade myself to become the slave of an unjust enemy,
who has deserved my implacable hatred. Him I had never injured
either by word or deed: yet he has sent against me, I know not
from whence, a certain Belisarius, who has cast me headlong from
the throne into his abyss of misery. Justinian is a man; he is a
prince; does he not dread for himself a similar reverse of
fortune? I can write no more: my grief oppresses me. Send me, I
beseech you, my dear Pharas, send me, a lyre, ^30 a sponge, and a
loaf of bread." From the Vandal messenger, Pharas was informed of
the motives of this singular request. It was long since the king
of Africa had tasted bread; a defluxion had fallen on his eyes,
the effect of fatigue or incessant weeping; and he wished to
solace the melancholy hours, by singing to the lyre the sad story
of his own misfortunes. The humanity of Pharas was moved; he
sent the three extraordinary gifts; but even his humanity
prompted him to redouble the vigilance of his guard, that he
might sooner compel his prisoner to embrace a resolution
advantageous to the Romans, but salutary to himself. The
obstinacy of Gelimer at length yielded to reason and necessity;
the solemn assurances of safety and honorable treatment were
ratified in the emperor's name, by the ambassador of Belisarius;
and the king of the Vandals descended from the mountain. The
first public interview was in one of the suburbs of Carthage; and
when the royal captive accosted his conqueror, he burst into a
fit of laughter. The crowd might naturally believe, that extreme
grief had deprived Gelimer of his senses: but in this mournful
state, unseasonable mirth insinuated to more intelligent
observers, that the vain and transitory scenes of human greatness
are unworthy of a serious thought. ^31

[Footnote 28: Mount Papua is placed by D'Anville (tom. iii. p.
92, and Tabul. Imp. Rom. Occident.) near Hippo Regius and the
sea; yet this situation ill agrees with the long pursuit beyond
Hippo, and the words of Procopius, (l. ii.c.4,).

     Note: Compare Lord Mahon, 120. conceive Gibbon to be right
- M.]
[Footnote 29: Shaw (Travels, p. 220) most accurately represents
the manners of the Bedoweens and Kabyles, the last of whom, by
their language, are the remnant of the Moors; yet how changed -
how civilized are these modern savages! - provisions are plenty
among them and bread is common.]
[Footnote 30: By Procopius it is styled a lyre; perhaps harp
would have been more national. The instruments of music are thus
distinguished by Venantius Fortunatus: -

Romanusque lyra tibi plaudat, Barbarus harpa.]

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

     Their contempt was soon justified by a new example of a
vulgar truth; that flattery adheres to power, and envy to
superior merit. The chiefs of the Roman army presumed to think
themselves the rivals of a hero. Their private despatches
maliciously affirmed, that the conqueror of Africa, strong in his
reputation and the public love, conspired to seat himself on the
throne of the Vandals. Justinian listened with too patient an
ear; and his silence was the result of jealousy rather than of
confidence. An honorable alternative, of remaining in the
province, or of returning to the capital, was indeed submitted to
the discretion of Belisarius; but he wisely concluded, from
intercepted letters and the knowledge of his sovereign's temper,
that he must either resign his head, erect his standard, or
confound his enemies by his presence and submission. Innocence
and courage decided his choice; his guards, captives, and
treasures, were diligently embarked; and so prosperous was the
navigation, that his arrival at Constantinople preceded any
certain account of his departure from the port of Carthage. Such
unsuspecting loyalty removed the apprehensions of Justinian; envy
was silenced and inflamed by the public gratitude; and the third
Africanus obtained the honors of a triumph, a ceremony which the
city of Constantine had never seen, and which ancient Rome, since
the reign of Tiberius, had reserved for the auspicious arms of
the Caesars. ^32 From the palace of Belisarius, the procession
was conducted through the principal streets to the hippodrome;
and this memorable day seemed to avenge the injuries of Genseric,
and to expiate the shame of the Romans. The wealth of nations was
displayed, the trophies of martial or effeminate luxury; rich
armor, golden thrones, and the chariots of state which had been
used by the Vandal queen; the massy furniture of the royal
banquet, the splendor of precious stones, the elegant forms of
statues and vases, the more substantial treasure of gold, and the
holy vessels of the Jewish temple, which after their long
peregrination were respectfully deposited in the Christian church
of Jerusalem. A long train of the noblest Vandals reluctantly
exposed their lofty stature and manly countenance. Gelimer
slowly advanced: he was clad in a purple robe, and still
maintained the majesty of a king. Not a tear escaped from his
eyes, not a sigh was heard; but his pride or piety derived some
secret consolation from the words of Solomon, ^33 which he
repeatedly pronounced, Vanity! vanity! all is vanity! Instead
of ascending a triumphal car drawn by four horses or elephants,
the modest conqueror marched on foot at the head of his brave
companions; his prudence might decline an honor too conspicuous
for a subject; and his magnanimity might justly disdain what had
been so often sullied by the vilest of tyrants. The glorious
procession entered the gate of the hippodrome; was saluted by the
acclamations of the senate and people; and halted before the
throne where Justinian and Theodora were seated to receive homage
of the captive monarch and the victorious hero. They both
performed the customary adoration; and falling prostrate on the
ground, respectfully touched the footstool of a prince who had
not unsheathed his sword, and of a prostitute who had danced on
the theatre; some gentle violence was used to bend the stubborn
spirit of the grandson of Genseric; and however trained to
servitude, the genius of Belisarius must have secretly rebelled.
He was immediately declared consul for the ensuing year, and the
day of his inauguration resembled the pomp of a second triumph:
his curule chair was borne aloft on the shoulders of captive
Vandals; and the spoils of war, gold cups, and rich girdles, were
profusely scattered among the populace.
[Footnote 32: After the title of imperator had lost the old
military sense, and the Roman auspices were abolished by
Christianity, (see La Bleterie, Mem. de l'Academie, tom. xxi. p.
302 - 332,) a triumph might be given with less inconsistency to a
private general.]

[Footnote 33: If the Ecclesiastes be truly a work of Solomon, and
not, like Prior's poem, a pious and moral composition of more
recent times, in his name, and on the subject of his repentance.
The latter is the opinion of the learned and free-spirited
Grotius, (Opp. Theolog. tom. i. p. 258;) and indeed the
Ecclesiastes and Proverbs display a larger compass of thought and
experience than seem to belong either to a Jew or a king.

     Note: Rosenmuller, arguing from the difference of style from
that of the greater part of the book of Proverbs, and from its
nearer approximation to the Aramaic dialect than any book of the
Old Testament, assigns the Ecclesiastes to some period between
Nehemiah and Alexander the Great Schol. in Vet. Test. ix.
Proemium ad Eccles. p. 19. - M.]

Chapter XLI: Conquests Of Justinian, Charact Of Balisarius.     

Part IV.

     Although Theodatus descended from a race of heroes, he was
ignorant of the art, and averse to the dangers, of war. Although
he had studied the writings of Plato and Tully, philosophy was
incapable of purifying his mind from the basest passions, avarice
and fear. He had purchased a sceptre by ingratitude and murder:
at the first menace of an enemy, he degraded 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 on 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 indispensable 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, ^60 than he was recalled by the
anxiety of Theodatus; and the dialogue which passed between the
king and the ambassador deserves to be represented in its
original simplicity. "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 to his character. What is your meaning? You are
a philosopher - Justinian is emperor of the Romans: it would all
become the disciple of Plato to shed the blood of thousands in
his private quarrel: the successor of Augustus should vindicate
his rights, and recover by arms the ancient provinces of his
empire." This reasoning 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 agriculture.

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 accepted the abdication of the
Gothic king. His indefatigable agent returned from
Constantinople to Ravenna, 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 entered 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, ^61 and 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 ^62 was employed in the reduction of Sicily, the
invasion of Italy is applied by Procopius to the second year of
the Gothic war. ^63

[Footnote 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, &c.;

     2. A camp of the Praetorian cohorts;

     3. The modern episcopal city of Albanum or Albano.

     (Procop. Goth. l. ii. c. 4 Oluver. Ital. Antiq tom. ii. p.
914.)]
[Footnote 61: A Sibylline oracle was ready to pronounce - Africa
capta munitus cum nato peribit; a sentence of portentous
ambiguity, (Gothic. l. i. c. 7,) which has been published in
unknown characters by Opsopaeus, an editor of the oracles. The
Pere Maltret has promised a commentary; but all his promises have
been vain and fruitless.]

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

[Footnote 63: The series of the first Gothic war is represented
by Procopius (l. i. c. 5 - 29, l. ii. c. l - 30, l. iii. c. l)
till the captivity of Vitigas. With the aid of Sigonius (Opp.
tom. i. de Imp. Occident. l. xvii. xviii.) and Muratori, (Annali
d'Itaia, tom. v.,) I have gleaned some few additional facts.]

     After Belisarius had left sufficient garrisons in Palermo
and Syracuse, he embarked his troops at Messina, and landed them,
without resistance, on the opposite shores of Rhegium. A Gothic
prince, who had married the daughter of Theodatus, was stationed
with an army to guard the entrance of Italy; but he imitated,
without scruple, the example of a sovereign faithless to his
public and private duties. The perfidious Ebermor deserted with
his followers to the Roman camp, and was dismissed to enjoy the
servile honors of the Byzantine court. ^64 From 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 Bruttium, 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 interrupted the peaceful occupations
of the husbandman or artificer. Naples, which has swelled to a
great and populous capital, long cherished the language and
manners of a Grecian colony; ^65 and the choice of Virgil had
ennobled this elegant retreat, which attracted the lovers of
repose and study, elegant retreat, which attracted the lovers of
repose and study, from the noise, the smoke, and the laborious
opulence of Rome. ^66 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
victory, 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 accustomed 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 performance: 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 deliberations, however, were not perfectly
free: the city was commanded by eight hundred Barbarians, whose
wives and children were detained at Ravenna as the pledge of
their fidelity; 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 measured only two thousand three hundred and sixty three
paces: ^68 the fortifications were defended by precipices or the
sea; when the aqueducts were intercepted, a supply of water might
be drawn from wells and fountains; and the stock of provisions
was sufficient to consume the patience of the besiegers. At the
end of twenty days, that of Belisarius was almost exhausted, and
he had reconciled himself to the disgrace of abandoning the
siege, that he might march, before the winter season, against
Rome and the Gothic king. But his anxiety was relieved by the
bold curiosity of an Isaurian, who explored the dry channel of an
aqueduct, and secretly reported, that a passage might be
perforated to introduce a file of armed soldiers into the heart
of the city. When the work had been silently executed, the
humane general risked the discovery of his secret by a last and
fruitless admonition of the impending danger. In the darkness of
the night, four hundred Romans entered the aqueduct, raised
themselves by a rope, which they fastened to an olive-tree, into
the house or garden of a solitary matron, sounded their trumpets,
surprised the sentinels, and gave admittance to their companions,
who on all sides scaled the walls, and burst open the gates of
the city. Every crime which is punished by social justice was
practised as the rights of war; the Huns were distinguished by
cruelty and sacrilege, and Belisarius alone appeared in the
streets and churches of Naples to moderate the calamities which
he predicted. "The gold and silver," he repeatedly exclaimed,
"are the just rewards of your valor. But spare the inhabitants;
they are Christians, they are suppliants, they are now your
fellow-subjects. Restore the children to their parents, the wives
to their husbands; and show them by you, generosity of what
friends they have obstinately deprived themselves." The city was
saved by the virtue and authority of its conqueror; ^69 and when
the Neapolitans returned to their houses, they found some
consolation in the secret enjoyment of their hidden 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

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

[Footnote 65: Nero (says Tacitus, Annal. xv. 35) Neapolim quasi
Graecam urbem delegit. One hundred and fifty years afterwards,
in the time of Septimius Severus, the Hellenism of the
Neapolitans is praised by Philostratus. (Icon. l. i. p. 763,
edit. Olear.)]

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

[Footnote 67: This measure was taken by Roger l., after the
conquest of Naples, (A.D. 1139,) which he made the capital of his
new kingdom, (Giannone, Istoria Civile, tom. ii. p. 169.) That
city, the third in Christian Europe, is now at least twelve miles
in circumference, (Jul. Caesar. Capaccii Hist. Neapol. l. i. p.
47,) and contains more inhabitants (350,000) in a given space,
than any other spot in the known world.]

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

[Footnote 69: Belisarius was reproved by Pope Silverius for the
massacre. He repeopled Naples, and imported colonies of African
captives into Sicily, Calabria, and Apulia, (Hist. Miscell. l.
xvi. in Muratori, tom. i. p. 106, 107.)]

[Footnote 70: Beneventum was built by Diomede, the nephew of
Meleager (Cluver. tom. ii. p. 1195, 1196.) The Calydonian hunt is
a picture of savage life, (Ovid, Metamorph. l. viii.) Thirty or
forty heroes were leagued against a hog: the brutes (not the hog)
quarrelled with lady for the head.]
     The faithful soldiers and citizens of Naples had expected
their deliverance from a prince, who remained the inactive and
almost indifferent spectator of their ruin. Theodatus secured
his person within the walls of Rome, whilst his cavalry advanced
forty miles on the Appian way, and encamped in the Pomptine
marshes; which, by a canal of nineteen miles in length, had been
recently drained and converted into excellent pastures. ^71 But
the principal forces of the Goths were dispersed in Dalmatia,
Venetia, 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 unfortunate
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 Vitiges, whose valor had been
signalized in the Illyrian war, was raised with unanimous
applause on the bucklers of his companions. 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, overtook 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 altar. The choice of the people is the best and
purest title to reign over them; yet such is the prejudice of
every age, that Vitiges impatiently wished to return to Ravenna,
where he might seize, with the reluctant hand of the daughter of
Amalasontha, some faint shadow of hereditary right. A national
council was immediately held, and the new monarch reconciled 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 scattered forces; to relinquish
their distant possessions, and to trust even Rome itself to the
faith of its inhabitants. Leuderis, an ancient warrior, was left
in the capital with four thousand 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 exclaimed, that the apostolic throne should no longer
be profaned 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 aera of freedom and prosperity. The
deputies of the pope and clergy, of the senate 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 Belisarius had fortified his
new conquests, Naples and Cumae, he advanced about twenty miles
to the banks of the Vulturnus, contemplated the decayed grandeur
of Capua, and halted at the separation of the Latin and Appian
ways. The work of the censor, after the incessant use of nine
centuries, still preserved its primaeval beauty, and not a flaw
could be discovered in the large polished stones, of which that
solid, though narrow road, was so firmly compacted. ^73
Belisarius, however, preferred the Latin way, which, at a
distance from the sea and the marshes, skirted in a space of one
hundred and twenty miles along the foot of the mountains. His
enemies had disappeared: when he made his entrance 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
[Footnote 71: The Decennovium is strangely confounded by
Cluverius (tom. 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
sufficiently ruined, restored, and obliterated, (D'Anville,
Anayse de l'Italie, p. 185, &c.)]

[Footnote 72: 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 the second were
alive: of the third, half died, and the rest lost their bristles.

No unsuitable emblem of the event]

[Footnote 73: Bergier (Hist. des Grands Chemins des Romains, tom.
i. p. 221 -  228, 440 - 444) examines the structure and
materials, while D'Anville  (Analyse d'Italie, p. 200 - 123)
defines the geographical line.]
[Footnote 74: Of the first recovery of Rome, the year (536) is
certain, from the series of events, rather than from the corrupt,
or interpolated, text of Procopius. The month (December) is
ascertained by Evagrius, (l. iv. v. 19;) and the day (the tenth)
may be admitted on the slight evidence of Nicephorus Callistus,
(l. xvii. c. 13.) For this accurate chronology, we are indebted
to the diligence and judgment of Pagi, (tom, ii. p. 659, 560.)
     Note: Compare Maltret's note, in the edition of Dindorf the
ninth is the day, according to his reading, - M.]

     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 rival, the approaching
festival of the nativity of 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
blessings of tranquillity and justice. They applauded the rapid
success of his arms, which overran the adjacent country, as far
as Narni, Perusia, and Spoleto; but they trembled, the senate,
the clergy, and the unwarlike people, as soon as they understood
that he had resolved, and would speedily be reduced, to sustain a
siege against the powers of the Gothic monarchy. The designs of
Vitiges were executed, during the winter season, 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 numbers, 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 degrees 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 he impregnable rock of Narni, and
arrived within two miles of Rome 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
Roman 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 Tyber, he was suddenly encompassed and assaulted by their
numerous squadrons. The fate of Italy depended on his life; and
the deserters pointed to the conspicuous horse a bay, ^75 with a
white face, which he rode on that memorable day. "Aim at the bay
horse," was the universal cry. Every bow was bent, every javelin
was directed, against that fatal object, and the command was
repeated and obeyed by thousands who were ignorant of its real
motive. The bolder Barbarians advanced to the more honorable
combat of swords and spears; and the praise of an enemy has
graced the fall of Visandus, the standard-bearer, ^76 who
maintained his foremost station, till he was pierced with
thirteen wounds, perhaps by the hand of Belisarius himself. The
Roman general was strong, active, and dexterous; on every side he
discharged his weighty and mortal strokes: his faithful guards
imitated his valor, and defended his person; and the Goths, after
the loss of a thousand men, fled before the arms of a hero. They
were rashly pursued to their camp; and the Romans, oppressed by
multitudes, made a gradual, and at length a precipitate retreat
to the gates of the city: the gates were shut against the
fugitives; and the public terror was increased, by the report
that Belisarius was slain. His countenance was indeed disfigured
by sweat, dust, and blood; his voice was hoarse, his strength was
almost exhausted; but his unconquerable spirit still remained; he
imparted that spirit to his desponding companions; and their last
desperate charge was felt by the flying Barbarians, as if a new
army, vigorous and entire, had been poured from the city. The
Flaminian gate was thrown open to a real triumph; but it was not
before Belisarius had visited every post, and provided for the
public safety, that he could be persuaded, by his wife and
friends, to taste the needful refreshments of food and sleep. In
the more improved state of the art of war, a general is seldom
required, or even permitted to display the personal prowess of a
soldier; and the example of Belisarius may be added to the rare
examples of Henry IV., of Pyrrhus, and of Alexander.

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

[Footnote 76: I interpret it, not as a proper, name, but an
office, standard-bearer, from bandum, (vexillum,) a Barbaric word
adopted by the Greeks and Romans, (Paul Diacon. l. i. c. 20, p.
760. Grot. Nomina Hethica, p. 575. Ducange, Gloss. Latin. tom.
i. p. 539, 540.)]

     After this first and unsuccessful trial of their enemies,
the whole army of the Goths passed the Tyber, and formed the
siege of the city, which continued above a year, till their final
departure. Whatever fancy may conceive, the severe compass of
the geographer defines the circumference of Rome within a line of
twelve miles and three hundred and forty-five paces; and that
circumference, except in the Vatican, has invariably been the
same from the triumph of Aurelian to the peaceful but obscure
reign of the modern popes. ^77 But in the day of her greatness,
the space within her walls was crowded with habitations and
inhabitants; and the populous suburbs, that stretched along the
public roads, were darted like so many rays from one common
centre. Adversity swept away these extraneous ornaments, and left
naked and desolate a considerable part even of the seven hills.
Yet Rome in its present state could send into the field about
thirty thousand males of a military age; ^78 and, notwithstanding
the want of discipline and exercise, the far greater part, inured
to the hardships of poverty, might be capable of bearing arms for
the defence of their country and religion. The prudence of
Belisarius did not neglect this important resource. His soldiers
were relieved by the zeal and diligence of the people, who
watched while they slept, and labored while they reposed: he
accepted the voluntary service of the bravest and most indigent
of the Roman youth; and the companies of townsmen sometimes
represented, in a vacant post, the presence of the troops which
had been drawn away to more essential duties. But his just
confidence was placed in the veterans who had fought under his
banner in the Persian and African wars; and although that gallant
band was reduced to five thousand men, he undertook, with such
contemptible numbers, to defend a circle of twelve miles, against
an army of one hundred and fifty thousand Barbarians. In the
walls of Rome, which Belisarius constructed or restored, the
materials of ancient architecture may be discerned; ^79 and the
whole fortification was completed, except in a chasm still extant
between the Pincian and Flaminian gates, which the prejudices of
the Goths and Romans left under the effectual guard of St. Peter
the apostle. ^80

[Footnote 77: M. D'Anville has given, in the Memoirs of the
Academy for the year 1756, (tom. xxx. p. 198 - 236,) a plan of
Rome on a smaller scale, but far more accurate than that which he
had delineated in 1738 for Rollin's history. Experience had
improved his knowledge and instead of Rossi's topography, he used
the new and excellent map of Nolli. Pliny's old measure of
thirteen must be reduced to eight miles. It is easier to alter a
text, than to remove hills or buildings.

     Note: Compare Gibbon, ch. xi. note 43, and xxxi. 67, and ch.
lxxi. "It is quite clear," observes Sir J. Hobhouse, "that all
these measurements differ, (in the first and second it is 21, in
the text 12 and 345 paces, in the last 10,) yet it is equally
clear that the historian avers that they are all the same." The
present extent, 12 3/4 nearly agrees with the second statement of
Gibbon. Sir. J. Hobhouse also observes that the walls were
enlarged by Constantine; but there can be no doubt that the
circuit has been much changed. Illust. of Ch. Harold, p. 180. -
M.]

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

[Footnote 79: The accurate eye of Nardini (Roma Antica, l. i. c.
viii. p. 31) could distinguish the tumultuarie opere di
Belisario.]

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

     The battlements or bastions were shaped in sharp angles a
ditch, broad and deep, protected the foot of the rampart; and the
archers on the rampart were assisted by military engines; the
balistri, a powerful cross-bow, which darted short but massy
arrows; the onagri, or wild asses, which, on the principle of a
sling, threw stones and bullets of an enormous size. ^81 A chain
was drawn across the Tyber; the arches of the aqueducts were made
impervious, and the mole or sepulchre of Hadrian ^82 was
converted, for the first time, to the uses of a citadel. That
venerable structure, which contained the ashes of the Antonines,
was a circular turret rising from a quadrangular basis; it was
covered with the white marble of Paros, and decorated by the
statues of gods and heroes; and the lover of the arts must read
with a sigh, that the works of Praxiteles or Lysippus were torn
from their lofty pedestals, and hurled into the ditch on the
heads of the besiegers. ^83 To each of his lieutenants Belisarius
assigned the defence of a gate, with the wise and peremptory
instruction, that, whatever might be the alarm, they should
steadily adhere to their respective posts, and trust their
general for the safety of Rome. The formidable host of the Goths
was insufficient to embrace the ample measure of the city, of the
fourteen gates, seven only were invested from the Proenestine to
the Flaminian way; and Vitiges divided his troops into six camps,
each of which was fortified with a ditch and rampart. On the
Tuscan side of the river, a seventh encampment was formed in the
field or circus of the Vatican, for the important purpose of
commanding the Milvian bridge and the course of the Tyber; but
they approached with devotion the adjacent church of St. Peter;
and the threshold of the holy apostles was respected during the
siege by a Christian enemy. In the ages of victory, as often as
the senate decreed some distant conquest, the consul denounced
hostilities, by unbarring, in solemn pomp, the gates of the
temple of Janus. ^84 Domestic war now rendered the admonition
superfluous, and the ceremony was superseded by the establishment
of a new religion. But the brazen temple of Janus was left
standing in the forum; of a size sufficient only to contain the
statue of the god, five cubits in height, of a human form, but
with two faces directed to the east and west. The double gates
were likewise of brass; and a fruitless effort to turn them on
their rusty hinges revealed the scandalous secret that some
Romans were still attached to the superstition of their
ancestors.

[Footnote 81: Lipsius (Opp. tom. iii. Poliorcet, l. iii.) was
ignorant of this clear and conspicuous passage of Procopius,
(Goth. l. i. c. 21.) The engine was named the wild ass, a
calcitrando, (Hen. Steph. Thesaur. Linguae Graec. tom. ii. p.
1340, 1341, tom. iii. p. 877.) I have seen an ingenious model,
contrived and executed by General Melville, which imitates or
surpasses the art of antiquity.]

[Footnote 82: The description of this mausoleum, or mole, in
Procopius, (l. i. c. 25.) is the first and best. The height
above the walls. On Nolli's great plan, the sides measure 260
English feet.

     Note: Donatus and Nardini suppose that Hadrian's tomb was
fortified by Honorius; it was united to the wall by men of old,
(Procop in loc.) Gibbon has mistaken the breadth for the height
above the walls Hobhouse, Illust. of Childe Harold, p. 302. - M.]

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

[Footnote 84: Procopius has given the best description of the
temple of Janus a national deity of Latium, (Heyne, Excurs. v. ad
l. vii. Aeneid.) It was once a gate in the primitive city of
Romulus and Numa, (Nardini, p. 13, 256, 329.) Virgil has
described the ancient rite like a poet and an antiquarian.]
     Eighteen days were employed by the besiegers, to provide all
the instruments of attack which antiquity had invented. Fascines
were prepared to fill the ditches, scaling-ladders to ascend the
walls. The largest trees of the forest supplied the timbers of
four battering-rams: their heads were armed with iron; they were
suspended by ropes, and each of them was worked by the labor of
fifty men. The lofty wooden turrets moved on wheels or rollers,
and formed a spacious platform of the level of the rampart. On
the morning of the nineteenth day, a general attack was made from
the Praenestine gate to the Vatican: seven Gothic columns, with
their military engines, advanced to the assault; and the Romans,
who lined the ramparts, listened with doubt and anxiety to the
cheerful assurances of their commander. As soon as the enemy
approached the ditch, Belisarius himself drew the first arrow;
and such was his strength and dexterity, that he transfixed the
foremost of the Barbarian leaders.

     As shout of applause and victory was reechoed along the
wall. He drew a second arrow, and the stroke was followed with
the same success and the same acclamation. The Roman general
then gave the word, that the archers should aim at the teams of
oxen; they were instantly covered with mortal wounds; the towers
which they drew remained useless and immovable, and a single
moment disconcerted the laborious projects of the king of the
Goths. After this disappointment, Vitiges still continued, or
feigned to continue, the assault of the Salarian gate, that he
might divert the attention of his adversary, while his principal
forces more strenuously attacked the Praenestine gate and the
sepulchre of Hadrian, at the distance of three miles from each
other. Near the former, the double walls of the Vivarium ^85 were
low or broken; the fortifications of the latter were feebly
guarded: the vigor of the Goths was excited by the hope of
victory and spoil; and if a single post had given way, the
Romans, and Rome itself, were irrecoverably lost. This perilous
day was the most glorious in the life of Belisarius. Amidst
tumult and dismay, the whole plan of the attack and defence was
distinctly present to his mind; he observed the changes of each
instant, weighed every possible advantage, transported his person
to the scenes of danger, and communicated his spirit in calm and
decisive orders. The contest was fiercely maintained from the
morning to the evening; the Goths were repulsed on all sides; and
each Roman might boast that he had vanquished thirty Barbarians,
if the strange disproportion of numbers were not counterbalanced
by the merit of one man. Thirty thousand Goths, according to the
confession of their own chiefs, perished in this bloody action;
and the multitude of the wounded was equal to that of the slain.
When they advanced to the assault, their close disorder suffered
not a javelin to fall without effect; and as they retired, the
populace of the city joined the pursuit, and slaughtered, with
impunity, the backs of their flying enemies. Belisarius
instantly sallied from the gates; and while the soldiers chanted
his name and victory, the hostile engines of war were reduced to
ashes. Such was the loss and consternation of the Goths, that,
from this day, the siege of Rome degenerated into a tedious and
indolent blockade; and they were incessantly harassed by the
Roman general, who, in frequent skirmishes, destroyed above five
thousand of their bravest troops. Their cavalry was unpractised
in the use of the bow; their archers served on foot; and this
divided force was incapable of contending with their adversaries,
whose lances and arrows, at a distance, or at hand, were alike
formidable. The consummate skill of Belisarius embraced the
favorable opportunities; and as he chose the ground and the
moment, as he pressed the charge or sounded the retreat, ^86 the
squadrons which he detached were seldom unsuccessful. These
partial advantages diffused an impatient ardor among the soldiers
and people, who began to feel the hardships of a siege, and to
disregard the dangers of a general engagement. Each plebeian
conceived himself to be a hero, and the infantry, who, since the
decay of discipline, were rejected from the line of battle,
aspired to the ancient honors of the Roman legion. Belisarius
praised the spirit of his troops, condemned their presumption,
yielded to their clamors, and prepared the remedies of a defeat,
the possibility of which he alone had courage to suspect. In the
quarter of the Vatican, the Romans prevailed; and if the
irreparable moments had not been wasted in the pillage of the
camp, they might have occupied the Milvian bridge, and charged in
the rear of the Gothic host. On the other side of the Tyber,
Belisarius advanced from the Pincian and Salarian gates. But his
army, four thousand soldiers perhaps, was lost in a spacious
plain; they were encompassed and oppressed by fresh multitudes,
who continually relieved the broken ranks of the Barbarians. The
valiant leaders of the infantry were unskilled to conquer; they
died: the retreat (a hasty retreat) was covered by the prudence
of the general, and the victors started back with affright from
the formidable aspect of an armed rampart. The reputation of
Belisarius was unsullied by a defeat; and the vain confidence of
the Goths was not less serviceable to his designs than the
repentance and modesty of the Roman troops.

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

[Footnote 86: For the Roman trumpet, and its various notes,
consult Lipsius de Militia Romana, (Opp. tom. iii. l. iv.
Dialog. x. p. 125-129.) A mode of distinguishing the charge by
the horse-trumpet of solid brass, and the retreat by the
foot-trumpet of leather and light wood, was recommended by
Procopius, and adopted by Belisarius.]

Chapter XLI: Conquests Of Justinian, Charact Of Balisarius.

Part V.

     From the moment that Belisarius had determined to sustain a
siege, his assiduous care provided Rome against the danger of
famine, more dreadful than the Gothic arms. An extraordinary
supply of corn was imported from Sicily: the harvests of Campania
and Tuscany were forcibly swept for the use of the city; and the
rights of private property were infringed by the strong plea of
the public safety. It might easily be foreseen that the enemy
would intercept the aqueducts; and the cessation of the
water-mills was the first inconvenience, which was speedily
removed by mooring large vessels, and fixing mill-stones in the
current of the river. The stream was soon embarrassed by the
trunks of trees, and polluted with dead bodies; yet so effectual
were the precautions of the Roman general, that the waters of the
Tyber still continued to give motion to the mills and drink to
the inhabitants: the more distant quarters were supplied from
domestic wells; and a besieged city might support, without
impatience, the privation of her public baths. A large portion
of Rome, from the Praenestine gate to the church of St. Paul, was
never invested by the Goths;